GRANITE FALLS — Restaurant owner Haroon Saleem held a narrow lead over incumbent Mayor Lyle Romack in the first returns in Tuesday’s primary election.
Saleem received 36 percent of the vote, Romack 34 percent and Paul Lutz, a quality assurance inspector for Boeing, received 27 percent of the 438 votes counted.
If the results hold, Saleem and Romack will face off in November for the mayor’s job. Another count of primary election ballots is planned for 5 p.m. today.
Saleem, who has owned the Timberline Cafe in Granite Falls for nine years, expressed some surprise at the returns.
“Wow,” he said. Saleem, a 54-year-old native of Pakistan, listed several reasons for his strong showing.
“I think people know me in this town, they know I’m an honest, sincere person, they’ll know I’ll be good for the city,” he said. “They know I have the passion. And I think they’re tired of the old regime.”
The election comes shortly after Granite Falls was dinged in a report issued by the state Auditor’s Office. The city was questioned over paying Romack and his wife more than $2,600 in mileage reimbursements in 2007 and 2008.
The auditor’s report listed 22 violations in those two years of state laws and guidelines for accounting and reimbursement policies for government agencies. City officials say they have adopted new, tighter policies.
Romack, 69, said he was entitled to most of the mileage payments. He has repaid $373.89 to the city from receipts that he said were mistakenly submitted twice.
Romack could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Romack was appointed to the City Council in 2003, then elected mayor a few months later in a special election following the resignation of Butch DeRosia. Romack was elected to a full four-year term in 2005.
Romack has said if re-elected, he wants to focus on economic development. He cited the $2.1 million expansion of the city’s sewer treatment plant, improvements to S. Granite Avenue and the city’s work to equip Gardner Lake as a storm-water retention pond as major accomplishments the past four years.
Saleem wants growth through annexation and economic development, and said he would push for a new Boys &Girls Club in town.
The mayor’s job pays $1,000 per month.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.
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