Last public Open House at Rainier View School. I will be there, will you?

Last public Open House

The reality of it all

Facts – The city has a wonderful, colorful and impressive presentation of facts, but expose only those that favorably side with the desire to annex. Here are some additional facts that bring reality to the discussion.

Fact: I am a property owner in the PAA. Opinion: How many of the speakers are going to be affected by the proposed annexation?

Fact: The map shows land, real estate, dirt, firma terra, property. It is a map of an area. Land owners are the ones most affected. Opinion: People that own the land should be the ones deciding the jurisdiction they are controlled by in this land grab.

Fact: Taxes – a city has more taxing authority, methods and avenues than a county and the City of Federal Way proudly states that it taxes every city resident to the maximum allowed by law. The city will tell you that they are taxing at the maximum rate they can. The city council continues to look for ways maximize the city treasury and will impose every tax available at the maximum rate allowed by law, just as they have for the last 5 years on current residents of Federal Way. Fact: Even those few residents who are eligible for rebates of the utility tax first have to pay it, then apply for a rebate. Opinion: The city is hoping you will forget to ask for your money back.

Fact: Residual payment plan after the state tax incentive expires – the city will tell you that they are banking on the ‘income from revenues from the core downtown business area’ to offset the $2.7 million dollar deficit. Sometime between now and August 21st, I want you to take an informative tour of the downtown area.
Drive through the many shopping centers around the Sea-Tac Commons mall area, especially to the west and the north. As you count the number of buildings sitting vacant with for lease signs also note where those business moved to; out of the city and out of King County.
Opinion - It is very difficult to imagine that there is the revenue there that the city says will offset the deficit. The city gets money when business is successful and flourishing. This city looks like a disconnected haphazard collection of mismanaged and unplanned random development that shows all the signs of becoming another has-been roadside attraction. Commercial vacancy rates are soaring and revenues are flat.

Fact: Residences and Property owners are a constant source of predictable revenue. The land in the PAA is sparsely populated and ripe for density transition. The city intends to change zoning in the residential area to reflect greater solid revenue generating resources just by encouraging density. The city will tell you that they are not interested in density. Fact: contrary to the county land use of Residential Uses (Single Family); Vacant Land, however, the city stated in the summary submitted to the King County Boundary Review Board that the City Comprehensive Plan is Residential- Single Family High Density with a City Zoning Primary Use of 8.7 units per acre.
Refer to this link to see the actual wording: http://www.kingcounty.gov/property/annexations/CurrentActions/~/media/B1D5295AD098402089B525AD9612148A.ashx
Opinion: If your property is paying $4000 per year in taxes now, and is one acre, it can be divided into eight separate tax parcels, and each will pay $4000 per year in taxes. This equates to income of $32,000 per acre, which is guaranteed and predictable revenue for the city.

Method of annexation – “Negative response required campaign” – Instead of a proper and direct method of property owners deciding on annexation (the most common method used in King County) the city chose annexation by election.
Several years ago, the state was pressured into passing legislation that did not allow businesses to send you an item without your approval followed by a bill for the item, expecting payment and forcing you to respond with a ‘no’ or accept the item and pay for it. That practice was considered unethical and is now illegal because it forced you to take action or live with consequences you did not want. View that method of selling against the way the city put this measure on the ballot. The city has, to their benefit, not yours, rushed this issue to the ballot and then, with no other recourse than to vote no at the ballot, forced you into accepting their self serving decision. And a brief mention that there is no CON statement in the Official Voters Pamphlet. There is a reason for that. After following required procedure, the council was faced with no eligible person to write PRO or Con statements for the pamphlet so they used a ‘friend of a friend” referral to write the PRO statement but did not pursue the same method for the CON. All of their efforts did not have the balance if a fair and impartial system. They seem very one sided and biased.

Fact: Lifeguards – King County discontinued having lifeguards at Five Mile Lake 5 years ago. The city of Federal Way has five lifeguards at Steel Lake park. There have been three drownings at Steel Lake Park, two of those were this year, when all five lifeguards were on duty and all in the public area. At Five Mile Lake Park, there have been two drownings in the public area. So what is the great benefit of lifeguards?
Source: Federal Way Mirror online.
Opinion: So what is the real benefit of paying for and having lifeguards? I believe that personal responsibility and awareness has replaced depending on lifeguards.

Opinion: Wages – each of the city representative speaking have a personal financial interest in selling the idea of this annexation. The more land/people/responsibility you control, the more money you can demand. If this is approved, watch their wages go up.

Fact: Police – read the newspapers, watch TV and listen to the radio. There have been several reports that there are not enough people wanting to be police officers. The city of Seattle can not find officers to fill current vacancies. The pay is not high enough to attract new recruits. How is the city of Federal Way going to follow through with their stated goal of having 29 new officers on the street July 1, 2008? Fireworks banned in city.

Fact: Clever action by the city to qualify for the money – in order to get the state money for the next ten years, the annexation had to affect a minimum of 20,000 people. With a bit of gerrymandering, and negotiating with Auburn to let them control the road, the city connected the north and south sections of the PAA by the thin line of Peasley Canyon Road to get, you guessed it, just over 20,000 people. Former Assistant City Manager Derek Matheson was quoted in the Federal Way Mirror issue January 31, 2007 as stating, “It is legal and proper. It’s just clever”. Gaining 20,000 residents is key to the city's annexation efforts because it would trigger tax credits of up to $2.8 million from the state for the next 10 years.
By the way, Derek Matheson is no longer with the City of Federal Way. He is now working for the city of Covington. I do not know why he departed.
Opinion: Read that ‘follow the money’ or ‘show me the money’. I disagree that it was ‘proper’ at all and question being governed by this type of self-serving group of policy makers.

Opinion: Rural neighborhood – we all live in this area because it was our choice to have a nice rural setting with lots of space, trees, and less congestion, traffic, noise and fewer restrictions than a city offers. Are you ready to give everything up now? Your neighborhood is in for some drastic changes and none of them are improvements to the way of life we enjoy now.

Read all of the literature offered by the city, look at the reality of a permanent and irreversible annexation decision and I am sure you will find that the negatives grossly outweigh the positives and vote no August 21st.