Stacy Sellers is AWOL NOW, Jon Russell was AWOL THEN.

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There appears to be little doubt that the allegations of poor leadership and judgment, along with what might arguably be incompetence and misfeasance or malfeasance, have destroyed any hope for any further political career on the part of soon to be former Washougal mayor Stacee Sellers. She has, essentially, disappeared since the election, where a well-planned and deliberate release of documents detailing some very peculiar spending on the city credit card on her part while she was in Vegas, allegedly on city business... along with a certain missing $100,000 or so.

The local paper used an interesting headline in describing the situation: Sellers AWOL in Washougal

It details the impacts of her invisibility, along with the rather juicy tidbit of a U-Haul outside her home.. so where did she go?

Don't know. And, to put a point on it, I don't care.

What I DO care about is that Jon Russell was AWOL THEN.

Russell, erstwhile congressional candidate and fake conservative, is, God help me, a Washougal City Councilman.

But not just ANY Washougal City Councilman.... oh, no.

He happens to be one of the three city councilmen who sat in oversight of ALL purchases made by this same credit card.

So.... where was HE when these many questionable charges, including alcohol, came up? Well, the alcohol apparently drew a flag,and she repaid the city for those charges.

The unanswered... and at this point, even unaddressed, question is this: Where was Russell?

Where was Russell?

Councilmen Russell, Peterson and Greenlee made up the finance committee that APPROVED Sellers' expenditures.

Where were all these fake, high profile objections then? There weren't any?

Why not?

If any of the three actually tasked with oversight of these expenditures had been doing their jobs... shouldn't this issue have come up THEN?

But it didn't. And now Russell, in his effort to get some cheap publicity, is so busy tossing Sellers under a bus that he really hasn't ever explained why HE failed to do HIS job, letting the taxpayers who entrusted him with this responsibility completely down.

Why is that, Jon? And why is it that you've taken the lead in stringing up Sellers when you failed to take the lead in your job of oversight over the credit card debacle?

I'd REALLY like to know... and since you plan on representing me, perhaps you'll swing by and give me an answer.

You won't, of course, because there IS no answer, save your misfeasance. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to talk about that.
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Gee... I've been inundated with Russell supporters crawling out from under their rocks.

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Jon Russell stopped by my blog this evening... or was it one of his surrogates? There've been an even dozen or so, but oddly, only 3 IP's identifying the perps, so to speak.

Ahhh.... no matter. This little gift was left on my doorstep, not unlike the ubiquitous burning bag of poop.

Wow I didn't know we wanted councilman to be reviewing all the cities expense reports. This is really one of the most pathetic ways to try to rope a candidate into the scandal. I guess if we are going to start this maybe we need to know why veterans administration had issues while Castillo was there with the hospitals and maybe we need to check to see if any of Castillos clients lost any money under his advice from Edward Jones.

I kinda believe this is Russell himself, but it could be any one of those with the flawed reasoning process that would allow them to support a political mercenary like Russell.

So, since I just finished my gym workout, what say I cool off by crushing this moron's little anon gesture of idiocy here and now.... OK?

Let's set the table, shall we?

The Mayor of Washougal has some problems with city credit card(s) and a little trip to Vegas. The guy running against her, who has his own issues, blew the whistle in a most timely manner to inflict maximum damage on the good mayor, all in the name of political altruism, you understand.

That, of course, is neither here nor there. What happened is that Jon Russell, loyal and good fellow that he is, tossed his mayor under the bus in RECORD time. That, of course, is his privilege.

But in his haste to avoid the splatter, he neglected to mention that he and 2 other council members for the good city of Washougal sit in DIRECT oversight of the very credit cards in question.

Now, apparently, something was said at the behest of the this little group to the good mayor to ask her to reimburse the city for the copious amounts of alcohol she apparently charged on the taxpayer dime will "conferencing" in Vegas.

Clearly, like herpes, what happens in Vegas may not, necessarily, stay in Vegas... particularly when there's a paper trail. Right, Stacee?

All of that said, Mr. Russell, best known for his abysmal failure in ramming the humongous Port Tax increase down our throats; is, along with his two compadres, DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR APPROVING THESE EXPENDITURES.

Well, it would seem that this merry little band approved them all, save for the booze.

But then, our erstwhile congress-critter wannabe, having completely FAILED to do the job he was responsible for doing, spewed thusly:

"I don't think these are cracks, they're craters," he said. "It looks like a pattern that is not being dealt with and that is not being brought to the attention of the council."

Odd, that. Since this little committee of 3 is personally responsible for reviewing EACH of these credit card expenditures and since they DID nail Sellers for drinking the booze on the taxpayer dime....

HOW CAN THIS SLIMEBALL ALLEGE THAT THIS WASN'T BROUGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE COUNCIL????

It was, of course. But the knee jerk reaction of this product of Chicago politics was and is to put as much distance as fast as possible between himself and the good mayor. So, instead of publicly admitting HE had screwed up as well, it came out deny, deny, and then, well, deny.

That leads us to these increasingly lame little comments Russell (and or his Winged Monkeys) are leaving here in blog land.

First of all, let me re-iterate: although I am a professional in politics, I have no professional relationship with any congressional candidate. I personally know both Mr. Russell and Mr. Castillo and I have had professional relationships with both of them; both while they were working for HROC.

That said... here we go.

"Wow I didn't know we wanted councilman to be reviewing all the cities expense
reports"

Is this were I point out how utterly irrelevant what "we wanted" is? Whether you WANTED it or not, THAT IS PART OF HIS JOB. That "we" may or may not "want it" matters not one wit.

This is really one of the most pathetic ways to try to rope a candidate into the
scandal.

Perhaps. But his response to all of this is the most pathetic aspect of it. I guess he should have thought of it before he tried to dump all the responsibility on somebody else when he bears part of it himself.

If he had the guts to take some level of responsibility for this, then we wouldn't be having this little chat. But he lacks that kind of courage and integrity.

That, of course, is why I would support Baird over Russell. Because we already HAVE someone representing us with an unethical, gutless background. Why should we replace him with somebody else?

I guess if we are going to start this maybe we need to know why veterans administration had issues while Castillo was there with the hospitals and maybe we need to check to see if any of Castillos clients lost any money under his advice from Edward Jones.

Really?

That's the kind of stretch ol Jon is known for, but I guess the question is this:

Was Castillo elected to either a position in the VA or Edward Jones?

Was Castillo required to go over the credit card expenditures of a mayor while he was in either of those positions?

No? Then why would you so moronically bring this up?

Washougal City Councilman Jon Russell HAD A JOB TO DO. HE VERY CLEARLY DID... NOT... DO IT, AND THEN THREW THE MAYOR UNDER THE BUS TO DEFLECT RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS INACTION.

That you don't happen to like that doesn't change it one wit. The ISSUE is that it was RUSSELL'S JOB AND HE DIDN'T DO IT.

And dude (or dudette, as the case may be) if you don't like it, that's just too damned bad.
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