Notes from Shoreline council meeting November 2, 2020

Pam Cross, Reporter

Shoreline City Council Meeting

November 2, 2020

Notes by Pam Cross

The meeting was held remotely using the Zoom platform.

Mayor Hall called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.

Councilmember Chang was excused for personal reasons.

Proclamation Recognizing Native American Heritage Month

WHEREAS, Native American Heritage Month is recognized annually to honor Indigenous cultures, histories, traditions, art, and achievements; and

WHEREAS, in the face of broken treaties, violent displacement, and genocide, Native Americans have persevered and continued with remarkable strength, resistance, resilience, and self-determination; and

WHEREAS, Native Americans, including local Duwamish, Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Suquamish, Tulalip, and many others have been protectors and stewards of our natural resources and environment since time immemorial; and

WHEREAS, the City of Shoreline values the many contributions made to society by Native people in technology, science, philosophy, the arts; and especially our local Indigenous volunteers and leaders; and

WHEREAS, the City of Shoreline recognizes that we must work to combat the impacts of discrimination and racist policies on Native people, past and present, and eliminate inequities stemming from colonization; and

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Will Hall, Mayor of the City of Shoreline, on behalf of the Shoreline City Council, recognize that November is

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

And encourage all residents to learn more and support the work of Native people and organizations.


Report of the City Manager, Debbi Tarry

COVID-19 Update

Case counts in King County are still high. The average over the past 14 days was 105 new cases per 100,000 residents. The target is 25. Over 75 is considered high risk for in-person schools.

In Shoreline we’ve had 55 new cases and 3 deaths in the last two weeks. So even though we’re getting tired of this, please continue to take prevention measures seriously. It’s not too late to make a difference.

As a reminder, our playgrounds are technically closed and should not be used. There should be no games going on for soccer and there should be no spectators on the sidelines.

Wear a face covering, especially indoors in public settings regardless of the distance between people. Remember the guidance is "wear a mask AND maintain at least six feet of distance from others." Limit the number of people you are with, and the time you are with them. Avoid large gatherings. Do what you can to improve indoor ventilation by opening windows as much as you can. More fresh air means lower risk of infection. Wash hands frequently and clean surfaces often.

Get tested at the first sign of illness.

More information available at shorelinewa.gov/covid

145th Interchange Online Open House

Learn about the current challenges at the 145th and I-5 interchange and our plans to address those challenges. Share what’s important to you and provide your comments October 26 through November 20. Go to 145thInterchange.infocommunity.org

If you are unable to participate in the open house event, email Bob Earl, Shoreline Engineering Manager at bearl@shorelinewa.gov before November 20 to discuss the project, request mailed or emailed drawings and/or request a copy of the online open house.

For more information: shorelinewa.gov/145interchange

Recycling Workshop

Learn What Goes Where on Thursday November 5. 6:60-7:30pm online via Zoom. Become a recycling expert! Get tips and tricks to make recycling less confusing, easier and faster. More information is available at shorelinewa.gov/calendar

Public Reminders

The Planning Commission will meet on Thursday November 5 at 7:00pm via Zoom.

They will be discussing a Housing Choices Project to expand the types of housing in Shoreline by exploring the “missing middle” suite of options including cottages, tiny houses, vacation rentals and accessory dwelling units.

Council Reports

Mayor Hall: The Puget Sound Regional Council had its General Assembly. It was well attended by representatives of King, Snohomish, Kitsap, Pierce Counties and the cities within them, along with the Ports and several Tribes. After good vigorous debate they adopted Vision 2050. One amendment that we and other cities opposed but passed anyway was the one allowing more growth in rural areas.

Go to the website for a copy of Vision 2050: psrc.org

Public Comment

Comments for the Public Hearings (Biennial Budget) will be heard under Action Items 8(a) and 8(b)

Derek Creisler, Shoreline: Thanked Council for funding the environmental mini grant program. Diggin' Shoreline used it to arrange for goats to clear off the area by the Interurban Trail where it crosses 192nd street. This might make a good location for another park. 

Speakers expressed their opinions about issues that they felt weren’t addressed by the enhanced shelter decision:

• Nancy Morris, Shoreline
• Jacqueline Kurle, Shoreline
• Margaret Willson, Shoreline
• Ed Jirsa, Shoreline
• Diane Pfeil, Shoreline

Approval of the Agenda adopted by unanimous consent.

The Consent Calendar adopted unanimously by roll call vote. 6-0

Action Items

8(a) Public Hearing on the 2021-2022 Proposed Biennial Budget with Special Emphasis on 2021 Regular and Excess Property Tax Levies, to be Set by Ordinance No. 902, and Other Revenues

Staff report was presented by Sara Lane, Administrative Services Director

The Biennial Budget is available online at the City’s website shorelinewa.gov

• Click on Budget and CIP Policies under the Government Plan
• Budget Books on CD available for purchase at City Hall

The City of Shoreline Proposition 1, which was approved by voters in 2016, allows the City to increase its property tax levy annually by the June-to-June percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue Area (CPI-U). When this is applied for 2021, it results in an increase of 0.87%. Since inflation is less than 1.0%, staff recommends a resolution of “substantial need” allowing it to increase the levy up to the full one percent (1.0%) as allowed by statute.

Public Hearing opened

Public testimony: None

Hearing closed

DISCUSSION

In order to maintain basic services, even if that meant increasing property taxes by inflation instead of just 1%, our community enthusiastically voted in favor of the 2016 Proposition 1.

In order to maintain the same level of basic services, we need to have staff draft a resolution of “substantial need” allowing us to increase the levy up to the full one percent (1.0%) as allowed by state statute. It’s a better approach than using part of our reserves since we have this option available to us.

No vote is scheduled for tonight. Council agrees to have staff bring the resolution forward.

8(b) Public Hearing on Ordinance No. 903 - 2021-2022 Proposed Biennial Budget and the 2021-2026 Capital Improvement Plan

Staff report by Sara Lane, Administrative Services Director

Public Works presentation by Randy Witt, Public Works Director

There have been areas of continuous improvement in processes and equipment.

Public works provides a variety of services: road surface maintenance, right-of-way maintenance, grounds maintenance (newly added), wastewater (newly added), surface water, emergency response, asset inventory and management, and special events. They will now be responsible for durable pavement marking maintenance (crosswalks, turn arrows etc). This is expected to save the City $90k biennially and will eliminate the problems they have had contracting out this service. The one-time costs for equipment is estimated at $40.5k.

Surface Water Utility one-time budget changes

Early replacement of existing street sweeper

Vactor truck

Surface water rental and operation of down-fleeted wastewater vactor to clean sewer lines 

Wastewater Water Utility one-time supplemental budget changes

Sewer line rapid assessment tool

Data reconciliation of Ronald Sewer District records with the City's Sewer Line - Rapid Assessment Tool (SL-RAT), a portable onsite assessment tool that provides a sewer line blockage assessment in less than 3 minutes.

Capital Improvement Program presented by Tricia Juhnke, City Engineer

Several projects were quickly presented in Powerpoint.

Public Hearing opened

Public testimony: None

Hearing closed

DISCUSSION

I-976 funds (Transportation Benefit District Funds). How do we budget and allocate those funds? The City continued to collect them while they were being challenged in court.

Reply: We don’t need to amend the budget to collect the funds, but only when we use them. The program is budgeted, so it would be a choice of how you would want to appropriate those funds for transportation purposes.

Staff was asked by Councilmember Roberts to obtain the cost of 160’ of sidewalk on 200th from 25th Ave.NE along the Aldercrest Campus.

How were the Vehicle License Fees (VLF) allocated?

Reply: They were allocated 50% to annual road surface maintenance and 50% to sidewalk rehabilitation. We have enough for 2021 and into 2022 from VLF funds that were already collected.

Staff is asked whether or not CM Roberts’ request would move the priorities around putting the 160’ on 200th first in line. Staff to look into it.

Shoreline contracts with the King County Sheriff’s office for police staffing. King County has a number of vacancies in the Sheriff’s department, and they essentially allocate some of those vacancies to us. So even though we budgeted for 53 (now 54) police officers, we routinely have 3 to 5 vacancies at any given time. As a result we try to fill in with overtime which has cost implications. Also, while struggling with minimum staffing we face inconsistent police response when we have two major events at the same time.

We are looking at supportive services for times when the police may not be the solution to a given instance, but even with that, we are targeting one police officer for every 1,000 people.

If we want our community to benefit from having 54 officers, maybe we should authorize 58 police officers. After the Sheriff’s office allocation of 4 or 5 vacancies, we would then end up with 53 or 54 on the street. The missing officers will be still be vacancies but we would no longer have to rely on overtime because we would have 53 or 54 officers on the street.

This will be proposed to Chief Ledford for his feedback. Staff will look into other options to get closer to our desired staffing given the current reality.

Our level of service is important. We don’t want to be like other cities who are paying more in overtime than in regular salaries. We have to be financially responsible in staffing police and mental health professionals.

Study Items

9(a) Discussing Ordinance No. 904 - Amending the 2019-2020 Biennial Budget (Ordinance Nos. 841, 852, 854, 855, 861, 872, 883, 886)

Sara Lane continues with this staff report

Details are available in the staff report.

No discussion

Ordinance 904 will return on Consent Calendar for November 16.


9(b) Discussing Park Improvements and Property Acquisition Priorities and Funding

Christina Arcidy from the City Manager’s office made the presentation

Should the City move forward with a ballot measure for the April 2021 Special Election?

There are three main considerations:

COVID-19 economic impacts. Early impacts were severe with an unknown trajectory for recovery. Now we have a better sense of the impact in Shoreline. Unemployment has stabilized (although it remains relatively high), general fund tax revenues are higher than projected and the REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) income is overall positive.

Other potential ballot measures as listed below (the Harborview Bond was approved by voters)

Approval and Validation requirements

A bond measure requires a 60% “yes” vote to pass, and at least 40% of number of votes cast in the previous general election need to be cast in the special or primary election. King County Elections anticipates 90% turnout for this November 2020 general election. This results in a high, but not impossible bar.

What is the overall bond measure cost?

What park improvements and park land acquisitions should be included in a bond measure?

The staff improvements and estimated costs are outlined in the staff report.

The favored plan: Alternative 1a (Staff Recommendation) - $38.5M

This would place a 20-year $38.5M bond measure on the April 2021 Special Election ballot. As noted above, this alternative includes in the ballot measure $19.2M for the four priority parks that were included in the 2019 Proposition; $5.3M for park amenity improvements at James Keough, Town Center, Ridgecrest, Shoreview parks and Kruckeberg Botanic Garden; $10M for park land acquisition; and $4.0M in improvements on newly acquired park land.

Staff recommends a bond measure of 20 years for $38.5M for the April 27 Special Election. Staff has looked at alternatives shown in the staff notes.

DISCUSSION

Enthusiastic response to proposed improvements to various parks and moving forward in April 2021 for $38.5M and 20 years.

What is the timing of the art installation at Park At Town Center?

Reply: The ground has been prepared so probably early spring.

Would like to see the park improvements to support the installation of the artwork.

Would like to see more money spent on James Keogh Park by shaving off some of the amenities at the other parks. There are concerns about spending too much on Keogh. It is right on the freeway and on a dead end road. Bad location. It will never be an active park no matter what investment is made. Perfect for a dog park. Hard to hear due to the I-5 traffic. Maybe Sound Transit can plant some of their trees in this park to act as a sound buffer. It would also help the neighborhood and make the park more attractive as drivers pass by on the freeway. Trees are a great visual buffer. But they aren’t a very effective noise barrier which is why WSDOT uses sound walls. Off leash dog park people will wear headphones. And there be part of it for a small park for kids.

We need to be concerned about validation. Hope staff will be able to get the actual number. We almost always meet it but not always, and it’s not free to run a ballot measure. There will be costs, and debates, and a lot of work for staff, committees pro and con. We don’t want to set up the vote only to not have it validated. Just pencilling it out, we have 40k registered voters in Shoreline so we would need 15k voters for validation. 15k voters would really put us close based on historical trends. We need to schedule the vote when most people will participate. Validation requirement will be there until next the general election in November 2021. If we don’t go in April 2021, then we would have to wait until April 2022. That would leave us with a year when no parks tax is collected. Then it wouldn’t be a renewal, but a new measure.

We have had community support for parks so don’t think saying this is a renewal or not is going to weigh heavily on most voters' minds. They will either want to invest in our parks or not. Safest way is wait until November.

We have until late November or early December, when we have the actual validation numbers, to discuss moving forward this April.

We need to prioritize the levy lid lift to make sure that it passes. It goes to maintenance of parks. If the levy lid lift doesn’t pass, we need to think about how would pay for park maintenance.

There was loss of some of the baseball fields. The Shoreline Little League had conversations with Eric Friedli who had made some assurances to the Little League that the second field in Richmond Highlands could be saved. This should be looked at as we move forward. We need to get an update to see what their current field needs are.

Trails along the creek in Boeing Creek Park are terrible. People going around them creating damage and erosion. Besides the damage to the park, this could be a liability issue.

Can’t see spending a lot on Rotary Park 910 NE 185th St. It won’t be used unless it has a lot of expansion.

Park acquisitions have to remain part of the conversation because those opportunities don’t often come up and the longer we wait the more it will cost.

Meeting adjourned.