Categories Transparency

Court Lobby December 8, 2022

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This is the event referenced in my censure. Except that no one voting saw it. Because though the event occurred in December of 2022, I was only able to obtain it five months later. The rest of the charges were a fabrication. Employee complaints should be taken seriously for sure. But facts should more more. And this event should be taken particularly seriously because it represents the culture of the current government. We currently lack any semblance of evidence-based decision making. Council-Manager-Government, which has none of the guard rails of County, State and Federal governments, cannot work properly without it. In practical terms: this event is a microcosm of how all our decisions are currently being made. Fixing this process, making every decision based on facts and not on personalities, will make every decision better....

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City Currents Spring 2023 – Less politics, more cooperation, please

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A response to the Mayor's recent editorial in the City Currents Magazine where he again uses that forum to make the case for his policy preferences. I reject using public money to promote a political agenda. He goes on to scold the public for not being more supportive of the City's Marina and economic development plans. I offer some notes on how our downtown got to where it is and some practical suggestions for improving the downtown and Marina without spending millions of dollars....

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Categories Transparency

Ad Hoc Rules of Procedure Meeting #3 Post-game

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The third Ad Hoc Rules of Procedure meeting was, in some ways, the most chilling yet. It began with an argument over recording the meeting and went downhill from there. I strongly urge people to listen to 20:00 where the City Attorney uses a recent Supreme Court case to argue that the Council has an unlimited right to censure a member for basically any reason it chooses--including displaying any form of 'dissent' following the meeting or any form of 'criticism' of staff'. Though the term 'staff' was left undefined. There was also a lengthy discussion on 'hats'. As the kids say, "Mask off."...

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Dear people of WA: The case for another voter-enacted open government law

March 10, 2023 at 2:03 pm Updated March 10, 2023 at 3:03 pm By  Kate Riley  Times editorial page editor Just over 50 years ago, Washington voters approved Initiative 276, which demonstrated the citizenry’s righteous desire to keep tabs on their elected officials. With that vote, the state Public Records Act established the right of the

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