First, we want to say the facts surrounding City leadership’s draft resolution to expel Ward 5 Councilor Chralyn Ellis from office aren’t much debated – everything apparently happened on videotape. Ellis suggested to the City’s Climate Action Advisory Board, which she chairs, that they send her to the City Council, of which she is a member, to make a motion that a support staffer be hired to help with the Board’s work.
The CAAB Board agreed, Ellis made the motion.
What is at controversy is if those facts mean she ran afoul of the City’s Charter and should be expelled from office – and we have to say that short of some strange metaphysical linguistic contortion that we can’t understand – she hasn’t violated a damn thing.
The Charter section Ellis supposedly fell short of is all about potential interactions between a City Councilor and the City Manager – but Ellis didn’t approach the City Manager with her motion. She approached the Council, and they told her no, which she in turn fully accepted. Then, the Council, apparently seeing some merit in Ellis’ motion, took an alternative action to get the result she was driving at, which she also accepted.
Some have argued that Ellis’ suggestions to CAAB and motion in the Council meeting could be seen as an indirect means of influencing the City Manager, at least to some degree. But were not buying it, because if that was true, Councilors could hardly ever say, or motion, or do anything at all, ever – which would be plain bonkers.
But then, we don’t have to guess that’s not what the Charter means, as the very same section that Ellis is accused of violating explicitly states “Nothing in this section shall be construed, however, as prohibiting the Council, while in open session, from discussing with or suggesting to the Manager, fully and freely, anything pertaining to the City affairs or the interests of the City.”
We’ve also heard it said that the allegation against Ellis is such a stretch, that if it’s true, any decision to expel her from office would have to be decided as a matter of degrees, with the decisional balance favoring deference to the voters that elected her. We agree with this argument as far as it goes, but want again state clearly, we see Ellis’ actions as whole cloth compliant with the Charter.
More Transparency Needed
There has been considerable speculation about why all this is happening, and while we don’t think any of it is material in deciding that Ellis should remain in office, we do believe voters deserve more transparency about which public officials are doing what.
Corvallis has a Leadership Committee that decides what makes it onto the City Council’s agenda – we asked all its members about who it was that directed the City Attorney to draft a resolution that would expel Ellis, and who it was that initiated a complaint against her – none of the committee’s membership were willing to disclose that information.
Voters would benefit from this committee’s meetings being steamed and recorded like other City government meetings.
The Leadership Committee’s members at the time the Ellis matter was put the agenda were Mayor Charles Maughan, City Manager Mark Shepard, City Attorney James Brewer, former City Council President Tracey Yee, and City Council Vice President Hyatt Lytle.
Also, we suppose it’s possible facts may come out that haven’t been made public yet, and that new information could change our minds. But when we asked City Attorney Brewer about that possibility, he told us the case would be restricted to the facts in the draft resolution. We hope Brewer’s assessment turns out to be the case, given that the wider community is already seeing this matter as surrounded with unnecessary murkiness.
And finally, we’re seeing, and some officials are privately admitting, that public confidence in the City’s leadership is being shaken by this case. And now, just yesterday, the City announced Ellis’ hearing would be delayed until Feb. 5. However, we think the matter should be entirely dropped.
We would prefer to see this episode put to bed, and we would hope that the Council regains its footing quickly. In our view, this would be a good time for the Councilors to find a project they can all share in common.
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