Sinkings and sailings

Lower Columbia Currents' quick takes on the news of the day

Boudreau shuts council members out of mayor’s meetings

As if relations on the Longview City Council couldn’t sink any further.

Mayor Spencer Boudreau earlier this month banned the three minority council members from his “mayor’s meetings.” More recently, he limited attendance to himself and interim City Manager Jim Duscha.

Great, so we have a young and inexperienced mayor conferring with an interim city manager with no real experience running a city.

Participation in these weekly gatherings traditionally has been limited to no more than three council members to avoid forming a quorum. The presence of four council members members would require the sessions to be open to the public.

The meetings are not legally required and typically occur the week before council meetings. They are used to set the agenda and informally discuss upcoming issues. Though unofficial, they are important, and traditionally attendance has been rotated among the council members.

Councilwoman Ruth Kendall coordinated attendance up until April 10. On that day, Boudreau told Kendall that she and Councilwomen Mary Alice Wallis and Angie Wean would no longer be allowed to attend.

The three of them opposed the controversial March firing of City Manager Kris Swanson and the selection that same night of Jim Duscha as interim city manager.

Those actions have led to a citizens lawsuit alleging that the four-member majority — Boudreau, Kalei LaFave, Erik Halvorson and Keith Young — violated the state Open Public Meetings Act. The suit names the four council members,  but the city itself is not a defendant in the case.

Kendall, Wean and Wallis submitted affidavits — sworn statements — in the case, stating that they where not told that two other members would negotiate a contract with Duscha. 

“I informed Councilwoman Kendall yesterday (April 10) about my decision to not participate in closed-door, nonpublic meetings with herself and members Wean and Wallis. … I have the right to decide who is or is not at the meeting where I set the agenda for the meeting with the interim manager,” Boudreau said in an email in response to my questions.

Since that email, Boudreau has limited the meetings to just himself and Duscha.

That combination of naivete is having immediate consequences. A council workshop with the Cowlitz County commissioners is scheduled before this Thursday’s council meeting to discuss returning the city’s homeless program to county supervision. But no one had invited key city staff, and the workshop may have to be postponed.

Come on Mr. Mayor, don’t be so thin-skinned and exclusionary. Public office is not for the faint of heart. And you’ll have more success and ameliorate the upset of Swanson’s firing if you concentrate on teamwork.

I can understand asking the minority members to leave your meetings if the lawsuit or related topics come up. But the council has multiple other issues and responsibilities to contend with. These other members are also elected — Kendall by a landslide margin this past November  — and have a right to weigh in.

The mayor’s action is indicative of how this conservative, new council majority shuts out dissenting voices. (A recent discussion about how to allocate Community Development Block Grant money was a recent refreshing exception.) Councilman Halvorson, especially, has been quick to try to shut down opposing public voices.

Fairness and openness to the ideas of others is not a sign of weakness. The process, the path to action, is an opportunity to learn, to exchange ideas and perspectives, to arrive at decisions in a collegial way that helps everyone buy-in to the outcome, whether they totally agree with it or not. 

Tolerance is a sign of strength and maturity, and the best policies emerges from a free and fair exchange of ideas and bipartisan cooperation.

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Kudos to House speaker Johnson for foreign aid vote that could start marginalizing extreme right, “Moscow Marjorie”

I don’t often give a shout-out to conservative Republicans, but I’ll award a lion’s heart to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The Louisiana Republican freed up a $95 billion package of foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and for shoring up security at the U.S.-Mexico border. It passed with strong bipartisan support.

Military aid to Ukraine is especially urgent if the nation is going to survive Russia’s bloodthirsty, criminal invasion and for the West to discourage the Kremlin from further military action in Eastern Europe. I’m less sanguine about the aid for the defense of Israel because of the humanitarian crisis caused by Benjamin Netanyahu’s offensive in Gaza.  Oftentimes in politics one has to swallow a sour grape to get the ice cream.

What’s potentially more significant is that Johnson’s move could help permanently puncture the influence of the handful of representatives on the radical right, including “Moscow Marjorie” Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Johnson freed up the legislation despite this cabal’s threats to boot him out of the Speaker’s chair over the bills. 

There may be more to this. I’m sure Johnson didn’t agree to this legislation without getting something in return. But at least in this case he put the critical defense needs of the nation and its allies ahead of politics and personal ambition.

Democrats must appreciate the political risk he took and look for other ways to shore up his standing. Both sides must recognize an opportunity here to marginalize the screaming, unhinged Freedom from Rationality Caucus. It has wielded too much influence for too long. It’s time to recognize that the emperor really has no clothes.

The U.S. and its allies must also retain their resolve against Russian President Vladimir Putin. American complacency and weariness with war are Putin’s biggest allies.  And how long can we afford to keep sending  $61 billion worth of U.S. weaponry — the amount in the spending package — to Ukraine?

For now, though, this was a win for bipartisanship. Let’s keep up the momentum.

Sailing on: 

Southwest Washington Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez voted for the foreign aide package.

“For months, I’ve called on my colleagues to stop using these crises as a political football – and I’m glad Congress could reach a bipartisan solution today,” the Skamania County Democrat said in a press release.

“This legislation will get American-made ammo to Ukraine’s front lines, while supporting our service members abroad, replenishing our nation’s weapons stockpiles, and strengthening oversight of this assistance.”

Marie G-P also noted that one of the bills addresses the border crisis, which she says the Biden Administration has failed to handle adequately.

“President Biden has failed to end the crisis at our Southern Border, so I voted to do what he refuses to do: secure our border and stop the violent drug cartels pumping fentanyl into our country.”

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Take time to admire Longview’s trees — and appreciate its able arbor crews

The Hudson Street foot bridge was misnamed in an earlier version of this story.

Longview has more than 6,000 trees under its care — and a lot of care it is to prune, cull and tidy up the elms, maples, cherries, oaks and many other tree species that brighten and shade city streets and parks.

Parks and tree crews’ work is especially evident at this time of year, when city-owned plum, dogwood, crabapples and other fruiting species are in full bloom.

The work of the arbor crews is especially important — both for safety and aesthetic reasons — as the city’s ”urban forest” ages and decays. The sad fact is that an increasing number of old trees — some dating from before the city’s founding a century ago — will need to come down because of decay and weather-related damage.

One of my favorite leisure activities is to walk around town and check up on some of my favorite trees and watch arbor crews at work.

The huge and graceful elm at the end of Larch Street near the Lake Sacajawea’s azalea garden lends a majestic, southern feel to that portion of the Old West Side.

The mossy-cupped oak just off Nichols Boulevard by the Hudson Street foot bridge is more about five feet thick and has a notable muscularity that seems to defy time.

Come February, I look to the white/pink cherry blossoms at Hudson plaza for the first signs of spring.

That hefty maple at the north end of the lake along Ocean Beach Highway was another favorite. City tree crews had to cut it down this past winter, but they carved a throne into the stump and notched steps into the roots for visitors to climb into the royal chair. It’s a little touch of care by crews who make it possible for us to live in such a leafy community.