Last week, members of the Winlock City Council convened for a somewhat contentious meeting with both the city attorney and mayor disagreeing over how to handle the Lewis County Board of County Commissioners’ ongoing search for a qualified appointee to fill a council vacancy, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
Specifically, the county commissioners are attempting to find a replacement for Winlock City Councilor Jeramy Allman after deciding he was ineligible to hold the council seat after losing his re-election bid last year — despite it being revealed the opponent who beat him was not qualified to begin with. The Chronicle’s coverage of the issue can be found online at https://tinyurl.com/489vb8w4.
Allman’s seat wasn’t the only point of contention during the July 13 meeting, though, as multiple Winlock residents expressed opposition to a proposed walkway on a Lewis County Public Utilities District (PUD) access road, citing concerns it might attract trespassers and drug users or lead to the creation of a homeless camp.
The road will be a gravel pathway running through the neighborhoods in the area of Cowlitz and Cemetery roads. Given its a PUD access road, Winlock City Councilor Chuck Camps stated it was not their decision to create it in the first place, as it was approved by the PUD last year. It was also stated it was the responsibility of private property owners to put up fences if they had security concerns.
“As the city continues to grow, there are gonna be roads, there’s gonna be pathways put in, that some people may object to. And that’s understandable,” Camps said. “But I do hear your concerns, and I’ll discuss it (with the PUD) more if there’s anything that can be done.”
Also on the minds of many public commenters was LGBTQ+ Pride Month display greeting visitors at the Winlock Timberland Regional Library (TRL). The display featured literature made for kids and teenagers, which some at the meeting felt was inappropriate.
Winlock resident Josh Sayler signed up to speak during the council’s meeting with a full presentation with photos from books on the display including “If you’re a kid like Gavin,” by Gavin Grimm, “Heartstopper,” by Alice Oseman, and “Continuum” by Chella Man. The first book was aimed at children ages 4-8, according to the cover, and the second two were aimed at teenagers, and contained adult language and sexually explicit illustrations.
“This presentation is not about hate for any individual person or group; it is about protecting our children from sexually explicit and ideologically-driven materials that have been placed on open display at the Winlock Library for any child to walk past and pick up,” Josh said.
He also claimed the current librarians had no knowledge of books he considered to be children’s classics.
“Why are we allowing an institution that can put together this kind of reading material that is not beneficial for your growth and education, but we can’t do children's classics … like Frankenstein, or Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer,” Josh added.
While the council generally shared Josh’s concerns, they stated they had no control over what books are in the Winlock TRL branch. Camps still encouraged parents to express their concerns to the TRL.
Winlock Mayor Victoria Marincin read a statement emailed to her from TRL Lewis County coordinating librarian Devon Bergeron, which stated the TRL, as a public library system, provided materials and information “representing all points of view on current and historical issues. Public libraries are explicitly committed to intellectual freedom and the freedom of access to information.”
Bergeron also stated, ultimately, it was the parents’ or guardians’ responsibility to supervise what materials children and teenagers were accessing and checking out from the library.
Councilors expressed agreement with Josh and proposed possibly talking with library staff to put the books in question in the adult section to avoid outright censorship.
The Chronicle visited the Winlock TRL branch on Tuesday, July 14, and found the LGBTQ+ Pride books no longer on display at the library's entrance.
Instead, a new Disability Pride Month display was in its place for July. As for the books Sayler was concerned about, they had been returned to their sections in the library.
For those with concerns still, Bergeron’s email address is dbergeron@trl.org.
Josh was also joined by his wife Lindsay Sayler, who asked the council questions about a recent executive session they held to discuss Allman’s use of city equipment to move fill dirt to his property, which Josh had posted about on a Winlock, WA Community Forum Facebook group.
Lindsay wanted to know why the council chose to take no disciplinary action against Allman and stated she believed it was an illegal use of public funds and equipment for private use.
“If I were to call the public works superintendent, Kenny Simpson, today, and ask if he can deliver me 10 dump-truck loads of dirt and use three city dump trucks to do it at no cost to me, would he say yes?” Lindsay asked.
Since the fill dirt was essentially unusable for city purposes, Camps explained it was just being moved “across the street” to Allman’s property, which just happened to be near where city employees were going to dump the dirt anyway.
Ultimately, the council ruled Allman having the dirt dumped on his property was not egregious enough to warrant any disciplinary action.
Lindsay still maintained she believed if she lived where Allman was, city staff would not have allowed the dirt to be dumped on her property.
“The council followed the advice of the legal counsel. That is what happened. And I will remind you and the other citizens and the council that I asked for a municipal attorney, that I feel would not have allowed this to happen. We have sat here with a legal counsel for every single meeting, yet I am the one to blame. I will remind the council and citizens that a municipal attorney would have prevented this,” Marincin added.
Currently, the City of Winlock has a contract with the Buzzard Law Group in Centralia for legal counsel. Earlier this year, in February, Marincin mounted an effort to try to find new legal representation, but failed.
With the Buzzard Law Group also practicing other forms of law aside from city government, she believed the city would be better served by an attorney dedicated to city law, among other issues. Along with Winlock, the Buzzard Law Group also officially represents the cities of Napavine, Toledo, Mossyrock and Morton in Lewis County, and the Town of Bucoda in Thurston County.
