Parting words from the mayor to the activist community

author : Mark Foutch topic : Olympia City Council

by Mark Foutch

[Editor’s note: Works in Progress strives to present progressive voices and perspectives that are otherwise underrepresented and marginalized. We have, however, occasionally granted space to mainstream or already prominent voices in order to spark discussion. In this case, Olympia Mayor Mark Foutch offers criticism to the local activist community on the eve of his departure from office.

Look to the next issue of Works in Progress for responses to Mayor Foutch’s comments.]

They say that the first sign of insanity is the urge to write a letter to the editor. And with only a couple of weeks to go on my sixteenth and final year on the Olympia City Council, I must be positively “certifiable” to try just one more. Still…

Reading the December Works in Progress, I was struck by how many writers completely miss the connection between actions by previous Olympia councils, initiated and supported by the progressive activist community, and how those actions have influenced the past two council elections, with results the same activists now complain about.

I think three issues—the uss Olympia controversy, the Nuclear Free Zone, and this past summer’s opposition to naval vessels visiting during Lakefair—have been key in this political shift on the Council.

The draft resolution that would have put the Council on record as opposing a visit by the uss Olympia contained such inflammatory language that it inevitably produced a local, regional and even national backlash. Despite the fact that the Council ultimately took no action, anger and frustration still festers in many parts of our community and the belief is still widespread on the Internet, for example, that the Council “told the sub it couldn’t come.”

With the Nuclear Free Zone ordinance, it didn’t seem to matter to its advocates that the Council earlier had joined Mayors for Peace and passed a resolution calling on national governments for the worldwide, complete, enforceable and verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons. (We received no complaints about that action, by the way.) Instead, an actual ordinance had to be adopted, despite years of experience in other cities showing that such ordinances could have very little, if any, practical effect.

Many, many voters in Olympia did not like those two actions by their Council. They wondered, “Where did this all come from?” They were justified in their curiosity. During the 2001 and 2003 elections, not one candidate included “international peace activism” as a platform goal in any of their campaign materials. Now those voters—and campaign supporters—wondered if they had been deceived. And they were angry and frustrated. They felt that their community’s reputation had been hijacked by a minority of activists acting through stealth candidates elected to the Council.

In the 2005 campaign, council candidates encountered this anger while doorbelling. Voters that year elected new councilmembers that the activist community bemoaned as “conservative.” But they failed to make the connection as to what had motivated the voters, and the candidates. And so, as the 2007 campaigns heated up, local activists came to the council with another proposal guaranteed to outrage those same voters yet again. They didn’t realize it, but their timing couldn’t have been worse—or better, depending on which side you were on.

Somehow still believing that they were on a roll, activists not only requested the Council go on record prohibiting naval ships from visiting during Lakefair, they issued actual threats of what would happen if the ships came. People watching this spectacle on tctv, or reading about it in the newspaper, were appalled. The language used in making those threats was worthy of Tony Soprano. To summarize:

“Nice little community celebration you got here. We sure wouldn’t want that little community celebration ruined. Our local people are nice and peaceful, but if militants from as far away as Oakland or Bellingham come, who knows what might happen? And it will all be right there on Channel 5.”

That spectacle became the nail in the political coffin for any candidate known or even suspected to be supportive of bans on subs or ships or the ineffective Nuclear Free Zone ordinance. The voters sent in their ballots with that fresh in their minds. And now activist writers in Works in Progress, and I imagine in the many blogs that float around the community, are bemoaning the so-called “conservative” candidates just elected to the Olympia City Council. But they admit no responsibility for their own earlier insistence on ill-advised council actions that prompted this backlash by the voters.

We should all count our blessings. The backlash certainly could have been a lot worse. Three very public spirited, honest, dedicated and liberal candidates were elected to the Olympia council in 2007:

Craig Ottavelli and Rhenda Strub were the courageous minority voices on the Thurston County Planning Commission, holding the line against the forces that opposed reducing rural development densities despite a ruling by the Growth Management Hearings Board of Western Washington, responding to a complaint by the environmental group Futurewise. Rhenda, even before taking office, is now immersed in assisting the low income residents of Friendly Village who fear being evicted from their homes for redevelopment of the property.

Doug Mah has a long record of helping the hungry, the homeless, and the low income mentally ill in this community with his participation on the boards of the Food Bank and Behavioral Health Resources, his votes on the City Council, and in more private and personal ways as well. His initiative saved the low income feeding program in downtown Olympia when the Bread and Roses kitchen closed. Doug brought together B&R, the Salvation Army, and others to make sure that service was continued here. His commitment to the environment is manifest in his participation with the State’s Puget Sound Action Team. And he’s the first non-Caucasian ever to be elected Mayor in Olympia’s 150 years as a municipality.

You’d think local activists would be absolutely ecstatic with these new public officials but apparently not.

If there are lessons to be learned from all this, I doubt if the activist community is ready to accept them. But in my humble opinion, in order to accomplish its broader goals, any local elected body has to be very careful not to spend its precious political capital for no real gain. We are very fortunate to have voters here who seem to be able, so far, to separate gratuitous council actions that sometimes disappoint or even outrage them, from the need to support City projects and programs that will maintain and improve the quality of life. But we can’t continue to take that support for granted.

As former mayor Holly Gadbaw used to say, “Councilmembers are elected to be the adults in the community. Sometimes we have to say ‘No’.” Sound advice for any current or future Olympia councilmember.

I try never to miss an issue of Works in Progress. It’s always lively, provocative and informative, with information not available anywhere else in our local print media. And I’ve appreciated the opportunity you’ve given me from time to time to share my thoughts with your readers. I wish you all the best in the years to come.

Mark Foutch was Mayor of Olympia from 2004 to 2007, and was a City Councilmember from 1992 to 2003.