It all starts on Monday at 10 AM with a press conference;
News conference to share the 2017 annual Ambulance Contract Performance Report
What is troubling about this report on Monday and later on Tuesday at the informational meeting is that the city council will get a first reading (Item #8) on a rate increase for Paramedics Plus Tuesday night at the council meeting, hardly enough time to review the increase. Why wasn’t this report provided a couple weeks in advance of the 1st Reading? Either way, due to the complicated contract, the council has NO choice but to approve the increase. So why even vote on it?
Item #6, the council will be voting on giving affordable housing more money. I have been a little critical of this program because instead of spending the money to refurbish older homes (which would be more equitable and give us more affordable housing) the city tears down houses and builds new homes that 1) don’t really fit into the neighborhoods 2) sell at a loss (to taxpayers) to make them ‘affordable’. I think to preserve neighborhoods we should be focusing on refurbishing older homes instead of bulldozing them. $2 million dollars could probably save 60-70 homes from destruction instead of just building a dozen new homes.