Report from June 5th Council Meeting - Sunday, June 10, 2007

New Trash Truck Is on The Way – One of the city’s trash trucks has broken down beyond repair and the city has been doing its pick-up with one truck. This is why the trash has not always been picked up on Wednesdays. The Council was told by Luther Smith, the Public Works Director, that the new trash truck is expected to be delivered later this week. Things won’t immediately change since the one truck that has been doing all the work needs some serious maintenance. But pretty soon we should have two trash trucks working and pick-ups will be more regular.



Negotiations With the Police Commence – The Council appointed its negotiating team (the Mayor, the City Manager, and the Chief of Police) and will begin negotiations with the police as soon as possible. I hope these negotiations will be successful and our public safety officers will feel good about working in our town. I will be doing whiat I can to make the negotiations go smoothly.



Council Meetings In Other Parts of the Town – I introduced a resolution that passed to have the October meeting in another section of Mt. Rainier. We will try to have the meeting at Rainier Manor (a senior citizen facility on Queens Chapel Road) in October. We hope by doing this to reach out to some parts of the community that are not involved in the town’s politics.



My Position On Closed Meetings – The Council voted to go into closed session to discuss property acquisition. I voted against the proposal because I think the Council has too many closed meetings and residents want to hear more about the Council’s strategy in public session. It is a fine line about what you can discuss in private and public sessions. You don’t want to discuss how much the town will pay for a property in open session because that could drive up the price; on the other hand you want to make sure that development strategies are discussed in the open. I am new to the Council and realize I don’t know a lot about the process but feel that I should push for more open meetings and fewer closed sessions.



Dog Walkers On Patrol: I’m working with the Mt. Rainier police department on expanding our town’s community policing department to set-up a neighborhood watch with dog walkers. If you’re a dog walker and want to volunteer we need you to choose a route that you like and the police will provide training on whom to call, what to look for, and give you a spiffy yellow hat (you don’t really have to wear). We hope to get dog walkers to network together and help make Mt. Rainier a safer place to live. Volunteer to be a Dog Walker On Patrol by either replying to this e-mail or sending a note to Officer Vic Kenworthy (nopd28@yahoo.com).



No Council Meeting Next Week: We’ve had Council meetings every week (because of the budget discussions) since I’ve been elected. Now we go back to our schedule of having Council meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.



Young Lions At Artmosphere on Mondays: The Young Lions is a jazz trio that plays at Artmosphere every Monday from 6 to 8 PM. There is no cover charge and beer and wine are half priced. The musicians are first-rate and often have terrific guest artists. Artmosphere is great. I have lots of fun when I go. You should try and come by.