Public gets its first word in about new districts

Published 11:29 am Thursday, October 2, 2008

BELLEVUE – Residents from in and out of the rural and unincorporated areas of the county told officials last week they wanted one thing: less Seattle representation.

On Dec. 15, the county hosted the first of four public hearings for its districting committee, which has the task of redrawing the county district lines. The committee must reduce the number of districts in the county from 13 to nine. The move came after county voters approved an amendment last month that will reduce the number of representatives on the King County Council. The committee must approve the new maps by Jan. 15.

The five-member, bi-partisan districting committee got to hear its first round of public testimony at Bellevue City Hall. Committee chair Steve Ohlenkamp explained the challenges of redrawing the districts since the committee will have to group together “communities of common interest.” Since those communities can be grouped around everything from a business to a school district, forming those groups into districts will be a challenge.

Business leaders and residents asked the committee to keep their respective communities together. Government leaders from around Sea-Tac Airport asked that their towns have a unified district and business leaders from both the Issaquah and Seattle’s Salmon Bay area have asked that they, too, each have a unified voice.

Nearly all of the testimony, however, criticized how much of a say Seattle representation has in the affairs of the county. Six of the county’s 13 districts contain parts of Seattle, although that city has just 572,600 residents in the 1.78-million resident county.

Many comments came from citizens of south King County, who said they are ignored by a Seattle-leaning council. Terri Kimball, executive director of the Domestic Abuse Women’s Network, said south King County has 41 percent of the county’s children, seniors and low-income citizens. She said the area also accounts for 28 percent of the county’s persons-of-color population. These groups, Kimball said, are communities that need county services and more county representation.

Others living in the county’s unincorporated areas complained that the county is the only local government they have and that it is hard to have a say when they are a constituent with, at present, 133,000 people. That number would increase to more than 190,000 with nine districts. Residents said while cities have more immediate representation, unincorporated county residents deal with overworked council members who have large constituent areas.

The Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO), a group of development regulations passed by the county earlier this year, came up during testimony. Ron Ewart of Fall City said the CAO demonstrated how Democrats in Seattle were ruling the county with an “iron fist,” and said that decision has made residents of the unincorporated rural areas of the county skeptical to the point where many are suspicious of how the county will approach the districting process.

Ewart said that if things don’t change, residents of the rural areas may revisit the idea of forming their own county.

There are 356,795 residents in the county’s unincorporated areas. Some who spoke supported a three-way split in the County Council, with the urban, rural and suburban areas all getting three districts each.

There was no committee deliberation at the meeting and no maps will be available until Jan. 3, when they will be made available to the public via the county’s Web site. There will be three more public hearings before the committee is set to complete the districting process on Jan. 15.

The King County Districting Committee’s public hearings on the new districts will be held in:

* Lake Forest Park: Wednesday, Jan 5, 6 p.m., City Hall, 17425 Ballinger Way N.E.

* Auburn: Thursday, Jan. 6, 6 p.m., City Hall, 25 West Main.

* Seattle: Saturday, Jan. 8, 10 a.m., King County Courthouse, Council Chambers, 516 Third Ave.

For information regarding the county’s districting effort, including maps of the current county districts, visit www.metrokc.gov/council/districting/index.htm.

Editor Ben Cape can be reached at (425) 888-2311 or by e-mail at ben.cape@valleyrecord.com.