Council Schedule Highlights Week of April 1st, 2019

March 31, 2019

Monday, April 1st, 2019

1:30 pm Community Development Committee

Derek Young, Chair
Dave Morell, Vice Chair
Marty Campbell
Jim McCune
Douglas G. Richardson

Regularly scheduled meetings are broadcast live and replayed on channel 22 (Comcast and Click! Network) and channel 20 (Rainier Connect). Access meeting materials at www.piercecountywa.org/councilcommittees.

Proposal №2019–17, Conservation Futures and Open Space Citizens’ Advisory Board — Membership

Sponsored by: Councilmember Pam Roach

The CAB, as it is known, makes recommendations to the Council for appropriation of Pierce County’s Conservation Futures dollars. Its members are currently selected as follows:

One person from each Council District;
one person to represent the City of Tacoma;
one person appointed by the legislative body of each city and town whose population base is larger than 15,000;
two persons selected by the Pierce County Association of Small Cities and Towns to collectively represent the legislative bodies of the cities and towns whose population base is less than 15,000;
and three persons are chosen at large from the unincorporated area.

This bill would replace those last three positions representing unincorporated areas with three people chosen to “represent agricultural interests whose primary family income is gained through farming at large from the unincorporated area.”

Though we recently recommended that the CAB emphasize agricultural land preservation projects to take advantage of a matching fund opportunity, that’s not the only point of conservation in unincorporated areas. We also have habitat and recreation needs to support. While the needs of the agricultural industry should be heard, we need people who will represent the many conservation interests of their community.

As a result, I will likely be opposed to this bill, at least in its current form.

Proposal №2019–10, Long Term Ground Lease — Chambers Creek Properties

Sponsored by: Councilmembers Pam Roach, Dave Morell, and Douglas G. Richardson

This is our second hearing on the Chambers Creek ground lease for development of a resort on the site. I had initially expected there to be some amendments but believe there may be a delay due to discussions with the Executive’s Office and the County’s special deputy prosecutor hired to consult on the negotiations.

One issue I’m focused on is that the lease terms currently allow changes to be made by the Executive without Council approval. I think that lack of oversight is unacceptable to most on the Council and likely contrary to the Charter, so we’re looking at how to make changes there.

Regardless, the plan is to have an additional committee meeting following Councilmember Ladenburg’s in-district Council meeting on April 16th. The idea is that we’d take that opportunity to hear from constituents closest to the site before potentially developing additional amendments.

Tuesday, April 1st, 2019

9:30 am Human Services Committee

Connie Ladenburg, Chair
Marty Campbell, Vice Chair
Douglas G. Richardson
Dave Morell
Derek Young

This week we’ll be focused on homelessness in Pierce County with two different types of reports on the subject presented to the committee.

Point-in-Time Count and Housing Inventory Count
Presenter: Clayton Aldern, Data Analyst and Evaluator, Human Services Department

The annual point-in-time count is a snapshot view of homelessness in our county. Interviews are conducted in person and provide some indications for the cause of the person’s crisis. One thing to be aware of, unsheltered people are slightly overrepresented and tend to have more chronic issues like behavioral health disorders.

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act Presentation
Presenters: Samantha Iverson, Housing and Community Resources Liaison, Tacoma Public Schools
Jackie Crowley, Homeless Liaison, Bethel School District

The McKinney-Vento Act passed in 1986 is a federal law protecting homeless students. It establishes certain rights and requires school districts to reportthe number of students experiencing homelessness over the course of a year.

3:00 pm Council Meeting

Proposal №2018–95, Administrative Shoreline Review — Land Use Advisory Commissions

Sponsored by: Councilmember Derek Young

This bill was postponed late last year to allow for time to work through some issues with Planning & Public Words staff.

The issue is that historically, our local land use advisory commissions (LUACs) have had the chance to make a recommendation to the Hearings Examiner on most permit applications on the shoreline.

During the Shoreline Master Program update the Council decided to make most permits administrative rather than quasi-judicial. That would mean that docks, piers, and even upland commercial projects would be approved by department staff.

Unfortunately, it also had an unintended consequence. Since the LUACs currently make recommendation only to the Hearings Examiner, that change cut them completely out of the process. On the peninsulas, shoreline permits have been a substantial amount of the business before the LUACs and an important part of the culture in our area.

This bill would restore most of those functions to the LUAC to make a recommendation to department staff.

Proposal №2019–6, Prenatal to 25 Commission for Child, Youth, and Young Adult Development An Ordinance of the Pierce County Council Adopting a New Chapter 2.43 to the Pierce County Code, “Prenatal to 25 Commission for Infant, Child, Youth, and Young Adult Development.

Sponsored by: Councilmembers Connie Ladenburg and Derek Young

Proposal No. R2019–15, Prenatal-to-Three Policies

Sponsored by: Councilmembers Derek Young and Connie Ladenburg

These two bills are back this week after a delay caused by late-arriving amendments. You can read more about the bills here.

Two bills for young people in Pierce County
Pierce County lags behind our peers in most socioeconomic measurements. Whether it’s poverty rates, educational…medium.com

So far these amendments have been introduced:

Amend each bill that would prevent the use of funds for abortion or abortion referrals. Neither bill spends any money at all.
Change staffing of the commission from Pierce County Human Services Department to CareNet Pregnancy and Family Services of Puget Sound, a “crisis pregnancy” center.
Change the composition of the commission to the 7 members of the Council. Literally, the Council advising the Council.
Change the commission to only being about P-3.

My Weekly Calendar

A couple of years ago 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. Now I’m adding a link to the calendar as well. 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.