Max Mania got elected and started asking questions and voting "No" on stupid things. This was bad news from the perspective of the powers that be, so they tried to silence him by filing false ethics "charges" against him.
That went nowhere, because he hadn't actually done anything, and because - Oops! - the City didn't have any ethics code on the books. In a sudden rush of supposedly ethical energy, the City Council passed an ethics ordinance. (See also: Bill Bloor, failure.)
Skip ahead a couple of years, and Marolee Smith decides she doesn't like the petty princess dictatorial antics of Cherie Kidd, and so she files an ethics complaint against her for her unprofessional, discourteous and unethical behavior. Then another complaint gets filed. And another. City Council members are targeted. The City Attorney is targeted. (See also: Bill Bloor, laughing stock.)
An Ethics Board is empaneled. And another. The City has such a need for these boards that they have to approve notorious homophobes and other assorted cranks to flesh them out. The PDN does their best to protect Cherie and Dan Gase and Bill Bloor (See also: Bill Bloor, kingpin of bad advice.) But new media sources in town get the truth out. Recalls are started. Calls to step down are heard. Pitchforks and torches are distributed to the angry villagers.
Cherie Kidd isn't cut out for a tough racket.
So, the City just has to cut out the potentially tough parts for her.
In the swirling chaos of trying to deal with multiple ethics complaints, further problems arise. Ethical and professional lines are blurred, then crossed. (See also: Bill Bloor, morally bankrupt.) Put under oath, Cherie Kidd, as shucks sweetheart of Port Angeles tries to blame a fellow Council member and lies her little heart out. And so we come to this little announcement in today's PDN:
Port Angeles City Council members will consider revisions to the City's ethics ordinance when they meet Tuesday. At the meeting, the Council will go through a first reading of an addition to the ethics ordinance that would address instances of multiple complaints and claims made against a public official based on conduct arising from a single action or event.
To translate: Now that the City's own sharp stick has been used by citizens to poke the corrupt City Council and severely compromised staff, the City wants to start cutting said stick back. The whittling begins Tuesday night.
The second board cannot rule on anything presented to the first board, because the ethics code does not allow it to reverse or modify another official's action. Much of OWOC's complaint is therefore a waste of everybody's time, and the city does not have to waste their time or my tax dollars for you. So they will add something to screen off duplicate complaints without wasting a board's time on them.
ReplyDelete@7:53 you could not be more wrong. Everything about the ethics code is up to the Council. These Boards do not get to make the rules (even if we are in PA). They have but one function: investigate the facts. Obviously they do not wish to do their job here. So far Boards 1 & 2 have refused to look at the evidence, or even ask questions.
DeleteNo ethics complaint is "a waste of everybody's time." I guess in your world you don't need any code of ethics because our glorious leaders are as ethical as the Pope and infallible?
7:53am You haven't actually read the code have you? Just reading the PDN which has (as usual) been misrepresenting the entire affair.
DeleteUse your brain, lad.
You guys will never understand. You keep losing because you have a lot of wrong ideas in your heads about how all this government stuff works. Like when Max butted into Kent Myers' personal business, and tried to pull an end run on council with the biomass deal. And like when Dale's complaint about his visitor center bid got kicked to the door (and like his perjury complaint will get kicked to the door). And like when 80% of the first complaint was dismissed. And like when half the second complaint has already fallen off the table. And like when the state bar ethics complaint about the lawyer who "assaulted" the fluoride protester was dismissed. And like when recalling councilors actually turned out to be a lot of work and money. And like when who knows how much of the remaining hurt feelings complaints - oh, pardon me, "ethics" complaints - will fall apart... But, hey, it's fun to watch; and it's just honest citizens' tax dollars and stolen time out of people's lives, right?
DeletePAMC 2.78.050(F) is the one you want to look up abou previous actions. PAMC 2.64.010(B) has a definition you'll need to correctly apply it. Read the rest while you're in there. I am not the one who needs the practice.
@9:42 - well you got one thing right - the Four are certainly wasting honest citizens' tax dollars and time. The citizens are doing everything they can, even if it seems meager to you, because the City Council has shown itself to have blatant disregard for the will of the people it serves. Now if you are happy and comfortable with that, keep on drinking that Koolaid. I pity your apathetic life.
Delete@Anon 9:20 AM
DeleteAnd some people wonder why Port Angeles stagnates, year after year.
Your's is the mindset that thinks dropping bombs brings peace, and silencing the public's voice at every opportunity brings contentment. Never mind that the community itself has been suffering needlessly for many years, you have yours.
How bankrupt a system does one have to have, to have to openly employ every measure possible to maintain control, because the community itself does not support what is being done?
The paper just won't report on what is going on, so the community at large won't get upset or mobilize. Stories that are printed, are twisted with lies and misrepresentations, so that the public thinks those concerned about democracy and their rights, are the problem. Just as your diatribe attempts to do the same.
Since when is it wrong for citizens to be upset to witness their elected officials lie under oath? But, you characterize it as "But, hey, it's fun to watch; and it's just honest citizens' tax dollars and stolen time out of people's lives, right?".
When the citizens of a community are the "enemy" that the city council feels it has to pass ordinances to control and silence, you know there is a real problem.
And you obviously support the current council majority, and the powers-that-be that support them.
Sad.
@ 9:42
DeleteThank you Mr. Hoare, your institutional memory is pretty accurate even if your diagnosis is not.
I am glad you are reading this. We know we got up into your head and you are having to come back here to see what else they are saying about you and your Hoare.
The fact that they haven't even seen how the whole process plays out -- for one -- shows that sneaky Bloor is behind this.
ReplyDeleteMultiple complaints mean that something is just very, very wrong.
The ethics panel just looks into it --- then, they make RECOMMENDATIONS, then the council takes the recommendations and decides what to do.
How does that make it "double jeopardy" as the bullfrog of bullshit croaks? It isn't. It's having two sets of eyes (as the council said) to look at it.
Meanwhile, clearly, there aren't enough complaints. There should be hundreds, but our citizens aren't fully paying attention, or motivated to take action. This should be concerning.
The ethics code works just fine. Meddling now makes no sense, what-so-ever, unless the council is planning on allowing more Queen Kidd stuff, or other insanity.
For the record...no where in the code is it proper for Bloor and the City Manager allowed to hire outside council on behalf of a council member's ethics violations. That in itself should be complained about as an ethics violation.
Code 2.64 is the source for legal representation of city officials.
Delete2.64.020 allows the City to "provide" an attorney to the official "as may be reasonably necessary to defend a claim or law suit filed against such official...". Such legal representation "shall be provided by the City Attorney or by an attorney designated by the City Attorney."
Bloor has decided that ethics complaints are "claims" for which representation can be provided. But there are also exclusions. Meaning NO representation can be provided.
City-paid legal representation does NOT apply to "any dishonest, fraudulent, criminal, or malicious act of an official or employee." Ethics complaints ARE complaints of dishonest acts. And fraudulent acts. Maybe not criminal, or even malicious, but dishonest at the very least.
This is why Bloor abused the code by hiring the lawyer for Kidd & Gase (they didn't go out & find him), and then having the city pay for it. Two separate violations.
Maybe he is proposing to now change the code to cover his own butt? Yet another violation?
BINGO!!! WE have a winner in the,next, and ongoing "Bloor Boner Awards".
DeleteOf course he is covering his ass. He excluded the city hiring an attorney for an ethics complaint because no one wanted Mania to get a fair shake, they wanted to persecute him. Now, that the darling lil'Miss has her bitty-titty in a wringer, suddenly "OMG, lets help her!!!".
And, how is it "reasonably necessary" to defend against a recommendation by an appointed board that's biggest bite can be a strongly worded "conclusion" (which Bloor wrote ..for the first ethics board) which the council can (as Bloor recommended in the PDN) "do nothing at all".
I'm thinking the Bloor Award should be a small golden version of the big statute that used to rotate in front of the Loomis Tavern.
How blatant can they be? But, it clearly shows what we're dealing with, should anyone have any doubts.
ReplyDelete"Too Late For Tears" is quite a good film. Do you share my high opinion of Dan Duryea and Lizbeth Scott?
ReplyDeleteLizabeth Scott had a classic, wonderful voice. She could easily have been a professional public speaker.
DeleteCherie Kidd...No way. Despite her oft-repeated claims.
And, as proper testimony to how the general public views Port Angeles, the place was a ghost town, again. Still.
ReplyDeleteI drove through town purposefully at around noon today. Up and down the main streets, and along the waterfront. The new beaches. It was record setting hot, sunny day, with little wind. Sunday afternoon at the beach with the kids?
No one. Oh, sorry. Yes I did see one person near the beaches. The streets were empty. If I had a camera, it would have been easy to have picture to show with NO cars or people in them.
But, it isn't that people were not "out and about". Coming into Port Angeles, the road was very busy. Once past Race Street, it cut down massively.
People are AVOIDING Port Angeles.
Thank you Cherie Kidd and fellow cronies.
So, reading your description of the traffic flows (or not, as the case may be) I think of two things. One is that some of those cars avoiding downtown are visitors taking a shortcut around downtown to get to Forks, the ONP, the beach, etc. The other is that they are locals returning home from having gone shopping/dining/everything else elsewhere.
DeleteBut, no matter what the explanation, the result is the same: A sunshine ghost town.
To be fair, this afternoon I did see someone at the west side waterfront. A maintenance guy in an orange vest with a weedwhacker. His city maintenance truck parked nearby. Nice touch.
DeleteI was in Port Townsend yesterday morning and into the afternoon. I stopped at Henery's nursery just outside of downtown and, just after they had opened up there was a line at the cash register stretching to the back of the store. The cashier told me they had people waiting for them to open. Down town was busy with and I had circle the area twice before getting a parking spot - this was at about 11.00 am. People were out and about, shops were open and Khu Larb Thai restaurant looked like it was about to begin a busy lunch time with all the people going in. The William James bookstore is doing so well that they're planning to expand their operation this summer.
DeleteThere were near constant caravans or groups of vehicles that looked liked clubs, headed West as I made my way from Sequim to downtown Sunday. A LOT of traffic. It was so strange, because by the time I made it to Lincoln, it was empty everywhere I looked.
DeleteAfter all the years of our tax money spent by Veneema and the Good Ole Boys? This is what we have to show for it all? A morally corrupt town with empty streets and storefronts, and the only "sort of" industries that get started here are tax payer funded grant scams?
And to date, even the taxpayer funded grant scams haven't been able to succeed?
I'm convinced that the few people you see walking around down town are business owners or employees, not potential customers.
DeleteHow many clothing boutiques does one town need? There's six boutiques in the down town area.
Shoppers can feel the "vibe" of a town before ever exiting their cars. They know how they will be treated in certain quarters and obviously the leadership and "aura" created by Edna Petersen and her goons are causing folks to avoid the downtown area. Luckily the food store it there or downtown would have already dried up and blown away. Petersen is poison and anyone who spends 60 seconds in her presence will realize it. Why people still pay deference to anything she says and does is a mystery to me. Think about this one. She conjures up a plan to increase business by giving Canadians a 27% discount on the town of Port Angeles. Canadians only. Now why doesn't she think enough of her neighbors, the ones who shop here year round, why doesn't she provide some "discount" for home folk? Because she is a greedy little pig and thinks nothing of her neighbors, and knows her neighbors care little for her. She married on third base and acts like she hit a triple. If not for marrying a few rich guys she would be cleaning rooms at the Red Lion.
ReplyDeleteever since that 27% discount for Canadians, I decided to do my incidental shopping in Canada.
DeleteWhat IS IT with the PDN....this headline is on today's online edition:
ReplyDeleteSpokane police fatally shoot man with a knife.
Are they kidding?
dangling participles?
DeleteHow do you shoot a man, using a knife?
Should be "knife wielding man shot by Spokane police".
What flunk outs of J School. That's like headline writing 101.
Nevermind the fact that why is that news here? They can report on that, but they can't be bothered with news that matters locally?
Deleteand the survey question is if you've ever met a celeb.
ReplyDeleteThe PDN should go belly up...it's not even an excuse for a newspaper. It's a parody of one.
I liked the one they had up yesterday, to which over 75% of people said they get exercise regularly. That's a laugh! Have you looked at yourself (and yourselves) in the mirror lately, Port Angeles?
DeleteThis town is a parody of a real one, and a piss-poor parody at that.
Delete75% might be low if the PDN asked who's done meth. :D
ReplyDeleteTonight's the night. Who will be there to witness the whittling?
ReplyDeleteAs has been said: "If someone wants to dig themselves a hole, hand them a shovel".In the case of the City Council, line up a backhoe for them.
DeleteMaybe they'll contemplate ordering hostage taking, as the Nazis did in occupied France, in order to control the citizens.
correction...the horse didn't get out the ASS did.
ReplyDeleteNow, my prediction there will be 8 people in attendance this evening.
Why would any one bother to go to city council meetings these days? They do not want to hear from us. They are doing everything they can to not see or hear us.
DeleteThey don't represent us, or what we want. They don't even want to hear what we think. They don't care.
So, what are we going to do about it?