Just wow - local Mayor speaks Truth to Power

I cannot find a direct link but this sounds authentic - from a local list. Burlington is a smallish city North of me about halfway from the island to Bellingham. Lots of malls and businesses - my favorite steel place is there, so are a couple of other vendors (welding supply, Costco, Harbor Freight, etc...) Their Mayor wrote this letter to the WA State Governor Jay Inslee:

Mayor of Burlington letter to Inslee
May 15, 2020
Governor Jay Inslee
P.O. Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Governor Inslee:
As the Mayor of the City of Burlington, I have supported your Stay home…Stay safe order from the beginning. As difficult as it has been, it was in the beginning a necessary move. I had trust in your reasons for implementing the order.

But, after watching the interview you did with Bernie Sanders on May 13th, my trust in your motives is gone. Frankly, I was appalled that the Governor of the state would in, a brief moment of unfettered honesty, express your willingness to use this “crisis to peddle a solution to climate change” that will “allow us to rebuild our economy and jump start it” in a more green manner. Your willingness to politically weaponize this terrible disease to further your climate change agenda shows a fundamental lack of leadership. True leaders do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons and let the political chips fall where they may.

The citizens of Washington deserve as much….our businesses deserve as much…and the elected leaders that have supported you thus far also deserve as much. You have just called into question every decision you have made during this pandemic up to this point, and future decisions as our economy clings to life. The ability to “rebuild our economy” would require tearing it down first. Many will now question if that is, at this point, your true motive?

I am often asked by business owners, “Why can I not open”, and I am many times at a loss for an explanation. You sir, just provided the answer for the next time I am asked that.

As the Mayor of a Washington State city that is heavily dependent upon sales tax (#1 per capita in the state), facing the sharp reduction in these revenues, I am fighting to keep our city solvent. Your interview suggests that your agenda and mine diverge at this point.

So while you use your power to further your climate change agenda, using this pandemic as a tool to do so…I will use my powers apolitically to do what is right by the citizens and businesses in Burlington. That is what our shared constituents deserve.

I am always available for discussion,
Steve Sexton

Mayor
City of Burlington

The interview in question can be viewed at this twitter: 

Inslee is innumerate and out of touch. He is the Governor for Microsoft and Amazon.
His daughter-in-law is an employee of the Gates Foundation.