REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
BRIGADOON:
Ovation!’s holiday season musical celebrates romance, hope in miracles.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2011 | Vol. 111, No. 48 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Page A10
Ordinance passed defining CSC role
BLOEDEL EXPANDS MINIATURE VILLAGE AND RAILROAD
Some Civil Service Commission files have gone missing. By RICHARD D. OXLEY Staff Writer
Willie Wenzlau/For the Review
Clockwise, from left: Bloedel Reserve expands its popular Holiday Village and Model Railroad Exhibit which will run from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Dec. 4-31. Half-price admission day is Sunday, Dec. 4. Top, right: The interiors of the miniature buildings hand-crafted by Dwight Shappell, former owner of Dwight’s Flowers on Bainbridge are filled with miniature, fully functional chests of drawers, upholstered sofas, chairs, rugs, carpets and parquet floors. Bottom, right: Dave Durfee, a longtime Bloedel Reserve volunteer and an avid model railroad enthusiast, installs the model railroad trains for the exhibit.
It was revealed Wednesday by City Manager Brenda Bauer that a portion of the Civil Service Commission’s files have gone missing, including files pertaining to Bainbridge Island Police Officer Jeff Benkert, who fatally shot Douglas Ostling in October 2010 after responding to a 911 call. The matter arose as the City Council was addressing an ordinance defining the position of the CSC’s secretary/chief examiner — the ordinance was later passed by a 4-2 vote. Bauer was fielding prepared questions from Councilor Bob Scales regarding the S/CE when it was revealed that the files were missing. SEE MISSING FILES, A3
Public, ethics board challenge code revisions Proposal forwarded to city’s Ethics Board for further review after lengthy discussion. By RICHARD D. OXLEY Staff Writer
Proposed revisions to the city’s ethics program prompted heavy public response Wednesday as the City Council debated the controversial issue. The proposed revisions to the city’s ethics program have caused public anxiety that they will harm government transparency, and place emphasis on control of the city’s administration over the city’s
Ethics Board and how it handles complaints against the city. “The present attempt by a majority of four on our current council to muzzle an independent citizen ethics advisory commission is a veiled attempt to protect the city manager’s executive department from independent citizen check and balance,” Council Member Bill Knobloch, said in a statement regarding the matter representing his opposition to the revisions.
“...The proposed legislation... will work to undermine ‘due process’ for transparency and accountability in our city government.” In response to mounting public concern over his revisions to the ethics code, Councor Bob Scales went page by page through the code explaining each change, and the history behind them — an approach that occupied nearly an hour of the council meeting. Though even after his presentation, several members of the audience said the issue was being rushed through the council without inclusive public and city participation.
“Without some input from the Ethics Board we find this objectionable,” said Dennis Willerford, chair of the Ethics Board. “Many of these proposals are completely unworkable. I think it displays an innocent lack of understanding of how the Ethics Board works.” After strong public response, and council debate, the council unanimously decided to hand the revisions over to the Ethics Board for review, and wait to hear the members’ opinions on the matter, which will most likely occur in 2012. “I don’t see any threat to transparency in the suggested revisions,”
said Councilor Barry Peters. “The fact that our City Council has enacted a local ethics code, which is in addition to the ethics standards that apply under state law, is a plus for transparency here in Bainbridge. Many cities have no separate ethics code at all.” Knobloch statement further said that a motivating factor for the alterations stemmed from the recent Civil Service Commission (CSC) controversy where the Ethics Board made a determination negatively reflecting upon City Manager Brenda Bauer — a SEE ETHICS, A5