Buri Takes Baton

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of May 21st, 2013

Lanky, youthful Steve Buri, the unflappable, soft-spoken councilman who often lets Bill Erxleben or the Mayor run the show, has been taking more of a leadership role at meetings, lately, now that Erxleben is a political "lame duck."  Effectively, Buri has taken the baton of leadership from Erxleben for their dominate wing of the Council (including Dulcich and Bissett), and although both are fiscally conservative, they don't necessarily come down on the same side of votes.  In early May, Buri guided a divided Council to pass the Solid Waste Interlocal Agreement (garbage pick-ups), with Erxleben among the dissenters, and the day before yesterday, Buri took charge, again, essentially serving notice to the upper political chambers in Olympia and Seattle that business as usual could no longer be sustained.  Buri spoke somewhat extensively about the allocation of funds for transportation, and though he gave an astute and balanced assessment of the situation regarding planned toll roads, he showed a glimmer of populism as he seemed to sense the underlying disgruntlement of the community regarding tolls and transportation in general. 

The Council was united in conducting the agenda, as they voted unanimously (6 - 0, Erxleben was absent) on the following three major agenda items, all via resolutions:

• Awarding a contract for an updated transportation and parks impact fee.
• Approving an updated collective bargaining agreement.
• Approving a settlement, that included a city job lay-off, regarding a labor grievance.

Note: regarding aforementioned phrase, "lets ... the Mayor run the show," this is meant in the colloquial sense, as Mayor Rich Crispo is the legally authorized head of the council proceedings.

Update: the Newcastle City Council has two right-of-center philosophical wings and a centrist, which can basically be divided as follows (this chart is solely N.P.R.'s opinion):

Conservative Wing: Steve Buri, Bill Erxleben, John Dulcich and Gordon Bissett

Moderate Conservative Wing: Mayor Rich Crispo and Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen

Centrist: Carol Simpson

Philosophy includes the whole spectrum, which for Newcastle means the triad of economic, environmental and social policies.

[revised on 5/29/2013]