To Whom It May Concern:

The purpose of this letter is to file a formal complaint with the City Council regarding
one of its members, my representative of Ward 2, Mr. Michael Wojcik, after an
unwanted and uninvited interaction I had with him on September 17, 2020. The nature
of this complaint is two-fold: The first is in regards to the professionalism of Mr. Wojcik,
the second is that he has acted outside of the capacity of his official role and
circumvented due process, favoring his personal opinions over standard operating
procedures.

I will begin with some background: I have recently become involved in my

neighborhood as there has been a proposal for the division of Harry Harwick’s historical
property on my street. As you can imagine, my neighborhood story is a common one: A
developer has bought the historic house which lies on a large piece of property and is
the process of deconstructing it with plans to split the lot and develop it for profit; the
neighbors are opposed the split and note that legality of the split, having been reviewed
by a local attorney, is questionable as it requires unorthodox interpretations of the
code. Part of our neighborhood effort to save Harwick’s property has involved
contacting our local councilperson, Mr. Wojcik. I had never interacted with Mr. Wojcik
before we sought his help with this matter and, until he unexpectedly showed up at my
front door, I had only interacted with him via the group’s e-mails.

On September 17th around 3PM, Mr. Wojcik rang the doorbell of my home. He stated
he was there to inform me that a campaign sign that had been dropped off the night
before for me was in an improper place in the boulevard. I thanked him for letting me
know, and that I had been intending to move it but just had not gotten to it yet that
day. I thought that to be the end of our conversation, but he then went on to inquire
about my opinion regarding splitting the lot across the street. When I stated that I was
not in favor of it, he stated that “change is hard” and that the law was pretty clear that
it could be split. When I pointed out there appeared to be irregularities in how the law
is being interpreted, he went onto clarify that “there is a right and wrong and you are in
the wrong”. This interaction concerns me because it seems that rather than being
interested in the pursuit of truth and justice, he seemed more interested on how the lot
split would fit with his personal vision for downtown and campaign promises. He then
went on to use a demeaning tone and language towards me which made me feel
intimidated and personally attacked, specifically stating that I needed to “check [my]
white privilege”, and when I replied that I found that statement deeply offensive, he
replied “well, the shoe fits” at which point I instructed him that he needed to leave.

Additionally, during this conversation he informed me that the decision to split the lot
across the street was a “done deal” and expressed no interest in hearing about the
possible irregularities with the zoning calculations and inconsistencies in the city’s code
that were being interpreted in favor of the builder-developer, who does not live in the
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neighborhood. The use of such language served to imply that it was not worth the
neighborhood to ask for clarification and an understanding of how the law works – and
note that he stated this before the current developer-owner had even put in the full
application for the official split of the lot. This is an overstep of his position and power
to be acting in such judicial capacity and brings into question the nature of Mr. Wojcik’s
relationship with the city’s development team given that he felt he could speak with
such authority.

In conclusion, the basis of my ethics complaint is 1.) the fact that Mr. Wojcik has
overstepped his authority by acting judicial capacity, and 2.) the unprofessional manner
in which Mr. Wojcik has conducted himself on a personal level and the fact that he has
pressured his constituents to end their inquiry to seek a better understanding of how
the law works and how decisions are made, which seems to run counter to all
democratic principles which were taught to me in school.

I thank you for your time in reviewing this complaint and would appreciate your review
of the matter.

Sara Hylwa