If a recent welcome-back potluck was any indication, the people of Sultan are thrilled to have Police Chief Fred Walser back on the job. Unfortunately, these same people still haven’t been told why he was put on leave by the mayor in the first place.
And it doesn’t look like they’ll learn what really happened anytime soon. Despite Mayor C.H. Rowe’s word a couple of weeks ago that he’s going to explain why he asked the chief to resign last July, the citizens of Sultan are still left wondering what is going on.
While it’s good to have Walser back at work — the city was dangerously short-staffed with Walser gone — it doesn’t absolve Rowe of needing to tell people, including city council members, what prompted his decision. In fact, they deserve to know why their city was put in such a precarious public safety position, only to have the chief come back again under the mayor’s directive.
The letter instructing the chief to return to work listed some concerns, but Walser said he can’t discuss them, as ordered by Rowe. Walser said he doesn’t have a problem with anything mentioned in the letter — he was doing those things or working on them already. And he’s not going back to the job with any concerns about what might occur in the future.
On the flip side, Rowe’s vagueness and apparent inability to communicate with the very people he was elected to serve shouldn’t impart nearly as much, if any, confidence. He won’t even say for certain how he feels about Walser’s return. One second he’s calling him the best chief Sultan has ever had; the next he’s labeling a gathering in the chief’s honor as "childish." The fallout from this summer’s antics has only set the city back further. There’s talk of removing two city council member positions and changing the form of government from mayor to manager.
How much more can the city take? Rowe’s decisions, which are consistently followed by silence or confusion these days, leave people wondering if the problem is truly resolved or if this is just another chapter in a bad story that doesn’t seem to have an end.
Whether Sultan needs a professional manager is up for debate. For now, it needs a professional mayor. If Rowe plans to live up to that, he could start by explaining his decisions so the city and its people can heal and move on.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
