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Love them or hate them . . .
Don’t think you’ll find too many folks in this town who think Dave Creighton and Rich McEachin are both great guys. Nor many who will agree with both of their versions of 2007, in this week’s NCN.
In any case, appreciation to both for going “on the record” and shedding light into an unforgettable year; good, bad or ugly, there was much happening, in 2007.
Next week: McEachin Talks, Part II. Some great details, and answer to the question, “Why does the headline say ‘He did it his way’?”
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Bingo! Your words are music to my ears Jim. Nice to know I’m not the only one.
Every time I think I have heard everything I read something worse. Mr. McEachin says he got things done and the job was easy. The job was easy because he did not do it. If you say yes to everything and spend money like it grows on trees without considering the future that’s a pretty easy job. If you have to say no and think the job gets harder. If Mr. McEachin did a wage study it should be on file at City Hall.
Mr. Creighton says he does not have the education to read a contract. Why in the world is he on a City Council. So am I to believe he has been on the Council sense 1999 and voted for or against contracts he does not read? What else does Mr. Creighton not read? How many times has he been reelected by the public?
This City is in the mess it is in due to electing and hiring incompetent, and irresponsible people. All of us will be paying for these individuals incompetence for a long long time IE: employee contracts, Mr. McEachin’s deal, 40 million LID, (that should have cost half that) hiring 13 new full time employees, 8 million dollar mistake on the LID, and ordinances that cost the tax payer money. I probably missed some but I think everyone gets my point.
It was suggested to several council members and even at one public meeting, that the new council should cancel the McEachin deal at the next council meeting, but no one had the stones to do it. So those old council members that say that they didn’t vote for it, so are not in any way responsible, can’t totally play Pontius Pilate on this one.
Not only is Mr Swanson right on the button with the cost allocation (A left over from the Dennis H. dynasty.) He appears to be familiar with the sleeze that occured post Dennis, including when Rich M. left.
(This may be out of line, but for you investigative reporters, there were plenty of inuendos at the time about Dennis’s involvment with the ouster of Weiser and the implementation of Rich M.)
Now, for some real dirt, how was it that a resolution magically appeared at the last council meeting in 2007 authorizing the Rich M. golden handshake. Not only did this handshake cost us an extra years salary for Rich (without his working,) it required us to pay another 60,000 plus benifits for an interim manager for six months. (Remember, the resolution nor none of its contents had been discussed at any earlier public meeting.)
The new council was sworn in at the next council meeting and never would have approved the slight of hand.
What happened? It appears that Mike P. (the mayor at the time) had met privately with some of the outgoing members and the city attorney. A deal was cooked up to provide Rich M. the golden handshake before the 2008 council could be sworn in. It wouldn’t be a surprize that Rich M. also was involved, although state RCW forbade either activity (Mike’s involvement with the city attorney or Rich’s with his personal salary negotiations).
The rush to pay Rich off was an attempt to outmanuever the citizens wishes, and it worked.
Some of the players claim that there was a moral reason to compensate Rich! How about the ethics involved in backdoor deals, shorting the citizens 200k, and the layoff outcome for employees that resulted in the lost revenues of the back door deal?
The council at the time was elected to represent the citizens not Rich M, no matter their personal feelings!
Actually, if Tom likes to investigate political tricks, this one smells pretty bad! There have been a lot of finger pointing recently, but I have heard very little mention of the big three leaders – Mike P., Nick J., and Terry V. who led Rich M. and his antics! He couldn’t have done it without them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just know we didn’t have this level of problems before Bonkers came on board. He didn’t inherit near as many as he has created.
That sounds much more believable than McEachin’s take on history. Thanks Mr. Swanson for a return to reality with no spins.
That’s some ‘error’ (Daily Word’s Editor opinion)
Daily World, The (Aberdeen, WA) – Saturday, September 15, 2007
I read in The Daily World that the City of Ocean Shores made an accounting error of over $5 million. An error is defined as “an act involving an unintentional deviation from the truth or accuracy.”
I fail to believe it was an accounting error, but rather a planned budgeting ploy to fund the city’s General Fund. City managers and budget directors are supposed to be capable people and know state laws and budgeting procedures.
If anyone believes differently I have some oceanfront property in Death Valley for immediate sale.
The jump of dollars in 2001 to the General Fund just happened to occur when your utility costs rose to the highest level in the state. State law dictates “fees collected from utility payments must sit in the utility fund that is independent of the city’s General Fund.”
Isn’t it a coincidence that this “error” occurred in 2001 when the Carillo lawsuit was successful? How we call what the city did an accounting error is beyond belief!
We are now voting to change our form of government from city manager to mayor council. All I can say is “It is about time.”
I think I know some of the reasons some council members and the city manager are trying to preserve their form of government. How many other of your dollars have been misspent or appropriated?
The bottom line is that the city doesn’t have the proverbial pot to pee in! And our current city manager, Rich McEachin, says “the taxpayers are going to have to do something to make that up.”
It is clear from video records as to the responsibility of the City of Ocean Shores’ financial problems. The former city manager, Mr. McEachin is shown in these videos along with members of the prior City Council. Four of them voted for the severance package Mr McEachin designed and Mr Creighton voted against it. This was not what these four council members promised citizens. Vast sums of money were voted to be spent with little proper thought or analysis other than city manager guessed with council’s compliance it had to be voted on and spent as fast as possible.
This is a tragedy that the present mayor has to deal with.
Mr. McEachin now has another job as the director of Hoodsport. It is rather peculiar that the chief assistant for Mr. McEachin at that post is the former mayor of the City of Ocean Shores. The person holding the assistant’s job was moved out to make room for her. This can all be checked in the on line records of Ocean Shores and Hoodsport .
I obviously have a bunch of new replacements so I’m going back to cooking chicken at the IGA.
Why is everyone using my name? I am the real Rafael!
Hy wait a minute… I’m Rafael
Sounds like someone is trying to ridicule me by duplicating my name. If you can’t think of something intelligent to say, I guess the latest tactic is to resort to insults by fraud. Children must play.
Well cops don’t deserve what they are paid. I hope the city gives the money to crime watch. They need to drive a shiny blue suburban and be deputized and carry guns and apprehend criminals.
OOPS, Meant to say WOULD NOT
If Mr. McEachin were still the city manager, I bet he would be refusing to pay the laid off officer his final paycheck until it was “convenient” for him. Oh wait, he knew the value of the police dept and would not have let this happen in the first place. Der.
Lets just say I feel like I might have been at the same council meetings as Dave not so sure about Rich!