Public Service Announcements
Next Week
Tuesday: SMART (Southside Seattle Chamber Of Commerce) I haven’t attended these in a while, but I try to check in to see what SSCOC has going on with Des Moines. My peers in Tukwila and SeaTac speak glowingly of SSCOC. It’s been sort of an ongoing chicken and egg thing. We need to attract more visitors to the area, but we also have to recruit restaurants and other interesting reasons for people to visit.
And this kinda brings up an essential difference in philosophy I’ve had with my colleagues: Build vs. Recruit
Before I moved here, I lived in Detroit. And one of my ‘investments’ was as co-owner of a Vegan Restaurant in a proto ‘hipster’ suburb—a bit like how Fremont was run down and then became ‘cool’. The place became the hangout for the arts/music community of the time. It was magnetic.
And just to be clear, this was not my idea. My co-workers told me “what Detroit really needs is Macrobiotic Fast Food!” 😀 My accountant told me that by some tax legerdemain, even if it tanked, I’d be OK. Frankly, I thought it would be a bunch of hippies listening to Reggae, but in fact, it turned out that it drew a broad mix of people.
Traditionally, Des Moines has had a lot of Councilmembers who like to build. Realtors. Contractors. There is a natural bias towards ‘If you build it they will come.’ But frankly, If you look at the new businesses that thrive, they’re in the same funky buildings that often struggle to get up to code! The only thing they seem to have in common is offering a unique product that people can’t get just anywhere. (Eg. Mini The Doughnut, Creole Soul, Eight Dive Shop) They’re definitely not commodities.
My point is simply this: It is my belief that new construction is only relevant to the extent that it provides functionality. What matters is offering a unique product. That is what draws people in, not the container. Don’t confuse construction with economic development. Building projects last only a few years. And that is why I keep trying to encourage our City to focus on formation and recruitment. Find the entrepreneurs with the unique value proposition and get them to think about Des Moines.
Tuesday: First day of Black History Month. I’ll be attending a couple of events, but sadly not in Des Moines. Frankly, most of my family’ involvement in African American cultural events seemed to center around the Central District, which was kind of a nexus for the Black Community when we moved here in the 90’s. I keep trying to drum up more local interest. If you have interest, please contact me! 🙂 Here is an article on the influence of the American Civil Rights movement and Ireland.
Tuesday: Chief Thomas’ Police Advisory Committee. Since our last meeting, there has been a lot of activity in the State legislature.
Thursday: MRSC Training on Tax Increment Financing (TIF). I’m learning about this because the City Manager and our lobbyist periodically mention it for big economic development projects. It hasn’t come before Council, yet but one wants to be prepared. 😀
Thursday: City Council Meeting: (Agenda) Sign up here for public comment. Watch the meeting on Youtube here.
There is no Consent Agenda, something I cannot remember seeing before. There is one item of New Business, renewing our contract with Recology. If you have suggestions or concerns, this is your chance to weigh in!
This is now our fourth meeting of the year and I have to say, once again, this is pretty light. My assumption is that the City and Mayor are holding off on any number of items until the Councilmember vacancy is filled. More to say about that below in my note about Committee assignments.
Last 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: SeaTac Rotary Club: I heard a presentation by Noemie Maxwell and Sandy Hunt of the Defenders Of North SeaTac Park
Thursday: 5:00pm City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video)
Friday: South King County Housing Homelessness Partners (SKHHP). There was a discussion of Housing Benefit Districts.
Saturday: Coho Pen!
City Council Meeting Recap
(Agenda) (Video) At 34 minutes, this may have been the shortest meeting in the history of our City Council. Rick Johnson’s concerns about not getting his money’s worth? 😀
Mayor Mahoney announced a schedule for filling the vacancy on the Council left by the resignation of Anthony Martinelli.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS DEFERRED
The Mayor also announced that he was deferring Committee assignments until after the seat is filled. This is one of those areas where people can reasonably disagree. Having gone through thise in 2020, I wanted CMs to get their preferred assignments, get the boat in the water, and when the new person is chosen, assign them to the remaining slots. After all, it is, in theory, a temporary appointment.
The Mayor’s approach pushes the Committees out to March and that crams more stuff into the year, which, you’ll hear over and over from me, like a broken record, hinders the Council from its job of oversight. The format of committees is for the staff to make presentations and get us to sign off on their projects. They don’t need us to do most of their work. They need our permission. The fewer meetings? The less permission. Not a fan.
Also, fewer meetings mean less learning. All these topics are deep. He’s gone now, so I have no reason to hold back. When I asked the last DPW Director for some ‘learning materials’ on storm water systems he simply refused. We’re voting on millions of dollars in technical stuff all the time based on trust. Fine. But if you only have nine chances to ask questions vs. twelve, you’re even more in the dark. One advantage Matt Pina had was this: you spend fifteen years at these meetings and you’re gonna absorb a certain amount of knowledge by sheer osmosis. But I want better for my colleagues.
PROCLAMATIONS
The Mayor read off proclamations re. Black History Month and Human Trafficking Awareness Month, which Deputy Mayor Buxton talked about.
These are the moments I recall extremely well-meaning community members telling me: You gotta campaign with your children! Put their piccies on every page!
New Business
During the New Business Section, I asked/proposed three things.
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- I wanted the Council to direct the City Manager to provide an update on when the ARPA Stimulus money we voted for September 16, 2021 would be getting out the door. I got a significant amount of crankiness from the City Manager and it did not pass. The final rule was was just released and I am asking every grant recipient to weigh in.
- I asked for when the administration planned on getting a new towing policy ordinance on the calendar. I got a significant amount of crankiness from the City Manager and it did not pass.
- I asked that the Council block out time to discuss the process for filling the vacancy on the Council and that was agreed upon. So, this is one of those small victories of process. At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Mahoney announced that he would announce the format of the Vacancy process. He was following former Mayor Pina in doing so. That is not a duty assigned to the Mayor. So I asked the Council to block out time for the group to decide and I very much appreciate their agreement.Because other than CM Nutting, I’m not sure if any of my colleagues recognise that each appointment process has been handled very differently. More on that soon.
City ManageR NIGGLES
If you notice, the City Manager does not take questions after delivering his report. We are the only city that does not provide a formal place in the meeting for CMs to ask short, general questions of the administration. If the question requires research, the City Manager should offer to follow up with a time estimate and let us vote to approve that research at the next meeting.
Asking for updates on things like towing policy and the ARPA spending are not only reasonable they are necessary. The Council has the ability to simply direct the City Manager to put come back with a direct answer to any inquiry or place an item on a meeting calendar. So neither of my requests in New Business were in any way novel or inappropriate. It’s just that my colleagues (or you) aren’t used to seeing the City Council actually give a formal direction to the City Manager. But in all our sister cities, the Council provides formal direction as I was requesting at least once at every meeting.
When I ask for updates and receive a tone, it implies that my request is unreasonable. That is untrue. At bottom, a City is one ginormous Customer Service Machine. Your taxes allow you access to the Customer Service Desk. I’m not asking for me.  When I’m on the dais, I represent businesses and voters who are concerned about grants they need and cars that aren’t getting towed. When the City Manager gets cranky with me, he’s getting cranky with you. I’m asking your questions, not mine. And that is also something I wish my colleagues would understand. You’re entitled to a cheerful and complete response to every one of your inquiries.
Comments
Mayor Mahoney made a final comment reading a statement from Chief Thomas about the passing of former Chief of Police Roger Baker. I met the Bakers one day on my way home from the Marina. He was in this Hawaiian shirt and for some reason I did not recognise he had been ‘the Chief’. I stopped because their home, which I jokingly called ‘The Spanish Villa’ was so amazing. And his lawn was just awesome. They had meticulously restored the place to how it must’ve looked when it was built in the 30’s.
So I interjected at the end to encourage the public to take a peek at their place across from the demolished Van Gasken property. For some reason, this caused a bit of a stir, the Mayor saying he ought to have stopped me from commenting. I find this puzzling. Surely people who put up Christmas lights want the passersby to enjoy them? Yes, it’s private property, but the place is one of the best pieces of architecture in Des Moines and if you’re passing by, do take a peek.
If you disagree with me, as always, I hope you’ll let me know.
I’m not African American but I’m definitely interested in Des Moines participating in Black History Month. I don’t know what that would be. Maybe a Black historian could give a presentation re. Black history at the library or some other designated place. Perhaps the library can somehow recommend to the public the books they have on the subject.
And as far as the City Council goes, cranky or not, keep asking questions that are important to you. They are important to the voters too.
KS
Thank you for that. I can tell you one thing about both branches of KCLS in Des Moines: their staff would absolutely -love- to do events like that. They just need the public to ask for it! They -live- to provide more services for the community. Please send them a comment: https://kcls.org/comments/