September 2008

by TJ Johnson

On Aug. 26, the Olympia City Council General Government Committee (Jeff Kingsbury, Rhenda Strub, Craig Ottavelli) voted unanimously to repeal the city’s Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance. The recommendation to repeal will come before the Olympia City Council at 7pm September 9.

The vote came after city staff told the committee that out of all of the correspondence the city has received on the issue since January 1, 2004 through today, 216 people favored the ordinance, 38 opposed it, and 28 had no opinion. Despite the fact that 76% of the people who weighed in on the issue favored the . . .

June 2008

by TJ Johnson

Kudos to the staff at Works in Progress for the excellent articles in the May issue about the growing influence of development and real estate interests on the Olympia City Council.

During the course of my time on the City Council (2000-2001; 2004-2007) I witnessed a dramatic shift in how city staff and my Council colleagues approached development issues. While City leaders boast about their commitment to sustainability and the idea that growth should pay for growth, behind the scenes they are making every effort to fast track environmentally questionable projects, and using public . . .