Amundson resigns in Terrace

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE

Citing a family medical emergency that has caused her to miss recent meetings and her plans to leave the city, Councilwoman Angela Amundson submitted her resignation Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Amundson, who was absent, had not attended a January meeting. She also missed nine meetings in 2007.

“Once this emergency subsides, we are planning an exploratory trip to the city of New Orleans (a place, in my childhood, we once called home,”) Amundson wrote in a letter dated Jan. 22. This trip will cause me to have yet another extended absence. Upon our return, we will be moving to one of our properties outside the city of Mountlake Terrace.”

An outspoken member of the council, Amundson came to office after running a downtown restaurant with her partner, Trish Rondo. She also was a neighborhood activist who fought to keep King County’s planned Brightwater wastewater treatment plant from citing some of its infrastructure within city limits, a battle she and fellow residents won.

Controversy seemed to follow her and she was the subject of council fueds with associates Michelle Robles, John Zambrano, Mayor Jerry Smith and former councilman Doug Wittinger, who resigned in December and moved out of the city.

As she left, she took a parting shot at her associates on the council in her resignation letter, writing: “Your desperate, petty, most of the time unethical and probably illegal efforts to stop my legislative efforts have left me feeling embarrassed by you and ashamed of you, so I step down with a clear conscience and excited at where my passion for life and enthusiasm for helping others will lead me.”

During the 2005 election season, she was accused of stealing campaign signs belonging to her opponent, a charge she vehemently denied.

In 2007, she defended her decision to purchase a single-family residence downtown, within the zone set aside for a planned Town Center development. Smith at the time called the purchase a conflict of interest – a charge she also denied.

Wittinger, who had served with Amundson on the SeaShore Transportation Forum, a regional group, took her to task last year for neglecting to inform him that she had planned to meet with Seattle city officials while he was away on vacation. In September, Robles obtained a court order that forced Amundson to leave Robles alone, after Robles complained Amundson had been harassing her in an effort to get her to change a vote on zoning.

A judge later denied Robles’ efforts to extend the order.

In an interview prior to the council meeting, Amundson, who was half way through her second four-year term as position No. 1 councilor, said she missed the January meetings to support her domestic partner, Rondo, whose father in Wisconsin is ill.

“I, unfortunately, had to miss three meetings, which is unusual for me,” she said. “I usually maintain good attendance.”

Amundson said she usually takes an annual vacation at the beginning of the year and generally missed the first three meetings of the year because of that.

“This year, our vacation break was spent in Wisconsin,” she said.

After the Jan. 22 meeting, Robles said she empathizes with Amundson’s dilemma.

“When you have family emergencies, it’s very understandable that you can’t do this,” she said.

City records show that Amundson missed nine meetings in 2007 and three meetings in Janauary of this year.

In 2007, Robles missed 12 meetings –nearly all to deal with family medical issues, including her own surgery. Councilwoman Michelle Angrick missed nine meetings, the bulk of them, she said, because of travel commitments related to her involvement with the American Public Transit Association as well as medical emergencies of her own.

Amundson wrote in the letter that she takes great pride in her legislative accomplishments on the council.

“I have been successful at every legislative goal I have set for myself, except one,” the letter read. “Despite these accomplishments, and the pleasure I have gained in serving the city of Mountlake Terrace, I have no regrets about stepping down, now, due to this family emergency.”