Woodinville Councilman Apologizes to Mayor, Community for Outburst

Councilman Les Rubstello wasted no time Tuesday night apologizing to Mayor Bernie Talmas and the community for his behavior at the March 13 council meeting.

After the first speaker during public comments blasted Rubstello for rude comments and breaking with Roberts Rules of Order the week before, Rubstello said that he accepted her chastise and took it to heart.

Rubstello seemed sincere when he added that he had apologized to the mayor before Tuesday’s meeting for his outburst. “Nobody should be treated as I treated the Mayor last week,” he said. Extending his apology to the community, Rubstello said that the council should be able to disagree without attacking one another and promised he would have no more rude outbursts in the future. He then sat quietly as several more members of the public spoke against his attack on the Mayor.

Mayor Bernie Talmas confirmed that Rubstello had apologized to him before Tuesday’s meeting and said he accepted the apology.

Rubstelllo’s rude outburst came at the previous week’s meeting when the council, with the exception of Councilmember Susan Boundy-Sanders, took the mayor to task for not signing resolution 414 () to the King County Council. The resolution states City Council support for owners of several properties in unincorporated King County along the Sammamish Valley who want their land to be annexed into the city. .

When the mayor tried to clarify why he didn’t sign the resolution, which the council passed in a 5-2 vote and which said he felt had factual errors and made claims on the development of the Sammamish Valley that the council had not been briefed on before, he was cut off by Rubstello who said he didn’t want to hear any more about the factual errors.

The entire meeting can be viewed on the city’s web site by clicking here. The issue of the mayor not signing the resolution begins at 58.11 minutes into the video.