Obertal Inn’s painted windows unveil community strife

The growing discontent towards the city of Leavenworth finally came to a head, all because of some flowery painted windows. Discussion of alleged city government overreach on Obertal Inn’s spring-themed decor quickly escalated to threats and harassment towards city employees, a possible side effect of the community’s growing discontent with local governance.

On April 18, Obertal Inn owner Hans Mulders posted on the Leavenworth, WA facebook page an email he received from the city on April 16th. The post includes a photo of the Obertal Inn windows, along with a copy of the city’s email asking him to remove the paint before April 19th.

“These windows that have been painted every single season with a different motif, and there's never been an issue made out of it,” Mulders said.

According to Mulders’ Facebook post the email stated the following :

“City staff has found unpermitted signage at Obertal Inn, 922 Commercial 241712662150. All changes to the exterior of the building, including window paintings, are required to go to the Design Review Board and meet the Bavarian Alpine Theme per LMC 14.10. Please remove the window paintings as soon as possible. City staff will do a site visit to confirm the removal of the painting on Tuesday, April 19, 2022.”

Communications Coordinator Christie Voos said that the email was not intended to be as serious as it read, but did require legal language in order to enforce the aforementioned changes.

“The email seemed more formal and it gave a very short deadline for removal of window coverings that hadn't been passed through the Design Review Board, which is our current process for evaluating decorations on the outside of buildings.”

Before he made the post, Mulders had contacted the city regarding the short notice for paint removal, and admitted that he was upset when he contacted Voos. Initially, he felt that the city had overreached their control on his business.

“The city does not take responsibility for their obligations in maintaining the authentic Bavarian townfield. They are the biggest violators of their own rules, yet they enforce myopic, tiny little rules on the business community that are expensive, that are time consuming and it needs to change,” Mulders said. “They need to fix their roads, they need to fix their sidewalks, they need to fix the alley, they need to fix the green spaces. They need to take responsibility for what they are responsible for and until then, they should stop enforcing minor small infractions on city codes.”

Mulders received over 200 comments on his post, resulting in several calls made to the city. Voos said that some were respectful, but other calls included targeted threats and harassment towards the mayor, the Design board employee, and Voos herself. Mulders’ post was later edited, imploring people to be more respectful when contacting the city. 

“ I believe in civil discourse, I also believe that you can be loud, and you can be opinionated and strong in your opinions,” Mulders explained. “But threatening people with violence, that is just completely unacceptable in any scenario here, and there is no need for it either. There shouldn't be a place for it, anybody who has threatened with a call ought to be ashamed of themselves. Nicole is just somebody who was doing her job and it is not her fault.”

Overwhelmed with the harassment and calls, Voos later wrote a statement regarding the situation and reflected on the relationship between the city and its community. 

“Leaders and governments are often called upon to think in a way that is [unen]countered [by] emotion and that's really hard,” Voos said. “When we're thinking about the future of how we communicate, or how we approach any of the topics that are hot right now, we are called upon to step back and approach it from a logical position that does not include our own personal feelings. I think that's sometimes seen as being stone-faced and it's just not received very well.”

As of now, Obertal Inn can keep their windows painted this year. The issue lied between a miscommunication of design code and protocol for outdoor decoration. Mulders agreed that this situation could have been handled differently, but is still apprehensive of current city code.

“I have no issue with [the] government. I'm not one of those lunatic right wing nut jobs that thinks everything [the] government does is wrong, but I do expect a government to function in service of its citizens and this is not in service of anybody,” Mulders said. “I think that that's myopic, I don't think that that feeds a sense of community. I don't think that that feeds an environment where businesses can thrive.”

With the recent acceptance of the controversial zoning and duplex amendments, along with recent changes like Oktoberfest and Adventure Park, and public safety threats such as bomb scares and snow in January, passionate outcry from the Leavenworth community has only grown.

“Our people have passion, and passion can be in any form, but it means that they care,” Voos said. “The strategy that I think is most unique to Leavenworth, [at least] for communications, is really trying to harness that passion with your communication so that we can come to an understanding.”

The main takeaway that both Voos and Mulders wish to communicate is that nothing gets done with violence or harassment. Voos states that it is hard to communicate effectively in her position if the other party is continuously adversarial. 

No one deserves to get death threats over a painted window.