Sunday, November 14, 2004
Vol 1, No. 6Disclaimer: these are statements, opinions and assorted ramblings from a member of the Lakewood City Council who speaks only for himself, and in no way, shape or form for the city or the council. The purpose of this newsletter is solely to provide unofficial information from one individual’s perspective. For the official city viewpoint and information, visit http://www.ci.lakewood.wa.us/
BUDGET THIS
WALTER’S NEW JOB
NEW IDEA FOR RECYLING
CITY MANAGER SCHEDULE
BRIDGEPORT WORK
NEWS LINKS ABOUT LAKEWOOD
BUDGET THIS
The council is scheduled to talk this Monday night about the city budget. The budget is an important part of public policy in Lakewood. The budget is how the city pays for a variety of services, from police to parks.
I've sat through a number of budget deliberations as a reporter. This was the first time I've sat on a council and tried to work on a budget. I have to say, this was by far my worst experience of 2004 as a council member. Looking back on it, I wish I had encouraged the council to do things differently. We met for about 15 hours over three nights to go through the $24 million general fund budget, along with specialized budgets. But by the end of the process, we had set aside only one budget that was built on the assumption that the voters would approve the police bond measure - and even then, the city was spending about $800,000 in reserves. We as a council failed to tell the voters what we could reduce in case the police bond failed. This was a mistake, I now realize. I think you would have been able to cast your vote with more awareness if you knew the trade-offs. Whether you would have voted for the bond or not, you would have been better informed. I'm not sure what else to say, except I personally learned a lot and hope to do better next time.
My underlying concern is that there seems to be a lot of confusion about the city budget when you get out in the public or listen to the political campaigns. For example, instead of arguing how much should be spent on what particular priorities, people are arguing about how much money there is and where it may or may not be "hidden."
Such confusion is cancerous for good discussion of public policy. That was the sad story of the bond campaign: "We need the money." "They have the money." "We don't have the money." "Yes, they have the money." And so it went. Frankly, this confusion has been the theme of many elections, and I am concerned we are falling into a bad habit.
Ultimately, I don't think a public official should expect the public to vote one way or another. I'm willing to listen and act in the spirit of however you vote in any given election - but a public official should demand everything take place in an atmosphere of good information and discussion. You should feel satisfied that you have a voice and that you are educated (_if_ you want to be educated, as, sadly, not everyone does).
Votes and budgets come and go with the seasons and the years - but the voters' confidence in the city is essential and should be continuous. I don't expect you to agree with me all the time, but you and I both expect that you should have confidence in your city government.
I don't mean to blame anyone, by the way - I do think there was some irresponsible speech going on, but the root of the problem is that we don't have a community newspaper that brings you a 'blow by blow' account of budget deliberations. People read something about the budget, and then read something else about a month later. This city is too big, and too complex, for such poor information flow.
But that's life. We need to adapt and find new ways of sharing informaton and building confidence. This Monday, and next Monday, the council is scheduled to revisit the budget. Now we've got to find roughly $600,000 this year for the initial financing for a police station and also erase the $800,000 deficit in order to arrange that financing and maintain good credit.
If you attend, listen to the first comments from council members. If we start to re-hash the campaign, or if people start blaming each other, then you know we'll be off to a poor start. We had a burst of venting at the last meeting, but hopefully everyone got it out of their system. Hopefully, early on, the council will decide on a systematic way to re-examine the budget and identify potential cuts. I'll bring up a plan I have in mind; I am sure others will as well. I hope we can come up with a long list of possible spending alterations and many options so everyone involved can give us feedback - you included, of course. If you cannot be there Monday (the meeting starts at 7 p.m.), I will report back.
WALTER'S GOT A NEW DAY JOB
I don't mean to be self-indulgent with this particular brief, but you are entitled to know what your public servants do for a living. I'm very excited to have a new employer. I've started working as a public relations manager for Comcast out of their Puyallup office. I'm looking forward to a bright future with Comcast, a high-tech company with locally-based service and cutting-edge products. Happily, I've cut more than two hours of commute out of every day. Now I'm hoping to have a real dinner before some of the 7 p.m. meetings!
NEW IDEA FOR RECYCLING
There will be a hearing Dec. 6 on an idea coming down the road regarding recycling. It's already got one crucial supporter, as my wife has been asking me for a long time why Lakewood doesn't have the same recycling practice as Tacoma. Cindy and my daughter are the big recycling practitioners in the family. I do my best, but I get in huge trouble sometimes when Cindy catches me throwing paper into the garbage. I'm supposed to put the paper in a brown bag that we set out with our recycling bins every two weeks. I can't always say I do this with paper, or set out the bag, which is sort of the problem.
I'm apparently not alone. The haulers and county public works people say that about 34 percent of our garbage is cardboard and paper.
People are not using the bins and paper sacks, even when they are part of the voluntary recycling program. What they do in Tacoma is give people one large bin - like the big green ones used for trash and blue ones used for yard waste - and people put their recyclables into the bin. Everything goes into the same bin: newspapers, magazines, mixed paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and cans. It's the ultimate in easy.
The idea is that this 'one stream' recycling increases participation because people find it easier to participate. It's hard to handle all those bins, particularly when they get filled with newspapers. It's hard to drag them from one side of the lot to the other. My mother-in-law bought me one of those carts that let you put the bins into one place and haul them around. But it's still trouble, and it's a lot easier to move a 96-gallon can on wheels than to move loose bins that force you to bend over. And, it seems that a lot of people are like me - we don't like messing around with paper sacks full of loose papers. One good wind, and you've made a mess in the neighborhood. I've never had that happen to me, but I worry about it - one reason I hesitate to recycle that way.
However, because of the cost of the bins and processing the waste, people pay more for recycling - maybe $1.75 a month (that's pending state regulatory approval, so it could be less). Pierce County has already approved the plan for unincorporated areas. Most Lakewood council members do not know people eager to have their bills increased, so this will take some thinking.
Recycling is voluntary, so it's not like this is a forced tax increase. And people will be able to sign up for a smaller recycling can, which may make sense particularly for people who live alone or with one other person. But there will still be a lot of thought and public exposure before such an increase is approved.
One good thought is that under some scenarios, you might even save on your bill. For example, my family presently subscribes for a 95-gallon garbage container and recycling. So we pay $27.66 now and would pay $29.41 worst case scenario under a "one-stream" program.
However, Lakewood Refuse says that a lot of what I throw away in that can would go into the new recycling cans. In fact, we could cut down to 'every other week' pickup - which would mean we'd pay $19.65, and thus save nearly $10. We've been thinking about reducing the size of our garbage can anyway, so this might really happen. Anyway, there will be more discussion about this and of course you are welcome for the Dec. 6 hearing.
CITY MANAGER SCHEDULE
My loyal readers, both of you, will recall that I've been saying since my campaign began in early 2003 that the choice of a new city manager was probably one of the most important decisions facing the city. The city manager functions as the CEO of your city staff. A city manager is responsible for maintaining customer service, boosting employee morale, and setting priorities for staff in City Hall. The council, with feedback from the public, sets policies for the city - the city manager makes sure those policies are executed and the day-to-day standards of excellence set high and maintained.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that under the current schedule, it looks like the council will see the names of potential candidates during two meetings in December. Many people who apply for city manager vacancies already have jobs, so cities generally try to be discreet until they narrow the list down to a couple of candidates. The council members are hoping to sift through the candidates during the holidays, toward the end of December.
It will be crucial for members of the public to view and vet the top candidates. All my comments earlier about confidence with the budget apply to confidence in the process of choosing a city manager. It looks like you will have a chance to meet the candidates in early January. That way, we all have time to deliberate and then have someone ready when Scott Rohlfs retires at the end of February. We've not yet determined what form the public process will take, but likely the candidates will be shown around town and exposed to a number of our citizens. ('Exposed' in a good way; if any candidates expose themselves to citizens the wrong way, we'll probably rule them out pretty quickly.)
Presumably, there will be at least one 'town hall' type arrangement, if not more, where citizens can meet and query the candidates. Stay tuned - unless some emergency takes place, nothing we do in 2005 will be more important than choosing the right top manager for city hall. I am pleased to say that nobody has suggested bringing in Donald Trump to give us advice.
BRIDGEPORT WORK
FYI - you will hear more about this, but the cities of Lakewood and University Place are planning road work next summer on Bridgeport at the borders of the two cities, made complex due to the creek crossing. The contractors can do the work two ways: they can slice traffic to one lane in either direction for eight weeks, or simply close the road for two weeks. If we close Bridgeport for two weeks and get the work done quickly, construction is supposed to cost about $400,000 less (most of the funding comes from grants from outside our cities, by the way).
This will not be happening until early summer 2005, we're told. I have mixed feelings. The closure of Bridgeport will be a mess for my family, but I have to say that I agree with most folks who've chimed in so far that it makes sense to get the pain out of the way as soon as possible - better two weeks than eight weeks of torture as we all sit in long, slow lines and start grumbling about whether the driver next to us will let us merge. And the cities have a responsibility to save taxpayer dollars - $400,000 is a significant sum.
However, if you have strong feelings on the subject or have questions, hit 'reply' and let me know. I will pass along comments and questions.
LAKEWOOD IN THE NEWS
(Subscribers seemed to like the idea of me including these links, in case you did not see the stories. Some of these links may require that you sign up for access - this week, all but one are from the TNT.)
Flett Creek: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4174331p-3947855c.htmlSex business update.
Your constitutional rights at work, as they need to be regardless of how we feel personally about strip clubs: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4172351p-3946245c.html
Why help finance sewers to poor parts of Pierce County when you can use the public's money to build a luxury golf course? http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/uplace/story/4172247p-3946284c.html
Innovative program in the CP school district: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/story/4148531p-3913348c.html
Keep 'em out of Lakewood: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/195829_sting19.html?searchpagefrom=2&searchdiff=24
Water district dispute: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4180295p-3957667c.html
CLOSING CREDITS
Publisher and editor: Walter NearyP.O. 99702Lakewood, WA 98499-0702
wtneary@walterneary.nethttp://www.walterneary.net
To subscribe: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16322z
-- To unsubscribe/change profile:http://www.mailermailer.com/x?u=00000f-e6d0b9bf
To subscribe:http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16322z
Forward this post
BUDGET THIS
WALTER’S NEW JOB
NEW IDEA FOR RECYLING
CITY MANAGER SCHEDULE
BRIDGEPORT WORK
NEWS LINKS ABOUT LAKEWOOD
BUDGET THIS
The council is scheduled to talk this Monday night about the city budget. The budget is an important part of public policy in Lakewood. The budget is how the city pays for a variety of services, from police to parks.
I've sat through a number of budget deliberations as a reporter. This was the first time I've sat on a council and tried to work on a budget. I have to say, this was by far my worst experience of 2004 as a council member. Looking back on it, I wish I had encouraged the council to do things differently. We met for about 15 hours over three nights to go through the $24 million general fund budget, along with specialized budgets. But by the end of the process, we had set aside only one budget that was built on the assumption that the voters would approve the police bond measure - and even then, the city was spending about $800,000 in reserves. We as a council failed to tell the voters what we could reduce in case the police bond failed. This was a mistake, I now realize. I think you would have been able to cast your vote with more awareness if you knew the trade-offs. Whether you would have voted for the bond or not, you would have been better informed. I'm not sure what else to say, except I personally learned a lot and hope to do better next time.
My underlying concern is that there seems to be a lot of confusion about the city budget when you get out in the public or listen to the political campaigns. For example, instead of arguing how much should be spent on what particular priorities, people are arguing about how much money there is and where it may or may not be "hidden."
Such confusion is cancerous for good discussion of public policy. That was the sad story of the bond campaign: "We need the money." "They have the money." "We don't have the money." "Yes, they have the money." And so it went. Frankly, this confusion has been the theme of many elections, and I am concerned we are falling into a bad habit.
Ultimately, I don't think a public official should expect the public to vote one way or another. I'm willing to listen and act in the spirit of however you vote in any given election - but a public official should demand everything take place in an atmosphere of good information and discussion. You should feel satisfied that you have a voice and that you are educated (_if_ you want to be educated, as, sadly, not everyone does).
Votes and budgets come and go with the seasons and the years - but the voters' confidence in the city is essential and should be continuous. I don't expect you to agree with me all the time, but you and I both expect that you should have confidence in your city government.
I don't mean to blame anyone, by the way - I do think there was some irresponsible speech going on, but the root of the problem is that we don't have a community newspaper that brings you a 'blow by blow' account of budget deliberations. People read something about the budget, and then read something else about a month later. This city is too big, and too complex, for such poor information flow.
But that's life. We need to adapt and find new ways of sharing informaton and building confidence. This Monday, and next Monday, the council is scheduled to revisit the budget. Now we've got to find roughly $600,000 this year for the initial financing for a police station and also erase the $800,000 deficit in order to arrange that financing and maintain good credit.
If you attend, listen to the first comments from council members. If we start to re-hash the campaign, or if people start blaming each other, then you know we'll be off to a poor start. We had a burst of venting at the last meeting, but hopefully everyone got it out of their system. Hopefully, early on, the council will decide on a systematic way to re-examine the budget and identify potential cuts. I'll bring up a plan I have in mind; I am sure others will as well. I hope we can come up with a long list of possible spending alterations and many options so everyone involved can give us feedback - you included, of course. If you cannot be there Monday (the meeting starts at 7 p.m.), I will report back.
WALTER'S GOT A NEW DAY JOB
I don't mean to be self-indulgent with this particular brief, but you are entitled to know what your public servants do for a living. I'm very excited to have a new employer. I've started working as a public relations manager for Comcast out of their Puyallup office. I'm looking forward to a bright future with Comcast, a high-tech company with locally-based service and cutting-edge products. Happily, I've cut more than two hours of commute out of every day. Now I'm hoping to have a real dinner before some of the 7 p.m. meetings!
NEW IDEA FOR RECYCLING
There will be a hearing Dec. 6 on an idea coming down the road regarding recycling. It's already got one crucial supporter, as my wife has been asking me for a long time why Lakewood doesn't have the same recycling practice as Tacoma. Cindy and my daughter are the big recycling practitioners in the family. I do my best, but I get in huge trouble sometimes when Cindy catches me throwing paper into the garbage. I'm supposed to put the paper in a brown bag that we set out with our recycling bins every two weeks. I can't always say I do this with paper, or set out the bag, which is sort of the problem.
I'm apparently not alone. The haulers and county public works people say that about 34 percent of our garbage is cardboard and paper.
People are not using the bins and paper sacks, even when they are part of the voluntary recycling program. What they do in Tacoma is give people one large bin - like the big green ones used for trash and blue ones used for yard waste - and people put their recyclables into the bin. Everything goes into the same bin: newspapers, magazines, mixed paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and cans. It's the ultimate in easy.
The idea is that this 'one stream' recycling increases participation because people find it easier to participate. It's hard to handle all those bins, particularly when they get filled with newspapers. It's hard to drag them from one side of the lot to the other. My mother-in-law bought me one of those carts that let you put the bins into one place and haul them around. But it's still trouble, and it's a lot easier to move a 96-gallon can on wheels than to move loose bins that force you to bend over. And, it seems that a lot of people are like me - we don't like messing around with paper sacks full of loose papers. One good wind, and you've made a mess in the neighborhood. I've never had that happen to me, but I worry about it - one reason I hesitate to recycle that way.
However, because of the cost of the bins and processing the waste, people pay more for recycling - maybe $1.75 a month (that's pending state regulatory approval, so it could be less). Pierce County has already approved the plan for unincorporated areas. Most Lakewood council members do not know people eager to have their bills increased, so this will take some thinking.
Recycling is voluntary, so it's not like this is a forced tax increase. And people will be able to sign up for a smaller recycling can, which may make sense particularly for people who live alone or with one other person. But there will still be a lot of thought and public exposure before such an increase is approved.
One good thought is that under some scenarios, you might even save on your bill. For example, my family presently subscribes for a 95-gallon garbage container and recycling. So we pay $27.66 now and would pay $29.41 worst case scenario under a "one-stream" program.
However, Lakewood Refuse says that a lot of what I throw away in that can would go into the new recycling cans. In fact, we could cut down to 'every other week' pickup - which would mean we'd pay $19.65, and thus save nearly $10. We've been thinking about reducing the size of our garbage can anyway, so this might really happen. Anyway, there will be more discussion about this and of course you are welcome for the Dec. 6 hearing.
CITY MANAGER SCHEDULE
My loyal readers, both of you, will recall that I've been saying since my campaign began in early 2003 that the choice of a new city manager was probably one of the most important decisions facing the city. The city manager functions as the CEO of your city staff. A city manager is responsible for maintaining customer service, boosting employee morale, and setting priorities for staff in City Hall. The council, with feedback from the public, sets policies for the city - the city manager makes sure those policies are executed and the day-to-day standards of excellence set high and maintained.
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that under the current schedule, it looks like the council will see the names of potential candidates during two meetings in December. Many people who apply for city manager vacancies already have jobs, so cities generally try to be discreet until they narrow the list down to a couple of candidates. The council members are hoping to sift through the candidates during the holidays, toward the end of December.
It will be crucial for members of the public to view and vet the top candidates. All my comments earlier about confidence with the budget apply to confidence in the process of choosing a city manager. It looks like you will have a chance to meet the candidates in early January. That way, we all have time to deliberate and then have someone ready when Scott Rohlfs retires at the end of February. We've not yet determined what form the public process will take, but likely the candidates will be shown around town and exposed to a number of our citizens. ('Exposed' in a good way; if any candidates expose themselves to citizens the wrong way, we'll probably rule them out pretty quickly.)
Presumably, there will be at least one 'town hall' type arrangement, if not more, where citizens can meet and query the candidates. Stay tuned - unless some emergency takes place, nothing we do in 2005 will be more important than choosing the right top manager for city hall. I am pleased to say that nobody has suggested bringing in Donald Trump to give us advice.
BRIDGEPORT WORK
FYI - you will hear more about this, but the cities of Lakewood and University Place are planning road work next summer on Bridgeport at the borders of the two cities, made complex due to the creek crossing. The contractors can do the work two ways: they can slice traffic to one lane in either direction for eight weeks, or simply close the road for two weeks. If we close Bridgeport for two weeks and get the work done quickly, construction is supposed to cost about $400,000 less (most of the funding comes from grants from outside our cities, by the way).
This will not be happening until early summer 2005, we're told. I have mixed feelings. The closure of Bridgeport will be a mess for my family, but I have to say that I agree with most folks who've chimed in so far that it makes sense to get the pain out of the way as soon as possible - better two weeks than eight weeks of torture as we all sit in long, slow lines and start grumbling about whether the driver next to us will let us merge. And the cities have a responsibility to save taxpayer dollars - $400,000 is a significant sum.
However, if you have strong feelings on the subject or have questions, hit 'reply' and let me know. I will pass along comments and questions.
LAKEWOOD IN THE NEWS
(Subscribers seemed to like the idea of me including these links, in case you did not see the stories. Some of these links may require that you sign up for access - this week, all but one are from the TNT.)
Flett Creek: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4174331p-3947855c.htmlSex business update.
Your constitutional rights at work, as they need to be regardless of how we feel personally about strip clubs: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4172351p-3946245c.html
Why help finance sewers to poor parts of Pierce County when you can use the public's money to build a luxury golf course? http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/uplace/story/4172247p-3946284c.html
Innovative program in the CP school district: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/story/4148531p-3913348c.html
Keep 'em out of Lakewood: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/195829_sting19.html?searchpagefrom=2&searchdiff=24
Water district dispute: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4180295p-3957667c.html
CLOSING CREDITS
Publisher and editor: Walter NearyP.O. 99702Lakewood, WA 98499-0702
wtneary@walterneary.nethttp://www.walterneary.net
To subscribe: http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16322z
-- To unsubscribe/change profile:http://www.mailermailer.com/x?u=00000f-e6d0b9bf
To subscribe:http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=16322z
