Notes from council meeting February 14, 2022

Pam Cross, reporter

Shoreline City Council Meeting

February 14, 2022

Notes by Pam Cross

The remote meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Mayor Scully. Councilmember Ramsdell was excused for personal reasons.

The agenda was approved by unanimous consent.

Report of the City Manager, Debbie Tarry

COVID-19 Update

The trend of new COVID-19 infections continues to go in the downward direction. However cases currently remain at a higher point than in previous waves.

Please continue to follow the above public safety guidelines until Governor Inslee’s changes go into effect.

At this time people visiting any city facility are still required to wear face coverings while in the facility.

ShoreLake Arts Lantern Festival

We had a great and enthusiastic crowd celebrating Lunar New Year on Feb 12, with a Lion Dance and Kung Fu performances at Monka Brewing and Uplift Climbing. We are wishing everyone happiness, health and prosperity in the Year of the Tiger.

Proposition 1 Update

Nearly 70% of the voters in Shoreline approved Prop 1 for park improvements and park land acquisition. There will be opportunities for public input on final designs in the coming months.
Shorelinewa.gov/prop1

CityWise Applications due Friday Feb 18

There will be 9 informational sessions that will be held virtually this year. Learn who is eligible and apply at: Shorelinewa.gov/citywise

Black History Month

Public Reminders

The Planning Commission will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday, Feb 17 at 7:00PM to discuss the Transportation Master Plan Update: auto level of service approach.

The PRCS/Tree Board will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday, Feb 24 at 7:00PM for the Director’s Report.

In recognition of President’s Day on Monday, Feb 21:

• City Hall will be closed
• Spartan Recreation Center will be open on their regular schedule.
• There will be no City Council Meeting. The next meeting will be Feb 28.

Council Reports

Deputy Mayor Robertson attended the meeting of the North King County Coalition on Homelessness (NKCCH) and provided a brief update:

• During January, six individuals moved to permanent housing from The Oaks enhanced shelter. The shelter remains at capacity with a wait list of 30-40 individuals.
• Emergency housing vouchers were allocated to King County as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) but housing is not available in order to fully utilize them.

Councilmember McConnell met with the Domestic Violence Initiative for the first time this year:
Progress in preventing domestic violence is very slow and it got worse during the pandemic. I have been involved in this for decades and know it can take years or even to address because jurisdictions are not coordinated in their. But we now have a regional approach to laws and how to conduct the cases through the system. I was surprised and saddened by the number of firearms in these homes which increases the danger astronomically. We want to get firearms out of these homes but you often have to have the victim’s cooperation to admit there is a firearm in the house. They are also now keeping track of strangulations because they are predominately a product of domestic violence. As a community we have to help these victims who are living in fear.

Mayor Scully went to Olympia for the AWC’s (Association of Washington Cities) Mayors Conference.
I was also fortunate to be able to testify in favor of the State Spending Bill, on the Senate side. I have very good news: Our staff, due to years of effort, have managed to get money into the Senate side of the budget (still have to get the House) that will go a significant way to funding the 148th Street Non-Motorized Bridge. Current appropriation would be about $7M. We need a total of $19M but staff has identified a variety of other sources.

Public Comment

Jacke Kurle, Shoreline
Thanks for the recent report on The Oaks Shelter in Currents, and today’s update about the six residents who have found permanent housing. I look forward to regular updates.

The Consent Calendar was approved unanimously 6-0.

8(a) Discussion of Ordinance No. 954 – Amending the 2021-2022 Biennial Budget

• Presentation by Rick Kirkwood, Budget and Tax Manager

It was a very brief presentation referring to the staff report and its attachments for the details.

The City Council approved Ordinance No. 922, which allocated a portion of the 2020 unobligated ending fund balance towards expenditures carried over from the 2019-2020 biennial budget, Ordinance No. 923 for other budget amendments, and Ordinance No. 945 for the mid-biennial budge modifications.

This is an opportunity for the Council to review proposed Ordinance No. 954 and ask specific questions and provide staff direction. If the Council does not have any concerns, staff will immediately commence recruitment to fill the positions impacted by this amendment and schedule action on proposed Ordinance No. 954 on February 28, 2022.

• NOTE: This was the end of the report. The following has been taken from the staff report:

Information Technology Reorganization: The current job market for technology positions is challenging and the City has been unsuccessful in recruiting for a critical higher level Information Technology (IT) position to support critical enterprise software. Additionally, staff have been unable to identify qualified consultants to assist in this effort. To address this challenge and workload demands in the short term, the City Manager is proposing a reorganization of existing IT positions that support critical enterprise applications.

• NOTE: those positions include a Parks, Fleet and Facilities manager which is critical now that Prop 1 has passed.

Plans Examiner III: The City has maintained only two full time commercial building plans examiner positions since the year 2000. Since that time, projects and the associated construction codes have grown in both volume and complexity. Developer assemblage activity has recently accelerated and pre-application appointments are increasingly representative of large new multifamily projects. Compared to the City of Seattle, where permitting can take years, the accessibility and timeliness of Shoreline’s entitlement process has historically been a selling point. Ensuring adequate staffing to review permit applications in a timely fashion could be a meaningful stimulus in and of itself, while also quickening the pace of added housing to a regional supply that has been at crisis levels for many years.

Discussion

Pleased to see we have added a Full Time Facilitator for Parks.

This might seem like a quick look at this but it is actually a culmination of numerous meetings over a long time.

Ordinance No. 954 will come back Feb 28 on the Consent Calendar.

MEETING ADJOURNED