Olympia Time

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Category: Olympia City Council (Page 9 of 9)

Rhenda Iris Strub is a genius (vote for her)

October 24, 2007 / / 0 Comments

This is not your average glossy political mailing. It was not expensive — I printed it at home on top of my dining room table. It may not be fancy or colorful, but it is honest and thrifty, and those are the same values that I will take with me to the Olympia City Council.

For the past week or so I’ve been getting glossy fliers in the mail from local candidates. Nothing too out of the box, but I can imagine these candidate’s campaign committees going through the motions a few months ago, figuring out how much money they have to spend on one last mailer before ballots go out.

Sweating out one trite sentence or another, while over here Rhenda sends out a localized (to Southeast Olympia) and informative piece. Not only is it super relevant to anyone around my neighborhood, but it shows that she knows what she’s talking about and actually tells us what she thinks about traffic in SE Oly.

DISCLAMER: Oh yeah, I designed her website.

Not a lot of Open Space for Democracy in Olympia last night

October 3, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Open Space for Democracy is one of my favorite books of all time, which made me sad that I wasn’t able to go last night when Terry Tempest Williams was speaking downtown on climate change. Though, it seems I wouldn’t have been too happy if I had gone. I’m not too happy right now.

This is a forum?

After a series of written audience questions directed at the speakers and moderated by KPLU Radio reporter Liam Moriarity, attendees were asked to fill out commitment forms in their programs, pledging to help. The solutions included installing fluorescent light bulbs, buying recycled items and reducing car trips. The forms were collected in the lobby.

Second hand I heard that both Williams and the other speaker talked for a half hour and then combined they took three questions. Not too open forumy to me. Not much like a democracy either, it sounded more like a lecture.

I know the point of the “forum” was to spark action, but 1,000 people out of a city of 40,000 plus (and I’m assuming that some of the folks came from out of town), doesn’t sound very cost effective to me.

Bringing big time speakers in seems like more of the role of something like the

If, on the other hand, we’re talking about a local government trying to formulate policy, I think we need a different approach. The $25,000 we spent could have gone a lot further to bringing people together.

  • The city tried to put together an ad hoc committee of citizens to help guide the budget, but that fell apart. Maybe if we paid people for their participation in a group like that, much like we do with a criminal jury, we would have gotten a better response. The jury idea has already been talked about outside of the court arena.
  • If we spent $25,000 on building a city club (like in Portland, Tacoma or Eugene) that would go a lot further in building democracy here than bringing in high priced talent for a “forum.” Or maybe a something a little more active, like an English Civil Society group.
  • King County just approved a plan to bring together small discussion groups that will report back to the county auditor and then the county council. This system will cost about $130,000

a year for a county of over 1.5 million people. I wonder what we could get for $25,000 is a city of just over $40,000. There is even a bill that has been introduced for this on the state level.

Jason Hearn is a…

September 19, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Good guy apparently:

Hearn is a good fit for council

Jason Hearn is good for Lacey.

Unlike our neighboring city councils, we in Lacey are blessed with men and women who are making righteous decisions for us every day.

Running for the vacant seat on our city council, Hearn will complement and enhance the family values that our city council already espouses.

Hearn is a good man with a wonderful wife and three young children.

His slogan says it all: “It’s all about Lacey.” He’s got my vote!

Dick Sittler, Lacey

The letter itself doesn’t say anything specific. Lacey is great, Olympia and Tumwater not so great. Hearn would fit in with Lacey, but no specific reason why.

What is specific is the language that Sittler used: blessed… righteous decisions… enhance the family values…

So, Sittler is saying that Hearn is a Christian and that his opponent Russ Olson isn’t. Well, if that’s how they’re choosing city councilmen in Lacey, I don’t know what else to say.

March 24, 2003 / / 0 Comments

Only in Olympia could Jeanette Hawkins be seen as a conservative, even akin to Kevin O’Sullivan.

Oh, poor Olympia. So many of us really don’t know what the hell is going on, reality from perception and what a real liberal is. For one thing, Jeanette Hawkins is not a conservative, not even in a conservative Democrat sort of way. She is liberal. Maybe not as liberal Ralph Nader, but liberal none the less. Only in Olympia, where your middle is left and the right wing is seen as facist, could Jeanette ever be seen as a righty.

She’s not even Kevin O, who fought for four years as a county commissioner, as several more as county assesor, trying to be the best Scoop Jackson Democrat he could be. Eventually, he got kicked out of the party and joined his rightful clan in Lewis County.

Now adays, I assume the greatest insult you can give a fellow lefty if you don’t think they’re cool enough is “your just like Kevin O’Sullivan, an evil GOPer in Demo’s clothing.”

Oooooh, aaaah, remember though, Jeanette’s got the best anti-Kevin creds of any of us: she called out O’Sullivan hard during those heady days of shoreline rules protests.

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