Council meeting takes nasty turn

By Kara Hansen

The West Linn Tidings, Nov 13, 2008

Despite the peaceful nature of the West Linn City Council meeting’s start Monday, council business soon took a decidedly unpeaceful turn during time for community comments.

For the first time, mayor Norm King threatened to have police remove someone speaking out of order during the public comment period. The incident came following an agenda item in which the council voted to support the creation of the U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence after a presentation by three West Linn High School seniors.

The stand against citizens taking up council time to talk about issues not allowed or unrelated to city business began when West Linn resident Roberta Schwarz spoke in protest of an opinion piece in the West Linn Tidings by the mayor.

Several days before the Nov. 4 election, King spoke in support of council candidates John Kovash and Shawn Andreas and mayoral candidate Patti Galle. He also spoke against electing Mike Kapigian for mayor or Teri Cummings for council.

In the end, Cummings, Kovash and Galle won their races.

Schwarz criticized King’s description of Cummings and Kapigian as “standard bearers of corruption and incompetence.”

King interrupted, asking her to refrain from discussing campaign issues at a city meeting. Citizens can comment for three minutes on issues “related to city government,” that are “properly the subject of council consideration and not issues on the agenda.”

But Schwarz objected and continued her statement.

King banged the gavel and asked her to step down.

“I’m almost done,” Schwarz responded from the speakers’ stand. “Mike Kapigian and Teri Cummings are neither incompetent or…”

Gasps sounded from the audience as King, in a low and level voice, asked two police officers in the back of the room to remove her. They approached and one put a hand on the back of her seat.

“You would really take my constitutional rights to free speech away?” Schwarz asked, before finally moving on to a different subject.

“The council rules state we don’t include campaign and election issues,” King explained as others tried to discuss the same issue later.

He said his personal opinions published in the newspaper were not government business.