Weekly Update 05/31/2026

Some bits of business…

HACKED!

Most weeks when I’m late to send out the mailing list it just means I was forgetful. This time, it appears the email system I share with about 10,000 other people was attacked by evil forces. FWIW, I will include a link to the last one in this week’s blast.

FWIW, there’s nothing to take ‘personally’. People who do this aren’t looking for a ransom (jokes on them if they were . 😀 ) It’s not even like graffiti where people can take credit for bad behaviour. Most of this nonsense began by people developing automatic scripts trolling web sites to see what mischief they might find. Now, it’s mainly ‘bots’ doing it all by themselves. There’s literally no point to it.

Anyhoo, if I were watching, I would’ve fixed it quickly, but I had the nerve to try to take a few days off and… I know this is shocking… I’m not plugged in 24/7/365.

The only reason I noticed was (another) flurry of emails wondering why I had dumped people from the mailing list. FWIW: I never add or remove people from the mailing list unless they ask. If you don’t get it? THANK YOU FOR CHECKING IN!!!!

Website Update

Please help beta-test the new site! It is a big deal and perhaps another pyrrhic victory. The web site has been so terrible for so long people took it for granted. The front end of the new beta site is much better visually. However, mechanically it is not what I had hoped for. And some parts (the documents part) are actually worse. It caused notable friction during the last meeting because, frankly, no one else is noticing or even testing properly.

But the document search is where electeds and journalists and residents concerned about transparency will go to find things. If they can’t? All you can do is depend on ‘staff’ and ‘public records requests’.

There is a very nice gift card for anyone willing to help test the Agenda Portal. I honestly cannot get the search to work. At all. Seriously. Type in anything and tell me what you can find.

Transparency means, I can find what I need without having to ask for help. Get it? The moment you have to ask the people you are overseeing for help you’re already headed to an awkward place you should never have to go.

About the cover

Who doesn’t love a good drone shot, right? This is a page from this Thursday’s Study Session on Municipal Funding as part of our Strategic Plan.

“The purpose of this item is to educate City Council on the basics of municipal public works projects in Washington state. This includes planning, funding, construction, maintenance, and impacts of projects. There is no immediate action associated with this item. Rather, the intent is to provide information and develop a shared understanding of opportunities and constraints related to municipal development.”

This will undoubtedly sound snippy. Cms come and go every few years and it’s good to do these ‘101’ level presentations. But these are the only discussions we’ve had now for a long time. We’re moving ahead with something called a ‘Strategic Plan’ with almost no discussion on what we can (or should) do other than ‘focus on the downtown’. At some point, the Council needs to go beyond ‘101’ level presentations.

There has been this assumption that building anything is ultimately a good thing for the City. After 30 years, I’ve decided that is probably not true. Building creates one-time construction money.  But beyond that, you then have to live with whatever is there. And very little of the land we have to develop has been a net positive for the City financially.

At our last meeting, the Council got some tough love in the passenger ferry analysis. Unfortunately, that work should have happened before we dropped so much money on the idea.

When I first began watching meetings, a few members of the Council were as jazzed about building a hotel as my current colleagues were about the Marina Steps. But in 2010 they were sure that the hotel would ‘transform’ Pacific Highway. I think the Four Points is fine, but calling it transformational would not be accurate.

We have to learn what types of development and amenities help pay the bills–and what do not. Otherwise, we will keep voting based a our personal preferences, not based on predictable outcomes.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports!  May, 29 2026

The highlight for moi was a reminder that the City offers Senior Discounts for both Recology and Comcast: https://www.desmoineswa.gov/departments/senior_services. I’m always surprised how many programs there are (including property tax relief) that go under-utilised. Let’s get out there and save some money, people!

This Week

Wednesday

1:30pm Stormfest! at the Beach Park. “The three-day, field-based environmental education event engages sixth-grade students from the Highline Public Schools with hands-on stations focused on watershed science, stormwater pollution prevention, and local ecosystem stewardship.”

Thursday

Committee of the Whole/Study Session

(Agenda Packet June-04-2026)

5:00pm COW

Item 1. Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) Update – 30 Minutes

Item 2. First Quarter 2026 Police Operations Update – 20 Minutes.

I want to call your attention to the current staffing levels and the average response times (under 10 minutes.) Chief Boe is usually great with stats, but the previous regime did one better by breaking response times into categories of severity. In cases of imminent danger, I believe our officers do much better. 🙂

6:00pm Study Session

Item 1. Infrastructure Project and Funding Discussion – 60 Minutes
Staff Presentation: Public Works Director Michael Slevin. See  About The Cover

Last Week

Monday

I attended the celebration honouring our veterans of foreign wars at Sunnydale School. Despite the rain, I was very pleased at the turnout.

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission. The Port rolled out the SAMP NTP. If you are concerned about airport issues and neither of those acronyms mean anything, subscribe to STNI.

Wednesday

Highline Forum. The Port rolled out the SAMP NTP. If neither of those acronyms mean anything, subscribe to STNI. No, that wasn’t a copy/paste error. The Port is going to be doing a ton of almost identical presentations over the next 60 days.

Citizens Advisory Board (May 27, 2026 Citizens Advisory Board Agenda Packet) Topics discussed were cutbacks in after school programs which does not thrill me! (Video and Transcript)