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LETTER TO WILL CHEN

  Mr. Chen you are a Certified Public Accountant. Every few years you must take Continuing Education Courses. Some of those Courses include ethics training. Simple question, would you ever violate those ethical principles and jeopardize your license?   Let me answer that question for you, of course not. If you are elected to Edmonds City Council, who will you represent?   Will you represent the citizens of Edmonds or instead represent the interests of the Mayor, City Employees and their consultants. The following is an one example; The Lighthouse Law Group, PLLC contract provides the following: Payment for Services . a. The Except as provided in Section 3.b, below, the City will pay LIGHTHOUSE for the services specified in the sum of $47,96449,883 a month (the flat fee). This amount may be adjusted in future years with the mutual consent of the parties. Any request for increase in the flat fee shall be submitted by September 1 of any year for consideration in the budget process.

Lighthouse Law Group's inferior legal representation

 Email to Jeff Taraday  PROVIDED FOR THE RECORD:   In Washington State there can be only one open public hearing.   The Hearing Examiner had 10 working days to make a decision. Any extension of that time requirement requires agreement from the applicant and the parties. Uniquely, the Edmonds City Code requires agreement from all parties. I testified at the hearing and was not asked to participate in this extension or provide any further testimony. In fact, my participation has been excluded because of the one open meeting. If there have been communications between the Hearing Examiner and the Applicant those communication would  be ex parte and needed to be provided to me.    Mr. Clugston testified that traditionally the Planning Staff posts the Agenda and Staff report at the Civic Center and Library. Then he stated that ECC 1.03.09 didn’t apply that was for City Council hearings. He stated the Agenda was posted on the City’s website 7 or 6 days prior to hearing. The City C

Who has the responsibility to notify the public?

  20.06.050  Responsibility of director for hearing – Open record public hearing. Shane Hope has no idea it is her responsibity and duty! The director shall:  A. Schedule project permit applications for review and public hearing; B. Verify compliance with notice requirements; C. Prepare the staff report on the application, which shall be a single report which sets forth all of the decisions made on the proposal as of the date of the report, including recommendations on project permit applications in the consolidated permit process that do not by themselves require an open record predecision hearing. The report shall also describe any mitigation required or proposed under the city’s development regulations or SEPA authority. If the threshold determination, other than a determination of significance, has not been issued previously by the city, the report shall include or append this determination; D. Prepare the notice of decision, if required by the hearing body, and mail a copy of the

Edmonds has No Police Chief Really !

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

Does the City of Edmonds favor Public Participation?

Citizen Request for ECDC Code update Chapter 20.03 Public Notice Requirements for clarifying the correct Snohomish County Assessor address to use for the purpose of public notice mailing to property owners within 300 ft. of the project and/or development and changing the from owner address to taxpayer address. Please review the attached the Snohomish County Assessor Property Records. 631 Bell St.  Parties has one taxpayer address and multiple two different owner addresses. 711 Daley St. Parties has one taxpayer address and one owner address that is different Snohomish County Code uses the taxpayer address SCC 30.70.070 Adequacy of mailed notice. (1) Any mailed notice required by this subtitle shall be deemed adequate where a good-faith effort has been made by the county to identify and mail a notice to each taxpayer of record and known site address. (2) Notices mailed to taxpayers of record and known site addresses shall be deemed received by those persons if named in an

The Edmonds City Council Again Violates the Open Public Meetings Act.

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

City of Edmonds needs to STOP THE GAG ORDERS.

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 other employees; a