It is certainly interesting to see the controversy that the Oak Harbor City Council is bringing against Mayor Scott Dudley. Their attempts to hamstring the Mayor are an example of petty politics at its worst. Rick Almberg seems to be leading the attack on the Mayor and recently took the advice of Attorney Christen Skinner who BTW is representing the Police Chief, to introduce measures to ensure that the Mayor and all future Mayors will be hamstringed when they attempt to exercise the power of the Mayors office.
Skinner proposed that his clients’ employment status be “grandfathered in” so they remain for-cause employees and Rick Almberg passed this directly from Mr. Skinner to the city council. Mr. Almberg may want to decide who he is working for, the people of this city who elected the new Mayor or Mr. Skinner who is threatening to sue the city.
For a brief history here are some of the actions of our past Mayors that did not bring near as much controversy as the controversy that Councilman Almberg and his cronies are bringing to the City Council.
Patty Cohen fired city supervisor E.T. Silvers, police chief Tony Barge, Planner Tom Burdett, Engineer Ryan Goodman, Human Resources Director Andy Keene and City Administrator Thom Myers for a total of 6 people fired.
How about when Jim Slowik fired Anhkiet Ngo and lied about the circumstances?
http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/opinion/124888834.html
Or what about Harbormaster Mack Funk being fired by Slowik under a cloud of suspicion that was proven false? Mr. Funk states that he was “terminated under a cloud of suspicion and public embarrassment without opportunity to defend myself and my employees.”
http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/121409114.html
So…in a nutshell what Mayor Dudley is doing is nothing new, nothing surprising and certainly not out of the ordinary for a new Mayor of our city. At least he is doing so in a forthright and visible process unlike his predecessor. What is new and surprising is the acidic tone of the City Council who has waged a very public war against the new Mayor for exercising the power that the voters gave him during the election.
If there are any changes that need to be made in the City of Oak Harbor it is the replacement of those Council members that have waged a war against the new Mayor and taken valuable time from our City Council to make these very public attacks. We need a City Council that will work with the Mayor that the citizens elected and if the current Council continues with these groundless attacks they need to be replaced at all cost starting with Mr. Almberg.
Tags: Mayor Scott Dudley, Oak Harbor, Oak Harbor City Council
-
Cliff;
The answer to your question is NO. Mayor Scott Dudley is NOT out of line. During his Landslide Victorous Mayoral campaign, he said that he would work FOR the citizens that believed, trusted and elected him. What a breath of fresh air that an elected official is acqually doing what he promised. I do not see any of the other city officials following in kind. They all said that they would work for the citizens, and cut wastefull spending. Not only have they NOT fullfilled their promises, they have shown that they are going in the opposite direction. It seems that if they think they could do a better job than the Mayor, why didn’t they run for the office? Opps, I forgot, they did not run for the positon because their “Good Ol Buddy Slowick” was running. Now that their man lost, they just can’t quite got over that fact. I think it was Counselman Campbell at one of the previous counsel meetings, advised the counsel, and to Mr. Amberg in particular, “Your man LOST, get over it”.It is the law that gives the Mayor certian powers in his office. Where do these ignorate and arrigant ninconpoops get off trying to interfer with the law. Again, it all comes down to the fact that THEY are NOT working for the citizens of Oak Harbor. “Grandfathering in” is another attempt to have it “THEIR WAY” and continue to disrupt the positive progress of OUR city.
If this is the way that things are going to be done, and the citizens of Oak Harbor do not take action NOW, then the citizens diserve the disrespect and dis-service that this City Counsel is giving. History shows that a stand and action was taken, and we don’t pay the Queen for tea anymore. We do not have to be subject to this dispectible disregards to OUR rights. Now is the time for ACTION!!
-
If you were to knock on all the doors in this town and simply ask if the upper level of city management needed a change of course; I bet the answer would be a resounding yes.
In fact I would be willing to bet that 8 out of every 10 people you ask, are looking forward to see what other changes our mayor has in mind for making our city better.
To our Mayor, keep up the good work and thanks for staying strong. -
OH City Council member. Tara Hizon recently made several posts on this subject on “Facebook”
One specifically discusses this topic. i.e
she posted, “Did the author of that blog post watch or attend Thursday night’s meeting? The only things we voted to establish were: a show of hands in addition to a verbal vote, and an adjourn time of nine p.m.
1) The three-minute per speaker for a total of 15 minutes rule is not “new.” According to the council’s handbook, it has been in effect since at least 2004. We actually expressed concern that 15 minutes for general comments was too restrictive and asked that it be extended when we review our handbook later this summer.
2) That time limit does not mean there will be a total of 15 minutes of comment (or five speakers) per meeting. It applies to the general public comment as well as the comment period for each agenda item. As always, someone may speak for up to three minutes on each and every subject on the agenda; and the council can always vote to extend that limit if there are many people wishing to be heard.
3) Speaking at council meetings is not the only chance that the public has to interact with the council. Not only are each of our email addresses available on the city website, but we all have mailboxes at city hall where we receive (and welcome) phone messages, letters and faxes nearly every day.
4) Those familiar with WA law and the Open Public Meetings Act know that the public has the right to attend meetings, but no statutory right to speak at them – that is granted at the discretion of the council and the terms vary by municipality.
The implication that this council would not allow public comment at all if given the chance is not only ridiculous and offensive, it couldn’t be more off base. We could abolish the public comment period tomorrow, but I assure you that not a single one of us would ever support such a draconian practice.”I have a big concern with her comments….
Why didn’t she mention Almberg’s motion to require the Mayor to submit for Council’s approval a written plan that states who, why and when any City staff people appointed or terminated by Mayor before any more changes are made
The acting city attorney informed the Council that the proposed resolution would be micro managing the Mayor and Council is not legally authorized to take that responsibility from the Mayor(At least we now know why Mayor Dudley moved so fast on removing the ex city attorney)
This issue is still alive
Monday June 18, there will be another Council meeting and the agenda includes more resolutions by Almberg and company for control of the Mayor’s actions including a retro re classification of appointed positions to prevent the Mayor from terminating those peopleLooks like we need a big show of concerned people at that meeting to watch the clowns and there really big show
-
And just remember if you want to speak at the meeting, Ms Hizon and Mr Almberg have forced the Mayor into enforcing the maximum 3 minute each 15 minute total open comment. From Tara’s comments it appears she wishes to backtrack from her position on this. I think it was nothing more than an attack on the Mayor by her and Almberg that went wrong…make a motion that makes it appear the Mayor is not doing his job….
So…you may attend the meeting, but you may not be able to speak to the council unless you are one of the 5 lucky people that they allow to speak during the open comment period.
-
-
You might not get a chance to speak but the all can ready your signs.
-
The Mayor is a credit to himself and his community. If all elected officials took their oath to protect and defend the constitution equally as serious as he does, this country would not be in the state of Chaos that it is currently in. I think elected officials including the President of the United States should be held to that oath and if not upholded, should be impeached immediatly.
Steve Rannells
USN, Retired
Reply
An event calendar of upcoming conservative events on the Islands. To add an item to this calendar please use the comment form below or contact one of our authors directly.
Click
Here!
6 comments
Comments feed for this article