Eight Questions Asked Of Sunnyside City Council: No Answers Given

At the start of last night’s (Monday) Sunnyside City Council meeting, eight questions were asked of the Council by Don Vlieger, District 3 City Council Candidate.  None of them were answered.  All of the questions Mr. Vlieger asked were regarding circumstances surrounding the Council’s firing of former City Manager Eric Swansen.  For reference, a link for download of the resolutions regarding Mr. Swansen’s suspension and termination is at the end of this post.  It is in PDF format.

Mr. Vlieger had provided his questions to the Mayor prior to the meeting.  The questions had been disseminated to other Council Members as well.  Interim City Manager Jim Bridges was also given a copy of the questions by Mayor Pablo Garcia, who directed him to start crafting a response.  Mr. Bridges then forwarded the questions to the City’s legal team for advice.

Attorneys present at the meeting advised Council not to answer the questions until they had discussed them in Executive Session.  Following the regular meeting, Council went into Executive Session in part to discuss pending litigation.  At the conclusion of the Executive Session, Council took no action and also did not respond to any of Mr. Vlieger’s questions.

Here are the questions that Mr. Vlieger asked with my comments added in bullets afterwards:

“1.  Who drafted resolutions 2009-46 and 2009-47 and when?”

• These were the resolutions that suspended and fired Mr. Swansen.  To date, no one has taken credit for writing them.  Knowing when the resolutions were written is important as well.  Some are suggesting that the resolutions were not written during the meeting, but were written at a later time and/or date.

“2.  Did all Council Members have a copy of these resolutions on the night of June 2?”

• The state of Washington has specific legal code that deals with termination of a City Manager.  It is important to know if procedures were being followed correctly.

“3.  When were both resolutions signed by the Mayor?”

• Under normal conditions, the resolutions would be signed by the Mayor on the night that they were voted on and passed by the City Council.

“4.  Why did it take a month to serve (as required by RCW’s) Mr. Swansen his copies and is this going to cost the City an extra month’s pay to Mr. Swansen?”

• RCW or Revised Code of Washington mandates that the City Manager be given a written copy of resolutions notifying him he is being terminated.  This may not have happened in Mr. Swansen’s case.

“5.  Why did Ms. Estrada (Sunnyside’s City Clerk) refuse to provide copies of these resolutions until the City was threatened with a lawsuit?”

• A citizen has notified BLOGSUNNYSIDE that they filed a public records request to obtain a copy of these resolutions.  They were allegedly denied until the citizen threatened to file a lawsuit to get them.  Since these resolutions were supposed to be passed in a public meeting, and the citizen was asking for a copy of them after the fact, why would the City delay processing a request for a copy of them?  As far as that goes, why would the City not post a copy of every resolution passed on its website?

“6.  Resolution 2009-47 says that Mr. Swansen is suspended immediately, but in the audio of the meeting both the Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem say it is midnight June 3rd, did both of you have a copy of Resolution 2009-47 in front of you?  Does this void resolution 2009-47?”

• I was present at the meeting where Mr. Swansen was fired.  I did not hear anything about a suspension being made immediately.  I did hear that it would be effective at midnight following the meeting.

“7.  In the audio of June 2nd, both resolutions 2009-46 and 2009-47 are passed without comment or details and without referring to the resolution numbers.  No copies were made available to the public.  How is the public supposed to know what their Council is doing (even in a public meeting) if we don’t have copies, the details are not discussed, the resolution is not read, the resolution number is not referenced, and you have to threaten to sue the City to get copies of the resolutions passed in a public meeting?”

• As a personal witness to the events at the meeting in question, I can not recall any resolution numbers being mentioned.  The text of the resolutions were not read at the meeting, to the best of my recollection.  No copies of the resolutions were given to the public, nor were they projected on a screen during the meeting itself.  The City should be able to provide a copy of resolutions already voted on during the weeks and months following a Council meeting.  I am not sure why there was a delay in processing in the Public Records Request for these documents.  At the very least, that does not look good.

“8.  In resolution 2009-46 the termination date of Mr. Swansen is June 2nd, 2009.  This appears to conflict with RCW 35A.13.130.  Should the date have been July 2nd, 2009.  Is this resolution void because of this error?”

• After consulting with attorneys in Executive Session, the Council should have been able to answer all these questions.

Reference Resolutions 2009-46 and 2009-47:

Response B_RES 2009-46_RES 2009-47 (1)