REMINDER: South King Media’s Town Hall Forum on the proposed annexation of North Highline will be held one week from tonight – Tuesday night, Oct. 2, starting at 7 p.m.
We’re putting this on with our sister site The White Center Blog in the multipurpose room of White Center Heights Elementary School, located at 10015 6th Ave SW, in White Center, just a few blocks east of McClendon Hardware.
The annexation issue will appear on the Nov. 6 General Election ballot.
This free forum is open to everyone, and will be presented in a style similar to the numerous Candidates Forums we’ve held, run by a neutral Moderator and with proponents of the issue on one side, and opponents on the other.
PANEL MEMBERS ANNOUNCED
Panelists, who were just confirmed, will include:
MODERATOR:
- Judge Judith Eiler
PRO ANNEXATION:
- Barbara Dobkin (President of the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council)
- Jerry Robison (Burien City Councilmember)
ANTI ANNEXATION:
- Debi Wagner (Local Activist)
- Mark Ufkes (President of the White Center Chamber of Commerce)
WE’RE STILL TAKING YOUR QUESTIONS
We are still taking questions now from readers such as YOU, which we will consider asking our Pro and Con participants Oct. 2. This is especially relevant for Readers who may not be able to attend our forum, yet still have questions for either side.
So put on your Critical Thinking Cap and come up with some Edward R. Murrow-style insightful, probing inquiries and send them to:
Remember, ballots go out in just a few weeks. The people who will decide Yes or No on annexation are the voters who live in the proposed annexation area, which is essentially that chunk of land just south of the Seattle border, home to around 17,000 people.
Loading ...
Judge Eiler should be an interesting moderator. http://www.issaquahpress.com/tag/judge-judith-eiler/
FYI, “Judge Judy” Eiler presided over a Candidate Forum that South King Media held in Des Moines in 2011 (for our sister site The Waterland Blog: http://www.waterlandblog.com/2011/10/10/des-moines-city-council-candidates-confront-issues-at-waterland-blog-forum/), and we all thought she did a great job.
Despite her reputation, she knows how to “run” a room, stay on track, keep things moving, and moderate fairly.
Eiler was asked to moderate not only based on our previous experience with her, but also because she is from outside the area and, far as we know, has no opinion on annexation.
thanks,
scott
To the South King Media-
How come there are no Council members for the anti-annexation panel members? Why weren’t Jack B., Lucy K. or Bob E. put on the panel to discuss the anti- annexation point of view? They are all council members who could give the counter argument/position to Jerry Robison.
At your other forums, equal level position talkers/candidates have counter balanced each other. Why not this time?
Fred -
Thanks for your comment.
When putting this Forum together, Organizer Mark Neuman reached out to numerous folks on both sides of the issue. One of the things he and I discussed early on was that we wanted to include “outsiders” on the panel, and not turn this into another Burien City Council meeting.
And from previous experience, we didn’t want to have more than two people per side.
Mark had no trouble finding people for the “anti” side – Debi Wagner and Mark Ufkes were quick to confirm their participation right away.
The “pro” side was last to be filled (and not as easy), and Barb Dobkin and Jerry Robison were the final two, confirming only a few days ago.
We think the makeup of this panel will be good, and all are invited to come, ask questions and participate, including other councilmembers.
thanks,
scott
Scott,
Stating you “didn’t” want to turn this into a burien city council meeting and then having robison (who btw never disclosed his pro annexation during his election campaign) seems pretty shady. Why not invite Lucy or Bob or Jack to even things out?
@Mike: Did you read his earlier response? Sounds like he (Scott) did his best to get people from both sides to represent. Your comment seemingly accuses the BTB of some sort of consipracy. You’re totally making something out of nothing.
@chris,
Did you read my post? I asked if they would put a anti-annexation city council member on the panel. I’m sure with “just a few days to go” one of them would be glad to sit in. (No disrespect to Ms. Wagner or Mark Ufkes they are very capable)
And yes I do think mike martin, robison, mcgilton and possibly anyone else affiliated w/martin is shady. Have you looked at martin’s history in other cities? I think there are alot things being glossed over to get annexation pushed thru. Is martin going to talk about his having to go into the reserve fund to and raise taxes at the next Area Y annexation meeting on Oct. 4th chris? I hope he does. Transparency would be a fresh change to what has been going on in burien government.
Area Y Mike
I must agree, council representation should be equal or none at all.
Scott, I agree – Burien City Council representation should be equal or none for this forum.
I think having Robison is an unfair advantage for the pro side.
Scott,
Is having at least five people asking that there is fair representation from city council on both the pro & con side of the annexation forum is too much to respond to? Did you even ask Jack B., Lucy K. or Bob E? It makes BTown Blog look biased IMO.
Area Y MIke
Mike -
Please note that we never intended to look “biased” one way or the other in regards to our Forum. We are NOT biased either way, and we have gone out of our way to be as neutral as possible.
Many people were asked to be on our panel. The “anti” side was easy to fill, and we agreed to the first two that showed interest (note that we only wanted two per side, as having more makes it more complicated). Note that this side was filled first (this is an important fact).
The “pro” side on the other hand, took much more work. Organizer Mark Neuman spoke with many “pro” people, who surprisingly said “No.” As we got closer to the forum date, we reached out to others, including known advocate Jerry Robison, who agreed. From the beginning Mark and I decided that we did NOT want this to look like a Burien City Council meeting, and our intention was to get non-politicians to speak.
Note that by the time Robison agreed we had already made commitments to the “anti” folks (Wagner and Ufkes).
To claim we’re “biased” is absolutely WRONG. It’s more a matter of organization skills and timing than anything else.
Thanks for your input Mike and I hope we see you there tonight!
-scott
Still the question remains; did you ask Jack, Lucy or Bob? If so did you ask Mr. Ufkes or Ms. Wagner if they would step aside? I completly understand commitment but there is such a negative aspect to the burien council and their demeanor that makes many feel uneasy and question their integrity. It’s easy to see Robison being pro on one side and not having a council member on the con side as being biased IMO.
Mike -
Ask anyone who was at the forum (I presume you weren’t judging by the timestamp on your comment) whether it was biased or presented in a biased manner at all.
Or better yet, listen to the raw, unedited audio file of the entire forum yourself (we’ll be posting this shortly but here’s a direct link to it):
http://www.b-townblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/AnnexationForum100212-96.mp3
Mark Neuman did a stellar job organizing this event, and I stand by his decisions 100%.
Thanks,
Scott