Issaquah City Council members voted unanimously to approve the 2010-2015 Transportation Improvement Program Monday, May 4.

The TIP is a document containing all the proposed improvement programs for the city; there are currently 38 on the list.

In order to receive state or federal funding for a project, a project must be listed in a TIP, which must then be approved by a city council, said City Transportation Manager Gary Costa.

The city held a public hearing on the document during the meeting, and one resident spoke about the importance of bicycle lanes on Sunset Way.

A variety of projects are listed in the TIP, such as Front Street/ Interstate 90 interchange improvements, the Issaquah Historical Society Trolley Project, and the Sunset interchange.

The projects are listed in no particular order, and yearly cost estimates are included for each one.

“We have a lot of good projects going on around the city, not only in 2010 but in future years,” said Councilman Josh Schaer. “It may not seem like traffic gets improved very quickly or very efficiently, but all one needs to do is look at … the 38 different things being planned around Issaquah. And all of these are for the benefit of improving mobility for citizens.”

The most contentious topic of the evening came later — authorizing the preparation of an ordinance regarding campaign finance reform.

The agenda bill has shown up in the Services and Operation Committee, City Council Committee of the Whole meetings, and regular council meetings.

“It’s been around the board, reviewed and modified, reviewed and modified, several times,” Councilman John Rittenhouse said.

The bill limits campaign contributions from a single party to $500 for mayoral and council races. If that limit is violated, the offender could be fined the amount of the violation, Rittenhouse said.

The city of Seattle has adopted a comparable ordinance, and there are similar restrictions on county, state and federal races.

The debate came over an amendment to the bill suggested by Councilwoman Eileen Barber, requiring the “names and telephone numbers of persons having knowledge of the complaint” and the “name, address and telephone number of the person submitting the complaint” to be included.

Several council members opposed the inclusion of that information, stating it was unnecessary and could be a deterrent to reporting, while others insisted that anonymous complaints could lead to harassment.

The Council voted 6-1 with Schaer dissenting to include the amendment.

City staff will now prepare the ordinance, which will be examined by the City Council at a later meeting.

The council also approved the renewed Memorandum of Understanding for the Sister City Agreement with Chefchaouen, Morocco, and the addition of the pool feasibility study to the capital improvements plan, with the stipulation that funding be pursued before moving forward with the project.