Meyer, Florea and Lundgren vie for open city council seat

Three people have applied to fill the Leavenworth City Council seat made available when Gretchen Wearne resigned from the council. Larry Meyer, Carl Florea and Jason Ludgren have applied to fill the seat.
Meyer and Florea have both served on the council in the past, while Lundren has sought appointment twice before and ran for a seat once.
Meyer is a retired school teacher, who is mostly known for his involvement with Projekt Bayern, the organization that stages the Oktoberfest and the Captain Bly Educational Foundation.
Florea moved back to Leavenworth a few years ago and is currently managing the Cornerstone Community Home. He is known as the founder of the Community Cupboard and Upper Valley MEND.
Lundgren is the director of a non-profit that does salmon and steelhead restoration. He previously applied for an open seat. It came down to a tie between Rich Brinkman and himself. The mayor broke the tie by choosing Brinkman. He applied for an open seat a second time, but was disqualified when he forgot to turn in his assignment. He ran for office last year, but was narrowly defeated by incumbent Carolyn Wilson.
“We have three pretty well qualified candidates for this position. For scheduling, we need to do the interviews with the three candidates for about an hour. We’ll hold them to a 20 minute interviews,” said Mayor Cheri Kelley Farivar at the Jan. 9 study session.
The council set aside a 10-minute executive session to talk over the selection. City Administrator Joel Walinski said it is better to take 10 minutes and ask for extra time, rather than take 30 minutes, and if it discussion ends early, they have to wait to reconvene.
“The executive session is to discuss the qualifications. There will be no voting during the executive session. No campaigning during the executive session. We’ll come back to open session and vote in public,” Farivar said. Councilwoman Sharon Waters asked what is to be discussed in executive session.
“Candidate A has three or four years on the city council, has a background in this and this as opposed to candidate B. While their experience might not be as great,” Walinski said.
“Or I believe candidate B has a conflict of interest with a forthcoming project that is coming before the city. That might cause the candidate to recuse themselves during those discussions,” Farivar said.
Wilson said you should be honest and say you have a reservation about a candidate.
“You have to say why. It needs to be factual not just an opinion. That’s why we do it private,” Farivar said.
The city council interviewed and selected a candidate Tuesday, Jan. 16, but results were not available before press time. See the Leavenworth Echo website for latest results.
Council Members Testify
Last week, council members Elmer Larsen, Margaret Neighbors and Sharon Waters testified before the Senate Energy, Environment and Technology Committee regarding Senator Brad Hawkins bill regarding allowing some burning within city limits.
Last year, the city could not, within city limits, burn trees affected by the apple maggot quarantine, due to conflicts between state agencies. The State Department of Agriculture favors the burning, but the State Department of Ecology doesn’t want the smoke.
“Council members Neighbors and Larsen met with representatives of the Department of Ecology to talk about our burn ban permit,” Walinski said. “I think they recognize there is a conundrum between the Department of Ag and what they want to do and the Department of Ecology and what they want to do.”
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.