City Administrator report to Lake Forest Park Mayor and Council - Jan 14

City Administrator Report City of Lake Forest Park 

By Pete Rose, City Administrator

I. Intergovernmental and local issues update 

• Meetings 

Sound Cities Association – Manager and Administrator Group: The City Administrator and Public Works Director attended this meeting. A member of the AWC legislative staff briefed the group on the “tea leaves” for the upcoming state legislative session. We were cautioned not to expect many big things. The legislature is likely to spend significant effort developing a plan to give the Supreme Court on school funding. We were told that the situation of the State Auditor’s personal legal case is likely to be a distraction from legislative business. No approach to I-1366 has emerged, the 2/3 majority constitutional amendment at risk of 1% state sales tax. Specific legislation is expected in liquor tax, police body cameras and public records. As regards to public records, there was discussion of the Tim Clemans request for all records of all types from nearly all King County (and some Pierce County) local governments. Mr. Clemans was reported to have reviewed boxes of documents at a few cities. LFP has not met with the requester to date.

II. Internal City Information

• Interdepartmental Work Plan: The Leadership Team held its annual retreat and work planning session on January 7. Staff will attempt to have the product of this session drafted and submitted in time to inform the Council strategic planning retreat. 

III. Council Information 

Multi-Council Joint Meeting in Kenmore: This meeting is January 12. In addition to information and discussion, two ST Board members will address the group and ST planning staff will explain the projects that affect our corridor. If you get on the Kenmore web site and look at the agenda, there are live links to the projects. These projects could be as close to a mass transit infrastructure “home run” as LFP could ever have.

A key part of this meeting is for the Councils to cement the effort to work together as a coalition and to express solidarity in support of the projects. It is important to understand that the candidate project list is very unlikely to expand and, in order to develop a final list to be put before the voters, will be likely to be reduced. The point of this effort is to hold on to all of the projects and project elements on the list. Remember that it is the Sound Transit Board that is in the “driver’s seat” on this and efforts to micromanage, quibble or disagree are quite likely to backfire.

South Central Action Area Caucus Group (SCAAG) – Aaron Halverson, Environmental Programs Manager

The City’s Environmental Programs Manager, Aaron Halverson, has been appointed to SCAAG for one year through December 31, 2016. Halverson will attend monthly meetings on behalf of all 36 members of the Sound Cities Association. Halverson will provide regular updates in City Administrator Reports of SCAAG discussions.

SCAAG is a Local Integrating Organization for Puget Sound Recovery and was officially recognized by the Puget Sound Partnership’s Leadership Council in 2010. The South Central Action Area is located in the Central Puget Sound region and is responsible for integrating efforts to advance the Action Agenda of the Puget Sound Partnership. The South Central Action Area is one of several local governments, tribes, non-profit organizations, watershed, marine resource, and salmon recovery groups, interest groups, businesses, educational organizations, and citizens are collaborating to develop and coordinate local integrating organizations that foster implementation of Action Agenda priorities.

The local integrating organizations enable communities to guide the implementation of Action Agenda priorities at an ecosystem scale, and to prioritize local actions for investment. 

IV. Response to Citizen and Council Comments 

Staff has not planned to respond to the several comments made at the veto reconsideration unless so directed by Council. These were similar to comments that would be made at a public hearing. 

Contact has been made with the group LFP for Green Space and Frank Zenk has been assigned as administrative liaison to this group.

V. Community Events 

The Police Department partnered with the Shoreline Police Department on the shop-with-a-cop program in December. The LFP Rotary provided the bulk of the funding, and the Police Employees Guild kicked in funds to make this program an unbelievable success. There were 12 families that received assistance. The children were chosen from Brookside and LFP Elementary Schools, where they were nominated by the Principals.