PORT ANGELES — Max Mania has resigned from the Port Angeles City Council, it was announced Monday.
And his wife, Dale Holiday, has apparently quit her job as a grant coordinator for the Clallam County Department of Health and Human Services after settling a discrimination complaint last week.
Associates at the county courthouse told the Peninsula Daily News that she cleaned out her desk and turned in her keys Friday, the day after the settlement.
County Administrator Jim Jones told the PDN that he could not confirm that she had resigned. He said that the county’s attorney said he could not make any comments about Holiday’s employment with the county.
Mania said he’d resigned because he had moved out of Clallam County.
A City Council member must be a resident of Port Angeles.
“You will find my key to City Hall in my council mailbox,” he wrote in a resignation letter he emailed at 2:06 p.m. Saturday to City Manager Dan McKeen — whom he called the “captain of a sinking ship.”
Mania copied the six other City Council members on his email.
“You know almost as well as anyone, Dan, what Dale and I have been subjected to here, simply for trying to do our part to help this community grow, prosper and move into the 21st century,” he wrote.
“I ran for City Council with the best of intentions — and we all know the saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.
“Well, rather obviously, I have been put through hell for the past couple of years, on a scale and depth far out of proportion to the size of the community.”
Mania added that “so many people . . . have spent so much time and energy trying to make it impossible for us to live here that it is impossible for me to see any future in Port Angeles, or for Port Angeles, other than continued decay and disaster.”
He came into office “as someone who is fiscally conservative, environmentally responsible and committed to open, responsive government,” he said.
“I have been fought, often viciously, on all those fronts,” Mania said.
“Sure, I could stay and fight some more, but what’s the point? If the majority of ‘leaders’ there want to burn money while watching the ship go down, I’m not going to waste any more of my time shouting about getting into the lifeboats.”
Mania was elected to the City Council in 2009. His term expires Dec. 31.
Mania announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election to a second four-year term on the council.
The City Council will discuss replacing Mania at its regular meeting Tuesday, which begins at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
Within 90 days of Mania’s resignation, council members must choose a replacement for Mania to serve until the election is certified by Dec. 5, immediately after which the elected office-holder will take office.
Two Port Angeles residents are candidates for Mania’s seat in the Nov. 5 election — Peter Ripley, an advocate for those with disabilities and online newsletter publisher, and Lee Whetham, a plumber.
Holiday reportedly left her position with the county a day after she settled her racial and sexual discrimination claim against the county at a mediation session in Seattle.
The terms of Holiday’s settlement — including whether it involves a payment to Holiday, or if she was to retain her job — are confidential until a report is issued by the administrative law judge who oversaw the Thursday mediation session.
Earlier last week, two of three county commissioners authorized county Human Resources Director Rich Sill to settle Holiday’s claim and set an undisclosed cap if payment of money became part of the settlement.
Mania could not be reached for comment, and Holiday did not respond to an email request for comment.
Mania sold his house in Port Angeles around the end of April and has been staying with friends who live in Port Angeles, McKeen said.
Mania is a writer and actor, performing in and producing community theater productions.
Mania lauded McKeen in his resignation letter.
“You’re honest and you’re capable, Dan, but I don’t think you’re capable of keeping the ship from going down all on your own — no one person is.”
Responded McKeen: “I do believe the city of Port Angeles has challenges, but with challenges, they also create opportunities.”
“The Max era is past now,” Mayor Cherie Kidd said.
“Max was a colorful council member, and now we are shifting into a new mode.
“I’m sorry Max wasn’t happy here, and I wish him all the best in his new endeavors.”
McKeen said Mania did not leave a forwarding address. He has a post office box in Port Angeles.
Last November, a city policy designed to direct City Council members on how to behave when interacting with each other and members of the public was unanimously approved by the council.
Discussions about the need for an expanded code of conduct arose after Jack Slowriver, former Clallam County Democratic Party vice chair, and City Councilwoman Brooke Nelson each registered a formal complaint concerning Mania’s conduct.
The code applies to the seven council members and appointed members of the city’s boards and commissions.
It also creates a three-member board of ethics to handle complaints.
Nelson accused Mania of “inappropriate and offensive conduct.”
Her complaint centered around emails from Mania to supporters and city officials written on his city email account, and on his efforts to encourage opposition to the Nippon Industries USA’s ongoing biomass cogeneration expansion project by, for example, possibly holding up protest signs in front of council members staffing a table at the downtown farmers market.
“If I have overstepped in some council members’ minds in encouraging public involvement, I do apologize, but that was the motive,” Mania told the council after Nelson made her complaint last August.
“I have always been about just trying to get the public involved. I try to base my decisions on facts. I’ve been passionate about public service.”
Slowriver filed a formal complaint July 20, 2012, with the council alleging that Mania engaged in “unethical” behavior over her lack of political support for Holiday, an unsuccessful primary election candidate for Clallam County commissioner, and that he used foul language against Slowriver.
Mania said his conversation with Slowriver was private and that he had “reminded” her of his support of her in the past.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
