Tacoma City Council Meeting for March 2nd, 2010
Tonight’s Tacoma City Council meeting was wickedly quick. No public comments. Five people spoke during Citizen’s Forum. A handful of agenda items and we’re done for the night.
The meeting began with an interesting little something we’ve never seen before.
Councilmember Fey moved to authorize the city’s full and final settlement of a lawsuit against the city upon payment by the city of $800k. These are agenda items that appear from behind the closed doors of executive sessions. Well, there was no second motion so the motion died. We’ve never seen a motion die. Fascinating.
R E G U L A R A G E N D A
APPOINTMENTS
Resolution No. 37990 appoints and reappoints individuals to serve on the Board of Ethics. An appointment to the Planning Commission was removed. It was decided that the post should’ve been advertised instead of pulling from a pool of already considered candidates. The position will be re-advertised and we may very well see the same name come forward again. Or … maybe it’ll be you.
RESOLUTIONS
Purchase Resolution No. 37991 awards contracts to:
- Beall Corporation, d.b.a. Beall Trailers of Washington, Inc., in the amount of $325,000.00, plus sales tax, for an initial three-year period, plus the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, for a projected contract total of $525,000.00; and South End Equipment & Repair, LLC, in the amount of $125,000.00, plus sales tax, for an initial three-year period, plus the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, for a projected contract total of $225,000.00; both contracts budgeted from the Solid Waste Fund, for trailer repairs and services;
- Eberle Vivian, Incorporated, in the amount of $408,000.00, sales tax not applicable, for a cumulative total of $1,028,000.00, budgeted from the Workers’ Compensation Fund, to increase and extend the contract for workers’ compensation claims administration services through May 31, 2011; and
- MJ Hughes Construction, Inc., in the amount of $700,000.00, including sales tax, for a cumulative total of $3,745,293.36, budgeted from the Tacoma Rail Mountain Division Capital Projects Fund and the Capital Projects – REET Fund, to increase the contract for additional work on the Nisqually River Trestle Repairs Project – Specification No. PW09-0039F.
FINAL READING OF ORDINANCES
Ordinance No. 27877 amending Title 13 of the Municipal Code, relating to the Land Use Regulatory Code, to establish procedures, requirements, and review criteria regarding the use of Development Regulation Agreements pursuant to the Washington State Growth Management Act.
Ordinance No. 27878 authorizes the transfer of appropriations, in the amount of $5,459,193, from the General Fund to the Permit Services Fund.
Filed under: City-Council, City-Council
9 comments
J jmasterflex March 3, 2010
maybe you all should brief your readers on the public forum comments? that way your readers know whats on the minds of those who come forth and speak.
food for thought
A Altered Chords March 3, 2010
So Fey says “let’s pay $800,000” and everyone just sits there saying nothing so there will be no payment.
This is interesting. I wonder what it’s about?
R RR Anderson March 3, 2010
I second Jmasterflex’s motion.
M Mofo from the Hood March 3, 2010
Would more people attend the Council meetings if some entertainment acts were scheduled? Maybe before the session starts, a comedian or Chinese acrobats with really long colorful silk scarves would bring in the crowds.
A Altered Chords March 3, 2010
Latin Jazz interspersed with haiku and taiku poetry?
$100.00 solo, $400 quartet.
C crenshaw sepulveda March 3, 2010
I’d be happy if they’d let us rummage through the staff’s refrigerator for snacks.
K Kevin March 4, 2010
I am really curious as to why these council sessions, with the new council and new mayor, are so short. Are they doing something similar to what we believe was done in the first round of the “pick a council person to fill the vacant seats” fiasco? Meaning… are they doing most or all of their “work” behind closed doors and not in the public sessions? This all just seems so strange from past decades of council sessions.
Anyone?
M Marty March 4, 2010
@Kevin
I think a there are about 3 main reasons…
1) Not as many items on the agenda.
Because former council spent the last few months wrapping up long term projects, there was little to no new starts new policy decisions.
Since the new council is still getting to know the system there has only been a moderate level of new issues that rise to level of requiring a council vote, and most of those are working those through the process of committees and staff review.
2) The current members don’t talk to every item on the agenda. During the open comment section they don’t make lengthy speeches, but rather speak briefly and directly to the issues
3) Almost No public comment.
Several times this year there has been 0 people speak during the public comment portion. Even last night, when it was open forum, four or five people spoke on a total of 2 items.
Keep in mind…
Study session begins at noon and is 2-3 hours of presentations and discussion. From 3:00 – 4:30 is committee of the whole, or economic development committee and this can run long some times. On other days of the week, there are committee meetings.
All of these are open to the public. A complete calender of meeting times and locations is available at cityoftacoma.org
All that being said, there have been many items that have been delayed so council can have further review, voted down or have died do to a lack of a second.
D DavidS March 4, 2010
To follow-up on 7/8: It’s my experience that the Council’s Committee structure is really starting to work as intended – have the in-depth vetting done up front before it is even forwarded to Council.
If more policy discussions really need to happen about something on an upcoming Council agenda, it then happens in study session. This means that nearly everything but voting occurs outside of the regular Council Meetings.
If you’re looking to hang out at a City Council meeting for a couple of hours, just wait a couple of months for some good stuff to arrive. However, if you just want to hear the discussion, study session recordings are available on the City’s website.