Tonight's Tacoma City Council meeting may have set a speed record for finishing in under half an hour.

Here's what happened:

*The Council approved a consent agenda including minutes from several subcommittees and plat approvals unanimously.

*No one spoke during the public comment period.

*They unanimously approved a $60,000 payout in a damage claim involving a crash between a citizen and a police car (wasn't on the printed agenda).

*They unanimously approved two contracts, one a $40,000 addition to the existing contract with Asphalt Patch Systems; the other a $121,000 two-year contract for security guard services at the Tacoma Municipal Buildings, a.k.a. City Hall.

First, let me say that I don't mean the photo to impugn in any way the quality of the service provided by the current security force. But in reading through this week's agenda packet I saw what was to me a sleeper issue -- one for which there was no discussion by the Council (at least at tonight's meeting; it may have been discussed at previous committee meetings or study sessions).

If you made it to page 152 of this week's 168-page agenda packet, you would have noticed the $121,000 security contract (which can be extended up to five years or $302,000) doubles the security presence at City Hall from 8 hours per day to 16 hours per day.

The services in and of themselves actually seem quite reasonable. If my math is correct, they work out to $14.50 per hour (which would presumably pay for the guard(s)' benefits, too). But it doesn't say why the city is looking to double security.

I plan to follow up on this with city officials later in the week.

=> Read more!

That's a joke, Jake. I don't want to offend the 4th graders who brought the issue to your attention, after all. I'm just using the same reference that others at the state capitol used to refer to Senate Bill 5071. That's the bill by Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, that declares the Olympic marmot the "endemic" mammal of Washington. (I think that means marmots are native to Washington, that they aren't carpetbaggers like so many other critters -- two-legged and four-legged.)

The governor signed the bill today. Orcas, the OTHER state mammals, no doubt are in tears.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 12, 2009
4th graders’ work pays off; Olympic marmot becomes state endemic mammal

OLYMPIA — An exercise in democracy came to fruition today when Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law a bill proposed by the fourth-grade students of Wedgwood Elementary School in Seattle.

The students had contacted Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, to propose a bill declaring the Olympic marmot the endemic mammal to Washington. In response, Jacobsen introduced Senate Bill 5071 and invited a group from the class of fourth graders (now fifth graders) to come testify in favor of the bill.

When the governor signed the bill into law, many of the students were in attendance.

“It was a thrilling day for the students, their families, and their school,” said Jacobsen. “No education is better than a hands-on education. It has been such a pleasure to work with these students as they navigated the legislative process.”

=> Read more!

He'd better. If he really has his "Ear to the Ground."

This is getting to be too much for me. This morning, Gov. Chris Gregoire announced her Twitter page (and other stuff). This afternoon, Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark announces the Department of Natural Resources blog (and other stuff).

Me, I'm just all atwitter. Actually, I'm suffering from information overload. I don't know what all to bookmark or NetVibes or twit or whatever...

State DNR launches ‘Ear to the Ground’ blog
Blog joins other social networking tools to help agency communicate with the public

OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today rolled out a new blog, “Ear to the Ground.” This offering is the latest ‘social networking’ feature added to the department’s Web site, www.dnr.wa.gov. The blog was named Ear to the Ground to recognize DNR’s management of more than 5.6 million acres of state trust lands.

The blog, along with social networking tools, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and MySpace, will help support the agency’s commitment to transparency and informing the public in how DNR makes its decisions and manages state lands.

=> Read more!

I'm dashing off to a City Council meeting, but thought I'd pass this along. This is a response from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to local elected leaders' questions concerning the privately-run detention center on the Tacoma Tideflats.

Attached, for your information, is a response from ICE Congressional Relations Acting Director Judy Rogers to concerns raised by Representatives Adam Smith, Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott, regarding allegations of improper detention practices at NWDC.  Several of these concerns have been identified and discussed at Roundtable meetings. The planned expansion currently under construction may exacerbate these concerns.

I will keep you informed about future developments.

Ruth Clapp
Constituent Services
Office of Congressman Adam Smith

(Photo: Mother's Day event at NWDC courtesy of Tim Smith)

It's not every day you get to post a news release written by your former boss. Today is that day for me.

Hunter George, who now works for Pierce County, is still making me work. Below, he puts forth the complaints from County Auditor Jan Shabro. Shabro contends the recording fee increase is just another "backdoor tax increase".

There are a lot of similar fee increases throughout the state budget. There's about $270 million worth of fee increases in the operating budget bill, House Bill 1244. Most of that is from tuition.

I don't think it counts the $80 million the Liquor Board is raising to replace money the Legislature took from that agency.

But there's lots more fee hikes in other bills. I'm still tracking them down.

One such bill, HB 2331, was signed into law today by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

That's the one that raises recording fees to raise money for homeless programs.

UPDATE: I would be remiss if I didn't also point out the fee increase also will raise, collectively, $32 million for local governments.

Here. Read Hunter's news release, the unabridged edition.

May 12, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Legislature and Gov. Chris Gregoire have dramatically increased the cost of recording fees for certain legal documents, a practice that Pierce County Auditor Jan Shabro described as "a backdoor tax increase" on the public.

Effective July 26, the surcharge for homeless and low-income assistance programs attached to document recording fees will jump from $10 to $30 -- a 200 percent increase. It's not the only fee associated with recording public documents, so it will now cost a total of $62 to record such documents as deeds, easements, liens and powers of attorney.

=> Read more!

At the end of today's noontime study session the Tacoma City Council got an update on pothole repairs. I had to duck out to type up an update on the LeMay Museum and get back for the 5 p.m. meeting, but city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff e-mailed me the info.

Here's the 411:

Inclement weather has slowed the pace of repairs. To offset, crews have worked four of the last five Saturdays.

Repairs have been completed on 44,084 square feet out of 101,185 square feet identified in a January report to the Council. (That's not quite 45 percent.)

Crews are finding additional potholes at each location they go to.

Estimated cost total cost of the repairs: $457,209.12

I thought Gov. Chris Gregoire might veto the provision in the bill that lays any cost overruns for the tunnel in the lap of downtown Seattle businesses that benefit from having the viaduct removed from the Seattle waterfront. But I'm told there was a deal to keep House Speaker Frank Chopp's language in the bill.

I'm also told that provision probably can't be enforced anyway, so it might as well stay in. Senate Bill 5768 says others have to pay for cost overruns, but when push comes to shove, the state will be signing to contract with whatever company does the work. I think everyone is hoping -- as DOT Secretary Paula Hammond promised -- that there will be no cost overruns.

The amendment gave some promise that taxpayers statewide would not have to pay for any cost overruns beyond the $2.8 billion the state is sorta committing. (The state budget says $2.4 billion, and there MIGHT be another $400 million from tolls. But who do you think will pay that $400 million if DOT decides not to put tolls on the tunnel? State taxpayers.)

I'm not sure what Chopp's motives are by putting the cost-overrun language in. Maybe he really is looking out for taxpayers across the state. Maybe he's afraid the viaduct replacement will suck up so much state money that there won't be enough left to pay for the Highway 520 project, which connects his Seattle district to King County's Eastside.

Alaskan Way is a $4.24 billion project. Highway 520 is at least a $4.65 billion project. If they both cost that much, how much money is left for project in the rest of the state.

By signing the bill, The Guv clears the way for DOT go out out an order a drill bit about the size of a three-story house.

Oh yeah, tolls aren't a done deal on the project. There's still another study to see how much money could be raised from tolls. The report is due next year.

Gov. Gregoire Signs SR 99 Bored Tunnel Bill

=> Read more!

Layoffs, fee hikes and an end to poll voting may be on the table as Pierce County struggles to close a $13 million budget gap in coming months.

Budget director Pat Kenney told the County Council this morning that across-the-board spending cuts of at least 1 percent in all departments also are under consideration as the county faces shrinking sales tax and other revenue.

Despite recent budget cuts, Kenney said the county faces an $8 million revenue shortfall this year in its $281 million general fund budget. And the county will need to find at least another $5 million in savings in 2010.

“You’re not going to make things balance next year without making some cuts,” Kenney told the council at a budget retreat. “They’re going to be painful and their going to be noticeable.”

In March the council cut spending and made other adjustments to plug an $8 million revenue shortfall.

The fallout from those cuts will be felt in coming months. Among other things, the planning department is closing its development center for nine days this year, the sheriff’s department may cut lake patrols this summer and the county is considering transferring parks to other local governments.

But as sales taxes, planning fees and other sources of income continue to slump, the county’s budget problems are getting worse.

Kenney said County Executive Pat McCarthy is considering several options to balance the budget:

• A 1 percent across-the-board cut in all departments would save $2.5 million.

• The county may save $1.5 million from state pension-rate changes.

• The county could save $1 million by postponing a renovation of a pod at the jail.

Kenney said the executive also may lower general fund contributions to some other funds (like those set aside for information technology or facilities needs).

And she’s considering laying off employees at the planning department, which has seen its workload reduced because of a slowdown in the construction industry. Kenney stressed that no final decisions about how to balance the budget have been made.

=> Read more!

Here are two quotes overheard before and during today's Tacoma City Council noon study session – taken completely out of context.

"You try to do things the way nature used to do it."

"You know I drug your predecessor up 19,000 feet."

Well, are ya, Brian?

That's the word on the street. Brian Ebersole, former Franklin Pierce librarian, former state Speaker of the House, former Tacoma mayor, former Bates Voc-Tech president and survivor of U-turn traffic accident, is rumored to be gearing up a campaign to run for a seat of the Port of Tacoma board of commissioners.

Another question, who's gonna run his resort in The Phillipines?

UPDATE: Our business folks got the confirmation way before I did.

It's nearly a month away, but the campaign kickoff for Rep. Tom Campbell's bid to become, well, Rep. Tom Campbell, is set for June 5.

It's $200 a head, or $350 per couple.

It will be held from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. Friday, June 5, at Pioneer Park Pavilion, 330 So. Meridian, Puyallup.

Campbell, R-Roy, announced during the just-finished legislative session that he's running for the 9th District Congressional seat now occupied by U.S. Rep. Adam Smith.

Of course, the election isn't until November 2010. But he's getting an early start because it takes a while to run all the way to Washington, D.C.

Here is a link to the TomCampbellForCongress page.

And here's the full invite.

One of my readers accused me of going off half-cocked with my blog post yesterday about how the Legislature ended up giving nursing homes more money after it became apparent there would be no tax referendum to restore budget cuts to nursing homes.

He said it was based on thin evidence. It was thin. Yesterday, I didn't yet have the other main component -- that is, how much money did the Legislature restore to the cuts it was going to make to hospitals?

Today, I do.

The final budget restored $36.5 million to the amount of money that was going to cut from state payments to hospitals for inpatient and outpatient, the biggest component.

When the House and Senate came out with their original budgets March 30-31, BOTH of them were going to cut hospital funding by $157.6 million in 2009-11. The final budget cut funding by only $121.1 million.

That's not a case of the two chambers having different amounts and then compromising on an amount somewhere in between the two. I suspect state budget-writers decided to lessen the blow to hospitals because there wasn't enough support to put a 0.3 percent sales tax hike on the ballot. That meant, there was no chance to raise $1.1 billion over 3 years. And that meant there was no way to buy back cuts to health care programs, mainly to hospitals and nursing homes. (If you'll recall, the hospitals and nursing homes, along with the Service Employees International Union locals 775 and 1199, were the driving forces behind the tax package. Well, and House Speaker Frank Chopp.)

But as my critical reader says, I'm just looking for conspiracies. And I am. One reason this is important is because I asked -- before the final budget came out and before the tax referendum went into the tax -- if the budget would be revised if there were no tax measure on the ballot. And key House leaders told me, "No."

And yet, it does appear the budget was redone to soften the blow to hospitals and nursing homes. That's my conspiracy theory and I'm sticking to it.

But Here's Adam Glickman's take on my last post (with his permission).

=> Read more!

The state Department of Corrections budget gives the clearest example of how a change in policy translates into cutting workers and thereby saving money.

A case in point is Senate Bill 5288. This is the measure that says many, many inmates won't be supervised as long once they are released from prison or jail and sent back out to communities.

It is prospective and retroactive. Add up the two and you have a two-year budget savings of $48 million and a reduction of 265 "full time equivalents" (aka "workers").

Those are mostly community corrections officers, the folks who keep an eye on offenders after they get out. (They formerly were known as "parole" officers).

Prison and supervision are growth industries, so not all of those 265 folks will be laid off. There will be some turnover in the ranks of CCOs, but chances are, many others will lose their jobs.

That's one of the assumptions in the state budget that Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign next week.

The 2009-11 budget assumes the state Department of Corrections will save about $11 million over the next two years because more offenders will be on "home detention" instead of taking up space in a jail or prison.

Home detention usually means offenders wear an ankle bracelet with or without a GPS tracking feature and they have to pay a private company or agency something like $5 to $13 a day while they are being monitored.

The group of inmates we're talking about here are the ones who have served their prison (or jail) sentences and have been released to the community, but they still are under supervision by the state Department of Corrections.

If they violate terms of their release, they sometimes get sent to jail for 20 to 60 days. Some of them end up at the Monroe prison, but most are serving time in local jails. DOC pays the locals to house most of the "violators."

"The savings are based on the assumption that 25 percent of violators in jails will be sanctioned to home detention instead of jail," the budget footnote says.

By the way, the savings comes, in part, from DOC not having to pay local jails $65 to $70 a day to house violators. On the other hand, the budget says 11 fulltime workers will be hired for this beefed-up detention program.

Call me a fuddyduddy, but it's really hard for me to use the verb-noun "tweet" in connection with our governor. Seems undignified.

From The Guv's office:

Today we launched the Governor's Twitter page (http://twitter.com/GovGregoire.) Please sign up if you are interested in following the Governor and please post on your blogs. We should begin tweeting later today. We'll be launching an official Facebook page in the next week (there is a campaign Facebook site up now that hasn't been updated in some time).

Thanks -

Pearse

Pearse Edwards
Communications and External Affairs Director
Office of Governor Chris Gregoire
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Here's a link to the governor's Twitter page.

Also included in last week's Tacoma City Manager's report was an end-of-the-year report on city complaints.

From October 2006, when the city's Conduct Complaint Management System went live, through the end of last year, there were 361 valid complaint conduct records.

Just over half were allegations of misconduct. Another 43 percent were categorized as "unsure" or "unspecified" type.

Overall, most complaints were not upheld. Of the total, 23 percent were "unfounded," 20 percent led to the person being "exhonerated" and another 6 percent were "not sustained."

By far, Tacoma Police had more complaints than any other department -- 53 percent. The next largest was public works with 14 percent of the total.

The Police Department received 192 complaints, 69 percent for misconduct. Three quarters of them were not upheld under one of the three categories above.

Follow this link above for the complete report with all the details.