In the week and days before Independence Day (July 4th), my Shorewood on the Bluff (SOB for short) neighborhood resounded with explosions. Being the curmudgeonly sort, I strolled the area engaging neighbors as I dared about fireworks.

My question always was: “Did you know fireworks are prohibited in Burien?” “Whaaat the F***?” was a common reply (along with suggestions about my relationship to my mother). Many said the city can’t tell them what to do. Yea, I’m noticing. So, I asked about opinions on the public vote to ban fireworks. The common reply was, “Well, I didn’t vote for that.”

The bottom line seemed to be that “I’m gonna do what I want to and ‘they’ can’t stop me;” or “I didn’t vote for the ban so #$%@ (expletive) the city.” It was an interesting survey…and a noisy few days. The debris littered the streets afterward.

One person had actually been at the city council meeting where one councilmember forced the police chief on camera to make instant public policy and carve out an exception (minors won’t be cited) that isn’t in the law. As this neighbor said: “I’ll just hand the rockets to my kid if the police drop by.” Success, someone who pays some attention to the city council.

Anyway, the level of law abiding in my SOB neighborhood was as minimal as Shorewood on the Sound (SOTS), Maplewild and 3 Tree Point (the Gold Coast) — areas I can see from my deck. The poor weather did nothing to dampen patriotic enthusiasm to celebrate our Nation’s Independence Day — I’m just positive that was what they were celebrating even though a significant number don’t actually vote.

Yes, Independence Day 2010 proved once again that the United States is a nation of laws — provided I agree with those laws.

-Stephen Lamphear

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Have something you'd like to say? Then email a "Letter to the Editor" by clicking here. Be sure to include your real name and a way to contact you, and, pending our review, we'll most likely post it. Otherwise, feel free to leave a Comment below...]

If any of you are still awake after last year’s election goofiness, well it’s starting again.

The November 2009 Burien ballot included a proposal for a $25 vehicle license fee to pay for road improvements. It was hidden under a fully-owned subsidiary called the Transportation Benefit District.

I loudly opposed the license fee in print and blog. Then the vote was nearly 75% AGAINST the license fee. Apparently, rejection doesn’t bother this council. Apparently, the Burien City Council has forgotten the landslide support for $30 license tabs?

After the resounding defeat of this “hand in your wallet”, I predicted the Council would be back with a license fee that did NOT require voter approval. And here it is. I really hate to be right.

So, on April 26th, the Council voted to impose a vehicles license fee that DOES NOT require voter approval. Under the law authorizing the fully-owned subsidiaries called Transportation Benefit Districts, a public hearing is required to impose a fee – even one that doesn’t require voter approval. That hearing is a mere formality. If you have a comment, it is also just a formality. The council has already decided to impose the license fee. This time the fee is $10 – why $10? Two reasons: they can impose it without voter approval, and you are unlikely to make an issue about $10. Talk about cynical.

Last fall, the license fee would not have been assessed on vehicle owners in the yet-to-be-annexed North Highline area – they were not yet Burien citizens. Now that those 15,000 folks are proud Burien citizens and will be subject to the license fee.

So, the mere formality hearing is scheduled for June 21st. I urge the 75% of voters who rejected the $25 license fee to also reject the $10 license fee. Show up and be heard. If the council adopts the license fee despite overwhelming opposition (it’s a tradition with the Burien Council) surely the public outrage will be enough to force a vote through citizen referendum. We did that in 1996 to repeal the city’s first utility tax: we can do it again.

- Stephen Lamphear
Burien Councilmember 1998-2005

Burien’s proposed vehicle license fee went down to a resounding defeat (75% voted no) NOT because voters don’t think sidewalks and bike routes are good things.

It went down because it was wrong-headed.

Regardless of the resounding defeat, the city council still has the power to impose a $20 annual license fee without voter approval. Will the council defy the voters to impose this fee anyway?

And don’t forget, any neighborhood in need of improvements can form a Local Improvement District (LID) to assess itself for street improvements (the city will help with that). Broad improvements are obviously a responsibility of the larger community (check your City Light bill for the costs of undergrounding utilities in the First Avenue improvement area).

I believe the residents, voters and taxpayers (not always the same people) of Burien want a shiny, people friendly community. I believe Burien voters and taxpayers (often the same people) are not selfish, stingy, or mean-spirited. I believe the taxpayers (including those most able to pay) of Burien appreciate their obligation to the greater good of the community. We are not all about ourselves.

Later this year, the city council may be talking about a possible general property tax increase in 2010. Perhaps it was thoughtless to schedule that discussion with a revenue increase lurking on the current ballot. Having lost the current measure, the council should take some time to reconnect with the community. With 3 of 4 council seats uncontested in this election, there is a disconnect.

I am confident the people of Burien are supportive of maintaining quality public services; provided the council is clear about the need, has implemented noticeable and substantive cost-reduction and efficiency strategies, and sticks to the basics like the rest of us.

Everyone who lives in Burien is our neighbor and we are our brother’s keeper. We should all pitch in to make sure we have the community we want. Please get out and sweep the streets to keep the drains clear. Thank you.

- Stephen Lamphear

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Have something you'd like to say? Then email us your "Letter to the Editor" by clicking here. Be sure to include your real name and a way to contact you, and, pending our review (for libel, etc.), we'll most likely post it. Otherwise, feel free to leave a Comment below...]

Dear Editor –

The city of Burien is proposing a new $25 yearly vehicle license fee. Looking at your Voters Pamphlet, you won’t find this proposal connected to the city of Burien. In fact, you have to thumb all the way to page 100 — end of the Voters Pamphlet — to find it. You will not find the word Burien anywhere in the ballot title. Instead, you will find Transportation Benefit District No.1, Proposition No.1 — yet this is strictly a city revenue proposal. A stealth move if ever I saw one.

For two reasons I cannot support this measure.

First of all, the $25 license fee is a regressive tax that, like utility taxes, hits our working families and lower income people the hardest. Since this is a “fee” — not an excise tax — it is not even deductible on federal income taxes.

If these bicycle and sidewalk improvements are necessary at a time of broad personal economic hardship, there are fairer ways to raise the money. The most obvious, fairer way to raise public money is a voter-approved special property tax levy. At least property taxes are deductible on federal income taxes and more directly affect people of means — also, it calls a duck a duck.

Secondly, having the Transit Benefit District boardmembers the same as the city council is merely “left pocket, right pocket”. I might support a TBD if we were also electing independent commissioners, as is being done for the proposed Des Moines Pool District. I’d rather have independent input on special projects and taxes. However, the interlocking board of directors/councilmembers makes this little more than a work-around for the city council to raise taxes without their name on the price tag: “The council didn’t raise taxes, the TBD did it.”

While, I can afford the $25 for this ill-conceived proposal to improve the community, the working family down the street with 4 cars (everyone works) will have to pony up $100 — money they can ill-afford and not deduct on income taxes. Businesses will also pay this fee and pass it on in higher prices.

Yes, we totally need safe streets: safe for children to walk to school, safe for bicycles. This is not the way to do it. Vote NO on Transportation Benefit District No.1, Proposition No.1. When doing the right thing, you also have to do the thing right.

Stephen Lamphear
North Shorewood

(Stephen Lamphear is a longtime Burien resident, former City Councilmember and frequent Contributor to The B-Town Blog. Read more of his writing here.)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Have something you'd like to say? Then email us a Letter to the Editor by clicking here, and pending our review (for libel, etc.), we'll most likely post it.]

On Tuesday (Sept. 29th), I saw my first “Reject 71″ yard sign in Burien at First Ave South and SW 148th. In addition to the racial/cultural hate that runs just under the surface in most suburban communities, we have the religious/lifestyle haters coming out of the closet.

When I moved to this community in 1991, the big local news story was Nazi skinheads targeting Jews in the neighborhood I’d chosen. Oh, great — not only am I gay, but Jewish, too!

Burien incorporated in 1993 and we lost all the equal rights protections we’d had as part of unincorporated King County. When I was elected to the city council in 1997 (openly gay), I protested that I could be fired from a job in a town where I made the laws. I was not going to take that as fact.

So, I set a goal of equal rights and equality in my town. In 2001, Burien became the first suburban city to provide domestic partnership benefits to all partnered city employees (only str8s signed up). Then in 2004, Burien adopted a comprehensive anti-discrimination ordinance that is stronger than state law. No one can be discriminated against, for no reason — period.

After all that work to bring equal rights and fairness to my city, it angers me to see haters plant their flag in my town. Treat your neighbors like family, because they are — Approve R-71.

For those of you unfamiliar with this issue, here’s the language that will be used on the Nov. 3rd ballot:

The legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5688 concerning rights and responsibilities of state-registered domestic partners and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill.

This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations accorded state-registered same-sex and senior domestic partners to be equivalent to those of married spouses, except that a domestic partnership is not a marriage.

Should this bill be:
[ ] Approved
[ ] Rejected

(Stephen Lamphear is a longtime Burien resident and former City Councilmember. Read more of his writing here.)

[EDITOR'S NOTE: We welcome all opinions, and publish pertinent ones at our discretion. As always, all Readers are encouraged to either email us their thoughts, or Comment below. What do YOU think of "Referendum 71"?]

by Stephen Lamphear

Attention North Highline Annexation Voters: your Voters Pamphlet contains a steamy, smelly pile of bovine fecal matter about annexation to Burien. Here are some of the dung piles dropped by opponent Mark Ufkes:

Pile #1 — Mr. Ufkes does not live in the voting area – he is not affected by the annexation vote. [full disclosure: I, too, do not live in the voting area, but as a Burien resident will be affected by your vote.]

Pile #2 — The Westwood Village and White Center areas are not included in the voting area, but I’m sure you can find a particular home in N. Burien that is valued lower than a particular home in Westwood. So? Truth is: the homes in unincorporated North Shorewood, Salmon Creek and Boulevard Park (neighborhoods within the voting area) are similar to their long-time N. Burien neighbors’ homes.

Pile #3 — Mr. Ufkes has been a vocal critic of the North Highline Fire Department. That despite the huge satisfaction level of residents. The city of Burien does not provide fire services. All of Burien and North Highline are served by independent Fire Districts — you elect Commissioners who set policies and standards. You will continue to be served by Fire Commissioners you elect, and control taxes for fire services.

Above is Mark Ufkes' "Statement Against" Annexation from the Voter's Pamphlet.

Pile #4 — Burien has no plans to hire more police officers AT THIS TIME because it’s not necessary. Burien and North Highline share police services provided by King County. That will continue after annexation. The size of Burien’s police force will always depend on need.

Pile #5 — Burien has no budget deficit — in the state of Washington, all governments are required by law to have balanced budgets; Burien always has. What Burien doesn’t have is debt – it has operated as a cash basis city.

Pile #6 — If Burien decides to build a new community center with a new tax, the law requires voters to approve any such new tax. There is no new tax on the horizon.

Pile #7 — The is no such thing as a Burien downtown fire department tax for Town Square. Town Square is a private development. No taxes have been or will be used for this private project. There is also no massive property tax giveaway to potential Town Square residents.

Pile #8 — There is no factual evidence that property values have any relationship to your address. Property values are simply the value of your property compared to similar properties in a similar neighborhood. Fire services are also not related to your property value — a mansion gets the same fire truck, the same emergency medical team, as does a modest bungalow. Voters set the level of taxes for fire services.

An 8-year former Burien City Councilmember, I live 4 blocks from the proposed annexation area. I’m anxious to re-unite with my neighbors under one government that promotes strong single family neighborhoods rather than the rampant multifamily projects favored by King County and Seattle. Vote ‘YES’ on annexation.

Stephen Lamphear
North Shorewood

[EDITOR'S NOTE: We welcome all opinions, and publish pertinent ones at our discretion. We advise all residents in the North Highline area to read as much as they can about the upcoming Aug. 18th Annexation vote, and decide for themselves whether they want to become a part of Burien or not. As always, Readers are encouraged to either email us their thoughts, or Comment below...]