Letter: Poor planning begs the question: who runs Richland

The Jan. 4 article on Richland’s Councilman Phil Lemley’s political ambitions (Richland councilman poised to challenge Brad Klippert for state House) provided an interesting observation on his attempt to win the “honorary position” of mayor. Exactly what the author of the article tried to say is unknown, but can be an insult to the council’s powers to make decisions or a statement of fact that the city council and the mayor are powerless due to a council-manager form of government.

I believe what supports this assumption is that the city council has struggled to explain why, after 10 years of long-range planning produced by the city staff, the city did not have the $1.7 million to support the construction of the Duportail Bridge, nor the $2 million annual shortfall needed to maintain the roads of Richland.

These two strategic problems caused the council to use the backdoor approach to institute the $20 car tab fees. Also, in September 2017 during the ground-breaking ceremony for the new city hall, the city manager stated the $18 million bond will not increase our taxes because they have extended our current bond payment. The council just voted to increase our debt by another $18 million voting in Ordinance 40-1.

Really?

Who runs Richland?

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Letter: Poor planning begs the question: who runs Richland."