Council Schedule Highlights Week of May 4th, 2020
Monday, May 4th, 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.
Emergency Ordinance 2020-XX
Last week the Council received a recommendation from the Disaster Recovery Work Group on appropriation of the CARES Act funding received from the federal government. The bill is an emergency so it’s not yet calendared, but I believe the plan is to add it to the calendar for Tuesday’s Council meeting.
The recommendations are:
Public Health Emergency Response $67,000,000
Economic Stabilization and Recovery Programs $30,000,000
Community Response and Resilience $22,000,000
Essential Government Services $15,000,000
Contingency Reserve $23,912,031
I’m not enamored with the idea of approving appropriations without line items. For example, a test/trace program will help keep people as safe as possible while we relax the stay home orders. It’s also very expensive. We need to make sure it has necessary funding but it’s lumped into a bucket with all other public health spending.
I will likely be asking for an amendment to that effect.
Emergency Resolution R2020-XX
The resolution is to acknowledge receipt and adopting the recommendations of the Recovery Steering Committee. In addition to the appropriations above, they also proposed several funding principles:
Principle 1. Accountability and Outreach — Pierce County will be accountable and transparent in its funding decisions. Pierce County will actively communicate information about its efforts to the public and will prepare and maintain reports regarding the use of funds that will be readily available to the public.
Principle 2. Financial Stewardship — Pierce County will be strategic in the use of funds and prioritize those uses that result in the greatest community benefit and reach at the lowest long-term cost.
Principle 3. Leverage — Pierce County will seek to leverage funds through partnerships with other governments, institutions, non-profit community, and the private sector in order to increase the reach and effectiveness of the Coronavirus Relief Fund when possible.
Principle 4. Countywide Approach (One Pierce County) — Pierce County will consider countywide needs including needs within cities and towns when programming and expending funds and will structure programs to provide countywide benefit whenever possible and appropriate.
Principle 5. Timeliness and Flexibility — Pierce County will be timely in the expenditure of funds to support the needs of the community. Pierce County will also maintain a measure of flexibility in its use of funds to adapt to changing circumstances and needs.
Principle 6. Equity and Vulnerability — Pierce County will consider social vulnerability and demographic equity when utilizing funds.
Principle 7. Compliance — All expenditures will be compliant with the requirements of the CARES Act and other applicable laws.
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. R2020–29, Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness Sponsored by: Councilmembers Derek Young and Connie Ladenburg
The State requires counties to adopt 5 year plans to address homelessness. It was due late last year and the County received an extension to complete the work. Then COVID-19 hit and our housing staff had to respond quickly to the threat that posed.
I also we will be taking action on the emergency budget bill and resolution mentioned above.
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.
