Vice Mayor Leslie Soden reaches over to grab the gavel to conduct the city commission meeting after it becomes apparent that Mayor Jeremy Farmer will not be attending on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015 at City Hall. Farmer resigned from his position as director of Just Food on Monday after it was discovered that the local food bank had 0,000 in unpaid federal payroll taxes.

Four of the five Lawrence city commissioners gave final approval Tuesday to a $207 million city budget for 2016, but there remained a cloud of uncertainty about the status of Mayor Jeremy Farmer, who was absent from the meeting without explanation.

Farmer’s absence came one day after he resigned “by mutual agreement” with the board of directors from his regular job as executive director of Just Food after the nonprofit local food pantry learned that about $50,000 in federal payroll taxes had not been remitted to the IRS.

Farmer did not return phone messages from the Journal-World Tuesday to answer questions about whether he intends to remain on the commission.

Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard said she had not spoken directly with Farmer, but she was informed that he would likely be absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

That left Commissioner Leslie Soden, who serves as vice mayor, to chair Tuesday’s meeting.

“I was prepared in case he arrived and decided to resign,” Soden said after the meeting. “I had a speech ready in case he did that because I try to be prepared.”

Earlier in the day, however, Soden told the Journal-World that she would understand why he might resign his seat.

“Serving as the mayor is a large responsibility, so I certainly understand if Jeremy needs to step down to have adequate time to handle his personal obligations,” she said.

Commissioner Mike Amyx was the only commissioner to say he had spoken directly with Farmer since the news of his resignation from Just Food, but he said he did not know whether Farmer plans to stay on the commission.

“I have talked to Jeremy, and I do not know the answer to that,” Amyx said.

City Attorney Toni Wheeler said the process for resignation would be for the commissioner resigning to inform the governing body in writing. The remaining commissioners would then vote in a public meeting on whether to accept the resignation.

Near the end of Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners met for about 30 minutes in a closed-door executive session with Wheeler to discuss legal issues that were subject to attorney-client privilege. But commissioners did not say whether those issues were related to Farmer’s status as mayor or to some other legal matter.

Under Lawrence’s form of government, the mayor chairs commission meetings and is authorized to sign documents that require a mayor’s signature, but otherwise has no day-to-day administrative duties.

City codes provide that vacancies are filled by appointment and require a majority vote of the remaining commissioners. In the event of a tie vote, the city attorney would cast the deciding vote.

Those codes also specify that if the mayor is absent or otherwise unable to fulfill the duties of the job, the vice mayor serves as “acting mayor” and is authorized to perform all of the duties of the mayor.

City budget

Tuesday’s commission meeting itself was relatively brief, with final passage of the 2016 budget the only significant item on the agenda.

Normally, the second and final reading of an ordinance would be placed on the consent agenda and would be voted on without discussion.

But Commissioner Stuart Boley acknowledged there had been some controversy over a last-minute change that he spearheaded a week earlier, after the public hearing on the budget had closed, which involved shifting $100,000 from a reserve fund to be spent for a Lawrence Housing Authority transitional housing program.

“Before the public hearing on Aug. 4, I mentioned that I had something to add and was asked by the commission and staff to hold the item until later in the evening,” Boley said in a prepared statement. “I believe that the process we followed on August 4 was appropriate. However, due to concerns that were expressed since our last meeting, I requested that the second reading of the ordinance be a regular agenda item, and I welcome all citizens’ comments on our 2016 budget.”

Boley had urged the $100,000 transfer as part of an effort to reduce the homeless population at the Lawrence Community Shelter, which received emergency funding last month from both the city and county to keep it financially solvent and prevent immediate cutbacks in staff and services.

Boley and Amyx both stated that the money would not be disbursed to the Housing Authority until a specific plan is in place specifying how the money will be used and how many people will be served through the program.

Commissioner Matthew Herbert said he and Amyx had spoken after last week’s meeting and agreed there should be some limitation on the amount of funding per-bedroom in the project.

“I’m a little bit leery of the notion of using that $100,000 for the benefit of only three families or four families,” Herbert said.

Also during the meeting, while commissioners were in executive session, East Lawrence resident K.T. Walsh handed out a written statement, signed by six other neighborhood residents, demanding that images and descriptions of themselves, their property and their artwork be removed from all material being used to promote the East Ninth Project, arguing that they do not want to be portrayed as supporters of the project.

In other business, the commission:

• Deferred action on three proposed zoning changes related to a commercial and residential development around 6300 W. Bob Billings Parkway.

• Conducted a public hearing and approved the vacation of the east 15 feet of the 30-foot drainage easement at 109 Fall Ridge Lane, as requested by property owner Jason Todd Construction, LLC.

• And adopted a resolution setting a public hearing for Sept. 22 to consider ordering the house at 912 Chalk Hill Court to be repaired or demolished.