Here are recent posts from The News Tribune’s Political Buzz blog. For the inside scoop on government and politics, go online to blog.thenewstribune.com/politics.
With his days in office dwindling away, Bill Baarsma still has one last trip in him.
Tacoma’s mayor caught a red-eye flight to Taiwan on Saturday to participate in an international economic development conference. The six-day trip comes at the invitation of Jason Hu, mayor of Taichung – a sister city to Tacoma that Baarsma visited in 2002.
“I wasn’t planning on going anywhere these last few months,” Baarsma said in a phone interview. “But he (Hu) recently extended me the invitation.”
Baarsma’s trip – the airfare and hotel accommodations of which will be covered by Taichung’s mayor – will be an opportunity to strengthen Tacoma’s sister city relations with Taichung, as well as Baarsma’s relationship with Hu, he said.
“It will be an opportunity really to see him again,” Baarsma said. “He’s an incredible person. Oxford-educated, very well-connected.”
The mayor added he’ll also seek to promote and learn more about international economic development opportunities for Tacoma. Baarsma will be joined on the trip by a Tacoma city staffer who has family in Taiwan, he added. The staffer, who works on transportation issues for the city, will attend a transportation forum while at the conference, Baarsma said.
Although most of the mayor’s Taiwan trip is covered, the city will need to pony up for Baarsma’s conference registration fee.
“That’s the only thing the city is paying for,” said Baarsma, who, after a combined 16 years on the council and in the Mayor’s Office, is term-limited at year’s end.
Total cost to the city? $900, Baarsma said.
Lewis Kamb, The News Tribune
Union refiles complaint
The Teamsters Local Union 117 has refiled a complaint accusing Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam of unfair labor practices.
The complaint – filed Tuesday with the state Public Employment Relations Commission – accuses Washam of discrimination and refusal to bargain changes to employee working conditions. You can download a PDF copy on the blog.
The Teamsters union – which represents nearly all of the roughly 85 employees of the Assessor-Treasurer’s Office – originally filed a complaint Sept. 3. Among other things, it accused Washam of failing to bargain changes in work schedules the union maintains are mandatory subjects of collective bargaining under state law.
But the state commission later found the complaint deficient because it lacked enough specific information about the alleged violations. It also found that the facts in the complaint didn’t seem to fit with its allegation that Washam violated state law on “domination or assistance of a union.” The commission gave the union 21 days to refile the complaint.
The revised document is more detailed, topping out at 155 pages (including appendices), vs. 56 in the original complaint.
Meanwhile, Washam continues to seek a state investigation of circumstances related to his predecessor’s decision to skip property inspections required by state law. Washam contends the office falsified inspection records and other documents related to the skipped inspections.
Several state and local agencies have declined to investigate. Late last month Washam tried again. He wrote to several state officials – including Gov. Chris Gregore – seeking an investigation.
“The investigation is needed, so that the Rule of Law may be preserved,” Washam wrote on his Web site.
David Wickert, The News Tribune
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