Tis the Season to be Fall-y, part 2

Local Politics Alert-not my usual entertaining stuff but I have to get it out of my mind so here it is on the blog...not that anyone will know what the heck I'm talking about.

Who knew such a small town could have so darn much DRAMA? It's not quite Sugar Land (thankfully) but still. White Salmon is trying.

Our current City Council is acting all Boehner/McConnell-in-your-face with the current Mayor, who one must conclude is their Barack Obama. There is one player in the game who attended a couple of our Klickitat Democrats meetings last year, but for the life of me I have yet to see him act or vote in any way like a Democrat. But never mind. Democrats come in all breeds, even Blue Dogs. We have a big tent. The positions are all nonpartisan (supposedly) so I won't waste any time on that aspect. It really isn't as important as WHAT people are doing and saying. I wouldn't even mention it, but as County Chair, people ask me if I support his run, even though I can't vote and it's a nonpartisan race, and I have to say no. If I had to guess, I'd say the current mayor is an independent or a moderate Republican, probably the latter.

Apparently this kind of nastiness is par for the course in White Salmon government, making it dysfunctional for years. Damn, I wish I could vote, but alas, I'm outside the city limits. Which is part of the problem. The pool of candidates is small and limited (some in more ways than one, but I promised not to lower myself).

Our current mayor is running for reelection. He has been a good mayor for the most part. No one's perfect. He communicates well. He supported the development of a more user friendly website (created by my volunteer of the year sweetie). He frequents the local businesses. He reaches out to citizens both in the city limits and within the growth area for advice and expertise via a variety of committees. He has an open door policy (which my husband has used on more than a few occasions). He asked for and got (after two rounds of voting) approval for an audit for 2007-2009 because things were a mess in City Hall. There has been a revolving door of mayors, council members, city clerk/treasurers, etc. which left the City open to problems. The audit was released last spring, identifying several major problems as well as the City's plan to remedy them. The auditors made clear that the report was not to be used punitively but was a tool to bring the City into compliance in a number of areas. The report was released in March, and a big front page article about it was on the front page of the paper. It is also available for all to see on the website, completely transparent. The City Council for the most part was quiet.

Ah, but now the ballots are about to arrive in our mail boxes (we are highly evolved here in OR and WA, we have vote by mail- no voter ID worries here- we just sign our ballots and mail them in or drop them in one of several locked ballot boxes around the county). Suddenly the City Council calls an EMERGENCY meeting to discuss the report. Did I mention, they knew the mayor would be out of town due to a family crisis?And that at least 3 of them 'meet' regularly at the Elks, clearly strategizing their council meeting agendas (they have been warned by the city attorney, which really doesn't scare them.) One of the City Councilors (mentioned earlier) running against the mayor and is leading the charge of the mayor's proven negatives, vis a vis the report. What? Reminds me of a certain teabagger candidate last go around (another long story I've spared y'all) who kept waving an old report on the assessors office as proof positive there was bad stuff going on, when it was totally unwarranted and any identified problems had been long addressed. Hey if it worked for her...(in a twist of irony, she ran earlier for city council and lost to the guy who wants to be mayor). Are you keeping this all straight?

There is a second City Councilor who is NOT running for reelection, but IS mounting a write-in campaign for mayor. This guy is a many generation resident of White Salmon. He has been a City Councilor for several terms. He is known for two main things: he ALWAYS votes NO (even for the audit the mayor wanted, which is why it took two meetings to pass) and he makes every 3rd meeting because if you miss more than two meetings in a row you can be recalled. He does not do his homework before meetings. He refused to be on the finance and budget committee he was assigned because he refused to sign checks. I guess the good thing is, he doesn't have much of a chance to win, and he will no longer be on the City Council.

Meanwhile, there are three contested seats for city council, two of them against incumbents who are very closely allied to the one running for mayor. They have it all figured out. When one of the reasonable councilors resigned (he was transferred), rather than fill the seat with a guy who was running unopposed so he could get the lay of the land, they filled it with another crony who has been instrumental in historical nastiness. In their little minds, when their candidate beats the mayor, and those running win reelection, they can move him into that seat as an appointee. Wouldn't that be nice??? They can rule the world!!!!!

This is all so sad. They all need to be working together. Instead, they put roadblocks in front of anything the mayor wants, mainly because he did not turn out to be the puppet they were looking for. They have run off the police chief, sent away the police dog who had already caught bad guys (druggies) because we couldn't afford it (even though the public started a fund that would have paid all the expenses for the dog, showing huge support), blocking the mayor from fixing a major road to town in accordance with state dot specifications so they could spend even more money on an engineering survey first, and many other nasty little stunts. And the Councilman who wants to be Mayor has been very generous to himself for taking any and all credit for everything that happens that might be viewed in a positive light.

There are people in town who are trying to move things forward. It isn't easy. One of the big successes has been Business Partners of Bingen-White Salmon. I'm a little bit biased because my sweetie is involved in this one and has helped move it from a non-functioning city committee to an energized group of business people in both towns. One of his business partners is running for city council. It would be nice if the balance among the attitudes in the council was slanted towards people who can work WITH the mayor in the best interests of teh city and surrounding area instead of AGAINST him. We are ALL affected by what White Salmon does.

So for my local friends, just in case you want to know who I'd vote for if I could vote:
Poucher for Mayor, Werst and Rau for City Council.