Exit133

May 14, 2012 · Exit133 · archive: txp/article

Tacoma City Business Sneak Peek - Week of May 14, 2012

Study Session Cancelled
This week’s City Council study session has been cancelled. Stay tuned for next week.

Purchase Resolutions

  1. $1,490,600.00, plus sales tax, budgeted from the Parking Garages Fund is requested to increase and extend the contract for the operation and maintenance of City-owned parking facilities (seven parking garages and four surface lots in the downtown area) through April 30, 2013.
  2. $600,000.00, plus sales tax, budgeted from the Tacoma Rail Mountain Division Fund, for a cumulative total of $1,892,511.50, to increase the contract for additional construction services requested by the City for the reconfiguration of the railroad tracks at Blakeslee Junction near Centralia. As WSDOT widens I-5 in that area, the tracks at this location need to be reconfigured, including a new stretch of tracks through the a wetland area. Additional costs represented by this request include estimated additional costs for “dewatering” the project through completion, additional survey, a potential claim for flagging costs, and other change orders related to the construction. The project is scheduled to be substantially complete this June.
  3. $57,374.00, sales tax not applicable, budgeted from the 2009 LTGO Bond Series E Fund, to increase the contract for additional design, permitting services, and bid support services for improvements to Fire Station No. 5, located at 3301 Ruston Way. The requested amendment would provide for additional design and permitting services needed to complete the $4.1 million project. Read more on the proposed amendment from the Tacoma Daily Index. It’s possible that work on the project could begin as early as September of this year, but that work could be delayed until August 2013 by permitting requirements. The larger project to upgrade the fire station has not been entirely uncontroversial, as discussed previously on Exit133.
  4. $563,094.00, plus sales tax, budgeted from the Equipment Rental Fund, for a cumulative total of $1,126,188.00, to increase the contract for one additional Triple Combination Pumper engine for the Fire Department. The requested new engine would replace an older engine currently in use.

3 New Regional Centers for Pierce County
A resolution on this week’s City Council meeting agenda requests amendments to Pierce County’s Countywide Planning Policies (CWPP) that would designate three new candidate regional centers (a regional growth center in University Place, and manufacturing/industrial centers in Sumner/Pacific, and South Tacoma), and allow for the submittal of applications to the Puget Sound Regional Council for official designations in the PSRC’s VISION 2040. The CWPPs are intended to provide for Comprehensive Plan Consistency between cities in Pierce County, and with other PSRC counties. VISION 2040, the PSRC regional growth management plan, directs growth and investment to the designated regional centers. According to background information provided “Designation will increase the competitive position of each of these centers for regional and federal funding.”

Affordable Housing Recommendations
Three separate resolutions on this week’s City Council meeting agenda bring recommendations from the Affordable Housing Policy Advisory Group before the Council for approval. These recommendations support a comprehensive update to the City’s affordable housing policies. The recommendations have been broken into three task areas, which are reflected in the three resolutions.

  1. The first would accept Advisory Group recommendations relating to planning, trusts, and loans; and refer them to the Neighborhood and Housing Committee for further review. It would also accept the Advisory Group’s endorsement for continued legislative efforts to secure Tax Increment Financing authority and to develop a Transfer Development Rights program.
  2. The second would forward recommendations from the Advisory Group to the City Manager for evaluation and implementation. These recommendations relate to code enforcement; transferring surplus properties; and the preservation, acquisition, conversion, and rehabilitation of existing homes. The recommendations relate to the ongoing responsibilities of City staff, and reflect Council wishes to integrate activities that promote affordable housing into the day to day business of the City government. Also included is a request for a report to the Neighborhoods and Housing Committee no later than December 1, 2012.
  3. The third would adopt the Affordable Housing Planning Work Program, and refer Advisory Group recommendations to the Planning Commission for the development of affordable housing regulations. It would also extend the term of the Affordable Housing Policy Advisory Group, which currently expires next month, through June 30, 2015.

Tacoma Power Wholesale Rates
The only ordinance making an appearance on this week’s meeting agenda is the final reading of the ordinance regarding revisions to Tacoma Power’s wholesale transmission rates. We heard the first reading of this ordinance at the May 8 City Council meeting.

Citizens’ Forum
The Citizen’s Forum scheduled for May 8 was rescheduled for May 15. This is your chance to have your say on any matter over which the City Council has jurisdiction. It’s your chance at your 15 minutes 3 minutes of fame; go ahead, make ‘em count.

Filed under: City-Council, budget

6 comments

  • Published Author RR Anderson May 14, 2012

    Jesus christ more money for parking garages.

  • JB May 15, 2012

    Great! Let’s pour some more money into our fire department! These guys have an inordinately huge budget already- if you aren’t in the longshore union, then the next best gig is to be a firefighter. They are hardly ever at work, get paid a ton, and occasionally have to use that expensive gear we are always purchasing for them. Let’s build a new and improved boathouse for our Canadian fire boat! C’mon Tacoma- wake up and quit filling the boot for these jokers.

  • jd May 16, 2012

    Let’s see here…how many things can I find wrong with JB’s uneducated, angry, lunatic ranting? Our firefighters hardly ever work? They put in a minimum of 46 hours a week (without over-time between 40 and 46 hours, for a non-OT rate total of approx 300 hrs a year), on a department that is according to all assessments grossly under-staffed and over-extended. The days of sleeping through 24 hour shifts is long gone. They handle all fires, all emergency medical calls (including all advanced life support transports), all hazardous materials responses, all technical rescue events. They retire earlier than the average worker because their bodies are broken, then have a shorter than average life-expectancy after they retire.

    You make it sound like a bad thing that we don’t ask them to have to use all that expensive gear more often. Remember one minor point…if it’s being used, it’s because someone is in danger. I’m guessing that if it were you needing their help, you’d be more than happy to see them show up with all their expensive equipment.

    As for the fireboat, it was made with so many American made products that it passed the qualification requirements with ease. As I recall, the engines, the pumps, the jet-drives, the FLIR camera, the navigation equipment, hell, even the aluminum for the hull was from America.

    I can definitely see your problem with them. On top of everything else, these lazy, greedy “jokers” slow traffic one day a year, at one intersection in the entire city to ask for help raising money for kids with Muscular Dystrophy.

    Sounds to me like someone’s angry for not being bright enough to pass their test!

  • Che May 16, 2012

    Sounds as if jd is a firefighter.

  • Che May 16, 2012

    The City’s own budget report states that the fire department costs nearly 25% of the general fund budget (which comes out to be roughly 50 million every year). As a citizen, I hear that firefighters still trade shifts to maximize time away from the job and are regularly approved overtime pay to accommodate these schedules. As far as for the above comment that their “bodies are broken”, I have a hard time feeling compassionate- it is the profession you are being paid to do. I don’t hear the framers and carpenters (who work way, way harder than a firefighter ever will) crying about their broken bodies.
    No matter how you cut it, 50 million a year is a huge budget, and times are lean. There has to be a more efficient way to deliver fire services than the current model.

  • fredo May 16, 2012

    Could Tacoma have a non-union fire department staffed by dedicated and brave firefighters at a lower cost in terms of salary and benefits than the current arrangement?

    The short answer is ….probably yes.

    During a recession, should the city council in charge of providing fire services to it’s citizenry look at the possibility of providing these services at lower costs?

    Again the short answer is…probably yes.