G.R.I.T.
Home

G.R.I.T.'s Discussion Forum

Gold Bar - Main G.R.I.T. page

RECALL DOCUMENTS:

Amenn-filed recall petition

Prosecutor-issued recall petition

RELATED:

Gold Bar resident Joan Amenn's PDC complaint, alleging GB Mayor Colleen Hawkins' illegal use of her employer's email during last year's mayoral election. (Mrs. Amenn is the wife of sitting GB councilman Robert Amenn, and author of the recall against Mayor Hawkins.

GOLD BAR RECALL - News and Info about Recall Attempt of Mayor Colleen Hawkins

Note: Links shown below to Herald's news stories must, unfortunately, be obtained through their archive system; they become inactive approx. two weeks after the published story.

July 13, 2004:
For now, Joan Amenn's attempt to recall Gold Bar Mayor Colleen Hawkins, is dead. (This is a Herald link; you must find it in their archives.) Joan Amenn, with deep support and involvement from GB Councilman Robert Amenn, temporarily disbanded their attempts to recall Mayor Hawkins, after Judge Thorpe, clearly exasperated, repeated for the fourth and final time, their only two legal options: Either throw in the towel and begin a new petition later, or go forward with the hearing that day. Attending the hearing in support the Amenns' effort were failed GB mayoral candidate Jerry Wood (with another, older woman, perhaps his wife), Don and Dorothy Croshaw and Allyson Kemp-Sonsteing, wife of former GB building official David, Sonsteng. Supporting Colleen Hawkins were GB Councilmembers Lonn Turner and Debbie Hunt, and nine other individuals. We will be posting the prosecutor's official document today or tomorrow.

Of interest was Joan Amenn's request to Judge Thorpe that he assist in breaking loose the City of Sammamish emails that she hopes may support some of the recall charges she's leveled against Hawkins, who is an employee of the City of Sammamish. Amenn's mid-May public information request for all emails sent by Hawkins from January 1, 2004 through the PIR's date, has become mired in a restraining order action. The City of Sammamish faces culpability in indiscriminately releasing Hawkins' personal and private emails, as well as attorney-client privileged emails, despite supervisor approval to use that City's email resources. We have intervened in that legal action, alleging violations of the Public Information Act, as well as right to privacy concerns. (We requested, and received, an exact duiplicate of the emails supplied earlier this year to Allyson Kemp-Sonsteng which contained many personal and private emails. One was a short, private discussion between Collen and her father regarding travel plans for Thanksgiving dinner; another with me confiding her extreme frustration from what she considered significant disruptions of city hall operations by Robert Amenn through his excessive demands for information and attention, prior to taking office. We were billed for a total 406 emails [including sales tax], but only 354 were supplied.)

As related in the Herald article, the basis for the dismissal was Joan Amenn's contention that she had not received ample time to review Todd Nichols' brief in order to respond appropriately. Unfortunately, her hope that the Sammamish email fishing expedition will provide further "evidence" of wrong-doing by Hawkins will catch only criticism from the Citizens of Gold Bar who may be upset at having to throw "good" taxpayer funds after "bad" $$$ already expensed for legal fees by which to fight the recall. Should she and her husband continue to pursue this seemingly-fruitless course of action, she needs to -- as she said several times yesterday -- "get her ducks in a row," paying close attention to Attorney Nichols' brief, which states that accusations of misconduct must be verified through "first hand knowledge," (not emailed communications).

NOTE: We have obtained from the city of Sammamish, the 406 emails previously requested by Allyson Kemp-Sonsteng and supplied by that city through a public information request. Many of these were attorney-client privileged, and some represent personal and private communication not subject to the Public Info Act. If anyone is interested in reviewing these emails in their entirety, please contact me directly. We are aware that great mischief is being done by some folks behind the scenes through their distribution of only a "select" handful of emails. These emails are at least a part of the justification for some charges in this recall petition as well as being used to create the charges; but of even greater concern and importance is the fact that they are the subject of significant legal action behind the scenes. We will be providing more documentation at a later date on both the City of Sammamish's "policy" for email use by employees, as well as that City's culpability in both the content and manner in which certain emails were released to Allyson Kemp-Sonsteng, wife of former Gold Bar Building Official David Sonsteng, discharged for cause by Mayor Hawkins shortly after taking office.

June, 2004:
Possible recall attempt against Gold Bar Mayor Colleen Hawkins: Disappointingly, this Everett Herald article not only failed to provide any details or focus on the real issues of this attempt, it also contains some glaring errors. Perhaps the most glaring of these was is the statement by Herald reporter Yoshi Nohara that "Hawkins could not be reached for comment Thursday." Mid-day Thursday, Reporter Nohara had said that the Herald had decided not to run an article on this "non-story" (until and if such time as a recall petition was actually filed with the prosecutor). Also, because the City of Sammamish encourages public participation and Colleen Hawkins is such a valued (and award-winning) employee, she had easily obtained permission from her supervisor to use Sammamish's email system. As well, it is also our understanding that that City has a pesonnel policy that allows private use of the email system.

What is most disturbing, however, is The Herald's failure to elaborate or even mention the long-term harassment of certain individuals that has brought the city to the brink of a standstill. These individuals are: Startup resident Allyson Kemp-Sonteng, wife of disgruntled former GB building official David Sonsteng, disgruntled former GB councilwoman Dorothy Croshaw, and Joan Amenn, wife of disgruntled GB councilman Robert Amenn. We covered the "real" story of what's happening in Gold Bar on June 2nd, when we published a report by GB Mayor Hawkins which detailed actions by these individuals, which have have begun to disrupt Gold Bar's operations. Read Mayor Hawkins' 6/1/04 Report to GB Council and citizens; in Word, Acrobat; The reading of this report resutted in a standing ovation from citizens and all council members, with the notable exception of Robert Amenn.

UPDATED Saturday 6-19: Both former Gold Bar Councilwoman Dorothy Croshaw and Allyson Kemp-Sonsteng were liberal in their mostly-justified condemnation (Friday, by phone) that our G.R.I.T. website coverage failed to report that Mayor Hawkins had decided to drop a temporary restraining order she had filed against Mrs. Croshaw. I suggested to them that we all meet at a date that is mutually agreeable, as I was urged earlier this week during my 2 1/2-hour meeting with Robert Amenn. The primary purpose for this meeting s to review documents that Croshaw and Kemp-Sonsteng have in their possession which they say will prove that Mayor Hawkins was lying about certain statements made in her June 1st Mayor's report.....In a related note, Mrs. Croshaw also accused both Hawkins and myself of grandstanding during the June 1st council meeting. She condemned me for taking our recording equipment into that meeting so that we could record it, and criticized Colleen Hawkins of grandstanting by using that same council meeting to address issues of a personal nature, an act Croshaw stated was forbidden by the RCWs, which she corrected shortly thereafter in a follow up phone call by stating that it was in the Gold Bar By-laws where such an action is prohibited. In stark contrast to that position, however, was action taken by the Gold Bar Council last night during a special meeting within which council members unanimously voted (except for Robert Amenn, who abstained) to allocate funds for the legal defense of Mayor Hawkins against this recall attempt. The meeting lasted approxmately four minutes, and the 20-or-so Gold Bar citizens applauded, literally, the council's action.