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We recently published a video where I interviewed some local residents of the City of Newcastle. One was Bill Erxleben, a former Newcastle City Councilman and 15-year resident Nola Coston, who had been involved in founding an informal group of locals called “Newcastle Watchdog” as a way to track and report on their concerns about the City of Newcastle’s unsustainable financial decisions.
I have a strong attachment to the City of Newcastle. This is where I was born and raised (long before it was a city). My father finally sold his 20acre farm and the house he built in the 1970s about 20 years ago. Our old family homestead is now a housing development, with only part of a fence and some trees we planted decades ago still standing as largely overlooked evidence of what once existed. My father was heavily involved in founding the City of Newcastle in 1994. He served on the City Council in the 1990s. He repeatedly warned about the inevitable conflict between the bureaucracy and it’s natural tendency to expand and those who are must be strong enough to resist the bureaucratic bloat. In Newcastle today, the bloat of bureaucracy is ascendant, and (as always) they want to raise taxes to cover their unsustainable expansion. The current city council appears to only have a few elected councilmembers willing to question or confront bureaucratic bloat, so new taxes are on the agenda.
Two issues seem to have inspired recent attention by locals in the City of Newcastle. The first was the proposed Utility Tax – which hits everyone who lives in Newcastle – home owner or apartment dweller alike. The second is the $1.5 million deficit projected for next year. During a time of high growth and prosperity, neither topic is indicative of a healthy or sustainable financial path – regardless of how the bureaucrats try to spin it.
However, these recent developments are really a continuation of the problems which local citizens like Nola and Bill have been uncovering and exposing for years including the unsustainable growth of the administration and bureaucracy in this small city. It includes the questionable $7.5 million purchase (without an appraisal) of the current City Hall. This includes the money squandered on endless plans, consultants and odd-ball efforts like $50,000 to pick a color for the signs in the City of Newcastle. While the bureaucrats may blunder through failures and avoidable mistakes, they are never held accountable, and a majority of the council has tended to rubber stamp everything the City Manager proposes (see contract for city manager here).
No one decision is a disaster. Some mistakes are probably inevitable, but the accumulation of waste, incompetence, poor planning, and a complete failure to manage costs ensures that the city’s future will be dominated by higher taxes and low services.
One reason the City of Newcastle will always have lower services than either neighbors Renton, Bellevue, or Issaquah is the fact that there is little commercial or retail businesses located in the city, and due to land constraints, there will be very few added in the future. Additionally, the expansion of high rise apartment complexes bring some initial one-time development dollars to the city, but due to the increased need for police and fire services (ladder trucks in particular), the costs to run the city are only escalating. With no effective effort to control the expansion of employees or their escalating pay/retirement plans, the city’s taxpayers will be footing the bill.
A city like Newcastle has only one viable sustainable option – keep taxes low by restraining the bloat of bureaucracy. Don’t hire more central planners, stop hiring consultants for every whim and fancy the City Manager cooks up, and reduce the paid staff to the bare minimum. Find ways to run the city as leanly as possible and spend some time focused on how to reduce the costs of mandated services – fire and police for example. The City contracts most services – fire and police with the City of Bellevue, district court with the City of Mercer Island, etc. There is no need for a large paid staff, yet the bureaucracy from the City Manager to the feeding frenzy of consultants are always pushing for more hires, more plans, and more escalating costs. Long after these employees have moved on to their next government job (very few live in the City of Newcastle), the local residents will be stuck paying the escalating bills and trying to manage the debt.
The residents of Newcastle are fortunate to have concerned and engaged citizens like Nola and Bill and others who are willing to dig, attend meetings, and expose the truth. Local media is mostly non-existent, and what little attention regional media might pay to Newcastle will likely be co-opted by the paid public affairs employees the City Manager uses to promote his plans. The citizens who don’t profit from government grants or paid government employment must band together to be the watchdogs of their local government. Nobody else will do this for them – unfortunately, that includes a majority of the local elected officials. Over time, they can elect more assertive councilmembers, but even when they do, the local taxpayers have to stay engaged and vigilant to keep their city on a sustainable path.
I would encourage the people who live in Newcastle and care about their community to join local citizens like Nola and Bill. They have an email list, which can be signed up at NewcastleWatchdog@outlook.com . They don’t have a website at this time, but it seems likely they will organize something like this in the future. More people need to engage just like Nola and Bill and keep an eye on their local governments where they live. The future belongs to those who show up, and as Newcastle and other places repeatedly demonstrate the failure to show up will ensure the future won’t be sustainable for those who want to live there.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDER’S INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
Background articles and documents:
City of Newcastle – Propose 2019 Budget
Employment Contract with Newcastle City Manager Robert T. Wyman – 2019
Newcastle Watchdog – Editorial 9-2-16 – about the Purchase of City Hall
Newcastle Watchdog – Editorial – the Future of Newcastle – 12-12-16
Newcastle Watchdog – Article – Newcastle Mayor bashes Newcastle Citizens – 1-7-17
It’s interesting people are trying to discredit Nola by claiming she ran for office but lost and is bitter about it. There’s a man in the Newcastle Neighborhood FB group making the same claim- could “Newcastle Resident” be the same person? Facts are important… and the fact is, Nola Coston has never run for Newcastle City Council. Perhaps the real “kook” is the person making that false claim about Nola?
I’m a Bellevue (Newport Hills) resident who attended the Newcastle Council retreat with Nola in 2017. It was shocking to witness the acrimony and finger pointing amongst Newcastle’s council members. Some of them also attacked the city manager, including people with whom I’d been told he was aligned. “Poopshow” is an apt description of that retreat.
After the meeting I approached the city manager to express my sympathy for having to work with such a dysfunctional council. Because one council member had lamented about the city’s inability to attract a Trader Joe’s store I decided to ask the city manager why their Economic Development Director hadn’t aggressively pursued a TJ’s and other retail/commercial opportunities given how many ADTs (Average Daily Trips) there are through Newcastle’s commercial district via Coal Creek Pkwy. Imagine my surprise when the city manager revealed the city council had gotten rid of the Economic Development Director position around the time he was hired (he noted he’d been with the city about 7 years at the time of our conversation). Things became oh-so-clear to me at that point… Newcastle had gone off the rails in over-permitting residential development (permits & fees are a finite source of income) while allowing commercial/retail development opportunities (B&O taxes are a renewable income source) to slip away because NO ONE was manning the helm of Economic Development!
What’s even more concerning to me is that in (June?) 2017 City of Newcastle hired Steve Osguthorpe as the Community Development Director, including duties for Economic Development. HOWEVER… Mr. Osguthorpe has outsourced his Economic Development duties to consultants. How does that make any sense? In a city that desperately needs economic development to save itself WHY isn’t there a dedicated Econ Dev Director? Why is one person covering two incredibly important positions that warrant separate dedicated staff members in nearby cities? My guess is the city manager and some council members will point to the budget and ask where they’re supposed to get the money for a dedicated Econ Development Director. I’m looking at the Community Activities Coordinator position and wondering why that couldn’t be eliminated, along with any other non-essential positions, and the money saved allocated instead to a dedicated Economic Development Director? What’s the point of having a Community Activities Coordinator if your city is on the brink of bankruptcy? Is that seriously how the city manager and the council manage their own homes & finances, by spending on non-essentials while their homes are in danger of foreclosure? A savvy, motivated, and well-connected Economic Development Director is worth their weight in gold.
In my opinion the Mutual Materials property *should have* been developed largely as commercial/retail with a much smaller # of residential units, but that ship has sailed, hasn’t it? A fabulous opportunity lost because there was no Economic Development Director seeking out those opportunities in a recovering economy (circa 2012). I keep watching the retail spaces sit unoccupied at the new mixed use development built on Newcastle Way and shaking my head. I’m hearing people express support for redeveloping both the QFC and Safeway shopping centers as mixed use, with ground floor retail and 7-10 stories of residential units. Density is good, right? Add a gazillion residential units to support businesses, right? Except by stupidly focusing ONCE AGAIN on overbuilding of residential units the opportunity for Newcastle to create a vibrant commercial/retail “town center” will be lost, this time for forever. There’s no way in Hades that Coal Creek Pkwy will be able to handle the additional traffic congestion by adding hundreds more housing units in that already incredibly congested area, and there’s no way to mitigate impacts. If City of Newcastle had a dedicated & smart Econ Dev Director they would intead be pushing for redevelopment of those centers as multi-story commercial/retail centers with great restaurants, stores, and other services. Not only would that keep Newcastle’s money in the city, but it would entice those in nearby areas (like Newport Hills!) and those passing through via Coal Creek Pkwy to stop and spend their money. There are certainly the ADTs (Average Daily Trips) on Coal Creek Pkwy to justify that kind of development (35K+ and continuing to grow, according to the commercial leasing agents for Newcastle Commons). Another smart move would be to encourage building a pedestrian bridge over Coal Creek Pkwy that would connect the two centers & create a walkable commercial district. “No money for that”, I can hear people say… make it part of the development agreement for both centers, I say… it will benefit everyone, including the center owners via increased sales.
But apparently there are not smart decisions being made at Newcastle City Hall. So much money is being wasted in staff salaries with so very little in return- ugh! I hope Newcastle residents will wake up, start doing their own research, stop accepting as gospel what city staff & council majority tell the public, and vote for good decisionmakers in this upcoming election. The life expectancy of City of Newcastle depends upon it…
By the way, City of Bellevue has TWO citizen “watchdog” type groups: One Bellevue (focused on citizen education & encouragement of citizen participation) and Clarity Bellevue (FB page focused on holding city staff & council accountable for transparent decisionmaking in the best interests of Bellevue citizens).
Nola is a Kook who couldn’t get elected, so she slings mud. Meh.
Usually, the defense of poor behavior by bureaucrats and elected officials starts by attacking those who dare to question. You are following the script…
“The future belongs to those who show up,” Amen to that! Also it takes courage to stand up to the mean ol bureaucrats, but I guarantee they will show up!
Excellent point – the bureaucrats and the consultants will ALWAYS show up because they are taking your tax dollars and can only get more if they show up. It is rare that anyone is even considering the local taxpayers.
That is on us! Somehow we believe that government will limit itself and if we just ignore it it will self regulate. Just like letting the fire in the fire place grow beyond the confines of the fireplace and thinking it won’t consume any thing else, same mentality.
Absolutely. Couldn’t say it better myself
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