Some bits of business…
Future Agendas
Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not dynamic, ie. you have to click it every time you want to see a new version. And it’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar, this can be very useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.
Report Card Contest Prize Winner!
I got five report cards. Three were complete. The winner (gift card is in the mail!) was the one entry that actually filled out the form. And I’m all about people who take the time to fill out the form. 😀 But everyone is a winner.
The totally unscientific results were somewhat as expected. (People who disagree with me strenuously aren’t likely to fill out no steenkin’ forms.) But IÂ do think the exercise is worthy doing for the entire city and I’ve passed it onto our new City Manager. Since only 33 people showed up at our last ‘Town Hall’ (see below), and several thousand people engage with the City on social media, this is a zero cost way to get a much broader input.
City Manager Stuff
Here is the second Weekly Report from incoming City Manager Katherine Caffrey.
City Manager’s Report November, 15, 2024
As has become something of a habit, I’m publishing a replica, because the City has made the questionable decision of switching from PDFs to pages which don’t allow one to look back. And I am all about looking back. 😀 Every document the City generates should persist.
Budget Town Hall Summary
Read the City’s stats on last month’s Budget Town Hall. Vindication! 😀
Budget Town Hall Summary Report
City Manager Meet n’ Greet
In the meantime, Ms. Caffrey will also be appearing live, here:
o Saturday, 11/16, 9-10:30am, Des Moines Field House
o Thursday, 11/21, 9-10:30am, MaST Center
o Monday, 11/25, 9-10:30am, North Hill Espresso
And, not to drive the point any harder, here was the turnout for the first one, basically a subset of every such event we hold. I think these people are great, but they do not represent the City even to saying that almost none of them live near the Field House! But if you think I’m picking on these civic-minded people, I am not. I salute them. Rather, the problem is that I can think of half a dozen younger families, people with real concerns, people I talk to regularly, and who live within three blocks of the Field House! They shoulda been at this table and were not.
This calls to mind what one considers ‘democracy’. Is it the City’s responsibility to reach people where they are? Or is it every residents’ responsibility to perform their ‘civic duty’ and those who make the effort should be prioritised?
This Week
Wednesday 2:30: Highline Forum (at City of SeaTac City Hall) There will be a SAMP update. Worth checking out because if you learn nothing else about the Port of Seattle, here’s something: every presentation they give is slightly different. (Agenda) 😀
Wednesday: Regional Transit Committee. We’ll finalise 2025 budget recommendations on Rapid Ride. As I keep ranting about, this is great, except for every person in Des Moines who has to schlep over a mile just to get to a Rapid Ride stop!
Thursday: Transportation Committee – 21 Nov 2024 – Agenda – Pdf Highlight: 223rd Green Streets Study. This is a must read for everyone. I mean EVERYONE. But especially people interested in the Marina Steps. I know you don’t know anything about this, but right now, I’m still digesting one number. $20,000,000. Seriously. Read this.
Thursday: Environment Committee – 21 Nov 2024 – Agenda – Pdf Highlight: Source Control Update. ‘Source Control’ means monitoring businesses and other potential sources of pollution. We’ll be getting a report on how that’s going.
Thursday: Regular Meeting – 21 Nov 2024 – Agenda – Pdf Highlights
- SB 5290 Local Project Review Requirements
- Stormfest – Interlocal Agreement
- Bird Deterrent Ball Purchase — a little story here re. Des Moines Creek West, which I hope we can get to.
- Marine View Drive Pond Retrofit
- Ferry Economic Impacts Study Grant Acceptance. Check out this narrative!
“In the summer of 2022, the City of Des Moines utilized ARPA funding to support a pilot ferry/water taxi program, which provided shuttle service between Des Moines and Seattle with four sailings in each direction. The popularity of the program far exceeded expectations, with nearly every sailing fully booked throughout its duration. Demand was so high that we frequently had standby passengers waiting to board.
In addition to the high ridership, the program generated revenues that surpassed initial projections, demonstrating both strong community interest and financial viability. The success of this pilot has reinforced the City’s ongoing discussions with King County Metro Marine Division regarding the potential to establish Des Moines as a permanent stop within the regional marine transit network.”
Muwhahaha. (that’s my laughing out loud with coffee coming out me nose onomatopoeia.) The Ferry Pilot program was not only a waste of at least $500,000. The fact that the City continues to fib about this, just to further the program, says that the broken culture which created the program is still in place.
- 2025 Property Tax Levies. In addition to the usual 1% increase, we will tack on the ‘banked’ capacity we gave homeowners during the pandemic. It doesn’t bug me now for the same reason it did not strike me as ‘generous’ back then. It’s actually just a few dollars for each homeowner. And knowing how strapped we perpetually are, I knew we’d take it back eventually. In other words, there is no free lunch; just a reprieve. 🙂
- 2023 Annual Budget Amendments. Yes, we’re still closing out the 2023 books. Am I upset? No. Does this thrill me? No. Hopefully, I watch ‘the books’ more closely than most residents. My concern is more about making ‘the books’ easier to grok for those residents. And when we are working in three accounting years at once, it invites confusion.
- Water District 54 Franchise Amendment. The original City proposal was a 6% utility tax and end the franchise agreement to bring them in line with other utilities. WD54 objected. The new proposal is to continue the franchise agreement and add 6% to the franchise payment. Not sure how it benefits their 626 customers (I’m one), but it lowers our fees substantially. I’m on the fence.
Square Footage Tax. Will bring in lots of money from the Business Park we could have gotten years ago. But better late than ever. Will I ever get credit? The Magic 8 Ball says…- Executive Session: No idea. The RCW reason code is: “Litigation or legal risks of a proposed action or current practice that the agency has identified when public discussion of the litigation or legal risks is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency.”
Last Week
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting. The Commission approved the 2025 budget, which I discussed a couple of weeks ago. The top line: they are rolling in money, due to record airport operations. We get zilch. And we should start wondering why we haven’t gotten in on the gravy train.
Wednesday: SAMP Open House Mt. Rainier High School The open houses are over. Now what? 😀 We have until December 13 to provide public comment. At the risk of sounding self-serving, the best information you can get will always be here, because these are the only people who have been working on the issues continuously since the SAMP began. The biggest problem we’ve always had in working on airport issues is that people come and go and think they can pick this stuff up in a few days/weeks. It’s ridiculous. Someone has to be following the story all the way in order to provide good advice. That’s what STNI does. Please subscribe to Sea-Tac Noise.Info
Thursday November 14: SR-509 Community Presentation for Blueberry Lane If yer short on time, here is a direct link to the info most Des Moines residents will want to see: SR 509/24th Avenue South to South 188th Street – I live in, work in, or travel through Des Moines, SeaTac, and southern Burien. If you have questions or concerns about construction at any time, you can contact their 24-hour hotline, 206-225-0674, or SR509Construction@wsdot.wa.gov.
Thursday: City Council Study Session5:00pm. City Council Retreat – 14 Nov 2024 – Agenda
Council Meeting Recap
As I wrote previously, I strenuously objected to paying $2,000 and making staff sit through four hour meeting where they have no role to play. (Come to think of it, I object to making me sit through a four hour meeting 😀 ). However, I met with the Mayor beforehand to pledge my sincere cooperation in the exercise. But having withheld judgment and tried to participate with sincerity, here is my review:
First, the following is in no way meant to be disparage the provider, who was hired on the Mayor’s recommendation, did exactly what he said he would do, also with complete sincerity. I also want to thank the Waterland Blog for writing about the event because, honestly, even if it were the Spanish Inquisition, I couldn’t tell ya what we decided on.
Value For Money
My guess is that this meeting cost the City at least $7,200. ($2,000 for the guy, $2,000 for Council pay, $3,200 for 8 staff/4hrs/$100/hr and setting up the room in the ‘U’ thing.)
Here is a comparison of what the 2024 Council came up with after 4 hours, vs. the 2018 version. You make the call as to whether this was worth $7,200.
| 2024 | 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
| Mission | Des Moines is a waterfront community; building a safe, sustainable environment by providing a high quality of life for all to live, work, and play. | Encourage growth; and protect, respect, promote, and improve the community by providing leadership and services that reflect the pride of our City and honor our citizens. |
| Vision | To be the premier marine destination in the Pacific Northwest. | Create a vibrant, inviting, livable, safe and sustainable waterfront community, while enbracing change for the future and respecting our history. |
| Core Values/Goals | • Safety • Sustainability • Integrity • Transparency • Innovation |
• Protect people and property • Promote economic stability, growth and vibrancy, Improve and enhance the City’s transparency through community communications • Maintain, and when possible, enhance the City’s infrastructure • Provide efficient and effective customer-oriented City Services • Preserve and celebrate the historic elements of the City, Encourage community involvement, Preserve livability for all generations • Participate in regional and state issues and decisions • Protect the natural environment |
In my opinion: Â This spoke to the Council’s actual values, which are to look like we’re doing something rather than doing something. Given our acute budget problems, when you waste an entire meeting, and all senior staff’s evenings, on something with so little real value, it betrays a lack of seriousness.
Communication
This year alone we’ve done equally wasteful ‘Budget Town Halls’, a ‘Marina Steps Town Hall’, and assigned a Communications Director with no budget. We have a Citizens Advisory Committee which does not record or even announce its meetings. Â Last year there was around $100k in a year-long ‘Communication Study’. And don’t get me started on the tends of thousands of dollars we wasted on misleading promo pieces for not one but two ballot initiatives. Despite what you may think, we’re not avoiding ‘communications’, we’re actually spending a ton of money doing it the wrong way. It’s intentional. We want to look like we’re doing something. Without actually doing something.
Bad Couples Game Night
My partner used to call this Study Session “Bad Couples Game Night”. (Can you tell we weren’t salespeople? 😀 ) No matter how bad the game is, the setting compels everyone to play along to the bitter end so as not to appear cranky or (God forbid) risk hurting anyone’s feelings. Because the one thing you cannot do in that context is to complain about the game itself. (The usual saving grace is that single malt beverages are on offer. No such luck here.)
Just a theory
Every ‘team building seminar’, which is what this was, opens with a speech about ‘safe space’. All the contestants are encouraged to be ‘candid’ and ‘disagree without being disagreeable’.
If candor and respectful disagreement were ‘safe’, this blog (and this type of critique) would not be controversial. Deep down, I am certain that a majority of our residents and staff, whether they love or hate moi personally, would agree with the substance of this critique.
The ‘trick’, which was the focus of my career, and a main point of this blog over the past six years, is to actually value candor. We can’t seem to make it even publicly acceptable. What we have done instead is to double down on ‘civility’ and ‘nice’. No matter how poor the spending decisions, how grand the exaggerations, how ‘black box’ the process, in this environment the biggest sin is to appear ‘impolite’.
In my opinion, a better approach would have been to open the meeting with the following motion
“I move to re-adopt the 2018 Mission/Vision/Values statement as a 2025 draft. Take the thing home, make some notes on how to tweak specific goals and we’ll discuss how to make them operational in January. Go home to yer families. I’m hittin’ the bar.” 🙂
And before we hit said bar, we could also have taken that $7,200 and sent out my 2018 Report Card to every resident, and let them tell us what their Vision is for Des Moines in the next 20 years. 🙂