"Gump"tion

“Gump”tion! (Noun) 1. Shrewdness in practical matters; common sense; 2. Courage and initiative; enterprise and boldness

Have you ever wondered what Sally Gump, local RECALL petitioner, was doing this past summer? Sally was attending City meetings and preparing to submit RECALL petitions to RECALL two of her local elected officials. Why, you ask? Because she was fed up with the lies and disrespect that had been permeating throughout the short terms of those Council members.

Sally is a hard working wife, mother, housecleaner, friend, and volunteer in her community. She served on the City’s Charter Review Committee and also on the St. Helens Parks Commission for many years as well as many other committees throughout the years and for various reasons. She has devoted a tremendous amount of her volunteer time and energy in making St. Helens a better place for all of its citizens. She does it because she cares.

After filing the RECALL petitions, low and behold, the two elected officials whom she was petitioning to RECALL sued her. Yes, they hired a well-known, not so respected, local attorney to represent them. So, the fact is, that in Sally’s bid to exercise her right to RECALL her local officials, they turned around and filed a lawsuit against her. Can you say “SLAPP SUIT”? Unbelievable!

So, following along these lines, when you’ve heard that City employees are afraid of retaliation if they speak up to correct or refocus certain Councilors, do you see where they’re coming from now?

Sally Gump is a local hero and she has “GUMP”tion! There are so many people, citizens and business owners alike, who are in support of the RECALL but so afraid to sign the petitions for fear of some form of retaliation by these officials. Their attorney even threatened to take every person who signed the petitions into court. It’s very sad to me that these officials are really not accountable to anyone because they can say whatever they want and who are you to question them?

Please join me in making sure that ALL CITIZENS HAVE A VOICE without fear of retaliation. It may be too late to sign the RECALL petitions but it’s not too late to speak up and make your vote count.

Suicide note!

I thought you would find it amusing that a city manager referred yesterday to my letter to the editor (in the Spotlight and the Chronicle) as a "suicide note!"

Time will tell, I expect!

In the meantime, I urge you to read yesterday's Spotlight. (The Chronicle, in its infinite wisdom, seems to have ignored--completely--the story of Morten/Barlow v Gump that was top-of-the-front-page news to the Spotlight!)

Both the front page article and the editor's letter are good. Very good: No justice served ‘til Gump is, by Kelly Moyer (on the front page), and the editorial, Defamation suits stink of SLAPP. (Find a link to the Spotlight in the right hand column on this page under LINKS TO SOURCES.)

The coverage by the Spotlight throughout this recall effort has been good, as was their interview with Randy Peterson some months ago that apparently prompted the City Council, at Phil Barlow's urging, to change the city's "paper of record" to the Chronicle. While that cannot be proved, of course, the timing was precise and no amount of denial on anyone's part works for me.

Much like the soon-to-be-heard, I'm sure, denial that Jim Huffman is such a sloppy attorney that he just made inconvenient errors in his court filing in the Morten/Barlow SLAPP suit!

A nice thing about that sloppy paperwork and Huffman's jittery dancing around in court (wailing about the St. Helens City Recorder being in the audience, really): I can't imagine anyone wanting to hire him for anything! I'd be too afraid he'd screw it up.

Now accepting donations for a case of Ivory soap; Doug at Sally's door, part 2

I asked Doug why he didn't go to the citizenship class thing at the high school last Monday. He said he had been asked a long time ago to talk to the students one on one. He didn't know anything about the Monday night talk. He never got a call, an email, or nothing. This was the first he heard about it. I said, "oh, I must of misunderstood! It's too bad that you didn't do that or another debate somewhere in town. People would have loved seeing that."

I confronted him on his telling me that he wasn't suing me. I told him, "that's not what I heard from [friend]. She told me you told her that you were suing me. Now, why is that???" Blah, blah, blah from Doug.

I then asked him about those paper arches. He denied being the one to put that into motion. He 'recommended' they be removed or someone might get hurt. He had had numerous complaints from people. Little kids were playing on them, and ... someone could get hurt. He didn't make them take those arches down, it wasn't him. It was other people!! He talked about it in work session and people facilitated from that meeting. But, it wasn't him.

I also told him that people weren't happy with the way he handled stuff. I said, "people aren't happy with you." He asked who and I told him your neighbors, other committees in the community, and a lot of citizens.

He told me numerous times how much he liked me and that he had no malice towards me. He wasn't vindictive towards me. He likes Dennis......blah, blah, blah.

And, he promised my neighbor help with the ticket he got from Laura the dog catcher. He told Chuck to use his name at court ....

[What was said in judges chambers before the session began on Monday?] Well, Huffman was really upset to see the city recorder in court. Huffman didn't like all the people in court either. It put a bug in his bonnet.

So, this is the news I wanted you to know. Let [people] know what went on 'in chambers'.... Let [them]know the truth and tell people to keep track of Doug's lies. That boy is going to eat a bar of Ivory.

Sally

Morten is still campaigning....an update from Sally

My own comments in italics!

He came to my door this afternoon. What a gem! He wanted to tell me how much he likes me and that he's not vindictive towards me in any way. He only wanted a public forum where he and I could discuss the issues. Taking me to court was the only way he could tell the people his side of the story. I would like to know if he was so interested in a public forum for discussing the issues, why he (1) never asked for one, and (2) didn't bother to show up in court.

I confronted him on a few things and he played dumb. I really had to hold back telling him off and I did. But, man, did he make me mad.

So, I asked him if he was still going to file against me. He said it was out of his hands. Is he the plaintiff or is Huffman?? He knew that Barlow is going to do so. So, Barlow can make his own decisions but Morten can't?? I said, "Good, my lawyer has his ducks in a row and I'm looking forward to my day in court."

I called my lawyer after this lovely time of talking to Doug and he still feels that they won't file and get stuck paying lawyer fees. We will see just what plays out in the next few days...................I'll keep you posted!!!

Sally

The games people play

I wrote this very quickly in order to get it faxed to both newspapers as soon as possible. It's probably pretty choppy, but I just didn't want this whole thing to be swept under the carpet so Doug looks like some kind of hero for "dropping" a suit that he apparently never intended to actually file.

October 27, 2008

To the Editor:

I just returned from the Morten & Barlow v. Gump courtroom and I am disgusted but knowing Doug Morten and Phil Barlow, not surprised.

The councilors didn’t file their cases or serve their summons on Sally properly, so the case has been held over until next Monday or Tuesday when Judge Steven Reed requested that Attorney Huffman file amendments to the suits that he claims to have intended to file all along.

It became apparent during the half an hour or so spent in court, that this has been a three-month game, intended to deter Sally Gump and the people of St. Helens. From the start, Huffman has “inadvertently” filed faulty forms, partial forms or forms with errors, knowing that he had 90 days from date of filing (August 1 for Barlow, August 2 for Morten) to make amendments.

In the interim, Sally’s time and money have been wasted responding to allegations that she acted with malice to defame the councilors and take over the city. She and the good people of St. Helens have been duped. It looks to me and to many others in court today, as if the intent of the suits was to frighten Sally into dropping her recall efforts and deter citizens from signing recall petitions by the implied threat that they could and would be sued as well. (Councilor Morten actually told a city employee some months ago that he intended to become rich off this suit, supposedly by winning and claiming $10,000 for each signature on the recall petitions.)

Sally Gump filed in good faith for the right to pass petitions calling for the recall of Douglas Morten and Phillip Barlow from the City Council of St. Helens. Can the two of them say the same thing about their SLAPP suit against her? (And, by the way, where were they today? Not in court to face her.)

I will be genuinely surprised if either of their suits is filed properly within the time set. I think this entire lawsuit smacks of game-playing. Talk about a waste of court time and tax payer money! They forced Sally to hire an attorney and incur time and costs so that they could frighten her and others from exercising their first amendment rights.

Is this who you want running your city??

More positive thought

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any . . . crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. ~ Abraham Lincoln