AUBURN – City councilors almost didn’t make it past the Pledge of Allegiance on Monday night.

No sooner had Councilor Kelly Matzen called the meeting to order than colleague Belinda Gerry requested a vote to name him as mayor pro-tem for the meeting.

Matzen, the man Mayor Normand Guay had tapped to run the meetings while Guay vacationed in Florida, insisted it could wait until after the Pledge of Allegiance.

Gerry, reading from the City Charter, insisted it could not wait.

“I have talked to several people I know at the state Legislature and they said this vote must be the first thing we do if this meeting is going to be legal,” Gerry said.

She requested everyone in the audience sit, and then moved to appoint Matzen the temporary chair of the meeting. Councilor Robert Hayes seconded.

But Matzen carried through with the pledge and led half the room, standing at attention, in the recitation while the other half looked on puzzled.

Then, Matzen allowed a vote. Councilors unanimously appointed him as mayor pro-tem for Monday’s meeting and again on Sept. 25.