Update for Week of 9/1/2014
September 1 – No Meeting (Labor Day)
September 8 Council Meeting
· Dinner Meeting (5:45 p.m.): Compensation Study Alternatives.
· Regular Meeting:
o Hidden Lake: Hidden
Lake is a stormwater facility in Boeing Creek that was constructed by
King County in 1996. This facility has the highest operational and
maintenance cost of any stormwater facility in the City. Since 2002, the
material removal costs for the facility has exceeded $600,000. On
August 5, 2013, the City Council discussed this issue and authorized
staff to proceed with the Hidden Lake Management Feasibility study.
Staff will provide Council with the outcome of the study and staff’s
recommendation on future maintenance of this area.
o Executive Session – Personnel: This will be a joint meeting between the Council and me regarding my first six months as City Manager.
RWD Assumption and Boundary Review Board Process
At
their September 4 meeting, the Snohomish County Boundary Review Board
(BRB) voted to deny Shoreline's assumption of Ronald Wastewater District
in Snohomish County. The BRB will vote on the final resolution at their
September 11
meeting. The City can appeal the decision to the Snohomish County
Superior Court within 30-days of the final decision. City Council will
meet soon to determine whether or not to move forward with an appeal.
Interurban Trail Patrol Emphasis
In
response to feedback we were getting from residents and users along the
southern part of the Interurban Trail, the Police Department has been
working to enhance their ability to patrol and promote public safety in
this area. In July, the Police Department received authorization from
Seattle City Light to implement a Trespass Program from their
right-of-way along the trail in Shoreline. Seattle City Light will
assist with prosecution. Officers have also been asked to step-up patrol
emphasis in this area. Recently police have noted areas where
indicators of criminal activity are present and the Community Services
Officer recently disposed of approximately 50 needles gathered from the
trail. I have also asked our Safe Neighborhoods/ Safe Community
cross-departmental team to establish a plan that departments can jointly
work on to help with this issue. I know that this week we received a
letter from a couple regarding their experience and this couple has not
previously participated in the neighborhood meetings on this issue.
Staff will be following up with them.
Mail Theft Emphasis
Police
and our Communications Division will be working on a community
educational emphasis regarding mail theft and steps that can be taken to
help deter and prevent this.
Meeting with Dr. Levine, Iora Health Care
This
week Economic Development Manager Dan Eernissee, Community Services
Manager Rob Beem, and Human Services Planner George Smith met with Dr.
Levine of Iora Health Care. Dr. Levine wanted to let us know that Iora
Health Care would be opening a clinic in the space south of Joanne
Fabrics on Aurora. The proposed clinic will be approximately 8,000
square feet. The Shoreline clinic, along with three other clinics
opening concurrently, will be the first of their kind in the country to
offer “concierge-style” services to Medicare Advantage clients (65+) who
are insured through Humana.
Food Truck Thursdays in Ridgecrest
Last
Thursday night was another great success –demand was high and the line
was long. There is a possibility that next week we’ll add a second food
truck. We have already added a desert truck. The remaining schedule is
for 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the following dates:
· September 4: Off the Rez - Native American inspired cuisine including Indian Tacos & frybread serving Seattle's streets!
· September 11: The Sammich Truck - Born from a love of sandwiches and a passion to create the classics that everyone knows and loves.
This and That
· Marijuana Retail Stores: We have approved the applicants and locations of the two retail marijuana stores:
1. Harvest Moon Enterprises will locate on Aurora close to McDonalds
2. Sea-Shore Collective will remain at their current locations (17517 15th Ave NE), but convert from a medical marijuana dispensary to a retail store.
· This
week we had our annual “claims” review with the Washington Cities
Association. Shoreline’s claims have totaled $217,000 over the last five
years which is substantially lower than the average of $980,000 for the
cities in our same rating group.
I am thrilled that the boundary review board voted to deny the City of Shoreline the right to assume Ronald Wastewater. Ronald Wastewater is owned by the rate payers. For decades Ronald Wastewater has been doing a great job of keeping rates low while also keeping the system working well. The fight is not over yet. I am sure the City will appeal.
ReplyDeleteNotice how sparse the report on Ronald is. The vote to deny assumption was unani ous (5-0). The Snohomish County BRB, to its credit waited a week after its public hearing to take its vote. King County BRB on the other hand vote unanimously (7-0) to approve assumption a mere 10 minutes after receiving 2 days of public hearing testimony representing hundreds of hours of preparation.
ReplyDeleteHad the Snohomish County outcome been a victory rather than a loss for City of Shoreline, Inc., all the details would have been here. Bottom line: the City always communicates from a position of self interest and with a purpose of self-promotion, never from the standpoint of providing complete unbiased information to its electorate.
The City of Shoreline said it hasn't decided if they are going to appeal, well, Debbie Tarry told the King County BRB that they would appeal if they were denied in SnoCo, after all, it's only taxpayer money. Anyone notice that the City of Shoreline and the SAN has not mentioned how the staff has dumped close to another $100K in the email metadata case because the City Attorney wanted to play games with O'Neils about paying their original attorney fees? Now the taxpayers have the original attorney fees, two years of interest on those attorney fees (which were almost $400K), and new attorney fees to take the case to the Court of Appeals.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of the SnoCo BRB hearings was Bob Ransom telling the board that the new Seattle Mayor doesn't want to sell SPU to the City of Shoreline -- isn't that a hoot? The City of Shoreline doesn't get all of Ronald, may not get SPU, looks like they shot themselves in the foot on annexing Pt. Wells, didn't realize a 2nd road was required for Pt. Wells, bought the Ronald WW lift station up at Pt. Wells last winter and now they will have to give up, the list of mistakes the staff keep on making is growing longer and longer. It is so bad you have to laugh otherwise you would cry as you look at your taxes and utility bills.
The original agreement on the Spu purchase requires shoreline to pay for all the fees necessary for spu to review the purchase. After several years and an increase in the projected costs of the purchase from the voter approved 38 million dollars to a current estimate over over 60 million dollars, the legal basis for any purchase has disappeared. What is left behind is the bill for this nonsense that spu will send to shoreline. Remember all those city councilmembers that voted to approve this project and the city's forty pounds of paper work that it hoisted off as gospel. They were obvious lies then and now! Pretending to blame Seattle's newly elected mayor for a plan that never had a fabric of truth to it is typical of our city administrations approach to public relations.
ReplyDeleteThose of us in this city who wish to assure the best possible services for the lowest possible cost, continue to support a public utility system that removes politics from the process.
Someday we will succeed in electing a city council that is responsible to the citizens that elect it rather than a professional staff who mostly don't live here who have decided that shoreline needs to be redeveloped, code for tear down everything here and replace it. The train station plans are the latest farce.
In the meantime, we will continue to pay taxes to pay for bad judgments.