An October executive session by the Palmer City Council, during which the performance and employment severance contract of the city manager was being discussed, devolved into yelling, bullying, menacing gestures, and misogynistic behavior toward women on the city council, according to a written account by Councilwoman Victoria Hudson, who was newly elected as of October.
Hudson described in her account how then-City Manager Stephen Jellie screamed at her and the other woman councilwoman, Carolina Anzelotti Graber, causing them to both become fearful for their safety. Numerous times, Hudson said Jellie lifted himself out of his chair to menace and threaten them, and he used vulgar hand-gestures witnessed by other council members in order to demean them.
Since that hostile meeting, both Graber and Hudson were traumatized, and one slept with a firearm nearby. Graber, pregnant at the time, suffered a tragic miscarriage that her doctor said was due to the stress and sleep deprivation, she said.
As Mayor Steve Carrington had excused the public from the council chambers, Jellie started in with his antics. To Sarah Heath, the city attorney, who was asked to leave for the executive session, Jellie made the motion of someone flipping burgers and reportedly said, “Enjoy working at Wendy’s, you’ll be a great burger flipper.”
Later in the session, when Heath was present in the chambers, Jellie repeatedly used the gesture of a circle made by fingers and thumb on one hand and a finger from the other hand going in and out of the circle, Hudson said.
That is a known vulgar gesture that can also be experienced as a threat or intimidation.
Attorney Heath had originally been asked to leave the executive session because she had issued a public advisement about Jellie, which was only part of what was leading to his sudden severance from the city after just 52 days.
But Councilman John Alcantra pushed back and asked why the city attorney had to leave the executive session. “Last time we had an executive session without her there were open meeting act violations,” he reportedly said. Council members Graber, Josh Tudor and Hudson backed Alcantra. A vote was taken and Heath was allowed back in the room, but ordered to sit in the back of the room by the mayor.
The executive session continued, with Jellie reportedly targeting the women on the council, first starting with Graber and then moving on to Hudson, who described his statements as hostile and “screaming louder at her.” Graber tried to defend herself and finally broke down in tears.
“Are you done yet?” Jellie reportedly said, as she tried to stop crying. She was in her first trimester.
Later, some in the room described the entire meeting as abusive. But it went from bad to worse.
Jellie was next asked by Hudson if he had fired the police chief, which was the primary reason the entire city was in an upheaval over his leadership.
According to Hudson’s account, Jellie said, “You’re a nobody and I don’t have to answer that.” Hudson, in fact, is an elected official and his boss, but she had only been recently elected.
“I am somebody. I was elected and you do have to answer to me,” Hudson responded, according to her account, and she said Jellie smirked and made a chuckle toward her. Her microphone was turned off.
“At this point I was very confused as to why the Mayor was not defending Carolina and I. Also I truly felt that Stephen (Jellie) was pushing us to a reaction so he could have something else to use against us. Why else would you yell and yell and yell at a woman until they break and cry and then proceed to laugh at them?” she wrote.
She said the mayor, Councilman Richard Best or Councilman Cooper would not defend order and dignity in the room. In fact they laughed and egged Jellie on in his abuse.
The drama continued, with Jellie being allowed to berate the women on the council.
“There were multiple times where I personally was again concerned for her (Graber’s) well being and safety during this specific conversation. I also was becoming extremely concerned about the lack of leadership from our Mayor,” Hudson said.
Heath told the council that Jellie needed to leave the room so they could discuss his contract, but Jellie refused and said he could sue Heath for the things she said about him publicly, according to Hudson. Jellie was allowed to stay.
The mockery and degradation of the women — Heath, Graber, and Hudson — continued, Hudson said: “At this point I was crying and very uncomfortable. I was honestly scared. Throughout this entire session I was screamed at more times than I can count. Had hand gestures made at me. Stephen Jellie came out of his chair like he was going to come at me if I dared to upset him anymore or talk back to him. I also had no idea at this point that his lawsuit threats were not something I had to protect myself from personally. I truly felt like I was in danger. And was so shocked that the Mayor did nothing. I also want to note that Richard Best and Jim Cooper making those comments while I was speaking made me very uncomfortable. And were very harassing. Since this executive session I have had nightmares that I cannot escape that room. No matter what I do I cannot wake up and I cant get out. The nightmares end as Stephen Jellie approaches me. I have been scared to be home alone as well. I also feel very uncomfortable in a room behind the dais with three men that did absolutely nothing but make rude disparaging comments while I was speaking and a Mayor that did absolutely nothing to stop the outrageous behavior. “
Hudson and Graber felt so physically threatened that they filed a report about the incident with the Palmer Police.
Both women say they have been scared for their lives and asked the Palmer Police to do patrols near their houses because of the threats they experienced.
Immediately after the meeting that night, Jellie was gone, with his severance contract in hand.
Since that meeting, the seating arrangement in the room has been changed to place members Best by Graber and Cooper by Hudson, and observers say they continue to use intimidation tactics to distract, interrupt, and harass the women under their breath with derogatory statements.
Must Read Alaska recognizes this is a partial account of that executive session and will provide Mayor Carrington and the other members of the council the opportunity to respond to it. This account of what occurred has been condensed greatly and does not provide every behavior accusation lodged against Jellie.
The next meeting of the Palmer City Council is Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Palmer City Council Chambers, 231 W Evergreen Avenue, Palmer.
Under unfinished business is “Discussion of Investigation of Previous City Manager Interactions with City Staff and City Attorney (postponed from 10/22/24 meeting).”
If any of this is true, then heads need to roll. Shame on Palmer City Council .
I agree. Best: I am disappointed.
This is an embarrassment. Speaking as a Palmer resident, we are better than this.
Mayor Carrington needs to be canned. A special election needs to happen for a suitable replacement right away.
Good idea! What is stated here are details from one side of this equation. I’d like to hear what the other council members have to say. At a minimum, the mayor must be dismissed for gross incompetence and a special election needs to be called post haste.
Why didn’t the women try making the gesture of cutting off some limp male appendages? Perhaps the men already had that occur.
More popcorn, please!
Mammas boys need a reality check
Mommas boys need a reality check
These council members/mayor need to have their head’s examined. Literally. Men who act like that have personality disorders, or substance abuse issues. They also may have extreme feelings of inadequacy and depression.
They should be removed from the council if these allegations are remotely true.
So what happened to Jellie bean/roll? Did some husband take him out back to the woodshed and shake the jelly out of him?
He went back to Wyoming.
With a $50,000 severence check in hand.
It was $75,000 and 6 months of health insurance.
Where he promptly resigned again, and filed a federal lawsuit against a few folks down there.
Also- I’m a bit disappointed that I’m not seeing ‘Jellie gets jammed’ or the like in the headline.
That was a headline miss on my part. I’ll do better. -sd
or……….”Jellie gets fished…..
❤️
Hee-Haw!
The maintenance of decorum and dignity of a city council meeting is entirely the responsibility of the mayor who presides over the body. There must be a stated legal reason for the council to go into executive. In this case it is very unusual that the city attorney was excluded. If the meeting was not able to maintain the required decorum, the mayor should have immediately terminated the meeting.
What were you doing, Mayor Carrington?
He was protecting his Jellie bean.
You are 100% correct. Where is the professionalism? That sounded more like a Jerry Springer show. Disappointing that not one man stood up to defend these women and bring some order to the meeting. This is going to be one show to follow.
OMG…what in the world is going on? Where the silent men so cowardly that they couldn’t stop the abuse??? Every single “man” in there needs to be replaced by a decent man, (or woman). That behavior is unacceptable in ANY setting. I hope those women were recording what was happening.
As with any allegations, these need to be substantiate. However as a witness to the appearance of the council when the public was allowed back into chambers, I was not the only one to notice only three of the women in that chamber (Husdon, Graver, and Heath) appeared shell-shocked and traumatized. File that under circumstantial or anecdotal evidence.
Assuming executive sessions are recorded or minutes taken, it would be helpful if the Palmer City Council would release them to the public to either alleviate the accusations or substantiate them.
If the accusations are even partially true it sounds more like the actions of a group of high school bullies.
I was under the impression Palmer council was slightly more civilized than a wolfpack.
Thankfully the wolf got ran off but the rest of the pack will be watched closely due to this allegation.
My condolences to all the victims of the “Jelly Roll” including the fine chief that was fired.
“He went back to Wyoming”, laughing all the way. Yep, we Alaskan’s take care of our own. Right…
“……She said the mayor, Councilman Richard Best or Councilman Cooper would not defend order and dignity in the room. In fact they laughed and egged Jellie on in his abuse. ……..”
This might explain how Jellie got hired in the first place with his outrageous work history. I would hope that the executive session was recorded. If Ms. Heath was worth her salt as the city attorney, I would think that Carrington, Best, and Cooper should be packing their bags.
The only recourse to remove these guys is recall. Unless they resign.
Agree!
“Children, children, children, can’t we all just get along???”
Sounds like this Jellie dude is horrible. Palmer isn’t exactly a megopolis. Why do they need a “City Manager” in the first place? Hopefully they are taking some legal action against that guy.
“Isn’t exactly a megopolis (sic)” is precisely the reason why. Only the most populous boroughs and cities tend to have strong mayors. Otherwise, it’s a tough sell for someone to give up their business or job for three years to do such a thankless job. As we saw with Dave Bronson, it’s also risky if the rank and file decide they have a problem with you. The borough mayor is 83 years old and was elected to that office for the first time in 1982. Retirement would probably look better if it weren’t a ceremonial position.
There were no “men” in that room…
❤️ Tim, great comment. You are spot on. If people would just follow their oaths.
This is why the attendees need to bring firearms into the meetings on a regular basis.
An armed society is a polite society – Heinlein. Cheers –
Mayor Carrington – this has been a circus from the outset.
A police chief gets fired by the clown you hired.
If a background check was done, why was this clown even hired.
If a background check wasn’t done – you should resign in disgrace.
Call the mayor and let him know how you feel about the circus he created.
Gross incompetence.
Mayor’s phone number, you can find online – hold him accountable.
Melodrama between the genders, it sells like hotcakes! Executive session(s) aren’t open to the public because the real world in the” bedroom / boardroom is acted out…. until abuse is called out by loose lips! ‘https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Xz3TikWXPlsKhombvQUhK?si=c78c88bc0d5241a9
The entire council should resign, a special election should be held In 30 days. No previous council members should be allowed. Palmer needs a complete reset. No city manager should be hired, Mayor should be a full time job who stands for election. All council meetings should be moved to large high school so many people can attend and observe and meeting should be broadcast on UTube
This is really bad. We have women who don’t stand up for themselves and so do men! If someone gets in my face for whatever reason, I’d double down, no one treats me that way and everyone who knows me would never mess with me, and I’m over 70! What pathetic bunch letting this piece of garbage getting away with it and being hired in the first place.
You mean a Alaska Constitutional Article I Section II Government: Source of Government ; “All political power is inherent in the people. All government originates with the people, is founded upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the people as a whole.” kind of government ? Ya I am with you ! Liberty Ed Martin Jr First class Graduating from Susitna Valley High 1973!
I with you too Jan.
Wow, if I had to guess…. In my opinion it sounds like somebody is suffering from TDS? They flip out for no reason and can’t be reigned in! He knew his asset was on the line so just go full LOCO!
Snowflakes
Why would the City Attorney have to leave any executive session? Isn’t their job to protect the public and ensure meetings are within the law? I hope the public succeeds in correcting the apparent mistakes made in their local government. Take the time to ask the right questions of the people you are electing and if you make a mistake, correct it!
So, no mention of Deputy Mayor Tudor nor Council member Alcantra and how they also remained silent and did nothing to stop the alleged “bullying”? I wonder why that is……………..
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