City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of June 18th, 2013
Penny-pinching (except for roads), lame-duck Councilman Bill Erxleben, who thinks council salaries are not low enough from the already minimum wage salaries, or even the sub-minimum wage set for Positions 5, 6 and 7 next year,* was fresh back from a back-to-back meeting hiatus with a review of a play called "City Council Meeting" (the meetings in Newcastle virtually never announce why a councilmember is absent, such as for illness, vacation, a death in the family, etc., only that a member is excused, so N.P.R. doesn't know the reason for Erxleben's absences, and therefore nothing is inferred, here). Erxleben went on to say that the play was drawn from actual City Council meetings from around the nation, and that the tone of the meetings, by and large, were dry, drab and dull. Arguably, Newcastle's only councilmember with a bit of charisma and theatricality, Erxleben implied that council meetings in general needed to be spiced up to attract more attention and civic involvement by the community. Mayor Rich Crispo, in response to Erxleben, joked sarcastically about "costumes," but the meeting he presided over last Tuesday evening was duly uncostumed and about as dry a meeting as attendees are accustomed to (at least, the first 2 hours of, according to a source, a 2 1/2 hour meeting).
By 7 - 0, the Council unanimously passed a Transportation Improvement Program by Public Works Director, Mark Rigos. Financially speaking, the plan has a $400,000 hitch to it, according to Finance Director, Chris Olson, a shortfall not expected to take place until the year 2019, which concerns project T-028, which concerns sidewalks and bikeways on Newcastle Way. The plan for this year includes a number of pedestrian and road programs, which includes engineering studies on geologic hazards, traffic hazards, speeding and intersection evaluations, among others.
Snow removal was brought up as part of a discussion about sidewalk maintenance. There was some back and forth, among the Council, City Manager Rob Wyman, and Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, about who was responsible for removing snow on city sidewalks in front of private property in the event of a major snowfall, and the consensus seemed to be that both the City and property owners were responsible, although not equally, with the onus mostly on property owners (City Attorney Dawn Reitan cautioned the Council against being one-sided in favor of the City having very much less or no responsibility). Property disputes between neighbors also came up for discussion, but if there was any contention among the councilmembers about any of these issues, it wasn't readily apparent at this very agreeable, "uncostumed" meeting.
*Note: Council Candidate Mark Greene agreed with Councilman Erxleben about last year's vote to reduce salaries of councilmembers, but for different reasons.
[revised on 6/21/13, 8:00 P.M.]
