This just in……

Tacoma Water is developing a new water conservation goal that will affect the types of conservation programs we offer our customers for the next seven years. As part of this process, we want to know what you think about water conservation and the types of programs we should offer.

To gather input we have developed a short online survey. The results of the survey will be used to design a draft conservation goal, which we will present at a public meeting in the spring. Please assist us by taking our survey at www.tacomawater.com/watergoals. Please be advised that the survey will close March 19.

If you would like more information about the water conservation program and our offerings, please contact us at 502-8723 or visit our webpage at http://www.mytpu.org/tacomawater/conserve-water/water-conservation/Default.htm.

Thank you very much for your time.

Daniel L. Muir
Water Conservation Supervisor
Tacoma Water
3628 S. 35th Street
Tacoma, WA 98409
253-502-8191

It may be political suicide for me to say this, but when I forget to take my adderall I lose all fear of such things.  I’ve been saying it for years, as a name “Washington” is the least creative nom de guerre awarded to any state in our union.

Aside from the obvious fact that our state shares its name with the nation’s capitol (consequently leading to unnecessary confusion across the heartland) our state lacks any of the indigenous flavor that peppers our neighbors.  States christened in native tongues include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North/South Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Other states were named by explorers who found something unique about the land, it’s climate, or people.  These include: Colorado (from the spanish, “ruddy” or “red”), Florida (from the spanish Pascua Florida, meaning “feast of flowers” (Easter)), Maine (used to distinguish the mainland from the offshore islands), Montana (from the spanish word meaning “mountain.”), Nevada (spanish for “Snow-Capped”), Vermont (after the french “vert mont,” meaning “green mountain”)

A few were named after similar places.  These include: New Hampshire (From the English county of Hampshire) New Jersey (from the English island of Jersey), New Mexico (you guessed it) and New York (after the English city of York), Rhode Island (after the Greek island of Rhodes)

Finally, there are states whose names were derived from the imaginations of Europe’s most popular writers, like California and Indiana; and states with names whose origins remain a complete mystery to linguists and historians alike.  These include: Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho and Oregon.

True, a few states were named to honor certain individuals – but that was usually accomplished by adding an “a” at the end of the name:  Georiga (after England’s king Georgia II), Louisiana (in honor of Louis XIV of France), Maryland (in honor of Henrietta Maria (queen of Charles I of England), North/South Carolina (in honor of Charles I of England), Pennsylvania (in honor of Adm. Sir William Penn), Virginia/West Virginia (after Queen Elizabeth).

Washington remains the only state named after a president and that president is usually ranked second to Lincoln in the public’s esteem.

So I vote we change our name to something more appropriate and fitting of this great land we call home.  I have a list of suggestions and will be accepting more as the days and weeks go by before asking you – The Melon’s loyal readership – to vote on which name you like best.  We will then draft a proposal to the state legislature asking our elected leadership to adopt legislation to formally change the name of our state (a first in United States history).  In 2010, The Melon will endorse only those candidates who agree to change the name from Washington to our newly endorsed alternative. (We would have settled for a pledge to introduce a flat income tax but that seems unrealistic.)  The following is my brief list of alternatives.

1)  North Oregon

2)  West Idaho

3)  New Canada

4)  American Columbia

5)  Cascadia

6)  Salmonia

7)  Seatacolycane (Seattle -Tacoma -Olympia-Spokane)

8)  Clevelend’s Folly

9)  Middle Earth

10)  Altruria

11)  Ecotopia

12)  Camelot

13)  Wankalupa

14)  Aquaterra (water land)

15)  Verdeterra (green land)

16)  Washingtonia

17)  Skoocoom (lummi for “supernatural”)

18)  Sasquatch

19)  Holistic

You may vote for any of these or suggest your own. The top 10 will be funneled into a poll until we reach the final name.

It’s been a long time since my last arts update. In that time, the Pierce County Arts Commission held its annual Margret K Williams awards and doled out around $30,000 worth of community grants. Among the many programs we supported I was particularly proud to have played a leading role in securing funding for both Lincoln Center and First Creek Middle School to provide in-depth personalized arts education to underprivileged youth – but I failed to deprive the Pierce County Library System of funding for a short story contest. The library wanted the money to hire professional judges to select winning short stories and poems which the gifted authors could then purchase in published book form for a fee. I don’t recall how much exactly said fee was but it was considerable and led me to believe that this was more about securing business for vanity presses than anything else.

And so, I heroically – and publicly – declared to my fellow commissioners that the Pierce County Library was out to screw us and the children we support. Ironically, though in hind-sight predictably, I was met with extreme hostility and when the votes were tallied – it was 9 to 1 in favor of giving the Pierce County Library System the maximum allocation allowed. In the future, when I’m against something, I’ll just keep my mouth shut and emphasize the greatness of other programs so that non-priorities like poetry contests will walk away with a $500 pat on the back and nothing more.

The consultants from Wolf Brown that were hired some months back have developed an outline of Findings and Questions as part of their cultural planning process which has been in effect since October of 2009.

Of all these questions, the one that sticks out to me the most appears in Sec 4, paragraph D, line 3. It reads: “Are there particular approaches that can bolster vibrant but fragile entrepreneurial efforts or small arts and heritage groups?”

It’s official.  The first round of tryouts is over and none of my top picks made it into the top 8 (for the record, they were Julio Quan and Jim Merritt). There were few surprises (Spoiler Alert: Ryan Mello and Rick Talbert have been slated to fill the positions from day 1). But then again, no matter who had been selected charges of cronyism were inevitable.

Even before Julie Anderson, Marilyn Strickland and Victoria Woodards had won their respective races there were those encouraging me to tryout for one of their seats.  I declined because:

1)  My lack of experience makes me unqualified to fill those positions.

2)  I’m a married man now, which – like it or not – makes politics more difficult (notice that neither Julie, Victoria or Marilyn have “taken the plunge” yet – although Strickland’s time is coming).  Politics takes time and money – I now want to be a homeowner and am thus focusing my efforts elsewhere.

3)  And FINALLY – I would be unbelievably self-conscious and timid if I was appointed to any elected office because I would not be able to speak with the authority that comes from being backed by the people.

Which leads me to my greater point – we need some sort of charter amendment forbidding those appointed to hold elected office to run to retain that seat.  These people are place holders who should be selected specifically because they lack grand political ambitions.  They should be wonks, not hacks.

Don’t get me wrong – I’ve known Ryan Mello for years.  He works hard, holds to a progressive agenda, and would be an outstanding city/county councilman or state legislator.  (I don’t know Rick Talbert so I’ll leave him out of this.)  Nevertheless, the appointment process dilutes the democratic process into an insider’s game.  There’s no way it can be done fairly without compromising the credibility of the system.

TOP NEWS STORIES

#1 LAKEWOOD POLICE OFFICER SHOOTINGS

#2 THE RISE AND FALL OF JUDGE HECHT

#3 MARILYN STRICKLAND ELECTED MAYOR OF TACOMA

#4 RCV REPEALED IN PIERCE COUNTY

#5 SAMI and FIRST CREEK open doors and minds

#6 RUSSELL LEAVES TACOMA FOR SEATTLE

#7 QANNIK THE PDZ BELUGA DIES but BALI THE TIGER MOVES IN

#8 TPS SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER CONNIE RICKMAN ELIMINATED IN RECORD-BREAKING 6-WAY PRIMARY

TOP TACOMA PERSONALITIES OF 2009

#1  R.R. Anderson

#2  Victoria Woodards

#3  Marty Campbell

#4  Jim Merritt

MOST MISSED TACOMAN

#1  Elliot Trotter

Close Second is Matt Stevens

The venerable state-master Robert (Jessie) Hussein Ivanovitch Santa Dela Vega Hill announced his candidacy today (Nov 3) for the following races: re-election in 2010 to his position as a 27th LD precinct committee officer; Tacoma City Council position #7 (currently held by Julie Anderson as of the drafting this post) in 2010 and 2011; and for Pierce County Sheriff in 2012.

Melonites may remember that Mr. Hill ran against Mr. Pastor in 2012 in a 3-way IRV race in which Hill finished second after outspending his opponent (somewhere around $36K).  Shortly after the election, Hill was arrested after insinuating that Pastor was in physical danger on a broadcast episode of Equal Time Radio.  In fact, Hill claimed that god was angry with Pastor and was about to strike him down.  Hill also ran against Anderson before in 2007.

Since losing his 2008 bid for Sheriff, Hill has undergone forced treatment at Western State Hospital, run (unsuccessfully) for chair of the Pierce County Democratic Party, made it onto the FBI’s “Who’s Who” terror watch list, been ejected from an airplane in New Jersey by a federal sky martial etc.  In short, Hill’s antics have become a staple of The Melon, inspiring modestly priced t-shirts and even an ongoing series called “Hill Watch.”

While Hill has yet to outline any sort of platform for his pending races, his strong finish in 2008 clearly seems to have inspired a second run for Sheriff.  His PCO race is merely intended to provide him with access to democratic resources and his 2010/2011 bid is clearly intend to keep his name on the ballot and in the minds of the voters in 2012.

Imagine you serve on an arts commission – lets say, the Pierce County Arts Commission.  The economy is so bad its not even fair to say “it’s in the toilet.”  Rather, it would be more accurate to describe the economy as “in the outhouse.”  Your annual budget has been cut beyond the bone so that what revenue you do receive goes exclusively to operating costs (rent, heating etc.).  To make matters worse, legal restrictions on said commission make it almost impossible for you to improve the situation.

You serve as an adviser to the county and therefore can make only recommendations or – more often – sign off on the recommendations of Pierce County Employees.

You are unable to seek additional sources of revenue outside the county council (eliminating any hope of private sector support).

Suddenly, there is bright glint on the horizon.  Could it be a change in the economy? A second NEA stimulus package that doesn’t give 50% of its money to Seattle and 50% to the state agencies in Olympia?  No, its CULTURAL CONSULTANTS…

I know what you’re thinking.  Why is the Pierce County Arts Commission wasting money hiring consultants when we could put that money to community use like strengthening Artist in Residency grants or mobilizing a bid to have Tacoma host the 2022 Summer Olympics?  Well the truth is I can’t honestly explain fully why the decision was made to do this, except that the way the budget is structured (seemingly with railroad ties) we do not have the authority to shift funding from one division to the other.  I can say, however, that my fellow commissioners and I were universally skeptical of this decision when it was first revealed to us, and promise to do our part to make sure the county gets its money’s worth out of this project.

Anyway, who are these consultants you might ask?

Marc Goldring, Associate Principal, WolfBrown

Claudia Bach, President, AdvisArts Consulting

Bonnie Berk, President, BERK and Associates

They’ve developed a three phase plan to combat cultural decay in Pierce County.

PHASE 1 (September – December)

Research and Community Engagement.  Cultural Mapping and Data Mining.

PHASE 2 (December – January)

Analyze and Synthesize.  Pitch critical issues report to a twenty person steering committee (which yours truly is not on).  More Community Engagement and Integrate feedback into a “Cultural Needs Assessment Report.”

PHASE 3 (February-April)

Still more Community Engagement before finalizing plan via the steering committee before unveiling the final draft…..

If this at all sounds ambiguous, your not alone.  Commissioner Beth Willis did a fine job of trying to nail down the consultants’ specific definitions of success and to present a mission statement, but it was clear that they had been hired to find solutions to problems that had yet to be fully articulated.

So we spent the rest of our last meeting offering “feedback” to our new friends.  The question was, imagine that in 2012, Pierce County had a vibrant and growing cultural economy.   What happened?

The following were my suggestions:

1)  The Pierce County Arts Commission had an official website with content that was under the supervision of an assigned commissioner – not staff.

2)  The Tacoma School District was no longer dependent on volunteers to provide arts education to its elementary and middle school populations.

3)  Pierce County had somehow expanded the 1% for Art program to the private sector to include commercial real estate above a set assessed value.  (Additionally, it would be nice it we could revise the 1% for art program to include improvement on existing structures rather than the one-time payment of newly constructed government building – of which relatively few exist.)

4)  The county council had a 5:2 Democratic Majority.

Other members discussed the need to develop arts apprentice programs so students graduated with not only artistic interests and aptitudes but also vocational skills that could enable them to start earning money immediately.

You can join the discussion regarding what exactly Pierce County’s Artisistic Needs are by emailing your thoughts to the following emails

claudia@advisarts.com

marc@wolfbrown.com

mbuchan@co.pierce.wa.us

KBENSON@co.pierce.wa.us

image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/spadgy/

The following are my public positions on the issues and individuals who will appear on the 2009 ballot.

Initiative Measure 1033

I VOTE NO

Unless Tim Eyman himself agrees to come on the show between now and November 3rd to explain how we can afford this and how state government can hope to provide for the general education of our K-college students with these restrictions, I have no intention of giving it my support.

Referendum Measure 71

I VOTE YES

I believe this will be the second time I will have the opportunity to personally cast my vote in the name of equality.  Referendum 71 does not overturn DOMA (sadly) nor does it legalize gay marriage in Washington State.  What it does do, however, is expand existing domestic partnership benefits, responsibilities and legal protections to committed LGBT couples.  Critics argue that this is one more step towards gay marriage.  They are on the wrong side of history and morality and I don’t think any further discussion needs to be made.

Pierce County Charter Amendment #1

I VOTE NO

Amendment 1 would move the election of the county executive and council to odd-numbered years by 2015 and increase term limits for those offices from two consecutive four-year terms to three consecutive four-year terms.

While I am a fan of term limits, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I feel that limits should universally be restricted to two terms.  Is it really unreasonable to suggest capping service on the county council at 12 years?  Hell, if it were somehow possible to stick a defibrillator up FDR’s ass and run him for a fifth term, the man could certainly count on getting my vote.

On the other hand, I don’t like the suggestion of moving county executive and council positions to odd numbered years.  History demonstrate that this would severely deplete turnout, thereby diluting the democratic process.

It’s too bad the amendment was pieced together this way.

Pierce County Charter Amendment # 2

I VOTE NO

# 2 would move the election of auditor, assessor-treasurer and sheriff to odd-numbered years by 2015.  Again, this would automatically reduce turnout and dilute the electoral process.

Pierce County Charter Amendment #3

UNDECIDED

# 3 would eliminate ranked choice voting and restore the primary and general election system for all county elected offices.

For the record, I am opposed to ranked choice voting.  I opposed it the last time it was on the ballot and have publicly explained why in previous articles for The Melon.  I believe in the concept of a two-party system and honestly feel we should give it a try someday.  But until then, what is currently in place is – if nothing else – a powerful check on radicalism. RCV is the first in many steps toward a multiparty system which can only strengthen the cause of radical minorities at the expect of the national majority (Like in the state of Israel, where radical Jewish Fundamentalist parties who represent an estimated 2% of the general electorate have nonetheless successfully used the coalition process to block peace efforts for more than a decade now).

That being said, some of the arguments which leaders of the pro-#3 movement have made are nonetheless highly offensive to me.  Anyone who suggests that RCV is “too complicated” for the “average voter” to understand automatically loses my support.  The fact that there was a significant number of under votes in the previous election is not evidence of voter ignorance, but rather objection to RCV.  Many voters simply refused to designate a “second” or “third” choice on their ballot as a protest to the system.  Only 20% of eligible voters turned out for my race.  Does that mean that top-two primaries are too complicated or frustrating for 80% of the electorate to understand?

There are legitimate arguments against RCV: it’s expensive, slow, and it was sold to the voters of Pierce County in 2007 with somewhat deceptive rhetoric.

But I will not take a position on this amendment until arguments from both sides are fully revealed.  Thus far, only the NO on Amendment 3 camp has caught my attention with it web presence.

Chris Van Vechten sits downs with City Council incumbent Jake Fey to discuss his time on the Council and his unopposed reelection campaign.

Learn more about Jake at jakefey.com.

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Like many of our readers, I’m currently struggling to find a job.  This means that I spend most days on the web, where I recently found the following Merritt for Mayor YouTube commercial, Jim Merritt A Leader We Can Believe In, with current school board candidate Jerry Thorpe providing the voice-over.