GUEST EDITORIAL BY BILL TRIPPETT, PREVIOUS CITY ADMINISTRATOR DURING FORMATION OF WAGLEY'S LID 97-1
The Mayor of Sultan, C. H. Rowe, continues to avoid accepting responsibility for his own incompetence by trying to blame the problems of the Wagley Creek LID on everyone else. The bottom line is that he was completely asleep at the switch when the train wreck happened.
Virtually all of the incredible increase in cost of the project occurred due to the stop work orders issued by the various agencies. Those orders were issued because the City, under Rowe's leadership, was not making sure that the contractor was complying with the conditions of the permits. The buck for that mistake stops squarely on Rowe's desk.
Rowe's negligence is confirmed by the fact that the City has apparently agreed not to try to collect the additional cost from the contractor, who was, after all, the one who actually violated the permits. It has been reported that the reason for this is that the city attorney concluded that the City was partly responsible for the problem by ordering the contractor to do what he did.
In trying to cover his tracks, Rowe has implied that he and others had proposed to do the job at less cost. What he forgets to say is that he and his friends were given a chance to prove that they could construct the sewer line themselves at a city council meeting where the two proposals for the project were presented in a competition for council approval. Their proposal self-destructed when they could not prove they had the ability to perform the job, and even their own engineer would not support their ridiculous cost numbers. The City Council, not I, decided to approve the LID, not Rowe, Porter and their buddies. Given his incompetence in managing the project after he became mayor, one can only speculate how bad it would have been if he had been given the complete contract.
Suffice it to say I was right in my decision to leave Sultan when Rowe was elected. He has continued to prove that he is at best incompetent, and in some cases, worse.
Bill Trippett
[NOTE FOR RESIDENTS' INFORMATION, HERE IS THE PRECISE RCW THAT LAYS RESPONSIBILITY SQUARELY AT THE MAYOR'S FEET 0F CLAY:
RCW Excerpt (from RCW 35A.12.100
Duties and authority of the mayor): He shall see that all laws and ordinances are faithfully enforced and that law and order is maintained in the city, and shall have general supervision of the administration of city government and all city interests. All official bonds and bonds of contractors with the city shall be submitted to the mayor or such person as he may designate for approval or disapproval.