The last time Port Orchard’s mayor held court at the dog and pony show he calls his town hall meetings, he waxed sentimental at evening’s end and talked about the kids. Said he likes to “deputize” youngsters and tells them their job as deputy mayor is to “just tell everybody you see you love Port Orchard.”
Because, gosh darn it, if folks just realize how nice and friendly everybody is here in Mayor Tim Matthes’ town, then pretty soon things will start to turn around for sure. You betcha, kids. read more »
The will of the people.
We heard that concept invoked a lot by indignant critics of the Washington Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Initiative 1053 — approved by voters in 2010 as the latest iteration of the two-thirds approval requirement for the Legislature to raise taxes — is unconstitutional.
Was the will of the people thwarted? And should that never happen?
I’d answer no to both questions (and I’m a power-to-the-people guy to my core).
It’s hardly unprecedented for a state supreme court to block voter-approved initiatives because they are unconstitutional (and the odds of that seem greater when a Tim Eyman-sponsored initiative is involved). Nor is it surprising that our state’s high court ruled the supermajority requirement is out of line with our state’s constitution. read more »
A remarkable level of cooperation among all the stakeholders who want to see:
led to a heralded plan that was designated to receive $7 million in state funding. That would be combined with about $5 million more raised from grants and other sources, for the Kitsap Forest & Bay Project — a coalition of community and conservation groups — to buy as much as possible of the land Pope Resources wants to sell.
“It was robust and big, it was visionary,” Tim Nord said of the agreement. “Everybody was supportive of it.” read more »
My cousin who’s a Facebook denizen is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. Lots of his posts spout garden-variety gun rights bravado, but some I find tasteless and offensive. I usually resist the urge to respond and call him a gun nut, because that doesn’t help foster thoughtful discussion about addressing gun violence.
My congressman, Rep. Derek Kilmer, is a Democrat who also says he supports the Second Amendment, but for him that support doesn’t preclude considering reasonable measures that might help prevent senseless violence that shocks us to our core, as happened at a Connecticut elementary school. read more »
Intriguing questions abound that will be answered in the new year. Some of them political, though 2013 will be blessedly free of major elections and the bombardment of foul attack ads they bring.
There will be a couple significant 2013 elections in these parts: Will voters in February decide it’s time for Silverdale to incorporate?
Will the Democrat appointee who replaces Derek Kilmer in the state Senate for 2013 be able to hold that 26th District seat (for the remaining year of Kilmer’s term) next November running against Rep. Jan Angel, the Port Orchard Republican who easily won re-election to her third House term representing the 26th?
It won’t be decided by voters, but we don’t have long to wait for an answer to one of the most compelling questions in the new year: How far can the Seahawks go in the NFL playoffs? read more »
This might be my last column.
That’s right, by the time this edition comes off the press, I might be long gone on a hang-gliding adventure in New Zealand or dancing the samba on the beach in Rio.
Assuming, of course, that I bought the winning ticket in the $500 million Powerball drawing.
Daydreams like that are the result of dangling the allure of what one online columnist called “Romney riches” in front of a gullible populace.
Is such whimsical fantasizing a bad thing? A little “what if” indulgence now and then seems harmless enough, even if the odds of winning last week’s riches were pegged at 175 million to 1. read more »
By the time readers get this issue of the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal, many of them probably will have voted. So even if I wanted this column to influence anyone’s choices — I don’t — and even if I deluded myself into thinking my opinion could have such influence, it would be too late.
For the record, political endorsements made by the Business Journal are publisher Lary Coppola’s choices, and that’s as it should be. Suffice it to say that his political views and mine don’t align perfectly.
Regardless of who’s elected president, governor or county commissioner, this election cycle should compel everyone who claims to cherish and defend our democracy to take a hard look at what’s happening to it. Because it’s being corrupted by appalling sums of corporate money funneled anonymously through so-called “social welfare” groups, while the two-party system ignores critical issues and excludes important alternative voices. read more »
Too bad this epically nasty presidential campaign, swamped by a toxic tsunami of super PAC cash, has been dominating news coverage for weeks.
Believe it or not, there have been more significant and interesting revelations of late than Romney’s secretly recorded remarks dissing 47 percent of the population in the country where he believes he should be president.
So take a breather from obsessing over whether a dangerous socialist or an out-of-touch elitist will prevail in November.
For a few moments turn your musings to other consequential matters: Will replacement refs be the ruination of the NFL? Has science found that marijuana could be a cure for cancer? read more »
He warned me.
That’s what Port Orchard Mayor Tim Matthes, who obviously holds a grudge, replied when I asked if he had a few minutes to talk with me.
Our brief face-to-face encounter at City Hall reminded me that this mayor prefers not to face certain things — reality, truth, pesky reporters — that he finds unpleasant and threatening.
He walked past me with his fingers in his ears singing “la-la-la, I can’t hear you!” OK, not really, but that was essentially the attitude expressed by the mayor, who coincidentally just recently decided that public relations training would be a good idea for city staff. read more »
