We can only hope that the hit-and-run death of Kenmore resident JD Humphreys will serve as a wake-up call to Kenmore taxpayers and that they will start paying attention to where their “Road Tax” dollars have gone for the last 15 years, and resolve whether or not the city council has been misleading them over the funding for this core responsibility.

While the council chooses to boast of the economic development they are bringing to the city, they also ignore the fact that since they took office in 2004 and 2006, that nothing has been done to improve our sub-standard local roads. Instead, road tax dollars have been used to construct the $17 million City Hall, and more importantly, and expensively, to pay for the increased operating costs. This has been a conscience choice by the City Council that puts pedestrian safety at risk for generations to come.

When the city incorporated in 1998, according to the objective financial plan, the King County Road Tax was replaced with two new taxes: first, the city’s real estate tax imposed at the legal maximum $1.60 per thousand, and second, they imposed a new utility tax. The plan clearly stated that the Council was now financially responsible for our sub-standard roads and this was the revenue source for it. The city Council however, has taken the position that none of that tax is for roads or is a road tax.

I have posted two links in a drop box to document the original financial plan and the council’s opposition to the stated responsibilities in it. At the Feb. 14, 2011 council meeting, now Deputy Mayor Bob Hensel, speaking for the council, went on the record, vehemently denying that the city has ever collected a road tax, while the plan he reads from says otherwise. As he read this into the public record, Hensel deliberately omitted critical language of responsibility, from the very sentence he was reading from, in an attempt to deny that these tax dollars were intended and needed for our roads and pedestrian safety.

You can judge for yourself if you think the City Council in being above board and responsible on this issue. In the first link, I have the financial plan that Hensel reads from. I highlighted in green the words he spoke into the record and I highlighted in red all the language of responsibility that he omitted. In the second link, you can listen to the actual statement read into the record by the Deputy Mayor.

JD Humphreys was killed on a road that is 26-feet wide with soft shoulders that extend the total width to almost 40 feet. The road recently had an asphalt overlay put down, and the width of the road could have been extended for pedestrian safety, but the council has rejected that idea more than once over the years.

Unfortunately, there are many local roads that are even more dangerous, 18-feet wide with no shoulders, and a ditch on either side. They all need to be inventoried, prioritized and reasonably funded with our existing road tax dollars.

But first, you need to get the council to acknowledge their responsibility and own up to the truth about how they have been diverting this money from pedestrian safety to cover increased operating costs.

John Hendrickson, former Kenmore Councilman