This Week

This is an ACTION-PACKED WEEK! 😀 Sprinkled throughout the week are short “Hi There!” meetings to various CCs in other airport communities. I kind of have a leg up in that I already know at least a few CCs in all six cities as part of my ‘airporty’ stuff over the years. But it’s important to me to get to know as many people as possible because I want more cooperation between the Cities on a whole range of regional issues.

Monday at 1:00pm I’ll be at a public meeting on the Dept. Of Commerce Study On Sea-Tac Airport at City Of SeaTac City Hall on 188th. If you are concerned about airport issues, I urge you to attend. Frankly, there are real concerns that the  study has gone off the rails. This is a chance for the study team to provide some answers. Why you should care? The practical reason for the study is to get money for our communities to fight the noise and pollution. But there is a truism in politics: Without quality data there is no problem. And this study is not based on on new data. So far it has largely been put together with information going back as far as 1997. Think of it this way: If you are a lawmaker from Eastern Washington with no great concern about ‘airports’, it makes it hard for you to vote for money for Des Moines residents if you’re presented with a weak study. We need to fix this now. Even if you are not familiar with the issues, this is a good place to get up to speed.

Tuesday is the first Port Of Seattle Commission Meeting of the year. The new Commissioner Sam Cho will be sworn in. I’ll also be attending the first Water District #54 Commission Meeting of the year. Relations with all the local utilities have been strained in recent years over the utility taxes and I want to work on improving that.

Wednesday will be my first meeting with the entire City Senior Staff. In past years, City Council had much greater access to City employees for the purpose of inquiry. The new policy set down by our City Manager is to require that all inquiry go through his office. I’ve got literally years of questions I’ve been waiting to get answers to so it will be interesting to see how they handle that. One of my big campaign issues was transparency.

Thursday starts with a meeting of the State Airport Siting Committee. Our own Steve Edmiston is one of the sole Citizen Members (which is great). The thing to think about is: How will a second airport help Des Moines? It doesn’t help us if the airport is too far away or only handles a small number of flights. The challenge is, I’ll be blunt here: other cities aren’t stupid. They see how bad the relationship is here at Sea-Tac and they (understandably) are skeptical of a new airport next door with another Port Of Seattle.

Thursday is also the first City Council Meeting of the year and the debut of Anthony Martinelli and moi. (If you can’t be there, it’s on Channel #21) There will be a five minute swearing-in ceremony at the beginning which I hope you will attend. There will also be the election of the next Mayor and Deputy Mayor (whose identities, sadly are already pretty much a fait a compli.) There will also be a presentation by COO Dan Brewer on the Woodmont landslides.

And also, right away we’ll need to address the worst kept secret of 2019: Namely, the resignation of Deputy Mayor Vic Pennington.

http://www.federalwaymirror.com/news/new-south-king-fire-chief-steps-down-from-des-moines-city-council-seat

I’ll have a few more words on that process below.

Last Week

I mostly took last week off. However I did have my first meeting with City Manager Michael Matthias and City Clerk Bonnie Wilkins who gave me ‘the tour’ of the City–from an economic development standpoint. As some of you know, Mr. Matthias is not ‘just’ our City Manager, but also our Economic Development Director so it’s important for me to understand what his vision is for growing the business sectors here. I am skeptical about several of the City’s current long-term plans, but the one thing we completely agree on is the concept of ‘steps’ connecting 223rd down to the Marina Floor. My hope is to focus his team’s execution on the ideas we all agree on.

Resignation

The replacement process for a City Councilmember who resigns is pretty simple: The City issues a call for applicants, then a few weeks later, the six remaining CCs will vote to choose a replacement. That new CC will serve out Vic’s regular term which ends in in December of 2021.

I gotta be honest: I am not a fan of appointments. They are inherently un-democratic. In Des Moines in particular, we have had far more than our share of un-elected CCs over the past two decades. In addition to the four or five appointees, if you throw in all the un-opposed campaigns it comes to a very small pool of people who have actually run competitive elections.

That said, this is your chance to apply and I urge you to do so. You can serve. Because, frankly, if you don’t apply, you’ll just get someone that the current Council has already pre-selected. I know that sounds snippy, but we always seem to draw from the same very small pool of people and it leads to a certain elitism and in-breeding which just ain’t healthy for a government of any size. If you don’t like how things have been going? That’s a big part of the reason. There was a lot of talk during the election about ‘diversity’. Well to me that also means a broader range of opinions. I ran specifically to provide a different point of view from the existing Council. And if you think that’s a good idea, you should think about stepping up as well. Because the fact is: running a campaign is work. This is the lowest bar of entry you’ll ever have if you want to serve.

My first meeting on the City Council will be Thursday January 9th at 7PM at City Hall (21630 11th Avenue Des Moines, WA 98198). There will be a brief ‘swearing in’ ceremony at the beginning. So… you know… mark your calendar. 😀 By the way, Des Moines subscribers to Comcast can watch this (or any City Council Meeting) on Channel #21.

This Week

Busy week! Monday afternoon I will be sworn in as your City Council Member. (This is the ‘real’ swearing in; the thing on 9 Jan is ceremonial.) Apparently this is necessary so that I can deal with some emergency–you know, like *someone loses the nuclear football.

Monday at 1-3PM there is a round table at the Burien Community Center to discuss the closure of the Annex. This is a concern for the many Des Moines residents who use services of the organizations that are being kicked out.

B-Town Blog Article

There is also a City Council Meeting at Burien City Hall you may want to attend at 7PM to let their City Council know how you feel.

On Tuesday there’s not only more Salmon counting with Saltwater State Park and Trout Unlimited but at 9AM there is also the last meeting of the year for SCatBD at SeaTac City Hall. This is a big deal because the group will be discussing their legislative agenda for 2020. If you are concerned about any transportation issues–and that means anything from Shuttle Buses For Seniors to Light Rail to Sea-Tac Airport, show up and let your voice be heard.

South County Area Transportation Board

Tuesday also has a meeting of the Burien Airport Committee at the Burien Community Center at 6PM. Again, the discussion will be about 2020. I encourage everyone who is concerned about Sea-Tac Airport to attend their meetings. They have the only properly functioning Airport Committee in the region and its something I am working very hard to try to bring to Des Moines. We should be leading the fight on airport issues.

Friday I’ll be meeting with State Rep. Mike Pellicciotti of the 30th District. Rep. Pellicciotti has been a big advocate for our region on airport issues and I want to discuss how we can extend the number of homes that are receiving noise mitigation as far south as Redondo.

Last Week

Tuesday there was the never-ending Salmon Counting. 😀 There was also the the last Port Of Seattle Meeting of the year and it was packed with people freaked out about the use of facial recognition at Sea-Tac Airport.

A quick word on this: People new to politics need to understand that there is often a double-speak. When the Port voted to approve the first policy in the nation on limiting the use of biometric scanning, what that really means is, “We are totally doing this.” 😀 I know that sounds cynical, but the Port is acting as sort of a ‘trial run’ for the rest of the nation on this stuff. The actual fighting is yet to happen and no one who cares about this issue should feel great about the Port Commission’s new policy. Quite the opposite.

Wednesday was the last StART Meeting of the year–which Des Moines is currently not a part of. Cards on the table, I was not a fan of withdrawing from the StART. Of course, I was never a fan of the StART to begin with. 😀

Thursday I met with Des Moines Aviation Committee member (and Quiet Skies Puget Sound founder) Sheila Brush. The thing I’m trying to get local activists to understand is that we need a different approach–there are waaaayyyyy too many groups going in waaaaaay too many separate directions (like the StART) and it’s diluting our effectiveness at just the moment in time when we should all be pulling in the same direction to fight the SAMP. I have no idea if I was persuasive, but we’ll keep at it! The job is to convince.

A short rant on ‘complaining’

Speaking of which, I get a certain number of complaints about my complaining. Before the election, most people only saw this guy in a Red Wings hat giving angry public comment at City Council Meetings. What they (you) didn’t see was all the stuff leading up to those comments. I wasn’t talking to the public, I was talking to the City Council about issues I had already communicated to them. You (the public) were walking in on the middle of a conversation. I never expected the public to ‘get it’. I expected the City to get it. I wasn’t being rhetorical. I tell people over and over: If I had felt listened to by the City? I would not have run.

(Lesson for incumbents: When someone repeatedly takes the trouble to make public comment on an issue, try really listening. Unless you don’t care about the risk of being replaced, of course. 😀 I’m not being snarky. Just something I’m telling myself going forward when I feel like checking my cell phone or otherwise not paying attention when the public speaks. )

Now, with what I’m writing here, I still get lots of very reasonable complaints about a lack of ‘context’. Eg. if I comment on the SR3 Wildlife siting at the Marina, you can’t see all the reasons for my concerns because you probably haven’t seen all the background–in fact, there is no public presentation available on line explaining what is going on. That’s partly on the City for not making that info available, but it’s also my fault for not providing more context. However, if I put in all the footnotes and background and ‘explainers’ on every topic (like the airport) I’d be here all day! But the point is very well taken and in the future I’ll try to do a LOT better with giving you links to places where you can read more.

Like I keep saying, I’m learning how to do this as I go.

This week I’ve been very remiss in replying to messages due to some sort of virus which has kept me trapped in a spot between “Lord, take me now!” and “Lord, if you get me outta this I promise I’ll be a better person!”… for the past 4-5 days. Apologies.

FYI…

South Seattle College is having a College Campus Tour on December 19th at 2pm. Speaking as a graduate of what used to be referred to as ‘trade-school’, I cannot urge you enough to attend this if you or your kids are thinking about one of their career-based programs. https://www.westsideseattle.com/calendar/south-seattle-college-campus-tour-dec-19

This Week

Tuesday is Salmon Counting (more below) and the last Port Of Seattle Meeting of the year. This meeting will concern a couple of things: First the Port is going ahead with design work on the SAMP, which is what caused Des Moines to withdraw from the StART. So the expansion is really happening. It’s no longer off in the future. The other thing to be discussed is also worrying: the airlines have been experimenting with facial recognition software, ostensibly to improve ‘security’. But this is also a fabulous way for them to improve the speed of getting customers through security (albeit with that pesky issue of eliminating one of the last shreds of personal privacy). My fear is that everyone is so desperate to get through lines faster that they simply won’t care. But we definitely should, not least because the more passengers they can move through security, the more planes they can move over our heads.  http://meetings.portseattle.org/index.php?option=com_meetings&view=meeting&Itemid=358&id=1878&active=agenda

Wednesday I’ll be crashing a Des Moines Marina Association meeting. 😀 Also on Wednesday there is a Normandy Park Community Neighbors–that’s Melissa Petrini’s group working on issues of local crime and homelessness which I’ve mentioned before. There’s no speaker this month, but I encourage everyone to attend because it’s an idea I believe in. Building a strong base of people in Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac, Kent, etc. is what it’s going to take to get some real attention at the County/State level on these issues. In other words, if I can show my City Council that there are fifty people in Des Moines who will show up for these issues, it makes it a lot easier to get legislation passed. You are the key. 7PM. 801 SW 174th St. Normandy Park.

Ongoing, I’m having all sorts of meetings with various current and former business owners trying to educate myself as to what it will take to really make Des Moines a ‘destination’. Most of this discussion is on the down-low for now, but so far I’m encouraged in one sense: I don’t think I over-promised during the campaign. There’s this constant fear one has (or should have) that one’s campaign promises are simply impossible. Regardless of how hard you dig, as a candidate there’s a lot you cannot know. Now that I’ve won a lot more people are willing to speak candidly and that is a great help. More details to follow.

Last Week

Fast Ferry

If you haven’t already, I urge everyone to watch last week’s City Council Meeting presentation on the proposed Fast Ferry. This is a big deal, it already looks like a done deal, and frankly I’m not sure how I feel about it. I look forward to hearing your feedback, for sure. http://hostedevents.invintus.com/wa-desmoines/player.html?clientID=5345544549&eventID=2019121000

Counting Salmon

I always list my weekly ‘Salmon Counting’ with Saltwater State Park and Trout Unlimited. It’s not an ‘official city’ kinda deal, but I mention it because of my broader concerns about this place. As I keep saying, I view everything in Des Moines along a 25 year timeline. And the environment is a very practical part of that. How many people will want to engage in ‘eco-tourism’ or come here for a weekend get-away if the water quality continues to deteriorate?

Frankly, the news ain’t great. The counts at McSorley Creek have been exactly one live salmon in seven weeks. There were forty two all last year. Down from hundreds five years ago and thousands twenty years ago.

And that’s just one piece of the puzzle. There’s the shoreline and then the greater Sound of Poverty Bay and Three Tree. Also not having a good time in many spots.

The problem is that a lot of the big issues that Des Moines faces long-term are problems that Cities were just not designed to cope with. We usually leave things like ‘Puget Sound’ (and airports!) to Counties and States and Fed and lots and lots of other agencies. But there are times when those other agencies are simply not getting it done. If not, then what? Do we just say, “Sorry, not my job. Moving on…”?

Not to sound all high-falootin’ but again, looking forward twenty five years, it’s part of my public trust to do whatever it takes to protect this place so that in 2045, Des Moines–including all the waters, will be cleaner and safer than now.

This Week

Monday, I’ll be meeting with Bill Linscott of the Des Moines Marina Association. The Marina is near and dear to my heart and I look forward to being a strong advocate for sailors, boaters, fisher…er… people. 😀

Tuesday will be more Salmon Counting, which I’ll talk about next week because it’s one of those long-range things I hope to accomplish.

Thursday there will be a City Council Meeting @ 7pm. The big item will be a Study for a Passenger Ferry. This is a subject that has been discussed for-ehhhhhver and I hope a whole lot of you will tune in on Channel 21 or show up. http://www.desmoinesmail.com/WebPDF/Council/Packet_Archive/2019/120519.pdf As soon as the presentation is available, I’ll post it here.

Saturday I’ll be attending a training conducted by the Association of Washington Cities. Yes, you actually have to study a bit to take on the job of Council Member.

Last Week

I met with Tina Orwall on airporty stuff. She seems optimistic that we can get a first piece of legislation passed this year to help people with Port Package Problems to become eligible for repairs. Here is a follow-up letter I wrote her on strategy–a word we don’t often use around here when talking about our long-term relationship with Sea-Tac Airport. We must start thinking about a twenty five year plan for how we’re going to live together with less noise and pollution.

I also met with Mayor Matt Pina. And I gotta say, after hearing him patiently explain just a fraction of all the stuff I don’t know about I came away profoundly changed. Man, I’ve been wrong about soooo many things! All I can do now is try to learn what is really going on and work hard to help them…

Yeah… that didn’t happen. 😀

We’re gonna work together–very productively, I hope. But the main thing I came away with was that I do not misunderstand the Mayor and City Manager’s plans. And so my job is to attempt to change hearts and minds in the direction of the platform I ran on–the ideas you said you wanted me to address. We’ll agree probably 90% of the time because that’s how City stuff works. But I’m counting on them to work with me on that last 10%.

Thanksgiving Day I got accosted by about six neighbours still sore about the mailbox theft on my street. So I took some time to review the City’s Complaint Reporting. I gotta say, I commend everyone who slogs through the current system. It’s pretty rough even when I’m feeling calm. If I had just finished being robbed, I’d probably want to bash my computer trying to use this thing. I spent a lot of years doing software for customer service and my hope is to help the City improve all of this. You can’t expect residents to provide the data if the user experience is unpleasant.

Finally, I spent part of the holiday weekend on the other side of the Sound doing some fish…er… ‘waterside community research’. 😀 Here is an article from The Stranger about Bremerton and its attractions/challenges for people priced out of Seattle. I’m trying to visit electeds in cities similar to Des Moines to see how they see things. Bremerton especially interests me because they already have the Fast Ferry which will be studied at this week’s CC Meeting.

Burien v. FAA

Last Friday, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled on the Burien Lawsuit with the FAA. This yet another one of those issues I have no idea how to put into twenty five words or less. OK, it involves changing one particular flight path for turbo-prop planes taking off. (See how unimportant that sounds?) So I always feel like a doofus trying to explain a movie you walked into 75 minutes late. I’ll just say for now that it goes to something I spoke at length with the Mayor about: the power of the Port and the FAA.

I used to live in Detroit. And for me, the parallels between ‘The Motor City’ and our relationship with ‘aviation’ in Seattle are striking.  There was a sense of omnipotence the automakers had over the entire Detroit area for many decades. The idea that everyone had no choice but to put up with the good, bad and ugly for the ‘greater good’. So certain suburbs (especially a number of waterfront communities) were simply sacrificed. Sound familiar?

What I hope to convince my peers on the Council of (and other Councils throughout the region) is that we can do a lot more to push back against the airport’s negative impacts. It is possible because the attitudes of judges and lawmakers are starting to change–even in the last five years people in power are now a lot more receptive. The Burien lawsuit is just one step forward–it may not even turn out to be a permanent step forward–but it shows me that times are changing. It shows me that we will be able to make significant progress on reducing the noise and pollution. But only if we push a lot harder while the opportunities are there. Sister cities like Burien and SeaTac have done so much more and that is completely backwards. Des Moines should be out in front on airport issues. I can’t wait to do even more once I take my seat on the Council.

A bit slow getting this done. Got like two hundred sign-ups this week! Some are trolls of course, so it takes a while to weed out the (obvious) goofballs. Anyhoo…THANKS FOR SIGNING UP!

So next week will be short, of course. I’ll be meeting with our State Rep. Tina Orwall on legislation to provide relief for residents with Port Package Problems–which is something SeatacNoise.Info started advocating for last year. (You should Subscribe to that mailing list to keep updated on all our work on airport issues.) This is hopefully just the beginning of a series of steps to provide compensation to our area.

I’ll also be having an introductory meeting with Mayor Matt Pina. I’m going in with an open mind. 😀

Also, election results will be certified this week and King County will teh results for each of our thirty six precincts. This is invaluable for politicians because it tells me which parts of Des Moines were supportive and which places I need to do better to try to reach.

On a related note, over the weekend I met with Woodmont resident and Council Candidate Harry Steinmetz. In October, he organised the South End Candidate Forum at Saltwater Unitarian Universalist Church–which everyone found very useful. I’m hoping to have regular meetings in all areas of the City. He informed me that the Mayor was planning to have a State Of The City meeting there–which is a good step, although I’m hoping for something a bit more ongoing with a lot more two-way.

I also met with incoming Normandy Park Council Member Earnest Thompson. We talked about airport issues–basically how to get all the key communities more unified as to specific goals.

My Take: SR3 Open House

Last week I attended the SR3 Open House at the Beach Park . This is going to be the ‘Sea Lion Rescue’ building at the Marina. The meeting was exactly the kind of thing that drives me nuts about our current government and I want to be clear about my feelings on this thing. It’s like when your kid brings home a stray puppy: You want, desperately, to be the good guy and say, “Sure thing, sweetie, we can keep the puppy!” But usually you gotta be the ‘bad guy’ and say, “Yeah…. we’re not doing that.”

The meeting seemed to be divided into two camps: upset condo owners and those in the community who want to help the critters. I think this was actually an unnecessary conflict. I have no doubt that the SR3 people can make the building clean, quiet, etc. What bugged me was that the Council people kept saying, “Maybe we could’ve communicated better, but it’s a done deal. Move on.” And then, “We were at the Farmers Market all summer if you had concerns!” That is not public engagement. News flash: The vast majority of residents do not hang at the Farmers Market. You have to find other ways to reach residents. And even if they did, there was no clear answer as to why that particular spot was chosen. The City made it out as though a realtor simply found that spot like any 2,200 square foot split-level. Which it definitely ain’t. The City was intimately involved in the planning process and should be accountable for why it is so enthusiastic about that particular project being located in that specific place. We gotta stop this whole, ‘every property sale is private and the City has no influence’ jive. It’s simply untrue and what has held us back for decades.

It’s a great program and I have no doubt it should be in Des Moines. But I am not sold on that particular spot. That spot is one of the most desirable places in the City in terms of market potential. And the SR3 facility is going to be, essentially, a black, fenced-in area with maybe some public art. It’s designed to be keep the animals and the public from seeing or hearing one another So while it may be great for healing the animals, it will do nothing to draw visitors. And drawing visitors and bringing in some tax dollars is my top priority. (Which sounds as cold-blooded as saying, “No puppy for you, kid!” 😀 Right idea. Wrong location. I hope I’m proven wrong.

My Take: Mail Theft

One last thing. The mailbox thieves came to my street today. I guess it was only a matter of time. One of my neighbours rushed out of her home in her bare feet to make sure I knew about it. So my mind immediately goes to, “What can we do about this policy-wise”, right? (That wasn’t where her mind was at. She was being a normal, non-nerd, very considerate person who only wanted to make sure I hadn’t lost a check or something.)

We had that typical chat, “Well, I guess this is the new normal”. I just want you to know, this ain’t my new normal. I was mad as hell about this loooong before it came to my street and I am going to be something of a nag at City Hall until we come up with some real solutions. It seems like a lot of people just sort of shrug off this sort of thing now–buy a ‘Ring’ and a locking mailbox and learning to live with it. I get it, but I’m not ready to accept that as the best we can do.

Sorry for another post so quickly. As I said before, I’m still figuring this out: should I post about stuff I did or stuff that’s coming up?

Frankly, I had hoped to to take it easy after the election and get organisi-ised, but unfortunately, November tends to be the busiest time of the year for many governments: budgets, events. So it’ NUTS.

OK, this morning I attended the monthly SCATbd Meeting. SCATbd (pronounced skate-board) is a regional group of South King County Cities and the Port, which discusses anything ‘transportation’ related–from those little commuter shuttle buses right up to Sea-Tac Airport. If you have any desires, concerns about everything from transit for disabled people, bike lanes, ST3, a second airport, whatever, this is the place to go. 9AM third Tuesday of every month at SeaTac City Hall.

At noon was a Port Of Seattle Commission Meeting. They approved their 2020 budget and their Property Tax Levy (which you find on your taxes–more on that soon!) and also they approved a large series of environmental clean-up programs for South Park and Georgetown which could be models for helping our City with airport impacts. And finally, they approved the first two new noise monitors in 20 years–on Vashon Island. As a budding politician I can take partial credit for this as their whole new system for providing public data on noise events came about because of work that SeatacNoise.Info did three years ago.

At 4:30pm today there is a ‘joint meeting’ of the Des Moines Airport Committee and the Burien Airport Committee at the Beach Park at 4:30pm. For those of you who care about the noise/pollution, this is a very good thing to follow. I don’t have time to get into it now, but we have not been doing a good job on this stuff and I will need your help to make changes.

Tomorrow, there is a Stakeholders Meeting run by your State Rep. Tina Orwall for people with Port Packages. This is a thing that my organisation SeatacNoise.Info started and it has the potential to get some money for everyone with damaged sound insulation. I hope it expands into something good for all of Des Moines–but one step at a time.

Also tomorrow is a meeting of the Highline Forum, which meets every 2 months. It’s attended by the Port Of Seattle and City Councils from the six airport communities.

There is also a meeting for Reach Out Des Moines, a group which attempts to provide a bunch of services for kids in the area and help reduce teenage crime and violence. They do great things in our schools including YETI. Ahhhhhhhh! I DON”T HAVE ENOUGH TIME FOR ALL THE LINKS! GOOGLE IT! 😀

And still on Wednesday, and still at the Beach Park will be a City meeting to discuss ‘SR3’, the plan to host some sort of sealion recovery program at our Marina. I have no idea what this is all about so I’ll be as curious as you what to think. https://www.sealifer3.org

And on Thursday at 7PM there will be the regular Des Moines City Council Meeting. There are a whole bunch of procedural changes, which were designed specifically to be not too friendly to us new Councilmembers. So I will have public comment on that.

Somewhere in there are meetings with current Councilmember Traci Buxon (so far the only current member who has welcomed me) and incoming member Anthony Martinelli. And there are more salmon to count. (Won’t they ever stop? :D)

Call or email if any of this interests you and I’ll get you more details. BUT NOT NOW. I’m late for another meeting!

This is my first post-election post. In the future, my posts will be mostly about what I’m doing (events, etc.) But for this first time I need to ask a favour.

But first: for ‘transparency’s sake, I’ve hidden away all the ‘candidate’ stuff. Not to be sneaky, just because the campaign is over (it is over, right?) And I’m really trying to move forward as a part of the Council and not have a bunch of contentious stuff out front. My goal is to get along as well as possible with my new colleagues.

Also: I am still working out how best to communicate with you. I think one reason Councilmembers find this difficult is because there are so many channels. I’ve got emails, people on Facebook, people who watch this site and… a whole group of people who are off-the-grid. It’s time-consuming just making sure that the same message gets to everyone. So please be patient.

Now, you know that I am but one guy out of seven. I can’t get anything done on my own. I am counting on you to provide the support I need to help convince the rest of the Council on a whole range of issues. One big reason things have not changed in this town is because traditionally there is usually very little public pressure on the Council. Few people show up to City Council Meetings.

But if it’s clear that when I speak, you guys have my back, that sends a powerful message to the rest of the Council that the public wants change. Your support is what is going to make things happen, not me.

The public eye?

This is something I joked about a lot during the campaign: “I do not ride around in the golf cart.” It’s very popular for Councilmembers to mostly engage with the public via ‘fun’ or symbolic events–like the Farmers Market (where Council Members zip around in the golf cart waving at people) or various parades. I’m not saying those aren’t very nice and valuable things to do. But, frankly, that’s not me. I’m just not a ‘parade’ kinda guy. 🙁 😀

I spend most of my time doing stuff out of the public eye. For example, this week I counted salmon for Saltwater State Park. I attended a Port Of Seattle Commission Meeting and did research at their archives. I met with KC Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. I read a lot of boring policy junk so I vaguely know what I’m talking about on complex things like Sea-Tac Airport. These are not things one takes selfies of and posts on ‘the Gram’.

My concern is that I won’t have as cheery a public profile as some residents are used to in their Councilmembers and that will create the impression that I’m not ‘doing’ very much. A lot of people really like seeing the Councilmember at all those more symbolic shindigs.

OK, Here’s The Favour

So here’s what I’m asking: If you see something I’m doing or talking about that you think is valuable, please take a moment to ‘share’ it with your friends or on social media.

That’s all. Just talk it up. Because this campaign is not over; far from it. We need to keep trying to get our message out in public until we get some of the things we campaigned on. It’s important that people understand that all the boring junk I’m doing matters, even if it’s not quite as visible as riding around in the golf cart.

One bonus favour: Please let me know what you think of this post (or any update I do) so I can serve you better. As I said, this is going to be a process.

As always,

—JC