GOLD BAR — Mayor Crystal Hill resigned this week, citing relentless harassment from someone who claims to live in the small mountain town.
Hill, 30, says the person using an alias has been bombarding her, her family and her Seattle employer with e-mails making claims about her personal life.
She said the person has accused her of drug use, supplying drugs to city staff and having an affair with a fired city employee.
Those allegations are false, Hill said, adding that she feels she has little recourse to fight them as a public official in the town of 2,400 people.
She also said she’s been followed and watched in her home and fears for her children, ages 11 and 6.
“It got to the point we don’t know if we are going to get a brick through the window,” said Hill, who turned in a resignation letter on Monday, five months before her term was to expire.
Hill said she believes the person who is sending the e-mails under the alias Michael Broaks is connected with a blog critical of the city. The woman who runs the blog filed a lawsuit against the city for withholding public information and has made 47 public records requests since July 2008.
The blogger said she has never e-mailed or followed Hill or her family. She’s fighting corruption as a public watchdog, she said.
The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office investigated Hill’s complaints, said Kevin Prentiss, a sheriff’s office spokesman. The case was closed because of insufficient information, he said.
Kelly Broyles, the Gold Bar planning commission chairman, said Hill has been an effective mayor in the midst of difficult circumstances.
“I don’t always agree with her decisions but I believe she has made decisions based on what she thinks is best for the city,” he said. Hill said she believes the blogger’s multiple public records requests are an abuse of the public records law and a form of harassment.
So far, the lawsuit, alleging the city had withheld documents during a public records request, has cost the city about $55,000 in attorney fees, according to the city.
“This has not been about documents,” Hill said. “This is a means to harass me and the city.”
Hill plans to finish her bachelor’s degree and attend law school. She’s working part-time now as a paralegal in Seattle.
When Hill took over as mayor in 2006, she inherited a cash-strapped city. Since then, she said, she’s left the city books in better shape. She said she put in 60-hour weeks as mayor. The job pays $300 a month.
“I think I’ve done a good job,” she said. “I’ve worked really, really hard. I just have to be a mom and my family needs to come first.”
Councilman Joe Beavers, as mayor pro-tem, is expected to fill in as mayor for the rest of Hill’s term. The council expects to select a mayor pro-tem from the remainder of the City Council on Tuesday night. Then, the council has 60 days to appoint someone to fill the open city council seat until January.
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