Weekly Update: 11/19/2023

Some bits of business…

The latest City Currents Winter 24 web edition. I appreciate the City getting this published so quickly, given that the Council only voted on this five days ago. Page 4 is worth a read and I have some comments below.

This Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda) Port 2024 Budget second (final) reading 2024 Budget. As I keep saying, the Port is ¹rolling in it. They will cross one billion dollars in revenue this year–even without quite getting back to 2019 aviation levels. For non-specialists, the  2023 Budget in Brief.

Every year from now on will be another record. And that makes their current efforts at mitigation under the flight path all the more pathetic. Sorry, not sorry. In other words, even with a new Land Stewardship Plan and various grants, as a percentage of income, those funds don’t maintain parity with revenue growth. When the public complains about ‘income inequality’ that is exactly how I feel about the power differential between the City and our neighbour to the north. My central beef with the Council is that they honestly believe(d) that by partnering with the Port, their successes would tricklow down to us. Not. True. In fact, as they grow richer, we grow poorer. And just comparing their 2024 budget with our 2024 budget should change some minds on our Council–once and for all.

Wednesday: Highline Forum at City of SeaTac City Hall

Last Week

Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda) Port 2024 Budget first reading 2024 Budget. See above.

Thursday 5:00pm: Public Safety Emergency Management Committee  (Agenda) (Video)

There was an update from Code Enforcement Officer Kory Batterman: (206)-870-7617. This is the one area of policing that I’ve seen has improved dramatically over the last decade. One of the big reasons I used to show up for every meeting was the slow decline of my street due to a number of code enforcement issues. One thing we could do is to re-instate the Landlord Registration program we had until 2010. This was a simple process where landlords (I was one of them) agreed to keep their contact info on file with the police. So when neighbours had a concern about a rental property, they could contact the police and the police could attempt to resolve the situation with the landlord.

New Chief Tim Gately had some very good information on where we’re at with staffing. One reason I’m constantly going on about ‘more cops!’ is for the same reason a  sports team has many more players on the roster than on the field at any game. You need extras.

He also did two new things which bode well for the future:

• The first was a high level stats report–that was not particularly new. However, he also indicated that he would start providing comparative reports, ie. where we’re at vis a vis cities like Burien, SeaTac, etc. That will be new–and something I’ve wanted since for-ehhhvehr. Here’s a sample from a recent presentation from Burien which I found very useful.
• He also mentioned limiting ride-alongs for everyone, public and electeds; again, something I’ve wanted for a long time. At the risk of sounding like a Grinch, former City Manager Matthias always stressed maintaining a professional distance from staff–and I actually agreed with that–especially with police officers. Ride-alongs are real eye-openers and every elected should do them–as we should have opportunities to interact with all departments. But our interactions should be limited to learning how things work, with as light a touch as possible, and above all, everyone should be treated exactly the same.

Thursday 6:00pm: City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) Recap below…

November 16, 2023

Public Comment

As has become standard common, there were several very good public comments and I thought about them a good deal this week, in combo with the Mayor’s statement in the City Currents and I address them all below.

City Manager’s Report

This was Tim George’s first meeting as Interim City Manager. He pledged to begin publishing a weekly report, something that has been absent since about 2017.

Consent Agenda

All three Items were pulled. Cm Steinmetz pulled Item #1 on something of a technicality. Fair enough. We should get those details right.

I pulled Items #2 and #3.

• Item #2 involves a consulting contract on the new Link Light Rail. The funny thing is that the Highline station was supposed to open in 2024, but is now delayed until 2026–but not for anything at that station. But for some reason, S/T is still paying for our engineer to finish up our side of the street. I asked a somewhat rhetorical question: namely, can we get some pictures of how the finished project will look for our residents? I’m pushing on this because these two years give us a chance to do some real planning to make the new station an economic draw for our side of the street. It’s not too early. This time is a gift.
• Item #3 concerned undergrounding utilities. Basically, we have a formal policy to always underground utilities on public projects–which we pretty much always have to override. All the overhead wires drive me nuts. And I have to correct the Mayor in saying that the City saved “2-3 million dollars by not undergrounding utilities on 24th ave. Not quite.  But I’m trying to let that go. 🙂

Public Hearing

There was another Street Vacation hearing, this time on the back side of Huntington Park. I know these are confusing because all the public really cares about is “What’s going to be built on that spot?” But that ain’t the way the law works, the various tasks are intentionally kept separate.

My only grouse is that we should provide the above piccie in the packet! So that the public can understand at the hearing! Instead, what they see (or read) are surveyors notes, which are far less easy to understand.

New Items For Consideration

Cm Steinmetz proposed two related Motions to Reconsider, which is a parliamentary procedure where you can come back at the next meeting and change your vote. But you can only do it if you were on the winning side.

Basically he wanted an opportunity to undo his vote for the Event Planning Enterprise Fund and the loan to get it started. Those items will come back for a ‘re-vote’ on December 14. Unless someone changes their mind again, the Event Planner thing will be undone–which will mean that ‘events’ in Des Moines will continue in 2024 as they did in 2023; which means not nearly as good as they should be.

My point all along has been that the basic idea is actually good. The problem is that we’re focusing on costs and risk, rather than revenue and opportunity. The first step should be to hire a top notch event planner–it’s a serious skill–and determine what the real revenue potential is. My fear has always been the ‘sleepy town’ aspect. Frankly, a certain minority of people in DM do not want tourism. I cannot tolerate that, simply because we have to make more money. And that means more people coming here to spend money. Our only problem has been that we haven’t done it well.

Comments

My comments had to do with regional opportunities. There is a ton of money available now from King county and the Port of Seattle. Unfortunately, we’re currently among the lowest recipients of that largesse on any number of axes, including arts, environmental, and economic grants.

Vic Pennington gave a farewell speech. For some reason, he made this his last meeting, and for some other reason, Councilmember-elect Grace-Matsui will be joining us on 14 December rather than the usual debut with the official new Council. Without appearing ungracious, that is also a sorta surprise. And if any of the above truly want a more harmonious Council in 2024, and regardless of motivation, everyone involved in that decision should knock it off with the surprises.

Every person who serves deserves respect and courtesy and I certainly tried to give Mr. Pennington both during our time together. However, he was the strongest proponent of Michael Matthias, and the author of the surprise of surprises–the pocket motion on January 23, 2020 at his last retirement speech. That extended Mr. Matthias’ severance package and (intentionally) created the tension for the City and for this Council which lead to the “pivot.”

Mayor Mahoney’s City Currents

Regarding the recent City Currents Winter 24 web. As I’ve written before, previous mayors usually confined their comments in the City Currents to factual reports of events and programs. And I agree with that approach. The City always has a number of extremely positive stories to tell, as well as challenges we can all agree need attention. Those are what the Mayor should be talking about; not politics.

He says that he knew the change in City Manager would happen all along, but in fact, it comes as a complete surprise, not only to the community but to our partners throughout the region. “Wow. Never saw that coming.”

In addition to the poor messaging, I object to the article for basic writing. The piece uses the word ‘pivot’ several times and I have no idea what we’re pivoting from or what we are pivoting to. The word is also used twice in quotes. That technique is commonly referred to as scare quotes. For example:

I want to “thank” you for all your “great” service over the past seven years. We’re all “thrilled” to have known you.

See what I mean?

Am I busting the Mayor’s chops? Yes. One of the Mayor’s superpowers under our rules is to be the voice of the City Council. That is why we give him unfettered access to very expensive and exclusive venues like the City Currents–opportunities no other councilmember does.

If he cannot keep his comments value neutral there, how can he be expected to do so in all the other spaces like “Coffee With The Mayor” or Citizens Advisory Committee or all the regional meetings where he is supposed to be speaking as the voice of the Council and not acting on his own initiative?

Genius!

It was a complete mistake from day one for the Council to lionise Mr. Matthias so. It was not only unfair to the City, it was also unfair to him. Nobody should be put on such a pedestal, especially not the CEO. The organisation is the only star. Perhaps if we had taken more of that approach with Mr. Matthias, everyone would have been less prone to polarisation and overreach. My hope (for everyone’s sake) is that the next City Manager will be talked about as little as possible.

But more than that, in the decades I’ve been watching, we’ve had something of a preoccupation with appearances. My colleagues gave all these rave reviews of Mr. Matthias, then demonised everything and everyone else. The net effect of this “pivot” being that we tend to react far too late to each big event.

The Sky Is Not Falling

But one thing I do not want to do is overreact. The first thing I want is dramatically better information. But the last thing I want is yet another ‘surprise!’, meaning decisions based on emotion.

We now have a better accounting system. We have a Finance Director who has worked with a standing finance committee before, and seems to want to make better use of tech. Great. Lets give his team the chance to bring the Council the better data we should’ve had all along. And let’s turn that Ad Hoc Finance committee into a permanent fixture; not to panic or engage in more overreach, just to give all seven of us the clearer picture we should have had all along.

So one last hope I have for the next Council is a more moderate approach. That doesn’t always mean ‘civility’. If you recall, before I got on this train we had the most congenial group of people you ever saw–at least in public. And it’s worth finally acknowledging that it never made a difference in terms of true sustainability.

My commitment has always been, and will continue to be, to the long game; both on communication, and on finances.

Food fight!

I have a thought experiment. Let’s say that every meeting looked like this classic of the American  Cinema. (It won’t.) But after four years of that, the City achieved major improvements in financial sustainability?

Would that be worth a FOOD FIGHT every two weeks?

It’s a real question. Actually, it’s the question I asked myself last May before filling out the form. You may not always enjoy watching the pie fight. But remember that I’m the one often required to duck. 😀 So please, no lectures about the value of ‘civility’. But in spite of those work-related hazards, I think the obvious answer to my question is ‘yes’.

Because here’s the thing I always bear in mind: ³nobody will remember us, or these meetings, ten years from now. But everyone will have to live with the decisions we make for the next fifty.

¹Wanna see something? Just the car rentals at the airport are a $300 million dollar business.

²See what I did there? 😀

³Think fast: name one member of the 2012 City Council.