Tacoma City Council Meeting - May 19th, 2009

Last night’s City Council meeting was a minimalist event with Councilmembers Fey, Strickland, and Manthou all excused from the dais. Here are our notes:

RESOLUTIONS
Purchase Resolution No. 37795 awards contracts to Bill’s Towing and Garage for $8k in towing services, MJ Hughes Construction for a tad over $3 million for Nisqually River trestle repair, and Integra Telecom for $235k in voice and data services. The 2nd item repairs the trestle near Elbe that was washed out in 2006.

Resolution No. 37796 authorizes an agreement with the Tacoma Regional Convention & Visitor Bureau, in the amount of $350,000, for assistance in furthering the City’s convention and tourism industry through the end of 2009, with the option to extend through 2010.

FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES
Ordinance No. 27803 amends the Municipal Code to adopt the Right-of-Way Restoration Policy, to provide a systematic approach to restore infrastructure, improve performance of street and sidewalk restorations, limit accelerated degradation to the infrastructure, protect the infrastructure investment, and reduce future maintenance costs.

Ordinance No. 27804 appropriates $220,000 from the Municipal Art Fund to create public art for the Pacific Plaza building (Park Plaza South). 1% of construction funds were placed in an account dedicated to the creation of public art. This ordinance appropriates those funds so it can be managed by the Tacoma Arts Commission. While the artist has already been chosen and is working with the developer, this will enable for the contract to be signed so that the “serious work” can get started.

Not much else for us to say. The meeting did start with the presentation of a number of awards by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Other than that …

Any thoughts?