(The following letter was sent to Councilmember Will Chen, with a request to republish it here)
Councilmember Will Chen:
I was one of the citizens who was on the council president/mayor’s priorly prepared list of who was not allowed to speak at the third budget hearing on Nov. 16. I was silenced by my government, despite the fact that I had spent time preparing comments and had my hand raised the entire time of the hearing. Beth Fleming had spoken in the prior budget hearing, had stated so at the beginning of her statement, also had her name on the mayor’s list of who to not allow to speak, and yet was allowed to speak. The mayor and CP Susan Paine had obviously preplanned to change the rules, without notice to the citizens, and executed that plan with their usual bloc of voters, then personally picked who did or did not get to speak in respect to that ruling. We know this because through a records request we saw the list of names given to the mayor a few hours prior to the Nov. 16 meeting.
As an elected representative of the people, your job on council is to represent us, the citizens of Edmonds. I am a citizen of Edmonds. Last night when you chose to be “friends” with your fellow councilmembers, rather than represent the people’s concerns over such important matters, I was extremely disappointed.
It isn’t often sanctions are raised against fellow councilmembers. When they are it usually has merit and is brought about by the outrageous actions of a member (i.e. Councilmember Adrienne Fraley-Monillas drinking during council meeting or flashing a loser sign at a citizen during council comments). The actions of Council President Susan Paine were in question here and rather than address the actions, you decided to put your personal priority to be friends with Susan Paine over representing those you were elected to represent: the citizens.
We do not elect our representatives to be good buddies with each other. We saw so much of that in the past two years that the citizens primaried the incumbent out of office, which led to the grossly unethical actions of Susan Paine and her cohorts to rush the budget prior to your swearing in on Nov.23.
Your priority of protecting your seatmate, rather than the ethical process, code of conduct and the citizens, raises an exorbitant number of concerns for the people of Edmonds! Citizens will now see all your actions in the future through the lens of your priority stance stated last night. It is disappointing for those of us who hoped you might be different from the councilmember who you were elected to replace: a champion of the people, a principled person who prioritizes ethics and doing what is best for the people, over popularity and acceptance of fellow seatmates.
While citizens like to have civil discourse on council, we do not expect you all to be friends. It is hard to bring up sanctions on your friends, when they act inappropriately. We expect council members to do their job and nothing more. That job includes holding fellow council members to a high standard. It includes following the code of conduct, laws and city codes. It includes ethical leadership. It includes representing the will of the people. When you stated “together we will” as your campaign slogan I thought that meant you were going to work with/for the people, not with/for fellow council members. Please clarify who the “we” was in that statement.
I sincerely hope your future decisions are not made to empower bad behavior, as we all saw last night.
Carolyn Strong
Edmonds
I supported Janelle Cass during the campaign, but if she lost to Will I was convinced by Will’s supporters that he would be a voice of reason on the council and was not as extreme as the Mayor, Susan Paine, Laura Johnson, AFM and Luke. I am sure many others were assured of this as well. I felt confident that even though Janelle lost, that Will would do a good job and represent the citizens with good government actions and decisions. Will was actually part of a non-partisan group that I also belong to that supports good government and many people from this group supported both Will and Janelle.
It’s obvious now that Will was about the talk and not about the walk and that he was saying whatever someone wanted to hear to get elected (this is why I supported Janelle over Will in the first place). Actions speak louder than words Will and you have already disappointed us. Hopefully someone can give you some good advice and talk to you about being a man of your word while also reminding you that you represents us, not the council members or the mayor.
On another note, I cannot believe that in this country a citizen can be on a “LIST” and silenced in a council meeting, unless they are being unruly and out of line (maybe that should apply to some council members as well). It’s obvious in this city government that if you disagree with anyone or call anyone out for their actions that you are an enemy of the city and must be silenced!!! This is what authoritarian governments do. They silence their critics and thus destroy democracy one paper cut at a time. IMHO, that is what is happening in Edmonds and it needs to change.
Real crazy and disturbing to find out Edmonds Council President and Mayor created an “enemies list”. Chen’s rookie error noted.
Personally I’m grateful for Will Chen’s comments about cooling things down. It was very thoughtful and honestly brave, given how much mud gets thrown back and forth between council members and also public commenters. The immediate backlash described here is evidence of the toxic environment our city council meetings have become immersed in. Thank you Will for speaking up about this!
Thank you, Mary, very well said. I appreciate Mr. Chen’s comments at the meeting, especially his acknowledgement that the behavior we’ve been seeing within the council isn’t healthy (as well as within the community, in my opinion). He said he thought the budget process had been rushed, but he made the choice to “be the change you wish to see” by voting the way he did about Ms. Paine’s possible sanction. Do I think Ms. Paine should have been sanctioned? Probably, but I admire Mr. Chen’s choice to attempt to calm things down and I support his vote. Hopefully, we will see a more cohesive, respectful council this next year. Thank you Mr. Chen.
Maybe the challenge is not about being able to disagree or having a voice, but HOW to speak for a different point of view. If letters to the editor the past few weeks are an indication, the “shouting” gets so loud that we miss the main point. Voices go on and on and on trying to get others to see their RIGHT view instead of considering options with an open mind. I care, but arguing isn’t productive.
Being heard doesn’t necessarily mean a YES to a point of view: the result may be a YES, NO or MAYBE. Democracy at a city council is about being heard, but also about being a part of the solution to meet needs of many. It’s not about demanding, rather about sharing insights and views.
I wonder why Will Chen didn’t abstain from voting on sanctions rather than voting against sanctions. He wasn’t on the council when these actions happened, so I think he could have legitimately abstained. The end result would have been the same. A vote to abstain would have avoided the appearance of taking sides.
There is a time to cool things down and a time to raise hell. This is a time to raise hell and Will Chen totally blew it Tues. night. Carolyn, like many others in town are very angry at being put on a not allowed to comment list prepared well before a motion was made and passed not to let them comment (collusion between Nelson and Paine being obvious). These aren’t nobodies like me protesting, they are a well know local business woman (Carolyn), a well known and articulate concerned citizen (Ken Reidy), and a very active volunteer for the environment and public good (Joe Scordino) to list just a few who are making this complaint against people who are supposed to be public servants of all the people they serve. I did not vote for Chen and am very proud to publicly announce once again that I didn’t. Our city government is severely broken and has been for years. A majority on the new 2022 council needs to advocate for a switch to Weak Mayor/Strong Council/City Manager government for Edmonds. The coming Monday night “love fest” by the ECR for the newly elected will solve nothing in the long run. Chen just proved that. It’s time for a big change here.
It was nice that Will wants the council to be nice to each other .I think he wants to help all of Edmonds and is a very intelligent and loving person. This to me is refreshing. Meaning he can and will be bipartisan and just wants civility for the council and for the public. Give him a chance before you attack. I don’t know about this list thing but I have been mean to the Mayor at times. He knows it and he lets me speak. So I would think I would be on a hate list or denied access list if he were being vindictive. So I thank the mayor for allowing all he can in any given evening a chance. Maybe I am being naive but I don’t think so. I don’t scream though and I don’t act bad and I try my best to be nice with my comments and just honest as to how I feel about the subject. Maybe less abusive treatment will get ya more opportunities to be heard. And Mary I agree he is right or was that night it was not a fun thing to watch that horrid fighting and some audience comments went way over the line I thought with the shut ups and all. AFM has nothing to do with anything anymore so her behavior was bad but why wouldn’t it be she gets excited and she acts on impulse and well she knows she is out so what did she have to lose Nothing. But I agree with Will thay can they be friends well maybe some will try that I think it would be nice but since we have families all over the country not speaking due to their political preferences I think it will be a slow start but we can see. They all looked to me like they sort of thought about it for a minute… Don’t give a man hell for being nice.
I am also a citizen of Edmonds asking for you’re representation, Will. I appreciate your middle of the road approach and asking for cooler heads to prevail. It’s time to calm things down, not yell louder. The person who wrote this letter does not represent my viewpoints.
I seem to recall receiving a letter in the mail during the recent election with her name near the top of it. It was apparently written from a “broad cross-section of concerned Edmonds residents.”
I’m here to report that letter, that type of behavior, and that continued in this letter to the editor does not represent my interests.
I’m all for civility that is an honest two way street and promotes the exchange of ideas and opinions based on facts rather than ideologies and favoritism. Mr. Chen’s vote was not a vote for civility, it was a cowardly vote to condone an act of bad city government on the PRETEXT of promoting civility. He even stated about as much before he voted.
Vivian Olson is the actual brave C.P who is promoting true civil town communications and good government. As citizens we need to follow her leadership and ideals for what would be good city government. The city government we have now is not much more than highly directed theater driven by the Mayor, Staff and contracted City Attorney. If that’s what people want, that’s probably what they deserve to have.
All I know for sure is that after two close calls, I’m done trying to drive up and down Main. I’ll stick to Bell and Dayton, from now on. Main Street will soon be another city park anyway.
Speaking of city parks; has anyone else noticed all the dirt being moved around and tons of rocks being hauled into the new Civic Field Park? Looks to me like they are installing lots of drain field pipe. Is or was that part of the original plan? Might be time to ask the Mayor and Council just how that project is going, whether or not it’s on schedule and within budget? How about a public service project report on how all that’s going?
Giving in to your principles and what you promised to voters to appease a certain group of council members who have basically injected authoritarian rule and silenced certain members of the community is not leadership it’s appeasement and a sell out.
I’m with you 100% Mr. Schick except it’s not appeasement and a sell out as much as it’s Chen giving his Democratic Party pals cover in a potentially very embarrassing situation they created and got caught at. It has nothing to do with middle of the road politics or making friends. It’s taking care of friends which I suspected was his plan from the start. Edmonds politics, like most politics, is usually about taking care of friends; not all of the people. You can never totally cure it but we could make it a lot better with some good structural changes I think.
Thank you Will Chen. Thank you for being a moderate voice and for doing what you think is right. The majority elected you for a reason, and we can never please everyone.
Are letters like the one by Clint Wright allowed? Suspects a plan from the start? Party pals? Personal bullying? Somehow I was under the impression that these were checked before being put online.
Just for the record Ms. Anderson, bullying someone is usually defined as picking on someone or attacking someone for how they appear physically, their sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion, state of health – you name it. I DON’T do that so I totally I dispute your characterization of my comments as bullying.
The facts are that Mr. Chen is a self proclaimed Democrat who sought funds from the Democratic Party to run for what is supposed to be a non-partisan position and his vote to not censure Susan Paine and the Mayor was a very big benefit given to two fellow self proclaimed Democrats. Just FYI, I usually vote Democratic Party in elections where that is an appropriate way to act. Our city is supposed to be run in a non-partisan fair to all manner, and that hasn’t been the case for years now.
You are welcome to believe in thought and comment censorship of fellow readers if you like, but I don’t. I support your right to call me a bully and and say whatever you want to about me here. I totally support Teresa’s right to moderate anything I say and unlike most people, I suspect, I’ve actually told her that. Mr. Chen says one thing and then votes the other way. Doesn’t make any sense to me, but whatever, I guess. I say some things to try to make my fellow citizens think a little bit before they obediently swallow everything spoon fed to them by professional politicians of every flavor. The minute you seek funding from a political party to run for office, you are a professional politician in my book.
I was disappointed that Will voted the way he did as well. The reality is that council President Paine was on a mission and did whatever it took to complete it, even if it meant silencing her constituents in a very selective way. That is not OK. That is not “small d democratic,” as she likes to put it. Council member Buckshnis showed great strength and integrity to have raised the ethics question. I thank her for representing. Council member Vivian Olsen, obviously disturbed by the fact that there was a complete denial of ANY unethical behavior, made it very clear that the whole budget process was not handled in a democratic way. I thank Vivian Olsen for pushing back against the ridiculous responses we all had to endure. Council member Kristiana Johnson also showed great respect for the people of Edmonds and for the true meaning of Democracy with her support.
We cannot let this happen and just write it off as a trivial or a slip up, it is serious. When elected officials shut down the voices of citizens at a Public Hearing, that’s a problem.
Simply put, the whole budget process & timeline was pushed forward so that the “4” could vote the Mayor’s budget through and avoid the newly elected CM /Will Chen from having any input. Susan Paine, Laura Johnson can gaslight Diane all they want, using words like “silly,” counter-attacking to detract and deflect from the real issue, and clutching their pearls as they accused Diane, Vivian and Kristiana of being political or partisan, which is exactly what they did to get their budget, their way. Hypocrites.
I wish that CM Chen would have supported the censure rather than appearing to being political.
Lastly, off-topic, but the behavior of Frayley-Monillas during that discussion was outrageous and unprofessional, as usual. She may care what “ the other cities and county” thinks of Edmonds, repeating “Ship of Fools” attempting to shame us for engaging in our local government and holding our elected officials accountable- if that’s what a ship of fools looks like, I’m in.
Please address comments to the subject on hand, not to me personally Letters to the Editor are meant to be to an audience in general Getting politely personal can be become passive-aggressive behavior or bullying. Give constructive criticism that’s helpful?
Definition:
“Constructive criticism usually involves at least some words of encouragement, given that the idea is to help someone else improve. Bullying, on the other hand, could involve degrading remarks, and only focusing on weaknesses. No one wants to hear someone go on and on about their shortcomings—even in a very polite tone—so if you’re giving someone constructive criticism, get your point across, but don’t beat a dead horse. Once you’ve made your point, move on.”
Someone calls me out for my comments by name and suggests my comments should be censored and then turns around and says “stick to the discussion at hand and don’t address me personally”. So it’s okay for you, Ms. Anderson, to call me out by name but not for me to rebut your statements by name? In what universe does that argument process make any sense?
Mr. Chen’s vote not to censure is obviously very controversial, looking at all the various comments and the commotion it has caused. I’m asking a simple question. How does voting to condone and enable one form of incivility toward a certain list of town citizens by an elected and appointed group of public officials somehow promote the over all civility of the general public discourse? As a town we tend to do the same thing over and over again, hoping for different results. I think that is exactly what Mr. Chen has done here. I respect everyone’s right to differ with me on that. Time will tell who is right and who is wrong.