Editor; Redmond Reporter:
On February 6, 2007, a special election will be held asking taxpayers living in the unincorporated areas east and north of Redmond to increase their fire district tax levy rate more than 36% from $1.10 to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. I am writing to urge voters to reject this proposal for the following reasons.
Thirteen months ago I became a member of the district's Citizens' Advisory Committee formed to study the closing of Fire Station 15 located in the south end of the district, near the extremely dangerous Redmond Fall City Highway, Alcott School and just west of Albertson's. The main thing this committee member learned is how this fire district operates autonomously and secretly and often seemingly not-in-compliance with Washington state law. Hopefully, much of this questionable behavior will hopefully change as our state begins the Performance Audits enacted by our legislature in Olympia during its last session. In fairness, below are some deficiencies that should concern the taxpayers and voters.
The main thing this committee member learned is how this fire district operates autonomously and secretly and often seemingly not-in-compliance with Washington state law.
As I write this on January 18th, the tax increase measure as it is to appear on the ballot does not have any explanation as to what the new taxes are to be used for and the King County Elections Office included this disclaimer to protect their elections department and their personnel, "This fire protection district did not request a voters' pamphlet." The ballot measure itself mentions that, "The Board of Commissioners of King County Fire Protection District No. 34 adopted Resolution No. 225/06 to finance fire and emergency services." However, that Resolution does not appear anywhere on the District's website and the Minutes of meetings listed there fail to mention the Resolution and/or its adoption. Similarly, the Minutes of the Board's meeting of October 17, 2006, mention that the Board approved the Minutes of meetings held on September 19 and 21, 2006, but those minutes are not posted.
Likewise, we have no reason to believe District 34 is following Section RCW 52.33.030 which is a policy statement regarding Service delivery objectives and also specifies the written statements and policies required of fire protection districts which shall include specific response time objectives. As far as we know, the only state mandated report the District submits is an annual financial statement.
On the subject of closing Station 15, the Commissioners transferred its personnel and apparatus to a new Station 18 located in Redmond Ridge on the north end of the district because one of the commissioners convinced the other two commissioners that Station 15, located on the southern border of the district is in an ineffective location for servicing the district as a whole. But yet, it was bizarre statements like this that were read to residents of the district as part of an "independent" telephone survey conducted in the Summer of last year. His opinion is equally absurd as were they to build one huge fire station on the epicenter of the district. And the fact of the matter is that when one looks at a map of the District it is immediately obvious that all of its stations are located near the edges of the District!
Another falsehood that the telephone survey people told to respondents was that the Citizens' Committee suggested a tax increase to fund and operate four rather than the present three stations, when in reality we suggested four as an alternate to our main recommendation which was to close Station 13. One of our main reasons to close Station 13 is that it is an unfair financial liability to District 34 taxpayers because about two-thirds of its emergency response calls are to deal with the mayhem and carnage that is Avondale Road NE located in the City of Redmond which, for some strange reason, only reimburses District 34 about one-third of Station 13's operating costs. At this point, I'm tempted to make some snarky remark such as, "go figure"; but the background reason for this is that Redmond procrastinates year after year after year in building and operating their supposedly planned new Fire Station 17 to be located on NE 116th Street very close to Avondale Road. Preposterous as it seems, Redmond found almost $40,000,000 to build an opulent, if not majestic, new city hall instead of a measly and much-needed Fire Station 17. In addition to Redmond's Avondale problem, this leaves people living in the north end of Redmond with the issue of living with less than desireable emergency responmse times. Go figure!
Confused? I am too. That's why I suggest voting NO on Proposition No. 1 for KCFPD 34.
Ken Jauch, Redmond