Stew Young’s
Record as Mayor
Unfulfilled commitments · 2007–2026

Support promised.
The fund never built.

Young’s council put a support reserve for manufactured-home owners into policy in 2007. Staff later found no record that the fund was ever established. When Tri-Way residents sought help with roughly $28,000 in legal costs, the next council had to find the money elsewhere.

Updated September 30, 2026

A policy promise needed an actual fund.

The City’s March 16, 2026 staff report1 describes the direction council approved in 2007: establish a reserve to support manufactured-home owners when their park was redeveloped, and allocate an amount equal to 10% of the municipal property taxes paid by manufactured homes in those parks. Homeowners could apply through a non-profit residents’ association.

The policy remained on the books through Young’s administration. But staff could find no record of a reserve established in 2007 or subsequently. A written commitment had gone without the account and funding needed to carry it out.

Residents asked for help. The promised reserve was missing.

Council adopted the Tri-Way redevelopment rezoning in July 2020. Residents later formed a non-profit association and incurred legal costs in a dispute with the property owner about redevelopment compensation. In 2026, they applied for approximately $28,000 under the City’s policy.

Staff said this appeared to be the first grant application under the provision. The policy did not guarantee any particular grant, and it did not clearly define the support available. That discretion does not explain why the reserve council directed was never established.

On March 16, 2026, the following council approved reimbursement from Council Contingency2 and removed the reserve clause from the policy. Residents received a funding decision, but it came from another budget because the promised reserve did not exist.

A promise in a policy is easy. Building the fund and keeping the commitment requires follow-through.

Another intended reserve was never formally created.

A January 2021 planning report3, written while Young was mayor, disclosed a separate failure to establish an intended fund. Contributions connected with agricultural land exclusion had been intended to create an Agricultural Reserve Fund. Staff said the fund had never been formally created and all past contributions had gone into the General Amenity Reserve instead.

That report does not establish what every contribution was ultimately spent on. It establishes that the intended dedicated reserve was absent. These two records expose a basic accountability problem: council announced a purpose for public funds, but the administration did not establish the reserves meant to serve it.

Sources

  1. March 16, 2026 council agenda, Tri-Way legal-fee report and attached policyPrinted pages 57–62: 2007 direction, no record of an established reserve, request for about $28,000, grant discretion and options for council.
  2. March 16, 2026 signed council minutesItem 10.2: reimbursement from Council Contingency and deletion of policy section 1(j). Approval establishes the decision, rather than a record of the subsequent payment clearing.
  3. January 18, 2021 agenda: 790 and 794 Latoria Road rezoning reportPrinted page 268: intended Agricultural Reserve Fund never formally created; past contributions put in General Amenity Reserve.