Weekly Update 11/02/2025

Some bits of business…

Clocks?

I know you set all your clocks back one hour because all your clocks are digital. Soulless machines that do not feel the darkness like a good ol’ analog clock. But just in case–it’s one hour earlier than you think it is. Discuss. 😀

Who is running?

You got your ballots? That’s not enough! Since I believe the airport and environment are the most important issue the City ever faces, here is a two-fer article from Sea-Tac Noise.Info, with their take on the races and a great survey from the Defenders of Highline Forest!

King County Council

For the first time in a dozen years, we will also choose a new KC District #5 Councilmember. This is a big deal! People often get confused what the County Council does (zero control over police, Sea-Tac Airport, land, etc.), they have a lot to do for us concerning grants for parks, public health and human services. For example, they provided significant money for Midway Park and storm water upgrades. Watch this video to decide on Peter Kwon or Steffanie Fain.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Report – October 31, 2025

Two down, one to go! The Marina dock replacement is on schedule! You can watch videos of progress in action here: https://www.youtube.com/@CityofDesMoinesMarina

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

DocuPet

In ‘bad news/good news’, one of the kids is moving to Europe temporarily. And leaving me the dog? WTF? Is there any good news here?

Well… it did give me a chance to try the City’s new pet licensing system, DocuPet. Here is my 4-star review. It’s pretty easy. Even the part where you have to upload proof of vaccination went super-smooth. However, it gets one star off for insisting that 98198 is in Seattle. I hate that! It also tries a waaaay too hard to upsell. But… if you get elected, you will find yerself spending the extra tenner for a custom-branded tchotke. 😀

The Shutdown

I wrote City Manager Caffrey last week asking her to consider ways the City might help affected residents. I don’t know what that looks like. It’s not like we’re flush with cash atm. But that’s why she makes the big money.

But this is no joke. This shutdown will affect at least 10% of residents. I think we should do ‘something’, but I have no idea what that even means and I generally despise symbolic gestures. I started by asking what we might do to update our community services page on the web site and include contact info to a wider variety of resources. I know a lot of private organisations and individuals are trying to step up, but at a minimum, I’m hoping the City, which has a much larger communications reach, can help direct people to the right places.

There is also a very surreal quality to all this, which has echoes of our ongoing politics here. By the time you read this, we’ll be nearing the record for longest shutdown in American history. It is all optional. It all comes down to an inability to compromise. What kills me is the absence of genuine outrage.

Government is not working. And yet the stock market continues to go up, Up, UP! And even if the switch gets flipped tomorrow, SNAP benefits (among other things) will still be disrupted for several weeks. FAA employees are getting checks for zero dollars. It’s literally not worth the paper it’s printed on. I cannot imagine what that does to morale at some of the most important public safety jobs in America. You thought it was difficult getting new air traffic controllers before? Good luck with that going forward.

At the University of Washington — which runs the air quality monitoring and health work for airport communities, one of their budgets was slashed.

Our City does not shut down, but there has been a similar stubbornness on our Council for years. You just don’t see it because we tend to gauge how well our City is doing by how ‘agreeable’ people seem at the dais on any given night. But the overall situation did not spring up over night. It is the result of years of bad behaviour that has metastasised into something really not great–and difficult to fix for any new Council.

I am very happy with progress we’ve made this year on a lot of surface issues (like the City Manager mailing list I mentioned.) We’re re-building some projects like Redondo. Great.

However, the long term challenges the City faces in terms of finance are also no joke. But until your services are cut, or ‘flowers’ stop appearing on MVD, people don’t see how strapped we are. And, like the shutdown, no matter what anyone tells you, these issues did not spring up over night. Most of them, not kidding, come down to a lack of ongoing cooperation and pettiness between seven part timers. In that way, we’re just like the real politicians.

This Week

Monday

4:00pm Redondo Fishing Pier rebuild begins – a groundbreaking achievement. 🙂

Tuesday

Vote. I don’t even care who you vote for because, newsflash: I am not on the ballot! jk. 🙂 But I do care that you can find a drop box. Here they are.

Thursday

Audit Exit Conference. This is where the State tells us the result of the 2024 audit. Why are we finishing our 2024 audit in November 2025? Don’t get me started. 🙂 But you can look at some of our financial data, and compare it with other cities, at the State FIT Tool. The challenge (for moi, anyhoo, is that the state’s accounting categories aren’t quite the same as our budget book, which makes apples to apples comparisons a bit challenging.)

City Council

Since it’s the first Thursday of the month, we’re having a COW at 5:00pm, followed by a Study Session at 6:00pm. For some reason, this week’s agenda packet was delivered in separate files so… Study Session 20251106

Committee Of The Whole

• Discussion of 2026-2031 Capital Improvements Plan

Study Session

• Community Development Code Amendments Overview
• Transportation Benefit District Funding Considerations
• Commercial Parking Tax
• Discussion of 2026 City Legislative Priorities

One change I would like to see in that last item is to put some real effort into the old Des Moines Elementary School. Yes, it belongs to Highline School, but with the Masonic Home, it feels to me like we have to start taking the few remaining buildings in town seriously. I’ve talked with several groups who would kill to start using the building.

Last Week

Monday

Our annual City Manager performance review was due. My form was sort of an ‘incomplete’, which may provoke a frowny-face from some. But it shouldn’t. There is a lot of revisionist history going on now. If you read my colleagues’ reviews of Ms. Caffrey’s predecessor, they were all stellar. Until they weren’t. The majority members now telling you how much happier they are now would have been fine having Mr. Matthias continue onward.

Things are better now. As I wrote above, the communication, in particular, is an order of magnitude better. But cutting expenses and catching up on service requests (basic management) is painful and difficult, but not particularly challenging. Again, it’s just that we’ve gotten so used to things being, well, not ideal, that anyone doing what is normal elsewhere would look like a rocket surgeon.

The real challenges, the ‘strategery’, will come next year. We’ve been a ‘small town’ with low expectations and no strategy (other than to be ‘the premiere waterfront yadada’) that it’s difficult to predict how things will go. Especially before November 5. 😀

But I will say this: As much as I appreciate the strategic plan, I think that is being oversold a bit. Most of the big decisions have been made. Feel me? It’s not like that discussion will reveal some huge insights previous Councils did not have. For the past decade, the Council majority chose ‘waterfront’ and ‘placemaking’ (steps, ferry, etc.) The question is: will the next Council have the will to consider something different?

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission Meeting. This was a biggee, concerning their plans for the SAMP at the State level next year. Details at STNI.

Wednesday

October 29 Citizens Advisory Board meeting

I encourage you to watch and read the transcript as the Q&A with Finance Director Jeff Friend was interesting.

Video and transcript