Tacoma City Council Meeting for July 20th, 2010
The regular agenda of today’s City Council meeting lasted just 15 minutes. There were absolutely no comments from Council and only one person came forward during public comment. BUT, there were two public hearings scheduled for tonight. The gavel closed the night more than 2 hours after the end of the main meeting. We may get into the public hearing comments another time. With regard to the main meeting, here are our notes:
PUBLIC COMMENT
- Robert Hill came forward to speak about Ordinance No. 27902 and 27903.
REGULAR AGENDA
RESOLUTIONS
Purchase Resolution No. 38073 awards contracts to:
- Serpanok Construction, Inc., on its bid of $206,861.00, budgeted from the Streets Special Revenue Fund, for traffic calming bulb-out intersection improvements along North 26th Street at Mason Avenue and Orchard, Monroe, and Madison Streets; and
- Ceccanti, Inc., on its bid of $704,137.93, plus a 10 percent contingency, for a cumulative total of $774,551.72, budgeted from the Wastewater Fund, for the construction of a new concrete slab, push walls, and grade beams at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant – Specification No. PW10-0459F.
FINAL READING OF ORDINANCES
Ordinance No. 27902 provides for the issuance and sale of Water System Revenue Bonds in the principal amount not to exceed $120,000,000, to finance or refinance costs of capital improvements to the water system and to refund or defease a portion of the Water System Revenue Bonds, 2001.
Ordinance No. 27903 provides for the issuance and sale of the City’s Regional Water Supply System Revenue Bond, 2010, in the principal amount not to exceed $55,000,000, to construct a portion of the Filtration Treatment Project for the Second Supply Project.
Ordinance No. 27904 amends Chapter 8.30A of the Municipal Code, relating to chronic public nuisances, to add additional levels of business license suspension to the chronic nuisance process, update the appeal process, and make language consistent with other sections of the Code.
Ordinance No. 27905 amends Chapter 6B.70 of the Municipal Code, relating to entertainment and dancing establishments where alcohol is served, to exempt commissioned law enforcement officers, or any person possessing a valid security guard license issued under chapter 18.170 RCW, from the requirements of the security personnel license, and to exempt establishments with a building occupancy of less than 100 persons from the Fire Marshal reporting requirements.
Ordinance No. 27906 amends Chapter 1.12 of the Municipal Code, relating to the Compensation Plan, to implement rates of pay and compensation for employees represented by Teamsters Local 313, which consists of approximately 130 budgeted, full-time positions.
Ordinance No. 27907 amends Title 2 of the Municipal Code, entitled “Buildings,” by repealing and reenacting Chapter 2.04 to update the Electrical Code to comply with current laws and administrative rules, including a $10 fee to cover the cost of permit cancellations.
FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES
Ordinance No. 27908 amending Chapter 2.01 of the Municipal Code, relating to the Minimum Building and Structures Code, to require notifications for substandard and derelict properties to be sent by first-class mail only and changing all penalty amounts to $250 per day.
PUBLIC HEARINGS AND APPEALS
- This is the date set for a public hearing by the City Council regarding the surplus of Tacoma Water property lying south of Southeast Green River Headworks Road in King County, in exchange for a portion of land owned by Fore, Inc., for additional buildable land for the Tacoma Water treatment facilities.
- This is the date set for a public hearing by the City Council to consider the creation of historic and conservation districts in the Wedge Area Neighborhood and to amend Chapter 13.07 of the Municipal Code to establish district boundaries and design guidelines.
We’ll talk about these hearings in another post …
Filed under: City-Council, City-Council
20 comments
J JJ July 21, 2010
Oh Oh.Robert Jesse Hill will probably end up incarcerated at the PCJ again for daring to speak at the Tacoma City Council meeting.I’ll be checking the Pierce County Legal Information Network Exchange website under the jail roster.
A Altered Chords July 21, 2010
JJ – do you think he’s been arrested for commenting?
J JJ July 21, 2010
Altered Chords-I think that he was about a month ago.He was released from the Jail I think on July 18th.
No true freedom of speech at the city council unless one wants to be a gluton for punishment.Also I read this from the City of Tacoma’s website.
“On Tuesday, July 20, 2010, the City Council may consider
a motion to suspend their rules and move Citizens’ Forum
from August 3, 2010, to August 10, 2010, to allow for
participation in National Night Out.”
Perhaps they don’t want any dissent period.
T Tim Smith July 21, 2010
The meat of the traveler’s comments were actually quite interesting. He proposed that rather than purify/filter all water at the Green River source, that home owners be provided filtration options at point of use. The idea is to cut costs associated with the mandated EPA requirements and to not use super pure water for industrial use where it is not needed. Remember, all that super-pure water will be moving through the current piping system and picking up all the stuff that is lying down there. Of course, he was smiled at, the cops fingered their Tasers, and everyone held their breath. His proposal came in at arouond $15 million vice the $50 million slated for the “Project”.
A Altered Chords July 21, 2010
JJ – my point is, they don’t arrest him for making comments – it’s the other stuff, fake guns etc.
It’s overly dramatic to say that the Tacoma City Council allows no dissent.
Exit 133 maybe, but not the city council.
N notme July 21, 2010
I’m sorry but I fail to understand why anyone thinks Mr. Hill amusing or interesting. He forfeited that long ago. I recall there were people on this blog who were amused when he slashed campaign signs and when he showed up at Julie Anderson’s home at night. He is not amusing, his opinions on water filtration are not of value. He is a borderline personality who consumes a lot of public resources (your tax dollars) for his quixotic adventures. We all have the right to our opinions, no matter how weird, and the right to state them in public forums such as city councilmeetings. If that was all he did, there wouldn’t be any concern about him at all.
R RR Anderson July 21, 2010
I like to think that when he’s up there commenting he’s not getting into trouble elsewhere.
nobody liked it when he was all up in Julie Anderson’s personal space. That is just not cool.
P Peter Peter July 21, 2010
I recall there were people on this blog who were amused when he slashed campaign signs and when he showed up at Julie Anderson’s home at night.
@notme – I do agree with you about Mr. Hill.
However, if you’re going to accuse “the people on this blog” of something, I would challenge you to find the comments. I remember comments like that on the News Tribune’s website. I don’t recall that here. I may be wrong. Did the sign slashing and Julie Anderson thing even come up on this website?
R RR Anderson July 21, 2010
heard rumors about sign stealing but don’t think it was related to Ms. Anderson. To my knowledge I do not believe any reasonable person on exit 133 ever condoned his ultra-creepy behavior. Definitely on TNT however.
L lostinlosangeles July 22, 2010
I think you can rationalize Hill’s behavior down to some filters missing in his head ala Gary Busey style,
but you can’t hide the fact that one of the main reason’s this cat is standing out is because he’s going at it alone with what looks like close to zero collaborators. Not that everyone needs to behave the same, but at least when you lose, you lose with some form of originality intact. You are going to lose to the powers that be anyway, might as well be at least a little provocative.
Alas, the keeping of the norms of rationality in society is as delicately instrumental as a game of whack a ground hog at the blue ribbon fair.
Why push such energy to the margins of society with nightsticks and taser guns when all you are really looking at is some one who is just mad as hell and not going to take it anymore?
But maybe it is just all about selling the news after all. No real change, just the maintaining of bridled out bursts for the sake of ratings consistency.
Is it not mathematically correct that you are only as creepy as the dull-drum group, which ostracizes you for breaking the rules of normality, is dull?
Well, then again too, perhaps some are just a little too focused on the voices in their heads to be a viable contributer in a political forum.
Its still a sight to see for tired eyes.
F Flo July 22, 2010
No. Do not glorify Robert for more than what he is. Although, I, too, appreciate both individual character and the balls to speak out publicly with the intent to change life for the better, if (like me) you feel concerned about Mr. Hill it’s not because you are “too focused on the voices in [your] heads to be a viable contributor in a political forum”. That actually fairly accurately sums up Mr. Hill’s problem, not ours. Robert, Jesse, The Traveler Hill has serious issues and I sincerely hope it does not result in harm to himself or others someday.
L lostinlosangeles July 22, 2010
Now it starts to get interesting.
Harm. I takes many different forms. But the question is: what are the motivations of harm?
What motivated man to create Vietnam II in Afghanistan?
What motivates Hill to seek answers to problems that curse us all? And how can we not look upon the complications such problems cause without catching a whiff of whatever chemical this man is clearly huffing too much of?
To quote Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesizer: “I can feel what’s going on inside of a piece of electric equipment.”
Now that may seem really fking crazy to a lot of us. But who is to say who feels what is going on in one place or another. Perhaps Hill steps into a city counsel meeting and perceives everything as a fight scene from Return of the Jedi, the counsel then being the sarlacc pit.
But that is just it, science already can tell us that of all the information that enters our mind, only a fraction gets past the lizard brain into the outer layers of the cognitive processes.
So where does that leave us with Hill?
It leaves us with something to study, and yes hopefully like Flo stated, we can find some sort of buffer zone to keep this man’s behavior from doing himself harm and others when clearly from his motives of simply wanting to be an important factor in solving the problems of the day are at the root of everything. Because who doesn’t want to know all the answers? Who doesn’t want to bring alleviation to a dilemma?
The last thing you want is a genuine motive to become corrosive just because the group becomes uneasy to the unpredictable pathways it is taking.
I say provide a pathway. When a power line breaks and whips sparks everywhere, are you going to panic and let the currents gouge away?
Tisk, tisk, we truly live on a planet of total strangers. The schisms are almost unmendable.
F Flo July 22, 2010
@ Lost
I’m afraid you’re still giving Robert more credit he deserves. I don’t believe his motives are a purely sincere desire in problem solving. His actions are motivated by inner demons, and politics are simply the magnet he’s drawn to for releasing his inner agitation.
You seem to be suggesting his methods are ineffective because of how we react to them. No. His methods are ineffective because he’s mentally ill. You suggest we should offer pathways better suited for his methods… but if an unstable person wants to drive a semi-truck through a cemetery we shouldn’t widen the gate for him to get through, we should steer him to the nearest rest stop and coax him out of the truck.
Yes, there is a schism between him and (most) of us. I don’t disrespect him for that, but I also don’t want to give him spare keys, gasoline and more encouragement to drive dangerously.
A Altered Chords July 22, 2010
How does he support himself? Inherited a pile of money? Won the lottery? Welfare? He can’t possibly be gainfully employed can he?
J jamie from thriceallamerican July 22, 2010
Perhaps Hill steps into a city counsel meeting and perceives everything as a fight scene from Return of the Jedi, the counsel then being the sarlacc pit. – lostinlosangeles
L lostinlosangeles July 22, 2010
@Flo
I don’t think I am necessarily giving Hall credit, just the occurrence of a pattern of behavior that is straying from the norm. I am just not that shocked by it all. And I think that is step one in managing society as an interdependent organism.
But I think you are missing a few details. As Tim Smith pointed out, the man like Hall has a few good points. Perhaps he is mad, but there seems to be some sort of knowledge in the ‘meat’ of Halls performances.
I can understand though how most would find unruly behavior a distraction from critical details in some one’s objective as in the case of source vs. point of use argument in the water filtration discussion.
Yet these are tidbits of viable information that do not go unnoticed by the more steely nerved members of the audience. Based on the issue of water filtration there apparently is something going on in said travelers head other than demons.
Some of us just have louder demons than others, but we all have them, and if you look closely you can see that all our demons are in dialog with one another every day. That is to say that our fears are constantly chattering away with in a social subtext.
Encouragement of such demons happens in the news all the time. But luckily with such programs as the Daily Show, we are able to deflate some of it.
I am not saying we need to support and encourage disorder in a political forum, I am saying that perhaps the subject of Hill needs to be approached with something that deflates the situation rather than puts us in a position of us vs him. We are sane, he is insane. I just don’t think that kind of stance is very creative when living in closely situated groups. After all the group we are talking about is Tacoma, and Tacoma prides itself on being different. So when something different happens, why reach for the most readily available textbook method of dealing with members of society through labeling?
Obviously Hall is capable of some coherent thought as Tim Smith pointed out. I am not saying that is reason to trust him with the keys of the semi truck, what I am saying is, the man like Hall may just need good, multiple co-pilots in said forums.
But Flo, I ultimately understand your Mr Spock approach (thought I would throw in another fan-boy reference) to dealing with the public disturbances caused by someone using a political forum like a manic street preacher. I just think there is more to the story than that, and I love stories.
@jamie
Yeah its a trap where public speaking goes to get swallowed up and slowly digested over thousands of years.
J JJ July 22, 2010
Altered Chords when Hernan Cortez and his men made their leave from Tenochtitlan after the death of Moctezuma II and after losing much Gold loot from the Aztec’s when they fled from a causeway at night this Gold would invariably be found someday.
RJH holds quite a minor quantity of Gold and this is the source of it.
A Altered Chords July 22, 2010
Ok, Aztec gold. Possesion of that would drive anyone mad.
R Robert, Hill July 27, 2010
==
So, when are any of y’all gonna provide input, in the Chambers, like me…on things?
Are you afraid of something…
==
R RR Anderson July 27, 2010
Mr. Hill, we appreciate your hard work on water bonds or whatever… but do you have any suggestions for tiger cub names?