Dayton City Council hears library tax concern

DAYTON — Newly elected Mayor Roger Trump called the Dayton City Council to order at 6:00 p.m., January 9, 2024. Mayor Roger Trump and council members Teeny McMunn, James Su’euga, Michael Smith, Kyle Anderson, Joann Patras, Laura Aukerman, and Shannon McMillen were present in City Hall.

Sheriff Joe Helm reported that his department is emphasizing monitoring Bluewood traffic on North Touchet Road and Fourth Street in response to citizens’ concerns. He said he is continuing to work with the city on how to respond to animal bite calls.

After completing routine administrative business, the council elected McMunn as the Mayor Pro-Tem. Aukerman was the only dissenting vote.

The council passed a revision to the city employee credit card policy, followed by authorization to provide the mayor and city clerk stipends for cell phones used for city business. Aukerman and Patras voted against authorizing the cell phone stipends.

The council updated the employee holiday policy. It authorized the mayor to sign an agreement continuing the city’s membership in the Washington Cities Workers Compensation Retrospective Rating Program.

After these actions, the council entered an executive session to discuss litigation against the city.

Mayor Trump asked Aukerman to excuse herself from the executive session due to a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Aukerman said, “You need to tell me what it’s about before I can recuse myself. Just to say ‘litigation’ isn’t sufficient. I’m being sued as well, as the city is being sued for the Public Records Act. I’m not suing the city. So, as far as I’m concerned, I’m a council member who deserved to - at a minimum – be in executive session to be able to discuss my side and be able to talk to every one of you face-to-face and say, ‘hey, this is what’s happening.”

Megan Clark, the attorney assigned by AWC (Association of Washington Cities) for this matter, then joined the meeting on Zoom. Clark advised that it might be better for Aukerman to contact her counsel and advised a brief recess for Aukerman to do so.

The mayor paused the regular meeting to go into two executive sessions, the first session with Aukerman attending and the second without.

The council resumed the public session with committee reports. Reporting for Public Safety, Anderson said he had met with the owner of McQuary’s Grocery Store and subsequently removed the roof at no cost to the city. Previous windstorms had peeled back the metal roof, which was in danger of completely detaching.

In the final public comment period, Katie Roughton said she was concerned about where her tax money was going, leading her to look at the Rural Public Library District. Roughton said she found that a city annexed into a rural district can place a public referendum on the ballot to withdraw from the library district under Washington law. She said the library would remain open, but the city would no longer pay taxes towards it, and the library building and all the fixtures would return to the city. Roughton said the saved taxes could be used for a fire station or public safety building. She questioned, “Could that money be utilized by the sheriff’s office, so our water bills don’t go up?”

Chuck Beleny, a library trustee, suggested that the city consider how much tax money is collected from its property owners and county taxpayers to see how losing the city taxes would affect the library. He estimated that only around $100,000 is collected from the city, and since the library’s budget is over $501,000, it would still be able to function “pretty smoothly.”

Theresa Eier joined public comment over Zoom. She said that the city council should consider sanctioning Laura Aukerman, at which point the mayor interrupted and told her that the city couldn’t speak to that matter since it is in litigation. Eier said she would bring it up again after the litigation is over. The mayor then had the speaker muted on Zoom.

Marcene Hendrickson commented that money saved by leaving the library district probably could not be used for other city projects because it was taxed specifically to support the Library.

The mayor adjourned the council meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 6 p.m.