October 16, 2006

Darcy Burner's record of "community leadership": 5 e-mails, 3 meetings, 0 achievements

Effective service as a Congressman is less about passionate partisanship and more about working with others to solve problems for the benefit of one's constituents. Dave Reichert has a record of working with others to get things done, as a Sheriff (appointed by Ron Sims and then twice elected) and as a Congressman. Darcy Burner's main predictor of success as a Congresswoman lies in her brief presidency of the Ames Lake Community Club. According to ALCC members I've spoken with, Burner failed to accomplish anything and only made her neighbors more angry.

Last week one of Darcy's neighbors posted an entry on the public blog detailing how poorly Burner performed as ALCC president.

Burner's one-year term commenced in April 2005, two months before she declared her candidacy for Congress The ALCC doesn't do much to begin with. But even in that context, Burner's track record is underwhelming. She wore the title, but displayed little actual leadership. The club had one significant issue to deal with -- a neighbor who was encroaching on common property. Burner promised at the outset of her term to resolve the situation, but failed to do so. She only pissed off a lot of her neighbors.

Be sure to read Ameslaker's public blog entry. Ameslaker also sent me more detail about Burner's involvement with her neighbors. The first e-mail opened:

As one of the numerous people who have had contact with her in the community, and therefore dislike her, I want to make sure that she is not only defeated, but ruined from ever having political aspirations of any sort, again ... I disagree with her politics. But the ongoing pattern of lies, which is quite the norm for her, has made this rather personal to me. On your blog, you have questioned her community involvement. I can provide the details of that involvement for you ... I believe the consistent white lies and carefully chosen twists of the truth, reveal a true character flaw, and makes her possible candidacy a scary premise.
(This e-mail was sent several weeks ago, but the assessment of Burner's character as a neighbor is remarkably similar to the Seattle Times editorial board's assessment of her campaign)

Ameslaker also forwarded some e-mails Burner sent out as ALCC president, summarizing:

You now have in your possession the entire record of Darcy Burner's "community activism" and "community leadership".

As president of the Ames Lake Community Club, she sent out like 6 email messages. [it was actually 5, as one of the e-mails from the club board was sent by another board member]

She presided over this year's annual meeting, attended by 32 people, where she was replaced as president.

She also presided over a special meeting ... to deal with a land encroachment issue that has been going on for years. That meeting was attended by 57 people, many who left in disgust and anger half way through the meeting because of how she treated (didn't want to hear) her neighbors opinions.

She accomplished nothing, and only volunteered to be president if [another neighbor] continued to serve on the board, and basically do everything

Here are the emails --
1. May 16, 2005 Darcy's first public contact as president, outlining the land encroachment issue
(see also response from unimpressed neighbor)
2. May 29, 2005 Reponse to neighbors who are afraid of dogs

[ on June 15, 2005 Darcy filed her declaration of candidacy ]

3. June 30, 2005 Darcy's response to the community concerning the fallout of the June 26 special meeting dealing with the encroachment issue.
4. August 29, 2005 Darcy doesn't like her phone service.
5. November 4, 2005 Ameslaker:

the last communication to the residents of Ames Lake concerning the lot C dispute, which was the only real objective that the Darcy Burner presidency had to / and stated it would deal with. As you can see from this - no resolution to this problem was accomplished
It referenced a September board meeting to discuss the Lot C issue. The e-mail was not sent by Burner, but by another board member.
6. November 6, 2005 A motorhome is parked where some neighbors don't like it.

And on the basis of this "leadership" experience, Darcy thinks she can effectively represent the interests of 700,000 constituents in the United States Congress?