Cost of Edmonds city park prompts investigation into former mayor

EDMONDS — The price of a pocket-size city park continues to create big waves in this waterfront city.

And some of the splashback threatens to spray Snohomish County, where the ex-mayor at the center of the controversy now works.

On Tuesday, the City Council authorized an investigation

into former Mayor Gary Haakenson’s approval of cost overruns that pushed the price of Haines Wharf Park 45 percent above a contractor’s original bid.

The actions in question all occurred before the popular three-term mayor left Edmonds in June 2010 to become Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s top deputy.

At issue is whether Haakenson should have sought the City Council’s blessing to increase the price of the park project, rather than making the call himself.

Ask Haakenson, and there was no clear city policy in place for approving the increases, also called change orders. The investigation, in his eyes, is political payback for those he is supporting in this year’s elections and for his past clashes with council members. The timing after the primary election is suspicious, he said.

“I’m very proud of the job I did as mayor and I take this very seriously,” Haakenson said. “They seem to want to pick a fight with me. For the past 15 months, I’ve tried to stay out of it. But now I’m done staying out of it, I’m ready to fight back. My reputation’s at stake here.”

The investigation’s supporters, meanwhile, said they’re probing for the truth. They said Haakenson failed to follow established rules, to get their approval for changes of more than $100,000, though the former mayor said he cleared all of the price changes with the city attorney at the time.

“This has nothing to do with politics,” City Councilman D.J. Wilson said. “This has everything to do with making sure the law was followed, and if it wasn’t followed, to make sure the appropriate punishment is handed out.”

Haines Wharf Park, a .4-acre parcel south of Meadowdale Road, overlooks Puget Sound. Construction began in mid-2009 and wrapped up in November 2010.

When the project first surfaced, the City Council rejected it because bids came in far above an engineer’s estimate. That happened in late 2008 and early 2009. In the spring of 2009, however, the City Council approved a $1.6 million bid from Precision Earthworks of Mukilteo.

Since that original bid, the current and former mayors approved 10 change orders for the project, totalling $725,000.

Council members now want to know in particular why Haakenson signed off on the three biggest changes, ranging from $132,000 to $245,000, without their OK.

Public Works Director Phil Williams has said poor soil conditions and design issues were major factors in the overruns.

Mayor Mike Cooper said his concerns arose long before election season; he said he’s been looking into the issue for the year he’s been in office.

“This is about transparency,” he said.

The City Council’s 6-1 vote Tuesday authorizes Cooper and a council member, Steve Bernheim, “to recommend a process to select an outside and independent investigator.” The goal is to determine, “whether any civil or criminal laws or city policies were broken by elected officials, or department directors.”

Cooper expects to have a recommendation in a few weeks.

“So the question is, Did he exceed his authority?” Cooper said Wednesday. “Were there some other reasons or was he operating under some other assumptions?”

Suggestions for who should perform the investigation include a private attorney, an academic expert, or a state agency such as the auditor’s office or attorney general’s office.

City Councilman Strom Peterson cast the lone vote against the investigation. He believes the city has more important issues to tackle, especially its strained budget. While acknowledging that mistakes and communication problems did occur under Haakenson, he said council already is taking steps to fix them.

“Ultimately if this continues down this path, we’re going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on this investigation to what end?” he said.

He added, “For anybody to state that politics is not playing a role in this is just not being realistic.”

In this election cycle, Haakenson is supporting Cooper’s opponent for mayor, Dave Earling. He’s also backing the opponents of some City Council incumbents.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.