Four new people were elected to the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council May 18 while four incumbents were re-elected and two incumbents were bounced out.

Council members Russ Kay, Steve Cox and Barbara Peters were re-elected but Mary Ann Matthias and Steve Jeffries lost their seats on the council.

The new members are Teresa Vert, Anette King, Cynthia Ruiz and Liz Giba.

The elected, 13-member North Highline Unincorporated Area Council was established by King County to serve as a liaison between the county and residents of White Center and Boulevard Park, jointly known as North Highline. As an unincorporated area, North Highline has no mayor, city council or other city-level officials. The area's most local elected official is King County Councilman Dow Constantine, who also represents Burien, West Seattle and Vashon Island in county government.

The North Highline Council grapples with a variety of issues facing the community. The last few years, the council has been deeply involved in the ongoing public debate over how North Highline ought to govern itself in the future. After months of study, a majority of the council previously voted to recommend North Highline residents annex to Burien but the decision ultimately will be up to North Highline voters.

For voting purposes, North Highline is divided into four geographical districts. Each district has two representatives who must either live, work or own property in that district. Those eight council members are joined by five more council members who are elected at large. They each represent everybody in North Highline and everybody votes in races for the five seats at large.

One of the positions at large had been held by the council's vice president, Judy Duff, who died May 1 after a long fight with cancer. Her term was up this year and she'd already decided not to run for re-election.

Incumbent Barbara Peters won re-election to the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council from District 1, which includes the area between Highways 509 and 99, from Barton to 128th Street. Peters was unopposed and got 15 votes.

Teresa Vert won the seat in District 2 with 14 votes.

Steve Davis was one of two representatives from District 2, which includes White Center Heights, Top Hat, Beverly Park, Hazel Valley and Arbor Lake. Davis recently resigned so the council decided to replace him during the May election.

Teresa Vert was the only candidate who registered to run for the District 2 seat that Davis vacated. Without an opponent, Vert automatically won.

District 3 includes Mount View, Lakewood and Salmon Creek. Anette King will represent that area. She received 30 votes while Jessica Stoneback had 12 and incumbent Steve Jeffries got just one vote.

Russ Kay is the current president of the council and was re-elected with 18 votes to two votes for Pamela Waiau. Kay is from District 4, which includes Shorewood, North Shorewood and downtown White Center.

Steve Cox received 65 votes to be re-elected to a seat at large. Liz Giba won a place on the council as a write-in candidate who equaled Cox with 65 votes.

They'll be joined by another new addition to the North Highline Council, Cynthia Ruiz, who got 59 votes.

Incumbent Ruth Ann Matthias received 28 votes so she will not serve another term.

Teresa Vert, the only election victor available for comment, said she hopes to fight annexation to any city, especially Seattle. There are a lot of immigrants in North Highline who need help but Vert thinks Seattle will end up spending its tax money on a waterfront tunnel downtown.

"We're gonna fight it," she said.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.