John Gilday, publisher of the former Eastside Sun newspaper, spoke during the public comment portion of the April 6 Kirkland City Council meeting to inform the public of his impending $4 million civil lawsuit and concurrent Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against the city.

In a suit that will be filed in June, Gilday accuses city staff of threatening local business that advertised with the sometimes-controversial monthly publication. The Eastside Sun’s editorial page has been critical of the dealings within the city and council members.

“City employees have visited the Eastside Sun’s advertisers to make veiled and not-so-veiled threats as to what they could expect if they continued to advertise with the Eastside Sun,” Gilday told the council. “Those threats were taken seriously and in a matter of 120 days we went from positive $2,000 to negative $1,000 and the Eastside Sun closed its doors.”

In an interview with the Reporter, Gilday explained that originally he thought that an external marketing company used by the city was making the alleged threats. But after more investigation it was determined by Gilday that two specific city employees were making the threats during business hours.

“If you’re a business you don’t want to be on the bad side of the City of Kirkland,” Gilday told the Reporter. “They chose their words carefully but not carefully enough.”

Gilday gave the city 30 days to investigate and resolve the issue. The publisher said that when the 30 days were up and no action was taken he decided to continue forward. He claims that the person he was speaking to within the city about the issue had full knowledge of the employees’ actions.

“I went to a lawyer and he said that this is a Federal Civil Rights case,” Gilday told the Reporter.

Interim City Manager Marilynne Beard said that the city takes any such charges seriously.

“If any employee under color of authority made any sort of inappropriate remarks to anybody that we would follow that up carefully and we would get to the bottom of it,” said Beard.

But Gilday claims to have proof of the tactics that he compared to those used in the civil rights of the 1960s.

“We have affidavits, witnesses and we have fire in our bellies,” said Gilday during the meeting. “I have agonized over this and I have come to the conclusion that any lesson not learned in blood is soon forgotten … The city has known about these people and has known about their actions and they have seen fit to ignore them.”

Kirkland City Mayor Joan McBride requested a report on the issue from city staff following Gilday’s remarks.