Sneak Peek: City Council This Week

Police and Fire Jobs

This week’s City Council agenda contains a bit of good news for all the concerned citizens who came forward to speak at last week’s meeting. Resolution Number 38391 is up for a vote. It reads as follows:

Authorizing the Interim City Manager to delay, up to 30 days, the implementation of proposed personnel reductions of commissioned Tacoma Police Department and Tacoma Fire Department positions; and directing the Interim City Manager to have an independent financial review, to be completed within 30 days, of the City’s projected revenues and expenditures for the years 2012-2014.

This is a reprieve for the police and firefighters who received layoff notices last week, but it still seems likely that some layoffs may be inevitable. We’ll have to wait and see what the City and unions can come up with in 30 days.

Budget

At this week’s City Council study session, the Council will hear an update on the City’s revenue for November. This promises to get a little more attention than the average revenue update, in light of the current budget situation. Some questions have been raised over whether the rush to slash budgets and increase revenues is putting the horse before the cart, based as it is on a budget gap that only showed up in the third quarter. There have been questions about whether this may turn out to be just a blip in hind sight. The numbers and projections run by City staff, who let’s face it, are the professionals here, point pretty strongly to the budget gap as a part of a trend, rather than an anomaly. But as budget cuts and revenue increasing measures roll on, November’s revenue numbers will give us another piece of information to either confirm or complicate the story. Stay tuned.

Also on the Agenda

We’ll see final readings of some of the revenue enhancing measures the City has been considering, including ordinances raising business license fees, false alarm fees, and traffic safety camera fines. There are no first readings of ordinances as we go into the holiday break, and three whole Tuesdays with no City Council meetings.

Citizens’ Forum

And last, but certainly not least, this Tuesday is the date set for the final Citizens’ Forum of 2011. So, if you’ve got something you’re itching to tell the City Council that isn’t on this week’s agenda already, this is your chance. Just remember, it has to be something over which the City Council has jurisdiction, and you only get three minutes. Ready? Set. Go.