Moses Heaven - the promised holy land
Four Moses Lake City Council members have been active in holding our city and its residents hostage, but for what purpose?
They report to three organizations in our town that have taken over city government – the firefighters’ union, Moses Lake Realtors’ Association, and the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce.
One of the candidates supported by these groups spent $35,000 to $45,000 (depending on how you calculate soft money) during the last Moses Lake City Council election. This was a new spending record for Moses Lake City Council elections. Members of these groups have personally attacked candidates who were running for office against their selected candidates. They brought in outside money and resources to provide personnel, literature, and expensive mass mailings to drown out candidates they don’t endorse.
All three groups are tied to the ambush firing of the city manager two years ago. The council members supported by these groups created such a legal mess that they had to rehire the city manager (he legally “owned” the city for a couple of weeks). That embarrassing fiasco cost our city $360,000 to $450,000 in settlements and costs. The decision to fire the city manager was made at secret meetings that always excluded three of the council members. Our city manager had previously announced his plans to retire in a year.
The Chamber of Commerce has been rewarded by these council members for its support by awards of funds from the Park and Rec Department’s 2 percent hotel and motel tax. So, the Chamber now uses Moses Lake tax receipts on their special projects. People on volunteer city committees have resigned because of this. Thus, our city has ended its 25 years of funding that has been used for Concerts in the Park, and special programs including the Fourth of July fireworks and many other projects put on by the Park and Rec Department. These events benefited the greater Moses Lake community.
The Moses Lake Realtors Association brought in large amounts of resources from the I-5 corridor (Washington Realtors PAC, Association of Washington Business, Washington
Association of Realtors, Washington State Commercial Association of Realtors, and Seattle King County Association of Realtors). They had resources for door belling, expensive mass mailings and flyers with misleading information. Many of these dollars came from people who had never been to our town in their lives. The Realtors put pictures of their chosen candidates on the front of their weekly advertisement flyers in the Columbia Basin Herald.
Outside contributors on behalf of the Moses Lake firefighters’ candidates came from Bremerton Fire Fighters, Lacey Fire Fighters, Kent Fire Fighters, and Central Pierce County Fire Fighters.
These three organizations and four council members have shrewdly and cunningly managed to disrupt and block our progressive path. We as a community need to take note.
We have become the center of the universe ... Moses Heaven. Look at the industrial, aviation, and agricultural expansion, Bureau of Reclamation expansion, rows of new apartments, new home construction, and large chain motels. The city limits of Moses Lake has about 22,800 population and the 98837 Greater Moses Lake area has a population of 45,000 to 48,000. We have been spotted as an international center of commerce.
Life is good and we will get much better and bigger. Our school district is expanding with the numbers of children each year. We are here to stay. We can’t let a group of 206ers control our lives. Fairness first.
Dick Deane
Former mayor
Moses Lake