Provided below is an update on the current status
of the KlahaniePark.
Since the February 23, 2010 monthly board
meeting, there have been several meetings involving the KlahaniePark
including the summary below.All of
these meetings were specifically for or were including an agenda item regarding
the KlahaniePark.
February 25, 2010Thursday Council Committee for the Issaquah City Council to further
understand the KlahaniePark issues
March 1, 2010 MondayIssaquahCity Council Meeting
March 4, 2010ThursdayMeeting between City of Sammamish,
KingCounty and Klahanie Association
March 9, 2010TuesdayJoint Council meeting between City of Sammamish
and City of Issaquah
The joint meeting that took place on Thursday,
March 4, 2010 between King County, the City of Sammamish and the Klahanie
Association [an invitation had been extended to the City of Issaquah, but they
were unable to attend this meeting which is explained in further detail below]
was to further discuss the issues involving the Klahanie Park.The Klahanie Association indicated that there
was both a long term goal and short term goal for the KlahaniePark.The long term best interests of the
Association would be best served by having the jurisdictional control of the
Klahanie Park owned by the entity that annexes the community thereby allowing
that entity be accountable to community including its voting rights.The short term goal for the KlahaniePark
would provide for keeping the Park open for the communities.Given KingCounty’s
long term inability to fund the daily maintenance and operations of the Park,
it would be necessary to find alternative way(s) to fund these operations.
Klahanie Association
Thomas Beeks, Klahanie Board President and Marta
Mckie, Klahanie Community Manager, represented the Klahanie Association at the
joint meeting.In addition, Mitch Millar
and Michelle Kolano, Klahanie Board members attended the meeting as well.
Recognizing the long term and short term goals
for the KlahaniePark, the Klahanie Association released
a park survey to its 3,092 member association on February 16, 2010 and asked
for each and every member to complete the survey and return it to the Klahanie
office by April 1, 2010.As of Thursday,
March 4, 2010, the Association had received approximately 806 responses to this
survey.The responses indicated the
following.
Question 1.
76% believe it is very important that decisions about KlahaniePark continue to be made by a county or
city government that a person has the right to elect.
Question 2.
35% [the largest
percentage in answer to this question] indicated that Sammamish or Issaquah
should acquire the Park subject to a requirement that the Park may not be
changed in a material way without prior approval of a majority of Klahanie
owners.
Question 3.
47% responded that if the Association were to acquire the Park and
fund its maintenance and operation in part through assessment, they did not
want an increase in their annual assessment.
Question 4.
63% of the responses indicated that they believe the Association
should oppose the County’s proposed transfer of KlahaniePark to the City of Sammamish.
This information that had been received thus far
received from these surveys was communicated to King County and the City of
Sammamish thereby indicating that the Klahanie Association without having a
majority interest at this time in taking over the Klahanie Park, would not be
prepared to submit a proposal to assume ownership and/or responsibility for the
maintenance of the Park.Yet, both KingCounty
and the City of Sammamish
were advised that the response deadline for the survey was by April 1, 2010 and
that as additional surveys were received, if it appeared there could be a
change in the position of the Klahanie Association on the Park, we would
certainly keep them apprised.Furthermore, based on these results it was imperative that King County
and the City of Sammamish recognize the level of importance that those
communities within the PAA that presently includes the Klahanie Park, continue
to have the right in the long term decisions of the Klahanie Park.Several ideas were discussed at this meeting
including the opportunity of the City of Sammamish
taking ownership of the KlahaniePark and until such time
that the annexation issues are resolved for the long term, no significant
alterations or modifications to the Park would take place.
Currently, as of today, Friday, March 12, we have
received a total of 1,300 surveys which indicate the following results.
Question 1.
82% believe it is very important that decisions about KlahaniePark continue to be made by a county or
city government that a person has the right to elect.
Question 2.
42% [the largest
percentage in answer to this question] indicate that KingCounty
should hold onto the Park until Klahanie is annexed by a city, then convey the
Park to the city that annexes Klahanie.
Question 3.
60% have responded that if the Association were to acquire the Park
and fund its maintenance and operation in part through assessment, they do not
want an increase in their annual assessment.
Question 4.
45.3% of the responses indicate that they believe the Association
should oppose the County’s proposed transfer of KlahaniePark to the City of Sammamish.
45.7% of the
responses indicate that they believe the Association should support the
County’s proposed transfer of KlahaniePark to the City of Sammamish.
These most recent survey results continue to
reflect that the Klahanie community believes it is important that decisions
about the Park are made by a county or city government in which they have the
right to elect. There are an increasing percentage of homeowners who do not
want to see any increase in their annual dues assessment corresponding to the KlahaniePark operations and maintenance.Yet, there has been a shift in that more
homeowners would like to see KingCounty retain ownership
of the Park until Klahanie is annexed.Finally, there now appears to be a fairly equal number of homeowners who
support and oppose KingCounty transferring KlahaniePark to the City of Sammamish.
City of Issaquah
The Klahanie Association extended an invitation
to attend the joint meeting to the following staff members for the City of Issaquah.
Leon Kos ~ City Administrator
Joseph Meneghini ~Deputy
City Administrator
Anne McGill ~ Parks & Recreation Director
I talked with Leon Kos, City Administrator for
the City of Issaquah, shortly before noon on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 and he
indicated that he and his team would be unable to attend the proposed meeting
for Thursday, March 4, 2010 based on the fact that the Issaquah City Council
had referred the issue of the Klahanie Park to the Issaquah Council Committee
[and the staff cannot act upon this issue until the Committee has completed its
review and provided a recommendation].The Issaquah Council Committee deals specifically with parks issues and
is currently reviewing all of the information, documents, etc., regarding the KlahaniePark
which has been provided to them to determine whether to link the KlahaniePark issue to the Klahanie annexation
issue.In addition, there is another
committee that specifically deals with annexation issues, but this committee
would defer further discussion on the annexation issue until the Park issue is
resolved.Once the Council Committee has
completed its review it will provide a recommendation to the Issaquah City
Council.
In addition, a public meeting was held on
Thursday, February 25, 2010 @ 5:00 p.m. in which the Issaquah Council Committee
listened to the presentation of Anne McGill, City of Issaquah Parks &
Recreation Director, in which she indicated that in order for the City of
Issaquah to assume responsibility for the Klahanie Park, it would need to
re-instate two full time parks positions as well as increase funding by
$125,000 per annum.Additional questions
were asked by the Committee to Anne McGill as well as several questions were
directed to Kevin Brown, King County Parks Director, who was in the
audience.The Issaquah Council Committee
summarized the meeting indicating that they did not have the funding resources
to assume responsibility for the KlahaniePark, but would recommend that the KlahaniePark remain in the PAA [Potential
Annexation Area].Such recommendation
from the Council Committee would be presented at the Monday, March 15, 2010
Issaquah City Council meeting.Once the
Issaquah City Council has heard from the Committee and makes a decision, at
that point the IssaquahCity staff would be able
to take its direction from the Issaquah City Council on how to proceed.
Leon further indicated he felt there were more than just the two options
regarding the current status of the KlahaniePark.The first one being to close the Park and the
second one being transferring ownership of the Park to another entity.He suggested the ideas of allowing volunteers
to partner together and maintain the park, individual homeowners develop its
own association to maintain the park [similar to what a soccer association has
done to maintain the soccer fields at the Lake Sammamish State Park], some sort
of interim lease arrangement and/or the idea of multiple jurisdictions working
together on a maintenance plan for the Park that would be implemented and in
place until such time that the annexation issues involving Klahanie and the
Klahanie Park have been resolved.
KingCounty
The following KingCounty
staff members were extended an invitation to attend the joint meeting.
Kevin
Brown ~ KingCounty
Kathy
Lambert ~ KingCounty Council Member – District #3
Christine
Jensen ~ Policy Director/King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert
The above three individuals did attend the
meeting as well as Kevin Brown and Christine Jensen attended the February 25,
2010 meeting with the Issaquah Council Committee.Kevin confirmed that KingCounty is not in a position to
continue funding the KlahaniePark for any extended
period of time.Of the initial
thirty–nine (39) parks that were slated for closure and announced in August
2009, sixteen (16) parks have been or will be transferred within the next year.In addition, five (5) parks are in the
annexation process and eight (8) are in process of being negotiated for
transfer.This leaves approximately ten
(10) parks that presently do not have a home and the future of these parks are
undecided at this point.The 2009
operating budget for these parks was $2.4 million and that same budget for 2010
has been reduced to $400,000.Consequently, the County is continuing to maintain these parks as best
it can based on its 83.3% reduction in the annual maintenance budget.
As KingCounty has indicated, it would like to move forward
as quickly as possible in transferring ownership of the KlahaniePark.Yet, given the limited interest from any
other entities, including the limited interest from the Klahanie Association, KingCounty
is looking to pursue and/or continue negotiations with the City of Sammamish.I encourage anyone who would like to express their questions
and/or concerns regarding the KlahaniePark to contact KingCounty
directly.
City of Sammamish
The Klahanie Association extended the same
invitation to attend the joint meeting to the following staff members for the
City of Sammamish.
Ben
Yazici ~ City Manager
Pete
Butkus ~ DeputyCity Manager
Jessi
Richardson ~ Sammamish Parks Director
Ben Yacizi and Jessi Richardson attended the
meeting on behalf of the City of Sammamish.Ben indicated that the City of Sammamish is interested in the KlahaniePark and recognizes the importance of
keeping the Park open for the surrounding communities including residents of
Issaquah, Sammamish and KingCounty.The City of Sammamish recognizes that it borders seventy
percent (70%) of Klahanie and wants to make every effort to not only be good
neighbors but partners as well.The
discussions regarding the transfer of the Park to the City of Sammamish focused around the issue of
Klahanie and those communities located within the PAA having no voting or
jurisdictional vote.This is further
evidenced through the survey results represented above.Ben indicated that he recognized the
importance of Klahanie and those surrounding communities within the PAA having
a voice in what future changes could be implemented with the KlahaniePark.He further indicated that he would be
discussing with his Sammamish City Council the issues surrounding the KlahaniePark
and what they would need to discuss in terms of moving forward with KingCounty.
Overall, with the recent joint meeting between
the City of Issaquah and City of Sammamish they have recognized the importance of the long
term goal of maintaining the KlahaniePark within the PAA until
such time that the annexation issue is resolved.Yet, understanding the importance of keeping
the Park open for the immediate future, they will need to continue to work
together with KingCounty to achieve this
goal.The Klahanie Association will
continue to update KingCounty and the City of Sammamish should the surveys reflect anything
different than what has been indicated to this point.All parties have agreed it is important to
keep each entity involved in the discussions and progressions of the KlahaniePark.
The Klahanie Association is fortunate to have
Marta McKie as its new Community Manager.She has been actively working on all aspects of our Association,
including the KlahaniePark.If you have specific questions and/or
concerns regarding the KlahaniePark, I encourage you to
follow-up with her.Her email address is
and she
can also be reached at the Klahanie office at 425.392.4663 or her direct line
number of 425.313.1589.She and the
Klahanie staff are available Monday, Tues, and Thurs from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00
p.m, Wed from 8:30am-7pm and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Thanks.
Thomas Beeks
Klahanie Association - President
UPDATE!!!
2.19.2010
Please click on the following links to see correspondence between the City of Sammamish and the HOA Board.
Please see the following link to view a copy of the Klahanie Park Survey. This is only a copy. Please reference your mailed survey for proper submittal.
The Board invited comments from owners about the KlahaniePark situation at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday, January 26th. More than one hundred owners attended that meeting and roughly one quarter of those took the opportunity to express their concerns about the County’s proposal to transfer the Park to the City of Sammamish. The Board listened closely to what was said and came away from that meeting with a clear understanding that an outspoken portion of the Association’s membership wants the Association to take effective action to prevent the City of Sammamish from acquiring the Park and making changes to the Park that would dramatically increase impacts those neighboring the Park would have to endure.
The Board also invited the Association’s new general counsel, Terry Leahy, to speak to the owners in attendance. Mr. Leahy explained that, while he was still “catching up” on this issue (since he became general counsel only a few days before the meeting), he has a lot of experience representing associations faced with making far reaching decisions of the type that now face our Association. He noted that there is still an open question about whether the County can transfer the Park to a “governmental entity” that does not have jurisdiction over the entire Klahanie Property. He reads the Covenants as expressing an intent that Park ownership be perpetually linked to owners’ voting rights, so whoever owns and operates the Park will be accountable to the Klahanie owners. He also explained that the prudent course for a board to follow in fulfilling its obligations to all owners in a matter like this is to generally follow these steps: (1) collect accurate data on the direct and indirect short and long term costs to the Association, were the Association to take over ownership and control of the Park; (2) make cost information known to the owners; (3) identify and investigate alternatives to acquisition of the Park by the City of Sammamish or by the Association; (4) receive comment from owners about what action(s) / alternatives the owners would like to see the Board take on the matter; (5) decide, as a Board, which action(s) to pursue; and (6) to the extent the action taken by the Board triggers an obligation to engage in some vote of the Association membership, then to take the necessary vote.
Since last week’s Board meeting, the Board has taken these actions:
1. Retained a consultant, Dawn Merten, with substantial experience in cost estimating of the type the Board needs in this matter. Dawn Merten is already at work gathering information needed to provide the Board with realistic, reliable cost estimates for owning and operating the Park, so any decision the Board makes about possibly acquiring the Park is a fully informed decision;
2. Directed Mr. Leahy to further investigate the “Park-linked-to-Klahanie-voters” issue and to recommend Board action based on the outcome of his investigation;
3. Directed Mr. Leahy to assist the Board in creating a simple survey it can use to get a better sense of where members of the Association stand on some of the factors the Board may weigh in deciding what action(s) to take; and
4. Identified, as one possible alternative course of action that warrants further consideration, a statutory procedure that was recently used by owners on Finn Hill (north of Kirkland) to form a park district that took over control of O.O. Denny Park (another King County Park the County threatened to close).
The draft survey has been received, is being reviewed, and we anticipate conducting the survey shortly. Based on the interest already expressed by owners at the last Board Meeting, and on what the Board believes other owners will say when asked about the link between the Park and the right to vote,
we will be contacting King County, the City of Sammamish and the City of Issaquah to make it known to each of these governments that we, as an Association, are committed to preserving the existing link between Klahanie Park and the right of Klahanie owners to elect those public officials who are entrusted with making final decisions on major actions affecting the Park. We intend to explore with each of these governments actions that can be taken to safeguard this existing link between KlahaniePark and Klahanie residents, so that elected decision makers will continue to be held accountable to the Klahanie voters.
The following link is to an update that was mailed out to all Klahanie residents in December.
