OK, so only one new thing really passed (utility agreement). Let’s get to it!

* LIBRARY GUILD REPORT
There’s some concern over increased library use, and future library use if we build a bunch of new houses. Our current library doesn’t have room for expansion, unless we want to build upwards. They don’t want to take away parking spaces, and they want to keep the trees too (seems kind of ironic).

Anyway, apparently there is a book sale happening soon. I visit the library probably 2-3 times a week, and I’ve never noticed anything about that (let’s get some marketers on this guild!). They need kids’ books especially, and the money is used for something useful, I’m sure.

* WE GOT YOUR HOOK-UP RIGHT HERE
The utility agreements between Qwest, Puget Sound Energy, Comcast, and the city of MV went through. They’ll dig up trenches by the library and community center and bury their lines. Last week, the council spent the whole time talking about the one guy who lives on the corner, and the staff will have something worked out so he won’t have to pay to hook up again.

* WORD ON THE STREET
During public comments, we heard that Covington is considering closing down the pool to save on parks money. After reading their budget, it looks like the pool takes up about 56% of their parks fund, and about 4% of the city’s total budget. The pool takes in about $340K in fees, but costs around $675K to operate (mostly in salaries).

* INDEMNED IF YOU DO, INDEMNED IF YOU DON’T
I covered the particulars of the potential new Indemnification Ordinance last month (Drop It Like It’s Hot, Jan 19^th), so the quick summary is that this ordinance would provide for the legal defense of a city employee, volunteer, or elected official in case they were named in a lawsuit, and the insurance company didn’t cover them. There are a lot of caveats though, and the council or city manager would have to approve paying for the defense.

New information this week -  Other city attorneys that were asked for real-world examples provided a number of them including sexual harassment claims, retaliation, employee discipline, recall petitions, and volunteers who felt threatened by citizens. Several of them really wanted to impress on the council how important this ordinance is.

The discussion ran about 45 minutes long, with 30 of those minutes devoted to answering Councilor Johnson’s questions. They weren’t very good questions either, and she finally declared the last section reviewed to be a bunch of “gobbledygook” with a “high ‘fog’ factor” after she couldn’t understand it.

What really burns me is that this ordinance is the result of the staff’s efforts for the past couple of weeks. It’s just insulting and irresponsible to say that about someone’s work, unless it truly is unintelligible nonsense. No one else in the room felt that way, so that’s entirely on Councilor Johnson.

Here’s what I really don’t understand: in the 2003 election primary, then-candidate Linda Johnson stated in her bio, “I have 30 years experience as a Contracting Officer with General Services Administration. I spend taxpayer dollars very carefully and daily deal with laws, statutes, and regulations.”

30 years dealing with contracts? Dealing with laws, statutes, and regulations on a daily basis?!? Sorry councilor, but we didn’t see that tonight. You’re going to need a new platform for your re-election campaign, because that experience plus your six years on the council (as a LEGISLATOR) should enable you to understand these things.

* HOSPITAL WARS
During the City Manager’s Report, we were told that Swedish Medical Centers is now in the “pre-application process” for the 9-acre site on 169 and SE 264^th St (the empty lot next to Motorplex). I’m not sure if they are combining the two lots there (for 11.23 acres), but it’s for a 56,000 square foot building that will operate an urgent care center, open 24/7.

You might already know that Valley Medical and MultiCare are in a race for building Covington’s first real hospital, and Swedish is going to join the fray by cutting of their supply of MV sickos. Think there’s a lot of money in health care? Valley Medical just completed a $115 Million expansion to host 60 beds. Yes, just 60 beds.

* STRONGLY WORDED STATEMENT OF THE NIGHT
Mayor Gerken read a prepared statement expressing concern about King County’s foot-dragging on the Donut Hole (I was hoping to get through one update without mentioning it, dang it). The county has until February 20^th to agree to the plan to hand it off to Maple Valley; otherwise the county will handle the zoning, permitting, and collect the impact fees.

I think we need to round up the pitchforks and torches, and camp outside the county council until they pass it. We’re talking millions of dollars in fees at stake here, and control over the shape of the development. Yeah, it’s that big of a deal, and maybe a little political embarrassment could get something moving faster.

There may be some rescue plan, or a new agreement that could pass in March that I’m not aware of, but I don’t hear that coming from anyone.

* ALL THINGS MUST PASS
It’s been a very interesting 10 months working on these council updates, and I’ve really enjoyed this experience. However, I’m going to retire my notebook after this meeting.

This current council looks to be in great shape, and I’m sure they will pick a good person to fill the empty council position. I’ll still drop in every now and then, and maybe my Reporter column will feature some of the city council happenings, but the weekly Plain Talk updates you’ve come to like (or hate) will end after this one.

Hopefully the city council will begin broadcasting these meetings online, and we can all participate in maintaining transparency and being better informed citizens.

Thank you to everyone who has commented on this blog, and I really did appreciate hearing from all of you.

This week’s meeting was fairly routine, with only one WTF moment. Let’s get to it!

* CH-CH-CHECK IT OUT
Last week, Councilor Johnson pulled out check number 19197 for further review. It was supposed to go to the real estate advisor, for services rendered in consulting for the city’s new City Hall. There might have been some concern over the amount ($77,500) due to a discrepancy in the contract. Sounds like we needed a contract consultant too.

Anyway, the City Manager gave his summary of the issue, and it passed through without any discussion or comments from the council. Even Councilor Johnson stayed quiet, so somebody must’ve filled her in sometime during the week. Pass 6-0, but Johnson stayed silent during the voice vote. Still counts, though.

* D-HOLE ORDINANCE, SUB-AREA PLAN
The pressure is on to get an ordinance passed tonight, prior to the deadlines in the agreement with King County. Councilor Barnes starts off with a written statement, stating that he’ll vote no unless option #2 is modified to a “reasonable compromise”.

Councilor Weaver offers to discuss some changes, and Councilor Johnson says she’ll consider changes if the City Attorney says it’s OK. That’s 3 possible swing votes, so the CA says they should probably discuss changes in Executive Session, due to “potential litigation”.

Ugh. This whole process started in the fall of 2008, and the Planning Commission recommended a plan nearly a year ago. We’ve been discussing this crap during months of planning, public reviews, public hearings, state reviews, etc. The staff guy in charge has been asking for questions every week for the past month, without ANYONE taking him up on it. But now, we’re going to discuss changing the ordinance 5 minutes before a vote on the matter? WTF?!?

This is such an early planning stage, and we’re not restricting the land to R-6, or R-12, or whatever tonight. There are going to be many more layers of planning and development stages that we haven’t even discussed yet. Yarrow Bay doesn’t have anything submitted for what they’d like to do, and if you’ve ever seen what the Brandt property folks are going through to get a zoning change, you’ll know that this city won’t move quickly.

* SHINY NEW COMMITTEE PEOPLE
We got some new folks to serve on the Economic Development Committee and the Planning Commission. I don’t know who any of them are, but maybe you do. You can view the whole list on the city’s website at http://www.maplevalleywa.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1976

* YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT
There were a couple of documents to review regarding the roundabout project on Witte Road (next to the library and community center). Nobody wanted to talk about the documents, but did want to talk about the guy who lives on the corner. The plan is to move the power and cable lines from the utility poles, and bury them in the ground instead.

Well, this guy is apparently going to have to pay to hook himself back up to the power and cable once the utility people finish tearing it up (no free hookups). Several councilors are uncomfortable with him having to pay to hook up (that’s what she said), and may consider setting aside some of the construction funds to pay for it.

* CITY MANAGER’S REPORT

(1) The Empty Seat
The city has received 13 applications for the vacant council position. Interviews will take place on Feb 9^th and Feb 11^th, but we weren’t told where. Should be open to the public, though. Somebody asked me if I had applied, and I said no way; I don’t want to be forced to show up to this every week.

(2) Black Diamond’s Gonna Clog Up Our Roads
MV staff reviewed BD’s “environmental impact studies” and the impact is going to be a whole lot more cars on our roads than they’re telling us. Declaring the study “inadequate”, they’re going to comment at BD’s public hearings so we can establish legal standing, and maybe lodge official appeals. 6000 new homes are planned…

* FTGOTO
(1) The Olympia contingent met with 8 or 9 legislators, and got to wave our agenda in their faces for several hours. Over 300 elected officials showed up for this municipal cattle call, and nearly all of the state people were crying poormouth. After reading about the few billion dollar shortfall in the papers, it seems consistent.

(2) Councilor Allison reported on the Public Safety Committee, and says MV citizens have lots of kudos for the police department.

(3) Councilor Johnson got another solicitor, this one for a tree service. Maybe she should move to Katesridge, where the land was clear-cut before they put crappy trees back in to meet the city’s minimum tree count. The only tree service we need is some actual dirt for the trees to grow in (Quadrant didn’t think that was necessary, and it wasn’t in the requirements). That didn’t come off as bitter, did it?

(4) The Fountain Court senior living center is having a $10-donation Spaghetti Feed, and a Pancake Breakfast on another day. I couldn’t hear the actual dates, and it’s not on their website, but you could probably call them to ask about it:  (425) 432-3352

(5) Councilor Weaver would like to see the committee reports in print rather than just given verbally during FTGOTO time. Make it so!

(6) Mayor and Deputy Mayor met with Sergio Flores. He sounds like a high-end jeans designer, but he’s actually Senator Patty Murray’s King County liaison. He’s going to come out soon, and we’ll give him the standard Lodge-City Hall tour.

I think it would be fun if we could have a random parade every time we get a dignitary. Just sound the air raid sirens, and everyone knows to show up on Witte Road in the next 30 minutes. We’ll have another group gather by a grandstand near the Lodge, and pretend to be completely enraptured by the dignitary, clapping and cheering every sentence. “Wow, these people really love me!” Maybe a VIP reception afterwards, with the youth symphony or high school jazz band.

We’ll need a cool parade vehicle for them to ride in, and maybe dry-erase signs to change the name every time, but these are minor issues. We can make the dignitaries feel special for an hour, and watch the millions of funding dollars just roll right in…..

See you next week!

These meetings are getting much shorter and much less controversial, so I may have to start doing these council updates on Twitter. If I did, this week’s update would read, “Might add a KC judge soon, Public hearings zzzz, Yes on the school levies, Committee appts named, 3 councilors + 2 staff going to Olympia”.

If that’s enough, you can stop reading now. It’ll be a short one, though…

* OPENING COMMENTS
Normally I ignore these, but it’s always nice to hear the mayor thank the audience for participating in local government. The crowd was pretty big tonight, and I think some of them are focusing on the empty seat.

Don’t worry candidates, if you need to get caught up on council issues, just read the official minutes (just not before driving or operating heavy machinery). If you find them fascinating, then please mention that in your interview. The amount of paper you’ll have to slog through to keep up with city business is daunting, even for avid readers, and if you’re willing to read and comprehend that for the next 4 years, your city needs you.

* PROCLAMATIONS
Happy Tahoma School Directors Day! (if you’re reading this on Tuesday). Sorry, but I didn’t get you a gift. It kind of snuck up on me, you know? The council recognized the work of the school district directors, and a couple of them were on hand for the proclamation.

Wednesday has been declared Tyler Phippen Day in Maple Valley. Tyler is a Tahoma High student who plays on the football team, and also competes internationally in Taekwondo. He recently took the gold in the heavyweight division of the Pan Am Junior Championship in El Salvador. Somebody get this kid on Tahoma’s Wikipedia page, yeah?

* NEW JUDGE IN TOWN
Judge Corinna Harn stopped by to lobby for our city’s vote to secure a new judge. The King County District Court used to have 26 judges, and cutbacks dropped that number to 21. Well, they’re adding them back in, and the South Division could get one of those spots. Judge Harn is willing to be our proxy to support the new judge for our area, or we could send our City Manager. The county pays for the judge, not us, so it’s an easy Yes vote. Pass 6-0, and our CM signed the proxy paper within 20 seconds of that.

* PUBLIC COMMENTS
Bob Castagna visited the Federal Way Community Center recently (his son is on the swim team), and thinks we need to look at investing more in our own community center. Has anyone else been out there?

* NO CHECK FOR YOU
Sorry Allen & Company, but Councilor Johnson pulled your check from the auto-pay list. We weren’t told why, so it’ll remain a secret for now. Maybe you forgot to use the magic word when requesting payment, I dunno.

* PUBLIC HEARING #1: THE DONUT HOLE
Until this D-Hole is finally annexed, I’m gonna keep calling it that. Three alternatives are on the table:  (1) Do nothing, (2) Do something like the surrounding neighborhoods (single-family homes, some public use area), or (3) Joint plan with King County for a bigger development.

Up first! The Yarrow Bay lawyer, who supports option #3, and offered to waive some of their rights if option #3 is picked. For option #2, she doesn’t like the 10% commercial use restriction, which could restrict gathering places like we see in Kent Station. YB would like to work with the city, and offered to show off their Black Diamond development plans.

Up second! The token resident who lives next to the D-Hole. I say token, because he’s the only one who showed up, and every new development has to hear from at least one resident who lives next door to it. I think he has some valid concerns about his property, since the golf course will be going away, and he probably paid a premium to be next to it. He likes option #1, but would probably settle for a bigger buffer between his house and the D-Hole development.

Up third! Stanette, who has concerns about the density due to the unbuildable areas in the Hole, is concerned about public safety needs with more people living there, and thinks that walk-to commercial centers equals more crime. She’d also like a clearer definition of the planned “affordable housing”.

* PUBLIC HEARING #2:  SCHOOL LEVIES
Cheryl Castagna:  Vote Yes.

Stanette:  Reminded us that she’s from the class of ’77, and that she only hires Tahoma graduates. Sorry Kentwood grads, peddle your papers elsewhere.

Bob Castagna:  Reminded us that these are replacement levies, and aren’t new taxes.

* CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS
There is a list of committees that the councilors can belong to, and Hizzoner has revealed his preferences. You can get the complete list on the city’s website when they update that section. It was largely uncontested, except that Councilor Johnson would have preferred a vote on who should be sent to the Suburban Cities Association.

The SCA appoints its members, not the cities. Councilor Allison volunteered for it, Hizzoner concurred, the Deputy Mayor voiced her support, and Councilor Barnes did too. Maybe Councilor Johnson wanted to be the SCA representative, but I don’t think she would do as well. We gotta send a schmoozer and a communicator, and I don’t know anyone better than Bill.

* SCHOOL LEVIES – COUNCIL SUPPORT
All six councilors are in support of both school levies, and they passed two resolutions to confirm it.

* CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
On Wednesday and Thursday, Councilors Allison and Weaver, Mayor Gerken, our City Manager and our City Attorney will drive down to Olympia to meet with a dozen state legislators, and wave our 1-page summary of legislative priorities in their faces. OK, maybe they’ll be a little more subtle than that.

Personally, I would be more of a risk-taker. These people probably see hundreds and hundreds of people each year, armed with thousands of sheets of paper with their demands and requests. Just like a cattle call audition, you’ve got to stand out somehow. I once made business cards out of leather, just so people would find it difficult to throw them away, and would keep them longer. Maybe if we presented them in a super-nice reusable binder or something, I don’t know. If it were legal, I’d give it to them on a Kindle.

I don’t mean to be critical of their efforts at all; I think it’s fantastic that the council and staff have their top goals ready, and are making the drive to lobby for our city. We’re also wielding that mayor title around like a club again, and I’m glad to see it.

* FTGOTO (For The Good Of The Order)
Councilor Johnson has been hit up by the Penguin Windows people several times in the past 6 weeks or so, and asked about beefing up the commercial solicitation statute the city has. Wellllll, our city attorney says there might be a problem with that ordinance, and she’ll bring it up to the council in the near future.

Until then, we’re going to have to resort to fences, “Beware of Dog” signs, ignoring the doorbell like you do at Halloween, and other strategies.

* REACHING OUT
Mayor Gerken is meeting informally with the mayors of Covington and Black Diamond this week. He and Deputy Mayor Jonas are meeting with one of our state senators as well (I didn’t hear which one), and is doing a Q&A with the local press (Reporter and the Voice). Dow Constantine is speaking at the Rotary on March 12^th. After that, he’ll get the city hall tour, and maybe some drive-bys.

Well that’s it. All that in about an hour and ten minutes. See you next week!

I think there is something in the air at the Lodge meeting rooms. Tonight’s city council meeting was barely longer than 1 hour, and the last council meeting in that room was also right around an hour. I might have to retract all of my complaining about excessive meeting times, and blame it solely on the school district meeting room.

Nah.  Let’s get to it!

ITEM#1 – INDEMNIFICATION ORDINANCE

[knock-knock-knock] “Housekeeping…you need towel?”

Well, we didn’t need towel, but we do need some housekeeping in the form of an indemnification ordinance on the books. I was stunned to learn that the city didn’t already have one.

A policy of indemnification means that city employees and elected officials would be provided with a lawyer/legal defense in case they are named personally in a lawsuit, related to something they did in the performance of their duties. If an employee or councilmember were sued, an investigation would take place to determine if the person was “acting in good faith”. If so, the council could choose to cover the legal expenses of the person being sued.

For example, if a councilmember made some derogatory comments about a developer, and later voted to block that developer’s project, the developer might think it was personal, and could choose to name that councilmember directly in a lawsuit. Whether the developer has a chance of winning or not is immaterial, but the councilmember might have to pay for an attorney out of his/her own pocket (win or lose).

There is an insurance pool that Maple Valley belongs to, called the Washington Cities Insurance Authority (WCIA) which provides some coverage to councilmembers, but doesn’t cover all acts, including land use issues, contractual provisions, and they may also cover only part of a legal defense; not the whole thing.

This was by far the longest discussion area of the night, and the councilmembers brought up a number of questions:

1) Are there any historical instances of MV running into problems like this?
Not that anyone can remember, no.

2) Why would we consider covering punitive damages; not just actual damages?
That’s for the council to decide. WCIA doesn’t cover punitive awards.

3) Doesn’t the WCIA already cover us?
In most cases, but not all. There are some exceptions.

4) What about lawsuits against the police?
They are county employees, and would most likely be covered by the county.

5) What if I want my own lawyer?
You can get your own lawyer and pay for his/her services yourself. You can also have a personal indemnification insurance policy, which would be tapped if the WCIA didn’t cover you. The city’s indemnification policy would be #3 in line.

6) Don’t you have any bigger towels?
Sorry, it’s not that kind of housekeeping.

Indemnification policies are in use at a lot of Washington cities, and our City Attorney modeled this one based on the Sea-Tac, Woodinville, and University Place policies. You can read the whole thing online at http://www.maplevalleywa.gov/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=1804

The fun starts on page 3.

ITEM #2 – DONUT HOLE
Amazingly, no one had anything to say about this. Moving on!

ITEM #3 – SOLID WASTE GRANT PROGRAM AGREEMENTS
Our Public Works department folks reach out to the county and state every year to put together the events that haul away the toxic crap in our garages. The city gets about $100K to manage these four recycling events.

You’d think that we could just call up the county or state and say, “Hey, can you guys bring out a dumpster here for a couple of days?” But it’s not that simple. There are 44 pages of Interlocal Agreements between the city, county, state, and a private company that takes this stuff.

Anyway, be sure to use these when they come up. There’s a lot more work that goes into these events than I realized.

ITEM #4 – SCHOOL LEVIES PUBLIC HEARING

Next Monday night at 7pm, come to the city council meeting and give your input on the levies. I just turned in a column on the levies to the Reporter, so I’ll probably stay in my seat.

ITEM #5 – CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
Nothing here to report except for some email glitches for the councilmembers. I believe they are trying to move everyone to the maplevalleywa.org domain name, and away from the ci.maple-valley.wa.us.el.ess domain.

They probably should have picked Postini to manage their incoming mail; it’s a lot easier to administer and cheaper than Exchange, IMHO (I’ve used both).

ITEM #6 – FTGOTO (For the good of the order)
Here’s a brief summary from various concilmembers:
* Kudos on the new website

* The packets that the councilmembers receive are now on the website (yay!)
* We need a strategic planning meeting that helps us operate better as a council
*Advertising for a replacement councilmember has yielded 2 applicants

ITEM #6-B – HE’S WITH DOW
But the best FTGOTO was from Mayor Gerken, who is fully realizing his mayorship. He met with newly crowned King County Executive Dow Constantine for about an hour, and Mayor Gerken got to bend his ear on all things Maple Valley, including animal control, transit, the new police precinct plan, and the Donut Hole. He said they knew each other previously from other regional groups they both belonged to.

He also met with our KC councilor Reagan Dunn, and got to lean on him for a Donut Hole resolution. He then hooked up with the higher-ups at Yarrow Bay, and talked with them about their plans for the Donut Hole in the context of their overall plan including the two Black Diamond developments.

Now that is a textbook example of how schmoozing should be done. Mayor Gerken completed a Donut Hole hat trick in one week, and put a face on Maple Valley’s regional presence. In my first column with the Reporter, I expressed a desire to see MV use the Mayor title outside of the city limits, and drop it like it’s hot in regional meetings. I’m glad to see us finally bring a gun to a gunfight.

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

Week 2 of the Gerken Administration is starting to take shape, and the councilors are still working on their dynamic. Week 1 was smooth sailing, so let’s get to it and see how this week went!

1) Public Comments
Stanette Rose took the stand first, and is wondering if Mayor Gerken’s statements of goals last week are his personal goals, or the council’s goals. We won’t know for sure since he didn’t answer her directly, but no one else seemed to care. She’s also concerned about the legacy of the previous council leadership, and wants to make sure the councilors don’t give the staff too much leeway to offset previous accusations of staff micromanagement. Meh.

The Maple Valley Chevron owner and his wife were back to request another look at a drive-thru espresso stand in their parking lot. As you might remember, they were denied by the previous administration when the only drive-thru permit was given to a future coffee stand that has a minimum of 500 square feet of seated space, I think.

2) You Say You Want a Resolution
Well you know, we’d all love to see the plan. Alright, we already saw it last week, and a few rules of procedure for the council were added. Now there are public comments at the beginning of every meeting, which means the same people that always give comments can now have an additional 6 minutes each month. No discussion, Pass 6-0.

3) Oh Dear God, Not the Donut Hole Again
Yes, the Donut Hole. I like Councilor Johnson’s recommendation (last week) that we keep calling it the Donut Hole, since nobody knows what “Summit Place” is. Yarrow Bay calls their developer the “Summit Place 156 LLC”, and I’m willing to compromise with them and call it the “Donut Hole Place”.

If you’re really interested in the 3 options they are considering for action on February 8^th, just send me an inbox message on Facebook with your email address, and I’ll send you the whole thing. There’s a Public Hearing on January 25^th, so if you’re planning to attend, you’ll want to catch up.

Here’s the least you need to know:

* Staff recommends adoption of a joint plan by the council and the county council.

* Nobody wants another strip mall for the commercial part

* “Walkable” type businesses will be encouraged; hopefully a donut hole shop

* Amount of parks and open spaces is not yet known

* King County will probably decide on their part in this mess within 10 days

There was a bit of back-and-forth on the amount of houses versus commercial space, and what about the BPA power line easements and the wetlands, etc. It’s kind of like a half-filled balloon; if you squeeze one end to make it smaller, the other part gets bigger. That wasn’t so hard, was it?

My favorite part of the document reads, “Summit Place 156 LLC’s plans for the density, of residential and commercial within Summit Place is expected to proportionally increase the demand for police and public safety services at levels greater than that which the City has historically experienced with lower density residential development.”

That’s the diplomatic city-speak for, “We’re expecting more crime than we already have at the apartments.” It’s really well-written, though.

4) Legislative Agenda
The council will state its support for the Association of Washington Cities’ agenda, but only the top 3 priorities. There was some discussion on sidewalks for Witte Road, which as you know would be made difficult by the drainage ditches and the cliffside. There’s a proposal for $50K to do a sidewalk feasibility study, and I think I will start a new career of doing sidewalk feasibility studies. Just 2 studies per year, and I’ll be set.

5) City Manager Report
The City Hall move went smoothly, and the Reporter has some photos on their website (taken by Deputy Mayor Jonas). We got a lot of free stuff from the landlord, including having three offices furnished, and other building improvements that you normally have to pay extra for.

There are a couple of requests for the MV Historical Society and the MV Arts Council to put their photographs and art on display in the lobby, which sounds like a fantastic idea. I can’t imagine just putting up art that has no direct meaning to the city, and these groups will provide local art, and all of the displays. Win-win.

Animal control has been extended to June 30^th, and the county will be completely out of all phases of animal control. We should have all listened to Bob Barker and had our pets spayed or neutered, and now it’s gonna cost us. We still will have to come up with $30K to fund animal control operations, or else start a Bubba Brigade to take care of this “problem”.

6) FTGOTO (For the Good of the Order)
* Committee Appointments – Councilors have until next Monday to turn in their homework and pick a committee or two to serve on.

* Recent vandalism at the community center brought up the issue of security cameras again. So all you punks who read the council updates are on notice; you’ll be videotaped starting sometime in February, so you’ll have to move on and become someone else’s problem. By the way, discharging a BB gun at persons or property is a misdemeanor in this city.

* Ixnay on the Indow-clings-way
Sorry councilor, but you can’t advocate for a school levy ballot issue by offering to give supportive window clings away from the dais. It was quite a moment to see the City Attorney reach for the microphone, and all the heads snap to look at her. “Uh-oh…” went the room, “no-no” went the attorney, and “buh-bye” went the window clings.

* State of the City
The Mayor proposed a “State of the City” annual address for early February, featuring Hizzoner and the City Manager at one of the MV-BD Chamber of Commerce luncheons. Sounds like a good idea, but you might not want to pony up the $25 admission fee to go hear it. Maybe they could stream it online for the rest of us, or maybe I could talk them into a repeat performance at the annual Chamber of Citizens Free Lunch For The Rest Of Us. We’ll see!

Have a great week, and let’s do this again next Monday, shall we?

Somebody hit the reset button on Maple Valley’s city council, because it’s certainly seems like they’re starting over.

There wasn’t a single item given back to the staff for review. Nothing was punted until another meeting weeks in the future. Interactions between nearly everyone were pleasant and productive.

OK, I say nearly everyone because we had a really weird moment when nominations for mayor and deputy mayor were given. Councilmember Johnson made nominations for mayor and deputy mayor, but the people she nominated didn’t even vote for themselves. You’d think she could at least have a cursory conversation with them beforehand, such as “Hey, I’d like to nominate you for mayor, is that cool?” “Oh yeah, I’d love that. Thanks!” Sounds like there’s a real disconnect there.

Anyway, we have a new mayor, Noel Gerken, and a new deputy mayor, Victoria Laise Jonas. Congratulations to both of them, and also to the two new councilmembers Erin Weaver and Bill Allison. Alright, let’s get to it!

1) Community Group Designation – Maple Valley Youth Symphony
The youth symphony showed up last year for the community service grant funding to request money for a portable outdoor shelter, which was granted (yay), and now they are seeking the “Community Group Designation”, which will give them cheap rent at the Lodge, among other smaller benefits. Everyone’s in favor of it, so that will probably go through next week.

2) Introduction to Draft Contract Policies
This is as boring as it sounds, if you just read the language of the summary, “improve the administrative routing process”, or “clarify contracting procedures”. However, it really has a lot of significance as the first test of the separation of powers.

As regular readers of this blog know, the council represents the legislative branch of the city, and the City Manager represents the executive branch. I’ve written about the separation of powers in earlier columns, and how it seemed heavily tilted towards the legislative branch. The city staff previously had to present their requests in a very passive way, which just wasn’t present at all Monday night. Very refreshing.

Anyway, here’s what the exec branch is asking for:

* Increase the City Manager’s contracting authority

* Raise the limit on CM’s authority to $35K (up from $25K)

* No maximum limit on purchase of budgeted goods, supplies, materials, etc

* Authority to extend expiration dates, duration, or terms of contracts

* Ability to delegate contract authority to department heads, up to $10K per contract

* Establish public works contract authority policies that comply with state law

* Provide foundation for administrative procedures

It sounds reasonable to me, and it appears to make government more efficient by allowing the CM to make small decisions that don’t cost any more money than is already budgeted for by the council. That sentence is far too long, sorry.

There was some discussion and concern about allowing department heads to make decisions, so we got a good explanation of how many steps and checklist items that department heads have to go through to spend money on a contract. It’s amazing that anything gets done, considering the amount of approvals required to buy a piece of maintenance equipment, for example. I don’t think we have anything to worry about, if we trust the CM to oversee his staff and monitor for abuse of public funds.

We also got a primer on “administrative orders”, which are similar to presidential executive orders. Those have made the news in the last few years as former President Bush came under fire for expanding executive branch powers through the use of executive orders. Apparently, Maple Valley hasn’t been using these orders, which often are used to help staff know what the proper procedures are for getting stuff done.

To put it another way, it’s like we moved into a house we just bought, and noticing that the previous owner never used the toilets. Sure, you can still use the outhouse, but it’s a lot more efficient to use the one inside the house, especially late at night.

3) Planning Commission – Recommendations for Summit Place (Donut Hole)
OK, I didn’t really pay attention here, since there wasn’t a lot of new info coming out. The Planning Commission presented a 26-page draft report to the council, with no major surprises. There were a few questions, but we won’t really know more for a couple of weeks, while the new King County Emperor Constantine reviews the situation and presents his decree.

4) Council Vacancy
The front page of the local papers all carried the news that our former mayor resigned to pursue new activities, and there was scarcely any mention of her except on coming up with a procedure to fill the empty seat. I was kind of expecting a “thanks for the memories” tribute of some sort, but maybe you don’t get those if you resign mid-term. Oh well, maybe we can get a Laure Iddings Day in few months or so after the dust settles.

If you’ve been a registered voter and lived in the city limits for 1 year, congratulations! You are eligible to be on the city council. There will probably be an ad in the local papers, but not much else. It’s an easier way to get on the council than running a campaign, and certainly a lot cheaper. You only have to impress 4 people, instead of 2500. People Who Know Things are already lining up for the spot, so don’t delay, get your resume ready today. And no, I’m not putting one in.

5) Legislative Agenda for 2010
These are some upcoming items for council discussion in 2010. I don’t remember these from the council retreat, but here they are:

* Improvements to SR 169 between 258^th and 264^th.

* Kent Kangley Rd outside of the Donut Hole conversations

* Feasibility study for pedestrian access (sidewalks) on Witte Rd

* Association of Washington Cities agenda; are we in or out?

* Black Diamond & Auburn transportation partnerships

* Feasibility study for using the BN railroad line for DMU (commuter train)

The Kent Kangley Rd discussion will be very new, since we haven’t partnered in the past to deal with traffic problems here. The CM mentioned that we should work together with Covington and Kent to have a real solution from the east border of MV to Hwy 167 in Kent, since this is a well-developed highway. He suggested that we needed diplomacy to make this happen, and judging from the handshakes aplenty with the Covington Mayor tonight, that will probably happen this year.

See you next week!

Baby, it’s a-allllright now. It’s amazing what a week off can do for a council, like promoting unanimity. The council meeting was mostly smooth sailing tonight, with more “dittos” than the 2^nd hour of Rush Limbaugh.

* MOST INTERESTING ITEM OF THE NIGHT *
From the budget review, the county has confirmed that Animal Control will now be left to the cities to manage, starting at the end of January. The shelters will disappear in late spring. The city managers all raised a little hell about having this dumped in their laps, and Dow has promised to address the transition right away.

In Maple Valley’s case, we’re expecting to need about $100K to fund animal control activities, while only collecting about $65K in license fees. So, the difference will come from other revenue sources. What wasn’t mentioned was a possible fine for not licensing your pet (very effective in Seattle) to increase the compliance rate. A public information campaign might also be in order, and I don’t mean a tiny text ad in the local papers.

I think we need the same kind of effort that we saw in the last election to get the word out. I told one candidate that I would be happy when the campaigning was over, and we could use these “powers of persuasion” to solve our common problems. Right now, the compliance rate is about 30%, so if we could get it up to 50%, it would cover the shortfall.

Getting the word out is a problem for cities in general. I’ll talk about some ideas for better communication in next week’s print column in the Reporter.

* BRIEF RECAPS *
Rather than put you to sleep with an extensive recap of everything that was said, I’ll just hit the highlights for tonight.

1) Lake Wilderness Lodge Fees
The fees for 2011 will go up about 5%. The meeting rooms will stay about the same, so they can remain competitive. The Lodge folks will have a presence at an upcoming bridal expo, and will offer a 10% discount if they book a reservation at the expo. They’re also planning a website discount as well.

2) Park Fees
Fees to rent a picnic shelter are going up a few bucks. It’ll cost you $70 to rent a shelter for ½ day, for up to 100 people, and $90 if you aren’t a resident of Maple Valley. However, if you invite me and provide a well-charred hot dog, I’ll save you the 20 bucks.

3) Planning Commission
The JR Hayes site on the north end of the city sparked some discussion, as they won’t be re-zoning it to Commercial Business (I think). It’s going to stay a gravel pit for the near future, and it’s funny how the council referred to it as a “strike zone”, since the lot looks like a bunker-buster was dropped on it. The strike zone comment refers to the surgical strike they are planning for the potential re-zoning of the property, while not really addressing a change for the surrounding properties.

Some of the council members, the Planning Commission chair, and the Comm-Dev Director had a back-and-forth on the merits of considering the zoning needs of the entire city, and not just this one property. From what little I know of zoning, the overall goal is to make sure that stuff goes well together. For example, we don’t put jails next to the elementary schools, and we don’t put a house in between two warehouses. Seems like everybody’s on the same page, so I don’t really know why we spent 20 minutes on this.

4) Utility Tax
Last week, I complained a lot about the indecisiveness of the council over the utility tax. This week however, Mayor Iddings led off with a great lesson for us all. We’re getting a new patrol sergeant for the police department, and that job will be funded mostly with a permanent utility tax increase of .75%. The Mayor pointed out that it’s irresponsible to create a city job with a temporary tax increase that expires in 2 years, and it was refreshing to hear.

Councilor Jonas had her statement ready voicing her support of the City Manager’s recommendation, and the dittoheads followed suit one after the other. Councilor Barnes tried to add a directive to have the city staff create a relief program for low-income and seniors, but was asked to make that a separate item for next week. Everyone’s on board!

5) Whatever Floats Your Boat
Councilor Gerken asked about saving the proposed boat rental program at Lake Wilderness. We currently have 1 paddleboat and 3 canoes, and there was a $2K proposal to buy a couple more boats and staff the program. It might be offset by rental fees, but since it’s a new program we don’t really know if the fees would cover it. Maybe we could get a local business to buy the paddle boat and have their name plastered all over it.

Get ready for another dumb idea. If I had a pizza place in town, I’d sponsor a boat, have coupons at the rental desk, and offer to have a pizza delivered to the park at the end of your boat ride.

6) Gender Equity Law
This will be brought up next week, but it’s a proposal to make sure that access to parks, ballfields, etc. is equitable for both sexes. It’s funny how we’ve started using the word “gender” instead of “sex”, and we all seem nervous to say the word sex. Even the guy talking about the program said both words rather hurriedly, and with a tiny laugh after saying it.

Let’s get over it, shall we? And let’s amend this law to say that neither sex shall have sex in the park, OK? A park employee came upon a couple in their sunset years getting it on in the bushes this summer, and had to shoo them away. Ewww.

7) Warming Stations
I had to include this one because it made me laugh. We have “cooling stations”, since you can open up a municipal building during the day, and send people home when it’s not hot anymore. However, most people would want a “warming station” at night, and we don’t keep those places open all night long. So, the city has a list of shelters on their website, which I found hilarious. If your power is out, and the heat isn’t working, just go online to find the nearest shelter location. Really? Even if you have web access on your cell phone, you can probably afford a motel for the night, and aren’t scrounging around for public shelters. We can do better than this.

Next week! The final council meeting of the year starts at 6:30pm, as we say goodbye to Councilor Pilgrim and Deputy Mayor Smith, who won’t be returning in January. Make sure you wear your tie-dye socks in tribute.

Ugh. I haven’t been in a meeting this insufferable since the vote to move City Hall. Sorry councilors, but it was a swing-and-a-miss on the budget tonight. I take that back; the bat never left their shoulders as they watched strike two sail across the middle of the plate.

The head city staffers asked the councilors to do two things tonight:  (1) Review the “program enhancements” to the budget, which includes new staff positions, software, and equipment, and (2) Decide whether or not to increase the utility tax from 2.25% to 3%.

You’ve already read the title of this discussion, but I’ll give you the quiz anyway. What actions did the council take on these two issues?

(A) Had a discussion and made a decision on what to cut from program enhancements
(B) Had a discussion and made a decision on the utility tax
(C) Made a decision on both A and B
(D) Didn’t make any decisions, and asked the City Manager to review the budget again, even though there are less than 5 hours of meeting time this year to make a final decision, and they’ve already had 2-1/2 months to review it and make suggestions.

If you guessed anything but (D), I have to believe this is the first time you’ve read this blog, and you are forgiven. Alright, let’s do this!

The Pledge of Allegiance
I don’t normally comment on this, but a Webelos troop served as a color guard, and one young fellow led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Everyone was smiling, even the people with permanent frowns. If you don’t know, the Webelos is part of the Boy Scouts of America, and it’s the age group between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts (I was one). Great job, guys!

Public Comment:  The Twitter Version
Chamber of Commerce: Please don’t raise taxes.
EBT Theater Group: Please come visit our theater.
Cheryl Castagna:  Please don’t raise taxes.

Public Hearing
Tonight was your opportunity to weigh in on a proposed increase in the School Impact Fee. If you’re building a single-family residence, it’ll cost you an additional $414. If you’re building a multi-family residence (condos, etc), it’ll cost you an additional $631.

The most interesting part of the discussion was when the impact fee should be collected. A representative from the Master Builders Association said it would be better if that fee was charged directly to the new homeowner, rather than making the developer pay it ahead of time, then charge interest to the homeowner. One advocate for the schools said that schools need time to prepare for incoming students, and need the impact fee sooner than the day they move in and send the kid to school. I don’t have many facts here, so I’ll leave this discussion for smarter people.

Budget Review (again)
I opened up this discussion with a general overview of what went on Monday night. There are a lot of the details that might make you shake your head, but I’m going to try to keep this to the Executive Summary format.

I think the councilors seemed a little lost on where to begin. There was some brief discussion of reviewing every line item on the Program Enhancements, and also a suggestion to give it back to the City Manager to review one more time rather than suggesting specific areas to cut. The worst idea was to have the staff present several alternative budgets next week for them to decide on.

If you remember the City Hall decision, you already know this is a bad idea. The councilors were presented three options, and voted down all three before the Mayor stepped up and broke the stalemate.

The City Manager gave a very nice speech about how the staff went about creating the budget before the councilors. The goals were to keep the existing government service levels steady, and only expand in areas where demand is increasing (police sergeant, parks help, etc.). He mentioned that historically, Maple Valley has relied on growth, and permit money to fund services and build up reserves. In the third and fourth quarters of 2007, the Finance Director pointed out that expenditures were finally higher than revenues.

That’s why the utility tax is being looked at. Maple Valley’s tax rate is 2.25%, while nearly every other city that has one is at 6%. The councilors are very reluctant to approve any increase, and two of them (finally) suggested that they only increase it .5% and only for two years. OK if you’re into low tax rates, but not good if you’re planning a budget for 2012 (punt).

Since no one in these other cities seems to be complaining about the 6%, it’s probably safe to increase this one without much political damage. I’m not sure what the financial impact is on businesses, but most households would probably pay $3 or so more per month.

Did any of you keep that 3.75% savings from your utility bills over all these years?

Other Minor Happenings
These items aren’t worthy of a full discussion, but here you go:

* Review of Property Tax Calculations
The net effect of the property tax the city gets will go down about 1%. Your results may vary.

* Fred Meyer Update
They’ve been a little slow to get tenants for the small shops next to the upcoming Fred Meyer at 4 Corners, so the project has been delayed until probably February 2011. Hard to believe it, even though the other three of the corners are strip malls already. We don’t even have check-cashing yet!

* City Council Knows Best
Maple Valley has an ordinance on the books that sets the minimum insurance amounts for “right of way” permit applicants (construction stuff). Apparently, we’ve been setting a much higher rate, which appears to be more than double the industry standards. You know, the industry that does studies on this stuff to create standards for everyone to use.

There was some brief discussion on the dangers of these right-of-way projects, how fast cars go by, and that maybe we needed a much higher rate for some reason. No one knows what that reason is, though, so that debate died fairly quickly. I guess we’ll just have to use “industry standards” instead of being special.

* City Hall Improvements
Because we can’t get everyone to agree not to shoot at the police civilian assistant, we’re going to get a cool bulletproof glass window for the police department. It’s going to cost more than originally quoted, but it’ll be worth it. The old location is fairly isolated, and not secure enough for employees there. If you can believe it, the police regularly have to deal with people that aren’t as rational as you and I.

Well, thanks for reading this far. The council doesn’t meet next week, so maybe some of that hair we pulled out will grow back. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

It was kind of a slow night for news at the City Council meeting tonight. We reviewed the 2010 budget again, with limited interruptions for questions from the councilors. There was some brief banter about cutting jobs and adding jobs, but no decisions were made. All of the public comments were made by the Usual Suspects.

So, I’ve decided instead to offer the councilors a handy guide to surviving the vicious attacks I’ve unleashed, which are slowly tearing the city apart (if you believe my bad press).

<><><><><><><><><><> CLIP HERE <><><><><><><><><><><>

Councilor’s Guide to Surviving Public Criticism from Ryan

The first advice I’ll offer is the old adage, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”. It doesn’t hurt to buddy-up to the people who criticize you, and sophisticated politicians know this very well. You’ve got to outmaneuver your critic, schmooze him or her a bit, and help them see your perspective. You can agree to disagree, but still have a healthy respect for the opposition. This simple civility will reduce direct attacks, since your critic now understands you and knows you personally. Many people claim to hate George Bush or Barack Obama, but if they ever met them in person and spent five minutes with them, they’d sing a different tune for sure.

Digging your heels in and trying to ignore it never works. Your critic will only continue to score points while you try to pretend you’re not playing the game. I don’t mean to say that you should always respond directly, but you have to find opportunities to get your point across (online, letters to the editor, etc.). The critic doesn’t have the burden of decision-making, so you can only counter the criticisms. Attacking the critic rarely works, unless the critic is way off-base.

Image is everything in politics. Citizens want to know that you have their interests in mind, and you’ve got to show them that you really do care. You can cover up the times you don’t care by employing some of these time-tested responses to criticism:
CRITICISM #1: Councilor Spendthrift voted to buy something stupid and is wasting money.

Good Response: “This was a long-term decision, and we won’t see the benefits right away. However, this was the best decision we could make at the time, given the information we had. With today’s information, I would have made a different decision.”

Bad Response 1: “Ryan is just misinformed.”
Bad Response 2: “The city staff screwed up again.”
Bad Response 3: Ignore it completely; hope it will go away.

CRITICISM #2: Councilor Meanie is mean to the city staff.

Good Response: “At times, the discussions between the council and the staff can get heated. We’re really all working towards the same goals, and sometimes we have different ideas on how to get there.”

Bad Response 1: “Ryan is just misinformed again.”
Bad Response 2: “The staff has their own hidden agenda. We can’t let them be in control.”
Bad Response 3: Ignore it completely; hope it will go away.

CRITICISM #3: Councilor Dingdong is indecisive and doesn’t think proactively.

Good Response: “Running a city government is different from private enterprise. We’re restricted from taking reckless, unplanned actions because they impact so many people. For example, we can’t just throw down a road anytime somebody wants one. It could cause massive traffic headaches that would cripple the city. Careful planning is required to make a city that will run smoothly for decades.”

Bad Response 1: “Ryan has only been around 6 months. He doesn’t know anything.”
Bad Response 2: “I know you spent a year on this report, but can you do it again?”
Bad Response 3: Ignore it completely; hope it will go away.

These are just a few examples of suggested responses, and are not meant to be a complete guide. There are many other areas of criticism I’ve left out, such as passive-aggression, excessive attention to meaningless details, bullying, sloppy record-keeping, always saying “no”, etc. If you have a particular criticism you need help with, just message me on Facebook, and I’ll help you draft a response (seriously).

One thing that hasn’t been asked of me is WHY I’m picking on the council. Let’s face it; Maple Valley is a pretty ordinary city, and in some cases we’re below average. We don’t have delegations from cities around the world coming to Maple Valley to see how wonderfully we do things here. We’re not a model for other cities to follow. Rather, we’re waiting to see what happens in other cities first.

Regionally, we’re regarded with disdain and shaking heads. I know, because I’ve heard from regional leaders who’ve said as much (if you’d like a suggested response to this criticism, just let me know).

Very soon, we’ll be a city of 25,000 people, and the rules will change. We’ll have to start paying for things like roads that we didn’t have to completely cover before. After 12 years as a smaller city, we’re entering adolescence, and the transition to a grown-up city will be difficult.

So, why do I bother with this? Our time here on Earth is brief, and I’m not content with being ordinary during my short tenure. We can all live extraordinary lives and create something worth talking about, if we are willing to overcome our fears of failure. I want Maple Valley to be the greatest city of its size, and to be a model for other cities to admire and envy. We can be remarkable, but we can’t half-ass it.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.