Carbon monoxide poisoning can kill you. Carbon monoxide gas comes from burning fuels such as gasoline, propane, oil, kerosene, natural gas, coal or wood.

Prevent poisoning from carbon monoxide:

• Only use a generator outdoors and far from open windows and vents
• Never use a generator or portable propane heater indoors, in garages or carports
• Never cook or heat inside on a charcoal or gas grill.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can happen suddenly and without warning. Physical symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning may include splitting headache, nausea and vomiting, and lethargy and fatigue.

If you believe you could be experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning, get fresh air immediately. Call for medical help from a neighbor’s home. The Fire Department will tell you when it is safe to re-enter the home.

For a full list of carbon monoxide prevention tips and other safety and disaster information in English and other languages, visit www.kingcounty.gov/health/disaster

If you have a power outage, use safe ways to stay warm:

• Find places where you can go to get warm, such as the home of friends and family whose homes have power. Many cities have opened centers where people can go during the day to stay warm. Center locations can be found at www.kingcounty.gov/safety/prepare
• Wear several layers of light weight, warm clothing rather than one layer of heavy clothing. Wear hats, mittens, and blankets indoors.
• Close curtains and cover windows and doors with blankets. Everyone should try to stay together in one room, with the door closed, to keep in body heat.

• Check on elderly friends, family, and neighbors to make sure they are safe.
• Watch your footing on surfaces that may be icy and slick, and wear shoes that provide traction.
• Be careful not to overexert yourself when shoveling snow, especially if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, as the cold weather puts extra strain on your heart.
• Do not sled on streets or on slopes near streets, ponds, or streams.
• Avoid driving if you can. If you must drive, allow safe stopping times and distances.

• Warn others about carbon monoxide poisoning. Share the information with neighbors, friends, family and community groups.
• Check on family, friends, and neighbors, especially if they are elderly or if you think their power might be out.
• If you know someone who has lost electricity, invite them to your home to stay warm.

If power goes out where you live, keep food safe:

• Keep the doors closed on your refrigerators and freezers as much as possible. This keeps the cold air inside. A full freezer can stay at freezing temperatures about two days; a half-full freezer about 1 day.
• If you think the power will be out for several days, try to find some ice to pack inside your refrigerator. Keep raw foods separate from ready-to-eat foods.
• Refrigerated foods should be safe as long as the power is out no more than a few hours and the refrigerator/freezer doors have been kept closed. Throw away foods that spoil easily (such as meat and fish) if they warm up above 41º F.
• Frozen foods that remain frozen are OK to eat. If potentially hazardous foods are thawed (such as meat and fish), but are still cold or have ice crystals on them, use them as soon as possible. If potentially hazardous foods are thawed and are warmer than 41º F, throw them away.

Updated, Jan. 20–Shelter will also be open this evening, Fri., Jan. 20.

Because of the snowstorm and its accompanying cold temperatures, the City of Kent is opening the Kent Severe Weather Shelter at the Kent Lutheran Church tonight, Jan. 18 through Fri., Jan. 20. Here are the details:

Location:  Kent Lutheran Church, 336 2nd Ave. S., Kent, WA  98032

Check-in and registration:  9 p.m.  (all guests must register)

Shelter closes, guests must leave:  7 a.m.

The shelter is giving priority to homeless families with children who are living on the streets or in their vehicles. Men and women without children are also welcome. There is separate sleeping space available for families, men and women.

The Severe Weather Shelter is operated by Catholic Community Services staff and volunteers from the Kent Lutheran Church and Kent community.

To locate shelters in Renton, Federal Way, Bellevue and Seattle, dial 2-1-1.

If you know of a homeless person or family who needs shelter, please share this information with them.

Dear Editor,

Much has been said, written, implied, and rumored about the collection and use of property taxes by the city. We’d like to set the record straight, not only about those taxes, but to right some false statements made by Mr. Berrios in his letter to the editor printed in the October 7 edition of the Kent Reporter.

In 2010, voters approved the formation of the Regional Fire Authority (RFA). That measure passed with over 70% of the vote. By approving the RFA, voters approved two major revenue changes that appear on your property tax bill 1) a transfer of $1.00 per thousand of assessed value from the city to the RFA and 2) the collection of a new revenue charge called a Fire Benefit Charge (FBC). Both of these changes were in the voters pamphlet and part of the public outreach campaign prior to the vote.

The Truth about Property Taxes

Property taxes are collected by King County and are used to pay for a variety of organizations and services including state and local schools, county services, city services, the Port of Seattle, ferry services, King County Library System, emergency medical services, and Valley Medical Center.

Only a small portion of the property tax we pay comes to our city – 11.2% of the total to be exact.

The property tax revenues our city receives have always been deposited into the General Fund and used to pay for general government services including public safety, parks, streets and other services. They were never transferred from another fund as alleged. Property owners should note that property taxes only cover 25% of the total cost to provide the previously mentioned services.

The remaining costs are covered using sales and utility tax revenues, building revenues and permit fees, which also, have always been deposited into the General Fund. Unfortunately, these revenue sources have declined by $8.4 million since the recession began.

It is clear there is a mistaken assumption that before voters approved the RFA, the Fire Department was funded solely by property taxes. Nothing could be further from the truth. If this assertion were true – if the entire city’s portion of property taxes received were dedicated to public safety – those dollars wouldn’t even cover half of the total cost to provide those services. In fact, in 2010, before the RFA, only $8.9 million dollars of property tax money was used to pay for the fire department. The remaining $15.2 million dollars in their budget came from other revenue sources.

In 2010, the city received $2.36 per $1,000 in assessed valuation to pay for all of the general government services referenced previously. When the RFA was formed, the city gave up $1.00 of the $2.36 previously received, leaving $1.36 per $1,000 assessed valuation to pay for those previously referenced services. That $1.00 dollar equated to a reduction of $11.7 million in property taxes that used to go into the city’s General Fund, which is now collected by the RFA. That is well over the $8.9 million in property taxes that partially funded the fire department in 2010.

This year, due to fluctuation in property values, the county, not the city, set the rate at $1.48 per $1,000 in assessed valuation. This is just the city’s portion of the total property tax bill.

The letter to the editor wrongly asserts that “additional taxes were collected without voter approval.” The $1.00 redistribution from the city to the RFA is a “wash” to taxpayers. The $1.48 still received by the city in property taxes was not “stolen”, “kept” or “taken” as the author claims. That money was, and has always been received and deposited into the city’s General Fund to provide general government services…not to solely pay for the Fire Department. Remember, the city gave up $1.00 of its total property tax receipts. The RFA now receives that $1.00 dollar. At a minimum this was not an “excess collection,” and to say it was “unethical” is unconscionable.

This was never a property tax reduction discussion; it was about a redistribution of $1.00 from the city to the RFA, pending voter approval. Again, voters approved the plan to redistribute the $1.00 from the city, to the RFA by more than 70%.

About the Fire Benefit Charge

Well why is it if the city used to get $2.36 and now gets $1.48 that my property taxes have gone up? A review of one’s property tax bill will show voter approved tax increases and charges to pay for services they deem valuable.

For instance, voters approved bonds, levies and charges to support the Kent School District, King County Library System and the Regional Fire Authority.

An additional voter approved charge appearing on tax statements is the new Fire Benefit Charge (FBC). This charge is over and above what was previously billed and collected. To be clear, the FBC is a charge, not a tax and goes directly to the RFA. While we agree it’s confusing that this charge is included in King County’s property tax bills, it is not a tax. That’s why it falls under the “Other charges” category just as the Noxious Weed and Conservation charges do. There is no double taxation here. Voters agreed to transfer $1.00 from the city’s total property tax collection to the RFA. Voters also agreed to be assessed a FBC.

The fact the measure to approve the RFA, including its FBC required a 60% voter majority signaled more money out of our pockets.

Moving Forward…

Mr. Berrios is asking the city to reduce its portion of property taxes collected by $4.9 million. For the owner of a $300,000 home, that would equate to $114 per year. It would not reduce the $1.00 received by the RFA, or the Fire Benefit Charge, also received by the RFA.

That $114 reduction would come at cost; a cost in police services, parks, street maintenance and other services vital to the community.

Declining revenues since the recession began have forced reductions in every area of the city budget. Since 2009, 90 employee positions have either been eliminated or left vacant and programs have been cut.

The suggested $4.9 million cut translates to between 60 and 70 additional employees losing their jobs, causing even further reductions and elimination of programs.

We understand the public is typically eager to cut government spending, and government employees for that matter. At the same time, the public insists on a strong police force, streets without pot holes, sidewalks in good repair, snow removal, parks and teen programs, neighborhood councils and even the lunch program at the Senior Center. The city employees are the people patrolling the streets, repairing streets and sidewalks and removing the snow. These programs don’t exist without funding, or the employees that provide the services.

The council is always looking for feedback on what you would like to see, or not see in the budget. The next public hearing on the 2012 budget is set for Tuesday, November 15, 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall and we encourage you to come with ideas and suggestions on how to move this city in the right direction.

Sincerely,

Jamie Perry, Council President
Elizabeth Albertson, Councilmember
Deborah Ranniger, Councilmember
Debbie Raplee, Councilmember

Mayor Suzette Cooke’s 2012 Budget Proposal to Kent City Council

Kent, Wash. – October 5, 2011 – Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke’s 2012 proposed budget was presented to the Kent City Council on Tuesday, October 4, 2011 by Chief Administrative Officer John Hodgson.

In a prepared statement, Cooke said her budget is in line with the “new normal.”

“For nearly four years, city government has been in persistent contraction. Rising costs and deteriorating revenues have forced reductions in nearly every area our budget.

We’ve made significant cuts, we’ve reduced staff, we’ve cut programs — and hoped conditions would stabilize.  Instead, projections continually collapse.  As Arun Raha, our state’s economist and forecaster, recently stated, ‘a return to normalcy seems like mirage in the desert that keeps slipping away’. This unprecedented recession just won’t end.

Earlier this year, the Council established its strategic goals for 2012 including the ‘development and implementation of a sustainable funding model for city services.’  This budget proposal is reflective of that goal and the new economic reality.”

The proposed 2012 Operating Budget totals $141.7 million.

Cooke’s statement further noted the budget continues to make law enforcement and public safety a high priority. “Approximately 46% of the expenditures in the General Fund are dedicated to public safety, which includes police, corrections and courts.”

Highlights of the proposed budget

Top priorities maintained

• Law Enforcement:  No reductions in the number of sworn officers are proposed.
• Human Services:  Maintain 2011 funding levels for human services. With the departure of the fire department, the original 1% calculation would have been $733k.  An additional $95,600 keeps it whole for 2012.
• Infrastructure:  Preserve the City’s infrastructure assets, including utilities (water, sewer and drainage), streets, parks, facilities and technology.
• Economic Development:  Focus on increasing economic development opportunities that provide jobs for Kent residents.
•  Increase connections and communication with our residents: Aim to foster inclusiveness by celebrating our diversity and creating new gathering places.

Cost increases and required/contracted expenditures

* $500,000 towards repayment of a 2002 loan from the water fund related to land acquisition for Kent Station.
* $126,000 increase in animal control services provided by Regional Animal Services of King County, for a total cost of nearly $417,000 for 2012.  The city-county contract will end 12/31/2012.
* $110,000 increase for election services and $44,573 increase in voter registration services provided by King County.
* $172,000 new expense for custodial, maintenance and security screening costs for the newly acquired Aukeen Court/Municipal Court building.
* $572,000 in utility cost increases for city-owned facilities and parks (i.e. electricity, water, sewer, garbage, etc.), as well as neighborhood street lighting previously covered by Home Owners Associations.
* $343,000 increase for state-mandated pension costs.
* $373,000 increase for worker’s compensation costs, largely due to remaining fire department claims.  The City is still responsible for these outstanding claims, because they occurred prior to the formation of the Regional Fire Authority.

Cost savings/fee increases

•     Eliminate 20.5 vacant positions – $1,711,562
•     Restructure fees for permitting and development services – $400,000
•     Apply a technology fee to permitting, parks and utility billing transactions to maintain technology systems – $125,000.
•     Increase business license fees – $100,000.

Residents are encouraged to attend a public hearing on the 2012 budget on Tuesday, November 15 at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

Council members will review the budget and likely adopt a final version at their December 13 meeting.

The public is invited to weigh in on Kent’s Comprehensive Plan and City Code by September 1, 2011.  The City needs input on what the Economic and Community Development Department should focus on in the coming year. 

“We need to know if the comprehensive plan and development regulations create any barriers to the city growing responsibly, equitably, and with environmental and neighborhood sensitivity,” said Fred Satterstrom, Kent’s Planning Director.  “This is the community’s opportunity to participate in making changes.” 

This annual review looks at the challenges that the City’s planning documents, land use plan and zoning maps, and regulations present to economic development and neighborhood vitality. 

The following online tools can help people to weigh in on this annual update.  The public is encouraged to visit the following links:

Submit a request for changes.

View additional details on creating a docket (or list) of suggested changes.

View the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Plan Map and Zoning Districts Map.

The City of Kent is opening the Severe Weather Shelter (SWS) tonight at Kent Lutheran Church for the evenings of Wednesday February 23rd, Thursday February 24th, and Friday February 25th due to predicted dangerously low temperatures and snow.

Kent Lutheran Church

336 2nd Avenue South

Kent, WA 98032-5849

9 P.M. – Check-in and registration

7 A.M. – shelter closes, clients must vacate

Priority is given to homeless families with children who are living on the streets or in vehicles, but the SWS is also available for single women and men (separate sleeping space has been prepared for single men, women, and for families with children). The SWS will be operated by Catholic Community Services staff, and volunteers from Kent Lutheran Church and the Kent community.

The SWS will open at 9 P.M. Clients must register at the door. As with all shelters, rules for the health and safety of all clients and staff and the broader community will apply.

Please help distribute this announcement.

City of Kent, Housing and Human Services

253-856-5070

Ken Thomas Named Chief of Police for Kent

KENT, Wash. – January 19, 2011 – Ken Thomas, a 22-year police veteran with a history of innovative leadership and community outreach, will take the lead as the new Chief of Police for the City of Kent.

“Thomas’s leadership excellence and his ability to build strong relationships with diverse communities makes him an outstanding choice to lead our Police Department,” Mayor Suzette Cooke said. “Simply put, Ken is the right choice for our community and the right choice for the department.”

Currently serving as Captain of the 185-member department, Thomas is credited with leading Kent’s Community Oriented Policing Unit that has resulted in reduced residential burglaries and auto thefts.

“As a veteran of the department, he is very familiar with our community and neighborhoods, and recognizes our challenges,” Cooke said.

“I’m honored to be chosen for this position. I will do everything in my power to make Kent the safest city in the region,” Thomas said. “I’m looking forward to working with the Mayor and City Council, and every member of this great department, just as I’m looking forward to working with the community as a true partner in public safety.”

Four candidates were interviewed by three panels representing Kent’s diverse community, public safety professionals, and business and civic leaders.

“While each candidate’s breadth of experience and commitment were impressive, Ken Thomas was the overwhelming top choice of each of three panels,” said Cooke. “The panelists like the direction the department is going; the officers like the direction the department is going. We all want to keep the current momentum.”

Council President Jamie Perry said the entire Council supports the selection of Thomas. “He’s going to do a great job and he’s got the experience we need.”

Thomas holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Development from Central Washington University in Ellensburg. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

Thomas will be sworn in as Chief within the next two weeks. He replaces Chief Steve Strachan, who resigned in December 2010 to serve as Chief Deputy of the King County Sheriff’s Office.

Kent Lutheran Church
336 2nd Avenue South
Kent, WA 98032-5849

9 P.M. – Check-in and registration

7 A.M. – shelter closes, clients must vacate

Priority is given to homeless families with children who are living on the streets or in vehicles, but the SWS is also available for single women and men. The SWS will be operated by Catholic Community Services staff, and volunteers from Kent Lutheran Church and the Kent community.

The SWS will open at 9 P.M. Clients must register at the door. As with all shelters, rules for the health and safety of all clients and staff and the broader community will apply.

Please help distribute this announcement.

City of Kent, Housing and Human Services
253-856-5070

Kent Police Serve Search Warrant for Counterfeit Prescriptions
Police seize computers and guns from local apartment.

KENT, Wash. – December 7, 2010 – Kent Police and Valley SWAT personnel have served a search warrant at an east Kent apartment while investigating a prescription forgery ring. The warrant was served at the Birch Creek Apartments, 12953 SE 275 St, Kent, at 10 AM today. The residents of the apartment, a local man and woman, have been arrested. The search of their apartment is on-going.

Officers first became aware of the location while investigating a recent prescription forgery. Through investigation Police identified the source of the forged prescription as a 33 year old Kent man. Officers learned that the counterfeiting operation was run from the man’s apartment. Police also learned that the person of interest was a convicted felon and was in possession of at least one firearm.

Due to the presence of the firearm and the suspect’s history of violent crime, Police used a SWAT team to make contact. Early today, Kent Police surrounded the residence, evacuated neighboring apartments, and then used a Police Negotiator to call the suspect and his house mate from the apartment. The pair exited without incident. Detectives recovered an extensive amount of evidence pertaining to the forgeries, ID theft, as well as two guns.

Kent Police have charged the pair with ID Theft and Prescription Forgery. The man has also been charged as a Felon Possessing a Firearm. “We are very satisfied with the outcome of this investigation and the warrant service” noted Lieutenant Pat Lowery. Both suspects are being held in the Kent Corrections Center.

The scene of this morning’s arrests: