Reply from Seth Grimes
Seth wrote this as a comment on my last post. I think it deserves it's own posting up front.
Where are the Porter S'porters? How about writing an entry?
--Gilbert
From Seth Grimes (or someone claiming to be him):
I'll respond to a few points --
1) "He must get some regular exercise, and judging from his tan, he gets it outdoors." I spent five hours standing out in the sun, handing out leaflets and talking to folks, at the Folk Festival and at the Street Festival. I spent a couple of hours out at the Farmers' Market one Sunday, and then I've spent dozens of hours canvassing door-to-door. Let me recommend all this as the way to achieve a tan and to lose a bit of weight.
2) I'm not getting my message across. "Seth's clipped descriptions of how he's going to whip the city staff into shape and change the managerial style of city hall." The second part's my message but not the first part. It's council procedures that I plan to whip into shape. I'd like to create new city policies -- I'd like to create an environment policy and a development policy to replace our current haphazard, reactive approaches -- and I'd like to improve the sloppy execution (call it policy if you wish) in our major projects. These changes will affect staff, but they will be for City Manager Barb Matthews to implement, for her to do any "whipping into shape" she sees as necessary.
The only references I've made to staff that I can think of are a) we should have hired a professional construction project manager for the Community Center and we should consider hiring a facilty/marketing manager for the CC now that it's about to open, and b) we should hire additional police officers to get our force up to full, authorized strength, possibly involving the city's human resources manager in recruiting.
But more important, 'For instance, Seth makes much of the city paying "$327,000 more than the $423,000 budgeted for legal services" for a 4 year period as an example of mismanagement and profligate spending.' No, THAT'S NOT IT AT ALL. Profligate spending isn't my point, UNCONTROLLED spending is. This overspending/underbudgeting occurred for five years running (counting last fiscal year), and Mayor Porter implicitly admits that she didn't see (or care about) the PATTERN of underbudgeting, which should have been fixed after 2-3 years of this, whether by raising the budgets or cutting spending is another discussion. In fact, I and the Sustainable Takoma folks who brought light to this problem had a positive effect: the city is now no longer using attorneys for certain administrative functions, which is saving the city money.
It's difficult to get nuance across and regardless people hear what they want, what they're predisposed to hear, and if they're predisposed to hear that someone's a "gadfly" (implying an intention to sting rather than to lend a hand), then they'll wrongly hear a message of non-contributing criticism.
Seth
posted by William L. Brown @ 11:25 PM
5 Comments:
Why do you feel the need to solicit Porter supporters? You seem to do a good job.
You bash Seth as "a bit cut-and-dry, possibly imperious and potentially ruthless." Then ignore Miss Personality's cold dismissal of people who bring serious concerns to the table in her cut-and-dry imperious manner.
Lay the comparison side by side. If you feel Seth is POTENTIALLY ruthless you should also point out Kathy IS ruthless.
I hear that from her critics, but I don't see it, particularly. Can you give examples?
--Gilbert
Watch the meetings and see how Kathy answers public with complaints. Two weeks ago a woman complained the arborist approved her neighbor's project which would damage her trees. He didn't follow city laws. The city administrator didn't help her and the permit was to be issued in two days. So she said.
Kathy's answered Barbara issues permits not the council. When the woman persisted Kathy said "I'll get back to you".
Her answer seemed like a brush off. Which do you think happened? Permit issued or Kathy got back to her.
A better example might be when Seth complained the city was violating the law by not publishing minutes. Kathy tried to brush him off with "we always follow the law". It went back and forth with Kathy telling Seth he was wrong. The state ruled Seth was right. The minutes are now published on time. Thanks to Seth.
Kathy's handling of changes in the tree ordinance and manipulation during codeifying the environment committee are other examples.
I know these don't look bad when written on a blog. Talk with those involved and you walk away with a better understanding. It is not about appearances. It's about how she handles people's concerns, how they feel when it's all over and if right is done.
Last time I checked the law, permits are part of an administrative process in which the city council has no role.
Yes, the City Attorney was mistaken about minutes, but the State Law is being defined as cases are brought before the state to see whether or not they conform the open meetings requirements. I watched the pubilc hearing, and when asked a question about how to interpret the state law, the man from the State's Attorney's office said that, basically, you have to bring a case to get a determination. Not a very clear process, is it? You'd think that the State would be able to render an answer to a question pretty directly, but that's not always the case. The state guy said they've begun issuing updates about hearnings relating to the open meetings law so government bodies can see how the state wants it applied. However, backed up minutes hasn't been the norm and reflected an internal personnel issue from what i recall from watching the discussion.
But lets talk about Seth. Last winter he passed out a bogus flyer purporting to show this enormous tax burden that would be foisted on City tax payers by the bonds. His information was wrong, absolutely inaccurate. Seth's excuse - it was given to him by others (close allies in this election, in case you care) and he was simply passing it out.
Then he opposed the road bond. The bond that, after analysis, appeared to be slightly less expensive than doing the work over a longer period of time and paying the cost of inflation and more expensive repairs. But that was at normal inflation. With what happened with oil prices, the city will wind up saving a ton of money by accelerating the work under the bond. Seth was wrong.
Most recently, Seth put out totally bogus crime numbers for the City. Aside from viciously attacking the police department (great strategy if you're planning on trying to fill vacancies), the "crime report" came from CNN and turned out to include 50% more people than live in TP. On further examination, the population CNN included, included the poorest parts of Silver Spring, with a high crime rate, high rate of poverty and 80% in apartments around Langley Park. In other words, a report that distorted the reality of TAkoma Park and didn't reflect at all on Takoma Park policing.
And Seth's response, he was just forwarding the report to help provide information to the community. Seth takes no responsibility for providing misinformation. - He does it repeatedly.
Seth is about scare tactics and misinformation. Kathy may not be the most dynamic mayor, but a demagogue she's not.
Interesting how Kathy's supporters aim to tear Seth down rather than point to Kathy's record.
Seth resolves Issues
Permitting is within the purview of the city administrator, however, elected politicians should represent the interests of their constituents. Seth is willing to listen to his constituents and work with them to resolve their problems.
The missing council minutes is an example. When Seth heard the city hadn't published minutes in over a year he went to the state and found the law which says “as soon as practicable after a public body meets, it shall have written minutes of its session prepared.” Seth brought the issue to the council who ignore it. The state attorney general reviewed Seth's complaint and held the city violated the act.
Although legal interpretations constantly refine laws, its reasonable to expect an attorney to do some basic interpretation and to be aware of published rulings before offering advise. Relevant rulings on Seth's complaint occurred in 1998 and 1999 while his complaint came only this year.
Seth advocates for assessments of budget impact
When Seth and Sustainable Takoma first starting looking at the road maintenance issue the council was considering a request for an 8 million dollar bond bill which had Kathy's support. Seth's persistence helped lead to a more professional assessment of Takoma Park roads and a more realistic assessment of the needs.
Still only time will tell if the 2 million dollar road maintenance bond saved money. Its predicated on a repair and replace cycle where the city has no historical records to base an estimate on. If the guess was right the city saved money. If not they've shifted the problem into the future.
Seth proposes the council analyze important issues
Just looking at the list of opinions about policing one is left to think a well led council could do more than just dig in with their positions.
Crime is down.
we've been at least four officers understaffed for years.
We have a CSAFE initiative at the crossroads.
We need another CSAFE initiative in Old town.
People don't feel safe walking Takoma Park streets at night.
We shouldn't cut the police budget for positions that are never filled.
The community isn't satisfied with COP after years of promises.
People don't feel they see officers in their neighborhoods.
We shouldn't do any analysis of how other jurisdictions police their communities.
Seth demonstrates with his business the ability to analyze and the value of careful consideration. In businesses revenues are limited so business owners have to be careful with their decisions.
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