Council Schedule Highlights Week of April 27th, 2020
Monday, April 27th, 2020
Due to Governor Inslee’s emergency orders in-person attendance is not permitted at this time. Remote attendance and testimony instructions can be found on the meeting notice here.
Supplemental Budget — Medical Examiner’s Office
The Executive is seeking an $726,830 budget increase to the Medical Examiner’s budget to add a Forensic Pathologist, two Death Investigators, Forensic Autopsy Technician, Administrative Assistant, Medical Examiner Consultant, Severance, and equipment and moving expenses. Use of Vacancy Savings accrued in January and February of 2020 are proposed to cover the increase in budget.
To be blunt, I’m a little skeptical of an enormous increase in spending like this, however justified it may be, at a time when our budget picture is so unclear. Revenue is falling off a cliff, demands for service are spiking, and the US Senate Majority Leader is advising he’d rather see state and local governments go bankrupt than cover revenue replacement.
Many county departments were well under critical service levels prior to the start of this crisis. But I’ll listen to their presentation and see what the justifications are.
COVID Recovery Planning
Last week the Executive and Council Chair convened a Disaster Recovery Work Group established in our Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP). I had hoped we would begin this process a little sooner, but it’s a welcome move. The group will make recommendations to the Council, Executive, and newly formed Office of Disaster Recovery. This is our first briefing on their work. We’ll discuss specifics of the initial budget related discussions on Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole.
Tuesday, April 28th, 2020
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.
2020–2021 Biennial budget review regarding the COVID-19 impacts
We don’t have a great picture yet of the overall budget impact, but the County is in receipt of $158m in CARES Act funding. Those funds must be spent on costs associated with the COVID-19 emergency and will largely go to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and Department of Emergency Management.
I think of particular interest will be the first details of a proposal from the health department on the test, trace, and isolate plan to emerge as safely as possible from quarantine.
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 No. R2020–33, Confirmation of Medical Examiner
Sponsored by: Councilmember Douglas G. Richardson
After years of turmoil in the Medical Examiner’s Office and a hiring of another that didn’t take, the Executive has selected Dr. Karen Cline-Parhamovich to serve as the County’s chief forensic pathologist. Under the Charter, department directors must be confirmed by a majority of the Council.
Speaking
I’ll be speaking to two virtual meetings later this week on COVID-19 and other County business.
Thursday, April 30th, 8:30am Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce Public Affairs Forum via Zoom. Details and registration here.
Friday, May 1st, 10:00am Mayor Kit Kuhn, City of Gig Harbor, COVID-19 Q&A via Facebook Live. See the City’s Facebook page later this week for details
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.
