Resident asks Kent council to waive stormwater fee after repeated flooding
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Summary
A Kent resident told the council on Feb. 17 that flooding from the Green River damaged about 30 homes in the Rollover Community and asked for an exemption from the stormwater drainage fee, citing emergency-response problems including a neighbor who needed tow-vehicle evacuation and an ambulance that did not come.
During the Feb. 17 public-comment period, a resident who identified themself as MJ Padock described repeated flood damage to roughly 30 homes in the Rollover Community and asked the Kent City Council to exempt those properties from the city’s stormwater drainage fee.
Padock said floodwater from the Green River “cuts off a lot of escape routes” and described a neighbor who is disabled and had to be evacuated by tow truck because, Padock said, an ambulance “wouldn’t come.” Padock said the floods destroyed property including furnaces, water heaters and beehives and asked the council to address wetland areas at 262nd and 67th/68th Avenues South.
Padock said the community bears cleanup costs (fencing, trees, backfill) and asked that the roughly 30 affected homes be exempted from the stormwater drainage fee on water bills because, Padock argued, “we’re the stormwater drainage.”
The presiding officer suggested Padock follow up with the public-works director, naming Chad Burien as a staff contact who might be able to answer questions. The transcript contains an inconsistency: the clerk announced a sign-up name spelled “MJ Potek,” while the speaker self-identified as “MJ Padock.”
No council action on the request was taken at the meeting; the item was not on the agenda. The council approved the consent calendar later in the meeting, and city staff were invited to follow up with the resident after the meeting.
