Council Meets: 1st & 3rd Tuesdays - 7:00pm
A Code city incorporated 1910
Council Form of government: Mayor-Council

POPULATION:
From 2000 thru 200 (respectively): 2014, 2035, 2055, 2076, 2075, 2085 & 2125. As of 2006, ranks 156th out of 281 Washington cities.

REPORTS from Joe Beaver (Citizen/taxpayer advocate)

ISSUES:

• PETITION/PRESS RELEASE to WSDOT to improve/fix pedestrian access along U. S. 2 in Gold Bar across from the Mountainview Diner (in Word, pdf)
• 'SPECIAL" June 28, 2006 Meeting - Audio and agenda ( (This comment may not be very professional of me, but it's borne of my disgust of the ongoing anti-citizen actions by the current council majority in GB: Doesn't anyone ever wonder how the Amenn-Croshaw-Wood council majority come up with such specific and highly-detailed agenda issues without having a quorum? This is, of course, a clear violation of the state's Open Meetings Act. There are only two possible explanations for these well-planned "special" meetings which are holding Gold Bar's Mayor Crystal Hill, councilmembers Lonn Turner and Richard Norris, and the citizens of Gold Bar captive: (1) This majority is meeting and taking action via phone, email or in person, or (2) Mr. Amenn is the sole architect of all, and Councilmembers Croshaw and Wood are merely puppets.
• Another special meeting 6-17-06 - Notes of this meeting taken by GB citizen Susan Forbes and our MP3 AUDIO of the June 17, 10:00 am. Saturday, yet ANOTHER "Special" meeting called by C/M Robert Amenn (in Word, pdf) UPDATED 6/20, 3:45 PM: A clarification from Clerk Hester Gilliland: Apparently, the code C/M Croshaw produced re accumulation of vacation hours by a GB employee was repealed several years ago. Clerk Gilliland stated she is only 12 (or so) above her allowed accumulation for vacation hours. Staff is allowed to accumulate 30 days, not 20. She earned 20 days each year. Any additional payout is for administrative leave ("John [Light] and I earn eight hours every month and there isn't a maximum accumulatio rule for that.") Thanks to you, Hester, for this clarification. And good luck to you in the future! (Of one thing you can be certain: While every city has its own set of problems, I'm sure you'll be pleased not to have to deal with another councilman like Robert Amenn, who is absolutely, totally unique.
• Another "Special" meeting re PERS issue, 8:00 a.m. Monday, April 10, 2006 (this file includes links to AUDIO of the meeting). Here's the agenda without audio links in Word and pdf.
• Ongoing legal liability and insurance woes: Letter from AWC (read during GB's 2/21 council meeting). For those unfamiliar with government's workings, if a city loses its insurance coverage, it would most probably have to disincorporate. There are some things, however, that could -- and probably will happen to preclude that event. HERE'S an emailed exchange with GB Mayor Crystal Hill which explains things a bit better (in Word)
• INFO on the 2006 SONSTENG PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST (items previously posted on ittakesgrit's front page):
  • Audio & Transcription of "Special" Meeting (called by councilmembers Amenn, Croshaw and Wood), 2:00 PM Saturday, Jan. 14, 2006 to discuss Allyson Kemp-Sonsteng's Public Records request (By design or coincidence, this meeting was scheduled for the day & time of the Seahawks' playoff game with the Redkins) Here is one of the notices (in Word, pdf) that was posted. According to a comment by Councilman Jerry Wood, two different versions of the notice were posted.
• 1/25/06 memo from Mayor Hill, vetoing two council resolutions (in Word, pdf)
• 1/24/06 Another "special Meeting" (in Word) called by council majority Amenn, Croshaw and Wood
• 2/6/06 Meeting - The third (3rd) special council meeting scheduled since Jan. 14th: Monday, Feb. 6th @ 9:00 a.m.. It lasted five minutes - Here's the 1 mb MP3 AUDIOof that meeting and here's the notice of that SPECIAL council meeting (These meetings are being called by a council majority consisting of Councilmembers Amenn, Croshaw and Wood. The 2/6/06 9:00 a.m. meeting was "called" near-midnight on Saturday. Here's the Notice/agenda of that meeting in Word. One can't help but wonder why the issue being discussed for this meeting could not have waited until Gold Bar's regular council meeting on Tuesday, 2/7/06 - Here's the agenda for that 2/7 meeting, in Word)
• Feb, 2. 2006 Higgins Op-Ed (Columnist for the Monroe Monitor and a former Gold Bar Councilman) Steve Higgins' Op-Ed piece on Mayor Crystal Hill's veto of two GB Amenn-authored Council Resolutions. (There was also an article in this week's Monitor about Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser's frustration with yet another Sky Valley council running amuck. One thing this article does not mention is that the council meeting in which the questionable vote on the subarea rezone occurred, ran until the wee hours of the morning. This is not the first time this has occurred. Council meetings are open and public so that the citizens being represented by those council members will be able to oversee the process. Any meeting that runs past 10:00 PM -- or, in the case of Gold Bar, is held on a Saturday or other inconvenient or "special" time, does NOT serve the public well.)

• RECALL of Mayor Colleen Hawkins, attempted by Joan and Robert Amenn (summer, 2004)
• Mayor Hawkins' Speech re harassment since taking office in November, 2003 (which includes a recall petition) (as a webpage, in Word, in Acrobat)
• Issues related to Councilman Robert Amenn's discordance with the city and other council members

HOW TO CONTACT CITY OFFICIALS:

All officials can be contacted using the information in the header (above), or by emailing them as noted below:

Mayor Crystal Hill

2006-2008 Council:

• Lonn Turner
• Jerry Wood
• Robert Amenn
• Dorothy Croshaw
• Richard Norris

GOLD BAR DOCUMENTS

• Meeting Minutes page (Council & PC)
• Council Rules & Procedures (Acrobat 380 kb)
• Proposed Ordinances & Resolutions (Contact the City directly for approved documents.)
• Notices page