Edmonds

No Acting Police Chief the position has been vacant for 21 days according to the City Code. My Oh My, this is shocking behavior of our Mayor, Human Resources Director, City Attorney and City Clerk to allow the acting police chief’s appointment to lapse and the police chief position to be automatically vacant. This isn’t about the City’s ability to retroactively compensate our former Acting Police Chief Jim Lawless for back pay. It is about who is steering the government ship. Our Mayor needs a period of introspection of his duty to ensure all laws of the city are enforced. Not to continue to only react, when a mistake has been discovered. Who is making all the mistakes? How can we stop the expiring of contracts and agreements and not renewing them on time? How do we get the Mayor and City Staff to follow city and state law? There seems to be continuing problem that needs to be addressed. There needs to be accountability. Another example, the Hearing Examiner contract expired in Decembe...

Edmonds City Council First Executive Session of May 26th 2020 The City Council may meet in executive (closed) session but only for one of the reasons specified in and in accordance with procedures identified in RCW 42.30.110. A personnel matter including a separation agreement is not specifically identified in RCW 42.30.110(1) and therefore is not a legally sufficient reason to meet in closed executive session. The Council discussed the Finance Director Scott James, Separation Agreement in the closed executive session under the guise of potential litigation. When in fact, any potential litigation ceased to exist on May 25 th , 2020, and the seven days from the date Mr. James signed the Separation Agreement, May 18 th , 2020, thus waiving all of his rights to pursue any civil action against the City of Edmonds. On May 26 th , 2020 during agenda item (4) Council President Adrienne Fraley-Monillas moved to add an Executive Session regarding “potential litigation” per RCW 42.30.1...

PROPOSED RESOLUTION TO EDMONDS CITY COUNCIL   Prohibiting Non-disparagement Clauses for City of Edmonds Employees.   Whereas, contracts and policies prohibiting or limiting workers from speaking about their employment have drawn greater scrutiny from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in recent years; and Whereas, in early 2013, an administrative law judge (ALJ) found that non-disparagement provisions incorporated in employment agreements violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by restricting employees’ rights under Section 7 of the NLRA; and     Whereas, section 8(a)(1) restricts employers from interfering with employees attempting to exercise their Section 7 rights; and Whereas, under Section 7, employees have the right to choose to engage in “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection,” such as discussing wages, benefits and other terms and conditions of work with...

Mayor Michael Nelson announces his appointment of Police Chief Lawless subject to the confirmation of the City Council.  The City Council in making this most important decision should follow the policies and procedures as codified in City Code. The Police Chief is an appointive officer. Prior to confirmation, the City Council is required to interview the top three candidates. This requirement may be waived by motion adopted by a majority plus one vote of the full council to interview only two candidates, not one candidate.  Besides the fact, the Mayor's made the decision to contract with a recruitment firm for a national search of candidates for this position without council approval. Also the City has already spent our hard earned tax dollars in this endeavor.  Why doesn't the City follow the policies and procedures in the City Code?  ECC 2.10.005.A:  Appointive Officer. For the purposes of this chapter, “appointive officer” means the following c...

CLAIM: At January 19, City Council Meeting the City Attorney claimed the city refunds the Appeal Fee to a prevailing appellant. TRUTH: The City of Edmonds does not always refund a successful appellant as the citizen claimed at the Council meeting AND SCOTT SNYDER REBUTTED. In the following matter, the staff changed the type of hearing midstream by renaming an appeal to some unknown and uncodified type of hearing not found in the City Code and referred to as an Exception Hearing. Then the staff denies the Appellants request for refund of Appeal Fee saying only successful appeals to the City Council are refunded. Here's the letter from Public Works Director Noel Miller to the Appellant denying refund of the Appeal Fee. File number APL 20090003. APL is an abbreviation of the word appeal. On the bottom of the page, below Mr. Miller's signature (JZL744973.DOC/00006.900000/). JZL stands for J. Zachary Lell an Attorney with Ogden, Murphy Wallace Law Firm . https://permits.edmonds...