The voters of Bothell hire the City Council to set policy, represent the city, and direct how our money will be spent. In the last four contested City Council races, an average of 59 percent of the voters have chosen a new direction.

The City of Bothell has a city-manager form of government and state law directs that the City Council will choose a city manager to implement and follow their policy direction. A supermajority of the current council has voted to have new executive leadership to implement the will of the voters.

Bob Stowe has been easing himself out of the Bothell city manager’s job for a few years. He unsuccessfully applied for the Bellevue city manager job. He has presented at regional conferences listing developer as his job description. Since Jan. 17, 2014, he has been moonlighting as the head of Stowe Development & Strategies, LLC: http://www.stowedevelopmentandstrategies.com/index.html.

We should wish him well and hope that his success in his new development venture turns out better than his development venture for the City of Bothell. He managed to buy high and sell low in the downtown area and built a city hall building that cost over twice what it should have. Those two ventures alone will cost Bothell taxpayers at least $96 million.

Mr. Stowe was hired to create and implement a downtown plan. His implementation of the downtown plan occurred only with significant taxpayer subsidy; it is time for a change.

Pat Pierce, Bothell