Articles about: Engagement - JC Harris For Des Moines, Washington

Christmas In July: The ARPA Stimulus Money Request

At last night’s City Council Meeting, the City Manager unveiled the City’s ARPA Stimulus money proposal. In short, the City is receiving $9,000,000 to be used for a limited number of purposes and it must be spent by 2024. I urge all of you to watch that fifteen minute segment of the meeting and read

Campaigning, Engagement, Neighborhoods, Public Safety

Constructive Criticism

I got the following message from a resident the morning after our last City Council Meeting : “It looks like you guys were getting along. What happened?” 😀 I can only speak for myself: I self-censored. I avoided several uncomfortable conversations that should be happening. Frankly, some nights? I just don’t feel like fighting. Administration

City Currents Magazine Spring 2021

City Current Magazine Summer 2021

Economic Development, Engagement, Neighborhoods, Transparency

2003 Furniture Store Guy

Another old guy reference: There’s this moment in the movie Amadeus, where the Emperor walks in on a rehearsal of Mozart’s newest music and he sees something so obviously wrong he’s rendered speechless with confusion. My ‘fix the web site’ proposal At last week’s City Council Meeting, I felt a lot like this guy (not

Engagement, Transparency

Two quick examples of the transparency problem

The Minority Report (Part 2 of 2: Policy)

This is the second half of our response to the April 15th State Of The City presentation. Part 1 discussed our objections to the way it was carried out. Here we’ll talk about some specific policy differences. For those of you short on time, you can follow along with this presentation packet. As noted last

Engagement

Veterans Day 2020

I always wondered why my father never spoke of his time in the Army. He spent four years in the Service during World War II and in addition to not talking about it he apparently kept no memorabilia of any kind. The whole thing was a complete mystery to me. The short version is that

Engagement, Policy

How To Get What You Want From Elected Officials

2 Comments

I get at least two letters every week from residents where they ask me to do something. I give them the honest answer about getting their request fulfilled and… usually never hear from them again. And I can just feel their unhappiness with my reply (which I’ll share with you in a sec). Darwinism As

Ongoing Stuff

Get vaccinated! Yeah I know you’d like to forget about it, but there are new variants and the infection rate is climbing. Fortunately, there is an effective booster, which is recommended for people 65 and older and those who are immuno-compromised. It is available now, effective, free and you can get your appointment today here and here , including walk-Ins at SAFEWAY, Walgreen’s, Rite-Aid, SeaMar and Healthpoint.

Sign up for the King County Code Red Alert program. When you sign up for Code Red you’ll be notified immediately when there is a possible health threat. After the recent ‘Boil Water Notice’ I received just a few grouses that ‘it did not work’. I’m 99% certain that the problem is that you have to actually sign up for an account. Do It! There is this ‘guest’ option which is stupid and should not even be an option. Everyone who had an account in their system was notified. If you’re like me and signed up ten years ago (after the last notification), go to the site immediately and verify your account. Ten years is a long time for any computer system.
Check out the 223rd Green Street Project web site and take the 223rd Green Street Survey before December 11th!
Check out the Des Moines Marina Steps web site and take the Marina Steps Survey.
If you’re interested in any of our Kids or Senior activities, you can sign up here.
Learn more about our Comprehensive Plan and take the Housing Action Plan Survey.
Take the City Communication and Engagement Survey
Give blood! Schedule an appointment today. There is a CODE RED emergency shortage.
Masonic Home! There is a petition for those who are interested in historic preservation of the property. If you have questions, don’t contact me. Contact Barbara McMichael and Lloyd Lytle Jr
Community Service Officer Tonya Seaberry wants to hear from neighborhood groups interested in establishing block watch programs: Tseaberry@desmoineswa.gov or 206-878-3301.
City Of Des Moines Minor Home Repair Program: Low to moderate income households can get grants to do all sorts of necessary repairs. Email Tina Hickey (206) 870-6535.
Every home should have a Carbon Monoxide Detector–especially during the colder months! Full stop. If you need one but money is tight, South King County Fire And Rescue will get you one. Just call their Community Affairs Office at 253-946-7347.
And last, but not least: If your home has Port Package (sound insulation system) that is having issues, please go to SeatacNoise.Info

How to attend meetings and provide Public Comment

City Council Meetings are scheduled for Thursdays at 6:00PM at City Hall 21630 11th Avenue S., Suite #C Des Moines WA 98198. They can also be viewed live on Comcast Channel 21/321 or on the City’s YouTube channel. Committee Meetings are either at 4:00PM or 5:00PM, also on Thursdays.

You do not have to sign in to attend a meeting!
The sign-in sheet is only for people wishing to make a Public Comment.

There are three ways to provide Public Comment:

In person: Show up a few minutes before the meeting and sign the sheet. Public Comment is usually conducted at the beginning of the meeting.
By e-mail: All e-mails sent to citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov are considered public comment. They are instantly available to all members of the City Council and the City Clerk who includes them into the record of public comments at the next meeting.
By US Mail: Attn: City Clerk Office, 21630 11th Avenue S., Des Moines WA 98198 no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting. Please provide us with your first and last name and the city in which you live.

All letters or e-mails requesting a specific action are referred by the City Clerk to the appropriate City department.

If you would like a follow up from me, personally please indicate that or call me (206) 878-0578.

The Clerk does not read e-mails to the Council in full; only the subject line. However, we do see them as soon as you send them. Your comments are added to the Agenda Packet available on the City web site following each meeting.

How to view public comments, correspondence and meeting materials

The City publishes a meeting agenda on the Friday (six days) before city council meetings. On the day after the meeting (Friday) the City updates that same file with all the slide presentations, the correspondence, and a list of the people who signed up to give public comment at the meeting. Currently, there is no button on the web site that says Show me the meeting comments for xx/xx/xxxx. You just have to know that this is the procedure. Below is a recipe to get you there.

Go to www.desmoineswa.gov
Once there, hover over Your Government and then click Council Meeting Center. (Or, you can skip Step #1 and just click on Council Meeting Center.)
Select the meeting date you’re interested in from the Schedule Of Meetings calendar.
Click on Regular Meeting for the meeting date you want. In this case, December 1, 2022.
Click the Agenda Packet link under “Print Verson”.
You can also select a meeting using the list near the top. You can also use the left and right arrows to select older meetings.
Once the agenda packet loads, there are two links we’re interested in:
- Correspondence to view all e-mails received by the City Council since the last meeting.
- Comments From The Public to view a list of the people who spoke in-person at the meeting.