PORT ANGELES — City Council members have left the door ajar to revisiting their disputed, recent 10-year pledge to continue fluoridating the city’s water supply and will take up the topic Jan. 19.
They made the decision after a packed council meeting Tuesday during which 22 fluoridation foes launched 75 minutes of criticism — some personal — toward fluoridation-supporting council members Patrick Downie, Dan Gase, Cherie Kidd and Brad Collins.
The audience clapped, shouted and otherwise interrupted council members as they spoke.
Two critics called the pro-fluoridation quartet “The Fluoride Four,” referring to their Dec. 15 vote to continue fluoridation through June 30, 2026, over the wishes of the majority of those who responded to a city survey.
Council members decided not to discuss the issue at Tuesday’s meeting.
But council members asked city staff to review a possible way out of the council’s 4-3 decision to continue fluoridation at the City Council’s regular Jan. 19 meeting at City Hall.
“A comprehensive list of options may be available to this council for any potential consideration or reconsideration,” newly chosen Mayor Patrick Downie said, suggesting that City Attorney Bill Bloor be part of the discussion.
City Manager Dan McKeen pledged to bring those options forward at the upcoming meeting.
It could mean the eventual end of the fluoridation of city water, he said Wednesday.
“The goal would be to come up with something that addresses both group’s concerns and hopefully come up with something that would move us forward,” McKeen said Wednesday.
“It would mean if the city doesn’t fluoridate water for the next 10 years, what are some of the options to come up with — alternatives that will make fluoride available to those individuals, especially children, who would not normally receive fluoride but whose parents would like them to have it.”
No council members are up for election until at least 2017. That means anti-fluoridation council members Sissi Bruch and Lee Whetham, and newly elected Michael Merideth will not have company for at least two years unless a proponent changes sides.
Other options were suggested Tuesday that would shake the structure of city government.
In past City Council meetings over more than a year, fluoridation opponents have focused on the practice of fluoridation itself.
They have challenged its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay and blamed it for a host of maladies from fluorosis to low IQ to thyroid problems to brittle bones.
They went unchallenged in raising those issues Tuesday, as no speakers defended fluoridation.
But they mostly trained their ire on the council majority’s rejection of the survey results — and what citizens might do about it.
Some likened the pro-fluoridation decision to tyranny.
Others passed out business-card alerts suggesting city ratepayers withhold their utility-bill payments until council members change course.
Still others suggested recalling the foursome, which requires malfeasance in office, Bloor said in an earlier interview.
Dr. Eloise Kailin suggested throwing out the council by employing state law to change the form of city government if the council does not reverse its decision.
“You would have a City Council, but it would operate under different rules,” Kailin said Wednesday.
Many were incensed the City Council did not abide by the survey results and, in particular attacked the logic behind rejecting those results.
The survey of 9,762 water users inside and outside the city limits generated 4,204 responses in November.
Of the total, 2,381, or 56.64 percent, rejected continuing fluoridation, while 1,835, or 41.27, approved the practice.
In making the motion Dec. 15 to continue fluoridation, Kidd emphasized that respondents against the practice accounted for 24 percent of those who received surveys.
She concluded that the majority of voters — 59 percent — had “no problem” with fluoridation by not returning the survey or by saying on the survey that fluoridation was not an issue for them.
Fluoridation opponents objected to that reasoning and the result.
“This is not democracy, this is fascism,” said Eulalia Engle, who signed the public comment sign-up sheet in capital letters: “I am upset!”
“The four of you are jokes,” she said.
Others called the vote a betrayal of trust.
“May God have mercy on your soul,” former City Council candidate Marolee Smith said.
Kidd, whose name was on a protester’s placard demanding she be recalled, would not comment Wednesday on criticism of the logic behind her vote.
“I’m making the best choices for our city that I can,” Kidd said.
Anti-fluoridation forces made it clear they are not going away.
“Lots of people are going to harass you,” Jesse Farmer said.
“This is going to be part of your business life, this is going to be part of your personal life.
“Your political careers are over.”
Diana Somerville vowed that fluoridation foes would meet the MV Coho ferry at the downtown dock, carrying placards.
Teresa Adams carried a “Public Water Public Vote” sign to Tuesday’s meeting.
She remained silently standing in the back of the council chambers, hoisting her placard as the council moved on to other issues, standing with it until the council meeting ended 90 minutes after her fellow opponents had made their voices heard.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.