Unless city council drops some bombshell in their comments or someone embarrasses themselves, we will not see much action at the Tuesday meeting.

Nevertheless, you need to check it out here. DocPreview.aspx (civicclerk.com)

Page numbers provided below correspond with the pages in the packet.  See link above.

City Council Regular Meeting – 6:00 p.m.

Welcome and Roll Call

Pledge of Allegiance

Approval of Agenda: 

Presentations:

Public Hearing: You have 3 minutes to comment on the following public hearing.  Go to the link above and following the instructions on the agenda if you wish to comment.

  1. The old city hall site at 505 Swift has utility easements running around and through the property.  The utilities have been relocated. To prevent any issues in the event of a sale, the city is relinquishing the easements.  That requires a hearing and council approval. Pg. 24-27

Public Comments:  You have 2 minutes to talk about anything you wish but no questions will be addressed. You can ask anything you want but they will look at you with a blank stare.  If you have a question, I suggest emailing the members.  Some of them do respond. In other cities, councilmembers rotate meeting with residents one-on-one an hour before the meeting begins. I have suggested that our council do that but, of course, more blank stares.

Consent Calendar: The council approves these items with little to no discussion and a single vote. That way no one can be held accountable.  One member can pull an item off the consent calendar for discussion and a separate vote, but they rarely do.

Minutes:

2. Totally worthless Dec. 15 meeting minutes will be approved. The clerk sanitized them. She left out Councilmember Phil Lemley’s ethics committee discussion comment, “Coming to the council meetings drinking or drunk is wrong.” Also omitted was Lemley’s comments about firing someone who does a good job in the discussion about Cindy Reents leaving. The minutes do include Lukson’s comments about objecting to Lemley’s “characterization” of the situation with Reents, but without Lemley’s comments, you don’t know what the characterization is. Minutes aren’t supposed to be a transcript, but they are supposed to reflect what happened at the meeting. In Richland, they rarely do. However, the meetings are taped.  Go here to review those. Watch CityView | City of Richland, WA  Pg. 5-12

Ordinances – First Reading:

Nothing here.

Ordinances – Second Reading:

3. This item had a public hearing and a first reading vote at the Dec. 1 meeting.  The city will annex 8.52 off Shockley Rd. that belongs to the Zinsli family and allow low-density zoning.  The property will have 24 units at full build out with an estimate 2.6 person per unit. The city estimated costs and benefits but never mentioned anything about the impact on schools. Pg. 13-23

Resolutions – Adoption:

4. The relinquishment of the utility easement at the old city hall site has a hearing and an approval at the same meeting. See Item 1. Pg.24-27

5. Boyd’s Tree Service will be authorized for no more than $350,00 to trim trees and bushes around public utilities. This contract piggybacks on a much larger 2021 Benton Public Utility District contract for no more than $850,000. Pg. 28-32.

6. Efficiency Solutions, LLC, will receive a contract for no more than $250,000 to work with Richland Energy Services to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses.  There are financial incentives including loans for upgrading windows and insulation or for installing an energy efficient heat pump. Pg. 33-45.

7. This reauthorizes the agreement between Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and West Richland to monitor Columbia River water usage. They share the cost of hiring a consultant to oversee the monitoring.  On Page 50 of the packet, it says a proposed consultant agreement is included in Exhibit A.  I could not find Exhibit A. Pg. 46-52.

Expenditures – Approval:

All the checks written in November 2020, over $27 million worth. Pg. 53-82

Items of Business:

None listed

Reports and Comments:

Blah, blah, blah

Adjournment