Who’s a good boy?

As usual, the City of Olympia has blamed its problems on Lacey and are surprised when Lacey doesn’t agree.

In this case, the City of Olympia dedicated money for a housing project in Lacey, without getting the approval of the Lacey City Council.  We’re talking about the Olympia council’s decision to allocate $3 million of funding for low-income housing.  (Not really  low cost when we’re talking $3 million for five single-family homes.)

Olympia mayor Shelby Selby took to the media to voice her concern that Lacey wasn’t playing nice and that the two cities had agreed to work cooperatively on funding housing needs.

But Mayor Selby, forgot to tell the City of Lacey that it was going to do the projects in Lacey.  The move took Lacey officials by surprise.

Mayor Selby also criticized Lacey for possibly using some of their housing money towards construction of a new police station in  the city.

Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder was recently quoted in “The Olympian” that no Lacey officials were at the table when Olympia made the decision, but Lacey might still be willing to contribute some funds to the housing project using city reserves.

(I think the City of Olympia still hasn’t grasped the concept that it is no longer the big dog in the neighborhood and that it cannot take unilateral action on regional problems without at least talking with the leader of the pack.)