A Hot Summer Night

For a midsummer meeting, tomorrow night's City Council get-together is going to be pretty interesting.

You've got the appointment (or not) of James Shuris as commissioner of DPW. If you've missed the curious tale of Shuris over the last few weeks, it's kind of too long for retelling here (scroll down to past posts for more). But council President Tom Conry came out against voting for him over the weekend, and past comments from Councilor Dean Tran make it seem unlikely he'll approve. Suddenly, Mayor Lisa Wong needs six votes from nine people. Should be interesting to see what happens there.

Then you have the Return of the Trash Fee, back after a little summer vacation. Wong sent councilors a bunch of info last week, including a slew of different proposals and a bunch of frequently asked questions about trash fees. You can see all the proposals and the FAQs by going here (of course).

Who knows where the trash fee stands? It seems Wong's original proposal has minimal support in the council, but what about some of the other proposals, which include just a flat fee and a bunch of different bag fee-only amounts? A few councilors have outright rejected a trash fee, but not enough to kick the thing to the curb. So what's the motivation at this point? The whole ride? Bag fee only? The council makes no decisions tomorrow night, but perhaps it will give an indication of where its leaning.

Enjoy the summer fireworks.