NEWS SOURCES:
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NEWS

New - Herald Letter to Editor from Sultan's Traci Hoenstsine re Sultan's budget & Police

Herald article 3/1, "Sultan considers cutting police"

New stormwater rules go into effect

$2.2 million in state funds for safer roads in Marysville

Monroe Councilman Ken Berger's seaplane at the bottom of Lake Louise poses certain ecological damage and other problems

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.

Posted Wednesday, March 21st:

• Monroe Councilman Ken Berger's recall hearing has change of venue - The venue for the hearing to decide legal and factual sufficiency of recall charges against Ken Berger, set for 9:30 a.m. this morning (3/21) in Snohomish County Superior Court, was changed at the last minute. This letter was only received last evening (691 kb, pdf) -- via regular mail -- by the recall petitioners (Meredith Mechling and Jim Hunnicutt). The new venue is:

2:00 PM Friday, Skagit Superior Court, 205 West Kincaid, Ste. 202, Mount Vernon (Washington State, not the Commonwealth of Virginia)

Will someone please scream, "Ppreposterous!" so I won't have to waste my breath? Recalls by the people are supposed to be citizen-centric. Does that include the non-existant communication (not to mention the lack of basic courtesy) by the court to the citizen-petitioners, or the -non-existant advance notice of the 12th Hour change of venue, or the change of venue to such a non-citizen-friendly time and place (i.e., by the time the hearing is completed, Friday night rush hour on both I-5 and U. S. 2 will be in full swing, 50 miles north of the City of Monroe.)

• 6:00 PM - BEFORE Sultan's Council Meeting - Council and city staff and officials will meet with John Galt, the city's hearing examiner, to discuss the long-standing problems with the city's code (222 kb, pdf) which made the approval process for plat applications during 2006 so onerous, time-consuming, messed-up and all of which cost the taxpayers -- and citizens -- A LOT of additional time and expense (i.e., legal fees, staff time, needless hearing examiner fees paid by the city).

Posted Monday, March 19th:

• Audio of March 15th Town Meeting Re Future of Sultan Police
• "Jim Flower Manifesto" (in Word, pdf): More than a declaration to run again for Sultan City Council, he's thrown his black hat (which he might wish to consider changing to white now) into the ring with a challenge for everyone to get off their couches and get involved. Good for you, Jim.
• Sultan City Council Agenda Packet

Posted Friday, March 16th:

• NEW! Audio from Feb. 22nd meeting now available

Posted Thursday, March 15:

Former Sultan Councilman and local physician Mark Raney and his "Rapperee" family Irish singing/dancing group's revelries, revealed in this Seattle Times article (3/14)

Posted Wednesday, March 14:

• Herald story 3/14: "Filling marsh brings a fine" in the City of Snohomish. We predict the $88,000 fine will eventually fall into govt. bureacracy's Black Hole of non-accountability. If so, such "non-action" would be akin to the penalty mandated by the Army Corps of Engeineers in 2000 against the City of Sultan: The City was directed to create compensatory wetlands to replace those destroyed during the city's illegal LID 97-1 (sewer line) construction along Wagley Creek. Sadly, the Corps (Kristina Tong) and the City have been bartering other alternatives; this removes the sting from the City's irresponsible actions and the Corps' penalty. More importantly, however, is that it also incentivizes the City to continue to ignore and flout environmental laws, and remove oversight of its quickly-disappearing natural resources:
• WETLAND "GROOMING" -- Transforming worthless swampland into Liquid Gold, the Sultan Way
• Here's a short transcription (in Word, pdf)of how a complaint from a Sultan resident (his second on record in council) was handled related to sediment runoff from Sultan Basin Road which is coating the bottom of Wagley Creek. (And this is just a teensy tip of the iceberg of the substantial activity by us and other taxpayer adcocates who have been working behind the scenes with the city and DOE, asking them to do their jobs and eliminate the muck and mud running into Wagley from Timber Ridge- and Sultan Basin Road-related construction activities since last August. Yes, it is the developer's responsibility to control his construction activities, but it is up to oversight agencies to ensure the developer does a legal job. And in this situation that means both DOE and the City.
• AUDIO OF March 8, 2007 Council Meeting (which also includes links to audio of the Sheriff's presentation and the Critical Areas Ordinance 6 PM hearing)

Posted Sunday/Monday 3/11-3/12:

• Audio for March 8th Snohoco Sheriff's presentation to Council and content of their Powerpoint presentation)
• An interesting link for a COALITION OF SMALL CITIES to provide police services & training (sent to us by a local resident). This links to the City of Snoqualmie's webapge King County's "Small Cities Police Coalition" Here's a pdf file re the Small Cities Police Coalition.

Posted Thursday, March 8th:

• Wild Sky (FINALLY) clears House Natural Resources Committee (2nd Dist. R. Larsen press release)
• U. S. 2 Safety Coalition webpage updated; RDP nears final form.

Posted Tuesday, March 6th:

Council Agenda Packet Links provided as individual files, or within a complete packet): HIGHLIGHTS:

• Hiring former City of Mt. Vernon Finance Director(291 kb pdf),who served in that city from 1984-2003): This individual would be used in Sultan on an ad hoc/as-needed basis. Interesting is the probably-little-known fact that Rick Cisar served for several years as a City Planner in Mt. Vernon, the connection severed in a mutually-agreeable manner, apparently via a non-disclosure contract, after confusion arose over city annexation policies.

Per-hour costs for these services will be $50.00 rather than $33.65/hr, were a permanent Finance Director hired at a $70K salary. An estimated total of 400 hours will be needed.

(Question: Doesn't the city think it needs a full-time finance person? HELL-O??? That will certainly be great news to all Sultan citizens, who continue to pay rising rates for previous and continuing mistakes in its development planning, in its failure to either maintain, or legally revise, minimum police levels of staffing, and for its failure to address and raise developers' impact fees to pay for essential public "utilities" such as minimally-acceptable roadways, not to mention the lack of any transportation plan (see above Fallgatter decision).

• HISTORY AS PROLOGUE: HOW IMPORTANT ARE REFERRALS BY CURRENT SULTAN OFFICIALS TO THE NEW-HIRE PROCESS? Building Official Craig Bruner referred the city to Bart Dalmasso as a possible planning commissioner. Then-Sultan Mayor C. H. Rowe was informed by his associates of Rick Cisar's availability (then unemployed after departing the Cty of Mt. Vernon) and readiness to work for Sultan. Referrals and past associations can often be a positive thing, but based on the City's track record thus far, more in-depth scrutiny is perhaps the wisest course of action.
• PRESENTATION by the County's Sheriffs department (925 kb pdf) re how it can better serve the city than its OWN police department. Citizens' voices NEEDED at this meeting, and at the TOWN HALL MEETING on this same issue: 6:30-8:30, Thursday, March 15th.
• A Rick Cisar "Planning Report" detailing brief background on the City's still-outstanding compensatory wetland mitigation ordered by the Army Corps of Engineers in 203, and a recent onsite visit by the Corps' Kristina Tong, and the City's D. Knight, Cisar and Jon Stack. (A surprise to us was a mention in this report that the Corps had approved the City's mitigation plan March 17, 2003, despite my previous Public Disclosure Act request for a copy of that Plan, which died of neglect.)
• Not included on the City's agenda (initially) is a 6:00 PM HEARING related to minor revisions to the City's CAR/CAO (Critical Area Regulations/Ordinance)
• We urge citizens to read the entire agenda, if not its specific contents.

Posted Sunday, March 4th:

• Message from Sultan's VIC: IRS announces special tax relief (re storm damages)

Posted Thursday, March 1st:

• Herald article 3/1, "Sultan considers cutting police": This is more than mere consideration of a change: After the council's and City's 2006 negligence in allowing SPD levels of service (i.e., minimum mandated staffing) to fall significantly below legal limits and refusing to do anything about either lowering those legal limits to be compliant with their development codes, and/or pausing non-compliant plat applications in their march to a John Galt hearing so those changes could be made before sending them unprotected into that arena, the City is the author of most of the "problems" with the police, as well as significant budget cost overruns.
• Some of those budget overruns include $57,000 in overtime charges for police because of short-staffing (in part due to injuries and staff attrition); unnecessary city statt, consultant and H.E. (Galt) fees for allowing development plats already in the pipeline to continue unabated, regardless of non-compliance issues related to parks and police; and significantly-higher legal fees in 2006 (almost double budgeted amounts) due to a myriad of lawsuits descending upon the city and other unexpected legal fees. Included in the legal fee cost overruns were City-ordered appearances by Attorney Thom Graafstra to defend its indefensible GMA/Comp plan actions in a desperate attempt to "win one for the gipper" before the Growth Management Hearings Board, which constituted a vain and pointless attempt to defend against incompetent -- or Tolson-ordered actions -- by City Planner Rick Cisar. The cost-effective and intelligent manner of handling these appeals would have been simply to plan in a legally-compliant manner, as the city has always been burdened, by legal mandate, to do.
• It seems obvious what the council wants to do, if only because of its "surprise" when presented with a $57,000 due bill for the SPD overtime wages mentioned above: They approved it, They knew the severe police shortages. They did nothing. What other conclusions can be reached? And even though I sincerely hope I am mistaken as to their intentions, because of their shot-in-the-foot actions/non-actions noted above, and the City's culpability and apparent lack of concern in allowing both police staffing and equipment to fall to desperately-inadequate levels, I can draw no other conclusion.
  • (Here's a brief memo Chief Walser submitted for the Council Retreat Agenda packet to advise "How the City got to this point," the events of which the council was already fully aware. And, hey, if they were not, then it's at least four years overdue for a change to a Council that Cares. (Mayor and four council positions are up for grabs this November.)
• TOWN MEETING RE FUTURE OF POLICE SERVICES IN SULTAN: 6:30 PM, Thursday, March 15th, Sultan Middle School.
• News Flash! "All City of Sultan Council Members' emailboxes to be open for public scrutiny!" (Yeah, right. When pigs fly....But a Renton Councilman is doing just that, and suggesting his fellow council members do the same. (In Sultan, most council members' emailboxes are ALWAYS "over quota," too full to receive communication and input from taxpayers.)

Posted Saturday, Feb. 24th:

• Recall Petition filed yesterday against Monroe Councilman Kenneth Berger (pdf, 50 kb)
• Accuracy of the City's Minutes: How much Power the People hold versus the City's approved version (and what are the legal ramifications when errors in material fact exist?
• AUDIO FROM SULTAN COUNCIL'S RETREAT (2/10/07) RE SULTAN SECURITY & POLICE ISSUES (and the perception of mistrust that exists among citizens about council actions)
  • Before-lunch Round-robin discussions of councilmembers' opinions re police, held before lunch break (approx. 21 minutes, 4.0 mb)
  • After-lunch discussions in three parts: Part 1, 3.7 min., mb; Part 2, min., 4.1 mb; Part 3, min., 3.7 mb
  • Snohomish Co. Sheriff Presentation to council
  • Final Comments & Discussion after Sheriffs presentation
• City of Sultan's 2007 Budget (1.2 mb pdf)
• City's CFP (Capital Facilities Plan, 2.3 mb, pdf)

Posted Thursday, Feb. 22nd:

• AUDIO: Sultan Planning Board Meeting and Hearing on CAO (Critical Area Ordinance) revisions
• How much do consultants cost taxpayers? $3,309,877 (from 2003 thru 2006). That equates to an average of $788 for each man, woman and child in Sultan, or $2,218 for each Sultan family (based on the city's planning guideline of 2.7 people per single-family home.)

Posted Monday, Feb. 19th:

• New Ecology stormwater rules went into effect last Friday; county and cities are pushing back, saying they're too onerous
  • Later today we'll post some photos as to why these new rules are needed. More specifically why Sultan needs them, as well as why it's in desperate need of "real" (or, truly, any, at this point) code enforcement in the area of stormwater control, despite a full-time Building Inspector on its payroll.
  • Developer construction oversight in 2006 has been supplied by a professional firm -- Lawrence Consultants whose contract is up for renewal as a "consent" item at this Thursday's council meeting. Most expenses are wisely charged back to the developer, but this may not be any bargain for either the developer or city, judging from the "oversight" provided in 2006 and early 2007 related to sediment flow on the Timber Ridge (TR) site and ongoing construction activities on Sultan Basin Road (SBR), where sediment has been allowed to flow freely into Wagley Creek.
  • Citizens have been complaining for months about sediment runoff, and a DOE inspector has been out to the site on at least two occasions, the first time not understanding the source of the problem. Complaints began late summer, when citizens told the City of sediment flow into Wagley, describing its dark chocolate-brown water. The City's response was that the source of the sedimentation was "construction occurring east of town," without bothering to check further. Their staunch position was that TR was not the problem.
  • As the heavy brown water has continued unabated -- along with citizen complaints of runoff and dirty construction on TR and the Sultan Basin Road, the City (recently) -- after some sharp detective work -- revised its assessment, stating that the definitive source of the sediment was a private owner's construction of a single family home above Walbrun Road. The only glitch in the City's identification of the problem is that Wagley has been a rich, muddy chocolate brown for many months where it flows from east-to-west under Sultan Basin Road before it flows anywhere near Walbrun, located west of the SBR.
  • Bottom line? In a town where public officials often have difficulty determining right from wrong, it's not a leap of logic to understand that they might also have trouble determining east from west. (And, unfortunately, despite the recent asphalting of the crest of Sultan Basin Hill, previously a muddy, mucky many-month mess, runoff is still not being controlled.)
• Tonight: Tuesday, Feb. 20th, 7:00 PM Sultan Planning Board Hearing (on CAO revisions) and a peek at Sultan's Transportation Plan (This is yet another Comp Plan element "ordered" by the Central Puget Sound Growth Mgt. Hearings Board -- part of another successful citizen appeal (J. Fallgatter) to make the City's 2004 woefully-inadequate Comprehensive Plan compliant.)
• Consultant's notes from Sat., Feb. 10th Sultan Council Retreat - This report, photos (and, hopefully, audio), are linked to our NEW Council Retreat Main Page (which includes info, photos, etc. of Tolson's first retreat in 2004, 2006 and this year's 2007.
• Thursday, Feb. 22, 7:00 PM City of Sultan Council Meeting - Agenda Packet NOTE:There will be a 6:00 PM hearing before council meeting to gain citizen input on the City's Public Participation plan (i.e., how YOU think the city should be communicating effectively with its citizens. And to gauge the effectiveness of the City's current communication on issues important to YOU, were you AWARE of this hearing before you read just read this?)
• Are pedestrians abd bicyclists safe, traveling on the unimproved shoulders of U. S. 2?

Posted Friday, Feb.9th:

• Audio of Feb. 8, 2006 Ramirez's Twin Rivers Estates "Appeal Meeting and Closed Record Hearing" (Whatever the heck that is!)

Posted Thursday, Feb. 8th:

Seattle Times' article (Feb. 7th) re Sultan's proposed Mixed Use ("Sultan Market") development (with 600 homes).

Seattle Times' article (Feb. 7th) re shortage of police and recruitment, salaries and hiring bonuses: Excerpts:

• "According to the Seattle Police Department's 2006 salary schedule, an entry-level officer earns just over $47,000 a year, while an officer with six years on the department makes a little more than $67,000 a year."
• "In a similar effort to boost employment, the Des Moines Police Department recently began offering $2,000 bonuses for experienced police officers who join the department and $1,000 bonuses for entry-level officers...."

Posted Wed, Feb. 7th:

• The Feb. 8 City council meeting's "consent" agenda items include approval of a $7,000 contract for a Jones & Stokes Wagley Creek mitigation plan. This is compensatory wetland mitigation ordered seven years ago in 2000 by the Army Corps of Engineers, and is a rather hard hand-slap for the environmental damage done during the illegal construction of Sultan's LID 97-1 sewer line install. There's an $18,000 budget mentioned to pay for this mitigation, but is the source of that funding the Sultan taxpayers, or from the LID 97-1 owners' assessment?

  Also of great interest is approval of the Shockey Brent $40,000 contract to bring the Comp Plan into compliance, as ordered by the Central Puget Sound Growth Mgt. Hearings Board. This is of interest because the source of the "donations" to pay for this contract was from developers: Read transcription of Fin. Dir. G. Hey's inadvertent disclosure of these contributions).

  Because consent agenda items are merely council's "rubber stamp" approvals of issues and actions already tacitly approved by the city with council's approval a foregone conclusion, these items should never have been included in the Consent Agenda. Unquestionably, there's a need here for deeper scrutiny, public input, and, at the very least, complete dicussion and disclosure, with per-council-member voice votes. These -- and one or two other Consent agenda items on this week's agenda, are clearly Action items. (If, because of the two plat hearings, not enough time was available for these items, they should have been saved for the Feb. 22nd meeting.

• City's Council Sat., Feb. 10th Retreat - Documents & agenda are available on their website. Primary topics are: (1) city's vision; (2) Mixed use development; and (3) Police services. This looks more like a major planning development meeting than a council retreat. Citizens are advised to attend and monitor.
• Kudos due City Admin. Deborah Knight, who continues to impress: The background and detail of this agenda packet -- and its availability in advance -- is deeply appreciated!

Posted Tuesday, Feb. 6th:

• New (as of 10:30 a.m.) - DRAFT Document of Comprehensive Plan Revisions (This is a 2.6 mb file, as small as we could reduce the city's original 8.3 mb file, without printing out the pages and scanning them in.)
• FEB. 6th (TUESDAY) PLANNING BOARD meets - Staff Report and Reid Shockey Presentation on the following important Comprehensive Plan Update issues: (1) Utilities & Public Services, (2) Land Use and (3) Parks & Recreation. If you wish to get involved, now is as good a time as any to put your toe in the water. As PB Member Jeff Cofer said at the last meeting: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you already have." Now is the time for change.
• Planning Board's 2007 Schedule & Plans
• Sultan Council Agenda for Feb. 8, 2007 Meeting (These files are way too big. The City needs to fine-tune this process to reduce their size. They also need to create a single, easily-accessible -- and small size -- file which contains ALL agenda items in a single file as they used to do. Their new system is too awkward, and extremely time-consuming to download for citizens still using dial-up ISP service.)

Posted Thursday, Feb. 1st:

Decrease in salmon reason for Orca relocation to California (and how the heck does that story tie into the City's approval to spend $9,000 on a lobbyist to Fetch Funds and the City's non-compliant code enforcement of dirty development?

NEW (posted 2/1, 1:30 PM) - Audio of January 30, 2007 Town Meeting re Police & Security issues

Posted Wed., Jan. 31st:

• Jan. 30th Town Meeting re Police & Security was attended by County Prosecutor Janice Ellis and County Exec. Reardon's representative, Ms. Dawson, along with 90-100 Sultan residents, including sitting councilmembers Kristina Blair, Jim Flower, John Seehuus, Steve Slawson and Ron Wiediger, as well as former Mayor Rowe and former councilmembers Dusty Boucher and Rob Criswell and Carolyn Eslick. We have photos only, which were (taken 10 min. before start of meeting, which do not show the SRO crowd which flowed into the lobby area). We have gotten a late start this morning, so the AUDIO of this meeting will be posted later today or first thing Thursday a.m.

  A second town meeting on this subject has been set for March 15th.

• Sultan receives Award for Intersection at U. S. 2 and Sultan Basin Road - Photos & MP3 audio - presentation of plaque/"award" from Project Engineer W&H Pacific to Mayor Tolson at Jan. 18, 2007 council meeting.

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 30th:

• Sultan's Future Vision: What's YOURS? (Here is Mayor Tolson's vision back on Aug. 23, 2003 while still a mayoral candidate.) And The Monitor Monitor & Valley News' Steven Higgins' vision of Tolson in his Jan. 13, 2003 opinion column.

Posted Monday, Jan. 29th:

• TOWN MEETING - Tuesday, Jan. 30th, 6:30-8:30PM Sultan Comm. Room - re CONTINUATION OF SULTAN POLICE SERVICES (slide show - Revised) NOTE! This is a slightly-revised slide show emailed to us Tues., 1/30. No material or content revisions have been made with one exception: an additional page has been inserted titled "2006 Law Copies Fingerprints CPL Total Revenue $2,615.00." (For comparison purposes, if anyone wishes to check the documents side-by-side, here is the outdated 1/25 version.)
• Proposal for 600 condominiums on Rice Road/U. S. 2 - Artist's Conceptual drawing of buildings (pdf, 420 kb), and Artist's layout of plat (pdf, 345 kb)

Posted Friday, Jan. 26th:

• Sultan Police Slideshow Presentation (in pdf) - Statistics and charts of SPD activity and comparisons with previous years (presented at Jan. 25th's council mtg.)
• AUDIO of Jan. 25th Council Meeting
• Draft HOD-MU proposed rezone revisions

• Audio for Jan. 18th council meeting
• Stanton Northwest Corporation's website - Potential developer for land east of Rice Road. Proposed project is called "Sultan Market" which calls for major rezone changes and 600 new homes (which are not included in Sultan's currently-scheduled sewer plant improvement).
• New Page: Sultan Sportsmans' Club

Posted Wed., Jan. 24th - Audio of Jan. 23, 2007 Sultan Planning Board Meeting re Sultan Market Project

Two Stanton Northwest representatives, Brenda Fodge and Randy Forsyth attended last night's Planning Board meeting, doing some pretty impressive "damage control" caused by Mayor Tolson's highly-inappropriate, Not Yet Ready for Prime Time announcement of the "Sultan Market" development in last week's Monroe Monitor. (Explanation: The city has been working on this for over a year behind the scenes, with no previous public notice, input or involvement, lack of required codes, and the fact that -- as it stands now -- this project will violate both the Comp Plan and the "award-winning" Industrial Park Master Plan. Mr. Tolson owes citizens an apology.)

Mr. Cisar gave a report on the required changes to Sultan's HOD (Highway Oriented Development) code and a new M. U. (Mixed Use) code necessary for this development to be built. He also unveiled a large colored and updated Sultan planning Map of new residential developments planned through 2009, to which we say, "Kowabunga!" (We have photos and will post them if the quality is acceptable.) We have split up the audio into easily-accessible files and will be uploading it this morning, with a hopeful, if overly-optimistic goal of having them ready for folks to listen to by this afternoon. (We'll start with Ms. Fodge's and Mr. Forsyth's comments, obviously.) Ya shoulda been there....

FLASH UPDATE (posted Tuesday, Jan. 23rd:) The Stanton Group, developer of Sultan Market, the City's proposed commercial and 600 condo unit project at Rice/U. S. 2, will attend tonight's Planning Board Meeting (see below for details). The City is now indicating that the review process for major Stanton-requested revisions to Sultan's code will be fast-tracked, using Sultan's over-used, but never worn out, Rubber Stamp. The City's meeting notice, distributed via listserv Jan. 19th, failed to communicate this little detail.

NEW ITEMS Posted Monday, January 22nd:

• Planning Board Meeting tomorrow night, Tuesday, 1/23, 7:00 PM - ALERT! The Board will be discussing major zoning & code revision impactful to the Comprehensive Plan and its Industrial Park Master Plan, including City recommendations (1) to rezone all properties bordering U. S. 2 to HOD (Highway Oriented) from its current commercial and industrial zones and (2) to CREATE A NEW MIXED USE code which will allow the city -- for starters -- 24 residential units per acre, doubling current upper housing capacities. Here are the suggested codes, revised & distributed by City Planner Rick Cisar in 2006. (The mixed use code change is necessary for the "Sultan Market" to become reality.)
• CITY COUNCIL AGENDA PACKET (Thursday, Jan. 25th, 7 PM)
• RE U. S. 2: John Morrison of Everett writes the Herald about U. S. 2, stating he fears he might die when he drives U. S. 2, and that he's "infuriated at the State's lack of care," responded to by Northwest Region's Lorena Eng. ON A RELATED NOTE, here's a brief transcription of the answer given by Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald's (in Word) response to a question posed by 39th Dist. Rep. Dan Kristiansen at the closed of the Jan. 11th House Transportation Committee working group meeting.
  • Want to help our legislatures do the right thing? Visit the U. S. 2 Safety Coalition's website, and visit the "How you can Help" and "Legislative Issues" pages.

UPDATED 1/16: City Fee Schedules since 1999 (with the exception of Year 2000)

NEW (posted 1/16; 10:50 a.m.) - Audio & Minutes of City Council's Dec. 14, 2006 Meeting

NEW (posted 1/15) - Audio & Minutes for City's Dec. 6, 2006 Council Meeting

NEW (posted 1/14) Response to 12/28 Valley Review article re Sultan crime rates by Sultan resident Gerry Gibson (in Word, pdf).

NEW (posted 1/14; updated with correction, 1/15) - Hiring a City lobbyist: Sound business practice, or something else? Here's some background on what the City and developers told Snohomish County about its ability to ufnd sewer treatement improvements in 2006, "selling" the need for 60 more acres north of 124th St. SE, at this "sewer-less"and remote locale. (Correction: We inadvertently used $10,000 as the figure for the Chief's salary increase rather than 10%, which is only approx. $6,500 and - far less than our previously-stated amount of $10,000. This makes the city's idea to spend $9,000 and more on a lobbyist seem ludicrous, at best.)

New (posted 1/14) - Public Notice of appeal "meeting" and a closed record "hearing" re Dan Ramirez' Twin Rivers palt ALSO A letter from Mr. Ramirez's attorney, stipulating reasons for this appeal "meeting"

New (posted 1/13) - $9,000 for a city lobbyist to schmooze the legislature for $11.25 million in taxpayer-supported federal monies in the form of low-interest Public Works Trust Fund [PWTF] and other grants?

Question: What is oh-so-wrong with this picture?

Answer: Long-term, constant mismanagement by the City and generally fiscally-incompetent actions guided by special interests rather than sound business precepts, has led the city to this point. "Begging" for state and federal loans and grants to fund improvements to its Wastewater Treatment Plant is not sound business and should be offensive to every Sultan citizen and taxpayer. This statement is especially true when one considers the substantial dollars the City has lost by selectively failing to charge mandated fees to developers and others, while not assessing and increasing annually fees and rates for services (i.e., water, sewer, parks, traffic, permits, etc.) to get, and keep, the City on a paying basis. It's been easier to plead poverty, and ask for taxpayer-supported grant funding.

(We encourage everyone to read this agenda item for themselves, which can be found here: click here for complete agenda packet.)

New (1/11/07) - More on the Sultan Police, the "Crime spree" and why U. S. 2 and other issues outside Sultan deeply affect Sultan citizens (also, a "primer" to give some perspective to some of Sultan's newer residents who wonder what the flap is all about.

New (1/10/07) - 7:00 PM Council meeting, Thursday, Jan. 11 (Begins at 6:00 PM with Vodnick appeal hearing) Council Agenda and links to agenda items on City's website (or click here for complete agenda packet) (A bright note on this week's agenda packet: We heartily congratulate the new City Administrator, Deborah Knight, for providing good background information on this, and other items in the council packet. We are impressed with her organizational and administrative skills thus far.)

New (1/10/07) - How many new homes are coming to Sultan? How many new sewer connections will Sultan need (over and above the already-planned 1,699 connections, which does NOT include the almost-done-deal mixed-use development east of Rice Road near McDonald's))? Read our Transcription of PW's Director Connie Dunn's presentation to council at the Nov. 9th hearing (in Word, pdf).

New (1/10/07) - Audio & Minutes, Nov. 21st Council Meeting & Hearings

New (1/10/07) - Updated Agenda and Audio Main webpages

New (1/10/07) - 6:30-9 PM Jan. 24th Marketing/"Branding" workshop at the Galaxy Theatre (in Word) - (This is an event sponsored by the City of Monroe, but doubtless the City of Sultan, the Sky Valley Chamber of Commerce and merchants up and down the Valley can benefit.)

NEW & Updated Jan. 10th - A letter sent to us signed only as "Dave, Sky Valley resident" -- He did call us (as we had requested on this website several days ago) and identified himself. He has close ties to Sultan and he lives in Startup. He also has solid reasons for wishing not to divulge his true identity. We were satisfied as to the validity of his information and intentions, so we have decided to publish it.

Dave's letter was in response to a 12/28 unattributed article about Sultan's "crime wave" and the SPD, printed in the Boucher's(s') Valley Review, which is an unattributed publication.**

**Unattributed: Most articles in this "news"paper are unattributed. Aside from an email address and phone number, this publication does not:

• identify the Publisher (who's footing/paying the bills)
• identify the Editor (who decides on the content, in conjunction with the Publisher's guidelines, and makes the day-to-day decisions)
• identify the legal address for the corporate entity (and whether it is a corporation, sole proprietorship or other legal organizational info)
• identify its circulation or subscriber info

Even six-year-old ittakesgrit.org, what our opponents consider a "fly-by-night" online publication, complies with these basic newspaper subscriber/circulation guidelines. We do not specifically identify the author of our articles because -- with very few exceptions, such as Joe Beaver's Gold Bar reports or other articles/comments given attribution to others -- it is authored by webmaster L. Storm (who, along with Ray Kistenmacher, is co-founder of G.R.I.T., and whose contact information appears at the bottom of our home page).

In the absence of funding source or circulation information, imagination takes flight, especially when one considers Mr. Boucher's lifelong affiliation with members of Sultan's Old Guard, many of them quoted in the 12/28 "Sultan's crime wave" article

One last thing: Although we were pleased to see that Boucher printed the image of the U. S. 2 Safety Coalition's new bumper stickers/window decals (now available through the U. S. 2 Safety Coalition) -- this was printed at the end of "The Outdoor Guy's" opinion piece re U. S. 2 safety -- it would have been appropriate to share attribution for the source of that image, which was lifted either from G.R.I.T. or the Coalition's website. More disappointing, however, is the fact that Boucher purposefully failed to mention that it was a bumper sticker at all, or that citizens could obtain that sticker through the Coalition to place on thier cars.

NEW & Updated! Due to the over-abundance of quotes from long-time, known anti-police sources and others who are closely-related to the Boucher Clan in 12/28's Valley Review, we asked Sultan Councilman Jim Flower, who has been a stalwart supporter of the police, as are we, whether he was asked by Boucher for a quote for his article. Below is Flower's response, which he said we could publish. (Our thanks to councilman Flower for his steadfast support of the police.) Jan. 10, 2006 Update: During Mr. Flower's recent visit with Dusty Boucher, Mr. Boucher told FLower that he had emailed him an invitation to comment, but that the email had been lost. We are attempting to determine whether, and how, the Valley Review canvassed the other council members to obtain their comment and will report our results in a couple of days.

Councilmember Flower's candid reaction/response to us, prior to learning that Mr. Boucher's soliciation email had gotten "lost in the mail."

"In a word, "yes". Dusty requested a qoute, in 50 words or less, on my views concerning the issues in the article. After some thought, I responded, choosing my words carefully.

Out came the paper, no mention. I can only surmise that:
A) he did not agree,
B) my counterpoint to his editorial view was a little too eloquent, and
C) this is an election year, and I expect that he will attempt to have some influence in the coming months.

Concerning the salary issue, please keep in mind that the discussion revolves around the position, not the person. To attract and retain quality people for leadership positions, our policy of compensation should at least be market value. That's just good business sense.

We were submitted a draft budget for approval, a budget that was balanced enough to include an unencumbered fund balance as well as the Chief's salary inrease.

That being said, I believe the Council reacted to political pressure, not economics."

(Posted 12/31) City's 2007 Fee Schedule (in pdf only, 309 kb) (G.R.I.T.'s Fee Schedule Main Page - updated to include 2006's.)

New (posted 12/29) Galt's Recommendation on Ramirez's Twin Rivers Estate plat application (remanded version) and an updated Ramirez plat webpage

New (Posted 12/29) FULL AUDIO & SUMMARY of Ramirez's Nov. 30, 2006 John Galt Hearing on Ramirez's Twin River Estates

Updated 12/29:

• Hearing Examiner John Galt's Recommendations webpage
• A stroll through our Archives: revamped & updated "old" pages: Willow Run Galt Appeals webpage, Bob Broughton's Short Plat webpage, Wagley LID 97-1 webpage.
• And speaking of the LID 97-1, whatever happened to the compensatory wetland mitigation ordered by DOE (Dept. of Ecology) back in 2000? (in Word)

(posted 12/22) - STATE AUDITOR'S REPORT for year ending 2005, and State Audit Report Status of Accountability (of previously-reported findings)

Did you know? U. S. 2 at Kelsey Street gets 42,938 average vehicles per weekday and 36,063 per weekend. By way of comparison, the Alaskan Way Viaduct has 115,000 average per day.

(posted 12/22) Sultan Planning Board Minutes from Dec. 5, 2006 meeting (in Word, pdf)

(posted 12/22) NOTICE FROM CITY OF SULTAN re FEMA info on Flood-related damage (in Word)

NEW - (posted Mon. 12/18) - Sultan to "grow" by 100 acres, 60 acres of which is located north of 124th Street at its western dead-end, land on which the City has been working with a consortium of developers to build 200 single family homes. The County Council has final approval on whether or not this land will be added to Sultan's current UGA [Urban Growth Area] and if you'd like to contact the County Council to offer your opinion on this or would like additional information on this subject, check out of G.R.I.T. 12/12/06 update (located below the US 2 Safetey Coalition bumper sticker)

Bumper/window Stickers are available now. Visit the Coalition's website or send them an email. These stickers are offered free of charge, although donations would be gratefully received.

Posted 12/13/06; UPDATED Monday, 12/18- Ex. A to Sultan Resolution 06-17 re PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN (This Plan has never received a hearing.) in Word, pdf (This item is an Action item at tomorrow's 12/14 Sultan Council Meeting.) 12/18 UPDATE: Kudos to City Attorney Cheryl Beyer and new City Administrator Deborah Knight for advising the city to PULL this item from the council agenda and bring it back to SQUARE ONE. This will go to the Planning Board for a hearing to begin the process of gaining input on Sultan's PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN (i.e., how the city should communicate with its citizens in the future).

Posted/update 12/12/06 - RE 12/11 County Council UGA Remand Hearing (see below for details): L. Storm testified against the 60-acre annexation, as did a number of other citizens (Josie Fallgatter, Stan Heydrick, Kerry Ourada, Jean Roberts). Testifying on behalf of these city annexations were Mayor Ben Tolson, Developer Neil Latta, Tim Albers, Reid Shockey(Sultan consultant); also attending were City Planner Rick Cisar, and others.

Posted on Monday, 12/11 - 3:00 - 6:30 PM - County Council hearing - This link will take you to the complete GMA/County Comp plan amendment docket table. The specifics for Sultan are the last items on the agenda. However, citizen testimony has traditionally been taken in the order their names appear on the county's sign-in sheets. You can access our direct linksto two proposals for Sultan lands being considered for UGA expansion;Proposal 3-A - Ttext (and map), 40 acres at SBR/132nd St. and Proposal 3B-text and map, 60 acres north of 124th St. SE. The City is aggressively wanting to build 200 homes or more on Proposal 3B, despite the lack of sewer lines at that location, and that the proposal's only vehicle access is by leaving the city limits at 132nd/SBR and traveling one mile on county roads. This annexation and future development is a very, very bad idea. Re Proposal 3-A, the 40-acres at 132nd and SBR, we would cetainly support this UGA enlargement if it is conditioned upon the City bringing the LOS for both police and parks into compliance with its CP.

During the 12/6 council meeting: The council approved a new CFP (Capital Facilities Plan) and passed the 2007 budget as amended on a first reading (2nd reading next Thursday, 12/14). Amendments to the budget: Added $3,000 to code encorcement for public education re animal control

Another amendment was to reduce Mayor Tolson's recommendation to increase the salary for the police chief by 20% in 2007, downgrading it to a 10% increase in 2007 with another 10% increase in 2008, both of which include COLA increases. In the last several years, Chief Walser has received only COLA increases, while trying to hold the city's police department together with sealing wax and bailing wire and his bare hands, working countless overtime shifts, weekends and holidays and with outdated equipment and skeleton staffs. Meanwhile, the city's "economic development" department has sunk an I.V. into the city finances, draining them via excessive legal bills -- more than twice the 2006 budgeted amount -- needed to defend incompetent or poor plat and land use decisions (and lack of Comp Plan knowledge), and via signifficant and excessive (but needless) staff time required for countless "redos" of previous decisions. (Here's a statement I made on this webpage last March that's even more appropriate today: "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."

I fear Sultan may lose its chief. And who could blame him for leaving? I hope I am wrong. Because Fred Walser is significantly more than a "police chief": He is also a mentor to countless kids and citizens, a tireless advocate for children through his support of the Boys and Girls club, Safe Stop, an officer in the schools and as a leader of the Sultan skateboard park, as well as a champion of an endless number and type of issues and causes, a true Friend of the People.. If Sultan loses the Chief, that loss will run deep and wide throughout Sultan and the entire Sky Valley.

Only John Seehuus and Jim Flower supported the higher salary for the Chief, voting against that amendment. Thank you, Gentlemen, for understanding that security cannot be maintained by cutting back on police while simultaneously increasing the City's population, a known financial drain because of the need for improved and new infrastructure. (Councilman Seehuus was eloquent in his strong recommendation to establish salary ranges for all salaried employees, and Jim Flower, Kristina Blair and Derek Boyd echoed John's comments.)

(Posted 11/15/06)- AUDIO - 8.3 mb MP3 file- John Galt's hearing on Vodnick's Plat Application "remand" (which was handled as a new application with a new vesting date, but with (mostly) all the old documentation. Mr. Galt's questions to the City and the applicant as to "new" v. "remand" and vesting date application issues occurred during the first few minutes of the hearing. The applicant's presentation begins at approx. 13-min; Galt's questions re concurrency begins at the (approx.) 20-min. point (directly following the applicant's presentation). The hearing only lasted about 40 min. (GALT RECOMMENDATIONS ON VODNICK PLAT 11-17-06)

(Posted 11/13/06)SULTAN BUDGET DOCUMENTS as presented at its Nov. 2nd workshop (which had no council quorum):

General Ledger (YTD through Sept., 2006) in pdf (384 kb)- What an amazing improvement this is from the manner in which budgeting and financial data has been presented since time immemorial in Sultan. Kudos to Mayor Tolson and the City Council for making this long-needed changeover! (In addition to being easy to read and understand, this new financial software (from Sprinbrook) should protect the city from financial "irregularities.")

2004 - 2007 Budget (in pdf. 247 kb) - Contains 2004 and 2005 Actuals, the 2006 adopted budget, and requested budget for 2007.

Note: Unfortunately, we do not have the audio of this workshop, as we were unable to attend that evening. We did request the City's digital audio of the workshop from Clerk Laura Koenig. We wwere advised that it was not the city's "practice" to record workshops, thus, audio from the city's new (and expensive) MP3 digital audio system cannot be shared with the public. (Here's our emailed communication, in Word)

FOR PREVOUS ARTICLES & HOME PAGES....

CAN BE FOUND IN ARCHIVES - If you're looking for a previous article or legal, etc., Google it at the top of our page

Here's an appropriate sentiment for taxpayers' T-shirts:
"Representation by Litigation"

"Put down the bag of potato chips and step away from the TV!" In other words, unplug yourself from your "TV I.V." and GET INVOLVED! The world moves fast, but don't be confused. Just take it one hearing and meeting at a time: Attend them,, speak your mind and your heart, ask questions and you will soon be making a difference. Tell your city officials what you want (and don't want). There are no stupid questions, and NO ONE will laugh at you or what you have to say. These are YOUR tax dollars, and you have a say in how they are spent. The only time your voice doesn't count is when you don't use it...

From the Washington State Public Disclosure 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 Disclosure/Information Request) This website is designed and maintained by non-paid volunteers for the purpose of providing public documents, news, information and audio of city meetings and hearings to taxpayers and citizens who otherwise would have little or no knowledge of the events going on in Sultan. Contact us if you want a MP3 audio file not posted on our website on CD; or if you want to know more or would like to volunteer your time to help us sculpt Sultan's future. Quotes we just happen to agree with: (attributed to Edmund Burke (1729-1797), an Irish philosopher and statesman) "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."

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

City of Sultan 2007 Schedule (Garbage, etc.) (in pdf)

Mayor Ben Tolson

City Administrator Deborah Knight

City Councilmembers (see below links)

City Clerk Laura Koenig (for council agenda and Public Info requests)

Community Development Director Rick Cisar

Public Works Director Connie Dunn

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS (most council members' mailboxes are almost always full):

Kristina Blair
Derek Boyd
Bruce Champeaux (does not wish to use email)
Jim Flower
John Seehuus
Steve Slawson
Ron Wiediger

EMAIL ADDRESS The "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

PLANNING BOARD: (Established June, 2006) Their first official meeting was July 11, 2006. For information on Sultan's previous planning entity -- called the "Planning Commission," disbanded in early 2006, click here.):

Chairman Kurt Latimore

Board member Jeff Cofer

Board Member Sarah Davenport-Smith

Board Member George Schmidt

Board Member Charles Van Pelt

NOTE: We are keeping the below note regarding Sultan's PLANNING COMMISSION on this website for a little while longer to remind folks of either the backdoor shenanigans of the City of Sultan or its incompetence (one of the two must be true).
As of the 2/8/06 via Ord. 904-06, Sultan's PC duties were placed in the hands of the city council, which will be acting as its own PC. However, during their first meeting, it was determined that they did not have the time to fulfill this role. The City is currently seeking NEW APPLICANTS to serve on a NEW Planning "Board." if interested, contact city hall at 360-793-2231 or visit their website: www.ci.sultan.wa.us

Prior to its Jan., 2006 disbandment, the PC consisted of the following individuals, with two positions vacant):
Bart Dalmasso (resigned just prior to disbandment, and urged that the PC be dissolved)
Josie Fallgatter
Ray George (term expired, not reappointed)
Tom Green (term expired, not reappointed)
Jeff Kirkman