Sorry to take so long to put out this edition -- my original goal was to post every three to four days. Family life has a funny way of requiring my attention every now and then.
Backing up, my last blog dealt with the first council meeting. So many things occurred that I want to recap:
1. The total number of seats on the council is seven.
2. Four new council members took the oath of office and were seated.
3. None of the four have any city volunteer experience - not on any council, board, or commission. As a group, they now hold a majority.
4. The four new members nominated and seconded one of their group for mayor, and voted as a block to elect him to the position.
5. Woodway now has a mayor with no city experience ( Weber).
6. Woodway now has two former mayors as incumbents (Baker & Giddings).
7. The new members nominate and second one of their own as mayor pro tem, and he is elected.
8. Woodway now has both a mayor and mayor pro tem with zero city experience.
9. New Councilman Garner writes the four new members voted the " Party Line".
10.Woodway for the first time has a political party.
11. The common denominator of these new councilmen -- Mike O'Bric.
12. MOB is founder of the OB party. He donated money, helped write campaign flyers, and contributed in other ways to each new member's election campaign.
13. When the council moves to accept Roberts Rules of Order, Mayor Pro Tem Gil Lillard postpones the vote for a month because he said he has never read it.
14. In his first act, during the hearing of visitors, Mayor Weber overrides the time limit rule of limiting visitors to only speak for 3 minutes. This privilege is granted to one man Mike OBric, political mentor and party patron to Mayor Weber. He is allowed to rant for 10 minutes.
15. Mayor Weber's second action is to try and act on MOB's request for an investigation of Yost Zackhary. Incumbents remind him he can't do that during the hearing of visitors.
In addition to these realities were the events leading up to the first meeting:
1. Councilman Garner runs on a platform to evict Yost Zackhary from office.
2. Councilman Csibeilski promises not to be a rubber stamp, condemns what he calls a "second city hall worth $2,000,000", condemns $100,000 plus dollars in wasted utilities for this duplicate city hall, all while his campaign promises are the words put forth by MOB in his letters.
3. Councilman Garner, in a newspaper interview, states after being elected that he may have been "harsh" in his words about Yost. He quickly reverses course again by belittling his orientation with Yost (in his blog).
4. Councilman Garner tries to scare citizens by spreading a rumor about a rumor (sorry, sounds confusing) that a "high city official" was trying to undermine new members concerning the Arboretum, and that this official is going to pack the council chamber with an unfriendly crowd. ( The rumor turns out to be false, but interestingly the only other person to talk in detail about the rumor is MOB who actually mentions Yost by name).
I want to add one last thing, that happened outside the council chamber, something only a few people know. Friday prior to the first council meeting, Gil Lillard spoke to Don Baker and asked if he would take the Mayor's position again if he nominated him. Don replied he had decided not to, but that others had encouraged him to take the position if the votes are in his favor. Don said he would but only if Lillard, as a new member, would accept nomination as mayor pro tem. Gil said he didn't know if he should, but would think about it. Don called Gil back the following Monday, the day of the first council meeting. When he finally got hold of Gil, Gil said he would not take the position, he did not want it. So imagine Don's surprise when Gil failed to second Don's nomination, failed to even vote for Don. Imagine Don's additional surprise when Gil accepted the OB Party nomination for mayor pro tem and was elected. Although these actions are not illegal, they do expose the true character of Gil Lillard and how he deals with people.
I really expected to be doing other things after losing my council seat. But the sudden rise of the OB Party was just too scary to ignore. During a two week period, these four "Brickies" brought back-room politics to Woodway. Their focus was to quickly get Yost out of office, repaying MOB in the process, and follow the Party Line. With all their calls for a more open government, why did they "forget" to tell people they were part of a party, one with MOB's agenda? Why didn't they tell people they were supported by MOB? Why did all their "facts & figures" come from MOB and not city records? For the record, none of them had ever sought information pre-election from the city. They campaigned against wasteful spending, yet now the city has no real choice but to spend tens of thousands of dollars for an audit to confirm the independent audit you as citizens have already paid for. Why would Garner put forth a rumor to citizens when he was calling for a more responsible government? And finally, in perhaps the cruelest irony, if they truly thought people were concerned that Yost Zachary had too much power, why did they think that Mike OBric running the city through their majority would be acceptable?
In this moment I knew it was time to take a stand, expose these men and their OB Party in the "light of day". I decided to attend the 2nd council meeting and speak directly to the new council.
Next Blog - the Second Council Meeting.
