It was a black decaf coffee for Ruston Mayor Michael Transue when we sat down yesterday to talk about the political tensions in his small town north of Tacoma. We were sitting in a booth at the Ruston Inn, where others made sure to head out of their way to praise Transue for his work.

Transue is an unpopular guy with some members of the council. Bob Everding resigned his seat in protest of the mayor’s style. Councilman Bradley Huson calls Transue “lazy and a micromanager.” Wayne Stebner accused Transue, a lobbyist, of using the mayor’s chair to advance his clients’ interests.

The situation seems to have hit critical mass.

“I don’t know if I’d say it’s the worst it’s ever been, but it’s close,” Transue said. “Folks have very definite opinions on issues – you can see that in the meetings – and they’re well-dug-in positions. I think having folks with those diverse opinions makes it tough sometimes. I think there are 5, 10 15 percent take one view, then 5, 10, 15 percent take the other view. And then everybody else is in the middle. It’s the bell curve. When those polarizations occur, that’s when tempers flare.”

Several councilmen have been critical of Transue for letting outbursts at town council meetings continue. The mayor’s unrepentant.

“I know some criticize me for being too lenient, but it doesn’t feel right to me to kick people out of meetings, to have a police officer there to boot people out,” he said. “I don’t think it’s healthy. I don’t think it’s helpful.”

A Ruston police officer used to attend the meetings for security, but there hasn’t been one there lately. That’s riled some of Transue’s opponents. He says he handles it on a case-by-case basis.

“It’s a resource issue,” he said. “I’m going to always weigh whether someone should be doing law enforcement work like DUIs, bar checks, speeding tickets, other public-safety things or working at the council meeting. I’ll let my officers make that call. When the council approved the budget, they removed a significant amount of overtime. One of the areas was in the police department.”

He’s well aware of the criticism by members of the council.

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“If by doing a bad job, they mean that the mayor is not doing everything they want when they want me to do it and how they want me to do it, I’ll take that blame,” he said. “I believe I have a different perspective on things. I know in my heart that I’m doing the right thing, that I’m proposing the right types of things.

(The council) wants to be more involved in the day-to-day operations in the town, but that’s just not the government that we have. We have a council that is a policy-making body, and a mayor who is an executive administration body.”

Huson is pushing for the town to abandon the strong-mayor form of government and switch to a city-manager style. Transue isn’t automatically opposed to that.

“I’ve said at previous meetings that if the council would like to change the form of government, I’m happy to consider and look at those options” he said.

I asked him about the appointment of Dan Albertson to the council. Many critics of the council say his appointment was rushed and undermined the credibility.

“We have always gone through a process – notification, resumes, reviews, all of that,” he said. “I don’t think it was right for the constituents. I understand there aren’t any laws broken. There’s a vacancy, and they can fill it any way they want. I think if you look at the way we’ve always done things, it was a disservice to the community and a disservice to the historical processes we’ve always gone through.”

How can it get better? He’s not sure.

“I can’t tell you,” he said. “I can ask people to be civil. I can ask people to be respectful. And I can ask the council not to be so rigid in their rules and allow people to comment. As long people keep trying to say, ‘Let’s be civil. Let’s express our opinions and don’t raise voices,’ we can get there.

“I don’t know if some of these bridges will ever be able to be rebuilt, but time can heal. People are so passionate about their views, but when things turn ugly, those wedges get driven in harder and harder, and they’re harder and harder to get out. It’s a difficult thing.”