Yesterday I suggested New Year’s Resolution
Number 3 for Pacific: Be honest.
The recall blog site is criticizing Cy Sun for being Cy Sun – irrational, unreasonable and ranting – for his claims about Pacific city finances. Mr. Sun’s rant cloud is so thick that it’s hard to find the kernels of truth in all the dust – but there are some points he makes that would stand consideration, if he weren’t so exasperating.
The recall blog site is criticizing Cy Sun for being Cy Sun – irrational, unreasonable and ranting – for his claims about Pacific city finances. Mr. Sun’s rant cloud is so thick that it’s hard to find the kernels of truth in all the dust – but there are some points he makes that would stand consideration, if he weren’t so exasperating.
Making him the fall guy for everything that’s
gone wrong is just intellectually dishonest.
So here’s a dose of honesty for you:
As a member of the city council several years ago, I served on the finance committee, and I felt like a fish out of water. As a committee member, it was my job to help review all warrants before the committee approved them for payment. We had no training for that job, and no clear criteria on how to perform it.
In my first year on the council, Mayor Howard Erickson came to us distraught about a Local Improvement District (LID). An LID is a geographic area in which property owners have agreed to be assessed for an improvement, for example a sewer line.
The bills for one particular district were not consistent and a property owner brought it to Mr. Erickson's attention. The result was the firing of the city treasurer, who I believe was honest, but simply inadequately trained for the job – not unusual in Pacific. We ended up giving the mayor the go-ahead to talk to a former treasurer about taking the position. But afterward I raised a question – how do we know that this individual was qualified? Mr. Erickson blew his top. Afterward, there was a heated discussion in the city council meeting and we agreed to hire this individual on contract and consider her for confirmation based on performance.
Instead, Mr. Erickson ordered the attorney to miss the meeting to approve the contract, and then he pretended not to know why the attorney was absent. Mr. Erickson conspired with Councilman Clint Steiger to stage-manage the confirmation when it turned out the attorney was not present to provide a contract that would have allowed her time to demonstrate her skills. Three council members, one of them a future mayor, and another a member of the finance committee, voted to confirm her for a position that had not been advertised, in violation of city ordinance.The committee chair, who was president of the council, voted against.
The new treasurer talked the city into hiring her personal financial advisor to figure out the city's books because they were so messed up the problem was over her head. Her financial advisor later tried to talk me into agreeing to defraud Metro by siphoning off some of the sewer funds destined for Metro in order to pay off a business owner who had been incorrectly double-billed on her sewer utility. The treasurer illegally cut a check to pay off the woman who had been double billed and the mayor threatened to cut off her water if she didn't accept the offer. Later, the treasurer left, taking with her some payments that I'm still convinced she wasn't entitled to.
The mayor later fired the city attorney. The president of the council, distraught over the belief there was no-one left in the executive branch to reason with, resigned. With her seat as finance chair vacant, the individual who had illegally voted on the treasurer’s appointment took it upon herself to appoint herself chair of the finance committee. Within three months or so she was declaring there was no money in the general fund (a virtual impossibility because the fund cannot go into the red.) However, a contract finance employee told us that there was indeed money in the fund – approximately $280,000 – but that these weren't "real figures." (Uh..... say, what?)
When the contract ran out for this particular finance division contract employee, the council wrestled with the heavy duty of having to let her go. I had to clarify for them that they weren't letting her go, because she wasn't an employee in the first place. I myself was a contract employee for a tax forms software company, and every year, when our production cycle ended, my contract ended, and I was out of work. That's how contracts work! You are expected to leave.
Several years later that contract employee became the Pacific city treasurer, appointed by the very individual who voted years earlier to illegally confirm that treasurer who I believe walked off with funds she wasn't entitled to. A few years after that this new treasurer mysteriously disappeared, about the time that the mayor was in a fight with the city council over misuse of a city credit card for personal travel.
Hmmmmmm.
Now then, let's consider Cy Sun, my former neighbor. I became aware of his disgust with the city at a time when property owners were being required to fix problems with Milwaukee Boulevard sidewalks which were damaged by the failure of substandard street improvements.
That got us talking. He told me he was going to audit the city's books. But the treasurer (the former contract employee who became treasurer until she mysteriously disappeared) refused to give him access to the city’s books. Now look here – goofy as Sun’s idea was, the fact is that the city's books are public documents. The open records law says anyone can look at those books. So why couldn't Mean Old Cy Sun look at the city's books – and audit them? (Of course, I’m presuming Sun’s story is accurate, and that’s anybody’s guess. But on the basis of my experience, I believed him.)
Does this history help explain why some people don’t trust this city? Could this explain why someone as unpredictable as Cy Sun might blow his top? Other than what I've experienced personally, I don't know what's true. But I do believe that, with a history like this, the burden is upon the City of Pacific to demonstrate that it's honest and well run. This place has been as nutty as Pee Wee's Playhouse.
People who make Cy Sun the scapegoat are doing a disservice by not telling the entire story.
So here’s a dose of honesty for you:
As a member of the city council several years ago, I served on the finance committee, and I felt like a fish out of water. As a committee member, it was my job to help review all warrants before the committee approved them for payment. We had no training for that job, and no clear criteria on how to perform it.
In my first year on the council, Mayor Howard Erickson came to us distraught about a Local Improvement District (LID). An LID is a geographic area in which property owners have agreed to be assessed for an improvement, for example a sewer line.
The bills for one particular district were not consistent and a property owner brought it to Mr. Erickson's attention. The result was the firing of the city treasurer, who I believe was honest, but simply inadequately trained for the job – not unusual in Pacific. We ended up giving the mayor the go-ahead to talk to a former treasurer about taking the position. But afterward I raised a question – how do we know that this individual was qualified? Mr. Erickson blew his top. Afterward, there was a heated discussion in the city council meeting and we agreed to hire this individual on contract and consider her for confirmation based on performance.
Instead, Mr. Erickson ordered the attorney to miss the meeting to approve the contract, and then he pretended not to know why the attorney was absent. Mr. Erickson conspired with Councilman Clint Steiger to stage-manage the confirmation when it turned out the attorney was not present to provide a contract that would have allowed her time to demonstrate her skills. Three council members, one of them a future mayor, and another a member of the finance committee, voted to confirm her for a position that had not been advertised, in violation of city ordinance.The committee chair, who was president of the council, voted against.
The new treasurer talked the city into hiring her personal financial advisor to figure out the city's books because they were so messed up the problem was over her head. Her financial advisor later tried to talk me into agreeing to defraud Metro by siphoning off some of the sewer funds destined for Metro in order to pay off a business owner who had been incorrectly double-billed on her sewer utility. The treasurer illegally cut a check to pay off the woman who had been double billed and the mayor threatened to cut off her water if she didn't accept the offer. Later, the treasurer left, taking with her some payments that I'm still convinced she wasn't entitled to.
The mayor later fired the city attorney. The president of the council, distraught over the belief there was no-one left in the executive branch to reason with, resigned. With her seat as finance chair vacant, the individual who had illegally voted on the treasurer’s appointment took it upon herself to appoint herself chair of the finance committee. Within three months or so she was declaring there was no money in the general fund (a virtual impossibility because the fund cannot go into the red.) However, a contract finance employee told us that there was indeed money in the fund – approximately $280,000 – but that these weren't "real figures." (Uh..... say, what?)
When the contract ran out for this particular finance division contract employee, the council wrestled with the heavy duty of having to let her go. I had to clarify for them that they weren't letting her go, because she wasn't an employee in the first place. I myself was a contract employee for a tax forms software company, and every year, when our production cycle ended, my contract ended, and I was out of work. That's how contracts work! You are expected to leave.
Several years later that contract employee became the Pacific city treasurer, appointed by the very individual who voted years earlier to illegally confirm that treasurer who I believe walked off with funds she wasn't entitled to. A few years after that this new treasurer mysteriously disappeared, about the time that the mayor was in a fight with the city council over misuse of a city credit card for personal travel.
Hmmmmmm.
Now then, let's consider Cy Sun, my former neighbor. I became aware of his disgust with the city at a time when property owners were being required to fix problems with Milwaukee Boulevard sidewalks which were damaged by the failure of substandard street improvements.
That got us talking. He told me he was going to audit the city's books. But the treasurer (the former contract employee who became treasurer until she mysteriously disappeared) refused to give him access to the city’s books. Now look here – goofy as Sun’s idea was, the fact is that the city's books are public documents. The open records law says anyone can look at those books. So why couldn't Mean Old Cy Sun look at the city's books – and audit them? (Of course, I’m presuming Sun’s story is accurate, and that’s anybody’s guess. But on the basis of my experience, I believed him.)
Does this history help explain why some people don’t trust this city? Could this explain why someone as unpredictable as Cy Sun might blow his top? Other than what I've experienced personally, I don't know what's true. But I do believe that, with a history like this, the burden is upon the City of Pacific to demonstrate that it's honest and well run. This place has been as nutty as Pee Wee's Playhouse.
People who make Cy Sun the scapegoat are doing a disservice by not telling the entire story.
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