Council Schedule Highlights Week of August 26th, 2019

Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

9:30 am Economic and Infrastructure Development Committee

Douglas G. Richardson, Chair
Connie Ladenburg, Vice Chair
Marty Campbell
Dave Morell
Pam Roach

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.

Broadband Request for Proposals Update
Presenter: Hugh Taylor, Senior Legislative Analyst

The RFP deadlines are coming up. The first, to help develop regulatory reforms to encourage broadband development is due September 6th. The second, to create finance and build-out strategies is due October 4th.

Peacock Hill Sidewalk Study Update
Presenter: Hugh Taylor, Senior Legislative Analyst

A constituent contacted me wondering why there weren’t sidewalks in the unincorporated urban area north of Gig Harbor city limits leading to the excellent pedestrian facilities on Borgen Blvd. Good question!

I asked staff to look into the issue and what it would take to construct a sidewalk from 144th St down to Borgen Blvd. Given the distance of over 10,000 feet, I expected the cost to be high, but the price tag comes in at more than $6 million with almost $2 million in right of way acquisition alone. I think we can push that latter cost down or even eliminate it, but it’s still a big number so we’d want it to be phased, probably starting closest to Borgen. Staff will present the findings in committee.

Here’s what the corridor looks like currently.

And here’s what it would look like with a sidewalk on the other side of the ditch. Nice, right?

3:00 pm Council Meeting

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. 2019–55, Crisis Intervention Teams: Mobile Community Intervention Response Team
Sponsored by: Councilmembers Marty Campbell, Connie Ladenburg, Dave Morell, and Derek Young

MCIRT is a mobile outreach program for people in crisis, particularly those who are high utilizers of emergency services. Referrals to the program come from first responders, hospitals, and community service providers.

The pilot program was successful and is ready for permanent operation and expansion. The main obstacle to ensuring this service is available across all of Pierce County is resources.

Proposal No. R2019–93, Naloxone Training and Distribution Program
Sponsored by: Councilmembers Derek Young, Connie Ladenburg, and Pam Roach

Naloxone, better known by its brand name Narcan, is the opioid overdose reversal drug. One of the Opioid Task Force’s major priorities is to get NarCan into the hands of first responders and others who come into contact with people experiencing opioid use disorder.

A new program operated by the Dave Purchase Project (Pierce County’s needle exchange) will distribute naloxone kits and provide training.

Proposal No. R2019–94, Ending Veteran Homelessness Exploratory Task Force
Sponsored by: Councilmembers Derek Young and Connie Ladenburg

Even with one of the larger military installations in the world calling Pierce County home, you may be surprised to know that 1 of 10 residents is a veteran. Unfortunately, some of them, often bearing physical and mental scars of war, find themselves without housing. That’s why we’re forming a task force to end veteran homelessness in Pierce County.

The task force will tax will not exceed 9 members with designees from:

• Pierce County Human Services Department
• Pierce County Veterans Assistance Programs
• Pierce County Housing Authority
• Tacoma Housing Authority
• Tacoma-Lakewood-Pierce County Continuum of Care
• Catholic Community Services
• American Lake VA

Proposal No. R2019–97, Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account — Proceeds Allocation Process
Sponsored by: Councilmembers Derek Young, Connie Ladenburg, and Marty Campbell

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 for vulnerable children.

Last year we created a stakeholder group to recommend a course of action. Primarily they set a series of goals, but one interesting idea that resulted in a bill passed by the Legislature, was to create an endowment.

That bill also had a provision requiring counties that haven’t passed the behavioral health tax (Pierce County) to set up a special process to ensure stakeholders, legislators, and cities were involved in the appropriation process. Although we likely would have set up something similar anyway, this bill is responsive to the new requirement.

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.