Editor’s note: This letter was written by former Councilwoman Kristen Hanson to the Black Diamond City Council.
I have many concerns with three of you being new and Mr. Goodwin having two years experience and guiding you down a road that is only for his benefit and his vision and not in the best interest of the city or the vision that has been in place for 20 years.
This has been very obvious in the last two months. The CFD’s (community facilities district) are in the best interest of the city, the fact Mr. Goodwin convinced you there was no way any of you could possibly understand it and move forward obviously shows his opinion on your ability to understand the complexity in front of you.
You might want to go straight to the source, YarrowBay and get answers, or have staff get them for you and not filtered by Mr. Goodwin. I want to remind you that the old “lame duck” council as Mr. Goodwin has been quoted in the Seattle Times voted 5-0 for the MPDs (master planned developments). I also would like to remind you that it was Mr. Goodwin’s choice not come back after the doctrine of necessity was triggered in the development agreement hearings.
For me his decision was a slap in the face to the city and the constituents who voted him in, yet people praised him for not participating. His stubbornness came before the cities that he is to represent, first and foremost.
I hope that you, Tamie (Deady), Joe (May) and Ron (Taylor) really do your homework and fully understand the cause and effect of changing our government from a strong mayor to a city manager. As I am sure you are learning the city does not have the funds to currently hire a city administrator. YarrowBay only has to pay 30 percent of that salary.
Where are you going to find the other 70 percent, get rid of police and fire? I don’t think that would go over well with citizens, not to mention trying to take away our right to vote. Why is it so urgent that this get changed?
Why not just wait two years and vote for someone else, just like we have for the last 50 years. A city manager has a much higher salary than a city administrator and are often replaced after four years with a nice severance pay, this is very costly to the city. The other thing to keep in mind is that if the form of government did get changed who do you think would be elected by the council to be mayor? Mr. Goodwin of course.
Here is where you might want to call MRSC (Municipal Research and Services Center). If Mr. Goodwin would be elected any decision he made could be put back on the city manager, what that means is Mr. Goodwin could act however he wanted without any legal implications directed at him. He already does what he wants even if legal counsel advises otherwise, therefore jeopardizing the city.
Black Diamond needs growth, we need jobs, we need revenue and more conveniences for our citizens. Mr. Goodwin is going to make you all believe that past council “didn’t care” about the citizens. He could not be more wrong. Every decision we made was always in the best interest of Black Diamond and the future not to mention we followed the law which has been shown by the Court of Appeals. Mr. Goodwin voted with the entire council most of the time.
This city was in a moratorium for over 12 years.
The GMA (Growth Management Act) was implemented in 1996. I don’t think this is too fast and I don’t think 20 years is too fast. I worked very hard and fought for this city and citizens every step of the way as did the other council member and as I hope you will. I would like to know if you all have read the development agreements and tell me what you would change, legally what could you change?
I hope for the sake of Black Diamond that all of you will think for yourselves, do your research, ask staff questions and listen to all the citizens. You represent the city of Black Diamond, that includes people who didn’t vote for you and those that just didn’t vote not just citizens who back TRD (Toward Responsible Development) and Save Black Diamond.
I look forward to your “public meetings” and council meetings.
Krisy Hanson,
Black Diamond
