Marysville group seeks legal reform

By Brian Kelly

Herald Writer

MARYSVILLE — Fed up with the mayor’s handling of the Tom Grady controversy, a group of Marysville residents has launched a petition drive to change the city’s form of government.

Members of Reform Now hope to gather enough signatures to force an election this spring that would do away with the mayor’s position, a scenario where City Hall would then be run by a professional manager and not an elected official.

"What we now know is that the system we have now is bad and is not working," said Jan Gustavson, spokeswoman for Reform Now.

"We want to get it on the next ballot," she said, adding that the group hopes to have enough signatures within a few weeks to force a vote. The group needs roughly 500 signatures — which represents 10 percent of the people who went to the polls during the last general election.

The change is aimed squarely at Mayor David Weiser, who was elected to the town’s top post in 1992.

Weiser declined to talk specifically about the petitions on Monday.

Reform Now members said they’re tired of city scandals that make Marysville front-page news, and point to the election of Grady as the primary example.

Grady won a seat on the city council by edging incumbent NormaJean Dierck by 161 votes in November. Later that month, county officials said Grady had been the focus of a criminal investigation since March, centered on the unexplained disappearance of $38,000 from the Albertson’s store, where Grady was a manager, and his role in forging records to hide the missing money.

City Hall overhaul

Marysville residents are circulating petitions to change their form of government from council-mayor to council-manager. Here’s what they need to do:

  • Get signatures from Marysville voters that represent 10 percent (approximately 500) of the number who voted in the last general election.

  • Have the county auditor certify the signatures.

  • Request an election 45 days prior to the election date.

  • Some council members, and others, criticized Weiser for knowing about the Grady investigation but keeping quiet about it.

    Weiser, though, said it isn’t appropriate for him to discuss investigations under way in the police department.

    There were probably 400 to 500 investigations conducted last year, he added. "Those are investigations that are ongoing, and they should not be made public until the investigations are complete," Weiser said.

    Gustavson said the group expects to get a lot of backing at the ballot box from Marysville residents.

    "I think it’s going to have a lot of support, actually. People are really fed up with what we currently have," Gustavson said.

    Weiser became Marysville’s full-time mayor in 1997, and he now receives a yearly salary of $59,856. Although Marysville once had a city administrator, City Hall was reorganized last year following the earlier departure of then-city administrator Dave Zabell.

    The city administrator job was abolished, and oversight of the planning, public works and police departments was shifted to the mayor. A chief administrative officer, Mary Swenson, now supervises the executive, finance and parks departments.

    The group said changing Marysville’s form of government would mean greater accountability and could save the city money. If the mayor’s position were abolished, the city would only have to fund the position of a manager, and not the mayor and a chief administrative officer.

    Council-manager governments are becoming increasingly popular across the state, said Jim Doherty, a legal consultant for Municipal Research &Services Center, a nonprofit government research group.

    "I think almost every single city in Washington that has incorporated over the last 30 years has incorporated as a council-manager (government)," Doherty said. Growing cities have also made the change, largely to have a professionally educated and trained manager running city hall.

    "Your head administrator is a professional administrator, rather than someone who has a nice smile and can pump hands," Doherty said. But oft times, the flip side is that people like to have a mayor to hear their gripes.

    "It’s kind of a trade-off, lots of times, people like to have somebody who’s been in the community a lot of years," he said. "When there’s a pothole out front, they want to be able to call the mayor."

    If the move to change Marysville’s government is successful, it won’t mean that Weiser will be shown the door, however. A change to state law last year means that Weiser can serve out the remainder of his mayor’s term as a council member. Weiser’s term expires in 2003.

    Whether the mayor would continue to be paid his full salary isn’t entirely clear, Doherty said.

    "You could reason it both ways," he said.

    You can call Herald Writer Brian Kelly at 425-339-3422 or send e-mail to

    kelly@heraldnet.com.

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