The City of Federal Way relies on city-size comparisons when making these decisions on how much city employees should earn. I will say right away I don’t begrudge anyone for making as much as they can, but I will say that when we get into these public wage arenas that we should be comparing apples to apples and not apples to watermelons.

Federal Way is a “bedroom” community created by and essentially built by Weyerhaeuser for its employees. It also constructed residential areas throughout the city as well as developed commercial properties. It did an OK job with that. The road system says a lot about the zigging and zagging in their planning.

However when the company fled to Seattle, leaving behind its accomplishments, it left a gap more like a hole large enough to drive several light rail commuter trains though simultaneously.

Federal Way is still not a manufacturing city as I pointed out in an earlier letter. When you compare Federal Way to Auburn, it’s like comparing Seattle to Port Townsend. They are both port cities, but one is missing a huge collage of supporting infrastructure that generates many good paying, middle class jobs. Our city is very talented in bringing in minimum wage chain restaurants by the dozens. Not good for many reasons, not to mention the poor and unhealthy food they dish out.

Norma Blanchard

Federal Way