My name is Jaimie Fender and I have served on King City Council since 2017 and as Mayor for the last two years. I love our City. My husband and I are grateful to live here and raise our young kids in this community.
There is an effort right now in King City to recall 65% of the King City Council, including me and three of the other five councilors. Proponents of this radical recall would like you to think this is about a policy decision, but the fact is, this recall campaign is being pushed and paid for by a few landowners, some of whom don’t even live in King City and cannot vote in this election. They wanted the Council to choose their personal interests over the best interests of the community. They simply want to control city government decisions for their own personal financial gain.
I urge you to vote NO in the upcoming recall election.
King City is legally required to plan for future growth. As such, King City’s growth management plan was developed by impartial experts over the past seven years with numerous public meetings and input from hundreds of city residents. We spent years collaborating with stakeholders, community members, community partners, and government agencies. The plan has been approved or endorsed by the city council, county commission, metro council and state agencies.
A City must ensure future growth is responsible, safe, and thoughtful; and protects the natural, cultural, and social resources. Our plans, despite the false and misleading suggestions to the contrary, do just that.
In developing these plans, King City used grant money to hire three different independent and impartial expert consulting firms. These experts performed science-based traffic and growth studies, ran modeling, analyzed data, and provided their expert opinions. Those opinions, analyses, and data were then collated by the experts into recommended plans. Drafts of the plans were provided to the community and to our stakeholders. When feedback and alternatives were proposed by residents, we invested additional resources to have the issues evaluated by experts. We had almost seven years of community engagement, outreach, and input on the plans before the final plans were presented to the Planning Commission and then to the City Council for approval.
Despite these facts, a few wealthy property owners have launched this recall simply because we didn’t vote their way. They want to replace us with unelected, appointed people who will choose their personal interest above those of the residents of King City. Removing a majority of the Council, to further the personal financial interest of a few land owners, is radical and undemocratic, and it’s wrong.
The responsibility to serve and lead comes first, as your neighbor, and second, as your mayor. Our kids attend the same school, we shop at the same stores, buy gas at the same stations, and play at the same parks. I serve my friends, neighbors, and peers. I serve my community. My fellow Councilors and I take this responsibility honorably and seriously, and we would never vote to place someone’s private, personal interests over the needs of the entire community which is what these landowners asked us to do.
I ask you to reject this radical and extreme recall by voting NO this February.
