Don't look now, but Joe Morrier -- the guy so many are so quick to criticize -- has just scored a public relations coup and in the process has cooled off a very hot seat for Yakima officials.

Morrier told the Yakima City Council on Tuesday that he'll foot the bill for tearing down a parking garage ramp on the east end of his Yakima Mall property. He wants to clear access to the site of the former J.C. Penney store to make way for construction of an upscale hotel.

In taking out his checkbook, Morrier has ended a brief, but stormy, tempest about whether the city (i.e. taxpayers) or the mall owner should pay for taking down the ramp. He said he didn't want the fuss to sidetrack or cloud ongoing efforts at revitalization of downtown Yakima.

We've thought it was Morrier's responsibility anyway since the
Yakima Herald-Republic uncovered a 1969 easement agreement that appeared to put the mall owner on the hook for the work. That came after the City Council, acting on advice of City Manager Dick Zais and his lieutenants, had given preliminary approval to the city paying for the work.

Shortly after this newspaper went public with the easement agreement, Zais, city officials and Morrier were interviewed by our reporter as they did a field inspection of the controversial ramp. At that time, Zais insisted the city owns the ramp, but allowed as how the easement agreement has raised legal questions about who is on the hook for the teardown.

After extensive legal research of the issue at the city's request, local real estate attorney Ken Harper, essentially told the council Tuesday that it's unclear who was legally responsible for demolition of the ramp and whether it was ultimately a political question for the council to decide.

Morrier deserves praise for understanding that there was really only one way out of this situation for both him and the city: He needed to back off -- and he did.

In so doing, he kept the council from having to further publicly discuss the lousy administrative and legal work that led to what appeared to be a dead-wrong initial decision that the city should pay the $85,000 cost of removing the ramp. Zais had said the money could be transferred from the city's streets budget. Now it can stay where it belongs and go for much-needed street work.

Even the notoriously stubborn Zais admitted to faulty staff work and apologized to the council Tuesday: "This is something that should not have happened. We apologize for that -- I do personally to you."

Of course, the ramp ruckus would not have been such a big deal in the public arena were it not for the perception that Morrier often tries to bully the city into helping him pay for new projects. So often the city seems to be saying, "Yes sir, how high?" to Morrier's perceived command for the municipality to "Jump!"

But in fairness to Morrier, he's also one to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to personal commitment to downtown projects -- from the mall forward. He is eager to begin rebuilding the Penney store as soon as possible, as he has the old Mervyn's store (now the Hilton Gardens Hotel) and the Bon Marche (now The Lofts condominiums).

The city should not turn its back on efforts to revitalize the city's downtown when its largest downtown land owner is on the other end of the transaction. In fact, the best news to come out of the council meeting Tuesday was that Morrier's JEM Development and the city plan to hammer out a comprehensive development agreement around the new hotel project.

Presumably, the staff work on the city's obligations related to the entire project will be more meticulous than we've seen to date, forcing JEM to put all its requests for city support on the table at once. That makes more sense than doing it piecemeal.

The ramp debacle is over. Now let's move on to the larger challenge of continuing to breathe new life into the downtown area.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.