Would you make a life-time commitment to someone whose personal and family debts are out of control, who is committed to spend large money on his present family’s future “needs,” who won’t agree to change this behavior or sign a pre-nuptual agreement to protect you from all of this; who, instead, says the only reason for linking up with you is to spend your money too? Neither would I.

In reality, this potential “partner” is Renton and I am a resident of Fairwood Greens, and this is exactly why I am not in favor of annexing to the city of Renton. I prefer staying with the “partner” I already have (King County); whose future may not be bright, but whose leaders are demonstrating the courage to control spending and commitment to plan for the future without making unreal assumptions about income growth.

Given the city’s latest disclosed need to raise utility rates, its clear the only reason Renton has wanted to annex any populated territory is to pull in new revenue to support it’s years of poor financial planning and budgetary mismanagement.

Although Fairwood residents have decided not to become a separate city, we do have the choice to NOT have our pockets picked forever more by the City of Renton. We should reject the city’s annexation effort until we can negotiate a “pre-nuptual” that limits our obligation for Renton’s poor past performance as well as for any future commitments. Otherwise, we should wait until Renton demonstrates the ability to manage the income they already have. Clearly, this won’t happen for years to come. If their annexation effort succeeds, then our taxes, rates and fees will skyrocket and will only reinforce the city’s practices of poor planning and performance. In short, this will be a very bad marriage.

Michael O’Meara

Fairwood