Shoreline City Council Meeting October 14, 2013

Devon Vose Rickabaugh
Photo by Jerry Pickard

Shoreline City Council Meeting October 14, 2013

By Devon Vose Rickabaugh

The Shoreline City Council unanimously authorized interim City Manager Debbie Tarry to approve the switch by the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) to a self-insured benefit program providing  medical, dental, vision, and Employee Assistance Program (EAP) from a fully funded insured model. The move will save money and give employees the same coverage.

The City’s proposed budget for 2014 was presented to the council for discussion. Overall the proposed 2014 budget of $71,900,115 is $1,199,815 (1.64%) less than the amount budgeted in 2013. Operating expenditures are projected to increase by $518,526 (1.39%) and capital expenditures are projected to decrease by $1,567,474 (5.89%). The proposed 2014 budget is balanced and includes adequate reserve levels to meet all adopted budget policies. Manager Debbie Tarry said that the feels “very proud” to maintain 18 years of Unqualified Audit Opinions and 14 straight Government Finance Officers Association  (GFOA) Budget Awards. The budget can be viewed on the City website and a Public Hearing on the budget will be held November 4th.

The discussion of Council Goal #4 which calls for enhanced openness and opportunities for community engagement focused on the difficulty of getting City information out to the public. The lack of print media in Shoreline continues to present challenges to the City when it comes to getting our message out to residents. According to the results of City’s 2012 Citizen Satisfaction Survey, Currents and the Recreation Guide remain the primary sources of information about City issues, events, and services for residents by a significant margin. The next most important source of information is the City’s website. Staff has been working on improving all three to make them more engaging, informative and user friendly.

At last November’s Crime Prevention Focus Group Forum, a common theme was the need for better communication between police and residents. The City has been working on several community outreach initiatives that will improve communication and hopefully address residents' concerns. One enhancement to communication is Alert Shoreline which is the City’s new mass communication system, which will will take the place of the City’s old community messaging eNews system and emergency notification system MyStateUSA. It will allow police to send out emergency alerts and community information on a variety of topics. Residents can select how they want to receive emergency alerts, whether by email, text, or phone, and they may register more than one location in Shoreline of interest to them, such as their home, a relative’s home, a work address, or their child’s school. Should there be an emergency near one of those locations and an alert is issued, they will receive key information on where to go and what to do to keep themselves and their families safe.

In addition to receiving emergency alerts, residents can also receive community notifications on topics of interest to them. Currently, residents may sign-up for the following community notices:

• News Releases
• Road Closures
• City Council Agenda Packet
• Planning Commission Agenda Packet
• Library Board Agenda
• PRCS/Tree Board Agenda
• Point Wells Updates
• Neighborhoods
• Light Rail Station Area Planning
• Park Facility Closures and Updates
• Human Services
• Shoreline Watch (crime prevention tips)