Inhumane Services Commission

Foundation fails

It was good news for those who believe in equal human rights for all and bad news for homophobes and Bible thumpers.

Monday, April 21 was the deadline for submitting the needed signatures to get a measure on the November ballot, and the Cornerstone Foundation, a group trying to repeal Pierce County’s Domestic Partner Benefit Program, failed to muster enough support. The domestic partner benefit program, passed by the Pierce County Council last December, extends health benefits to domestic partners of county employees — both gay and straight.

According to the Family Policy Institute of Washington Web site, a group that supports the efforts of the Cornerstone Foundation “via passage of (the domestic partner benefit program), the homosexual lobby takes yet another incremental step forward in their nationwide strategy to legitimize the ‘gay’ lifestyle by institutionalizing domestic partnership arrangements at all levels of government.”

Well.

I prefer to look at it this way…

Via the failure of the Cornerstone Foundation’s efforts to repeal domestic partner benefits, Pierce County takes yet another incremental step toward stamping out bigotry and hate under the guise of Jesus. Well done, those who didn’t sign the petitions. There’ll be a place in “heaven” for you. — Matt Driscoll

At the Tuesday, April 22 Tacoma City Council meeting, the ongoing debate over the Human Services Commission’s recent recommendations on the disbursement of federal block grant money to programs that applied for the funds and provide various shelters to Tacoma’s homeless population was open to public comment. As the Weekly Volcano first reported, several well known and long running homeless shelters, including the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association’s Men’s and Women’s Overnight Shelter and the Salvation Army’s Emergency Family Lodge, received recommendations of no funding from the Human Services Commission, even though both services had received significant funding in the past from federal block grant money. (MLKHDA received $31,100 last time around, and the Salvation Army received $15,000.)

In a subsequent interview with the Weekly Volcano, Felix Flannigan, president of the MLKHDA said the recommended funding cut for his program may result in the MLKHDA being closed or moving elsewhere.

While members of the Human Services Commission were on hand to discuss the difficult decisions they’re forced to make to form their recommendations, especially considering the dwindling federal funds available thanks to cutbacks during the Bush Administration, many more were on hand to let it be known that taking money away from established and respected homeless shelters is a huge mistake in the making.

“After all these years, our emergency housing is getting nothing,” said a representative from the Salvation Army.

“We’re at a crossroads, trying to figure out why the Human Services Commission didn’t recommend us for funding, after all these years.”

“We need this funding,” continued another Salvation Army representative. “We haven’t changed.”

Mayor Bill Baarsma did his best to assure those in attendance that the process is fair.

“Feelings that the (Human Services Commission) committee was slanted, that’s simply not the case,” said Baarsma. “They did their best to be fair and objective in an incredibly difficult situation.”

It should be noted that, at this point, no final decision on federal block grant funding has been made by the City Council. The council is scheduled to take the Human Services Commission’s recommendations into consideration and hold a final vote on the recommendations during their May 6 meeting. — MS

Port passage

Port of Tacoma Commission officials have announced approval of several agreements that will pave the way for the Port, shipping giant SSA Containers Inc., Puyallup Tribal Council and Marine View Ventures, the economic development arm of the Puyallup Tribe, to move forward with plans to develop marine terminals on land owned by the Tribe along the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula.

Agreements include:

1. A land swap between The Port and Tribe that will improve the overall layout of future terminal developments. The Port will transfer about 19 acres to the Tribe, and the Tribe will transfer about 12.5 acres back.

2. A cooperative agreement to widen the Blair Waterway, which will make it easier for ships to pass through.

3. A lease agreement between the Port and SSA Containers Inc., which will pay to occupy 23 acres currently under construction on the east side of the Blair Waterway.

4. And a multi-faceted agreement to cooperate on issues such as terminal developments; expanding rail capacity and road construction. — John Herbert