RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
INSIDE: Passing the test, Sports, A10
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 89 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
2011 ELECTION
Budget grows, worker ranks thin at city hall BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Brian Kelly / The Record
Marshall Goldberg and Anna Tamura remove ballots from their pink privacy envelopes while processing ballots this week at the county elections office in Coupeville.
Ballots start to trickle in for Election Day BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
Last-minute jitters were in short supply — in fact, they were nowhere to be found — as candidates on next week’s ballot approached the end of the campaign trail. The 2011 General Election is Tuesday, Nov. 8, and several candi-
dates said they were planning on a low-key effort during this final weekend before Election Day. “I’m optimistic about Langley and I’m optimistic about my chances on serving the citizens of Langley on the city council,” said Jim Sundberg, who is running for Position 3 against Robin Adams. Thomas Gill, who is running
for Position 4 on the Langley City Council against R. Bruce Allen, said he had gotten a lot of positive feedback from residents and was feeling confident going into Tuesday. “I don’t really feel that Election Day is really a ‘thing’ anymore, with everyone voting by mail,” Gill added. SEE ELECTION, A14
It’s lean, but not as mean, as this year’s budget. The Langley City Council will hold its first public hearing Monday on the city’s 2012 budget. And though the Village by the Sea will have a plumper pot of money to pull from, city officials have built a budget that includes higher salaries but fewer workers at city hall. The total budget for 2012, at $5.5 million, is 8.75 percent higher than this year’s. A large cash carryover balance is one of the main reasons why, said City Treasurer Debbie Mahler. The rise in the general fund — the pot that pays for general government services, such as police, parks and planning — is also modest, and represents a 5-percent increase. Even so, Mahler said the general fund is less than what the city had five years ago. “Actual expenditures in the general fund are lower than 2006 levels,” she said. “We made an awful lot of cuts this year,” Mahler
added. Some city departments will continue to have lower staffing levels next year, including public works, finance and the police department, which is budgeted for three employees (down from four). The position of a mayor’s assistant has been zeroed out. And there will be one planner on staff, not two. Though an earlier draft of the budget contained funding for a fourth police officer, the money was removed from next year’s spending plan after a recent council budget workshop. Acting Police Chief Randy Heston said the fourth officer is needed because the department is stretched thin; calls for service have increased, and officers have had to work 21 days straight to cover vacations. Langley has relied on a four-person department for 15 years, but that ended when former chief Bob Herzberg retired earlier this year. Under the draft budget, the city’s staffing level will drop from 13.4 full-time employees to 12.2 next year, the lowest SEE BUDGET, A6
Langley student gets called to ‘Come on down!’ BY PATRICIA DUFF South Whidbey Record
Photo courtesy of Shelby McDaniel
Shelby McDaniel of Langley is in shock after getting the call to be a contestant on “The Price is Right.”
The price was right, but the prize was wrong. Shelby McDaniel, a 2009 graduate of South Whidbey High School, recently appeared on “The Price Is Right.” It was an unexpected appearance on daytime television’s iconic game show, once called the “greatest game show of all time” by TV Guide. This past summer, the 20-yearold from Langley went south to the
Los Angeles, Calif. area to work as a counselor at the Canyon Creek Sports Camp. A group of fellow counselors asked McDaniel if she wanted to join them for a TV-land adventure. Before she knew it, the nondramatic McDaniel found herself at the Bob Barker Studio at CBS Television City in Hollywood in a mandatory, pre-show interview with one of the producers of the show. “You get there at noon and wait in a line while they interview about 300 people,” McDaniel said. She and her fellow camp friends
were all wearing red Canyon Creek Sports Camp T-shirts. The interviews are done in groups of 12 with the longest conversation lasting about two minutes. “My interview was, by far, the shortest in my entire group,” she said. “They asked me if I was a student.” She told them she was an exercise science and nutrition major at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo. SEE STUDENT, A6