Ouch.
The Vice-Chair of the West Salem Neighborhood Association (WSNA), Mark Coutis, has been slammed hard by an ethics committee formed to look into his offensive remarks about Black Lives Matter, along with other subjects -- including how Coutis insulted people in his role as a WSNA Facebook site administrator.
What Coutis did was the subject of a public comment at a recent Salem City Council meeting.
You can read the juicy details in a report issued by an Ethics Committee formed to look into a complaint filed against Coutis. I've shared screeenshots of the PDF file below.
Download WSNA Ethics Committee Findings_August 2020_signed copy plus Coutis response
Mark Coutis apparently is aligned with the Salem Bridge Solutions "goon squad," as I called it at the time, that disrupted the West Salem Neighborhood Association in the course of taking control of WSNA a few years ago. A 2016 Statesman Journal story about the heated debate over building a Third Bridge across the Willamette said:
During the break outside the meeting, one businessman balked at the climate change argument.
“Salem is not getting any smaller,” said Mark Coutis, who works with a construction firm. He said cars burn fuel while they’re waiting in traffic.
His solution: Not one bridge, but two. And he wants his firm to build them.
The motto of the West Salem Neighborhood Association is "Positive and Productive." Read the following findings of the Ethics Committee and I think you'll agree that positive sure wasn't how Coutis acted.
UPDATE: I just noticed a Salem Reporter story on this subject, "Vice chair of West Salem Neighborhood Association resigns after derogatory Facebook comment investigated." Pleasingly, the story says, "The committee’s findings and Coutis’ response were first reported by a Salem blogger, Brian Hines." Yes, but it took a genuine journalist to learn that Coutis had resigned on Monday.
Comments