Shoreline City Manager update for week of 1-11-2016

City Manager Update for week of 1/11/16

Council Meetings

January 11

·         Dinner Meeting: Council Operations.

·         Regular Meeting:

o   Proclamation Declaring January 18, 2016 as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the City of Shoreline: Shoreline Youth Ambassadors from the Youth and Teen Development Program received the proclamation.

o   Motion to Authorize the City Manager to Execute a Contract with Consolidated Press for the Printing and Mailing of the Currents Newsletter: On November 16, 2015, the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for printing and mailing services for the Currents Newsletter. As a result of this RFP, the City selected Consolidated Press as the preferred service provider.

o   Authorize the City Manager to Enter into a Contract with Perteet, Inc. for On-Call Construction Management and Inspection Services in an Amount Not to Exceed $150,000 for 2016: Council authorized the City Manager to execute a contract with Perteet, Inc. to provide on-call construction management and inspection services in 2016 to support the City's capital program and right of way inspections.

o   Authorize the City Manager to enter into a Contract with Berry Dunn McNeil & Parker, LLC in the Amount of $69,400 for Financial and Human Resources Software Requirements Development and Vendor Selection Support: The City’s current financial system is aging. It is currently built on legacy technology, and vendor response to system issues has been slow. With the forthcoming need to provide utility billing for the City’s wastewater utility and the need to integrate other City software systems (recreation, permit, and asset management) to our financial system, it is necessary to either upgrade our current system or migrate to a new one. This project will guide the City through system requirements and vendor selection for this process.

o   Discussion of Ronald Wastewater District Assumption Transition Plan: The discussion covered the culmination of the Committee of Elected Official’s work – the Draft Assumption Transition Plan. The Draft Assumption Transition Plan is the final work product of the CEO and combines all of the issue papers previously reviewed by the Council and the Ronald Wastewater District Board. The Draft Plan is scheduled to be brought back to Council for adoption on March 14, 2016.

o   Discussion of Transportation Impact Fee Amendment for Certain Businesses: On July 21, 2014, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 690, establishing a transportation impact fee (TIF) program for the City of Shoreline. The purpose of the TIF is to assess a fee for the impacts of new development (residential and non-residential) on the City’s transportation system and those fees are used to pay a portion of six future “growth” projects that will be required in order to meet the City’s transportation concurrency requirements. This program became effective January 1, 2015. Council discussed options ranging from the status quo to deferral or exemption for certain businesses.

Important Meetings

·         Representatives Ryu and Kagi: Intergovernmental Programs Manager Scott MacColl and I met with Representative Ryu on January 6 and Representative Kagi on January 7 to share the City’s adopted 2016 Legislative Priorities. Representative Ryu has been appointed the chair of the House Community Development, Housing and Tribal Affairs Committee, which also oversees efforts to help veterans and boost tourism in Washington State. Representative Ryu plans to co-sponsor a bill to support preservation property tax exemption for existing housing as affordable housing (50% AMI or lower). Representative Kagi was also interested in discussing how the City of Shoreline can be a partner in addressing homelessness. Representative Kagi will continue to sponsor legislation to address children’s issues. We were able to discuss with both issues related to the Public Records Act and the resource commitment required by the City to address extensive requests.

Parks Community Survey

ETC Institute has mailed out the parks community survey to approximately 2,500 Shoreline residents this week. Information from the survey will be used to help kick-off the update to the City’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan. The mailing includes a postage paid return envelope. People receiving the survey are also provided instructions on how take it on-line if they so choose. In about three weeks the consultants will begin making follow-up calls to achieve the desired response rate of at least 500 random surveys.

Planning Commission Applicants

The City received 18 applications, including three applications from current commissioners whose terms are expiring, for the four appointments.

Revenue Report - November 2015

Revenue Report for November 2015. Highlights include:

·         Sales tax receipts from September 2015 activity were slightly lower than the revised projection (-0.1%) but higher than the year-ago level by 3.5%. Total receipts for the year are up from the revised projection and year-ago level 3.0% and 3.6%, respectively.

·         Receipts from the Retail Trade Sector for the year are up from the revised projection and year-ago level by 0.8% and 7.3%, respectively. In August, staff contacted the Department of Revenue to investigate the possible miscoding of some tax returns since September 2014. Staff worked with the DOR to investigate and correct this issue; however, due to the limitation on how many prior months can be recaptured, the Miscellaneous Store Retailers category will appear to be lower than the year-ago level.

·         Receipts from the Construction Sector for the year, excluding one-time activity, are higher than the revised projection and year-ago level by 12.6% and 7.0%, respectively. Large one-time projects generated less sales tax this year than they did in prior years. This reflects an increased level of ongoing construction activity within the city.

·         Gambling Revenue - this month’s edition includes a discussion of the gambling revenue received and gambling activity trends for the first through third quarters.

·         Real Estate Excise Tax - for REET, there have been more transactions that occurred through November 2015 as compared to the same period in 2014. REET collections through November are ahead of the budget projection (+51.8%), the revised projection (+16.3%), and the year-ago level (+52.0%). There have been 46 transactions greater than $1.0 million in 2015, as compared to 26 in the same period of 2014. Netting out the value of those transactions reveals a value that is 51.7% higher. It is also interesting to note that the average transaction value year-to-date, excluding sales with a transaction value greater than $1.0 million, was 11.9% higher in 2015 than 2014 at $431,249 and $385,426, respectively.

·         Permit revenue through November 2015 is ahead of the projection and year-ago level by 35.6% and 5.2%, respectively. The number of permits issued in 2015 is 1.5% lower than the year-ago level, but the number of building permits issued and plan checks has increased 2.5%. Local development activity in 2015, in terms of the valuation, is higher than the year-ago level while the number of permits pulled is the same.

Solid Waste Request for Proposals

We received proposals from Waste Management, Republic, and Recology/CleanScapes in response to our Request for Proposals for our solid waste contract. Staff has started the evaluation process. We received a public records request from Waste Management for copies of all of the proposals and, as such, the City will be providing copies to all three of the firms that submitted proposals. The current timeline has the Council awarding the contract in April.

This and That

·         Small Business Quick Start Program/Shoreline Community College Partnership: Economic Development Manager Dan Eernissee has been following up with the Shoreline Community College on the future of this program with the recent passing of Mark McVeety. I anticipate the college will have someone to take over the program soon. However, we will suspend the program for the months of January and February in order to give all parties a chance to put all the necessary pieces in place.

·         Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Strategic Plan Progress Report