I read the Sunday article, “Stuck with the bill” which explained how a group of homeowners are being forced to fund a gift to a local developer due to the incompetent management of a city of Snohomish employee. As an employee of a local government myself, I have little tolerance for incompetent management. Not only were policies poorly defined and poorly executed, even the disciplinary steps weren’t recorded well enough to defend against wrongful termination.
The handling of the entire matter is nothing short of a joke. Now these homeowners are to accept the joke is on them?
While I haven’t researched who was mayor during this period, nor who was on the council, I suspect these homeowners will figure that out come election time. If leaders were ignorant of these issues, shame on them. While there may be some blame on front line employees, ultimate responsibility lies with the management. If heads don’t roll on the management staff, they should roll on the city leadership.
In the meantime, since I am not a Snohomish resident, I plan to avoid spending a dime there until this is properly resolved. I encourage all county residents to do the same. It’s time to leverage social media for its logical purpose — holding government accountable, not its innocent residents.
This money is being ripped from the hands of homeowners and handed directly to the developer by the city’s leaders at the recommendation of their attorneys. They need to send the bill to a collector and write it off, not force these homeowners to cover for their embarrassing and ridiculous display. They give hard-working employees like me a bad name and face no consequences whatsoever. Disgusting!
Jeffrey Roy
Everett
