Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Here are a couple of reports from folks who attended the meeting (with some minor edits). Thank you!

Beth Torbet:
1.Presentation (Stebner) = Reinholds attorney, Joan Milhan ?, briefed the council and audience at the invite of Stebner, about the specifics of his lawsuit with numerous objections from the mayor & town attorney. ....she took more than 2 minutes!
2.Ordinance #1250 to amend budget for unanticipated expenses = moved forward to next council meeting for second reading with public comment. Will put in newsletter.
3.Reversal of Court Street (Albertson) = will put in newsletter for public to comment Albertson heard from residents and admitted not knowing the history of that topic.
4.MDP Update-advisory committee = council directed by mayor to make appointments. Carl said council & planning members were his suggestion.
5.Resolution #412~declaration to enter interlocal agreement w/tacoma = yes 5-0 after rules changed to allow Tacoma representatives (?) to answer council questions. Resolution allows process to begin to research concerns of each municipality.
6.Termination of H-Z (Huson) = much discussion of fees, process and procedure. I think it ended with town attorney directed to determine if another municipality could be considered without an RFP/RFQ & if so move forward with invites in a 30 mile radius ~ or if we are required to go out for a public RFP/RFQ prepare the announcement.
7.Resolution to support Point Ruston (Huson) = It will be on the next agenda.
8.Professional Services w/Bob Burke = not to exceed 15k, would be senior planner to H-Z, reason is to get 75k matching grant to review/redo? MDP. Discussion began on specifics and need to even go for the grant. Council decided to table & review specifics and need. (Not sure if this the grant we have already accepted to update the Master Development Plan for the Point Ruston site)

Huson extended the meeting two times to accommodate the citizen comment period. Meeting ended around 9:45 or so. Jim Wingard, Helen Acra, Connie M., Mike Cowen, Lorren Cowen, Sherrie Forsch, Brian (applied for PC), and Mark Shots spoke.

Craig Fletcher (Craig's full dialog is posted as a comment to the council agenda for this meeting)
Wayne's super double top secret presentation was the lawyer for Jim Reinhold's suit against the town. The mayor and town attorney both pointed out that having her speak was a violation of their buttoned lip policy and further that she shouldn't be presenting this to the council in a public meeting. She left.
Ordinance 1250, the SWAT payment has been amended and continued until the next meeting so that public can comment. Bradley wants to explore a way to charge (the man involved)... for the SWAT response. The mayor and town attorney both viewed that as pretty difficult to deal with in such a manner. Why can't Ruston hammer out a reduction in the price since the TPD guys could use the training anyway.
Court street to Baltimore one way reversal, apparently it switches regularly over time.
Res 412, Declaration of intent to enter into an interlocal agreement with TacoMa to administer an LID with Cohen's Point Ruston development. Dan did point out that Ruston has a lot to lose in the event of a default what with our very small tax payer base. However he was getting into his interrogation "gotcha" mode again even if he was making valid points.
There has been a proposal to re-review 1002 as it appears to be stopping development.
The ouster of Huitt-Zollar is on hold but there is movement on the part of the council to investigate an interlocal agreement with a neighboring town for planning and building permitting as well as the engineering aspects of same.
Re: Huitt-Zollar contract. The unsigned copy included in the packet was tendered in 1994 and Phil Parker's name is on there as Mayor. Phil took his own life in 1995 or we could ask him if he ever signed. The contract for consultant services is for Richard Carothers Associates Ltd. of 705 S. 9th Tacoma. Did Huitt-Zollars inherit the contract? I did see that Richard Carothers has an office in Seattle at 814 E. Pike which is also the address of Huitt-Zollars.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Attorney's name for Jim Reinhold is Joan Mell. She showed up with documentation to show the Mayor ordered the Chief to close the Unicorn irregardless. When he countered that they had not broken any law and he could not force his occicers to BREAK THE LAW the firing soon followed. The town has a very poor case here and the Chief is almost certainly going to be reinstated with back pay and a judgment against the town. Are you happy now Ruston you elected this big bucks out the door Mayor?

Anonymous said...

occifers s/b officers. Where is spellchecker when you need it?