The city is supposed to insure and indemnify and protect employees and officers for any act performed while doing their duty. We need this protection for our council members.

Without it, anyone who doesn’t like a city council member(s) can file the same kind of suit and use the threat of personal payment for the defense as a tool for intimidation.

All that has to be done is allege that they knowingly broke the law, file the suit, and the council member(s) would face thousands of dollars just to defend themselves. They don’t have to be right, just have to have enough money to file a lawsuit. That’s what developer YarrowBay/Crown/OakPointe has done.

Any ruling by the judge that these council members cannot have a say in the city’s defense of this suit or that these council members have to pay is going to force all democracy out of Black Diamond. Who would ever want to run for City Council? The risk is too great. What City Council member will ever be bold enough to make the right decision on any issues — one that they believe to be legal and proper, but one they know a powerful interest won’t like?

Black Diamond must pay to defend its council members! In this case, they are standing up for what they know is right. The developer just wants to get rid of them and as the mayor has said more than once, she wants to get rid of them, too. The mayor will go to any lengths and use whatever means she can to get what YarrowBay/Crown/OakPointe developers and she wants and that’s to get this development moving again.

Judy Baxley

Black Diamond