The city of Kent’s new surplus ordinance prepared for City Council approval on May 17 looks nothing like the tired and proven city of Renton’s 2004 surplus policy and procedure, a comparison City Attorney Tom Brubaker said was the best example for the operations committee to reference as the city tries to recover from the $800,000 Pine Tree Park debacle.
Our surplus ordinance does not require a recent appraisal to set value. There is no competitive process to market for highest bid, but it continues to allow our Economic Community Development Department the ability to sell selectively to whomever they want at whatever price. Rest assured, the council gives final approval for sales agreements, like Pine Tree Park.
We will not get a public “hearing” before surplus, but what our city staff call a much more flexible public “meeting.” This meeting notice is 15 days before they sell the property. A “hearing” in Renton is 60 days before they can declare the property surplus and always must be published.
The original draft outline did not require any published notice in the local newspaper, but Council President Bill Boyce pressured to add one notice of the meeting in the Kent Reporter. Our 15-day notice could result in a day between a meeting and a sold sign.
There is no language for where surplus proceeds go. In Renton, if they sell park land, they have a no net-loss park land policy that reinvests proceeds so park land in not diminished. In Kent, they could sell park land and spend it on anything.
In Kent, without a surplus ordinance, our parcels declared surplus in the past by staff have been sold in executive session under property negotiations, a clear misuse of the executive session.
The first test for this “flexible” surplus ordinance, which the council now has on its other business for the 17th, will be the surplus of the 7-acre downtown Naden property, a past city RV park.
I’ve been told the Naden proceeds will go toward parks improvement. More net loss for park land, more freedom for city staff to choose how our treasury is spent with council’s approval.
– Sandi Lynden
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