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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1975-09-29 Special Minutes 1TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL September 29, 1975 SPECIAL MEETING 7:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL OF COUNCILMEMBERS DISCUSSION Minutes of continued Committee of the Whole meeting M I N U T E S Tukwila City Hall Council Chambers Mayor Todd called the Special Meeting to order. He stated the meeting had been called at the request of four Councilmembers for the purpose of considering the Minutes of the continued Committee of the Whole Meeting of September 24 in Executive Session. Councilman Traynor stated the Council has discussed the matter and has decided this is not a proper topic for an Executive Session so the meeting will be open to the audience. STERLING, TRAYNOR, DAVIS, HARRIS, JOHANSON. MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY JOHANSON, THAT COUNCILMAN SAUL BE EXCUSED. CARRIED. Councilman Gardner arrived at approximately 7:15 P.M. Councilman Sterling stated the Council had reconsider- ed the Exeuctive Session and does feel the meeting should be an open session rather than a closed session. He stated he received a call at home Friday night after work to come to City Hall regarding the Minutes of the last Committee of the Whole Meeting. He was told a draft had been typed and these were requested to be condensed. There was also a note from Mayor Todd stating he had listened to the tape of the Meet- ing and instructed that ver batim Minutes should be produced since the tape recorder had been turned off during the meeting. Councilman Sterling stated he felt the entire Council should respond to this. He stated he personally did not feel ver batim Minutes were necessary. As to the recorder being turned off, it is open for discussion by the Council at this time. Mayor Todd pointed out that since this meeting had been advertised as an Executive Session, this would account for the lack of audience. He continued that the reason for his note to Mrs. Booher requesting ver batim Minutes was that he distinctly heard Council- woman Davis instruct Mrs. Booher to turn off the tape. He stated this caused no small alarm inasmuch as this is a violation of the law, perhaps not to have the complete Minutes of the meeting, but to not have a complete tape of the proceedings. Councilwoman Davis stated she had indeed instructed Mrs. Booher to turn the tape recording off because we were talking about budgets and at that particular time she was justifying why department heads she would like to have attend management classes. She stated she felt it was better not to have that part of the discussion in the Minutes. She stated the meet- ing was advertised and that no citizens were present. Councilman Johanson stated he was not here to justify any action so far because he never witnessed anything to be out of hand. He asked what law is being violat- ed. Mayor Todd replied he felt the Open Meeting Law had been violated in that no complete record had been kept. This one instance is not the only place there is a gap in the tape it occurred several times. He stated he instructed Mrs. Booher to provide a record for the record of the Minutes to show how many times the tape had been shut off. He stated he saw no legal justification for having the tape turned off. Councilman Johanson stated he would like to know the specific law which had been violated. Mayor Todd replied he would soon find out. Councilman Sterling stated the meeting had been adver- tised to the public and it was held openly. Mayor Todd stated there was no one in the audience, and this is all the more reason for making a complete and accurate record. Councilman Sterling stated if TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING September 29, 1975 Page 2 DISCUSSION Cont. f355' Mayor Todd feels there has been some law violated by the Council regarding the Open Meeting Act, he is not sure what law it is. If no one is present in the audience, is it required that complete notes be kept. Mayor Todd stated he is not prepared to answer that, but he is prepared to state that he strongly objects to the Council procedures not being followed and the State law being disregarded by not keeping the complete proceedings as part of the record. Regard- less of who is or is not in the audience, some day someone may want to refer to that meeting and that tape and if there are gaps on that tape, right or wrong, it leads to suspicion of the people conducting the meeting. Councilwoman Davis stated to her knowledge, there is no requirement that ver batim Minutes be transcribed of our meetings. We do have the actions taken by the Council included in addition to whatever the City Council deems necessary to have transcribed. We need to cut down some of these Minutes in length and if you check other councils' minutes, they are very brief. There was no law broken here and she felt this is an insult. Mayor Todd stated he was sure if those other govern- mental offices were checked, they would have brief minutes but they would also have on file the complete tape recordings of the meetings. This Council's own procedures call for the tape recordings of Council meetings be stored on file for five years. Councilwoman Harris stated she would like to point out to the Mayor, the audience and the press that this meeting was a Committee of the Whole meeting and not a formal, regularly scheduled City Council meeting. The Council's procedures call for official Minutes of the regular meeting and the Council's resolution required that the tapes be kept of the Council's regular meetings. This does not apply to any commit- tee meeting of the Council. The Minutes of the Commit- tee of the Whole meetings are not official documents of the City as are the Minutes of the regular Council meetings. The Council has encouraged that a file be kept of transcribed Minutes of the Committee of the Whole meetings for the purpose of coordination and information for the department heads and other Council Members. Mayor Todd has alleged the City Council has violated the Open Meeting Act, but he failed to cite the specific section. Mayor Todd stated he alleged nothing. Councilwoman Harris stated if Mayor Todd does indeed feel that there has been a violation, he has legal recourse under the provisions of the Open Meeting Act and if he feels justified, he should follow ahead with a civil suit; otherwise he should keep quiet and quit this political harrassment. Mayor Todd stated when the Council's recording secre- tary made a record of the transcript and submitted it to Councilwoman Harris for an endorsement, Councilwo- man Harris then replaced that transcript of two pages with a short, one paragraph dissertation. Mrs. Booher, as he understood it, has refused to sign this brief copy of the Minutes, stating that she would not be a party to fraud. Councilwoman Harris objected that Mrs. Booher is not present to verify that state- ment and that it is only hearsay. Councilwoman Davis excused herself to telephone Mrs. Booher at home. Councilman Johanson asked if the two -page transcript is available. Mayor Todd stated he thought it was. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING September 29, 1975 Page 3 DISCUSSION Cont. Councilman Johanson stated he thought it was, too, and that the information on those two pages was available elsewhere. Mayor Todd asked if the recorder Council- woman Davis consistently brings to the meetings was also turned off, and if it was not turned off, he would like to hear those tapes. Councilman Johanson stated those tapes are personal property and he felt Mayor Todd would not be entitled to them. Mayor Todd stated the public is being further deprived of the record. Councilman Johanson stated Mayor Todd is making a mess out of nothing. Mayor Todd stated it is time the Council realized there are laws that must be followed in order to protect the public. Councilman Traynor stated about two years ago, he received an opinion from the City Attorney that there is no law regarding the length or brevity of Minutes. In his opinion, Councilman Traynor stated the matter should be left to the chairman of the meeting. Mayor Todd stated the point is that no complete tape recording of the meeting is available. The recorder was turned off by the instruction of the Council. Councilman Johanson stated he would like a clarifica- tion of one thing: is Norma Booher working for the City Council or for Administration? Mayor Todd stated anyone drawing a paycheck from the City of Tukwila is administratively responsible to him. Councilwoman Harris stated categorically that Mrs. Booher takes her direction from the City Council only and no one else. Other staff members take their direction from their immediate superiors and the City Council is Mrs. Booher's immediate superior. We gave her instructions and Mayor Todd has interferred with the Council's work. It is not the Mayor's perogative to do that. Councilwoman Harris stated she was checking the budget policy statement in the draft copy of the Minutes at the request of the other Council Members present that night. There were some corrections made and she saw no sense in duplicating the statement in the Minutes and in the formal letter also typed by Mrs. Booher addressed to Administration with copies to department heads. She stated her suggestions regarding the Minutes to Mrs. Booher were perfectly acceptable. Councilwoman Harris stated she thought Mayor Todd was just trying to bully the Council. Mayor Todd read his memo addressed to Norma Booher dated September 26, 1975 as follows: After listening to the tape of the continued Council of the Whole Meeting and learning of instructions to you to turn off the recorder and not make a record of the proceed- ings, I have determined that it will be necessary to make a ver batim transcript of the available record. You will include into the record all orders and by whom where you turned the recorder off by direction of Council Member(s). Councilwoman Harris stated the orders to type the ver batim transcript were the Mayor's orders and if Mrs. Booher responds to that, the Mayor had better be prepared to pay for it out of his budget, not the City Council's. Councilwoman Harris asked who is running this City Council the Council Members them- selves, are we determining our legislative process and our own procedures, or is the Mayor running the Council. That is the issue at the heart of this thing. Mayor Todd stated for the record that side one of TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING September 29, 1975 Page 4 DISCUSSION Cont. /36 the tape at the recorder's number "201" designation includes the first instruction given by Councilwoman Davis to turn off the recorder. Councilman Gardner asked if there is any requirement to tape the meetings. Mayor Todd stated if the Council is going to tape their meetings, then they should tape all of them. Councilman Gardner stated it is the Council that sets the policy and the Mayor is to administrate that policy. Councilman Johanson stated the two functions of the legislative body and the administrative body are quite distinct. Our municipal government is pat- terned after the Federal government with judicial, legislative and executive branches. It is a watch dog attitude normally in the form of cooperation. But despite the lack of cooperation here, the City Council has done a good job in the past. It is quite clear that the administrative body here does set the policies and does determine the administration of those policies. Mayor Todd stated that was a fair statement because he would hope the Council would not expect him to administrate their policies when they do not meet the requirements of State laws. Councilman Traynor stated he questioned the statement made by Mayor Todd that Mrs. Booher was responsible to the Mayor. What kind of a situation would other councils in this State be in if they had no control over their own staff? Councilman Traynor stated he could not see the use of the Council having staff personnel if they had no authority over them, to hire them or to fire them. Mayor Todd stated he felt the term "administrative responsibility" had been misund- erstood. Councilwoman Davis stated she called Mrs. Booher. She had called her before on Sunday to ask Mrs. Booher if she thought she should attend this meeting and Mrs. Booher replied she thought she should attend but that the City Clerk Shirlee Kinney had told her she did not have to be here. Councilwoman Davis stated Mrs. Booher stated she had not made the state- ment as reported by Mayor Todd and that she welcomed the newspaper reporters to call her. Councilman Sterling stated he hoped each Council Mem- ber would make up his own mind about this and suggest- ed that the Mayor carry on in a proper manner and not continue this political harrassment. Mayor Todd stated he wanted to know the story behind turning off the tape recorder and if Councilwoman Davis will volunteer to let us listen to her tape, he would be satisfied with that record. Councilwoman Davis stated she did not have any tapes of the meeting. Mayor Todd stated his request to have the ver batim transcript from Mrs. Booher still stands. MOVED BY STERLING, SECONDED BY JOHANSON, THAT THE COUNCIL REQUEST THE MAYOR TO PROCEED UNDER THE ACCORDANCE OF THE LAW IF HE SO DEEMS.* The motion was misunderstood and was asked to be clarified. Councilman Sterling stated all this is is political harrassment. If the Mayor says we have broken the law, that does not mean we have actually broken the law. Mayor Todd stated the ver batim Minutes should provide the information as to whether any law has been broken. He stated the Council called for this meeting to discuss this, not he. *CARRIED, WITH TRAYNOR AND DAVIS VOTING NO. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING September 29, 1975 Page 5 DISCUSSION Cont. Councilman Johanson stated it is the City Council which should be making the determinations as to the legal status of matters in the City of Tukwila. That is a legislative function. Councilwoman Harris stated she did coordinate with Mrs. Booher to have the Council's budget policy typed in a formal letter in complete form. The Minutes were abbreviated because she felt it was not necessary to repeat the information. MOVED BY HARRIS, SECONDED BY DAVIS, THAT THE MINUTES OF THE CONTINUED COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING, SEPTEMBER 24, 1975, AS PREPARED AS A RESULT OF COUNCILWOMAN HARRIS'S CONSULTATION WITH MRS. BOOHER BE DISTRIBUTED. CARRIED, WITH TRAYNOR VOTING NO. ADJOURNMENT MOVED BY TRAYNOR, SECONDED BY JOHANSON, THAT THE 7:36 P.M. SPECIAL MEETING ADJOURN. CARRIED. Lc' Frank Todd, Mayor Attest Shi ee A. Kinney, City Clerk .M.C. 3S$ TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING September 29, 1975 Page 6 ADDENDUM Ver batim transcript of comments Councilwoman Harris Councilwoman Harris I would like to remind the Mayor and the audience and particularly those press people that are here, I would like to emphatically point out that this was a committee of the whole meeting. It was not a regularly scheduled, formal Council regular meeting. Our procedures call for official minutes of the regular meeting and our resolution that we passed several months ago re- quired that tapes be kept of Council regular meetings. This does not apply to any committee meeting of the Council. Our committee of the whole minutes are not official documents of the City as are minutes of the regular City Council meetings. We encourage that a file be kept of all these minutes and we encourage distribution of the committee minutes for the pur- pose of coordination and information being passed from the committees to the department heads and other Council members. You alleged that the Council in this committee meeting violated the Open Meeting Act, Mr. Mayor. You failed to cite which specific section Mayor Todd I haven't alleged anything. I believe you called the meeting. Councilwoman Harris and I believe that if you do indeed feel that there has been a violation, that you have legal recourse under the provisions of the Open Meeting Act and if you feel justified then, in other words, follow ahead with a civil suit or be quiet and quit this political harrassment.