Burner Endorses Greene

Darcy Burner has endorsed Mark Greene for Newcastle City Council, supporting Greene again as she and one of her top Congressional Campaign assistants did in 2012 regarding Greene's Lieutenant Governor campaign.  The female assistant to Burner signed Mark's L.G. petition at the Washington State Labor Union Convention in May of '12.  Unfortunately, the W.S.L.U. endorsed Suzan DelBene over Burner that month, and Brad Owen over Greene, even though Owen snubbed their convention by not attending it.

Burner is well known to Newcastle, as she debated Congressman Dave Reichert in Newcastle during her run for Congress in the 8th Congressional District in 2006, and she ran in 2008 as well when Newcastle was still part of the 8th (also against Reichert, but N.P.R. is not sure whether Burner and Reichert appeared together at any forum or debate in Newcastle in '08). Newcastle has recently been positioned in the radically revised (redistricted) 9th District (Adam Smith is Newcastle's congressman, now).

[revised on 2/20/2013]

Note about City meetings:  N.P.R. is expected to post reports about the recent Council meeting and today's Planning Commission meeting sometime in the afternoon of 2/21/2013, probably before 3:00 P.M.

Walkout

(Updated and Revised at 7:20 P.M. on 2/14/13).

City of Newcastle, WA -- Parks Commission Meeting of Feb. 13th, 2013

Under the pressure of City Hall talk of a radical Parks Commission restructuring plan by the Council, the February 13th Parks Commission meeting was tense, tempers were short and walkouts ensued as the Commission, largely, discussed proposed Trail Guidelines by the City's Parks Manager, Michael Holly.  Much of the focus of attention was on Commissioner Peggy Price, who worked diligently in reviewing the guidelines before the meeting and proceeded point-by-point in going over what she felt were the most important aspects of it with Parks Manager Holly, which numbered severally.  However, Price's attention to detail unnerved some commissioners, who obviously favored generalization over analyzation.  In particular,  Koleen Morris stated her concern with the overall tempo of the meeting, in apparent reference to Price's analytical approach.  Morris said, in so many words, that the Commission only needed to set guidelines, not sweat details.  Parks Commission Vice-Chair, Angela Ursino, said that the meeting was turning into a philosophical discussion between Price and Holly, and said that there should be a sub-meeting between the two prinicipals, and conciliation on issues which could later then be brought back to the full Commission for a vote. 

Commissioner Price wasn't intimidated by the subtle criticism and continued her review with aplomb. At one point, Holly informed Price, in so many words, not to interrupt him while speaking, though he was very respectful to Price, overall.  The arcane particulars of the Price-Holly discussion wasn't particularly easy for a layperson to follow and N.P.R. certainly didn't envy City Clerk, Sara McMillon's job in writing the minutes for this meeting, but the main point of the guidelines was to review the routing, construction, design and maintenance of city trails.  About halfway through the Price-Holly review, Commissioners Koleen Morris and Jesse Tam walked out of the meeting and went their separate ways.  It's unclear to N.P.R. whether Tam's leaving was due to being dissatisfied about the meeting or that he simply had other things to attend to, but Morris seemed rather displeased with the way things were going.  They both walked out at the same time. 

Nonetheless, before the walkouts, Tam showed signs of concern, if not disgruntlement, about the bandied about restructuring changes; at one point he asked do we want all these programs, and who would be responsible for them?  At the beginning of the meeting, Angela Ursino was the first commissioner to bring up the Council's restructuring plan, basically trying to figure out the gist of it, and eventually implying that some of the Commission's process would be at a standstill until the plan was enacted.   Ursino's solution, aforementioned, for moving forward wth the meeting and resolving technical issues through a sub-meeting appeared to have been eventually adopted.

At the start of the meeting, Chairwoman Diane Lewis brought up news of the King County Youth Sports Facilities Grant and wants the Parks Commission to become involved with it.  This program helps with the renovation or building of public sports facilities/amenities throughout the county.  Money for the various programs ranges from $5,000 to $75,0000, and letters of intent must be forwarded to the county by May 3rd and applications in by June 21st according to an article in RentonReporter.com.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, spoke from the public podium, and suggested that Newcastle Days host an annual softball game between the women and men of the City of Newcastle.  Greene implied that this would be a fun and exciting event, and said that this would generate more interest in Newcastle Days.  There had been an earlier discussion in the meeting, by the commissioners and the Parks Manager, about Newcastle Days, regarding planning for it and generating community interest. 

Councilman Gordon Bissett also spoke and, among other things, suggested that the Commission read up on the January, 2013 Council Retreat, presumably to better inform themselves about the Council's initial plans (primarily, Mayor Rich Crispo's ideas) for restructuring.  Mark Greene wrote down the Northern Pacific Report site URL (commonsnorth.blogspot.com) on Bissett's meeting packet after a request from the councilman.

[revised on 2/14/2013]

Mayor's Parks Plan Both Praised and Brushbacked

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of February 5th, 2013

 

 A somewhat radical proposal by Mayor Rich Crispo to revamp the Parks Commission, actually to disband it and then revamp it from scratch, expand its duties and call it another name was completely unveiled at this meeting, although it had been discussed quasi-informally at the Council Retreat in late January at the Newcastle Golf Club.  The plan primarily calls for the admission of two private organizations, Newcastle Trails and the Newcastle Historical Society, to be included in the new commission through these organizations' own representatives, the expansion of the new King County Library as an additional field within the commission's purview, among other fields to be included, mainly involving parks, events, community associations, and some volunteer activities.

 

The mayor was politely praised by his fellow councilmembers, as some called his approach "innovative" in regards to the plan that deals with the controversial Parks Commission, a commission that has come under criticism from the Council for the past year for various reasons, including absenteeism.  The verbal niceties stopped, however, when the plan came under a barrage of criticism led by Councilman Steve Buri.  Buri said he didn't want any councilmember to become a part of the Commission, as the plan outlined, because no one councilmember should have the authority to speak for the entire Council.  However, he appeared to accept the proposition that the Council could appoint a councilmember in a strictly observer status at Commission meetings, but not actually be a member of the Commission. 

 

Councilwoman Carol Simpson also didn't like further involvement of the Council with the Commission, calling it a potential "conflict of interest."  Councilman John Dulcich called the entire plan the "mayor's baby," and the mayor (specifically Crispo, but presumably whoever the mayor happened to be at any given time) should be the conduit at the Commission meetings.  Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen seemed to place herself somewhere in the middle, offering compromise solutions, generally, between the mayor's plan and the more skeptical wing (Buri, Simpson and Dulcich) of the Council.  Councilmembers Bill Erxleben and Gordon Bisset seemed generally supportive of the plan.  Simpson, in so many words, called for a study session instead of a rush to judgment before voting on it.  Noting, by implication, the added duties for Parks or whatever the new face of it will be called, City Manager Rob Wyman reminded the Council that the City's Parks Manager had recently been reduced to a part-time position. N.P.R. is predicting that the plan will be approved with several modifications sometime in March.

 

Earlier in the meeting, Miss Washington, Mandy Schendel, was personally presented and read, by Mayor Crispo, the Proclamation for achievement that she was awarded (without her presence) at the January 15th Council meeting.  The Proclamation noted the various civic contributions that Miss Washington has made along with the awards that she has received over the past year-or-so.  After a round of applause from city officials and the audience, Ms. Schendel thanked the Council and said that she was proud to be from Newcastle.

 

King County Councilman for the 9th Council District, Reagan Dunn, gave his annual State of the County speech, and basically put a good spin on overall county management.  Dunn noted, nonetheless, that the bus system, King County Metro, was in financial trouble and that there would be cutbacks in future service.  Dunn said that Route 240 could be severely affected, but implied that he would do everything possible to keep that from happening.  Route 240, as Mayor Crispo noted in a question to Dunn, is the lifeline of Newcastle as far as public transportation is concerned.   N.P.R. would add that there would be practically no public transportation in Newcastle if Route 240 were to be completely eliminated.

 

The Council made a unanimously approved amendment to the 2013 budget, which appeared to have minor changes; they also approved other modifications regarding the city's financial structure.  No one from the public spoke in dissent to the changes or at all.

 

Councilmembers in Attendance:  Mayor Rich Crispo, Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen, John Dulcich, Steve Buri, Carol Simpson, Bill Erxleben and Gordon Bissett.

[revised on 2/5/2013]



N.P.R. Makes New Push to Increase Circulation

Northern Pacific Report, where objectivity is our standard, will be making a new push in the coming days to increase the circulation or readership of this blog.  Anything that our current readers can do to help with this endeavor would be appreciated.  To those who would like to help, N.P.R. would suggest recommending us on your internet social media contacts (Google, to date, lists us on the first page under "Northern Pacific Report," but make sure that the URL is listed as http://commonsnorth.blogspot.com).  Word-of-mouth to your relatives, friends and acquaintances would also be very helpful.  If the weather is fair in late January and February, N.P.R. will be passing out fliers to, mostly, King County residents. 

Mark Greene's anti-annexation (regarding the recent Council discussion of a 2-city merger, which would result -- God forbid -- in Newcastle being reduced to pauper status at Bellevue City Hall)  Council candidacy, Pos. 6, is well underway.  This may be an "open" seat since the pro-annexation incumbent (Erxleben) is not listed on the PDC registry of candidates to date and may choose not to be a re-election candidate, but some pro-annexation candidate may decide to run even if it's not Erxleben, which would be sort of like the Texas quasi-secessionist governor, Rick Perry, running for President, and we suspect there will be a few other candidates on the ballot in August as well.  Greene's campaign will be a grassroots effort.

[revised on 1/19/2013]

Previous posts: "Lemmon's Vision: 1910" and "Tolling Pains"
                                                                                                                                                                       

Lemmon's Vision: 1910

(updated at 6:10 P.M.)

City of Newcastle, WA -- Planning Commission meeting of January 16th, 2013

 

Planning Commission Leadership: "We Like the Bedroom Community Aspect, But We're Not Going There."

 

As the Planning Commission works on the new Comprehensive Plan for Newcastle, a state obligatory vision of the physical and economic development of a municipality that is set every 8 years, the commissioners discussed various aspects of their vision for Newcastle.  Former Planning Commission Chairman (but now just in the rank-and-file), Rob Lemmon, just about bowled over at least one other commissioner and N.P.R. with the astounding admission that he thought Newcastle was too urbanized and he firmly placed himself on the side of those in the community who thought Newcastle should go back to its bedroom community roots, as if the city was no longer a bedroom suburb.  Lemmon suggested that the small-town community aspect of Newcastle is what attracted a lot of Newcastlers to the city in the first place, and implied that he wasn't fond of all the apartments in the downtown core -- and one would have gotten the impression anyplace else in Newcastle.  Commissioner Tom Magers apparently disagreed with Lemmon as he didn't deny that he rolled his eyes at Lemmon's comments when Chairman John Drescher made this observation of Magers.  Drescher, himself, nonetheless, concurred with Lemmon's points, at least generally, as did Vice-Chairman, Allen Dauterman, but both suggested that reminiscing about a bedroom community was off-point, or as Dauterman put it, "diverges from the master plan."

 

Lemmon had earlier in the meeting gave his "vision" for Newcastle and questioned, in so many words, whether the vision of the founding fathers of incorporated Newcastle worked, and would people still want to live here had they been able to foresee what the future had wrought.  After Commissioner Karin Blakley pressed Lemmon to be more specific about what he was talking about, Lemmon seemed to suggest that apartments cast the biggest pall over Newcastle.  Lemmon's version of "1910" (more about the year 1910 a little later) seemed inconsistent with his statement that Newcastle needed more economic development for revenue purposes, but N.P.R. is not certain whether that was more a question than a statement, or perhaps both.  Magers counteracted Lemmon's comments in a jovial way by saying this isn't 1910.  Magers also said that Newcastle didn't really have a wide variety of small businesses, but is seeking a wide variety.  N.P.R. chuckled at Mager's reference to 1910, not the least because that's the year that the editor's late maternal grandmother was born.

Blakley asked, generally, whether we (Newcastle) wanted to attract more businesses or be more of a bedroom community, apparently not convinced that the bedroom community era was already a part of a bygone era, but there seemed to be no concensus among the commissioners of what the definition of "bedroom community" was, not that anybody attempted to give a flat-out definition.  If there was the slightest hint of a definition, it was that "bedroom community" meant low density and the fewer the apartments the better as opposed to high density and more economic development.  However, there seemed to be some tension as to whether low density and economic development could go hand-in-hand, and the indications at the meeting, especially by the leadership (Drescher and Dauterman), were that they could not, even though they seemed to wish that they could.

The comments by the Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, were about the development of a new school and the redevelopment of Mutual Materials (a brick plant), among other things.  McHarg seemed to think that both were coming along as planned -- no hitches.  Associate Planner, David Lee, spoke about the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update.

Mayor Rich Crispo, who was in the audience, spoke from the public podium, and noted the difficult job that the Planning Commission had in relation to setting the Comprehensive Plan, but he cautioned the Commission to be ambiguous enough so that the Plan could adapt with the times, including the possibility that there could be a different Council than the present one in a couple of years.

Councilman Gordon Bissett, also speaking from the public podium, gave his "2 cents" about the bedroom community business, adding that Newcastle couldn't just do whatever they wanted in regards to housing, reminding the Commission that the city was once sued by the City of Renton for not providing enough affordable housing.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, also spoke, and said that he was dismayed by some of the comments at the meeting (referring to the bias against apartments expressed by Lemmon, and implied by others) and emphasized the word "city" in the City of Newcastle as opposed to a village.  Greene also expressed his vision of Newcastle as that of the city one day becoming a green energy center.

 

 

 

Tolling Pains

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of January 15th, 2013

Mayor Rich Crispo said that tolling (charging drivers a fee for the use of a road) on major thoroughfares (like I-90) will be coming to pass and that this will be the wave of the future in paying for public transportation costs, and implying, especially so in states with no income tax, like Washington.  The mayor noted that the State of New York has a lot of tolling, but also has an income tax, and neither, acccording to him, brought much improvement of road infrastructure there, but the implication was that things could be worst.  Councilman Steve Buri started out the discussion on tolling by acknowledging that I-90 will probably be tolled in 2015 through the likely approval of the state and federal governments.  Highway 405 was also brought up in the overall discussion about roads and tolling, but it seemed that the Council believed there would be so-called HOT lanes on 405 rather than conventional tolling.  HOT lanes stands for high-occupancy tolls; an acronym for road fees that give single occupant vehicles access to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.

In other Council meeting news, a City of Bellevue official, Bruce Jensen, made a 20-minute-or-so presentation about the Coal Creek Culvert Replacement Project.  This and various Coal Creek Parkway road repairs are expected to slow down traffic on Coal Creek to some degree later this year, particularly when both projects are being done at the same time.  The culvert replacement project is expected to last from April to November.

The Council voted unanimously 5 - 0 (Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen and Councilman Bill Erxleben were absent) to approve a Proclamation (of achievement) for Mandy Schendel of Newcastle, Miss Washington of 2012, and a 2013 Miss America contestant who was one of the Top 10 finalists.  Schendel won the Lifestyle and Fitness Award at the traditional event.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, spoke from the public podium twice:  firstly, he noted global warming and climate change as being one of the central crises of our era, and that the world community must take decisive steps to confront it.  Greene proposed a 3-person "Global Warming" committee to be appointed by the Council that would make suggestions on what Newcastle could do to tackle the problem.  The committee, which Greene said he would volunteer for if enacted, would make suggestions to the Council, which in turn would act on its own or submit plans to Governor-elect Inslee and the State Legislature.  Greene pointed out that the power of incrementalism could do a lot and implied that every community in the world had a part to play.  In his second trip to the public podium, Greene said that public officials had an obligation to study the health effects of wireless electronic (communications) infrastructure before implementing it willy-nilly, particularly in light of the Council's earlier discussion about a pending franchise agreement between the City of Newcastle and Zayo Group, LLC which relates to the installation of a fiber optic/telecommunications system.

Note:  Mark Greene is less concerned about health concerns regarding fiber optic installation than other types of wireless electronic communications infrastructure for various reasons which N.P.R. will discuss later.

[revised on 1/18/2013]

Update

N.P.R. mistakenly put an anti-environmental site in one of the links to the right side a few days ago, wrongly thinking that it was a pro-environmental site discussing global warming and climate change issues.  It was immediately removed when I realized the mistake.  A respectable site about global warming will be in its place, soon.  Human-induced climate change is real and one of the most important issues of the 21st century  -- somewhere in the Top 3.

Regarding outside links, in general, N.P.R. does not necessarily agree with the opinions in their content.

- by Mark Greene, Editor of N.P.R.