Some bits of business…

Tardiness

As I said last week, the past 2-3 weeks have been chaos! Not Camp Khaos. TOTAL CHAOS! I am back. 🙂

One note about Club World Cup. Although it was not the massive event World Cup is expected to be, operations at the airport were up, transit ridership was up, but no one seemed to notice much. Which is good, I guess? But it might be interesting to see how booked our hotels were for those matches.

City Manager Stuff

The City Manager’s new weekly report format is viewable here. Since the Fourth of July is this week and the City is promoting a bunch of stuff from Sharks to Drones, go there for all the deets.

City Manager Report – June 27, 2025

Water District 54 Annual Report

For those customers in WD54, here is their WD54 2024 Report. It contains important info as to their ongoing relationship with Highline Water District and plans to rebuild their facilities after the 2023 boil water notice. Since I get asked this a lot, here are links and maps for all the SPDs and utilities.

SR-509 24th Ave is now open and it’s free!

Temporarily. Drive north on 24th Ave and before you get to 200th you’ll see a new exit onto the first mile of SR-509, which will take you directly to I-5. It will also be tolled – but not yet! So take the next month and stick it to da man! WSDOT has promised free GoodToGo cards, but I haven’t seem ’em yet. Stay tuned.

Redondo Paid Parking

Speaking of having to pay, Redondo Paid Parking is happening. But this too is free for for one more week. So… stick it to the City, too! And then get a modestly priced parking pass by contacting the Marina. 🙂

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

News Flash! After five years of being only ‘98198’, TakeOutDM is expanding its list to include establishments people think (or wish) were in Des Moines. For example, if you like Fr I really like Peyrassol West in Normandy Park across from the QFC.

This Week

Nothing! (Well, nothing ‘official’.) But since I will be taking a brief detour to the 51st State (too soon? 😀 ), this gives me a shameless opportunity to display to plug one of my fave beavers of all time in celebration of Canada Day! (That’s not AI, btw, courtesy of Mike’s Beavers in Splendid Saskatchewan!) 🙂

Last Week

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission meeting

(Agenda) Of importance for us was the Commission’s deep dive into the results of the 2025 state legislative session. These tend to be far more in-depth than any city council receives because the Port covers so much more ground. There will always be a certain amount of revisionist history. They will say how they tried to support (x) when in fact they did everything possible do kill it. That may sound unkind but it’s important to know when the tail is wagging the dog. You might think that the Commission drives the legislative agenda. But when you watch these presentations, notice how often the Commissioners ask their staff, “Where did we stand on that issue?” 😀

DesMoines Historical Society

The DMHS held an annual event with speakers Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard of the Seattle Times Now and Then columns. It was very interesting. The DMHS needs volunteers! Full disclosure: I was in one of their episodes on the Masonic Home.

If you visit the DMHS on a Saturday, look for a poster in a corner which talks about the beginning of the City in 1959. At that time, the population was about 2,000 and the boundary was essentially 216th to Kent Des Moines Road and did not include the Marina (because the Marina did not appear until 1970) and  to 24th-ish. Of those 2K souls? 415 voted in that election. And the vote was something like 245 to 168. In other words: voter turn out was as low then as it is today, and the decision was barely 60% — not exactly a landslide. Since then, we’ve cobbled together 23 Annexations and almost all, including the decisions that led to the Marina, have also been very close votes.

And my point is this: despite what you may have heard, Des Moines has always been changing, but it has never been one big, happy family. The question for me has always been: can we sincerely shift to a model that is actually more representational of all of ‘Des Moines’? Stay tuned. 🙂

Wednesday

StART

The discussion of six airport communities concerned goal-setting. Since the group discourages recordings and has had no public in-person meetings in years it’s tough to describe what these are really about. But STNI was able to cover the meeting and will provide a summary soon.

Citizens Advisory Board

Here is the video/transcript/agenda of their last meeting, plus a powerpoint summarising on how it’s all changing. Or not. It’s confusing.

I also got some public flack from my colleagues at the Council Meeting about it here are my thoughts on that. 🙂

Thursday

City Council Meeting

(Recap follows)

City Council Recap

Regular Meeting – 26 Jun 2025 – Agenda – Updated

As always, these are the things I think are most important. And here’s one that was not on the agenda.

Zoom!

This meeting was the first truly successful hybrid format (in-person and remote) we have every done. For the past several months, Cm Nutting has been appearing strictly via Zoom. Ironically, until our 2023 rules changes, that would have gotten him booted off the Council as we only allowed for one remote participation a year. By phone.

For about two years during the pandemic, then mayor Matt Pina and the clerk would be the sole people at City Hall. The City IT whipped up a Zoom system for essentially fully-remote participation. We also have to run the Court (which uses the space far more than the Council overall). So to provide better remote participation with SCORE the City invested in upgrades. Aside from some initial glitches, the system worked fairly well.

But what people have forgotten so quickly is that it allowed residents to Zoom in as well! We had much greater public participation at both committees and full meetings due to the convenience of Zoom.

But as soon as the ’emergency’ was over, unlike every other City, the Des Moines City Council went back to 100% in-person, and cut off remote participation by the public entirely.

For reasons passing understanding, the City would say that Zoom was ‘technically impossible’ – even thought it had worked. The few times we tried it – during the City Manager hiring process – it would barf pretty much every time. The reluctance was so intense that the Council voted to pay the recruiter to fly in for one meeting, just to avoid another glitch.

So what makes me smile now is how convenience makes the impossible possible. The new Council rules removed any limit on remote participation by Cms. And somehow, with no ‘tech upgrades’, the system now magically works well enough that not only can Cm Nutting keep his seat, Cm Achziger was also able to participate remotely. Can the system stand the strain?

The system always could do this. The only thing that changed was politics, and it’s kinda shameful.

Now that the pretense of ‘technical difficulties’ has been removed, we should be able to speak even more candidly: making people schlep to City Hall for meetings is probably the single biggest hindrance to expanding public engagement. Having the City do various neighborhood events is nice, but that also feels very twentieth century.

If the City really wants to expand public participation, it should go back to the future and re-instate public remote participation – as other cities, the County, the State, and the Port of Seattle do – at least for public comment.

Sergeants

There was a ceremonial swearing in of two new sergeants, which is definitely worth watching. Chief Boe gives an explanation of the vetting process and the importance of the rank – they are essentially team leaders on each shift. One detail he left out – from what I understand, passing the Sergeant’s Exam is no walk in the park. Each officer I’ve known who achieves the rank earns it. Congratulations! 🙂

Libraries

We had a great presentation and events calendar from two relatively new leaders at our two libraries. As I’ve been saying for years, the Des Moines and Woodmont libraries are the de facto community centers for Des Moines. They have more useful events every month than anywhere else. They also have a way to connect their calendar with the City and one measure of success in our upcoming web site will be: can we integrate all their great events into our calendar and increase public participation!

CAB

We had a short but intense vote to approve three members of the Citizens Advisory Board (CAB). All three passed. I voted ‘no’ on all three, not out of concerns over any of them. I object to the whole ‘thing’.

However, former councilmember Susan White passed only 4-3 because Cms Nutting and Mahoney objected, but in that case they did seem to have personal concerns, and that struck me as unkind.

All three applicants are fine and I wish them all success. 🙂 I voted ‘no’ because, as constructed, the entire group does not achieve the goals the group was meant to provide: broader representation, transparency, and accountability. The CAB has expanded from being a typical 2 year appointment – a way for residents in nine neighbourhoods to provide meaningful feedback on neighborhoods – a fantastic idea – to a version with at least 19 members – seven of which will be ‘at large’ and four (or is it two?) year terms depending on what the group decides?

There are to be three subcommittees to replace the Human Services, Senior, and Arts Commissions, each TBD and with five or even nine members? More than the entire City Council? 😀 At least two of those will be  recommending grant funds. An important reason for the previous commissions was so that the Council could provide direct appointment to people recommending the spending of public money. This does away with a direct line of accountability. And if you object, it will look like you’re complaining about the group as a whole. Not. Cool.

The idea of a Citizens Advisory Committee was a response to real problems. Participation had become spotty at best. Forget nine or even five members. The commissions these CAB subcommittees are meant to replace struggled to field three. Also the Council had stopped hearing from them except once a year – whereas back in the day we’d get periodic reports – as required in our own code.

The public outreach to fill all those seats was as terrible as it has always been. One can blame ‘people’ – like we always do. But I talked to residents who wanted to apply but had no idea how to do so. I couldn’t figure out how to apply. Apparently, CAB people helped fill seats by telling friends. That is not how we insure full representation. That is how you perpetuate the status quo.

A better solution is to fundamentally change the way we do public outreach – like allowing Zoom participation (and make recordings with high quality transcripts automatic.) For years, people were totally unaware of opportunities to serve, and unhappy when they did. Simple as that. This actually narrows that pool to the very few people already ‘in network’. It may empower those few, but it does nothing to provide full representation to the interests of all residents. Rather than extend transparency, accountability, and community it actually contracts it.

Q1 2025 and Q4 2024 Financial Updates

The longest portion of the meeting concerned the 2024 Q4 finances – essentially 2024 totals, followed by 2025 Q1. Being only three months behind is actually progress. I am not here to nitpick, but this graphic caught my attention. The boat indeed appears to be ‘flying the chute’ at full speed. But it’s also getting pelted with rain going in the other direction. 😀 I choose to see it as a an undiscovered Van Gogh. 😀 Anyhoo… it captures how I feel atm.

On the plus side…

• Being only three months behind is actually progress.
• In some ways, these presentations are much better than what the Council has received in a couple of ways. For me, the biggest is this All Funds pie. In previous years, the City would focus almost obsessively on General Fund. And in fact, when anyone would say “What’s your budget?” they meant “What is your G/F?” That was super-wrong because although those other funds are supposed to be ‘separate’, almost all of them have strong interactions with the rest of the budget. Just one tiny example: Marina employees work on lots of stuff in other funds involving events and parks and rec and so on.
• The obsession with General Fund is understandable because
  • That’s where most of the salaries come from.
  • That’s where the discretionary money tends to be – the things you can control (ie. cut.)
  • It’s also where the cash reserve is kept.
• Having shifted to a cash-based accounting system is making it easier to explain things. In the past, we used a modified accrual system which… never mind. 😀 A cash-based approach works more like most people expect it to outside of corporate-world. 🙂
• For example, the cash system is also making it easier to see how tight things can get. We like to talk about having a ‘balanced budget!’ and ‘16.67%!’ (ie. two months savings) but those things were always somewhat artificial. The new presentation is more honest and we have nowhere near two months cash on hand. That matters because just like you, we need that cash to pay for weekly bills. But unlike you, a lot of our revenue only comes in from the County/State every three months. You want to have enough cash in the bank all the time so that you aren’t having to ‘go online’ in the weeks until the next check comes in.

Stress Levels

I feel a bit guilty banging on all the time about ‘better financials!’ But these reports don’t give us what I think we need – which is a healthy sense of urgency. My accountant used to lecture, scream, beg, cajole, anything to get us to avoid complacency and keep us focused on the future. Thanks Gary. 🙂

Since before I ran in 2019, the council majority always believed passionately in telling people how well we were doing. And when that was no longer plausible, at least ‘keeping it positive’. I always felt this was a mistake. At every meeting discussing money there is always some blather about how ‘all cities are struggling!’, ‘COVID!’, ‘inflation!’, ‘how well we are doing, comparatively. One city is going bankrupt! (the city mentioned is filing as a legal maneuver to counter a lawsuit by a land developer, not because of cash flow issues.)

My father-in-law called all that ‘poor man thinking’. “Yes, things are tough all over. That’s their problem. My job is how not to be like them.” 😀

The public had no prob voting down Prop #1 last year, in large part because of trust. The new City Manager comes in, improves communication, makes some painful, but very standard cuts, and people are happy. But except for perhaps animal control, the public is not experiencing much difference. For many, that ‘proves’ that all the yammering that the sky is falling was not real. For them, it means we could always have done more with less. City staff may say they are over-burdened and under-staffed. But if the Council’s only move is to applaud people for going above and beyond, the public is quite likely to say, “Keep going above and beyond. Please!” 😀

If the public doesn’t understand the practical effects of our situation, how can we ask for more? They may instead continue to see all our lobbying at the State level for more taxes as completely disingenuous – attempts to go around them. It will feel like, “Think you can say ‘no’? We’ll show you!” rather than convince. The opposite of ‘public engagement’.

The trade-offs

Looking closer at this pie is disheartening. That huge blue area contains all the bond money we borrowed. And notice that there is not even .5% for social services.

If I were doing that chart I would label the blue area a Pac Man critter called “Steps, Docks, Fishing Pier” – because it looks like it wants to eat everything else. Hopefully people really appreciate the Steps because for better or worse, they’re making a whole lot of other things impossible for a long time to come.

See that’s the other thing: you don’t know about the trade-offs – the programs you’re not getting as a result of the choices we previously made. Or what we could be doing better now. Or next time. These numbers are just flat. They don’t tell that story over time.

At some point we have to start making more money. But I never sense any urgency. No sense of healthy stress.

Transportation Improvement Plan

We also talked about the Transportation Improvement Plan. This is one of those trade-offs. Since I’ve lived here we’ve never been able to do more than one big project at a time – and usually only in partnership with the Port or WSDOT. We lack the money and the capacity and at a certain point the current levels became ‘as good as it gets’. And it shouldn’t be. There needs to be a way to message the fact that we appreciate what the City has been able to accomplish, and it’s nowhere near good enough. It will be very tough to create new economic development if we can only rebuild one road every five years.

(On the plus side, City Manager Caffrey has budgeted for a full-time grant writer – not a substitute for generating more structural revenue, but nevertheless an important step towards obtaining more funding across all domains.)

Telling that story over time: Marina Fund

I also wanna close with this, the Marina page of the Q4 Financial Report. Again, this is actually an improvement from where things were when I joined the Council in 2020.

My guess is that for most people it looks like things are going OK. Or at least, it looks impressive. 🙂

But that’s not how I see it. Here is how I see it.

Just for today, I want you to ignore almost everything except the top half – the Operating Income (OI). That is how profitable the Marina business currently is. The only thing I want you to notice from the bottom is the Debt Service line – what we borrowed to rebuild the docks.

95% of what I care about are those two numbers: OI and ADS. But not just here. This is just a snapshot.

Because the real Marina isn’t one point in time. It’s a forever-investment and despite already spending over $1,000,000 on previous (cough) ‘marina redevelopment which went nowheresville, and now spending $13,000,000 on three new docks this summer, there is at least four times more left to do. Have you felt any urgency from the City on how to pay for that?

We will hire consultants to work on this. But we always could have done something like this, if we had wanted to…

Think about your house and your roof. The roof will need replacement every 15 years or so. So, you should probably make sure you have enough income, not just to pay your monthly bills, but also to be able to save for that – as well as retirement and so on. Except that neither cities or voters generally feel the urgency to save for the future that most sane individuals do. Cities can simply devote 100% of their efforts to making people happy now because unless you have a family, you will likely not be here in 15 years – when the roof (or fishing pier or road or whatever) needs replacing.

Which is why we are borrowing to fund docks and the Redondo Fishing Pier and the Marina Steps. Because years ago that government spent all its money on those residents and didn’t leave us any money. They screwed us. We’ll likely screw the next generation. When it’s not going to affect you personally, that’s what tends to happen. In my field we call this a perverse incentive.

So, for example, when we started to notice a fishing pier wearing out, all we could do was…

1. Wait until it fails
2. Wait until we could take out a new credit card to cover some of the cost, which we immediately maxed out
3. Wait for a grant to cover the rest

I go on about the Marina, because it was the one time in City history that voters gifted us a serious revenue opportunity to counter those perverse incentives. It can pay for itself and power a lot of other good things in the City. It can help keep your taxes lower and avoid us having to wait more years for the next grant. But it’s been decades since we treated the Marina like the business it was always supposed to be.

You may find that harsh, but in reply I would ask you a question: What kind of business does not provide five year backcasts or forecasts? A business that believes waiting until things fail is an acceptable strategy.

Some bits of business…

Tardiness

Over the past six years of doing whatever ‘this’ is, I’ve been late several times. But I’ve only missed two Weekly Updates. Last week was a first. I actually wrote the thing and got so totally busy I forgot to send it out to the mailing list. For personal reasons (nothing to do with City), I’ve driven more miles in the past two weeks than I usually do in most years! And I’m late again this week because of Sunday’s Club World Cup where the Sounders got whomped by Brazil’s best: Botafogo. And since the best teams on the planet are in town for the rest of the week, I may be late again next week. 🙂 GOOOOOOALLLLLL!

However, I did publish last week’s Weekly Update and it’s worth reading because the Council is, if anything, even more active than last year.

UW AAA study for kids with asthma – free indoor air filters!

The University of Washington is conducting an Asthma, air quality & airports fon children living near Sea-Tac Airport. This is a great opportunity to help improve the air quality for your child and help with important research! Learn more and sign up here.

City Manager Stuff

This the second run of the City Manager’s new weekly report format. It’s more of a traditional email sign up rather than a cookbook with events. 😀

City Manager Report – June 13, 2025

• Redondo Paid Parking is coming. Free now. Paid next month. You can get a Marina-only pass, a Redondo-only pass, or a combo-pass. No, I don’t know the rates. But here is who to ask: the Marina Office at 206-824-5700.
• SR99 repaving – from 200th to KDM. Details… SR99/SR 516 to S 200th St – Paving & ADA Compliance

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

News Flash! After five years of being only ‘98198’, TakeOutDM is expanding its list to include establishments people think are in Des Moines, but (due to the insane border) are actually in Kent, WA! 🙂 For example, I really like Moe Vegan, tucked away from where Harbor Freight is now located. Whether you’re vegan or not, very tasty sandwiches.

The Slide of Certain Doom Unchained!

And last but not least, the incredibly safe, completely not dangerous, but totally awesome slide at the Field House is now open. Unlike a lot of playground equipment these days, which are fine but fairly generic, this thing has character – something I was concerned might be a lost art in public design. It looks like it was tailor-made for the hill ¹I used to send my kids down on lunch trays. I love engineering like this. Well done!

This Week

There is no City Council meeting this week. However, pour moi? Still action packed. 🙂

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission planning meeting. I attend these because, well, because they’re meetings. And, said it before say it again, they are highly civilised, and this is how one learns what is going on.

6:00PM Burien Airport Committee the BAC has been in business since 2018. Since we just created our own airport committee I sure hope our new members will attend. Frankly, there is nothing they haven’t studied.

Wednesday

Flood Control District Advisory Committee

Thursday

Juneteenth: Not Des Moines, but as has become traditional for me, we’ll be attending an event sponsored by the Northwest African American Museum

Last Week

Tuesday: Duwamish River Community Coalition Air Quality Summit. The group represents residents who live near South Park and KCIA. They handed out 30 HEPA filters for residents using the same program that Senator Orwall drew from at the Des Moines Activity Center last month. The hope is for both airport groups can work together so that everyone under the flight path can obtain proper indoor air quality.

Wednesday: Emergency Management Advisory Committee Meeting. We’re doing these tabletop exercises to figure out how to deal with disasters worthy of Hollywood movies. I have one point to make: I am 100% each agency will do their job great. Medical, Police, Fire, EMT. What I’m not so sure about? Communication.

Thursday

Environment Committee Agenda Highlights:

Thursday: 6:00pm  Regular Meeting – 12 Jun 2025 Agenda

City Council Meeting Recap

Regular Meeting – 12 Jun 2025 – Agenda – Updated

Because I’m pooped. Lightning Round!

• Public Comment
  • The Farmers Market people came by to accept their 20th Anniversary Proclamation – and to announce that they had 7,000 visitors for their opening day. (I was gobsmacked as I seem to recall the average in previous years being around 2,500.) Well done!
• Consent Agenda
  • Water Resource Inventory Area 9 – Interlocal Agreement Renewal
    • Every year I vote for this. Why? We pay a small amount of money into a regional fund which helps with salmon recovery. The long game is simple: by doing so, eventually, a much larger pool of money will become available to lever the absolutely ginormous shore renovations we will need to make at the Beach Park, Saltwater State Park, Redondo, etc. Said it before, say it again: being the Waterland City costs a fortune to protect.
  • 2026 SKHHP Work Plan and Budget
    • Every year I pull this item specifically to vote against it. Why? We pay a small amount of money into a regional fund which is supposed to help us build more housing. And it never does. My predecessor said about the program, ‘too slow’. That was 2020.
  • Amendment to Interagency Agreement between WSDOT and City of Des Moines
    • I shoulda pulled this. Our agreements with WSDOT concerning almost every aspect of SR-509 have been a complete travesty.
      • No noise wall for Blueberry Lane
      • Weak mitigation agreement for Barnes Creek
      • No discussion of impacts re. with Sea-Tac Airport
      • Terrible public outreach

THREE PUBLIC HEARINGS, WHEW!

• • Woodmont Beach Apartments LLC Development Agreement. This is the long-vacant property on Pac Hwy just north of the Safeway. Many members of the public spoke against the project. I was the lone vote against. The problem is the way the City negotiates these things. The City Manager worked up a preliminary agreement. The Council votes up or down. We’re not the negotiators. I asked to put off the vote for two weeks so that the City Manager could see if there were ways to address my concerns. Nope. Those concerns are, as I said:
    • The rough design does not indicate trees or shade. That really concerns me.
    • We still have no sound code. And I will not vote to approve any project here again until we have the common sense to require the same basic sound reduction as other cities under the flight path.

The comments from the public, my colleagues, and the City struck me as decades out of date. Many people still tend to view apartments as ‘make dos’ – a place to live while you’re waiting for a place you actually want to live. That’s ridiculous. For many reasons, every year now, more and more people are living in apartments long term. To that end, we must make them more livable. Ironically, I am the most ‘pro-housing’ person on the Council atm. But to me, that doesn’t mean building just to build. And no matter how nice the countertops are, if you want a place to feel like ‘home’ it needs some shade and some quiet and easy access to transit. This project could (and should) have been brought to the dais with those boxes already checked.

 Accessory Dwelling Units & Middle Housing

• • I’m comboing these together because although they’re separate, they were part of a very long discussion with our new planning director. This may be one of the best things I am a part of on this Council – making it easier to build more affordable living spaces. I applaud Ms. Deming and her team for doing a great job. However, it is notable that these improvements (again) could’ve and should’ve been done many years ago. it took new laws at the state level to make it clear: stop kidding around, make more housing options available. Ironically, the Council kept having little ‘discussions’ almost right until the 9:00PM witching hour. When it comes to housing, we can’t seem to help ourselves.
• Establishment of Airport Advisory Committee: The Council had specified a five person committee. We got four applicants. Fortunately, we had an existing StART member so we were able to finally field a team. I have no idea what will come of it, but I sure hope they subscribe to STNI – and attend Burien Airport Committee meetings. We’re all in this together.

¹I had wanted the thing opened last year and, not to be that guy, but I’ve been seeing kids (with their parents egging them on!) using that thing on the down low for months. And today I couldn’t see any of the safety upgrades Which is fine by me. I saw kids running back up the hill faster than they were going down. Maybe those smart playground engineers used a type of plastic that is not as slippery as it looks. Or not. I’ll let ya know after the next rainstorm. 😀

Some bits of business…

Project VE

About once a year I write an article about the Marina Redevelopment. I included it in last week’s Weekly Update, but here it is free-standing called Project VE. I encourage you to read it and look at my ongoing Marina Timeline. I moved here for sailing and fishing and the beach park. The marina floor is the biggest deal this city will ever have, and it breaks my heart how little most people understand how the thing works — what it costs, what it’s economic potential really is, what it takes to keep all of it going into the future.

Project VE

UW AAA study for kids with asthma – free indoor air filters!

The University of Washington is conducting an Asthma, air quality & airports fon children living near Sea-Tac Airport. This is a great opportunity to help improve the air quality for your child and help with important research! Learn more and sign up here.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report May 30, 2025

Again, no recipe. But again, an important alert: Paid Parking is coming to Redondo, starting next week.. As with the Marina, there will be a free period to work out the bugs, so don’t stress. But it’s happening.

City Manager Caffrey conducted a one hour City Council Candidate Orientation, which I transcribed and added some screen shots to. I urge you to watch! It contains a summary of faqs about the city and the government I think everyone will find interesting.

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

News Flash! After five years of being only ‘98198’, TakeOutDM is expanding its list to include establishments people think are in Des Moines, but (due to the insane border) are actually in Kent, WA! 🙂

This Week

Tuesday

4:00pm Pacific Middle School Groundbreaking Ceremony & Farewell. After 20+ years of waiting, yes, it’s finally happening.

Wednesday

2:00pm State of the City – Wesley Terrace: Mayor Buxton will be giving a presentation on where we’re at.

Thursday

City Council Meeting

City Council Committee of the Whole/Study Session combo platter Agenda

Committee of the Whole

• Modera Woodmont Development – This is the empty area on Pac Highway just south of 272nd that the previous administration talked about having a hotel at forevehhhhhr. This will be interesting. 🙂
• Draft 2026-2045 Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). Quick review, the TIP is the aspirational plan for road projects. Projects are not ‘real’ until they make it into the CIP (capital improvements plan). This is one topic that makes me regret dumping committees. Roads really deserve more than 20 minutes – but otoh, given budget challenges, there may not be more than 20 minutes to discuss. 😀
• Sound Transit Federal Way Link Extension Update. I’m always interested in the wiiiiide variety of opinions on this project. It will likely play a big role in the Federal Way races this fall.

Study Session

• Updating Resolution 1118 Concerning the Process of Public Contracting
• Comprehensive Plan Update
• City Council Protocol Manual Review. We’re going through each Cm’s ideas for changing the ways we run meetings. We haven’t gotten to mine, but the ones we’ve gone through, the conversation was ‘spicy’. 😀

Executive Session

Performance of a Public Employee RCW 42.30.110(1)(g) – 20 Minutes. ESes are supposed to be top secret, but they have to be legally justified. And this law specifically applies to the City Manager, ergo, one does not have to be Sherlock to deduce that… it’s the Katherine Caffrey’s six month review.

Saturday

10:00am Waterfront Farmers Market seasoning opening at the Des Moines Marina. Of course. 🙂

Last Week

Monday

Members of the American Legion, Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association, and City of Des Moines Director of Public Works Michael Slevin (Retired, US Army) raise the flag for the first time on the new pole at the Memorial Flag Triangle Ribbon Cutting.And I hope you note, in particular the Des Moines Memorial Drive Perservation Association‘s plaque – with brick work from the original road.

Here is a gallery of piccies I took at the event.

Tuesday

Port Commission Meeting (Agenda) The Commissioners heard all about StART. What should matter to you is the chronic information desert. The Commissioners are usually in the dark about basically everything to do with the airport community issues. But one could say the same about the Burien Airport Committee (see below). What they finally seem to have keyed in on is the fact that StART was never a ‘community’ round table. It was organised by the former airport director in concert with City Administrators.  Good, bad, or indifferent, that policy has led to much of the frustration concerning what StART is and what it can do. The fact is, former airport director Lyttle sold the idea in 2018, it sounded great, and the Commission let him run with it. If it takes the Commission seven years to respond to even this basic community concern, that does not bode well for the entire model.

Wednesday

2:30PM Highline Forum (Agenda) Burien City Hall. Surprisingly, there as another annual report on StART. 😀 But there was also a fascinating economic update from the Port on all the economic grants it provides to our six cities, and updates from other cities – including SeaTac discussing its intent to purchase over 95% of North SeaTac Park (213 acres). Complete transcript and presentations here, totally worth reading.

Some bits of business…

UW AAA study for kids with asthma – free indoor air filters!

The University of Washington is conducting an Asthma, air quality & airports fon children living near Sea-Tac Airport. This is a great opportunity to help improve the air quality for your child and help with important research! Learn more and sign up here.

Me…

I used to be out in public a lot more. That has scaled back a bit – partly because honestly, we don’t need seven people at every event. There’s simply too much ‘stuff’ going on. But, every once in a while, I want to mention two things:

• I’m not a big ‘selfie’ kinda guy. But I walk the City almost every day – sort of this rotation where I try to hit everywhere once every 3-4 months. I can’t say it’s made me an more ‘fit’ but if you ask me about something in your neighbourhood, you can expect me to be vaguely aware of it.
• I serve on these three County advisory committees: emergency management, regional transit, and flood control.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report May 23, 2025 No recipe! However, perhaps something better. Late Breaking News! 😀 According to the report, the last permit needed to move forward with Redondo Fishing Pier has been approved. This means we can start getting bids – which improves the chances of getting things moving this year!

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

News Flash! After five years of being only ‘98198’, TakeOutDM is expanding its list to include establishments people think are in Des Moines, but (due to the insane border) are actually in Kent, WA! 🙂

This Week

Monday

Members of the American Legion, Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association, and City of Des Moines Director of Public Works Michael Slevin (Retired, US Army) raise the flag for the first time on the new pole at the Memorial Flag Triangle Ribbon Cutting.And I hope you note, in particular the Des Moines Memorial Drive Perservation Association‘s plaque – with brick work from the original road.

Here is a gallery of piccies I took at the event.

Tuesday

Port Commission Meeting (Agenda) The Commissioners heard all about StART. What should matter to you is the chronic information desert. The Commissioners are usually in the dark about basically everything to do with the airport community issues. But one could say the same about the Burien Airport Committee (see below). What they finally seem to have keyed in on is the fact that StART was never a ‘community’ round table. It was organised by the former airport director in concert with City Administrators.  Good, bad, or indifferent, that policy has led to much of the frustration concerning what StART is and what it can do. The fact is, former airport director Lyttle sold the idea in 2018, it sounded great, and the Commission let him run with it. If it takes the Commission seven years to respond to even this basic community concern, that does not bode well for the entire model.

Wednesday

2:30PM Highline Forum (Agenda) Burien City Hall. Surprisingly, there will be another annual report on StART. 😀

Last Week

Tuesday

I attended the Burien Airport Committee meeting – which is kinda/sorta to be the model for our upcoming airport committee. It is hard to say this, but frankly, this was slightly painful to watch because there are simply too many errors of fact. There is such a massive gap in even the most basic public information, it’s only natural that the Port always gets their way. I know I’m being vague but this is a topic for another day.

Wednesday

Regional Transit Committee (Agenda) It seems like 300 years ago now, but Metro is still restoring routes from COVID. The south recovery plan is scheduled for implementation in Fall 2026 – unfortunately, after FIFA.  There was also a presentation on the free transit program available to everyone under eighteen. What I keep nagging about is getting cards in people’s hands. As I said at the dais, Metro does its best, but it has very limited funding for outreach. We are absolutely blessed to have two libraries, right next to two excellent bus stops. This is a prime opportunity to connect our residents with the City and the library.

Thursday

City Council Meeting Regular Meeting – 22 May 2025 – Agenda – Updated If you have a sense of deja vu all over again, you’re not wrong. 🙂 We re-visited the Citizens Advisory Committee discussed at the May 8, 2022 meeting.

City Council Meeting Recap

Public Comments

There were several comments – all on the Marina Steps with a wide-range of points of view. All known voices. I’m not sure if all, or any, stuck around for the actual discussion – I wish they had. That was a subset of the conversation the community should have had years ago. This is complicated. See below.

City Manager’s Reports

There were two significant City Manager Presentationsdard should be: “Unless it’s a real emergency, all presentations will be in the agenda packet.”

Pet licensing program

We will be outsourcing animal licensing to a firm called. DocuPet –  something Chief Boe talked about at the May 1, Committee of the Whole. I’ve been talking about the shortfall in animal control revenue since last April. The problem has always been that, frankly, we hadn’t been billing people. If you don’t bill them, if you don’t make them aware, they don’t pay. Duuuuuhhh. 😀

• On the plus side, the DocuPet product seems pretty good. Here is an example in Whatcom, WA. On the down side – nothing is ever perfect – is that the way the thing links to city web sites is klunky.
• On the other hand, it’s so much better than doing nothing, my guess is that it will bring in enough revenue to get us within striking distance of bringing back the Animal Control we had with Burien Cares.
• On the third hand, let’s remember that the previous Animal Control program we had with Burien Cares was no panacea. We had many service complaints about the facility – including a lawsuit over its governance.

What I don’t want to happen is to get back 80% of what we had in 2024, which was 80% of what we had in 2018 — and declare victory. But this is a good first step. 🙂

Capital projects update

We received an update from DPW Slevin on four Bond projects.

• Memorial Flag Triangle done.
• Redondo Fishing Pier. We have the funds. We’re just waiting on one last permit. The DPW seems confident.
• Docks L,M,N. Still on schedule. Nothing to report.
• Marina Steps. That is the (x) factor.

I call this ‘the plausible deniability’ trap.  The packet we received explicitly mentioned ‘council direction’. But then it also said, we don’t need direction. So if I try to alert people to show up? My colleagues (and the city) can say (here’s my Ronald Reagan impression) “There you go again…” 😀

But the fact is, after hearing the oral description from DPW Slevin, there is simply not enough information to decide on anything. But I did have a tantrum! 🙂

Proclamations

Although Mayor Buxton initially said she wanted to limit proclamations (which I heartily agree with), sooner or later, everyone caves. 😀 We could probably have very important proclamations at every meeting. That said, we had two worth ones

• Public Service Workers: accepted by DPW Michael Slevin. My comment was that the public does not get how much work they do which no one sees. If you looked at all the work we do, and not just us, our contractors as well, before anything looks like its happening, you’d be surprised.
• LGBTQIA Proclamation: presented by Councilmember Grace-Matsui. Not to toot my own horn, but I proposed that during my first term. 🙂 Actually, we’d had such a proclamation back in the day, but it had fallen by the wayside. Not to get all ‘history’ here, but since I’ve lived here there has always been a persistent, albeit quiet, LGBTQIA presence. It just hasn’t manifested itself with splashy events.

Consent Agenda

Lakehaven Water District Franchise Agreement. Passed (4-3) This was the second reading on an agreement to lock in a six percent franchise fee for rate payers until 2041. I voted ‘no’ because I have no idea whether or not any of these agreements make sense. The only thing I know is that they go on for ten years, so when you approve them, you’re basically locking in that system forever.

Councilmember Grace-Matsui spoke against because utility taxes are regressive.

Or rather, Councilmember Nutting called them taxes and she corrected him that they are franchise fees.

The  Waterland Blog incorrectly identified this as a utility tax. Everyone does that. It’s like the red light cams that are supposed to be about ‘safety’ but are actually about, well… you know… 😀

But franchise fees are quite different. For one thing, they are supposed to be about cost recovery. Utility taxes are more honest — we want the money. 🙂 Again, potayto, potahto. They’re sources of revenue we’ve become dependent upon.

Unfinished Business

Citizens Advisory Committee Reorg

I abstained, for the simple reason I think the whole deal is weird. It consolidates the previous 18 person CAC and the three person Human Services Advisory Committee and the five person Arts Commission and the five person Senior Services Advisory Committee into a single 18 person CAC with three subcommittees, which are… Human Services, Arts, and Seniors. If this sounds like musical chairs, well… music is probably in there somewhere too. 🙂

What made me abstain is the fact that the Council voted to give every existing member of all those groups ‘pride of place’ — even for people whose terms had long since expired. So, the expectation is that there will be no openings for truly new members. That is completely contrary to the notion of expanding the group to encompass a broader range of residents.

Executive Session

POTENTIAL LITIGATION RCW 42.30.110 (1)(i) – 20 Minutes. I could tell ya what happened. But then I’d have to kill ya! Or I’d go to jail. I forget which. Nevertheless, aside from one snippy remark, it was good news. So good in fact, that we moved back to the dais early.

Said it before, say it again, you miss a lot when you aren’t in the room. And what kills me is that people always leave before the good parts. The video only resumes when the meeting officially reconvenes. So no one saw me perform tech support on Gene’s PC. Then the camera goes back on and everyone magically transforms back into Councilmember Achziger. Booooooring. 😀

More unfinished business…

Council Protocol Manual Update

Since we re-convened with seven minutes before our 9:00PM hard stop, once again this got put off — until the June 5 Study Session. So the meeting ended.

And yes, ending that hard stop – which no one else near by has – is on my list of proposed amendments. 🙂 Said it before, say it again: in a normal government, you don’t have a ‘play clock’ like in the old NCAA basketball. Maybe it’s better now, but when I first got to America, some teams would win the championship simply by learning how to run out the clock. Boooooooring. 😀

Some bits of business…

UW AAA study for kids with asthma – free indoor air filters!

The University of Washington is conducting an Asthma, air quality & airports fon children living near Sea-Tac Airport. This is a great opportunity to help improve the air quality for your child and help with important research! Learn more and sign up here.

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting Online Open House

Yes, tolling is coming to SR-509. I keep posting this because it’s only taken 50 years, so you can be forgiven for being a bit skeptical. But as you drive down 24th Ave you’ll notice that the exit onto I-5 is nearing completion. This is happening. Learn more here:

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting – WSTC Online Open House – Washington State Transportation Commission

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Report 05.16.2025 In addition to a recipe for Baked Crab Dip, there is an announcement that Redondo Paid Parking is finally on the way.

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant ³changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

This Week

Thursday

City Council Meeting Regular Meeting – 22 May 2025 – Agenda – Pdf. If you have a sense of deja vu all over again, you’re not wrong. 🙂 We will once again be re-visiting several items discussed at the May 8, 2022 meeting I previously went over.

There will be two significant City Manager Presentations.

• Pet licensing program. This was something Chief Boe talked about at the May 1, Committee of the Whole deal. The money will be useful for improving Animal Control. No, it’s not all the money we will need, but it’s money we’ve been leaving on the table for a long time. My concern is more that the software work smoothly with whatever new web site we get later in the year. This has been a chronic problem. Either we get the wrong software, or we get the right software and it’s a ton of work, or the various pieces don’t talk to one another. When people go to our phone app (fingers crossed!) it should be a one-button affair to pay for basically everything the City charges for. 🙂
• Capital projects update. This is a biggee. We’ll hear about Marina Steps, Redondo pier and Flag Triangle. And there will be decisions! I don’t think any decisions on projects this big should be made without the public seeing the options ahead of time.

Some other highlights…

Citizens Advisory Committee Re-Org. If you read last week, the City offered two big options for consolidating all our various ‘citizen’ committees. The Council voted (4-3) for Option A  – what I called the Soviet Option. 😀

At least partly in response to my concerns over participation, the packet reads:

Here is my “I am choosing to believe that this will work” emoji —-> 🙂

Lakehaven Water District Franchise Agreement. This is the second reading on an agreement to lock in a six percent franchise fee for rate payers until 2041. I will probably vote ‘no’. Not to be difficult, but because the City is proposing a six percent fee and I have no idea what the proper franchise fee should be.

If memory serves, the City originally got into the ‘SPD franchise’ business years ago because it actually wanted to enact a utility tax – in order to raise revenue during a previous fiscal crisis – and the State courts had not yet ruled if that was constitutional or not. So, we enacted franchise fees. Potayto, potahto. Regardless, legal-wise, franchise fees are supposed to have something to do with cost recovery. And thus far, I’ve never seen us discuss why we charge (x) fee for any of our franchisees – Comcast, Centurylink, SPDs. And I believe we should. The only discussion I’ve ever heard is that “it’s what everyone else does.” I don’t think that’s good enough anymore.

Council Protocol Manual Update. We’re plowing through a long list of changes to our Council meeting rules. We got through a few on May 1st and now we’re moving down the list. These are rules that govern how meetings work. They aren’t exactly ‘laws’ but they matter a lot because, to paraphrase Michael Matthias, “He who controls the agenda, controls the meeting.” They cover everything from the Mayor’s authority, to what kinds of information the City is required to provide to councilmembers, to how long meetings last, to whether or not it takes one or two readings to pass an ordinance. Back in the day, they were mostly governed by social norms.

Executive Session. POTENTIAL LITIGATION RCW 42.30.110 (1)(i) – 20 Minutes.

Last Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda). Their staff discussed their accomplishments in environmental sustainability, including sound insulation and other airport mitigations. To give you a sense of how well we’re doing, here’s a summary of sound insulation for 2024:

“Completed or made progress in insulating three single-family homes, 9 apartment buildings, and 3 places of worship.”

All of those were first-time installs – mandated as part of the Third Runway agreement from 1996. Zero progress on anything new.  Full coverage at STNI

Friday

6:00pm Mt. Rainier High School Art Fest! 6pm – 9pm. Big Band Jazz! Mariachis! Art! This was the third year band director Ashley La has been doing this and it was the biggest crowd so far. I also saw the Mayor and Cm Achziger there, so the woid is spreading!

Some bits of business…

UW AAA study for kids with asthma – free indoor air filters!

The University of Washington is conducting an Asthma, air quality & airports fon children living near Sea-Tac Airport. This is a great opportunity to help improve the air quality for your child and help with important research! Learn more and sign up here.

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting Online Open House

Yes, tolling is coming to SR-509. I keep posting this because it’s only taken 50 years, so you can be forgiven for being a bit skeptical. But as you drive down 24th Ave you’ll notice that the exit onto I-5 is nearing completion. This is happening. Learn more here:

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting – WSTC Online Open House – Washington State Transportation Commission

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report May 9, 2025

In addition to a recipe for S’mores, the report is the first I’ve seen of our new logo. Among a bunch of good items to look at there is

• A summary of various rate discounts for seniors
• Field House admin moving to Activity Center here
• New Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program web site on line.

City Currents Summer 2025

Speaking of information: I try to maintain a library of all City Currents Magazines in PDF format. I started doing this because I’m visually disabled and PDFs are easier for me to read than the on-line version. Since then, I’ve found them to be an interesting way to learn the history of Des Moines going back to 1990.

City Currents Summer 2025

The Race is on for City Council

Four seats up for election on our Council Here are the candidates who filed. Note that Traci Buxton (Position #5) and Matt Mahoney (Position #7) chose not to run for re-election.

In Highline Schools, our recently appointed District #5 Director Blaine Holien is running unopposed.

In all our neighbouring cities, every race has at least two, and often three and four candidates. But for some reason, we are unique in having so many unopposed elections.

Meanwhile, the race for our County Council seat #5 has six candidates – befitting the fact that our district also contains the much larger cities of Renton and Kent.

And in a slightly troubling sign – at the Port of Seattle – all three seats go unopposed. It’s a bit difficult to improve the quality of government if people don’t bother to run.

Airport Committee

Sign up for the Airport Advisory Committee. Despite being posted for two months now, unfortunately, only three people have applied for the position. This is bad as the clock is ticking on important aspects of airport expansion. Let’s get on it!

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant ³changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

This Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commissions (Agenda) Highlights:

• $4,000,000 to renew contract for the 24 noise monitors. This brings the grand total to $19,000,000 of advertising. I don’t know what else to call it because the program has no regulatory value. This is one of those deals the public does not understand. The truth is so absurd people don’t believe me when I tell them this: the monitors have absolutely part in establishing noise boundaries, or holding flights to account for excessive noise. Nothing. It is monitoring, just for the sake of monitoring. Your tax dollars at work. 🙂
• The Port will purchase $950,000,000 in bonds – mostly to help finance the SAMP. That ability to borrow should give you a clue as to how well they are doing.
• They will provide their 2024 Environmental Sustainability presentation. This will give you a sense of how well they think they are doing. When it comes to the airport? Here is the sum total of their work last year:

Completed or made progress in insulating three single-family homes, 9 apartment buildings, and 3 places of worship.

And what makes those stats even less amazing? The three places of worship are left over from the Third Runway agreement – 1996. I’ve run out of jokes to deflect from how pathetic the Port’s approach to sound insulation has become over time.

Friday

6:00pm Mt. Rainier High School Art Fest! 6pm – 9pm. Big Band Jazz! Mariachis! Art! High school food for dinner! jk. 😀 If it’s as good as last year, it’s gonna be great. See you there.  22450 19th Ave S, Des Moines, WA 98198

2025 Art Fest Dinner Ticket Reservation

Last Week

Wednesday

I took a test drive on the 12 Seat version of the Artemis Electric Ferry along with Mayor Buxton and Cms Achziger and Mahoney.

Note that this is soooo not the 65 seat ‘pilot ferry’ boat we tried in 2022.

Hydrofoil tech really is impressive. If it can be made practical (a big if – keep reading) it will make ferry service much more pleasant for people who don’t enjoy all the ‘motion’ of a typical ferry. It was a very weak current, which is great for going north and south. But the pilot did a couple of 360s heading east/west – and the ride was just as smooth. The moment any ‘normal’ boat starts heading east/west across the Sound, there would have been major bobbing and rolling.

That said, these things are not cheap. The 24 seat version, which is a real product, has a 12 month wait list and costs $3,000,000. The 150 seater, the one that is supposed to be the real ‘transit’ for King County is $16,000,000 will not go to sea-trials until November. And you need at least two to run a route.

So all the talk of getting any of this going ‘for FIFA 2026’? I dunno, man. 😀

Another factlet. Last year, the City got a grant to put in a $1,000,000 charging station. But Artemis brought along a $20,000 portable charger. The difference? For $1,000,000 you get a 60 minute charge. For $20k, it’s overnight. That’s a pretty high cost premium for convenience.

On the plus side, despite the eyepopping prices, these things should be viewed like any ‘bus’ or commercial aircraft. Their lifecycle should be 30-40 years and they use a lot less energy than a diesel boat, which makes them much cheaper to run. So for a transit agency that can borrow massive amounts of money they probably make a lot of sense.

The question is: where is the use case? It’s 39 nautical miles to Olympia. It’s 16 to Tacoma and another 16 to Seattle. Where are the stops? How many per day? Is the main reason to have a stop in Des Moines for the fast charger? To get people to the airport? What happens in two years when the batteries get better and they don’t need to stop in Des Moines, but can go directly from Tacoma to Seattle and back?

Thursday

City Council Meeting (recap follows)

City Council Meeting Recap

(Regular Meeting – 08 May 2025 – Agenda – Updated)

Consent Agenda

Dock Replacement Engineering

I pulled this item. But only because I’m paranoid about ¹sludge. After diving through a ton of paperwork, it looked to me like there was an increase in engineering fees, which doesn’t bug me, but a delay in billing or something which I was worried might slow delay the contractor from showing up and getting in-water projects done. If you read along long enough, you’ll hear references to ‘the fish window’, a period during the year when any in-water work can be done. If you ‘miss the fish window’ you have to either wait for next year to start, or you have to shut down in the middle.

Farmers Market

I did not pull this item. But it will continue to irk me – not because I don’t like Farmers Markets. They’re great. But because we have all these separate, but interlocking ‘things’ that are beloved by the community. People assume they all work together and create a ‘destination’. They don’t. They should. But they don’t. And I sure hope the new City Manager takes a lot of notes this year so we can make progress on that next year.

I yammer about it now because I never expected Ms. Caffrey to address this kind of thing in her first year. But I do expect the City to take notes.

Citizens Advisory Committee Re-Org

If you read last week, the City offered two big options for consolidating all our various ‘citizen’ committees. The Council voted (4-3) for Option A  – what I called the Soviet Option. 😀

What troubles me, as with the election above, the Farmers Market, and everything is participation. We don’t have it.

I had hoped the City would simply defer this discussion until after we get a new web site (hopefully more mobile app-based).

There is this fib we keep telling ourselves that, “people who care enough will find a way to get engaged!” If that were true, it woulda happened by now. I also don’t buy the idea I hear that these are “the farm team for future leaders”. Really? No candidate for City Council in the past decade has had anything to do with these groups. Two members of the City Council were engaged on citizen committees (Jeremy Nutting 2013, Luisa Bangs 2015) – but they joined the Council as appointees, not people who campaigned for office.

There is an existential problem in civic life – a lack of participation, which is most acute in the areas and demographics of the City that are chronically under-represented.

ADUs Middle Housing

This was a win for our City. It might be one of the things I will look back on as a real accomplishment. Of course, since the proposal turned out exactly as I’d hoped (when does that happen? 😀 ) I would say that.

We voted to expand the number of dwelling units to 24 per acre – with a max of four ADUs (the remainder being middle housing – such as cottages.) We also voted to reduce parking requirements in these new projects. (But to be clear, not throughout Des Moines.)

A lot of the ‘parking’ discussion was about general concerns about on-street parking – again not part of this discussion. Parking throughout the City will be an issue for the Council to address, but not here.

As I said last week: this entire deal is a beta test. There is simply no way to know ahead of time what the effects of this will be because there are simply too many variables – including how many residents will take advantage of this. But to all the people who say “there’s no place to put more people!”, that was never true.

Lakehaven Water District Franchise Agreement

This was the first reading on an agreement to lock in a six percent franchise fee for rate payers until 2041. In a rare moment of speechlessness, I literally could not put a sentence together on this. But I realised in the moment that I had not done my job. I was just ready to move it forward to the second reading without a second thought – as just one of those things that has to happen.

Perhaps like how we have a bajillion ‘committees’, the City has five special purpose districts. Which is a lot for a City of only six square miles. Each of these services require City participation and thus some form of compensation. The City can either charge a utility tax – which makes us look bad, I suppose, or charge a franchise fee to the SPD – and they tack it onto their rate.

Rate payers (you and I) are told that this state of affairs keeps rates low and preserves ‘local control’. They fight like badgers to maintain independence and franchises and avoid utility taxes. So, because nothing here is simple, we now have five separate, very long, franchise agreements.

However, IMO, any red-blooded city councilmember should prefer a (low) and standard utility tax. This gives the City the option to adjust rates as needed. I have no idea if 6% will be the right number ten years from now – especially with inflation.

Then there’s this: at Water District #54, there have been two Boil Water notices in ten years. Highline Water recently negotiated an agreement with the Port of Seattle over PFAS in the water. In SPDs with lots of old septic systems (North Hill), we have no way of offering better options for connecting to the grid.

All these staggered agreements prevent us from considering if there are better long-term approaches for the City to promote growth. The notion that it is automatically better for residents (and the City) having so many agreements (and so many agencies) in a geography as dinky as Des Moines seems harder for me to justify as the years go by.

Council Protocol Manual Update?

We ran out of time. 🙂 To be continued…

Some bits of business…

Field House admin moving to Activity Center

Effective Monday, May 5, the Field House will no longer be available for walk-in public access. The building will remain open for scheduled programs and activities only. Community members who need in-person support such as program registration or facility rental inquiries should visit the Activity Center at 2045 S 216th St during regular business hours of 8:00 am – 4:00 pm. The City is working to consolidate Parks, Recreation, Senior Services, Events, and Facility Rentals into a single, more unified department over at the Activity Center. More info here: https://www.desmoineswa.gov/news/what_s_new/field_house_access___organizational_transition

Traffic Calming Web Site Launched

As part of his update, DPW Slevin announced that the City’ Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program web site was now on line. Not to oversell this, we already have five projects booked this year and there are limits to capacity. But you should definitely put your street on the list and get your concern evaluated. Making this process more transparent is a very good step forward.

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting Online Open House

Yes, tolling is coming to SR-509. I keep posting this because it’s only taken 50 years, so you can be forgiven for being a bit skeptical. But as you drive down 24th Ave you’ll notice that the exit onto I-5 is nearing completion. This is happening. Learn more here:

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting – WSTC Online Open House – Washington State Transportation Commission

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report May 2, 2025

Since we no longer have a regular Finance Committee, here is the monthly Sales Tax Report. The news is good in ¹construction – but it may be people simply pre-buying stuff. 2025.04 Sales Tax Rpt CDM

The City also produced a Cost Reductions Report. There is some very real progress and the report is much appreciated.

The City is now offering an e-mail sign up for City Manager Reports – which I strongly encourage.

It is filing week! Run for City Council

These four seats up for election on our Council and this is the week to file to run! Starting Monday May 5, 2025 at 8 a.m. and ending on Friday, May 9, 2025 at 5 p.m!

Go to King County Elections and get on it! Above all? Do. Not. Be. Intimidated. It is super-easy. And let me know if you have questions.

Currently Registered Candidates | Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)

Airport Committee

Sign up for the Airport Advisory Committee. We keep putting this off and the clock is ticking on important aspects of airport expansion. For example, there is a pivotal StART meeting going on this Wednesday and we have only one community member there.

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant ³changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

This Week

Wednesday

6:00pm. Artemis Ferry demo. Yes, the Artemis Electric Ferry rep. will be at the Des Moines Marina and (I guess) I’ll be taking a test drive. Will it be the 150 seat version in this AI-generated image or will it be the for realz 24 seat version everyone else has seen? And when will the 150 seat version be available at a dock near you? I guess you’ll just have to show up at the Marina and find out. 🙂

Thursday

Regular Meeting – 08 May 2025 – Agenda Highlights:

Dock Replacement Engineering

This is a $74k increase in design work for the L,M,N dock replacement. $60k was already set aside as a contingency so it’s not the dough I’m concerned about. It’s that the fish window is getting near and I thought this was all done and dusted. It’s a lot of reading so I may be over-reacting. 🙂

Protocol Manual

We’re plowing through a long list of changes to our Council meeting rules. We got through a few last time – proposed by Councilmember Grace-Matsui and the discussion was spicy. I think we’re moving towards mine. I should have a review here, but I’m going over-long as it is. Frankly, our ‘rules’ are a reflection of our Council. You want better rules? Elect a Council this November that wants better rules. That sounds even snippier than usual, but note that we’ve always had rules about decorum to address all the complaints residents have about ‘being nice’ at the dais.  As Dr. Phil used to say, “How’s that been workin’ for ya?”

Discussion of Appointive Committees

Des Moines currently has seven appointive committees:
– Arts Commission
– Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC)
– Civil Service Commission
– Human Services Advisory Board
– Lodging Tax Advisory Committee
– Police Advisory Committee
– Senior Services Advisory Committee

Additionally, Council has directed the future creation of two more, both of which to be monitored by our Planning Director:
– An Airport Committee
– A Planning Commission

The three committees the City has recommended go untouched must be self-reporting on efficacy because they haven’t reported to the City Council or to the public in so long, I cannot recall. Those are the good ones. The remainder all suffer from very low participation. Hmmm… I wonder? 😀

At a minimum, every committee should be transparent – recordings, public schedules, minutes. The bare minimum of open government. Many of these are not.

Regardless, if you look at the other comparison cities, pound for pound, we have 2-3x more committees. I’m pretty sure that would hold with comparisons across WA, and given that, it is wise to question their value.

The two options the City proposes are:

Expand the CAC, which currently has 20-ish members and…
– Add 7 at-large members 
– Create subcommittees for Arts, Human Services, and Senior Services

Or…

– Maintain current CAC and
 – Create a new Community Events and Services Committee (CESC)

Neither of these proposals kill me. Ya know who used to have 27 member committees with at large members and subcommittees in a town of 33,000 people? The ³CCCP, Comrade. 😀 Creating a mega-committee for interests and expertise as diverse as ‘arts’, ‘human services’, and ‘senior services’ sounds like a recipe for regressing to a particular mean. Fun fact: the average resident of Des Moines is under 40. 🙂

Farmers Market Agreement

On an adjacent note, we will approve the Farmers Market Agreement and wave the $50k rental fees. The City now says that this is in exchange for a sponsorship. That’s fine. But it’s no change. I only mention this because there has never been proper coordination between the Farmers Market and local business and events planning.

Last Week

Thursday

Committee of the Whole/Study Session – 01 May 2025 – Agenda – Updated  (2:35)

This was our second Committee of the Whole/Study Session combo-platter. Any concerns I had about too-long meetings? Nahh. We were out in a crisp 2:35.

City Council Committee of the Whole

Alarm Fees

(15 min) We have not been recovering our full costs when officers have to make a call. In addition to adjusting our rates to achieve better cost recovery, we’re also switching to a new 3rd party. The City provided me with a copy of the report we’ve been getting. Their collection rate was not very good and neither was the data. This was one of those boring process wins that make my heart sing.

Middle Housing

(45 min)  The was looking like another win. The City recommended a simplified model for everything from 1,200 sq ft. ADUs up to a quadplex – and, And, AND suggested following a model adopted by Kent which allows for as many units as the land will allow based on geometry. That word was actually used. Wooah, I started gettin’ giddy, there. 😀

But so long as the connections to grid are OK, it’s really true. This aerial graphic illustrated it really well, I thought.

My only concern – which is suggested on one of the diagrams – was maybe to limit the number of ADUs on very large parcels, in order to encourage cottage housing.

We will conclude the item next week, by deciding on Parking, because the State has a deadline. The City favours  adopting the 2027 State mandate now, and I agree. My only teeny, tiny concern has to do with the conflict between reduced parking requirements and on-street parking and possible environmental impacts. The City has an interest in making sure there are no unintended consequences as to loss of tree canopy, or perhaps cars moving on the street (or on people’s lawns.)

From the dais, I complimented staff on the presentation, which was outstanding, and the default options, feel right. These are always good signs. It is the will of the State to not only add options, but to streamline the process. So why not make our process as simple as possible? 🙂

But here’s the thing: this entire deal is a beta test. There is simply no way to know ahead of time what the effects of this will be because there are simply too many variables – including how many residents will take advantage of this. I have the easy part – voting for a very noble purpose. 😀 It is our staff and residents who will have to figure out what all that means.

City Council Study Session

City Logo

(40 min) I did not care. I do not care. But this was our third discussion on this and still we were not done?

Comprehensive Plan Chapters

(60 min) Discussions for Economic Development and three neighbourhoods:

• • North Central
  • Marina District
  • Pacific Ridge

Most of my comments were rhetorical.

• I asked about this thing called the Innovation District – which is currently the row of homes on the south side of 216th from the Activity Center  east to 24th. As these buildings are sold, they use case will change, which was, until last year, Business Park. But in one of his last proposals, our last City Manager talked up an Innovation District. I had no idea what it means either.
• I also asked about some language in the Marina District which has never been clear as to a bike path. If you recall, the City used to make much of having bike paths through the center of the City  from Highline College north and ultimately connecting to the Des Moines Creek Trail – which would ultimately give one access all the way out to Woodinville.

• In Pacific Ridge, I made a rhetorical comment about wanting another play space. Midway Park has made huge leaps from its humble beginnings as a Community Garden. But 30th Avenue is looooong – far too long to serve the needs of all the apartment buildings south. Councilmember Mahoney mentioned that the area is zoned for the tallest, highest density in Des Moines. True. And seemed to feel that every foot of available space should be allocated to accommodate more housing. That sounds very noble, except for this… Ya know what ya call tall, high density apartment buildings near transit without high quality parks?

The Projects.

Every parent with a child deserves to be within convenient stroller distance of a high quality play space.

Logo (Coda)

(5 min) Since we were wrapping up so early, the Mayor suggested we go back to the logo. Behind the scenes, a staff member had been twiddling away to generate new previews based on the discussion. Which yielded four new possibilities.

Remember where I said that I do not care? At the first opportunity, I cast the deciding vote and end the suffer… er…. make the one at top left our new official logo.

I have two points to make here.

Here is the original recommendation from the designer. (If these look skewed differently they’re the same. That’s a problem with web/print.) If you compare that with the logo we decided upon, you may need to blink to notice the differences. We had three meetings on this, hours of time, not to mention the designer’s time. I also want to mention that we spent an equal amount of time last November arriving at essentially the same Mission Statement we already had from 2018.

There should be more than one lesson there.

The time and money we’ve wasted on these are Animal Control Money.

Road money. Technician money. It’s not just those wacky Councilmembers goofing around on Channel 21. The reason it’s so easy to waste this money is because we do not think about as real.

Here’s the sign as youenter the Marina. I assume it was paid out of some Marina fund.

Here’s the jib, flaggy thing that forms the ‘gateway’ to the City at 216th and KDM. Back in 2010ish that version of the City Council spent ages deciding on it.

Now look at the new Redondo restroom. Which says Redondo. Not Des Moines. We paid $2.6 million dollars for that thing and nowhere is there an indication that you are using a toilet in Des Moines. Waterland City.

Then there’s the new logo – which came out of a Communications budget – left over from when we had a Communications Director. I think that fits broadly under the City Manager Budget.

And it hit me – that is why there is no consistency. ACCOUNTING! 😀

Separate bags o’ money from different departments. Each department brought forward its own decision, or that version of the Council saw it as a fresh opportunity to ‘get creative’. There was never any review for consistency because it’s not a built-in process.

Look at an agenda item. Any item will do. The opening has a section with Clearances. Each relevant department initials that they’ve reviewed and cleared the item.

Know what option is missing? Brand Governance. In a for realz company, everything, and I do mean everything, requires a sign-off from some person we used to jokingly refer to as the ²Style Council. If you want to maintain consistency, your organisation has to make sure that you have a Brand Officer who must sign-off, like legal, finance, engineering, etc. before it can get voted on.

You can develop a new logo, t-shirts, etc. You can hire a web guy and try to wrangle digital and print. But until the City makes this a discipline, it’s impossible.

And that leads me to my last point. The other reason people waste money on this is because there is no serious interest in value. I guess you can sell t-shirts. Cool. But until you can quantify how much money we spend on this stuff, it will never strike people as real money. It will simply be a sign we paid somebody at the Marina, a sign we paid another guy in Redondo, a sign we paid another guy on 216th, and a guy we paid to design a new logo. There’s no actual value.

¹For noobs, we bundle construction taxes in with ‘sales tax’ which I know  implies the (relatively) steady stream of taxes one expects from retail. As we’ve learned, construction is extremely variable.

²We had an employee that really liked 80’s Brit soul. ABC, Human League, Boy George, Wham, you get the idea.

Some bits of business…

Pope Francis

I want to acknowledge the passing of Pope Francis, not just as a practicing Roman Catholic and a member of St. Philomena since before the ¹Reformation. Since you are statistically not Catholic, my observation is the church is extremely misunderstood. It is 1.4 billion (with a ‘b’) people and a massive bureaucracy that does not respond to ‘executive orders’. He was routinely referred to as a ‘heretic’ and ‘apostate’ – by his own Cardinals. In short, the church is like American politics, except many times larger – a super-tanker that changes direction on a time scale measured in generations. That’s not a cop out.

However, there are also large factions – millions of people in fact – that argue and protest and take risks for positive change with a courage unthinkable in modern American politics. Whenever I lose patience, which happens, oh… every couple of hours or so… I try to bear in mind the level of commitment it takes to effect real change in a system so massive and ancient.

And I believe Pope Francis worked very hard to move that super-tanker, a bit faster, towards a better direction.

Traffic Calming Web Site Launched

As part of his update, DPW Slevin announced that the City’ Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program web site was now on line. Not to oversell this, we already have five projects booked this year and there are limits to capacity. But you should definitely put your street on the list and get your concern evaluated. Making this process more transparent is a very good step forward.

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting Online Open House

Yes, tolling is coming to SR-509. I keep posting this because it’s only taken 50 years, so you can be forgiven for being a bit skeptical. But as you drive down 24th Ave you’ll notice that the exit onto I-5 is nearing completion. This is happening. Learn more here:

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting – WSTC Online Open House – Washington State Transportation Commission

City Manager Stuff

City Manager’s Report April 25, 2025

No recipe? Scandoloso! But a good essay on the challenges we’re facing with Animal Control. Also a Des Moines Youth Summit at Why Not You Academy on Saturday May 3rd, I need to get more details on. But if you have a middle or high school student,  hope you can attend.

The City is now offering an e-mail sign up for City Manager Reports – which I strongly encourage.

Run for City Council

These four seats up for election on our Council. And at least two incumbents have already decided not to run again.

Regardless, you should run. Don’t be the person who only runs when a seat seems uncontested. All four seats are totally winnable. And frankly, with a few notable exceptions, seats that are unopposed tend to yield poor outcomes.

A campaign is part of the practice that helps candidates be good at the job.

But first, you should find out what yer getting yerself into. Start by going to King County Elections and look at the Candidate Manual. Above all? Do. Not. Be. Intimidated. But please do study. 🙂 And let me know if you have questions.

Currently Registered Candidates | Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)

Airport Committee

Sign up for the Airport Advisory Committee. We keep putting this off and the clock is ticking on important aspects of airport expansion. For example, there is a pivotal StART meeting going on this Wednesday and we have only one community member there.

Dueling Taxes

I have to hand it to the new Governor, apparently new property tax increases are off the table this year. However, a couple of other bills are in play – including one to raise the sales tax by .01 in order to fund public safety.

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant ³changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

This Week

Thursday

Committee of the Whole/Study Session – 01 May 2025 – Agenda – Pdf

This is our second Committee of the Whole/Study Session combo-platter. I’m starting to have a tiny twinge about doing too much decision making during too-long meetings – without real votes (only ‘head nods’.

City Council Committee of the Whole

• False Alarm costs. This is a necessary adjustment as we have not been recovering our full costs when officers have to make a call.
• Middle Housing. The City seems to be recommending a simplified model for everything from 1,200 sq ft. ADUs up to a quadplex.
  • If I had to re-do my original choice, I would’ve probably gone for up to 1,500 sq ft. Why authorise an ADU as big as many single-family homes? Not sure. I want to check on the viability of splits. As I wrote, I took a SFH to duplex and then, years later, back to SFH. My guess is that, in the future, owners will want flexibility in subdividing their ADUs. So many questions. 🙂
  • We will likely greatly reduce parking requirements now in advance of a state law that will take effect in 2027 and do it for us anyhoo. I generally support this, however, the risk of moving more cars on-street is very real.
  • I’m also interested that we maintain or even improve environmental standards (eg. trees).

City Council Study Session

• City Logo. I. Do. Not. Care. 😀
• Comprehensive Plan Chapter. Discussions for Economic Development and three neighbourhoods:
  • North Central
  • Marina District
  • Pacific Ridge

Yes, it sounds callous, but I’m not sure how much I care about this either. Keep saying it, but comp plans are soooooooooo much work. And I am never sure what difference they make. Not being snippy. But this is one of those (cough) ²‘DOGE’ things. The process should be much easier for cities.

Last Week

Tuesday

I gathered soil samples – and you should too – ahead of the free soil testing events hosted by Dept. Of Ecology on Saturday.

Port of Seattle Meeting (Agenda) As expected, the Port is now generating more than $1B a year in revenue. The numbers were a bit softer than they would like – but this is very temporary. I attended to protest the closure of the StART meeting to the public. Full coverage from Sea-Tac Noise.Info here.

When people ask me why I follow the airport so assiduously? Beyond all the various negative impacts, another important answer is the same as Willie Sutton – because that’s where the money is.

Since I’ve lived here, the City has always needed more money, girlfriend. Like a lot of money. What has been frustrating to me as a member of the City Council is how not seriously we’ve taken issues like the airport; and also that lack of moolah.

I am glad the City has recently engaged in some belt-tightening (typical) and is now moving ahead with a better financial analysis (atypical). But it’s just not going to be enough. My fear in doing the Steps, Redondo Fishing Pier and the Ferry Pilot jazz was, as always, it created a false set of expectations. People always assumed we could afford this stuff. ‘Dress for success’ is the phrase, I believe.

The challenge has always been to get the City to look to our very large neighbour to the north – which is actually much easier than hoping and praying for real help from the State of WA. It’s also more just. The Port can well afford to help fix at least some of the problems they caused.

Wednesday

StART Meeting: As I said, this was the first meeting that was closed to the public. And that should not make you happy if you care about all the noise, pollution, etc., etc., etc… The City Manager gave a council summary, however, it did not include the most important answer: Why? Why was the meeting closed.

Thursday, April 24

City Council Meeting Recap

Regular Meeting – 24 Apr 2025 – Agenda – Updated

Spring – when a city’s fancy turns to meetings under 1:30. 😀 City Manager Caffrey was AWOL. Again! Apparently some ‘parenting’ thing involving guitar. In my day kids weren’t allowed to touch a guitar until they became sullen teenagers. Harumph. Fortunately, there were no decisions to be made, and once again Assistant City Manager Johnson-Newton sat in our version of the big chair.

One note: this is the first time in my tenure (or anyone’s recent tenure) where the City delivered some of the ‘last minute’ presentations in advance of the meeting. That alone was worth a hall pass.

Annual State of the Court Address

This was an excellent presentation. The Judge mentioned a lack of interpreters in uncommon languages and I asked her for some examples. I (naively) expected something I had actually heard of. 😀 I thought she might be kidding, so I looked up Marshallese on my computer. Go do that right now. Wow.

My only grouse is that I wish the pie charts came with numbers rather than slices because they are a bit misleading. The 2024 pie is totally overwhelmed by activity with the new parking zone – making it hard to notice that certain issues – like criminal cases are actually up. That doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘crime’ is up. But it does mean that her team’s workload is up.

State of the Court

Public Works

This is also well worth looking at. Director Slevin’s group does much of the nuts and bolts stuff I think of when I think ‘city’. Roads, water, park maintenance, vehicles. I made a joke about it reminded me of a ⁴clown car. If you walk by the engineering building it always looks super-tiny relative to all the staff and services it provides.

Nominally, we’ve always had an ‘environment committee’ – it’s the one committee that has persisted over the decades. But ‘park maintenance’ ‘trees’ ‘storm water’ were all handled by separate workgroups. This always bugged me because I think of them as one ‘environment‘ thing. I bet you do, too. Slevin was previously Director of Environmental Services in Tacoma. It’s obvious that this is a direction the City wants to head and one I am very excited to see.

Public Works Status Brief

Proclamations

There were three proclamations:

Sexual Assault Awareness MonthSouth Sound Boating Season Opening Day

Laborers LiUNA Local 242 Day Proclamation

Saturday, April 26

SR3 Open House. This generally happens only once a year so you should do it. But maybe get there early.

Soil Testing at Burien’s Shark Garden. See above.

¹jk

²Well, except for cosmetology

³I call these changes more than new because, for the most part, when a ‘new’ restaurant opens, it’s taking over from an existing place.

⁴OK, old people. Back when there were actual circuses, an old VW Beetle would drive across the ring and an impossibly large number of clowns would emerge. What can I say? We didn’t have the MCU.

Some bits of business…

Burien.News covers Highline Schools

Most of you are familiar with the South King Media news sites, Waterland Blog, Seatac Blog, B-Town Blog. However, if you are interested in Highline Schools, the place to go is Burien.News. They provide the only regular coverage of Highline Schools, with deep dive articles on academic performance, budgets, and all the things parents (and taxpayers) should care about.

This is not an endorsement. Every local news source has pluses and minuses – including some serious biases. And you can’t expect any micro-blog to cover everything.

To see if its for you, here is their coverage of the first board meeting with our new District #5 Director Blaine Holien: President Van Declares Literacy and Academics as Highline Priority at April 16 Meeting

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting Online Open House

Yes, tolling is coming to SR-509. Learn more here:

Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting – WSTC Online Open House – Washington State Transportation Commission

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

The City Manager’s Report April 18, 2025 is back. It features a lasagna cupcake recipe and an update on construction projects at the Fieldhouse and 24th Ave.

The City is now offering an e-mail sign up for City Manager Reports – which I strongly encourage.

Run for City Council

These four seats up for election on our Council. And at least two incumbents have already decided not to run again.

Regardless, you should run. The worst outcome would be, as has often be the case, that any seat does not have a vigorous campaign. Why? Because, whether you like the candidate or not, running a campaign is how candidates gain experience. That’s the dirty little secret of City Council. Regardless of how much time they’ve spent in other aspects of civic life, new electeds usually have no idea what they’re doing for the first few years.

But first, you should find out what yer getting yerself into. Start by going to King County Elections and look at the Candidate Manual. Above all? Do. Not. Be. Intimidated. But please do study. 🙂 And let me know if you have questions.

216th/Barnes Creek Staging Area

There’s been this container sitting at the back of the 216th/Barnes Creek Trail parking lot for over a year. And then suddenly, other trucks and equipment began showing up. Given the concerns over Des Moines Creek West and the recent sale of the adjoining WSDOT surplus property, this causes concerns. Allay your concerns. 😀

The spot is currently being used as a staging area for several current projects this summer, including the Des Moines Memorial Drive storm water replacement and SR-509. Nothing you don’t know about. The silt fence is actually a good thing – part of making sure it meets environmental code. 🙂

Do I wish we had put up a sign explaining this? Yes. Yes, I do. Because I get asked a lot. Like – a lot, a lot. 😀 If you have questions, please contact Public Works Director Mike Slevin.

Airport Committee

Sign up for the Airport Advisory Committee. We keep putting this off and the clock is ticking on important aspects of airport expansion. For example, there is a pivotal StART meeting going on this Wednesday and we have only one community member there.

Dueling Taxes

As I’ve written before, the State is moving ahead with several proposals to raise taxes – including property taxes. The one most likely to pass will allow city councils to raise the property tax cap from 1% to 3% – every year, not just one year – without you getting a vote. Unfortunately, as usual, all the appetite people seem to have for politics at the moment is at the Federal level. I get it.

This Week

Tuesday

I will be gathering soil samples – and you should too – ahead of the free soil testing events hosted by Dept. Of Ecology on Saturday.

Port of Seattle Meeting (Agenda) The Port will receive it’s Q4 Financial Reports. They are showing slight amounts of red ink. Don’t believe it. This is due entirely to an almost $1B legal settlement over the International Arrivals Facility, which they are budgeting in time payments (must be nice 😀 ). Short explanation: they made the gates too small to accommodate newer (larger) aircraft and tried to blame the mistake on the contractor. Oopsies.

Wednesday

StART Meeting: As I said, this is the first meeting that is closed to the public. And that should not make you happy if you care about all the noise, pollution, etc., etc., etc…

Thursday, April 24

City Council Regular Meeting – 24 Apr 2025 – Agenda Highlights:

• Annual State of the Court Address, covers court operations, performance metrics, and key initiatives undertaken over the past year.
• The Public Works department will provide an overview of current projects, maintenance activities, and service delivery updates.
• And, there will be not one, not two, but three proclamations: South Sound Boating Season Opening Day Proclamation, Sexual Assault Awareness Month Proclamation, Laborers LiUNA Local 242 Day Proclamation

Whenever we have a ‘light load’ like this, some of my colleagues consider it a breather. I do not. We’ve just gone through a flurry of meetings with ultra-packed agenda. It begs the question: do you prefer having a series of meetings with gale force winds, punctuated by the occasional dead air, or would you prefer to have important issues spread evenly across each meeting, like a calm, steady 6-8 knots of wind?Kinda like this little guy – Sailin’ with pride, baby. 😀 That’s what I mean by ‘load balancing’. People make better decisions with more balanced work loads.

Saturday, April 26

SR3 Open House. This generally happens only once a year so you should do it. But maybe get there early.

Soil Testing at Burien’s Shark Garden. See above.

Last Week

Tuesday

Not Des Moines, but I attended one of the best ‘student’ concerts I can recall at the Key To Change Studios main campus in Renton. Key To Change offers string education for kids and recently opened a branch in Des Moines across from Mt. Rainier High School. The recital featured one of their success stories – a former student now working towards her PhD at the prestigious Peabody Conservatory. I’m not saying your kid will learn how to get to ¹Carnegie Hall, but parents always appreciate knowing that the programs they enroll in have a track record of success. I look forward to Key To Change concerts here in the near future. 🙂

Wednesday

King County Regional Transit Committee (Agenda). We received briefings on two big issues: Public safety, and ADA.

• Broadly speaking, incidents have increased slightly on the A-Line. However, each main line, including the A-Line, cover a whole lotta territory. Several of us asked for more granular stats.
• WRT accessibility, Metro will be conducting a community outreach campaign to find out how to make it easier for people with accessibility issues to use the buses. Residents from Adriana, Wesley, Judson, et. al. will need to weigh in on this given that you represent our largest share of ridership with special needs. As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. 🙂

Thursday – Sunday

The remainder of the week, I also attended several Easter-adjacent events – including playing organ for one Mass. I haven’t done this in a couple of years, and it was good to know that I could still find the on/off switch. What makes this type of performance so unique is not the sacral nature of the event. It’s that, no matter how you do? No walkouts. 😀

Praise the Lord.

¹Practice.

²And the answer is, apparently, not.