Meeting Highlights: You can only be charged for violating certain drug possession laws if you did it “knowingly.” Five groups will have the funding they have raised for recreation projects matched by the city. Your recycle pick up charge may change. The wastewater treatment plant will be improved.

You have three minutes to comment on public hearings and two minutes to comment on anything during the public comment period. Go to the agenda and read the rules at the top.

Page numbers below correspond to the pages in the packet. Most of the items on the agenda are listed under the “Consent Calendar” and receive little discussion and one vote.

Meeting Begins

1.Ms. Celeste Blair will be honored as the first female youth in the Tri-Cities to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Pg. 4-5

PUBLIC HEARING

2. City funds will be switched around in order to fund concrete crushing services at the landfill, to fix the leaking roof at Fire Station 71, to hire seasonal park rangers and to replace failing forensic workstations at the police department. Pg. 20-23

CONSENT CALENDAR

3. Council will vote to approve its worthless minutes from the March 16 and March 23 meetings. If you really want to know what happened at these meetings go to the videos. Pg. 7-16

4. The city code on cyberstalking will be amended to eliminate “embarrass.” The Washington State Court of Appeals ruled in State v. Mireles that it was necessary to strike the term “embarrass” from RCW 9.61.260 in order to preserve the constitutionality of the statute. Pg.17-19

5. The city funding switcheroo (see the public hearing above) will be voted on along with everything else on the consent calendar. Pg. 20-23

6. The methane gas created at the Horn Rapids Landfill will be collected and sold by a contractor that will pay the city $6000 a month. If any other gas is processed by the system at the landfill, the city will receive no less than 2 percent and no more than 10 percent of the gross. Pg. 24-30

7. Richland will provide traffic signal technical services to the City of West Richland. West Richland will reimburse Richland by paying for the salary and benefits for the hours provided by the city employee. Pg. 31-37

8. This outlines the city’s responsibility for funding shortfalls for Metro, a cooperative agreement with area jurisdictions that seeks to control substance trafficking within the Tri-Cities Community. Metro is currently comprised of the cities of Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, and West Richland, and the counties of Benton and Franklin. The City of Kennewick is currently the administrative jurisdiction for Metro. The City of Richland expects to use the Public Safety Sales Tax revenue to pay their share. Pg. 38-42

9. As a condition of project permits, the City is required to employ a third-party, cultural resources monitoring company to observe the work on the Columbia Park Trail improvement project. The contractors will be paid about $146,000 to look for any important archeological properties or human remains. Pg. 44-49

10. The city will cooperate with the Port of Benton to resurface roads. Doolittle Construction of Belleview, Washington submitted the lowest bid.  City costs are estimated to be $435,020 which includes construction, contingency, and construction inspection. The Port of Benton will pay $150,000. Pg. 50-57

11. The city will hire Culbert Construction Inc.  $1,438,905.94 for the construction of .33 miles of 1st Street west of Kingsgate Way.  Pg. 58-68

12. Monson Development Washington, LLC has applied for final plat approval for Phase 2 of its Goose Ridge subdivision. Located along the north boundary of the Badger Mountain South Master Planned Community, the final plat of Goose Ridge Estates – Phase 2 proposes to divide 8.18 acres into 22 residential lots and five (5) tracts. This brings the total residential lots in Goose Ridge Estates to 106. Pg. 69-96.

13. Five city organizations will receive matching grants for improvements to recreational facilities:  Back Country Horsemen of Washington will receive $5,000 for parking and horse trail improvements. Pg. 97-122; Crested Hills Homeowners’ Association will receive $2,287.15 for trees for Crested Hill Park. Pg. 123-138; Friends of Badger Mountain will receive $5,000 to develop a north face trail. Pg.139-152; Horn Rapids Motor Sports Complex will receive $5,000 to make their facility safer by building a fence around their track. Pg. 153-170; Sundance Ridge HOA-Richland will use $2,000 to add plants to Heritage Hills Park. Pg. 171-179.

14. This is the first of two improvements on the agenda for the Wastewater Treatment plant. This one is to upgrade the electrical supply and control for the plant digester. The project will cost $1,549,796. Vincent Brothers LLP submitted the winning bid. Pg. 180-183

15. Wastewater plants are required to have a backup generator. The city’s backup which was installed in 1985 failed and couldn’t be fixed. Prater Electric Inc. will replace the $10,000 a month rental backup with a new backup generator for $551,098. Pg. 184-188

ITEMS OF BUSINESS (There could be discussion for these.)

16. The city will amend its ordinances to reflect a state court decision that you can only be charged for violating certain drug possession laws if you did it “knowingly.” Pg. 188-191

17. The city’s Utility Advisory Committee reviewed a consultant’s report regarding the charges for sold waste disposal. Most of the recommended changes involved specific waste streams received and processed at the City’s landfill. The only collection service rate included in the recommended package of changes was for curbside recycling. Pg. 192

REPORTS AND COMMENTS

Blah, blah, blah

SECRET SESSION

To discuss current and potential litigation with the city attorney.