Take the Notebook poll…

I put a poll on the right-hand sidebar, just because it’s Friday and I found a new widget on my blog. 
Our city is in financial crisis. Some islanders think it’s time for a change of government, and have been working hard to put before the voters whether we should change from the current “strong mayor-Council” [...]

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A couple of years late, a million or so short

There was an air of quiet crisis at the Bainbridge City Council meeting last night. Council Chambers was packed with somber citizens and City employees who’d just learned six of their colleagues had been laid off (with more likely to follow). People listened attentively as City Administrator Mark Dombroski explained the $1.2 million 2008 year-end [...]

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City Administrator awarded bonus last week

Posted below is a copy of the memorandum signed on January 23 by Mayor Darlene Kordonowy, showing that City Administrator Mark Dombroksi received a $4828 merit pay award for 8 months on the job. The memo was signed last week, after controversy about bonuses received by City management had already come to light.

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Et tu, Bainbridge Review?

I’ve written before about my frustration with the local press for what seemed to me to be an overly cozy relationship with the powers-that-be. One might say the Bainbridge Review has sometimes taken its role as “newspaper of record” to mean “mouthpiece for the Kordonowy administration.”  
No more. Since Dennis Anstine took over the editorial [...]

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Police Chief Haney resigns

UPDATED: Bainbridge Police Chief Matt Haney has notified City officials of his resignation, effective in mid-February. Sources within the City say he has taken a job in law enforcement with the Colville Tribe in Eastern Washington. 
Haney was named Interim Chief in February of 2003 after the departure of Chief Bill Cooper. He was hired into the [...]

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Fat year-end bonuses for City honchos

The Kitsap Sun reports today that City department heads received 2008 year-end bonuses totaling more than $25,000. The article says that although several Council members have questioned the wisdom of awarding bonuses while the City faces severe financial challenges, City Administrator Mark Dombroski defended the payments, saying the 2008 payout “was less than the two previous [...]

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I took a picture of him once

Yeah, I was there last February and I saw him through my binoculars.
That’s my claim to a little of the Barack Obama stardust, why I feel like I knew him when he was just some guy from Chicago. The pundits have been talking about the personal connection his admirers feel for him, and it’s true. All the [...]

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Yawn. The national press finds us again.

Did you know that Bainbridge Island has multiple “villages”? That when it rains here, it doesn’t stop people from “doing stuff” because we pull out our “umbrellas and galoshes”?  That even in today’s limping real estate market, Bainbridge is still considered a desirable place to buy property, “particularly for second home owners”? I read all [...]

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Change of government one step closer to early vote

State House Bill 1066, which would allow Bainbridge Island voters to consider whether to change the City’s form of government at a special election before next November, was moved out of committee in Olympia today by unanimous vote. It will be sent to the House of Representatives for a vote on an expedited basis. The [...]

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Citizen asks that reality be allowed into City Hall

The global economy has tanked, the real estate market is in the dumpster, and consumers are failing to consume. The one bright spot in the entire world: Bainbridge Island, where Mayor Darlene Kordonowy and the City Council majority—Kjell Stoknes, Chris Snow, Barry Peters and Hilary Franz—have never wavered in their efforts to commit taxpayer money [...]

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