During the last two City Council meetings, Poulsbo Mayor Erickson and Councilmember Stern expressed concern over the upward trend in the City of Poulsbo’s legal costs. They blamed citizens who live and own property on the west side of Poulsbo and me.

We appealed flawed annexation decisions by the city, Kitsap County and the Boundary Review Board. The Superior Court judge agreed with us and stopped 69-acre Tibbets-Chamberlin Annexation on Cedar Lane. Mayor Erickson stated, “… people feel that the city has funding, so we have a lot of litigious stuff occurring.” Her reasoning is absurd.

Citizens appeal because they do not want their property annexed, they believe the long-term cost of annexation and the resulting negative impacts to their property are too severe and they see Washington law being violated. Sixty percent of the property owners in the proposed annexation were against it. Citizens paid thousands of their own dollars to appeal the decisions of city and county politicians who are supposed to represent these same citizens’ best interests. The successful litigants are not awarded monetary damages and are not reimbursed for thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees.

Contrary to city claims that there was only one “technicality” error in the petition, the appeal covered numerous additional errors. The Superior Court did not need to address the other issues because the petition error alone invalidated the annexation.

The city could have easily avoided frittering away $17,000 the mayor said she paid to a Seattle attorney, as follows:

— The plaintiffs offered to negotiate to save everyone the cost of litigation, but the city refused to talk or meet with us.

— The city and county knew that the annexation petition process was flawed early on. The city or county could have had the petition problem corrected, eliminating the need for anyone to pay attorney fees.

— The city did not need to spend a large sum on its own attorney. It could have relied almost entirely on the research, briefing and oral arguments of the two county attorneys handling the appeal.

— The original annexation proposal was for 47 acres. Becky Erickson pushed hard to increase it by 22 acres, forcing unwilling property owners into the annexation.

— Mayor Erickson stated that the city’s Seattle attorney spent all day in Tacoma for the hearing. If true, ordinary diligence should compel the mayor to ask why the city was paying for an entire day to attend a 45-minute hearing. This lawsuit was unfortunate, but it was our only remaining resort to get the city and county to comply with state law.

Mayor Erickson’s search for someone to blame for the city’s latest financial fiasco should end at the nearest mirror.

Jan Wold
Poulsbo