I try to keep all my promises. But I must break one. My promise was never to allow myself the delicious pleasure of responding to one of the Sky Valley Weakly News' wonderfully inane articles. My control shattered as soon as I read this weeks' headline: "A Coup d'état in Sultan?"

As my guffaws subsided to snickers and I began to read in earnest, I realized the enormity of what the article was actually saying: that Dr. Mark Raney, aided and abetted by his fellow sneaky conspirator and co-councilmember Perry McPherson, were making a power grab!

Oh, what a marvelously enchanting thought -- the egomaniacal Perry McPherson and the power-hungry Mark Raney wresting council supremacy by adding yet another vote (the mayor's) to Perry's and Mark's already over-whelmed 4-to-3 minority. That is even better math than the mayor's, which arrives at full-time, 24-hour police protection using 2-man patrols on a normal 8-hour shift. Priceless, the amusement being provided by this newspaper, dontcha think? One can't buy that kind of comic relief.

How can a well-respected doctor who spends most of his waking hours giving life and succor to others and then donates his "spare" time trying to keep this city on track, be on a power trip to gain control of a 7-member political body? Especially since the good doctor is one of only three minority members, as political lines are currently sketched. Worse, if this new government becomes a reality, Dr. Raney's "power" will shrink even further because the mayor will become yet another council member (until his term expires) which will result in a 5-to-3 vote in most instances.

But to fold Perry McPherson into this fantastical paranoid delusion -- a man of undisputed integrity and spotless reputation -- is nothing, if not ludicrous and mean-spirited.

As to Mayor Rowe's quote that Dr. Raney has cost the city $4 million because of the LID and $50,000 due to recall efforts, I must remember to ask Mr. Mayor what planet he's from. That is the only explanation which could account for his creative rewriting of recent history. I would urge that Mr. Rowe do something he clearly did not do as mayor during the construction phase of the LID 97-1: Take a bit of time to oversee what happened during the soggy winter of 1999/2000. It's all there on my website, Mr. Mayor. You should start to become familiar with it while you still have time, otherwise your white-wash responses to future questions from reporters or attorneys will hold as little potency as our quickly-decaying police force.

Not to give power to Rowe's silly assertions by response, my obsessive nature (there goes my control again) demands that I submit at least one or two facts for Mr. Rowe's consideration. During the last council meeting, in response to a taxpayer who complained about the high cost of the LID, lame-duck Rowe responded that he, along with all other LID property owners, would be footing the bill for the cost overruns, not the taxpayers. Therefore, how can Dr. Raney be costing the city millions? (The truth is that the owners will, at best, be paying only $4 million or so, while the taxpayers and future sewer ratepayers will finance the remaining $2 million-plus, due to city oversight negligence during construction.)

As to Dr. Raney's highly-dubious and debatable responsibility as one of only six council members to alert city hall of the contractor's misdeeds, rather than ratting out to "the environmentalist groups and federal regulatory groups," we all know by now from personal and oft-repeated experience that that attempt would have had the same result as spitting into the wind. It's my understanding that the environmental groups themselves were the federal whistle-blowers during the LID violations, not Dr. Raney. But regardless, the mayor complaining about the additional costs due to negligence -- on whomever's part -- is sort of like a driver speeding 100 mph on Route 2 and then blaming the cop who stopped him and then cussing at him out for giving him a ticket, is it not?

I will agree with the mayor on one thing: That the LID environmental debacle "should have been taken care of by our own staff." No truer words have been heard out of Mayor Rowe's mouth. Taken care of, indeed, Mr. Rowe; I wonder who it was who wouldn't let them "take care" of it? The buck stops at the mayor's office on this one. And that almighty buck is poised to kick the mayor's butt. The tragedy, of course, is that it will also kick the butts of LID property owners' and the innocent taxpayers' -- the little guys who always pay..

This time, Mr. Mayor, there's nowhere to hide and no one else to blame.

As to the mayor's quote that Dr. Raney cost the city $50,000 for recalls, how about a little reality check? It was $22,000, not $50,000. And the cost break-out was $17,000 for the endless appeals by Porter and Rowe (finally killing the recall's charges against them, charges which a judge originally found to be both factually and legally sufficient to go to ballot), with $5,000 spent in Raney's defense against frivolous and non-supportable charges by Brady Boucher. Please, Mr. Mayor, I urge that you try to either color within the lines or else sharpen your crayon to a finer point.

This is not rocket science, folks. Do we believe that men like Dr. Raney and Mr. McPherson are grasping for power? Or do we believe that Mr. Coy and Mayor Rowe are a tag-team trying to stay afloat in a political rowboat now riddled with termite holes?

Perspectives in Sultan can be tricky, however. In a town where Editor Coy bravely tells the Monitor's editor Ken Robinson to "Wake up," on the very same day the Everett Herald censures Rowe for his actions in leaving the "town's citizens this unprotected," beliefs die hard.

I believe the fight to infuse lawful, accountable government in Sultan stands on the edge of victory. Ultimately, as Mr. Coy correctly points out, it's the votes by the taxpayers and good people of Sultan who will decide Sultan's future. But as the retreating curtain continues to expose the rusty Sultan political machinery, the "real" world outside Sultan has added their microscope to ours, and it is finally looking closer at events here.

Ironically, I think the most prophetic words ever spoken in the Fight for Sultan will have been spoken by Mr. Coy to Ken Robinson: "Wake up fella. The people of Sultan really aren't looking for your personal stamp of approval. Most of us like thing (sic) just the way they are." That precisely states the problem. Sultan's government has been a closed society with prejudiced, one-sided leadership, slowly decomposing in its own self-created stagnation.

But the fresh air has blown the curtain aside as we, and now others, see the wizard for what he is: A shriveled old man losing potency, desperately trying to hold on.