The Spirit of Washington Pavilion Event Center has probably never been home to more cheering than witnessed tonight. The Event Center was the venue for an election watch party for Denis Law, Marcie Palmer, Greg Taylor, and King Parker, and all of their campaign teams. At a few minutes past 8:00, as the first returns were coming in, it became clear that all four of them were winning, and winning big, in their respective races. For Mayor, Denis Law was easily beating incumbent Kathy Keolker with a 56 percent to 44 percent spread. On city council, Marcie Palmer ran away with her race, with nearly three quarters of the voters choosing to re-elect her. Greg Taylor was ahead in the polling for an open seat almost two-to-one. And King Parker was getting almost 60 percent of the vote in his race for a city council seat.  Along with all the other positive results, 17,000 residents of the Benson Hill neighborhood were electing to join the City of Renton in an annexation vote that was prevailing by 67% to 33 %. ( Interestingly, one of Denis Law's adult daughters lives in this neighborhood....she could not vote for her father for mayor because she currently lives outside city limits, but she was able to vote to annex to the city of Renton which will make her father her mayor. )

The party of hundreds gasped and cheered as each set of fantastic results were shown on a big screen, which was linked to a bank of computers set up by Marcie Maxwell and some well-organized helpers. Along with cheering to raise the roof, glasses clinked, and people hugged, like midnight on new years eve in New York City.

The guests were all extremely well-fed compliments of the campaigns and Eric Temple's excellent caterers from Spirit of Washington. And we all enjoyed acceptance speeches from the winning candidates, who were honored, humble, enthusiastic, appreciative, and extremely optimistic in their comments.

It was quite a night for everyone. But I can't help feeling that I am one of the biggest winners of all, even though I was not even on the ballot. I now get to serve with a dream-team of city officials, in a city that is ready to truly bloom culturally and economically. If there was a way to buy stock in Renton, I would suggest you call your broker and purchase some right now...I am very, very bullish on our city's future.

What a rush. I thank you all, dear readers and fellow Renton citizens, for making this night possible.

I'll be getting some really nice pictures from Gary Palmer, but here are a few from my own camera to give the idea of the evening.  Below the pictures, you can find the latest numbers from the King County Elections office.

CITY OF RENTON

Ballots Cast/Registered Voters:

6933

/

27552

25.16%

Poll Precincts Counted/Total Poll Precincts:

65

/

65

100.00%

City of Renton Mayor

Kathy Keolker

NP

2984

45.24%

Denis W. Law

NP

3600

54.58%

Write-in

12

0.18%

City of Renton Council Position No. 3

Marcie Palmer

NP

4388

73.70%

Shirley A. Gaunt-Smith

NP

1545

25.95%

Write-in

21

0.35%

City of Renton Council Position No. 4

Greg Taylor

NP

3806

62.93%

Terry Persson

NP

2227

36.82%

Write-in

15

0.25%

City of Renton Council Position No. 5

King Parker

NP

3774

59.22%

Cheryl E. Haskins

NP

2586

40.58%

Write-in

13

0.20%

City of Renton Council Position No. 7

Don Persson

NP

4778

97.67%

Write-in

114

2.33%

NEW UPDATE! Kathy Keolker's campaign manager (Raechelle Turner, not Margarita Prentice) told me she wanted Detective Dave Patterson's phone number, in some possible desperate effort to undo the damage Kathy Keolker did by telling hundreds of thousands of radio listeners that the police tried to give her a "political" lie detector test...only to be contradicted by the actual case detective who defended his case report RIGHT HERE, in the comment below.  Could it be that Rachael is starting to lose faith in her candidate, as she realizes that Kathy was lying to her about this all along?  (By the way, I know the comment from Detective Patterson is authentic.)  Blogging does not get much better than this folks!

UPDATE! Don't miss today's comment at the bottom of this entry by the Lead Police Detective from this case. Click HERE and scroll down to read it!




Radio listeners on Wednesday heard host Dave Ross questioning Mayor Keolker about her claim that she declined to take what she says Kent police called a "political" lie detector test, as opposed to her declining to take a normal police polygraph examination as it says in the Lipstick Investigation Police Report (See Lipstickgate below). Mayor Keolker said that while she originally agreed to take a lie detector test, it was only after the police told her it would just be for political reasons that she changed her mind and declined.

After this broadcast aired, I was contacted by police officers who said that they do not allow anyone but the Police Department and the Prosecutor to decide on how an investigation will be conducted, and they do not use police resources for "political" purposes. The mayor's statements about the lie detector are simply not true.

I thought this would make for some interesting discussion. Please feel free to comment.

You can still listen to the radio show by clicking this link. The Renton part of the show starts about 1/3 of the way into the hour...so simply slide the selector about 1/3 of the way across the bottom. It starts with Dave Ross reading the morning's PI story.

Update:  As Kathy Keolker's campaign slings ever more mud in the final day's of this campaign, this journal entry (originally posted October 2)  becomes even more relevant:


Kathy Keolker proudly touts the role of local campaign advisor Cathy Allen in her campaigns. It's too bad for Renton that Cathy Allen is increasingly known nationally as an unrepentant mudslinger. 

No wonder I have been having to defend myself from false and malicious attacks over the years. No wonder Kathy Keolker started this latest campaign hurling mud at Denis Law. No wonder she has had councilman Dan Clawson lie to the press and in court documents, has asked Judith White of Leisure Estates to jump into her dirty campaign, and has recently placed the dirtiest political ad the Renton Reporter has ever seen (in which she attacks fomer supporters). She is apparently being coached by Cathy Allen, Seattle's pre-iminent negative campaigner. 

I was so tired of Keolker's dirty trick after her last hostile ad, that I went to the web to research a proper response. And what did I find?!...Kathy's campaign advisor telling the world to fling mud if they are being outspent!  Well, guess what... Kathy Keolker is being outspent! So her advisor tells her to fling mud, and Judith White, Dan Clawson, and a few other supporters jump into it for her. It's sickening seeing her do this to our beloved city. Here it is on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_campaigning 

 

Click to enlarge.  Left, another article about negative campaigning citing Cathy Allen's views.
Center:  Cathy Allen's consulting company, with Kathy Keolker shown as a client (with sample automated phone call)
Right:  Kathy Keolker kicks off her campaign by calling Denis Law names, and blaming city council for her mistakes.

Unfortunately for Kathy Keolker, she has been throwing mud at everyone in this race, not just her opponent. She has thrown mud at the police and fire departements, at school board members, at Valley Hospital board members, at the city council members, and at hundreds (maybe thousands) of citizens. Because of this, even if she pulled off a miracle and got re-elected, she could never, ever be an effective mayor. Her last advertisement ridicules and mocks her former supporters... and this has been her pattern with many city leaders not actively supporting her campaign. How could she ever hope to be considered a leader by any of these Renton citizens

If you are like me, you are tired of the mudslinging, and my response only brings it back up.  Besides, even I recognize I am starting to beat a dead horse.  So I will give you the opportunity to pass over this one, unless you listened to the Dave Ross show and you want to know about Kathy's baseless allegation, and what the actual transcripts say.

Dean Radford's careful, detailed description of "Lipstickgate" reminds me why he was promoted to Editor of the Renton Reporter. He covers a wealth of information in this piece, in a way that strikes me as readable and fair. He leaves it to the readers to make the ultimate call on what happened, while accurately and concisely providing the distilled details of 105 pages worth of police investigation. I feel that between Mr. Radford's story, and his editorial on the same topic, he conveys a vivid and correct view of the goofy, unnerving, and almost surreal events comprising "Lipstickgate".

While I have tried to honestly and accurately share about this episode on this blog, I find it hard to describe without inserting my own opinions about what I think happened and why. I'm only human, after all, and I was too close to the events and the following months of total weirdness to be completely impartial. So I really appreciate that Dean Radford stepped in, and described the story impartially for everyone in time for the upcoming election. People can make up their own minds about what happened, based on his report.

Sure, part of me would have liked to see the article reach a firm conclusion about what happened that night... but that would not have been appropriate for the newspaper. There was no final determination in the criminal investigation of this matter. So, as the lead Detective David Patterson once told me, this event now must be resolved in the political arena instead of the legal one. The Reporter provided an outline for Renton citizens to understand and evaluate this.

Interestingly, in Mr. Radford's editorial he reminds readers that he too was in the council chambers on the night everything went down, so he was in a good position to observe the events and the aftermath. In fact, Mr. Radford was even interviewed as a possible witness by the Kent police, which he mentions in his editorial.

This story is in the October 17th edition...here is the Link.

You can tell that Denis Law is a successful publisher, judging from his latest campaign piece. I want to really encourage readers to look it over carefully, and soak in the material. This piece really describes the Denis Law that we, his colleagues, know and love.

Click on each page to enlarge. Once the enlarged image appears, on some browsers you may have to place your curser over the picture, and then click "expand to regular size" for the best quality. (These are originally 11X14 pages)

The Renton police have unanimously backed Denis Law for mayor.  They know that his style of leadership will help them complete their mission of keeping our city as safe as we can be.

While Mayor Keolker continues to minimize the threat of crime in Renton, and push public safety way down the priority list, the police know we have commercial pot-growers  in our neighborhoods who are becoming increasingly violent (and even starting to kill). Some of our police officers feel that we have never had an adequate number of narcotic enforcement officers to deal with the growing problem in this city. The seems to be the same with gang activity in the Highlands, which according to some residents, seems to be on the increase.

With Denis Law chairing the Public Safety Committee, we have managed to get our police staffing to the highest per-capita level in years, and the results are starting to show.  This has been a struggle for him however, as the mayor fights and undermines Denis's crime fighting policy steps at seemingly every turn.  For instance, after on-going complaints to the city from business owners and local residents about criminal activities at the Downtown Transit Center, Denis called together a summit of officials that included the King County Sheriff, Metro transit police, Renton School District, Renton Police, citizens, and the business community to tackle Transit Center crime problems.  After Mayor Keolker heard about the planned meeting, she immediately called together her own summit of the same individuals, to get the jump on Denis.  Her actions confused the invited guests and her own administration.

The Transit Center meetings run by Mayor Keolker became more of an argument about whether we really had a problem, and whether anything could ever really be done, than any kind of effective problem-solving exercises.  To date, issues at the Transit Center have not been solved.
( Here is the Seattle PI story about the pot-growers on Aberdeen Ave NE, in the heart of Upper Kennydale )

The yard sign campaigns are a unique and sometimes entertaining aspect of overall political campaigns. Finding legitimate and approved locations, and then fastening the signs in so that they are sturdy and visible, but not interfering is not always as easy as it seems.

No candidate ever wins because of their yard signs, but if you don't have any it can really hurt your name recognition and your campaign. So it's always good for a candidate to find a few dedicated sign staff, and a team of part-time helpers.

About ten years ago the US supreme court declared public right-of-ways to be legitimate zones for political freedom of expression, so many candidates focus their signs on the city easements around major intersections, creating what we frequently refer to as "sign farms." Occasionally, these will get hit by city brush cutting equipment or random vandals, who will destroy all the signs, and necessitate that each campaign to come out and make repairs or install replacements. Political newcomers will often take it personally when this happens, but more often than not the sign was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time...I've never actually seen a campaign removing the other's signs.

The best sign locations are actually on private property, because they tell surrounding owners and visitors that the candidate has won an endorsement as well as providing name recognition. But sometimes the lines between public and private property are hard to distinguish without a survey, so the whole picture gets messy.

I enjoyed spotting this sign tonight, next to one of Denis Law's yard signs. This is the first such sign like this that I have seen in 14 years, but I bet it won't be the last...it seems like a good idea. Yard signs tend to reproduce if placed in a greenbelt that may appear to be public property.



Believe it or not, some of my most fun campaign memories are riding around with other campaign workers, putting up yard signs. The actual installation can be laborious, but the camaraderie and conversations are often the best I've ever had. And it is a little like cruising Renton...but with a mission. If you have never done this before, consider volunteering to help with a sign campaign for your favorite candidate sometime. You may decide you really like it.

Mayor Kathy Keolker's office sent out a Request-for-Proposals (RFP) for a Renton Jet Center without council approval late last year. When the proposals started coming in, outraged citizens started turning up at council meetings, informing us that they had many, many concerns about this direction for our airport.

The council asked for more time, and for a noise study, before we proceed with a jet center or make any significant long-term leasing decisions.

Here is the latest news from the Seattle Times on this topic. You can get more background by clicking here.


Renton residents worry about airport expansion

By Karen Johnson, 9/30/07

Times Southeast Bureau
More Southeast King County News

As a flight attendant for United Airlines for 40 years, Renton resident Peggi Galster grew accustomed to airport noise and loud planes.

"When I was working, I would cease a conversation when the engines started," Galster said.

But at her home in the Kennydale neighborhood, Galster says she has to cover her ears when planes fly overhead.

( Read more... )

 Kathy Keolker's trade-mark vindictiveness lead to the outburst with the Master Builder's, and the city's huge new lawsuit.

After getting more background of the events leading up to the Septembr 19th council meeting, it has become appearant that Kathy Keolker was nursing a grudge against the Master Builders Association (MBA) in the day's and hours leading up to that meeting.  This is because the MBA had lost confidence in Keolker's ability to manage the revitalization of downtown Renton or Renton Highlands after her repeated failures to keep Renton's heartbeat going in these areas.  Instead of a workable highlands plan that would allow duplexes to be replaced by modern new homes, Kathy Keolker had given the MBA moritoriums, threats of eminent domain, citizen uprisings against her, and finally complete apathy and withdrawl after she did not get what she wanted from the neighborhood.  Frustrated with Kathy Keolker, the MBA had informed her the previous Thursday that she was not getting their endorsement for another term in office.

As a result of this, in a state of anger, Kathy Keolker made efforts to contact her favorite council members, encouraginng them not to give the builders any slack when MBA requested more time for input into the new design standards.  Instead of organized favoritism driving the meeeting, as Dan Clawson wanted the public to believe, it was Keolker hatefuleness and retalliation setting the tone once again..  Kathy Keolker had a prepared letter to try to humiliate the MBA, by telling them the meetings they accidentally missed in lengthy detail.  And Terri Briere went on to insult them, and insult those of us that were asking for an explanation.  Toni Nelson appears to have been briefed as well, and was quick to criticize the MBA during and after the meeting.  I had been left out of the communication loop of course, since I would blow a whistle on any plan by Kathy for  revenge on anyone.  After the explosive meeting, Dan Clawson once again assumed his Keolker attorney position, trying to accomplish for Kathy in court what Kathy was unable to accomplish though statemanship and leadership.  He put numerous totally false statements in his court filings, and he will be proven to be a liar; He had to drop out of his own neighborhood association amongst the shame  and divisiveness of it all.

Kathy Keolker's Chairperson Margarita Prentice has said she admires "sharp elbows" in politics, in a mistaken belief that jabbing people is the way to win influence in society.  Maybe this is what Margarita learned from her Watergate-era politcal mentors, but this is not how people build real influence in our modern sophisticated world.  Honesty and integrity beat sharp elbows for building real long-lasting support.

Kathy had previously aimed her vindictiveness at the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train Owner, the State Legislature, Valley Hospital Board, citizen leaders, neighborhoods, other public officials, the Renton police guild, and virtually anyone else who slights or crosses her in any way.  It makes sense that the builders, who will be important if we want to get our dilapitated old buildings out of downtown and the highlands, would be next on her list.  That will teach them not to endorse her this time around!

Dan Clawson (who just leveled false open-meetings allegations against his colleagues) used an illegal email conversation amongst a quorum of his colleagues to try to stall or kill the Henry Moses Aquatic Center in 2002. He had selected three other members of the council that he thought were against the pool, and lobbied them hard in his secret email "meeting" to halt the project.

While Councilmember Kathy Keolker and Terri Briere took Dan's side, Dan miscalculated with Don Persson who came out in favor of the proposed aquatic center. (Yay Don!) Don joined me, King Parker, and Toni Nelson to give us the four needed to push the funding through.

Ultimately, on the advice of city attoney Zanetta Fontes, I read Dan Clawson's email aloud at the council meeting to put it into the public record. While I did not elaborate at the meeting, I did this to assure the final council vote could not be overturned on any possible open-meetings violation complaint regarding Dan's email. Dan later followed me into my office agitated and red-faced, screaming "This means war Corman...this means war!" and DEMANDED to know where I got his email.... insisting that his privacy had been invaded. (But I had come across this email very harmlessly, after our council secretary had found it on the council records system, noticed several council members had not been included in it, and put a hardcopy of it on our desks, as part of her normal job duities)

Kathy Keolker (as a council member) had tried everything to kill the Henry Moses Aquatic Center until she saw Don Persson give it support in the final decision-making meeting.

We completed the pool in December 2003, the month Mayor Tanner left office. We had a ceremony for it's dedication, complete with a plaque bearing Jess Tanner's name at the top, as the mayor who made it happen. His family was so proud.

Five months later, Kathy Keolker put a new plaque on the pool building with her own name at the top as mayor.

CLICK HERE to see the minutes from my reading Dan's illegal email into the record, and the swimming pool debate that followed.

Thanks!

Randy

P.S. Denis Law helped us get the aquatic Center as well, with his strong Renton Reporter editorials in favor of this project.

As readers know, Dan Clawson is lying about me and suing me because he lost in a four-to- three vote a week ago, after verbally attacking Marcie Palmer, insulting me and his other colleagues, and then fumbling the rest of the debate apparently due to anger issues.

What you may not know, is that Dan Clawson (as either a councilman or the mayor's attorney, I'm not sure which) harassed me endlessly during the Mayor's lipstick scandal, even though the mayor had started the whole thing herself.  At that time, after getting frustrated with his constant annoying emails, I asked him in an email why the mayor was refusing to take a like detector test.

Here is how the Renton Reporter quoted Dan Clawson in a published article in their June 21, 2006 edition.  (He tried hard to convince the world that I was making things up.)

As part of the police investigation, detectives conducted lie detector tests.  In a May 11 email, Clawson admonished Corman for spreading "rumors" that Keolker refused to take a lie-detector test.  "In the email that you sent me at 10:57 a.m. this morning, you state that Kathy is refusing to take a lie detector test.  At Denis Law's suggestion, I am copying the entire council as it is of concern to all of us.   I just spoke with Kathy.  She is very concerned about saying anything at all about the investigation, including whether or not she was asked to take a polygraph test.  You can talk to her directly, of course, if you think that she should be willing to publicize that information.  What Kathy has told me, and she will tell anyone who asks her, is that she has cooperated fully with the investigation.  She has answered every question truthfully, and done every act that she was requested to do by the investigation" Clawson added.

And here are excepts from the police investigation, which reveal how deceitful Dan's comments were:

On May 18, 2006, Detective Dave Patterson with Kent PD made the following comments in a written statement, which is part of his investigation:

Following a taped interview with the mayor on April 26, 2006, Detective Patterson turned off the tape recorder, at which time the mayor asked where all of this is going. Det. Patterson advised her that they had to investigate every angle. 'I advised her that the charges could range from burglary, theft, trespass to false reporting. I explained that we had to look at all possible situations. I advised her that we would be asking people for the possibility of polygraph tests. At this point the mayor advised me that as the Chief Executive Officer of the City, she felt she had a responsibility to the citizens to not expend taxpayer money on something like this any further. She stated that she needed for this to go away as soon as possible. I advised her that we had an investigation to conduct and that I would be getting back with her.'

On May 2, 2006, I did speak briefly with Randy Corman. He called to advise me of a telephone call he had got from Jay Covington, who was back at a FEMA conference with the mayor this past week. He stated that Jay was basically saying the mayor wanted him and Julia to not take the polygraph and to call off the investigation. Randy mailed me a saved audio copy of the message. I had this message transcribed and a copy is included with this report.

On May 4, 2006, Detective Kelly and I met with Randy Corman and he did take a polygraph test and no deception was observed.

On May 5, 2006, Julia Medzegian met with Det. Kelly and I and she took a polygraph. No deception was observed.

On May 8, 2006, I called the mayor's office and left her a message that I would like to speak with her about the case. I was away from my desk and got a call back and voice mail advising to call her after 1030 hours. At about 10:50 hours, I called her back. I spoke with her and advised her that I was at a point where I was getting close to wrapping up the investigation. I advised her that several people had submitted to polygraph tests and I asked her if she would do the same. At this point, the mayor declined to take the polygraph test. She stated that she could not justify the resources being diverted to this case even though they were Kent resources. She stated that the investigation had gotten way out of control. She stated that she needed to find a way to gracefully bring this to a close.

In spite of the late-night jokes, there really are many hardworking and honest attorneys out there. I've had the pleasure to have known and worked with many of them..  But I can sure see where some can develop reputations for being untrustworthy, especially when they have guilty clients.

The complete record can be found here.

Councilman Dan Clawson has told me in the past that he occasionally performs private legal work for mayor Kathy Keolker.  He insists  that there are no problems with this.

But I think he should never have started doing private legal work for her, since it puts him in a professional conflict  whenever the mayor and the council get in to disagreements.  It's comparable to the nepotism issues when Kathy Keolker was married to Renton's fire chief; it works okay when everything is going smooth, but it causes problems quickly when there is any kind of conflict (in that case it resulted in restraining orders between mayor Keolker and the fire chief).

I warned Mr. Clawson during the Mayor's Lipstick scandal that the legal situation between him and the mayor had become difficult for the rest of us on council to understand....was he a councilman, or her attorney, whenever we were communicating with him?  He told me he could be both, but I should have told him then that it was unacceptable.

This latest episode could cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars, and is having an incredibly negative impact on Renton city staff.   Dan's lawsuit is unwinnable because the truth is against him, but even if he could win, the maximum penalty to the city and other officials (like me) is $100.  Meanwhile, I am stuck watching this play out, because even if I wanted to, I can't legally agree to admit to something that never happened.   While I found Dan's latest antics oddly amusing, they are not so funny for those people that work for the city full-time and are trying to keep things moving smoothly while Dan's false allegations and my resultant ethics complaints against him work themselves out.

I'm getting reports that staff are being approached by the mayor and her allies, and then seen crying at their desks hours later.

There is no recovery possible for Mayor Keolker at this time.  She can't win this race, and even if she did it would be impossible for council or the majority of the community  to ever trust her again.  It's like a hopelessly broken marriage, where there has been a betrayal.  She should resign.

And Dan Clawson has been part of the Mayor's undoing, and has destroyed his own credibility at the same time.  While he seems to have been trying to help the mayor, his reflex tendency to jump face-first into every one of the mayor's conflicts only exacerbates them.   He  manages to turn her juvenile behavior into full-blown and self-incriminating police investigations and expensive litigation.  While his garbage-can raiding is sadly amusing, his contrived efforts to try to implicate me and my colleagues in a phony meeting are reprehensible.  Dan dropped out of his own neighborhood association this morning, asking for his dues back.  If he can't even get along with his neighbors, does he think Renton citizens feel they can count on him for fair and positive representation?  Dan was defeated by Councilman Don Persson after his first-term in office, and he only regained his seat after council appointed him to a vacancy.  He went on to be rated 'adequate' by the municipal league, the lowest rating I have ever seen for a Renton incumbant.  He should resign as well.

So Mayor Keolker, And Councilman Clawson,

I know you both read my blog.  So hear this.

Please do the honorable thing, and resign.

Randy Corman

Dan Clawson resigned from his own neighborhood association, citing complaints about the last neighborhood picnic.  I'm not making this stuff up folks!  He leveled specific complaints against some of the neighborhood leadership.

Perhaps some of these folks may want to keep their garbage cans locked in their garage until they hear the trucks coming..

Seriously, several people have asked me whether I know how long Dan Clawson has been going through garbage cans at city hall.  Was this  something he had just done for the first time on Monday night, or has he been doing this for years?

I don't know the answer to this.  But I do know that I keep my office door open all day, so that other's at city hall can use my office as a meeting room when I am not present.  While I have absolutely nothing to hide, it never occurred to me that Dan might be going into my office and looking though my garbage until this week. 

For me, it's not so much a question of ethics or policy as it is a question of general creepiness. The only thing I remember putting in the garbage can under the council dais was my food scraps on Monday night, and what did he touch after he went through it?  And what if  I had dropped a private note from my wife or my kids into my council garbage.  Would Dan have taken this home with him?  Yikes.

Look at what his close relationship with Kathy Keolker has done to him.

I have recieved dozens of comments and emails about Dan Clawson's slumming though council garbage cans, reaching a paranoid conclusion, and embroiloing your city in a bogus lawsuit (that Dan Clawson wrote himself while in an agitated state-of-mind.) While I know the Keolker administation had something to do with this, I am trying to track down emails that show exactly who is to blame for this lawsuit. Ironically, my investigation has been slowed down by the fact that Dan Clawson and Terri Briere are the two council members who have not made their email available for public review without a formal freedom of information request. So I am having to go through an expensive process to get their email. Kathy Keolker also requires freedom of information requests for access to her email. (In contrast, my email, and most other councilmember's email, is available for inspection by any member of the public at any time)

You can see many of the strongly supportive comments on my web articles below, and I'll be seeking permission from the authors to post more of the emails on this website:

Meanwhile, to wet your appetite I'll start with Marcie Palmer's email to hundreds of supporters, and her first response back,.

Below that I've also added a couple Myspace comments I just received.

-------------- Forwarded Message: --------------
To: <pkplmarcie@comcast.net>
Subject: RE: Potential media attention
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:25:24 +0000


--
Please Re-Elect Marcie Palmer
www.Palmer2007.com
--
Please Re-Elect Marcie Palmer
www.Palmer2007.com

	Sep 22, 2007 11:55 AM Wow, Randy! You provide quite the diversion from my own troubles--it's so inspiring to see how you handle such rediculous attacks and make such a fun read out of everything. I really hate politics, but you certainly make it interesting. Thanks for sharing the council meeting with us, and the lawsuit, etc. I even went to Law's myspace--love the song! Sure wish I could vote up there! Keep up the great sharing! Stay positive. You sure have a lot of friends and family backing you because we all know your true character!
	Comment Back - Send Message - Block User - Delete My Comment
<input ... >	kari	Sep 21, 2007 12:06 AM I was just reading your website (at Katie's suggestion) and man, are we lucky to have you protecting our civic rights or WHAT?! The king, the photo genius and the best government official ever. I think it calls for a weekend party at your house. There's not one planned, you know. We've had one every week....just a thought. Really, thanks for all you do!
		Comment Back - Send Message - Block User - Delete My Comment

ed

Anyone who missed the September 17 city council melee, and still wants to see it, can watch right here on the internet!  Click Here, and select September 17 video.  If your player gives you a chance to jump partway though, take it;   the action everyone is talking about is in the last 30 minutes or so.

Having been challenged by Dan Clawson, I have sent my public response to the Seattle Times, Seattle PI, and Renton Reporter, appended onto Dan's original public release.  (As an aside, Dan still seems to resent me for making my email public!?)


( see my response to the media here )

I have not seen the lawsuit yet, but an attorney has told me it is based largely on a post-it note that Dan Clawson found while crawling around under the council dais, and rummaging through Don Persson's garbage can. The note said something like "did you talk to Garrett". Apparently, Dan had the delusion that he had found O.J.'s bloody knife or something. He used this note to extrapolate that four council members had all had conversations with the Master Builders Trade Association about the legislation that was pending, and that this would constitute an illegal meeting.

Never mind the fact that I had not spoken with the Master Builders Association, or received any kind of communication with them whatsoever. Never mind that the note was not mine, and I had not even seen it. If Dan is going to crawl around like a dog under our desks pulling paper out of cans littered with Pizza crusts, he ought to at least put some rational thought into what they mean and where they came from.

When the Master Builders and I get deposed, it will become clear to all that Dan has no case, and that the whole "meeting" idea was a complete fabrication on his part. But it is already too late for him to avoid ethics violations. Even though he could have easily determined that there was no factual basis for his imaginary meeting by simply asking me a few questions, he filed a politically motivated lawsuit, and I will not consider this over until the state Bar penalizes him for it.

As a little bit of further background, Dan filed this lawsuit within 14 hours of the cantankerous city council meeting, in which Dan loudly insulted his colleague Marcie Palmer, and my resultant defense of Marcie had left Dan visibly shaking. He filed the lawsuit himself, the way Chris Clifford used to file countless lawsuits against the city of Renton when Mr. Clifford was unhappy with a vote.

I have a feeling that had Dan gone to an attorney, the attorney would have advised Dan to calm down for a few days, and to get more facts before getting himself into something he can't get out of.

Even if there had been a private meeting, which there wasn't, the fine would have been $100. But Dan's lawsuit may cost Renton Taxpayers $300,000 if it goes like the City of Shoreline's two years ago.

As for me, there is nothing I can do other than try to penalize Dan for being an idiot. I can't lawfully admit to something I didn't do, so I can't make this go away. Dan will need to do that, but he seems like he may have had a break with reality.

Finally, lest anyone believe that Dan's interest is open government, try to remember that I got accolades from across the United States for opening my council email to the public this December. Interestingly, I had resistance to this move from only one person, who insisted that our email should be private. You guessed it....Dan Clawson. I wrote a blog about it at the time, including the original email discussion between me and Dan but decided it was rubbing his nose in it after all the positive press I was getting. But I just made the blog public, since the theme of his phony lawsuit is open government.  You can see it for the first time here.  You can also see his anger-management issues jumping out of his email.

 Well, City Councilman/Keolker-attoney Dan Clawson has set himself up to be disbarred, by filing a lawsuit against me (and others) that has no basis in reality, no facts of any kind to back it up, and appears intended purely to coerce a different council votiing pattern out of me.  I'm even evaluating whether criminal charges might be in order, if it is his intent to intimidate me ( a sitting public official) from allowing members of the public to speak at council meetings.  Coercion of a public official is a felony...I hope for the sake of Dan and his family that this is not what he is up to.

This reminds me of when he told the media and the public that Mayor Kathy Keolker had not been asked to take a lie detector test during last year's mayor's lipstick scandal, even while police records showed she was being repeatedly asked to take a lie detector test.  I was shocked that a member of the Bar would lie about this, and I criticized Dan for this lie in my blog....but week's later, at Dan's personal request (his begging really) I removed these facts from my internet journal, so that he might rebuild his reputation without the public knowing he lied for Kathy Keolker about lie-detectors.

Kathy Keolker is losing her race for reelection because citizens thoughout the city have figured out her mode of operation, and they are universally rejecting it.  She fabricates lies about other candidates, and hopes they stick.  I won't go into all the stupid history of this (unless further provoked), but she loves to do this.  She is now using Dan Clawson as a tool in this juvenile campaign method, and it will end with her getting thrown from office, and him losing a lot of money, and quite possibly his livelihood.  If Kathy Keolker is willing to put one of her only friends, Dan Clawson, into this position, think how coldly she could treat someone she does not like.

I'll close by sharing with readers why I believe Kathy Keolker and Dan think that we had a secret meeting.  I and several of my colleagues on council still have our marbles, we act rationally, we remember why we were elected, and we respect the public process.  When issues come up that call for common sense, inclusiveness,  and graciousness, we act accordingly.   Because all of us are normal people, with normal behavior patterns, it looks to Dan and Kathy like we are conspiring.  I am afraid they are becomming delusional in this regard.  Meanwhile, Dan and Kathy appear to be coordinating on how to shut down public comment, and how to coerce the rest of us into doing what they want.  Because of their own tendancies to try to script the council meetings, when they are confronted by four rational people all acting fundamentally rational and the same, in their delusional minds it looks like a conspiricy to them. 

Readers can follow all the developments as I stomp them in this legal skirmish, and get commentary  here on my website.  While I know  Dan and Kathy will petition to keep the details of this fight sealed, I will make sure to keep it open and public, even if I have to petition the court to do so.

It will make for fascinating reading, so please keep checking back.

Randy Corman

P.S.   I will of course countersue, investigate whether criminal charges are in order, and seek to have Dan disbarred.  Dan, do not destroy any records of any conversations you have had up until this point.  I'll say again...I will not be threatened into voting a certain way.



Here is Dan's paranoid and baseless email:

Year 2000 Public Employee of the year Sue Carlson reminds Denis Law's campaign of some of the intricate work it took to jump-start Renton's struggling economy in the 90's, and how we can lose our momentum today if we don't have new leadership in the mayor's office.

I had the honor of serving as City Council President the year that our amazing Economic Development/Long Term Planning Administrator, Sue Carlson, won the title of Outstanding Public Employee from the King County Municipal League for her contributions in turning Renton's economic fortunes around. That year we got the veterans park and the Henry Moses Aquatic Center started with year-end fund balance windfalls. These revenue windfalls came from new sales tax collections from new retail businesses Sue had recruited. That same year also began the advanced planning for the Landing, as you can see in the Municipal League write-up (linked below).

While Sue Carlson no longer works for Renton, she has a strong passion for our community and is very active in our campaign to get Denis Law elected mayor. Sue Carlson reminded our campaign recently that she helped encourage Denis Law to start the Renton Reporter in 1993, as a means to give our city an identity, a sense of community, a way to market itself to outside bsinesses, and a way for Renton businesses to advertise.

This was around the same time that Sue was bringing our city the support of Eric Temple and his Sprit of Washington Diner Train. Mr. Temple and Mr. Law were two of the first major believers in Renton's 1990 downtown Renaissance, and the two of them remain great freinds and strong believers in our city. (Unfortunately, this year Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad struck a deal with state DOT that ended the Dinner Train's run in spite of council majority objections; Kathy Keolker's campaign got a contribution from BNSF for her role, and Denis's campaign recieved a contribution from Eric Temple for his. I and many others believe we would not have lost the dinner train if Denis had been mayor.)

Sue Carlson is widely known as one of the greatest Economic Development experts in our state, and we finally lost her only because her private sector value was so high that our city could only pay her about a fraction of her market value. Her last few years with our city were very charitable on her part, given the outside job-offers she was passing on. She is one of the many believers in Renton that are going to help Denis Law win this campaign.

( see Sue's Public Employee of the Year award described, along with her advanced work on the Landing, by clicking here )

I moved this cartoon back to the top for one more run, because the 14-year-old Renton artist did such a nice job on it. I think she is willing to create more cartoons for my blog. What do you all think...should I ask her to?

In fourteen years I have never seen a more toxic environment in the mayor's office. Most members of the council have been almost forced to give up any pretense of civility with the mayor, as every time we say "hello" or "good afternoon" we're greeted only by a cold and frightening stare. I know these are harsh words, but it is true, and I have never personally seen this before in politics.

Other Renton citizens are seeing it too. Any citizen who has publicly endorsed Denis Law can expect to be glared at or snapped at publicly by our mayor.

At the well-attended Kennydale picnic on Wednesday, a popular former council member came up to greet Mayor Keolker, and she rudely cut him off, leaving him literally asking others around him "what did I do?"

Later, one of the picnic organizers (who has worked 12 hours to make sure 700 people had a good time) had her own run-in with the mayor. The skirmish had been brewing for a couple hours because the mayor felt like her campaign table was too far away from the food tables, and she blamed the Kennydale neighborhood volunteers.

By the end of the evening, there was a showdown in which Mayor Keolker loudly referred to this volunteer as a dog, and said she had "better watch out...she had just better watch out." It left the volunteer literally shaking according to witnesses, and there was even talk of whether the police should be summoned to get a statement from her.

It is now obvious to all why our beloved fire chief Lee Wheeler had to have a restraining order against our mayor during his divorce with her two years ago. I don't know if it is job pressure, unresolved frustrations, sadness, or whatever, but in recent years Mayor Keolker has become the most vindictive and hard-to-connect-with person I have ever met. Sadly, new victims are discovering this every day.

Even our Renton police officers themselves are not immune from the mayor's personal threats. Look at the second to the last paragraph of this letter from last December. 'As a result of our conversation today, in the elevator lobby of P2 at City Hall at about 1645 hours, I feel obligated to inform you that I felt threatened by your comments. You stated that I "Set you up", and "thought I got away with it, but I didn't....you'll see". I took this as a threat as there was a strong insinuation of pending retaliation for "setting you up". I hope this was not your intention, but none the less, I am compelled to memorialize this conversation.'

The complete letter, signed by the officer, is shown below.

Thanks to whoever put up these two nice-looking autumn decorations at my home this week. They look great! But we still need a King Parker sign and a Marcie Palmer sign to go with them...so if you have either of these, and you're in the neighborhood, please post them or drop them by!

Janice Tanner reminded me that her husband Jesse received this beautiful photo collection from the city upon his retirement as Renton Mayor. This collection, which is 3 ft by 4 ft in actual size, provides a nice visual of Renton's renaissance.

Here is a photo of it, and a detail shot. The inscription says "Jesse Tanner Mayor 1996-2003. You created a legacy for the city of Renton" What can't be easily depicted is the development agreement for the Landing site, or the lakefront purchase by Paul Allen during Jesse's tenure.

These are the public projects during his time in office, none of the private development like Southport, downtown condos, or the new auto mall is shown.







Click the pictures to enlarge

The Renton Myspace page has 1800 friends, and each one has 50-500 of their own friends. This mutiplies out to a heck of a lot of people ( It's in the hundreds of thousands, although many are repeated, and many don't live in Renton). Each Myspace user can blast bulletins out to all the friends on their list with a few mouse clicks, and they can forward bulletins they recieve from others just as quickly.

Anyone who does not understand the impact MySpace users will have on the upcoming Mayor's election should think about the above numbers, and take a look at the profile highlighted below (which I just spotted tonight).

Click here to see the way this Renton citizen's support of Denis Law has been folded into her profile.

And she just met Denis for the first time this evening; he makes a strong impression to all who have the chance to meet him.

Renton MySpace users have been sharing their opinions with me for nearly two years, and they seem to be overwhelmingly supporting Denis Law right now. They are a very important voice in our community.

Mike Katterman submitted a letter to the editor of the Renton Reporter today, identifying himself as a past city of Renton Planning Director, and a supporter of Kathy Keolker. Alas, I feel another trek down memory lane is called for.

First, I need to say, I know Mr Katterman. He is an intelligent man and a gentleman, and I wish him only the best fortunes in life.

But let's look back at the time when Mike Katterman worked for the City, and Kathy Keolker was a council member and Chair of Planning and Development Committee:

It was in the late 80's/early 90's. Renton planners were developing a twenty-year plan that would put up to fifty-thousand new apartments throughout the city, and massive housing density of 60-80 units per acre in the then-single-family neighborhood of South Renton. Renton Planners thought this zoning would immediately win us a train stop on the new Sound Transit system (something that in reality can not possibly happen before 2030, since this is not even in Phase 2 of Sound Transit.) Meanwhile, popular business like Sears and JC Pennys were pulling out of our city to move to Southcenter; Fairwood residents were mocking Renton for trying to annex them; and Newcastle chose to incorporate instead of annex to Renton. Neighborhood activists were sparing with the city planners and city council in every neighborhood over the city's suburban apartment sprawl. (Which was the same old sprawl, but had fancy new names like "Planned Unit Development.") The utter chaos and conflict caused virtually nothing of significance to get done, and city budgets became so strained that mayor Earl Clymer asked the city council to cut mosquito abatement or lifeguards out of the city's budget... the start of a brutal economic downturn, he feared. Our one economic development expert, Sue Carlson, had a hard time getting traction on any projects because the Planning Staff kept telling her that whatever the market-forces wanted was not in the city's long-term plan.

I doorbelled the entire city, and it was clear that residents had lost faith in their government. I was elected to council in 1993 and I helped Jesse Tanner unseat Earl Clymer in 1995. Mayor Tanner took the creative, and much applauded, step of combining the Long-Term Strategic Planning staff with Economic Development departments, and he put Sue Carlson in charge of the new organization. While economists agree this was a highly intelligent step that laid the foundation for a potent new Renton redevelopment capability, Kathy Keolker and Mike Katterman were both dissappointed with these changes. Kathy groused about them, and remained hateful of Jesse Tanner; Mike Katterman took a different path...he resigned from the City of Renton.

It's a self-evident fact that Jesse Tanner's newly empowered Economic Development/Long-Term Planning department produced retooled plans and vast accomplishments, ushering in the economic renaissance of Renton. The department brought in year-after-year economic expansion that gave us millions in new revenues each year, and millions more in one-time funds that we spent on amenities like the Henry Moses Aquatic Center. We got desirable new businesses like Frys Electronics; we redeveloped downtown and saw the building of Southport; we marketed land to Paul Allen; and laid the groundwork for the Landing. Jess Tanner's administration restored all rainy day funds and financial reserves, increased services, and left the city in perfect financial health. (And Jess Tanner did this with no utility rate increases for seven years in a row, and only a 3% increase in sewer fees in his last year). At popular request, Jess Tanner also lead the council in scaling-back new apartment development to rational and sustainable numbers, far less than Mike Katterman and Kathy Keolker had planned.

Even though Kathy Keolker enjoys the fruits of Jess Tanner's reorganizations and good financial policy, she has now enlisted her old friend Mike Katterman to expound on her virtues and good planning. Mr. Katterman has not lived-in or been employed by our city for ten years; so I'm afraid Mr Katterman's views for Renton leadership are as out-of-date as the dusty and unsuccessful Renton revitalization plans from the 1980's. And he certainly is not an expert in what is happening in Renton now.

I do agree on one point however. In his second to the last paragraph, Mr. Katterman says 'And then she makes the tough decisions, even if it's not the popular thing to do….' I agree that the mayor does this. But if she would listen to her city council more, she would not find herself making all these tough unpopular decisions. The executive branch runs the city departments to implement city policy...it does not take a bunch of unpopular tough decisions to get this done if one is a good manager. She just becomes unpopular when she tries to tell council how to do its job, or when she shuts citizens out of their government, or when she drops the F-bomb on our partners like Valley Hospital, or performs all other form of histrionics...THAT is when it gets tough and unpopular for her.

Thanks,

Randy

P.S. Both Jesse Tanner, and Sue Carlson (former Economic Development/Long Term Planning Director, and Mike Katterman's boss) endorsed Denis Law for mayor.

We have recieved an excellent report from Police Chief Kevin Milosevich, about what a difference pro-active police work can make on some of the crimes that have been dogging our city in recent years. I am extremely proud of our Chief, and all of Renton's finest who report to him. Our officers have never once given up any of our city to the bad-guys, no matter how strained the budget's have been.

This lastest report is an example of exactly what needs to be done on a more regular basis. Chief Milosovich can do this due to council support for more police officers and officer overtime, at the urging of Denis Law's Public Safety committee, at a time when the mayor wasn't even keeping open slots filled. Our police department is at the highest level of per-capita manpower that they've enjoyed for years, thanks to the insistance of council that we backfill and add positions. The officers know that this is due to Denis Law, Chair of Public Safety, and the rest of us on Council. That is one reason they have endorsed Denis for Mayor, and my council collegues Marcie Palmer and Don Person in their campaigns for reelection.

It took great courage for the police officers to vote to endorse Denis Law over the current mayor, and give Denis Law's campaign a check for $10,000. No professional finds it easy to tell their top-boss that they want another leader instead. But they did this for YOUR good, the safety of Renton and their desire to make Renton a shining light of public safety. And let's face it....our police officers have never been lacking for courage. Whether walking into domestic disturbances when guns are in the home, responding to a bank robery in progress, or fooling some thieves into selling an undercover officer some stolen cars, our officers put their lives on the line every day.

Here is Chief Milosovich's report:

Last night, members of Special Operations, Narcotics, and uniformed patrol officers concluded and undercover operation a buy/bust of Thomas McKee for possession of stolen property.

McKee is a very busy auto/boat thief who usually steals commercial trucks and boats and sells the equipment from them. McKee usually operates in Renton, Bellevue, Kent, and Seatac. Department members used an undercover detective to make 2 controlled buys of numerous stolen property that was valued at over $34,000.

McKee stole 2 different trucks in the last 2 days, which Crime Analyst Shirley Rickman was able to trace to Shoreline and Pierce County, and he attempted to sell us the property he stripped from the trucks.

McKee and accomplice Sean Van Meter were arrested at the Valley Cinemas last night. Both subjects were arrested for multiple counts of Trafficking Stolen Property, and Van Meter had a Felony DOC Escape warrant. McKee is maxed out and is facing a sentencing range of 64-80 months.

This is another example of the purpose for the creation of the Special Operations Division this past year. This division was developed to pro-actively respond to incidents of crime. Response may vary from a strong uniform presence, or by conducting undercover operations.

Special Operations personnel in the last several months have conducted undercover operations that have led to multiple arrests of copper thieves, and have conducted a couple of prostitution stings involving local massage parlors and tanning salons.

While at the same time, this team is flexible to conduct high profile uniform presence at local taverns during closing hours and seven members were on bicycles in Gene Coulon Park on the 4th of July.

Thanks Chief, and thanks to all the officers and staff of the Renton PD!

P.S. Denis Law, Council Candidate Greg Taylor, and I all sat on the selection committee that selected Chief Milosovich (from Renton's own police ranks) over other national-search candidates to fill this spot. We were proud to select one of Renton's own for this position, and Chief Milosovich has proven to be an outstanding choice.