Straight talk may clear the clouds over Sunnyside

The following editorial was published June 11, 2009.

There's something rotten in the city of Sunnyside, and it's not the occasional whiff from nearby feedlots.

The City Council has proven that grabbing headlines may not be the best way to conduct its business. It all started June 2 when the council, in a 4-2 vote, decided to fire its city manager, Eric Swansen, who had been on the job only 11 months.

That, in turn, so infuriated Mark Kunkler, the city's respected longtime attorney and assistant city manager, that he immediately resigned in protest.

Kunkler had been with the city for 17 years.

His resignation also brought with it the ensuing departure of the city's finance director, Jordan Arreola.

If that wasn't enough, earlier this week, City Councilman Bill Gant, who was unable to attend the meeting in which the city manager was sacked, handed in his letter of resignation, claiming his "philosophies are not those of the majority of the council." We doubt anyone would argue against that conclusion.

On a brighter note, the City Council has moved forward to patch up the crumbling management structure in City Hall. The council immediately enlisted the services of a very capable city administrator, Scott Staples of Grandview. He is on call for emergent problems.

Then the council on Tuesday hired the services of a Yakima law firm to fill in for Kunkler and enlisted a professional recruiting team to secure a temporary financial director and begin conducting a nationwide search for a new city manager.

But after hiring two city managers in the span of five years, Sunnyside may find the going tough as it tries to attract experienced municipal managers. Even in a recession, prospective candidates will have to wonder: What's going on?

While the recent moves to temporarily shore up the management team are fine, the City Council likely has a long way to go before it is on firm footing with taxpayers. So far, the council has failed to explain to Sunnyside residents what went wrong. Contending there was a communication breakdown doesn't cut it.

Here are several questions that trouble us:

* Why would council members who hired Swansen only 11 months ago suddenly find him so disagreeable that they would fire him? What really happened to sour the relationship with Swansen, considering that six of the seven current council members voted to hire him?

* Isn't this the same council that approved a slimmed-down budget that Swansen put together? And the same council that also approved, as part of that budget, the now infamous stormwater plan that was roundly and correctly criticized by property owners as being draconian in scope? The council later reversed itself on the stormwater changes after sufficient public outcry and seemed to dump the blame in Swansen's lap. Was that really fair?

* And what about Kunkler's immediate resignation? What does that say about the fairness of how the council acted with regard to the city manager? Kunkler is well-respected and has devoted nearly two decades to the city. For him to resign on the grounds that Swansen's firing was unfair sends a clear message to the City Council: Clean up your act.

It also means council members should be forthcoming with residents of the city. Now is the time to talk straight, not only at the regular council meetings but perhaps at a public forum where residents can raise questions, and most importantly, get answers.

Those are the kind of headlines, and open government, the City Council should be seeking.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.

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