Weekly Update: 11/05/2023

As with two weeks ago, this is a long one. Sorry. There are a ton of issues that tend to clump together at the end of the year. This Budget meeting is likely the most important of the year.

Campaigning

• You will notice that the home page on this here web site no longer points to the Weekly Updates. If you’re looking for the Weekly Updates, they’re on the… er… Weekly Updates page. Along with all the other articles on history and my top ten issues.
• Some of you reported that you received your ballot but not your King County 2023 Voters Pamphlet.
• Here is my coverage of the Wesley Candidate Forum: Four Pinocchios on Marina Hotel

Stats

This is an ‘off-year’ election so turnout will probably be low. As of Monday evening, about 60% of the people who are likely to vote, have voted. Which means that a bunch of you are waiting until the last minute.

If you’re still undecided, I hope you’ll read this carefully, watch my videos, and call or text me if you have questions (206) 878-0578.

One last ‘stats’ thing: There are over 19,000 registered voters. Maybe 6,500 will vote. And of those who do? The overwhelming number are seniors, people without children at home, and above all, people who live nearest the water. Most of these people have already voted. Thank you for doing so!

But as soon as you head east of ‘the water’, anywhere in Des Moines, people get much younger, they do have children in school, and the voting percentage starts steadily dropping–almost to single digits. If that’s you, you are in the majority of Des Moines residents now! You vote less and you wait until the last minute to vote.

I’m telling you this to encourage people in every part of Des Moines to vote, get with the program! 😀 vote, Vote, VOTE! If you vote? Remind your neighbours to do so! You gotta nag a little. Not as much as moi, but some.

Democracy only works if every part of the City participates!

The ID of Des Moines…

I’ve gotten like a dozen calls from supporters regarding my opponent’s negative campaigning–and asking me ‘what to say.’ The weird thing is that Rob Back is not new. This is actually his sixth campaign. 2001, 2003, 2005 (lost), 2015 (unopposed), 2019 (lost), 2023…

I made this three minute video to explain some of the ‘politics’ that almost none of you see–and to provide a micro-explainer about the ‘hotel’. Because the problems at the Marina did not start with ‘the hotel’. They go back years.

When I ran, I already had years of watching meetings. Everyone I spoke with, regardless of ideology, understood that there was something going on here. But everyone also felt that either a) there was nothing to do but laugh it off, or, one might ‘fix it’ simply by dint of enough charm. There was another category of people who hated various policies, but simply refused to risk offending people. My guess is that this is actually the majority of voters in Des Moines. Nobody wants to be ‘that guy’.

So I decided, as an experiment, to say in public what people always said in private. Call it the ID of Des Moines 😀

The people who vote will determine the wisdom of that approach tomorrow. Democracy, right? 😀

This Week

Tuesday 6:00PM The Council was informed today (Monday) that there will be a Special Meeting of the City Council. The purpose is to hold an Executive Session under 42.30.110(g), which concerns the evaluation of a public employee, almost always referring to the City Manager. In addition to the snap call, another unusual bit is that its set for ninety minutes rather than the more usual thirty. Perhaps that is why it wasn’t tacked onto Thursday’s meeting? It’s probably just a coincidence that it’s election night while I’m trying to campaign, right? 😀

Wednesday 6:00PM The Port of Seattle will be holding a webinar on Trees and Land Stewardship. Sign up here! Considering the thousands of trees we’ve lost with airport expansion, this is important. Tree canopy in Des Moines is in serious decline. One of my first meetings of the Council was this presentation from the Green Cities Partnership.

Wednesday 7:00 PM Des Moines Marina Association. Apparently they are considering dissolving? We (me and her majesty 😀 ) sincerely hope not. Actually, it sounds more like a re-org. Or at least we (me and her majesty) hope so! I was at the Marina starting in the early 90’s. It’s changed dramatically and so have the relationships between boat owners and the City. In the early 2000’s boat owners used to take the City to court over moorage rates. 😀 The current DMMA leadership has done a dramatically good job of trying to work positively with the City and running a good organisation (taking real minutes for example. 😀 )

But, things are changing with the whole ‘redevelopment’ thing. At bottom, all marinas are businesses. We have very few live-aboards, so there isn’t quite the same vibe as other marinas where people really do live in a community.  And we are just about the only City-owned Marina in the region. All the ‘cool’ cities people talk about? Poulsbo, Edmonds, etc? Their Marina is governed by an independent entity.

The Marina was created to be a benefit to the City during a time when boating, trailering, sailing and fishing were more of an every-man hobby. Back then, almost the entirety of the space was a working space for those activities. Now there is no working boat launch, fishing is largely defined by the pier, and over 80% of the people paying for moorage do not live here–and one of the key changes to rebuilding the docks will be a shift towards fewer but larger slips.

And then there’s the ongoing food fight (literally) over all the space on the Marina Floor which the public has come to think of as kind of a paved park… With a Quarterdeck at the center. 🙂

I guess I’m kinda rambling here, but somehow we need to find a way to balance these interests. And for a while there, the DMMA tried bravely to do that. Don’t get me wrong. I often disagreed with the DMMA. But it was, for me, a healthy disagreement. They were, in fact, filling a much-needed gap, I am deeply appreciative of their efforts and I believe they still need to exist.

I have always felt that the City needed a Marina Committee, ie. a mix of City Councilmembers, boat owners and condo dwellers that meets in public every month. And that way the rest of the public–which has as big a vested interest now as boat owners, can watch and show up whenever they want to.

The way we did it the past several years was having duplicate and triplicate meetings with Economic Development and Municipal Facilities and DMMA. For me, it would be simpler and more transparent just to have that one committee where the entire planning for this essential interest was addressed in a single room.

Also, it kinda drove me nuts that councilmembers were making decisions about the marina without learning how the marina (and boating) works. The benefit of being on any committee is that you get some specialist knowledge. For example, if yer on the environment committee, you learn a bit about the wonders of drainage. 😀 Seriously. It’s tough to make intelligent choices about ‘docks’ and ‘dredging’ and ‘security’ and so on if you haven’t done these things or you aren’t at least exposed to them on a regular basis. One reason I will vote against something at a full meeting is if it has not been pre-vetted by the appropriate committee. I want to know that my colleagues in each area have discussed the issue with the appropriate stakeholders before we see vote.

One last thing: The reason we need a DMMA is that the ‘surprises’ people have been concerned about at the Marina? They are far from over, cuz. Having a few customers, people who actually, you know, hang out inside the gates, get shocked by that ¹bleed current in the water, drive a boat in and out of the jetty every once in a while, and know how to work on a ‘board’ is essential to the Marina Redevelopment process.

Thursday 4:00PM Transportation Committee. If you saw this on the City web site, there is actually no meeting.

Thursday 4:00PM Environment Committee (Agenda)

Thursday 6:00PM City Council Meeting (Agenda) Highlights below…

Saturday: 10:30AM There will be a Veterans Day Event at Steven J. Underwood Park. The theme will be Honoring Women Who Served.

Saturday: 10:45AM As always, I will attend the Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association Veterans Day Event at Sunnydale Elementary.

The DMMDPA site is worth a look as the organisation goes all the way back to World War I (the origin of Veterans Day); the gorgeous elm trees, and now signal boxes are extremely meaningful history. My hope has always been to integrate all the local historical organisations (Hillgrove Cemetery, Highline Heritage and the Des Moines Historical Society) into one shared program that teaches and preserves the history of the area.

Last Week

Monday: Final training from Stay-Grounded (SG.) SG is a European environmental group that has had a lot more success in obtaining relief for airport communities than we have here. We’re trying to learn their system and then evangelise volunteers here. Synchronising meetings with people from Seattle to Vienna to Singapore is interesting.

Tuesday: Budget meeting with Finance Director. This was the (at the moment) annual one on one meeting to discuss the 2024 Budget. Most of the meeting was me grousing about accounting reports. I admire his patience. 🙂 He used to work in Tukwila, which has a Finance Committee, and I mention it because, well, I strongly favour having a Finance Committee here. 🙂

Wednesday 11:30AM: Dia De Los Muertos Mariachi! at Des Moines Senior Center 2145 216th St.

Wednesday: There was a Citizens Advisory Committee (Video) No audio was recorded. So it’s a fun silent movie? 😀 As a ‘politician’, I’ll just say that no meeting at City Hall should go unrecorded. The fact that the City simply chose not to fix it tells you everything you need to know about how the City currently prioritises ‘communication and transparency’.

And, I hate to be a scold, but hey, I am ‘the ID of Des Moines’, right? So I’ll just say how disappointed I would be if none of the membership speaks up publicly about it. The CAC members essentially got a two hour private briefing from our Finance Director, with ongoing commentary by the Mayor. I only got an hour, Mom! (jealous emoji goes here. 😀 )

And I’m not sure how that benefits the budget process–since it occurred a week before we have to approve that budget.

November 9 City Council Meeting Pre-game

Human Services Advisory Funding

We’ll keep funding at last year’s record level. Good. I actually might vote ‘no’… and perhaps end up on someone else’s nasty checklist four years from now. 😀 But the fact is, this is the only time during the entire year the Council will hear about any of these programs. Twenty years ago, the Council would get quarterly reports.

I’m sure they’re all great, but that is not how this system should work. Every committee should be providing regular and public reports. How can you possibly vote against these worthy programs? I would never do that. But I would vote against a flawed process. (And worst case? The committee would come back two weeks later with a promise of better reporting, and everyone could vote a nice, transparent ‘yes’. 🙂 )

One issue is that we almost never see the applicants that do not get funded. (There were 48 applicants, but 25 awards.) We also don’t see any narrative about each organisation–unless we ask. To my mind, each organisation, even if they’re a long timer like the Food Bank, should be required to provide at least a one-pager describing their mission, their accomplishments, challenges, goals for the year. This should not be onerous to any organisation used to writing a grant app.

How can we evaluate how well the committee is working if we can’t see how they make their choices?

Also, there is a challenge of getting new organisations into the mix. Fewer and fewer groups are starting up–especially in South King County. Every government, including the Port and County recognise this. If we don’t publish at least quarterly reports, we’ll continue to get the same groups. We need to show new people, with new ideas, how to get into the game.

Des Moines Creek Business Park West Master Plan – Hearing Examiner Review

This is a follow-on to last week’s ’18th Street Vacation’. The independent examiner is charged with taking an expert’s view to complex land use projects like the Des Moines Creek Business Park. I understand the merits, but, like with the Masonic home, although it looks like a technocratic move, this is politics. Once the issue is turned over to the examiner, the City can say “our hands are tied!” to any reasonable concerns from residents. See Woodmont Recovery Clinic, circa 2015.

Budget Second Reading

Please read last week’s comments which cover a lot of ground as to tax increases, spending priorities, etc.

The headline is that it keeps our General Fund balance at a healthy level for 2024. But only for 2024. It leaves 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 to take care of themselves. And it achieves that healthiness in a couple of ways that do not kill me because they have echoes of ‘the bad time’ that even the staunchest supporters of the administration could not ignore.

As I said last time the 2024 keeps our General Fund balance at a healthy level for 2024 (more on the word ‘healthy’ in a minute.) But without that one-time money, the budget goes into the red in 2026. Which means that the next Council will continue to be highly incentivised to continue using one-time money from now on.

The thing is, even though the previous Council (the one that ‘saved the city’) passed various ordinances to stop doing that, we’ve actually overridden it six out of the last seven years. We’ll do it again this year. Just like those ‘bad’ Councils fifteen years ago.

The problem was never ‘discipline’. The problem was a lack of money. It’s like lecturing a single mom who works at Walmart, “If you want to buy that house, you just need to become a better money manager, Brenda!” You could be Milton Friedman. You ain’t buying a house on $19 an hour, Brad.

The Macro-DynamicALLY-Stochastic-Economic Forecast

(You either get that in-joke. Or you don’t. 😀 )

In my ID-Of-Des Moines mode, I will also say how politically inconvenient it is to have our budget vote after the election.

I’ve been saying since I ran in 2019 that the previous Council (including my opponent Rob Back) performed no miracles. That is no slam against the City Manager or the prior Council’s efforts, which were real. However, the notion that they ‘saved the City’ is a complete exaggeration. We raised utility taxes to the max. We installed some red light cameras.  But we also had some fantastic timing.  We got some juicy permit money from construction projects like the DMCBP at just the right moment. We also rode the wave of the longest period of near zero interest rates in American history. Everyone’s property values went up. Great. Now? The party’s over. Whatever big ‘wins’ we were gonna get from that era, we’ve already gotten. The only reason we’re even doing this well is that $9,000,000 ARPA check in 2021. More one-time money.

Going door to door, this has been hard to explain to voters who often don’t know what ‘ARPA’ or ‘one-time money’ even mean. They hear, ‘healthy general fund in 2024!’ and think, great!

Let me try this on you: We’re kinda like a person who has a job, an OK car, a decent outfit to wear to work, and every once in a while, gets a nice Birthday Check from their parents. So they’re not bouncing checks and sleep OK. But… they have no cushion. They can occasionally splurge on a *ferry ride. Using their credit card, of course. But if they’re out of work for more than even a few weeks? It could get ugly. That’s the City of Des Moines.

Even in our best year we’ve only ever had enough reserve to pay our bills for 2-3 months in the event of a real emergency.

In other words, we’re you.

Keeeeding. 😀

If the previous Council had ‘saved the City’, we would not have to continue using one-time money basically every year just to retain service levels. If we had ‘saved the City’ we would have a real plan, right now, to maintain even that two month cushion beyond 2024. We would also have a real plan to increase service levels back to where they were when I moved here. And we don’t. We just don’t.

I wish I had sold that a bit better.

Budget Amendments & ARPA Re-Allocation

The City will propose moving almost all the remaining ARPA money into the 2024  budget. There will also be an ordinance to do some routine final adjustments to the 2023 budget.

I only want to mention that the ‘amendment process’ used to be a fairly lengthy affair where each member of the Council would barter for small adjustments and pet projects. This is what I consider normal. That has not happened in a looooong time. And that should tell you just how tight money really is. If we were truly in a healthy place, there would be space to haggle over many items that I really want.

But here’s the thing, and the reason I want a Finance Committee. I simply do not have enough information to even know where to get money from. That’s the key problem with our current financial reports. There’s not enough detail to responsibly say “take it from here!”. Of course, there’s also the problem of working with an administration that doesn’t particularly encourage that sort of thing. But that’s a rant for another day. 🙂

Voters vs. Reserves

The problem is that, if you live at Wesley, or Judson, or a lot of the more ‘comfortable’ parts of town (nearest the water), you are usually insulated from the economics of our budget. I was talking today to someone who moved into Wesley and they are thrilled. But they are also very candid that they do not have a personal stake in most of the issues where a healthy fund balance comes into play.

Remember what I said above about voter stats? The people who would benefit from a healthy fund balance are the people least likely to vote.

Parks? School quality? Pacific Highway? Airport issues? Water quality? Restaurants? Sidewalks? All those require a lot more funds. But they are also far less directly relevant to the demographics of people who actually do vote.

Or maybe not. I also spoke today with someone in North Hill who is absolutely livid about a sewer problem. There was an email from someone else in a similar… er.. boat. 😀 In fact, the City gets a lot of feedback from North Hill on any number of ‘grid’ (sewer, water, storm, internet) issues. The area is considered ‘well off’, but it also has one of the most ancient and chaotic grids in the City. Like Redondo, the area was annexed into Des Moines in the ’90’s. And like Redondo, NH came with a laundry list of grid issues the County was only too happy to have us take over. They will all cost a stonkin’ fortune to bring up to modern standards. So what most people do is put up with <insert problem here> and leave it to the next (usually younger) owner to deal with.

How do we tell that person that they also would benefit from a City with a healthier fund balance?

Don’t ask me. I’m just the ID of Des Moines. 😀

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¹Keeeding. Haven’t had an in-water tingle in fifteen years! 😀 I can only kid because the service is actually pretty great at our Marina. Again, the current (see what I did there?) incarnation of the DMMA deserves credit for that. 🙂