Some bits of business…
- April 23, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- South Sound Opening Day Boating Proclamation
- Recognition of Assistant Police Chief Kevin Penney for 25 years of service
- Recognition of Harbormaster Scott Wilkins for 30 years of service
- Recognition of CSO, Tonya Seaberry Retirement
- Preliminary 4th Quarter Financial Report
- Discussion of Downtown Parking
- North Hill Elementary Walkway Improvements Project
- 5th and 212th Project
- Midway Park
- Midway Soccer
- Community Development Software
- Legislative Update
- Executive Session: Acquisition and Disposition of real property RCW 42.30.110(1)(b and c)
- May 7, 2026 — Committee of the Whole, 5:00–5:50 p.m.
- Tree Canopy
- May 7, 2026 — City Council Study Session, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- Presentation of Draft Strategic Plan by Nancy Hetrick, Raftelis
- May 14, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- 2026 1st Quarter Financial Report
- Resolution for Safety Plan/Vision Zero
- Surplus List
- 5th Ave & 223rd Project
- Traffic Camera Update
- Comprehensive Safety Action Plan Update
- Final Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP)
- May 21, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- Public Works Week Proclamation
- Recology Annual Update
- Website Update
- Ferry Impact Analysis Report
- SKHHP Presentation
- Farmers Market Agreement
- 2027 SKHHP Work Plan and Budget Adoption
- June 4, 2026 — Committee of the Whole, 5:00–5:50 p.m.
- Check in on Committee of the Whole
- June 11, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- LGBTQIA+ Pride Month Proclamation
- Juneteenth Proclamation
- Adoption of Strategic Plan
- June 25, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- 2025 4th Quarter Report
Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar, this can be useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.
About the cover
The City is proposing a U12 soccer field for Midway Park — at the east end next to all the PSE transformer stuff. This is something the community has needed since for-ehveeeeehr. I was a little sad at first because a U12 is like 2/3rds the size of a full pitch — what they call a 9×9. But apparently, that’s how youth leagues work today so that’s fine. 🙂 But on the other hand, Midway Park is the perfect spot–that is where the real football fans are, people who have had to schlep to other cities to play.
When’s kick-off? Tune in Thursday. 🙂
Take Out Des Moines
Not to shill, but every so often I want to remind people that TakeOutDesMoines.com still provides a (wait for it) piece of paper restaurant guide for Des Moines, WA! And… a mailing list which will tell you when/if one of said restaurateurs offer an event and/or menu special!
If you print a hard copy, print a few more and give them to shop owners to hand out to their customers. It has always been my sense that Des Moines is still a paper kinda place. If you visit any local business, you should see a restaurant list. And here it is.
City Manager Stuff
City Manager Reports! April 17, 2026
The highlight for moi is the Construction list. I know a lot of you are upset about various construction projects. Since I’ve been watching, the City has always been very restrained in complaining about these sorts of things. Almost every utility involves ongoing partnerships — we try to partner up even when not strictly necessary as a way to reduce costs. You don’t want to ruffle feathers too much because you’ll need them again next week. Relationships, am I right? 😀
I think the City is currently striking a more balanced tone. But I just want to remind residents that the City Council does not know about many of these issues unless you write citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov.
As I always say: one public comment at a City Council meeting beats 100 ‘Likes’ on social media every time.
This Week
Meetings galore!
- Flood District Advisory
- Regional Transit Committee!
- Adam Smith on airport stuff!
None of these have formal agenda at the moment. I’ll hit ya with the deets next week.
Tuesday
I will attend the Burien Airport Committee. Call this a cross-over episode. 😀 Our airport committee chair Joe Dusenberry is scheduled to report on shared efforts concerning a ’roundtable of roundtables’, ie. meetings of various FAA airport community roundtables around the nation. Agenda from STNI.
Thursday
6:00pm City Council Meeting April 23, 2026, City Council Agenda Packet Highlights:
- Tonya Seaberry is retiring from DMPD. The City is looking at doing a community needs assessment in 2027. I sure hope someone asks Officer Seaberry to write a detailed memo on that before she leaves the field. I cannot think of anyone who understands the entirety of Des Moines more deeply.
- Assistant Chief Kevin Penney will be honoured for 25 years of service. Harbormaster Scott Wilkins for 30!
• Legislative Update from lobbyist
• Discussion on Downtown Parking
• 4th Quarter Financial Report
• Midway soccer—design contract award
Exec Session regarding real estate
The Q4 Financial Report is, of course, of interest. I don’t really have too many questions now because this is a draft report–ie. pre-close. And I always caution residents not to look at month to month or even quarterly reports as dispositive because our cash flows slosh around so much from one month to the next depending on when we get paid. I guess I’d hoped by shifting to cash-based accounting and biennial budgeting, we could close our books earlier. Hopefully I’ll have something ‘deeper’ to ask about it by Thursday. 🙂
Last Week
Monday
Airport Committee (Agenda/Video/Transcript courtesy of STNI) Sadly, it has become common place for the committee to engage in discussions of items that are not only frivolous, but so out-of-order I don’t even know what to do with it. I know how harsh that sounds, but this is unlike any other municipal committee I’ve encountered–likely because people don’t know what they don’t know.
Apparently, there is a notion to invite King County Council into our airport roundtable, perhaps not considering that the Council oversees its own international airport and has its own community roundtable. I totally get frustration. But we need to channel it into something constructive.
Like attending the KCIA Vision 2045 Open House on Thursday May 14. (This is their version of the Sustainable Airport Master Plan and Part 150 noise study.)
The weird thing is that the KCIA roundtable is so much more productive. Internally, they may feel just as frustrated as we do. Despite that, I have to hand it to all their members–they’ve been able to focus more on the things they can do and stop trying to make these things into what they can never be.
KCIA Roundtable Advisory Committee – April 13, 2026
Tuesday
Planning Commission (inaugural meeting) Here is the meeting video and transcript. This is something I campaigned for in 2019 and I am extremely pleased to see it take off. Des Moines Planning Commission — April 14, 2026 Inaugural Meeting Video/Transcript
Some local politics
SeaTac
I was not present for that meeting. I was, instead watching the SeaTac City Council move forward on two fairly epic decisions and I encourage people to watch the video.
- The first being their new Civic Campus. : one, this is what it looks like to have money. 😀 Second, their relationship with staff is at a completely different level. They are not afraid to ask tough questions.
- The other item was their announcement of planning on their next agreement with the Port of Seattle. This has two implications for us. First, they are beginning three years ahead of the current agreement expiration using a council committee format that affords them the best of both worlds: the ability to negotiate confidentially, elected to elected, and maintain the proper public transparency. It took them decades to develop this relationship. Second they are getting there ahead of the SAMP. Their current agreement already prevents them from being a good partner for Des Moines or Burien in airport negotiations. By starting early it only makes it that much worse. Well-played.
Burien
Meanwhile, over in 98166… both City Manager Adolfo Bailon and their attorney seem to be on the way out. I’ve lost count of how many city managers and city attorneys they’ve gone through in the past decade. It’s been at least five since the SAMP was announced a decade ago. But coming in at this final stage is the worst possible moment for developing the kind of strategic partnerships of our peers to the east.
Last year, at a Burien Airport Committee meeting, Mr. Bailon said, on camera, that he doubted there were any existing airport roundtables–despite my informing their members that STNI had previously visited over a dozen–including the KCIA about five miles north of us. 🙂
As with our own airport committee, these things could go a lot better if people were a bit more open to the voice of experience. 😀
Which says: the only people that ever have success with airports are people willing to develop some form of ongoing expertise and continuity. If you don’t, you don’t know what you’re missing. Literally.
In the case of Des Moines, as with issues like the boat storage we should have implemented 25 years ago, the revenue loss from poor management of airport issues is now well over eight figures.
