Cotati City Council voted, 4-0, that ethics complaints against the mayor did not warrant reprimand or any further action. The vote was taken at the council’s Feb. 24 meeting with Mayor Robert Coleman-Senghor recusing himself at the city attorney’s suggestion.

“We need to put this past us and move on,” said Councilmember Susan Harvey.

Two formal complaints were listed in the agenda item before the council, one from Joyce Garcia and one from former councilmember George Barich.

“I believe I’ve been thoughtful and deliberate in the conduct of my office,” Coleman-Senghor said by phone a week later.

The mayor said he is going to focus his energy on other issues facing the city. “I’m just not going to keep spinning my wheels around that particular collection of people’s attacks.”

Following the meeting, when asked for comments on the council’s actions, mayor Coleman-Senghor replied that it was “a freedom of speech issue” and that “(Barich) didn’t want me to have the same rights.”

Mayor Coleman-Senghor’s response to the council (from the speaker’s podium in the audience) was a lengthy statement that characterized Barich’s accusation as a “fiction and a lie.”

Coleman-Senghor said Barich’s allegations of racism were “designed to provide an alibi for his own fun and games of blackface.” Barich had posted a photo of himself in blackface superimposed on the city’s logo on his personal Web site, which prompted, in part, the drafting of the city’s code of ethics. Those guidelines were the ones used in the investigation.

Barich also reminded the council that he had been against creating the code of ethics in the first place, saying it “was poorly written” and warned against the costs of trying to enforce it.

“I’m not asking the mayor to resign. I want the Mayor’s conduct adjusted accordingly and the rest of the council to uphold that,” Barich said.

Commenting by e-mail after the meeting, Barich wrote, “It’s now clear that the city council only enacted a code of conduct to use as a weapon to silence dissenting views and crush the free speech rights of their political opponents, and nothing more. I warned the council long ago that any code of conduct for council members would be a double edge sword if enacted. But last night, they proved quite the opposite.”

One incident described in the violation allegations involved Coleman-Senghor using racial slurs in a conversation with councilmember Pat Gilardi. While Barich claims Coleman-Senghor’s comments were embarrassing for Gilardi, she claimed no embarrassment and said it had been taken out of context.

“We were simply talking about our own heritages and the work of our own forefathers. The words were used to illustrate a point,” she said. Gilardi went on to say the comments were “not intended nor taken as a racial slur and I do not believe any of this rises to the level of censure or reprimand.”

In regard to the “improper influence” charge against the Mayor’s campaigning on behalf of council candidates during the recall election, Gilardi asked for an opinion from city attorney Richard Rudnansky.

“The Code of Ethics,” he stated, “is a document of shared values... it cannot take away constitutional rights.” It was the one charge that Coleman-Senghor claimed was a valid claim - that he wrote and published articles and held signs advocating for the recall and on behalf of certain candidates. “I am a U.S. citizen and I have the right to participate in the election process. I did not give up that right (when becoming Mayor).”

The allegations say those articles and campaigning violate the following policies:

3. “Councilmembers shall refrain from abusive conduct, and verbal or written attacks upon the character of motives of other members of the city council, boards, commissions, committees, staff or the public... It is acceptable to publicly disagree about an issue, but it is unacceptable to make derogatory remarks about other councilmembers, their opinions and actions.”

15. “Councilmembers shall refrain from stating their position to improperly influence the deliberations or decisions of city staff, boards, commissions or committees.”

Joyce Garcia was not happy with the council’s decision. “I want the mayor to be, I want him to be censored, to be reprimanded,” she said. She added violations complaints have been brought forth “several citizens” but only two have been formally recorded by the city.

Barich said he was “shocked” to find the absence of Ken Coleman’s complaints. “He’s the one who spearheaded this.”
Where to go from this point is another issue he had. “I am concerned about due process here, and the fact that there seems to be no process indicated in the code of ethics on how to deal with this situation.” He further criticized the writing of the ethics code.

Coleman-Senghor said by phone that in the future, allegations like this will be put in the hands of a subcommittee to see if its worthy of being brought to the council.