I am a long time Bellevue resident, and regular Bellevue Reporter reader. I saw the article titled “County Council fails twice to get public safety on ballot” and was interested to see how the county is attempting to fix the budget deficit.

I appreciated the factual information on what the council was doing and the current issues they are facing. However, I did not appreciate the unnecessary comments related to the possible political party affiliation of some members of the council.

This information is not relevant to the proceedings, is divisive and serves no useful purpose. Several years ago, the people of King County voted to remove any political party affiliation from the County Council offices, so it is not appropriate to mention that in the article.

I am not a member of any political party, so I have no personal agenda here. However, if I were a Democrat, I would protest the inference from the article that all Democrats want to do is to raise taxes. If I were a Republican, I would chafe at the inference that Republicans only want to thwart any decisions that Democrats are trying to make. Clearly, neither of these two inferences is correct or valid.

I look forward to seeing more coverage on the King County Council’s decisions regarding the budget issues they are facing.

Mark Dodrill, Bellevue