Embattled Webster City council members Melissa Borer and Mark Gillette on Wednesday resigned their elected positions effective immediately.

They announced their decisions in separate press releases a week and a day after a locally contentious Nov. 3 vote resulted in the election of a block of candidates who had run in opposition to Borer and Gillette.

Janet Adams and Jerry Kloberdanz were reelected to the council; Linda Conaway won her first term. The trio had been backed by Citizens for Positive Leadership, a local group that opposed Borer and Gillette and sought to create a majority that would support City Manager Ed Sadler's decision-making.

Borer and Gillette have been vocal critics of Sadler. Gillette was first elected to the council in 2003. He was reelected in 2007. Borer won her council seat in 2007. Both were serving unexpired terms.

"We are here to make the manager accountable for the running of the city," Borer said Wednesday. "I find that neither the manager, nor the majority of this council, seem to understand that that's one of our primary roles. When the manager is reluctant to give information requested, instead of questioning the manager why, the other council members attacked me."

Borer's efforts to look at regular departmental budget summaries which she considers a council responsibility had been repeatedly met with refusals, she said.

"As a council member, I wanted to know, how are the departments doing on a monthly basis?" Borer explained.

She was dismayed that the rest of the council didn't back her.

"There's no collegial rapport or support," she said.

If a member of the council had an area of interest, and wanted to look further into it, that desire was seen as suspicious, she said.

Gillette gave four primary reasons for his resignation.

* The first was a 2008 directive that required a council member to get permission from the city manager to talk to a city employee. Gillette said he saw that as a pointed way to stop him from asking questions.

* The second was a conduct clause that made the removal of a Webster City council member possible by a four-out-of-five council vote. Gillette called the code "subjective." It became an ordinance in June 2009; Gillette said he viewed that "as stupid."

He believes it attempts to inappropriately supersede the Iowa Code.

* Gillette summarized his third and fourth reasons this way: "We've got real problems to deal with and I'm sick of these games." He added, "We were expected to rubber stamp, and I can't do it."

In a press release announcing her resignation, Borer stated, "There has been a high price to pay personally and professionally. The voters of Webster City have made their choice and have to live with it, but I don't. The recent council election relieved me of my duties which were impossible to perform."

Gillette, in his resignation announcement, echoed Borer's sentiments.

"I believe in fiscal responsibility; providing the basics of police, fire protection and infrastructure. I believe in open government and in passing laws that are Constitutional, legal and the following of those laws and not acting arbitrary in carrying out of those laws."

"I am out of place on the City Council and because of this I am resigning my seat, so there can be a new council with a new beginning. The voters and the City Council have committed to following the leadership and control of the City Manager."

The resignations leave a three-member council with two options, according to City Attorney Gary Groves. It can either appoint two replacements, in which case a subsequent petition could then force a special election; or the council could simply choose to hold a special election.

In her press release, Borer emphasized that her resignation would allow her to spend more time with her children, something she said she eagerly anticipated.

But that press release also contained an admonishment: "Ed (Sadler), the ball is all yours. Don't drop it."

Contact Jane Curtis at (515) 573-2141 or editor@messengernews.net