Greene Urges Council to Start Global Warming Committee

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of April 16th, 2013 (Part 1 of 3)

 

Update:  N.P.R. is doing the report on yesterday's Council meeting in three parts, and the second part will be published sometime later today (on a separate posting).  Now, likely to be posted later than earlier thought, probably tonight, between 8 P.M. and 12 A.M.  The third part is scheduled to be published on April 18th.

Newcastle City Council Candidate, Mark Greene, made a speech at the mid-April Council meeting urging Council to appoint a 3-person volunteer Global Warming Committee which would make suggestions to the Council about green energy ideas and how they could be implemented by the city government.  Greene had previously made this suggestion at a prior meeting some weeks ago, but the Council had not acted or commented on the proposal as far as N.P.R. knows.  In the prior meeting, Greene stressed the importance of combined incrementalism or the "power of incrementalism," in other words, the more communities around the world that take concrete steps to counteract global warming, the more impact it would have in reducing the "greenhouse" gases that cause it.  This does not replace the needed strong federal or centralized government action on global warming by all countries, but would greatly complement it and may even inspire it in some cases.  At yesterday's meeting, Greene cited examples of international community or local government involvement in making green energy/environmental strides, such as a geothermal plant in Lund, Sweden and a solar power project on a former landfill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Greene, also, mentioned the Twin Cities Enviromental Justice Project which seeks to point out environmental hazards or infrastructure threats in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, and to find solutions in solving those problems.  Whether the Council listened to Greene with more interest this time than last is not yet clear, but Mayor Rich Crispo later commented on volunteerism, generally, and said there was not even interest in Newcastle about being a volunteer commissioner on the newly named Community Activities Commission (previously, called the Parks Commission).  So anybody who wants to be a Community Activities Commissioner should just submit an application with the City, and your chances of being appointed would seem to be better than 50/50.  Mark Greene thinks the City should at least give stipends to volunteer Planning and Community Activities Commissioners, perhaps, using the money they will save from the reduction of some Councilmembers' salaries (positions 5, 6 and 7) in the next term.  Councilman Bill Erxleben implied that the City needs better marketing tools to attract volunteers, and he's probably right about that.

[The update to this essay was revised on 4/18/2013.]

Refreshed and Revamped

Update: the March 20th, 2013 "Big Divide" essay now includes a recent update at the bottom of it.

N.P.R.'s vacation, from April 1 - April 10, is now officially over.  Although, we missed the most recent Council and Community Activities Commission meetings, we'll get back to our regular coverage from this point on.  Newcastle Council Candidate, Mark Greene, revamped his campaign website today, check it out at this link: brandnewelections.us.

[revised and updated 4/15/2013]

Position No. Six: Referendum on Annexation

The title of Councilman Bill Erxleben's (who's not running for re-election) most recent letter to the Newcastle News was "City Councilman wants city to be left in good hands," but it could have been entitled "City Councilman wants Newcastle to be left in Bellevue's hands."  I am sure that Newcastle didn't go through the long process of incorporation a couple of decades ago merely to present itself as suddenly mature enough to be the stepchild of a more prestigious neighbor.  The last 19 years -- to use a baseball metaphor -- wasn't practice for merging with a Triple AAA team (at least I hope that wasn't the case).  The last 19 years was finding our way in the world of self-representing cities and establishing this city as one of Washington's best.  There is no financial crisis in Newcastle, no hint of bankruptcy and no overriding reason to become a part of any other city.  No reason that could not have been found 19 years ago, anyway.  Newcastle is a unique city and has no pretensions of being anything other than small, crafty and independent.  However, I suspect the election for Position No. 6 this year will be the de facto referendum on whether we want to become an extension of Bellevue or not.  Be wary of any candidate (or candidates) for Position 6, and there are sure to be more than just me, who chooses to be quiet about this issue.  We will likely know where a candidate that doesn't state a position stands: for annexation.

Don't be surprised if there will be one or two other positions (5 & 7) open without an incumbent running this year (the PDC filings are just not coming in, yet, except for mine), which may be fertile ground for those candidates who want to avoid the annexation issue this election year.

- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

(the anti-annexation candidacy)

[revised on 4/9/2013]
 

Short Vacation

N.P.R. won't be covering the Newcastle City Council Meeting of April 2nd, 2013 due to the editor's short vacation.  Have a great spring!

[revised on 4/2/2013]

Newcastle 2035

City of Newcastle -- Planning Commission Meeting of March 20, 2013

The on-going conversation about the Comprehensive Plan continued in the first hour of this meeting with all commissioners in attendance.  One of the earliest comments from the Commission was about coming up with a more fascinating name for the Plan, as someone brought up the fact that Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen had suggested this recently to generate more community interest about what's going on with it and how it should proceed since the drab sounding "Comprehensive Plan" didn't seem to do the trick.  "Newcastle 2035" was one idea, "20 - 20" or something like that was another.  N.P.R. has no idea what the significance of 2035 is as relating to all of this (a 20 year continuum after the 2015 date of the Plan?) or what "20 - 20" exactly signifys, other than perhaps "being focused."  Speaking of community interest, at one point, the Commission haggled over the wording of how the city should enable volunteerism, and decided on something along the lines of the following, if not exact: "Newcastle recognizes the importance of volunteerism and encourages it among its citizens for the public good."  Regarding other Plan business, the Commission didn't appear too fond of the "contract city" terminology (referring to Newcastle) that they said originated from the Council, which Community Development Director, Tim McHarg,  said is meant to encourage public sector and government cooperation with other cities.  At least one commissioner implied that Newcastle should strive to be as independent as possible, however, the Commission writ large appeared to swallow the "contract city" language in order to appease the Council lords (the italicized is non sequitur joshing by N.P.R.).  McHarg also commented about Newcastle's storm water infrastructure, which he said is in the best shape that it has ever been in thanks to the Public Works Department and its director, Mark Rigos.  The department recently completed a capital facilities management plan (streets, parks, storm water), according to McHarg.  McHarg also talked about Land Use, which he said is the core of everything, but there were a lot of constraints with building land in the city.

Commissioner Jon Simpson spoke about an increasingly aging population, and thus the importance of accessory dwellings which were becoming prevalent (presumably meaning in society, although, maybe he was referring specifically to the city).  N.P.R. isn't exactly schooled on this particular terminology, but its seems to conject some type of sub-housing that is a part of the main housing structure in some way -- a cottage in the backyard or something like that.

Commissioner Rob Lemmon brought up the issue of solar panels on houses -- which have invigorated green energy use and help the environment (N.P.R.'s non sequitur) --  and said that homeowners' associations cannot legally forbid or limit their use in Washington, but they can implement placement guidelines.

Planning official, David Lee, said, in so many words, that "Critical Areas" and Transportation would take up the lion's share of resources in resolving issues related to the Plan.

Planning Commission Chairman, John Drescher, began the proceedings by saying that the Commission should or wants to complete the Comprehensive Plan by the end of 2014.  Incidentally, only two journalists were in the audience for the first hour, but the Commission wants more community participation in the discussion about these matters.  So the clarion call of the Commission for this project may well be "Newcastlers, come now, come all!"

[revised and updated on 3/28/2013]



Planning Commission Report Coming Soon

UPDATE:  meeting report will be published sometime on the weekend of March 23-24, but can't be more specific.

N.P.R. is delaying the report of the March 20th Planning Commission Meeting due to the busier than usual schedule of Editor, Mark Greene, this week.  This report will probably be published late tonight (Friday, March 22nd).  N.P.R. only stayed for the first hour of the meeting like last time (due to the editor's schedule), but a lot of interesting things are said in the first hour (generally speaking).  Incidentally, there were some relatively minor revisions, today, on the previous report, "Big Divide."  Also, a reminder that there is a moderated "comments" section on this blog.

[revised on 3/22/2013; updated on 3/23/13]

Big Divide

City of Newcastle -- Council Meeting of March 19, 2013



A careening tension-filled atmosphere fell over yesterday's meeeting as Councilmembers Carol Simpson and John Dulcich debated over whether there was city favoritism based on wealth and locality regarding parks, trails and recreation on the city's "rich" East Side and "poor" West Side (the two sides are divided by curvy Coal Creek Parkway).  Simpson implied that the city was concentrating services on the East Side, but Dulcich counteracted by saying, in so many words, that any perceived bias in favor of the East was a myth, and then proceeded point-by-point to indicate where city money for improvements and services was spent in the West.  Simpson was not appeased as she was often the lone dissenter on several 5 - 1 votes by the Council (Councilman Steve Buri was absent) on matters involving parks, trails, recreation, and the newly named Community Activities Commission that will continue to oversee parks, etc.  The expressed reasons for Simpson's opposition on these votes were varied and not based on the East - West divide in every case, however.  Simpson also opposed the general Council's appointment of Mayor Rich Crispo as the Council Liaison for the Community Activities Commission, saying that it concentrated too much control of the Commission in the mayor's hands.  Regarding the revision to the Comprehensive Plan's "Parks, etc." element, Councilman Dulcich complimented Planning Commissioner Tom Magers for doing most of the heavy lifting through the Ad-Hoc Committee (Parks and Planning).  Also, it was noted by Parks Commission (now, Community Activities Commission) Chairwoman, Diane Lewis, that Koleen Morris resigned from the Parks Commission.  The major votes of the meeting were as follows:

• Amendments to Parks Commission Name and Role [essentially, renaming the commission and adding additional responsibilities] (passed 5 - 1; Carol Simpson dissenting).
• Resolution authorizing a Council Liaison for the Community Activities Commission (passed 5 - 1; John Dulcich dissenting).
• Resolution appointing Mayor Rich Crispo as Liaison (passed 5 - 1; Carol Simpson dissenting).
• Revision to Comprehensive Plan's Parks, Trails and Recreation Element (passed 5 -1; Carol Simpson dissenting).
• Revision to Comprehensive Plan's Capital Facilities Plan (passed 5 - 1; Carol Simpson dissenting).

This was one of the most heavily attended regular Council Meetings in the last year, if not the most, and a number of audience members spoke from the public podium.

Update:  the economic characterizations of the  East and West sides noted in the essay are not N.P.R.'s, but were heard at the Council meeting from one or more councilmembers.

[revised on 3/23/2013; updated 4/15/2013]