City Council Meeting - Apr. 29, 2008

Oh my goodness. Tonight was all about being heard.

• Two resolutions were removed from tonight’s agenda. One was removed in order to hold an extended discussion about the state of the Tacoma Mall mixed use center.

• Public comment period included many, many voices. The main topic was the Broadway LID, with William Riley and others speaking against it. However, they were outweighed by the large group in support of the LID. Several familiar faces including Erik B, Rick Jones, and Ken Abbott, among many others.

• A public hearing was held to hear comment on the new ADA plan for the City. The plan is intended to identify, and make recommendation on mitigating, barriers to citizens with disabilities. Overall, people are highly supportive and said the plan is very exciting. Many expressed concern and hope that the plan has teeth and there will be follow through. However, it seems, this group feel like they have finally been heard.

• Before the Broadway LID could be voted on in the purchase resolution, an appeal of the bid needed to be heard in a “quasi judicial” process conducted by Council. Active Construction, the second place bidder challenged Wm. Dickson, the winning bidder, on a question about a sub contractor. The issue is a list of approved companies for 2007 and 2008- one of Dickson’s subs didn’t have all paperwork finished on time for the 2008 list. They were told pre-bid this did not matter as they were on the 2007 list and paperwork was being worked on. This irregularity is a paperwork matter only not one of qualification or any other serious matter and the City has the authority to override this technical matter. The difference between the bids is $500,000. Flip charts. Raised voices. Comments. Rebuttals. The appeal was denied.

• Finally, what everyone has been waiting for, the purchase resolution including the Broadway LID. It was unanimously approved.

• Two other resolutions were passed this evening. One approving a contract for the Fire Department, and the other allowing for project employees on a number of public works projects. Honestly, by this point in the meeting we have a limited grasp of what happened.

And, so, an epic night with only 5 Councilmembers. Cheers to Councilmembers, Walker, Ladenberg, Manthou, Fey, and Strickland, for holding down the fort. Where was everybody else? It seemed awfully lonely up there.