Letter: Open Letter to Lakewood City Council

Here are the facts. Camp Murray has submitted 15 pages on traffic reviews. Their Environmental Assessment is 60 pages. Their press release states (July 20) that the gate will open this Fall. There have been two meetings initiated by Camp Murray for impacted Tillicum residents. There were no Lakewood City Councilmembers at either one. In fact, there has been zero communication from the one government entity of elected representatives that should have, could have, taken the lead on this.

Which begs the question - why not?

Walter Neary says on his blog that the city council will address this with the citizens when the time is right.

Well the time is running out.

Camp Murray intends to put out bids for construction in September.

In the aforementioned documents, provided by Camp Murray - 60 pages describe the proposal to move their gate to the interior residential streets of Tillicum. On p.47 is this statement, "Camp Murray planners have coordinated this improvement with City of Lakewood officials, and will consult further at the time of design of the new ECP facility."

That document is dated Feb.12,2010, which means of course that to complete such a "coordinated effort" takes time. A lot of it.

"Coordinated - vt organize something complex: to organize a complex enterprise in which numerous people are involved and bring their contributions together to form a coherent or efficient whole."

In other words, since we don't have any words from city council we must rely on written documents which, Neary says, raises confusion.

What's confusing and downright frustrating, is the lack of communication from those who have "coordinated" this effort.

David,

Camp Murray can speak for themselves (and I believe they have) regarding their construction timelines; they've made it clear that they are not beholden to the rapidly approaching end of the federal fiscal year with regard to any prospective new gate construction.

The EA you reference is a draft document - the final won't be out for sometime and that is what the city will formally react to. We've tried to make that perfectly clear and we will not prejudge.

On a final note, it is disingenious to suggest that because councilmembers did not attend a pair of meetings two weeks ago that they are somehow not engaged with the facts or citizen concerns. We had two staff members in attendance at the August 10th meeting and I represented the city manager (and by extension, the council) at the meeting with Eagle Point residents the next night. For the record, the city was not invited to the August 11th meeting; we asked to be included once we learned of the meeting from Camp Murray; Eagle Point leaders were gracious enough to welcome us.

Jeff Brewster
Communications Director

Jeff Brewster, you do not represent the council by extension, or by any other means; for you to say that you do is dishonest. The executive branch in government does not represent the legislative branch. Neither do you represent the citizens of Lakewood. You represent only Andrew Neiditz. It seems that your exaggerated sense of self has been part of the problem throughout. The council can speak for themselves, and so far, they remain silent largely because they are themselves uninformed. Since you represent town hall staff, and not the council, who are the two town hall staff members you reference as being in attendance at the August 10 meeting? This is yet another example of town hall staff leading the council around by their respective noses, of council's failure to provide their employee, Neiditz, with their finite instructions to carry out their legislative policies, and of your failure to provide Tillicum residents with a heads-up about matters which have a direct and high impact on their community which is already undergoing not insignificant stress as a result of staff's convoluted sewer system project. To whom have you been providing public service? Your persistent silence has been itself a pre-judgement, and, judging from public outcry, is viewed as a betrayal of public trust. It is hoped that public ire and mistrust have been sufficiently aroused to now prompt council to become awakened and called into productive action.

Jeff Brewster, your response to me personally is a matter of supreme indifference to me, but your response representing town hall hierarchy to the citizens of Lakewood is required, belated as it is.

Ask Mr. Ott.