Community Update

Well, the City of Shoreline got their legislative way after all with respect to Point Wells annexation. Things looked dire for them on June 10, according to the draft minutes of their Workshop Dinner Meeting, held off-camera, off-mic, off in the conference room adjacent to the Council Chamber:<br> "2013 Legislative Session Recap -- Mr. MacColl summarized what happened with SB 5417 and HB 1539. He reported that he was in Olympia earlier in the day for a public hearing on HB 2068 but learned it was cancelled. Councilmembers discussed what went wrong and considered options for moving forward to fix the situation. Mr. MacColl expressed his opinion that staff has exhausted options in Olympia and shared the lessons learned during this legislative session. Councilmembers discussed the expired lobbyist contract and directed staff to put out an Request For Proposal." As city residents now know, the City obviously moved forward with an amendment to the stalled HB 2068, retracting the contentious 100% contiguity requirement, reinstating the residential property owner requirement, and declaring an emergency. They conveniently left that out any hint of that in these minutes, and gave the community no heads up that they were pursuing an amendment. It is a sad state of affairs when a disenfranchised neighborhood like Richmond Beach must as a last resort ally with the Town of Woodway to thwart the mechinations of their own elected officials.