Annexation updates: Seattle’s mayor, council committee
(SATURDAY MORNING NOTE: The full video of this meeting is now online at Seattle Channel – annexation was the last item.)
Two updates on what City of Seattle leaders are saying today regarding potential annexation of the north section of North Highline:
MAYOR MIKE McGINN: I was invited to one of his periodic group “media brown-bag” question/answer sessions. One of the questions I asked was, after he had laid out various priorities for the city, where did annexation fit in? He gave several reasons for why he was proceeding with the process of seeking a vote – including wanting to help the county, which needs to stop serving unincorporated urban areas. He did say, though, that the city needed to study whether it really makes sense, including finance-wise, and might have to slow down the process at some point.
COUNCIL COMMITTEE: That dovetails with the conclusion of the Seattle City Council Regional Development and Sustainability briefing on the annexation proposal. The committee’s chair, Council President Richard Conlin, said they need to find out before proceeding further whether “this is something that is good for the people of Seattle and good for the people who live in that area.” Councilmember TIm Burgess said what he hadn’t seen yet was a plan regarding why annexation should be considered and how it would work. Bottom line, councilmembers say they’ve got questions and they have asked city staff for answers. One staffer also said that the timeline to proceed with a vote this year might be a little tighter than she’d said previously – she said the council might actually need to vote by mid-July on whether to seek a North Highline vote this November. Side note – during the committee meeting, Conlin said that now-County Councilmember Jan Drago had told him she supports proceeding with Seattle annexation. According to Full Tilt Ice Cream via Twitter, Drago was touring White Center today.
Tags: Annexation, seattle, white center
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February 19th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
I tried to watch this online at work but came in late – who was the gentleman with the glasses who was doing most of the talking about the procedures they were working on to explore this all further?
February 20th, 2010 at 3:41 am
Well, there’s only one man who’s been doing most of the briefing since this all fired up again, and that’s Kenny Pittman from the mayor’s staff. He is scheduled to be at the next North Highline UAC meeting in a couple weeks, too.