Mayor Saleem is fine with you doing your job. Just don’t tell anyone about it.Last Friday, Granite Falls Mayor Haroon Saleem put police chief Tony Domish on administrative leave. Five days previous, Domish oversaw a long-planned drug sweep that netted 10 arrests, including a one time Mayor. In a town with Granite Falls reputation—a 2003 Rolling Stone

article dubbed it “Methville”–you’d think that would earn the police chief an “attaboy” from the city’s top executive. Domish, however, was relieved of duty, leaving residents and city council members alike scratching their heads. Saleem spent the next few days responding to press inquiries with cryptic statements about how Domish had gone “rogue,” until today, when he told the Lake Stevens Journal that prior to the arrests, Domish gave the media a heads-up. Not exactly surprising given that police chiefs keep their jobs by building the perception that they’re doing their jobs. And in Granite Falls, that means staying atop the drug trade. Two problems, though: Domish didn’t inform the Mayor, who as he tells the Journal would have preferred he not do anything to further the town’s reputation as a drug den. “My issue is that we did not need that kind of media attention,” said Saleem. That’s a bit hard to swallow, especially considering Saleem’s accusation that the arrest of former Mayor Floyd DeRosia, with whom he is reportedly close, was set up as a ploy to embarrass him personally. Komo reports that relations between the two have been chilly for months. Now Saleem is accusing the police chief of everything from shirking his duties to attempting to run the city on his own. So, either Domish’s very public thwacking was over his stepping out of line. Or because he arrested the Mayor’s homeboy. Either way, residents are now circulating a petition to have the chief reinstated. Domish, meanwhile, remains on paid administrative leave, probably trying to figure out, like everyone else, what the Mayor stands to gain from this.