REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Friday, January 16, 2015 | Vol. 90, No. 3 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
INSIDE: One Act returns: A7
City’s legal costs on email lawsuit continue to climb
Walking against weapons
BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
Local peace activists, led by monks from the Bainbridge Island Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Temple, marched from the Waypoint in downtown Winslow to the entrance gates of Naval Base KitsapBangor in Silverdale in protest against the presence of nuclear weapons. The three-day march began early Thursday, and will culminate with a vigil at the base gates Saturday, Jan. 17. According to Leonard Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action spokesman, the Bangor base is home to eight of the Navy’s 14 Ohio Class (Trident) ballistic missile submarines, and has been called one the largest operational concentrations of nuclear weapons in the national nuclear arsenal. Saturday’s event will include nonviolence training, education on efforts to stop a planned new generation of ballistic missile submarines as well as a keynote talk by Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
Costs for the city of Bainbridge Island’s big loss in its legal battle over council member emails continued to grow this week, well after the city agreed to a nearly $500,000 settlement that ended a Superior Court lawsuit over missing and destroyed public records. The city paid more than $22,000 in additional legal bills this week for its lawyers on the case, and city officials expect more attorney bills to arrive at city hall in the coming weeks. Officials announced last week that Bainbridge Island would need to tap three different parts of the budget — including the city council’s contingency fund — to pay the $487,790 in settlement costs to end the public records lawsuit against the city. The city estimated it had already spent more than $225,000 on legal fees through October. Deputy City Manager Morgan Smith told the council last week that the settlement money was not budgeted, and funds from three separate funds would be used to make the payment. The city council approved the settlement agreement in early December. Under the terms of the agreement, reached after an 11-hour marathon session with a mediator in Seattle, Althea Paulson and Bob Fortner will be paid $487,790 for abandoning their lawsuit against the city. Paulson and Fortner filed suit against the city in September 2013 that claimed the city and Councilman Steve Bonkowski, Ward and then-councilwoman Debbi Lester failed to turn over public records that had been requested under the state’s Public Records Act. The pair of “good government” activists had sought emails that the council members had sent and received TURN TO LAWSUIT | A17
Bainbridge city manager issues executive order at city hall: No cheese for you! Seahawks mania to blame for cheesy ban BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge Island City Manager Doug Schulze issued an executive order Wednesday that should leave Seahawks fans everywhere smiling: Cheese will be banned from city hall on Friday, Jan. 16. So long, Swiss. Ciao, cheddar. Get out of here, gouda. The cheese ban — tongue-incheek, of course — was prompted by the Seattle Seahawks’ upcom-
ing playoff football game against the Green Bay Packers, who have a legion of fans known as “Cheeseheads.” This coming Friday at city hall is “Blue Friday,” and the executive order noted that city hall would be awash with 12th Man fans dressed in the Seahawks colors of green and gray on Friday, and also ruled that the favorite food of “Cheeseheads” would be unwelcome on the premises. That means no Swiss, miss, and no Muenster, man. The cheese ban also extends to “cheese-flavored products.”
Schulze’s executive order was numbered 121212, a reference to the Seahawks’ own army of dedicated fans, the “12th Man,” and quickly gained national attention. ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” sports talk show devoted a segment to the Bainbridge ban, as the hosts read parts of Schulze’s executive order on the air and wondered how anyone could live without cheese, even for a day. It also got plenty of attention back on the island, and one wellknown Bainbridge attorney tried to blow the whistle on the ban. Mike Spence, an island resi-
dent who is also a member of the Bainbridge Island School Board, sent the city some legal advice late Wednesday that showed Schulze’s executive order had more holes in it than a slice of Baby Swiss. “As a citizen of Bainbridge Island, and as a part owner of the Green Bay Packers and Ice Bowl I survivor, I question your authority to issue the above-mentioned Executive Order,” Spence wrote in an email to Schulze. Spence noted that the city’s municipal code bestows the county health district with the power to enforce health regulations.
“As a food item, the regulation of cheese falls clearly within the authority of the Kitsap County Department of Health, rather than the City of Bainbridge Island, a noncharter Code City under RCW 35A.11. I see no authority under that statute granting a noncharter Code City the authority to regulate cheese,” Spence wrote. “In fact, a Boolean search of that chapter shows no results for the word ‘cheese.’” “Your Executive Order 121212 is therefore beyond your power, known in the law as ‘ultra vires,’” the attorney added.