Black Diamond majority sticks to voters’ decisions | Letter to the Editor

Black Diamond voters created a new City Council majority and ousted (Craig) Goodwin and (Ron) Taylor last year because the voters didn't get what they wanted from them.

Black Diamond voters created a new City Council majority and ousted (Craig) Goodwin and (Ron) Taylor last year because the voters didn’t get what they wanted from them.

The new majority of (Erika) Morgan, (Brian) Weber and (Pat) Pepper has been repeatedly and unfairly attacked for sticking to its voter directive to reform city hall. Mayor (Carol) Benson and Council member (Janie) Edelman have “framed” them over and over with false issues that Benson improperly demands a vote on at council meetings.

Benson has hired two attorneys with a contract to work only at the direction of the mayor and the attorney is never asked to consider the council’s position. The mayor won’t admit that at least four attorneys now say the new council rules, which include a more public and thorough review process, are legal. Instead, the mayor keeps wasting our time and taxpayer money fighting. It’s clear she doesn’t like the fact that the new process protects the council’s authority under state law instead of handing that authority over to the mayor.

Lots of defeated former Black Diamond politicians don’t like “change.” I saw them recently and realized the entire crew leading the way in smearing the new council majority is made up of past politicians who lost elections and/or their family members.

The wife of a council member ousted in 2015 comes to every council meeting to attack the new City Council majority, often with verifiably false accusations. There are three people who got only 25 percent of the vote in 2011 and 2013. There is also defeated former mayor (Rebecca) Olness and two other council candidates who ran and lost in 2013. There are also a couple of spouses of past candidates who lost as well.

Of course Mayor Benson, council members Edelman and (Tamie) Deady usually including their spouses. These current elected officials did not have opponents in the last election but strongly sided with losing candidates Goodwin and Taylor. They have been trying to make up a case to force Black Diamond’s 2016 elected council majority out of office, so they can put in one of these former candidates. Don’t believe the false accusations. Their real agenda is to change back to a status quo, YarrowBay majority.

Judy Baxley

Black Diamond