Lights, Camera, Action!

Super-fans of our City Council may notice me laughing as I look down at the start of many meetings. My phone “blows up” with texts from residents complaining about the meeting video, audio, etc. As if I can do something about it. 😃 I have complained and complained and complained.

*But… I have not seen any letters to the City Council. And I’ll just tell you on this as on every topic.

Do not text me. Especially during a meeting. Seriously, dude.
Do not write the City staff. Not the Clerk, not the IT guy. Why? Because City complaints are not forwarded to the City Council.
Instead, write the City Council, which is automatically read by the City Clerk.
And when you do, please mention me. Not to feed my ego (my ego is doing just fine, thanks very much), but because, unlike my colleagues, I worked in IT for 25 years. Even if you don’t know how the correct way to fix it, I do. On many issues, there’s this ongoing back and forth where the City will say “we’re working on (x)” and my colleagues say “OK” because they know about as much about IT as I do about brain surgery. So nothing improves. For years. Your support gives me leverage in getting a better solution implemented.

If you don’t write to back me up, it’s assumed that I’m “just making shit up”

So please write citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov

The deliberator

I know the audio problems were particularly bad at last Thursday’s meeting. That may be because this was the first meeting where the deliberators were hooked up. I’ve asked the City Clerk about it because I am now blocked from even emailing the IT manager directly. I mean that literally. My emails are refused.

Closed Captions and Transcripts

But before that, one minor victory I’ve had while in office has been to encourage the IT dept to hit a button on Youtube which auto-magically creates closed captions for our meeting videos.

The last meeting was closed-captioned so you can see the transcript even for the bits you cannot hear. Hit the ‘cc’ button and re-watch. 🙂

But some are not. So I also upload every meeting to my Youtube Channel and make sure its closed-captioned just in case. That’s your backup plan. 🙂

You can have the captions move along as you watch OR you can see the entire transcript all in one go by clicking on the “…” on the line below the video with the “Like” and “Share” buttons.

The Law

Our Council’s Rules of Procedure #35 and #36 require that meetings be audio and video-recorded. However, the quality of the recording is not specified. Regular watchers may have noticed the wide range of audio and video quality both during meetings and -between- different meetings.

Eg. at this meeting both main cameras are out of focus. And the “1 shot” and “2 shot” (ie. where the camera zooms in on people as they speak) only worked for Tim George. When members of the Council are speaking it’s only the wide shot. It’s supposed to zoom on each CM as they speak.

Action Minutes

A bit more troubling for “democracy” writ large, the City shifted to “action minutes” about a decade ago. Action minutes mean that only the actions are recorded in the minutes, not what anyone said. The Minutes only tally the votes. They say nothing of the content. Which means that the video is the only detailed account of what was said.

Speaking of the content…

And it is the case that there are several meetings, as recent as 2017, where:

There is audio, but no video.
Or the audio and video are horribly out of sync.
Or some of them are these horrible postage stamp size Windows 95 things.
And of course, many of them were not closed-captioned. (Again, if you have difficulties, search for the meeting video at SeaTacNoise.Info. All those are closed-captioned.)

If a meeting falls in the woods…

Although the meetings must be recorded, there is (AFAIK) no retention requirements of any kind.

So I have no idea where many of those meetings are before 2006. I know for a fact that the City had a video system as far back as Kennedy (1990-ish), but the IT Manager (who started in 2002-ish) has no idea and because he is not required by law to care, he does not care.

SeatacNoise.Info to the rescue…

As part of SeaTacNoise.Info‘s ongoing project to document every aspect of the airport, we have tracked down many (but not all) of these older videos. So if anyone ever wants a trip down memory lane with people like Don Wasson and Terry Brazil, that’s the place to go.

(It’s slightly unnerving to think that I may be the only person left with videos of City meetings more than 15 years old.)

Why it matters…

We keep making a lot of the same mistakes over and over and I wonder how much of it comes down to the fact that nobody cares about the past. And that indicates a certain form of arrogance. What happened before is irrelevant because “this time will be different.”

Apart from that, with the end of detailed meeting minutes video is becoming the only reliable way to know “what happened.”

With video the truth at least has a fighting chance. Without it, democracy has none because then people can say whatever they want.

*26 June, 2022: Today, the City Council received its first complaint on the matter of my tenure. Congratulations!

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. And, And, AND, you can also get free rapid tests here and at KCLS Libraries!

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 you have a Port Package 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.

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.