Colfax city council confers, until next time

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Jun 18, 20200

COLFAX – The Colfax city council gathered Monday night on Google Meet for the last time, with two representatives missing, until COVID-19 guidelines for public meetings revert June 17.

City Councilman Tom Huntwork was absent while Mark Mackleit was listed as connected to the meeting, though no response was given in the opening roll call.

The meeting began, the council approving minutes from the last time, followed by a motion to excuse Huntwork's absence.

Another roll call came for the vote, from Clerk Lynda Kramlich.

“Golden.”

“Yes.”

“Guenthner.”

“Yes.”

“Christopherson.”

“Yes.”

“Kackman.”

“Yes.”

“Mackleit.”

Still no response.

“He can't un-mute himself?” said Kramlich.

Just then, Mackleit's voice came in, explaining he was using a new phone for the first time.

“I got you down for 'yes' for all of our votes,” Kramlich said.

“Yes,” Mackleit said. “Sorry about that.”

City Building Inspector Steve Bretveld then gave the council an update on a state-required adoption of a critical areas ordinance, part of Washington's Growth Management Act.

Jim Kackman made a motion to approve, with a cut to part of the state's language template.

Then Guenthner seconded the motion and it passed.

The voice of Police Chief Bruce Blood followed with his report, saying that unemployment fraud cases had declined and mentioning a new online scam going around under the guise of impersonating Amazon.

He also noted that the city clerk received a threatening e-mail. The FBI was contacted and responded that the threat was “very low.”

“It looks like a mass-mailing,” Blood said.

The meeting continued and Mayor Jim Retzer thanked city staff and organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce, county commissioners and more who helped on a grant application, by which the city received $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice – to hire two to three new police officers.

“Bruce and I have already been working on recruiting,” said Retzer, a Washington State trooper, noting they intend to hire experienced officers. “... It may end up that we have entry-level recruits that we bring in.”

The meeting was adjourned at 27 minutes.

Retzer has been in Spokane the past two Sundays as a member of a State Patrol Rapid Deployment Force during the “Black Lives Matter” protests. He is again on standby for this weekend.