welcome everyone I'm gonna call the
April 16th regular City Council meeting
to order i'm i'd ask those who'd like to
join the council myself in the pledge of
allegiance to please stand
thank you
our first item this evening under
special business is a b7 five eight
three Earth Day proclamation I'd like to
invite John Hoekstra executive director
and tour Bell field program director for
mountains of sound Greenway trust to
join me at the lectern to receive the
proclamation
turn John thank you very much for coming
this evening where is the global
community now more than ever faces
extraordinary challenges such as climate
change global health issues
environmental degradation food and water
shortages and economic struggles and
whereas local communities can lead the
way in taking such steps to protect and
preserve our natural resources and
wildlife by encouraging energy and water
conservation waste reduction
environmentally sound land-use pollution
prevention habitat restoration and
non-drive alone transportation traces
and whereas the city of Issaquah is a
regional leader in promoting sustainable
living and where as Earth Day offers
residents of all ages a unique
opportunity to make a personal
commitment to practices that are vital
in protecting the quality of human life
and other life in Issaquah for
generations to come and whereas the city
is celebrating 25 years as Tree City USA
and is joined together with mountains to
Sound Greenway Trust Lake Sammamish
State Park and volunteers to steward
public lands on April 21st
in celebration of Arbor Day and Earth
Day now therefore I Mary Lou Poly mayor
of the city of Issaquah do hereby
proclaim April 22nd 2018 to be Earth Day
in the City of Issaquah and urge all
residents to celebrate the special
observance and further to pledge to take
action together so that we can
contribute to a healthy environment and
make Issaquah an even greater place to
live work play learn and visit
[Applause]
Thank You mayor Poli and congratulations
city of Issaquah and citizens of
Issaquah this is amazing 25 years
history City USA it's a great
accomplishment and on behalf of the
bestest on Greenway trust we'd also like
to say thank you for your partnership
we've been working with the city of
Issaquah for more than 20 years
restoring native habitat planting trees
cleaning up and restoring the stream
habitat that is one of the reasons that
is Squa still has wild salmon swimming
back into your city year after year it's
a real testament to not just the spirit
of Earth Day but I think also its
intention that it's akua's walking the
walk and and demonstrating how do you
have a sustainable city in these kinds
of activities over 20 years you can now
you could take a walk from here and oh
there's a couple of tricky road
crossings but you can take a walk from
here all the way to Lake Sammamish State
Park and as you go along there you can
see what 20 years of riparian
restoration starts to look like from the
very newest plots that are being cleared
and getting ready to be planted this
year out to the kind of very first
forest that we helped plant in the city
of is well you can see how forests grow
up over time and get a feeling for
what's been accomplished over this time
that has been a tree city and it comes
because of all of you it comes not
because somebody did it for you it comes
because citizens came forward and put in
their own time their own energy their
own heart and soul over these years
we've got horrible correcting up and
napping the show I forget the numbers
really radically wrong but but thousands
of volunteers have come out and given
tens of thousands of volunteer hours of
Labor and planted more than a hundred
thousand trees in this quad Creek Basin
so it's really extraordinary what's been
accomplished here we're very very happy
for you we congratulate you on this
accomplishment and we look forward to
working with the city for another 20
years
to see what else we can do together to
make the future of Issaquah and the
mouth of sound Greenway truly
sustainable for generations to come I'll
also let tor lean in in the spirit of
this proclamation there is an
opportunity on Earth Day to
come out and be part of this all that
tor tell you about what that is yes
the Sammamish Cove adjacent to the State
Park from 10:00 to 2:00 this Saturday
you guys are invited and encouraged to
come out we'll be doing some trail work
planting some trees and doing some
maintenance on some older trees that
we've planted so encourage you all to
come out and have an opportunity to
pitch in and really you know continue
the environmental restoration out there
throughout the city our second item
under special business this evening is a
be seven five nine zero the 2018
legislative session summary and a end
after that an appreciation for Doug Levy
I'd like to invite the city's lobbyists
Doug levy to the lectern Doug will
provide a recap of the 2018 legislative
session thank you
thanks so much mayor and council members
and staff and community I'm good to be
here tonight and I was asked to give you
a little bit of a blow-by-blow of the
2018 session we'll try and keep it
fairly brief and give you some of the
headlines and then get into how things
went for is sukwon the 2018 agenda first
off I tell you that the 60-day session
which ended on time that was the first
time in several years the legislature
had finished on time was what you would
call an activist session you know
however you feel about the things that
went into and came out of the session a
very frenetic session 308 bills passed
by the 2018 legislature so that compares
to about 317 in 2017 which ran several
months so that gives you a sense of the
the number of bills that were churning
through the system in 2018 the
legislature made a decision to try and
get into compliance in 2018 with the K
through 12 McCleary decision I think
blessed by a very very good economy
remember that the the state actually had
a couple of billion dollars of extra
revenue over the four-year period to
work with they put about 1.2 billion
dollars of additional money into the
k-12 system about 776 million of that
was in in upgrading teacher salaries
also some significant money in special
education and obviously if you've been
tracking the headlines we'll see if the
state has successfully made its case
with the courts that they've fully
complied with McCleary a lot of other
bills that had been kind of pent up and
not quite getting to the finish line the
last several years did in 2018 things
like a breakfast after the bill excuse
me breakfast after the bell piece of
legislation an equal pay bill the Voting
Rights Act several others I would say
and we'll get into this under our agenda
but for in areas like affordable
housing homelessness mental health a
very robust session a lot of important
things passed by the legislature also in
the area of Public Safety the
legislature did a bill on body cameras
that I think will make it much much more
palatable much easier for local
governments to get into the business of
deploying body cameras if they so choose
and on use of force we saw something
rather unusual and pretty controversial
actually but the legislature took a an
initiative filed to the legislature by a
group called deescalate Washington and
you know in all my 20-plus years running
down to Olympia what normally happens
with initiatives to the legislature is
that they send those straight to the
following November ballot in this case
the legislature enacted initiative 940
they also enacted House bill 33 which
comes about 91 days on the heels of the
initiative and amends it according to a
compromise worked out between deescalate
Washington and Public Safety and
domestic violence groups and a number of
others so pretty important pieces of
legislation to say the least I think
before I get into sort of the the
Issaquah story the other thing that I
would tell you is that you know we're
going to be in a midterm election year
so we'll have a lot of battleground
election races between now and November
and obviously on Election Day so
remember that we we still are in a very
narrowly divided legislature it happened
to be the first in a while where was
both a house and a Senate Democratic
majority but that was only 50 48 in the
house for Democrats and 25 24 in the
Senate a very important narrow majority
but a narrow majority nonetheless and so
a lot of districts this one and the
fifth will see some important races the
45th legislative district in that whole
Redmond Woodinville Kirkland Carnation
area will see some important races in
the 44th district of in Snohomish County
in twenty eight down in the south to
coma Lakewood area so a lot of big races
to watch to see how that fifty 48 and 25
24 changes I think if you look at
conventional wisdom you would say the
chances are decent that the Democrats
might add a couple of seats in both the
House and the Senate but conventional
wisdom can be right and it can be wrong
so we take that with a grain of salt and
we'll see how these next several months
go I think for Issaquah you know what I
feel really good about on your behalf is
that you had a really good session I
will be getting you a very comprehensive
report before May 1st that goes into in
intimate detail how you did on your
agenda and bills that passed and didn't
and you know where there are some
funding opportunities in front of you
and some interim studies to keep your
eye on the like but you know at a high
clip remember that one of the things we
did was we wanted the legislature to
finally get a 2017-19 capital budget
enacted you know for the first time in
several decades the the 2017 legislature
had gone home without a biennial capital
budget being enacted and it was
embroiled in a controversy with a an
unconnected water bill that became
politically connected to the budget well
the legislature and the fret and the
first couple weeks did pass a two-year
capital budget so that gave us a little
over 200,000 for confluence park and
then just under 5.4 million dollars for
Lake Sammamish State Park so good things
coming out of that capital budget early
in the session and then on some of the
things that that the city asked for
within the 2018 budgets some really good
results one of the things was that we
had tried in 2017 and come close we
wanted to get a little bit of seed money
for your innovation partnership zone
designation for sports medicine and help
the city get some money to hopefully
attract additional sports medicine firms
and clinics to come here put on a trade
show or conference and help that state
money with
local seed money so that $50,000 that
you asked for is in the final 2018
budget that's great you have been taking
on a disproportionate burden with this
whole issue of pea Foss
you know the chemicals that you found in
your water supply and where Issaquah as
a community I think you know exhibit a
of how to do this stuff right
discovering it spending well over a
million dollars to get the chemicals out
of the water supply but the whole notion
of getting maybe a more sustainable
cleanup program in place and piloting
something where we don't have to keep
doing one offs
we'd ask for $200,000 in the budget and
there is 206 thousand in the final 2018
capital budget and lastly we wanted to
get a little bit of money to help pay
for the programmatic EIS work or sorry
I'm getting into government jargon
Environmental Impact Statement work at
Lake Sammamish State Park and we asked
for about a hundred thousand dollars for
that and we also combined with the
Friends group that was looking for a
hundred thousand dollars for master plan
work for the park and so in the final
capital budget there is $200,000 for
Lake Sammamish State Park so you think
about it in in the span of a few months
that's another over five and a half
million dollars going to Lake Sammamish
State Park which is really gratifying
and and I'd like to say that these
things happened all because of us
but I think it's always important to
remember that we do these things and we
promote these things but the legislators
have to take the votes and ask for
things in the budget and you had some
great help and I think on both sides of
the aisle I think senator mullet has
really made this whole renovating and
modernizing of Lake Sammamish State
Parks a personal cause of his and
Senator Lisa Wellman another one of your
members really took the P foss issue to
heart
representative Graves has been a great
supporter of yours on Con
fluence Park and Lake Sammamish State
Park so those things don't just happen
through happenstance I mean they're
intentional conscious work by the
legislators themselves then to go over a
few things where they're issues of
importance for us and other local
governments that came out well I had
mentioned early on affordable housing
and homelessness the Legislature passed
a landmark bill on the document
recording fee House bill 1570 is adding
$22 to the document recording fee
surcharge and making all of the
additional fees permanent with money
that will go into dealing with
homelessness prevention for King County
this this House bill 1570 is going to
mean over fifteen million dollars a year
so that's a significant amount of new
money going to fight homelessness there
was also a hundred six point seven
million in the two year capital budget
for the housing trust fund a significant
amount of money for that program and
there was several hundred million
dollars for mental health behavioral
health efforts through both the
operating and capital budget one of the
other things that we had joined with a
number of other cities and asking for we
wanted the legislature to put some
additional money into the Basic Law
Enforcement Academy that's run by the
criminal justice training commission
it's centered in Burien and it is where
any newly hired police officer must go
to get trained before he or she can be
out on the street so there's been a big
backlog in getting folks through the
academy for training and we had hoped to
get two additional classes in the 2018
supplemental operating budget the
legislature ended up doing one however
in the last couple of years the
legislature has taken what had been a
base of ten classes up to seventeen now
so that's that's pretty important each
class holds about thirty
people so there's now slots for an
additional 210 folks going through the
Academy so that's very important
and something that had been on our list
there's also a bill that I had flagged
for our folks in police that we were
very supportive on it establishes a new
grant program for mental health field
response and by that I mean that it's
the notion of law enforcement agencies
being joined with mental health
professionals to help people who
probably need treatment and services and
more than they need incarceration and so
House bill 28 92 gives the Washington
association of sheriffs and police
chiefs a million dollars to do a grant
program to provide at least eight grants
around the state to law enforcement
agencies that want to team up with
mental health professionals and social
workers to help people on the ground
I mentioned the body camera legislation
that was Senate bill 60 408 and then in
the whole area of you know your your
local revenue base one of the things we
always go into a legislative session
looking for is we always want to make
sure we're preserving the revenues that
funnel down to local governments and
that's things like the municipal
criminal justice assistance account
liquor revenues the marijuana revenue
distributions and so you know I'm happy
to report there was nothing that took
money away or diverted it or froze any
of your local revenues and there was
also a very good result on the marijuana
revenue distributions in particular and
again I'll call out you know a member of
the local delegation representative
tonnison really worked hard on this
particular issue we were not sure after
the 2017 session if a 12 million dollar
allocation in 2017 actually would go up
to 30 million dollars because that had
been part of the deal when we started
the combined retail and medical
marijuana system that
there would be that level of sharing
with cities and counties and indeed the
30 million dollars is what was in the
supplemental budget for the rest of 2017
19 and the 30 million dollars will be in
the budget for 2019 21 so that's a very
good result and I think on the finance
side probably by about mid year you
should start seeing some additional
revenues from that I want to caution 30
million dollars sounds like a lot but
remember that's a distribution to cities
and counties throughout the state that
have marijuana facilities under the
legalized system so if you are hosting
retail outlets or production or
processing facilities you are entitled
to a share of that money under a formula
so it will be helpful to us I don't want
you to think it's going to be Nirvana on
the budget side but more in the every
little bit helps category and then
something I'll mention that we had a lot
of worries about going into session
there had been a big fight in the 2017
session over the deployment of new small
cell network technology and those in the
telecommunications industry I think
we're very excited about deploying that
to the point that they thought local
right-of-way authority and local
permitting should be overrun and we
respectfully disagree with that and so
there was no bill passed in 2017 there
was a vigorous debate again in 2018 and
again no bill passed so sometimes in the
world of Olympia no action can be a very
good action and in this case I think
that's true for all of you so I'm gonna
stop there that's sort of a high clip
summary I don't want to take all of your
time you've got a busy meeting and a lot
of people here but I think it was a
session that worked out very well for
you and I'm really pleased that some of
the things that that the city
highlighted in the budget process came
to fruition and that's always nice to
see and again through a lot of help from
your legislative delegation
so tonight is Doug's last report out to
our City Council he has been our
lobbyist for six years and I would like
to read about some of the
accomplishments that we as a team have
been able to make over the last six
years and give Doug a certificate of
appreciation this certificate of
appreciation is hereby awarded to Doug
Levy pronounced it correctly sorry for
the massage before in recognition of his
outstanding service to the city of
Issaquah as our lobbyist from July 2012
through April 2018 Doug was instrumental
in advancing the city's goals defeating
potentially harmful bills advocating for
legislation that could help us and in
bringing together like-minded entities
to collaborate for the common good those
efforts helped us to preserve programs
keep local revenue sources protect the
environment and ensure quality public
services you saw an example of that
tonight in what Doug has helped us to
accomplish in just this session we don't
have enough time to go through all the
projects and issues Doug had influence
on through his work with our state
legislature but I do want to highlight
some of the biggest successes and gains
Issaquah has seen from his work on our
behalf in the area of transportation
Doug helped us secure a five million
dollar grant from the Department of
Commerce for southeast 62nd Street which
is that portion off of East Lake
Sammamish Parkway that will connect to
Costco
a 1.5 million dollar grant from the
Department of Commerce for the
intersection of 12th Avenue and State
Route 900 near the former Tully's
location auxilary lanes on i-90 a
project that we're going to be talking
about I'm not going to mention it my
mayor's report tonight very exciting
project that's coming our way shortly
the improvements to East Lake Sammamish
Parkway support for the front Street
interstate 90 interchange justification
report and improvements to the highway
18 and i-90 interchange probably one of
the most important projects that
Issaquah can hope to accomplish in
helping us with our congestion in town
other projects included it as Doug
mentioned
at 206 thousand dollar grant for the PFS
remediation study with the Department of
Ecology partnership on the Costco
expansion plans support for our salmon
hatchery and receiving our Sports
Medicine innovative partnership zone
designation
Doug was also quite prolific in the area
of Parks Recreation and the great
outdoors some of the noteworthy park
projects he assisted with are Central
Park pad won state funding that helped
complete a new synthetic turf field that
opened earlier this year funding for a
number of recent improvements at Lake
Sammamish State Park as well as the
support for the master plan update an
environmental impact statement process
that just kicked off and again Doug
covered some of those big wins in his
session summary tonight last but
certainly not least from 2013 through
2016 he was influential in helping us
receive state funding to complete both
phase one and Phase two of confluence
part we know there was a lot of time and
effort spent on this endeavor and so we
would also like to close by giving Doug
a gift a picture of the part the bridge
in our inner park as a small token of
our appreciation that's awesome this
picture he'll always remember us and be
reminded of how grateful we are for the
work that he has done for the city and
all of the residents of Issaquah thank
you for your dedication to the city of
Issaquah we wish you so much success in
your future endeavors thank you Doug
thank you
I'd like to call a five-minute recess
now so our council members may be able
to come down and say goodnight to Doug
good bye to Doug because he's not
staying for our whole meeting tonight
we're in recess for the next five
minutes
you
we are back from recess and we're gonna
move into audience comments we have
about ten folks signed up this evening
so audience comments will be limited to
three minutes if you've come with a
group and I can see some signs and
badges so I know there are some groups
here if you have a spokesperson that's
great please feel free to raise your
hand while they're speaking to show
support for whoever is speaking so
audience comments and audience members
may address the council at this time the
guidelines for this are on the meeting
agenda those who signed up on our signup
list will be called for it first and if
you did not sign up at the end of us
getting through the list I will ask if
there is anyone else that would like to
speak when you come up please come up to
the lectern and speak into the
microphone state your name address and
relationship to the city and if you've
brought written comments please bring
them up to the clerk afterwards there is
also a public hearing tonight regarding
the first major amendment to the Costco
development agreement if you would like
to make comments on this topic you will
have an opportunity later in the meeting
thank you for taking the time to address
our meeting this evening and can you
read the Verdon signed up tisha
yes geraldine Carrie
my name is Geraldine Kerry my address is
955 17th Avenue Northwest Issaquah I've
been a resident of Issaquah for 40 years
and I'm proud of it but I'd like to
leave because it's getting too crowded
but I won't I love the city I was
driving down to this meeting tonight and
I noticed there are traffic counters on
the Newport Way between well I guess
it's a target and the going up the hill
too from downtown Issaquah and I'm
concerned because the people who live on
Newports way I was on a committee
appointed by Rowan Hinds when he was
mayor that's a long time ago we talked
about widening Newport Way and the
consensus with the majority of residents
who lived in Issaquah was that if you
make Newport Way three or four lanes
with a turn center lane the people who
live on Newport Way will never be able
to get out of the residential driveway
because traffic will be going the speed
limit and never allow residents to exit
their properties so I I don't know what
you have planned for that road but I
know as a longtime resident when you
live on Newport Way in your access on
Newports way is impacted by traffic flow
with one lane in each direction it's
hard to get out of you need you need
turning traffic that blocks traffic
going in each direction so that you can
enter and exit from your private
residences so I would caution you when
you try to move traffic through is a
call you need to be aware of that the
people who live within the city need an
access point to get to their properties
so I would say you know be careful and
if you need more roads the more roads
you put in the they're not going
anywhere because there's there's nothing
improved between Seattle and it's a quad
there are no new off exits there are no
widening of roads you're just going to
jam up the city of is across roads
of Tulane traffic's in any direction
within the city limits so until they
widen the roads into Seattle or Bellevue
or wherever it doesn't do any good to
put more roads within the city limits
Thank you Thank You Geraldine Rebecca
rice my name is Rebecca rice my address
is one zero six zero three second place
South West Seattle nine eight one four
six and I'm here on behalf of the garage
the Issaquah teen cafe I've worked in
Issaquah for five and a half years as
the social services manager at the
Issaquah food and clothing bank and in
my work there I work with a lot of our
low-income families here in Issaquah and
I know that for them and their children
a big need is to have a safe place for
them to go after school in the evenings
and access services and of course the
garage will be a place for all teens in
our community but I think it will have a
outsize effect for our low-income
families and I know that the City City
Council and the city staff have been
huge supporters of the garage for the
past two years and going forward so I
also wanted to say thank you for that
support thank you very much
M Haines hello my name is M I live at
761 Mountain View place southwest and
I'm a student at gives in at high school
and I'm also speaking on behalf of the
equity in cafe the teen Cafe will be an
amazing opportunity for high school
students all over Asakura it will be a
place where students can decompress make
new friends as well as a place where I
can get immediate access to counseling
services or homework help we've been
able to come this far thanks to the
members of the school community who have
volunteered their time to the teen 13
cafe steering committee and by voting to
authorize our lease today you too will
be part of creating a support network
Thirteen's all over the ice crystal
school district thank you Thank You M
Angeline you
my name is Angelina and I am a freshman
at Skyline High School residing at 350
401 250 4th Avenue southeast aqua my
passion 14 Cafe began is I want to help
kick-start the future of the teens of
Issaquah by creating a safe place to
make memories of a lifetime by voting to
sign our lease you will be benefiting
generations of Issaquah teens to come
thank you Thank You Angela Steven
Colbert it okay if I borrow time from
all those short speeches no all right so
my name is Steven Cobert I live at 57 10
140 third place southeast in Bellevue
the city of Issaquah is a great city for
many reasons but perhaps its most
outstanding feature is the fact that it
is set in the beautiful forest at
amphitheater of the Issaquah helps the
precipice is the very steep forested
northeast corner of Cougar Mountain it
is plainly visible from Issaquah and
i-90 and contains some of the most
beautiful old forests in the Issaquah
Alps the Briggs Moe property is located
at the east end of the of the precipice
it is the only parcel on the precipice
that has any land flat enough for
development the reason why this property
remains one of the last undeveloped
parcels is that it has no easy access
there are many reasons why this
development should not occur including
increased traffic potentially a
dangerous intersection on Newports way
loss of wild habitat and loss of the
skid road trail which happens to be the
easiest and most family-friendly way to
get from the Newport way up to the
precipice I would have liked to focus on
the most offensive feature of this
development which is the access road the
current proposal for the Bergsma
development involves putting in an
access road across the very steep
terrain that extends from Newport way up
to the development area which is a
vertical height of about 150 feet I'll
refer to this steep slope as the Bergsma
precipice the Bergsma precipice has a
grade of greater than 40 percent this is
steep or steeper than most double
diamond ski runs building this road at
the required 12% grade would require
they're cutting a large portion of the
precipice and extensive grading the
grading is estimated to require moving
83,000 cubic yards of Earth which is
equivalent to 8,000 industrial size dump
trucks full of dirt just kind of almost
mind-boggling to think of the area to be
graded would extend along Newports way
for 1,200 feet and the top to bottom
regrade along the Bergsma precipice in
the most heavily disturbed section would
be 700 feet wide at the base and 400
feet wide at the top of the hill and the
top of the hill will have to be lowered
12 feet to accommodate the road grade
the grading will have a very unnatural
stair step like pattern like one would
expect to see in an open pit mine the
scar created will never blend in with
the wild and natural surroundings I'm
asking the city of Issaquah to make
funds available to purchase the property
and protect it from development if I
have time to show just two more slides
you actually can't talk until the light
turns red so you got some more time so
this is a the previous view was from
i-90 from the bicycle bridge that goes
over i-90 this is actually from SR 900
right near i-94 of this picture sorry
Steven you have to tuck at the
microphone they won't be able to hear
you it's almost almost everything you
see in that in that green section would
be cleared and graded this is the view
from Newport Way as you can see this
some of the trees in here at least at
least a hundred year old trees and
sometimes even more than a hundred years
old a lot of the trees in this area this
is the view from inside of the of the
the Bergsma precipice at what I call
Ground Zero the area that we maximally
graded if you can summarize Steven that
would be great I just picture that's it
this is the from the Bergsma plan
showing the grading as the this stair
step type pattern that steeply goes up
to the top of the hill and that's all I
have to say thank you for your comments
today there are several members and
audience with signs and weaving their
hands to show support it would ask you
refrain from applause though it is a
business meeting and it's kind of
distracting so if you do support and
please just look at the council raise
your hand and they'll know that you are
in moved by their words thank you
Kaley Jake hi my name is Kaley Jake and
I'm the director of the garage I love it
too for 706 southeast 30th Street and I
won't be presenting today with Jeff so I
just wanted to take a few minutes and
share with the whole council and the
mayor what I was able to share with
those services and Safety Committee last
week in that this month we've been
working on this project for three years
and Barb D Michelle and I started this
together and I am just really
overwhelmed with the support that we've
had not only from the council and both
mayor's that I've had the pleasure of
working with but the staff has just been
incredible and and it's all about our
students it's all about our youth and I
know that you all care so deeply just as
we do and so I just really wanted to
thank you
mostly and for all of that and for
giving our students a voice and I think
when we turn on the news every day
giving them a voice is becoming more and
more important and so I appreciate that
and I also want to appreciate you in
allowing us to provide them the
resources that they need I wanted to let
you know that we've recently received
funding for a mental health counselor to
be on site for the next two years so
that's pretty exciting so thank you
thank you so much Kelly
Sara Crofton
hello my name is Sarah Carson I live at
3277 8 Southie 86 streets in Snoqualmie
I've been in a squat area since 2013 I
had the opportunity to meet with Bob
Larson a Starbucks a few days ago and he
shared with me the plans to build a
school above the hospital and I had
several concerns about that one would
just be the building site he said that
they were gonna clear the top of that
which seems like it could cause
potential for landslides it's also very
steep on the other side so I'm not sure
how small children we kept rallied in
and unsafe also be just to access the
hospital is right below there which is a
world-class Hospital and we're really
fortunate to have that in our area but
there's only one lane going up to the
school they just built more residential
in that area and so if you were someone
that needed to get to the ER it would be
difficult to get there during school
drop-off times or pickup times imagine
traffic would be quite backed up I would
be concerned about emergency vehicles be
able to access if schools were doing
pick-up and drop-off times but it would
be even more concerning if you were
someone that had to drive someone that
had a life-threatening
anything.when minutes matter and all of
you want us or traffic to move and you
have no way of making that happen
so I sure that you've carefully
considered a lot of things but I hope
that those have all been taken into
consideration as well thank you thank
you for your comments Sara and Bob is in
the back with his hand in the air mm-hmm
Peter Crofton
my name is Peter Crofton I live here in
his aquarist Kenyan Court and I'm just
gonna piggyback off what Sarah was
saying I've been up there and it's just
it's real congested and it's no matter
no matter how high if you guys build up
the school up it's just too congested
there's not enough room for anything and
just a lot of safety issues with you
know especially we got young kids
walking around and congestion you know
in the morning coming up the hill and
coming I think it's down black nugget
and just everything just being backed up
right there turning into where you go
you know you go to the hospital so I'm
yeah that's it thank you Peter
Lisa Callan hello I am Lisa Callan and I
am a resident of I live at 353
North East mark can't wait and I'm here
just to thank the city and the council
for considering the garage and their
rental and that agenda item and just in
my work with youth and my work in public
service this watched this grassroots
effort unfold has been amazing so you
have the perfect ingredients you have
the grassroots effort you have the
organization you have representation
from the children in the youth that will
be served you have representation at the
meetings that I've attended from law
enforcement you've had it from Parks and
Rec you've had it from youth advocates
and community members and you have all
of that going to place and then you had
a very strong process where everybody
involved really dope deep to try to
understand how to be successful they
developed a plan and then from that plan
came all of this other energy and effort
to just talk about program to engage the
community on their concerns and then the
city and the staff and those engagements
when you have all of that come together
you have these perfect ingredients to
create this long-term sustainable change
that's going to impact our youth for
generations to come
and it's just really super exciting to
see all
to be a party about and so thank you for
that and I just want to make sure I lend
my voice to your vote and hope you were
a continuous support thank you thank you
Lisa Robert Swanson hello my name is
Robert Swanson 8:26 4th Avenue Northeast
yes well there's the mouse so oh boy
there it is when I came home today
it was raining like cats and dogs I
don't know if you know this but this
month is the most rainiest so far by the
way this is the hill everybody shut down
this is the area the rooftop
these are the trees the hill that they
want to cut down right here this was
this afternoon
five o'clock 5:15 you can hear the rain
just coming down and it's right above me
but you know what very little rain was
hitting me you know why you can see a
few drops coming down because the trees
are there to protect the hill I mean but
you can see some water that was there
because there's no trees right above
that but this is what it's all about and
we're supposed to be the the city of
trees
well let's not cut down the trees let's
keep the trees there let's keep the hill
there that would be a wonderful thing
they want to put the hit the school
there and put a road around it now I
found out so they gave the how much the
schools going to be but now they added
in the road so now that's easy more
trees coming down and it's even closer
to the to the edge so sorry about the
filming I was walking and trying not to
trip
but anyway so I just want everyone I
don't know if you've all had a chance to
go up there I appreciate the mayor I
know she's gone up there and she's
looked around and she actually gave me
the idea to go look around at the
different page and there's sticks in the
ground and so forth but if you're gonna
vote on this I think you should go take
a look anyway I know I don't know how
long it goes but I want to go I don't
got a couple more minutes left I'm sure
okay
we're Tree City the trees keep the water
from getting into the hill the roots
suck it on up so that doesn't get into
the hill and trees yes they do if you
want to go look at global warming
whatever you want to call it finally it
started in the 50s when we started just
clear-cutting everything and then we
started building roads and then blacktop
you put you cut down trees it does cause
there to be warming
trees drink water they love water Sarah
thank you for appreciate you two sharing
I just meant then there's some other
things that I've been talking with
community about and I happen to meet
them at Starbucks we had a great talk
for like at 45 minutes and you know they
saw that they just went up there and
they go wow that's that's weird anybody
I've ever met has looked at the hill
they go that's really weird why would
they want to put a school there but
actually that's not true there's one
person in my neighborhood that she works
at the school district so she wants she
wants to treat the school there I met a
mother and a father actually a father
and a daughter they moved to the
apartments right next to the hospital
the reason why is the father has heart
attacks and so forth seconds to wrap up
they need he needs get to the hospital
quickly so he they lived in Fall City
and they had to get there quickly you
you put a bunch of traffic there and yes
there truly are lives in in danger if
that you if people can't get themselves
to the hospital it really is I it's the
case there are proven people there I
will try to get them to come up here
next time and so they can speak because
I just met them two days ago thank you
Bob Linda Shepherd's in the air
my name is Linda Sheppard I live at one
one four nine eight five 256 Avenue
southeast Issaquah I'm in unincorporated
Issaquah and resident there so my
comments have to do with the Bergsma
when windward property development and I
think it's really appropriate that
hearing about the Earth Day proclamation
so in lieu of that Earth Day
proclamation and the identity of
Issaquah as a tree city
I am totally appalled that we're even
considering 22 acres of trees and two
wetlands being sacrificed for a mere 57
houses providing more housing which is
the development developers rationale is
a lame rationale this development serves
very few elite people who can afford
housing over a million dollars it's not
the best use of the land and leaves the
city of Issaquah vulnerable to
landslides and a lot of other things
that other people have talked about the
proposed Bergsma windward project is
technically difficult risky and
contentious it goes against the city's
policy goals of maintaining a forest to
character on the hillsides protecting
and preserving the existing tree canopy
this policy recommends the use of
off-site transfer of development rights
as a mean to means to achieve that end
with only a steep winding access road
across the 40% landslide prone slopes it
would be hazardous in snow and icy
conditions
I live in Mira mod and we have a similar
problem we have a windy road that goes
up and people cannot get up it or down
it when it snows on Christmas Eve this
year both at a friend's house on
pinecone Drive and in my own
neighborhood
there were cars blocking the road people
couldn't get up cars were in ditches
cars were in the middle of the road so
this is something I haven't heard
anybody else mentioned before it also
would be a difficult access for
emergency vehicles such as fire engines
and ambulance and that also doesn't fit
within the goals of our community the
estimated 84,000 I've also heard 83,000
cubic yards of dirt excavated from the
hillside and trucked to some unknown
site would exacerbate can already
congested traffic not only in Issaquah
but in surrounding communities that are
already experiencing massive traffic
congestion along the Aqua Hobart and Mae
Valley roads if you can sum up Linda
that would be great community support to
save Cukor Mountain is growing please
support the acquisition of the Berks
'men Widmer Cougar Mountain hillside
property by the city of Issaquah in
cooperation with King County and
regional finance financial partners
taking leadership now will preserve a
gateway to Cougar Mountain trails from
the quad Transit Center Thank You Linda
lots of hands in the air lots of signs
waving it should do we have anybody else
thing done no is there anyone else that
would like to speak this evening si
Elizabeth's hand in the air
Elizabeth Mopan 100 Big Bear place
Northwest Issaquah Washington I want to
echo what has been said about the
importance of the trees I would love to
see the Bergsma properties saved I'd
also like to see us save the trees that
are on the providence Heights property
there's more there than just trees as
you know we've heard tonight that there
is more funding now for housing and
homelessness if it happens that the
property at Providence Heights stays
standing long enough for a buyer to come
along and put in a project there that
would provide social services access and
affordable housing and training for
women i hope the city will find it in
their heart to support that and i hope
whatever happens that we will have
learned something about permitting
demolitions of things that are really
treasures to the city
I know there was something else on my
mind but oh yes
the Teen Center lovely idea
it would be good because this is part of
the Human Services extension of the city
to have as Mary Lynch has asked for some
background and exactly how much that
will cost so we can kind of balance it
and if you have more property available
we still need a day Center someplace in
Issaquah thank you very much thank you
Elizabeth hands of support Mary my name
is Mary Lynch and I recited 2 6 9 o
Northcrest
Oak Crest Drive Northwest Oak Crest
Drive Issaquah Washington I first want
to say that for those of you that have
not watched the Development Commission
meeting where the lights at the Issaquah
middle were reviewed for those of half a
dozen of us that stayed until 11 o'clock
that night to make our public comment I
would go to the web city website and
look at that
city staff said that they really hadn't
heard any complaints about the lights at
the ball field well that's because we
didn't know that the lights are going in
at the ball field and if you haven't
paid attention those lights right now a
red tagged because there is no permit
for those lights but they were installed
mechanically electrically and large
poles of those lights are already
installed on the field without a permit
from the city so the school district
asked us to trust them if you look at
the all the summary of this aqua middle
never once were lights mentioned in the
staff review of the project staff
actually said if they were to consider
that that would have major impact
to the citizens but there was never any
mitigation it was never discussed in
open meeting except there was concern
from the neighbors about the impact of
the school but there was very very
little mitigation that was done so now
after the fact and I want to thank the
Development Commission to sending it
back to staff and saying we need more
information and hopefully this will
happen you know going forward when these
types of things happen because a public
entity should not be going ahead with
construction without an operating permit
that is just unconscionable the other
thing I would like to ask is I do and in
my letter that I sent you I do support
the Teen Center it's the process that I
have concerns with and the immediate
process and the real looking at the
other new places that Jeff and Parks did
I think is good but let's step back
where and how do we decide how our
public property is used how do we value
that public property and in arguing a
little bit well there's going to be free
rent well it's not free rent it's
costing us as taxpayers if we were to
rent out that building to another entity
a commercial entity we would be
receiving rent for it so there is a cost
now we may be doing it for free but we
need going forward to have transparency
in the process on how we select who gets
to use a public process or a public
property and we also need to identify
the cost and the contribution of our
taxpayers dollars that are going to this
because my fear is in four years the
five years are we going to need a new
parks or you know new and I already
heard a new staff building and where
we're going to get that money thank you
thank you Mary some hands of support are
there is there anyone else in the
audience this evening who would like to
address Council I see three four hands
we'll start skip Julie Dave Eve and who
is the fourth one thank you okay
good evening David Kapler 255 southeast
Sandra Street I want to make a
correction to some of the things said
tonight it talked about a restoration
project and trail project in Lake
Sammamish State Park it's not going to
be in the state park it's going to be on
city land the Greenwood trust property
and I think about that how important
that land is to all of us to the state
it's city property that we bought a long
time ago it was very expensive it was
threatened at that time when wetlands
were pretty much ignored with a big
condominium project the city was I'm
sure state and county money purchased
that it's still city park property we
are looking at hat with our money we are
spending on the park plan for Lake
Sammamish State Park we're gonna look at
how that Park land will blend in and be
a benefit to the State Park and the
State Park will benefit that land so
that was a great purchase in the past we
got another one to do soon thank you
thank you David it's in the air Julie do
you want to come up
good evening my name is Julie Clark I
live at nine one five bear Ridge Court
Northwest in Issaquah and I would like
to raise my hand actually both of them
to show support for the proclamation
made by Mayor Polly global residents
from as far away as Nepal
have reached out to offer support to the
safe Cougar Mountain initiative we have
heard here in these council chambers
from a physician who talked about the
necessity of forested lands to support
the health of nearby residents we have
also heard from a representative of the
east side Autobahn about the necessity
of the forested hill sites to support a
wide variety of birds that use the trees
for nesting and use the area from the
tree tops to the forest floor for food
mating and migration our local community
communities are working to protect and
preserve our natural resources and
preserve wildlife habitat we encouraged
the city of Issaquah to make
environmentally sound decisions
regarding our hillsides and provide open
space a forested hillsides for the
residents of Issaquah and neighboring
neighbor and neighboring cities within a
quarter of a mile from the Issaquah
Transit Center eliminating the need for
driving to a trailhead by acquiring the
46 acre property Issaquah can offer all
residents a healthier place to live play
and learn while having a great open
space to visit this is how we here in
the city of Issaquah can be regional
leaders not just one day of the year but
every day saving the Bergsma Windward 46
acre per acre property on Cougar
Mountain is a significant way the city
of Issaquah can show that their Earth
Day proclamation is translated into
meaningful action thank you
Thank You Julie
lots of hands in the air skip bridge
like to come up
skip rally in my office is at 1595
Northwest Gilman and I want to throw my
two bits in on the Doug levy situation
we worked with Doug and found him to be
as straight talking's good person that
you could ever possibly have
representing in the city of Issaquah he
always did what he said he was going to
do and I think most of you know we have
a lobbyist that works for us down there
and side-by-side they were able to
really work together and now
unfortunately it's time to replace Doug
so I am standing here hoping that you
people will react to that and do it
relatively soon but use Doug in the
process he knows everybody down there he
knows the rituals he knows the chairs of
all the committees
he knows all the players so even though
he might not be on your payroll anymore
it would certainly be great to include
him you know with his recommendations so
that's pretty much what I wanted to say
other than let's get this teen cafe
built and I'm all supportive of its
location these folks have been working
for two or three years to get it to the
point where it is now they've been
working with a park staff and others on
this and so hopefully you will sign the
lease tonight Thanks thank you skip and
lots of hands it did see one more member
would like to talk to us this evening my
name is Selena Ian I live at 635 Kalmia
Place Northwest up in the woods part of
why we chose to move to Issaquah was
because I had read the is a call
comprehensive plan and I had this idea
that this was actually a city that had
the same ideals that I do I'm a
naturopathic physician and I'm also an
avid hiker and trail runner I've vlogged
probably almost a thousand miles in the
Issaquah Alps just last year so I know
my way around the mountains very well
and it's my favorite form of medicine
one thing that I had always imagined is
that somehow we would develop a way for
the citizens to make our way around city
without as many cars as we need now
and I feel like using the Bergsma
property would be a great way to let the
people of Talas make their way to the
Transit Center more efficiently I was
actually surprised that that hasn't been
considered as a major part of a
possibility there another thing that
really concerns me is that I'm a fan of
the weather I actually took a class from
Clif mass the meteorologist from u-dub a
few years ago and I've noticed that in
cliff mass's blog lately he's been
discussing the increased landslide risks
also how we're likely to continue having
more rain in the future than we do now
and he's of the opinion that we need
communities to stop building on steep
hill sites in general because of land
side risks I know my home has dirt
that's basically as hard as you could
imagine it's clay clay soaks up water
until it goes and we had a major
landslide just recently out in North
Bend on the Middle Fork trail that's
wiped out the trail similar land there
to the force we have here except that
it's not even a particularly steep area
and I'm concerned that when we have
these studies done that say oh it's not
a particular risk of landslides that
we're using old science that's not based
on what's going to happen with the
climate this year next year or in 10
years I feel like that's really critical
to consider since these are going to be
homes that people will live in I'm gonna
stay here
my kids have grown up and moved out but
many other people have families here and
we can't make homes in places that are
dangerous for them using outdated
science I want to make sure that
everyone here at least has considered
that that is a possibility don't just
look at those studies that are based on
old weather a meteorological data and
assume that it's going to hold true 10
years from now
thank you thank you Selena all the hands
are in there and thank you for reading
our comprehensive plan
impressive is there anyone else would
like to address the council this evening
I'll ask her second time anyone else
who'd like to address this evening
during audience comments in the last
time I'd like to thank you all for
coming we have a really big audience
tonight and we've been getting large
audiences because I think there are some
issues that are really compelling we
heard tonight about the importance of
having a lobbyist about the Newport Way
improvement projects and concerns that
residents may have about abilities to
access those properties we got a lot a
lot a lot a lot of speakers about the
garage at teen cafe and we have thank
you to the council and the staff for
their support we also heard from a lot
of speakers about the Bergsma windward
development requesting the city to find
funds to purchase the property and to
take consideration into preservation of
the trees we heard about school siting
concerns and encouraging council to
think about tree preservation during
that as well we did have a speaker talk
about Providence Heights project the
Issaquah middle school light proposal
and a restoration project on Greenwood
Park so thank you all for coming in this
evening the council really values your
time and the fact that you've come to
provide comments much appreciated we
will now start with committee and
regional reports and we'll start with
councilmember hunt thank you madam mayor
the Huayra eights management committee
meeting will take place on May 1st in
Seattle and I will attends the agenda is
not yet set and this concludes my report
Thank You councilmember Wray Thank You
mayor Pauley the services and Safety
Committee met on it April 10th and key
actions taken the committee received a
presentation from C administrator moon
related to broadcasting board and
Commission meetings there were a number
of individuals that spoke in support of
additional meetings during public
comment the committee is directed the
administration to include the Parks
Board and the transportation Advisory
Committee when it is formed in the list
of meetings that will be broadcast and
we also left open the possibility of an
additional meetings or
boards and Commission meetings in the
future we also heard gender bill 7480
for the teen Cafe partnership and lease
agreement public comment was wildly in
favor of tea cafe in the proposed
location agenda bill seventy four eighty
four is on the agenda this evening it
was reported out of committee with a
recommendation to approve the committee
also continues review of agenda bill 75
20 to creating the visit Issaquah
organization staff presented responses
to the committee's questions from the
March 13th meeting public comment was
supportive and we are moving forward
with the crew support of a moving
forward with the creation of a
destination marketing organization for
Issaquah agenda bill 75 22 was reported
out of committee with a recommendation
to authorize the mayor for pot to
prepare and file articles incorporation
creating a new squad destination
marketing organization visit Issaquah as
a 501 C 3 not-for-profit organization
the committee has asked staff to return
to services and safety when the
destination marketing organization draft
by logs have been created for review and
approval this is important the next
services and Safety Committee will not
be held in our regular scheduled time
the next meeting will be on Wednesday
May 9th at 6:30 here in Council Chambers
Eastside Fire and Rescue Board met on
April 12th I attended the meeting along
with councilmember Goodman it's a timely
we had the conversation about pea Foss
we got an update from pea Foss from the
chief and talking about the partnership
between Eastside Fire Rescue the city of
Issaquah and the state of Washington
Department of Ecology to address the
problem and finally the board approved a
memorandum of understanding with the
city of Issaquah for station 72 and
future Eastside Fire and Rescue
facilities the MOU outlines the
agreement pertaining to facilities at
fire station 72 in the expectation and
how the agreement will facilitate for
future facilities will be addressed the
next East Side
my rescue board meeting will be on May
10th council Goodman and I have
permission to participate in that
meeting via phone so that we can
participate in the council senior
leadership team retreat and that
concludes my report for this evening
Thank You councilmember a council member
Ramos Thank You mayor the city council
Infrastructure Committee met on April
11th last week and a B 75 35 the
amendments to the Issaquah municipal
called regarding small cell design
guidelines was discussed we will be
bringing it to Council a next meeting on
the 7th of May so we'll talk about that
then 9 new item brought up was the
updated water system plan excuse me
that's going to be in committee for a
while that's a long process we'll be
working on that that's a legal
requirement and we'll be working on that
till probably November so the government
Boulevard project update we can update
on that that's a project we authorized a
while back to look at all of government
Boulevard and get all the information we
have so we can look at long term well
how we're going to design that through
Road and then I want to bring your
attention to a number of items are
actually on consent calendar tonight
they were there and they were brought to
us they hadn't gone quite through the
full process well they're brought the
Infrastructure Committee there are four
items regarding grants so one was all a
Newport way both sections of it so one
was a be 75 91 which is authorizing some
middle for grant for a maple of sunset
stretch the stretch of maple sunset a
Newport way and then on SR 902 54th
stretch there was to request for two
authorizations to submit for grants
again and one acceptance of a grant so
these you know grants come and go we
talked about that this is these are
projects that we're moving along with
and we would requested the city staff to
as much as possible look for other
people's money to help with this so
they've been doing that those things
come with tighter timelines when when
you have when they get notified regret
trying to apply for that and then when
we only get it an authorized reception
of it so it's on the consent calendar
tonight and then any questions you can
ask but I think that's pretty much we
were moving all the heads I just want to
highlight those because they're not
quite in the normal process and that
concludes my report
Thank You councilmember Reynolds
councilmember winter Stein thank you
madam mayor my only report this evening
is on the growth management policy board
we met last Thursday April 5th in
Seattle and the bulk of the meeting was
spent on discussing the scope of the
update to the vision 2040 document and
our our director Development Services
had sent a letter in representing the
city on some of our desired issues to be
addressed during the vision update and I
brought one of those up during our
discussion and I'd have summarized this
in an email to the mayor and council
president about one of our desires in
Issaquah is for kind of a future vision
for the region to incorporate accounting
for kind of existing deficits at least
if you're going to plan for some
improvements to and ways to manage
growth in the future that those plans
address the existing issues on the
ground as well as not just accounting
for the incremental growth that comes
we're going to have a challenge getting
the vision to to accept that way of
thinking but I like a challenge like
that that concludes my report
Thank You councilmember we understand
councilmember Goodman thank you Landon
Shore committee will meet this Thursday
April 19th here in Council Chambers at
6:30 it is not our regular night they
typically meet the first Thursday of
each month on the agenda that night the
moratorium update as we have had since
the moratorium started Jen de belles
7533 first major amendment to the Costco
development agreement
it is on our agenda tonight and if the
because council desires to refer that
item to Landon Shore then that will be
on the agenda for Thursday agenda bill
7507 pertains to the moratorium central
Issaquah standards regarding
inclusionary zoning agenda bill 75-77
central Issaquah development and design
standards amendment limiting new hotels
motels timeshare lodging comfort centers
and self storage units in specific zones
within central Issaquah this does not
pertain to the moratorium even though it
pertains to central Issaquah under bill
73 44 the visioning regarding central
Issaquah plan that is the second and
last item to be dealt with under the
moratorium and agenda bill 75 76
amendments to the is communist will code
regarding a second accessory dwelling
units that's the jam packed agenda I
cannot be there on Thursday so
councilmember hunt is filling in for me
and council president Mart's will chair
in my absence so thanks to both of you
that's my point
thanks councilmember Goodman council
deputy council president batiste
thank you madam madam mayor just one
announcement the PSR C Economic
Development District Board will be
meeting Wednesday May 2nd in Seattle and
so I'll be reporting back after that
meeting that case report Thanks council
president Mertz
thank you madam there the some cities
association public issues committee met
on Wednesday April 11th in City Hall our
pre-picked discussion we had a
presentation from staff from one table
on strategies to address the root cause
of homelessness and then in the main
pick meeting there was no discussion of
proposed actions so that concludes my
report on pick growth King County growth
management policy Council next meets on
Wednesday May 30th at 4 p.m. in PSR C
chambers and the agenda is still TBD
this concludes my report thank you for
the mayor's report this evening I have a
number of items to report on first there
will be an executive session held this
evening to discuss collective bargaining
sessions per hour CW 42 0.3 0.1 400 per
n 4 and pending and potential litigation
for our CW 42.3 0.1 1 o / n 1 / n b + 40
2.30 / n 1 1 o racket 1 hour sorry / n 1
/ ni these items are expected to last 35
minutes action is anticipated to follow
in open session I do submit my mayor's
report in advance but I did note that I
forgot to add one item I did want to
make sure that counsel was aware as well
as the public about wash dots upcoming
open house it's on April 25th from 5 to
7 p.m. at Tibbets Creek Manor going to
be talking about the auxilary lanes on
i-90 that passes you know that
construction work there will actually be
adjacent to two of our neighborhoods and
so there's a huge community concern
there and I realized I'd forgot to put
it on if I didn't announce it tonight I
wouldn't have a chance to do that to the
council meetings so there is information
available online on April 3rd I attended
cascade water alliances board retreat
where we discuss future drinking water
supply even though climate change may
change our weather patterns the overall
amount of precipitation in our region is
expected to rain remain constant more in
the form of rain and less in the form of
snow over the years to come our issues
will be storage not quantity compared to
other areas in the u.s. that have
abundant storage and water quality
issues and water quantity issues on
April 4th I presented with other female
mayor's on a panel at the Go Green
conference in Seattle
April 9th I attended a meeting at the
Department of Ecology snore thouest
regional office with Eastside Fire and
Rescue Sammamish plateau Water District
and ecology staff this team has
assembled funding from various entities
to complete a soil and groundwater
investigation for PFS a constituent in
groundwater that the city of iske is
currently providing treatment for we are
hoping to begin our investigate
in the summer we study results and next
step sometime late this fall on April
12th attended the Cascade Water Alliance
resource committee meeting we discussed
several capital projects and we're
provided with an update on the Lake
Tapps water quality project in the
future
councilmember hunt will be serving on
the resource committee and I'll be
moving over to the Finance Committee on
April 12th I attended the transportation
PSR C's transportation policy board the
board made a near unanimous
recommendation to recommend adoption of
the regional transportation plan to the
executive The Sound City representatives
at that meeting expressed concerns over
the unaddressed transportation gaps in
the current system similar to what
councilmember interestin was just
talking about there was a significant
discussion but no amendments were made
to the recommendation a couple of issue
updates moratorium Update you did hear
from councilmember Goodman
chair of land and shore that inclusion
visions was coming back to the Elana
char committee but inclusionary
requirements staff is working with Econ
north northwest to evaluate the impact
the proposed inclusionary inclusionary
requirements would have had on the atlas
project in town using Atlas as a case
study it's expected a report and
presentation will be made to land in
Shore at the committee's April meeting
on April 19th update on Cougar Mountain
and Bergsma there is no new news in
regards to the property known as Bergsma
at the March 5th City Council meeting I
shared that we are partnering with the
Trust for Public Land in exploring
acquisition options for this property in
that work Park staff and Trust for
Public Land staff are collaborating and
researching grant options and other
funding strategies that would be needed
to support any size or scale of
acquisition of the property an update on
talus parcels seven eight and nine
Pallas parcels seven and eight the
city's geotechnical consultants have
finished their first review of a new
critical area study for parcel seven and
eight the property owners consultants
are currently working through the city's
comments and we're expecting this final
plat will be before the city's Hearing
Examiner
may Alice parcel 9 property owners
continue to work on stabilizing the
property by the end of the month is
expected they will be 3/4 done with the
construction of the first wall system
last week the city issued a permit for
wall three and work is expected to
commence on that wall later this month
the city expects stabilization efforts
will continue through the end of 2018 an
update on the ending of the development
agreements fort Alice in the Highlands
at the March 19th council meeting the
council referred ending of the Talz
development agreement and imposing new
replacement regulations to the Planning
Policy Commission for review of the
proposed zoning designation for tal's
parcel 9 I just want to make sure the
community and the council are aware that
the Planning Policy Commission meeting
is scheduled for May 10th and I have a
rather long update on property in
Issaquah called Providence Heights
because of some recent action that
happened last week so bear with me this
one is a few paragraphs long there's
been a lot of public comment received by
the city regarding Providence Heights
and the proposal by the property owners
to demolish the current buildings the
Providence Heights campus is located at
4 to 2 1 2:28 Avenue southeast adjacent
to Providence Point the property is
owned by Plateau campus LLC a wholly
owned subsidiary of church owned
previously known as the City Church a
non-profit nondenominational church
headquartered in Kirkland Church Rome
has decided to demolish the buildings
and sell the property to provide revenue
for their growing ministries they
believe that land marking the existing
structures reduces the value that could
get they could get from the property
sale and which would adversely impact
their ability to fulfill their religious
mission and expand their ministries
following the city's SEPA decision on
the demolition of the buildings the
Sammamish Heritage Society submitted an
application to landmark the property
city has code IMC 18.2 o protection and
preservation of land marks landmark
sites and districts that provides for a
landmark Commission and a process for
land marking properties within the city
since the city does not have enough
requests to justify its own
commissioned the city has an interlocal
agreement with King County to use the
county's landmark and Heritage
Commission with one local representative
for any preservation requests within the
city in July of 2017 the Commission
designated the property as a landmark
and the sittings cities Hearing Examiner
remanded the CEPA decision back to the
city to consider how the landmark status
affects the decision at the time of the
landmark designation church homes
attorneys advised the city that the
designate designation violated church
homes rights to the free exercise of
religion under the First Amendment of
the US Constitution an article 1 section
11 of the Washington Constitution since
the city agreed with church homes
attorneys do to clear legal precedent
first covenant Church of Seattle versus
City of Seattle where the courts found
that the government's interests in
preservation of aesthetic and historic
structures is not compelling and does
not justify the infringement of a
church's right to freely exercise
religion the city entered into a
settlement agreement with church home
under which the city agreed not to
oppose a court judgment holding the
landmark designation unconstitutional in
exchange for a release of all potential
damage claims by church home on the 12th
of April King County Superior Court
Judge Julie Specter found that landmark
in the Providence Heights property was
unconstitutional and vacated that
decision further the judge prohibited
the city and King County from accepting
any other nomination seeking to
designate this property as a landmark so
long as Church home owns the property
and the city in King County are legally
prohibited from continuing to delay
church homes demolition permit on the
basis of the landmark designation judge
specter also found that the city and
church home had entered into the
settlement agreement as an arm's length
transaction and that the result was a
fair and reasonable one on Friday
preserved Providence Heights appealed
the reissued SEPA decision that appeal
will be held by the city's hearing
examiner and the date of that hearing
has yet to be scheduled that concludes
my mayor's report the consent calendar
was distributed to council in advance of
tonight's meeting
if authorized the
on the consent calendar will be
considered together and approved by one
motion have the payables and payroll for
April 16th been reviewed
thank you does any councilmember desire
to remove any item from the consent
calendar and consider it under regular
business councilmember Rey I do with
gender bill 75 86 the surplus City
equipment to regular business thank you
I'm going to propose that we move it to
or suggest that we move it to item a on
regular business since we do have the
Public Works operation director here to
answer questions if needed
there has been motion may I check with
tisha here so there is a request to
bring something down but the myth we do
not need a motion to bring something
down we'll be putting it as item a thank
you besides moving that one item down
does anybody wish to move any other by
you if no one does can I have someone
make emotions like to move the modified
consent agenda as listed in the packet
is there a second thank you it's been
moved and seconded to approve the
modified consent calendar all those in
favor signify by saying aye aye opposed
that passes unanimously next item on our
agenda is public hearing a b7 533 first
major amendment to the Costco
development agreement this is a
continuation of a public hearing and has
been referred from council land and
Shore of an item that is referred to
council and ensure this public hearing
was opened at the February 20th council
meeting and continued to April 16 the
land ensure committee heard this item at
their March meeting before I reopen the
public hearing I'd like to invite Keith
Nevin economic and development services
director to briefly present this item
thank you thank you madam Erin good
evening City Council so this this is
agenda bill is coming back from Landon
Shore so we actually opened the hearing
on February 20th and the expectation is
we'll go back to Landon Shore after this
evening and possibly come back as soon
as mace
vii so what's happening here is the city
is asking for a major amendment to the
Costco development agreement to look at
basically putting the last
transportation project from that
development agreement on hold for a
limited period of time while we work on
another project with state parks to look
at whether or not their main entrance
could be moved closer to the
intersection which is the the third
transportation project from the Costco
development agreement so listed here are
a number of policy questions that we've
started to talk through at committee I
assume we will continue to talk through
those at committee this week and to give
you a visual understanding of what we're
talking about so this intersection right
here and Holiday Inn is just off your
map and the old Tully's sadly was right
here and this is the entrance to the
park down here on the left and State
Parks has expressed a desire to see if
that intersect that entrance could be
moved closer to this intersection for
visibility reasons they think that there
is some confusion about where the
entrance is to the park and they would
see a benefit if it could be moved
closer what we don't want to do is move
forward with the Costco improvements to
this intersection and potentially find
that by moving the entrance to the State
Park closer to this interchange that it
would have wanted a different outcome
and so what we're asking for is to put
this project on hold while our
transportation consultants look at
moving this entrance to the park closer
to 12th Avenue so that's and Sheldon Lin
Director of Public Works engineering is
here if there's any technical questions
that you all might have thank you
otherwise that's the end and
questions of staff before we open the
public hearing thank you the guidelines
for Susan comments that are on the
agenda also apply for the public hearing
and I'm gonna reopen the public hearing
at 8:30 for this evening has anyone
signed up to speak this evening no is
there anyone in the audience who would
like to speak during this public hearing
this evening
second call anyone liking to anyone
wishing to speak this evening on this
bill and for the final time does anyone
wish to speak this evening okay no
speakers is there a motion to continue
the hearing let's remember Goodman thank
you
I would excuse me moved to continue the
hearing public hearing 2 May 7 2018 and
refer agenda bill 7533 to the April 19th
2018 counsel and in short committee for
additional review and recommendation
returning to the full council on May 7th
second thank you it has been moved and
seconded is there any discussion all
those in favor of continuing the public
hearing to May 7 2018 and referring ab7
533 to the April 19th 2018 council
landed short committee for additional
review and recommendation returning to
the full council on May 7 2018 signify
by saying aye aye
as opposed carries unanimously
next item on the agenda this evening is
regular business a b7 586 surplus of
City equipment this item was brought
down from the consent agenda for a
councilmember Ray is requesting a
clarification counsel Mary would you
like to speak to the though absolutely I
just like to State for the record that
agenda bill 75 86 surplus City equipment
includes vehicles that value is in
excess of the state at $3,500 in the
agenda bill
and I'd like that the record to show
that agenda bill 75 86 should more
accurately state that the estimated
value of these items is between zero and
$17,000 to reflect what's actually on
the list of equipment to be surplus
Thank You councilmember Rey so that was
the reason it has come down off of the
consent agenda would you care to make a
motion and then we can have a discussion
I would if you had it in front of you
I'm gonna keep up I'd like to move that
we declare items identified in a bill a
be seventy five eighty six a surplus and
authorized the administration to dispose
of them in accordance with Washington
state law with the modification to the
agenda bill that the maximum value is
seventeen thousand dollars not thirty
five hundred dollars okay maybe in
second I'm just going to check with the
clerk is it necessary to add that into
the motion or is it internally
administrator just again to clarify
those figures that are included in the a
B and as council member array has
suggested we modify our estimates one
does not know what the value of each of
those items is until we actually have
people at the auction bidding on them
and saying what they wish to pay for
them so I was just suggesting we use the
word estimate in connection with listing
that new dollar amount thank you and
council myraid do you have the motion
written down since it's different than
the motion that ones in the packet did
you just do that off the top here I just
do that off top of my head okay well I'm
gonna skip the clerk to read it back so
we're all clear thank you I think I did
use the word estimate if you didn't see
if we can slot it in there wait we will
okay declare the items identified in a B
seven five eight six a surplus and
authorized the administration to dispose
of them in accordance with Washington
state law with the modification to the
agenda
to build that the estimated maximum
value be $17,000 the word estimated that
there is there any questions or
additional discussion not are you ready
for the vote you should do I have to
read it again okay because I do I can't
read as fast as she can type so so it's
been moved and seconded all in favor
signify by saying aye aye opposed
awesome that passes unanimously
thank you very much the next item item
beyond our regular business agenda this
evening is a b 7 for 8 for teen cafe
partnership and lease agreement
this item is coming out of services and
Safety Committee and I'd like to invite
Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Walt
link to make presentation Thank You
mayor good evening Council appreciate it
as a council member and Services
Committee Chair Ray mentioned we talked
about this last Tuesday April 10th at
committee had a really good discussion
about that the recommendation did come
out three Oh from that discussion but
just given the council interest through
this process community interest through
this process it was desired to bring it
back to regular business opportunity for
me given how familiar you are already
with this partnership and this potential
real synergy I'll give a quick staff
report highlighting a number of things
highlighting the background and touching
on the background I'll highlight the the
process that we undertook for this I'll
also highlight the site selection
process that we undertook and then some
key elements of the lease agreement
itself so background certainly a number
of years have worked by the community
group really began to foster this idea
that group presented a letter of
interest to the city at June of last
year really highlighting there the
elements the framework of their business
plan and specifically request
a partnership of the city and the city
exploring the use of some public public
building for them to have this this
program after investigation and research
into that discussion with council it was
on the September 5th council meeting the
council then directed staff through a
prior agenda bill to further explore
this partnership and further explore
specifically the opportunity for a city
building city square footage to host
this host this program we then began
worked with the teen cafe group itself
it was pretty clear that there was a
preference of locating this program near
the community center and specifically
near the schools a great opportunity for
synergy there two public meetings were
hosted in the fall first on October 4th
and then the second meeting December 5th
between those two meetings we also had
an update we came back to services and
safety at the November meeting and began
to lay out the framework for what sites
are potentially available near the
community center and also the criteria
with which we would begin to look at and
analyze those four sites from that work
and from that discussion at November
with the committee but then also on
December 5th with the public we prepared
this this criteria this initial
assessment that was shared we identified
the four locations in and around the
community center these are all spaces
that the city currently owns all of them
are zoned CF so none of these are
commercial space none of these were
spaces that we would have potentially
looked at commercially leasing as we
went through this assessment we
identified five criteria that they were
all run through this was not a highly
complex process but it felt like it fit
really well we identified three grades
is it a great fit is it a good fit or
there's some some concerns that would
need to be addressed with this site it
became pretty evident both visually but
then as we had the public meeting and
hearing the public feedback and hearing
the feedback from the community partners
there was a location the number three on
this scale that 235 building and that's
a portion of the 235 building it became
pretty evident scored the highest and
and really began to look like the best
the best fit from that discussion and
from that conversation we began work
specifically on that on that site as
consensus was reached historically this
building has been used for a variety of
ways publicly even before the city it
was used by the county and the school
district most recently used a variety of
ways by parks and recreation and most
currently used as staff offices and
storage space as you recall as we went
through the budget process last year
within the Parks and Recreation
Department we've been doing quite a bit
of review of our functions and our
services that led to some realignment
that we began looking at as a department
and in that realignment work we really
saw and made it a priority if you call
through the budget process of how do we
take our recreation staff in particular
the recreation staff that were in that
building and what if we were to combine
them all at the community center and
create some real synergy amongst the
recreation team we also as we looked at
expanding our capacity within Park
Planning and Development if you recall
we had one Park planning and development
staff person in that building now with
adding two we saw as opportunity to
realign them to the trails house
historically that is where Park Planning
and Development was located in doing
that move we ate we saw the opportunity
of creating a community room a community
meeting room in the 235 building and
having storage stay there but that
realignment work really led to the Opera
tunity of this vacant and available
program space that a program such as the
teen cafe could could work within so
really a strategic opportunity as we
were looking at realigning some of our
services and also looking at the
potential of what this program could do
and really beginning to see the synergy
of the community center the pool and
this space that would have a community
room as well as this real focused
program for high schoolers through the
the garage I keep calling it the teen
cafe I got to get used to the new the
new name but really seeing that as a
recreation campus of sorts as we began
work with development services
department looking at the land use again
as a CF as a community facility initial
site analysis some of the initial pre
app and permitting work it really all
confirmed that continued to confirm that
this really was a good location for this
partnership that then began some work a
couple of months of work looking and
drafting the lease agreement our city
attorney Thank You mr. Haney gave us an
initial draft to take a look at and and
begin to shape and mold and through a
series of meetings and conversations
with our partners have have put together
a lease agreement that we think becomes
a great vehicle and a template for or
the vehicle for this partnership but I
would not say as we go into this it does
not define this relationship I wouldn't
call this a lessee a tenant owner
relationship this really is a much more
in-depth partnership than that but the
lease agreement itself is as important
so I'll highlight some of the elements
they're friends of youth it's important
to note as serving as team cafe's fiscal
sponsors so as you see in the lease
agreement and this is a lease agreement
with Friends of youth as that fiscal
spark sponsor for the the teen cafe
group there certainly is language and
room within this lease that should and
and when teen cafe becomes its own
nonprofit there's opportunity with our
approval with the city's approval is the
owner for this lease to be assigned to a
new nonprofit should teen cafe or when
teen cafe becomes its own nonprofit the
program itself is going to occupy the
southern two-thirds of the building the
utility expenses will be shared
proportionately so again they are
responsible for all operating costs all
the programming costs with this with
this work and with this space are is
going to be the responsibility of the
teen cafe of the tenant so moving
forward as we look at this there's no
direct operating costs for the city in
this partnership all tenant improvements
are also the responsibility of the the
tenant in this work and and as the city
has in a number of cases least come CF
community facility space to other
nonprofit groups we see the public value
and the community benefit that's going
to be achieved through this nonprofit
work as as the value in lieu of of rent
as I said earlier the lease agreement is
the vehicle but that doesn't define the
relationship it's really through
coordination collaboration with the
recreation team with our pool staff on
an ongoing and frequent basis that's
really going to be instrumental in this
work you may have noticed Kathy Jones
our Community Center supervisor was here
earlier and the bright blue shirt with a
couple of our youth advisory board
members I think that certainly
demonstrates both her as staff and and
the youth advisory boards interest and
intent in seeing this program really
being something that further augments
the the services that are provided to
this community there is an operative
performance requirement and
in an annual report as well as a minimum
hours of operation that are going to be
required by this group we had some
additional discussion at the services
and Safety Committee meeting some some
great discussion on a couple of other
items with the lease agreement that I
want to touch upon one had to do with
insurance an indemnification given that
the program the cost of the program the
operation of the program is totally the
responsibility of the tenant there's
very strong and defecation language
there's also very strong insurance
requirements that this group needs to
provide given our aim and our goal and
our aspiration that we see this as being
a very successful partnership but also
being prudent in the what-ifs there is
some default language that's in this
agreement that due to either lack of
performance or operational budget
struggles as owner we certainly have the
ability god forbid and certainly again
not the plan but there is language in
there that we could terminate the lease
another great question was how do we
look at best practices for managing a
lease agreement and and given again a
combination of that indemnification
language and also that default language
that clawback is the owner but I think
one of the key best practices that we
see in this is recognizing it truly as a
partnership this room is public space
it's public space that is going to have
some other public uses within that
building there's other public facilities
that surround this that frequent
coordination collaboration communication
is going to be essential and I think a
very key way of making sure that this is
a partnership this is a great an
agreement that has a significant public
benefit for for many years to come
just a quick highlight I won't take the
full tour but certainly in this work of
looking at the lease agreement the
garage team has done some great work and
looking at and having an architect begin
to to really map out and and imagine
what this new space is in this southern
portion of the building it's going to be
certainly a very exciting space and
executive director Kaley Jake is here
should you have any programmatic
questions you want to ask her or I'm
certainly available to answer any
questions you might have
you're familiar with the logo on your
left the logo on the right is the newly
commissioned garage logo that they're
they're really excited about so with
that thank you yeah thank you for your
presentation this has been before
council a couple of times but not
necessarily in this format so it's
really helpful for you tonight to
provide such a complete description of
what the council will be voting on thank
you other questions we want to move it
first I do have a couple questions about
one council member
Rey were you considering a motion I'd be
happy to I moved that we authorized the
mayor to enter into and execute the
lease agreement with friends of youth as
the as presented for the purpose of
providing the teen cafe program within a
portion of city-owned building at the
235 first Avenue
second it moved and seconded council
discussion on summer winter stein thank
you
the lots of good terms so I read the
agreement and have a few simple
questions and I appreciate the summary
that you provided and I think you meant
the logo that's new is the one on the
left and and again I did appreciate the
terms were in there there's just a
couple I wanted to touch upon just for
clarity to make sure I understood a
couple things in paragraph 13 1 2 it
does talk about earthquake and flood
insurance and I'm just wondering we're
requiring the tenant to get that do we
have earthquake and flood insurance on
that now
I would imagine that's just okay I just
if we're putting the requirement upon as
a lot of you know on the tenant to have
that I would just assume that we were
doing that ourselves and I believe we do
and I could confirm with facilities our
insurance probably has to do with the
structure I I think that asking for
insurance here is to ensure their their
investment there okay okay that's a good
clarification thank you thank you very
much for that and it talks about and you
showed us the high-level schematic of
what the architect had done and in 7.6
the last sentence says tenant shall use
it's reasonable best efforts to cause
the tenant improvements to be completed
within 180 days of the of the
commencement date and I was just curious
it would be good to hear whether or not
the what the if the cost for those
potential improvements is that already
been covered I mean what's the
likelihood that there's any risk to this
date or not I just think would be good
to know what this is Kaleigh Jake is
coming forward she has some great it was
about capital budget and funding those
tenant improvements so um I thought it
was interesting that that you've got a
report from the your lobbyist so we were
fortunate to receive some state funding
as well we were in the supplement
supplementary budget for $100,000 thank
you Mark mullet for shepherding that
through so that on top of we just
received funding from is Kiwanis and
we've we have two more grants pending
with is quite rotary and Spanish rotary
are our estimated budget for the
improvements is about a hundred and
thirty thousand dollars and so we're
getting right there with our ass
and I'll also mention that we've raised
half of the operating costs for the
first three years in pledges so yeah so
we're ready to roll and our permits have
been submitted just no pressure okay
thank you that additional information I
just had one it's more of a comment on
the lease more than anything in else and
chap paragraph three term it says the
term of this lease shall be ten years I
think that's amazing
and I'm really I'm happy for all
involved because anybody getting started
in a non-profit especially there's a lot
of variables to to manage and to know
that you have access to the facility
really allows you to do the planning and
take the long view and I'm I do support
this I'm very enthusiastically support
this term I was glad to see it in there
okay nice job Thank You councilmember
we're just saying anyone else for
discussion comments that's what
President marks so some votes that we
take are tough calls and you have to
really sort of work through the issues
and decide how things check against your
you know your values and then and then
other votes are not that other votes are
just a joy and make you proud and feel
lucky to be on City Council and this is
one of those votes and you know I want
to go back to set the Wayback Machine
for a couple of things Friday September
16th 2011 Paul and I I was still
building Rockets for Jeff Bezos and Paul
was not yet on City Council though
though he was soon to be soon to be on
Council and we went to the boiler room
in Port Townsend and met with those
folks and they cooked us up a homemade
dinner and we heard about how the boiler
room had impacted kids in port towns and
kids that didn't feel connected to
sports and and really
you know were not thriving before the
boiler room came along and it was it was
it was food for the Soul as well as as
food for the stomach then the next month
on Tuesday October 4th 2011 I went to
the Youth Advisory Board which I didn't
I didn't know anything about I took my
then thirteen-year-old daughter with me
and at the invited barb de Michelle and
we heard about how kids thought about
having a space at the time we were
talking about the Human Services campus
we were talking about potentially
partnering with the church kids said
that maybe going to a church would be a
little complicated for some of them that
was good feedback but it was really it
was this whole thing was in its infancy
and in addition to you know helping
stoke some of my enthusiasm on this I
didn't know it at the time but this
would begin a path for my daughter
which would lead to her getting very
involved in the city getting very
involved in Youth Advisory Board getting
very involved in the East quad at the
time is what teen cafe effort and she's
now majoring in public health with
minors and political science and women's
studies so you just never know on any
given day what you know going to a
meeting is gonna do so you know I
mentioned these two things I thank you
for your time in letting me roll back on
memory lane a little bit but this is
this is a really outstanding effort I
know how hard Kaylee and Jeff have have
worked together to make this happen I
know how hard Kaylee and all the
students involved over the years have
worked to make this happen both the
students getting involved and and
looking at the various options and
figuring out what the operating model
was going to look like
and what sort of you know certain you
know what sort of services might be
involved and and creating a more
welcoming environment for students so
they have done their homework and I am
just so proud to be able to vote YES for
this bill this evening Thank You council
president Moritz deputy counsel
president T's so I I would definitely
echo a lot of what council president
Mart's has said I'm very supportive
this agenda bill this is something that
my friends and through all of my time on
pts a there's been so much talk about
seeing something like this come to
fruition and so being able to watch this
grow over time has been an amazing
experience and and coming from services
and safety we had a very long long
discussion this bill has come back
several times the first time that that
we talked about a location and we took
that out and there was community
engagement around that it ended up that
that maybe that there was a lot of
feedback about that location and then
the process evolved and a new location
was found and so this amazing
collaboration that's happened between
the team Cafe Friends of youth and the
city has just again been been just
amazing to to watch this grow we we also
just for my fellow council members did
talk acid Nick significant amount about
the lease we we talked about best
practices we talked about some things
that maybe the city had gone through in
the past and just making sure that we
had captured all of those best practices
within the lease so we talked about
indemnification best practices the the
lease and and really at the end this had
a lot of support coming out of safety
and services thank you thank you any
other council members looking at the
four who have not commented yet
councilmember hunt thank you although
council member Ramos I wanted to thank
the community members that have come
forward and spoken to Council including
a number of young people that either it
came and attended and support today or
came and spoke today I think that
feedback has been very helpful I also
think there's a clear public benefit
here and it has been articulated very
well and the partnership is very well
thought out I think this is an
opportunity for the city to partner to
address a
need in our community and that is a need
for teens to have a space to access
services and programming and suggest be
themselves and so for all these reasons
I am very much in support of this bill
as well Thank You council member Ramos
thank you I just like to compliment all
the people who aren't here that were
part of this they're students that
started this long time ago that are not
directly benefiting but their work is
getting down to students they're here
it's a long process sometimes but that's
the way it works sometimes you work on
something and somebody else gets the
direct benefit later and that's just
fine that's where life works I like to
come with the fact also that as we got
it closer that there was continued work
through that that the first you find a
location you're so excited about it it's
like let's do it and then with a little
more work a little more input from the
plug
you find out what well we can actually
do a little better and then we get a
place that's actually better by doing
just a little more work and not just
dumping it the first thing that
possibility because you thought there'd
never be a possibility right so
compliments sticking with the work
staying with it finding a good solution
in the long run just I just love that
and how the community works working with
students is going to be great
I look forward to working with um on a
number of things also from Human
Services site being on the Human
Services Commission before this is a
direct thing that's a human services
thing we always tried to look across the
spectrum in Human Services from youth to
adult and senior and this is something
that it didn't quite fit there but it
does because this is a city putting
directly into that not through that kind
of grant program but it is for writing
that that big broader spectrum they're
always looking for it both ends
particularly so I am I am very
supportive of this I thank everybody for
the work from over in 2011 you're saying
so we're talking about what seven years
or more and look forward to seeing this
and seeing students have a good place to
do good things
that's americanman cute so I agree with
everything that's been said I don't have
anything additional except to say thanks
for everybody for all your work those
are here now and who are not here now
and this is just super exciting and it's
gonna be a great addition to our
community for teens so I'm of course
very supportive and very excited okay
not saying any other hands arrays so are
we done with discussion and ready to
vote all those in favor of authorizing
the mayor to enter into and execute the
lease agreement with friends of youth as
presented for the purpose of providing
the teen cafe program with a portion of
the city-owned building at the 235th 235
First Avenue signify by saying aye
aye as opposed passes unanimously thank
you evening is AP 759 for funding
request for temporary staffing resources
this is a request to authorize
additional funding this has not been
considered previously either at a
council meeting or committee meeting and
I'd like to invite interim City
Administrator Emily moon to present this
item good evening this bill makes a
request for allocations in three areas
in the city I'll preface going through
those requests by saying as you're aware
we have a really robust work plan for
this year and have in at least two of
these areas been hampered by some
vacancies and so at the mayor's request
I have put together a proposal to assist
us in filling some of those duties and
responsibilities in the short term and
hopefully that will allow us to
accomplish that ambitious 2018 work plan
and sustain progress on important city
goals so the three areas that we are
seeking funding resources include human
resources a request of $100,000 to
basically outsource a range of our
recruiting
functions our human resources department
staff has not had a lot of time to do
needed activities outside of recruitment
and some collective bargaining work and
urgent matters so in your packet you
have a list of other tasks that have
been put to the backburner or have been
getting far less attention that we need
to make progress on human resources
director has contacted some firms to
assess how much we might need in order
to accomplish those recruiting tasks
through the end of 2018 we would also
evaluate whether that's a good
methodology in the future for us to
employ and you may see a request in your
2019 budget to continue to perform that
function out of house or an additional
full-time staff resource to perform that
function second area excuse me is in our
communications unit we have a request
for $60,000 there right now in that
group I'm missing half of the team and
the two individuals that are left are
specialized positions one that is mainly
responsible for our cable TV channel and
our video programming and then the other
position is our neighborhood engagement
coordinator those two individuals have
over the last several months been having
to sort of work outside of their job
description and provide other needed
services to the city in terms of
communication that has included
assisting with our social media
exchanges web site content development
assisting our departments with outreach
activities developing survey instruments
printed materials preparing
written remarks for colleagues as they
go to external meetings whole whole
range of duties and we're at risk of not
being able to accomplish all of the 2018
work plan items so I thought I would
also just stress to you what is on that
2018 work plan so that you are reminded
about our intent for community outreach
on these pieces so we have the strategic
plan the interchange justification
report sign code update public noticing
and improvements like Sam he is and
master planning old town parking study
and recommendations squawk Tallis
community connections program transit
oriented development branding and
wayfinding internally our class comp
program which requires internal
messaging off leash dog park planning
Senior Center programming future Parks
and Recreation software update which
will be externally focused as long as
well as utility billing software which
will be externally focused traffic
calming program revamp and several
capital projects two of which are the
new port projects and Gilman corridor so
that's that's not the full list of 2018
that's quite a bit for two individuals
to pull off who were not hired to do
that function to begin with in the
executive office as the mayor had
requested a proposal to help augment our
staffing in that department which is
also at about 50% those are temporary
vacancies but we believe some temporary
help will help us to facilitate all the
work of the other departments so I've
put together a proposal for some
assistance on two different levels first
being experienced managerial level some
project management help would be
appreciated
we did envision that person also
providing some operational guidance to
our departments and day-to-day issues
facilitation and resolution ii would be
on the lower level positions of SE city
management analyst who would help us
perform some of the research data
analysis recommendation preparation
community reporting and team and project
facilitation that our office is involved
with on a daily basis that request is at
160,000 with a hundred thousand going
toward the two part time limited term
management analysts and 60,000 going
toward a part-time more managerial level
position so those are the staffing
resources requests i'm happy to answer
any questions you might have
questions that's a member ray
i'll get things started so this is the
middle of april and we were talking
about the work plan so not exactly sure
how to express this but we're only three
months into the year and the work plan
last year that we developed was funded
by the budget and now we're we're
finding we're keep coming back for more
things so i'm just trying to understand
what has changed since the budget was
Thornton Lee what I'm trying to ask is
what are we going to do differently so
that we don't have to do this again
pretty much from now six months from now
a year from now sure I guess I'll take
your last question first it's the only
question okay very good there were there
were comments along the way that's true
I think in the future we need to do a
better job I believe that we have quite
frankly been communicating that the work
plan is too full for our current staff
to be able to handle and we have asked
for some positions in the past those
have not
been authorized in some cases in other
cases we have heard from the council
that there's a lack of desire to fund
additional full-time equivalents and
therefore that has kept us from asking
for additional positions on the flip
side though that has not diminished the
amount of work that is desired by the
community and by the council so we need
to get in better alignment on that I
think good project management dictates
that you have a resource plan and we
have not always had a resource plan it's
it's common practice particularly on our
capital side to also will ask for
additional staffing resources you can
tie that back to the project budget and
seems to be more palatable to most but
on the operation side that has not been
the case we have not asked for
sufficient resources and there hasn't
quite been the same level of support for
that I you also suggested that some of
these could have been foreseen and
that's not the case
budget development happened in July for
city staff was approved at the end of
December and most of these vacancies
happened after that point in time so
member ray or other council members
what's my over winter saying I need help
with something I maybe should know in
communications and the executive you
just said there we have vacant seats
this is a request for funds however the
actual salaries for those positions had
already been improved so maybe this is
more of a technical question than
anything why why why do we need to do
this additional authorization rather
than your just being able to use that
already authorized money sure so in some
cases they're those salaries are still
being utilized to pay for people who are
out on leaf for example in other cases
communications coordinator position for
example we will have only a couple
months
I hope vacancy salary savings and then
the we have requests for perhaps
part-time salaries and then we have a
request for contractual dollars and our
financial management practices do not
allow us to move salary and benefits
allocations into professional services
so in the case of the contract we can't
do that now what we can do is at the
point in time when we need to do budget
amendments we can look at how those
things offset and simply ask for the
difference okay so the financial
practices best practices you is I think
what the kind of the technical answer I
was looking for and then one other
question about especially in the
executive area because of the way this
is structured and ice we received an
email from you Emily and respond to some
questions where it did address the
search for a city administrator and I
interpret that to mean that that has not
started yet and given the structure of
this proposal I'm just wondering if does
this somehow priests age some potential
change in that part of the organization
compared to what we've had historically
the curiosity question I just simply
answer that it's no okay I think that's
a complete answer thank you it's okay
I'd like to chime in being stepping from
a councilmember Rohit roll into a
mayor's role there's a time period of
evaluating the work that's on the table
and the resources you have to do it and
I've talked about this with council
leadership quite a bit we are going to
be going out to do a search and the
timing of that has not been finalized or
shared yet with council leadership so
we're not expecting structural change we
just have not
started the search process yet that's
member Ramos and then council member a
thank you I have a couple questions
coming kind of fit in here to say a few
things and clarify my questions I think
one question I guess just technical and
you probably won't have it off the top
your hip I'll ask you is it is how much
I mean how much dollar amount have we
either already amended the budget this
year or already have plan to make an
amendment to the budget you know that we
have agreed to somewhere along the line
and it just haven't done the menu yet
you know for the top of my head no we
didn't think so
alright and and so what I'm trying to
get to here is is a budget process which
during the budget process I had some
concerns with because when I'm balancing
a budget every time you spend something
some money here you're not spending it
some other place you're always trading
off because there's only so much money
so when we come with amendments of this
nature a really hard thing for me to
understand is what are we not doing as
we just said we're going to take the
request is take 300 some thousand
dollars and spend it over here which
wasn't scheduled to be spent so that
means we're not spending it somewhere
else and when you come with a piece a
half of me half of the equation you
can't tell what the other half is that's
my rant I guess so like would you like
an answer to them would you like Emily
to answer that or I well it was kind of
a rhetorical because anything she could
like my first question but if you can
it's phrased as a question I'd be happy
to answer it
okay can you tell me what what we're not
going to do if we spend this money here
the proposal is to take it basically
from fund balance which wasn't allocated
so the answer of your question is we
would not be electing I saw I'm going to
try to avoid double negatives here by
spending this money out of fund balance
there isn't something that will not be
done I still did a bit of but did you
follow did you follow me
all right right but what doesn't work
for me there is something that won't be
done because it's some time we could
take this money and spend it on
something else sure that fund balance is
available to you for whatever privatized
need do you have I'm suggesting there's
one which isn't I saying which we don't
know that because later on when we look
at either next year's budget there's
less money and next year's budget of
what we want to do right so we're taking
something out of at some point in time
we've taken this money away from
spending so I get the in the process for
me is is it's just really really ten
amount that this item a request for sort
of million dollars I really found out
about it Friday night
so I'm looking at it how this process
comes to us we have we have a general
process that things come whether they
come from leadership or or
administration they go through committee
you know referral to committee and they
come back and there's some some in-depth
work done and that really bothers me
that that's not done here that process
is generally there and and I think that
process is there for a reason there's no
legal requirement that it be done but
it's there for a reason so that we work
through things have full understanding
full disclosure to those kinds of
questions that I have now that you
really can't answer and I understand
that but but those kinds of things need
to be shown because the fiscal
responsibility for us is one of our top
duties so that's okay so that's what I
have to say for you well actually I want
to say one more thing and as with all
these questions I do want to say that I
really I respect all the staff and all
the work they do and this is any of
these comments or talking about process
or not anything we reflected in any of
the staff or any the work they do and
and the need for keeping that work up to
the standards of the load that we give
you at times of course so I just want to
mention that as well so just I'm a
process not with all new work at any
time the council member Ramos I want to
add a couple of things what I'm doing
right now is tracking questions and if
questions are answered tonight my
expectation would be that
the council will vote on it so I think
why it's not following the similar
processes this is not an agenda bill of
a programmatic nature or anything like
that that committees typically that we
are hoping that we provided enough
information in the lead up to this and
last week that we can answer questions I
agree with you if they're not all
answered tonight would make sense to
refer to committee
the only question I have so far that
hasn't been answered is what is the
budget adjustment we have not brought
you a budget adjustment for this year
and that is a piece of information you
asked for so I would continue to ask the
council members to ask questions tonight
and see if answers can be provided and
whether or not you're satisfied that you
can vote on it this evening and we'll
vote on it
other ways we'll talk about what other
options we have so if there are more
questions let's keep moving with
questions I'm losing track
I think you too have asked questions I
moved to councilmember Goodman
councilmember winter Stang
Thank You Emily and the information we
received from you I and I don't remember
if this is day lighted in the agenda
Bell it was information about the
impacts of a delay and so I wondered if
you could just stay light that a little
bit for people who are watching sure I
my honest answer is I'm not sure I think
we impacts can be may be summarized as
we will need to think about how many
projects we can have underway at one
time if we only have two instead of four
people helping to provide for example
the public communication that we want to
do so that's one either eliminating or
d'Alene projects we had intended to do
quality of the projects that we
undertake I'd be concerned about that
perhaps but maybe they answer that first
question affects the answer to the
second and and then certainly as a
leader in this organization as a manager
I get concerned about the health of my
employees and their burnout rate
I have people who are working way too
many hours right now and I get concerned
about losing them either to health
issues or because they decide grass must
be green or somewhere else
so okay you know I don't I don't have
any that's just gut I don't I don't have
any way to measure that but I see that
as a potential issue it's certainly
something that we have heard in exit
interviews so I need to be mindful of
that Thanks don't summer winter Stein
actually I just I think councilmember
hunt councilmember hunt and then
councilmember interesting thank you
so you'd made a comment which was a good
project management dictates that you
have you need a resource plan and then
also you were talking about the work
plan and all of the items on the work
plan and the work plan being I think
untenable and I am wondering is there a
plan to revisit edit perhaps change the
timeline on the work plan not at this
moment we've been doing that on an
ongoing basis we don't have a formal way
a formal plan to come back for example
to council because there are items I
would want councils consent on to delay
or not undertake certainly have been
talking with council leadership at times
about timelines for different projects
and how we've had to space those out for
different reasons
if one I could think of is the mobility
master plan that we have said until we
get that staffing resource on board the
senior transportation planner we're not
able to undertake that but there there
was clarity right we had a staffing
resource proposed granted and at least
the first tasks and so it's easy to say
we don't have the resource therefore we
can't go forward on the project where
it's more difficult is taking the long
list of projects so that we're going to
have multiple employees working on them
because their cross departmental in
nature and thinking about okay if you
don't have the 10% increment
this person and the 50% from this and so
on can we still get it done we haven't
we haven't done that across the board
analysis but there are things that we
have already chosen to delay we shared
with you that we don't plan to move to a
two-year budget I've also asked the
finance director not to undertake some
new cost allocation work that we were
planning to do in the finance department
because I just there were bits and
pieces and finance departments work plan
I didn't feel that we were able to
accomplish but we haven't looked across
the board yet so just to follow up do
you anticipate that there will be
editing of that work plan in addition to
the if these positions where this
contracts words we find that in addition
to that there would also be at its to
the work plan I think we'll have to look
at it what's complicated is many of
those projects have been started and so
we're gonna need to look at whether or
not we can sustain that work or we're
gonna have to go back to community and
say it's going to take longer for us to
produce that product Thank You Kent
Somerville interesting thank you
appreciate the answers you've been
giving I want your help in doing a
little bit of math and I have maybe this
will be hopefully this won't be
difficult sure the way I view this yes I
know that we have a budget that we have
authorized the salaries and benefits for
the positions that are currently vacant
or have recently been made vacant when I
look at the total ask I think it's 320 I
believe the 100,000 for HR is all new
it's not fulfilling backfilling for some
some vacancy it's correct and I look at
the 60,000 for communications what would
you if you just want to give me a rough
estimate
twelve twelve thousand kinis there's
still fifty nine thousand nine hundred
eighty eight forty eight yep I've need a
budget so the 12 is what anticipated
salary saving
it's pretty happy ok so the incremental
ask on top of what was already been
authorized when you net it all out we
analysis it at the end of the year this
looks like this is an additional 48 to
what we think we would that is when I'm
estimating thank you and the executive
executive would be new dollars I'm sorry
new all all hundred and sixty would be
new okay okay that one surprises me
because the position is vacant
so I of at least of the city
administrator there's it used to be to
you and city administrator and the
deputy now there's just the in term so
okay that number surprises me what am I
missing
I you're missing that when employees
leave our employment there are benefits
that we still have to pay and contracts
that we still have to fulfill okay
okay so this is all new right thank you
thank you
Kristen I see your hand go up yeah just
a couple of follow-on questions and I'm
gonna pick on pickup on council winter
Stein's because I can't believe that the
salary savings is twelve thousand
dollars for the position so you're
saying the entire year that that
position was gonna cost us $12,000 no
that's not what I'm saying
then yeah so if I look at a calendar
year and we don't fill this position
what's the salary savings it doesn't
that number doesn't foot for me do you
have a vacant position in communications
that's correct
and so what do we pay what is that pay
grade for that position annually
I think council memory it starts with
the fact that there has been someone in
that position right but there is no one
in that position that's correct I mean
the Delta of why it's 12,000 yeah and
and I should have said 12 to 20 the
lower cost estimate is if we're able to
fill the position quickly so there's one
vacancy that is resulting in salary
savings in coming
Asians recently vacated I will be
marketing and recruiting for that
position as soon as I possibly can I
anticipate that position per my email
will be vacant for two and a half months
and that's what I'm chucking the salary
savings up to after you take out some
costs for benefits and that still have
to be paid and marketing for the
recruitment etc we come up with savings
of about twelve to twenty thousand for
that time period okay so do you on on a
monthly basis or quarterly basis or
something get a budget to actual report
that shows what was budgeted on each of
these line items and what our actual
spend was and what the Delta was I do
not on individual line items but at the
department division and what we call
object code roll-up level yes okay do
you have an idea how many vacant
positions there are citywide right now I
don't at the moment we had 44 last year
we are anticipating having about 55 52
if the trend continues from kind of
year-to-date and based off of
year-to-year increase in recruitments
exactly and my math is right about 20
percent of the workforce that's harder
math to do because some of that will
include seasonal positions and we may
have a position that's vacant for we may
run that recruitment more than one time
if we're not lucky the first time oh
good that's perfect so what's the
generally how longs it take us to fill a
vacancy it depends on the position give
me a range goodness and this is my
guesstimate here anywhere from eight
weeks to we have had a position open for
over a year because of this issue of
not finding app applicants that are
qualified or in that particular case
that I'm thinking of actually making two
job offers that were turned down you
know and I recognize it too it's a
difficult labor market right now I mean
it's a it's a competitive labor market
so do you have a sense of what our
turnover rate is annually I can't
remember what that number was last year
we gave that to Council at the last
council retreat we could get back to you
with that number I'd be awesome that's
it for thanks Council deputy council
president Batista's Thank You Emily what
is the so this is the plan for 2018 what
is the plan going forward after 2018
what are your what are your thoughts I'm
just curious in terms of human resources
and recruiting and just just that
there's been turnover there's been asked
for full time positions and now we're
looking at contingent staff so if you
could just talk a little bit about that
sure in in all three of those
departments okay so in human resources
as I mentioned we would look at how
contracting out the recruitment function
is working and if it's working well and
we think that's cost-effective for
example then we may continue to ask for
an allocation within the HR budget to
perform that task at a house if for some
reason we feel it's not the best model
or we can get better return on
investment through requesting a
full-time equivalent position in the
2019 budget then we'll make that
proposal at the departmental level
because the process that we have is you
get the department request then it goes
to the mayor's office and then we look
across the board at all of the requests
and decide what to put forward to you so
I would anticipate we at least make the
request at that level at the department
mayor's office level so that would be
for a recruiter correct some
I couldn't tell you what that
classification is but that would be the
primary function yes and then in
communications
what is 2019 look like it looks like
we're fully staffed and there's no
additional funds requested so
everybody's back in their seats an exec
we're having ongoing conversations with
council leadership about how to go about
filling the spots in that department so
I'm not able to tell you at this moment
but I would expect we would also be
fully staffed at some point in 2019
thank you and I should say because I
don't want somebody to say I didn't I
would expect that department director
also make a request for additional
staffing in terms of that management
analyst level position that's lacking in
the department right now in the 2019
budget but whether or not that gets out
as a mayor's request or proposed budget
is to be seen thank you looking for more
questions did we have a motion member
Ramos yes just for process I'm just
trying to look a little bit in ways that
process could be in in our service
there's a safety committee met this
month on the 10th next month they'll
meet on the 9th I'm just trying to
figure out a way that we could have made
this through the process and if two
weeks ago at our council meeting it was
referred to services of safety and back
we could have had this here that having
gone through the process and been here
with a much more process if this was
brought forward just two weeks ago I
don't think most of this information is
you know that new so and I mean like so
I'm just looking at how that process now
at this point if if someone decided to
recommend referring this to MIDI at this
point with that we wouldn't be able to
get back until May 19th or something at
beetle after part 21st so it'd be it'd
be a good four month delay but we could
have done it this month with
just to leave its start here so just
question that a little bit I want to say
I know human resources we've know
they've been lean and mean for a long
time so that's like that's nothing new
that's the one thing here that is you
know has been around for a long time for
for looking at what we're doing there
and a complement to work they've done
over years they're being lean and mean
they're on that so I just want to yeah
I'll let you go thank you so just before
we start council president right it's
the two outstanding piece of information
that I've heard that aren't here this
evening what is the city's budget
adjustment I don't believe we've come
with one and what is a staff turnover
rate and I'm not hearing any other
questions that are missing at this point
in time I I guess I did have one more
that's my mind that was how much have we
already amended this budget or plant
haven't slam admit that's what I have
that was the budget ax men I by Judge
adjustment we haven't had a budget
adjustment yet and so it would include
several items including this one as a
president works
thank you madam there I moved to
authorize an allocation of three hundred
and twenty thousand dollars to provide
for additional staffing resources and
Human Resources communications in the
executive office and direct the finance
director to include the allocation a
subsequent 2018 budget amendment
utilizing the general fund second it
moved in second I'm so president marks
so a couple things on this so is it
needed
as we have heard this evening a lot of
this as is as a result of things that
have happened since we did the budget of
since when we looked at the budget and
since when we approve the budget things
come up timing I understand the urgency
on this on the administration's part
generally speaking I like to see things
go through committee first and I
understand what is concern some of my
fellow council members but I look at
these three areas HR is is is the
obvious first step I mean the the first
step when you're you
when there's water getting in your boat
is you Bale the water out and and HR is
that is the bucket with which you bail
out the ship calms you no communications
this council in this administration
value strongly our outreach into the
community and having the resources to
provide that communication in both
directions both both seeking and sharing
communications is a high priority and
the executive office you know we have
had three full-time senior executives in
this city since it was much smaller than
it is today and I understand I think
that the two of you are are doing a
great job but I understand why we are
there are things that we should be doing
in the executive office that we're not
doing currently
finally on availability you know I I
don't know what this revised number is I
know we have you know there's been
conversation about that we've seen other
amendments already in early in April but
you know the proposed budget had a 34%
margin on on ending fund balance of the
general fund and that is as compared to
a target of 15 to 20 percent and I like
having nice high ending fund balances
for just these sorts of issues as as
I've mentioned earlier a lot of these
needs are coming up because of things
that have happened since December that's
why you have nice healthy ending fund
balances so if we if we and by the way
34 percent as compared to 20 percent
that represents 7.1 million dollars so
I'm quite confident we have not
authorized 7.1 percent 1 million dollars
of additional spending I would have
remembered it so I think it's I think
it's valuable to understand how this is
in context other additions that we've
made since last fall but because of
stated urgency by the administration I'm
willing to view this as a little bit
different of a process and so that's why
I made this motion tonight and that's
why I would support moving forward with
a with the motion that I think thank you
that's a member we're interesting thank
you thank you madam mayor earlier you
said you're gonna keep track of
questions
if we can't answer the questions maybe
that would be part of the justification
for moving on I would I would add I
think whenever we consider this type of
question I would sometimes you just need
to sleep on things and I know however
our our cycle it's not like we're
meeting again tomorrow and so there's
there's ramification for that because
some at least I'm speaking for myself
sometimes I just need I'm when I'm
really taking something in for the first
time I need I wish I had more time the
thing kind I just want to throw that out
there for that I'm interpreting the
numbers to say that the 100,000 for HR
may become an ongoing cost and that the
rest of the costs are one-time yes I
don't know that the 100,000 will be the
100,000 in the future because it's
partial year and it's consulting dollars
versus full-time and benefits but your
basic premise function that it would
provide this may be a harbinger of an
ongoing cost something and where for HR
correct correct would year but the
answer to your question the question
earlier that what Mariah asked you see
fully staffed and if what we get fully
staffed in communications and staffed as
currently planned in executive then
these would have been one-time costs
correct with the caveat again being
maybe other staffing requests in 19 that
I've already spoken about yes thank you
okay thank you
let's move I'm really concerned with the
comment that our work plan for this year
and our budget for this year are at a
balance again being three months into
the year it just seems to me that we
should not be putting the other work
plan that we don't have a budget to
support and it's not good service to the
people to make commitments if we don't
think we can get them so that concerns
me my number two concern is there's
about budget visibility
we don't have it I don't have it I don't
know if you guys got it I don't have it
I don't know where we are compared to
where we should be this year I think
that's something that we need to have in
terms of fund balances yeah it is great
that we have fund balances but to
councilmember Ramos is point every time
we take the fund balance suspended on
one thing we don't have it suspended on
another thing because we don't have an
infinite amount of money there and then
finally it I believe it is our job
collectively to plan ahead and to have
visibility six months nine months a year
ahead of time so I don't buy the
argument that well shucks this just just
happened we need to have ways to get
ahead of this and we need to build in
whatever mechanisms we need going
forward so we're not a year from now
having the same discussion about Oh
shucks so we need another five hundred
thousand dollars because there's
something we didn't think about and
that's our job that's our job to figure
that stuff out so going forward I I
don't know how I feel about this agenda
bill right now I mean I'm I'm squarely
on the fence but I do know that I cannot
support this unless I see something that
lets me believe that next year we won't
have the same discussion or even next
month we won't have the same discussion
that we have a program in place and we
have methods in place so we can get
ahead of this and start to budget and
believe our budgets more councilmember
comments and then councilmember hunt so
I I wanted to echo some of the comments
from council president Mart's in terms
of if if we I can understand some of the
comments from my fellow council members
that - in terms of timing and having
this go through a committee and that I
think that that's always the way that we
that we want to structure that but in
regard to just guess I draw back on my
background both in operations
and in human resources when there are
when there are staffing changes when
there's FTE turnovers and people out on
leave and there can be a variety of
things happening and and often at the
operational side of the business is is
sometimes what starts to suffer when I
hear comments about employee well-being
and working a lot of hours and people
may be talking about that as they're as
they're exiting and turnover that that
concerns me and and we we do have work
plans in place and some of these things
can be very much unforeseen so I'll talk
about communications I think that there
can always be in terms of organizations
having turnover or having people on
leave that's a short-term time limit and
it seems like the right thing to do to
bring in staff to to cover that in terms
of communication and we we also have on
the executive side we are down people we
don't have as many people doing the jobs
as we need to have doing the jobs right
now
and again I just to comment on some of
the things that councilmember Ray has
talked about having that that planning
in place and being able to look into the
future
and and what is that going to look like
next year that that was really the crux
of why I was asking that question is
what kind of planning can we have going
forward to make sure that that we are
that we are fully staffed but that
doesn't often stop in organizations all
sorts of changes people go out on leave
there's turnover there's retirements
there's all sorts of things that happen
so I would be in support of of moving
forward with us I'm going to talk about
human resources
last human resources and recruiting is
something that that I think that we we
really should think about I I look at
the kinds of the things that were on the
list for the kinds of things that the HR
director could be looking at if they
weren't probably heads down with
recruiting which I know that they have
to be because it says the number
year-over-year recruitments have
increased an average of 55 percent in
the past three years and three hundred
percent since 2013 recruiting is an
incredibly time-consuming job in every
single way both administratively and the
time it takes to source and that it's
just so time-consuming
I managed this right now and so I I
understand this very deeply and on the
human resources side some of the things
that we're talking about are completing
the class and comp survey enhancing the
labor management protocol collective
bargaining I mean some of those things
are jobs within themselves and so having
a very small group do the recruiting and
try to be strategic in HR is oftentimes
an impossible task so to me when I look
at the numbers associated with human
resources that makes really really
perfect sense though that we need some
help there
and so I I would like to talk about what
are we going to do going forward after
2018 but for now I understand the
reasons for this and I would be in
support of this thank you I'm sniper
hunt thank you
so you made a comment that this the
comment that I stated earlier which was
good project
dictates that you have a resource plan
and I think that that is really
important and I think that this is
proposed as a sort of temporary
tangential solution to that but I think
we also need to really look at that work
plan and look at the resource plan
associated with that work plan and try
to use that to get ahead of some of
these issues so that we do have more
time to contemplate and maybe come up
with different options or different
solutions in the summary statement on
Human Resources it actually refers to
the human resources as a historical
shortage and so it has been a long time
that this has been a need I think in in
my opinion if this had gone to committee
we could have had a lot of our questions
answered in a more thorough way and it
in the way that committees are supposed
to work and I I respect that we were
being asked to vote on this today but I
would ask that in the future we do be
given the opportunity to vet this
committee because our role on council is
to ask questions and I think that that's
that's why we have the committee process
and I think at least some of these items
could have gone through the more
thorough process thank you
two more council members have not spoken
Goodman and Rommels its member Goodman
thank you so I so I some of the some a
couple at least a couple of the asks
that you're making tonight is my
understanding or made because of some
fairly recent events and I think that if
you would have brought this earlier a
few weeks ago you very likely would have
been back before us again with another
ask shortly because the those events
would not have happened yet one of the
two of the vacancies
one of the vacancies wouldn't have
happened and one of them we would have
been unsure about the future of that
vacant position without being specific
the I agree that you know it's always
ideal if we go through committee and you
know when I was on leadership when Paul
was in leadership you know Mary Lou was
on leadership you know we stressed that
we try to do that but I think it's our
job to also recognize when we need to be
flexible and my concern tonight is that
we do a disservice to our community if
we continue to allow what I call a you
know a pretty significant short staff
that that in my own words what I'm
hearing is we're gonna have a problem
getting our work done and if we can't
get our work done things have to suffer
and a lot of what's on the work plan
it's not just you know who we want to do
this fun stuff it's it there are
mandatory things that have to be done so
we can't always cut the work plan to
meet short staffing needs but again I'm
going to support this because I think it
does a disservice to our community to
perpetuate the problem by focusing on
the fact that we should have brought
this a few weeks ago when I think the
ask would have been different a few
weeks ago and then you would have been
back before us again now or within a
couple of weeks with additional asks
because I think we still would have had
unknown vacancies in a couple of
positions thank you council member Ramos
yes I'm I'm I'm torn here because I want
to support our staff I don't have a good
staff and they need help but I'm torn
out in the process I do believe this two
weeks could have gone through the
process easily with a little bit or
advance thought here I know the human
resource has been leaning mean for years
and I want to support them for sure but
I really do that process is important
it's important not just for our Council
but it's for the public to see and
always weigh because I'm always there
whenever you spend money in one place
you're not spending it somewhere else on
some other priority and you may not you
may not know what that is right now but
it's not being spent somewhere else and
you never know that until you look at
the whole budget that's why we try to
balance those budgets and look at those
things and just because we're lucky
right now that we have plenty of money
and any fund balance we consider this
differently if our any of our mouths was
right at the 20% mark you know where
would we be looking at those things so
that's that's the tough part just
because you have it doesn't mean you you
know you just jump at those things so
but we do need some work done and and
and we do have some good folks and I
don't want to get folks burned out yes
and before I go to councilmember to
Stein's so we have heard from everybody
once I'm going to come back to Paul now
and give anybody else a chance for
closing comments if you'd like
councilmember winter stand Adam mayor
I'd also like just a quick chance to
talk about how we'll go about resource
planning in the future and some pieces
that I think council can assist in would
you like to do that now before we short
final comments okay so I want to
recognize acknowledge in fact I have
already admitted that we can do a better
job of resource planning we can continue
to try to calculate what we can handle
at full staffing capability which I
think we did we knew it was going to be
a stretch but there wasn't the support
that was desired and so we made that
calculated choice to stretch and try to
accomplish all that we have set before
us for 2018 however these were unplanned
events and so we don't even have that
complement of staff to work with the
other thing that I would say is we could
do a better job and you can also help us
with this in estimating the amount of
time that's needed to complete projects
we don't always a staff control the
destiny of particular projects and new
tasks get added throughout the year and
additional desires for outreach for
example or
for extra steps in process extra
research adds to the work plan so
there's a whole list of tasks that
weren't even on work plan that get added
in a given year or more sub-bullets
underneath each task and that's fine
that's fine but it is very hard to
measure going into a year how long a
certain project is going to take because
they shift around so I just wanted to
add that but even when we have staff try
to plan resources appropriately there's
a pieces outside of our control I'm
gonna go back for comments councilmember
widgets time I'll make them quick two
things Emily that I appreciate you those
last comments and I've been thinking
about councilmember Ray's comments I
think you were kind of responding to
this idea of a work plan and having a
proper staffing plan and believing that
we have a budget and a staff and a work
plan that we can be successful with and
I speaking for myself when we go through
this budget but also as we put
additional count as a council put
additional requests on the
administration I accept some culpability
for the situation because we approve the
budget and we put the demands on staff
so we are have to accept some of that
and I readily accept some of that
ourselves it's not just one-sided issue
and the way of the comment I'm just
going it's going to be really brief is
is for the record I don't consider us
lucky to have the ending fund balance
that we have it comes through some very
prudent fiscal management and and some
deliberate decisions as well yes we have
an economy that helps but a lot of that
is but based upon specific de si and
decisions that we've made so I do accept
the argument that yeah we knew we were
going to have some ending fund balance
but but we didn't know what we were
going to use it for and this is one of
those circumstances
categorically you want to be ready for
if they arise and that's what some of
the balanced ending fund balance would
be used for so I do accept that argument
you give you the comments councilmember
a so trying to figure out how exactly I
want to put this I want to be supportive
I know we have a mission to do I know it
is hard work I know it takes resources
to get the job done I appreciate the
work that you put into putting together
this this summary of the positions it's
it's very good but I feels like a bit of
a band-aid to me we are we are we are
sticking your finger in a dike and
waiting for it to pop out somewhere else
so I can support this but I wouldn't
really encourage the administration to
to dig into this and really help us to
understand what the root causes of these
problems are so that we can start to
attack the root causes instead of just
what I think are symptomatic look at me
- noted thank you very much that's very
well stated more final comments we have
five other council members who may want
to win councilmember Goodman
I just want to follow up and can I agree
with councilmember Ray's comments about
the bandaid on the problem and some of
the issues are not new but I were
numerous reasons that we've already
talked about it's at a point where we
need to we need to put those band-aids
out or we're going to suffer even
further but we also have some work to do
regarding we've already talked about the
resource planning but I also think that
we've got some issues that we should
probably look into that oh I shouldn't
say issues we should look into we have
some further work to do determine what
we might do to help us not be at this
place again for the period of time we've
got at this place
thank you council president Mertz thanks
I also want to say I share council
member ray Yorkin some of your concerns
about
what we want to do in the longer term -
to get more comfortable with with where
we're at the issue of retention is
something that actually at the
leadership level we've started talking
about and wanting to get our arms around
and see what is our retention rate how
does it compare with other
municipalities on the east side what is
the time to fill positions how does that
compare with other cities on the East
Side and so that's an important issue
you also raised a question around you
know how do we plan for handling some of
these exits and you know you know I say
well we can use the ending fund balance
but I also think it's worth having a
conversation as are there other
mechanisms are there other best
practices on how to do that that isn't
necessarily straight from the ending
fund balance but might might have a
different mechanism so I think because
both good questions thank you three
other council members wishing to provide
final comments or not deputy council
president patís I I appreciate I'm gonna
go back to councilmember Rea again and I
really appreciate the comments and and
and what we've talked about in terms of
how we can look forward into the future
I will point out that so many of the of
the questions that we're talking about
right now have to do with HR being able
to work strategically we're talking
about retention we're talking about
succession planning and we're talking
about being able to build those staffing
plans for the future and so I think that
that's all really really important but I
think that we we might be talking about
a piece of it right now in terms of
allowing human resources to do that that
more strategic work as opposed to
recruiting all day so thank you member
Ramos or councilmember hunt okay seeing
no more discussion I'll call for the
vote the motion sorry authorizing an
allocation of $320,000 to provide for
addition
Staffing resources in the human
resources communications and the
executive office and directing the
finance director to include the
allocation as subsequent 2018 budget
amendment utilizing the general fund all
those in favor please signify by saying
aye opposed motion carries unanimously
thank you thank you the next order of
business this evening is for good of the
order do council members have anything
for good of the order okay I have a
little peek ahead for good of the order
on our April 24th council of the whole
meeting there are four agenda items the
i-90 auxilary lane project which was
something that I referenced this evening
it's a quite Hobart road front Street
corridor study emergency management will
be discussed as a topic and that there
will be an update on the transit
oriented development on the May 7th
regular council meeting at this time
there are four proposed agenda items and
I say propose because some of them will
still be in committee or are still in
committee a public hearing on the update
of water system plan an agenda bill on
creating the visit Issaquah organization
agenda bill on amendments to the
Issaquah municipal code regarding
wireless communication facilities an
amendment to the IMC and central s quest
standards regarding inclusionary zoning
for central Issaquah that's all I have
we will be going into executive session
this evening this executive session will
be held this evening to discuss
collective bargaining sessions per our
CW 42.3 0.14 o paren for impending and
potential litigation for RCW 42.3 0.11 o
paren one for an eye these items are
expected to last 35 minutes action is
anticipated to follow in open session
the council will recess recess into
executive session at 1006
you
you
yeah oh and it's true are you reading
this one because we've added a word
we're back on the air I called the
meeting back to order at 10:30
and is there a motion to be made thank
you
I move to authorize the mayor to execute
the interlocal agreement with the
Sammamish plateau water district instead
substantially the form as discussed in
executive session there a second second
it's been moved and seconded is there a
discussion there's no discussion all
those in favor of authorizing the mayor
to execute the interlocal agreement with
the Sammamish plateau water district in
substantially the form as discussed an
executive session signify by saying aye
opposed passes unanimously
there being no further business the
meeting is adjourned at 10:31
you