Questioning the financial descisions of RPDA

Why is the city of Ritzville failing? The Ritzville Public Development Authority is one reason. The RPDA was established by city ordinance No. 1022 in June 2001. The City Council of Ritzville will have provided the RPDA with at least $200,000 through 2013. How much more the city council is responsible for providing the RPDA is difficult to discover. Certainly the time spent and being spent by the City Clerk-Treasurer is no small amount. See the RPDA funding at http://www.ritzvillecommonsense.com. The Economic Action Plan for the City of Ritzville dated December 2004, and an updated study “Proposal for a light industrial park” can also be found at the aforementioned website.

In 2005, the RPDA purchased the Bank of Whitman building for $225,000; a price the bank could not have received had the sale been open to the public. The RPDA was obligated to make 119 monthly payments of $1,3661.85, plus a last payment of about $190,077.04. In 2011, the RPDA renegotiated the loan.

The RPDA borrowed an additional $33,407.10 from the Bank of Whitman. So as of February 2011, the RPDA agreed to pay the Bank of Whitman, $240,000 in 119 payments of $1,454.10 and a final payment of about $203,050.79.

The RPDA remodeled the Brunswick Tavern into a call center. The call center idea suggested that our local planners could predict the future or as a friend is fond of attributing to city officials, “If we build it they will come.” Having failed to lure anyone to rent the “call center,” the RPDA proceeded to attempt to remove the Ritzville Public Library from the Carnegie building. The idea was the library would have the space and the staff to run a distant learning center if they were located in the Bank of Whitman building. It appears that some of the RPDA elite thought they would control the library property tax income. This idea was worse than the call center, and thanks to some well connected citizens, the library was saved.

The RPDA is now focused on “if we build it they will come” on steroids. Ritzillecommonsense.com has two studies as already mentioned and The Spokesman Review has an interesting updated story about this project, where we learn that our mayor sees her role of a cheerleader, see http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/feb/06/ritzville-taps-roots-to-cultivate-tourism/.

A city government unable to properly supply its citizens with water and sewage or properly maintain the water and a sewage infrastructure is, apparently able to invest the citizen’s resources into adventures, which are the dreams of the members of the RPDA and their friends. A city government, which is for all practical purposes, bankrupt, can supply city utilities across I-90? Why is the city of Ritzville failing? Cheerleading the “if we build it they will come” crowd is so much more attractive to the folks running city hall than fulfilling their responsibilities.

Barry Boyer, Ritzville