Lemoore City Council to tackle 'conduct and expectations' in Tuesday special meeting

Tuesday's meeting will also be broadcast live on Facebook.

The newly-established council, which includes two new members – Chad Billingsley and Stuart Lyons – has not met since the two were sworn in on Dec. 18. Councilmembers normally meeting the first and third Tuesday of the months, but January’s first meeting was canceled because it fell on Jan. 1, New Year’s Day.

Tuesday night’s topic, centering on conduct, appears timely considering the turmoil that occurred at the council’s last gathering in December when Councilmember Holly Blair, castigated her fellow councilmembers referring to her colleagues as “terrible.”

As the new council appeared to wrap up their first meeting, Blair’s comments came on the heels of a plea from newcomer Chad Billingsley, who asked the council for a “fresh start.”

Blair’s response elicited an audible gasp from the audience. “The answer is I genuinely think that all of you are terrible people, and I don’t think you have the best interests of the City at heart,” she said. “You have the best interests of yourselves at heart, and no, there is no fresh start because I think you are terrible people.”

Both Billingsley and Lyons later told The Leader that Blair had contacted them about asking them for their votes as mayor pro tem. Lyons, who said he hadn’t spoken with anyone regarding the council’s reorganization, said that Blair got upset when he declined to endorse her. Lyons told The Leader that Blair reminded him of her support for the Lemoore Volunteer Fire Department.

Blair’s tenure on the Lemoore City Council, since her 2016 election, has been contentious at best. In August, before approximately 200 Lemoore citizens in the Lemoore Civic Auditorium, her fellow councilmembers took the unprecedented step of censuring her for conduct unbecoming a councilmember.

At the time councilmembers cited a laundry list of complaints, ranging from “unprofessional, inflammatory” language and engaging in public personal vendettas against the mayor, city manager, and police chief.