Former Mayor Speaks Out

To The Eagle,

Mayor Olson’s list of accomplishments is growing. He is experienced, organized, and deft at two related issues key to the TOC’s success: networking, and fundraising. That he finds himself under attack from members of the city council is sad, but not surprising.

I served one term as mayor (2010-13). After my election, I was invited to join the “real meeting,” a periodic gathering of elected leaders held then on Puget Island, at which local officials from various agencies would discuss and coordinate activities. I declined due to the gathering’s non-transparency, its risk of (should any three members of the town council ever attend) becoming an illegal meeting, and because the council member who invited me was then the body’s most powerful member who, as a mutual colleague put it, “acted like the quasi-mayor.” Until I took office, said individual wrote grant applications unilaterally, ordered department heads to do things at his whim, and otherwise pushed an agenda not set by the council. Welcome to small town politics.

Mayor Olson is bound by Washington State’s constitution. It mandates a strong mayor system in which he alone is the town’s CEO. It also limits the role of town council members to a single activity: making policy by majority vote at open public meetings. They should not manage employees, write grants without mayoral supervision, or otherwise undertake executive functions. Oversight is okay – and necessary. Oversight includes reviewing monthly vouchers, passing concerns from citizens on to the mayor, so he can share valid issues with TOC employees. As a trainer once told me: “The council approves the budget to paint Town Hall, it does not choose the color.”

My suggestions: 1) Stay the course, Mayor Olson! You are headed for reelection. 2) Council members with long tenures should make these their last terms in office and use their remaining policy votes to craft a legacy. 3) Wannabe mayors should seek to gain executive authority via the ballot box. 4) Don’t waste money on mediation. The mayor is doing exactly what is necessary to improve town council function.

George Wehrfritz

Salinas, CA