City Council Meeting- March 25, 2008

So, we chose to go to Go Local or Die instead of writing up this summary last night, but it doesn’t mean the City Council meeting wasn’t interesting. Some weeks the meeting clicks along like clockwork. Other times, we get a few more personal insights and thoughts… Last night we saw a few more of those.. personal moments.

• Much of the public comment focused on Resolution 37226, which calls on the City Council to send messages to our state and national lawmakers supporting universal health care. The resolution also requires the Council to take steps to address health care inequality in our own community. State Representative Larry Seacrest Seaquist, along with several local health care advocates, spoke in support of the resolution. This issue was also voted on by Tacoma voters, with 71% expressing support.
• The Council ultimately passed Resolution 37226, with Councilmember Lonergan abstaining. All of the Councilmembers weighed in on the issue with several sharing personal stories.
• Resolution 37429 brought an update on the progress of the LeMay Museum. The legislature gave an additional $300,000 to the project and this resolution was just an execution of the agreement with the state. The ground breaking ceremony for the project is scheduled for early Summer.
• Several resolutions authorized negotiations between labor groups and the City, but one in particular raised some Councilmembers eyebrows. Councilmember Lonergan took issue with one of the points of negotiation which extended benefits to domestic partnership. His believes that should have been a policy discussion for the Council because, “marriage means something, non-marriage means something else”. Councilmember Ladenburg voted for the resolution but would like to have that policy discussion. Ultimately, the resolution in question passed, but Councilmember Lonergan voted against it.
• Resolution 37434 gave $300,000 to Community Health Care for their new clinic at the Salishan HOPE VI project. The total budget for the project is nearly $7.2 million, and other public money and private donors are making up the difference. The ground breaking ceremony will be held on May 9th and the goal is to have it completed by Spring 2009.

If you want to hear Councilmember Lonergan’s objections to these resolutions or any of the other (vaguely) interesting banter, check out the video via TV Tacoma on the City’s website.