Scene: Black Diamond City Council Chambers, Thursday night, July 20: With all Councilmembers present, the meeting opened in the usual style with Councilmember Pat Pepper going through her routine of reading from a script in order to change the City Agenda with her “Council Revised” agenda. Shortly after reading off her changes that included a new “motion” under New Business regarding the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) as per Councilmember Erika Morgan’s request. Mayor Carol Benson asked Morgan if she had the backup paperwork for the motion that was being presented as Benson had not received when the meeting started. Morgan quickly handed the paperwork down to the Mayor before stating that it was a continuation from the April 20, 2016 discussion of the CIP.
“We have decided to prioritize it a little bit and I just thought that it was time for it to come for first reading so that it can go back to the ‘Growth Management’ committee,” said Morgan.
Pepper went on to read from her script about Council rules, agenda and efficient meeting. Upon finishing her scripted remarks, she asked Attorney Glenn, who was contracted to do work for the City through Pepper and Morgan, to comment on the posting of the agenda to the website. Mayor Benson stated that Glenn was not the City’s attorney and that he did not have any authority to get up and give any opinions. Instead, Benson stated that Glenn could get up and give his opinion during public comment.
Pepper insisted that Glenn was “…our legal person…”, which immediately drew a question from Councilmember Janie Edelman as to where the signed contract was. Pressed by Councilmember Tami Deady as to where the signed contract was, and asked by Benson whether Pepper had a contract with Glenn, Pepper stated the City does. This comment drew negative comments that the City does not. “We have never seen a contract from Mr. Glenn,” stated Benson. As Glenn prepared himself to speak, he was reminded by the Mayor that this was not his time to speak.
When Benson stated that they were in public comment time and to limit his comments to three minutes, Pepper stated that they had not even approved the agenda yet. Back to Glenn, Pepper said, “He is giving legal service to the City of Black Diamond.” “Where’s the contract?” asked Edelman. Five minutes into the meeting, with Glenn being shut down for comments prior to public comment, the “Revised” agenda was passed.
During public comment, Planning Commission Chair, Pam McCain, let everyone know that this was the 5th month in a row the Planning Commission cancelled its meeting as the City was stuck in a place where they could not approve the Comprehensive Plan. She reminded the Council that every day the Plan is not approved opens the door to anyone coming in wishing to build will build according to the rules passed in 2006 and not the current changes. She finished her comments by encouraging the Council to pay the consultants and move on with the Plan instead of “being stuck in this no-win position for the City.”
Judy Goodwin encourage the Council to move on from their mourning that Black Diamond would not remain as it has always been and accept the change. She encouraged Councilmember to stop protesting and to start governing. She encouraged again for everyone to turn their attention to finishing the traffic part of the Comprehensive Plan.
Kristen Bryant comments revolved around the development issue with potential environmental problems. She ended her comments saying, “I agree that harassing, delaying and obstructing is no way to govern. And I think we saw an example of harassment and delay this evening when the Mayor and Councilmember Edelman and Councilmember Deady tried to prevent a person from being called on to speak who is an attorney whose experience and advice I would hope they would welcome and I would hope that the Council would encourage him to speak and address the Council whenever they can because we certainly don’t gain any time and don’t gain anything from having arguments about a very reasonable request made by Councilmember Pepper. So, I think the harassment and delay is coming from a different source.”
During her comments, Robbin Taylor also questioned whether there was any record of an application for attorney’s Dan Glenn and Jane Koler to the City or whether there was a contract and who signed the contract. As she continued, she questioned when the ideas to “provide impartial legal services birthed?” Having done some digging, she found in a Public Disclosure Request that there was a Koler invoice to the City of Black Diamond dated April 6, 2017 with the following information: “Review documents; conversation with Kristen Bryant re background information. No Charge.”
Taylor pointed out the Kohler had been hired only for the Oakpointe arbitration, yet Koler listed at the beginning of her billing a 3-hour conversation with Bryant. The only Councilmember contact in the billing came through a 55-minute conversation with Pepper. Taylor ended her comments by saying, “Kohler and Glenn have Kristen Bryant’s handprints all over them. There is nothing impartial about either of them, or the service they provide, at least not to this City.”
With the closing of the public comments, Pepper was looking for approval of the June 2, 2016, amended Council meeting minutes. After receiving a second from Morgan, Edelman let everyone in the audience know that not only were the meeting minutes received the night before the July 20th Council meeting, but that the minutes were amended regarding the censure vote of the three Majority members – Pepper, Morgan, and Councilmember Brian Weber. Another amendment came with the Majority members striking the word “City” in front of the title of City Attorney. “You guys can go do what you want to do, but you cannot change the facts,” said Edelman.
Following comments made by Deady, Pepper began reading from her script stating in part that the minutes needed careful scrutiny. “Now that the City has proper legal services [referring to Koler and Glenn] I was able to ask some pressing questions of our attorney, Dan Glenn, to complete these minutes,” said Pepper. After 4 minutes, Edelman broke in and called for the question, which began another argument that lasted for another couple of minutes.
As discussion continued, but changed direction by Deady who asked who Glenn was, “Is he supposed to be the Council’s attorney or is he just your attorney, Councilmember Pepper, where he gives you advice and then you send it to Erika and Brian and you leave us out or what. I don’t understand…So who is his man.” Without answering the question, a vote on the June 2nd minutes were taken with Pepper, Weber, and Morgan voting yes.
Moving down a couple of items to the payment of vouchers with Morgan pulling payment for the City Attorney from Kenyon Disend, Deady once again pressed into the attorney issue pointing to Weber, Pepper and Morgan wanting an RFQ earlier in the year with only Kenyon Disend law firm applying for the position of City Attorney. Recognizing that the City had to have attorney coverage, Deady reminded the Majority Councilmembers that Koler and Glenn did not want to be the City Attorney. Over and over Deady asked what the Majority Councilmembers wanted seeing as they did not want to pay the sitting City Attorney.
“The whole idea of this is to stop the development,” said Edelman. The vouchers that get pulled are to contractors that have been working up at 10 Trails. These are vouchers for work that has already been performed, that these people think that if they don’t get paid, the Councilmembers – the Majority – think, that if these people don’t get paid maybe they’re going to pack up their equipment and go away.”
Continuing on through agenda items to the December 27, 2016, Special Council minutes, Morgan wanted to amend the minutes to strike out the word “City” in front of all references to City Attorney citing Kenyon Disend did not have a contract with the City. She stated that the authority to contract for an attorney was with the Council. Morgan went on to state, “Attorney Glenn & Associates and Land & Property Use Attorneys do have a signed contract with the City of Black Diamond. The Kenyon Disend law firm does not have a signed contract with the City.”
At the end of her comment a chorus of “Where’s the contract?” came from the audience with Edelman stating that the City has been asking for months where the contract was that has never been provided to the City. Another question was “Who signed it?” Edelman pointed out that the Mayor did not sign it. Pepper dodged as Edelman pressed in on the question at hand and asked that a copy of the contract be provided to the City – to which Pepper came back with, “Be delighted.” “When?” asked Edelman. “I want a commitment. When?” “Well I can’t do it now so it will have to be later,” stated Pepper.
Continuing the press, Edelman went after who signed the contract asking Pepper if she signed the contract. “Of course,” stated Pepper. “And so did the Mayor Pro Tem [Morgan].” Her answer sent shock waves through the audience. “You need to know that if the Mayor refuses to do her ministerial duty, the Mayor Pro Tem signs a contract.” “That is not true,” said Benson, who moved on quickly for a vote on the December 27th meeting as amended striking City from City Attorney throughout the document, which all Councilmembers voted in the affirmative. According to staff, Pepper did not send the signed contracts for Koler and Glenn to the office until 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 27.
