tony o'rourke

City leaders in Yakima want to open a medical clinic for city employees which may save taxpayers money. Yakima City Manager Tony O'Rourke says the clinic would save about $360,000 in taxpayer money. The clinic would be based at the Yakima Sunfair building at the fairgrounds...

Car tab fees have never been very popular, but Yakima City Manager Tony O'Rourke believes now may be the time to ask voters for the fee to pay for city street repairs. The city council will talk about putting the issue in front of voters during a study session this morning...

The Yakima Police gang unit is set to double in size, thanks to a increase in city tax revenue. Five officers are in the unit, they work a five day rotation. City Manager Tony O'Rourke and Police Chief Dominic Rizzi, Jr. want to double its size...

Yakima City Manager Tony O'Roarke was a guest on Wednesday's Mike Bastinelli show. O'Roarke discussed the recent city council decison to vacate a section of South 4th Street to create an event space, attracting more events to downtown Yakima, making downtown safer, and how to drive economic development in the city. Click this...

The closure of 4th Street behind the Capital Theater will be on the agenda of the Yakima City Council tomorrow night. City Manager Tony O'Rourke says it is part of the plan to energize the downtown area.  The closure, between Yakima Avenue and Chestnut will create an area where thousands of people can gather for big events...

Costs continue to rise as city and county officials look for solutions to housing local prisoners. Today, a joint city/county study session was held to address the problem. A number of ideas were talked about including the possibility of having one regional jail instead of one in the city and one in the county...

Both city and county officials in Yakima are looking for cheaper ways to house local prisoners. The Yakima City Council today will hold a study session with county officials to talk about housing more city prisoners in the county jail or expand the current city jail...

The downtown park at Second Street and Yakima Avenue will remain open for now. Last week city officials removed pavers and basically ripped up the park. But, now the barren lot will change once more.  In just a week, the owner Terry Powell had a change of heart to let the city to use the space once again...

Yakima city leaders faced the reality of contracting up to 20 more public defenders and spending a million more of your tax-payer dollars; all to meet a mandate that limits public defenders caseloads to 400 a year. But city leaders have a new plan to cut those costs dramatically...

The The "Mike Bastinelli Show" is on the air, weekdays from 3 to 6. Guest this week include Yakima City Manager Tony O'Rourke, Yakima Police Chief Dominic Rizzi and gubernatorial candidates Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee.