Some bits of business…
King Tide
I don’t want to overdo it, but if yer new to the area and live near the water, there is this thing called a King Tide, which has something to do with the moon and the ocean and, well, science and so on. 😀 But unless yer a sailor, what matters is that it tends to cause flooding events at the Marina, Beach Park, Woodmont, Redondo. It’s generally only a potential problem in years with bad weather and high winds. And, well… we’re expecting bad weather and high winds for the next few weeks. For us, the bigguns tend to be the second week of December, especially in the morning. You can monitor tides here and get forecasts on flooding here.
Construction
- Pacific Highway will be shut down from Kent Des Moines Road to 24oth late night December 10, 11.
- The 216th Bridge at Military Road is about to be taken down and rebuilt. That section of road will be reduced to a single lane off and on for the next year.
Consider taking other routes.
City Currents Magazine
The print edition of the latest City Currents has reached your door, so I’m offering a shortened version of my previous comments. Or you can read the entire essay here.
Election Certified
The 2023 General Election has been certified. Some stats: 33,124 residents. 19,228 registered voters and 6,006 voters. The ‘average’ Des Moines resident and registered voter are about 39 years of age and, believe it or not, now BIPOC. But the people who actually vote continue to trend overwhelmingly white, reside near the water and are getting older; now almost 60 years of age. And ’60’ is the arithmetic mean.
The particularly low turnout is due an off-year election, but regardless, those trends continue.
I knocked on slightly less than 5,000 doors–fewer than I’d hoped, but in addition to being tireder, the fact is that people are getting harder to reach for various reasons. More people have security systems, work odd hours or are behind gates.
I raised about $2,900 and spent about $1,600. I took no money from PACs, the average contribution was $50 and every contribution but two were from Des Moines residents.
Both my opponent and I ran what is referred to by the PDC as Mini-Reporting campaigns. This absolves one from a lot of tedious reporting so long as one raises less than $7,000. However, you are required to be subject to inspection within ten days of the election. And my campaign books were inspected (every receipt) by former mayor Matt Pina and former councilmember Luisa Bangs, both of whom I served with and obviously did not do so because they are big fans.
My opponent appears to have raised about about $13,700. That was possible due to a loophole in the law which allows one to accept Independent Expenditures (PAC money) in any amount. As the name implies, the ‘independent’ expenditure is made by an external organisation which supposedly has no collaboration with the campaign. In this case, the Washington Realtors PAC.
You’re such a cheapskate
I ran the campaign I thought I needed to run in order to win by a comfortable margin (in my case 15 points.)
However, I talked with other candidates who, for various reasons, felt that they needed to spend a ton of money, not just to win, but to really run up the score as much as possible. Their theory is that, if possible one should dominate, ie. win by thirty points or more because it’s that margin that demonstrates some form of ‘mandate’. I disagree. By that theory if one runs unopposed, one is the people’s choice! and that is simply untrue in a city like Des Moines where almost no one runs unless they have some axe to grind.
In short: a win is a win.
However, I will say that the combination of people being harder to reach, fewer places to engage on the record with groups, and PAC money, will have ramifications for future campaigns. It’s getting harder and harder to run the kind of sincere, grassroots campaigns I prefer unless there is some concerted get out the vote program. It’s a real question because if these massive neighbourhood disparities continue it will make it harder for those voices to be heard.
Historically, people who run unopposed are no more and sometimes less prepared to govern. An under-appreciated aspect of campaigning is that it is supposed to prepare one to govern by incentivising one to get out and talk to the entire the City. That was/is the main reason I doorbell so much. It was never so much about ‘votes’ as it was/is market research.
This Week
Monday: Highline College tour. As I’ve written many times, I consider the college to be a second focal point for the City and Mondays are food truck days. 😀
Wednesday 6:00pm: Marina All Tenants Party.
Last Two Weeks
Meeting with Interim City Manager
I had a meeting with Interim City Manager Tim George. Mr. George made it clear that he had no interest in applying for the permanent City Manager position. I will continue to press this point for several reasons which I won’t go into here.
Mr. George also stressed that it would be in the best interest of hiring a quality City Manager if the Council could act as harmoniously as possible during this transition period. I fully agree. You first. 😀
Everyone can do better. But overall, I feel like I have done well at my job and conducted myself appropriately. And frankly? I want the next City Manager, and City Council to be more like me. Not ‘me’ per se, but rather people who have a much wider variety of interests, values and priorities. 🙂
But I will not stop looking for accountability. As I’ve said all along, it was simply unfair to dump on Michael Matthias and it would be a mistake to suggest that now that he is not City Manager that a new day has dawned. The management, and Council, that enabled all the shenanigans is still place, and there are many ongoing bad policies that will continue forward unless someone says otherwise. I will not look the other way in order to create some false appearance. That obsession with ‘image’ has not served us well. In fact, I want candidates for the next CM to walk in eyes wide open. I want them to fully grasp the situation and feel reassured that the person we choose is an individual who is dedicated to working with the entire Council, not the other way round, if you catch my drift. 😀
But more than that, this City has had an ongoing problem with governance since I’ve lived here. One way or another, every Council majority has taken advantage of Council/Manager government.
Council/Manager Government was created specifically to be apolitical. It only works if everyone agrees to work together. And ironically, that is what makes it so vulnerable to takeover by a partisan City Manager or a majority. Since I’ve lived here, Des Moines has been governed by a vibe that one might call ‘small town’ if yer a fan, or ‘country club’ if yer not. Regardless, that approach may have been OK in 1996 but is completely unacceptable now given our much greater size and budget.
I’ll end this rant by noting that a big reason I’ve railed against all kinds of spending during my first term was because the Council was constantly being reassured as to our fiscal strength–right up until the last budget meeting of course. 😀 The fact is, we keep sloshing back and forth every 5-8 years and I’m sick of it. There need to be some lessons learned here so that we can truly create a sustainable future–and if we continue to fall back on ‘agreeability’ we’ll just keep making mistakes.
Water Quality
I attended a seminar at the MAST Center on improving water quality, co-hosted by SR3, King County and ZeroPoo.com. That should tell you that a significant problem with water quality here is poop, both human and dogs.
I need to get the slide in this picture, but if you zoom in on it, and you can kinda see that King County is now taking samples at the street level–his example was in the area near City Hall east to Barnes Creek Trail. And they’re finding that there are many neighbourhood sources of Fecal Coliform Bacteria and e-coli. We are now on the verge of being able to do easy tests to determine the source of those pollutants at the street level (human and/or pets.) My hope is that soon, we’ll be able to enlist you, the public, to help identify problems before they make it into creeks and Puget Sound.
Specifics
- We need to improve our septic systems, or get people to move onto the grid. There will be another round of grants to help people with that in 2024. PIC-Myth-buster
- We need to clean up after our dogs. I encourage you to go to the ZeroPoo site and, frankly, start doing better in that regard. This is no different than drinking and driving or seatbelts. We need to change what is considered acceptable if we want to fix this.
At the City level there are literally tens of thousands of decomposing old tires all along our shoreline including 13,000 in front of the Fishing Pier. Here is a recent Seattle Times editorial explains the extent of the problem. I’ve been trying to get the City engaged on this and will have more to say soon.
Doors Open Sales Tax
I gave public comment to the King County Council regarding a new Sales Tax you probably haven’t heard about concerning Doors Open. Basically, it’s another 1/10th of a cent sales tax dedicated to arts and education funding, which doesn’t sound like a lot but apparently would generate $100 million in revenue. That should give you an idea of how large King county is. The tax is a pot of money for culture and education. My testimony was a concept that my colleagues either don’t get or don’t appreciate. Equity.
This graphic may seem unrelated, but it totally is. It’s from an Amazon brochure showing how much money they are donating to help build affordable housing throughout KC. Great. But notice how many more units are being built not in Des Moines.
And that’s the connection: call it what you will, but pick a public need in King County: transporation, human services, education, arts, whatever, the lion’s share of the money almost always goes somewhere else.
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of sales taxes because they are so regressive. But if they vote for it, they must insure that Des Moines gets its fair share. In fact, we deserve more, given the fact that we take it in the neck from the airport.
Port of Seattle finalises Budget/Land Stewardship
Speaking of which, I attended the Port of Seattle Commission meeting where they approved their 2024 budget (Agenda.) I commented on the Port Package updates along with a resident with a truly failed Port Package.
As I keep saying, the Port will cross one billion dollars in revenue this year. And every year from now on will be another record.  2023 Budget in Brief.
That makes their current efforts at mitigation under the flight path all the more pathetic. 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 Des Moines City Council, going back two decades now, is that they honestly believe(d) that by partnering with the Port, their successes would (somehow) trickle down to us. This was never going to be true. And my hope is that comparing their 2024 budget with our 2024 budget should change some minds once and for all.
This is the same discussion as the Doors Open tax. We must start getting our fair share, across all domains. And that fair share should include a bonus due to our proximity to the airport. In other words, we have to flip the script and stop thinking of the airport as a ‘plus’. For Des Moines, it’s a minus. And no ‘partnerships’ will ever compensate for that fact.
Mayor Mahoney’s City Currents
Regarding the recent City Currents Winter 2o24. 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?
(the remainder of this essay can be found here.)
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.