Letter to State Auditor

I'm sending the following letter to the state auditor. I have not heard anything officially about the March 13th letter. ~ Karen
___________________________________________________
June 13, 2008

Washington State Auditor
Pierce County Office
949 Market Street, Suite 560
Tacoma, WA 98402-3706

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to express my concern again about how the majority of current council members in Ruston are making their appointments to vacant elected offices. On March 13, 2008 I provided documentation regarding the appointment of Dan Albertson (who was appointed less than 15 minutes after the vacancy was announced) and Jane Hunt to the council (letter enclosed). In both these appointments, there was no public deliberation before the appointments.

Ruston’s mayor resigned his position on June 2, 2008 and the council held a special meeting on June 4th to appoint a new mayor, once again without holding any deliberations in public.

I recognize the council’s right to make this appointment. I realize they may not even need to take applications, allow public input or appoint from their own ranks. But I ask that you confirm those are indeed legal facts. I also acknowledge that following the rules would not have changed the outcome of these appointments. But I feel strongly that Ruston’s citizens deserve to at least observe what is being done on their behalf even if they cannot provide input.

The primary basis of my continued complaint is that the council is making their decisions on these appointments (and most town issues) outside of any public meeting. In this case, the appointee was at the special meeting, although he had not attended any meetings for at least 4 months. It appeared the town clerk had his oath of office already printed prior to the meeting. The motion to appoint him was made 3 minutes after the meeting began. There were only two short comments by council members stating why they supported the motion and the vote occurred about 4.5 minutes into the meeting.

I note in MRSC’s discussion of the Open Public Meetings Act that telephone or email polling of votes outside of a public meeting is not allowed (page 7, available at http://www.mrsc.org/Publications/opma08.pdf). Yet this appears to be common practice among the four-member majority of this council. The process this group has used for the last three appointments serves as a stark illustration of what occurs routinely at most meetings.

It is my understanding that my concerns may not warrant a special audit, but that a routine audit is scheduled for Ruston sometime this fall. I hope this continued pattern will expedite your oversight. It may be that your input will remedy the situation and the community can move forward, a process I would like to see begin soon rather than waiting another 6 months. If my concerns are not warranted, please let me know as soon as possible. I am willing to let this issue drop if you determine there has been no violation of either the spirit or letter of the law.

Thank you for listening and for any help you can provide. I have requested a recording of the June 4th meeting and copies of any emails from or between town officials on the issue. The town clerk has said it may the first of July before she can get a response from each of the council members on this request, although I don’t expect to get any email copies from these council members. One of them has informed me on a separate matter that she deletes all emails on her personal email accounts (even if they deal with town business) because she needs to save room on her hard drive. One of the other council members used the same reason last year for not being able to provide emails that were later provided by other agencies.

I will forward any information I can gather to you as soon as I receive them. Please feel free to contact me with any questions at (253) 228-8529 or kpickett22@yahoo.com.

Karen Pickett