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Politics & Government

Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper: "I Did What I Thought Was Right"

Outgoing mayor says he's proud of the accomplishments he achieved in 16 months in office, especially in bringing Dick's to the city. He will be honored before tonight's City Council meeting, which will be his last.

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on outgoing Edmonds Mayor Mike Cooper.

Mike Cooper, the hometown boy who realized a dream when he was appointed Edmonds mayor 16 months ago, is realistic about the circumstances that helped to Dave Earling, ending his short time as the head of the city.

“If you look at Edmonds and Lynnwood, there was a little bit of throw the bums out thing going on,” he said this week from his third-floor office in City Hall. Cooper will be in charge of his last City Council meeting tonight—Earling will be sworn in Nov. 29—where there will be a reception in his honor at 6:30 p.m. A resolution recognizing Cooper’s service to the city will be read during council proceedings.

“Part of it had to do with just general voter unrest and the bad economy,” said Cooper said. “One of the things I learned a long time ago was that oftentimes it doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on locally and has everything to do with what’s going on in Washington, DC.” Asking voters to support three levies, , didn’t help.  “I was I was brave enough to push City Council and ask the voters to raise taxes in a year that it wasn’t popular. I knew that would hurt me, and Mr. Earling capitalized on that.”

Cooper knew he was in a tough battle when . Things got tougher the next month when long-simmering personnel issues came to light, leading to the resignation of Cooper’s executive assistant, Kimberly Cole, and Cooper’s firing of Human Resources Director Debi Humann.

Cooper maintains that the drama surrounding City Hall did not lead directly to his almost two-to-one-vote defeat to in the general election. He says it just made the margin larger. “Last-minute voters broke things Earling’s way,” he said. “We couldn’t find a message that worked, no matter how much we talked about our success. It wasn’t playing to the voters because they’re just not trusting city government right now, even before the turmoil of the last two months.”

He admits, though, that Cole’s departure was a distraction. “That did not help.”

Cooper didn’t get into specifics about Humann's firing, but says he needed to make the change when he did, which was Sept. 22. “When I made the decision to terminate Debi, I knew the risk was that I could lose the election. But I believe I was doing the best for the city and my administration, that I had to make a change even at the risk of losing.”

The Cole-Humann matter is now being investigated by Kirkland attorney Jim Webber. “No matter how the investigation comes out,” Cooper said, “I’m still going to believe I did the right thing for the city. I did not listen to my political advisers. I did what I thought was right.”

Although only in office for 16 months, Cooper said he’s proud of his accomplishments, including presenting a balanced budget for 2011 and 2012.

“We turned over every rock we could find, and leaving jobs vacant without having to resort to layoffs.” He also named , the city’s six , his support of , the gradual version of city’s fleet to electric and alternate-fuel vehicles, the and his challenge to city staff to lower energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020, which he says is well on its way. He also mentioned a “responsible bidder” resolution, which lays out criteria for city contracts; the resolution was in response to contractor who would “bid low and bill high.”

Cooper’s biggest accomplishment, he says, was helping to bring Dick’s Drive-In to Edmonds. Earling dug into that during a candidate forum, saying Edmonds needed real economic development, not just a fast-food place. But Cooper defends his stance.

“Without question, the best thing I did that will have the greatest long-term impact on the city’s economy is ,” he said. “A lot of people laugh at that, but it’s an icon of business that, while it’s not going to solve the city’s problems, sends a signal that Edmonds is a good place to do business. We’ve got people wanting to come to Edmonds. Stephen (Clifton, Economic Development director) gets contacts every day from restaurants and companies interested in Edmonds.”

Find out what's happening in Edmondswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Wednesday: What are Mike Cooper's plans for life outside the public eye? We'll have the answer, plus details on a very special day coming up next month.

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