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

Herald Editorial Opinion: "Improve U. S. 2 safety, one chunk at a time"

U. S. 2: "Highway of Broken Hearts"

Another Road garners more notice (than U.S. 2)

Co. Councilman Dave Somers sees no conflict in stance

OTHER "STUFF"

DISCUSSION, OPINION & MESSAGE FORUM

G.R.I.T.'s 2002 RECORDING WARS - updated 3/21/06
(When the City tried to stop G.R.I.T. from recording public meetings, with the help of the Boucher Boys, 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 - U. S. 2 Safety Coalition announced at its meeting last evening that it is sponsoring a multi-agency public community meeting on Tuesday, April 18th at the Sultan High School, currently scheduled from 6 to 9 PM. (Most likely, prior to the official start of this meeting, there will be information stations in the Commons foyer where folks will receive specific information, view maps and pick up handouts. Invited are Washington Secretary of the Department of Transportation Doug MacDonald, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste, Washington Traffic Safety Coalition Director (or his representative) Lowell Porter, Snohomish Co. Sheriff Rick Bart, various WSDOT officials and numerous elected officials who were instrumental in securing the $700,000 funding for the completion of the current RDP (Route Development Plan) study being performed on U. S. 2. ALSO ANNOUNCED: The Pubic Open Houses for the Sky Valley on this RDP have been changed to Tuesday, June 13th in Gold Bar (Fire Station) and Wednesday, June 14th in Monroe at the High School.

PLEASE NOTE! The Coalition needs your help in locating a volunteer who is interested in becoming the Coalition's Treasurer. This is a corporate officer position. Contact Chairman Fred Walser, 360-793-1051, Ext. 223.

New - G.R.I.T. Update March 26, 2006 (in Word): Re Herald stories on U. S. 2 and the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition (which meets tonight, 3/27 at 7 PM, 319 Main Street) and the council quorum stalemate that exists in Gold Bar.

March 23rd's Sultan council hearings and meetings: Briefly...Both the SMP and CAO hearings have been continued until the next Council meeting on Thursday, 4/13. Councilmember Steve Slawson's comments (reinforced by C/M. Wiediger) seemed to echo many of the council's frustration with the City's inability to adhere to its public participation mandates while trying to keep up with the incredible amount of information coming at them at this time which they are required to read and digest. We certainly commisserate with C/M Slawson, Wieiger (here's the 0.5 mb MP3 audio file of their statements) and others' frustrations in their attempts to deal with the tsunami of daunting tasks borne of the City's need to reorganize while simultaneously updating its Comp Plan***), which unscores the vitally important need to have key City "professionals" in place (especially in the administrative, legal and planning areas), on whose advice they can rely. Bue because of the several rejections by outside oversight government agencies of recent planning decisions, this is an area in which the City needs to do some real house-cleaning. (Testimony and facts presented by former planning commissioners Ron Kraut and Josie Fallgatter during the CAO hearing -- which we hope to post this weekend -- certainly support my statement.) ***This update of the CP would be far less onerous, had the 2004 Plan been done corectily the FIRST time around.

Letters of comment presented at the CAO hearing from MBA (Master Builders Association) and SCCAR (Snohomish County-Camno Association of Realtors).

New - LEGAL (DNS - SEPA Determination of Non-significance) for Skogland Estates (in Word), a 48 single family home proposed development on 132nd St. S.E.

Recent - March 21st meeting (Council as Planning Agency) - City Attorney Graafstra and Interim City Administrator Walton were on hand to help the council try to extricate itself from the hornet's nest that they, or others within city hall, have created via Ord. 904-06. Audio of this meeting and their discussion (and actions taken), will come later (but contact us if you want to have a CD of this audio now). In the meantime, access the link to this morning's G.R.I.T. Update below for more specifics on that, and other issues.

New - G.R.I.T. Update, March 22, 2006 (in Word)

New - LEGAL NOTICES from the City: DNS (SEPA Determination of Non-significance; i.e., these actions have NO IMPACT on the environment) - Updated population figures for Sultan's Water Plan (in Word, Acrobat) and Sewer Plan (in Word, Acrobat)

New - Sultan City Council Agenda Packet for Thursday, March 23rd (begins at 5:30 with rescheduled SMP hearing) in Word, pdf

This meeting is PACKED with important and complicated issues that should not be RUSHED: The CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance) is highly technical and should be finalized BEFORE the SMP (Shoreline Mgt. Program) because of deeply-intertwining CAO subjects requiring resolution prior to the SMP. (You can always depend upon Sultan to do work that poor cart to death, which is ever and anon in the front, leading its horse.) There is also a hearing on whether, and how much, to adjust lot sizes in a PUD. Copied directly below are some comments received from Fish & Wildlife and DOE on these issues:

A follow-up comment letter on Sultan's CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance) from the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife to Berryman & Henigar's Roger Waggoner (in Word, pdf).......1st Letter of comment on Sultan's Critial Areas Ordinance (CAO) from the Department of Fish & Wildlife as a webpage (in Word, pdf)......Current and ongoing: Proposed Critical Areas Ordinance/regulations (CAO), Available only in pdf format; visit the City's website for the most-current copy of the CAO draft, posted on March 7th, although the header states this draft incorporates changes as of February (while the footer states "1/26/06"; and the dates of this version does not incorporate all comments received.

Coming: Additionally, we will be posting very detailed comments from Kristin Kelly, acting in her dual-role capacity as FutureWise's East Snohomish County Field Director and as the Pilchuck Audubon Society's Smart Growth Director, as well as a letter to Mayor Tolson and the Sultan Council related to the City's lack of proper/legal public participation, a constant and ongling subject. (Lordy, lordy, do I ever get tired of having to talk about that no-brainer subject!)

We have UPDATED our "Recording Wars" page to see how much things have changed in Sultan since early 2002....

REMEMBER THE OLD DITTY, "I'M MY OWN GRANDPA"? In an uncanny imitation of that song, the Sultan City Council will now be acting as its own Planning Commission/"Agency" when it convenes an important meeting and workshop next Tuesday, March 21st at 7:00 PM. The Council -- excuse me -- Planning "AGENCY" -- will commence review of updates and amendments to its 2006 Comp Plan and development regulations, which will have significant long-term impacts to Sultan AND the Sky Valley. Then, at some future date, this same group of people will be acting in the capacity of legislative authority -- as Sultan's Council -- when they review and approve those same updates and amendments.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? The bottom line is that the city is spreading a wide, bright red welcoming carpet on which Sultan's future financial "blood" will flow. Why? Acting in this dual role capacity, the City will make/has made itself a target for the inevitable future lawsuits and liabilities that will soon follow. And, yes, of course Josie Fallgatter and Jeff Kirkman will be appealing this issue with the Puget Sound Growth Mgt. Hearings Board -- and citizens will some day thank them for that -- but developers who come to build in Sultan will also stay here while they sue the city by filing actual, real LAWSUITS (not just citizen appeals) because of decisoins/actions tained by the council's dual-role actions.

Here is a LEGAL OPINION from land use experts Bricklin Newman & Dold (in Word, pdf), commissioned by L. Storm/R. Kistenmacher, which was distributed to the city attorney, mayor, council and other city officials at the March 9th meeting. And what was the city's response? They immediately published this legal notice for this workshop, which kicks off Sultan's schedule for its Comp Plan Update.

We urge anyone who cares about the future of Sultan and the greater Sky Valley -- as well as the future traffic on U. S. 2 from the tsunami of growth that will result in this "council as PC" situation, to liberally share our legal opinion with other cities, government agencies and citizens.

WHAT DATA ANALYSES & SCRUTINY IS REQUIRED FOR AN AMENDMENT REQUEST TO BE CONSIDERED FOR CHANGES TO SULTAN'S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN (which will forever change the face of Sultan)? Here's an example of what was submitted by former Planning Commissioner Bart Dalmasso to REVISE ALL ZONING along U. S. 2 from whatever is its current zoning designation, to "Highway Oriented" (I especially like his answer to question #5, "A statement of how facility plans and capital improvement plans support the change," which was: "N/A"

NOW COMPARE Mr. Dalmasso's request for an amendment change (see the paragraph above) with the recent appeal by Josie Fallgatter and Jeff Kirkman to the Growth Mgt. Hearings Board shown here. (Objectively comparing those two documents side-by-side, who do you think is more concerned about the long-term professionalism and quality of life here in Sultan?

Thursday's (3/9/) Council meeting and hearing on the SMP: Briefly.... The hearing, despite a pretty good turnout, had to be rescheduled due to a lack of quorum (Councilmembers K. Blair and Steve Slawson were on vacation, Derek Boyd was had a work schedule conflict, and Bruce Champeaux was running late from a previous commitment, although he did show up five minutes before the time was set to cancel the council meeting, too.

The hearing for the SMP (Shoreline Mgt. Plan) has been rescheduled for the stellar time of 5:30 PM before the next council meeting March 23rd -- along with two other hearings (one of which is on Sultan's CAO [Critical Areas Ordinance]) -- when most folks are either still at work or navigating their way home. (Great decision, guys, especially as it has become clear from the draft of Sultan's Critical Areas Ordinance that the SMP should NOT be completed/approved until Sultan's CAO is in place: Too many overlapping issues. We highly suggest the City either rethink this date to a different day -- OR -- legally notice a later start time for its council meeting to allow for the SMP hearing at 7:00 PM. By the way, these are hearings to gain citizen input on MAJOR FUTURE DECISIONS; and the city has only alloiwed 30 minutes each for hearings on the CAO and SMP? HELL-O!)

Gerry Gibson, Dyer Road citizen/taxpayer advocate, presented a petition request to the City which contained 127 signatures of all but two residents residing on Dyer Road and Skywall Drive. U-n-b-e-l-i-e-v-a-b-l-e. These residents are requesting that the Comprehensive Plan be amended and the cut-through/connecting road and sewer line (between Skywall and Dyer) currently contained in the CP be removed. (We will be posting this information later this weekend.)

Based on information given out by Interim Community Development Director Rick Cisar, the City Council still plans on moving ahead in acting as its own Planning "Agency," with their first meeting to be held Tuesday, March 21st. We'll be posting the agenda and attachments later. NOTE: because this Planning "Agency" will require a quorum of the Council, it will also require legal noticing each time they meet. (I guess the city believes that changing the word, "Commission" to "Agency" changes the laws guiding city planning, not unlike their action in changing the name of the Water and Sewer Comprehensive Plans to "Water and Sewer General Plans.")

Correction of a statement I made last night during closing comments when I had stated that Sultan's current LOS (Level of Service mandated by its Comprehensive Plan) for POLICE is 2.5 uniformed police officers per 1,000 in population. It is actually 2.6 per 1,000 (Per the Mayor, Sultan population is currently at 4,700.) My comment was in response to Mr. Robert Hunstad's earlier statements that the costs for Sultan's inordinately-large number of Sultan police officers and the fact that they are allowed to use police cars to drive home, is a primary reason why the city is going broke. Mr. Hunstad also stated the SPD officers should reside within Sultan's city limits. Not surprisingly, I feel a bit differently. Mr. Cisar is making $75,000 in salary while Chief Walser's is $63,000. Interestingly, Chief Walser distributed a letter from the Black Diamond Police Department, canvassing other cities for new police officers. The top pay for a uniformed officer -- not a chief -- is over $67,000. And, say-hey, they even get to drive their police cars home. BLACK DIAMOND's POPULATION (per MRSC.org) is 4,080 and it's located on a rural King Co. road (KC 169), as opposed to Sultan, situated smack on a major U. S./federal highway. Its median household income is $67,092 compared to Sultan's is $46,619. (Is it possible that this city has made better planning choices than Sultan?) Black Diamond's community profie & Sultan's community profile.

Full AGENDA PACKET for Sultan's 3/9 council meeting (in Word, pdf)

New - LEGAL NOTICE for TIMBER RIDGE: Request for a DOE NPDES permit (permission and guidelines for discharge of stormwater during construction phase.) You can submit written comments to DOE (Washington State Dept. of Ecology) until April 9th. (Visit G.R.I.T.'s Timber Ridge page.)

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.

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.

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

CITY OF SULTAN CONTACT/email INFORMATION:
319 Main Street
PO Box 1199
Sultan, WA 98294
360-793-2231-ph
360-793-3344-fax

• Mayor Ben Tolson
• City Councilmembers (see below)
• Interim City Administrator Leeland Walton
• Interim City Finance Director Gordon Hey
• Interim City Clerk Laura Koenig (for council agenda and Public Info requests)
  
• Interim Community Development Director,
  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 2/8/06 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