Lowell council candidates call out city, residents
Posted on Tuesday, October 14, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/66768/
LOWELL — Guy Shumaker didn’t soften anything that he said Monday night.
He was sitting on the stage at Elza R. Tucker Elementary School with three other people running for Lowell City Council seats, looking out over an auditorium filled with only a handful of people.
“ I look out here, and I’m disgusted, ” he said, directing his exasperation toward the crowd. “ What do we have here ? Six, seven city employees and the friends and family sitting up here. ”
Shumaker, the challenger for the city’s Ward 4 Position 2 seat, was responding to a question asking about the council’s role in Lowell. He was not alone in his sentiment that the council should encourage and solicit public participation in city government, but he was the only one to express that sentiment with the full vitriol of years of built-up frustration.
Carol Harmon and Kendell Stucki, candidates for the Ward 3 Position 2 seat, said the same thing, but without a hint of accusation. Paula Allred, the incumbent Shumaker seeks to unseat, said a councilor’s duty is fiscal responsibility and to understand the issues on which council members must vote.
The council candidates never clashed with each other, but that did not stop them from taking shots at others in leadership positions within Lowell.
Shumaker was the most aggressive to that end. In answering a question about infrastructure priorities, Shumaker criticized the way those within the city interact, highlighting the city clerk’s name’s low position on city stationary and the city’s failure to include her on organizational charts.
“ We need the city infrastructure to work more closely as a team, and right now, I don’t think we have it working as a team, ” Shumaker said.
Harmon, responding to an audience member who asked how residents could become involved in a closed government, lashed out over the lack of transparency within the city and on Harmon’s own inability, even as a council member, in getting answers to her questions.
“ I have had to FOI (invoke the Freedom of Information Act regarding ) some questions, some concerns, because I couldn’t get the answers otherwise, ” Harmon said.
But the greatest shots came out in regard to the old Davis house, a building the city bought to house its museum. The building ultimately proved uninhabitable. Harmon said the only solution was to sit on the property until the market rebounds, a decision the council made at its last meeting. Allred said the city should cut its losses and sell the property, chalking up any losses as a learning experience.
Stucki took a hard line against the decision to buy the building in the first place.
“ The museum is a debacle, ” Stucki said. “ I don’t think the city did their job. ”
He agreed with the council’s decision to wait before selling the property, but he said council members needed to stop speaking ill of the building for fear of reducing the selling price further.
“ I raised cane, ” Stucki said about his reaction to the building purchase. “ It’s not worth it. It’s not any good. The council never went and looked at the building. Nobody. They didn’t have the time. ”
Shumaker’s comments, however, packed the most punch when he once again called out the council and the city. He said the fire chief didn’t even want the building to burn down as a training exercise, for fear that the building contains asbestos.
Shumaker suggested selling the property as if it did not include a house, counting on any prospective buyers to tear down the building.