To the editor:

I have a few messages for the readers of the Record and my fellow residents of Langley about this brouhaha about our mayor:

For those of you who read the comments by Debbie Mahler and Mary Jo McArdle, please know that Ms. Mahler and Ms. McArdle can say whatever they want, whether it is fact or fiction. The city and the mayor cannot respond to and discuss personnel matters publicly. They simply can’t legally. There is nothing devious or dishonest about it.

For those of you who think that Mr. Samuelson has been mismanaging the city, I strongly differ. First, Mr. Samuelson has opened up city government to the community. From the committee to save the Langley Clinic, to his economic development taskforce of community members, to the city hall open house, he has pulled residents in. He has also consistently sought out and encouraged public comment at council meetings (unlike one predecessor I remember who threatened to use the police to silence a verbal resident).

Second, from the time the mayor took office he has systematically looked at the each department of the city, involving the managers and staff in looking for ways to make the city more cost-effective. The result has been thousands of dollars in savings in public works, planning, engineering and building inspection. Review of the finance department (Ms. Mahler’s area) has been under way for some time, and other departments are still to be started.

Real leaders, who work for openness and change, inevitably stir the pot, and make some people scared and uncomfortable. I believe that is what is happening here. Unfortunately, the Record is complicit in telling only one side of the story, and an incomplete story at that.

Ursula Roosen-Runge

Langley