Sumner City Council voted tonight to declare Matt Richardson’s absence from the council meeting as unexcused. The formal declaration means, according to the city’s interpretation of state law, that Richardson’s seat has been vacated and will be filled at some point in the future by a council appointment.

Councilman Leroy Goff, initiated the motion to leave Richardson unexcused. The sole “nay” vote came from Randy Hynek.

A section of the state code dictating the mayor and council form of government states that any member of council who is absent from three consecutive regularly scheduled meetings vacates their seat. Because of the law’s vague definition of “regular meeting,” and whether that included study sessions in addition to voting meetings.

City Attorney Brett Vinson cited the Open Public Meetings Act in making no distinction between voting meetings, study sessions or workshops.

Richardson notified City Administrator Diane Supler, via a letter sent Feb. 26, he would take a six week leave of absence from council duties, offering no further explanation. Assuming he stuck to that timeline, the question of whether or not study sessions counted toward unexcused absences would be moot: the third meeting would fall in his fifth week of absence, even if only voting meetings

Hynek raised concerns over whether the explicit vote to not excuse a member of council would set a precedent for a required council vote to excuse any absent members. To maintain consistency, the council held another vote to excuse councilman Curt Brown

“I feel like I’m giving a eulogy for the death of a political career,” Hynek said during his councilman report at the end of the meeting. “I want to thank Mr. Richardson for the good things he did for Sumner.”

The process for appointing a new member of council is to be determined.

Stay tuned for more updates on this story.