The city of Seattle’s 2011 annexation analysis (based on a King County engineering report) identified an estimated $77 million in deferred maintenance in the North Highline annexation area. These street improvements include resurfacing arterials and non-arterials. —Berk Report 2011, Pg. 27.

At the last annexation informational meeting held at the White Center Food Bank, Burien City Manager Mike Martin was asked when the city was going to do the infrastructure studies for the proposed annexation Area Y/White Center/North Highline that were recommended in two reports the city has generated—the Berk Report and the Drainage Master Plan Report.

Area Y has a $77 million debt that Burien will inherit, if it takes this area on due to the infrastructure problems.

The city manager began an argument with the citizen that voiced the question about the needed reports, stating that no one had ever said there was a $77 million problem with the area. The 2011 Berk Report discussed this in two parts of its report. King County Engineering knows the area well and is a reliable source on data on road costs for the county.

Burien does not have the financial resources to cover this debt and the repairs that are needed to the area—now or in the long term.

Mr. Martin then went on to misquote the amount of deferred infrastructure debt that he currently has for the core city of Burien as well as the newly annexed Area X. The debt is much greater than he quoted.

This should be a concern to every citizen in Burien and every potential citizen in Area Y because the only solution to this deferred debt is to greatly increase taxes and fees and reduce services to all the citizens in Burien.

This could be a funny story about a city manager who does not read the reports he commissions if it was not such a potentially pathetic financial situation for the city of Burien and the citizens.

This is a city manager who does not even know what is in the reports he uses taxpayers’ money to write. Then he goes out to the public to try and sell an annexation that he does not even understand the finances of.

Even worse, the city has council members who do not read the reports that have been commissioned by the city and don’t even ask the tough questions about this topic.

Any citizen or council member who raises the questions of whether Burien can afford this, whether the numbers add up or whether Burien can really provide the services needed to North Highline/Area Y/White Center is publicly, verbally branded by the city manager as a troublemaker, small minded, mean spirited or not having the facts. Something is wrong with this picture.

Roger DeLorm
Burien