Greene Files Candidacy




MARK GREENE

     Mark Greene, the strongest anti-annexation candidate for the Newcastle City Council this year, filed for election today for Position No. 6.  With Greene on the Council next year, strongly opposing the annexation of the city, the merge-with-Bellevue wing in Newcastle would be unlikely to muster up the 4 votes necessary to start talks with Bellevue.  Greene, John Dulcich, Carol Simpson, Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen and Mayor Rich Crispo would be the most likely group in the near future to block any annexation moves (Steve Buri also doesn't favor merger, although Buri's comments on this issue have been flexible).  Greene's lone opponent, so far, as far as we know, hasn't commented publicly on annexation besides some vague references relating to this issue. 

    Endorsers of my candidacy should write to me at Mark@partyofcommons.com; luminaries may be published on one of the side panels.


[updated on 7/29/2013]

PREVIOUS POSTS:  "Yulia Tymoshenko In the Clutches of Regime," "No Jumping Through Municipal League Hoops in '13," and "Road and Waste Management Policies."

Yulia Tymoshenko In the Clutches of Regime

YULIA TYMOSHENKO: Political Prisoner

 

The Party of Commons has taken the lead in Washington state in highlighting the case and calling for the freedom of the former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia (Julia) Tymoshenko, by publishing her story of fraudulent elections, frame-up, imprisonment, harassment and physical abuse in several posts on our blogs (mostly on Commoner) over the years.  Our first story about her fight for democracy in Ukraine was on Fair Commons on January 17, 2010.

 

Update (5/12/13): click on Yulia's name above to see her official website.

 

PREVIOUS POSTS: "No Jumping Through Municipal League Hoops in '13," and "Road and Waste Management Policies."

 

[revised on 5/19/2013] 

No Jumping Through Municipal League Hoops in '13

I am on the verge of filing for Council next week, and this could be my first elected office after 37 years of trying (initially, tried for a MI state legislative seat in 1976).  I will not be interviewing with the Municipal League of King County (a private organization), however, since I received an incredulous rating from them in 2011 for Director of Elections.  I guess they felt like they had to give out a few unqualifieds to a few unlucky candidates just to justify their lower ratings sphere, but anybody who did their homework and read my papers, websites and blogs about election administration, would have realized that I didn't deserve that, especially considering their "adequate" rating for someone named Chris Clifford for the same position two years earlier.  After I compared Mr. Clifford's public writings with my own public papers, I was pretty amazed and upset over the ratings disparity.  It's quite inexplicable.

SENATOR PAM ROACH (R)

This "League" gives out inexplicable ratings to others besides me, however, for instance, State Senator Pam Roach doesn't deal with them anymore.  Incidentally, they have a habit of giving "unqualifieds" to anybody who doesn't participate in their system  -- so if that happens to me this year, at least you will have a clear and explainable reason for "why" this time.

- Mark Greene

PREVIOUS POST: "Road and Waste Management Policies"

[revised on 5/14/2013]

Road and Waste Management Policies

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of May 7th, 2013

 

Councilman Bill Erxleben's motion at yesterday's council meeting dealt with trying to maintain a good road system in Newcastle.  In the past, Erxleben implied that a city might as well fold up its tent and disband if they could not maintain good roads for motor vehicle traffic.  That's a little hyperbole, but does indicate the importance that the councilman attaches to this issue, which centered, as usual, on pavement management policy.  The current discussion on pavement management was basically summed up as follows as written in agenda bill no. 13-035 (in italics):

1. The City goal for pavement management is to maintain an overall rating for the road system of a PCI of 76.
2. Each rated road should be maintained in a manner that prevents it from deterioating into a category that necessitates a substantially higher cost of rehabilitation and repair.
3. Deferred maintenance on the entire road system should be managed so as not to exceed the levels of 2011.

Deferred maintenance, which by current policy is the amount of money and work needed to bring a city from its current PCI rating to an average 85 PCI, but the cost of that deferred maintenance, over a six year period, is calculated to be anywhere from 6 million to 10 million dollars, but an independent analysis of Newcastle by a consultant expects the city to fall within the lower range, closer to 6 million dollars.  Even so, that's a million dollars a year that the city will be hard pressed to meet, so there is a constant struggle by the council to devise a road policy that would be very good, but at the same time does not bust the budget.  In any case, the variables in standard road maintenance that could affect costs are so many that budgets are hard to predict.  The city staff opposed any re-calibration that would change deferred maintenance from 85 PCI to 76 PCI, because the lower the number, the more streets that would fall way under the average, and thus would become a self-defeating exercise of more deferred maintenance than otherwise needed.

City staff (mainly, City Manager Rob Wyman and Public Works Director, Mark Rigos) was at loggerheads with Erxleben over the policy detailed in his motion, which was somewhat long and complicated, and in which N.P.R. didn't get a copy of, so we don't really know the details in it.  Councilman John Dulcich said that it appeared to be commensurate with proposed guideline points 1. and 2. (seen above in italics), but then ventured off from there.  Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen said she was flexible in regards to making changes to the overall policy or any proposed revisions, particularly with removing point no. 3 in the above proposed guidelines as city staff recommended (it to be removed).  She and other councilmembers made several amendments to Erxleben's motion (N.P.R. is reiterating that the motion is not the same as the aforementioned guidelines), almost to the point that it wasn't his bill anymore, but Erxleben seemed amenable to the changes (he probably had to be in order to get it passed).  The outcome of the amendments seemed to strike a compromise between the city staff and Erxleben, and thus the motion passed by a vote of 5 -2, with Carol Simpson and Mayor Rich Crispo dissenting.

During public comments, Newcastle citizen, Holly Baker spoke from the podium and brought up the issue of a sidewalk gap -- the sidewalk is oddly disconnected from the other, she said -- on 129th street, which she said posed a public danger and a potential liability to the city.

In the other major agenda item of this meeting, the Council, by a close 4 - 3 vote (Erxleben, Simpson and Dulcich dissenting), approved the Solid Waste Interlocal Agreement by resolution (N.P.R. wrote about this, extensively, in a prior report, "Austerity Versus Practicality"), thus authorizing the city manager to sign the agreement that puts the city in the regional consortium, run by King County, for garbage and re-cycling pick-ups.  Councilman Steve Buri seemed to sum up the mood of the majority by saying let's get this (issue) over and done with once and for all, we've kicked this around long enough, or words to that effect.  Buri thought that Councilwoman Simpson's objection to moving forward with the agreement was ironic, given her quote during the discussion: "They've got us over a barrel."

[updated on 5/8/2013, 9:50 P.M., and revised on 5/10/2013.]
 

Greene is Depending on N.P.R. Readers

The official mainstream media like the Newcastle News, and to a lesser extent, the Seattle Times, will play an important part in this election since the overwhelming majority of voters in Newcastle will get their news about the election from them.  However, Northern Pacific Report, with our handful of readers, will fill in the gaps that the mainstream press may leave out for one reason or another.  We are happy to report that the readership of N.P.R. has increased over the last month by an extra 150-or-so page views, and an aggregate 600 per month, more or less.  We need to do much better in order for Mark Greene to win a seat on the Newcastle City Council, even though our main goal is not the election, but to give Newcastlers an in depth look at their city government and the main players within it.  More about doing better with circulation a little later in this essay.

We congratulate the News on trying to drum up more interest in this year's elections.  In their reports, John Drescher is a chairman of a commission and Greene is merely a citizen.  Nonetheless, Greene runs the Democracy In Election Process organization that enrolls citizens for voter registration, informs them about civic affairs, and helps them with rudimentary legal and governmental matters.  This is a private organization, and not a governmental one as Drescher's commission is.  Greene is a legal assistant and the editor of this Northern Pacific Report.  However, it is not so much titles that should influence the electorate as fundamental philosophies, and Greene's philosophy can pretty much be summed up as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people."  That will tell you a lot about why Greene will be outspent by at least one and possibly more candidates for Position No. 6 as far as fundraising is concerned.  In other words, Greene's campaign won't be getting any money from big shots who are more interested in shaping policy for their own narrow special interests than in general, good government. 

A signal that more likely than not narrow special interests will play a part in any election: the fancier the advertising and the more abundant the campaign materials that particular candidates have.  Not necessarily through PAC money, however, because they are getting smarter as PAC money, generally, becomes more of a negative in campaigns as time goes by.  So they may get around that in the future by getting well-compensated executives, and some underlings, to contribute to the candidate of their choice as individuals. 

About Drescher's ascendancy to the chairmanship of the Planning Commission, isn't it odd as to how it all came about in an odd time of year for governmental transitions, last September, a few months before the election season, and the predecessor that stepped down didn't even leave the commission, but became part of the rank-and-file?  We won't go so far as to call it pre-election year planning, however, which could bring up the term "double entendre."  One thing is for sure, Mark Greene didn't have to wait for "Bellevue-centric" Councilman Bill Erxleben to announce his intentions before running, but his opponent's announcement came after Erxleben's public decision not to run.

Back to the circulation business: we need readers of N.P.R. to spread the news about this blog to other Newcastlers through their social media or otherwise, so that our readership will at least quadruple, and hopefully increase by tenfold before the August Primary or the November General Election.  If N.P.R. gets over 5,000 page views per month by time voters cast their ballots, Mark Greene will win.  If not, it is going to be a struggle. 

[revised on 5/6/2013]
 

Why Voting for Washington's I-522 Is Very Important

The Monsanto Corporation, the primary producer and sponsor of genetically modified (GM) food, is the nation's albatross.  They are presently trying to trick Washington into thinking that GM food is not harmful and thus trying to keep I-522 from being passed.  522, after all, is no more than labeling so that consumers can decide for themselves whether or not they want to eat and drink GM products, but it could lead to monumental changes in the entire nation's agricultural policies -- which Monsanto realizes.  Despite the sleight-of-hand that Monsanto and their supporters often use in saying that genetically modified or engineered food is normal, GM food is not the ordinary cross-pollination of crops, a technique that farmers have used for centuries, but instead is something that started over the last quarter century-or-so: a new scientific experiment in which the molecular structure, itself, of plants is manipulated, deformed and changed, an experiment in which human beings are the unwitting guinea pigs. GM food is a long-term health hazard to humans according to many top scientists, and tests have shown that animals (whose senses are often sharper than humans) instinctively avoid it when given an equal choice between natural food and GM food.  These animals, including birds, instinctively know better than to eat Monsanto's stuff when given a natural option.

If Monsanto and the lesser known companies that do essentially the same thing as Monsanto are not stopped, agriculture across the U.S. will inevitably be ruined further than what it already has been, and America will have to import much of her food from countries that have enough sense not to let this albatross on their farms.  The corrupt U.S. Congress has long let Monsanto have their way in devising our nation's farm policy, and the current Secretary of Agriculture (Tom  Vilsack) is Monsanto's #1 sympathizer.  Therefore the effects of Monsanto's and Vilsack's policies have caused  much of America's plants and crops to be despoiled, including alfalfa which was fairly recently unprotected from the GM frenzy, and these effects could be long lasting.  Now, however, Washington (trough Initiative 522) has a chance to be the first American state to trip up the albatross and Vilsack, and hopefully, lead the rest of the nation to the side of normalcy and naturalness for the sake of the survival of American agriculture and humanity.  This debate is no less critical than that.

[First written on 10/18/13, revised on 10/20/13 and updated for this post on 10/23/13. ]

 

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Our federal representatives are awash in do-nothingism in the famously "Do-Nothing 113th Congress," which is why it is up to the People in the States to make the changes necessary.

 

I-522 requires the mandatory labeling in Washington state of most genetically modified food/beverages.



Congress is really more dubious than we really knew, so why does America keep voting the same guys back in when at least "cleaning house" every couple of years until we get it right would be better than keeping them around in office session after session?  As everybody knows, the majority votes like clockwork, unfortunately, and thus the congressional elections are very predictable.  The GMO (genetically modified organisms) tragedy is a case in point.  When researchers and scientists have continually pointed out the agricultural dangers and health risks of GMOs, and Congress and the Obama govt. continue to prop up the purveyors of GMOs without so much as requiring labeling of their Frankensteinian products, then we know for sure that these elected officials are just lining their pockets (or campaign treasuries) with the money of the corporate behemoth rather than serving the public interest.

For more information about the ill effects of GMOs as well as information about better eating, see the Seeds of Deception site by Anti-GMO specialist, Jeffrey Smith.  Also, see the Institute for Responsible Technology site, "Buy Non-GMO."

[Originally published on Commoner on 4/30/2013; revised on 10/23/2013.]

N.P.R. Dropping Commission Coverage During Campaign Season

Although, Northern Pacific Report will continue to provide coverage of all or nearly all Newcastle Council Meetings in the future, we will drop coverage of City Commission meetings after May 13th, 2013, the first day of filing for political candidates in Washington state.  N.P.R., which has limited funds due to hardly any donations, has decided to focus on the campaign aspects of Newcastle City Elections for the rest of spring, the summer and early autumn rather than City Commission meetings.  N.P.R. may pick up Commission meetings, again, after the General Election, but will not definitively make that decision until then.  The commissions will not be altogether left out, however, since the respective chairpersons of these commissions give reports to the Council at the Council Meetings.  Our last coverage of a Commission meeting until further notice will be the Community Activities Commission Meeting in early May. 

Moreover, there is a possibility that coverage of Council Meetings will be truncated a little in the near future if there is a conflict with the Editor's general work schedule, but hopefully that won't be the case.  The Council, apparently, rejected a request by Editor and Council Candidate, Mark Greene, earlier this year, to make nighttime Council Meetings 30 minutes earlier in order to make it easier for working people and the elderly in Newcastle to have a normal sleeping routine, or to accomodate late night work shifts as this would be applicable to some citizens   This wasn't brought up by Greene at the time, but 2 Saturday morning meetings per year -- in August and November, on the Saturdays preceding the Primary and General Election, respectively; thereby, enabling the canceling of Tuesday meetings on Election Days -- would also be a good idea to make meetings accessible at least twice a year to those who otherwise can't attend because of night work or other time conflicts, and also freeing up Election nights for citizens who are interested in meetings and elections, and would rather not have to choose between one or the other.

[revised on 4/27/2013]