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Councilor Boddie Censured By Full Council

BEND, OR -- Bend City Councilor Nathan Boddie has been officially sanctioned by his peers. Councilor Barb Campbell read a statement at Wednesday night’s meeting saying Boddie’s recent conduct on social media violates several Council rules, including maintaining the highest standard of ethical conduct. 


The move to censure came after Boddie - currently running for Bend's state House seat - posted a statement to Facebook in defense of sexual misconduct allegations leveled against him. He reportedly then blocked some people and deleted their negative comments. 


Campbell acknowledged the post was made on Boddie’s personal account, but she says because it’s frequently used to address city business, he can’t restrict public access. Councilors first discussed censure in July. But, at that time, they determined the allegations alone did not violate Council rules. Wednesday's motion was unanimously approved by the five other Councilors present: Campbell, Sally Russell, Bill Moseley, Bruce Abernethy and Justin Livingston. Mayor Casey Roats did not attend the meeting. 

 

Full text of the Censure Motion:

The City Council believes that it should support and foster an atmosphere that is welcoming, non-discriminatory, respectful and non-sexist, and open to all viewpoints regardless of whether or not we agree. As local leaders, city councilors are expected to model the types of communication and civic engagement we wish to encourage in our community.  In responding via Facebook posts in an aggressive and personally attacking manner to a complaint of sexual harassment by a female community member who regularly appears before this body, and allegedly engaging in viewpoint discrimination by blocking people or deleting posts on his personal website used, in part, to address City issues and Council business, Councilor Nathan Boddie crossed a line. Setting aside the merits of the past claim which is not before this body, the decision to respond as he did was his current choice to make.

 

Therefore, the City Council believes that Councilor Nathan Boddie violated the following Council Rules: Council members shall maintain the highest standard of ethical conduct and assurance of fair and equal treatment of all persons coming before council (Rule 1.040);  Council members shall conduct themselves so as to bring credit upon the government by respecting the rule of law (Rule (1.050); Council members will not deny access to social media used in an official capacity to any individual based in whole or in part on content or viewpoint (Rule 2.105).  These rules are all intended to hold Councilors accountable to each other and to the community we serve.  This action is taken under Rule 2.110 to protect the integrity of Council and discipline the member with a public reprimand.  It is not done lightly, but we believe it is important to express the Council’s view of an unacceptable response to a difficult issue and its desire to set a higher standard in Bend.

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