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Franklin Mayor Paul Kaplan took time at the Franklin City Council’s Monday, Feb. 10, meeting to formally address concerns brought by Franklin Electoral Board members in January that two council members should not be seated due not receiving their certificates of election.

Kaplan stated Monday that counsel was sought from legal scholars prior to the City Council’s first meeting of the year on Jan. 13, and he indicated that it was found that the council members in question had done what was needed to be seated, as they were at that meeting.

“We’ve found that we did the right thing according to the legal scholars, again, and we appreciate their advice,” he said.

During the Citizen’s Time portion of the Jan. 13 council meeting, Franklin Electoral Board Chairwoman Pearlie Banks spoke.

“We come tonight with an issue,” she said. “When you think about a certification, you think of someone attesting, confirming, proving that something was done. Tonight you have two councilmen who are sitting at the seat that have not received their certificate of election.”

She did not specify which two councilmen she was referring to during her comments.

“We also learned that prior to them paying the fees that they were due, that they went and got sworn in at the Circuit Court,” she said.

“Even the president of the United States of America, his election has to be certified prior to him taking his oath,” she continued. “Tonight the Electoral Board is requesting that you do not allow these two gentlemen to be seated until they receive their certificate of election.”

At the council’s Feb. 10 meeting, Kaplan used part of the Council Comments portion of the night to address what he noted as the Electoral Board’s “strong concerns that we weren’t following proper procedure as to seating two council members because of some technicalities.”

He said he wanted the people of Franklin, as well as the Electoral Board, to know that on the Friday prior to the first council meeting of 2025, “I met with the commonwealth’s attorney who had spoken to the state Electoral Board and to their attorneys and in consultation with the Circuit Court judge gave us advice.”

He also noted that he and Franklin City Manager Rosylen Oglesby had a conversation on the matter with Sands Anderson, the law firm that serves as the city’s attorney, though he later confirmed that Sands Anderson did not give an opinion on the matter.

He said that legal advisers that did provide advice, including the commonwealth’s attorney, the Circuit Court judge and the attorneys for the state Electoral Board, gave the same advice, “and that was to seat our two council members that were seated.”

“We did not take that lightly,” he continued. “It was something that we had addressed numerous times with the Electoral Board prior to the last minute, over and over and over again, and they were kind of in a situation where they didn’t seem so sure what the next procedure step was. I don’t want to put words in their mouth, maybe that’s a bad term, but it was a very confusing situation. We followed the steps that we were instructed or advised to take from multiple legal scholars … As a result, I think we’ve been vindicated. We’ve found that we did the right thing according to the legal scholars, again, and we appreciate their advice.”

He concluded his comments by saying, “I’m sorry I didn’t address that during Council Comment time the night that they came to us (on Jan. 13), because as a new mayor who was 13 days on the job at the time, I wasn’t sure what I could say, and then I forgot to say it the next time (at the Jan. 27 council meeting). So I apologize for that, and I have been to the Electoral Board and given my apologies as well.”