In this episode of The Olympia Standard, we reflect on the life and impact of Gil Carbone. He was a key but often overlooked figure in Olympia’s history. Gil helped lead the transformation from a commission-style government to the council-manager system Olympia has today and served on the city council from 1982 to 1991, including two years as Mayor Pro Tem. We share a classic Gil story about his fiery stand against state interference in local parking enforcement, and we’re joined by his daughter, Carol Carbone, who paints a vivid picture of Gil as a driven, charismatic, and deeply engaged parent and community leader.

For more about Gil’s pivotal role in city government reform, check out Episode #41: City Government Structure

In this episode of The Olympia Standard, we dive into the city’s now-dormant effort to revise its Memorandum of Understanding with neighborhood associations and explore how representative those groups really are. We bring academic and personal insights into why public participation in local government remains so limited, from structural complexity and lack of access to the outsized influence of well-resourced voices. We also consider what it takes to make local democracy more inclusive, transparent, and effective.

I take a look back at a couple of blog posts I’ve written in the last couple of years about corporate home ownership in Thurston County and include some updates for this year.

This is a pretty short episode where I read you back some prewritten material. If you’re really into this topic, I appeared on the Nerd Farmer podcast just less than a year ago talking about the same topic: https://nerdfarmpod.com/2024/05/26/how-corporate-landlords-are-driving-up-rents-emmett-oconnell-olympia-time-219/

Here are the old posts where I’ve covered this issue in the past.

2021: https://olympiatime.com/2021/07/08/the-scale-of-out-of-town-real-estate-investment-in-thurston-county-is-small/

2024: https://olympiatime.com/2024/05/10/re-examining-the-out-of-town-or-just-corporate-real-estate-investment-in-thurston-county/

Hey! If you’re reading these show notes, I want to thank you a ton! We both got through 2024! And you in particular didn’t cull this podcast from your feed. This is a restart episode, so I take some time to explain what happened over the last year and what the plan is going forward.

I also read an interesting recent blog post I wrote at Olympia Time about our particular brand of racism in the Pacific Northwest and why it matters.

Olympia Time: What I’m doing here and how you can help

Olympia Time: The Ku Klux Klan in Olympia and what we should remember

We are joined by Senator Sam Hunt to review the legislative session just past and talk about what Olympia got from Olympia. We also delve into his political history and the history of our community as we look back on his year’s of service.

We have been slow rolling through a very large discussion on school closures since last summer. We sit down with three different community members on how we got here, where we’ve been before and what we need to do now.

Guests: Maria Flores, Olympia School Board

Kelcy Schaffer, OSD4ALL

Russ Lehman, former Olympia School Board

OSD School Efficiency Review page

OSD4All Closure Forum

Robert Vanderpool just started his job on the Olympia City Council. So, to get to know Olympia’s new policy-maker, we asked him some questions about himself, about where he’s coming from and what he’s been up to since joining the council. And about Baltimore and about why you shouldn’t like the Orioles.

The really cool Olympia City Council meeting where Robert was elected to council using Ranked Choice Voting

We conducted a couple of interviews about how the Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) impacts the city in terms of growth, housing affordability and finances. We sat down with Darian Lightfoot from the city in the first segment to go over recent changes in Olympia’s MFTE. In our second segment, with talked to Robert Pantley and Angela Rozmyn from Natural and Built Environments to talk about their experiences statewide with the MFTE.

Natural and Built Environment: https://www.naturalandbuilt.com/

We discussed a specific kind of city landscape analysis that looks at city infrastructure costs and tax productivity. A good example in the Pacific Northwest is one conducted in Eugene, OR: https://www.urbanthree.com/case-study/eugene-or/

As a good, all-around, backgrounder on the MFTE, the state Department of Commerce is hard to beat: https://www.commerce.wa.gov/serving-communities/growth-management/growth-management-topics/planning-for-housing/multi-family-housing-property-tax-exemption-program/

Today we hear from Jess Tourtellotte-Palumbo, a candidate for Olympia School board. Interviewing Jess is Howard Rosenfeld, an old friend of the podcast who is stepping in this season to do at least one candidate interview. Jess and Howard talk about her background, the recent history of the school board and how we can find a path forward.

We brought back host emeritus (and newly crowned friend of the podcast and I suppose city council member) Dani Madrone! We were also joined by Olympia city council member Dontae Payne! Jemmy was there and he got on mic! It was wild! And guess who else was there? So many of you!

Thanks so much for everyone who came out! And thank you, listener, for enjoying our show in a new segmented format, now with Trivia and a Tip of the Hat!