Edmonds

 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

  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

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

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

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 other employees; a

2/11/2020 City Contracts and Agreements Whose responsibility is it to ensure all city contracts and agreements are followed and current? Is it the City Clerk or the City Attorney or is it the Mayor that tracks the expiration dates of city contracts and agreements? 2/14/2020 Open Public Meeting Act Training Ord. 4172 Please provide me the City or State law that allows you to sign Ordinance No. 4172 as approved rather than former Mayor Earling.   Can somebody other than the Mayor on the date the City Council voted approve an Ordinance, especially a Councilmember such as yourself who voted on the Ordinance?   If so, could you have also vetoed the very Ordinance which you voted for on November 19, 2019?   Can a member of the legislative branch of government both vote for and sign an ordinance?   Is that proper separation of authority between the legislative body and the Mayor's office? Assuming you were provided individual notice, di

FACT: There is no Community and Economic Relief Fund in the adopted 2020 City of Edmonds Budget. FACT: There are no agreements for services between the City of Edmonds and the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, Edmonds Senior Center and the Edmonds Food Bank. FACT: City never solicited services for the poor and infirmed. State Law RCW 35A.33.120: Transfers between individual appropriations within any one fund may be made during the current fiscal year by order of the city's chief administrative officer subject to such regulations, if any, as may be imposed by the city council. Notwithstanding the provisions of RCW 43.09.210 or of any statute to the contrary, transfers, as herein authorized, may be made within the same fund regardless of the various offices, departments or divisions of the city which may be affected. RCW 42.24.080 - Municipal corporations and political subdivisions--Claims against for contractual purposes--Auditing and payment--Forms--Authentication and

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 city officers tha

It's been 30 days since Mayor Michael Nelson declared by his Proclamation of a State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, did the Mayor act legislatively by not at soonest available date bring forth a Resolution for City Council approval. I haven't been able to find an approved Council Resolution. Let's talk about what the Emergency Order failed to include: 1. Requiring Citizens to sing Happy Birthday when washing their hands, 2. Calling the virus COVID-19 instead of the Chinese Virus or better yet using the Democratic label the Trump Virus, 3. Requiring Citizens to have only one weeks supply of toilet paper, 4. Giving citizens a tax break instead of cosigning the 2 million dollar loan for the Edmonds Waterfront Center. 5. Outlawing of hand shaking and requiring citizens to sanitize their elbows before and after any  elbow bumping. 6. The Mayor outlawed guns but he forgot to include nunchucks, bear spray and bayonets. I could go on and on but enou

I follow City government very closely and I am very confused as to what took place on March 22, 2020.  Did Council pass an Emergency Ordinance or did Council pass a public emergency ordinance necessary for the protection of the public health, public safety, public property or the public peace?  Do both require a public hearing with 60 days? I didn’t hear any discussion of the need for a majority plus one vote, so I suspect this is an Emergency Ordinance. ECC 6.60 says that the emergency management organization of the city of Edmonds is created and shall consist of the following: A. The mayor , who shall be the administrative head and have direct responsibility for the organization, administration and operation of the emergency management organization for the city of Edmonds and direct responsibility for the disaster operations of departments in the city; B. The disaster coordinator , who shall be appointed by and be subject to the supervision of the mayor and who shall be

Pursuant  to State law City of Edmonds shall have a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP). City Council adopted a CEMP on April 14, 2017,  and currently is effective and  therefore should be the planning tool used by the Mayor, City Staff and the City Council in the event of a disaster event.  Instead on Sunday March 22, 2020 the Mayor called an Emergency Council meeting to adopt an ordinance 4177 modifying Edmonds City Code 6.60 Disaster Preparation and Coordination . At no time during this council meeting did the Mayor,  City Attorney mention the CEMP.  Without being fully advised, the City Council passed the modifications to Edmonds City Code that are inconsistent with current CEMP. One of the modifications is to ECC 6.60.035 Emergency management organization making the eliminating the Emergency Management Board which is inconsistent with the effective CEMP.  The new code makes the Mayor in charge instead an trained Disaster Coordinator. Who is the Disaster Coordina

During the March 3, 2020 City Council Meeting, the following took place: Mayor Mike Nelson stated that the “next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda”.  Mayor Nelson then stated: “And before Council approves, I just want to let you know that both Council President and I have pulled item 8.1, which is the Resolution adopting Council Rules and Procedure and updating the Council Code of Conduct because it still needs some updating and review.” After a pause, Mayor Nelson asked: “Is there a motion to approve the agenda?” Council President Adrienne Fraley-Monillas said: “So moved” and Councilmember Luke Distelhorst said “second”.  The Motion carried unanimously.  Nobody made a Motion  TO APPROVE THE AGENDA IN CONTENT AND ORDER AS AMENDED .  The agenda had NOT been amended by vote of the Council.  Instead, Mayor Nelson and Council President Adrienne Fraley-Monillas had pulled an item from the agenda on their own. The next morning, March 4, 2020, 9:21 am, citi