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My View:
The Essence of Bruce
Rath
Does He Kiss His Grandchildren with that Mouth?
by Dixie A. Walter
March 31, 2008
I published an editorial
March 18 (see below), regarding
Town Councilmember
Bruce Rath's offensive attack on Steve Lind at a public
meeting. I said Rath was an embarrassment to the community. At that
time no one had any idea the audio of Rath's foul-mouthed verbal
attack, and threats, directed at Citizen Journalist Steve Lind, would
become a major story outside the Eatonville area.
Embarrassment, you bet. But Rath isn't the
only one at fault. Mayor Tom Smallwood and Councilmember Brenden Pierce have also embarrassed the community with inane excuses for
allowing Rath to behave like a dirty-mouthed, petulant child.
However, on Sunday, March 30, the News Tribune published
the story and put a life-sized spotlight on Rath's behavior. The
edited version of the tirade was played on KIRO AM radio Sunday
evening. And, I'm told, there are Web sites playing it also, although
I have not heard them.
When this recorded verbal attack against Lind happened,
March 12, he went through the audio and bleeped the offensive
words. I transcribed the exchange from the edited tape. Because of
this editing I didn't know which words were used, and put comic book
scribbles for obscenity in the blank spaces.
The editorial has been altered to reflect the language
used. The original version of this editorial can be seen below the
new
version. I haven't changed the content of my opinion.
Since this story about the aggressive, malicious
harangue by Rath I have heard many comments from townspeople, none
of them even close to condoning the behavior. Now, since the Tribune
story broke, comments are coming from people outside our immediate
area.
Tribune
Article Sparks Much Interest...
To read the Tribune article by
Melissa Santos please see
City official berates man The News Tribune.com
.
There is a public comment section that can be read on the site
also. Some of the comments are very interesting, one comparing
Eatonville to Roy where three city officials are under investigation.
"Next Thing you know Eatonville is going to be asking the city of Roy
for advice on how to run a city," said the writer.
Another writer said he or she had listened to Lind
"berate a city employee during a public meeting" and wasn't
surprised to hear people are tired of him. I found this interesting as
I attend most council meetings and have attended too many planning
commission meetings to count. I also record the meetings, and have for
years. I have never heard Steve Lind "berate" anyone. I have never
heard him raise his voice, threaten or swear at anyone.
Lind does, at times, bring up issues
concerning laws and the town code not being followed. And that makes
some people angry. It doesn't make me angry, but then, I'm not the
one playing loose with laws.
Rath has been involved in town government for many years. He is a
former mayor, appointed, and presently on
the council
where he was unopposed. You would think in all that time he would be
aware of the laws governing public meetings.
But his response to Lind about public meetings really gives good
insight into how he feels about them.
"I
don't give a S-
- -
if they are public meetings," was his answer when Lind pointed
out he had the right to record, and publish what was done and said at
public meetings.
Rath is quoted in the Tribune as saying, "He
just goes to meetings and harasses people, and I’d just had enough
that day. Nobody can stand him.”
in reference to Lind. Mayor Tom Smallwood, whose leadership weakness
is apparent, is also quoted.
He states Lind and Rath have had an "antagonistic
relationship for a while."
Adding, "Steve was sort of pushing his buttons and he just lost
it." Smallwood mentioned that "...Bruce was wrong for what he did..."
and knows he was "wrong."
Councilmember Brenden Pierce who chairs
the Utility Committee meeting where the crude intimidation
occurred said
he would have stopped Rath if the meeting had been
called to order. That's a laugh, and I don't believe it for a minute.
In fact, I doubt that scenario even entered Pierce's mind during the
nasty attack. Smallwood and Rath are in lockstep with him. Their
excuse for letting Rath rant on for over a minute and a half is that
the meeting hadn't started yet.
I
Say, "Baloney"
I say, "Baloney." Since Pierce
didn't stop Rath, Mayor Smallwood should have. The buck still stops at
his desk. If there has been an antagonistic relationship between
Lind and Rath I sure haven't seen it. Lind has not attacked Rath on
his Web site nor at public meetings. If questioning this
administration about the way they ignore laws and procedures is
harassing, then other citizens, myself included, are harassing them
also.
Again I say, "Baloney." There is
absolutely no evidence Lind was "pushing [Rath's] buttons." He didn't
have time to push Rath's buttons because Rath was late to the
meeting and had to be called to attend. So what do we have here? The
excuses: Rath had a bad day, the meeting hadn't started, no one can
stand Lind and Rath knows he was wrong.
"Baloney" once more. There is no excuse
for what happened at that committee meeting. Who cares if Bruce
Rath had a
bad day? Who cares if every person within the town limits
doesn't like Steve Lind? Who cares if the meeting hadn't started? In a
photo on Lind's site it sure looks like something was happening in
that room, what with all the papers spread out on the table. The place
and time of the meeting were announced to the public.
There are two ways to cut that particular excuse -
either our elected official are so ignorant of public meeting laws
they really don't know the drill, or they know the laws
but were looking for wiggle room to make themselves look faultless.
Are they willing to look ignorant because ignorant to is better than
being guilty, or taking responsibility.
These people are so predictable. Steve Lind didn't
even make a comment about the intimidation tactics Rath used to
try and censor him. Lind put the entire audio of the committee meeting
on his site and only mentioned part of it had been edited for profanity.That was 18 days before the Tribune story broke. Had a
sincere apology been offered, it would have been accepted and the
entire fiasco would have been forgotten. But that was never going to
happen.
Power
Tripping, Not Attractive...
Why? Because they don't like Lind,
or anyone who questions them for that matter. For some odd reason they
seem to
believe that voters have given them some kind of free pass
to do what they want, when they want, however they want and to whom
they want. I think that's called a power trip.
Speaking of voters, interesting that "no one
can stand" Lind, yet he received 282 votes in November when
he ran against Brenden Pierce for town council. It's laughable, and
disingenuous, for Mayor Smallwood to say Lind is "anti-government"
when he has served on the planning commission, run for council and
provides a free Web site for citizens interested in Eatonville
government.
But this administration frequently "rules" by crisis
management. When they allow bad things to happen the only way out
is to blame the victim. So that's just what they tried to do. It
doesn't work anymore.
More than a few townspeople have told me
they just want Bruce Rath to resign from the council. I agree. He
should try to
scrape off the floor whatever self-respect he might have
left and give notice. But as long as his cronies on the council make
excuses for him (and themselves) for the messes they have made in our
community Rath will probably stay around and, in the end, help cause
more messes.
The whole situation is pathetic in my eyes. It is
inexcusable the mayor didn't summon some dignity of his office and
get control of the inflammatory situation.
To hear the edited and unedited versions of the Rath audio please go
here,
http://www.s-lind.com/
The
unedited version was not published until after the Tribune story
Sunday afternoon. The link will take you to clips.
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My View:
Councilman's
Language Turns Town Hall Blue...
Councilmember Bruce Rath
was appointed mayor by the council and sworn into
office March 8, 2004. He was in that position
until December 12, 2005 at which point he was sworn
into office as a council member. Rath ran unopposed
for the council position. (file photo by Dixie A.
Walter)
Rath is an Embarrassment to Town...
by Dixie A. Walter
March 18, 2008
I am truly appalled by Bruce Rath's public actions
in the past few weeks. He can't seem to keep his
mouth
shut about sensitive issues such as the safety of
citizens in this community. Rath can speak with a
very forked tongue. He sits at meetings and sounds
as if he's the one who puts public safety first and
foremost, when it comes to the fire department and
emergency medical services. Yet he publicly makes
derogatory statements about a fire commissioner in
the district Eatonville is supposedly working with.
I would think his behavior could have detrimental
effects on discussions about our safety.
His indiscreet statements were
recorded and put on Steve Lind's Web site which
covers town government. Lind has been putting
audio of various town meetings and committee
meetings online. This didn't make Rath happy at all,
so at a recent utilities committee meeting he came
unglued at Lind, threatening to break his equipment
and using the kind of profanity that might shock a
longshoreman.
The meeting was in the town
hall court room; thus, the setting is much more
intimate than meetings held in the Community
Center. I didn't attend the utilities committee
meeting as I was downstairs at a cemetery committee
meeting.
However, I've been told by witnesses that Rath started to
come out of his chair after Lind. Fortunately
nothing physical happened. Audio of Rath's
tirade can be heard on Lind's site. The audio has
been edited to bleep out the extremely offensive
language Rath hurled at Lind.
The meeting seems to start out benignly enough, although
Chair Brenden Pierce does make a reference to
Rath not
showing up since he's been so vocal about
the sewer letters. At some point it sounds like
Mayor Tom Smallwood is the person who makes a call
to Rath to remind him of the meeting. There is more
small talk as they wait for Rath to attend.
When he finally arrives it is only a matter of seconds
before the attack on Lind begins. Below is a
censored transcript of the exchange. From what I
can get from the audio, Lind begins by trying to say
something that has nothing to do with the fire
department or Rath.
Brenden Pierce, who ran against Lind for council and won,
should have had control of his meeting as the
chair. And if he
couldn't control the meeting, the
buck stops with Mayor Smallwood. He should have
stopped this fiasco the second he heard the first
rant of vulgarity. Neither of these men made an
attempt to muzzle Rath. Perhaps none of them get the
concept of "public figures" and their behavior.
No citizen would be allowed to behave in such a manner.
Where is the decorum we should expect from an
elected public
figure? Or from every elected public
figure in the room at the time? Where is the dignity
of their offices?
The Exchange...
Lind
begins to speak..."Obviously, if you look at this stuff it
doesn't..."
Rath, interrupting, and angry..."Hey, Steve, I'm gonna tell you
one thing, if you put my picture on the
F- - - - - -Web
anymore, I'm gonna tangle with you and you're going to be one
sorry
P- - - -.
You quit
F- - -
- - - with me. Do you hear me? Period."
Steve: "I'm not screwing with you..."
Rath interrupts again..."Period, you do that again at fire
meetings one more time I'm gonna take that tape recorder and
throw
that
S- - - of a B- - - - -
clear across the room, same with that camera. So my picture
better not be on your
G- - - D- - -
Web site period. Understood?"
Lind, "I
hear what you say..."
Rath, interrupting yet another time..."Yeah, I told you I don't
want S-
- - on the Web site period. Anything I say you need my permission to
put it on there or you're going to get tangled with buddy. I
don't want to hear anymore about it."
Lind: "I want to put an objection up here. This is a public
meeting Bruce."
Rath: "I don't give a S-
- -
if they are public meetings. Who the
H-
- -
do think
you are?"
Lind: "You just threatened me."
Rath: "I did not threaten your
A-
- -
or
nothing. I told you I don't want my
S-
- -,
nothing I say on the
Web
site and I don't want no pictures or
B- - - S- - - from
you. Now is that a threat? I don't want it on there. I tried to
make myself clear."
Lind:
"It's not your say to do it...you're in a public meeting, and
state laws says that anybody has a right to record it Bruce."
Rath: "You don't have a right to broadcast the
S- - - of
a B- - - - -
all
over the U. S. without my permission."
Lind:
"That's not true."
Rath:
"Yeah, it is. You want to find out the hard way, we'll go the
hard way. You better go look on your state laws again."
A t
this point Rath quiets down and Brenden Pierce, acting like
nothing unusual happened, says, "Okay, we're going to go over
the sewer letter."
Back
to Top
Back
to Front Page
My View:
Councilman's
Language Turns Town Hall Blue...
(file photo by Dixie A. Walter)
Councilmember Bruce Rath was appointed mayor by the council and
was sworn into office March 8, 2004.
He was in
the position until December 12, 2005 at which point he was sworn
into office as a council member. Rath ran unopposed for the
council position.
Rath is an Embarrassment to Town...
by Dixie A. Walter
March 18, 2008
I am truly appalled by Bruce Rath's public actions
in the past few weeks. He can't seem to keep his
mouth
shut about sensitive issues such as the safety of
citizens in this community. Rath can speak with a
very forked tongue. He sits at meetings and sounds
as if he's the one who puts public safety first and
foremost, when it comes to the fire department and
emergency medical services. Yet he publicly makes
derogatory statements about a fire commissioner in
the district Eatonville is supposedly working with.
I would think his behavior could have detrimental
effects on discussions about our safety.
His indiscreet statements were
recorded and put on Steve Lind's Web site which
covers town government. Lind has been putting
audio of various town meetings and committee
meetings online. This didn't make Rath happy at all,
so at a recent utilities committee meeting he came
unglued at Lind, threatening to break his equipment
and using the kind of profanity that might shock a
longshoreman.
The meeting was in the town
hall court room; thus, the setting is much more
intimate than meetings held in the Community
Center. I didn't attend the utilities committee
meeting as I was downstairs at a cemetery committee
meeting.
However, I've been told by witnesses that Rath started to
come out of his chair after Lind. Fortunately
nothing physical happened. Audio of Rath's
tirade can be heard on Lind's site. The audio has
been edited to bleep out the extremely offensive
language Rath hurled at Lind.
The meeting seems to start out benignly enough, although
Chair Brenden Pierce does make a reference to
Rath not
showing up since he's been so vocal about
the sewer letters. At some point it sounds like
Mayor Tom Smallwood is the person who makes a call
to Rath to remind him of the meeting. There is more
small talk as they wait for Rath to attend.
When he finally arrives it is only a matter of seconds
before the attack on Lind begins. Below is a
censored transcript of the exchange. From what I
can get from the audio, Lind begins by trying to say
something that has nothing to do with the fire
department or Rath.
Brenden Pierce, who ran against Lind for council and won,
should have had control of his meeting as the
chair. And if he
couldn't control the meeting, the
buck stops with Mayor Smallwood. He should have
stopped this fiasco the second he heard the first
rant of vulgarity. Neither of these men made an
attempt to muzzle Rath. Perhaps none of them get the
concept of "public figures" and their behavior.
No citizen would be allowed to behave in such a manner.
Where is the decorum we should expect from an
elected public
figure? Or from every elected public
figure in the room at the time? Where is the dignity
of their offices?
The Exchange...
Lind
begins to speak..."Obviously, if you look at this stuff it
doesn't..."
Rath, interrupting, and angry..."Hey, Steve, I'm gonna tell you
one thing, if you put my picture on the
$#@%%Web
anymore, I'm gonna tangle with you and you're going to be one
sorry
$#@%% .
You quit with me. Do you hear me? Period."
Steve: "I'm not screwing with you..."
Rath interrupts again..."Period, you do that again at fire
meetings one more time I'm gonna take that tape recorder
$#@%% and
throw it across the room, same with that camera. So my picture
better not be on your $#@%%
Web site period. Understood?"
Lind, "I
hear what you say..."
Rath, interrupting yet another time..."Yeah, I told you I don't
want $#@%%
on the Web site period. Anything I say you need my permission to
put it on there or you're going to get tangled with buddy. I
don't want to hear anymore about it."
Lind: "I want to put an objection up here. This is a public
meeting Bruce."
Rath: "I don't give a $#@%%
if they are public meetings. Who do you $#@%% think
you are?"
Lind: "You just threatened me."
Rath: "I did not threaten your $#@%%
or
nothing. I told you I don't want my $#@%%,
nothing I say on the
Web
site and I don't want no pictures $#@%% from
you. Now is that a threat? I don't want it on there. I tried to
make myself clear."
Lind:
"It's not your say to do it...you're in a public meeting, and
state laws says that anybody has a right to record it Bruce."
Rath: "You don't have a right to broadcast the $#@%% all
over the U. S. without my permission."
Lind:
"That's not true."
Rath:
"Yeah, it is. You want to find out the hard way, we'll go the
hard way. You better go look on your state laws again."
A t
this point Rath quiets down and Brenden Pierce, acting like
nothing unusual happened, says, "Okay, we're going to go over
the sewer letter."
You
can listen to the audio. Rath explodes just a few minutes into
the audio
http://www.s-lind.com/index_files/packetspage.html
Click on the green link, "Audio of Public Utilities 3/12/08."
You can hear the entire meeting.
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