Conversation with Mayor Kuntz

To the Community of Wenatchee:

I recently sent Mayor Kuntz a message about his “Statement from Mayor of Wenatchee” regarding the Black Lives Matter protest that we had here in our city I wanted to take a moment to thank the Mayor for taking the time to sit down and chatting with me and listening a few weeks ago about my concerns that I and others had in the community. It was a pleasure getting to know you and listening to you.

I understand that being in office can be difficult especially right now with all that is happening in the community and I wanted to share my experience and my main takeaways from our chat.

We chatted about the Wenatchee Police Department and their response to the event, Mayor Kuntz mentioned that WPD had extra police officers along the planned protest route but that, as most protests go, don’t always stay right on track the crowd takes a mind of its own and moves along as it wishes. He did mention that they paid about $10,000 in overtime. Thank you for having the extra police on hand.

The next part was a little more sensitive denouncing Douglas County Commissioner, Kyle Steinburg for attending in a tactical vest and armed with a handgun and an AR-15. I mentioned to him that if I had an elected official from another county come over into our city with a show of force I would be rather upset, especially after spending so much on overtime pay. The WPD had it under control and Douglas County Commissioner, Kyle Steinburg should not have come over to intimidate. Although Mayor Kuntz didn't denounce the Commissioner, he did express that he disagreed with the armed protesters for intimidation and again mentioned that they did not reflect the values of Wenatchee.

I asked the Mayor where he was during the protest, I felt that as our community leader he should have been there. Mayor Kuntz mentioned that he was there, but that he was there in plain clothes and more as a referee to keep the peace. The Mayor and I talked about how he didnt want to make a speech or be seen, and as he is a white cisgender male, I would agree with him. I’m not sure a speech would have done much, but it would still have been nice to see the Mayor just stand in silent public support of the protest. Being in public office is not easy. It's very much a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situation, but elected officials need to be standing with all members of the community, especially if they don’t agree with them.

We had a great conversation about what we can be doing in the city to make things better. Mayor Kuntz mentioned that he wanted two social workers to help with the WPD, but that the City Council did not approve that for the budget, so maybe our next question would be to the city council: Why not approve it? We also talked about bringing back the diversity council and how that would look. We ran out of time and didn't get to the last few things in my letter but I felt that it was a great first step and the beginning of a much needed conversation.

Elvis Garcia

Local Business Owner