We know that in regards to the city district fight that nothing has changed and its all “window dressing” or a big charade to hide true intentions by a few key players. As much as we would like everything to be up front and straight forward when it comes to fire district/City of Lacey relationships we know the recent activity is both an act of self preservation by some and attempt by others to set the stage for a second round of political war.
During the most recent city council work session, the outgoing mayor/city councilmen Sackrsion invited Mr. Tom Dozal from the Lacey Citizen Advisory Council (the “CAC”) to give a prepared speech following a discussion on fire district annexation. Political speak aside, Sackrison unveiled his intentions to continue the fight against the fire district and the fire fighters by ensuring that the CAC and Dozal’s message was heard. Further, Sackrison’s intentions were clarified again to continue the fight at the last city council meeting where Dozal was quoted in the paper their intention to organize an effort to sink fire district annexation. The whole effort by Sackrison to dictate that if the annexation fails then the city must build their own fire department, as more or less a referendum is his efforts to fix the agenda even in his pending absence.
At the workshop in true classic Graeme politics, Graeme offered an impromptu response to anyone in the audience who had just heard Dozal’s prepared statements in the ‘interest of fairness’. The response from the fire fighters both in the this BLOG statement and city council workshop was the following: We have an interest in ending political fighting, we have an interest in ensuring a non-political vote on fire district annexation, we think the citizen’s advisory commission is illegal and illegitimate, and the city’s report on forming its own fire department (the ICMA report) is grossly and dangerously flawed.
The Olympian editorial board recently has identified and requested that it’s in the best interest of all parties most notably the public interest that the political fight needs to end. Again, we’re all for it. We’ll call it now though that Graeme and those who he appointed to the CAC are clearly not going to stop the political fight and will do everything in their power behind the scenes and in campaigns to poison the efforts for annexation. Now, it’s no longer about control for Graeme and his cabal, but it’s about revenge.
You wanna know our game plan? It’s going to be about being truthful, proving our points through research and accurate defendable facts, and informing in an ethical and straightforward fashion. We remain confident that voters, whether living in the county or city, will see beyond hidden agendas and propaganda. Like in November, the rules won’t change in April, and groups (unions and PAC’s) don’t vote, people vote.