Quite obviously, four members of our current six-member City Council (Mayor Lisa Gillmor, Council Members Kathy Watanabe, Debi Davis and Teresa O’Neill) stand together against Patricia Mahan and Pat Kolstad, with regard to the process of filling a vacated Council seat .
Proof was displayed by their combined (four-to-two) vote to admonish the subject members during the meeting of August 21, 2018. Such an admonishment was totally uncalled for and totally inappropriate.
We must ask how would a new candidate, selected by standard City Council interview procedure, fit into the ultimate count. Possibly, such action could result in an overbalanced (five-to-two) in favor of the Mayor’s group, thus creating a long-term imbalance?
How best to avoid such imbalance? The answer is clear – put the candidate selection to a formal vote.
Patricia Mahan and Pat Kolstad were obligated to vote their conscience – to make sure that the will of the people was satisfied. Such can only be accomplished by a scheduled vote. They had no other choice but stand the ground.
True, there was major inconvenience to a long list of candidates. Such an inconvenience, however, does not warrant ignoring proper procedure by selecting a candidate not properly suited for the job. Our City Government demands truly independent candidates.