PROSULTAN ISSUE: City in Transition
The ProSultan Group attempted to improve the City of Sultan's
professionalism by placing a ballot issue to revise its form government
from a mayor-council form to a manager-council.
Unfortunately, after the ballot petition had been certified by the Snohomish County Auditor in mid-September 2003, the Sultan Council (with a majority of Sultan S.I.R.E.s) voted to delay the vote 14 months distant, until November, 2004. The ProSultan group filed a writ of mandamus for an early ballot date, and eventually the council arrived at a "compromise" of sorts, deciding on a May, 2003 ballot date.
The vote was not successful, with a 45-55% outcome. Not surprisingly, however, the election was highly controversial; signs quite literally trashed the entire city (but in a rare example of teamwork, were cleared within two hours of the polls' closure); a League of Women Voters debate was boycotted by the Sultan S.I.R.E.s (with the brave exception of Gary Broughton); and Mayor Rowe's dream came true, as Police Chief Fred Walser was accused by a 22-year-old ex-Sultan PD employee (who was friends with Mayor Rowe when she was employed in Sultan) of sexual harassement just before the election, seriously smearing Walser, the splatters of which smudged the Pro-Sultan effort. On the upside, more registered voters turned out for that election than they did for the last council election in 2000, a very good sign.
League of Women Voters Debate, May 5, 2003 (transcription)
Signs of Strife: Sultan Signs, Pro & Con
INFORMATION:
Delivering
petitions to Sultan Clerk Koenig, 8-27-02
Press release/Herald story re petition
hand-off 8-24-02
ProSultan
Press Release 12-5-02
(Pictures
of Councilmembers Boucher, Champeaux, Criswell and Porter being served
legal papers to justify vote to delay the ballot issue until November,
2003, 12 months after validation of petition.
City
in Transition:
ProSultan Group turns in 270 Signatures, 166 more than needed (104 required)
to place the issue before the voters in November
Standing in Front of photographs of previous Sultan mayors just before
handing over petitions with 270 signatures to revise Sultan's form of
government, pictured from L to R are: Councilman and ProSultan Chairman
Perry McPherson, Previous Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Copple,
Sultan Grange President Bob Hazelbrook, ProSultan Board Member (&
Willow Run resident) Jeff Kirkman, and Councilmembers Mark Raney and Jeff
Everett
EVENTS:
ProSultan
Press Release 8-24-02: Board Selected; Petition "on course"
(in Word)
Update 8-27-02 Herald Article: 260
Petition signatures to be delivered to Auditor today
Read the Pro-Sultan
Petition (in Word,
in Acrobat)
Initial
email 8-4-02, announcing the group's intentions (in Word,
in Acrobat)
8-6-02
Press Release (in Word,
in Acrobat)