Weekly Update: 04/21/2024

Some bits of business…

Future Agendas

Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not dynamic, ie. you have to click it every time you want to see a new version. And it’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar (like other cities already have), this can be useful. For example, the current version says that Senator Keiser will be at the May 2 meeting.

City Manager Stuff

Along the same lines, each issue of Interim City Manager George’s Weekly Reports contains more general purpose info. City Manager’s Report April 19, 2024

But here are some things not on that report. Checkmate! 😀

• Given that Earth Day is coming up, here are are some events courtesy of Friends of Saltwater State Park. Monday is a free day at the park. 🙂
• And speaking of ‘calendars’, it’s also worth noting that the City has a web site called DaySmart Recreation which you can use to search for, and sign up for, various kid and/or senior activities.
• If you’re the kind of person that uses ‘water’ on occasion, you really should read and comment on the 2024 Stormwater Management Program
• Finally, the City will be hosting food trucks at the Fieldhouse, Redondo, Senior Center as well as the Marina this summer. You can see when, and put these dates on yer phone calendar here: Washington State Food Truck Association (wafoodtrucks.org)

South End Transit

If you live in the south end please look at the South Link Connections Mobility Project which will “…address changing mobility needs and improve travel options for communities in South King County.” Blah, blah, blah. 😀 Basically, we need better east-west connectivity in the south end of town. If you live near 216th, you can take the 635 Shuttle from the Marina to the main Bus lines and the Light Rail. There is nothing equivalent for the rest of Des Moines–Kent Des Moines, 240th or 272nd. And there oughta be–especially with the upcoming Highline Light Rail Station.

• Take a survey about your transit needs – survey deadline is May 10th.
• Plan to attend one of three upcoming Virtual Community Engagement Sessions on:
  • May 6 at 6pm.
• Apply to join the Mobility Board (a paid leadership opportunity) by May 10th and advise Metro on community engagement efforts and the best ways to update our transit network.

This Week

Monday: City Manager Recruiter Listening Sessions. Each member of the Council will be ‘zooming’ one on one with the SGR recruiter to answer the following three questions. Three questions? Oh, I know how this kind of game tends to go…

Or, it could be slightly less entertaining…

• What are your top 2 priorities or projects for the next city manager?
• What goal(s) would you like to see accomplished by the next city manager in their first year?
• What are some of the key characteristics or qualities you would like to see in the next city manager?

Hold my beer. 😀 Lucky me, I get to go first. If you read this in time? Contact me and let me know the right answers!

Wednesday: IT Listening Session. As you may know, we’ve had a great number of personnel changes over the past few years. Change can be a great opportunity for organisational growth, but it can also be a huge loss of institutional knowledge. I wanted to have a few minutes with our departing IT Director to get an overview of our digital systems–and maybe get some pointers on how to proceed. Given that so much of the various ‘communications’ improvements we’ve talked about center on our digital systems, this seems to me like an important conversation to have.

Wednesday: 6:00pm Citizens Advisory Committee. (Watch on Channel 21 or on Youtube) Originally the CAC was going to meet 3-4 times a year. Apparently, it’s meeting now more frequently. I guess they will be discussing naming the alley behind Marine View Drive? I sure hope so.

Thursday: 4:00pm: Municipal Facilities Committee Agenda Highlight:

• The Redondo Fishing Pier Replacement Project, for which the Council voted all that Bond Money last year, received one bid, and that bid  is $5.5 million over expectations. That is not a typo, or ‘inflation’. It’s 112 percent over expectations. And to their credit, our engineers usually get these things within 10%

Thursday: 500pm: Economic Development – Agenda Highlight: An update on our Comprehensive Plan for Pacific Ridge and North Central Core

Thursday: 6:00pm: City Council Regular Meeting – Agenda Highlights:

• Farmers Market Agreement. There’s nothing ‘controversial’ here but it’s worth reading the history. Many years ago we began giving the DMWFM essentially ‘free’ rent for the entire summer; the value of which is at least $50,000. I only bring it up to raise a few points:
  • It’s not a ‘money maker’. Never was. Never will be.
  • And it never generates broader ‘economic development’. A certain number of people routinely shop there, then tend to split. If there are some food trucks? They tend to do well. Great. But to me, only to the extent that it enables those vendors to extend to other parts of town on other days, so that the rest of the City can benefit.
  • So at the end of the day, the Farmers Market should be seen as a bit like fireworks (…er… ‘drones’ 😀 ), and parades: freebies that are not free, which have become customary–again, which is fine, up to a certain point.
  • But now that people have suddenly become so ‘budget conscious’, it begs the question: what amenities can we or should we provide? Or rather, which cuts should we make? Why is the Farmers Market (or anything) at the Marina essentially ‘free’, but various other amenities throughout the City, or kid or senior or any other programs in the rest of the City not? Call me the Budget Grinch,  but these are the questions we never ask, but kinda should. Not necessarily to ‘cut’ things, but to be honest as to what (and how much) we can afford to do. I’m talking to you, drone show. 😀
• Midway Park Consultant Agreement. We’ll be voting to spend $450,000 to ‘supplement and expand the capability of City staff for design of the Midway Park Open Space Project’. Same philosophical discussion as above–except that this is grant funded so I suppose we consider it ‘free money’. But there’s also this: As part of our budgeting process, I’ve routinely asked the City to review all our consulting services. And I’ve been rebuked at every turn.

• City Manager Recruit process. We’ll be approving the recruiter’s proposed timeline, something called the “City Position Profile,” and a preferred recruitment brochure template. Me being me, I’m not sure why we’re selecting a brochure template. Said it before, say it again, “Damnit, Jim. I’m a Doctor, not a Recruiter!” OK, I’m not a doctor either, but in my world, I’d leave the brochure to the hiring expert. Speaking of which: that timeline shows the Start Date for the next City Manager as October. Good thing October is such a ²slow month! 😀
• Property Tax Levy Lid Lift (¹42nd reading.) I have asked for what I consider some small, but important tweaks, but the discussion got cut for time at the last meeting. Grrrrr. Among other things, I feel we need to explain to the public much better both the new benefits, and also the ramifications should it fail. I also feel we need requirements in our accounting and budgeting processes that prevents this money from being used for anything besides its intended purposes–and by that I mean forever. And, if you recall, since the last meeting was cut short, there was a (cough) ‘head nod’ decision at the very end to place two ballot initiatives before voters: one in August, and one in November. If the August initiative fails, you get a second chance to vote on the same thing. ³I am struggling with how I feel about that.Again: Do not mistake me: (assuming the above tweaks) this proposal is the correct policy. I started campaigning on it in 2019. It’s the only tax increase I’ve ever considered supporting because it’s the only one you get to vote on. It represents about $300 a year for the average home owner and in return it means to get us to the staffing levels at the police and court we always should have had. That’s been the thing we’ve been in denial about. And frankly, I wish my colleagues would simply cop to the following because it would make this much easier to sell:

  We have not had the correct staffing levels since basically forever. We keep pretending that is not the case, and all that has done is confuse and frustrate residents who are constantly screaming for us to allocate resources they think we have, but do not have. If we properly explained (and maybe showed a wee bit of contrition for not being clear on that in the past)? I think the thing would pass overwhelmingly.

  But that is not a given, nor should it be. Residents have also made it clear time and again that they are fed up over various ‘communications’ issues. Two years of ineffectual efforts by the Council. Last year’s high-handed bond sale. Terrible public engagement on large projects like the Marina (and even on the ‘communications study’!). The ‘behind closed doors’ decision to change City Managers. And that’s nowhere near a complete list. So given all that, and the sensitivity we all have on taxes, I feel like, we must go the extra mile to sell this properly.

  Will we? Tune in Thursday for Must See TV! 😀

¹It only feels like the 42nd reading. It’s really only the third. 😀 But remember: that’s two more than almost any other ordinance receives, plus we discussed it twice in the Finance Committee. To my mind, each reading should provide an opportunity for improvements, but there really haven’t been any since the first reading.

²October is often the busiest month for the City Council as staff often take their holidays in August, so items pile up. This is also the period when the Budget is approved. And given that will be our first biennial budget, that might be interesting.

³For example, when the City of Normandy Park recently wanted to fund a large capital project (a community center), they went to the voters to approve . The voters overwhelmingly said ‘no’. In response, the City set up a communications committee and embarked on a community survey to learn why voters rejected the proposal and how to do better in the future. And in a recent Weekly Report, City Manager Amy Arrington provided one of the clearest explanations of their Property Tax system I’ve yet read. Bravo. That tells me they’re using this as an opportunity.

⁴I’m sure every engineering firm really appreciates an analogy comparing them with a takeaway restaurant. Sorry, guys. It’s just an analogy. 🙂