Get get that 3rd COVID Booster (the new ‘bivalent’ model.) Now. Deaths are slowly rising. Again, again, it takes about a month to achieve full efficacy. And the number of people who have had all four injections is now below fifty percent. Football, Thanksgiving. Christmas. I think you know where I’m going here. They’re doing walk-ins now pretty much everywhere. 🙂
This Week
Monday: We hand in our annual City Manager Evaluation (which is supposed to be a semi-annual evaluation, but hey, whatever.)
Beyond that? Not much. Except to say that this is what I’m having for Thanksgiving. Go ahead, judge me. 🙂 If you have any other things you wanna talk about? Marina, airport, roads, public safety, education, dry rub vs. brine? Real football vs. that strange game you play with that bean- shaped object? (206) 878-0578. Regardless, have an absolutely wonderful holiday weekend!
Last Week
Tuesday: 6:00PM Des Moines Housing Action Plan Open House at Highline College. See what we have going on with land use planning!
Wednesday: Highline Forum (Agenda) Updates on StART, Sound Transit, WSDOT SR-509. Highlight? The Port Noise Office announced that it would now officially encourage all airlines to voluntarily avoid reverse thrust on landing. Woo hoo! Not. (Note to newcomers, the reason I always sound snarky is because to sound measured and explain stuff in detail takes 5,000 words. In this case, pilots have, since forever, come in a bit too ‘hot’ and used reverse thrust to compensate. Ninety seven times out of a hundred it’s totally unnecessary, but the airlines leave it to ‘pilot discretion’ for the sake of safety. It’s loud as hell for residents, especially in Burien, and since about 1970 they’ve begged the airport to ‘do something’. After 50 years? This is the something; a strongly worded letter.
Thursday: Environmental Committee Meeting (Agenda) (Video) (Agenda)
We got a presentation on the SMAP (pronounced Ehs-map) where the Dept. Of Ecology asks the City to pick a key drainage area to focus on water quality improvement. And our engineers picked? My neighbourhood. Psyche! 😀
The interesting thing (for me) is that the main technique for improving storm water quality is plants. You strategically plant certain species in the swales and they do the ‘filtering’. They remove all the goop we put into the storm drains before it gets to Puget Sound. What our crews will do is re-plant new species in these swales which are more efficient goop digester/filterers.
There’s actually a good example of a related principle, at the town home development on 216th and 14th Ave. The detention pond is lined with grass. The thing doesn’t work without the plants.
Thursday: City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) (more info below.)
Friday: South King County Housing & Homelessness Partners (SKHHP)
November 17 City Council Meeting
City Manager’s report
We got our first (and only) report on the Human Services Advisory Committee. I have no quibbles with the grant selections or the committee members, but the whole ‘advisory committee’ system needs an overhaul.
- For one thing, this year we got the amount to a whopping one percent (uno, eins, singular) of our budget and considered that to be ‘success’. But it took that one-time ARPA money to get to that level.
- For another, as I said, this is our only look at the program all year. And all the other programs we fund are no better. We get almost no look at Senior Services, Destination Des Moines, SR3, Farmers Market. But if one asks? How dare you! The thing is, we used to get four reports from each of these orgs every year and their work was on the web site so the public could see for themselves what’s going on.
Public Comment
I want to applaud the four people who provided public comment on the Marina Redevelopment. They all had different things to say, but all were extremely thoughtful.
The only problem? There were only four. The Council received close to fifty (50) very heartfelt emails on the subject and I know a bunch of people on social media said they were gonna show up. And…. only four people showed up. So let me say this clearly for people in the cheap seats.
If you want to change something big in local government, you definitely can do it, but…YOU. MUST. SHOW. UP.
This is physics. It is not subject to ‘compromise’. It just is.
You can whine about the unfairness of life or how things should be. But this is how things are in the same way there’s no point in getting upset about gravity. It only takes 15-20 people to change the Council’s direction, but it does take 15-20 people. You can social media yer ass off. You can write passionate letters that would make Shakespeare jealous. But unless you show up? Nothing will change. So whatever you’ve got going on? Sick dog, had to work late, fear of public speaking, soccer practice, hot yoga, those are the stakes in play. You’re asking the City to change direction on a ton of money. It takes effort to do that–and showing up is the work you need to do. So, if you don’t get what you want? Basically, It’s your fault for not getting 15-20 people to show up. I’m serious here. I want you to succeed, so I’m telling you how things are so you do. Let’s get cracking, here. 🙂
Consent Agenda
I asked to pull two items:
- Flock Cameras, which silently read license plates as people drive by them. It’s a lot like a speed camera–basically, a computer finds that the associated driver has an outstanding warrant and then pings the Police Department. The PD is super-jazzed about the program as a force-multiplier. I had/have two concerns:
- Privacy It’s just a matter of changing the software to do a lot more than just look at license plates. And, unlike most of you, I’ve actually been to true surveillance states (like the Soviet Union) many times and so I am that nervous nelly.
- Efficacy Although the Chief promised to remove them if they are not successful, we have no specific reporting process in place to define what that is. I am all about providing specific metrics before starting any project. After watching the recent Ferry Pilot , with absolutely no measurable definitions of ‘success’ I am now even more skeptical of everything.
- I also pulled an item which provides an ongoing consulting contract to train our staff on using our new accounting softwares. Having been a training consultant, I have to admit: I tend to be skeptical of training consultants. 😀
Public HearinGS
As we get near the end of year, we jam as much ‘stuff’ into each meeting. So this time we had not one, not two, but three public hearings. And since we don’t advertise them properly, no one shows. Careful readers will recall that the Mayor moved the meeting schedule around in order to accommodate a high school football game.
- Property Tax Levy: I did something I almost never do, I voted for Rule 26a (to pass the ordinance in a single reading) because there is this weird deadline which would have cost us money if we hadn’t done so. However, that is no excuse for scheduling it this late in the year. This artificial emergency brought to you courtesy of high school football.
- 2022 Amended Budget: Why we’re finalising the 2022 Budget in November? Oh, like I’m supposed to know. 😀 (That was supposed to be a joke.) Actually, this is a normal part of the process. Your budget never lines up perfectly with actuals.
- 2023 Budget Second Reading: I voted no for a couple of reasons: This was the first year in my memory where no time was allocated for CM Amendments.
New Business
Suspending restriction on use of one-time money for operational expenses the third year in a row.
I voted no. And the City Manager chose to do that, when there was that ARPA money right there–which was meant for recovery.
The ordinance preventing the use of one-time money for salaries/ops dates to 2012. The Council rightly said that we had become addicted to using one-time money and were never saving for anything.
But… the Council wasn’t quite as brave as all that. They phased it in over five years. So realistically, we’ve only ever saved for future capital spending maybe three years out of the last 30. And now we have three years returning to same bad ol’ habit.
Frankly, this is my take on Des Moines. Traditionally, for a waterfront town, we’ve had very low taxes (really) which everyone likes. But since we annexed Redondo in ’96, there has been some ‘catastrophe’ here every 5-10 years… 9/11, Great Recession, COVID. And no matter who is ‘in’ we always seem to use the emergency du jour as an excuse to raid whatever savings account is handy. Over the years many of my colleagues like to say how ‘conservative’ they are. Maybe. But in reality, we’re just not great at saving. And that is why we never seem to have our own money for docks or busted fishing piers or a community center.
Legislative Priorities.
- I was restricted from asking our lobbyist questions. My comment was that we’re tasking our lobbyist to spend time advocating for a second airport, which is a ridiculous use of City time/money. I was told that Senator Keiser and Rep. Orwall wanted it. And… love ’em both to death, but sometimes, even yer best friends are just plan wrong. And friends can tells friends that.
- We also learned that the Chief really wants that Blake decision over-turned, which I found surprising. Because in all the talk about the much-hated police reforms, the overwhelming amount of press coverage was about pursuits–you know, where suspects simply drive away from officers. The Chief admitted that those were not as big a deal as has been advertised. What was not on the official agenda is something very much favour: clawing back some of the sales tax to Cities–specifically for public safety.
New Items for Consideration
I requested that the Council send flowers to Mr. Eric Clarke, the Manager of Water District #54 who was so brutally attacked while on duty last month. I hope he is doing well and I want him to know how much he is valued in this community. If you also would like to pass on your best, please contact the District here.
Executive Session
I can’t tell ya the details, but there may or may not have been a group of colleagues criticising me for my use of 1Pig Latin last week. Here’s the deal. If you think things are petty on the dais, just imagine what they might be like behind closed doors, where one is not allowed to even report the subject of the meeting.
It’s no accident…
I have written to my colleagues that we need to remedy this immediately and I will propose a system at our next (1, December) meeting.
Although this article begins with public comment, it is not about public comment.
404s
Despite my reputation for crankiness, I notice broken links (referred to as ‘404s’ in the web world) and usually do not speak up. How do I notice them? SPACE MAGIC! Actually, there’s an automated gizmo anyone can use to be notified when a web site has broken links. So I ‘saw’ when the City’s Public Comment form stopped working.
What I used to do was immediately report/nag/complain when I found a ‘404’ and… get eyerolls and heavy sighs about how hard everyone is working and stop being a pain, etc. And then I got in touch with my inner chakras and realised that I don’t have to find them. Because eventually, residents will. All I have to do is give them a reason to look. 🙂
No microphone
On September 27 the City had that Community Meeting with this slide. And among the dozen or so unethical and scary legal concerns, from one of the presentation slides it looks as though the SURPRISE! hotel extends over where the new $1,000,000 restroom is placed. I mean the cement hasn’t even cured it’s so new. And sure enough there is a new building labeled ‘RR’ which looks like ‘relocated restroom’.
So I post about it and I get all this ricketa racketa. I’m told by the City “Of course we’re not moving the new bathrooms.” The tone is obviously patronising. Like: How silly of you to assume that we’d do something like that, JC!” OK, I’m silly.
OK, I’m silly…
So I fire up a totally amateur program, Google Earth, to check. And sure enough, the hotel does plow through the existing bathroom. Silly my ass.
And… I get screamed at by the Mayor. This time, for not getting permission from the City first.
It’s not on the agenda…
In the past week I’ve received over fifty (50) emails from residents just furious about this new hotel location. So I tell residents to show up to speak at the last three meetings of the year. And then apparently the City just happens to to on social media to remind residents that “the marina won’t be on the agenda until 2023.”
But of course neglecting to mention that anyone can comment on anything the like at any meeting.
So like ten people call me the next day to tell me they don’t want to show up if they won’t be ‘allowed’ to speak.
Defensiveness
It does not bother me at all when people make mistakes. It does not bother me when the votes do not go the way I’d like. But we should never get defensive when residents point out bugs or mistakes.
And for anyone to get annoyed and say “Trust us… you’ll see” on large projects indicates a lack of regard. It would be like displaying the wrong price tag and then getting upset when the customer asked to pay what was clearly listed on the tin.
I get stroppy about it because most residents are so uninformed. They tend to take everything at face value because they do trust that the City runs as expected. It’s actually a compliment.
Priorities
In fact, we actually had a system whereby residents could simply put “Public Comment” in the subject line of an email. Or they could fill out the form and then the staff would cobble together a PDF, deliver it to the Council and then upload to web site. But, like Zoom, it created extra work for the staff.
The bottom line is that all this stuff (web site, public comment, outreach, etc.) takes up City resources. Staff have a certain number of hours/dollars to work with and perhaps they feel they can better serve the public using those resources in other ways, eg. public safety, roads, processing permits, etc.
Priorities
However, shorting things like public comment, Zoom, the web site, public engagement all just happen to lead to less transparent government. And so do all the tiny mistakes that, after a while, stop looking less like mistakes and more like a strategy.
Transparency, but its very nature, is meant to slow the process. And if you happen to like the direction the train is moving, whether consciously or not, you are simply not inclined to do things that might tend to reduce its speed.
Summary
- You do a public meeting with no microphone… followed up by a private meeting with a proper sound system (which you do not want recorded!)
- You put up a poster clearly showing a new hotel crushing into the new $1MM bathroom (and a clearly indicated ‘Relocated Restroom’).
- You dump the electronic Public Comment system with no notice.
- You make hundreds and hundreds of tiny mistakes over time, all of which tend to reduce public engagement.
You do all these things (and many more) and in every single case get defensive, dismissive, patronising and condescending when people notice?
It’s no accident.
1It may or may not have had to do with olicePay egotiationsNay.But lest one think I am some snitch, we generally have only two Executive Sessions a year. One to discuss a certain ‘Employee Review’. (Spoiler Alert: there is only one employee we are allowed to review. You can torture me and I won’t spill the beans, but his job title rhymes with Scarlet Tanager.) And… we only have two contracts to review, which are either the Teamsters or the Cops. So stressing about this stuff is ridiculous. How ridiculous? The last time we had an Executive Session on anything else, my colleague CM Achziger announced the subject from the dais. I have yet to attend one of these things that was of any use to the public. Or…. maybe I did. I’ll never tell! 😀
Regardless, the thing that I’m impressed by is the recent organisation by the Redondo community. That is what makes things happen. And my message to readers from that neighbourhood (and others) is this: If I sound in any way ‘pessimistic’ about the City Attorney’s plan, that is not the case. I just know that things often don’t go to plan and you’ll need to keep going. We should still be testifying for those speed cameras in Olympia, just in case. And you may find that a speed camera is not the be all, end all. What matters is to keep at it.