Fremont County is large, diverse, and filled with opinions, or “talk in the 10.” “Talk in the 10” is an opportunity for you, our readers, to articulate and share your thoughts about what is happening in the community with the community. Letters may have been edited for clarity and length, but generally have been published exactly as received. The views expressed in the following are solely those of the author. Send your letters to our editors by emailing opi[email protected]
Let’s opine about . . . the City Administrator form of Government that Assistant Mayor Rajean Strube-Fossen and her wing man, Director of Public Works Lance Hopkin, are pushing for Lander (*see County 10, March 22, 2023: Lander researching city administrator form of government…)
A city administrator will be appointed by a city council majority that is already unresponsive to the Lander citizenry (the majority). A city administrator will not only be unresponsive, but will also be unaccountable, to the citizenry. The only way that the citizenry will be able to get rid of a city administrator, for whatever reason, will be to go through the city council (see above). This city administrator will undoubtedly be chosen solely by their alignment with the City’s unpopular projects and goals to irreversibly change our town and will have unbridled authority to forge full steam ahead, the citizenry be damned (see below). It would not be at all surprising if Fossen already has someone waiting in the wings.
Why does a city, as small as Lander, need a city administrator form of government? To keep things moving in the direction that Fossen and our tone deaf council members want it to go, of course, knowing that the citizenry rejects most of what they are doing.
Our history is slowly being erased and replaced (when is the caboose coming back). We now have a “new, but unofficial, alternate City logo” (quote of Council Member Julia Stuble, City Council Meeting, February 8, 2022, at the meeting, but not reported by County 10) that was adopted without the input of the citizenry. It was a back room, secret hand shake deal (so secret that the public does not know who proposed the change) to avoid asking the citizenry if they wanted to change the City of Lander logo, as the council should have. Only Council Members White and Cox viewed the “lack of public input” as problematic when they voted “No.” That “new, but unofficial, alternate City logo” became official once it started appearing with press releases, on the new City website, and was plastered all over City vehicles, shocking the citizenry. Council members are completely comfortable lying to the public about their intentions. The City is in land-grab mode, buying up vacant land while eyeing riverside residential properties and harassing other riverside homeowners, removing it from the tax rolls and disproportionately burdening the tax payers under the guise of flood mitigation (a Fossen-Hopkin pet project) when in reality it is to advance the greenspace/river walk project. Under Lance Hopkin’s stewardship, the City gutted the once famous “Best Snow Removal Crew in the State of Wyoming” while at the same time creating five (5) new administrative positions: HR (now combined with the clerk position); community development; assistant director of public works; and deputies to the clerk and treasurer. In a town of less than 7,500 people no less! Coincidence? Hardly. The money from the street department budget for salaries and benefit packages was needed to fund those new administrative positions. The 1₵ Infrastructure Sales Tax has been diverted away from street repairs & maintenance, which is bone jarringly obvious, especially now that the snow & ice has come off, and other infrastructure and $141K in unused 1/2₵ Economic Development Sales Tax was given away to the Riverton airport money pit. The council has yet to produce an actual, professionally developed financial report that shows how much revenue that airport has generated in the Lander community to justify any economic development funding. Part of the City’s Strategic Planning is to vigorously campaign for you, the tax payers, to renew these taxes. Think long and hard before doing so after asking yourself where all the previous money has gone. The city council is very adept at redefining what infrastructure and economic development is. The City’s ad nauseam push for tiny lots crowded with tiny, but expensive, houses and using cottage development to infill already dense neighborhoods will eliminate all privacy and enjoyment of property that the citizenry has come to enjoy and will, despite their mantra, irreversibly change Lander into something that resembles Seattle (where cottage developments originated), or Boulder, or . . . wait for it . . . Jackson, where people exist like sardines in a can. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been squandered on feasibility studies for any number of proposed projects that have yet to see fruition. The list goes on and on.
Fossen, who is purported to rake in a six-figure salary and benefit package (unconfirmed due to a lack of transparency in regards to these types of public records) was unabashedly candid about her support for a city administrator form of government (*). She puts her intentions full on display: to provide “another layer of administration” (one more layer away from the citizenry) and “consistency between elections” (meaning it is imperative to protect my goals from being derailed by those pesky voters). All of the progress “could be lost in one election” if a new mayor “came in and cleaned house” (which is exactly what Lander needs). Council Member (Dan) Hahn (one of two “friends” to the citizenry on the council) was spot on when he stated that a City administrator may “take (the) council out of the loop” (*), but the most important issue would be a city administrator taking the Lander citizens out of the loop. The citizenry of Lander needs to take note that, under a city administrator with an agenda, your vote to try to influence the goals and direction of Lander will be meaningless. Your voice will be silenced; more than it has been already.
Do not be fooled by Council Member Stuble asking Fossen to “reach out to local residents” (*). That is code for: send out feelers to our Facebook group so we can get the response that we want (i.e. Ordinance 1236; housing forum; new official City logo; flood mitigation; 5 acres of land next to City Park to be used as a mosquito-breeding evaporation pond; an overpriced, flood plain located, $500K piece of land for an unneeded park for only $100K; employment notices for (5) newly created administration positions; etc.).
There will be a presentation on this issue in June. Between now and then, take a tour around Lander and see where your money has been used, if you can see anything at all. If you do not want this form of government for our small town and you want to continue to have a say (such that it is under the current council) in how our local government is run you will need to be firm and clear, not only with your presence, but with formal written comments to be entered into the record.
The devil is in the details.
Kathleen Averill
Multi-generational Landerite