Weekly Update: 11/07/2021

Public Service Announcements

This Week

Monday: SR509 briefing with WSDOT. I’m expecting some graphics detailing how it will affect Blueberry Lane, Des Moines Creek Trail and the bridge over 216th. What’s also pretty keen is that WSDOT will be creating a 1.8 mile bike lane as part of the Lake To Sound Trail and redoing the kinda ‘hidden trail’ from Kent Des Moines Road to 223rd. On a side note: the project will include several roundabouts. I’ve been advocating for these in Des Moines for a while (like 200th and Des Moines Memorial Drive would’ve been ideal.) I’m hopeful that once people see how useful they are, we’ll be more open to using them in Des Moines.

Tuesday: Maritime High School Grand Opening!

Wednesday: Des Moines Marina Association Meeting

Thursday: Des Moines Memorial Drive Preservation Association 100th Anniversary, 11:00AM at Sunnydale School in Burien

Last Week

Wednesday: Salmon Counting at McSorley Creek with Trout Unlimited and Friends Of Saltwater State Park. We saw six salmon!!!!!!!!!

Thursday: Budget Meeting with Finance Director Beth Anne Wroe and COO Dan Brewer. So, this was great in the sense that it was the first one-on-one I’ve had with any staff since about March of 2020. And second of all, well,  it was good to get some feedback on at least one tension–that darned web site.

Thursday: Public Safety Committee Meeting (Agenda) The Guild is still negotiation on the body camera policy. There was a really good presentation by Code Enforcement Officer Kory Batterman. He is just raking in the dough. I bore people with the story of my first City Council Meeting about Code Enforcement and I am a big fan. But since 2009 I have changed my tune a bit. Good neighbourhoods shouldn’t need much Code Enforcement. And you can’t create a good neighbourhood just by fining people. So hopefully the big collections are just a part of COVID and not the start of a trend.

Thursday: City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) The biggies were:

• Public Comment by Selena and Betty Taylor, the mother and grandmother of one of the victims of the La Familia Restaurant homicides last month. They announced their intention to to work on violence prevention programs. I mentioned  in my comments how my family had also been damaged by a repeat offender. We have been in touch since and I hope to help them in their efforts.
• Censure of Councilmember Martinelli. See below.
• 2022-2027 Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Master Plan Update. See below.
• Surface Water Management (SWM) Comprehensive Plan rate update. This is 99% of the work of the Environment Committee. We voted on a rate increase which averages $.079/month and extends the work plan from 2026 to 2029. I was not a fan. As I wrote before, I would have preferred the more expensive plan (a whopping $2/month!) but keep to the 2026 schedule.

There’s a point in there somewhere

Every elected has this dance with ‘the corporation’. You’re supposed to be ‘oversight’ of the corporation, but they actually run things. They have no earthly reason to want or need your help or insight on a gosh darned thing. Their task is to tolerate you with as little friction as possible so they can get back to doing some real work. (OK, that was my approach when I was on the other side of the fence. 😀 )

But as a low-rent elected one does have to try to find out what’s going on, if for no other reason so that you can understand what is possible legislatively.

My career… one long bitchfest…

This blog, which seems so (cough) ‘controversial’ is basically how I lived out my professional life– one big, unemotional confrontation. You’re constantly debating ideas every day when you’re developing products. And then? The beta test program! Hundreds of outsiders constantly sending you bugs. Just bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, BITCH. 😀

And then you have drinks. 🙂

The entire process (up until the drinking) is completely open. Really open. And it’s based on the notion that everything you’re saying is constructive. I guess some of you might say that it requires a thick skin, but I would beg to differ. I always found it very safe because regardless of the volume in the room, everyone assumes that every word is not an insult or an indictment of one’s abilities; it’s just trying to get to a good result. And in fact, in many engineering discussion groups “thank yous” and “I appreciate yous” are frowned upon.  No one is even thinking about how people “feel”. You just assume everyone is fine. Really. No, really.

It took me a long time to figure out that all the “thank yous” and “I appreciate yous” in politics are not an irritating waste of time. In fact, they’re kinda necessary. Because there is not that implicit trust–at least, not in Des Moines. 😀 Politics is not business.

Circling back to that meeting with the Finance Director and COO, we talked a bit about the web site. And what was great was that they told me they have felt picked on. I love that stuff. I wish they had been even harsher.  Of course, the problems I’m upset about are real, but my concerns are never about ‘blame’ or ‘shame’. It’s just about correcting the problems.

Virtual Community Center

This is the web site as it existed in 2014. I think it’s a bit more colourful, but under the hood it is quite similar to what we have now. And that’s my first beef. We went through all this meshegoss in 2021 for what?

But… the new site does have a Council Meeting Center gizmo, which is a big deal. It’s the same system used by Burien. But it’s not out front. And it should be. Now. It has a search system that is an order of magnitude better, a calendar and links to all the videos, agendas, etc.

Beyond that, part of the problem is that I refer to all this as ‘the web site’. In my world, we’d actually call it a ‘digital presence’, but if I use that term nobody knows WTF I’m talking about.

Part of it is that we do not have a community center and we desperately need one. But we’re not likely to get one for a while. So until we do I want a better web… er ‘digital presence’. A much better digital presence. We need a virtual community center. Yes, we need the basic functionality of the ‘web site’ to be corrected. But beyond that we need that digital presence to do a whole lot more. Now. It’s as high a priority as any road, whether the staff or the current council gets it or not.

• I want the City to be able to reach everyone if we need to for emergencies.
• I want information, all our information accessible.
• I want us to be able to do surveys at the drop of a hat on any issue.
• When something newsworthy happens, I want all the answers people will have available immediately. (When CM Martinelli was arrested, everyone had similar questions. We could have and should have had an FAQ.
• I want activities to be pushed out to people, even if they’re not in Des Moines. And I want all that stuff to be automated so our staff doesn’t have to do any of that busy work.

The City has been going through a long overdue IT re-structuring. But part of updating any mission-critical system is inertia. And this is one of those very few situations where I do know better than the staff because customer engagement is not their world. It was my world. I’d like their trust and never conflict. But I also want an environment where I can figure out a way to get three more votes,  we hire a specialist to get ‘er done, and nobody gets upset. That’s not ‘harsh’. It’s just the way elected government is supposed to work.

Letters, process…

So far the Council has received maybe six letters re. Councilmember Martinelli. All six have been ‘resign’ but five were obviously partisan (campaign donors for the majority.) But there was one other which also mentioned him briefly and then went on to this very detailed and cogent critique of the parks and rec master plan update. And it put me over the edge about some stuff that I’ve been trying to figure out a way to talk about for a while during the campaign.

Her critique was wonderful. But there was really just one line that mattered. She is the first person to write the Council in my time who noticed a particular ‘play’ that gets run over and over. And she deserves a tall mocha pumpkin spice latte whatever for pointing it out.

The consultant started talking about data sets and materials he will get to us after the meeting. And then we vote on the plan at the next meeting. Now if that sounds vaguely familiar, you also deserve a tall mocha pumpkin spice whatever. With sprinkles. It’s how we did the budget process, the ARPA spending, basically everything.

And just to review:

1. Meeting #1: Presentation, but no data
2. Data shows up. But there’s no way to ask questions
3. Meeting #2: Final vote.

In the real world, if a consultant shows up and starts talking about reference materials that he doesn’t have with him, I or my colleagues immediately say, “Gee, that’s unfortunate. The secretary will show you out and help you reschedule. After we have reviewed those materials, we’d love to have you back.”

I’ve actually tried that once or twice here. And it feels like… you know those National Geographic movies where a pack of hyenas jump on a straggler from the herd? It’s like that. “Well, how dare you! I have all the information I need!” Which sadly, is actually true. But it shuts down any meaningful inquiry or editing function. Which is the entire point: move things forward as quickly as possible.

In my world (and every other local government), you show up with all the materials. You give people time to review it. You have two meetings where you can really dig in. You can be as as firm as you like and you get answers. There is a lot of red-lining and editing and nobody cares because, hey, I get paid by the hour. 😀

You also want as much of the public involved for the same reason that a software benefits from beta testing: you want all the eyes you can get on the process. That’s what this is all about.

And we just don’t do any of that jazz. Speed, congeniality and the absence of confrontation are seen as evidence of good government.

Censure

As I said, her letter opened with a call for Councilmember Martinelli’s resignation. And I understand her feelings completely. I actually started thinking about this over a year before his arrest.

I made a comment from the dais about “shunning” because my colleagues and the City Manager have all treated me in miserable ways that would get anyone fired from a ‘real’ job and cause many a lawsuit. I am not kidding. You think I’m ‘direct’ here? I dial it down. A lot. And just to be clear: this is not whining about how “the other kids don’t like me!” These are ethics violations that prevent government from working properly. Despite that, every week I work with constituents who are supporters of those so-and-sos in a cheerful and sincere fashion.

And my point is this:

Councilmembers have no control over who they get to work with. That’s not a dodge. The law says that the voters choose us and only the voters can remove us. So very early on I made my ethical decision on this sort of thing: Quit in some truly gothic fashion or start looking at everyone strictly as a vote.

I will never avoid giving my full professional cooperation to anyone based on personal animus because ultimately that screws the 32,000 people I was elected to serve.

Some of you will find comparing the treatment by my colleagues and DV an outrageous form of ‘whataboutism’. I respectfully disagree. As a practicing Catholic and the spouse of a domestic violence survivor, the position I just articulated is, for me, the most ethical position. I was elected to further legislation and provide oversight to the greatest benefit if 32,000 people. That is all the RCW says.

However, again, my feelings are totally irrelevant. You will make the difference. If  there is enough public support I am about  100% certain Councilmemember Martinelli will resign. The mechanism is to write the City Council: citycouncil@desmoineswa.gov.

But you’ll need more than those current six e-mails. And that’s after Mayor Pina did a press release to major media and the Waterland Blog and prepared a motion of censure.

ABP

Now lest you think I’m some apologist, I’ll leave you with this: the irony of the current situation is that Councilmember Martinelli tried his darnedest to ‘always be positive’ (ABP as they say in sales school.) He witnessed many of the same ethics violations I have. But if you look at his public writings since taking office they become increasingly positive in describing the City, the City Manager and especially the police.

I also believe in credit where credit is due. But I felt (and feel) that it is never a good idea to overlook ethical lapses, especially because by now the public has no idea what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ when it comes to official conduct.

Let’s just say we disagreed.