On the evening of Sept. 26 Craig Goodwin, a Black Diamond City Council member, made a strong statement on the record as part of the appearance of fairness proceedings prior to the start of the closed record hearings on the development agreements in Black Diamond.
His statement has been provided to this newspaper and hopefully will be published.
There are some very serious questions that need to not only be asked, but also answered here in Black Diamond. All of us who are paying our hard earned American dollars into the pool of municipal funds that run this city need to be a part of that process, both asking the questions and pushing for truthful answers.
Mr. Goodwin said that while he has done nothing illegal and nothing that requires him to be recused from the above mentioned proceedings he cannot participate because of the threat of lawsuit by YarrowBay and the inability to personally take on the financial burden of his defense in such a legal action.
For what reason would Mr. Goodwin, or any other City Council member, not be provided coverage for lawsuits threatened by developers?
Under what conditions would our city insurance fail to protect the people elected to serve?
How can our elected representatives act with integrity in representing us if they are subject to threats of lawsuit and personal loss by a big dollar developer seeking approval from these same representatives?
I assume our tax dollars were expended in acquiring the insurance policy that is supposed to provide protection for our city. I demand to know why Mr. Goodwin felt our city would not stand by him when he has done no wrong.
I want to know why my city allowed YarrowBay to hire a speaker for a city “work session”, that was held on city property and required attendance of both staff and City Council members but did not allow citizen groups to use those same rooms or have meetings with City Council members and city staff.
I want to know why when I asked council member Kristine Hanson to recuse herself because her property is adjacent to the proposed project, and because she recused herself for that same reason last year with legal advice from MRSC (Municipal Research and Service Center of Washington), she refused….but when Yarrow Bay asks her to recuse herself for the same reason she complies.
I want the appearance of fairness to mean just that.
The truth is that Yarrow Bay did not like the look of their odds with four seated council members evaluating the development agreement.
The truth is our city is accommodating YarrowBay’s request that we once again use the doctrine of necessity to justify admittedly biased jurors to preside over hearings on Yarrow Bay’s projects.
The question is “Why?” And we deserve an answer.
Cindy Wheeler
Black Diamond
