Lessons from World War I

Do these quotations seem relevant?

"First, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost."

Austrian satirist Karl Kraus in Die Fackel, 1917

"Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide."

French soldier Henri Barbusse in his novel Le Feu, 1915

"...and all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride..."

British philosopher Bertrand Russell, 1914

I heard it through the grapevine

  Got a call the other day about what's going on at Pacific City Council. Now you may think that gossip is a poor substitute for first hand observation, and that I should go to the meetings myself. But really now, what's left to learn?

More than 40 years ago I joined a group of friends on a tour of Seattle's Fircrest School for developmentally disabled. You only need to visit bedlam once to get the picture. And from what I understand, Monday night's council meeting wasn't as irrational as Fircrest School's residents, but it was nutty enough. Things like Mayor Cy Sun interfering with the council's ability to vet an appointment, insisting that this will take place in a council workshop, where, as I recall tradition, the mayor has no standing other than as a spectator. (Where does he get the idea that HE sets the workshop agenda? How the council does its confirmations is THEIR business.) So he insists that his appointee for some position or another can't speak, even though she would like to. (After he leaves, the council briefly considers whether they should go ahead and vet the appointee without him, but decides to wait.)

Then Mayor Sun tells one irate speaker from the audience he can't hear him no matter how loud he speaks, but he declines to use a hearing device the council specifically purchased to help him with his profound hearing loss. Then he abandons the meeting, leaving the council to muddle ahead without him, and without knowing how he will respond to any decisions they make, because he isn't there, but privately knowing that it wouldn't matter anyway, because whatever he says today won't apply tomorrow.

This is what I call trying to make sense out of nonsense. I could just as easily have held a symposium on Newtonian physics for the residents of Fircrest.

Whether my understanding of the meeting is accurate or not — gossip being what it is — it's close enough. There are some experiences you just want to repeat over and over again — a great steak, lovely music, fabulous sex, a Lay's potato chip.  You want more than one. But fruitcake? Who needs more fruitcake? You know it's always going to taste the same.

One of the last times I talked to Cy Sun he slapped his fist into his palm and said he was going to get rid of all of them. As I look back on that, I thought he was talking about the council, but maybe he was talking about the staff. But would it matter what he meant?

I understand that there is at least one experienced elected official who believes the City of Pacific can muddle ahead even if it loses its insurance after December 31. Nutty as that sounds to me, it's no nuttier than the ongoing charade that transpires at every council meeting.

As it now stands, it seems as if the recall committee will not be able to have its recall election until after the first of the year, well past the time when the city is set to lose its insurance. But if the city can continue to operate past that point, then maybe a recall vote would mean something.

Otherwise, Sun's game plan would seem to be to run out the clock — do just enough to keep from being thrown in jail for contempt, all the while knowing that after December 31 he may well have made good on his plan to fire them all.

If Mr. Sun doesn't succeed in doing the Samson thing—bringing the walls down around his head — he may have provided an incalculable service to the city.

I can even imagine that some day the residents of Pacific will erect a statue to Cy Sun the same way the residents of Enterprise, Alabama, erected a statue to the boll weevil. Here's what Wikipedia says about that:

  

As a tribute to how something disastrous can be a catalyst for change, and a reminder of how the people of Enterprise adjusted in the face of adversity, the monument was dedicated on December 11, 1919 at the intersection of College and Main Street, the heart of the town's business district.

 

For many years, the Pacific City Government needed to be whupped upside the head, and Cy Sun in his own malevolent ineffectual way, has done just that. And the whupping has gone on and on and on and on, just like the Eveready Bunny.

So my question to all the city fathers and mothers of Pacific is this: Have you learned a valuable lesson from this long nightmare? Wanna do this again? I'll bet you CAN eat just one.

The News on Jan 31, 2013

Imagine that it is Jan 31, 2013.

Due to a recalibration of the Mayan Calendar, Dec. 21, 2012 turned out not to be the date when the earth came to an end. That's now projected for a little more than a century from now. Some sort of bug in the Mayan calculations. You'll have to wait a bit longer for the end of the world.

However, the City of Pacific lost its insurance coverage on December 31, 2012, and ceased to operate. And just as with the mistake over the Mayan calendar, it was no big deal.

Chicken Little's prediction about the sky falling in turned out to be true, but that only amounted to the winter overcast being down at ground level, and everyone immediately recognized that as a common phenomenon in the Puget Sound region. We know it as fog. Walking around in a fog was nothing new for the residents of Pacific, particularly for their elected officials. They just walked right through those great big chunks of sky that were piled up in the yards and on the roofs, hanging from the trees and laying around in the streets.

Within a month, an emergency water district was created and the water kept flowing. Toilets kept flushing.

Fire protection continued to be provided by the Regional Fire Authority.

There were no longer any local police, but there was no great outburst of lawlessness either. There never had been a threat of lawlessness, raising the question as to what we accomplished with 24-hour police protection. This made one humorist talk about the guy who put lettuce in his hair to keep the elephants away. (It worked! There were absolutely no elephants anywhere in Pacific.)

The end of the police department came with a benefit: Drivers didn't have to spend all their time looking in their rear-view mirrors for the blinking lights of the revenue collectors, and they could pay more attention to the road ahead of them.

Of course, former public officials drove drunk just like always, but they really weren't much of a threat. They managed to miss everyone in the past, and as long as you knew they were coming, you could just get out of the way.

Most of the senior citizens were already using the senior center in Auburn, and those who weren't were bused into Auburn. They took it all in stride and enjoyed the change of scenery. When you're that old, a bus ride out of Pacific can be an adventure.

Without city officials to dump fill dirt and other materials in the city park, the risk of flooding dropped dramatically.

Waste Management, a national firm, continued picking up the garbage and billing the residents.

A handful of individuals were inconvenienced, but the biggest aggravation was the lack of excitement. The thrill of seeing who was being excoriated in the media each week was over and done with, and Pacific residents now had to revert to late-night TV reruns for their entertainment. Pacific became a really boring, peaceful little neighborhood. Nobody was pleased about that.

This is really Rich!

News item: among the people who are suing the City of Pacific is former Mayor Richard Hildreth, who is claiming $500,000 in damages to his reputation.

This is the mayor who 

• was insulting and demeaning to individuals  when they tried to speak to the city council
• participated in a raid on a church to arrest a youthful skateboarder
• sent out a news release practically identifying the victim of a home burglary and assault, including noting that the individual was an elderly man who kept cash in his house and explaining how the burglar gained entry
• used public moneys to augment his salary by sending himself to school for his next career
• illegally used a city credit card to travel all over the country for his own self development
• exacerbated the city's flooding problem with ground work on the banks of the Stuck River
• publicly endorsed an effort by the city's police command staff to violate the First Amendment rights of people to complain about police conduct by threatening to arrest demonstrators in violation of law
• defamed an individual for making a public records request
• overlooked the findings by an outside police agency that his public safety director misused his power
• distributed to the city council the beating photos of a domestic violence victim in order to discredit her
• hounded a long-serving member of the parks board off that board
• made naked power grabs at every opportunity and displayed a continuous disregard for the truth
• finally became so unpopular with the electorate that an incompetent and unknown challenger defeated him handily on a write-in ballot; 
• and who seemed incapable of ever assigning credit to others for work well done.

If Mr. Hildreth wants reparations for damage to his reputation, he might start by suing himself.

Cy Sun: Pacific writ small

For the committee to recall Cy Sun, the light may be beginning to dawn that the clock will run out before the recall can offer any positive resolution to Pacific's ongoing crisis. With fewer than 90 days left before the city's insurance is set to be cancelled, City attorney Ken Luce has already advised the council to prepare a contingency plan for bankruptcy and dissolution of the city.

Primarily, it is Mayor Sun who is blamed as the reason why the city has come to this state.

That makes Cy Sun a pretty bad actor in the eyes of many.

But here's a simple truth to consider: Most of the vices attributed to Mr. Sun were vices practiced by his predecessors. Cy Sun is essentially Pacific city politics, distilled into a single individual. He has been accused of sexual misconduct; being a bully; being arbitrary, capricious and insulting; destroying records; firing people without cause; lying; grandstanding; being disruptive; violating law; misusing the police -- you name it, and he's accused of it. But none of this is new in Pacific. This kind of behavior has been tolerated for years by individuals who knew better and were in a position to oppose that behavior. In that climate, it was politically risky to speak out.

There is one thing no-one has accused Mayor Sun of yet -- being a drunk driver, or even a drunk. That distinguishes him from a number of the luminaries whose performance has led to the state of affairs which resulted in Mr. Sun's being elected in the first place.

I'm not surprised that Pacific is losing its insurance coverage. What intrigues me is why it took so long.

Sign of the Times

News item: Committee to recall (Pacific Mayor) Cy Sun reports that claims against the city now exceed $11 million, and the city's total insurance coverage is only $10 million. Meanwhile City Attorney Ken Luce has advised the city council that within 90 days the city could lose its insurance coverage and the council should develop a contingency plan for disincorporation and possible bankruptcy.

Another fly in the ointment

One of the demands placed on the City of Pacific by its insurance carrier is that it hire competent staff to head its departments. One position which has been filled recently is that of the Public Safety Director. John Calkins has been restored to that position after successfully fighting his termination earlier this year by Pacific Mayor Cy Sun. Now that Mr. Calkins is back on the job, maybe he can correct an error his department has apparently made that affects the employability of a former Pacific firefighter.

On August 16, 2012, Tyler K. Firkins, an attorney for the Auburn law firm of Van Siclen, Stocks & Firkins, sent a letter to Pacific City Attorney Ken Luce, claiming that Pacific is disseminating false information about this former employee, Tom Jowers. Mr. Jowers drew mention a year ago on this blog with regard to official city documents relating to him which, on their face, were contradictory and not credible. They bore what was purported to be his signature and said he had been reprimanded for an infraction, with the reprimand coming before the order was even given to perform the reprimand. Jowers claims that he didn't sign that document and that his signature was forged.

Regarding this more current complaint, Mr. Firkins' letter states that the "City of Pacific is maintaining and disseminating information it knows to be false pertaining to (Tom Jowers):"

"The city of Pacific, and John Calkins, then Chief Calkins, authored a letter dated November 20, 2006, terminating the employment of Mr. Jowers. The letter contained a number of false statements and inaccurate information."

Firkins states that an administrative law judge found many of the city's allegations to be untrue, and the city continued to maintain that information and disseminated false information to the Tacoma School District. 

The attorney said this action by the city violated Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 357-22-040 and asked that the false information be removed and destroyed and that the city "send a letter to the Tacoma School District indicating that the information provided was inaccurate."

Mr. Jowers tells me that, as of this writing, the City of Pacific has not taken steps to correct this alleged code violation and damage to his reputation.

What we are describing here is an action by the City of Pacific that interfers with a former employee's ability to find work.

City Attorney Ken Luce has already advised the council the city may be bankrupt in 90 days. If Mr. Firkins' allegations are correct, it would be a great kindness--not to mention an ethical obligation--to clear up the record on Mr. Jowers while there is still a city government that can do that.

It would also be a sign of respect to the committee seeking to save the city by recalling Mayor Cy Sun. Presumably the members of that committee are operating on the presumption that the City of Pacific is an honorable institution.

The Reckoning

Item: City attorney advises (Pacific City) council to consider disincorporation as a contingency. [Link: Committee to Recall Cy Sun]

Remember Robert W. Service, described as the "Bard of the Yukon"? He wrote the Cremation of Sam McGee and The Spell of the Yukon. Well, he also wrote another poem that the voters in Pacific, its city employees and its elected officials, both past and present, might take to heart. He named it...

The Reckoning

It's fine to have a blow-out in a fancy restaurant,
With terrapin and canvas-back and all the wine you want;
To enjoy the flowers and music, watch the pretty women pass,
Smoke a choice cigar, and sip the wealthy water in your glass.
It's bully in a high-toned joint to eat and drink you fill,
But it's quite another matter when you

Pay the bill.

It's great to go out every hight on fun or pleasure bent;
To wear your glad rags always and to never save a cent;
To drift along regardless, have a good time every trip;
To hit the high spots sometimes, and to let your chances slip;
To know you're acting foolish, yet to go on fooling still,
Till Nature calls a show-down, and you

Pay the Bill.

Time has got a little bill--get wise while yet you may,
For the debit side's increasing in a most alarming way;
The things you had no right to do, the things you should have done,
They're all put down; it's up to you to pay for every one.
So eat, drink and be merry, have a good time if you will,
But God help you when the time comes, and you

Foot the bill.