Hoping for good things out of Olympia and DC

Outside my work office window at City Hall is a lovely cherry blossom tree. Each year I notice different varieties of birds enjoying the first nectar of the season. This year, an unintended surprise landed upon the scene; an early migrating hummingbird, I suppose from someplace much warmer. A shout out to hummingbirds everywhere – welcome home and thank you for being a part of my happy space.

It is always near the end of April when anticipated news comes to the city from our state legislators. Sine Die (Seen-aye Dee-aye) meaning, without a day, a term used to describe an “adjournment when the date to reconvene is not specified”. In layman’s terms – the state legislative session is complete for the year. Between all the bills going back and forth between state senate and state house of representatives, the City Council also has a state legislative agenda, which is a list of council approved priorities requested of our state legislators, Sen. Jeff Wilson and Reps. Jim Walsh and Joel McEntire. These legislators do a remarkable job of representing the city’s priorities while away in Olympia writing and advocating for and against bills and policy for the state.

In addition to the many trips our council members and staff make to Olympia to advocate on behalf of our city, the city does employ a lobbyist team to represent us in Olympia. State lobbyists Josh Weiss and Annika Vaughn from the firm Gordon Thomas Honeywell work directly with our legislators to advocate for our city’s legislative agenda. Some of the capital budget request priorities for the 2023 session from the City of Longview included: Martin’s Dock at Lake Sacajawea infrastructure replacement, Windemere park playground replacement, and Highland’s neighborhood lighting. The city is hopeful that these priority items will be funded this session. We also advocate for changes to certain public policy measures including concerning law and justice, public safety, housing, and costly regulations and burdensome mandates for example.

Early in May a few council members and our city manager will collaborate with our federal congressional representatives, U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez and many federal agencies in Washington DC, facilitated by our federal lobbyist Joel Rubin of CFM Associates. Our federal legislative agenda includes congressionally directed spending requests for Hope Village, Columbia Heights Road Safety Improvement Project, Phase 2, Downtown Streetscape Project, and a Dedicated Fill Line to Water Reservoir Project, Phase 1. While in DC, we will talk with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Transportation, and

For more Longview, see page 19

City of Kelso

Mike Karnofski Mayor