Letter: Public gets short shrift in Ilwaco council

Published 1:09 pm Wednesday, May 18, 2022

I attended the Ilwaco City Council meeting in the Community Room at the library on Monday May 16. The public participation was noticeably down from the meeting two weeks ago, where public comment was actively and vehemently disallowed.

The 30 or so members of the public that attended two weeks ago were very obviously there to comment on the activities concerning the eviction of the residents at the Beacon RV park. However the mayor pro-tem continually and repeatedly announced they did not have time to accommodate public comment, and that would be scheduled for another meeting. We heard over and over what the city council can’t do.

The mayor and the city attorney (on retainer) both are not available because they recused themselves due to conflicts of interest. Last night, the 10 or so residents who showed up were frustrated yet again by the ill-timed PC software update that started at the time the Zoom recording was to have started by the city administrator’s computer.

But we were treated to the explanation of how busy attorneys are, as a reason the city has no legal advice at this time. The city of Ilwaco deserves leadership and transparency. We have neither.

JUDI MANDL

Ilwaco