soaplakepolitics

Soap Lake City Council waters murky

2005-08-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Shell game for council seats

Posted: Friday, Aug 05, 2005 - 02:58:40 pm PDT
By David A. Cole
Herald staff writer
http://www.columbiabasinherald.com/articles/2005/08/05/news/news02.txt

SOAP LAKE -- In a city known for healing lakes and giant lava lamps, it's only fitting that the political races be a little unusual too.

This year everything seems ordinary on the surface as only one of three Soap Lake City Council positions will be contested to represent the roughly 1,700 residents.

Nothing unusual so far, right? Well, no.

This election thus far has been more about who isn't running, or some might say, who shouldn't be running, than it is about who is running.

First, Marina Romary, who is the City Council Position No. 3 incumbent and served as either mayor or city council member since 1974, will not be running, she said Thursday.

"I've been up there a long time," Romary said.

However, she would not say if she had plans to file for a write-in candidacy.

On July 27, Romary did file to run for Position No. 5, which is currently held by John Hillman.

On July 25, Martin Ringhofer had filed for that same position, but withdrew on July 29 after he found out he would be running against Romary.

Several years ago, Romary changed seats to take on then-city council member Lana McClintock, who was eventually defeated.

Ringhofer said that Romary's decision to run for Position No. 5 instead of her current seat was an attempt to keep him off the city council.

Not wanting to take on Romary, Ringhofer withdrew his candidacy on July 29 and filed for Position No. 4.

Romary also withdrew candidacy from Position No. 5 candidacy on July 29.

But in a last minute attempt to file for Position No. 4 by fax and take on Ringhofer in the Nov. 8 election, her paperwork was not received in the Grant County Courthouse Elections Office by the 5 p.m. deadline on July 29 and she was out of Soap Lake political races all together.

After all the position changing and paper filing, Ringhofer sits uncontested for a seat on the city council and Romary must depend on a write-in candidacy if she is going to serve in City Hall.

"The only person who could beat Romary is Romary. I think she has done that now," Ringhofer said. "I hate to see a great political career end this way."

Current City Councilman Maynard Hagen said that the position requires council members to be active and he doesn't believe that Ringhofer would be able to devote enough time to the city's business.

"If you live on the other side of the mountain, how can you be an active member of a community that is 180 miles away?" Hagen said.

On Aug. 24, 2001, Ringhofer's Grant County voter registration was challenged by Soap Lake resident Pat Leicester, who claimed that Ringhofer was a Seattle resident and only spent occasional weekends and holidays in Soap Lake.

Grant County Auditor Bill Varney determined that Leicester had, "failed to meet the burden of proof in providing clear and convincing evidence as to the invalidity of Martin D. Ringhofer's voter registration."

Ringhofer, conversely, provide several items of documentation to support his claim of Soap Lake residency in response to the challenge.

According to the document describing Varney's ruling, Ringhofer was able to show a driver's license with a Soap Lake address and a poster reporting his lost dog which listed a contact number and address in Soap Lake. Ringhofer presented both telephone and cable television bills that listed his Soap Lake address. He also had a security system monitoring agreement for his Soap Lake address among the items proving his Soap Lake residency.

Ringhofer said he will campaign whether he is contested in City Council Position No. 4 or not. For one thing, he plans to ring the doorbell of every house in town twice before the primary. He said he wants to get the message out about the three-page "Contract with Soap Lake citizens, taxpayers and voters" that he has drafted for his campaign for city council.

Contract with Soap Lake citizens, taxpayers and voters

2005-08-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

Elect Martin D. Ringhofer to Soap Lake City Council Position # 4

Friends & Neighbors:

If you are like most of us, you are looking for ways to maintain quality of life -- and still live within your means. If you feel like I do on that issue, you will see why a small community like Soap Lake, with majority of population over 65 on fixed incomes does not want to "grow government." We just cannot afford it. As a member and taxpayer of the Soap Lake Community for 25 years, and as a citizen, I commit to improve our community and to restore trust between the people and our elected City of Soap Lake representatives.

That is why I offer a detailed agenda for renewal, a written commitment with no fine print.

This upcoming election offers the chance, to bring to the City Council a new majority that will transform the way the City of Soap Lake works. This change will bring the end of City administration that too often operates behind the scenes, without public hearings on important issues, is too secretive, too indifferent, and too easy with the public's money. It will be the beginning of a City Council that respects the values and shares the faith of the Soap Lake community.

I intend to act with firmness in the right. To restore accountability to the City Council. To end its cycle of business as usual. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves, in the open. With your support and vote, I pledge that from the first day of the new City Council, I will introduce the following major initiatives aimed at restoring the faith and trust of the Soap Lake taxpayers in their government:

FIRST, require all ordinances and commitments that apply to all of us in Soap Lake also apply equally to everyone;

SECOND, have a major, independent auditing firm conduct a comprehensive audit of the City of Soap Lake for waste, fraud or abuse, which the state auditor implied but could not directly prove and ask the State Auditor to come in and do a Performance Audit under the new law that will be enacted when I-900 is adopted by 75% of the people in November 2005;

THIRD, Encourage citizen participation by re-establishing a Soap Lake Citizen's Advisory Committee. It has been done in the past and is an effective way to make citizen's part of their own municipal process. The State sets forth this avenue that saves Council time and allows citizen's to engage in reviewing up and coming projects and issues in advance.

FOURTH, The present method being used is to limit written and oral testimony at city council meetings, board and commission meetings. While this may expedite business, too often cuts short the Public. Extending City courtesy rather than limiting the Public, allows for our voice to be fully heard by those servants we elect to represent us.

FIFTH, Curbing actions and decisions committing the City of Soap Lake before the City Council has had an opportunity to hear all about it and discuss freely on whether to proceed or not.

SIXTH, the Law requires all meetings to be open to the public except for limited reasons of executive matters. I will work to see executive sessions that include agreeing to agree outside of the view of the public and without a vote do not occur.

SEVENTH, State law sets what issues have to be advertised as a public hearing. That does not limit City from offering more and I intend to encourage more public hearing be held whenever an issue has a vital impact on residents. EIGHT, Guarantee an honest accounting of our city budget by implementing zero baseline budgeting.

Within the first year of the 2005-2006 city administration, I will bring to the City Council Agenda the following proposed ordinances, each to be given full and open debate, each to be given a clear and fair vote and each to be available for public inspection and scrutiny, BEFORE they are voted on by the entire City Council:

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced city budget/tax limitation amendment to restore fiscal responsibility requiring the city to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.

2. INVESTIGATE THE HIGH WATER RATES AND OPTIONS TO BRING ITS COST DOWN: Hold public hearings to determine why Soap Lake water rates are many times higher then rates in Lake View and many surrounding areas which have about the same number of households on its services, and find options to make water affordable for our residents to grow a garden and keep their yard green. The public is seeking relief. Despite the hardship of HIGH water rates imposed upon us by Soap Lake's past elected officials here in our community, as yet a plan to reduce those rates has not been forth coming. Mayor Wayne Hovde ran for Mayor promising to lower water rates. Relief MUST be provided to residents, making water more affordable. Promise broken.

3. THE GIANT LAVA LAMP PROJECT: Give the Giant Lava Lamp donated to the City of Soap Lake to Brent Blake and the Giant Lava Lamp Association where it belongs. If the City of Soap Lake signed an agreement with Haggerty to pay a 5% royalty for anything sold in Soap Lake: get out of such an agreement as the city has no business getting into any such arrangement; especially without public hearings and a full council vote. The wishes of the majority of Soap Lake residents failed to be recognized by our past elected officials who supported this project that came about haphazardly with little planning, (if any) no engineering or environmental impact study. Project to build a working lava lamp early on drew MAJOR problems, took an exorbitant amount to build, and has been put on notice twice they were infringing on Haggerty Enterprises who owns the trademark LAVA, intellectual property and shape of Lava Lamp and builds LAVA lamps. The largest LAVA ever built is less than five feet; that speaks for itself. Past Soap Lake elected officials endorsed building a 60 ft. LAVA LAMP.

Today, City is stuck with a costly canvas, humongous lava lamp hanging, a billboard simulation of a lava lamp with missing parts donated by Target and it will take $100,000 to engineer and a place to erect it. City is stuck with the liability and is actually contemplating entering into a perpetual agreement with Haggerty Enterprises for a 5% royalty to Haggerty for anything sold in Soap Lake by anyone having LAVA LAMP associated with it. The City has no business entering into any such agreement and needs to get out of the business of helping private individuals and groups, which is contrary to state laws for a city to be engaged in. Give it to Brent Blake’s citizen grassroots group. They know what to do with it.

4. SAVE THE HEALING WATERS OF SOAP LAKE. Hold public hearings on balancing our love of the Canadian Geese with their toxic impact on the healing qualities of Soap Lake waters. Legislation exists to address this problem at no added cost to the city, yet the city council has refused to act on it. Now we are told we face toxins in our drinking water. Clean water is a priority.

5. 21ST CENTURY COMMUNICATIONS. 80% of Soap Lake residents own computers or have access to them. Citizens wanting to remain informed on city affairs, email addresses of elected officials, up and coming projects, notices of public hearings, changes in city ordinances, regulations and more, and cannot access City of Soap Lake online. City has failed to provide a website. Practically all cities in our state have one. It’s long overdue to get an interactive website. If the Soap Lake Chamber of Commerce can have one, so can the city.

6. CANADIAN GEESE. Foul play can be a serious hazard to one's health. In the Fall, hundreds of Canadian Geese make a pilgrimage to Soap Lake beaches and parks, depositing 100's of lbs of fecal matter upon the sand, water, and grass. Elected officials have a duty and an obligation, yet they have taken no action. Years and years of fecal deposits loaded with microorganisms and disease carrying elements that contribute to swimmer’s itch and other health discomforts and risks have built up. Soap Lake is noted and advertised as a health resort, tourism being its livelihood. Seniors, high-risk category, use our beaches as do infants. Citizenry, asked to take action, advised the City of Soap Lake. State Authorities will come in fix the problem at no added cost to the city.

7. CITY BUSINESS. The letter and spirit of the State's Open Public Meeting Act states a City should do their business in front of the public and not take action -- privately. The public has a right to hear the rational behind decision-making. It is questionable whether the contract between City of Soap Lake and Target, whom donated the Lava Billboard, met that criteria for it stated City could not reveal the contents of the agreement to a third party. That constitutes a secret agreement.

Further, I will work to enact budget savings to ensure that our city encourages people and businesses to stay in Soap Lake instead of fleeing the city, and undertake consideration of measures that will attract people to Soap Lake as a family-friendly community.

Respecting the judgment of our Soap Lake citizens as I seek their mandate for reform, I hereby pledge my name to this contract with Soap Lake.

This upcoming election offers the chance, to bring to the City Council a new majority that will transform the way the City of Soap Lake works, career politicians tend to become self-serving. This change will bring the end of City administration that too often operates behind the scenes, without public hearings on important issues, is too secretive, too indifferent, and too easy with the public's money. It can be the beginning of a City Council that respects the values and shares thefaith of the Soap Lake community.

Sincerely,

Martin D. Ringhofer

Martin D. Ringhofer
Candidate for Soap Lake City Council
Position #4
P. O. Box 216
Soap Lake, WA 98851
email: martinringhofer@aol.com
http://soaplakepolitics.blogspot.com/
(509) 246-0679

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2005-08-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

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Martin D. Ringhofer

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