The Yelm City Council once again postponed voting on appointments to open positions on advisory boards and commissions in Yelm at a special meeting Dec. 19.
Mayor Joe DePinto was initially slated to make the appointments on Dec. 12, but the council wanted more time to learn about the candidates. At the meeting Dec. 19, councilors again voted to postpone confirmation to gather more information.
The appointments will eventually be made in February or March, according to Mayor Joe DePinto.
During the special meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at the Yelm City Council study session, DePinto said he puts a lot of consideration into committee appointments.
“When I look at applications, I tend to look at the boards and commissions — the makeup of them with who’s on them currently and who’s applying,” DePinto said. “There’s some people on there that are mothers, fathers, educators, business owners, professionals, a whole gambit of different people.”
Slated for appointment at the Dec. 12 City Council meeting were David Johnstone and Ashley Brooks – Planning Commission; Steve Harshfield – Arts Commission; Sandi and Anne Wahrmund – Parks Advisory Committee; Nabeel Hameed and Angela Longnecker – Police Advisory Committee; Ashley Brooks – Homelessness Committee.
Councilor Joshua Crossman reiterated his stance from the City Council meeting on Dec. 12, stating it’s hard for him to confirm an appointment of an individual he has no knowledge of.
“I think we should bring this to a study session, find out which of those commissions that we need to approve as a council and which ones the mayor can assign and be good with,” Crossman said on Dec. 19. “I would make a motion that we table this vote for tonight. We have a study session and discuss, and come up with a new way for how we make these appointments.”
The motion was seconded by councilor Tracey Wood.
Councilor Brian Hess stated that there needs to be a discussion about the mayor appointment process, but if they tabled the appointments vote, the process would be postponed even further. DePinto agreed, adding if the appointments are once again pushed back, the earliest any appointment would be able to happen would be in February and could extend even further.
“Depending on how the council re-did things, I’d probably take at least a week or two to make appointments that the council has approved. If the council wants to make decisions on committees, they have to deliberate and all that,” DePinto said on Dec. 19. “We’re talking probably at the end of March to have these appointments filled.”
Councilors Wood and Holly Smith pointed out to Mayor DePinto that there was information redacted on the applications they received to look over. DePinto noted the redactions were only for phone numbers and addresses, and if they wanted that information, DePinto would’ve supplied it if requested.
“I did look at (the applications). I did send two emails. It’s not that I don’t think any of these people, your selections, are bad. It’s not that. If we’re voting on this, I think we need to do our due diligence,” Smith said. “I completely understand about the redacted information, but at the council meeting you did mention that we could reach out to these people to have an opportunity. There are a few of these applicants that I feel like I’d like to talk to if I’m making an informed decision. I understand why it’s redacted, but I’m not going to go stalk them. Some of these people I know, some of them I don’t.”
Mayor DePinto asked Kathy Linnemeyer, Yelm city clerk, to explain how the appointment works.
“What I can tell you is Resolution 635 was approved, and we’ve made several amendments to the resolution when it was originally approved in 2020 with this format. Some of the committees, even prior to that, were mayor appoints and council confirms,” Linnemeyer said. “At that time, they were all updated to be consistent in the same format where mayor appoints, council approves. If council votes to change the process, we’d make amendments to appendix 13 of the mayor-council member handbook.”
DePinto told councilors they should have mentioned the motion before.
“I try not to get involved in the policy y’all make,” DePinto said. “But I have an issue with not bringing this up at the last meeting. At the last meeting, there were concerns about not enough information being provided, and I understand that. We got you that information of all the applicants, as you requested. From what I’m hearing, it’s not necessarily the information of the applicants that you wanted, you just wanted to change the process.”
The mayor said the council’s confirmation of appointments is essentially a stamp of approval of the mayor’s choices. Councilor Joseph Richardson said this is the problem the council has with the process — considering the council’s lack of insight on the committee appointments until recently.
Councilmembers Hess and Terry Kaminski were the two ‘no’ votes on the motion. DePinto noted the appointments would be tabled until February.
Before the council could confirm DePinto’s appointments on Dec. 12, councilor Wood asked DePinto why the council has to confirm his appointments. DePinto told Wood that the “council-mayor handbook” requires confirmations of mayor-appointed applicants for commissions or advisory boards.
“If that’s the case, it feels kind of rushed because we have had no information on any of these folks,” Wood said on Dec. 12 at the Yelm City Council meeting. “To ask for a confirmation on someone I really know nothing about would be perhaps out of line.”
DePinto said this is how the city has traditionally handled appointments in the past. The mayor added, if the council would like to look over applications, he’d pass that information along to them so they could vet the applicants themselves.
“If the council didn’t have to confirm (the applicants), I’d be happy to make the appointments,” DePinto said on Dec. 12. “It’s more for a check and balance, if anything.”
Smith, like Wood, believes the council should have the opportunity to review all of the applications, including DePinto’s appointees.
“Taking your words that it’s checks and balances, which I agree with, to me it’s not prudent, or we’re not doing our due diligence if we’re going to vote on something that we have no knowledge of. If we’re going to vote on it, I believe we at least need to see the applications,” Smith said on Dec. 12. “If we’re going to vote what he’s selected on, really our due diligence would be to look at everything, correct? That’s how I see it.”
Councilor Trevor Palmer agreed with Smith, stating he’d like to look at the applications to have a broader spectrum of the appointments.
