neighborhood villages

Marymoor Village Community Center retreat location Council President Angela Birney announced in this week's Study Session the annual Council retreat will be Saturday, February 9th, 9-3 pm. The retreat location is Marymoor Village community center. Though it's open to the public only to watch , I for one will be joining others planting trees and shrubs in Idylwood Park.  Council member Hank Myers suggested the last 2-3 hours should be private so Council can discuss various City issues of concern without staff around.  Council goals:  Hank Myers wants to instill agility and creativity.   Steve Fields wants to enhance community involvement at every level.  He asked to "spend less time being taught and more time discussing."  Jeralee Anderson wants to understand roles and responsibilities (mayor/council/staff.)  Hank Margeson wants to provide a free form discussion. Police Chief Kristi Wilson said each City director will be next to a poster board fa...

Melissa Files, Director of City Finance reported this Tuesday that similar to the prior month, "revenue spiked 6% over target while expenditures were 3% under target.  Ms. Files indicated the reasons for this favorable report were similar to earlier monthly reports, as follows: She stated: "Sales tax on construction took a big jump to $5 million in December. Usually it's in the $2.3 million range.  Everything that has to do with development review - taxes, licensing, and permits - contributed to the favorable outcome."  Council member Steve Fields said "It looked like there were 4 months similar to what you described.  Does this begin to present a trend?"  Files answered, "Yes," that she was anticipating this in her forecast for 2019 but didn't expect it this soon.  Mr. Fields said "I appreciate this vigilance because I think it's important to our decision-making to know where we're at on our revenue projections."  Files said...

Six council members with mayor speaking under the park pavilion The Ribbon Cutting was at 5:30 pm. Council member Steve Fields was absent. Plenty of parking at the Community Center.  Thirty minutes after the ceremony the park was twice hit with a downpour of rain.   At 7:10 pm right before the events a deluge of rain occurred. My wife and I retreated to our home. Bob Yoder, 10/1 Facebook comment:   M Harrison Gallagher --   A refurbished Redmond pool is estimated at $20 million; a new Olympic pool such as the King County Aquatic Center is about $35 to 40 million. $42 million bought us a tree-lined concrete slab. Redmond has many deserving communities that are neglected.

Steve Fields (Internet} We all know that climate change is a huge issue in our country and our city.  In fact, during Council's retreat on Saturday, January 27, 2018 they voted "Green infrastructure  - Zero Emissions"  as their No. 2 priority, out of 7 priorities.   Sadly, in a Regular meeting on August 21 the council  rejected council member Steve Fields' request to represent the city in a global Green city-city conference.  All his traveling expenses will be paid by a  host city in China and a Canadian non-profit.  He was referred to the organizations by an acquaintance in the Chinese community. Regardless, Steve is going to the conference as a citizen or a public official if he is sanctioned by Council.  The conference is from 9/18 - 9/28.  After consulting with the city attorney and submitting a written report to council explaining conference benefits he requested the City sanction his participation so as not to be construed as a gif...