That's gist of a barb Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan fired at Pierce County Councilmen Calvin Goings and Tim Farrell this afternoon.

Remember that Lonergan is running as an independent for county executive. So is Democrat Goings. A peeved Lonergan asked Susan Long, the County Council staff attorney, about the legality of a county-paid mailer Goings and Farrell sent advertising an ethics forum they held Wednesday in Tacoma.

The pair are pushing a proposed county ethics code that has twice been postponed. The County Council may vote on it Tuesday. Here's Lonergan's statement on the reply from Long:

The mailing prominently featured the name and color photos of my opponent for Pierce County Executive on both the front and back. It was printed and mailed at a cost to local taxpayers of $12,123.51. It was not mailed to the district of the County Council member, but rather to 27,200 recent voters within the City limits of Tacoma (MY current jurisdiction).

Ms. Long says that no County rule was broken by the mailing, because it took place before July 31. The mailing took the form of an invitation to a Town Hall meeting on ethics rules which was attended by about 40 people last Wednesday evening.

Regardless of whether a rule was violated, the public may wish to know that over twelve-thousand dollars of tax money was spent on a flyer, prominently featuring a declared candidate and targeted to a specific group of voters, mostly outside his current district

In a letter to the editor published Thursday, former county auditor Cathy Pearsall-Stipek took a similar shot at the council duo over the mailing. She's allied with current Auditor Pat McCarthy, another Democrat running for county executive.

My own view: Yep, the mailer was on the cheesy side, especially given the way it was targeted. You'd think Goings and Farrell would have targeted Republican Councilman Roger Bush's Graham-area district, since he's the one who has raised the most objections to their proposal. And $12,000 could pay for a lot of senior-center hot meals.

We'll have an editorial writer at the County Council's Monday study session. At the 9 a.m. meeting in council chambers, Long is scheduled to review all of the potential ethics code amendments and discuss their interpretation.

Perhaps the new code should include some guidelines on what constitutes a legitimate "informational" mailing at taxpayer expense. But Goings and Farrell are right in calling for stronger ethics rules, including registration and reporting requirements for paid lobbyists.

Today on the opinion page, we knocked legislation that would unionize day care center workers. The bill would essentially help the state's largest union enroll 10,000 new members and enlist the state in collecting union dues. In turn, the union would have more money to spend on election campaigns, presumably Democrats'. If it weren't all legal, it would look a lot like money-laundering.

But I digress. The reason for this post is to point out that the day care bill isn't the worst of the Legislature's proposed union giveaways. A bill now in the Senate would also unionize foster parents.

Parenting is hard work indeed, but does a union have a place negotiating the terms of what essentially is substitute parenthood? Don't we think more of foster parents' contributions to the lives of beleaguered kids than to label them state workers?

With some foster parents beginning to voice those concerns, the Senate Human Services and Corrections committee last night stripped the bill of the bargaining component. But the legislation could still be in play.

Here's an argument for letting the bill die from a foster parent who just happens to also be vice president for research at the conservative Washington Policy Center.

By Paul Guppy

It starts with a phone call. "Can you take a child this weekend?" "Do you have space for a little girl?" "We have two boys who need home." These are the kinds of calls foster parents receive, often with little notice.

=> Read more!

On his Washington Policy Center blog, Jason Mercier alerts us to a surprise move in the state Senate that would esssentially be a slap at state Auditor Brian Sonntag for his handling of performance audits.

Senate Bill 6450, earlier thought to be dead this session, was revived under a suspension of rules. It would force the auditor to reimburse school districts for costs associated with performance audits.

As Mercier notes, Sonntag strongly objects and contends the audits save local governments far more than they cost.

Even though Sonntag is a Democrat, many Democratic legislators do seem itching to yank his chain. It could be they resent the way Sonntag positions himself as a champion of good government by promoting performance audits. Sonntag has in the past considered running for governor.

They may resent the way he appears regularly on conservative radio talk shows and has allied himself with Tim Eyman, whose successful Initiative 900 gave the auditor the authority and funding for performance audits.

Another possible factor I haven't quite nailed down: I heard behind-the-scenes complaints that Sonntag exceeded his mandate and delved into policy matters when a performance audit of the state Department of Transportation urged a greater emphasis on "congestion relief."

That gripe might have some merit, but I haven't the chance to explore it. Done properly, however, performance audits are a good idea. It was a state PA that blew the lid off shady practices at the Port of Seattle.

Comments, anyone?

The teacher's union president might not be the first person who'd come to mind if you were looking for someone to bargain with the union on behalf of the public. So we asked Interim Superintendent Art Jarvis why he appointed Gayle Elijah – the president of the Tacoma Education Association – as a director of human resources for the Tacoma School District.

Why also asked him how her classroom work qualified her for the specialized administrative work of human resources.

Jarvis had a reasonable answer for both questions.

"Her integrity is respected by everybody within the district administration and within teacher ranks, " he said. "I would not be concerned about that whatsoever. She is a very skilled and knowledgeable professional."

As for her qualifications, Jarvis said that Elijah is just about to graduate from a three-year human resources leadership program at Western Washington University.

On the union connection, I'm reminded of Terry Bergeson, the state superintendent of public instruction. She was president of the Washington Education Association before she ran for the state's top education job. Since then, she's has had no problem crossing her old union over the WASL and other issues.

Chiming in: Old hands in the Tacoma School District will recall that a couple decades ago the district hired the teacher union's lead negotiator, Dan Barkley, to become the district's contract negotiator.

Barkley, long since retired, was highly respected on both sides and was successful in introducing a "collaborative bargaining" approach to teacher contract talks.
--Dave Seago

Here's one way lawmakers in Olympia contrive to do public business out of the public eye. This appeared in a roundup of legislative action on education-related issues sent to school directors around the state.

This afternoon, the full Senate also adopted the Senate version of the 2008 Supplemental Capital Construction Budget. The Capital Budget was adopted with no dissenting votes. Negotiations on a final, compromise Operating Budget and a compromise Capital Budget are expected to begin at any time. It is unclear when, or if, a formal “Conference Committee” will be appointed to negotiate the budgets; however, it is likely that House and Senate majority Democrats (along with the Governor) will meet privately until a budget is agreed to.

Conference Committees are required to provide notice of their meetings and they are open to the public, so in recent years, with one party in control of both houses, Conference Committees have not been established on the budgets until a final agreement among the majority members has been reached.

Editorial lineup for Friday:

1. A revised cost estimate bolsters hopes for restoring Tacoma's historic Murray Morgan Bridge, but it's too soon to celebrate. There's a lot more we need to know before restoration can be deemed feasible.

2. Democratic legislators may do a favor for a politically powerful labor union by allowing day care workers collective bargaining rights. Our view: Don't.

Want to sit in on our daily 9 a.m. editorial board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make a date.

Pierce County's new domestic partner benefits might be an issue in county executive and council races this fall – if opponents can get a referendum on the ballot.

Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan and Pierce County Councilman Roger Bush have aligned themselves with an effort to repeal the domestic partner benefits the County Council approved in December.

Lonergan is running as an independent for county executive. Bush was one of three County Council Republicans who voted against the benefits. The measure passed when Republican Councilman Shawn Bunney, who is also running for county executive, sided with three council Democrats.

And one of those Democrats is Calvin Goings, who is yet another candidate for executive. Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy is also in the race; as a staunch Democrat, she would presumably be considered a supporter of domestic partner benefits.

A conservative group called CornerStone Foundation of Washington held a fundraising dinner at the Tacoma Elks Club earlier this month to back a referendum forcing a public vote on the benefits issue.
.
The invitation listed Lonergan and Bush as "supporting members" of the group. Others included state Reps. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, and Jim McCune, R-Graham; former GOP state representatives Lois McMahan and Grant Pelesky, and Ron Emmons, pastor of Orting Christian Church and former Orting police chief and city councilman.

The event speaker was Ken Hutcherson, a Kirkland pastor and former Seahawks player who attracted wide attention in 2005 for threatening to organize a national boycott against Microsoft if it supported state legislation banning discrimination against gays.

The invitation lists the repeal measure as Referendum 20076-15. I'm awaiting word from the auditor's office on who filed it and how many signatures are needed to get it on the ballot.

This might complicate the executive's race for both Bunney and Lonergan. Republicans who feel strongly about the benefits issue might gravitate toward Lonergan. But Lonergan could blur his independent stance if he lines up with Republicans on a contentious social issue.

Update: Lonergan comments

=> Read more!

Maybe it's ironic that we're bringing syndicated columnist George Will back to our pages just when another sesquipedalian conservative wordsmith, William F. Buckley Jr., has just written his life's final chapter.

But connoisseurs of elegant (if often arch) prose will be pleased to find Will's column in the opinion section Friday. While there's no doubting Will's brilliance, we had tired of his highbrow Oxfordian tone last year and decided to try younger conservative Jonah Goldberg instead.

Goldberg, in my view, turned out to be a bigger step down from Will than I had expected. His level of reasoning just doesn't hold a candle to Will's, and Will, to my mind, has shown an impressive streak of intellectual independence in the past year. (I've been reading his columns on the Washington Post Web site.)

With one of the most fascinating presidential contests in years ahead of us, I just felt it would be a mistake to deprive our readers of Will's acute perspective at this time. As always, I welcome reader comment on this decision.

On Monday, we published an "editorial notebook" item in which I recounted my miserable hour-and-a-half wait to get my driver's license. (The same item had appeared earlier in this blog.)

Part of the frustration was the fact that half the staff at the counter left during the lunch hour, with more than 50 people waiting to get their licenses.

On Tuesday, the director of the Department of Licensing called me to personally apologize.

"I felt horrible when I saw that," said Liz Luce. "It's not a perfect system, and sometimes we fall short of good customer service. I do want you to know we are trying to do things to make it better."

=> Read more!

Ever listen to religious radio stations? Noticed how many of the preachers have Deep South accents? (Thuh BAH-bull SAY-yuz ...")

It's curious how well that drawl sells above the Mason-Dixon Line. (A Texas twang works, too.) Something about those country-fried Southern vowels reassures Americans all over that the owner of the accent shares their values and intends to keep the world on a steady course.

What's this got to do with anything? Drawls and twangs happen to be the key to my theory of presidential politics: Rock, Paper, Scissors.

It's ridiculously oversimplified. First toss out all the sophisticated predictors commonly cited by political scientists: campaign strategies, money, organization, how many Americans think the country's headed in the right direction, unemployment, inflation, foreign menaces, etc.

With Rock, Paper, Scissors, only two things count: political ideology and Southern accent.

Here's how it works:

=> Read more!

We get a lot of excellent letters to the editor.

And then we get ones like this, from a writer in Buckley. I am copying it verbatim, with all the emphasis and mistakes (including not understanding that Obama is the candidate's last name, not his first).

I am wondering why the media don't mention the middle name of Obama Barack. It's HUSSEIN, Obama Hussein Barack. Every candidate I know, have the whole name mentioned. Let people know Obama's middle name. Is he hiding something? If he is really honest, let the world know that he has a middle name – same family name of the dictator toppled in Bagdad, Iraq.

The writer says that the other candidates' names are mentioned. Anyone know off the top of your head what John McCain's middle name is? Mike Huckabee's? (See answers at bottom).

And is this the last person in America to learn that Obama's middle name is Hussein?

=> Read more!

The failure of levies last month in the Yelm and North Thurston school districts, despite the new 50 percent requirement, shows that school-funding approvals can’t be taken for granted. We endorse the March 11 local school requests, including the Franklin Pierce construction bond issue.

Legislators shouldn’t wipe out the funding for the UW study of the effectiveness of the controversial Prometa protocol in Pierce County drug court program. A rigorous, objective evaluation would be a public service.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

The environmental group Sierra Club has exhorted its members to flood the nation's newspapers with letters that purport to reveal John McCain's record of dodging votes on issues it considers important.

Unfortunately, they're all submitting the same letter. It's astounding to us that people will actually sign their name to such an obviously canned letter and try to pass it off as their own.

Anyway, here's the letter we've received from several people. Needless to say, it won't get in the printed edition – under anyone's name.

Dear Editor,

I was appalled to lean that John McCain was the only Senator who two
weeks ago chose to skip a crucial vote on the future of clean energy in
America -- dooming the measure to fail by just a single vote.

=> Read more!

Hunter George's "Traffic Q&A" on school zone signs touched some nerves around here.

Like the guy who asked about the 20 mph signs, we're confused about why the signs are so confusing: some with flashing lights, some without; some near schools, some not, and so on. And: Do we breed contempt for the law by having so many of these zones and so little enforcement of them?

As anyone who attempts to obey the limits can tell you, the biggest problem is the people behind you. Some get infuriated that you're crawling at 20 mph when they want to blast through the school zone at 40 or more.

Cheryl Dell, our publisher, had a run-in with a particularly scary guy last fall.

=> Read more!

1. We can’t quarrel with the Legislature’s decision to earmark $2 billion for the 520 bridge, but the span must be built large enough to handle future growth, not strangled at the behest of the well-heeled Montlake neighborhood. It’s a shame that projects like Cross-Base and Highway 167 are being deferred, but that was a decision voters made when they rejected Roads & Transit in November.

2. The Department of Licensing has created a unique hell for Washingtonians trying to renew their drivers licenses. (From Inside the Editorial Page blog)

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Well, no, smoking isn't actually healthy. But the American College of Physicians – an association of internists – recently decided that smoking marijuana is therapeutic, right?

Not quite. We need to draw a crucial distinction here. What a lot of people don't get – and other people try to obscure – is that the real argument about medical marijuana is about delivery, not content.

One guy who apparently doesn't get it is the writer of the Los Angeles Times story on the College's position paper. The story dwelt on marijuana advocates' glee that the ACP had joined their cause. It accurately noted the ACP's (accurate) conclusion that some of the chemicals in cannabis had medicinal value. But it left out a small detail: The College pointedly rejected the smoking of marijuana.

Take this excerpt, for example:

=> Read more!

Here's what to expect from us this weekend:

Saturday:
What a lot of people don't get – and other people try to obscure – is that the real argument about medical marijuana is about delivery, not content.

Sunday:
A Lakewood planning board proposes to lift restrictions on casinos. But those restrictions have been illegal all along.

The House budget is an irresponsible response to news that state revenues are declining nearly half a billion dollars.

Monday:
What a difference a year makes in the medical care and services provided to wounded and injured soldiers at Fort Lewis.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Watching the action in Olympia this year, I have the sense that lawmakers aren’t just writing checks state government can’t cash, they are post-dating them too.

They've got their paid family leave. The Legislature promised to deliver benefits by October 2009 but has neglected to identify a funding source two years in a row.

Then there’s all-day kindergarten. Lawmakers decided last year to phase it in for all kids. Lately the House has been considering putting the program on “pause” to save money.

And there are the tax rebates we wrote about today. That legislation has an out clause that will suspend the rebates if the state hits a rough revenue patch.

If the state hits a rough revenue patch? Who are they fooling? When the Legislature returns to Olympia next January, it’s not likely to find any extra money lying around with the projected budget shortfall standing at $2.4 billion.

=> Read more!

I thought I was being crafty, getting my new driver's license on the morning of a vacation weekday – Tuesday – so I could escape the usual weekend misery at the licensing office.

Dream on, Chester. There is no escape from the unique hell the state Department of Licensing has created for its customers. Abandon hope, all ye who enter one of its offices.

You know the drill: You secure your place in line by taking a number from a machine. I sauntered into the storefront office on 27th Street West in Tacoma with naive optimism and pulled No. 148. Your number is your destiny. Then I looked at the signs over the service counter and discovered that the highest number then being served was No. 104.

Forty-four people were in front of me. But at least the place was well-staffed, I thought: Five DOL employees were sitting at the long counter handling the renewals, etc. Shouldn't take too long.

Silly, silly me. There were at least 50 people sitting in the hard chairs, staring dully at those signs. Their eyes were dead. They had seen the glacial pace at which the numbers were progressing. Half the people at the counters seemed engaged in what the Tacoma-born poet Richard Brautigan called an ICT – an infinitely complex transaction.

=> Read more!

Charles Allyn of Tacoma, one of our semi-regular letter writers, sent along this photo of last night's eclipse.

He writes:

My picture of the eclipse last night is a little clearer than the one in the paper and shows the color better. I took it with Canon EOS 5D, 300mm f2.8 lens with 2X Teleextender, 4 seconds shutter speed, f8, ISO 100, RAW mode, 10.7 mp file size.

It is not as sharp as I thought it would be. I thought the reason was movement of the moon in 4 seconds, but a picture taken after the eclipse at 1/1000 second exposure looks about the same. Maybe it has to do with atmospheric haze.

Here is what we're planning for Friday:

Senate Democrats, on the eve of a $2.4 billion budget shortfall, have passed a plan to give $60 million to low-income families who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. State government can best help the working poor by ensuring that the safety net stays strong, not by handing out $150 checks.

Beyond paying for the damage done, Evergreen State College bears a heavy responsibility for ensuring that nothing like last week’s postconcert riot happens again.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Here's what we're planning for Thursday's page:

Regular Washington voters finally got their chance to weigh in on the presidential race, handing McCain a solid win and an apparently slimmer defeat to Clinton. Party leaders hailed record attendance at party caucuses earlier this month, but they still couldn't top turnout for an almost meaningless primary.

Any plan for cleaning up Puget Sound must address what the state Dept. of Ecology calls the No. 1 polluter: stormwater runoff. Unfortunately, that will probably be the hardest nut to crack.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Our Wednesday editorials:

The Pierce County jail’s staffing problems aren’t just driving overtime costs sky-high — they are also hobbling its ability to provide health care services to inmates.

Don’t cue the band yet over news that Fidel Castro’s long reign is over. His brother and handpicked successor has raised hopes for modest economic reforms, but isn’t the leader the country needs for meaningful democratic change.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Today's editorial raised a big concern about paid family leave – namely that Democrats have not figured out how to pay for the new benefit.

The program might face several other snags, even if it does get the money it needs. Republicans on a task force that spent the interim studying how to get the benefit out to new parents outlined their concerns in a minority report. They include:

The minority had this to say:

With so many uncertainties still remaining, we must look at California, the only other state that has implemented such a benefit. Even though they already had the administration in place, Gov. Schwarzenegger has stated that the program is confusing and makes California appear unfriendly to business. He has vetoed expansion of the program at this time.

While this benefit was developed by well-intentioned people, we see no way to make this program work in a fair and sustainable manner. The only logical and responsible choice is to delay the benefit until these issues are resolved. If they cannot be resolved, and so far that is the case, the program should be suspended.

UPDATE: Former TNT columnist Dick Davis Dick's colleague at the Association of Washington Business, Kris Tefft, has some thoughts here.

Don't – please don't – construe this as a defense of sex predators, sexual psychopaths, rapists, child molesters and the like.

They deserve prison, often life without parole, plus every ugly adjective that can be thrown at them: loathsome, verminous, slimy, leprous, creepy, vile, execrable, abominable and detestable, just for starters.

You get the idea. But does it make sense that we're obsessing over sex offenders, including minor ones, as if they were a unique breed of trolls more warty and hideous than any other class of criminal?

=> Read more!

Saturday:
Violent gangs don’t respect jurisdictional boundaries; it only makes sense for local police forces to team up to fight them, as they’ve been doing recently.

Sunday:
1. Supporters of the state’s supposed family leave program shouldn’t be touting their accomplishment until they find a way to actually fund it.

2. Puget Sound city councils shouldn’t be sweating the possibility of a Kirkwood, Mo., type massacre.

Monday:
President's Day – we recognize sacrifices made by public servants all over, George Washington being the archetype of a citizen who put the public interest first.

Tuesday:
1. The new, lower revenue forecast is another reason for the Legislature to tightly control spending in anticipation of a possible recession.

2. Reverse publish, probably a posting on Legislature’s perennial obsession with sex offenders.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Wackos of many stripes regularly barrage this office with florid fantasies and schizoid verbiage, usually angry and hateful. Like Night of the Living Dead, a lot of these messages from the Asteroid Belt teeter precariously on the thin line that divides the terrifying from the hilarious.

The letters from God stopped a few years ago, maybe because "God" got committed involuntarily. But here's a taste of an anonymous screed that just showed up in the mailbox:

Praise the Lord. The Wicked Witch of the West, with her Mao jacket, Gregoire and Fathead Greg Nichols have endorsed the wonderful 20-year Christian African American Barack Obama. He says he's not a Muslim but has a Muslim name. Sweet.

And this guy gets to fill out a ballot just like you and me. Sweet.

1. The new agreement between the Puyallup Tribe and the Port of Tacoma has huge advantages for both, and the region at large. For the tribe, it promises economic diversification beyond gambling enterprises: Twenty years after the Puyallup land claims settlement, the tribe is finally poised to create the terminal the agreement originally envisioned.

2. Life without parole is better than Daniel Tavares deserves, but the guy's crazy as a loon and a death penalty would have been expensive and hard to make stick. If the family's OK with it, that ought to satisfy the rest of us.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Local officials' dreams of remaking the Cheney Stadium area in Tacoma can look to some impressive projects in other communities.

The minor league baseball stadiums in Frisco, Texas, (pictured right) and Dayton, Ohio, have been mentioned as inspirations.

In Dayton, the baseball team's owner is trying to come to terms with the city for a $230 million Ballpark Village that would include retail, housing and entertainment. Sounds a whole lot like what Pierce County officials are eyeing.

But there is one significant difference: Dayton's Ballpark Village would be built in the city's dying downtown. If you check out this run-down of recent and coming changes to minor league baseball parks, you'll notice there's a common thread: Nearly all these minor league stadiums are located in downtowns.

Maybe "pika" who posted this comment on Jason Hagey's story is on to something (not about tearing down the Tacoma Dome, but about rethinking the location of the Rainiers stadium).

I'd like to see the Tacoma Dome torn down and a nice new minor league ballpark for the Rainiers built in its place. Maybe it could be combined with some transit-friendly condos or apts. and retail. Downtown stadiums are great for a city, and the T-Dome seems to be on the verge of becoming a liability rather than an asset if it isn't already. This would allow Cheney to be torn down and that land could be redeveloped for parks, retail, housing, playfields, whatever.

This oddity from a recent AP-Yahoo survey:

Sixty-three percent of Democrats say Hillary Clinton is attractive; 17 percent of Republicans agree. (Note: same face, same woman. Make that same polarizing woman.)

Obama is viewed as attractive by 58 percent of Democrats and by 41 percent of Republicans. (Proof of his ability to reach across the partisan divide, at least on magazine covers.)

As for John McCain, he is seen as attractive by only a quarter of both Republicans and Democrats. (At least the parties agree on something. McCain would be wise to focus on his experience, not his septuagenarian sex appeal.)

1. It's disappointing to see the Tacoma Council's hostility toward taping secret meetings, a fundamental open government measure.

2. Pierce County government forced South Hill children to cross a busy arterial (feeding a new Wal-Mart) to walk to school. Pierce County should pick up the tab, not try to foist it on the Puyallup School District.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Reader Ray Brassard wrote this response to my "Caucus Rage" post, below. I don't agree with him, but it's the best defense I've ever read of the caucus system. Rather than leaving it buried, I'm posting it here in plain sight:

Just as it is the party's responsibility to determine their nominee, it is also up to the party as to how that nominee is determined. If you want your voice to be heard in the selection process than you have one choice: show up! There were opportunities ahead of time to ask for accommodations from your respective party if surgery (or some other matter) kept you from attending. Ignorance of the timeline and the process puts ownership of the problem/concern right back in your lap.

I left a conference I was attending (near Sea-Tac) and drove to Graham so that I could fight traffic and stand with over a thousand of my neighbors. I did this because I wanted my voice to be heard. I made it the most important "thing" I had to do on Saturday. I am all for the caucus system, it builds a connection between you and the process with an ideal that is almost unheard of nowadays, social interaction. If you want lazy politics, you came to the wrong state.

From the gathered mass of citizens, delegates were nominated/selected/elected right before our eyes. These willing volunteers were our neighbors, friends and family. They supported the candidates that "we" chose in the ratio in which those candidates were represented. I'll take this form of politics over filling in a line on a ballot on any given day. Where else can normal people rise up to do extraordinary things? When was the last time your neighbor was selected as a delegate in a primary? How about your kids? Or your wife? Or even you? Now ask that same question of those that attended the caucus. See if they had the opportunity to be a delegate for their candidate. I did. So did my wife. So did thousands of everyday people around the state.

Think about that for a little while.

1. An ambitious plan to redevelop the area near Cheney Stadium faces serious hurdles, but give its supporters credit for thinking big.

2. A murder suspect has been evaluated for competence at Western State EIGHT TIMES over three years – and is now going back for a ninth, thanks in part to a feud between a psychiatrist and a psychologist there. Hey, this is costing real money.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

One Auburn reader wrote us today:

I was shocked like many others to find out that the Feb. 19 primary was a "beauty contest" for Democrats. Why bother with the expense if it is meaningless? Washington should reinstitute a primary that matters so all voices can be heard. The caucus is an outdated method that isn't convienient for many voters. It is as inconvienent as going to the polls on election day for many voters. In my case, I was unable to participate in the caucus due to surgery and I feel disenfranchised.

Multiply this complaint tens of thousands of time, and that's how annoyed Washingtonians are about the caucus system. We've been complaining about precisely this for many years. See our editorial today. But we journalists are seen-it-all, here-they-go-again types. Ordinary citizens – like the guy above – get genuinely incensed when they realize they're getting shut out of the nominating process.

The Dems are particularly to blame. They've never once picked a delegate by primary election since Washingtonians embraced presidential primaries nearly 20 years ago. They may enjoy ignoring us professional chatterers, but you'd think they'd take their own voters a little more seriously.

Today's editorial supported tougher rules for owners of dangerous dogs in Pierce County. The crackdown is one-half of the answer to the county's animal control problem. The other half is population control, and there's progress to report on that front too.

Coalition Humane's low-cost spay/neuter clinic is slated to open March 3; it will begin taking appointments next week. (You can check clinic construction progress here.)

Before the clinic opens its doors, the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County hopes to set a record for the number of animals spayed or neutered on Spay Day Feb. 26. Humane Society officials are subsidizing the cost of the surgeries, which will be performed by local vets. They are hoping to do 500 — a pretty ambitious goal when you consider that they did 3,000 in all of 2007, a record itself.

1. Washington’s caucus results lent Barack Obama momentum. So Washingtonians made some difference in the presidential nominating race after all. It was a good turnout, but it’s still too bad the state won’t have a meaningful primary (except 50 percent on the GOP side).

2. Today, independent groups on both sides of the political spectrum are waging aggressive campaigns for presidential candidates - and they don't have to disclose their funding sources. Who would have thought that some groups in 2008 would make the Swift Boaters look clean by comparison?

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

I don't have Showtime, so I've never seen that cable channel's "Dexter" series, whose anti-hero is a serial killer who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood pattern analyst.

But now the series will be shown on CBS. And that has the Parents Television Council up in arms, even though the network says the series will be edited somewhat to tone down the graphic violence.

Wikipedia describes the PTC as "a nonprofit organization run and founded by conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III, whose stated goal is to 'promote and restore responsibility to the entertainment industry.'"

Unfortunately, whenever the PTC gets upset about something on TV, it generates a lot of form e-mail letters to the editor. We won't run any of the ones that are obviously part of the letter-writing campaign.

Here's the anti-"Dexter" letter we've received – again and again and again.

I am outraged that CBS is planning to bring the Showtime series Dexter to broadcast television. This community does not need a series that glorifies a sadistic serial killer coming into our homes. Nothing justifies using the publicly-owned broadcast airwaves to expose potentially hundreds of thousands of children to a series that glorifies a ruthless, bloodthirsty killer.

=> Read more!

When Tacoma City Councilman Rick Talbert saw the photo of himself that accompanied his Feb. 3. op-ed piece urging schools to help fight obesity, he cringed.

Because the current chairman for the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health looked, uh, heavy. "Ouch," he emailed:

What will it take to have you permanently destroy the photo you used? That picture was 85 lbs ago, before I took my own advice and changed my lifestyle.

You did? I said. How did you do it?

No great secret. I finally accepted that there was no short-cut and the only way to successfully lose weight was to eat healthy and exercise.

I partnered with (Pierce County Councilman) Shawn Bunney and we challenged each other. (Talbert works in the county's performance audit office.) We worked with a nutritionist to put together a sensible diet, and began an exercise program that literally started with baby steps.

=> Read more!

Lobbyists for Washington cities, counties and school boards are lobbying hard against a bill that would require taping of executive sessions.

Our editorial and a subsequent blog post in favor of it prompted a response from a veteran school board member in Pierce County.

I probably would not have been in favor of the Exec Session Taping bill had I not spent time in Executive Sessions at the School Board. Frankly the self-inflated, broad definition that boards can use to define the three pillars of executive privilege (legal, contract, personnel) cover just about anything if a body wants to stretch the lexicon.

=> Read more!

The wife got home Friday night and checked the phone messages.
"Ooh, it's Hillary..." she says. She listens to the message a bit. Punches a button.
"Ooh, it's Maria," she says. She listens another minute. Punches a button.
"It's Obama's campaign," she says. Listens 30 seconds.
Punches a button.
"It's the neighbor," the one who had 'Impeach Bush' signs on her front porch last year. My wife puts the phone down.
"Ooh, I feel so special," she says, rolling her eyes. "Hillary and Maria called little old me!"

Me: "Did you send somebody a check?"

The booking of the University of Puget Sound's fieldhouse for Hillary Clinton's Tacoma rally wasn't as random as it might seem.

Before Phil Phibbs became president of UPS in 1973, he was a professor at Wellesley College, where he taught the college's most famous political science graduate.

Phibbs, who retired from the UPS presidency in 1992, was on hand Friday to welcome Clinton to UPS; she thanked him for being a tough professor.

I attended Hillary Clinton's "town hall" meeting today (her stump speech was twice as long as the Q&A) and wrote this for Saturday's page:

LOGGER FIELDHOUSE — Sitting in the bleachers 50 feet from a stage where Hillary Clinton is about to appear, I realize this is what it's like to matter.

All three presidential frontrunners are in the state on the eve of our presidential caucuses which, in the absence of a clear Democratic winner on Super Tuesday, are now a big deal. Hillary wasn't planning even come to the state until two days ago; now she's booked events in Seattle and Spokane as well as this one in Tacoma.

This is our fleeting glimpse of what it's like to be a voter in New Hampshire or Iowa, to get the chance to see the candidates up close, to be wooed.

=> Read more!

Saturday:

Editorial writer Kim Bradford joined the crowd in Tacoma’s UPS Fieldhouse this morning to see Hillary Clinton give her stump speech on health care. She writes a “notebook” editorial on the event.

Sunday:

Move over, Pebble Beach. Tiger Woods, or perhaps the next generation’s Tiger, is coming to Pierce County’s Chambers Bay Golf Course in 2015. The U.S. Open’s decision to stage its championship event there is the ultimate vindication of County Executive John Ladenburg’s gamble on building “an elitist golf course” at an abandoned gravel mine.

School districts bringing up the rear with lax academic eligibility standards for athletes — particularly Puyallup and Bethel — ought to get on board with higher standards. The minimum standard set by the Washington Athletic Association is ridiculously low.

Monday:

We like the tougher dangerous-dogs ordinance that is heading to the Pierce County Council for approval.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

If you're like me, the only thing you watch on TV is Netflix. So you might miss the TV spot the Hillary Clinton campaign started airing in Washington today, in advance of Saturday's presidential caucuses.

Unless you go right here and watch the YouTube verson of the spot, called "Happen." It touts Clinton's plan to provide universal health care for all Americans. And it happens to mention that both of Washington's Democratic U. S. senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, are backing Clinton.

If you want to see Hillary in the flesh, catch her at 10 a.m. at the University of Puget Sound Fieldhouse in Tacoma. Get there early.

All the Democrats I know are going out of their gourds. Imagine – caucuses that count!

The Pierce County chairmen for both the D's and the R's are expecting big turnouts for party caucuses Saturday. I checked in with Democratic Chair Nathe Lawver and Republican Chair Deryl McCarty:

Quickie Q&A with Lawver:

Are you getting worried about overflow crowds at your caucus locations? I was chatting with the mayor; he’s hoping the fire department is otherwise occupied Saturday afternoon. Making contingency plans?

Most of our locations have the ability for break out areas … as we have strategically located them in schools and other community centers … places with both large rooms and smaller rooms for the precinct portion of the caucuses.

I think it goes without saying that participation will probably be off the charts Saturday. Are there tangible indications already? Getting lots of calls from folks with questions, etc?

We’re averaging 30+ calls per hour at the office … e-mail is packed … I’m burning through many, many minutes on my cell phone … I’m writing with lots of short sentences …

Are you going to be running the caucus at Mason? It will be no small task to keep the caucuses orderly given the level of passion out there in the Clinton and Obama camps.

Yes. I am the area coordinator for Mason Middle School. I’ll have a big gavel. The individual caucuses will be handled by our trained PCOs for those precincts. It’s going to be an exciting, fun time for our city, county and state.

The word from McCarty:

Same story with the Republicans. I have never seen the Pierce County Republicans so excited. We have as many web site hits in the past four days as in the past year. Over the past 3-4 election cycles I had been getting fewer than five calls at my home – total - asking “where is my precinct and what happens at a precinct caucus?”

Over the past 4 days I have been getting that many calls per hour. And our district leaders and the Republican Headquarters on St Helens are getting the same level of calls. Wow! There are some pooled caucus locations that in 2006 and 2004 were cavernous for the 20 folks that showed up, now we are worried may not be big enough for the hundreds that may show. And we are sharing several venues with Nathe which may further stress those facilities.

I don’t see the Romney campaign suspension affecting the turnout. It is still about Senator McCain and those who want someone else. No different than those who want Senator Clinton and those who want someone else. 2008 is proving to be an exciting election year at the top of the national ticket and even more exciting at the top of the state ticket between Dino and Christine.

That is the question facing many editorial boards this time of the year as presidential primaries roll through states.

You may have seen executive editor Dave Zeeck's column Sunday about the rules for the news staff: Party primaries, in which voters have to make public declarations of their party affiliation, are off limits to reporters and editors who have anything to do with political coverage. He's taken some flak for the policy — it won him a Schrammie last night (I would wear that like a badge of honor if I were Zeeck).

The News Tribune's editorial board members aren't planning to cast votes in the Feb. 19 primary either. No one had to tell board members to abstain – none of us wants to be publicly pigeonholed as members of one party. Maybe it's just the Washingtonian in each of us.

But across the country, not all editorial board members are of a like mind. A lively debate is raging right now on a listserv of the National Conference of Editorial Writers; most editorial writers who have weighed in think it hypocritical to urge readers to vote and then not do so ourselves.

What do you think? Below are just a few excerpts from the NCEW debate. You can post your thoughts in the comments.

=> Read more!

I spoke to state Rep. Sam Hunt Tuesday just minutes after his committee had tabled its scheduled vote on House Bill 3292, legislation that would require public bodies to tape their executive sessions. (See today's editorial.)

Given this week's deadline for getting bills out of committee and the fact that Hunt's committee wasn't supposed to meet again this week, the bill appeared to be dead.

But Hunt — who said he's a yes vote — told me to stay tuned. Sure enough, on Wednesday, the Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs suddenly scheduled another meeting for tonight at 6 p.m. On the agenda: HB 3292.

This might have something to do with the fact that the bill was prime sponsored by Majority Leader Lynn Kessler. She has a history of getting her way. Here's the word from a former Olympia insider:

Last year, Sam Hunt virtually killed Kessler’s Sunshine Committee bill by amending it to exclude the AG’s Office from the committee. Darned if Lynn Kessler didn’t amend it back the way she wanted on the House Floor. That’s the power of resurrection.

That being said, it’s very rare to resurrect bills that don’t make it out of committee. It happens to maybe one or two bills out of the 1,000 or so introduced each year.

In 1972, the nation was roiled by protests against the Vietnam War. U.S. Sen. George McGovern, the antiwar Democratic standard-bearer, challenged Richard Nixon's re-election.

The News Tribune endorsed: Nobody.

Editorial writer Kim Bradford was doing some historical research today when she came across a TNT editorial published Nov. 2, 1972. It began:

This year we break with tradition and make no recommendation upon any of the individuals appearing on the election ballot. This goes from the high office of president to legislative and county offices . . .

We now believe it better policy, and more helpful to the voters, to speak more freely about candidates during the campaign, while refraining from final judgment by endorsement. This, we believe, will place us in a more equitable position to comment on behavior of public officials during their term of office . . .

I have no idea how long this unusual stance lasted, but it surely can't have lasted very long. It looks more like laziness than principle to me.

We do have some readers who resent our endorsements and think we are just throwing our weight around. Our editorial board believes it's inconsistent to pass judgment on public officials all year long and then offer none when they appear on the ballot. In our view – and that of most newspapers – endorsements are part of the newspaper's service to readers.

And readers are always capable of making up their own minds, especially when it comes to choosing a president. In my experience, our endorsements have more influence lower down on the ballot, where readers are not as familiar with the candidates.

By the way, the Los Angeles Times, one of the nation's great newspapers, endorsed presidential candidates for the first time in 36 years when it endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain for the Super Tuesday primary. The Times was a rare exception in the industry.

One difference between the Times and the TNT: Their editorial board got to interview the leading presidential contenders. No such luck here.

Two former Seattle port commissioners have urged the Legislature to create a port reform task force to study, among other things, consolidating the ports of Tacoma and Seattle.

In a Seattle Times oped piece today, Henry M. Aronson and Alec Fisken proposed creating a single Port of Puget Sound, arguing that competition between the two ports hampers the region in competing with other West Coast ports.

Aronson and Fisken also propose splitting off Sea-Tac Airport as an independent public agency. The airport provides 60 to 70 percent of the Port of Seattle's revenues but has nothing to do with maritime trade.

That, I think, makes a lot of sense. Consolidation, not so much.

Heard a good line today from Jessyn Farrell, director of the Transportation Choices advocacy group and expectant wife of Tacoma Port Director Tim Farrell.

I asked if she and Tim were in the name-picking stage yet. As a matter of fact, Farrell said, it has been suggested that they follow the custom of naming their children after virtues, like faith, hope, or charity. Except in this case, the appropriate virtue would be "mobility."

I can see it: "Freight Mobility Farrell."

Maybe you have to be a transportation policy wonk – or an editorial writer – to get it. More later on J. Farrell's thoughts about regional transportation governance. Short version: It's not going anywhere in the Legislature this year.

What Super Tuesday proved is that Barack Obama can't "close the deal with voters."

That's the morning-after spin from the Clinton camp, anyway. If you like to see political source material, here's the real deal from Mark Penn, chief strategist (master spinner) for the HIllary Clinton campaign.

=> Read more!

I hobnob with the powerful all the time. Why, I ran into Lyle Quasim the other day at the Hilltop dry cleaners where a lot of politicians, judges, police and firefighters get their shirts and uniforms done. My shirts keep good company.

Naturally, I had to ask Quasim if he's pondering his options for the future. (He takes light starch on the shirts.)

Quasim is chief of staff for Pierce County executive John Ladenburg, who is term-limited this year. Ladenburg is expected to run for attorney general. (UPDATE: Ladenburg just announced he will run. Click here for the story.)

Quasim, former DSHS secretary and founding director of Tacoma's Safe Streets organization, has spent 44 years in government service, both here and in his home state of Illinois. He is a battle-scarred bureaucratic warrior, a victor in a ferocious wrongful-termination suit against the state. You'd think he'd be ready to pack it in.

For years – decades, actually – Quasim has without fail attended the Black Collective's Saturday morning meeting in Tacoma. Some weekends he then heads for Vancouver, B.C., where his wife lives, and returns to Tacoma on Monday morning.

That could get a little old. And his wife's been retired for three years, Quasim said. He didn't say he's going to retire for sure. But I doubt he'd follow his boss to the AG's office if the opportunity arose. The commute's even longer from Olympia.

If there's anything that ought to be an inviolable rule for American politics, it's that the people have a right to know where the money's coming from.

In other words, full disclosure of campaign funding - including money spent by so-called "independent" groups.

When the Swift Boat Veterans "independently" went after John Kerry's war record in 2004, at least the group had to disclose the sources of its funding.

But today, independent groups on both sides of the political spectrum are waging aggressive campaigns for presidential candidates - and they don't have to disclose their funding sources.

The Wall Street Journal reports that such groups file as non-profit 501(c)4 "social welfare" groups. They can't take money from corporations or unions, but they can directly urge support or defeat of candidates. All they have to do is attest that they spend the majority of their funds on education rather than campaigning.

As the Journal article notes, many groups interpret the rules creatively. For example, the Trust Huckabee organization figures that 90 percent of the voters who get a recorded message for Huckabee hang up before they hear the culminating exhortation to vote for the candidate.

So they reason that only 90 percent of the cost of telephone campaign for Huckabee counts as campaigning; the rest is education.

Campaign reform groups contend such tactics violate the law, but so far the Federal Election Commission and the IRS have shown no inclination to act.

Both Huckabee and Barack Obama have asked some independent groups campaigning for them to stop using objectionable tactics, to no avail.

In the Swift Boat episode, at least the public eventually learned who was putting up the money. Who would have thought that some of today's independent groups would make the Swift Boaters look clean by comparison.

A letter to the editor in the Tri-City Herald, our sister paper on the other side of the mountains:

I think that having a woman president would be a bad idea for our country. Women are not meant to rule countries and be in charge. They are meant to make decisions but not confirm them.

Our president deals with some countries that don't respect or allow women in leadership positions. I wonder if the United States would have more terrorist attacks because we would be seen as weak with a woman leader. I agree that women can do many things, but leave the ruling of the countries to the men.

BRITTANY BAYLES, 13, Kennewick

Anybody remember the term "consciousness-raising?" Some needed here.

(Submitted by former TNT guest columnist Rick Migliore of University Place, who used to work in the Tri-Cities.)

Want to know why we wily media types want city councils, county councils and school boards to tape their executive sessions?

Only because we want to sell newspapers and jack up ratings.

Yep, our concerns about the occasional tendency of local elected officials to talk about embarrassing or sensitive topics in private when the law says they can’t are pure moonshine. So says the group that represents the state’s school board members.

Consider these excerpts from today’s legislative roundup distributed by the Washington State School Directors Association:

Requested by the Attorney General and the State Auditor, this bill is a solution in search of a problem . . . violations of the executive session provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act are very limited. 

Granted, when there are violations — or perceived violations — they become big news, but mainly because the news media continues to be the major proponents of loosening executive session and Public Disclosure Act provisions (including limiting the current attorney-client privilege laws).  The news media cares more about selling newspapers and garnering ratings than ensuring confidential matters remain confidential . . .

Here’s a news flash: In real life, newspapers make most of their circulation revenue from home-delivery subscriptions. These readers take their daily newspapers regardless of whether the day’s news is sensational or not.

You’ll never see a knickered newsboy on a downtown streetcorner shouting, “Extra! Extra!. Tacoma School Board violates Open Meetings Act!”

Details on the bill here.

One more thing: Oregon law allows reporters to sit in on executive sessions. They're bound by confidentiality rules, of course, but they can blow the whistle if officials start talking business that should be conducted in public.

Ed Stanley, the Thurston County official who was to address Pierce County transportation leaders Wednesday morning, had to cancel his appearance.

Stanley, a Tumwater City Council member and chairman of the Thurston County Regional Planning Commission, will speak at next month's RAMP meeting instead. He was scheduled to discuss a possible "transportation benefit district" involving Pierce and Thurston counties.

Word is that Stanley expects to be up late tonight during a City Council discussion of a controversial Wal-Mart store proposed in Tumwater.

The Tahoma Audubon Society hates the Cross Base HIghway. Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg is the highway's biggest advocate.

They had a bitter fight about including it in the (ultimately doomed) Roads & Transit ballot package last fall. So why is the group giving Ladenburg a community service award at its annual banquet Feb. 22? Tahoma Audubon Executive Director Bryan Flint explains:

Thanks for asking. Despite our disagreements on the cross-base highway, our members feel that John Ladenburg is the most environmentally minded county executive Pierce County has had.

Some of the accomplishments include: purchasing of floodplain for salmon habitat and flood control, championing low impact development, a county wide tree protection ordinance, championing the bonding of conservation futures so that we could buy larger pieces of habitat, and pushing for farm protections. The executive was willing to stand up to the development community on key issues in the Directions package, that now does a better job of protecting streams, wetlands and natural areas.

When it came time to hire a new parks director, Ladenburg listened to our concerns and even let the conservation community interview the top candidates and give input. His ultimate decision replaced an all-ball-fields-all-the-time director with one who truly values the natural parks and their potential. Even his controversial golf course, if it pans out financially, will fund an environmental learning center.

We have not always agreed with the Executive but believe in giving credit where credit is dues and applaud the work he has done to protect the environment. At his inauguration speech to begin his second term over 50% of his speech was given to environmental accomplishments and goals for the future. I hope that his two terms will be seen for that important work. It truly is a legacy that can outlast any man-made accomplishments.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy plans to kick off her campaign for county executive Thursday with an event at a restaurant owned by former County Executive Joe Stortini.

The affair will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Joeseppi's Italian Ristorante, 2207 N. Pearl St. in Tacoma. From McCarthy's announcement:

McCarthy works tirelessly as County Auditor. She has been a strong leader for positive change in our elections, recording, licensing and animal control divisions within her office. She was recognized as Auditor of the Year in 2005 for ensuring accuracy and impartiality during the controversial 2004 Governor’s race.

“I have the experience and accountability that’s vital for the Executive’s office,” McCarthy said. “I am excited for the opportunity to continue serving the citizens of Pierce County as the next County Executive.”

Prior to being elected Auditor, McCarthy served two terms on the Tacoma School Board.

“I believe in and will provide good, smart and honest government,” she continued. “As Executive, I will address important issues of public safety while creating livable communities and a government that’s answerable to the people it serves.”

McCarthy's campaign manager is Katie Rose, who managed last fall's Tacoma City Council campaigns for Julie Anderson and Spiro Manthou. Both were re-elected.

As noted previously, we're endorsing a bill in Olympia that would require local government bodies to tape their executive sessions – as a way of making sure they comply with the Open Meetings Act.

My only concern with HB 3292 was whether judges would have to grant every request for a judicial review of a taped meeting. If that were the case, the bill could create a real burden for the courts.

Attorney General Rob McKenna strongly backs the bill. His office addressed my question by citing the bill report

“In an action alleging a violation of the OPMA's provisions regarding executive sessions, the challenging party bears the burden of proof. If the challenging party supports its allegations with credible evidence, the court shall review the recording of the executive session in camera. As part of the in camera review, the court may make inquiries of the parties to fully and fairly resolve the issues before the court. The court may not divulge the contents of the recording to the plaintiffs or its counsel. If after such review the court finds that the executive session was not in compliance with the provisions of the OPMA regarding executive session, it may order disclosure of those portions of the recording that are found to be not in compliance, subject to other exemptions as may exist in law. The remainder of the recording may not be disclosed.”

That settled it for me. The requestor has to provide "credible evidence."

On a lighter note, Greg Overstreet, former open-meetings and public-disclosure expert in McKenna's office, does a nice blog riff on local government officials who seem to think that the technology of taping an executive session is daunting.
Nothing a kid couldn't handle, Overstreet notes.

Turnaround editorial on Super Tuesday, to be written on evening deadline depending on available results.

(Backup lead editorial: We favor legislation requiring local government bodies to tape their executive sessions as a way of keeping them honest. If a citizen or the press can show there’s reason to suspect that an open meetings violation occurred, a judge may review the tapes in private and rule whether there was a violation.)

We endorse the Federal Way School District’s four-year levy renewal on the Feb. 19 ballot.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Pierce County officials are beginning a tentative courtship with Thurston County that could lead to a two-county transportation proposal for voters.

A meeting Wednesday with Thurston County officials will be a first date, at least.

Here's a heads-up on the agenda for this weeks's RAMP meeting from Paul Ellis of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce:

Tumwater City Councilmember Ed Stanley, newly-elected chair for the Thurston Regional Planning Council, and a contingent of leaders will open discussion on possible transportation funding partnerships with Pierce County.

Ashley Probart from the Association of Washington Cities--widely acknowledged as the authoritative source on transportation benefit districts (TBDs)--will give an in-depth presentation on how these districts can benefit transportation funding and how they can be established;

Participants will provide updates on local transportation issues and activities, including (if time permits) a brief update on federal funding secured for Pierce County projects.

RAMP is a countywide transportation coalition for Pierce County. It will meet at 8 a.m. at the Fabulich Center at 3600 Port of Tacoma Road, near the Port of Tacoma Road exit off Interstate 5.

You wouldn’t expect a Republican proposal for property-tax relieve to get anywhere in a Legislature controlled by Democrats, but state Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, is hopeful.

He’s proposing asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would exempt up to $100,000 of a homeowner’s principal residence from state property taxes. The exemption would be paid for by a reduction to the state property tax levy, so that more of the property-tax burden wouldn’t be shifted to businessess.

The $100,000 cap would be allowed to increase over time, using an inflation index tied to the growth of state property tax collections. His proposal, Zarelli says, would not hurt local government tax collections.

Zarelli is ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which is having a “property tax day” on Thursday. A GOP caucus aide says Zarelli’s bill has picked up three Democratic sponsors, and he has an appointment with the governor next week.

No word on what the fiscal impact of the exemption would be. Zarelli’s tack is prompted by complaints from business groups that property tax breaks for homeowners inevitably mean that businesses end up paying a larger share of local property taxes.

Late last year, some Senate Democrats vowed legislation allowing homeowners to defer payment of property taxes until their homes are sold. But critics point out – rightly – that it’s not a smart move for homeowners or the state.

One bill moving in the Senate, SB 5256, a holdover from last year, would exclude veterans disability benefits from the calculation of eligibility for senior citizen property tax relief.

One of the things I'm always thinking when we discuss federal budgets – like the one President Bush proposed today – is how heedlessly we – all of us – are mortgaging our children's futures by running up the national debt.

Uncle Sam is living off the national credit card, and our kids and grandkids will get the bill.

Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw, writing in Sunday's The New York Times,
has the same view in a column headlined, "My Birthday Wish: Not Burdening our Children."

My birthday wish is for all of us to stop asking what the government can do for us today. Instead, we should focus on what we can do together to prepare the economy for our children and grandchildren.

That means getting ready to care more for ourselves in old age, perhaps by retiring later, perhaps by saving more. I hope that when I celebrate my 100th birthday, my descendants won't look upon Grandpa and his generation as the biggest economic problem of their time.

Although Mankiw is a former adviser to President Bush and now is advising GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Mankiw says none of the presidential contenders is seriously suggested how to pay for the overwhelming Social Security and Medicare obligations that lie ahead.

The national debate will have to shift from which tax cuts do the most good to which tax increases do the least harm.

1. Tacoma police, learning lessons from the Zina Linnik case, have taken welcome steps to avoid another debacle with the Amber Alert system.

2. The way the Puyallup City Council hired the city attorney as the new city manager suggests the council is getting careless about honoring the spirit as well as the letter of the Open Meetings Act.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Dee Margeson, an activist with the Central Tacoma Neighborhood Council, sent this word to the group's members and allies today.

It follows our Saturday Page One report on a "high-level visioning" look at the potential for redevelopment of the area around Foss High School, Cheney Stadium and Metro Parks headquarters. The story mentioned a park district study of "revenue opportunities" -- the first I heard of it.

Titlow Park: Titlow Park has the potential for waterfront restaurants and a hotel that will compliment the waterfront and forest environment. The development opportunities at the park include the Tacoma Outboard Association (TOA) property.

Swan Creek and BlueBerry Park: Swan Creek and Blueberry Parks have potential for residential development in partnership with a "Housing Authority."

Neighborhood Urban Village Mixed Use Centers

The next priority is for the development of Neighborhood Urban Village Mixed Use Centers as a conversion of existing recreational fields. Existing recreational fields under consideration are as follows:
Peck Field
Headquarters/Foss/Heidelberg
Other developed/undeveloped properties

There are a few positives in this document; but wanted everyone to know that the "Heidelberg Complex" is coming to your neighborhoods also.

I'm sure all of these notions are a long way from gaining any official approval, so don't go running for pitchforks. But it pays to pay attention.

Update: Margeson provides this link for the full report on the Metro Parks web site.

I traded emails Friday with state Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, before I wrote today's editorial about Citizens for Responsible Justice losing a conditional $1.1 million grant from the state.

C4JR wanted to provide supportive housing for released inmates in Pierce County, but its application turned out to have so many inaccuracies that state officials withdrew approval.

Here's part of my exchange Regala, who teamed with state Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, on a major prison reform bill last year. I asked her what could be done to avoid concentrating supportive housing in neighborhoods like Tacoma's Hilltop.

I agree that any program for formerly incarcerated persons in Tacoma, especially, will be a big challenge. It won't be solved at the state level alone; local officials will have to be engaged in this conversation also.

If we don't want a concentration in one or two neighborhoods - there will need to be a determination of where these folks can live that helps them connect to the services (i.e. treatment, education, transportation) that they need. Out in the suburbs where there are no services or available transportation is not a solution. After housing, transportation is the next highest need.

It's complicated and multi-faceted and will require lots of thoughtful, non-emotional discussion

But the reality is that folks who have been incarcerated will continue to return to our community - some under DOC supervision; some not. Housing is a major challenge.

Many people transitioning from incarceration have little or no money. They are not provided any money for this purpose by the state. They may have some money saved from any minimal wages they received while incarcerated. Some, of course, have family who are willing to help them - or religious organizations willing to sponsor them.

I am aware of some small faith-based organizations providing this service in our community. But other former inmates do bounce form place to place or shelter to shelter and homelessness. That makes it doubly difficult for a CCO (community corrections officer) to keep track of them.

Hopefully, we have headed in the right direction with these pilots, but it's clear it is a mine field.

Bethel School Superintendent Tom Seigel tells me that things are looking good for legislative funding of the district's proposed regional skills center.

Seigel said legislators on the House Capital Budget committee appear receptive to the proposal. The committe is scheduled to vote Tuesday on $130 million in bonds for skills centers around the state. Seigel reports:

Right now it looks like the funding is for 3.15 million for all the design and preconstruction work. The balance, $42 million, plus change, will
have to come next year. If the full amount was funded this year we could
have this on line in 2010, rater than 2011, but we will take it whether
sooner or later.

State Sen. Marilyn Rasmusssen, D-Eatonville, is championing the proposal in the Senate. The Bethel district will take control of the skills center site – a Safeway location at 160th and Canyon Road E. – on Tuesday.

The other participating districts in the skills center are Tacoma, Sumner, Eatonville, Orting, University Place, Puyallup, Franklin Pierce, Fife and Steilacoom.
See our most recent supporting editorial here.

The next state revenue forecast from Chang Mook Sohn, the state economist dubbed “Dr. Doom,” is due on Valentine’s Day.

Nobody’s expecting good news, least of all the governor and Democratic leaders negotiating over the state budget this year. They’ve already signaled that they may trim, rather than add to the $33 billion two-year budget the Legislature passed last year.

And they agree that the governor’s call to leave $1.2 billion in unspent reserve will be honored. To some extent, they have no choice because of a new constitutional requirement for a rainy-day fund that can be tapped only in fiscal emergencies.

Even without a gloomy Valentine from Dr. Doom, there’s plenty of reason for state budgeters to batten down the hatches. Dick Davis, blogging for the Association of Washington Business, points to a six-year budget forecast produced for the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Davis notes:

“By the end of the next biennium, in 2011, the outlook shows the General Fund running in the red by $937 million. Looking out to the end of the 2011-2013 biennium, the General Fund shortfall is $2.5 billion. The outlook also looks at the emergency reserve account and budget stabilization account, both of which would be drained (assuming the requirements to tap the budget stabilization account could be met). . .

Of course the state won't spend into a hole that size. Adjustments will be made as necessary. Spending will be trimmed. Taxes may be increased. And the economy may outperform the estimates, although the new revenue forecast next month is likely to show that this estimate is optimistic.”

The budget picture for many other states is even worse.

=> Read more!

Sat:
Topic to be determined. May reverse-publish a blog item.

Sunday:
Our endorsements for the Democratic and Republican presidential caucuses on Feb. 9.

Citizens for Responsible Justice clearly was not up to the task of fulfilling $1.1 million grant for providing temporary housing for ex-convicts. But the need for the service remains.

Monday:
We rarely endorse a Tim Eyman initiative. But two bills aimed squarely at Eyman’s initiative machine would also do serious damage to the right of initiative in Washington -- a right established in the state constitution.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.