From Wednesday's Tacoma City Council Government Performance and Finance subcommittee meeting:

"Work release is a really great thing, isn't it?"

"Pardon my appearance, I just climbed out of a truck."

"It's not being made clear to me, it's being made less clear."

The proposed expansion of Tacoma's "Small Works Roster" has caught the eye and the ire of organized labor interests.

The program tries to steer smaller city public works improvements and contracts to local small and minority-owner businesses (as provided for under state law). The type of work is supposed to be that which falls outside work done by employees under collective bargaining agreements -- but gray areas surrounding that dividing line are raising union hackles.

The proposal changes to the program that came before the City Council's Government Performance and Finance subcommittee on Wednesday greatly expand the program and insert new mandates.

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This just in: Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson will seek election as Pierce County auditor in November. Incumbent Jan Shabro – appointed to the post in January – also is running.

Here's Anderson's press release:

Contact: Julie Anderson
(253) 761-3602
Info@JulieAnderson.org
http://www.julieanderson.org

June 3, 2009

Anderson seeks election as Pierce County Auditor

Julie Anderson announced today that she is seeking election as Pierce County Auditor.

Anderson, serving her second term as a citywide member and currently as Deputy Mayor of the nonpartisan Tacoma City Council, has earned a strong reputation for listening and working with constituents and staff to solve problems. Anderson’s leadership has created a more citizen-friendly and transparent government with the formation of council committees, the hiring of a professional city manager and the establishment of the city’s first ethics review board.

“I am excited for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Pierce County as their next Auditor,” Anderson said. “The voters of Pierce County spoke loud and clear when they made the Auditor a nonpartisan position. Pierce County deserves fair and practical leadership that is directly accountable to the voters – not political parties.”

“I have the necessary blend of professional administration, nonpartisan approach and executive management experience required to be Auditor,” Anderson said.

Raised in a military family, Anderson’s passion for public service began at an early age. After she settled here to attend The Evergreen State College, Anderson currently works as a Senior Policy Advisor with the State of Washington Department of Commerce. Her focus there includes workforce and economic development, clean technology and innovation, green economy jobs and clean technology.

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In April Pierce County Superior Court launched an effort to address the persistent backlog of cases that has contributed to overcrowding – and, according to some County Council members – overspending at the jail.

The effort – conceived by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office – involves assigning four judges and eight deputy prosecutors to the most serious “special assault” cases, including first-degree rapes and first-degree child assaults. Less serious special assault cases are funneled through another team of prosecutors who try to resolve them short of trial.

It’s only been six weeks, but early results look promising. Deputy Prosecutor Mark Lindquist informed council representatives yesterday that the backlog has been reduced from 2,146 pending cases to 2,011 as of the end of May.

You can read more about the effort to reduce the backlog here. Below is Lindquist’s e-mail summarizing the progress to date.

Gentlemen,

Here are the numbers from the first six weeks of our plan to reduce the backlog with the SAU pilot project. This is only the beginning, of course, and I don't want to put too much emphasis on the first few weeks, but it is a strong start that supports our basic premise: make courtrooms available and we can resolve cases.

The SAU project officially started on April 20th, when the backlog was at 2,146 pending cases. At the end of May we were at 2,011, down 130+ cases since we started.

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This just in from the Referendum 71 campaign to put Washington's new domestic partners law to a public vote:

Faith & Freedom PAC
June 3, 2009

Dear Joe,

PETITIONS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK!

Our petition draft & design team encountered a couple of unforeseen difficulties in laying the R-71 petition out, all of which they have overcome. Unfortunately, the problems did set us back a few hours and we will now go to print Wednesday afternoon, June 3.

We will begin our distribution as soon as the ink is dry.

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It’s there on the proverbial Double Doppler, the storm of the economy blowing toward Tacoma. Forecasters know it’s getting worse, but aren’t sure if its going to come ashore as a gale or a hurricane.

The latest report from the city’s finance department says the tax-supported general fund, which pays for things like police, firefighters and libraries, was down $7.1 million at the end of April from what was initially budgeted. That’s a growth of 50 percent from the $4.7 million shortfall seen at the end of the first quarter.

“We’re trying to stay ahead of it,” City Manager Eric Anderson said in an interview Tuesday. “We’re making careful adjustments based on quarterly financial reports. I don’t want to be Polyanna-ish or Chicken Little.”

Anderson previously recommended battening down the hatches with $11.7 million in spending cuts, realized throughout 2009 and 2010. They include things like not filling vacant staff positions, reducing travel and training, postponing purchases and cutting back on subscriptions.

These cuts would be made under a four-tiered plan that ranges from quick, easy items to Level 4 – a “Katie-bar-the-door Great Depression.”

For now, Anderson is implementing Level 1 and Level 2 cuts to minimize impacts to city services.

Are we headed for Level 3? Anderson said he didn’t know:

“We’ll go to Level 3 when we’re forced to. We’re not there yet.”

After waiting to see how the second quarter bears out, Anderson will be making another report to the City Council in July with recommendations on how to proceed.

“What we don’t want is to overreact in any direction,” he said. “We need to do this in a way that does not reduce the capacity of city governments to deliver city services and reach strategic goals.”

The shortfall in the $440 million two-year budget for the general fund includes $5.5 million in decreased revenue and $1.6 million in unanticipated spending.

One bright spot is that about 1 million of that spending includes items that were budgeted to be purchased last year, so money from the previous budget can be appropriated to cover them, Anderson said.

The hit to the general fund also comes at a time when the city is spending an additional $2.2 million from the fund on salaries following a compensation adjustment to bring non-union employees onto a market-based pay scale. A previous set-aside will reduce the actual impact to $365,000, officials have said.

(Photo: CoreBurn)

Is is just me, or does it sound odd that our governor is leading a "trade mission" to Washington, D.C.? What do they have that we want (except money, of course)?

I mean, it's like a headline that says, "Washington state establishes diplomatic relations with the nation's capital, a city that mistakenly gets much of our mail."

Gov. Gregoire, Agriculture Director Newhouse lead trade mission to D.C.

Meetings with federal leaders to discuss farm bill, water expansion and climate change

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire and Washington Department of Agriculture Director Dan Newhouse are traveling to Washington, D.C., today to meet with federal policy and decision makers to discuss issues surrounding the state’s agriculture industry.

“Agriculture is a vital part of our state’s economy, and I am committed to making sure we do all we can to help this industry thrive,” said Gregoire. “Our meetings with federal leaders will help us develop comprehensive strategies to ensure Washington’s agriculture industry remains profitable and productive.”

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Yesterday’s dust-up over sign code enforcement demonstrated the simmering tension between the Pierce County Council and the executive branch. It also showed how two little words made a different between enforcing and not enforcing the sign law.

When it approved this year’s budget, the council included a provision that set aside $100,000 in the county road fund for removing illegal signs out of the public rights of way. The provision is worded this way: “Provided up to $100,000 of this appropriation shall be used by the Public Works and Utilities Department to operate a countywide sign enforcement and abatement project…” (italics are mine).

Those two words – “up to” – constitute one front in the ongoing tussle between the county’s legislative and executive branches over control of the budget. They permit the public works department to spend up to $100,000 on sign code enforcement. But public works director Brian Ziegler contends nothing in the language requires the department to spend that amount on sign enforcement. The way Ziegler sees it, the department can spend less (or nothing) on sign enforcement. It just can’t spend more.

County departments have used that wiggle room with other budget line items as revenue dries up and they need to hoard cash. But the council may be getting wise, at least when it comes to the illegal signs provision.

At yesterday’s committee meeting, Councilman Shawn Bunney, R-Lake Tapps, asked Ziegler how the council might word the provision differently to ensure the money is spent on sign enforcement.

Ziegler said the council might use the words “at least” instead of “up to” to strengthen the provision. That would require the department to spend a minimum amount on sign enforcement.

“It’s a small nuance,” Ziegler said.

Council Chairman Roger Bush, R-Graham, indicated the council might change the budget language.

“We will revisit our procedures in the future,” Bush said.

Those are the Assembly Days, when lawmkers get together between sessions to hold committee meetings, hold fundraisers with lobbyists a full 30 days before the next session and to meet whoever won a regular or special election in November.

House Chief Clerk Barbara Baker and Secretary of the Senate Tom Hoemann sent this notice out to members yesterday.

The Legislature’s Assembly days during the 2009 interim will be held in Olympia on the following dates:

October 1-2 (Thursday and Friday)
December 3-4 (Thursday and Friday)

In addition, the Senate and House Leadership is requesting that Chairs and others responsible for the scheduling of committees, task forces and other entities not schedule meetings during the month of August. This will ensure that members and staff have some time they know can be scheduled for non-legislative activities during the summer. Scheduling the fall Assembly a little later than usual will also ensure that there is enough time to prepare for those meetings. The schedule also allows time for development of a legislative response to the September 17 revenue forecast, if necessary.

Thanks.

Barbara and Tom

While January is still half a year away, the Tacoma City Council is starting to plan for The Transition.

If I'm counting right, up to five City Council seats may be changing hands. Due to new term limits in Pierce County and the failure to repeal them in the city, that could have a ripple effect across the various boards, multi-jurisdictional bodies and standing committees the members serve on.

The scale of these various oversight bodies is actually fairly mind blowing.

"How do we make sure it's a seamless transition?" Councilwoman Lauren Walker asked at the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The Council members talked about pre-appointing some positions or naming members as alternates to ensure they got up to speed quickly and important business doesn't grind to a halt because of some noob.

Mayor Bill Baarsma cautioned that they also had to be careful about obligating future councils, which isn't kosher.

Tradition holds that vacancies are filled by seniority, allowing veteran members to have first dibs, he said.

And while I'll grant this seems like inside baseball, this may be one area where the incoming council members run into a real, although fairly mild, power differential.

(Photo: yeowatzup)

These come from Tuesday's Tacoma City Council Committee of the Whole meeting:

"It's like running with a bucket."

"Is there any water in the fridge? Is they any whiskey?"

I got a call yesterday from Tim Schmidt of Bonney Lake who lives in the 98391 ZIP code and was wondering where his refund check from Sound Transit was.

Bad news, Tim. Not everyone in the 98391 ZIP code gets a refund. Only those who live outside the boundaries of the Sound Transit taxing district. And, I afraid, you don't.

My colleague Ian Demsky wrote a story last December about how Sound Transit owed about $3 million to some vehicle owners because they were mistakenly listed on the tax rolls as people who have to pay an excise tax when they get their license tabs. The money goes to Sound Transit for the regional bus and rail system in most of Pierce, King and Snohomish counties.

Anyway, I figured it was time for an update on that issue, so I put in a call to Geoff Patrick at Sound Transit. The agency has paid out almost $3.7 million so far. Patrick's e-mail response is below.

Hi Joe. Got your voicemail. Here is an overview of where we are at with the refunds. There are a total of about 115,000 transactions identified for refunds. Of those, we have issued checks for all but approximately 8,000. With these 8,000 we are in the process of manually handling each individual record.

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