By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM – Sequim City Councilman Brandon Janisse believes the City has some serious public relations issues to address, both here at home and on a national level.
“Unfortunately, Sequim’s been in the media a lot recently and, you know, not all of it is good.”
Between the highly divisive issue of the Jamestown Tribe’s MAT clinic, Mayor Armacosts’s widely publicized QAnon views and the recent forced resignation of City Manager Charlie Bush for reasons still undisclosed, Janisse thinks the citizens of Sequim have a lot of questions that deserve to be answered, and he intends to call for more transparency among his fellow councilmembers at next Monday’s council meeting.
Janisse is most concerned about the Charlie Bush issue. The discussions among the council, prior to the 4-2 vote to ask Bush for his resignation, we’re done in closed executive session at Mayor Armacost’s insistence, despite Janisse’s call to let the public in on the conversation.
“Charlie wasn’t some, you know, low-level employee, just starting out, that’s on a probationary period. No, he was a City Manager that, obviously, leaves the city. So losing him, regardless of why we’re losing him, can create a huge ripple effect that can have profound implications for the city. And I think the people deserve to know why this is happening, instead of, you know, getting behind closed doors and just dumping it on the City’s doorstep.”
The only reason given to the public for Bush’s ouster has been from the Mayor himself, repeated ad nauseum in a recent appearance on KSQM’s broadcast of “Coffee With The Mayor”.
“Again, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but we have philosophical differences between the City Council and the City Manager.”
Whatever those differences are, they appear to have not been discussed even in the closed-door meeting, as evidenced by these words from Councilman Tom Ferrell, who was present at the meeting, in an email sent to KONP.
“I think it would have been valuable to ensure the community understands why Charlie was asked to resign as an example of openness as I, myself still do not know why the Mayor introduced and voted yes, along with three others, on his resignation request. If you ever find out why four councilors voted for him to resign, be sure to let me know because I have no idea other than my private speculation!”
Janisse has asked the City Clerk to include on next week’s Council agenda his request to the rest of the Council to openly discuss the issue, and to generally communicate to the citizens of Sequim that members of the Council are listening to their concerns and will make an effort to improve public relations, the Council’s image in general, and find ways to rebuild the public’s trust.