Washington Site Fight: Council to Discuss Wal-Mart

Fircrest council candidates talk about Wal-Mart [The News Tribune, Washington]

Longtime Fircrest Mayor David Viafore is facing a primary election contest for the first time in his political career and the W-word seems to be hovering over the three-way campaign.

“I’m going door-to-door and I’ve had to be defensive because I’m hearing that my opponents have mischaracterized my position on Wal-Mart,” Viafore said.

The retail giant said on July 31 it was abandoning plans for a Fircrest store, but community concerns remain about how Viafore and the council handled the application, said his opponents for the Council Position 4 seat, Blake Surina and Leslie Rider. Some residents opposed the store, saying the retailer would have disrupted the community’s small-town lifestyle with traffic and potentially more crime.

Surina and Rider say residents are upset that the city kept them in the dark about Wal-Mart development plans.

Viafore, who’s running for a fifth four-year term, said he had no opinion one way or the other on the retail giant.

Viafore said he and other council members had to keep quiet about Wal-Mart. He said city attorneys nixed proposals to put out information to residents.

The council was told it had to remain neutral to avoid legal challenges. If the city planning commission had approved of Wal-Mart’s plans, the council might have had to hear an appeal from Wal-Mart opponents. Or, if the planning commission denied development plans, Wal-Mart might have appealed to the council. In the meantime, attorneys told council members to remain absolutely neutral so they could fairly hear the evidence, Viafore said.

Surina, who served on the council from 1996-2000, said he isn’t buying it.

“There was no town meeting,” he said. “There was no effort to get out information. We needed to be told what was going on. Wal-Mart came dangerously close.”

Rider, who said she has reached about 300 homes so far, said she favors new businesses like specialty stores coming in. She called Wal-Mart “a deflated issue.”

When she started campaigning, however, many people she talked to were upset about Wal-Mart and told her “We don’t know anything” and “We don’t get to hear what’s going on,” she said.

Since Wal-Mart opted out, she said she’s hearing about frustrated peoples’ complaints about dogs barking, about speeding on neighborhood streets and about neighbors not taking care of their yards.

Both challengers said it’s time for Viafore to take a break from elected office.

“Dave’s tirelessly working for Fircrest,” Surina said, “but he’s doing it all himself.”

Surina said Viafore’s personality is too strong. He said the other six council members have “become inert because he’s too involved.”

Surina said he can help the unhappy council work as a team again if he’s elected.

Rider agreed: “He’s served tons of hours,” she said. At the last meeting she attended, she said, “Dave spoke 80 percent of the time. Other people don’t speak up.”

Viafore said his opponents are focusing on what they think is wrong, “not what they can do.”

Viafore has served on the Fircrest Council since 1992. Other council members have elected him to serve as mayor since 1994. The mayor presides at council meetings and sometimes acts as spokesman for the seven-member council. The council makes policy and passes ordinances. An appointed city manager handles day-to-day administration.

Viafore said both he and Surina a decade ago supported annexing the private land that Wal-Mart wanted to build upon. They wanted to give the landlocked city the potential to increase tax revenues from new business.

Viafore said the city is sandwiched by larger University Place and Tacoma and is mostly built out, except for that 9.5-acre commercial piece on Mildred Street. Without the additional revenue that a new business can bring – Wal-Mart was expected to generate $400,000 annually for the city – municipal expenses will continue to mount as revenue recedes, mainly due to statewide voter-approved limits on annual property tax increases, he said.

“What do you do when you’re a bedroom community?” he said.

Now that Wal-Mart has opted out, Viafore said the city will have to make cuts. He favors placing parks, public works and planning under one department head and eliminating two director positions.

He said he continues to support a strong police presence because it’s made Fircrest safer.

The top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary will face each other in the November general election.