Yakima Herald editorial 100% spot on

The Sunday, April 26th Yakima Herald editorial nailed it in their opinion headlined ” Fast-track pick subverts public process”. For some reason it’s not on their website and I can’t link to it. Their editorial refers to the selection of Maureen Adkison as the unanimous choice to fill Neil McClure’s seat on the Yakima City Council. I agree, like the Herald, that Adkison is a good choice but the process again has all the appearances of back room politics. This comes on the heels of an actual back room deal that Rick Ensey engineered (his own words) just a week ago regarding predetermined votes for a budget methodology vote. I understand and appreciate the Mayor’s concern of a 3-3 logjam until a successor to McClure would have been found in a more open process, but like the newspaper indicated, the more open process would have created more interest and public awareness in our municipal government. We’ll never know if a diamond in the rough may have been out there or that an open process would have been the motivating factor for the success of a future leader. Shame on the unanimous vote the council rushed forward on. I’d rather see 3-3 votes for a month. It would solidify some of the issues to be debated in the upcoming campaigns and the public could see the difference between those interested in stalling government (the three Amigos, Lover, Cawley, Ensey) and those interested in smart government (everyone else). We can speculate that Maureen Adkison would have been the pick and had the inside track, but then the same thing was said when Norm Johnson’s seat was being filled.