"The bottom line is we got the dough, and we're going to make the rules." —Mayor Wayne Willich
As a property owner and taxpayer in the city of Sun Valley, I am appalled and disappointed by the statement made in the Friday, July 30, paper by our mayor, Wayne Willich, regarding the money the city may provide to the new marketing board. Mayor Willich, in my view, does not represent the attitude of most Sun Valley citizens, with his incredible arrogance and disrespect shown toward the business community of both cities and their hard-working Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau.
I am in agreement with the need for a new look at our communities' approach to marketing, but if the new marketing board takes on the disrespectful and arrogant attitude displayed by Mayor Willich, I will lobby the citizens of Sun Valley and Ketchum to not provide the board with a dime. Our community does not need elected officials who show such disrespect for the hard-working business leaders of the past years who have made every sincere effort to market our community at the highest level.
Change can be good but arrogance and disrespect are not. And just as change can be good, perhaps the citizens of Sun Valley will decide at the next election that a new mayor would also be a good change.
I live in Ketchum now but still own a home in Sun Valley. I have served on the board of the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau. I am also a business owner. Chamber Executive Director Carol Waller and her board have always worked with the best interest of this community at the center of their decisions. I encourage the new marketing board to move forward with a positive attitude and do not throw the business leaders of Sun Valley and Ketchum under the bus. Please do not follow the awful attitude expressed by Mayor Willich.
Trish Wilson
Ketchum
