Letter to the Editor: What's Behind the Tone in the Lake Forest Park Mayor and Council Election

To the Editor:

After getting all the flyers from candidates for the LFP council and mayoral elections, I wondered what was behind the acrimonious tone.

What I found starts in 2001 when I-695 and I-747 appeared on the ballot. Mayor Dave reported in the December Town Crier that revenue to cities would go down; see the mayor's comments here: http://www.cityoflfp.com/towncrier/2001_tc/tcp_200112.pdf

Over the next year or so the city decided to study what could be done to increase revenue by developing the LFP Mall, called the Town Center or TC in various communications. A fifteen person Task Force was assembled to determine goals and values so the city would have guidelines if a buyer was found for the mall.

The Task Force, called "Sustaining A Livable Lake Forest Park," comprised council members and non-council member citizens. They spent a year inviting comments and having meetings. Descriptions of each meeting and the final report are found here: http://www.cityoflfp.com/mayor/sustain-lfp/default.html (This report can also be found by going to the Lake Forest Park Government website and search the site for the title of the report)

The final report of the Task Force included ideas that would develop a broader tax base for the city of Lake Forest Park. Without some broadening the individual households would have to pay for everything. It should be pointed out that in 2001 there were about 5000 households and 12,500 citizens. Ten years later those numbers haven't changed much, neither has the number of businesses or jobs.  In addition, since the Great Recession of 2008, the value of homes has gone down--so tax revenue has gone down. It is a classic "rainy day" in the budget balancing act.

The Sustaining A Livable Lake Forest Park Task Force repeatedly asked for citizen ideas. They listened to everyone and discussed all the ideas. The ideas excited a lot of interest and 14 members voted to approve the report which was sent to the mayor. One person voted against the Final Report: Mary Jane Goss.  The report came out in 2004 and Ms. Goss didn't run for office in 2005.

My vote is with the majority of the Task Force and I encourage people to read the final report and see if you agree with the majority. One can empathize with Ms. Goss for her alienation from her peers and her current campaign may help her erase the memory of having no peer support on her Sustaining A Livable Lake Forest Park Task Force.

Charlie Herring

Lake Forest Park