Council members were so divided on whom to pick that Steve Langer, who favored Messmer, moved to have a coin toss. His motion died for lack of a second. Ultimately, Councilman Nathaniel Jones changed his preference to break the impasse.
Voting in favor of Hankins were Jones, Jim Cooper, Jeannine Roe and Karen Rogers. Voting against were Mayor Stephen Buxbaum and Langer.
Hankins, the president of the Indian Creek Neighborhood Association in southeast Olympia, will be sworn in at next Tuesday’s council meeting. She said she was excited in a brief interview, “because I’m hoping that the neighborhoods will have a voice.” She told the council she wanted to increase neighborhood involvement by having the council go to neighborhoods rather than having neighbors go to them.
State law allowed the council to appoint a member to fill the vacancy created when Buxbaum, who has served as a councilman for two years, was elected mayor in November.
Hankins’ selection came after an unusually long process that lasted for more than three hours. The council started by developing questions. Then it assembled everyone who had applied for the position at a table for a panel interview.
Each council member asked a question, which each candidate answered: Hankins, Dennis Hoppe, Messmer, Dick Pust and Christopher Ward. Another candidate, James Staples, withdrew his application before the interview.
After the interview, council members went into a closed session to talk about qualifications, which is allowed under the state open-meetings law, but they were not allowed to make a decision behind closed doors.
When the council emerged 30 minutes later, members took an informal, nonbinding poll on paper, indicating which candidates they liked. Members could vote for as many candidates as they liked.
In that tally, Hankins and Messmer were tied with five votes, Hoppe got two, Pust got one and Ward had none. The council narrowed the field to Hankins and Messmer, then asked the two a series of questions.
Then the council took another straw poll — this time just for Hankins or Messmer. There was another tie. Voting for Messmer were Buxbaum, Jones and Langer. Voting for Hankins were Roe, Cooper and Rogers.
No council member agreed to change his or her vote, so Langer suggested the coin toss.
Rogers said a coin toss was inslulting and the council should get public input and make a decision next week. No council member backed the idea.
Jones moved for the council to go back in executive session, which the council did for another 20 minutes.
When members emerged, Jones motioned for Hankins to get the appointment. In an interview later, Jones said he made the switch because of Hankins’ background as a neighborhood leader, but added that he greatly respected Messmer.
After emerging from the closed session but before the official vote for Hankins, Roe said that “as a group we kind of decided we needed a fresh start on the council.” State law does not allow decisions to be made in closed sessions.
Roe said in an interview later that she misspoke and that there was no decision made in executive session. “It was just a discussion of qualifications and some of us expressed views of a fresh start,” she said.
City attorney Tom Morrill agreed that Roe had misspoken.
Roe said that the decision was agonizing, the hardest she’s had to make in her two years on the council. She said she was concerned about sparing the feelings of the person who wasn’t picked.
Buxbaum said that the council couldn’t lose no matter who was picked, suggesting both were well-qualified.
“I am absolutely proud of this council,” he said.
Matt Batcheldor: 360-704-6869 mbatcheldor@theolympian.com
