UPDATE: LFP Government Watch Wants to Replace LFP Council

Editor's note: In data provided by the City of Lake Forest Park, for the original version of this story, the salary data for laid off employees Sarah Phillips and Tema Nesoff included accumulated vacation pay that was paid out when they were terminated. Phillips salary without the vacation pay was $42,795.98 for the first six months of this year and Nesoff (a three-quarter time employee) was paid $30,323.56 for the first six months of 2011.

Last August, soon after the defeat of the city of Lake Forest Park’s levy lid lift measure, Proposition 1, by a 78-22 percent result, the citizens who led the opposition kept their organization alive and became heavily invested in what the city budget for 2011-12 would look like.

Now they’ve turned their attention to the current mayoral and Council races.

And they want the Councilmembers who voted to put Prop. 1 on the ballot gone.

The core group of anti-Prop 1 folks are now calling themselves Lake Forest Park Government Watch, a non-partisan committee of eight citizens of different political affiliations, who believe that the local government is too big for its population and tax base.

The group is a registered political committee with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission and has 300-plus people on its mailing list, according to chairman Steve Plusch. LFP Government Watch has raised $4,457.39 so far, and spent $1,210.61, according to the PDC.

They have endorsed one of their own for mayor, Mary Jane Goss, treasurer for the No on Prop 1 campaign, who is running against current deputy mayor Dwight Thompson, and perennial Seattle area candidate Stan Lippmann.

LFP Government Watch also endorsed the opponents of City Council incumbents in a move to remove Councilmembers who voted to put Prop. 1 on the ballot. Political newcomer Brian Cathcart got the nod against Position 1 incumbent Catherine Stanford and another newcomer Tom French was endorsed in the race for Position 6 over incumbent Ed Sterner. The group had an open endorsement process, Plusch said, and Goss, Cathcart and French responded and the group chose to endorse them.

Meanwhile, Thompson said he’s not focused on what LFP Government Watch is doing.

“I’m running my own campaign with my own message,” Thompson said. “I’m not running against them. My message is for a vision of the city,—which I believe is held by the vast majority of citizens—that we want a city that looks to the future and delivers quality service to our citizens.”

City officials point to the quality service that Lake Forest Park provides, but Lake Forest Park can’t have a government like Bellevue or Kenmore because it lacks the commercial tax base to support it, Plusch maintained.

Plusch believes that even with the levy defeat by a 78 to 22 percent result, the Council and staff were in denial, believing that people did not understand what their no vote meant.

“When they voted no people really wanted LFP to change they way they do business and get government in line with their revenues,” he said.

Thompson said the Council has not raised taxes at all and made more than $800,000 in cuts in 2011-2012 budget, eliminating five full-time equivalent positions while enacting furloughs and reducing business hours in several departments.

“If you take a look at (LFP Government Watch’s) Web site, there’s nothing there that says we didn’t get the message,” Thompson said. “The Lake Forest Park Council voted unanimously not to raise any taxes this biennium. We didn’t even take the one percent we could have taken.”

Two of the people whose jobs were eliminated, community services manager Tema Nesoff and community and government affairs manager Sarah Phillips, raised more than $2.5 million in parks acquisition fund for the city, according to Mayor Dave Hutchinson.

In addition, they raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for park restoration and development, public education for recycling and solid waste reduction, Tree City, and arts and culture. They started community programs and provided staffing and guidance for community and citizen advisory groups. Tema and Sarah will be missed," Hutchinson said.

Phillips’ salary for the first six months of 2011 was $50,097 with about $15,000 more in benefits. Nesoff’s salary for the first six months of 2011 was $42,587 with about $9,500 in benefits. Plusch said more cuts need to be made, and by eliminating two highly paid people in Phillips and Nesoff, “the Council sought political cover,” by eliminating people who did not supervise anyone else.

“They did do some furloughs,” he said, but added, “They proposed new initiatives with the 2011-2012 budget,” such as upgrading the city’s Web site.

Said Thompson: “We took those cuts and they were painful cuts but they were balanced cuts. They were cuts that preserved the essence of Lake Forest Park and balanced it against the priorities.”

Despite, the cuts, service levels are still good, Thompson said.

“We reduced some police officer hours, but we’re still able to succeed in getting fast 911 emergency response times,” he said. “We have the lowest burglary rate by far compared to our two neighboring cities in Shoreline and Kenmore.”

LFP Government recently did a voter survey of 400 of the voters who voted no and Prop. 1 and released the results in July. Sixteen percent responded. They were given a list of reasons why they voted no including: a six-year levy was too long; a 36 percent increase the first year was too much; in six years the property tax base would have been higher and the budget still in crisis; administration salaries are too high—the city should live within the means of a residential community; citizens are not receiving enough value for their tax dollars; and the city should live within its means of a residential community. Thirty-six percent of the respondents, said all of the above reasons contributed to their ‘no’ vote.

In their press release, LFP Government Watch quoted some of the respondents:

•”The city has no commercial base to support excessive spending,” Cam Schoening.

•”Common sense has left; the council is bowing to special interests; the tax and spend mentality must stop,” Jil Schollard.

•”The council is still not listening to our citizens,” Geralyn Shreve.

•”Property taxes already too high; I am a widow on a fixed income who wants to remain in my home,” Carol Nilson.

•”The city wants more $$ and I have fewer $$,” Ken Simkins.

•”Lack of fiscal strategy to control costs,” Dianne Best.

Plusch said the No on Prop. 1 campaign used figures from the city, and the Council and staff, “never challenged anything in the documents we distributed.

“They were grasping at straws and found nothing in my personal opinion,” he said.

“People implied we were Tea Party activists,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he added, citing endorsements by both the 32nd District Democrats and 32nd District Republicans during the No on Prop 1 campaign. Still, those organizations are more heavily populated with members from Shoreline.

Meanwhile, Thompson wants to move forward.

 “It’s the same type of message that was voted on last year,” he said. “We’re moving on to the future, we’re not living in the past. We need some vision and we need to listen and look to what the citizens want in Lake Forest Park, why people move to Lake Forest Park and why people stay in Lake Forest Park, why seniors want to stay in Lake Forest Park.”

The mayoral primary Aug. 16 and the upcoming campaign for Council this November will reveal whether Thompson and his fellow incumbents have done enough to stay on, or whether the voters want a wholesale change.