Boudreau's appointments to city boards tainted by revenge politics, cronyism

Longview mayor declines to reappoint library, housing board members who have been frequent critics of City Council directions

There’s more troublesome behavior to document on the Longview City Council, this time regarding Mayor Spencer Boudreau.

Through his power to recommend and appoint citizen volunteers to city boards and commissions, the youthful mayor recently demonstrated pettiness, incivility and streaks of revenge politics and cronyism.

At the very least, his actions risk undermining the effort to address the area’s housing and homeless problems. And they could discourage citizens from volunteering on city boards.

Early this month, Boudreau declined to reappoint Claire Pang to the Library Board and Michael O’Neill to the housing authority board (officially called Housing Opportunities of Southwest Washington or HOSWWA).

By all accounts, both Pang and O’Neill have made valuable contributions to those boards during brief tenures to complete unexpired terms.

Pang and O’Neill have been critical of several decisions the new council majority has made during the past year, starting with its March firing of City Manager Kris Swanson and continuing with Councilman Erik Halvorson’s push to remove fluoride from city drinking water. They’ve supported the lawsuit that others have filed accusing the council of violating the state Open Public Meetings Act last winter.

Boudreau admits Pang’s critiques were a factor in his decision, and O’Neill believes Boudreau was motivated by political considerations in his case as well.

Boudreau did not respond to a long list of questions I emailed him Wednesday night.

(Disclosure: My wife, Paula Stepankowsky, also serves on the Longview Library Board but has nothing directly to do with this story. She was in no way a source for any of the reporting, including the origins of the piece. Nor did she edit or proofread it.)

Councilwoman MaryAlice Wallis is the council representative on the housing board,. She noted that O’Neill is professional, always prepared, even-tempered and articulate. She says he quickly grasped the complexities of an organization that works with nonprofit and government agencies across the region to increase housing for low-income people, mostly with state and federal funds.

The housing authority board position is arguably the most complex and challenging volunteer assignment the city has to fill. The authority owns multiple low-income rental properties in the region, distributes housing vouchers and undertakes other efforts to make housing affordable to veterans and other “housing insecure” people.

O’Neill, 42, says he moved to the local area when he was in fifth grade. He is a data analyst for Care Coordination Systems, a national software company, and was formerly employed by the Cowlitz County Department of Human Services. He has developed community health care and housing plans and was looking forward to helping the housing authority develop a new five-year plan.

“I am well-acquainted with the work of HOSWWA through my professional career,” he wrote in his application for reappointment.

“I care deeply about the issues of housing and homelessness in the community,” he added. “We need to build 10,000 homes in our community in the next 10 years to address this crisis.”

While he’s often questioned the city council actions, O’Neill has been measured, steady and logical, and only once has he directed a snarly comment at the council (toward Halvorson), getting a mild rebuke from Boudreau.

Boudreau, who had appointed O’Neill to the housing board on March 28 to complete Tracy Wood’s unexpired term, declined this month to reappoint O’Neill to a full five-year term.

His only explanation came in a December 10 email to O’Neill, who had only heard of the mayor’s decision through others and finally messaged him to seek an explanation.

“I appreciate your perspectives and your contributions,” Boudreau emailed to O’Neill, “but I am seeking to go in a different direction with your slot. I am appointing someone who represents more diverse perspectives and backgrounds from their upbringing and story.”

“Spencer knows nothing about my upbringing and story,” O’Neill said. The mayor’s failure to notify him in a timely way “was not very courteous.”

Boudreau’s choice to replace O’Neill was poor and appears politically motivated.

It was Rayleen Aguirre, a Longview housewife (her term in her application) who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for county commissioner this year. Aguirre (pronounced a-GARE-ray) has a reputation for a hot temper. In 2023 she was twice kicked out of City Council meetings for disruptive behavior. She was a frequent critic of city officials.

The city in 2023 adopted rules on how to remove citizen volunteers from boards and commissions in response to Aguirre’s conduct as a member of the city Parks Board, according to multiple sources.

In her recent application for the housing board, all Aguirre said about her reason for seeking the position is, “I am interested in moving our community forward for more growth.” She noted she worked in a real estate office for six years. She serves on the Cowlitz County Planning Commission, which Aguirre did not note in her application.

This decision leaves one aghast. There is no way anyone could reasonably argue that Aguirre is more suited for a seat on the housing board than O’Neill. Replacing him throws out nearly a year of accumulated experience and substitutes someone without the knowledge or temperament for the position.

Councilwoman Wallis, who like Boudreau is a Republican, said the choice is “absolutely” political. Aguirre is Boudreau’s political ally and friend.

I suspect that Boudreau is retaliating for when Aguirre was not reappointed to the parks board last year. Wallis was still mayor and refused to award Aguirre with another five-year term, even though it is unusual for mayors to deny reappointments to willing board and commission members. But the other parks board members had threatened to quit if Aguirre was reappointed, according to Wallis and other sources.

”I have a hard time not believing this is political and retribution in some way,” O’Neill told me.

Boudreau’s obligation is to use his appointment authority for the betterment of the city. This is an abuse of that power.

Boudreau did not cite O’Neill’s objections to City Council actions for blocking his reappointment to the housing board. However, the mayor acknowledged that he did not reappoint Claire Pang to the five-member Longview Library Board partly because of her online swipes at the council majority.

Pang has served on a Library Board since last December, when she was appointed to fill an unexpired term that opened after Erik Halvorson was elected to the City Council. Boudreau his month declined to appoint her to a full five-year term.

“Some conduct you engaged in this year has led me to not reappoint you to the library Board,” Boudreau wrote in an email to Pang on December 10, noting that Pang’s online posts have “falsely” accused the council of crimes and “spreading fake information about alleged buyouts.”

(Is the mayor forgetting that the council majority has been sued for alleged breaches of the state Open Public Records Act? and that the city paid a total of nearly $300,000 to former assistant City Manager Ann Rivers and former city attorney Dana Gigler when they voluntarily resigned in May? A “buyout” is an incentive to resign; a “severance” payment is for workers who are involuntarily terminated. At the time, Rivers said she would not have left without a buyout payment. Is the mayor also forgetting that members of his council majority tried but failed to launch a politically motivated investigation of Rivers?)

“A library board member should not be participating in nor contributing to divisive rhetoric online,” Boudreau wrote to Pang.

City guidelines clearly state that members of city boards and commissioners are allowed to express individual opinions. They must, however, make clear they are speaking for themselves only and not for the boards on which they serve.

Pang seems to have been within her rights, under city policy, to make her online critiques of the council, in which she never represented herself as speaking for anyone but herself. (She says she has never addressed the council in a public meeting except over library board topics.)

Boudreau’s email to Pang also says — again without being specific — that he was ”seeking new perspectives and diverse views to participate in our public processes.” He also noted that Pang also serves on the city’s Parks Board.

Council policy discourages — but does not prohibit — citizen volunteers from serving on more than one city board. However, that concern did not stop the mayor from recently appointing Jerame Moore, a field engineer for JH Kelly, to a five-year term on the Historic Preservation Commission and a five-year term to replace Pang on the Library Board.

Moore is a friend of Boudreau’s and attends the same church. Boudreau named him to two boards against the advice of councilwomen Wallis and Ruth Kendall, who are members of the council’s three-member committee on board and commission appointments. Councilwomen Kalei LaFave, the third member, did not object.

Pang, a retired technical writer and seven-year resident of Longview, said she found Boudreau’s email to her “to be disingenuous and politically charged. …. I interpreted (it) as those who do not agree with his political viewpoint and agenda are not welcome to serve on a City of Longview board.

”I have served with professionalism and integrity on the Library Board for a year,” she said, adding that Boudreau never sought evaluations of her work from other library board members or the library director.

She found it “disrespectful” that Boudreau asked the library director to break the news to her instead of doing so himself. She had to approach city staff for an explanation, and she finally received the mayor’s email five days later.

“I believe this in retaliation for the denial of reappointment of a close ally of his to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board,” said Pang, who acknowledges that she helped organize opposition to Aguirre’s reappointment to the parks board last year.

Judging from his application to the library board, Jerame Moore seems like a competent person to step into Pang’s Library board position. He wrote in his application that he has a “profound passion for promoting literacy and education” and “wants to foster inclusivity and equitable access to resources.”

What’s concerning here, however, is Boudreau’s M.O. His decisions were tainted by politics and were disrespectful. They could discourage other citizens from becoming involved. The city sometimes has a hard time finding volunteers for its many commissions and boards.

People don’t give up their right to free speech just because they volunteer on a city committee. Neither O’Neill nor Pang disrupted council business, and their criticisms of council policy and behavior were unconnected to their work on city boards.

This all smacks of cronyism of the kind that other right-wing politicians like County Commissioner Arne Mortensen — who leaves office in less than a month — are bringing to appointment processes in this county.

It’s time for Boudreau to put his personal hard feelings aside and think of what is best for city.