Highly rushed due to failing water heater! Only a few minutes before I have to get back to bailing! 😀
This Week
Monday: Not an event, but notable: the City got dinged by the State Auditor’s Report about our ARPA fund. This seems fairly minor in and of itself and the City acknowledges the problem. But in one passage of its response seems to be saying that it was following the State’s own policy as well as it could under the circumstances and therefore the finding should not be considered negative. I accept that response.
However, one detail: as you know, the City was granted $9MM in ARPA funds back in July of 2021. We were given until 2024 to decide how to spend it. But at our 16 September 2021 meeting, the City Manager presented a spending proposal for the entire $9MM. And over my strong objections, the Council voted to budget that entire $9MM in one night. We are the only nearby city to have done so. Our sister cities are only now getting round to spending the majority of their allocations. The City acknowledges only spending about $1MM of that fund in 2021. So in my opinion, we would have been better off doing as our sister cities did: taking our sweet time in budgeting that money until the final rules had been decided by the State and Federal governments.
Thursday: Public Safety Emergency Management Meeting (Agenda) (Video.) There will be an update on our drone program, the Great Washington Shakeout. But the highlight is a discussion of Short Term Rentals. One element could be requiring a business license. Another? How to enforce accountability for the occasional misbehaving guest. That is of interest to me because the topic of accountability for long term rentals is also a big deal for many neighbourhoods.
Thursday: City Council Meeting (Agenda) All items are Consent Agenda. There is no “discussion topic” ie. Old or New Business. (Come to think of it, until 2017-ish I recall that we used to have a regular “Old Business” section of our meetings, since many things did seem to require more than one meeting to resolve. Ah… the good old days. 😀 ) Anyhoo, meetings with no New Business often have ‘surprises’ to fill the space. Surprises are generally not what you want in local government.
City Council Meetings are scheduled for Thursdays at 6:00PM at City Hall 21630 11th Avenue S., Suite #C Des Moines WA 98198. They can also be viewed live on Comcast Channel 21/321 or on the City’s YouTube channel. Committee Meetings are either at 4:00PM or 5:00PM, also on Thursdays.
You do not have to sign in to attend a meeting!
The sign-in sheet is only for people wishing to make a Public Comment.
There are three ways to provide Public Comment:
- In person: Show up a few minutes before the meeting and sign the sheet. Public Comment is usually conducted at the beginning of the meeting.
- By e-mail: All e-mails sent to citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov are considered public comment. They are instantly available to all members of the City Council and the City Clerk who includes them into the record of public comments at the next meeting.
- By US Mail: Attn: City Clerk Office, 21630 11th Avenue S., Des Moines WA 98198 no later than 4:00 p.m. day of the meeting. Please provide us with your first and last name and the city in which you live.
All letters or e-mails requesting a specific action are referred by the City Clerk to the appropriate City department.
If you would like a follow up from me, personally please indicate that or call me (206) 878-0578.
The Clerk does not read e-mails to the Council in full; only the subject line. However, we do see them as soon as you send them. Your comments are added to the Agenda Packet available on the City web site following each meeting.
Last Week
Last week was action packed! Since I’m pressed for time, I’ll just refer you to my articles on these which (I hope) cover the essentials fairly well–in addition to my obvious opinions. The meetings were not recorded so you’ll have to make do with my cell phone recordings and machine transcription of each for veracity–included in the respective articles.
Tuesday: Marina Redevelopment Town Hall
Thursday: Ad Hoc Rules Committee #2
Thanks!!