I’ll keep this entry short and simple. I’ve been scolded by a few other elected officials (city hall and others) for not taking “their side” in their ongoing battle with Highlands Community Association. Here’s my view on that….stop it already! There should not be any sides or an on-going feud. I’ve been voting with my experience and my conscience, which happens to match many of the views of HCA in recent months. See my Highlands blogs below if you want to know why I’ve taken these positions on these issues. And I’m super-proud of my colleagues on council that have weighed the issues the same way I have, and not let personalities become the issue instead. Anyone who approaches me to tell me that I need to change my view because it came from HCA, sounds like a Hatfield telling me I can never support the idea of a McCoy. I won’t be part of this. Life is too short to spend it throwing rocks at your neighbors. And as elected officials, we have a responsibility to set positive examples, not to prolong or exacerbate pointless feuding. I trust you will all understand and support me on this.
from Inez Somerville Petersen
Randy, thank you for putting sanity and reason back on the council table.
There is a “not invented here” attitude among some of the Council and definitely among the mayor and her staff. The HCA has many good ideas, and some of them come from me. But ask the mayor to make a list of the HCA ideas she has considered and the result would be zero. She doesn’t bother to respond, and don’t look for our correspondence to be noted under “New Correspondence.” We have to come to the meeting ourselves and read our own letters into the record. That speaks volumes for what kind of mayor she is.
This feeling of distrust is so pervasive that I actually thought that the mayor had “her people” cut out some of my comments from the July 17th council meeting, when, in fact, all that happened was the taping room ran out of VHS tape. That isn’t too “ahead of the curve,” but at least it’s a reasonable explanation.
The HCA is still waiting for the mayor and “her people” to contact us about our “14-Point Plan” for zoning recommendations and options for upgrading the single family and duplexes in the area. Is she going to wait another month and then say, “Oh, you failed. See, we do need the Communty Renewal Act.”
And there I go thinking the worst AGAIN. But we are dealing with a mayor who has been involved in some questionable activities, the Lipstick Case being at the top of the list. I’m thinking if she was involved in “A” then she wouldn’t be above doing “B.”
Wouldn’t it be nice for the mayor and her EDNSP Department to give the HCA something to cheer about, instead of jeer about. Disenfranchising the HCA by cutting us off from the Neighborhood Grant program was so discriminatory, especially when its the Highlands tax money she’s keeping from Highlands citizens.
And why hasn’t she moved to start plans to spend the $1.5 million for street, sidewalk, and alley repairs in the Highlands? The City blight should be just as important as citizen-caused blight, don’t you think? She’s had a month since her big Announcement to get busy helping the Highlands. I don’t see any results, do you?
There needs to be a major repair of relationships. But how? when she and “her people” continue to use the same hauty “top down” planning approach?
Terry Persson and I actually went to the mayor’s office in person to ask for a meeting. Did she have 30 minutes? NO. Did she have 15 minutes available? NO. What about 5 minutes, we asked. NO. So there you go, the picture of a mayor who doesn’t deserve re-election. “Citizens First” should be the by-word of our mayor, but according to her actions, isn’t it really “Screw the HCA”?
Randy, thank you for your “Citizens First” attitude. You have been the leader of the City Council in so many wonderful ways. Without you, we would really be in deep doo-doo. So don’t poo-poo this praise. It is well deserved and noticed by many peope.
One need only listen to the comments made during City Council meetings to know which two council members are haranging you. But by not supporting you, they actually hurt themselves. All their discriminatory remarks will be available during their campaigns at my new website http://www.InieLeague.org, which is my personal candidate ratings website similar to the King County Muni League Ratings. And all those unanswered emails will be noted too. If the mayor and the Council do “Citizens First” things, those will be noted; but if not, so be it. No glitzy ad placed right before the election is going to make up for the truth I’ll be printing AND distributing.
The power of the internet is evident by your great website. So keep it up. I love reading it. And I send my thanks to your supporters on the Council too. I will look forward to the Council’s continuing to take back their rightful control of the City. Citizens first!
Inez Somerville Petersen,
425-255-5543