A new council, a new mayor and a potentially new set of priorities are on tap for the Yakima City Council, which will hold several meetings Tuesday.
The first will be a noon session during which the council — including four new members — will discuss the city’s lobbying priorities for the 2016 state legislative session. Later in the day, the council will hold a closed-door executive session and convene for regular business at 6 p.m.
One of their first tasks that evening will be selecting a new mayor, a ceremonial position chosen every two years at the beginning of a new council term. Former Mayor Micah Cawley did not run for re-election.
Council members approached about who might be elected mayor have declined to talk specifics, but indicated it could be one of the four newly elected members, rather than one of the three incumbents.
Carmen Mendez, Avina Gutierrez, Holly Cousens and Dulce Gutierrez were elected for the first time in November. The re-elected incumbents are Kathy Coffey, Maureen Adkison and Bill Lover.
The previous council approved next year’s legislative priorities in October, but the new council will get to weigh in Tuesday ahead of the Legislature convening Jan. 11. The list of items being supported by the city includes legislation to make it easier to investigate suspected code violations and an effort to get state funding for the proposed $14 million downtown plaza.
Other high priorities for the city include active pursuit of laws aimed to curb “abusive” public records requests that officials say increase taxpayer costs and slow down response times. The city earlier this year removed from its website digital copies of records requests that have been filed saying some were deliberate efforts to spread misinformation about city employees.
Other proposals the city is actively pursuing include renewed state funding for anti-gang programs set to expire in 2017 and funding for indigent defense costs also set to expire in 2017.
The executive session at 5:15 p.m. leading up to the business meeting pertains to “pending litigation.” The city usually doesn’t release further details about those discussions unless the council plans to take action on an item afterward.
In other business, the council will also hear an update on the city’s new dangerous building abatement program approved earlier in the year. In August, the council approved of the strategy brought forth by city Code Administration to address 123 “nuisance” structures around the city, from asking owners to fix dangers at the property to demolishing them completely.
At the time it was approved, the city had identified 22 of the worst structures they wanted to focus on first. A strategy for addressing the remaining 100 or so is still being drafted.
