Talk of How to Oust a Woodinville Mayor and Deputy Mayor Tabled

The Woodinville City Council's talk of how to oust a mayor or deputy mayor before their two-year appointment ends was tabled at Tuesday's council meeting.

The council currently appoints a mayor and deputy mayor for two-year cycles in January of even-numbered years. Under the proposal, the council could have removed a mayor or deputy mayor sooner by a majority vote, or possibly a majority-plus-one vote.

Woodinville City Attorney Greg Rubstello said whether a council can remove a mayor is unsettled in Washington. He said he didn't know of any other cities in the state that had an ordinance pertaining to it.

After councilmember Paulette Bauman and Deputy Mayor Liz Aspen said the motion was not intended for the purpose of removing Talmas as mayor, councilmember Art Pregler made a motion to table the matter until January, when a new council will be seated and can take up what was deemed a "housekeeping matter." The motion passed unanimously, with councilmember Les Rubstello abstaining from the vote.

Mayor Bernie Talmas’ term on the council expires at the end of the year, and he’s running for re-election. Aspen’s term expires at the end of 2015.

An underlying issue seemed to be how council members interact with each other, the public and the media, as Bauman said during the meeting, "that this came out because of an email."

While she didn't specifically say what was in the email or who sent it, Aspen later read parts of a campaign-related email from councilmember Susan Boundy-Sanders that included obscenities and insults referring to Aspen and others. That email wasn't initially sent to Aspen but a follow-up email from Boundy-Sanders with an apology of sorts was sent to her. Aspen also read parts of that message during the meeting.

"That was not an apology to us," she said of the second email. 

She referred to the messages as a "pattern of behavior," said it needed to stop and said that was why she supported Bauman's motion to have a process created whereby a councilmember could be censured somehow for using obscenities and acting without decorum in matters of city business.

"It’s just really to address an escalation of attacks and behavior by certain council people that’s not in the best interest of the city," Bauman said. 

For her part, Boundy-Sanders said she takes the accusations very seriously and said she disagrees with them about adding the ability for the council to censure a councilmember. 

"The fact is that it would not be an impartial body that would be deciding the censure and in this particular case, the people who have brought the agenda item forward have been explicit about behavior outside city duties, putting outside matters (campaign) inside to address personal grievances," Boundy-Sanders said. "It’s not a proper use of staff time and taxpayer money and I’m not going to support the motion."

"We should really stay away from this," Talmas said of the proposed motion. He added that the council could spend hours discussing what he called campaign emails and that was not what the council should spend time doing. 

Bauman's motion to have city staff to draft language on how to censure a councilmember for violating the code for general decorum passed, with Bauman, Aspen and Hageman voting yes, Boundy-Sanders and Talmas voting no, and Pregler and Rubstello abstaining from the vote.

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