Saturday, April 22, 2006

Burien annexation of North Highline

On May 31, June 3 and June 7 the Burien City Council will hold a hearing on the potential annexation by Burien of North Highline. In my humble opinion any such annexation will result in the death of Burien as we know it. I have explained my position in 2 emails which appear below. There will be more. Feel free to contact me with your comments. Tom Murray mthomasmurray@comcast.net _____________________________________

Murray email #1

April 13, 2006 Hi fellow residents of Burien,

 As you should be aware by now, we residents of Burien are facing a proposed monumental change to Burien-- the annexation of all or part of North Highline (read "White Center"). Depending on the amount of property annexed to Burien, the size of the resulting "New Burien" may double. MORE THAN DOUBLE, MIND YOU. The City that would result after such an annexation would bear little resemblance to what is presently Burien.

First, I would like to commend our new Mayor and Council People for providing the opportunity for residents to make their views known on this proposed annexation. The recently defeated Mayor, city Councilman and resigned City Manager were in favor of annexation and were, in my humble opinion, trying to take advantage of a peculiarity of Washington law and force this annexation on the residents of Burien without their vote and AGAINST THEIR WILL. The only recourse we residents had was to object to the annexation by voting these people out of office, which we did. I thought that our success in voting these people out of office had ended the matter and that having spoken once in the only way we could, the proposed annexation was over, concluded and done with.

But obviously, the annexation is still being pursued by some group of residents for some reason. To me it is still as flawed (read "outrageous") as it was before we sent our last message via the ballot box, defeating the aforementioned Mayor and Councilman. We are now being put to the task of sending the message again that we do not want this annexation. SINCE WE MAY NOT BE PERMITTED TO VOTE ON THE ANNEXATION, WE NEED. AGAIN, TO MAKE OUR OBJECTION TO THIS ANNEXATION IN WHATEVER MANNER IS AVAILABLE TO US.

I will be sending a number of separate emails, each devoted to a particular aspect of the subject of the proposed annexation. My hope is to start a real community discussion, so that whatever results will represent the informed will of the residents of Burien. The law of the state of Washington, unlike the law of most states, puts residents of an annexing city (in this case Burien) to the unfair disadvantage that they are legally not entitled to vote on a proposed annexation while the residents of the entity to be annexed ARE entitled to vote in favor of or against the annexation. More about why this seriously disadvantages us existing residents in one of my detailed emails which I will send out in the next few weeks.

I recognize that you are entitled to ask, who is this guy, Tom Murray, who is so outspoken in opposition to what appear to be the views of City Hall. I am one of you. I am a resident at 12666 Shorewood Dr. SW and have been so for approximately 10 years. I am an 80 year old retired attorney who practiced law for over 35 years in Pittsburgh, Pa. and Dayton, Ohio. I graduated from the law school at the University of Chicago in 1951 in the same class with Robert Bork and Ramsey Clark (real diversity there, what?) At various times during my career I have been Assistant General Counsel of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, The National Cash Register Company and Blaw Knox Company. I am not currently licensed to practice in the State of Washington and do not intend to do so. I am not promoting the interest of any attorney to represent the interests of Burien residents.

I speak only for myself Because of my advanced age I suggest that the rest of you folks have a greater interest than I do in defeating this annexation. You might want to consider forming a committee to defeat the annexation and you might consider whether, given the gigantic potential effect on real estate taxes, hiring counsel with real experience in annexation matters in the state of Washington might serve your interests. That is up to you. I speak out because, God willing, I do have a few more years left to live in Burien.

My past experience as a lawyer dealing in major financial transactions has left me, I believe, with what we in the legal trade call a nose for a transaction that does not pass the "smell" test. Unless I hear convincing explanations as to why current Burien residents benefit from this proposed annexation I feel that I should use my past experience to alert you folks to defend yourself. How does the saying go "Forewarned is forearmed."?

So, wait with bated breath for my objections in detail which are yet to come. In the meantime there would certainly be no harm in joining with me in a detailed email discussion of the pros (if there are any) and cons of the matter. That is what representative democracy is all about. This is what the newly elected members of the City Council are encouraging. WE SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT.

Until my next email, I remain, your humble and obedient servant, sincerely TOM MURRAY

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Murray email #2

April 20, 2006

Hi Burien Friends, On April 16, 2006 I sent out an email concerning the proposed annexation by Burien of Northern Highline (read White Center etc.). I advised that I would have a number of emails dealing with the annexation prior to the Burien public hearings on May 31, June 3 and June 7. This is email #2. Let me know if you want a copy of my first email. Feel free to forward to anyone who has an interest.

 Last night my wife and I attended the forum at White Center Heights Elementary School put on by the King County. Ms. Elisa Benson of the County explained that the purpose of the meeting was to provide information concerning the very major undertaking by the County of moving out of the function of providing services for unincorporated areas. The Northern Highline area is obviously a heavy burden on the County and one that, one way or another, it intends to shed. Burien was represented at the meeting by our Mayor Joan McGilton, our Deputy Mayor, Jack Block, Jr. and our Acting City Manager David Kline. Seattle was also represented.

Ms. Benson gave an outline of how the proceedings will be conducted over several years until the result of an annexation of all or part of Highline by either the City of Seattle or the City of Burien takes place. Mr. Kline fielded many questions put by the residents of White Center .   His answers will be a subject on which I will comment later on in this email. I can't, in this email cover everything that was said at the meeting, but I do wish to deal with several points which are of considerable interest to us.

TAKE-OVER THREAT

 I hope you will forgive me one "I told you so" item. In December, 2005 at the last Burien Council Meeting on the prior proposal to acquire White Center, I made the point publicly that acquiring White Center was opening Burien up to a "take over" by White Center. Simply put, they can out-vote us whenever a question arises. They have over 33,000 residents to our 30,000.

At the time I was unable to get anyone to respond to me. No one said I was wrong. No one seemed to consider the matter serious enough to address. Last night we heard the threat surfacing in the consciousness of White Center residents themselves. One person asked how, if Burien annexes White Center would White Center be assured that it would get its fair share of City monies. Another asked whether there could be some guarantee that at least half of public monies would benefit White Center. Another replied, in effect, that as new Burien residents themselves they could protect themselves(by their vote). Now, I am not blaming White Center people if they should discover that it is in their interest to tap the new source of funds that may become available to them. Hard ball is the name of the game. If we are stupid enough to offer them legal control of Burien, I guess we will deserve what we get.

Can you imagine the hassle that will develop every time the City seeks to use funds to make Town Center work like currently intended, and the new White Center residents make the point that the money can be better spent on White Center improvements.. What is going on here is that the County is trying to get out from under a giant liability. The cost of governance of White Center exceeds White Center's income. Currently, the resulting deficit, in effect, is being spread through the entire County. If the County gets Burien to step in and accept the liability they will be transferring that liability from a county of 1.6 million people to a little city of 30,000 people (less than 2% of the county)..

 Why do you suppose Tuckwila and Sea Tac want to have nothing to do with the proposed annexation. What is amazing to me is that it is so difficult to get Burien to see the obvious. It doesn't take much imagination to visualize Burien in 20 years as its life blood is drained because we have taken on a task which is not doable.

REPRESENTATION OF BURIEN AT THE MEETING

 I must say that I was disturbed by much of what our Acting City Manager, David Kline, said at the meeting. It is my understanding that the City is holding hearings on May 31, June 3 and June 7 to (in their words) "give citizens the chance to speak out on the annexation." To me, this implies that the City has not officially at this time taken a position on the annexation. As I mentioned in Email 1, we residents of Burien do not get to vote on this gigantic annexation. This was confirmed last night by Ms. Benson of the County. She made the point that our protection is through our representatives on the Burien Council. This being the case, I would have expected Mr. Kline to make it clear that he had no authority to make any promises. I would have expected him to make it clear that the interests of the present Burien residents must be protected so that details of how the annexation is to be accomplished and what happens after annexation are all on the table. To the contrary, almost everything he said amounted to a promise of one sort or another.His job was to listen, not promise. I was reminded of the musical "Music Man". Say whatever the listener wants to hear.

Consider the problem here. Burien goes into negotiations with White Center et.al. and Seattle. Burien tries to negotiate into the annexation agreement certain terms favorable to Burien residents. The first thing that the White Center communities will say is "those terms will not get past the vote". The White Center communities will always have this argument available to them. They vote and we don't. So we are starting out negotiations with one arm tied behind our back Now you add to that the fact that they can claim that the acting City Manager promised so and so on April 19. (The proceeding was recorded.) You have the makings for potential disaster for present Burien residents.

One further matter, if I had been in the place of Mr. Kline and had been identified as the City Manager, I would have felt compelled to point out, for the record if for no other reason, that I was only the "Acting" City Manager at this time. Am I asking him to be too scrupulous?

OK friends, enough serious comment for now. Last night's meeting started with a newly filmed promotion of White Center. I must say that I thought it was great. It touches on the history of the Rat City Rollers (a championship roller skating team of years ago). In one scene a black teen-ager was asked if he like living in White Center. He grinned and responded "well it ain't Bellevue".

You'll be hearing more from me. Lets keep talking. Your diligent, if aged, investigative reporter, Tom Murray