Council Schedule Highlights Week of September 3rd, 2018

Usually the header image for this blog is a pretty picture of District 7 or represents a theme for Council business for the week. On Labor Day I thought it appropriate to post a decidedly not-pretty picture. It shows the declining rate of union membership and its relationship to the middle class share of our national income.
Even those of us who have never been in a union benefit from their work and are hurt, as labor has lost bargaining power. There’s also increasing evidence that this concentration of our national income into fewer and fewer hands is causing growth to slow. With a concerted effort underway to harm organized labor, we all have a lot to lose.
Tuesday, SEPTEMBER 4th, 2018
Douglas G. Richardson, Chair
Connie Ladenburg, Vice Chair
Dan Roach, Executive Pro Tempore
Regularly scheduled meetings are broadcast live and replayed on channel 22 (Comcast and Click! Network) and on channel 20 (Rainier Connect). Meeting materials and video can be accessed atwww.piercecountywa.org/councilcommittees.
Proposal №2018–63, 2018 Budget Supplemental/Capital Facilities Plan Amendment — Purchase of TAPCO Building An Ordinance of the Pierce County Council Amending Ordinance №2017 73s3, as Amended by Ordinance №2018–11s; Modifying the 2018 Pierce County Budget for a Capital Project; and Amending the Pierce County Capital Facilities Plan Adopted Pursuant to Ordinance №2017–64s, as Codified in Chapter 19E.20 of the Pierce County Code.
Sponsored by: Councilmember Douglas G. Richardson

This bill authorizes the purchase of the TAPCO building directly across Tacoma Ave from the County-City Building.
The County currently owns most of the block across the street, a leftover from a previous effort to develop a downtown campus for County administration.
The theory is that consolidating ownership of the block would make it more marketable. While I can somewhat appreciate the logic behind that theory, I think if there were demand the market would take care of that on its own. I’m very wary of government playing developer, even if it’s just assembling property. Generally speaking it doesn’t go well.
Further, I’ve heard an alternate explanation for staff that the site would serve a relocated Law Library, freeing up space on the first floor of the County-City Building. That would seem to contradict the stated goal of offloading surplus property, which is a drum I’ve been banging pretty hard, and add additional deferred maintenance to an already long list of rundown properties in the County portfolio.
Whatever happens this fall I intend to leave the County in a better fiscal position than the poor condition than I found it in, and that means liquidating surplus real estate and putting the proceeds back to work for our residents.
An additional oddity, I cannot for the life of me figure out why this is all happening in public before a contract is negotiated. In almost 20 years in local government I’ve never seen real estate acquired this way and it would seem to harm our negotiating position.
This meeting will be broadcast live and replayed on channel 22 (Comcast and Click! Network) and on channel 20 (Rainier Connect) Electronic meeting material can be accessed at http://www.piercecountywa.org/councilcommittees. Video archives are available at www.piercecountytv.org
Proposal No. R2018–102, Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account A Resolution of the Pierce County Council Establishing a Stakeholder Group to Recommend a Strategic Plan for the Expenditure of Funds Related to the Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account.
Sponsored by: Councilmembers Connie Ladenburg and Derek Young
When the Legislature decided it would prefer that sales tax collected on transportation projects be redirected back to the Transportation Fund, they faced a dilemma with the billions in Sound Transit construction. Rather than put those locally voted and funded dollars into a state account, they decided to keep those dollars local by redirecting the money to the three respective counties in the district with the purpose of improving educational outcomes.
In King County, they already have a number of programs that could leverage the funds, but in Pierce County we haven’t been active in this space short of managing ECEAP (Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program).
This bill would create a stakeholder work group to come up with a strategy to make sure we put those dollars to the best use. While it will amount to substantial funding, it’s also limited in duration, so it’s critical that we treat them as a one-time boost.
This is the schedule final vote for the bill.
My Weekly Calendar
Last year we got a request for my forward looking calendar. Rather than have staff waste their time on public record requests, I decided to publish screenshots. If you have questions, feel free to call. Keep in mind, my schedule isn’t static. Things will get added, deleted, changed, etc. There are conflicts that I have to pick between. But if people want to see where I’m at and who I meet with, that’s fine by me.

