Where’s Pollock?
To the editor:
As Bainbridge Island Review’s editor, Mr. Powell must be aware of public records requests from the city of Bainbridge Island.
Therefore, he must know that members of “Bainbridge Taxpayers Unite,” who oppose any court/police facility, include former Councilmember Rasham Nassar and former candidate for council Dick Haugen. There’s no news here. Just a rebranding by the same old group craving attention and relevance, regurgitating debunked lies with a new name.
It would be terrific had the Review started practicing journalism and inquired why Councilmember Pollack was AWOL during the vote and Deputy Mayor Fantroy-Johnson abstained from voting.
By the way, Pollock has been absent or abruptly left more than half of the City Council meetings this year but is still getting paid his $3,000 a month salary from taxpayers.
I’m sure there’s a real headline in all of this somewhere.
Lara Lant
Bainbridge Island
Demand investigation
To the editor:
In January 2019, Mayor Kol Medina proposed that COBI purchase the Harrison Medical Building for close to $9 million. He cast the deciding vote, and the measure passed. Shortly afterward, the council approved the purchase of $8 million in councilmanic bonds, a debt taxpayers will pay until 2036.
Not long afterward, it came to light that the city had paid close to $6 million too much for Harrison. If you were a sitting councilmember, and you learned that the council just wasted almost $6 million of taxpayer money, what would you do?
The most important responsibility of any publicly elected official is to be a fiduciary of public funds. Furthermore, councilmembers should serve to provide transparency regarding all fiscal transactions. You would think that the council would immediately demand to know why they had made such an egregious error, why they had misspent $6 million, and why they had been led to approve a bond purchase of $8 million that their taxpayers will have to pay—with interest—until 2036.
That’s not what our City Council did. Instead, they pulled down the shades and declared they were moving ahead. No fiduciary response. No transparency. They’re moving ahead as you pay taxes to cover $8 million plus interest until 2036 – on money that gains us nothing. Why?
Demand an investigation.
Mary Clare Kersten
Bainbridge Island
Help homeless
To the editor:
Thank you for the April 22, 2022 article “Response, strategies to homelessness, housing crisis. I was hoping for an overview of what has been accomplished in the past few years and this is a good summary. I’ve been here for 49 years. Long enough to really care about what happens to the citizens and characters of this home I’ve chosen. Thanks again.
Barbara Hoggatt
Bainbridge Island
‘Oh, well’
To the editor:
Ukraine will lose.
What makes me particularly sad is how quickly, as a country, we will move on from this horrific tragedy and say, “Oh well.”
PJ McEwan
Bainbridge Island
Shred support
Thanks for the strong community support for our recent Kiwanis Shredfest. There was a constant stream of people responsibly disposing of their paper records again this year.
This community service is also a main Kiwanis fundraising effort to support scholarships and other programs for Bainbridge Island youth. The peope who used Shredfest were generous with donations.
Hank Keaton
Bainbridge Island
