LETTER: Burien Council Decisions Fuel a Growing Budget Crisis

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by verified Burien resident Terry Mutter.

[NOTE FROM EDITOR: Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Highline Journal.]

The Burien City Council recently spent time looking at solutions to resolve an estimated $3 million-dollar budget shortfall, and yet it is the current “progressive” majority council who contributed well over 10% of this shortfall in just two meetings by their actions. Together, those actions will cost Burien taxpayers more than $300,000.

July 27, without public notice, the majority council voted to fire the city manager without cause. This single action will end up costing taxpayers in excess of $285,000. With the city manager’s annual salary of ~$235,000, these costs include four months of paid leave (~$78,000), hiring an outside investigator to look for cause (unknown), benefits (~$40,000), and six months of severance (~$117,000). Then there will be the cost of hiring a new city manager, including professional search services (~$20,000), likely relocation costs (~$10,000), and transition costs with the acting city manager (~$20,000).

Terminating employees is an unfortunate task of leadership and, in today’s litigious society, needs to be done thoughtfully and with due process to avoid costly wrongful termination lawsuits. If this was some kind of negotiated agreement with the former city manager to avoid a wrongful termination lawsuit, then the Council owes this transparency to the taxpayers and should disclose this important element.

Looking to the future, what qualified city manager candidate is going to want to work in a city where they can be fired without cause by a vindictive council?

Adding to the budget deficit, the majority council on July 17 approved $67,000 to the Transit Riders Union, which, with no union members, is not a union at all but a political organization.

The majority members of the council were endorsed by this political organization, actively supported its causes, and attended its political rallies. The fact that these council members refuse to acknowledge the conflict of interest is astonishing and a complete ethical lapse. In the private sector, such action would be grounds for immediate termination. The city should have refused to pay any settlement to this political organization.

Burien is now staring down a $3 million-dollar (and growing) budget deficit, which has only gotten worse under the new majority council’s actions in a very short period and does not bode well for the future financial stability of Burien.

Terry Mutter

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