Winlock Council Clashes With Mayor in Eventful Meeting

Winlock City Council’s regular meeting Monday night was anything but business as usual, with council members bucking opposition from legal council in supporting a local business owner, attempting to fire their city attorney, and clashing with Mayor Don Bradshaw — who left the meeting early to sit in his office. 

It took Winlock City Council nearly 40 minutes to approve the agenda at the start of its meeting after a disagreement over an agenda item threatening a local business owned by Desiree Bowers.

The original agenda for Winlock City Council’s regular meeting included no section for public comment and an action item to rescind a building variance the council passed at its Nov. 13 meeting which would have allowed Bowers’ business to continue operating. Council members refused to approve the agenda without adding a section for public comment and eliminating the action item, among other things on the agenda.

“We are going to hold tight on this until Desiree is satisfied,” Council member Connie Sneed said. “You guys can continue to work with her, see what you can do, but in the meantime we are going to hold our ground on this and help her.”

The tension stemmed the thrift store Desarno’s Treasures potentially closing down due to varying answers from City of Winlock staff and officials in regards to city codes and how to comply with them.

The City of Winlock sent a letter dated Nov. 5 in which the city informed building owner Pastime Restaurant and Lounge Co. it had 14 days to respond before its downtown Winlock building was “red tagged” and tenant Desiree Bowers would be forced to vacate.

“This letter is to inform you that your property located at 206 NE First Street in Winlock is in violation of the International Building Code (IBC),” the letter reads. “According to Chapter 29, Section 2902.3 all businesses must provide restroom facilities. … The business at your location currently has no connections to City water or wastewater and services must be restored to provide restroom facilities. The fees to re-establish utility services to your property are currently $2,725.34. This amount increases per each billing cycle.”

Desiree Bowers, who owns the thrift store Desarno’s Treasures, is in the process of buying the building from the current owner. She has assumed all responsibility for maintenance and repairs, per their contract. Bowers spoke at Winlock City Council’s Nov. 13 meeting. Before she opened her business two and half years ago, she said, two different people from Winlock City Hall told her she wasn’t required to connect to the city’s water and sewer.

Bowers said Lonnie Dowell, the previous mayor, asked if she would ever connect to the water. When she said that she would not, he cut off water to her building at the sidewalk. Bowers spoke with Winlock staff about the letter, and argues that her business does not technically have employees, since she is the sole proprietor and anyone else in the shop is a volunteer. For that reason, she says, she does not believe she is required to have a restroom in her business.

“I’m not trying to be above any type of code, if there is a code,” Bowers told The Chronicle. “But this is what they told me before. … I filed a variance requesting that they basically void out that letter and the council voted to keep my business running as usual.” 

The council approved a motion to grant a variance to Desiree Bowers at the address 206 NE First St. on Nov. 13. Then, Bowers received a letter from the city dated Wednesday, Nov. 21.

“This letter is to notify you that the City’s legal counsel has reviewed the Variance Application that was submitted to City Council on November 13, 2018,” the letter reads. “Based on her review and recommendation, this item will be on the agenda for Council discussion on November 26, 2018 at 6:00. … City Council has been advised to rescind the action taken on the Variance Application to allow for the decision to be made according to the City Municipal ordinances and administrative procedure. No public comments will be heard at that time, as all communication should be made through City Hall.”

At the council meeting on Monday evening, the variance and public comment were the two hottest points of contention.

Council member Barbara Pedersen said she wanted to amend the agenda to include public comment and eliminate the consent agenda, which included payment of vouchers and approval of minutes. Pedersen said City Clerk Tedi Currey was out sick, and could not prepare the minutes for the meeting, nor answer questions regarding the vouchers on Monday evening.

Pedersen also wanted to strike all action items from the agenda, which included “Building Variance Granted by Council on November 13, 2018, Reversal of Action,” “Memorandum of Understanding for Approval, Authorizing Mayor to Sign,” and Ordinance No. 1070 — First Reading of the 2019 City of Winlock Budget.”

Before Pedersen officially made the motion, council member Andrew Maloney said he seconded the suggestions. Winlock Mayor Don Bradshaw cut both off.

“There will be no public comment,” Bradshaw said. “It’s not open for discussion, council — there will be no public comment.”

When a council member asked if that was legal, attorney Erin Hillier said that it was up to the city. Sam Satterfield, the previous city attorney for Winlock, was not present. At the last city council meeting on Nov. 13, Bradshaw said that Hillier would return as the city’s legal representative. 

After the meeting adjourned, Hillier left the building before she could be asked for comment. All five city council members declined to comment. It is unclear at this time why Satterfield, who is from the same firm, is no longer working with the city of Winlock. 

“The Open Public Meetings Act is what allows your public, obviously, to take part in local government so that it doesn’t happen behind closed doors and we all have access to it,” Hillier said. “Public comment is a courtesy that is provided. It’s not written and mandated by the act itself. Primarily, first and foremost, your council meeting is a business meeting to accomplish those items. As a courtesy people allow public comment and they’re allowed to restrict it or eliminate it altogether.”

When Sneed asked if it was up to council to make that decision, Hillier said “your mayor is the one who runs the meeting itself.”

Council member and mayor pro tempore Anne Randt cut off Hillier and other council members and said “This is a council decision and council will not reverse the variance decision.”

“This city council declared water and sewer didn’t have to be hooked up to this property,” Randt said. “We are the legislative body of this city and we stand behind our decision. I have 10 RCWs concerning this issue. It is not sufficient for the city council to simply be informed, you can’t do that or that’s illegal.”

Randt then said she did not feel the council had good legal representation for the past 10 or 11 months.

“I would like to have an attorney who will give us advice in writing as to how to help city businesses instead of telling us why we can’t help the businesses and talk down to those of us you have never met,” Randt said.

She made a motion to terminate the contract with Hillier, Scheibmeir & Kelly, P.S. and all attorneys associated with the firm effective immediately. Maloney seconded, but Bradshaw cut off council with a “no.”

Hillier said the variance could not legally take effect and was void.

“What we did was done with the right intentions, but we did it the wrong way,” Bradshaw said. “We’re not going to fix it by stonewalling it.”

When council members continued refusing to rescind the variance, Bradshaw blamed the press for trying to interfere with government, said the city was suing someone — which appeared unrelated to the press comment and came as a surprise to council members — and then left the meeting.

“I’m not going to be part of what you’re going to do,” Bradshaw said. “I’ll be in my office.”

Randt, mayor pro tempore, took the mayor’s seat. Discussion continued for a few minutes before Randt reminded council there was a motion on the floor to terminate the city’s contract with its legal counsel.

“I think we should give this attorney time to make up for what her predecessor did not do,” council member Jodie Curtis said.

The council did not vote at all on the motion to terminate the contract. The council voted to add a public comment section to the agenda, eliminated the public hearing for the 2019 budget, eliminated the consent agenda and all three action items on the agenda.