---

The majority of North Branch City Council found no basis for a complaint filed against the mayor,   by fellow council member Kelly Neider, and voted 3-0 to not take any action last week.   The North Branch Council members agreed the complaint was insufficiently substantiated, and there was nothing to penalize as far as alleged Code of Conduct violations.  Council also directed staff in its motion to schedule a facilitator for a work session on relationships and conflict resolution in the near future.

Under a formal rules process adopted in North Branch, Council member Kelly Neider had filed an allegation that Mayor Kevin Schieber called her a derogatory name in  using the word egregious— describing Neider when she berated a liquor store employee last fall.   Neider was chastised by the city council after the employee filed a complaint based on the Code of Conduct disallowing use of aa position to gain an edge or special consideration.  This hearing last week was called to allow both Neider and Mayor Scheiber to present their sides and then council would deliberate on the complaint basis.

The council had individually reviewed videotape footage of the mayor’s remarks made in a September meeting as council was reviewing Neider’s liquor checkout incident, and all agreed he was referencing her action— not personally attacking Neider.

Council member Neider said she filed the code complaint aiming for an apology only from Schieber.  

She added that the liquor store employee had been acting on a “perception” of what was said in the liquor store,  that was probably “her reality” but was not  accurate.

Council member Peter Schaps complained council keeps getting embroiled in “grudge matches or whatever you call it” like these complaints and that elected officials should be able to work these issues out “internally.”

Council member Robert Canada added he felt use of the word egregious was actually quite acceptable in context of the encounter in the liquor store.

Council member Travis Miles felt Neider was singling out the mayor in lodging her complaint and said the Code of Conduct specifically disallows this, with a condition any complaint be filed in “good faith.”  He suggested a work session to focus on improving council relations which was adopted in the motion.

---