Month: February 2008

Renton Inmates to be Returned to Yakima

Written by Randy Corman 0 Comments

We’re been working on a settlement for this dispute. Yakima has made many improvements, such that we have enough confidence to return our inmates without fear for their health and safety.

I applaud the work of our police department in bringing the safety of these inmates to our attention, and following the issue through to a successful conclusion. In so doing, they have helped protect the safety of all of the inmates in theYakima County Jail.

I’m grateful to Mayor Law, and our City attorney’s office for setting the stage for successful resolution of this case.

And I also thank the officials in Yakima, who took Renton’s concerns seriously, and worked to aggresssively make changes. They showed strong willingness to maintain a partnership with us.

As a footnote, our city is working with several other South King County cities to site and build a joint-city misdemeanant jail facitility (to house misdemeaner offenders….average sentance of 14 days). This will probably be built in 2011, and will eliminate any need for Yakima space after that time.

Here is the story:
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Renton Inmates to be Returned to Yakima

Posted: Feb 12, 2008 01:51 PM PST

YAKIMA, Wash. — Inmates from the City of Renton will soon be returned to the Yakima County Jail, but an agreement between the two sides is still on hold.

in 2006, Renton decided to stop housing inmates at the Yakima County Jail, citing safety concerns. Yakima County officials argued that Renton did not have just cause to make this decision and filed a lawsuit.

A trial was set for May 12th, but that has been postponed because both sides have reached a conditional agreement.

About 30 inmates from Renton will be returned on April 1st. The county stands to make $1.7 million from now until 2010 by housing the inmates.

If the conditional agreement is not finalized, a new trial date will be set for mid-2009.

Renton’s safety concerns were alleviated after they hired private consultants to inpect the Yakima County Jail on two seperate occasions. Officials from Renton have arranged for a third inspection later this year.

Link to story in KNDO Television source here

The very latest photo… This one includes Rich Zwicker and our Legislative Aid

Written by Randy Corman 0 Comments

I know you may be getting tired of council/mayor photos, but the group keeps changing. This one includes Rich Zwicker, second from left, and our Legislative Aid Julia Medzegian. Julia has put in a dozen years with us, trying to keep us all working together as smoothly as possible. Council feels she is so much like part of the council team, that we wanted to include her in our photo.

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From left to right: Terri Briere, Rich Zwicker, Greg Taylor, Randy Corman, Denis Law, Marcie Palmer, Don Persson, King Parker, Julia Medzegian

Report on railroad work through town

Written by Randy Corman 3 Comments

Dear Rentonites:

As a reminder, we are having four new trestles built, and Houser Way reworked, before Burlington Northern eliminates the eastside rail line. This is because this is our final opportunity to route Boeing fuselage deliveries off of the track through Renton…starting in one month, all future Boeing deliveries will have to be through town (and the eastside line will be removed up near Bellevue). Work on the rail line will be more difficult after that, so we are getting everything done now.

The longer, higher trestles over Rainier and Hardie Avenues will allow us to get more lanes of automobile traffic under both of these trestles, ultimately reducing congestion on the Rainier corridor…yay!

I need to add that Burlington Northern and our Renton Transportation Staff are doing an excellent job completing all this work in a short period of time, and they are working very well together.

Here is an update we received from our transportation staff today:
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Picture’s worth a 1000 words…etc. Here are two pictures.

The “double stacking” of railroad ties is a temporary staging of the
track work. They assembler the ties and rails on top of the existing
rails and stretch, and then drag the whole assembly over and place it in
the right location. That will be the last segment, crossing Burnett
toward the depot.


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The the remaining concrete panels are placed — all
this we are told by end of day Tuesday. I still think there might be a
little work left for Wed. But all the work that counts and creates
disruption will be done on time, we are told.

Peter

Peter Hahn
Deputy Administrator
Planning, Building, Public Works
City of Renton

Houser Update:

Williams will remain closed tonight. Renton street crews will place
concrete and asphalt in the gaps remaining between the new concrete
track panels and existing street on Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008.

Burnett will be closed Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008. BNSF crews plan to remove
the existing track, place the new track panel (already assembled) and
the new concrete panels tomorrow. Renton street crews may place concrete
and asphalt tomorrow. However, it is more likely to occur on Wednesday,
Feb 13, 2008 for Burnett. This way our crews stay out of BNSF’s way.

BNSF track crews plan on being complete tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb 12,
2008. They will then move on to installing track starting west of Hardie
Ave.

Rainier, Hardie, Shattuck Update:

Hardie was open today. The tarp is removed. Partial closures may be
required at a later date (half day max) to complete some work underneath
the bridge (install one diaphragm and paint the associated bolts). The
focus now is on Rainier.

Rainier. Work did not occur on Friday or Saturday night. Scarsella has
requested closures be extended until Feb 20, 2008. The construction
manager for BNSF believes the work can be completed by Feb 16, 2008. So
he suggested a wait and see approach. By Wednesday of this week, he will
have a better feel for how things are going. Basically, it is painting
to be done. Painting will occur on top of the bridge first, then
underneath. Once painting is completed on top, iron workers will place
the steel walkway panels, while painting occurs underneath.

Shattuck. Currently tented for water proofing. Should be done water
proofing this week.

Thanks,

Derek

Mid-session report from our city’s shared lobbiest in Olympia

Written by Randy Corman 1 Comment

WEEK 4 REPORT ON THE 2008 SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE
FOR MAYOR, COUNCIL, DEPARTMENT HEADS, SENIOR STAFF
Doug Levy – 2/10/08

The budget cloud hanging over Olympia: There will be more than rain clouds hovering over Olympia this week. On Thursday, the Governor’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) will forward an updated revenue forecast for the state that is expected to be very gloomy.

Continue reading →

District 47 Democrat Caucus

Written by Randy Corman 0 Comments

Kari Kopnick shares her afternoon at the District 47 Democrat Caucus:

Oh man what a fantastic day! It was a good day to be a Washingtonian. It was a good day to be a Citizen. It was a good day to be here in these United States where we have so many ideals and so far to go to meet them.

I went to my neighborhood caucus Saturday afternoon. I had to park way across a busy street in a grocery store parking lot and trek over to the school where my neighbors were packed tight into a school gym.

Crammed in the stuffy little gym were old people, young people and middle aged people, people of lots of ethnic and racial groups and people of different physical abilities. From the looks of the cars in the parking lot there were even probably richer and less rich folks. It was very cool. We were all there doing the whole little “d” democracy thing.

And everyone was so respectful. People were streaming in the doors at least until 1:30, and since my precinct was located by the entrance, I got to see neighbors help their neighbors find the right precinct, navigate wheelchairs and walkers thru the crowd and keep the room not too hot and not too cold; all with kindness and respect.

I think every time an older person came in a chair was immediately offered to them.

And when it came time to divide up for our respective candidates, everyone was very careful to walk that line of respect for each other’s choice.

Is this what politics are always like?

OK, stop laughing.

At least for one day the politics were clean and high minded. It was a good day to be a Benson Hill neighbor.


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Caucuses at 1:00 today!

Written by Randy Corman 10 Comments

With three candidates in town, and a virtual dead-heat on the democrat campaign trail, this will likely be our state’s biggest day of caucuses ever. Most of the state’s convention delegates are being assigned from these caucuses, so be sure you attend your caucus if you wish to be fully counted. Your primary vote will also help assign some of the delegates, but not the majority of them. (Democrats will assign about 80% of their delegates from the caucus, and Republicans will assign about half of theirs from the caucus; the remainder will come from the primary)

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Photo from the Seattle Times– John McCaine speaks to supporters at the Westin
With three front-running candidates in town, the caucuses may have record turn-out

We’ve Got Cabin Fever!

Written by Randy Corman 1 Comment

My friend Rebecca posted this, when she made the realization that 6 weeks of cabin fever (from all the cold and rain) has lead to people being short with one another in her online communities.

It’s so funny, you have to watch the video. While the muppets are complaining about cabin fever from being aboard ship for 6 weeks (five day without a breeze), and our problem is we have been stuck indoors too much, the outcome seems the same… here is Rebecca’s commentary, and the video. It’s cute:

Rebecca’s comment: “This is mostly aimed towards the LJ community I’m in, which has suffered from inappropriate snarky comments and entirely unnecessary snarky reply-posts lately. I think it’s because it’s February and we’re all suffering from cabin fever, which is demonstrated artfully by the Muppets in the following video.”

 

Tens of thousands of Washington votes will be thrown out…. something is wrong here!

Written by Randy Corman 7 Comments

The new ballot system, that requires taking an oath, is simply not working.

The elections office reports that they are throwing away one out of every four ballots they receive because the voter did not execute the oath correctly.

My view is that if someone goes to the effort to register to vote, and then votes, we ought to count it. Heavens knows we already have a problem with people not bothering to vote.

California had a fine system three decades ago, when I registered to vote for the first time, and as far as I know the system still works. You register as a democrat, or republican, or independent at the time of voter registration, and they give you the right ballot for election day. If it’s a partisan primary, you chose a candidate from the party you identified when you registered. If it’s a general election, you chose whoever you want….the best candidate. It’s understood that millions of voters in the general election often chose a candidate from a different party than they registered with. That’s why the candidates have to campaign so hard. This system is simple, and everyone who votes gets their vote counted.

Our state has been struggling with voting for too long… if we keep this up, no one will have confidence in our elections office anymore.

I hope the legislature takes a hard look at this process.

Here is the story in the Seattle Times

Barack Obama’s visit to Seattle; Governor Gregoire gives him her endorsement

Written by Randy Corman 31 Comments

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Photo from the Seattle Times

Obama wowed an overflowing crowd at Key Arena today.

Governor Gregoire extended her endorsement to him this morning. This race is really creating a tug-of-war for democrats in our state, but I predict Obama will ultimately win more of our state’s delegates.

As for me, I’ve decided I’ll be supporting Barack Obama at tomorrow’s caucus. I really like him, and I think he will make a great president.

KIRO TV Reports on case of alleged animal cruelty just outside our city limits

Written by Randy Corman 3 Comments

(This case of alleged animal cruelty is outside of our city limits, but inside our potential annexation area.)

We are currently making updates to our animal keeping ordinance, but all versions, old and new, require proper housing and good nutrition for animals being kept.

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KIRO TV
Horses Seized From Farm Near Renton

King County Animal Control said they received a report a week ago that 16 horses living on a farm in the 13400 block of 156th Street Southeast were not getting enough to eat and were living in dangerous conditions.

Read the whole story here