PORT ANGELES — One Port Angeles citizen took issue with the manner in which the City Council selected Kent Myers as the new city manager.
Shirley Nixon, an attorney and a former Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney, said that the council should have been more open as it made its choice.
She has previously criticized the City Council about the May creation of the Harbor-Works Public Development Authority.
“I appreciate the Council calling the special workshop last Tuesday evening to discuss Harbor-Works,” Nixon said.
“I wish I could tell you that the session left me feeling more confident about how and why the PDA was created.
“Unfortunately, it seemed to raise more troubling questions than it answered.”
She compared the secrecy of the creation of the PDA to the way in which the city manager was selected.
“The pitfalls of unnecessary government secrecy are many,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the City Council appears to have once again run afoul of the open government principles by selecting its preferred candidate for a new city manager in a completely closed process.”
The City Council announced Myers’ selection as city manager after a closed executive session on Dec. 10.
Nixon cited the Revised Code of Washington, which says that deliberations and actions must be taken in open session.
Exemptions for the act include revewing the qualifications for a job candidate.
“The law does not allow a council to identify a consensus candidate or reach a collective decision there,” she said.
Nixon said that she believes that, because the action was inapproprate, that it is legally invalid.
“I don’t know how, or if, this violation of the Open Public Meetings Act can be corrected, but I am truly sorry that the arrival of a new city manager — a hopefully bright occasion filled with great promise for the city’s future — must be clouded by the council’s disrespect for state law,” she said.
Although neither the council nor City Attorney Bill Bloor responded to Nixon’s statements during the meeting, council member Larry Williams said, before voting on approval of Myers’ employment, that until the council voted he did not consider Myers as having been selected.
“I haven’t made a choice on the city manager yet because I haven’t voted on this,” Williams said.
“I want to make that clear to the public and to the media.
“I will support this motion and I welcome Mr. Myers with open arms.
“I believe you are a well-qualified candidate, but you are only a candidate at this point.”
Before the vote, Deputy Mayor Betsy Wharton and council member Cherie Kidd said that Myers was the best candidate they had interviewed.
“This is why we choose him,” Kidd said.
