During my tenure as mayor of Federal Way, I have always been a strong proponent of open government, healthy and informed debate, and the need for a trustworthy community newspaper.
I have always stressed that the facts matter.
That’s why I was extremely disappointed this morning when I read Bob Roegner’s Inside Politics opinion column detailing the city’s current budget shortfall. The people of Federal Way deserve much better than the misinformation that was strewn throughout Mr. Roegner’s column.
Correct facts always matter, but the impact of incorrect – or simply false — information being inserted into the debate becomes even more damaging when the City’s future and its ability to properly deliver services to its residents is threatened. Although Mr. Roegner did reach out to the city to inquire about city salaries, he did not give me a chance to respond directly to a few specific points in his column. It’s important during these times where our budget is under scrutiny from taxpaying residents – and rightfully so – that he takes such liberty with his own independent and misleading interpretation of some very important facts and figures.
The facts simply don’t seem to matter to him.
The disputed facts include:
• Roegner claims I say “the city is $980,000 short.” The budget deficit is actually $854,000. The $980,000 is the amount of revenue the proposed utility tax would generate.
• Roegner claims I “added (my) former (unnamed) campaign manager to the city payroll for two months in a part-time job.” This is misleading. Chris Truppner worked as an intern for two months at a pay rate of $15 per hour for 25 hours a week, amounting to about $3,000 total. Internships play an important role in the career of a young person. A three-month internship of mine 29 years ago literally changed the direction of my life.
• Roegner claims I “just hired a new communications officer at $65,000 per year.” This is misleading. While that salary is correct, the communications officer position was dark for nearly seven months prior to Tyler Hemstreet’s hiring in January 2018. There is no mention of cost savings the City accumulated during that time or how it factors into the current situation.
• Roegner claims “Rather than fill the budgeted city administrator position, (I) used the $150,000 to hire an old friend from (my) county prosecutor days with no city management experience as a senior adviser.” This is misleading. Although Yarden Weidenfeld is a former coworker of mine, he also has an undergraduate degree from Harvard in government and a law degree from the University of Washington. He also worked in the State Attorney General’s Office as Medicaid Fraud Control Unit criminal section chief. Prior to that position, he worked in Skamania County as chief criminal deputy prosecuting attorney. Weidenfeld has played a vital role in meeting with community members and crafting policy regarding the homeless, development on the former Weyerhauser property, and the City’s relationship with its South King County neighbors and the Port of Seattle regarding airport noise. His yearly salary is also $116,150 – not $150,000, as Roegner claims.
• Roegner claims “Another administrative assistant in the mayor’s office was hired at $50,000-$60,000 to handle reception duties after Ferrell moved council member offices to another part of the building and the council’s administrative support was no longer available to serve in a dual role.” This is false. A recently-hired secretary for my office has a yearly salary of $40,560.
• Roegner claims I spent “… $300,000 trying to run homeless people out of town by closing their encampments.” Mr. Roegner claims this number was based on calculations taken from city staff information given to him in the fall of 2016. We believe this is an incorrect amount based on faulty assumptions.
• Roegner claims “(the) expenditures are over $1.1 million.” This is false based on the incorrect calculations previously stated in the column. He also fails to identify how this pertains to any of the ongoing structural gap in the city’s budget.
We are currently engaged in a debate over a vital revenue stream that is the first step in correcting a structural imbalance that has been in place since 1997. The nefarious practice of spreading the confluence of fact and opinion into the debate can have a negative effect on the future of the city.
I’m disappointed that the city’s official newspaper of record chooses to stand idly by while a paid opinion columnist can interject incorrect and misleading information under the shield of an opinion piece into the community mere days before pivotal Council vote with no repercussions or consequences.
This is not doing the community a service.
Mayor Jim Ferrell, Federal Way
Editor’s note: This letter to the editor was changed from its original copy at the mayor’s request in two areas: whom columnist Bob Roegner contacted to receive his information and the response to the amount spent on homeless encampments.
