Bellevue to send message to King County on safe injection sites

The Bellevue City Council wants to leave no room for confusion — it does not want any safe injection sites in town.

RELATED: Fate of King County safe injection sites could be up to voters

“It’s something that makes our position crystal clear,” Bellevue Councilmember Kevin Wallace said Monday as the council instructed city staff to draft a resolution affirming no safe injection sites are allowed in Bellevue.

“… this is not because we think it is illegal,” Wallace clarified about resolution. “King County just passed a resolution that said they are planning to site these; they are going to fund the siting of these in cities where the council supports it.

“We don’t need to ban brothels because brothels are clearly illegal, but in this case we’ve had this wildcard introduced where our county council, on a 6-3 vote, has voted to fund what we feel is illegal. Apparently they do not. They are saying that if city councils support them, like Seattle supports them, they will provide funding for them.”

Bellevue’s anti-safe injection site resolution will essentially send a message to the county — Bellevue does not support safe injection sites. City staff will draft a resolution for the council to consider as soon as Aug. 7.

“If we are going to be transparent, we ought to allow people the opportunity to talk to us about (the resolution), rather than say our mind is already made up — but it is,” Councilmember John Chelminiak said.

Safe injection sites are one tactic county health officials want to use to battle the heroin crisis throughout the region. They would allow addicts to come inside a facility and use drugs under medical supervision. The goal is to cut down on overdose deaths.

King County has proposed two such safe injection sites — one in Seattle and another in the greater county. The county has said it will not place a site in a community that does not want one. As county officials plan for this, a citizen group has submitted enough signatures to put a counter measure on the November ballot: a county-wide ban on safe injection sites.

Despite the opposition to the sites, the issue has become part of the candidate conversation in Bellevue.

“I think we’re on a razors edge right now,” Bellevue Council Candidate Jared Nieuwenhuis told KTTH’s Todd Herman. “…My main challenger is in favor of bringing heroin injection sites into Bellevue.

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