okay technical issues resolved it sounds
like so oh technical issues resolved We
are continuing the September 28th
Committee of the whole meeting
um and I will once again just ask for
public comments and see if there is
anyone on the phone or online that are
interested in making comments clerk do
we have anyone indicating we have uh one
unidentified individual attending
virtually so call her if you'd like to
make public comments please press star 3
on your phone to indicate you'd like to
speak
please press star 3
if you'd like to make comments
at this time and I don't oh I do see a
hand raised
all right so phoning caller I am
unmuting you now
the
and I'm just tuning in because I'm
interested in the emergency housing
portion and I hope that this will
program will not be
extinguished thank you
thank you very much for your comments
and do we have anyone else signed up
we have no other members of the public
fantastic so as a reminder for anyone
listening written comments can always be
submitted at any time to city council at
issaquah.gov
so the next item on our agenda
is
id1183 the 2023-2024 budget overview and
funding priorities the overview is going
to be presented by Robert hamoud our
Chief Financial Officer and Susie
monsell our budget manager and then we
have funding priorities presented by
many of our senior staff
and
uh and I'm going to actually start with
a little bit of a preamble fantastic
take it away
good evening members of the council uh
thank you uh for being here this evening
uh we're very pleased to present to you
mayor Paulie's uh
2023-2024 budget and our purposes
tonight is the agenda indicates uh we
will talk a little bit about the
schedule and the upcoming events for the
the budget review by the city council uh
we'll then get into some of the
specifics on the general fund uh both
expenditures and revenues and then mayor
Paulie in preparing this year's budget
really wanted to focus on three priority
areas we want to spend a few minutes
this evening talking about those
priority areas as well as what we see
our future challenges in each of those
areas and so we'll have other chief of
police Paul Schwann uh make a
presentation regarding the the police
department's Budget on the Human
Services side Monica negrila and Jeff
Watling and then on infrastructure I'm
very pleased to introduce to the council
our new Public Works director Emily Moon
uh and Emily along with Deputy City
adminster writer Andrew Schneider will
be talking a little bit about
infrastructure we'll talk some more then
about Personnel additions and
adjustments other budget highlights and
then as we have done for the last couple
of years the administration is going to
put forward some specific policy
questions for the council's
consideration during your budget
deliberations and then talk a little bit
about next steps
next slide
so the budget schedule we're at the
second leg of that with the presentation
this evening uh at your regular council
meeting next week on October 3rd are the
various public hearings
required for the budget and we do those
twice so this will be the first of the
public hearings and then the various
ordinances are introduced for the first
time and again there's a introduction
and then a adoption at a later meeting
and then there will be on October 10th
another Committee of the whole with
budget deliberations another scheduled
Committee of the whole on October 17th
for Budget deliberations October 25th uh
schedule hopefully final budget
deliberations and then the final actions
to adopt the budget on November 7th next
slide
so to remind the council and to share
with the community with the Issaquah
strategic plan we have a series of steps
that were adopted to help the city uh
you know be as Mindful and thoughtful as
possible on how we operate how we budget
how we measure uh success and we are at
the bottom of that circle with the
budget discussions over the next several
weeks
and just to remind you of the process we
then begin the year with a work plan and
come back to the council in January with
that every other year so coming up in
2023 we will do a community survey and
also look more finely at performance
evaluations as I I know the council is
aware of that has been a evolving uh
process for us looking at performance
and I think when we talk with you in
January we're going to come up with a
schedule for this circle through the
2023 year we think it would probably be
it makes sense to add a separate Council
study session to talk specifically about
performance evaluation early in the year
so as we begin the budget process that
is informed with the looking at
performance early in the process again
2023 is a community survey year so we
will have that process we will then
bring that back to you in the summertime
with that information ask the council to
look at the Strategic plan the strategy
and budget planning workshop that's also
been a part of that July meeting a
financial Workshop usually at the end of
the summer and that brings us to the
budget so we've done a lot of this I
think the council
did an excellent job in both January and
July looking at priorities and I think
as we go through the budget this evening
you will see many of the issues that
have been identified by the council
during those sessions have been
addressed in the mayor's proposed budget
next slide
so one of the issues uh that the council
has raised and certainly the
Administration has been very mindful of
has been what we call underspend the
idea that we budget a full year salaries
for every authorized position uh we
budget a top-line health care benefit
for every budgeted position and as we
have had over the last several years a
significant number of vacancies
throughout the year that creates an
underspend or or dollars that are
budgeted and not spent and the
administration mayor Paulie agrees with
the council that in order for us to be
more precise in our budgeting that we
needed to be more aggressive in
addressing that so included in this
budget this year are a couple of of new
strategies to help us with that first is
that we have increased the budget for
the Personnel underspend from one
percent to three percent so the last
couple of years what we have done is we
have taken the the value of one percent
of salaries and put a minus in that so
that that money then could be re-spent
on other things we've increased that 423
24 to 3 percent we think that's more
accurate reflection of what our actual
has been we will continue to be diligent
of course in filling budgeted positions
but as you all know that remains a
challenge for us and most businesses to
fill that and so we feel comfortable
making that adjustment from one percent
to three percent uh second we are going
to reduce the budget amount for vacant
and new position benefits so again what
the past practice has been is that we
budget uh the the greatest amount per
position for health care benefits and
the reality is again through vacancies
we have savings there and we have
employees that you choose not to take
that top tier health benefit and so the
cost of the city uh for sometimes the
people coming on board in a new position
is less than what we budgeted so we have
made some adjustments there uh to
capture the understand
and then finally uh we are proposing in
this budget to increase capacity on the
budget team for more robust robust
mid-year monitoring uh not only on the
operating side but on the capital side
and as we talk this evening and talk
over the next few weeks with the budget
uh the capital budget is a very
significant part of the work that we'll
be doing uh over the next uh two years
so we want to be sure that we're doing
that
um as mindfully as possible watching
those budget expenditures next slide
so while generally mayor Paul is very
pleased to submit to the council a very
healthy and robust budget we still
remain concerned about our long-term
funding strategies
um that as we look at them we look at
the restricted growth of major Revenue
sources specifically uh property tax
we look at what we would see as a
drawdown on fund balance in the out
years through our our longer term
Financial forecasts so at this point
we're looking at a 10 percent
undesignated and become balanced by 2027
which we believe is is too low and then
with those concerns we're proposing
through the beginning of next year to
begin discussions with the council over
a more long-term funding strategy to
maintain a current level of operating
Services as you know we've had
discussions over the last year looking
at our Opera our Capital financing
issues I think we're going to need to
look at our operating uh financing as
well next slide
and again just a snapshot of our
property tax in 2014 7.6 million dollars
the proposed 2022 budget 10.1 million
dollars
um you know the growth of that uh has
been steady but it has been slow uh and
the reality is is that we take in less
money in general property tax than our
cost for Public Safety Services so we're
again very fortunate to have other
robust Revenue uh but property tax is
really not serving uh what I think it
was meant to do which was to fund
largely the services provided by the
city and so that is something we will
want to continue to talk with the
council about
um through this process and then over
hopefully the next several years next
slide
foreign
again we're going to spend some time
this evening focusing on these three
budget priorities Public Safety Human
Services and infrastructure and I've
already introduced those staff members
that will be discussing that next slide
so let's get into the nitty-gritty now
unless there's any initial questions
council president members of the council
I'd like Robert humud our Chief
Financial Officer to pick up the story
from here
thank you Wally
and the first slide here is just kind of
the flow of how the biennial budget
process so again it's different than
previous years because you're looking at
the two-year schedule rather than a
one-year schedule so you can see we've
already gone through obviously we're in
the proposed budget development now
getting into the city council
deliberations in Q3 2022 then you have
the 2023-24 budget adoption obviously by
the end of the year
and then the implementation for 2023
early next year there will be
um most likely a reauthorization process
as in Prior years
happening in 2023 but you'll notice that
that reauthorization process as I've
mentioned in previous meetings will not
happen in 2024 because you have a
two-year appropriation rather than a
one-year appropriation but there is the
2023-24 biennium mid biennial review
that would happen by actually anywhere
through Q3 2023 and again that'll be the
opportunity to change budget assumptions
as needed as revenues change expenditure
forecast change that'll be an
opportunity as well for Budget
amendments as needed
and then 2024 obviously so in our
systems and even with the auditing we
still
consider each year the biennium a
separate fiscal year but for the
appropriation for what you're going to
actually pass that will be the two-year
budget
and then the final budget amendments
would be at the end obviously of 2024 at
the end of the biennium
so the revenue Outlook back to Wally's
point you can see that property tax is
not our largest revenue source that is
sales tax so property tax you can see is
forecasted at one 10.1 million for 2022
raises to 10.5 million in 2024 but you
can see also with sales tax this does
include the affordable housing sales tax
to 0.1 percent that I've spoken to some
of you in detail on the past few days
that is the forecast right now at 23.8
million and we're focused forecasting at
25.5 million for 24 and we had a month
more of sales tax data that came in
today for 2022 July's numbers and again
they were very strong through the summer
so we're confident in that forecast for
this year and then in the out years
b o or business and occupation tax
7.1 and 22 going to 7.6 million and 24.
utility tax 5.5 million and 22 going to
2006.2 million in 2024 some of that
increase will be due to rate increases
on utilities and services that that do
feed into that that utility tax payment
at the end other Revenue sources again
anything from Grants intergovernmental
local revenues and arpa that's 19.7
million for 22. you can see that drop to
14.6 that's the arpa this is the second
tranche of the arpa we received in 22.
we also received the first trunch in 21
you can see that goes away because
there's about 5 million a year 5.5
million a year so that drops the number
to 14.6 on the other revenues
and so you can see the total forecast
right now with 66.2 million for 2022 63
million for 23 64.6 million for 24.
so general fund balancing charge and I
might have Susie weigh in here if
there's any questions on this uh total
beginning fund balance 35.7 million for
23 25.8 million for 24. so again that's
the drawdown that we've been discussing
ongoing revenues you can see again 62.2
million and 20 by 24 and the ongoing
expenditures you can see under revenues
61.7 Million by 24 58.6 million and 23
one-time expenditures a lot of them and
I've I know I've mentioned this in Prior
meetings a lot of the runtime
expenditures for a biennium actually are
funded in the first year because it's a
two-year period so you can see 8.7
million the first year 3 million the
second year
our expenditures again 4.7 million the
first year 4.1 million the second year
and again were statutorily obligated to
spend it by the end of 24 per the arpa
guidelines from the federal government
at this point affordable housing
expenditures you can see 900
1023 also 900 024. and you can also see
that there's still an ongoing capacity
difference 1.5 million the first year
but 0.5 million in the second year and
again this is to total up you could see
the ending fund balance this is to make
sure that we're targeting that 17 so
even with that 500 000 ongoing capacity
difference of 24 we're still forecasted
to be at 17 of fund balance so you can
see ending fund balance 25.8 and 23 20.8
and 24.
affordable housing actually increases
again because the sales tax is growing
each year we don't have large projects
for expenditures yet
forecasted for that fund the 9.1 million
and 24.
and so you can see the undesignated fund
balance total about 11.7 million in
2024.
in general fund balance impact
again I've kind of touched on this
already but just to highlight it again
you can see where we're starting out as
a total fund balances percentage
percentage of expenditures in 22 is 41
percent again with increased Revenue
outlook for 22 it's up to 56 percent
also that's combined with some of the
proposed underspend that is still
occurring especially with Personnel in
the 2022 budget
but you can see that being reduced to 30
and 24 and then undesignated fund
balance going from
33 the end of this year forecasted to 17
and 24.
Robert just one comment when you um sit
back it's a little bit harder to hear
you so if you could pull that apologize
thank you any questions nope okay
so the 2023 budget overview
the proposed totals are
165.2 million dollars and you can see
where general fund accounts for 43
percent of all expenditures
utilities about 22 percent of all
expenditures special Revenue funds
11 capital projects about 13 of these
expenses Debt Service
um about two percent so this is all of
our funds total for the city
and then 24 about the same but it's
174.2 million you can see capital
projects about 13
in 24 40 general fund 25 utility special
Revenue 13 percent
and this is a busy chart but we're just
trying to show kind of the Breakout by
Department
of of the general fund totals you can
see the public safety site is in the
bottom left-hand corner you can see the
police department of 15.7 million
Municipal Court 1.3 million fire 8.1
million
and you could see the second would be
Parks itself 11.6 million Community
Development 8.6 and then you can see the
administrative departments and also the
interfund transfers
and again pretty much the same mix you
see in 2024 as well
any questions on these
so the proposed general fund Revenue
adjustments over the 2022 budget we're
assuming in the numbers that we've
presented tonight that we're assuming
that Council does approve the one
percent property tax levy increase it
also assumes the increase in Recreation
and CPU and Community Planning and
Development fees that have been proposed
and also the proposal by the executive
to increase court and jail contracts of
partner cities by five percent going in
for both 20 going into 23 and 24 and
then previously adopted utility rate
increases we have a slide at the end
that will show those rate increases
and then um I know Wally showed this
slide previously the funding priorities
again Public Safety Human Services and
infrastructure and we're going to be
presenting more details tonight on these
and first is chuchuan
thank you council members and Robert for
getting that precious extended started
for us
I became your um chief of Issaquah a
couple months ago I was interim starting
in November and at that point in time we
were down a great deal in our staffing
and so one of the big pushes has been
Staffing for us that's a big thing that
we've been pushing and moving forward
presently right now we have 32 staff as
far as Patrol goes and they're
responsible for taking the safety of
residents and business visitors who are
coming to our city on a daily basis so
our nighttime residence is about forty
thousand but daytime obviously is almost
doubled that or more
and so the residence population with 40
000 that gives us 0.75 officers per
thousand people
which is an estimate that is about 2.2
times lower than the national average of
2.4 officers per thousand
for your Police Department in the City
of Issaquah total no calls for service
between
2014. I can't see which slides we're in
can we go to
the next one
one moment please
okay so for the biggest Focus that we
are proposing for the next budget for
the 2020 or 23 24 budget is we're
focusing on continuing that recruitment
retention for the officers that we do
have and then in 23 we hope to get all
the information that's needed to get our
body worn camps
um the cameras so I'll be officer and
corrections officer both would be
wearing a body worn camera so we have
access to the data if we have a public
disclosure request on all the actions
for accountability and for moving us
forward into a lot of
what other agencies are doing in our
area as well and so we can keep that for
it's a lot of asks that have been going
on within our climate these days for law
enforcement as well
we also want to add some correction we
are adding or asking that a corrections
officer record specialist record
specialist specifically is to handle all
those PDR requests and some other work
that is necessary as well as two Patrol
officers in 2024. for the body worn
cameras to back up real quick the idea
would be do all the work in 2023 to have
them implemented in quarter one of 2024.
is the idea
and um to we have started a pilot
take-home car policy for the officers
and so we would hope to implement five
more new patrol cars in each one of
those years
so next slide there we go thank you
um total calls for service this is a
graph I don't know if you I can see that
really well but it brings up from 2014
to 2021 there is four month section in
2021 that we don't have data for because
of some circumstances with changing a
software and so we don't quite have that
data it would take us just a little more
time we could still get that if it was
needed but
our 911 Center that takes all these
calls for service they route resources
to help emergent services for three
different cities specifically and the
Issaquah North Bend and Snoqualmie there
are 24 7 Center 365. so there's someone
answering those phones every day every
hour of every day
and on an average Issaquah has around 60
000 total calls for service Which is
higher than other local dispatch centers
themselves
so we're projected already to be hired
this year than we have been in past
years as well
and our total calls is just under half
all the calls are 9-1-1 related
just to give you a little perspective of
the types of calls and how much that our
dispatches are taking here in our own
City
next slide please
dispatch calls to give you a perspective
for all calls for service were 22 412
for all three different divisions our
cities collectively and just for Squad
loan was 11 101.
thus far that's for this year alone and
what we have moving forward so as you
can see we are on target to be higher
than we have in the past by the previous
graph
next slide please
this is a comparison shot Redmond has a
Dispatch Center as well they dispatch
for only two cities and we dispatch for
three we have a comparatively similar
number of calls for service
there's slightly higher with their
population being
um similarly but we have over ten
thousand more 911 calls than they have
so our emergent calls for service are
more than the calls for service that
they're receiving which are non-emergent
so it's different in the type of call
we're taking information we're Gathering
how emergent that works for the people
that are taking the calls which is a
night at 48 percent higher level
in that
[Music]
um
they have different clear variations for
a reason and we do have a smaller
population
um but like I said the higher proportion
is the 911 calls
this is our dispatch Staffing comparison
I just want to say first of all that we
are greatly and there is more staff in
our Dispatch Center than there's been in
the five years and and since many have
been here and seen so that is a great
Improvement
we do still have some work to do and so
I'm very thankful all our Dispatchers in
our Center are very thankful our
officers are thankful although we do
need more to staff the hours and the
types of calls and the stress level of
those calls being that there's so many
911s in our in our Center
and to put perspective in comparison for
the size and Center we dispatch for
three cities and Redmond dispatches for
two it's Redmond and Duvall
they have if you can see from the chart
we have one supervisor and 10
dispatchers they have almost double the
type of Staff complete staff that we
have for the same number calls for
service
so as you can see there's just a drastic
difference in numbers there
moving into our Patrol stopping this is
a little bit harder in the moment we
have a comment yes just a quick quick
question on the 9-1-1 calls of course
um how many of those are police dispatch
and how many of them are fire that
didn't get routed to norcom
that's a great that is a great question
I don't have that staff readily ever
that staff numberly variable right now
our crime analyst can get that
information back to council yeah that
would be interesting and then also a
similar comparison for for Redmond
because of you know the just
understanding the breakdown of those
9-1-1 calls would be really helpful yes
of course great thank you yep
so current Staffing can you see that
it's a kind of a smaller slide but the
numbers in the red specifically the blue
is our new org chart the red ones are
the ones I'm sorry
oh next slide there we go okay
So currently we have
30
um on the street
already commission officers that's from
Chief on down that doesn't include the
non-commissioned to
Command Staff right now and it doesn't
include the ones that are in fto and in
training so if you look on the chart the
ones in the green those are the ones
that are actually hired but in training
still so they can't work on their own
essentially so they're still in training
eventually hopefully will be
those are the 12 that have been hired
since November of 2021 has a large
number there we still have
um 11 vacancies but we have five more
starting in October so of the 27 that we
had of Staff overall in November we now
are down to by the end of October we
will have only
five remaining that we to hire to be
fully staffed in the whole Police
Department so we've made a lot of
progress we the ones in the red are the
ones the spots we don't have filled
quite yet but we have dispersed their
tasks out to the other officers and so
we are able to keep that level of
service to the highest possible and to
include reduced response times as much
as possible so the community itself is
still getting the service it's needing
for emergent Services sometimes there's
a little bit more of a delay if it's a
cold colder call but we do also have
that action where we've given them more
opportunities to report online we do
have a station officer who takes online
reports takes phone reports and so we've
been able to spread that a little bit as
well with that
um being a little more expeditious in
him being able to take those calls while
the other officers are still doing some
traffic so we've tried to spread that
out and then myself even doing some
community events and things so we can
spread the wealth but we're still out
there are doing what is necessary
so though we're you know growing in
diversity that's a huge thing that's
been very beneficial we have multiple
officers that speak many different
languages which was not the case that
long ago so that's another increase
that's been very beneficial
presently we have four squads as you can
see all of them have one Sergeant one
Corporal and four other officers when we
are fully staffed and that doesn't
include the detectives division that
when fully staffed has a detective
Sergeant detective Corporal two
detectives and then an entire another
Traffic Division that City administrator
Bob kowitz has put in the recently in
last year to where we'll have aided
sergeant in an admin role that will be
in charge of traffic the community
resource officers and that station
officer which we hope to have filled
within the next six months that's our
goal to be moving and having enough
that's up and running and people trained
um we have a question before you move on
councilmember Chief uh Chief I have a
question it uh says both of our
community resource officers are vacant
did we we lost our old community
resource officer he became a firefighter
thank you yep and what happened was when
we became very low staffed what happened
with that specific position and many of
the other Specialties all were absorbed
into Patrol so we still could have
um response to the community without
having to be contracted out to anyone
else and so we did we made those
movements and that's why we gave those
tasks to other things so we do have
random officers that will go who help
out those community events or respond to
those things that are necessary and we
hope to eventually have some new people
in that position after the first of the
year
yep and council member hunt
thank you under detectives
um can you help me understand it says
two detective uh vacant and then also
three detective vacant
so that was just a number three so in
other words those are two so we have a
detective Sergeant one detective that's
actually in place right now another will
be a detective Corporal and then the
other would be another detective's
position so basically it's saying that
there's two corporate or detectives
positions that are vacant currently okay
thank you yes
and then our new crime analyst Ryan
who's put a lot all this information
together for you
um collectively she also will be in that
category and under that detective
sergeant
so ipd has the lowest number of
full-time
employees per thousand population
compared to local and other cities
who own police departments that's
locally and throughout the state so we
have some other numbers and comparables
that I can explain that a little bit
later or at another time
um next slide thank you
um moving into Corrections uh the
corrections run our Issaquah Jail
which is a modern 72-bed facility and
Corrections are responsible for
providing secure and safe environment
for all inmates in the Issaquah Jail
they offer care and security for inmates
of 19 additional contract cities
and not for not just Issaquah and all
other outside agencies where they don't
have an opportunity or they call us up
and say hey can I bring somebody or if
someone for example decides
um or gets charged with a crime in
another state but they live here they
can ask to serve their time somewhere
else so if they live in our community
they can choose to use our jail which is
a certain cost as well so they house all
different kinds of
individuals here that are all
misdemeanor that's arranging and
coordinated they all CEOs also arrange
and coordinate various assistants to the
whole person Wellness programs for the
inmates they also have to schedule
competency hearings we have six video
courts that go on in our jail now
downstairs
and so it's been it's very busy down
there during the daytime if you ever
want to come down and and see all the
workings that go on down there the jail
has one Corrections supervisor who works
one shift five days a week who
supervises our Corrections staff the
Spanish control is a little bit more
than we'd like again we've come a long
way having the one supervisor One
Transport officer and 13 staff now and
we're fully staffed on there is is
amazing to have that many staff for as
much as they have going on down there
also this quad jail
in comparison to the Kirkland jail
the compare curriculum jails has one
Lieutenant two sergeants and two Corps
pearls who overseeing their 16
Corrections Officers so similarly we've
come a very long way but we still have
some work that needs to be done to get
us and they have the exact same size
jail we do so the span of control and
actual oversight is a lot greater and so
we just need to work on that a little
bit more and moving forward is what we
would our goal is
next slide please thank you
and for correction Staffing
our city contract right now with our
Union has it as one corrections officer
per shift because of our numbers down
there as you can see
um year to date we've had 1047 inmates
which is about 46.3 daily but sometimes
our population will be up to in over the
60s so to have one down there is
unrealistic and it's unsafe not just for
the correction staff but for the inmates
themselves so I put in a chief
administrative order to have two
Corrections Officers per shift for the
safety of everybody involved and if they
do need extra help they're all all
required to a radio so our Patrol does
help when necessary to make sure that
they're available and they are required
to wear their radios for that reason
any given year their squad jail holds
over 20 or 2150 in nights that go
through our jail here in our city I
don't think that's a number that a lot
of people were aware of or some of this
information you may have not heard
before and so um this is a big thing
that I think is important for people to
know exactly what you guys are approving
and what goes on just across the street
so
um current the contract teams one
attending and because of that 43.4 daily
average
we want to make sure that's increased
for safety and as mentioned
this is technically considered one of
the
we don't want to overpower and even by
Statute you can't even have one you
can't check on the monitor to say oh
yeah everybody's good in that cell you
have to physically go into each dorm to
make sure or sell and make sure that
someone's okay once an hour
and so by that statue you even when
someone's to go on a lunch break or
something you have to have someone else
that can be there in case anything else
happens or everybody has to be in
lockdown so that's a lot again more
other things we can go into at another
time but so again we've greatly
drastically increased we're super happy
about the Staffing as it is we just do
have some progress to be to make moving
forward
next look choose one we have a question
Deputy council president Hull
thank you very much thank you for the
detailed presentation
um so you've
you've produced here a couple of
comparison models so the Redmond
Dispatch Center in the Kirkland City
Jail is that the administration's
position that these are best practice
models for these kind of facilities that
we want
to go to or is this just something for
us you know I I think the purpose of
tonight mayor Paulie really wants to
focus on these three areas Public Safety
infrastructure and Human Services
um what we want to try to convey is that
we have additional work to evaluate what
makes sense for us uh again what you'll
hear in human services is very tied to
the work that we're doing in police for
example we want to continue to go down
that road but we realize that's going to
be additional resources that we're going
to need we think we need to continue to
look at dispatch the what happened with
our Dispatch Center we can never have
that happen again and so training is
important supervision is important so we
are going to need to continue to look at
that on the jail side I think the
numbers kind of speak for themselves we
we need to continue to invest those
resources the comparisons are really
illustrative only they're not meant to
be a model that we're looking
specifically to follow but clearly other
agencies see that there's needed
Resources with even less uh that calls
for service less folks in the jail so we
want to share that with you as well as
the concerns we have on human services
and on the infrastructure program that
we have again when we have a budget like
this
um it's very easy to say wow we're doing
a lot we're hiring people there's lots
of Revenue and that's all true but as we
look moving forward mayor Paulie wants
to make sure that we convey the message
to the council that there's still work
to be done in future years and so this
is I think a snapshot on some of the
challenges we face in police
I guess in closing the where you're
going to move forward and with moving
forward in the next two years are going
to continue that recruitment we're going
to continue that retention we're going
to also continue the the calls for
service and the Staffing to make sure we
keep the calls for service and the time
span in what we get those calls to our
response times down
and the overall Staffing itself and the
equipment needs of the police department
I did what we've put together Ryan's put
together with a lot of information that
I emailed to the council also is what I
don't believe has done before is a
biannual report and I emailed that to
you this evening so that's for your look
at your leisure which gives a big bigger
overview
worldly overview and then there will be
an annual report that we'll get at the
end of the year of all of 2022 that but
I'm more than happy to field questions
via email or at another time but I
wanted you to know more information
elaborating more on what we've given you
is available
so
that's all and we've got a question
councilmember Joe
thank you
Paula Schwann thank you for this
presentation it's nice that you've come
into this position as Chief and you've
gotten right to work we appreciate the
hard work that you put forward when you
put equipment needs on your Public
Safety looking forward slide over and
above the cameras for our correction
officers and police officers are there
other items that you would like us to
think about either for this budget or
for next budget that we should be
keeping front of mind
the biggest thing I think and it was
mentioned previously were the the
vehicles and that's been put in put in
the budget for the next couple of years
spanned out for realistically because
they're they're not inexpensive let's
put it that way and so I think that's
the biggest thing as far as Finance
everything else has been in the works
the city's been great and you all have
been very
very helpful in getting us to where we
need to be and so there are some
equipment things but they're all been
working and they're more it's a group
efforts whether it be with human
services as well as efforts with other
facilities and different things so thank
you chief for that answer also with the
the request to have officers have the
ability to take their cars home at night
when they go home what does that provide
for us what's the extra Delta that we
get as a community when our officers
have their cars at home as we look at it
it's a little bit of a large expenditure
but there's quite a safety and Public
Safety Improvement that we get if you
could comment on what we why we want to
have that in our budget
couple of things one of the top things
is obviously retention and recruitment
that's a big piece to have take home
Vehicles because majority of agencies
have take home Vehicles these days so
that is a big thing as far as retention
goes especially with gas prices so you
can imagine but more importantly for the
community itself it's their response
time so in the event there is a you know
God forbid an emergency in our city that
is necessary for response time for one
detective to come out or for four
officers to show up if we have something
that takes place that response time is
much more expeditious because they have
the vehicle there it has all their gear
specifically in it versus them having to
get in and grab their gear to get back
out on the street once they do get to
the station so those are the biggest
pieces there's also a presence in the
community for people to see our logo our
City's name even in their communities
wherever they're living and those are
the biggest pieces in having in their
equipment ready and to respond in a
global situation so to our community
being able to have that available and
them to respond the same goes for those
other agencies outside those officers if
we had an emergency would also respond
from their homes to our agent to our
city as well
thank you that's that's a great answer I
would also just add that uh when I see a
sheriff's uh car in the parking lot for
the apartment down the street I feel a
little bit safer in my community even
though it's a King County sheriff or
when I see the Seattle motorcycle cop
come down from Sammamish and heading in
on I-90 every day I feel a little more
safe on the road so I I think it's part
of the the
inter-jurisdictional relationship that
we have with all of our neighbors when
our officers go home they're in the
community they help the community feel a
little more safe and a little bit more
secure along the way and some of their
officers are certainly in our
communities as well so I I would fully
support that request as we go forward
thank you
thank you councilmember
thank you for the opportunity to present
today
good evening council members this is
Monica Grillo I'm gonna provide an
overview for the Human Services
budget priorities first I'm going to
begin with
um just a brief
um background then highlight of the
creation of the Human Services Division
and our work over the last couple of
years
next I'm gonna provide some details on
the emergency housing program that we
are proposing in this upcoming budget in
particular and then I'm gonna end with a
couple of future considerations next
slide please
thank you Robert
uh so I can't believe this all happened
in the last couple of years but it did
our city took a new approach to Human
Services in back in 2020
on one end with some organizational
restructuring the Human Services
functions move to parks and Community
Services Under the great leadership of
Jeff Watling also we had covet happening
I'm sure that does not surprise to any
of us so with that just last year in
2021 launched the behavioral health and
the homeless Outreach programs since
then we combined those programs to
better leverage resources also last year
following a year-long community work and
work with the Human Services Commission
we launched the equity board and we also
started work on the Human Services needs
assessment that then led us to the Human
Services strategic plan that was adopted
earlier this year
um and so that takes us to present time
when we are looking at the upcoming
budget now that we have a human services
strategic plan we are trying to use that
as a guide and part of that we are going
to look at some Strategic investment so
I'm going to talk about that in just a
couple of minutes but before I head
there next slide please
um this is just a brief um kind of like
visual of the current Human Services
functions back in 2020 Human Services
functions were really reduced to
basically Grant Administration and
attending some local and Regional
meetings that was a one staff me and
myself and I type of uh of
functions since then I like to to call
our community needs our Human Services
planning functions we have a one FTE
human services coordinator position for
that we also have a part-time Human
Services assistant a 0.25 in our budget
that helps our with events and
translations as well as collaborations
for our local Partners in with our
community Court you know that as well
our Behavioral Health functions and
homeless Outreach functions there are
two separate on your screen again we
have two full-time ftes for that and we
can combine the programs but in
functions they are pretty separate
sort of separate needs and last but not
least we also do the community Equity
initiatives and the staff liaison to the
equity board as you know and then also
we lead the cultural conversations and
any inclusion events and diversity
related events in the community
so with that as I promised I'm going to
talk to you a little bit about our
biggest asks in in the upcoming budget
for Human Services and that is an
emergency housing program next slide
please Robert thank you
um I like this I I borrowed this visual
from the King County Regional
homelessness Authority I think it's a
it's a really um provides a good visual
and defines the uh the concept that we
want to propose and the housing
Continuum
um the emergency housing program really
um Bridges the gap between the current
uh emergency shelter the traditional
shelter model and permanent housing and
it also provides a good alternative to
uh to that model we learned that the
congregate model really is not helping
people move and and towards bettering
their lives so much we learned with
covet also the capacity of that system
is really really overloaded so we hope
and we would like to propose like a
transitional model if you wish that can
provide people a safer and a more
dignified way to
um to receive services is while they are
waiting for permanent housing or or
while they are waiting for employment
where they can successfully find housing
on their own
so with that next slide please why are
we proposing this project and why now on
one end now we have data that we can
back up the needs that we saw in the
community the homeless outreach program
um as you may remember we launched a
homeless dashboard earlier this year our
pilot program with that project really
gave us the opportunity to really learn
and see what homelessness looks like in
Issaquah so we have that data also with
that we identified it as a priority in
the Human Services strategic plan and
last but not least even more importantly
I think it's also a timely opportunity
for us as we build great relationships
with Motel 6 here in Issaquah over the
last couple of years that's great
collaboration it's it's just also timely
opportunity that we can leverage that
so with that what are we proposing in
particular with the the project we hope
to rent 12 rooms it's a pilot project we
want to to to start somewhere where
hopefully we can handle it uh starting
to rent with 12 rooms both single and
double occupancy rooms we would like to
identify a service provider that will
work one-on-one with individuals
enrolled in that program to make sure
that they have their basic needs met but
also to make sure that the service
connections are happening that people
are working actively towards their goals
for permanent housing and for also other
employment and other service goals that
they might have
um and last but not least we would love
to continue and we would want to
continue the collaboration with Motel 6
on their end we will rely on them for
amenities utilities security overnight
parking and whatnot
um so we have currently uh proposed in
that budget 700 000 for that project um
per year
um so with that
um next slide please estimated
timeline
um a timeline okay great thank you
estimated timeline for the project we
started public conversations on on this
project back in June very very grateful
and appreciate the conversation with
that we had with the council services
safety and Parks committee since then we
also engaged with some social service
providers with some businesses here in
Issaquah including the chamber we also
went and actually had a great
conversation with our partners at the
police department the other day so we we
really engaged with with Community
next we are here we are starting budget
Council deliberations and so with
anticipated budget adoption hopefully
and your support in November we really
hope to start the project sometimes in
the first quarter of 2023
um
and so with that that's just a brief
high level overview I can
ask for questions yeah Deputy council
president Hall but thank you Monica just
a super quick one so um out of those
Community conversations all the feedback
we received were supportive very
supportive yes okay great thank you
um okay so just a few things looking
ahead as we continue in 2023 to
implement the Human Services strategic
plan and continue the work that that we
um created a foundation for over the
last couple of years there are two
things that we would really want to
focus on in addition to what I just
highlighted on one end we would like to
further grow and formalize our
collaboration for a meaningful crisis
response in our city and that involves
our Issaquah Police Department Eastside
fire rescue and Human Services we really
would like to even consider exploring a
joint response models and find ways to
better leverage the limited resources
and then last but not least as we
continue the work on equity and that
work is just going to continue to grow
and develop both internally and in the
community we will look at evaluating
capacity needs and and see where where
that work might lead
um so with that
I'm available for questions thank you
I'm not seeing any questions right now
thank you for the overview thank you
Monica I'm sorry real quick question so
the looking forward like crisis response
looking forward these are things that
are scopes of work that are covered in
the next year the next time
not looking forward like post budget yes
yes thank you
good evening uh I'm Andrea Snyder Deputy
City administrator and I am here to talk
to you about infrastructure our final of
the three Focus areas for the budget and
[Music]
um
we have a very aggressive Capital work
plan in this next biennium 63 million
dollars across all of our funds for the
next two years and I'm going to talk to
you a little bit about some of the
highlights from that Capital plan not
going into every detail or even every
type of infrastructure you'll notice so
I don't talk about sewer and not so much
about facilities but I just really
wanted to hit the highlights for you
this evening and so first let's start
with transportation
slide please
we are increasing some investment in our
deferred maintenance with this proposed
budget that means five million dollars
over the biennium for pavement
management and 3.4 for concrete
management we talked about some of this
a little bit in July when we talked
about the community investment strategy
and how to use some of our ending fund
balance and concrete management is
certainly something that we've heard
from the community that there's a need
for investment in our sidewalks and
reducing trip hazards Etc so this
proposed budget includes our response to
that
we also have a focus on multi-modal and
Mobility connections this is just a
sample of some of the things that are in
the proposed budget the community
Mobility investment survey projects the
survey is out right now here's my
Shameless plug for anybody watching to
fill out that survey and let us know
what priorities they have we have two
million dollars in arpa funds for some
of these Mobility projects across the
city and so we look forward to seeing
what the community has to say about that
getting those results coming back to
council and talking about what those
priorities are that we've heard
we also have
planned for the next biennium squawk
Mountain multimodal Improvement study
we've heard from the community this is
also a priority for them and wanting to
have more access to the rest of the city
with um walking and biking paths
Northwest Sammamish Road non-motorized
improvements also known affectionately
as pinchpoint by some this is also a
work that will begin in terms of design
over the next two years Central Issaquah
multimodal I-90 Crossing and Light Rail
station planning that's also
incorporated into this project that
study will also begin next year we
talked about that again past in in July
of this year and we look to complete our
Transit study which will then guide
future Transit Investments and also
policies getting ready for that light
rail station and improving Transit
connections along the way
in addition to all of these efforts for
our Capital plans we're also importantly
looking at the transportation
concurrency plan and updating that next
year we're doing some modeling this year
and next year we will add ask and answer
the question of how does our concurrency
plan
currently align with the master Mobility
plan and do we need to make changes to
that and again for concurrency that
helps us ensure that growth pays for
growth that we're keeping our
infrastructure up to date as the city
continues to grow
next slide please
um Deputy City administrator Senator we
have a question from Deputy council
president Hall sorry thank you just
another quick clarifying question so uh
concrete management under deferred
maintenance is contemplated or proposed
a 3.4 million which is
um quite a bit more than what was
contemplated in the tip so did I hear
that that is a product of what we've
heard from the community in terms of it
being a priority yes yes we have a
number of reported concern requests for
trip hazards on sidewalks across the
city that our previous levels of funding
we're making it difficult to make
progress on so one of the things that we
have talked about when we talked about
the community investment strategy and
investment in our maintenance of our
infrastructure is trying to make some
Headway on improvements to our sidewalks
reducing trip hazards making sure that
those connections are well maintained
for the community and so it's something
that we do want to uh that we're
proposing an influx and funding for the
biennium just so that we can help get
caught up on some of those requests from
the community
great so parks and trails
I'm sure we're all on the same page here
great so for parks and trails certainly
director Watling is here and he can
speak a little bit more if you have
specific questions but for some of the
capital projects again just hitting the
highlights within this proposed budget
looking at that again the community
investment strategy you're going to see
a lot of this throughout the proposed
budget that anchor Park project is
referred to in the proposed budget as a
community park project I know that
director Watling has been working with
the Parks Board on what their
recommendations are and that's something
we anticipate to come back to council
with more information on
uh the Creekside and Hillside
Acquisitions we've talked about this
also through the process of the
community investment strategy
discussions and increasing our
investment in that fund to be able to
acquire strategic Creekside and Hillside
properties to help us achieve the the
green necklace and other goals within
our Park strategic plan we also have
highlighted as capital project a dog
park for the city
improvements to Hillside Park and the
park strategic Plan update
uh in addition past that looking at
maintenance of our Parks there's Trail
maintenance uh in the budget there's a
new volunteer coordinator for green
Issaquah that will help connect
Issaquah residents who want to volunteer
and plant trees and do other things to
help maintain some of our great assets
here that that volunteer will help
coordinate those opportunities with
residents interested we also have new
Investments for better stewardship of
trees looking at creating an urban
Forest management plan and an urban
Forest supervisor will be a new City
Arborist position that's also in the
proposed budget
next slide just one moment we've got
councilmember Wright just to clarify
those last couple things are not capital
projects those are ongoing operating
budget things right yes that's correct
so some of these things um are within
the operating budget some of them are
capital requests but all of them are
um
projects or programs around these Focus
areas of related to infrastructure so we
think about Parks as part of our
infrastructure Network there may be
ongoing expenses that we
um that we take on for the maintenance
of that infrastructure
but we would take them on even if we
weren't making investments in say a dog
park or yes okay that's that's really my
point it's it's they're too
maybe touching but separate ideas
correct
great
then we move on to utilities
and uh just some brief things to
highlight here in terms of capital
projects and also maintenance of our
assets
we have more money in the proposed
budget for water main replacement we
heard some concerns about concrete
asbestos pipes and we do have some of
those in Issaquah that we have been
replacing and we are speeding up the
replacement of those pipes in order to
do that
we also enter just to keep up on some of
our maintenance needs for our aging
infrastructure we've requested an
additional maintenance worker in water
to help us replace those pipes and
service especially some of the
neighborhoods that have been having
increased problems with aging
infrastructure and also an additional
administrative specialist for customer
service related to water and our water
customers
for storm water system
we look to complete the storm and
surface water master plan and begin
implementation of that plan and we also
have a number of projects related to
Creek restoration Bank stabilization Etc
again I'm just hitting the highlights
here there's a lot more within the
budget but didn't want to go over every
single thing tonight with you
next slide so that's a brief a summary
of the infrastructure related and some
of the maintenance things that are in
the proposed budget around
infrastructure things that we're looking
forward to over the next biennium as
well Asset Management it's something
that's within our strategic plan to
enhance our asset management program
it's something that is underway right
now and we look to
really have a robust effort over the
next two years to create really a new
Asset Management program
that will help us more proactively
maintain our assets
also we've talked a lot about the
community investment strategy that's
exhibited throughout the proposed budget
we still plan on coming back to council
to continue discussions over long-term
funding for transportation in parks
as well as for facility needs we didn't
talk about facility needs a lot tonight
but we do have some urgent facility
needs as we've discussed in the past and
when we last had this discussion with
Council we said we would come back in
the first part of next year to have a
discussion on how to fund those facility
needs and we intend to follow through
with that in addition we are doing an
assessment of the condition of our
facilities and what our needs are given
the working from home policies that
we've had and how much space we need as
we look to the Future needs of the city
for our facilities so that is all coming
to you at a later date for more
thoughtful and robust discussion than we
can have here tonight
um finally next year is a big Capital
Improvement Plan update and so all of
these plans that we've been talking
about the surface and storm water master
plan facilities Etc will then inform the
capital Improvement Plan update that we
undergo next year
so at this time I'd like to welcome a
public works director Emily moon to say
a few words it is her third day back
with the city and we are very happy to
have her
good evening happy to be here just very
briefly want to say hello again and
convey to you how excited I am to be
here and looking forward to Leading this
team and doing a whole host of good work
over the next several years but in
particular for tonight's Focus over the
next two Andrea mentioned earlier that
we have an aggressive Capital work
program that is true we have some very
unique opportunities I think in our
funding abilities and as you have
authorized additional Staffing we're in
a position now where we feel we can take
on more projects and more complex
projects as well
however uh because it is aggressive we
need to be very thoughtful about how we
pursue the projects and so we're going
to be spending quite a bit of time
getting organized part of that
organization is of course filling our
empty seats and making sure that we
retain our high quality employees who
are ready to hit the ground running on
these projects we have encountered some
success in filling many positions
they've run the gamut and we have had
great new hires that have been more
entry-level less experienced and also
very senior well-experienced employees
so we have a really what I think is a
wonderful mix those newer maybe less
experienced employees though require a
little more time and attention to get
them up to speed to be able to execute
on these projects
and then lastly all of you know about
the supply chain issues those are
ongoing and we're just going to have to
continue to monitor that and communicate
with you and residents about impacts to
projects as we proceed
thank you
so unless there's any questions next I
think is Susie who is up
all right
uh so I will be taking over uh pretty
much through the end of this
presentation
um so starting with the proposed
Personnel adjustments included in this
budget um next slide please thank you
thank you um some of these have already
been touched on this evening so I'll be
running through these fairly quickly but
in total the proposed budget adds 17 and
a half ftes or full-time equivalents
over the 2022 adopted budget these
include within parks and Community
Services a recreation coordinator for
specialized Recreation a recreation
leader in Aquatics the urban Forest
supervisor that was mentioned earlier
along with the volunteer coordinator
which is proposed at half an FTE as well
as extending the Arts coordinator from a
0.75 FTE to a full-time FTE
um again as already mentioned this
evening within the police department
we'll be adding a corrections officer a
police record
specialist and two police officers in
2024.
in public works the proposed budget
includes an administrative specialist
and an additional maintenance worker
depending on one to three depending on
qualifications and both of those are
dedicated to the water utility
in Human Resources the proposed budget
extends or makes permanent the
Recruitment and Retention coordinator
that was a limited term employee in the
22 budget and in finance we propose that
in a budget analyst
um next slide please
in administrative Services again another
limited term position in the 22 budget
proposed to be made permanent is the
police systems and GIS analyst in the
executive department it proposes a
sustainability coordinator this was a a
coveted reduction so this would be
restoring that position in community
Planning and Development we'd be adding
an affordable housing planner and the
proposed budget also includes six new
ltes
including a building inspector a senior
applications analyst that's in the I.T
division a transportation program
coordinator and those two were both
included in the 22 budget as a limited
term as well they would be extending
them through 2024 a management fellow
that would be in the finance department
in Economic Development coordinator and
a program manager to assist with asset
management and one thing I want to note
here too is the proposed budget does
also include a limited term Parks
planning and project coordinator that
was approved this year as part of that
Capital Finance task force
recommendations it's not included in
this list as this had already been
approved by Council but I did want to
make note that that is included in the
budget
so this is our annual fde's per capita
table it is a lot but the Blue Line
represents population over time the
orange line is ftes over time and the
green filled portion is the ftes per
capita
so the 22 adopted budget has us at about
269 ftes the 23 proposed budget brings
us back up to 287 ftes and it's
interesting to note though that the
pre-pandemic maximum so the 2020 adopted
budget had us at 286 ftes which is only
one FTE lower than the 23 proposed
budget
uh next slide please
um so we've heard some overviews from
the key priorities within this proposed
budget but there are a few other items
that we would like to highlight
so the other general fund highlights
starting with so we'd be Shifting the
Fleet Services Division from Public
Works to administrative Services
administrative Services being created
with this year's budget really focused
on those city-wide internal customer
service um services
so that is a good home for Fleet as
Artie mentioned the we'd be creating a
new natural resources team within park
operations adding that Urban Forest
supervisor which would be overseeing
that that team the volunteer coordinator
and they'd be developing that urban
forestry plan
and it's the it's a it'll the goal of
this team is to provide the city with a
more focused approach to Forest
management overall health and
stewardship of our tree canopy and a
better ability to line volunteer efforts
with these with these important
environmental goals
the next item is the again I already
mentioned this evening the bi-annual
Community survey which was last
conducted last year in 2021 to learn
more about how the community perceives
city services and is of course quality
of life
um the title 18 whiteboard which is high
level here but includes the exploration
of the middle income housing the central
Issaquah parking analysis a stream
buffer analysis and the transfer of
development rights and Landscape
conservation and local infrastructure
program or l-clip feasibility study and
I believe this last piece is anticipated
to be discussed in the next Planning
Development and environment committee
um meeting so the next item is the state
required comprehensive Plan update
that's also in the community Planning
and Development Department
continued restoration of the Recreation
services following pandemic reductions
the park strategic Plan update and the
last part strategic plan was adopted in
2018 and was recommended to be updated
every six years so this is following
that recommendation the proposed budget
also includes continued Equity training
and finally the Public Works facility
tenant improvements to better
accommodate engineering staff following
the closure of City Hall Northwest
next slide please
so this slide gives an overview of the
allocation of the American Rescue plan
act or arpa disbursement the proposed
budget allocates quite a bit of this so
we've seen some of this allocated over
time over the last few years the city
received in total a little over 11
million dollars half of it dispersed in
2021 and the other half in 2022
to date the city has already
appropriated about 2.2 million including
these items here the recovery
coordinator return to office Newport
South Sr 900 to Southeast 54th Street
improvements Northwest Sammamish Road
non-motorized improvements and rental
assistance but the proposed budget
allocates the remaining 8.9 million
um including the 2 million in the
community Mobility investment fund
mentioned earlier an additional 600 000
to the Northwest Sammamish road now
motorized improvements the uh is a
central Issaquah multimodal I-90
crossing the also mentioned earlier this
evening the community park investment
and the annual concrete maintenance
program
so this kind of all in one slide how
that 11 million is allocated some of it
already some of it now in this proposed
budget
next slide please
other fun highlights so
um the lodging tax advisory committee
fund within this budget it increases
marketing Services by 30 000 over 2022
for tourism promotion I should note here
too that in the proposed document it
held ltac funding
um to status quo 2022 but following the
recommendation from ltac it does
increase by thirty thousand so I do want
to note that that is a slight adjustment
from what was in the document but
reflecting LTX recommendation
the municipal art fund as we talked
about with Council last year during
budget deliberations
the art fund was hit very hard by the
pandemic the main funding source in that
fund is admissions tax which is
primarily for movie theaters which was
non-existent during the pandemic so this
proposed budget proposes a one-time
infusion from the general fund to
maintain 22 funding levels and continue
that same level of service as 2022 but a
work plan item for 2023 would be looking
at long-term funding for that fund as
well as what
um Services the city would like to see
come out of that that activity
and finally in the medical Insurance
Fund we don't typically highlight funds
like this but for this particular year
given the the shift the anticipated
shift for
um medical employee medical to the
association of Washington City's pool
from a self-insured model
it does the proposed budget does greatly
reduce the expenditures out of that fund
so it will look dramatically different
from prior years and what in the
proposed budget but we'll also be
looking over the course of the next year
so as we wind down that fund what those
next steps will look like for that fund
and we have a question councilmember
hunt
thank you on the municipal art fund do
we have a sense if the ticket sales have
returns to pre-pandemic levels um going
forward yet that is a great question
they have not so far
um they have come back
a bit
um but we have not seen anywhere near
the same level activity as we did
pre-pandemic okay thank you
and council member Joe
thank you budget manager could you go
back a couple of slides I just had a
question about the ti improvements
um
one more slide
the Public Works facility tenant
improvements just so I'm matching it up
into the budget document is that fc020
the parking building expansion that's
correct okay thank you I appreciate that
all right uh next slide please to
sustainability thank you
so as the council may recall we earlier
this year signed a new contract for
Solid Waste Services in the city and
Solid Waste Services and that and the
administrative fee that we get from the
provider is the main funding source for
the sustainability fund so the sustained
we wanted to take a moment this evening
to go a little bit deeper into
sustainability than perhaps we had do in
a typical year and how we're going to be
allocating some of the larger fund
balance that we've seen over the last
couple of years as well as what the
proposed budget includes for that admin
fee so the sustainability fund it is
proposed as mentioned earlier that we
restore that sustainability coordinator
that had been a coveted reduction and
that the that staff will also help in
assisting the ins in the support of the
management of the that Recology contract
which was awarded earlier this year for
that waste diversion targets but the the
the big increase in expenditures for the
sustainability fund for 23 and 24 is the
preliminary steps for uh the icap
implementation or the Issaquah climate
action plan so that's that's going to
include the reducing ghg emissions from
existing buildings incentivizing green
buildings and reducing ghg emissions in
residential buildings reducing ghg
emissions from Municipal operations
sequestering carbon expanding access to
EV charging and engaging the community
and Youth
slide please
so the proposed way that these ads will
be funded so primarily especially for
icap implementation the we are proposing
a strategic spend down of that fund
balance for those items over the next
two years
um in addition for more of the ongoing
activity within that fund the staff time
the contract management we propose
adjusting the feed model for the new
Recology contract so as a refresher the
current contract which ends in mid-2023
we have a nine percent admin fee and
that is collected directly into the
sustainability fund and that average is
about 550 000 a year
in the new contract we are proposing a
six percent admin fee and it's important
to note that while we're reducing that
percentage because the contract itself
is higher due to increased rates we'd
still see approximately the same amount
of Revenue it would be holding Revenue
at about 600 to 650 000 a year
and that
um that percentage based in this new
contract that again starts mid next year
is not locked in for the duration of the
contract we have the ability to
negotiate that fee each year
so it's proposed that really this admin
fee covers those ongoing costs and we
use fund balance especially in those
next two years for those one-time
initial ad cap implementation pieces
paint uh next slide please
um also as mentioned earlier turning to
the city's utility funds the city
adopted its last utility rate study in
2020 with rate increases set through
2025. for 2023 and 2024 the city adapted
a seven and a half percent increase each
year in the water utility three and a
half percent each year in the sewer
utility for the city's portion there's
also a county fee within the City
utility and that is they recently
adopted that at 5.75 percent in 23 and
five and a half percent in 24 and the
city's utility or storm water utility
rates were in that rate study at five
and a half percent each year
so since this last three study was
adopted in 2020 it couldn't have
anticipated some of the challenges we've
seen recently so things like Staffing
constraints resulting from the pandemic
supply chain delays and the the level of
inflation observed in recent years in
particular
so with that in mind the proposed budget
includes funds to conduct an updated
rate study within the next couple of
years which is slightly ahead of
schedule
for it ending in 2025 to ensure that the
city has the needed funds to continue to
maintain service levels and water sewer
and storm water utilities
next line please
so we've touched on many capital
projects already this evening throughout
the key priorities but the proposed
budget includes as mentioned a robust
capital investment plan as summarized
here and
the proposed budget besides the items
already mentioned this evening does
include as you can see here investments
from in the city's utilities
Transportation Systems Mobility
infrastructure Parks trails and
Facilities but also as mentioned earlier
this evening the city will also be
conducting that biennial update to the
capital Improvement plan next year
forecasting Capital funding and
investments from 2024 through 2029 as a
six-year CIP
a slide please
understanding that we provided a lot of
information tonight and the budget
itself is pretty large the
Administration has summarized several
areas in which we're seeking feedback
from the council as you begin
deliberations this evening
thank you so these policy questions are
does the council
support the overall general fund
balancing strategy for this biennium
including the 17 percent undesignated
fund balance as a percent of
expenditures the end of 2024.
strategies to reduce the personnel
underspend
and the underspend in general
support the discussing a long-term
Revenue strategy
does the council support the proposed
Revenue adjustments including taking the
one percent increase to the property tax
levy increasing CPD permit fees
increasing Recreation fees and
increasing the increase to the municipal
court and jail correction contracts with
partner jurisdictions
and finally does the council support the
proposed salad waste admin fee of six
percent
and I'm sure we'll be coming back to
these questions throughout deliberations
as well as if the council would like to
add any additional questions for
consideration um next slide please
so where we go from here
uh the uh we'll be returning to the
council with various legislation to
enact this proposed budget including in
the property tax ordinance the budget
ordinance the salary ordinance and a
an adjustment to those CPD permit fee
increases
in particular next slide please
so we're putting this Council schedule
back up I believe we have one more slide
here but with the conclusion of that
slide our next budget touch point will
be October 3rd this coming Monday with
uh the anticipated action of opening the
public hearings for property tax
ordinance and the budget ordinance
itself and deliberations will continue
on from there next slide please
so for the final slide here we did want
to touch on questions
um and we are of course happy to take
any questions this evening following
this presentation but we also provided a
link for questions like prior budget
Cycles those instructions were provided
on September 8th and staff will be
providing rolling responses to those
questions with the first batch provided
with the packet for the October 10th
Committee of the whole
and to ensure a response before final
deliberations on November 7th we ask
that questions be submitted by October
31st
and with that uh we are open to any
questions please
okay I'm not seeing any questions at
this point so obviously we will come
back to deliberation comments
conversation there
um oh we do have a question Deputy
council president Hull I keep coming in
late
um question for Deputy State
administrator Snyder Capital Finance
Community task force recommendation one
of them was around
um
our general fund fun fund balance and
bringing that down to kind of the lower
level of our financial policy did we
have a was the recommendation at a
specific amount like 17 or 15 of
expenditures or was it just to lower it
uh the recommendation was to lower it
okay there wasn't anything talk it
wasn't a specific percentage
councilmember hunt
thanks
um so these are two questions that
clarify some of the aspects of the
administration's policy questions one
there was a question about the staff or
Personnel underspend do we have a sense
of what that actually has been over the
last couple years because I know we're
increasing or proposed to increase from
one to three percent but it would be
good to know what it what the actual is
since we're trying to more closely match
the reality
the councilmember hunt uh so for
2021 the underspend was pretty
significant and that's just because of
vacancies and vacancies you know if you
have services that are provided by
employees and you're vacant those
positions obviously the services were
reduced so part of it was the
uncertainty of covet as well what the
city could get to that was part of the
underspan last year especially with
capital projects when we're going into
this year
um
the HR staff and police especially have
made a lot of strides in filling those
vacant positions but we're still running
a vacancy rate at the city at it is it's
getting better it's improving but it is
still over 10 percent right now but it
has dramatically improved since the
beginning of the year so that's part of
it
and um
that's part of the underspend and
so that's why we're looking at next year
we had budgeted one percent in the
budget this year for 22 but we're we're
confident that if the trend continues uh
three percent is a rational number for
the 23 24 biennium at this point
and if I could add the three more
precise to the answer council member
Hunt's question uh it's been more than
three percent in 22-21 so I think the
numbers as Mr mood just said we think is
appropriate going forward but the number
has been much more than that the last
couple of years
okay so the the question one of the
policy questions was about
um if we supported that do you expect
then to continue to sort of revisit this
every year and try to more closely match
what we're seeing
until a certain circumstances change I
mean if we find ourselves fully staffed
all the time then I think we would want
to revisit that we don't anticipate that
happening uh in the foreseeable future
okay great yeah so I think that answers
my question I was wondering
um if the goal was to match what we were
what we were observing and I think I
think it is and recognizing that that
will change it's the match actual yes
and councilmember Hunt I think you said
you had two questions did you have
another
I did um could you bring up the policy
questions it's I think one slide back
the site
oh yeah I remember um so
um you mentioned the one of the policy
questions about being about the revenue
sources and one of those being the um
the recreation fees I did notice in the
budget that it
um says that the mayor
um has the ability to increase these
fees because they're pursuant to to
pursuant to an IMC 3.59 to approve
inflationary adjustments and so I
wondered if this is something that
um actually is within council's purview
if it can be done by mayoral Authority
so one wanted clarification on that
Jeff Watling has been sitting quietly
patiently in the back so we'll let him
come up and make it worth his while to
be here this evening
generally speaking though we want to get
the council's feedback on all fees
including those under statute that the
mayor could adjust I think if we're
hearing from the council something
different we'd like to hear that
Jeff is that about yeah boy thanks for
that City administrator Bob Coates the
opportunity to speak good evening
Council so yeah the IMC does speak to
mayor's Authority up to inflationary I
think it's up to seven percent that same
IMC though references that staff will
come and update city council and inform
Council of those of those increases
okay thank you
okay so seeing no other questions and
City administrator Bob quits uh first of
all let me thank the council for your
patience we came in pretty close to the
90 minutes that we promised
um this is the completion of our
presentation of the budget so for the
remaining meetings we have no other uh
presentations planned
um we will come back ready uh to answer
any additional questions that you have
uh walk through the uh questions that
the Administration has proposed any
questions that the council itself would
like to have but there is no other
planned presentations by the
administration at this time
thank you okay well we will certainly
talk about that in our deliberation
commentary and everything
um do we have a public comment period at
this point then okay so asking if there
is anyone
um online I see no one in the room that
is public and not staff so if there's
anyone online that would like to make a
comment at this point please if you're
on the phone press star three if you're
on a computer or smartphone you can
raise your virtual hand and so I will
take a moment and ask the clerk if we
have anyone indicating a desire to speak
council president we do have a few
members of the public attending
virtually at this point
I am not seeing that anyone desires to
speak I do see one hand raised I think
it's a carryover from the early comment
but let me just quickly check in with
Elizabeth
I'm unmuting you now did you wish to
make comments regarding the budget at
this time
uh no thank you okay
so I don't see anyone else wishing to
speak
okay
so now it becomes our turn again
um so I think you know we certainly have
the administration's questions that we
can go through as far as those policy
questions and maybe one of the things
that Deputy council president Hall and I
were thinking about was
our goal isn't necessarily to have the
answers tonight but to help Define what
what the conversation looks like for the
rest of our budget cycle so toward that
idea
um the two of us had kind of sat down
and come up with some other potential
budget policy questions that might shape
that conversation
so
let me ask the question first do
we're just at the very beginning of our
budget cycle do we feel comfortable
answering these questions or do we feel
more comfortable talking about whether
those are the appropriate questions to
kind of guide our conversation on the
budget
seeing no one council member hunt
uh things so
um there was also a couple questions
that were emailed out that I think were
um higher level in a way I do appreciate
that some of these uh are are high level
as far as the general fund
um balancing strategy for example but I
think From council's perspective I think
it would also be useful to address those
questions that were in that email the
first one was about you know reflecting
on the retreat and and I think
um does this uh align with our
expectations coming out of the retreat
so I would like to see those addressed I
think we could also potentially get into
at least a higher level ones
um that are put forward here with our
first impressions based on the
presentation we heard tonight
okay anyone else
we're kind of trying to frame up
part of what you know do we have the
information have we kind of absorbed the
information from the budget enough to
answer some of these these questions
that have been presented and then how do
we want to shape out the conversation
for the remainder of the budget period
in previous budgets we've done a good
job of kind of pulling out the policy
questions that are presented in the
budget so that we can really focus our
time and have those meaningful
conversations so part of that is
maybe getting a little bit of feedback
on that as a process and also what some
of those potential
questions are
so
council member Ray I shall jump in I
thought the retreat we had was really
good in terms of setting priorities and
saying these are things that we wanted
to do and I think what I heard
councilmember hunt just say is I'd like
to see some sort of a crosswalk that
says here's what we've talked about
during the treat and here's where it's
reflected in the budget I think that
would really be helpful to say yeah
we're walking the talk I think the
budget is a policy document but more
it's a priority document so are the
priorities that we talked about are
those reflected and
um and then we can you know say yes and
and are they adequately addressed so
from my perspective that would be the
next step for us is to say yes you you
heard us and you reflected our
priorities in this document and yes you
um the the degree to which you've funded
and prioritized them is appropriate or
not appropriate
so toward that end one of the things
that Deputy council president Hall and I
were talking about was potentially
taking one of our budget meetings or
part of one of our budget meetings and
asking staff to bring us information on
either all of the priority One groupings
that we had for operations and capital
or going down into priority two as well
which was a rather large group but
perhaps it could come in
priority two come in a memo form while
the priority one is really our
discussion so does that seem to meet
your needs for getting the information
on does this budget hit those things
that we've prioritized
seeing some nods okay sounds good
fantastic
um so then
some of the other things that the the
budget has pulled out is this General
strategy of spending down the fund the
ending fund balance and so we're
certainly seeing that as a part of the
general fund that was something that
came out of the community financing task
force we've
talked about it a lot in previous
budgets and so do we
want to use that as like a thumbs up
thumbs down do we want to use that as a
conversation point is that something we
feel strongly about talking about or do
we feel like that's something that we
have already agreed upon
through many many conversations council
member uh Mart thank you council
president
um so this whole conversation is is
interesting and it it would seem if a if
a alien were to come in and observe us
this evening wondering why otherwise
normally talkative body as being sort of
unusually shine reticent but I mean I
think it traces back to the fact that we
did have an unusually well aligned
Council and administration in The Last
Retreat and the budget as far as I can
tell thus far reflects it well although
I agree with council member Ray I would
like to see more specific you know
here's you ask you know here's eight
things you asked for and here's how how
they're all in here traceability Matrix
is what we call it in engineering but
yeah I mean this this you know
undesignated fund balance is something
that we've talked about a lot and this
appears to be exactly what we asked for
and so I as much as I would love to
gnash my teeth and Rend my garments and
um and stress over this budget there's
really just not a lot to stress over so
um however you see fit to want to
structure this conversation you know we
could do the you know sort of spoon feed
each question the way
um uh city clerk Geezer did for our uh
manual you know Council manual update
where where you know just walk through
these issues and then you know that
would that would be one way to
potentially do it but they're just
there's just not a lot of drama this
year and so I feel sort of bad that you
know like I said if somebody were to be
observing us it'd be like why doesn't
these care it's not that it's just that
a lot of these things have are arriving
pre-baked because we spent a lot of time
on them so I'm I'm eager to get going
with it which isn't to say to do it
tonight
um but you know I'm I'm hoping that we
will get through this process fairly
quickly
um like I said starting with you know
just a little bit more on on how it
reflects our priorities but then just
dive into line these questions up and
knock them down thanks
okay so so far I'm hearing uh first of
all I very much appreciate that and I'm
totally in alignment with you that
we were able to speak our minds early we
have a lot of community feedback that
has led to this the Administration has
listened and we're seeing all of this as
it comes through
what I'm hearing is there's still an
interest in a meeting on the July budget
priority setting exercise and how this
budget proposes to meet those and what
the scope of that is so that's a good
conversation and then we always have our
opportunity to share questions on
SharePoint get that over to the budget
team and then potentially have a meeting
along with rolling answers coming from
them on any of the details as we get
into some of those
[Music]
um
Deputy council president Hall do you
have anything else you want to share on
kind of our our thoughts on what the
budget priorities and what those
conversations look like
well I guess
um a response to you it's slash
potential question for safety
administrator Bob kowitz's art
was it staff's hope that we would
provide Direction on some of these
questions tonight or in the very least
layout you know which ones we think are
going to require as we've been kind of
discussing now which ones we think are
going to require more of a council
discussion is this we were certainly not
looking for answers this evening okay we
were trying to kind of set the table uh
council president I think uh what I'm
hearing from the council is that would
make sense for us to come prepared to
your meeting on October 10th to walk
through the budget priorities
um I we could prepare a memo which will
probably indicate that we are you know
the the three quarters of these are
budgeted included and there are no
questions and maybe there's a quarter
that would probably require a little bit
more uh explanation so if you'd like we
can take a stab at that
um you know you you with there's what
two Capital uh Priority One projects
there are four uh Priority One operating
um we could spend a little bit of time
uh talking about those
um have the rest perhaps as a memo but
be able to answer any questions on that
would that be useful because I think
that if there's concurrence or if
there's disagreement we can flush that
out right away yeah I think that's
certainly what we've heard from the
members of council so far council member
hunt you had a question
uh well it's a it's a comment on that if
that's okay
um so I I do think that would be helpful
I think the memo and having information
about how the council Retreat
um identified priorities are represented
would be useful so the one example that
I'm looking at is the green necklace I
think there's
funding in here for
um Park's acquisition and acquisition of
lands but I am wondering
um what policy decisions what budget
related decisions we could make to
change the strategy and actually
um
have the green necklace become a reality
because I think we we have gone down a
certain path to this point and I think
with the support that was
indicated by Council I would I would
like to explore how we could take a more
proactive strategy for the green
necklace so that would take I think some
some thinking about
um but that's the kind of thing that I
think it would be useful to have the
administration's thoughts on how it's
represented currently and what options
there are for representing it um
in a with more of an emphasis in this
two-year budget so I I do think that
would be helpful and I just wanted to
provide that insight into what kind of
information I would be expecting in that
meeting
sounds good
um Deputy council president hall and
then councilmember Joe uh thank you and
and as um one of couple or one of you
know the body Council Members not as
Deputy council president I agree with
everything that's been said one thing
that I want to highlight though in terms
of
having a deeper Council discussion
through the budget process is the solid
waste admin fee I would really like to
get a better sense of of decreasing it
to six percent you know what's the real
savings that we get from that and the
benefit that is passed on as opposed to
keeping it at nine percent with the
potential for more capacity for icap
implementation so I think that's a
policy discussion that that we need to
get into a bit more
I was uh Curious to get some feedback
from the administration on the second
big bullet point support discussing the
long-term Revenue strategy is that
something that we could incorporate into
the budget process where the
administration is going to bring us back
some options in terms of we could tweak
this tax or this fee to get additional
Revenue in the long term or is this
something that's going to be discussed
after the budget's over what was kind of
the intention for the administration
there
uh thank you councilmember job members
of the council what we wanted to do is
kind of raise the flag
um and say that this is something we
think is an integral part of the future
uh budget processes and that's something
that we would likely be coming to the
council during 23 to talk about further
so there's no additional changes that
we're asking for but really just want to
make sure if the council disagrees and
says no we're happy with it and when we
run out of money we're running out of
money we'll re-prioritize then we don't
want to waste the council's time but at
this point we feel it would be worth the
council's time to have some more
discussion starting in 23. okay thank
you and my initial thought was that the
capital finance committee did some of
that work in terms of looking at the
revenue sources and what could be
tweaked is that your first building
block for that conversation and then you
get more creative after that
uh it's the second building the block is
operating okay how do we pay for Police
Service we haven't really talked about
our fire contract that's a major part of
our budget uh it gets raised every year
largely out of our control other than
the members of the city council that
serve on the ephra board so those costs
are continuing so while one block is the
capital side which we have spent some
time talking about uh the administration
mayor Paulie believes that the operating
side also needs that kind of discussion
and and creativity as well okay so if
I'm hearing you correctly but it's a
bullet point you would like us to keep
on the back burner at this point you
don't necessarily need an answer through
this process but it's something you want
us to discuss and keep after the budget
keep on the on the
burner so to speak as we look toward uh
the revenue and the potential for
potentially having those two lines
crossed where we start running a deficit
and and as mayor Paulie came to the
council I guess probably close to a year
ago and raised the issue on the capital
side I think this is the same
opportunity to raise it now on the
operating side
foreign
so we've heard now the conversation
about the budget priorities and we've
had highlighted on that
you know the priority One items
councilmember hunt mentioned the green
necklace I will throw in Title 18 and
what the scope of that idea is for the
future updates list and then a memo
about the priority two items I've now
heard one member mention that interested
in having a conversation on the proposed
Solid Waste administrative fee of six
percent and how that relates to
potential escrow climate action plan
funding are we hearing anyone else in
support of that conversation council
member hunt
yes I am also in support of that and I
have um asked a question of our
sustainability manager
um Stacy about how the uh how the fee at
the proposed rate would support
completion of the icap so um that
question is in the hopper and I think
that would be helpful because that gives
us a better sense of how our plan that
we've adopted would be completed to your
to your point about what does this rate
um get us so that would be useful to
have for that conversation
um one other thing on the long-term
Revenue strategy I think it would be I
agree I think it's a necessary
conversation to have I also think it
would be good within that conversation
to think holistically about how can we
maintain level of service that our
community expects long term if there are
other strategies other than increasing
revenues such as Regional shared
services
or other models that we could look at to
maintain the level of service
of operation service without running
into issues long term that that our
long-term budget forecast is currently
predicting
okay and I will throw in I'm interested
in having the solid waste administrative
fee conversation
similar toward that the sustainability
fund is decreasing in value and so I
would kind of group some of those ideas
in since that's the major funding source
so having just a conversation about that
toward that idea one of the items that I
raised in potential budget policy
questions email was that many of the
other funds including the Enterprise
fund Reit all of those are we're also
proposing a significant spend down in
their fund balances and so you see
decreasing ending fund balance between
the 2021 and the 2024 that are shown in
the budget we don't really have any
adopted fiscal policies for those funds
um we do have one for the general fund
and so I'm wondering how do we feel
about this one-time spending do we want
to take a look at any fiscal policies do
we
you know what what is our thoughts
outside of the general fund on the spend
down approach is that something we all
want to have a conversation about
and council president we've not had a
chance to react to that email there are
policies for some of those funds and so
if you'd like perhaps we can add that to
the questions uh and and provide that
answer thanks to you and then we've just
been busy getting ready for tonight and
so absolutely like we got that yesterday
so we weren't able to respond so we can
add that to the list of other responses
great
um
let's see
okay
I think we're pretty good at this point
unless I'm hearing anything so the
administration sounds like you're going
to come back for the October 10th
meeting with that conversation about
budget priorities
um the seven of us have an assignment to
get all of our detailed questions in on
the SharePoint link that's in our email
by October 1st so we've got only a few
more days on that
um and then we have
October 1st for the October 10th meeting
October 31st before adoption
okay so over the next several days if
you have additional questions we will
make every effort to have those answered
in time for October 10th okay anything
after October 1st likely isn't going to
make the the trough for the October 10th
questions uh and council president just
so I can be a little bit more precise to
what you're expecting uh so if we can
come back with a a very simple memo on
the priority two and priority three
level uh and just do a crosswalk to say
here's where it is in the budget I think
nearly everything is covered in one form
or another so if it was just a a a line
or two crosswalk back to page numbers
that then leaves
uh six uh priority level one uh projects
and then the discussion regarding the
solid waste fee so if we could come and
just speak to that versus preparing
additional memoranda and have
appropriate staff here to speak to that
would that be sufficient
uh councilmember hunt I think I think um
council president Walsh also had the
sustainability fund generally in with
the solid waste fee question right okay
so we can we can speak so it would be
the the six priority level ones the six
percent Solid Waste fee and then
additional conversation more broadly
about the sustainability fund
that work yeah sounds good
okay
and then that leaves a whole lot of
meetings after this that we have
currently set up for budget so if
something else comes up as we're kind of
having more of these conversations and
getting our questions and everything
just feel free to reach out and if not I
mean as councilmember Mertz said we've
done a lot of the work early on so
um some of that is reflective of this
okay thank you so I think we are pretty
good at this point I'm wondering if the
council wants to take a five ten minute
break before we go into second
I've seen one five minute break
okay we'll do a five minute break before
going into the next item on our agenda
we will come back at 8 39.
okay we are back from break and ready to
take on our second and last item on our
agenda tonight
which is ID 1087 Regional representation
and I will be starting this off and
co-presenting with Deputy council
president Hall
so if you want to go ahead and go to the
next slide to show thank you okay so
this is a very busy slide
um
let me take a moment and introduce our
conversation here before we really dive
into this
one of the things that Deputy council
president Hall and I wanted to
accomplish this year was to take a look
at our regional representation all of
the positions that we can and do hold
within the region within the Puget Sound
Regional Council and the sound cities
Association
and all of those options
um and just take a moment and say are we
in the right seats are we doing the
things that we need to do to represent
our community do we see any gaps do we
see any opportunities for long-term
growth to get into some desired
positions things like that so the way
that we wanted to pull this together was
to look at the
um oh I missed a color there darn to
look at the
strategic plan and see all of those
Regional
boards and commissions that align with
those so in the top right corner that's
supposed to be orange which is the
growth and development then following
around clockwise we've got the boards
that we've associated with the
environmental stewardship part of our
strategic plan
then going down to the right the social
and economic vitality
and those types of plans and our
social and economic Vitality portion of
the Strategic plan also covers
homelessness and those areas so that's
what's included in those at the very
bottom in purple is kind of the
executive or overarching boards that
don't have a particular alignment with
our strategic plan
the continuing on to the left
um the items there are related to the
city leadership and services a lot of
those are related to either utilities or
Public Safety things like that
and then at the top left we've got the
items that are related to Mobility
so and then further we've highlighted
and bold any of the seats where one of
the seven of us or the mayor has a
current seat
uh we've got an asterisk for kind of
those seats where we really have a
required position and then a carrot for
any of those where there are multiple
seats so that we can fill in order to
provide opportunities
and so
this is a it's kind of an open-ended
conversation about
which seats are important to us as a
council and as a community and then how
do we put that into action so the sound
cities associations put out their call
for
seats for the next year and applications
for those so we have an opportunity to
first of all take a look at the seats
that we're on are they all serving us
well are they worth our time are they
providing the community a benefit
and then also are there any things that
we want to make a priority and then also
are there any things that we need to
grow into
so
um I'm gonna move forward I've just got
two more slides here and then we can
kind of come back to this as a place for
our conversation so the next slide
please
so
um part of this is again
how do we decide what seats are
important
which ones are our priority seats are we
in those right seats currently are there
any additional ones that we should look
at and then like I alluded to in some
cases you know you have to have an
experience in an area in order to be
qualified to sit on that seat and so how
do we set ourselves up for some of those
future positions
and then the other part of this
conversation is is this just a
conversation is this something that we
want to consider a change in policy is
there is there a policy here or is this
just a a framework for
um all of us as we're trying to make our
own decisions about our own
um
own positions and then how do we use
this
um
as Council leadership as an outcome of
the conversation I think you had had a
few conversations about kind of that
concept of
what other councils are doing around
this
yeah
um well thank you for that introduction
um you know just to say that this is
completely a function of you know what
we consider as important as a council
right so in talking with the sound
cities Association I've discovered that
it's kind of a pretty even split in
terms of councils that determine
priorities priority appointments that
they'd like their council members to to
um to sit on and think about it
strategically and then there are
councils that just kind of say these are
opportunities that are available to you
in your service as a city council member
and if you would like to or if you have
experience in this area or interest in
this area you can so
um you know just to kind of double our
ditto the fact that this is really you
know what we want to do here do we want
to be more strategic or are we fine and
satisfied with what we're doing now or
are we being strategic now so this is
kind of a pretty open-ended conversation
but back to you council president Walsh
well I think we have a question from
council member marks well maybe a
comment more than a question
um you know one of the things about this
is a lot of these bodies have very very
different charters
so
um some of them are very much
deliberative bodies that make decisions
gmpc is currently in a mode where it's
where it makes a lot of decisions psrc
executive board RPC uh
these are these are these are groups
that make a lot of decisions
um as opposed to
um
the affordable housing or what's the
regional law safety and Justice
committee does is just an informative
body it just um it gets people together
to inform them of what's going on and
and I was on it for years and and I
don't think they made a simple decision
um
uh emac is an example
um that of a board that's mostly
informative but every couple of years
has a decision has decisions to make
Emergency Management advisory Council of
of King County every couple of years
they make a decision on uh some federal
grants right but ninety percent of their
activity looks a lot more like the
regional law safety and Justice so you
know that's part of what you have to to
look at here one that you don't have on
here that is extremely deliberative is
Sound Transit board right
um Sound Transit board is very hard to
get on to our PC is very hard to get out
to psrc Executive Board is really hard
to get onto right those are all things
that a city like ours would be extremely
lucky to get on to any of them right and
it's one of the reasons why
Fred Butler for so long was on the Sound
Transit board and that was a very very
big deal because the city Lake cars
wouldn't otherwise be able to
contemplate being on the Sound Transit
board so so there's this there's this
weird thing of on one axis you could
sort of plot how how much does this body
impact policy in the county or in or
with psrc and then another axis is how
hard is it to get into right some of
them are reasonably easy to get into and
and make some decisions uh
I just want to point that out right that
there's some of these even though they
may dovetail with areas of our interest
may not be
um you know Emergency Management uh or
sorry the regional law safety and
Justice these are all topics that I care
about a great deal but it was not a you
know in the areas where we could move
the needle it was mostly just people
coming in telling us all the hard work
they were doing and the great things
they were accomplishing thanks
I very much appreciate that as a
perspective having served on some of
those boards which are very interesting
to get the information on but when
you're having to choose what is
important for your time
um the decision-making bodies are
certainly at a different level so that's
a very good point
um Tisha do you want to go to the last
slide just to cover that and then we'll
go back to the original one so
um the 2023 applications for the sound
cities Association is due by November
11th so what we're hoping to do is use
the feedback and kind of that
conversation about what are the outcomes
of this meeting to use that to send out
an email to everyone to request your
areas of interest and then because
if we submit to the sound cities
Association two people for the same seat
they will throw both of them out because
they never make a decision about a
single City and competition
um we are going to review the mayor and
I will review your submissions just so
that we avoid the duplications and then
we will the mayor's office is going to
have Juliana coordinate with each of us
to submit the application which includes
preventing a statement of Interest
before the deadline and then obviously
we also have another portion of this
which is the local appointments like
things like the chamber
um those will be made in January next
year by the council leadership team so
while it's part of this conversation it
isn't anything we would be taking action
on at this point
um so at this point I guess I can open
up to questions and then see if there's
anybody on the line for public comment
um any other questions no do we have
anybody on the line for public comment
no okay I didn't anticipate okay then
Tisha could you go back up the two
slides to the crazy colorful one with
all of that
so
we can
talk through some of these what our
experiences with all of them
but I really it's it's just a
conversation for all of us to have about
are there priorities that should we
should set how do we want to approach
those as we come into
application season
um
what everybody is thinking
so I appreciated councilmember March
talking about the difference between a
decision-making body and a an
informational body
um
do you would it would it be useful to
use the long time experience of certain
members who have had experience on some
of these to kind of have an internal
list that we keep up that's like these
are the ones we consider decision
makings these are the ones we consider
informational
absolutely I think that a good step is
to ask all of us who have experience I
mean I've done
I don't know seven or eight of these
um over the years and ask all of us who
have experience with them
provide some feedback to to the rest of
the council
um on whether it's right how much it's
deliberative how hard it might be uh to
get into
and uh yeah
okay council member hunt
um yeah I think that's a great idea I
think one other helpful
addition would be the amount of of time
commitments not only meetings we do have
a list that has gone out previously with
calls for these positions that has the
the meeting time but some of them also
have like a Caucus meeting Associated or
other prep meetings with staff or or
other you know hundreds of pages of
material or whatever it may be and so
that would also be good to get for for
remember for council members that have
been on these committees to get their
sense of of not only the meeting time
required but also just the total
um commitment in in terms of effort to
serve on the committee
yeah the only thing I would add to the
assessing them from a deliberative point
of view even the ones that are
informational
how important that information would or
could be to us I'm actually looking at
CA pick which is not necessarily a
deliberative body but clearly extremely
highly valued information source so I
think that it I think there's a way to
put this on a you know on an XY grid and
all the answers become apparent
I'm sorry did you just say that we were
going to have to chart this out no this
is memo form this is a memo form uh
council member Joe do you have a comment
yes thank you
um just to let the the body know I
attend a number of these means as part
of my job
um I typically listen to the gmpb
I listen to the gmpc normally I've just
been appointed to the affordable housing
committee
um as a representative for my Business
Association so
[Music]
um I know it's important to have a
person on those committees that's voting
and taking part in the conversation so
that certainly weighs into things we
just wanted to throw that in the
conversation that we have
some other feelers and and people out in
the community that are also going to
these these uh meetings out there so I'd
be happy to continue as a greater escrow
Chamber of Commerce liaison and happy to
continue as a Cascade water Alliance
individual if if you would like me to do
that
um just love going to meetings thanks
and that's why you're on Council
um okay so I'm hearing that definitely
pulling together some kind of an
informational document using the shared
brain and experience Knowledge from all
of us sounds like a good idea so that's
something that I think Deputy council
president Hall and I will reach out to
each of you to quiz you on which ones
have you been a part of what are your
thoughts there so I think we can take
care of that as an action item
[Music]
um
go ahead council member
um one other thing that just occurred to
me I'm not sure if this is the only one
that is like this but the Lake Sammamish
Kokanee interlocal management committee
really
um deals with a subset of issues that
the wire 8 salmon Recovery Council
addresses and so having expertise and
serving on it I don't think it would
make a lot of sense to have different
people serve on those I think it makes
more sense to have the same person
because they're so closely connected so
that would be another thing for this
um this information that you're
collecting is if there are committees
that have some sort of functional
um or important connection to each other
and similar to that one of the things
that I've experienced is that the King
County
affordable housing committee is a subset
of the gmpc
and so you likely could not have someone
on sitting on both of those that was the
same person so there are a few other
related ideas there
yep uh Deputy council president Hall all
right
um all right so we're seeing kind of
this larger chart action list action
item come up I have some just kind of
General comments on prioritization and
how we should be thinking about that as
a council I wanted to share too so you
know some of the questions were how are
we
defining whether roles are important and
what is our framework for prioritization
some some things come to mind first and
foremost what's required of us obviously
right so I'm pretty sure we're required
to have Eastside fire rescue Cascade
water Alliance are we required to have
someone on pick I think that's a
requirement right uh yeah I mean you're
offered you're just silly not to since
we Paid Dues okay uh every year okay and
chamber so you know there are these
appointments that need to be filled so I
almost am starting to see
um it might even be worth having some
sort of prioritization Matrix in this
chart too in terms of these ones are
required these ones have to deal with
life or property safety you know like
um that might rank higher than other
appointments these ones are have to deal
with this particular strategic plan goal
area so I'm also just kind of seeing
that we could also be categorizing this
in different ways and then saying
um you know Council it's time to re-up
our appointments it's not required but
you know here's this here's this Matrix
Matrix of all the appointments we think
it's most important as a deliberative
body to have people in these required
positions and then you know life safety
positions although I guess there's kind
of a lot of overlap between those two
and then positions that line up with our
strategic plan goal areas and I think
there's another one and we might need to
have a deeper conversation about this
tonight about which ones what are our
goals what are our aim appointments so
like councilman remarks brought up Sound
Transit which we intentionally left off
because we wanted you know how do we get
there you know at what point do we say
okay okay we need to start strategically
thinking about getting someone on this
Transportation body so they can sit
there for a few years and then move up
to the next Transportation body so then
eventually the King County
Council or whoever makes that
appointment appoints someone from
Issaquah to Sound Transit so some things
that I've been thinking about are
we're hearing a lot about this chart and
what are the things that we can kind of
categorize them but also ranking is is
something that I think we should be
thinking about so that way when you go
to look at this chart and say well where
should I be serving it's not always just
um well what's my background you know
what am I interested in but also what's
needed and from a strategic plan
perspective and also from a required
perspective so those are my thoughts and
things
councilman Ray I'm going to build on uh
Deputy Council president's comments I
think they're three tiers there are
um things that we have to do Eastside
Fire and Rescue
um you know Cascade water Alliance you
know those those are for sure right
we're going to fill those the second
tier are the the ones that actually we
have an opportunity to influence the
region and those are gmpc
um you know it's the psrc transportation
policy board whichever those are that
that actually are deliberative bodies to
steal from councilmember Mart that
actually move the Needle And Then There
are the informational ones which is I
think the third tier where those are our
sensing organs so that's a way for us to
pick out areas that we're particularly
interested in
um knowing what's going on but we're not
going to be drivers and then I think
within that hierarchy there's a priority
there's a waiting that says look
um this one let me just pick on gmpc
which is a you know tier two because
um it's a deliberative body but not one
that we're guaranteed or have to have
but it's absolutely essential because
we're such a growth Center so that's you
know that's a
that's uh extra large you know emphasis
and then there might be another kind of
attribute to the each one which is is it
a stepping stone to someplace else and
so we could actually tag another
attribute to say Okay
um
you know this you know we don't think
that the regional transit committee
really does anything and I don't know if
they do or not but it's a necessary
thing if we want to go someplace else so
what are our Stepping Stones to go from
here to there and use that to help
inform where we want want
to go and then then it's superimposing
people's interests and desires and
skills and all that over that framework
the accounts of President Hall is taking
these notes
um that's very useful the other thing
that just came up for me realizing is I
think a few of these boards including
gmpc if I'm correct have term limits
and so that's the other thing to
consider council member marks yeah I I
mean I trimmed out a gmpc after I think
five years
um so uh there's that there's also uh
you know most of these are ultimately
SCA uh appointments and it's the sca
nominating committee uh which some of us
may know some of those members or not or
or whatnot but it you know just getting
back to this you know doing your time in
certain committees and moving your way
up and I I think just writing down you
know Zach if you come through and talk
to all of us about the Committees we've
been on and write this information down
a lot of the stuff is just gonna
show up as important but I mean just
coming back to this gmpb and gmpc
there's a time when gmpb made a lot of
decisions and uh it's not in a current
phase where it actually does all the
decision making is over gmpc so there's
just there's a lot of factors and I
think you know I don't know how you know
how many degrees of freedom you can put
in a multi-variable uh optimization
um or but just writing down information
from each of us who have served in these
committees I think will help uh council
president you and the mayor make
decisions you know I think if you get
the qualitative information from
everybody and then you do something
where you get prioritized interest from
each of us I think that the picture will
emerge from it I'll tell you I have my
own factors I now work 60 hours a week
in South King County right so my my time
is is you know I look a lot at when when
these things are occurring so you know
we all have we all have factors like
that right that go into our interest in
decision making thanks
so let's move to that kind of
conversation how how do we use this
information that we come up with if we
if we come up with this concept of you
know here are the required here are the
decision making here are the
informational that are maybe useful in
making a step up
you know what
other than information
how do we think about using that
councilmember hunt
well I I think once we have that and
then we have we currently have a system
in place that I think works pretty well
just asking people for their interest in
applying so once we have those
prioritized ones and then if there are
conflicts
um you know you could work with those
council members or complex I mean
um if there are two council members that
want the same thing then you could talk
with them and sort of work through that
but I think that our current system on
that works pretty well one other piece
of information for your uh your fact
sheet here is um uh some of these at
least two that I serve on are making
decisions about spending funds and we
are part of an interlocal agreement so
the city pays into the that fund and
then oh several actually many of the
ones I'm on
um and then and then so that's another
factor is if it's deliberative and if
you know if if we are one of only a few
cities that are in your local agreement
and it's and this is making decisions
about how that's spent you know that
could could also be a factor
fantastic wonderful
um let me ask another question are we in
the right seats currently and are there
any of those that we see that aren't
bold right now that we feel like are
important or that we should pursue
and this is certainly something that we
can have conversations with people
individually but it's also just an
opportunity
um you know I've looked at things like
the Flood Control District when we look
at a lot of the cities that have flood
Plains and watersheds and all of that we
haven't had a seat on that for a while I
don't know how much decision-making
Authority they have versus informational
I know they have a pretty difficult
schedule and that they meet often in the
summer and then not very often outside
of that summer period but I wonder is
that something that we look at and go
okay that could be applicable maybe we
should think about putting that into a
priority given we don't have a lot of
experience on it so it isn't going to be
one where we talk to everybody and we
say
what's the deal with this one
so how do people feel about that do we
feel like there are any others that
we're looking at and saying yeah that's
really important we should think about
what that is
no
councilman hunt
um it seems to me and also reflected
just looking at at this that
transportation and Transit you know
making sure that we are representing
Issaquah and those Transit conversations
is really important
um and so that's a regional you know
Regional decisions but it really affects
our community so I think I don't have a
specific one in mind so that we aren't
on or anything like that but I just
think you know targeting those
transportation and especially public
transit
um decision-making bodies and
representing issaquah's voice in those
is really important for us going forward
and I also think we're we're on some you
know just big picture we're on some
really influential boards and I think we
are well representing Issaquah if you
look across this thing we're on many
boards many that make decisions about
important things including growth
management and um and that is that is
great
great
um I had a little bit of an email
exchange with council member D Michelle
since she wasn't going to be here
tonight and she had mentioned
Transportation
um particularly Transit the Puget Sound
regional council's growth management
policy board and then she said kind of
her third level was a tie between the
regional affordable housing and the
regional water quality Authority so just
throwing that out there as a part of the
conversation
um
so do we feel like we have what we need
to take some next steps here
it sounds like we're gonna pull together
some conversations with everybody in
order to kind of come up with this
informational list and some sort of
prioritization we will send that out and
then we'll use that to kind of ask
everyone to come up with their list of
hey these are the things I'm interested
in applying or reapplying to these are
the ones that I'm not going to be
interested actually mayor Pauley did ask
me to ask you if there are any positions
that you're sitting on right now that
you don't think you're going to reapply
for if you would just go ahead and email
in to me or directly into your SCA staff
rep they just they have a running total
of how many open seats there are
um but other than that I think we've got
a pretty good timeline as far as coming
up with this memo sharing it out asking
for
interest areas and then ultimately
coordinating those applications before
the deadline
yeah
okay
any other commentary and I don't think
there's anything from the administration
to act on on that so I think at that
point I will just say that we are done
with our agenda and adjourned at 909 pm
thank you everyone