Council approves consent calendar and several appointments; term‑limit waiver OK'd for long‑serving Parks & Rec commissioner

The Richland City Council approved a multi‑item consent calendar and several personnel appointments and motions at its March 17 meeting.

Clerk Rogers read the consent calendar, which included: approval of the March 3 regular meeting minutes; Resolution 2026‑31 authorizing an interlocal agreement for continued reciprocal borrowing between area libraries; Resolution 2026‑32 authorizing a grant application to the Washington State Department of Commerce for a library capital improvement program grant; Resolution 2026‑33 authorizing a grant application to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Program; Resolution 2026‑34 authorizing a consultant agreement with Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. for SR‑240 Aaron Drive Complete Streets improvements; Resolution 2026‑35 accepting Surface Transportation Block Grant funds for the same SR‑240 Aaron Drive project; Resolution 2026‑36 authorizing a bid award to Prater Electric Inc. for the Thayer Substation Bank 1 replacement construction project; and Resolution 2026‑37 ratifying renewal of a contract with Remedy Health and Wellness PLLC for direct primary care services. The consent package also included numerous appointments to the Arts Commission, Code Enforcement Board and Parks & Recreation Commission, and the council approved expenditures for 02/01/2026 to 02/28/2026 totaling $37,940,409.39.

Council members moved and seconded approval of the consent calendar; roll‑call votes were recorded and the consent calendar passed unanimously. Separately, Council Member Witten moved—and the council approved—a term‑limit waiver request to allow Jim Buelt to continue serving on the Parks & Recreation Commission; the council noted three new commissioners had recently been appointed to that body.

All consent items and the term‑limit waiver passed without further public hearing during the meeting.

Votes (as recorded in the meeting): the consent calendar and the term‑limit waiver were approved unanimously; the rezoning ordinance decision is covered in a separate article.