Ex-Mayor Among Four Wanting Cheney’s Top Post

Former Cheney Mayor Tom Trulove left his post in 1986 to accept a governor’s appointment to the Northwest Regional Power Planning Council.

Now, he wants to return to his political roots and recapture the mayor’s job in Cheney.

But there are three other candidates standing in his way.

They are Amy Jo Sooy, director of the Cheney Chamber of Commerce; Eugene Ozust, the former treasurer and controller of Cheney; and Phil Kiver, a college student who hopes to launch a political career.

The candidates are running to replace outgoing Mayor Al Ogdon.

Trulove is a professor of economics at Eastern Washington University and a consultant in the energy industry.

He is emphasizing his experience. “I’m the only person running who doesn’t need on-the-job training,” he said.

Trulove spent more than eight years on the power council but said he’s always had a fondness for municipal government because it reaches people directly.

He believes the city needs to do a better job of managing its spending. Efficiency can be gained and new goals and priorities set, he said.

“People are going to expect government to be a lot more efficient,” Trulove said.

Sooy, who has lived in and around Cheney virtually all her life, echoes Trulove’s call for better fiscal management.

The city needs to attract new, clean industries and help the university regain the students it has been losing in recent years, she said.

Sooy has managed the chamber since 1994. In 1993 she sold the County Seat Restaurant she operated for eight years.

If elected, she said, she would avoid increases in city fees or permit charges.

Sooy said she believes that with better management, the city could restore popular programs such as the free spring trash cleanup and mosquito spraying.

Ozust worked for the city for 11 years but was laid off because of budget cuts three years ago.

He filed a whistleblower complaint against the city, arguing the layoff stemmed from a disagreement he had with top city officials. He filed a complaint, which was rejected by administrative law Judge Clayton Harrington Jr.

Ozust said paid city officials directed him not to declare as income some of the benefits being paid to themselves and other administrative staff, such as life insurance and deferred compensation.

He said he is not running for mayor to avenge his layoff but rather to straighten out the financial matters of the city.

“That’s one of the reasons I’m running now,” he said. “I’m concerned about the financial shape of the city.”

He complained about the high cost of utility connections for businesses and said that if they are raised even higher they will discourage new companies from building in Cheney.

One of his opponents, Phil Kiver, claims that Ozust isn’t a Cheney resident because he lists a trailer in Cheney as his home.

Ozust said he spends little time at the trailer but considers it his legal address.

Kiver, 20, is trying to get a foothold in politics. He describes himself as having energy and ambition.

He volunteers at a grocery store in order to meet voters, he said. He is a community college student in Spokane and plans to major in political science and history.

“I’ve always wanted to be a public servant,” Kiver said. “This is my hometown. This is a good place to start.”

He describes himself as the “candidate of the discontented” and promises to change the status quo.

He complained about the performance of the Cheney Police Department in solving a string of commercial burglaries last year and said the city should stop its unfriendly attitude toward students.

“This town needs to be more college friendly,” he said.

, DataTimes