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LETTER FROM
Ethics Board Plays A Vital Role
The Monroe City Council meeting of March 9 ended in victory for those who favor government ethics, thanks to council members Geoffrey Thomas, Tony Balk, Mitch Ruth and Jeff Frye. They defeated a last-minute scheme to eliminate the Ethics Board.
As an advocate of open government, I am opposed to the clandestine manner in which council members Ken Berger, Chad Minnick and Robert Zimmerman attempted to do away with the Ethics Board. In order to sneak it in under the radar, the published meeting agenda gave no indication of the magnitude of the action they were proposing. The city attorney admitted that this was a contentious issue, but the council voted to waive additional readings of the ordinance so they could "push it through" in one night.
Ever since the mass resignation of the Ethics Board over a year ago, the city has been advertising for applicants. Now, after finally receiving enough applicants to proceed, these three men want to get rid of the board altogether, without regard for the applicants' time or the tax money spent on advertising.
Berger's remark that he would prefer to have a
fellow lawyer judging him rather than the collective wisdom of a five-member
board of
Meredith Mechling, Monroe
RESPONSE FROM
Ethics Board has become politicized
Meredith Mechling's rant regarding
There was no effort to change the ethics rules. The only suggestion was to replace the highly politicized Ethics Board with a fair and impartial judge.
The current board has at least one member who is aggressively seeking to unseat officials he and the mayor do not like. The fact that Mayor Donnetta Walser abused her power and placed a political assassin on the board is what gave rise to concerns that the Ethics Board might be used for nefarious political purposes.
If Mrs. Mechling will explain how it is a bad idea to eliminate politics from an issue as important as ethics in government, I'm listening.
COMMENTS (March 31, 2004 Herald
Letter to the Editor BY FORMER MONROE ETHICS BOARD MEMBER TODD FREDRICKSON, weighing in on this issue
Council member showing disrespect
I'd like to respond to the letter written by Monroe City Council member Chad Minnick ("Ethics Board has become politicized," March 24), in which he chastised the good mayor for doing her job, and a local citizen who exercised her right to voice her opinion.
Mr. Minnick has fought hard against ethics policies
in
Mr. Minnick's continued disrespect toward the
mayor, citizen activists and his position is an embarrassment to the city as
whole. That's something the voters of
R. Todd Fredrickson
Former Ethics Board member
Monroe
L STORM’S APRIL 1, 2005 LETTER TO HERALD EDITOR, COMMENTING ON MINNICK’S LETTER:
Minnick's response protests too
much
Monroe City Councilman Chad Minnick's letter to the editor, "Ethics Board has become politicized" in reaction to civic activist Meredith Mechling's recent Herald letter ("Ethics Board plays a vital role," March 22) which described Minnick's, Ken Berger's and Robert Zimmerman's actions related to Monroe's Ethics Board, gave me the heartiest laugh I've had in a long, long while.
Minnick's atom bomb-like reaction to spin recent events in the continuing saga of the board reeks of panic. What, one may well ask, does Councilman Minnick fear? That citizens will actually learn what happened in the March 9 council meeting? I believe he crossed the line several times: By stating that Mayor Donnetta Walser "abused her power" in offering former Monroe councilman Jim Hunnicutt as a proposed Ethics Board member, and by labeling Hunnicutt a "political assassin" who is motivated by "nefarious political purposes."
Rather than an opinion piece, I believe Mr. Minnick authored a tragicomedy of Shakespearean proportions. Methinks the man protests too much, and may have just fallen on his political sword.
Loretta Storm
Sultan