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Note #1: I know the web site has been flaky the past week. Sorry. I think it’s reIatively glitch-free now.

Note #2: Yeah, I’m late again. My web server is broken. The sun got in my eyes. My dog ate my server.

This Week

Monday: Phone call with 33rd State Rep. Tina Orwall to discuss air quality monitors around Sea-Tac Airport. She had high hopes for getting air filters installed at local schools. But that got killed by a line-item veto from the Governor as a response to COVID-19. Here is an article that explains why this may provide amazing bang for buck in terms of health outcomes for our children.

Tuesday: A King County presentation on how cities should be planning for life after COVID-19

Last Week

Monday was my Letter To The Waterland Blog (more below).

Tuesday I had a virtual meeting with people from the Port Of Seattle to work on the whole Port Package Update program. One challenge I’m having is balancing my advocacy against noise and pollution with a certain empathy for the Port’s current predicament with COVID-19. For some background, you have to understand a certain hubris the airline industry has had over the past decade. In 2015 the Chairman of the parent company of United Airlines famously stated that he thought there was no way airlines could ever lose money again. Ever. Sea-Tac Airport has been so successful that the Port must have also felt somewhat invulnerable.

Tuesday those great people from Trout Unlimited released the Coho Fish Pen down at the Marina. Even without the social distancing it’s not the most dramatic thing to witness. But it does matter. May they return in great numbers in a couple of years.

Tuesday night I volunteered at the Food Bank. I only keep mentioning it because the one thing they need are volunteers. It’s totally safe and it’s one of the biggest bang for buck things you can do to help Des Moines.

Wednesday was a virtual StART Meeting. Like all StART meetings it was pretty content-free in terms of noise and pollution. However, it had some useful metrics from the Port Of Seattle and Normandy Park, Tukwila and SeaTac as to municipal finances. And in two words: it’s bleak. One example: last Tuesday the airport processed 2,500 passengers. A typical day would be more like 60,000! I know there is a big tendency among airport activists towards Schadenfreude, but it affects us in that if the Port is broke, it cuts into their ability to meet their commitments to us.

Friday: Was the King County Climate Collaboration virtual meeting. As they say, we simply cannot let this crisis go to waste. We’re experiencing better air for the first time in decades and I want to keep it!

Follow Up

After the Mayor and Deputy Mayor started attacking me from the dais and in the Waterland Blog I started asking what the specifics are behind their complaints. So far I’ve only received specifics on one item–and this second hand–referring to my Weekly Update where I mentioned the Joint Emergency Operations Center. I stand by those comments and if anyone has comments or concerns over them, they should speak with me directly. As always, I welcome everyone’s input. 🙂

Now: what I’m about to write has nothing to do with that specific event. It’s just my general feelings about how presentations before the City Council should go.

Towards Better Presentations

City Hall is, for me, something of a sacred space. Over the years I have witnessed waaaaay too many poor presentations at City Hall. In fact, many of them were more performance than presentation. Insiders know exactly what I’m talking about. When I ran for office I told you that I wanted better government. For most of you that sounded kinda abstract. Well, this is one specific, nuts and bolts example of we improve government: better presentations.

If someone speaks before the Council for twenty minutes when a crisp five would have been more appropriate? If they engage in grandstanding or other self-serving behaviors? If they don’t make themselves available for questions? That’s not good for government and I’m going to say something. Presenters should feel an obligation to be clear, concise, informative and non-performative when speaking before the Council. And when appropriate, presenters should cheerfully submit to thorough questioning.

The above seems commonsense to me. If this irritates some people, so be it. It is definitely not meant to. Presentations should not be about the presenter. Presentations should be about giving the Council (and the public) the information to make the best possible decisions.

Now look, 9x percent of presenters already do all that. They’re great. Most people who speak at the podium are not politicians or public speakers, they’re Staff or the public. They have no desire to accomplish anything but give the Council the best possible presentation. They’re not the ones I worry about. It’s the people who are comfortable at the podium: those are the people you have to worry about! 😀

One last thing: I don’t want to create the impression that I’m a ‘tough audience’. Quite the contrary. And the last thing I want to do is discourage the public from making public comment (we need to do a lot more to encourage people speaking at City Council Meetings in my opinion!) At bottom, what I want is a genuine conversation with anyone who speaks before the Council. No intimidation. But no bells and whistles either.

Airport

Happy Earth Day 2020!

It’s hard to explain to people under the age of, oh I dunno, 200, what a big deal Earth Day was back when it began in 1970. I mean there were parties. Big parties. People across the entire political spectrum were engaged with ‘environmentalism’ in a way that is unimaginable now. There was a unified enthusiasm for working together to clean up the world not seen since the end of World War II.

At the time, the public was fed up. The problems were easy to care about largely because they were so visible. (When I first came to America in 1974, Lake Erie was occasionally on fire. ) Ginormous toxic cleanup sites were everywhere. Airplane exhaust was a thick black smoke. And you think airplanes are loud now?

Now, even with all the politics, the visible state of the environment is so much better, again, it’s hard to recall where we were in 1970. So I think that to a large degree we are victims of all the success we had in dealing with the most obvious problems. We don’t see orange air and acid water now. So it’s harder to get people to see the environment as a high enough priority.

Unfortunately, we have still have many problems. And these problems aren’t just harder to see, they’re often harder to mitigate. For example, commercial aircraft pollute just as much as they used to. It’s just that they appear ‘cleaner’. But the more we study, the more we realize that the invisible emissions are just as deadly. And Puget Sound? It’s frustrating to the people who monitor its health because it looks so nice up top. But beneath? It’s a mess in many areas–and that includes the waters off Des Moines.

The COVID-19 outbreak has given us a unique opportunity. I’m sure you’ve noticed the quiet. And if you’ve been watching any news on TV you’ve undoubtedly seen before/after views of the Seattle area showing how much clearer the skies are now. So what we’re getting is a unique opportunity to see how things were and how they should be now.

Part of the public’s apathy is because so many of you are new to the City and cannot remember what it was like when things were routinely quieter and clearer in Des Moines. Well, this is it. Again, this is how it should be. The other part is that we’ve had such an awful time getting any cooperation or relief from the Port Of Seattle and other agencies that contribute to the problems.

When I ran for City Council, I was clear that one of the biggest long-term challenges our City faces is the noise and pollution from Sea-Tac Airport. And if you know anything about me, you know I spend a lot of time working on that. Last year, for the first time ever, we got some State legislation to help homeowners with Port Packages. And this year we’ll work to get more legislation passed. This will be long game but it’s the only game. We must make incremental gains each year at the local level because we must ensure a cleaner and quieter Des Moines for the next fifty years.

I know some of you tell me, “It’s the County’s problem”, “It’s the State’s problem”, “It’s the Federal government’s problem”. It’s not the City’s problem. To which I reply, “Look, if those agencies aren’t doing the job? It’s our problem.” Someone has to be the steward for Des Moines. So if they won’t? We must.

After all, we’re The Waterland City. I moved here to fish, sail, enjoy the parks. I’m here because of the place. Because though Des Moines isn’t the richest City in dollars, I would argue that it is still one of the richest places in the world. When you view the City from the water, with Mount Rainier in the background you’re experiencing one of the best views on Puget Sound. Which means you’re witnessing one of the best views in America. We are truly blessed. But if we don’t treasure this place we lose what makes us special.

Anyhoo, I know by now you’ve had it up to here with ‘social distancing’. But please take a moment and really look around the City. One last time: this level of quiet and clear air and water is what we should demand. And I hope you will remember that when we re-open and things start edging back towards the levels of noise and pollution to which we’ve become accustomed. I hope you will help me to make this ‘new’ quieter and cleaner Des Moines permanent. We need to make that the highest priority for our City. It’s what we owe to our health and to the future of this beautiful place.

Policy, Transparency, Weekly Updates

COVID-19, Reach Out Des Moines, Sea-Tac Airport

Weekly Update: 04/19/2020

Port of the masked artist and dog at North Hill Elementary. Bear maintaining correct social distance.

This Week

Tuesday I’ll be having a virtual meeting with people from the Port Of Seattle to work on the whole Port Package Update program. I’ve cajoled, begged, nagged and wheedled enough to residents to contact SeatacNoise.Info if you have issues. So I won’t do that anymore. 😀

Tuesday is also the release date for the Coho Fish Pen down at the Marina. Swim free, little fish. free! Free! FREE! 😀 Even without the social distancing it’s not the most dramatic thing to witness. But it does matter. May they return in great numbers in a couple of years.

Wednesday is a virtual StART Meeting. Now for those of you concerned with airport issues, next week (April 23) is the deadline for submitting comments to the Dept. Of Commerce Study On Impacts From Sea-Tac Airport. Send your comments to Gary Idleburg gary.idleburg@commerce.wa.gov. Your comments matter because this is a long game. One ‘silver lining’ from COVID-19 is the reduction in noise and pollution. Many of us newer residents have never experienced how our City is supposed to be. So it’s often been tough to get newer residents to understand how bad things have gotten. We’ve just gotten used to it. Well, ironically this quiet and clean air is the real Des Moines. And my goal is to preserve at least a portion of these quieter and clearer skies as one positive outcome of this crisis.

Friday: King County Climate Collaboration virtual meeting. Ditto. As they say, we simply cannot let this crisis go to waste. We’re experiencing better air for the first time in decades and I want to keep it!

Last Week

Monday there was a Virtual Town Hall with Adam Smith at 5:00pm covering some great information on the new State unemployment benefits. I posted some details my Facebook Page, basically how to make sure your app gets processed smoothly. I asked the Congressman to see what he could do to provide a second round of stimulus specific to Cities like Des Moinesspecifically for long term capital projects. I also passed along the frustrations I’m hearing from local businesses regarding the SBA Loan process.

With the help of several activists, I’ve assembled a small roster of private individuals who are willing to provide free translation service for people who need help filling out and submitting all those forms. I’ve done this after finding out that there are a surprising number of very hard working business people who struggle with paperwork (me too! :)). It’s ridiculous that any valuable business in Des Moines might miss out on any government program simply because of that ‘last mile’ in communication. If you know someone in this situation, please contact me!

Somewhere in there I helped Michelle Fawcett (of Salon Michelle and Destination Des Moines) put together a promo video for the Quarterdeck restaurant where they generously donated all the profits from a full day of service to the Food Bank. Michelle is one of the most tireless boosters of local business in Des Moines and took the footage for the TakeOutDesMoines promotional campaign we’re working on to get people to try Des Moines restaurants.

Wednesday I attended the Reach Out Des Moines virtual Meeting, where we saw a presentation on Phenomenal She, a great program for girls and young women of colour. I wish there had been programs like this for my kids back in the day and I am just thrilled to see it expanding to Des Moines.

Thursday was the 30th District COVID-19 Meeting. The most notable aspect of the meeting was the attendance of our Mayor and our Deputy Mayor. Not much new to report–everyone is still struggling to get basic things like PPEs and tests (more below).

Thursday also saw not an event, but a Letter From Matt Mahoney in The Waterland Blog, which (as with the previous week’s coverage of our Mayor’s beatdown) took up a certain amount of bandwidth. I was curious as to what is called in advertising ‘reach’. So I wrote the editor asking how many clicks and how much ad revenue those two posts generated (hey, I’d like to think that someone was getting something positive out all this.)

Friday I attended a virtual presentation given by the great Ann McFarlane of Jurassic Parliament. All candidates should get to know Ms. McFarland and JP. It is great training. This seminar was called ” What’s Working On-Line Meetings” and was attended by eighty or so electeds. I attended this one mainly to see how other cities are dealing with ‘virtual city council meetings’. I came away more frustrated with the state of our situation in Des Moines. The overwhelming number of cities have been successfully conducting city business using relatively low-tech solutions like Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc. We are falling further behind other cities in our basic Council functions.

The Natives Are Getting Restless

I am hearing more and more from residents and ‘influencers’ that “It’s time to re-open Des Moines”. To which I can only say, “guys, Guys, GUYS!”

None of the data support this point of view. Every reputable scientist I’ve read or spoken with has said quite clearly that ‘the curve’ has to be going downward for two weeks before we can consider the infection to be controllable. We have not even peaked. We’re still going up, Up, UP! And not just here in small doses, but everywhere. As in planet earth everywhere. Almost every country that looked like it had gotten things under control is now experiencing a second wave. Meaning that, the moment they pumped the brakes, the disease comes back just as strong as before.

Plus: we have nothing like the proper gear to do so and will not for at least a month. The whole thing about ‘re-opening’ only works if everyone has gloves, masks, gowns and above all squillions of tests. We have none of that. We’ll need to be doing millions of tests every day. We currently do like 150k and–here’s the joke: only on people who we suspect of having it. That makes every statistic ridiculous to me. Now, can you imagine going to a hairstylist who doesn’t have PPEs? How about restaurants? Bars? What about that tight cubicle your spouse works in?

And last but not least, there’s you.How many of you are actually wearing masks in public–even in close quarters like the grocery store? Be honest. Do you really think that at least 90% of us will follow best practice after we relax the rules when I can’t get you to do it now? 😀 In short, if you favour re-opening, you’re insisting that we do so without the public having demonstrated the ability to follow some of the most basic rules of prevention. You want to re-open faster? I’ll tell you what you can do to speed the date: start wearing a mask in public. Model best practice. Please.

Now, why am I being so huffy about this? Oh, I dunno. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we have three major senior communities in town? (And they vote! 🙂 ) Plus many, many in-home care facilities. Not to mention a ton of other at-risk groups. And the fact that we have seen how you get one infection in any of these settings and you have problems. And by that I mean the kinds of problems like that Mayor with the snappy suit in Jaws who re-opened the beach too soon.

I will not support any ‘re-opening’ unless and until we are following the above recommendations from the scientific community. When we do re-open we must expect a second wave and it needs to be manageable. I completely understand that businesses are hurting, families are hurting and frankly many of you are just going stir-crazy. But the idea that we might have gone through all this sacrifice and then still have recurring waves of serious illness is galling to me. I feel ya. But please try to hang in there. When this is all over? The drinks are on me. (Subject to PDC guidelines, of course. 😀 )

Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Policy, Transparency, Weekly Updates

Housing

Weekly Update: 04/13/2020

I’m late (again) because of the holiday. It’s a funny thing what with the whole COVID-19 deal. The Internet is a wonderful invention and it definitely helps in coping. However, especially at Easter, I’m reminded me how much we all need physical connection. Which is to say, I hope you all found new ways to connect and have a blessed holiday (Easter, Pesach, etc.) in spite of the current obstacles. 🙂

This Week

Today there is a Virtual Town Hall with Adam Smith at 5:00pm covering some great information on the new State unemployment benefits. I’ll have posts on my Facebook Page soon. I asked the Congressman to see what he could do to provide a second round of stimulus specific to Cities like Des Moines–specifically for long term capital projects. I also passed along the frustrations I’m hearing from local businesses regarding the SBA Loan process.

Beyond that? Not a clue. 😀

Last Week

The response from the Take Out Des Moines Restaurant Flyer has been pretty great. And we’ll be doing more… a lot more… soon. For now? Please download that flyer or go to the Take Out Des Moines web site and start ordering some great local food tonight!

So many forms…

I spent a good part of last week doing something pretty basic: Filling out forms. Most of the businesses in Des Moines have rushed to apply for the various SBA Coronavirus Loans and now State grants. But sometimes the biggest hurdle? Simply doing the paperwork. Boy, I wish I spoke about five more languages because translation service is something that a lot of our small businesses need help with.

April 9 City Council Meeting

Thursday was the April 9th City Council Meeting Video, Agenda. This is the second meeting conducted by telephone. There was a brief presentation on the state of the City’s finances (more below). And then there was the big todo you may have seen on social media. There will not be more below. As I’ve said before, when Henry Robert wrote his rules Of Order he was pretty clear that when the meeting is over, the meeting is over. Let it go. I will only say that I know the rules and I am happy to be judged by the voters and the constituents I try to serve every day. And I strongly encourage you to watch that video, write me and tell me what you think? I have written both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor expressing my concerns and we’ll see how that goes. (Note for fans of transparency: You (the public) can make a Public Records Request at any time to find out how this plays out because all our emails are a matter of public record. Ironic, no? 😀 )

One notable thing is that the next City Council Meeting is set for a month from now May 7. Remember: we still have not had a single committee meeting. What this means is that no new legislation is even being considered right now. If you look at our neighbour cities they have all mastered remote meetings and are conducting council business in a situation pretty close to normal. I’ve been slammed for being critical of our emergency response, but c’mon… we have not found an effective way to keep our Council business running fully and that too should be a high priority in emergency planning. It should have happened by now–especially considering that the current social distancing may be around for a good while longer.

Shiny Penny…

At that City Council Meeting, I made the second vote so far that I regret (I’m not telling what the first one was. 😀 ) I voted twice to give the City Manager authority to spend down one-time revenue in order to offset possible revenue shortages due to COVID-19.

Why I am filled with remorse? Well first off, in a way being in the minority is an enviable position. I haven’t a care in the world. I can vote however I want and it makes absolutely no difference. Pretty sweet, huh? So sometimes, the hardest decision I have at the dais is: “Do I vote my conscience and slow things down or do I just give in and maybe I’ll get brownie points for being cooperative? 🙂 ” Decisions, decisions.

Anyhoo, there is a somewhat complicated dance one does in passing budget resolutions like this because normally such things require not one but two meetings to become law. I was always going to vote for the actual resolution (the second vote) because we will likely need that dough to cover current operating expenses. It was the first vote that I regret.

Confused? You weren’t alone 😀 It’s a big deal going outside the budget process, so at the first meeting you introduce the resolution, have a discussion and then decide whether or not to move to the actual vote at the second meeting. You take a couple of extra weeks to mull things over. Our first vote (the one I regret) was to bypass that second meeting because of the state of emergency. I should not have voted for this. I should have voted to delay the resolution to the second meeting.

Still with me? See, I guess I was going for the brownie points. I knew I was voting for the actual resolution (second vote) and frankly, by that point I admit I was pretty disgusted with the meeting. So I just went with it. Bad City Councilmember! Bad City Councilmember! I promise, I’ll never do it again. OK, I’ve confided in you. I’m trusting you. Just. Don’t. Tell. anyone.

Now regarding the budget presentation. I’ve asked several times over the past month for any kind of specifics as to the forecasting and I’ve been told it’s not possible, as in “Gee, I forgot to bring my crystal ball with me.” And given that? I should’ve made as big a stink as possible to get that second meeting. At least then we would’ve had a couple more weeks to try to get more details as to the financial impacts to Des Moines from COVID-19. Even though I had no chance to win that vote, I should’ve pushed harder to as much detail as possible.

Our neighbour cities have been publishing fairly detailed forecasts. I know because… wait for it… I’m able to watch their City Council and Finance Committee presentations using their space-magic-on-line-tech.. (Sorry for the snippy, I’m sooooo frustrated about this.)

The estimates I heard from City Manager Matthias were in the range of 10-20% drop in revenue. And that seems fair because every State and Federal forecast I’ve seen is for something like a twenty percent drop to GDP. So I’m nervous for detail. And… I don’t have the votes to demand more detail.

What I’m trying to say is this: I’ve gotten a lot of very nice, supportive emails regarding the beating I took at this meeting. Thanks. Really. But I’m going to suggest to you that this may have been an unintended *shiny penny trick. What you should be writing the City Council about is, “I want more details as to financial forecasts!” Maybe the government is already doing all it can and there are simply too many unknown, unknowns. But given the poor level of communication I currently receive, I can’t say. I don’t see ‘the sausage being made’ so I have no way to know. So that’s the thing we should be focused on now, not the bad theatre you keep seeing from the dais.

*I’m always surprised that more Americans haven’t heard the expression ‘shiny penny trick’. It simply means when a children’s magician misdirects the audience away from what is really going on with some distraction (the shiny penny).

Neighborhoods, Policy, Weekly Updates

Housing

Weekly Update: 04/05/2020

1 Comment

This Week

So, the nice people at Destination Des Moines and the Des Moines Legacy Foundation put together this Restaurant Flyer. I’ll be talking more with them and Seatte South Side Chamber Of Commerce about how to get it out to the entire region. I’d like to see this placed everywhere within five miles of Des Moines and beyond. We have a one-pager you can place in your window or a tri-fold brochure for point-of-sale. Please contact me for details. I’m also hoping the City will formally get behind it. The City Of Des Moines needs a formal promotional campaign. Not just during this emergency but on an ongoing basis. We need to be selling Des Moines!

Thursday will be another telephone City Council Meeting at the extra special time of 5pm. Why 5pm? Not a clue. Why a curtailed agenda? Not a clue. As I’ve reported, the Governor’s recent changes to OPMA rules makes such a constrained agenda unnecessary. And frankly, I’m getting concerned because other cities are starting to report real problems: https://komonews.com/news/local/tukwila-mulls-worker-wage-cuts-to-offset-steep-losses-from-coronavirus. I got some eye rolls a month ago when I started worrying about finances, but this is no joke. Our City Council has not had any report on the real and projected impacts of COVID-19 and it’s past time.

Last Week

I spent four days volunteering at the Food Bank in the afternoon. I had a couple of talks with Director Kris Van Gasken and Barb Shimizu. A couple of facts: The City used to give $40,000 a year to the Food Bank. We now give around $32k. But $40k, in 2020 dollars is more like $60k. So we are actually currently giving the Food Bank about half of what we used to. However, with the COVID-19 thing, the number of new clients they are now seeing has doubled in the past two weeks–and is expected to stay at that level for the next several months (have you checked the unemployment numbers recently?) The Food Bank’s most immediate need is volunteers. Because of the high volume, they are now doing a lot of ‘grab n go’ meals–which means they need workers to help prep those all day. They also need PPEs and cleaning supplies. Those items are in particularly short supply. They are on the EOC list (see below), but there is such a backlog that they probably can’t expect help any time soon. They also need donations. Let’s get real: ‘Donations’ are a great thing. But there is no way that public small dollar donations can make up for this kind of increase.

One other thing about the Food Bank: School is now basically over this year. Over two thirds of our children are on ‘free lunch’ programs. So who fills in the gap when those programs go away? The Food Bank. They are feeding our children. And it ain’t in their budget.

It is proper for the City to step in at this time. And if you can donate, please do so at the Food Bank web site.

On Thursday I visited the new Joint Emergency Operations Center (JEOC). Which is a room at the Fire Station at 223rd and 24th. 🙂 (Every City has some form of ’emergency operations center’, which coordinates with a County EOC and then a State EOC and then the Feds as the chain of command in any declared emergency scenario.) I spoke with Police Chief Ken Thomas and Fire Chief Vic Pennington. I had no idea what this thing is about. Currently it’s mostly about monitoring the growth of the outbreak here. Thankfully, we’re doing a much better job battling COVID-19 here than many other places (more below) so there’s less to react to. But one thing they’re really concerned about is, what to do if the first responders start getting sick. Just as with hospitals, people on the front line tend to be the ones who will get sick. So you need a plan to provide continuity of fire, rescue and police–even if a significant portion of those workers test positive.

One thing: I was dismayed to hear from Chief Thomas that efforts on social distancing are still not great. The moment the sun comes out? People go nuts. And worse still, they’ve already had a few ‘compliance issues’ (ie. when the policemen asks you nicely to disperse you refuse.) I can’t imagine that level of disregard for our police (never mind the stupidity from a health perspective.) So I want to thank the Des Moines Police Department for their extra professionalism during this very challenging time. It can’t be easy.

On Thursday I also had a phone call with our State Reps. from the 30th District and got an update on what the State response is to COVID-19. Our lobbyist Anthony Hemstad pointed out the shortage of PPEs for first-responders. I was begging for that same gear for volunteers at the Food Bank. I also asked for consideration for a State moratorium on late fees–not just for residents, but for businesses as well. After seeing what happened to our small business community in the 2008 Great Recession, I’m very concerned for the small businesses in Des Moines. Rep. Pellicciotti pointed out that the Governor’s ban on evictions had a specific note on price gouging. While not a ban on ‘late fees’ per se, it does make it illegal to tack on extra costs of any kind during this emergency. So if you feel that has happened to you, please let me know!

On Friday, I attended a conference call with Congressman Adam Smith. There was great information on SBA Coronavirus Loans. If you have any business, even sole-proprietors and non-profit you need to check these out! One tiny ‘silver lining’ to this whole crisis is that there will be a second stimulus package and there will be a piece that targets small cities like ours. Fingers crossed.

Yet another lecture…

So the novelty of this whole ‘social distancing’ thing is wearing off. I’m noticing that people are definitely not trying as hard as they were a week ago. I’m especially unnerved to seeing young parents having ‘play dates’ everywhere I go. I can’t stress enough that it is the next two weeks that are going to be the worst (at least nationwide). All the ‘modeling’ says so and ya know, for all of those who are constantly going on about ‘modeling’, guess what: It’s been remarkably accurate so far. (As a former stats guy I get a bit defensive about this sort of thing. 😀 ) What I’m saying is that now is not the time to relax and get sloppy. The boredom and increasing level of annoyance you’re feeling only means that we’re succeeding.

This is real for me: I’ve had three friends die of COVID-19 in the past week. Because of work I made many friends in New York and New Orleans–two of the hardest hit cities in America. What is really notable is that two of these guys were younger than me. If you recall, New York started getting cases only slightly after we did. But we acted far more aggressively than they did and waaaaaaaay more aggressively than Louisiana. So we are now reaping the benefits. Does it absolutely blow to see all the economic devastation? For sure. But compared to… oh I dunno, DEATH? Not so much So, please try to hang in there. In fact, don’t just ‘hang’, try to step it up a bit. It’s really working.

One really good news I got this week is that wide-spread testing may be coming fairly soon–and when that happens, places like Des Moines that are doing well may be able to get back to work ahead of the other areas that aren’t. In other words, we may not have to wait for the entire country to heal before we can get back to work. Again: Fingers crossed.

Neighborhoods, Policy, Weekly Updates

Housing

Weekly Update: 03/30/2020

This Week

Late again! Same excuse as last week: waiting for information. This time I’ve been waiting for details on the City’s new ‘Joint Emergency Operations Center’, which I just found out I’ll be touring on Friday. More below.

You may have noticed that I’ve cobbled together two new links on the home page. Coro’na Virus and Restaurants. I hope you find them useful.

SUPER IMPORTANT: Congressman Adam Smith’s office has a private e-mail list for small business owners to find out how the Federal Government can help. Please contact me to join up. Congressman Smith is concerned that there is such a fire hose of information (and skepticism) that many people are leaving money on the table. Like I’ve been saying, some of the new programs are very generous. Your participation will not only help you, but also other businesses with similar questions.

For the rest of the week, I’m going virtually everywhere and physically nowhere. And I suggest you do the same. I’ve gotten a bunch of messages and e-mails complaining that the restrictions are too severe, some with lines like, “I’m never voting for you again!” And I’m like. “May you live long enough to do so!” I’m probably one of the few people in Des Moines who’s actually had a long-term nasty illness. And brother? You do not want it!

Actually, I’m doing a lot of research. And I’m kinda surprised that so many people are ‘on hold’. This is the perfect time to be thinking about ‘the day after’. Yeah, it’s rough. But when this is over, there will be tremendous opportunities to build stuff. The time to plan is now.

Last Week

On Monday, Governor Inslee put us all on lockdown.

Tuesday was the virtual Port Of Seattle Special Meeting (agenda). Although it will be of great interest to people in Des Moines and I urge you to watch it with me. Not on my couch, of course. But here. It included a contract to (finally) sound insulate Villa Enzi condominiums on 216th and allocates the first money to the new sound insulation initiative I keep banging on about and finalizes the Flight Corridor Safety Program (aka ‘tree cutting along 200th’). Though originally slated to chop down 3,000 trees, it’s been reduced now to 170. Whew.

I also participated in a virtual City Council Meeting (agenda) at the extra-special time of 5pm on Thursday March 26th.

Virtual City Council Meeting 03/26/20

The last City Council Meeting (video) gave me the feels. The annoyed kind. It was held by telephone (fine), but the agenda was severely truncated (not as fine) and the highlight was over thirty minutes of reporting from our City Manager, South King County Fire Chief Vic Pennington and Police Chief Ken Thomas on the whole COVID-19 thing (not fine at all).

Joint Emergency Operations Center

Look, I know I’m asking for trouble, but the three of them talked about this new thing called a ‘Joint Emergency Operations Center’ (JEOC). With a logo and everything. I did not hear one word of information on what it actually is and why we need it. I thought I was being too harsh in my assessment so I went back and listened to the whole thing over again and I wasn’t off in a fog. In addition to being almost content-free, there was no opportunity for questions which ticks me off due to the curtailed meeting agenda. What there was was a lot of backslapping about how fantastic our emergency management is. But so far, I honestly see no difference in our response to COVID-19 and other Cities. I hope that when I see the JEOC I will eat my words. 🙂

Status Report?

Look, I know I sound cranky, but I can only reiterate what I’ve been saying for a while now: I feel blind. And I know at least a few others on the Council feel the same. We were told to expect an update from Finance at the April 9 meeting and I gotta say I’m not thrilled with that speed. Yes, I know everything is ultra-stressful for City employees right now, but I feel like Council should have some idea of what this State Of Emergency is doing to our finances. Getting a first report on that almost two months into the emergency seems wrong. I’m not blaming anyone. I’m just saying that we need to do better. We should consider how to provide better information to Council faster in future emergencies.

Late Fee Motion

The only substantial part of the meeting was a motion injected into the Consent Agenda by Councilmember Martinelli. This motion was to ask the City Attorney to study the possibility of a moratorium on late fees for renters during the emergency. It was voted down 5-2.

I voted ‘yes’ for the same reason I just finished grousing about the lack of information on finances. And the lack of information on the JEOC. I will always vote for more information if the request is reasonable. Councilmembers deserve to have their requests for information honored as part of their job as legislators, full stop. Even if I disagree with an idea, I will almost always want the Council to be able to utilize the power of the City to do the research.

So I was not happy that this was voted down, and not just because at least two Councilmembers are landlords and have a vested interest in the issue. They should have been more generous in at least studying the issue.

But on the other hand, I am also not happy with being blind-sided on this. I would prefer not to have any motions ever involving public policy injected anywhere into a meeting (like, oh I dunno… to triple the City Managers severance package?) Grrrrrr….

But in this case Mr. Martinelli had no choice. There was no reason for the Agenda to be so restrictive since our Governor relaxed OPMA rules last week. So if Mr. Martinelli wanted to get his idea out there he had to do it this way. I voted for this, again, as a courtesy. If it had been a vote on the real issue, without specific data I probably would have voted ‘no’. Not because of the merits, but for the fourth time: because there was no data. (Are ya sending a pattern here? 😀 )

Because here’s the thing: I have no idea how many people might be affected by this: either tenants or landlords. And neither the City or Councilmember Martinelli showed up with any stats. I don’t want to vote on anything where I don’t have data. Right now, I have no idea where the City is at and that makes me wary of any ad hoc spending. And frankly, just saying “They’re doing it in <CityX> doesn’t fly. It may be a huge problem. It may not be much of a problem. I have no idea.

One Size Does Not Fit All

An idea that is very easy for one city might be a terrible idea for another city depending on their finances, impacts to business, the jerks (er ‘Distinguished Councilmembers’ 😀 ) running the show, legal fees, etc. And here’s an example that I relate to:

Until 7-8 years ago, we had a really good landlord training requirement in Des Moines, run by CSO Tonya Seaberry. I was a part of it. It protected neighborhoods from crap renters by making landlords more accountable. It cut down on Code Enforcement complaints dramatically. But the City dumped it (2012-ish?) after the law was challenged by the Rental Housing Association (RHA). We actually paid them a settlement of over $100k. So that went away. Now: I dearly want to see that law return. But I know we will likely have to be prepared to fight to get there. We have a huge pool of tiny landlords in DM who live off rental income and they pay dues to RHA.

Anyhoo, when the majority says they’re worried about having to defend a ban on late fees they ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie. It’s a legit concern, especially when there was no specifics as to how many people might be helped or hurt.

Do tenants deserve a break these days? You bet. But all policy ideas should be data-driven in order to obtain support.

I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this, and any little ol’ thang you might want to talk about of course. 🙂

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: 03/23/2020

2 Comments

This Week

Oh, you thought I’d miss a Weekly Update? It takes more than some ‘Pandemic’ to stop me from gassing on about Des Moines! Actually, I was kinda waitin’ to hear what Governor Inslee had to say at 5:30pm. Short answer: We’re on lockdown, folks.

I will not be at the Port Of Seattle Special Meeting (agenda) tomorrow. Although it will be of great interest to people in Des Moines and I urge you to watch it with me. Not on my couch, of course. But here. It will include a contract to (finally) sound insulate Villa Enzi condominiums on 216th and allocates the first money to the new sound insulation initiative I keep banging on about and finalizes the Flight Corridor Safety Program (aka ‘tree cutting along 200th’). Though originally slated to chop down 3,000 trees, it’s been reduced now to 170. Whew.

And I will (apparently) not be at City Hall for our City Council Meeting (agenda) at the extra-special time of 5pm on Thursday March 26th. But I will be attending ‘telephonically’ per our City Manager’s recommendation. Technically, you can’t prevent people from showing up to a public meeting, but we are encouraging people to stay home and watch on Channel 21. People who show up will be ‘screened’ –this simply means taking yer temperature and answering some basic health questions. Now normally I’d be like, “screw yer telephonic, mate” because every call-in-councilmember I’ve ever witnessed has been something of a joke. But speaking of jokes, the Agenda is such that that is the least of my objections. More below.

Last Week

I did not meet with City Manager Michael Matthias. More below.

I did a bunch of driving around, delivering food, running errands, whatnot.

I had a tele-conference training on Emergency Preparedness for the National Incident Management System NIMS, which was interesting. There is a whole system in place from top to bottom which is designed to keep all the governments running in case of situations like this. Thank God. I’m not entirely thrilled with how we all are handling the current Coronavirus thing, but I’m probably a little calmer about it than you are after learning just how well-thought out most of these systems are.

As of Sunday, Saltwater State Park was the busiest I have ever seen it. I mean, the parking lot is overflowing. The Marina Beach Park and Redondo Beach are also going gangbusters. I see whole gaggles of children and parents congregating at every school. Frankly, people are simply not taking the situation seriously enough. I’m sure I’ll come off as a total jerk to some, but I spent a good deal of time during the week asking, begging our City Manager to shut these down. I’ll stand by that because, as one of my neighbours told me, “If we’re going to go through all this pain, we shouldn’t do it half-assed.” Right.

Newsflash: People have already tested positive here. In Des Moines. When you’re passing dozens and dozens of people, we think we’re ‘social distancing’. But we’re not. Please stay home. I know it’s boring as hell and I know there are only so many shows you can binge or games you can play. But stay home.

One last thing: If you aren’t at home and you see people congregating like ignorant jerks? SAY SOMETHING! Don’t place politeness over your community.

The Incoming Wave

There is a whole timeline of how this disease is supposed to spread. And I think one reason people have so much trouble taking it seriously is that they think that what we’re doing now is ‘it’. This is not ‘it’. This is like a 7-10 days before it.

The way to think about the situation is that we’re like in a boat and there’s a slow motion Tsunami coming. We know it’s coming so we batten down the hatches (note to non-sailors, that really is a thing). The tighter you make the boat, the less chance you have of being swamped. Sure, you may get some water inside, but if you’re good, not enough to be a total disaster.

When we behave in cavalier way because people aren’t dropping like flies now, we’re like the guy who waited until the wave was upon him to batten down the hatches.

Again, resources to help people to cope are starting to emerge, including food, transportation, unemployment benefits and small business loans. I’ll be posting specifics on my Facebook Page as they come in.

Emergency Government

Since this whole thing started, there has been an almost complete shutdown on information from City Hall to City Council (well to me at least) with the exception of occasional Coronavirus updates. It’s disconcerting to get questions from Councilmembers in other cities about Des Moines’ business. It tells me that they’re getting more info than we are (or at least I am).

When I entered office I complained that in a Council/Manager form of government, you can really have a tough time getting information if you’re in the minority. And when you couple that with the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), one can feel pretty blind as to what is going on at City Hall.

To review: in our form of government, the City Council has no real authority outside of official meetings. It’s almost completely up to the discretion of the City Manager as to what information to share. And it’s illegal for a quorum of Councilmembers to meet outside of a public meeting–and that includes emails and phone calls. And there is a limit on the number of meetings during a calendar year. And only the Mayor or City Manager can call a special meeting. And as a practical matter, the Mayor or City Manager have total control over the items on a meeting Agenda.

So during a declared emergency, where there are either no or severely truncated meetings, business either doesn’t get done, gets done on auto-pilot or is left to the City Manager or Mayor’s discretion. Which is OK for yer basic short-term emergency (nuclear explosion, volcanic eruption, etc. 😀 ) This makes total sense when one needs to focus 100% of the corporation’s attention on instaneous considerations of public safety.

However, we’re definitely not well-suited to a crisis with a months-long trajectory which doesn’t feel quite as dramatic as the above examples. One where it’s difficult to physically meet and we don’t have a fancy schmancy video-conferencing system. One that not only allows for Councilmembers to interact seamlessly with each other and the public at large (remember, these are public meetings). When you add all that up then you have a recipe for… um… well I dunno exactly what it’s a recipe for, but it’s not something I want a steady diet of, that’s for sure.

(As I write this, I just got a reply from the Mayor saying that video-conferencing is in the works, so stop worrying. Good!) My only reply is that it would be nice if the entire Council were getting updates that work like that is getting done. Also, with such a truncated meeting Agenda, how does one even find out what is going on, right?

Speaking of City Hall, we’re running a skeleton crew at City Hall, which is largely unavoidable. That too will need to be examined: how can we keep more of the corporation running so we can keep helping the public as much as possible.

Anyhoo, not trying to get all ‘negative’. I’m an engineer and process improvement is how I think. The staff I’ve spoken with have been doing an admiral job–special shout out to our City Clerk Bonnie Wilkins who has had one of the toughest jobs in King County these past few weeks answering a gazillion questions at all hours, seven days a week, with amazing patience and good humour.

Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: 03/15/2020

This Week

It’s now all-Coronavirus all-the-time. A lot of the City government is shut down or curtailed now (including the court.) Our City is taking COVID-19 very seriously (as I hope you are) and you can check here for good info from King County on the current status of the situation.

I’ll be meeting with City Manager Michael Matthias to get an update on what his Staff are doing to keep the City safe and functioning.

I’m also doing a certain amount of volunteering–basically giving people lifts to places now that so many things are shut down.

There are a number of routine meetings that are now being done via tele-conference (ironically one is on Emergency Preparedness) which I’ll talk about if and when anything interesting happens. 😀

Resources to help people to cope are starting to emerge, including food, transportation, unemployment benefits and small business loans. I’ll be posting specifics on my Facebook Page as they come in.

Last Week

Our City Council meeting (Agenda) was cancelled. I have no further information yet as to when meetings will resume. I’m trying to balance my concern for this pandemic with the need for oversight. Frankly, I’m a bit nervous letting the government run itself for too long without the full Council having a say. We’re way behind schedule on Committee meetings, partly due to the recent resignation/appointment process, but also because (sorry colleagues) not enough activity was going on at the committee-level last year. We’ve got some catching up to do.

Thursday I had a brief chat with 30th State Reps. Mike Pellicciotti and Jesse Johnson–mainly to thank them (again) for their work on various pieces of legislation, including big things like HB1847, but smaller and very meaningful work like getting money to repair the Redondo Pier and getting funding for South King County Fire & Rescue to buy a new boat, which has been sorely needed for some time. By the way: Our 30th Legislators are unique in that they make a point of scheduling regular phone calls with City electeds while the Legislature is in session–which I totally appreciate.

Friday I donated blood. OK, not exactly part of the job. But I got a note from the WA Department Of Health telling electeds that the blood supply had dipped dangerously low–people are not donating due to the Corona Virus outbreak. They want me to assure you that it is completely safe to donate. Check out the Bloodworks Northwest web site to make an appointment.

The New Normal

When I was six, I got sick; I mean really sick. That took about two years to get past and I still have ‘issues’ as a result. I used to kinda laugh at how ‘trivial’ so many common diseases now are. For example, a typical case of meningitis can now be treated with a single injection. We’ve come a long way.

The COVID-19 response, as uneven as it has been thus far, is actually a big step forward. As big a pain as it now seems, it’s going to save a lot of lives. And my real point is that it’s going to be the new normal. We’re going to be doing ‘this’ every few years or so because it’s clear that such things are becoming much more common (Remember: there was a COVID 1-18, right?)

So we should think about what that means going forward. Back in the early ’60’s when I got sick–when people in general got sick–you just shrugged and dealt with it as best you could on an individual level. There was not a great understanding of how to prevent whole populations from coming down with Polio or Measles or whatever. If you got sick, that was really sad, but… society just kept limping along–which only got more people get sick.

Now, we have an understanding of how to ‘flatten the curve’; which is great. A whole bunch fewer people are going to get sick as a result of all the steps we’re now being asked to take. It really is progress. But to many of you it certainly doesn’t feel like progress. For most of us ‘progress’ means not impacting my daily life. We just haven’t had a lot of practice dealing with community-wide events like this. We don’t yet have the infra-structure to cope with schools, daycare, movies, sporting events, churches, basically everything being shut for a few days, weeks until things blow over.

The way that I’m thinking about it is kinda like a very, very long Tornado Drill–a thing which we don’t do in Puget Sound, but which is extremely common in other parts of the United States. Basically, you go into a basement, with some snacks, water and a radio and you wait for the twister to pass. You remain calm. You’re almost certainly not going to get hurt so long as you don’t act stupidly. Those things usually only last a few hours.

OK, so the trick for us is two-fold. First, as with the Tornado Drill not to panic. That’s actually the easy part. People used to Tornado Drills have that part down.

The second one is a bit more tricky because this thing may last a good long while. How many of us even have one of those ’emergency preparedness’ kits we’re all supposed to have, right? Well, maybe this isn’t as extreme as an earthquake, but we do have to think about hunkering down for several weeks now. How many of us have plans for School. Work. Church. Shopping. Daycare (!)

Because here’s the thing: This is not the last time we’re gonna deal with this sort of thing. New viruses like this are springing up every couple of years now. Some turn out to be mild and some not so much. And if we’re smart, we’re gonna have to expect something like this to happen from time to time. Again, it’s the new normal.

So my thinking is not so much about ‘The dreaded COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020!’. I’m pretty sure we’re going to be fine. Annoyed as hell, but fine. What I’m already thinking about is next time. There will likely be any number of proposals to dramatically expand emergency spending when this is over. Some will be worthy and some will be totally cockamamie (remember after 9/11 how many cities were seriously thinking about buying tanks?) Yeah, I’m not voting for any of that.

What I hope we take away from this mostly is on a more personal level. We are all going to need to be prepared to do what we’re all doing now–which really is not all that onerous or scary, right? We’ll just need to do do it in a less frantic way (got enough toilet paper and ramen, guys? 😀 ) It’s just a very long Tornado Drill.

Currently the City is providing information and keeping essential services running. But going forward we will also need to a lot more. We’ll need to help individuals and businesses get services to help them stay on their feet. We’ll need to advocate for much better and above all consistent State and Federal policies so that when this sort of thing reccurs, we can quickly provide ways to get relief to individuals and businesses. We will have to learn to all be on the same page from the jump.

Please stay inside. Wash yer hands obsessively–with soap. Just to be clear: we’re not over-reacting. And it’s not the end of the world. But it is the new normal.

Airport, Policy, Transparency, Weekly Updates

Weekly Update: 03/09/2020

This Week

It’s now all-Corona all-the-time. A lot of the City government is shut down or curtailed now (including the court.) Our City is taking COVID-19 very seriously (as I hope you are) and you can check here for good info from King County on the current status of the situation.

Well, the Port Of Seattle trip all us airport-community electeds had scheduled for Washington D.C. got cancelled (thanks a lot corona virus!) So my dance card is pretty clear this week! Some of my peers in Burien and SeaTac are already there as part of a National League Of Cities convention so they may still be able to have meetings with the FAA, Senator Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen that I had planned. (Des Moines is no longer a member of NLC :(.) The good news is that I can honestly say that there is at least one elected now in each of these cities who is strong on airport issues. So I’m confident that they will advocate strongly in my stead to get Federal funding for HB2315 and HB1847 as well as help in the upcoming SAMP process at Sea-Tac Airport. Hopefully, we can re-schedule the Port trip soon!

Thursday is the next City Council meeting (Agenda). Although the Agenda says that no public comment will be taken, actually public comment will be taken on the ‘code clean-up’ item. If you can, please examine pg. 87 of the packet carefully. Some of those ‘clean-up’ items are quite significant in my opinion and I will be asking questions. More below.

City Manager Michael Matthias will als0 be reporting on his meeting in January on the fate of the StART. More below.

Last Week

Monday I met with electeds from SeaTac, Burien and Tukwila on that ill-fated (get it? 😀 ) trip to D.C. As I wrote above, I’m feel pretty good that we have a few people now on the various city councils who are truly engaged and that is what we’ve needed all along: better electeds.

Thursday I met with the Beacon Hill Quieter Skies Coalition. They get a lot of the same impacts from Sea-Tac Airport that we do and they have some great organizers that can help us get more of our residents engaged.

Saturday morning, the City Of Des Moines employees who completed their Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training. Unfortunately, all us city council people were ordered not to show up. In fact, a lot of the City government is shut down or curtailed now (including the court.) Our City is taking COVID-19 very seriously (as I hope you are) and you can check the City web site for good info on the current status of the situation.

Also, on Friday and Saturday, both HB2315 and HB1847 passed in the Legislature and are on their way to the Governor’s desk. Kudos to Rep. Tina Orwall and especially to Rep. Mike Pellicciotti for their great work.

Keep It Short

There is a lot of ‘inside baseball’ to any City government–and Des Moines more than most. Part of my writing these Updates is to give the public a sense of that. It’s also a chance for electeds from other cities and activists to gain an understanding of how we differ from other cities. I’m just a ‘noob’ Councilmember here, but I have the somewhat bizarre distinction of being the only person who actually attends council meetings all over the area and I ‘compare and contrast’ a lot. There are more interesting hobbies of course–like this guy.

One detail: Des Moines City Council Meetings tend to be the shortest in the area. Even on nights where there’s, like a Boy Scout presentation or some other long ceremonial deal, meetings are often a mere ninety minutes–half the length of most other Cities. And this is quite intentional. Our current majority has worked to change procedures over the years to make it so. Now don’t get me wrong: no one wants to get home in time for Deep Space Nine any more than me. But when meetings move along this fast, things can slip by.

What I told the applicants for the recent Council appointment was this: Look at the Consent Agendas. The Consent Agenda (CA) is the long list of items at the beginning of the Agenda which are voted on as one with no discussion. The idea is that they are considered to be routine and completely obvious items and thus require no debate. Typical items will be payroll checks and other payments to vendors. Often, our CA will have ten or more items, and fiscal impacts of as much as two million dollars. I often cringe at this. In my gut, it feels like we should not just rush through a list of items that long and that expensive.

Similarly the public hearing on ‘code clean-up’ is considered to be merely routine items. But a public hearing is required on any code changes like this for a reason. And if you dig into the code to be ‘cleaned up’ this time, you’ll see several tweaks to zoning that I don’t find routine at all.

The idea of running an efficient meeting is understandable. But here’s the thing: I do not want the meetings to go so fast. I want to ask questions even if they’re obvious questions. Because on many of these items, the City Council meeting is the only chance the public will ever get to hear about a particular issue.

There is an inherent tension in our Council/Manager form of government which I’ll point out again and again, because it matters and because the overwhelming majority of the public does not understand. The government does not work for the City Council. It works for the City Manager. And under our current rules, the Council has exactly zero authority over the City Manager outside of the official meetings. Those meetings are technically the only places to hold the government to account.

Now because of this arrangement, the tension is that whenever one questions the government, the Staff can get defensive–as in, “Are you questioning the way I do my job?” And the answer, of course, is: yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. 😀 That’s the price of having a government job: you have to be willing to submit to questioning. It’s not questioning one’s competence or integrity. It’s just… asking questions. Again: away from the dais, the Staff is under no obligation to answer questions from Council. The moment we step off the dais, we have actually less authority than a resident with Staff. So it’s up to Councilmembers to make the most of their time on the dais. That’s the one time we have any ‘power’.

Unfortunately, questioning takes time. And that’s why meetings sometimes should be longer in my opinion. Because again, if we don’t use that time on the dais to inquire, we lose our chance at accountability.

So in general, I prefer fewer items on the CA and fewer items considered ‘routine’. I tend to want more discussion and more inquiry. But that’s just me. Other current Councilmembers do not have as many questions and do have families they want to get home to. Their position is that the City Manager and the Staff are doing a great job and unless there is something super-obvious that requires immediate attention, we should let them get on with it and not waste time with a lot of pointless questions at Council meetings.

Again: there’s the tension.

Airport, Policy

A timeline. And a commitment to airport issues in Des Moines

On February 12th of 2020, I was told of a group trip to Washington D.C. being organized by the Port Of Seattle for electeds in the six airport communities. The purpose being a chance to provide a unified front from electeds and the Port Of Seattle on several pieces of legislation that all the cities (seem) to agree are important to our communities. The Port lobbyist, Eric Schinfeld had already scheduled several very good meetings with FAA leaders, Adam Smith, Maria Cantwell, Rick Larsen and Rep. Lynch from Massachusetts. Attendees were also encouraged to set up their own meetings, which I began doing. (My agenda is Federal funding of HB2315, an improved relationship with the FAA, and ways to get elements of Congressman Smith’s Aviation Impacted Communities Act passed at the State level.)

Strangely enough, I only found out about this event ‘through the grapevine’–not via my City. So I asked Mr. Schinfeld to be included and, of course, he agreed–recognizing the important position the City Of Des Moines should have in this process.

Unlike our neighbour cities, the City Of Des Moines has no travel budget for electeds. One has to ask for permission from the City Manager in order to be reimbursed for any activity. So on 19 February I asked Michael Matthias what the chances were for me getting a travel reimbursement for my airfare to this event. I was told, “About zero.” When I asked why his reply was, “The Mayor and I feel that there is no value in spending money to talk to people who are already on board with that legislation. And besides, none of that has any realistic chance of passing.”

So I went ahead and made my own booking. And in the meantime, I discretely asked two of my peers on the City Council to see if anyone might support me in a motion from the dais to reimburse me for my travel expenses. I was politely told “No”. And as you may know, one needs four votes to pass a motion.

A week later, the City Manager did decide to send a representative from Des Moines: the City’s State lobbyist, a fine man, but someone who would be the first to admit he is not conversant in the issues. I leave it to you to decide why. But the upshot is that Des Moines is the only City not represented by knowledgeable electeds.

Why you should care

This puzzles and frustrates my peers in other Cities who are constantly wondering why Des Moines, which bears so much of the brunt of negative impacts from Sea-Tac Airport is chronically so intransigent in advocating for its residents on airport issues.

For example, the legislation I originally proposed back in March of 2019 which became HB2315 only became a part of the City’s legislative agenda after it was apparent that it had a good chance of passage–and after I got elected, by the way. I was specifically told by Mayor Pina after my election to not, I repeat not say that I was representing the City Of Des Moines when I would testify in public on behalf of either bill.

And Mike Pellicciotti’s HB1847, which aims to expand the boundary of Port Packages throughout Des Moines was never formally endorsed by the City Of Des Moines. So again, when I would spend my own time and money to advocate for that bill, I would be doing so as a private citizen.

Attendance Matters

Other airport communities send their electeds to a variety of conferences on airport issues and they are, in many ways, ahead of us in terms of knowledge and political savvy. I also attend these conferences when I can but they are simply too expensive for me to do with consistency. (For example, I attended a conference of Noise Program Managers last November which set me back over $800 for a single day event.) These events matter because they provide information about policy that is hard to obtain otherwise. They are the cheapest possible insurance against being out of the loop on events that matter to airport communities.

Even more importantly, they are the one place where an elected can meet in a casual setting with the real decider-ers at the FAA and other large airport operators. There is nothing to get honest back and forth going like having a few drinks with decision makers and that is why I’m willing to shell out the dough. You simply cannot have truly candid discussions within the context of formal meetings. But Des Moines does not participate and thus we don’t know what we don’t know regarding what is actually possible. And since we don’t know what’s possible, we continue to do the wrong things on airport issues.

Divisive?

Over the past decade, the City Of Des Moines has made consistently poor decisions with regard to the negative impacts from Sea-Tac Airport. My peers on the Council hate when I say that but it’s simply the truth. What our government does is the appearance of engagement–just enough to appear like we’re advocating for residents. But not enough to actually make a difference.

This is not pointing a finger at any one person; it’s been a consistent pattern across several administrations and it has become normative–by it’s actions, our government has made it clear that it doesn’t consider airport issues to be all that important. I ran for City Council to change that. Airport issues are my area of expertise and I had hoped to leverage that expertise with the backing of the City to bring home far greater benefits to our residents. Sadly, this has not been the case thus far.

Until the City Of Des Moines begins doing smart things, like sending our electeds to events that matter, building the knowledgebase of our electeds on these issues, working with our peers in other cities, by giving our full-throated support to good legislation and by creating our own strong agenda of leadership on these issues, we will never get where we all want to be: a quieter, safer, cleaner Des Moines.

The negative impacts from Sea-Tac Airport should be non-partisan. So whether or not you voted for me, if you care about the noise, the pollution and the economic harms, I need your support on this. If what I wrote above makes sense to you, please encourage the rest of the City Council and City Manager to support me in my efforts before it’s too late.

Tick. tock. The Port keeps building.