Moses Lake city council looks to fill vacant seat

MOSES LAKE — The City of Moses Lake has received applications from 10 people seeking to fill the city council seat vacated when now-former Mayor Dean Hankins resigned sin late August — including from several former city council members — and is set to interview those candidates at a special meeting next week.

The applicants are former council member (and mayor) David Curnel, Peter Steffens, Moses Lake Municipal Airport Commissioner Rod Richeson, Elisia Dalluge, former council member James Liebrecht, Andrew Ervin, David Skaug, Jeremy Nolan, current Moses Lake Irrigation and Rehabilitation District Board Member Richard Teals and Sabrina Valdez.

At a regular meeting on Tuesday, council members decided to hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, following a ceremony at the Moses Lake Civic Center to mark the 40th anniversary of the Moses Lake-Yonezawa sister city relationship, which is set to begin at 4:30 p.m.

According to City Manager Allison Williams, in the past, council members have interviewed all of the applicants in an open meeting, held a short executive session to review their qualifications and select finalists. They then held another round of interviews before naming the new council member.

The goal is to have the seventh member of the city council named and sworn in before the council’s first regular meeting next month on Oct. 11.

Council members also asked Williams to have city staff draft an ordinance that would repeal the current council rule that requires both the mayor and the deputy mayor to have at least two years of experience as elected city council members before being eligible for the job.

Council Member Deanna Martinez said that while the mayor should have some experience and be a senior member of the council, the current rules tie the council’s hands, and there may be times similar to the aftermath of the 2021 election — when four new council members were elected, leaving only two members eligible — that no one would have the requisite experience.

“I don’t know that the experience for the position matters,” added Council Member Mark Fancher.

Other members had similar opinions.

“The spirit (of the rule) is not meant to limit who can be mayor and deputy,” said Council Member Dustin Swartz.

Finally, with the rebuilding of W. Valley Road now mostly complete, work crews will put the finishing touches on the road — including detailing of manhole covers and drain grates, as well as lane striping — soon, according to Moses Lake City Engineer Richard Law.

“Asphalt is down,” Law told members of the Moses Lake City Council during a regular meeting on Tuesday. “We’re hoping to start (lane striping) in a week or two. They are way ahead of schedule. The efficiency and speed of the work has been commendable.”

However, Law said the city reviewed the lane arrangement on Valley Road following a request from the council to see if there was a more efficient way to place traffic and turn lanes before crews got to work striping the road.

“We reviewed the options, and there are no better options,” Law said. “We’re going to put it back the way we found it with the same number of lanes.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.