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- Don Hahnfeldt puzzles folks
- Why'd the city mgr. really quit?
- SUNNYSIDE (Monday 6-21-99)---Persons confronted with a puzzle--like the city manager's recent and hurried resignation--tend to fill in the blanks. There was a lot of that during and after last night's City Council meeting.
- City Manager Don Hahnfeldt quit last week, giving only one week's notice. Since then, many have been voicing their pet theories as to the reason the 30-year military man flew the coop.
- City Councilman Chad Werkhoven cautioned against too much wild speculation. But human nature, inevitably, has taken hold.
- "This is very disruptive," Fen Schrader told the council and audience Monday night.
- Schrader said he could understand if Hahnfeldt had given 60 to 90 days notice, allowing the city to make a smooth transition to a new manager. But just one week? "I am disappointed in him," Schrader said.
- He wanted to know the reason Hahnfeldt quit so suddenly.
- "Is something rotten in Sunnyside, or what?" Schrader asked. "(Hahnfeldt) has put as much distance between himself and Sunnyside as possible. What caused him to go back and become a bureaucrat? All the way to Alexandria, Virginia. It's as if he doesn't want to be contaminated with Sunnyside," Schrader said.
- Mayor Ed Prilucik said all he knows is Hahnfeldt called him on a Sunday (June 13) and said his last day would be Friday (June 18).
- "Speculation as to the cause may dishonor him. The council did not ask him to resign," Prilucik said.
- James Bunch, honey producer for 50 years at 16th Street and Lincoln Avenue, told the council and audience the city manager may have resigned because of land disputes between Bunch and the city.
- "We've got five attorneys working on this," Bunch said, adding it's going to cost the city "millions". He alluded to city-enforced burn bans. In addition, Sunnyside earlier won an eminent domain dispute against the honey business as the city prepares to widen Lincoln Avenue.
- But all theories are just that--theories. The mystery grows with each passing day that no one provides a definitive answer. And only Hahnfeldt, apparently, can provide that.
- Earlier reports said Hahnfeldt told the press he was being "deliberately vague" as to his immediate future employment back east. So for now, at least, speculations abound, and fingers of blame are beginning to point in all directions.
- The city agreed last night to begin the process of hiring another city manager, using the same process they agreed on in '98 to hire Hahnfeldt. Ads will be placed immediately, and each councilman will choose a hiring committee member to analyze candidates' qualifications and make recommendations. Closing date for applicants was set for July 31.
- A "top few" will be selected as finalists, then will be interviewed by the council.
- In other business, the council:
- Authorized purchase from the Shelton Fire Dept . of a Horton 523 Type III ambulance and attendant equipment for $97,960. The budgeted amount for ambulance purchase was $77,000, however, all bids came in over that amount. Fire Chief Roger Schwab considered the Horton the best buy, with only 13,000 non-duty miles on the chassis. It was used in Shelton as a demonstrator, and was valued at $120,000 new.
- Accepted a $26,789 check from the Yakima Valley Dairy Federation to buy new heart monitoring equipment. The equipment is needed to implement a new emergency medical protocol instituted by Dr. James Perez, Yakima County Emergency Medical Service Director. The check was presented by Federation members Dan and Carolyn De Groot.
- Conducted a public hearing to determine how the city will spend a $24,746 federal block grant for "law enforcement purposes." Consensus was reached to spend it on a new recall recorder, which allows for easy instant playback of patrolmen-dispatcher-interagency communications; a special cabinet for bloody clothing removed from a crime scene; and security holsters that make it tough for thugs to grab a cop's gun during a scuffle.
- Agreed on several agenda items for the council's June 28 meeting. They will discuss streamlining the city's concrete grants (about $5,000 so far spent of $10,000), water meters, and closing Grant Ave. by Central Park for the July 3 Soapbox Derby.