The Olympia Standard The Olympia Standard

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!