Soap Lake mayor, councilmembers speak out against Proposition 1

SOAP LAKE — Soap Lake Mayor Raymond Gravelle and councilmembers John Glassco, Judith Tramayne and JoAnn Rushton held a press conference on Tuesday to speak out against a proposition that if passed would institute a city manager form of government in the city.

Soap Lake Proposition No. 1 relates to the city vacating their current mayor-council form of government and instituting a city manager system. The council previously voted to formally oppose the proposition, which made its way onto the general election ballot by way of councilmember Robert Brown and former councilmember Maynard Hagan. Brown was the sole vote against formally opposing the proposition at a recent council meeting.

Estimates from the city put the cost to hire a qualified city manager at around $100,000.

“Six out of seven councilmembers oppose Proposition 1. And the council looks at the same budget and they have concluded, quite simply, the city cannot afford an additional $100,000 annual expense,” Mayor Raymond Gravelle stated.

Brown previously suggested the city could use the $93,000 of excess revenue in the city's solid waste fund by reducing the city’s garbage rate by $93,000 and then raising the utility tax by $93,000. It's Brown's belief that the $93,000 could then be used for the city manager’s salary and the cost would be a wash to residents.

Gravelle refuted that suggestion. He stated only a small percentage of a city manager’s salary can be paid out of the water, sewer or solid waste funds, as they are standalone funds. He said over half of the city manager’s salary would come out of the city’s general fund, which pays the “bulk” of staff salaries.

“A reduction of city employees or service cutbacks would be necessary to pay for a manager’s salary. And the alternative, or combination, would be to increase taxes and reduce services and staff,” Gravelle remarked.

The mayor noted if the proposition passes, the city, by law, cannot revert back to a mayor-council form of government for six years. Glassco pointed out the council has already asked the city’s finance officer to prepare two budgets for 2017; one consisting of regular expenditures and one with the regular expenditures with the inclusion of a city manager’s salary.

“We (the council) sometimes will spend a half-an-hour talking about saving $5,000. We are talking about saving $500,000 and we could potentially bankrupt the city by making decisions that don’t make financial sense and we have been trying to do budgeting and stay on the rails for years,” Glassco remarked. “I wonder if it’s a move to break our city financially?”

Gravelle also addressed previous statements made by Brown in which he stated the council would be required to be whittled down to five members if the proposition passes. Gravelle explained the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) states the council can decide to go down to five members, but the council would not be required to go down to five. In addition, if the proposition were to pass the mayor would then become a voting member on the council.

Gravelle, Glassco, Tramayne and Rushton stated they have heard the concerns of citizens who are in favor of the proposition and are fed up with the way things are being. They said they will be working in the future, whether the proposition passes or not, to improve communication between city government and residents by being more open and even possibly holding quarterly town halls to inform the public.

“I look at this vote as a vote of confidence or no-confidence for the way the city government is operating today. If it’s really, really close I know the council and the mayor will be taking a very close look at making significant changes,” Gravelle stated. “If it’s just a tiny, tiny number that are in favor of this (proposition) I think that will be a clear endorsement of the existing form of government for our little town.”