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Categories Transparency
More fun with advisory… er… ‘listening’ groups…
1 Comment on More fun with advisory… er… ‘listening’ groups…Introduction
In the ongoing silliness that makes residents’ eyes roll. But this actually matters. It’s one of a zillion examples where the Mayor uses the fact that most people have no idea how limited his authority is. He uses the title to take advantage of situations big and small–as has every mayor since i’ve lived here.
Over the years, the Council has created various ‘Advisory Committees’ by a vote and ordinance as defined in the Des Moines Municipal Code. These positions are nominated by the Mayor, then approved by the full Council.
To add to the fun, also over the years, some members of the City staff (most notably the Chief of Police) have created personal “advisory” groups to gather feedback from the community. To avoid confusion, I’m going to refer to them as “Listening Groups”, because, as the Mayor says below, that’s their purpose. Theye have no legal connection to the City Council and no one on the Council has authority over them. Whoever organises a listening group makes the rules and anyone who attends (like councilmembers) are just like any other member of the public.
Chief Thomas has several such listening groups and I have been attending one of them–by invitation of the Chief–on and off since I was elected in 2020.
The last part of this setup is that, *I’ve been booted off, then re-invited, booted off again, then re-invited again, and now threatened to be re-re-booted off again now three times. 😀 The Chief invites me, but then someone else, apparently dis-invites me from the Chief’s group for some made up reason.
It’s like a bad divorce where you need a court order just to ride the elevator together.
On 9/6/2022 4:43 PM, Matt Mahoney wrote: Councilmember Harris, It has come to my attention you attended today’s Police *Advisory Board without designation to do so. Per our previous conversation I had requested you to no longer attend those meetings. The primary purpose of this meeting is for the police chief, his staff and selected residents to share their thoughts and views on various subjects concerning Public Safety. It is not and has never been a place for a councilmember to push a personal agenda. As I stated in our previous conversation, I received several complaints from many different parties who attend concerning your comments, domination of time and distractions you created from the overall purpose of the meeting. It is for these reasons I asked you to no longer attend. According to council rules, should you have questions etc. you are to contact the city manager either with your questions or concerns, or ask for permission to speak to the Police Chief. I have asked city staff to remove you from invites and reiterate my request that you no longer attend these meetings. I expect you to honor this request. Matt Mahoney 425-941-6298 Mayor Des Moines City Council
Mayor,
1. You are attempting to exercise authority you do not have. Perhaps the name is confusing. Chief Thomas’ group is one of his private listening groups, not a Council Advisory Committee. (Maybe we should change this nomenclature to avoid future confusion?) Please check DMMC 4.24 which provides a list of Council Advisory Committees and the rules governing appointments. This is not such a group. And even if it were, you would not have the authority to remove anyone from such a group arbitrarily. The Code has a specific public process.
2. In my opinion you have repeatedly committed Councilmember Interference in violation of RCW 35a.13.120. You have no authority to directly ‘request’ the staff to do anything not specifically mentioned in our Rules of Procedure. By directing the Chief to remove me earlier in the year and stating in writing your intention to do so now, you are directing staff to take a specific form of action outside your authority. Is that really what you wanted to write?
In short, you had no authority of any kind concerning to (cough) ‘remove’ me earlier in the year. You have no authority to get upset now. And you have been and continue to violate State law by attempting to direct staff, which is the sole province of the City Manager.
3. The group invited me, I attended and am grateful. I hope the Chief continues to do so. I think it would send a positive signal that the Department welcomes voices from the entire community. There is -no- evidence of -any- complaints by group members. So hopefully, the members themselves recognise that value as well. If there are concerns (I cannot imagine what they might be since I have not heard them) I would welcome a chance to address them.
That’s really all I have to say of any consequence. But on a personal note…
You can continue to attempt to push the envelope for whatever reason. I get it; the urge is almost irresistible. Plus, it’s so easy to cross the line when almost no one understands what ‘Mayor’ truly means in Council/Manager government. But you know that you are simply one of seven, sir.
But your actual authority is to hold a gavel a couple of times a month. Sign letters on behalf of the Council. Cut ribbons on behalf of the Council. You are simply a mouthpiece for decisions made by the Council. As individuals we are nothing. For better or worse that was the form of government the people chose and my belief is that we should take pains to respect the process.
After 30 years here my experience has been that the best thing a mayor can do for Des Moines is to exercise restraint. Stick to Rule 5. Because every time a mayor tried to make the job into something it’s not, bad things happen.
Sincerely,
—JC
Councilmember Harris, You are not designated for this group. You fail to understand the intent of the group! You take away from the purpose of the group! The request was made thru the City Manager. All your questions and comments are to go thru the City Manager. There is nothing more to say. I stand by my decision and will be more than glad to have our city attorney interpret our actions right or wrong. Matt
You do not ‘designate’ membership on private groups. You do not get to arbitrarily remove people from -any- group, city or private. And you do not get to ‘direct’ -anyone- arbitrarily, which is what you’ve said and what you wrote. This is a pattern—acting as if you have administrative authority. It works 90% of the time because people don’t know, don’t care or are complicit. Worst case? You can walk it back when someone notices.
If the Council and City Manager have been willing to enable your abuse of, sadly that has been the pattern here for 30 years. Hopefully at least a few members of the Council will realise that this is illegal, corrupt and contrary to the spirit of C/M/G and will be willing to speak up on its behalf.
—JC
*Timeline
- In Autumn 2020 City Manager Matthias was upset about something he read in this blog and apparently ‘ordered’ Chief Thomas to give me the boot.
- In October 2021 Chief Thomas re-invited me saying it was “his group and not up to the City Manager”.
- In April 2022 Mayor Mahoney said he was kicking me off under his authority as Mayor–which the Chief said was not true at all.
- The next week, the City web site was changed to show that Councilmember Pennington had been assigned to the Police Advisory Committee. Which again, is not an actual Council assignment. (In fact, lots of CMs have cycled in and out of this listening group over time. Again, again, it’s just a listening group by invitation of Chief Thomas.)
- Then last Friday I got re-re-invited. So I attended the 6 September meeting. Nothing exciting happened, trust me. 😀
- And the following day I got the following email from Mayor Mahoney.
Categories Economic Development, Marina, Neighborhoods, Policy, Public Safety, Transparency, Weekly Updates
Weekly Update: 09/05/2022
Leave a comment on Weekly Update: 09/05/2022Last week there was a small kerfuffle on my Facebook page over the City’s new Visitors Map. Some of you will want to read it for the same reason people slow down to look at traffic accidents. Others may want to read it because in my opinion it represents a subtle, but very real sickness in our government and in our community. As an antidote, one could do worse than to listen to this: How To Open Your Mind. One of the best podcasts I’ve ever heard. In the middle there is a bit with a school teacher and a class of little kids learning how to critique one another–and enjoy getting to the best possible outcome. Highest possible recommendation.
This Week
Tuesday: Police Advisory Committee. Could be a mistake. But I was added back to the list. On. Off. On. Off. On. First time in me life… I think I may need a ®Dramamine.
Thursday: My third Budget Retreat with no numbers. On the one hand, I used to encourage people to show up to these because they were often the most informative meetings of year. But honestly? I’m not sure any more. And with regard to public comment, Rule #10 limits public comment to issues on the Agenda. So if you have a comments on the budget, my suggestions would be, just off the top of me head:
- Why don’t we have a financial report available in advance for this Study Session?
- Hell, why don’t we have at least quarterly (or monthly) financial reports all the time like every other city in the area?
Friday: Midway Park 5:30PM. I’ll be there with Reach Out Des Moines to do a listening session on teen violence and public safety. Hope to see you there.
Last Week
Friday: Knocked on doors in Pacific Ridge with Reach Out Des Moines coordinator Brenda MBaabu.
Most of the rest of the week I spent time reconnecting with various activists and electeds from previous airport expansions…
SeaTacNoise.Info just celebrated our 200,000th page and our sixth anniversary. For those of you not clued in, SeaTacNoise.Info is basically a digital museum of everything having to do with the airport from the community POV. We’re the first, the largest, and… the only one. 😀
There are a gajillion places to learn about ‘the history of flight’ or airports or ‘aviation’ but they’re all from the POV of pilots and passengers and basically how great it is. 😀 Having owned three small planes, trust me I get it.
But SeaTacNoise.Info is about the communities that live next to all that stuff. Some of it is good. Most of it is, objectively speaking, not.
If we could do so easily, we’d probably rename the site:
EverythingYouThinkYouKnowaboutSeaTacAirportIsWrong.whoops
Because, everything you think you know about Sea-Tac Airport is wrong. Whoops. 😀
In 100 words, aviation is exactly like any mature industry. When things were firing up in the 60’s, Boeing created lots of jobs. But as any industry matures, the profits move away. The jobs move away. The HQ moves away. But the people near the factory are left with terrible negative impacts that never get addressed. And the reason it’s soooooooo hard to rebalance is because: a) people are so nostalgic for a world that no longer exists and b) the industry simply cannot make money if it pays what it owes. ie. the entire financial model is based on not paying people for the community impacts. Des Moines is to the airport what the suburbs of Detroit were to the auto industry back in the day.
And if yer bugged about the airport and wonder why things seem impossible? That’s the reason. So if you have a chance, head on over there and take a look around. If it seems confusing? You’re not wrong. 😀 We’ve uploaded 200 terabytes of stuff. But it’s been mostly technical stuff for researchers and it’s been really hard to find basic stuff like “Why can’t they create a curfew?”
We need you to ask us some questions so we can figure out how to explain it in a way that makes sense for normal (non-technical expert) people. 🙂 c tends to get those types of studies because decision makers (wrongly) think that being next to the airport has the worst health effects. We don’t know that. In fact with lead, dosages don’t matter that much. That’s why we need a monitor in DM. It’s the only way we get paid for the health impacts.
Labor Day 2022
Back in the day, my *homebase was a spare room my great friend Stosh set aside for me at his house in Detroit. Stosh was old school union–working seven days a week at Clark Street, aka ‘Cadillac Assembly’.
Stosh had wanted to be an artist (he was really good.) But his dad passed, and somebody had to support his sisters and brothers, including one sibling with severe epilepsy. So, at seventeen he went inside and never looked back.
I’m stickin’ with the Union…
Stosh was a United Auto Workers man to his bones. The UAW had gotten him a house and put three children through college. And when he got cancer? It gave him ‘cadillac’ health insurance and a for realz pension for his wife after he passed. He never thanked “General Motors” for his life. He thanked “the United Auto Workers”.
By today’s standards, he was what someone under fifty might think of as an “Archie Bunker” figure. Well, yes and no. All ‘comedy’ aside, Archie Bunker was accurate as hell. He was no caricature. That was “the world”.
But I did not and do not think of Stosh like that for many reasons. He was a loving husband and though he did not even make it through high school, and considered whiskey, buttermilk and sardines a fine dining experience, 😀 he was the furthest thing from the ignorant figure of Archie Bunker you could imagine. He was amazingly skilled with his hands and capable of tremendous sensitivity.
And one other thing: In a similar way, Stosh’s entire generation represented a very real (though imperfect) level of environmentalism.
Direct action…
Stosh absolutely revered the generation of workers immediately before him who had built the Union through their courage and direct action. They had complained repeatedly to management that the factory had poor ventilation. So one day, a group of workers simply went up to a brick wall and took turns beating on it with sledge hammers, holding off plant security until they had created a very large hole. And when they were done, they told the plant boss, “You can put the fan there.”
But they did not stop there. Throughout the ’50’s and ’60’s UAW workers continued to stage a string of protests about issues outside the factory. It became the policy of the Locals to promote better water and air quality along the Detroit River and in their nearby neighbourhoods. They pushed the auto companies to be “better neighbours” because they recognised that all the pollution was bad not just for workers, but for their families.
I’ve written before about Congressman John Dingell, who was so pivotal in creating the EPA, the modern Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Dingell was Stosh’s congressman. And no way would Dingell have succeeded if the UAW had not been behind him all the way.
Then something happened…
At some point in the ’70’s, a tension developed between the environmental movement and union workers. I believe this has been the result of people who do not have workers’ or union interests at heart.
Job killers?
Today, whenever anyone suggests that health, safety and environmental controls (which are all the same thing, really) are “job killers” follow the money.
The truth is, and always has been, that the nations, states and companies with the strongest environmental protections do better financially. Check it out. Want low wages? Just look at places with poor worker health and environmental protections.
The Airport Discount…
An ongoing argument I have had with my colleagues–and electeds across the region–is over “growth” and “the airport.” I’ve heard exactly the same quote from electeds who support everyone from Bernie to Trump…
“The airport keeps my taxes low.”
Which is a way of saying….
“Thank goodness for all that noise and pollution. Yeah, the schools are poor and people (especially kids) are at risk for all sorts of ongoing health problems, but that airport discount is totally worth it!”
If you’re conservative, you love the low taxes. If you’re the kind of ‘progressive’ you respond to something called ‘affordability’. Different bread, same sandwich.
And it’s a shitty sandwich. Your health, the health of your children, and the health of our town, are not worth some insane form of ‘airport discount’.
Why things never improve…
For those of you who are puzzled as to why our city (and others) have not been more aggressive in demanding less noise and pollution from the airport–even as it expands, that’s a big reason. Today, at the local level, there is simply no lane for “environmentalism” among electeds. You can energise both Democrats and Republicans by promoting “jobs!” and “growth!”
Somewhere along the line, the notion of healthy air and less noise became the same kind of shrug people used to have about lead in gasoline–sure it kills hundreds of thousands of people, but hey, I need to gas up my car!
or… Or… OR… we could just demand lead-free gas and stop listening to people who say how “impossible” everything is.
Please make up… (heart emoji goes here)
Unions have been on the downward slide for a long time in America. And the slide began at the same time that unions and environmentalists began to sit on opposite sides of most conversations. I think that was a mistake for both sides, not only because giving up on environmental concerns did not save jobs, but also because workers tend to live in neighbourhoods with the greatest need for healthier living conditions.
Most of us do not live out in some idyllic wilderness. Most of us live near a factory. A highway. An airport. And again: health and safety (including the planet) lead to better wages and working conditions for workers. Check it out.
I am extremely pleased to see unions making a halting comeback. It’s about time. And as they do, I hope they look back to people like Stosh and think about putting the environment further up on their list of priorities.
Summary
Environmental protections, including the noise and pollution from the airport can only help workers and their families. Those policies are not job killers. Again, the nations, states and companies with the strongest environmental protections do better financially–and so do their workers.
The ‘airport discount’ was always a lie. Des Moines should be quieter, have cleaner air, better schools and receive a fairer share of the economic engine of the Port of Seattle. That is formula that benefits everyone who lives here and that is the message I will continue to tirelessly promote for all working people and their families in Des Moines.
Happy Labor Day.
*I lived out of a suitcase for many years as a professional musician and a member of AFM Local 5 (Detroit) and AFM Local 802 (New York). Nobody thinks of ‘musician’ and ‘union’ in the same sentence these days, but there was a time where your AFM Card could be a ticket to a very good career.
The Clark Street Environmentalist (Labor Day 2022)
Back in the day, my *homebase was a spare room my great friend Stosh set aside for me at his house in Detroit. Stosh was old school union–working seven days a week at Clark Street, aka ‘Cadillac Assembly’.
Stosh had wanted to be an artist (he was really good.) But his dad passed, and somebody had to support his sisters and brothers, including one sibling with severe epilepsy. So, at seventeen he went inside and never looked back.
I’m stickin’ with the Union…
Stosh was a United Auto Workers man to his bones. The UAW had gotten him a house and put three children through college. And when he got cancer? It gave him ‘cadillac’ health insurance and a for realz pension for his wife after he passed. He never thanked “General Motors” for his life. He thanked “the United Auto Workers”.
By today’s standards, he was what someone under fifty might think of as an “Archie Bunker” figure. Well, yes and no. All ‘comedy’ aside, Archie Bunker was accurate as hell. He was no caricature. That was “the world”.
But I did not and do not think of Stosh like that for many reasons. He was a loving husband and though he did not even make it through high school, and considered whiskey, buttermilk and sardines a fine dining experience, 😀 he was the furthest thing from the ignorant figure of Archie Bunker you could imagine. He was amazingly skilled with his hands and capable of tremendous sensitivity.
And one other thing: In a similar way, Stosh’s entire generation represented a very real (though imperfect) level of environmentalism.
Direct action…
Stosh absolutely revered the generation of workers immediately before him who had built the Union through their courage and direct action. They had complained repeatedly to management that the factory had poor ventilation. So one day, a group of workers simply went up to a brick wall and took turns beating on it with sledge hammers, holding off plant security until they had created a very large hole. And when they were done, they told the plant boss, “You can put the fan there.”
But they did not stop there. Throughout the ’50’s and ’60’s UAW workers continued to stage a string of protests about issues outside the factory. It became the policy of the Locals to promote better water and air quality along the Detroit River and in their nearby neighbourhoods. They pushed the auto companies to be “better neighbours” because they recognised that all the pollution was bad not just for workers, but for their families.
I’ve written before about Congressman John Dingell, who was so pivotal in creating the EPA, the modern Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Dingell was Stosh’s congressman. And no way would Dingell have succeeded if the UAW had not been behind him all the way.
Then something happened…
At some point in the ’70’s, a tension developed between the environmental movement and union workers. I believe this has been the result of people who do not have workers’ or union interests at heart.
Job killers?
Today, whenever anyone suggests that health, safety and environmental controls (which are all the same thing, really) are “job killers” follow the money.
The truth is, and always has been, that the nations, states and companies with the strongest environmental protections do better financially. Check it out. Want low wages? Just look at places with poor worker health and environmental protections.
The Airport Discount…
An ongoing argument I have had with my colleagues–and electeds across the region–is over “growth” and “the airport.” I’ve heard exactly the same quote from electeds who support everyone from Bernie to Trump…
“The airport keeps my taxes low.”
Which is a way of saying….
“Thank goodness for all that noise and pollution. Yeah, the schools are poor and people (especially kids) are at risk for all sorts of ongoing health problems, but that airport discount is totally worth it!”
If you’re conservative, you love the low taxes. If you’re the kind of ‘progressive’ you respond to something called ‘affordability’. Different bread, same sandwich.
And it’s a shitty sandwich. Your health, the health of your children, and the health of our town, are not worth some insane form of ‘airport discount’.
Why things never improve…
For those of you who are puzzled as to why our city (and others) have not been more aggressive in demanding less noise and pollution from the airport–even as it expands, that’s a big reason. Today, at the local level, there is simply no lane for “environmentalism” among electeds. You can energise both Democrats and Republicans by promoting “jobs!” and “growth!”
Somewhere along the line, the notion of healthy air and less noise became the same kind of shrug people used to have about lead in gasoline–sure it kills hundreds of thousands of people, but hey, I need to gas up my car!
or… Or… OR… we could just demand lead-free gas and stop listening to people who say how “impossible” everything is.
Please make up… (heart emoji goes here)
Unions have been on the downward slide for a long time in America. And the slide began at the same time that unions and environmentalists began to sit on opposite sides of most conversations. I think that was a mistake for both sides, not only because giving up on environmental concerns did not save jobs, but also because workers tend to live in neighbourhoods with the greatest need for healthier living conditions.
Most of us do not live out in some idyllic wilderness. Most of us live near a factory. A highway. An airport. And again: health and safety (including the planet) lead to better wages and working conditions for workers. Check it out.
I am extremely pleased to see unions making a halting comeback. It’s about time. And as they do, I hope they look back to people like Stosh and think about putting the environment further up on their list of priorities.
Summary
Environmental protections, including the noise and pollution from the airport can only help workers and their families. Those policies are not job killers. Again, the nations, states and companies with the strongest environmental protections do better financially–and so do their workers.
The ‘airport discount’ was always a lie. Des Moines should be quieter, have cleaner air, better schools and receive a fairer share of the economic engine of the Port of Seattle. That is formula that benefits everyone who lives here and that is the message I will continue to tirelessly promote for all working people and their families in Des Moines.
Happy Labor Day.
*I lived out of a suitcase for many years as a professional musician and a member of AFM Local 5 (Detroit) and AFM Local 802 (New York). Nobody thinks of ‘musician’ and ‘union’ in the same sentence these days, but there was a time where your AFM Card could be a ticket to a very good career.
Categories History
Pet Haven Pet Cemetery
Format GalleryLocated just south of Kent Des Moines Road Pet Haven Cemetery 23646 Military Rd S. Kent, WA 98032 is one of those interesting spots you never knew existed.
I took an interest recently when a cell tower was sited there and a local group began campaigning for the place to be given historical status. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Update (2024-12-30): Good article today in Seattle Times. They have a new URL, but it goes to the same old web site which did not respond to my requests for info, and which makes no mention of the place. There is now a Facebook group called Community and Friends of Seattle-Tacoma Pet Cemetery now you might want to check out.
Categories Economic Development, Marina, Neighborhoods, Policy, Public Safety, Transparency, Weekly Updates
Weekly Update: 08/28/2022
Leave a comment on Weekly Update: 08/28/2022This Week
All week I’m gonna be trying to get the word out about this. If you’d care to join me in knocking on some doors in Pacific Ridge? Please let me know. 🙂
I gotta be honest. Other than that? Not much going on. (Well, that I’m gonna tell you about. 😀 ) Giving me a call and let me know what’s happening in your part of the world. (206) 878-0578. 🙂
Whoops?
OK, actually, SeaTacNoise.Info just celebrated our 200,000th page and our sixth anniversary. For those of you not clued in, SeaTacNoise.Info is basically a digital museum of everything having to do with the airport from the community POV. We’re the first, the largest, and… the only one. 😀
There are a gajillion places to learn about ‘the history of flight’ or airports or ‘aviation’ but they’re all from the POV of pilots and passengers and basically how great it is. 😀 We’re about the communities that live next to all that stuff. Some of it is good. Most of it is, objectively speaking, not.
If we could do so easily, we’d probably rename the site:
EverythingYouThinkYouKnowaboutSeaTacAirportIsWrong.whoops
Because, everything you think you know about Sea-Tac Airport is wrong. Whoops. 😀
In 100 words, we’re exactly like any mature industry. When things were firing up in the 60’s, Boeing created lots of jobs. But as any industry matures, the profits move away. The jobs move away. The HQ moves away. But the people near the factory are left with terrible negative impacts that never get addressed. And the reason it’s soooooooo hard to rebalance is because: a) people are so nostalgic for a world that no longer exists and b) the industry simply cannot make money if it pays what it owes. ie. if the entire financial model is based on not paying people for the community impacts. Des Moines is to the airport what the suburbs of Detroit were to the auto industry in Detroit.
And if yer bugged about the airport and wonder why things seem impossible? That’s the reason. So if you have a chance, head on over there and take a look around. If it seems confusing? You’re not wrong. 😀 We’ve uploaded a ton of stuff. But it’s been mostly technical stuff for researchers and it’s been really hard to find basic stuff like “Why can’t they create a curfew?”
We need you to ask us some questions so we can figure out how to explain it in a way that makes sense for normal (non-technical expert) people. 🙂
Last Week
Thursday: 4:00PM Economic Development Committee Meeting (Agenda) (Video). Staff will provide an update on the Fast Ferry Service Pilot Project.
Thursday: 5:00PM Municipal Facilities Committee Meeting (Agenda)(Video) The City Manager provided an update on the Fast Ferry Service Pilot Project.
- The new park has complaints re. security. City Manager says we will utilise private security from Marina. Closing off Fifth Ave not until at least 2024?
- Mahoney comments: Storyboards. Great listening sessions. Great culture. Viewing Ferry, kicking butt going in and kicking butt going out.
- Boat Hoist (Mahoney refers to as ‘sling’ which us old people know as the launch removed in 2008.) Replacement has been permitted and 45% design (wow!) and is included in Phase 1 of the dock replacement project (L, M, and N docks)–nothing on tenant restroom project.
- The new Park will be getting the following Story Pole. City has plans to have ongoing relationship w tribal historian (Lizard Woman.)
Thursday: 6:00PM City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) Some highlights:
- The City Manager gave the same update on the Ferry Pilot as he did at 4:00PM and then 5:00PM.
- We voted to accept a grant to help defray the cost of cases thrown out due to the Blake Decision. The packet said there are 228 cases. But then the court clerk suggested that number might be more like 55,000? I was chastised by City Manager for being hard on Court Clerk. But 228 to 55,000? 😀 Yes, I have questions.
- Washington State Opioid Distributor Settlement Agreement.
- There will be a new “Cash Handling” presentation. Every time I think “Legacy” has stopped being a thing? It’s still a thing. 😀 It was a necessary thing, but there was a sentence which was yet another passive aggressive dig. I asked that those five words be excised… and… why do I bother? 😀
New Items For Consideration
- Councilmember Nutting wants the City to create a formal letter in support of the Highline School Levy. I’m not sure I support it because, frankly, I’m not all that jazzed about these levies. How can this be, Harris? Why, why, you child hater! 😀
- No, the levy won’t increase your taxes. But the fact is, the levy is being extended to replace three schools (including Pacific Middle School) which were funded with the Third Runway settlement and a 2002 Highline Levy. Pacific Middle School was originally scheduled to be completed by 2016 with that original tranche of money.
- HSD401 got a truly extraordinary amount of ARPA Stimulus money. They’re per pupil funding is near $24,000! To put that in perspective, the current tuition at Kennedy Catholic School is $16,500! Since when does a private school cost less than a public school?
- And just between you and me and the wall? I am not entirely thrilled with the lack of programs at our Des Moines schools. South DM is definitely not getting the choices as the north end of the district.
- I’m not saying don’t vote for it. I probably will. But I’m no longer auto-voting ‘Yes’ on everything ‘Highline’. At least, not until programs here start getting the same attention as the rest of the District. I want the new Super to succeed. I’m really excited with our new Director Hagos. But somehow we gotta find a way to send a message: send more programs to Des Moines, now!
- I proposed that we do a review of Code Enforcement, which did not get a second. But it should have. We had a complaint from a local business on Pac Hwy and he was only echoing two other complaints I’ve received from business on Pac Highway. I said that I had been getting complaints about code enforcement from both residents and business. The City Manager chastised me for not reporting these to the administration, when he was part of an email chain on one of these just last week.
It’s all Code Enforcement
I had a conversation with a long-time cashier at a local retail store and she told me that, for the first time in her career she is scared. I’ve known her for years and thought she was immune. Like many, she really does feel like the police don’t care–unless there are shots fired. But she can’t say that to the police for fear of appearing unsupportive.
To our new police. We all appreciate you. I wish the City Manager would tell people about these surprise presentations so we could get more of the public to show up with their support. This isn’t on you. It’s on us.
To my colleagues: Pac Hwy? Redondo? It’s all code enforcement. We had half a dozen people in the audience begging us to do something and the Council’s response was utterly tone-deaf. Asking the Council to review Code Enforcement was a no-brainer. It would have shown we’re willing to try something different. And your willingness to do the wrong thing just to spite me shows how far we are (already) from the “New Council” of just eight months ago. Shame.
Comments
I mentioned Ultrafine Particulates again. Look, this is one of those things that we’ve gotten so used to we don’t see it as a problem. It’s like lead back in the day. UFPs from aircraft, like lead from gas engine exhaust, are invisible, odorless and they have some terrible health consequences. We got lead out of gasoline and that has saved hundreds of thousands of lives and (literally) made every child smarter. (Lead exposure for kids reduces IQ among other things.) UFPs are not being monitored and they should be. The City of SeaTac tends to get those types of studies because decision makers (wrongly) think that being next to the airport has the worst health effects. We don’t know that. In fact with lead, dosages don’t matter that much. That’s why we need a monitor in DM. It’s the only way we get paid for the health impacts.
13 Days
For those of you who don’t enjoy my sparkling prose in general, or just to save yourself some time? Skip to the Big Reveal. 🙂 Some people have told me that they find it somehow inappropriate to post my opinions off the dais. I would point out that, unlike other cities, we are generally not afforded the opportunity for open discussion after such presentations. Therefore, this article is the reply I would have given from the dais if our Council Rules were more like those in other cities.
Could we get a copy of those numbers to council member Harris and Councilmember Achziger just so they have them for the rest of us before the end of the meeting? That would be great.
At the beginning of our 25 August meeting, the City Manager gave a glowing progress report on the first thirteen days of our ferry pilot program. At the end of which, Mayor Mahoney wanted to make certain that I received a print-out of the fare box report after thirteen days of service, which Bonnie Wilkins printed out and handed me as I was leaving. (Now that’s service. 😀 )
This is success?
Now, I do have a visual disability which prevents me from seeing these presentations on the big screen–and the City Manager just refuses to provide them ahead of time. But my ears still work. And this was the third time I’d heard the presentation, which had been given at 4:00PM for Chair Nutting’s Economic Development Committee and then again at 5:00PM for also Chair Nutting’s Municipal Facilities Committee. So I pretty much had it memorised. 🙂 And what I heard was this: We’re already losing at least as much money as I forecast in my first article on the topic, This Is Insane.
Costs of Ferry Farebox 2.5 Weeks (excludes contracted fuel and management fees)
| Week | †Bookings | Potential Pax | Actual Pax | Δ | Subtotal | Tax | Potential Revenue | Actual Revenue | *Estimated Cost | *Profit (Loss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1024 | 2,480 | 2,752 | 111% | $0 | $0 | 24,800 | $0 | $20,685 | ($20,685) |
| 2 | 815 | 2,480 | 1,943 | 78% | $11,182 | $1,133 | 24,800 | $11,695 | $20,685 | ($8,990) |
| 3 | 548 | 2,480 | 1,391 | 56% | $7,701 | $780 | 24,800 | $8,230 | $20,685 | ($12,455) |
| Totals | 7,440 | 6,086 | 81% | $74,400 | $19,925 | $62,055 | ($42,130) |
Some random observations:
- We may have a huge Blues & Brews rush in Week 3. And the holiday weekend may also be pretty good (fingers crossed.) But we are not making money, because it’s impossible to make money.
- And because I’m nice, my profit formula is waaaaaaaaaaay too generous because I’m not including fuel. Granted, since we’re selling it to ourselves, it’s cheap fuel, but it is definitely not free fuel. And, I am not including over $200,000 in consultant fees, plus another $85,000 in marketing costs..
- First week, 2,780 pax. Which is fantastic, but also a bit weird since the boat has 62 seats and had 40 sailings–which is 2,480. OK, so who was water skiiing? 😀
- Second week: $11,200 from 1,943 pax. Which means we generated $5.75/seat. And just to be clear, our revenue potential is $24,800. Maybe we’re handling mostly seniors?
- Bookings are down each week.
- And also, if your marketing pre-spend is $70,000 (including half-pagers in the Sunday Times) and you give it away for a week? If your initial ridership was not fabulous I’d be surprised.
- I wonder if we’re tracking walk-ons.
- I wonder if we’re tracking parking at Marina.
I wonder a lot of things. 😀
Visitors Guide
I’m just a dumb engineer, but when you run ads with QR codes that do not work, and only think to offer a restaurant guide or street map for visitors after the Week 3, I gotta wonder about our marketing efforts.
(I would also remind the public that there is already a presentable a Restaurant List, with PDF, for visitors here at https:/takeoutdesmoines.com.)
One Time Money For One Time Expenses
During his presentation, and without naming moi, the City Manager pointed out an error I have been making in my blog. The Council had not been advised as to the source of the funds we are using to pay for the ‘beta’. So, I had been speculating that it was in the $2.5M of ARPA money allocated to ‘the marina’. Apparently not. We learned tonight that it is, in fact, from our Capital Projects fund.
That fund is meant to set aside the one-time money we get from construction. The idea is to use that for our own long term projects such as Parks.
So my other main objection also remains. We’re still using one-time money to test a project that will have ongoing expenses which are waaaaaaaay beyond this thing’s revenue potential. How can we fund something like this on an ongoing basis with one-time money?
This use of funds goes against the purpose of that capital fund and I object that it was used as a funding source without obtaining authorisation by the City Council.
The phrase “one-time money for one-time projects” is considered a cornerstone of good municipal budgeting. (It was the mantra of former Mayor 3Dave Kaplan.) It’s bad practice to use one-time money for ongoing expenses because one-time money is unpredictable. If you depend on one-time money for ongoing expenses, if the one-time money runs out (for example if there’s a recession and construction stops)? You can no longer pay for those ongoing expenses.
So good practice is to only use sustainable revenue–money you can count on every month–for ongoing expenses. For example, property and utility taxes are among the right ways to pay for salaries.
Now, most of you have heard by now about our city’s long series of financial crises–and how the current majority ‘saved the city’. And in fact, when things began to turn around, Mayor Dave and then Mayor Pina swore that bad practices like using one-time money for ongoing projects were over for good.
Summary
- It’s a very fun thing to do and since we’ve already paid for it. I encourage everyone to give it a shot.
- But we’re losing as much money as expected.
- We paid an absolute fortune for a truly half-assed roll-out and I’m sounding harsh because for this kind of money we should not have left any money on the table for all our local businesses.
- We’re using one-time money from a fund never meant for ongoing expenses. So we’re robbing from other, proper purposes.
- And if we do continue, we have no ongoing way to pay for it without robbing from core functions or following the same bad practices as previous administrations.
The Big Reveal
OK, above I was trying to be generous. Here is something much closer to the real costs. And the red number is the more realistic loss. In truth, by early next week we’ll already have lost $100,000.
Costs of Ferry Farebox 2.5 Weeks (includes contracted fuel and management fees)
| Week | †Bookings | Potential Pax | Actual Pax | Δ | Subtotal | Tax | Potential Revenue | Actual Revenue | *Estimated Cost | *Profit (Loss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1024 | 2,480 | 2,752 | 111% | $0 | $0 | 24,800 | $0 | $38,362 | ($38,362) |
| 2 | 815 | 2,480 | 1,943 | 78% | $11,182 | $1,133 | 24,800 | $11,695 | $38,362 | ($26,667) |
| 3 | 548 | 2,480 | 1,391 | 56% | $7,701 | $780 | 24,800 | $8,230 | $38,362 | ($30,132) |
| Totals | 7,440 | 6,086 | 81% | $74,400 | $19,925 | $115,086 | ($95,161) |
According to the contract we signed below we’re paying $470,263 for 43 days of sailing. I’m (again) going to be generous and remove a lot of that junk from the table since ‘marketing’ and ‘setting up ticketing system’ might be things that carry into the future. (I’m too nice, they’ll be redone, of course.) And I’ve ignored the $90,000 in ongoing/recurring ‘consultant’ fees and I threw out the other advertising we’ve done which is at least another $90k.
But everything else, $328,913 is a recurring cost. Ops. Fuel. Insurance. Moorage. That’s still $329,913 for 43 days of sailing. Which makes the weekly nut: $38,362.
Which means that again, even at 100% adult (no seniors, kiddos or freebies) ridership, we will always lose at least:
- $13,562 a week… or
- $56,960 a month.. or…
- $683,524 a year.
These are the results that caused the Mayor to be positively smug; after only 13 days of service. On one level, I admire a certain degree of confidence in any form of promotion. It called to mind the expression “fake it ’til ya make it” which I recall vividly from my time in the music biz.
River City
Speaking of which, years ago, I had the honour of playing in a revival of The Music Man, with the author, Meredith Willson, in the house. I got to shake his hand! And 1I haven’t washed that hand since. That is how much I love that show.
The Music Man is the story of a huckster, Professor Harold Hill, who comes to a certain town in Iowa with a fairly elaborate grift. He pre-sells band instruments and uniforms to locals along with a method of musical instruction he calls “The Think System.” No practicing required.
The townspeople pride themselves as practical, no-nonsense people. But their town leaders have been itching to do something for their growing town for quite some time. And this is the real point of the story. Initially, Hill is able to prey on the town, not so much because the parents love their kids, but because of their exaggerated sense of their own sophistication. He convinces everyone that having a great band will put their town on the map! They want to believe so much that they completely ignore how absurd it is. Even the prudish Marian The Librarian (the town’s piano teacher!) is taken in–because the guy is just so damned charming.
The Professor takes the deposits and tells them that the rest is due on delivery. (He does order the instruments– but COD–pockets the deposits, and plans to leave a day or two before the gear shows up.)
Of course, the town figures out it’s all a scam. At the climax, they get ready to tar and feather the Professor. But his new girlfriend Marian The Librarian 😀 leaps to his defense and demands they give him a chance to prove himself. What has he got to lose, right? So he slumps up to the podium, raises his baton and begins ‘conducting’ his new band. And let me tell ya… 2those kids absolutely suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. 😀
But… turns out that no one cares. When that racket commences, all those parents hear is what they want to hear. It’s their kid, in a crisp new uniform, playing a shiny new horn, looking mighty happy. When we (the real musicians) play “Seventy Six Trombones” that’s what the parents are hearing in their heads. So, the Professor becomes a hero, gets the girl (who thinks she’ll reform him 😀 ), and the town continues on–a bit poorer, and a bit more tone deaf than before.
†Bookings don’t correlate with weekly traffic because although you may book today, your trip may be three weeks from now.
1Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ve washed my right hand at least four billion times since the pandemic began. 🙂
2In this scene, you’re required to sound like a child. playing really, really baaad. One of the tougher things for a professional musician to do–you spend years trying not to sound like this.
3I am actually not crying “hypocrite!” as much as it may seem. The fact is, all City Councils are under pressure by residents to maintain services; ‘good budgeting’ be damned. Using one-time money for the current ferry pilot is far more egregious because today, there is no crisis to use as an excuse.
1I know what yer thinking. 😀
2I just made that up. Feel free to use it.
13 days
2 Comments on 13 daysFor those of you who don’t enjoy my sparkling prose in general, or just to save yourself some time? Skip to the Big Reveal. 🙂 Some people have told me that they find it somehow inappropriate to post my opinions off the dais. I would point out that, unlike other cities, we are generally not afforded the opportunity for open discussion after such presentations. Therefore, this article is the reply I would have given from the dais if our Council Rules were more like those in other cities.
Could we get a copy of those numbers to council member Harris and Councilmember Achziger just so they have them for the rest of us before the end of the meeting? That would be great.
At the beginning of our 25 August meeting, the City Manager gave a glowing progress report on the first thirteen days of our ferry pilot program. At the end of which, Mayor Mahoney wanted to make certain that I received a print-out of the fare box report after thirteen days of service, which Bonnie Wilkins printed out and handed me as I was leaving. (Now that’s service. 😀 )
This is success?
Now, I do have a visual disability which prevents me from seeing these presentations on the big screen–and the City Manager just refuses to provide them ahead of time. But my ears still work. And this was the third time I’d heard the presentation, which had been given at 4:00PM for Chair Nutting’s Economic Development Committee and then again at 5:00PM for also Chair Nutting’s Municipal Facilities Committee. So I pretty much had it memorised. 🙂 And what I heard was this: We’re already losing at least as much money as I forecast in my first article on the topic, This Is Insane.
Costs of Ferry Farebox 2.5 Weeks (excludes contracted fuel and management fees)
| Week | †Bookings | Potential Pax | Actual Pax | Δ | Subtotal | Tax | Potential Revenue | Actual Revenue | *Estimated Cost | *Profit (Loss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1024 | 2,480 | 2,752 | 111% | $0 | $0 | 24,800 | $0 | $20,685 | ($20,685) |
| 2 | 815 | 2,480 | 1,943 | 78% | $11,182 | $1,133 | 24,800 | $11,695 | $20,685 | ($8,990) |
| 3 | 548 | 2,480 | 1,391 | 56% | $7,701 | $780 | 24,800 | $8,230 | $20,685 | ($12,455) |
| Totals | 7,440 | 6,086 | 81% | $74,400 | $19,925 | $62,055 | ($42,130) |
Some random observations:
- We may have a huge Blues & Brews rush in Week 3. And the holiday weekend may also be pretty good (fingers crossed.) But we are not making money, because it’s impossible to make money.
- And because I’m nice, my profit formula is waaaaaaaaaaay too generous because I’m not including fuel. Granted, since we’re selling it to ourselves, it’s cheap fuel, but it is definitely not free fuel. And, I am not including over $200,000 in consultant fees, plus another $85,000 in marketing costs..
- First week, 2,780 pax. Which is fantastic, but also a bit weird since the boat has 62 seats and had 40 sailings–which is 2,480. OK, so who was water skiiing? 😀
- Second week: $11,200 from 1,943 pax. Which means we generated $5.75/seat. And just to be clear, our revenue potential is $24,800. Maybe we’re handling mostly seniors?
- Bookings are down each week.
- And also, if your marketing pre-spend is $70,000 (including half-pagers in the Sunday Times) and you give it away for a week? If your initial ridership was not fabulous I’d be surprised.
- I wonder if we’re tracking walk-ons.
- I wonder if we’re tracking parking at Marina.
I wonder a lot of things. 😀
Visitors Guide
I’m just a dumb engineer, but when you run ads with QR codes that do not work, and only think to offer a restaurant guide or street map for visitors after the Week 3, I gotta wonder about our marketing efforts.
(I would also remind the public that there is already a presentable a Restaurant List, with PDF, for visitors here at https:/takeoutdesmoines.com.)
One Time Money For One Time Expenses
During his presentation, and without naming moi, the City Manager pointed out an error I have been making in my blog. The Council had not been advised as to the source of the funds we are using to pay for the ‘beta’. So, I had been speculating that it was in the $2.5M of ARPA money allocated to ‘the marina’. Apparently not. We learned tonight that it is, in fact, from our Capital Projects fund.
That fund is meant to set aside the one-time money we get from construction. The idea is to use that for our own long term projects such as Parks.
So my other main objection also remains. We’re still using one-time money to test a project that will have ongoing expenses which are waaaaaaaay beyond this thing’s revenue potential. How can we fund something like this on an ongoing basis with one-time money?
This use of funds goes against the purpose of that capital fund and I object that it was used as a funding source without obtaining authorisation by the City Council.
The phrase “one-time money for one-time projects” is considered a cornerstone of good municipal budgeting. (It was the mantra of former Mayor 3Dave Kaplan.) It’s bad practice to use one-time money for ongoing expenses because one-time money is unpredictable. If you depend on one-time money for ongoing expenses, if the one-time money runs out (for example if there’s a recession and construction stops)? You can no longer pay for those ongoing expenses.
So good practice is to only use sustainable revenue–money you can count on every month–for ongoing expenses. For example, property and utility taxes are among the right ways to pay for salaries.
Now, most of you have heard by now about our city’s long series of financial crises–and how the current majority ‘saved the city’. And in fact, when things began to turn around, Mayor Dave and then Mayor Pina swore that bad practices like using one-time money for ongoing projects were over for good.
Summary
- It’s a very fun thing to do and since we’ve already paid for it. I encourage everyone to give it a shot.
- But we’re losing as much money as expected.
- We paid an absolute fortune for a truly half-assed roll-out and I’m sounding harsh because for this kind of money we should not have left any money on the table for all our local businesses.
- We’re using one-time money from a fund never meant for ongoing expenses. So we’re robbing from other, proper purposes.
- And if we do continue, we have no ongoing way to pay for it without robbing from core functions or following the same bad practices as previous administrations.
The Big Reveal
OK, above I was trying to be generous. Here is something much closer to the real costs. And the red number is the more realistic loss. In truth, by early next week we’ll already have lost $100,000.
Costs of Ferry Farebox 2.5 Weeks (includes contracted fuel and management fees)
| Week | †Bookings | Potential Pax | Actual Pax | Δ | Subtotal | Tax | Potential Revenue | Actual Revenue | *Estimated Cost | *Profit (Loss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1024 | 2,480 | 2,752 | 111% | $0 | $0 | 24,800 | $0 | $38,362 | ($38,362) |
| 2 | 815 | 2,480 | 1,943 | 78% | $11,182 | $1,133 | 24,800 | $11,695 | $38,362 | ($26,667) |
| 3 | 548 | 2,480 | 1,391 | 56% | $7,701 | $780 | 24,800 | $8,230 | $38,362 | ($30,132) |
| Totals | 7,440 | 6,086 | 81% | $74,400 | $19,925 | $115,086 | ($95,161) |
According to the contract we signed below we’re paying $470,263 for 43 days of sailing. I’m (again) going to be generous and remove a lot of that junk from the table since ‘marketing’ and ‘setting up ticketing system’ might be things that carry into the future. (I’m too nice, they’ll be redone, of course.) And I’ve ignored the $90,000 in ongoing/recurring ‘consultant’ fees and I threw out the other advertising we’ve done which is at least another $90k.
But everything else, $328,913 is a recurring cost. Ops. Fuel. Insurance. Moorage. That’s still $329,913 for 43 days of sailing. Which makes the weekly nut: $38,362.
Which means that again, even at 100% adult (no seniors, kiddos or freebies) ridership, we will always lose at least:
- $13,562 a week… or
- $56,960 a month.. or…
- $683,524 a year.
These are the results that caused the Mayor to be positively smug; after only 13 days of service. On one level, I admire a certain degree of confidence in any form of promotion. It called to mind the expression “fake it ’til ya make it” which I recall vividly from my time in the music biz.
River City
Speaking of which, years ago, I had the honour of playing in a revival of The Music Man, with the author, Meredith Willson, in the house. I got to shake his hand! And 1I haven’t washed that hand since. That is how much I love that show.
The Music Man is the story of a huckster, Professor Harold Hill, who comes to a certain town in Iowa with a fairly elaborate grift. He pre-sells band instruments and uniforms to locals along with a method of musical instruction he calls “The Think System.” No practicing required.
The townspeople pride themselves as practical, no-nonsense people. But their town leaders have been itching to do something for their growing town for quite some time. And this is the real point of the story. Initially, Hill is able to prey on the town, not so much because the parents love their kids, but because of their exaggerated sense of their own sophistication. He convinces everyone that having a great band will put their town on the map! They want to believe so much that they completely ignore how absurd it is. Even the prudish Marian The Librarian (the town’s piano teacher!) is taken in–because the guy is just so damned charming.
The Professor takes the deposits and tells them that the rest is due on delivery. (He does order the instruments– but COD–pockets the deposits, and plans to leave a day or two before the gear shows up.)
Of course, the town figures out it’s all a scam. At the climax, they get ready to tar and feather the Professor. But his new girlfriend Marian The Librarian 😀 leaps to his defense and demands they give him a chance to prove himself. What has he got to lose, right? So he slumps up to the podium, raises his baton and begins ‘conducting’ his new band. And let me tell ya… 2those kids absolutely suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. 😀
But… turns out that no one cares. When that racket commences, all those parents hear is what they want to hear. It’s their kid, in a crisp new uniform, playing a shiny new horn, looking mighty happy. When we (the real musicians) play “Seventy Six Trombones” that’s what the parents are hearing in their heads. So, the Professor becomes a hero, gets the girl (who thinks she’ll reform him 😀 ), and the town continues on–a bit poorer, and a bit more tone deaf than before.
†Bookings don’t correlate with weekly traffic because although you may book today, your trip may be three weeks from now.
1Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ve washed my right hand at least four billion times since the pandemic began. 🙂
2In this scene, you’re required to sound like a child. playing really, really baaad. One of the tougher things for a professional musician to do–you spend years trying not to sound like this.
3I am actually not crying “hypocrite!” as much as it may seem. The fact is, all City Councils are under pressure by residents to maintain services; ‘good budgeting’ be damned. Using one-time money for the current ferry pilot is far more egregious because today, there is no crisis to use as an excuse.
Categories Economic Development, Marina, Neighborhoods, Policy, Public Safety, Transparency, Weekly Updates
Weekly Update: 08/21/2022
Leave a comment on Weekly Update: 08/21/2022This Week
Thursday: 4:00PM Economic Development Committee Meeting (Agenda) (Video). Staff will provide an update on the Fast Ferry Service Pilot Project.
Thursday: 5:00PM Municipal Facilities Committee Meeting (Agenda)(Video)
- The new Park will be getting the following Story Pole:
Thursday: 6:00PM City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) Some highlights:
- The City Manager will give an update on the Ferry Pilot which has now completed its second week.
- Washington State Opioid Distributor Settlement Agreement.
- There will be a new “Cash Handling” presentation. Every time I think “Legacy” has stopped being a thing? It’s still a thing. 😀
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.
Last Week
Monday: Masonic Home SEPA Public Comment Meeting (Video) If you want to comment, you have until August 25th. Here is all you need to know.
Tuesday: King County Flood Control District. You tend to see the same people on a lot of these meetings. Unlike our City Council Meetings, I almost never speak at meetings 1elsewhere. But this was one time I felt I had something to say. Much of our grid is at or nearing end of life. Inflation this year is 400% higher than two years ago. We could start a project today and by the time it’s done, the cost might triple. Dinky cities like DM need some form of price certainty. If we run into problems on a project, we should have some opportunity to recoup those overruns.
Wednesday: Reach Out Des Moines. The attendance from National Night Out was excellent! Our leader Brenda did something very cool: she offered to start some form of community meetings. And I offered to tag along.
Friday: South King County Housing & Homelessness Partners (SKHHP). After three years? First budget!
What we owe the future
Most people, for various reasons, have a very strong ‘now’ and ‘me’ bias. I’m sure you are absolutely fabulous in every way that fabulosity can be measured. But, just speaking statistically, very few of us save for retirement, start writing our term paper until December, Read the instructions, Quit smoking, Or, dare I say it, show up for City Council Meetings. 😀
That does not mean that we don’t do many, many wonderful things for our families and for our community. We certainly do. But… somehow… someway… they tend to be… in some fashion… About now. And about us.
Many people tend to think of local government as handling a very narrow range of issues: Permits, Potholes, Public Safety and Parades–with a sort of a customer service counter for handling immediate problems. So we only tend to complain when a specific problem affects us. And by then it’s often too late.
In fact, Cities like DM are designed to push those biases. The ‘big picture’ is supposed to be left to the State and Federal Governments. Local law strongly favours the present and the rights of individuals over concerns about “the community” and “the future”.
Recently, my daughter has made me aware that she is not entirely happy with this state of affairs. This change of heart may have begun shortly after new human beings started popping out of her body. But it really kicked into gear (for some reason) when the COVID bailout money started flowing. It occurred to her that I’m not going to have to pay for it. And she is not going to have to pay for it. Instead, her children are going to have to pay for all the money we’re putting on the credit card now.
So, she has started entertaining the notion that whether or not she has access to this, that, or the other wonderful thing now (or in her childhood) may be less important than whether or not her children’s children will have the same (or better) opportunities.
In short, she has begun adopting the philosophy that we owe certain things to the future.
On its face, that sounds very nice. Everyone is ‘deeply concerned’ about something called ‘the future’. But imagine how radical it is if you actually try to do it. It would mean that at every meeting, every decision would have to take into account people who have not been born or have not moved here. You’d have to pretend that these people are at the table and that they get a vote.
Maybe it sounds absurd (or arrogant) to try to predict what ‘future people’ want. But actually, it’s not all that hard to a first approximation. You could do a lot worse than to suggest that they will want as much (or more) of what you like about Des Moines and less of what you don’t.
How can I say this so confidently? Empires may come and empires may go, but when it comes to local government, NIMBYs are forever. 😀 In 50 years, transportation may be different, homes may be different. But people who move here will still want a nice view. Clean air. Quiet. A sense of safety. Good schools. Parks for their kids. Etc. Etc. This is not rocket surgery.
But at the end of the day, it’s like saving for retirement or studying for that term paper. If we really care about giving ‘the future’ a seat at the table, it means giving up a seat.
So when I talk about historic preservation, it’s because my kids loooooved that stuff–and every Sunday I see people flock to the old Covenant buildings. When I get upset about the airport, it’s the same deal because my kids can’t stand how noisy it’s gotten. When I grouse about that Ferry thing it’s not because I don’t see the entertainment value. It’s because I know it’s taking money from something else.
I’ve said it before. Everything I do politically and 2activistically is because we had a nice time here and I feel an obligation to pay it forward.
I’m not stuck in the past. It’s just that there are certain qualities that made Des Moines so great for us. And those features should be maintained and enhanced because the future will appreciate them as much, if not more, than we do.
When you see something “Oooh, cool!” like the Ferry Pilot, I’m not trying to guilt people into thinking about the how much money we’re taking from the future in order to give you a free ride? (See what I did there? 😀 )
Whenever we vote for something, I’d just like people to ask some basic questions:
- Is this thing paid for?
- Where is this money coming from?
- What are we giving up to do this?
- What are we getting in return beyond the “Oooh, cool!” factor?
- Where will this take the City in 25/50 years?
Those are questions parents ask–Mature individuals who have future people to think about. And just so you understand: in college I spent a lot of nights playing in a punk band, drinking, smoking, not wearing a seat belt, and definitely not studying until December. Things worked out OK. But… it wasn’t exactly a fantastic strategy. I just got lucky. Real lucky.
I grew up (sort of) and started seeing things a bit differently. Probably about the time some of those future people started popping out of my wife’s body.
1I know what yer thinking. 😀
2I just made that up. Feel free to use it.
Prepare to comment for the Masonic Home Demolition EIS Public Meeting
1 Comment on Prepare to comment for the Masonic Home Demolition EIS Public MeetingAt 6:00PM on August 15, 2022 there will be a Zoom meeting, to take public comment on the SEPA process for the demolition permit of the Masonic Home. The consultant (ESA) will be there, as well as the City SEPA official, Denise Lathrop. You need to sign up in advance and read up here: https://desmoineswa.gov/zenitheis.
To prepare, you can, well, first things first, actually read that page carefully. And then you can…
#1. Read the Environmental Checklist filled out by the owner.
This gives you a ton of information on how the owner perceives the project. Perhaps your most useful tool for giving you ideas on what to comment on.
https://jcharrisfordesmoines.com/wp-content/uploads/SEPA-Landmark-on-the-Sound.pdf
#2. Watch the City’s SEPA Official explain the process…
On 5 May, 2022, the Des Moines City Council received a briefing on the SEPA process for the Masonic Home Demolition, with follow-up questions. Here is the discussion from Susan Cezar, who was SEPA official at the time. Ultimately, it is the SEPA Official who will decide whether or not to grant the permit, or what mitigation approach will be taken.
#3. Read The Environmental Consultant’s Contract
And here is the contract with ESA, the consultants running the study on behalf of the owner. Note the spreadsheet with a list of subcontractors at the end. Each sub has a different area of expertise and a certain number of hours allocated and that can be helpful in understanding what they expect to study. If there are important specialties you do not see on this list? Say so!
ESA Contract for Masonic Demolition SEPA
#4. Watch the first public meeting…
Watching the first round of public commenters has two huge benefits.
A. It should give you plenty of ideas on what to do/what not to do.
B. Remember: this second public meeting is a gift you should not pass up, due to an error made by the consultant. And that is also something you can comment on… the process itself.
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- If you live nearby, has everyone in your neighbourhood been notified?
- Do you feel that you have received adequate information on the process?
- Do you feel that the public engagement has been good/bad/indifferent? How could it be better?
- If the first public meeting was not what you’d hoped, you can comment at this upcoming meeting on how future public engagement should work.
#5. Watch the second SEPA Public Comment meeting…
#6. Learn about prior permitting…
And that includes the current permits #LUA2019-0032, which includes a great historical review of the building by David Peterson Consulting
#7. You can look at some piccies…
…and read some interesting history…
#6. You can watch me scream at you for two minutes…
…about the City Council’s role in the process at this point. Always a good time, of course. But the real reason to watch this is because many of you continue to misunderstand the City Council’s role in the current process.
#8. Phone A Friend…
After you come up with your comment, do what they used to do on that TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Phone A Friend. Ask them if what you wrote sounds about right. And if they give you any (cough) ‘notes’, then ask them if they signed up, Mr. Smartypants. 🙂
#9. If your dog dies…
(What’s that old joke about playing a country song backwards… yer truck starts, yer wife comes home, yer dog returns to life. 😀 )
If by some cruel twist of fate you miss the meeting, do not despair. You still have until August 25th to submit a written comment. But since you read the page in Item #1, you already knew that, of course. 😉
Weekly Update: 08/07/2022
Leave a comment on Weekly Update: 08/07/2022This Week
Apparently it’s an airporty kind of week.
Monday: UW Ultrafine Particulates Meeting. Here is an interesting graphic showing how many flights passed over our schools in one typical year: Flights Near Schools.
Tuesday: I met with Farmers Market manager Susie Novak. And… business is good. 🙂
Tuesday: Port Of Seattle Commission Meeting (Agenda) The highlight for me is a discussion of the Noise Program.
Thursday: Adam Smith FAA Re-authorization Meeting. If you want to 463 pages of light reading here is the 2018 model. It’s notable how few of the items meant to address community issues are still unfulfilled. My recommendations have been strictly about money and science. Trying to get the FAA to do anything involving community engagement at this moment is pointless. And since the Congressman’s list of ‘asks’ will be limited to about a dozen things, we must limit our requests to things that are actually useful.
Last Week
Tuesday: 5:00PM National Night Out! Midway Park!
Thursday: 5:00PM Public Safety Committee Meeting (Agenda) (Video)
Thursday: 6:00PM City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) Some highlights:
- The City Manager gave an update on the Ferry Pilot which is scheduled to start August 10th.
- We waived Destination Des Moines rental fees for all summer events: prox. $12,000.
- We are accepting two vehicles from King County for use by our new Mental Health Responders
- We are approving two construction projects concerning Barnes Creek which should (DV) improve fish passage.
- We were asked to use our Lodging Tax (which comes from hotel stays) for these purposes:
- Application from the City of Des Moines for reimbursement of expenses to host the 4th of July Fireworks Show. Total application request = $28,000.
- Application from Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority for creation of a digital discount and incentive app for local merchnts. The idea is to give coupons to people at the Famers Market which they can use at local shops. Total application request = $12,500.
- Application from Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority for digital marketing of the Des Moines Fast Ferry. Total application request =$15,500.
Meeting Recap
Public Comment
I don’t usually talk about Public Comment, but a couple of things…
Masonic Home people…
I was deeply impressed by the organisational skills of the people behind the Masonic Home rally. That’s no endorsement. But I have to say, that is exactly how to effect change.
And I have a beef with the Mayor and the City Manager’s treatment of the commenters. This is about parliamentary procedure and decorum.
People often complain that there is no dialogue at Public Comment. This is actually by design. And part of the reasoning (which I agree with) is to protect the public. As electeds on the dais, we’re literally elevated above the audience. We always get the last word. Therefore, we have no business critiquing comments. The only reason to ever respond is if the public violates the rules or if we have some service to offer. We should not try to correct them or defend the City’s reputation or nothing. People at the dais often have an urge to always get the last word when they don’t like what they’re hearing. And they should squash it! That is your time (the Public’s time) and I regret not speaking up on your behalf.
Dear Redondo:
Several people from Redondo showed up and I gotta say it is frustrating as hell to me that those people were not following exactly the same strategies and tactics as the Masonic Home advocates. I’ve watched people go on and on about the same problems at Redondo for fifteen years. You’re not gonna fix it until you develop a community voice. And frankly, your neighbourhood hasn’t. But when I tell ya that’s what it will take? You get mad at moi. It’s not my fault. Other neighbourhoods do organise and that is why they get results. Stop bitching about how the City doesn’t listen. That’s exactly why I ran for office. And it’s about as useful as complaining about the weather until you give me colleagues who care about such things. For now, your best play is this: Create a community group. I’ll definitely help as I can. Make a shared list of demands. Show up at meetings. In force. Every year. Starting in March. Trust me, then you’ll see some permanent changes.
City Manager’s Report
I used to complain that the City Manager did not report on very much. Note to self: be careful what you wish for. 😀 It has become the increasing strategy of the City Manager to do two things:
1. Pack a ton of presentations into the City Manager’s Report that would be separate agenda items on any other City Council.
2. We get no advance notice of these presentations, so often we have to make decisions on the fly based only on a Powerpoint.
Both of these practices are insidious and the height of irony. By overloading the Council with surprise information it actually decreases transparency. But if one complains, it’s like complaining when yer 2spouse ‘slaved all day’ on a totally crap meal.
- The City Manager gave an update on the Ferry Pilot which is scheduled to start August 10th.
- There was also a presentation by the South Side Regional Transit Authority.
- Basically, it sounds like they want to do a marketing campaign tied into the Farmers Market. Fine. There is also a tie in with Destination Des Moines. $15K from Lodging Tax
- They’re also doing some sort of marketing web site for the Ferry. This is, on top of the $70,000 allocated in the original contract. Everyone is already talking openly about next year. Beta Test, my ass.
- And, there was another financial report with no financials by the assistant finance director. These things truly hack me off. It’s August and we’re now only getting Q1 numbers. And it’s not even a financial report. I see no P&L. I see no balance sheet. I see no flow of funds. All I see is a frickin’ Powerpoint of eight or nine revenue numbers. Woo hoo.
- There was a presentation by our HR Director. She showed a series of recruiting videos. These are the best digital pieces I’ve seen the City do so far.
- And… the engineering guys did a presentation on the never ending fish passage culverts of Barnes Creek/Massey Creek and then flood relief upstream in McSorley Creek.
Consent Agenda
Once again there were no main agenda items. More on this in a moment.
I pulled Items #3 and #4, relating to the Lodging Tax and Destination Des Moines. Basically, I want to open a discussion about the Lodging Tax Committee. The thing is opaque. It’s all local business people and one Councilmember. It didn’t bug me so much before because, frankly, we generate very little Lodging Tax. But if this ferry thing means we’re trying to get serious, we should start managing it transparently and strategically.
I’m also concerned about Destination Des Moines, as well as other civic groups. I want them to thrive, but we’re getting sloppy. City Manager Matthias said he agreed with me (and that’s a bit scary) but I’m not questioning their value. I want all these groups to be
- Sustainable
- Part of a 360 degree strategy
- And be on a level playing field with other non-profits.
And you can’t do those things without a transparent discussion of all these ‘advisory committees’.
- We waived Destination Des Moines rental fees for all summer events: prox. $12,000.
- We are accepting two vehicles from King County for use by our new Mental Health Responders
- We are approving two construction projects concerning Barnes Creek which should (DV) improve fish passage.
- We were asked to use our Lodging Tax (which comes from hotel stays) for these purposes:
- Application from the City of Des Moines for reimbursement of expenses to host the 4th of July Fireworks Show. Total application request = $28,000.
- Application from Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority for creation of a digital discount and incentive app for local merchnts. The idea is to give coupons to people at the Famers Market which they can use at local shops. Total application request = $12,500.
- Application from Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority for digital marketing of the Des Moines Fast Ferry. Total application request =$15,500.
Board And Committee Reports
Another thing I don’t usually comment on. But… what-ehveehr. There are several points here which directly relate to my earlier blatherings…
Presentations vs. Information
Councilmember Steinmetz has had an ongoing bug about all those items on the Consent Agenda. This time he had had a little back and forth with the mayor about putting the surface water management dealios on the main agenda. This is one of those things where we agree on the symptoms, but he is completely wrong about the ‘cure’. In fact, this is Reason #327 why I also hate how we give agenda setting authority to the Mayor.
I actually agree with CM Nutting that items, like infrastructure, generally do belong on the Consent Agenda. I have no problem pulling them if there is a question or two (like a 300% cost overrun 😀 ), and if the team hadn’t done that presentation I certainly would have done so.
But the meeting is not the place for on the fly education. I keep throwing out the concept of a Councilmember Information Request (an easily searchable library of previous CM questions/answers and presentations that we can always refer back to.)
What we should want is for CM Steinmetz to come to the dais already educated as to the wonders of SWM. We should not want any CM taking in that much new information and then having to make an in the moment spending decision–the very thing that drives me banana pants about the City Manager’s ‘Reports’. It’s unfair to CMs and to the residents who deserve well-informed decision makers.
What we should want is a library of explainers, that new CMs can refer back to when they onboard. IOW, the staff could simply do a “McSorley Creek 101” or include links to previous discussion in the packet and on the web site. And the reason this is so important is because of the questions that CM Nutting and I asked.
We are a City of annexations of some very old infrastructure from King County. When you annex it’s like buying a used car. You’re taking on the previous owner’s problems, and you often don’t find out what they are until months/years later. Every frickin’ project we do has some unexpected ‘gotcha’. The pipes were never mapped after WWII, oops. There was no geotech report, oops. There was some hincky easement between the water district and City on a particular street, oops. And we have twenty three of those annexations. Many of these systems are at, or nearing, end of life–especially in Lower Woodmont and Redondo. The challenges we’re having on these projects are gonna keep happening. We need a way to get new CMs up to speed on the wonders of SWM and not on the dais.
I specifically do not want anything on the main agenda for ‘education’. Our meeting time is short. We already have a stupidly compressed calendar. What you want are explainers. The City does all these presentations at our meetings and calls that ‘public outreach’. But since so few people watch the meetings and you’d need a geiger counter to find anything on our web site, those presentations may as well be like how we send messages out into space searching for ET.
Too Little Information
Deputy Mayor Buxton said that she attended something like thirty three meetings and events. And I believe her. But then said, “Anyone can call me for information.” Ennnnh (that’s my buzzer sound. 😀 ) Apart from the fact that she and the Mayor assigned themselves to like nine committees, her job is to report out on all those committees. She can’t do it in four minutes. Nobody can. I contend the following:
a) Being assigned to so many committees is intrinsically stupid
b) Limiting committee reports to four minutes when the only place to report out on them is the public meeting is stupid.
c) Having to tell the public that they can call you ‘any time’ to get public information is stupid.
We never get reports on what is going on with Humans Services or Farmers Market or nothing outside of a single yearly visit from a representative of each group, and where we get to (on the fly!) vote for the annual spend. And that is…
d) Stupid.
Other cities don’t work like that. Choose committee assignments fairly. Balance the work load equitably. Do the same for citizen advisory appointments. Put all committee work product on the City web site, along with financials. (And while yer at it, advertise volunteer opportunities about 10x more aggressively.) Allow CMs adequate time to report on important events at committees. These are all things that normal cities do. They are all things we used to do.
I’ve been highly critical of our upcoming (cough) ‘Rules of Procedure Update. But how can one improve such a broken system unless one is aware of how things used to work here.
Moi
My comments were mostly about the above airporty stuff. But as soon as I was done I realised I was trying to say something much bigger, and also something that could not fit into four minutes. And basically it’s this:
We’ve been getting needlessly screwed by the airport for decades. The path forward always should have been in terms of land and cash because that was the agreement we came to back in 1976.
Every picayune thing we now fight, fight, fight over was definitely not inevitable. The FAA re-authorisations, the tree cuttings, Des Moines Creek West. Partly we go through this nonsense because I’m certain that most of colleagues (and staff) aren’t even aware of what was already worked out back in the day. But frankly? The biggest part of it is because they love the story the Port is selling. They believe in the whole free-market-prosperity gospel worldview that I recall so vividly with the auto industry back in Detroit. It was ruinous for communities there just as it’s ruinous for us here. A factory is a factory. And people who believe in that trickle-down-economics deal will never give it up, regardless of facts.
And you can see it in this letter from former mayor Dave Kaplan, now the Port’s lobbyist to our City. There is so much wrong with it, it will require a separate response. But suffice it to say, I regard it as being in exactly the same alternative fact zone as the ‘Pilot Ferry‘.
1We Have Met The Enemy…
t still, it is hard to overstate the fact that there is a lot to be learned from history. Our history. Even looking at our Rules of Procedure or our web site twenty years ago is instructive. They were better. And that fact that they’re not is quite intentional. Dave was our Mayor and on the Council for twenty years. We’ve had a number of long-timers who made not have always appeared to get along, but frankly had very similar worldviews–which you voted for, time and again.
I’m going to take a moment for another gratuitous dunk on our web site. I just happened to look at the City of Enumclaw web site today. Not spectacular, but about 400% better. This has nothing to do with IT savvy. They have one quarter our General Fund. And exactly the same web site provider. But…
We get perpetually screwed by the Port and the FAA because we wanted the relationship we now have with the Port and the FAA. We have a crappier web site than we used to have because for the past two decades the Council majority wanted to have a crappier web site. We have a much more opaque way of running the City in general because the majority wanted it that way.
It wasn’t one City Manager or any one CM. And it certainly won’t change by electing any new person. It is you, the public, who have chosen this, for the past twenty five years., and keep choosing it. You complain endlessly, but do nothing as if this is as good as it gets. If you want something different, you can have it. Things are different other places. But whether it be Redondo or the airport or anything, you have to consider the mindset that keeps bringing in the same results.
None of these were accidents. And it’s time to stop pretending like we’ve been victims. We chose this and if we want something different we have to intentionally un-choose it.
1I doubt more than a handful of readers will get this reference from an old Pogo cartoon. Sorry. Terrible writing. I just can’t resist because it’s the first thing that comes into my head on any of these recurring problems that do not happen in other cities.
2Don’t try this at home, kids.
There are three ways to provide Public Comment:
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.