Four of us, from Generation Jumpstart, Charlotte, Clementine, Breck and I, had a luncheon with Mark last Friday at a local restaurant, and it was an entertaining afternoon of political discussion. A lot of the discussion was how soon should the District FW petition start, the actual collecting of signatures. I reminded everybody that the Washington law stipulated that the signatures had to be collected in a six-month window and that we preferred this initiative be on the 2024 ballot. I said, going by the forecasts that I was looking at, January was going to be the worst month for weather, and that we should delay until at least a milder February. Charlotte was disdainful of forecasts, especially the Farmer’s Almanac, but nonetheless said that she wasn’t going to collect signatures in freezing weather no matter what and suggested a March 1st start. Breck was concerned that the delays would hamper our ability to get this on the 2024 ballot and said that we should stick to the early January timetable. Clementine said it was uncertain that a 2024 ballot would be necessarily better than a 2025 one as far as winning the vote is concerned, and that, in fact, a longer time of advocating for a ward system might even make 2025 the better year. I said that the Democrat and liberal turn-out would be bigger in 2024 than 2025 and I thought they would be more likely to support this, so, therefore, it’s imperative that we get this on the 2024 ballot but the challenges were the winter weather and that long 45-day Council consideration time. I conceded that we might have to give up the ghost on ’24 and that if we were going to settle on ’25, we might as well do the signatures in the warmest months. Charlotte and Clementine agreed with that, Breck was the holdout in saying that we should go for the ’24 ballot at all costs and she seemed to have the most influence on Mark.

Mark was just letting us “Generation Jumpstarters” talk and, pretty much, stayed mum, he seemed to enjoy the back and forth between us. Charlotte, at one point, said it wasn’t up to Mark (implying that he had one little vote like everybody else) but nobody laughed except Mark, who is Chairman of the Revived Citizens Party, nervously. Clementine said that even if we waited until March 1st, that wouldn’t necessarily preclude us from getting it on the ’24 ballot as long as we had a strong volunteer presence and we were able to get all the signatures in three months but that 2025 would be the fallback if it took us all of six months. I pretty much agreed with young Clementine (she’s 18 but looks 14) but said that we needed at least 10K signatures and we shouldn’t short ourselves on signatures by handing them in too early, with the chance of them being squashed, if we were going to wait that late. The consensus seemed to be to wait until March 1st and warmer weather and hope for the best (regarding making the ’24 ballot) although realizing that this decision would probably mean being on the ’25 ballot along with the mayoral election. Mark and Breck weren’t happy campers but kind of went along, at least, Mark, among the two.

The conversation then ventured into Mark’s State Initiative about two-years terms for all Washington State councilmembers, in which my idea was the impetus for getting this started. I said there’s was no way with all this phony “democracy” talk that so many politicians should have these long 4-years terms, therefore, voters should be able to hold them accountable sooner than that. Everybody agreed. Breck said that if the politicians push back against this initiative, that would tell the lie about their supposed fondness for democracy because true democracy means more elections. I said, “Here, here”, to that. All of us were too young to know, except Mark, or in the state long enough to realize when it wasn’t the law for Washington State councilmembers to have these long 4-year terms, like a president’s, but we all, more or less, said it was too long. There was some disagreement as to whether mayors should have 2-year terms instead of four as well (Mark exempted mayors from the 2-year terms in his initiative); Charlotte and Clementine said that mayors should have two-year terms, too, but Mark, Breck and I essentially said that the higher position should afford them the longer terms, and Mark said that when you’re the head of the city government, that person should have more time to matriculate, build up and yield results. So, a 3-2 majority to keep 4-year terms for mayors, and 5-0 for two-year terms for councilmembers. By the way, Breck and I wanted Mark to run for Mayor of Federal Way again. Charlotte said he needs to serve at least two years on the Council, first. Clementine leaned towards Charlotte’s position. I insisted that Mark had enough lifetime political experience to run for mayor in 2025 and, at 70, he’s not getting any younger.

You, too, can join the Generation Jumpstart club if you fit the profile, check out our website by finding the link at the bottom of this website.

— Margot Blaine (from “Way Tales by Margot Blaine” on Facebook and “The Generation Jumpstart Club”)

Photo: Breck White, 18, Federal Way, WA