Letters to the Editor

Shoreline

Ex-majority could learn from Chang

(Former Shoreline) Councilman (John) Chang graciously vacated his post when the people elected someone else. He isn’t suing anybody. He isn’t having a tantrum, as would be expected from a two year old. He quietly left. He isn’t doing his utmost to create an atmosphere in which nothing of value to the people of Shoreline can be accomplished.

Why can’t the former “majority” take a cue from him. They lost because they have consistently totally ignored the wishes of the taxpayers who elected them. Consider the disaster area known as 15th Avenue NE between 145th and 175th. We have created our own gridlock of Shoreline, because someone in the former “majority” kept hidden the recommendations from the state Department of Transportation that changing from four lanes to two was a bad idea.

Those taxpayers elected someone else. We have spoken. It is time for them to graciously realize that they lost, and let the City Council devote its attention to serving the people of Shoreline, rather than having to deal with frivolous lawsuits over non-issues that they would like to build into big issues.

As a taxpayer, I deeply resent the cost to me for defending these lawsuits that are for no other reason than to create a climate in which my elected representatives are not able to represent me. My elected representatives have to waste their time and energy and my money defending this stuff.

It is childish. It tells what the former majority is really made of. They are a bunch of crybabies who won’t play unless they can make the rules. It is time for them either to join up or get out!! Resignations of Gustafson, Hanson, McGlashan, would be welcomed by me! Then, maybe the council could get down to the business of running our city.

CLYDIA PAPPENFUS

Shoreline

What does council majority have in mind?

At this last (Shoreline) City Council meeting, Cindy Ryu announced that she was recusing herself from voting, because she had been served legal papers requesting all documents, e-mails, computer records etc. regarding her communication with the council members, that are in the process of being sued by Shoreline taxpayers. She then left the room. She did these two acts in order to prevent a quorum from being established. The vote was to give permission for the city to pay for the legal expenses of the council members who had repeatedly violated the Open Public Meetings Act. The Washington Cities Insurance Authority, by whom they said, guided them all the way through their private decisions, refused to cover their legal expenses, and now they have come to the city to ask us, the taxpayers to pay for their legal expenses.

They meet in secret and made decisions among themselves, came all prepared with their decisions, fired the best, multi-award winning, no-debt-accumulating, city manager Shoreline ever had, and wanted to replace him with their favorite son, who had lost his election by 411 votes. This favorite son had never worked in the private sector, but they had his contract filled out and wanted it passed, on that very first meeting with a raise to approx. $14,500, more then our Governor, and all without a background check. They voted to delay submitting the Comprehensive Plan to the state, because of their personal agenda. They voted to take away the Tivioli Lighting on the Interurban Trail.

During WWII when times were hard, food and money in short supply, a group of selfless people invested their time, efforts and money to form our school district. They were the spark that kindled our devotion to Shoreline all of these past 40-50 years. Why are these council members bent on destroying our 2005 Most Livable City? What agenda do they have in store for us?

FRAN LILLENESS

Shoreline

Wilmeth decision

was necessary

To say that there was a personality conflict between Larry Bingham and me is probably the understatement of the week. Although I tried to moderate that conflict, it never seemed to be effective. I was sorry to read his letter in the Enterprise.

It was a very exciting time and we had a clear vision of making Shoreline into a very special city in King County.

Mr. Bingham was correct in quoting me as saying that we as a council, were responsible for making the decisions. That was our charge and to my thinking, still is. That is what councils are expected to do. However, not without citizen input and advice. Citizen input is invaluable, but often the council has information not available to all citizens and should take into consideration the entire picture and requirements of the city. It’s really a balancing act and requires great thought and discussion.

As a result of our wanting extra citizen input, we did initially have committees early on. Each councilmember chaired a committee and was on two other committees. The committees were Public Works, Parks, Budget, Public Safety, Planning, Human Services and Utilities.

We had to cancel the committees, much to our unhappiness, as they were too expensive and time consuming. We found out that if we expected staff to assist each committee and take the minutes it would cost the city $100,000 for each committee.

Fred Wilmeth was a very creative person and we still benefit from his suggestions for the implementation of our Customer Response Team and several other ideas. However, his financial background was weak and it wasn’t until we had our interim city manager, Dick Saunders who had been the financial director for Bellevue, on board, that we found out what a precarious situation we were in financially because of Mr. Wilmeth’s decisions.

Looking back at the past 10 years, I am sure our entire council (well, six of us anyway) are proud and happy at what has been accomplished and eager to watch what exciting things will be happening in the future.

CONNIE KING

Shoreline

Thanks, but here

are clarifications

I would like to thank (The Enterprise) for the coverage regarding the work of the Shoreline Economic Development Task Force in the Jan. 20 issue.

I would just like to offer a few clarifications.

Many people had some really good input and contributions on the effort. Lots of people deserve credit. The new strategy that is being recommended to the city council is a broad-based undertaking. The community should be proud of their collective effort and partnership.

We are in the process of presenting the strategy draft to several public groups and city council. The first group was the chamber of commerce. The second group was Forward Shoreline. Others include the Planning Commission, Rotary, and the Council of Neighborhoods. All of these groups were represented on the Task Force, which was created at the request of the city council and city manager, and then was facilitated by the Shoreline Economic Development Program. The presentations are a way of going back to the community of represented groups and soliciting comments before the presentation to city council and the plan’s implementation. I have been gratified to receive endorsements from the groups who have heard the presentation so far, in addition to the state, regional, and county economic development agencies.

Regarding the Town Center idea, it has been important to many that we clearly state that the task force does not encourage the school district to plan for the relocation of the high school. Instead, it is more accurate that the task force encourages the school district to explore the feasibility of the idea. Only should the idea prove feasible and clearly benefiting the school district and citizens of Shoreline in a number of ways would the task force or city then work to support or offer to assist the school district in any subsequent planning work. This distinction is very important. The underlying principle is that the city of Shoreline and the broad base of community leadership is seeking ways to be helpful to the school district and the community at large through partnerships and collaborative efforts. I realize that all that is a lot more than can be captured in a single word, but I hope that the background on this idea helps to clarify the position of task force members.

The town centers idea is only one idea among many. The task force made 31 action recommendations under its seven strategy categories. The support of The Enterprise and the broad base of community leadership have been essential to the success of the task force. The city also recognizes that it cannot go the next steps without the enthusiastic support of the community working together with commitment and common vision.

THOMAS BOYDELL

Economic development manager