It’s Thursday, and Day 3 of election returns for the unexpectedly tight results of the proposed annexation of the Klahanie area to Issaquah. The results today:
| For Annexation: 1,471 | 49.51 |
| Against Annexation: 1,500 | 50.49 |
Voting results on the day after the Klahanie annexation election showed a tightening from the six vote margin on election night in favor of annexation to just one vote.
The day two results:
1,365 for annexation
1,364 against annexation.
The Issaquah Reporter has the reaction of Issaquah Mayor Fred Butler, who says the city faces a policy decision whether to annex Klahanie without having the area assume a portion of the city’s debt, should annexation pass. His comments affirm our report from last night that this election isn’t over yet.
A recount is almost certain.
The idea of the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area assuming Issaquah debt failed miserably in the vote tonight–60% acceptance is required–but if the vote to annex to Issaquah ultimately passes, then the Issaquah City Council has the option of going ahead with the annexation without assigning past debt to Klahanie.
The State Boundary Review Board says:
If assumption of indebtedness is proposed, the notice and proposition may be on the same ballot or be separate. Generally, a 60% majority of voters (totaling at least 40% of the total votes cast in the last preceding general election) must favor assuming indebtedness. Election requirements may vary slightly depending on circumstances and/or ballot language.
Although the debt assumption was not a separate ballot issue, as it was in 2005 (and which failed then, too), it was incorporated within this year’s ballot. The Issaquah City Council still can decide to proceed with the annexation if the final vote is 50%+1.
However, if the annexation fails to achieve 50%+1, it done. Sammamish will then go after the Potential Annexation Area by agreement with Issaquah or to demand a change and reassignment of the PAA from Issaquah to Sammamish.
Sammamish has also proposed splitting the PAA, with the southern part going to Issaquah and the majority of the remaining area going to Sammamish.
Residents of the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area are evenly split whether to annex to Issaquah; the Yes vote leads by only six votes on election night, making the election too close to call and creates the possibility of a recount.
For Annexation: 1,168, or 50.13%
Against Annexation: 1,162, or 49.87%
Based on my history of participating in elections from 1998-2011 in campaigns and watching voting trends, election night results haven’t varied by more than 1% from the final results, posted about two weeks later. This vote will likely be too close to call for days to come and may require a recount.
The vote is a cliff-hanger for Issaquah and the City of Sammamish. Issaquah is counting on the annexation to give it greater bonding indebtedness and to spread its current debt across the PAA. Issaquah was damaged in its fight with the Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District, when public documents and a highly public dispute revealed Issaquah’s government wanted to inject storm water into a treatment area near a drinking aquifer that the District believed would be inadequately filtered. Issaquah was caught cyber-squatting the District’s websites. Further, Issaquah’s history of demonstrating it couldn’t be trusted with respect to Klahanie was revealed, including a signed Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Issaquah Mayor to turn over the PAA to Sammamish, only to renege a short time later.
For Sammamish, the City Council salivates over the prospect of annexing Klahanie and City Council members campaigned actively to kill the annexation.
Sammamish city officials promised the 10,000-resident Klahanie area tens of millions of dollars in road and parks improvements and pledges of a more sensitive and representative government, better police protection and other services.
On the surface, Sammamish may have had the better case. But hardball tactics threatening to close the fire station 82, more commonly known as the Klahanie fire station, during its bitter negotiations with the Eastide Fire and Rescue District, and a ham-handed last minute effort in the State Legislature to deny annexation transition funds to Issaquah, offended PAA residents. The outcome of the election may well hinge on this last minute tactic and how last minute voters react to it.
Sammamish Councilman Don Gerend objected to our post over the weekend that included a report that four Sammamish city council members were doorbelling in Klahanie against the annexation; he says only one was doorbelling, which is contrary to what we were told by another city council member.
Gerend, a member of the Klahanie Choice anti-annexation group, also objected to our criticism of the city’s tactic supporting a bill in the Legislature seeking to deny funding to Issaquah to ease the transition of the annexation. The Seattle Times has this story, noting that Gerend and Sammamish Mayor Tom Vance testified in favor of the bill.
The Vance-Gerend testimony, and Sammamish’s hand in the bill, will no doubt futher sour already testy relations with Issaquah, and it is an inauspicious start to Vance’s term as mayor.
The King County Elections division will update voting daily in the late afternoon. Election results are scheduled to be certified February 25 if a recount proves unneeded.
The City of Sammamish, which wants the proposed annexation of the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area by Issaquah, defeated in Tuesday’s vote (Feb. 11), engaged in an underhanded tactic aimed at only the Klahanie vote–a discriminatory effort that I wonder whether it would even survive a legal challenge.
The Sammamish Review article linked above gives the details, but in a nutshell, under state law, cities get a sales tax adjustment when they annex unincorporated areas. This helps the transition of the additional cost to a city of providing services to the area that was previously supported by county taxes. The City of Sammamish succeeded in getting a bill introduced in the State Senate to block this for Issaquah.
The Sammamish Review was right when it said this is sickening. It’s also hypocritical. The new City of Sammamish benefited from the sales tax revenue sharing after incorporation in 1999. The purported excuse that this bill from State Sen. Andy Hill is a state budget-saving measure doesn’t pass the laugh test. If this were a sincere budget effort, the bill should apply statewide and not just to Klahanie. The discriminatory effect is apparent for all to see.
Sammamish Comment 