Pacific Mayor Cy Sun cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm new interim City Clerk Sandy Paul at Monday’s City Council meeting.
At a raucous meeting – featuring several outbursts from the audience – the council deadlocked in its vote for Paul’s confirmation 3-3, with councilmembers Gary Hulsey, Joshua Putnam and Tren Walker voting yes, and Leanne Guier, John Jones and James McMahon voting no.
Councilman Clint Stieger was excused from the meeting.
Although Jones voted against Paul’s confirmation, he did move to amend the confirmation, asking that her temporary position be evaluated every 30 days, rather then the 90 days requested by Sun.
“The whole intention of this, in the interim, is so the mayor can hire for the permanent position, not an ongoing interim employee,” Jones said. “In the past you (Sun) have allowed employees to fill positions as an interim for long periods of time and avoid hiring for that position. So I would like to see it as a 30-day window contractually.”
Initially there was confusion over whether Paul had actually been confirmed and the validity of Sun’s tie-breaking vote.
“At the City Council Meeting last night there was a tie vote with regard to confirmation of my temporary appointment of an interim City Clerk,” Sun wrote in an email on Tuesday. “Council vote resulted in a tie. I stated my vote of yes and it passes. I was then told by Councilmembers Guier and McMahon that I did not have that right to break the tie vote, and it was stated the motion failed.”
Sun added:
“Council action in the meeting of March 25, 2013 was nothing less than an attempt to illegally obstruct the executive branch from fulfilling legal responsibilities.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the vote, Walker and Putnam said they had worked with Paul in the past and they believe she would ably fill the position.
ALSO: Audience members at Monday’s council meeting also got a chance to hear Sun’s 911 call requesting “workplace violence standby” from the King County Sheriff’s Office before he served suspension papers to Police Chief John Calkins and Lt. Edwin Massey.
Sun put Calkins and Massey on paid administrative leave this past Friday pending an investigation into “intimidation and harassment.”
The recording, played by Pacific resident Stacy Knudtson, captures Sun asking for a deputy to report to him.
“I’m going to hand two policemen leave papers and I need an officer for workplace violence standby in case they want to shoot me or something, I don’t know,” Sun told the dispatcher.
“I need an officer from King County to come down and escort me to deliver discharge papers to the police department,” he added. “In other words, I’m going to fire the chief of police and a lieutenant.”
The King County Sheriff’s Office declined to respond to Sun’s request.
