PORT ANGELES — City Councilman Max Mania walked out of a council work session this week to applause from supporters, saying: “I’ll see you at the next meeting. This is a joke.”
During 20 tense minutes, Mania had asked several questions of Councilwoman Brooke Nelson and city staff regarding Nelson’s
Aug. 17 complaint against him.
Nelson and city staff met every question, one after another, in silence.
The council did not take action on the complaint.
Nelson had accused Mania of “behavior that . . . citizens considered highly offensive by a council member in our city.”
She said he had attempted to “sabotage positions formally adopted by the council,” submitting numerous emails Mania wrote in April and May to supporters on his city email account to buttress her position.
“There’s the old saying, ‘silence equals death,’ and I think what may have died was a great deal of public trust,” Mania said of the council meeting in an email received at the Peninsula Daily News on Wednesday morning.
Nelson reiterated Tuesday that her complaint was about Mania’s behavior, not about Nippon Industries USA’s $71 million biomass cogeneration expansion project, which was the focus of the emails.
The biomass project, which is expected to be completed next year, has been opposed by several environmental groups.
In his email correspondence, Mania suggested people hold up signs at a City Council table at the downtown farmers market.
He also suggested a parents group petition against the project and appear before the City Council; said the Sequim City Council’s decision to cancel a biomass forum “smacks of back-room deals”; and called Mayor Cherie Kidd a “corporate robot.”
Kidd had written a letter to Nippon lauding the project.
Mania, saying he’d been “smeared in the paper and on the radio,” asked Nelson why she did not approach him.
He also asked why she chose to “monitor” his emails and how the complaint was “the best way to handle” her concerns.
Nelson, who sits next to Mania at the City Council chambers dais, did not respond, simply looking at him as he asked question after question.
Mania also asked city staff “how this monitoring took place,” what procedure was used and why he was not notified.
Again, silence.
“Wow,” Mania responded at one point.
“Answer him, come on,” a member of the audience shouted.
“Out of order, out of order,” Kidd responded, pounding her gavel.
“We will not allow outbursts, please.”
Mania said he received silent treatment from staff and Kidd when he attempted to communicate with them about the complaint before Tuesday’s meeting.
“Other than outreach by Deputy Mayor Brad Collins, it’s been pretty much radio silence,” Mania said.
Councilwoman Sissi Bruch said once the complaint was made public, Mania was denied “due process.”
When Nelson’s complaint was aired in public at an Aug. 21 City Council meeting at Mania’s request, Kidd would not allow him to directly question Nelson.
“Max had a right to question his accuser,” Bruch said.
“It actually makes us look quite childish.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Kidd said council members could make one statement on the complaint.
“This is not a debate,” she said.
When Collins attempted to “defer to Max if he has something else to say,” Kidd refused.
Mania picked up his two pages of questions and other papers and walked quickly out of the meeting, followed by some supporters.
After Mania left, the remaining six council members discussed a draft code of ethical conduct to handle future complaints against council members — an effort prompted by complaints against Mania.
There is no city code of ethical conduct to address Nelson’s complaint and a separate complaint filed July 20 by former Clallam County Democratic Party Vice Chair Jack Slowriver.
She accused Mania of “unethical” behavior over her not supporting the failed Aug. 7 primary election candidacy of Mania’s wife, Dale Holiday, for Clallam County commissioner.
The code will not be applied retroactively to either complaint.
Council members made several suggestions for changes in the code, after which City Manager Dan McKeen said there was “a lot of work to do” on the draft.
He said Wednesday a new draft code will be presented for council consideration by October.
Councilman Patrick Downie focused Tuesday on the code of conduct, not the complaint.
“We need to work together to be the best that we can be,” he said.
“That’s what a code of conduct should do.”
Kidd said Wednesday she does not expect the complaint to be brought up again for council consideration.
“As far as I am aware, last night would have been the opportunity to call for action, and there was no call for action,” she said.
“We have to focus on a code of ethics, and then we have to have a procedure in place to handle any complaints.”
Mania said in an email received at the PDN on Wednesday that there was no reason to stay at Tuesday’s meeting to discuss the code.
“And, being that I have been treated unfairly and unethically in this process, I didn’t see the point of staying to discuss an ethics policy.
“It’s like making soup with poisoned water — what you end up with is suspect at best.”
He also questioned how, if he as an elected official cannot get answers “to some of the very basic questions” regarding Nelson’s complaint, “how are members of the public supposed to feel confident that they will get their questions answered or their concerns addressed?”
Citizens had told Bruch that they would no longer send her emails since those to Mania had been made public, Bruch said.
“We need to help rebuild the trust and need to help rebuild respect with each other,” she added.
City Clerk and Public Records Officer Janessa Hurd said Wednesday that emails written by City Council members and city employees on their city accounts are public records.
“There are very few exemptions for public records,” she said.
Hurd, who provided the emails to Nelson, said she did not give Nelson a personal email from Mania on Holiday’s campaign that was included in Nelson’s complaint and that was widely distributed, including to the PDN.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
