The Snohomish City Council just adopted guidelines to “rein in” council members who make inappropriate comments during council meetings. Those would be comments that are not consistent with the majority point of view.
The guidelines discourage council members from making personal or disruptive comments. The guidelines were developed and adopted to “force” councilmember Swede Johnson to act more civilly toward his council colleagues.
It is probably true that Johnson lost patience with his council mates and blew his cool on a couple occasions. But when you are dealing with inexperienced novices; that is understandable. I think Swede could have crafted more civil language that conveyed the same point, but he got caught up in the moment. Sometimes acting outrageously is the only outlet when dealing with folks who are closed to outside ideas.
It seems that since council member Johnson is the only member of the body with the experience and knowledge to recognize bad government when he sees it and then point it out in a public meeting, he is being “put in his place” by Hamlin and his posse.
Swede Johnson has more experience in government than Hamlin and the majority of the council combined. His knowledge about how government works and the substance of our local government makes him uniquely qualified to offer insights his council colleagues have not even imagined. Most of the majority have made up their minds that they don’t really care what Johnson has to contribute so they take positions opposite his without really considering the content of his comments. The arrogance of the majority emboldens them to push forward with their agenda, hoping that the public will never know about their errors in judgment.
It really annoys them when Johnson asks questions that are embarrassing to council members or staff when they cannot be answered. It doesn’t seem to bother most of them that the staff managers are not prepared to answer more than most basic questions. Council members are elected to ask the tough questions. It is their job to protect the interests of the citizens by making certain the issues are thoroughly discussed and possible outcomes have been assessed.
I would hope that every council member comes to every meeting prepared to hold the feet of staff to the fire. Responsible council members do their home work and look deeper than the cover sheet on agenda bills. They take the time to know the material and are prepared to take the staff to task if the material is not complete enough to make a good decision. It is clear that some council members take their responsibility more seriously than others.
I don’t live in the historic district so the people I listen to seem to have a different spin on this effort by the council. Comments I hear suggest the average citizen views the Snohomish City council and city management to be a bad joke. And I believe the council is oblivious to it. Unfortunately, that is typical of people convinced that they are the only smart ones in the room. They are so full of themselves they are not listening to anyone else’s input.
I am not suggesting that Swede Johnson is the only one with good questions, but he has quite a few. His many years of experience would suggest he is not a crackpot. His ideas might have some merit.
On the other hand, the lack of experience and knowledge of Hamlin, Guzak, Schilaty, Clemans and Randall suggest they could use all the help they can get. But they don’t like the tone of his input.
Bad decisions by city councils are often not detected until significant time passes. Some are evident right away. Sometimes, bad decisions are as simple as not holding staff accountable for their mistakes. The current crop of rookies is confident that the city manager and his staff will prevent them from making too many bad mistakes. They think staff has their back. It is my opinion with the council we have and the staff we have the blind are leading the blind.
Over the years we have had some pretty decent department heads; finance managers, planners and engineers. That is not my view today. I cannot remember a time when I felt the city was in such jeopardy because of a lack of substance on the council and with city staff.
In difficult times, we hope we have capable leaders and managers to protect the interests of the city. At this time, I have no confidence that our city will have the ability to avoid the pitfalls and capitalize on the opportunities that might come around. Council members aren’t digging into the issues deep enough to be prepared for the tough choices that have to be made or sharp enough to recognize the difference between the two. If they are counting on staff to cover their back side, they are in deep trouble.
Swede Johnson has been a respectable member of the school board and the county council. It is only when he drops back to a city council position that his credibility is called to question. How can that be? I have known Swede Johnson for forty years and he is not the one whose credibility should be questioned.
Council members are not comfortable with Johnson’s input. The truth is often uncomfortable. Dealing with it is often painful. But, council should listen because there is substance in his comments. If nothing else, his questions and comments should serve as a “heads up” to lead them to questions of their own. Sadly, arrogance and ego won’t let them.
Respect is something you earn with your deeds. Swede Johnson has paid his dues and done the work to earn the respect of his peers and his constituents. All I see on the Snohomish City Council is a bunch of whiners who think they can demand respect with a council motion. I’m sure Swede Johnson is quaking in his boots in fear of these intellectual giants.
I am proud of Swede Johnson for having the courage to stand up for the city when it would be very easy for him to sit back and do nothing. I can assure you that based upon the actions of most council members doing nothing is the only thing they do well.
Let’s hope that a code of conduct helps them with those tough choices and good luck with that respect thing!
No Loss for Words 
“Heart Attack on State Route 9” News at Eleven
by Steve DanaSnohomish County is a fair sized county when compared to others in the state of Washington, but when you realize that almost all of the development and population exist in the twenty miles that border the water it becomes very small. The Cascade Mountains are beautiful to look at, but they present an impenetrable barrier to expansion. How we accommodate growth in the coming years will be seriously impaired by our geography.
For all intents and purposes Snohomish County is a strip of land forty miles from north to south and twenty miles (give or take) from west to east.
The reason I mention these great facts relates to transportation planning. Currently I-5 serves as our only significant north/south traffic carrying corridor. As long as all the population lives and works in the western five miles of the abbreviated county, everything is okay. As the population expansion pushes development east to the foothills it becomes essential that we provide much better east/west feeder roads and an additional north/south corridor to make sure we have a functional network of roads that does not force everyone to go to I-5 first to get anywhere else in the region.
US Highway 2 transects our county and heads east from Everett to the mountains via Snohomish, Monroe, Sultan, Gold Bar and Index. It is the only significant east/west road in the county.
Washington State Route 9 is the existing north/south road that is most likely to be the alternative to Interstate 5. SR-9 is currently being upgraded, but it will not even address existing deficiencies when funded projects are completed. We need to begin to look at SR-9 like a freeway rather than a country road.
With funding for projects scarce, it is imperative that the investments we do make are not wasted by failing to consider the bigger picture by looking at future needs at least in the engineering phase. Upgrades to SR-9 should include plans for “grade separated” intersections so that traffic does not have to stop at every crossing. Traffic signals allow access for crossing or merging traffic but bring through traffic to a halt.
The reason the interstate works as effectively as it does is because traffic doesn’t ever stop intentionally. It keeps moving like blood in our human arteries and veins; remembering that a blockage in our bodies causes heart attack or stroke. The analogy works for traffic just the same.
Transportation planners need to look at SR-9 and engineer for the future rather than the past. The mountains limit our choices for an alternative path so efforts should be focused on making commitments to the right projects that are not obsolete before they are completed.
GRADE SEPARATED INTERSTECTIONS have continuous traffic flow on the mainline and overpasses with different features to accommodate intersections.
If we don’t incorporate this thinking into our planning, we will be squandering millions and millions if not billions of taxpayer dollars.
The other component to this analysis is the incorporation of a rail line into the right of way improvements to accommodate a north/south train service. The scope of the rail service is debatable, but if we are serious about maximizing right of way efficiency a rail system should be in the mix somewhere.
The Eastside rail initiative is beginning to talk about using the existing line from King County to the Snohomish River at Harvey Field for rail traffic of some kind. We should be looking at extending the line right up SR-9 as far as Arlington for now, but on up through Skagit and Whatcom Counties as well. Having a second rail corridor to Canada might even be a good idea.
Remember the phrase of the day for Washington State DOT and Snohomish County transportation planners should be GRADE SEPARATED INTERSECTIONS for SR-9.
The bonus idea is rail service all the way to Canada along SR-9.
The cost of implementing these ideas will only go up as time passes so we better get with the program.
Posted in Political commentary, Snohomish, Snohomish County Political Commentary | 1 Comment »