Some bits of business…

Timing is everything

Last week I mentioned the relatively small role sales tax plays in our city budget…

Look up and and down the Des Moines retail area. Explore the space and guess how much total taxable sales all those businesses generate. All of them. From Red Robin to Dollar Tree. Anthony’s to Quarterdeck. Now multiply your guess by 0.085. That is the amount of revenue the City obtains from our downtown.

Red Robin is now officially on the way out, so I’ll have to use another pivot point. 😀 It’s kinda been signaling this for a while. Maybe this opens up some opportunities? (See below.)

How to fold like a cheap suit…

As many of you know, I really pushed hard to re-instate the Planning Commission that ended in 2012/2013. At the time, I fully acknowledged that committees are no panacea–in fact the prior commission made some really terrible decisions–including several that enabled airport expansion.

The new Planning Commission is talented and capable. Their July meeting was their first major challenge–to review a draft ordinance from the City on Developer Agreements. This may take some ‘splainin’.

Commissioners showed all the correct concerns, calling it vague and arbitrary and questioning the value to the city. All true. And then voted for it.

I want to commend Commissioner Chuck Coleman who proposed one minor amendment and got voted down 6-1 (an oddly familiar number to moi. 😀 ) Welcome to local government. Even a single, non-binding, change was a bridge too far.

Draft Ordinance No. 26-030 (Developer Agreements)

We’ve always seemed to have only two speeds here: shrug or outrage. There’s none of the middle-ground that is standard in other cities. People just do not want to appear to be arguing.

I mean in the healthy way we say we applaud as being ‘American’. The Founding Fathers argued (and then compromised) over every aspect of their new government. We just don’t know how to do that in a healthy way here because objecting to anything seems just so, so, so… ‘unfriendly’.

I sympathise with anyone who joins a volunteer committee. But what you want/need from the P/C, or any committee is a first line of defense. Most councils do not want to contradict the work product of a referring committee. The council is counting on the committee to be the bad cop–or the rubber stamp. No pressure. 😀

Again, in watching the meeting, everyone was diligent, obviously concerned, made great points, and then… simply moved it forward without using their authority to say “Hang on, can we look at this one more time?”

And all that did was enable a very premature draft ordinance at our last meeting.

July 7 Planning Commission Video/Transcript

Traci Buxton commented on a project that was denied by the City Council back in 2019. I had something to do with that denial. The original was a very bad project, which was later replaced by a much better project–the Townhomes on 216th and 14th Ave.

I ran for office on that issue, and against the group–which included Ms. Buxton. But to their great credit, ironically, they also folded like the aforementioned garment, which led to that better decision. Which is exactly how good government is supposed to work.

But it did take that angry horde showing up. And it was risky, and very uncomfortable for everyone. I wanted a P/C to get to the better outcome without all that risk and conflict.

However, with the almost complete absence of public involvement today, I’m not sure that positive outcome could happen.

That’s why I want to encourage the next P/C vote on something like this to be 6-1 in the other direction. Not ‘no’. Just, ‘hang on for another meeting before we send it to the City Council.’

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports!  August, 28 2026

The highlight for moi is a notice on Redondo Parking lot resurfacing. There is also a good update on the 240th project, which is making progress, but seems to be taking a bit longer than expected. ETA now set for December.

This Week

Thursday

This week’s combo platter of COW/Study Session has two pretty big items.

CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

5:00 p.m. – 5:50 p.m. Des Moines Creek Estuary – 30% Update This presentation (aka the Beach Park) will feature the still one-and-only video of a project in Des Moines history. You’re welcome. This should be the standard for all future projects here.

Estuary 30% Update PowerPoint

CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION

Downtown Planning Scenarios & Zoning Workshop

No fly-through video. 😀 But this is yet another in the never-ending workshops on “tell me something I don’t already know about the downtown” we should’ve had many years ago. That probably sounds snippy. Actually, the PPT has some excellent information. But it isn’t anything new. It’s something that should be in some sort of Councilmember 101. There is great value in the raw material.

Downtown zoning has been heavily constrained for a very long time. You will hear people talk about ‘more height!’, which means ‘views!’ But there’s a lot more to it. Every slide has an important piece of a very complicated story. But in a very Des Moines move, what should simply be called a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) has been relabeled a SCOT (strengths, challenges, opportunities, threats.) Because in Des Moines, there are no weaklings; only challenges to be overcome! 😀

Des Moines Downtown Assessment PowerPoint

Again, every slide is meaningful. A better version of this slide deck is something we should have on file at City Hall every day. Hopefully the presenter and the discussion is even better. What I mean by that is: the deck is not an explainer. It’s (mostly) value-neutral, which means it could be interpreted in several ways–actually a good thing.

Here’s the real SWOT: the airport is both the threat and the opportunity we’ve been missing for 20 years. Why do we keep missing it? We take every chance we can get to avoid dealing with it constructively. This presentation could be a real opportunity, or it could be another distraction from that discussion.

Because the first thing I noticed in this PPT? No mention of revenue. Even though we just had a recent tutorial on how differently various development scenarious are for our tax base. We continue to just assume that whatever we decide, the money will take care of itself. Or not. That’s been a basic problem since I’ve lived here–not absentee landlords. People just choose whatever seems good to them at the time, not what will actually power the City sustainably.

Last Week

Wednesday

Citizens Advisory Board: As has become typical the board posted no agenda. A real shame because the video featured a two hour explainer from Finance Director Jeff Friend. How can we claim to be providing better ‘public engagement’ if we don’t talk up this kind of event?

Video and Transcript Here (Budget Presentation by Jeff Friend)

Thursday

City Council Meeting. See recap

City Council Recap

City Council Meeting. (August 27, 2026 City Council Meeting Agenda Packet)

CITY MANAGER REPORT

• • Legislative Update from Senator Tina Orwall
    Sen. Orwall said she will be reintroducing modified versions of two airport bills from last year. STNI did not find those particularly thrilling, to put it mildly. But these could mean significant funding for Port Packages and research to reduce the health impacts of pollution.

• Des Moines Historical Society New Executive Director – The DMHS has struggled for a very long time. Former Mayor Richard Kennedy stepped in several years ago to revive it and is spending his own money to hire new Director VJ Kopacki. This is one of the most courageous and civic-minded efforts I’ve seen here in a very long time. Having professional management was the secret to getting the very nice Highline Heritage Museum off the ground. I already see improvements, including more open hours: Wednesday, Friday & Saturday Noon–4 p.m!Des Moines Historical Society | Museum & Local History
• 2026 2nd Quarter Financial Report These are becoming frustrating because they’re just not getting better. In the presence of increasingly complicated decisions and in the absence of a finance committee, our reports should be far more digestible.
• Community Enrichment Services – Fall/Winter Programming Preview
  The list of programs is very good and I encourage you to check them out in the packet. But on the other hand, there continue to be less.

CONSENT AGENDA

2. Judge Pro Tem Compensation – 1st ReadingMotion: Ordinance 26-059
3. ILA with Highline Water District for 2026 North Hill AC Water Main
4. Hemstad Consulting Contract Extension
   Mr. Hemstad is our state lobbyist. I typically vote ‘no’. Not because he isn’t a great guy and doing what the Council asks. It’s because we need an airport advocate because that is where the money is.
5. Citizens Advisory Board Appointment: Welcome Philip Mendoza
6. Marina Steps Innovative Stormwater Bioretention Testing, Grant and Consultant Contract Amendments: Motion 1: Acceptance of the Puget Sound National Estuary Program Grant for the Marina Steps Innovative Stormwater Bioretention Testing project in the amended amount of $548,386.00 and authorize the City Manager to sign the State funding agreement when it is available.” Motion 2: Assignment 2025-016 Amendment #2 with Psomas, Inc. to provide stormwater bioretention testing and reporting in association with the Marina Steps Innovative Stormwater Bioretention Testing project in the amended amount not to exceed $263,323.07. At first skim it reads suspiciously similar to the grant the Council refused two weeks ago: Water filtration to promote salmon recovery and better water quality in Puget Sound.
7. Groundwater Remediation Consultant Contract: $119,356.00. This is a highly over-simplified, never-ending story: there were fuel tanks in the back of the engineering building that were cleaned up years ago. Every few years they are declared ‘fine’. But because water tables under our area tend to shift with time more ‘stuff’ tends to reveal itself every few years.
   The entire airport is a set of ginormous fuel tanks and deicing stations and aircraft that are constantly generating crap that has to be processed and filtered. And even when one test reads ‘pristine’, the aquifer moves around (we’re in an earthquake zone, it’s fluids right?) the next year might reveal something different. And everything that happens on the airport plateau ends up in Des Moines and Puget Sound.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Capital Improvements Plan – 20 Minutes No. 26-098
2. Development Agreement Ordinance – 1st Reading: 26-030 to a second reading on the next available regular Council meeting agenda.”

Draft Ordinance No. 26-030 (Developer Agreements)

This is the Development Agreement I railed about above re. the Planning Commission. I think it’s fair to say that almost no one on the dais, except perhaps the City Manager and Mayor were jazzed about this. But as with the P/C no one else had the sense to say “hang on, let’s study this.”

My specific beef(s)? In addition to all the things that made the Planning Commission nervous, the City apparently did an analysis of how D/A’s work in nearby cities but provided none of those examples for us to compare with.

Forgetfulness is the enemy of transparency

And one last thing: Above, I mentioned ‘time’ as being something developers really want in such an ordinance. But time has another corrosive aspect that is completely outside the developer’s interests: it promotes forgetfulness. For example, for over 20 years the City knew the fate of the Des Moines Creek Business Park West was to be exactly what it is today. But since there was no signage, or poster at City Hall, or nothing, residents (logically) assumed that the ‘forest’ along 216th St. would be developed into a permanent park. After all, there was a proposal to do that in an old Parks and Rec Master Plan. There were signs mentioning a Des Moines Creek Trail and a park within the area. Nowhere was there a sign saying, “This area is owned by the Port of Seattle, and by longstanding agreement with the City and the FAA, eventually will become a commercial space.” That was unfair to every person in the area. But that was never the fault of the Port, or Panattoni. It was/is the fault of the City of Des Moines. That is the transparency issue.