Recalling the ‘my way or the highway’ mayor

Residents of a small city straddling the King and Pierce County line have filed a petition to toss out their “my way or the highway” mayor.

A petition seeking to authorize a recall against the mayor of Pacific has been filed with the King County Elections Office.

The 30-page document, with hundreds of pages of supporting evidence to follow, alleges “misfeasance, malfeasance, and violation of oath of office.”

Cy Sun won the last election as a write in candidate, and ever since then he’s been embroiled in a political drama unlike anything the city of about 6,000 residents has ever seen.

Sun has fired department heads, and even ended up in handcuffs after he was accused of trying to break into a locked city office.

Pacific police officers arrested Sun in July for allegedly trying to get into a city employee’s locked office. He’s now under investigation by the King County Sheriff’s Department.

The Committee To Recall Cy Sun lists dozens of issues they have with the mayor. Among the claims, they believe he displayed irrational behavior causing both the Pacific City Council and the Pacific Police Department to issue a vote of no confidence.

There’s more.

They say he has: Destroyed city records; caused the resignation or directly removed several department heads; was arrested for disobeying a lawful order; imposed a hiring freeze on the Pacific Police Department; nearly caused the city to lose its insurance; mismanaged a local construction project; threatened to close a senior center over a city council action.

Sun, who is 81, has said he’s just doing his job ending “corruption and wasteful spending” in City Hall.

He moved to Pacific from Oregon when he retired from farming and wanted to do something about the “waste” he observed in the city.

Sun decided to run for office, but he was too late to get his name on the ballot.

Undaunted, he walked the two-and-a-half square miles of Pacific every day before the election, knocking on doors, and asking residents for their write-in vote.

The incumbent mayor was Richard Hildreth. In November of 2011, he lost to Sun by 59 votes.

A recall petition filed Thursday includes a statement Sun wrote earlier this year responding to his critics.

He said, “Give me some slack! The CRY of the CRITICS: The City doesn’t have a Public Works/Community Development employee and an Engineer. I am ruining the City with my crazy, stupid ways of being a Mayor.

My answer: please don’t tell me what to do. Let me tell “YOU”, what I know: My employment folder is full of NO GOOD, REJECTED SEASONED BUREAUCRATS -MUNICIPAL LOAFERS, who were either fired or laid off by their former City employers.

REJECTS who seem to migrate from one City to another.

My definition of a Bureaucrat is a sweet talking loafer who has the talent of winning friends to hold his job and work his way up to a higher salary.”

By LINDA THOMAS

Photo courtesy the City of Pacific of Mayor Cy Sun signing his oath of office with City Clerk Jane Montgomery.