New Soap Lake City Council member hopes to improve city’s finances

SOAP LAKE — Steve Wellein, sworn in as a member of the Soap Lake City Council during an executive session last Wednesday, is set to serve through May 2024 for the remainder of former Council Member Kat Sanderson’s term. Wellein said his primary goal is to help the city with its finances.

Wellein, a longtime Soap Lake resident, said he started out as a fisherman on the Bering Strait before starting his own wholesale fish company, which he operated for 15 years. Eventually, Wellein began working for Walmart as a salaried manager, which he did for 10 years at several locations in Central Washington. He eventually settled in Soap Lake, where he has owned a house for about 30 years. He has been a paraeducator for nine years since leaving Walmart.

Wellein said his experience as a fish wholesaler and his time at Walmart both gave him experience managing finances.

“I’ve got some experience in bookkeeping and budgeting and costs,” he said.

According to Wellein, in addition to his various professional occupations, he previously served on the Soap Lake City Council for six years. He’s also served for 12 years on the board of directors at McKay Healthcare and Rehabilitation, 10 of those as president.

“I’d like to see…a coalition between McKay and the city because we employ 52 people at McKay,” said Wellein.

According to the Office of the Washington State Auditor, Soap Lake’s financial situation indicates that the city is at risk of not meeting its financial obligations or even maintaining the current level of services the city is providing.

“Some of the incidental, small things I’d like to control. The most expensive department is the police. I’d like to control some of those costs,” said Wellein.

Wellein also expressed dissatisfaction with the current level of legal involvement in Soap Lake’s regular city council meetings.

“I’d like to get a new attorney that’s there every meeting to keep us out of trouble,” he said. “It keeps city councils out of hot water. A bunch of non-legal people making motions and resolutions without having an attorney’s approval is dangerous.”

Wellein also said he’d like to see another key staffing change regarding the management of Soap Lake’s accounting and budgeting in light of the town’s multiple audits.

“I’d like to have the attorney help hire someone who can get our numbers in line. … With the way the town’s growing, we need some hard-driving professional people,” said Wellein.

According to Wellein, another key issue with the Soap Lake City Council is its lack of diversity, despite a significant population of Ukrainians and Hispanics who live in Soap Lake.

He said he’ll have about nine months to accomplish his goals on the council before his interim term is up. He isn’t sure if he’ll run for the council seat after that time is done.

“I’m going to hold back and see how my stress level is,” he said.

Wellein said the best way to contact him while he serves on the council will be through City Hall. He also said managing city finances would be his focus during his time on the council.

“I’m just going to do my best to control expenses and make our town successful,” he said.

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android today.