Dear King County Council Members:
Ron Ewart says it all and speaks for me too. King
County has gone crazy just like what is happening in Olympia right now. i.e.
more taxes, cosmetic election reform, rejection of any bills that give property
rights back, changing several prior initiatives voted through by the Washington
citizens, taking away super majority to simple majority to raise taxes,
etc.
Ron Sims and his fellow King County Democrats
have prostituted themselves to the local environmental wackos and
stolen property rights and rendered the county election process somewhere
between corrupt and incapable of a honest election process. They have
diverted huge sums of money for stadiums and transit systems that only
serves a few percent of the County population. What this is
all about is exserting urban control over urban AND rural areas
for the selfish gain of the cities.
It is unbelievable to watch King County and the Olympia
deny there is a problem. They are doing the opposite of what the majority
of the people (Democrats and Republicans) want. The majority of the
people do not want more taxes. The majority do not want
token election reform. The majority do not want oppressive growth
management. It turns out the recent state gas tax hike will be primarily
for the Seattle viaduct. The majority of Washingtonians wanted a revote of
the governor 's election too.
There is no major funding in the new gas tax to decrease
the congestion on I5 and I405. There is no photo ID and proof of US
citizenship and no statewide re-registration of voters. There is no
relief on taxes. There is no relief on this draconian
environmental take over of private property rights.
There is a very thin line between corruption
and incompetence. I don't care if you are Democrat or Republican or
Libertarian but when you take more of my money and then take away more of my
property rights and then take away significant election reform you have
crossed the line into political self interest, power mongering. You
no longer care for the people you represent. When you loose balance
and see issues only one sided so strongly, you loose the truth. When you
want to win regardless of the strong objection of the many, then you are no
longer a capable leader. When you go along with your party politics to
conform to political pressure, you loose your self.
Why are the Democrats doing this? Why are you
going against the majority of your constituency? I think its part
misinformation, i.e. city people do not know what the truth is on CAO, GMA, and
Sustainable Development and part misrepresentation. The CAO colored
brochure measuring 13" x 19" was a total distortion of the truth. The
least the County could have done was present both sides of the story. I
have to ask why the Republicans allowed that to go out without a pro and
con. But I think I know the answer.
If you do not understand the rural anger in King
County, then you need to take the time to meet with our key people and
understand the other side. A majority position on the County Council
does not make you right! My sample of Seattle city folks found they were
shocked that the County was passing the CAO.
I have one neighbor east of me, who received $400,000
from King County to keep his dairy farm out of development and then I had
another country "neighbor" directly west of me, who was allowed to build a
20,000 seat outdoor amphitheater. Then you have 50% of your land use taken
away among other rights. Then Enumclaw annexes a hundred acres of farm
land and turns it into a development and that is after it annexed half of a
horse ranch for a mid school near me. Not to mention the other
little developments going up within a few miles of my 10
acres.
You really have too wonder. This whole GMA,
CAO, sustainable development is a fraud. Did you know, It is not working
in Portland or Santa Cruz County. Not only is it not working, it is
having the opposite affect! More on that later.
If I wasn't experiencing this, I would never believe it.
Thank you for you time.
Sincerely,
Jack Venrick
Enumclaw, WA
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005 10:29 AM
Subject: Where is the anger?
Dear Rural Landowner, County
Executive, County Council, Interested Parties and the News
Media:
Once again, the CAO (Critical Areas Ordinance) battle between rural landowners and
King County's in-your-face unconstitutional land use laws, has
found its way to the front page, above the fold, of a local
newspaper. It should have been on the front page of a national
newspaper. It should be on the national news every night, but
isn't.
CAO clashes go beyond talk -
Guns brandished in two incidents as
landowner faces off with authorities
First, let me take this opportunity
to thank Dean Radford and the King County Journal for giving this story the
coverage it deserves. And further I would also like to thank Ben Cape of
the Snoqualmie Valley Record for doing the same thing in their paper last
week.
I went back and I read this
morning's King County Journal story several times and each time I got
just a little more angry, which has prompted this e-mail message. Everyone
of you are just one step closer to a negative encounter with a code enforcement
officer or several county sheriff's officers, just like the
gentleman in the article, because your government finally went too far by
passing the CAO, in violation of every constitutional principle
imaginable. The 4th, 5th and 14th Amendments to our U. S. Constitution
have been trashed beyond repair, unless landowners take a stand against this
over reach by your government and thwart them at every turn. The
legislative and judicial processes for redress are closed, make no
mistake. Just look at what the legislators in Olympia did in this year's
105-day session. Again they thumbed their collective noses at every
citizen, except those that have "their hands out to
government". The legislature trashed I-601 and now it
only requires a simple majority to raise taxes, and raise them they will.
This is only the beginning. They tried to trash I-200, but
failed. They passed environmental legislation too numerous to
mention here, that will take more and more of your property rights from
you.
While you were doing other things and
not paying attention to what your government was doing, the U. S. Congress
is passing "invasive species" legislation which will
be just another failed government program, just like the failed 30-year
Endangered Species Act, that saved maybe 10 species out of 1,300 listed, at a
cost that is impossible to measure. Both of these programs strip you of
your property rights and a huge chunk of your income in taxes. For
what?
You have let socialists and
environmentalists take over every level of your government and only a few of you
have lifted a finger in opposition.
On the judicial side, land use cases
have almost entirely gone to the government. So much for legislative and
legal redress of the landowners' grievances.
Nevertheless, there are ways in
which you can resist in a meaningful way. But my gut reaction
is, no where near enough of you will. So you will be stuck with these
laws, because you won't take a stand.
But if you have the guts, this is
what you can do.
1. Help those of us in our
local protests against government at government functions, especially wherever
Ron Sims appears. One is coming up next week. Call or e-mail us
today.
2. On April 30th, your
first half year taxes will be due. Put the money in an interest bearing
account and don't pay the government. Taking their money away, helps to
reduce their power. Just ask Tim Eyman. Government hates him for
what he has accomplished that no one else has.
3. Appeal your property
taxes en masse. Take the fight right to their bureaucracies and bury them
in paper work.
4. Put up those NO
TRESPASS signs all around your property and tell the government, in no uncertain
terms, to get off and stay off your property.
5. Sign the rural
landowners' pledge and send copies of it to all government types and
bureaucrats. It is attached to this message.
6. Write letters and send
e-mails to the government, by the thousands, with your "WE
ARE MAD AS HELL and WE DON'T INTEND TO TAKE IT ANY MORE"
message. Do it today. Now that's pretty easy to do and doesn't cost
you hardly any time or money.
7. Sign the petitions that
are floating around to cut government's power.
8. Contribute generously
to those groups that are fighting your government for you. The Citizens
Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR) is doing a tremendous job and needs your
support.
9. Want to find out what
your government is doing? Make a freedom of information or public
disclosure act request for information and documents on a government activity
that you think is wrong, crooked, abusive, confiscatory or for whatever other
reason you can think of. The government has to act on these
requests. Then review the information and report it to the Public
Disclosure Commission, the State Attorney General, the King County Executive and
the U. S. Attorney in Seattle. Do a lot of them and keep these government
types humming with your requests. Information is a deadly weapon in
the hands of the right people.
In the foregoing article, someone
stated that "cooler heads" need to prevail. Well
let me tell you, we tried "cooler heads" and
"reasoned arguments" prior to the CAO being
passed. But oh no. The King County Council Democrats and Ron Sims
thumbed their collective noses at our cooler heads and reasoned
arguments, as well as the objections of the Council Republicans and
passed these draconian CAO ordinances in the dead of night on October 26th,
2004. We then tried a Referenda to repeal the ordinances. We lost in
the lower court after obtaining over 18,000 signatures in just 5 weeks.
That legal battle is now at the door of the State Supreme Court. Pacific
Legal is suing King County over the CAO as well. A Washington Clone to
Oregon's Ballot Measure 37, an initiative that requires government to pay the
landowner when land use laws reduce the value of your property, is now in
the works, statewide. A movement is underway to carve a new county
out of rural King County. In our opinion, only one of these actions has
any chance of success and that is the Ballot Measure 37 Initiative. But it
too is only a stop-gap measure, because what is really needed is to have
government stop passing too many laws in violation of our constitutions and to
repeal those that already do. Only the "people" can stop the government
and return this land to a country of WE THE PEOPLE instead of THEM THE
GOVERNMENT.
Cooler heads? Hardly. We need
to be mad as Hell and take action, now. So again I ask,
where is the anger? Read the above list
of actions you can take and start action on one or more of them. Come on
folks. Get some spine and get involved in this fight.
Ron Ewart
Fall City, WA
425 222-9482
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