City of St. Helena
A team-building exercise on Friday helped members of the St. Helena City Council get to know one another better, and also revealed a rift between Mayor Geoff Ellsworth and the rest of the council.
Held via Zoom and moderated by Laura Mason-Smith, a consultant hired by the city, the meeting started in light territory, with each councilmember sharing details about their lives. For example, Eric Hall has ridden a motorcycle to the Arctic Ocean and back, Anna Chouteau has a new whippet, and Lester Hardy saw the Beatles in concert — twice.
The troubled dynamic between Ellsworth and the other councilmembers arose when Vice Mayor Paul Dohring said, “It’s difficult to be in the role of mayor and in the role of activist in the community.”
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“They’re almost competing, in a way,” Dohring said. “Although we can elicit conversations and have information at a city council meeting, sometimes what’s done outside of the city council may undermine that in terms of the trust level that we have as a body.”
In response, Ellsworth said, “We all come to this with our own biases, our own set of interests, whether they be activism or private industry.… We’re all coming from different places, but where can we find that common ground to move important issues forward?”
The other three councilmembers raised their own concerns about Ellsworth. With no city business on the agenda, they steered clear of specific examples, but Ellsworth's criticism of Clover Flat Landfill drew sharp rebukes last year from Hall's wife, Christy Pestoni, whose family operates the landfill.
“There’s probably three other people here that I do trust, simply because what I hear from them and what I see them do is consistent,” said Hall. “That inconsistency, that insincerity, creates a question of credibility.… Somehow we’ve got to get over the trust issue.”
Hardy referred to “negative consequences both for the council and the community” when “one of us as an individual takes our views and our positions on an issue and articulates them primarily in an outside setting.”
Given the challenges of blending the roles of councilmember and activist, “in general I think it’s better to choose one or the other,” Hardy said.
Chouteau referred to the feeling of teamwork that’s necessary in reaching the council’s full potential.
“Geoff, I feel like … you’re not in it for our team, it’s like some other team that’s outside or somewhere else,” Chouteau said. “Unlike Eric — I’m just getting to know you and I know we have differences … but I know that you’re on my team and the council’s team. Geoff, I haven’t always gotten that sense with you.”
Ellsworth said “my door’s open” to discussions of leadership and teamwork, “but it needs to be understood and clear that I have opinions.”
Even with the ongoing emergency of the pandemic last year, “we got a lot done despite the fact that we don’t always agree,” Ellsworth said. He cited the planning of upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant, financial controls inside City Hall, and the removal of the Upper York Creek Dam.
Dohring said, “It’s not so much a matter of what you believe as how you go about articulating it and advocating for it,” adding that he and Ellsworth have a good relationship in spite of their differences.
The whole council agreed the discussion deserves more time at a subsequent meeting.
“I’m really open to everybody’s input,” Ellsworth said. “I think we do need to structure a meeting around that. We’re all members of a team, so if we’re going to be calling each other out, we all need to be ready to hear from each other.”
As the meeting wrapped up, councilmembers said it had been a positive experience.
“Obviously that wasn’t an easy conversation today,” Hardy said. “But I’m quite convinced that in the end we’re much better off taking on the things that are hard than leaving them under the table.”
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