On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 20:43:46 -0800, Frank Reichert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Good evening again, Travis! > > Travis Pahl wrote to Ed Fischang (aka: shadow)... > > Ed previously wrote: > > > Ya know, there are a lot of `red' counties in those `blue' states, but, > > > strangely enough, not many `blue' counties in the `red' states. If this > > > secession idea spread very far, the blue counties might have a sobering > > > wake-up call. > > To which, you replied thusly: > > I live in the blue county of King in Washington. The Rural area of > > King County are in the beginging stages of secession from > > Seattle/Bellevue. The King County Council and executive created a > > regulation saying that rural land owners can only develope something > > like 45% of their land making the other 55% essentially not their > > (except when it comes to paying taxes). > > That's encouraging, if true. I've often wondered how > disenfranchised voters in rural areas in large metro centres such > as Seattle, feel concerning the overwhelming socialist mindset > taking form in most of America's large cities. > > By "beginning stages of secession..." what form is that taking.
There is a state represantive (not sure if they are a senator or a rep) from Kirkland (not thar rural actually, but they are on our side) that has held a few meetings with 'key people' in rural areas to get together a strategy. So far they have been closed meetings, so I can not tell you the details. I heard of it from the King County Journal which covers east and south king county. Anyways this person from Kirkland is working on trying to change the procedure for creating a new county to be more self determined rather than dictated by the state government. Appearantly now it has to be approved by the state legislature and governor for it to happen. They are trying to change it so that it is a matter of getting signatures to get it on the ballot and then a certain percentage saying yes. Basically much more simlar to the rules to incorporate in WA state. At least that is how I understand it so far. > I'm not entirely being facetious here either, since property > owners often are being dictated to by the large blocks of metro > voters who seem to believe they know 'best' what the rural folks > ought to do with their own private property. That occurs often > even on much smaller scales, such as here in Boundary County, > Idaho. > > The way that works here is that the County Commissions are > selected from three Districts within Boundary County. Now here's > the interesting contradiction to that. It would appear that the > rural areas should be equally divided up by separate Districts, > which they are to a degree. But each of the three Districts > comprise a portion of Bonners Ferry, the County seat. Which > means of course, that representation in the rural areas is often > decided by the larger block of voters where each District > overlaps Bonners Ferry. > > The result of that is the City votes in all three Districts, > although the Commissioner candidates running, MUST live within > their own District. Nevertheless, since usually more than one > candidate is running in both the Primary and General elections, > the City still has a great deal of say in who actually wins in > each of the rural Districts, since the city is divided up three > ways, with each of the segments of the city, comprised within > each of the three Districts. King county expanded their council to 13 a few years back but the people recently voted it back down to a more reasonable number. I think it going to 9. I have not looked at how the districts are laid out but I know that some suburbs are very worried about the redistricting. > > In my judgement anyway, there is no strong compelling rural voice > when the city has any voting rights within such community. > > If this were done properly, the City of Bonners Ferry would > comprise one District in and of itself, and the remaining > Districts would be formed by population count in the rural areas, > which would, in effect, give Bonners Ferry voters control over > only one of the three seats, not ALL THREE of 'em. > > Kindest regards, > Frank > > > _______________________________________________ > Libnw mailing list > Libnw@immosys.com > List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw > Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw > _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
