Gayle Washburn

I want to thank my fellow council members for their support in selecting me as Mayor. I’d also like to share a few thoughts with our residents.

Last year was an economic challenge. We all worked hard to meet that challenge but we have more problems ahead of us. Last week the governor said that the state has a $25 billion deficit. The County says that we will see another 4.3% decline in assessed property values in the next year. We are likely to be facing an additional $2 million or more deficit in our next budget cycle. If you follow financial markets you know that this economic situation isn’t going to get better any time soon. That means we’re going to have to make an extra effort to live within our means. Many of us are already working on that. And, we’re all going to have to share the pain. As a City we’ve been spending more of our General Fund than it brings in for several years.

While this economic picture is bleak, we have a lot to be grateful for. We live in this beautiful city. We have a lot of good people here. We have a lot of givers and volunteers willing to work hard to better the community including this City Council and all of our commissions, local service clubs, churches, Chamber businesses and other groups. We also have a dedicated and committed workforce to serve the community. We have excellent police and fire service. So we’re going to be okay but we need to work at it together. I’m going to be asking the council to support me in forming a Budget task force with citizen representation to help solve these challenges.

I also have high expectations for myself and the rest of the Council. I expect us all to be ethical and respectful of the public, of staff and of each other. Our job here is bigger than personal differences and petty grievances. We are here to serve the public and conduct business and that’s where we need to focus our efforts.

I would also like to recognize Mayor Walker for her two years of service as Mayor. She’s been a fair and honest Mayor and a person of integrity and decency and we’re lucky to have her on the Council. I hope I can do as well.

Gayle Washburn