I will keep this letter to the point and most importantly, factual.

Should Proposition 1 pass, voting residents of Black Diamond will lose their right to vote for their city major.

The proponents of Proposition 1 have said your vote will not be lost, because the Black Diamond City Council will appoint a city mayor and because city council members are elected officials, the residents of Black Diamond are indirectly electing their city mayor.

Have you ever heard a bigger bunch of hogwash than this?

Just because I vote for a person for city council does not mean I want that person to act as city mayor or make my decision as to who is to be city mayor.

I want my vote.

This idea that your vote for a city council member indirectly becomes your vote for city major is as crazy as if you lost your vote for the President of The United Sates because your vote for a US Senator became your vote for President.

Furthermore, should Proposition 1 pass, the city council will also hire a city manager at an estimated salary of $200,000 per year. In contrast under Black Diamond’s current form of city government the salary of the interim city administrator is actually paid by a placement firm (not Black Diamond) and the mayor is paid $12,000 per year.

In a recent letter to the editor, written by Cindy Proctor, of Enumclaw, Wash. She wrote, “the fact is that the city will have to pay for either a city manager or a city administrator regardless of which way the public votes on Prop 1, so they have to find the money in the budget.”

The Black Diamond City Council has yet to propose how a city managers salary would be paid, because they know the city does not have the funds available to pay for this position.  The passage of Prop 1 will very likely result in increased taxes or decreased emergency services or both. It’s easy for Ms. Proctor, to have a cavalier attitude towards any of these negative things occurring in Black Diamond, because she lives in Enumclaw, not Black Diamond.

In closing, it’s very important to remind all that once a city in Washington State changes its form of government the

State mandates six years pass before that city can again change its form of government. Should Prop 1 pass, this will be a mistake that all the residents of Black Diamond will be forced to live with for six years.

Save our city. Vote no on Proposition 1.

Bill Roth,

Black Diamond