Elections are just around the corner with the City of Black Diamond being closely watched not only in the City itself, but outside as well with political camps on both sides of the aisle vying for the much-coveted positions of Mayor and two Council seats.
Quietly monitoring Council politics in the background for nearly two years watching the Council’s ups and downs as well as putting the City in jeopardy over the 2017 Budget battle, Black Diamond Police Officers Association decided that the time for quietly standing in the background had come to an end. With a feeling of urgency, they decided that it was time speak out and let community members – who they faithfully protect day in and day out – know what they have been observing.
A three-page letter was put together dated Thursday, September 7, and mailed to the community at the expense of the Association – not taxpayers – describes who Brian Derdowski and Kristen Bryant are and their association with Save Black Diamond and its candidates up for this election cycle. The newest candidates include Judy Baxley running for Mayor along with Ed Hanrahan and Michelle Young running for Council seats replacing Brian Weber and Erika Morgan, who opted not to run again.
The letter also informs citizens regarding what appears to be Derdowski’s illegal dabbling behind the scenes with Councilmembers Erika Morgan, Brian Weber, and Pat Pepper – all of whom are in legal battles from a possible recall of Pepper to Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) violations that involve all three Councilmembers. Also, according to the letter, when asked by a reporter in February 2017 about shutting down the City, Derdowski stated that he “was fine with shutting off Black Diamond citizen’s water and police protection if that would allow him to obtain his objectives.”
Yet another shocking piece of information included in the letter signed by the Association President Brian Lynch came from a February 16, 2017, KIRO TV news clip. In the Henry Rosoff news clip, candidate for Black Diamond Mayor, Judith Baxley, could plainly be heard telling an audience member, who had stuck her tongue out at Baxley as Baxley commented during the Council’s Public Comment period, “You stick your tongue out a little more, I might clip it off.” According to Lynch, “These are not the type of candidates that we should be electing to our local government.”
A couple of other points include accusations waged against the running of the City. However, a recent audit from Washington State found the City with a clean audit and concluded “that there were no adverse findings of any kind.” In yet another point regarding Derdowski’s watch over Councilmembers, the Police Association wrote that the Councilmembers “keep trying to hire 3 more attorneys for themselves, at taxpayer expense.”
Wrapping up the letter, “It is time for the corruption, scandal and embarrassment to come to an end. We urge you to support candidates who will return control of our city government back to local citizens and out of the hands of Bellevue outsiders. We support, and ask you to support and vote for, Carol Benson for Mayor, and City Council candidates Erin Rose Stout and Melissa Oglesbee.”
No sooner did the letter go out then Save Black Diamond was busy putting together an email to debunk what Lynch had signed as President of the Police Association. The piece begins by stating there was a “hit piece…mailed by the local police labor union.” It goes on to state that Derdowski and his wife are “…tireless volunteers for various good causes and candidates in our community. Save Black Diamond and many others have appreciated Brian’s political and policy expertise over the past eight years.”
Claiming that the “hit piece” has false accusations, it states that Dedowski “…indicated he will be talking to an attorney to consider action against this libelous mailing.” It also claims that the police department is being exploited by the Benson campaign to suppress voter turnout. It is interesting to note that while Lynch put his signature on the Police Association letter to all citizens, there is no name signed to the Save Black Diamond email. It is simply signed – Save Black Diamond.
Prior to the Police Association letter being written, community member Robbin Taylor and Johna Thomson, went to the King County Elections (KCE) office on Tuesday, September 6, to deliver 639 signatures that the Neighbor to Neighbor group had gathered in order to move the Recall of Pepper issue a little further down the line. KCE began canvassing the signatures on Monday, September 11, and by the next day they had completed their examination. According to KCE, of the 473 signatures compared against those on file in their office, 423 were determined to be registered King County voters from the City of Black Diamond. That number exceeded the 366 needed for the recall effort to proceed. KCE also determined that Tuesday, December 5, 2017 will be the date of the Pepper’s Recall election. Validation of the election will be completed 10 days later on Friday, December 15.
Meanwhile Councilmembers worked a little better with one another during their Council meeting on Thursday, September 7. There were little spits of contentiousness here and there to remind the audience that all was not completely well and working together was still a work in progress.
One point came through well into the meeting when Councilmembers began discussing a resolution regarding the opposing of siting illegal substance injection facilities within the City. Asking that the Council take care of the resolution that night while also having first-hand knowledge of a homeless camp where needles were strewn all over, Councilmember Tamie Deady spoke against the idea of having an injection facility in Black Diamond saying, “All I see is that people will go there, collect their needles, and go to an area that they already feel safe at, and they will inject there and they will dispose of their needles and they will continue to use our neighborhoods as their restroom and their dumping spots for their needles.”
Prior to the vote being taken, Morgan stated that she would not be voting for the measure in one “fell swoop” without first making the item a “first reading,” and then talking about it. Morgan wanted the item put in a “Gov Ops” meeting where it could be talked about. She pushed for the meeting to be officially noticed with the meeting being held in Council Chambers as required in the “current Council Rules of Procedure.”
Morgan went on to state that she wanted to hear further from people who knew of “such things” regarding the injection facilities, and to come and make the Council more aware. Also as part of her reasoning, she did not feel that it was a matter of urgency and that it would be smarter to follow “our” procedures. She also wanted to hear more factual information instead of having just a knee jerk reaction.
Deady pressed in stating that King County was already looking around the County for places to site injection facilities from among those cities without regulations against such facilities. Wanting to stay ahead of the consideration process, she urged the Council to pass the resolution at the meeting rather than wasting time.
Weber stated that he supported Morgan’s suggestion of holding a meeting in Council Chambers to get more information. However, he also fully supported the resolution. He went on to state, “I myself, having zero faith that Council will ever have a committee meeting in Chambers like we’re allowed. I would have to vote in favor of this tonight.” The comment regarding his favorable vote for the resolution drew applause from the audience. Pepper stated that she also supported the resolution. When the vote was taken, Morgan was the only Councilmember voting no.
As the meeting progressed to discussion regarding Claim Checks, Morgan had a momentary meltdown while addressing billing for Kenyon Disend law firm stating they were not the City Attorney. During her dialogue about the law firm, who was charging for the OPMA lawsuit, Morgan claimed they were unable to be involved in the case as they had a conflict.
She went on to ask, “…so I’m wondering why they are charging against an OPMA case.” When Mayor Benson attempted to interject and state why the firm was charging the fees, Morgan flashed a temper yelling, “Excuse me, I have the floor Mayor.” Councilmember Janie Edelman told Morgan that she had asked “why” to which Morgan firmly stated, “I did not. I did not…” and then continued pulling checks she did not want to have approved.
