Part of the new Ordinance requires companies that contract with the city for a variety of jobs; from transportation, to communication, to heating and cooling, etc: to be free from involvement in the nuclear weapons industry.

It's clear already that many of the corporations (or business entities otherwise) which are doing business with the city are currently involved in the nuclear weapons industry. Some examples are Chrysler, Honeywell, IBM, Motorola (nextel). There are many others.

The ordinance which the City Council passed and adopted as legislation (to go into effect in 30 days) requires citizen oversight of the matter of "Eligibility For City Contracts." Citizens will need to provide conclusive proof of the corporations' activities in the nuclear weapons industry.

Here is the relevant text of the Ordinance:

Section 6. Eligibility for City Contracts

A. The City of Olympia shall grant no awards or contracts for any purpose to any person, firm, corporation or entity which is knowingly or intentionally engaged in the development, research, production, maintenance, storage, transportation and/or disposal of nuclear weapons or their components. It will be the responsibility of any recipient of a city contract or award to certify by a notarized statement to the City Clerk that it is not knowingly or intentionally engaged in the above defined activity. Notice of this certification shall be included in all "Requests for Proposals" issued by the City.

B. Exceptions may be granted if the City Manager makes a specific determination that no reasonable alternative exists, taking into consideration the following factors:

1. 1. The availability of alternative services, goods and equipment, or other supplies substantially meeting required specifications of the proposed contract; and,
2. 2. Quantifiable additional costs resulting from use of available alternatives.

C. If such certification is not provided, the City of Olympia shall make public the contractor’s involvement with nuclear weapons at a regularly scheduled City Council meeting. The Mayor of the City of Olympia shall send a letter to the contractor that cites Olympia as a nuclear weapon free zone and requests the contractor to cease its involvement with the production of nuclear weapons.

It seems to me that the citizens would best serve this oversight function by doing some basic organizing. We need to determine which companies the city is doing business with. We need to find who is interested in researching them for involvement in the nuclear weapons industry.

Then we can divvy up the list amongst the citizen research enforcement team(s) and get to work.

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Nuclear_Free_Ord_FINAL.pdf	28.87 KB