To:     NARLO Members, Rural landowners,
Government Types, Interested Parties and the News Media

From: Ron Ewart, President, National Association of Rural Landowners

FOR:  All recipients, but especially those in Washington
State

Two years ago, when Rob McKenna,
previous King County Council Member, won election to the Washington State
Attorney General's (AG) office, many of us were elated that finally one of our
own was in a position of power and might render some decisions that would
be favorable to rural landowners.  Part of the AG's duties was to provide
an Advisory Memorandum on government takings of private property, as
required by the State's Growth Management Act (GMA).  Although the
AG's office is supposed to publish an Advisory Memorandum (AM) every
year, pursuant to Washington State RCW 36.70A.3.70
(http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=36.70A.370), the last AM was published in
December of 2003, 3 years ago.

Just before Mr. McKenna took office,
we provided him with a 5-page testimony on TAKINGS that we gave to the King
County Council just prior to the passage of the County's Critical Areas
Ordinance (CAO).  In that testimony we took issue with the 2003 AM, in
that it excluded the RIGHT OF USE as one of the fundamental rights of
property ownership.  In our testimony we provided some case law on the
fundamental right of property ownership that we researched from a treatise by
State Supreme Court justice, Richard B. Sanders.  We provided that
testimony to Mr. McKenna a few days before he took office and he promised that
one of the first priorities of the AG's office was to publish a revised
AM.  Finally, two years later, we have one.

We just read the revised AM (see attached PDF file , revised
Advisory Memorandum, Part III, Warning Signals, Paragraph 3, page 17) and found once again that the RIGHT OF USE was excluded
from the four (4) attributes of property ownership.   We were
quite disappointed and sent a letter to AG McKenna to that
effect.  Our letter to the AG is attached as a WORD
document.

The revised AM, although well
written and a far cry from the AM of 2003, lacks real teeth to keep state
and local governments from passing ordinances and regulations that violate
takings protections under the federal and state
constitutions.   The AM essentially put the question of TAKINGS
into the courts and we all know how the courts rule.  Courts don't side
with the constitutions any more, they side with their interpretation of the
intent of the legislature.  In other words, they legislate from the bench.

All questions of constitutionality
are decided by lower and higher courts.  Since the era of FDR's New Deal (mid 1930's), the courts have sided with Big Government, to the detriment
of individual rights.  Property rights is just one individual right that has
been decimated by unconstitutional Supreme Court decisions and we don't see any
course corrections any time soon.   Our hopes that the AG's revised
Advisory Memorandum might slow down or stop the onslaught of draconian
environmental regulations by local governments, were
dashed.

We concluded our letter to the AG
with the following paragraph:

"Every day rural
landowners are besieged by environmental protection law, in violation of the
equal protection clause.  King
County's CAO was grossly negligent in addressing only one (1) of 13 goals of
this state's GMA.  The County's CAO
was not only a TAKING in the compensatory sense, it
was also a TAKING in the substantive due process sense.  Unfortunately, the courts, to which your
Memorandum alludes to resolve such issues, aides and abets legislatures that
pass all of these draconian environmental laws.  In short Mr. McKenna, constitutional
protections of government abuses and takings of private property are dead, just
as protections against eminent domain for other than public purposes is also
dead.  Perhaps the REPUBLIC is dead
as well!"

NOTE:  In defense of
the AG, we should mention here that the he has taken on some issues that
are favorable to individual rights, most notably the Washington Education
Association's (WEA) State Supreme court
ruling that the rights of individual union members were subordinate to the
rights of the WEA.  That case is now pending before the U. S. Supreme
Court, thanks to AG McKenna and the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.  A
favorable decision for "individual rights" appears
likely.

Ron
Ewart, President

NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS

P. O. Box 1031,
Issaquah, WA  98027

425
222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848

(Fax No. 425
222-4743)

Website: www.narlo.org

"THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS"

The National
Association of Rural Landowners (NARLO) is a non-profit corporation, duly
licensed in the State of Washington.  It was formed in response to
draconian land use ordinances that were passed by King County in
Washington State (Seattle) in the late Fall of 2004,
after vociferous opposition from rural landowners.  NARLO's mission is to
begin the long process of restoring, preserving and protecting Constitutional
property rights and returning this country to a Constitutional Republic.
Government has done a great job of dividing us up into little battle groups
where we are essentially impotent at a national level.  We will change all
that with the noisy voices and the vast wealth tied up in the land of the
American rural landowner.  The land is our power, if we will just use that
power, before we lose it.  We welcome donations and volunteers who believe
as we do, that government abuses against rural landowners have gone on for far
too long and a day of reckoning is at hand.  To learn more, visit our
website at www.narlo.org.

President Roosevelt, in his 1933
inaugural address said, “…. The only
thing we have to fear is fear itself”.  I maintain that the only thing we have
to fear is unbridled government.  The only way unbridled government can
exist is if WE THE PEOPLE allow it.
Unfortunately, we have