Letter To The Editor: Response To City Attorney's Memo To Mayor & City Council

I believe the City Attorney is wrong on many points.  First the city attorney has stated that the Initiative petition is Illegal.  I think he has misspoken, as no laws have been broken.  He may have meant he believes the petition to be invalid based on illegalities.  I think the city attorney should be more careful in his choice of words on such an important issue.  Never the less, I believe his conclusions are inaccurate.  However, he has given the mayor and city council his professional opinion on the subject.  I find it concerning the mayor, the city attorney and the city council have decided to wait for nearly six months to formulate an opinion on the Initiative Petition while fully aware of the campaign from very early on.  It would lead many to conclude they never believed the petitioners could (or would) ever gain enough support, and thus choose not to pay it any attention.  It illustrates a city leadership out of touch with public opinion.  I’m very certain our city attorney is capable of finding a way to correct the wrongs done by the Inter-local Agreements he has helped construct.  No great ship is ever built without an escape hatch or a life boat.  There is nothing in the ILA’s that can not be undone, if some effort and goodwill are put to work. There are solutions for every one of the city attorneys concerns and I believe he knows it.  

The point is not whether the T’s are crossed correctly or the I’s are dotted just right.  It’s easy to pick at the details of the petition.  After all it’s a grass roots campaign, not constructed by attorneys.   The city needs to stop ignoring the 1000 pound Gorilla in the room and come to face that the majority of the city does not want to move the library, and despite any difficulties a course change will bring, the wrongs can be and need to be righted.  They legislated (or administrated) us into the mess, they can certainly legislate us out of it.    My point is, regardless of the pain it may cause, the citizens of Renton want their library at Liberty Park over the Cedar River, and the city needs to stop burying their heads, wishing we would simply conform to the “done deal” mantra.  We don’t want an expensive Environmental Interpretive Center at the library building, and would rather see a Arts & Culture Center built at the Piazza not our library. The petitioners gathered nearly 9,400 signatures in bulk, and will very likely gain the 6375 valid signatures necessary for KCE to issue the initiative petition a certification of sufficiency. This could not have been possible had there not been an overwhelming amount of support for keeping the downtown library in its present location.  The city does not want to put it to vote because it’s crystal clear how the vote would go.  

It’s time for Renton citizens to wake up the city leadership and start standing up for what is right.  We are a city of strong willed, intelligent and passionate citizens capable of getting done whatever we see needs doing.  Our city helped win WWII, its planes fly most of the world around the world, its trucks move goods and services across our great country, and it sells the best darn assemble-it-yourself furniture that money can buy.  Don’t tell us where we must move our library and then slap us all in the face when we collectively and clearly say to you that you’ve made a mistake.  If you move the library, you will be constructing a lasting memorial of failure and destroying something that has brought our city so much pride.

Stuart Avery,
Renton Resident 17 Years