Council Approves '13 Budget

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 12/4/12

With two council members absent from the December 4th Council Meeting (Mayor Rich Crispo and Councilman Steve Buri), and Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen presiding, there was neither suspense nor surprise that the Ordinance Adopting the Final 2013 Budget passed with a fairly comfortable 4-1 margin, Councilman Bill Erxleben dissenting.  Erxleben said that the rules for the overall council processes were being ignored and there are mounting budget problems for the future, including his analysis that expenditures for roads in the 6 year financial forecast were understated by 2 million dollars.  Councilwoman Carol Simpson downplayed roads as a major problem, implying that the emphasis on streets and roads was overplayed, and saying that Newcastle's roads were not so bad.  Simpson also praised the Public Works Department for doing a great job, but then proceeded to nitpick about particular methods of job implementation by the city, generally, by recommending the use of more cost-effective means of transportation after a short critique of what she implied were wasteful methods. 

Simpson and the pro-annexation (for merging with Bellevue) councilman, Erxleben, dominated this rather mundane meeting, although, the new Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, made an introductory appearance, and Amy Maxim, the city's Assistant Planner, made a presentation about proposed revisions to the Capital Facilities Plan.  Finance Director Chris Olson made comments about the budget and finance concerns, generally, and seemingly agreed with those council members (Deputy Mayor Jensen, Simpson, and John Dulcich) that defeated an Erxleben motion that would have limited capital projects, as part of the 6 year financial forecast, to only those that have been applied for and permitted (Councilman Gordon Bisset was Erxleben's only ally regarding that matter).  Unfortunately, N.P.R. had to leave during Maxim's presentation and before the Council's consideration of a resolution approving Indigent Defense Standards, but may have further updates on this post, later this week, about what happened.

UPDATE:  N.P.R. made a mistake on this post, now corrected, regarding the name of the Assistant Planner for Newcastle, Amy Maxim, mistakenly getting her mixed up somehow with another Amy (Walen), who is a politician in Kirkland, Washington.  Sorry, Amy (also, an apology to Kirkland's Amy).

[revised on 12/15/12]
 

Council Rejects 1% Tax Increase

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 11/20/12

The Newcastle City Council rejected a 1% property tax increase, given as an option, by a vote of 6 - 1, Councilwoman Carol Simpson dissenting.  Before the vote approving a motion for a status quo levy without the 1% increase, Mayor Rich Crispo suggested that small (such as 1%) gradual increases in the levy would be better than a bigger increase somewhere down the road if it came to that, but voted to keep the taxes unchanged nonetheless. In defense of her position, Simpson said -- in so many words -- that the city should not be content to just rely on maintaining basic services, but should aspire to various improvements and projects that would help the city, also emphasizing that infrastucture is more than just streets and roads.

City Manager Rob Wyman announced that Newcastle received a $400,000 grant from the state's Transportation Improvement Program (T.I.P.)  Afterwards, the Council discussed how that money should be apportioned to Newcastle's particular transportation needs.  Pro-Annexation Councilman Bill Erxelben said that the $680K-or-so already applied to the preliminary budget for roads should be used for streets and roads other than Coal Creek Parkway, and that the $400K from T.I.P. should be used for Coal Creek Parkway.  The Council eventually agreed on a transportation motion from Councilman John Dulcich that passed 6- 1 with Simpson dissenting.  At this time, N.P.R. is not certain about the specifics of Dulcich's motion or whether it addressed the newly arrived T.I.P. funds, but it appeared to be some modificaion of Erxleben's plan, aforementioned.

Peacock-strutting Erxleben, ordinarily blunt, gruff, articulate, and outspoken, had some testy exchanges with the City Manager and the Mayor in the overall Council Meeting, but his transportation plan seemed to be the most easily understood, transparent and sensible.

Parks Commission Chairwoman Diane Lewis said that the Parks Commission attendance issue has improved since the commission membership level was recently reduced from 9 to 7, thereby making quorums easier to make.  She stressed that even though commissioners were serving voluntarily, they had a duty to meet the conditions of their job.

[revised on 11/25/12]

Why I Voted For Rocky Anderson

I voted for Rocky Anderson for President and Luis Rodriguez for Vice-President, of the United States of America.  Although the Anderson-Rodriguez ticket had little chance of succeeding as far as actually winning is concerned, it was a campaign based on earnest principles of human and civil rights, environmental protection, non-imperialism and respect for the Constitution.  I respect that, so I voted out of pure principle -- nothing else.

Barack Obama, despite showing courage as a politician, is a neo-liberal adventurer and a willing pawn for the corporate behemoth.  Despite the incredulous Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded, he has greatly escalated the number of weaponized drones being sent into various countries, and despite the stated aim of going after terrorists, these drones have also killed innocent civilians by the hundreds, if not thousands, in the Obama and Bush II years. This kind of inevitable indiscrimination is not only bad policy, but immoral as well.  Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have also passed on prosecuting torturers and Wall Street hooligans, and Obama has thrown the Bill of Rights under the bus with the proviso to the National Defense Authorization Act that allows for unconstitional arrests of American citizens or others without any due process required at all.  It's amazing that this "law" passed with so little uproar by Americans. 

As for Mitt Romney, his statement behind closed doors about 47% of the population said all you really needed to know about him.  If he would have been elected, he would have been a very divisive leader in a nation that needs to come together more than ever.

I could have voted for one of several other third party or independent candidates besides Rocky Anderson, but the Anderson-Rodriguez ticket impressed me as being very genuine and honest, not that most or all of the other third party or independent candidates weren't.  Sorry, you didn't win, Rocky, you should have.

- by Mark Greene

[revised on 11/18/12]

"Report" Sidetracked by Other Work

Northern Pacific Report may be less comprehensive about Newcastle government affairs than I would like it to be as a result of new work obligations that I have taken on, particularly during hours when it is least advantageous for this journalistic endeavor.  This is the only reason why I missed yesterday's Park Commission meeting and why I may miss further commission and council meetings, in general, in the near future.  As a result, N.P.R. may come to have less news and more opinion in it, at least until January of 2013, but at this date I am not certain how this blog will develop as a result of the new and changing circumstances.  I will keep readers informed, however.  None of this changes anything about my expected plans to run for the Newcastle City Council or other offices.  I plan to make an announcement on this blog about my council plans on December 10th. 

- by Mark Greene, Editor of Northern Pacific Report

[revised on 11/17/12]

One Hour

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 11/6/12
 
Northern Pacific Report covered the first hour of the Council Meeting, but left early to watch election results on TV.  The first hour basically concerned Reports and Comments from council members, city officials, and the public.  City Manager Rob Wyman announced that Tim McHarg will be the new Community Development Director of Newcastle.  McHarg, who has experience in city operations as a Planning Director in Bozeman, Montana, was selected over two other candidates.  Wyman also praised Newcastle Police Chief, Melinda Irvine, for a job well done in handling some cases recently. 

Mayor Rich Crispo is concerned about attendance by Park Commissioners, implying that attendance was shoddy and that the issue needed to be addressed.  Park and Planning Commissioners in Newcastle are all volunteers.

Councilman Steve Buri expects there to be a significant increase in auto traffic on Coal Creek Parkway because of traffic tolling on I-405.  Presently, it is estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles use Coal Creek on a regular business day, and this could be exacerbated in the future as Coal Creek is used as a bypass from I-405.  Buri brought up the issue of tolling Coal Creek, presumably as a source of city revenue.  Going by the Council's general discussion of this issue, which wasn't a whole lot in the first hour, any actual proposal about tolling, were it to come to that, would have significant hoops to jump through in getting the necessary approval from other state and local government entities.  Councilman Gordon Bisset implied that tolling would be very unpopular and that he opposes it.

There was also a discussion about transferring some public parks to private entities, but no reason was given for such a possibility in the first hour of the meeting.  Presumably this would be a cost-saving measure for the city, but what would be the downside?  This was another subject that was only briefly discussed as ordinarily would be the case for the Reports and Comments part of Council Meetings.  It was announced, however, that there would be a further evaluation of this issue by the Council.  Expected council candidate for 2013, Mark Greene, does not favor transferring any public park to private hands unless there is some extraordinary reason for it.

Regional Update:  the King County Executive, Dow Constantine: anti-commoner, anti-democracy, anti-poor and anti-homeless.

On Commoner:  "Constantine and the Seattle Authoritarians" 

General Popular Links:

Party of Commons

Mark Greene for Council (Exploratory Campaign)

"Commoner" Blog

Commons on Twitter

[revised on 11/10/12]

Greene's Announcement Postponed Until December

Update:  the expected announcement for council by Mark Greene, previously set to be announced on Nov. 12th, has been delayed again (see revised post, below).  Greene decided that probable local media coverage in January, a few weeks after the official announcement, would better be focused on the campaign then than in November and December.

Mark Greene has decided to postpone an expected decision to run for the Newcastle City Council, Pos. 6, until later on this year. 

The Public Disclosure Commission has reviewed Greene's disclosure papers recently and they're presently presumed to be in proper order.  Greene has decided to delay an official announcement until the 10th of December.

[revised on 11/6/12]

Newcastle Library to Open on December 8th

King County has announced that Newcastle's new county-operated library will open on December 8th, 2012 A.D., 9:30 A.M.  The public is invited to attend the Grand Opening.

In other news, Mark Greene has been considering whether or not to throw his hat in the ring for the Newcastle City Council in 2013, but there's no decision, yet.  A decision will be made by November 6th and will be posted on Northern Pacific Report on either the 5th or the 6th of November.  If Mark runs, he would definitely be the most fervent anti-annexation candidate of the entire field of council candidates and most likely would choose to run for Position No. 6. 

Unlike other candidates in past years who changed the Position number they ran for, presumably
because of political calculations, if Greene decides to run for council, he would not change the Position number for any reason whatsoever, regardless of whether there is an "open seat" or not.

Post-script:  The term "open-seat" in American political lexicon means that an incumbent is not one of the candidates for office, but of course the term is a misnomer since any office that is up for election is, in fact, open.

[revised on 11/3/12]

Mark Greene's Book on Elections: Elections: Reform & Administration

Party of Commons

Mark Greene for Secretary of State (write-in candidacy)

Commons on Twitter

"Commoner" Blog