Friday the Yakima City attorney issued their opinion on whether Micah Cawley violated fairness or ethics laws. Here is what they said:
“A legal opinion issued today concludes that Yakima City Council Member Micah Cawley has not violated fairness or ethics laws in relation to his participation in the process to fill an upcoming Council vacancy.
Two former City Council members who have applied to fill the vacancy that will be created by the resignation of Norm Johnson told the Council earlier this week that they believed Cawley violated the state’s Appearance of Fairness Doctrine when he made a motion during a Council meeting last week to exclude them as candidates. Paul George and Susan Whitman also said Cawley’s relationship with another candidate, Dave Ettl, presents a conflict of interest and makes it inappropriate for Cawley to be part of the process to fill the upcoming vacancy.
In the legal opinion issued this afternoon, Senior Assistant City Attorney Helen Harvey explained that the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine does not apply to legislative actions of the City Council. The doctrine only applies to quasi-judicial actions of the Council, such as deciding the outcome of an appeal of a rezone or other land use decision. Harvey said that the filling of a Council vacancy is a legislative action of the Council and, therefore, Cawley’s motion to exclude George and Whitman as candidates was legally permissible.
In the legal opinion, Harvey also said that even though Cawley and Ettl work for the same company and are friends, no legal conflict of interest exists that would prevent Cawley from taking part in the process to replace Johnson. Cawley and Ettl are both employed by Gap West Broadcasting, but work for two different radio stations owned by the company. Neither supervises nor has any impact on the salary or employment of the other. Harvey concluded, therefore, that Cawley’s participation in the process to fill the vacancy does not violate either state or City of Yakima ethics laws concerning conflicts of interest.
Next Monday the City Council is scheduled to hear 3-minute presentations from each of the remaining 26 candidates who have applied to replace Johnson, who is resigning at the end of the year to focus on his duties as a newly-elected 14th District State Representative. Originally, 29 people submitted applications by the November 26th deadline, but 3 of those have since withdrawn.
Following Monday’s presentations, which will take place between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm in the Council Chambers at Yakima City Hall, the Council plans to trim down the list of applicants. The Council will then conduct more extensive interviews with the candidates who remain in the running.”
So in a legal sense, there is no foul. I accept the legal dept. opinion but I do not accept Micah Cawley’s actions. There are 26 candidates and only one will be chosen. It’s my hope that several of the 25 “losers” (as Micah would probably think of them) would throw their hat into the next November election and make some needed changes to this city council.
One thing we have learned from among the hundreds of comments on the past couple of blogs is that when Micah Blurts, Dave Ettl Regurts!