Public Service Announcements
This Week
Tuesday: Port Commission (Agenda) One highlight is a discussion of the WSDOT SR-509 property along 216th that the City Of Des Moines has handed off to the Port for expansion of the Business Park.
Thursday: Association Of Washington Cities Action Days. About 100 years ago before COVID, this was a multi-day event in Olympia to meet with legislators, colleagues from across the state. I believe I mentioned at the time that I was committing myself to becoming a better schmoozer. After an irritated comment from a reader I started cataloguing “words that are so annoying they were worth commenting on.” I’m imagining a solid red pencil.
Thursday: 5:00pm City Council Meeting (Agenda) Sign up here for public comment. Watch the meeting on Youtube here. There is a proclamation re. Black History Month and Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
The best comment I’ve received in years, came from Rick Johnson. And I’m outing him because he’s the only person in town other than myself who has consistently attend City Council Meetings in person over an extended period. I know maybe 50-100 watch the meetings on Channel 21, but you cannot ‘get’ what is going on unless you sit in those plastic chairs and look at the big steering wheel. And here is his comment:
“I’m not getting my money’s worth.”
By which I think he meant that it did not seem to him that the Council was doing very much these first few meetings. I could not agree more and it’s something I’ve ranted about many times. The meeting calendar is unbalanced. There are large swaths where not much at all seems to happen, then these periods where waaaay too much material is jammed into just a few meetings. And then starting in October there is this race to the end of the year to cram waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much really important stuff onto each agenda.
And I’m sure some may say, “How dare you! Proclaiming Human Trafficking a serious problem is important.” Absolutely. It also takes three minutes to read that Proclamation into the record.
Meeting agendas are developed by the administration. Internally, they must have some sort of calendar that spans the years, even as Councilmembers (and Mayors) change. That planning should be made public–as it is in other types of corporations–and the Council should have a say in creating agendas that balance our work more evenly across the year.
I understand that they run the City day to day, but we cannot provide any meaningful oversight if some of our meetings have nothing to ‘oversee’ while others are jammed with multiple issues requiring hundreds of pages of reading.
Last Week
Monday: Destination Des Moines meeting. The group is welcoming a new board member and setting it’s agenda for the year. The hope is that 2022 will (finally) be a return to Wine! Fireworks! You know… normal. 🙂
Wednesday: Reach Out Des Moines. The group’s long-time facilitator Cynthia Ricks-Maccotan will be moving on soon so it will be interesting to see where things go from there. I want to thank her in case I forget because the program provided me with evidence of how to reduce teen crime and improve outcomes without bazillion dollars and without guns and badges. It’s an important message. Based largely on events in other parts of town, the current direction is towards more guns and badges. But Reach Out Des Moines works. The big problem with the program is that it isn’t available everywhere in Des Moines. Yet.
Thursday: 30th Legislative Elected Call with Senator Claire Wilson, Rep. Jesse Johnson and Rep. Jamila Tayor. The call mostly concerned the legislation being worked on. I think you can get a good overview of things by watching their January 20 Public Town Hall
Councilmember Martinelli’s resignation…
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. That is tough because there is an irresistible urge to make a statement of values (especially for people of faith such as myself.) But the moment colleagues weigh in, the issue instantly becomes politicised.
My lived experience tells me that councilmembers should avoid even the appearance that they might be using scandal for political ends. There is a risk of engendering cynicism and that in turn actually hinders a resolution. I understand that will sound deeply unsatisfying to many. But my interest is always to find the best approach and, unfortunately, sometimes that will not be the popular approach.
I would remind the public that Councilmember Martinelli’s resignation was never subject to the City Council. State law wisely makes it the voters’ responsibility to change our City Council–either by election, recall or public pressure. If it were otherwise, council majorities would certainly abuse that power.
So I want to thank you, the community. It is your voice that has resolved this issue. In my opinion it was harder than it should have been and took much longer than it should have done. For that I am sorry.
I also want to thank Anthony Martinelli for hearing that community voice. Some of you may mock that sentence, but many politicians today seem to have lost the ability to hear that voice entirely.
As to the substance of the issue: if you are a regular reader, you will notice something missing in this article: the hyperlinks. Unlike every other article, where I scrupulously attempt to provide citations for everything I describe, this contains only two. My hope is that you will notice them, understand why I provided them, and avoided all others. For the first, I said everything I have to say about domestic violence a long time ago.
The second link contains some observations on our shared working relationship over the past two years, including a difference in philosophy that I think is important to make clear. Then follows a timeline of the past four months from my point of view. I include it because every day I am reminded how much the public misunderstands what happens off the dais. They correctly assume that it is significant. I believe that, to the extent possible, and without betraying confidences, we should provide a window into at least a portion of that world. It contains no hyperlinks.
Now what?
I believe the public voted for change in 2019; a set of positions and not any person. I also believe they were voting against something: the status quo. That only makes Councilmember Martinelli’s failure an even greater disappointment.
But if you share my deep disappointment, I ask you not to become (more?) cynical. Bear in mind that any significant change requires a willingness to fail. (And if you don’t believe that, just go to Youtube and look at how many test rockets blow up before even one gets off the launch pad.) In my opinion, the worst lesson the public could take from the past four months is that choosing someone ‘different’ is a mistake.
Instead, take this as a cautionary tale that Des Moines desperately needs more choice and new blood. There are many people here of great ability who are not active in civic life and it is time for them to step up.
I’ll have more to say about that soon, but for now:
- Think about applying for the vacant position on the City Council. Even if you do not think this is your time, if you have considered public service, going through the process is, in itself, a way to get started.
- Or tell me about someone in the community you think would be great for the role. Same advice applies.
- And call me if you have questions about any aspect of the process or what the job of Councilmember entails. You know where to find me. (206) 878-0578.
The City Clerk will shortly post an application for filling a vacant seat on the Des Moines City Council. If you want to get a head start on that? Email Bonnie Wilkins. Go get ’em.
As always, it is my honour to serve you.