A common story I hear is that “Our downtown was always terrible! All the construction cranes since 2016? That means we’re (finally) moving forward!”
But OTOH, here are a couple of budget numbers from 2008–right before the bottom dropped out. Note the Sales Tax revenue:
Remember: that represents the money that people spend here. It’s as good an indicator as any as to the health of our business community.
OK, now here’s the 2019 Budget.
Just wait a cotton-pickin’ minute! In 2018 we generated pretty much the same sales tax as 2008. Now think about that for a secy-poo. After all the construction cranes, the new hotel, the FAA building, the big additions to Wesley. And still, people do not spend any more money here than they did before the Great Recession.
You can look at this at least two ways
I can see a certain number of saying, “You just proved our point, JC! This is exactly why we need to re-develop that Marina into “the magnet!” Because no matter what we’ve tried, we’ve never been able to get that downtown to earn for us!”
Maybe.
Or, maybe back in 2007, Marine View Drive hosted a surprising variety of interesting small business you’ve forgotten or did not know about which had things people liked to spend money on–even though the buildings were just as funky. One can bemoan “the death of retail” and speak about how “QFC couldn’t make it”. But the fact is, people were happy to use a nice local wine shop. And they were just as happy to visit Tyrone’s Rib Shack then for the same reason they enjoy Dat Creole Soul now: you can’t beat a good plate of southern cooking.
Aside from all the vast macro-economic stuff, maybe if you put out a good product and you get some basic skills at running a business, you draw customers and make money.
But the real message I want to send in this post is this: we should find out for sure, like any for realz business would, rather than just gambling with other people’s money (meaning yours, by the way) which has been our modus operandi since I’ve lived here. And since we just spent $1M on a ferry pilot project, there’s never a better time to start.
It’ll bring tens of thousands…
I keep beating on this one clip of then Deputy Mayor Mahoney because I’ve heard that same hyperbole so many times over the years. Here’s Mayor Sheckler betting Deputy Mayor Kaplan a lunch that the hotel will get built. Perhaps the reason the bet was so low-stakes is because by that point it was no longer about making a ton of money. Success had been reduced and re-defined as getting it built.
Magnetism…
The central premise of “economic development” here seems to have always had something to do with that ‘magnetism’. What has been said over and over is some variation on this:
We should build (x) because
In the short term, it will create a big ol’ bag o’ one-time money and some great construction jobs.
But in the long term, the project will be a magnet. It will draw people (and their wallets) inexorably towards the downtown. Now, if said project turns out to generate ongoing revenues? Super Green, baby. But even if it doesn’t, that does not matter. It’s the drawing power that matters.
That’s been the story here. Over and over…
We heard that with Sheckler and the hotel.
We heard that with the FAA building.
We heard that with SR3.
And now I’m hearing it with all the Marina Redevelopment. But the innovation this time is that it’s not based on a single draw, but rather it’s a team-up:
The ferry will be the magnet
The hotel will be the magnet
The Adaptive Purpose Building will be the magnet
The Stairs will be the magnet
And SR3 will be the magnet
And even if any one of them is individually is not… er… ‘attractive’ enough?
No Matter Puny Earth Man. The combined force of all those powers will generate a super-magnet that no mortal consumer can resist! Muwhahahaaa!
Sorry, I got carried away.
Because the one thing all these projects have had in common with an *Avengers Movie? That magnetism was all based on fantasy, not on any business case.
Misdirection…
In none of those projects was there a legit plan describing what the project would do for the City and how it would get us there. It was always just “Hotel on Pac Highway? Great idea, Bob!”
The only thing that actually panned out was the one-time money. And if something happens over and over, ya gotta start wondering if that wasn’t the whole point in the first place: the temporary construction jobs, the one fat check and… the photo op with the shovels.
I left my crystal ball at home…
At our recent planning meeting I beat on the idea of a sales tax by geography report. For years I’ve been told that it was illegal. It’s not illegal. Other cities have been doing it for a long time.
It’s not just the chronic misinformation, it’s the fact that we’re do damned uncurious. If you don’t want to know how much each part of the City earns, it tells me you don’t really care about how anything performs.
When anyone presents a business plan for a new restaurant or a hotel, or even an entire shopping center, they are expected to show investors (that would be you, dear voter) some revenue projections and an explanation of how they’ll get there.
Those are things we’ve never had here. We’ve never treated economic development like (wait for it…) a business; something with goals.
And that’s sad, because finance people are really good at forecasting various numbers, even highly variable items such as sales tax or red light cameras. You don’t need some ‘crystal ball’ as our City Manager is fond of saying. Most of the Finance Directors we’ve had have come very close in their projections–even during times when we were on a big rollercoaster. Well done to them.
It’s time to get serious…
My colleagues seem to have decided that we should change the entire purpose of the Marina from being primarily a place for recreation to being exactly that tourism magnet–the economic driver of our City for the next generation.
And if that’s the case? I expect it to be managed like our lives depend on it. If we’re going into the hospitality and tourism businesses, I expect to know how much money are we going to make, and how we’re going to make it. Especially if that money has to hit $50M to pay for dock replacement. This is serious. We are literally betting our future on it.
But at that strategy meeting what you did not hear is anything like, “Our goal is that by 2030 our General Fund will be at ($n) million dollars, because we want to be able to do (x,y,z). OK gang, that’s the destination. Now: how do we get there?”
I have literally never seen our City set any targets, monitor them and change direction along the way in order to make sure we hit those targets.
We have a fiduciary responsibility to maximise the return of your investment in Des Moines. That doesn’t mean, “That ferry sure looks nice.” No. If we decide that we want to get into the tourism and hospitality business, then our job is to implement proposals with the best possible earning potential. The best.
Another possibility…
Now, I have 30 years of reasons to be skeptical about any development projects here. And the current Marina plans are no different–because they have no numbers and no goals.
And that sales tax by zone report that was ‘impossible’? I’ve run across that sort of impossibility many times. Maybe we could do a lot more to improve our downtown without selling off the Marina or gambling on a ferry. Yes, even with the landlords and the funky buildings. But again, it’s impossible to say without… numbers and goals.
This is a matter of equity and justice. We don’t have enough money to do a lot of things we should be doing. Pick an area: public safety, health, education, parks, seniors, roads, transit. We have an obligation to earn the money to get there and with that comes an even more sober obligation to make economic development decisions based on hard data.
*I know. That the magnetism thing is actually from another Marvel franchise. I just couldn’t find a shot of all the X-Men doing that combo-attack thing you see at the climax of every superhero movie. More fake news.
I want to wish all of you who are People Of The Book a very Happy Easter and Passover.
Easter in Ireland…
This image is of a typical holiday procession from where I grew up. It could be Easter, or Patrick’s Day or whatever holiday. Not too many egg hunts and rabbits with this lot. (In fact, this piccie is from 2000-something. This is after the West of Ireland had lightened up. 😀 )
Becomes Passover in America
Now almost all my American relations were very observant Jews so when I came to America in the 70’s I expected a similar degree of somber religiosity. After all, these were people who did not drive on Saturdays. Who made their kids wear funny outfits to public school. I expected we wouldn’t have much to talk about. Not so.
Every Passover, I would get invited to my Uncle’s house for the Seder and as soon as everyone was done with the Haggadah and Elijah and searching for that hidden thingie with the prizes, we’d all retire to a magical place called “the den” to watch Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner go at it for five hours on ABC.
Because it just would not be Passover for the Jews in their neighbourhood without the Ten Commandments going full blast in some other room.
So even though about half of the rigamarole was quite different from the rigamarole I grew up with, after all the parsley and horseradish, you can sit on the couch and cheer for Moses and boo at Edward G. and it’s all good.
My cousins now do this with their kids. This has been going on now for over 50 years! So it’s kinda become welded into the fabric of their observance in a very unironic fashion:
Morning Temple
Afternoon Seder
Evening Ten Commandments
Now that’s tradition. 😀
If some of you find that sort of piccie somehow ‘disrespectful’, yeah, my guess is that you’re probably one of the unfortunate goyim. 😀 (keeeeding.)
One of the many gifts my Jewish/American family gave me was the ability to see the humour in that reference. It takes a real self-confidence to be able to laugh at one’s self. You can be ferocious in maintaining your identity and not take yourself too seriously. (I also credit them with the ability to argue like a m^%@*f&%@ker. Walking away from a good debate? Sissy. Thank you for that.)
Shared References
And for a good while, I thought I was pretty darned ‘culturally aware.’ In addition to my upbringing, living in Detroit in the 1970’s, gave me some vague knowledge not only about Easter and Passover, but also Ramadan and Kwanzaa.
And that covers the belief systems of….
Maybe half the population of Planet Earth.
But forget religion. That goes for every reference I’ve got. Hee Haw, Star Trek, Wizard of Oz, James Brown, Da Vinci. I cannot take for granted any of the cultural references I thought would last for-ehveeeer. (I now routinely run into people now who have no idea the basics of ‘Easter’. Ouch.)
And that’s not about ‘privilege’. Having shared references makes it easier to connect with people beyond just “Wow. Ireland, huh? It’s so green. Love the er… castles. And the hats, right?” 😀 Back in the day, having shared references like the Ten Commandments was quite the ice breaker.
Wait, he’s not the guy who parted the Red Sea?
And forget Moses. Hell, for people who still remember Charlton Heston their most recent reference would be:
But a decade before that…
And less than a decade before that…
My father-in-law remembers Heston marching with Dr. King for civil rights legislation in the early sixties.
But you have to go back a decade before that to get to the ‘Moses parting the Red Sea’ my generation still laughs about. That’s the problem with people. They can be more than one thing.
The ice breaker…
There was a point here when I started. 😀 Oh yeah: I occasionally mention a sliver of my background only as a way to try to connect to your background. As I’ve tried to make clear, my references are now the minority. I don’t expect people to know what a Eucharist is, any more than you should automatically expect that I know what your cultural practices are.
But I want to learn about your world. And there need to be ice breakers to get to those deeper conversations. And I believe the City has an obligation to give your cultural references a prominent place in the civic life of Des Moines.
Because the truth is? Back in the day there were three channels on TV. So everyone saw Charlton Heston part the Red Sea at least once. Whether they wanted to or not. 😀
Easter
For me, Easter is the most important day of the year. I can’t tell you exactly why except to say that those somber processions I opened with must have had a profound effect on me. If you ask anyone who knew me back in the day that I’d be playing organ at Mass? The word ‘miracle’ springs to mind. 😀
To this day I recall the reverence everyone had during those slow walks along the Sky Road which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. Forget Christmas or funerals or whatever. This was the one moment of the year where the entire town stopped; sort of a ‘group meditation’. It created a sense of awe in me, which left me with the nagging feeling that the whole story–as unbelievable as it sounded? Yeah, it just might be true. 😀
For whatever reason, that feeling never left. It waxes and wanes. But whether at St. Joseph’s then or St. Philomena now, it persists.
(And the same could also be said of those Passover meals. Because the part I left out was that, all kidding aside, there were always moments where the enormity of the story hit everybody. What it took, just to survive, to get from there to here over 2,000+ years. It’s not hard to feel something miraculous in that as well.)
Monday: Meeting with Poulsbo Mayor Erickson. I hope to learn more about their promotional efforts, their Marina and their excellent reporting and web site. Considering their small size they do a fantastic job. For example, they track sales tax by geography, something I would very much like to do here. (See below in the meeting recap.)
Wednesday: Meeting with Justin Taillon, who runs the Hospitality program at Highline College and is a board member of Destination Des Moines. As a (former) small restaurant owner I’m interested in seeing what an organised approach to that sort of business might be. 😀
Wednesday: Meeting with Senator Claire Wilson 30th. Sen. Wilson is a big fan of the Redondo Fishing Pier and Boardwalk and has passed significant bills to help families with child care expenses.
Thursday: 5:00PM City Council Meeting (Agenda) Two big items:
For those of you who watched last week’s um, er whatever, our Ferry Consultant Peter Philips did a thirty minute pre-presentation of a fuller presentation on the 14th with specifics on a ‘pilot program’. And here is the reason why. The City is requesting $975,000 of our capital budget.
On the agenda for next Thursday is an ask by the City for about a million dollars to fund a Passenger Ferry ‘pilot’ program. This is a project that gets to the heart of my differences with my colleagues.
The PSRC has studied adding Des Moines to the ferry system for decades and each time it’s come up a total loser–the last time being 2019.
Not being one to take ‘no’ for an answer, in 2019 the City Man… er, the City Council 😀 commissioned a private demand study for $65,000, which was finally completed in August 2020. I kept asking to see it, but ultimately, I had to resort to a public records request to finally see the results. Since completion, the firm has not come before the Council to take questions about their methodology. I’m not even certain whether any of my colleagues have actually read it because there has been no discussion as to its results or conclusion.
The sampling was 329 working people throughout King County, not residents of DM or people who might need to come here specifically
During the meeting, CM Pennington spoke repeatedly about ‘multi-modal’. Does that mean ‘park n ride’? What do 100 parkers do to the Marina footprint? If we don’t want that, are there hundreds of people in DM who will buy monthly parking passes and walk to/from the Marina?
The packet also provides no explanation on possible environmental impacts, where in the budget the money will come from, what this start-up money will be used for, why we’re expected to pay the start-up costs, and how long it might take to recoup those costs.
There may be excellent answers to all these questions and more. But once again, we will get a presentation with all those details and then immediately have to vote yes/no. There is simply no excuse for that.
This is a longstanding pattern. In 2017 the City spent $700k to put in paid parking. It was/is problematic (the machinery was designed for underground parking structures, not outdoor.) But a small group of residents who live near the Marina so passionate in support of it, warts and all, that the City re-branded it away from “pay for the seawall” to “security!”
The value of transparency is not primarily optical or even to do with ethics. Being thorough makes for better decisions. “measure twice, cut once” Isn’t that the expression?
There will be a hearing on a zoning modification for a new development from 216th and 14th Ave. If you live near by you likely know there was a previous attempt to develop the area in 2019 that enraged many of neighbours. This is not like that. It’s twenty three town homes with a single point of ingress/egress on 14th. The hearing is only to decide if the proposal complies with the code and thus merits the modification. But still, I urge residents to read the packet starting on pg. 48 and show up for public comment. Given the fact that we have no Planning Commission and that our Comprehensive Plan is so poorly understood by most residents, it is in your interest to get a sense of where the City’s is going.
City Council Meetings are scheduled for Thursdays at 6:00PM at City Hall 21630 11th Avenue S., Suite #C Des Moines WA 98198. They can also be viewed live on Comcast Channel 21/321 or on the City’s YouTube channel. Committee Meetings are either at 4:00PM or 5:00PM, also on Thursdays.
You do not have to sign in to attend a meeting!
The sign-in sheet is only for people wishing to make a Public Comment.
There are three ways to provide Public Comment:
In person: Show up a few minutes before the meeting and sign the sheet. Public Comment is usually conducted at the beginning of the meeting.
By e-mail: All e-mails sent to citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov are considered public comment. They are instantly available to all members of the City Council and the City Clerk who includes them into the record of public comments at the next meeting.
By US Mail: Attn: City Clerk Office, 21630 11th Avenue S., Des Moines WA 98198 no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting. Please provide us with your first and last name and the city in which you live.
All letters or e-mails requesting a specific action are referred by the City Clerk to the appropriate City department.
If you would like a follow up from me, personally please indicate that or call me (206) 878-0578.
The Clerk does not read e-mails to the Council in full; only the subject line. However, we do see them as soon as you send them. Your comments are added to the Agenda Packet available on the City web site following each meeting.
Last Week
Tuesday: Police Advisory Committee. I had hoped to hear more about the implementation of our new towing ordinance but the general sense seemed to be that it was one of the longest hours in Council history. 😀 Basically, the sense was that any concerns were overblown. People want the derelict cars to go away. I’d like to see an option for on-street permits. They work very well in other cities. Residents use the stickers to tell who belongs and who doesn’t and they generate revenue.
Thursday: Public Safety/Emergency Management Committee: (Video) Traci Buxton was chosen as Chair and Vic Pennington as Vice Chair. It was kind of Tuesday redux. 😀
Thursday: City Council Study Session (Agenda) (Video)This was our ‘Strategy’ meeting. If you recall, the Mayor instructed each of us to submit our top five priorities by March 18th. Recap below.
Or “Well, there’s four hours of my life I’ll never get back.”
Seriously. This is the first meeting I have witnessed or participated in that, in my opinion, had no practical value for the public. But at 240 minutes, there sure was an awful lot of it. My comments are more for the political junkies among you.
Part I
Communications
I guess you’d call this ‘the website discussion’. For the third time, I presented my proposal for a digital presence that is mobile first and focuses on notification. You can read the proposal in full here.
And since the discussion was so vague, the City Manager presented his idea for how to move forward. He’ll hire his choice of consultant, then have them interview us individually and then we reconvene with a solution.
I made a motion to have the City write to the four major vendors that create the off-the-shelf (OTS) applications used by most cities and have them send us some educational materials before the consultant–which I already did that last year.
But frankly, there was no will in doing this properly. It’s what I call ‘the appearance of engagement’ and pretty shameless.
Marina
Our Ferry Consultant Peter Philips, interrupted near the beginning to do a 30 minute presentation. We were told that his group would present a fuller presentation on the 14th with specifics on a ‘pilot program’. I found it a bit odd that we were being given a pre-presentation. And you can see the reason why on this Thursday’s packet.
At the conclusion of the presentation I asked a couple of questions and mentioned I did not like surprises. The City Manager responded with an obvious snipe, which I honestly did not understand. A year ago I reached out to the Journalism teacher and a student reporter at Highline College to suggest a series of articles about DM Politics. One line in the letter”…a multi-million dollar deal… again decided without a vote.”
And not to re-hash, but rather than talk to me, he simply went to the rest of the Council with that pitch letter to get their reactions. City Manager Matthias was actually quoting Matt Mahoney, not me. It’s ‘the telephone game.’ However, he’s also right. There will be a vote. But it will be a formality. The actual decision was already long, long ago and that isn’t cool.
Public Safety
I also sent a separate request with two other items, neither of which seemed to have been included in the final Agenda. Here they are:
Research a property tax lid lift dedicated solely for public safety. We actually had this for many years. It compensated for the loss of State revenue sharing in the 2000’s. The voters rejected it in 2012 and that’s a big reason why we have at least a dozen fewer police now than fifteen years ago.
Research the possibility of annexing the remaining bits of Kent west of Pacific Highway. As far as I know, the issue hasn’t been seriously discussed in over a decade. The commercial property owners are mad as hell about the crime and deeply concerned about the impacts of Sound Transit. And ditto for the residents. This may be the only time it will ever be possible in our lifetimes and in my opinion we should at least look at it seriously.
Economic Development
We’re all for it. 😀
But seriously ladies and germs, my colleagues talked about attracting developers and construction. And I did my usual speech on how ‘building is not the same as economic development’. I also once again suggested that we should hire professionals to mentor retail and restaurant owners because many struggle to be good managers. I was (for the 42nd time) lectured on free business advice, which almost never works. What-ehveeehr.
The City Manager offered to give the Council a tour of the Des Moines Creek Business Park. I asked why we couldn’t have a report (like other cities do) which breaks out revenues by geographic area–so we could find out exactly how well individual areas are doing. Crickets. How can you possibly talk about how well the Business Park is doing if you can’t show us the numbers?
Councilmember Research Process
I again raised the need for Councilmembers to have the ability to obtain research.
This prompted the second of three personal attacks of the evening, this time by Deputy Mayor Buxton. She scolded me for wanting information that was not only unnecessary but not within the job description. You know, like this: 2020-Zone-Report.pdf (cityofpoulsbo.com) Other cities provide management reports for their councils which are as far beyond what we currently see as their web sites are above ours. You cannot make good decisions with the information we receive. Her scolding was as revolting to me as the way people used to tell girls to not ask so many questions (The boys will like you more!) Rubbish.
Part II
Parks and Programs
I said that we should expand programs like Reach Out Des Moines to include the entire City as a great method of crime prevention. I also want to focus our spending more towards less affluent parts of the City which are under-served. We keep being putting resources and events in the same places, which are, frankly, the wealthiest spots.
I asked the Mayor to skip over these topics because we had covered the items in other sections of the discussion. He seemed a bit irked. I had to interrupt him to explain that these headings were not my idea. Whoever put together the packet came up with this nutty list of categories.
Conflicts of interest
Councilmember Steinmetz wanted to focus attention on Councilmember Achziger’s continuing to be a board member of the Legacy Foundation. He also mentioned the fact that our former Mayor Dave Kaplan took a job with the Port of Seattle about eight months after leaving office. But not just any job. Mr. Kaplan took the position of lobbyist–to the City of Des Moines.
I also went into the incest problem, which I’ve gone into many times. It’s so prevalent we don’t even notice it. I forgot to mention that as soon as Mr. Kaplan left the City Council, during those nine months he also had a contract with the City as a transportation consultant. Essentially, he was now getting paid to do what he had previously done for free as a member of the City Council. I asked the State Auditor to review the contract as part of our annual review process and…. they simply did not do it. That’s another reason I’ve become a bit skeptical of those audits. But that’s a rant for another day.
The point was that, we have this complex web of electeds, former electeds, spouses of electeds, civic groups, prominent business owners and there is no professional distance. Whether or not there are any legal conflicts of interest, the fact that one is constantly rubbing shoulders with people who wear multiple hats is awkward. There is a constant risk of unconscious bias. I think it’s notable that the State goes out of its way to protect developers with the Appearance Of Fairness Doctrine, but in almost every other case, it’s basically the Wild West when it comes to the inevitable biases that will develop in a small town like ours.
And that prompted the second attack of the night–from Councilmember Pennington, who felt it was his duty to lecture me about leadership and not being ‘superior’ and…
And when it began, I set a timer on my phone and just listened. But when the alarm went off after four minutes, for the first time in two years, I raised a point of order. Enough is enough.
Anyhoo said it for years: the City should have a clear no-compete clause in our City Code. If you’re an employee of the City you may not go to work for someone else which has any relationship with the City for a certain period.
I am less strident about CM Achziger’s situation, but I do believe that electeds should voluntarily avoid serving on other boards (elected or not) while in office. I’m reluctant to make it an official ‘rule’ right now only because it’s so troubling to me that others do not see why holding multiple elected positions and being on non-profit boards is problematic. It’s been obvious to me since I got here.
Because it’s not even about potential conflicts; it’s about giving the proper amount of attention to the job. The job of Councilmember here now is big enough and complex enough that it deserves undivided attention. The fact is that we should all be doing a lot more training, study time and networking. It’s no longer a ‘volunteer’ job.
By holding only one position, it opens up the field for the next generation of people to provide public service. It also reduces the possibility of all that ‘shoulder rubbing’ that has made it so hard to make objective decisions over the years.
Sustainable Airport Master Plan
Councilmember Pennington wanted to make sure the City was keeping its eye on the process. I was nice and did not make any snippy remarks, but we lost this game many years ago. The SAMP is like this meeting–on a scale about 100 times larger.
My only comment, was to recommend to the new members of the Transportation Committee to take a look at WSDOT’s new video of Stage 2 of SR-509. That is going to be the game changer.
Multi-Modal Transportation
Councilmember Pennington wanted to make sure we’re thinking multi-modal. I am too. The City’s request for a million dollar Ferry ‘pilot’ program makes me wonder exactly why we haven’t previously discussed how all those passengers would to get to and from the Marina. It’s like most things I’ve seen here: we’ll figure it out later.
Final thoughts
We’re going to be the only City that does not offer hybrid meetings. We will go back to not recording committee meetings, which will render them inaccessible to the vast majority of the public. This is a real setback for democracy. We had a meeting with ‘communication’ as the most important item, but we actually moved backwards when it comes to transparency.
Apart from Deputy Mayor Buxton’s insults, she spoke for the Council in not making it clear that “I have all the information I need.” I don’t even know what to say about that. The City Manager stated in his opening presentation that he does not consider the Council to have any job of oversight. And my colleagues agree. If the Council is not there to provide oversight, that explains why the Marina ran into trouble years ago–and also why you should not trust any current planning.
Although it was called a 2022 Strategy Session, the City Manager repeatedly answered questions with “we’ll bring that up in the Budget”, which means that anything we discussed was actually not going to be put into action until September–for 2023 spending.
I cannot think of anything that actually got ‘planned’ or agreed upon other than the City Manager bringing in that ‘web site consultant’.
I’m not speaking out of school here. I’ve written to both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor to say the same thing: the meeting was poorly run. 46 minutes of the show had nothing to do with the agenda.
Ten minutes for the City Manager’s intro civics lesson. The City Manager has a slot for his report. But once the discussion on strategy and planning had begun, he had no business going off the res like that.
There was a 30 minute presentation thrown into the agenda unannounced. Not. Cool. The presiding officer may re-arrange items during the meeting, but he cannot insert or delete them unannounced. Technically, it’s not illegal I guess because no ‘action was taken’. But it not in the spirit of Robert’s Rules of Order.
There were three more personal attacks, neither of which the Mayor or Deputy Mayor addressed. Civility, right? And another ten minutes of the public time wasted.
Tuesday: Police Advisory Committee. I hope to hear more about the implementation of our new towing ordinance.
Thursday: City Council Study Session (Agenda) This is our ‘Strategy’ meeting. If you recall, the Mayor instructed each of us to submit our top five priorities by March 18th.
My top five…
Here are three I submitted that required some detail (Digital Presence, various process reforms.)
I also sent a separate request with two other items, neither of which seemed to have been included in the final Agenda. Here they are:
Research a property tax lid lift dedicated solely for public safety. We actually had this for many years. It compensated for the loss of State revenue sharing in the 2000’s. The voters rejected it in 2012 and that’s a big reason why we have at least a dozen fewer police now than fifteen years ago.
Research the possibility of annexing the remaining bits of Kent that are west of Pacific Highway. As far as I know, the issue hasn’t been seriously discussed in over a decade. The commercial property owners are mad as hell about the crime and deeply concerned about the impacts of Sound Transit. And ditto for the residents. This may be the only time it will ever be possible in our lifetimes and in my opinion we should at least look at it seriously.
2The process…
So the process for preparing for this Strategy Sessions was supposed to go like this:
Staff would research our submissions to help organise the discussion. But looking at the Packet, it seems as though whoever read them simply decided to group idea fit into one of these twelve arbitrary and broad categories:
And then, seeing which of those seemed most popular, whittled our twelve contestants down to five finalists consisting of:
Well, that really nails things down for me. 😀
(The first thing that went through my head when I read this? A 2beauty pageant. And, yes, once again, I just didn’t make it past the swimsuit competition. (sigh)
Deja vu all over again…
If that sounds a bit snippy, but it felt quite a bit like our ARPA Spending fiasco last September. I asked to see my colleagues’ full submissions, but thus far I have not–and I do not understand why that might be. We all (including the public) should see what we submitted wrote because it’s what we value. I’ve spent a considerable amount of effort creating viable legislation. Hopefully the meeting will provide clear and specific direction to the Administration, but given last September, I am not altogether optimistic at the moment.
City Council Meetings begin at 5:00PM and continue to be conducted via Zoom. They can be viewed live on Comcast Channel 21/321 or on the City’s YouTube channel.
By mail: Attn: City Clerk Office, 21630 11th Avenue S., Des Moines WA 98198 no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting. Please provide us with your first and last name and the city in which you live.
By Zoom: If you wish to provide oral public comment please complete the council comment form no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting to receive your Zoom log-in and personal identification number. Please note that Zoom attendees do not interact with one another; they join in listen-only mode until it is their turn to address the Council.
Last Week
Monday: I completed the only required training for Councilmembers, which is basically to watch a couple of videos on OPMA and records retention every couple of years. But there was this other thing was National Incident Management Training System (NIMS.) That was boooooooooooooooooooooooooooring! 😀 But, I have to admit, extremely useful. It’s a standard set of procedures for handling any and all emergencies and, all kidding aside it really matters.
That said, I’ve been here now 2.3 years and I still have no idea what our ‘survival plan’ is. But it’s a real thing. We’re supposed to have a plan in place so that if, say, the Russkies blow up City Hall and I’m like the only elected left (O.M.G!) there’d be some protocol for me to pick up the 1red phone and swing boldly into action to keep the government working.
Tuesday: I met with former Arts Commission member and Brazilian guitarist/vocalist Eduardo Mendonça. He had intended to open a cultural center here, but his timing could not have been worse. As soon as he opened, COVID hit. But he is a fantastic entertainer and educator and exactly the kind of talent I know we can do great things with in Des Moines. To get a taste of what he does, check out BrasifFest, August 21st at Seattle Center.
Thursday: King County Flood Control District Advisory Committee, chaired by our own King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove. This was our first meeting of the year. It seems like one of those “somebody’s gotta do it” sort of deals, which I actually enjoy doing. The good news is that the County has recently expanded its grant programs to provide for the kind of ‘urban flooding’ we get here–even in Upper Woodmont where I know there are a lot of problems. Stay tuned.
You can learn about your area’s risk of flood here
Thursday: City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) There were several important items for residents that probably didn’t look like much at first glance. It was the longest meeting in my tenure because there was not one but two private sessions. I guess I can spill the beans (since CM Achziger did on one) that the State recently updated OPMA to allow for the description of any closed session to be placed in the minutes.
Previously, we’d have these private sessions, like the City Manager Performance Review, but technically you were only supposed to refer to it as “Review of an employee under RCW…” That cloak and dagger was just that silly. Anyhoo, the first private session had something to do with the Police Guild. Animals may or may not have been in there, I honestly can’t recall what with all the novocaine :D. The second was about the NeverEndingStory. No, not that one, the one involving the Legacy Foundation. Equally childish, IMHO.
Saturday:Kent Historical Museum Re-Opening I prefer Des Moines History, myself. But one needs to keep abreast of that competition. 😀 If you have a chance, check it out.
March 31, 2022 City Council Meeting Recap
We approved a change to our Municipal Code to allow police certainty to ticket and tow any vehicle left unattended for more than 72 hours. Many of you have already commented as to why cars just ‘sit’ for long periods.However, the new law goes into effect in thirty days and we provided for no public announcement. There are many reasons someone may leave their vehicle in one spot for more than three days. If you know someone in that situation, please be a good neighbour and inform them of the change!Of course our police will try their best do the right things. Still, I do not want people to one day find their vehicle gone simply because they did not hear about the change.
We held a Public Hearing (which no member of the public showed up for) and then approved, a ten (10) year contract with Recology with nineteen percent (19%) increase and no explanation as why it was a good deal, other than:
The absence of self-reported customer complaints.
A testimonial from our consultant that it was a great deal.
Some of my colleagues seemed to feel that, because our previous contract had been of ten years in duration, it proved that doing it again was also a good idea.
Background: At our February 3, 2022 meeting, we voted to extend the current contract through 2023 to afford staff the ability to negotiate the best possible long term contract. I voted no because what we were presented with was simply was not good enough. Because:
I wanted an opportunity for a better analysis of their customer service. That was the only public hearing. I will never vote to approve any long term contract like this without a customer survey because our contract with Recology requires them to provide us with a log of customer complaints. That’s fine, but it’s self-reporting. Once again, the City Manager basically called me a big fibber, but all I can say in reply is, “Dude, you’ve obviously never heard of The Mystery Shopper.”
I saw no data on our competitors.All I saw were comparisons with other cities. The Council should have at least seen the possibilities available from competing vendors if we had voted no. If the deal as presented was the best possible, that comparison should have looked even better.
There was no waste reduction component. Waste reduction is the biggest aspect of fighting climate change you haven’t heard about. Processing waste is one of the biggest contributors both to pollution and climate change. Reducing the creation of waste is the single most important aspect of waste management and it’s something real the City can do now.
There’s a lot more to say about this (later), but for now, it’s a long contract. And there are several aspects that can be renegotiated over that ten year lifespan to respond to changing conditions. There could have (and should have) been one paragraph in there that allowed for the City to add that bit in later. We gave away a chance to do something real about climate change until 2034. We’re screwing my grandchildren and that is starting to really piss me off.
There was also a Public Defender line item on the Consent Agenda which adds an estimated $1,250 a month to our costs for using Body Cameras. I initially voted against Body Cameras last year for reasons like this. We went ahead initially with $140,000 in the budget. But there was no policy language in place and no agreement from the Police Guild. The goal was to ‘go live’ January 1, 2022. We did a ‘beta-test’ run with two cameras and found some technical issues. Fine. So we hired a consultant, both to help stand up the program, but also to provide ongoing advice–so that cost will never go away either. Now it’s April, we still have no Guild agreement, the costs have basically doubled and we still don’t have the final policy language on data retention and usage (when the police can turn them on and off!) I’m all in on Body Cameras. They’re inevitable. All we had to do was a) buy two cameras ($8,000), do our beta-tests, sign an agreement with the Guild, gather all our costs and then give the Council something to vote for. And in the mean time, use the remaining $132,000 for something else we can use now.
The Mystery Shopper
Anyone who has worked in retail has heard of The Mystery Shopper. It’s simply an actor hired by the store owner who acts as a customer and takes note of how employees perform customer service.
Now what our contract with Recology seems to do is have them self-report their complaint logs to the City. That’s fine, so far as it goes.
But every corporation my company worked with (and we’re talking hundreds) also had a Mystery Shopper. The Mystery Shopper exists not because you don’t trust your employees, but because the customers themselves are never accurate sources of their own satisfaction.
You’re too damned nice!
Unless really provoked, most customers do not like to complain. We’re trained from an early age to be polite; it’s what keeps society from descending into Ragnarok. 😀 When most of us have a bad experience one of two things happen:
When I tell people my company used to do customer service programs they don’t believe me. I guess they imagine Fred Rogers would do that. First of all, I’m a very nice guy, goddamnit! 😀 But regardless, Fred is not who you want for Mystery Shopper. Fred wouldn’t complain. He’d just put on his tennis shoes and go somewhere else. Steve Jobs? Now that guy woulda made a great Mystery Shopper. 🙂
And it cuts the other way. No matter what objective evidence one provides, residents routinely swear that cars are flying down the road in front of their house at supersonic speeds.
I want to make sure you understand I am not picking on Recology. They may now provide stellar customer service. I talked to a CSR last week who told me they had quintupled their customer service team recently. Very cool!
But the fact is, for a very long time during the pandemic, I got dozens of complaints about their performance. Their on-line bill pay didn’t work for weeks. Their customer response time was often measured in days. I’m not angry about it. I’m not saying it’s a deal breaker. But it was no ‘allegation’ as the City Manager insinuated. It’s the truth.
How do I know? I was the Mystery Shopper. I talk to residents. But it’s a monopoly. It’s COVID. They bitch, but they don’t ‘follow the proper procedure’. That’s called human nature.
How do I know? I’m a member of the City Council. I talk to residents. But it’s a monopoly. It’s COVID. They bitch, but they don’t ‘follow the proper procedure’. That’s called human nature.
There is absolutely no way in heeeeeell a company can determine customer satisfaction based on either kudos or complaints. You have to work a little harder than that.
The fact is that corporate staff and vendors have to work together and try hard to get along in long term contracts like the one we have with Recology. That’s why you need a board to do periodic oversight. Part of the Council’s job is to ask the tough questions because staff and vendors have just as strong incentives to avoid confrontation as customers in any retail store. We all do it.
And I don’t like confrontation any more than anyone else. But it’s the Council’s job to represent your interests. Hopefully vendors like Recology understand that and can respond in the proper spirit of customer service and without defensiveness. Our City Manager definitely should.
2Thankfully, you’re probably too young to remember Bert Parks and all this sorta shite.
Tuesday: I’ll be talking with former Arts Commission member and Brazilian guitarist/vocalist Eduardo Mendonça. He’s the kind of act I hope we can bring to Des Moines as new venues open up.
Thursday: King County Flood Control District. This is our first meeting of the year. It seems like one of those “somebody’s gotta do it” sort of deals, which I actually enjoy doing.
Thursday: City Council Meeting (Agenda) This meeting features several important items for residents that probably don’t look like much at first glance.
We will be approving a change to our policy on Parked Cars to allow police certainty to ticket and tow. Many of you have already commented as to why cars just ‘sit’ for long periods. Please read and comment.
We will be holding a Public Hearing on a 10 year contract with Recology. I will vote NO on this. We recently voted to extend the contract through 2023 to afford staff the ability to negotiate a long term contract and I wanted an opportunity for true COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT on the service. This is the only public hearing. I will -never- vote to approve any long term contract like this without a customer survey. Please read and comment.
There is also a Public Defender Line Item, which adds an estimated $1,250 a month to our costs for using Body Cameras. I initially voted against Body Cameras for reasons like this. We went ahead all gung ho with $140,000, but no policy language in place and no accurate cost data. Now, the costs have basically DOUBLED and we still haven’t seen the final language as to costs, data retention and usage policy (when the police can turn them on and off!) I am fine with Body Cameras. I -do- strongly object to voting for anything where the costs and policies are incomplete.
To Comment: either in writing or via Zoom are in the Agenda.In writing, either by completing a council comment form or by mail; Attn: City Clerk Office, 21630 11th Avenue S., Des Moines WA 98198 no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting. Please provide us with your first and last name and the city in which you live.
By participation via Zoom. If you wish to provide oral public comment please complete the council comment form no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting to receive your Zoom log-in and personal identification number. Please note that Zoom attendees do not interact with one another; they join in listen-only mode until it is their turn to address the Council.
City Council meeting can also be viewed live on Comcast Channel 21/321 or on the City’s YouTube channel.
Monday: Destination Des Moines. This year’s calendar should be final tomorrow. Several new members and lots of new energy!
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting (Agenda). Highlights: SEA Stakeholder Advisory Round Table (StART) 2021 Annual Report
Wednesday:Highline Forum (Agenda) This was virtually hosted by Des Moines so there was a presentation on the Marina. And it was presented as a done deal, Ferry to begin this summer, Hotel to be built. All decisions made.
There is an upcoming discussion about outsourcing Animal Control Officer (ACO) services to Burien CARES. For people new to Des Moines, this may seem like not such a big deal. Frankly, the service has not been great the past couple of years for a couple of reasons I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say, we currently have no ACO and that is an untenable state of affairs. Burien CARES may be able to do it at a lower cost than having our own ACO, many cities outsource ACO services, so it’s worth a think.
But 30 years ago, the city had an epidemic of various aggressive dog problems and disputes between neighbours. Officer Jan Magnuson was hired as a commissioned officer of the law. She was one of those employees for whom it wasn’t just a job, it was more like a calling. The difference she made was dramatic. She was available basically 24/7/365 and the public came to expect that level of service. She retired a couple of years ago and since then I (and many residents) have noticed an uptick in the same problems that we thought were things of the past.
Below is a post I made on Nextdoor re. Animal Control. You can read the whole thread here.
It’s no secret that the City is in active negotiations with Burien CARES to outsource Animal Control Services. I would recommend to everyone that you write the City Council and the individual members of the Public Safety Committee who will approve the move to Burien CARES or decide to hire a new ACO. Tell them you want “Officer Magnuson 2.0.”
As goofy as it sounds, I would go so far as to voice it just like that because the Council, the PD, and the Administration will know exactly what you mean.
I read here that one could not find another ACO like Jan Magnuson. Having spoken at length w Ms. Magnuson and done some research of the field I can assure the public that is simply not the case. There are many, many ACOs out there that provide amazing levels of service.
Unfortunately, we seemed to have assumed that -anyone- doing the job would provide the same level of dedication. And also, the Chief, understandably, wants to focus as much money as possible on violent crime.
Our last ACO was not commissioned/sworn as was Officer Magnuson. That severely limited in his ability to provide enforcement–in exactly these kind of cases. Also, it limited his usefulness–apparently he could not be re-tasked for general law enforcement during off-periods or in an emergency.
That lack of credential added to the notion I have heard that a fully commissioned ACO is something of a ‘luxury’ that a small city like ours cannot afford.
So the question is not to have or not have an ACO, it would be to have an ACO that is commissioned and has the flexibility to be re-tasked for other needs. -Or- if the City decided to outsource, to insure that Burien CARES is able to provide the same level of law enforcement as we previously had with Jan Magnuson.
There is also the question of having our Code Enforcement Officer credentialed and given partial tasking for ACO so as to provide -additional- coverage. If there is no ACO and no Kory, the call gets taken by the patrol officers and that is not ideal.
I have a particular interest in this because we are about to expand the Animal section of our Municipal Code to accommodate more chickens and barnyard -whatever- and proper enforcement capacity will be essential.
I know the matter will come up for a recommendation soon in the Public Safey Committee which now consists of Vic Pennington, Traci Buxton and Harry S. Steinmetz. I would strongly recommend that the public write them because that is the first decision point. It is rare for the full Council to override a recommendation from Committee.
I think this matters enough that I also would ask the public to write the City Council citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov and ask us to bring it up at the 31 March meeting.
Your ask really is “We want Officer Magnuson 2.0”. A highly credentialed, commissioned officer, with high availability…
There is an upcoming discussion about outsourcing Animal Control Officer (ACO) services to Burien CARES. For people new to Des Moines, this may seem like not such a big deal. Frankly, the service has not been great the past couple of years for a couple of reasons I won’t go into here. Suffice it to say, we currently have no ACO and that is an untenable state of affairs. Burien CARES may be able to do it at a lower cost than having our own ACO, many cities outsource ACO services, so it’s worth a think.
But 30 years ago, the city had an epidemic of various aggressive dog problems and disputes between neighbours. Officer Jan Magnuson was hired as a commissioned officer of the law. She was one of those employees for whom it wasn’t just a job, it was more like a calling. The difference she made was dramatic. She was available basically 24/7/365 and the public came to expect that level of service. She retired a couple of years ago and since then I (and many residents) have noticed an uptick in the same problems that we thought were things of the past.
Below is a post I made on Nextdoor re. Animal Control. You can read the whole thread here.
It’s no secret that the City is in active negotiations with Burien CARES to outsource Animal Control Services. I would recommend to everyone that you write the City Council and the individual members of the Public Safety Committee who will approve the move to Burien CARES or decide to hire a new ACO. Tell them you want “Officer Magnuson 2.0.”
As goofy as it sounds, I would go so far as to voice it just like that because the Council, the PD, and the Administration will know exactly what you mean.
I read here that one could not find another ACO like Jan Magnuson. Having spoken at length w Ms. Magnuson and done some research of the field I can assure the public that is simply not the case. There are many, many ACOs out there that provide amazing levels of service.
Unfortunately, we seemed to have assumed that -anyone- doing the job would provide the same level of dedication. And also, the Chief, understandably, wants to focus as much money as possible on violent crime.
Our last ACO was not commissioned/sworn as was Officer Magnuson. That severely limited in his ability to provide enforcement–in exactly these kind of cases. Also, it limited his usefulness–apparently he could not be re-tasked for general law enforcement during off-periods or in an emergency.
That lack of credential added to the notion I have heard that a fully commissioned ACO is something of a ‘luxury’ that a small city like ours cannot afford.
So the question is not to have or not have an ACO, it would be to have an ACO that is commissioned and has the flexibility to be re-tasked for other needs. -Or- if the City decided to outsource, to insure that Burien CARES is able to provide the same level of law enforcement as we previously had with Jan Magnuson.
There is also the question of having our Code Enforcement Officer credentialed and given partial tasking for ACO so as to provide -additional- coverage. If there is no ACO and no Kory, the call gets taken by the patrol officers and that is not ideal.
I have a particular interest in this because we are about to expand the Animal section of our Municipal Code to accommodate more chickens and barnyard -whatever- and proper enforcement capacity will be essential.
I know the matter will come up for a recommendation soon in the Public Safey Committee which now consists of Vic Pennington, Traci Buxton and Harry S. Steinmetz. I would strongly recommend that the public write them because that is the first decision point. It is rare for the full Council to override a recommendation from Committee.
I think this matters enough that I also would ask the public to write the City Council citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov and ask us to bring it up at the 31 March meeting.
Your ask really is “We want Officer Magnuson 2.0”. A highly credentialed, commissioned officer, with high availability…
Monday:Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. The EPA has unveiled a new series of Community Grants that are available to airport communities. Several local organisations have expressed interest and I’m trying to meet with all of them to make sure we’re not overlapping or working at cross purposes. My goal is to have annual air quality monitoring reports of the entire flight path so we can track changes in air quality at the neighbourhood level. We did one set of measurements in 2017, but we need to do it every year. When SR-509 comes on line and air cargo (and truck) traffic expands we have to know what it is doing to us so we can (finally) obtain the relief we should have gotten twenty years ago.
Wednesday: Reach Out Des Moines. This was the last meeting hosted by CHI Franciscan’s Cynthia Maccotan-Ricks. She has been a force of positive energy and I will miss her!
Thursday: Did my annual CM Training. I honestly don’t know who does or does not do these things. I watched this thing and it drove me nuts! The whole emphasis now is on getting rid of records, guilt-free, as quickly as possible. Fightin’ words, I say.
Below is the list of CM Committee assignments for 2022.
The Process
In Des Moines, the Mayor is chosen by the Council at the first meeting of the year after the November General Election. Customarily, CMs send their preferences to the new Mayor and he decides committee assignments shortly thereafter. Here is my letter.
CMs do not interact with one another on this, and in fact, to do so would constitute an illegal serial meeting under OPMA. So I have no idea if some of these choices were based on my colleagues desires.
Committees are where most policy is actually decided. The City presents its ideas and the Council questions and signs off. Once that happens, it is very rare for the full Council to reject a Committee recommendation. Why should they? If you are on a Committee, you’re supposed to have studied the material in depth. You’re supposed to have developed expertise on the subject matter that the full Council does not have. For the full Council to reject an item approved by a Committee more than occasionally would mean that the Committee was not doing its job.Members of committees, both in the City and regionally, develop expertise over time. Every frickin’ thing that comes before the Council is complex. I mean everything. Why sidewalks cost $600k per block. Why Marina permits take three years. Why airplanes can’t have a curfew. Why you can build 35ft. in some places and 65ft. in others. It takes years to really learn any of this material. And then look at the regional groups where millions of dollars of grants are decided? The need to be effective is that much greater.
The Rundown
Mayor Mahoney is the big winner with nine assignments. He assigned himself as lead on basically anything to do with transportation, the airport, hotel, and business schmoozing. He is also now the official rep to WRIA-9 (the County agency in charge of watershed restoration–eg. beaches in Lower Woodmont, Saltwater State Park, creeks, and salmon recovery.)
Deputy Mayor Buxton remains on Economic Development. She has been the City’s lone regional rep. on various Sound Cities Association committees and has recently moved into leadership. All that makes sense. But she is also adding Public Safety which seems a bit less obvious.
Jeremy Nutting, who also has a full time job, remains on the Economic Development Committee and Municipal Facilities Committee. He previously served as chair on both and now adds Des Moines Art Commission Liaison, Marina Advisory Commitee Liaison and “What’s Up Des Moines?” (the business schmoozing) to that portfolio.
Vic Pennington and Harry Steinmetz have been made ‘official’ members of the Police Advisory Committee, which had been picked by the Chief in previous iterations.
Gene Achziger’s lone assignment is to the Transportation Committee.
There is no longer any Council presence on either the Human Services Advisory Committee or Senior Services.
JC Harris: I wrote a letter to the Mayor after he was chosen by the Council, congratulating him and requesting assignments, it may be coincidental but…
I was removed from the Transportation Committee.
I was assigned as the primary liaison to the Waterland Festival.
Mayor Mahoney assigned himself to WRIA-9.
Instead of being moved to Municipal Facilities, the Mayor created a new position ‘Marina Liaison’ to the Des Moines Marina Association.
Analysis
This is the biggest shake-up in committees in memory. Typically CMs stay on committees because one builds up an inventory of experience and staff appreciate having the continuity. It’s simply more useful to have had the background on any number of projects which are discussed every year, especially given the 45 minute time limit of each meeting. Coming in cold just doesn’t make sense to me without a good reason. (I asked to be moved to MFC for specific purposes–the City web site and the Marina, both of which I have expertise.)
Because the public sees so little of what the City Council does, it’s often hard to put into sound bites, why certain topics (like committees) matter so much. But a few words come to mind: Time, Skill and above all money.
Politics
It’s reasonable to see these assignments as political choices. The Mayor put the people most aligned with the current ‘vision’ into each slot–most of all himself. This puts the lie to the notion of a ‘non-partisan City Council.’ AndHis ‘team’ wanted their people in all the key slots and was willing to go so far as to delay those assignments until April to do so.
The Council has been highly partisan for a very long time, but not along traditional Democrat/Republican lines as that word is often used.
Mayor Mahoney has a full-time job, which he proudly states takes at least fifty (50) hours a week. And yet, the Mayor has assigned himself to nine positions, in addition to the built-in functions of the Mayor.
Similarly, CM Nutting has a full-time job, which also requires 50+ hours a week and yet he has been assigned to six positions.CM Pennington, though retired, is coming in cold to five positions, including three committee assignments. Although I appreciate his previous experience on the Council, that’s a heavy load for an appointment, since, again, he will have no continuity on any of those spots.
In Council-Manager Government, mayors typically assign themselves a lighter committee load than their colleagues for three reasons:
First, because they already have an extra job in preparing agendas and performing tasks like commitee assignments.
Second because they have several regular meetings with various regional organisations that do not appear on this list.
Finally, because a Council is a group body. The Mayor already has a great deal of authority so the custom is to spread the responsibilities equitably throughout the body, based on CM’s talents, interests and availability.
The only logic behind having people in so many positions or with so little time or experience is to say that these committees do not drive policy. It’s further proof that, the current majority is not merely a ‘rubber stamp’ for the Administration, it actively works to block oversight which might lead to better results.
It also further reduced the ability of the committees to provide oversight and policy direction because we will now be cramming twelve months of work into no more than nine 45 minute meetings. (Actually, it will probably be eight. Staff typically cancels one meeting during the summer. And that’s one more item on my process reform list.)
And once again, it dismisses the notion that the ‘problem’ was the last Mayor. That was unfair to him. In fact, his committee assignments were far more sensible and fair.
Money
But even if one buys the argument that our own Committees can function as rubber stamps, there are those regional organisations like SCA and AWC and PSRC, which all sound like so much blah, blah, blah to you.
The fact is, the all those are the source of millions of dollars of State and Federal funding. It is beyond irritating to watch other nearby cities obtain grants and projects that we will never see, simply because their Councils engage far more effectively.
I borrowed this from a public post made by SeaTac CM Peter Kwon from the following document. I have to take a few deep breaths every time I see already wealthy cities like SeaTac get even more grant funding because they’re Council has developed more influence on regional organisations like PSRC.
Suggested Reforms
Other cities with Council-Manager Government do not leave Committee assignments solely to the discretion of the Mayor. And this is another process reform I would make for the following reasons:
First because it is another ‘power’ that we just gave to the Mayor over time.
I think this is something that all CMs should be able to discuss and work out as a body.
We not only give the Mayor the power to decide ‘who’, we give him the power to decide when. He simply decided to not begin committee work until April. And my colleagues seemed to be OK with that. This reduces the ability of these committees to provide oversight and policy direction because they will now be cramming twelve months of work into no more than nine 45 minute meetings. (Actually, it will probably be eight. Staff typically cancels one meeting during the summer. And that’s one more item on my process reform list.)
These assignments are important to the functioning of the City and to our performance in regional settings (eg. Federal and State planning and grants.) I believe both all CMs and the public should have a transparent understanding as to how/why these assignments are made.
Below is the list of CM Committee assignments for 2022.
The Process
In Des Moines, the Mayor is chosen by the Council at the first meeting of the year after the November General Election. Customarily, CMs send their preferences to the new Mayor and he decides committee assignments shortly thereafter. Here is my letter.
CMs do not interact with one another on this, and in fact, to do so would constitute an illegal serial meeting under OPMA. So I have no idea if some of these choices were based on my colleagues desires.
Committees are where most policy is actually decided. The City presents its ideas and the Council questions and signs off. Once that happens, it is very rare for the full Council to reject a Committee recommendation. Why should they? If you are on a Committee, you’re supposed to have studied the material in depth. You’re supposed to have developed expertise on the subject matter that the full Council does not have. For the full Council to reject an item approved by a Committee more than occasionally would mean that the Committee was not doing its job.Members of committees, both in the City and regionally, develop expertise over time. Every frickin’ thing that comes before the Council is complex. I mean everything. Why sidewalks cost $600k per block. Why Marina permits take three years. Why airplanes can’t have a curfew. Why you can build 35ft. in some places and 65ft. in others. It takes years to really learn any of this material. And then look at the regional groups where millions of dollars of grants are decided? The need to be effective is that much greater.
The Rundown
Mayor Mahoney is the big winner with nine assignments. He assigned himself as lead on basically anything to do with transportation, the airport, hotel, and business schmoozing. He is also now the official rep to WRIA-9 (the County agency in charge of watershed restoration–eg. beaches in Lower Woodmont, Saltwater State Park, creeks, and salmon recovery.)
Deputy Mayor Buxton remains on Economic Development. She has been the City’s lone regional rep. on various Sound Cities Association committees and has recently moved into leadership. All that makes sense. But she is also adding Public Safety which seems a bit less obvious.
Jeremy Nutting, who also has a full time job, remains on the Economic Development Committee and Municipal Facilities Committee. He previously served as chair on both and now adds Des Moines Art Commission Liaison, Marina Advisory Commitee Liaison and “What’s Up Des Moines?” (the business schmoozing) to that portfolio.
Vic Pennington and Harry Steinmetz have been made ‘official’ members of the Police Advisory Committee, which had been picked by the Chief in previous iterations.
Gene Achziger’s lone assignment is to the Transportation Committee.
There is no longer any Council presence on either the Human Services Advisory Committee or Senior Services.
JC Harris: I wrote a letter to the Mayor after he was chosen by the Council, congratulating him and requesting assignments, it may be coincidental but…
I was removed from the Transportation Committee.
I was assigned as the primary liaison to the Waterland Festival.
Mayor Mahoney assigned himself to WRIA-9.
Instead of being moved to Municipal Facilities, the Mayor created a new position ‘Marina Liaison’ to the Des Moines Marina Association.
Analysis
This is the biggest shake-up in committees in memory. Typically CMs stay on committees because one builds up an inventory of experience and staff appreciate having the continuity. It’s simply more useful to have had the background on any number of projects which are discussed every year, especially given the 45 minute time limit of each meeting. Coming in cold just doesn’t make sense to me without a good reason. (I asked to be moved to MFC for specific purposes–the City web site and the Marina, both of which I have expertise.)
Because the public sees so little of what the City Council does, it’s often hard to put into sound bites, why certain topics (like committees) matter so much. But a few words come to mind: Time, Skill and above all money.
Politics
It’s reasonable to see these assignments as political choices. The Mayor put the people most aligned with the current ‘vision’ into each slot–most of all himself. This puts the lie to the notion of a ‘non-partisan City Council.’ AndHis ‘team’ wanted their people in all the key slots and was willing to go so far as to delay those assignments until April to do so.
The Council has been highly partisan for a very long time, but not along traditional Democrat/Republican lines as that word is often used.
Mayor Mahoney has a full-time job, which he proudly states takes at least fifty (50) hours a week. And yet, the Mayor has assigned himself to nine positions, in addition to the built-in functions of the Mayor.
Similarly, CM Nutting has a full-time job, which also requires 50+ hours a week and yet he has been assigned to six positions.CM Pennington, though retired, is coming in cold to five positions, including three committee assignments. Although I appreciate his previous experience on the Council, that’s a heavy load for an appointment, since, again, he will have no continuity on any of those spots.
In Council-Manager Government, mayors typically assign themselves a lighter committee load than their colleagues for three reasons:
First, because they already have an extra job in preparing agendas and performing tasks like commitee assignments.
Second because they have several regular meetings with various regional organisations that do not appear on this list.
Finally, because a Council is a group body. The Mayor already has a great deal of authority so the custom is to spread the responsibilities equitably throughout the body, based on CM’s talents, interests and availability.
The only logic behind having people in so many positions or with so little time or experience is to say that these committees do not drive policy. It’s further proof that, the current majority is not merely a ‘rubber stamp’ for the Administration, it actively works to block oversight which might lead to better results.
It also further reduced the ability of the committees to provide oversight and policy direction because we will now be cramming twelve months of work into no more than nine 45 minute meetings. (Actually, it will probably be eight. Staff typically cancels one meeting during the summer. And that’s one more item on my process reform list.)
And once again, it dismisses the notion that the ‘problem’ was the last Mayor. That was unfair to him. In fact, his committee assignments were far more sensible and fair.
Money
But even if one buys the argument that our own Committees can function as rubber stamps, there are those regional organisations like SCA and AWC and PSRC, which all sound like so much blah, blah, blah to you.
The fact is, the all those are the source of millions of dollars of State and Federal funding. It is beyond irritating to watch other nearby cities obtain grants and projects that we will never see, simply because their Councils engage far more effectively.
I borrowed this from a public post made by SeaTac CM Peter Kwon from the following document. I have to take a few deep breaths every time I see already wealthy cities like SeaTac get even more grant funding because they’re Council has developed more influence on regional organisations like PSRC.
Suggested Reforms
Other cities with Council-Manager Government do not leave Committee assignments solely to the discretion of the Mayor. And this is another process reform I would make for the following reasons:
First because it is another ‘power’ that we just gave to the Mayor over time.
I think this is something that all CMs should be able to discuss and work out as a body.
We not only give the Mayor the power to decide ‘who’, we give him the power to decide when. He simply decided to not begin committee work until April. And my colleagues seemed to be OK with that. This reduces the ability of these committees to provide oversight and policy direction because they will now be cramming twelve months of work into no more than nine 45 minute meetings. (Actually, it will probably be eight. Staff typically cancels one meeting during the summer. And that’s one more item on my process reform list.)
These assignments are important to the functioning of the City and to our performance in regional settings (eg. Federal and State planning and grants.) I believe both all CMs and the public should have a transparent understanding as to how/why these assignments are made.
Submitted to Councilmembers as “information only” March 18, 2022
Colleagues,
At the 7 April, 2022 Strategy meeting I will present the following items:
Pg 1. Councilmember Research Process
Pg 2. Committee/Meeting Modernisations
Pg. 4. Digital Presence
#1. Councilmember Research Process:
This is modeled on the SeaTac City Council Request Form (CRF.) The process is very simple.
Any CM may enter a request for research using a secure database form. The database, which is keyword searchable, is kept for all CMs use in perpetuity.
The City Manager responds within (x) of hours, either with an ETA or a cost estimate (in hours, specific staff)
If the answer requires less than one hour of staff time it must be fulfilled within 5 days.
If the answer is deemed to require more than one hour of total staff time, the information is remanded to the relevant committee for discussion, vote. If the vote is yes, the task commences.
As a follow-up, the CM may also request a staff briefing on the topic, which becomes part of the CRF.
#2. Committee/Meeting modernisations:
Our meeting and committees should be refreshed in two ways:
To provide more transparency and ease of use for CMs.
There are also several structural changes that are needed to help oversee and establish policy in several key areas.
A. Process Improvements
Adopt Hybrid Conferencing both for full and committee meetings.
All Committees should accommodate public comment
All committees should be generating minutes, membership lists and routinely posting ongoing public work product.
All CMs should be able to attend all meetings and be allowed an opportunity to ask questions re. the operation.
CMs should be able to add presentation materials to the Packet if they are part of their comments and are received within 24 hours of the Agenda being published.
All Meeting Agendas should be locked in when posted and should contain all presentation materials, with one exception: Any materials submitted by the public as part of their comment will be added ex post facto
B. Structural Changes
Along with everything else, the City downsized its committee structure significantly when it was in financial crisis. We are now a larger organisation, with much bigger aspirations. We also face timely challenges such as the SAMP. All these require more policy direction and oversight than can be accommodated with the current committee system. I would like to explore the following changes to committee structure:
The Environment Committee mission should be expanded to include Sea-Tac Airport. All activity relevant to the SAMP process should be channeled through there with monthly reports.
Planning Commission: The planning commission which was abandoned in 2013 for cost savings. Despite the construction boom and ongoing State changes to zoning laws, we are the only nearby City that has no planning commission, and thus no public input on the process. Currently the EDC is the de facto planning commission. But land use and construction are not the same thing as economic development, which should also focus on business formation and development. Restoring this functionality would give the public more input on comprehensive planning and allow the EDC time to focus on revenue generation un-related to building.
Finance/Admin Committee: I’d like to explore a committee that can oversee the changes to the city web site and administrative processes.
Marina Advisory Committee: I’d like to establish an Advisory Committee
Cultural Advisory Committee: We are now 45% BIPOC and yet our City has no outreach or programming to make government reflect our community. This group would be tasked with finding ways to invite more diverse cultures into City life.
#3. Digital Presence
We should begin implementing a robust and ongoing digital presence. I am not using the term ‘web site’, and you should flush that from your minds, please. I am proposing a completely new system of communication and outreach, which would also include the more traditional municipal functions commonly referred to as ‘the City web site’.
In addition to those traditional municipal functions, our efforts should focus on schools, businesses, faith, cultural and senior communities which rarely interact with the wider community. The City is the only way to connect all of Des Moines. We can develop a system to make them aware of each other’s activities and extend our reach out to Puget Sound–particularly giving some marketing assists to retail businesses.
Having a great digital presence will not only provide great value for the community, it will send a strong signal to the rest of the world that Des Moines is a place that is forward looking and stands out from the crowd.
We can begin here: at our 16 September, 2021 ARPA Stimulus Spending Meeting, we already allocated money to develop a Marina Redevelopment Town Hall. The project can provide a kick off to show the community that we are serious about having the best Digital Presence in South Puget Sound.Our primary goals must be:
Mobile First. Every person in DM, from the eight year old Somali child to senior citizen at Wesley, even homeless people, have a cell phone. All our communication must lead with SMS because that is the way, and in fact the only way to reach everyone.
Usability: Despite the fact that everyone has a digital device, many of our residents struggle with them. We also have a high degree of digital illiteracy that many are embarrassed to discuss. We must make our systems easy to use, especially for seniors and for people who’s first language is not English.
Search: This is a two-way street
We must make information, programs, tasks, easy to find
But we must also make it easy for the rest of the world to find Des Moines has a fantastic story to tell. And our City should be telling it! Currently, the City has at least ten domains that do not connect. We should be working on an integrated communications/marketing approach whereby anyone searching anything ‘Des Moines’ see everything we have to offer and first on Google.
Portal: The City should be the portal and the nexus for the entire community.
When any group has something of interest, the City can be that town crier.
We can expose far more public information, including dashboards for public safety, finance, public works projects. This improves transparency, but also improves resident satisfaction. (Just seeing all the projects the City is working on at any given time never fails to impress most people.)
Notification as incentive: OTS tools exist right now which almost all residents will want. And in return, these will allow the City to reach residents when it matters:
Emergency Alert
SMS bill pay, licensing and permit reminders
Fixit reporting
Personalised calendars, meeting and events alerts
Public safety reporting
Available services
Storyteller: Des Moines has a fantastic story to tell. And our City should be telling it! We need to develop a coherent communications strategy that tells people and businesses about our City. Our new system can provide the framework for consistent messaging.
Automation: The ‘boring’ part. Because we have so many disparate systems and processes, there are too many inconsistencies. We can integrate any number of systems so that information is entered once and syndicated everywhere it needs to be, consistently and error-free.
Modern Des Moines begins in 1996, with the last annexation: Redondo/Woodmont.
City Councils 1996-2022The members of the 19th-32nd City Councils of Des Moines, Washington.
There are seven positions with a four year term. All positions are at large.
Elections are staggered every two years between: Positions #1,#3,#5,#7 and Positions #,2,#4,#6
Bob Sheckler Dave Kaplan Dan Caldwell Jeanette Burrage Matt Pina Melissa Musser Carmen Scott
Bob Sheckler
Pro-Tem Dave Kaplan
2013
---Dan Caldwell resigns due to ill health.
---Jeremy appointed w 8 applicants
---Carmen Scott retires
---Vic Pennington elected
5329
15890
33.5
28
2014
Dave Kaplan Matt Pina Vic Pennington
Bob Sheckler Jeanette Burrage Melissa Musser Jeremy Nutting
Dave Kaplan
Matt Pina
2015
---Jeanette Burrage resigns
---Arts Commission member Luisa Bangs appointed w 2 applicants and re-elected same year
---Rob Back wins on 4th try running unopposed
5867
16174
36.2
29
2016
Dave Kaplan Matt Pina Rob Back Bob Sheckler Melissa Musser Jeremy Nutting Vic Pennington
There are three ways to provide Public Comment:
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