[Previous entry: "Election 2008: How It Works In Washington"] [Next entry: "Ribbon Cut For New Administrative Building"]

02/06/2008: "Public Display Of Support For MacLeod"

(Grand opening of new Council Meeting room filled with unhappy citizens)

Approximately 20 people showed up for Citizen Access on Tuesday with testimony and a petition in support of Alex MacLeod, the former chairman of the Ferry Advisory Committee.

The petition was signed by nearly100 citizens, and submitted to the County Council as a stream of voters took to the podium to express their anger at the commissioners for not only removing MacLeod, but also the manner in which it was done.

There were, as one might expect, some common complaints that connected all of the testimony of the dozen or so who took to the stand, but there were also some unusual statements made in support of MacLeod.


.
(continued from front page)
A number of those who spoke acknowledged that MacLeod was not a diplomat, but said that diplomacy was not what was needed in order to deal with a ferry system that was unresponsive. A number of speakers noted that when MacLeod used strong language to describe the WSF management, it was but an echo of comments being made by a number of elected officials in Olympia.

As for the manner and the way in which the Council had removed MacLeod, the criticism was strong on two levels. There was the moral outrage that, as Robert T. deGavre put it in a letter to the Council, the “public interrogation should never have happened,” adding that it was “demeaning to Alex. It was demeaning to each member of the Council. And it was demeaning to our system of governance.”

There was also concern about “the failure of the Council to document its charges against Alex.” Which reminded deGavre of “military tribunals where the accusers are faceless. “

But in the end, when all was said and done, there was the pragmatic concern that the Council has now sent a message to WSF “that it need no longer pay any attention to the unique needs” of San Juan County; and if WSF objects to a member of the FAC rocking their boat, the Council may simply remove them, and replace them with someone who does not make waves; of if they do, they do so using the soft language of diplomacy.