Bar grievance filed against Renton city attorney over library email

Published 3:39 pm Monday, September 24, 2012

A member of the Renton Advocacy Coalition has filed a grievance against Renton City Attorney Larry Warren for what she describes as a mocking tone about citizen activists.

Beth Asher of Renton filed the grievance against Warren with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel of the Washington State Bar Association.

She filed the grievance and wrote a letter to the editor after obtaining an exchange of emails Tuesday, Sept. 18, between Warren and Rich Zwicker, the president of the City Council, in which Zwicker asked that a city attorney attend Committee of the Whole meetings.

Zwicker said Monday he had assumed that a city attorney “was available at most, if not all” council Committee of the Whole meetings.

“When I learned that was not the case on Sept. 17, I thought it would be useful to make a standing request for the remainder of my term as council president,” he said

Zwicker said that “having a city attorney attend meetings would be useful if any council member had a legal question regarding a topic being covered in COW,” he said.

An attorney from the City Attorney’s Office, typically Warren, attends all regular meetings of the City Council after Committee of the Whole meetings.

Warren responded later Tuesday morning to Zwicker’s request:

“With apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson:

Citizen activists to the left of them

Citizen activists to the right of them

Down into the Valley of COW go the four.”

“We will be at future COW meetings.”

In her grievance, Asher wrote:

“While I have to admit the literary reference is funny, the satirical tone is not. This is a prime example of how citizens are mocked and regarded as nuisances. Our input is not wanted or respected. We are not nuisances, we ARE the government. We pay Larry Warren’s retainer and Rich Zwicker’s salary!”

In an interview Warren said he was “astounded that anyone could take offense at what I stated. In order to be offended, you have to assume that citizen activist is a pejorative term. I certainly don’t.”

Warren said he himself has been a citizen activist and so have nearly all the City Council members and Mayor Denis Law.

The reference to “four” in the email is to himself and to the three assistant city attorneys who could attend the Committee of the Whole meetings.

Zwicker said he’s not speaking for the entire council, but personally he’s “very disappointed” with the email Warren sent to the council and the city attorney’s staff.

“While I assume he was making an attempt at humor, I was not amused,” he said, and he said he made his displeasure known to the city administration Monday morning.

“In my opinion this is a personnel matter and one that is to be handled by the administration and I leave it in their hands,” he said.

Warren and Zwicker said they hadn’t had a chance to speak with each other Monday morning. But when they do, Zwicker said he plans to “express my disappointment to him directly.”

Zwicker said he “absolutely” believes that “citizen input is important, not just at council meetings, but through phone calls, email and personal contact.  My record shows that I constantly strive for opportunities to make sure that citizens have access to council and the city.”

He pointed out he made it clear to the city administration that the public be part of the design process for the Cedar River library, saying he’s “proud to have taken a leadership role in the dynamic process we created to allow just that.”

Warren said Monday he was trying to be “light-hearted” in responding to Zwicker.

Warren said he goes out of his way to not be insulting about members of the  public and will often talk with the public about being more effective with the council.

Warren said he was surprised by Zwicker’s request, although it was a reasonable one.

A member of the City Attorneys Office typical attends fewer than 10 percent of all City Council committee meetings, Warren said. A number of those meetings related directly to the City Attorney’s Office, he said; typically, a city attorney will attend about 25 percent of Committee of the Whole meetings.

In an interview, Asher said her “strong reaction to the email was occasioned a lot by surprise.”

She indicated she thought the city was “making a genuine effort to work with residents and was taking our offer of help seriously.” The coalition has offered its own experts to the City Council to help council members understand the issues surrounding the development of new libraries.

“The fact that Larry Warren copied all the council and another lawyer as if to let them in on the joke – the joke being us – upset me,” she said. “Having seen the uphill struggle of residents to be heard on one issue, you can imagine how this email appeared,” she said. “We genuinely wanted to work with the city and bring our talents and time to them, but this email makes it look like we’re regarded as a humorous nuisance.”

The Renton Advocacy Coalition was formed following the Aug. 7 election in which voters opted to refurbish the Cedar River library, rather than build a new one at the Piazza.  The coalition intends to bring public concerns to the attention of City Hal.