Well, here it is for your enjoyment.  The fruits of dan's garbage rummaging.  A lawsuit that claims that a few days ago I spoke to Garrett Huffman, when I have not actually communicated with Garrett Huffman in over six months (and never on the topic Dan claims).

Nor had I spoken with any council members about Monday's agenda prior to Monday's meeting, in complete contrast to Dan's statements. He may wish to leave the detective work to people who know what they are doing in the future. 

What I DID do on Monday was defend Marcie Palmer from an outrageous and unprovoked attack from Dan Clawson, and then asked everybody (including Dan) why the Master Builders were reporting they had not been adequatly included in the public process.  I felt that we hold two readings of an ordinance for a reason.  So council postponing the second reading when the pubilc still has a question or two is part of a normal civilized process.

Why Dan rushed off to file a lawsuit is more a question for a therapist than it is for a legal scholor.  Dan does not like the fact that he is in the minority in terms of supporting mayor Keolker, but that should not make him file a frivolous and unsubstantiated suit like this.  Twelve years ago I was the only councilman endorsing Jess Tanner when he ran for mayor the first time, but I did not freak out and start going through garbage and making paranoid false conclusions about who talked to who when I lost a vote.

I think the reason Dan is not handling it as well may lie partially in who it is that he is backing....while he appearantly does not realize it yet, he is backing a candate that even HE can not trust.  Next year, when Kathy Keolker is gone (and Dan is possbily  no longer practicing law) he may realize exactly how crazy she made him act.  

While Dan talks as if the candidates supporting Denis are a voting-block, he has tunnel vision.  If he had paid attention, he would have noticed that thirty minutes prior to the vote that set him off, Denis and I sided with him,  Toni Nelson and  Terri Briere in a split-vote on an expensive wayfinding signage contract.  Even Don Person or Marcie Palmer lost (they are two of the four named in the bogus suit), they didn't lose their minds, start rummaging though garbage, and file frivolous lawsuits the next afternoon.

The last time I remember the four councilmembers named in Dan's lawsuit voting  against the other three was the night that Mayor Keolker made it obvious she does not know Roberts Rules of Order.  On that night, Dan  foolishly took the fighting position that Kathy Keolker was right about the rule that a motion to call for the question did not require a second or a vote, even though she was obviously wrong.  When I declared a point of order, and showed them the page in Roberts rules of order that applied, Dan's pride seemed so wounded that he voted to shut down a debate when he knew I wanted to speak and deserved the floor.  At that time, Don, Denis, and Marcie voted to let me finish my statement.  We could never have planned something like this; how would we know Dan would know so little about Roberts Rules, or that an attorney  would try to defend an incorrect position? 

Dan also revealed that he still resents me for opening my email to the public, at a time when he thought council email should be kept private unless the public filed a freedom of information request.  You can see this resentment come out as a jab in the letter he sent to the Seattle Times. He of course is on the unpopular side of this arguement as well.

Finally, he resents me for one other reason.  In a few meetings last year, Dan Clawson discovered that he could deflect any question or criticiism of Mayor Keolker by describing/reframing each question  as "an unfair attack on the city staff" and  tell the council member they should be "ashamed" for asking the question.  This trick got the mayor out of a jam or two, but demoralized staff, and prevented council from doing the job of managing the business.  Fortunatly, I picked up on the pattern after two or three meetings, and I now stop Dan in his tracks every time he tries this.  Obviously, council needs to be able to ask a question of the mayor without Dan cowardly throwing the first city employee he sees into the line of fire.

Here is a link to the suit:

I told the newspapers that this seems more like a teenager's angsty journal than any kind of legitimate complaint, but I'll let you judge for yourself.  In any case, his facts are completely wrong.   


Click HERE to see Dan's work of angsty fiction

You don't need to DUMPSTER DIVE to know what Randy Corman is thinking! You can read it all right here, on randycorman.com......

Thats Randy Corman (Dot) Com!

 

Many of you have pointed out that Dan Clawson was awfully grouchy on Monday night.  And his angsty and bogus lawsuit, which he is using to try to help Keolker's campaign, tells about his venture into a council trash can that night.

So, I could not think of a more appropriate user pick for  garbage-can Dan