Durango city councilors described fellow Councilor Olivier Bosmans’ behavior in recent months as being “hurtful,” “unprofessional” and “unacceptable.”
The comments were made Tuesday during a City Council study session to discuss Bosmans’ behavior, possible code of conduct violations and possible resolutions.
Bosman, who also faces criticism for his lack of attendance, did not attend Tuesday’s study session or a regularly scheduled meeting later that evening. He did not return a phone call from The Durango Herald seeking comment about his absence or reaction to Tuesday’s meeting, which was mostly about him. In an email to City Council last week, Bosmans said he could not attend the meeting because of a “conflicting commitment” and denied any of the alleged conduct violations occurred.
The agenda for Tuesday’s study session included 25 emails and social media posts presented as evidence of Bosmans’ behavior. Alleged violations of the code of conduct against Bosmans include personal attacks, spreading inaccurate information and not honoring the city’s chain of command, among other things.
Additionally, councilors said they are concerned that Bosmans has filed several ethics violations against sitting councilors without raising his concerns with them first. He has filed three ethics complaints since 2021, with two directed at Councilor Kim Baxter and a third recently filed against an undisclosed councilor on Feb. 10.
The complaints against Baxter were dismissed by the city’s Board of Ethics. Baxter said Bosmans never approached her to discuss his concerns before filing the complaints, a process councilors said should be required in the future.
In addition to discussion about Bosmans’ alleged misconduct, city councilors talked about conduct, expectations of councilors and ways to implement conflict resolution. Council members said conflict is causing a schism on City Council, and continued ethics complaints, records requests and misconduct is negatively impacting councilors and city staff members.
“This possible pattern of repeated behavior has consequences for staff, it takes up time, it takes up resources, it has consequences for this council and for the way we function as a body,” Mayor Barbara Noseworthy said in an opening statement.
Baxter said valuable staff time is spent addressing “misinformation, false information and misleading information.”
She said her greatest concern is for the functionality of future city councils and there needs to be consequences for councilors who disregard the city’s code of conduct. If “inappropriate, unprofessional conduct continues unchecked,” what is to stop future councilors or staff members from behaving similarly, she asked.
Baxter questioned why the city has a code of conduct if there are no consequences for breaking it.
Councilors agreed that a working agreement fleshed out and signed by councilors is a good way to set and define expectations. But they decided to complete a working agreement after two new council members join City Council in April. (Baxter and Noseworthy are approaching the end of their terms and are not seeking reelection.)
A possible working agreement may include input from a third-party facilitator to help the process move smoothly.
City Councilor Melissa Youssef proposed postponing a more in-depth discussion of Bosmans’ behavior until a March 7 study session when he could be in attendance to allow him to respond to discussion items and to let him hear from colleagues about how his behavior has impacted them. But as Tuesday’s study session progressed, councilors determined a repeat of this week’s meeting wasn’t needed.
Baxter said a Facebook post published by Bosmans on Feb. 10 announcing his intent to file a third ethics complaint against a fellow councilor, but not naming a specific councilor, “cast aspersions” against all of them.
She said Bosmans made the Facebook post after City Council decided to discuss his behavior in a public meeting, and the timing gave her the impression that Bosmans made the post in an attempt to intimidate City Council.
She said councilors filing open records requests to obtain information against their colleagues is “unacceptable.”
“If you want to have positive, collaborative councils in the future, there has to be something that addresses this type of behavior,” she said.
Buell said Bosmans’ post about a new ethics complaint was screenshotted and sent to her – Bosmans blocked her from viewing his Facebook profile – and the post was “hurtful.”
“No matter how much I disagree with Councilor Bosmans, I would never say those things about him,” she said.
Noseworthy said the two ethics complaints Bosmans filed against Baxter, which were ultimately dismissed, cost the city and taxpayers more than $16,000.
Youssef said she wishes Bosmans would have attended Tuesday’s study session to hear about the impacts his post has on the community, staff members and councilors, and how it affects the trust city councilors seek among themselves to operate as a body.
She said she hopes the new City Council, which will be composed of Bosmans, Buell, herself and two newly elected councilors, can have a successful conversation about making a productive work environment.
City Manager José Madrigal said staff members want to have a good working relationship with council members, but division on City Council puts them in an uncomfortable position.
“Having staff seeing that there’s an open records request on one councilor from another – uncomfortable,” he said. “When you hear in the paper that there’s been ethics complaints (from one councilor) against another councilor – uncomfortable. How do you work with getting to where everyone can have a successful win yet knowing there’s some very deep divisions at times?”
He referenced emails between Bosmans, himself, staff members and City Council – some of which appeared in Tuesday’s meeting packet – and said that more engagement and collaboration are needed for the city to perform at a higher level.
In a September email chain, Madrigal expresses his displeasure after Bosmans asked a staff member – “would it be possible” – to provide certain documents to board members before an upcoming meeting. A piece of the city’s code of conduct mentions respecting the chain of command by going through the city manager’s office for any staff requests.
“I am deeply disturbed that you have requested information from staff without copying me,” Madrigal wrote in an email to Bosmans. “Even after my repeated emails to you and copying Council to direct staff requests through me you continue to go around me and in this case not even include me.
“Can you please explain your rationale? I find this behavior disturbing and possibly retaliatory behavior against me for voicing my concerns about your behavior,” he wrote.
In his reply, Bosmans said the request for documents was discussed during a City Council meeting and he only wanted to confirm it would be part of the upcoming Multimodal Advisory Board meeting. In a second follow-up email, he asks Madrigal to have staff copy the city manager and City Council on “all communications that include any Councilor.”
In response, Madrigal tells Bosmans he has brought up the same issue with him on two other occasions. He says it is the responsibility of councilors to copy and include Madrigal on emails with staff members.
On Saturday, Bosmans said in an interview with the Herald that he hadn’t directed staff members to do anything in the Multimodal Advisory Board email chain that appears in the study session agenda. He said he asked staff if it were possible to provide the requested information to the board before its next meeting.
cburney@durangoherald.com
