Some bits of business…
- July 30, 2026 — City Council Workshop, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- City Council Leadership Workshop
- August 6, 2026 — Committee of the Whole, 5:00–5:50 p.m.
- Check in on Committee of the Whole
- Discussion of Legislative Priorities
- Capital Improvements Plan
- Discussion on After School Program
- August 6, 2026 — City Council Study Session, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- 2027/2028 Budget Goals
- August 13, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- King County Metro Presentation to Council
- 2026 2nd Quarter Financial Report
- 223rd Options
- Stormwater Management Action Plan - Phase 2 Task Assignment
- Interlocal Agreement with Highline WD
- Capital Improvements Plan - First Reading
- August 27, 2026 — City Council Regular Meeting, 6:00–10:00 p.m.
- Des Moines Historical Society -- New Executive Director
- Capital Improvements Plan - Second Reading
Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar, this can be useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.
About The Cover: Highline Forum
I’ve attended pretty much every Highline Forum meeting since 2017 because… Airports… The origin story of the HF is shrouded in mystery. Not. 😀 Former Mayor Bob Sheckler wanted to get past all the animus on Third Runway lawsuits and promote ‘economic partnerships’ with the Port of Seattle. It was thought that having a group of electeds from each surrounding city (and the schools)meeting six times a year to share their doings would lead to better things. It was never meant to deal with conflicts. And as such has been a roaring success. 😀
Why bother? Information sharing is a good thing–and every meeting has at least one valuable bit of information about everything from the state of education, to economic forecasting. Has it become a substitute for ‘doing something’? Absolutely. But again, that was never its goal. The fault is with leadership who never took it some place better, and now, like StART, its stuck.
In 2017 the Port created a grant program to aid airport communities. Almost every year, the Commission adds more money. And yet every year it has provided less and less money for us. Why? It keeps getting expanded to the rest of King County.
City Manager Stuff
City Manager Reports! July, 24 2026
Highlights for moi include the easy to remember: https://desmoineswa.hosted.civiclive.com/cms/one.aspx?portalId=17385088&pageId=17633784
Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? 😀
That’s the City’s Fix-It/Report a Concern page. Why aren’t the links more straightforward? #327 on my bug-fix list for the new web site. We’ll see. But for now, Googling “Des Moines Report A Concern” gets you to the right place–which is progress. 🙂
Vote!
Yes, it’s time for yet another primary election. No, I’m not on the ballot (whew.) But someone is. Do we have too many things to vote for? Yes. Yes we do.
Highline MAST
Really good article in the Seattle Times on the Highline MAST Center
This Week
Summers are weird for me. If you’ve ever watched PBS shows, Europeans are always ‘going away for the summer’. That’s kinda what governments do and as that ‘corporate’ guy, I’ve never gotten used to it–even though everyone needs a break. 🙂
Thursday
Flood Control District Tour — Auburn! I’m hoping to also stop off and see how the Port of Seattle’s Mitigation land is doing–this is the 15 acres that was build as compensation for the loss of wetlands when building the Third Runway. Why is it in Auburn?
City Council Leadership Workshop — As I wrote previously, I have no idea what this is about, there is no agenda other than this–and I did not vote for it. All I know is that it’s a) at the Police Dept. “just to change it up” — which means recording will likely be dodgy. b) It has no agenda. c) The Council was asked to fill out this sort of psych questionnaire, eg. 1When you are in a tough situation do you tend to defer to the group or bend others to your indomitable will! Which I really enjoy.
Now that we’ve abandoned committees, the number of meaningful decision-making events is at its lowest point since I’ve been watching.
Last Week
Wednesday
Highline Forum – As I wrote above, I attended this gathering of local electeds. In addition to the Port’s grant program, there was a presentation on one of my fave Highline College programs: Logistics. The business of shipping can be an extremely creative and well-paid career. It used to be one of those sort of hidden worlds that make everything ‘run’ but you usually only got inside if you knew somebody.
Friday
As member of the King County Flood Control District Advisory Committee, the job is to write an annual letter to the KC Council recommending budget/policy planning. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that the District is about to go into the tank financially and part of this letter will be to strenuously recommend that the District update its strategic plan–which has gone unchanged since 2006. There may need to be bonds (ie. taxes) and/or a re-think on what it means to be a ‘flood control district’.
Why this matters: Like any number of regional services (eg. transit), voters have slowly chosen to centralise management–allowing the King County Council to run a bunch of things that used to be small micro-governments. Unfortunately, KC is bigger than ten states, and people want a ton of different things. When the Flood District began, it had a narrow mission (the really big rivers) and flooding was considered a ‘once in a blue moon event’. Now? The agency is charged with over 500 sites. Funding helps cities like Des Moines with all our wetlands and salmon recovery–which I strongly endorse because it’s useful and inexpensive. But on the other hand, we’ve had at least 4-5 ‘100 year’ events since I’ve een on the committee–including two in the past six months.
Here’s the really wacky part: All such districts kinda/sorta intentionally avoid keeping a rainy day fund (no pun intended.) And that is because FEMA only reimburses for ’emergencies’, ie. where there is no reserve money. A reserve would imply something plannable, not an ‘act of God’. You can’t make this stuff up.
1jk
