Election preview: Soap Lake Prop. 1 - Columbia Basin Herald

SOAP LAKE — Soap Lake residents have a big decision to make in the upcoming general election. That decision relates to whether they want to keep their current mayor-council form of government, or institute a city manager form of government.

Soap Lake Proposition No. 1 was placed on the general election ballot through the efforts of Soap Lake city councilmember Robert Brown and former councilmember Maynard Hagan, who gathered signatures from at least 10 percent of city residents who voted in the last general election.

The proposition boils down to the whether residents want to vacate their current form of government, or keep it as it is. If the proposition were approved by voters, the city would be required by law to keep the city manager form of government for at least six years.

The Soap Lake city council previously exercised an option which, under Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) and state statute guidelines, gives them the opportunity, under a limited exception, to publically decide either to support or to oppose the proposition.

The council voted to formally oppose the proposition at a recent council meeting. Brown was the sole vote against opposing the proposition. One of the major reasons the council voted to oppose Proposition No. 1 was the added expense of hiring a qualified city manager, the low-end pay scale for a city manager in Washington being $87,912 annually.

At a recent meeting Brown stated the city’s solid waste fund currently has $93,000 in excess revenue from 2015 to 2016 and is projected to have a surplus revenue of $150,000 in 2017. He suggested the city could use the $93,000 in the solid waste fund by reducing the city’s garbage rate by $93,000 and then raising the utility tax by $93,000. The $93,000, he says, could then be used for the city manager’s salary and the cost would be a wash to residents.

The general election is set for Nov. 8 and ballots are expected to be available by Oct. 19, according to the Grant County Auditor’s Office.

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