Cites differences with the Council-Manager campaign

Two months after announcing his candidacy, former council member Bob Scales has decided to suspend his campaign.

Scales cites the need to focus on the upcoming council-manager vote as one of the main reasons for dropping his bid.

“One of the reasons I declared early, I wanted people to know there was an alternative,” Scales said. “Because one of the main arguments being put out there for the council-manager system is no one qualified runs for mayor.”

Scales served as a north-ward council member from 2004 through 2007. He works as a senior policy analyst for the City of Seattle.

As of Monday morning, Scales’ campaign webpage was still running, it has since been disabled.

Scales also cites a difference with the way the council-manager issue is being presented to the community.

“I will not campaigning against (the council-manager campaign)” Scale’s said of the Vote Council-Manager ’09 campaign. “But given the realities this is the worst possible time, it’s not going to produce all the wonderful results they say it will.”

Although he did not specifically say he will be a campaigner for the mayor-council system, he does want there to be more dialog on the issue.

“I want to make sure the facts are getting out,” he said. “If they were presenting all the info then I wouldn’t be doing anything. But (the council-manager campaign) are just determined to present the rosy, pretty facts, and they are not talking specifically about Bainbridge Island’s situation, they are talking about national statistics.”

In a statement released Monday, Scales said if the council-manager vote failed he would re-start his campaign.