Some bits of business…

Call To Action: Port Packages!

The Governor’s proposed budget cuts the $1 million in funding that was secured last for fixing failed port packages, which were meant to insulate homes from airport noise but have deteriorated over time. Please mail key these legislators and let them know how important this funding is for our communities.

Call To Action: Save State Funding for Port Package Updates! – Sea-Tac Noise.Info

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report March 14, 2025

The highlight is that the City is now offering an e-mail sign up for her City Manager Reports. Hopefully, this is only the first step towards a complete suite of better recip… er… on-line services. 😀

This Week

Wednesday: Regional Transit Committee. Essentially, this group advises the County Council on bus services.

Saturday 9:00AM – 3:00PM: Recycling Event (Marina)

Unlike other events, the list is specific so check carefully. Batteries. Electronics. Wood. Mattresses. Appliances. Scrap metal. ⁴Nuclear waste.

Last Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda) This meeting included a summary of the Port’s various grant programs — including the FAA-funded sound insulation plan for the year. Spoiler alert: once again, nada for us.

Wednesday: Emergency Management Advisory Committee The group had a very interesting after-action report concerning last November’s ¹bomb cyclone. What we experienced as mostly some fallen trees and a day of power outages was a true regional emergency up on the north and east side of the County. Several cities activated their Emergency Operations Center. What I found fascinating is that when they opened their warming centers, they laid out tables with rows of power outlets to let people charge their phone. Which they could easily do because proper emergency centers have tons of backup power. This was brilliant! A zero-dollar way to provide a real community benefit. When we have our next genuine emergency, the one thing everyone will need is a way to keep their cell phone charged.

Thursday: Transportation Committee – 13 Mar 2025 – Agenda

Highlight: Review of capital project progress, including the Memorial Flag Triangle and 24th Ave. projects. (Why the Memorial Flag Triangle is a ‘transportation’ project? ‘Vanity Project Politics’ as one of my colleagues put it. See below. This was a much deeper dive on both projects than the full Council got so watch this meeting.

Thursday: Environment Committee – 13 Mar 2025 – Agenda We did a review of our NPDES permit, which included some recent enhancements worth talking about. But first, a grouse and a compliment.

• Last month, Councilmember Mahoney and I were the lone votes against ending regular meetings of our standing committees. I can’t speak for him, but for me both these two meetings demonstrated why it was premature. Each of these allowed for much deeper dives than any ‘committee of the whole’ will do — especially with our stupid ‘meetings must end by 9pm or we’ll all die!’ rule. One only develops fluency on complex issues by visiting with routinely.
• The compliment is for our surface water team. When I first moved here, the engineers I got to know (sorry) seemed to view environmental regulations as ‘a pain in the butt’. That’s a quote, btw. At the time, a common view was that surface water management was literally that – managing the flow of water to maintain the built environment. Anything ‘environment’ was something of an add-on. The current team has never given me that impression – in fact, having consistently demonstrated a desire to go above and beyond in improving environmental processes. Or, they’re much better actors than the civil engineers I used to run into. Either way, I’m sold! 😀

The NPDES process now includes trees and wetland restoration as integral components. I’m over-simplifying here. The City has a Federal permit to manage all the waters in the City. And that permit requires us to demonstrate various ways we’re improving that environment. But now, Now, NOW! We can get credit not only for ‘water’ but also the inter-connected tree canopy and surrounding land as one holistic thing! You have no idea how happy this makes me. I’ve heard over and over from planners that one needs to consider the entire system.

One reason I watch the airport is that (literally) everything environmental is downstream of the plateau on which it sits (prox. 400 ft above us.) For example, the City is just beginning to study and test PFAS chemicals now. As users of tens of thousands of gallons of the stuff in firefighting operations, the Port of Seattle started freaking out about it (and shutting down their water wells) a decade ago.

I have no idea how an airport committee (see below) can work this kind of issue better than our own engineers in tandem with a properly functioning environment committee.

Saturday: 33rd Legislative District Town Hall, Highline College. The crowd was almost entirely supporters of our representatives so there was none of the ‘heat’ you might have expected on issues like ‘homelessness’ which has garnered so much local media attention. Still, worth watching for answers from all three.

Council Meeting Recap

Once again, we hit the three hour limit, and once again, due to poor time management. And once again, the presentations the Council saw were not included in the packet. These ‘details’ happen so often it’s no accident. Sorry. Not sorry. But if there is a ‘theme’ it was Councilmember Mahoney’s night. Regular Meeting – 13 Mar 2025 – Updated Agenda

Public Comment

Des Moines Yacht Club announced the upcoming Opening Day. More soon.

Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association (DMMDPA.org) showed up in support of the Memorial Flag Triangle. Check their web site to learn more about their great work in support of World War I Veterans.

There were several Redondo divers who showed up to support the Sixgill Shark thing below.

City Manager

K4C

We voted to join the King County-Cities Climate  Collaboration (K4C), a County group that helps identify projects to help with climate change (duh, right? 😀 )  Joining was something I first proposed back in 2020 so I had no comment. The annual cost was always ¹negligible. The opposition was “we can attend meetings for free.” And I was like “Yes, but we can’t actually get in on any of the programs for free.” 😀 It was code for “we don’t care about that climate-changey jazz.” It’s a good thing, and yes I know I sound like a broken record, but being five years behind schedule gets old. (Conversely, that’s also why I gush so hard when our surface water team gets ahead of the curve on environmental issues. 🙂 )

Sixgill Capital of the world

Councilmember Mahoney has championed making Des Moines the Sixgill Shark Capital of the World. Apparently, these sharks are a highly prized sight for divers in Redondo.

There was the notion of some sort of commemorative sign – akin to ‘Waterland Way’. And some sort of event on July 6. And then something to do with helping some other (perhaps private group?) create some ‘swag’ (t-shirts, mugs, etc.) I found it all pretty vague. And puzzling… because those sharks are off-shore of Redondo – nowhere near Sixth Ave. But he insisted. ‘Sixth Avenue’ it must be – and the rest of the gang went along with it.

March 13 Attachments Sixgill Shark

I’ve said it before, and it bears repeating: we don’t compromise. Rather than simply proposing the idea, then having the City bring back a specific proposal, he insisted that it had to move forward tonight. Forget that.

This all sounds harmless, but it was 40 minutes of the Council’s time. And it follows a long string of promotional ideas like Cape Cod In Des Moines, Men In Black, Burning Boats, Premiere Waterfront Destination, FIFA, etc. that also add up to fun for a small number of people but never seem to create that ‘destination’ magic. But perhaps one reason it does not happen is because we constantly indulge in this kind of ad hoc jazz rather than developing a for realz marketing plan.

Passed 6-1.

Consent

I pulled an item asking for an additional $130k contingency (ie. ‘just in case’ money) for the Redondo Restroom. Basically everything to do with the 2023 bond money is going over budget — except the one project I support borrowing money to fund (dock replacement).

I also want to briefly note an item that, unlike that bond stuff, and with my complete agreement, floated under the radar – as consent items should. However, I do have to acknowledge that it could come off as kinda sneaky – being added to the agenda on Tuesday. There is always a fine line between ‘transparency’ and not having people go absolutely mental whenever anyone mentions the word ‘homelessness’. But this is that line for me.…

The Council voted to fund a $75,000 cleanup of a homeless camp behind Parkside School. If you live in the area, you know it’s already been cleared. The money is for environmental remediation. $75,000 seems like a lot, but in fact, is nothing as these things go. The (cough) ‘low’ cost is the signal that it is not some crisis. It just costs a lot of money whenever you have to hire cleanup specialists. As to the former ‘residents’, they are human beings, and in my opinion nobody should consider living in a wetland to be their best option. I will be asking for more detail soon and I’ll report back — but only if there is actually something worth reporting beyond this. We provide people with services. We provide the environmental cleanup. Thanks to the City for doing all that. Moving on. 🙂

Items/Votes

Flag Triangle

Pro tip: Always. Bring. Piccies. 😀 I’m on my third City Manager now and for whatever reason this is still like pulling teeth. But despite the fact that this has been going on for years, I don’t think any of us (including the public) has a clear understanding of how this thing will look.

Like the Sixgill thing, this began as a personal project for Councilmember Mahoney, back when he was mayor. But in this case, it was originally funded with the same bond money as the docks and marina steps. Terrible. We have absolutely no business borrowing money (with interest) for a public park when there are grant funds to be had. (Ironically, Councilmember Achziger seemed to have objections to using park grant funding. 😀 )

The original design was crazy expensive and it should never have been trotted out as a ‘park’ or talked about as a place for people to picnic. Anyhoo, the City did not provide a presentation, so here’s a reminder from the January Municipal Facilities meeting, where the cost was $424k and got no bids.

It’s since been scaled back several times, but it’s still gonna be crazy expensive because every not-a-park project now costs a fortune. And the flag pole needs replacing. But here’s the winning bid of $453k. I guess. 😀

Despite the improvements, I remain skeptical because there are also three proposed parking spaces (not in the piccies, grrrr….) I did not express it well at the meeting, but in my opinion, there should never be parking anywhere near that triangle. I don’t want to encourage parking or congregating anywhere near such a traffic-intensive spot. It should be a place for special events and that’s about it.

But this constant pressure to “get ‘er done” by Memorial Day only adds to the heartburn. After all, the traditional celebration of World War I is not until November. Perhaps because Mr. Mahoney’s seat is up for election this year. Who can say? 😀

I also wanna throw in another grouse about ‘committees’ and ‘compromise’. With a properly functioning committee,  and two tablespoons of compromise, this woulda been sewed up a long time ago and before it got to the dais. The absence of piccies, the lack of clarity, the failure to compromise, has turned what shoulda been a simple, elegant monument to veterans into an unnecessary, years long kerfuffle – including this meeting. No one will remember the cost overruns or the animus; they’ll just enjoy the monument. And that’s why we’ll keep doing projects in this verkachte manner over and over. All’s well that ends well!

Airport Committee Structure

Last October, Councilmember Mahoney asked the Council to support resuscitating our airport committee. Despite rumours to the contrary I was not a fan because airport issues – including the Sustainable Airport Master Plan are not something any citizen group can tackle effectively. Not to mention that the Federal portion of the permit is likely to be approved even before the committee meets. Oops.

This was our fourth meeting on the topic and my colleagues have narrowed it down to five residents, or business owners, who may or may not know anything about the airport, or may or may not have interest in the topic, so long as they are not a member of a group, but definitely not a member of our City Council. Oh, and it may be temporary. Or permanent. Although it will definitely include the one remaining StART member. Because everyone else quits.

You can’t make this stuff up.

This is is yet another attempt to appear like we’re doing something useful to respond to the negative impacts of the airport – while actively making things worse for our residents. It is contemptible greenwashing. My colleagues and our staff know about as much about airports as I do about sixgill sharks.

One thing I can tell you: like warehouse taxes, dry stack, and it’s money we left on the table years ago in favour of rubbish ideas that have left us poorer in health and economics than 20 years ago.

If you care about the airport: Sea-Tac Noise.Info

24th Avenue Budget

Having run out the clock, rather than extend the meeting properly, we voted in 12 minutes to spend $1.2M extra to get the 24th Avenue project moving by October. 40 minutes to market a fish. 12 minutes for a $1.2M cost overrun. That money will come from next year’s road budget. Hopefully, we will recoup that money from Puget Sound Energy, who we appear to blame for everything.

March 13 Attachments 24th Ave

This lack of regard makes me even more nervous about dumping standing committees. I encourage you to watch the Transportation Committee meeting above for a (slightly) deeper dive.

But the overriding sentiment seemed to be, “Hey we have to spend it, so why talk? We can ‘finger point’ later.” Rubbish. As with the airport, or flag triangles, if you never look back you will keep making the same mistakes. Over. And over.

And ‘blame it on PSE’ is simply incorrect. The project began in 2020 – when I was on the Transportation Committee. There have been many issues along the way. Here’s just one. Over my strong objection, Councilmember Mahoney rallied support to override our ³own ordinance, which requires us to underground utilities like that. It was a cost saving measure – instead choosing to give over that money to – wait for it – underground the utilities behind the Theatre. (now known as Backstage Alley). Long time readers will remember that the completely bogus rationale was that by so doing it would turn the alley into an entertainment spot, something like Post Alley in Seattle. Does this look it’s going to become Post Alley any time soon? Whenever anyone tries to tell you how un-developer-friendly we are here? Point them to Backstage Alley. We should have simply done what our own ordinance specifies – underground those utilities and provide the benefit our children.

I only voted ‘yes’ on this as a measure of faith in our new Director of Public Works. If this were twelve months ago, I woulda voted Hell No.

But this, “It happened before my time” business has already started to get old.

Passed 7-0.

¹You know it’s a significant weather event because it has its own Wikipedia page.

²Even a micro-park like Cecil Powell will run close to $1M these days. And that’s without ‘tariffs’ on steel and lumber.

³By ordinance, uilities are supposed to be undergrounded. It basically takes two votes of the City Council to override that. But as with so many ordinances meant to provide some form of consistent ‘discipline’, if you look at our track record, we always seem to find ways around it. In this case? It was exactly what it looks like: valuing a commercial alley more than school children.

⁴Just wanted to make sure you were still awake. 🙂

Some bits of business…

Call To Action: Port Packages!

The Governor’s proposed budget cuts the $1 million in funding that was secured last for fixing failed port packages, which were meant to insulate homes from airport noise but have deteriorated over time. Please mail key these legislators and let them know how important this funding is for our communities.

Call To Action: Save State Funding for Port Package Updates! – Sea-Tac Noise.Info

ADUs

Good article in Seattle Times on Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). We’re redoing our zoning and building codes this year so if you’re interested, please let me know how we can help you make yours come true.

City Currents

There’s a new Spring 2025 City Currents Magazine. I collect the PDFs, which are easier for me to read, but also fun to look back at to see where the City has been.

City Currents Magazines

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report February 28, 2025

No recipe, but a reminder of the most excellent…

Indoor Tot Time!

This Week

Monday

SAO Audit Exit Conference. The State reports the results of its 2023 audit of our books.

Thursday

Finance Committee (Cancelled)

Wasn’t my idea. But you know I got yer back on some numbers, anyhoo. 🙂 February Sales Tax Report

I generally don’t follow month to month stuff like this, but if you haven’t seen it before, this is a good thing to browse to get a sense of the money we bring in from various businesses.

Public Safety Committee

Public Safety_Emergency Management Committee – 06 Mar 2025 – Agenda – Pdf No detail. But several items you should check out…

• Substation Closure
• BWC Upgrades And Grant
• 2023 Vs. 2024 Crime Statistics
• South King Fire 2024 Statistics

Study Session

Study Session – 06 Mar 2025 – Agenda – Pdf These are some biggee items and I have some (cough) concerns. 😀

Discussion on Developing a Strategic Plan. Examples from Other Cities

• • Shoreline Vision 2029
  • Bothell Road Map 2017-2018
  • Cedar Park City Council Strategic Goals 2024-2026 Performance Dashboard
  • Renton Business Plan 2024-2029 Goals
  • Issaquah Strategic Plan 2024 Update & Performance Dashboard
  • Richland Strategic Plan & Dashboard 2024-2026
  • Sugar Land, TX Strategic Action Plan 2025-2027

Discussion on City Council Committees and Appointive Committees.

This is really two discussions that should be separate.

• • The end of Standing Council Committees in favour of a more ‘Burien’ style approach. Spoiler alert: I had no idea this was being proposed.
  • Revisions to all the appointive (resident) committees

The packet lays out some valid problems with Current Council Committees: There is a ton of redundancy for both the Council and staff.

Recommended Changes to Council Committees:

• Modify the monthly Study Session (first Thursday) to begin at 5:00 PM. The first hour would act as a “Council of the Whole” where all Councilmembers receive staff reports on items typically handled by committees.
• Standing Council Committees would only meet when an issue requires more detailed discussion.

Appointive Committees

The City currently has seven citizen advisory committees, with plans to add two more (Airport Committee and Planning Commission). Again, there are valid problems: Infrequent meetings. Lack of agenda items.  Unclear roles. Underutilization. Heavy staff workload. All true.

Recommended Changes:

• No changes to: Citizens Advisory Council, Civil Service Commission, Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, Police Advisory Committee
• Merge the Arts Commission, Human Services Advisory Board, and Senior Services Advisory Board into a new Community Enrichment Board. Existing members with unexpired terms would be offered positions on the new board.

Executive Session: Performance of a Public Employee RCW 42.30.110(1)(G) –30 Minutes

This is the second of a two-parter review of Ms. Caffrey’s first three months. Last week was 45 minutes of – I have no idea. But this one will be with Ms. Caffrey.

Last Week

Wednesday: StART (Agenda). The highlight was a report on the Port’s SIRRPP survey of Port Packages. As expected, it was a sham, claiming that none of the homes they tested seem to merit an update. Of course, they hand-picked 30 out of 9,400 for testing. Follow Sea-Tac Noise.Info (STNI) for coverage – and contact STNI, if you have bad sound insulation.

Thursday: Municipal Facilities Committee (cancelled)

Thursday: Economic Development – 27 Feb 2025 – Agenda

Economic Development Committee Meeting 02/27/2025

Highlights:

• Charm Factor. This is a beautify the downtown idea – it specifically mentions using decorative screens to cover ‘the Pit’ and the Des Moines Yacht Club boat storage on MVD and getting it done in time for FIFA 2026. Councilmember Nutting raised some concerns. In fact, he really went to town, so I urge you to watch just for that. 😀 We disagree on those reasons, but I too am concerned. His concerns seemed to be more about ‘money’. Fair point. Mine are more about strategy. We have this nasty tendency to promote trial ideas, which either waste a lot of money or turn into permanent features – whether they make sense or not. We use the plucky small town volunteerism as a substitute for doing something long term. Frankly, it’s the reason a trial project like the Quarterdeck can end up becoming the centrepiece of the entire waterfront. I am suspicious of anything ‘Let’s try something!’ because once it gets in? You ain’t never gettin’ rid of it.
• Woodmont Development. The City has received interest from a developer on the area that (in ancient times) was called ‘Rosie’s Diner’, but was last referred to as ‘Oh no, the drug rehab clinic!’. A primary reason I want the planning commission re-instated was to prevent that sort of blindsiding from recurring. In this case, I think the City will be able to daylight the developer’s proposal in a way the public will find acceptable, but it still puts the onus on one public hearing to obtain public engagement.
• Sound Code?: This topic was moved onto the next meeting. Call me what you will, but this indicated where the committee’s priorities are.

City Council Meeting Recap

Shortest. Meeting. Ever. 🙂 No public comment. No items of business beyond a short consent agenda. I picked the right meeting to telephone in sick. 🙂

Parenthetically, my first phone-in meeting was not a great experience, tech-wise. Ironically, I was able to Zoom in for the private Executive Session and that went great. Lesson learned? Let’s move City Council into the North Conference Room where all the plumbing works! 😀

City Council Regular Meeting – 27 Feb 2025 – Agenda Highlights:

City Manager presentation on Flag Triangle

• Apparently, we got no bites from the three expected bidders. But there is still time. Our DPW says he’s still aiming for a Memorial Day (May 26) completion and that the all-in cost will be $376k – a lot less than previously mentioned.  I will not hold it against anyone if we don’t make that date and I’m still going with the previous estimate of $472k because:
  • I love that can-do spirit (seriously)
  • It’s local government. 🙂

Consent Agenda

There was an item to approve a grant to put a solar roof on the Senio… er… ‘Activity Center’. Woo hoo! If I had been IRL I would’ve put forward an item to see if we can’t redo the awning while we’re at it. The place was never ‘just’ the Senior Center. It’s the Des Moines Activity Center, not in name, but in terms of mission. It’s time to have that consistent brand throughout the City.

Executive Session

ES is supposed to be subject to the cone of silence. But again, again, the law requires us to mention the legal purpose. And whenever we do a ‘review of a public employee’ that means ‘City Manager’.

The following Executive Session was twice as long and it was the first of two evaluations of our new City Manager.

Some bills passing through Olympia

As I wrote last week, this is lawmakin’ season in Olympia and there were/are a ton of bills that will affect us. Most of the goofy ones (redesigning the State flag) die the quick deaths they deserve, but many do not. And in the ones that affect us there is a recurring theme, which I keep bringing up: overspending. When the State was ‘flush’ (ie. last year?) it overspends. Then this year it’s cut, Cut, CUT! Sound familiar? 😀 What I object to is that it is cities which always seem to take it in the neck. And, ironically, it’s often the most ‘progressive’ lawmakers that are the worst in that regard.  We’re given all kinds of mandates (most of which are great ideas, btw) but no money to pay for them. Or we’re offered the fabulous opportunity of taxing our residents without a vote in various ways. What we’re almost never offered is, you know, State money.

• HB1334 Almost every city, including Des Moines, officially supports giving City Councils the ability to raise property taxes up to 3% without a public vote. But don’t hate the playa, hate the game. Over time the State and County have reduced the amount of money they share with cities like Des Moines and keep more of it for their own needs and especially education. All worthy endeavours. However, as with housing, one could also see a system which kicks back more of existing State and County money to cities like Des Moines. But since that will never happen, cities like Des Moines are left to try anything they can to raise taxes — including this. Desperate times, and so on… Speaking as one person, I do not support these bills. I think most voters find anything like this (including the 2023 bonds) a bit sneaky. People like to have a vote. They like to be sold.
• SB5757 would take 50% of the speed camera revenue back to the State. Ouch. If this does not thrill you, click that link and comment. 🙂 Ironically, it was proposed by a Spokane representative whose city benefits from them. His objection – and he has support, is this: It’s a fugazi. All these automated speed enforcement cameras are supposed to be about ‘safety’ but they’re really about cash. He’s not wrong, of course. Every agency testifying against spoke about the hole it would cut in local budgets. No one spoke about how it would devastate public safety. We’ve had the Redondo cams for a year and frankly, if we knew this might be a possibility, I’m not sure we would have bent over backwards to installe them. It is about the money.
• SB7575 is one of two bills that would enable the City to increase our local sales tax .1 cent without a vote specifically for the purpose of increasing public safety. It also allows the County to add a similar tax. Normally, I would not be thrilled for the same reasons I always give: I try to avoid tax increases without giving voters a choice. But this one has a twist. If the law passes and we change our ordinance before the County does? They have to credit us back the amount with no out of pocket to you, the voter. 🙂
• HB1923 the Mosquito Fleet bill, ie. Passenger Ferries. In a win-win, the bill passed out of committee. But it was amended to remove the portion I objected to – ie. the possibility of dinky cities (like Des Moines) of creating their own ferry district. One of the speakers said, quite sensibly, he was getting a bit tired of offering cities more ways to tax themselves. Agreed! The thing I keep trying to say is this: Everyone wants a ferry. We never had to ‘sell’ anything. Let the people who actually need it, and can afford it, pay for it. When we’re ready, our great location will bring the ferry world to us.

The next ‘key date’ on all this is around March 12th when the Governor weighs in with his response to all these items. WA is somewhat unique in that we give the Guvernator a line-item veto. That power kinda acts as a check on legislation. Who wants to put in all the work to pass a bill the Governor can de-fang with a stroke of a pen?

Some bits of business…

Traffic:

As part of the SR-509…

I-5 lane closure information

• Monday, Feb. 24 through the morning of Friday, Feb. 28: 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. – Up to three lanes of northbound I-5 will close nightly between SR 516 (Exit 149) and South 200th Street/Military Road South (Exit 151).
• Wednesday, Feb. 26 through the morning of Friday, Feb. 28: 11:59 p.m. to 6 a.m. – Up to four lanes of southbound I-5 will close nightly between South 200th Street/Military Road South (Exit 151) and SR 516 (Exit 149).

I-5 ramp closure information

• Monday, Feb. 24 through the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 26: 9:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. – The northbound I-5 to SR 516 off-ramp will close nightly. A signed detour will be in place.

SR 516 lane closure information

• Monday, Feb. 24 through the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 26: 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. – One lane of westbound SR 516 will close nightly between SR 99 and Military Road South.
• Wednesday, Feb. 26 through the morning of Friday, Feb. 28: 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. – One lane of eastbound SR 516 will close nightly between Military Road South and SR 99.

South Link Metro Survey

As Link light rail expands farther south with three new stations in Kent Des Moines, Star Lake and Downtown Federal Way, the South Link Connections project aims to improve transportation options for communities in South King County. Please take this Survey!

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report February 21, 2025

When will the recipes stop? 😀 Hopefully after I run out of new piccies to take of this place. OK, it’s Slow Cooker Beef, so what’s not to love. 🙂

Parks and Recreation is hiring referees for the upcoming Youth Soccer
Season. These positions would start in April through Mid-June in evenings and weekends. https://desmoineswa.gov

The calendar of events is also good. Although it’s a band-aid.

This Week

Wednesday: StART (Agenda). The Port has already completed its SIRRPP survey, ie. its evaluation of Port Packages. As expected, it was a sham, claiming that none of the homes they tested merit an update. Of course, they hand-picked 30 out of 9,400 for testing. Follow Sea-Tac Noise.Info (STNI) for coverage – and contact STNI, if you have bad sound insulation.

Thursday: Municipal Facilities Committee (cancelled)

Thursday: Economic Development – 27 Feb 2025 – Agenda Highlights:

• Charm Factor. Apparently, this is a beautify the downtown idea – it specifically mentions using decorative screens to cover ‘the Pit’ and the Des Moines Yacht Club boat storage on MVD and getting it done in time for FIFA 2026. In principle, I have no objection. The design has echoes of the very cool 2008 UW Storefront Studio project ideas. However, I do have several concerns. This issue follows the band-aid theme. Over the years, we’ve done these sorts of beautification deals several times and they are not major economic drivers. Sorry. I know how much people want to believe that, but if you look at regional neighbourhoods that really have transformed themselves, it happened inside-out, not outside-in. In other words, people show up for the business, not the wrapper. Based on the Special Meeting the Council had a few weeks ago, I saw no evidence that FIFA will provide economic benefits no matter what we might do. My hope is that my colleagues will look at our limited resources and really think about giving the City Manager time to come up with something long term. I’d rather save up as much dough as possible for that discussion. Or to put it more directly: the problem we should finally address is not how to cover up ‘the pit’. It’s the pit.
• Sound Code: The City is tackling the subject of re-instating a sound code, ie. building requirements to reduce the interior noise level from the airplanes. We dumped that in 2012 for political reasons. This gets me into hot water with our building people, but re-instating it is not rocket surgery. And I’ll use the golf/computer/ analogy. You buy even el-cheapo golf clubs or TVs or computers today and they’re objectively better than golf clubs or TVs or computers from twenty years ago. Building materials have improved — including windows. Construction practices have improved. So even without a sound code a new house is likely gonna be ‘quieter’ than a house built in 2000. And you won’t get help from the FAA because, despite tens of thousands more flights they think the entire area is getting quieter! So much so they’ve scaled back the area eligible for sound insulation by two thirds. Problem solved!
  • Not really. The FAA’s metrics, based on ’65db were always rubbish. The numbers were based on what was affordable given the technology of the 1970’s. Now that building materials are better/cheaper, no waaaay should that still be the standard.
  • Every scientific study done since then makes it clear than the noise we endure is unhealthy. Not ‘annoying’, bad for your health.
  • There is also this: by ending our sound code, we essentially took ourselves off the table from future FAA funding. And to explain why in one sentence, here is a real question I got from a congressman five years ago.

Why should any member of congress vote to spend more money for sound insulation, when your city voluntarily decided it did not need it?

Thursday: City Council Regular Meeting – 27 Feb 2025 – Agenda Highlights:

• City Manager presentation on Flag Triangle. Unfortunately, there is no preview in the packet, so I refer you to last Municipal Facilities meeting. (Video). Obviously, we gotta fix the flag pole. And the Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association has long wanted a plaque commemorating DMMD’s role in World War I and veterans.  However, there has been some tension on both the cost and what the site should ‘be’. At that last MFC meeting, the Director of Public Works referred to it as a monument and I think that’s a much better way to view it than as a ‘park’.

The cost is currently $474k-ish? Probably a lot more. But it does not bother me as much as perhaps it should. After a while you start to get numb because the cost of anything ‘park-adjacent’ these days, is ridonculous. But if you say, “Hey, can’t we get something on DiscountFlagPoles.com?” one sounds insensitive. Just know that, in the back of my mind there is a little voice wishing that were the case. My real grouse is that we haven’t been consistent in presenting the costs or the idea or the purpose to the public. As I said last time, the new DPW started referring it as a ‘monument’ rather than a ‘park’ and IMO, that’s the right vibe.

• There will also be the first of two Executive Session evaluations of our new City Manager. Which is two more than we often got in a year with our last one. 😀 One sentence: the Council wanted a good communicator. Ms. Caffrey is a great communicator. 🙂 But speaking of band-aids, in one sense, this review may be perhaps a bit too early. Ms. Caffrey was immediately confronted with work more akin to an ER Surgeon than a day to day ‘manager’. She got smacked in the face with some time-sensitive, big ticket issues like the Marina and the airport SAMP, neither of which she had any background on – and neither of which were mentioned in her job interview.If I were ‘the boss’ I’d ask her to write her review of Des Moines, if not now, at the six month point.I’m also curious what you, Dear Reader, think of how things are going at the moment. Some of the initial joy in hiring Ms. Caffrey is wearing off and the realities of a tighter budget is starting to sink in. Please let me know what I should be asking about in this review process. 🙂

Last Week

Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday: I testified on behalf of two airport bills, including Senator Orwall’s SB5682 in the Environment Committee Tuesday @ 1:30PM and Rep. Sharlett Mena’s HB1303 in Appropriations on Wednesday and in the Senate Environment on Friday.

Wednesday/Thursday: I attended Association of Washington Cities Action Days! Which isn’t as exciting as that sounds. But I did get to hear some interesting takes on housing and public safety. And here are three quick takes.

• There are two bills working on giving a teensy portion of the sales tax back to cities explicitly for public safety. I totally support this because it’s not a new tax. It’s the State giving money back to cities. 🙂
• I used to have real arguments with the last police chief over organised crime involving teens – which he swore was not a thing. I hate being ‘that guy’, but anyone from Ireland would  be skeptical because the shoplifting and auto theft here is suspiciously like what one sees in Dublin. A boss gets a bunch of 13 year olds to do the crimes – because they won’t do the time – even if they have a gun. It’s big business. But we’re behaving just like my home. A certain percentage of legislators will not put teens behind bars no matter how many times they get caught. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m glad to hear police and legislators calling it for what it is.
• It used to be that AWC could present a unified lobbying position on most issues. That is no longer the case. For example, every year the state puts forward new legislation to encourage more housing — which I strongly support. But the legislation never comes with what we actually need – which is M.O.N.E.Y. or at least building code reform. Instead, it graciously allows cities to provide developer discounts (which reduces our revenue) or lets us create local taxes. More affluent cities (like Redmond) find these useful. Cities like Des Moines? Not so much. We must have money because the fact is, developers struggle to build stick frame houses at anything like an affordable price point. We either have to start allowing for pre-built housing (which is cheaper, better constructed) or we get funding to make up the difference.
• There was also HB1334. Almost every city, including Des Moines, officially supports giving City Councils the ability to raise property taxes up to 3% without a public vote. But don’t hate the playa, hate the game. Over time the State and County have reduced the amount of money they share with cities like Des Moines and keep more of it for their own needs and especially education. All worthy endeavours. However, as with housing, one could also see a system which kicks back more of existing State and County money to cities like Des Moines. But since that will never happen, cities like Des Moines are left to try anything they can to raise taxes — including this. Desperate times, and so on… Speaking as one person, I do not support these bills. I think most voters find anything like this (including the 2023 bonds) a bit sneaky. People like to have a vote. They like to be sold.
• While I had time to kill I stumbled into a hearing on HB1923 Passenger Ferries: House Transportation – TVW which absolutely blew my mind. Check out the bill summary. Both our lobbyist and our paid ferry consultant (who did not identify himself as such) testified in favour.

Some bits of business…

Police Dept. Policy memo on immigration

I strongly endorse the policy, the statement, and the measured tone of this statement.

February 4, 2025 DMPD Policy on Immigration

Passenger Ferry Article in Seattle Times

Despite a fairly exaggerated headline, this Seattle Times article provides a very realistic state of electric passenger ferries in Puget Sound. I grew up using ferries in Ireland. Big fan. However, I’ve been opposed to using Des Moines tax dollars since we began doing so five years ago. We wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars and it is still insane. While trying to strike a hopeful tone it also completely validates all my concerns. This thing is nowhere near ready for prime time. There is mention of Artemis (the vendor who visited Des Moines last year, but zero mentions of Des Moines – despite the Council approving a $1,000,000 grant for a ferry battery to attract service. What?

On a semi-related note: Eviation, the top local contender for creating passenger-electric aviation, just went belly up. Eviation has been holding on via squillions in State and Federal funding. It’s exactly like the fake news of ‘second airport’ as the path to ‘quiet skies’.

Both passenger ferries and electric aircraft may be wonderful things some day. But for the present they are simply greenwashing. Small cities like Des Moines have no business putting stock in either of them.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report February 14, 2025

In addition to a quasi-Greek Chicken Noodle Soup recipe there’s this:

After each of the past three Council meetings I’ve walked out needing a shower because the information was so biased — which inevitably led the discussion towards a bunch of blather, including many (sorry) plainly incorrect comments from my colleagues. As Michael Matthias used to say, “He who controls the agenda controls the meeting.”

However, Ms. Caffrey’s follow-up reports generally provide a more straightforward result, which is fine, but it’s also starting to give me whiplash.

This Week

Monday: Presidents Day. Hope you got the day off, although I’m betting most of you did not. Legally-speaking it’s still Washington’s Birthday, which is good because I’m starting to think there are only 2-3 presidents a majority of Americans will ever think of again in a positive light.

Tuesday/Wednesday: I will be testifying on behalf of two airport bills, including Senator Orwall’s SB5682 in the Environment Committee Tuesday @ 1:30PM and Rep. Sharlett Mena’s HB1303 in Appropriations on Wednesday.

Wednesday/Thursday: I will be in Olympia for Association of Washington Cities Action Days. Why? ¹For the continuing education credits, dude!

Last Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda). The most important issue is the one that did not get mentioned. The Port has already completed its SIRRPP survey, ie. Port Package Updates. As expected, it was a sham, claiming that none of the homes they tested merit an update. Of course, they hand-picked 30 out of 9,400 for testing. Follow Sea-Tac Noise.Info (STNI) for coverage – and contact STNI, if you have bad sound insulation.

Wednesday: Olympia for lobbying on airport bills. Coverage from Sea-Tac Noise.Info

Thursday: Transportation Committee (Cancelled)

Thursday: Environment Committee – 13 Feb 2025 – Agenda – Pdf Highlight: Capital Improvements Plan update (projects paid for using the Surface Water Enterprise Fund) and the Estuary Project update. As with last month, although you will also see the same consultants in the main meeting, I strongly encourage you to watch this video which contains a much more detailed explanation of changes coming to the Beach Park area over the next decade. This will be a big deal and pretty exciting stuff for salmon, the park and all our residents. And best of all? So far, it is 100% grant funded. None of your taxes. 🙂

February 13, 2025 City Council Meeting Recap

Regular Meeting – 13 Feb 2025 – Agenda – Updated

Public Comment

There was only one, concerning the discussion on dry stack from the long time secretary of the now defunct Des Moines Marina Association (DMMA) Bill Linscott. His argument seemed similar to one made by DMMA a few years ago: Dry stack is a very good thing, but it should be held off until the next round of dock replacements — which are scheduled for at least five years out. Their desire was to provide a ‘first-call’ opportunity for their existing slip holders whenever that happened.

City Manager Presentations

• King County Metro South Link Connections Mobility Project. Long story short: during COVID, Metro shut down several (primarily east/west) routes in Des Moines. This presentation describes some new routes, which do not thrill most of us because they continue to focus on north/south and not ‘the last mile’. And this begs a real question: ‘haves/have nots’. As I often say, I am extremely fortunate. I live near the 635 Shuttle which takes me right to Angle Lake and then bam I’m at a Sounders Game or downtown. But the east/west ‘last mile’ the City needs is south of Kent Des Moines Road. The 635 did not happen until after Angle Lake opened. My hope is that, once the Kent Des Moines Station opens, it will help us get an analogous east/west coverage.
  PS… I’ve had this ongoing back and forth with Metro over their dashboard. It’s not just our City I spar with over ‘data’. 😀 A lot of these ‘dashboards’ look super-cool, but don’t provide the information you actually want. And then they look at you like you’re being ungrateful. 😀 You cannot guilt me! In this case, they make is super-easy to look at ridership on the main routes – but not the smaller routes – the ones residents need to get to the main routes. 🙂
• Des Moines Creek Estuary Project (see environment committee meeting above.)
• Black History Month Proclamation (more on this soon.)
• Field House Playground Equipment Upgrade Project Agreement. The Giant Slide Of Doom (which I love, btw) has been complete since last year. However, it’s been kept locked up over safety concerns! Outrageous. 😀 Sorry. That leaked out. However, in a move I am told is both prudent and practical, the City is adding some sort of hand hold/tow rope along the sides to make it safer and easier to get back up the hill — OK, I didn’t think about that – and Reason #327 why ³I am not a parks director. :)But the only question you have is: “When will my child be able to brave the Giant Slide Of Doom?” What with all the concerns over safety, the question of actually having fun was not exactly emphasised. But the contract completion date seems to be June 30, 2025. 🙂

Discussions

I’m calling this section of the meeting ‘discussions’ because for whatever reason, we’re not so much conducting ‘business’ as just sorta, you know, ‘discussing’ things more. It’s bad and you should not want it.

boat launch or Dry Stack?

As with the last meeting, apparently the Mayor and/or Deputy Mayor were caught off guard by the presentation. I’m struggling with that since the Mayor is in charge of agenda setting and because we were presented with a draft two days before the meeting. If they were surprised, as the originator of the topic, imagine mine. 😀

Background: I’ve been trying to get the City to replace the small boat launch, which was declared unsafe in 2022, because every marina needs some form of small boat launching system. One important use case (but not the only one) is called Dry Stack which I explain here. And as the explainer says, Dry Stack was supposed to replace the Dry Sheds as early as 1999.

But instead of simply discussing replacing the boat launch, a manageable task, somebody decided we could not have that discussion without also discussing the much, Much, MUCH larger topic of dry stack facility. I call bad faith on the City. It’s like someone saying “We can’t decide on building a stop light, unless we’re ready to commit to building a shopping mall across the street ten years from now.” It’s ridiculous. As I said from the dais, this will be at least the eleventh ‘study’ the City has done since 1999. The entire discussion was designed to fail.

Two new commissions

The Council moved forward (with ‘head nods’) to have the City Planner take on two new Commissions.

Apparently we’re calling them both commissions. I’m honestly not sure if it makes any difference, but a ‘commission’ usually has some authority/decision making, whilst an advisory ‘committee’ does not.

Anyhoo… the Airport whatever will take off (see what I did there?) around March, whilst the Planning Commission process is planned (see what I did there again?) for the end of the year. The practical scheduling is that the City Planner came on board just in time to complete our State mandated Comprehensive Plan.

For me, there really is no rush with the Airport whatever you call it. The work they could do, really won’t be helpful until next year. One bill going through Olympia might.

But the SAMP is happening right now. If you truly wanna do something meaningful about the noise, pollution and economic harms from the airport? Please subscribe to STNI. And participate in the Burien Airport Committee. Turn that into a shared committee that works for both cities.Des Moines City re-establishes an airport committee. Sort of. – Sea-Tac Noise.Info

But a planning commission can provide some form of nexus for concerns residents have about everything ‘planning’, including what we now refer to as ‘municipal facilities’ – ie. the Marina, Redondo, etc. Whether it is part of the official mandate of the PPC, residents should have visibility on all planning across the City; not some artificial boundary between City-owned and public/commercials. Residents, potential residents, realtors and developers need one place they can go and see our vision over the next twenty years. (Like the one that included a very profitable Dry Stack system in 1999. 🙂 )

New Items For Consideration

Councilmember Mahoney proposed that the City do something in concert with the Highline MAST center to help make Des Moines the Six Gill Shark Capital of the World. They want to draw attention to the fact that Six Gill Sharks are endangered in Puget Sound. Setting aside the logic of promoting a place with almost no Six Gill Sharks as the Six Gill Shark Capital of the World, I have no objection – so long as it’s a relatively zero cost campaign. 🙂

However, if ⁵my cousins were here, they would tell you that these animals are nice, but probably only about 85% as good as Seven Gill Sharks. 😀

¹JK

²Seriously. That phrase was used at the last meeting.

³But still batting two for two in not killing small children on play equipment! 🙂 In my defense, I did not feel quite as stressed about the design as-is because it seems identical to the other two working slides – which are very safe. (Having three slides is tres cool, btw).

⁴What gets on my last nerve is that the Parcel A proposal was 2022. And yet many people, including our own staff, seem to be unware of its existence!

5Although Six Gill Sharks were common where we fished, to my knowledge there are no Seven Gill Sharks in Ireland. That’s just my family’s sense of humour.

Some bits of business…

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report February 7, 2025

No recipe. Just a piccie of some kid being forced to shred paper. However, this is, hands down, the best Des Moines City Manager report since about 2012. Not. Kidding. I highly recommend you read it carefully. It is far from perfect. However…

• It even-handedly presented the current status of ‘the bond projects’ which you would not get by watching the last meeting, or by reading the mayor’s, or anyone else’s social media. Well done.
• Also, getting into the weeds, this version is a better ‘piece’ as they say in the print biz. In addition to the useful content, the graphics, typography, presentation, are all improving. I can see these letters moving towards a consistent and usable template for our City’s digital presence. To be clear: Ms. Caffrey is neither a brand or logo or communication specialist. But one thing you don’t want is ‘design by committee’ and this is a good interim step. In my opinion, the longer she works this, the more she gets to know the City, the likelier these pieces will get to where we need to be — organically.

This Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda)

Wednesday: Olympia for lobbying on airport bills.

Thursday: Environment Committee – 13 Feb 2025 – Agenda – Pdf Highlight: Estuary Project update.

Thursday: City Council Regular Meeting – 13 Feb 2025 – Agenda – Pdf

Meeting Highlights:

City Managers Presentations King County Metro South Link Connections Mobility Project Engineering, Presentation on The Last Mile, Des Moines Creek Estuary Project

Black History Month Proclamation
Barnes Creek Trail – South 240th Street Consultant Contract
Senior Center Roof Contract Amendment
Field House Playground Equipment Upgrade Project Agreement

Boat launch: In the packet it’s listed as ‘sling’ launch, which was extremely unfortunate. I don’t have to tell all you ¹master boaters out there that there are many types of launch systems. A ‘sling’ being the common term for the dual system the City removed in 2008. That is not what we’re talking about. Anyhoo, the Council will consider rebuilding something on the spot of the current small boat launch, which was flagged for review in 2018, then removed from service in 2022. I have proposed a different type, which is necessary for a dry stack system. Yes, it’s complicated. Hopefully all will be explained next week — including the fiscal urgency.

Last Week

Wednesday: King County Flood Control District (Agenda)

Thursday:  Finance Committee – 06 Feb 2025 – Agenda

Highlights:

We established our planning calendar. I asked that we put a specific Marina Plan of Finance in there. Kinda like this. A funny thing about our Marina. In 2023 dollars, the equipment that needs upgrades is over $81,000,000 and we have no way to pay for it. And yet, your Council does not see that info. (A tiny detail for the five people who watch. 😀 I always ask staff to consider time. They often stare. 😀 But I’m always considering ‘load balance’. I have no idea what people have on their plates, so it’s easier to ask for a block of time or a date rather than “Sure we can fit that in there. Somewhere.” 😀

We also discussed Ordinance 1561 – the ‘one-time money fund’. In 2012, the Council wanted the City to start setting aside a portion of the taxes from large projects (over $15,000,000) in a separate account. This is not the same thing as the general reserve we need for operations and emergencies. Part of it was to discipline the City not to depend on one time money, ie. unpredictable revenue. Part of it was to be able to save for some special items (‘wants’). I highly endorse this conceptually. However, we’ve never been able to enforce the discipline because, as I’ve quoted my father-in-law so many times…

You have to have money in order to save money.

As I said, Ordinance 1561 was always a great concept. But if we knew all along we wouldn’t have the money to follow such a policy, maybe that shoulda given more people a clue as to our finances. 😀 Anyhoo…

The committee voted to have the City research ways to improve the ordinance. The dollar amount will likely shift. I also asked the City to reconsider the purpose. As you’ve likely heard, the Marina, as well as a number of other City facilities will require a crap ton of money in the near future. So, the purpose of this fund might shift more to like ‘saving for retirement’ (ie. needs rather than wants.)

Thursday: Public Safety Public Safety_Emergency Management Committee – 06 Feb 2025 – Agenda

First meeting of year: Planning Calendar, Code enforcement update. Apparently Code Enforcement Officer Kory Batterman is out for surgery and should be back soon.

Council Meeting Recap

Thursday: Study Session – 06 Feb 2025 – Agenda – Updated

Public Comment

There were actually two sets of public comment. A very good move by Mayor Buxton. A bajillion people showed up to support rebuilding the Redondo Fishing Pier. Zero people showed up in support of Marina Steps. The Mayor noticed this as well. We agree that this is in no way a stastistically value analysis… but not on much else as to the events of the meeting. 😀

Four Options

This was a heated discussion. It was also unbelievably complicated. I want to apologise in advance for ‘vagueness’. There are a lot of loose ends that will be tied up (hopefully) at the February 13 meeting. I have already read a few compliments to both the City and the Mayor for the meeting and before even trying to explain what happened I will say that this praise is misplaced.

That said, you don’t care about that. All you care about is Redondo Fishing Pier or Marina Steps, right? 😀 The Council voted, as expected to try to have it both ways. The majority voted, 4-3, to spend $100,000 to redesign the Marina Steps in a process called ‘Value Engineering’. This week’s cover image kinda says it all. “Take away the sprinkles”. We also voted to spend the lion’s share of the money to prioritise the Redondo Fishing Pier — which may (or may not) begin construction this year. But that is the current top priority of the Council. If the Marina Steps design (minus the ‘sprinkles’) fits whatever money is left? It moves forward. If not? I guess there are more food-themed discussions ahead.

I voted against everything in a vain attempt to get the Council to pay attention to the fact that the Marina still needs $81,000,000 by 2040 for repairs. One tool to pay for at least some of it, without going to the taxpayers, is called ‘dry stack’. The Council will discuss that, this Thursday, which is another reason I did not want any of this discussed until the 13th.

Sound confused? I get it!

But watch this Thursday February 13 at 6:00pm. Things can only get clearer. 😀

Circling back to the Fishing Pier. Apparently, the piccie of the deck is not as I depicted last week! It will, instead be ‘see through’ across the entire width. The Director of Public Works has promised to bring a sample of the deck material to show us what it actually looks (and feels) like. 🙂

Planning Commission

The Council moved forward (with ‘head nods’) to have the City bring back an ordinance to re-establish a planning commission 5-2? (With head nods, who can tell, right?) Thanks to everyone who showed up and wrote in support!

Again: it should never have gone away. However, the packet narrative was entirely accurate, if somewhat limited in options. A planning commission is no panacea. But it can provide some form of nexus for concerns residents have about everything ‘planning’, including what we now refer to as ‘municipal facilities’ – ie. the Marina, Redondo, etc. The residents show have visibility on all planning across the City; not some artificial boundary between City-owned and public/commercials. Residents, potential residents, realtors and developers need one place they can go and see our vision over the next twenty years.

What I never want to hear again is someone screaming “If I had known (x) was coming I never would have moved/opened a business here!”

Airport Committee

In the worst decision of the night nobody stuck around for, the Council voted 6-1 to create an airport advisory committee with literally five seconds before time ran out. 😀 What could possibly go wrong?

Having this on the same agenda, after three hours, with a Council that struggles to stay awake past 8:45 was part of the terrible.

But Sea-Tac Noise.Info has full coverage here.

I would much prefer that interested residents help create a joint committee with Burien – the city we share interests with when it comes to Sea-Tac Airport.

If you truly wanna do something meaningful about the airport? Please subscribe to STNI. And participate in the Burien Airport Committee. Turn that into a shared committee that works for both cities.Des Moines City re-establishes an airport committee. Sort of. – Sea-Tac Noise.Info

Some bits of business…

Unusual weather we’re having, ain’t it?

By the time you read this DPW crews will have already been up for hours spreading truckloads of deicer, sand, and ¹opium poppies just like this. All to keep you sleeepy… er… safe. It is a very challenging job. But in my time here, this is one of those core functions our City has always seemed to do particularly well. It’s especially notable because it’s not like this happens every day. However they do it, this is a very good thing considering that even a sixteenth of an inch of snow can be enough to turn half the town into a bumper car lot.

Snow Plow Information

Contest

I had only one entry. But since there were no right or wrong answers, everyone’s a winner! The prize? A gift card to Iris and Peony, which just opened! (I keep tellin’ ya – the prizes are cool. And with Valentines Day coming? You really should be making more of an effort. 😀 )

The contest was “…watch the last Economic Development Committee Meeting and write at least two sentences on how different the last Econo it was..”

Two things I was hoping someone would notice were:

• New City Manager Caffrey mentions performing an economic analysis of the revenue potential for various land uses! Gobsmacked was I.
• New City Manager Caffrey (I’ll stop saying ‘new’ as soon as residents stop saying it 😀 ) suggested that the ongoing revenue potential of residential (non-commercial) property tax is not great. Also gobsmacking. For her! 😀

This has tremendous implications. We all want this City to have the money to provide great services. But for a very long time, I’ve honestly struggled to understand how much money we need for various tasks. We’re not unique in that way. But most, smaller cities here don’t aspire to be ‘the premier waterfront destination in Puget Sound’, either. Despite those pretensions, we’re a ‘bedroom community’ which does not make enough from the bedrooms to pay the bills. As such we need to know what the real income potential of this six square miles really is. Sooner would be better. 🙂 Anyone who expresses a desire to quantify these things, like a for-realz management system, makes my heart swell three sizes. And inspired a contest. 🙂

Highline School Board Director Opening

One other thing while I’m on a roll (tax roll, get it?) Last week I bemoaned the resignation of HSD Directors Hagos and Petrini. If you want to ‘blame’ someone for high taxes, schools have got to start being in that mix. They get far more of your taxes, and in fact, over fifty percent of the State budget.

I’m not saying you are not taxed to death. What I’m saying is that you should hold every taxing authority to account – not just in terms of dollars, but in terms of quality.

Last year, you told us to try and provide more value for money. Message received. But we must have good schools here to be a great city and currently, by any metric, we do not. And to fix that, we will need a School Board that demands the same improvements you expect of us. Please apply for the open Position #5 on the Highline School Board now!

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report January 31, 2025 What, no recipe? However, some good information on Animal Control.

No Comment

Speaking of which, I want to reiterate something I said last week. I like when the City gets ahead of information because people freak out. Especially about animals. This banner image from the Waterland Blog says one thing while the article headline says “City of Des Moines reduces animal control services amid budget constraints.” One is accurate. The other is not. Which one do you think people wig out over? The City has not ‘canceled’ animal control services. Yes, they are reduced – temporarily. Not ideal. But not ‘canceled’. What I find frustrating is that the WB seems to have stopped accepting comments on their articles – so how does one correct errors like this?

This Week

Wednesday: King County Flood Control District (Agenda)

Thursday:  Finance Committee – 06 Feb 2025 – Agenda Highlight: Ordinance 1561 (rescinding limits on using one-time money

Thursday: Public Safety Public Safety_Emergency Management Committee – 06 Feb 2025 – Agenda First meeting of year: Planning Calendar, Code enforcement update

Thursday: Study Session – 06 Feb 2025 – Agenda – Pdf Highlights:

1. Marina Steps/Redondo Fishing Pier financing
2. Airport Committee
3. Planning Commission

Is that all? 😀

February 6 by the numbers…

#1 Marina Steps

The City’s recommendation is to spend another $100k on a Value Engineer process. Essentially, you pay someone to fit the project to your budget – either by finding efficiencies or scaling back the ‘nice-to-haves’ in order to preserve (or perhaps even improve) the core product. The dream of such an exercise produces a diamond even more valuable than the original… er… rock. 😀 (Sorry. I’m trying.)

To paraphrase what I wrote the (new) City Manager…

The preferred option is to spend another $100,000 of public money on a train going in the wrong direction?

…which I’m sure she appreciated. 😀

To her credit, she’s a far better sport than previous management. I’m just particularly snippy today because before her arrival when I asked super-nicely if we could evaluate the project in separate pieces, I was told over and over and over…

“But nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

That’s my John Belushi voice.

This is not Ms. Caffrey’s fault. VE is a responsible option. Here’s another

1. Put aside a small amount of money into the boat launch, during the current permit window, so we can move forward with a dry stack boat storage system. Every other Marina has had one for a long time. In fact, it’s the only new money maker in the entire master plan and it’s been on the board for 25 years. That is the baseline for my support on anything in this discussion. Marina. Redondo. Anything. If we cannot set aside even small amounts of money to do what other businesses already do, and generate revenue to reduce future dock replacement costs, and thus protect the future of the Marina? We should all resign.

2. Assuming there is support  among my colleagues, I’m open to setting aside sufficient moneys to do the Redondo Fishing Pier in 2025. (This week’s cover image is from a 2023 presentation called ³Des Moines: Journey To Our Future which is the last overview of all this stuff I could find.) I have not pressed for several reasons, not least of which is that the Council majority has repeatedly prioritised the Steps. However, even if there were such agreement, nothing is that simple. Say it again: the City may not make the 2025 ‘fish window’. The bid process will take time. So, we could vote for that, make the fish window, and still find higher costs in a couple of months. Or, not make the fish window, plan on 2026, and costs will likely again change. And as if that weren’t enough variables, maybe it’s nothing, but this week’s headlines are filled with jazz about tariffs and immigration and general economic uncertainty.

3. The current design does not kill me, but I have always supported some form of connectivity between 223rd and the Marina Floor. But I want that as part of a holistic design that integrates the Marina, Dry Stack, the 223 Green Streets and the Estuary (Beach Park.) All. One. Thing.

Whatever the Council decides, my hope is that all my colleagues (and you, dear reader) understand that all four of those projects must happen at some point. Apart from design, stop stressing about sequencing and start focusing on not wasting money. We bought these bonds. This stuff is like water in the desert. It’s too precious to waste. So rather than fighting about what goes when, let’s use the money we have to get whatever done as efficiently as possible.

This is the same problem we ran into last week — an ongoing lack of compromise. There is a compromise path on almost every issue — including the toughest ones. I just put one up for one of my least fave issues.

Apart from everything else, what may make everyone even more stubborn is the notion, “If we don’t get this done now, it’ll never happen!” It’s a reasonable fear. I just watched my hope for Barnes Creek Trail — something I assumed was happening for a decade — evaporate in six days. It hurts.

Planning Commission: Yes

At least a partial solution is a Public Planning Commission. It should never have gone away. However, the packet narrative is entirely accurate as to some of the weaknesses of what we had. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, “A planning commission, sir. If you can keep it.”

A planning commission is no panacea. My main interest is in having some form of digital presence, which I’m calling ‘Virtual City'(tm) where residents, potential residents, realtors and developers can go and see what we have planned.

What I never want to hear again is someone screaming “If I had known (x) was coming I never would have moved here!”

Re-instating the PPC will help prevent that. And my hope is that it might also reassure electeds that when we decide on a ‘vision’ it has a good chance of coming to fruition — even if that cannot not happen while they are still in office.

Circling back to the Fishing Pier. I’m pretty sure that Journey To Our Future image of the Fishing Pier deck is wrong. IIRC, this is the current design. See how the floor is no longer 100% ‘see through’? Although the salmon love it, a surprising number of humans hate it. Gives ’em vertigo. We went through multiple re-designs to get this split design so that people have an opaque section. I’m just putting this out there to demonstrate that these things really do change.

#3 Airport Committee: Meh

I would much prefer that interested residents help create a joint committee with Burien – the city we share interests with when it comes to Sea-Tac Airport.

This brings up this constant narrative of ‘talking out of both sides of your mouth’. Why on earth would you be against an airport committee, Mr. Airport Guy? For the same reason I was against having a special meeting of the City Council to discuss FIFA. Because I actually know something about the subject. 🙂 (Who said I can’t be brief? 🙂 )

I am ‘the airport guy’. However, I was not consulted on this proposal. And it is terrible, which is unsurprising having been proposed and written by the most pro-Port people on the Council. I know how much some of you want to do ‘something’ about the airport. Me too. It’s the reason I ran for office in 2019. But this is not it. That may sound snippy, but we need to stop treating this like a participation prize where everyone who wants to be involved is a winner. There are right answers and wrong answers. We tried this in 2018-2019 and it was a disaster.

I ran for office, literally, to change this approach, after decades of insincerity. The incumbent I ran against was a Port employee, members of the last airport committee opposed me, and a recent mayor now works for the Port as their lobbyist to us. In 2022 the current mayor and last mayor went to the Port of Seattle and offered up Des Moines Creek West with both hands. We are infested.

Like StART, a failure of a group advocated for by the last airport committee, this new committee must be seen as greenwashing; a bad faith attempt to continue to prevent positive change. That is no reflection on any community members who may want to participate. As with StART, people sign up with the best of intentions. But this is a bigger game and we cannot allow ourselves to continue to be used like this.

The only reason we don’t get anywhere with the airport is that they have people who work these issues continuously over many years and we have… well… moi. 🙂

If you truly wanna do something meaningful about the airport? Please subscribe to STNI. And participate in the Burien Airport Committee. Turn that into a shared committee that works for both cities.

Last Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda). The Port did not keep its promise to report back on the SIRRPP (Port Packages). However, they signed an international tourism marketing agreement that will gin up more flights.  A last minute amendment by Commissioner Mohamed to limit the agreement to not promoting additional operations failed. Boo. 🙁

Wednesday: Highline Forum (Materials) All the cities shared their various legislative agenda re. the airport. Spoiler alert: the only City with anything even remotely useful SAMP-wise? Des Moines. 🙂

City Council Recap

Thursday: 6:00pm    Study Session – 30 Jan 2025 – Agenda – Updated

Executive Session

We discussed real estate having nothing to do with the WSDOT Surplus. The City Attorney provided a useful detail. A City cannot have an ES on a piece of property unless it would jeopardise the sale price. In the case of the WSDOT parcel, they already gave us the price. 😀

Public Comment

Several public comments, all on the 216th Surplus. And at the risk of pandering, one of the commenters, who is undergoing cancer treatment, spoke up. Ladeez and Germs, when someone demonstrates that kind of courage, attention must be paid.

216/Barnes Creek Surplus

The Council voted 4-3 not to pursue acquiring this property. Therefore, WSDOT will offer it at fair market value to the adjoining property owner. If that doesn’t work, it will go for auction. As I wrote above, this was yet another case of no compromise.

I actually agree with my colleagues who said they supported more housing. Much of the property along 216th is zoned for apartments and town homes and that is as it should be. However, this one swath is unique.

But frankly, the real arguments seemed based more on revenue than housing, and by that I mean one-time money. My concern is that so many people long for a world of economic development here that is impossible; the car dealership that will never come, the ferry that brings in tens of thousands of paying customers, a in this case a land where construction returns every few years like migratory birds. In case you hadn’t noticed? Our geese don’t bother migrating anymore! 😀 We must find a new revenue path. One that does not hide NIMBYism behind ‘open space’ and one that does not mistake one-time money for money we can actually depend on.

I also stand by something else: I know the City tried, but significant information was not revealed until during the meeting, including: the width of the existing Barnes Creek Trail and the intended use of the forested area south of the parcel in question. (Yes, it’s currently indicated as ‘Public Facility’. So what? So was this parcel until 2023.)

FIFA

This was originally the only item on the agenda. Last week I wrote “…my first thought was, for the first time in five years, I should try to book an evening dentist appointment.” Ironically, I left the meeting about fifteen minutes into this item, but not for a minty-fresh cleaning. I left because I cannot look at that big screen for long periods. The City knows this. I bring a special tablet reader when I know there will be presentations. I had no idea what to expect. For some reason, Cm Grace-Matsui seemed aware it was a webinar and also split. Anyhoo, I went home and watched it, mostly in real time. It was a bit odd. Sorta like what ²life will be like when I’m done being on the Council.

Special meetings are a unique authority of the Mayor and should only be called for under truly extraordinary circumstances.

I am a pretty big footb… er… ‘soccer’ fan.  But I misunderstood the purpose. I assumed it was to discuss promotional opportunities during the 2025 and 2026 World Cup events. But the discussion I heard did not go there. Apparently, neither my colleagues or the City were expecting revenue. The first question that came up, and the majority of the discussion, seemed to concern the possibility of public safety threats from tourism. Wow.

But fwiw, https://www.lumenfield.com/fifa-world-cup/2025-fifa-world-club-cup-seattle is pretty fantastic – three of the best clubs in the world will be in Seattle and seats are available. Paris St. Germain (France), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Botafogo (Brazil).

Bord Fáilte

It’s been a while, but if memory serves, didn’t the Seahawks actually win something a while back? I wonder if anyone recalls a flood of oval-sports-ball hooliganism back then? I do not. But just to be safe, we definitely shouldn’t let that happen again!

How can you promote Des Moines as ‘the premier waterfront destination…’ if, when we have chances to promote, we immediately think in terms of defense? That’s not rhetorical. It’s a real question. If we did get a ferry, do we really think every person coming off the dock would be someone’s gran bringing cookies over from Kitsap? 😀 Tourism is a mindset that welcomes all.

Fun fact of the week: In Ireland, the tourism agency is called Bord Fáilte. The Irish word fáilte literally means ‘welcome’. Ireland created a great tourism program not because we’re such swell guys (newsflash: a lot more of us are like moi than those ahppy people in the deodorant soap commercials.) We did it because we really needed the money! The government worked really hard to foster that sense of welcoming. Do we have a similar desire? Because more than a ferry or any building project, that is what it would take to be ‘the premier waterfront destination…’ It’s a mindset.

¹jk

²Except that I will likely never watch another public meeting in my natural born life. 😀

³That was not the title of a Moody Blues record. Close, though. 🙂