Unfortunately, this is yet another one of those situations where the public tends to think, “I don’t care who’s right or wrong. I just want you to stop arguing!” But it matters. There has been a slow, drip, drip break down in the proper functioning of our government, by every Council, over the past 20 years. And now it’s become so bad that most people (including candidates and colleagues) honestly have no idea how things are supposed to work. They just assume that if we elect the ‘right’ people, good things will happen. Many of us cannot imagine that their friends, the very nice people we elect, also do not know how things are supposed to work. Or we don’t care.
As an informed voter, I urge you to read this carefully.
Mayor Mahoney,
I am in receipt of your 14 June letter. Your letter is timely because I was already preparing a letter to you regarding the troubling discussion at the end of the 9 June Transportation Committee Meeting you chaired. For your convenience, I attach a link to that video as well as transcript (generated by Youtube.)
Background
As you know, last November I asked the WSDOT communications consultant for a briefing on the SR-509 project, with an emphasis on Stage 2. I explained that I had watched the City of SeaTac receive several briefings on the planning. They informed me that they were happy to grant my request because they had tried engaging with the City of Des Moines and not been able to schedule something similar.
The meeting included several members of their team. We all completely understood that the meeting was strictly informational. The meeting concluded with them asking to present to our City Council as soon as convenient. I conveyed all this, especially their request to present to the full Council, both to last year’s Transportation Committee and to the full City Council. I heard absolutely no objections from our Transportation Committee or the full Council at that time.
The entire substance of the meeting was their showing me a ‘fly over’ animation of Stage 2. Their software allowed them to move back and forth at will along the project. They would stop at various points to discussed each section in detail. Portions of that animation are what the public now sees in their Open House video.
In December of 2021, I was informed by their consultant that he was moving onto other projects and introduced me to his successor. I was invited by both to continue our discussion and the new consultant expressed the same eagerness to present to our City Council.
Subsequently the new consultant offered me a preview of that Stage 2 video. I agreed to not comment on it publicly until it was officially released on May 23rd, which I did. However I was asked for my feedback, which I gave.
And that feedback was simply this: provide more detail on the section of greatest concern to Des Moines: 200th S. from 24th Ave. to the Blueberry Lane community and the connection to 188th and do it as soon as possible.
It may be simply an unfortunate coincidence, but the only area that is not shown in any detail on that video is exactly that stretch: from 24th Ave along 200th S. to the Blueberry Lane community and 188th. Oops.
The 9 June committee meeting
After the scheduled business of the Committee concluded, at 48:10 COO Dan Brewer begins an unscheduled discussion, accusing an unnamed ‘Councilmember’ (obviously me) of “providing comment and quasi direction” to WSDOT staff. Both he and DPW Andrew Merges strongly imply that I might have done something that might somehow jeopardise the City’s relationship with WSDOT, going all the way up to the Secretary of the Department of Transportation.
To mitigate this unspecified ‘damage’ and prevent any further problems, Dan Brewer states that he has already contacted WSDOT, in effect, warning them against speaking to me. He also engages in a side conversation with you and Deputy Mayor Buxton which leads to you saying you will initiate a follow-on call with ‘leadership’, ostensibly to decide on some form of further group action between the administration and the City Council against me.
DPW Andrew Merges implies that there are some delicate negotiations between the City and WSDOT (an RFP regarding the Barnes Creek Mitigation?) which could somehow be negatively impacted and stresses the importance of maintaining a ‘cordial’ relationship between the City and WSDOT.
You, the Deputy Mayor and staff all agree that ‘consistency’ is key. Deputy Mayor Buxton summarises the discussion by saying:
… if we receive questions it would be good to refer those for information to the city clerk so that whatever ends up going out into the public is approved by WSDOT’s public outreach teams.
And then COO Dan Brewer replies:
Or if you have questions those can be submitted to the WSDOT team direct or you can ask myself andrew or tommy and we can work with with the staff to get materials or whatever we need to answer questions on the project
There is then a one minute pause where Deputy Mayor Buxton attempts to find the link on the City web site to that Open House. COO Brewer finally guide her to the correct landing page.
Your letter of 14 June
By ‘reinsulation’ I assume you mean updates to Port Packages, a policy which the City of Des Moines has had on its legislative agenda since I first proposed the idea to Rep. Orwall and Sen. Keiser in 2019. If you recall, that became law in 2020 with the passage of HB2315.
I did indeed write to the Port Commission’s Aviation Committee concerning how to implement such a program–at the written suggestion of one of their fellow Commissioners in order to follow their protocols.
With all that said, your allegations sound quite serious, so of course I want to address them fully. To so I, may I receive answers to the following?
- Who at WSDOT has expressed concerns?
- What are their specific concerns?
- How were they conveyed to the City of Des Moines?
- And to whom?
- What are the specific risks COO Brewer and DPW Merges mention in your 9 June conversation? I’m trying to understand: how does a Councilmember attending an information-only meeting (which any CM could also do) create difficulties for our City?
- Who at the Port of Seattle has expressed concerns over any communications I may have had with my fellow electeds? What are their specific allegations? How were they conveyed? And to whom?
- What is/are the specific policies, either in our Council Rules of Procedure or DMMC or RCW or anywhere else that I am supposed to have violated?
- What is the specific policy, either in our Council Rules of Procedure or DMMC or employee handbook that describes the proper use of “city resources”, by which I assume you mean my desmoineswa.gov email address?
- In the specific allegation re. the Port Commissioners, are you implying that an elected writing to another elected, on a subject that is a part of the City’s legislative agenda, must first obtain approval? If so, from what authority?
- Why are you the messenger? Why now? And why did whoever has these concerns not express them to me directly in a timely manner?
- What exact authority do you feel that you may have in judging the appropriateness of any of the items in your letter?
- What exact authority do you feel that you may have in enforcing any of the items in your letter?
I am eager to get your responses to the above as quickly as possible so that I can address these serious concerns in the manner they deserve. Please do not delay.
My message to you
Switching gears, this in response to what I saw at the 9 June Transportation Meeting. If the situation were indeed as serious as COO Brewer indicated he, through the City Manager and City Attorney should have contacted me. Not you. Me.
Instead, apparently Dan and Andrew went directly to WSDOT to obstruct a legitimate request for information by an elected official and then misrepresented my conduct to your committee as “quasi-direction.”
Their action and that untrue characterisation are completely inappropriate and frankly I am surprised that people of such deep experience and expertise would not understand. Staff members have no business interfering with an elected in performing research and attempting to convince staff members in other agencies to avoid legitimate engagement is obstruction.
You and the Deputy Mayor then agree that you will have a private follow-on discussion with ‘leadership’, presumably to decide on some form of collective action against a fellow elected (me.)
That is also highly unethical for all concerned. I will remind you that you are one co-equal member of the legislative branch. Under Rule 5, your title as Mayor gives you no authority concerning the conduct of an elected colleague.
The administration had no business discussing the matter with you apart from me or attempting to influence my relationship(s) with others and you have no business attempting to intervene as if you have some authority over the Council or any of its individual members. You do not.
Further, your actions had nothing to do with the business of the Committee. No motion was made, no proper discussion occurred and no vote was taken approving any specific action, valid or otherwise. It was just “people talking” and then you deciding to “make a phone call”. That is not only invalid parliamentary procedure; it is not how ethical government works.
I therefore demand that you cease any such action immediately and for every participant of that meeting to disavow the entire discussion.
Because here’s the punchline. After all that nonsense, Dan Brewer negates all of it by telling you that you (members of the City Council) can indeed reach out to WSDOT directly if you have questions.
Which is exactly what I did.
Deputy Mayor Buxton’s struggle even to find the proper link to the SR-509 Open House speaks for itself concerning ‘outreach’ and ‘public engagement’. In addition to the above witch hunt, I object to these ongoing attacks because they prevent residents from receiving the information they also have a legitimate right to. May I remind you that your briefing on the SR-509 Open House’ comes less than two weeks before it closes on June 22nd?
As one of my colleagues, I would like to assure you that my conduct with WSDOT was not only appropriate, it was (and is) helping to do some things the City and WSDOT could be doing much better: maximising public engagement, and providing easy to access, thorough, and objective information about SR-509.
Everyone in your meeting room would be better served focusing on those activities. Because apart from everything else, this ongoing harassment is a colossal waste of time. For everyone.
With regard to ‘reinsulation’, my advice would be to refer to such programs as “Port Package Updates” or a “Second Chance program.” It is harder to sound sincere and credible on an issue our City claims to support if one does not know the correct term of art.
But as to your allegation, you are saying that a member of the City Council, using their City email address, to email fellow electeds, at the suggestion of one of their own body, to explore a policy opportunity endorsed by both Legislative Agendas, is an inappropriate use of “city resources”. You may wanna re-think that one as well, sir.
I urge you to stop. All this. None of it is supported by law, parliamentary procedure or best practice. But apart from small details like ‘right and wrong’, all the chronic stonewalling, bullying, intimidation and harassment have practical consequences. Far from preventing undefined ‘bad things’ from happening, they waste valuable City resources and lead to ongoing and unnecessary conflict and embarrassment.
Worst of all in my opinion, enabling all this ongoing misconduct sets a terrible example for both new colleagues and the next generation of candidates. Almost no one has the time necessary to make informed judgments. They assume that whatever they is somehow ‘normal’. Even when it’s not. For that reason alone I urge both you and all my colleagues to start setting a better example.
I am trying to handle this quietly so as to avoid public embarrassment for the City, but unlike all this “hearsay” I am more than happy to go as loud and as public as anyone likes because you are wrong. Not merely in terms of procedure, but basic decency.
And for any of our colleagues, and most importantly members of the public who have questions, I am always happy to respond to sincere inquiries with specific examples from MRSC, Jurassic Parliament and the Association of Washington Cities, from which I have earned their Certificate of Municipal Leadership. I am the only current member of our City Council to have done so and I look forward to having company soon. All their trainings are very useful.
—JC
History
Both the discussion at the end of that meeting and the Mayor’s letter promulgate a series of tired fibs which the administration and the majority have aggressively promoted since even before my election:
- Electeds may only speak to electeds. Not true.
- Electeds must ask for permission from City staff before speaking to any agency. Not true.
- Electeds should obtain permission from the Council before performing almost any activity. Not true.
- Electeds who speak to any of the above are automatically somehow ‘representing the City Council’. So not true.
None of these are true. They may be staff’s preference. They may be the majority’s preference. But they are not true. There is no law or rule against any of the above. And just because people keep repeating them, does not make them so.
And the biggest fib? “We’ve tried again and again to educate Councilmember Harris.”
Again, no one from the City contacted me. No one ever does. Both the majority and staff simply run around behind my back and try to spread all sorts of rubbish because it is inconvenient to have a Councilmember who disagrees with the administration’s policies. Obstruction via gaslighting.
The Mayor knows that I have not had a conversation with the City Manager since March 2020. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of phone calls I’ve received from any of my colleagues. And none of them had anything to do with (cough) ‘education’. Quite the contrary, I now have a list of over 100 questions I have submitted to the Administration which have gone unanswered. Mayor Mahoney has countered that with even more falsity. Saying that I am constantly ‘wasting staff time with 2meaningless questions’.
This narrative of how so many people have patiently tried to ‘educate’ that obstreperous Councilmember Harris is beyond laughable.
We are, in fact, the only nearby City that has no mechanism to insure that Councilmembers get legitimate inquiries of any kind answered. (I shouldn’t say that. Many cities have no official mechanism because they don’t need it. It’s a social norm.)
- The City Manager allows for no questioning during the meetings apart from his topics.
- There is no open discussion as the Mayor indulged in at the end of the Transportation Committee Meeting.
- And even when the City Manager or staff promise on the dais to provide me with follow-up information? They simply do not keep their word.
The City Manager frequently invokes Rule 17 and RCW 35A,13.120 to accuse me of breaking state law by asking even the simplest questions of staff:
“The Council and its members shall deal with the administrative branch solely through the City Manager…”
But in fact the passage reads
“Except for the purpose of inquiry, the Council and its members shall deal
with the administrative branch solely through the City Manager…
Details, details.
During City Council Meetings, the City Manager, on the other hand, is given free reign by our Mayor to present unannounced ad hoc presentations, often the sole purpose of which is to scold Councilmembers for public statements he finds objectionable. A few recent examples:
- His days at Hogwarts (er… ‘disposable income’)
- The wonders of Pacific Ridge
- The City Council has no role in oversight
- Why he will never permit a Detroit Skyline at the Des Moines Marina!
Mayor Mahoney decided (by fiat) that the New Items For Consideration section of the meeting (also created by fiat by Matt Pina) may only consist of ‘new legislative proposals.’ It is not a place to ask questions because all questions can submitted off-line for a response by the City Manager. When the Mayor knows full well Mr. Matthias will not respond to those questions, unless he wants to of course.
The current system is tantamount to my memories of trips to the Soviet Union–a government which, on paper, was the soul of ‘democracy’.
My preparation
I knew I was headed into the lion’s den after my election. So I attend as many trainings as possible. I reach out to the training sources the City relies on: Jurassic Parliament, MRSC, AWC, before I do anything. I’m the only member of the City Council to have obtained a Certificate of Municipal Leadership from the Association of Washington Cities.
I was attending our City Council Meetings almost a decade before our current Mayor even moved here. I attend every Port of Seattle public meeting and routinely attend City Council meetings in every nearby community. I have relationships with ex-CMs from our city and all the airport communities going back to the 90’s.
I am far from perfect. I make mistakes all the time. But I am happy to match my understanding of the proper role of Councilmember with those of my colleagues any day of the week. And anyone who knows me knows I respond to constructive criticism quite well.
Ironically, it is the constant obstruction and gaslighting that provides the necessity of preparation. If my colleagues had provided even the slightest bit of cooperation, I would have to study a whole lot less.
Matt MahoneyCouncilmember Harris,
It has been brought to my attention you continue to exercise actions outside your authority as a councilmember by contacting outside agencies and inferring you are representing the interests of our city and it’s council. The first instance, over several months, you reached out directly to the Washington Dept. of Transportation requesting actions concerning Highway 509, this created confusion amongst WADOT personnel and our city staff. You had no designation nor authorization to do so. Des Moines City Staff are the only authorized city representatives regarding this matter. The second, recently using city email, you contacted Commissioners Cho and Mohamed concerning matters on reinsulating issues. While you may have interest in this regard, using official city resources is inappropriate and must stop. Both agencies have been contacted and have been informed your requests are not council directed actions and must be treated as citizen requests and that further contact is to be handled in the same manner. While you do have the right to contact agencies as a citizen, but by no means as designation from council or under the guise of official city business. This is to inform you that despite repeated efforts to call out these inappropriate actions you continue to ignore those warnings. If it continues, I will be asking our fellow councilmembers to consider public reprimands and/or censure.
Regards,MattMatt Mahoney
425-941-0090
Mayor
Des Moines City Council
Meeting Video
(transcript auto-generated by Youtube)
Chief of Operations (COO) Dan Brewer
48:08 Just a couple other things to add they currently have a online open house
48:09 That's going on for the stage 2 project we worked with bonnie we've got that
48:15 information on our website so anybody that's interested can go and participate in that and provide comment
48:23 um on the project as they get ready to go out to issue the rfp
48:29 um but that has led to some challenges for us as well as the washdot team and
48:37 just being a bit careful here and to be respectful
48:43 but we have a council member who is reaching out to the wash dot staff
48:50 and providing comment and quasi direction as a council member
48:56 with no from from my understanding no authority or direction to do that
49:01 and it's causing a lot of confusion between the the washdot staff and their consultants
49:07 and us and potentially harming our our relationship with
49:13 the secretary at the d.o.t and things like that so it's become it's really become awkward
49:21 in what's going on i had to kind of step in and provide some direction this week to basically say when
49:27 this council members reaching out they are reaching out as a an ordinary citizen
49:32 and you can respond to them as you would any other ordinary citizen no more or no less
49:39 just treat them like a citizen because they're not they're not acting with the authority of the council when they reach out to you
Mayor Matt Mahoney
49:44 so that is disappointing
49:50 i uh i think i (should) probably have a discussion with the city manager and the city
49:55 attorney about some direction should be sent to the council regarding that matter, okay?
COO Dan Brewer
50:00 Okay.
Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton
50:07 Or if any i mean so you are i was just going to ask if you feel like you need a
50:07 council action in regard to that or do you feel like it's been handled sufficiently?
COO Dan Brewer
50:13 Hopefully we've tried to clear the air with the staff as to how to deal with it
50:19 it just it puts him (Adam Granato?) in an awkward spot because normally as a council you'd reach out elected to
50:25 elected so when an elected is reaching out directly to not just the staff but
50:30 the staff's consulting and uh team that gets really awkward
50:37 for folks so i think i think
Mayor Matt Mahoney
I think we have a discussion with staff leadership and uh
Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton
OK.
Mayor Matt Mahoney
I'll take it from there. (inaudible)
Director of Public Works Andrew Merges
50:46 one follow-up on that as well just to kind of set an expectation as well what you'll notice on some of these slides
50:52 they have the wash dot name on them so generally for the 509 project city staff
50:58 will be working with washdot and allowing their public relations and communications team
51:03 to prepare the public outreach i'll i'll work with washdot on revisions
51:09 of slides but i won't create a presentation
51:14 outside of anything that they present to the public as well just because they've got a huge website they've got a lot of
51:20 outreach folks managing that and like what dan was saying is there's
51:25 there's information that's been requested that could confuse the picture to the public
51:32 so even for the future if you've got questions from washdot's website they should mimic everything that you see at
51:37 a city level from staff as well to try to maintain that consistency
Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton
51:42 In other words if we receive questions it would be good to refer
51:48 those for information to the city clerk so that
51:54 whatever ends up going out into the public is approved by washdot's
52:00 public outreach teams
COO Dan Brewer
52:15 Or if you have questions those can be submitted to the washdot team direct or you can ask myself andrew or tommy and we can work with
52:23 with the staff to get materials or whatever we need to answer questions on the project
Director of Public Works Andrew Merges
52:31 yeah and washdot's going to be start pushing pretty heavily into public outreach as well too
52:36 so i kind of just want to maintain a cordial and very consistent
52:41 discussion between what staff's working on being collaborative and washdot's showing uh the public on their end yeah
52:48 it's tough enough getting the correct information to the public right a mixed message is very problematic
52:55
Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton
52:55 so where is the link on the city website? or can somebody just email that to the
53:00 committee if you go to uh if it's open?
COO Dan Brewer
53:08 it's under new what's new
53:08 yes out there now here
Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton
53:18 so i'm on the website i'm i don't need it to be bonnie's tracking down at the same time
Dan Brewer
53:24 right there's the what's new see all and the thing will pop up with uh
Mayor Matt Mahoney
53:46 rock it fast {?)
Director of Public Works Andrew Merges
53:55 yeah another note on communication generally washdot's communication team will
54:00 shoot me an update or an advanced notice of something they publish so the city team has a chance to
54:08 review it in case it affects des moines and the citizens as well so any updates will always be posted to
54:15 the city website then is what you're seeing when washdot says we have a public open
54:21 house or here's some public information we're going to release generally staff will work with bonnie to to try to get
54:26 that news feed out there to try to keep up with washout on that okay
54:46 there it is so see all
54:52 what's new go back to the city site bonnie really
54:57 quick so it's under you go back to oh and then see all again
55:18 on the various social media pages and so forth
Mayor Matt Mahoney
55:31 thank you appreciate that
Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton
55:39 i just want to complement all of your work i mean that just
55:44 uh that's a lot of people to coordinate with and to keep up on and you've got you know even though keyword has both in
55:51 those projects i mean it's so nice in my opinion that one company is doing both of those but
55:57 just to keep all that straight and then report out good work and i'm so thankful
56:02 for all the work on the the des moines creek uh the barnes creek trail to keep that in the city and under our
56:10 control and to add that beautiful component into the middle of our city that's really to preserve that it's
56:16 amazing so yeah so really
56:23 thankful yeah excellent excellent
Mayor Matt Mahoney
56:36 yeah thank you
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*Emphasis, mine.
2Meaningless questions such as Farmers Market financials (as required by our agreement.) Comcast customer complaint log (as required by our agreement.) Financial projection for hotel proposal. Graphic depicting geographic boundary of Redondo Aquatic Land Lease.