Shoreline City Manager's report

Update for Week of 10/27/14

from Debbie Tarry, Shoreline City Manager

Council Meeting Follow-Up

·         Updated 2015 Budget Question Matrix

October 27 Council Meeting

Dinner Meeting

·         Joint Meeting with the Shoreline School District Board of Directors:  The City Council and School Board members had a productive conversation on the importance of partnership between the two organizations as both are key in continuing to make Shoreline a great community.

Regular Meeting

·         Interlocal Agreement with the City of Bellevue for Pooled Funding for Human Services: The Interlocal Agreement updates the pooled funding arrangement between a number of cities and provides for the administrative fee for Bellevue to continue administering the pool.

·         Ronald Wastewater District Assumption Committee of Elected Officials Update: This was an opportunity to update the full Council on the work of the Ronald Wastewater District Transition Committee of Elected Officials.

·         2015 Budget: Discussion focused on Public Works and the Capital Improvement Program.

·         Executive Session – Property Acquisition

November 3 Council Meeting

Dinner Meeting (5:45 p.m.)

·         All of the 32^nd District Delegation will be in attendance. This will be an opportunity to hear from the legislators about the State budget, the anticipated issues to be addressed during the legislative session, and to discuss the City’s legislative priorities.

Transportation Benefit District (7:00 p.m.)

·         The agenda includes approval of expenses and approval of the 2015 TBD budget.

Regular Meeting (7:15 p.m.)

·         Proclamation of America Recycles Day: Students and teachers from Syre Elementary School and Parkwood Elementary School will be accepting the Proclamation. In 2013, the Syre Green Team motivated students and teachers to complete the Level 1 Waste Reduction and Recycling goals of the King County Green Schools Program, and actively maintained their Level 1 work in 2014. This year, Parkwood Elementary School completed Level 1 and received the Level 1 award and banner as a King County Green School. After the Proclamation presentation, Recology CleanScapes (RCS) will award $5,000 to each school for excelling in the RCS Waste Reduction and Recycling Program.

·         Adoption of 2015 Legislative Priorities: Council had a preliminary discussion about the City’s 2015 Legislative Priorities at their October 13^th Dinner Meeting. Based on the feedback during the Dinner Meeting, staff will present the recommended legislative priorities for adoption.

·         Adoption of Resolution No. 365, Public Defense Standards: Adoption of Resolution No. 365 will adopt the Washington State Bar Association’s Standards for Indigent Defense Services. The standards include a number of provisions focused on ensuring high-quality public defense, including:

·         Annual caseload limits

·         Use of investigative services

·         Adequate support services and personnel to ensure effective performance

·         Maintaining a case-reporting and management information system

·         Continuing legal education and training requirements for attorneys

·         2015 Budget Public Hearing: This will be the first Public Hearing on the proposed budget. Staff will also provide a presentation on interfund transfers and the debt service funds.

·         Discussion of Sound Cities Association (SCA) 2015 Budget and the City’s Membership: Staff was requested by Council to review the City's membership in the Sound Cities Association (SCA) and their proposed increase in dues for 2015. The SCA Board recently voted to propose a membership increase to the 2009 rate of $0.5989 per capita. That equates to an increase of $2,290.15 over Shoreline's 2014 dues of $30,044. For 2015, the proposed SCA dues would be $32,335. SCA represents 36 cities within King County, which equals nearly 1 million people. Along with acting as an advocate for cities at the regional level, SCA appoints members to regional committees at King County, the Puget Sound Regional Council, and other regional committees.

Ronald Wastewater District Assumption

The City and Ronald Wastewater District received responses to their appeals to the Snohomish County Boundary Review Board.

O’Neill Case

The O’Neills’ filed their answer to the Supreme Court Petition for Review filed by the City. The City may only file a reply to the Answer if the O’Neills are seeking review of an issue not raised in the City’s review request. Interim City Attorney Julie Ainsworth-Taylor did not see that they raised any new issue, they are just countering the City’s arguments that the award of attorney fees was appropriate. We have yet to hear from the court on their review of the most recent request for fees (we have argued that they should be reduced).

September Sales Tax, Real Estate Excise Tax and Development Revenue

Highlights include:

·         Sales Tax: Total sales tax receipts for the month of September 2014 are higher than the projections by $43,177, or 6.3%, and the year-ago level by $27,730 or 4.0%. Year-to-date receipts are higher than projections by $213,667, or 4.5%, and the year-ago level by $92,212, or 1.9%. Removing one-time construction activity from the calculation reveals that 2014 receipts are higher than projections by 2.1% and the year-ago level by 8.5%.

·         Real Estate Excise Tax (REET): Total REET collections (collected from the sale of real estate) through September 2014 totaling $1,364,151 are ahead of projections by $9,351, or 0.7%. Total collections for 2014 are ahead of 2013 collections for the same period by 12.1% or $147,523. September and June collections were the only months in 2014 to be lower than 2013 monthly collections. Historically, this seems to be the trend as both 2013 and 2012 saw a large drop in transactions between August and September. The September 2014 transaction amount is six less than September 2013; however, it is 29 more transactions than September 2012.

·         Development Revenue: Permit revenue in September 2014 totaled $148,348. Total revenue to date is $1,018,638, which is 56.4% ahead of projections and 16.2% ahead of year-ago levels. Issued building permits came in at $6.1 million valuation for September, comprised 48% of residential and 52% of commercial/multi-family valuation. A permit for the Evergreen School Cedar Building was issued with $2.8 million valuation.

Meetings & Contacts

·         Mayor/Representative Farrell: On Monday, October 20, Mayor Winstead, Intergovernmental Relations Manager Scott MacColl, and State Representative Farrell (46^th District) met to discuss the City's 145th Street Project and approaches for a bike/pedestrian facility across I-5 to connect to the future Light Rail Station. The Mayor shared the City's work on Light Rail station area planning, Route Development Plan for 145th, and the need for the pedestrian facility. She reviewed the tour and presentation we provided elected leaders and staff in late August, and that Council is supportive with the project moving forward. Rep. Farrell discussed her goal to have WSDOT develop an I-5 plan that includes planning for light rail as part of the budget, which could be beneficial to Shoreline. She is very supportive of the project and understands the need to provide safe passage for bicycles and pedestrians to the future station. She is interested in continuing the dialogue with us as we move forward, and encouraged the City to continue to work with our 32^nd District delegation to move the project forward.

·         Tour of Fircrest Facilities: Last week I joined a few members from the Ridgecrest Neighborhood, along with representatives from Fircrest and former Councilmember Janet Way on a tour of the gym and pool at Fircrest. Some neighborhood representatives are encouraging groups to come together to reopen the Fircrest pool. A cost estimate of repairs and operating costs of the pool was provided.  This estimate would need additional analysis prior to any consideration for reopening and operating the pool.

Calendar Items

·         October 28, King County Youth Action Plan, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. The City and County Councilmember Rod Dembowski jointly sponsored this event to gather input from Shoreline and North King County youth, parents, and others that work with youth on development of the County's Youth Action Plan. We had a great turnout.

This and That

·         Staff participated in our annual Emergency Operations Center Exercise on Wednesday, October 29. Sadly the scenario was a school shooting incident.