Election 2019: Ritzville's mayoral race

The Ritzville mayoral race is the only contested local race on the ballot in eastern Adams County in this year's general election, as incumbent Mayor Gary Cook seeks a second term while challenger David Ahrens is vying to become Ritzville's next mayor.

Cook has served as Ritzville's mayor since running unopposed and being elected to the position in the 2015 general election. Prior to that, Cook had served on the Ritzville City Council since October 2004.

The Journal had the opportunity to talk with the candidates ahead of the Nov. 5 election, discussing issues such as the role the city can play in bringing economic development to Ritzville, the revitalization of downtown and why they believe voters should give them the nod on their ballots.

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Part 2 of the discussion with Cook will be published in next week's issue of The Journal.

Ritzville Journal: Why did you decide to run for a second term as mayor?

Gary Cook: Without sounding too funky about it, I was on council for 12 years and decided to run the first time [in 2015] because I thought that upping the game and being more involved might be something to do and maybe help the community a little bit. Now, fast-forward four years, and it's much more difficult than I thought. It's a little bit more elusive, it's not a straight line from intent to result.

So the short answer I guess on the second time around is that I didn't get everything done in four years. And honestly I don't think I could get everything done in eight [years]. I would be deluding myself if I thought I would. But we're in the middle of some things, and Well No. 9 has been a challenge, and I think it's going to take a little more time for me.

RJ: What accomplishments during your first term are you particularly proud of, and why?

GC: One of the main ones is that I came [into office] in January of 2016 and inherited the budget from the past mayor. There's nothing wrong with that, but by living through that first year I realized there were some things that could be improved on. So in 2017, I decided to put the city on a cash-basis. In other words, we're not going to go into debt, we're not going to take a bunch of risks, we're going to look at what our revenue's going to be throughout the year.

It was a little bit difficult, because the department heads were used to their budget being 'you ask for money and somehow you find it.' And not being critical of anyone else, but I thought that we could do better. So I modeled after [the city of Spokane] in a way and made the decision to have the department heads have their own budget that they were responsible for and reported to me on a monthly basis and work through that.

So 2017 was a little bit tenuous, and we looked at our revenue in October and we had essentially turned it around. We refined it and went into 2018 with some money on the cash side, 2019 was better and we're starting to settle into it. The department heads in particular have come to see that it works. I'm by no means a budget expert, but I'm fairly proud of us being able to succeed at that and turn that budget around so we have some good, solid cash flow.

There's some other accomplishments, but I just feel like overall we've brought the city to a good place financially and getting [two new trucks] for Public Works, for example, having good equipment to use and not trying to just get by. That was kind of the whole effort, and it's kind of all one thing, but there's elements of it.

RJ: Are there any issues you'd want to tackle in a second term that you haven't been able to do since first being elected?

GC: The main one still is that lawsuit on Well No. 9, and that's been a challenge. It's been going since about 2014, so [former Ritzville mayor Linda Kadlec] inherited that for quite awhile. These things drag out, but we've made some strides and I'm optimistic. We have good lawyers, we have good teams involved in that and we've made some progress. We just need to finish it out.

Along that same line is we're going to do some updates. We have a big reservoir that's going to be rehabilitated very quickly in the spring, we have Well No. 8 that needs to be redone, and it's in progress, but the Koch Well has a new electrical system that's going to be done in the next few months, so I guess that doesn't quite fit the category of not getting it done, but it's ongoing. What I'd like to do is work with [interim Public Works Director Dave Breazeale] now and with [Public Works Director Larry Swift] on an evaporative system on the sewer plan, and just looking at different aspects of projects that we have and looking at being more efficient.

RJ: What role can and has the City played in economic development in terms of bringing more employment opportunities and new industries to the area?

GC: The obvious project that's been going on this summer is the developer that's coming in and looking at buying Lifecare from the hospital. We did a lot of work around that, annexing the ground over there, the plat maps and [Clerk-Treasurer Julie Flyckt] and land-use lawyers have helped us. And when that comes about-they're in the process of surveying the ground right now, so I can't tell you that the purchase has been completed, but we're optimistic about it-we've spent a lot of time this summer working on that.

We really took a lesson on the nuts and bolts of annexation, of plats, of what our role is on whether we have rights of way, or we abandon streets or we abandon alleys. Not just abandonment, but how we handle public property and how that helps in the development both to those that are in the way of development, or those that can subsidize or augment development that goes on. So that was one big project and we are looking at other economic development as far as small businesses. But we have a commitment to the infrastructure first, to be able to give them something to come to, and that's really kind of where we're at on it.