Edmonds Accountability Report – April/May 2010

For the months of April and May, 2010, the citizens of Edmonds should be made aware of the following items. This blog is a representation of many voices in Edmonds and not a single voice.

Skipper’s Observations: The Council voted 5-2 to engage in a purchase and sale agreement of the Skipper’s property (as a potential park, or parking lot, or “gateway”, or museum, or visitor’s center, with no long-term construction, development, or maintenance funding on top of the $1.1M purchase price) on April 13, 2010, and allocated $100,000 toward required feasibility studies and real estate transactions.

The eventual change-of-heart by the Council on the Skipper’s property occurred after a vast majority of Edmonds residents made their opinions known to the Council. The Feckless Five (now Four following former Council Member Orvis’ resignation) recognized the citizens of Edmonds do not agree with reckless endangerment of the City’s limited funds. Specifically, members voting for spending $1.1M of the City’s money while concurrently stating “The City is still in financial crisis” (Council member Fraley-Monillas), and using a lack of funds as an excuse to vote against supporting the Police Foundation’s programs (Council member Plunkett) or vote against an environmental and energy plan projected to save the City and citizens money and create jobs (Council members Fraley-Monillas, Plunkett, and Buckshnis).

The following Council members made the following further misstatements, misrepresentations, or contradictions in the Council meetings:

· In the March 16, 2010, Council members Buckshnis and Plunkett amended a resolution of support of the final recommendations by the Economic Development Commission to remove any and all funding for the recommendations to be approved. The Economic Development Commission was established and approved by the City Council to gather information, meet with community members, City staff, and Council to redevelop city-wide recommendations to address the projected shortfall in the Edmonds City budget. Council member Buckshnis specifically stated that the City should develop a tourism plan and business marketing plan but stated she was not prepared to fund this effort. Council member Plunkett supported initiating these plans, as well, with no funding to do so, and he and Council member Fraley-Monillas both suggested that the City Council not “act” on any recommendations for economic development.
· On May 4, 2010, during a conversion regarding the potential levy, Council Member Wilson reminded the Council that the Finance Committee (Council members Plunkett and Buckshnis) were directed to bring the Council options for the City levy, with detailed analysis of the financial situation of the City. No presentation has been made by the Finance Committee and no action has been taken. Council member Plunkett stated that he and Council member Buckshnis would prefer to have a second levy group established. He did not state if the Finance Committee is unable or unwilling to prepare the information themselves. Council member Plunkett stated the levy committee would be put together in 2-3 weeks from the May 25, 2010 meeting, and guidance from the Finance Committee as to the operation of the group would be forthcoming in the same time period. To date, action has not occurred.
· Council members Plunkett and Buckshnis have also proposed a second Levy Committee in 2010 after the input from the 60+-volunteer 2009 Levy Commission was summarily ignored by the Council. Council member Buckshnis, who has stated she needs additional information to make a determination regarding a levy, was a member of the original Levy Commission and presented a recommendation to put a levy on the ballot. It is important (ironic) to note that the recommendation to appoint a second levy committee came immediately following a vote to not adopt the recommendations of another citizens’ commission (Compensation of Elected Officials).
· Council member Fraley-Monillas changed her vote on a program developed for the City of Edmonds by an organization called Climate Solutions. Her original yes vote (May 18, 2010) was made when all but one Council member were present at the meeting. In a follow-on meeting, where only four members were present, Council Members Fraley-Monillas claimed, in retrospect, and Council Member Buckshnis stated they did not have sufficient information or time to review the proposal. The item was on the agenda three times, with the first appearance on March 2, 2010.
· Council member Plunkett chastised Council President Bernheim and members Wilson and Buckshnis for meeting to discuss downtown visioning and not holding public discussions (April 6, 2010). However, this meeting was dictated by the Council and voted for by Council member Plunkett (but he declined to participate). Council member Plunkett then held another meeting (without notifying all Council members) and proposed the Pomegranate Center be engaged to hold a visionining process but did not offer any funding options but said he would return with a proposal to the Council. This proposal has not yet been presented and no action taken.
· Council Member Plunkett called a Council meeting that was potentially in violation of State law. Council President Bernheim made a motion, seconded by Council Member Plunkett, to direct himself (Bernheim) to present a final report to the Council regarding the violation by Council Member Plunkett and to act on the results of the meeting. This report has not yet taken place and no action has been taken in a Council meeting. The meeting was called a “visioning” exercise by Council Member Plunkett. In an item to be presented in a future report, when a vision for Edmonds was placed on the Council agenda by Council President Bernheim, Council Member Plunkett chose to leave the meeting early, without explanation, and not provide a vision for the City.

The City of Edmonds redirected tax payer dollars from City projects to pay for or be at risk to pay for the following:

· Council member Buckshnis, regularly pointing to supposed inconsistencies and incorrect information in City financial documents, completed her review of financial policies and documents with the substantial recommendations of better labeling, more information on the City’s website, and additional narratives written by staff. No information was found to be incorrect in the City’s financial documents, as indicated in the state audit. Audit reports and interviews were provided to all Council members. Following the audit, Council Member Buckshnis recommended yet another review of City financial documents since she did not choose to attend the audit out-brief presentation where the financial practices of the City were determined to be complete, professional, and within all necessary guidelines. Also, following all of these reviews, Mrs. Buckshnis stated she still did not have an “understanding of the City’s financial situation and assumptions,” but also that a levy would be necessary (April 6, 2010).
· On April 16, 2010, Council member Fraley-Monillas, in speaking regarding the purchase of the Skipper’s property, said that the Council did not need to know where the $1.1M would come from since they could later “develop a public-private partnership, bond, or whatever” and have the citizens pay for it. On May 4, 2010, Council member Fraley-Monillas stated the purchase of the Skipper’s property was “not part of the budget” and she “did not appreciate” it being brought up in conversation of the budget.

In addition, the following City Council members engaged in behavior contrary to their mission and duty as Council members:

· Council members Buckshnis and Fraley-Monillas continued to invite citizens to join citizen meetings. On Council member Buckshnis’ blog page, she states that citizens with any views contrary to hers “need not” attend the meetings.
· In the May 25, 2010 Council meeting, former Council member Wambolt relayed a story of interaction with Council member Buckshnis and follow-on comments from Council member Fraley-Monillas. Council minutes include the following: “[Council member Buckshnis ] insulted him with a statement that it was no wonder he did not get past the primary and speculated he had a problem with intelligent women. He quoted from an email by Councilmember Fraley-Monillas, ‘do not waste your time Diane with him, he still thinks he is on Council as evident by attending every event and meeting possible...you need to consider his age and his need to remain involved no matter if he is correct or not. Kind of sad’.”
· Editor’s Note: The following words have been used to characterize the Edmonds City Council in the last two months: “a joke”, “dysfunctional”, “idiots”, and “worse than Mountake Terrace at their worst”. This same Council is now tasked with appointing another Council member and a Mayor.