Make our Kirkland City Council craft an acceptable bond plan to fund the ARC | Letter
Published 9:24 am Monday, October 19, 2015
Voters should evaluate Prop. 1 by two criterion: 1) checks and balances, and 2) trust. In Prop. 1, we are being asked to grant the Kirkland City Council the authority to tax us, as they see fit, in perpetuity (i.e., forever), to build and fund the aquatics center. There is no ceiling imposed on the Council regardless of any aquatics center requirements creep or cost overruns. There will be no checks or balances on the spending that the Council may choose to make. Just on this point, is this a smart move for tax payers/voters? Will our Council spend our hard earned dollars as frugally and wisely as we would hope? Should we have to rely on hope? I propose no.
Having an unbounded budget for such a project is imprudent and unnecessary. There are other alternatives to fund the ARC such as a voter approved park bond which would authorize a specific dollar amount that cannot be exceeded. If costs overrun or the requirements creep, the Council would have to come back to the electorate and explain what happened and put forth another bond proposal that voters would need to approve through a referendum – this is the traditional way to authorize projects such as the ARC.
Now, trust – can we trust the Council? This is the same Council that solicited Kirkland residents for their opinion on whether to ban plastic bags in our stores and then decided to ignore the result when it went against their preferences – almost 70 percent of residents polled rejected a plastic bag ban. But our Council decided that it knew better than the electorate and opted to enact the ban, which will be effective next March. This Council has proven itself to be less than trustworthy by this action.
I am not in objection to the ARC itself; it’s the carte blanche authority that Prop. 1 provides the Council that is wrongheaded and sets a bad precedent. We need to be wise and informed voters. We cannot give the Council a blank check and trust that we will receive either accountability or a good result. Let’s make our Kirkland City Council craft an acceptable and accountable bond plan to fund the ARC. Please vote no on Prop. 1.
Bill Goggins, Kirkland
