LYNNWOOD — Mayor Don Gough faces the City Council’s longest serving member — and, perhaps, his sharpest critic — as he seeks re-election to a second term.
Jim Smith, who has served on the council since 1988, said he wants to be mayor because the city’s spending is out of control. He also wants to build partnerships with other cities and with the business community.
“People have been spending money like it’s free money,” he said. “I’m going to be a good steward of our taxpayer dollars.”
Gough said he wants another four years to see projects he started completed, including developing a plan for the future of the city.
“We have put in a tremendous effort on behalf of the citizens to put together a vision for the city,” he said. “If we do it right, we really will change the future of this city.”
Smith ran unsuccessful campaigns for mayor three times, most recently in 2005 when he lost in the primary to Gough.
In the last two races, Smith says the eventual winners made campaign pledges that they did not keep.
“I really believe the real differences were (that) my opponents were untested for the position,” Smith said. “Their actions did not follow what their promises were.”
Smith said his biggest focus as mayor would be to guard against unnecessary spending and to create more partnerships. “I’m very much a believer in synergy,” he said. “We can accomplish a lot more if we’re working with other jurisdictions.”
He also supports moving to a part-time mayor or city manager-led form of government.
Smith was the lone “no” vote on a bond measure to finance a $25.5 million rebuild of the 33-year-old recreation center. He’d urged the council to support a $9 million renovation instead.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d be more emphatic,” he said.
More recently, he’s criticized Gough’s decision to make 3.5 percent across-the-board cuts of $3.2 million to programs and services, arguing that police and fire services should have been spared.
“We have to be looking at what is important to the citizens of Lynnwood,” Smith said. “And the No. 1 priority is public safety.”
Gough said those cuts occurred without furloughs or layoffs — a point that he said is lost on Smith. Department heads, he said, worked together to come up with cuts.
“They sat down and worked as a team to address this … and they came up with some creative ideas,” Gough said.
Smith said Gough hasn’t done enough to improve communication with employees and council members. Employee morale is low and City Hall employees are afraid of Gough, Smith said.
“They’re afraid of their own shadow,” he said.
Morale isn’t low in Gough’s eyes, he said, noting that the firefighters union has endorsed him.
Besides, Gough said he’s led efforts to secure state and federal matching funds for several projects that had been on hold for years.
For example, he said, improvements to Olympic View Drive between Edmonds and Lynnwood are nearly complete, a new recreation center is on the way and pedestrian improvements to the I-5 overpass along 196th Street SW are coming next year.
“How did I accomplish so much, because everyone’s in such a bad funk?” Gough asked.
The city is dealing with sharp reductions in income from sales taxes because of the recession.
Midway through its two-year budget, the city is $2.2 million a year below what it budgeted for operating income, Gough said.
“We are hoping, based on projections, that the economy at the end of the quarter will come off the bottom,” he said.
Gough earned $95,985 in 2009.
Oscar Halpert:425-3429, ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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