Weekly Update: 04/28/2024

Some bits of business…

Construction Ahead

You’re going to start to notice some tweaks to the design of these pages. I’ve gotten some totally legit guff as to the readability of these articles–especially the long-ass ones like this week. I don’t have a lot of time to work on (cough) ⁶‘design’.  So you’ll see these changes rolled out a few at a time–which I fully acknowledge is not the ‘pro’ way to do this. But until someone pays me to do this, I’m not a ‘pro’. Checkmate! 😀 Anyhoo, things may get worse before they get better. Think of it like that 24th Ave. Project. 😮 (Am I a scream, or what?) But eventually, we’ll both get there. Please let me know what you think in terms of readability and finding what yer looking for. Better? Worse? Meh?

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, this can be very useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.

Redondo Speed Cameras

Are online! There is a 30 day warning period, but thereafter you start getting $145 tickets. Based on the location of the east-west cameras, I predict cash-money, baby. Every car I watched today comes round the bend, notices the flags, and immediately slams on them brakes. 😀 Will they address street racing and all the other nefariousness? After all it took to get them, we sure hope so! 🙂

Des Moines Activity Center

Set to re-open Wednesday, May 1. Not sure of the time yet. So I’m planning on noon. ish. 🙂 See you there.

City Manager Stuff

At our last meeting, Interim City Manager George’s Weekly Reports were praised. I agree. They’re not quite as good as some of our peer cities, but that’s not damning with faint praise. Considering we had zilch-o for over six years, and that this is an ‘interim’ gig, it’s far above what I think anyone on the Council expected. Every issue has very useful information and if I didn’t think so I would not encourage you to read them. I’m just saying: it’s not the end game. Or the end zone. Or whatever sports metaphor he likes to use. 😀

City Manager’s Report April 26, 2024

That said, one thing I am not thrilled about is the City’s stealth ‘re-branding’, which started with the police a few months ago and is now being rolled out in documents like this. In the past, the Council would take an active role in this work. The City’s branding is a key strategic decision and I have asked why this is being done without a full discussion by the Council.

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.

April 25, 2024 City Council Meeting

Consent Agenda

Mental Health Awareness Month

Normally I don’t spend a bunch of time on proclamations, but we did a proclamation on Mental Health Awareness Month. Cm Nutting made a rare comment at the end of the meeting with some sobering stats on mental health and suicide–particularly in his industry (construction.)

I’m old enough to remember when the notion of health insurance coverage for anything ‘mental’ was considered nuts (see what I did there.) And I’m being flip for a reason. It’s taken decades to get people (especially men) to consider any mental illness–including depression and substance abuse as illness, and not some form of personal failing or ‘weakness’. That worldview is still baked in to my generation’s culture and I am very pleased to see him speak out so forcefully.

The State now has a 988 Crisis Line, with 24-7-365 assistance. If you, or someone you know, needs help, do not wait. Call 988.

Redondo Fishing Pier replacement project

This project, for which the Council voted all that Bond Money last year, received one bid, and that bid  is $5.5 million over expectations. Gotta be honest. This seemed to be something of a fishing expedition (see what I did there?) For more conventional jobs, you send out the RFP, get several responses and select the lowest appropriate bid. Because this is a very special case, one expects to encounter only every 40 years or so (¹DV) , one where we don’t have deep in-house expertise, apparently we using ‘the market’ to determine the price. We go back to the vendors and ask them why they chose not to bid. In other words, the estimate we developed was never made with great confidence?

Good thing we voted for all that bond money ahead of time! 😀

If you recall, the bond vote allocated money to five other uses. So with this use off the table for now, we’ll focus on getting the restroom done–the one aspect of the bond vote I was most opposed to.

Unfinished Business

One might say ‘never-ending business’. Sorry, it’s a disease. 😀

City Manager Recruit process

We had a ‘spirited’ discussion on approving the recruiter applicant brochure, which I objected to because (and this joke always works for me) “Damnit, Jim. I’m a ²Doctor, not a Recruiter!” I felt like developing marketing materials was one of the reasons we were paying the high-priced recruiter. Fortunately, Councilmember Mahoney had some strong preferences, which look fine, and the decision was made.

Less entertaining is the fact that the timeline shows the Start Date for the next City Manager as October. And that is probably too optimistic. To lighten the mood, Interim City Manager George said he was happy to continue working as long as it takes–at time and a half. Good one.

But seriously, ladeez and germs, what is interesting about that, and this is the recurring theme for this week, everyone knew the original timeline was rubbish. So why even say that in the first place? We gotta stop setting fake deadlines and fake budgets. We’ve been doing it so long it’s become normative. And that fact that no one else seems to recognise this as a systemic issue is a real problem. In other words, my colleagues will get ‘irritated’ on individual instances, but not see that it’s basically constant.

As part of the Recruiter contract, we get two ‘free’ on-site visits. We decided to use one of them on May 2nd. The majority wanted him IRL for two reasons:

• There was a concern that the video-conferencing might fail–as it did last time. IMO, this should be a fairly routine bit of tech.
• Some seemed already somewhat dissatisfied with the guy’s performance.

I felt it was too early in the process to be that concerned–after all, we haven’t even sent out the application yet. And I wanted the guy to address us via remote conference because I assume that when there’s a glitch, our staff fixes it and we move on. We have to have faith in the tech we have if we sincerely expect it to improve. 🙂

Property Tax Levy Lid Lift

The Council voted 4-3 to put this proposal on the ballot in August, and then again in November, should the August vote fail. I voted no on both. (See below.) We also voted 7-0 to assign one person to a ‘Con’ committee and two to a ‘Pro’ committee. They will write the statements for/against in the August and November ballots.

Why I Voted No

This graph depicts police staffing levels after the last (2006) Lid Lift. That Lid Lift, which had a five year limit, was also dedicated to public safety, and had exactly the same guard rails proposed by the City last Thursday. As you can see, staffing levels increase dramatically in the first year (good) and then begin plummeting (bad.) In short: that money was not used for its intended purposes. But this time, the Lid Lift is permanent, not temporary. And among other reasons, I refused to vote for a permanent tax increase of this magnitude without making damned sure it would not be a repeat of 2006.

That said, I’m pleased to see my colleagues finally recognise the need for more personnel to address issues of crime, mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness. It’s been necessary since I’ve lived here. During that time, we’ve also had ongoing problems with finance, economic development and communications.

My colleagues said that all these problems had been solved beginning in 2016 and scoffed at my saying otherwise. But at a certain point, it no longer became possible to cover up any of these problems–especially our financial issues–with extravagant projects like a ferry, hotel at the Marina and now the Steps. In fact, they are only making all these problems worse.

The current situation is like buying a new car to show your friends how successful you are. Without telling them you maxed out your credit card to pay for it. And then asking them for money every year thereafter to pay your debt.

To address the chronic short falls to both public safety and sustainable revenues, I proposed a dedicated public safety lid lift on my first day in office. But my support depended on also committing to sincere reforms on all these other issues–especially finance. I did not think it was right to ask voters for any new tax without demonstrating that we would attack these other issues. Because, as you will soon see, our finances are in such shape that even with the lid lift, we will be in trouble. We should be doing both.

At a certain point, I realised that my colleagues and the City wanted the tax, but continue to resist the other reforms. Considering their ongoing support for the last City Manager, this makes a certain kind of sense.

They will say that, since he took over in 2016, the City had been managing money as good as, or better than, any other City. This is as untrue as it was 2016. If it were true, I would be all-in. Remember: I wanted this Lid Lift when others did not.

They will say that you must not vote ‘no’ because the City would immediately decay into utter lawlessness. These are ridiculous scare tactics and you should not believe them. If the Council can agree on better guarantees that this money will be used as intended, and commit to better financial planning, we could call for another ballot initiative as early as Spring 2025. Having both those in place–especially with a permanent tax increase at stake, would be well worth waiting a few months. And we can certainly staff existing public safety services for that length of time.

But to give the City this money now, with no better guard rails in place than in 2006, will neither address our long term financial issues or guarantee better public safety long term. We must do both. Or we will end up with neither.

When I voted ‘no’, I commented on the lack of preparation by both the City and some of my colleagues. After five meetings, they did not even have basic facts straight for the Citizens Advisory Committee or the final Council vote. That also made it clear to me that some of us feel entitled to this money. If you show up for a job interview unprepared and say, “Trust me, I’ll do better after you hire me”, you do not deserve the job.

Eventually, I will vote ‘yes’. And when I do, I will encourage you to do so as well. But not now.

In the meantime? Do not be afraid to do the right thing.

¹DV ‘deo volente’. It just means ‘God willing’. It’s a common expression in Ireland and the UK and considered more polite than saying ‘God’ all the time. It’s another one of those ‘pretentious’ things–like the way I misspell various words. Outside, homeless guy. Inside? BBC4. 😀

²Still not a doctor, Jim. 🙂

³Watch the last Economic Development Committee Meeting.

⁴And… this is why I don’t want the public getting too deep into the budget process. I get why people want to ‘dig in and get their hands dirty!’ But setting aside the fact that it is illegal to have non-elected people enter into this paramount area of the policy making process, even if you’re a CPA, you can only work with the documents you have. And until we have budget materials that are easier to read, it would be an extremely challenging task. My goal is to have our highly credentialed, very talented CPA, spending his very expensive time working to make those materials a model of clarity, rather than walking a tiny number of individuals through the same basics every year. That should be the first step. Then let the public loose.

⁵Also, this pushes out our usual ‘goal setting’ meeting. (That’s OK, they haven’t been useful since I’ve been on the Council–Wait, did I say that out loud? 😀 )

⁶Does it look like I spend a bunch of time on any of this? 😀