Yakima Herald Republic - Saturday Soapbox Guest Editorial: by Ninfa R. Gutierrez If I’m paying for a meal, I expect a seat at the table! The proposed strong mayor system for the City of Yakima closes any possibility of having my voice be heard. The layers of government keep getting larger, and the space to address our concerns and ideas keeps getting smaller. I was going to say the old guard is back but they never really left. Dave Edler, Maureen Adkison, Dave Ettl, and others now think they can do something for the City of Yakima, but back when they had a chance and were in charge, they didn’t. In 2011, the citizens of Yakima shot down the same proposal. The Voting Rights Act lawsuit in 2012 that was filed by the ACLU and decided by a federal judge, resulted in a new district system at the cost of $3 million in legal fees from the City of Yakima. Their argument, according to Edler’s comments in the Yakima Herald Saturday Soapbox section, is that