What would it take for the city of Ruston to annex into Tacoma?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- No formal discussions are underway about Tacoma annexing the city of Ruston.
- Disincorporation requires a majority voters' petition and an election approval.
- Annexation requires city agreement or voter approval processes governed by state law.
Earlier this month The News Tribune reported that the small city of Ruston was two years away from running out of money, threatening services like police and city staffing. Readers raised the question: What would it take for the city of Ruston to be annexed into Tacoma? And would that solve some of the city’s financial difficulties?
After talking with two annexation experts and representatives from both cities, The News Tribune confirmed there are not any ongoing conversations about Ruston’s annexation, and to do so would be challenging.
Back in 2015 the city of Tacoma threatened to annex half of the 97-acre Point Ruston development from the city of Ruston over permitting issues (as the development overlaps the two cities).
Ruston Mayor Bruce Hopkins, city planner Rob White and the city clerk did not respond to requests for comment from The News Tribune about the issue. Ruston city councilor Naomi Wilson said on April 10 that annexation has not been seriously discussed by the council recently and residents “overwhelmingly” don’t want to be annexed into Tacoma.
Tacoma city spokesperson Maria Lee said via email on April 10 there “are currently no formal discussions regarding the annexation of the City of Ruston” and “any conversations about annexation would inherently need to be driven by its residents and elected leadership.”
Leonard Bauer is a planning consultant for the Municipal Research and Services Center, a nonprofit organization that provides legal and policy guidance to local governments in Washington state. Bauer said the case of a city like Ruston being annexed into a city like Tacoma is unusual, as most annexation cases in Washington involve an unincorporated area annexing into a larger city. Annexation is usually driven by property owners in rural areas who want more services like sewer and water from a neighboring city to develop their properties, he said.
Carl Schroeder, with the Association of Washington Cities, said annexation can be controversial because people, especially in smaller cities, feel ownership of and identify with their cities.
What would need to happen for Ruston to be annexed?
There are several ways Ruston could be annexed into Tacoma, Bauer said. All are complicated.
One way is for the city of Ruston to “disincorporate,” he said. Under state law, a petition for disincorporation must be signed by a majority of registered voters within Ruston. The city council then must call an election, and a majority of voters must vote in favor. The city of Tacoma could initiate an annexation at that point as, “one city can’t annex another if that city is still incorporated,” he said.
To annex all or part of Ruston into Tacoma, the Ruston City Council could write a petition for an election to vote on the annexation that would be submitted to Tacoma, per RCW 35.10.217. Ruston property owners could also petition for annexation into Tacoma themselves, following the requirements and procedures for doing so, per the law.
Another option is for the Ruston City Council to adopt a resolution indicating its desire to annex into Tacoma. If passed, the resolution would be transmitted to Tacoma. The annexation would become effective if the Tacoma City Council adopted a resolution concurring with the annexation, unless Ruston property owners (equal in value to 60% or more of the assessed valuation of the property in Ruston) protested in writing within 30 days of Tacoma’s acceptance of the annexation, per state law.
A consolidation of Ruston and Tacoma could also be proposed. To do so, the two cities’ councils could adopt a joint resolution or a petition for consolidation must be signed by at least 10% of the voters of each city who voted in the last election, Bauer said.
“In either case, the proposed consolidation would become a ballot measure that the voters of both cities would vote on following a process defined in the statute,” Bauer said. “It appears that it must be approved by a majority of the voters in each city. Other questions could be included in the ballot measure, such as assumption of indebtedness.”
The Pierce County Boundary Review Board would oversee the process, he said. If the city of Tacoma annexes Ruston, Tacoma would need to decide if its council district boundaries or representation would change to accommodate the population, Bauer said.
Would annexation solve Ruston’s financial issues?
An annexation action usually defines what would happen to a city like Ruston’s debts or levies, Bauer said.
“Most often the annexing city does assume the debt,” he said. “But not always.”
Oftentimes with an annexation, the parties sign an interlocal agreement that details other issues like service responsibilities, employee transfers and permit issues, Bauer said. Some have the perception that cities have higher tax rates than counties, but that’s not always the case, he said. Tacoma does have a 10.5% sales tax rate compared to Ruston’s 10.3%.
The fact that Ruston and Tacoma don’t seem interested in joining right now means annexation probably won’t happen because both cities and their residents need to be on board, Bauer said.
“There’s a lot of areas around the state where some people feel like annexation probably should occur, and it might actually benefit overall the services that are provided the people that live there, but for whatever reason, either the citizens, the residents or the property owners or in this case, another city council, opposes the idea, and that can stop it,” Bauer said. “There’s no way to unilaterally do it. It has to go through one of these processes.”
