Vancouver resident Wynn Grcich believes Clark County may be the next to lose freedoms

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

Clark County ARE YOU SLEEPING? We may be next in my opinion!

On the 19th of December; members of the Vancouver City Council voted to get rid of the community forum. It might happen to Clark County, too. Vancouver Council will be doing an offsite, untelevised, curated topic, forum four times a year seasonally. Council Member Kim Harless discussed how bad it was to have an open mic, from a lecture she had heard. In my opinion this is rather Marxist.

If you don’t believe me just watch the last four recorded City Council meetings. What you find is that we have a few bad-apples; and they are being used as an excuse to remove or severely hamper one of the few venues for community input in our democratic process. Katherine Whitaker has produced some strange testimonies during community forums and on agenized items; on one occasion she dropped the F— word in front of a large group of Boy Scouts; while telling a story about selling drugs in her youth. The Scouts and their leaders had some shocked looks on their faces. She has even gone so far as to dance at the Dec. 12 meeting. Don’t believe me, watch the following videos and make your own opinion.

https://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/35169?startStreamAt=0&stopStreamAt=5253 – A shocked crowd of boy-scouts listen in rapt attention @ 1:04:30.

https://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/35195?startStreamAt=0&stopStreamAt=4136 – When dancing is offered in place of testimony @ 45:45.

Kimberlee Elbon, for example, is a constant problem at the council meetings. She speaks out of turn, chases and harasses the mayor and the other council members as they leave the chambers. Elbon grabs the microphone at the off-site council meetings at Clark College, and spews her rhetoric at every opportunity. The council got the police to remove her at Clark College during one of her microphone episodes. I personally have seen her in action and thrown out of many political meetings; which I have attended. In one of these recorded City Council meetings, she caused a disruption, and the City Council had her removed from the premises. Elbon filmed the embarrassing chase on her phone; she childishly put the recording on Telegram, for reasons only she would know. For reasons only she would know again, she then removed the same video from telegram, a few days later. There is a security report of the event at the Clark County Council building.

Kimberlee shows no respect for the mayor and council, doesn’t follow the rules of the meetings addressing the council. She acts as though she has a personal TV show speaking to the audience and not the council. Her bad behavior, and those like her, has cost all of us the freedom to speak at council meetings on TV.

I would understand if the council felt threatened by some of those events; no one deserves to be threatened when they go to work. I understand the need to do something, but one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch; in a community with a population of 196,000 people. The City Council should not have removed the community forum, while I know some will say I’m exaggerating; limiting the venue to four times a year, with less than three minutes to speak, and limiting the topic to a handful of curated topics; in a practical sense the same as having no venue at all. This could have been handled differently; it also appears to violate RCW 42.30.240 and the drafted intent of RCW 42.30.230. The community is supposed to be able to communicate to the council and the council is supposed to keep a preserved record of public communication; in order to prove that they are acting as true representatives of the people, and not acting as independent actors abusing their office. No one can honestly say that they represent the residents of Vancouver; when they knowingly and willfully remove all venues for the residents of Vancouver to voice their concerns and have the record preserved for posterity.

However do not just take my word for it look at the footage for December 19, https://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/35227?startStreamAt=0&stopStreamAt=6515

Listen to item #7 at 30:11 and Listen to item # 14 at 1 hour:02 Listen to all of the banter about #14.

This is a beautiful example of bait and switch; they prevented the public from voicing their concerns about removing the community forum from the local legislative process, with tricky language and miss-leading headers. It was so effective, Council Member Diana Perez did not realize she just voted to remove community-forum, again do not take my word for it just look at the footage. The council starts back pedaling, when Council Moman Perez vocalizes that she didn’t realize she voted to take away the forum on item #7. Perez said she believes in the community forum which she has previously voiced at prior zoom meetings, when the topic first was discussed. Perez restated it again, that she wanted the forum, when I pointed out that the council did not list it correctly as #7 was to stop the forum. They voted to get rid of the forum in a deceitful way. They already voted on #7 which was not clearly written on the agenda so the public would know it was to eliminate the community forum at council meetings.

The schedule was already printed out for 2023. Done deal: before the vote was even taken. I had a copy in my hand, when I spoke at the last forum for 2022.

In short: The public has lost their freedom to speak at Vancouver council meetings, and the council has made it clear that it rejects public input.

For more information on what led up to the council rejecting public input see following footage from:

Nov. 28 @ 1 hour:01 https://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/35169?startStreamAt=0&stopStreamAt=5253

Dec. 5 @ 2:35 mins. https://www.cvtv.org/vid_link/35173?startStreamAt=0&stopStreamAt=10029

My concern is: If they dropped the public televised citizen forum in Vancouver; people like Ms Elbon may do the same behavior in other cities in Clark County. Other cities might follow Vancouver’s lead and ban or prejudicially prevent the public from reasonably being able to voice their concerns in a public venue. If other cities follow Vancouver, No one will be able to speak at their council meetings.

There are other things they could have done to stop things like Elbon’s disruptions. The mayor could have given Elbon “no-trespassing notice” and kept her from entering the building. They could have told Elbon to call in, to speak by telephone; Thereby preserving her right to free speech. This way Elbon would not be in the building or chambers to disrupt the meetings and show her disrespectful behavior on TV, and the public and the council would have a safe place to conduct business.

Wynn Grcich
Vancouver