Senate bill introduction applauded
Published 12:40 am Friday, October 3, 2008
A copy of this letter was sent to Sen. Pam Roach.
I read with great interest your editorial in the King County Journal on March 25. I applaud your introduction of Senate Bill 5047 placing level 2 and 3 sex offenders in industrial zoned areas. I don’t believe that these secured transitional facilities belong anywhere near residential areas where people raise families, educate, worship or recreate.
I am part of The Safe Kids Task Force in North Bend and assure you that the Snoqualmie Valley community is also actively opposing the fire training academy site and we are also demanding that our legislators insist that DSHS adhere to its site selection criteria and eliminate the fire training academy for consideration. The police response time is inadequate and Mr. Sims has indicated to DSHS that he will fix any of the negative concerns associated with this site: new cell towers, roads, police facilities and extra law enforcement. The costs for locating this site at the FTA would be astronomical in comparison to an industrial site where the infrastructure and emergency services are already in place. I would expect that Sen. Dino Rossi would scrutinize the allocation of funding to this site as it is economically irresponsible. Especially with the state budget cuts being imposed at this time.
Furthermore, when the federal courts ordered the state of Washington to provide these facilities, they did so with the intent to provide the offenders with an avenue back to society. It is my understanding that by keeping these offenders on McNeil Island, it is too isolated. There are no jobs, mental health providers and access to public transportation. The state requires reasonable access to these services. The fire training site is not reasonable and would only be relocating these offenders to a newly created “McNeil Island East.”
I hear over and over and over again from the citizens of King County, with the exception of Ron Sims, that they want these facilities placed in urban industrial zoned areas. So what is the problem? Why not put them in industrial areas? I agree with you that council members Pelz, Sullivan, Phillips, Gossett, Edmonds, Von Reichbauer, Patterson and Executive Ron Sims have abdicated their responsibility to help locate a facility for sex predators. They are not dealing with the problem.
Their answer? Put it far away from their constituents and large voting populations. Throw money at it to make it go away. The citizens of Snoqualmie Valley, like those of Peasley Canyon and Orilla Road, are not going away. King County could take the high road and present DSHS with sites in industrial zoned areas, but so far have not shown the leadership to do so.
I believe that Senate Bill 5047 will solve the problem of finding sites for these sex offender facilities. I encourage the King County Council to show some leadership and find industrial sites for these facilities that would be palatable for all King County citizens, not just the heavily populated districts where votes count more than ethics.
Susan Sellers
North Bend
For all the letter’s in this week’s edition, pick up a copy of the Valley Record
