City Council honors old, swears in new members meeting

In one of the shortest meetings this year — 35 minutes — the Port Orchard City Council on Monday honored outgoing Councilmen Ron Rider and Todd Cramer while swearing in newbies Fred Chang and Tye Moore.

The meeting started the the awarding of a plaque of appreciation to Rider expressing the city’s gratitude for his four years on the council.

Cramer was also honored but could not attend the meeting the receive his award personally.

Councilwoman Rita DiIenno was also absent from the meeting.

“It took me a couple of years to really get a feel for how the council operated,” Rider reflected earlier this month. “I still have a little bit of desire to follow through on some of the things (the council) has been working on. I wanted to see some of the things we were working on come to fruition.”

The council adjourned after the agenda was approved for a brief executive session, returning to unanimously pass the scant four business items.

The council unanimously approved the approximately $2.5 million 2006 Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility Budget, authorized Mayor Kim Abel to sign an agreement with Quest Communications for City Hall telephone service, approved the final plat of the Port Orchard Industrial Park Division 2 and authorized Abel to sign a change oder for the Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility priced at over $44,279.49.

The final business item, a discussion of committee assignment procedures for the coming years, was postponed to Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.

The issue of council committees has been a hotly contentious one since, during the last council meeting of 2003, an outgoing council member presented an ordinance that proposed taking committee appointment power away from the mayor and giving it to a committee of the three most senior councilmembers, which were and still are Powers, Geiger and Clauson.

The meeting concluded with Councilmembers Carolyn Powers and Bob Geiger, along with newly elected Councilmen Tye Moore and Fred Chang, being sworn in to office.

“It was sort of like graduation,” Chang reflected. “It was just one of those moments when it goes really quickly.”

Chang and Moore’s first official council meeting will take place on Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers on the third floor of Port Orchard’s City Hall.

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