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The Crumpacker motion
“I move that the city council instruct the mayor to prepare and present to the council a balanced 2010 budget that takes into account the discussions and input we have had tonight and eliminates the anticipated $1.3 million deficit by a combination of department budget cuts and personnel reductions, including the lay-off of the Library staff, employees at the Interpretive Center and other changes he sees as appropriate, including the possibility of an EMS utility.”
Passed, 5-1. (Creighton against; Johnson absent.)
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on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 12:14 pm and is filed under North Coast News.
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EVERYTHING is prohibited is tee union contracts except HOLDING A COMMUNITY HOSTAGE.
Contracting out is probably prohibited in the union contracts. However, it does not hurt to ask.
With the state of Aberdeen and Hoquiam i think Ocean Shores is still the best place and to dissolve the city would be the biggest mistake we ever make.
This is a matter of costs and spending the money wisely. As a last resort before doing anything that drastic I think it is possible to contract out for some city services. This avoids the layoffs and other problems, but still it would be a last resort.
Maybe they could contract out to run the library and interpretive center. Place it on bid and see what it brings.
I know the post office contracts out carriers for rural areas and they get some low bids from people needing the work.
Hmmm. There is much to consider in Birddog’s first paragraph, but more than I have time for today. The essential I get is that the council must approve spending, so the council is saying they will approve spending according to a budget that addresses these things specified outlined in the motion–like, we’ll approve pretty-much anything you come up with as long as you demonstrate concidering everything we all now know. So, I still think the mayor has a great opportunity here and nothing is lost yet.
I want to make one more off-topic comment about being absorbed into a city, lest you all take me for a mere rebel without a cause. It is not authority I am against. Being subject to the vote of neighbors was expected.
There is another way to incorporate an area into a city, even if the majority of the property owners vote “no.” It involves working the boundries of an area and/or buying up properties until 60 percent of the land is owned by those that want to join the city (develop the property with city services). When 60 percent of the property is owned by those that want to be included in a particular city, no matter how small the percentage of owners, and they otherwise qualify, it is done. In my case it involves a township called Earlington acres, where a commercial nursery probably holds close to 60 percent of the land which shows value for an apartment development.
I accept it when my neighbors implement their property rights by deciding to change their government authority as provided by law, a law that I implicitly agreed to upon purchase. But in this case I suspect manipulation of boundries and that a whole neighborhood is being dragged along against its will.
There was a very small window of opportunity to protest or negotiate for our own re-zoning requirements, certainly not enough for neighbors to gather and discuss the situation and organize. So, I have no confidence in Renton city leadership. I see the situation as an “end run” for my utility money.
My apologies for gettting off topic. I do think this is a city wide problem though.
The city council is smart, they can either say…see all we had to do was push a little and we knew he could do it….or they can say we knew it wouldn’t work but that is the budget he proposed. Either way the blame is off them…..depending on the outcome.
How’s that for a “motion for the ocean”?
They can choose to fix it or lose it.
When I use the term “fix it” I mean “for the good of the citizens” or “the common good”, not “for the good of management”.
“The common good” sounds vagely familiar but seems to have been lost in the shuffle over the years.
Check out: Chapter 35.07 RCW Disincorporation
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=35.07
This chapter details the procedures for turning this little painful city into “just another part of grays harbor county”
Just imagine it – all these petty decisions go away immediately, no more yelling at each other, we can finally get along. No more city council, no more mayor, no more city employees, no more city.
The power hungry, self-centered, egocentric, narcissistic, elitist city fathers can now try for county positions of authority. Hey! Maybe if they get those positions, we can soon Disincorporate the county too!
All we need to do is vote.
The discussion about the motion is correctly the topic here. However, some points are wrong. The motion was broadly based. It covered the library, IC, personnel, and budget items. The council is empowered to give direction to the mayor and staff. That is their place. That is the balance of power. The mayor makes the micro decisions, but the council makes the macro ones. They also have control of the purse strings. They do have to pass a budget based upon the recommendations of the Mayor and staff.
As to Mr. Johnson, he is on the council until the end of the year. So, if one remembers a certain council that gave sweetheart deals to a certain city manager, you should still consider him a player. Do not count him out.
As to IGA. It costs more to transport things here. They have a lower volume of goods sold, and less storage space to store things. Those all contribute to higher costs. However, they do make up for most of it with good customer care and good sales. They do look for things when you ask for them. If they can get it from a supplier, they will. Also, if you bring the UPC number and description of the item, it makes it easier for them to find the item. It is a two way road.
As to annexation, they have to ask to be annexed. That means that enough people vote yes to be brought into a city. You may not like being subject to the other’s vote, but that just means that they won. We probably would have a hard time getting the outlying people to join Ocean Shores, unless we stop giving them the services they have come to expect. Free services are hard to turn down. Yes, they pay EMS when they use it, but never the overhead. They get free police and fire from us. They got their water from us until lately when they developed their own. At what cost comparison, I do not know. Soon sewer will be the issue. We will see what they do with that. Maybe if we get them to be annexed we can get their water system at their cost. I doubt Al Carter will sell it. He wants it for the remainder of the North Beach.
Last night at an annual installation dinner, I was reminded about the close connection of Mr. Crumpacker and Mr. Jim Jordon….
Hmmmmm, let your mind wander…and how somebody really wants to be mayor.
This is all supposition of course.
Conspiracy?
why even mention mr johnson? he is no longer a thorn in the side of the good people of ocean shores.
It still galls me that Mr. Johnson has chosen to go to Hawaii at this critical time for the city. His disregard for city business shows the measure of the man. If he won the election, would he have still taken this vacation? The budget needed to be balanced no matter how the vote played out in the election.
The council may excuse him, but I don’t.
I forgot to say that if he doesn’t make the shot, I like the idea of disbanning the city. If not realistic, it still amuses me.
My King County home, bordering Seattle and Renton city limits, has just been sucked (excuse the crude expression, but it exactly describes the situation–to fill a vacuum), unwillingly, into Renton. We keep voting it down, but they did it anyway (hubby votes there, I vote here). I expect costs to go up and new regulations to be imposed, as happened when my Lake Meridian home was sucked into the city of Kent. King County served me well. I know of no improvement in service with a city.
Back to the Crumpacker motion….I hope the Mayor and Council read the four pages of suggestions made by citizens with a wide spectrum of viewpoints. I will be very disappointed if the council and Mayor come back with the original determination of closing the Interpretive center and Library. If they want us to trust them, they will have to give us more than lip service. Show us respect and take our suggestions seriously. There will be another budget meeting Monday, Nov 23rd at the Convention Center at 2pm. I plan to be there, how about you?
Shop the sales at IGA and you will find prices overall very competitive if you average all purchases. They will order special items that no store carries in Aberdeen, try to get a big store to do that. I’m happy and shopping local whenever possible. If you want them there for you, I would suggest you support them. The full parking lot shows you alot of Ocean Shores people find the prices acceptable. The friendly service is another plus.
How did this get to be about the IGA? Does anyone want to talk about the motion?
I think Bob’s motion was largly out-of-order. I don’t think they can simply tell the mayor what to do and then exactly how to do it. Where’s the balance of power there?
Didn’t I hear someone say that the mayor makes the personnel decisions? I thought I specifically heard the comment at the beginning of the session that the council was merely in an advisory position in the matter of employee layoffs. Is this true?
There is nothing in the motion saying specifically that our cultural centers are to be closed outright, so shouldn’t we be sending our suggestions for other cuts to the mayor and giving him the courage to eliminate the deficit from across-the-board cuts or other suggested sources?
Call me an optimist, but I think we have no time to complain yet. The clock is still running and our mayor can still make a long shot.
I was having a problem tying IGA to the high cost of city government in these last few posts, but now I understand! It’s the high salaries of the public servants that has kept the town afloat all these years.
I agree Gary they are very nice people (I haven’t quite had the red carpet rolled out for me yet, maybe in another few years though) I just don’t think good customer service should be a trade off for lower prices. Although after seeing how much city employees make I can see their justfication
The IGA must be making a bundle of money, usually when I go by the parking lot is half full and the prices are high. it is nice though to have it to buy a few things when needed.
I’m afraid I am going to side with IGA. After shopping there over twenty years now and being frustrated almost weekly by not being able to find something, the staff makes up for it by always going overboard trying to take care of my wants. Half the time they announce over the PA that Gary’s in the store and I can not go down an aisle without one of them saying hi. If I can’t find it they will get it in for me. Hell, I’ve been waiting for the new store for 20 years, but they do the best that they can, I even have the email address of the store owner!
Thank you for furthering my point, how many older residence can’t drive out of town, IGA knows this and i’m sure they are betting on it. IGA may very well contribute, does that mean we have to shrug our shoulders and say “oh well”. I think this town has seen enough of the status quo.
How can you say that first line without laughing…..seriously.
If there any other grocery store in town do you not think that they would contribute.
But I guess it’s only fair….how can they stay competative when theres no competition.
Mr. Ray, I am one of those retirees living on a fixed income and I do not find our local grocery store prices to out of line. Yes, you might find some lower prices in Aberdeen and Hoquium, but how many of older residents want or can drive out of town once a week to shop.
How may of those out of town stores contribute and support our community? Well, our local IGA is continually contributing much to Oceqan Shores and its activites and is a major asset to our city.
Enjoy your trips out of town, I will stay in town and support our local grocery store.
do ya think? i have passed by items in iga because they were 2-3 times what i pay in town.
I wonder how many people travel outside the city to shop. I do. No way in hell could we ever afford to not go into “town” at least once a week. Even with gas money the cost of basic goods here in town is overwhelming. In a town that has a lot of retirees and people living on fixed incomes you’d think we’d have a grocery store that reflected that.
replace the library staff with students from the high school. one teacher, from the teachers lounge, to moniter and let some young ones learn a little responsibility and earn a few credits. FREE,FREE,FREE
Elimate the library staff? Might as well sell all the books too!
I’m begining to not like living in this city. I’ve lived and worked here over 16 years and crap like this keeps happenning over and over. These people have no coherent plan for the city. Every few years there’s a “throw the bums out” movement and we get a different group with their own ideas of how to fix everything. Guess what? Everything is still a mess. It was a mess 16 years ago, it’s still a mess. There is no plan. EVERY city I have ever lived in had a long term plan. People might have disagreed on how to get to the goal of the plan, no one tossed the plan unless it was totally unmanagable. Here we have different people, with different plans and no feasable way to bring it forward. So what happens? The whole city suffers.
So the latest idea, fire more people. I see, less people with less jobs will make things so much better. Yeah, cutting payroll is an easy way to balance a budget, but when you take those peoples jobs out of a small economy such as ours, it will have a negative effect on the local economy as a whole. It will have the effect of two things. First, those people will not be able to spend their money here. People not shopping here means no money staying here in Ocean Shores. Money not spent in O.S. means less local tax revenue. Second, once these newly unemployed can’t find local jobs, they will move away. Selling their houses, that’s less local property taxes and all the other associated fees that goes with owning a house here.
Cutting jobs is the last thing anyone should look at for balancing a budget. Look at everything else first. Firing people should be the last resort. If you don’t believe me, just look at the national economy. Wall Street is doing great, but people still don’t have jobs. Which do you think as had the bigger effect on the economy?
There has been cases of entire city councils and mayors being impeached! Always an option
I am so tired of all this stuff.
I think it may be time for us to de-commission this ship before it sinks completely. Let the county strip it for recycling value. After all, that seems to be the underlying goal of the council and major anyway.
When a community gives up it’s culture it dies. Our ONLY cultural amenities controlled by the city are the library and the interpretive center.
The water is flowing in fast people! Grab your lifejackets and head for the boats.
If we disband the city and just become part of the county our taxes would go way down. At least then we could appeal for support and services from grays harbor county administration. I bet some of them actually know how to read and count beyond their combined fingers and toes.
I remember the roadside signs as you were leaving seattle decades ago “Will the last person out please turn off the lights?”
if the mayor gives 10% of his salary back to the city, why can’t businesses at least raise their own taxes by 10% to match the mayor’s donation?
I agree! In every business that is going through tough times Managment has to make tough decisions. However, in the public sector it’s always the same solution raise taxes, find a new way to levy a utility tax and so on. Why not make the Mayor as the business manager make hard choices that donr include taxes!