Drew Herzig addressed the council about his dealings with
the Armory and the Friends of the Armory group.
Herzig: “I’m going to
have to go into a lot of detail so I ask your patience on this – thank
you. Early in October, 2013, I was
invited to attend a meeting on Friday, October 11th. The purpose of the meeting was to form a
board of directors for The Friends of the Astoria Armory, then organizing as a
501 c. Prior to this meeting there was
no board of directors. The meeting took
place at Craft 3 offices in Astoria. There were no City of Astoria staff present at this part of the
meeting. At the meeting I was invited to
be on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Astoria Armory.
I told those present that I could not accept
the invitation until I was sure that it would not create a conflict of
interest. I was advised to check with
the city attorney. Later that afternoon,
after being away from home, I returned to find that I had received a voice
message from Mayor Van Dusen. In the
message he told me that he had heard that I was on the board of directors of
the Friends of the Astoria Armory. He
expressed concern about the appearance of a possible conflict of interest, but
acknowledged my right to do as I thought best.
I sent an email to reply to the Mayor late Friday afternoon. In that email I said I would get off the
board immediately if there were any possibility of a conflict of interest. It would have been more accurate to have
written that I would decline the invitation to be on the board, but since the
Mayor was acting on the (news) that he had heard that I was already on the
board, I felt it would be addressing his concerns more directly to use the
wording ‘get off the board’. On Friday,
late afternoon, I also sent an email to the city attorney and city manager
requesting their opinion. I thought
about the situation overnight, and on Friday* called the president of the
Friends of Astoria Armory board of directors and told him that I felt I must
decline the invitation to be on the board to avoid giving the appearance of a
conflict of interest. I then sent an
email to Mayor Van Dusen, telling him that I’d requested that my name be taken
off the list of the Friends of the Armory Board of Directors. Again, it would have been more accurate to
say that I had declined the invitation to be on the board. Since (in) the two emails to Mayor Van Dusen
I used the terms ‘get off the board’ and
‘name taken off the list of the board of directors’, I can understand that some
people might have taken these words to mean I was actually on the Friends of
the Astoria Armory board of directors from Friday, October 11th to
Saturday, October 12th. Two
points I would like to emphasize. Firstly:
during that period from Friday, October 11th to Saturday, October 12th,
the only time period when I might legitimately be considered to have been on
the Friends of the Astoria Armory board of directors, I did not attend any
Astoria City Council meetings or executive sessions. The board did not exist prior to October 11th, and therefore I could not have been on any
board during any city council meetings or executive sessions at any previous
time, either in July, August, September 2013 or at any other time. Second is: my initial email to Mayor Van Dusen
demonstated I never refused to resign from the board. Thanks for your patience.”
Mayor Van Dusen then asked Herzig if he had relayed any
information learned in City Council executive sessions to Friends of the Armory members during his
meetings with them. Herzig answered
‘no’, then Mayor Van Dusen told the council that he had not at any time asked
Herzig for his resignation from the city council.
Mayor Van Dusen then moved on to the issue of council member
Russ Warr and Astoria Granite Works.
Council member Herzig told the council he had contacted the Oregon
Ethics commission to question whether he could vote on a no-bid contract involving
a fellow council member. Herzig stated
his communication with the Ethics Commission was only to ascertain his own
ability to participate in the vote.
Warr’s name was not mentioned in the communication. Council member Russ Warr said he would let the
incident go as a misunderstanding.
Finally the Mayor addressed council meeting protocol. The mayor stated his opinion that council
member Herzig exercised poor etiquette in his tendency to ask audience members
if there were more questions and directing people to the podium. He stated the behavior led to questions as to
who is running the meeting. Herzig
explained his own concern is to make sure that attendees fully understand the
proceedings and feel included in the process.
The Mayor then said going forward he would be sure to run a tighter
meeting.
(*complete quote transcribed from audio recording of Monday,
November 5th’s Astoria City Council meeting)
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