 Get moving!
Check out the 3 new cardio trainers at Game Farm. Our Parks Director, Daryl Faber sent me this photo with the caption “Triplets!” Auburn is committed to fitness. The weather will be getting better (soon, I hope) and I encourage you to visit our parks for fun and fitness.
Tuesday arrived finding me excited and just a tad bit nervous. It was time for my first State of the City Address at the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce. The theme was “Disrupting the Status Quo.” Some might think that is a strong term, but if you want to shake things up a bit, sometimes a strong statement is just necessary! Your team at city hall has promised three things:
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The City of Auburn will provide more transparency through technology. Our IT department has added services to what we call your virtual city hall. These are tools that can help you do your business with your city more conveniently. We are also looking for ways to help you find the information that you need – it shouldn’t be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
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We will increase citizen engagement through non-traditional means. We will be coming to your neighborhoods more often, meeting you where you are instead of expecting you to always come to us. As I’ve mentioned before, we are in the middle of our visioning process related to the comprehensive plan. Give us your input now!
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Break down the traditional ways that government does business. We have merged our Planning & Public Works departments into one new department – Community Development & Public Works because their functions are so closely related and important to Auburn’s upcoming development. We need to hear your opinions – NOT tell you what we think you need. We will continue to develop public/private partnerships to more effectively serve you.
Here’s the video of the full speech – in case you’d like to watch it.
 Wednesday night, most of your city council and I attended the monthly Sound Cities Association (“36 Cities * A Million Citizens * One Voice) Networking Dinner to hear Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (pictured above) speak on his priorities and his perspective on regional issues. It was refreshing to hear that he will not simply focus on Seattle issues, but as a former legislator, he understands the importance of working together as a region to resolve concerns that impact all of us. Mayor Murray and Renton Mayor Denis Law also shared a friendly banter over which city is really the home of the Super Bowl 48 Champion Seattle Seahawks. Renton is the home of the practice facility, and Seattle is home to CenturyLink Field. It was all in good fun!
But really outside. Your elected officials spend a lot of time working around the region on our shared issues. Thursday afternoon, Deputy Mayor Wagner attended the Citizenship ceremony hosted by the US Citizenship & Immigration Service for 12 new Americans from 10 different foreign countries and an audience of about 50 additional people. Rich gave a short speech – here’s a short excerpt, “You have studied and worked hard. You have pledged allegiance to the United States of America. I hope you're as proud of yourselves as we are proud of you. I imagine you have already felt like Americans in your hearts and in your minds. Now you are Americans on paper, too, with the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship.”
While Deputy Mayor Wagner was at the citizenship ceremony, I was meeting with Congressman Reichert and the mayors from his district to discuss issues of concern for us. No surprise, we all mentioned transportation funding, recreational marijuana related issues, and economic development. We also noted our disappointment in government’s partisan politics. Reichert agreed and is also concerned by the overall split within his party. He said he has been labeled a “moderate” in the past, but he doesn’t want to be boxed in to that descriptor. He prefers to be labeled a “thinker.” After listening to him for a while, I tend to agree with him.
We are going to repeat last week’s question, as we did not provide you with a link to respond. A couple of you sent me an e-mail, but I know there are more of you that wanted an opportunity to weigh in. Here’s the situation & question again:
As most of you know, we recently increased the speed limits on West Valley, East Valley and 37th St back to what they were a couple of years ago. A citizen received a speeding ticket in December while the limits were lowered. The citizen is asking if there is any thought by the city to giving a retroactive “forgiveness of tickets” since the limits have now been raised. What do you think?
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