Comments again heat up commission meeting

Well laid plans sometime just don’t work out.

That was the scene at Monday’s Grand Coulee Civil Service meeting at city hall.

Commissioners discussed what went wrong at their last meeting when police officer/private citizen Sean Cook, got into it with commission Chair Alan Cain.

Commissioners decided at the front of Monday’s meeting to allow persons wishing to address the commission three minutes, with an extension at the request of a commissioner.

They also decided that commissioners wouldn’t respond to comments made from the floor.

Barely had they finished setting up these procedures when Cook came into the meeting. He apologized for being late and stated that he had been advised through the city clerk’s office that the meeting began at 6 p.m.

Cook continued where he left off a month earlier questioning commissioners on how they handled the scoring on potential officer candidates and why veterans were not given required preference points. He stated again that commissioners had broken state law when they failed to do so.

Commission Secretary Kathy Carroll said she spent considerable time reviewing the scoring and that it wouldn’t have made any difference in the outcome, and apologized again for not knowing about the veteran preference scoring provision.

Cook asked when he could expect replies to a number of questions he had asked, to which Cain said, maybe by 30 days after the city’s attorney was consulted.

Then Cook said, “In 30 days then?”

Cain replied that Cook was causing a “hostile environment” in the meeting and was playing “gotcha” with the commissioners.

“Are you accusing us of a crime?” Cain asked. “Am I going to have you at my door at midnight arresting me?”

Cook had explained that he was there as a private citizen and wasn’t representing the police department.

“I have a right to be here,” he said. “Are you saying that I can’t exercise my rights?”

Cain responded, “You are a bloody bully.”

The exchanges continued after the meeting.