USA - Deputy mayor cuts meeting short — but fluoride foes continue with three council members

Port Angeles Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd, right, before walking out of the City Council chambers Tuesday after unexpectedly adjourning a council meeting while Councilman Lee Whetham, left, and two others stayed. — Paul Gottlieb/Peninsula Daily News

PORT ANGELES — Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd reached her tipping point this week when a City Council meeting speaker compared four pro-fluoridation council members — including herself — to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Kidd, standing in for pneumonia-stricken Mayor Patrick Downie, abruptly adjourned Tuesday's meeting during the second public comment session — it was the last item on the agenda — after repeatedly banging her gavel and asking for order.

But in an extraordinary turn, the gathering continued without her.

After the meeting was adjourned, Councilman Lee Whetham encouraged comments, taking charge of the session as he stood behind the dais with other anti-fluoridation council members Sissi Bruch and Michael Merideth.

The 30-minute session turned into an anti-fluoridation/anti-Kidd rally in council chambers packed with between 50 and 60 protesters.

Kidd had called for civility during the meeting while opponents hooted, hollered and clapped as about 20 speakers criticized four pro-fluoridation council members, including Downie, who participated by speakerphone from his home.

The final straw for Kidd came when Robert Flood of Port Angeles compared council members Downie, Brad Collins, Dan Gase and Kidd to the Four Horsemen — Conquest, War, Famine and Death — from the Bible's Book of Revelation....................