Editor:
Within the title firefighter is the word “fight.” While I’m used to taking that fight to running fire and medical calls, I’m not as adept at applying it to the political arena. I misplaced some of that fight towards some citizens in this fair city and for that I’m sorry.
I fight because I care. I fight because that’s what the citizens expect me to do for them when they’re in dire need. I also fight to secure a better life for my brothers, sisters and their families.
I pledge to keep fighting; and will ensure that I remain respectful and open minded to the views and opinions of others. Anyone may ask the editor for my contact information who would like to engage further on the RFA or any other issue.
Happy New Year to all.
Very respectfully,
Zach Cash
Lake Stevens
I don’t know who you were at odds with but I appreciate your public apology. Political views are very emotional and many of us get caught up in the moment.
I completely support our fire dept and police in our area. We need them, annexing them is a big mistake!
Your vote matters. We are choosing people that over spend (mis-manage funds) and do not have a handle on what is really happening here.
Marta Card
Marta, I am screenshotting and emailing myself this exchange to make it available for PRR requirements. That effort is warranted as your misconception is common: We have not had an Edmonds fire department to support since 2009. Who you think of as our Edmonds firefighters are the firefighters of the South County Regional Fire Authority—and their predecessor agency Fire District 1 —who have been providing fire and EMS service to Edmonds residents via contract model 2010-present. Our current contract expires Dec 31, 2025, hence the discussion of our options for the future of fire and EMS service. While annexation adds elected representation and changes the funding from a City paid contract to direct taxation to the RFA for Fire and EMS service, it will not change the people or the service (or the price relative to current market contract options with the RFA and other local provider, City of Shoreline Fire and Rescue). There will be many town hall and community partner-hosted events on this subject between now and the ballot initiative regarding annexation in April. Please attend them (bring your friends, neighbors, and questions) to prepare to vote on how fire protection and response and Emergency Medical Service will be provided in Edmonds in the future.
Mr. Cash,
I accept your apology.
Like you, I’m going to continue the “fight” to inform the citizens of Edmonds with facts and data as we approach the RFA annexation vote. The city does have options which have not been fully explored in the haste to try to solve the financial problems we face. In so doing, the taxpayers will be asked to pay more than necessary in the form of higher property taxes. I hope to make my case (and that of other like-minded citizens) over the coming months.
So why would Edmonds do this? I’m told taxes would be hirer? Because you want taxes to increase? What is broke here and who broke it that you would consider to go a completely different direction ??? I’m for keeping both police and fire department. Where real lice people have a say regarding wages, law enforcement, etc. any third party taking over such a important role will cost big dollars…will that mean we need LESS city leaders?
Mr. Cash living in Lake Stevens and being a SCF manager and a spokesman member of the IAFF at the same time injecting his own special interests into Edmonds city business and tax situation is exactly why our Mayor and Council errored horribly in partnering with these people to take the easy way out. He represents exactly why we should have our own fire service back. About a third of Edmonds probably could care less that our taxes will sky rocket with Annexation because they are very affluent and city portion tax doubling is no big deal to them. I suspect our Mayor might be in that group. Another third, like myself, are really concerned because this may affect our ability and/or good sense about retaining a home in Edmonds. Another third or so who rent, will simply blame their landlords for “jacking up the rent. Mr. Cash is apologizing for calling Mr. Oganowski a, “bad actor.” I think Mr. O. is a man among men, just for graciously accepting that apology. Fighting is one thing, but knowing when and how to fight is quite another. I sincerely hope a lesson was learned here.
Mr. Cash, Political Director of IAFF local 1828, your apology is accepted although a bit anemic in light of what you accused a long time respected resident of Edmonds of – Jim Ogonowski – whose bonafides are in the area of finance and data analysis. You accused him of being responsible for the deaths of many folks while flying on Boeing airplanes during the time he was employed by Boeing. Your mouth and desperation to squelch any and all opposition to the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) attempt to Annex Edmonds – with Edmonds losing all local controls to its fire service got the best of you. (See Cash’s remarks in the link below- 5th comment)
https://myedmondsnews.com/2024/12/three-big-decisions-on-edmonds-city-council-dec-17/
You and the RFA have represented yourselves out as caring professionals – an organization that cares about the well being of the community it serves. Our first Responders, Our Heroes, Public Servants! You are no longer the Public Servant, Edmonds is now your servant. You say in your apology that you are concerned about your “brothers and sisters and their families” (RFA beneficiaries). You are concerned about increasing their salaries, and benefits, growing the organization by adding more firefighters – growing your jobs program – and Edmonds taxpayers, the servant, foot the bill. Your behavior shows you, the RFA, to be anything but professional and caring. 1/2
2/2
RFAs leadership is tainted. You have demeaned and embarrassed yourself and your organization with this disrespectful and “we’re doing this to protect you” rhetoric. You have shown your true colors. You have started your typical scare campaign that you’ve used in other communities who have fallen prey to you to get Voters to vote for RFA annexation. You will tell them that they are in jeopardy of having their homes burn down and that their homeowners insurance will skyrocket if they don’t vote for annexation. These annexed communities have seen their taxes for fire service skyrocket – not what you promised. That is your MO in other communities that have annexed to the RFA, a full blown, take no prisoners campaign to annexation. And you have millions of dollars at your disposal to get the job done. You also have a big advantage in your quest. Mayor Rosen and City Council (except Dotsch) have endorsed annexing to the RFA. They’re desperate to try to balance the budget and taking the easy way out. They have voted to keep the 6.2 Million Edmonds has already paid for fire service and put that money towards the budget deficit they have helped create. That’s how you solve a budget crisis – Mayor and Council STEAL from its citizens and make them pay twice for the same service.
Theresa, thank you for your thoughtful comments. The city government seems to have gone off the rails as far as spending. As you pointed out they are willing to get a bit of immediate help for the city of Edmonds’ finances at the future of pushing more cost and likely less service for the Edmonds’ citizens down the road. This push to make the cost of fire protection for Edmonds who have been supporting the fire and rescue local service and “Control” pushed off to the future with likely more cost per resident than they are facing now.
It seems that the present council and mayor do not have any idea of how to cut unnecessary items from the budget as the only way to get the city’s finances back on track. Even savings of pennies by putting off spending where we can will make the budget better over time. The improved business in down town should be gradually helping to make up for the overspending and lack of planning of the past couple of years.
The city could save a lot of money by not fussing about tree maintenance on private property, but that is another subject…
Happy New Year, Zach! I don’t fault you for looking out for the best interests of your members. Even though we disagree on some issues, I’d still lend you a tool if you were my neighbor.
Unfortunately the city of Edmonds is not taking Edmonds residents highest priority seriously (‘housing affordability’, according to Mayors 24′ survey), so many residents are taking up the cause, of minimizing further financial strain on residents and future residents.
Costs are out of control, and yes there are folks in Edmonds that can absorb them, but many cannot. Just take a look at recent national & local elections, (SnoCo. Prop 1, Everett & Mukilteo Public Safety levies, fight against the SnoCo budget) people are stretched thin.
The city is not helping things, by suggesting they’ll retain current tax revenues allocated for fire & ems, if we join the RFA.
https://www.edmondswa.gov/government/city_budget/community_survey
What CM Olson fails to mention is how much more annexation will cost the taxpayers. Why weren’t the overall tax consequences disclosed PRIOR to the City Council voting to put the RFA annexation on the ballot?
She also fails to mention that the negotiating team (of which she was a member) agreed to annexation terms which gives away our fire station property to the RFA to the tune of over six million dollars. In addition, our negotiating team agreed to other terms favorable to the RFA to the detriment of the taxpayers. Was this negotiated in the best interest of the citizens or just an expedient way for the city to help solve a financial problem they created?
Other alternatives were not fully explored. The negotiating team failed us. It’s time to tell them to negotiate a better deal by voting “NO” to annexation. This is no different than labor negotiations where the rank-and-file vote down the first contract offer only to get a better one later. We do have alternatives.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that all the town hall events that CM Olson suggests will not have an opposing opinion on-stage. They will be organized in such a way as to propagate the narrative of what the city wants us to hear. I hope I’m proved wrong.
Council President (CP) Olson, you have lost all credibility and destroyed any trust I have in you. You “negotiated” the annexation to the Regional Fire Authority (RFA) since it is central to balancing the budget – the budget crisis you and others helped create. Stop the charade, be honest with the citizens. This has been the most deceptive, least transparent, and ineffective council/year in city government in my recollection. I was invited to Mayor Rosen’s sham of a Focus Group September 14. A two hour “check the box” meeting where he invited us to share how he could make budget cuts to help prevent insolvency in 2027. He personally assured me he was sincere in this effort. To date I have NOT seen him adopt one suggestion to cut the budget. He cannot bring himself to adjust salaries or cut positions – stating it would be “heartless”. Instead he pushes the burden onto the taxpayer. You, CP, voted to STEAL $6.2 million from citizens that we have already paid for fire/EMS to help balance the budget – making us pay twice for the same service. Additionally, you voted to transfer ownership of two of our three fire stations, plus equipment, and Quick Claim Deed to the land to the RFA. We have options, alternatives to annexation. You have been asked to confer with the
1/2
Council President Olson’s leadership has exhibited dishonesty. Taking the 6.2 million from citizens that they’ve already paid for fire/EMS and applying it to rhe budget is fraudulent theft of public money.
2/2
Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM) to look at an alternative but you have refused. You say you’re too busy for a 30 minute conversation with them.
Respectfully, but clearly, CP Olson you are a big part of the problem. You say we will have elected representation on the RFA Board AFTER we are annexed – a joke since the majority of the Board are Firefighters! Do you think we are daft? RFA has raised their service rates astronomically wherever they have annexed communities. And you are looking at putting two or three property tax levy lid lifts on the ballots to help bail you out of your incompetence.
75% of Edmonds earns under $69,000 per capita. Food lines at the Edmonds Food Bank continue to grow. We have many senior citizens who helped build our community who are on fixed incomes and are in danger of losing or having to sell their homes due to unnecessary increased taxation. So much for your cry for “Affordable Housing”. Sheer hypocrisy. We are in an inflationary economy where many families are struggling to put food on the table and gas in their cars. You’re making Edmonds unaffordable with your ineptitude, incompetence, careless spending, and unwillingness to REALLY look at alternatives, options to RFA annexation or to make real budget cuts.
It’s time for duplicity to end.
RE: The apology
Saying you are sorry but you intend to keep on doing exactly the same thing in the future is hardly a real apology for anything. A real apology would say, ” Mr. Oganowski I apologize for accusing you of being a party to killing people while at Boeing and butting into your city’s business and I will never do either again. Ms, Hutchison, I apologize for for demeaning you and your professional experience. Mr. Cash, you didn’t even have the courage or integrity to address the specific person or persons you were apologizing to directly. If I were your boss at work or your rank and file membership at your Association I’d be hard pressed to think you were putting me in a very good light with this non-apology, apology
RE: CM Olsons,s comment:
You fail to point out that we are at where we are at because RFA arbitrarily pulled the plug on our contract at what is the worst possible time; accusing us of not paying our fair share and therefore cheating the other jurisdictions also under their umbrella. You also failed to mention that you and Mayor Rosen were on the negotiating team that gave in to every demand that the RFA is making. This begs a lot of questions about who you really represent.
Let’s recap the discussion from last night’s City Council meeting on annexation to the RFA and compare it with what CM Olson says in her comment above.
Last night our city attorney had to strike a phrase in the annexation ballot measure document which originally said that once annexed, the level of service would not change (paraphrased here). At the eleventh hour, he needed to exclude that language because the truth is that once annexed, the RFA makes all decisions on the level of service we receive. Hence the level of service could change without our direct control, so the original language was misleading.
CM Olson states above: “… it (annexation) will not change the people or the service…”. She cannot make that statement. And she was on our negotiating team! How many councilmembers really understand the annexation documents or were misled prior to their vote? How many citizens understand what’s really at stake here?
Hello Mr. Cash,
A concerned community member pointed me to some unpleasant exchanges you’ve endured recently on the My Edmonds News website with RFA annexation skeptics. I had missed these interactions in mid-December and early January and I was shocked by the tone of the conversation.
Regardless of where one may stand on the issue of the RFA annexation, I was very disappointed to see ad hominem attacks launched at your family and you. I thought it was a great testament to your character that you were willing to apologize, even though you were clearly not in the wrong and were being unfairly targeted while attempting to share your perspective in a valid and respectful fashion.
Please know that I, as well as many of the residents in our city of nearly 43,000 people, have great respect for our union firefighters and the difficult and risky work that you do to keep our community safe.
Regards,
Jenna Nand
Edmonds City Councilmember, Pos. #7
Jenna, you’re off base on this one. If you’re earnest to find a victim in this situation then it’s your constituents who will not benefit by the dysfunctional RFA process the city has conducted. It has been orchestrated by narcissistic special interest groups and passive city leadership.
CM Nand,
Let me make it very clear, Mr. Cash did not apologize without being coached to do so. I took exception to the personal accusations he made and reached out to South County Fire and the Firefighter’s Union leadership teams to put a stop to this. Hence the “apology”. I’m still waiting on a public comment from South County Fire and Union leadership. I was going to let this lie until you posted your comment.
The point that we can agree on is that I too have great respect for our first responders. However, what I don’t understand is why the union is even involved in this discussion. What do they have to gain by us joining the RFA?
For those wanting full context of this, I suggest you read the original article and comments at: https://myedmondsnews.com/2024/12/three-big-decisions-on-edmonds-city-council-dec-17/
Yep, Jenna, be sure to attack your actual constituents and demean them by rushing to your favored viewpoints about local politics and accusing them of things they didn’t do. I’m obviously one of the people you are referring to here as being disrespectful to Mr. Cash, his family and his union. The fact that I disagree with him and think he’s stuck his nose in where it doesn’t belong (he doesn’t even live here) doesn’t make me disrespectful of him, or his union, or his family or the job he does. If you had any sort of open mind you would see that he is the one who was disrespectful here. That’s why he had to do an apology, such as it was. He literally accused Mr. Oganowski of causing people’s death in the course of his work at Boeing. You are going to need the votes of people like me, who you seem to go out of your way to insult. Good luck when you actually have to do a campaign assuming you run. I’ve been pretty supportive of you at times in the past, but no more!
“Well, here ‘we’ (not ‘you’ as a former president once said) go again”
If we continue the attacks this thread will be shut down more quickly than others in the past.
MEN does a wonderful job of allowing us to share facts and ideas. Too bad we can’t all work on sharing facts and ideas for the good our community.
I will try when commenting to show what I believe to be facts and what I believe to be ideas and try my best NOT to attack others. Facts and ideas are often sharper than spears.
Darrol is absolutely right as is usually the case. The personal attacks come out of a place of frustration at never being listened to or people misinterpreting what you say as some sort of personal vendetta against their party, or their Union, or their race, or just them – you name it. The worst personal put down is having people with power claim to seek out your opinion on one thing or another while obviously just checking off a box saying they listened to you. Defending your position on something you have said or something you think, isn’t (or at least should not be a personal attack), but it is often interpreted as such. I need to be more optimistic, more positive and more forgiving and I’m going to seriously work on that. One is never too old to learn something, try to do better, or try another approach to solving a problem or problems.
Ms. Nand makes the accusation that some of us are, “annexation skeptics,” and on that score she is absolutely right. We are trying to convince many others in town to become “annexation skeptics” too; vote no; and force Rosen and the Council to go back to the drawing board on this as we think they can do better by the tax payers with a different approach to the problem. It does not appear that anyone in the Mayor’s office or on the Council even tried to consider any other course than what the RFA and the Union(apparently) think is the least expensive way to roll on future fire service for Edmonds. Ms. Dotsch is the possible exception to my assertions here. I’m open minded and would like to hear just how I’m wrong about this from the Mayor or other Council Members. Have they run numbers with experts to determine just what the best course of action might be? If we could save a couple million a year by going back in house, would that not be worth while? There is no imagination, creative thinking, or will to go against the grain in Edmonds and that is the saddest fact of all in this mess. A no vote is our only hope, because as you can see most of Council and Mayor are biased.
I agree with Clinton Wright.