Great story from the Olympian’s Matt Batcheldor recently, in which he details what council members seem to be doing on their computers during meetings: secretly working out how to vote and mocking a member of the public who showed up to testify.
The paper got the council’s email records for half a dozen meetings over several months. Among the exchanges:
During the Oct. 14 meeting, in an e-mail to (councilman Craig) Ottavelli, (councilman Jeff) Kingsbury made a derisive comment about Gerald Reilly, a member of a citizen’s group that wants to turn much of the area between Capitol Lake and Budd Inlet into a park.
“Jerry Reilly can’t even look anyone in the eye. Coward,” Kingsbury wrote.
Asked about that, Kingsbury told the paper that Reilly was a friend and he wouldn’t comment on the e-mail.
The Olympia council also felt the love from the Tacoma News-Tribune, which editorialized:
We may be interlopers from outside Olympia, but the idea that a council could have what amounts to a secret meeting under the cover of an ostensibly legal and public one should be troubling to anyone concerned with ensuring that public business is done in public.
A new lawsuit was filed Tuesday by child care providers, asking a court to force the governor to ask lawmakers for more money for the workers.
It’s the third such suit involving a proposed union contract. After negotiating agreements covering thousands of state-paid workers last summer and fall, Gregoire’s budget director said last month that the deals were not feasible in the face of the state’s budget shortfall. Gregoire didn’t include the proposals – including millions of dollars in cost-of-living increases, more training, and additional benefits – in the budget she proposed to lawmakers Dec. 18.
Service Employees International Union Local 925 filed the suit Tuesday with the superior court in Olympia.
A second local of the same union, SEIU Healthcare 775NW, has filed a similar suit. At stake are raises of 22 cents to 25 cents over the next two years for 23,000 home care workers. The health aides, who earn less than $11 an hour, are paid by the state to help senior citizens and the disabled.
The home care workers’ contract included nearly $27 million in raises, health benefits and training, none of which Gregoire included in her budget suggestion.
Gregoire says the workers deserve the raise, but that the state – wrestling with an unprecedented $6 billion budget shortfall over the next two years – can’t afford it.
Also suing Gregoire over raises and contracts is the Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents about 40,000 workers.
The state is deploying up to 200 soldiers and airmen to Spokane to help remove snow from school roofs and other structures, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s office said a few minutes ago.
State officials (see the full press release below) are particularly worried about “a warm, moist Pacific air mass” bringing “significant precipitation” to western Washington over the next day and a half.
“Spokane can also expect to see warm and moist subtropical air, causing rain and melting snow,” reads the statement from Gregoire’s office.
So yes, the dreaded “rain on snow” phenomenon, better known as “flooding.”
From the statement:
Significant hazards will be created by the warm rain, including risks of flooding, landslides, avalanches and potential roof collapses caused by snow and rain accumulation on roofs.
The avalanche threats will be greatest in the next 24 hours. Snow levels are expected to rise to 5000-8000 feet, causing extreme avalanche danger for the Olympics and Cascades. The risk of landslides also will be greatest on Wednesday. The rain will then cause a flood threat for nearly all Western Washington rivers and streams beginning Wednesday and peaking on Thursday.
Flood impacts may include the need to close US-12 at Randle and I-5 in Lewis County.
Full text below.
Continue reading National Guard to help out in Spokane, worries about rain on the way… »
Got a KB Toys gift card? Spend it ASAP.
The state attorney general’s office is warning anyone who got a gift card for KB Toys to use it immediately. The chain’s lawyer has told the AG’s office that the company is closing its stores and won’t accept the cards or store credit after Sunday.
Here’s the bad news for Spokane readers: the gift cards can’t be used at KBToys.com, the chain’s online arm, which is a separate business. And the chain only has three stores in Washington: North Bend, Centralia and Vancouver. The only one in Idaho is in Boise.
Under Washington’s gift card law, gift certificates and gift cards sold by retailers usually never expire and cannot include fees that quickly eat away the value of unused cards. (This protection doesn’t cover Visa and MasterCard gift cards.) According to the AG’s office, however, when a company files for bankruptcy, it’s up to a judge to decide which of a corporation’s financial obligations are honored.
Gov. Chris Gregoire had dinner with troops at Camp Prosperity, in Baghdad’s Green Zone.
Thanks for reader Patrick McDonald, a deployed Army reservist from Washington, for sending the photo.
From the governor’s office this a.m.:
Gov. Chris Gregoire this week met with Washington Army National Guard troops in Iraq. The governor is visiting Iraq with a delegation including Governors John Corzine (D-NJ) and Rick Perry (R-TX).
“In August, I had the honor of participating in the farewell ceremony for the Washington Army National Guard troops in Yakima as they left to serve Operation Iraqi Freedom. I promised I would visit them and it is with great humility that I acknowledge their critical service for our state and our country,” Gregoire said. “These servicemen and -women show the utmost courage and strength as they face unimaginable circumstances each day. On behalf of all Washingtonians, I thank the troops, as well as their families at home, for their great sacrifice.”
While in Iraq, Gregoire and the delegation met with service members from Washington state and around the United States, senior military and public officials. Prior to leaving, the delegation met with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates. Secretary Gates thanked them for their continued support of the troops and making this important visit a priority.
Approximately 2,500 members of the Washington National Guard are currently serving in locations around the world. Of that number, about 2,400 are members of the 81st Brigade serving in Iraq. The Brigade’s focus in Iraq is convoy security and force protection operations. The 81st also served in Iraq from March 2004 to March 2005.
“We come away with a better understanding of the incredible circumstances the troops face each day and how we can better support the troops and their families while they are abroad,” Gregoire added.
Gregoire reminds all Washingtonians that these citizen soldiers are our friends, neighbors and co-workers, and deserve our utmost support.
Later this week the governor’s video message to the troops will be available for viewing on www.TroopTube.tv and www.governor.wa.gov
UPDATE:
Gregoire’s office didn’t have specifics of where she’s visited so far, although the governor was expected to provide details later this morning.
“She’s in Iraq, that’s all I know,” said spokesman Pearse Edwards.
In Washington, D.C. before the trip, Gregoire met with Pentagon officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gregoire arrives back in Washington Thursday night, Edwards said.
Washington state covered Gregoire’s travel costs to Washington, D.C., Edwards said.
“The Pentagon paid for all other costs,” he said.
Also: It turns out that The Olympian’s Adam Wilson wins the pool.
Good grief. The search for out-of-state-but-no-one’s-saying-where Gov. Chris Gregoire continues, with thinly sourced reports saying that she’s not quitting Olympia for a D.C. job and lots of speculation about an announcement planned by Gregoire’s office tomorrow morning.
Kudos to the Bellingham Herald’s Jared Paben, who actually located a guy who says he was a passenger on the same plane as Gregoire — a plane headed for D.C.! — but that the governor didn’t happen to mention what she was doing there.
The Olympian’s Adam Wilson notes that the last time this happened to him, the governor (Idaho’s Dirk Kempthorne, in that case), turned up in Iraq, visiting troops.
At this point, the governor’s mostly-mum press office has (inadvertently?) raised expectations very high indeed for whatever tomorrow’s announcement will be. I just hope it won’t be about the Department of Revenue’s audit.
Homeowners unhappy with property taxes have filed a second citizen’s intiative Monday, trying to virtually freeze tax valuations.
Linda Courtney Cox of Chelan and Kenneth Sinibaldi, a doctor from Lopez Island, filed a measure today on behalf of Washington Voters for Fair Property Tax.
For property bought in 2004 and earlier, their plan would freeze the taxable value at 2005 levels. For newer purchases, the value would be the purchase price plus any renovations. Taxable values could rise only 1 percent a year unless the property’s sold, at which point the value would be the actual sale price.
Washington’s property tax “is driving people out of their homes,” Cox said in a phone interview. Under their plan, she said, people staying in their home would have a predictable, fair tax.
“You’re not taxed based on what your neighbor bought his home for,” she said. “You’re taxed on what you agreed to pay and what you felt you could afford.”
Getting any measure on the ballot this year will not be easy. Proponents need to come up with more than 241,000 voter signatures by July.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who was supposed to be giving a pre-session talk to capitol reporters in Olympia tomorrow, is somewhere, but not here. She’s cancelled, and is out of state. Her office won’t say where.
This, coming on the heels of Gregoire friend Bill Richardson bowing out of his new gig as Secretary of Commerce, has prompted some interesting speculation about whether Gregoire might be in the other Washington auditioning for a role in the Obama administration.
Fueling the speculation: the fact that Gregoire’s office, which tends to hold its announcements at the capitol-press-friendly times of 10 a.m. or so, plans a major announcement tomorrow at 8 a.m. or earlier. (Hello, D.C….)
The Stranger’s been working overtime on this today. (And here.) But despite its not-safe-for-work ruminations about what type of governor we’d have if Lt. Gov. Brad Owen ascended to the job — “less qualified to be lieutenant governor than an empty bag of chips…a one-eyed dog, and a man without a website” — it sounds like Gregoire’s not going to be moving out of the governor’s mansion anytime soon.
Stay tuned.
Update: In an effort to flush the governor out, The Stranger has started a Where’s-Waldo online poll about where the state’s executive is. Currently leading the voting: “Brokering truce in Seattle hiphop wars from undisclosed location.”
Undeterred by voters’ rejection of his last ballot measure at the polls in November, initiative pitchman Tim Eyman — baby in hand — today filed his “Lower Property Taxes Initiative” for this year.
The measure caps the total revenue from taxes and fees at this year’s level, plus the rate of inflation each year. Any “excess revenues,” say from a future surge in real estate taxes or booming economy, would go into a fund to reduce property taxes the following year. As with Eyman’s earlier property-tax initiative, I-747, voters could override the cap.
“We believe a majority of citizens are going to find it reasonable that governments continue to grow, but that they grow at a rate that we can afford,” Eyman told reporters at the Secretary of State’s office this morning. “When you have 6,7,8 percent increases in our tax burden every year, that compounds every year and it gets exponential to the point that we can’t afford it anymore.”
“Government isn’t getting smaller,” he said. “Even with the initiatives that we’ve passed, government has never gotten smaller. All that we’ve really managed to do is slow down the rate of growth of government.”
The formula in Eyman’s measure, however, doesn’t seem to take into account population growth or other changes, like tough-on-crime laws keeping more people to prison at nearly $30k a year each. (Eyman’s response: that voters can always vote for more if government makes a good case for it.)
Eyman said he expects to start circulating petiitions by February. He and his signature-gatherers will need to collect about 300,000 signatures by July in order to get the measure on the November ballot.
State Rep. Bill Grant, who had been quietly battling lung cancer, has died.
He was 71.
Grant, D-Walla Walla, was a rare Eastern Washington Democrat in the statehouse, and late into the night, his raspy voice would call House Democrats into caucus meetings.
“Bill was one of a kind,” House Speaker Frank Chopp said in a statement sent out a few minutes ago. “He was a man of the land, and he brought his farmer’s values of community, hard work and perseverance to the House of Representatives, where he served for 22 years…I was proud to call Bill my colleague and grateful to call him my friend. He will be deeply missed.”
If you just have to have that novelty cigarette lighter shaped like a rubber ducky, grenade or a certain part of human anatomy, you’d better buy soon.
Washington’s legislative session won’t begin until Jan. 12th, but lawmakers already filed a long list of proposed changes in state law.
Among them: Banning novelty lighters, limiting property taxes, making drivers prove they’re not illegal immigrants, and building a fifth state war memorial to honor casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq.
With the state facing a nearly $6 billion budget shortfall, leaders have been urging restraint in the number of bills lawmakers try to pass this year.
The message in a nutshell: “If it costs money, be very careful,” said Melinda McCrady, a spokeswoman for House Democrats.
Still, lawmakers have “pre-filed” more than 100 bills so far, with hundreds more on the way.
Among the proposals so far:
-Novelty lighters: Prompted by calls from fire officials across the country, lawmakers in multiple states want to ban cigarette lighters that don’t look like cigarette lighters. Manufacturers churn out lighters that look like bullets, poker chips, cows, Santa, a toilet and, in at least two variations, a fist-shaped lighter sporting an upraised middle finger. (One of those models speaks every time you spark it up, and you can guess what it says.)
A dozen Washington lawmakers want to ban such lighters, citing cases of children who have been burned or started fires playing with lighters that look like toys. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission says that about a billion cigarette lighters are sold each year in the United States. Nearly half are imported from China.
-Breathalyzers: Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, wants to give a small tax break to bars that install breathalyzer machines for patrons.
-Continuing a years-long effort, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, and three other lawmakers have submitted a nearly 400-page bill intended to stamp out gender bias from state law. In hundreds of places throughout the state’s law books, the bill would rewrite references like “he” to “he or she.” “Workman” would become “worker”, “patrolman” would become “patrol officer” and “white men” would become “Europeans.”
-Rep. Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, wants to require applicants for a state driver’s license or identification card to prove that they’re a U.S. citizen or here legally.
-Property taxes: There are several competing proposals for reducing the bite of property taxes. One would require annual assessments, so homeowners aren’t stunned by massive increases every few years. Others would gradually eliminate the state’s share of the property tax or limit increases in assessed value.
-As others have written already, Rep. Armstrong also wants the state to declare Applets and Cotlets candy to be “the official candy of the state of Washington.” Expect resistance from Tacoma natives, who several years ago fought an unsuccessful battle to win the same honor for their local Almond Roca. And Armstrong’s proposal has already drawn fire from the local newspaper in Chehalis, which argues that the local Chehalis Mints – flavored with Eastern Washington mint oil — “would represent the entire state.”
Lots of meetings, apparently. Sixteen times a day.
Here’s the daily to-do list for Jan. 21st, posted by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown on her blog:
9:00 a.m. Meet with Sen. Jim Kastama and Rep. Hans Dunshee to discuss their scholarship bill
9:30 a.m. Meet with Sen. Mike Hewitt to discuss bond bills and homeless bill
10:00 a.m. Meet with Public School Employees from the 3rd District
10:15 a.m. Meet with Tony Lee, Pam Crone and Kim Justice to discuss the removal of asset limits in public benefit programs
10:45 a.m. Meet with the Washington Student Lobby
11:00 a.m. Meet with Marilyn Watkins of the Family Leave Coalition
11:15 a.m. Meet with the Planned Parenthood Teen Lobby
11:45 a.m. MLK Day Summit and March on Capitol
12:00 p.m. SEIU lobby day lunch
1:00 p.m. Meet with Cathy Mann of Voices and members from Spokane to discuss affordable housing, children and family services issues
1:45 p.m. Meet with Joe Dear and Liz Medizabal of the state Investment Board about legislation to recruit and retain state investment officers
2:00 p.m. Meet with Local 1199 members from the 3rd District
2:15 p.m. Meet with Local 925 members from the 3rd District
2:30 p.m. Meet with staff to discuss next week’s schedule
3:00 p.m. Washington Education Association weekly meeting
3:30 p.m. Meet with Mitch Friedman of Conservation Northwest
4:30 p.m. Meet with Gov. Gregoire
5:00 p.m. Storm Event Work Group meeting to review budget and policy proposals relations to storm damage response, recovery and restoration
Trying to get a weekend story done, so I’ll let others do the talking:
-Joe Turner, on why big tuition hikes at Washington’s state colleges may be in the works,
-Rich Nafziger, on why that would be a bad, bad idea,
-Jim Camden, on how Peter Goldmark is the first Eastern Washingtonian to win statewide office in “…well, a really long time,”
-Jim Camden again, on the looming applets and cotlets battle in Olympia,
-Brad Shannon, on lawmakers who’ve battled cancer,
and, last but not least, Randy Stapilus, declaring that the most influential Washingtonian of 2008 was…Dino Rossi. (Hat tip to Adam Wilson.)
It will be a happier new year, at least for some Washington workers.
Tomorrow, Washington’s minimum wage will rise to $8.55 an hour from $8.07, a full $2 an hour higher than in neighboring Idaho.
“Washington’s is still the highest, followed by Oregon, California and Massachusetts,” said Elaine Fischer, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industries.
In Idaho, the minimum wage is the federal $6.55 an hour. That’s slated to rise to $7.25 in July.
Some Washington employers aren’t happy about the 48-cent-an-hour increase. The state’s restaurant association would prefer a lower training wage for 16-year-old workers, or a cap on minimum-wage increases during bad economic times.
“We want to pay fair wages, but we’re facing an industry crisis here,” said spokeswoman Camille St. Onge. Gov. Chris Gregoire and her supporters hammered Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi earlier this year for saying he would support a lower minimum wage for young employees.
Higher wages, St. Onge said, will put a greater squeeze on restaurants already struggling with thin profit margins as worried consumers eat out less. Consumers will likely see higher menu prices, she said.
Washington voters have repeatedly approved a higher state minimum wage, most recently with Initiative 688 in 1998. At the time, the state’s minimum wage was $4.90 an hour.
I-688 passed overwhelmingly, 66 percent to 34 percent. It linked the wage to the federal consumer price index for urban and clerical workers. The index is meant to measure the cost of goods and services needed for day-to-day living, Fischer said. The industries with the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers are food services, retail and agriculture.
Last year, Washington’s minimum wage rose 14 cents, or less than 2 percent. This year’s 48-cent increase is nearly 6 percent.
“As a 63-year-old, that sounds like a lot of money,” said Richard Reed, a retired flooring installer in Chattaroy. “But I know that the disparity between those at the bottom of the income ladder and those at the top has only gotten greater over the years in this country. So in that light, I think that they need it and deserve it.”
In Spokane, advocates for low-income workers are trying to set a local “living wage” for employees of large retailers in the city. The wage would be 130 percent of the state minimum wage, which would work out to about $11.12 an hour in January.
“We’re trying to do a little bit to end the cycle of poverty here,” said Shane Russell, with Spokane’s Peace and Justice Action League. Big-box retailers can afford to pay more, he said, and the impact on consumers would likely be small.
Proponents tried in 2007 to submit enough signatures to put the living-wage plan on a city ballot, but didn’t have enough valid signatures. They’ll try again in 2009, Russell said.
Rep. Steve Hailey, R-Mesa, died Sunday, about a year after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. He would have turned 64 next month.
A farmer and rancher from the Franklin County town of Mesa, Hailey was elected on his second try in 2006, narrowly beating fellow Republican Joe Schmick in the Republican primary. (Schmick, R-Colfax was subsequently appointed to fill a vacant legislative seat, and both men recently won re-election.)
Hailey represented the 9th district, a sprawling triangle that encompasses the Palouse and much of southeastern Washington. The former Vietnam War helicopter pilot made public the cancer diagnosis last January, then went back to his ranch to try to keep working on legislative tasks in between chemotherapy doses.
“This is one of the toughest challenges of my life, but I feel strongly that I have an obligation to be candid about what I’m dealing with and what’s ahead,” Hailey said at the time. He vowed to battle through the disease.
Last spring, he sounded upbeat and energetic, optimistic that the chemotherapy had worked. He was working on the ranch again. He ran for re-election, winning easily. Then, a few weeks after the election, Hailey announced that he’d be resigning Jan. 11th, a day before the legislative session starts. He no longer had the strength, he said at the time, to keep up with a state lawmaker’s workload.
“When Steve announced his resignation earlier this month, we knew it was time for him to focus on his family and his battle against cancer,” said House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt.
Funeral services are slated for 2 p.m. Saturday in Connell, at the Connell Community Center. Republican party officials from the district’s half-dozen counties will nominate appointees for the seat, with the county commissioners making the final decision.
In lieu of flowers, people can make contributions in Hailey’s name to the Tri-Cities Cancer Center Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and the Washington Cattlemen’s Association Endowmen Trust Fund.
Gov. Chris Gregoire has declared a state of emergency in Washington due to winter storms.
“Snowfall has reached record or near-record level in 30 of the state’s 39 counties,” Gregoire said in a written statement released Christmas Eve.” With Eastern Washington and other parts of the state still expecting more snow, she said, the proclamation allows the state to respond quickly to local requests for help.
The emergency proclamation covers the cities of Spokane, Spokane Valley and Gig Harbor, as well as the Makah Tribe and King-, Pierce-, Snohomish- and Thurston counties.
Among the things affected: the proclamation temporarily lifts limits on truckers’ hours for hauling milk from dairies. The dairy industry otherwise would have lost nearly $1 million a day from milk that would have been discarded because it was hauled longer than the normal rules allow.
Gregoire’s move also allows her to call out the Washington National Guard to help with storm response, she said.
Continue reading Governor, citing winter storms, declares state of emergency… »
Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, a festive Festivus, wonderful Winter Solstice, etc. to all of us.
And may it be a happy new year.
From tomorrow’s paper:
Citing the state’s budget woes, prison officials want to close Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women, Washington’s only women’s prison east of the Cascade Mountains.
As early as next summer, the state would start transferring roughly 350 inmates to a prison near Vancouver. About 140 workers would have to shift to jobs elsewhere or be laid off.
“It was pretty clear that based on the fiscal constraints we’re going to be facing, that we need to close a facility,” said Dick Morgan, director of the state Department of Corrections’ prisons division.
Pine Lodge, located in Medical Lake, includes some aging buildings that need costly renovations, he said, “so it became the most likely candidate.”
The state would save about $14 million over the next two years, he said.
Although state lawmakers will have the final say, Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed billions of dollars in reduced spending over the next two years, forcing state agencies to find ways to wring that money from their budgets.
Pine Lodge superintendent Walker Morton said he’s urging staff at the minimum custody prison to try not to worry, that it’s just a proposal. If the prison closes, he said, he’s been told it wouldn’t take place until February of 2010.
“We just have to keep our eyes and ears open until the legislators do their thing,” he said.
Morton met with the prison’s inmates Tuesday and told them the news. Most were understanding, he said.
Closing Pine Lodge is only one facet of Gregoire’s proposed $125 million in savings at the Department of Corrections. And the agency isn’t alone; the Department of Social and Health Services is trying to figure out how to cut spending by nearly $1.3 billion; the Department of Health by $75 million.
Morgan said prison officials would be happy to consider money-saving alternatives to closing Pine Lodge. But the state is facing 1,000 fewer inmates than expected, Morgan said, and in the face of a massive budget shortfall, its hard to justify keeping all the prisons open.
News of the proposal, which initially trickled out in phone calls and emails, stunned workers.
“Some people can’t believe this,”said Dawnel Southwick, a secretary supervisor at the prison for the past 9 years. “This facility is not the run-down, broken-down, not-going-to-survive-until-next-week facility that they’re making it out to be.”
“These are good, family-wage jobs,” said Matthew Pederson, executive director of the West Plains chamber of commerce.
The state has two prisons with female inmates in Western Washington. The Washington State Corrections Center for Women is near Gig Harbor, and Mission Creek is near Shelton.
“I’ve never heard of them closing a prison,” said Marye Jorgenson, who works in Pine Lodge’s records department. “You keep up hope that if people fight hard and long enough, we can hang on, hopefully through this recession.”
The Washington Federation of State Employees, which represents most of the workers, said that the state should instead be looking at ways to bring more money into the state treasury.
“I don’t think we can cut our way out of this huge deficit,” said union spokesman Tim Welch. One obvious place to look, he said, are the “huge tax loopholes” for businesses.
For inmates from Eastern Washington, the transfer to Larch Corrections Center would mean being hundreds of miles away from loved ones.
“It’s going to devastate families, and most women in prison have children,” said Nora Callahan, executive director of the November Coalition, a sentencing-reform group based in Colville. “If you move them to where you can’t see them in a day and get home, most people won’t be able to afford to visit.”
Morgan concedes that the move could be tough on Eastern Washington families. But he said most inmates – like most Washingtonians – are from the western side of the state.
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