For 10 years, politically active members of the Christ Church of Kirkland has imposed on Kenmore a singleminded political thought, deception, intolerance and outright hostility against anyone with political views that they do not agree with.

Here is a little history:

With three church members already on the council – Laurie Sperry, Glenn Rogers and Milton Curtis – there is now a fourth member, Charles Crouch, running for council Position 4.

Associate Pastor Dennis Trout started the political activism in 2002 with Rogers and Curtis making a political attempt to start a North-End Neighborhood Association.

At that time, the city council had just raised our property taxes 24 percent but was publicly refusing to admit responsibility for the tax increase.

Rogers, Curtis and Trout had Councilman Jack Crawford speak to the neighborhood group on the issue. Former Mayor Crawford denied that there was a city tax increase of 24 percent and told the public to: “go home and check your tax bills; the school district might have done it, the county might have done it, but Kenmore did not raise your taxes.” That was an outright lie, and I am sorry for having to use the word.

I checked my tax bill, and I checked the tax bills (online) for Rogers, Curtis, and Trout and all of our Kenmore taxes had gone up 24 percent. When I provided the proof to Crawford and asked him to correct his false statements he responded by email with insults and bullying tactics.

Rogers, Curtis and Trout all supported Crawford, hostility and all, and refused to hold him accountable.

This was the start of a pattern of deceptive and bullying behavior by this church group that continues to this day. Crawford was a political ally of the church group who also had an agenda to ban cardroom gambling at Kenmore Lanes. They wanted gambling out of Kenmore regardless of the $800,000 in city tax revenue or the public vote against the ban.

Trout did not respect the public vote and responded that: “We’ll just get another member on the city council.” That member was Sperry, who then ran in 2005 and is up for re-election this year.

Prior to 2005 most council campaigns spent between $1,000 and $2,000. Sperry’s 2005 campaign raised $8,600 in contributions and loans with more than half of her reported contributions coming from supporters who did not live in Kenmore.

This is the same Laurie Sperry who famously wanted to fight another council member in an executive session, stating that she wanted to do “real bodily harm” to that person because the other council member was not being “positive.” For Sperry, being “positive” means that you cannot discuss unpleasant financial realities or possible wrongdoing by the city.

Now Crouch is the fourth Christ Church of Kirkland member to run for the Kenmore Council. In fairness, I do not know if Charles will support the established behavior consistently demonstrated by his fellow council members from the church.

However, I do know that when I ran against Rogers two years ago, that Crouch ran a Facebook page called “Kenmore Neighbors.” This site was very politically active and populated with many fellow Christ Church of Kirkland members.

Crouch did not disclose that he was a church member, or that he was on Rogers’ campaign team, as he edited members’ postings in Rogers’ favor.

Charles would allow all kinds of unfounded personal attacks to be posted against me, but would not allow my postings of factual issues on deficit spending and the consequential tax increases to be posted because they were not “positive.”

Two years ago Sperry, Curtis and Crouch all supported Rogers, who campaigned that my understanding of our financial realities were false and there was no negative cash flow problem or a need for tax increases. They supported their position not with facts or responsible debate but only with false, irresponsible and immature personal attacks.

Two years later, the council has raised taxes on car tabs and on water bills that equal a 17 percent increase in city property taxes. In addition, they still refuse to acknowledge a cash flow problem and refuse to budget a “Six Year Budget Projection for General Operations,” which is a violation of “Best Management Practices.” The projection, properly done, would disclose how much our taxes will have to continue to go up in the future.

I hope that the public will be aware of the political machine that is the Christ Church of Kirkland and certain members’ refusal to publicly debate the issues with objective facts and decency. Instead, they rely on some of their followers to promote a campaign of deception, bullying and political irresponsibility, all in the name of Christ.

John Hendrickson, Former Kenmore Councilman