Snohomish City Councilman Derrick Burke needs to get a clue.
You don’t need a focus group to tell you how to openly communicate with citizens. Being an elected official implies the willingness to take on this responsibility.
The Snohomish city government, just needs to “be transparent.”
Transparency is not working behind closed doors for a year with Verizon to erect a 100-foot tall cell tower next to the Snohomish Boys &Girls Club in an historic Snohomish city park, Averill Field, before even revealing the plan with the citizens.
Transparency is not trying to bill property owners thousands of dollars for developer fees the city neglected to collect.
When have we ever had transparency about the sky-high sewer rates? We’re told that they’re warranted only to be placated with a proposed paltry reduction after the mayor is barely re-elected.
Who chose the vendor to conduct the transparency focus group? Was it put out for bids?
How did the city government arrive at their choice of vendor to perform the study about how the citizens of Snohomish feel about their city government? What kind of nonsense was it to include city residents only as an afterthought?
Snohomish citizens are speaking out about the lack of transparency in city government and city councilman Derrick Burke disparages them.
Burke owes the citizens that he is supposed to serve an apology at the very least.
This is an example of the very attitude from elected public officials that has caused so many Americans to become cynical and no longer trust their representative government.
Thank god for people like Morgan Davis and other like-minded concerned citizens that speak truth to power. Davis has offered some pretty good ideas and he is openly scorned by the people elected to serve the community of Snohomish.
Councilman Burke and others in Snohomish city government need to find another hobby.
David Clay
Snohomish
Correction: This letter was submitted to The Herald using a pseudonym, which is against our policy on letters to the editor. The author’s name is now correct.
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