North Bend Mayor Draws Fire -- Ribary Criticized On Si View Project

NORTH BEND - The issue may have been decided in Superior Court, but the debate still rages over approval of a huge residential development by the North Bend City Council almost two years ago.

At last night's council meeting, Councilman Chris Lodahl quietly but with deliberation censured Mayor Fritz Ribary and council members who voted to approve an application for Si View, a 96-acre residential project on the former Mountain View Golf Course.

And now, Hugh Bossier has decided to challenge Ribary's re-election bid this fall because of what he termed the mayor's "strong support for uncontrolled development in North Bend."

Bossier was an organizer of Save Our Open Spaces (SOS) a citizens group that fought the $70 million development but eventually lost a lawsuit against the city in December 1989 for approving the project.

Mountain View Associates, developers of the 267-lot project, has not begun construction on the site.

Lodahl noted that under statues, the mayor of a non-charter code city cannot vote to break a tie in matters dealing with an ordinance. Rather, a majority vote of the council is needed.

In the Si View case, the vote was locked at 2-2, with Councilman Chris Roethle and then Councilman Ken White for the project and Mike Hasting and Jake Gere against it.

Ribary cast the deciding vote. Arlen Reno abstained.

"Should the council right a wrong or let it fade away?" asked Lodahl, who wasn't on the council when the vote was taken in June 1989. "What's going to happen in the future with other land issues? The question is whether or not the mayor's vote was a legal vote.

"We say the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings . . . liberty and justice for all. I don't think that was served here. I'm disappointed in some people here."

Lodahl then resigned from the Golf Course Acquisition Committee, a group of city officials and citizens trying to find a way to buy the property and keep it as a golf course. He asked that the matter be studied further by the council.

Ribary defended his part in the vote and said the matter had been decided in court.

"Too much time and energy has already been spent on this," he said.

Earlier yesterday, Bossier said "four more years of Fritz would be a real disaster for the city."

He said revisions to the city's Shoreline Master Program were made to allow whole-scale development in the flood plain at the South Fork Interchange on Interstate 90.

"I want to put city government back into the form it should be. The council is supposed to have the power . . . to give directions to the staff through the mayor.

"This government is backwards . . . the staff runs the city and the majority of the council rubber-stamps Ribary's decisions."

Bossier had high praise for Lodahl and Councilman Arlen Reno, saying "they respond to the citizens of the city."

Bossier, who retired from the Navy after 20 years and later worked for the Federal Aviation Administration before full retirement in 1968, said he would like the city to hire an ombudsman to resolve complaints from the public.

"All we get is ridicule when we go to city officials with problems," he said. "The people deserve better than that."

Bossier said he is building a base of support through former SOS members.