Some bits of business…
Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not dynamic, ie. you have to click it every time you want to see a new version. And it’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar, this can be very useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.
About the cover
Every year about this time, I post something about Black History Month. Usually involving some cultural event from a 100 years ago. And then it occurred to me… BET is Black History. I know some people have a notion of ‘American’ culture as one thing. But speaking as someone with passport stamps from 37 countries, this is what America really exports. This BET special was basically on continuous loop in millions of homes for years. You might think that Johnny Cash or Aerosmith or now Taylor would be what people elsewhere think of as ‘America’. But in my experience–Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Morocco, Israel, Sweden, Brasil, Argentina, etc… the songs, the dances, everyone knows? Motown, Stax, Earth Wind & Fire, Prince….
Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Yolanda Adams, Andrew Gouche — 2006 BET Awards
City Manager Stuff
City Manager Reports! February 6, 2026
This Week
Sunday
As most of you know, my idea of football is more like the Sounders and FIFA. But, in honour of the Council’s recent Seahawk’s proclamation, I did watch the game-and they made it look easy. The real surprise? All politics aside, if you didn’t see it, I gotta o say–Bad Bunny may have been the best half-time show I’ve ever seen. I’m not a fan of the guy’s music, but what got me is that it was almost a for-realz Broadway musical–in miniature. It actually told a story I wouldn’t mind watching again.
Monday
4:00pm Airport Committee. No agenda at this time. Which is not great since meetings are supposed to post agenda 24 hours in advance (sigh).
Tuesday
Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda) The commission put off a decision on the ongoing Flight Corridor Safety program (tree cutting around the airport) for this meeting.
Wednesday
Fish Delivery! The Coho salmon will be pumped into the now assembled pen, across from the Quarterdeck. Here is a short video showing what the process looks like.
Thursday
6:00pm City Council Meeting: February 12, 2026 City Council Meeting Agenda Packet
Highlights
City Presentations:
- Presentation from Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce
- Update from Citizens Advisory Board on Strategic Plan Public Engagement
- Update on the City’s Automated License Plate Reader System (Flock)
There different views on this. Flock is a useful tool. But for those who think there is nothing to worry about? You are wrong. This is indeed ‘Instagram for police’ as I’ve heard one police chief describe it.
Flock depends on social norms more than you think. And no matter what the police, or anyone tells you. As we are seeing at the Federal level, social norms can fail if the wrong people take the helm. If you look at other cities, it is obvious that many areas would like nothing more than to use this data for every offense and share data everywhere.
Has the public gotten a lot of details wrong? Sure. But on really technical topics like this, you can be wrong about every detail and still have the right idea. So, nobody should be defensive. There are real risks.
For example, from what I saw at the company demo, pictures are not automagically redacted–the cameras can capture passersby. They are not limited to ‘the cloud’. An industrious user could download individual images for off-line storage. Both issues could be solved for with a local ordinance, which I will continue to propose. Our local policy should match the intent of the state.
Which is to limit the time cities can retain data. A bill is passing through Olympia now, with bi-partisan support, to limit that time to 21 days. If Des Moines follows that policy, not just in the cloud but on our desktops, and if we continue to not share data and not expand use cases, we’ll probably be OK. But–it’s a lotta ifs.
At the end of the day, this is Instagram for Police. It’s convenience. Convenience is good. You want your stolen car back in a few hours, not in a few weeks. But when it comes to any thing like this? We should know by now that convenience always comes with risk.
- Density Bonus for Religious Properties Ordinance – 1st Reading
The idea is to make it easier for houses of worship to provide housing. I don’t think it will impact us much, however it’s been somewhat controversial. That said, it is also another of those ordinances we are required to approve under state law. So… read up. Or not. It’s happening. 🙂
- Establishment of a Salary Commission
I will likely vote no unless it is amended a great deal. First, we should be compensated for actual time and expenses, not one-size-fits-all. And frrankly, girl-friend, I’ve gotten committeed/commissioned-out on outsourcing things the Council should do itself. Note that, for all the grousing about the ‘length’ of our meetings, we no longer have formal committees, and, even with the COW, every meeting so far this year has adjourned in plenty of time for Must See TV. We are working less; not more.
- Planning Commission
This is a bit awkward. We’re to approve seven commissioners to re-start the Planning Commission. As you know, I’ve wanted this since it was disbanded in 2012-2013. However…
- Of the fifteen applicants, five seem to already serve on other boards/committees–despite the fact that the ordinance clearly states that Planning Commissioners may not serve on any other boards/committees. I hope they withdraw. I suggest that because since one can’t do both, if chosen it will leave big holes on the CAB. Not. Ideal.
- Two more applicants are former members of the Council. I have no objection per se and the next paragraph is not about any individual.
I’m disappointed that more people have not applied. The old Planning Commission made some really terrible choices. For example, it was all in on the disastrous choice to remove our sound code and supported the Blueberry Lane development zoning changes which made it impossible to qualify for a noise wall next to SR-509. So just having something is definitely not better than nothing.
If you take out the applicants who really should not be there and the people who have previously served, there are barely enough people to get started. I don’t know what to do with that. But if it were up to me, I’d hold off until we had more people.
I have always felt that the way to make better decisions was to promote a new generation of people to engage in public life. Since I’ve lived here, the number of new people getting involved has been vanishing small and, if anything, seems to be shrinking. We are not representing the city in full via any metric and I don’t know how we get to where we need to without a broader range of inputs.
On the other hand, if you like how things are going? The other theory of the case is that, why shouldn’t people keep re-engaging? Isn’t it better to make use of one’s valuable talents and experience? Maybe.
But since it is George Washington’s birthday this week I’ll note that, if you ask most scholars what was his most important achievement? Not the military victories. Not being the first president. His greatest achievement was serving and then quitting. Quite deliberately making room for the next generation. They won’t make the same mistakes. They’ll make different ones. 😀
Last Week
Thursday
City Council February 5, 2026 Study Session Recap Below
Saturday
Coho Pen Assembly at the Marina. Next phase? Fish delivery on Wednesday @ 10:30am. Come on down to watch. It’s fun. 🙂
The Des Moines Chess Club is now holding forth at the Des Moines Theater–both inside on rainy days, and Al Fresco. The initial meeting seemed well attended and it looks like a perfect spot to further a great game. Des Moines Chess Club desmoineschessclub@gmail.com
City Council Study Session
Timmy’s fallen down the well edition…
City Council February 5, 2026 Study Session
Committee of the Whole (5:00–5:50 pm)
Long story short? Drones are gone. However, as much as I did not enjoy them, I have to point out the lies, damned lies, statistics, which everyone tends to do.
The City stated that it costs $61 per visitor for the Fourth of July. True. But, tying that into ‘inflation’ as as the Waterland Blog implied? Not true. Not helpful. It was always that much money. And saying that the show costs ‘$6,000 a minute’? Also not helpful. That’s not the point. Any Fourth of July event is expensive. It was a question of (wait for it) bang for buck. 😀 We indulged ourselves in something we could never afford–in order to look cool. It was never sustainable.
At the risk of sounding snippy, I wish I could get that money back to do some real environmental work, economic development, you name it. But the main thing? It was never sustainable.
Parks Projects & King County Parks Levy Update
We got a recap of 2025 engineering accomplishments and one piece of good news: parks money almost doubled. I have to give Upthegrove and von Reichbauer some credit for this. In recent decades, the County shifted to what was supposed to be a more ‘equitable’ funding model–but it tended to flow money elsewhere. In a number of areas, they were able to shift the needle back to sort of a guaranteed amount for each District–which turns out to be more equitable in the long run.
One sentence: We’ll be getting our first soccer pitch–at Midway Park near the PSE transformers. It’ll likely be shorter–for youth leagues. But that’s fine–most adult leagues play 6,8,9 a side.
Study Session (6:00–10:00 pm)
We decided to yank the band-aid and have staff prepare permits to demolish the Founders Lodge. Severe structural and environmental issues (rehab estimated at $6–7M vs. demolition at ~$300–400k)!
What gets on my last nerve is that this was a knowable problem twenty years ago when the other buildings were remodeled and then when the Dining Hall had to be hoiked up.
Again: Why do stuff like this that is not sustainable?
Long-Range Budget Forecast (FCS Group)
This was billed as a
This was billed as a ‘detailed financial outlook for the General Fund, Surface Water Management Fund, and Marina Fund through 2040’
FAKE NEWS! 😀
It was a follow-up to the original report done by FCS last year. And in preparation, I hope my colleagues (old and new) watched that meeting and read that report. Because otherwise, it’s like watching Dune II without watching Dune I. And not realising that there is no Dune I or Dune II. It’s one story. (How they can yank three movies out of one book? Now that’s creativity.)
- Weekly Update 09/14/2025 – video from FCS presentation
- FCS Presentation Part #1 – Regular Meeting – 11 Sep 2025
Let’s break that down…
The basic spread of expenses of a ‘bedroom community’ tends to remain constant over time. The amounts change, but not this balance.
However, it was almost by definition that a ‘bedroom’ community would be powered by property taxes. Part of the reason people feel ‘taxed to death’ is because we still expect that the majority of revenue we use still comes from that. It. Does. Not. It hasn’t for a very long time.
Since I’ve lived here, the percentage of our budget from property taxes has gone through the floor. We have not explained that to people clearly–to reset expectations–and we haven’t called out this as a systemic problem. We now obtain the lion’s share of our revenue from utilities, sales tax, and fees. Not property tax. We blame COVID, inflation, DC, whatever, but it’s a trend that is unfair and unsustainable.
Some of it is definitely the 1% cap. But a lot of it has been choice. Time and again we’ve chosen to allocate land for non-revenue generating purposes, or to spend on various things we simply could not afford–essentially assuming that future ‘growth’ of some sort would make up for it, eventually.
Councilmember Blosse asked if that the shortfall was $6 million every year and was quickly corrected. Except that, in my opinion, his question was actually not that far off reality. Saying we’re $1,000,000 short every year only put a band-aid on the problem for 4-5 few years, tops. Unless something really dramatic (in a good way dramatic) happens, we really need more like $3.5M a year. What is ‘good dramatic’? No idea. That was what the FCS discussion was supposed to consider. And the Strategic Plan. And the economic development consultant. TBD.
It also assumes that nothing bad dramatic happens. That inflation stays low. That retail stays where it is (or gets better) and doesn’t continue to decline. That there isn’t another financial crash, war, pandemic, space aliens, whatever.
You can make up that delta with a property tax–the one we voted down last year. That is what I’m pretty sure we’ll get to (again) sooner or later because that is what we will need–unless we change our investment rules and start investing in crypto, baby1 😀
However, it gets even better. Even with a Property Tax increase, that only retains current service levels.
It takes money to make money
What we really need is more like $5-6 million a year. Not. Kidding. We need that kind of money to actually provide the services people tell us they want. The ones we had back in the golden age of bedroom community. If we don’t? This–what we are experiencing now, is as good as it gets.
Revenue Enhancement Options Update
In a first, the Finance Director did a live Excel demo to show the effect of various options. Frankly, I was hoping for one of those confetti displays like on yer phone when someone sends you a happy message. 😀
But we will do them all. Because we need them all: car tab fees, parking rates, utility taxes, traffic cameras, impact fees, etc.
I honestly don’t think it’s the money people resent. It’s the sense that everything has a toll. I’m noticing it more and more every day. Things that used to be ‘free’, from various TV channels to whatever, now have some toll. My bank statements now have so many tchotckes I can’t remember half of them. All these little fees become exhausting. And what I’m trying to encourage the City to do is this: don’t grab for every possible fee just because you can. Only charge fees when it really matters. Because if we don’t take it easy, if we jack everything up to the max, when it comes time to talk about the real money we need–where people actually have a vote–they will punish for all the nickel and diming.