Shoreline City Manager's Report week of 6/2/2014

Update for the Week of 6/2/2014

From the office of Debbie Tarry, Shoreline City Manager

Council Meetings

·         June 2

o   Regular Meeting:

§  Adoption of Ordinance No. 688 – Stay Out of Drug Area (SODA): Council adopted the ordinance 5 to 2.  The area includes Aurora Avenue North, Aurora Square, Echo Lake Park, and Aurora Village Tranist Center.

§  Adoption of Ordinance No. 691 Amending the 2014 Budget by Increasing the Appropriation in the 2013 General Obligation Bond Debt Service Fund: These are the bonds that were issued to finance the acquisition of the Brugger’s Bog Maintenance Facility. This amendment meets the accounting transactions required for payment of debt service when the obligation is being paid both from general government and business like, such as the surface water utility, funds.

§  Continued Discussion of Concurrency and Traffic Impact Fees: The primary issues discussed were: delayed payment options of impact fees, low income housing exemption, vesting, updates to the rate study, relationship to SEPA mitigation, change of land use, timing for adoption of an impact fee program, improvements to 145th Street, exemptions/reductions for specific land uses/business types, interlocal agreements, and application to any Point Wells development.  Council directed staff to compose an ordinance for potential adoption on July 21 that has no provision for delayed payment options or exemptions for low-income housing or specific business types.  Impact fees are assessed on new developments and will be used to pay for their share of specific future transportation projects.

§  Update on Light Rail by Sound Transit

·         June 9

o   Dinner Meeting (5:45 p.m.): Bothell Mayor Joshua Freed and Bothell City Manager Bob Stowe will attend to share with Council the steps they have taken in Economic Development to acquire property, build infrastructure, and negotiate development agreements with specific firms.

o   Regular Meeting:

§  Award of the Landscape Contract for the City’s right-of-ways: The City received two bids for this service. The lowest bid is $179,700 for an annual contract. The second bid was substantially higher at $251,000. The current contract and adopted budget for this service is $110,000 annually. The $179,700 cost does not include any allowance for use of herbicides, as the alternates that would allow for such use were not significantly lower, and not using herbicides continues to be supportive of the City’s environmental sustainability goals.

§  Amendment to City’s Personnel Policies: On June 12, 2014, Washington State Substitute Senate Bill (SSB) 5173 will go into effect. This new law requires local governments to provide their employees with two unpaid holidays per calendar year to use for a “reason of faith or conscience.” As well, a recent decision on the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals provides employees with the ability to waive their rights to FMLA protections. Given that these two mandatory issues require that updates be made to the City’s personnel policies contained in the Employee Handbook, staff is recommending three additional changes to the Handbook – a vacation cash out and sick leave cash out amendment for retirement-eligible staff, and a tobacco free work place amendment.

§  Discussion on Cost of Development: Our Economic Development Manager, Dan Eernissee, has been pulling information together on costs for Shoreline and other surrounding cities, including potential impact fees that investors would need to pay.

State of the City Breakfast – June 4 at 7 a.m. – Investing in a Vibrant Shoreline!

The State of the City Breakfast is Wednesday. This is a great event to share the City’s long-term vision with community members. We will also feature local investors: ICHS, Inland (Polaris & Echo Lake), U.S. Biotek and Shoreline Community College. Breakfast is available at 7 a.m. (we will have a Shorewood High School piano player for background music) and the program will start at 7:30 a.m. Event wraps up by 8:30 a.m.  The event will be taped and available on the City’s website.

Point Wells Update

·         The City’s traffic engineering team, including DKS consultants, met with BSRE’s traffic consultants (DEA) on Thursday, May 29, to continue review and discussion of BSRE’s traffic model and analysis. DEA is taking information from these discussions; along with the feedback they are getting from the peer review being completed by Snohomish County’s consultants, to update their model runs. The next technical meeting, scheduled for July 2, will review the updated model.

·         The Snohomish County Council will revisit the options related to addressing development concerns in slide hazard areas. It appears that the focus may be on specific geographical areas as opposed to any county-wide moratorium.

Ronald Wastewater District Update:

We are scheduling the first Assumption Transition Committee meeting Thursday, June 5.

Light Rail/145^th Update

·         Secretary of Transportation Peterson and the Assistant Secretary of Transportation (Amy Scarton) have confirmed attendance for the Council Dinner Meeting on August 25. Staff will take them on a tour of the corridor that afternoon (to share vision, etc.) and then have them attend the dinner meeting with Council.

·         Grants update: The City actively participates in evaluation and application of regional grant dollars. This week we received notification that the Shoreline will receive $246,000 to supplement the $250,000 authorized by Council for the 145^th Route Development Plan. Also through the King County recommendation process Shoreline is on the recommended funding list for $4.15 million for 145^th design/environmental and is first on the contingency list for $3.5 million for design/environment of 175^th between Stone and I-5. These recommendations go to the King County Project Evaluation Committee on June 9 and then to the Transportation Policy Board of the Puget Sound Regional Council who ultimately makes a recommendation to the PSRC Executive Board. We will continue monitor this process and advocate for funding for these Shoreline projects! Congratulations to the key staff who have been working on this which includes: Kirk McKinley, Bethany Wolbrecht-Dunn, and Alicia McIntire. This group receives additional support for these efforts from Jay Clark, John Vicente, Iain Draper, Noel Hupprich, David LaBelle and Tricia Juhnke. Great teamwork for Shoreline!

Congratulations to Council

This week Councilmember Roberts was notified that he will be serving on the AWC 2014/2015 Legislative Committee.

This and That

·         On Monday, June 2, the City will begin a two-week hosting of a photo exhibit in the City Hall lobby that tell the stories of families in Washington State, and highlight our region’s progress toward ending family homelessness. The exhibit is sponsored by Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness.

·         Here are the public comments received during the 10-Year Financial Sustainability Plan Open House.

·         New Permit Services Manager – Jarrod Lewis will start June 23. Jarrod replaces Jeff Forry who retired earlier this year. Jarrod comes from King County so familiar with Washington and local regulations.

·         Congratulations to the Parkwood Neighborhood Association who was named by Neighborhoods, USA as 2014 Neighborhood of the Year Second Place Winner!

·         The Shoreline Police Department is working closely with Shoreline Community College on a recent indecent exposure case. There have been a couple of incidents with exchange students and the suspect near 160^th/Aurora.

·         On Friday, representatives from the Shoreline Police Department participated in the Special Olympics Torch run. Our officers went above and beyond, when Seattle Police unexpectedly pulled out and did not show up at 145^th to take the torch. Todd Miller, Steve Shalloway, Chris Bedker, Larry Jones, Steve Perry and Brett Davis kept running all the way to the King County Courthouse before they got to hand-off the torch. They ended up running 13 miles - a half marathon!

·         Shoreline Farmers Market Association has received authorization from the Liquor Control Board to provide beer/wine sales and sampling. Farmers Market kicks off on June 14!!

·         The Parks Board has decided on a schematic of the Veteran’s Memorial to recommend to the Council. The Shoreline Veteran’s Association is planning to raise funds in 2014 and to construct the memorial during late 2015.

·         Municipal Research Services Center wrote an article on the recent Court of Appeals decision that a code city has the legal authority to impose its utility tax on the revenues of a public utility district. Although the court’s decision addressed the city’s taxing of the water utility revenues of a public utility district, the decision will affect other municipal corporations, such as special districts that provide utility services in a city.

Calendar Items

·         June 4 – State of the City Breakfast, 7 a.m.

·         June 4 – Council of Neighborhoods, 7 p.m. City Hall, Councilmember Eggen will attend

·         June 5 - "Developers" 145^th Light Rail Station Design Workshop from noon to 2 p.m. in the Council Chambers

·         June 7 – Arts Gala