District needs a "Four-Way Test" of their own.

There is a civic-minded organization, known internationally, that developed a test to determine if their professional and personal conduct was acceptable. It was, and continues to be called, The Four-Way Test (of the things we think, say or do). What would happen if this Four-Way Test was applied to the real estate transaction involving Michael Raskin and the Edmonds School District? Let's see.

1. Is it the TRUTH?
We have already established that the District lied when they said stories of contamination are just rumors. The District's past decisions refute their current statements. Why buy insurance for contamination if the site is not contaminated? Why hire an environmental consultant to monitor for contamination if the site is not contaminated? Why reject the site twice before only to adjust your standards under pressure from a desperate seller and a revenue-driven City of Lynnwood?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
The transaction was certainly not fair to taxpayers, District employees and students. The taxpayers will have to pay for remediating contamination and repairing unanticipated settling. District employees will have to navigate around sinkholes, potholes and risk potential exposure to harmful elements. District students will have to do without whatever these funds could have been used to purchase, like better classrooms, better covered play shelters, better parking lots and better playfields. But if you see the District as its administrators see it - as an extension of their own wallets - the transaction was more than fair to the seller. A hefty scoop of fairness has likely been served to the buyer's agents behind closed doors. Why else would they agree to the terms?

3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
No doubt the buyer and seller are much better friends now. Of course, it is probably the sort of friendship where the seller makes the buyer the butt of every joke. The sort of friendship where the buyer always gets stuck with the bar tab. The sort of friendship that has the buyer loaning his car to the seller only to see it returned with a few more dents and dings. I wouldn't call it a friendship.

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
The answer to this one is blatantly obvious. No one comes out of this transaction smelling like roses, aside from the seller and his investors.