KIRO TV did this news report Friday evening about the cybersquatting by Issaquah of the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District.
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What is especially incredible about this whole affair is this: Mayor Ava Frisinger says Issaquah created the typosquatting URLs to counter what she claims is misinformation coming from the Water District. Even if one believed the “misinformation” charge, the fact that Issaquah undertook a practice universally considered internationally to be unethical and in some circumstances illegal is astonishing. It’s even more so that the chief executive officer of the city, Mayor Frisinger, and its spokeswoman are defending this.
Sammamish Comment 
According to Wikipedia, cybersquatting according to U.S. federal law is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter than offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price. It therefore seems to me that the term “cybersquatting” is not an accurate term to describe what the City of Issaquah did.
I think the TONE, PRESENTATION, and USAGE of this term to describe what the City of Issaquah did indicates BAD FAITH on the part of you, and on the part of the water district as it makes this same claim on its site. I am disappointed in you that you have allowed yourself to become a mouthpiece for loose lips and faulty use of language to describe this event. I am not surprised, however, that the water district itself is thus engaged because Tom Harman is president, and I would describe this as bad faith politics as usual by and for him (Tom Harman).
KIRO TV didn’t seem to be splitting hairs, calling it sneaky and typosquatting. Do you suggest it, too, is a mouthpiece? What Issaquah did is wrong and unethical, period.
Not a “mouthpiece,” but I am suggesting sloppy journalism on their part. Whether or not they are a “mouthpiece” depends I guess on the degree of contextual foreknowledge they might possess regarding the various political relationships that make it so very difficult for the Cities of Issaquah and Sammamish to play nice together, particularly as regards Klahanie.
Issaquah has been stiff-arming Sammamish for years, particularly over Eastside Fire and Rescue. Relations are already at a breaking point, Lyle, to the extent that Sammamish is prepared to leave EF&R because of Issaquah and close the Klahanie fire station entirely.
BTW, the Issaquah Press called the city’s practice “hoodwinking.” If you also look at reader comments, it doesn’t appear the readers share your blase attitude toward this, Lyle.
Here is my bias: Klahanie is a “gem” of a community and would bring numerous benefits into any city that annexes it. As regards the flow of benefits INTO Klahanie by annexation, even David Kappler, former City of Issaquah city councilman who opposed (and I assume still opposes annexation of Klahanie by Issaquah) is on the public record from previous annexation discussions as stating the obvious: annexation will bring numerous benefits to Klahanie. So, my bias is WITH David Kappler on one point: annexation works to the benefit of both sides of the annexation, regardless of which city does it.
I will say this, however. The annexation works best sooner rather than later. This is a statement of my strongest bias: sooner has always been the better choice over later. The fact that Issaquah has allowed this annexation to be delayed to later has been a huge mistake on their part, not only for the residents of the Klahanie PAA but for the city itself. Their decisions on this matter have been, in my opinion, an example of following bad leadership, not bad faith or evil intention. In this matter, David Kappler and Tom Harman have been amongst the chief architects of that bad leadership. As a result the Klahanie residents have been deprived of an appropriate matching of their local tax dollars to an appropriate local taxing authority. The past several years of staying within unincorporated King County was a poor choice the voters of Klahanie inflicted upon themselves. The City of Issaquah then ratified that poor choice by making yet another poor choice themselves by not annexing Klahanie anyway. The City of Issaquah could have, but did not.
My further bias is this: the discussion of annexation of and by itself does not NECESSITATE the attribution of bad faith or evil intentions on the part of either city. In my opinion, good leadership would have led to annexation much sooner and it has been bad leadership (as demonstrated by David Kappler and Tom Harman) that prevented an earlier and therefore better outcome for Klahanie at the time of the last annexation vote. Meanwhile, accusations of bad faith and evil intentions directed at either city debase the discussion and reveal more about the accuser than it does about the accused.
See the legal opinion in the latest Sammamish Review article:
http://sammamishreview.com/2013/09/17/issaquah-hoodwinks-sammamish-plateau-water-and-sewer-district-customers
As for the “accuser” reference in the last paragraph, Issaquah has been quite accusatory, with Frisinger accusing the District (and Harman) of a “political agenda” over and over, among other things, and further perpetrated by Bob Harrison as cited in the above article. And, Lyle, you did make this accusation:
“Well, the problem for me is that Tom Harman, in my opinion, and the Sammamish Water District by association, cannot be trusted to speak the truth either.”
Having watched the battles between Sammamish City and Issaquah for years and years, my sympathies certainly don’t rest with Issaquah (not that anyone couldn’t tell ;-)), and I’ve had my own battles with the Water District (appealing some of their work in and about Section 36, as Soaring Eagle Park was known at the time) and fighting on behalf of my then-neighborhood on SE 8th St a plan to condemn land if necessary for a sewer and water line.
Issaquah won’t even sit down in the same room with Sammamish City, the Water District and the public to have a discussion where everyone can hear perspectives at one time and where “facts” purported by all parties may be challenged and answered. Further, Issaquah backed out of a meeting with Providence Point where the Water District was also going to be present for just such a discussion with this neighborhood.
Until Issaquah is willing to sit down with all interested stakeholders, I’m not going to change by opinion of this arrogant, pushy (and now unethical) city government.
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