“The vote went as it should,” Tom Bangasser was quoted in The Beachcomber as saying after last week’s Vashon-Maury Island Community Council meeting. (“Measure to oust Bangasser from VMICC board fails.”) I would heartily agree. The choice was simple; either you favor Mr. Bangasser’s aggressive style of confrontation, intimidation, threats of lawsuits and fines, etc., or you don’t. A vote of 156 to 91 makes it clear that many voters present at the Monday meeting find such tactics detrimental in addressing residents’ concerns. Thus, the loud cheering, back slapping, high fives, thumbs up, etc., by “no” vote supporters at the vote’s announcement was a a questionable reaction at best, churlish at worst.

A speaker during the motion’s discussion was torn in deciding her vote and observed that a “censure” motion would have made her choice easier and obvious. She got her desire via a 156 to 91 vote in favor of removal. While not a two-thirds majority as required by VMICC’s bylaws for removal, a 64-vote plurality strongly indicates that Island residents have indeed censured Mr. Bangasser’s behavior with respect to the VMICC. 

Despite the blatantly disparaging and unfounded charges of being a “cabal,” “McCarthyist tactics,” being “undemocratic,” etc., leveled at CC Stone, Hilary Emmer and their supporters, this week’s VMICC meeting was a clear example of democracy in action. Thus, I am hopeful that a large number of this meeting’s attendees (who I have not, or rarely, seen at VMICC meetings) would begin regularly coming to meetings and participating in the sometimes messy business of “small d” democracy. Those of us who voted “yes” are watching.

Relatedly, I commend Tim Johnson for the professional and efficient way he conducted the meeting and managed the complex agenda and debate on the various motions. The VMICC board made a discerning decision selecting him as its president.

— Jim Otis