Buddrius named mayor Pro Tem at meeting

HARRINGTON – The Harrington City Council met for its first session of the new year with mayor pro tem Stephen Hardy calling it to order with council members Peter Davenport, David Buddrius and Joe Armand present, as well as visitors including Denisa Holling, Marge Womach, Tim Campou and Stan Roth. Hardy entertained additions to the agenda, to which Buddrius responded, asking to discuss the minutes of the Dec. 29 meeting. Hardy then added that he wanted to change the order as listed so that Mayor Jess Silhan's wish to have the council select Buddrius as mayor pro tem so that Hardy could fill a different role in the coming season. David Buddrius thus became the new mayor pro tem and Hardy turned the meeting over to him.

Buddrius thanked Hardy and the group, saying in part, "It's a pleasure, thank you for all coming tonight and we'll start off with the approval of regular minutes." The minutes were those from the Dec. 29, 2021 meeting, which included the following caption and statements by Clerk Jere Lee: "Davenport Times article Dec. 13, 2021, Correction: Councilman Slack asserted that the article is not completely factual. Department of Ecology is not imposing any penalties. Casey Monge was pointing out faults that she has corrected. Records are currently being reported accurately." Discussion on this one item was about 12 minutes, with the council playing a portion of the Dec. 15 tape in which Monge stated, “when I got here last week, and I went out to the wastewater plant, all the machinery was bone dry, the little pH meter and stuff, nobody's been out there for a while and it's a mess... I was getting provided numbers that were obviously falsified.” Upon hearing that, Hardy stated, "I would agree having just heard it, that is what Casey asserted. The (news) article takes that as face, and we don't know Casey's assertion to be fact. It could be, but at this point that's not a proven allegation." Buddrius in an attempt to clarify said, "So would it be fair to say, to put in there, according to Casey Monge records had been falsified." Hardy: "Yes, correct." When asked by Womach, "Why do you call that an assertion?" Hardy responded, "That is their account of it. It is true that that is her account." Womach then asked, “Why are you challenging it?" Hardy responded, "Because I want our records, our minutes to be accurate. And that is to say, we have not proven; it's not been proven in a court of law, and it's not been verified by us. So all I'm saying is that isn't it just true to say that that was the assertion. I'm not saying that it's not true, I'm saying what is factually correct is that's what she said; that's all that we actually know." Jere Lee, Clerk, added, "The council has not personally verified what she asserted, that's all that's being said." Council made corrections to the original minutes. Hardy made a motion with a second by Armand to accept the minutes as written and amended. This passed with a 4-0 vote.

Other council agenda items included approval of bills, passing the 2022 Budget Ordinance and a brief discussion of the lack of lease with Johnson Towing. Buddrius read the following statement from Mayor Silhan: "This week has been nothing short of a war with the weather and all its affects. I would like to give thanks to all our team, to our Clerk Jere Lee, who continuously fed me information while I ran addresses, ran down addresses, and assessed the problems and needs to move forward. Thanks to Scott McGowan for pinpointing water shut-offs and sewer manholes and for snow removal. Thanks to Councilman David Buddrius and Denisa Holling for their help removing snow at Hillcrest Cemetery, where Scotty and I were working on getting the dump-truck unstuck. To anybody not mentioned, please forgive. Great job, team."

The Council scheduled a workshop for January 26 at 7 p.m. The meeting was then opened to the public for comments. Tim Campou was concerned that a tractor trailer rig had been parked for several days in front of City Hall, taking up parking space in the downtown business district, making it difficult to access City Hall. Councilman Schenk arrived two minutes before the meeting adjourned and made the motion to adjourn for the council meeting that he had nearly missed.