Sebastopol City Council authorizes Jill McLewis's absences for medical reasons

The Vice Mayor revealed that she had been diagnosed with and was receiving treatment for breast cancer

Vice Mayor Jill McLewis’s official city council photo.

At a special meeting of the Sebastopol City Council last night, the council unanimously authorized the excused absences for Vice Mayor Jill McLewis due to medical reasons.

This authorization was required by California Government Code Section 36513, which provides that a councilmember’s office becomes vacant if they are absent from regular council meetings for 60 consecutive days without permission from the city council.

In other words, council members can be removed from the council for missing too many meetings.

At the beginning of the meeting, McLewis gave a detailed statement about her medical situation. We are reporting her statement in full, lightly edited for clarity:

Since everyone knows that this is regarding a medical issue and that there have been so many questions asked by council members, I just want to be transparent with the community too. Bear with me, I'm gonna probably give more information than I need to, but this is our community.

On July 2, I had a routine mammogram only nine and a half months after having a clear MRI, and they called me back immediately the next day and said that they had found something very troubling and that I needed to come in immediately for testing. And so that's when it all began for me. I had planned a family vacation with my son, because he just graduated from high school, and we planned to have a vacation before college started, beginning on July 15. But everything basically stopped, because at that time, on July 3, after they took the samples, days later they reported that they had found cancer, breast cancer.

And so then you can imagine, after that, everything sort of went into a tailspin. Many, many, many, many appointments and follow ups and meetings. At that time, I informed the city manager that my vacation was canceled due to a medical concern.

After everything, they [the doctors] determined that I was stage one, stage two, with high grade breast cancer, and advised that I would need surgery immediately. We initially thought that surgery was going to happen toward the end of July, but it actually got pushed out till August 4. So I went into the OR and had a bilateral mastectomy within three weeks of diagnosis. You know, it was a lot. And then I had complications. They told me I would be discharged the next day, but I had a lot of complications with breathing, and I ended up being in the hospital that week.

Ironically, I had even told the surgeon and the nurses that I had a council meeting, that I needed to get out on August 5, and they sort of laughed at me and said, ‘We'll see how that goes.’ And it didn’t happen. But I had a great intention of trying to attend because I knew about the 60 days, and I am very proud to be a council member, and I didn't want to miss out on that. So after that, I let our interim city manager know—I can't remember if it was me or my husband, because I was so in and out of it—but I know that we told Mary [the city manager] that there was just no way I was going to get on [Zoom].

So then I was released later that week and since then I've been recuperating. And unfortunately, after getting all the results, I learned that I'm going to actually get follow-up treatment. But the good news is, is that, because I've been so diligent with my screenings, and we caught this early, and I acted so quickly, that my prognosis is excellent. I just need to make it through the treatment, and that's going to be over the next few months. I don't quite have all of the details for that yet. I'm being treated at Stanford, and so there's a lot of driving back and forth, but I've been committed to this council and committed to this community, and I really am proud to be a council member, so I'm going to do everything I can to be present as much as I can, whether it's here or on Zoom, depending on what the doctors tell me I'm allowed to do.

The cancer does not impact my cognitive skills. It's just about managing all of the treatment and how it impacts me. I also provided a doctor's note to the city attorney, so that he knew for sure that all of this had been happening. Just based on all the questions that I saw, I started to think that people maybe didn't believe what I was reporting.

This has been a really difficult and personal time for me and my family, and I haven't really spoken publicly about this, except for with my closest friends—some of them are here. Again, the prognosis is excellent. I was just told that yesterday; they were super excited about that, and they said I should be too.

I just wanted to end this on a note of gratitude for everyone who showed up to support me over the last five or six weeks. And to thank all my friends who supported me, lending their ear, bringing my family food, tending to my wounds, even coming over—like a friend who's a nurse coming over in the middle of the day when I thought I was in a crisis—and just offering support that I never imagined that I would ever need. This has been really shocking for me.

I just also thank my colleagues for understanding and having compassion for me here. I just want to say that this was never on my radar. I have no family genetic history with this. None of my family has ever had cancer. So to get this diagnosis like this was just shocking to me. I've learned that one in eight women get breast cancer, and if it hadn't been for my diligence and all of my follow up, it would be a much different story. So I'm just asking everyone for their compassion tonight and to understand that I had every intention of attending that meeting, but I just simply couldn’t. So thank you.

After her statement, a few council members had some procedural questions. Councilmember Sandra Maurer asked about the Agenda Review Committee, which sets the agenda for the city council meetings. McLewis is one of two councilmembers on that committee. Interim City Manager Mary Gourley said, “Until such time that it impacts the Agenda Review Committee, if the vice mayor is going to be on an extended leave or cannot attend to those duties, we would need to bring that policy back [to the council].”

Councilmember Neysa Hinton asked how many meetings councilmembers were allowed to attend via Zoom. City Attorney Alex Mog said, “As an ADA accommodation, for an unlimited number of meetings, as long as the accommodation is still necessary.” Outside of an ADA accommodation, Mog said, “There's a set amount. It's two for emergency circumstances. And then I believe it's a number equal to 25% of the council's regular meetings for just cause, which would include healthcare.”

During public comment, there was an outpouring of support for McLewis from her friends, neighbors and constituents, many of whom said they expected the council to give McLewis unanimous support on this issue.

Oliver Dick, who ran for council with McLewis in 2022, critiqued the tone of the meeting. “This seems a remarkably cold meeting up until now. I hope the mood gets a little bit more compassionate.” He reminded the council, “This could happen to any of you. This just came out of the blue.”

Tessa Hill, who has lived in Sebastopol for 20 years, said, “I think Jill is many different things to different people in this room. She's a neighbor, she’s a critical member of our community, she’s a small business owner, she's an active participant in our schools as a parent and a volunteer. She's also a public servant, and many of us feel deep gratitude for that public service. But what I'd actually like to talk about is what I expect of the City Council today. I expect your leadership, I expect your empathy, and I expect some humanity in this situation. I don't expect that you will always agree with each other, but I do expect that you will show a model of how a community should come together during a challenge. We need this model for our country right now, so please do what's right as a public servant and show that level of humanity that we expect of you.”

Noting that this has been the most trying time his family has ever faced, Jill McLewis’s son, Sam, told the council, “Just go for a unanimous vote. Just think of your family when you make this vote and how you would like to see them be treated by their coworkers, their friends.”

In answer to questions of why this had even come before the council in the first place, Maurer explained during council comment that “It's come to the table because there's a state law that says you cannot miss 60 days of meetings without getting council permission. So that's why it is here in front of the council tonight.”

There was some talk about whether this should be officially considered a medical leave. The original resolution had “pre-excused” McLewis’s absences in September. These were struck from the resolution, in favor of a more general authorization of excused absences for medical reasons.

McLewis said she hoped to make the September 2 meeting, and she again expressed her gratitude for all the support shown by her friends, neighbors and the community.

In the end, the council voted unanimously to approve the resolution authorizing excused absences for Vice Mayor McLewis due to medical reasons. This means that Jill McLewis remains a member in good standing on the Sebastopol City Council.

We, here at the Sebastopol Times, wish her strength and a speedy recovery.

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