The sparring between Councilors Jeanne Harris and Jeanne Stewart Monday is part of what have been called “long simmering tensions” between the two long time city councilors.
Harris, who has been on the council for 14 years, and Stewart, a nine-year veteran, have long been like “oil and water,” Harris said Thursday.
The two sit next to each other based on a council policy that lines members up along the bench based on seniority.
Harris said the two have tried before to make peace and even went to lunch together in January but couldn’t find common ground.
The pair sniped at each other as recently as August, during a discussion about an ordinance and again during citizen communications.
Harris said that the way she acted Monday was not the way to handle the situation.
But she called Stewart “calm, cool, collected and conniving,” in the way she takes her shots, getting under her skin until she finally lost her temper.
Harris erupted during the meeting, calling on Mayor Tim Leavitt to “gavel down” an anti-tolling speaker after he and others addressed individual city council members. After Leavitt did not call the speaker out, she packed up her bag and left the chambers herself.
Harris called into question Stewart’s motives for defending the anti-tolling speakers, saying that Stewart was in collusion with them. When Stewart said that was not the case, Harris scoffed, “get out of here.”
She also told Stewart to “shut up,” after Stewart told Harris she “needed to fix herself” and “to get sane” when Harris confronted her colleague after the meeting.
Stewart stays mum
Stewart said Thursday that “I’m not going to talk about any of that.”
The fact the two don’t get along is a “total red herring” in Monday’s incident.
“Professionalism is professionalism,” she said. “Our obligation to that is the issue and that’s the focus.”
Leavitt said Thursday that the city council will form a three person ethics committee to look into the incident at their meeting on Sept. 20.
Harris has asked to be excused from the next four meetings; earlier this summer she was awarded a John Jay McCloy fellowship through the International Council of National League of Cities to travel Germany with other city leaders from around the United States.
