Editorial: Council’s unanimous agreement is a step in the right direction

Just when it seemed that our new Puyallup City Council was seriously floundering, they have pulled together on the controversial Pioneer Park bandstand.

Since new council members took office in January, they have been divided. Council was initially split 3-3 on appointing Rick Hansen to fill the empty council spot. They split again 4-3 in favor of hiring Gary McLean as the permanent city manager. They debated future funding of Puyallup Main Street Association, with some even suggesting that it disband.

Sure, government never runs smoothly, but people around here were getting worried that perhaps the council was at a stalemate because of their differences. And just when it looked like nothing would ever be accomplished in Puyallup because of the great divide, the council unanimously voted for the construction of a bandstand in Pioneer Park. The same bandstand that split the council and the community in two in January.

Many expected the council to jump at Downtown Puyallup Rotary’s offer to pay for a third of the construction costs. But it didn’t go that way. While some councilmembers liked the idea, others thought it should go elsewhere in the city, like Bradley Lake Park, or that the money should be spent on sewers.

The council eventually decided to get input from the community. Almost 400 people responded and nearly 80 percent of them were in favor of a bandstand in Pioneer Park, as originally proposed. At Monday’s council meeting, council members unanimously agreed. Some renewed their initial objections, others questioned the validity of the survey itself. But all stood by what they had said several meetings ago — they were leaving it up to the community.

It was a process fraught with problems resulting in meetings of downtown merchants, letters to the editor and eventually fear in the community that the council would never see eye-to-eye on anything. If this is the same process that has to be used for every decision in the future, this council might accomplish very little during its term.

There may be a silver lining to this cloud. The community now knows two things: The council truly takes the community’s opinion into consideration, and the council is willing to change its mind. That could be the key to getting this council back on track.