Yet another controversy between residents and city officials has erupted in SeaTac. This one involves a one-word response from CouncilpersonMia Gregerson to an e-mail from resident Leonard Luna.

Luna said Gregerson’s response was insensitive and hurtful to him as both a Filipino/Chinese and a disabled person. Gregerson is Taiwanese.

Luna is calling for the City Council to publicly reprimand Gregerson or issue an official council apology.
He dismisses Gregerson’s subsequent e-mail and public apologies as insincere.
The city has also received a public disclosure request for all of Gregerson’s e-mails as a public official.

The flap began when Luna e-mailed Lesa Ellis, executive assistant to interim city manager Todd Cutts, about a city coffee chat with residents on April 13. Luna sent carbon copies to council members and others. He complained that issues raised by neighborhood residents had not been addressed by the city even though lawmakers had taken notes at previous coffee chats.
Gregerson’s one-word response to Luna’s e-mail was “Lunatic.”

Ironically, Luna said he had just returned from advising a group on diversity issues when he read Gregerson’s response.
Growing up as a Filipino/Chinese young man in a predominantly white neighborhood during the Vietnam War, Luna said he was taunted by kids saying, “You people are lunatics,” according to Luna.
Gregerson insists her reply was a “complete accident.”

She composed the one-word reply and sent it in an instant without thinking about it, according to Gregerson.
“It was not premeditated,” Gregerson said. “I was not trying to be racist, I was not trying to be mean. I thought it was witty.”
Gregerson said she went to Luna’s house twice but was not given the opportunity to apologize.
She then composed an e-mail to him that said, “Please accept my sincere apology for my incredibly poor use of the English language and even worse my poor use of judgment. You are correct in stating that my actions were undignified. You have every right to be disappointed in me as I am certainly disappointed in myself.”

Later in the e-mail, Gregerson wrote, “The simple truth is I like word games and in a split second I made a horrible mistake with a most unfortunate play on words.”
Luna said he is bothered by Gregerson’s use of word games and wonders if she can be trusted if she plays word games as a public official.
Gregerson also publicly apologized at the beginning of the April 13 council meeting.

Speaking during public comments, Luna said he did not accept her apology and again asked for a public reprimand and apology from the council.
Resident Vicki Lockwood said Gregerson did not look at the audience during her apology and did not seem sincere.
In a Times/News interview, Gregerson said she did not look up because she wanted to concentrate on what she had prepared.
“I wanted to say from my heart and mind how sorry I am and how hard I am working to regain their trust,” Gregerson declared.
At the council meeting, Councilperson Tony Anderson presented a lengthy defense of Gregerson.
He said Gregerson had apologized four times.

“Where I grew up, that is more than enough,’ he declared. “On behalf of the council, I am sorry he was hurt (by her comments.)”
He said that e-mails to other public officials about the incident comes at a bad time when the council is seeking state and federal appropriations for capital projects and that complying with the request for all Gregerson’s e-mails will cost the city thousands of dollars.
But the comment that elicited the most reaction from Gregerson’s opponents was Anderson’s suggestion that those pressing for further action are doing so because she opposed the elected mayor proposition in the November election. The proposition lost by nine votes.
Mayor Terry Anderson and Councilperson Ralph Shape, who opposed the proposition, also defended Gregerson at the council meeting.
Newly elected Councilperson Pam Fernald, who supported the proposition, said she did not understand the connection between the two issues.

Fernald e-mailed Gregerson, who sits next to her during council meetings, “As for me, I will watch my back, and I will not let my guard down where you are concerned. That’s one lesson I have learned about you from this.”
Newly elected Councilperson Rick Forschler, who supported the proposition, said he is not ignoring Luna’s concerns but has requested more information from the staff.

Deputy Mayor Gene Fisher, another strong-mayor advocate, did not address the issue at the council meeting.
SeaTac resident Michael Kovacs, who ran unsuccessfully against Tony Anderson and was a strong proposition advocate, emailed 33rd District legislators calling for an investigation.

“I have the emails that Council Member Gregerson made discriminatory and derogatory remarks against me as a tax paying citizen which insults my family as racial, derogatory and discrimatory,” Kovacs wrote. Kovacs wife is a Japanese foreign national.
Proposition supporter Michael Siefkes, who runs the fixseatac.com blog, said at the council meeting that he supports Luna. He said other residents reported receiving less than civil e-mails from Gregerson.

Earl Gipson, who led the proposition drive, e-mailed the Times/News, “This is getting out of hand and it needs to be defused somehow so the City can address the actual issues.”

Luna told the Times/News he supported the proposition but was not directly involved with the campaign.