Soap Lake council discusses hiring freeze, legal counsel

SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake City Council voted to hire a short-term secondary attorney and to begin a temporary hiring freeze at the Dec. 3 regular council meeting. Both items were added to the agenda during the meeting and passed with 4-1 votes. Council member Judith Gorman voted no on both matters.  

Also discussed and tabled for the next council meeting was removing Mayor Peter Sharp’s city administrative pay. According to city records, Sharp makes $600 per month as mayor and an additional $3,750 per month as the city administrator.  

Attorney 

The Soap Lake City Council voted to spend up to $70,000 on a secondary lawyer.  

Julie Norton, from the Ogden Murphy Wallace Wenatchee office, currently serves as Soap Lake’s city attorney. She was hired in Aug. 2024 by Sharp who was serving as the mayor pro tempore at the time.  

Gorman said she trusts Norton’s abilities, and she doesn’t believe the city needs more legal counsel.  

Council member Susan Carson said the city has the potential for four different lawsuits, so she would like a second look at any legal matters. 

“I do think and believe that hiring an additional attorney, at least in the short term, will have value, if nothing else, to provide some confidence to Council,” Council member John Carlson said.  

Council member Kayleen Bryson said she believes the confidence would be good for the city to move through this.  

“There are so many things we are not accomplishing,” Bryson said. “I think it would be great if we could. We are accomplishing things, but there are so many more things to work on. I would like to do this so that we can regain confidence and we can move forward with our jobs.”   

Hiring freeze 

The council voted to freeze hiring by pausing any funds associated with hiring until the next regular council meeting on Dec. 17.  

Carson said there are positions that the city is hiring for, and job descriptions need to be changed. She said that she wants to combine the city administrator and finance clerk position, since the city finance director Jeff Balentine stepped down. Balentine, according to Sharp, is working for the city pro bono until his replacement can be found. Sharp is currently serving as the city administrator, alongside his mayoral duties.  

Carson said she would like the city to pause any hiring until the budget could be thoroughly reviewed by the council. The council had a budget meeting on Sunday.  

Sharp said he wasn't planning on filling any positions before Dec. 17. The city currently has one posted job opportunity for a city treasurer.  

“We need to get all the candidates, more than one, and if they don't meet the criteria, obviously, they wouldn't be eligible,” Sharp said. “So, by the 17th, we're not hiring anyone.” 

Carson said she has no confidence in the mayor for not filling the position. She said Sharp had said he wasn’t going to do something and then did.  

“That’s why I brought this here today, is we want to do a complete hiring freeze, no positions, no movement, no anything until we can have a budget meeting and discuss this further,” Carson said.  

Gorman said she was not in favor of the motion because it was "unnecessary and grounded in fear.”  

“I don’t like to make decisions out of fear, I like to make them out of need,” Gorman said. “So, I will be voting no.”