Medical Lake declares emergency

With most of its vehicles either destroyed or unfixable, the Medical Lake City Council passed an emergency resolution April 19 that will allow the Maintenance Department to get back on its feet when it comes to upkeep and repairs around the city.

In declaring an emergency, the resolution legally allows the city to waive the competitive public bidding process used most of the time in lieu of finding the best deals possible to replace up to six city vehicles. One vehicle was destroyed and others were rendered unfixable by the city’s insurer in a fire that slowly burned in the shop overnight April 14 –15, scorching the shop’s interior and damaging other items.

City Administrator Doug Ross told the council the only vehicle available for use by department personnel, other than heavy machinery, is a flatbed truck. The city needs to replace one of the damaged pickup trucks now, and has talked with Gus Johnson Ford in Spokane, who has agreed to honor the state bidding contract numbers in selling Medical Lake a pickup truck immediately.

Ross said city’s insurer, Washington Cities Insurance Authority, would cover the replacement costs of the structure and its contents, although the insurance pool does not consider vehicles as content. The city will also get replacement costs for a Ford F450 pickup truck and the Freightliner dump truck.

“The rest, we’ll get what the vehicle was worth at the time of the fire,” Ross said.

In other news, the council voted to keep the seat held by former Councilman Howard Jorgenson vacant until it can be filled through elections this November. Jorgenson, who has been unable to be at council or committee meetings for some time due to health issues, stepped down in January.

Ross said the city has received five applicants for the position. The issue, he said, was the city has a policy that candidates applying under these circumstances have a right to address the council as part of the process.

One applicant is out of the country and won’t be returning until May 8. That would mean the earliest the council could sit a candidate would be June.

Jorgenson was reelected to his seat in November 2015, and any candidate appointed by the council would still have to run for election to a shortened term this fall. Ross said leaving the seat vacant wouldn’t affect the council’s effectiveness, since there would still be six members and Mayor John Higgins would be able to vote to break any possible ties.

The council agreed to not appoint a candidate but encourages the applicants to run for the position. While siding with the majority, Councilwoman Jessica Roberts said she felt the council was essentially throwing its support to whoever ends up getting elected, and urged the council to send each applicant a letter detailing the arrangement, which council agreed to do.

The final decision was made in a vote at the urging of city attorney Cindy McMullen, who said it was a stronger way of letting the community know the facts of the decision.

“By consensus isn’t as solid,” she added.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].