Around two dozen attendees once again filled the council chambers at Winlock City Hall on Monday, Feb. 9, for the Winlock City Council’s first regular meeting of the month.
During the meeting, councilors unanimously approved a lateral transfer of a new hire for the Winlock Police Department. The council also approved allowing city staff to hire an assistant city clerk by a vote of 4-1.
Additionally, the council discussed possible solutions to the lack of parking in the downtown area amid Winlock’s recent growth, amending the city’s fireworks ordinance pertaining to the allowable number of fireworks sales stands allowed in town, and whether or not the city should keep paying membership dues to the South Lewis County Chamber of Commerce.
Ultimately, all three of these issues were tabled for further discussion at future meetings.
But before all of that, Winlock Mayor Victoria Marincin read a statement during her mayor’s report at the beginning of the meeting detailing her interactions with Winlock City Attorney Jim Buzzard and his associate Marrisa Jay, who provide legal counsel for the city.
At the end of her statement, Marincin suggested the city should look for other options when it comes to municipal legal representation and said she intended to begin the contract termination process.
Marincin challenges Buzzard
When she first assumed office at the beginning of the year, Marincin stated one of the first things she did was visit Buzzard’s law office to talk with both him and Jay about the Winlock City Council’s executive sessions, possible legal issues facing the city, concerns about state Route 505 cleanup efforts and the recently approved contract renewal between Buzzard’s firm and the City of Winlock.
The contract was renewed at the end of 2025, and at the meeting when it was approved, Marincin asked during public comment why the contract was being renewed at that time.
“Mr. Buzzard then stated it was because he intended to raise the rates. When I later received the contract, I saw that the rates were not intended to be raised until 2027,” Marincin said. “When the contract came up for vote in the council meeting, Councilman (Chuck) Camps asked a direct question, ‘is that the only change?’ Mr. Buzzard nodded affirmatively and said, ‘yes.’”
She went on to call Buzzard’s statement a “knowing misrepresentation of a contract he has self-interest in.”
She also stated in the new contract that protections for the city had been removed, and confronted Buzzard about this, asking if it would be more appropriate for the city to revert to the old contract. According to Marincin, this discussion got heated.
Despite initially having a heated conversation, Marincin told attendees tensions simmered down and she and Buzzard had a discussion, in which Buzzard offered on separate occasions to draft new council procedures and rules. While Marincin did want to address that, she told Buzzard she was not ready yet.
“Imagine my surprise when council rules appeared in the middle of tonight’s budget,” Marincin said. “Following my meeting, I chose to try to work with Mr. Buzzard and see how it would go. What has happened instead is a frazzled array of mistakes and duplicated legal work that increased costs.”
As an example, Marincin brought up the computer she recently donated to the city for the mayor’s official use. She claimed she asked Buzzard how to go about donating it, and that Buzzard never informed she needed to have the donation approved by the council voting on an ordinance.
Winlock City Clerk Maureen Crabtree interjected, stating she knew the donation ordinance would be needed and was already in contact with Jay to draft one.
“But you didn’t tell me,” Marincin said.
“You didn’t ask,” Crabtree said in response.
“I asked our legal counsel right there, in that room,” Marincin said. “So I called Mr. Buzzard, we discussed his firm drafting an ordinance with de minimis exceptions. At some point, someone else contacted Mr. Buzzard’s office, and they were writing an ordinance just for the mayor’s gift. You were correct, but we did it twice. Off the cuff answers that are wrong cause mistakes. And when those mistakes involve governance, they are costly.”
While she acknowledged that Buzzard and his law firm had been representing the city a while and was well established, she likened his law practice to one of a general family doctor practitioner “who does a little bit of everything,” including municipal law.
“We need those people, but if this city, which is reportedly the fastest growing in Lewis County, truly wants to be the best, now is the time to move to a municipal law firm, a law firm that I can’t hire as a private citizen,” said Marincin.
She added she was going to start the contract termination process, and planned to have a resolution on the council’s agenda pertaining to canceling the contract for the council to vote on at the next council meeting, scheduled for Monday, Feb. 23.
“If you choose not to (terminate), that is the council’s choice. We can continue with a general practitioner who sometimes makes mistakes, but when mistakes are big, those mistakes matter,” Marincin said.
She added no matter what the council chose to do, she also planned to sign a mayoral executive order restricting how much the city can spend on legal services.
Buzzard responds
Buzzard, who was seated just a few feet away from Marincin as she made her claims, responded to the allegations, saying he was not aware the mayor intended to bring the matter up in Monday’s meeting.
As for the executive session discussion, Buzzard stated Marincin had been specifically asking about prior conversations both Buzzard and Jay had with former Winlock Mayor Brandon Svenson, who Marincin defeated in last year’s election.
“Part of the acrimonious meeting was, the mayor demanding from myself and Marissa to be informed of prior private conversations between my law firm and the former mayor, and wanting to be informed on other private, executive sessions,” Buzzard said. “Those are things I refuse to divulge, because I would afford the same (attorney-client privilege) protection to this mayor as I did for the prior mayor.”
He added when it came to his law firm’s contract with the city, he was asked specifically if any other material changes had been made to which he replied no.
“The reason for the contract change is because I was asked to do it and we were going to raise rates. We didn’t do it for 2026 because the city wasn’t prepared for it,” Buzzard said.
He added the removed protections Marincin referred to were provisions dictating that any city official or employee attempting to contact the city attorney needed to have the mayor’s approval first.
“The clerk can’t call the attorney, public works can’t call the attorney, community development cannot call the attorney, unless they have the mayor’s approval first,” said Buzzard. “That was removed, Why? Because in form and practice over the years, that’s not even practical, and it’s never used.”
As for the discussion of council rules which was on Monday’s agenda, Buzzard stated he had no knowledge of its placement on the agenda and was not involved. Winlock Mayor Pro Tem Jeramy Allman said he was the one who put that item on the agenda, which included council rules from neighboring municipalities for councilors to review.
Later during the meeting, the councilors agreed they liked some of the rules from other cities, and planned on holding a future work session to further discuss and draft council rules of their own.
As for the ordinance needed to accept Marincin’s laptop donation, Buzzard said he was never explicitly asked by the mayor about the need for an donation acceptance ordinance, and said without his guidance city staff had already set to work drafting one.
Buzzard also took offense with how Marincin described his law practice.
“I’ve been an attorney for I think, I don’t know, 24 years or so. I concentrate on wills, estates and probate, otherwise, I do municipal law,” Buzzard said. “That’s what I do. Other attorneys at my office do other things.”
Buzzard added he expected and was looking forward to a “slamming article to be in the Lewis County News about myself.”
Lewis County News editor Lynnette Hoffman was in attendance during Monday’s meeting as well seated in the back row, and was one of several in attendance who clapped following the end of Marincin’s challenge of Buzzard’s law services.
Later during the meeting, Winlock Police Chief Stephen Valentine made a plea for Marincin and Buzzard to try to work things out.
“Tensions and frustrations can rise in this group of elected officials, that can rise and have risen in the past to points that this governing body becomes completely tied up, instead of getting along and working together, making everybody’s days considerably more difficult,” Valentine said. “I have a vested interest in this body working together. Your citizens have a vested interest in this body working together.”
