Olympia city council votes to move to the waterfront

An update from the earlier story. Six to one, with the threat of a lawsuit.

But several residents came to comment against the waterfront site, including Arthur West, who has on multiple occasions come to the City Council meetings to raise concerns over contamination on the Port of Olympia property.

West served the council with a summons for a lawsuit that he plans to file today, claiming that there is a conflict of interest because two councilmen own downtown property and that the city did not go through a proper bidding process for the project. City attorney Bob Sterbank said the way the city is working with the development group Team Olympia is allowed under Revised Code of Washington Chapter 35.42 and has recently been used in King County and Redmond.

The council would like to move in by sometime in 2009. The lone dissenter: Karen Messmer, who isn't sure how global warming might affect the proposal.