PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council has delayed acting on an ethics board recommendation to make Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd the first council member to be verbally admonished under the city’s ethics code.
Council members voted 3-2 Tuesday to table their decision until two other ethics panels decide on a second complaint against Kidd and one against Mayor Patrick Downie.
The second complaint against Kidd over her actions chairing a Feb. 2 City Council meeting will be reviewed at an ethics board meeting at 2 p.m. today at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St., that deals with such issues as her role in banning political signs in council chambers.
Because City Attorney Bill Bloor has said he has a conflict of interest, Port Townsend City Attorney Steven Gross was approved Tuesday as special counsel at no cost to the city, except for mileage, to advise the panel today on legal questions regarding the ordinance.
Bloor would not comment on the conflict of interest.
“I’m not going to describe the details of what the conflict is,” he said.
The legal questions were raised by second ethics board Chairman Ken Williams, a retired Clallam County Superior Court judge.
Williams said Wednesday his concerns are related to the unconstitutional and continuing double jeopardy that could be inflicted upon people who are targets of successive, identical ethics complaints.
“If every person who files a complaint follows the exact same procedure, you could have numerous people filing complaints about the same council member and have multiple boards hear it and arrive at different opinions,” Williams said.
“That’s an issue in the ordinance that probably was not contemplated but appears to me to be a problem.”
Bloor said Wednesday he will rewrite the ordinance to address Williams’ concern and have it ready for the City Council’s review by the time they meet for a public work session at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Council members are not scheduled to discuss the revisions, and if approved, they would not apply to existing complaints.
Williams said he also is concerned if a complaining party can withdraw a complaint after it has been filed.
The anti-fluoride group Our Water, Our Choice! withdrew a portion of a complaint, concerning Kidd’s abrupt adjournment of the meeting and cutting off a speaker, after the first board issued its ruling against Kidd.
Gross, who has more than 20 years of municipal law experience, would not comment Wednesday on today’s meeting.
Council members were scheduled to decide Tuesday on the first ethics board’s recommendation to punish Kidd for violating the ethics code Feb. 2 by cutting off an anti-fluoridation speaker and abruptly adjourning the council meeting.
The Feb. 2 meeting was dominated by criticism of four council members, including Kidd, who favor continued fluoridation of city water.
After council members took up the agenda item on her potential admonishment, Kidd immediately began arguing that there weren’t enough ethics board members to handle the three complaints that have been filed.
But Councilman Lee Whetham interrupted her, declaring a point of order.
He suggested Bloor address whether she should be recused, which Bloor said she should be.
Kidd then left the council chambers and did not take part in Tuesday’s discussion.
The vote Tuesday to table discussion went along lines similar to the council’s controversial 4-3 decision Dec. 15 to continue fluoridating the city’s water supply after May 18.
That’s when a 10-year agreement with the Washington Dental Service Foundation expires.
Pro-fluoridation Councilmen Downie, Brad Collins and Dan Gase voted for indefinitely tabling action, while fluoridation foes Michael Merideth and Sissi Bruch were opposed.
Had the vote been 3-3, the motion would have failed.
Whetham, a fluoridation opponent, abstained “to avoid the appearance of any political or personal prejudice,” he told council members.
He told them that after watching a recording of the Feb. 2 meeting on Clallam Public Eye, “I do not agree with Kidd that I participated in creating an unsafe environment.”
Kidd said she agreed with tabling the decision because of the limited number of people — nine had originally applied for the boards — who were available to serve on the panels.
Gase, himself a target of an Our Water, Our Choice! complaint that was dropped by the ethics board that meets today, said he had sat through most of the first board’s deliberations on the complaint against Kidd, the first ever filed under the city’s ethics code.
“This is all so new for everybody,” Gase said, noting Williams’ concerns.
“The more these topics come up, the more red flags get thrown in our faces.”
Bruch favored deciding on the recommendation.
“I think we can act on that and then we move on,” she said.
But Collins disagreed.
“I think we need to have more review of this before we take any action,” he said.
Marolee Smith, who filed the initial complaint against Kidd, also filed one against Downie for his conduct and language toward fluoridation opponents Jan. 5 and Jan. 19.
On Jan. 5, the council reaffirmed its decision to continue fluoridation. On Jan. 19, anti-fluoridation advocates leveled prolonged criticism of council members.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
