Weekly Update 03/29/2026

Some bits of business…

March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month

There’s a month for everything, right? It’s not a competition, but colorectal cancer is now the second largest cause of all cancer deaths, and the largest for people under 50. I’m going on about it here because a) it is one of the few forms of cancer death that is totally preventable–if caught early. Unfortunately, it often sneaks up on people–only betraying symptoms after it is waaaaay too late. This was the case with me Dad. Neither he, or his well-regarded doctors noticed something wrong until six weeks before his passing. Get tested.

Stormwater 2026

Maybe not as important as a cure for cancer, but the City has published its 2026 DRAFT Stormwater Management Program Plan (SWMP) and since it outlines water quality programs, and since we are ‘Waterland City’, I think its worth a read. 🙂 If you have comments, contact Tyler Beekley at tbeekley@desmoineswa.gov.

The Future of Blake Island

Most boaters, and many, Many, tourists, know about Blake Island (the little island just across the Sound) and Tillicum Village. But as with so many things, a lot changed with COVID. Please read the following articles and survey on the Future of WA state park Blake Island and make your public comment known! Blake Island Master Plan- Alternatives Survey

Des Moines Historical Society Cruise

Join the  Des Moines Historical Society on a 3-hour south Puget Sound cruise on Argosy Cruises ship the Lady Mary. Sunday, July 19 1pm from the Des Moines Marina. A speaker from SR3 (SeaLife Response + Rehab + Research) will be narrating portions of the cruise. The last time such a cruise was offered was 1989 so don’t miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Tickets are now available online.

[I don’t have anything to do with this particular event, but I proposed the idea of a cruise last year. For me the Masonic Home is (literally) ‘the landmark on the sound’. It’s a visual reference that all sailors have used to to recognise ‘Des Moines’ for 100 years. If you haven’t seen the building from the water, you haven’t really seen Des Moines. This may be your last chance.]

eBike Rebate Lottery

Last year’s eBike Rebate program was so popular, the State will be offering a second round. In fact, it is a lottery-based approach, so sign up now! Hope you get chosen. Washington’s e-bike rebate program opening second application round March 30

About the Cover: Capital Improvements

This is a page from the Capital Improvements presentation we’ll be receiving. All of these renderings represent necessary and excellent ideas. Some seem more fully-baked than others, but at least one (Midway Park) is a major improvement over the initial presentation we saw two years ago, which great!

But… I gotta say, this presentation pretty much concentrates all the feedback I get about ‘Des Moines’ into one word: confusing! 😀

On the one hand, it’s been close to three years now since we replaced our City Manager–ostensibly due to poor financial performance, or communication, or transparency or… who knows anymore, right? 😀 At the same time, the City has continued on a building tear–using the $25.1 million in borrowing we approved after his departure. And we continue to present very ambitious projects like these. But at the same time, under the hood, our finances have not gotten significantly better.

We have a duty to continue to plan projects like these, to promote the City and continue to work towards the best possible view of Des Moines.

But it can also create a sense of “What, me worry?”

Two years ago, we also rejected a public safety property tax. That does not mean we did not need the money. Rather, I pushed against it because of an absence of trust in financial planning. Since then, crime stats have been trending down. So… unless the public sees crime out of control, some will still say that our financial issues were ginned up.

But all these projects are about grants and borrowed money–meaning uncertainty and burdens for the future. And when it looks like you’re doing all this ‘stuff’ and you can blame ‘COVID’ or ‘Michael’ or whiners like moi or whatever, it can blind people from the important work that should happen now.

And… this is what happens here every 4-5 years. We make some ‘change’, declare victory and assume we’re on a straight line forward–when really it’s more like a cycle.

I haven’t quite figured out the proper ‘tone’. These are great projects for the future. And we really gotta work on making some serious changes–including how to fund our city better–Now.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports! March 27, 2026

This Week

Thursday

This one gets the Action Packed! seal of approval. It’s as much about seeing where the City is focusing as it is about ‘decisions’.

City Council

April 02, 2026, City Council Agenda Packet

5:00 pm Committee of The Whole

2026 Des Moines Marina 10-Year CIP

Let’s get this out of the way first. This is not a Capital Improvement Plan. I’ll get the frowny face, but the scope of this presentation is the existential flaw in having a ‘Committee of The Whole’. There is simply no way to get any member of the Council up to speed on issues these complex, or what they mean for the City long term in 50 minutes.

Here’s the problem: We used to have all these ‘committees’ and frankly, the Economic Development and Municipal Facilities Committees, which looked at Marina planning, were almost carbon-copies. So much of the focus for the previous administration was ‘the marina’. That lead to one of my fave jokes of all time from our former COO. When complimented on the quality of one his presentations on the state of marina planning, he quipped, “It oughta be good. This is the third time I’ve given it today.” 😀

Since then, we’ve totally over-corrected: going from waaaaay too much ‘committee’ to waaaaay too little. We’re essentially running our own Port District–a business every other area marina (Everett, Edmonds, Poulsbo) gives to an independent commission. And yet now? We don’t even bother talking about it more than once a year–for 50 minutes.

6:00pm Study Session

Permitting Software: The City’s permitting system–and software–has been a source of aggravation for a lot of people for a very long time. It’s great to see the City taking action. It would be nice to have a for realz demo of the software. But it’s gotta be better than what we’ve been doing.

Amenity Rentals: The City is proposing a three-tier approval system. On the one hand, I guess I should be impressed with the City’s efforts in creating the first-of-its-kind system in the State of WA. On the other hand, I saw no reason for us to create the first-of-its-kind system in the State of WA.

Future Capital Projects Report:

Last Week

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda/Video/Transcript courtesy of STNI): This was kind of a biggee. The Commission voted to restructure their borrowing authority, making it even easier for them to pay for airport expansion–and likely more difficult to tease out money for cities to compensate for the harms. Remember above where I talked about different kinds of borrowing capacity? Revenue bonds vs. general obligations? The Port has been moving towards debt backed by airport revenue (which is massive) but less ‘conservative’. Why is this OK? As I wrote. More and more, institutional investors see debt backed by revenue as more acceptable.

They also added $1,000,000 to their SAMP consultant expense account–to make sure the permitting process goes smoothly. For them.

One other detail: for those of you insisting on ‘airport capacity stats’, don’t bother. Notice how KSEA is the one major airport without all those TSA backups? They’ve already spent four billion dollars on terminal improvements. Their lack of chaos shows you that they already have more capacity than airports that seem larger. The SAMP simply adds more to an already well-run system. As all previous airport directors have told me in private: The airport can go to 600,000 annual ops. And instead of spending precious time and money questioning the experts, we should simply believe them and figure out a plan to deal with it better.

Wednesday

2:30pm Highline Forum:  (Agenda courtesy of STNI) The discussion centred on preparation for FIFA (We do not call it ‘world cup’ anymore! 🙂 )

6:00pm Citizens Advisory Board: (Agenda/Video/Transcript)

I proposed limiting the group to six meetings per year, which got voted down. When proposed in 2023, the group was designed to address a lack of public engagement. The original design was to represent every neighbourhood in the City, meeting four times a year to provide insights on each. Since, it has changed itself into a group that meets monthly, while the Council abandoned the very important work of Council committees such as finance in order to ease staff burden. The three service committees we had (arts, human services, senior services) got folded into the group and its membership has expanded to twenty three people–predominantly ‘At Large’. The practical effect has been that, now, whole areas of the City go unrepresented. A citizens advisory group is a great idea, but only to the extent that it provides advice from the entire City. As I said, somewhere along the line, we kinda over-corrected. Sometimes more isn’t more.

Thursday

6:00pm City Council Meeting (highlights below)

Saturday

9:00am – 3:00pm Spring Recycling Event at the Marina South Parking Lot!

 

March 26 City Council Meeting Highlights

March-26-2026-City-Council-Meeting-Agenda-Packet

• There was an Executive Session on property acquisition. Oooh… ahhh. 😀
• There was a presentation on using Lodging Tax money to pay for events throughout the year. On the surface, this is a more transparent use of those funds than in past years.
• Some ‘routine’ items on the consent agenda that I’ve been getting an earful on from residents are that salary commission. Folks, I tried. Got outvoted 1-6. 😀 And the car tab increase to $50? I supported that, but only because we’re broke. My hope is that the City Council gets the message and works harder to become less broke. Speaking of which…

The big highlight was part two from the FCS analysts. I strongly encourage people to watch that portion of the meeting.

But on the other hand, one of my peers in another city gave me some sage advice before I decided to run for office: “Comparing cities is very difficult.” For example, it looks as though the City of Burien (with over 50,000 residents) has far fewer employees. Probably not. About a third of our staff are part of a (very) dedicated police department. Burien contracts public safety to King County. Both are reasonable options. But when looking at their budget book it will appear as though they only carry 110 people. How do they do it!?! 😀

I’m sure I’ll get the frowny face, but some real-talk, girlfriend. For one job, my old company had to evaluate the sales tax system of all 50 states. And guess what? Plus or minus one percent, for the same set of services, they all cost residents about the same. No state or city has some secret sauce.

Around here, our property tax rate is ‘low’. Whoopdedoo. Our various fees are super-high. So, it ends up being about a wash. Again: it costs about the same for the same set of services. You just choose the type of pain you find the most tolerable.

The only loser is our City. Our property values are low–which sounds like a plus, but it also starves the City in terms of providing services for now, and saving for the future. We have no reserves to speak of for the same reason so many people have no retirement savings–we spend it all on day to day.