Wednesday, February 09, 2005
CITY MANAGER – YAY! and THIS YEAR'S BUDGET and REASONS TO BE PROUD OF LAKEWOOD
BRING OUT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
ARTS GROUPS SOUGHT
DAMAGE TO HISTORIC PROPERTY
NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE
HELP WANTED
LINKS FOR LAKEWOOD
Here's the overall picture: Expect city business to slow as City Manager Scott Rohlfs enters a well-deserved retirement, and we bring a new city manager on board. There will be an adjustment period for everyone. I know there is a lot going on, but I have had trouble putting my finger on enough news to warrant this newsletter. Here's the latest effort:
CITY MANAGER UPDATE
Yep, we hired the local guy: Andrew Neiditz, former assistant city manager in Lakewood, and currently city manager in Sumner. I'll write a column soon about the selection process and about Andrew. The council considered many candidates very, very carefully. Our council worked better together than we ever have to choose the best person for the job.
Here's The News Tribune's version:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/story/4534185p-4255043c.html
Council members with different political views and even more different styles often expressed interests in the same candidates as we narrowed the field. Three very different people made field visits to cities. Those three council members came back with reports that showed they had been at the same place, seen many of the same things and shared similar observations, and yet brought different backgrounds and insights to the search.
It is tempting, I know, to speculate that we intended to hire Andrew all the time, since he worked for the city five years ago. That's not the case. Frankly, on day one, before any discussion began, I would have bet money we would not hire Andrew, exactly because he had worked for the city. There is a lot of skepticism out there, for sometimes right and sometimes wrong reasons, about city government. But he was treated like any other candidate. He earned the position we offered on your behalf. During his interviews with the council and other community members, he showed the perspective and wisdom of time and experience. Other research showed that he brings many talents to City Hall.
Andrew also demonstrates a keen awareness of, and interest in, Lakewood in particular - partly because he has worked here and has insights into the opportunities and the challenges. I forsee good years. More comments to come. I'm drafting a '10 reasons we hired Andrew' column and will post it when I can.
BUDGET UPDATE
I promised you a column on the confusing city budget. You can find it at http://www.walterneary.net/columns/05budget.html
I'm sorry it's taken so long to write this. The whole effort was starting to feel like a history term paper. The bottom line is that the city has put off tough decisions about balancing the budget until we get a new city manager on board. He will be here soon. I hope we make those decisions soon.
REASONS TO BE PROUD
Now that I've got the budget column out of the way, I have a proposal for something to improve life in Lakewood in a very modest way. I'll discuss it in my next column.
Meanwhile, I need your help. I need one or more sentences from you about something or someone that makes Lakewood a special place or captures an honor or distinction. An example would be, "Jeffrey Thompson, a teacher in the Clover Park School District, was named 2004 DisneyHand Teacher of the Year among teachers throughout the nation for excellence in the classroom." Or "Lakewood has the oldest set of contiguous buildings in the region from the early pioneer era at Fort Steilacoom." Or "The nonprofit ____ has helped _____ by ______" Or "The business _________ has accomplished __________ within its industry." That sort of thing.
Please be as specific as you can in the sentence (I'm looking for very specific accomplishments, as opposed to "The lakes are pretty" and stuff like that, though I would certainly include aspects of the lakes in any list about Lakewood's treasures). Your sentence could be about a club that achieved something, or an individual who won an honor.
The more honors or accomplishments or distinctions you can think of, the better, and obviously I'll give you credit for the idea if you're the first to suggest it. I won't give you any of the blame for my proposal when I write it up. The person to send me the most ideas I can use gets a free coffee card at the coffeehouse of his or her choice.
PHOTOGRAPHS NEEDED FOR BOOK, HISTORICAL SOCIETY
You may recall another former editor of The Lakewood Journal, Steve Dunkelberger. Steve and I have signed a contract to compile and write a photographic history of Lakewood. We are very excited about this project. We think people will be surprised at all the rich and varied history that took place within Lakewood's boundaries. The publisher, Arcadia Publishing of San Francisco, has promised the book will be out by the holiday gift-giving season. If you've seen a book with a yellow cover about Fort Lewis in local bookstores, compiled and written by our great friend Alan Archambault, then you have an idea of what the Lakewood book will look like.
(If you do not have old photographs of Lakewood, you are welcome to skip to the next item. But even if you just know someone who might have old photographs of Lakewood, it would help if you read on ...)
Most of the book will consist of photographs, and here's where we need your help. We're looking for ... well, OK, "desperate" is the right word ... old photographs of Lakewood. To make things a little easier, we are holding two 'open houses' in the upstairs board room of the Lakewood library. One will be this coming Saturday from 1 to 4, and the other will be 5 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 23. Please feel free to bring by old photographs. What we will do is scan the photographs into a computer. (If a bunch of people come by, we may need to borrow the photos to scan in later, though only if you are comfortable with that)
We only get about 220 photos to shoehorn into the book, so not every photo will be in the book. I'm afraid I cannot make promises. But there's a second part of this project - your image will live forever in the digital library of the Lakewood Historical Society forever. Now, that's a legacy!
You are, of course, very welcome to donate original photographs to the Lakewood Historical Society collection. In cases where we are positive an image should be in the book, we may try to talk you out of letting us borrow the original, at the publisher's request. But don't let that scare you away - the main goal here is to capture the image by way of technology and make it available to the future.
If you have any questions about what we are looking for, give me or Steve a shout. Please feel free to forward this note to anyone you think might have a good photo. I've told everyone my dream photo is of adorable kids playing in front of the Lakewood Colonial Center as it is under construction. But even if you don't have that photo, please keep us in mind. We're also very open to sources of information, and not just photos.
I should also add that you will need to sign a release form saying that you own the photo and are OK with its use in a book and historical society collection, that you did not steal it from a French museum, etc...
(Pssst ... those of you who are computer geeks can read on, and everyone else can skip this paragraph. If you want to scan in your own photos, you're welcome to give it a shot, but they need to be at least 300 dpi, saved to at least 20 centimeters wide, and saved in 'tiff' format (not 'jpg' format!). That makes for a pretty big file in a computer. If you are able to do this and give us copies of the photos, wonderful, but if not, don't worry about it)
ARTS GROUPS
I'm hosting a meeting of all the arts and humanities groups in the city. I wanted to gather the many diverse groups into one room to see if there are common interests that we might explore. If you know of a little-known group I might have missed, please feel free to let me know. If I already invited them, I will tell you. The only condition is that the group must be based in Lakewood, or have substantial interests in Lakewood.
DAMAGE TO HISTORIC PROPERTY
Yes, those are tarps on the roofs of two buildings that date to 1858 or 1859 at Fort Steilacoom on the grounds of Western State. The owner of the buildings, the state agency the Department of Social and Human Services, put those up to prevent further water damage, though more damage to the buildings is clearly visible. DSHS owns those buildings - or more precisely, you the taxpayer own the buildings. The museum society that I speak of so often leases the interiors; the museum society pays token rent but logs the hours of the many volunteers who work in and around the buildings as an 'in-kind' contribution). The roofs are more than 20 years old and are disintegrating.
I personally think it's outrageous that the state is allowing public property to disintegrate, but there you go .. admittedly, to maintain historic integrity, the roofs need to be wood shingle, and that's not the cheapest way to go.
I am trying to curb my natural desire to shout because I know DSHS and the managers of Western State Hospital truly have more important things to worry about. Still, it's pretty fundamental that you don't let public property disintegrate. If you have a suggestion on how we can support DSHS in preventing wood rot, I'm sure listening.
Hundreds of volunteers and many, many donors helped restore those buildings in the 1980s, and it would be a huge loss to undo all that work. I am somewhat stymied about what we should do next, and welcome any and all ideas.
NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE
One thing you will hear about in coming weeks is a neighborhood issue near the Lake Louise area, where 104th meets Butte. My loyal readers, both of you, will recall that my family lived nearby, on 88th Street SW, for a couple years. It's a great area with lots of trees up the hill nearby, though it sounds like some of them are going to go. There was a beautiful greenbelt just west of 88th Street that the county apparently sold to a developer. Neighbors showed up at the Monday council meeting to express many concerns, mostly about traffic. There will be more to say as this development moves through the city's permit process.
(Depending on whether the computer gods are smiling on us, this link may or may not help you figure out roughly where I am talking about: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=H4rTA.p_0ToaHyKbxdIhl1_y&csz=98498&country=us&new=1&name=&qty= )
LINKS FOR LAKEWOOD
Nobody notices when litter is not present, so the extraordinary work of Hugh Hedges and other volunteers is often unnoticed. Here's an update on what they're up to:http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/story/4517573p-4240695c.html
An update on efforts to keep housing safe:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/lakewood/story/4508170p-4233722c.html
An easier recycling program is on the way:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4500700p-4230438c.html
For the record, when you hire more than 100 people, even with an incredibly rigorous screening program, one or two of the new hires won't work out. But I don't think anyone expected this:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/lakewood/story/4493877p-4225810c.html
The other, and far more common side of the police and city involvement:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/crime/story/4440689p-4194566c.html
Tacoma Power: I think I need to apologize for some of the shots I've taken at Tacoma City Light's customer service. Clearly, much of the problem is out of their control:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/projects/computers/story/4488255p-3787214c.html
And then there's the letter about the Dr. Martin Luther King event. In case you were wondering about this, my son had the stomach flu that morning and I chose to stay home with him. But obviously I wish I had done a better job communicating with the people who put in the hard work for the event:http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/v-printer/story/4477565p-4213573c.html
Our ability to bring on more police officers, as well as offer services in general to you, is tied to our ability to keep people generating sales tax dollars in Lakewood. So that's what makes the info in this article unsettling (you have to read the last paragraph to understand why I included it):http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050203/topstories/80905.shtml
Update on legislation involving the city's traffic control cameras:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/210503_redlight03.html
One of the interesting questions of 2005 is whether Lakewood residents who own seaplanes will come forward to seek more protection for seaplanes on American Lake. It will also be interesting to hear from neighbors and other interested parties; it sounds like the discussion is overdue: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4480745p-4217705c.html8
FROM JANUARY 5, 2005:
Walter's Lakewood journal
HAPPY NEW YEAR!(No story about that … just … Happy New Year!)
CHOOSING A CITY MANAGER - UPDATE
GOING TO THE DOGS
BUDGET UPDATE
MLK OBSERVANCE
LINKS FOR LAKEWOOD
CHOOSING A CITY MANAGER - UPDATE
Unless we hit an emergency, the most important thing our present City Council will do for you in 2005 is hire a new city manager. My regular readers know we've been waiting on this for some time. Now, at last, here's your chance to meet the candidates. The good news is that we had a great selection of applicants to choose from, and our semifinalists include people with a wide range of capabilities and experience.
Panels of residents and staff will be formally interviewing the candidates all day during group interviews on this Thursday, Jan. 6. Then the candidates meet the general public at a forum and mixer from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Pierce College's Fireside Lounge. (Park in the northern lot http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/whereis/fs/parkmap.php3 and then ask around campus for directions to the Fireside Lounge) Stop by Thursday to hear them and meet them, if you can. Impartial, outside human resources experts will be gathering feedback from the panel interviews and the forum, and make the feedback available to the council either before or after we interview the candidates all day on Friday.
The next step after that will be for the council to narrow the field and do some intensive reserach on the candidates who emerge as finalists.
If you have any thoughts after meeting or talking to candidates, then by all means, please let me know; I hate to say it, but it would help if you do that before you go to bed on Thursday so I can have your thoughts on Friday.
I have been yammering about the importance of the new city manager hire since I began running for office in the winter of 2003. So I hate to abuse you with more discussion. But for those of you new to all this, let me just say that the position of city manager is a key role in the city: the city manager orchestrates a variety of city functions and sets the tone for a team atmosphere and customer service in City Hall. He or she often provides the starting point for discussion of important issues. The new city manager will be charged with restoring community confidence in the budget process, working with an often divided city council and community, and managing a team-oriented AND customer-service oriented atmosphere for more than 200 employees. Plus some other tasks. You didn't apply for the job? I don't blame you. Neither did I. Thank heavens there are some professionals out there who relish a good challenge, and a great opportunity in our great city.
So who will be Lakewood's second city manager? Here's the field:
* Pete Butkus: assistant city manager, Sammamish; previous jobs include executive director of the Public Works Board, State of Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development; and Mayor and CAO, Pullman.* Andrew Neiditz: city administrator, Sumner; previous jobs include deputy city manager in Lakewood and executive director of public safety for Pierce County government.* Anthony Piasecki: city manager, Des Moines; previous jobs include assistant city manager, Des Moines, and customer services administrator, Water Services Department, Phoenix.* Stephen Rasmussen: city administrator, Ottumwa, Iowa; previous jobs include assistant to the city administrator, Maryland Heights, Mo., and garrison commander, Fort Campbell, Kent.* Denise Rose: township manager, Willingboro, N.J.; previous jobs include deputy township manager, Willingboro and town manager, Centreville, Md.
You can read more about these folks at http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4405585p-4181569c.html
GOING TO THE DOGS
Gosh, I can take this off my list of things to write about. You can find a good writeup at http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4400786p-4180086c.html The short version is that the city is finally going to get serious about protecting vulnerable elderly folks and children around Lake Waughop. It's one thing to let a dog run loose in the fields, but quite another thing to let a dog run loose in the sort of place where my parents walked in a very vulnerable state. Letting a dog run loose on that trail is like letting a dog run loose in a mall.
I feel sorry for responsible dog owners whose pets would not harm anyone. We can only hope it is the few irresponsible owners who will get tagged. Still, as I said at one council meeting, we either need to enforce the existing law or make it legal for dogs to bite people.
BUDGET UPDATE
In the next issue, I'll provide you with a column about what's going on with the city budget. The short version is that you can apparently forget about the large budget cuts you read about in the paper last month, for now. There are three council members, including myself, John Arbeeny and Pad Finnigan, who want to start making spending reductions now, rather than burn into the reserves without a plan and face a huge deficit in 2007. Four other council members would prefer to wait to consider making reductions and come up with a plan at least until we see the first financial results of 2005 and have a new city manager on board.
I agree with the importance of plugging the new city manager in the process, and so look forward to further discussions. It may be that the spending imbalance is not as bad as originally projected.
Hopefully, the council will address the spending imbalance in the late spring or early summer with the new manager to analyze the situation and give us options. In the meantime, the city government is spending more than it is bringing in, and so that could make for some interesting campaign discussions when four city council seats come up later this year (yes, it's an election year, folks. Enjoy a political sign-less Lakewood while you can …)
In the future column, I'll detail my suggestions and other suggestions for the budget. Many thanks to you who filled out the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=13015744011 Your feedback was very helpful. I will leave the survey open for a couple weeks if you have not filled it out yet. Your thoughts and reactions to the various suggestions are still very welcome.
KING OBSERVANCE
The Lakewood celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 15, at the Clover Park High School Performing Arts Center. The schedule includes performances by the Lakes High School Choir, Native Pride Dancers & White River Drummers, Filipino-American League Dancers as well as others. Speakers will include Mayor Doug Richardson and Clover Park School District Superintendent Dr. Doris McEwen. The program will also feature footage from the 1963 March on the other Washington.
LINKS ABOUT LAKEWOOD
Something to print out and read when you are standing in one of those long lines at Albertson's:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4375673p-4141961c.htmlForgot to include this last time; a profile of a Lakewood institution:http://o.archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=gerties28&date=20041128
Forward this post
BRING OUT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS
ARTS GROUPS SOUGHT
DAMAGE TO HISTORIC PROPERTY
NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE
HELP WANTED
LINKS FOR LAKEWOOD
Here's the overall picture: Expect city business to slow as City Manager Scott Rohlfs enters a well-deserved retirement, and we bring a new city manager on board. There will be an adjustment period for everyone. I know there is a lot going on, but I have had trouble putting my finger on enough news to warrant this newsletter. Here's the latest effort:
CITY MANAGER UPDATE
Yep, we hired the local guy: Andrew Neiditz, former assistant city manager in Lakewood, and currently city manager in Sumner. I'll write a column soon about the selection process and about Andrew. The council considered many candidates very, very carefully. Our council worked better together than we ever have to choose the best person for the job.
Here's The News Tribune's version:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/story/4534185p-4255043c.html
Council members with different political views and even more different styles often expressed interests in the same candidates as we narrowed the field. Three very different people made field visits to cities. Those three council members came back with reports that showed they had been at the same place, seen many of the same things and shared similar observations, and yet brought different backgrounds and insights to the search.
It is tempting, I know, to speculate that we intended to hire Andrew all the time, since he worked for the city five years ago. That's not the case. Frankly, on day one, before any discussion began, I would have bet money we would not hire Andrew, exactly because he had worked for the city. There is a lot of skepticism out there, for sometimes right and sometimes wrong reasons, about city government. But he was treated like any other candidate. He earned the position we offered on your behalf. During his interviews with the council and other community members, he showed the perspective and wisdom of time and experience. Other research showed that he brings many talents to City Hall.
Andrew also demonstrates a keen awareness of, and interest in, Lakewood in particular - partly because he has worked here and has insights into the opportunities and the challenges. I forsee good years. More comments to come. I'm drafting a '10 reasons we hired Andrew' column and will post it when I can.
BUDGET UPDATE
I promised you a column on the confusing city budget. You can find it at http://www.walterneary.net/columns/05budget.html
I'm sorry it's taken so long to write this. The whole effort was starting to feel like a history term paper. The bottom line is that the city has put off tough decisions about balancing the budget until we get a new city manager on board. He will be here soon. I hope we make those decisions soon.
REASONS TO BE PROUD
Now that I've got the budget column out of the way, I have a proposal for something to improve life in Lakewood in a very modest way. I'll discuss it in my next column.
Meanwhile, I need your help. I need one or more sentences from you about something or someone that makes Lakewood a special place or captures an honor or distinction. An example would be, "Jeffrey Thompson, a teacher in the Clover Park School District, was named 2004 DisneyHand Teacher of the Year among teachers throughout the nation for excellence in the classroom." Or "Lakewood has the oldest set of contiguous buildings in the region from the early pioneer era at Fort Steilacoom." Or "The nonprofit ____ has helped _____ by ______" Or "The business _________ has accomplished __________ within its industry." That sort of thing.
Please be as specific as you can in the sentence (I'm looking for very specific accomplishments, as opposed to "The lakes are pretty" and stuff like that, though I would certainly include aspects of the lakes in any list about Lakewood's treasures). Your sentence could be about a club that achieved something, or an individual who won an honor.
The more honors or accomplishments or distinctions you can think of, the better, and obviously I'll give you credit for the idea if you're the first to suggest it. I won't give you any of the blame for my proposal when I write it up. The person to send me the most ideas I can use gets a free coffee card at the coffeehouse of his or her choice.
PHOTOGRAPHS NEEDED FOR BOOK, HISTORICAL SOCIETY
You may recall another former editor of The Lakewood Journal, Steve Dunkelberger. Steve and I have signed a contract to compile and write a photographic history of Lakewood. We are very excited about this project. We think people will be surprised at all the rich and varied history that took place within Lakewood's boundaries. The publisher, Arcadia Publishing of San Francisco, has promised the book will be out by the holiday gift-giving season. If you've seen a book with a yellow cover about Fort Lewis in local bookstores, compiled and written by our great friend Alan Archambault, then you have an idea of what the Lakewood book will look like.
(If you do not have old photographs of Lakewood, you are welcome to skip to the next item. But even if you just know someone who might have old photographs of Lakewood, it would help if you read on ...)
Most of the book will consist of photographs, and here's where we need your help. We're looking for ... well, OK, "desperate" is the right word ... old photographs of Lakewood. To make things a little easier, we are holding two 'open houses' in the upstairs board room of the Lakewood library. One will be this coming Saturday from 1 to 4, and the other will be 5 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 23. Please feel free to bring by old photographs. What we will do is scan the photographs into a computer. (If a bunch of people come by, we may need to borrow the photos to scan in later, though only if you are comfortable with that)
We only get about 220 photos to shoehorn into the book, so not every photo will be in the book. I'm afraid I cannot make promises. But there's a second part of this project - your image will live forever in the digital library of the Lakewood Historical Society forever. Now, that's a legacy!
You are, of course, very welcome to donate original photographs to the Lakewood Historical Society collection. In cases where we are positive an image should be in the book, we may try to talk you out of letting us borrow the original, at the publisher's request. But don't let that scare you away - the main goal here is to capture the image by way of technology and make it available to the future.
If you have any questions about what we are looking for, give me or Steve a shout. Please feel free to forward this note to anyone you think might have a good photo. I've told everyone my dream photo is of adorable kids playing in front of the Lakewood Colonial Center as it is under construction. But even if you don't have that photo, please keep us in mind. We're also very open to sources of information, and not just photos.
I should also add that you will need to sign a release form saying that you own the photo and are OK with its use in a book and historical society collection, that you did not steal it from a French museum, etc...
(Pssst ... those of you who are computer geeks can read on, and everyone else can skip this paragraph. If you want to scan in your own photos, you're welcome to give it a shot, but they need to be at least 300 dpi, saved to at least 20 centimeters wide, and saved in 'tiff' format (not 'jpg' format!). That makes for a pretty big file in a computer. If you are able to do this and give us copies of the photos, wonderful, but if not, don't worry about it)
ARTS GROUPS
I'm hosting a meeting of all the arts and humanities groups in the city. I wanted to gather the many diverse groups into one room to see if there are common interests that we might explore. If you know of a little-known group I might have missed, please feel free to let me know. If I already invited them, I will tell you. The only condition is that the group must be based in Lakewood, or have substantial interests in Lakewood.
DAMAGE TO HISTORIC PROPERTY
Yes, those are tarps on the roofs of two buildings that date to 1858 or 1859 at Fort Steilacoom on the grounds of Western State. The owner of the buildings, the state agency the Department of Social and Human Services, put those up to prevent further water damage, though more damage to the buildings is clearly visible. DSHS owns those buildings - or more precisely, you the taxpayer own the buildings. The museum society that I speak of so often leases the interiors; the museum society pays token rent but logs the hours of the many volunteers who work in and around the buildings as an 'in-kind' contribution). The roofs are more than 20 years old and are disintegrating.
I personally think it's outrageous that the state is allowing public property to disintegrate, but there you go .. admittedly, to maintain historic integrity, the roofs need to be wood shingle, and that's not the cheapest way to go.
I am trying to curb my natural desire to shout because I know DSHS and the managers of Western State Hospital truly have more important things to worry about. Still, it's pretty fundamental that you don't let public property disintegrate. If you have a suggestion on how we can support DSHS in preventing wood rot, I'm sure listening.
Hundreds of volunteers and many, many donors helped restore those buildings in the 1980s, and it would be a huge loss to undo all that work. I am somewhat stymied about what we should do next, and welcome any and all ideas.
NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE
One thing you will hear about in coming weeks is a neighborhood issue near the Lake Louise area, where 104th meets Butte. My loyal readers, both of you, will recall that my family lived nearby, on 88th Street SW, for a couple years. It's a great area with lots of trees up the hill nearby, though it sounds like some of them are going to go. There was a beautiful greenbelt just west of 88th Street that the county apparently sold to a developer. Neighbors showed up at the Monday council meeting to express many concerns, mostly about traffic. There will be more to say as this development moves through the city's permit process.
(Depending on whether the computer gods are smiling on us, this link may or may not help you figure out roughly where I am talking about: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=H4rTA.p_0ToaHyKbxdIhl1_y&csz=98498&country=us&new=1&name=&qty= )
LINKS FOR LAKEWOOD
Nobody notices when litter is not present, so the extraordinary work of Hugh Hedges and other volunteers is often unnoticed. Here's an update on what they're up to:http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/story/4517573p-4240695c.html
An update on efforts to keep housing safe:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/lakewood/story/4508170p-4233722c.html
An easier recycling program is on the way:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4500700p-4230438c.html
For the record, when you hire more than 100 people, even with an incredibly rigorous screening program, one or two of the new hires won't work out. But I don't think anyone expected this:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/lakewood/story/4493877p-4225810c.html
The other, and far more common side of the police and city involvement:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/crime/story/4440689p-4194566c.html
Tacoma Power: I think I need to apologize for some of the shots I've taken at Tacoma City Light's customer service. Clearly, much of the problem is out of their control:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/projects/computers/story/4488255p-3787214c.html
And then there's the letter about the Dr. Martin Luther King event. In case you were wondering about this, my son had the stomach flu that morning and I chose to stay home with him. But obviously I wish I had done a better job communicating with the people who put in the hard work for the event:http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/letters/v-printer/story/4477565p-4213573c.html
Our ability to bring on more police officers, as well as offer services in general to you, is tied to our ability to keep people generating sales tax dollars in Lakewood. So that's what makes the info in this article unsettling (you have to read the last paragraph to understand why I included it):http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050203/topstories/80905.shtml
Update on legislation involving the city's traffic control cameras:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/210503_redlight03.html
One of the interesting questions of 2005 is whether Lakewood residents who own seaplanes will come forward to seek more protection for seaplanes on American Lake. It will also be interesting to hear from neighbors and other interested parties; it sounds like the discussion is overdue: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4480745p-4217705c.html8
FROM JANUARY 5, 2005:
Walter's Lakewood journal
HAPPY NEW YEAR!(No story about that … just … Happy New Year!)
CHOOSING A CITY MANAGER - UPDATE
GOING TO THE DOGS
BUDGET UPDATE
MLK OBSERVANCE
LINKS FOR LAKEWOOD
CHOOSING A CITY MANAGER - UPDATE
Unless we hit an emergency, the most important thing our present City Council will do for you in 2005 is hire a new city manager. My regular readers know we've been waiting on this for some time. Now, at last, here's your chance to meet the candidates. The good news is that we had a great selection of applicants to choose from, and our semifinalists include people with a wide range of capabilities and experience.
Panels of residents and staff will be formally interviewing the candidates all day during group interviews on this Thursday, Jan. 6. Then the candidates meet the general public at a forum and mixer from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Pierce College's Fireside Lounge. (Park in the northern lot http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/whereis/fs/parkmap.php3 and then ask around campus for directions to the Fireside Lounge) Stop by Thursday to hear them and meet them, if you can. Impartial, outside human resources experts will be gathering feedback from the panel interviews and the forum, and make the feedback available to the council either before or after we interview the candidates all day on Friday.
The next step after that will be for the council to narrow the field and do some intensive reserach on the candidates who emerge as finalists.
If you have any thoughts after meeting or talking to candidates, then by all means, please let me know; I hate to say it, but it would help if you do that before you go to bed on Thursday so I can have your thoughts on Friday.
I have been yammering about the importance of the new city manager hire since I began running for office in the winter of 2003. So I hate to abuse you with more discussion. But for those of you new to all this, let me just say that the position of city manager is a key role in the city: the city manager orchestrates a variety of city functions and sets the tone for a team atmosphere and customer service in City Hall. He or she often provides the starting point for discussion of important issues. The new city manager will be charged with restoring community confidence in the budget process, working with an often divided city council and community, and managing a team-oriented AND customer-service oriented atmosphere for more than 200 employees. Plus some other tasks. You didn't apply for the job? I don't blame you. Neither did I. Thank heavens there are some professionals out there who relish a good challenge, and a great opportunity in our great city.
So who will be Lakewood's second city manager? Here's the field:
* Pete Butkus: assistant city manager, Sammamish; previous jobs include executive director of the Public Works Board, State of Washington Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development; and Mayor and CAO, Pullman.* Andrew Neiditz: city administrator, Sumner; previous jobs include deputy city manager in Lakewood and executive director of public safety for Pierce County government.* Anthony Piasecki: city manager, Des Moines; previous jobs include assistant city manager, Des Moines, and customer services administrator, Water Services Department, Phoenix.* Stephen Rasmussen: city administrator, Ottumwa, Iowa; previous jobs include assistant to the city administrator, Maryland Heights, Mo., and garrison commander, Fort Campbell, Kent.* Denise Rose: township manager, Willingboro, N.J.; previous jobs include deputy township manager, Willingboro and town manager, Centreville, Md.
You can read more about these folks at http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4405585p-4181569c.html
GOING TO THE DOGS
Gosh, I can take this off my list of things to write about. You can find a good writeup at http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4400786p-4180086c.html The short version is that the city is finally going to get serious about protecting vulnerable elderly folks and children around Lake Waughop. It's one thing to let a dog run loose in the fields, but quite another thing to let a dog run loose in the sort of place where my parents walked in a very vulnerable state. Letting a dog run loose on that trail is like letting a dog run loose in a mall.
I feel sorry for responsible dog owners whose pets would not harm anyone. We can only hope it is the few irresponsible owners who will get tagged. Still, as I said at one council meeting, we either need to enforce the existing law or make it legal for dogs to bite people.
BUDGET UPDATE
In the next issue, I'll provide you with a column about what's going on with the city budget. The short version is that you can apparently forget about the large budget cuts you read about in the paper last month, for now. There are three council members, including myself, John Arbeeny and Pad Finnigan, who want to start making spending reductions now, rather than burn into the reserves without a plan and face a huge deficit in 2007. Four other council members would prefer to wait to consider making reductions and come up with a plan at least until we see the first financial results of 2005 and have a new city manager on board.
I agree with the importance of plugging the new city manager in the process, and so look forward to further discussions. It may be that the spending imbalance is not as bad as originally projected.
Hopefully, the council will address the spending imbalance in the late spring or early summer with the new manager to analyze the situation and give us options. In the meantime, the city government is spending more than it is bringing in, and so that could make for some interesting campaign discussions when four city council seats come up later this year (yes, it's an election year, folks. Enjoy a political sign-less Lakewood while you can …)
In the future column, I'll detail my suggestions and other suggestions for the budget. Many thanks to you who filled out the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=13015744011 Your feedback was very helpful. I will leave the survey open for a couple weeks if you have not filled it out yet. Your thoughts and reactions to the various suggestions are still very welcome.
KING OBSERVANCE
The Lakewood celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 15, at the Clover Park High School Performing Arts Center. The schedule includes performances by the Lakes High School Choir, Native Pride Dancers & White River Drummers, Filipino-American League Dancers as well as others. Speakers will include Mayor Doug Richardson and Clover Park School District Superintendent Dr. Doris McEwen. The program will also feature footage from the 1963 March on the other Washington.
LINKS ABOUT LAKEWOOD
Something to print out and read when you are standing in one of those long lines at Albertson's:http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4375673p-4141961c.htmlForgot to include this last time; a profile of a Lakewood institution:http://o.archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=gerties28&date=20041128
