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A community proposal for Cle Elum
Change is coming… Change the office, not the person.
Cle Elum voters can decide whether the city’s chief executive should continue to be an elected mayor or become a professional city manager accountable to the elected City Council.
Not a recall. Not a candidate campaign. A voter decision about how our city is managed.
Current formMayor-Council
Proposed formCouncil-Manager
Who decidesCle Elum voters
Regular mayoral electionNovember 2, 2027*
The central question
Should the chief executive be elected—or hired for the job?
Today, Cle Elum’s elected mayor is legally the city’s chief executive and administrative officer. The city also employs an appointed administrator who operates under the mayor’s authority.
Under council-manager government, voters would continue electing the City Council. The council would hire, evaluate, and—when necessary—remove a professional manager responsible for day-to-day administration.
This is a structural choice, not a verdict on Mayor Matthew Lundh or any future candidate.
Why consider it
Professional management with democratic accountability.
Keep policy with voters
Residents still elect the council. The council sets policy, adopts budgets, approves contracts, and holds the manager accountable.
Create continuity
A professional manager can provide administrative continuity through election cycles, financial recovery, major projects, and staff transitions.
How accountability would run
Voters remain at the top of the structure.
The chain changes, but public control does not disappear. Voters choose the council; the council directs and evaluates the manager; the manager administers the city.
The tradeoff
Residents would no longer directly elect the chief executive.
That is the most important democratic tradeoff. Accountability would operate through the elected council rather than through a separate citywide executive election.
A manager would also cost money. Before any vote, the community deserves a real fiscal comparison that includes current mayoral compensation, current administrator costs, outside professional services, recruitment, transition, benefits, and proposed manager compensation.
No savings promise: professional management may improve capacity and accountability, but a governance change should not be sold as automatic cost reduction.
What it would not do
No shortcuts. No guarantees.
Changing the form of government would not erase debt, alter court orders, create a new tax, cancel existing legal obligations, or guarantee better performance.
It would change who holds executive authority, how that person is selected, and how the person is held accountable.
See the proposal’s limitsA legal path already exists
There are two routes to a public vote.
The City Council may place the question before voters by resolution. Registered voters may also file a qualifying petition with the Kittitas County Auditor.
The county’s 2025 participation report lists 420 participating Cle Elum voters. Ten percent is 42, but 42 remains a preliminary minimum until the Auditor confirms the statutory denominator and petition requirements in writing. Only valid signatures count.
“The question is not who should be the next mayor. The question is whether Cle Elum should keep asking an elected mayor to be its chief executive.”
Community proposal prepared by Karl Ohlemann for public review. Source review date: November 7, 2026.
*November 2, 2027 is the next regular election date for the current separately elected mayoral office. If voters approve council-manager government with an earlier effective date, that separate office would no longer be elected.