Categories Transparency

Why things never die in this town

At the end of our City Council Meeting last night, we had a 30 minute Executive Session that was extended to 50 minutes. I am not supposed to divulge the contents of that meeting, but click on the above link and Councilmember Achziger has a comment as to why he did not attend. …the Mayor

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Categories Transparency

Letter to Mayor Matt Mahoney re. Committee assignments

On 24 January, 2022 I emailed the Mayor Mahoney with my preferences as Committee assignments. Mayor, For 2022 I would like to make the following committee assignment requests: 1. I would like to be assigned to the Municipal Facilities Committee or the Economic Development Committees. Either is fine. 2. I would like to remain on

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Categories Policy, Transparency

An Open Letter Re. The 2022 Council Vacancy Vote

Dear Des Moines, I want to congratulate all three applicants for the Council vacancy, especially the winner, Vic Pennington. He was not my choice, but he ran a gauntlet of criticism that most of us would find very tough to take and did so graciously. To him, I promise my full professional cooperation. To those

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Categories Transparency

Solution2022!™

After the February 2020 appointment process, I received many negative comments. What was so striking to me in reading those comm was the fact that both the process and the person selected came as almost no surprise to anyone. (I myself was told by fairly well-informed people three days after my election exactly how that

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Categories Transparency

Councilmember Martinelli’s resignation

To the residents of Des Moines: I’ve lived here long enough to see several scandals on our City Council. And the thing I’ve learned is that the public has all the tools it needs to handle them; quickly and efficiently. The best thing colleagues can do at those times is to stay out of it.

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Categories Policy

recap-220113

Last Thursday’s meeting was a triumph of civility. You never saw such civil sons o’ bitches in all your life. 😀 I was looking for ‘signals’ as to whether this was a surface thing or something deeper and my comments reflect on what cues I got. I’ve heard about a dozen times about how the

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Categories Transparency

Right of inspection

Former Mayor Pina frequently compared our city to a corporation. Not being nearly as cranky as people say, I never had the heart to mention that one legal title for our city is the Municipal Corporation Of Des Moines, Washington. There’s a point to this (very) gentle dig. It isn’t a metaphor, it’s a fact. We

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