Correction

In the next to previous post, "Not Exactly Mayberry," N.P.R. made a mistake, and thus a revision, about the rate of vehicle thefts, which has actually declined since 2008, not increased.  It is thefts from vehicles that has increased, especially in 2010, but has leveled off somewhat in the last couple of years.

Thefts from Vehicles in Newcastle (parentheses show attempted thefts):

2008 - 62 (15)

2009 - 84 (14)

2010 - 104 (24)

2011 - 74 (9)

2012 - 89 (8)


Thefts of Actual Vehicles in Newcastle:

2008 - 26

2009 - 25

2010 - 21

2011 - 13

2012 - 21

Source:  City of Newcastle, Annual Police Service Highlights & Data 2012

[revised on 3/16/13]

Chief Irvine: Poise and Steadiness

N.P.R. likes to josh about politicians and city officials every now and then in order to keep this blog from being too dull, but if Newcastle is anything like "Mayberry," then that's a tribute to Newcastle Police Chief, Melinda Irvine, who has done a great job in her years as Police Chief.  For younger readers of N.P.R., who may never have seen "The Andy Griffith Show," the Sheriff of Mayberry, Andy himself, was competent, courageous and kept the order in Mayberry.  It was Andy's inept deputy, Barney Fife (Actor Don Knotts), that provided a lot of the laughs. Nothing in the previous post, "Not Exactly Mayberry," is contrary to what N.P.R. believes is the poise and steadiness of Chief Irvine, who has also been praised by the current City Manager and the Council.

[revised on 3/11/2013]

Not Exactly Mayberry

but close ....

 

City of Newcastle -- Council Meeting of March 5, 2013

Newcastle Police Chief, Melinda Irvine, could easily be cast as the Sheriff of Mayberry and not notice a great difference between Newcastle and that fictional North Carolinian town, but if Deputy Barney Fife could be catapulted from the old "Andy Griffith Show" to this small city, he might want to find an extra excuse or two to stay back in the office and guard the "menacing" town drunk.

Chief Irvine gave a report to the Newcastle Council on crime in Newcastle, and the general essence of her report and statistics were that Newcastle's crime rate is relatively low for a city of this size, around 10,000 population, and has remained more or less steady for the past five years. The most significant increases in crime since 2008 were burglary, larceny, and thefts from vehicles. Burglary, however, especially jumped since '08 to more than double.  Larceny and thefts from vehicles showed increases.  Thefts of actual vehicles, however, declined since '08.  Violent crime in Newcastle is very low.  The number of incidents of violent crime in Newcastle has been in the single digits for every calendar year since '08 with the exception of 2010, but even that year showed only 13 reported incidents of violent crime, with aggravated assault accounting for about 2/3 of those.  There have been no murders in Newcastle during this 5 year period. Chief Irvine said that a burglary ring was recently broken up by police, but that repeat offenders could or have posed a problem after serving their time in jail. Irvine also said that Newcastle needs a full-time detective to work on cases and extra patrol officers (Newcastle currently has a part-time detective).

In other Council business, Washington Dept.of Transportation Toll Division Director, Craig Stone, gave a report to the Council on the I-90 Tolling Project. Stone basically said that Interstate 90, between I-5 and I-405, will be tolled for the dual purpose of managing traffic and providing funding for the construction of State Route 520 from I-5 to Medina Project. He also stressed the environmental review that must take place, which he says will include outreach to affected communities. Councilman Gordon Bissett implied that community equity was being disregarded as far as this project is concerned, questioning why I-5 wasn't being tolled and implying that the political powers in Seattle had significant impact on decision-making in this regard. Stone didn't seem to disagree much, but said that questions of equity were being evaluated. After noting that mostly non-city residents drove on it and the high impact on the city's budget, Councilman Bill Erxleben asked Stone if Coal Creek Parkway could be tolled?  Stone replied, basically, that there was nothing that says that Newcastle can't toll Coal Creek.

City Manager Rob Wyman reported that Parks Commissioner Peggy Price resigned. Price was at the center of controversy during last month's contentious Parks Commission meeting. Wyman received statements of commendation for his work in managing the city from a number of council members, and an almost 4% pay raise. Councilman Bill Erxleben was especially pleased that Wyman's expertise saved the city a bunch of money after a road repair financial crisis, but he also was the only councilmember that directly criticized Wyman at the meeting. Overall, however, Erxleben said that Wyman was a good manager. The Council, generally, praised Wyman's staff hires as excellent and Wyman received a unanimous de facto vote of confidence via the pay raise vote.

This Council's general non-enthusiasm, to put it kindly, for so-called affordable housing was on display, again, as Councilman John Dulcich wanted Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, to review it for the Comprehensive Plan, and it didn't appear as though in the pro-active, pro-affordable housing sense.

Planning official, David Lee, told the Council that only 13 of the 25 legal requirements for the Comprehensive Plan have been met by the city. The Council and Lee seemed to agree that these statutory requirements should be the minimum standards for the Plan.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, requested that the Council, for environmental reasons, ban plastic bags (shopping) and styrofoam (packaging), as he noted similar bans enacted by Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, regarding the former, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, regarding the latter.  Greene said that cities and towns, generally, needed to be more aggressive in mandating recycling reforms, reminding the Council of the gigantic waste dump in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

[revised in March of 2013]

Mid-February Meetings

Updated and Revised on February 22nd, 2013

City of Newcastle -- Council Meeting of Feb. 19, 2013

 

 The proposed Parks Commission restructuring plan of the January Retreat turned out to be more an elaborate window dressing, though one with fancy adornments, than a complete renovation of the shop after the most recent Council meeting.  Parks Commission Chairwoman, Diane Lewis, spoke early on and said she had a difficult time getting the last Parks meeting under control and suggested that the Council might want to get a new chair. Councilman John Dulcich, later, commended Lewis's work as chair and suggested that she continue on as chairwoman of the now newly named Commission. Lewis also spoke about the Commission's work on the 2013 Work Plan, Trail Guidelines, and the need to get volunteers and services planned for Newcastle Days, soon. 

 

The Council rejected the call to disband the Parks Commission by a vote of 4 - 3 as Deputy Mayor Jensen, Simpson, Dulcich and Buri voted to keep the Commission intact.  However, the Council changed the name of the Commission to "Community Activities Commission" by a vote of 6 - 1 (Simpson dissenting), allowed two private organizations (Newcastle Trails and the Newcastle Historical Society) to nominate commissioners, presumably one each, by a vote of 6 - 1 (Simpson dissenting), allowed for the appointment of a Council Liaison, though experimentally until the end of the year, by a vote of 5 - 2 (Dulcich and Buri dissenting), and added responsibilities for the Commission, including volunteer activities and festivals, by a vote of 6 -1 (Simpson dissenting).

Basically, all of Mayor Rich Crispo's main points regarding changes for the Parks Commission were adopted except disbandment, although there appears to have been a number of  relatively minor details from the mayor's plan that were either modified or discarded.  The mayor left the meeting about halfway through, after the "Parks Commission" votes, because of illness, and Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen thence took over the proceedings.

 

The rest of the meeting could be capsulized as follows:

• Revision of Comprehensive Plan's Parks, Trails and Recreation Element
• Update to Comprehensive Plan's Capital Facilities Plan Project  List
• Franchise Agreement for Fiber Optic with the Zayo Group
• Mutual Materials Affordable Housing Agreement Termination

All of the above passed the Council without much dissent, and the latter two unanimously by 6 - 0 votes.

Council Candidate, Mark Greene, spoke from the public podium about the fiber optic agreement.  Greene noted that some of the fiber optic installation in Newcastle would be above ground and in sight of the public, and thereby a potential hazard to eyes because of the laser applications involved.  Greene requested that the Council table the motion to approve the agreement until further study could be made (rejected).  However, City Manager Rob Wyman, explained that the particular technology in concern would be transmuted in a way as not to be hazardous to eyes.  Greene thinks councils and legislatures all over America should keep a closer watch on the risks to public health regarding new technology, generally, which hasn't received a lot of attention to date.

City of Newcastle -- Planning Commission Meeting of
Feb. 20, 2013

N.P.R. attended the first hour-or-so of this meeting, but had to leave early for other work.  The commissioners kept it monotone and to-the-point for all the time that N.P.R. was there, which didn't exactly make for grabbing headlines.  No incredulous statements, temper tantrums, walkouts or grandstanding -- just gentlemanly, studious, conversational and civic-minded discourse.   Commissioner Tom Magers started out  the meeting by reporting on his activities on the Ad-Hoc Committee (Parks and Planning) and putting emphasis on the community fabric of the city as it relates to organizing work and comprehensive plans.  Jon Simpson and Vice-Chairman Allen Dauterman were pretty much the philosophers of the early part of the meeting, as Simpson said that "All great cities had a vision for what made them great," implying that Newcastle should follow in their footsteps.  Dauterman said that Newcastle needs to look more towards the future as it relates to developing a social and community fabric.   Chairman John Drescher pointed out some of Newcastle's attributes such as parks, green space, sense of community and the city's access to the great economic centers, as he and the other commissioners reviewed the Comprehensive Plan Vision Statement and "draft scope of work" for the plan (Year 2015).  Drescher said, in so many words, that the long term health and independence of the city was at stake.  Tim McHarg, the new Community Development Director, stressed what the city could directly control and future focus, among other topics he discussed.

Much of the early conversation was about Coal Creek Parkway being merely a thoroughfare for drivers who don't live in the city.  Although, a comment or two was made about tolling, which didn't seem to be taken too seriously by the commissioners writ large, the concensus seemed to be that this was something that Newcastle just had to live with, but potential economic opportunities from the Coal Creek traffic should be taken advantage of.   Paraphrasing Commissioner Rob Lemmon, "When handed a lemon, make lemonade."  N.P.R. didn't hear anything about how Coal Creek was already contributing to Newcastle's economy, but presumably, the commissioners think that whatever economic advantages presently exist, they could be further enhanced.  There was discussion about how the city could work with businesses in the downtown core to draw off potential customers from Coal Creek.  Aside from the Coal Creek Parkway discussion, there was also talk about developing pockets of commercial activity outside of the downtown core, but one gets the feeling that this commission, in the general sense, isn't too big on developing commercial activity outside of the downtown core and that this will eventually be an area of contention amongst themselves and with the Council.

Commissioners in Attendance:  Chairman John Drescher, Vice-Chairman Allen Dauterman, Tom Magers,  Jon Simpson and Rob Lemmon.  Absent:  Karin Blakley and Elizabeth Thompson.

[revised on 2/22/2013]

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]