I was double-booked last night so I only saw the last hour of the Town Hall meeting. I’d appreciate if someone could post a comment on the highlights of the first hour–I hear some sparks flew.
The theme of the night was efficient management, both at Town Hall meeting and in my earlier meeting, a “listening session” with Kitsap Regional Library patrons. And well it should be, with the library still sharpening its budget pencil after last year’s levy lid lift failure and the City’s Finance Committee hearing the news yesterday that the COBI is so strapped it has no ability to borrow money in either 2008 or 2009.
Though speakers at the Town Hall meeting were concerned about the City’s financial woes, several called for improvements in City services, such as staff training and better efficiency. One woman, who said she’s been doing a home remodel, observed
that answers to questions about City code differ, depending on the staff member consulted. She suggested that City employees be better trained and should strive for consistent code interpretations. She also hoped City government would be less process oriented. “I wish you’d reduce the number of meetings and increase the number of decisions,” she said, to a loud round of applause.
Former City Council member Bob Scales took the mike to explain–as he has in recent letters to local newspapers and blogs–that during last year’s budget deliberations, the Council was criticized by the Mayor, the former City Administrator and the Finance Director for making substantial cuts to the mayor’s preliminary budget. The Council made the cuts anyway, and ”two months later, we’re $2 million in the red,” Scales said. He said the budget crisis is a “red flag,” as are the departures of City Administrator Mary Jo Briggs and Planning Director Greg Byrnes, both after short tenure with the City.
Scales said the kinds of changes needed by the City can’t be made by the Council, but must come from the administration. Speaking directly to Mayor Darlene Kordonowy, who was sitting in the audience, he suggested that she empower newly hired City Administrator Mark Dombroski (whose well-regarded reputation was noted by several speakers) to do his job, and “leave him alone.” He added that the Council should do the same.
One of the last to speak was Steven Ziolkowski, a resident of Island Terrace Apartments. He said he spoke on behalf of two anonymous donors who have agreed to contribute all of the funds necessary to satisfy the conditions of a proposed donation to the Housing Resource Board of 5.6 acres on Ferncliff to build affordable housing. (Read about the land donation here.)
In spite of my boredom with the event, I did jot down some notes.
Electeds: Vancil, Knobloch, Brackett, Franz, Peters and Mayor k. Blessedly they did not speak although someone suggested they be given the 2 minute rule and shut down if they exceeded by 2 seconds.
Greg Moore was moderator and said he was recording the event for eventual airing on BITV. Smaller cameras and no panning of the audience.
Speakers (incomplete list)
Lester — read a poem about being happy. Struck me as a lecture.
Tripp — spoke on the out-of-control planning department that has no leadership and a variety of rogue agendas. Tripp listed by name Peter B. Best as a planner of some distinction for the hard he is causing Bainbridge Island and the residents. Tripp gave many examples of over-regualtion based on scientific studies for Midwest feed lots. Great presentation.
Moody — called COBI out on issue of fiscal competency. Good examples of where COBI has failed. Raised issue of why 4 months into 2008 the books have not been closed for 2007. Questioned whether there was a smoking gun there.
Fellow read Seattle Times editorial about the folly of what planners and City officials do to authentic neighborhoods.
Burkeholder — something about reading the entrails from ancient Greece. Warned against strong opinions on either side. Yawn.
Michael Barret (sp?) CPA gave a very damning summation of the COBI financial performance. He said the only answer is for an INDEPENDENT AUDIT governed by an independent Audit Committee. Audit would not answer to Mayor k or Council. He saw this as the only hope for COBI. He also decried lack of proper financial statements from COBI. The funny thing he said was the recourse for the Auditor if he/she was interfered with or found illegality — the Auditor could go to the “press.”‘ Yawn !!! Our local press are sleeping lap dogs.
Eddie Hartman — worried about the tone. “Keep your head down here.”
Koss — all I can remember was his call to watch Oprah Winfrey and some guest. Didn’t make any sense to me.
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As I listened to the venting and the calls to action, I was struck by the fact we have someone who is responsible to the taxpayers: Mayor K.
See the call to recall: YouTube: (title) deceit, deception, recall, Bainbridge.
It was obvious that the many issues being faced by the Mayor are taking their toll physically, not that the populace should not speak their peace as most situations are/were caused by mismanagement and leadership. There was comment after comment about the lack of trust and that was suggested as a key cause for the taxpayers frustration. The Council has been/is doing what we want them to- debate and come to a majority decision and then expect the MAYOR/CEO to carry out ethically, professionally, legally, and in a fiscal responsible manner their direction.
Thought should be given to approaching the Mayor with the thought of her resigning for her benefit as well as the City’s. Stepping down would allow our new manager who seems to have the experience and abilities to lead our City out of the morass we find ourselves in today without the involvement of this Mayor who has demonstrated incompetence for the past few years. We citizens I suspect want the Island Gov’t. to do their job and want to be involved in helping Gov’t go forward vs. todays Island involvement at trying to find ways to replace the CEO of the City. Were this a business, the analysts and the stockholders would be calling for immediate dismissal of the top executive.
Again, for the Mayor’s and the City’s benefit resignation should be a consideration-
Troubled: good point. It certainly would be the honorable thing for Mayor k to step down. If a USN Commanding Officer runs the vessel aground or permits a serious breach of rules, that Captain is promptly relieved of command. No if, ands or buts. If a CEO cannot manage a mid-size company and runs it into the ground (151 employees/$55M), the Board of Directors will fire that person.
CALL FOR RECALL: http://www.youtube.com Title Deceit, deception, recall Bainbridge.
The trouble lays with the CEO/Mayor. We need a man or woman in that position who can rein in leaderless departments with hurtful and destructive agendas.
We the people have rights. It is insane to have to change a form of government just to get leadership in place.
I’ve been hearing and reading about the nastiness of citizens at public meetings and “on the blogs” (which seems to be a catchphrase for “I’m not sure where I heard it but I didn’t like it.” )
Troubled, your comment is an example of honest and fair criticism (even though I don’t necessarily agree with you–yet, anyway). It’s a tough assessment but if we can’t say difficult things in a polite manner like you did, then the pressure to conform will hurt the community as much as COBI’s deficit spending.
This nasty-citizen campaign is taking on the character of a political tactic, and it’s disheartening. As taxpayers and the Council minority demand answers on our financial situation, we’re seeing pushback, not on the subject at hand–financial accountability and government transparency–but about civility.
Yes, a tiny minority of people get carried away into rudeness and personal attacks. But most critics that I’ve seen have been patient, on-topic and responsible.
Troubled. That is the nicest call to mutiny I have ever heard. Your suggestion, in one swell foop, would change our form of City government forever.
As one who has personally suffered greatly from mismanagement, and whose neighbors have paid dearly, I would like to timidly add that THE MAJORITY WHO VOTED ELECTED OUR MAYOR.
As far as your concern for our Mayor’s health, I think this is the greatest indication of the toll that leadership exacts. In plainer language, “no good deed goes unpunished” or, there is a hell of a price for being the lead goose and cutting the wind (no pun intended).
My humble suggestion is for a movement toward gentle governance on the behalf of us all, and maybe, if you can afford it, send her a gift for a day at the spa.
It seems to me the “civility” defense goes back to the silly civility hat that sat by the Mayor. I would like to see the decriers of “uncivility” to cite examples. Just as Councilman Knobloch tried to shut down a public speaker for use of the words “deceit and deception,” others such as Dennis Anstine (new Review ed) also want people to conform to his sense of discourse. People can state their opinions and facts with passion and they should not be shut down for failing us use cliches and generalities.
I challenge the civility critics to give examples. Where on these blogs is something uncivil? Frankly many people don’t want to hear the criticisms or to sweep them under the rug.
Free speech covers a wide spectrum. Let’s stop with the attempt at stiffling discussion under the guise of civility. We have serious matters at hand and people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake. We are past the point of generalities about how Green BI is or how luck we are.
Cite the examples of dangerous speech? Where is the libel? Where is the character assassination? Tragically the faults being exposed have been long-standing and well known but kept in the box.
The lack of civility is not with the pent up frustration of outspoken citizens, which has been too long in coming, but with the Administration and Staff who have been economical with the truth (I avoided the D & D words, as an attempt at “civility”), heavy-handed in driving personal agendas to the extent of outright violations of the law and a complete lack of regard for our State and Federal Constitution with respect to property rights. Justifying personal agendas to the determent of the community is both selfish and dangerous, and pious platitudes wrapped in double and triple talk about protecting the environment is not “civility,” it is a lack of regard for the rights of the people our Mayor and Council were elected to serve.
I learned from my study of mathematics, turnip that I am now, that sometimes learning to solve one unrelated problem is the key to solving another. Aren’t we humans worthy of this metaphor?
Personally, I remember calling City Hall a few years ago, and speaking with a now retired, but much respected by many, high-ranking administrator.
When I DEMANDED, under State & Federal laws, my right to use TTY, (what’s that?) which have been on the books for more than 50 years, I was told, “Those are inflammatory remarks, and I am reporting you to the police!”.
Personally, what I must weigh in a lawsuit for discrimination – or any other response or public statement, is how my response to the inflammatory remarks of a municipal employee may affect the City’s bond ratings, to the point where I have no roads, water, sewers – or any necessary infrastructure – which the city cannot afford without outside help and funding.
I applaud the Mayor and Council for any misguided attempt to pay for our aging infrastructure with a “big parade” of downtown development. I still grieve Winslow Hardware, but I see the parking lot of Ace packed almost every day – and I don’t think it is to use the Goodwill drop-off.
Many municipalities across the US have revitalized their core-areas to create a critical-mass of economic activity: stabilizing property taxes, paying for first-rate emergency services, and pick-pocketing tourists wallets to pay for the amenities local residents enjoy.
I may ask, which one of us has not attempted a home improvement task that has evolved into a costly fiasco? Big deal! We got in over our heads: are you suggesting we now shovel in the dirt and simply cover over the mess by blaming the few.
A careful mix of municipal revenues, a common sense analysis, a few common sense questions about what we want & need – not surveys to quell the rioting masses – and patience, may be the only answer.
To paraphrase a brilliant economist, J.A. Schumpeter, who stated in the 1920’s or 1930’s; once the national economy has cycled into a depression (recession, stagflation – whatever), all you can do is your best to correct the ill conceived notions and regulations that created the conditions; and wait… for things to get better.
So PENNY WISE-are you asking us to sit patiently and endure the continued mis-management until there is a new Mayor installed? Competence is a must and when you can not manage, can not lead, and apparently don’t understand basic finance we’ll be waiting way tooooooooo long!
Troubled — the ship is on the rocks. Time is now for a new Mayor. Electeds serve at the pleasure of the voters. Voters should recall and get a man/woman in there who understands basic leadership and management.
YouTube: deceit, deception, recall ~ Bainbridge
The issue of civility is an interesting one. It seems to be being used as sort of an implied ad hominem attack.
In Nazi Germany were the Jews better off for being civil or were the Jews of Warsaw to be faulted for incivility?
The lack of honest communication from the city versus “sit down and shut up “ memos from the city administrator. Hummm, I’ll have to think about that one.
Troubled, George & Penny. I cannot climb inside the head of Ms. Penny Wise or anyone else, and hardly myself, but I think the implication is that it is more foolish to shoot the horse, than it is to blame the dull plow.
In other words, we need roll up sleeves, work smarter as well as harder, put on our green eye shades, and come up with viable, hard-dollar funding sources; realize that we have no idea what it is to walk a mile in someone’s beat-up shoes, let alone on their battered feet or sit at their desk, which may seem a cage on death row; and that your good ideas, or actions presented in a way that is less than careful, may (I did not say “can” or “will”, cause more harm than good. Take it from a living fool.
George, as a surviving Jew myself, in my heart of hearts, although I believe the atrocities of bigotry are a real reflection on every human being, I remember that quote of MLK not exactly, but something like, “In my time of greatest need, it is not the silence of my enemies I regret, but the silence of my friends”
I remember conversations with my maternal grandparents as a child – and at the risk of alienating what little support I have from the Jewish community here – I can say again, “If you do not speak up, with rational, alternative (and when your back is to the firing wall, every ounce of Truth you can muster); then maybe destiny is giving you a clear message to speak more loudly and clearly”.
However, back to Mr. Quitslund’s almost correctly quoted Pogo remark – “We have met the enemy, and he is us” (when we are old enough to remember POGO, what’s a technical matter of conjugation?). We have met the enemy and he is us. No matter how socially understandable the Watts riots, or the 12th Street Detroit riots of 1967, these actions, a priori, did not create more jobs, housing or equal opportunities for minorities – but it sure raised the level of awareness of what can happen when the rights and needs of communities are ignored.
I am trying to say something both delicate and significant: there is a fine line between being oppressed, suffering the mental, physical and spiritual consequences of oppression; and enduring because the time for an exodus has not arrived; and between standing by and allowing the wholesale destruction of human rights, which endangers the rights of all, even the oppressors.
I am not entirely convinced we have reached that stage on our little John Donne’s no man’s Island, such that there is a wholesale call for riot and revolution; but the overall direction of our national, regional and State political economies cause me great concern for the long-range permanent damage to our most vulnerable citizens; and therefore, damage to us all.
Steve-one doesn’t have to walk in her shoes, all one has to have done had the erxperience of managing a significant number of people with a large budget to know what we as citizens are experiencing is an incompetent manager who can not lead or manage and has shown that the budget is a meaningless figure as there was apparently no regular effort to look at spending vs. income/revenue and make appropriate adjustments.
The Mayor can and will never be able to recover from all the ill will and lack of trust across the Island. For her personal benefit and the City’s her friends and supporters should encourage her to resign.
Steven Z.: all politics are local. While world affairs are very important, it is the follies and incompetencies of our Mayor and Council that will have the greatest damage on our lives. I want to solve the local and solve it now, not in the distant future.
Inappropriately calling for social niceties towards our city government when the Mayor, the City Attorney, the Planning Director, the former city administrator, the code enforcement officer, and the local police acted in collusion with our neighbor (the Mayor’s friend) to continually violate our rights is absurd.
If the Mayor can’t take it she should not dish it out. She should not pit herself repeatedly against many citizens by unethically using her position of authority to inappropriately instruct other city officials to further a personal agenda. Many unethical activities by our local government have resulted in numerous lawsuits, with more to come.
Our lives have been endangered numerous times. The continued disregard of our civil liberties and property rights despite codes and laws is criminal. In my opinion nicely phrased as deceit and deception.
The financial mess is only a small fraction of the mismanagement and questionable use of leadership on Bainbridge. The mayors use of authority to attempt to discredit and destroy average citizens is unacceptable. No longer will many of us who have suffered, tolerate the status quo, and stand by politely. No reasonable soul would.
Do not attempt to portray those who utilize their first amendment rights to defend themselves, and insist that this corruption be stopped, as not being polite. How incredibly naive.
We will no longer be silenced, or shushed, or told our time is up. We will no longer accept the “sit down and shut up letters” (that seem to have been common from Mary Jo Briggs), when citizens attempted to intelligently and reasonably meet with our city government to put a halt to the never ending madness.
Based on our family’s experiences the mayor should be behind bars, asking her to resign is an act of charity.
We are not the enemy, speak for yourself. We are the victims of incredible untold repeated and ongoing well orchestrated attacks by our Mayor and other city officials.
I was extremely impressed by the comments, criticisms and suggestions at the town hall meeting the other night, without exception. Every speaker gave added value by courageously stepping up to the microphone in an effort to help our struggling community come to grips with some systemic problems with Mayor K’s administration. The crux of the meeting, however, clearly established the immediate need for triage to stop the hemorraging, rather than long term solutions, and this will require either a new Mayor or an experienced City Manager at the helm. Had I taken the microphone like the others I do not believe it would have uncivil of me to politely, or not so politely, ask the Mayor to step down, especially knowing that the wheels on my car would need re-alligning after driving across the potholes in the road on my way home.
Dear Mr. Ziolkowski:
Thank you for contacting me about the loud work at Island Terrace Apartments on Bainbridge Island. I appreciate hearing from you.
As you may know, this issue falls largely under state and local, rather than federal, jurisdiction. Consequently, I encourage you to contact your Washington State and local elected officials about this particular matter.
Your input is very important to me. In order for me to best serve the interests of the people of Washington State, it is absolutely necessary that I know your opinions and hear your ideas. I hope you will contact me again about the issues you care about, or if you feel I can ever be of assistance to you.
Please keep in touch.
I hope all is well in Bainbridge Island.
[I had no idea that COBI has refused accepting federal dollars for public housing.]
The MP3 recording of the meeting is now available on the community site for those who want to relive it or weren’t able to come. It is unedited but cleaned up acoustically. Two hours worth so it is a good size file. I trimmed it down quite a bit to reduce the download size.
It is linked off the main page of Bainbridgeisland.org or top of the government info page. http://bainbridgeisland.org/gov.htm
Feel free to use it.
Dave
hello dave…..