Weekly Update: 06/12/2022

This Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting (Agenda)

Wednesday: Puget Sound Regional Council Comprehensive Plan Workshop

Wednesday: Mt. Rainier High School Graduation at ShoWare Center

Thursday: King County Flood Control District

Friday: South King County Housing and Homelessness Partners (SKHHP)

All throughout the week:

Tree Tours! To help explain the upcoming expansion of SR-509 and the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP) I’ve developed a one hour walking/driving presentation.

Port Package site visits: SeaTacNoise.Info keeps working on getting relief for home owners with Port Package Problems. If that’s you, please contact them, with your address and Parcel ID and schedule a visit.

Last Week

This was one of the most challenging week’s of my time on the Council. There was a shameful incident regarding something that should be routine, then a disturbing situation where I watched my colleagues collaborating with the administration about me. And finally, there was the City Council Meeting.

Tuesday: ‘Missing Middle’ Housing Seminar. This is something I’m fairly passionate about. Over the past two decades there have been two trends in ‘housing’, the McMansion and the government subsidised apartments. There’s been an ongoing argument that the public only wants 3,000 ft. homes, which is simply not true. Most of Des Moines consists of homes like mine, under 2,000 sq ft. and they have always sold like hot cakes. Town Homes provide much greater opportunities for ownership and greatly increased density.

Wednesday: Des Moines Marina Association. I listened to their concerns, which was awkward. The fact is that they have refused to support any of my attempts to reform our City Council’s process, frankly because for several years they had the City’s ear exclusively and have actually enabled things to get so far with no accountability.

It is especially unsettling to hear everyone in the room casually discussing the upcoming Ferry Pilot as a done deal, because if you recall, the Council only voted to approve $975,000 for the City Manager to do a (cough) ‘search’ for a vendor–and then the Council could weigh in on the details of the agreement. In movies, we often see scenes where characters talk about how “the fix is in”. It’s different when yer actually in that movie, playing the role of the patsy.

Thursday: 4:00 Transportation Committee Meeting (Agenda) There was a presentation on WSDOT on Stage 2 of the SR-509 project. But at the tail end there was a discussion that was so troubling I had to write about it.

Thursday: 5:00 Environment Committee Meeting (Agenda)

Thursday: 6:00 City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video)

City Council Meeting 06/09/2022

City Manager Report

Mr. Matthias canceled his scheduled update on Summer Events. As I’ve said, the Fireworks are a go for July 4th at the Marina and the Waterland Festival will also occur the July 23-25th

Emergency Management Director Shannon Kirchberg gave a  briefing on the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan.

Then, the City Manager, switching hats to become our Economic Development Director gave an unscheduled presentation on the topic of Disposable Income. This was in response to a comment Councilmember Steinmetz made on social media which Mr. Matthias claimed reflected poorly on the image of the city he was trying to project to a potential business investor. Councilmember Steinmetz became upset but was overruled by the Mayor.

I honestly have no idea what the presentation was about–something to do with his days in Jolly Ol’ England and John Maynard Keynes. But I do know this: CM Steinmetz was simply getting his initiation spanking. The kind a lot of people seem to like (or so I’ve been told. 😀 )

A few months ago, CM Achziger was treated to a similar presentation on the wonders of Pacific Ridge after making a comment the City Manager felt was unflattering on that topic.

Me? When I dared to criticise his extremely questionable plan for a hotel at the Marina last year, I received a technicolour beat down, “The City Of Des Moines will never have a skyline like Detroit!” (What a relief!)

I tried to address this in my closing comments, but hearing his name mentioned CM Steinmetz snapped at me.

But for what it’s worth,

Dear Colleague

• All those silly presentations are prepared Powerpoints. They take staff time to prepare and our valuable Council Meeting time to sit through. It wastes public money and taxes what little good humour remains on our Council. And I do not appreciate wasting either.
• For some reason, a great number of people do not seem to find bullying all that problematic. Until it happens to them, of course.
• Bear in mind that I’ve been putting up with this crap for many years–looong before I was elected. You took about fifteen seconds to become incensed.
• Over the course of your professional career, how many people have you worked with who would do such things? Me neither. I think it says something important.
• Remember that it is the Council’s meeting, not Michael’s or the Mayor’s. The City Manager is, in fact, merely an invited guest. And if you are not happy with your invited guest, you can, at any time, ask him to leave, either for twenty minutes or the evening. You may not get three more votes, but you’ll get at least one, and that’s a start. And I would hope you’d afford me the same courtesy.

Consent Agenda

Now remember that the Consent Agenda is defined as “Items that are considered routine…” They are presented as a slate because they do not merit discussion or debate or amendment. Remember, the Mayor and City Manager set the Agenda, not the Council. The Agenda sends their message as to what is ‘routine’.

Every Councilmember may ‘pull’ an item; ie. asked that it be set aside for a separate vote. It is not unusual for that to occur on one item. Here’s was the list of items on that Consent Agenda…

1. Approval of Vouchers: $5,757,623.05
2. Approval of minutes from past three months
3. Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
4. Disposal of two abandoned vessels (routine)
5. Redondo Aquatic Lands Agreement
6. Wesley Senior Services Contract
7. Animal Control Officer outsource to Burien C.A.R.E.S.
8. Farmers Market agreement + 20k grant
9. Minor Home Repairs project
10. 216th Street Undergrounding PSE payment $220,000
11. Housing Plan Consultant contract $75,000
12. LBGTQ Pride Month proclamation
13. Juneteenth Proclamation

Only the four emboldened items were voted on as a slate. Note to self: find out if Guinness tracks City Council Meetings. This may be the World Record that puts Des Moines on the map! 😀

In fact, it was not I who pulled the majority of these items but rather Councilmember Steinmetz. If the circumstances had been different,  I would have pulled the Juneteenth Proclamation. The end of slavery is the second most important event in American History and as such deserves the appropriate recognition by our City. I wrote the Mayor saying as much and he refused. But seeing that all the ‘pulling’, I realised that the meeting was going to tax everyone’s patience so there would be no point in trying.

The Pulled Items

I pulled the approval of Vouchers: $5,757,623.05. I was bullied and harassed by the administration.

I also pulled the disposal of two abandoned vessels item after not receiving a response to a question I had about the item. My question was “Why does the City Council need to approve the sale of vessel abandoned in our Marina?” To which the City Attorney gave me a flip, but accurate answer, “because a prior City Council decided to change the code.” But that was 1993 and in reading that ordinance it just looks like the Council of that time cut’n’pasted a huge swath of general purpose language. My hope was to find out if we could tweak that bit of code so that the Council never has to screw with that sort of thing again. It’s a Harbormaster job, not a Council job. But noooooooo. 😀

CM Steinmetz asked to pull the Redondo Aquatic Lands Agreement. He wanted the item set aside for a future meeting accompanied by a full staff briefing. CM Nutting objected calling the item “as routine as it gets” which is true–from a certain point of view. I went along to try once again to make a point.

CM Steinmetz asked to pull the Wesley Senior Services Contract, again asking for a postponement and a full briefing. I’m honestly not sure what he wanted on that briefing. I know that I have wanted a community survey of our entire suite of senior services programs and gotten nowhere.

CM Steinmetz asked to pull the Animal Control Officer outsource to Burien C.A.R.E.S., again asking for a postponement and a full briefing. I voted no on the proposal, not only because I think it’s bad policy, but because the PSEM Committee, of which CM Steinmetz is a member, allowed it to go to the full Council without seeing the contract or obtaining any assurance as to how we will gauge the quality of service.

CM Steinmetz asked to pull the Farmers Market agreement, again asking for a postponement and a full briefing. I didn’t need a postponement or a briefing. I know people love them and they have always had my full support. I voted no because a) they are required to provide their financials to the City and I haven’t seem them. b) For the third year in a row, the City waived their rental fee, in effect a $20,000 grant, without being asked. According to all reports, their opening day was record-breaking. If they are doing well, that $20,000 should be made available to other (perhaps new) groups. But under no circumstances should the City give money to anyone who does not submit a request which can be evaluated just like every other organisation.

CM Steinmetz asked to pull the Minor Home Repairs project, again asking for a postponement and a full briefing. I supported this simply to highlight the fact that the program needs to be promoted a lot better. As with the Farmers Market, the program itself is great. And as such, the City should be getting the word out so that more people can take advantage of it!

I pulled the Housing Plan Consultant contract for a reason that seems ‘normal’ to everyone in government but to you will probably sound like it came out of a Dilbert cartoon. The contract states that the consultant will not be doing their own research. Instead, they will be creating a series of recommendations based on an analysis derived from contemporaneous sources. OK here’s the thing: there are no contemporaneous sources. There is simply no good data on anything concerning ‘housing’ or ‘homelessness’. Swear to God. Nobody can tell you how many homeless people are in Des Moines, how they got here or why they’re in their current predicament or what is the appropriate intervention. SKHHP (which Deputy Mayor Buxton and I attend) is doing an ‘inventory of available housing’ this year but it won’t be completed until after the consultant submits their report.

And just to be clear, I am not engaging in some stunt. My colleagues will roll their eyes because, again, this is a grant, it’s free money, so why are you stressing, Harris? Just take the money and shut up.

My point is that I actually do want to do something about the problems. Residents tell me all the time “nobody knows what to do about homelessness.” That is not true. There are good solutions. But we’ve made so many mistakes and done so much to obstruct the process, it just looks like it to the outside world.

This really stings for me because, in 2017, the same Commerce Dept. created a $600,000 study of the community impacts from Sea-Tac Airport, which Des Moines kicked in a few bucks on. And the consultants relied on existing studies, which were, in several cases from 1997 when the airport was half what it is today. So the final report was about as useful as [metaphor goes here].