The Global Affairs Center at Shoreline Community College, directed by Lawrence Fuell of Edmonds, is hosting a series of four speakers who will tell the story of their companies’ efforts to promote charity and development at home and abroad. Held on consecutive Wednesday evenings (Feb. 8, 15, 22 and 29), these events are free to the public. They run from 7-8:30 p.m., PUB 9208 Quiet Dining Room, on the Shoreline CC campus.

Wednesday, Feb. 8
Joe Whinney, Founder, Theo Chocolate
Theo Chocolate, the only producer of organic, specialty chocolate in the U.S., prides itself on using sustainably grown ingredients, and ensuring that cacao growers overseas earn a living wage.

Wednesday, Feb. 15
Jeff Martin, Chief Operating Officer for Pura Vida Create Good, and Director of the Create Good Foundation
Pura Vida Create Good sells premium Fair Trade certified coffee and uses its profits to promote water purification and public health in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Mexico.

Wednesday, Feb. 22
Akhtar Badshah, Senior Director of Global Community Affairs, Microsoft Corporation
Since 1983, Microsoft and its employees have provided over $4.6 billion in cash, services and software to nonprofits around the world through localized giving and volunteer campaigns.

Elizabeth J. Warman, Director, Global Corporate Citizenship – NW Region, Boeing Co.
Worldwide the Boeing Company and its employees gave $147.3 million in 2011 to help improve people’s lives and communities.  More than $15 million of that went to communities in the Pacific Northwest to support education, health and human services, arts and culture, and the environment.

For more information regarding these programs, visit the Global Affairs Center website.

Shoreline Community College is located at 16101 Greenwood Ave. N., west of Aurora Avenue.  For directions to the campus as well as a map of the campus, go to http://new.shoreline.edu/maps.

The second day of the  Edmonds City Council retreat Friday featured a presentation on responsibilities and communication between councilmembers. A team of former councilmembers from another city gave several examples of both positive and negative decision and communication scenarios.

On the decision front, it was pointed out that councilmembers should not feel pressured to make quick decisions until they have been presented all the facts and consider all the possibilities. They need to be careful to not to make snap judgments when presented with emotional appeals. Thorough research is always the preferred course of action.

One of the major concerns expressed by the council is how can they appropriately discuss issues as a large group without dragging out council meetings with excessive detail. The difficulty is that the only chance they have to meet outside of their regular council meetings is during committee meeting night and sometimes it would be better to have a larger group together than can be allowed during those meetings. A larger meeting creates potential for violation of the Public Meetings Act, if they make decisions at of the meeting without informing the public of such a meeting.

A compromise was proposed that regular council meetings will now be held on the first and third Tuesday of the month. The second Tuesday will remain Committee meeting night as in the past, but with the possibility of convening a “workgroup” session of the entire council if the need arose. But decisions would not be made unless an emergency came up.

The fourth meeting of each month then would be a workgroup session — a non-decision-making meeting but with the opportunity f0r the entire council to investigate issues without presentations being made before multiple committees if the issue involved, say, both finance and public safety or other multi-committee issues. Again, decisions would be  wake up delayed until the next regular council meeting unless there was an emergency.

The problem is to not let these workgroup sessions become decision-making sessions without giving the ublic proper notice. It requires a lot of self-restraint by Council members.

Another issue raised was the possibility of starting meetings at 6 p.m. rather than 7 p.m. so the meetings don’t go so late. This is, of course, offset by added difficulty for the public and participants to get there by 6 p.m. No decision was made, but be aware that the issue is being discussed.

After a quick break for lunch, the council heard a presentation from the 
Edmonds Center for the Arts. The presentation covered the history of the building, the history of its transformation into the ECA, a report on current operations and, finally, of the financial obstacles facing the organization. While the presentation was interesting, no one on the Council asked any hard questions or pushed for solutions on the economic perils. Perhaps those ideas are to come later.

The most heated presentation of the day followed with a discussion of the  17-member Economic Development Commission. There is strong disagreement on what the purpose of the EDC is. Councilmembers Plunkett and Buckshnis want to
limit the commission’s focus to those things that spur a growing economy and  don’t want to hear any suggestion that would involve new taxes or fees on existing residences or businesses. Others wanted to EDC to have the freedom to look at any issue that they feel is beneficial to the financial health of the city. Newly-elected councilmember Joan Bloom asked what the issue was, what had the EDC proposed that was causing such a ruckus? No councilmember responded and Edmonds Economic Development Director Stephen Clifton pointed out that the EDC makes no decisions but can only send recommendations to the council, which still has final say.

No final agreement was made but Council President Strom Peterson said that he felt the EDC was still valuable and will propose a compromise on its mission at an upcoming council meeting.

Demetri’s Woodstone Taverna next to Brackett’s Landing is hosting its second annual Super Bowl party, starting at 2:30 p.m.  with reserved seating for $35. Demetri’s is roasting a succulent whole pig in the woodstone oven, and will also be serving wings, mac & cheese, bacon-wrapped dates, firecracker shrimp, potato skins, garlic fries, Caesar salad, flat breads, hummus & pita, pork and beef sliders, and taquitos. In addition, Demetri’s will be giving out  prizes throughout the game, including hats, T-shirts, growlers and even a snowboard. Reserve your space by calling 425–744–9999.

American Brewing Co. in the Harbor Square business complex will be serving sandwiches, snacks and beer with the game on the big screen.  Receive a raffle ticket for every pint ordered and a drawing every time the  American League football team (New England) scores.

Edmonds resident Chris Wedes (as J.P. Patches) with his wife Joan.

J.P. Patches (otherwise known as Edmonds resident Chris Wedes) has loaned his name to a new cause: supporting efforts of the Edmonds-based MS Helping Hands Donor Closet collecting new or cleaned and gently used stuffed animals to recycle/donate to various children’s organizations.

EASTER IS COMING!
The “MSHH-JP Patches Stuffed Animal Collection” is now collecting gently-used small clean or new stuffed animals to be put into Easter Baskets that will be distributed by different churches to children for Easter. Over 1,500 were collected for Easter baskets in 2011.

You can drop off your donations of new or gently-used small stuffed animals at the MSHH Donor Closet, located at 409 Howell Way behind Petosa’s Family Grocer, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

Councilmember Plunkett commented at the Jan. 23rd council meeting that he wants to do away with the volunteer Economic Development Commission. Councilmember Buckshnis hasn’t stated that she wants to abolish the ECD, but she has joined Mr. Plunkett in disparaging that valuable group.

The root cause for Plunkett’s and Buckshnis’ ECD concerns is their dislike for a proposal from that citizens’ group to invoice citizens a non-transport charge when they call 911 for EMS, and after an onsite examination EMS personnel conclude that no transport to a hospital is required. The charge will obviously be a lesser amount than for transport. There are other communities that have implemented this charge that is generally paid for by insurance companies. Charges for citizens who do not have insurance will be written off.

This non-transport charge has been deemed by the two council members to not be economic development. What is economic development? My view is that economic development is any action/activity, other than increasing taxes, that grows the city’s revenue. To suit their purposes, Mr. Plunkett and Ms. Buckshnis have defined the non-transport charge to be a tax. How ridiculous; they haven’t defined the transport fee to be a tax! I think that they should let us all know the names of their health insurance companies. Wouldn’t we all like to have health insurance companies who would pay taxes for us.

Mr. Plunkett has stated that he feels that the ECD has diluted their mission of economic development by spending their time to develop this non-transport proposal. Since the formation of the ECD in 2009, I have attended, as an observer, all but two or three of the commission’s monthly meetings. Regrettably, most council members, including Mr. Plunkett, have not attended a single meeting. Had he done so he would have known that the proposal took only a miniscule amount of the commission’s time. Virtually all of the work was done at home by commission member Darrol Haug.

So rather than criticizing the group, Mr. Plunkett and Ms. Buckshnis should be commending them for coming up with a viable source of revenue, at no cost to citizens, that no one else had conceived. I hope that at the council retreat this week city council will extend the ECD’s duration indefinitely, as is the case for other volunteer groups like the Hwy 99 Task Force and the Citizens Technical Advisory Committee. It’s reasonable to assume that there will always be a need for a focus on economic development.

Ron Wambolt
Edmonds

P.S. The following is another paper’s published response from Councilmember Plunkett: “I’ll leave it to Ron Wambolt to explain to the people of Edmonds as to why he wants to tax their 911 emergency phone calls. And I’ll focus on stopping Ron Wambolt or any one else from taxing 911 emergency phone calls.”

The EDC’s proposed charge is clearly only defined as a tax in Mr. Plunkett’s exclusive dictionary. His response immediately above is no more than a filibuster tactic.

Jan. 26
COLLISION:  At 5:44 p.m., a three-car collision was reported in the 13400 block of Highway 99 north of Lynnwood. Firefighters transported one patient to Swedish/Mill Creek Emergency Room.

COLLISION:  At 7:04 p.m., a car drove into a ditch at Alder Way and Ash Way north of Lynnwood. The driver suffered minor injuries and was transported by firefighters to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.

COLLISION:  At 8:27 p.m., a car struck a motorcyclist at Larch Way and Popular Way north of Brier. The injured motorcyclist was transported by firefighters to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.

COLLISION:  At 3:48 p.m., two cars collided at 164th Street SW and 36th Avenue W north of Lynnwood. Firefighters transported one patient to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.

Jan. 29
COLLISION:  At 2:17 p.m., a three-car collision was reported at 156th Street SW and Highway 99 north of Lynnwood.  One person received minor injuries and was taken by firefighters to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.

Jan. 30
COLLISION:  At 3:39 p.m., a high-impact, rear-end collision was reported in the 21300 block of Highway 99 in Edmonds. One person was seriously injured and was transported by medics to Harborview Medical Center.

COLLISION:  At 5:10 p.m., firefighters responded to a three-car collision on southbound I-5 north of I-405. Four patients were transported to hospitals: three to Harborview Medical Center and one to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.

Jan. 31
COLLISION:  At 10:23 p.m., a car crashed into a convenience store and struck several other vehicles in the parking lot in the 3600 block of 148th Street SW north of Lynnwood. Firefighters transported one patient to Swedish/Edmonds Hospital.

The Edmonds City Council had day one of their two-day retreat today at the Brackett Room of City Hall. The retreat is meant to be an opportunity to discuss the larger-picture issues and help set direction for the Council’s actions for the coming year.

The session started with a discussion of whether to take actual minutes of executive sessions rather than just notes as is the current practice. City Attorney Jeff Taraday mentioned that one of the purposes of executive sessions was to keep private council members’ discussions on particular issues. He read the Revised Code of Washington where those reasons are outlined, primarily for addressing employee performance or relations issues or items where public disclosure of negotiations on contracts, real estate transactions or similar items might compromise the City’s negotiating position.

Taraday stated that taking actual minutes would require some public exposure, as they would require approval at an open meeting and there is also no guarantee that a court would hold such minutes to be exempt from public disclosure requests. He stated that many cities are now keeping no record of executive sessions to avoid such issues.

That, however, brings up the problem of how to keep track of what is decided in executive sessions. There were various perspectives put forward on what to do on the issue. Councilmember Joan Bloom made the point that ultimately the “right thing to do” was to release minutes or notes of what goes on in executive session, with the exception of perhaps personnel issues. There may be a need to delay disclosure; for example, when discussions involved negotiations or legal issues, then the right time would be after the negotiation or legal issue was resolved. But, at the appropriate time, all should be disclosed to the citizens, Bloom said.

Others thought not having things on the record was best for protecting the city from disgruntled litigation based upon executive session discussions. They treaded very lightly on the notion that these items be “non-disclosed” versus “secret.”

The ultimate decision was to try and work out the issues and make a decision on what to do some time during the first half of 2012.

Next, the council received a presentation on “Budgeting For Outcomes” for future financial budgets. The City of Redmond’s Finance Director was supposed to make the presentation but illness forced him to miss the meeting. On quick notice, Edmonds Finance Director Sean Hunstock picked up the ball and laid out the concept for the council. Basically, the concept is a variation of zero-based budgeting — rather than basing this year’s budget on last year’s actuals plus adjustments, each new budget starts from scratch based on what we need to provide to the citizens of Edmonds and how we most efficiently provide those things.

This system requires prioritizing government services and the getting proposals from the various departments, or groups of departments, on how best provide those services. Then you approve the services down the list of priorities until you use up all the available money.

The point is that special interests are not served to the exclusion of the overall priorities of the city. The hard part, of course, is determining the priorities in the first place and the developing a system to get the proposals to meet the priorities, then making the decisions.

This is not a process that a city can convert to overnight, but those cities that use the system feel it really allows them to better allocate resource to fit the needs of their constituents.

There will be more presentations and discussions on this topic in the future, and input from the public will be key in both deciding if this is a good system and if it is, developing the priorities.

Each of the various city departments then made presentations on their plans for the year, their challenges and their expected accomplishments. The presentations give the councilmembers a good look at how the departments are implementing their 2012 plans.

The final part of day one was a discussion of the city’s code and areas that need updating.

Day two of the retreat will start at 10 a.m. Friday, again in the Brackett Room. The public is invited to attend. The agenda includes:

1.            Discussion of the responsibilities of each in a Mayor/Council form of government

2.            Discussions of the Roles and Responsibilities of Council Committees

3.            Presentation on the Center for the Arts

4.            Discussion on the Role of the Economic Development Commission

5.            Introduction to Support 7 Citizen Volunteer Emergency Response

One of Gary Haakenson's photos that will be on display.

Starting Friday, Feb. 3, former Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson will be showing his 2012 photos at Ombu Salon and Spa, 550 Main St., downtown Edmonds.

Ten percent of all sales will go to the Edmonds Food Bank.

Tom Dockins captured Thursday's glorious sunset over the Olympic Mountains, taken from the Edmonds fishing pier.

This is a unique opportunity for students to spend 15 days (approximate dates are July 23 – Aug. 6) staying with a family in Edmonds’ sister city Hekinan, with day trips to visit local sites and trips to Nagoya and Kyoto.

Deadline to apply is Feb. 28; pick up a packet at 700 Main Street or call 425-771-0231.