Tacoma City Council
Study Session
Noon, Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Room 16
Tacoma Municipal Building North
728 St. Helens Ave.

Fingerprints, ambulances, budget
The City Council is scheduled to discuss four issues during this week’s study session:

• Proposed purchase and maintenance agreements with NEC Solutions, Inc., for an automated fingerprint system for the Tacoma Police Department;
• Tacoma Fire Department’s proposed three-year contract for private ambulance emergency response and transport with Rural Metro Ambulance;
• Discussion of next year’s Yokohama-Tacoma Tall Ships Race, which could bring more than 400,000 visitors to Tacoma over the Fourth of July weekend in 2005. Local organizers are expected to request further city support for the event;
• Discussion of issues of the 2005-2006 biennial budget.

The public may attend, but the council will not take public comment. CityPost will air the audio portion of the study session live.

Tacoma City Council
Regular Meeting
5 p.m., Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Council Chambers
Tacoma Municipal Building
747 Market St.

Fingerprint system revisited
The Tacoma Police Department will request approval of a resolution for a new purchase and maintenance agreement with NEC Solutions, Inc. for an automated fingerprint system. The council carried this issue over from the July 13 agenda. If approved, the city would switch from the current Sagem Morpho system and buy two fingerprint ID stations from NEC for $190,000. The city also would enter a maintenance agreement with an annual cost of $18,756. The NEC system will allow access to regional fingerprint databases that currently are incompatible with the Sagem Morpho system. The new system also could save the city $1.2 million over six years. Time will be set aside for public comment.

Heavy haul industrial corridor
The City Council is scheduled to vote on creating a new Heavy Haul Industrial Corridor in the Tacoma Tideflats that would allow issuance of special permits for vehicles hauling sealed, ocean-going containers exceeding legal weight limits within a specified corridor in the Port of Tacoma area. Permits would cost $3,000 per year, per vehicle for transporters, and the city estimates it would sell roughly 70 permits per year for annual revenues of $210,000. Permits would help offset the $18 million cost of building reinforced road surfaces within the special corridor over a total of 30 lane miles.

South Tacoma Way speed limit
City Council members are scheduled to consider reducing the speed limit from 30 miles an hour to 25 miles an hour on South Tacoma Way between South 47th Street and South 60th Street, to be consistent with similar accommodations for the Proctor, Stadium and Old Town business districts.

Natural gas pipeline
A resolution scheduled for consideration would authorize a perpetual permit to Cascade CBM, L.L.C., for the use of the Tacoma Rail Mountain Division right-of-way for the construction, maintenance and operation of an intrastate natural gas pipeline.

This is an incomplete agenda. The Index prints as much as space allows.