MEDICAL LAKE — The City Council approved on first reading the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan, a task recently completed by the city Planning Commission and forwarded to the council for formal adoption.
As in the previous council meeting, Councilman Ted Olsen shared concerns about provisions in the comprehensive plan related to sheltering homeless citizens.
“I don’t think (homelessness) should be a burden on the taxpayers,” Olsen clarified after the meeting.
However, in a memo to the council, city attorney Cynthia McMullen clarified that the issues of homelessness was not addressed in the plan update process, but she did clarify the unconstitutionality of preventing homeless from camping in public spaces when no shelters are available within a municipality.
McMullen further suggested the city delay any action on the issue until it plays out in public discussions and the courts.
Olsen is a first-term council member who isn’t running for a second term. Art Kulibert, who is vying for Olsen’s seat against Mitch Hardin in next month’s general election, referenced McMullen’s memo during the regular public comment portion of the council meeting.
He noted that Grant County has no homeless shelters. Their solution is to provide homeless people a one-way bus ticket to a city that has a homeless shelter.
“I’m thinking that could be an option for an addition” to the Comprehensive Plan, he told the council.
Olsen agreed.
“I thought that was pretty funny,” he said.
City Administrator Doug Ross assured Olsen that the Comprehensive Plan could be revisited each year during a 45-day summer window during which the public can submit suggested amendments to the plan for consideration.
With no public comment on the plan from the handful of regular council meeting attendees in the audience, and no further discussion by the council, the Comprehensive Plan ordinance was approved on first reading. Olsen was the lone dissenting vote. Councilwoman Laura Parsons was absent.
In other business, Ross discussed upcoming public hearings in which the council will be deliberating issues such as a potential 1 percent increase in both city property taxes and the city’s EMS levy that will be the topic of a hearing at the council’s regular meeting on Oct. 15 at 6:30 p.m. The hearing is required by state law.
The city will also be holding several future budget-related public hearings to discuss the city’s 2020 budget.
There will also be meetings to discuss setting utility and administrative fees and a salary ordinance. City employee contract negotiations are ongoing, and the council held a private “exempt” meeting to discuss undisclosed issues related to those negotiations.
Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)