Some bits of business…
Icy Roads!
My predictions for the week? UW by 7. But the over/under on car accidents when the temperature dips below freezing? About 198. đ
Which is to say: it is expected to get very cold next weekend. And when it does, please do not drive, if possible. Even people who have lived here a while often under-estimate the ice skating rink quality of all our roads, especially those east west hills. Wheeeee!
City Manager’s Report
This Week
Wednesday: King County Emergency Management Advisory Committee. This is the first meeting of the year. It’s something I’ve wanted to be a part of for a while, especially after the Boil Water Notice.
Thursday: City Council Meeting (Agenda) Highlights are three, count ’em three big ticket items in New Business
DISCUSSION OF 2024 CITY COUNCIL LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES. Big ticket item? We are requesting $1,000,000 for an electric ferry. Readers will require all the scolding I received for spreading misinformation last year. While I eagerly wait by the mailbox for my apology, I’ll continue to work to prevent us from using our highly limited share of State money for that for several reasons:
1. The funding would be from an account dedicated to combating climate change. In fact, the boat is not even permitted anywhere in the United States. As far as I can tell there is only one passenger ferry boat in service on planet earth. It’s in Sweden, it only carries 30 people, and it just started service one month ago.
2. Kitsap Transit is currently at the absolute beginning of beta testing on the tech. But that tech is nowhere neeeeeaaar ready for prime time. Full stop. As we saw last year when a conventional boat broke down and ruined the entire season, any ferry system is highly risky.
A small city has no business being part of a highly risky beta program, with no practical value, when we have so many immediate environmental needs we can address now. Greenwashing.
Nobody is a bigger fan of the Kitsap Ferry than I. I want it! But we should let others work out the bugs first and then go all in. If my colleagues are genuinely fiscally prudent they will vote no.
CREATION OF A CITY COUNCIL FINANCE COMMITTEE. Last November, the Council voted to create an Ad Hoc Committee (meaning short term.) I said that such a committee should be standing (permanent.) The staff recommends a standing committee, which I will fully support.
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL EXECUTIVE SEARCH RECRUITMENT FIRM FOR CITY MANAGER VACANCY. On this, the Council has already had several questions as to how this should work. I asked to review the 2016 process, which I watched (as much as any civilian could) because I was under the mistaken impression that our last search, which was not exactly (cough) a straight path, was somewhat unique. Then I started thinking about our neighbouring cities and…. well… er…. đ Let’s just say that the more one learns, the more fraught this process is for all cities, regardless of process.
Saturday 4:00PM: Korean American Day celebration at Highline Performing Arts Center, 401 152nd S in Burien.
Last Week
Thursday: The first City Council Meeting of the year, which (I think) is also the first meeting of the 33th City Council of Des Moines. (Agenda) (Video)
Saturday: Duwamish Head Sailboat Race (sponsored by Three Tree Point Yacht Club. Great turnout. And… I got this really neat-o neck gaiter, which is the main thing. đ
January 4, 2024 Meeting Recap
Leadership
The first order of business for any new Council (after each election it’s a ‘new’ Council) is for the City Clerk to call for a vote on who will be mayor. The Council chose Traci Buxton as mayor, who then gets the big gavel. The next order of business is for the mayor to call for a vote on deputy mayor, which was won by Harry Steinmetz.
Ms. Buxton: 6-1. Mr. Steinmetz: 4:2:1.
I nominated myself for both roles and got one vote in each case. đ
FWIW, here is my statement.
I am vying for this position because I believe I am best qualified. Tthe position requires a certain level of skill, experience, and frankly, time. Only a few of us have experience, both with a broad spectrum of city issues and with regional issues. And if weâre being honest, only a few of us have the time to do the almost never-ending number of routine tasks. It may sound harsh, but Iâm not sure anyone with a day job can do full justice to the office as currently configured.
I believe that all of you should be assigned to the committees and tasks you express an interest in, obviously matching your skills. Not for anything high-minded, but because I think the city runs better when everyone is used to best advantage.
My only personal goal is to dial back the office of mayor to what it used to be–essentially a person who ran a meeting fairly, did their best to achieve consensus from a broad set of viewpoints, and helped others to shine.
I want to make those administrative improvements because I believe that transparency, better information, and above all attracting more people into public life should be our top priority. We simply cannot afford to leave talent on the table at this pivotal momentâeither on the council or in the community.
I also believe this approach is the best way to choose the next city manager. I was told by someone at MRSC that the success of a city manager could be gauged by the length of their tenure. I’m not sure I agree with that, but I believe that longevity tends to track with obvious competence and fairness. If the CEO is perceived as having those qualities, regardless of ideology, they tend to last.
I feel like the best way to attract and select a city manager who will last is to have a council that operates in the same manner and that is what I want to achieve through I fairness, transparency and data driven decision making. Setting aside all the blather about âmisinformationâ, you know in your hearts that is true.
In closing, I represent a sizable constituency, and so do all of you. And the point of CMG is to respect all our constituencies. I value each of your talents and will do my best to enable you to further the issues you care about most–as one of seven. Because I believe that the office should only be about leadership to the extent that it helps the entire body move forward via a consensus that all of us can feel good about.
Public Comment
There was one comment from the owner of Puddle Jumpers Day Care on Marine View Drive who wanted to thank the City for a grant she received to cover some of her costs after a fire at her building.
Third Quarter Financial Report
By the standards of recent councils, this was a very good discussion. Part of it had to do with the printed report we all received–something I’ve been yammering for, for many years. It seems like a trivial thing, but I cannot see the TV screen, and even if I could, having that kind of information on paper is alllllllways better.
We’re not getting the post-meeting update as promised so my scanned copy will have to suffice. đ 2023 third quarter financial report
For a dinky city, our financials are complex and decision makers like having ‘one number’ to take the temperature. For us general fund has always been that number. So his presentation opened with that number–because it’s been trending lower.
The general fund is not a ‘bank account’ but it’s kinda like that because it’s the main holding tank for for all our main ongoing revenue sources (eg. property taxes) and ongoing expenses (eg. salaries) That balance is essentially our headroom against disaster, just like most of try to keep a certain amount of padding in our bank account in case of an emergency. Our standard is 16.67%, about two months padding. In other words, when 1King County declares war on Canada and our receipts drop to zero, we can keep paying all our bills for two months. Now, I don’t know about you, but when you have a real emergency, two months is not a lot. So one of the first questions I asked in 2020 was, Why 16.67%? And that seemed like I was sniping because, at the time, 16% seemed like high livin’ compared with the 4% from 2013! đ
I only point that out because the actual need has not changed. If it’s too low now, it was too low then. It’s just that expectations have changed. And that’s a good thing in my opinion. You never know when Saskatoon might attack.
I also asked the finance director a question about real estate excise tax, or REET, which is sorta like sales tax on homes. It’s become a significant part of our budget over the past decade, especially due to the seemingly endless housing boom. Now that ‘the market’ has fallen back we’re bringing in less and less.
Councilmember Grace Matsui asked about our reliance on utility taxes, and it’s a great question because utility taxes are regressive. Also there are a ton of them and each has different rules. Broadly speaking, however, it’s like REET in that, once you’re addicted to it (as we now are), then it’s really hard to find some substitute for that monkey on your back. What I have advocated for, and will continue to advocate for, is state legislation to allow us to rejigger our rate system. See below.
But before I end this topic, here’s a snippet from a Winter 2003 City Currents. First off, when was the last time you saw a City magazine talking about our budget, right? We used to do that! Second, note both the narrative and the pie charts. It’s not like any previous council just woke up and started spending like sailors. Previous councils were well aware of the various fiscal cliffs. What went wrong is a topic for another day. But also note that the pie chart does not track with today’s numbers. In other words, you can’t use this as apples to apples and that has been frustrating to me in trying to do that analysis.New Items For Consideration
Councilmember Grace Matsui proposed a proclamation for Korean American day for next week.
Councilmember Achziger proposed, I think, bringing an item to the dais immediately to build a cooling center at the senior activity center. In the background, the council had received a back-of-the-napkin estimate of $250,000 to do that work.
And this brings up sort of something kind of awkward for me because I’m sympathetic to both (see above), but I did not speak on either because there is a strong tendency, which everyone has, to bypass the good process when it’s something they think is important. It’s almost irresistible, especially when ‘process’ is so often used as a synonym for ‘delay’. And I, being me, I find myself getting defensive because I don’t want to squash good ideas, but I really, really, really want the good process. Basically this all comes down to trust. đ
Closing Comments
One of my colleagues praised Ms. Buxton for being the first woman mayor, and was quickly corrected. Heeeello ladeeeeez….
These are the two I knew of personally. But do you know how hard I had to look to find a piccie of Maggie–even though she was Mayor as recently as 2003? And Lorraine wasn’t just a three term mayor, she served in the State House for twelve years after that.
I’m mentioning this not to pick on anyone but because I do wish we took more of an interest in the history of the city and especially the council, for a couple of reasons.
First, we have had several women, and members of the LGBTQ community, on the council. At least in recent decades, there hasn’t been some wall of ‘old white men’ blocking the door as I’ve heard recently. It’s more that not enough of anybody runs for office here. If a candidate of any quality (which includes a half-decent campaign) runs? They tend to win. If there has been any ‘conspiracy’, to my mind it’s more that we as a city have failed to highlight the accomplishments of previous CMs. Perhaps if we did, we’d attract potential candidates of quality–especially women.
Second, I occasionally struggle with colleagues and even new staff to say, “I’m pretty sure we did that before.” Part of it is the lack of journalism–which is why the city communication system needs to pick up some of that slack. But part of it just comes down to the constant focus on ‘now’ by both electeds and staff that I often write about. Frankly, that’s why we tend to make the same mistakes over and over.
Councilmember Mahoney spoke about his time as mayor and paraphrased something I’ve said many times; basically that nobody will remember us years from now. They’ll only remember the outcomes of what we did (or did not do.) But there’s one possible bit of comfort: when completed, if we’re very, very lucky, whoever is on the council at the time may get a 1plaque at the Marina Steps. đ
I met with Senator Keiser and Rep. Orwall re. Port Package updates and where weâre at with air quality monitoring and interventions at the schools.
I bang on a lot about this because of my experience in the Auto industry and there is this scary correlation between Aviation and Auto emissions. So I’m going to keep banging on about it until we take action at the City level. It is a fact that lead in auto emissions reduced the IQ of every person on the planet by about 10 points until it was removed in 1996. And the industry, my industry, did everything possible to slow walk that legislation and permenantly lowered the potential of generations of children.
Because the airport and the aviation industry have followed exactly the same playbooky. If you don’t measure it, you don’t have to do anything about it. There is still no permanent Aviation specific air quality monitor within 10 Miles of Seatac Airport. No monitoring at Woodmont Elementary. This must change.
Every study that comes out over Aviation emissions tracks the same way as auto emissions. The more we learn the more the negative impactsâincluding cognitive–go from a statistical possibility to a statistical likelihood.The hard thing to face up to is that you want people to move here and to feel good about the beautiful views and so on. I do. But we also have to be hard-nosed about the dosing weâre getting, so we can protect our residents, especially families who will be impacted for a lifetime.
It is also in our interest to measure this stuff in order to get paid. To get compensated. Getting paid isn’t the same thing as reducing emissions. But money is the place to start.
I encourage folks to sign up for the Sea-Tac Airport Roundtable. But I gotta be real here. Today, we need two people who care about the above more than we need people who are just exasperated over the flight paths. Iâm telling you this because, before you can change flight paths you have to do the measuring. Trying to skip steps has been just another technique to slow walk doing anythingâthat is exactly why we have no monitors. We can do something about health and compensation NOW. So if protecting health and getting paid sounds like a good idea to you, I hope you will apply at the City Website. Today.
HB2103-2023 prefile I mentioned a meeting I had with Senator Kaiser and Representative Orwell about various airport issues, which you’re starting to hear about now. I mentioned the absolute necessity of getting an air quality monitor system around the airport. That is the classic case of slow-walking the process in order to prevent positive change. We have not measured aviation emissions properly for 50 years and that was exactly the technique the auto industry used to avoid getting lead out of auto gas. So I know that we should spend $60,000 to buy a bit of land and then ask $300,000 from the State in our Legislative Agenda to set up a permanent monitor for Des Moines. As with lead in auto gas, that boring approach is the path to millions of dollars in compensation, and, ultimately the regulation to reduce emissions. That is the path we could have/should have gone down in 1976 with aviation–as happened with automobiles. Somebody at the local level has to do that kind of thing because everyone else is delaying by saying ‘Oh, the Fed will need to do that.’
And one last thing about this. For several years Senator Keiser pushed for legislation to cap insulin prices in the State of WA at $35. For decades, the industry jacked up the price of that life-saving drug, which is bog standard (no research required) because they have a captive audience. She simply said, “If it’s not happening at the Federal level, we’ll do it here.” And then other states can use that as the template to reduce drug prices nationally. That is exactly the approach we can and need to take with aviation.1At the Beach Park, Harbormaster’s Office, Library, etc. there’s a bronze plaque listing the members of the City Council. Some of those lucky guys got three plaques. I don’t think anyone on the current Council has even one. đ đ
I keep hearing about ALL the hype about the $35 cap on insulin. I’m surprised the various politicians haven’t broken their arms with the enthusiastic patting themselves on the back. NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY….
This cap on insulin costs comes at the expense of no longer having a good work performing drug available…but no body talks about that…
The VA started giving some of this generic garbage to Veterans and I immediately saw an increase in glucose. What IS NOT being said about this insulin IS IT IS A KNOCKOFF OF BRAND NAME PRODUCTS MANUFACTURED IN MALAYSIA!
So before all the politicians break their arms in self back patting, let’s call $35 insulin what it is…a cheap and in some cases non working substitute for the REAL THING!