I read Mr. Botts’s letter in the Covington Maple Valley Reporter regarding Proposition 1–Change in Form of Government–on the ballot this November in Black Diamond. While I thank Mr. Botts for his long and dedicated service to our rural town, I must respectfully disagree with many of his assertions.

Currently, we have a mayor-city council form in which the mayor has control over the Staff and all city departments, while the council controls the city budget. There are many cities where this form works quite well. But Black Diamond is very unique. It is poised to quintuple in size from ~4,000 residents to ~20,000 due to the YarrowBay-proposed Master Planned Developments (MPDs), which will completely envelope the city geographically and in every other way as well. How will all these changes, many which will be quite painful to current residents, be managed and accommodated by only a part-time Mayor?

Our sister cities, Covington and Maple Valley, both of which have also gone through big growth spurts, but not to the extent we could experience, have a council-manager form. They both benefit greatly from having a full-time professional city manager to handle city staff and all city departments and run day-to-day City functions.

There are so many critical decision points regarding the proposed MPDs that our city must deal with in rapid succession. At a minimum the MPD Ordinances and the accompanying Development Agreements call for: (1) new traffic modeling, analyses, monitoring, and mitigation evaluation; (2) noise reduction plans and mitigation; (3) water conservation plans; (4) stormwater treatment and storage improvement plans, NPDES permits, erosion and sediment control plans, stormwater system design, engineering, and maintenance plans, stormwater monitoring, and stormwater management plans; (5) park and recreational facilities plans; (6) school fiscal analyses; (7) fire access plans and fire mitigation plans; (8) erosion and sedimentary control plans and grading plans; (9) groundwater management plans; (10) mine hazard plans; (11) wetland and buffer protection plans, stormwater outfall mitigation plans, tree inventory, tree preservation plans, and native vegetation plans; (12) habitat, corridor mitigation plans and landscape plans adjoining wetland buffers; (13) vehicle trip reduction plans; (14) construction waste management plans, land-use plans, residential density plans, expansion area plans, affordable housing needs plans, and parking plans; (15) sensitive areas mitigation plans, open space plans; and (16) fiscal impacts analyses and development parcel reclassification plans. We cannot afford another minute of having a part-time Mayor with little professional experience trying manage all of this.

Mr. Botts mentions the costs that could be incurred should the city hire a city manager. Yes, there are costs involved when you hire a professional to do a tough, demanding job. However, the city already has an interim city administrator and that position would go away once a city manager comes aboard. There also will be some savings from not having to pay for a mayor, as in a council-manager form the mayor is a ceremonial-only position selected by the council from its own ranks.

Finally, Mr. Botts states the citizens could always vote for a new mayor come 2013. That is true, but that would mean that we all would face yet another precarious year of so many major decisions that will affect all of us for generations without direly needed professional management.

For all these reasons, I am voting yes on Proposition 1 this November to change our form of government in Black Diamond to a council-manager. This cannot happen soon enough. I encourage all my fellow citizens to vote yes on Prop #1 as well.

Sheila Hoefig,

Black Diamond