Federal Way Strong Mayor Campaign Is Only One Of A Proliferation Around The Country

Supporters of a campaign to change the form of city governance and install a Strong Mayor in Federal Way, WA are breathing deeply of a whiff of fresh air that appears to be blanketing communities across the United States.

Local voters who heretofore have been under the erroneous impression this election ballot was merely a honest local reaction and frustration to particular set of decisions and policies in our city by current and former sets of elected council representatives may be relieved to know that groups of equal adamant and vocal parties have been popping up in communities around the nation!

During a relatively brief informal search dealing with of the topic on the Internet of either discussing the pros and cons of a strong mayor, establishing a strong mayor form of government, amending a city charter to later allow for a strong mayor or the introduction of strong mayor type legislation such as Federal Way's own ballot initiative or debates over a previous installation or attempts to roll back a strong mayor has yielded a full basket filled with items from Columbia, SC; Sacramento, CA; Spokane, WA; Pueblo, CO; Miami, FL; Sarasota, FL; Seminole County, Fl; Muskogee, WI; Toledo, OH; Vallejo, CA; San Diego, CA and Dallas, TX to name merely a few.

The bursting sentiment is so trendy that I'm extending a personal invitation to anyone who desires to see for themselves to do so. Click up
your favorite Internet search engine and expand from there!

Extra money and sentiments appear to be right there.Even during this anbiguious period of economic restructuring elections are being held almost right and left. Federal Way supporters have placed the issue on the ballot twice in as little a space as one year. Who or whom has so much money to spend?

I'm quite mystified by the apparent willingness of so many cash strapped communities to spend what money and resources need to fund such elections while large cuts are being made to previously existing programs in all over the nation. But it seems reasonable then to conclude that the rewards for letting this change be diverted must certainly be good enough to let this cash go. When extra taxpayers funds are expended to finance these various amendments and elections - what are we the voters buying and whom are we purchasing it for?

No matter how distant the locale from our own Federal Way or how individual the regional issues are at hand supporters somehow manage to pluck the same set of slogans and reasoning to sell their message. There's music in the air. And it's echoed again and again in corners around the country. It plays in my ears as a symphonic exhortation drifting outward from the same tall and frustrating dusty hallway mirror. From state to city to town, the closely resembling list of charges and thinking points is so alike it's hard to say that they sprung from the mind of totally different souls.

After completing my search, I rose from my computer to take a little break from all of it. I felt as if I'd been listening to an orchestra.

Part 2: Are Local Strong Mayor-Council Drives Grassroots?

In the instance of Federal Way, a California-based organization by the name of Strong Mayor-Council Institute headed up by its president, Adrian Kwiatkowski, lists the city as one of many of whom they have had experience offering a full bank of services including: government structure research, charter amendment drafting, charter review process support, research and analysis, advocacy and public strategy, community and public relations and campaign consulting.

Kwiatkowski is also currently, director, government and public affairs for The Monger Company of San Diego, CA which boldly touts on its website that it is "a strategic advocacy firm that helps companies, organizations, and individuals win government and public support for their projects."

Monger's site shares with web visitors the firms acknowledged visibility and prominence on the political radar stating they've been "stirring up San Diego politics and businesses" since the mid-nineties. Monger takes credit for work on behalf of advocates for the passage of a Strong Mayor Charter City amendment in San Diego during 2004 - a movement which had been unsuccessfully sought by prior citizens for a quarter of a century. After the company personnel stepped in to educate voters those lists of desired changes could then be set in motion. Other successes the company has enjoyed in San Diego include the passage in March 2002 of the Taxpayer Protection Act (Proposition E) which the website proudly declares was accomplished despite sound opposition by city leaders, community organizers and ordinary citizens.

While enlisting, hiring or receiving advice from professional communication firms such as The Monger Company is day to day ordinary business when utilized and applied by individual citizens, candidates, governments and various business and social interest groups running democratic campaigns - in the interest of transparency alone there ought to be equal insistence the electorate be offered give such information in order to assist them to make a truly informed and educated decision on full merits of local initiatives appearing on the ballot such as the Strong Mayor-Council initiative.

If the definition of politics passed on to me back in seventh grade holds true - that politics can be defined by who gets what, when, where and why. What are the linkages if there are any between individuals holding memberships in local organizations who represent themselves to their fellow voters as purely hometown neighbors of modest means and resources reacting with fiery indignation against improper and unjust local policies wielded by entrenched and ill-defined elites and the agenda of larger less locally connected, regional, state, national and international groups? Exactly who and what are we actually voting for?

Given the swift plunge and decline of national and international financial markets and what were thought to be bedrock institutions only last fall, it's entirely reasonable that we whether in our roles as independent citizens or members of a larger society, whether liberal, middle-of-the-road, conservative, indifferent or abstaining have a greater charge and responsibility to look more keenly beyond the outer packaging of all products and ideas asking for our attention and support

Are Local Strong Mayor-Council Drives Truly Grassroots?

The approximate distance between the City of Federal Way and the City of Sea-Tac, Washington is somewhere in the general neighborhood of fifteen miles. There are times when the two cities feel much closer as during this period before upcoming elections.

In this respect the issues in fall campaigns in Federal Way and Sea-Tac more closely resemble a set of fraternal twins, fully distinct siblings at the surface, but familiar temperaments under all. Both cities call King County home and formally incorporated during the same year (1990). Both began lives with administration designed upon a City Council and City Manager mode of operation. Today, each city finds a group of vocal supporters loudly advocating at their front doors for initiatives which would result in a dramatic change in the style of community governance to one based on a Strong Mayor-Council format.

That both pro-measure websites and correspondence posted by adherents resemble each other in regards to slogans, sentence patterns and exhortations may well be linked to regional concerns or purely coincidental. However, it must be said while the issue appeared previously on the ballot in Federal Way only last year, a quick read of the letters circulated in Sea-Tac reveals such close sentiments that it's quite understandable how statements recorded in one locale might be easily compared or confused with the other.

What if much the same observation could be made for somewhat parallel if not identical like-minded campaigns now playing out in Columbia, SC and Sacramento, CA which came up on a simple Internet search.

(Go to part 2 for the rest of the story.)

Turning of Seasons, Elections, Brings Memories of Crisp Days And Thick Blanketing Fog

Above: Local initiative campaign sign. Photo copyright 2009 by Mizu Sugimura.

Like many adults of my generation, I spent far more childhood hours trying to occupy those extended time periods my parents and their contemporaries believed it was necessary for young people to play outside.

While half memories are not as precise as studiously gathered and recorded data, since I was a little girl I've connected the arrival of cooler mornings in fall and winter with a wave of nostalgia for those foggy mornings when swathes of frosty gray and white mist obscured the most familiar landmarks and signpost on the street that led to my elementary school.

Regular exposure to nature and the outdoors serves as an excellent reminder that a good part of our lives unravel daily in unexpected ways whether we are firmly focused upon these changes or not. During the upcoming election voters in the City of Federal Way are being solicited by backers of an initiative to change the format of city government to take back the theft of none less than their Constitutional rights and directly elect a strong mayor.

Do initiatives posing as timely topics purely generated by local citizens take on a different dimension? Would you want to be aware just how and why an organization with few if any personal ties to your community was more than willing to provide time, support and assistance to a vocal few?