This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
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Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
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Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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Former Tacoma mayor Brian Ebersole thinks the City Council should have openly debated the offer City Manager Eric Anderson put before Russell Investments executives Monday.
Here's Ebersole's message, and the responses I received from Anderson and Mayor Bill Baarsma: (See our editorial Wednesday morning).
Ebersole:
Hi David, May I suggest a line of thought for an editorial? As much as I want the Russell Company in Tacoma, I was really bothered by today's story.
Evidently, the city manager has offered 65 million dollars to help keep the
company here. That is a BIG policy decision.Either he polled the City Council in private beforehand which is doing the public's buisness behind closed doors, or he didn't poll the council which is usurping the role of the elected councilmembers to make public policy. Unbelieveable.There should have been many, many public hearings and much open discussion on this action.
Some would say invest in 12 smaller home- grown firms such as Brown and Haley and Divita. Some{such as me} would say invest a bit in homeless shelters to keep the transients off the sidewalks downtown. 65 million, even if its bet on the
come, is worth a public discussion! And the public discussion should have
happened BEFORE the announcement of the offer of massive amounts of public
money.Not to mention the creation of an International Financial Services
District. Another hugh policy decision that should be made by the council in
public.Now the discussion is biased.
Brian Ebersole
Seago
Bill, Eric,
We assume that the city manager wouldn’t have made the offers of city tax breaks to the Russell Group without the implicit approval of the council. But Brian Ebersole raises a fair question: Is this the sort of thing the council should have discussed and decided publicly before making the pitch? did the council in effect make a decision in private that legally should have been made in public session?What answer would you give Ebersole or any other citizen who raises this issue?
Baarsma:
Dave: The assumption is correct. There was tacit approval albeit no formal vote or affirmation in detail. It was more of a show and tell with feedback. I believe that everyone is so concerned about the company leaving that whatever Eric came up was ok. The city attorney has assured Anderson that there was no collective decision made.
We had an after the fact discussion today at the Committee of the Whole meeting. I guess the answer here is the stakes are so high that the city had to come up with the best and most reasonable proposal—so in the end, whatever the decision might be—we did our best. Also, with this form of government the only staff support for such a proposal rests solely with the city manager.
Bill Baarsma
Anderson:
To answer your question, as I prepared the proposal for the International Financial Services Area and Russell, I wanted a general sense of the Council’s comfort level of the direction I was heading. I spoke with individual Council Members about the need to eliminate the local B & O tax on international financial services. I did not ask for a vote, but asked that if I were heading in a direction they opposed, that they indicate so to me. I did not ask them to confer with each other concerning this.
Based upon my belief that it was an acceptable strategy, I told Russell that I was prepared to propose the elimination and that, in my judgment as City Manager, it would pass. I included it in the presentation.
Seago to Ebersole:
Brian,
I note that the city's proposal says all of the city's proposed actions are subject to the approval of the City Council.I agree there is the appearance of implicit approval by the council, but I'm not sure that a decision has been made in the manner that would be a violation of the open meetings law.
All of this is far from a done deal.
Dave
Final comment by Ebersole:
Dave, I agree with your analysis. My point is that [1]the city council,not the city manager, should be making this policy decision and[2]they should be doing it in public with public imput. The city manager is acting as though saving the presence of the Russell Company is the City's top priority. That is a policy decision for the Council, not the Manager. He is to carry out the
will of the council, not determine their direction.What if he announced saving shelter services of Martin Luther King Housing Development was the top priority? Or providing more low income housing? .Or fixing potholes.Or providing more public money for low income city reidents to get higher education? Why bother with elections for council members.If the Executive Council wants to give away private money,swell. If they want to give away the citizens' money, go to the citizens'representatives. Everyone else has to. It's messy. It's humbling. It'ss not business-like, but it's the way democracy is supposed to work.
COMMENTS:
It has been common knowledge for some time now the The Russell Group has been looking to leave. All of a sudden it's a rush job that has to circumvent the rules? Who gave the Manager the right to hand out $65 Million to the Russells anyway? There are other programs in the City in desperate need of funding , yet we're going to hand over $65 Million in incentives to an already filthy rich conglomerate? This makes no sense at all.
Ebersole is no doubt well intentioned, but he misses a number of future political processes that would be required to actually enact any package with Russell.
All of the parties are well aware that City Manager Eric Anderson has no present authority to bind the city in any of the possible terms that the city could offer in the future. All he can discuss are possibilities.
The Tacoma City Council would have to vote to enact any of the steps discussed and would have to take public input beforehand at least once on any terms.
The City Council could then agree or decline to enact any of the steps Eric Anderson discussed today. Thus, the City Council nor the public process has not been bypassed in any manner.
The process pretty much has to work out this way.
Otherwise, the council would be trying to work out an incentive package slowly piece by piece that Russell may not actually want which is unmanageable.
It is also unmanageable for a 9 member city council to try to negotiate anything directly. That is more of a role of an executive. All they can do is approve or disapprove of potential agreements and legislation before them.
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