County Landmarks Grants To Be Re-Considered
Last week, we posted an item about the Pierce County Landmarks and Historic Preservation Commission’s recommendations for preservation grant funding for 15 organizations countywide.
This week, things got a little more interesting. Todd Matthews at the Tacoma Daily Index is reporting that concerns have been raised over whether the funding recommendations were made in a meeting that violated the state’s Open Public Meetings Act
- On July 12, the county’s landmarks and historic preservation commission met behind closed doors to review 22 countywide grant applications, and compile recommendations;
- On July 14, the county’s historic preservation officer sent an e-mail to all grant applicants announcing the 15 organizations, and one contingent organization, that were recommended to receive funding. The recommendations and a resolution to authorize the funding was expected to reach the county executive’s office this week before heading to full county council;
- Today, Pierce County’s Planning and Land Services (PALS) Interim Division Manager said the recommendations are dead, and the commission will meet again in an open, public forum. “Any member of the public should have every right to attend and listen to what’s going on,” said PALS interim Division Manager Sean Gafney. “At a minimum, you are supposed to advertise it. I’ve seen enough of what happened that I have directed [our historic preservation officer] to call the commissioners and reschedule. I think that’s the right thing to do. We talked to our legal counsel and want to err on the side of more transparency.”
Ouch.
Jump to the full story at The Tacoma Daily Index
2 comments
M morgan July 24, 2008
I would like to know the compostiion of the commission. As I understand it, there were no representatives from the Tacoma area. Is this true?
There was also talk of holding funds back from Tacoma for historical survey work. This needs to be resolved. I would like to understand the rational behind this move by the commission.
S Sharon July 26, 2008
As of the July 12th Commission meeting where the grant award recommendations were made, there was no representation from District 4 (Farrell/North & Central Tacoma). At the time, the Commission included 5 or 6 members, though Nov. 2007 revised ordinance requires 11, with representation from each Council district and a number of professional fields. Though Districts 7, 5, and 2 all include bits of Tacoma, I don’t believe there were any Tacoma residents on the Commission at the time of that meeting. But commissioners from central and east side Tacoma will probably be named within the next month.
At the July 8th Pierce County Landmarks Commission meeting, there was lengthy discussion of distribution of $366,000 for a one-time historic resource survey. Most commissioners felt that the Tacoma historic preservation program should receive a proportion of those funds to manage, given that the City has recently started updating its neighborhood surveys. One commissioner noted that they should find out how much inventory work had been completed recently and deduct that $ amount from the total going to Tacoma… there was no discussion of this and one would hope that the commission would not punish the city’s program for making an investment in historic resource inventory work.
The commission is slated to meet with representatives of the 4 other historic preservation programs in the county (Steilacoom, Gig Harbor, Tacoma and Lakewood) in early September to discuss options for distribution of the $366,000 in historic resource inventory funds.