Court appeal not a viable option for most people | Letter to the Editor

Published 10:09 am Friday, February 24, 2012

I am writing in reference to the Jan. 6 Redmond Reporter article “Council sticks to tree-removal decision on Overlake plan (Group Health).”  This is the article that describes the current City Council’s decision to allow a developer to eliminate more than 1,100 trees in Overlake for a mixed-use development, even though the citizens have voiced their strong objection.

While we certainly value our natural resources here in the Pacific Northwest, the thing that was most disturbing about this article were the comments made by Council President Pat Vache.

Vache remarked that people can appeal the decision through the Washington state’s King County Superior Court. Unfortunately, most of the public affected by Mayor Marchione/Council’s decision do not have the viable means to take such reactive measures that far.

The approach with the most common sense is for Mayor/Council to proactively accept citizen input instead of hiding behind the complexity of the court system to justify their decisions.

While the views of these citizens go unheard without going through the Superior Court, Vache and Mayor Marchione continue to demonstrate that the only voices they listen to are from the business development community that continues to nourish them.

Marchione continues to receive strong political support while Vache continues to benefit from the flat Business Head Tax for his business (he voted for twice), which according to 2007 estimates was half of the equivalent of the Bellevue tax.

Like spoiled milk, Vache was best served years ago. Having curdled on the council from 1981 to 1989, and then again in 2003, Vache’s expiration date has come and gone. Fortunately, he is up for re-election next year and hopefully the citizens of Redmond will replace him with someone else — that is if their appeal of the Overlake development decision to the Supreme Court isn’t taking too much of their spare time.

Jim Robinson, Former Redmond City Council member