Update: About Readership & Comments

UPDATE -- MEMORIAL DAY, May 27, 2013: our "Memorial" poem, in honor of our deceased servicemen and servicewomen in battle in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was published on May 24, 2009 on our Senator blog.

N.P.R. is very pleased that the page views for this blog has risen over a thousand per month for the first time, which is good news for Mark Greene's Council campaign, which very much needs that trend to continue upward.  A big thanks to those who have put this blog on their networking/social media sites, especially those that may be seen by citizens from Newcastle, Washington.

Another reminder: N.P.R. welcomes comments on this blog.  All comments will be moderated, meaning, looked at by N.P.R. before being published, but no comment will be rejected merely because of disagreement or pointing out something on N.P.R. that may be in error.  The only comments that would be rejected are those that are uncivil or not on topic.  To make a comment, click on where it has the number of comments already made, or "no comments," or "post a comment."

Update: the previous post, "Buri Takes Baton," was revised on 5/27/13 and now shows the 2 philosophical wings of the Newcastle City Council.

Note:  Mark Greene has revised his campaign website, primarily to show that the election will go straight to the General Election on November 5.

Most recent Council Meeting posts: "Buri Takes Baton," "Road and Waste Management Policies," and "Austerity Versus Practicality."

[revised on 5/27/2013]

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]

Being Bellevue: Newcastle's Decision in 2013

 

The City Establishment in 2011: "vote for Bissett"

Councilman Bissett in 2012: casts de facto vote for annexation of Newcastle by Bellevue

 



The election for Newcastle City Council is a long 5 months away, and you can be reasonably certain that the town establishment will be for my opponent.  Hence, the importance of remembering 2011, the year they came out for Mr. Bissett, who thereby won an overwhelming victory that November, and before the one-year anniversary of that election voted on September 4, 2012 to start talks with Bellevue about annexing Newcastle.  This wasn't mentioned as a part of his platform, though, as I remember.  This year, the vote for Position No. 6 could make the difference of whether Newcastle is going to be a pauper in Bellevue City Hall or remain an independent city.  With my opponent's position on annexation not really clear to date, Bissett in the annexation camp (given his 9/4/12 vote), and only 2 really firm members on the sitting Council of 7 against annexation (3 are more or less nominally against), it doesn't take a lot of math figuring to realize that Newcastle's no-to-annexation wing should vote for me to be reasonably assured that the "Being Bellevue" wing will not reach 4 votes on the Council.

By the way, don't be surprised if my opponent trys to preempt a possible "referendum" on this issue by suddenly parroting my position, but I came out unequivocally and immediately against annexation in the Newcastle News, shortly after Councilmembers Erxleben and Bissett voted for talks with Bellevue.

- Mark Greene

[revised on 5/21/2013]