Tillicum

About Puget Sound Clean Air – On the day after July 4 when America celebrated with bombs bursting in air, I’m preparing my case to argue before the Pollution Control Hearings Board about chestnuts (actually hot-dogs) roasting on an open fire.

The sign on the gate at Harry Todd Park in Tillicum declares the place closes – and the gate gets locked – at 9 P.M.

I drove into the park – through the open gate – at 9:45 P.M. July 1, to see why a bonfire and the comings-and-goings of a number of cars was, well, on-going.

A cracked Liberty Bell summons to America. Forever.

Sometimes to initiate a newbie to our youth group we’d randomly place on a sheet, in full view of everyone, a dozen or more eggs right out of the carton. The new kid on the block was then blindfolded and challenged to walk from one side of the sheet to the other with the objective of not stepping on any of the landmines.

On the one year anniversary (June 18) of the death of 28-year-old Patrick O’Meara, killed by Lakewood Police in a felony arrest attempt shortly before midnight in Tillicum, Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson comments on the city Facebook page:

“Mr. O’Meara’s death was tragic. It was tragic for him, his family and for the officers who he, by his willful choice, forced into a situation where their lives were threatened and they are involuntarily compelled to live with the consequences. Was it “suicide by cop,” most likely; or just being incredibly stupid? Perhaps we will never know. Officer’s lives will not be risked and policy will not be changed based on an individual’s grudges.”

Survey results are in. You said no. Doesn’t matter.

When then-Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditz (TNT, November 24, 2012) proposed a tax increase on Lakewood’s residents – specifically for electricity and gas utilities that would have generated an additional $350,000 annually to help balance the 2013-14 budget – Lakewood’s Mayor at the time, Doug Richardson, said “people have to heat their homes and cook their food. Given the current economic times, we didn’t think it was wise to increase that tax.”

“Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”

My father served in Italy during World War II in the 10th Mountain Division. He never surrendered. Never left a man behind. Never compromised his principles.

For “jobs too dirty, dangerous or dull,” robots excel.

There are three vacancies – one-third of the nine – on the City of Lakewood’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC).

The job description requires obtaining “citizen input and advising the City Council in developing and monitoring public safety policies” – like shopping carts and dunk tanks.

“I think your style alienates people from your cause more than educate and activate them,” writes a critic.

There comes a point where it becomes more than obvious that those with the responsibility (Public Safety Advisory Committee) to actually perform their duties in keeping with their self- and council-mandated job description: aren’t.

In his book “Boards That Make a Difference,” author John Carver describes the common malady of boards that as to making a difference: don’t.

Dunk tanks – based upon both the volume of water they hold and the volume of words by which the members of the Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) held-forth in discussing dunk tanks – evidently matter more than a discussion of the Lakewood Police Department’s Use of Force Policy (UFP).

The April 2nd minutes of the PSAC – as found in the May 19 Agenda Packet (p.024) for the Lakewood City Council – contain 108 words dedicated to in-depth dunk tank deliberations.