Weekly Update: 12/10/2023

Some bits of business…

For those celebrating Hanukkah

Did you know there is a “National Menorah Lighting” in front of the White House when Hanukkah begins? I sure did not. Check it out. https://nationalmenorah.org/

Happy Hanukkah. 🙂

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… you’ve seen the bad weather the pas few weeks. For us, the biggest waves will be this week, especially in the morning. You can monitor tides here and get forecasts on flooding here.

For the rest of us, this is the time of year where storm drains get clogged. If you aren’t comfortable clearing the storm drains, no prob. Just contact the City using either the Fix-It Form or Storm Water Management. 🙂

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. Also, you can start to see trains at the platform of the upcoming Kent/Des Moines Station. It’s gettin’ closer.

Finally, here is a set of SR 509 Stage II 160th to 24th Ave renderings, which will be coming to Blueberry Lane, Des Moines Memorial Drive and 200th starting in 2024. Unfortunately, the ‘public open house’ was in (wait for it) 2o22, so I’m hoping we can get a lot more community input on this soon. This will be a very big deal if you live in anywhere in the area.

This Week

Tuesday 12:00pm Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda) This is the last meeting of the year and the highlights are the Port’s 2024 Legislative Agenda. For Des Moines, it’s a total loser. And by that I mean that, for the first time in a decade, it contains basically nothing to address our concerns over noise, pollution. It is almost 100% ‘economic development’, which sounds just ducky until you recognise that the Port has never been a source of economic development for Des Moines. Frankly, this is as much a failure of the Des Moines City Council as the Port of Seattle. We stopped asking for the right things a very long time ago. And the most basic lesson of government is this: you only get what you ask for.

Wednesday 5:00pm: StART Meeting (Agenda) (Zoom Registration) The highlight will the discussion of the new Part 150 program. When I say ‘Part 150’ just think “Airplane Noise” and “Port Packages.”

By the way, this is a good opportunity to mention that the City is looking for two new residents to serve as community members of StART. Apply here.

Thursday, December 14 6:00pm: City Council Meeting (Agenda) Our last meeting of the year and first with newest CM Yoshiko Grace Matsui.

Meeting Highlights

Third quarter financial report

In the past year I have been impressed by the Finance Dept. getting presentations into the packet before the meeting. I’m also happy that the quality of the reports is improving. I’m going to hope that this means we’re learning more about our newfangled accounting software. This will sound left-handed, but it’s not: we’re just now moving past where we were in 2008–when I first started watching. The financial reports back then were often much better than what we’ve had to work with in recent years. But, they must’ve taken a ton of time to prepare, because it sure wasn’t due to the old software we used. Anyhoo, the information is getting easier to grok.

Yeah, I will always sound like the guy with a hammer who sees every problem as a nail because my company wrote accounting software (which isn’t called ‘accounting software’ anymore) for ‘mid-markets’ (which aren’t called mid-markets anymore.) But mid-markets spend a fortune on customisation to reduce errors, save time, but also to obtain competitive advantage. If you have ways to look at your processes the other guy didn’t, you often could win in your market space. You pay a ton of money to generate really useful information at the touch of a button not just because it avoids a bajillion silly typos (which looks really fabulous at a shareholder meeting, btw. 😀 ) but also because it give you a competitive advantage.

I want to encourage the City to automate, Automate, AUTOMATE whenever possible. Small organisations tend to short change on that–preferring to spend money on a new truck or whatever, because “that’s what makes money.” The problem with that approach is that your organisation reaches a size where you either don’t get the information you need to innovate (or even make the correct operational decision), or you end up making yer bookkeeper work their fingers to the bone trying to get it. ²When you reach a certain size, good information makes more money than a truck.

Nice touch adding a sales tax category for restaurants.
Utility taxes, have perverse incentives. The more people who continue using fossil fuels the more money the City makes. When everyone starts to shift to solar, we’ll have some real decisions to make.

OK, but how are we doing? Well, several numbers are up, especially Utility Taxes, which never slays me because they’re so regressive. Every year we’re becoming more dependent on them–especially natural gas, which also means we’re moving in the wrong direction environmentally. But Property Tax collections are down, which also does not kill me, not only because that is our single biggest revenue source, but also because it indicates that we are behind where we need to be on building places for people to live.

Consent Agenda

This meeting has everything I hate about consent agendas. 😀 It’s not just that there are ¹ten items. Some are routine, but would be better discussed first in some committee. Two are contingent on other items. If we vote ‘no’ on one it prevents another item from going forward. And one is another of those pro-forma consultant renewals that we should occasionally review. I am trying my darnedest to not always be that guy, but this is something I want the next City Manager to do better with. Putting any item on consent that we can’t say ‘no’ to should become rare.

3. KING COUNTY COOPERATIVE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT GRANT AWARD – DES MOINES CREEK ESTUARY PROJECT Motion is to accept the King County Cooperative Watershed Management Grant Award for the Des Moines Creek Estuary Project and authorize the City Manager to sign the Grant Agreement substantially in the form as submitted. King County Cooperative Watershed Management Grant Award – Des Moines Creek Estuary Project Item

4. AHBL CONSULTANT SERVICES CONTRACT Motion is to authorize the City Manager to sign the Consultant Services Contract between the City of Des Moines and AHBL, substantially in the form as attached. AHBL Consultant Services Contract Item

5. 24TH AVE S IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT – PUGET SOUND ENERGY EASEMENT AMENDMENT Motion is to approve the Puget Sound Energy Easement Amendment on Tax Parcel No. 0922049018, and further authorize the City Manager to sign said easement substantially in the form as submitted. 24th Ave S Improvements Project – Puget Sound Energy Easement Amendment

6. RIGHT OF WAY DEDICATION – DES MOINES THEATER Motion is to authorize the City Manager to accept a Right-of-Way dedication from the Des Moines Theater, King County Tax Parcel No. 20066001100, which is located along the Marine View Drive property frontage.

7. REGIONAL COORDINATION FRAMEWORK FOR DISASTERS AND PLANNED EVENTS. This is interesting to me because of our last City Manager’s strong focus on Emergency Management. I did not realise that, until this vote, we have been one of only two cities not part of this group.

8. 2024-2025 RECYCLING PROGRAM PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CONTRACT Motion is to approve the Professional Services Contract for the 2024-2025 Recycling Program between the City of Des Moines and Olympic Environmental Resources and to authorize the City Manager to sign substantially in the form at submitted. 2024-2025 Recycling Contract Agenda Item Item

9. DEPARTMENT OF ECOLOGY 2023-2025 WATER QUALITY STORMWATER CAPACITY GRANT AWARD Motion is to accept the State of Washington Department of Ecology 2023-2025 Water Quality Stormwater Capacity Grant Agreement between the State of Washington Department of Ecology and the City of Des Moines, and authorize the City Manager to sign the Grant Agreement substantially in the form as submitted. Department of Ecology 2023-2025 Water Quality Stormwater Capacity Grant Award Item

10. COMMERCE MIDDLE HOUSING GRANT AGREEMENT Motion 1 is to authorize the City Manager to sign the Middle Housing Grant Agreement (Contact No. 24-63326-113) between the City of Des Moines and the Washington State Department of Commerce, substantially in the form as attached. Motion 2 is to authorize the City Manager to sign the Consultant Services Contract between the City of Des Moines and AHBL, substantially in the form as attached. Commerce Middle Housing Grant Agreement for the City of Des Moines

OLD Business

We will be re-considering the Event Planner enterprise fund. Since I voted against it, I could not be happier. 🙂

New business

We will be voting to approve new playground equipment for Cecil Powell Park, which also makes me happy. I encourage you to read Page 180. It took too long. And I think we over-promised a little bit. But on the other hand? The winning bid is cheaper than I expected–almost 50% less than the high bid. Actually, that’s kind of a (tiny) concern. Seriously. I mean, how often does that happen? 😀

Last 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.

Public Planning Commission

Recently the Council has received several messages (and I have personally received more than several messages) concerning the need for improved communication with the City. As you know, I have always been completely on board with this notion.

Since the various Marina Hotel proposals we’ve seen an increasing number of requests for better public engagement on a wide variety of issues; not only the Marina floor, but also the 223rd Marina Steps, 223rd Green Streets to Pacific Highway, to the Masonic Home, to park,s to Redondo, to Events Planning, and on and on. These are all important discussions to have, and I believe the City is trying to address them, but certainly at nowhere near the pace the public would like.

Stepping back, ‘communication’ is a very broad term. I think that is one reason why it’s so often used–precisely because it can mean so many different things. Ironically, it is that flexibility which can make the word almost meaningless unless one is very careful.

But when it comes to the specific issues the Council has been hearing about most, the message I’m getting is that people not only want information, but also some form of predictable, ongoing, two-way input into the projects we undertake. Residents want to understand, and also feel like they have a voice in ‘how it all fits together’.

I believe that the most immediate and impactful way to address most of the communication concerns I’ve heard would be to immediately restore the ¹Public Planning Commission (PPC) our City had until 2013.

Although we had a PPC for the vast majority of the City’s history, it’s been over a decade since it was shut down, a quick explainer may be in order. First off, though they vary in structure, a public planning commission is standard equipment in every city in the area–except Des Moines. The versions that best serve the public interest share a few features:

They consist of a group of residents (not developers), appointed by the City Council for fixed terms.
Members are mandated to consider planning for the entire City in a holistic manner–not any specific project.
They meet according to a publicly available schedule.
They operate in a transparent manner, including publishing their work, both to inform and encourage the rest of the public to engage in the process.
As such, they are open to comments from the public.
And since they are not an elected body, the rules of discussion can be more flexible, and can potentially offer more of the ‘two-way discussion’ so many people have said they want.
They report routinely and in a structured manner to the City Council, who incorporate their work product as part of the City’s ongoing comprehensive planning.

The reasoning for ending our PPC in 2013 seemed to boil down that our City’s finances were so precarious staff felt there just wasn’t all that much to ‘plan’. Obviously that is no longer the case.

As just one example, the City will soon unveil a new Marina Master Plan. But at the same time currently has separate outreach efforts for the 223rd Steps Project and the 223rd Green Streets project. I find it dismaying that the City is jumping ahead to a ‘Master Plan’ before concluding outreach on either of those individual projects, especially since there has been no real two-way discussion on how they fit together with the broader vision for the Marina District.

Almost every project the City receives feedback on is not only long game, it also has significant impact on every other project. For example, any project on 223rd Street cannot be considered apart from the Marina Steps project. And any event planner needs to know what spaces they will be working with, across the entire City, in order to develop an effective program which will attract vendors and maximise revenue.

Also, I used the word holistic because if a member does not live in a particular area, and may not benefit from any particular project, everyone will have to pay for every project. So, like the City Council, all members are asked to consider the best interests of the entire City; the costs as well as the benefits. Otherwise the tendency would be that everyone votes for everything.

In other words, planning should be an ongoing discussion, not isolated into separate groups, events or outreach efforts. Everything really does affect everything else. And in my opinion, this approach would do a world of good to address many of the concerns many of you have regarding ‘communication’.

One other thing. As you also know, we will soon undertake a search for the next City Manager–a process that will take several months. Interim City Manager Tim George recognises his position as a caretaker. To me, that means leaving it to that next City Manager to make key hiring decisions–which is definitely what a Comms Director should be. For that reason alone, I am looking to ideas like a public planning commission that can (and should) be implemented now without tying the hands of our next City Manager.

To be clear, I am not saying a PPC is ‘the solution’ to public engagement. Overall that is a much bigger discussion. But a public planning commission is something we know how to do, it can be done now, at relatively little cost, and most importantly, it is something we should have in place regardless of any other steps we may take to improve public engagement. At the risk of using a tired cliché, we can’t give you a seat at the table, until we provide the table.

I hope you will support the idea of restoring the Public Planning Commission we used to have, to give you that seat at the table, and help give the City Council the best sense of what you want our future to look like.

I thank you for your consideration and welcome your feedback.

—JC

¹To dive in deeper, I would strongly recommend watching the August 8, 2013 meeting where the PPC was dissolved with Ordinance #1571. There is a very good discussion of the pros/cons. It also includes links to the original PPC Ordinance #611, how they are organised under State law, and how PPCs work in our sister cities of Burien and SeaTac.

August 8, 2013: Full Agenda Packet, Minutes