Donnetta Walser verbally spanked in email
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I obtained the following email string between Councilman Mitch Ruth and Mayor Donnetta Walser today and thought I’d share it. In the email, Donnetta Walser has a tizzy fit about a Councilman asking Senator Val Stevens to help the City of Monroe on an issue that the Mayor was not able to get done.
In case you aren’t aware, gentle reader, Mayor Walser’s husband (recently convicted, still-on-probation, Fred Walser) is running against Senator Stevens in the November election.
I keep telling people that Fred and Donnetta Walser are the most political and selfish people in Monroe politics. They have proven time and again that they don’t care about the City or our community, but only for themselves and their own pursuit of power.
That attitude drips from every letter of every word penned by Donnetta in the email string below.
The issue they are discussing is about a red light camera that should have been installed at Kelsey and US2 last year. Mitch Ruth is trying to figure out why Donnetta hasn’t made it happened, so he contacted Senator Stevens, who handled the situation quickly and efficiently.
The email is reformatted to have the original email first, then the answers below…so just start from the top and read on down:
——————————————————————————–
From: Mitch Ruth
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 11:42 AM
To: Donnetta Walser; Council Members
Cc: Tim Quenzer
Subject: Red Light Cameras
INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL Mayor and Councilmember’s,
As you are aware, I have been working with Senator Stevens, Representative Pearson and Representative Kristiansen to stop DOT from blocking/stalling our efforts to install the Red Light Cameras in Monroe. They have all been extremely helpful and supportive of our plan.
Below is the latest communication received regarding our Red Light Camera Program. It appears that we may be very close to clearing the last obstacle to installation and implementation of our newest public safety program. While DOT may still have a surprise or two for us, they have agreed to allow the camera connections to the signals at these intersections.
Let’s keep the pressure on and get this finished as quickly as possible.
Mitch Ruth
Councilman
City of Monroe, WA——————————————————————————–
Dear Mitch,In response to your recent email regarding red light cameras, in your behalf, we contacted Lorena Eng who is the Area Administrator for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Ms. Eng informed us that RCW 46.63.170 allows local jurisdictions to implement Automated Traffic Signal Cameras on arterial roadways and defines the requirements for such installations. The clear intent is to improve safety. The department’s interest is that the citys vendor will connect their equipment to the states traffic signal system. WSDOT agrees to allow the Citys vendor to connect the cameras to the signals at Kelsey Street and Lewis Street/Chain Lake Road.
To date, no installations have been connected to state-owned signals so we do not have a boiler plate agreement for this type of connection to our signals. We have been working to finalize the draft agreement for the citys review. A legal review is underway and our Attorney General will be contacting the City Attorney. We hope the legal discussion can take place shortly and we will have a final draft next week. When this is done we will schedule to meet with the city to finalize language and coordination efforts.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to call Lorena Eng directly at 206 440-4706. We trust you will find this information helpful.
Sincerely,
Senator Val Stevens
39th Legislative District
——————————————————————————–
From: Donnetta Walser
Sent: Thu 8/14/2008 12:33 PM
To: Mitch Ruth; Council Members
Cc: Tim Quenzer; Lee.Marchisio@gov.wa.gov
Subject: RE: Red Light CamerasMitch,
Don’t sell me short! I, too, have been in contact with DOT. I have been meeting with them once a month for ten years and have made some important contacts. To date, Representative Pearson has been the only one of our state legislators to step up to the plate on anything. However, this is a perfect time to approach Representative Kristiansen and Senator Stevens, especially since two Monroe candidates are running against them.
Governor Gregoire met with the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the US 2 Safety Coalition and toured US 2. The next day DOT called the Chairman to see what we need for US 2. ( For your information, that same day the attorneys for DOC came in to tell me that the check was in the mail for the infamous water leak.) As a result US 2 is now a Safety Corridor. The Governor has been a valuable link both with US 2 and our own DOC issues. I met with her aide last night and told him I would be in contact about this issue. I would prefer to use Chief Quenzer as our point person here. He has the ear of both DOT and the WSP, and I am reluctant to make this a political issue. Donnetta
——————————————————————————–
From: Mitch Ruth
Sent: Sat 8/16/2008 4:28 PM
To: Donnetta Walser; Council Members
Cc: Tim Quenzer; Lee.Marchisio@gov.wa.gov; Jim Southworth
Subject: RE: Red Light CamerasDonnetta,
Sell you short? How have I done that? Apparently I’ve touched a nerve. Instead of waiting until the next council meeting to make my report in open session, I simply sent an email to share the good news with those who should know. That’s all. Why is this such a sore spot with you? Why is it appropriate for you, in open session, to give reports and praise to those whom you have spoken to on this very same issue, but so wrong for me to do so in private?
You knew I had been in contact with all of these people. And you know that I’ve been in contact with the Chief on this as well. You had no issue with this then. Why the change? You say that you would prefer that the Chief be the point person on this. The Chief IS the point person on this. He is a good man whom I have the utmost confidence in. But the Chief was blocked by DOT too, remember? This is not a slight to him and you know it. Everyone from the city has been blocked/slow walked, that’s why Representative Pearson first became involved. And he too was stonewalled. So a second call to Senator Stevens was made. She was happy to help. Where is the issue?
Everyone appreciates the work that both you and your husband have done on the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition. But none of that has anything to do with the issue at hand. I argue your stated reluctance to politicize the matter. Your email serves only to politicize the issue and create an opportunity to bolster the campaign image of those whom you politically support and to speak ill of those your candidates are running against. This is not about boosting someone’s political campaign. This is a public safety issue for our citizens and should have absolutely nothing to do with the politics of politics; but apparently it does. Otherwise you wouldn’t include one of the Governors senior staffers into the recipient list of your email to me while you stump for your candidates.
In the U.S.2 Safety Coalition website, of which your husband is the Chair of and you are the Vice Chair, Representative Kristiansen is praised for his bi-partisan support. Yet in your email to me, you say he has never “stepped up to the plate on anything”. Which is true? I would suggest that there are a lot of highly capable people who can and will help us if they are simply asked, instead of excluding them because of partisan/campaign politics. This makes me wonder how many other times we have not reached out to those who would’ve and could’ve helped, and what the real cost and loss to the people of Monroe has been over the years because of that kind of thinking. I believe that had it been someone other than Senator Stevens who had stepped up to the plate, you would’ve considered this a huge victory and been very eager to publicly share it.
Month after month we hear how hard someone/everyone is working on one issue or another. Yet month after month nothing happens. Why? Maybe because some people are pacified with “meetings” instead of action. Where are all those “important contacts” and “valuable links” when we need them? We always hear excuses why something can’t be done, or why it takes so long to get anything done. Frankly, were I to have had a meeting a month, for ten years, with the same people on the same subject, I would have long ago questioned the purpose and value of the meetings, and the contacts. Winston Churchill once said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
If the Governor and her staff are such “valuable links” for the people of Monroe, why do we have these issues with DOT and DOC? They are not autonomous entities; the heads of these departments serve at the pleasure of the Governor. Would you have me believe that if the Governor wanted these issues resolved that they would not have been corrected long ago? If the Governor wanted them fixed, and couldn’t simply pick up the phone and make it happen, she wouldn’t be much of a Governor would she? So either she’s against us on these issues, or she isn’t much of a Governor. Either way, we have responsibilities to the people that we represent. What ever your issues may be with the Senator, please put them aside and leave me out of them.
Leadership is action, not position.
Mitch
August 20th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Meee-ow.
Glad I don’t live in small town Mon-row, M+M Walser, props.
Sounds as if the king and queen don’t give much of a rats about the sheeples.
Now, if you want to talk red light cameras, well, I hope the slow walk is the new dance of the century. I have a pix of my sis’s FIL’s truck supposedly driving at 7:30 PM caught by a red light camera. He is 87, only drives to the commissary, and only on Tuesday mornings. One set of keys only. No way in He-double hockey sticks was that truck out at 7:30 at night, so until someone can ’splain that one to me, I will call red-light cameras what they are, a revenue device, safety be darned all to heck.
The Geez
August 20th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Same old, same old. The Walsers cannot stand that anyone else should get any credit for anything that they can take credit for. This is worse though, because Mayor Walser is very close to abusing her power to help her husband’s campaign, and to the detriment of the residents, to boot.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:39 am
How embarrassing to have Donnetta Walser as my Mayor. Please run against her, Chad. Please, please, please!
August 20th, 2008 at 9:50 am
This is a pretty brazen display of partisanship. Why did she say that Kristiensen and Stevens had not “stepped up to the plate?” I read in the paper that both Kristensen and Stevens fought for more funding for Highway 2 and the Democrats didn’t let them have it. Why can’t the Walsers call on some of those high-powered connections they have made for ten years with the Governor’s office and the Democrats and get some help coming our way?
I read in the Monitor that if Dan Kristiansen’s bill would have passed, this last fatality would not have occurred because safety improvements would have been funded.
I think that the Walser’s “contacts” are for their own political advancement, not for the City of Monroe. Otherwise we would see more success from all those meetings Donnetta talks about.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:00 am
This is a very good point, SkyRiv.
One of the reasons I have been underwhelmed at the US2 Safety Coalition is their utter ineffectiveness at getting anything accomplished. It is indeed a bunch of meetings for the sake of meetings.
And any group that would have both the Walsers as their Chair and Vice-Chair, especially after 11 years with nothing to show…and especially after a criminal conviction…loses my support.
God bless the good people who are a part of the US2 Safety Coalition, but they are innefective because they have a couple bad apples spoiling the barrell.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I am getting angrier by the day. In the old days we would ride people like them out of town on a rail.
Hopefully they will see the handwriting on the wall when Fred Walser is “spanked” (to use your term of choice) and Donnetta will step aside already and let someone else do her job better.
Otherwise, I hope that someone (hint, hint) will run against her.
We really need a mayor who puts Monroe first.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
What a temper tantrum. You get a time out in my class if you behave this selfishly. And she is a grown woman.
At some point you ask yourself if she can even look in the mirror and see an accurate reflection of what she really looks like to the rest of us.