City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 10/15/13
Finance Director Christine Olson presented the Preliminary Budget for 2014 to the Council on Tuesday night, but N.P.R. was only able to stay for the very early part of the presentation because of the non-N.P.R. work schedule of the editor. Therefore N.P.R. only has very sketchy details right now, but will try to get information from City Hall about the full extent of the preliminary plan. This probably will be showcased on N.P.R. sometime next week once City Hall sends the relevant documents to us.
One plan that was new was the intent by the city to hire a liaison for the Community Activities Commission at a price tag of $50,000 annually. This obviously would be somebody not on the Council, as presently is the case with the temporary liaison (Mayor Richard Crispo) and explained on a recent post, ironically: "Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned." Why they would hire a liaison after reducing the Parks manager's hours to part-time earlier this year would be a good question, but N.P.R. has little information right now (the Parks Commission was renamed to Community Activities, with added responsibilities, and is now under the purview of the "Parks/Community Activities" manager).
What would the new liaison be doing anyway? Liaison sounds like a fancy name for doing whatever the mayor and the city manager wants done, or more generally, executive assistant for Community Activities. Would the "liaison" post be under the part-time Parks manager as well, or vice-versa, or on equal footing? The city should go to the plan outlined in "Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned," including re-setting the position of Parks manager (Michael Holly) back to full-time, and perhaps hiring a part-time executive assistant or "liaison" that would be under the manager, if needed.
One plan that was new was the intent by the city to hire a liaison for the Community Activities Commission at a price tag of $50,000 annually. This obviously would be somebody not on the Council, as presently is the case with the temporary liaison (Mayor Richard Crispo) and explained on a recent post, ironically: "Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned." Why they would hire a liaison after reducing the Parks manager's hours to part-time earlier this year would be a good question, but N.P.R. has little information right now (the Parks Commission was renamed to Community Activities, with added responsibilities, and is now under the purview of the "Parks/Community Activities" manager).
What would the new liaison be doing anyway? Liaison sounds like a fancy name for doing whatever the mayor and the city manager wants done, or more generally, executive assistant for Community Activities. Would the "liaison" post be under the part-time Parks manager as well, or vice-versa, or on equal footing? The city should go to the plan outlined in "Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned," including re-setting the position of Parks manager (Michael Holly) back to full-time, and perhaps hiring a part-time executive assistant or "liaison" that would be under the manager, if needed.
In other Council news, it was announced that the Eagle Scouts are hard at work developing the Crosstown Trail.
Mayor Rich Crispo announced the resignations of Craig Belcher and Jesse Tam from the Community Activities Commission. There will be at least 2 new volunteer commissioner slots open on Community Activities, now. If interested, apply at City Hall or go to their website for more information (must be at least 18 years old).
Councilman Bill Erxleben said that the King County government is no longer planning on plowing secondary roads during a future snow storm, but will only plow primary roads.
[revised on 10/17/13]
Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?
And I-517 should also be passed, which strengthens the initiative system, the people's check on the legislature and the governor.
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