Here's a brief overview of the meetings last night. I'll have more this weekend after I listen to the tape:
Study session on LID update:
The discussion began with Council Member Hedrick discussing House Bill 2285. This bill is extremely important for this project and Ruston as a financing mechanism for two jurisdictions to work together on a common project. Council Member Albertson then complained that he felt left out of the process. J.J. McCamment gave the slide presentation (I'll get a copy posted soon). If the pieces don't fall into place (Ruston and Tacoma approving the LID and HB 2285 doesn't pass) it will be hard for the town to afford these improvements.
Public comment was allowed: Lyle Hardin was concerned for the businesses in Ruston and the impact new development might have. Jim Wingard supported the process. Beth Torbet appreciated that Point Ruston has been keeping the businesses informed of the schedule and asked how the community could support HB 2285.
Council meeting:
1. The council moved Ordinance 1281 - Variance for height & rear setbacks to the first order of business. After the presentation they waived the second reading & voted 5-0. They also want to have the planning commission look into revising or change the heights to reflect what was initially recommended by the planning commission a few years ago (a 45 foot height limit for 51st and Pearl).
2. Ordinance 1278 on Alarm Systems: This was the first reading so the ordinance will come back at the next meeting with some corrections.
3. Ordinance 1279 on Fire Inspections passed 4-1 with Stebner voting no.
4. Ordinance 1280 on Off-Leash areas: Council Member Huson proposed meeting at the park March 15th @ 5:30 to take measurements and see how the proposal fits into the space.
5. Ordinance 1282 on Sewer Charges and Resolution 436 on Utility Extension Agreement were both removed from the agenda.
6. Discussion of annexation was led by Stebner. Council Member Albertson moved to direct the Mayor to write a letter to Tacoma and Stebner seconded it. When someone in the audience asked if the public could speak to the issue, Albertson & Hunt called "point of order" and all input was denied. Albertson then asked the Mayor to call for the vote, which was 3-2 with Huson and Hedrick voting no. The Mayor asked the attorney if he had to comply with the motion. After looking at Albertson, the attorney told him he would be forced to follow the council's direction.
I'll have details on the rest of the meeting this weekend.
Karen
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This comment has been slightly edited - full comment available on Free Ruston...
If I could keep time in a bottle...
It is are done.We will pour through the money we have left faster than a pig in a pumkin patch. Problem is Tacoma is going to wait for us to go broke.You don't need to be worried about Dan and Jane.Even if they begged for annexation it will not happen.Oh well...
Amazing !!! The answer to everything from a small yet majority (3)of these councilmembers only seem to have one point of view. They run from making any actual hard fought effort to survive as a community, as we have for more than a 100 years. Come-on now a financial crunch as their excuse, wasn't there an even worse financial situation to deal with before, like, "The Great Depression" !!! We made it then and if they were honestly interested in responsible financial management and less involved in legal issues we could last for many, many more years. It is simply their choice as councilmembers to abandon us as a community.
I think it's really obvious when a councilmember uses the cover of "interest in public safety" as a way to make an effort to eliminate the fire department on one hand and yet when the community put that to a stop and fought to keep "our" department, that interest in "public safety" is now apposed, by voting against the fire safety inspections, otherwise conducted in nearly every city in the country, for the purpose of providing "public safety" to the bussiness owner(s) and the community around those businesses. Kim
why be so afraid of exploring options to keep Ruston afloat? I favor annexation and I don't think I should be branded a pariah because that is my view on what is best for our community.
i commend council member Hunt for taking a sensible look at the current destructive path we've been taking for the past few years by spending twice as much as we've taken in. she may have voted the way she did out of a sense of fiscal responsibility.
good for her, good for albertson, good for stebner. they show responsible leadership. don't know where huson and hedrick are coming from, but pinning their hopes on pt. ruston is whistling in the wind, as far as i'm concerned.
How is pursuing annexation keeping Ruston afloat?
annexation = NO RUSTON!
The "Ruston District" you appear to crave will not have anything comparable to what we have now. Albertson, Stebner and Hunt, for that matter all of them, should be spending their time crunching our own numbers and cutting the fat.
No fence for their "dog" park.
Two patrol cars.
Retro the police pay scale & perks.
Settle all the law suits.
Drink tap water.
Apply for "Stimulus" monies.
on & on & on....!
Another comment came in that is available on the Free Ruston site.
Another comment is available on Free Ruston.
There isn't any responsible way to keep Ruston 'afloat' without annexing. Actually, annexation does mean saving Ruston. This town has been self destructing for several years because of its spendy habits. We have been a spoiled child always wanting what we want when we want it, regardless of cost. Increases in police pay, buying an expensive fire truck, giving in to the Commencement construction because we fell for the 'pot of gold' dream its owners and ex mayor Wheeler sold us, and continually losing the majority of costly lawsuits against the Town - all this goes away with annexation. It leaves us with our own Ruston community in tact, only with a responsible government structure in charge of our sewers and infrastructure improvements, efficient police services 24\7, and professional fire protection.
Kim \wheeler's credibility as a skillful political thinker is shot as far as the majority in Ruston are concerned. This may not be fair to him but when he pushed the Commencement on this community against its wishes, he paid the heavy price of losing the next mayoral election. So when he makes a comment about council members using the 'cover' of public safety to try to get rid of the fire department, he can't expect people to support that comment. My reaction to his and others bashing Albertson, Stebner, and occasionally, Hunt, is that such comments not productive and are negative for negativity's sake.
Where do you get off saying that Kim is negative? Might as well include Karen and Beth while you're at it, Craig, too. They led us to where we are and they were right. Have some faith that the Commencement condos and Point Ruston will bring in the tax base we want. It is these folks who dream big for Ruston.
We were right to up the wages of our police and buy a new fire truck. Now we need to start on the sewers and pay off some of the lawsuits and get moving again.
Hello...haven't you been listening? Spending our way to bankruptcy is not the way to save our town. You may have had the wool pulled over your eyes, but I haven't. If we do what you say and believe the fiscal nonsense put out there by Karen, Kim, Beth and others, well that's your choice. It's o.k. for you to put your head in the financial and political sand, but don't expect the rest of us to. Karen, Kim, and group are stuck in the old ways as they continue to justify our spending money as though we had it.
has anyone heard how many condos the commencement really has sold? how many people who put deposits down have taken them back? we need to know what is happening with this project if we are being asked to believe that tax revenue is on the way from the commencement sales. who has seen their records latelly?
I am new to Ruston. Soneone told me about this website. From what I have read, I think you are all sort of batty, very old school. The new residents like me don't care about your old feuds, including the fire department stuff, the trashing of individuals by some people who post, including the web administrator whoever that is, and what you fight about spending tax payers money on.
What we new people care about is a real fire department (read 'professional'), fiscally responsible use of our tax dollars (please, no 'economic development committee' money wasters - leave economic development to the business district), good police protection, etc. It's too expensive for this town to have its own police department and to support a fire department that really is one. I don't care about how cute and cosy it is to have a home town this or or a home town that.
For you who are concerned that you'll lose your history by changing and even annexing into Tacoma, relax. The history will stay and change is usually very good.
Contract our services with Tacoma and get this community back into solvency. If annexing is what that takes, then consider it seriously.
If you don't see to it and drop the feuds or insist on staying with your traditional old ways, we new ones will take care of it ourselves.
Who does the fire chief report to? True that the Council took away the police chief's role as his supervisor?
True that Tacoma F.D. said no to our mayor when he asked for the loan of Tacoma's ladder truck, when needed, to help our fire dept put out fires?
I'm not sure if the old rule that the police chief supervises the fire department was changed recently. There are many in town who do not think the police chief should be in charge of the fire department - the two departments have different functions and it would be challenging for someone with expertize in police work to have the full capacity to make decisions for the fire department. In my years here, I have not seen this rule applied even though it was on the books.
I understand that Tacoma's fire department would not commit its ladder truck to be at Ruston's disposal, but the fire committee's research found having a ladder truck was not necessary. There are other pieces of equipment that work just as well for all the buildings (current and proposed) for Ruston. The mutual aid agreement with Tacoma is still in effect, they will still help us if needed and we will help them if called upon.
I think its important to remember the fire engine was purchased at well less than half price. It was inspected by a third party, which confirmed it is in excellent shape.
I am puzzled by the logic of some of these arguments, i.e. save Ruston by becoming Tacoma. If we want to debate municipal services, let's debate that. But saying we'll only "survive" if we no longer exist does not make sense.
On the issue of services, police, fire, utilities, taxes would all cost more and give us less (longer response times, fewer police per resident, higher property tax, etc).
I think we should contract with the Tacoma Police, for ony 1 million a year we can have an officer and a supervisor available. I think Tacoma officers would be much more interested in our coummunity than our officers. Lets do it! When you rebut this comment come back with facts, just the facts ma'am.
Karen,
I couldn't agree more with the idea that we all just talk about the facts. Its really frustrating to see how often you inject your personal bias and anger toward certain council members. Stick to the facts and the issues. We can work together if you stop trying to make everything a personal issue against Stebner and Albertson. They talk about facts at the council meetings and you should do the same.
What's wrong with Ruston police? Lots of you on here act like Tacoma is somehow superior to Ruston when it comes to police services.
All cops in Washington attend the same academy, and recieve the same training.
So, I ask again, what's wrong with Ruston cops?
Contract for Tacoma for 1 million a year?
Doesn't it only cost around $300,000 a year for Ruston police services?
Come back with your facts bubba.
A new comment has posted on Free Ruston due to the inaccurate statements it contained.
Karen, you should send your own posts that are innacurate to the Fact Free Ruston blog. What you printed about it being more expensive for us tax payers to be under Tacoma services is rot.
What you don't get in Ruston, like Click cable, library service, parks and recreation programs, professional fire department services and efficient, professional budget governance, and twice a year free dump haul away, you'll get in Tacoma; but you never mention that.
You sometimes don't know the facts, but you go forward and print what you feel strongly about, wrong or accurate, doesn't matter. Since this is a blog, why do you care about the 'inaccuracies' that others post but not your own? You are very mixed up in what you preach and what you practice.
And speaking about preaching, as far as admonishing the Dan and Wayne haters and telling them they should stop being emotional about what they post and stick to the facts, you are the guiltiest of all in this respect because you allow it to happen on your blog. Scolding these posts but printing them anyway is a model in the practice of hypocrisy.
Well, I know you aren't about to print this but, oh well.
According to Pierce County, Ruston's tax rates are lower than Tacoma. You make some good points about extra services with Tacoma garbage pick up, but we get lots of extras as well. And our fire service is every bit as "professional". The budget management is a function of the council, whom we elect.
The increase in comments moved to Free Ruston are because of the increase in hurtful, harmful comments posted. You are welcome to start your own site if you'd like to see things managed differently...
Karen, I would like to know what you mean by 'lots of extras' that you are saying that we get for our tax dollars in Ruston and exactly what are they?
You are probably interpreting critical comments as hurtful ones. For example, when anyone raises questions or critizes the fire dept or the fire committee, even if no one is named, whoosh, they suddenly appear on the other website but nowhere on yours. What I notice is an increase in posts that do not agree with your positions being pushed over to the other site and increasingly, you call them hurtful and innacurate.
If all you can say in response to criticism of your judgment is to tell people they are welcome to start their own website, well, you're basically telling them to bug off and that is a poor debater's response. Just my opinion;what do you think?
I understand that we spend more than twice as much as we take in. We cant go very long spending $700,000 more than we take in every year. I haven't seen you propose anything that would even come close to fixing that problem. We are going bankrupt fast. The only solution I see is annexation which will improve our services and help fix up the town.
We get more personal service in Ruston, from our maintenance folks to the police and fire departments. That is worth a lot to me. We know our elected officials, too. In part, it’s a matter of what dollar value you want to put on those things. To me, they far outweigh getting my old couch picked up for free once a year. Our taxes are lower, homeowner insurance rates were lower last time I checked and library cards only cost us $10 a year....
I don't have time or energy to rebut every inaccurate statement that gets posted here. If it gets moved to Free Ruston, it is because it is not accurate. The suggestion to those complaining about my judgment was an honest suggestion - a couple of folks have started alternative sites and seem to be enjoying them.
As to the budget deficit, I don't have a magic wand to fix it all in one year. Everyone is dealing with similar shortfalls. I don't think the first and only course of action 3 months into a deficit is to quit. I don't agree that services are better in Tacoma. The current revenue/expenditure ratio is not our long-term outlook. I don't believe one budget cycle justifies turning over the keys to Tacoma.
By listing more personal services by our maintenance staff and knowing our elected representatives as 'Lots of extras' provided by Ruston, well that doesn't wash. No matter the size of a town or city, an interested citizen can always establish a good relationship with her elected representatives. It's really up to the person. I would bet that, as in many other communities, the majority of Ruston residents do not know - or care- about their elected representatives.
As for more personal services from our maintenance workers, yes, they are good, but they can't provide twice a year pick up of junk or revamp our sewers and other parts of our infrastructure, or do an effective recycle program like Tacoma's. Not their fault at all; it's because Ruston can't afford to provide these services.
That leaves us with zero 'lots of extras', in my view. What else do you have on your list of 'lots of extras'? So far, I'm not convinced, Karen. Your arguments leave me wanting to go with annexing to Tacoma.
Ooops, forgot to add that homeowner's insurance rates are being re-evaluated not only by zip code but by fire protection ability. With Pt Ruston and the Commencement coming on line with multiple storied buildings, Ruston's lack of a ladder truck and other equipment (cited by Tacoma Fire Department) will be looked at hard by insurance providers, regarless of what our fire committee found.
Also, library service. You are correct that we are charged $10 a year; however library service is traditionally free. Rustonites are only eligible to a $10 card from Tacoma Public Library system. We may not, unlike Tacoma residents, use the Pierce County library system free of charge. The County library system is a better one and Tacoma residents have full to all the great information services of both systems. Can't beat that with a big stick. Our future residents will not care about the $10 fee so much as the lack of access to information for their kids and themselves.
I guess I don't know why a petition is not going around and see if Ruston really wants to go to Tacoma, LET THE PEOPLE SPEAK!!!
750 citizens can decide or the majority!!! And then put this to bed!
It is sad that all a small town means to you is twice a year garbage pick-up and click. A very shallow perception.
Tacoma fire does not and should not determine what Ruston's equipment needs are. The insurance rating requirements are well known to the mayor, council and fire department and have been addressed. Library cards are available for Tacoma public school children for free, so don't stress about your kids being shortchanged if you can't afford the $10 fee to get a card yourself.
I wish we would put this kind of energy into looking for creative ways to solve our budget problems rather than debating the merits of our neighboring city.
The solution is simple, takes no creative thinking at all to do this: Stay within the budget.
The shallow thinking that Beth complains about applies to all you 'Save Ruston at any cost' folks. You can't keep skipping around the fact that our leadership with your support is spending this town into bankrupcy. By insisting on funding a separate fire dept, separate police dept, and going about fixing our infrastructure, you are staying on the same old track. Face the music and make big spending cuts.
If you insist on staying with your attitude that we can survive and still have all the services you support, you'd better have proof that Pt Ruston will be built and occupied in the next two to three years.
No one wants to operate at a defict, but its a reality for virtually everyone right now. That's why you have reserves. The services you crave in Tacoma cost more than they do in Ruston, taxes are higher, there are additional bonds and levies to pay for. My consistant point is that annexation should be a last resort, not the first "alternative" we spend our limited time, energy and resources on.
The council should be using their energy looking for ways to balance the budget. The budget is one of their primary duty in this town. They are using the mayor's time, the clerks time and lots of the town attorney's time to rush down this path, not to mention thier own time and energy. They are not acting in the best interest of this town in my opinion.
On a side note, I am curious why you pro-Tacoma commenters won't put your name to your comments? Beth and I are willing to be open about our feelings and take the direct criticism for our position. I don't think saying you are afraid of attack is fair when others are willing to take that stand. We can disagree openly. I think the community is better served by open discussion.
So where's all the documentation of what you claim, Karen? And if it's costing folks in Tacoma big bucks to live there, why aren't they all moving out instead of what's really happening, according to the TNT and Seattle papers, which is people have been moving there from other places for the last several years. They must feel they are getting the biggest bang for their buck.
I love a little Mayberry. But we are gonna die. Truth be told. Ruston will still be Ruston, but we could have all the services that a normal town has. This is NO LONGER a company town. You guys have to embrace this reality. Point Ruston and the Commencement won't do it for us. Let's discuss being part of Tacoma and keeping our identity. How can that happen? What will it take?
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