I cut and pasted this from the UCRecord.com. This was from last Tuesdays Cle Elum Council meeting. The Council unfortunately didnt take my recommendation of just giving Diamondbacks $20,000 and then giving the owners of the Cottage Cafe, Sunset, and Storeys each $10,000. My twisted logic kind of goes like this. If giving the Cottage $10,000 is good for the owner there then it must be good for all of Cle Elum. The Mayor and Council can simply raise taxes on all the homeowners and give the money to those business they like to patronize. Its a win-win business for everyone.

This is kind of a novel idea but maybe the Council and Mayor could actually think of attracting more business from the freeway into town. When the town collects $65,000 from HM Taxes and has nothing to show for it except maybe the bathroom in town something is wrong.

The Christmas-Winter lighting in town is a total disaster because its non-existent. The town could easily spend several thousand dollars of HM taxes on some decent lighting to get people interested in coming into town yet they wont do it. Almost every penney goes into the "black hole" of the Chamber of Commerce. Now we have more taxes disappearing into the "black hole" of "let the business owners keep gambling taxes." We also have the wasted money from trucks grinding up First Street. Interesting that the Cities one 'shovel ready' project is fixing all the damage that trucks have caused to West First Street. The Mayor and Council still think every truck going thru town means a driver is spending $100 at the Cottage.






By MARY SWIFT
staff writer
CLE ELUM — A casino owner who asked the Cle Elum City Council to temporarily suspend the city’s tax on his gaming tables got part of what he wanted Tuesday night.
But by the time he was done he’d managed to anger both the council and the mayor.
Two weeks ago John Coonan, owner of Diamondback’s Casino, asked the council to temporarily suspend the tax on his gaming tables. Coonan said a declining economy had caused him to close his business temporarily in January. He told the council removing the tax on the gaming tables until the business regains profitability would allow him to re-open and put some of his employees back to work.
He did not request that the city suspend its tax on his pull tab operation.
Following Coonan’s request, the city finance committee met and, recognizing that many businesses in town are struggling, recommended that the council temporarily suspend the city tax on both gaming tables and pull tabs for nine months beginning on April 1.
But Tuesday night, Coonan told the council that suspending the gambling tax was only half of the solution he needs.
Coonan also wanted the council to agree to let him hold off on paying his back taxes, currently in excess of $20,000, until his business becomes profitable again. He told the council at that time he would begin paying “a surcharge” on his taxes to pay off the back taxes.
Without such an agreement, he said, he might simply go bankrupt and start over. If that happened the city wouldn’t get the taxes he currently owes, he said.
But city officials interrupted, saying that if he went bankrupt the city would put a lien against the property and the money would be collected when it was sold.
Coonan said in that case it could be some time before the city would see its money.
Coonan, who had pitched the suspension of the gambling tax as a way to put people back to work, then suggested he might have to move out of the city.
“I am constantly asked ‘Is Diamondback’s going to re-open?’” he said. “I reply, ‘It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. I think I may need to add, ‘It’s a matter of where.’”
That brought a strong reaction from the mayor and city council.
“It’s not the city’s fault you’re in trouble,” responded Mayor Charlie Glondo, clearly irritated. “I feel like you’re here threatening us. We came up with a solution and it’s not good enough.”
Councilman Art Scott told Coonan, “we can’t go to the community and say we made a deal with Mr. Coonan to forgive his back taxes.”
He said Coonan had promised that if the council suspended the gaming table tax he would put some people back to work. “Other businesses in town pay their taxes on time. There’s no reason to negotiate a deal,” Scott said at one point.
Councilman Mickey Holz was also clearly displeased.
“I take affront to what’s happening,” he said. “You come in here and threaten us.”
And Councilman Jim Eidemiller told Coonan that at the very least what the council was doing to try to help him and other businesses should help get some cash flow going, which should make it possible to begin paying his back taxes.
Eidemiller then moved to suspend the gambling tax at the end of this quarter for the remainder of the year.
But by then, Councilman Ken Ratliff had had enough.
He suggested the council should just leave things the way they were.
In the end, the council voted five to one, with Ratliff voting no and Warren Perry absent, to suspend the tax.
After the meeting, Coonan said he has a new business plan that he believes will be successful where the other one struggled.
In the past, he said, Diamondback’s had a multiple personality — nightclub, restaurant and lounge, sports bar and casino.
He now envisions operating Diamondback’s solely as a casino with part of the space he has been using operated by some other business.