Neary-Sighted

Sure, we're in the final week of the campaign, but a guy needs to keep up with his volunteering. So I was a docent today at the Lakewood History Museum. My loyal readers, both of you, will recall a post about a month and a week ago , where I pondered why the nautical gents at right were on a table and had seemingly arrived out of nowhere at the museum.

It turns out that museum director Janda Volkmer and the gang have put up a couple of new exhibits and are transforming a couple of others. The pioneer cabin has more items including a soldier's faded photograph on the wall, and the Lakewood Log office is about to get a new neighbor, the old Lakewood post office.

But more immediately, there are a couple of exhibits on loan from the state history museum. One is a photo board about the story of Chief Leschi. The other includes several boards that show in words and pictures why Washington was originally part of the Oregon Territory, and what happened during that period. It's not a period we all normally talk much about. I had not realized, for example, that the counties of King, Pierce, Thurston and Island, among others, had got their names during the period when we were part of Oregon.

So I definitely recommend you come by and check out the Lakewood History Museum, even if you have been there before. You'll see new stuff. Stop by sometime noon to 4, Wednesday through Saturday. You will learn, as just one example, what Thurston's first name was, and just how much time he spent in the county named after him. And you will learn who they thought about naming Island County after before they decided to name it after islands. If nothing else, check out the web link in this paragraph to the museum, as there is a lot of good info there including news of a major state grant.

Oh, by the way, the guys above turned out to be surplused gentlemen from a museum in Bremerton. They were apparently part of one of that museum's early exhibits, probably a diorama, meant to represent early sailors. I hear that someday, in our museum, one of them may be dressed up to represent Lt. Charles Wilkes.
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So I get back tonight at 9:30 after a 3 1/2 hour budget hearing, post the item below, and then look at what is waiting for me in the email! Here is a letter from a citizen to the council, which is great because we talked about this very subject tonight:

Dear Council Members,

I am a concerned Lakewood citizen. I understand the budget is tight but please support the Lakewood Police and Lakewood neighborhoods by approving funding for the critical Neighborhood Police program,(NPO's and CSO's) for each of the six Police Districts. This program is a proactive builder of safe communities and will promote Community Policing. We understood that the above program was funded
last year, however, funds were diverted.

The Lakewood Police cannot do their job if funding is cut. The Council must heed tithe requests from Lakewood Citizens and must make our safety a priority. It is well known that families new to the area are unwilling to buy or rent in Lakewood due to safety issues and poor schools. We have seen an increase in gang/drug activity. Law Enforcement needs the tools, manpower to address these challenges.

Well put. Gotta wonder if the other council members will hear this.
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You will see from several posts below that I and many other people in the community were concerned that a draft budget for 2008 excludes large sections of Lakewood from our community policing program.

The good news at tonight's budget hearing is that the staff who wrote the original budget draft have found suggestions to pay for community policing. They found ways to afford policing in both Tillicum and American Lake Gardens, AND in the Lakes District (the large area that includes Lake City and the neighborhoods around and between Lake Louise and Steilacoom Lake). I'm very grateful that the staff suggested the plan, and the council did not have to plow into and through the budget to find the money from among the various line items.

Of course, the next question is whether we can get at least four of seven votes to approve community policing. I continue to encourage anyone who cares about police protection to plan to come to our budget hearing on the evening of Monday, Nov. 5, to say what they think. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. Monday in City Hall. The actual hearing will begin later than that. The budget hearing will take place after a half-hour ceremony to honor veterans and some other city business.

Here are some details about the latest proposal: Prompted by a couple of us a week ago staff came up with a plan to restore community policing in Tillicum and American Lake Gardens. The plan called for reducing police overtime by $100,000 (presumably in part by having more officers on staff) and doing jail arraignments in the City Hall courthouse instead of downtown. These savings would produce enough money to keep a community service officer in Tillicum and American Lake Gardens on Jan 1, with a neighborhood police officer joining the team mid-year.

But that still leaves the Lakes District without community policing. So tonight, staff came up with another plan – a proposal that would also restore and improve community policing to the Lakes District. The city manager tonight proposed reducing the merit/cost of living system by enough to pay for that policing team. That involves sacrifice on their part, for the betterment of public safety in the Lakes District.

It’s outstanding that the city manager came up with this plan, because I was planning to find the money one way or another. The alternative was Walter prowling through a city budget that is about three inches of paper tall to try to find the money to do this.

However, this is where I remind you that I am only one of seven votes. Not all council members want to extend community policing throughout the city. In fact, only two other council members, Helen McGovern and Doug Richardson, said they supported community policing (and bear in mind this was not an official vote). Some council members from Lakewood CARES suggested looking at cutting the budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars ... though they did not specify where. I’m not a believer, but hey, maybe Lakewood residents do want fewer services and will show up Monday to say that. The citizens who want to cut services will have to make a compelling argument to get past my mental front door.

But that's another subject... if you think Lakewood needs community police, feel very free to speak out. Your comments might make the difference in saving the program in all neighborhoods. And on the other hand, if you have a city program that you want cut, I know the Lakewood CARES folks would especially love to hear from you ... though I will be intrigued by your comments as well. You can send us a letter, or you can show up Nov. 5. Either way you communicate, I hope and pray your voices are heard by others.
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Some folks are very quiet and don't go out much. No problem with that; I used to be that way. But if you do go out in Lakewood at all - to festivals, to talks, to Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis, or other such events - you are going to end up at the McGavick Student Center at Clover Park Technical College at one time or another. So here's an early look to compliment today's account in The Suburban Times.

The McGavick Student Center opened yesterday, and, just by reason of size alone, promises to replace the Clover Park High School auditorium as a major community gathering spot. (It may also replace gathering spots at Pierce College, for now, though that campus also has construction plans including opening a new health education center)

The center has four storefronts for the retail and student business programs, as well as a huge conference center that will seat more than 1,000. While the college's first priority is providing a place for students to learn, the dividable conference space has the giant projection screens that today's business audiences demand for major meetings.

Because state government is leery about paying for student centers, as opposed to classrooms, the college knitted together a bunch of funding partners. Those include the students themselves, who agreed to pay for the building as part of their studies. The city of Lakewood gets money from a tax on hotel rooms, and must spend the money to promote tourism. So the city bought a share of the building, in order to host major gatherings without further charges.

So let's just show a few more photos.


I also shot some video at that event, but I need to get cracking in order to get to the Safe Streets lunch in downtown Tacoma in 45 minutes. I will post a couple of videos later.

And later on Wednesday ...

Here are some videos. First, a panorama of the central area.


College President Dr. John Walstrum made several comments about how the building will be valuable to both students and teachers. Here are some comments about the value of the building in terms of economic development and bringing people to Lakewood:

And here's a panorama of the inside of the conference center; it may remind you of one I posted awhile back when the building was under construction. Sure looks nicer now!

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Welcome again to the second floor of City Hall, 7:23 p.m. as I type this. It's already been a longer than usual evening, because several council members were at a meeting of the Clover Park School District that began at 5. The district board had a special meeting to discuss ways to improve learning and test scores. So several of us wanted to hear their ideas.

By the way, if you want to attend school board meetings and put the results on a blog, feel very free. At times I am very conscious that there do not seem to be a lot of us posting material about Lakewood.

Back to one of tonight's subjects for the budget, our parks and recreation system. Among the projects in the proposed 2008 budget is a $15,000 study for providing sewers in Fort Steilacoom Park. The study would estimate how much it would cost to hook up the park to the county sewer system, or 1,600 feet of pipes, as well as provide engineering information.

This is one of those topics that you may hear first in this column, but about which you are going to hear a lot more.

Those of you who use the park know it does not have restrooms. Boy, do we all notice that sometimes. Our parks director, Mary Dodsworth, said tonight that service clubs here in town would gladly build the restrooms. But they can't - the park is not connected to the county sewer system. The shortage of facilities will only become more acute. Some people, such as State Sen. Mike Carrell, have proposed putting a Farmer's Market in one of the barns at Fort Steilacoom Park. But at some point, we have to provide toilets.

To attach Fort Steilacoom Park to sewers, we have to connect to the county sewer system, where they could, in theory, ask us for a ton of money. So it is going to take some fancy planning to find a way to reduce costs. By the way, it is not too early to ask candidates for the position of County Executive - aka the Emperor of Pierce County - whether they think the county, which owns the park, should help pay the sewer costs.

Don't worry - I'll remind you about the question as we get closer to the County Exec election.

Among other projects in the draft 2008 budget:

- Replacing the docks at Harry Todd Park, which are 30 years old.
- Coming up with a plan for the Fleet Creek area, including blueberry fields that the community would maintain with help from local schools.
- Interpretive signs in Fort Steilacoom Park, to highlight aspects of its natural history and the incredibly dramatic story of its human history.
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I don't really intend to honor some of the stuff that gets mailed out in a campaign, but I simply had to share this commentary from The News Tribune on some of the literature in the Lakewood race. You, of course, can and should reach your own conclusions about the contents of the mailer and the contents of this commentary.
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One of my favorite jobs at The Lakewood Journal was writing editorials. So it is personally satisfying to receive The News Tribune's endorsement.

Among the relevent sections:

The City of Lakewood is doing fine; that’s good reason to keep its incumbents on the job.

Lakewood is a well-governed city.

In recent years, its municipal government has built sidewalks and a new city hall, successfully launched its own police department and maintained healthy financial reserves. Its City Council has been doing a good job and hardly needs a radical course correction – which could take it in the wrong direction ...

Walter Neary, who was elected to the council in 2003, is a former newspaperman – but don’t hold that against him. He’s also a bright and collegial civic leader who’s done much to preserve Lakewood’s heritage.

Neary’s love of Lakewood is evident in his service as a board member of the Fort Steilacoom Museum and the Lakewood Historical Society, as chairman of the Lakewood Landmarks and Heritage Advisory Board, and as co-author of a history of the city. He’s also been a leader of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce.

"Bright and collegial?" Well, that's appreciated. Those of you who knew my dad, who wrote the book on "bright and collegial," would know that he would have really appreciated those words about his son. I appreciate those words as well, and I also appreciate the 'shout-out' to the Lakewood chamber and presumably the leadership program that we are working on.

I am chairing a committee that hopes to start a program that will enroll young people with potential into a yearlong leadership program. If we follow the pattern of hundreds of cities around the country, we will guide 20-30 people through a yearlong series of monthly meetings and mentorships and then 'graduate' them into various forms of community involvement.

Chamber leadership programs have been successful throughout the country, as this slightly dated, but thorough, story explains.
This influx of trained leaders could be a great thing for Lakewood, where we have too few people volunteering for too many needs. If our results are like those of other cities, some of these people will join the boards of nonprofit groups, and even run for positions like school board and City Council (where we could use some more positive leadership!). Our chamber committee hopes that a chamber leadership program will be a gift that will keep on giving and growing.
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To answer a question you just might have soon if you are a Lakewood voter ... No, I am not going to commission some machine to call you during dinnertime with a recording. I myself don't appreciate unsolicited calls that play a prerecorded message, even if I support the candidate or cause. I won't do that to you.
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It's that time of year, as you already know from the posts below. It's budget season! Budgeting city resources for the coming year is one of the most important things that the Lakewood City Council does. Follow the link below to Walter's Third Annual Lakewood Budget Survey, for, believe it or not, 2008 already.

The usual disclaimers apply. This is not a scientific survey. It's designed to help me understand what people are thinking, and how people react to a lot of questions and issues.

A number of people who took the test last year quickly realized that one of my goals with the survey is to help people understand some of the issues that we are wrestling with in City Hall. Frankly, a budget is so detailed that it is really, really hard to get anyone up to speed in a hurry. I hope this survey helps.

Click Here to take Walter's 2008 Budget Survey

By no means do I adjust my opinions to fit a survey; for heavens sake, don't worry if you are an expert on a topic. I want to hear what people are thinking, based on whatever information, however scanty, is out there. It's important to know what people think in Lakewood; the information provides a starting point for further education and discussion.
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Wow. The deer saga keeps growing. The discussion about hunting by Councilmen Ron Cronk and John Arbeeny is turning into quite the deal. You can read some of the opinions in today's News Tribune.

KOMO TV also had a story (you might try clicking on their link to see the report; I could not get it to work on a Mac, but it did play on a PC). KOMO reported as fact that the entire council was "considering" a hunt "this week," which is a very unfortunate impression round town. Given all the confusion, I can understand why people are concerned about a lack of public participation in such discussions. You can read some earlier correspondence below, and meanwhile even just this Friday morning the council has received two emails of concern from citizens.

Please, please, help us get the word out. Tell everyone you know that no hunts are imminent. No hunts have been authorized. No study of the deer situation has even been scheduled.

Relating to more serious matters, police are planning a major mobilization around Oh!Gallaghers, the bar that has seen a couple of gang-related shootings recently. From our Police Chief, Larry Saunders:

"After a second shooting at Oh’ Gallagher’s tavern at 74th and Lakewood Drive, LPD has launched a major gang suppression operation. We will continue this for the next several weeks. The regional gang task force will join us for several of the suppression operations. Despite some sentiment that the tavern has had problems historically, it was actually 16th down on our police call for service tracking system for this year (recall we only have serious problems with two or three bars). ... Nonetheless, the significance of these two incidents justifies a decisive response."

"We met with the tavern management this week, and they have agreed to a written safety plan, mandating all the best practices in our Raising the Bar program. Additionally, for the next several weekends, while we get potential gang retribution threats under control, they will use off duty police officers in the parking lot. We have also encouraged them to attend the community incident debrief we have scheduled for next Monday ... We have invited the property owner of the strip mall, other business owners in the strip mall, as well as nearby residents to the debrief. Our goal will be to underscore the measures we are taking to assure their safety, communicate the actual past history of police interaction with the bar and the control measures the bar has voluntarily agreed to, and mediate neighborhood concerns with past bar practices, such as partying in the parking lot, litter, etc. "

I'll be interested in the reaction of other members of the Lakewood City Council to this. Not all members have approved all of our aggressive anti-crime programs, out of concern for civil liberties. Individual members of Lakewood CARES have traditionally opposed the city's Raising the Bar program, in which police work with bar owners to limit crime, and been critical of the employment of off-duty police officers in bars. It will be interesting to see if they oppose the crime measures in this case, given the gang shootings.
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We find ourselves tonight in the third of five budget hearings that the council is planning to discuss the 2008 budget. Tonight’s topic is economic development. Once again, I’m writing ‘live’ from the second floor of City Hall. Economic development is an important topic for our community. Lakewood lags behind surrounding cities in terms of number of jobs in town and the value of property. If we had more business, we would have more jobs for our children, and more tax revenues to hire more police. These stakes are high.

The economic development budget falls into three categories: the community development department (which we all used to call the planning department), the economic development department (which is basically one economic development coordinator) and the public works department.

The big items on the horizon for the planning department include a considerable amount of time and energy planned for coming up with a Tillicum Community Plan. The sewers that will be coming there in 2009 will transform that community as land becomes more valuable and more developable. Tillicum sits along I-5 between military bases, a lake and the rest of Lakewood and Puget Sound. It begins with enormous advantages.

(for more background about Tillicum, see my posting about our moratorium there)

The question for us is how do we zone, and build roads, to bring in the largest number of jobs and range of housing alternatives, yet still maintain the Lakewood quality of life. How do we build a Tillicum in keeping with the community’s special vision? Lakewood is not a big government town, so it’s going to take enticements and incentives, not an iron fist. Planning for a Tillicum that we can all be proud of in 10 years is going to be an enormous challenge. I suspect we would rather have a grand hotel in Tillicum that markets proximity to the bases and the lake and Tacoma, rather than a three-story Hooters that someone is going to want to propose. Good development does not happen by accident; it will take strategy.

For the first time, we also talked about devoting resources to specific American Lake Gardens Industrial Park planning, which may or may not involve linking up with the Port of Tacoma, one of the 800-pound gorillas of the Pierce County economy. It’s actually quite exciting to hear tonight that the Port of Tacoma might get involved in this process as they obviously have a lot of experience generating jobs and a richer economy.

Another nice bit of news that came up tonight is that the planning department is planning to gradually address a number of dangerous buildings and crime problems in the Sylvan Park neighborhood, which traditionally is one of the more neglected parts of town. (For those of you who don’t know, Sylvan Park is the neighborhood in the same part of town as the Starlite Drivein, south of 84th). Assistant City Manager David Bugher says that neighbors are complaining about 20 different properties, so it’s going to take time to address all those issues.
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You have to give Councilman Ron Cronk credit. He can sure generate a lot of email. The last time the council received so much email, it was from Ron's appeal to name a room after Chief Leschi instead of former Mayor Bill Harrison and his wife, Jo. Lots of people wrote to claim the room for Leschi.

This time, Ron's mention of hunting at a meeting continues to generate a lot of email based on a News Tribune story. I guess we should be grateful Ron did not call for controlling the deer by re-introducing wolves into Oakbrook. (And since everyone seems very sensitive about things right now, let me add I'm KIDDING about even the idea of that)

One of the casualties of the meeting is that now other members of the media and surely thus some members of the public are assuming the council is actively considering a hunt, as if all the council members had jumped in a van and headed to The Duffel Bag to load up on crossbows and arrows. Wow. If I was going to authorize the purchase of crossbows, it would be to use them on the scum who are terrorizing the area around Oh!Gallaghers. (I'm also just KIDDING about that idea, folks, although maybe a little less so)

Here's more examples of correspondence ...

You people are idiots if you allow bow and arrow hunting of deer in Lakewood simply to protect the precious flowers of your homeowners for any number of reasons ... What kind of liability will you assume if a deer is shot, doesn't die immediately, runs into traffic, hits a car or cars and kills drivers and/or passengers. What if the hunter misses and hits a humane or domestic animal? Also, you like your young child to see a deer killed, writhing in pain?

Deer are beautiful and deserve to be protected. The only justification for hunting is for subsistence and I doubt that Lakewood is bereft of grocery stores.

Plants and flowers grow back, deer do not. There is probably a more common sense deterrent to deer in the gardens - put up a fence, get a dog, put up windchimes, put in motion detecting sprinklers, etc.


The deer in Oakbrook are a source of joy and there are many things property owners can do to minimize damage to plants that deer may cause. Please, please speak for all of us who find great pleasure in these gentle critters in Lakewood who are only looking for food. We look forward to seeing them and gladly let them take a few of our flowers and leaves.

There is a beautiful buck and I think last year's baby, also a buck, and a small mother deer with this year's twin fawns who visit us. I think the smaller buck was also a twin last year but something happened to one of them. We are honored when the mother trusts us and brings her babies to our yard year after year.

Many areas have local issues with animals. One Santa Barbara community has peacocks that annoy some but are treasured by many. Another area has flocks of parrots that have been protected so that people can enjoy them. I know there are many things that can be done to reduce the damage deer can do. It is up to us as a community to seek some ways of enabling people to protect their yards and still keep out treasured wildlife. Thank you members of the council for addressing Lakewood's many health and safety problems and for seeking to use reason to protect our treasured deer, a source of enjoyment and pride in our Oakbrook neighborhood.

We own a home in Oakbrook. I was at H & L Produce on
Sunday when the shooting took place. I am a frequent
customer there and at Johnny's Fish and Casa Mia.
Please close this bar down. I do not feel safe
walking to my car in that parking lot. I'm certain if
an innocent bystander is shot next time they will sue
the City of Lakewood. They will win.

Do not shoot the deer in Oakbrook. This is
ridiculous. We saw 3 this morning in our yard. We
don't care if they eat our plants. Seeing wildlife is
part of the charm of living in Lakewood.
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Yours truly awoke early today to go to a couple meetings for his day job on the Long Beach Peninsula, a 2.5 hour trip or so either way. I returned this evening to a fine dinner by the better half of the Neary couplet, and then fired up the computer. I usually check emails throughout the day, so it is always interesting to read a bunch at once. It's enormously satisfying to hear from our citizens, who often 'speak' more freely by computer.

And I thought it would be a great day if I had two or more emails thanking me for advocating for community policing during our budget hearings last night.

Wow. In one day, we have an entirely new issue. The citizens are speaking out. The council email is overflowing, and transcripts of phone messages for the Council show a lot of people are talking about the idea of a deer hunt in Lakewood. We got a bunch of mail - examples are below - and one citizen even sent a photo she took in her yard, which is above.

Now, when Councilman Ron Cronk mentioned the issue a couple weeks ago, I think everyone was caught by surprise. We have some very serious issues in town - the shootings outside a business are only the most recent example. And while there are a lot of deer in Oakbrook, the animals have not come up before as a Grade A issue. The council chatted a bit and said we'd be open to hearing ideas. To be honest, I was not sure if the people suggesting hunting as one option in a populated area were serious or not. It did not matter, because the idea was going nowhere without further study.

I have to admit, when Ron and another member of his Lakewood Cares group were talking, my mind wandered and I wondered if Lakewood CARES now stands for Citizens Armed with Rifles and Explosives against Squirrels. But that was just me being smart-alecky. At most I was hoping staff would look at what other cities have done and come to us with some practical suggestions from other communities.

But what sounded like a fairly preposterous idea at the council meeting - can you imagine people with crossbows and shotguns wandering down Phillips Road? - sure sounded serious in print in the newspaper. We have received a large number of heartfelt emails and transcripts of calls, which I will share here. Now, I am just one vote of seven council members, folks, but I have trouble thinking that the way we will tackle this problem will involve hunting.

Why? Well ...

Dear Lakewood City Council,... I’m fourteen years old, you may not care about what I have to say, but I’m saying it anyways. I’m young; being a teenager is too often associated with being obnoxious, selfish, or above all, “still learning”, yet I know what is right and what is wrong. I know that letting the people of Lakewood KILL deer just for being in their yard is completely wrong. It is the most sadistic and twisted thing I’ve ever heard. The thought of it makes me want to vomit. ... I know you must ge a lot o letters like this but please, think about it an act! I know you can make the right decision. …here is my question to you: HOW WILL YOU SLEEP SOUNDLY AT NIGHT, knowing tha as you lie in your bed tons of people are whipping out their bows and arrows. Please don’t hurt the deer. They don’t deserve it. They don’t know any better You DO

I feel compelled to offer you another viewpoint on this issue. As a twenty-two year Oakbrook resident I enjoy seeing deer roam about from time to time. They are beautiful animals that harm no one. Yes, they have eaten my roses and tulips but I feel that was a small price to pay for being able to see these beautiful creatures up close. ... If it were up to me, I would fix the following issues in Oakbrook before I began hunting deer: (1) Speeding around the Onyx/Zircon loop is out of control, (2) The unpatrolled city park on Onyx is a hangout for kids who are using it for sex and drugs after dark, (3) There is an increase in junk cars and boats scattered throughout the neighborhood, (4) Houses that are for sale and vacant have been broken into by a group of teenagers, (5) Some of the rental houses are not being kept up in appearance, (6) We have had an increase in car break-ins and vandalism.

If you are intent on removing the deer, I would suggest relocating them. I for one do not want hunters in my neighborhood; I do not care how safe it is. I feel that would be the worst solution for many reasons. Will the council take responsibility if someone gets injured?

... Let us not forget that the deer are hungry and have been displaced from many of their feeding areas due to construction of new houses in Oakbrook. Remember when the whole Onyx strip from 87th Street onward was forest? I feel we as human beings can share our neighborhoods and attempt to live in harmony with these harmless creatures. Thank you.

I was absolutely appalled at the idea of allowing a bow-and-arrow hunt for deer in Oakbrook. One of the charms of living in our neighborhood is its park-like setting and diversity of wildlife, particularly the deer which come romping through our property from the adjacent canyon. Naturally, they eat my petunias and roses, but it's a small price to pay for being able to watch a mother deer and her small babies eating a leisurely breakfast. ...

Recently our grandchildren from Houston came to visit. Since they had never seen any deer except in a wildlife park, they were really excited to see a mother deer and two babies ambling through our yard. On their next visit, I hope I won't have to answer their plaintive query, "Grandma, where are all the deer?," with the answer, "Oh, they were all killed so that some people in Oakbrook can have beautiful yards."

My entire family is up in arms at the idea that they’re going to be murdering deer with bows and arrows. The obvious solution is to hire a professional to come, tranquilize them, and cart them off to Mt. Rainier where at least they have a chance of surviving. This better go no further. I tell you that this could lead to rioting in the streets of Lakewood. This is the most outrageous thing! What kind of example are we setting for these children who are already trigger-happy with their computer games! If we have men up in trees with bows and arrows murdering animals, we’re going to have little boys behind hedges murdering dogs and cats. If this goes any further, it’s just going to get ugly.

I’m calling about the article about the deer. A bow and arrow season is just about the silliest thing we’ve every heard of, and we certainly want to register our disapproval. The animals were here first. We’re sitting on their territory and if they come through ours, we just need to sit back and enjoy it.

And certainly one of the most potent phone messages was this one, simply because it said so much so simply:

The article concerns shooting the deer. I am not only opposed to this, but I think it’s ridiculous, it’s dangerous, and it’s absolutely ludicrous. ... Thank you very much. Bye.
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More postings from the hearing room at City Hall as things happen tonight. Hey, this is better than live TV because you do not actually have to watch us ...

Tonight we finally had a good discussion of what went wrong with community policing this year. This discussion is important before we can discuss what we can honestly do in 2008. The unraveling actually begin in late 2006, frankly, when a majority of city council members voted for a budget that failed to adequately provide for community policing.

We reap what we sow, right?

The majority voted to put an unarmed Community Service Officer (CSO)to do crime prevention work in each of the the six neighborhoods/patrol districts. And that was actually pretty good staffing. But those unarmed officers are supposed to work as a pair with armed officers, Neighborhood Patrol Officers, NPOs, who have been through the police academy. But while the majority of the council voted to fully staff the CSOs, the majority of council also voted in late 2006 to put only three Neighborhood Patrol Officers in those six districts in 2007. You'll recall I voted no, because you could predict the short staffing would cause poor service and overwork.

There's a more serious issue that strikes at the heart of the promises we make to our citizens during these budget exercises.

Even though the council funded six CSOs and three NPOs, the city only had a maximum of five NPOs. So throughout this year, one district has always been without a community service officer. And while the council authorized three NPOs, we have had only two for the entire city of Lakewood since early last summer.

The point I just made a couple seconds ago during this hearing is that this failure to fully fund policing is troubling. Behind me are dozens of citizens from Lake City and Tillicum. In a couple minutes, they are going to take turns telling this council that we should leave community service officers in their neighborhoods. But what's the honesty if we grant that request and do not actually fill the positions? What does that do to crime prevention ... not to mention the credibility of government?

What both the city manager and police chief said tonight is that the pressure to fully staff police patrols meant the city could not fully staff either the community service officer program or the neighborhood officers.

As I type, the volunteer chair of our all-volunteer police advisory board, Alan Hart, is commenting that our community policing folks are at risk of burning out. No wonder. We need more of them.

"I can't say stridently enough, we need to retain those people ... If we constrain the number of officers we have, they'll respond to violent crime ... but they won't be able to respond to property crime. We're concerned about that," Alan said.

Alan is saying that we need to fully staff our existing 108 officer positions. The city has not been able to do that due to budget-related delays and the long lead time needed to hire an officer. And ... wow, he's saying it out loud ... "If we want to say we want to eliminate violent crime significantly more, if we're going to put a dent in property crime, if we are going to put a dent in noise problems and problems like that, we think we should have a minimum of 112 to 114 officers."

And therein is a challenge to us. Alan just had the guts to say Lakewood needs police, and should pay for them. His comments were just seconded by the assistant chair to the police advisory board, Fae Crabill.

"The city has been moving forward for 11 years. We don't want it to move backwards. We need the police department there to make it safer," Fae says. "This program works. People want it in their neighborhoods."

So what do we do now? What will the council want to do? Where will we find the money?

Councilman Pad Finnigan has suggested that we might share a team with Tillicum and Lake City "where crime has essentially died." Alan is responding that sharing a team between two neighborhoods would put us in the same position we have been in this year; it would put the police in a tough position as they have to choose between issues in the different neighborhoods.

Councilman Ron Cronk meanwhile has shared that he thinks the four complete teams represent an improvement for the community, even though two neighborhoods would go uncovered. Yours truly once again showed his gift for intemperate language, as I responded, "Sure, if we throw Tillicum and Lake City under the bus..."

It's hard to know, this early in the process, what the council will decide. There will be many more discussions like this, be assured. There's much more to write ...
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What a difference a couple of days can make. The other night, during the first budget hearing, we had about a dozen people in the audience. We're here at City Hall tonight, and there are several dozen people seated behind me; many are unfortunately packed in a hallway behind our meeting room. Most of the folks I recognize are from Lake City and Tillicum. It's not surprising they are here, as if you've read the posts below or certainly if you read the paper, you know that the draft budget would eliminate community policing from their areas.

These are not happy people, and the expressions on their faces show it. I'm proud of the people of Tillicum and Lake City. They are here.

This was the first formal chance for Chief Larry Saunders to explain why he and the city manager made the recommendation they did. The short version is that they were trying to hold growth of the police department budget to 4 percent. And that meant in order to fully fund four pairs of community police officers in the other four patrol districts of Lakewood, they had to eliminate community policing entirely in two neighborhoods. As the chief says, that alternative was not his first choice.

Among the things we learned tonight: we need to pay the county dispatching system another $300,000 for records, information technologies and other systems; another $45,000 to the jail; and another $30,000 for ammunition (apparently the war in Iraq and elsewhere is forcing up the cost of large-caliber ammo) So it's no wonder that money is tight.
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Cindy Worden was for a long time one of the great warriors against crime in Tillicum, until her family moved. She still keeps track of events here in town, and her thoughts about the recent proposals to adjust community policing are worth reading in their entirety, posted, of course, with her permission:

Hi Walter,

It has been a little over a year since I moved from the Lakewood area to Gig Harbor. I read your newsletter and blog religiously as I miss living in my old hometown. I am writing this because I saw your article about two neighborhoods in Lakewood losing their community-policing program.

I agree with you about Tillicum losing. I spent 5 years of my life starting the program, and it was working. I know that Rudy (Rebel) Baker spent the rest of his life for the cause, not to mention the other 15-20 people who served on the patrol over the 5 years that I coordinated the program.

Since I left the area I have slowly watched the community going back to its old norm when no one bothers to call the police because they probably won't show up anyway. I am starting to see things crop up in town again and I rarely see an officer in town. Crime stats would appear to be down as there apparently is no patrol to make the calls about the things that area occurring.

Even though I moved out of Tillicum a year ago, I work in Lakewood, and I am in town nearly every day. The "problem children" from my reign on the patrol are now young adults, and they still shout the same unmentionable names that they used to call me then. That would not be flattering for most, but for me, it tells me that we had an impact and it has not been forgotten. Even now when the old "gang" of kids that used to cause trouble see me coming down the street, they disburse because they know I will call the police if I see them doing anything wrong. Now that is an impact. I would hate to see Tillicum go back to what it was in its unflattering days.

I still love my town, and I would not want to see them lose ground now. It looks like I may have to attend a counsel meeting or two or head back to the association meetings. Thank you for reading my two cents on the subject and thank you for keeping me informed.

Cindy Worden

Labels: community policing

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Name the people who are involved with government and who make a big difference in the community for good or for bad. Obviously, the names of city council and school board members come to mind. But what if you want to make a difference through public policy and don't want to run for office? Or what if you have a specific interest in how our city will look and feel in 10 years? Do you care what kind of businesses and housing we have?

There's a vacancy for a seat on the city's planning commission (which we officially call the Planning Advisory Board) It would be harder to name a more influential group in town in terms of land use issues because they often do the hard work and set the tone for the final decisions. They have dealt in everything from basic zoning to adult family homes and adult-oriented businesses.

Interestingly, nobody applied for the vacancy the first time. The opening is now being re-advertised, and the deadline is Oct. 29. If you have any time, please give some thought to applying. The planning commission can make a huge difference, and you could make a huge difference on it.

You can get a lot more information about the planning board - and several other advisory groups that have openings all the time - at http://www.cityoflakewood.us/department-pages/planning-advisory-board.html
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Those of you who followed the posts below about changes to the neighborhood policing program can find a comprehensive story about neighborhood policing in today's News Tribune. Not surprisingly, the neighborhood leaders quoted in the story are reacting strongly and negatively to the idea of cutting out some neighborhoods, even if other neighborhoods would benefit through better staffing.

How's that go? All for one, one for all? It's great to read that people are sticking together. That's the Lakewood way.
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Candlelight Tour must have entertained many hundreds last night, judging from the number of people who toured Fort Nisqually in Point Defiance Park. Re-enactors can't actually tell how many people come through, because we are supposed to ignore them and just look at each other as we try to recreate 1859 as closely as possible.

Great good fun, and a great way to teach history to the kids of all ages in an immersive way. Thought I would share a photo taken before the re-enactment began. You see me chatting with, at left, Col. Silas Casey, with Major Alvord looking typically somber to my right. We visitors from Steilacoom chatted with the British all night.

As I mention below, my real-life character is Charles Prosch, who published a Steilacoom newspaper from 1858 to 1863. Being a newspaper publisher at a re-enactment is a breeze, because if we run out of things to talk about I can always talk about how my paper will "boom" Steilacoom and turn it into the next San Francisco. And poor Charles invested a lot back then in that very dream.

I understand a big storm is expected tonight, and I hope that does not cut into attendance. The re-enactors should mostly be fine, as most of us are wearing a lot of authentic and definitely-not-polyester wool.
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So here's the inside scoop - apparently there are still tickets available for the Candlelight Tour living history re-enactment at Fort Nisqually this weekend. Otherwise, the event is sold out. The tickers are only for the last tours on Saturday, after 9 p.m., and if you want them, call the fort ASAP.

Candlelight Tour is my favorite event to volunteer at. Several dozen of us put on our wool clothes - which will be handy in this weather - and re-enact the 1850's in several buildings throughout the complex. My character, Steilacoom newspaper publisher Charles Prosch, will be complaining that the political troubles in the East are undermining the growth of Washington Territory. And if someone gives me a glass of wine, I may fondly remember the days we typesetters lynched people in San Francisco ... but how it was totally wrong for the Olympia power brokers to lynch poor Chief Leschi. You can read more about my real-life guy Charles Prosch in this biography of "my" boy Thomas Prosch, who was 9 in 1859, but would grow up to start the Tacoma Tribune and to be the co-publisher and founding editor of the Seattle P-I.

Charles will be pontificating Friday, but I am not sure if I will be there Saturday as we've not settled plans on how we will be helping to spend our daughter's 20th birthday. That's in my life, not Charles'. His one daughter died tragically right after traveling across Panama, before there was a canal.

The great thing about Fort Nisqually is that this living history museum is packed with re-enactors of all ages - and it's very unusual to see so many youth at re-enactments. They add a lot of joy and life to balance out us guys talking politics. In the candlelight, during special moments, it really does become 1859. It's the best way to "learn" history and appreciate past times, back when daughters and sons often died much earlier than they do today. Check it out, this year or next.
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Working from home for a bit this morning. I am sitting here wondering, whatever possessed me to schedule a visit to the dentist two hours before a campaign forum? Ah well. I think a lot of Dr. Swanson, and it's a bonus that he is only a few homes away from me there across from CP High School.

I've been meaning to share a couple of links that don't really fall into a category except they both mention this column, er, I mean, blog.

Here's an item from the tech writer for The News Tribune. You will see I posted something under it, and yes, in retrospect, it was probably not the smartest thing I ever did to tell The News Tribune that we really also need a weekly here in town. But most people at least in the newspaper industry would understand that there is a place and an important role for both a daily paper and a weekly.

And speaking of posting on a blog ...

Meanwhile, via the Internet, I found a long-lost reader from my days writing at the daily paper in Olympia. He urged me to allow comments on my blog, and, to be fair, it's worth trying. That's why you see that you can now comment on this and other recent postings via a form which I will then moderate for any spam or oddness. Anyway, here is a blog from Olympia that mentions our blog http://olywa.blogspot.com/2007/09/walter-neary-good-blog-should-allow.html and then http://olywa.blogspot.com/2007/10/walter-neary-is-still-totally-cool.html

In case you are wondering, he is referring to a web page that a couple of us at the paper worked on in our spare time. The page was about the Capitol Lake monster who haunted the depths of the lake. Of course, people in Thurston County and a few others know Capitol Lake is about six inches deep. But we had a lot of fun with the web page, and I was astonished someone remembered it.
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See below for a deeper discussion of the budget. Here are some interesting points from the rest of the evening.

- Sales taxes and the economy: The Lakewood economy is going gang-busters. Based on collections so far, retail sales taxes are expected to be up 12.5 percent, for revenues of about $9.97 million, which even allowing for inflation means a lot more people are buying more stuff within Lakewood.

- Property taxes: Excellent news. Lakewood accounts for about 15 percent of what you pay in property tax (the rest goes for fire, library, schools, state, etc...) It looks like we can hold the *rate* - not the county assessments - but the rate should be less than it is now, $1.10 per $1,000 in assessed value.

- Lakewood would have a reserve of about $7 million in 2008, roughly 18 percent of the relevant budget. City Manager Andrew Neiditz says that most cities have reserves of maybe 9-10 percent if they are very disciplined.

- On the more negative side, Lakewood's got the same issue as other employers. The city's insurance carrier just announced premiums will rise 16 percent next year. My regular readers, both of you, have read before that I am concerned rising health care costs will force us to make tough choices based on what many other cities that are in poorer financial position are already seeing.

- Council members are expressing a lot of concern, as I type this, about some of the salary costs we are seeing. I imagine there will be much more scrutiny. As always ... stay tuned.
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How cool is this? I did not know we had wireless Internet access on the second floor of City Hall, and I am typing while the city manager is making his introductory remarks.

As you will see from the post below, this is the first of five nights where we'll be considering how to spend your money - the general budget of the City of Lakewood.

Lakewood has a number of separate funds, such as those that administer the sewers and street maintenance. The general fund, which has a lot of room for discretion, is proposed to be $38.15 million.

Tonight, City Manager Andrew Neiditz called the budget a "hold the line budget. The trending that we see is that we need to budget conservatively if we are going to sustain the efforts we are starting."

There are, for example, no new staff positions except for someone to help with Municipal Court security. The city would eliminate two community service officer positions, which is in line with what I wrote below. As I type this, the city manager, Andrew Neiditz, is saying, in city manager language, that he knows community service officers are important but in the light of all the city needs, we cannot afford them. So my post below seems to be essentially correct - the proposed budget is abandoning community policing in two large chunks of town. Andrew is also saying that if we don't try to serve all six neighborhoods - if we only serve four, but intensively - at least we will do well in preventing crime in those four areas.

It's an interesting point, and worth considering for 10 or 20 seconds, tops. But we need to be fair to all citizens. It will be interesting to see if the council agrees with what is, in the most negative way of putting it, neighborhood discrimination.

Who knows? The council might. I'm sorta wondering, if you read the papers, if some of the council members will pay any attention to public safety if they can talk about gambling instead.

One thing about the new budget I really like is that the city is adding someone to help administer the courts and help provide screening and security. Last year, the council heard some scary information that suggests our courts are at risk because there is only one officer on duty, and the officer can only be in one place at any given time. For about a year, I would bet the council members who pay attention have been a bit worried, as I have been, about what would happen if someone in the court did something bad. The new employee would also help supervise the work crew from the county jail, which is a great way of getting labor that is free except for the cost of that supervisor.

Another new cost the city will have to bear is $200,000 to provide intensive security for the new commuter parking garage on Pac Highway. Now, you might think we should have tried to get Sound Transit to pay for that cost. But I am glad we are paying for it because we get to control it. Frankly, Sound Transit has not exactly met all expectations. If they did to security what they did to rail access for Lakewood, no security officers would ever show up. So I am glad we are controlling security at the commuter station.
Just to elaborate - when I commuted to Seattle, I parked for awhile at the park and ride in Federal Way. It was pretty scary (and let me stress, I am talking about 1999) It is going to be important that we provide excellent security at the Lakewood parking garage.

Heck, someday we might even have a train, like you see in the Sound Transit art at right.

Wow. I can actually post during a council meeting. I think I will post this before the meeting ends ...
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We go through a little ritual every year. People drive by the trees outside City Hall, and then ask, "Why does the city have Christmas lights up in October?" We need to convince a local business or someone to donate a lighted sign to explain those lights.

The purple lights are meant to show solidarity with those who promote Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Last night, a couple of presenters played a 911 call to the council meeting, with a child crying as her mother was being beaten. The call was horrible. It should not take purple lights or recordings of crying children to remind us of a need to do more, but it does and they do.
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It's rare for a Lakewood city budget to have clear winners and losers in terms of neighborhoods. Not so in 2008. The city manager passed out copies of the proposed budget for 2008. The city staff is proposing to drop two of our neighborhood patrol districts from the community policing program.

What that means in practical terms is that if you live in the blue area (Tillicum and Gravelly Lake) at the bottom of the map, or the yellowish central area (Lake Steilacoom and Lake Louise) in the left middle of the map, you will no longer be part of the city's community policing program. I call that losing.

The city is going to have extensive hearings to discuss this proposed budget, and we will all hear more. It seems surreal to me that the city is proposing to drop community policing in Tillicum. So there must be more to the story. It may even be that there's a typo, or I am reading something wrong. Neighborhood policing has been key to the dramatic crime reductions in Tillicum. So feel free to check back for clarifications or corrections as I read through the budget and hear from others about its implications.

(For those of you unfamiliar with community policing, the short version is that Lakewood originally planned for each color-coded patrol district in the city to have a special community service officer (CSO: an unarmed but trained law enforcement official), and a neighborhood police officer,(NPO a full police officer who is armed), to get to know neighbors and neighborhoods. The idea is that if you listen closely to neighbors and look for signs proactively long before anyone has to dial 911, you can identify criminals before they can commit any or many crimes.

So that means there should be one pair of officers - CSO and NPO - in each of the six districts, though that's never been fully built out because of budget and other constraints. Last year, a majority of council members overruled a couple of us and voted to only allocate three NPO police officers among those six neighborhoods. I voted no, and not just for the main reason, that community policing is effective. But it's worth noting that aggressive and proactive community policing is one of the few things we do that makes Lakewood unique among any other city you might move to.

There's nothing wrong with being distinctive while you are being effective.

The new budget proposal is to have four districts, each with a community service officer and with a neighborhood patrol officer. The north Lakewood officers are funded with the assistance of state aid and would be based at Western State Hospital to work with all the issues there. Now, it's great that we are finally starting a district in Oakbrook and other northern parts of Lakewood. It's great that we want to incorporate community policing into Western State with all of its many complexities. But you have to wonder how much time officers who will be based in Western State Hospital are going to have in the residential and business neighborhoods.

So bottom line, it's great that each district that still has community policing would have both a community service officer and a neighborhood patrol officer. But I don't like the fact that two neighborhoods get cut out.

Here's why I am extra sensitive on the point. Another council member found out by accident a week ago that while the city is supposed to have three neighborhood patrol officers, we have only had two for several months. That means we've had two neighborhood officers each with a neighborhood of 30,000 people in our city of 60,000.

The idea of a neighborhood of 30,000 is so preposterous as to make us all look silly. And more importantly, you have to wonder how effective an officer can be in preventing crime when you give him a neighborhood of 30,000.

Now, there are valid reasons for why they had a staff shortage, but the whole thing has me in a lousy mood. Why does the council tie itself into knots when its priorities are not implemented? What is it about the nature of government that prevents seven council members from clearly enforcing what we budgeted in the belief it represents a high standard of public safety for our citizens?

So the upcoming month of budget hearings - see below for schedule of hearings - must be about more than funding. The council must discuss how we will enforce our standards for 2008. We owe you strong public protection for the trust you place in us.

(And just for housekeeping, if you want a larger view of the city neighborhood policing districts, you can get a larger version at http://www.cityoflakewood.us/images/stories/Police/resources/policedist.jpg You may have to import the photo into your photo editing software to get a good view. The districts that would not have assigned community and neighborhood officers are One and Five on the map)

So let's look ahead. I will share more after the first budget hearing on Wednesday. Meantime, here are just some random thoughts about the early draft budget. Bear in mind, there will be full public hearings and lots of discussion. I may devote entire posts to some of these topics, you lucky people. And I will put up a poll so you can weigh in, like nearly one hundred of you did last year. So meanwhile, here's a short list of the mostly happy stuff:

- Staff proposed developing a comprehensive and clearly planned blueprint for growth so we will have a better Tillicum and American Lake Gardens. Yay for thinking, and planning, ahead! The idea is to ask, in a very systematic way, how we can add jobs and nice housing to that area without displacing residents who are there now. That area is located next or near to major cities and a military base; Tillicum itself is sandwiched between an Interstate and a lake. The area ought to be a thriving neighborhood (though not of 30,000), and hopefully this plan will help set us on a good path.

- Unless I missed it in the fine print, no one is proposing a tax increase like last year's ambush water utility tax. Yay! The budget calls for more police, and they are paid for in large part by growth in sales tax revenues.

- The budget proposes an overhaul of the city web site to make it more useful for citizens. The site has its uses, but it needs to be updated.

- One thing I like about the city manager's new budget format is that each department set goals for 2009-2012. One thing I like about the parks department is that it lists one goal as developing a Farmer's Market inside Fort Steilacoom Park. That's a great idea suggested by State Sen. Mike Carrell, other members of the Lakewood First Lions, and other folks. We need to follow up and explore if it is viable with help from private funding. If you have ever been to the Olympia Farmer's Market, you know the energy and good that a market can bring to a community. And what a great way to reuse one of the barns.

- On the negative side, I no longer seen any mention in the budget of the signs we approved last year to interpret the amazing history of Fort Steilacoom Park. People today need more context, not less, and so I look forward to learning that these interpretive signs are still in the plan. To be blunt about it, other real cities have interpretive signs in their parks to explain history and nature to children and others; it is time Lakewood joined the big leagues.
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