Why D.J. Wilson endorses Priya Cloutier.

D.J. Wilson has invested a lot in Priya Cloutier this election. A Michael Plunkett victory means the council will restore the citizens' right to appeal land-use decisions to the council. Michael Plunkett also has a proven record of voting against taller buildings, that D.J. will not be able to overcome. He needs Priya on his side.

I say we dissapoint D.J. and keep Michael Plunkett on the council. Michael will protect our appeal rights and our historic small town charm.

References:

1) Public Disclosure Reports
2) Council minutes 6/2/09

Nothing wrong with being a finance sleuth.

Well, you can tell its election time when some newspapers grope for reasons to convince their readers not to vote for someone.

In a very biased article, the Enterprise basically wrote a hit piece on Lora Petso and Diane Buckshnis for asking questions about our finances. The newspaper article questioned Diane's "credentials" to ask these questions.

Fortunately for Lora and Diane, the public wants candidates to ask questions about the city's finances. You really can't attack someone on this point.

This isn't the first time Diane has been in trouble for asking questions. As a bank regulator, she got some looks for asking some hard questions of an investor named Charles Keating. You know, the Keating 5. Yep, Diane's job was to fight bank corruption on the federal level and she served on the investigative team that brought down Charles Keating.

Recently, she was interviewed by Dick Gordon on this investigation. It's fun to listen to. (click here)

In my opinion, no candidate for city council is more qualified to examine city finances than Diane Buckshnis.

Priya Cloutier failed to act.

We all agree that a council member should make public safety the number one priority. Michael Plunkett has definitely done that as a council member. He voted to save paramedics when Mountlake Terrace pulled out of Medic 7. He also voted to add Bational Chiefs to improve the safety of fire fighters and those they save. During tight budget times, he refused to cut public safety. Michael Plunkett has clearly passed the test of public safety.

And of course, he cast his ballot for last year's EMS Levy, a crucial measure that funds our Paramedics and our EMT's, so they can aid the public with their emergency medical needs.

Every current council member and every current council candidate, including primary candidates like Al Rutledge, cast their ballot in the EMS levy election, except one.

Priya Cloutier. She chose to blow it off, along with a lot of other Edmonds elections.

Priya will attempt to slide by this issue by pointing out her endorsements, but we all know action trumps endorsements. How can we trust our public safety services to someone who can't find the time to check the "EMS levy" box on a ballot and mail it in. Michael Plunkett "acted" to fund public safety, and Priya "failed to act" to fund public safety. No endorsement can overcome that simple fact.

Why I endorse Adrienne Fraley-Monillas.

I endorse Adrienne Fraley-Monillas for city council for the following reasons:

Adrienne supports our historic small town charm: Adrienne opposes taller buildings in downtown and on the waterfront. She sees history as a part of our future; that is, our historic downtown charm is key to the city’s economic development. Adrienne recognizes that condos may give a little money to the city, but they bring an increased demand on city services with them. The cure for our economic woes is to market are strengths: our historic character and our artistic treasures.

Adrienne will restore our rights to appeal land-use decisions to the council: This is one of the most contentious issues of the campaign. This year, four council members took away your right to council appeal. Adrienne believes in ethical, open, and transparent government. She is committed to restoring our right to council appeal.

Adrienne fights for our seniors, our children, and the disabled: She serves on the South County Senior Center board of directors and as the vice-chair for the Edmonds School District Special Olympics. She is also a member of the Snohomish county advisory board for developmental disabilities, and the Special education PTA board.

A personal note: Adrienne has a son with Down Syndrome. We all know how much effort and time it takes to raise a son with a disability. It takes a very special person to do that, but Adrienne went beyond just her own son. She made a life and career devoted to helping folks with developmental disabilities become independent and attain the American dream. In my view, she's a patriot.

If Edmonds gets a tenth of the devotion she has put towards folks with disabilities, Edmonds will get one darn good council member. She's got my vote.

Which candidates are more "refreshing?"

This is an easy answer: I don't care.

The Herald editorial staff and I have had a debate over the word "refreshing." I disagreed with how they chose to endorse a candidate for city council. To their credit, they were very gracious and printed my reply. I include links to both their endorsement and my letter.

The Herald Endorsements (click here)

My Response (click here)

Understanding the council divide on land-use appeals

This year, four council members took away your right to appeal certain land-use decisions, including variances. In short, they shut the door on you.

This means a developer can apply for a variance to waive codes regarding setbacks, height limits, and even environmental regulations. You can no longer appeal variance decisions to the council.

While you may appeal unjust variances to court, the cost is prohibitive. These four council members have essentially used financial means to shut down your ability to appeal unjust variances. Again, they have shut the door on your right to appeal.

Voters should understand the divide on the council, so they can vote to retain incumbents who want to open the door, and vote to remove incumbents who closed the door. Council members Michael Plunkett, Dave Orvis, and Steve Bernheim want to open the door. Council members Strom Peterson, D.J. Wilson, Peggy Olson, and Ron Wambolt voted to close it. Unfortunately, the "close door" council members have a one vote majority.

Here's how the candidates line up on this issue by race:

Michael Plunkett voted to keep your right to appeal unjust variances. We need his vote to restore your rights and open the door. As far as I can see, Priya has been silent on this issue, but she is endorsed by Peggy Olson and D.J. Wilson, who voted take your rights away and close the door.

Strom Peterson voted to take your rights away and close the door. Diane Buckshnis has publicly stated she will vote to restore your right to appeal land-use decisions. The distinction here is very well documented in Diane's candidate statement and website. You can also see Strom Peterson's vote in the council minutes of 6/2/09. I have previously blogged on this issue. (click here)

Adrienne and Lora both want to restore your rights and open the door. They defeated Ron Wambolt (who voted to close the door) in the primary. With regard to land-use appeals, both of these candidates have already done us a big favor.

So there it is. If we want to force the council to restore our rights to appeal unjust variances to the council, we need to elect Michael Plunkett, Diane Buckshnis, and either candidate for position 3.

Cliff's Picks

Cliff Sanderlin is a friend of mine from southwest Edmonds, where there has been much controversy over the city's handling of a new park. I think its good to have his perspective on these elections (which differs a little from mine), so I have included his letter to his neighbors in this blog entry.

CLIFF’S ENDORSEMENTS FOR EDMONDS CITY COUNCIL

Hi all,I helped produce two City Council candidate forums at the Senior Center this fall. Since I didn’t see many neighbors from SW Edmonds at the forums, I am sharing my choices. One of my criteria is the work that candidates have done on behalf of SW Edmonds, plus potential for leading Edmonds out of our current situation. I’m writing as an individual, not representing any other entity. Here’s who I support and why:

• Michael Plunkett – Was a strong supporter in getting Edmonds to buy school district property at the Old Woodway Elementary School (104th and 237th SW), where a new park opened in August. Michael is committed to listening and empowering citizens and giving us a voice in how our communities are developed. Michael knows Edmonds really well and has done many good things as a City Council member. He acts with local knowledge, courtesy and civility, which I cannot say about his opponent.
• Diane Buckschnis -- Is a no-nonsense, rock-solid community organizer with a long career in banking regulation. She has spent months trying to figure out the Mayor’s budget. Also, Diane set up the volunteer group that maintains the Edmonds Off-leash Area at Marina Park, giving our mutts a place to get some real exercise. She is a board member of the Edmonds Arts Center. And she has been very patient helping those of us who are trying to update the South County Senior Center’s website. Check out my letter in the Edmonds Beacon this week.
• Lora Petso – This one is hard. I really like Lora and Adrienne and would like to see both on the Council. My wife (Heather) and I are voting for Lora. She and husband Colin were key players in helping us save school property in SW Edmonds for open space (now Hickman Park.) By means of a lawsuit, Lora has stalled land developers from building 26 or so houses on the half the city failed to buy, based on shoddy permitting by the City. Lora knows what can be accomplished and where to find the money to make things happen. Neither Lora nor Adrienne would put up with bullying by the Mayor or his staff, which is another reason I wish both could be on the Council!

Election blog entries

Here's a summary of my blog entries for this election:


Which candidates understand the importance of historic preservation?
Michael Plunkett fights for Paramedics
The Off Leash Area of Edmonds (O.L.A.E)
Does more condos mean less property taxes?
Correcting Strom Peterson on Land-Use appeals
The Grass Roots Factor
Strom Peterson's flip-flop on heights
Challenging Priya Cloutier’s website
A better way to look at campaigns: Number of Donors from Edmonds
Did Priya Cloutier lie to the unions about her signs?
I have a view too.
Priya Cloutier files late reports.
Ron Wambolt joins the ESCA $1000 club.
Edmonds Beacon: Ron Wambolt defends shutting out the public
Does Priya Cloutier REALLY "love" Edmonds?

Celebrate Halloween: Give your kids an H1N1 shot!

If you really want to scare your kids on Halloween, give them an H1N1 vaccine. Nothing like a needle in the arm to make them cry "Mommy!". Ah ha ha ha ha ha!

Okay, that was creepy. I will stop now.

Seriously,the Snohomish County Health board is trying to vaccinate folks against H1N1 swine flu. They will be sponsoring free vaccination clinics on October 31st. The fact that its Halloween is a coincidence. If you are in a high risk group (like your kids are), get them vaccinated.

For more info on where to get the vaccinations, go to www.snocoflu.org

Which candidates understand the importance of historic preservation?

The members of the Edmonds historic preservation commission work hard to save historic structures in our city. The Edmonds bank building above was recently recognized as a historic structure with a plaque.

Historic preservation IS economic development, as evidenced in a 2006 study done by the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

This leads us to a question.

Which candidates recognize the value of historic preservation in our city's economic development? Which candidates value historic preservation so much that they are willing to incorporate it into their platform and campaign on it?

Well, let's look at their candidate statements, which are now online.

For Position 1: Michael Plunkett emphasizes that he was the council member who formed the historic commission. His opponent, Priya Cloutier, says nothing about historic preservation. If you go to Priya's website, where she has unlimited space to write anything she wants, Priya only uses the word "history" to reference her own resume. She makes no reference to historic preservation in Edmonds.

For Position 2: Only Diane Buckshnis highlights history with the statement: "She will fight for Edmonds' traditions, historic buildings, and character." She also discusses historical preservation on her website. Strom Peterson makes no mention of history in his statement or his website.

For Position 3: Only Adrienne Fraley-Monillas mentions history with the statement: "Adrienne will fight to oppose taller buildings in downtown and the waterfront and to preserve our historic buildings and artistic treasures."

Economic development depends on historic preservation. The two go hand in hand. We need candidates on the council that understand this. If you see historic preservation as imporant to our future in Edmonds, I recommend voting for Michael Plunkett, Diane Buckshnis, and Adrienne Fraley-Monillas.

Michael Plunkett fights for Paramedics

Yesterday’s Beacon contained a very humorous ad by Michael Plunkett, who frequently will poke fun of himself on the council, just like he does here.

It gives me an opportunity to talk about Paramedics, and how a paramedic differs from an EMT, and how Michael Plunkett worked to save the paramedics.

If you, god forbid, should ever have a heart attack, two units from the Edmonds fire department will deploy. The first is a basic life support unit, which will leave from one of the three fire stations in our community. Its goal is get there within 4 minutes so they can continue CPR and use a defibrillator. The second unit is called the advanced life support unit, and it has paramedics. This dedicated paramedic unit is stationed at one fire station. Its goal is to bring drugs and advanced life support tools (such as portable pacemakers) to the scene. These paramedics essentially act as the hands of a doctor.

The combination of basic life support with EMT’s and advance life support with paramedics has given Edmonds and Lynnwood some of the best success rates in the country.

The dedicated advance life support units were not always part of the fire department. Instead, they had their own organization called Medic 7. It started with volunteers, then it grew large enough to support two advanced life support units, which served Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, and Edmonds.

Early in my career, Mountlake Terrace decided to leave Medic 7. Since all three cities contributed to its funding, Medic 7 now had a big whole in their budget. Could we continue to have two advanced life support units available 24 hours a day?

Michael Plunkett, the Mayor, and the rest of the council worked with Lynnwood to fill the whole. We brought one Medic 7 unit into Edmonds, and the Lynnwood fire department took the other. Each city assumed the full cost of keeping the units, which meant we had cough up some money in the budget. But it was worth it, because we saved the advanced life support units. Public safety should be our top funding priority, and Michael Plunkett passed this test with flying colors.

You notice the ad above also takes a shot at Priya Cloutier, Michael Plunkett’s opponent. Priya Cloutier is the only candidate for any position on the council that failed to cast a vote for our EMS levy. Without this EMS levy, we wouldn’t have advanced life support units at all. Priya’s lack of enthusiasm for the EMS levy causes me to doubt her enthusiasm about public safety.

Michael Plunkett truly has a Strong public safety record.

Does more condos mean less property taxes?

Short Answer: NO!

I am always amused at how some folks claim more condo development will translate into less property taxes, because, in reality, it doesn't happen.

The municipal research service center makes property tax data for cities readily available (click here). We can look at the amount of 2008 property taxes collected per person from city to city.

In 2008, Edmonds collected $242.28 of property taxes per person.

Many folks point to condo rich Kirkland as being an example of what Edmonds should be. They collect $300.81 per person.

Folks love to point to all the new development in Mill Creek as an example of what we need for condos and heights. They collect $271.12 per person.

Now Bellevue has a lot of condos. However, they collect about the same property tax that we do: $242.48 per person.

Redmond collects $365.12 per person. Mega condo capital Seattle collects $551.39 per person!

Condos may look like they generate revenue on paper, but they also increase the demand for city services. As seen above, condos actually cause property taxes to go up, not down.


Now Lynnwood collects only $212.82 of property tax per person. How do they do it? They have a huge sales attraction called the Alderwood mall, which draws folks from outside of their city to spend money inside of their city.

Building tall condos will not solve our economic woes and lower our taxes. We must make better use of our historic and artistic treasures to draw in folks to spend money in our community.

Correcting Strom Peterson on Land-Use appeals

Today in the Beacon, I read an interesting exchange, and unfortunately, I now have to correct Strom Peterson's statements on land-use appeals. Once again, I am sorry this appears negative, but facts are facts.

First, I will repeat the relevant portions of the exchange titled "Bellevue West, here we come!":

George Murray: He [Strom] did vote to block citizens from the right to appeal certain land-use decisions.

Councilman Strom Peterson: Regarding land-use decisions: Again, Mr. Murray is wrong. Citizens have the right to appeal land-use decisions and the council can better represent the people of Edmonds on these issues.

Mr. Peterson is actually the one who is wrong. Ordinance 3736 removed the citizen's ability to appeal certain land-use decisions to the council, including variances. Thanks to Mr. Peterson and three other council members, a developer can now apply for a variance to waive setbacks, height limits, and environmental regulations without fear of a hearing before the council.

Arguments were taken before the council on 5/26/09, where Mr. Peterson refused to vote in favor of allowing the public to appeal land-use decisions to the council.

In the council minutes of 6/2/09 on page 13, the council passed the final ordinance taking your right to appeal certain land-use decisions away, with Mr. Peterson voting for it. Here's the actual text:

UPON ROLL CALL, MOTION CARRIED 4-2, COUNCIL PRESIDENT WILSON, AND
COUNCILMEMBERS PETERSON, WAMBOLT AND OLSON IN FAVOR; AND
COUNCILMEMBERS ORVIS AND PLUNKETT OPPOSED.

Mr. Peterson's decision to block citizens from the right to appeal certain land-use decisions before council also cost him the endorsement of the Herald. Their words are:

Buckshnis, a longtime community volunteer, critcizes the majority of council, including Peterson, for its “Chapter 20” vote in June regarding shoreline development and variences. The change means that appeals will be decided by a Hearing Examiner rather than the City Council. We agree with Buckshnis that those sorts of appeals are exactly the important type of decisions that the council should make.

Mr. Peterson's statement "the council can better represent the people of Edmonds on these issues" floors me. If Mr. Peterson felt this way, why didn't he vote to let you appeal land-use decisions to the council, so the council can represent the people.

Mr Peterson, rather than denying what you did, you should accept responsibility for it and explain why you took our rights away.

And once again, sorry to all for appearing negative, but truth is truth.

E-Mail Postcards

My Dad and Mom are on a trip this month, and they are now sending all their kids postcards with pictures taken from their I-phone. It's a cool application. I especially like how the stamp shows their location on the map.

The Grass Roots Factor

The public disclosure commission’s new website allows us to easily look at a campaign’s cash contributions.

We can now quickly determine a campaign’s Grass Roots Factor: that is, the amount of folks it takes for a campaign to raise a $1000 dollars. You simply take the total number of contributors, divide by the total cash amount, and multiply by $1000.

[Grass Roots Factor] = ([Total contributors] / Total Cash Amount] ) X $1000

A grass roots campaign draws its strength from numbers, not from money. Therefore, a grass roots campaign will raise its money from numerous modest contributions. Grass roots campaigns have high grass roots factors, because it takes a lot of contributors to get a $1000.

Money driven campaigns tend to rely on a few big donors to cover most of their costs. They will have a much lower grass roots factor. It only takes a few contributors to get to a $1000.

The results are below. I leave out Position 3, since one candidate has chosen the minimal reporting option.






The conclusion is obvious. Michael Plunkett and Diane Buckshnis are running grass roots campaigns. Priya Cloutier and Strom Peterson are not.