Notes from Shoreline City Council meeting 09-17-2018

Shoreline City Council

By Pamela Cross

The September 17th Council meeting began with Mayor Will Hall declaring September 22, 2018 as “Mayor’s Day of Concern for the Hungry. ” 

One in four people in Shoreline suffer from food insecurity. This proclamation recognizes Shoreline residents’ continued support of Hopelink and other nonprofits providing food assistance.

The court calendar noted this is Welcoming Week for all new residents with several scheduled activities. Details are available on the City’s webpage.

The Mayor reported that at the recent meeting of the Association of Washington Cities, Eastern Washington cities have acknowledged that homelessness is not limited to Western Washington. This should be helpful in working with the State to develop ways to address this problem.

The Agenda and Consent Calendars were approved unanimously. There were no public comments.

The study item was the preliminary financial report for 2019-2020. Staff provided the estimates based on historical numbers and other guidelines. Staff advised that questions from Council will be added to a matrix for study and adjustment to the preliminary figures. There will be multiple staff and public council meetings continuing the conversation until the projected November 19, 2018 planned acceptance date.

The questions from Councilmembers included:

• Why has the funding of the Aurora median retrofit been removed?

This funding was to replace narrow areas of the median with concrete to make it easier for the subcontractor to maintain. The City has decided to do the maintenance itself rather than subcontract it, and will monitor the ability to keep the current configuration rather than replace areas with concrete. The funding for maintenance is already in the budget.

• Why is the addition of another police officer not scheduled until 2020? We are below our target of 1 officer per 1,000 citizens. Is this target realistic, or just used as a comparison to other cities? Is an additional officer needed, or is there another reason for (complaints about) slow police response time and other police issues?
• What is the reason for the (new Green City) contract with Forterra? What are they adding to services already provided by others?
• Part of the money from the general fund goes to road and sidewalk maintenance. Why is this amount being reduced by half? This represents less than 2% of the money in City Reserves. Is the expense for updated aerial photos of the City necessary when they are available on the internet for no charge? The City needs to balance the needs for the infrastructure as well as human resources, affordable housing and drug addiction which are also financed through the general fund.
• The School District wants another school resource officer. This shared cost will be discussed between the City and the School District at a 10/8 dinner meeting.

With all questions added to the Matrix, the Council meeting was concluded and Councilmembers stayed for an Executive Session.