good evening welcome everyone I council
president hunt call the
um October 10th city council Committee
of the whole meeting to order council
member D Michelle has uh is
participating online virtually to
protect all of our health which we
appreciate
um as a reminder we continue to have a
remote aspect of our meeting so both
staff members of the council and members
of the public may be participating in
tonight's meeting remotely the first
item on our agenda tonight I believe is
public comment and so I believe we have
several members of the public in front
of us tonight as well as I'm sure we
have people online so do we have a sign
up sheet at this point
yes okay
um do you want to call the first person
and Fletcher
so you can come up and you're gonna need
to turn on the mic so press the button
until the mic part turns red
um the one that has a mouth on it
there you go and then you can pull that
down so you can speak there you go
thanks Sam thank you
you can all hear me oh it's good to see
you all in person this is my first time
thank you
so uh I just first of all want to thank
everyone
who contributed to this amazing budget
proposal it's awe-inspiring to look at
it all and see
how much support it takes for our city
and our community to run I really mean
that I looked at the whole thing for the
first time ever
um and I want to give a special thanks
to Stacy Ben mckinstry the
sustainability manager for her icap
implementation progress report I really
super appreciated how detailed it was
and what actions were connected with it
and all of that and for staying in touch
with people for climate action I think I
forgot to introduce myself I'm Anne
Fletcher I'm a resident people for
climate action
um anyway this budget proposal
includes many many improvements nearly
doubling the sustainability budget and
with an additional staff person and over
800 thousand dollars in in budget
to fund different programs and
Consultants so that is really exciting
and then of course the large amount for
the comp plan work which could also help
further the title 18 Co climate related
code so in general the budget proposal
will increase the city's ability to
implement more of the crucial icamp
actions within a more reasonable amount
of time but specifically what actions
will have the most impact and should be
prioritized
Title 18
and specifically identify which Title 18
future items support the icap
implementation and prioritize those
there's lots of them there analyze what
items are included in that 25 percent it
says in the budget something about 25
percent and it wasn't clear what that
meant but to determine their app impact
and if needed increase that percent for
for we have two years in this budget
should we be covering more of those
items and be well positioned for the mid
and longer term actions in eye cap plans
that was a little area that that seemed
important then the building and energy
more and more initiatives that's our
largest greenhouse gas emitter more
initiatives for both efficiency and
renewable we just got started so I think
the big one I wanted to point out
tonight was more prepare now to assist
more existing building owners to make
the transition
including residential owners they
account for 25 percent of our emissions
and I did send you a paper last week and
I sent it again this week it came a
little in late but you'll you'll get it
attached there were given there were
some ideas from PCA about how
challenging this is going to be on a
large scale and what kind of structures
you might need in place in the city to
be able to do this and some of it's the
rules for the IRA are are going to be
done hopefully in a year maybe and the
that legislation how do we Implement
that in the second year of our Budget
Transportation our second grade is a
matter
uh
in the in the budget there's funding the
parking lot study or the parking study
um to analyze ways to transition to
denser mixed-use neighborhoods and to
reduce driving emissions and encourage
mass transit so that's a part of it and
I think it's important
um
accelerate that work on the EV charging
infrastructure
accelerate process up and accelerate the
process I know it's kind of stuck right
now but accelerate the process to get
transit connections such as shuttles to
unserved neighborhoods that are nearby
is it just guac Mountain Talus and the
Highlands
finally funding
ample and flexible to be able to revise
our actions based on our performance
measures which I'm so excited to learn
about on Wednesday
and to meet those unexpected changes in
the world around us that we it's hard to
predict
so if we monitor annually and we need to
raise the Recology franchise fee
mentioned in the presentation
to provide needed sustainability funds
or find some other dedicated source of
funds for icap implementation just
keeping keeping that Source available
for us
and I had another idea holding a cross
Department maybe you've already done
this Think Tank
to consider and prepare for the rapidly
changing environment and economic
conditions I sent you an article just
tonight about that and finally the
overarching goal the city as a good
climate model working collaboratively
and empowering the community to work
together with you thank you
thank you and we appreciate it and I
will just mention to anybody who's
online if you press star 3 if you are on
the phone or or you can look for the
raise hand icon if you're on a computer
or smart device that will let you raise
your hand and say that you'd like to
make a comment or you can just send the
host a chat as another option we want to
hear from you so use any option that
you'll take clerk do we have another
person signed up
yes David Kepler David
[Music]
it's uh different that the podium is
here it's been there for 17 18 years
that I remember uh David kapler I'm I
guess I'm representing um this guaps
Trails club uh the friends of Lake
Sammamish Trail committee and uh and and
of course people for climate action
um I'm real excited about the um the
plans in the budget for the urban Forest
supervisor it's going to make a huge
difference it's um and then the ranger
position continuing that which is also
valuable and then the volunteer
coordinator and the volunteer
coordinator is really important this
[Music]
um the state must honestly has been more
friendly to volunteers because their
budget is a bigger problem than than
yours and um but I I think we we we have
a lot of people in this city that would
like to volunteer on you know on
different things and um I think we can
accommodate a lot more people and get a
lot more done
um the Department of Natural Resources
lands they're all mixed up with our land
up on tradition Plateau you don't know
who's who's who to call or whatever on
there's an issue King County we're all
mixed up with King County on on the
bergsma property is partly that and all
of that so we can work better with there
um also the King County
way back when they first proposed these
like Sammamish Trail there was a say at
the same time there was another proposal
for a Cedar River to Lake Sammamish
Trail
and we've got little pieces of that at
the lake sammamishander actually in the
valley between squawk and cougar but the
idea at least to get that trail from
Lake sammami State Park
to
squawk mountain is something we could be
working on there's a lot of little
things like that that we can do better
working with our our partners and it's
going to be it's going to be good
so um thank you for your your hard work
and of course I've been hearing about
all the climate stuff and and
received a lot of appraise from a
certain person I know so thank you
thank you David and I don't think we
have any other community members in the
audience do we have anybody online who
has indicated desire to speak
we have about a half a dozen community
members online but I don't see that any
of them have indicated a desire to speak
of just taking
one more look here
okay that's perfectly fine we will have
comment periods after each of our agenda
items so we would be happy to
accommodate comments at that time and
then always you can email us
um city council at issaquah.gov
okay
so the next item on our agenda is ID
1184 the
2023-2024 budget deliberations presented
by Robert hamoud our Chief Financial
Officer and Susie muncell our budget
manager
welcome
good evening can everybody hear me okay
we can let me give just a moment Barb if
you have anything and I don't notice you
raising your hand please go ahead and
just comment to uh tisha's the host and
she'll ping at me okay thanks
thank you Council council president
Walsh so tonight we're going to start
with any feedback from the September
28th Committee of the whole
we in the council packet for those that
are viewing from the public today and
the council packet there are questions
that the council submits to staff in our
first round of questions and the answers
to those questions are in the council
committee the whole packet for tonight's
meeting and we also have the priorities
so again the operating budget priority
level one items we're going to have
departments present tonight just a few
slides each on the title 18 the next
steps from Community planning and
development
data analytics capabilities Dale Markey
crimple making a brief presentation
tonight urban forestry management
that's going to be the parks with Jeff
Whiting tonight and additional housing
resources as well Monaco negrelia is
available in Steven Pata as well from
Community planning and development
and then we're going to have a
presentation from the capital budget
priority level one items the green
necklace Northwest Sammamish Road
non-motorized improvements
and then sustainability excuse me
sustainability Fund in solid waste admin
fee and then next steps
in the direction that we received from
the September 28th budget overview was a
crosswalk from the July 16th Council
budget which again is included in the
council packet for tonight presentation
on priority level one items party level
two and three items are included in the
staff report as well
and then the discussion on the
sustainability Fund in solid waste admin
fee and is there any questions on this
agenda for tonight
great thank you
and so we're going to start off with
operating budget priority level one
Title 18 next steps in mini Dolly wall I
believe is joining us online
Minnie are you with us
good evening council members um hi
Robert yes um
so um you know we provided some
additional information but each one of
these um and we had a discussion with
the council committee and then with the
committee of the whole uh about Title 18
whiteboard list items and out of those
lists
um the council elected the first three
uh the top three and then we also
learned about our TDR program and that
the interlocal with King County had
expired so and we've had some
conversations with the committee through
the title 18 work on that so the list
that you see up here are the four items
that were prioritized from the
Whiteboard list
and we've put in some dollars in the
budget uh our best guess at coming up
with a work program for each one of
these items but I'm basically here to
answer any questions that Council might
have on on these topics
okay councilmember hunt thank you when
you say that these are the four that
were prioritized the fourth one wasn't
actually prioritized by Council or the
Planning Development environment
committee is that correct
that is correct okay so that one was
prioritized by by staff for this update
yes so um it's a conversation we had
with the committee uh because uh our TDR
chapter references uh an interlocal that
we learned was has expired in 2014
um so uh if you know it's at council's
discretion if the fourth item here
should remain as a priority for the next
two items or not
right for the next two years sorry yeah
I just wanted to clarify the context
around which that one was prioritized
and I'll also add from the chair of the
Planning Development environment
committee we have an upcoming
conversation on this but we at the time
we discussed it we actually didn't even
know that the study was going to be
necessary or what the cost was and that
didn't actually come up so
um the Planning Development environment
committee hasn't weighed in on this and
Council has not either
okay I also have a question
um so my recollection from the pde
committee was that kind of the two big
items was missing middle housing and
then parking
so what is represented here in this
Central Issaquah parking analysis
because from my perspective I'm not sure
that as it's titled meets the
expectations of the committee
uh sure
um Stephen Padua has joined us uh he's
been taking the lead on the parking
um so I'll let him give you more details
on that
question I assumed we do a long-range
planning manager with CPD
um
for the central school parking analysis
it includes what was discussed with the
council Committee in terms of looking at
um evaluating different options for how
we want to build out and require parking
in central Issaquah looking at the
options of what whether we want to
continue with minimum requirements or
maximum requirements to determine if
these better align with a more recent
City plans that have been adopted since
the Central School plan was adopted and
the parking regulations were put in
place
and so what was discussed with the
council committee uh is what's in the
scope of the central is called cartoon
analysis
okay I don't remember the committee
saying that we wanted that limited to
Central Issaquah
um it was more of a commentary about
what is the parking requirements and
what parking requirements could be
holding us back from missing middle
housing and considering we don't have a
whole heck of a lot of housing in that
area
I guess
this is no longer a question so I will
save it for a comment later but thank
you for answering the question
do we have any other
questions on that area no okay you may
continue thank you
next up is Dale Markey crimp to answer
the data analytics capabilities
questions
good evening members of the council Dale
Markey crimp management analyst
emerging from the July city council
Retreat data analytics and performance
was among the top voted Focus areas for
the upcoming fiscal year with six dots
as the previous slide outlined increased
resources to data and performance
analytics will provide essential
information to improve Service delivery
and support process Improvement projects
across the city
in response to this Council Focus the
2324 proposed budget dedicates some key
resources to data and performance
Analytics namely as you can see on this
slide
by adding a full-time budget analyst to
support in budget preparation and
monitoring year-round staff namely I
myself will be able to shift my capacity
more fully to data analytics including
larger process Improvement projects for
which I have not had the capacity in the
last year
additionally a limited term management
fellow will provide some capacity for
small and pre-existing analytics
maintaining and updating our current
dashboards looking ahead to our upcoming
dashboards
the city is also moving forward on
adopting and implementing Enterprise
Asset Management
a system
in short by doing this by adopting that
system and implementing it it's going to
give us a better idea of the physical
assets the city owns how to maintain
them how to optimize them how to enhance
their efficiency it's going to give us a
lot more information about what we can
do with what we already have
to do this the 2324 budget proposed
budget has extended the limited term
senior applications analyst who's
leading that procurement process we
currently have proposals from over 21
vendors and are getting set to review
those proposals and take a look at some
demos of some systems in Q4
also
um the 2324 budget or proposed budget
excuse me continues projects that
establish a foundation for data
analytics across the city
namely Capital investments in SharePoint
migration
across the city our data sits in a lot
of different places a lot of different
buckets databases file folders
um
and some of them are in drive already
some of them are still in sort of
Legacy drives where they've where
they're secure but they've been for a
while and that makes hard to it makes it
more difficult to share data across the
city for departments to easily share
information with each other which holds
us back from some of the process
improvement work that we know we need to
do
the city's relaunch data governance
committee also mentioned the on this
slide is in the process of finalizing
some internal policies and processes to
support that data sharing and make that
a more smooth process so we spend less
time communicating about where the data
might be and actually sharing it looking
at it analyzing it using it to make our
services better
next slide please
what this budget does perhaps more than
any other dollar is it frees up capacity
full-time capacity
and year-round expertise towards data
analytics and performance
with this slide seeks to show you is how
we're we're seeing in the next biennium
the opportunity to dramatically expand
our capacity here and and the focus on
analytics and performance in 2021
you all adopted city-wide performance
measures however at the time we didn't
have the full-time staff capacity to do
more than gather data on about half of
them and give a very high level analysis
in 2022 a year we're still in
we were able to improve upon our
performance in 2021 by reporting on over
90 percent of the measures including
historical data by creating
five is like a fun number we're
currently at three live but we'll be at
five live hopefully fingers crossed by
the end of October uh public-facing
performance dashboards on Key Programs
and initiatives across the city
and we've been able to do some small
process Improvement support so small
projects like this some of the internal
changes we've made to our c-click fix
process internally at the city to make
sure we're responding more quickly and
more completely and more uniformly to
our to the Public's needs
you can see in this final box we're
optimistic about the ability with the
2324 proposed budget to build upon the
success of the last couple of years to
continue with our Citywide performance
measures reporting on those
but not only reporting the way we have
but going into deeper analysis improving
upon the dashboard that's already there
to continue dashboarding so expanding
from the current data dashboarding page
that we have on our website to include
more dashboards based on a ability to
centralize our data and thus create them
more quickly and fluidly rather than
having it be such a long process to
create something that's ready for the
public
the creation of an internal data sharing
pool or Hub into which departments can
go and share their data but also look at
the data from other departments that
they might need or often need to do
their work in a smarter faster way
expanded goal setting benchmarking
progress monitoring for all departments
it's something I I would love to be able
to do more of that I know would get us
further towards our strategic plan that
we just haven't had quite the capacity
to do in a uniform way
two to three big process Improvement
projects so looking at not small ones
like c-click fix but thinking more
broadly about procurement more broadly
about our Parks data more broadly about
our capital projects progress monitoring
and then last but certainly not least
orienting our systems and our processes
towards the goal of an open data portal
that's uh it for me I'll take any
questions
looks like you're gonna get away
scot-free
back away back away
next up is urban Forest management
[Music]
thanks Robert uh good evening Council
Jeff Watling parks and Community
Services director you can hear from my
voice I'm talking to you live from my
office I'm not sure what's going on with
my voice
um yeah so along with urban forestry
being one of your priorities we've
certainly also heard this being a really
important Community priority as well as
an important operational goal for us the
23-24 proposed budget includes a new
Urban Forest supervisor position
um with that request we propose aligning
this position into our Park Operations
Division
oh
seems like there we go
um uh and we'll lead our natural
resources team uh so the supervisor uh
will uh provide leadership to our park
ranger as well as the proposed volunteer
Coordinator would report to uh to the
supervisor we feel like this is a really
important skill set to add to our
operations and that this position would
provide expertise leading our arborist
efforts as well as our forest management
efforts given all of our forested public
lands
and private lands and and many partners
we work with
um I'd also note
um in the budget request is a one-time
funding request of a hundred thousand
dollars to complete the city's first
urban Forest management plan
um as this supervisor comes on board uh
next year
I'm available for for any questions
[Music]
uh council member D Michelle
uh thanks Jeff and I have the same
problem you've got so
our voices are not as usual tonight
um you know when we talk about Urban
Forest management uh I think immediately
about uh how that impacts our uh
resilience when it comes to wildfires
and so I just am wondering if this will
feed into that process as well uh
working with Eastside fire and rescue on
our Wildfire resilience plan so anything
that you can add to that would be
helpful thank you you bet no you said it
well and again this this position would
really be able to work with and work
directly with you said fire and rescue
and that important work that they've
started this last year so absolutely
okay I'm not seeing any other questions
so thank you director Watling
so the next priority that received five
dots at the council retreat was
additional housing resources I'll go
ahead and just summarize the slide and
then we do have members of CPD and Human
Services on the line to answer questions
transitional housing pilot program again
is funded in the budget we are also
adding the affordable housing planner
the focus on near-term solutions to
increase housing availability and
affordability by planning and initiating
more affordable housing projects in the
city
working with Arch and establishing
relationships with other Regional public
and private partners
project manager for housing report card
project manager for housing strategy
work plan and other responsibilities
that are described more in detail in the
packet materials for tonight
[Music]
any specific questions no I'm not seeing
any questions at this time
right next is the capital budget
priority level one
and green necklace
good evening Jeff artling again um I
guess this is this is my cue
um
yeah um a couple of slides here uh again
um hearing and having a chance to
actually watch
um your discussions at the council
Retreat I really appreciated
um really the understanding and
recognition that you as Council had as
you discussed this that a green necklace
does not represent one single specific
project but is but it's multiple
projects so these next couple of slides
I hope to quick just give a a quick
overview a reminder of some of the uh
the
historical use that we've been doing
most recently with the green necklace
um
you might recall in first quarter of
2018 uh some visioning work took place
between the planning policy commission
and the park board this was towards the
tail end of the park strategic plan
being adopted
um at the same time
um the central escort plan was being
amended that work really represented the
first effort in trying to better
incorporate uh the green necklace that
was originally a central Issaquah plan
vision and concept and incorporating it
more into a city-wide giving it a
city-wide perspective that led to this
um what's referred in the bullet as
chapter seven this additional chapter
that was added into the park strategic
plan that you all adopted the second
quarter of 2018.
and the the plan itself
um uh that chapter I think really
recognizes
um some of the discussion you all had
um at your Council Retreat uh these
three bullets
um for what the vision seeks to do
really represents um the effort of this
green necklace and and and still having
it support Central Issaquah it's still
an important
um investment strategy with Central
Issaquah but it's also really intended
and the opportunities there to to serve
our current residents and and broader
Issaquah and then also begin to look
beyond our borders of Issaquah and how
it really
um if done well can unify and connect
our city and throughout our city and
into this surrounding public lands
around us
this chapter certainly recognizes uh the
work to date is an initial roadmap
and it's certainly going to require
multiple projects over multiple years
and actually further updating and
additional planning to really achieve
this long-term success next slide
as part of your question for
crosswalking and so appreciate that
question
um you know the green necklace does not
sit as in one place in the budget or
it's not represented as one Capital
project so the efforts the work to
accomplish the green necklace really
take this the shape of multiple types of
capital projects
Acquisitions are important for the green
necklace development projects will be
important elements as well as as ongoing
planning as I just mentioned before this
table really seeks to to pull out and
show some of the direct Investments that
are proposed that will directly benefit
the green necklace and again I think
represents this reality that
accomplishing this goal is not a single
project but it's going to be multiple
projects taking multiple bytes over over
multiple years and as you look at the
the various budget requests for
acquisition projects some of the
development projects some of which we'll
be talking about tonight and the
community park project that will be
located or is proposed to be located
within the green necklace as well as a
park strategic Plan update next year
over the two years budget cycle we're
approaching 11 and a half million
dollars of investment to accomplish the
the green necklace or go towards the
green necklace
next slide
of course funding alone doesn't just
make this happen
um it doesn't happen with pixie dust
this is a really really complex Vision
that's going to take a lot of time and a
lot of hard work completed project by
project you might notice in the in the
table I showed before a lot of this work
is off right away and would be seen as a
park project but our partners in public
works are going to be important role
players in this too and that as they're
completing some important right-of-way
work some of this connectivity is going
to happen in right away so I just say
that to reflect the complexity and the
really really important staff work it's
going to take to see this through and
make this happen and as such Staffing
capacity and how we organize ourselves
how we resource ourselves is such a
another key factor in the rate of of
product of progress progress that we can
make sorry there goes my voice and then
last item as I mentioned earlier the
park strategic Plan update it's due for
an update to be done by 2024 so we're
going to begin that update work in
Earnest with the community in 2023 and
that really represents another
opportunity to further Define the green
necklace the vision that was laid out in
the 2018 plan and also take a look at
specific projects and priorities
available for any questions or comments
councilmember hunt
thank you so thank you for the breakdown
of the funding that's set aside for the
Acquisitions and the planning
and the comments on the complexity I'm
wondering
um if you can provide more information
about what from a staffing and a
resource perspective it would take to
accelerate this process to change our
strategy to a more proactive
process I know that we've been acquiring
we've set aside money and we've been
acquiring properties and we have had
this plan for for many years now and I'm
wondering
what it would take to shift us into a
mode where we are realizing this and my
rationale for the question is properties
will get more expensive the city is
growing
properties are being developed as well
and so just wondering what we can do in
this budget which is a two-year budget
to
speed this up
[Music]
boy that's a great question
um do I have an hour to answer it
um
you know
as we look at like any municipality when
we look to
take a vision and bring a vision into
reality
um
looking at what it takes to accomplish
that Park planning work to bring
something into reality I think we have
to first understand
the when you break down the work an
acquisition isn't just an acquisition
it's it's a it's a complex real estate
transaction
um often there's there's grant funding
on the back end to to try and pull
together the the financial strategy
right
um a capital project
um any and all of them are immensely
Complex Community engagement
um is not a simple uh one public meeting
um it's it's multiple interactions and
so I I think if if there's a real desire
and earnestness to see how we speed up
this work I you know as you know I I
don't say this because I'm comparing us
to other jurisdictions but you know as
we look at how cities organize
themselves from a park Planning and
Development standpoint
um considering more of a park planning
division or a park planning team
um as the park plan was adopted you
might remember we had two Park planners
um as we headed into covid uh where we
now have one
um but as a division do we look at
providing some sort of a you know a
additional Staffing I guess and that
could go a myriad of different ways so
so I guess I'll I'll stop I'll stop
there
um
did that answer your question it does I
I do have one follow-up which is um
there is funding set aside for the
Acquisitions and I would say in the
proposed budget with this structure does
it does it continue the the good work
that has been going on in terms of
Acquisitions but does it sort of
continue the current strategy in your
opinion
foreign
yeah it certainly makes the funding
available right as I know Jennifer Fink
is listening into this as well but as we
identify
um really strategic properties and
strategic gaps
um I think that strategy Remains the
Same and that we uh reach out we
establish relationships
um I think you've heard me certainly
share before you know Acquisitions are
one of those
um projects that we don't always control
the shot clock it really is dependent
upon the seller but certainly this this
funding strategy of having these kind of
funds available
um certainly allow us to continue that
effort and also look at leveraging that
investment there's great opportunities
to find Grant funds to sort of further
our our acquisition dollars
okay and and the last thing in in the
past
it's my understanding that when the
funds haven't been used for acquisition
they've been set aside they've rolled
into the next
um budget year and then we've sort of
maintained that availability for when
properties and that that's sort of
continuing as well with this budget is
that correct
yeah and that's purely that's council
discretion so um you know as
reauthorizations are sought to as you
said rural Capital dollars forward that
is something that is brought back to U.S
Council for consideration but
um it's certainly a strategy that other
cities use
um sorry
um to
um
sort of see the C acquisition funds as
opportunity funds um and realizing when
when an opportunity comes up you want to
make sure funding's available but
reauthorizations are a council
discretion each each year
thank you
[Music]
okay I think we are done with this
section
so that
tr28 North Sammamish Road excuse me
Northwest Sammamish Road non-motorized
improvements received eight dots at the
city council
and just to specify on this item it's
the design right-of-way acquisition and
permitting in the next two years it's
not the construction funding so for that
there's 700 000 in 2023 I completed to
date we have topography survey initial
Community engagement survey and the city
has began the environmental evaluation
the next steps more Community engagement
including an open house on November 9th
Transportation Advisory board on
December 15th Council update in early
2023.
Anna Emily moon is on the line if you
have any questions on this
I'm not seeing any questions thank you
sustainability fun and solid waste fee
we have Stacy the mckinstry here today
[Music]
good evening members of the council uh
Stacy Van mckinstry sustainability
manager and I'm here to to share a
little bit of information about the
sustainability fund as well as answer
any questions
yeah
great so we were asked how far the 2324
budget proposal would get us in terms of
icap implementation
with the current budget request we will
initiate approximately 90 of the icap
actions by the end of 2024. there are a
lot of caveats here this is not saying
we will have completed 90 of the icap or
that we're 90 of the way towards the
targets this is just that we have at
least started 90 of those actions by the
end of the biennium
um we will be in future years then uh
continuing on with a number of actions
that are ongoing or were flagged as
longer-term actions
again just want to emphasize this is not
representative of progress towards
targets we are going to need to evaluate
in 2024 if our actions are really moving
the needle towards our targets or if
we'll need to consider a new approach to
our actions or plan implementation
side
we are also asked to consider what we
could achieve if we raise the admin fee
to increase revenue for the
sustainability fund the language here is
a little confusing what we were
evaluating here was a proposed increase
from the current budget request which
considers a six percent admin fee if we
were to raise that to nine percent uh in
the biennium
the administration is not proposing that
race but I want to talk through what
that scenario would look like and how
those funds could be spent if we did
have a nine percent admin fee
we estimate approximately 300 000 in
additional revenue for the
sustainability fund
um and those funds could be allocated
towards additional icap implementation
some initial considerations for how the
funds could be spent would be around
retrofitting municipal buildings for
Energy Efficiency decarbonization or
renewable energy
electrifying our Fleet so carrying out
any recommendations from our Fleet study
that'll finish up this fall
and then adding additional funds to our
electrification incentive so expanding
our heat pump program and other
electrification programs that are
forthcoming
with this additional Revenue we'd be
able to make small progress on these
items if we do increase that fund and we
could really scale those projects with
available funds
again just to re-emphasize that the
current budget request for 2324 is
looking at the six percent admin fee and
this is just that scenario for the nine
percent
um that is all I had I'll take any
questions
council member a
um thank you council president
um
so what's the actual dollar amount that
would be levied say on a buy
monthly basis
to go from six to nine percent on the
on the bill
cool
phone I'm just trying to get a sense of
what what what people would see on top
of the fact that it's already going up
right what the individual impact is yeah
council member Ray good question it's
something that we've been looking at
feverishly in the budget Department it
would be approximately two dollars now
that doesn't include what it would be
with any rate increases items like that
for average household to be
approximately two dollars
okay great thanks
Deputy council president Hull
thank you very much for um
taking our feedback on this and kind of
chewing on what these extra dollars
could be spent on if Council wanted to
move in that direction so two questions
first
um if council did want to move in this
direction no concerns with staff
capacity to execute the additional three
hundred thousand dollars
[Music]
will ask us Deputy council president
members the council good evening
um
I I think I would characterize it it
depends
um you know this is uh again it's three
hundred thousand dollars annually and so
the reality is if this changes with the
new franchise on July 1 it's probably
been about 150 000 uh if it is put
toward one initiative one one purchase
one asset then probably very little
um additional staff required if this is
going to be something to expand even
further an initiative or create
something different than it would
probably take more time I think what you
see or what you saw what you see among
these three are pretty much asset based
uh ads
um so and again
when we look at the fee increase with
the service rate increase again this
would all occur in the summer
um we're concerned that there will be a
significant uh concern by our residents
to see the increases and so we all we've
also learned from Recology and talking
with the city attorney reviewing the
agreement uh Recology has the option of
adding this administrative fee to the
bill so currently it is something that
is absorbed within their operating costs
they could choose on July 1 if we were
to go from six to nine percent to put
that additional three percent on the
bill so our residents would see not only
a rate increase but they would also see
this brand new fee that they'd not
previously seen so
um I I I think that we hear the council
about your concern about wanting to do
more with the sustainability fund it's
administration's feeling that perhaps
the adjustment of this administrative
fee perhaps is not the way to fund
additional projects in in 2023 if the
Council next year as you review the
second year of the biennium decide you'd
like to make the adjustment starting
perhaps January 1 24. I think we would
be more
agreeable to that so I think that really
comes down what would you like to do if
you had between 150 and 300 000 to spend
we could then come back to you at your
meeting next Monday and perhaps respond
to a proposal with a funding source
okay
um never mind on my second question that
I'm going to chew on that for comments
but thank you very much for the
insightful responses both of you
councilmember hunt did you have a
question okay uh go ahead council member
March can you can you back up
um and can we talk about tr028 Northwest
Sammamish Road non-motorized Improvement
project
sure it took me a minute to get my
documents in order here
so the adopted 2022 budget Had a Million
Dollars
um in design uh towards towards design
work basically uh and design and
engineering and then the
the capital Improvement program shows
seven hundred thousand dollars in 2023
and then expenditures of five million
nine hundred thousand dollars in 2024.
um but the draft 20 23 2024 budget shows
zero for uh expenditure for 2024.
so what's up with that
I think Emily moon is on the on the line
and she can explain
[Music]
city council uh to the best of my
knowledge at this moment uh the design
right of way and permitting uh is
estimated to take two years uh this is a
complex project with uh multiple parties
that need to be engaged and I believe
that phase of the project is taking uh
longer than was originally estimated
um in addition we're still trying to put
good solid effort into that design and
make sure that the design encompasses
all that this project needs to include
and we want to do that right
and so at that point then we'll make
sure that we have estimated the
construction budget correctly and have
planned for that that's why we'll be
continuing with cleaning engagement and
coming back to you to give you an update
and to seek those construction funds
after that design work has been
concluded
[Music]
um can I ask how much of the million
dollars budgeted for 2022 of which 909
091 dollars was estimated for design and
Engineering will is anticipated to have
been spent in by the end of 2022
the basket finance department has that
information
I apologize we don't have it at our
fingertips tonight but we're happy to
follow up with it after the meeting okay
I I my where I'm going with this is
wanting to know that
um we are making all due diligence to
move forward with this I'm hearing that
design and Engineering will take longer
than we thought but I sure hope we have
our foot on the gas and and we spent the
money in 2022 that we budgeted in 2021
towards this since the Council made it
an extremely high priority item thank
you
and if I may I hate to use the term foot
on the gas considering all the
sustainability discussion we've had but
um if that's the term we're using then
the foot is on the gas uh with the
Council made very clear during the last
budget cycle this is a priority
um it remains a priority as you can see
on the slide this Project's actively
being worked I think one of the
challenges we had with some of our large
capital projects that aren't yet
designed is to know what dollar amount
to put in for construction and so I
think you'll you'll see at several
points in the document there's zeros
because we just don't know and I think
as we come back to you next year as we
do the next Capital Improvement plan we
want to separate projects out because I
think that's not appropriate it's not
transparent for you it's not transparent
for the community we should have
projects that are clearly designed than
projects that are clearly construction
so we can make that delineation but our
foot is on the gas
uh is perhaps inappropriately is that an
analogy is but we are moving this
product forward uh with the greatest
diligence and uh it is I think easily
the largest most important Capital
project we have going Citywide okay
thank you
okay so I think we've got a question
from council member hunt on back to the
icap area
if we can advance yep
uh next slide I think
[Music]
um so on this slide
um I'm wondering about what the
breakdown of I I think that this is
indicating that the bottom three items
um in the proposed spending options
would total approximately three hundred
thousand dollars annually
um could you break down how much
approximately is for the retrofit of
municipal buildings
yes and apologies that was not the
intent those were potential items that
the budget could be spent on
um
so 300 000 could go go towards a
purchase of a couple Municipal vehicles
um that could all go towards our
electrification campaign it could cover
a small amount of Municipal retrofits
um so it would be a discussion with what
is the priority that we focus those
funds on
and council member High members of the
council we did do some initial
investigation of course there's a a plan
a uh investigation budgeted this year
for the municipal buildings but we asked
the question of our Consultants what's
the ballpark costs and I think the
number we got back for the community
center was in excess of a million
dollars
so um I think as Miss mckendry said
um you know if it's 150 000 if it's 300
000 there's probably not a lot of
traction to be made with that amount of
money uh for the municipal buildings but
certainly uh if the council felt they
wanted to make additional Investments
the fleet vehicles or the assistance
with the electrification uh program
that's under are already underway or
would I think make a lot of sense
well that thank you that raises a
different question though which is I
believe that in 2019 we did a study on
the buildings and then we're going to be
doing another study in this budget 2023
and if we know that at this time we that
the million dollars is not budgeted for
those future uh retrofits then
presumably we might be setting ourselves
up to do another study at another time
to determine the feasibility so I'm
wondering about that because I to my
knowledge we did a study in 2019 on on
this same topic but now we're doing
another study because that study is no
longer relevant
the study that's proposed in the budget
is to look at a decarbonization of our
buildings and then also renewable energy
potential
um with an existing consultant that we
have so uh any additional funding that
we did put towards retro could go
towards retrofits then for those
buildings
so that's a different study than was
done in 2019 the 2019 study was a
general facility assessment of the
buildings which we have included in the
budget to refresh because the uses of
some of the buildings have changed one
building has been completely vacated
another building you know the city hall
building has changed its uses
um
so I think on the the renewable energy
side it is something brand new that
we're doing again we think that the
dollars will be high if this is
something that the council feels needs
to be added uh it's not probably not
practical in 23 just because we won't
have a list of specific needs in each
building but if it's something the
council believes is a priority in 24
we would say that it would need to be in
excess of a million dollars we do not
have that kind of flexibility in the
budget and so we would ask the council
this evening for that direction so that
we can come back with some substantial
changes to the budget in a week in order
to free up those dollars if you're
looking at that three to from six to
nine percent that three hundred thousand
dollar range if there's something you'd
like to see added there we think there's
enough flexibility in the budget that we
could come back next week with a
proposal on that level but not at the
million dollar level would require us to
make significant changes
foreign
last question on this so for the
retrofit municipal buildings do I
understand correctly that the 300 could
be used towards some
some
um
uh Energy Efficiency programs or
renewable energy but it's just not the
complete retrofit of the of any of our
buildings that we think would be the
likely candidates for retrofit so it
would it would be possible to use this
funding for that but not cover the
entire cost as what I'm gathering yes I
think that's possible the the study that
is being mentioned was just a desktop
exercise to give us a rough estimate of
what it would cost to Electrify and add
renewable energy to one building we'll
be looking deeper into that but yes any
amount of funding could probably Advance
some work in municipal buildings okay
thank you
okay I am not seeing any other questions
and
I
yeah okay Deputy council president Hall
thank you
um along the same lines
is also an appropriate option for
Council to consider
if we were interested in moving the
administrative fee up to nine percent
um
to collect those dollars as designated
fund balance for some high price
sustainability initiative to come in the
future
is that an option and in your opinion
would that be an appropriate way
to save money for something like that
because I'm also thinking about you know
transparency and ensuring that the
community knows that if we are saving
money it's for a particular project so
maybe if you could just respond to those
comments
I think that is an option I wouldn't say
with confidence right now that we have
that specific project that we could
speak to I think in six months to a year
we could I'd want to complete some of
this other analysis I also think there's
opportunity we can come back with those
specific asks to counsel when we have a
particular project in mind
and if I may add you know this is an
Enterprise fund of sorts and so what we
do with other Enterprise funds is that
we allocate sometimes money for
operations and sometimes money for
Capital and so if that is the direction
that the council wanted to go
um we would not be able to support the
level of programming that we're doing uh
this year for example so if we were to
pull some of that back and say we want
to save that for Capital Improvements so
that would have an impact on the ongoing
operational things but again we're kind
of dealing in hypotheticals on dollar
amounts and projects and how many years
you'd want to put things aside uh I
guess my point is the council has
flexibility to do that uh and if that's
something you want to begin to address
at the first year of the biennium you
can if it's something you'd rather
address uh when the with the revisions
to the budget for 24 you could do that
as well
council member hunt thanks
um related to that last comment from the
city administrator this was one that I
emailed in
um
so I'm wondering we have this clean
buildings funding that is allocated in
the budget for both years
um I believe and I was wondering your
thoughts on
using some of that prioritizing some of
that for our own buildings
yes so we have a hundred thousand
dollars that Council authorized in July
we requested an additional 50 000 for
the 2024 budget assuming the pilot
between now and the end of 23 goes well
so we could put those funds uh yes those
funds could be prioritized for municipal
buildings right now we're carrying
forward the priorities that were set by
council at that meeting this summer but
those additional funds for 24 could be
prioritized for municipal buildings
or welcome a conversation about shifting
those priorities overall as well
as well okay thank you
okay I think we are done with this
section
[Music]
councilmember the only council member is
the only slide we have left tonight is
the next steps so again we're on October
17th
budget deliberations
um for next week
and then November 7th final public
hearing budget and related ordinances
adopted and then our question at the
bottom are there any additional items
the council wishes to discuss
okay so at this point we're looking for
any other questions that are coming up
then we're going to have a public
comment opportunity and then we will go
into some of the deliberations so
councilmember hunt
thank you
um one of the questions that I had had
asked was about the Patrol
police patrol car take-home policy
Associated costs
and specifically it says in our budget
that this uh the the proposed funding
represents the initial stages of a
patrol car take-home policy so my
question is whenever we have an initial
stages of something I think it's
important that we know about the the
cost of the program to know the full
cost of the subsequent stages of that
and so what I
um that question the intent was to
understand the subsequent stages and
those those Associated costs so if if I
could get a sense of how much those
subsequent costs would be that would be
helpful and I do understand and it's in
our budget the cost for 2024 2023 and
2020 so this question about
future
I'll ask council president councilmember
Han Alaska Chief Schwann who's on the
line to uh to add to this but first we
see this still as a pilot we want to
have a clear understanding of all the
impacts the additional purchase we're
proposing for the next year assist with
doing that I don't know that we have a
final number uh Chief Swan can talk
about the the general numbers that we
have talked about that at this point
would bring us to the level that we need
also included in the answers are some of
the operational benefits we see and have
seen and so Chief Swan good evening I'll
ask maybe if you could talk a little bit
about what you think the total number
might be as we play this out of vehicles
and then maybe also refer a little bit
to the operational advantages that this
brings to us
sure thank you I hope you can all hear
me
we can thanks okay
um yes the take-home vehicle program and
its pilot has been going now for
um almost a year and it's been very
beneficial in number one Recruitment and
number two response of officers when we
need that in a expeditious Manner and
for example
the reason it's a benefit to the city is
because when our officers are at their
residence right now as it stands if they
if someone doesn't have or if an agency
didn't have a take-home car policy and
they need someone to respond for an
emergent purpose
what happens in those circumstances is
that it's very difficult for them to get
there in a timely manner and it gets to
be where it's almost an hour's response
whereas that's because in driving to the
police department to even get a vehicle
they need to respond in a they don't
have the lights there's no ability for
an emergency response
on top of that they also have to go and
get all their gear on once they get
there and put all their gear into a car
that they've located and move forward
So speaking on that this expedites that
entire process to where we've even
called people in recently where we've
had short on shift and short staffed and
they were able to get there in a much
faster fashion because they were able to
spawn directly haven't been an emergent
at this point but it's the event of an
emergent situation
to get number of vehicles up to speed we
have in the pilot program not everybody
chooses to use the take-home car we do
have pool cars that is why there is a
handful of cool cars that we have on top
of having take-home vehicles
so what we've budgetized in what you've
seen in 23 24 is to make sure that we
have the ability to have a vehicle for
officers that are on patrol
they are able to get here in a timely
fashion and we do also still then have
pool cars that are here available
for the officers that choose not to have
a take-home vehicle
and if we need a vehicle also if someone
of their vehicles that's a take home is
being serviced that is another huge
piece and I can also probably get
numbers if you are in need of those for
how many agencies actually in the state
that don't have take-home vehicles
that's another huge piece right now
because there are way fewer that don't
have that than do in fact they're even
local agencies I'm working to start that
program as well our neighboring agency
because of the fact that it is such a
huge recruitment piece and retention
and chief Schwann uh if just to to
reiterate councilmember Hunt's question
what do you think the maximum number
might be if we find that this is
successful and does all the things you
just described what would be the maximum
number of Patrol Vehicles then we would
need to purchase in addition to what's
currently in the fleet
from what's currently currently we have
17 vehicles in the fleet that are
specifically Patrol
and so what we've realized in with
Patrol being fully staffed that would be
another 15 to 17 vehicles for our basic
Patrol depending upon how many
as far as it goes replacement wise so
you're also going to have those vehicles
that get to be a certain mileage and
what council member hunt had asked as
far future re getting a realization as
it stands now we have vehicles that
annually need to get replaced because of
mileage or other circumstances and so
that's already a factor that's already
in the budget so that would be a added
or added cost
um because we'd obviously have those
more vehicles
so Chief Schwann we're basically talking
about a doubling of the patrol Fleet in
order to do this if we are successful
and feel that the pilot has brought the
benefits that we think it will is that
correct
that is correct also part of that and
the reason it doubled is uh we also have
some Vehicles they're officers right now
that currently want to take home
vehicles and we don't have enough right
now to even give those to them so
they're driving some unmarked vehicles
or even a Crown Vic that we have they're
using those as options at this point
because we don't have enough at this so
we want to make sure everybody has that
opportunity
thank you
councilmember hunt did you have a
follow-up on that I
to clarify so if I so we have five
additional vehicles
um to support the patrol take-home
policy in the budget currently
um I believe so uh 17 total so that's
um
that would be more than doubling of this
over the next
um years if we were to
to continue the program can I I guess
the question is can I just multiply this
by
um
two and expect that it's in that
ballpark for the next subsequent years
multiply what by two the the costs that
are currently associated with the
initial phase which is 490 000 for the
cars and 130 to 900 I believe 1000 for
the maintenance
well if we're asking the budget
currently has five we would need then
approximately 10 more under the best
case scenario so I guess so I'm asking
is it fair to to approximate based on
that that
yeah yeah the the their their widgets
they're they're they're single costs I
mean the other challenge that I think
you're aware of uh members of the
council is procurement
um these vehicles are very hard to find
uh the vehicles that we had budgeted for
2022 uh we were unable to get we had to
ask the council to allow us to use a
purchasing contract from the state of
Arizona uh to purchase those vehicles
for 2022 we have no assurance that we'll
actually get them
um we hope so of course uh but until
they arrive we won't know that we have
them so it's going to continue I think
that's going to have an impact on this
program as well uh We've Chief uh and I
have talked we may have to look at other
vehicles that are available for
take-home that perhaps aren't uh the
standard Patrol vehicle
um but I think what you're hearing from
us this evening is this is important
from Public Safety standpoint it's
important from a recruitment and
retention standpoint and yes it does
cost more money and as you heard from us
on the first evening of the budget
presentation that in order to continue
to have the police department that we
have at the level that we have it it's
going to continue to cost us more money
and I think vehicles are part of that
salaries benefits are part of that
adding officers likely over time are
part of that continuing to focus on our
commitment to Human Services and our
Behavioral Health Benefit is a part of
that all that taken together we'll be
spending more as a city to provide these
critical Services than we have in the
past
okay so so my intent with my question is
to understand the scope of what
subsequent stages of this will cost with
the initial stage and if I if I have
have correctly understood the comments I
believe that it's about 2.1 million
total
um so I my intent is to surface that as
the cost of the whole program because we
have uh initial phases and then no
information until now about the
subsequent phases in terms of the cost
thanks and again we're talking a solid a
pilot stage there's lots of various
factors to that I don't want to dispute
councilmember hunt your numbers because
they're you know given the premise
you're giving are completely accurate
but again we're still trying to sort
through well what makes sense moving
forward Chief Swan yes yeah that's a
whole thing more to add yes
might I have seen briefly the numbers as
far as maintenance on those cars I can
tell you from experience and prior
agencies that when people put into place
and implement or different agencies have
implemented the take-home vehicle
maintenance actually gets to be less and
the reason for that is often because the
cars are better taken care of because we
don't have someone cycling through an in
one vehicle 24 hours a day driving all
around and so that is a thing that again
being a pilot program we have to get
those numbers being this is the first
time we've had that but majority of the
other agencies are seeing a decrease
instead of an increase in those
maintenance so just a heads up for that
number those numbers as well
okay thank you but to be clear it's
maintenance on a lot more cars it's
twice as many cars so it's maintenance
less per vehicle but more maintenance
total for all the
subsequent cars
but thank you
okay and I think we have a question from
Deputy council president Hull and then
councilmember D Michelle
uh thank you yeah just piggybacking off
that so um since it is a pilot program
are we measuring those kinds of outcomes
Chief Schwann whether you know we're
having a positive impact on emergency
response time from Home Maintenance
costs
um and kind of its impact on Recruitment
and Retention is that something we're
able to do during the pilot phase just
to measure those outcomes to assure
after the pilot program you know if we
move forward we have good justification
for doing so
yes I believe the fleet manager Kelly
husband would have a better ability for
those numbers specifically but he is
managing how much difference in fuel how
much different in the actual maintenance
as far as those numbers go but as far as
response time and ability to get people
in and those retentions on people that
want those vehicles and how fast they're
able to respond we were able to get we
are keeping track of those numbers
during this time
thank you
councilmember D Michelle
um thank you I just wanted to follow up
on a comment from Chief Schwann and and
this goes to the questions that were
raised by council member hunt
um uh there comes the timeline uh
vehicle is no longer you know up you
know good enough to be in the fleet and
so we rotate them out and I would think
that that's kind of an ongoing process
and so
um are we saying that a vehicle when
it's rotated out uh
would be replaced or not replaced are we
talking about a full Fleet of I don't
know 22 or are we talking about once a
vehicle gets old uh and it and it
rotates out that we don't replace it so
um I'm not really understanding I think
the
um how how are we going to handle older
vehicles that we rotate out do we
replace those at the same time that
we're buying these new vehicles or does
it rotate out and it's gone and we at
some point we have stabilization number
excellent question yes there is uh there
will be a cycle there will be all the
five that we're supposed to be here in
2022 that we have not been successful in
getting
um those were replacement cars that we
have not gotten
um that's why they were not counted as
far as the 15 that we were looking for
um and looking to build that up because
those are replacement Vehicles
themselves so yes as Vehicles year out
now since they were individual people in
cars and they were as far as the pilot
program and taking them home then the
extension was it used to be a certain
mileage when they were being driven 24 7
by two different shifts for 12 hours so
basically 24 hours a day and so there
was a lower mileage that was being given
before we had to Outsource or
um purchase new ones as Replacements
those mileages now have been raised
because of when it's not being driven 24
7 we have a longer or there's longevity
more of the vehicle because it's not
being driven 24 7. and so there are more
a little bit more mileage as far as
highway miles as one would say when
you're looking at Vehicles versus in
town miles of driving to and from calls
so that changes the dynamic and it
extends the life of the vehicles as well
but yes there will be replacement for
the vehicles that would be purchased at
a certain point when the vehicle needs
to be replaced and is no longer usable
so just to follow up I I would imagine
that would also apply to maintenance
costs then not only the purchase cost of
the vehicle but we we see this in and
out sort of uh process happening as we
get into this program but at some point
we'll hit a stabilization level where we
have the number of cars we need and we
know what the maintenance costs for
those cars will be
correct just as it is right now with our
current Fleet as if they were being
driven versus now just people happen to
be taking them home and there's more of
them someone like you said right now as
it stands before the pilot program
someone would be in a vehicle and then
when they get off shift another person
jumps in the same vehicle and they just
keep being driven for 24 hours a day
whereas this would have the opportunity
it would be driven for 12. go to a
residence be there at the residence sit
there for 12 hours and then when the
officer comes in but then also when
they're off duty it's not being ran for
four days so that's where some of that
means is even less on the current
Vehicles because they're not being
driven 24 hours a day there is a time
period so it lessens the amount of wear
and tear on those Vehicles as well and
comparatively to what we have now so
there will be a stabilization eventually
when we have a number of what that is
just like now there's a cycle of at so
many miles on that vehicle is in town
that it's being driven 24 7. those
vehicles are now replaced on a schedule
that the fleet manager has put in
implemented so that's how you you knew
when it was brought to the attention
that those five replacements for 2022
would need to happen sometimes we're
able there's vehicles that we can nurse
out to okay maybe we can hold on to that
another year and put that in the next
year's Budget on because the vehicle is
doing okay or just over the weekend we
had you know another vehicle that was an
officer that was rammed so then
sometimes there's collisions and so that
puts takes a vehicle out of service so
that's why those pool vehicles are also
very important because we need to make
sure then we can get those fixed to get
them back in the fleet
thank you
okay so do we have any other questions
before
Deputy council president Hall
yeah we're still in like the
okay
um is
um Monica Negril on the line maybe we
could cure up if she's available I
wanted to ask about the item from our
priorities list about 24 7 Behavioral
Health
um coordinator coverage
um that initiative is not covered in the
biennial budget but I did want to ask
the question of whether or not some of
the ongoing work that's included in the
description
um I.E exploring joint response models
if that is budgeted within your time
Monica you know if you have the time
over the next two years to begin those
talks and maybe you could just um kind
of share what your response to me via
email was I had asked Monica earlier
today
um what the description meant by
exploring joint response models if that
meant kind of responding jointly with
the police department or connecting up
with core connect that has a referral or
Healthcare referral program sorry that's
a hard word to say from firefighters so
does it mean responding with police
officers does it mean coordinating those
efforts with core connect so maybe you
could kind of walk us through that and
then talk talk to us about whether or
not your ongoing work
of that is included in the budget but
not necessarily the actual coverage of
Behavioral Health
coordinators thanks
thank you so much for that question good
evening council members this is Monica
negreline human services so yes you're
exactly right and correct part of my
time and in addition I know just times
and volunteering other leaders in the
city for the remainder of this year but
also for a good portion of next year
would be to continue to explore options
to leverage resources
and and really explore more
opportunities to increase our
relationship and response with
um police department and with the core
connect program at IFA but also as we
started our collaboration with the court
would love to expand on that in jail we
believe that there are opportunities for
us to leverage resources and to look
into how we can better work together
collaborate and and find the best
options for our community being a
smaller entity
um
so that's part of that it's also for us
to look I think the the biggest the big
larger Vision it's really to also see
how we can incorporate data and find
better ways to track data
um as a city who is very focused on on
data we would love to do so very much as
you know we also have quite a large pool
of non-profit organizations that we
refer people when we work whether we
work in the behavioral health program or
our police officers or Court we refer
people to a lot of non-profit providers
we would love to incorporate data from
them as well and really try to to have a
more robust
way to to track where clients go and
services that they receive
so more work on that exploring that uh
it's gonna be next year and it is not
included as a separate budget item and
yes we did not include any new requests
for Behavioral Health coordinators as we
like we need to do a little bit more
work to to explore exactly what the
needs are in the community with the
resources that we have and see how we
can best
at first the existing resources before
making additional requests
does that help answer and cover what we
discussed via email or are there any
further questions yeah I did thank you
very much
um
it's in just a to clarify then you're
seeing some of this more investigatory
and data work
as work that needs to happen before we
Implement some sort of
response model
uh with behavioral with a behavioral
health element or a crisis response
element
so
I guess the question I'm asking is do
you think we're you know moving as
quickly as we can based on staff
limitations and every and resource
limitations
in that field and
because I I was talking with another
council member earlier today it does
seem like you know this
um and thank you for councilmember D
Michelle for putting this on the uh
priorities list in the first place but
um this was you know a commitment that
we made to the community as part of the
Issaquah police accountability police
accountability equity and Human Services
action plan so I just want to make sure
that we are honoring that commitment and
I'm positive there are other council
members up here who feel the same way so
um yeah anyways I feel like I always
answer my own question and then just let
you comment on it but would you do you
believe that we're moving at the pace
that we need to be to live up to that
commitment to the community
[Music]
I believe we are moving at our own pace
and we are at where we need to be
perhaps as a community I think
um each Community it's very very
different we are exploring ways to
respond with the police this model
started like we currently have two
full-time staff Behavioral Health
coordinators and that's initially we're
even just looking back at where we
started we first started with one
Behavioral Health coordinator then as we
started and piloted and tried and kind
of like tried on error we learned that
we could leverage Resources with
homeless Outreach so we combine those
programs even with our work with the
police department initially we started
as a referral model we are still in
highly a referral model meaning that
police officers refer cases to us as
they they come across cases however
there are quite a few cases and more and
more we see a response model naturally
growing from that as police officers
learn to to work with us and we learn
more about their programs more and more
um often we see that response coming
naturally so I think it is fair to say
that we are kind of like working at the
right pace and growing naturally at this
and from that I think a natural Next
Step before
hiring more people would be to continue
to explore with core connect
for example recently we just sat down
and looked at how many duplicates we
have if we have so just doing some
research data and looking at how we can
naturally collaborate
um I think that that's where we are
right now and um so yes so yeah I think
I think for where Issaquah is I think we
are moving at the the pace that we can
with the resources that we have and
um it's it's growing naturally and I
think that that makes the most sense
thank you
thank you okay I appreciate that
conversation around the difference
between a response model and
um you know what the emergent needs
might be so good okay
um
I am not seeing any other questions so I
think at this point we are finally to
public comment and so we'll see if we
have any public comment either online or
in person on this item and then we'll be
able to go into conversation and
deliberation so clerk do we have anybody
who's indicated a desire to speak
uh
no one at this point so if there's
someone in the room who'd like to speak
fantastic and you can come on up and
then we do continue to have about a half
dozen members of the public virtually so
if any of you would like to make
comments on the proposed budget please
raise your virtual hand or send me the
host a chat or press star 3 on your
phone
hi again
Ann Fletcher
I'm back again and I just had one quick
comment and that is when you're talking
about
using the sustainability fund and how
you make the selections for that how you
decide that
it would be helpful to understand some
of the criteria that you're using and
um uh and if that could come with the
recommendation or with your in your
discussion maybe it will come up in your
discussion I don't know uh but um and
and uh and I would like to suggest a
criteria that I have and I don't know if
you might also have it but and that is
um what is the predicted or potential
reduction in carbon emissions
for this action
because that's the bottom line in our
goals is reducing our carbon emissions
in our plan we have some other things
that we do to try to get there
and it's a pretty stiff goal we have and
so I'm always going back to that and
thinking
which which one of these things is going
to have the best effect with the
resources that we have
so I just like to put that out there for
you
thank you
thank you Anne and Clark do we have
anybody who has raised hand no oh okay
so I think we're at this point where we
can start to get into some budget
deliberations so
I can open it up we can talk all we want
and go through that but I was also
thinking that maybe taking a look at the
priority One items as kind of a filter
for first set of conversations either
starting with the stuff that's in the
memo or the crosswalk for operating and
capital or we can go basically straight
through the presentation and kind of use
those as topical areas does anybody have
any preferences on how we Orient this
conversation
seeing none let's go back through that
PowerPoint Okay so so
[Music]
um scroll back up
yes
so
operating budget priority level one
items so Title 18 next steps do we have
any thoughts on this
okay council member hunt
thank you
um two thoughts and I can be brief on
this the first is
um I think we
um the the L clip item which is sixty
thousand dollar study that item hasn't
gone through the same process as the
other items on that list and so I think
it needs to be treated differently
um it wasn't prioritized by the Planning
Development environment committee it
didn't come up in Council conversations
and also there was this big list of
whiteboarded items that have gone
through the PPC and that have been
prioritized and that have been vetted in
community conversations and that have
have risen to the top of importance and
this was not one of those it sort of
came from a recent conversation but
wasn't just has gone through a different
process so I just wanted to flag that um
there are going to be some more
conversations but that one
um you know depending on where the
conversation goes with with Council over
the next months I don't know that that
would be a priority so just wanted to
flag that because it seems a little
different than the others the other
thing is on the parking
um I do think that it's important
um to make sure that the scope is
including not just the missing middle
but I think the other the other goal for
that is to make the more pedestrian
friendly that's in our Master Mobility
plan and and more friendly for a
multimodal that's been in many of our
plans and so having big parking lots you
know is we we have visions in the master
Mobility plan for for looking at that
and looking at how we could become a
more pedestrian friendly area so those
would be goals and I don't think that I
think that expanding Beyond
Central Issaquah would be best because
we've looked across many different
aspects of Title 18 and we are revising
the parking code across the city and I
think looking at that across the city
would be the more holistic approach with
everything with Title 18 we've tried to
do a city-wide approach when possible
because we want to
um improve the code in as holistic and
straightforward way as possible so that
would be my thought on that item I think
it we could rescope it and see if if it
um
what the cost would be if it were to
cover additional concerns as outlined to
the master Mobility plan for example
yeah toward that idea City administrator
or someone is there
I mean these are items where we kind of
had
a conversation in the PD committee and
with the community about what the
priorities are as far as which policy
areas but we're now we're trying to put
it to a budget item so if we're looking
at this and we're saying hey that line
item doesn't meet the expectations that
was set out by the committee what do we
need to do as far as budget and any
shifts there
uh council president uh what we've tried
to do with the title 18 was to try to
come up with a couple different measures
one was what we think we can do in the
midst of still finishing Title 18 in the
comp plan Amendment so some of this is
sizing uh the other part is just a
company the sizing with budget so all of
these projects are not going to go
forward until there's additional
conversation with the council for
scoping but we wanted to at least have
resources available to move forward
rather than come back to you at some
later point and ask for those resources
so that's where the list came from it
was informed by the discussions as
you've described at the council
committee and at the planning policy
committee director dollywell went back
through those discussions and then she
put forward those recommendations to the
mayor and that's how it got included in
the budget we're again with all the
discussions this evening council
president the mayor will come back at
your meeting next week with any
adjustments to the budgets based on
these discussions so if there's a desire
to eliminate or change the the buckets
for the title 18 projects you know we'll
come back with a reaction to that those
comments next week
okay so what you're saying is it's
enough for us to say that doesn't meet
the expectations and we'd like to see an
adjustment and you guys will then take
that and shift any money around that's
needed to meet those expectations we'll
we'll go back to the mayor over the
horse in the next several days and share
the results of these conversations and
then based on her judgment we'll come
back next Monday with any adjustments to
the budget we may come back and say yes
we agree and here we're proposing to
ship money or we'll say it stands as
recommended and then the council will
have to decide if you want to make any
adjustments from there I think the goal
tonight is to try to come to as much
consensus as possible so we could come
back on the 17th and and say
here we are and hopefully have a budget
that the council agrees to
okay
so council members I think what I'm
going to try and use a thumbs up thumbs
down kind of concept so what I'm hearing
are two different potential areas that
we need to figure out if we support one
is kind of expanding or you know scoping
the parking
portion to the whole city not just the
central Issaquah and the second is do we
support I guess
moving the l-clip concept to something
else because that wasn't in the title 18
future updates from the
Planning Development and environment
committee so for the first one a thumbs
up means you support expanding it to the
full City
so Barb you're yup you're coming in uh
yep go ahead okay I have a clarifying
question so what I think would be
helpful is getting information about
what that scope looks like because it's
really hard to thumbs up something when
you don't know and even approximate
dollar amount of what you're so I thumbs
up like I would thumbs up the concept
but we do what I would say is are we
interested in getting that information
back about the cost and so that we can
consider
doing that because I think that's that's
the important step here is getting that
information so yeah to make a decision
if it if it that yeah we're not
necessarily so what is the cost and then
we have both the benefit and the cost
for the for the discussion you're
absolutely right in these cases we
aren't saying whether we support adding
you know a million dollars into the
budget or whatever it is but really
um getting the information from the
administration
yep so I'm a little confused so are you
looking at them before the budget will
be approved you want a more specific
scope of work because if that's the case
we may just pull the whole thing out
because well we're not going to be able
to provide you more detailed level
scopes of work and minis turned her her
camera on so maybe she can provide that
and and perhaps this was overly
ambitious for the budget we maybe we
need to wait until Title 18 is done and
then come back to the council with these
projects so you can have that discussion
and then at that point I'll look for
um the dollars that are necessary which
we certainly can do
we're just trying the council has said
numerous times you want to keep the
process moving you don't want Title 18
to conclude and then not be able to pick
these up but if we're moving too fast
we can remove all these from the budget
and then come back to you sometime
spring summer
time frame once Title 18 is done we'll
have a better sense where we are with
the comp plan and other priorities and
then we can fold this in at that point
because we're not going to be able to
come back and many please correct me if
I'm wrong with much more detail on the
next week on some of these initiatives
we just tried to give you some dollar
around because we wanted to keep the
process moving because you said you did
not want things to stall out after Title
18 was done but but if this is moving
too fast then that's fine too and we can
make adjustments
director dollywall
uh yeah
um thanks Wally and you know good
questions
um yeah I I think we
we we're not able to give you an exact
scope of work by next week I think it'll
need to be worked out in terms of what
that really makes sense but at a higher
level if all you're asking is you know
look at parking minimums and maximums
for different types of uses throughout
the city that's one thing
but I think where this was focused on
more was
really doing a more in-depth analysis of
taking a look at existing uses and and
coming up with the numbers and you know
so informing it based on actual what
what's happening how trans is going to
impact the parking and all that and
that's why I think the focus was uh on
Central
um
but if you're really looking for just a
parking table that establishes what's
the minimum parking use and what's the
maximum parking use that's one thing
but if it is more taking data doing
analysis of what's happening on the
ground where you know what are the trips
in a particular neighborhood and all
that kind of stuff that can easily add
up to a lot of dollars very quickly so
we'll need to we'll need more time to
give you an accurate number on on
studies like that if you're looking for
that
[Music]
councilmember marks
so uh uh I'm for pulling this right now
because I don't think we have consensus
on where we want to go with parking in
uh Issaquah I think that the last time
we did a major parking analysis uh in
Old Town it was because some council
members wanted to see more parking and
the analysis came back and said we don't
need more parking and uh so I I doubt
the seven of us are on the same page as
to even the direction that we want to
pull this sled in regards to parking and
so to do an analysis before
I'm not sure what the analysis would
cover and if it would be pulling in a
direction that even the majority of the
council would be interested in seeing so
I I just I think it's I think it's
premature in a and a potentially
sensitive topic and I think it's also a
topic that
um if we really believe in transparency
I think we want to go talk to the
community how they feel about parking in
in the city thanks
yeah so my comments back on that is I
believe my understanding of the future
updates idea was these are potentially
controversial and big items that we
didn't get it to in Title 18 that need
to go back to the community and so the
ask from pde was let's take the time and
handle these correctly and bring them to
the community have a good conversation
on what our goals are for parking
minimums and maximums and requirements
within the city whether we're getting
what we were
interested as far as development and
whether our current parking requirements
are holding us back and costing too much
that we're not getting missing middle
that we're not getting the multimodal
connections so I don't think we need to
hold
money back from this concept I just want
to make sure that if we're doing this
which the majority of the council has
said we're interested in doing Title 18
future updates that that we're not
scoping it smaller than I think the
intention was
a deputy council president Hall yeah
your last point I think um really
brought it home so you know I I think
the intent for Council when we first had
this conversation was all these all
these things are huge meaty topics right
many and there's going to be a lot of
community engagement and a lot of work
with the community and a lot of
understanding what is creating
successful outcomes when it comes to
missing middle housing or parking
regulations in other communities so this
is just the start of all this work so I
think the only thing that we've done
here is just kind of narrow the scope a
little bit to Central Issaquah and if we
change that to to all of Issaquah
parking and just all know that this is
the very beginning of that process more
Council conversations will inform what
that will look like what next steps will
look like the current funding for that
is probably fine because as those
conversations develop it will inform
future budget amendments or the next
biennial budget upon on what we do next
so I'm not too concerned about this I
just think we need to kind of take that
narrow Vision away
but I would support keeping the funding
and the budget things
uh council member Ray
thank you I may have a slightly
different perspective on this I I
think we're getting a little bit balled
up in the specifics and what what I'm
reading this to me is uh CPD says with
the budget that we have proposed we can
do these four bullets and
um and so if um
and I don't know that taking one of them
off changes their budget uh in any
material way either because I think it's
most their budget is going to be staffed
in Consulting time anyway so I I kind of
got to tell you I like it I think it
moves the needle on the things that we
think are important like missing metal
and stream buffer that the committee
said were important but there's some
other things here like parking it's like
the deputy president just said it moves
us forward on that and then I think with
the transfer development rights and the
L clip program that's just something we
need to to do and if they've got
capacity to do it I say let's do it so I
I'm I'm kind of all on board with that
okay so uh councilmember Joe
thank you
um
I'm a little bit in favor of keeping the
central Issaquah parking analysis
focused on the central Issaquah area and
here's why
um if we want to marry it to exploring
missing middle housing we're not going
to be putting any missing middle housing
on squawk we're not going to putting any
missing middle housing in Talus right
basically in so the parking that we're
trying to look at from my understanding
of is is can we put it in places uh can
we put the missing middle housing in
places like the central Isla area and we
should have a parking analysis of that
area to determine whether we can reduce
the requirements for that so the missing
middle could actually come in and and be
viable
um so I I really think the centralist
parking analysis marries up with the
exploration of missing middle housing to
align with the code so I'm more in favor
of keeping it limited to an area so we
can really focus on it and then see if
through this first analysis if it makes
sense for us to take it Citywide because
we'll have some experience looking at
parking and how we examine it the
information we get back and then rather
than taking the whole city at once we
take one area at once take a look at it
figure out if it's really something that
we want to do city-wide whether there's
a benefit to us whether it really
marries up with missing mental housing
or other housing goals we might have
along the way and and take a look at the
other housing goal that we might want to
take at take a look at in the future is
parking requirements for adus and Dad
use so accessory dwelling units and
detached accessory dwelling units those
who typically go in the neighborhoods
those would go on you know the old town
area that might have a bigger lot where
you can put an Adu in so I think that
keeping it focused on Central Issaquah
right now makes sense so we can see if
it works what information we get from it
and how what marries up with the missing
middle housing goal under the proposed
budget
a little bit off we got to keep this to
budget so I'm going to go back to the
administration what what do you need
from us in order to set this for a
budget amount
well we feel comfortable with what we
have in the budget which is a pot of
money that approximates what we think
the work we can do moving forward next
year given other uh things that are on
the plates of our planning staff if the
council agrees with that we will leave
the dollars in the budget we will come
back to the council through the council
committees to talk about each of these
projects we will work on scope at that
point I guess if we run out of money
we'll come back and ask for some more
but again as I mentioned earlier the
reason this is in the budget one because
the council said at your retreat in July
this was important in order to keep the
land use planning revision process
moving forward after title 18. so that
was the entire motivation here we looked
through the list uh Miss dollywall went
through and again Wade what was on the
list versus the time that we have and
try to put a dollar amount to it that's
all we've done here we've not done
additional scope we've not had
additional conversations with the
council with the community this is just
in response bonds to your basic message
was We Can't Stop with Title 18 we have
to be ready to tee up the next bit of
work so part of that is cash to help pay
Consultants to help us with that
okay does anybody feel like we need to
make modifications or requests
more dollar amounts or whatever
councilmember hunt
well I I will say I agreed with Council
Deputy president Hall's comments about
um
sort of having if we change the scope
having this be for the same amount of
money but I do want to point out that at
the committee level we had a very what I
would call a pretty light touch on the
parking because specific Citywide looked
at the parking code and so in the
revised Title 18 we specifically had a
conversation about how
any any more big changes would be from
this subsequent study and so the changes
that are made in Title 18 were in my
opinion when we had that conversation we
were planning on having that and those
changes were made Citywide which is why
I think to be parallel we should look at
that Citywide but um I think for in
terms of the dollar amounts if this is
what's sort of the scope for a parking
assessment as a continuation of Title 18
and since we don't have any other
information about what to put in the
budget then I'm fine with keeping it in
but I would be supportive keeping it in
and I would be supportive in terms of
the policy discussion to be Citywide
okay so continuing down this item on the
presentation agenda does anybody have
any discussion points deliberation on
data analytics Urban Forest additional
housing resources
I'm not seeing anybody here nothing from
council member D Michelle okay so
looking at the capital budget items
we've got green necklace and tr028 the
Northwest Sammamish Road non-motorized
improvements does anybody have any
comments adjustments suggestions they
want to bring up here
uh council member marks
so I I am looking forward to seeing next
week a summary of progress made so far
on tro28 and uh you know are we
projected to hit the million that we
were budgeted for in 2022 which would
make me feel better about the 700 that
we're talking about for 2023. thanks
okay uh councilmember hunt thank you
um I I support those comments on tier
028 and thank you for bringing that to
our attention about the previous funding
my comments are on the green necklace
though the green necklace is all about
Connections in the Parks plan it talks
about the green necklace being all about
intuitive connections and when we when
we talked about this at The Retreat I
think we all recognize the importance
that this would have for our community
that this would allow connections
between people and nature and
connections between the parks of course
but also connections between the
non-motorized corridors within the city
which helps us achieve our other goals
and so the green necklace says this as
this connects series of connections
between Parks is a really beautiful idea
that we have on paper but I can say from
first-hand experience that those
intuitive connections are not
on the ground yet and I think we've had
a series of
we've had this approach that's
represented in the current proposed
budget where we've put aside money and
then when we have the opportunity to
have an acquisition we have acquired it
and I think that has has gone well but I
think at this point when our city is
growing so fast and development is is
um is happening so fast the costs of
land is only seemingly ever increasing
and I worry that we won't have those
opportunities to make these connections
much longer or if we do it will be at a
much higher cost than if we were to be
more proactive so between the retreat
and when
um and and today I actually attempted to
walk the entire Creek corridor from
squawk Valley Park to
um to where the creek goes into Lake
Sammamish and I did walk it I initially
thought I'm going to walk it in one day
so I set out and then I was like no I'm
gonna break it out into a couple a
couple days
um there is a self-guided tour that the
parks put together several years ago and
so I I attempted to follow the creek
Corridor through the squawk Valley reach
and then through the Old Town reach and
then the Pickering reach and then for
extra bonus I then walked through the
state park to where it goes into Lake
Sammamish and my observations from this
were that
um there were parts that were beautiful
and Serene and this was in August and it
was
um it was a time when it was hot out so
lots of people were enjoying the creek
and picnicking and riding bikes and
walking dogs and there were lots of
people in the parks there were
oftentimes very few people in the
connections and often the connections
were very unclear and actually since I
walked three reaches I walked the whole
thing twice and I tried to find better
paths on the way back and it was a
challenge and if we're talking about
intuitive connections we're really not
there right now sometimes you feel like
you're not sure
if you're meant to be in in that place
if it's far away from the creek you're
not sure how far you are from the creek
and if you're if you're meant to connect
through uh more like a neighborhood
that's often pretty unclear
um so if we want intuitive connections
if we want it to be welcoming if we want
it to really connect our beautiful parks
where people absolutely enjoy which is
so important to our quality of life I
think we need to
take a different approach so what I
would urge us to consider is getting
that information from the administration
about what would it take to have this
different approach what would it take to
change our strategy and to actually
realize these connections that we need
and then the Creek Quarter is just the
spine of the necklace to mix analogies
but I think that's what we've gone with
in the Parks plan but there are many
other connections that need to be made
too so I really think
um I think we have huge potential I
think it's could be hugely beneficial
and could really make our whole park
system saying we're investing millions
of dollars in our Park system it's so
important to our community and I would
really like to see us get information
from the administration about what it
would take
to be more proactive and to for this
Council to actually see these
connections come off the page and into
real life so that would be my ask and um
and I think it takes more proactive and
it takes a change in strategy which will
not be pixie dust as as director Watling
said it will be resources so my ask
would be that we get that information
anybody else have any comments thoughts
agreement
Deputy council president Hall I if we're
able to get that information by our next
touch I would love I think that
information would be really important
for us as we consider Parks Investments
over the next two years so I guess my
question is does the admission
Administration think it's doable to put
together some sort of briefing like that
by Monday is it Monday yeah Monday uh
Deputy council president members of the
council uh I think you got kind of the
briefing tonight and that in order to do
what council member hunt so eloquently
described it's going to take additional
resources and so I think it'd be useful
for the administration just to get
feedback from the council we think it's
probably one additional position
um and so you know the cost associated
with that would be an add to the budget
if that's something the council is
generally agreeable to I think the
administration is happy to come back
with a proposal
um you know we're not looking to cut
anything so we would have to look at uh
our current property projections and see
if we could sustain that moving forward
so I think council president you know I
don't know if you want to do thumbs up
or thumbs down or just ask for a general
comment uh but this would be an ad uh
and the administration would look to not
cut something so if there's General
support among the council I'm sure mayor
Paulie will instruct her staff to figure
out a way to make it happen
I guess my question would be how does
that relate to the urban Forest
supervisor and that program would it be
at all related or is it just a Parks
planner because you know many of those
are
open space
um as well well I mean I I don't think
it would be a part planner I mean I I
think in talking with director Watling
and he's still here uh and can and speak
for himself as well
um we're going to need a different kind
of person we need someone who has skills
and abilities to make connections with
property owners and really to make deals
happen I mean when deals have a
presented themselves to the city
um you know certainly we have the
resources to you know make sure the
funding's available draft the
appropriate agreements uh but I think in
talking with councilmember hunt over the
last while and she's looking for someone
to make things happen and so I don't
think that that's just a park planner
that's that's another level of staff
member and so um
we would not be looking at adding just
another Park planner we have one
additional Park planner in the budget so
certainly that person will be part of
that uh the entire uh parks department
is part of the same team so uh the folks
that the urban forestry supervisor the
park ranger uh the park maintenance
manager are all part of that team but I
think we're looking for someone to shake
things up and and make deals
okay councilmember ropes
uh so I am lucky enough to be from the
Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St Paul which
uh are known for the amazing trail
system that connects among other things
uh connects Lake Minnetonka all the way
down to the Mississippi River by way of
uh
Minnehaha Falls and the actually
Minnehaha Creek is is canoeable the
whole way which unfortunately wouldn't
be able to do with Issaquah Creek but
the power of having those kinds of of
recreational Trails is just impossible
to overstate and uh so this is a topic
that we have said yes please we want
some more for many years now and of
course we've had this little speed bump
called covid but let's let's get to work
and let's spend some money and uh get
going on this this is the biggest most
transformational recreational thing uh
in the city that I've seen in the entire
time that I have been on Council and I
just want to get going on it so plus one
spend some money get going thanks
okay I've heard from three council
members and council member D Michelle
uh thank you I'll uh plus one those
comments as well
um I I heard uh director Watley say that
we needed one more person at least one
more person in there to do it and I
would like to see uh that department get
that person so that we can accelerate
um what is a an absolutely wonderful uh
Visionary project so I am a plus one on
that as well thanks
uh council member Ray uh thank you I'm
um
I'm completely supportive but I have a
couple of caveats that I'd like to throw
in there one is does the Parks
Department have the the wherewithal and
the ability to absorb yet another thing
on their plate not being you know we can
add another potting to do the work but
this is some specialized work and it's
going to require some some oversight and
so I'm really supportive of the idea and
I if it takes a body to get things
moving I'm really supportive of that I
just don't want to get to the point
where we're getting two years down the
road and we're all disappointed because
wow we really thought if we just threw
another body at this problem it would
get accelerated and and so I want some
assurances are too strong a word but I
want some suggestions at least that if
we do this it's going to make a
difference because we're pretty good at
saying if we do this it'll make a
difference and then it it uh it doesn't
always materialize so that's that's my
[Music]
um
we uh caveated support
well we have heard from more than a
majority so I think you have what you
need there
um and so we've got next item is
sustainability fund and solid waste
admin fee any comments questions
concerns suggestions uh council member D
Michelle
thank you um
uh council president Walsh can I take a
point of privilege and go back for just
one moment to the
affordable housing position
okay I was slow getting myself unmuted
and by the time I did it you had already
moved on so I just want to express my
strong support for for the uh resources
that are being put toward that position
uh I I think I expressed when we were
having our Retreat that we talked a lot
about housing and affordable housing and
how important it is uh but I am rather
frustrated that sometimes it doesn't
feel like we're making any progress at
all so I am looking forward to uh having
this person uh this position on board I
when I read the job description uh and
all the different tasks that this
position is going to fulfill I was uh I
was thinking that this person is going
to be walking on water as well as
helping us with affordable housing uh
but uh at any rate I just wanted to
express my strong support there
um so going to the sustainability
um uh budget I am very very supportive
of everything that has been presented
um and uh really want to thank Stacy for
the hard work that she's doing I didn't
take it to heart and she also put this
in the materials for tonight's meeting
that we really haven't started to
measure a success yet against the goals
that have been established and that
we're not going to really start doing
that until 2024 that the budget that
we're looking at right now is actually
just getting the initiatives uh all of
the proposed initiatives up and running
so I'll be very much looking forward to
seeing if the actions we're taking and
funding are going to actually make a
difference in our Greenhouse glass
greenhouse gas emissions
uh and then relates to the
sustainability fund uh I think I'm kind
of ambivalent about going to nine
percent I think I'd like to know uh more
about the impacts uh City administrator
Bob quits mentioned that you know that
we're having a large
fee increase that's going to hit anyway
you know sometime this coming year and
that this would be a new fee on top of
it
um I'm just wondering if we want to
think a little bit more carefully and
maybe come back to the maybe come back
to this uh a week from now and
um
uh think a little bit about whether
um raising that amount of funds is
actually going to get us where we want
to go so I'm I'm on the fence with
regard to the sustainability fund
increase so those are my comments thank
you
thank you councilmember Wright uh thanks
I have uh two thoughts on the
sustainability fund increase one is we
are going to have a significant increase
in the cost of trash hauling there's no
uh denying that and it's going to be
noticeable but to the public and and so
I'm a little bit reticent to increase it
even if it's only a couple bucks a month
and partly because those who have the
least ability to pay or the you know are
those it's going to affect the most and
I'm I I feel that concern also just from
an administrative point of view I think
we should talk about what it is we want
to accomplish and then go build a
funding model to do it instead of saying
well here's some money we can go grab
that and then let's go find a place to
spend it so um you know if there's some
needs that are unmet let's go put
together a funding model and if that
includes uh administrative fee increase
so be it but maybe it's uh it could come
from other sources too so I think we're
a little bit ahead of our skis on this
one right now so there's just too many
reasons I think to just
minimize the impact
[Music]
anyone else
Deputy council president Hall
um you know I
put this forward as something that we
should we we should consider just to
kind of explore the concept and make
sure we did our due diligence when it
came to doing everything we can with
regard to iCloud icap implementation I
was kind of on the fence for a little
bit too Barb
um but I think your comments in Chris's
comments Chris your comments in
particular that was really compelling
that was I think
um that well of course yours too to the
administrator
I am it is going to be a significant
rate increase and even if two two bucks
every other month
um
is is the outcome there maybe we
um take a step back at least for this
next year and not do anything with it
keep the six percent admin fee for the
sustainability fund which already is
going to be funding a lot of icap
implementation
Bravo for you know putting that
statement of work together
um
I think maybe we could reapproach this
again in 2024 you know another thing too
that we haven't really thought about
we've got money in this budget too to
rethink about our water rate study too
um thinking about how you know markets
are causing things to be more expensive
and whether or not we need to adjust our
rates to
account for that too so just rates in
general the rate burden in general over
the next five to ten years could be
significant so maybe let's think more
intentionally about this like
councilmember Ray said very well very
well point
uh council member hunt
um thank you I I agree about being
um
you know thinking about the the entire
rate increase it will be uh it will be
notable and I think we also have in the
in the proposed budget we do have
an increase in the sustainability
um programming and and the amount that
we're able to do in the icap which I
think is is
um
is great however one thing when I was
reading it and and then also in the uh
comments that we heard tonight there was
a comment about
um
about making sure that we are
prioritizing those items that have the
biggest impact on emissions avoidance
the other component I would say for me
is also the error bars or the
uncertainty and a lot of the items that
we have are programmatic or you know we
have a a building green buildings
program where we are working with
building owners to decarbonize their
buildings A lot of it is incentive and a
lot of it is
um
is there's there's definitely benefits
but then the extents of that benefit
will depend on a lot of factors that are
not completely within our control so
what I would say with this budget is the
items that were
um were called out as things that could
be funded with that additional money I
would I think that those are important
because they are things that are that
have certain emissions reductions if we
decarbonize our buildings we are not
only walking the talk but we are also
certain of what that emissions avoidance
will be
um so I I would like to see a little bit
of reconfiguration to make sure that we
are taking on those actions that we are
certain about that are our city
responsibility municipal building
decarbonization for example
um and then and the other one was the EV
Fleet
so I I think there's maybe a
re-balancing but I agree about the
making sure that we're
cognizant of the large increase that
will be coming their way so I wouldn't
be in support of increasing that rate at
this time but I um I do think making
sure that we have some items that have
these certain impacts would be good
um and
I'll also point out that the icap has
these short and medium term items and
those items as far as the municipal
retrofit that was a medium term and by
the ends of 2024 we will have ended when
we said what we set out to do in the
medium term so I would like to see us
take on those items because we agreed to
a plan and we should we should follow
through
so I will second that concept of you
know taking action as a municipal
government on our buildings and our
Fleet that was certainly something that
I said when we were talking in committee
about that uh
the energy building energy reduction
model so I would be interested in that
that being said I also don't support
going up from a six percent to a nine
percent I think we had a really good
conversation about that when we were
setting those rates and choosing that
contract and I wouldn't want to come
back to that at this point and change up
the conversation and the decision that
we had made at that point so interested
in seeing what we can do as a community
on sustainability but I don't think that
that
within the trash contract is the right
source of funding for that
anything else
okay so I think we've gone through all
of those items we've provided the
feedback
um is there anything else that the
administration needs from us on this
topic
oh council member hunt and councilmember
D Michelle
yeah go ahead councilmember D Michelle
oh
um thank you uh I wanted to comment on
the uh take home police cars and then on
uh Monica's comments regarding the
response model that we're working with
um I think that the proposal to uh to
acquire five take-home cars is a really
excellent proposal
um I think it gets us started in the
right direction when it comes to
policing and making sure that we have a
great response time but also
um in some cases puts those police cars
out in the community during the evening
hours and I just see all kinds of
benefits to
um
the concept of community policing and
um and also supporting our Police
Department so that we set up a model
where we are taking care of our officers
and also making it a great place to work
so I don't see any downside to that uh
it's expensive uh but we've undertaken
expensive items before when we've walked
off into into Innovative
new territory this is New Territory it's
going to take some funding to get it up
and running but as I said earlier in my
remarks there is a startup cost to this
but eventually it's going to balance
itself out and it will be an integral
part of the way that we do policing and
I think I think it will be a very very
beneficial
uh pilot and and it'll be interesting to
see how it goes
um I just wanted to commend Monica uh on
her comments regarding our response
model
um
I think that if we go back and we think
about uh in March of 2020 we had one
person and it was Monica who was doing
Human Services and we have really grown
uh rapidly and we've grown effectively
uh but I think this is a period of time
where we need to kind of just step back
and figure out where we're going and and
what we're doing and I really commend
Monica for the comment she made about we
learned we have learned along the way
and we have adjusted what we're doing
based on our learning and it is growing
um organically and I think those are the
kind of transformational changes that
really last
and so I think that for this budget I am
uh I am willing to step back I think
eventually we are going to need a third
um person uh in our behavioral health
specialist uh Arena but I think right
now let's continue to get those lessons
uh let's see how much better we can work
with Eastside fire and rescue uh on the
behavioral health front
um and work with other uh non-profits in
the community let's see how we can
increase our Partnerships with them and
I think we're just on the right track
here uh and then we can come back uh
when it's appropriate
excuse me
and uh and add that third person when
when we've gone through this process of
calibrating where we are right now thank
you
thank you Deputy council president Hull
so there are two before we move on um
there are two things that I feel like a
few of us have offered
commentary on that I'm not entirely sure
what the next step is for the
administration so one of them was
whether or not to keep the verbiage for
parking
specific to Central Issaquah
um and then the other was councilmember
hunt just brought up adding or kind of
reconfiguring the scope of work for icap
implementation to include the items that
were included as additions on the slide
so I guess my question is the does the
administration need some sort of
consensus or more commentary on either
of those two things because one of them
at least the icap one could potentially
have something to bring back to on
Monday
the deputy council president members of
the council
um mayor Polly's not with us this
evening I'm going to need to go back and
check uh review the items with her to
see what changes she might might like to
make so I think what we'll have is a
these are pending matters until next
week we'll come back and share where
we're at and if the council disagrees
then I think we're looking at next week
being the final uh discussion evening
for the budget so if there's motions to
add language take things out there's
also the council president letter
um that can be used as a tool too
so so just to be clear you don't need
anything more from us on on those items
to bring anything back on on Monday no
okay
council member hunt
um thank you I would like to see us move
towards the
um full 24 7 coverage of the co-response
as well
um as was mentioned previously it is in
our police accountability equity and
Human Services plan which we have now uh
formally concluded I believe although
there were items that will continue and
then it's also in the Human Services
strategy plan and so I think I think we
should move towards that we have large
increases represented in the um in the
police funding in this budget and and I
understand the reasons for those I do
think it's important to consider the the
2.1 million approximately that is due to
the police car take-home patrol car
take-home policy specifically because
it's a large amount of money so anytime
we have a large uh we are starting a
program that will cost
more than the cost on that order of
magnitude of money I think it's very
important to look at the at the benefits
and and the
the rationale behind it
um so I I think that there's a large
increase in police and I would ask for
for the future that we also make sure
that we are following up on those other
aspects of our Public Safety plan going
forward that would also include that
co-response for when there are other
forms of crises that would benefit from
having that co-responder there so I I
think we're on the right track moving
towards that I understand that there are
reasons why that didn't appear in this
budget but I'm very supportive of moving
towards that and wanted to give that as
some of the context around my earlier
questions around the
um the large increase in the police
budget in this year's budget thank you
council member Ray
I've got a couple of they're a bit
generic comments but I think they they
are germane first kudos to council
leadership and to the administration for
developing a process to help us
establish our budget priorities this
year I think it went really well I think
this pre-work is why I think council
member March talked about aliens coming
down at our last meeting and not
understanding why we're in such
agreement so I think that the process
really did identify what our priorities
should be provide a solid foundation for
the budget and I think the
administration did a really great job
of delivering a budget that reflected
those and and if you look at the
crosswalk and it really did reflect the
things that we said were important got
hit hard and the things that we said
yeah it's not as important
um
they got addressed kind of on an as
um
as could be basis and so
um so I really I really appreciated that
we really kind of said here's our
priorities go forth and do our
priorities and the other things that you
can pick up
um let's go pick those up and and I see
it all throughout the capital and the
operating budget so um kudos to
everybody for doing that we've got a
good budget I think the other thing we
do have is we have an opportunity even
though it's a biennial budget to do an
update and so if we get to this time
next year and we're doing a review and
we say hey we missed this or we under
did that or we over did this we have a
chance to true that up so
um you know two points one is nice job
City Administration
reflecting priorities and two if we need
to make changes we still can
well you kind of stole my thunder I was
gonna say some of that related to I
think hearing from Monica about hey
we've got this work to do talking about
what the opportunities are to
collaborate with other service providers
including effer and food and clothing
bank and all of that to understand what
our range of services and who our
co-responders are across that is really
important but I am really keenly
supportive of this and looking at that
2024 period of time as maybe there will
be some opportunities to make some
adjustments there and I'll just throw it
out there if we're having a hard time
recruiting anybody for Behavioral Health
maybe we could consider a take-home
vehicle
just as another opportunity and hey I
would suggest that we make it electric
because that's going to hit a lot of
different buttons and it could just give
us some really great opportunities sorry
Barb to make you laugh and cough
um Okay so
any other comments coming out here okay
I'm gonna put a pin in that and say we
are probably done with that topic item
and we're looking at two and a half
hours in on uh first topic so what are
you thinking first of all let me say
thank you to the council
um you know you as a body I have been
very thoughtful about the approach I
think you appreciate the Kudos mayor
Paul I appreciates the kudos to the
administration but uh it's your
discipline to say this is a process we
want to follow we have a strategic plan
um
many of our neighbor communities do not
enjoy that same kind of discipline of
policy making from their elected body so
thank you very much for that we'll come
back then uh next week I would imagine
with a couple of adjustments based on
the discussion this evening and then
we'll be ready to have the documents
before you on November 7th there's two
additional items this evening we would
recommend taking one not both we have
several members of the park board that
have been patiently waiting for the
third item so perhaps we could take that
item and uh and take the mobility item
and bring that back next week Gene Paul
is an excellent report that you've done
and he's been sitting here very
patiently this evening got his Christmas
cards list all straightened out and
ready to go now but we could come back
if Gene's available next week if Gene's
sitting at home you all know what he
looks like in 3D so if he doesn't need
to come back
to the city hall for that but maybe we
take a short break right now and then
come back and do the parks item and then
move forward yes
thank you just one side note on the
budget there were some outstanding
questions especially in regards to
specific capital projects
our our teams are working on that as we
speak we are going to go ahead and send
those answers directly to council and
then we will memorialize them in the
November 7th packet
fantastic okay so do we feel good about
um Shifting the community Mobility
survey item to another next week and
going ahead with the perk project
recommendation yes and five minute break
okay fantastic we're gonna do both of
those so we're going to take a five
minute break and we'll be back at 8 59.
we're uh given the 10 seconds
thank you
okay and it looks like we are back thank
you everyone for the little break and
thank you to the park board members who
have stayed on with us as we discussed
all of our uh budget issues so it looks
like the next item on our agenda is ID
1280 the community investment strategy
Park project recommendation this is
going to be presented by Jeff Watling
parks and Community Services director
goodness Jeff I hope your voice is going
to uh make it through this presentation
sign language I I don't know what we're
going to end up with but thank you for
being here
thank you council president good evening
refill the water I don't know what
happened but as the day went on it got
worse so
um thought it best that I I do this from
uh from video well thank you uh council
members um uh for the opportunity to
come back and have this conversation and
report back to you the work of the
community investment strategy on the
work we've been doing with the park
board as mentioned two Park board
members are here Kris Kovach and Katie
Bell thank you so much Chris and Katie
for joining us I'm also with us Jennifer
Fink our part planner I'd also just want
to give a Kudos as I'm about to make
this presentation to our our landscape
architect Partners uh methune methune
did a great job of helping us really
start to brainstorm this work so
um thank you city clerk Geezer I believe
Tisha you were going to share your
screen and share the presentation
thank you so much
so next slide
so purposes of an efficiency and and my
voice I'm going to try and do this with
some brevity but but be really clear so
along with any feedback you can provide
us tonight
um we're really seeking two guidance and
two core questions for you to to
consider the first is do you support the
rationale analysis and Park Board
recommendation a pedestrian Park Depot
Park Senior Center Plaza as the
preferred location for this four million
dollar arpa Park project
um second guidance question we're
looking at is does the council have a
preference for which portion or portions
of this area ped Park Depot Park Senior
Center Plaza that should be included in
this initial four million dollar
investment
next slide
so like any overview let's start from uh
once we last uh had our discussion and
that was on July 5th we had some really
good conversation with you all and got
some great feedback from Council
um on uh this community investment
strategy specifically the four million
dollar investment as you may recall
um really the guidance you provided us
at the end of that meeting was consider
a four million dollar investment using
arpa funds into
one of our major Community Parks we're
referring to them as anchor Parks
Council U also asked us to consider
Confluence part so the four Parks you
wanted us to consider were Tibbetts
Valley Park the creek Corridor the
Veterans Memorial Park and sort of this
consolid conglomeration of parks in Old
Town and then Confluence Park
uh you might recall at that presentation
we
um identified some some starting
potential criteria that we would base
this work on and really seek a rationale
um seek evaluation through these core
criteria the arpa funds have some pretty
specific requirements and restrictions
to them and and really required us to
not just look for what might be the most
popular part but what would make sense
for an investment that could meet the
criteria criteria of this arpa funding
uh you ask that we seek Park Board
feedback
um and and rationale and bring this back
to you during the budget process so here
we are next slide
so the criteria themselves uh this slide
may be familiar as it was uh talked
about at July 5th and this really served
as the starting point as we began to uh
really talk with the park board about
how we wanted to take on this uh this
effort over the the next couple of
months and the work that we've done here
in in August and September
um
a couple of these criteria that I just
want to point out that really became
important as you'll see in the in the
presentation in particular with a
federal funding that has such a a hard
fast
um deadline for when it needs to be
funded
um as we talked about earlier during our
earlier conversation tonight capital
projects can get complex in a hurry so
the level of project Readiness
are there critical areas or other site
conditions that we need to be aware of
as we consider these parks and or even
locations within the parks we wanted to
be very careful with that as well the
criteria future phasing as we look and
realize a four million dollar investment
alone is probably not going to do
everything the community is interested
in any of these sites how do we make
sure we're making an investment that
doesn't get in the way of future
Investments and we can create a clean
first phase and really pay attention to
Future phasing needs
next slide
so with that feedback from you we
started some really important work with
the park board and that started with the
July meeting on the 25th we actually
started with that slide of of the
criteria and really fine-tuned that into
actual an actual evaluation process came
up with a matrix format and then the
park board identified an ad hoc group
for four members of the park board that
would really begin to dive in deep with
staff and the consultant team on doing
this work
those members Kris kobach was one of the
members of that ad hoc group he's here
tonight
um a couple meetings in August really
began to set out in filling in that
Matrix you'll you'll notice in your
materials tonight
um the sort of the full working drag
draft version of that Matrix as we went
through each of those four Park sites
and sort of walked them through the
criteria and subsets of those criteria
to really try and answer some key
questions on how those sites and
potential projects might fit within this
arpa funding we came back to the park
board for the August meeting and had a
really good check-in on The Matrix
itself the end of that meeting really
allowed us to identify two of the the
park areas that seem to be the the best
candidates for the funding and then that
led to trying to identify some specific
projects
two ad hoc meetings in September really
helped to begin to flesh that out and do
some really good work with the
consultant team on ideas and Concepts
that came back to the park board just
last week on the 29th
um or I guess it's two weeks ago now
time flies
um uh for a really good discussion
deliberation and what ended up being a
recommendation coming out of the park
port
next slide
so um this is a rolled up version of
that that Matrix as I said that the
actual full working draft
um is in your attachment
um it's far too
um
um far too big to try and put on on a
slide
um what this rolled up version really
attempts to
um identify is within this this work we
really took sort of a very simple
color-coded approach
um green uh yellow red in some cases
shades of red just trying to identify
where do we see
Within These Park sites how they mesh
with the criteria either in terms of
doable versus a very challenging
uh what this rolled up version begins to
sort of even visually start to show is
within these four sites and four Parks
Veterans Memorial uh sort of the
Consolidated Park
um and Confluence Park began to really
show themselves as probably the two
sites that that were the best able to
mesh with the arpa funding and being
able to to hit that
hit that completion date of the end of
2024.
um the creek Corridor uh certainly had
some potential I think as we had
conversations about the creek Corridor
there was a a real understanding that
that much of it
um
still requires acquisition and
acquisition is really hard to predict on
when that would be completed
though we did see opportunity
um to really try and identify is there a
way to add a needed Community amenity
within the creek Corridor in a way to to
activate the the creek Corridor and so
as I walk through the ideas you'll see
that that discussion is what sort of
um created uh this idea of taking the
off leash dog area uh dog park and
incorporating one at probably the one of
the more popular sites of the dog park
tour and that's the old skate park site
which is on the Rainier Trail so a way
to take a needed community of amenity
and activate
a trail Corridor and a trail Corridor
that's going to be such a vital part of
the city system for for generations to
come
so with that Matrix and sort of looking
at veterans Confluence and this idea of
an amenity along the creek Corridor next
slide that really led to
sort of the next stage of this work
the next slides represent uh those
conversations we had with the ad hoc
group and with the full Park Board in
September as we started to frame up and
identify you know what what our workable
doable projects within each of these
sites
next slide
so Confluence Park again really
appreciated the council conversation on
July 5th from that conversation you may
recall
um a lot of talk around the what was
planned as phase four uh which is uh an
expansion in this park if and when
the city finds time and and significant
resources to relocate uh the current
maintenance facility which is on the
south side of the
um the East Fork of of the creek
um
some of the desired amenities though of
phase four one of those significant
amenities is an expanded play area so
that began to sort of
um
really percolate this idea of the
northeast corner of Confluence Park
where the eckhouse is is really sort of
an undefined area of this park what
would it look like to take a project
that really creates a lot more
definition for that corner of the park
really start to think of that as a new
entry into the park how could we really
activate the eckhouse as a park amenity
really I think recognizing its historic
significance but really sort of bringing
it into play having become a a usable
amenity within the park and then expand
and build off of the play area in that
corner this slide also represents some
of the conversation around
completing the lighting project on the
sort of the main trail that goes from
third to Rainier Boulevard that crosses
the bridge we've really found through
the years since the bridge has been
built this is a this is a really really
important Trail connection for the
community in the neighborhood they're
currently there's lighting
um on the bridge area but not lighting
of the full Trail also looking at a
potential curb enhancements as we've
done the turf enhancements to the main
lawn of Confluence we found that lawn
area to become increasingly and
immensely well used so adding some
curbing to improve our maintenance
conditions would be part of this project
too next slide
goes into a little bit more detail of
that northeast corner again these are
not designs by any stretch methune does
an amazing job of making them look
really pretty but there's a lot of a lot
of detail that would need to be worked
out but you really get a visual sense of
this concept of taking the really the
the
um the frame the structure of the
eckhouse much like the barn is to the
picnic shelter on the south side of
Confluence Park this would be a an
outdoor space to be used by by residents
as a shelter and a gathering space that
would really recognize and give
historical sort of reference to The
Farmhouse on on the site allowing a
little larger Plaza area to spill out
and better connect to the existing play
area and the expanded player play area
initial cost estimates for this project
were between 2.8 and 3 million dollars
next slide
one second Jeff it's got a direct
question from council member Joe could
you go back one slide to slide number
eight I just had a question about the
Holly Street area the uh park there in
the North West corner it appears that
there's a bridge over the creek that
goes to Holly and then some parking over
there is that
a bridge that we're thinking about
putting in and are we using the school
district parking on the other side of
the the creek there
that that is not part of this project
nor is it necessarily
um a identified Capital project we
wanted to certainly show that
um I think somewhere in the tip and the
transportation Improvement plan there is
discussion of Holly Street
um
um improvements within those Holly
Street improvements we would want to
make sure the right-of-way is preserved
I believe in some of the early planning
efforts on that work additional parking
would be included as part of Confluence
so this is really within the concept
wanting to make sure
um any anything any improvements that
would be done in the park would still
preserve whatever right-of-way space is
needed for Holly
Okay so
under the four million dollars for the
entire
project that we're considering would we
or Would we not be putting a Footbridge
over
the creek there to connect Holly
no we would not that is not that is not
part of this project okay thank you very
much
you can continue thank you
yeah thanks for that question
so uh back to
um this uh other item of what would it
look like to consider an amenity a
recreational amenity somewhere on the
the creek Corridor
um this
opportunity for taking what has been our
most popular dog park tour site this is
the old Skate Park location sort of
expanding that footprint a little bit
but but activating that South East edge
of
um of the community center along the
Rainier Trail and converting that into a
permanent dog park
the cost estimates for this are roughly
600 to 650 000. we've learned a lot as
we've done the dog park tour
um we I'll also say this because I you
know as you look at the the report this
this project is not identified or
recommended for the arpa funding as we
were taught talking about ideas and
concepts with the park board I think one
of the reasons this idea sort of
percolated up was we wanted to have
flexibility and sort of reserve the the
opportunity
um if this four million dollars is
considered for a park project should it
all go into one place or might it be
sort of dispersed into multiple areas so
this idea for the dog park sort of came
from wanting to have that flexibility as
you'll certainly see as we go on and as
you see in the recommendation the
recommendation is to consider this four
million dollars for Park investment in a
more concentrated way in one specific
place so this is not recommended to move
forward I would say though this Summer's
discussion with the park board and the
dog park tour we've had these last
couple years I think has really
confirmed a number of things and one is
we when you look at the Park acreage we
have and the desires and interests this
community has for off leash tug areas we
need to be realistic and one realistic
thing is we're probably not a one dog
park Town it might be really really hard
for us to try and find a five plus acre
space to create one dog park that's
going to serve this whole Community we
are likely
a community that has an opportunity to
carve out smaller neighborhood off leash
dog areas like this and so you'll notice
in the capital budget a proposal and
request for for dog park I just say this
in context not necessarily of this arpa
discussion but I think as we're looking
at making investments into this park
system the opportunity for this to be a
first off leash dog area not the only
dog off leash dog area but a first off
leash dog area we can invest in right
now as future off-leash dog parks are
considered at Tibbetts Valley Park and
other locations
next slide
so the the last area that we sort of
looked at of these three was
um what we called Veterans Memorial
Consolidated Park and in particular and
as you'll see here in the uh this
rendering it it really focuses more on
the bridge between the field and Front
Street
um any of you as you walk through this
area and probably have countless times
we we experience it we recognize it as a
relatively disjointed set of public
spaces from pedestrian Park which is
right at the corner of of front and
sunset between the the two restaurants
there then transitioning back to the
depot building and then transitioning
across the tracks to the senior center
as we began brainstorming just how we
might consider an investment in veterans
this area really
resonated strongly as an opportunity to
make an initial investment that begins
to unify the space begins to feel like
more of a space that is inviting for
people to hang out in
the depot itself has is an amazing
backdrop and and and should be a
welcoming place for for people to to
hang out uh the senior center currently
doesn't have much of a relationship uh
to Veterans Memorial Park
um how might we consider Investments
That Make and create more of a
relationship uh between the senior
center and the public spaces around us
and then pedestrian Park is uh right now
feels more like a visual barrier that it
should really feel like a Gateway from
one of the primary intersections of
Issaquah Front Street and sunset into
the depot into the all the history that
that Depot represents and these these
public spaces that are so close to Old
Town and really a pretty key economic
engine to the community
next slide
uh these next three slides are just an
attempt to to sort of look more focused
at each of these three areas
individually uh first pedestrian Park
um estimated at about 1.8 to 2 million
dollars
um how through a mix of lighting uh
water and sort of interactive water
seating and other and other
um really great architectural sort of
place making ways really make this feel
more like a place that someone would
want to hang out a family would want to
want to hang out and just be and gather
next slide
Depot Park this begins to begins to take
um and create some ideas around again
similarly how do we how do we take the
use of of of seeding and Rain Gardens
and water and coverings and
other sort of other ways that cities
around us have have created these Urban
plazas and these Urban spaces that feel
like a place to gather and and maybe
after having dinner one night or maybe
taking your dinner out and hanging out
here
this
slide represents a four to four point
eight million dollar investment as
you'll soon see as we as you begin to
add up these three areas it's more than
four million so we we really also have
opportunity to consider where we might
Focus these Investments next slide
again sort of furthers this idea I was
speaking of earlier of the opportunity
in and around the senior center and and
really giving
um more activities more outdoor
activities that could be supported not
only
um could support Senior Center users but
also Park users these would be amenities
games places to hang out that would not
be restricted just for senior centers
but begin to feel like more of a
multi-generational space that gets
seniors out of the building and gets
Park users a little bit closer to the
senior center and interacting together
and as in looking at this area you know
it could be a two to two point three
million dollar investment
um investment there
next slide these next two slides are are
really just precedent images precedent
images are a fun way to say this isn't
exactly what the designs can be but
here's how here's how other cities other
communities around us have sort of
Incorporated similar design amenities to
create these public spaces
thank you Tisha for walking through
those
um so this next slide sort of takes a
look at
um all three of these and and rolls up
the the prices that you saw
um in the estimates uh this is where a
lot of um our conversation and focus
with the Park Board in particular this
last meeting on the on the 29th began to
sort of take a look back at the Matrix
and and really get a sense from the park
board as as a great group of
Representative of residents of Issaquah
where where does the investment make the
most sense
um and that's where looking at all of
those Investments of pedestrian Park
Depot Park and Senior Center and saying
hey even though those are you know could
be in the neighborhood of eight to nine
million dollars
um you know how do we create or
prioritize a space and and really make a
first significant bite
um of of some public space and public
investment
um in that in that area
next slide
and this leads to the park board
recommendation itself and and as I was
trying to efficiently go through all of
that I'm going to pause and invite Chris
and or Katie to to come on board and and
certainly add any comments or anything I
missed in in just again the terrific
work that that you all did as we worked
through this the last couple months and
then Chris maybe you can speak directly
to the uh to the
um
um notion that you all uh approved
thank you Jeff and uh good evening thank
you council members uh for your time I'm
Kris Kovac
resident for 22 years and a business
owner for off and on for 10 years and a
Park Board member for about four years
and Jeff despite his uh vocal cord
challenges there gave quite a thorough
presentation
um the park board did arrive at a
recommendation with a motion and you've
seen that
um but I guess maybe a few things that
are important to add is you know before
the uh
before that we arrived at any of this
you know the ad hoc committee was formed
as volunteer uh we really had some
excellent facilitation by Jennifer Fink
I think that's really important uh
knowing the whole time through this
process you know what we were working on
and then to hand it off to you and then
to get all the way to our deadline the
the clock is ticking pretty loudly on
these funds and it would be a shame to
to not use them efficiently
um so we started out spent some time
fleshing out the criteria and I don't
know if you've had the chance uh for
your recall but that that table the The
Matrix
it's you know many pages long when you
when you expand it all the way and uh we
started out with the list of criteria
that I think came from the council and
we also began to add a few others that
we think were really significant and
that that stood out in our minds is that
you know as a Park Board is relevant
and and then after that we began to
really shave away in in sort of a you
know Occam's razor type of approach
shave away what whatever we considered
you know my complicate or hinder the the
possible projects
and so some of the items that we applied
uh you know based based on feedback from
the park board at large
where uh you know of course we don't
want to hinder or be detrimental
whatever we select we don't want to
hinder or be detrimental to Future
projects uh we didn't want to
you know like for instance Tibbetts Park
was an excellent example of that there
were things that we could pick off but
we really didn't know that for 4 million
but we didn't know if it might uh really
tie a hand behind our back uh for all
the future expansion the much larger
work in the future so that was an
example of uh you know shaving away at
the complication
um we also felt that it really needed
the economic aspect of this impact
really needed to be recognized uh you
know recognizing where these funds were
coming from what they're intended to do
and being able to stand behind the you
know that we selected something
recommended something that would be in
in spirit of the the funding
uh some other uh aspects that we thought
about and discussed you know the public
impact we want
the the public to see it at whatever is
completed as you know a successful use
of this this funding and uh impactful
use but you know both the economic
element but also the you know sort of
the public use and uh popularity in a
way you know it's a funny word to use in
that situation but you really want
something that's gonna have a wow factor
uh and then some other topics that were
brought up you know
um
we wanted a complete project we think
that's really important that whatever we
do we don't do
halfway of a bunch of stuff we what we
what we pick is done to completion so
that it's really meaningful and it's not
uh left uh one description is so that
the public isn't left living in a
remodel for many many years
and
um another uh board member mentioned the
idea we really should be looking for
something that we think will be an
accelerator an accelerator for other
projects and so sort of the you know the
opposite of the
a project that might be detrimental to a
future project we wanted something that
might help accelerate one of the other
projects that's already in you know
future planning
uh and then again that the clock is
ticking we really kept that in mind we
need to we knew we needed to get this to
council uh so that you would have time
to think and act and then to that for
that to come back to park staff so that
they can take action and move this
forward
uh so really that's that's the expansion
on what Jeff provided that I can offer
and we hope you'll consider you know
what what our recommendations are uh
it's very there's a lot of options still
and if you if you go back and look at
those uh sketches that methune prepared
uh the idea was
it's still early
we don't really know what exactly we
want we would say we're ordering from a
menu what we're what we want to order
but we wanted to give you some options
and
um see what you know the council thinks
you could take it from say the The
Pedestrian Park which has that I think a
more obvious economic driver and and
public impact and see how far you want
to carry in or maybe you want to do a
portion of that
hopefully to completion as part of our
recommendation and then do apply some of
that money somewhere else and that's
also an example of why we left the dog
park in the in the list because you may
want you know sort of that that other
item somewhere that you may so decide
um and the the one other part of this
that really seemed to gel was in
addition to the economic but this
project really seems like an accelerator
that would tie in with the rest of the
future improvements planned for Memorial
Park really coming from the other side I
guess from the East whereas this sort of
comes from the southwest
and you know eventually you know there's
hopefully going to be a you know a
golden spike driven in the middle and
the project completed
uh so that's I guess what I can add and
I'm here also I think in case there's
any questions and thank you again for
your time
Chris thank you so much for those those
um thoughts and additions and and
um certainly your your great work uh
thank you Tisha for putting that slide
back up if you could go
um next slide actually the next slide
after that I'm going to quickly cover
next steps and then we'll go back to the
open for Council questions discussion
um so just taking a look at next steps
and taking a look at the Timeline
um again as we really in Earnest looked
at project scoping and and these cost
considerations here the last couple
months here we are in October
um bringing the rationale back to you
and and really seeking some some
feedback and guidance are we are we
headed in the right direction is this
something that you could support
um looking ahead should this be
something you want to add within your
budget adoption budget approval as Chris
said we want to begin doing some of that
final scoping to really identify uh
where we would make this four million
dollar investment within that that
strategic opportunity that that the park
board is recommending so that we can be
jumping right into design
and permitting and construction
documents to make sure that we hit that
all-important timeline of construction
completion by the end of of
2024. something else Chris added just
again the big kudos to the park board
but Jennifer Fink her work and and the
work with the methune team was just
fantastic in terms of really shepherding
this and beginning to to really help us
to to take shape so Tisha may be back to
the to the prior slide again I'll just
you see the questions here thanks so
much for for listening uh council
president I'll turn it back over to you
and um
these questions
fantastic well first I want to say
thanks for the great presentation and
thanks Chris for coming in and giving
your information on what the park boards
conversation was like that's really
really valuable so at this point we've
got questions and then we'll see if we
have any Community questions before
going into deliberation
um councilmember Mertz
director Watling hi uh what would you
say if you were given the elevator pitch
on on this park proposal what are like
how would you what are we going to get
for 10 million bucks on an acre
like like what's what's the elevator
pitch for the 10 million dollar
investment
and you're speaking to all three of
these if all three of those were
completed yes correct I mean there's
sort of a it's a vision of a connected
system
I think what this would represent is a
a public space and a public Plaza and a
public park that would complement and
help cement the the economic Vitality of
Old Town and the economic Vitality of
Front Street
um and and create a a public space
that'll last for Generations on for
Issaquah
and the amenities there was uh there was
there was a water feature
uh potentially there was a flame feature
there was uh a uh public uh shelter what
were the features
yeah some shelter amenities uh some some
game space and gameplay uh within the
Senior Center Plaza
um I think the the the entirety of the
investment really represents a a
gathering space
um if I could add I think what this
represents
um is maybe something different than
what you would think of as a traditional
Suburban
City Park it's not a city park with a
a field a lawn a play area and a
restroom it's really more of a
a
an urban park space
if you've spent time say in in Whistler
or other places this would this would
reflect a village stroll right the the
the whole area is a public park and it's
a place you want to you want to hang out
and gather it helps to showcase the
depot and some of the historic Heritage
of of Issaquah that's a little longer
than an elevator speech thank you
councilmember hunt thank you
um part of one of these components is
reimagining of the eckhouse I wondered
if you could give some context around
the current use or lack thereof of the
eckhouse and its status
um
the the building is Residential Building
it's at the corner of Confluence Park if
you could speak to its current situation
please
yeah absolutely
um thank you for that question so the
eckhouse has never really been used for
public uh use
um I think since the the park was born
since the house was built
um Mark was born Park was built
um
um it has not been used as as public
space and so that is that's currently
the the case and the status with that I
I think a lot of since my time here sort
of this opportunity and need to identify
what could a public use be of that of
that space is is needed a number of
years ago you may recall there was a
small arson event on the back porch uh
that created some smoke damage
facility staff went through the
insurance claim we've secured the
building
actual improvements have not been done
until we sort of identify though we've
received the claim
um Investments have not really been been
made on that
um space or then anterior space until we
really identify what we want future use
of that of that space or that structure
structure to be any transition any
creation of that into a public space
even as a building requires some some
rather significant investment and really
retrofitting a community use facility
instead of at its current residential
code and residential facility
okay at this point I'm not seeing any
other questions so I'm gonna open it up
to public comment in case we have any
public members online there's nobody in
person
members of the public on the line with
us so if you would like to make comments
on this topic please
let us know by raising your hand or
sending me the host a chat
and I don't see anyone indicating a
desire to speak
okay
well
now's time for a little bit of
conversation on this deliberation so it
sounds like we've been presented with
um several different options
councilmember D Michelle do you I want
to talk about kind of how we frame this
conversation is that what your comment
or question is about no okay then I'll
I'll hold you for uh all of that so
um it it sounds like the park board has
first of all recommended that the four
million dollar Community investment
strategy Park project
be focused on Veterans Memorial with The
Pedestrian Park Depot Park and Senior
Center Plaza so I think I want to start
there and see if anybody wants to
broaden out beyond that or if we want to
go down and narrow into that and choose
the 4 million so councilman or council
member D Michelle do you want to start
on that
and then we'll go to council member hunt
yeah I would love to start on that and I
hope my voice
holds out long enough here
um
uh this was just an amazing encounter
for me
um to find this information in my packet
and I'll explain why
I don't know if any of you remember a
fellow named Michael Johnson
um Michael uh was a very active member
of our community
um he was an artist uh he was a downtown
resident he was very involved with the
Issaquah Historic Society and he and
Greg spranger
put together many of the Traditions that
we now accept as just part of being
Issaquah it was Michael and Greg's
working on those so he passed away about
six years ago
and really gave his heart and soul to
the City of Issaquah so a long time ago
Michael came to me I told you he was an
artist he came to me and he had a
drawing that he had put together of
pedestrian Park
and he this was when I was on the Arts
commission and he had this beautiful
vision for pedestrian Park
and I think if I could Channel Michael's
thinking about it he wanted a space that
well first of all was a beautiful
setting on that corner of Sunset and
Front Street which is our busiest
intersection
and uh he he saw a place where people
would gather a community place also
where we could have art we could have
drama uh we could have wonderful murals
um it would just be a great introduction
and then he too saw this pathway going
back
to the depot and then to the senior
center and making this just a beautiful
way to bring all of that together but he
really was focused on that pedestrian
Park so it was amazing to me to see the
vision that was put together and that
the parks board approved which really
contains all of the elements that he saw
I don't know I think I'm thinking about
15 years ago that he put a lot of time
and thought into and that he actually
had done a detailed drawing of which is
very close to what we're looking at
tonight so I just wanted to bring that
to your attention
um I think that uh every one of these
projects is just beautiful
um wonderful projects uh I really like
the dog park Jeff I do think we're more
we are more than a one dog bark town
but uh uh I would love to see this
vision of uh improvements at the corner
of front and Sunset and a really
important Gathering Place for the
downtown and Old Town area brought to
life as Michael envisioned it so I
support the park boards recommendation
and I support focusing the first uh
investment in that pedestrian part and
by the way I think we're talking about
four million dollars not 10 million
dollars so just the 4 million is what we
have to spend so anyway thank you for
indulging me in that and that the little
talk but it was pretty emotional to see
this drawing and this Vision that really
Michael had 15 years ago and
it couldn't be any closer it's just it's
just amazing it's a beautiful Vision so
thank you
thank you and then we've got
councilmember hunt and then Deputy
council president Hall
well I think that the materials that
were provided and the work that was done
by the staff in the Parks Board really
is a great jumping off point for these
conversations it was
um it was important to me that we have
that kind of level of analysis for these
different Investments and I think it
exceeded my expectations it was a really
it was really great to read through that
chart and understand all the rationale
for the different projects and then you
know understanding the history of why
the creek Corridor sort of turned into
this dog park but I think that uh it's
it was really well documented the
process and I really appreciated that so
I wanted to start with that one of the
things that stood out to me is I do have
two small kids we really like that
little corner of Confluence which is one
of our most popular beautiful parks and
that's a very
natural
seeming playground with a big Rock and
less traditional playground you know
colorful it's it's more sort of Blends
in and um what's what also stands out
though about that corner is that there
is this house that has visible fire
damage boarded up on that corner of our
very beautiful Park and it has no no
public purpose and it's a city building
um so for me
that this it seems to me we are waiting
for the opportunity to reimagine that
um to to take care of that because our
anchor Parks plan everything about our
Park strategic plan is about taking care
of our our beautiful Park assets that we
have and maintaining them and improving
them and making sure they're available
to the public and so what stood out to
me is that here we have a plan and we
have funding to um to reimagine that
eckhouse to have it be a respectful
reimagining and but also in character
with the rest of the park and also make
it a space that could be used by the
public so I would like to expand the
scope to consider that the eckhouse in
particular is I believe about 1 million
to 1.4 million dollars that was the
estimate for that portion and I really
think if we're prioritizing the things
that need to be the things that are in
the most need for change
um I I think of that house because again
it's
a very visible corner of one of our our
most beloved and very well used Parks
it's right next to a playground and it's
aborted up building with fire damage so
I would like us to consider that
reimagining I did also really like the
um the plans on The Pedestrian Park uh
when director Watling said it's it's
more of a visual barrier I have I
experienced it that way too I think many
people probably don't really think of it
as a park
um and so you know that reimagining
that's another case where I think
there's a big impact because it's
currently in need of that that change to
make it really fully
facilitate that public use that would
provide that Community benefit so I'm
I'm supportive of that I'm supportive of
using the majority of this funding in
the way that the Parks Board recommended
but I would I would strongly urge us to
consider addressing the EC house
especially now that we have such a
thoughtful creative and um and a plan
that it that would
make that publicly accessible as well as
in character with the rest of the park I
just thought that was great and it would
be such an improvement
Deputy council president Hull and then
council member Mart I'll be super quick
because I completely agree with the two
previous speakers so and I really
appreciated the Parks Board
um
um mindfulness of the intent behind arpa
being economic stimulus and drivers of
economic recovery post pandemic so it's
definitely well aligned with the park
board recommendation of investment in
Veterans Memorial Consolidated Park and
of the three projects of the
consolidator park I think it's clear
based on some of the reasoning that's
already been said that the greatest need
greatest impact of that funding is
pedestrian Park and I see that being
um
well anyways sorry it's getting late
um and then also speaking of greatest
need greatest impact the Eck houses and
as another good example so if there's a
way to do the two of them I think those
are the two
um that would make the most sense to use
art for funding on things
councilmember marks thank you madam
council president
um
well uh I think the park board did a
very thoughtful
effort in listing out uh the various
benefits of potential Investments of
money uh I'm I'm not there on the on
this plan for really any of the three
elements around the downtown part
um this is the I mean we've already done
around with pedestrian park right we we
made an investment four or five years
ago to transform uh pedestrian park it
wasn't it wasn't millions of dollars but
it was an effort to open it up and make
it a more usable space so this would be
this would be round two of that effort
um I realized we're talking about four
million dollars right now but the
division of this of these three
interconnected parks for for 10 million
I I I don't see 10 million worth of
benefit to it
um you know pedestrian Park is a is a
quarter square acre I mean it's a it's
one or two lots in a subdivision and in
a in a heavily
um commercial area
um and then I just see it as like it's
basically all spaces that are either
already green or it's like a five foot
wide where The Pedestrian walk is behind
pedestrian Park
um and then it's pulling out some rail
sections but it's all stuff that's
already public land and I and I didn't
hear an amenity that would be
commensurate I'd be very excited about
the dog park by the way I think that's a
great idea and that's a that's an
amenity that the public has asked us for
that we haven't been able to put
together I think that's a great idea
um but to spend you know to to move
towards a vision where we spend 10
million on this and don't get any
Marquee benefit you know I think of
spending a million and getting a skate
park right uh or or again this this dog
park those those are amenities that that
enrich
um the lives of our of our community and
I I don't see this uh I just I just
don't see this as a 10 million dollars
worth of benefit to the community
uh I I I don't want to say that we
should go look at Confluence um because
I understand why the Parks Board wanted
to look in this area so in the spirit of
um honoring their you know direction to
look in this area
um I just I don't think this this is
ready and and unfortunately doesn't
represent 10 million dollars worth of
benefit to me at all if I if you if you
had told me how how much should those
improvements cost I would have guessed
two right not ten thanks
foreign
councilmember Joe any
comments no
council member Joe and thank you
my kids are 12 and 15 now and um you
know I would take them to all the
different parks in town
and uh some of the
you know some of the the equipment was
old sometimes and some of it was Rusty
and you had to be careful they didn't
get tetanus or what what have you you
know and so I I certainly uh agree with
my fellow council member
Hunts on the need to have some spaces
where where the kids can can play
because parks are in my mind for for
kids primarily so I I would like to see
us
um take a swing and doing an investment
in Confluence Park that makes the
eckhouse actually usable for our
citizens and gives a second picnic area
in that Park I've been to the park when
there is a birthday party going on in
you know the the barn area and then
I don't have anywhere to eat my lunch or
what have you so I eat on a bench which
is fine but if I had a family there it
would be nice to have a second place to
to go
um
also I think the the equipment that gets
upgraded in Confluence Park will be an
improvement for the kids that haven't
seen new equipment since I think
veterans was was done
if you've been to Lake Sammamish State
Park you've seen the new park that the
friends of
Lake Sammamish did there and it's just
it's marvelous in terms of the great
things that can be done with parks in
limited spaces I think we have an
opportunity to to make that happen what
I think I would like to see is given
cost overruns and the way that supply
chain is uh is going right now is take
Confluence Park and Rainier Trail dog
park that's what I heard over and over
again when I'm out in the community
doorbell and we need a we need a dog
park the first time you came around in
2000 I told you we needed a dog park and
now it's 2021 why don't we have a dog
park so I've heard it for 20 years along
the way so my inclination would be to
take Confluence Park and Rainier Trail
Dog Park uh 3.65 on the top end there
could be additional cost overruns there
we're probably going to get to four you
know and if we don't we send 200 or 300
back to the federal government but we
spent most of it and we did some things
that are good for the community to get
our kids out and get our
regular citizens out with their dogs in
the in the in the outdoors and and I
think we've done a good service to the
city but that would be my preference for
this package thank you
so I'm gonna see if I can get to myself
and council member Ray before going into
a second round with you councilmember D
Michelle
um do you want me to go ahead council
member
um I am inspired by council member uh
Joe
um because
um the one thing that I've heard is we
need a dog park we need a dog park and
we need a dog park and we talk about
maybe we're a two dog park town or maybe
we're a three dog park town but we're
not even a one dog park town and so I
guess if I was to prioritize
um that's what I hear the public saying
they really really want
um I think that the you know the space
um
down on Sunset and you know pedestrian
Park is nice but I guess what I'm
binding up on was the criteria that said
we want to do something we can complete
and though you can complete pedestrian
part you can't complete pedestrian Park
and Depot Park and the plaza around the
the senior center with four million
dollars and so what we're really saying
is we're going to just take a chunk of
this and it feels incomplete to me so
given that criteria of so we're going to
do something that's complete it would
make more sense to invest in Confluence
Park and the dog park and get those done
than it would be to take the first bite
of a of a 10 million dollar
um
partner or uh Improvement in the
downtown area
okay I'm going to throw mine in here and
what I'm hearing is a whole lot of
difference coming out of this
um
I
I don't see three million dollars worth
of benefit in what is being proposed in
Confluence Park but I do see a huge
amount of benefit from what is proposed
with Veterans Memorial and a dog perk
um I think the idea of
taking something that with Veterans
Memorial which has so far been
successful for you know Sports and field
and has a great playground
has a senior center has an activated
space for
businesses and being able to connect
much of that albeit not being able to
complete all portions but I think seeing
that as a
um walkable Urban
area is really important as a way to
create a space I think the argument that
this is arpa funding and meant to help
with you know business and financial
recovery
gives Credence to that idea of that
space and you know
personally sometimes when I want a
little Urban space like that I have to
drive up to Kirkland to get it so I I'd
like to see something like that here I
think we have a a great space for it
that's already connected to the
businesses and doesn't give us you know
I really appreciate the Parks Board
talking about hey we don't want to do
something that we would necessarily have
to do again or which would interrupt the
idea of being able to do the full vision
of something I think there's quite a bit
more that could be done with Veterans
Memorial but I I think either the depot
park or the Senior Center Plaza and The
Pedestrian park or The Pedestrian Park
and the dog park
any of those create a full sense of one
area that provides a benefit
and keeps us within budget and spends
our money
so
with all of that I think we're into
round two so council member do Michelle
uh thank you the point that Council the
council president Walsh just made was
the one that I was also going to make
arpa funds are supposed to be for
economic development and when uh you
look at the position of where uh
pedestrian Park is and the other
um uh have been a decent I would throw
in the the dog park in there as well
that's where the economic development
piece is going to be really important
and certainly could turn that space into
even a more usable space for all kinds
of tourism activities and art activities
and so forth I just need a clarification
uh because I have not seen really any
change to pedestrian Park configuration
in the 35 years that I've lived here so
did we I mean I know we cut down a big
tree
about two or three years ago that was in
the way there but do have we put a major
investment into pedestrian Park in the I
I am not aware that there was any work
done in pedestrian Park so I would
presume that that's going to be that
space would be opened up
um that it would be a a big you know
Channel back to the depot and the senior
center and
um the visual barrier that is there
would be taken out I think all of that
would happen I think I you know I just
think it would be beautiful and I think
it would be absolutely in that in the
line of Economic Development which is
what the arpa funds are supposed to be
spend times thank you
yeah council member Mertz we spent I
don't know somewhere between a hundred
and three hundred thousand dollars
something like that we took out a bunch
of features that
um we had concerns about people sleeping
behind
um we opened up the plaza visually we
took out a whole bunch of greenery we
made it so that adjacent business owners
could put uh
uh tables into that space which didn't
exist previously so that was that was
the effort it wasn't millions and
millions of dollars but it was some oh
and I see the deputy City administrators
there with her multi-colored background
foreign
Deputy City administrator did you want
to add in any comments there
uh yeah uh councilmember Marts is
correct uh this occurred um following
the work of the Old Town Vitality task
force
um and was in advance of some of the
streetscape improvements that you've
been seeing accomplished over the years
the city provided some of that some of
those tables and chairs that you see out
there now and also expanded the patio so
that uh we could have more people sit
out there for lunch and picnics and
those types of things but everything
else just to add those elements that
that occurred
um I want to say and maybe Jack can
confirm some around five years ago maybe
six years ago somewhere somewhere like
that it must have been a little bit
longer Andrea I I arrived in 2016 and
that happened before me okay
better yeah
okay any other round two comments
uh councilmember hunt I have a question
so um in our budget there is money for a
dog park
um there's pko 18 is 513
000 approximately so
um
if we
does that
funding would that become a dog park
regardless of this decision tonight or
would that not happen
um I I had some trouble understanding
because there is the Community Fund
money that's in the budget and then
there's some of the projects that could
potentially be funded by the community
uh fund so if you could explain that
that would be great
yeah I will take it I'll take a crack at
that that's the the joy of parallel
budgeting and Community work in terms of
identifying potential of Investments so
you're absolutely right the the park
project identified for dog park
um does not have an identified location
so given some of the recent work we've
been doing with the park board and
identifying
um that former Skate Park area that
we've seen so popular on the dog park
tour
um as part of this this arpa
conversation
um again if it's if it's council's
pleasure to
um
award
um approve uh the the capital funding
for that dog park that those dog park
funds could be used to construct this
um
dog park that you've seen tonight
um at the proposed former Skate Park
area
and would not necessarily if that was
the case would not need the arpa funding
to uh to do that project
okay so if we didn't if we chose if we
theoretically didn't choose to fund the
Rainier Trail Dog Park then there would
this this funding for pko 18 would still
be budgeted and would still go towards a
dog park in 2023 is that right
could correct and if we chose to fund
the dog park then we would definitely
have a dog park
if we chose to fund the dog park in the
Parks right the Rainier Trail Dog Park
specifically then that would be a dog
park at Rainier Trail dog park and we
pretend we would have this other funding
still budgeted unless we changed that to
be a different dog park is that right
correct correct so again for as we were
preparing the capital budget and the
budget process while at the same time
doing this community work with the park
board a bit of a parallel universe
happened
um so you're right in some ways it
becomes color of money so it do you see
an opportunity of utilizing our funding
to do the dog park if there's a decision
to use the arpa funding in some other
investment then you could consider the
budgeted dog park money and the capital
budget to be used to to build that dog
park at the skate park okay thank you
any other round two
councilmember Mertz uh so I'm not sure
how we resolve this question uh I think
I heard uh something less than four
votes to spend the money on the plan as
put forward I heard something less than
four votes to uh bring it to Confluence
I heard my own weird vote which is to
still do something in that area but do
something different uh so I I don't know
how I think that I it sounds to me like
the will of the body is to spend the
money on parks in some capacity but that
we can't quite agree on how it should be
spent other than it seems like everybody
seems to think the dog park is a great
idea right so um I don't know how you
get a resolution we're clear it's not
like anybody's arguing shouldn't make
some Park improvements right we're just
arguing about you know option A versus
at option b or version a slash B right
so clearly there's some willing to do
something the hour is late I don't know
if we can resolve it this evening
um but the body clearly wants to do
something but I don't think we're going
to get there this evening is my guess
Mr President yes
uh
I certainly agree with councilmember
March I think it's uh a little after 10.
uh we appreciate you taking this
additional item on
um you know there will be there is space
on the agenda for the 17th next Monday
we currently have
um the final budget deliberations and
then a discussion regarding the
legislative agenda uh and then the item
that was not heard this evening so we
could put it on for next week and see
where you all are at we'd like to keep
this before you until there's a decision
but I think if it takes a few weeks
as long as we would hopefully have this
by budget adoption
which is what a month you know
a few days short of a month from now
that'd be great
sounding good as I see a yawn and a uh
yep I I think we're probably pretty good
with that Deputy council president Hull
you know I was just gonna say I'm happy
to postpone it to another meeting or to
just do a quick thumbs up thumbs down on
all the projects too so whatever the
council wants to do
and the administration would just
suggest I think you you've given a
couple rounds of discussion great
presentation great input from the park
board
you got your operating Capital budgets
all pretty well buttoned up you've
earned your money tonight so I think you
can you can go home and
um we can bring this back again next
week
yeah I'm a little bit loopy I think I
might thumbs up everything at this point
so let's let's table that let's say that
we have yes received a great
presentation really appreciate Parks
Board member staying on and all of the
other staff that have supported this
um so I think at this point we are going
to table any uh recommendations on that
and carry it on to the next meeting and
we will adjourn at 10 11 pm thank you
everyone