Highlights from the City Council Meeting June 28, 2011
The City of Tacoma continued its support of our LGBT Community via a proclamation given by Deputy Mayor Lauren Walker and received by Rainbow Center Executive Director Michelle Douglas, endorsing Gay Pride Week in Tacoma. In addition, on July 7th at 4:00 PM the City will raise the Rainbow Flag above the Municipal Building Annex. All are invited to attend this event at Ledger Park Square. Along with another flag on the Tacoma Dome, it will be the first time Gay Pride has been so recognized by the City of Tacoma on city buildings.
The Flag Raising will be the first official event of Pride Week or “Pride Every Day.” It will continue for the next nine days, ending on July 16. That’s another first. Previously the celebration has been a one-day Out in the Park Festival at Wright Park. This year it’s extended to 10 days. Douglas stated that this was the only city in the U.S. that had a 10-day, Gay Pride festival. The Out in the Park portion will be in the Theater District in the Pierce Transit Park next to Theater on the Square and will include a three-day film series at the Grand Cinema. More to follow on what’s going on but if you can’t wait, go to the Rainbow Center site here.
Text of the proclamation:
WHEREAS, the City of Tacoma’s mission is to be recognized as a livable and progressive City; and WHEREAS, the citizens of Tacoma have strongly supported diversity and equality for all citizens by enacting broad ranging anti-discrimination legislation; and WHEREAS, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities greatly contribute to our City’s rich diversity, economic vitality and quality of life; and WHEREAS, this year the City of Tacoma is sponsoring “Pride Every Day” in Tacoma, a 10 day festival to celebrate the rich history and culture of the LGBT community in Tacoma-Pierce County with a street festival, film series, book discussion, faith service and much more; and WHERAS, the street lights in the Theater District will be decorated in honor of Pride Month in Tacoma to create a strong sense of place, sense of pride and sense of welcoming to celebrate Pride in Tacoma; and WHEREAS, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Tacomans invite all citizens to join them on July 9th for “Out in the Park festivities” at Pierce Transit Park near Theater on the Square, to celebrate the human spirit and foster a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, the differences that enriches us all; and WHEREAS, Tacomans are further invited to participate in the entire 10-day festival beginning July 7 and ending July 16 focused in the Theater District of Tacoma; and NOW, THEREFORE, I, Marilyn Strickland, Mayor of the City of Tacoma, do hereby proclaim July as Pride Every Day Month in Tacoma and I encourage the people of our City to join in festivities that celebrate diversity and promote acceptance and equal protection under law.
(The mayor was unable to attend as she was in Chicago attending the Clinton Global Institute so it was delivered by Lauren Walker)
Garbage/Recycling Collection Pilot Program – Ordinance 28000, passed unanimously.
Pilot areas are basically between 6th and N 26th, Pearl and Orchard in the northwest and E 82nd and E 96th, McKinley and A St in the South (Details here.). This would amount to approximately 1300- 1400 households. The pilot study should last for six months beginning this July. The goal is to increase recycling and food waste disposal. All customers will be given a food waste receptacle. That waste will be composted rather than dumped in the landfill.
Tacoma would be following other cities, like Renton and Olympia, which have successfully made the same transition and seen costs drop and recycling rise.
All participating customers will get a one-time $40 credit.
Matt Hamilton spoke in favor of the new garbage plan. A Graham resident, where the Tacoma Landfill is located, he focused on the recycling portion. His concern as a Graham resident was the inefficiency of the process as it exists today. He pointed out that there was much more dumped in Graham that could be recycled, adding that, unless mitigated, within 10 years, the height of the landfill would be far taller than the tallest building in Pierce County – over 800 feet tall. He has observed that 230 garbage trucks pass his farm daily and most were Tacoma garbage trucks. After the Graham landfill is filled, the alternative is Oregon.
Jake Fey spoke in favor of the Ordinance saying it would reduce costs for customers and volume of waste in the landfill.
Ryan Mello also spoke in favor of the ordinance as it would reduce deliveries to the Graham landfill, reduce labor and fuel costs and save Tacoma the expense of trucking our garbage to Oregon.
Joe Lonergan questioned the labor savings. Mike Slevin, representing the City said there was certainly to be some impact on labor costs but it was unknown until the pilot program had been extant for some time. The same answer applied to missed pickups. The reason for the pilot program was to discover unknown consequences and the viability of the program overall.
Customers will get a waste can twice as large as the one they are using. If they go to a smaller can they will charged the rate applicable to that can. Rates will not be increased.
(NOTE: While these notes do not attempt to address the entirety of the Council’s meeting, the agenda items can be viewed at the City’s site here. )
Filed under: City-Council
13 comments
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson June 29, 2011
happy!
M Mofo from the Hood June 30, 2011
Regarding local trash pits:
Is it true that the local trash pits currently used are the Last Trash Pits In Washington State?
According to the comments noted above by Matt Hamilton and Ryan Mello, the implication is that Washington State has reached its geological limit, apparently to the core of Earth, whereby trash burial is no longer possible.
M Mofo from the Hood June 30, 2011
The Mofo News Network declares 2011 the beginning of the era of Discernment and Discrimination in Matters of Nobility and Shame.
D dolly varden July 3, 2011
CB: Oh no, the mayor didn’t disclose a minor detail about something no one cares about! If that’s a newsworthy scandal in Tacoma, we’re in pretty good shape.
D dolly varden July 3, 2011
p.s. I didn’t mean to imply my offhanded comment @6 that no one cares about the murder of a little girl, but that the coverage of (and TNT comments on) this minor lack of disclosure on the investigation seems over the top. The initial tragedy was awful — the political skirmish to try and harm the mayor over a well-intentioned and apparently generally well-executed review of the case is pitiful.
L Lamplighter July 4, 2011
Dolly V, you (and other complacent citizens) are the reason our city officials act as they do. This issue is about inappropriately withholding information, so to soothe the outraged city our mayor promised to bring in an objective investigator… except the “investigator” brought in knows a number of people on the TPD and, in fact, was their trainer in Hawaii… yet the mayor withheld that information, too.
The city’s approach (and yours, too, apparently) is that it’s okay to cheat as long as you don’t get caught, and then if/when you do get caught to act like it wasn’t important… well, if that’s true then why not have been upfront about it? If it’s your daughter, next time, who’s relying on the city to respond correctly, don’t you want to know that the city has done everything it can to really correct the previous problems… one of which is a serious addiction to lying to the victim’s family, the public and even other city officials (seriously, I wonder how Fey, Walker, Mello and Boe feel about knowing they voted to approve someone that they weren’t given complete information about, though I don’t know why they never look into such issues themselves).
Frankly, I don’t know if the investigator might do a good job or not, but once again we should have been TOLD instead of led to believe this investigator had no connection to TPD. So yes, sadly, since the city has lied to us so many times, we will get outraged every time it happens again.
T TTTrouble July 5, 2011
Isn’t it a bit odd that the “independent investigator” didn’t happen to mention, himself, that he personally knew and trained members of the TPD..?
M Mofo from the Hood July 5, 2011
Politicians aren’t elected to office based on their virtue. They’re elected based on who they know.
In the context of a democratic citizenry that wants reason and virtue, what use is a politician who promotes vice through persuasion and rhetoric?
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson July 5, 2011
DV is right, people don’t care. Except for when you explain to them what is happening and they get that panicked look and soon after shrug it off. It’s not my dead little girl, who cares if the spiders are scuttling away from the magnifying glass. Go News Tribune!
N notme July 6, 2011
Just ‘cause TNT prints something doesn’t make it so. Let’s see: the man who created Amber Alerts spoke at conferences attended by Tacoma police officers. And that somehow means he can’t investigate how TPD handled the Linnick case. The Mayor was then told by Ed Troyer that this was true. The Mayor had the rational reaction to the news that Ed’s news was not a big deal, but Troyer decided to tell TNT about it. TNT conflates the story into a scandal of the Mayor withholding information and implies there is some conflict of interest because TPD officers have heard the investigator speak.
The only scandal here is how far TNT has fallen from once upon a time being a source of journalism.
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson July 6, 2011
attend a class or spend a romantic 4 day weekend in Hawaii together?
W WaterWood July 7, 2011
Dolly Varden and NotMe should just go to Hawaii together, already, and get their consentual love-affair over with.
V Volcano Boycotting RR Anderson July 7, 2011
Hope to see you there Mofo!