CURRENT & LOCAL INTEREST
NEWS
SOURCES:
Everett
Herald, Seattle-PI,
Seattle
Times, Sacramento
Bee, Wall
Street Journal, NY
Times, Chicago
Tribune, Wired
Magazine, Associated
Press, LA
Times, Washington
Post, Drudge
Report, Yahoo,
G.R.I.T.
Updates
NEWS ARTICLES
New
Sno-Isle Library's email system catches virus
OTHER "STUFF"
DISCUSSION, OPINION & MESSAGE FORUM
G.R.I.T.'s
2002 RECORDING WARS
(When the City tried to stop G.R.I.T. from recording
public meetings, with the help of the Boucher Clan, then-Mayor C. H. Rowe,
and others..)
FOOD BANK:
Put a pre-addressed food bank envelope in your "bills to pay" folder and
send a check monthly: $5, $10, whatever you can spare!
For
more info, click here.
New! During the Neil Latta (Engineer-consultant for Timber Ridge) Show, otherwise known as the council's continued PUD hearing on Oct. 12th, it was generally agreed to affirm the current moratorium on PUDs while staff (Cisar, unfortunately) prepares recommendations on changes to council. IN OTHER NEWS: New fall meeting schedule will be issued (budget 6:00 PM workshops on 11/10 and 11/16; day-before-Thanksgiving council meeting of the 23rd will be changed to Tuesday, the 22nd, all regularly-scheduled December meetings will not be changed)......Prothman's contract approved.....Sultan's recently-crowned World Champion Quarterhorse Barrel Racer Alyson Rehm given award.....Fred Walser met with Youth Council, as Sultan's skateboard park project takes shape..... Connie Dunn distributed list of new development applications filed and # of sewer hookups required..... Stratford final plat approved.....SPD Roof bid awarded.....Resolution 05-28 Dyer Street vacation hearing date set for 11/9 6:30 PM (prior to regular council meeting).....and Ord. 889-05 condemned Sam Wold's property for easement of Sultan Basin Road intersection improvements. Agenda packet for 10/12 council meeting (in Word, Acrobat):
New! Friends of the Sultan Library collected almost $1,000 during Fall book sale...also LIBRARY-RELATED is the 3rd Quarter Sultan Library's Board report as a Word document (or in Acrobat)
New! LEGAL - Notice of Application for Huber's BLA, 918 First Street (in Word, Acrobat)
Sultan Election, Herald article: It's unknown Slawson (who is also sitting councilwoman Kristina Blair's fiance') who has never held public office, versus the well-known "experienced" Planning Commissioner Bart Dalmasso. Our views about Mr. Dalmasso's ethics and his disregard/disrespect for, and "confusion" of laws (evidenced by his suggested changes in Sultan's codes over the last several years in Sultan's Planning Commission meetings and the manner in which he has proposed them), are also well known. The choice is clear: Any vote for Dalmasso will be a vote for the City to continue forging itself into another Lynnwood and Federal Way. [Although we do not normally take a strong position in Sultan elections, we are ethically bound to do so in this case, as we were with the Tolson/Rowe race. For those who do not yet know, "we" are Loretta Storm and Ray Kistenmacher, co-founders of G.R.I.T. and owner/operator of this website.]
Recent and ongoing for several years - Seattle raises issue of potential conflicts of interest on Planning Commission: Finally a connection is being made with regard to Commissioners feathering their own nests. Unfortunately, Sultan is lagging far behind: Commissioners Bart Dalmasso, Tom Green and recently-resigned Janie Botting, and to a slightly lesser extent, Chair Ray George, have all debated, discussed, influenced and voted on code revisions whcih financially benefit their properties and/or income. Moreover, in certain instances, Tom Green and Bart Dalmasso have either lied or refused to recuse themselves from hearings due to potential conflicts of interest, even when a specific request has been initiated that they do so.
Related to above article:
-
Unfortunately, the issue of ethics concerning Green's and Dalmasso's actions as PC members has now become a moot point: Tom Green has transferred ownership of his property to Barclays for development of 114 homes (L43-1 Greens, L.L.C.), and Dalmasso is running for council against a completely unknown candidate without a chance of winning because of Dalmasso's name recognition.
-
LEGAL NOTICE for Wed., Oct. 19th Hearing on the above-referenced Tom Green property(ies) before Sultan Hearing Examiner John Galt (in Word, Acrobat), appealing a City administrative decision.
GOLD BAR ELECTION:
-
Updated (10/11) - Herald's Gold Bar Ballot will be crowded in November (a discussion of candidates)
-
Updated (10/7) - Here's a link to the Oct. 5th Herald letter to the editor by Gold Bar's Joan Amenn. Mrs. Amenn, wife of Gold Bar Councilman Robert Amenn, who is now running for mayor, continues her losing streak of unsuccessful political and litigious activities. After failing in her attempt to run for council this November, she is now stumping for her comrade, Dorothy Croshaw. Additionally: Here's what we posted on the morning of 10/5 about virtually the same letter she sent to the Monroe Monitor: Councilman Robert Amenn's run for Gold Bar mayor against Crystal Hill, and Mrs. Joan Amenn's 9/28/05 Letter to the Monroe Monitor, has prompted us to do two things: (1) Update our Gold Bar Council Minutes page so folks can read what has really been happening in that city; and (2) check on the accuracy of Mrs. Amenn's myopically-edited Gold Bar minutes that she quoted in her Letter (in Word). As usual, the Amenns' accuracy in reporting does not stand up to deep scrutiny. And here is a political endorsement: It would be a travesty, if not a tragedy, if the citizens of Gold Bar elected Mr. Amenn to lead their beautiful city. His blind ambition and continual, desperate search for a power base, has led him to make alliances with folks who believe deeply in self-interest above all, among them, County Councilman Jeff Sax, and Sultan's Planning Commissioner running for a Council seat, Bart Dalmasso, public officials who should not, by any stretch of the imagination or definition, be allowed to use the title, "Public Servant."
Last week - Prothman's proposal and scope of work (in pdf only) to assess Sultan city staff and personnel and their functions.
Recent - At the 9/26 Highway 2 Safety Coalition meeting, residents in attendance complained loudly to WSDOT officials of the "traffic calming" devices on U.S. 2 from Sultan to Monroe, better known as WSDOT's recent patch job on that highway. Well, sometimes it pays to point out a problem. WSDOT's Rick Mitchell, who attends most Coalition meetings, took our questions back to WSDOT and received a speedy response. Here is his explanation of what happened, and what will happen next. In other U.S. 2 Coalition news: The RDP (Rural DEvelopment Plan) effort has been receiving grants and selected the consultant that will lead this effort, H. W. Lochner.
Related story: The Coalition will be nominating and electing officers during its October 24th meeting. If you (or someone you know) would like to be part of the Coalition's important work and wish to offer your expertise, ideas and know-how by serving on the Coalition's board, please contact Chairman Fred Walser (360-793-1051), submit a brief letter of interest to him, or attend the October meeting. (The Coalition meets once a month, normally on the last Monday of each month.)
If you'd like to be advised of the Coalition's most-recent activities to improve U.S. 2, you can access the group's meeting minutes posted on our Highway 2 Safety Coalition page (The coalition is in the process of developing a website, but for now, we are hosting information on the Coalition's efforts, as we always have done.)
New! One of two keys to unlocking Sultan's future development: Here's the 2005/06 draft Sewer Comprehensive Plan (The other key, of course, are studies and improvements for future traffic and transportation.)
What is wrong with this picture? The City has clearly taken a wring-their-hands-wailing-"We did not know this development was coming"-position on the issue of planning for sewer capacity. Well, what did the council and mayor think would happen as they recommended, then approved, a steady parade of developer-friendly codes over the past two to three years, along with a Comprehensive Plan carrying an explosively-bloated UGA area? Pul-eeze! At least give voters and taxpayers credit for more brains than that. When you actively engage in attracting, courting, encouraging and soliciting developers to build here, what is the result? Ignorance is not bliss, it is expensive -- to the taxpayers of Sultan in direct-pay-taxes for needed infrastructure, and to all taxpayers across the county, state and country in the form of the grants required to sustain Sultan's addiction to low-hanging funds from temporary permit fees from long-term development.
Bottom line: How could a sewer plan be approved in November, 2004 for one development scenario (lower growth), then only two months later in January, 2005 during the City Council Retreat, see the City Administrator/City Planner present a slide show advising the council of 1,000-plus homes in the next few years, and not realize there was a problem with the sewer capacity until August, 2005? The answer, my friends, is, at a minimum, misfeasance. Although Mayor Tolson has been doing his best (and succeeding, to some extent) to make up for many years of serious mistakes and purposeful overisghts by previous mayors and councils, he has allowed to go unchecked a serious problem within the city staff that needs to be corrected immediately before more long-term financial damage is done. (WE WILL POST DOCUMENTS SHORTLY ON THE STATUS OF THE SEWER TREATMENT PLANT CURRENT CAPACITY.)
LEGAL NOTICE: Hearing on revising PUD ordinance (in Word) to increase minimum lot sizes to 5,000 s.f. -- AND -- decrease the min. PUD development area from 5 acres to 2 acres. The hearing was held Tuesday, September 6th, 7:00 PM, before Sultan's Planning Commission (but will be continued t o 9/20), 319 Main Street (This notice, as well as many other recent legals, have not been sent to us, nor have they been posted on the city's website.)
Ongoing - Sultan's 1999 "Sultan Basin Road Concept Plan," included as part of a new G.R.I.T. webpage report titled, "The Future Face of the Sultan Basin Road," graphically reveals the grievous growth "planning" for the Sultan Basin, first during Rowe's administration, and more recently during Tolson's, due primarily to Rick Cisar's seeming-incompetence and/or purposeful oversight.
Ongoing - Budget documents from 8/31 Council Workshop (all files in pdf): City budgets from 2000 through YTD 2005 (33 out of 52 weeks for 2005, with financial reports inserted between spreadsheets (770 kb file). Here is the report with the budget spreadsheets only (580 kb), and here are the financial reports only (243 kb)
Recent and ongoing - August's council 2006 budget workshop/preview: Council's "wish list" included: Increase the retail sales tax base...Implementaton of a stormwater utility...Better funding sources for Sultan Police Department...New personnel, including a new building inspector/code enforcement officer, parks manager/maintenance person, animal control office, and a long-needed records clerk for the SPD (evidence-handling chores leave city open to potential and substantial liabilities)....Better street and sidewalk maintenance and improvements...."Contingency"/"Savings account" fund for sewer improvements (had one, but was spent out during Rowe's administration)....Make city codes consistent....To always set aside sewer capacity availability for commercial business (this from Derek Boyd)....From Rick Cisar, most critical area/plan for the city to accomplish is its Critical Areas Ordinance (needed so the city can continue to secure grant approval). BEST OF ALL -- Glory be! -- a workable sound and recording system!!! Yea! Many, many years past due. Donna Murphy mentioned Galt's comment that the city could face problems if there is an appeal of a city decision (such as the recent Timber Ridge decision*). He knows what we have known for many years: The city tapes are virtually unintelligible.
*Re Timber Ridge, we and another party, during our intended appeal of of this BAD CITY DECISION, were advised by our attorney that we did not have standing. Thus, thousands of current and future users of the Sultan Basin Road will be exposed to a major safety concerns on this roadway, and will have to pay for needed improvements to the road, the expense for which should have been shared and borne by the developers of Timber Ridge: The very, very sad result of a stupid decision by both the City (Cisar and its consultant, Paul Ingrahm of Berryman & Henniger) and this council.
Audio files of 8/10/05 VAN WYNGARDEN ANNEXATION MEETING in two parts in MP3 format: Part 1 (4.5 mb) - mostly public comment); and Part 2 (5.1 mb), remaining public comment and questions and discussion from council. (This does not include council's questions, discussion and vote on this issue during the council meeting.) In a surprising result, the annexation was denied. For now...
OTHER ACTIONS DURING 8/10 COUNCIL MTG: Moratorium on PUDs was passed, hearing will be held within 60 days (but the number of pipeline development exclusions pulls much of its teeth); council support for FD #5 Levy lift (recent astounding assessor tax increases does not affect, or help, the FD); Ordinance 882 (Binding site plans) and 823 (budget amend for WWTP dump truck) passed unanimously.
And while we're on ths subject of LEVELS OF SERVICE mandated by the Comp Plan (a financial exercise that, according to the GMA, needs to be performed annually in concert with the budeting process), here are a couple of key service levels as published in Sultan's 2004 Comprehensive Plan:
Parks: LOS is 42.6 acres per 1,000 population. The "existing" figure in the CP states the "supply" (or existing "Parks" which includes all city-owned buildings and property, including city hall, the fire station, schools, public works facilities buildings, etc.) is 162.4 acres/7,074,144 s.f. although the LOS should be 174.7 acres/7,609,932, a deficit of 12./3 acres/535,7888 s.f. The LOS for next year looks even worse: With an estimated 4,400 population, the city should have a total of 187.4 acres of "park" (again, remember this category also includes all city-owned buildings and structures). This means the City will register a DEFICIT in this category of 25 acres, or 1,089,000 s.f. next uear. Note: These figures do not include any new "parks" being provided by the Sky Harbor development, and it is our understanding that both Stratford Place and Denali Ridge did not provide any park or recreational areas, choosing instead to pay a fee in lieu of providing an actual park or recreational area, a code that was successfully appealed by Planning Commissioners Josie Fallgatter and Jeff Kirkman earlier this year.
|
ONGOING & VITAL FUTURE PROBLEM REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ACTION by Sultan Council: SULTAN BASIN ROAD STUDY/EIS REQUIRED FOR FUTURE IMPACTS FROM DEVELOPMENTS This 10-car back-up waiting to turn westward onto Hwy. 2 from Sultan Basin Road (there were 2 cars behind me not shown in this photo) will look oh-so-tame once in-construction build-out occurs (62 homes in Sky Harbor, 15 in Denali Ridge, with several hundred more homes in the offing, as stated gleefully by City Admin/Planner Cisar. Even with the new channelization improvements progressing, and new plans for traffic signalization at SBR/Hwy. 2, not much will change, insofar as capacity on the Basin Road is concerned. HOWEVER, when asked about the need (wisdom) for the Council to adopt the old June, 1999 "Sultan Basin Road Concept Plan" ( how to address capacity-related problems caused by too-fast growth on the Basin), or better yet, perform a NEW capacity study (a no-brainer) or an EIS (more appropriate) on this endangered roadway, Rick Cisar simply said there was no need for one. (And, Rick, could you remind me again "On what planet are you living?") |
Just
a small taste of Sultan's future (Even WITH planned improvements
to U.S.2 and SBR):Sultan
Basin Road on a typical Sunday afternoon..... There was no accident,
no distracting events on this day; nothing but lots and lots of
typically-heavy Sunday traffic.
|
Here's
an idea for an appropriate T-shirt for taxpayers:
"Representation by Litigation"
 |
"Put
down that bag of potato chips In other words, unplug yourself from your TV I.V. and GET INVOLVED! Don't be confused about everything that's happening here these days. Just take it one hearing/meeting at a time. Come to them, speak your mind and your heart and make a difference. Tell the city what you want (or don't want). NO ONE will laugh at you or what you have to say: It is important...and now is the time to tell the city what you want Sultan's future to be. The
only time your voice doesn't count |
|
This website is designed and maintained by non-paid volunteers for the purpose of providing news and information to taxpayers who otherwise would have no knowledge of the events going on in Sky Valley, specifically in Sultan. Let us know if you want to learn more, or if you would like to volunteer to help us sculpt our future. From
the Washington State Public Information Act: "Nobody
made a greater mistake than he who did nothing "The
only thing necessary for the triumph of evil |
|
Paid for and created by Loretta Storm and Ray Kistenmacher, Co-Founders of G.R.I.T. (Governmental Responsibility, Integrity and Truth)
Sultan, Washington
To contact us:
Email: grit@direcway.com or call us 360.793.6683
IN SULTAN:
Wed., Oct. 19th - Tom Green's property - Galt hearing of Barclay North's appeal of city admin. decision (in Word, Acrobat),
VIC
(Visitor Informatin Center) GRAND OPENING & DEDICATION - Tuesday,
October 25th
1:30 PM
Thursday, 10/27 - 7:00 PM, Sultan Council Visioning workshop (here's the draft document)
Wed., Nov. 2nd, 7:00 PM Library-sponsored Meth Awareness program/meeting (in Word, Acrobat)
IN GOLD BAR:
IN
MONROE:
City
hall info:
City Clerk Laura
Koenig (for council agenda and Public Info requests)
City hall address:
319 Main Street
PO Box 1199
Sultan, WA 98294
360-793-2231-ph
360-793-3344-fax
City Administrator
& Planner:
Rick Cisar
EMAIL
ADDRESS "formula" for city hall staff and officials: is
firstname, then a period, then their last name, then @ci.sultan.wa.us.
Example: Laura Koenig's address is: laura.koenig@ci.sultan.wa.us
CITY COUNCILMEMBERS:
Kristina
Blair
Derek Boyd
Dustin Boucher
Bruce Champeaux
Rob Criswell
Jim Flower
John Seehuus
Janie
Botting (resigned)
Bart Dalmasso
Josie Falgatter
Ray George
Tom Green
Jeff Kirkman
(There are two vacancies, as of Oct., 2005; contact Mayor Tolson to apply,
after completing
this application for consideration.)
PC Secretary Donna
Murphy (contact for PC Agenda, minutes & other info)