Weekly Update 06/28/2026

Some bits of business…

Bicycling

I usually assume that there is a web site or a video for everything on the planet. This is one of them. I got a comment re. the lack of bike racks and it contained a link to OpenCycleMap.org. which seems to have a list of all the bike racks and area trails! It seems correct as far as I’ve looked. And it correctly shows that we have none in our downtown area.

About The Cover: Pay Attention!

At our last meeting, our Finance Director mentioned a couple of extremely impactful items you would likely not notice. And I want you to notice them. You usually notice when there are birthdays (check), acknowledgment for years of service (check), ribbon cuttings (checkaroonie). Last week’s meeting had them all.

But our F/D also mentioned two significant recurring revenue streams that should get the real Standing-O. The small one was a ruling by the state that, if it stands, will begin assessing Wesley (a tax-exempt non-profit) a small amount of property tax based on one new facility. The other, much larger new revenue stream, is collection of warehouse and property tax at the Des Moines Creek Business. Together, they will provide maybe $700,000 more per year in structural revenue–meaning every year from now on.

In the case of Wesley, we did nothing. The State changed a rule. Wesley will contest but I think this will stand because it’s typical of how other states are now handling these situations. For us, we got lucky. But someone, somewhere, was paying attention to the fact many religious non-profits are now operating very large businesses and may need to be evaluated more like how they actually function.

But in the case of the Business Park, for a very long time we were not paying attention. We just assumed that in 2016 when the Port built and helped pay for all that nice road on 216th it would automagically become some sort of money river; which it never was. It was, in fact, almost a zero for us for many years because the Port of Seattle is also tax exempt and warehouses are not taxed the same as retail stores.

And the new revenue from the BP has not been just one thing, it’s been multiple items. Once the City found the first thing, it found another. And (DV) soon there will be others. That is the value of deciding to pay attention.

The cumulative revenue of these new items will be more than the entire retail sales tax revenue the downtown generates. And it will do that for-evehhhhr. This is a big deal.

Cash-strapped cities like ours are not like for-profit corporations. We’re largely a closed system. There are only so many employees, so much on-site expertise, and so many hours in the day. Residents want all kinds of stuff and so do electeds. Often the things that look the most delicious are not the ones that actually pay the bills.

Consider a for-realz business like Boeing or Alaska Air. If they build the wrong aircraft or sell tickets to places very few people want to go they’re punished by investors.

Cities are just the opposite. We’re often incentivised to spend money on the wrong stuff–because there isn’t that separation between financial performance and fun ideas. We can justify all kinds of bad spending by saying, “If we offer free to trips to Fiji more people will visit Des Moines!”

Worse, when we do that we miss things–and we don’t know we’re missing things because staff are occupying all their frickin’ time on other stuff. In the case of the Business Park? For years at a time.

Get it? It’s a two-fer. The money you lost focusing on the wrong thing. And then the other money you lost because staff didn’t have the time/resources to work on the right thing.

If we were a for-profit biz, there would be hell to pay. There would be someone with a calculator noticing the total loss in revenue from the time the Business Park opened in 2016 until we started paying attention in 2024. “Who missed that?”

In government, people almost never do lessons learned. When you try to do so you get the frowny face, “We’re moving forward!” Which is not how healthy organisations work. If there are no lessons learned, you don’t make the same mistakes again. You make new ones.

The flip side of this is faux ‘waste!’ When a new CEO takes over the call is always to ‘scrub the budget!’ Any new set of eyes will instantly see some low hanging fruit and people think “We’ve turned a corner!” But that’s usually not the main problem. That main problem is often that people aren’t paying attention to the real problems.

See, even with some serious ‘scrubbing’ (meaning cutbacks), and some new construction (some on Wesley property) our budget is currently flatter than a halibut. And if this new revenue had not come in? Oy.

So I ask you to pay attention to this new revenue because these boring ‘accounting’ things, are, hands down, the biggest recurring revenue drivers you will see for many years. We would literally have to double the amount of downtown retail sales to achieve the same revenue. Which will be impossible–no matter how many people walk up and down the new Marina Steps.

As long as I’m on the council, I will continue to nag about this kind of boring stuff. Because that is where the real money tends to be–the money that funds much of the entertaining stuff people think drives the budget.

That has always been my argument: pay attention to more of the boring stuff. That way, it doesn’t matter so much whether or not some of these controversial ideas pay off or not.

Pay. Attention.

FIFA

Over the past week, I got the gift of a lifetime, well not a lifetime, but seeing all the games was certainly the best set of Fathers Day gifts I’ve ever received. USA beating Australia was great, but sadly, I think that’s as good as its gonna get for the home team.

The game I was really impressed by was Iran vs. Egypt. Honestly, tickets were going for peanuts until recently due to all the ‘tension’. But the game, the experience, were both incredible. It looked like Egypt was going to pull off a last second win–and then? They was robbed by a not great call. Brutal. That’s World Cup.

It was also surreal as an experience. Where else will you see hundreds of people dressed like pharaohs walking the streets of Seattle? And where else will you get to laugh and enjoy people your nation is supposedly at war with? That’s really World Cup.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports!  June, 18 2026

Highlights for moi include an update on the Marina Steps , the Barnes Creek construction coming to an end, and a list of summer events — concerts!

This Week

Nothing ‘official’ this week. We’re entering the ‘summer’ period of local government–meetings become less frequent. Frankly, we’re getting a bit more summery with each passing year. So now is the perfect time to hit me up for a chat on what you’d like for Des Moines! (206) 878-0578.

Saturday July 4

Honestly? I will be attending a fireworks display somewhere else. 😀

But the City of Des Moines is putting on a series of day time events at the Marina and Field House that sound pretty fun and I hope you will attend. If you need an incentive? Apparently one of the events is a charity Dunk Tank and at least a couple of my colleagues are scheduled to volunteer. I encourage everyone to donate.You know… for the kids. 😉

Last Week

As I previously wrote last week was a whirlwind of Port SAMP open houses and once in a lifetime FIFA games!

Tuesday

12:00pm Port Commission: But Tuesday was one of the more consequential Commission meetings. There were a couple of comments from Senator Tina Orwall and a member of our own Airport Committee. But nobody sticks around for the real meeting and that’s a shame.

Over half the reason you have lobbyists is not to try to twist arms, but simply to watch. For example, the Port’s lobbyists gave their version of an annual StART report to Port Commissioners. Since Port Commissioners almost never attend anything ‘airporty’, this is almost certainly their only perception of how things are going in the community.

So members of StART are in their bubbles, and the Port Commissioners are in their bubbles. The messages are very different.

That’s a major reason I helped create STNI 10 years ago. The Port watches everything we do. It struck me that there might be value in someone watching them. 😀

Thursday

June 25 City Council Meeting (see recap)

City Council Meeting Recap

Agenda Packet

City Manager Report / Presentations / Briefings

• Item 1: Recognition of Sergeant Eddie Ochart for 25 Years of Service
• Item 2: 2025 4th Quarter Financial Report (10 Minutes)
• Item 3: 2026 1st Quarter Financial Report (15 Minutes)
• Item 4: Strategic Plan Implementation Update: Economic Vitality (25 Minutes)
• Item 5: Proposed Seattle Times Editorial Regarding Airport Impacts (5 Minutes)

Consent Agenda

• Item 2: NFC Northwest Telecommunications Franchise Agreement
• Item 3: 2026 Stormwater CMP Replacement Project
• Item 4: WSDOT SR 509 Right-of-Way Transfer
• Item 5: Approval of the City’s Strategic Plan
• Item 6: Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Appointment

Unfinished Business

• Item 1: Speed Camera Ordinance – First Reading (15 Minutes)

I spoke about the financials above. Two other things:

The WSDOT SR 509 Right-of-Way is a piece of land that should be a big discussion and it’s not. 16th Ave was always supposed to be a continuous through-way to 216th. It’s been blocked for a very, very long time as the land was originally intended to be SR-509. The only reason we’re ‘getting it free’ from WSDOT is because they insist it must become some form of road in the future. I was always told that this would enable a bike path through the area.

We have frankly played hide the ball on this, and so much, long term planning. The City knows what a,b,c will be in the future. But we rarely daylight those objectives for the public to avoid constant friction with current homeowners. It’s unfair to the future, and I’d hoped the new administration would be more transparent. And that has not been the case.

The Speed Camera thing was a bit weird. We worked so frickin’ hard to get a ‘park zone’ established in Redondo to help with noise problems. But I noticed that the law revision also allowed for three new speed cameras and I’ve been nagging the City to get on that for a couple of years.

But I am not thrilled with the three locations that were chosen. And I definitely have mixed feelings about turning school zone cams into 24-hour cams.

You’re not supposed to say it out loud, but the cameras are about the money. To be blunt, the locations are primarily determined by where the vendor can make the most money.

Eg. the red light cam at Pacific Highway is such a money maker, it’s doubtful we would ever remove it. But improving ‘safety’? 😀

That is not to say that most don’t provide some safety benefit. They do, but it comes down to volume. And for you stats nerds: volume is not the same thing as harm reduction.

Ticketing people on a highly visible, heavily traveled road will reduce speeding for sure. But speeding isn’t the same thing as accidents. There are almost certainly less traveled roads where drivers engage in far riskier behaviours as a percentage of miles traveled. I get complaints from people on this all the time. But the only roads that were even up for discussion were those with a certain volume.

Think of it like this: which would make more of a difference in terms of harm reduction: reducing the number of flights over your house at 2pm, or at 5am when you’re trying to sleep.

Anyhoo. I do favour adding three new speed cameras. I just wish the locations were in places I’ve heard people actually complain about.