Shoreline City Manager's Report

Shoreline City Manager's Report Week of 12/16/2013

By Debbie Tarry

Follow-Up from December 9 Council Meeting

• RWD Assumption Ordinance: Some residents have asked why the Council had to adopt the Ronald Wastewater Assumption ordinance on such short notice to the community and waive the number of regular readings of an ordinance before the Council. We have added an explanation to these questions to the Ronald Assumption page. I will be following up with Woodway Town Administrator Eric Faison over the next few weeks to discuss Woodway’s interest in being a utility service provider to their community.

Economic Development Update

• Perhaps you’ve noticed some construction at the former Bada Sushi property (16301 Aurora Ave N). The leasing broker informed Shoreline’s Economic Development Manager Dan Eernissee that the owner has been patiently waiting for a strong tenant. After declining offers from tenants not meeting this objective, a restaurant is now under contract and finishing its feasibility study. Meanwhile, the construction going on is related to a settlement with former oil companies that are working to mitigate contaminated soil from when it was a fuel station.
• Dan has also been working closely with Shoreline Community College personnel in support of the Shoreline Film Office. Recently he provided a letter in support of the Industry-ready space for the Film Office at the college for student enrichment and vocational training. The college is very excited about the partnership with the City on this endeavor.

Light Rail Update

• School Board Study Session – December 9, 2013: Planning amd Community Development (P/CD) staff gave a presentation at the School Board’s December 9th study meeting. The presentation served as a general update regarding Sound Transit’s selection of a preferred alternative and on the status of City’s 185th Street Station Subarea Plan. Staff provided information to the School Board on the City and Community Partner’s Visioning Workshops, the City’s Design Dialogue Workshops, the schedule moving forward and next steps. Staff shared with the Board, that the City will be studying alternatives for the School District properties in the subarea that would increase development potential on the sites to accommodate transit supportive densities and uses. The School Board instructed District Staff to research hiring a consultant to assist them with updating long range facility plans based on the new opportunity presented by the light rail station and the City’s 185th Street Station Area Subarea Planning project.

• Forterra Grant Opportunity: The City’s Planning and Community Development staff will work with Forterra, a non-profit specializing in conservation and community building, to prepare a grant application to the Washington State Department of Ecology and Commerce to fund Landscape Conservation and Local Infrastructure Program (LCLIP) feasibility studies. The studies will focus on the 185th Street and 145th Street Station Areas. The grant request will be for approximately $40,000 and will look at investing in infrastructure to support redevelopment and more efficient land use in cities across the region reduces conversion pressure on areas that are critical to the integrity of Puget Sound watersheds. Conducting a feasibility study allows a city to decide if LCLIP is advantageous to pursue and does not carry obligations for any further action.

Utilities Update

• On Friday oral arguments were heard at Superior Court regarding the City’s request for a preliminary injunction against Ronald Wastewater District to prevent the sale or transfer of District assets to the Town of Woodway or to any other utility district or authority. The Superior Court granted the City’s request for a preliminary injunction. The court also granted the City’s request for a 60 day continuance for the Partial Summary Judgment Hearing. This hearing originally scheduled for January 10, will be rescheduled for sometime in March, unless RWD Commissioners decide to drop the request for Partial Summary Judgment. The hearing on the entire suit brought by RWD is scheduled for September 2014. We will need to follow up with RWD Commissioners in early 2014 to determine if they intend to drop or continue the suit. If RWD were to pursue the suit both organizations would need to start spending ratepayer/taxpayer resources relatively early in 2014 to prepare legal arguments and defense.

• The City has signed with EES Consulting to conduct a Utility Unification and Efficiency Study that will look at combining the City’s future water utility (currently SPU’s system in Shoreline), Ronald Wastewater, and the Shoreline Water District. I am hopeful that we will be able to work collaboratively with RWD staff on this study and that Shoreline Water District will  participate and provide relative information. I will also be following up with Lake Forest Park regarding their interest in partnering on overlapping interests with our study.

Police Update

Last week a guilty ruling of Murder II was handed down by a jury against Doreen Starrish, who killed her husband last year in the front yard of their Shoreline home. The case required significant teamwork between our major crime detectives.

Finance Update

This week staff brought to my attention significant increases in the City’s street light costs. It appears that this is a combination of rate increases for 2013-2014 by Seattle City Light (SCL) and an increase in the number of street lights that should be billed to the City of Shoreline. The street light inventory has been an issue with SCL and we have been trying to resolve it for several years. SCL has been implementing an asset management system and will be using this information to reconcile the Shoreline inventory. The rate increases are related to SCL’s review of their rate structure and BPA pass-through. The major rate increase appears to be related to 2013 adjustments, but was not identified until recently. The 2013 cost increases will be covered through budget savings. Overall the initial estimate for 2014 is that street light costs could be $95,000 more in 2014 than was anticipated in the adopted 2014 budget. This would bring our annual street light costs to $477,000 vs. the $382,000 included in the 2014 budget. I have asked staff to continue to review the information with SCL to identify the number of lights billed to the City in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and the types of lights (Sodium Vapor vs. LED) and the applicable rate so that we can identify the changes related to inventory and rate adjustments and ensure that we have accurate billings from SCL. Staff will be providing a recommendation on the adjustment to the 2014 budget as part of the 2013 carry-over process this spring.

This and That

• 2013 City Employee of the Year – Patti Radar, Finance Manager: We issued a press release last week announcing the Employee of the Year.
• 2013 City Team of the Year – Home Improvement Team
• The City sent a letter to Senator Patty Murray requesting her support for increased funding for the CDBG program and request to oppose any change in formula that would prevent our City from accessing the funds.
• We also sent a letter to Representative Rick Larsen thanking him for introducing House Resolution 2944 regarding TIGER grants (transportation projects) and requesting that the population threshold be changed from populations less than 50,000 (which would exclude Shoreline) to populations less than 100,000.