Un-ring the bell

A $1.1 million grant that would have been used to house prisoners in Pierce County has been pulled by the state department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. Grant recipients Citizens for Responsible Justice would have used the money to establish high-risk offender reentry housing in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood. But an open, coordinated effort between local and state officials to get the grant pulled resulted in a reversal of the award by CTED.



“I know the Tacoma City Council was very upset by CTED’s decision to award the grant to a group planning to site a new halfway house in the heart of its city,” states Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, in a press release. “That’s why we did a lot of work behind the scenes to help CTED find ways to ‘un-ring the bell,’ so to speak, and respond to the concerns of the community. We were able to help develop avenues to pursue other options, and we ended up with a win-win situation.”



The so-called avenues were to shoot holes in the non-profit’s grant application, which reportedly included late tax filings, confusion about the agency’s list of partners and its ability to provide sufficient housing facilities. Citizens officials say they were never invited to address concerns, and that all could have been addressed if they had been given a seat at the table. — Charles Monroe

Ruston combustion

Tucked at the end of Pearl Street, on the edge of Point Defiance Park, is the half square mile known as Ruston.



At the moment, it’s a contentious place.



Deciphering all the issues tearing the town apart would take far more space than I have. Suffice to say, there are plenty of them. While for residents of Ruston (all 700 or so), the politics of their tiny town are maddening and (as of late) even hurtful, to an outsider the whole thing is like a gruesome train wreck. With all the flames, smoke, carnage, and passengers running for their lives, it’s hard not to watch with open-mouthed amazement.



What’s wrong with Ruston really depends on who you ask. Stop in to Don’s Ruston Market almost any day of the week and you’re likely to see that. Longtime residents, who’ll tell you at the drop of a hat the year they moved to Ruston and how they’ll die there, claim the Ruston City Council acts on its own without regard for the citizens they serve. Councilman Bradley Huson claims these Ruston citizens are psycho, brainless idiots — literally. Councilman Dan Albertson recently told me at a sit-down at the Antique Sandwich Shop that Ruston’s real problem is rooted in Mayor Michael Transue’s complete inability to work with the Ruston City Council — or do anything productive, for that matter.



Then, of course, there’s the Commencement Condo project.



Whoever you ask, there’s always one sentiment folks in Ruston agree with. Politics in Ruston are weird. Look for a cover story on the subject in the next issue of the Weekly Volcano.  — Matt Driscoll

Small Project Roster

Sitting through a Tacoma City Council meeting can be torture — monotonous, bureaucratic, mind numbingly boring torture. It’s not uncommon for every member of the council to cast identical votes, and it often seems like the whole three ring circus is simply procedural.



Every once in a while, though, there’s some excitement. A council member, out of nowhere, seems to develop a brain of his own, and raises questions about business as usual.



During the last council meeting of January, just such a moment took place. As the council was in the process of passing Resolution 37388, which gave PCS Structural Solutions, Inc. an additional $124,977 for work on the vaulted sidewalk in the Broadway Local Improvement District (in addition to the $49,500 the company has already been paid for an assessment), Councilman Mike Lonergan came alive. The problem was PCS was originally chosen for this job off the City’s Small Project Roster, which awards city contracts to local business on jobs totaling under $50,000. A keen mathematician, Lonergan crunched some numbers and realized $174,477 is quite a bit more than $50,000. 



“We should have known we were going to go over fifty thousand right out of the chute, and we should have bid this job,” said Lonergan.



“We should have known the job didn’t end with doing the assessment and somebody was obviously going to have to do the design work for the LID.



“I am not going to support this. I do not think this is the right way to go about getting somebody on a job with an under fifty thousand dollar (bid), when you know that job is going to be quite a bit bigger before it’s done. This is some poison fruit.”



Once Lonergan finished, without hesitation, the council passed amendment 37388. By rule, contracts with members of the Tacoma’s Small Project Roster can be increased beyond $50,000 by a council vote. Lonergan registered the only nay. — Matt Driscoll

Lending bills would help protect homeowners

Pierce County led the state in housing foreclosures in 2007, according to a national report from California-based RealtyTrac, with foreclosure activity there increasing 43 percent compared to 2006. Thurston County auditor’s records showed similar increases.



Washington ranked 21st in the nation in foreclosure filings, with .57 percent of homeowners in the process of losing their homes. Foreclosures in Washington totaled more than 23,000 in 2007, an increase of 28 percent. Though the Pierce County economy and home markets remain relatively stable, the community’s abundance of low-income residents has made it a hot spot for lending trouble.



A slough of bills has been introduced this legislative session that would address what some observers claim is the root cause of the explosion of foreclosures — shady mortgages. Two bills come directly from proposals made by the governor following a year-long investigation of lending practices in Washington state. Senate Bill 6272 recommends the creation of $1.5 million in emergency funds for homeowner counseling. House Bill 2770 forwards 23 recommendations from a governor-appointed taskforce, including requiring simple language in foreclosure notices, mandating notification of counseling options in foreclosure notices, and making mortgage loan crimes felonies. Senate bills 6381 and 6471 would seek to regulate mortgage brokers and establish fiduciary responsibility to borrowers. — Charles Monroe