Shoreline City Manager update for week of 1-12-2015

Weekly Update for Week of 1/12/15

From Debbie Tarry, Shoreline City Manager

January 12 Council Meeting

·         Dinner Meeting

o   Executive Session - Litigation

o   Council Operations – Council discussed their retreat, to be held February 27/28 and their Council rules.

·         Regular Meeting:

o   Proclamation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day – The Teen Ambasadors did an amazing job, along with Waldo.  Their thoughtful preparation allowed them to share some great perspective on how they have been inspired by the actions of Martin Luther King Jr.

o   Discussion of City Street Regulatory Options (including tolling under the Transportation Benefit District authority).  Council discussed the authority the City has to regulate traffic on public streets.  As a whole the City Council believed that tolling may be a tool to help generate revenue and influence traffic control in specific situations, such as the proposed Point Wells development.  The majority of the Council thought it pre-mature to move tolling forward as an item for the Shoreline Transportation Benefit District to consider putting on the ballot for voter consideration in 2015.  City staff will be following up on specific questions that were asked by the City Council regarding the tolling process.

January 19 – No Council meeting as it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and a City holiday.

Light Rail

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the 185^th Light Rail Station Subarea Plan this Thursday, January 15 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Agenda Planner Items

·         February 2 – Approval of consultant contract to complete the compensation and classification study. Staff will interview two vendors this week.

·         February 23 – The Regular Meeting will start at 6:30 p.m.

Saltwater Park Bridge Project Update

Staff held a preconstruction meeting on Thursday with BSNF Railroad representatives and the contractor, MJ Hughes. The tentative construction schedule is to close the bridge Tuesday, January 20 and have it remain closed through the beginning of April. However, there are a number of factors outside our and the contractor's control that could extend that timeline.

Railroad regulations require flaggers to be located at the construction site during construction to ensure safety. Unfortunately, natural landslide disasters and other delayed projects in the same railroad segment are limiting the amount of available flagger staff to devote towards our project. (Only two flagger groups can be used on the same railroad segment at any given time.) BNSF Representatives said they could pull Flagger staff from these projects a day here or a day there – but not for a larger block of time until March.

Staff will be working closely with the contractor to see what construction activities are directly above the critical area of the railroad tracks that require the use of BNSF flagger staff. Once this is determined, the contractor can modify the construction sequence within the existing schedule to complete as much work of the contract first before a BNSF Flagger is needed. Hopefully, the contractor will be able to build from both ends and save the middle part directly over the tracks for March when flaggers are available. This is all to say that there may be some periods when the bridge will remain closed, but no work will be done as the contractor waits for BNSF's flaggers. We do not control the railroad’s schedule. And, to the extent that we have had natural landslides recently, the railroad doesn't have much control over its schedule either.

Seahawk 12^th Man Flag Raising

We had quite a few community members show for the flag raising last Friday (you probably saw the photos in SAN). We are planning another flag raising for Friday, January 16 at 12:12 p.m. at City Hall to celebrate the Seahawks NFC Championship game to be held January 18. Malmo Apartments will be providing light refreshments and James McCrackin, the City’s Employee of the Year will do the honors of raising the flag.

Solid Waste Contract Procurement Process

Last Thursday, staff met with the consultant for our solid waste contract procurement process to work through a proposed timeline and process for awarding a contract for services to start March 1, 2017. In the discussion, cities have used two primary methods, a Request for Proposal (RFP), which allows the maximum flexibility on selection and negotiations prior to the award of a contract, or a Request for Bid (RFB), which bases the award strictly on price. I believe that the RFP process will give the City the opportunity to bring forward the best contract for the City Council’s consideration. In our discussion with the consultant, he recommended requesting a “mandatory collection” option in the proposals and have vendors identify any rate differential that could occur. This will provide staff with quantitative data to use in analyzing any consideration of a mandatory collection recommendation in the future. The draft timeline would have the RFP going out to vendors in October 2015 with proposals due by the end of the year. Award of the contract would occur in March 2016.

2015 Legislative Session

Senator Chase is sponsoring a bill regarding assumptions of water and sewer utility districts – making the action subject to a referendum vote. The bill is anticipated to get a hearing in the next couple of weeks.

Potala Development Project

Staff has determined that the Potala developer, which has submitted a completed application to build 300+ units on the Westminster (Denny) Triangle, adequately notified the neighborhood of their development application. Regardless, City staff is working with the Westminster neighborhood leadership to schedule a neighborhood meeting to discuss the proposed developments and inviting the developer to participate in the neighborhood meeting.

Calendar Items

1/19 – Park Board Tree Planting, 1 p.m., Paramount School Park

1/22 – Committee of Elected Officials for Ronald Assumption, 9 a.m., City Hall

1/26 – Retirement Reception for Parks Director Dick Deal @ 5:45 p.m.

1/29 - Next City Hall Art Gallery Opening

2/3-2/5 – Lobby Trip to Washington DC

This and That

·         Last week the City held its first out of custody arraignment calendar where we had a Shoreline public defender present representing defendants at the calendar. This is the enhanced level of service that is being provided. It appears that this change in service is going well.

·         The second series of "Nurturing Trust – with Family, with Community" workshops offered by the Shoreline Police will begin in February. The workshops held last fall were in Spanish. This set of workshops will be in English. We hope to have another Spanish workshop series later this spring.