Results of the May 23rd meeting

Note: The audio recordings (three parts) are found here.

Reporting on this meeting will be shorter than usual because I didn't arrive until nearly the end. I was out of town visiting my wife in Holland, Michigan, for the past 10 days. My return flight was designed to get me back to DFW with enough time... assuming no weather problems. But the plane left Grand Rapids about 90 minutes late, and I arrived at DFW almost 2 hrs late. All this wouldn't matter so much except this is the one meeting of the year where the Council chooses a Mayor and Mayor pro tem for the next year. That still wouldn't matter so much except the other six Council members ended up being deadlocked at a 3:3 vote for both positions, and I ended up being the deciding vote, so they waited for me to arrive. I made it from DFW to Woodway in 2 hrs despite rush hour traffic. I arrived about 7:05 pm, only about 5 minutes or so after the regular business was finished.

One of the City Attorneys (Craig Cherry) was present to take the re-vote after I arrived, and it was an exact repeat of last year's vote. There were two nominees for Mayor (Don Baker and Bill Weber), and the vote was 3:4 in favor of Bill Weber. There were two nominees for Mayor pro tem (Jane Kittner and Gil Lillard), and the vote was 3:4 in favor of Gil Lillard. The Mayor has a lot of input in setting the meeting agendas and, of course, presiding over meetings. Don Baker is a highly-experienced and dedicated Councilman and former Mayor, on the Council since 1991 (see here for Council history, scroll down to the chart). Bill Weber is ex-military with lots of practical get-it-done know-how. He has lead the Council to ask new questions and look at some things from different perspectives. Overall, I think Woodway City government has been somewhat more responsive to our citizen's needs since Bill Weber took over as Mayor.

Since I missed all of the other business, I'm not sure what transpired. I'll post a link to the audio recording when is becomes available.