Edmonds Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Less than 24 hours after Mukilteo City Council decided to let residents have a say in whether to increase our population by more than 50 percent, Fire District 1 did an end run, voting unanimously literally at the final hour to appeal the Snohomish County Boundary Review Boards approval of the annexation in Superior Court.

Before the ink had dried on our article last week announcing the ballot measure, Fire District 1 ripped that power right out of the voters hands, apparently deciding it knows better than those that pay its salaries how their tax dollars are best spent.

Last week the council voted to put the annexation question on the Nov. 3 ballot for potential new residents, and added an advisory vote for current residents the only legal way to include them to run simultaneously.

While FD1s lawsuit doesnt prohibit letting Mukilteo residents check in, it does render such a decision moot, since it could be months before a resolution takes place or even years if FD1 gets its way. All of which makes a 2009 vote essentially obsolete by the time those in the annexation area are allowed to have their say.

FD1s union has been vocal and proactive in its opposition to losing another 11,000 residents and the tax dollars they represent, in addition to the chunks of its power its giving up to other cities annexations.