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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This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

It’s a long-held belief in America that education is “the great equalizer.”

But not all educations are created equal. In years past, a child with access to up-to-date textbooks and libraries had an advantage over a child who did not. Today, access to technology – computers and the Internet, in particular – is critical to an education that will prepare a child for living and working in the 21st century.

Yet an estimated one-third of U.S. households lacks a computer. That’s often a factor of age, but it’s also one of income. Only 45 percent of households earning less than $30,000 have broadband Internet access at home.

That’s why the new Internet Essentials program sponsored by Comcast and launched statewide last week in Tacoma is so promising. The cable giant is providing $10 per month Internet access and $150 computer vouchers to families that have at least one child eligible for free school lunches and meet a few other requirements.
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This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

It sure wasn’t for lack of trying.

Robin Farris’ signature-gathering campaign to recall Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam came up achingly short. She just missed clearing a very high bar of collecting the 65,495 signatures needed to put a recall measure on the November ballot. Percentagewise, she needed to collect more than twice the signatures required to get a statewide initiative on the ballot.

That Farris’ campaign was unsuccessful is a disappointment to The News Tribune editorial board. Like many, we’ve been dismayed by Washam’s erratic, unethical behavior since taking office in January 2009. He has retaliated against whistle-blowers, misused his office’s resources to further personal vendettas and created a hostile workplace.

Washam’s behavior has been costly. Pierce County faces $4.3 million in claims for damages filed by current and former employees of Washam’s office. He faces a hearing before the county ethics commission on a citizen’s complaint that he violated the county ethics code on 15 occasions. Read more »

On Monday, state Auditor Brian Sonntag announced he won’t run for re-election.

On Tuesday, we learned that the campaign to recall Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer Dale Washam had fallen just short of the needed petition signatures.

Just a coincidence? Well, yes. But I couldn’t help wondering if one of Pierce County’s most successful politicians might be giving any thought to running for assessor-treasurer next year.

“To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it; I assumed the recall effort would be successful,” Sonntag said today. But, he noted, “Pierce County is still where my heart is. . . . I’d be interested …

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This editorial appears in Friday’s print edition.