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Court hears arguments in effort to block spending by aldermen

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By Tom Saul | Wednesday, December 21, 2005 |

An elderly woman who is trying to block current Davenport aldermen from spending any more money before they leave office on Jan. 3 told a judge Tuesday that city tax and fee increases are driving some citizens from their homes.

Still, aldermen have or plan to take actions that involved spending “regardless of the consequences,” Susie Bell told Scott County District Judge Mark Smith during a hearing on her action and a city request to dismiss it.

“If they continue to spend and tax the# way they have for the past two years, a number of us will be forced to move from Davenport,” said Bell, who represented herself and did not have a lawyer present. “Because some of them didn’t get elected, they are going to try to approve things regardless of the consequences.”

Davenport Corporation Counsel Mary Thee said Bell was trying to substitute her discretion on what actions aldermen should take for that of a City Council that was duly elected by the citizens of Davenport.

Thee also pointed to remarks Bell made Monday at the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting in which she acknowledged that aldermen have a “legal right” to vote on the matters before them, even though she questioned the morality and ethics of their actions.

At tonight’s final regular meeting of the current council, a majority of aldermen, many of whom will leave the body in January, appear poised to vote for some major projects, a credit manual for the controversial stormwater fee and sale of city-owned land in the Prairie Heights subdivision. Some of the items could get fast-track approval.

Some of the aldermen say actions are meant to clean up old business before the new council takes over. But at Monday’s meeting, three aldermen who will remain on the council tried unsuccessfully to table some of the items.

Thee told aldermen Monday that those who vote in the majority on the items or who are absent from the meeting can ask for a reconsideration of the votes at the next meeting.

Smith said he would take arguments for and against Bell’s request and issue a ruling later.

Tom Saul can be contacted at

(563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.