I am really disappointed in the Kirkland Reporter editorial last week. You completely missed the point in why people are not happy about annexation.

Smiling city council members sipping sparkling cider alongside the road or handing out strawberry shortcake, historical articles and editorials saying get over it does nothing to help the feelings of distrust engendered against the political body in Kirkland.

Telling us that the council repeated history when they rammed through the annexation merely over the issue of tax assumption and a simple majority does little for establishing credibility. It was wrong in 1968 and it was met with the same outrage as now in 2011 as it was then.

We were told that it would take a 60 percent vote to achieve annexation, not the city council overruling it or using a simple majority. It doesn’t mater that it failed by seven votes. It either passes by 60 percent or it doesn’t.

The Kirkland City Council and the mayor have not engendered trust or respect when they also after annexation tried to change the boundaries on the newly annexed areas so as to mitigate or dilute the demographic impacts of Finn Hill and Kingsgate.

People also resent the City of Kirkland getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in their treasury as a result of people getting new agreements for utilities, which resulted in a rate increase for the getting the same service.

Yes, we are now annexed and we have to move on, but the mayor and the city council need to do some serious work in mending some fences with all of their constituents and gaining the public trust. Smiles and PR opportunities are not going to do it.

Bill Webb, Kirkland