A letter sent by four Kent City Council members has created quite a storm around City Hall and violated the state’s open public meetings act.
The letter to the editor was signed by Council President Jamie Perry, council members Elizabeth Albertson, Deborah Ranniger and Debbie Raplee and was written in response to a letter to the editor written by Jim Berrios published in The Kent Reporter Oct. 7 concerning a property-tax dispute that has been roiling through the city for the past months.
The letter from the City Council members was published Oct. 21 in The Reporter as well as sent to city employees.
The tax debate has centered on $4.9 million collected by the city after the formation of the Kent Regional Fire Authority in July 2010.
The issue with the letter signed by the four City Council members is it violated the state’s open public meetings act, a violation Perry admitted during a call Tuesday to The Reporter to say she was taking responsibility for the letter.
“I made a mistake,” Perry said. “I wrote the letter and there was no discussion (in public). They (the other three council members) just decided to sign on. The letter was 100 percent me. I made a mistake. In my effort to inform the public I did it in a rush.”
Perry said she had intended to bring up the letter during the regular City Council meeting, but, “I had to leave for personal reasons. I am the type of person who owns up.”
The four signed it, which constitutes a quorum, but it was not presented or discussed in a public meeting. The letter was written by Perry and the members who signed it apparently saw it prior to the council workshop Oct. 18, but it was not presented at a meeting. If a quorum signs the letter, it must be done in open session.
In Perry’s letter she stated the purpose was to “set the record straight, not only about those taxes, but to right some false statements made by Mr. (Jim) Berrios in his letter to the editor printed in the Oct. 7 edition of The Kent Reporter.”
The letter from Perry goes on to outline her position on the property tax issue concerning the Regional Fire Authority, the fire benefit charge and declining city revenues.
The three council members who did not sign it were Dennis Higgins, Les Thomas and Ron Harmon.
Harmon stated in an interview Oct. 21 he was very unhappy the letter was sent out.
“I was not contacted, informed or asked if I wanted to sign,” Harmon said. “The most disturbing part is the employees are being used like pawns. They do not deserve this.”
Harmon said he thought the letter was a “devise used to make (city) employees fearful of layoffs.”
Harmon said he believes the tax issue “should have never gone this far. I gave the City Council information last year. It should have been dealt with then… It will not go quietly into the night as I have been asked to do.”
Harmon added from his perspective the letter is “the lowest type of politics I have seen.”
Thomas sent a response letter to the city employees after the Perry letter was emailed.
“About 95 percent of the (Perry) letter was correct, but that’s not enough,” Thomas said. “You are supposed to tell the whole truth.”
Thomas said he sent a letter to employees to state his position because he was not given an opportunity to respond to the Perry letter before it went sent. He asked that his letter not be published in the newspaper.
“I thought it was pretty tacky right before an election,” Thomas said, who is being challenged for his seat by Nancy Skorupa.
Higgins wrote a letter in response to the Perry letter that is published in this week’s edition.
He stated in a phone interview Tuesday, “It is accurate to say the (Perry) letter matches with my understanding, but doesn’t tell the whole story. I agree with parts of Jim’s (Oct. 7) letter. I think he has asked legitimate questions. The biggest problem I have is the finger pointing and denial rather then talking about it straightforward.”
Berrios wrote a letter (published in this edition) in response to the Perry letter.
During an Oct. 21 interview he stated when he wrote his first letter published Oct. 7, “I made sure when I crafted the letter I was only going to report the facts.”
Berrios said that was why he asked readers to view the Sept. 21 video of the council meeting when Harmon discussed the property tax issue.
Berrios said if the council and city staff had “presented this opportunity they have and find a way to ask taxpayers to use the money I would have said yes. I can’t answer for everyone but had they come to me and asked I would have said absolutely.”
Berrios said the roads are in bad condition and “I wouldn’t have any problem if I knew that is where it went.”
He said the issue for him is “being open and being responsible where this money goes.”
The property tax was part of an operating levy used to fund the Kent Fire Department before voters approved the merging of the department with King County Fire District 37 to become the Regional Fire Authority, which is a separate taxing entity.
State law mandated $1 per $1,000 of taxable property from the city levy would go to the fire authority. The balance remained as part of an operating levy for the city that is part of the general fund.
The levy was not a designated fund but is part of an operations fund collected by King County for the city.
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