Is city manager representing the community that pays his salary? | Letter

The Kirkland City Council recently rewarded already highly-paid Kirkland City Manager Kurt Triplett with a 7 percent pay raise, which is more than double what other city employees received.

This pay disparity is exactly what we see in the private sector with CEO’s receiving significant compensation relative to the work for because corporate boards are afraid of “losing talent”. The Council expressed the same with Mr. Triplett.

Triplett is already one of the highest compensated city managers on the Eastside. What has he achieved in the past few years that has made him so valuable?

The Council should ask themselves why so many department directors, the police chief, as well as the fire chief left the City in the last year. Usually when top talent leaves an organization, it is evidence that they are unhappy with the leadership.

Rather than applaud Mr. Triplett’s filling of multiple vacancies, often with ex-King County employee whom he has had previous association with, the Council should be asking what is going on with staff moral because of Triplett’s leadership style. Then we should be asking about decisions he proposed and pushed through.

For example, what about his budget cut to eliminate the police Pro-Act Unit to save money when crime was rising? What about his strong support of the Kirkland Aquatic Center which was overwhelming rejected by Kirkland votes. Mr. Triplett failed to find financial partners like the Lake Washington School District, or YMCA to jointly financially support a community pool. This demonstrates a lack of management sophisitication. Mr. Triplett also drove the Sound Transit light rail option on Kirkland citizens and encouraged the Council to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on consultants and viability studies of light rail on the KCK. What he did not do was to engage the community first to see what the sentiment was regarding light rail.

The Kirkland Council should ask if the City is in better shape with Triplett as the city manager. Our taxes continue to go up while our services continue to go down under his leadership. Our streets need paving, our sidewalks need repair, our parks need attention, and most importantly, our public safety has been compromised because of budget cuts.

We need better services for the high taxes we pay in Kirkland and yet, Mr. Triplett contines to tell the Council that things are great in the community.

Rather than worry about losing Triplett, the Council should ask if he is truly representing the community that pays his $200,000 salary.

Shannon Harris, Kirkland