Tacoma City Council Meeting - February 28, 2012

Tonight’s meeting was as brief as the agenda led us to believe.  The items were fairly straightforward, and without much discussion.  There was only one speaker during public comment, but she was a good one.  Mayor Strickland was absent, so Deputy Mayor Lonergan took the helm.  And everyone survived. 

Third grader Serena delivered some well-composed thoughts on taxes. 

Photo Credit: Justin Leighton

CONSENT AGENDA

RESOLUTIONS

Resolution No. 38441 Sets Thursday, April 5, 2012, at 9:30 a.m., as the date for a hearing by the Hearing Examiner to vacate the west 20 feet of the Court G alley right-of-way, between South 25th and South 27th Streets, for general use and surface parking for adjacent housing. (Tacoma Housing Authority; File No. 124.1331)  [Troy Stevens, Real Estate Specialist; Dick McKinley, Director, Public Works] 

PROCLAMATIONS, RECOGNITIONS, PRESENTATIONS, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Deputy Mayor Lonergan declared February 2012 to be Heart Month in Tacoma.  Maybe they heard us complaining about the lack of proclamations recently.

PUBLIC COMMENT
In an unorthodox move, the council opened to public comment for items not on the agenda to accommodate one particular speaker.  Eight year old Serena, a 3rd grader at Brown’s Point Elementary School wanted to deliver some thoughts inspired by a project on taxes she’s been working on.  In her well-organized, clearly delivered remarks, she covered who she thinks should pay taxes (less for the poor – they have to feed their families, more for the rich), what should be taxed (not food and necessities, but unnecessary items like jewelry), and what it should be spent on (transportation, education, and public safety).  Education was a particular talking point for Miss Serena, who believes more money should be spent on education, because kids need a good education to get good jobs so they can grow up to pay more taxes.  She also spoke in support of gifted programs like the one she is in.  She seems like her own best argument, if you ask us.  If you missed this, you might want to go back and catch it on TV Tacoma archives.  Then in 30 years you can say you saw our president deliver her first public address – way back when she was just a little girl.

There was no other comment.

REGULAR AGENDA

RESOLUTIONS

Purchase Resolution No. 38442 Awards a contract to: TrustCommerce, on its bid of $250,000, plus applicable sales tax, budgeted from various departmental funds, for Electronic Payment Solutions for City departments for an initial three-year period, with the option to renew for two additional three-year periods, for a projected contract total of $750,000.  [Jerry Trujillo, Interim City Treasurer; Bob Biles, Director, Finance]

This is part of an effort by the City to become more “customer friendly,” by allowing for online payments of such things as utility bills, parking tickets, other fines, etc.  Utility bill pay is currently online, and this next step is to bring the municipal court system online.

Resolution No. 38443 Authorizing the execution of Amendment No. 2 to the agreement with AHBL, Inc., in the amount of $158,100, for a cumulative total of $303,420, budgeted from the 2010 LTGO Bond D Fund, to expand the scope to include additional engineering design, surveying, and construction-related services for Americans with Disabilities Act access improvements to City-owned facilities, and extending the contract term to February 28, 2013.  [Mark D’Andrea, Project Manager; Dick McKinley, Director, Public Works]

The resolution was removed at this time per staff request.

Resolution No. 38444 Authorizing the execution of an agreement with Pierce Transit, in the amount of $359,519.48 $426,665.48, budgeted from the General Fund, to purchase One Regional Card for All (ORCA) Business Cards as part of the City’s Commute Trip Reduction Program for 2012.  [Joy St. Germain, Director, Human Resources]

This resolution supports the City’s long-standing trip commute reduction program by providing bus and vanpool options for employees.  The ORCA Cards cost the City $28.43 for each of the approximately 1,000 employees who take advantage of the offer, while the vanpool program costs between $80 and $150 per employee per month.  A taskforce has been initiated to identify potential cost-saving measures.  As Councilmember Boe said, this puts our money where our collective mouth is on commute trip reduction, but he also wondered whether there was a way of following similar programs in the private sector that ask for some employee contribution.  We’ll have to wait and see what cost-cutting measures look like.

FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES

Ordinance No. 28053 Amending Chapter 1.12 of the Municipal Code, relating to the Compensation Plan, to provide additional language regarding the temporary pay reduction for non-represented General Government employees.  [Joy St. Germain, Director, Human Resources] 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

REPORTS BY THE CITY MANAGER

City Manager Broadnax mentioned the South Sound Sustainability Expo this Saturday.

There was also a letter from Mayor Strickland, addressed to Occupy Tacoma, thanking the group for leaving Pugnetti Park peacefully, and for being involved in public dialogue, and encouraging their continued involvement.

COMMENTS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS OF THE CITY COUNCIL

With the brief agenda, there was plenty of time for the Council to speak on a number of topics, including the Sister Cities International Film Festival, which gave Councilmember Ibsen the opportunity to wow us with a sentence or two in what we can only assume was flawless Russian.  There was also a reminder from Councilmember Mello about the Neighborhood Innovative Grants program.

And one last item, which we found particularly intriguing: a promise that March 13th will bring a presentation on “lessons learned from the Burning Man Festival.”  We’re all ears.

ADJOURNMENT – 5:49p.m.

Less than an hour, that was fast, but not uninformative.