Being Bellevue: Newcastle's Decision in 2013

 

The City Establishment in 2011: "vote for Bissett"

Councilman Bissett in 2012: casts de facto vote for annexation of Newcastle by Bellevue

 



The election for Newcastle City Council is a long 5 months away, and you can be reasonably certain that the town establishment will be for my opponent.  Hence, the importance of remembering 2011, the year they came out for Mr. Bissett, who thereby won an overwhelming victory that November, and before the one-year anniversary of that election voted on September 4, 2012 to start talks with Bellevue about annexing Newcastle.  This wasn't mentioned as a part of his platform, though, as I remember.  This year, the vote for Position No. 6 could make the difference of whether Newcastle is going to be a pauper in Bellevue City Hall or remain an independent city.  With my opponent's position on annexation not really clear to date, Bissett in the annexation camp (given his 9/4/12 vote), and only 2 really firm members on the sitting Council of 7 against annexation (3 are more or less nominally against), it doesn't take a lot of math figuring to realize that Newcastle's no-to-annexation wing should vote for me to be reasonably assured that the "Being Bellevue" wing will not reach 4 votes on the Council.

By the way, don't be surprised if my opponent trys to preempt a possible "referendum" on this issue by suddenly parroting my position, but I came out unequivocally and immediately against annexation in the Newcastle News, shortly after Councilmembers Erxleben and Bissett voted for talks with Bellevue.

- Mark Greene

[revised on 5/21/2013]


Greene Supports Mandatory Labeling of GMO Food

Council candidate, Mark Greene, supports the required labeling of all GMO food and beverages nationwide, and thereby supports Washington state's I-522, which only affects the state, but may serve as a forerunner to the nation.  Despite the propaganda of the purveyors of GMO, this will hardly affect the pricing of food, as there are already lots of other labeling requirements.  Americans are beginning to get wise to the menace of the Monsanto Corporation: please, see this link to Ronnie Cummins' (National Director of the Organic Consumers Association) recent article, "Trouble in Monsanto Nation."  Also, see another fairly recent Cummins' article: Monsanto Nation: Exposing Monsanto's Minions, and one posted on 7/27/2011: "Monsanto Nation, Taking Down Goliath." 

Please, vote for Initiative 522 in November, because if GMO food is so great or mundane, why are they so worried about us knowing about it?

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."

Update: an update about Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian Prime Minister who was recently noted in our N.P.R. post of 5/11/13, "Yulia Tymoshenko In the Clutches of Regime," can be seen on our Fair Commons blog.

[revised on 5/20/2013] 

No Primary for Position No. 6

There will be no primary for position No. 6 for Newcastle City Council, because only two candidates filed, Mark Greene (the anti-annexation candidate) and John Drescher, whose position on annexation is pretty much unknown. The other candidates for Council, both incumbents, have no opposition, and therefore there will be no primary in Newcastle for any major position except for King County Executive and King County Council (District No. 9).  The Primary Election is in August and the General Election is in November.

[revised on 5/18/2013]

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.]