Long-time Pe Ell Mayor Spencer Nichols resigned this week after 11 years as mayor because he was “not happy with the council,” he told The Chronicle on the day of his resignation.
In his resignation letter, Nichols wrote “I am resigning due to the fact that the council puts their selfish pettiness above what is good for the Town and therefore destroying the ability of the Mayor or any other person who is trying to do right for the Town from accomplishing their task.”
His abrupt resignation came two days after a disagreement during Tuesday’s town council meeting when Councilor Kristi Milanowski questioned an invoice submitted to the town council for approval.
The invoice, totalling an amount of $97.50, was for 6.5 hours of work on the dam. The mayor hired the city clerk’s son, Joe Schwartz, to clean the dam.
Milanowski told The Chronicle Friday that there is an issue with nepotism, as city clerk’s son has been hired to do work for the town on occasions “more frequent then it should be.”
According to the meeting minutes from Tuesday’s session, the conversation went like this: When questioned by Milanowski about the invoice, the mayor said the dam was plugged up and needed to be cleaned out.
Milanowski then told the mayor she did research after seeing the bill and found that Evergreen Rural Water supplies free technical assistance for issues like that. She then asked the mayor why the council would spend $97.50 of the taxpayers’ dollars if Evergreen Rural Water would do the work for free.
Nichols said while the organization provides training, it does not supply manual labor, and the dam was completely clogged and there was about 12 inches or less of water for the town.
Councilor Chris Phelps told the mayor he felt the council was in a difficult position to hire a person who is related to two other town employees. A lot of people around town would have liked the work for $15 an hour, he added.
Phelps also said he often gets asked by citizens why Schwartz is always being hired to do work for the town.
Milanowski then asked if the mayor asked anyone else to complete the work. The mayor said he asked two other people, both of whom were former employees.
At that point, Nichols then took $100 out of his pocket and gave it to Schwartz, who was present at the meeting. He then told the council he has paid his own money to get the dam cleaned, and that the town was “running out of his pocket.”
Phelps then told the mayor that he had legitimate concerns about the manner in which Schwartz was hired, adding that there is a city policy that requires the mayor to get approval from three other council members for any expenditure over $50.
Two days later, Nichols decided he had enough of the council and filed a resignation letter.
“Their failure to pay their bills which was contracted by the Mayor is totally unethical especially when the work was completed,” Nichols wrote in his letter. “I apologize to the school, fire department, citizens and town employees for my weakness but the refusal to pay a person I employed when there was money in the budget for it. Being a man of my word I paid the bill.”
Overall, Nichols told The Chronicle, serving as the town’s mayor has been a good experience.
“I’ve enjoyed being the mayor very much so,” he said.
When asked what he planned to do next, Nichols joked he planned to jump out of a plane.
“I’m 74,” he said. “It’s time for me to relax.”
Milanowski, who initially raised the issue about paying Schwartz in Tuesday’s meeting, said a change in leadership will be positive for the town.
"We were only doing our jobs as concerned council members representing the best interest of the community that trusted and elected us to our council seats,” Milanowski wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “As councilors, we take this responsibility seriously. It's our right to question money matters and I feel we did no wrong in asking for accountability on these issues."
The council will vote to appoint the current mayor pro tempore, Lonnie Willey, as mayor then seek to fill the vacant councilor seat.
