There is a group in Federal Way who have worked their hearts out in the pursuit of a performing arts center for the last few years.
Certainly a noble desire and one I have agreed with. However, things have taken a horrible turn for our country, unprecedented in our history, and all we hear every day, all day, is that how much worse it’s going to get, and, even, that it could get so bad we could possibly not survive it.
But here in Federal Way, we’re using our new steamrolling tactic and swamping the papers with eerily similar letters, and a 20-member lobby chorus even performed at the city council meeting singing the arts center’s praises.
After much debate, the council voted 6-to-1 in favor of adding the item to its agenda. Jim Ferrell (voted by you citizens as the number-two most favored council member) alone voted against it. I might add that most of the debate was an effort to force council person Ferrell to have to reject every item on the agenda in order to vote no on the center. The manipulation never stops. Ferrell said it was not responsible to request funds now. Citizens are losing their jobs, health care, pensions and homes, and the job loss is going to get far worse.
The council’s vote to ask for state funds, in this case $5 million (and an additional $15 million starting in a couple of years) declares to its citizens the decision to pursue a performance center, with the knowledge that tax money will be used to help bond, run, build and maintain it. Although I didn’t see this covered in the council meeting article in The Mirror’s Jan. 10 edition, Ferrell repeatedly and courageously stressed the undermining, compromising and total thwarting of the rightful and necessary public input for such major projects. Several council persons stressed this certainly isn’t a number-one priority, or, we’ll proceed with caution, etc. However, watch the council closely as they will likely now go after the Truman High School and a teen center off 28th Avenue South sprinting on the inside rail as time is running out to spend the $500,000 allocated last year, which must be spent before June 2009.
Does that sound like just speculation? I think not. It’s steamrolling and the voting citizens, especially those worried about money, need to start a list and remember these things the next time those council persons run for office again. Although this letter is a futile effort from its outset, I feel compelled to be a voice alerting the citizens of Federal Way to how they’re being excluded from participation in the running of their city. For 17 years the majority of four, and their close associates, have managed to outright bypass our citizens (think arts center), manipulate citizen input (the transit center) or give the illusion of citizen input (the city center access route).
When they want something they simply get it and their new tactic is steamrolling, the latest of which was their performance at the Jan. 6 council meeting. A big excuse used by several council persons and a citizen speaker was that, as long as the money is there, we should ask for it.
Now there’s a real noble reason. In my estimation, it’s proof positive that once again the people are locked out of the process and that these decisions are a done deal before any public discussions.
Clara McArthur
Federal Way
