PubliCola asked 2010 newsmakers to tell us what their 2011 resolutions were. City council member Sally Bagshaw wants to make the city's park system work in a year of budget shortfalls.


PubliCola asked a crew of 2010 newsmakers to write up their New Year’s resolutions for us. Not the "eat more vegetables" kind, but the political kind: What are they going to get done in 2011?

So far, we've had New Year's to-dos from Maj. Margaret Witt (the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell plaintiff and repeal hero), Republican King County Council Member Reagan Dunn, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5), and newly elected progressive state Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D-34, W. Seattle, Burien).

Today---rivaling Fitzgibbon's transit-heavy, 1,000-word piece for wonkiest resolution---we have city council member and parks committee chair Sally Bagshaw, whose resolutions are all about making the most of our city's parks and community centers in a time of budget shortfalls.

In 2010, I spent too much time reacting. In 2011, that is going to change.

The budget process brought this reality home to me. The mayor presented his proposed budget to the council in late September as required by city law, and the council adopted its version in mid-November.  That is how the budget calendar is set up, but it is cumbersome and leaves council members making decisions on the margin.



In the six weeks between budget delivery and budget passage, we council members sat through dozens of meetings with department heads and staff, and received input from thousands of members of the public. In this year of austerity, the public urged us to spare their favorite services and programs from the budget-slashing ax. “Don’t cut my community center hours.” “Please save our library”. “Don’t raise parking rates.” “Where the heck are my sidewalks?”

Tough decisions had to be and were made, and the budget we passed was balanced. We got the job done, but I felt like I was driving at 70 mph with my windshield fogged. We can do better.

My committee is Parks and Seattle Center. I am already working with Christopher Williams, our terrific acting parks superintendent, to start from the bottom and examine in detail how our 400+parks and 25 community centers are used. We will look at what programs are effective, what resources serve the most people and what assets benefit the most people for our investment of scarce tax dollars. What we do at the end of 2011 may look very different from how we are using those centers now.

We can use our reduced resources effectively if we work with the users of each community center to comprehensively examine how we use those centers now, and then leverage our newfound knowledge to make good choices. The process we have outlined, which will get underway in January, will allow us to listen to our employees, listen to our labor unions, and listen to those who use the community centers in each neighborhood. Even in this recession, our decisions do not always have to be cut, cut, cut---we can expand what works best, if we have the courage to trim what doesn’t work well.

Government cannot do everything for its citizens. By focusing on our assets rather than what we lack, we will figure out innovative ways to provide the services we want in our neighborhoods. This means that some of the services the city has provided in the past will have to be handled by other means or dropped entirely. In 2011, I am determined to discover those means and make the needed changes.

This is the challenge I look forward to next year, and this brings me to another takeaway from 2010. My short time on the council has proven to me that we are endowed with immense resources here in Seattle. The city has impressively talented and dedicated employees; we have an energetic and knowledgeable city council, and council staff, who are smart and a pleasure to work with. And, although he and I have had our differences, we have a bright and determined mayor who is doing what he thinks is best for Seattle. Most importantly, we have active and politically savvy citizens who give us the feedback and guidance that we need to govern effectively.

And two more thing: I will lose the 12 pounds I added because I haven’t been exercising enough. I would also like to accomplish the implausible dream: To convince my friend council member Sally Clark to take a flight with me in my club Cessna 172.