Walkout

(Updated and Revised at 7:20 P.M. on 2/14/13).

City of Newcastle, WA -- Parks Commission Meeting of Feb. 13th, 2013

Under the pressure of City Hall talk of a radical Parks Commission restructuring plan by the Council, the February 13th Parks Commission meeting was tense, tempers were short and walkouts ensued as the Commission, largely, discussed proposed Trail Guidelines by the City's Parks Manager, Michael Holly.  Much of the focus of attention was on Commissioner Peggy Price, who worked diligently in reviewing the guidelines before the meeting and proceeded point-by-point in going over what she felt were the most important aspects of it with Parks Manager Holly, which numbered severally.  However, Price's attention to detail unnerved some commissioners, who obviously favored generalization over analyzation.  In particular,  Koleen Morris stated her concern with the overall tempo of the meeting, in apparent reference to Price's analytical approach.  Morris said, in so many words, that the Commission only needed to set guidelines, not sweat details.  Parks Commission Vice-Chair, Angela Ursino, said that the meeting was turning into a philosophical discussion between Price and Holly, and said that there should be a sub-meeting between the two prinicipals, and conciliation on issues which could later then be brought back to the full Commission for a vote. 

Commissioner Price wasn't intimidated by the subtle criticism and continued her review with aplomb. At one point, Holly informed Price, in so many words, not to interrupt him while speaking, though he was very respectful to Price, overall.  The arcane particulars of the Price-Holly discussion wasn't particularly easy for a layperson to follow and N.P.R. certainly didn't envy City Clerk, Sara McMillon's job in writing the minutes for this meeting, but the main point of the guidelines was to review the routing, construction, design and maintenance of city trails.  About halfway through the Price-Holly review, Commissioners Koleen Morris and Jesse Tam walked out of the meeting and went their separate ways.  It's unclear to N.P.R. whether Tam's leaving was due to being dissatisfied about the meeting or that he simply had other things to attend to, but Morris seemed rather displeased with the way things were going.  They both walked out at the same time. 

Nonetheless, before the walkouts, Tam showed signs of concern, if not disgruntlement, about the bandied about restructuring changes; at one point he asked do we want all these programs, and who would be responsible for them?  At the beginning of the meeting, Angela Ursino was the first commissioner to bring up the Council's restructuring plan, basically trying to figure out the gist of it, and eventually implying that some of the Commission's process would be at a standstill until the plan was enacted.   Ursino's solution, aforementioned, for moving forward wth the meeting and resolving technical issues through a sub-meeting appeared to have been eventually adopted.

At the start of the meeting, Chairwoman Diane Lewis brought up news of the King County Youth Sports Facilities Grant and wants the Parks Commission to become involved with it.  This program helps with the renovation or building of public sports facilities/amenities throughout the county.  Money for the various programs ranges from $5,000 to $75,0000, and letters of intent must be forwarded to the county by May 3rd and applications in by June 21st according to an article in RentonReporter.com.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, spoke from the public podium, and suggested that Newcastle Days host an annual softball game between the women and men of the City of Newcastle.  Greene implied that this would be a fun and exciting event, and said that this would generate more interest in Newcastle Days.  There had been an earlier discussion in the meeting, by the commissioners and the Parks Manager, about Newcastle Days, regarding planning for it and generating community interest. 

Councilman Gordon Bissett also spoke and, among other things, suggested that the Commission read up on the January, 2013 Council Retreat, presumably to better inform themselves about the Council's initial plans (primarily, Mayor Rich Crispo's ideas) for restructuring.  Mark Greene wrote down the Northern Pacific Report site URL (commonsnorth.blogspot.com) on Bissett's meeting packet after a request from the councilman.

[revised on 2/14/2013]