December 22, 2011 in City

Closed meetings lead to resignation

Connor of Center for Justice quits mayor-elect’s team

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The portion of the Mayor-elect David Condon’s transition team devoted to public safety has decided to keep its discussions confidential, leading one member to quit the group.

Tim Connor, communications director of the Center for Justice, announced in an email to Condon this week that he resigned from the committee as a result of the decision to keep deliberations secret.

Condon said transition team meetings weren’t made open to the public because he wanted to make sure that the nearly 80 members of his transition team felt comfortable enough to bring up any idea. He added that he didn’t want volunteer private citizens to feel that they had to engage with the press “on a regular basis.”

Condon said he briefed all the leaders of the subcommittees that they should be responsive and open to the media. He said he’s still asking the public to submit ideas for the city to his website, condontransition.org. About 100 people have sent ideas so far, he said. He said he regrets Connor decided to leave because he wanted to include his perspective.

Connor said no one else on the committee supported keeping the exchanges open.

“My experience has taught me that any candor lost in the commitment to openness is more than made up for by the inherently disciplining ‘sunshine’ that openness allows,” he said in his email.

At his first news conference after the election, Condon said that “voters clearly want a City Hall that’s open, accountable and responsive.”

Connor said he was impressed with much of the discussion that occurred in the first meeting he attended, but that he couldn’t go into detail because he’s decided to abide by the agreement out of courtesy to the rest of the transition team. He resigned before the second meeting, which occurred this week.

“I’m disappointed that what I thought was a commitment to openness was reversed in short order,” Connor said. “I’m not leaving to protest. I’m leaving because I don’t feel good about being there.”

Four comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  philipgregory on December 22 at 6:46 a.m.

  Mayor Condon.

  Strike ONE.

• 

  Ron_the_Cop on December 22 at 10:08 a.m.

  There is a previous thread at Spin Control. As I posted there:

  http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/spincontrol/2011/dec/21/condon-transition-team-member-resigns/?c=387721&comments=1#c387721

  The-Seer,

  It’s actually running in the print edition this morning albeit it’s buried in the local section. There is a new comment thread there:

  http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/dec/22/closed-meetings-lead-to-resignation/

  I do see that now there is a webpage where you can express your concerns and opinions. I suggest we all write and esp. if you have concerns about any consolidation between the SO/SPD in the immediate future:

  http://condontransition.org/

• 

  Ed Byrnes on December 22 at 4:40 p.m.

  Mr. Connor continues to demonstrate that he is a man of integrity.

  Unfortunately Mr. Condon is demonstrating that he is not.

  I said that Condon was a hack who was using police accountability as a sound bite to win the election, and that I would believe him when he issued at least one policy statement. He said he would fire Treppiedi, which is a good decision, but a single personnel decision is not a policy change. Apparently Condon just used the issue to get elected and is already back on track to engage in the secrecy that the guild adores rather than the transparency that the guild abhors.

  Ed Byrnes

• 

  Spokanewaste on December 23 at 6:31 p.m.

  Spokanewaste at 6:26 p.m. Dec 23:
  I can appreciate the need for confidentiality and free discourse. The volunteers are not public figures but rather doing their part to serve the community. They should not be subjected to liberal attacks. Whatever comes from these meetings will have Condons name all over it and he will be the one to bear the brunt of the criticism if it is warranted. Whether we like it or not there will never be 100% transparency. That is how our local government works and that is how our federal government works. Our job is merely to vote people into office and hold them accountable via the election box. We elected Condon to do a job now we should stay out of his way and let him do his job before we start casting doubt and aspersions. With a Republican majority in both the council and the mayor’s office we should see some significant changes and improvements to the city.