CITY LIGHTS
By Al Hooper

Can we talk? Confession time. When you left your last job, after an eon of selfless and unappreciated service, did you meet and greet your successor warmly? Take him to lunch on your last day? Outwrestle him for the check? Pat his bony shoulder and wish him well?

Sure you did. Because youre good people.
Me, too. No petty resentments for us. No sticking pins in effigies resembling the clod we used to work for. Were generous as well as professional.

Just the same, some part of us stays aware of the old connections. And when the neophytes who replaced us screw up hey, Myrtle, would you look at THIS! Its ghastly! Grotesque! Dysfunctional!

Tom Miller had one of those moments the other day.

You remember Tom Miller he was our esteemed chief of police in the 1990s before he resigned and went on to serve on City Council.
I visited the Edmonds City Council website this afternoon, the ex-councilor says brokenly. I was stunned to see the list of Top Goals developed at this year's council retreat. No 1: Ban plastic bags!

Mr. Miller goes on to cite the other priorities in councils manifesto (his full list appears in todays Letters To The Editor.)

Even though I dont live in Edmonds any longer, he says, my immediate reaction was disbelief followed by anger. The No. 1 goal is to ban plastic bags? What about public safety? What about economic development? What about road improvements? What about taxes? Where did this council turn off the main road and get so lost?

Since Mr. Miller is now ensconced on Camano Island, where he has been a director of Tyco Electronics for the past six years, he wont get to vote in our fall election.

But some other ex-council members will.
And theyre not thrilled with council either.

One of them will remain nameless because our chat was informal, but another stood up at a particularly fractious council meeting and vented for the record.

Speaking as an audience member, said Dick Van Hollebeke, I can tell you were embarrassed by what weve seen here this evening.

Like Tom Miller, Mr. Van Hollebeke served on council in the 1990s. Both worked to find solutions to complex problems. Neither devoted much air time to plastic bags.

Are plastic bags unimportant, then? Of course not theyre part of a pollution problem requiring worldwide attention. And the world is addressing it.

But in Edmonds By The Sea, the citizens expect a more focused vision from elected officials. And they deserve to get one.

Three council seats are on the ballot this year seats held by Michael Plunkett, Ron Wambolt and Strom Peterson. From now to November, there will be much talk from all the candidates about preserving the citys charm.

What we need from them is something else.
We need straight talk about real issues. Like how to increase revenues and improve the infrastructure and keep our parks open.

If Edmonds wants to show leadership in something, thats the place to start.

Whatever became of ?

Now that we all know where Tom Miller is (see above), we move to our next question: Wheres Camano Island?

Just kidding. Camano Island is a gentle backwater north of here. Saturday nights can be a little slow, residents admit, except for the weekly cricket races at the town pump.

But our former police chief and council member isnt complaining.

Camano Island has been home for six years, he says. I'm a director for Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems, which deals in public safety communications.

Tom Miller was a mere 36 when he arrived in Edmonds in 1994. He resigned two years later to enter private business. He was appointed to a council vacancy in 1997 and won election later that year.

Today he has two grandsons (living nearby with our daughter and her Navy husband) and a third grandchild pending (our son and his wife in Arizona expect their firstborn in August a girl!).

Edmonds savant Dave Earling, who was council president during Millers tenure, recalls him this way: Tom was a classy guy who wasn't interested in one-up-manship, just in doing good work.

Sounds like a recipe for progress.
Wonder if theres any of it left