Weekly Update 11/08/2026

Some bits of business…

About the cover

This Thursday’s meeting is the Council’s approval of our next two year budget. For the first time since I’ve been watching (2008) the original version did not include a five year forecast, so I asked that it be put back.

“Budgets are moral documents.” That’s not some platitude. No matter what people say, these numbers tell you what the City and your electeds really care about–especially about our future.

Approval of the budget is one of the two main State requirements of the City Council–and it requires its own public hearing. I hope you will read this budget, show up and let us know how you feel about where the City is going.

2027-2028 Preliminary Budget Book

Weeeeeee!

The 216th entrance to the trail next to Shield AI is closed, but the entrance off of 20th Ave was not as I rode by so I took a quick video…

This could be very cool. The ‘trees’ alongside the trail are mostly trash and I hope they are replaced with quality specimens. We should also talk about the  back (north end) of the property, which can be improved greatly by the Port of Seattle. One detail I’m disgruntled about–the entrance to the trail can only be reached by going past the vehicle entrance. IOW, if you use the crosswalk, you’ll then immediately have to look out for traffic again to get to the trail. It seems like a little thing, but it’s the difference between having a trail system and one where you have to keep yer eyes peeled.

Des Moines Creek Trail Gallery

About the election

If numbers hold, City Councilmember Harry Steinmetz will become a judge for Southwest King County. Congratulations! 🙂 However, this will require him to leave the Council, which would mean an appointment process. Deets, soon.

For our portion of WA there was very little drama–all the state incumbents won handily. The Democratic majority may become a super-majority– meaning they will really run the table.

Nationally, I guess I can’t help being a killjoy, but I came here in 1974. People tend to forget that the scandals leading to Nixon’s resignation were about campaign shenanigans. So there was a ton of election reform. But there was also a real fear of getting bogged down in what might be seen as ‘retribution’ so his successor gave him an immediate pardon. The main thing seemed to be ‘sin no more’. To my recollection, Nixon never exactly apologised, but he was willing to quit, which felt close enough. I guess. 😀

But the fact is, the economy did not recover for years, and all that ‘reform’ jazz began unwinding almost immediately–slowly at first, and faster over time. Campaign finance today, for example, is far worse than 1974. (I mean seriously, one person can give almost $500 million in contributions? How is that even possible?)

This time, there are definitely no apologies on offer, and there seems less ability for reform beyond ‘throw the bums out’. My concern is that I felt OK about 1974 because I thought we’d learned a permanent lesson. I now realise that was not the case.

Go out and celebrate. All Elon Musk’s election spending led nowhere. This time. $500 million represents less than one half of one percent of his total fortune. He can afford to do that again every year from now until perdition. I’m just hoping that the people just elected realise the lack of trust in government is even worse today than 1974. It will take a lot more sustained effort and vigilance than my generation was able to muster. I’m rooting for you. 🙂

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports!  November 6, 2026.

The highlight for moi is a shout out to Recology which offers free extra pickups for compostables. And also things like styrofoam and (at least once a year) large objects. All you have to do is schedule a pickup.

This Week

Monday

4:00pm Des Moines Airport Advisory Committee (Agenda)

Wednesday

I hope you can join me in attending the Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association Veterans Day ceremony at Sunnydale School.

Thursday

November 12, City Council Meeting

November 12, 2026 City Council Agenda Packet with Budget

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Presentation by Highline College Small Business Development Center (15 min) An overview of the SBDC and StartZone: free, confidential one-on-one advising for small businesses, with a Spanish-language advisor on staff.

Consent agenda

Square footage tax, 2nd reading (Ord. 26-109). Widens the B&O square footage tax from warehouses to all business space (office, sales floor, manufacturing).

Custodial contract (FMC). Adds daily cleaning of the Redondo restrooms starting January 2027 and extends the contract through 2029 without a rebid.

Eernissee Consulting amendment. Raises the electric ferry taxi study contract from $23K to $70K. Commerce grant money covers all of it, so there’s no City cost. Staff admit the $70K was already paid before Council approved it and call it an “isolated administrative oversight.”

King County Library ILA. Updates who owns and maintains the library building, mainly so KCLS can apply for grants. No cost. The packet notes the deed from the 1989 agreement was never recorded. A new one will be filed.
Small Business Saturday proclamation.

Canopy preservation, 1st reading (Ord. 26-129). Moves 41 parcels (about 79 acres, 69 of them tree canopy) to the Surface Water utility and raises SWM rates 7.5% starting January 2027. That brings in about $450K a year to manage roughly 12 acres a year on a nine-year cycle. It’s driven by our required water quality permit–NPDES deadline of December 2028.

2027 vehicle purchases: $1,441,000. Seven police vehicles, a dump truck, pickups, a mower, a de-icer tank and a utility vehicle. We had talked previously about simply establishing a ‘replacement fund’ so the Council wouldn’t be doing these “Great deal on a new Interceptor, Chief!” meetings.

Lodging tax awards: $69,234 total. Chess Club $1,000, Des Moines Theater $12,000, Winter Waterland $56,234. About $12K is left in the fund afterward. This is a change from previous policy and it’s good, but not I’m cautious. On the plus side, the Council could not agree on the value of using money for one big July 4 event. On the other hand, lodging tax is supposed to be used to promote tourism. Say it again: lodging tax is supposed to promote visitors, not provide local amenities. Killjoy. 😀

Public hearings

2027 1% property tax levy increase, 2nd reading (Ords. 26-106, 26-107).

2026 budget amendments, 2nd reading (Ord. 26-108)

• Sales tax and B&O are up. Red-light camera revenue is cut from $1.1M to $700K.
• Public defender costs go up $225K, due to the state Supreme Court’s new indigent defense standards.
• IT gets a $245K accounting correction.
• A grant-funded patrol officer is added ($140K).
• Camp staffing goes up $220K, which camp revenue covers.
• $40K is added for a Parks Director for the rest of 2026.

New since 1st reading: Marina dock replacement +$2.48M and tenant restrooms +$802K, aligned with the CIP.

2027–28 biennial budget, 2nd reading (Ord. 26-105).

November 12, 2026 City Council Agenda Packet with Budget

$151.5M across all funds, of which $55.8M is General Fund. Changes since 1st reading are mostly FTE fixes, a five-year forecast, a contingency account, and Lodging Tax professional services raised to $78K a year.

New business

Gambling tax, 1st reading (Ord. 26-117). Raises the card room tax from 9% to 11%, which matches Burien, Kent, SeaTac, Tukwila and unincorporated King County. Moves administration from the Clerk to Finance. Estimated +$60K a year per card room. Staff are aiming for a December 10 second reading.

Beach Park demolition: $189,237 plus $30K contingency. Green Earthworks would remove Founder’s Lodge (asbestos history, structural problems, next to the creek) and the vacant Caretaker’s Residence, which keeps getting broken into. Pilings stay for a later phase. Work must be done by March 31, 2027. Staff list no alternatives.

Vacant commercial space registration (40 min, discussion only). Staff want direction on four questions: where it applies, a full program or lighter tools, what owners must do, and fees and enforcement. The packet compares Olympia ($200 a year), Everett (downtown only, fee rises with each year vacant, art required in empty windows) and Seattle ($272–543 a month). It also describes Renton’s lighter approach: owners keep their impact fee credits however long a space sits empty. None of the City’s benchmark cities have a program.

Last Week

Tuesday

Planning Commission. These guys had a big week! (See Thursday). The main topic was a public hearing on trees!

Planning Commission November 2, 2026

Thursday

City Council Study Session (recap)

Friday

Regional Transit Committee Interview w De’Sean Quinn. In addition to being our former King County Councilmember, Mr. Quinn is a member of the leadership team at at Metro. Advisory Committee members, such as moi, are asked for feedback on the agencies budget and strategic priorities.

November 5, 2026 City Council Recap

Committee of the Whole: One-time revenue

Background. Ordinance 1561 (2012, codified at DMMC 3.100) bars using sales and B&O tax from projects valued at $15M or more in the General Fund. The remainder would be set aside for big community projects. This was considered a way to get out of the constant boom/bust cycles we’ve been going through since I’ve lived here. We would hire staff in the good times then cut back in the lean. (Wait, isn’t that what we just did?) The cure was supposed to be: “One time money for one time projects!”

The Council seems inclined to raise this to $23 million–to account for inflation. I remain opposed. But my suggestion for making lemonade from lemons is to take any additional money we get and keep it constrained to capital project expenses.

This requires some explaining. Whenever we do a capital project, we always incur on-call expenses. They were referred to as ‘consultants’ which is a bit unfair. As an example, the use case I was referring to might be the engineers we use for a dock replacement; or engineers we hired to help re-design 216th for the Des Moines Creek Business Park years ago. Or engineers for the Beach Park. These are all specialists who are linked to specific capital projects that will generate the sales tax in the first place. By paying their expenses, it would keep the money from being used for problematic things like our own employee salaries.

Study session: Downtown planning and zoning workshop

ECONorthwest presented a joint workshop with the Planning Commission. It’s the third of four sessions. A final Council session will confirm a strategy for 2027 zoning changes.

This was really hard for me. Essentially, we are considering taller building heights and loosening various requirements on what can be built, eg. required parking and ‘retail on the ground floor’ in buildings (which has not exactly been a huge moneymaker.) To a certain extent, this is all inevitable and much of it should have happened years ago.

But it’s all just so much theater (sorry). We do these lengthy presentations, talking about ‘dials’ and ‘elevations’ and there is no clear:

If you do (x), (y) tends to happen.

And without that, people just end up doing what they wanted to do in the first place.

There talk of ‘fascia redesign’ and I thought back to the last time we did that: the 2012 “Cape Cod In Des Moines” former Mayor Bob Sheckler was fond of. If you recall, several buildings were redone with this look. It was a lot of City effort, but within a decade now only this remains.

That is why I question our discussions of the downtown area. People aren’t even serious enough to notice what we tried 10 years ago. But developers are.

In a speech that outdid my musings on flight simulators and ‘dials’ for rambling (his words), Consultant Dan Eernissee buried the lead on the best comment of the night: Developers look at property as investments. They build what is profitable. What you find delightful may not be what makes money. It’s nothing personal.

People forget that a key reason the hotel did not happen at the Marina in 2023 is because it was not profitable. We received a bajillion proposals and none ended up penciling out. That’s the reason the administration pivoted to a Marina Steps.

I want all the things you want. Ironically, we actually had them when I first moved here! But to get them back, we gotta be real about what it takes to make the area more ‘developer-friendly’. That’s just code for profitable.

I say that because another comment that slipped by almost unnoticed near the end of the meeting was by City Manager Caffrey. There seemed to be this fear that if we ended all zoning requirements we would end up with a ton of ghastly commercial buildings. She seemed to express the opposite concern: if we removed all zoning requirements, we might end up with all residential and no retail. I wish someone would shout this to the skies.

Ever since I’ve lived here, what developers propose is not charming bakeries and breweries. Even if they end up redoing an old theater, what makes money? Apartments and condos. Because that is what has been profitable.

If we want other things, we have to figure out how to build them in a manner that does not ask the private sector to lose money.