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.