Here's what happened at the Tacoma City Council meeting tonight:

*The consent agenda adopting various meeting minutes and a couple of land-use items passed unanimously.

*There was one public comment from a Puget Sound Energy representative praising the Right-of-Way restoration policy. (Robert "The Traveller" Hill was a no-show, apparently having found better things to do with his first night of freedom in more than three months than to speak at the meeting.)

*The Council unanimously passed a purchasing resolution that extends a contract with Bill's Towing until July 31 while a new contract is bid; provides for phone service for the city; and authorizes $3 million in repairs to the trestle over the Niqually river that will allow Tacoma Rail (hopefully) to regain a lost customer and re-open the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad depot in Elbe.

I previewed this action earlier in the week. Most of the repairs are being paid for by the state and federal governments.

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That quote was uttered by Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan during a Committee of the Whole Meeting Tuesday in reference to a spat that's brewing involving the city, Pierce County and the Port.

Here's the 10-second summary. Tacoma thinks Pierce County is jumping the gun in amending its Comprehensive Plan to allow expansion of warehouse and freight facilities into rural areas beyond the Urban Growth Boundary. Apparently the Port is arguing that this is necessary because cities are putting up barriers to such facilities. Wait a second, Tacoma says, no one talked to us; there hasn't been any collaboration.

I think county reporter Dave Wickert is already working on at least the county piece of the story, so I'm going to leave the nitty gritty details in his capable hands.

But I decided to note it here since a draft letter from Tacoma to the Pierce County Council was handed out during the subcommittee meeting.

At today's Tacoma City Council Committee of the Whole meeting members heard from the United Steel Workers union and reviewed a proposed resolution conveying a desire to spend federal economic stimulus money on materials, goods and services produced right here in the land of the brave, the home of the free.

And while the council members seemed generally supportive of the idea, there were a few catches:

1) Quite a bit of international business comes through the Port and such a measure could actually hurt/anger some local businesses.

2) The city does not currently require and is not administratively set up for tracking the origin of products used by vendors -- or even most of the products used by the city itself.

3) The city must award contracts to the lowest responsive bidder under state law.

These and a few other caveats were spelled out in a memo from Assistant City Manager Tansy Hayward. (By following the link you can also see a copy of the proposed language and a similar resolution that was adopted by Sumner.)

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A key part of the coalition that pushed for passage of the basic education reform bill walked away nearly empty handed. That's because Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed a section that would have included early childhood education within the definition of basic education.

Below is the press release from the Children's Alliance that had celebrated passage of House Bill 2261. Included are comments from two of the prime sponsors of the big reform bill – Reps. Pat Sullivan and Skip Priest. Both showed up for the bill signing today but after being told of the veto chose not to stand behind Gregoire for the signing.

Gregoire said she didn't like that the bill included early learning only for at-risk kids. She wants the Legislature to work to include a broader program for all students, regardless of economic means.

Here's the release

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Pierce County’s Chambers Bay golf course will need to raise $600,000 in corporate sponsorships in order to break even on the 2010 U.S. Amateur, officials told the Tacoma City Council at a study session Tuesday.

Fundraising has just begun and the publicly financed University Place course only has a couple of commitments so far, general manager Matt Allen told The News Tribune.

That amount “frankly would be on the high end of what other Amateurs have been able to raise, but so far we’re optimistic about our abilities to do that,” he told the council.

In the down economy, Chambers Bay has been profitable, but just barely. In 2008, it saw a shortfall in golf revenue, but it was made up for by food, beverage and merchandise sales. The course finished the year with a $45,202 surplus on revenue of just over $6 million.

Chambers Bay isn’t looking to Tacoma for any direct logistical support for the event, which is expected to draw 3,000 to 5,000 spectators and national media attention, but will certainly be plugging into the regional network of tourism offerings including hotels and restaurants.

The Amateur will also be a trial run for what the “Big One” – the 2015 U.S. Open – will be like, Mayor Bill Baarsma said. That event is expected to draw at least 45,000 people per day.

Deputy Mayor Julie Anderson also asked the golf officials to follow up with the Council about their plans to promote Tacoma along with the events and prevent the national and international media, as much as possible, from referring to the event as being “near Seattle.”

Golf officials touted volunteer opportunities that will be coming with the 2010 championship. They include duties as spotters, scorers and standard bearers as well as off-course jobs in admissions and transportation.

“Volunteer slots are expected to fill up quickly due to the excitement surrounding the nationally-televised event,” championship coordinator Kathleen Pope wrote in a recent news release.

There will also be an opportunity for local residents to host players in their homes.

Typically, about 60 of the 312 players are put up in private lodging, Allen told the Council.

“I think we can recruit far far more homes than that,” he said.

For more information, visit www.2010usamateur.com.

Gov. Chris Gregoire signed House Bill 2261 this morning, but not before disappointing supporters with two last-minute vetos.

The bill attempts to begin reforming the state's public school system by broadening the definition of basic education and directing various committees and work groups to develop rules on compensation, teacher qualification and dealing with failing schools.

Gregoire pushed for passage of the bill, even lobbying fellow Democrats to buck to Washington Education Association and send the bill to her desk. But she took out two sections - one dealing with early childhood education and the other with gifted education.

The vetoes disappointed supporters who felt that if she had issues with those sections she could have asked lawmakers to resolve them next year. Still, they found much to like about the legislation.

Here is the text of the governor's veto message.

Here is a press release from advocates of the bill.

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KHQ-TV in Spokane has a story called "Paying for a Poet" which questions the state spending $20,000 on a poet laureate in the face of a $9 billion budget hole.

If you watch the embedded video, you can see that the report is done in rhyme and illustrated by a calligrapher. (Maybe I'm showing my bias, but as someone who enjoys contemporary poetry, that seems like the equivalent of illustrating a story about a police scandal with file footage of the Keystone Cops, that is, it's a caricature.)

Here's how it starts:

SPOKANE, Wash. - If you could add one more position in your state and have taxpayers pay for it, what would it be? A police officer? A teacher? What about a Poet? Yes, a Poet.

They even manage to zap the governor by getting her to admit on camera that she wasn't aware the position paid anything.

And while journalists should be skeptical of government spending and test every sacred cow, there's a few things in the story that jumped out at me.

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For all the home gamers out there in Tacoma:

The Government Performance and Finance Committee meeting on the 20th (tomorrow) was canceled. That's where they were going to discuss the Small Works program revisions.

Also canceled: the Economic Development Committee meeting next Tuesday.

Nor will there be a City Council meeting next week following the Memorial Day holiday.