Tag: government

IMPASSE IN EXECUTIVE SESSION WITH A COMPROMISE CANDIDATE

by Richard Uhlhorn

Last night’s selection of who would replace Mark Ericks on Chelan City Council ended with a compromise that put Cesar Rivera-Vargas in the seat.

This morning Social Media erupted with outrage by a number of residents over the results. In a majority wins situation that was turned, somehow, into a compromise has many people unhappy with the council and city administration.

While we waited patiently for over an hour for the results, most of us knew there was a battle inside the executive session taking place. That became more and more apparent when the session was extended for 10 minutes to another 10 minutes etc. until over an hour had passed before the compromise was made.

Five candidates (Brandt Jones dropped out) were given eight minutes to answer five questions proposed by the city. These ranged from how each candidate, if seated, sees their role on the council seat to their motivation for running and how they would balance and evaluate the city’s fiscal realities in the upcoming budget season.

The five candidates included Ben Laughlin, Cesar Rivera-Vargas, Lars Strandberg, Pamela Gean Van Gerpen and Todd Higley.

Laughlin was first to the podium and he told the council that he was consistently asking voters what their priorities were and then said, “The council represents their constituents.” He said city funds should correlate with public sentiment and not emotional or political pressure. He stated that over the next 10 years the city would be facing serious traffic flow issues from Manson and that the Chelan Golf Course needed funding from lodging tax funds to correct its infrastructure issues. Laughlin also addressed a 28 percent drop in students because of the lack of affordable housing. “We can’t afford to lose more state education funding.“

Laughlin then reminded the council that he and councilman Shane Collins had the highest number of voter turnout the city has seen in the last council selection to replace Shari Dietrich.

Vargas stated that he liked “working with the community by supporting local business and creating new opportunities.” Vargas said if elected, he would help make practical decisions on the issues the city faces. “Sometimes it isn’t an easy topic to talk about.”

Vargas is a construction worker and unknown to the residents of Chelan, but lives in Chelan and has worked construction around the region including, as he says, on Chelan’s new hospital. He represents a new face that has no public service background, but as the new councilmember he has six other councilmembers to help bring him up to speed.

Strandberg grew up in the Tri-Cities area, spent 10 years in the Marine Corps flying helicopters and after the military, worked in the snack food industry doing contract negotiations with customers. He and his wife Joanne purchased the Culinary Apple in 2020. “We have benefited from the local system,” he said.

Noting that Chelan operates under a strong mayor/council system, Strandberg said, “I believe in collaboration.” Planning for growth challenges to arrive at a balanced budget is high on his list of priorities. “I work with budgets with limited resources.”

Van Gerpen said initially that she wasn’t running for office to build a political career. Her reason is to help build community trust over the next 18 months when she would have to run for election. “I see my role as an advocate for transparency and to bring all levels of leadership together to solve complex issues.”

She is a retired Boeing employee and now works with the Chelan Hills Association helping to create and maintain a budget. If elected she sees her role to help return Chelan’s traditional values and bring long term sustainability.

Higley is a local business owner who has served on the Parks Board for the past four years. He sees the council position as representing the community as a whole. “We have a strong mayor/council system with the council more of a bridge to the public.” If elected he sees his role as giving back to the community.

Higley wants to see progress in public safety, utilities, and infrastructure. “I understand the importance of priorities,” he stated. “I love this town and being on the Parks Board. We have issues coming up.” The golf course issues are not easy, stated Higley.

Council candidates discussed issues while waiting for the city council’s decision on who would replace Mark Ericks.

After the candidate statements, the council convened in executive session. Mayor McCardle told the attendees that they expected to in session for 30 minutes, but that changed with 10 minute extensions that pushed the decision to over an hour with no apparent ability to arrive at a decision.

Deciding to compromise was an easy out for the council, but their decision has not landed well with many residents.

However, the decision is what it is and Vargas will have the benefit of six other council members to help him with the long learning curve.

City Council gets an earful

by Richard Uhlhorn

On Tuesday evening, July 9, Chelan’s Council Chambers filled with unhappy residents over the Fourth of July parking and fireworks issues.

The July 4 Fire on Chelan Butte was handled quickly by Chelan Fire & Rescue.

Citizens Comments:
Many of these residents live on Chelan Butte or in the Lakeside community. Margie Lynch, a longtime Butte resident summed up the parking issue by telling the Council that the Butte Road had cars, not only parked on both sides of the road, but double parked. “It became increasingly difficult for emergency vehicles to access the area,” she said. She added that she visited both the Sheriff’s Department and Fire Station where she was told to call RiverCom with her issues. “There was just enough room for my car to drive between the parked cars all the way to the switchback.”

Another resident stated that Lakeside Park is full at 7 a.m. “How do we monitor the parks,” she asked. She also mentioned that vehicles were driving up the Butte Road to Daybreak to watch the fireworks. She, along with others, are concerned about fire.

Another resident told the Council the Sheriff’s Department deputies told her they didn’t have time to write tickets and who would show up in court over a $30 ticket anyway. Her bigger concern was fire risk and the homeowner insurance companies view of that fire risk which is raising insurance or cancelling it.

Another resident addressed the fireworks issue with not enough resources to deal with illegal fireworks. “When the Butte fire started, there were still fireworks going off. We are all losing fire insurance for our homes.”

Mayor McCardle replied to the Citizens that the city needs to work on tougher long-term solutions.

Linda Sydloski brought up safety concerns on the Union Valley Road. “It is so treacherous with the fire traffic and dump trucks. There are no curbs… no guardrails and the dump trucks speed down the road.” She thought it would be good to put speed bumps in to slow traffic.

Parks & Recreation Professional Day Proclamation:
This proclamation couldn’t have come on a better day,” said Mayor McCardle. “All of our parks were full this past week. Thank you very much Paul.” She then read the proclamation and entered it into the record.

Mayor McCardle

Parks Proclamation:
WHEREAS, the City Council of Chelan recognizes that the citizens of Chelan desire to enjoy the benefits of modern, safe, and well-designed parks and facilities that enhance their quality of life, positively impact their health, foster community cohesion, drive economic activity, and protect our environment; and

WHEREAS, the City Council acknowledges that tourism is a primary economic sector for Chelan, that tourists visit to enjoy our lake, and that almost all the publicly accessible lakefront is stewarded by the Chelan Parks Department, with visitors’ impressions of the parks significantly influencing their opinions and memories of our community; and

WHEREAS, the City Council recognizes that the operations of Chelan’s Parks Department receive no taxpayer funding and that the Parks Department contributes to downtown beautification, supports other City departments, and benefits our taxpayers at large; and

WHEREAS, the City Council commends Chelan’s park professionals for their dedication to serving the public, providing exemplary customer service, and enriching our community through their work in managing commercial enterprises, maintaining facilities, and developing a strategic plan for the continuous improvement of the parks system into the future; NOW, THEREFORE, IT BE RESOLVED, I, Erin McCardle, Mayor of Chelan, do hereby proclaim July 19, 2024, as “Park and Recreation Professionals Day” in Chelan Washington. Dated this 9th day of July 2024.

Assistant Parks Director:
City Council is considering the hiring of an Assistant Parks and Recreation Director who’s position will have an emphasis on Capital Planning and Management of the $24 million dollars of capital projects the Chelan Parks department has on its PROS plan schedule.

“This is to alert the Council to a position that has been discussed for a long time,” Parks Director Paul Horne told the Council at its Tuesday evening, July 9 meeting. “The positions focus will be on capital projects.”

The search for this position will be done in-house and by the new Human Resource Director Chad Coltman who stated that once the job description is finished and approved, the search for the new director would be handled internally through the National Parks Recreation Association. “This will be a full time, non-represented position,” said Coltman. “There are sufficient funds to pay for it,” he added. The position would also be added to the upcoming 2025 budget.

Chad Coltman is the City’s new Human Resources and Communications Director. He will be heading up the search for the new Assistant Parks Director once the position is approved by Council.

Horne asked that the position be put on the next Council meeting’s Consent Agenda.

Mark Ericks asked about the delta funding for this new position description. Coltman replied that it is around $20,000, which takes into account the expanded scope of the new position.

Mayor McCardle added that the position has been in discussion for several months which included whether the position should be union or administrative. “We should have been hiring for this position  much earlier,” said Mayor McCardle.

While the primary function of the job will be to assist on capital planning and management, the new employee will also assist in overall Parks operations and, when necessary, stand in for the director when he is unavailable or out of office.

In other City business:
City Council unanimously approved a $110,105 bid by Rudnick and Sons, LLC for the Bradley Street and Johnson Avenue Intersection improvements. This work will be accomplished before the school year begins and will allow teachers and school kids to cross from the Community Gym to MOE safely. The project is 90 percent grant funded.

Council also approved a General Services Agreement for on-call survey work with Erlandsen, Inc.

Council approved a Task Order No. 1 – 2024 for Right of Way Dedication Utility Easement No. 1, and Utility Easement No. 2 for the Anderson Road Project. “We have a memorandum agreement with Chelan Fruit for a utility easement through their property,” said Jake Youngren, public works director.

Mayor/Council Comments:
Terry Sanders said he appreciated the public comment regarding fires, fireworks and parking issues.

Bob Goedde said Chelan had a totally different crowd over the Fourth of July. “Traffic was terrible and there was fireworks going off all night long… I guess you can’t fix stupid,” said a disgusted Goedde.

Brad Chitty echoed Goedde’s comments. “I remember when we had police here from Seattle to help.”

Jon Higgins thanked the firefighters for all of their work to keep the community safe. He also agrees that parking has become a major issue in the downtown area.

Mark Ericks brought up the fireworks issue and said, “I don’t get it. We had a fire up on the Butte. We need to come up with a game plan.”

Tim Hollingsworth said people need to take personal responsibility for their actions. Regarding parking, Hollingsworth said there has been considerable discussion in the past. “We don’t have the capacity. The parks are abused and overcrowded,” said Hollingsworth.

Mayor McCardle echoed all the comments regarding the issues during the Fourth of July week. “A lot of things happened this weekend. We had incidents on the water. We are sitting here on Tuesday discussing parking issues, but there are so many other issues to consider.”

She added that the City has to get on top of the parking and fireworks issues.

City Council meets every second and fourth Tuesday at 6 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers. The Public is encouraged to attend.