Vancouver City Councilor Jeanne Harris sent an e-mail to her colleagues and the city manager Monday afternoon, saying that she accepts a report by an ethics committee and apologized again for her actions during a Sept. 13 council meeting.
The city council tonight will decide whether to accept recommendations from a three-person ethics committee to remove her from all council-appointed boards and commissions.
Harris is in Germany on a privately-funded fellowship until Oct. 19. Here’s the full text of her e-mail:
“I’ve read the recommendation of the ethics committee.
This has been a very difficult time for everyone involved and its most important that we move forward and move on.
The ethics committee has spent much time reviewing the facts of this incident and made its recommendation to council. The decision of council will be the appropriate action.
There are no words to describe how I feel about what happened. How I reacted was unacceptable and I take full responsibility for my actions.
To my community, my family, my fellow councilmembers and mayor and to the employees of the City of Vancouver I’m asking you to accept my sincerest heartfelt apology for my actions at the council meeting on September 13, 2010.”
Harris was found by the ethics committee — made up of Councilors Jack Burkman, Larry Smith and Pat Campbell — to have violated the city ethics policy by failing to treat Mayor Tim Leavitt and Councilor Jeanne Stewart with respect.
Harris demanded that Leavitt “gavel down” a community speaker and quarreled twice with Stewart.
The ethics committee also chided her for the way she dealt with anti-tolling and light-rail citizen speakers, however, the council’s ethics policy has no stipulations on how a councilor must interact with the public. The council is planning to update its policies before the end of the year.
City Attorney Ted Gathe has said that Harris would have had to commit moral turpitude or a criminal action for the city council to remove her from her seat.
Harris, who has been on the council since 1996, is on many influential boards and commissions, including C-Tran and the Regional Transportation Council. She was to chair both those boards next year. The council’s sanction against her would last until 2012.
For the full story, read Tuesday’s edition of The Columbian.
