To all interested parties in defeating King County's CAO and those ordinances and laws that drive the CAO and similar laws:

I attended the organization meeting for Washington Clone's to Oregon's Ballot Measure 37 in Olympia on Friday. (Oregon's initiative required that government pay compensation for loss of value due to land use regulation. It passed with a 60% majority and even passed in Portland's County) A fellow from "Oregon's In Action" (Dave Honeycutt) which sponsored the Oregon Initiative, gave a 45-minute talk on their experiences in Oregon. There were at least three property rights groups there, three folks from Pacific Legal Foundation were there, the Washington Grange was there, the Washington Realty Board was there, the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) was there, a representative from Davis Wright Tremaine (a Seattle law firm) was there and Tim Eyman was there. Gary Tripp from Bainbridge Island called the meeting and acted as moderator. His group is going to draft the Initiative and then e-mail it to all present at the meeting for their input. There was some dissention as to whether it would be run this year, or in 2006. That hasn't been decided yet. I pushed strongly for this year because we are riding a wave, not only with the CAO but with the Governor's election and the shift in the National election on November 2nd. Next year might be too late.

After the meeting, Rod McFarland and I had lunch with three members of the Pacific Legal Foundation and received an earful of information we would not normally have heard. It was indeed enlightening.

On Sunday, the Seattle Times https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002152273_propertyinit16.html and the King County Journal picked up on Friday's Measure 37 meeting. Coincidentally, on the same day of the meeting, the 1000 Friends of Oregon (friends, my you know what), filed suit against the new Oregon Statute. The opposition in Oregon (mostly environmental groups that sent in money from the national organizations) outspent Oregon's in Action 4 to 1 and lost. It is quite likely the same will occur in Washington and maybe even more, as the environmentalists and the politicians that pass their agenda, can't afford to lose two (2) states to this land use law backlash.

In the King County Journal article it was stated that the 1000 Friends of Washington will be mounting an attack on any initiative that tries to copy Oregon's Ballot Measure 37.

So I want to be clear here. Environmental groups are very rich and they have hijacked the Democrat Party to aid and abet their radical agenda. Now they will attack the constitutional rights of rural landowners again, as we try to gain some semblance of our rights through the initiative process here, in Washington. The message I am sending should be crystal clear.

If we do not as rural landowners stand up to these very political powerful and rich folks, we are going to lose, big time. Make no mistake, they intend for us to lose, because they know we are fragmented and poorly organized. Let's prove them wrong. I urge everyone to contact Tim Eyman, contact CAPR, contact the Kitsap Alliance for Property Rights (KAPO), contact the Washington Grange, contact BIAW and contact Gary Tripp. Tell them you want Initiative 37 to run this year, not next. These issues are fragile and the memory of our citizens is short. We must act now or risk losing our timing. If you want their e-mail addresses, contact me.

To wrap up, I received a tremendous amount of significant information from a gentleman that owned property along the East Lake Sammamish Trail. As many of you know, King County confiscated the railroad right-of-way along East Lake Sammamish for this trail, in violation of constitution and law. This gentleman had to sell out and move because the county was after him due to his opposition to the trail and his lawsuits and appeals. They even trumped up charges against him and had him arrested. That is how far these folks at King County will go to crush the opposition. More on that later.

425 222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848