call to order the October 2nd 2017 City
Council regular meeting and ask those in
the audience who'd like to join the
council and myself and the pledge of
allegiance to please stand
moving now to special business first
item agenda bill seven three nine one
proposed 2018 budget and I'll be making
a presentation on that as soon as I find
it
I had originally thought that everyone
was here this evening to hear my
presentation on the 2018 budget and so I
think this is the largest audience I
have ever had it's across citizens
community members employees and city
council tonight I'm pleased to present
my proposed 2018 budget each year I'm
fortunate to stand before you and
present my financial plan for the coming
year this is my opportunity to highlight
how we'll provide quality services that
support safe and vibrant communities
before I share some highlights of this
year's proposed budget I'd like to
extend my thanks to our hard-working
staff who face the challenging task of
meeting current needs and preparing for
future ones
our team is motivated to keep the most
diverse business in Issaquah our city
government running smoothly they are
invaluable in assisting me with this
proposed budget while we don't have a
crystal ball for 2018 the proposal
before you tonight is physically sound
responsible and balanced this year I
gave our team a list of parameters to
the guide to guide this development of
our budget in addition to responding to
new regulations contractual requirements
and the city's fiscal policies my budget
is aligned with these parameters first
this is financial sustainability
including not relying on general fund
balance maintaining community safety
focusing on quality over quantity
implementing post moratorium action
plans
enhancing our investment in staff
development continuing our investment in
technology including the munis system
and lean principles for process
improvements evaluating new funding
sources or expanding existing revenue
maintaining existing assets and levels
of service and limiting new staff
positions or modified modifications to
current staffing positions to those that
address these budget parameters you'll
hear me feature several of those
parameters tonight as I share my budget
highlights as well as how the newly
adopted five-year capital improvement
plan is integrated into our financial
roadmap for next year one of my main cut
budget goals is to ensure the
maintenance of our assets and current
levels of service that is no easy task
in a community with a growing population
expanding business sector and
ever-changing complicated demands nor
does it mean that we simply continue
with the status quo status quo does not
keep us on pace and does not reflect our
commitment to continuous improvement as
we've added nearly 4,000 new residents
and as employers in this robust economy
have added new jobs and as this Accor
continues to beckon those who seek
outdoor and indoor adventures our
service demands increase with 92% of
Issaquah resident residents recently
stating that the city is an excellent or
good place to live we have a high bar to
uphold we embrace that challenge some of
those increased demands can be met
through implementing new technologies
that enhance
our efficiencies and customer service
this budget includes several exciting
outward-facing programs and applications
that will significantly improve our
customers options for self-service and
online access to information including
recreation registration online utility
billing and a tool for budget
development and reporting my proposed
budget also includes the addition of a
position called a senior ERP or
enterprise resource planning Solutions
Architect that will boost the
connectivity and performance of our
software solutions and enable more lean
practice practices citywide another
example is from our Police Department
where I propose adding a third dispatch
console to help our emergency
communications staff handle an increased
call volume on a more technical note my
budget reflects new information
technology cost allocation changes in
department budgets and a consolidation
of tech related funding ni TS internal
service fund budget this is one of the
first steps we are taking to achieve
better internal cost allocation to meet
our growing demands we're adding or
expanding several services in 2018 we
propose expanding the operating hours of
the Issaquah community center and julius
bone pool to Sundays and we've included
funds to provide lunch service five days
a week as well as more transportation
services at the Issaquah senior center
and as we head into 2018 we will be
working side by side with King County
Metro and the community to develop a
pilot program
that enhances transit options to and
from Tallis and squawk Mountain we also
plan to add hours to our neighborhood
engagement program which recently
completed a successful first year
implementing a range of new
communication tools and connection
opportunities as our community grows and
its demographics change we will be
focusing on developing our equity and
culture competency skills which may lead
to more service improvements in the
future I've also included funds for an
old town parking study to respond to
City Council's request to provide
recommendations on this issue in
addition I'm excited to start master
planning based on recommendations that
we will receive from the park strategic
plan which will be completed this year
as I've mentioned the top priority for
my 2018 budget is community safety to
that end I have proposed adding three
full-time police officers a police
communications supervisor additional
hours to make our emergency preparedness
quarter coordinator a full-time position
and as previously stated a third
dispatch console Issaquah remains a very
safe community this is clear from our
reported crime statistics and from the
perception of our residents our
community continues to enjoy a lower
crime rate than other state averages
just this year ninety percent of our
residents gave overall safety in
Issaquah good or excellent ratings and
98 percent
gave positive scores to safety in our
neighborhoods however the volume of
calls our police department receives has
grown with our population and our
residents seek increased visibility of
our Police Department's for crime
prevention and traffic enforcement
purposes meanwhile the rise in police
activity requires the support of
additional resources within our 9-1-1
dispatch center that increased
visibility and response to community
demands can only be achieved through
building the capacity of the department
other departments are also working to
keeping the cause safe place for example
our Public Works engineering team will
be hard at work next year designing a
long list of a da that's Americans with
Disability Act improvements the
sidewalks as part of our payment
management program our office of
sustainability will begin advancing
strategies from the healthy community
needs assessment that was completed this
year and our public works operations
department will increase its sidewalk
inspection program our citywide team
will oversee the design and construction
of many projects that have safety
components such as continued work on
Newport Way Gilman Boulevard north
Sammamish Road telemetry upgrades
replacement of emergency radios and
Providence point intersection our water
system has and others one area that is
easily recognized as a top priority for
the city is transportation
as this across its new transportation
advisory board I've included funding in
the 2018 budget for the boards first
assignment the development of a mobility
master plan over the course of the next
year our team will continue working with
our strategic partners to advocate for
improvements that could help Issaquah we
plan to further develop partnerships and
lobby for improvements to state route 18
and state route 900 which would help
keep pass through traffic to state
highways and from passing through
Issaquah at the state level we will work
with the Washington State Department of
Transportation and the Federal Highway
Administration on the i-90 interchange
justification report and shoulder lane
use projects and we will continue to
play an active role in convening and
participating in regional solutions
seeking efforts such as the regional
transportation system initiatives as
well as Sound Transit and King County
Metro transit projects inside our
borders we will also advance several
local improvements including the 62nd
Street extension and intersection
improvements of SR 900 12th Avenue and
17th Avenue which were part of the
Costco development agreement traffic
mitigation plan
the city continues to be an excellent
financial health with our new financial
management policy in place the target
range for our general fund reserves
increased from 8 to 15 percent to 15 to
20 percent we will begin 2018 with an
estimated fund balance of over 16
million dollars in the general fund
which represents 36 percent of our total
expenditures and we will achieve a
balance between current anticipated
revenues and expenditures our team has
an impressive track record for managing
public funds
Itzik wise one of the few cities in
Washington State to achieve the triple a
bond rating from Standard & Poor's my
proposal proposed budget for the general
fund includes the 2.2 percent decrease
of expenditures primarily due to last
year's one-time transfers from the
general fund to support capital projects
proposed revenues are anticipated to
increase 9% no general fund balance has
been used and one of my budget
parameters being physical sustainability
will update our developer mitigation
fees charged for fire parks police
transportation and general government in
addition we will conduct a review of
solid waste services and rates and
perform a building and solar evaluations
so that we can look for opportunities to
reduce energy cost and continue our
investment in environmental
sustainability
turning our focus to internal operations
the second phase of our classification
and compensation study will begin to
illustrate how our compensation system
should be structured to ensure both
proper storage stewardship of public
funds but also effective strategies for
attracting and retaining our most
critical asset high quality employees we
will also invest in space planning to
address concerns about cramped
facilities in v inefficient use of space
and operating from multiple aging
facilities major changes in revenues
include increased collections from our
business and occupancy tax building
permits and plan check fees and property
taxes while the city's limited 1%
property tax increase will only generate
eighty six thousand three hundred
dollars next year we anticipate that new
construction will add value to the base
and generate two hundred and twenty
three thousand dollars in new revenue
next year we will launch a purchasing
card program for staff that will
generate rebates which is a new source
of revenue as well as improve our
procurement processes as we look to the
future we must develop strategies for
responding to revenue losses such as the
state legislators intent to reduce the
amount of streamlined sales tax
misuk WA and other cities received
revenue diversification will continue to
be an important solution to that end we
will continue to seek grants and
we will continue to seek grants and
evaluate other revenue possibilities in
2018 we anticipate receiving 1.9 million
dollars from intergovernmental and
granting agencies to help us pay for
programs services and capital projects
on the expenditure side of the budget
our most significant increases are for
our cost of business expenses such as
salaries and benefits the proposed
budget includes an additional 5.25
full-time equivalent employees in the
general fund with overall salary and
benefits increasing 4.2 percent other
significant expenditure increases
includes our payment to each side fire
and rescue of some two hundred and
seventy five thousand dollars and new
recreation registration software and
city facilities space planning the
proposed budget also reflects a
significant expenditure of our real
estate excise tax or Reid funds for the
purpose of supporting a robust capital
improvement plan next year we plan to
update the city sign code and train
staff on the new regulations this need
results from a US Supreme Court decision
that
but that all municipalities should must
must implement I've also included an
allocation for staff and City Council to
begin a citywide
strategic planning effort which will
provide greater clarity on how to
prioritize future initiatives projects
programs and budgets as I proposed my
final budget as mayor I am confident
that this squaws team including our
dedicated elected leaders and talented
staff can second successfully address
any challenges that lie ahead by
focusing on transportation and
technology investments enhance customer
service Public Safety and long-range
planning my proposed budget positions
Issaquah for a bright and successful
future
okay our next item under special
business is agenda bill 747 King County
property prop 1 levy lid lifts for
veterans seniors and vulnerable
populations ballot item and here to
present that information yes I'm looking
for your name I know and I thank you for
coming
would you please introduce yourself yes
sir Thank You mr. mayor and members of
the council my name is Leo floor and I
work at the King County Department of
Community and Human Services and I'm
here tonight at your invitation thank
you to provide a informational
presentation about the veterans seniors
and human services levy which will be on
the ballot in November of this year as I
just alluded to the scope of the
presentation is informational it being a
currently considered ballot measure
public employees are limited to
providing facts and not acting to favor
or disfavor about measure so we do have
a current veterans and Human Services
levy in King County
it was first approved in 2005 and then
again in 2011 the basic contours of the
levy as it currently exists it's a
property tax six-year levy would lift
approved at six year duration each time
at a rate of five cents per thousand
dollars of assessed valuation the
current levy generates proceeds that are
then divided into two groups one for
veterans and their families and then
another for what the ordinance refers to
as vulnerable populations a collection
of persons throughout the community who
benefit from the additional Human
Services support so examples of that
include mothers who are participating in
the
the WIC program they have integrated
mental health screening for those
mothers there are also playing learned
groups that provide parenting assistance
for low-income families who participate
in those programs
the current levies goals to prevent and
to reduce homelessness to reduce the
unnecessary expensive use of jails or
emergency rooms and then to increase
self-sufficiency amongst the populations
that it serves for folks who are
interested in learning more about what
the levy has done for the last 12 years
that it's been in effect we do have
reporting we are required by ordinance
to report twice per year both on the
fiscal management and then performance
management of the levy according to its
goals and I'll get to what its goals
look like on the next slide but all that
is publicly available so that somebody
could see every six months how the levy
is spending relative to its allocated
proceeds and then again how each
individual program performs relative to
its performance measures the levy does
in its current form have a set of more
than 80 performance measures so each
program that is funded by the levy in
the contracting process the requirements
of that particular program are set out
and those are publicly available at the
website that's on the list there
prospective Lea so that somebody can see
what standards a particular program is
to meet this year if it's to comply with
the terms of the contract and then to
receive its full funding amount as
proposed so this now transitions from a
brief description of the current
veterans and human services levy to the
proposed veterans seniors in human
services levy it's been proposed for the
November ballot as a 6-year levy lit
lift with a rate of 10 cents per
thousand dollars of assessed valuation
and then as the name implies rather than
the current two population structure
which has half of proceeds allocated
towards veterans and their families and
the other half towards vulnerable
populations this current structure adds
a third focus population so veterans and
their families seniors and their
caregivers and then vulnerable
populations
to get into the specifics and these are
all really just this is a sort of one
slide embodiment of the confines of the
ordinance itself so proceeds are
collected at ten cents per thousand
dollars of assessed value which and the
projected proceeds for one year would be
fifty two point three million dollars
those proceeds are then divided into
three parts after reserving small amount
one percent for what the ordinance calls
capacity building and then reserving an
additional three hundred thousand
dollars per year that would be used by
the County Council to mitigate Pro
rationing if pro rationing or
suppression were to occur to any junior
taxing district and then the remainder
divided into three so that's the
seventeen that you see there so
essentially seventeen million dollars of
proceeds that would be allocated for
veterans and their families seventeen
million dollars for seniors and their
caregivers where there's an additional
condition that I'll explain momentarily
and then the the last third seventeen
billion dollars for vulnerable
populations where the ordinance lists in
detail quite a few potential vulnerable
populations examples that are listed
within the ordinance are persons with
disabilities and their caregivers
survivors of domestic violence or sexual
assault the the yellow house that you
see in the center is the first of two
conditions so one of what that basically
says is that in the first year of the
levee at least fifty percent of the
proceeds from each of the Third's must
be spent to promote housing stability
for the recipient population so 50
percent of the seventeen million dollars
to promote housing stability for
veterans and their families for example
there's a slide that will follow shortly
that describes what housing stability
within the context of the ordinance
refers to the second condition and this
is specific to the seniors third is that
half of the seniors third must be spent
to promote Regional Health and Human
Services for seniors who are veterans or
their families are their caregivers so
in other words half of the proceeds from
that third for seniors to be spent on
seniors who are veterans and their
families and that that restriction
remains in effect every year until one
of two things happens and this is the
the two boats at the very bottom
left-hand corner of the slide one that
75% of
a number of seniors who were homeless
veterans at the time the ordinance was
enacted in July 21st of this year until
75% of those persons are housed or until
King County has expended twenty four
million dollars in an attempt to house
senior veterans once either of those two
conditions are met then the full senior
allocation would then be unrestricted so
far for any senior regard irregardless
of their of their veteran status any
questions on the the structure that I
could answer before proceeding does it
look like it so proceed thank you sir
another question just what does the
ordinance provide for I mentioned the
phrase Regional Health and Human
Services so what types of things does
the ordinance allow proceeds to be spent
on what you see on the slide here is
really five categories of expenditure
and so that's top to bottom on the
left-hand side where the populations
that the levies intended to serve are
you know from left right on the top so
healthy living fiscal stability housing
stability social engagement and then
service system access and improvement
and these are categories that are based
on the five most frequently brought up
issue areas that a series of community
engagement events last year surfaced as
we went through so 44 community meetings
over a thousand participants and the
answers really sort of aggregated into
these five categories with the exception
of a few outliers results based
accountability so this is the the
planning methodology that King County is
really using for a number of the
initiatives that are going forth right
now so the mental illness and drug
dependency sales tax the best starts for
kids property are levy property tax and
now the veterans seniors and human
services levy as proposed would all use
this results based accountability
methodology there's a notation to the
the book that sort of lays that out for
folks who are interested but the idea
being to start with results to ensure
that there's a mechanism to measure
whether or not outcomes are being
achieved and to not rely on output or
throughput of the system as the measure
of whether or not the levy itself is
successful
briefly as to what is housing stability
if you'll recall there was that yellow
house in the middle of the Venn diagram
a few slides ago so housing stability
refers potentially to the actual
construction of housing through capital
could also refer to the operation of
previously constructed housing so the
veterans and Human Services levy to date
has contributed to the construction of
over 2,000 units of affordable housing
so many of those continue to require
operating funds to continue providing
some permanent supportive housing to
families and then it could also mean a
number of services that could either
prevent homelessness or assist somebody
in stabilizing once they're housed so
examples of that are shallow rent
subsidies or home modifications for
seniors to allow seniors to remain in
place
it could be service-connected our system
connected housing which is a concept
that is embedded within the ordinance
and that refers to for example we have a
number of veterans who are incarcerated
in King County right now for whom King
County invests in reentry training so
services to assist them in the
transition from incarceration to the
community right now depending on when
you take a look at it somewhere between
52 and 62% of them actually released
from jail into homelessness and so an
example of system connected housing
would be housing that's intended to
provide a place for transitioning
veterans from incarceration into a
housed situation to promote their
stability another question just to
provide the information on is how much
is ten cents per thousand dollars our
assessed valuation some of the feedback
that we've previously heard is that just
talking about the median is not
necessarily helpful in accounting where
the prices are really I should say the
values are as diverse as they are so
what I've depicted here is the assessed
values just as a factual matter King
County levies its property taxes on
assessed values and not sales prices and
in some markets those can vary from each
other significantly so the six hundred
and twenty six thousand dollar median
2017 residential value in Issaquah ten
cents per
thousand dollars is a sixty-two dollars
and sixty cent a total levy cost and
that is total so there is a current led
to cost very everybody who's within King
County and that's assess that
approximately four cents per thousand
dollars right now so the difference
between that four cents rate and the
rate that's depicted here would be the
additional six cent rate I can get into
I'm saying four cents that a five cents
of the council members are you mister
mayor would like me to otherwise I can
continue moving all right
process wise so the executive just last
Friday actually transmitted his
initiative are his a plan for the first
year of levy expenditures so that's an
available document now that was
transmitted it's called the veterans
seniors and Human Services levy proposed
transition plan and contingent upon the
outcome of the election and then
contingent upon County Council and
regional policy committee consideration
of the plan and then if they chose to
adopt it it would control the first year
expenditures and that's where the plan
that really describes what the first
year fifty percent for housing stability
funds would do going backwards there has
also been the plan that if adopted would
recertify the current citizen oversight
board so there are two citizen oversight
boards that sit and review led the
expenditures on a bi-monthly basis on
review its annual performance and so a
separate ordinance has been transmitted
to continue those boards and to add one
for seniors and then the next big phase
which is the now the bottom right hand
purple bar is the implementation plans
that would be the plan again contingent
upon the outcome of the election in
november that would if adopted by the
county council the regional policy
committee controlled the final five
years of the levy period
and I see questions up there are there
questions of Leo just for background
information
this presentation was requested by the
council leadership and I want to thank
you for responding very very quickly to
come provide information this was an
informational only presentation unless
the council directs any other action and
seeing none then thanks for coming all
the way to this I call this evening
Thank You mr. mayor
Thank You council members moving now to
audience comments before we I'm going to
ask our city attorney to provide some a
little bit of context here before
audience comments and if you would Thank
You mr. mayor yes as you can see up on
the overhead the there are certain rules
that we have to continue to follow with
respect to this annexation and
pre-annexation zoning question because
the pre-annexation zoning itself is
quasi judicial and the hearing on the
pre-annexation zoning has closed the
council may not take new information on
that issue and members of the public may
not comment on that particular issue in
items from the audience members of the
public can comment on the decision as to
whether or not to annex the property
annexation itself is a legislative and
you may hear from the public relating to
annexation members of the public may
also comment on the Comprehensive Plan
designations that are proposed for the
property again those are legislative and
you can hear comment on them what you
cannot hear comment on is the pre
annexation zoning the actual setting of
the zoning on the property
and in its uses so other matters we can
talk about as people come up but that's
the basic parameters for the public
comment period this evening thank you
now citizen comments are an important
part of the public process we take them
seriously and factor them into the
decisions that we make anyone from the
public who wishes to comment on
tonight's agenda items or other topics
should do so at this time please direct
your comments to the entire council and
not individuals while this is not a
question-and-answer session we will
contact you to follow up if needed if
you did not have an opportunity include
to include your email address please jot
that down on the clipboard that will be
on the table in front of me in a few
minutes when recognized please come to
the lectern speak into the microphone
state your name address and any
relationship to the city limit your
comments to 5-minutes when the yellow
light comes on you're within the last
minute of your comment period if you use
the full five minutes the timer will
sound to indicate the end of your alone
time again public public comments
citizen comments written and verbal are
an important aspect of the public
process we take them seriously in fact
they're then into the decisions that we
make as anyone signed up to speak yes
Ron Thule
good evening rondalee superintendent at
Issaquah school district council mayor
Butler because I have not had an
opportunity to address the council since
your last meeting I wanted to thank the
council and the city staff for the
collaborative work that you did with the
school district on the compact school
building codes your approval of these
new codes will allow us to move forward
with some potential projects within the
city and we thank you very much for
those efforts I also wanted to share
some information related to timelines
for the opening of a new elementary
school by September of 2020 we've talked
a lot about that publicly about our need
to build a Elementary School by 2020 I
previously shared that we've been
growing by some four to five hundred
students each year our official count
day is October 1 or the first day of the
month working day of the month which was
today and we are in fact up nearly 500
students from this time last year so
what does it take for us to get a school
built by 2020 I'm gonna give you some
approximate dates but I want you to know
that these approximations are based on
our experience building a number of
schools over the years and I'm going to
work kind of from the end backwards so
first of all it's about 15 to 16 months
from ground breaking to occupancy or the
actual construction time of an
elementary school the design again is
approximately 12 months of design and
permitting from the time of purchase of
a piece of property the our due
diligence what we would do once we can
go forward and really dig into a piece
of property can typically takes around
three to four months that's our due
diligence feasibility on a potential
piece of property and about a 1 to 3
month for a purchase and sale
negotiations and then a time for
in if it's a city purchased piece of
property like then that would require
City Council action and of course it
requires school board action to actually
do that so we believe we only have a
month or two of wiggle room in this
schedule to complete a project in
elementary school by 2020 in order to
provide the desperately needed
additional classroom space for our
community so I thought it would just be
good because a lot of times you say well
thirty five months because that's what
it would be from today seems like a long
time but we have been you know and again
these are approximations but we feel
like we're getting pretty close to that
window too we need to start moving on
some of these things so that's all I
wanted to share tonight again thank you
to the council for your public service
and your willingness to tackle some very
difficult issues thank you thank you
wrong Robert Swanson
I didn't know I was gonna be able to
speak tonight I I just want to thank the
City Council mayor and the City Clerk's
office I I'd like to claim I had a
little effect on that right there I
think it's a good policy to have right
there so hope that helps any future
novelist
anyway I it's great to be here I have a
friend that's up in the Highlands
his name is Paul just met him a few
weeks ago he told me about the traffic
going up there so I you know I went
around taking some pictures
the I'm just gonna say that the traffic
go on by the school up there Grand Ridge
I think that's make good guy write it
it's terrible I couldn't believe it
people were flying right by it's not in
my neighborhood in any way shape or form
but you know what the kids in Issaquah
anywhere United States are our kids and
so that has to be dealt with I don't
know how you deal with that I think I
don't know if they have little flashing
lights you know saying hey you stop or
people guards the two policemen you're
gonna hire you're a great location to
put one of them because the kids I from
what I hear somebody somebody died
three-three said - okay three that's
great more for the kids so I think
that's an excellent idea
next thing I just want to say is I think
when I last meeting you guys were
talking about how you're going to get
with the the school board I give you two
big thumbs up I'd give you ten if I had
ten thumbs
I think okay I'm gonna be honest here
that should have happened about five
years ago you say what you want on that
it I think we I think the school board I
think the City Council the city itself
probably wouldn't be in such an
emergency if we would have had some
communication but that's just not just
me I'm glad it's happening but it should
have happened earlier anyway that's all
I have to say I think it's great to get
those policemen up there help out those
kids thank you Robert Lauri Pittman
see if I can get my readers to work well
I needed those a little while ago I know
it's difficult I understand city of
Issaquah councilmembers and mayor thank
you for allowing me to speak tonight my
name is Laurie Pittman and I am a
resident of Issaquah I am here
representing excuse me I am here
representing several members of a local
running club from Paragon training
center on Gillman Boulevard got a few of
us here as you know a recent fatality
collision has occurred on September 22nd
at the intersection of East Lake
Sammamish and southeast 56th Street my
comments are intended to express our
condolences to the family of the
deceased and also to call on the city to
make the intersection safer the
collision resulted in the death of a
bicyclist a sports and outdoor
enthusiast it could have been any one of
us here today myself or my
daughter-in-law and her newborn child
for several years this intersection has
been recognized as a dangerous one and
in need of additional resources to make
it safer initial reports including
eyewitness reports indicate the cyclist
was riding his bicycle normally through
the crosswalk with a solid walk signal
and also in accordance with Allstate and
pedestrians with Allstate pedestrian and
bicyclist laws there was also an
additional information given that
another bicyclist was going along the
crosswalk in the opposite direction
the bicyclist was killed as he was
riding in the same direction as traffic
turning to the right our running group
knows to be vigilant as the at this
intersection
because drivers do not look for
pedestrians that due to the engineering
of the intersection drivers see a green
light and just go
I have almost been hit by a car myself
many times too many to count I have seen
other running group members almost
struck by vehicles at a low speed at
times we have had to scream and make
exaggerated hand movements just to get a
driver's attention to prevent a
collision it is a repetitive problem
stemming from the design and method of
how that intersection is controlled
police enforcement could help but it's
not reasonable to expect the police to
ticket their way out of this situation
we need long-term solutions that to
increase the safety of this intersection
via Road engineering the city did
authorize a pedestrian safety crossing
crossing study in 2015 and we appreciate
that
at that time the study indicated the
intersection suffered from the exact
problems outlined above and all of this
while still meeting federal regulatory
guidelines for safety it did recommend
flashing beacons to be installed at the
intersection and if this did not address
the issue the study recommended
installing pedestrian activated buttons
that turns on an electronic no right
turn signal at the intersection the
beacons have been installed and were
operational during this fatality
collision unfortunately those yellow
flashing beacons and lights had no
effect on a life lost due to inattentive
driving and poor intersection design the
flashing beacons have clearly not worked
and drivers only focus on that green
light therefore we are
urging the council to immediately take
steps to implement additional options to
install pedestrian activated no turn
signal this would either turn the signal
red or cause the green light to turn to
blinking yellow with additional
electronic signed activated preventing a
red turn the cost to install this option
is far outweighed by the increased
probability of preventing yet another
death the city is in a position to
ensure the safety of our running group
and other outdoor enthusiasts
enthusiasts that visit the city of
Issaquah we encourage you to make the
right decision
it looks like my times up we encourage
you to make the safe division the safe
to decision so that everyone can live
and work and play here
with within safety thank you for your
time and we respectfully submit these
comments for consideration with proper
City and recommendations to forward to
proper City departments Thank You Laurie
and you can drop those off with the city
clerk if you would like next is Chris
Williams
hi my name is Chris Williams I've been
in there's a quiet area for about ten
years and I have been a member of this
running group that just so articulated
the thoughts of our membership so I've
been a member of that group for about
five years and have used this trial
extensively and I just wanted to add my
personal comments to this this wonderful
presentation that Laurie just did
I won't take very long what I'm going to
do is edge each member of the Council on
you now to take 20 minutes of your time
this coming weekend you know Saturday or
Sunday morning somewhere between nine
and 11 o'clock and spend stare look
South and do three runs through of the
lights be on the north side and go
through three runs of the lights twenty
minutes of your time maximum I can
assure you in six run throughs of those
lights you will have at least one what
the foe moment this was not unfortunate
this was not sad the death of this
cyclist was an inevitable lottery the
trail is going to be used even more when
we open up the other side with with the
restoration and work that's been done
which we are very very grateful for as
we use that trial a lot it's a wonderful
wonderful addition to this community and
should be used but in the use of it this
problem will become even more difficult
if you are humanitarian if you're
concerned about your citizenship if you
are purely risk management on the
insurance side these comments are public
now please regardless have you come to
this please take twenty minutes of your
time and go and stand at their traffic
light and watch what happens you will be
shocked it is a very very busy you've
got two groups coming together you've
got a very very busy intersection a lot
of people coming and going and you have
a wonderful trail and those two are
clashing and something needs to be done
and I urge you to take a look before
even more lives are lost thank you very
much for your time
thank you Chris Lisa Callen
good evening council members mayor
Butler my name is Lisa Kallen and I'm
here representing these two Crosse
school district school board this
evening there are many factors that make
us City successful and a great place to
live a community that cherishes and
supports all its people and their values
is no easy thing to accomplish building
and providing schools is a
responsibility of the school district
ensuring schools can be and will be
built to support the citizenry is a
responsibility of the City Council by
ensuring schools can be built and are
built within our city limits you're
making sure our community will continue
to thrive you are saying our children
matter and they're a top priority you
are saying great schools our core value
that defines who we are as a city and a
community it takes both of us a strong
school district and strong city
leadership to provide for and educate
our youth to their very fullest
potential you the City Council you've
done this you did this this last council
meeting by helping us and working with
us to pass the compacted school land use
code amendment changes that actually
will allow the school district to build
schools in a manner that are required in
today's environment of scarce land high
costs and a high demand for classroom
space and we thank you for that we ask
that every decision you make and you
continue to do you continue to value
that partnership and to know that it
takes both of us to make this happen for
our children the Izzard squad school
district needs to build four new schools
as soon as possible to meet the needs of
the schools the schools and the students
that live here in Issaquah this acquire
lands alone has 1,200 elementary age
children today demanding a need for two
elementary schools and that neighborhood
just that area by itself so right now
need that space please with every
decision in every turn we ask that you
ask yourselves in your decisions what
can be done now to support the education
of our youth this across school district
certainly values your strong partnership
we appreciate all that you have done we
appreciate all of the opportunities
we're going to have working and going
forward and we value being a part of a
strong community and we certainly value
being a good neighbor and we thank you
for your time and service because we
know you have tough and hard decisions
to make and setting all back up to the
my point earlier that creating a
community that cherishes and supports
all of its people and all their values
is no easy thing to accomplish so thank
you for it thank you Lisa
Shalini Bassel
good evening City Council members and
honorable mayor I'm here to talk to the
construction of new schools in the city
I live in the sequel Highlands area and
I've been a property owner and a
resident for the last 10 years I reside
at 1790 26th Avenue Northeast I have two
children one is a first grader and the
other one is rate for 8th grader a few
years ago when we came to Aqua Highlands
the community was very attractive to us
and it's attractive to two families with
young children my children went to the
schools in the neighborhood and I was I
wasn't happy to see how crowded it was
at the schools there are 10 portables at
grindage elementary and the community
cannot accommodate the students the
elementary age students we are seeing
this problem continue into the middle
schools also and the population has been
growing it hasn't reduced so as you
consider decisions for for new schools
in West Highlands area keep in mind the
population is growing for the new
students and you're commuting them out
of West Highlands currently they're
coming to Clark Elementary which
recently opened up and it was remodeled
and it has also ten portables so the
need for a new school or new schools is
well established and as a resident that
has two children in the school's I will
say I was not happy to see how crowded
the schools have been that they are
doing a very nice job of educating the
kids
despite that but our children deserve
better also for parents to commute kids
out you're you're adding trips which are
not that great for the environment the
the value of having a school in the
neighborhood where you can walk to the
school cannot be overemphasized
so I'm here in support of schools in our
neighborhoods shalini Thank You
Elizabeth my pal
just a reminder that if you look up
there it talks a little bit about what
what you can comment on and what you
shouldn't a specific location of the
school is one of those things that
should not be discussed during all these
comments they'll start the clock thank
you my name is Elizabeth moped I reside
at 100 Big Bear place Northwest in
Issaquah I am here partly to say thank
you for the promise of a bus on squawk
Mountain and Talas appreciate that a lot
I'd also like to bring you a little bit
of information the public health people
in King County have discovered that in
our area there are now fake painkillers
that are laced with fentanyl this is the
drug which has caused a great many
overdose deaths in British Columbia if
we had a safe injection site that is a
place where drugs can be tested that is
a place where it's possible to build
relationships with people who are using
illicit drugs and possibly to find out
where the supplies of these fentanyl
laced drugs are coming from
I hope that someday we will have such a
site maybe more than one and that we
will be able to stop what is likely to
be a very deadly epidemic I'd also like
to speak to you about something that
came up with the community needs
assessment and that was there is annex
we we want equity in this community but
there is an extreme disparity that needs
to be investigated and that is why is it
that people who identify as black or
african-american experience eight times
the unemployment rate of other groups it
may be that this is a very small number
and something is skewing the statistics
but I think we really need to know
what's going on there and in this
vibrant community we want to save things
that speak to our heritage recently a
landmark local landmark Commission
committee designated the Providence
Heights campus as a landmark it is a
treasure for our community I understand
that currently the current owners of
that property are suing the city and the
county on the basis that they see
themselves as a religious institution
Plateau campus LLC has not acted as a
religious institution it has acted much
more as a group
seeking to make a real estate investment
into profit by that I hope the city will
seriously fight to keep our landmark
status for Providence Heights campus
thank you very much thank you well as
the best food
Steve Pereira
I could evening mayor Butler council
steeper era 117 northeast dogwood Street
is Groff about 10 years so first I'd
just echo Elizabeth mo ponds comments on
Providence Heights and its deserving of
vigorous defense of its landmark status
and can you reaching out to each of you
to help us maybe identify who were how
to preserve that campus site second and
I commend the proposed additional three
police officers for traffic enforcement
I'm sorry that folks need to be reminded
to go the speed limit to go to speed
limit and in neighborhoods it's
unfortunate that's needed but I think
it's a good call thank you
third item item e on the consent
calendar the vertical mixed-use again
just asking that each of you it's great
that it go forward to committee I just
think it needs a much broader comment
and discussion for the whole citywide
before it gets enacted pros cons I'm not
taking position at this point it just is
something that's going to impact us all
the bulk of my comment still have to do
with the kakari development phase 2 and
phase 3 I attended the said but
September 20th Development Commission
meeting and I had a couple thoughts I
just wanted to share the first was a
sense of deja vu from a lot of people
that talked about it we're not really
that versed in land use or zoning and
all those types of things it they talked
about in things like the deer play here
and we're a fun friendly community we
don't really want to I just would like
to see a much better way of engaging
informing the community and how to reach
out to the City Council and city
officials and staff in gaining that
knowledge and conversations I know that
one of the puzzles the mayor talked
about was increasing the community
engagement person and one of her
suggestions was a citizen's Academy that
could be a great thing but I think there
needs to be something much more robust
to engage the community and
how to engage with the PPC or with the
Development Commission or with city
staff and how to talk about the things
that they need or that they want in the
language that makes that happen a second
thought on that was as part of any
development goes forward there are fees
that get assessed for development
impacts in schools and parks and then
those fees get paid in the city and the
city has something like 10 years to
decide how to use those to decide how
the impacts will be implemented it seems
like this would be more of a direct
correlation between the here's our
proposal and can this proposal can the
schools accommodate this the number of
students are going to go with that
proposed development will there be a
part for those local residents used
locally and not that should be there
should be a linked correlation between
those happening and the development
being approved not just having 10 years
as a long term to decide how to do that
so I'd like to see more of a connection
between those two pieces as we go
forward thank you thank you Steve
no one further has signed up to speak
yes sir
good evening mr. mayor and council my
name's Hal Ferris I've spoken to you
before and I came to today just to give
you an update of how we're progressing
with the Tod project and progress that's
been made since our last council meeting
as you recall when the Council passed
the to adopt the mo use and execute
those which we did in September we had
not yet engaged gotten CenturyLink to to
sign their part of the agreement and
they've done that they did that shortly
after they made minor modifications to
what the council approved we got that
done in time so that we could make our
application to King County for the ten
million dollar set aside for the
Issaquah corridor so that was the key
thing that we were working towards other
other things that accomplished is that
since that time the city has completed
their minor remediation of the King
County site which with the replacement
site for the Century Link to locate to
they've then submitted the report to the
Department of Ecology for a no further
action letter all of which are required
for us to be able to move forward
there's still much work to be done
before the December 15th deadline when
King County will make their ward of the
transitorium a transit oriented
development funding for the project and
some of those will continue to need
engagement with the council and the
staff and we also look forward to
engaging the community in the first
quarter as I said the last time to talk
about what the transit oriented
development project is about and to
share our ideas and the vision of what
this of what the potential development
would be for that site so there's a lot
of work to be done and will continue to
be back in front of the council and
engaging the community the key for us as
we said before is to be able to be
successful with that award from the
transfer from the King County funding
that's going to be enabled the
affordable housing at the CenturyLink
site which we're looking forward to
developing so that's just a quick update
and I wanted to come and fill you in
before we keep moving along they
I'll thank you for that update anyone
else Mary my name is Mary Lynch and I
recited to 6:9 own Northwest Oh Chris
Drive Issaquah Washington I just want to
come back because on the 6th of
September I presented you a slide show
I'm not going to do it to you or
presented again on vision 0 I presented
it a year prior to that I also followed
up with a letter to you mayor Butler
asking for the status of where we were
with that because I was promised in Tina
good for Dee and I both were promised
over a year ago that the city would have
a vision zero like program in place and
I think if we had a vision zero like
program in place we might have prevented
what happened with the death where we
could go we still are not implementing
the for ease we're not doing the reach
out for education and enforcement and
engineering I don't know how many of our
streets is just not that intersection
there at 56 it's the target
it's front street it's every place we
have a crosswalk and a green light
people are not abiding by the
pedestrians in the crosswalk and the
near misses and the accidents that we've
had over the last several years I think
is unconscionable and we need if we have
to just put a police officer at each one
of those intersections for a number of
days and start ticketing cars that do
not yield to pedestrians they've got to
start receiving tickets we've got to be
let it known throughout the community
and through all our pass throughs that
we really mean business and we need to
enforce our pedestrians in the crosswalk
to deaths and a lot of other accidents
that have happened over the last several
years is just atrocious and it shows our
lack of follow-through on really
committing to safety and a pedestrian
safety and yet we say we want to make
this a pedestrian friendly City I don't
see where I've seen any action that have
taken place
took out for that thank you thank you
Mary anyone else yes please thank you
City Council and mayor for the
opportunity to speak my name is Jenny
Bingham I live at 375 southeast Anders
Street and I have spoke about this
before and I know there's a study going
on but we continue whether the light is
functioning or it was a four-way stop we
continue to have Andrews and Bush as our
bypass I don't know where we're at in
finally getting some answers on what
they're going to do but it is needed and
it just seems like we're getting ignored
on this talking about pedestrian
friendly
I've also for two years talked about
missing sidewalks and people to be able
to walk on the sidewalk or special needs
people in wheelchairs use Andrews Street
and have to go out in the road where it
ends right about 4th Avenue go out on
the road then cars come off a sunset way
do not adhere to the stop sign that is
there and can hit that wheelchair person
because there is no sidewalk going up to
4th Avenue off a sense that way I don't
know what the plan is here pedestrian
friendly bypass Andrews and Bush Street
we did we just need some answers
we is it going to be another fatality I
would sure hate to see that with a
special needs person anyway thank you
for the opportunity
Thank You Jenny
even followed by Connie thank you
David Kapler 255 southeast Andrews
Street our new signal here is kind of
interesting but one thing I've noticed
is that people see that green light from
a long distance away and get their
speeds up I've seen number of cars below
this that blow the old stop signs
completely but the speeds we're getting
right here across which I've even
noticed tonight when people see those
green lights from a distance whether
they're coming northbound on second or
east or west on sunset they get those
speeds up so enforcement is going to be
necessary because I'm sure a lot of
those cars end up running the red light
because they're speeding up well ahead
of that green I do support the eventual
annexation of the County Island I
supported that for a long time the
existing parcel boundaries make no sense
however I hope that's safe to say I'm
not suggesting any about their zoning if
you look at the comp plan guidance you
would get and you look at the whole
island property you know things fit in
to the comp plan a reasonable way single
parcels could have a single zoning and
that kind of thing this the council I'd
really needs to know the ground up there
the top in the bottom there's a lot of
complications there with pencil res at
reservoir site Road to that you know
where where we're going to have that
open space and those things there's a
lot to think about
I would hope that the council comes up
with the proper zoning and redoes the
property the parcel boundaries so we end
up with each parcel having a single zone
rather than multiple zones as it looks
like now thank you thank you David
Connie
Connie Marsh I did a bond squawk I'm
going to talk about the process which is
not on your list but I think it's ok so
zoning as compared to code has become
very complex process wise in the last
few months where everyone is a little
confused on what they can say and they
cannot say and I was just reading the
budget over there in my corner and what
I would like to propose for this next
year's budget is some money that we can
actually start to have our code
accurately and consistently supply the
process so the community knows that they
can even talk and when they can talk
without splitting hairs to the enth
degree because I think this is a this
has been an example of a process that we
never ever ever ever want to repeat
again so I think we can do so much
better and so soon you're going to be at
those budget meetings now I'm going to
try to remember to tickle your ear about
this process and remind you of the pain
and so then next year when we do
something else again it'll be better
thank you
Thank You Connie Brian
thank you my name is brian weinstein my
address is on file i want to talk about
two things the first is a decision that
was handed down in superior court about
the Tallis property and the landslide
there specifically i think i can talk
about that it's not on this list it's
interesting because if you read that
particular decision it talks about the
truthfulness and the completeness of
what are known as critical area reports
sometimes I think when the city makes
decisions on potential acquisition of
property or selling property critical
area reports must be included in the
packet that the council looks at buyers
and sellers should be aware that in this
particular lawsuit a critical area
report wasn't very truthful the second
thing I'd like to talk about is the
comprehensive plan and included in the
comprehensive plan I think should be a
principle that when citizens wish to
speak about city transactions regarding
policies public land public money
citizens should be able to do so
citizens should not have to read through
opinions from a city attorney about
Robert's Rules of Order and
parliamentary procedure about what is
supposed to happen at a council meeting
I think residents should be able to
understand transactions that involve
their land and their money and not need
a degree in soil biology the atmosphere
traffic or have a degree in urban
planning to understand what is being
proposed for their community our
comprehensive plan should make it very
clear how communities facilities
including schools are being included in
our future where they should be sited
and why and that the council work fully
and collaboratively and on a continual
basis
with the school board so that they never
have to play catch-up again with the
city that was continuing to grow as much
as this aqua finally well not quite
finally when when the city is looking at
its comprehensive plan and considering
projects that are beneficial for example
transit or oriented projects should be
very clear and the citizens should know
without question what the exact benefit
these such projects will bring to the
community as well as the cost including
the cost to the school district
if such projects are being made to have
certain affordable or multifamily tax
exemptions that will allow them to have
a higher degree of population that does
not pay taxes and benefits the school
district and the city should be able to
identify and delineate this clearly to
us especially for a city that's already
met its 2030 population goal and finally
resolutions that come before this
council that fail any of these tests
should be rejected and not gone over and
over and over again until a predefined
objective that nobody knows about has
been met the process is not what
citizens are here for but we are a
victim of the process and the process
needs to benefit the citizens not a
select few thank you
thank you Brian Dave are you good
evening Council Mayor David Wagoner 360
Northwest dogwood Street department Kate
204 and Issaquah I wasn't going to talk
about this but I want you to know that
you don't have to go down and take that
lady's word for it and go down and stand
on the corner because bill Frey Singh
and I were writing our bicycles the same
place the same way and not only did they
not stop but we got punked at and the
one finger salute
so I saluted back okay it's it's true it
happens every day of the week take the
time and go down there I promise you
you'll have an eye-opening get on a
bicycle try to ride across the street
you'll have an eye-opening experience
I'm a veteran and I'm here tonight as a
veteran many of you know I served on the
King County veteran's advisory board for
12 years I also was on the first levee
that was instituted for King Council
back in 2005 and worked with a guy by
the name of Bob Patterson and he is now
our Attorney General for the state now
I'm not saying that as a name-dropper
I'm saying that simply because it was
true we believe then we believe now that
this Veterans and Human Services levee
is wonderful and I can stand here and
talk to you as a veteran about all the
things that it's done I'll start by
talking about what the levee has done so
far we've got years of real impact and
data that tells us we're using the money
in a smart way for folks who want the
details you can go to Yes on Prop 1.com
but I'll hit a few things or you can
pick up a report that comes out every
year just like this report and I can
tell you that there's bricks and mortar
that have taken veterans off of the
street and if I can get anybody to hell
take a veteran off the street on there
men 35,000 people are served every year
by the levee and that number will
increase if it's renewed in November
since 2006 the levee has helped fund
more than 2,000 units of affordable
housing throughout King County with some
great examples like the William J Wood
Veterans Home in Federal Way bill wood
was a good friend of mine that served on
the King County Veterans Advisory Board
he passed away four years ago and what
he helped get start that I hope will
continue for another six years and I'm
really not talking to the council now
now I'm talking to the voters you've got
to do it you've got to stand behind us
I'm telling you it's taken veterans off
of the street so if we pass this thing
what can we expect for the next six
years for starters we'll be able to
expand on great veteran's employment
programs that take advantage of all
great skills that vets learn while
they're in the service with a little
boost then they can get jobs in our
economy and start paying the taxes that
we need in the tax base we also know
there's a homeless vets problem in the
area and it'll be a whole lot worse if
we put them out on the street please
don't do that
lastly well I could go on and on for a
long time about this so the last thing I
want to say is vote Yes on Prop 1 as a
veteran I'm telling you it works it has
worked for the last 12 years let's make
it work for another six we need your
support thank you thank you Dave
anyone else desire to speak this evening
seeing no one that audience comments are
closed that will move now to committee
and regional reports
Araya Thank You mr. mayor I attended the
Eastside Human Services forum board
meeting on Wednesday September 20th we
had two presentations one was on the
Medicaid transformation project done by
the King County accountable community of
Health and it's all about innovation to
work to improve health health outcomes
for Medicaid beneficiaries the second
presentation and we spent a lot of time
on this is a popular topic tonight which
was the veterans and human services
levee the veterans seniors and human
services levee and I just wanted to
point out a couple different things and
and I'm following David so that's that's
great
that the last levee did since 2012 has
helped over 35,000 people one important
piece about the veterans and human
services levee from before is that now
it adds seniors a really critical I feel
an important point and this is something
that the Eastside Human Services forum
has not decided if they're going to take
an official vote and and asked for
support but they may be so I may be
coming back to council during the good
of the order and asking for feedback in
regard to this and I just you know
wanted to say just personally after 18
years of helping out in the human
services area that it really it really
does take a village so I've got like a
two page which is a really handy piece
of
information about this so if anybody
wants to see that I can pass that out so
I was glad to see the group come and
talk tonight
and then also Friends of Youth is
starting a new initiative and it's all
all about that there has been a decline
in terms of people that are signing up
to be foster parents and they're really
they have a brand new initiative to
encourage people to think about being a
foster parent I also attended the
Eastside Economic Development Council of
Seattle and King County on Wednesday
September 20th and there are some
interesting things in terms of
partnership development around several
groups including the economic
development council and I there's going
to be more to come and more to talk
about in regard to this I think they're
right in the middle of sort of trying to
figure out if it would be a good idea
for some of these groups to come
together to better help economic
development in King County and there
were a lot of questions surrounding
smaller cities outside of Seattle and
how that would impact that group so more
to come in regard to that and that
concludes my report thank you Bill Thank
You mr. mayor on September 21st I
attended the I rank chaired the council
Infrastructure Committee and we had
three items on that agenda that are now
on the consent calendar tonight I'll
just mention briefly they'll be written
later but we talked about a renewal
agreement franchise agreement with clear
Wireless I was a b-70 for 69 Sammamish
plat Toole interlocal agreement may be
74 68 in 1874 63 was the watch state
department transportation right away
easement so there on the consent
calendar tonight there were two other
presentations we had one was mentioned
earlier about the solid waste collection
contract that's coming up so we had our
first presentation on that on how to
look at that in the future this is we
have some lot of time to deal with that
so options with that and
we collect waste for citizens and the
other one probably the most attention
was Issaquah Hobart Road study you know
I remember we partnered with Issaquah
with King County to do a study on that
road at this point they had gotten to
gathering data and so they just took
that point to share the data with us
okay and so it's the traffic flow is
where it is where it is it's in those
pinch points of congestion so that's
what we shared at that point and now
these next couple months they will be
looking to take that data and start
looking at analyzing it and what what
may come of that and we don't know but
they had some ideas some objectives on
things to look at and they'll be coming
back to us with suggestions in
approximately 2 months or so and that
was was on that agenda on September 27th
I was at the regional transit committee
and there we approved three items to
move forward to council all related to
the simplifying the Metro fare so it's
been talked about a little bit around
here but simplifying it to 275 $2 Center
5 cents per trip no matter where you go
so you don't have peak trips and
off-peak trips and zone trips and
everything else that gets people
confused also included with that when
they did that was two other items which
was to add four hundred thousand dollars
to the Human Services funding of transit
took passes so they'd add more funding
to get more transit passes to Human
Services things so that would help
alleviate some of that increased cost of
some folks would have an increased light
increased cost and the other one was to
offset the cost of the orca card also a
slight reduction in net cost so those
three things went from our committee to
council from there they had another one
to go to as well but they'll be they've
been moving forward quite a bit and
they're working their way down and that
concludes my report
thanks Bill Paul Thank You mr. mayor on
Thursday I well come this coming
Thursday October 5th I'll be attending
the Puget Sound Regional Council's
growth management policy board meeting
the primary agenda item of interest for
Issaquah this meeting will be a review
of the draft of the regional centers
framework update and then possibly
action to direct the staff to release
the update for public comment and then
the next steps in this process would be
for the review board to review all
public comments at our regularly
scheduled November meeting and we have
an extra meeting at the end of November
to discuss any further public comments
and to possibly take action then last
Thursday on September 28th we held the
meaning of the lodging tax advisory
committee and/or LTAC and just a
reminder earlier this year LTAC put out
an RFQ for proposals for proposals to
provide event recruitment to Issaquah
events such as conferences or sporting
events like the professional volleyball
tournament that's now run for three
years at State Lake Sammamish State Park
events like that which do drive activity
and business for our local hotels we did
not select any of the submittals for
that wood that we received so we've gone
almost two years now trying to get event
recruitment in place and haven't been
successful this last meeting we have a
new staff liaison Tim dinner and we have
kind of discussed a slightly different
tactic about perhaps putting what the
Roger Brooke study had recommended as a
kind of like a visit Issaquah
organization creating such a structure
first and then get into the staff that
and get into the event recruitment we're
gonna continue to discuss that and have
another meeting before the end of
October with for the purpose of
potentially providing that plan and its
vision and a 2018 budget proposal for
the council to consider before we
complete the this full budget process so
we'll cut back to the council with the
LTAC recommendation while this is still
in process that concludes my report
thank you Paul Eileen Thank You mayor I
attended the September 21st meeting of
Huayra 8 we had our updates and
committee reports including a letter to
Senator Murray thanking her for her
leadership in restoring the Pacific
coastal salmon recovery fund including
sixty five million dollars for the
program in the 2018 Senate science
appropriation bill we welcomed welcoming
to Colonel ger Aldi our new Army Corps
of engineer district commander we also
reviewed the final draft of the yr8
10-year plan that's plan that up updates
and an for approval it's a salmon
conservation plan for ten years also had
a briefing on the Ballard Locks economic
impact study and reviewed the draft
regarding that one success stories the
success stories was a presentation from
King County on a recent Bear Creek
in-stream riparian habitat restoration
project and then I also attended the
kokanee workgroup we had a report on an
application of a 2d and 3d temperature
modeling of Lake Sammamish this was to
help evaluate the future climate impacts
of the kokanee habitats we have we also
had a quick overview of Lake Sammamish
study on water quality graphed and data
on the water temperatures on bacteria on
LJ toxins and their measurements that
concludes my report
Thank You Eileen Mary Lou Thank You mr.
mayor on September 14th the cascade
water Alliance's resource management
committee met I was not in attendance
but I got an update they focused on the
elements of the Lake Tapps water quality
work program cascade water Alliance has
purchased Lake Lake Tapps sort of as an
insurance policy on our water supply and
this resource group is responsible for
both making sure that the water quality
is maintained and they also review
contracts dealing with the operation of
the dam on September 27th I attended the
cascade water Alliance board meeting
with the mayor and
any issues significant Cisco would be
reported out by the mayor next seat for
board meeting is October 12 4 o'clock at
the Eastside Fire and Rescue
headquarters on the agenda items are the
approval of the 2018 budget and just as
a you should have note the this agency
is also proposing to eventually maybe in
the next budget cycle moved to a
two-year budget cycle as well
we got a brief introduction to a
proposal for a new fee for motor vehicle
accidents we're gonna get that referred
to committee and I'll bring back a
report on what that might mean in the
future and we also got a briefing on the
east Metro training group on September
28th I attended the King County Fire
Chiefs annual conference on leadership
development I was a guest speaker
representing expectations from electeds
on the next generation of leadership and
fire service that concludes my report
thank you Mary Lou Stacy Thank You mr.
mayor council and in short committee
will meet this Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
right here on council chambers on the
agenda as we have over the last year had
a moratorium update first and then we
will be have next on our agenda agenda
bill 7317 which is vertical mix used
related to the development moratorium
then we will have agenda bill 73-42
which is about architectural fit and
urban design also regarding the
development moratorium then we will have
another discussion on the end of
development agreements and we will be
have agenda bell 73 26 back before us
Old Town sub area plan which we are
reviewing changes to and then the last
item is agenda bill 74 83 2017
amendments to the comprehensive plan
it's my right oh I did want to mention
the Issaquah Hobart Road study to let
the council know that the data that bill
has talked about is coming to committee
sorry council work session I believe
October 9th
yes Emily's nodding your head yes so we
will have that data as well the whole
council thank you
Thank You Stacy briefly I attended the
cascade water Alliance finance and
management committee meeting on
September 20th where we discussed 2018
rates and charges and the Cascade water
Alliance board approved their
recommendation on September 27th
formally adopting the 2018 rates and
charges which were no change on in what
was assumed in their biennial budget and
on September 29th I attended the Sound
Transit board meeting and we took action
on several items related to link
extension projects in Tacoma West
Seattle Ballard Lynwood and Federal Way
and that concludes my report and I'll
now ask the clerk to read the consent
calendar end of the record the consent
calendar was distributed to council in
advance for study if authorized council
action will occur by single motion
regarding the following items item a
seeks approval of approval of the
accounts payables in payroll of October
2nd items B C and D seeks approval of
the minutes of the work session of
September 11th a special meeting of
September 18th and the regular meeting
of September 18th item E a b7 307
vertical mixed use seeks referral to
council and in short committee item F a
b7 3 5 7 Washington State Department of
Transportation commute trip reduction
agreement seeks to accept grant item G a
B 7 4 2 6 appointment of municipal judge
seeks to confirm item H a B 7 4 6 2
amending school impact fees seeks
referral to council services and Safety
Committee item I a B 7 4 6 3 washed-out
right-of-way easement requests for
maintenance purposes seeks authorization
item J a B 7 4 6 a interlocal agreement
with Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer
District for adjusted sewer service area
seeks authorization item kab 7 4 6 9
franchise agreement with clear Wireless
seeks to adopt or
if approved the ordinance will be
assigned number two 807 item lab7 for 8
- 2017 third budget amendment seeks to
set public hearing and refer to council
services and safety committee item M a
b7 4 8 3 2017 amendments to the
comprehensive plan seeks referral to
Council and into our committee this
concludes the reading thank you to have
the accounts payable and payroll of
October 2nd been reviewed
they have thank you
this any council member desire to remove
an item from the consent calendar and
consider it separately under regular
business Stacey I would move to adopt
the consent calendar as presented second
moved and seconded all those in favor
signify by saying aye those opposed that
carries unanimously
moving now to regular business agenda
bill 743 annexation of King County
Island and establishment of pre annexing
pre-annexation zoning keeping even
director of development services and
economic vitality divisions for staff
update
Thank You mr. mayor City Council good
evening
so tonight is I'm gonna give a brief
presentation really to get us back into
thinking about this agenda bill and then
I'm gonna turn it over to you to do
whatever it is you want to do with it so
as just to remind you what we're talking
about is this area that's in black and
what it is is it's basically been an
island of unincorporated King County
within the city of Issaquah Issaquah as
you can see from our zoning map has
boundaries all the way around this
property and the reason why this has not
been part of our city up until this
point is has the property has been owned
by King County and by wash dot and the
city took ownership of the King County
parcel and wash dot is in agreement with
annexation so you initiated the
annexation proceeding with resolution 20
1706 and that was passed in June 6th of
this year and then we basically said we
started to notice I'm intent filed with
the boundary review board to be
consistent with our cw35 a14 295 that
calls for the holding of two public
hearings which we held July 17th and
September 5th and then in talking
through where we were then you've heard
some public testimony tonight about
process and I'm going to take just a
second to say that this has been a
complicated process is complicated
because annexations don't happen all the
time because it got even more
complicated because we owned one of the
parcels and it got even more complicated
because we had two parties wanting to
potentially buy part of the property
that we own so we had a very complicated
conversation on September 5th the
landed with the city council not having
a past motion and so what we've done
since then has been try to nail down
some of the pieces about this proposal
in this agenda bill to make it easier
for the City Council to have a clearer
conversation about this and so one of
the things that has happened is the City
Council as you heard earlier adopted the
compact school standards and that is
important because as you know the school
district has asked to or has expressed
an interest in potentially purchasing a
piece of our property we have also
worked with the potential partner on our
partner on the Century Link Tod project
and so we also know the exact dimensions
of the parcel that we would like to be
zoned intensive commercial so the
administration's recommendation is again
this parcels and I apologize for the
numbering I noticed it after I did this
1 2 3 & 5 so 1 2 3 & 5 this is the
property we own for 6 & 7 are owned by
Washington State Department of
Transportation what has been identified
so far is parcel 1 is the parcel that
we've talked about as part of our
transit oriented development project
parcel 3 is the potential elementary
school site if the council so desires
parcel floor has been discussed by our
engineering department as the potential
location for a new 297 zone reservoir
and then 2 5 6 & 7 I think at this point
we see as being permanent open space so
with that I'm going to stop talking and
see what questions you might all have
thanks Paul was great question thank
Keith since we last met on September in
September fifth there was a meeting of
the PPC could you and they did look at
some of the questions related to this
item could you summarize for us what
happened in that meeting sure so as we
talked about and I've identified so as
we talked about the our CW's related to
annexation what it talks about is that
the city should the ideal is for the
city to have a land-use vision
established for an annexation before it
moves into annexation we did not have
that for the King County Island we we
identified it in the comprehensive plan
as being a potential annexation area and
something that we expected to come into
the city but we did not include any
[Music]
land-use direction on our land use map
and so what staff did is after
consulting with the city attorney we
went ahead and changed the agenda item
at the Planning Policy Commission to
have a conversation with them about what
would be the appropriate land-use for
the island to make a recommendation to
the City Council and so that was
included in the update of the agenda
bill so and I can talk about that if you
would like for me to talk about their
recommendation so because all of the
property is publicly owned currently we
own a parcel and and washed-out owns the
other parcels their take on it was that
they should make a recommendation for
community facilities for all of the
properties so we've we've when we talk
about zoning we actually talk about the
next layer down from that so within
community facilities there could be
community facilities facilities or
community facilities open space and
we've kind of debated back and forth the
appropriate designation for different
parcels within that community facilities
designation the only
nuance is the planning policy Commission
did not recommend commercial for what's
parcel one on this map and that was the
only place they differed from the
administration's recommendation the
reason why they did not identify or want
to support the commercial on parcel one
is because they felt like they did not
know enough about the transit oriented
development project to provide a a
different recommendation for that but
they recognized as part of their motion
that if the council had more information
or sod that differently that they
expected you guys to make that decision
okay thank you
sure Stacy Keith there's a memo in the
packet my original packet I didn't look
on the website the memo regarding the
PPC is recommendation under scenario 2
says that PPC recommended a land use
designation of cff for the entire parcel
so that's not correct that's not correct
so they so cff would actually be a zone
they actually recommended CF so
community facilities for the island and
so there was a corrected memo that came
out today there was did that get updated
and go into the city web site into the
agenda packets great thank you other
questions of Keith
Stacy I'm gonna make a motion
Jeff questions dude oh I thought nobody
had questionable Araya
so I Keith I just wanted to clarify when
when the PCC when they were talking
about vision for annexation were were
they talking in general that there
should be a vision for any annexation
that would happen or just that they
hadn't had an opportunity to put the
vision together for this particular
annexation so so with this annexation so
they so what the administration
recommended was cf four parcels two
through seven on this map but to do
commercial for parcel one because we
knew that part of the transfer
sorry transit oriented development
project was to relocate century links
garage slash offices to the bottom of
this property and you guys have executed
a couple memorandums of understanding
related to that project that that would
be commercial but the rest would be
community facilities because we have not
done a Tod presentation to PPC they did
not have that level of understanding of
the potential use for parcel one so they
they went ahead and just said all of the
parcels one through seven should all be
community facilities so that was my
second question that that they had not
seen the presentation or any
presentation on transit oriented
development they have not yet I offered
that we would be more than happy to give
them a presentation if they wanted to do
that at one of their future meetings but
no they had not had it up to this point
okay thanks
all another question yeah question about
before we move on to a potential motion
in the packet today there is a memo from
our city attorney and I took a look at
that it explains kind of uh it's titled
well it's it talks about kind of a
pathway forward from where we were on
September 5th we had we have any letter
from you Jim on September 9th
it looks really similar to this but I
noticed they're different and I don't
and I wanted to hear what is the
difference between these if there's any
anything that have note that we should
be aware of but it's not the exact same
memo but it looks like it covers a lot
of the content is the same yes as you'll
recall I wrote a memo to the council
that was a turn and client privileged
memo that I submitted on September 9th
and I was asked to prepare a document
which was for public consumption
I believe we talked about it at council
leadership he'll recall and so this
document was a little bit pared down
from a lot of the nuances that I believe
I I put in the original memo so this
memo was one that I did simply for a
public memo that laid out the essentials
but didn't go into as much detail okay
thank you for that
and just for full disclosure I didn't
see anywhere in your September 9th email
or on the letter itself that it said it
was for privileged my attorney-client
privilege well yeah I you know I I
suppose that I I probably should have
put more into that but I know I was
asked if we should if we should disclose
that memo in its entirety and I was a
little bit concerned about all of the
contents and so I was asked to prepare a
version which was a little more
streamlined and that's what this is
okay so there's no material others
because there's you get to the options
of moving forward it looks pretty much
the same correct okay so it's just the
backstory stuff alright thank you other
questions Mary Lou Thank You mr. mayor
so Keith in the packet we have tonight
it talks about parcel 3 being 6.6 acres
and not having the other information on
what the compact school standards look
like is that a number that came directly
from that packet and included the 90%
impervious and the tree retention and
it's six point six is where it lands so
yes and no so if so with compact school
regulations in place the school district
because you know there's also some
critical area limitations on this parcel
the their belief is they need
approximately seven acres and you say
well how come this is only six point six
well there's actually the parcel due
north of this is city-owned now and what
they would do is is it actually would
bleed into this parcel a little bit as
well because what that does is it allows
this to be bigger which from a visual
standpoint as you come around this
corner of i-90 having more trees left in
this location seems an advantage from an
aesthetic perspective so we've been
supportive of the school and doing about
it would be ultimately a boundary line
adjustment to include some parcel that
weaker some property we currently own
where the pond is you know where the
pond is so there's some space in between
this parcel line and the pond where they
could actually kind of push the school
up by another half of an acre on to this
other parcel okay so follow-up question
the question in a comment
and maybe it's two comments I don't know
I guess I'm not concerned that we
actually still don't have certainty on
the parcel size because that would have
caused a lot of concern with some
council members the last time it was
here so not knowing if it's six point
six or seven okay I'm glad you brought
that up but that's not a huge concern I
would ask that any kind of adjustments
that are made understanding how much
concerned citizens have expressed about
this if it's something administrative
like a boundary line adjustment I really
you know would make want to make sure
that your counsel has advised and
informed of this because again it kind
of seems like we're being asked maybe to
make a decision tonight and it might
look different and so if the school is
asking for more land or something like
that
that kind of throws a little bit of
uncertainty back into the picture game
time so so because you're the landowner
of both all of this as well as this land
to the north that that decision will
ultimately have to come back to you in
the form of a short plat and boundary
line adjustment and the council it will
and then it will come back to you again
when when and if they offer to buy that
land from us you guys would ultimately
have to make a decision to sell that so
you guys get two more touches on this if
you decide to zone parcel three CFF
thank you other questions Stacey so I'm
gonna look at Jim a little bit do I
renew or do I make any motion either one
you can simply make a motion okay and is
this the same way okay I wouldn't move
to adopt revised ordinance number 2803
annexing certain property known as the
King County Island establishing
pre-annexation zoning of said property
as presented says an exhibit B I'm going
to be specific about page 528 of the
ordinance requiring assumption of
existing indebtedness and establishing
an effective date second
moved and seconded discussion or further
questions question mr. mayor I know last
time when we went through this process
we also before we voted or discussed had
to go through a series of questions
about disclosures and I'm not sure I
have two questions why I wanted to
repeat that process and two is there an
opportunity to provide comment if we
don't repeat that process if you have
any disclosures that are different from
the last time then then yes you should
disclose those now prior to having yes
mr. mayor I wanted to make just a
general statement before we started with
our deliberations today so as a
councilmember and a candidate in this
fall's election I have been meeting with
residents almost every day I was asked
to meet with a dozen or so neighbors
about city issues in the highlands
including a request to explain the
city's process with regard to annexing
land into the city and selling that land
to others I advised most the resident
who had invited me before the meeting
and the attendees at the meeting that I
could talk about many things but there
were two items I could not talk about
those items were anything to do with
this agenda bill that was in front of us
this evening and that was discussed in
our first meeting in September with
regards to pre-annexation zoning for
King County and any parcel that the it's
across school district might be
interested in buying related to this
annexation they were fine with that when
someone at the meeting looked like they
wanted to comment on either of those I
asked them to stop and reminded them
that all seven council members or six
that are here this evening citizen this
issue and we need to decide on the same
body of information this was not an
issue for them at the meeting the topics
at this meeting were similar to
questions I get asked at most forms
while doorbell and also at neighborhood
gatherings I also subscribed to the
Issaquah daily blog an online blog which
recently posted a flyer on Friday issued
by the ASIC West cool district I saw
this on the blog and as far as I know
it's not part of the
submitted record for the public hearing
it was issued after the closing of the
public hearing and I'm not aware that it
contained any new information we as
council have also received numerous
emails from residents since our meeting
in September on these two topics
currently covered under the agenda bill
and the quasi judicial process I have
filed all these on my computer but have
not read these emails since the hearing
was closed I've reviewed my attendance
at community meetings and those
discussions I have had with residents
since our first meeting in September
with our city attorney I just wanted to
make sure that all these contacts were
appropriate during a quasi judicial
process I was advised today that they
were thank you
additional discussion or questions Oh
so Jim thinking you're gonna go back to
your email and your letter you talked
about options for path going forward one
of the things I learned since September
5th that when we consider a motion and
the and it doesn't pass that doesn't
necessarily mean the question fails it
means the motion failed and so your
email explained options available to us
so I think what's I'm trying to
understand what just happened with with
the motion that came how does it fit
within the context was that is that the
exact same motion we experienced or
considered excuse me I guess this is
first Stacy as much as anything is that
the exact same motion we considered back
on September 5th go back and compare
language exactly
so Jim you tried to address it so I'm
just wondering where we are
I mean you laid out it can be the same
thing it can be different it could be
something a third option so I'm trying
to see how that all that all fits in
this process right when a motion fails
all it means is that the motion has
failed anyone can make a new motion so
until you make an affirmative motion
until you make an actual emotional to
deny something or to take an affirmative
action no action has been taken in this
case all that was done on September 5
was that a motion was made to approve
the ordinance with specific zoning that
was I think the motion was amended
several times but ultimately it ended up
to be a a motion to approve the
ordinance with specific zoning and that
motion failed 1 2 5 and all that means
is that that motion failed at that point
anyone could have made a motion to do
something different if they wanted to do
it
anyone could have under Robert's Rules
you can't make the same motion at the
same session but you can renew the
motion and make the same motion at a
subsequent session or you can make a new
motion because the motion that was on
the floor failed so I realize it's a
it's a nuance of parliamentary procedure
and frankly I think most parliamentary
procedure is far too complicated to be
used in city council meetings but I the
parliamentary procedure was meant for
large bodies and it wasn't really meant
for in an organisation as small as a
city council which has seven members but
the point is that when a motion fails
all it means is that the motion has
failed and so the appropriate three
motions or options that I laid out for
you were one you could renew the motion
someone could make the same motion that
failed at this meeting that's allowed to
enter Robert's
second because the motion that was made
on September 5 failed any new motion is
appropriate and so if there is a motion
that is different from what was made on
September 5 that would be an appropriate
motion as well and I believe that the
last option I laid out was a a motion
whereby you trying to remember what my
third option here totally completely
kind of different kind of things yes it
would be to annex the property without
establishing pre-annexation zoning and
under the city's code when that happens
when you annex the property without
establishing pre-annexation zoning it
comes in with the most comparable city
zoning and then it is eligible for you
to go through a rezone process to
ultimately zone it the way you want so
the two options are the three options
are one make the same motion as last
time which was to adopt the
pre-annexation zoning as it was in the
last motion second make a new motion
that adopts pre-annexation zoning that
doesn't have to be the same as was made
on September 5th or 3rd just limit your
motion to annexation in which case the
property will come in with the most
comparable city zoning to the county
Sony okay thank you
okay so then the motion in France I
noticed that it does already have an
ordinance number in it
and so that's the same ordinance that we
were considering and then just for
clarification Stacy I appreciate you
givin the the page number but there are
multiple exhibit bees in the packet
below it so one of them is the whole
city and one of them is this map or
something similar to this map so right
so it's actually exhibit B of exhibit J
the parties are clear so if you find
exhibit J which is the ordinance its
Exhibit D to exhibit J and it is
actually the last page of the agenda
bill for this item as I understand it
its page 528 if if that's the intent
then I understand the intent that's why
I say page 520 it's actually page the
same map is in the packet twice but
Exhibit B to the ordinance is on page
457 but it is the same map as is on page
528 well I need to revise the motion
light okay
okay Ryan Mariah so I just wanted to
follow up when we were in in regard to I
I too have been out talking to many
members of the community as I'm running
for election and I did sit in a forum
for a City Council where questions came
from people walking in the door one of
the questions had to do with the role of
City Council in finding land for schools
and the role of the school board I had
an opportunity to talk with Jim about my
answer my answer focused on compact
schools and what we had talked about in
our last council session so I just
wanted to make sure that that I had that
out out there as well other questions or
discussion also just because this has
been a very long and complicated process
before it was quasi-judicial officially
and based in my mind so there's been a
lot of discussion about this and when we
were acting quasi-judicial ii to me it's
a much higher standard of ethics that
we're supposed to apply here we're
supposed to be on the record and dealing
with just Iowa times on the record not
with our biases and prejudgments and I
just want to say that's almost
impossible thing for me to do tonight
because I have those in there and
because this has been long and hard
those are there and I'm just it's
there's where I am it's a very difficult
thing to step that up at this point not
just step in a place where you have a
record you look at the record and you
deal with it this has been much more
involved in that and there's been a lot
of items in the community as many as
others have mentioned and I'm out in the
community quite a bit too so there's
been a lot of that going on and I can't
list them all you did an amazing list
Maryland
but that's there and I'm just going to
say I don't think I can quite be as as
perfectly clear in the quasi-judicial
way as I think I should be to my ethical
standards it's just a statement of fact
[Applause]
other questions or discussion
Marylou did you ever come in question I
have a comment so if there's questions
I'll wait I don't understand so bill I
don't understand what you said are you
abstain well I've been I've been told
pretty much that I cannot and I don't
know what to say to that so I'm in a
statement of fact that I don't think I
can do my job here as well as I expect
my me to do my job but I've been told
that I cannot not do it so I'm just
gonna say that I wanted to put that on
the record
okay thank you mr. marriage this time
that we could actually make statements
for against the motion on the table
before we vote I was going to make a
statement sure thanks no additional
questions so you're off oh great thanks
so I'm in support of the motion that's
on the table this evening I'm looking
through the packet I agree with staff
that parcel one should be zoned
intensive commercial which discipline
disagreement with the Planning Policy
commission's rationale for that I do
agree that a proposed designation for
parcel three of CFF is appropriate I'm a
little shocked that we still don't know
the size but we have let me have a ways
to go and this is an extremely unusual
process and actually very difficult vote
as well the reason I'm supporting this
AFF on that parcel three at this point
in time is because the school and the
community is in a crisis we do not have
enough seats in our schools right now
and typically I would totally in most
normal circumstances follow our past
practice which would be to bring it in
with this
most similar to the county but I think
we have extraordinary circumstances here
so I am in support of the CFF on parcel
three and also a couple of follow-up
comments are that you know the school
district is still going to proceed with
their own process and they've been able
to hear the majority of the board is
here this evening a variety of seriously
serious concerns related to lack of
school capacity erosion and slight
hazard concerns with the person we're
looking at access to hospital emergency
routes negative impacts on adjacent
neighborhoods and these all need to be
evaluated during their due diligence
process so if they are to come to the
city and make an offer on the property
there's a lot of concerns out there that
need to be addressed and just want the
public to know they will not be coming
back to Council to be addressed they
will be addressed at school board
meetings and worked through the school
board's community process I have asked
the council president whether or not it
makes sense since we we were the body
that received an enormous number of
comments both before and after the
public hearing closed whether or not
that information should be passed on to
the school district since we had
residents who are confused with the
process did not understand whether it
was our public hearing or the School
Board's public hearing to talk to and
they took the time and effort and energy
to write us to talk to us to stay late
into the evening and I want to make sure
that their voice is heard as this
process continues with the school board
so I'm I'm excited that staff and the
administration was able to present a
much clearer picture this evening and
I'm supportive of the proposal that
you've shown Thank You Stacy thank you
so
several things I want to talk about the
first one is the process actually the
first one is that Keith you buried the
lede about the the administration will
move forward with short plan on the city
parcel to create the four parcels as
shown in the map and the City Council
gets to decide that this is that was not
that process that procedure has not been
talked about but this has been I'll call
it a very tortured process and there's
several reasons for that number number
one is the the choice that was made that
this was going to be quasi judicial
that's a very difficult process it is
not the same as legislative where that's
99.9% of our decisions are made
legislatively that and we can talk to
each other as long as we don't have a
quorum we can talk to the public as many
times as we want to and you know we're
just kind of free to discuss we don't
have the benefit of that we are hearing
each other's comments for the very first
time on set on September 5th and then
another round of comments from each
other tonight so that is a if you've
ever tried to make decisions almost
totally in the dark
yeah I know it looks awkward for you to
sit and watch us be so awkward because
it is very awkward and it's and I just
do not there was another way I think
there was another way but methought this
that's not the decision that was made we
also could have started this process
many many many months ago and not have
the school concept day lighted in July
both the district and city staff have
known about more details than the
council has known for a very long time
and so as we sit here it has felt to me
like we're trying to you know fix a put
a square peg in a round hole because it
hasn't been framed very well it hasn't
been explained very well and there are
going to be two very very important
council touches that
we haven't hadn't talked about and those
are I thought about this every single
day since September 5th so if anybody
thinks that this the that we don't take
our decisions seriously then you would
be wrong because these are very
important decisions I'm sure to all of
us including me I also think that the
messaging has been the wrong messaging
the message has been a please zone to
allow for a school that's not the right
message the message really is what the
district would like to do because of the
process where the district is in the
process
I watched the PPC meeting the 90 minutes
and I have a quote from Lisa
Callen that says exactly where the
district is in this process the district
has done and I'm and I listened to it a
few times and I was in communications
journalism for a long time so this is an
exact quote Lisa the district has done
extensive land searches for suitable
land that would be on the initial
checkbox list of what would be suitable
for the district to try to do a deeper
dive so what the district wants us to do
and what the city staff has asked us to
do is to Zone this in a way that allows
the district to continue to do the
deeper dive I think that's very very
important and that is different from
please Zone at CF F so this district can
build a school that's very different the
process going forward would be what
Keith mentioned and that is that
accounts of the city could and probably
will if this is passed start a short
plat process which is a subdivision code
18 point 13 and because it's the city's
city owns the property the council gets
to decide happens to that property I
don't know when that would come forward
I don't know who would be sitting up
here and then the next step would be if
we get to that point where there is a
requested by the land then the council
has another touch and the council gets
to decide whether or not it wants to
sell the land to the school district at
whatever price has been negotiated so we
have two significant touches I am
because of that I I made the motion
because I support it and I'm comfortable
with that because of the touches that
have to come back I'm I also support the
tents of commercial because the city has
made some obligations already and there
are future decisions to be made about
that the city I think also has a survey
the Keith told PPC we also have definite
boundaries for that but different reason
we have obligations that we need to live
up to in terms of further exploring and
there is a potential huge grant that is
that needs to be applied for and unless
we show our good faith in in meeting our
obligations under the to mo use that
we've already signed then I think that
that project is dead in the water and I
don't want to see that happen
we've not taken a vote on any of that
but it needs to continue to move forward
so I do board member
justice across School District Board
Member morale doe came to the council
and asked us whether the city was
compliant with an RC W and I looked cute
computer's not working very well so I
tried to find that again while I was
here tonight but I couldn't find it
however I did ask on September 6th the
day after the meeting I did ask
whether we are compliant with that and I
don't have an answer back yet
but I wanted you to know that I have
asked I do have concerns about the site
I have some of the concerns resonated
with me and so I'm glad that district
administration and board members are
here to to hear and have been here to
hear what the community has been
concerned about the access you know I've
been up there I live up there it's a
concern
you've got we've got Grand Ridge that's
a deep in the middle of visco Highlands
and traffic is a concern and I think
traffic would be concerned at this site
as well that's not we're judging here
tonight I just but because there are two
more council decision making points
there you're going to get a lot of
questions I would imagine so like I said
I'm come I want to make I'm gonna wait I
have a another comment to make but least
I wanted to thank you for being so clear
and where the district is with the
process because that made me feel
comfortable
combined with like I said the two more
council touches that we have Thank You
Mariah so I I wanted to just echo some
of some of the comments that have been
talked about already I really do feel
that we have a great need for for
schools in Issaquah and it's really
reached a crisis point and so much of
that has been tied into this the the
process has been so incredibly difficult
to get through it's been complicated it
seemed rushed and it's just not the way
that I would envision that we would we
would want I wouldn't want to go through
this again
I would I would really like to see more
planning I about the fact that that I
really do think that council and the
school board should be meeting more
than they are that would be important to
me and I do I I hope that the that the
school board is is able to go forward
and do all of the deep dives and the due
diligence that they'll need to do
because there have been just so many
concerns that have come to us in in
terms of traffic and stability and
emergency access and all of that so I'm
I'm supporting this but this was just
really difficult to to get through very
complicated matter so and and the
quasi-judicial piece of it just just
made it harder to not be able to really
talk about that
on the on the flip side I also wanted to
mention that I feel comfortable with the
icy zoning that is for something that
will allow the trans transit oriented
development project to go through once I
heard that the PCC was they were talking
about that because they they hadn't had
a touch with that they hadn't had a
presentation we've had several and just
through my time on economic vitality I
would say that that's something that I
feel comfortable with so I'll be
supporting this motion thank you are you
ready to act Oh a couple comments thank
you just a reminder to for the record
our first touch on this was July 17th
and it's it's absolutely wonderful the
whole different tenor and atmosphere
that's here this evening compared to
that evening on July 17th and I and I
really think all the public comments
that were made during the public hearing
on the 17th and again on the 5th and all
the the emails that have been submitted
and are part of the public record I
think I want to commend people for
speaking out because all of us have
heard quite a few voices many for some
against all offering I think valuable
input
and in expand helping all parties
involved better understand the concerns
of the citizens so I think this process
since July has been has really changed
quite a bit and I'm really pleased what
I'm hearing tonight because this is the
this is kind of a stage that back on
September 5th I'd hoped to achieve back
then so I'm glad that the focus is now
back on doing what's right for our
community for our schools for our
families both now and into the future
and I will I probably will stand out as
a little bit different than the rest as
well at least those have spoken I I have
it this has been theirs many items but I
haven't really found this that confusing
I've understood what we are doing as I
I've known that annexation we've done
annexation before I know about the the
zoning restrictions we've we've covered
that stuff before it's I think it's been
through conversation the first proposal
actually isn't this there was community
facilities facilities back in July that
was presented to us where there is a
open space now we took the zoning off we
put it back on I think the council has
made this process pretty confusing but
their zoning there is there's the
question of annexation there is zoning
there's a potential subplot there's the
use of those it's related to the Tod
and we've also known that going forward
that this is there are other steps there
is potential sale there is due diligence
of the school district so I think those
have been out in front of us I'm glad
that we've had the more time I'm glad to
hear my colleagues coming around and
thinking that you know that's we can
make this work it's not a final this is
just a decision we're considering
tonight about the annexation it ended
kate's that our intent to move in a
certain direction but the final
conclusion has not been cast yet and so
I'm glad we're taking that step and I'm
going to be supporting this motion thank
you no I like to think council president
Goodman for stating all you did there
earlier very well all your concerns and
and statement of the process and just
iterate a couple of those that I think
the question got state framed poorly
with the community that as the council
was here to approve us new school
location and and that stirred up a lot
of concern and and problem process
issues of what what that means and as
you mentioned that's not what we're
doing here tonight by any means we're
just allowing the one step in a process
with a lot more things to go and as you
heard from many members of the community
there are a lot of concerns still with
this if it's gonna get to that point
traffic and and open space and all those
all those issues and so forth
I don't really rate them here but there
there's a lot to deal with so I am
concerned about that it has been an
awkward and concerned and compressed
almost crisis like process because of
pressure on ourselves as a city and from
the school district and so forth this
has to be done right now and I think we
could have done much better as a city
and a council that I would like to see
us improve a lot more I'd like to work
with the school district more often I
think I've been on the council here long
enough and only had one meeting
officially with the school district
I'd like to come and talk to you folks
but I haven't been able to for the last
few months because of this process so I
think we need to do that much more ahead
of time then as in what's happened here
so thank you Eileen
thank you I will be supporting this
annexation this evening it's been
compressed there's been a lot of
information that's been brought forward
but this is you know hopefully it does
go forward and become a school I I do
some work in the school district and
it's amazing how they'll open up a new
school and almost instantly they're
already in portables and it just doesn't
seem to stop so I know the need is there
and hopefully that this will be one more
step in which we can get to a little bit
better education for our kids which is
already a fabulous education but
portables sometimes are not the best of
offers so I'll be supporting this this
evening and hopefully we'll have some
new school soon Marylou I just wanted to
clarify one thing that councilmember
winter Stein said I got the impression
that there may be thought out there that
it took council members time to come
around to whether or not we needed new
schools or they're important and that's
just absolutely not true I speak for
myself but you can see head nods from
the other council members we need to
have the information in front of us so
we understand so we can make the right
decision so thank you for being here and
I want you to understand because most of
our school board and our superintendent
here
you haven't got anybody up on this
council who doesn't recognize the crisis
and anyone on this council who doesn't
support schools thank you for what you
do I think everyone has added an
opportunity to speak at least once Stacy
so I was just going to ask if if so I
have one last comment sort of question
that's not related to the motion and its
really did the agenda but it's not
related to the motion so I can either
make it now or do we vote and then I say
afterwards it's up to you can you can
say it now let's simplify okay all right
let's take care of this in its entirety
this evening except when it comes back
the council where there are two
additional touches sure so
so we've talked a lot we've heard a lot
of comments about the district in the
city working better together to plan for
schools and cities planned for growth
and are supposed to accommodate for
growth and the district has a little
narrower role in that your planning and
building schools and we all want to work
together and I think we've started to do
a better job at that and you came to us
with a request to change code which we
did and we're glad we can I think we are
all glad that we can help make it easier
for you
the we plan differently I realize you
know we plan on the city plans on like
20 30 year planning horizon but the
district plans for schools when the
population is actually here I don't know
have much detail about what you do but
but those but when you're planning for
when a population is already here the
district is then it seems to me that
there's a sort of an inherent behind
miss so so I get that that we're not
necessarily on the same page that makes
it very very difficult I also know that
you have as I understand it all of that
data that we have about growth and that
district and city staff do talk so I
have a 11 an uncomfortable question and
but you know you do what we do you sit
up and you listen to uncomfortable
questions sometimes so my question is
how I and I and I don't know the answer
and it's just kind of rhetorical how do
we get to the place where we're at that
the place where we are now where certain
schools are so woefully order
overcrowded I don't understand I don't
know why and I'm not suggesting that
this magic answer but I I would think
that there is an opportunity at this
point just as you have asked us to
change our code and have wanted to work
together for us and have suggested maybe
we're not doing everything we can do or
things that were completely should maybe
not complying with things my question
for the board and the district is maybe
this is an opportunity at this time for
you all to have a conversation about
whether your policies need to be
reviewed I don't know the answer to that
and I'm not suggesting they do but I've
been asked that question many times on
council about why the city allows the
schools to get so bored crowded I don't
have control over that and I know you
that you don't largely have control over
that too but I think it's an opportune
time to revisit that and I also think it
would be a great service to the
community to let them know what what
what happens behind the tent because I
don't know and I would imagine that most
people don't know they think it's our
fault but I can tell you that I don't
think the answer is overcrowding crises
it laid before us in council chambers
that somehow we failed the plan because
I think we have to do it together really
do it together
and as we're asking ourselves tough
questions about how we can do it better
I would suggest that maybe this is the
time for you all to ask questions so
that was just my comment thank you oh I
appreciate those comments very much
Stacey and I agree and I think this you
can say we're in the middle of something
right now which we're trying to make up
for some lost ground because of the
covert crowding that has today and I may
be a form of and that can take in the
future is is whether you have a policy
or procedures and I'm addressing the
school board and the superintendent
right now we do I would welcome that as
well we do have a forecast or where we
expect to funnel growth and into the
future and and I hope that the City this
the administration the council and is
all everyone is willing to to and I
think I've had this conversation just in
general with Keith as well is is some
forward-looking planning about what the
needs might be and what we together can
do to get in front of and not be caught
in the same situation again I don't know
what that looks like but I I echo
councilmember Goodman's requests and I
would gladly participate with you are
you ready to vote all those in favor of
adopting revised ordinance number two
8:03 annexing certain property known as
the King County Island establishing pre
annexing of set property as presented in
Exhibit B on page 457 of the ordinance
requiring assumption of existing
indebtedness and establishing an
effective date signify by saying aye
those opposed that carries unanimously
moving now to agenda bill 7 4 3 1 2018
Community Fund grant recommendations and
before we get to that we're gonna take a
oh my gosh the time sure flies when
you're having fun
feedback in your seats please at a
quarter till
you
hi way over here we're back in regular
session at 9:49 with that our next item
is agenda bill 7 for 31 2018 Community
Fund grant recommendations this is
coming back from the administration and
the services and Safety Committee city
administrator Bob Harrison will provide
staff update Thank You mayor so this did
go to the services committee and all the
various grantees did have the
opportunity to do a full-blown
presentation to the services committee
at that meeting was the chair Toula
marts and Mariah batise right and oh
yeah that's right Newman was Eileen and
then Stacy Goodman was filling in for
Mariah and so we had the opportunity to
to do that review and we'll show you the
recommendations based on the original
recommendations from the mayor and then
what the Services Committee forwarded
out but before we did that one of the
questions that came up which the
committee asked we review with the
council is the criterion that we use
with the community fund and so there is
a process that we go through we issue
the city issues in RFP those partners
end up submitting those request for
proposals for funding with a detailed
description of the project and then
there's a variety of staff that work
with you know very closely and directly
with those various agencies that receive
the funding and they do the evaluation
of the recommendations and they provide
that final recommendation to the mayor's
office which Fred and I then review with
that team for the final recommendations
so as part of that criterion that the
staff uses in scoring the applications
it meets these they look at these
various items so first of all furthers
the city's mission to support a
sustainable safe and vibrant community
the project strengthens the city
partnership to support the community
project provides organizational learning
development and mission completion the
project demonstrates compelling reason
to engage in city in capacity building
work
there's relevant technical managerial
and staff ability and capacity
demonstrated there's a strategy for
achieving and measuring impact provided
the applicant demonstrate outcomes and
strong performance and the costs are
detailed with good estimates and so
based on that criterion and that
evaluation the those projects were
evaluative with funding and so here's
the list the recommendation reflects and
I'll go through the mayor's
recommendation and then services and
safety committee recommendations so that
you're aware so Artiste for maintaining
sustainability for the artis education
program there was a $15,000 request the
mayor's recommendation was $10,000 and
services committee also concurred with
that at $10,000 at work for staff
training and professional development
there was 20 sorry $18,200 requested
mayor recommended 15,000 and the
committee also recommended 15,000 Cougar
Mountain Zoo for computer hardware and
software upgrades there was a 17,500 $3
request with $5,000 from the mayor's
office recommended recommended and the
Services Committee following that
presentation from the zoo recommended
that the city increased that
contribution to $10,000 was a $5,000
adjustment Eastside baby corner had
requested 17,000 750 recommendation from
Mayor was 15,000 and 15,000 from the as
well from the Services Committee friends
at Lake Sammamish State Park there was a
request for $30,000 the previous funding
had been at 25,000 the mayor had
recommended 20 and then the Services
Committee
recommend in matching the original
request so that would been 30 $30,000 so
that's a $5,000 increase from this
year's funding level but it's $10,000
variance in our the city's funding wreck
the mayor's recommended funding and in
the variant the the balance there
Highlands Council for Blakeley Hall
conference room remodel they had
requested 10 this mayor had recommended
7,500 and the committee recommended 7500
as well as clubs Trail Club this would
be the first year we funded that
organization had requested 22,000 for
outreach engagement the mayor had
recommended 10 and the committee had
recommended 10,000 as well
the tavon's Center for fundraising and
constituent management software their
request was for 20 the recommendation
from the mayor was 5,000 and the
committee agreed with that at $5,000 and
in the village theater which has kind of
been a for a newest club production
warehouse they when they originally
applied last year they kind of laid out
a goal for the city of about $100,000
for funding which you know we said we
can't give you a hundred what we do do
though is have this process where you
can apply for these funds on an annual
basis and so you know we would suggest
that you in your original application
you can talk about it further that you
talked about is kind of a four year
arrangement that's $25,000 a year for
four years to meet that arrangement
again the council can't commit future
councils to funding so you know our
recommendation again it was at $25,000
for this level
so this funds a little bit yes there's a
mistake in the gender belt village the
other one it says services a safety
committee recommendation 2,500 it should
be 25,000 should be 25,000 okay thank
you for catching that so as there were a
couple questions last year regarding the
fund and what it's set up for now this
is a different fund and some of the
other funding the city provides to our
partners so the Human Services
Commission for example we offer Human
Services grants there's a full-blown
process and usually those programs are
with nonce with Human Services providers
that are providing a direct service to
whatever the clientele that they serve
at so we've got that pot of money
there's also the LTAC so even though
there weren't any grants awarded in the
past if it meets certain criteria and
there are some grants it could be
awarded through the LTAC committee that
meets those recommended awards the Arts
Commission is another option and a
couple of these agencies have gotten
funding through the Arts Commission for
different types of programs so there are
opportunities for some of these agencies
depending upon the program and what
they're proposing to get funding for
that other those other potential
programs so with that and I don't know
if Eileen or Stacey want to speak to the
variance in since Phil is not here this
evening the funding requests from the
Cougar Mountain Zoo or the the Friends
of Lake Sammamish State Park sure as a
committee if we're gonna speak to that
do it should I make a motion first sure
that would be great
I didn't have questions first before oh
and I did forget one thing thank you so
at the meeting that night we were at the
final stages of finalizing the budget
and I did mention that night as as long
as there's changes that are within
reason that we would be able to
incorporate those into the final mayor's
budget based on the committee because we
got an earlier start this year and so
the good news is we were able to
incorporate the committee's
recommendations into the budget so that
extra $15,000 essentially the services
and safety committee recommendations
reflect the funding that's in the budget
that got presented this evening to you I
would move to approve the 2018 community
fund recommendations as amended by the
council services the safety committee
for inclusion in the 2018 budget thank
you even and seconded questions or
discussion
Stacy I just want to make a couple of
quick comments as I recall Poulos
suggested an additional $5,000 to the
Cougar Mountain Zoo because they had
nothing last year I think that was the
reason and I requested an increase for
Friends of Lake Sammamish the Friends
group for Lake Sammamish State Park from
20 to 30 the reason being that this is I
think what I stated there or what I did
state there is it seems to be punishing
that group to get less than they got
last year for a group that's been I
can't imagine any group that's been more
successful than the Friends of Lake
Sonoma State Park and they had asked for
an increase for additional hours for
their executive director because they
need those additional hours in order to
to grow and their needs there's a lot of
work that that executive director needs
to do to prepare for grants projects in
order to go out for donations and they
don't have enough time right now to do
that she doesn't have enough time right
out do that so those are the reasons
that those were and those amounts were
recommended to be increased and the
committee supported those three you know
and I guess the only other comment I
want to make maybe it's clear to the
council but not clear to the public is
that these are recommendations that go
into the budget and then we further
deliberate on the budget over the next
couple months thank you other questions
or discussion all
could either whoo Stacy or Arlene who
participated on the in the committee
review of these speaker 2 or maybe even
staff because the administration and
even an original recommendations did not
recommend anything for imagine housing
or life enrichment options in particular
I've just just would like to hear what
about those applications that didn't fit
the criteria so on the Leo this was a
very new step in their progress is kind
of a completely new program they were
looking at finding a develop essentially
a development professional to help raise
funds in the future and the amount of
the request at that time was fairly
significant and so our conversations
with Leo was that perhaps a smaller
incremental step would have been you
know a way to fund a smaller incremental
step or way to find some partnership
money rather than having the city pay
for the majority of the cost of the
development officer would have been a
good first step and so that's why we
just felt like the the Leo house just
wasn't quite ready yet for the city
funding under that proposal but we did
say we'd work with him over this next
year to see how we could maybe get them
to that level and then in terms of was
it the imagined housing mm-hmm
it just felt that that was the
replacement of the balconies wasn't yeah
it wasn't capacity building so there's
there's some of the other it was like a
maintenance type of proposal the village
theater for example which would be a
comparable kind of capital improvement
that we've done in the past there
some enhancement capacity for the
village theater in turn in terms of
being able to produce their programming
so it was slightly different than what
was proposed by the imagined housing
program is that your Stacey you have
anything to add you guys talked about
this I think it was presented very well
especially for the imagined housing that
was a difficult one but it was
definitely following our process okay
the one the one just to follow that on I
remember when we this formerly known as
the mayor's fund set of recommendations
just had to mention that when we
established this criteria one of the
things to do was the idea that we wanted
to be known that it that could be for
capacity development and expansion so
that concept is I think is relatively
new in this process that it could be
about you know the development of staff
for example or some capacity of the
organization so that was relatively new
I hope we don't make it just that but
one of the things I do see in the list
then is that it will by by changing the
process making an application and
remember one of the goals was from your
your tier staff team that recommended
this last year was that we might catch
some organizations that we hadn't before
and there's a number of them here so it
went through the vetting process and
through the council committee process so
I'm actually glad to see that because I
know that was we didn't know going in
whether or not we would continue to fund
the same or there'd be some change and
there's clearly the word is getting out
there and there's some change so I'm
really glad to see that I think that's
an indication to me that the process is
working through our intent was to get a
wider look at the needs of capital and
capacity building needs of more
nonprofits for so we can make a fair
meant of their application so it's
reflected in this list no yes I'm glad
to hear it seemed like a more more
organized process this year which is
nice because that's some of the concerns
from last year
and a couple questions through that did
you look back and did the Human Services
Commission look at these at all or you
just did services and safety and you I
mean your your city group and then the
service and Safety Committee correct
yeah so the Human Services Commission
doesn't look at these these are
different pot they look at the Human
Services Commission grants and that as
you may know we've worked for a long
time to get that up to like $10 per
capita funding which is kind of where
they're at now right and so then I guess
the the one of the advantages of this
type of funding in addition to our Human
Services Commission funding is to fill
those gaps really look at that in
comparison that what who and what
they're funding and sometimes there's
gaps that don't fit well under that
program that would fit better under this
program and the capacity kind of work
because the stuff there were that's a
lot more towards the service side maybe
and so that we'd want to look at how
these compare back to each other and
look at some of those gaps in in what's
being provided
because sometimes we'd see that so we
want don't want to have the same you
know organizations getting through there
and then comes through here and so we
want to look to get that broadened and
and hit those areas that that doesn't
hit so they these complement each other
and I'd better work so I hope that we're
looking back at that with the Human
Service Commission when they is they do
their process I think this year also all
right coming up to to just somebody to
go back and look at the two together and
how they line up and if there are other
missing places or not or how well we did
fill in some of those gaps
Mariah so I just wanted to echo both
council member Winter Stein and
comments about about this first of all
I'm I was really happy to see that there
were additional groups that were being
funded so I think some of the smaller
groups are starting to understand that
there that in terms of capacity building
that they would have an opportunity to
take a look at this I would want the
Human Services Commission and I I would
like a broader look across there I just
for example when I see that life
enrichment options was trying to do some
capacity building for example and was
not funded under this and was also not
funded under the Human Services grant if
I'm remembering that correctly from last
that we looked at that that my concern
is always both from the Human Services
Commission side and these Community Fund
recommendations that if there's a small
group that's doing great work but they
just don't have the money to have a
professional grant writing that their
grant writer that there may be losing
out on opportunities and I just want to
make sure and I know I know we're very
keyed into that but I just want to bring
that up as something additional to think
about and I would like to see a broad
view and comparisons when we're we're
talking about this it is really
important to have this in terms of
capacity building but just to take all
of that into consideration I think is
important
thank you
the only comment I want to make is I'm
not quite sure we have the right
criteria laid out I'm a it wasn't in the
packet when we were looking at it
initially at services but in so many of
the
the request could have gone different
ways and I also think that there is so
much overlap with human services that I
think it's possible that we don't have
the right criteria for whatever this
Community Fund and I don't know what
that looks like right now but I think
that's part of the part of the issue
which I'll call some confusion about
what these different funds are for and
why we seem to have similar questions
year over year saying no further
questions all those in favor of
approving the 2018 community fund
recommendations as amended by the
council services Safety Committee for
inclusion in the 2018 budget signify by
saying aye those opposed that carries
unanimously
moving now to go to the order anyone
have anything for good of the order bill
I just want to mention that last week I
think many of us were at the Issaquah
food and clothing bank breakfast which
was a raucous success and I think they
raised over $150,000 this year and it's
our just our local nonprofit that is a
stone's throw from here that we support
in many ways all of us in many ways and
just want to mention that because I love
the day of their breakfast and bringing
some money on one day it's beautiful
thank you thank you
anyone else seeing none then we are
adjourned
you