On Wednesday, December 9th at 10:00am, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio 94.9 FM, will be hosting a discussion about “the benefits and failures of annexing.” The Kirkland City Council is considering annexing the neighborhoods of Kingsgate, Upper Juanita and Finn Hill, all of which lie in unincorporated King County.
From the program description:
Eastside residents recently considered incorporating three small neighborhoods into Kirkland. The annexation came up just .06 percent shy of the 60 percent needed to pass. Proponents could still force the issue through the City Council. What are the benefits and failures of annexing?
At 10:16am, current story on KUOW 94.9 FM is global warming. Annexation still to come.
You can listen live on your computer too.
KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio 94.9 FM
It is important to note that annexation did not fail, the assumption of the bonded debt did. An annexation needs 50% +1 vote to pass. At least half of Kirkland’s previous annexations did not assume existing bonded debt.
Also, to say “Proponents could still force the issue through the city council” is misleading. The council voted 5-2 to put the issue on the ballot. The proponents (I am one) are asking to council to accept the vote of the PAA on annexation. If they had not included the debt assumption as part of the measure, the annexation probably would have passed by an even greater margin. Any candidate would love to receive the vote totals annexation received.
It was also misleading to call my viewpoints a “rejection of democracy” on air… but then so is the notion of seven people deciding an issue a clause that wasn’t written into the explanatory statement in the ballot.
Don’t be so sure about the debt cutting your margin of victory down to one of ballot measure failure. It’s a nice excuse, but its far from the only reason people voted no.