Talking Kelso

And by “incredible,” I don’t mean “big”.

New councilmember Rick Roberson held a town meeting for South Kelso last night at city hall. The city manager and I joined Rick, and we were pleased to spend half an hour with Mr. Howard Monroe, the only citizen who attended!

I don’t know if the meeting wasn’t publicized enough, though I saw it mentioned in the paper and on KLTV, or if we’re just doing such a great job that no one has any comments, questions or suggestions. It’s got to be the latter, right??!

Attending council meetings can be an intimidating proposition for citizens.  The council members sit up there with what appears to be a huge pile of information explaining the items that are being considered, while the audience frequently gets an outline, at best, of the issues under discussion.

We’re hoping to make it much easier for you to get the exact same information we get as council members.  At each meeting, we’ve had binders identical to the ones we receive available at the back table (where we used to have only agendas).  There are only a limited number of those copies available, though.  A way to make sure you get a hold of the information is to check the City Council portion of the city’s website. Each meeting’s agenda and the related information for the council will be posted there.

The main goal is to take a little bit of the mystery and intimidation out of visiting a council meeting.  If you have any other suggestions on how to accomplish that, please leave a comment.

Here’s what’s on the agenda for February 19:

Recognition of Senator Sid Snyder – We’ll be revealing a plaque recognizing former state senator Sid Snyder. The plaque will be presented to Senator Snyder at a ceremony recognizing Joe Moses at RA Long High School on March 1.

Airport Presentation – The airport manager, Denny Wise, will present an update on the future of the airport.

Planning Fees – Commercial projects have been required to reimburse the city for fees the city pays to outside engineers for plan review. These projects are reviewed by outside engineers because the city does not have the necessary engineering staff to review these types of projects in house. (Commercial projects are hard to predict, and we had few of them in the years preceding 2006.) Because we can’t always control the cost of an outside review, developers have no certainty in the cost of the city’s plan review. We will hear a proposal to fix the cost of these services, so that we can give a firm price to potential project developers, instead of asking them to write a ‘blank check’.

Solid Waste Management Plan - We will consider the adoption of the county’s new Solid Waste Management Plan.

Animal Control – The council will consider the approval of the annual contract with the Cowlitz County Humane Society. The 2008 contract amount is proposed at $68,332.

These are the main items we’ll be looking at. For a full agenda and packet, just like we councilmembers receive, visit the council section of the City’s website.

After interviewing four applicants, the council unanimously chose Rick Roberson to fill the council seat vacated by the resignation of former mayor Don Gregory. Rick was a councilmember from 1999 to 2001, so he brings some experience along with him. That experience was one of the key factors that gave him the nod in my book.

We were extremely fortunate to have a group of strong candidates for the position, and the decision to choose Rick was probably not as easy as the unanimous vote might have made it appear. Stephanie Sparks, an employee of the City of Longview, had no direct council experience, but had a great handle on how the city runs internally. She was also a very well-spoken candidate with a lot of enthusiasm about the future of Kelso, and the decision between these two candidates was a tough one for me. Not only that, but the other two candidates each had unique strengths that would have helped them be solid councilmembers as well.

When the council appoints a member, that person really only fills in until the next general election. If they want to continue beyond that point, they’ve got to run for the seat. That makes this appointment a mixed blessing, since Rick would need to win in a 2008 election to have the right to fill the seat for the remainder of the term, which expires one year after that! In other words, two campaigns in two years is what it will take to have the position long term. Stephanie Sparks stated she’s interested in running for the position, so the citizens will get the chance to make their own decision on which candidate is better. And that’s the way it should be.