This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

The flooding threat posed by the meltdown of last week’s snow and ice is timely ammunition for the Pierce County Council’s attempt to create a flood-control taxing district.

Even areas that aren’t close to major rivers have experienced problems caused by too much water. Overtaxed storm drains and catch basins present surface-water issues for county residents who don’t live anywhere near rivers like the Puyallup or Nisqually.

That’s why the council’s new approach makes sense: Give communities that aren’t threatened by river flooding access to some of the flood district’s revenues for stormwater control. For cities that aren’t near rivers, that kind of sweetener should be attractive.
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This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

The state’s political parties have a bit of business to conduct every two years: the election of their precinct committee officers. That’s fine, but they shouldn’t be doing it on the taxpayer’s dime.

The public – even citizens not affiliated with political parties – have been paying for these elections because the PCO elections have been conducted via the ballot.

The PCO races – if they can be called that when most have only a single candidate – are the ones at the very tag end of the ballot, and more than half of voters don’t even bother with them.
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This editorial will appear in Sunday’s print edition.

On about 10 days a year, Tacoma and much of Pierce County fail to meet federal standards for “fine particulates.” That kind of air pollution is created by motor vehicles, as well as by burning wood in old, uncertified stoves, fireplaces and the open air – and it can pose a health threat for people with respiratory problems.

Those 10 or so days of poor air quality have given the region an unenviable distinction: It’s the state’s only “non-attainment area” for fine particulate standards.

Because the 10 days are most likely to fall during cold weather, when more people are burning wood to keep warm, wood-burning is the main target for regulators charged with improving the area’s air quality. The air police also know it’s easier to get people to burn less than to drive less.
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This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

Some lawmakers are considering whether to move the Special Commitment Center for violent sex offenders off McNeil Island as a way to help close the state’s $2 billion-plus budget gap. It has become more expensive to run since closure of the state prison on the island.

The only two choices for relocation being discussed, according to a report Sunday by The News Tribune’s Jordan Schrader, are Western State Hospital in Lakewood and the shuttered Maple Lane School in Ground Mound near Centralia.

Lawmakers should consider a few facts about those locations that make it hard to see where short-term savings could be made – and short-term is what the state needs right now.

Consider:
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This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Sumner’s plan to carve a major development – Orton Junction – out of adjacent agricultural land has been a moving target for months. Its supporters kept on refining it, and its preservationists kept on opposing it.

Last week, after the crucial intervention of the Cascade Land Conservancy, Orton Junction finally became a clear win for rural protection.

At first glance, that seems impossible. Despite the tinkering, Sumner will still be swallowing 182 acres of protected rural countryside – including 125 acres of prime farmland – on the city’s southern border.

Any paving-over of topsoil harks back to the bad old days when the Pierce County Council was the girl who couldn’t say no. Developers who came along whistling tunes about jobs, money and affordable housing could pretty much have their way with the countryside.

Orton Junction’s opponents have feared that the project would set a precedent for renewed rural depredation. But what it’s evolved into is a precedent for protection.
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This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Suggestion: Read the article below, written by the Pierce County sheriff and a leader of the county’s fire commissioners.

Done? Now you know why The News Tribune’s editorial board is endorsing Proposition 1, which would enact a tenth-of-one-percent sales tax to create a seamless, countywide, all-digital 911 dispatch system. This would add a penny to a $10 purchase.

Proposition 1 would fix two big, interrelated problems that have long plagued the county’s police officers and firefighters – and the citizens who depend on them.

Problem One is the county’s fragmented, patchwork system of dispatch agencies. Many counties have one or two dispatch centers that handle all emergency calls: This creates greater efficiencies and economies, with modern GPS and digital mapping technologies letting dispatchers rapidly direct first responders to emergencies.

But turf wars among agencies and local jurisdictions have saddled Pierce County with an antiquated multiplicity of agencies and centers. Four separate “primary call centers” handle 911 calls, which in turn relay all fire and emergency medical calls to two additional centers run by fire departments.

Problem One led to Problem Two. Over the years, the fragmented agencies have bought different kinds of radio equipment – mostly analog systems that are now obsolete – that don’t always talk to each other and sometimes (in dead spots) don’t talk at all. Below, Paul Pastor and Larry Nelson spell out some of the tragic and near-tragic consequences.
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This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

If Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam is feeling at all vindicated by the failure of the recall campaign against him, perhaps news that he’s the subject of a federal investigation has provided something of a reality check.

The Department of Justice inquiry stems from Washam’s retaliation against Sally Barnes, a high-ranking office employee who had complained about how Washam treated her.

Barnes, who cited “intolerable working conditions” when she resigned in March 2010, is one of the employees suing Washam and Pierce County for damages. A fifth has reached a settlement.

The DOJ investigation – which grew out of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determination that Washam likely had violated Barnes’ civil rights – could go away if Barnes reaches a settlement with Pierce County. Or the DOJ could continue investigating – and even sue the county – if it’s not satisfied with the terms of the settlement.  Read more »

Be sure to read George Will’s column Thursday (it will post here online after midnight). As noted in the Political Buzz blog, Will is writing about how Washington state’s campaign finance laws make it almost impossible for recall campaigns to meet the high bar required to get on the ballot. And he uses the campaign to recall Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam to make his point.

As Will notes, the recall campaign mounted by Robin Farris was hamstrung by absurd restrictions on campaign donations. Fighting them took valuable time away from signature-gathering efforts, which ultimately fell just short. …

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