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.
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