Clyde Hill News: King County Priorities Survey
Also: Clyde Hill’s stormwater system… how is it doing?
This past week’s Council Study Session was cancelled on short notice (for good reasons) and has not yet been rescheduled, so no news to report on that front. Before moving on to other news, our disclaimer:
Disclaimer: while I am a councilmember on the Clyde Hill City Council, I write this newsletter in my capacity as an individual resident. Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the position of the City. The information and references here are from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about City business I will respond from my City email account.
Priorities
King County Council Chair Claudia Balducci represents King County’s District 6, including Clyde Hill. She recently sent a flyer encouraging residents to participate in a community priorities survey here:
I really can’t say enough good about this… I strongly encourage you to fill out the survey and help inform our representative to the the King County Council.
This survey from Council Chair Balducci offers a good model for how to solicit feedback. The City of Medina offers another model: throughout the year, Medina residents can find out more and offer feedback at Community Forums (link) on topics like Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
Today, Clyde Hill residents can send an email, or speak during the Public Comments section of the monthly City Council Meeting.
Ideally, our process would openly involve all residents (as the two models above do), report back to residents about “What we heard and what we plan to do,” and offer a clear statement of priorities to frame the request for feedback.
Council Chair Balducci’s survey is a welcome example of how to listen and lead. I’m excited to figure out how we can get more of that here locally.
Stormwater System Status
As many Clyde Hill residents can tell you, making sure that surface water has somewhere to go is important. Here are sandbags that a Clyde Hill resident deployed with help from the City to deal with errant stormwater near 17th Street:
Drainage is especially important when you live on a hill and landslides are a concern. From Clyde Hill’s Hazard Mitigation Plan:
In anticipation of the Study Session item on stormwater, I looked around for information about the status of Clyde Hill’s system. Our neighbor Medina makes this information easy to get to (link). Clyde Hill’s information is available if you go to the State’s Department of Ecology website and hunt around.
The City’s most recent Program Compliance Evaluation with the State regarding stormwater identified many issues the City needs to address. Here are some excerpts from one of the reports on https://ecology.wa.gov:
This particular exchange is from about 10 months ago. I’m looking forward to the City Administration updating residents and the City Council on this important topic.
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Dean Hachamovitch