ALERT! Call Your Legislator - Hotline: 1-800-562-6000

Call and leavea message for your legislator, then call Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, Rep. Ed Murray and Rep. Beverly Woods, telling them U. S. 2 MUST have $700,000 in State funding in order to complete the already-begun RDP (Route Development Plan). READ the Herald's 2/28 article. The U. S. 2 Safety Coalition, via a personally-paid trip by Donnetta and Fred Walser to Washington, D.C. three years ago, secured $500,000 of the $540,000 in funding currently being used for this RDP study. And it's still doing the heavy lifting: Here's the Coalition's resolution passed at their Feb. 21st meeting (in Word) to work with Larsen's office and other Congressional leaders to obtain $3.0 mil in federal funding for U. S. 2 improvements. But NO fed funds will be forthcoming without first having a completed RDP study which will delineate project-specific improvements.)

New (3/1/06)- An Everett Herald Opinion we can really get behind: "Sky Valley has waited enough for U. S. 2 Study"

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

Monroe's sex offender law threatened by legislature action

Developers will get another "shot" at urbanizing rural county lands

Feds want to sell Sultan River land

Rep. Kirk Pearson blasts State AG's office re sex offender law

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: Legal Opinion letter (2/22/06) to City of Sultan from SCCAR (Snohomish County-Camano Association of Realtors) re the City's proposed REET plan (in pdf only)

Recent - City of Gold Bar ongoing legal liability and insurance woes: Letter from AWC (read during GB's 2/21 council meeting). For those unfamiliar with government's workings, if a city loses its insurance coverage, it would most probably have to disincorporate. There are some things, however, that could -- and probably will happen to preclude that event. HERE'S an emailed exchange with GB Mayor Crystal Hill which explains things a bit better (in Word)

PRESS RELEASE and PHOTO: Citizen of the Year Award (in Word) UPDATED! Sky Valley Chamber of Commerce Press Release: Stories of wonderful Random Acts of Kindness (in Word)

Wednesday' council meeting (2/22) - It was a lively meeting. Of interest were the fireworks provided by public comments. (Listen to the MP3 audio, below.) Some subjects were: the REET, inconsistencies in City's population figures for its sewer and water plans (i.e., what did they know and when did they know it?), charging fees to Friends of the Library/Sultan Library for use of the community room, and a reference to the 65 residents who attended the 2/13 Dyer Road resident meeting with Dunn/Cisar as an "angry mob."

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

• New interim City Administrator Leeland Walton and interim Finance Director Gordon Hey were introduced. Laura Koenig appointed interim city clerk (dissenting votes by Derek Boyd and Bruce Champeaux). Rick Cisar appointed to Community Development Director position.
• The City authorized an additional $5,000 payment to Berryman & Henigar for rev. to water system plan (the only dissenting vote was from C/M Blair)
• Correction (2/27): As embarrassing as it is to admit to a HUGE mistake, it's far worse to communicate erroneous information, as I did in the following bbullet point item on the REET: Final approval of Ord. 908-06, authorizing an increase in the REET (Real Estate Excise Tax) charged against sales of both new and existing homes (this will probably undergo legal challenge)
• Final approval of addl. 6% tax on water, sewer, garbage utilities (rough estimate of another $4-6 per month on utility bill).
• Adoption of a Surface Water Management Plan (when this new utility is created, it will add another $5.00 or so to Sultan residents' monthly billings).
• Approval of Ord. 914-06 as an emergency; eliminates the March 1st deadline for filing LID foreclosure litigation (Extended to June 1st).

MP3 audio (these files are compatible with Mediaplayer or othe computer audio software): K. George's "Angry Mob" comments (113 kb; also transcription as webpage, in Word)....L. Storm's response to those comments (227 kb).....Library Board member Sue Shawger re comm. room fees for library events (427 kb)....comments on REET (Kay George, Rob Criswell and Nathan Gorton, 797 kb)...and Josie Fallgatter's comments (354 kb) related to city's population projections and fees paid to Berryman & Henigar that should not be required, had proper oversight and planning had been used developing water, sewer and other plans.

Note: Mr. Cisar's new salary as Community Development Director (for hazardous pay, perhaps, in facing an "angry mob" of 65 Dyer Rd. residents, among other deadly duties) is $75,000. Compare that amount to Chief Fred Walser's $63,000 salary. Perhaps I do not have the whole story here, but doesn't this apparent inequity make anyone else mad? Or is it just that I'm getting crankier in my old age? The Police provide not just a service, but a necessity for citizens. Citizens would be fine and dandy if there was not one more housing development here for the next several years, but the security and peace of mind provided to citizens and businesses by Fred and his now-struggling and over-burdened, under-funded police department is a day-to-day reality. And with the current count of 800 homes in the imminent planning pipeline, the number of people the SPD will have to protect and serve will grow from its current (approx.) 4,300 to almost 6,500.

AGENDA PACKET for 2/22 meeting (in Word, pdf) - REVISED AGENDA ITEM: Ordinance re Foreclosure procedure on LID 97-1 assessments (in Word, pdf)

LEGAL - COUNCIL HEARING - Thursday, March 9th, 6:30 - On Shoreline Master Program and Critical Area Ordinance/regs (Legal notice in Word, pdf) UPDATE/NOTE: During the 2/22 council meeting, the CAO hearing date was changed from 3/9 to March 23rd.

Last Night (Tues., 2/21), A quorum of Sultan council members -- acting as a council and not as its own Plng. Commission -- held a workshop on its proposed CAO (Critical Area Ordinance). The Dept. of Ecology's Laura Casey was on hand and hopefully stated that everything she had recommended to the council had been incorporated into the version distributed at the workshop. (Council members in attendance were: John Seehuus, acting as mayor pro-tem, Kristina Blair, Jim Flower, Steve Slawson and Ron Wiediger. (There will be a March 9th hearing on this issue.)

Current and ongoing - REET Powerpoint presentation offered during the Council's 2/11/06 retreat, as a pdf file (as received from Mayor Tolson); and our mini-sized version, without all the bells and whistles, in html (webpage) and in Word. AUDIO of this presentation in MP3 (compatible with Mediaplayer), Part 1 (1.3 mb), Part 2 (1.4 mb)

Note: We have cleaned up this front page; here's a link to the previous version of this front page; For info on specific topics, such as the Prothman Report or the REET tax issue, look for links to those subjects/issues in our left-hand main menu.

We have placed information on the Ramirez/Twin Rivers Estate plat on a dedicated webpage.

Sultan held its 2006 council retreat Saturday, Feb. 11th . Here's a summary and some photos (of a map of the city's planned development -- 800 homes to start -- and the new interim City Administrator and Finance Director) The audio of this meeting will, unfortunately, not be posted until later this week.

Brief Summary & Info of Sultan's Wed., 2/8/06 council meeting & hearings on tax increase (Here's the FULL agenda packet as a web page in Word, Acrobat) will be coming soon.

LEGAL NOTICES:

• Wed., Feb. 8th Council Hearing on city's intent to switch from share of property taxes to REET, Real Estate Excise Tax (in Word)
• 6% Utility Tax increase (in Word) (Our thanks to both Cyd Donk and Laura Koenig for sharing these with us.)
• Council Hearing 6 PM March 23rd to reduce/retain current PUD lot size designations (in Word, pdf). Note: The scope of this proposed code review/revision is goes far beyond what the council directed.)
• Notice of Application for Sultan 114, LLC, development of 48 s.f. homes on 22 acres on 132nd St. S.E., located 1/4-mile east of Sultan Basin Road (in Word, pdf)

New (and always a current subject!) - How to increase public participation and public noticing? Here's one unique way, being used in England. RELATED STORY: The City's website is, finally, begining to look like a "real" website. It now has listserv capabilities for public notices. Yahoo! (This is an expression of glee, rather than a reference to the internet giant, on which our website is hosted!)

Current - LEGAL Jan. 16, 2006 DNS (Determination of Nonsignificance) Proposal to revise Sultan's code for citywide lot size requirements and multifamily; reduce minimum area requirements & setbacks, increase lot coverage percentages (i.e., impervious surfaces on more land), and estabilsh incremental lot size requirements for multiple family units. (Once again, this notice is available in pdf format only, as the City has not forwarded this notice to us directly. This is a worrisome, and ongoing trend by the City, despite its legal requirement to share such information with "parties of interest," of which we are one.)

Recent - Sultan's planning commission is in about the same state as the City's finances: Critically ill. Here's a transcription (in Word, Acrobat) of the Tuesday, Jan. 3rd "meeting" and questions posed by sole remaining PC commissioners Josie Fallgatter and Jeff Kirkman. (On hand in the assembly were Ray Kistenmacher, myself and a Sultan resident who sumitted an application to be considered for service on the PC, but rejected by Mayor Tolson as being too "anti-growth."

LEGAL Notices of Application -- dated 12/19 -- for two more Garth York subdivisions, one on Sultan Basin Road (Steen Park, in Word, pdf), and one south of Love's Hill Drive on crtiical slopes east of 8th Street (Cascade Breeze; in Word, pdf). The timing of the legal noticing of these subdivisions -- which reduces the sttate-mandated 14-day comment time period in which government agencies and citizens can comment on these subdivisions by 50% -- is highly suspect. Here's a copy of my email to Rick Cisar (in Word, pdf) on this subject. I find it very disturbing and sad that the City continues to engage in this type of "anti-citizen, anti-input" behavior.

PREVIOUS ARTICLES ON THE FRONT PAGE CAN BE FOUND ON AN ARCHIVED WEBPAGE. Click here for articles spanning (approx.) Sept./Oct. 2005 through Jan. 11, 2006.

OLD ARTICLES & LINKS

Here's an idea for an appropriate T-shirt for taxpayers:
"Representation by Litigation"

"Put down that bag of potato chips and step away from the TV!" 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 is when you don't use it...

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: "The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so they may maintain control over the instruments they created." (How to make a Public Information Request) "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Both quotes attributed to Edmund Burke (1729-1797), an Irish philosopher and statesman.

Thursday, March 9th - NEW COUNCIL MEETING NIGHT BEGINS.

Thursday, March 9th, 6:30- COUNCIL HEARING (notice in Word, pdf) on its Shoreline Mgt. Program

10 a.m. March 9, Library Board meets (Agenda as webpage, in Word)

Thurs., 6 PM March 23rd - Council hearing to revise lot sizes in PUD code; Also a hearing on Sultan's CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance) Regulations

ELSEWHERE IN THE VALLEY: the City of Skykomish will host the unique "ART TRAIN" exhibit/event (date unannounced; to be set)

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 Admin. & 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
Bruce Champeaux
Jim Flower
John Seehuus
Steve Slawson
Ron Wiediger

PLANNING COMMISSIONERS (As of the 2/8 council meeting, Sultan's PC is now in the hands of the city council, which will be acting as its own PC. Prior to its disbandment, the PC consisted of the following individuals:
Bart Dalmasso (resigned just prior to disbandment, and urged its dissolution)
Josie Fallgatter
Ray George (term expired, not reappointed)
Tom Green (term expired, not reappointed)
Jeff Kirkman