Mayor Reiterates Parks Restructuring Goal

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 1/2/13

COUNCIL'S PARKS PLANS SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

In yesterday's short Council Meeting, Mayor Rich Crispo discussed restructuring Newcastle's city parks, again, but similar to a previous meeting (11/7/12) in which this subject was brought up, there wasn't much specificity for the sparse audience at yesterday's meeting to grasp on to.  Apparently, the Council has some major plans in mind for the city's parks system, but they seem to be keeping them pretty close to the vest.  Going by the little that was said in the Nov. 7th meeting, this may have something to do with a plan for joint city and private management of one or more parks, if not outright disinvestiture of some parks by the city, but the plans are unclear at this stage.  The next Parks Commission meeting might shed some light.

In other Meeting news, Council candidate Mark Greene took to the public podium and proposed a 6:30 P.M. starting time for Council Meetings (currently they start at 7:00 P.M.) to make it more convenient for working people and the elderly to attend meetings, making the correlation between an earlier start time and getting home at a more suitable time at night. Also, Greene said that council meetings should not be held on election days, suggesting the preceding or succeeding day.  Additionally, Greene took differing views regarding Newcastle's new congressman, Adam Smith, who became the city's federal representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, today, as a result of re-districting and winning last year's not-very-close election (Newcastle is now in the 9th Congressional District, though previously in the 8th).  Smith has actually been in Congress since 1997 and has made some very bad votes (see a previous post in N.P.R. entitled "This Isn't Jimmy Stewart's 'Mr. Smith' ").  Greene pointed out some of Smith's worst votes at the Meeting.

The mayor adjourned this Meeting quickly and moved the entire Council to Executive Session to consider a litagatory matter.

[Revised on 1/5/13; initially, N.P.R. had mistakenly shown the wrong date of the Council Meeting in the subtitle, among other changes.]

Happy New Year

I wish the State of Washington and America, in general, a Happy New Year as we wind up the last few days of 2012!  A few words about my Council candidacy which officially started earlier this December: firstly, my main plank will be to keep Newcastle as Newcastle, and promising never to vote for merging Newcastle with another city as was practically proposed by Councilman Bill Erxleben at a September of '12 Council meeting.  Secondly, I am fairly sure that I will be the hardest campaigner of all the candidates this year, and my real campaign will start sometime in March (maybe in February if the weather cooperates), but I have already been getting signatures for my Council candidacy petition.  If you would like to sign my petition, please, send me an e-mail (address listed below). Thanks!

E-mail: Mark@partyofcommons.com

DONATIONS:  if you would like to take the poll to your right about making a pledge to Northern Pacific Report, remember to make your check out to "Mark Greene, N.P.R. Editor" and send to P.O. Box 612, Bellevue, WA 98009.

Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM

Oxymoron

Although, we take a lot of positions on "Commoner" that could be regarded as liberal (as well as conservative), we noticed that if anybody goes against the grain, as we often do, of one or more tenants of the liberal orthodoxy, then liberals can be very quick to assign a disreputable tag on someone or some idea, pretty much reflexively and without nuance.  Although, we are quite sure that they are quite aware of the anti-intellectualism involved with much of their intolerance to people who don't agree with them on everything, they will distort anyway, because they think it's good politics.  Not that conservatives don't do the same thing in regards to outliers from their philosophy, but it just seems like liberal intolerance and "know-nothingism" seems to be more noticeable, because liberals are suppose to be, well, liberal.  After all, the phrase "liberal intolerance" is kind of an oxymoron.

Originally published on Commoner under the title, "A Strictly Political Oxymoron," on Dec. 16th, 2012; revised on 12/29/12.

This Isn't Jimmy Stewart's "Mr. Smith"

At the Newcastle Library Grand Opening, I was just a couple of paces away from Newcastle's soon to be new congressman, Congressman Adam Smith, as I was about to shake his hand and say hello before a woman reached him just ahead of me and started a conversation. Smith, my likely future Congressional opponent in 2014, took off before I could make a greeting, but he probably didn't notice me.  Smith and I last met in 2004 at a different library, Federal Way's main library, where we were in a Congressional candidate forum with two other candidates (Paul Lord and Robert Losey).  As you can see a small sample, further below, Smith's votes over the years in Congress are not impressive, to say the least, and he's certainly no "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" in the mold of Jimmy Stewart's famous character.  He is a "Blue Dog" Democrat, thus part and parcel of the Corporate Behemoth, and he marches in lock step with the Military Industrial Complex.  Even though he's the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, you would never find him questioning the generals or their strategy in these amorphous wars that our nation finds herself in.  My friends, the generals are suppose to follow the Congress and the Commander-In-Chief, not the other way around.

- by Mark Greene

[Revised on 12/23/12.]

"Blue Dog" Congressman Adam Smith voted for the following:

• 2001 "Patriot Act" and 2011 "Patriot Extension Act" ("Big Brother" as official policy)
• 2002 Iraq War resolution
• Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act (the law that dismantled the Glass-Steagall Act)
• Wall Street bail-outs
• Nuclear Energy Deal with India (Effectively, Congress and Smith undermining the Nuclear Anti-Proliferation Treaty, a treaty that India has never signed.)

[Updated on 6/1/15.]

Officially Running

Officially, I am running for the Newcastle City Council next year, Position No. 6, my first run for the council since 2007.  Going by the Public Disclosure Commission filings for the 2013 election, I believe I'm the first person to announce his candidacy, if not the only person thus far. This announcement will probably reach most of Newcastle through the January publication of the Newcastle News, but on the other hand they didn't say a word about my Lieutenant Governor run, in which I came in fifth of six places in this year's primary, a candidacy in which I received the endorsement of political activist and former strong candidate for Congress in the district that Newcastle is currently in (until Jan.), Darcy Burner.  I'm sure that the citizens of Newcastle will find out about this campaign before the August, 2013 primary through my own efforts and through the media, however.  I believe Newcastle should remain an independent city, therefore, I will never vote for merging with any other city, or even discuss the possibility of that any further than just saying no; therefore anti-annexation will be my number one platform issue.  I will stay with Position No. 6 throughout the election under all circumstances with the possible exception of an unlikely vacancy (meaning nobody runs) -- vacancy, not "open" seat -- in another position.  I will be going over my positions on other city issues on this blog and in the community as time goes by.

- by Mark Greene

[revised on 12/10/12]

Library Opens Amidst Much Applause and a Little Grumbling

A relatively large crowd of about a couple of hundred people gathered outside, in this town of 10,000 people, to attend the opening day festivities of the Newcastle Library, today, before filing into the brand new structure, complete with green energy elements.  Several dignitaries/politicians, such as Mayor Rich Crispo, "Blue Dog" Democratic Congressman Adam Smith (Smith officially becomes Newcastle's next congressman in January, taking over from Dave Reichert as the result of redistricting), County Executive Constantine's right-hand man, Fred Jarrett, State Representative Marcie Maxwell and others were there, including various King County Library officials.  The Girl Scouts and the Cub Scouts helped in conducting the Flag Salute and the Pledge of Allegiance, but one man in the throng was grumbling about all the showy patriotism and others were grumbling about too much speechmaking, which lasted for a little less than a half-an-hour before the library actually opened close to 10:00 A.M.  At least one critic, who witnessed the event from the other side of the street, said the whole endeavor was a waste of taxpayers' money as Newcastle didn't need a library.  Most people seemed to enjoy the showmanship and patriotism, however, and of course supported the library.  The library looked snazzy and good-looking, and coffee and cookies were being served to anybody who wanted to partake. The mayor checked out the first book, among hundreds checked out presumably, as classical musicians helped ring in a very busy first day.

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]