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In the back row Councilmember O’Halloran looks on as Councilmember Rivera questions Renton Public Works Director Martin Pastucha about traffic issues that would be raised by closing Tobin. The City Clerk and City Attorney are in the front row.
Tonight’s Public Hearing on whether Renton should give up South Tobin Street raised numerous questions and appears to not have resolved whether South Tobin Street will in fact be vacated. (See background on this issue here).
The hearing began with Councilmember Ryan McIrvin recusing himself because he is married to a school board member, which seemed to me and many others in attendance an appropriate choice.
Of the remaining six councilmembers, three Council members voted against advancing the vacation request, and three voted for advancing it.
The Mayor then stepped in to break the tie, voting to advance the vacation request to the next step: appraisal and preparation of an ordinance.
But left unspoken was that Washington law requires FOUR COUNCIL MEMBER VOTES TO PASS AN ORDINANCE, including a VACATION ORDINANCE. The Mayor can’t break a 3-3 tie to pass an ordinance. The Mayor is now preparing an ordinance that he does not have the votes to pass. RCW 35.23.11 says “No ordinance and no resolution or order shall have any validity or effect unless passed by the votes of at least four councilmembers.” Additionally, RCW 35.12.100 makes it clear the Mayor can’t vote on a tie to pass an ordinance: “The mayor shall preside over all meetings of the city council, when present, but shall have a vote only in the case of a tie in the votes of the councilmembers with respect to matters other than the passage of any ordinance, grant, or revocation of franchise or license, or any resolution for the payment of money. “
So the School District is now on notice that they only have three Renton Councilmembers supporting their vacation request, and they should be careful about spending taxpayer money to further the design based on the closure of South Tobin Street.
The District and perhaps the Mayor might start approaching Council Members to change their positions, but this should be done in the light of day using a fair, open public process. Many, many people will want to know why any Council votes gets changed at this stage, following a very public meeting and a very memorable vote.
Procedural errors tonight:
There were a few procedural errors tonight that kept the Public Hearing from going as smoothly as it should have, and might have denied some legitimate public comment.
The first error was not as significant but it got things off to an awkward start. The Mayor first called on a speaker for a public hearing that was scheduled later on the agenda, and that speaker gave his full testimony. After this, the Mayor began calling names from the correct public hearing.
Then many speakers were surprised that the public comment was limited to three minutes, when it is typically five for a public hearing. This surprise caused some speakers to rush their testimony.
I’ve been told by one resident that he had signed up to speak, and he was never called on. There may have been others in this group as well. It’s possible that the two signup sheets for the two hearings got mixed up during the sign-in stage. Such a mixup is unfair to the public and should have been corrected at the hearing. The Mayor could have said “Is there anyone who signed up that did not get a chance to speak?,” which is commonly done at public hearings.
Lastly, at the end of the hearing, there was a three-to-three voice-vote regarding advancing the vacation request, and the Mayor erroneously called it a win for advancing the vacation. It took Councilmember Carmen Rivera firmly insisting on an accounting of each vote (essentially a roll call) before the Mayor agreed it was a tie. That’s when he said he voted to advance it.
Strong testimony by public with many good ideas suggested:
There was strong testimony delivered by many residents tonight, and some of it deserves further discussion in a follow-on blog entry. The full meeting with the public testimony can be viewed here.
Councilmember Carmen Rivera properly questioned the Mayor’s calling of a three-three split a win for advancing the vacation request. Councilmembers Rivera, Van, and O’Halloran had voted no. The Mayor then voted yes to break the tie to advance it. It advances the issue to writing an ordinance, but the ordinance requires four votes to pass.
Author’s note: I’m confident that both City and School District attorneys will be reading this blog entry, and I encourage them to correct me if I’m mistaken in my understanding of Washington State Law on these issues. You can leave a comment here on this blog entry, or contact me at my first and last name at gmail dot com, or phone me at 425-271-6913 and leave a message.
Wow, Randy, once again breaking City of Renton news. Why didn’t the City Attorney speak up about the requirement for 4 Council Member votes? So many questions racing through my mind, I’m so glad we were in attendance at Council for this historical event. Taking away a city street for a ball field — government policies have ripple effects for many years to come, as you pointed out with the Houser St. closure.
Thank you Council Members O’Halloran, Rivera and Van. You listened and made the right decision. Do not let the coming efforts to dissuade you, weaken your resolve to serve & stand with the public.
Marcie Palmer
Councilmember O’Halloran correctly discerned the serious issues raised by those testifying in the public hearing. At the initial vote, Mayor Pavone inaccurately reported the vote as 4-2 in favor of petitioners. I was sitting a couple of seats behind the front and had a line-of-sight view of Councilmember O’Halloran during the voice vote, and I definitely observed she voted “nay”. After an awkward pause, Councilmember Rivera brought to the attention of the Mayor that the actual vote was 3-3, that O’Halloran had voted “nay”. Councilmember Van asked the City Attorney to confirm whether the Mayor could cast the deciding vote in the case of a tie. City Attorney confirmed yes, other Councilmembers asked the Mayor how he was voting and he said “aye”.
Thank you Ron for this insightful comment, and for your excellent testimony at tonight’s hearing.
Happy that the council is deliberating and not just doing what they’ve been told to do.
I completely agree with you Anonymous. It was a healthy Council discussion last night. For the first time in a while I felt that Council Members were taking back their power.
Wow! I just finished watching the meeting—it lasted three hours! Randy, what are your thoughts on the motion to pause the public art project until more community feedback is collected, and also on the pause for the cameras? They had very intense discussions, spending about 30 minutes on each topic.
More time on artwork than permanent road closures it would seem in watching it
Correct me if I’m wrong, the last time we closes a street to the public and gave it away was for Paccar?
(well barring all the unused bicycle lane that are taking over our streets)
Yes, Houser Way was closed for Paccar in 1971. Twenty years later the city had to spend millions of dollars developing the Houser Way Bypass and tunnel, to handle the traffic congestion created by the loss of Houser Way. I covered it with maps and documents in this blog post here.
There have been much smaller vacations of alleys and at least one shorter local street segment since that time, but never again has such a busy road as South Tobin Street or Houser Way been vacated.
When I was on Council we also worked a thirty-million dollar deal to get Logan Avenue open when Boeing was surplussing part of their land. Boeing could have sold the Logan Avenue corridor that crossed their site to a private company as part of a large industrial parcel. To open Logan Avenue (through the former Boeing site), we spent years coordinating the Landing project in a way that benefitted Boeing and the public. It was no small matter, and Renton had to initially put tens of millions of dollars into infrastructure. One of our main objectives during the project was to get Logan open to the public, and not let it stay blocked by a large parcel.
For these reasons it’s hard for me to understand casually closing a street just so that the new baseball field is adjacent to the science building of a rebuilt school.
I need to address what you said about bikes. The city has not closed a single street for a bike lane anywhere, and there is not a bicycle lane takeover either. Renton has 753 lane miles of roads. We have 3.6 lane miles of traffic separated bike lanes in this city, of which 2.3 are being installed this week on Oakesdale Ave SW. None of these bike lanes connect together yet, there isn’t a network for people to use and until there is you wont see many bikes. We don’t judge sidewalks based on how many people we see using them, same should go for other forms of infrastructure for people who do not drive.
Thanks Tristan for the valuable perspective about bike lanes. I was very impressed by your testimony at the hearing, and I thought you made very important points about the significance of Tobin for pedestrians and bikes. I agree with your position that if the City were to ever vacate this property (and I hope they don’t), that they should include provisions that it remain open to public pedestrians and bike riders. I just don’t see any of the arterials being as safe or inviting as Tobin is for non-motorized transit today.
Thank you for the clear and fair coverage of this issue! I was unable to be present for the meeting as Monday nights seem to be a favored time to schedule every kid’s after school activity, but I was wondering how it was going all evening. I’m grateful to be able to find the information and follow-up so quickly. I think the suggestion of at the very least waiting until the two-way changeover of the other road is complete is a great option, along with leaving a public area on the existing roads for walking and biking. I hope if the school district insists on going forward with this that the delay and continued public use paths are both required by the city.
So now what is the mayor going to do? He doesn’t have 4 Council votes to move the Tobin Street Vacation forward. It would seem that the Renton School District will “magically” find a way to continue pursuing the grossly overrated ball fields without the street vacation. Meaning it could have been done without all this nonsense in the first place. How very embarrassing for the mayor, and school superintendent who arrogantly believed they had control. Maybe this will be the tipping point for Renton Council to finally start actually serving the public instead of the so-called “leaders”.
Oh to be a fly on the wall on the 7th floor of City Hall this morning to witness the meltdown!
But not to worry, there is more coming, that will have you scratching your head, again, on the dubious decisions the mayor makes. Stay tuned…
Ain’t out of the woods yet.
What is the public recourse
What is the public recourse
What is the public recourse to this
It may be time to start reporting violations.
https://ethics.wa.gov/
https://kingcounty.gov/en/independents/governance-and-leadership/government-oversight/office-of-the-ombuds/ethics-violation-complaints
https://www.rentonwa.gov/City-Services/Records/Public-Records-Request