One of the claims made by Mr. Coy who seems to be acting on behalf of Mayor Rowe and his friends who support unlimited and unregulated development, is that there was no factual basis for certain of the claims made against Mr. Rowe and Mr. Porter. Consider the following:

With respect to the so-called "Indian Land" Mr. Rowe has tried to claim that it is not subject to local regulation for the very reason that it is in fact "Indian Land." What he has not told anyone until now is that when he and Mr. Koehler decided to improve it they agreed with the sellers through the Bureau of Indian affairs that they would comply with such regulations. Mr. Rowe has hidden that fact until he was forced disclose the agreements relating to the land to Judge Cowsert last week.

Attached is a copy of the agreement Mr. Rowe and Mr. Koehler signed in 1994 when they first began the process of development of the land. Take a close look at the first two paragraphs. The first two clauses of the agreement make it plain that they were expected to comply with all state and local regulations. That would include, of course, all zoning and subdivision laws as well as the laws relating to taxation. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that they have been trying to get out of the cost of complying with the subdivision and environmental laws as well as the taxes on the land.

Note that they never bothered to tell the city about this agreement when they started development and have continued to claim that they are exempt as evidenced by the statements made by their PR man, Mr. Coy. Based on this information it would be very easy to rewrite the allegations against Mr. Rowe in a way that would be factually sufficient to result in more recall charges against him. But why bother. The allegations that have been upheld are serious enough and give the people of Sultan the opportunity to determine for themselves whether Mr. Rowe and Mr. Porter are at the center of a corrupt administration.

The second item that should be addressed is one of the items in the list of allegations that were approved by Judge Cowsert. It relates to the choice of the ESA Consultant. Mr. Coy and the anonymous persons who are shilling for Mayor Rowe keep saying that the choice of Mr. Porter’s friend as the consultant would result in a savings of $50,000 Dollars. But what about the cost of the salmon hatchery they are proposing?. That silly notion has been pushed by them for several years but they have never stepped forward with a business plan that would show that the program would not cost the taxpayers a bundle of money. The fact is that they want the taxpayers to subsidize a salmon hatchery so that the stream set-backs on their own property would be minimized. That would mean, of course, that they could get more for their properties when they sold them for development. It does not take much to figure out that the effect is moving money from the pocket of the taxpayers to Mr. Rowe and Mr. Porter and their friends who own those lands.