Neary-Sighted

I know you are sitting there, waiting for Post No. 498 about community policing. Well, we do talk about other things from time to time. Like local history, for example.

I've heard for awhile that there was a story about the fountain in front of Washington Mutual on Gravelly Lake Drive. Somehow the fountain came up in conversation with Dennis Higashiyama, one of the city's parks and recreation staff. Dennis provides support to the new arts commission. So perhaps it is not surprising that Dennis knew all about the fountain, and sent me in the direction of some informative URLs.

I bet a lot of you know the story, but just in case: The fountain was designed by the Northwest artist George Tsutakawa, who is profiled on this great site about UW alumni and professors. He designed dozens of fountains, which are found from the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. to the University of California, Los Angeles. Tsutakawa was also profiled on HistoryLink, in an essay titled, "Master of Fountains," where I thought this sentence was a good summary: "Tsutakawa's fountains look as if they are shaped by the water itself."

Of course, the alert among you may have known of this treasure in Lakewood thanks to the Tacoma Public Library's photo series in The News Tribune. This photo and caption from a January 2007 issue shows the fountain at its original location in 1970, at Pacific First Federal Savings in Tacoma. You can get a better sense of how the fountain fit into its original location by looking at another photo at a wider angle from the Tacoma library, though you have to peer a bit at the bottom of the photo to see the fountain. The fountain was moved to Lakewood in 1974 when the bank opened the branch here. How great that we have it in Lakewood!

Perhaps it is a tribute to this artist's popularity that you can even find a video taken outside a WaMu in Bellevue and now posted on YouTube, of, well, a Tsutakawa fountain:

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News is only starting to get around town that the Lakewood City Council took a strong stand last night on community policing. It only took one email to make my morning a happy one:

I was back on the blog this morning and saw the wonderful news. Thank you for keeping me informed so I could speak in favor of the neighborhood policing. I know first hand that this is a great program that works. When you have neighbors looking out for each other with the help of the police department, it makes for a better community all the way around. When citizens get to know the officers in their area and learn how to help them it makes the job of the officer much easier too. Witnesses are more willing to talk to someone they already know. Again this was the best news ever.
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The Lakewood City Council, by a voice vote tonight, agreed to extend community policing throughout Lakewood in 2008. (see several of the posts below for what areas would not have been included under the original budget draft) If I heard the voices right, the voices for public safety were myself, Helen McGovern, Doug Richardson, Claudia Thomas and John Arbeeny.

More later. Thank you for all the expressions of confidence you've been sharing. Thanks in particular for the many of you who testified for empowering neighborhoods. We won. Community won. Neighborhoods won.
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As the Lakewood City Council marches toward a budget for 2008, there are two more loose strands to consider: how we allocate funds for human services and for tourism.

In the case of tourism, the Legislature requires that money collected from the hotel tax be spent on tourism. It has been a neat way of allocating seed money and marketing money to build economic development. The volunteer lodging tax board presented its proposals last night. You can read the recommendations here. There are a number of neat ideas to promote the community. Remember, tourists come and spend money, and then leave. They support a lot of the things we all enjoy.

Human services funding is more discretionary. Back when Lakewood incorporated, the original council agreed to set aside 1 percent of the general fund for programs that help the needy. For the first couple years I wrote this newsletter, my lists of these proposals got all the reaction of a yawn at a sleep apnea convention. But last year, a couple people decided to use the human services spending as an excuse for gay-bashing. (One of the several groups that would be funded provides a drop-in center for gay youth) And there were lively questions about to what extent these programs serve illegal immigrants. So who knows - this year's debate could also be lively. Meanwhile, you can read what our citizens' committee proposed for human services spending here.

In theory, these proposals will all be discussed on Monday when the council reaches a final decision on the budget. If people decide that Lakewood is the beachhead in the United States for where we can address nationwide issues involving gay people, illegal immigrants and public employees salaries, then it could be a long evening. But that's part of the job, and the challenge of balancing any and all of this is what keeps us all involved.
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Once again, we are live from the floor of City Hall in yet another budget hearing. It's 8:50 p.m., and it's still unclear whether a majority of council members will agree to extend community policing throughout our community. The formal vote on the budget may come as early as next Monday's council meeting.

In case you are wondering, I am posting this courtesy of the wifi from the Starbucks across the parking lot. I hope this post is worth to you the $10 I paid to sign on!

I'm afraid we don't have much of an update. Only Doug Richardson and I have said we support community policing in all six neighborhoods. The Lakewood CARES group is criticizing city spending in general: how awful the budget process is, how overpaid the emploeyes are, and so forth. They don't like spending, period. Neither do the rest of us, of course. But they sure like to talk and talk and talk about how awful spending is.

As always, they have a point. We need to do a better job of monitoring spending and priorities. We can always do better. What I want to know as I type this is whether we will fund adequate police protection in 2008 or not.

Well, the hearing ended and we still don't know where people stand on community policing. Well, there's always Monday ...
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You will find the results of my annual Lakewood budget survey below. Only a pretty cruel guy would post yet another survey, but that's me, I guess. I like getting - and in this survey, sharing - opinions. Sharing ideas is crucial to the success and credibility of what's still a relatively new city.

These questions are designed to not only survey opinion, but make a point. In addition, I am also trying to decide what I should be doing about all those Lakewood CARES emails flying through the Internet. In both cases, I would welcome your feedback. Let me know what you think. You will find this survey more pointed than usual, but so are the subjects.

Click here to take Walter's Survey
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Many thanks to those of you who filled out my 2008 budget survey. I've been worrying about how I can summarize the findings to you, but I just learned my survey company now issues the results in HTML. That makes it easy to post results on the Internet. How cool is that?

I apologize for the length of this post, but especially for those of you who filled out the survey, hopefully it will be worth the screen time. One thing that helps make sense of all the data: the numbers on the far right of the columns. They represent averages. So, for example, you will see the average score for the statement "Lakewood needs more police officers" was 2.28; the average score for the statement "Lakewood has too many police officers" was 4.24. You can quickly see which idea was more popular.

As I have said before, I do these surveys to find out what people are thinking. I don't make up my mind based on surveys. But it is helpful to know, for example, that the majority of citizens agree with me that we need more police. It is helpful to know when I disagree with people. For example, I was surprised how many people either want Lakewood City Council members to be watchdogs of the Clover Park School District, or were ambivalent on the question. That's intriguing. I like knowing that my hunch was wrong because it helps me interpret some of the things I see.

I was also surprised with how many people were OK with tougher design standards for Tillicum. I am not a big government guy, but I think people are saying we should be open to considering ways to make Tillicum better. This tells me that people who propose such tougher design standards are not as lonely as I thought they would be.

Because my survey questions tend to meander, it's almost as if I was able to have coffee with 50 different people at once.

Speaking of meandering, there were a lot of responses that were comments, or lists. You may recall that I asked people to list their main sources for information about events in town. So obviously those lists of answers are not reflected in these numbers. More information about those responses will come later. Meantime, feel free to let me know what you think of the trends shown here:



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People who follow the Lakewood Police Department with interest - and that's most of us - will want to check out this interesting story about how Chief Larry Saunders may be signing up for duty in Iraq: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/201986.html
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One thing that happens when you doorbell homes is that you talk with people and are reminded how little confidence a lot of people have in government. I find it frustrating that so many people are convinced that government is trying to put something over on them ... but of course government often does try to put something over on people. It's just that government is less likely to get away with it when it is local government. I can guarantee you are going to have an easier time getting to the bottom of something going on in Lakewood than you areina state agency in Olympia or a federal agency based in Washington DC.

But any government can be more transparent and accessible. Providing confidence in government is only one reason for open meetings laws, which require the public's business be done in public.

So while the mail-in votes are still coming in for Election 2007, some people are already looking ahead to the upcoming Legislative session in Olympia. The Washington Coalition for Open Government, which I belong to, has published its 2007 Legislative agenda.

You can read a news release about the WCOG open government agenda here.

You can read the WCOG Legislative agenda here.

You'll see that the big area of emphasis this year is on electronic records. A lot of government business is conducted over email and with electronic documents. From the news release:

A recent change in federal law requires corporations to retain all emails sent by employees in case they are needed in later investigations and court discovery; a similar provision for blanket retention of email should exist in our state’s Public Records Act with regard to emails sent by government employees through agency email systems. Most government business is now conducted by email, and far too many emails are deleted before they can ever become the subject of a public records request. Because this provision is difficult to enforce on individual employees, it shall be enforced at the email server, so that a copy of every email that passes through the server is automatic.

It's going to be interesting to see how the Legislative agenda fares. For one thing, WCOG is asking the Legislature to make its own documents subject to disclosure. Presently, a lot of documents in Olympia before, during and after Legislative sessions are not available (see my note above about which leve of government you should have confidence in) I'm thinking that this provision might run into trouble once it hits Olympia - sadly.

Labels: open government

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I know what you're thinking. "Walter, Campaign 2007 was so much fun. Can't it just go on forever?"

Sorry, Virginia, but Election 2007 cannot go on forever. It's time to move on. Life in the Neary household is still adjusting. I have spent a couple of consecutive nghts at home, and it turns out I have TWO children! And they are both pretty neat. I'm not saying they missed their father ... but the other night, my son, four days shy of turning 16, joined me for a shopping trip to the Dollar Store, Office Depot AND Bed, Bath and Beyond. He was spending time with dad. It was pretty cool, but hopefully we will find other trips to take.

My wife, of course, has resumed her insistence that I grow out my hair longer, which is something a little trickier to do during a campaign when people expect you to look candidate-y. You have to understand, Cindy's opening position in negotiations is that I should have a ponytail. Normally, I'm not too receptive to the idea. Given a political group's claims that Lakewood politicians should be younger than even they are, maybe a ponytail would have been a plus for me this year.

But it's a personal thing. Walter and ponytails just don't get along. Those of you who remember me from The Lakewood Journal in the mid-90s will recall what happened when I tried to grow a ponytail then. The results were not pretty because my hair fell about a half-inch short of being able to hold a hairband. And my hair just did not grow any longer. The Neary hair does not support ponytail length. But I think you will see the length creep up, or out, just a bit longer as negotiations continue in the household.

Labels: personal stuff

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Last night's election celebration felt a little funny because of earlier news that had arrived, news from Sacramento of the death of my cousin, Bob Harger. Bob was a great guy and a real fine family man. This has to be a terrible time for my late father Walt's sister, Evelyn, who must now bury a son.

Those of us gathered last night for other reasons at the Forza's on Steilacoom Boulevard were all pretty excited about the encouraging election returns, but I gotta tell you, my mind was wandering a bit. Honestly, I think what matters is a reminder that life on Earth is transitory, and our day can come anytime.

The one bit of good news is that Bob passed away while doing something he loved, skeet shooting. Bob was with friends when he put his head down, and that was that. After watching what my mom and dad went through when they died, the Burs crowd will know exactly what I mean by this, I am really happy for Bob. He died, as the saying goes, 'with his boots on' ... and that thought did cheer me throughout the evening.

That, and the hugs from my wife and kids, and several others.

Election-wise, we should all be pleased this morning to read Don Anderson's brief comments in The News Tribune, above, and especially about his interest in community policing. We really do need to preserve and protect Lakewood's community policing program. I've had the pleasure of chatting with Don at a number of events over the last couple years. Don has a lot of good ideas and interests. Don doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would put out a campaign mailer against other council members, which is an extremely strange move for both practical and tactical reasons if you want to accomplish anything in a city. While the other candidate Bruce Banfield is also a fine fellow, we should all enjoy the benefits of Don's leadership.
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For those of you who have not seen the official info from the auditor's web site, the signs so far are good:

Lakewood Council Position #7
Walter Neary
3,673 - 62.50%

J. Paul Wagemann
2,186 - 37.20%

And in other races:

Lakewood Council Position #4
Don Anderson
3,773 - 64.87%

Bruce E. Banfield
2,018 - 34.70%

Lakewood Council Position #6
Lisa Ikeda
2,652 - 43.95%

Claudia B. Thomas
3,362 - 55.72%

More results are expected tomorrow after the auditor works through the mailed-in ballots that will be arriving at the county offices tomorrow.

It's pretty late, so let me just say, thank you. Thank you. It's incredibly humbling to be honored with so many votes. I congratulate J. Paul Wagemann for entering the field. I have to say that for a Lakewood CARES candidate, he was very gracious. I had expected a very different race, and I respect him. Maybe one thing the council should consider is letting Paul and his colleagues on our transportation advisory board go directly to voters to raise taxes for roads, as they have suggested. Paul is articulate, and while I myself do not support higher taxes, maybe it would be fair to give him and them an opportunity to appeal directly to voters. Paul at least has earned that right.

But I am getting ahead of myself. That's all a topic for another day. Thank you for your support of me and a better Lakewood. In return, I can only continue to pledge to do my best for you and for Lakewood. More later.

And did I say ...

Thank you.
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As the election nears its close, I want to brag on two of my secret weapons. First secret weapon is son Patrick, who stepped up after my right elbow got hurt. I lost track of the number of signs that Pat planted in yards and rights of way as his dad looked on nursing a sore arm. It was a labor of love, and I am very grateful to him. There were adults who stepped up to help, and I am grateful to them as well, but there is something really emotionally moving about watching your own son go to this kind of trouble.

Meanwhile, this is the first election that JoAnna could vote in, and so she eagerly tore into the envelope and voted Neary (I hope!). While you and I have seen the "Secrecy Envelope" for years, JoAnna viewed it with the fresh eyes of a newcomer. She really got a big kick out of the name. I have to admit, I could not tell her why the envelopes have two eyeholes, but I plan to ask.

By the way, there is a lot of controversy about whether lawn signs even matter. Check out this great post from a Seattle online newspaper about the futility - and yet the necessity - of campaign signs. I cut back on my sign efforts after hearing about a variety of campaigns, such as one recently in Spokane, where people put up a ton of signs at a lot of cost and got little results. So one benefit of voting for me is that maybe if I win, the victory will validate my approach and there will be fewer yard signs out there overall!
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The public hearing tonight ended at 10:30 p.m. It's so gratifying to hear from citizens who really care about their community. I'm not at all surprised that people came from around the city to speak up for community policing. I was a little surprised that so many people came to speak in support of human services and parks; I assume that's because the Lakewood CARES guys have said they want to cut the city budget without saying exactly how. The final count of speakers was:

About community policing:11 people
About Lakewood's Promise and human services: 7 people
Parks: 5 people
Senior Center: 3 people

You could argue that I should clean up and explain some of these quotes, but it's 11:30 p.m. and Election Day is tomorrow. So I apologize if some of the quotes are unclear, and/or for any and all typos.

“Tillicum and Woodbrook have had success because of teamwork. …The residents of Tillicum - Woodbrook are pulling their weight, and we expect the City Council to do the same.”

“I hope you are fortunate enough to find a place like the Lakewood Senior Center when life taps you on the shoulder.”

“We’ve got a great city staff in our Parks Department … “

From a Tillicum resident: “Since (community policing) was cut, the crime rate is going up. The dealers and prostitutes are returning.”

“Lakewood needs to know that you support all of Lakewood, and thank you for your past support.”

“I’m not a public speaker. I’m just here today because I fear for public safety…. The police can only do what they are funded to do.”

“They say if something is not broke, don’t fix it. Now we have something that worked so well that we’ve broken it … the crime rate is going up .. let’s admit we broke it and let’s go back to what we did before.”

“We are not adequately addressing the needs of an aggressive community protection program.”

“(After working with the community service officer), August and September was the first time I walked in my back yard when I did think there might be a bullet waiting for me in my back yard … the community service officers has just resigned … If our children do not feel safe, we don’t have anything. Within two weeks of her resignation, we had 15 bullets fly through our back yard. Life is not supposed to be like this.”

“If you go to the dentist, and if you have cavities in your mouth, and you fill only some of the cavities and don’t fill all of the cavities, guess what is going to happen?" (this is a reference to how the initial city budget draft only funded a percentage of neighborhood policing programs)

“(The loss of community policing) was a wakeup call for some of us. This wakeup call got some people to our meetings that would not normally come to our meetings … Relationship, communication and quality of life are all important. In the foundation of a city, the things that are set forth as foundations like community policing need to be followed through. How many of you, if you had six kids, would you say, I will feed four or five of them and make the others wait? I don’t want bullets to fly past my house and I don’t want to someone to leave who has helped me find a sense of security and comfort in my community . The church where I am at has been broken into three times in the last few weeks … so you may say we have the lowest crime rate, but I’m not seeing it. Having a CSO makes a difference … I know who I can go to. Fiscal responsibility. Yes…. Fundamental responsibility to your people. Yes.”

“We’ve added new parks … Ward’s Lake, Springbrook, the small Oakbrook park, and they (and other parks) have all become welcome and safe attractive places for seniors, for kids, for anyone who wants to use our parks.”

"The improvements in parks have been amazing since we became a city."

Last I heard, the council was scheduled to actually decide on the budget Nov. 19. We'll see ...
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The City Council has been getting a variety of emails that support community policing, which is a hot subject in the current budget discussions as you will see from the posts below. I include this sample letter mostly because I have to admit, I did not even know that there was a Presbyterian Governing Body for Thurston County located in Lakewood! But it is also a good letter, and a good example of the sort of specific feedback we are receiving these days.

November 5, 2007

To: Lakewood City Council Members, City Manager & Chief of Police

From: Susie Zych, Office Manager, Olympia Presbytery

Dear Respected Officials of Lakewood:

We recently heard there has been conversation to stop the services of the Lakewood Neighborhood Police Program (NPO) & (CSO). We are deeply concerned that cutting these community services would encourage the continued gang and drug activity in the Tillicum area.

The Presbytery of Olympia moved to Tillicum from Lacey 4 years ago. During our time in Tillicum (we are housed at the old Community Presbyterian Church building) we have experienced at least 5 significant episodes of vandalism. Because of the damage we have installed extra outside lights, have a state of the art security system, upgrade our door locks, as well as installing a camera in our front door because of harassment to our staff that opened the door to needy folks. We have wonderful neighbors who watch our property as well. But that certainly is not enough.

Officer Mike Miller was instrumental in suggesting ways to protect our building as well as ourselves. Because of the time he spent with me I was able to protect our building as well as ourselves.

We want to be good neighbors but in this neighborhood we feel compelled to keep our doors locked when a staff person is alone in the building. Knowing that our panic buttons will bring the police in a timely manner is reassuring. Knowing that I can call Officer Mike if I suspect gang activity is reassuring. In light of the growing crime due to the drug situation it seems dollar foolish to cut such increasingly needed services.

We want Tillicum to be the final home for our Presbyterian Governing Body and want all who come to our beautiful center to feel safe. Please do consider the continued funding for these programs.

Sincerely,


Susie Zych, Office Manager
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This morning begins two days of meetings by a citizens’ advisory group, the lodging tax advisory board, which meets once a year. Once again, you could argue I could be doing other things during a campaign, but I’m here this morning because this group’s purpose is extremely important to both Lakewood’s present and future.

I’ve attended these meetings for several years because economic development is one of my interests. And tourism and the culture economy are key parts of any good city’s economic development strategy. Tourists spend money that help build Lakewood businesses and services. And to be a little blunt about it, tourists spend their money and leave ... so they don’t demand as many city services as other groups. In a city with a lot of demands and needs, it helps to have a form of economic development that does not demand a lot of services.

And tourists support things that local people can also enjoy: restaurants, museums, theaters, and so forth. I could give you statistics on how people who visit a community for its historical sites, for example, spend more money in restaurants, etc…, than the average visitor. But you get the idea.

The lodging tax board provides advice to the City Council on how to spend one specific kind of tax: the tax that people pay when they stay at hotels in Lakewood. That would include all forms of hotels, everything from Thornewood Castle to the new La Quinta to the older motels along Pacific Highway.

The Legislature was very clear that anyone who collects this tax MUST spend the proceeds on more tourism and services for tourists. You can’t spend this money on police or roads. So that means you can use this tax for very strategic purposes.

It’s this tax that the citizens group and then the council agreed should help providing funding so the city has guaranteed rooms at the new Clover Park Technical Center conference facility.

This morning, the group begins two days of hearing from other nonprofit groups that want cash. The groups include all the heavy hitters of Lakewood tourism, including the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, the Lakewood Playhouse, Lakewold Gardens, the Lakewood Historical Society, and others.

The Lakewood Chamber of Commerce would use funding for, among other things, operating its visitor center and marketing the new conference facility.

The Lakewood Historical Society wants to continue planning for a permanent location, and more immediately create a loop tour where tourists would begin with historic sites in DuPont, continue through Steilacoom, and then arrive at the Lakewood museums, Fort Steilacoom Museum and the Lakewood Historical Society Museum. I’ve been arguing for such a tour for a long time and a couple of other groups that could have worked on this have stalled along the way. So it’s exciting to see the historical society pick up the challenge.

Lakewold Gardens would continue its successful program which has put brochures about Lakewood everywhere from Washington ferries to Portland hotels and put up billboards in Snohomish County. Lakewold also wants help paying for a sign that DOT would put up on Interstate 5 that would advertise the Gardens from the road. The Lakewood Playhouse and the Historical Society are also trying to get signage on I-5… so it’s good to hear this morning that more of our attractions may be highlighted in this high-profile fashion.

And speaking of that, the city of Lakewood’s own all-volunteer Arts Commission, which is in its first year of operation, is submitting a request to build a web site that would highlight the many unknown arts and artistic activities. The idea is to raise the profile of Lakewood as an arts and cultural destination, which would naturally raise the tide for all cultural groups.

Meanwhile, the city of Lakewood itself has applied for two grants through the parks department. One grant would help pay for a study to calculate if it makes sense to convert one or more barns in Fort Steilacoom Park into a Farmer’s Market, or some other public use. And another grant would help pay for the city’s annual festival, SummerFEST.

It’s going to be tough for this group to decide what they want to spend money on. The lodging tax has about $248,000 available for this year, but the requests total $417,000. I haven't even listed all the requests. I’ll let you know what the group recommends, and what the council comes up with.
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The News Tribune has a good story setting the scene for the Monday night budget hearing. Definitely check it out for more information about what's to come.

Hey, by the way, now that we are coming down to the wire, there are a lot of strange emails floating around about the election. If are unfortunate enough to be getting those emails, you are welcome to ask me about any of the contents. I'm sorry that some of you are getting these emails from others without being asked if you want them, as Spamming is just flat wrong.

The News Tribune article mentions how one of our advisory committees recommends the city raise taxes to support more police. I don't think any other council member has my record of calling for more police, but I don't support higher taxes. I feel more confident of that position than ever. I have been knocking on a lot of doors in this campaign. There are a lot of people out there on fixed incomes who would love to have more police on the streets, but worry about the increased cost of taxes on their personal budgets.

After hearing the message loud and clear from voters, I am feeling sorry for my opponent in this election. He is part of a city transportation advisory committee that unanimously recommended that the council raise taxes and fees to pay for better roads. It can't be easy to be telling Lakewood residents that they should be paying higher taxes and fees for roads ... especially in this election. I say that because there is already a proposed tax increase for transportation, the so-called RTID, on the ballot.

I am hearing from a lot of folks that even if they support the RTID proposal in the spirit of compromise, they are quite worried about the high costs of the regional transportation tax that is on Tuesday's ballot. So for another candidate and our transportation group to also advocate raises taxes just within Lakewood involves some swimming upstream. I admire their determination, but the cause is wrong. Many of our citizens can't afford increased taxes, and we need to live within our budget.
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