The City of Bainbridge Island closed out the decade with sweeping changes, not just in policy, but in the way the local government will be run as well.

This year, Islanders overwhelmingly sent the message to the city that they were tired of the status quo at City Hall.

Residents voted in May for a new form of government, which passed with nearly 70 percent of the vote. It eliminated the strong mayor, in favor of a city manager, an official hired, fired and directed by the decisions of the City Council.

On the heels of that change, Islanders also brought in three new council members. Gone are Debbie Vancil, Chris Snow, Kjell Stoknes and former Mayor Darlene Kordonowy, replaced by Debbi Lester, Kirsten Hytopoulos, and former councilor Bob Scales.

When the people voted to install a city manager, the first man to fill that role was City Administrator Mark Dombroski. Dombroski, an island resident since 2005, and a former city Planning Commission member, left the position less than six months later to join a consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Lee Walton, a former Bainbridge city administrator and an accomplished government fixer-upper, filled the void on an interim basis. Walton and his Deputy Manager Stan McNutt have been with the city for only two months, but they have already begun formalizing the relationship between the council and manager through a governance manual.

The change of government was touted as a new system designed to encourage more public involvement in city matters. But, public dissatisfaction led to delays, controversy and financial issues on several high-profile projects this year, while the transition to a new government moved forward.

As the year began, the city was fighting a lawsuit filed in 2001 by the Home Builders’ Association of Kitsap County.

The plaintiffs contended that building service fees that were increased (by 10 percent) in 1999 were used, in part, to support the city’s Affordable Housing Trust fund. And since those fees were not used entirely to cover the cost of processing building permits and services, they constituted an illegal tax.

The city gave in and paid the builders a $495,000 settlement, one of the largest in the city’s history.

Two months before settling the builders’ lawsuit, the city was the subject of a suit by the Bainbridge Ratepayers Alliance over improper use of city utility funds.

The alliance lawsuit has caused tremendous problems for the city.

The city had been counting on securing bond funding for two major utility projects. The city first looked for $6 million in bond funding to finish the upgrades for the Waste Water Treatment Plant.

As a result of the suit, the city decided to delay its often discussed plan to reconstruct utilities under Winslow Way. The plan was to begin construction this spring, but the city was unable to obtain bond funding for that project as well, and decided in November to delay the project for at least one year.

The lawsuit remains ongoing though parties involved continue to discuss a settlement.

In November, another controversial project, Island Gateway, was slapped with a lawsuit. A right-of-way vacation for the development on the corner of Winslow Way and State Route 305 was challenged on the grounds of a lack of public participation throughout the process. This suit hasn’t affected the city in the same way because Gateway is a private development, not a city project. Construction on the project remains ongoing.

These lawsuits, combined with an equally punishing economic downturn, decimated city finances in 2009.

As a result of slumping revenues in 2008, the city spent much of the year considering and executing layoffs.

Several high-level staffers left the city as well. It began in January when Police Chief Matt Haney resigned to take a position with the Colville Confederated Tribes Police Department. That same month, Public Works Director Randy Witt took a job across the sound at King County Metro Transit as a design and construction engineer.

Even his replacement, Interim Public Works Director Bob Earl left the city. Earl departed in July for an engineering position with Harris and Associates in Bellevue.

Next out the door was Peter Namtvedt Best, the city’s chief shoreline planner. He left in August to spend more time with his young children

Finally, Dombroski’s departure completed the exodus of high-level city staff.

At the beginning of the year, the city employed 142.47 full-time employees. Through layoffs and departures, only 120.7 full-time employees remain at City Hall.

Despite a dearth of staff, a staggering financial situation and plenty of public dissent, the council still implemented a number of large, and controversial policies. The following are just a few of the hundreds of votes the city took this year:

Strawberry Plant Park restoration: In January of 2005 the city acquired the park in a trade for John Nelson Park. The park was once home to a cannery that served the island’s booming berry industry. It was later the site of a concrete plant and a commercial center, which burned in 1997.

The city spent the next three years applying for grants to restore salmon habitat on the park’s shoreline.

In July, the council accepted the final grants from Salmon Recovery Funding Board and Elliot Bay Trustees, but a number of citizens calling themselves the Friends of Cannery Cove criticized the public process, saying the town as a whole had not been brought into a project that affects everyone. Two weeks after accepting the grants, numerous Friends of Cannery Cove attended a council meeting and implored the city to halt its process on the development of the park. Dombroski relented, and the project stalled for five months while the city attempted to reach more of the community, including an all-day session in November.

In December, the council again discussed the park. The body voted to retain the initial design and move forward with 90 percent design, amid complaints from the Friends about not being allowed to speak at the meeting. The city is now moving toward 90 percent design on the project, and the Friends of Cannery Cove continue to seek more input on the project.

Housing Design Development Program: Passed in August, HDDP was a way for the city to create incentives for developers that chose to build environmentally conscious structures. The pilot program features a series of benchmarks developments must meet. If they meet those requirements, developers can be rewarded with the right to build in greater density than normally allowed in the area.

Two projects have begun planning under HDDP: a 48-unit affordable housing complex on Ferncliff Avenue and a 136-unit development in the former U.S. Navy housing area downtown.

Surplus property sales: In March the city passed an ordinance establishing the ability to declare city-owned property surplus and be sold. The city this year recommended 22 properties as surplus, with many of them to be transferred to the Metropolitan Park and Recreation District. The first such transfer, Williams property, was discussed at the end of November. The city is due to receive $600,000 in grant money from the park district for the property.

Open Water Marina: In October, the council passed a policy which was a decade coming. Under pressure from the state Department of Natural Resources, the city adopted a plan to create an area within Eagle Harbor for a number of transient and liveaboard vessels to moor. The council chose the smallest of the options available, one that allows for 12 transient vessels and four liveaboards, because of risk and cost. The city would have to pay the lease rates to DNR either way, and if no one was mooring there, the city would still have to come up with the money.

The island’s liveaboard residents fought the plan, suggesting instead that they be permitted to rent buoys from the state, allowing the city to stay out of it. But state law rendered that plan impossible. Liveaboard residents are now fighting to create a new law to prevent their expulsion from Eagle Harbor.