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| Devon Vose Rickabaugh Photo by Jerry Pickard |
Shoreline City Council Meeting Monday September 30, 2013
By Devon Vose Rickabaugh
Outgoing City Manager Julie Underwood said when she first came to Shoreline it was a place with a lot of room for improvement and "I have been fortunate to be actively involved in shaping the organizational culture which values teamwork, community engagement, takes seriously its mission to serve and is focused on making a positive difference. I’ve had the pleasure of working along side the best public servants out there. I love Shoreline and look forward to hearing about the amazing accomplishments in the city in the future.” Mayor McGlashan presented Ms Underwood with a clock and some funds to help with her move to California with her three sons to join her husband.
Mayor McGlashan presented the Proclamation for October as Disability Awareness Month to Judy Parsons who led the team which hosted the 3rd annual Overcoming Barriers to Employment workshop, serving 140 individuals, many with disabilities, with training and resources which has increased their job readiness. Mayor McGlashan read “The City of Shoreline joins other jurisdictions in recognizing the demonstrated benefits of a diverse workforce and the valuable contributions of employees, volunteers, and citizens with disabilities.”
Jean Monger of Echo Lake Neighborhood Association presented a plaque in honor of the completion of the new mural “An Echo in Time” at NE 205th and 1st Ave NE. Monger thanked the city for use of the 1% for the Arts used to fund the project. She thanked the artist Andy Eccleshall of The Mural Works in Edmonds. She said the details in the mural represented the past and present usage of Echo Lake including boating, bicycling, and the wild inhabitants including eagles and otters. The artist said it had been “a huge amount of fun” and he thanked everyone including all the neighbors who provided him with caffeine.
The Council unanimously approved the appointment of Tyler King and Zachary Cashen as youth members of the Shoreline Library Board. Councilmembers expressed their appreciation to the applicants. Councilmember Eggen said it is important to have the voice of youth on these boards. He and Councilmember McConnell encouraged the boys to speak out so their expertise could be heard.
Councilmember’s salaries were opened for discussion. Council salaries were originally adopted in 1997 at a monthly rate of $700 for all councilmembers and $875 for the Mayor. Council salaries have not changed since the original adoption in 1997. Salary comparisons with cities of comparable size indicated Shoreline Council salaries were the lowest. Councilmember Hall pointed out that the amount of hours spent each year could reach between 500 and 1000 hours. Mayor McGlashan said that Deputy Mayor Eggen spent so many hours at outside meetings that he was probably making fifty cents an hour. Councilmember Salomon and Councilmember Eggen expressed concern about asking for a raise. Staff recommended that Council take action to change council salaries prior to the November General Election and that the annual salary for the Mayor be set at $15,000, the Deputy Mayor at $13,200, and council members at $12,000. Staff will bring the salary matter up for a vote at the October 21 council meeting.
Deputy Mayor Terry Scott never spent time going to outside meetings. So Deputy Mayor Chris Eggen likes to go to meetings because he is retired, good for him.
ReplyDeleteCompensate the City Council for value added, not hours expended.
ReplyDeleteSo local cities now pay up to $1000 per month. I assume this includes cities like Seattle and Bellevue which have much larger budgets to manage. It begs the question, that when we can't fix our roads and repair sidewalks and when the city has spent thousands of taxpayer dollars in lawsuit after lawsuit defending it's poor process management why should we pay our council more than the current ceiling? Do you notice a bad smell?
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the city council goals, here is the score card:
ReplyDeleteRoads paved - less than 50% (and that is after they levied $20 per car, why? Because they dump it into things like the new storage facility instead of fixing roads).
Volunteer hours - less than half of what it was. Why does this matter? What happened to those efficiencies the city staff leadership team/city manager's office like to yak about, as well as the city council? What about the long-range financial planning committee's recommendation adopted by the city council that the city seek to use MORE volunteers? Instead, they use less volunteers. And to think that the supporters of the Ronald Wastewater utility don't notice these things.
And the last city council goal - better communication with the citizens, it's only two years behind. And when they get around to implementing it, it is pushing communications, a top down Great Leap Forward style of communication favored by the Maoists. The city doesn't want any bottoms up type of communication, much less two-way communication with its citizens, because they might have to be accountable.
If we graded the city based upon their measurable (or lack thereof) achievement of city council goals, the city council and staff should be giving us a refund.