Sunnyside Council Silliness
July 28, 2009 3 Comments
The Sunnyside City Council met last night, and officially suspended and fired City Manager Eric Swansen. There was no mention as to why they were voting on resolutions to do this, and no debate on the matter. However, it appears he is still on the payroll for the City.
This reminds me of the movie “Office Space” where a man was fired, but through a glitch in payroll continued to get paid for years. In addition, through another “glitch” in personnel, he was never notified that he had been laid off. Management “fixed” the problem by adjusting payroll not to cut him a check any longer, but still did not inform the man he had been fired!
This would be funny, except that we are not supposed to be playing out a comedy script at our Council meetings.
In other activity, the Council again took up the topic of the airport. About a year ago, the Council had referred the matter to the Planning Commission for them to study the issue of development around the airport, and make recommendations. For some unknown reason, the City Council took up the issue before the Planning Commission had finished studying the issue!
Mayor Pro Tem Jim Restucci said he could add any item to the agenda he wanted to. Hmm, that’s interesting. Did the City Council vote to take up the issue after a consensus had been reached to refer it to the Planning Commission? Maybe I missed that, or maybe the Council is just making stuff up as it goes along.
The Council had a public hearing on the proposed airport overlay zoning district. Council Member Nick Paulakis asked if a map of the extremely large number of people effected could be published to let everyone know the severity of restrictions being discussed, as well as how many people and businesses could be impacted. He also asked if individuals falling under the overlay had been notified of the hearing.
Of course, the answer to both of those questions is an emphatic NO! Legal counsel for Mr. Padelford, who is already suing the City for its bad faith actions regarding his annexation, was not notified that the Council would be holding the hearing either. This happened even after the Council has said that they want all the “stakeholders” to take part in the process of making plans for future development of the airport.
In “testimony” against allowing development in Sunnyside, Amber Hansen from the Port of Sunnyside made comments that a new study showed that air transportation services would grow 85% by 2030, and that restricting development by the airport would be necessary.
This was immediately followed by “testimony” from the head of a pilot’s association who contradicted Ms. Hansen by saying that airports across the country are under “attack” and that 60 public use airports are being forced to shut down each year. He also favored not allowing development in Sunnyside, in order to “protect” the airport.
My head was seriously spinning as I listened to someone saying that airports would continue to grow, and that they were also under “attack” and being forced to close at the same time. How they both conclude that not allowing development will help Sunnyside is beyond me.
Perhaps most telling, was when Barbara Johnson got up to speak about the difficulty in selling her homestead of 48 years. They are in the County, just outside the City limits, but live by the airport. Because they are in the Urban Growth Area for Sunnyside, and subject to zoning designations from the City, they are unable to close on a sale of their residence.
Council Member Theresa Hancock commented at the end of the hearing that “…the planning commission did a good job, a good piece of work.” Excuse me? The planning commission was not even done! Ms. Hancock was apparently the only Council Member to go on record saying she wanted the Council to take up the matter before the commission made recommendations, as she said she wanted them to do when the Council referred it back to the Planning Commission in the first place.
Ms. Hancock did not comment about property owners’ inability to buy and sell due to the moratoriums, and anti-development stance taken by the Council. Sorry, Ms. Johnson, but your home and accumulated life savings are of no concern to the Sunnyside City Council.
About Jason R. Raines
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Jason, you twisted my words, as Mayor Pro Tem I am authorized by Council to set the Agenda in the absence of the Mayor. Council gave that authority to the Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem when they adopted the Council Rules of Procedure which are incorporated in Sunnyside Municipal Code Chapter 2.08.060
I am not the dictator you made me out to be, and I made my decision based off of the following:
1. The email from ICM Jim Bridges
2. Communication from Vice Chairman Hochhalter of the Planning Commission.
3. Email and Voice communications from multiple Council Members.
4. Listening to the last meeting of the Planning Commission.
If any member of Council disgreed with my decision, all they had to do was contact me prior to the Agenda cut-off, and I made that clear in the daily draft agenda emails I sent out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
On the issue of the Planning Commission, they are an extension of the City Council, appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Council. Any item in front of the PC can be pulled by the Council, as the Council is ultimately responsible for ruling on the issue. The PC Agenda is set by Council, not by staff and not by the Chairman or PC members. The PC held multiple Public Hearings on this issue and if you listen to the last meeting, you will hear that with the exception of the Zone 5 changes requested by Vice Chairman Hochhalter, no other changes to the document was required. The meeting Chairman Cleghorn called “His Meeting” was never his to begin with it belongs to the Commission, not the Chairman.
On the issue of Mrs. Johnson, you failed to mention that according to the City’s Planning Department, she resides in the County, and regardless of whether or not we adopt SMC Chapt. 17.65 it would have no effect on her property. You also failed to mention that I offered on the record, to help her, and that I wanted to speak with her outside of the meeting, and I have every intention of doing so.
Jim,
As always I appreciate your comments.
On the issue of Ms. Johnson, I am glad that you are willing to try and help her out. I wish other Council Members cared about the rights of individual property owners also. I did mention that she is in the County, but you are mistaken about the City not having control over zoning in the urban growth area. As was mentioned in the meeting, and by Ms. Johnson, the City is in the driver’s seat on this. You yourself have noted publicly in the past that members of the planning commission should ideally include people from outside the City limits, but that are in the urban growth area, as they are impacted by the City’s zoning decisions. Even outside the City limits, property owners are suffering the negative consequences of Council’s actions.
As for setting the agenda, I think you and the rest of Council behaved in a manner that was discourteous to your own appointed Planning Commission Chairman. You gave his commission a task, which he was dutifully trying to work on, and then you did an end run around him in bringing this to the Council. I am not going to argue about Sunnyside Municipal Code numbers right now, but just know that the way you treated the Chairman (and by extension the entire commission), was, in my opinion, unprofessional. Next time, I would suggest allowing them to finish the task they were given. Otherwise, why even have a Planning Commission?
Despite our differences of opinion from time to time, I appreciate your service to our City. Thank you again for your comments.
Jason, according to Jaime Ailing in the Planning Department, the action last night, would have no bearing on her whatsoever; however I will concede that Jaime may be mistaken, and this is one of the reasons I plan to work with Commissioner Rand Elliot (he is the land use guy according to Cmnr Mike Leita) to find an acceptable solution, according to Mr. Bridges who happens to be Mrs. Johnson’s neighbor, he had no problem getting a letter from the County.
On the issue of the Planning Commission, I will agree to disagree with you.
Thank you again for your comments and your willingness to serve.