Sneak Peek: Tacoma City Business - Week of July 9, 2012

The holiday week is over, and the clouds have rolled in, so it must be time to get back to work. This week’s City Council meeting agenda is fairly short on content, but there are three community budget meetings scheduled for the week to keep you busy.

Joint Council-Port Study Session
This Tuesday the City Council and Port of Tacoma Commissioners will hold a joint study session at noon in the Tacoma Municipal Building. The agenda items are as follows:

1. Public Access Plan
2. Air Quality
3. Puget Sound/Commencement Bay Health
4. Local Transportation

According to last week’s City Manager’s report to Council:

Over the past year, there have been many projects and issues that have required the attention of both the City and the Port. Most of these projects have occurred in the areas of transportation, preserving the health of and access to Commencement Bay, and air quality. At Tuesday’s Joint Study Session, Staff from the City and the Port will review progress on these projects, emerging issues, and the joint support that will continue to be needed from both the City and the Port to continue to move the efforts forward.

Other Items
The regular meeting agenda this week is on the short side: appointments to the Planning and Landmarks Preservation commissions and the Public Utilities Board, and the first reading of the ordinance on City employee PTO that was rescheduled from the June 26 meeting. The ordinance would allow employees to take personal time-off in tenth-of-an-hour increments, and the adjusting of some language related to PTO payouts, including clarification that one of the conditions required for the PTO cash-out is a full year (January 1 to December 31) of enrollment in the PTO plan. The switch to the tenth-of-an-hour increments, designed to allow for greater flexibility in time-usage for employees, is a change from the existing language that requires full hour increments of time off.

Community Budget Meetings
The next round of City of Tacoma Community Budget Input Meetings is scheduled for this week:

• July 9 – 6 p.m. at the Boys & Girls Club, 3875 S. 66th St., Community Room
• July 11 – 6 p.m. at the Moore Library, 215 S. 56th St.
• July 12 – 6 p.m. at the Center at Norpoint, 4818 Nassau Ave.

Input from residents will be used by City staff to help determine how General Fund dollars will be spent on services such as those provided by police, fire, libraries, street maintenance, social services, and support for the arts and cultural programs. For more budget-related information, visit www.cityoftacoma.org or read more from Exit133 on the Community Budget Workshops.

Citizens’ Forum
It’s that time again already – time for you to share your thoughts on anything under the City Council jurisdiction. Maybe you’ve got an opinion on the proposed medical cannabis land use amendments. Maybe you have an opinion on halfway houses in your neighborhood. Maybe you’ve got something else entirely on your mind. Three minutes to tell them what you think.