Letters

Mountlake Terrace

Is a council attitude change taking place?

I very much appreciated Kathy Peterson’s letter on citizen involvement. She has laid out the opportunities and challenges and correctly reflected how enthusiastic everyone is about our energetic new city manager. The real hurdle remains getting a council as enthusiastic and motivated by the city’s business as Ms. Peterson, John Caulfield and such new groups as the Mountlake Terrace Citizen’s Voices and the Mountlake Terrace Business Association.

At the council’s retreat on Feb. 25, there were many good signs of a new willingness to focus on policy rather than long-standing personal differences. There seemed to be a genuine recognition that all seven of them were originally just concerned citizens like all the rest of us. Well intentioned commitment after well intentioned commitment was made with the implicit promise that this would carry over to the council chambers. Informed policy making is in fact the people’s business. Personal animosities should not be what animate council decisions.

LEONARD FRENCH

Mountlake Terrace

Two unprofessional people on city council

I attended the Mountlake Terrace Council Retreat that was held on Feb.25, 2006 at the library. As a citizen I was there early for the 8:30 a.m. start. The roll call was done and the meeting began. At 8:50 Councilman (Doug) Wittinger walked in apparently with no respect for other people’s time and as though the world revolved around him. After the councilman show up late, Councilwoman (Angela) Amundson proceeds to start a complaint session about the other five Council people and notifies them that this is a dysfunctional Council. Councilman Whittinger claims that he has been abused for the last four years and two months.

First of all these two council people have had three different groups of Council people that they have not worked at all with. Could it be that now there are five people that seem to be able to work together, that the problem isn’t them. Maybe the two Council people should take a good hard look in the mirror and acknowledge that they are the problem. Also, if Wittinger has been abused for the last 50 months, why did he run for office? I have never seen the victim card played harder. The two of them need to suck it up and maybe listen to what the others are saying. I felt that the two of them were doing all the talking and didn’t listen to one thing that was said by the others.

I listened to the bickering for about two hours and finally left, wondering how the public was duped into voting for two of the most unprofessional people that I have ever met.

DAVID MERCER

Mountlake Terrace

National

Reducing fossil fuel reliance is a priority

Our energy policy exacerbates global warming, perverts our foreign policy, and allows the Middle East and Central Asia too much influence over America. Russia is the second largest producer of oil and, along with Iran, controls 45 percent of all natural gas reserves.

Our energy policy is not balanced. Fossil fuels are removed from the ground and burned for energy, returning water and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Plants, which combine carbon dioxide and water with energy from the sun, convert them back into hydrocarbons. Worldwide, as we burn more fossil fuels we also cut down more forests. That’s why global warming is accelerating.

If we burned bio-fuels for our energy we could balance the energy equation. Plants take the products of combustion, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and water, and use energy from the sun to convert them back into hydrocarbons. If we used this bio-fuel for our energy needs, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide would remain constant.

We could realize great advantages if we grew our own fuel in America. The most productive farmers, the most advanced plant technology, and the most arable land in the world all lay within America’s Midwest. And American farmers from the Middle West are far friendlier than Islamo-Fascists from the Middle East.

Realizing energy balance would not be easy but it could be accomplished with concentrated effort. Being part of a team with a common purpose has its own rewards. We need leadership to bring us all together.

At the start of the 21st century we are energy hunter-gatherers. As stocks of fossil fuels dwindle, conflicts will increase. By the end of this century we should become energy growers and free ourselves from being chained to fossil fuels and their negative consequences.

DON KREIMAN

Edmonds

Everyone lives with the tragedy of arson

Since the Dec. 17 fire of The Gregory condominiums, I have given a great amount of thought to the disturbing incidences of arson that occurs from time to time. This particular one struck very close to home for me since I too am building condominiums in Edmonds.

We spend a great deal of effort protecting our construction site at Point Edwards by employing security guards and even night-time staff to work quietly in our buildings. In the past two years, we have spent over $200,000 at Point Edwards for security, which greatly frustrated me up until Dec. 17. I quickly realized what a bargain the cost of the security has been for us.

Dec. 17 was also the day of our construction company Christmas party. The inspiring speech that I had prepared for that evening’s event turned into a speech of thankfulness for what we had, that none of our sites had been victimized by arson, that our employees still had jobs at the sites and that many people excited about moving into their new homes in our new properties were going to be able to do so. The staff agreed.

I like to get to know how people think and why they feel and act the way they do. This knowledge benefits my relationships with friends and colleagues. I do not want to understand arson. I believe it belongs in the same class with the lowest class of criminals because of the damage it does to so many people for lengthy periods of time.

With my closed mind concerning this, I may never understand how anyone could see excitement and joy in destroying someone else’s home, jobs or finances. Unfortunately, this is one of those things in our business that keeps us at attention to protect our property and the lives of others. Bob Gregg, Brad Butterfield, their team and many others are living with this tragedy.

What about compassion? Edmonds has always been a caring community. I understand the arrested suspects are young men. I pray for their healing and that of their devastated families, and that at some point they can have productive lives and learn from their terrible mistake. Sure they need to face what they have done and serve their time. However, we all make mistakes and I feel all of us deserve forgiveness.

ROSS WOODS

Bellevue

Identity theft

Large effort can help stop terrible crime

Recently, a lawmaker in King County learned that someone stole his identity: A thief was ruining his credit by writing bogus checks under his name. If history is any guide, it will take him hundreds of hours to clear his name and fix the problem.

And this nightmare could happen to any of us.

So we want to thank the hundreds of citizens who turned out recently for the identity theft event at Mill Creek City Hall, where people came together to share tips, talk about the issue and shred documents – for free – that shouldn’t go in the regular trash.

In less than four hours, citizens filled three shredder trucks with 25,000 pounds of sensitive documents.

But we need to do more. Identity thieves are becoming increasingly bold and sophisticated. Often, they’re meth users who’ll steal all your mail just to look for credit card numbers or checks.

We can’t fight this epidemic with police officers alone. The only way we’ll win the battle is by arming citizens with the information they need to immunize themselves from identity thieves.

We’ve passed a number of tough laws in Olympia to make it tougher on identity thieves and easier for victims to fix their credit. But no matter how tough we make the law, the thieves won’t stop as long as they can find victims.

Working together with local police and sheriff deputies, we can give citizens the tools they need to prevent identity theft. We hope the shredding event was just the first step in an ongoing effort to drive identity thieves from our neighborhoods.

REP. JOHN LOVICK

D-Mill Creek

and REP. HANS DUNSHEE

D-Snohomish