Sam Fletcher reports from the Oak Harbor City Council workshop on Wed., Nov. 20, 2024 for the Whidbey News-Times.
When Oak Harbor Mayor Ronnie Wright installed a fence this summer over a foot above the height limit per the city code, it remained unchanged well after neighbors reported it to the code inspector. This led to a neighbor’s accusation that rules were being bent to benefit the mayor.
Messages between Wright’s neighbor Destry McKenzie and Code Compliance Officer Ray Heltsley confirm that Wright may not have followed the orthodox process, and other Oak Harbor residents in the same boat may have faced penalties by now.
The disagreement between Wright and his neighbor came to a head at a recent council meeting when McKenzie complained publicly, saying that talking to the mayor directly about the problem hasn’t worked.
They Said It
“(Wright) was very difficult to speak with,” McKenzie said at the council meeting. “He was irate and very loud. I could sense that he was frustrated.”
When McKenzie’s wife asked Wright if he would remove the rocks lined up against the neighbor’s fence before constructing his own, “he got even more irate and blatantly told my wife to shut up,” McKenzie said.
Wright described himself differently.
“I want to emphasize that I have the utmost respect for all members of this community,” he said. “My goal has always been to serve this city with integrity, and I will continue to do so.”
The mayor, however, claims that he is fixing a matter that he just found out about.
“I want to assure the community that I take city codes and compliance very seriously,” Wright wrote in an email. “I am fully committed to following the rules and understand the concerns raised regarding the height of my fence.”
Wright focused his efforts on changing the code, claiming that “numerous existing fences are not in compliance.”
Councilmember Jim Woessner said he was unaware that the code compliance staff had already been involved at the time of November’s meeting.
“If we find out as a council that that that we’ve got some policies that are being mis-implemented or misinterpreted or being manipulated in a way that they weren’t intended, then I for one, certainly as a council member, would intervene,” he said.
Much has changed since Wright became mayor in January, he said.
“I’m a firm believer in agreeing to disagree and trying to keep the discourse civil, but at the same time, I don’t think any of us are blind to the fact that change is happening and that some of those changes may have a negative impact,” he said. “We have to monitor those very closely.”
