Some Milton voters recently received a campaign letter from the Mayor (link), and she once again disparages a city employee, calling him “disgruntled” and adding he’s “putting personal gain over what’s best for the city.”  I wish she would stop referring to him as a city employee — he is a citizen of Milton just like the rest of us, and he is campaigning on his own time. I covered the topic in a previous blog post (link). .

The Mayor’s letter then goes on to criticize the other mayoral candidate, Barb Buck.  First she states Barb has only attended “two council meetings.”  How does the Mayor know how many meetings Ms. Buck has attended?  There had been no in-person meetings for over 16 months. Meetings are held via ZOOM or by phone, and one may listen to the recording at a later date.  Until in-person meetings resumed in August, citizens were unable to speak at meetings unless they signed up in advance, so what difference did it make if a citizen didn’t listen to the meeting live? The Mayor’s criticism of Ms. Buck for only being physically present at two meetings is outdated thinking with today’s technology. (Note to the Mayor and City Council: Don’t ever think because you don’t see citizens at meetings that we aren’t interested, we aren’t paying attention, and we don’t care. You would be wrong.)

The Mayor then alludes to the possibility of Barb Buck not being a “full-time mayor”. I read ordinance 1991-20, and it doesn’t require working full-time (link), so to state that it does is misleading. Other drafts did require set office hours and other stipulations, but they were all removed from the approved ordinance when the two tier salary idea (a ceremonial amount and a city administrator amount) was dropped.

I know that if elected Ms. Buck will not allow the “community to suffer”. She grew up in Milton and her family and friends live here. And being an effective Mayor is not measured in time in a chair but in action. Also, elected officials do not have set hours they must work — they are not employees.  The Mayor’s continued harping on that issue shows her lack of understanding regarding the difference between elected government officials and government employees.  Finally, as far as I know the Mayor still runs her own business…so as they say “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Then the Mayor mentions the Pierce County voter’s pamphlet issue. She states “Ms. Buck seems to lack the ability to admit a mistake.”  My understanding is that there was a computer glitch somewhere. She and her campaign manager were on the phone with Pierce County trying to resolve why the system wasn’t accepting her statement when she repeatedly tried to submit it. They thought it was resolved. There was an appeal, and it was denied.

Realizing it wouldn’t be in the pamphlet, Ms. Buck took the extra measure and mailed a pink oversized postcard with her statement to Milton’s Pierce County registered voters two days before the pamphlet was mailed (link). The Mayor has left out that Barb Buck is in King County’s pamphlet (link) (part of Milton is in King County). So rather than state an assumption in her letter that Barb Buck “forgot, didn’t know the deadline, or just didn’t have time…” perhaps the Mayor should have followed her own advice and got the real story because she is correct that “there’s no excuse for misleading this community”.

Toward the end of her letter, the Mayor states she has “never put myself above the needs of this community.”   If that were actually true, this website/blog would not exist. To me the most important community need is trust. I don’t trust the current administration to do the right thing. I believe the Mayor is so caught up in her own ego and self-righteousness that she can’t see the damage that has been caused by her actions.

Milton is at a crossroads, and I’m taking the Barb Buck road.  I believe with her we have the best chance for success over the next four years.