Sean C. Morgan
Three members of the city Parks Board walked out of a meeting Monday morning after submitting a letter to the chairwoman demanding that she resign.
The three members, Angela Clegg, Andrew Allen and Nancy Patton, submitted the letter to Chairwoman Jane Hazen at the beginning of the meeting.
Also attending was a fifth member of the board attending her first meeting, and three councilors, including James Goble Dave Trask and Mayor Jim Gourley.
The New Era asked the mayor about the situation.
“The gist of it was asking her to resign her position on the Parks Board,” Gourley said. She told them she would look at the letter and get back to them, then the three of them left the meeting.
If she refused to resign, Gourley said, the letter said the Parks Board members would take it to the City Council meeting on June 28 and request her removal from the board.
The New Era attempted to contact Hazen Monday evening, but she had not responded by press time.
Without a resignation, the letter said, the three Parks Board members would immediately leave the meeting, leaving the Parks Board without a quorum and ending the meeting.
They said they would resign from their positions if Hazen would not resign and the council will not remove her from the board.
They claimed that she has misrepresented her position and the Parks Board in the community and in social media, “showing that you do not have the best interests of the board when in a public setting,” according to the letter.
They claimed that she set up meetings, representing the Parks Board, without discussion or a vote from a quorum of the Parks Board.
“We are uncomfortable with your threatening and bully tactics,” the letter said. “You chose to send threatening emails and post negative comments about the Parks Boards and its members on social media without facts.”
As a result of the meeting ending early, the Parks Board did not address the Sankey Park concept plan. The City Council had considered entering an agreement with the University of Oregon Community Planning Workshop to develop the plan.
After comments by Hazen and discussion by the council, the council chose to send the concept plan to the Parks Board for discussion and a recommendation.
“I think the original proposal then would come back to council as it was,” Gourley said. He believes it will require a council vote to revisit the proposal.