Sneak Peek: Tacoma City Council Week of January 23, 2012

Police Union Negotiations

On the agenda for this week’s City Council meeting is Resolution 38418, which authorizes the execution of a tentative agreement with the Tacoma Police Union. The tentative police union deal reached last week agreed to forego COLAs, among other wage concessions, in exchange for saving 54 police jobs. It did come with a bit of a caveat, however, in that it becomes null if the City proceeds with any layoffs of police officers as it works to cut the remaining $10 million-ish from the budget. That would be a tough agreement to make, so this will be one to watch, if you’re following the ongoing public safety jobs saga conversation.

Tacoma State Legislative Agenda Priorities

This week we will, again, be hearing more about the City’s Legislative Agenda Priorities. This is a statement of the things the City cares about, and most hopes to see accomplished by the State Legislature in 2012. It’s a way for the City to let the state know what our priorities are, and a way for the Council to direct the staff as to how to prioritize issues. Because these are only “priorities,” the list entails neither required action nor commitment of funding.

On January 10th the Council adopted Resolution 38401, naming the initial set of priorities. The following week more priorities were added, and the Council adopted the amendments with Resolution 38410. This week, they will consider Resolution 31417, which lists a couple more amendments. With any luck, this will just about cover the list of priorities, which already includes stands on fiscal issues, environmental issues, human rights, housing and neighborhoods, public safety, transportation and infrastructure. The added amendment this week concerns the question raised at last week’s Council meeting, regarding disclosure by nonprofit hospitals of the salaries and compensation of top earners; essentially stating support for HB 2229.

Elks on Broadway

It looks like we won’t be hearing anything about the Elks on Broadway project this week after all. The status update the City Council was scheduled to hear this Tuesday (rescheduled from two weeks ago) has been postponed again, until “additional information is known.” Last week’s City Manager’s report did include a note that ongoing discussions with the developer have resulted in “meaningful progress,” as well as indicating that ongoing work will aim to avoid a negative impact on the City’s general fund. The latest is that we will get that additional info for an update by February 7th. We’re looking forward to hearing more, but we’re not holding our breath.