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!