Weekly Update: 04/27/2020

Note #1: I know the web site has been flaky the past week. Sorry. I think it’s reIatively glitch-free now.

Note #2: Yeah, I’m late again. My web server is broken. The sun got in my eyes. My dog ate my server.

This Week

Monday: Phone call with 33rd State Rep. Tina Orwall to discuss air quality monitors around Sea-Tac Airport. She had high hopes for getting air filters installed at local schools. But that got killed by a line-item veto from the Governor as a response to COVID-19. Here is an article that explains why this may provide amazing bang for buck in terms of health outcomes for our children.

Tuesday: A King County presentation on how cities should be planning for life after COVID-19

Last Week

Monday was my Letter To The Waterland Blog (more below).

Tuesday I had a virtual meeting with people from the Port Of Seattle to work on the whole Port Package Update program.  One challenge I’m having is balancing my advocacy against noise and pollution with a certain empathy for the Port’s current predicament with COVID-19. For some background, you have to understand a certain hubris the airline industry has had over the past decade. In 2015 the Chairman of the parent company of United Airlines famously stated that he thought there was no way airlines could ever lose money again. Ever. Sea-Tac Airport has been so successful that the Port must have also felt somewhat invulnerable.

Tuesday those great people from Trout Unlimited released the Coho Fish Pen down at the Marina.  Even without the social distancing it’s not the most dramatic thing to witness. But it does matter. May they return in great numbers in a couple of years.

Tuesday night I volunteered at the Food Bank. I only keep mentioning it because the one thing they need are volunteers. It’s totally safe and it’s one of the biggest bang for buck things you can do to help Des Moines.

Wednesday was a virtual StART Meeting. Like all StART meetings it was pretty content-free in terms of noise and pollution. However, it had some useful metrics from the Port Of Seattle and Normandy Park, Tukwila and SeaTac as to municipal finances. And in two words: it’s bleak. One example: last Tuesday the airport processed 2,500 passengers. A typical day would be more like 60,000! I know there is a big tendency among airport activists towards Schadenfreude, but it affects us in that if the Port is broke, it cuts into their ability to meet their commitments to us.

Friday: Was the King County Climate Collaboration virtual meeting. As they say, we simply cannot let this crisis go to waste. We’re experiencing better air for the first time in decades and I want to keep it!

Follow Up

After the Mayor and Deputy Mayor started attacking me from the dais and in the Waterland Blog I started asking what the specifics are behind their  complaints. So far I’ve only received specifics on one item–and this second hand–referring to my Weekly Update where I mentioned the Joint Emergency Operations Center. I stand by those comments and if anyone has comments or concerns over them, they should speak with me directly. As always, I welcome everyone’s input. 🙂

Now: what I’m about to write has nothing to do with that specific event. It’s just my general feelings about how presentations before the City Council should go.

Towards Better Presentations

City Hall is, for me, something of a sacred space. Over the years I have witnessed waaaaay too many poor presentations at City Hall. In fact, many of them were more performance than presentation. Insiders know exactly what I’m talking about. When I ran for office I told you that I wanted better government. For most of you that sounded kinda abstract. Well, this is one specific, nuts and bolts example of we improve government: better presentations.

If someone speaks before the Council for twenty minutes when a crisp five would have been more appropriate? If they engage in grandstanding or other self-serving behaviors? If they don’t make themselves available for questions? That’s not good for  government and I’m going to say something. Presenters should feel an obligation to be clear, concise, informative and non-performative when speaking before the Council. And when appropriate, presenters should cheerfully submit to thorough questioning.

The above seems commonsense to me. If this irritates some people, so be it. It is definitely not meant to. Presentations should not be about the presenter. Presentations should be about giving the Council (and the public) the information to make the best possible decisions.

Now look, 9x percent of presenters already do all that. They’re great. Most people who speak at the podium are not politicians or public speakers, they’re Staff or the public. They have no desire to accomplish anything but give the Council the best possible presentation. They’re not the ones I worry about. It’s the people who are comfortable at the podium: those are the people you have to worry about! 😀

One last thing: I don’t want to create the impression that I’m a ‘tough audience’. Quite the contrary. And the last thing I want to do is discourage the public from making public comment (we need to do a lot more to encourage people speaking at City Council Meetings in my opinion!) At bottom, what I want is a genuine conversation with anyone who speaks before the Council. No intimidation. But no bells and whistles either.