In advance of C-Tran retreat, Leavitt takes council on trip down memory lane

Prior to Monday’s Vancouver City Council meeting, City Manager Eric Holmes distributed packets to audience members, myself included. On the top of the packet was a memo, dated that day, to Holmes from Matt Ransom, the city’s project development and policy manager.

The memo was titled “City Policy Setting re: Columbia River Crossing Project.”

Hoo boy. Cue Barbra.

http://youtu.be/n-KPGh3wysw?t=1m16s

What’s with revisiting misty-water colored resolutions and The Way We Were, with city documents signed by a mayor named Royce Pollard?

The memo references a 2007 Vancouver City Center Vision and Sub-Area Plan and a 2011 Comprehensive Plan for 2011-2030, and the packet includes copies of three pro-CRC city resolutions and two pro-CRC letters.

The memo, Holmes said today, was prepared by Ransom at the request of Mayor Tim Leavitt in advance of Saturday’s C-Tran Board of Directors retreat. (Maven Eric Florip gets that gem assignment, which is scheduled to last four hours.)

Apparently Leavitt wanted everyone on the council (ahem, Councilors Bill Turlay and Jeanne Stewart) to be aware of the city’s position on the CRC, as well as the council policy that councilors, when serving on boards, are to represent the board’s position. Leavitt, Larry Smith and Boy Scout serve on C-Tran.

At Saturday’s retreat, the board, which includes all three county commissioners and representatives from smaller cities, is expected to discuss how to pay for light rail operations and maintenance expenses.

To read the complete memo, which goes into more detail about C-Tran options, and read the copies of resolutions and letters, click on this: VancouverCRC.