Note: This letter has not been edited for grammar or content.
by a Burien resident
I’m tired of Hugo’s, Sarah’s and Cydney’s insolent, partisan, political agenda and its destruction of the vulnerable population.
The Burien News did a respectable job of summarizing the complex and unpleasant City Council meeting of August 21, 2023. However, it missed some key points related to civility. Hugo Garcia, Cydney Moore, and Sarah Moore again refused to approve the meeting agenda, with no comments on why they didn’t approve it.
What is additionally missing from this Burien News story is how far off Council Member Sarah Moore has become regarding the shelter spaces offered to the homeless. Councilmember Sarah Moore insists on a perfect match with what the homeless person wants. But the homeless living in tents are often traumatized by drug use or mentally ill, making them not competent in prescribing the path forward. To ask them is cruel, like telling someone with no legs to run a marathon. Further, most have never been a resident of Burien.
Add to this Councilmember Sarah Moore’s expectation of extensive follow-up to make sure the homeless are happy about where they went to. Of course, Sarah Moore’s demands are not a legal requirement of the Martin vs. Boise case ruling for shelter. It is Sarah Moore’s personal view of how she wishes Martin vs. Boise to read, and in effect, is keeping homeless drug addicts, criminals, sexual predators, mentally ill vagrants, drug dealers, and pimps living and openly using drugs in a place to intimidate and harass residents on Burien public lands. This is being promoted by Council members Sarah Moore, Hugo Garcia, and Cydney Moore.
Sadly, not immediately passing Ordinance 818: No Unlawful Camping continues to allow more of these drug-involved/mentally ill homeless individuals to flood Burien and create health and safety issues for themselves, innocent bystander residents, business owners, disabled residents and families, and children. These vagrant homeless, unwilling to accept appropriate help to recover, have held the rest of Burien’s population hostage and victims to their crimes.
Where is the compassion for those who are lost in a traumatized state, incompetent to lay out the path forward, or the Burien businesses and residents who have their lives altered? Hugo, Sarah, and Cydney? This has become a grossly misguided form of enablement directed at punishing the rest of Burien’s population. It is a mentality that other cities and councils in King County are not allowing or tolerating.
Further, Council Members Garcia, Sarah Moore and Cydney Moore and their minion followers continue to encourage and import deadbeat, non-Burien resident speakers and agencies from around the County and State to speak at Burien City council meetings, keeping real Burien residents from getting two-minute speaking times. Resident John White has complained about this lack of fairness to Burien residents and taxpayers.
These nonresident speakers promote their own false and failed notions about homelessness and how to remedy it. This continues to further waste Burien’s time, money, and resources on researching useless failed models and unsuccessful programs that haven’t successfully worked to end homelessness in the last 20 years. The Coalition to End Homelessness, All Home, and now, the King County Regional Housing Authority [KCRHA] have failed to solve the problem.
The $1 million dollar offer from the costly, ineffective, and unsuccessful KCRHA is a red herring to get the “homelessness monkey off” of the KC County Exec. Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrel’s back and dump it on to Burien. There is no way Burien or its taxpayers could or should run an annual multi-million dollar shelter or tiny house village for Dow’s and Bruce’s convenience or as a pressure valve to relieve the problem they created over the many years.
And because Kristine Moreland was able to accomplish what Cydney Moore, Charles Schaefer, LEAD, Stephanie Tidholm of REACH, Colleen Brandt-Schluter, and Burien’s Human Services were unable to do, Erica Barnett was drafted to throw smears and mud on Kristine Moreland.
Thank you to Kristine Moreland for successfully cleaning up the Grocery Outlet/Dollar store. It was a public health and safety hazard area in Burien. It was grieving to see dozens of human lives being destroyed everyday while the government solutions enabled them. Kristine, you did an admirable job! Bravo!
I couldn’t have said this any better.Thank you
Well said and true! Please VOTE in the upcoming council election.
I agree with everything you stated! Question is: what can the law abiding citizens of Burien do? I write, to the Council , communicate with Stephanie Mora, called and thanked Grocery Outlet and applauded Kristine Moreland . It is of no avail. Where is the Enough Group. Disgusting ! Maybe a March or formal written draft signed by Burien citizens would be a way to get attention and public support.
Love the letter, get rid of the three council members and let’s move in a direction far different than Seattle’s solution. Homelessness has only grown the more you’ve enabled it. Let’s withhold the law and have consequences for breaking it. No tolerance from this Burien resident. I work hard for everything I have, as most tax paying citizens do, seeing our hard earned tax dollars being thrown at a problem that’s solution will never work is a joke. Hold them responsible for their choices, get the mentally ill services they need, everyone off of drugs so they can be productive members of society. You don’t give them a free home and let them continue to do drugs in it at taxpayer cost. Fed up with all this ridiculous way government thinks they are helping. If I performed that poorly at my job I would be fired.
I agree that Sarah, Hugo and Cydney should no longer be on the council. Especially Cydney. I was at the council meeting several years ago when Cydney was sworn in. I was disturbed by the fact that she did not raise her hand like the other new council members did. At that point I thought that maybe it was simply an accident that Cydney didn’t raise her hand. Boy, was I wrong. At the last two council meeting, as they were opening the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, I saw that Cydney folded her hands in front of her and did not say anything. Please folks, do not vote for Cydney.