From Advertiser Matt Pina: As a nearly life-long resident, you have honored me with the opportunity to serve my community as an elected official: first on the Highline School Board, and most recently as your City Councilmember and Mayor. Thank you for your confidence in me to help provide leadership to the City of Des Moines. Over the past 15 years, Des Moines has faced a number of significant challenges. The financial impacts of restrictions and repeals of revenues to our City, hindered our ability to maintain police, park & recreation, and other important services that make Des Moines the most beautiful and livable place in King County. For years we all heard about the “potential” of Des Moines and just when opportunities were about to come to fruition, the economic rug got pulled out from underneath us. Eight years ago, things began to change for the better. Your City Council (of which I was a part) began to address long-standing issues, which should have been dealt with decades earlier. On economic development, making Des Moines more business-friendly was the first step. Improvements to our permitting process, easing the requirements for certain permits, and making our Marina District and commercial zones much more attractive for development have been adopted. We’re just beginning to see the fruits of our labor. The Adriana, Highline Place, Des Moines Theatre, and Seascape (aka “the pit”) have all broken ground, or are on track to in the very near future. On public safety, we’ve recovered from the economic downturn and have implemented on-going structural revenues to: fully staff our police department, implement a plan to address specific issues in problem areas of the city, join the regional crime task force, focus on emergency management, and leverage technology to make our neighborhoods safer. There’s more to be done, but we’ve made great progress and we’ll continue to seek ways to make the best use of the resources we have. On livability, we’ve been working hard to ensure that the Marina and Des Moines Beach Park remain an attractive reason to visit our City. We’ve restored several buildings in the Beach Park and they are now generating revenue. We’ve also begun work on a development plan for the Marina and added to our city parks by acquiring the Van Gasken property (protecting views, and expanding opportunities.) Another part of livability is maintaining our infrastructure. For the first time in about a decade, we now have the revenues to begin paving roads again. Each of these accomplishments would not have been possible without getting the City’s finances in order and ensuring that they are sustainable into the future. Our City Council has worked hard to turn our City from being on the edge of bankruptcy to having a sustainable and exciting future. We’ve been able to accomplish these things because we’ve engaged with our residents, listened to their concerns, shared our options and moved forward with the best possible solutions. We’ve turned things around and Des Moines is now headed in the right direction. I want to continue to serve the Des Moines community so we can finish this vital work. With your vote on November 7th, we’ll continue to make progress and help ensure Des Moines long term independence as a city and realize its’ very bright future. Thank you, Matt Pina http://www.electmattpina.com]]>

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20 replies on “A message from Matt Pina for Des Moines City Council”

  1. Pina is the main person responsible for paid Marina parking. a failed system that cost taxpayers $700k, and is only projected to bring in $100k a year. Pina says this will fix the seawall but with a cost of $12 million it would take 120 years!!
    pina has also raised taxes and failed to address a rise in mail theft until Kiro 7 did a report.
    Time for a change!

  2. Pina is ok, but Martinelli has the endorsement of far too many groups and people I support to not vote for him. This includes Equal Rights WA, King County Labor Council, Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights, Washington Bikes, etc., etc..

    1. Yes, but how about local Des Moines endorsements for Martinelli? Business, police, fire, local citizens?

      1. Well just from looking at his endorsement page he’s endorsed by the 34th district demcorats {the 34th covers parts of Des Moines including all of Redondo} and former Des Moines councilwoman Susan White. Also endorsed by groups like the king county labor council which 100k workers including several thousand in Des Moines.
        it’s no suprise local businesses and police//firefighters would endorse the sitting mayor. h has a large say in their taxes and budgets.

        1. Heather, the 33rd Legislative District D’s, which covers most of Des Moines, endorsed Matt Pina. The 34th District covers Burien and West Seattle.

          1. like I said the 34th also covers parts of Des Moines, including all of Redondo. It’s not just Burien and West Seattle..

          2. Kaplan you should know that the 34th district covers parts of Des Moines… in fact I live in the 34th AND Des Moines [[Redondo]]

          3. we get you support Pina, but come on Kaplan… you don’t have to lie in order to do so. there’s no way you don’t know that the 34th covers some of Des Moines.

  3. We need better leadership than what Pina offers. I’ve tried to contact him many times about various issues and have always been ignored, and I know a lot of others who have had the same experience. We need transparency and openness, not closed doors shenanigans.

  4. I’m with you, Matt. I appreciate what you’ve done for this community. Having a business in town for over 30 years, this is the most hopeful I have ever been about Des Moines reaching its potential. The current Council, led by you, deserves credit. It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize and that’s why some people do it….because it’s easy. You are making decisions based on information that can’t be seen from those sidelines. Thanks for spending countless hours working to make this community a better place.

  5. Looks like Matinelli didn’t take the time to show up for the North Hill Community Club Des Moines City Council Candidate Forum.
    Not a great showing for his interest in talking to the citiznes of Des Moines.
    But it looks like Martinelli has a pretty good group of followers who will do the thumbs up/down for him.

        1. he has been. I first heard of him when he knocked on my door and asked me my opinion and listened to my advice. i’ve called him several times from the number listed on his website to give input and he’s always personally answered and listened to me even when long winded.
          missing one forum doesn’t disqualify a candidate or make him uninteractive with the community.. if so it would also disqualify our deputy mayor, who missed the north hill forum AND the wesley homes one.

        2. Marty et al., by the thumbs down I see that interacting with the voting public isn’t a priority for Martinelli. We only need to blindly vote for him based on his “endoresements of far too many groups”. The blind leading the unthinking blind.

          1. Lol. what I said flew right over your head. I met him when he KNOCKED ON MY DOOR. my door i’m sure wasnt the only he knocked on. this is community involvement… talking directly with the people of the city.

  6. Ryan Hawk, the Redondo portion of Des Moines is in the 30th Legislative District, not the 34th Legislative District. But you get an “A” for effort.

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