Audience members filled Black Diamond Council Chambers waiting for a Council meeting on Thursday, November 17, that would open without the majority Councilmembers – Erika Morgan, Brian Weber, and Pat Pepper – in attendance.
Mayor Carol Benson
announced that Councilmembers Morgan
and Weber
had excused absences, however, Pepper
announced at the November 10th Work Session that the “Budget Committee” will not be at the November 17th Regular Council meeting, so she would not be attending the meeting if the “Budget Committee” was not there. “In other words,” stated Benson, “she won’t attend the meeting if the Council majority cannot all attend.” Benson went on to state that Pepper was not excused.
The movement to cancel the November 17th meeting began at the end of the November 3rd Council meeting when Weber handed out a sheet of paper with a motion he read that had five points to it. The second of five points called for the cancellation of the November 17th Council meeting without any further information in the document as to why the meeting was called to be cancelled. The motion went on to direct that a special Council meeting be called for Monday, November 28th, which would include public hearings on the property tax ordinances. Benson reminded Weber that the November 17th Council meeting could not be canceled as it was a regularly scheduled meeting.
Then during a spirited back and forth discussion, it was revealed that Weber could not attend the November 17th meeting. Rather than going to the Mayor to let her know of his pending absence, he went to Morgan about his absence. Morgan stated that she potentially had a problem with attending that meeting as well. When it was pointed out that there would still be a quorum of three Councilmembers at the November 17th meeting, Weber finally decided to withdraw the motion.
Fast forward to the afternoon of November 16th at 2:21 p.m. prior to the Council meeting the next day. Mayor Benson sent out a letter to all Councilmembers reminding them that the November 17th meeting would be held as scheduled. In her letter, she reminded Council that the meeting had already been scheduled since August as a part of the 2017 Budget Calendar.
In Pepper’s reply, dated November 17th at 10:46 a.m., she wrote, “The Council [Morgan, Weber, and Pepper] has very plainly stated that the next meeting is to be scheduled for November 29th. As you know, the Council also scheduled Special meetings for the 7th and/or 8th of November to publicly update the meeting schedule for November 17th and beyond.
“The mayor’s refusal to fulfill state law and issue Public Notice for the meetings for November 7th or 8th has caused this scheduling problem. The problem is that the public doesn’t know what to expect, and a simple update on the website would fix this.
“The Council’s special meetings must be noticed, and as I have repeatedly stated, state law makes it clear that 3 council members can call a Special Meeting. Your duty is to issue public notice for the meeting for November 29th. A cancellation for lack of quorum should immediately be posted for November 17th. If you feel it necessary to attend, it would be best to adjourn it to November 29th, as a majority [Morgan, Weber, Pepper] of the Council has agreed to this date.”
During the beginning of the November 17th meeting, Councilmember Janie Edelman
commented that over the past year while her step daughter was dying, she still showed up for every single Council meeting and committee meeting that she was obligated to attend. After giving a run down of all the legislation scheduled for the meeting that would not get taken care of due to not having a quorum, Edelman stated, “…but the voters of Black Diamond, that voted for these three people to get into office, they deserve better. And I’ve stated this repeatedly, we all deserve better. We are all taxpayers to this City…we need to support the staffing that we have. We need to get the equipment that they need to operate. And we need to start doing our jobs…”
Councilmember Tami Deady
stated that she had sent Pepper an email “begging her” to come to the November 17th meeting – even if only for the two public hearings that included a continuation of proposed ordinances regarding the Property Tax Increases as well as the proposed 2017 Preliminary Budget. However, Deady never receive any response from Pepper whatsoever.
“Each one of us were elected by the citizens of Black Diamond. And each one of us have a duty to be here, to be at this meeting,” said Deady. “When I ran, I knew that the first Thursday and the third Thursday were meetings here. I knew that. And I plan my life around those meetings. So for Councilmember Pepper to state, ‘I am not going to come because Councilmember Weber and Councilmember Morgan are not going to be there. I’m going to stay home and watch my movies and enjoy my life while everybody else comes here to do their job to represent the City of Black Diamond and to have a voice of the public here at this time.’ And that woman chose to go home and sit there and enjoy her life while everybody else is here. Shame on her, and she is not a public leader. Sorry, I get so frustrated with these people.”
Mayor Benson went on to point out that the four agenda items under “Unfinished Business” – Postponed Minutes, Ordinance granting Franchise Agreements with CCD Black Diamond Partners, LLC and with Astound Broadband, LLC, a well as a resolution authorizing Interlocal Agreement with Association of Washington Cities Risk Management Service Agency (AWC RMSA) – were put there for the November 17th meeting by the 3 Councilmembers to be discussed and then they do not come.
During Public Comment, community member Bob Edelman, while commenting on the importance of being at meetings for City business, played extracts from past recordings of Council meetings where the three Councilmembers made excuses.
Mitch Neary began his comments, “I’m calling for the immediate resignation of all majority members of this Council, with the priority being on Councilmember Pepper, and any Councilmember that is absent without just cause. I find it deplorable and downright disrespectful that an elected official without just cause of being absent will not be at a scheduled and properly notified City Council meeting where the public is aware, and they ran for this position. They ran to be our leaders and to make decisions for us and they knew what they were getting into and there’s no reason there should be three empty chairs here when City business needs to be considered and voted and approved or denied – whatever the case may be. We should not be seeing three vacant chairs.”
Neary went on to state that is seemed to be nothing short of a blockade against the minority. He once again called for the immediate resignation of Pepper, Weber and Morgan.
Directing her comments to the citizens in the audience, Robbin Taylor stated that they were seeing their tax dollars being squandered as they sat there. “We have a majority here that will not pass anything for this City that would forward this City into what could be beneficial for the citizens. They sit on it all. They kill it or they vote it down and then it cannot be brought back. Your tax dollars, you might as well take your wallets out in the street and burn your cash because that is exactly what’s happening right here tonight. Your money, your life energy is being squandered by this majority Council…if you believe this is good governance, then I would say you need to go back and take government class again because this is not what good governance is. Not in the least. They were elected to do a job, and frankly they get paid. If they don’t resign, they need to at least give their paycheck back to the City that desperately needs the money…because they’re not doing their job.”
Judy Goodwin stated that over $200,000 has been wasted this year by the majority in staff overtime, paper, and a variety of other things. “We have needs that are substantial, and the three Councilmembers have wasted so much money that could be used for the benefit of the citizens of Black Diamond.” She stated that she will be putting some information together that will show taxpayers where their money has gone.
Another community member applauded the Councilmembers and Mayor who showed up for the meeting. She went on to state how frustrated she was with the Councilmembers who did not show up.
Following a few more comments, Edelman moved to adjourn the meeting to 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 29, at Council Chambers. The meeting will be a continuation of the November 17th meeting with the same agenda as was posted for the November 17th meeting.
