LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Resident shares concerns over Monday night’s Sheriff’s Office community meeting

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by verified resident. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of South King Media, nor its staff.]

In response to the very-late notice of Monday night’s Community Information Meeting, I am struck by the composition of King County invited speakers, none of whom are elected officials representing a constituency of voters from Burien. Yet, there is acknowledgement in The B-Town Blog article Friday night that none of the duly elected Burien City Councilmembers, including the Mayor, were involved in the selection of speakers, agenda, or purpose of the “community meeting.”

Also, I found it odd that a City of Burien contractor – Ted Boe, from King County Sheriff’s Department – would be representing the City of Burien, when apparently none of the elected officials were invited to be on the panel. Does the Sheriff’s Office and employees of same believe that the Burien City Councilmembers are mere figureheads and not decision-makers; or do they just oppose the Council’s recent decision-making about encampments?

Or could it be that the tragic and unnecessary deaths of four “campers” due to drug overdoses compelled the County to request a mental health expert, a Purpose Dignity Action professional, and LEAD professional to share with us residents of Burien how successful their programs have been to stop overdoses by campers? So these folks were not invited by Burien elected officials, but King County wants to lobby the Burien citizenry prior to an imminent decision by the US Supreme Court on matters like these?

The County’s intentions appear to me to be to persuade Burien attendees at the suddenly organized community meeting that having a suite of auxiliary services is the goal, which supports their position of not banning campers, or even designating locations for camping despite objections from local residents, including parents and grandparents of students attending Kennedy High School.

Of course, the purpose of the last-minute meeting is not to discuss the costs of this suite of services, how many of the campers are actually Burien residents, how sustainable are the costs of a pallet village, or options that elected decision-makers and Burien citizens can afford without raising taxes. (I mention taxes because I’m still in shock over how much I just paid in income and property taxes last month.)

Certainly we Burien residents recognize the adage “Build it and they will come,” and it applies to this scenario. We’ve witnessed it for years and paid taxes to support a King County Housing Authority that failed miserably. We are also observing a heavy-handed response from the County to keep Burien consistent with their history of reducing the camping population, which has also failed.

No Burien resident wants deaths on our sidewalks, but those deaths were caused by addiction not camping on public spaces. Having a shelter does not guarantee life, but perhaps a mental health intervention is best handled by Public Health professionals and not the King County Sheriff’s Office.

– Sharyn Parker

Burien resident

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