Viral: Vancouver councilwoman’s rants

“Gavel him down. Gavel him down. Gavel down,” says Jeanne Harris, a Vancouver, Washington city council member who did not like the way a citizen was talking to her during a recent meeting. Then with a flick of the wrist, she points to the door and says, “Out! You’ve been dismissed…Leave, done.”

Her behavior, caught on tape, is the subject of a viral video on YouTube which has gotten almost 20,000 hits in a day.

Ms. Harris must have been having a bad day, because later she’s overhead telling fellow council member Jeanne E. Stewart to, “Shut up.”

Later, someone’s trying to make a presentation when Harris tries to shut them down because she says, “It’s not city business.”

And, she gets on people telling them not to mention specific council members by name.

“Oh get out of here,” Harris laughs, as she tells Stewart the council has the authority to tell citizens they can’t address members by name. They can also tell people when to leave, she says.

Harris has since apologized for her remarks at the September 13th meeting, saying they were “not normal” for her. Still, a couple of members have asked for an ethics investigation.

The mayor’s office tells me Larry Smith and Jack Burkman have launched an ethics probe against Harris, which was addressed at a meeting last night. In an e-mail, Harris calls the ethics investigation “rash and uncalled for.”