Whereas…

WHEREAS, during his tenure, there have been numerous complaints from five active members of the City Council and the City Manager, but zero complaints from staff, regarding his attempts to do his job in a perfectly reasonable manner, and

WHEREAS, before Councilmember Harris’ first meeting with the City Manager in 2020, the City had already implemented a card key system which prevents any contact with City staff, has refused to schedule meetings with the Councilmember, take or return his phone calls, reply to dozens of reasonable requests for information, ordered staff to have no contact with the Councilmember, even outside the workplace, and has attempted to convince staff members at other agencies, including WSDOT and the Port of Seattle to avoid the Councilmember, and

WHEREAS, despite the implementation of all these unethical protocols, Councilmember Harris has continued to try to do his job to the best of his ability in a manner consistent with that of electeds across the State of Washington, including being the only member of the Des Moines City Council to receive accreditation by the Association of Washington Cities, and

WHEREAS, on December 9, 2022, a staff member sent an email informing Human Resources and her supervisor that the previous night she had been confronted by Councilmember Harris and that she felt intimidated by this encounter, and

WHEREAS, the encounter occurred immediately after a Council
meeting in the well-lit, video-taped, main entry way to City Hall, in the presence of at least two passers-by, and

WHEREAS, the staff member reported Councilmember Harris used
one ‘four letter’ word during a calm, ninety second conversation where he expressed his concern over being excluded from the single fifteen-minute opportunity he had been offered to meet with staff during the entire year, and expressing his hope that in her new position, they might avoid such communication mishaps in the coming year, and then departed by wishing her a Merry Christmas, and

WHEREAS, despite the fact that this was the first and only one-on-one interaction the Councilmember has ever had with the employee, rather than informing Councilmember Harris of the employee’s concerns per the City of Des Moines Personnel Manual Section 2-6, instead, the City immediately retained an outside attorney to conduct a third-party investigation, but did not provide either the video or chain of communication to Councilmember Harris as requested, and

WHEREAS, the result of the investigation confirmed that Councilmember Harris used the word “unremarkable” to describe the repeated use of small amounts of profanity by the City Manager, several top staff he has encountered, as well as seven of the eight current and former members of City Council he has worked with, in multiple cases in the presence of members of the public, and

WHEREAS, the verbal abuse of a staff member is inappropriate
in any work setting, and to completely misrepresent Councilmember Harris’ use of the word “unremarkable” to make such a false claim provides further evidence of the administration and council majority’s coordinated and ongoing bullying behavior towards Councilmember Harris, and

WHEREAS, Councilmember Harris has never been advised by either the City Administration or members of the City Council that his treatment of City staff was unacceptable, but have instead committed numerous acts of unprofessional, unethical and petty behavior both in private and in public, and