By Alia Sinclair

Contention split the attendees of Tuesday night’s (Jan. 14, 2025) SeaTac City Council Meeting concerning comments made by Deputy Mayor Iris Guzman about the appointment of former councilmember Pam Fernald to the Community Services Advisory Committee.

Seven concerned SeaTac residents took to the podium to address the council directly, citing the comments made by Deputy Mayor Guzman were unprofessional, mean-spirited and baseless. Some residents called for an apology to be made by the Deputy Mayor and others called for her resignation.

The contentious comments occurred at the Dec. 10, 2024, regular city council meeting, in which Pam Fernald mentioned Deputy Mayor Guzman had made a “face” during her confirmation. For her closing comments to the meeting, Deputy Mayor Guzman addressed Fernald’s remark, stating:

“I just want to say that I was making a face earlier when we were talking about Pam Fernald joining and what not, and I’m going to not apologize for it because this person, when they were on [the] council caused harm. And I don’t care if I’m breaking protocol or if it’s unprofessional, but I just want to be clear on that I’m going to stick to my values and I’m not going to be fake or pretend that things are okay when they’re really not. So, I’m just going to leave it at that. I do not apologize, you all can come for me, I don’t care. I care about the community that has been harmed. And I have been working these past three years to try to repair some of that harm and move forward for the larger part of our community. So, I’m going to stick to that and come for me. I do not care.”

SeaTac resident Earl Gipson, a commenter who called for Deputy Mayor Guzman’s resignation, submitted a transcript of his full comment to the City, as seen below.

“Wow! Just wow!

“It wasn’t enough for this majority council to trash our City’s finances since they took office in 2021.

“It wasn’t enough for this majority council to force out a perfectly good City Manager earlier this year and perpetuated a cascade of Council failures thereafter.

“It wasn’t enough for Councilmember Simpson to send an email to me disparaging myself, seniors and any retirees for participation in our City. It also wasn’t enough for him to try and pick a fight with myself and Mr. D’arelli in front of City Hall. There is no audio on those cameras. I checked.

“It wasn’t enough for the Council to run off valued employees such as our City Attorney, Public Works Director, and now attempting to run off our Assistant City Manager and Human Resources Director.

“It wasn’t enough for the Interim City Manager, Kyle Moore now on Paid Administrative Leave to be under constant investigation for abusing staff and possibly our finances. Again perpetuated by the Majority Council.

“It wasn’t enough for the majority council to ignore the hardest working and knowledgeable Councilmember, Peter Kwon when selecting a mayor the past two times.

“I could just go on and on.

“Now, we have a Councilmember damage the reputation and disparage the good deeds of a 78-year-old and former Councilmember in Public using this dais to do so. 

“The former Councilmember I speak of is Pam Fernald whom I met in 2008. She was the one who convinced me to stay involved with the City. She was the one who was the first to help fire victims in our City. 

“She was the one that facilitated my helping others in this city anonymously. She was the one who drove my wife to work at the airport when I was in Chicago to handle my parent’s estate.

“Now this sitting Councilmember on December 10th publicly accused Pan Fernald of causing harm to this City offering no proof or substantiation and herself admitted her words were unprofessional and would not apologize. The Majority Council has taken no action for this outburst and continues to ignore its own Code of Ethics on this and other issues.

“This Councilmember’s own words are proof of someone who should not be sitting on the SeaTac City Council. Her meager attendance hasn’t offered any benefit to the City anyhow. 

“I ask that Deputy Mayor Guzman resign from the Council immediately and spare our City any further harm that she in fact has caused to this City and its residents. She will not be missed.”

Two residents spoke in support of Deputy Mayor Guzman’s comments citing that they believed certain actions and language used by former councilmember Pam Fernald during her tenure were racist and derisive of minority communities in the city.

As the buzzer sounded indicating he was out of time, the final commenter pointed at Deputy Mayor Guzman and called out, “Deputy Mayor Guzman, we got your back anytime, anywhere! Anytime, anywhere!”

As Tuesday night’s meeting concluded, Deputy Mayor Guzman said in her closing statement:

“I do want to apologize for lowering myself to a standard that is not becoming of my own values, but I would also like to apologize to the FURS residents who lost their homes and were displaced back in 2016-17 when I was a social worker helping these families. I’m also really sorry to the people who lost their businesses in the Bakaro Mall. Many of those were immigrant refugees and small business owners who have not been able to come back or recover. I also want to apologize to the students who during the pandemic did not receive support for hot spots and as a result lost out in valuable learning and academic time. […] I’m also really sorry to our Muslim siblings who were targeted by a previous City Manager who wanted to create a map of their addresses for really no good reason other than just to do it. And lastly, I’m sorry to all of our community member who have been impacted by a lot of these previous votes that have harmed them personally and directly.”

Mayor Egal also closed the meeting with an apology.

“I just want to apologize to Pam Fernald who has served this community a very long time. Even if I [don’t agree] with everything as she [does not agree] with everything I did.”

Video

Watch full video of the meeting here: