Apology Week! Part Deux (UPDATED)

Update, Thursday 3:30 p.m.: Leavitt responded to Madore’s apology, telling Madore his mockery of him on live radio was “irresponsible and disrespectful, not only to me as the Mayor, but to the Office of the Mayor of Vancouver and the Vancouver City Council.”

He also cleared up just how he canceled on Victoria Taft, and further chastised Madore for his parting shot in his apology.

“Unfortunately, you taint what was a respectable email with a closing that is back-handed,” the mayor wrote.

(His email reply will be below the original entry.)

ORIGINAL POST:

Something in the spring weather has people ready to unload. Start fresh. Hug it out.

After I said in a post earlier today that if people had something they wanted to get off their chests, this week’s apparently it.

David Madore, no tolls activist and employer of Josephine Wentzel (who apologized today too) wrote to say he was sorry he made fun of Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt on the Victoria Taft show.

Leavitt was scheduled to appear a week or so ago, and canceled last minute. Madore said he and others called in as “stand ins” for the mayor.

“I was one of the callers that had my time making fun providing silly comical answers for the mayor,” Madore wrote today. “But I felt bad afterwards and wanted to apologize for making fun of someone.”

However, the last line of his email shows that it’s not too forgive-and-forget around here: “So I apologize for making fun of the mayor and will lead by example, respect, and provide a better way even when the mayor pushes billion dollar light rail boondoggles without a vote of the people.”

Yowch.

Here’s the full text of Madore’s letter:

“Mayor Leavitt and Andrea, I would like to add an apology to your growing list.

My apology is directed to Mayor Tim Leavitt. Last week, Mayor Leavitt was scheduled to be interviewed on the Victoria Taft radio show at 11:30 am. Leavitt sent her a text message 3 minutes before the interview to inform her that he was unavailable.

When someone stands up Victoria at the last minute like that, she has other people call in as though they were that person. It is intended to be entertaining and provides people the opportunity to have fun with exaggeration and parody similar to Saturday Night Live with Tina Fay pretending to be Sara Palin.

I was one of the callers that had my time making fun providing silly comical answers for the mayor. But I felt bad afterwards and wanted to apologize for making fun of someone. So I apologize now to the mayor and the community. I thoroughly enjoy humor and our family laughs a lot. But it goes against grain to make fun of others and my conscience pricked me for doing so as soon as I hung up the phone.

I learn as I go and my learning curve on this one got ahead of me. So I apologize for making fun of the mayor and will lead by example, respect, and provide a better way even when the mayor pushes billion dollar light rail boondoggles without a vote of the people.

Sincerely

David Madore”

Here’s Leavitt’s response:

“Mr. Madore —

Thank you for your apology.

Indeed, your participation was both irresponsible and disrespectful, not only to me as the Mayor, but to the Office of the Mayor of Vancouver and the Vancouver City Council. I do appreciate that in hindsight and re-consideration, you’ve recognized the error of that behavior and are willing to publicly apologize.

Let me correct some of the mis-information you have described below.
Actually, I sent an email to the Victoria Taft Show, prior to 11:30am that both apologized for the shift in my schedule and explained my personal perspective on direction taken by the CTRAN Board of Directors.

Here is a direct quote from my email to Taft, for your information:

On Tuesday night, the CTRAN Board of Directors took the correct action to delay a decision about whether or not a ballot measure to raise sales tax 0.01% (1 penny on a $10 purchase of non-food items) should be applied throughout the entire CTRAN service area, or only within a sub-district of the CTRAN service area (at a different, increased rate).

I applaud the majority of the CTRAN Board Members for refraining from making a rash and uninformed decision. By taking this action, those Board Members have protected the Public’s ability to better understand and voice their opinion to their elected officials. My suspicion is that the residents in every corner of our County…from Yacolt to La Center to Washougal…appreciate that they now have this opportunity to weigh-in with their respective local elected officials (mayors/councilmembers) about the prudence of raising their own sales tax rate to support public transit in Clark County, and specifically light rail transit annual operating costs and bus rapid transit construction and O&M on the Fourth Plain Corridor.

Unfortunately, you taint what was a respectable email with a closing that is back-handed.

Again, thank you for your apology.”