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The Mirror’s editorial board: Rudi Alcott, publisher; Carrie Rodriguez, editor; Karen Brugato, community volunteer; Patrick Godfrey, political consultant; Joan Tornow, author, school volunteer and mentor; Bob Case, journalism trainer and former news announcer; Don Hyun, tech industry consultant. Contact the board: editorialboard@ federalwaymirror.com
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MIRROR EDITORIAL
Lessons learned from Rob Neu’s resignation
I
t has been a tumultuous few weeks for Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) with the resignation of Superintendent Rob Neu, the conviction on seven counts of felony theft and subsequent resignation of board member Tony Moore, the allegations of two concurrent sexual affairs of board member Danny Peterson in the divorce decree his wife filed and the district’s payment of $219,000 to former principal Lisa Greibel to avoid litigation. Lost in all of this is that the district is also dealing with 68 percent of its schools that are failing the No Child Left Behind as a result of not meeting the Adequate Yearly Progress metric. These are clearly not fun times to be in the public information office for FWPS. All of these are worth an editorial in their own right, but one particular part of this that stands out is the resignation of Neu. His tenure in Federal Way has been rocky at best. There are lessons to be learned from this as the Federal Way community moves forward and as Oklahoma City (OKC) begins its transition into the Neu administration. Keep an eye on the money. Be very careful when Neu starts asking for and taking a $42,000 raise for himself, spending $100,000 on board-sponsored trips to Europe and the Far East and giving his top paid administrator a 2 percent raise and then raising all of the other 16 administrators, including the wife of then-board president Tony Moore, to this new level to the tune of $111,180. The Mirror filed a public records request with FWPS concerning board member Tony and Trise Moore’s payments and was shocked to learn that Trise Moore alone received $29,138 of the allotted amount. All told, including the raises for Neu, Trise Moore and the 16 administrators in Neu’s cabinet, there was a minimum of $106,715 given out during the 2013-2014 school year. These raises were administered and approved by Neu. As we begin our search for a new superintendent, we need to ask the question as to what they see as a starting point for their administration and how they would handle a situation like this should it ever occur again. Knowing Neu’s penchant to spend for salaries, OKC should require board oversight for all of these expenditures along with an independent review board. Watch out for promises. During an editorial board meeting with Neu, he stated that he would have a 100 percent graduation rate in two years because he could not, in good conscience, accept anything less. While this is an admirable goal, it is highly unattainable. Both school boards should be very skeptical of such promises. Our board should not hire a candidate for superintendent who [ more EDITORIAL, page 5 ]
Reach deeper into your own wallets, not ours I take issue with Mr. Cramer’s whine that “King County voters feel jobs should only go to those with vehicles.” Grab those violins. Such declarations are presumptuous, childish, and exhibit an entitlement mentality. To own a vehicle, one must purchase it, license it and the driver, insure, fuel and maintain it, not to mention fork over taxes on the car and the fuel. Voters who
Will mayor keep his PACC promise? What a difference a few months make. Mayor Jim Ferrell was for many years the feared enemy of those who wanted the Performing Arts and Conference Center (PACC) built. But as the debate on the PACC heats up, opponents of the PACC wonder where their leader went? Some residents voted for Ferrell as mayor in part because they believed he would either stop the Council from “pushing through” the PACC or at least get the issue placed on the ballot so the citizens could vote on it, even if it was only an advisory ballot. There are several reasons that Ferrell was elected mayor over incumbent Skip Priest, but Priest’s support for the PACC and Ferrell’s perceived opposition was a main point of difference between the candidates. Many voters felt the city misled them with the Federal Way Community Center and its need for subsidy. Ferrell tapped into that vein of fiscal conservatism and suspicion in the voting public for support. After Ferrell’s election, some pro-PACC Council members were concerned that Ferrell would fire PACC staff lead Patrick Doherty. They were also so fearful of Ferrell potentially providing a veto on some part of the project that when they selected Ferrell’s replacement, their primary consideration appeared to be whether or not the candidates supported the PACC. To his credit, Ferrell has been a “can do” mayor, already implementing many of his campaign
promises from the 2010 and 2013 elections. His mid-year report card will look pretty good. But to many citizens, he has also appeared to switch sides on the future of the PACC. His language became noticeably more vague and lacked any of the fiery rhetoric of the campaign debates. He didn’t challenge the Council on the issue, nor try to lead them in a different direction. He has not put a resolution before the Council to vote on placing the issue in front of the voters this fall. This is particularly angering to many voters as they want their say on the most expensive project in city history and they feel Ferrell promised them that opportunity. In fact, Ferrell has become very supportive of going ahead with the project. A majority of Council members support the PACC, and actually stopping the project with the force of the mayor’s office is unlikely to be successful. But some voters believe they may have been misled by what Ferrell’s position actually was. Recently, Ferrell said, “I never said I was opposed to the PACC.” And his communications manager finds nothing inconsistent with years of perceived opposition and the mayor’s current position. They feel the Blue Ribbon Panel’s report has made the project more fiscally sound and that’s what Ferrell wanted all along. Really? PACC opponents point out that Ferrell’s own new financing approach contains both a temporary bridge loan and a longer term gap [ more ROEGNER, page 19 ] Bob Roegner
EDITORIAL
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F E D E R A L WAY
OPINION
[4] May 16, 2014
● LETTERS- YOUR OPINION COUNTS:
To submit an item or photo for publication: email editor@federalwaymirror.com. Letters may be edited for style, clarity and length. are coughing up the cash to support their own choice of transportation, often with great sacrifice of other purchases in their lives, are tired of our pockets being continually ransacked to support the transportation choices of others. Yes, choices. I can practically hear the response of “but it’s not my choice to not be able to afford a car.” I can tell you right now that most of the driving populace at one point or another also couldn’t afford a car. But we
shifted our priorities, made choices and did whatever was legally necessary to make a living without blaming our particular predicaments on those people who rightly thought we should support our own economic choices just as they supported theirs. My husband and I have been married 30 years through stages of poverty, unemployment and comfortable living. We drive nice cars that we’ve worked darn hard for. However, at differ-
ent points in our financial picture we have walked to work, ridden buses, biked, shared expenses with a coworker, driven dirt cheap hunks of junk and used Ride Share programs, either to keep expenses down or because we simply couldn’t afford a vehicle at that time. There were circumstances that weren’t pleasant and/ or caused hardship, but we made do and had internal motivation to move up in the world, despite challenges.
Life is full of twists and turns and bumps in the road. We will not progress further than the last bump if we sulk and blame others for the bump instead of getting up, dusting ourselves off, reassessing our goals and changing what it will take to meet our goals. No, Mr. Cramer, we don’t “feel” you (or anyone) should lose your job or that jobs should only go to those with vehicles. As users and daily supporters of our own private transportation, we “think, reason, consider and utilize common sense” [ more LETTERS page 5 ]