May 29, 2009

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Day Three
Final Day of Hearings End in 8-3 Decision Supporting Fairwood Incorporation

The Washington State Boundary Review Board (BRB) completed its final day of hearings last night ending with an 8-3 vote to support the incorporation of a new city of Fairwood. With public testimony from both sides of the issue, BRB members extended the meeting past the ten o'clock hour to deliberate and come to an initial decision.

At the end of the meeting, Chair Claudia Hirschey thanked the public for attending the meetings, many returning each night. "This is one of the longest set of meetings I've ever participated in, so I want to thank you all for appearing each night," said Hirschey.

Thursday's meeting included all of the 11 Boundary Review Board Members.

The Deliberation

BRB's Lenora Blauman reviewed the three choices for the Board:

• Accept the proposed incorporation work,
• Accept with minor changes, or
• Deny the recommendation.

Minor changes could have included removing the Red Mill Annexation portion of the proposed area, but none of the members offered a motion to make adjustments to the proposed boundaries.

When a group petitions to incorporate an area, the BRB is to make a decision based on two State codes: Factors to be considered under RCW 36.93.170 and Objectives under RCW 36.93.180. Comments made by the board during deliberations referenced these factors and elements.

The Votes

The following includes each member's votes and any comments on why they voted the way they did. At the end of the comment period, Blauman conducted a roll call vote.

Evangeline Anderson: NO. As a real estate agent, Anderson's concerns were focused on the economy related to real estate and its impact on city budgets.

Charles Booth: YES. As former Mayor Auburn, Booth indicated that he thought the study was one of the best he has ever seen. He added that cities can never anticipate start-up costs and it would be a concern that any city would face. He added that given the area's size of 25,000, the people should make the determination whether they should incorporate.

Sylvia Bushnell: YES. Bushnell's greatest concern was no budget was provided for parks (currently operated by King County with an interest to continue if incorporated) or human services (proponents felt this would be a part of discretionary funds to be determined by a Fairwood City Council). However, she felt the objectives had been met and directed by RCW 36.93.180 and felt the voters should be allowed to speak for themselves by voting.

Robert Cook: YES. This former Fire District Commissioner indicated that "Fairwood's future is bright, but caution is a word I would use." He also said that the factors and objectives are met close enough to support.

A.J. Culver: YES. This Municipal League member and accountant noted that all the factors and objectives had been met and King County endorses the study and effort to incorporate, so he urged other BRB members to vote for the issue. He also made a few comments about the Board stepping out of their task to hold to asking questions over challenging the consultants when they didn't like an issue. Finally, Culver provided a long list of cities where he was involved in this same process. "They (the newly incorporated cities) built cities and they had struggles, but they built fine cities and had local control. You pay taxes whether you live in a city or not," said Culver.

Robert George: YES. This retired Water District Commissioner said that it took Sammamish three times to become a city, and he felt it was "up to the voters to make a choice and up to the promoters to make it (incorporation) appealing."

Lynn Guttman: NO. This former Director of Municipal Public Works and Land Use Planning felt that from a risk perspective, she could not be in support of the petition to incorporate. "As a finance manager, I'm low risk and probably wouldn't take it," said Guttman. She also discussed numbers that she plugged in for additional "bad case" scenarios to what the consultants had presented to demonstrate a city budget that could result in a deficit.

Claudia Hirschey: YES. As a former Council Member for the City of Newcastle and a Transportation Planning Engineer, Hirschey thought one of the biggest struggles was in the area of how Fairwood would accommodate growth, a challenge the City of Newcastle faces. However, she felt the objectives were met. She also encouraged the public to "run your own numbers (from the data in the study) and decide if you want this for your city."

John Holman: YES. This retired Captain of the Port of Seattle Police Department made the official motion to the BRB to approve the Incorporation as presented, stating that the issue "needs to go to a vote by the citizens."

Roger Loschen: NO. This former Lake Forest Park Council Member and Mayor was the only absent member during the first night of hearings and consultant presentations. He was strong in his opposition, saying that "Even though the zeal is there and you have a beautiful neighborhood...you have too much ambition and it's blinded by its reality." He felt the budget would be under funded and said it "would be sad to continually go the voters to raise taxes to meet the budget."

Michael Marchand: YES. This former Public Relations Officer and Executive Director of Microsoft's Health Solutions Division led the subcommittee that worked directly with the contracted consultants and was probably one of the most intimately involved BRB members in this study process. Marchand spoke to how the report was prepared about the proposed City's financial feasibility, and that it was prepared so the reader can determine whether the revenues can cover expenditures. "Data is factual information and then there are assumptions, and we must be careful with this," said Marchand, referencing perhaps assumptions that were being interpreted as data. "The citizens need to come to a subjective decision about whether the data (facts) and assumptions are correct."

Next Steps

Now that the public hearings have been completed and a preliminary decision has been made, the decision will be formalized at a June 17 Boundary Review Board meeting. Following that meeting, a 30-day appeal period begins. After that period of time passes, an election can proceed if the Fairwood Municipal Initiative (FMI) schedules an election. Tentatively, FMI plans to schedule the election for this November.

If the election supports incorporation, Consultant Randy Young indicated that there is a 6 to 12-month window for getting the city up and running.

This next phase in the process will no doubt include extensive campaigning for both proponents and opponents of the issue.

Follow Up Story on Public Comments
Public testimony of last night's meeting will be provided in a separate story soon. Check back often, and we encourage you to submit your comments.

Final Report

To download the final report the Boundary Review Board has received from the Study Consultants led by Henderson, Young & Company, CLICK HERE or the image to the left.