Mayor Matt Mahoney and Deputy Mayor Traci Buxton are on a crusade to learn from, and engage with, the everyday citizens of Des Moines, Wash. In less than a week, you can find them at the city’s monthly social staple: Coffee With The Mayor.

Coffee With The Mayor has been a hopeful endeavor by the city leadership to invite the people of Des Moines to make themselves heard, stay informed, and, while they’re at it, support some local businesses. 

To delve into the team effort needed for an informed public, both Mahoney and Buxton sat down with The Thunderword to provide a closer look at these events, and tell us just how much the whole city benefits from social discourse.

Mahoney explains, “It is coffee with the mayor but really it’s coffee with their city leadership…I think that’s important, that we both get the opportunity to say stuff.” 

Deputy Mayor Buxton offered some insight into the kinds of questions that she and her colleagues will encounter. “Broader questions,” Buxton began, “they often bring up things they are stressed about because of what they read on social media.”

She goes on to describe the role social media tends to play in local government and, while it does bring involvement among citizens, it influences people to see issues more negatively than if they showed up and took part in public events themselves.

If you have seen the news, it should be no surprise that toxicity seems to be a mainstay in modern politics, but the two city officials had a steadfast outlook in regard to negative public interactions. In fact, this seems to inform the very reason they are taking the conversations off the computer and into the public.

The deputy mayor explained her stance on negativity via social media. “I think civility has to do with proximity and not who you are…It doesn’t matter who, [if someone] is face to face, they’re much more civil no matter who [they are talking to].”

It is not just the matter of public mood either; Mahoney likened the situation back to the 2020 epidemic, which changed how every business, family, and branch of government interacted. “We used to make efforts on a human level…I don’t think people fully realize the impacts that COVID had. Some of our most vocal opponents, we’ve honestly never met.”

Mahoney and Buxton drove home the idea that the best conversations happen in person, in the very city each citizen calls home. Once proximity is established however, the issue of persuasion comes into play: a phenomenon in which the duo shared a similar sentiment.

Mahoney used the analogy of a temperature gauge, monitoring someone’s beliefs, explaining that they may walk into one of these events and have the needle move one way or another, indicating their change of heart on a subject. “There’s a world of difference in that move, in how we might look at something or might get a new perspective that we haven’t thought about before… it helps us represent them better,” Mahoney said.

Buxton then added an important point to the needle analogy: “This isn’t fielding their questions and trying to make sure they walk out the door with their needle changed, but ours too…It’s a good listening session for us to really take the temperature of where our community is and how they feel.”

By the end of the interview, the paramount issue in the minds of Mayor Mahoney and Deputy Mayor Buxton is quite clear: citizens of Des Moines deserve to have their voices heard, and they should feel welcomed to join in this fight together. For better or worse, this community shares the same space, and it has the tools to make it better for everyone.

That is why this month’s Coffee With The Mayor is being held at the Viva Mexico restaurant on Pacific Highway South on Nov. 3. Both Mahoney and Buxton will be present to engage in spirited conversation with Des Moines citizens, answer questions, have delicious food, and learn from the people who call this city their home. 

If you’re ready to get involved, visit ​​desmoineswa.gov, and read about the upcoming Veterans Day, Christmas, and New Years events made for Des Moines residents like you.