Weekly Update: 02/05/2023

This Week

Monday: I will be testifying tomorrow at 4PM at the Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing on SB5199, a bill to provide funding for Local Journalism co-sponsored by our own Senator Karen Keiser. Tune in here.

You can read more on the issue here.

As some of you know, developing an ongoing reporting beat here has been a passion of mine for quite some time. We haven’t had anything like that now for about a decade and without context, even the most well-informed voters struggle to understand what’s really going on. The more I do whatever -this- is, the more I’m coming to believe that a good (emphasis on the ‘good’) reporter would be -the- single biggest improvement to local government that could ever happen.

Wednesday: Meeting with several groups on Des Moines Memorial Drive and SR509.

Thursday: Auditor Exit Interview. This is where the State provides a final evaluation on our financial statements.

Last Week

Monday: 10:00AM Return of the Coho! We assembled the Coho pen last week. (And when I say ‘we’ I mean that I mostly took pictures. 😀 ) This Monday, the State will bring a truck full of 30,000 baby salmonoids and drop them into the pen. The actual delivery only takes about five minutes. Where we might need help is in schlepping the floating pen from its current location near the boat hoist over to the guest moorage where it will live for the next two months. This will all become clear when you get there. 🙂

Monday: 6:00PM Burien City Council Meeting. (Agenda) (Video) There was be a presentation by Kris Johnson of Seattle Public Health on the health impacts of aviation. It’s an important discussion, aviation emissions can cause serious problems, especially for prenatals, children, mothers and the elderly. and that is why I posted the video. However, the bad news is that her study is from 2019 and frankly there has been little to no progress on getting to the next steps. Making progress on aviation impacts is the reason I ran for office, it’s the most important issue to every person in Des Moines. But we cannot make progress until we have a change in leadership, simple as that.

Thursday: 5:00PM Public Safety Committee Meeting (Agenda) (Video). First meeting of the year. The main item will be planning the calendar for the rest of the year.

Thursday: 6:00PM City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video). Recap below.

Council Recap

City Managers Report

There was a presentation on a very worthy cause, the Pediatric Interim Care Center that I encourage you to watch and support. In short, the center provides detox care for babies born addicted to various drugs. The average stay is 37 days which I found extraordinary. I’m often stunned at how little it can take to completely transform a life.

Consent Agenda

Proclamation on Black History Month. For those relatively new to the topic I always recommend two items:

• Tavis Smiley’s Death of a King–documenting the last year of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s last year.
• And also the PBS Documentary American Experience: Freedom Riders

But this year, I’m also recommending a very small book (it looks like a children’s book, big type, 4×6″, 62 pages) called On Bullshit, by Princeton Professor of Philosophy Harry G. Frankfurt. It’s not a book on ‘black history’ per se, but it is a book on critical thinking that is used in many Black Studies programs, including those used by both my kids when they were in school. In light of last week’s events, it might be worth an hour of your time. (Available at all good libraries–including KCLS.)

Old Business

And speaking of bullshit, there was that whole ‘censure’ thing. As I’ve said, it was sad that nobody, just as a matter of academic interest if nothing else, at any time, asked me “What happened?” The ‘allegation'(s) are not true and I wish people cared more about that than having a discussion as to likability.

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• • Here are my statements from the dais.
  • At left is the committee structure before my ‘punishment’. Perhaps that will help explain my lack of concern. The entire committee system has been broken since Mayor Mahoney took over.
  • And one last note: the three most vicious attackers were two people who claim to attend church regularly and a judge. They are also the three people self-assigned to re-write our Rules of Procedure (which are supposed to govern conduct on the dais.) Deputy Mayor Buxton expressed outrage that I would curse at her on a public street! Not exactly. I did curse when she drove by to tell me that the meetings were being held at the police station–which meant that they would not be recorded. These are public meetings. Shame.

New Business

New Redondo Park. Sort of…

An ordinance to declare the beach area of Redondo a public park, as a technicality, hopefully to make placing a speed camera happen more quickly. The question is where. I know most people want something done about the ‘main drag’, but as this recent video demonstrates, the actual ‘speeding’ is more often on the east west road now called Redondo Way. I voted ‘yes’, but with some reservations. I know people are desperate. But once again, we provided no costs and no timeline for implementation and that was not right.

Marina Redevelopment Feasibility Study

A motion to direct the City either to move forward on Marina Redevelopment options. You’ll notice that there are absolutely zero specific requests and if you ask me for nothing specific, my answer will almost always be “no”. As it was in this case.

The feeling was expressed that the various Marina proposals haven’t changed much over time. Let’s see what Miss Information has to say about that. 🙂

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In fact, the whole Marina land side design has been changing every year since 2017. And as I keep saying, instead of starting with a very nice picture we have to change every year, perhaps we should have determined what is actually ‘feasible’ first and then proceeded to the design phase.

ARPA Reallocation

We also voted to reallocate $565,000 of ARPA money and $400,000 went to the Ferry. Let’s see what Miss Information has to say about that Ferry…

Time is fleeting…

You heard so many deceptive comments in that schoolyard beating, I dunno where to begin. One concern I have is that it will cause even more people to check out from local government. But there is also something practical: I only have so many hours in the day.

It take hundreds of hours of research to convince people. No matter how ‘cynical’ you think you are, most of us have an implicit trust in government–especially at the local level. We simply refuse to believe that people so close to us, our own city, could be that conniving.

In addition to the massive resources of a City (which can afford to hire not one but two attorneys to waste public money), people on the other side can simply overwhelm facts simply because:

a) There are more of them.

b) They have more hours in the day to devote to all the blather. Not just on the dais, but also off the dais at various private gatherings.

c) *As (cough) ‘truth teller’ I’m expected to be 100% ‘right’ 100% of the time–otherwise I’m all ‘mis-information’.

And also because, not to put too fine a point on it, almost everyone who shows up for City Council meetings wants and/or needs something from the City. Now. You may be sympathetic to my situation, but 99% of the time you have a specific interest–which means working with the people on the dais now. And frankly, that gives you absolutely no incentive to speak up about abstractions like transparency, bullying, ethics, etc.

That is exactly why someone like me was and is necessary. No one gets elected on ‘transparency’. Candidates campaign on compromises and cooperation that do not exist. And the rest of us focus on the issue right in front of us. And that is why structural issues never get fixed. Everyone talks about

• More transparency!
• More public engagement!
• More puppies! 😀

But in my experience, most of those sentiments have been simply to further some short term issue, or to get elected.

My crankypants advice…

The reason I adopted the current approach is because I attended pretty much every frickin’ City Council Meeting since 2008–over four hundred meetings before I was elected. Some members of the current Council have been on the Council longer, (2013: Nutting was appointed and Pennington ran unopposed) but none has been following things anywhere near as long as I have. Imagine what watching about 500 of these would do to your mental health? 😀

Two thirds of Des Moines has flipped since 2008. And even the most engaged elected at the County or State level only visits City Hall once a year. Eg. the majority of people in the Marina District so exercised about that ‘hotel’ have resided there for a whopping five years!

You came in at like Season VI of Game Of Thrones. As arrogant as it may sound, no matter who you talk to, you do not see the field as I do.

There was never a chance of compromise because my colleague would not tolerate disagreement. After enough years, it was obvious that issues like the Marina and the airport were heading in the wrong direction. A few of my predecessors tried with kind hearts and coronets, and their quiet politeness just made it easier for the majority to ignore them. Structural problems weren’t gonna get fixed with any of the Zegna suits in my closet or by avoiding hard hitting language like Tough Noogies.

As I said in my statement, I ran because I know what Des Moines can be. It isn’t some fantasy. I’ve simply watched long enough, both here and in other cities, to know what is practical and possible.

Special Thanks

I want to thank Mr. Rick Johnson, the lone member of the public to speak on my behalf. It may not be entirely coincidental that Mr. Johnson is the only person I can recall who also has attended our meetings continuously over a long period of time–in his case since about 2015ish, I believe. Redondo Rick, has been a long-time officer of the Des Moines Historical Society and is unquestionably the source for anything you might want to know about history of the Redondo community.

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I’m not 100% right 100% of the time. Far from it. But that should not matter. What matters is one’s willingness to show your work, turn the other cheek, and admit the occasional mistake.