By Carol Benson

Mayor

There have been many recent changes in Black Diamond City Hall, as a result of the recent election of council members (Brian) Weber and (Pat) Pepper. These two council members, together with incumbent council member (Erika) Morgan, are members of the group Save Black Diamond, and have pledged to “Reform City Hall.”

Is “reform” needed? And if so, does Black Diamond need the type of reform that is proposed by these council members, who have attempted to evade their duties under law (by even refusing to vote on the city’s budget), openly stating that they will not follow any advice from the city attorney, and acting in defiance of the warnings of the city’s insurance pool that their actions could expose the city to risks/lawsuits that would not be covered by the city’s insurance?

Black Diamond, like many other cities in Washington, adopted rules of procedure for the council, consistent with state law. These rules recognized the roles of the mayor as the administrative head of the city, and the roles of the City Council as legislators. Recently, the new majority on the City Council – council members Morgan, Weber and Pepper – proposed amendments to the council rules which eliminate many of the mayor’s responsibilities, to ensure that these three council members maintain complete control over all business matters, resolutions and ordinances. These amendments, unlike the rules adopted by other cities in Washington, establish council committees with a quorum of the entire City Council. The amendments allow a majority of council members (in each committee, a majority is comprised of some combination of council members Morgan, Weber and Pepper) to control every item that ever appears on the council agenda, by diverting everything to a committee. There, nothing can be sent out of committee to appear before the full City Council, without the vote of these council members. So, by their actions and lack of any articulated goal for such “reform,” we can conclude that this “reform” simply equates with the exercise of absolute power over city business by these three council members.

Let’s examine how these three council members will use this newly-found power to benefit the city. On the Feb. 4, 2016 regular Council meeting, the Public Works Director asked the council to simply accept a grant (free money) in the amount of $50,000 for stormwater permit activities. Council members Morgan, Weber and Pepper voted to divert the acceptance of the grant to the Growth Management, Land Use Council Committee for discussion. On Feb. 10, 2016, this committee considered the grant and decided not to take action. If this is an example of how the council members will govern – by refusing to accept grant money without reason — very little work will be accomplished at City Hall.

Let’s consider the past experience of the Save Black Diamond group in “reforming” City Hall. In 2013, Dave Gordon, also from the Save Black Diamond group, was elected mayor. Contrary to the representations of council member Pepper in a recent editorial, he was not hounded from office by the City Council. Dave Gordon fired the city administrator and replaced him with a new one, who filed a sexual harassment claim against Gordon within two months. The claim cost the city over $250,000 in legal fees and settlement costs. He later resigned from office.

The citizens of Black Diamond also need to consider what council members Morgan, Weber and Pepper believe needs to be reformed and how they will accomplish it. Council member Pepper’s editorial mentions no needed “reforms,” but merely creates the impression that I, together with the city attorney, “stymied” their ability to adopt the new rules. (Clearly, these new rules giving them such power are the means for accomplishing such reforms.) In actuality, these three council members wanted to immediately adopt the new rules during a special meeting with abbreviated public notice to reduce the likelihood that anyone would attend. These council members didn’t want the public to understand the far-reaching nature of the new rules and also wanted to adopt them before the city attorney could provide her advice.

Instead, the city attorney gave advice that thwarted their plans to schedule the new rules at a special City Council meeting, and were instead considered at the regular meeting which was held only two days after the date of their demanded special meeting. Council member Pepper has also complained that the city attorney sent these new rules to the city’s insurance pool for an opinion whether they would affect the city’s insurance coverage. At this, we must all ask ourselves; if a City Council member was acting in the best interests of the city, why wouldn’t he or she want advice from the City Attorney on a proposed resolution and why would he or she object to the mere transmittal of their vaunted new rules (a public record) to the city’s insurance pool? Where is the desire for “transparency” repeatedly mentioned by these three council members when their proposed actions are at issue?

I have lived in the Black Diamond community for 36 years. I was on the council for three years before my appointment as mayor (when Dave Gordon walked out). Since that time, I have worked with city staff, council and the city attorney to propose and amend legislation that more closely follows state law.

With regard to the development agreements executed with YarrowBay and now Crown Community Development, we are required by law to honor the commitments made by the previous mayor and City Council, as incorporated in those agreements. We can’t go backward and undo what has been done.

Based on the actions of council members Morgan, Weber and Pepper, together with their advisers from outside the city (Brian Derdowski and Kristen Bryant) it appears that their unarticulated plans to “reform” City Hall are to simply act without regard to common sense or law. They have announced their intent to ignore legal advice, and it is likely that their actions will expose the city, themselves and other city officials to lawsuits and possible damages for which we will have no insurance coverage.

We are facing a crisis in city government and we need the citizens of Black Diamond to participate. Please come to the council meetings to witness the proceedings and make your opinions known.

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