Thank you, John, for posting this. You make a key point contrasting the “We have to do this before the public finds out” attitude about the marijuana moratorium with the “You should have spoken up earlier” attitude of the Greenways spending. The solution is simple: transparency, good communication and clear objectives from our elected officials.

What’s this guy bucking for?  This is blatant self-promotion and bad government.  The ordinance is unnecessary because no one can proceed until the state irons out its rules.

Because there is no valid emergency and insufficient public notice, this is probably a violation of the open meetings act, rendering the ordinance null and void and making all involved subject to penalty (the following from the Attorney General’s Open Government Internet Manual, Chapter 3):

No governing body of a public agency shall adopt any ordinance,
resolution, rule, regulation, order, or directive, except in a meeting
open to the public and then only at a meeting, the date of which is
fixed by law or rule, or at a meeting of which notice has been given
according to the provisions of this chapter.

Any action taken at meetings failing to comply with the provisions of
this subsection shall be null and void. RCW 42.30.060(1).Statutory
provision: If, by reason of fire, flood, earthquake, or other emergency,
there is a need for expedited action by a governing body to
meet the emergency, the presiding officer of the governing body may
provide for a meeting site other than the regular meeting site and the
notice requirements of this chapter shall be suspended during such
emergency. RCW 42.30.070.

The courts have found that the agency must be confronted with a true
emergency that requires immediate action, such as a natural disaster. It
has been held that a strike by teachers did not justify an “emergency”
meeting by the school board. Mead School Dist. No. 354 v. Mead Education
Ass’n, 85 Wn.2d. 140, 530 P.2d 302 (1975). It is advisable for the
agency to provide special-meeting notice of the emergency meeting if
possible.

Each member of the governing body who attends a meeting of such governing
body where action is taken in violation of any provision of this chapter
applicable to him, with knowledge of the fact that the meeting is in
violation thereof, shall be subject to personal liability in the form of
a civil penalty in the amount of one hundred dollars. The civil penalty
shall be assessed by a judge of the superior court and an action to
enforce this penalty may be brought by any person. A violation of this
chapter does not constitute a crime and assessment of the civil penalty
by a judge shall not give rise to any disability or legal disadvantage
based on conviction of a criminal offense. (2) Any person who prevails
against a public agency in any action in the courts for a violation of
this chapter shall be awarded all costs, including reasonable attorney
fees, incurred in connection with such legal action. RCW 42.30.120.

Did Gene call you a lunatic, John?  Heh! Wink, wink.

I decided not to run for another council term when I found myself becoming impatient with citizens who didn’t have the time to come to all the meetings, follow the agendas, read the minutes and get fully informed on their issues.

I had long championed the fact that most citizens are busy with families, homes, jobs and paying the taxes that make the whole show go, and that representatives have a duty to listen even when it is unpleasant or absurd.

I knew it was time to quit when I started expecting them to know what I was paid to study because I was expecting them to be like a council member, and that is not their role.

That rant was especially strange coming from Gene, who usually does a very good job of listening tolerantly and being circumspect.  Everyone has a bad day from time to time.  Hopefully Gene will straighten this out and get back to his normal, accepting self.

John,
Thank you for highlighting this issue.  Good for Weiss for his comments.  What we expect from our elected officials is that they guard our tax dollars and use them for their intended purpose.  It appears that the Greenways levy has become a bit of a slush fund much like the Flood Control fund at the county that Kremen claims has always been used for other things since the City does not flood and they pay into the fund so deserve to have that money spent on other things.  Weiss is correct.  It is a bad precedence and it needs to stop. 

Knutson is also correct in his comment that Civic field and the pool are the most used.  If you look at the comments from the June 20 visioning meeting for the new parks comp plan you will see that people want sports fields and water access from our parks.  But what we now get is a 100 acres of supposed ultra sensitive wetlands that will have questionable access.  So it appears that parks raids the greenways fund and the greenways fund raids the park fund.  I kindof wish they would just spend the money on what they are supposed to spend it on.

Where Knutson is wrong is in his math.  He seems to think that because they did not spend ALL the money in the fund that it doesn’t qualify for a raid of the fund.  That same argument was used by Pike about the purchase of the Chuckanut Forest.

What really gets me is that there is Greenways money available and yet property owners on the South Side are getting taxed up the wazoo for land that is Greenways and could be paid for from the Greenways fund…..you know, what the fund was intended for!

P.S.  Knutson had the same sort of answer to me about the landlord licensing issue.  I questioned him, at the covert public meeting set up for WWU students to vent about their landlords, when I would get to attend a like meeting for landlords to vent about their tenants.  He claimed that I had a chance back in 2004!(or whatever the date was.)  He said to set up a meeting but then when I called City Council staff to do so I was told that a private citizen could not set up a public meeting.  Really!

  What I have learned over the last 6 months or so is that you have to watch these guys like a hawk.  Even a person who is trying to keep up with what they are doing will find it very hard to do. 

John,

Thanks for your following their inadequacies.  More of us need your determination to call them on their foolery.

So many city council members hide behind their wishy washy, undeclared views. Even when citizens vote their specific wishes, the city council hides under their blankets for safety.
 
Barbara Perry