welcome everyone good evening I'm
calling the September 17th regular City
Council meeting to order I'd like to ask
those who would like to join the council
myself in the pledge of allegiance to
please stand
under special business on our agenda
this evening we have a couple of
proclamations that I will come down and
deliver I'd first like to invite East
Side baby corner board member Andy
Simons to join me at the lectern to
receive the proclamation this is for
diaper need awareness week whereas
diaper need the condition of not having
a sufficient supply of clean diapers to
ensure that inferred infants and
toddlers are clean healthy and dry can
adversely affect the health and welfare
of infants toddlers and their families
and whereas there are no government
assistant assistance programs for the
purchase or provision of diapers and a
monthly supply of diapers can cost as
much as 6% of a full-time minimum-wage
worker salary therefore obtaining a
sufficient supply of diapers can cause
economic hardship to families and
whereas the people of Issaquah recognize
that addressing diaper needs can lead to
economic opportunity for the state's
low-income families and can lead to
improved health for families and their
communities now therefore I Mary Lou
Polly mayor of the city of Issaquah do
hereby proclaim the week of September
24th to 30th 2018 to be diaper need
Awareness Week in the city of Issaquah
and strongly urge all citizens to donate
generously to diaper banks diaper drives
and those organizations that distribute
diapers to families in need to help
alleviate diaper need in Issaquah and
environs thanks would you like to say a
few words yes I would Thank You mayor
and members of the council thank you I
mean you're on behalf of Eastside baby
Corner and that's an aqua organization
it's a little gem that we have right
here in our own community it serves our
partners we serve about 50 partners
the east side including friends of youth
and this a clothing bank and we make
many things available to families in
need not just diapers but car seats
formula and many items of clothing and
of course clothing toys things like this
can be recycled donated throughout the
community diapers and formula of course
cannot and so each side baby corner
raises funds in order to be able to
provide that as well and so what is the
purpose of diaper need Awareness Week
it's to raise the awareness of everyone
of this need and inspire people to to
take part whether you contribute to a
diaper drive or contribute to an
organization like Eastside baby corner
you're doing a great service as we know
it's it's a necessity and so we thank
you very much for this proclamation
thank you I'm just gonna stay down at
the microphone for our next proclamation
and I'd like to invite Eastside refugee
and immigrant coalition executive
director Debbie Lacey to the lectern
where is the population on the east side
continues to grow rapidly increasing by
over 80,000 residents in the last five
years and whereas over forty percent of
these newcomers have arrived from places
outside the United States and whereas
more than one-third of East Side
residents now speak a language other
than English at home
and whereas diversity is the lifeblood
of our community bringing fresh
perspectives and new ideas innovation
and entrepreneurial spirit leadership
and hard workers and whereas our success
depends on ensuring that all our
residents feel welcome here now
therefore we the mayors of Bellevue is
Scott Kirkland Redmond and Sammamish
Washington proclaimed September 14th
through 23rd 2018 as Eastside welcoming
week in our cities and call on all our
residents to join together to build a
stronger community across the outside
and would you like to address the
audience thank you so much for your
Polly councilmembers appreciate it so
much so Eric coordinates aside refugee
and immigrant coalition coordinates the
National welcoming week every year
throughout the east side and this year
there are over 25 events being sponsored
and hosted by multiple organizations and
cities so we're very excited about this
event happening right now through the
23rd and the week is more than just a
celebration it's the culmination of year
round work that our coalition does with
Issaquah and other cities across the
east side we have this partnership that
goes way back to 2002 when we first
started our coalition and welcoming goes
beyond community events it goes beyond
the neighbor to neighbor friendliness
that we hope we have in our communities
it's really in our view about
institutionalizing welcoming coming down
to the policies and the practices and
the programs that our communities
support to help all residents feel
welcomed and included so sometimes along
with the cultural richness that
diversity brings there can be some
divisions some tension and communities
and we've seen that long time residents
can feel a disconnect not being able to
communicate with their neighbors who
speak different languages new immigrants
can feel that same disconnect for
different reasons feeling isolated
unsure how to connect with their local
governments and community members so
cities that come together like in
Sukhois and promote welcoming in various
ways that you do really help to bring
those people together and bridge some of
those gaps so there are several is
across sponsored events on the welcoming
week calendar you have I believe fliers
in your packets and I believe mayor
Polly that you'll be coming to are you
going to do the rangoli art community
art project on Thurs it's a Wednesday
it's a quat library four o'clock so that
would be great way to connect and there
are lots of other opportunities too so
we hope you'll take the opportunity
council members and community members as
well to please join in an event and help
celebrate welcoming week with us thank
you so much thank you
[Applause]
the next item on our agenda this evening
is audience
he's audience comments and this is the
time for any of those in the audience
that would like to address counsel this
is your time guidelines for public
participation will be displayed on the
overhead screen and there is a sign-up
list out there if you have signed up
we'll call you forward first and if you
did not sign up I will ask for other
speakers before closing this portion of
the meeting if you are here as part of a
group please identify yourself as a as a
spokesperson for a group and if you're
here supporting someone speaking tonight
please let your counsel know by raising
your hand when you're in greement with
the speaker's comments you can also
raise your hand at any time if you're
here for one issue and hearing another
speaker speak and you want to support
what they're saying there's also a
public hearing tonight a be seven six
zero five is the 2018 first budget
amendment and you will have if you'd
like to make comments on this topic you
will have opportunity later in the
meeting audience comments are for up to
five minutes and has anybody signed up
to speak this evening no anybody like to
address the council this evening mr.
Kepler
thank you David Kapler 255 South East
and Rose Street just quickly it seems
like the requests to the state are all
legitimate probably highest priorities
but the state has done some great things
for Lake Sammamish State Park in open
space and parks in our area and I would
think that is something that should be a
higher priority than as I see it on the
agenda bill thank you thank you would
anybody else like to address council
this evening right ahead come on up your
name and address before you address
things hi my name is Jerry Potter and I
live at two six zero two zero southeast
old black nugget Road in sac wah and I'm
here as a spokesperson for Save Cougar
Mountain and I just wanted to say we
manned a table for the art and wine
night and it went very well we got a
hundred signatures and seems like we got
more signatures as the evening went on
are enjoying themselves it was great the
weather was great and people seemed very
enthusiastic and very excited about
signing being able to sign up and
they're concerned about what could
happen to the mountain and so it was a
very I think it was a very successful
event
hmm thank you thank you very much Jerry
would anyone else like to address
council this evening seeing no other
hands that is a really short audience
conversation thank you to the two
speakers who came to talk about open
space and safe Cougar Mountain is
actually I need to do one more call is
there anyone else who would like to
speak this evening
hey seeing no one will close this part
of the session committee and regional
reports we will start with councilmember
hunt thank you madam mayor the Eastside
Fire and Rescue Board met on September
13th 2018 at the Eastside Fire and
Rescue headquarters I
a substitute and my fellow council
member stacy goodman also was present we
talked about pitas they are currently
testing for a pea sauce and the data
will be presented later in the year with
a final report that will come forward in
January of 2019 they we got an update
about and changed to their training
program they are going to be working
with east Metro training group or
they're moving from east Metro training
group to the South King County Fire
Training Consortium and that the reason
for this will be to increase
efficiencies and training opportunities
and ultimately decrease costs there were
some questions from the board members
and so it was decided that the board
would get more information at a later
briefing and a presentation about how
this training consortium works we got an
update about wildland fires in in
Washington State and also in California
and Oregon and about the efforts that
the Eastside Fire and Rescue had in in
addressing those many wildfires that
were experienced this year and then we
also heard an update about proposed a
proposed update to the NOx box program
this is the a program where the
firefighters have non destructive access
to buildings to so that they can access
buildings without having to break in if
there is a fire issue and so that was
recommended that it would be discussed
in detail at the by the financial
advisory committee and lastly we heard a
update from there 2014 to 2015 financial
audit the financial audit was clean
there was one finding and it sounded to
me like it was not substance substantive
it was more of a technical issue but the
emphasis was that the audit was clean
and the next meeting of the
site fire and rescue board will be
October 11th at 4 p.m. I have one more
committee report cascade Water Alliance
resource management committee met on
September 13th as well at the Cascade
office in Bellevue
the first topic that we talked about was
reclaimed water this is something that's
a very hot topic right now we heard a
presentation from a study that was
prepared by HDR that's the same group
that the city works with on their water
system plan the study explored
opportunities within cascades service
area for how to best use reclaimed water
what the cost would be what the use
cases could be and what the trade-offs
would be the so we we heard the
presentation there was a discussion
about the potential effects on
ratepayers that remains a major concern
of cascade in terms of use of reclaimed
water and also I always try to remember
to define reclaim water so reclaimed
water is waste water that has been
treated and is suitable for other uses
such as agriculture or irrigation and we
also talked about the cascades water
system plan they are going to be doing
an extension of their current plan and
then lastly we talked about water
quality management work plan this is a
work plan for that work plan to monitor
the water quality in Lake Tapps which is
the reservoir and also to study things
that are important to the health of the
reservoir such as identification of
storm water sources the next meeting of
cascade water Alliance resource
management committee will be October
11th at the cascade office in Bellevue
that completes my report on some array
Thank You mayor poly the services and
Safety Committee met on September 11th
at 6:30 the agenda included agenda bill
76-54 Puget Sound Energy green direct to
agreement which is on tonight's regular
business
agenda bill 7631 visit us qua bylaws
which will be on regular business on
October first agenda bills 7605 2018
first budget amendment which we are
having a public hearing on this evening
agenda bill 76 58 amendments to the
medical plan for the city for 2019 an
agenda bill 76 64 amendments to imc 5.0
to business licenses the services and
Safety Committee will have a special
meeting tomorrow September 18th at 6:30
p.m. here in council chambers
the agenda will include agenda bill 76
40 amending school impact fees agenda
bill 76 55 expedited traffic enforcement
pilot project summary report an
extension and additionally the committee
will be receiving a presentation
entitled city gives that describes the
various ways the city supports
nonprofits in our community and that
concludes my report
Thank You councilmember a council member
Ramos Thank You mayor this Thursday the
20th will have the council
Infrastructure Committee meeting here in
Council Chambers at 6:30 items on the
agenda two action items one a b7 t 646
the amendments to our sewer rates you're
looking at and the other one a b7 33 9
the holiday in lift stations or sewage
we'll be looking at that as well
two other items for information are
updates on the Providence point signal
intersection and Newport Way retaining
walls Newport wait Northwest excuse me
retaining walls so that would be then
the 7th I attended the Washington State
Public Works board meeting that on our
legislative agenda is a thing to help
encourage the legislature to continue to
fund the Public Works account which is
good so we're preparing for that as well
as going out for pre-construction loans
and just a reminder that's a funding
source for municipalities and other
utility service districts that to get
very inexpensive loans to allow them to
build and construct and maintain their
infrastructure at a much lower cost so
that's a very important thing to the
whole state on the 14th unless Friday I
was at the site transportation
partnership when the main items they
talked about was how electric bikes are
coming and how their changes may be
coming to our transportation system and
how we look at bike lanes or car lanes
or whatever electric bikes you know the
ones they have now can be up to 30 miles
an hour some of them so it's not quite
you know it's a little different whether
they mix with people on a multi-use
trail and those kinds of issues so we're
working on issues on that and looking at
how their areas of the country have
dealt with them as well so electric
bikes are probably coming we had a look
at them a little closer and then the
last thing is this Wednesday on the 19th
I will be attending the regional transit
committee meaning King County in Seattle
it includes mag report Thank You
councilmember we're interesting thank
you and I got to say I love electric
bikes the best thing about it they go up
hills your best thing about it I have
four reports to give this evening
including for Landon Shore which which I
don't normally do but I'll start with
the growth management policy board we
met Thursday September 6 at PSR C
headquarters in Seattle and has been in
the last few months and we'll be through
all of this year most of next year and
into early 2020 the main topic at GMP B
is the update division currently called
vision 2040 the update will be called
vision
2050 and in this past meeting we had
conversations and this is really all
that's happening at this point the PSR C
staff is actually doing quite a bit of
work presenting us with lots of data and
lots of ways to talk about things and
there but there's no we're getting to
some decisions about something soon but
we had conversations about the
objectives of vision about outcomes we
had and we're going to continue to talk
about objectives and outcomes as well we
have lots of conversation about the
regional growth strategy so that is
that's in vision that's what identifies
things called regional growth centers
it's the foundation for all of that and
it is very it's a pretty important and
certain components of that we discussed
at length the
concept of regional geographies so
that's the idea of major metropolitan
cities large cities small cities and
unincorporated areas that have high
capacity transit it's so it's breaking
down the region into these various
geographies to define their their nature
and to identify kind of actual and
potential growth patterns we talked
quite a bit about growth scenarios
because there will be an EIS that's done
as part of this vision update and that's
one of the near-term decisions that has
to be made by the board on what
scenarios are going to be included in
the environmental impact statement work
that's done we had conversations about
Tod goals or transferred oriented
development goals and well I I want to
share I notice a shift that's happening
to the question about do you set
land-use and plan your transportation
around it or do you plan your
transportation and modify your land-use
to take advantage of that transportation
plan seems to be drifting in the
direction of there's quite a bit of
long-range transportation planning
that's been done with light rail and
stations everywhere let's modify
land-use surround those to take maximum
advantage of the region's transportation
infrastructure that's going to get built
and and so there was there was quite a
bit of conversation about that and I see
that moving in that direction we had
conversations about the job housing
balance now that's a very complex topic
and it's lots more complex than just a
few numbers on a piece of paper and so
these are conversations at this time but
I think those growth scenarios will be
ones that we'll be able to report back
more sooner than others because they'll
be decisions to affect the EIS that was
a GMP be the next I'll talk about is the
land and shore Committee meeting I was
able to I served I chaired that meeting
on September 6 Stacey was absent so at a
request I chaired it and councilmember
Rea
gende us as well so we had all three we
had two major issues on the agenda first
was the Old Town sub area plan this is
an issue that has been in front of the
council or at least the committee the
land in short quite a few times over I
think going back maybe certainly well
over a year maybe a year and a half
and it's been there has been public
engagement there has been numerous
meetings at PPC and it's been I think
those have been very robust they've been
very good I think it's gotten better and
better over time and the I think the
plan today is like 12 pages long and it
I found it succinct and and to the point
so we had a this was the first of two
scheduled conversations in front of
Landon Shore so the purpose of this
meeting was to have to go through we
went through every piece of the plan at
its state right now and we asked a
number of questions of staff staff had a
lot of answers they took they took away
some action items and and then the plan
is for that to come back with responses
for Landon Shore at the next meeting in
October where possibly that committee
will take action on it then the other
item on the agenda for for that landed
Shore meeting was discussion about
proposed land use changes to the central
area which is agenda build 766 1 again
that was a discussion to understand what
was proposed to ask questions staff
again you know took to recorded those
questions and will be coming back again
to the October meeting so there was no
action plan for that matter and that
will be coming back to land in shore
again at the October meeting and I'll
put a plug in right now that I will not
be able to attend the October meeting so
if anybody wants to let me know if they
can sub for me please let me know the
next report is about the lodging tax
advisory committee or LTAC we met on
Friday the 13th I think that's when it
was last Friday at Homewood Suites we
have four items on the agenda we got an
update on the destination marketing
organization known as visit Issaquah
their bylaws were in front of services
and safety earlier remember we appointed
a so aboard selection committee that
committee has been hard at work would
they currently have a board of 9 members
they received
over 20 applications for other board
physicians they are still reviewing
further applications that group has
reviewed those bylaws and that the
current board has accepted the bylaws in
the form that came in front of Landon
Shore they also have discs come up with
a job description for the executive
director for that they have not posted
it because they want this kind of bylaws
process to go through our council
process and maybe a little bit more
about budget as well because they also
did come up with their proposed budget
for 2019 and that's an item that's going
to come back in front of this council as
part of our own 2019 budget
deliberations as well so they have not
posted that executive director position
they want a couple of those gates to be
to go through before such as the bylaws
through the council and some
conversation about budget before they
post that position we got an update on
the AVP the American volleyball
professionals tournament was have been
held at Lake Sammamish State Park the
last three years they want to hold it
again next year at 2019 and the AVP
organization is in conversations with
similar bodies around the world
associated with beach volleyball and
they're there trying to make a decision
whether or not to make the 2019
tournament an Olympic qualifying event
for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and if they
did in 2019 the 2020 tournament would be
an Olympic qualifier as well so that
would significantly ratchet up the size
the global attention but also there
would be international teams we would be
travelers from internationally imagine
that that could probably double the
amount of attendees that we've got in
recent years to that tournament so
there's a lot of stakeholders involved
obviously State Parks is highly involved
the Seattle Sports Commission has an
interest in this obviously some of us
think the DMO should have an interest
but it's kind of early for the DMO yet
and and so that was that was interesting
to hear and I do not know if they have
made a decision whether or not to make
this an Olympic qualifying event
the the third item we discussed was City
branding and wayfinding and the idea to
creative a kind of a citywide
comprehensive wayfinding system we had a
presentation from Jennifer Fink and a
member of consultants from the Executive
Office about that and they I know I've
learned that they're coming forward and
likely in the 2019 budget there will be
proposals for council to consider for
funding for branding and wayfinding
study effort and later on I'll mention
because our last item is the LTAC talked
about a budget and the elta they didn't
ask of LTAC as well for some LTAC funds
for branding and wayfinding and that was
the last item on our agenda where we put
together our our proposed use of alt tag
funds for 2019 which had been submitted
to the administration it's going to be
part of the budget coming forward so
this this year you'll get an LTAC budget
that actually came from the LTAC
committee beef we finally got that in in
time so we're asking for money for the
DMO where you'll see money in there for
branding and wayfinding and also for the
AVP tournament so that was our
conversation at LTAC and then the last
thing I have to report on is this past
Saturday I was one of a dozen electives
that attended a workshop put on hosted
by the rekkles house center and it's an
issue regard they have been charged by
the Washington State Legislature to take
to convene and and collaborate Lee
talked with people around the state
about the state's growth management
framework all of us on the council
you've seen him and emails have come in
we've it's even mentioned in our
regional agenda about participating in
staying tracking the work that's being
done by the ruckus house center so I had
an opportunity I went this Saturday and
there's another they're gonna meet here
in Issaquah later this month I'm gonna
be out of town so that's why I didn't
attend that one but the the purpose for
these meetings I'll just going to read
something really quick is the purpose of
their calling this Washington roadmap
purpose of the roadmap to Washington's
future project is to articulate a vision
of Washington's desired future and
identity I an excuse me and identify
additions revisions or clarifications to
the growth management framework of state
laws institutions and policies needed to
reach that future growth GMA is just one
part of our framework that but there's
also Seba as part of that
special-purpose districts are part of
that there are there are over 20
different state laws and as they said
other institutions and policies that
make up this framework and this is a
multi-year effort which does not assume
that we're just going to change what's
in place it's actually that it's just a
wide-open opportunity to talk to
stakeholders around the state and this
was very good because this was my
meeting was all with other electives
here in that most them are from East
King County so they're represented
there's two state legislators that were
there there were representatives from
shoreline Kirkland bellevue redmond and
a couple special-purpose districts as
well
water and sewer districts and we talked
about what would be the purpose so that
these same me if you go they'll be the
same type of meeting they'll want to
hear what you think about what you think
the purpose and value of the growth
management framework what is that they
want to hear about the current state
what we think is working and what is not
about the future state what are our
citizens saying what may need to be
added what major issues need to be
addressed within this framework and we
had quite a bit of a robust conversation
about public engagement as well one last
point I'll make about this in the 2015
legislature there were 75 bills related
to growth management and not one of them
passed not one passed and and and it's
very clear that there are some
everybody's not on the same page work
needs to be done so that's the purpose
of this I would really encourage my
colleagues on the council if you have an
opportunity
and these this session on September 27th
from 1:00 to 4:30 so that I think that's
a Thursday it is in the middle of the
day that's at Pickering barn here in
Issaquah and they're hope and they're
holding many different types of sessions
and this is one for elected officials
but there are there are many
opportunities for all people to be
involved this is specifically for
electeds
and so that is I enjoyed it quite a bit
hearing from others as well and courage
you to maybe make it if you can that's
my fourth and final report
thank you councilmember Goodman Thank
You mayor Poli thank you Paul for
chairing for me and for the report out
the next meeting Landon Shore is October
4th at 6:30 p.m. here in Council
Chambers the agenda has not been set yet
that concludes my very short report
Thank You deputy counsel batise thank
you madam mayor the East Side Human
Services forum board will be meeting
Thursday the 20th at 8:30 a.m. in
Bellevue on the agenda is the East King
County agencies and King County funding
an overview and presentation regarding
that also a review of this September
event which was the opiate and heroin
crisis next steps to to making a
difference and also the 2019 work plan
goals I was only able to attend the the
the last half of the opiate and heroin
crisis next steps to making a difference
but it was really an amazing event they
had brought people together from from
all over to talk about everything that's
happening in that arena so I look
forward to getting the report out so I
can better report back to Council on the
overview of that event that concludes my
report
Thank You council president Mertz thanks
madam mayor the sound cities association
public issues committee met last
wednesday the 12th at 7 p.m. in Renton
City Hall we started it with a
pre-picked meeting on OPM a and special
meetings and what
Institute's a special meeting and I once
again want to encourage those pre pick
meetings are open to all council members
because we don't you know we're not
discussing specific city policies so
it's kind of free as part of our
membership with SCA so if you're
interested not every speaker is
scintillating but this one was in terms
of things that were on the agenda there
was one item for potential future action
it was the draft 2019 SCA legislative
agenda
they they wanted to get it to one page
and they wanted like three items to
focus you know to focus attention where
have we where ever heard that before
so I would ask I've emailed out to all
of you the relevant section out of the
packet if you could get back to me this
will this will be returning at the
October SCA meeting and I would like to
be able to reflect how our city feels
about this what I will probably do is
ask at the next full council meeting and
for the good of the order to have a
conversation about that agenda so that I
can say you know my city thinks that
which is the most powerful thing you can
say it pic so GMP C growth management
policy Council is going to be meeting on
Thursday September 25th and I don't have
the agenda for that yet but it's gonna
be at 4 p.m. in PSR C chambers that
concludes my report
Thank You council president moving on to
the mayor's report which was distributed
earlier today there will be an executive
session held this evening to discuss
pending and potential litigation per
42.3 0.11 o / n1 / ni this item is
expected to last 10 minutes and action
is anticipated to follow an open session
last few weeks on September 13th I
attended the Puget Sound's Regional
Council's transportation policy board
meeting and also the local crew which is
construction and real estate women's
networking meeting as a panelist speaker
with five other female mayor's on
September 13 I attended the built green
conference as a panelist speaker with
mayor Tolbert of arlington arlington and
mayor Wallen of Kirkland and on
September 14 attended the leadership
Eastside mayor's lunch as a panelist be
with eleven other mayors so September
must somehow be mayor's month there was
a lot of mayor stuff going on for
community outreach I September 4th
attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for
just poke a also hosted a Q&A session
with our Senior Center on September 6 I
attended influenced the choice with some
other council members I know at least
council president Mertz was there but I
think there were a few others as a
council member winter Stein it was a
five year celebration and the city was
presented with a plaque for continuous
support of youth substance abuse
prevention efforts in the greater is the
qua Aria on September 7th they attended
a timber Ridge community meeting is the
guest speaker along with Ken konigsmark
and brookie Scholl of the talus
residents association and on September
8th I volunteered at Fred Meyer with the
Issaquah Food Bank for the mayor's month
of concern for the hungry which is going
on every Saturday in September on
September 11th I attended the Tallis
homeowners association meeting as a
guest speaker I also wanted to provide
three updates tonight first on our
strategic plan we are continuing to work
on our Issaquah which is the name for a
citywide strategic plan there is an
updated draft of the vision mission and
guiding principle a version of the
updated draft is planned to be reviewed
by your City Council at the work session
next Monday on September 24th at this
work session there will also be an
initial look at draft goal statements
and objectives that have been prepared
by staff workgroups there will be
additional information and opportunities
for input later this week and you can
always find more information and provide
feedback feedback by visiting the city's
website at Issaquah voix duck gov slash
our Issaquah also wanted to remind those
in the audience and those watching that
October is the beginning of budget
discussions I will be presenting the
mayor's budget to Council and we will
begin a series of meetings to review and
discuss the proposed budget for 2019
we're anticipating approval of the
budget at a December council meeting and
the last update I wanted to give I know
a lot of people in the community have
been tracking this but the new team cap
called the garage located by the
community center will have its grand
opening this Saturday it's located at
235 470 southeast just below the pool
and that concludes the mayor's report
proceeding to the consent calendar the
consent calendar was distributed to
council in advance if authorized the
items on consent calendar will be
considered together and approved by one
motion of the payables and payroll for
September 17th been reviewed yeah
they have thank you and does any
councilmember desire to remove any item
from the consent calendar and consider
it under regular business is there a
motion at a mayor I move we adopt and
sun calendar is listed in this evening's
agenda second it's been moved and
seconded all those in favor signify by
saying aye aye those opposed that passes
unanimously
next item on our agenda this evening is
a public hearing a b7 6:05 is the 2018
first budget amendment we're here
tonight to conduct a public hearing and
adopt the ordinance I'd like to invite
finance director gen Olsen to make a
presentation Thank You mayor good
evening council members the purpose of
this agenda bill is for additional
budget requirements and amendments that
necessary to cover expenditures and
revenues that had not been anticipated
in the original adoption of the 2018
budget there are proposed amendments
that the council has authorized the
agenda bill previously this year
those include expenditures for
additional staffing grant related
spending and reauthorizations from 2017
primarily related to capital project in
cash flow for casual purposes the
proposed amendments also include budget
true ups these are to correct things
like unbalanced transfers for funds
where a transfer must match a transfer
and must match a transfer out there are
also a number of agenda types that we
included such as a pass-through which
which could also be in
as a budget true-up these amendments are
required when the adopted appropriation
level within the fund is changing based
on state statues that's defined for how
we have to go about a budget amendment
utilizing a public hearing there are a
number of exhibits included with the
proposed ordinance there is a line item
detail of those budget amendments and
the funds that they affect there is also
the exhibit to the ordinance that
identifies the original budget for
revenues and expenditures the proposed
amendment and then the proposed new
budget for revenue and expenditures and
estimates of fund balance please note
that fund balances is always an estimate
until we have some final audited
financial statements the fund balance
numbers for beginning 2018 are primarily
set as we have completed the preliminary
financial statement however the
auditor's office has not come to
Issaquah yet for that audit fieldwork
the September 4th council meeting is
where the council set this public
hearing for for the amendments and
referred to the council services and
Safety Committee there was one revision
in the proposed budget amendments and
this was an additional transfer in
revenue source to the street capital
project fund coming from the school
safety zone fund that was done through a
budget amendment but that is the
provision that has been provided with
the agenda bill online for the public to
review this public hearing on the agenda
bill held today we're certainly aware
that the council's desire is to have a
public hearing and then subsequent
council meeting where you would consider
and take action
however because timing is necessary for
the 2019 budget preparation this budget
amendment is
proposed to be acted on this evening so
with that I would certainly be happy to
answer any questions about the proposed
amendments Thank You Jen and I did
forget to say at the beginning that this
was being coming back from the services
and Safety Committee so there has been a
council committee I think that's correct
thank you questions
that's member hunt thank you is it
possible or do you expect that there
will be any other budget amendments for
the 2018 well for 2018 timing-wise
there if there is it may be a small one
if we might do a revenue adjustment but
it's possible that there will not be
typically there's usually two or three
budget amendments we like to do one
after a first quarter if we know it's
something that that is truly come up at
the beginning of the year that early but
but it is typical for there to be an
amendment in the late summer and fall we
also do not like to do budget amendments
so close to the the final budget for for
that particular year because then
they're really looked at as as
unnecessary because you're just you know
increasing the budget or decreasing the
budget based on actuals okay that segues
into my next question which is about
there are a lot of components to this
budget budget amendment there are a lot
of line items and I wondered what the
pros and cons of doing more than one
amendment or so having an earlier and
earlier version broken out into multiple
pieces multiple budget amendments may
offer up a condensed list a smaller list
but it really depends on the issues and
the unforeseen expenditures and revenues
that do come up throughout the year that
would that would dictate the the amount
of line items that are in the proposed
budget amendment okay thank you
I just want to clarify I think what I'm
hearing you say is that going forward
into next year you you have a preference
for seeing more than one budget
amendment so that it is smaller right I
think in in my personal preference would
be to see more than one amendment I and
I did know that previously that it has
been done that way so I was interested
in why or why not do it that way but
it's just a little more adjustable I
think fewer - thanks
that's member Goodman I didn't quite
understand the reason for having the
take action tonight after the hearing
rather than at the next meeting
historically or in the past
the council has taken action setting a
public hearing at one meeting at a
subsequent meeting then holding the
public hearing and then taking action on
the budget amendments it is not required
however because timing is of the essence
so that we can provide 2018 projections
for the 2019 budget discussions the
administration is asking that the the
council would take action tonight after
the public hearing okay the timing is
because we're preparing the 104 next
chair correct and so for the delays I
mean taking this into October when is
generally when we present the but the
proposed budget for next year that's
correct
q thank you any other questions
councilmember a just a couple of
clarifications so the budget amendment
impacts ending fund balances yes it does
and and it lowers our funding ending
fund balance right this proposed budget
amendment is expected to decrease lower
the the current budget decrease in
ending fund balance will that have any
impact on the overall financial health
of the city or financial position of the
city well this because this covers all
funds and this primarily incorporate
budget amendments force for capital
project funds which are typically there
traditionally they're meant to be spent
there for a capital investment and so
where you're where you're paying for
making these capital improvements you're
getting an asset a fixed asset in in
exchange for another asset cash so it is
important to note that that doesn't
necessarily degrade financial health
your your capital investments go up if
you if you monitor financial statements
you haven't that exchange of asset so
let me let me paraphrase back at you so
even with us doing this budget amendment
we are still in a solid financial
position as a city that is correct house
president Mart's answer the question
more pointedly so ending fund balance
ratio is the estimated ending fund
balance over expenditures yes that's
correct
so as I look at page 234 of the packet
tonight I see an estimated ending fund
balance of one of sixteen million seven
hundred and some odd thousand dollars
and an amended expenditure of 52 million
two hundred and some odd thousand
dollars yes so so my math gives gives
that as a 31.5%
ending fund balance on the general fund
that's correct
those are the if that's the right
numerator and denominator yes that seems
very healthy indeed it is very healthy
there we go all right that's what I
wanted I wanted to double check because
I hear what you say about those other
funds they're meant to be spent yeah I
got that but the general fund is the one
that you know rating services and
whatnot tend to look at yes that's
correct the the financial pump
management policy identifies the
council's general fund reserve target
with a range of fifteen to twenty
percent so 31 percent to ending fund
balance is quite healthy yes I think we
may later in the later in the year have
some ideas on how to redress that
particular
perhaps yes thank you and I wonder if
you could add one more clarification
when you're doing a budget amendment and
you're doing a revenue adjustment you
are not going through all the potential
revenue sources and projecting them
forward you are more or less just
putting in those that are known to be
new those that are known to be new for
revenues unless there is a major
windfall then you would see an increase
in a revenue forecast but typically not
going you know those individual for
those small revenue line items on the
revenue estimate going forward this is a
pretty conservative approach to
estimating the revenues through year end
it is that's correct
yeah I wasn't sure if all the council
members were aware of that council
member Ramos and just curating for me
for Dominic for the public all these
things that are in here have been
discussed and approved by council
previously this is basically paperwork
putting them in the budget officially
we've already approved all this in
actuality that's correct there's a fair
number of agenda bills that the council
already addressed those and in the the
budget amendment log you'll note the
agenda bill where it's referenced the
council had previously taken action to
direct this budget amendment thank you
thank you good clarification any other
questions
that's where we were interesting I don't
have a question but I do want to echo do
a plus one to Vicky's comment earlier
having these bundled up and arriving in
mid-september obviously it's an
accounting exercise and that can work
but I would like if at all possible my
preference would be that if we can if it
can be done some of these could have
been done earlier I would prefer that
thank you thank you for your comment any
other comments or questions and I would
be looking for oh no I'm not doing no
further questions the guidelines for
citizen comments also apply to those
made under the public hearing for this
item so I now open the public hearing at
11:52 has anyone signed up to speak this
evening no is there anyone in the
audience that would like to speak to
this item this evening
anyone in the audience that would like
to speak
and last chance anyone wishing to
address the council at the public
hearing this evening seeing none I
closed the public hearing at 753 and I
would be looking for a motion I'd like
to make a motion I moved to adopt
ordinance number two eight four four
amending the 2018 budget has set forth
an ordinance number 2018 concerning
revenue expenditures and fund balances
for various funds for the year 2018
and authorizing the finance director to
make necessary adjustments and approving
private and approving prior expenditures
second it's been moved and seconded is
there any council discussion its member
right um I want to just note I think the
most important thing about this piece of
work is that it is fundamentally an
accounting catch up and so what we're
doing is making our books matched our
new reality and even though we're not
factoring in actuals as revenue or
expenses ago we are finding ourselves in
a very strong financial position and the
amendment doesn't really materially
affect that so I think that it is it is
due time to make the updates and get our
books in order and move forward and
prepare for the next budget cycle thank
you for your comment any other comments
or discussion how's the president Mertz
aye
I have to stay to my shock and horror
that my math was off earlier and it's
actually just slightly over 32% any
talking fine so I apologize to everyone
and evidently I can't do long division
even with electronic assistance well
we'll consider whether or not we'll
accept your apology
any other comments or discussion okay if
there's no further discussion all those
in favor of adopting ordinance number
284 for amending the 2018 budget as set
forth in ordinance number 2 8 1 8
concerning revenues expenditures and
fund balance for various funds for the
year 2018
and authorizing the finance director to
make the necessary adjustments and
approving prior expenditures signify by
saying aye there's opposed that passes
unanimously
we're moving on to regular business and
the next item on the agenda is a b 7 6 5
4 Fugit sound energy green direct to
agreement and this item is coming out of
council services and Safety Committee
like to invite sustainability director
David Fujimoto to make a presentation
great good evening council members again
David Fujimoto Department of
sustainability and just I have a real
quick presentation I'll go through this
is coming from services but want to give
a good overview of what green direct 2
is all about so green direct 2 is a
program of our local energy utility
Puget Sound Energy it's a program that
is relatively unique in the in the
nation so actually a relatively
innovative program Puget Sound Energy is
one of the first utilities to come out
with this type of an arrangement it's
geared towards just large customers and
municipal customers and it's important
that it affects only the electric side
of the equation and basically the idea
is to increase the quantity of renewable
power that's supplied to with some of
their larger customers it's also
important to note that it's a part of a
tariff that's passed through Washington
state utilities and Transportation
Commission they're the body at the state
level that regulates rates for Puget
Sound energy which is a regulated
utility as a result the tariff itself
has been through a vetting process in
terms of the overall costs associated
with it the tariff itself also provides
for new energy facilities or resource if
you will to to these customers
it's specifically linked to our
participating in counts which is
important as I'll talk about in terms of
flexibility later on it includes both a
charge for the renewable power as well
as a credit for the standard fuel mix
and it's a long term arrangement so
that's something to keep in mind in part
why we're talking about this with
council a little bit of background this
might be some important information to
convey and it's not widely known and I
think that the fuel mix although we are
a part of the country with a large
percentage of hydro power Puget Sound
Energy is fuel mix the meaning there our
supply sources for the electricity that
they provide to their customers
including Issaquah is actually
predominantly from non renewable sources
so actually about 37% of their fuel mix
is coming from coal
they have coal-fired plants in western
Montana town of coal strip cities had
some legislative pieces in the past
where we supported some work to
encourage PSC and support PSC in the
transition away from those fossil fuel
based sources and then there's also
another 22 percent on natural gas
combined about 59 percent from non
doable
non renewable resources about 31 percent
for hydro and Puget Sound Energy is the
largest utility provider in Washington
State actually so as I mentioned before
green direct is both a charge and a
credit so what you'll see here in this
particular particular case is Puget
Sound Energy had essentially let a
request for proposals for a new
renewable power generation this one
can't was for solar generation and they
received a proposal for one in
southeastern Washington which was a
pretty we're talking large utility scale
solar projects and this one happened to
be particularly well situated meaning it
was close to transmission lines the
proposed the operator had planned for
some energy credits and tax incentives
ahead of time so they're kind of well
positioned to come in with a very good
proposal the contract itself starts with
it because it's a long term arrangement
it provides for a fixed pricing
the start and it continues for the term
of the agreement and it has an
adjustment factor of about two percent
per year and then it it deals with
wrecks which are renewable energy
credits which are just a commodity
associated with renewable power it's
also important to include that it
doesn't include a lot of these other
pieces transmission and distribution
billing meter reading customer service
all these other functions that are
provided by the utility those pieces
remain intact nothing changes there's no
change in the rate for that portion of
their service as I mentioned there's
also a credit so while we're buying
renewable power we're also getting a
credit for the power we're not using and
that's the standard fuel mix that's
about fifty nine percent that's
non-renewable power that PSE would
otherwise get from the grid so we get
the credit for that cost that they would
normally be providing to the city as a
customer and again the credit doesn't
include all those other kinds of
functions there's a typical of the power
utility and then I think the most
important piece here is that they're
this kind of standard fuel mix the rates
associated with that change over time so
that's based on what their general rate
cases are to the Washington State
utilities and transportation Commission
so while the green direct contract is
fixed and provides first instability the
general are the they're kind of standard
fuel mix may fluctuate over time
depending on what their rate case is may
show as a result of that as you kind of
think about long term investment there's
a number of factors that will affect
energy costs over time some are more
bullish or more bearish if you look at
the average of their adjustments over
the past 15 years it's about 2.4 percent
the regionally planning you'll see in
Puget Sound's IRP which is their
integrated resource plan they're
actually looking at us they're
projecting a 6% rate the Northwest power
plan canceled the council uses a 3% rate
so just to give you an idea of worse are
some of the other factors in terms of
thinking about long term trends and
energy prices this is a quick chart just
to show
comparison between green direct to rates
which is the dark or the green line and
then some projections of current rates
at various levels and we went ahead and
included a relatively low 1.5% rate
that's far lower than a historical or
the regional planning efforts and that's
the orange line PSC is 15 year average
at 2.4 percent is the kind of cyan or a
blue line I guess there and then the
Northwest power planning council at 3
percent is the Purple Line the uppermost
line with this contract you might be
aware that about a year ago the city
signed up a number of accounts under the
first offering of green direct and that
was for primarily a wind generation
plant in south western Washington and so
we at that point in time we had signed
up a fair number of city accounts but we
also chose to reserve a number of
accounts wanting to take into
considerations and future facility plans
and also I think there was an interest
in thinking about can we also identify
some other renewable power sources which
had lower environmental impacts because
there is some impacts associated with
wind power solar is among the cleanest
if you will of the renewable power
sources so we did sign up a number of
accounts before we have about a third or
so remaining and that allows us also to
think about kind of latter investments
over time so some dollar cost averaging
might be possible as well so with this
next contract we're proposing adding the
about 17 accounts it's about 1.7 million
kilowatt hours per year and this would
bring us up to in total about 95 percent
of the city's electrical power coming
from renewable resources so that's a
pretty great opportunity great statement
in terms of the city's investment in our
work when you look at this fiscally
because it's a long-term contract this
is showing
the effect of an 18-year contract I'm in
and would start in 2021 there you can
see both the green direct charge as well
as the credit and you'll see that
there's actually a net savings and the
first year of the contract and that
continues out for many years and I
believe it's not until the last few
years of the contract where the prices
are actually higher based on and this is
based on a 1.5 percent forecast
so really competitive rates when you
look at that over the total term of that
contract not in at present dollars its
ends up being about savings of almost
$28,000 so real quickly on some benefits
and considerations this is a new
resource that would be added to the
existing power supply in the northwest
so it's not just like we're buying extra
credits or something that's actually
generate or developing new sources it
has extremely low environmental impacts
as I mentioned before difference between
wind and solar for example very cost
competitive it's flexible because of the
way in which the program works is that
it's assigned to individual accounts
Puget Sound Energy actually allows you
to transfer from account to account so
if for example the city were to you know
close a facility or rebuild a certain
facility we could move the green direct
enrollment from one account to another
they also don't specify any kind of firm
demand so they don't we're not
committing to a certain amount of
kilowatt hours either so we actually and
they're fine with us making energy
efficiency improvements or they're being
kind of demand reductions over time
those aren't factored into this they're
mostly looking for accounts so it still
allows us to be more efficient in our
operations and pursue other
opportunities there and then in a big
way it also helps to address community
climate goals for greenhouse gas
reductions as well as its implementing a
piece in our recently adopted
sustainable building action strategy
which was adopted last year there are a
number of cities and other agencies and
businesses that have
rolled in Puget Sound green direct most
of these are from the first round of
enrollment this latest round we haven't
gotten the final list of who would be
participating because of the timing of
when PG town energy was opening their
enrollment and they're expected really
high demand they were expecting they
were opening at 1:00 p.m. and they I
think were filled by it within a matter
of hours so that really was have high
demand for that and as a result of that
the administration went ahead and
submitted a placeholder application
while we were taking the time to
consider this through Council we didn't
hear back from Puget energy that we did
make the list so our recommendation is
that we enroll the remaining eligible
accounts given the pricing we believe it
makes sense to look at a long term
eighteen year agreement and this is as I
said consistent with some of our other
work to evaluate efficiency improvements
in our existing facilities find energy
savings where we can so we can continue
that work ahead and then as we start to
make some adjustments in our facilities
or come up with facility plans
we can also reevaluate the portfolio and
make some changes as we go
and that is it thank you David and this
came out of services and safety and I'm
wondering if the chair would like to
have any comments or just open it up to
comments and questions comments and
questions comments and questions
councilmember almost yeah just clarify
so the things you said there so if if I
heard your numbers right this the the
amount between green rec 1 & 2 will be
hidden 95% of our utility use in the
city as of now that would be once to
this so green direct 1 will be going
into effect in mid-year of 2019 this
would be going into effect 2021 so once
we hit 2021 95% of the electric power
generation will be renewable resources
of course we still have natural gas
that's operating being used in a number
of our buildings so that's not covered
by the
and then and and so that's basically
almost all of our facilities are gonna
be wrapped into that that's correct
excellent thank you thank you council
president Mertz
so help me understand the big picture
here we're going to by doing this we're
gonna spend less on electricity than we
would otherwise it that is the potential
scenario so depending on what happens
with PSE rate so if PSE rates for
example stayed flat for the next 18
years we would be paying more if they
increase by more than 1.5 percent on
average over that term we'll be saving
substantially more so it really depends
on how the contract compares to actual
so so there's so there's no such thing
as a free lunch
how does this where's help me understand
like benefits because as my
understanding is renewable energy is
still generally speaking more expensive
than fossil fuels which is why the whole
country hasn't moved
mmm wind farms and solar so how how are
we getting it less expensive so one of I
so that's a big question with lots of
the answers but I think one way of
thinking about it is that this is a
although it's a utilities skill
investment it's also small scale
relative to the overall power grid so
power needs to flow 24/7 solar obviously
only generates during the daytime
similar issues with wind although it's
you know it's different cycles in terms
of when the wind blows so Bonneville
Power Authority has a balancing
Authority that's their responsibility in
the region is to balance all the demands
with all the sources and because we have
that capacity in the region you can add
these types of facilities and provide
that kind of service so what we're not
what we're buying through this is the
power generation that's added to the
supply system we're not actually buying
those actual electrons that are going
from that plant to our specific
buildings because we can't do that so
essentially what we're doing is buying
additi capacity within the overall power
system and the project level basis
because of the conditions associated
with this one
able to get a great rate if you're
trying to extrapolate that to replace me
of the entire grid it's an entirely
different story first okay
that's extremely helpful and now I
understand great Thank You deputy
council president batiste
thank you David could you speak a little
bit to hole and the energy mix in
general there's there are some things
changing in that area with coal strip
there is so as I mentioned before I
think it there so this is PSC's Puget
Sound Energy's fuel mix as is 2016 it
changes a little bit from year to year
but there has been some work to think
about replacement of that those
non-renewable sources and in particular
coal because from a pollution standpoint
it's the highest emitter of a highest
level of emissions and so there are
several utilities which jointly owned
the coal strip plant in western Montana
Puget Sound Energy is one of the major
ones and there's been some work to
retire there's actually four different
plants on that site to retire our coal
strip plants one and two and they've
agreed to do that and they have a
timeframe for doing that I forgot the
closure date I believe it's 2025 and so
that part will be happening there are
also plants three and four which there
are through some negotiations with some
for environmental organizations and
others are working on a timeline for
closure of the the remaining two plants
they've agreed to the timing for the
amortization but that's not the same as
the actual closure date for those
facilities so there's there's some work
that's happening in that area and then
also some interest in making sure that
as those plants are retired that the
replacement sources are more towards
renewables and less towards other
non-renewable resources thank you more
questions or comments
it's chair raid did you want to add
anything I'd like to move to authorize
the mayor to enter into and execute the
green direct to agreement would Puget
Sound energy over an 18 year term second
it's been moved and seconded is there
any council discussion so even thank you
I think this is pretty exciting and when
years ago there was a push towards
recycling a paper it was government
demanding that recycled paper be used in
government contracts and this is a very
financially sound opportunity for us but
it's also a way for us to provide
leadership in terms of making a change
to how power is generated in the region
so it's not going to happen without some
some leadership and it is very exciting
for us to be out in front of this
working on something that is sustainable
and also very much aligns with our
long-term goal of being good stewards of
the environment so to me this is
something celebrate something to move
forward with and something to be really
proud of that we are really walking the
talk when it comes to environmental
stewardship let's remember almost
followed by a deputy council president
yes just add to that
it does take leadership to move towards
this this is a very painless way of
doing leadership it really isn't costing
us much directly but what we're doing is
encouraging working with PSE who's taken
some of these steps to allow us to join
in this program to start to build those
alternative energy sources for the grid
and it's a long-term process to do that
and shift that out and by being part of
this we are part of that process of
shifting over to renewable energy
sources so I'm very happy to be part of
this too so this is something we had an
opportunity to talk about in the past
and we talked about this and we were
excited about this and enrolled some of
the accounts and this is the ability to
Rolle almost all of the the city
accounts and I'm I'm excited that that
we're making that move and I just wanted
to thank David and his whole team for
paying really close attention to that
going ahead and submitting the
application and getting the placeholder
in so we were able to have some time to
talk this through have this go to
Council but I think that this really
just makes all the sense in the world
and I and I do believe it is an
opportunity for us to be a leader in
this area there's no further discussion
all those in favor of authorizing the
mayor to enter into and execute the
green direct to agreement with Puget
Sound Energy over an 18 year term
signify by saying aye opposed that
carries unanimously
next and last item on regular business
first this evening is a b7 665 the 2019
legislative agenda this item is coming
out of the September 10th council
committee work session and I'd like to
invite management analyst Jean Paul and
Lisa Olson to make the presentation good
evening my name is Jean Paul and I'm a
management analyst in the executive
office and I'm joined by my fennel
fellow analyst Lisa Olson we were here
this evening to present the final draft
of the 2019 to 2021 legislative agenda
to help famed presentation in the
administration ultimately asking the
council to adopt the legislative agenda
we presented our first draft last week
on the 10th and provided time for you to
answer the questions are the priorities
identified correct and clear and is the
language we have presented strong enough
or too strong we have incorporated your
feedback into the latest version of the
legislative agenda and we're prepared to
collect any additional comments this
evening this timeline will help provide
additional context to why we are here
this evening we have moved up the agenda
process from previous years in order to
create and approve the legislative
agenda in time to potentially influence
the governor's budget proposal which is
produced prior to the actual legislative
session
staff members have been working with our
consultants since June to develop this
agenda and we're here tonight to present
we've produced to you other important
dates on the horizon include the
legislative breakfast which is
tentatively scheduled for either
December 11th or the 13th and the actual
legislative session beginning in January
and running through March to review the
legislative agenda priorities contain
the top three funding requests for the
issues that the city deems most critical
to both ongoing operations and the
community's long-term vision the
priorities which are seeking funds from
the operating transportation and capital
budgets are the funding for the pilot
cleanup to remove P fossa P fast
implementation of i90 Front Street
interchange justification report and the
transit oriented development with the
Opportunity Center at the September 10th
work session we did not receive any
requests to change any of these
priorities we did have a question from
one council member concerning how public
opinion shaped these priorities which
led to our desire for public comment to
obtain this public input we published
the agenda called attention to it on our
website and provide an email address for
feedback there were over 300 people who
viewed that news piece but we received
no comments from that process we did
receive one email outside of this
engagement effort based upon all the
feedback collected there were ultimately
no changes to the agenda priorities Lisa
will now provide an overview of the
policy manual and its updates good
evening council members so as you'll
remember the policy manual represents
other issues that are important to the
city of Issaquah and presents an
opportunity to support oppose or monitor
positions of interest to Issaquah so
based on feedback from last Monday's
work session we addressed four changes
within the policy manual you'll see
these changes in the standalone document
in your packet entitled changes to the
policy manual the first change was
moving the statement around condominium
building from the land use and GMA
section to the affordable housing health
Human Services and homelessness category
the second change was the addition of a
statement concerning bra
ban and small cell networks to the
economic development and infrastructure
category the third change was an
expansion on the policy around product
stewardship within the Environment and
Natural Resources category you'll see
that there are now two statements on
product stewardship one is supporting
the expansion of product stewardship for
recycling and paint efforts and the
other one is opposing efforts to reduce
funding for prescription drug product
stewardship the last change that you'll
see was the addition of a statement on
protecting state shared revenues from
the taxation of marijuana and that was
added to the bud budget and fiscal
matters category we did not receive any
public comments on the policy manual so
with that we would like to thank you for
a presentation and open up to talk with
counsel about the direction of the
legislative agenda thank you Lisa
Thank You Jean this council have any
questions I have a couple okay let's
start with council member ray and then
go to council member hen
since I was the one who wanted some sort
of public input and you mentioned that
there were 300 ish hits on the news
story do you have any idea how many of
those hits came from within the city we
don't and so just to clarify that the
message was sent to a listserv that had
300 folks I think view the email and we
only saw I think one or two folks
actually click through into genes email
address which was attached to that for
providing okay so we sent it out to 300
people but we didn't didn't really
generate any any traction or any input
right now from the community mm-hmm okay
more questions or should I move
councilmember hunt councillor hunt thank
you I had a question about if there were
other priorities considered in the
agenda other than the top three and if
those are appear in the policy manual or
if they are slated to be discussed at a
later date
you get Administrator moon to chime in
having had a longer history with how the
whole agenda was set up sure I we did
have conversations about other potential
priorities these seem to be the ones
that were I'll say bigger dollar item
possibilities and the lobbyists as you
heard on the tenth really encouraged us
to utilize this year's situation to go
big ask for some bigger projects and so
that was one of the filters we used as
we considered what to ask for
they also advised us on the type of
projects that tend to get traction
either in the governor's budget or with
the state legislators we we went through
a process particularly on the capital
side we frequently asked for dollars to
assist with capital projects so we
looked at some of the outstanding
capital projects of the city including
those that have received support in the
past because you can have a little bit
easier time seeking funds for a second
phase and a brand-new project so we
certainly do consider some but these
were the ones that rose to the time okay
and then related to that I in looking
back at previous legislative agenda as I
understand this process was a different
lobbyist so a little bit different
process you in comparison to those other
ones it's a smaller list of priorities
but you would say that it's sort of a
bigger picture is that right I would say
overall it's about the same number of
top priorities it may be less by one
let's say on average this year's
strategy differed in that our lobbyists
really encouraged us to have one
priority for each of those three
different budget buckets and whereas in
the past we may have had two or three
capital projects and maybe one one
operating ask so that's the difference
here is we really tried to limit it to
one project in each of those different
budgets deputy council president batise
thank you for the presentation I I have
a question that actually follows maybe a
little bit outside of the three top
legislative agenda pieces that we're
talking about here and that is one of
the things that they had talked about is
that there was a slight possibility that
there might be a mini transportation
package being put together and they
didn't really have any information to
know is that something that if that did
happen would we turn to our
transportation transit piece and those
bullet points and would or is there
something that we've thought of that we
would want to add or because we have
i-90 front street is that something that
we would wish for right I'm just
wondering what would happen in that case
sure if past is guidance on that usually
the lobbyists would contact us and say
it looks like we will indeed have a mini
package it's going to be of this size
therefore they would encourage us to
then produce extra projects to help fill
that allotment right now we do have that
ijr a request that would come from the
transportation budget but it's not
uncommon for lobbyists to if they get
new information and it looks like the
available funding is greater than what
was previously anticipated or if a
particular legislator or I it's excited
about a project or has indication that
there will be more available to his or
her district then sometimes they reach
back to us and ask us for an additional
and yes we would turn back to the policy
manual and look at those projects that
we've had conversations with council
members about in the past and and seek
some concurrence from you to move
forward and ask for funding on on that
particular project one more one more
question and that was in regard to the
timeline on your slides you had talked
about this being done before the
governor's budget and so what is the
timeline for that when is the governor's
budget proposed to be put together so my
understanding is the actual budget
proposal will be released sometime in
December but the state agencies were
already required to start that
discussion in terms of what will be in
the proposal in September and basically
the September to October time frame is
when that budget proposal will be
assembled so those conversations are
already starting in September correct
okay thank you
consumer bray so i'ma do a little
follow-up on deputy president petits
question so what would happen if the
council did not take action tonight and
were to defer action till say our
October first meeting that is within
we've kind of we've looked at additional
meetings if you were looking to come
back to a different meeting there is
like we have there's a couple of week
window where that would work we would
ask you for some direction around the
pthose issue because that is really the
one issue where we have an interagency
collaboration and so that's where we
would like to see here's some direction
on if that's going to remain on the
city's list of priorities so that we
could have that prepared with the
governor's budget not sure I heard the
answer there okay we'll let you take a
second stab and we'll take a second
stand but the answer we're gonna put the
city administrator on
ok so I think what we've heard from the
city's lobbyists is it's probably not
going to be detrimental to take a couple
extra weeks except for potentially our
request on pea Foss and that is because
we are engaged in a bit of a collaborate
on with Department of Ecology and they
are preparing their budget and are going
to be submitting it very shortly so we
want to be a line item in that and
there's a little bit of risk that if we
don't act now or provide some assurance
that that will remain a priority of the
city and a request on our behalf that it
it we may not be able to get it in since
psychology is preparing that budget for
the governor's or you thank you that's
great
I just deputy council president DS so
this I think this might be for City
Administrator moon-tan sir but I'm I'm
not sure is there a risk of that the
typical process is that the legislative
agenda priorities come forward from a
city in this case were we may
potentially if some of it was delayed
and we pulled pas out of there
that then they might look at that and
say okay well there's there there's
their top agenda and we haven't really
addressed the other things that might be
on our list is there a bit of a risk by
pulling those apart or is that a typical
practice I don't believe there's any
risk in doing it that way again you have
those separate buckets and this is
different and that it's interagency
collaboration so I don't think that by
submitting a request on the PAS project
that that would hamper our ability to
ask for funds out of those other buckets
two weeks later okay
you look around for more questions
councilmember no I can't remember we're
interesting yeah thank you I look at the
agenda the legislative agenda there's
it's only those top priority ones that
actually have numbers next to them and
so and everything else everything else
is statements of support or a request to
refrain from doing this or we're gonna
monitor that it's been the conversation
I just heard especially with ecology
that it's really these first three that
there may be somebody sitting in Olympia
waiting to get some information from us
because they're preparing their submit
all for the mayor's budget sorry mayor
of our state so okay and in what's
proposed here it still just has a TBD
amount what we gonna do about that we
are going to hope that the governor
writes in a fill in the blank in that
budget and that we have a little bit of
time to continue to have conversations
with ecology with east side fire rescue
we are just now starting to get some of
the data back from the phase one study
work that's happening and we needed to
get some of that data back so that we
would start to understand what the scope
of the next phase might be and we've
received some but quite frankly not all
that we had anticipated by this time and
so we're hoping that in another couple
of weeks we will have that and we'll be
able to send a number but I it it would
be an extra effort to also then at that
time try to get just the verbage in and
the
line item reservation that we're trying
to seek right now right and we're
working with the ecology on ecology
right okay thank you additional
questions
it's my Brent does it a follow up to
something you said earlier if they if
there was a additional ask for or if
there was an opportunity to provide
additional asks it's not clear to me
from the policy manual and from our
discussions what those specific other
asks would be I think this is related to
council member winter signs point that
it's a list of sort of support and some
oppose but there are three specific
projects and then there are a lot of our
general policy statements but not other
projects and so how how could you
elaborate on how that would work
if there were opportunities to expand on
or change my answer is it depends and it
depends on how much time we have to
respond so typically what we've done in
the past is we have turned back to that
policy document and we've looked
let's take Transportation Transit as an
example we've looked at the verbage
there and we then asked and take the
first bullet the first bullet is we'd
support initiatives that proactively
address regional transportation
solutions especially funding for state
route 18 improvements and so we might
then say ask for additional funds to
advance that project so we'd go we'd go
through the bullets under a particular
policy area that looks like it's a focal
point for the legislators who are asking
for additional projects and we'd try to
pick a project that's an aligned with
policy statement you've already endorsed
it's not as specific
but oftentimes it at that moment in time
we don't need to be as specific or we
will attach a state route 18 is a good
example we'd attach to some other agency
that has already started to develop a
capital project that we can then just
lend support and and hopefully some
additional funding dollars to I I think
state route 18 is also a good example
are they ordered within the categories
by priority that is no necessarily
although I would I would say we did have
some discussion particularly on the
transportation transit section of
putting state route 18 at the top of the
list but I would not I would not say
that's true of all the other sections
they aren't in a priority order its
member a so we're currently working with
the Department of Ecology right on the
PSB Pass study so this is something that
is on their radar screen and they they
they know that this is likely coming
forward so so even as they're working
through their initial budget request to
go into the governor's budget this is
probably something that's that they are
aware of and I recognize that we still
have work to do to push it through but I
don't think it's going to be a zero
dollar in the departmental budgets they
are aware but last year is a perfect
indication of probably how they will
want to pursue it with phase two they
did not ask for funds we asked for funds
on our collective behalf and lobbies
could probably explain this better than
I could but there's some political
circumstances around having a
municipality ask for funds rather than
the the Department of the state so I
suspect that would be the same logic
this year and that they would prefer for
us to make the ask even though they're a
partner in that endeavor thank you more
questions
that's my number one teresting we had a
comment this evening or mr. Kaplan from
the public about state parks and I
apologize I didn't write the comment
down and kind of logs
in my mind but I didn't forget about it
and and we really don't have I did look
again and there really isn't a section
in here that has anything to do with
state parks but I also know that because
I've heard this from the mouth from I
think the chair of the State Parks
Commission recently within the last few
months maybe back in June or July around
the AVP time they've got quite a bit in
the pipeline coming
they've got there's major capital
investments going into the state park
they're gonna be doing redoing the lawn
they're gonna be including building more
picnic areas and having volleyball
courts at them and they're gonna be
building a dock and they know about the
timing of all of that and and so over
the next probably three years there's
major capital investment already
approved going into the state park now
now for something like that I mean I
don't I don't know that it really
matters if it's on our agenda or not
this that's already kind of done I think
that money is appropriated it's
available to us the Commission the state
parks Commission and they're they're
lining up the work they're scheduling
everything so so I don't think we need
anything in our legislative agenda to
say and that thing you've already
approved we still support it I mean I
don't think we tend to do that but so
it's it's not like there but is do we
know is there a reason to that there
isn't did we consider anything that
would have been State Park related or is
it just that everything we know about
state parks we're feeling kind of like
we've got a lot of good things going on
and it didn't rise to this level that we
need that we we expect some other
legislative legislation whether it be
policy or budget to come along that we
felt we needed to allow to lend our
voice to typically we have gone to state
parks and we have asked what help do you
need how
can we assist and I there wasn't a
request this year for us to advocate for
some capital funding for example I think
that ongoing operational support the
advocacy will we'll be there no matter
what but we're not making a capital
request this year we have multiple times
over past years and and I I would say
this year we still have a need to
execute not just on the projects that
you named but we had a joint ask for
some funds for master planning and an
update to the EIS that work has not been
completed yet and I think in order for
us to be successful for a subsequent
capital ask or professional services ask
we need to finish the work that we have
already been granted funds for all right
thank you questions it's a couple of
council members who have a chance I'm
just kind of looking at you to see if
you want to weigh in and if not I'll be
looking for a motion I'm Marie I'd like
to make a motion I'd like to move to
direct the administration to engage the
public on the legislative agenda agenda
bill 76 65 before October 1st 2018 and
then refer agenda bill 76 65 to a
special services and Safety Committee
meeting on September 25th return for
Council on October 1st 2018 for final
action okay it's been moved and seconded
you have the words for all of that mr.
ray councilmember ray it's a little
different than what's in the packet
what's not did you just go straight down
action and then to know what's in the
packet on the sheet yes thank you okay
so I'm gonna reread it just to make sure
direct the administration to engage the
public on the legislative agenda a b7
665 before October 1st 2018 and refer a
b7 665
to a special services and Safety
Committee on September 25th returning to
the full City Council on October 1st
2018 for action discussion council
member a councilmember hunt so one of
the things that's really important to me
is that we engage with the public and
that we understand their priorities
there's unlimited ability to engage with
the state and we've talked about that
extensively about really focusing on
those three things that are most
important and these may be those three
things but it's not a determination that
I want to make without more input
there's many things that we could ask
the state to assist with and I want to
make sure that we have an opportunity to
solicit feedback from the public and
factor that into our decision-making
process and also I think we have time I
think we have time to do this and and
give it a little more transparency and a
little more opportunity for for public
engagement so I would feel more
comfortable going forward if we can
actively engage with the community and
make sure that our view of priorities
for the legislation next legislative
session aligned to the community's views
of our priorities thank you that's
member hunt followed by council
president Mertz
thank you I think there is a lot of
context here and a lot of it is
complicated some of these some of these
top priorities have been priorities of
the city for a long time some I think
are newer or have newer components but
there's a lot of context of the history
behind a lot of these items and then
there's also a lot of in terms of
understanding how the legislature work
there's a lot of context about the city
and how the city works in the region and
how the city works with the state and
the lobbyist role and I think that
there's a lot of conversation that we
could have with the community about all
of those things and about how to
represent their community values through
this legislative agenda
I I think that we may need to explore
different ways to engage with the
community I possibly because this is a
list of policy matters it's hard for the
community to know how to respond to for
example a one line solicitation on the
website about we have a legislative
agenda would you like to email your
comments I think we may need to or that
I think there's an opportunity here to
be maybe more creative or try to engage
with the community in a different way to
let them know what the legislative
agenda really is what it could
potentially do for our city what it's
done for the city in the past and how
how we might best represent their views
and so I am in support of this motion
I'm in supportive of trying to engage
with the community more and to also have
a fuller and more robust conversation
also in this meeting I come to realize
that I think there could be more
stratification of the policy manual I
think that we could try to expand on why
things are in the policy manual in the
locations that they are and if they're
if they are prioritized I think that
might be helpful especially as City
Administrator Mullen said sometimes
things might be time-sensitive it might
be good to know ahead of time what our
priorities are in terms of the policies
beyond the the top three and for these
reasons I think we I think we would
benefit from having more discussion and
I would I am in support of the motion
Thank You councilmember hunt consummate
martes Council is it merits followed by
a councilmember Goodman so unfortunately
I'm gonna have to oppose this measure
and if this measure fails I'll be moving
the original bill that's in our packet
with with the staff recommendation and I
have six reasons why I oppose this the
first is that we are following a
tradition that works well and has worked
well in the past for the legislative
agenda on November 14th of 2016 we
the draft 2017 legislative agenda in
work session chaired by former council
president Goodman public comment was
received then and then a week later in
full council we approved it we made an
amendment to it then again on November
13 2017 we're at the draft 2018
legislative agenda and work session on
the 20th we received public comment and
on the 20th we actually approved the
agenda with not one but two amendments
so the process has worked in the past
we've had input and we've and we and
we've modified the agenda appropriately
the second is that no yeah sorry a
continuation of the first one is that
you know in this current round we've
received we have received up some public
input in the form of email the the
second point is that respectfully I
don't think we do have the time to to
give this significant further view the
packet for the next full council members
do in 11 days services and safety has a
committee meeting tomorrow they will go
to if this is approved to go to their
third with special meeting of the month
two to it address this I don't think
that if we want to solicit public input
those 11 days are sufficient to make a
significant outreach this did come to
Council on the 4th of September with a
referral to the work session and if
council members had felt that the
process was insufficient on the 4th had
they said something then we would have
had quite a bit more time and quite
quite a bit more options on soliciting
public input the third is that staff is
starting to spool up on the budget I
think it's going to be a hard task this
year and I think that we're hearing that
we're likely to go into December on the
budget and this would be this is there's
no question this would be additional
work on staff to make this happen I
think that this issue about P Faust
reading P Faust differently than the
other two
is problematic for me because it means
that some elements of this bill are more
equal than others and then finally I
have to ask how do we apply this
insufficient public input flag right
this has happened before
and it sort of begs a broader question
right like somebody could say Oh
Puget Sound Energy green direct like we
haven't had sufficient public input on
that maybe I want the fine folks in coal
strip to be able to continue mining coal
or whatever whatever the reasons would
be or I suspect the public you know has
concerns about the economic implications
of tying ourselves to a particular
energy stream but we don't do that right
we follow a policy I think that it would
be fine if we wanted to talk down the
road as a council about a comprehensive
community engagement policy we have such
a thing for projects right we have a
policy in place for how we want to do
community engagement if we feel that we
have insufficient community engagement
now on strategic issues I think we
should talk about that but I don't think
we should try to rush through an
additional public engagement process on
this particular bill in the next 11 days
because I don't think it'll it'll get
the kind of feedback that people want
councilmember Goodman thank you so I I
do think we have time we heard from the
administration that we have time we
heard the administration that we can do
it we have had a legislative agenda
process over the last several years that
was not my process and we have a new
lobbyist this year that is suggesting
that we do things a little bit
differently and I think that's great and
so we do have a new process and I think
it's the perfect time to expand that
process I did not realize that we had
been working on this since June and so
it feels it doesn't feel right to me
that we come a week before a week ago
and it feels very
rush you know that we had to get this
through I don't recall us having feeling
rushed the years before but this year
we've changed our process I think for
good reasons so that we can try to get
into the governor's budget rather as its
proposed rather than trying to get
legislators to put it in to add it to
the budget I I really would be
hard-pressed to understand why there
would be an opposition to more public
engagement I think it's a great
opportunity that we have now to engage
the community on what our legislative
priorities are as proposed get feedback
from the community and as councilmember
hunt talked about education I think is
not really the best word but to have
dialogue with our community about what
those projects are and why they're on
the legislative agenda and maybe also be
educated from the public or our
community about other ideas that they
might have for a legislative agenda the
P Foss issue I don't see as a is a
problem I think it's but I don't know
that it has to be treated differently I
think the council could just I mean I
think it's extraordinarily
extraordinarily unlikely that this
council would ever do anything in the
next a couple of weeks to take that off
the agenda nor do I think that the
public would engage with us and say no
we need to take that off the agenda I
think that's a red herring and I think
we could easily continue to have
conversations with the governor's office
and different agencies about yeah we
expect this to be on the legislative
agenda I just don't think that that's I
don't think that that's a threat that's
gonna be somehow removed I don't think
it has to be treated differently and can
be left on for public engagement
purposes and then the public knows that
we are seeking money from the state to
continue to work on an issue that we've
been talking about in the community for
a couple of years that's been
really really important I fully support
taking the extra time to engage with the
public even though it is only a couple
of weeks and next year what we should do
is learn from this and start this
process earlier engage the council
earlier and engage the public earlier
but I do support this Thank You
councilmember batiste is that a finger
in there you want to talk okay that's
all deputy council president Vitesse
thank you so I'm at this point I'm just
gonna make a couple of comments I would
echo a couple of things that my fellow
council members have talked about
councilmember Goodman just spoke about
next year and I think that's really
important we have a new lobbyist we're
looking to do things earlier then we had
been doing them in the past so I think
that we're going to give a need to
revise this process and so it makes all
the sense in the world to me to to look
at that for next year I'm not exactly
sure how I feel about it for this year
and would echo some of the some of the
concerns that council president Mart's
talked about in terms of we we have a
very short time period but this has been
the process in the past we have a very
short time period in which to eat to
gather any public engagement and it
seems like it's just sort of coming at
the at the final hour I I think I might
have heard things differently than some
of my fellow council members about the
EFA's PFS issue and I do have a concern
with not just putting that forward
initially so I'm not positive how I feel
about breaking these these items apart
but I do have a concern regarding that
and also have a concern regarding the
fact that we really are getting into
this point where we need to be budget
focused have a lot of work coming down
the road in in terms of that so I'm just
gonna leave it there for now and
continue to think for a few moments
thank you we have a couple more council
members to have them to council member
we're interesting oh thank you Mary
could you read the ocean again please
direct the administration to engage the
public on the legislative agenda a b7
665 before October 1st 2018 and refer a
B 76065 to a special services and Safety
Committee meeting on September 25th
returning to the full council on October
1st 2018 for action ok thank you
today is the 17th
I was listening carefully to the
comments Vicki made some comments about
context and depth background and I think
those those are valid comments as I
thought about that when I folded in my
mind was okay that sounds like a
three-month process to really make it
value-added and actually make a valuable
contribution to this effort
vaso 17th we engaged before the first
action on the first I don't think that
this motion with these time frames will
who are gonna work the kind of
engagement
I hear being asked for the opportunity
for there to be some material change or
contributions to this to get that out of
that process in this time frame I don't
think is very likely this is kind of yet
check the box we did some more
engagement I know the effort is serious
but it needs a lot more time than this
so I'm
going to not support this motion and
because engagement is important we
cannot and the public cannot be
successful in this timeframe as proposed
council member Ramos would you like to
comment yes thank you
first of all I'd really like to say I
like what we're doing this year with the
legislative agenda a whole lot better
than previously so thank you for that
not just the whole structure of it and
the timing of it is is just a real good
improvement adding to that I think I say
next year we need to add into the public
comment section of it so we can get more
input on that as well so that that's
kind of an overall thing I I'm having
trouble with this one too because I
always am one for more public comment
than less but at the same time we
haven't received it yet
too much and an 11 day period is just
I'm not sure what we can do at 11 days
you know to get that all back and around
it's just it's really I'm not sure what
we can really do to make it effective
and that's my concern in doing a lot of
work to get that there I appreciate you
you said you put some work into that a
little bit because you heard that so
there's been some attempt and engagement
I know I got one email on it and so
there's definitely some concern out
there but we haven't heard much other
public comment at any of these a couple
meetings so I'm really torn because
that's what I'd like to hear a little
more public comment but I'm just not
sure that the time period allows really
viable of the comment to that would add
significantly to changing this but
thanks for the work I really like what
we're doing this year for sure thank you
we have gone around once who comments
and if somebody would like to come back
on the second round before we take a
vote
let's member Goodman yes do you have the
list of
the criteria for a successful
legislative agenda on your senior slides
see if I can pull that back are you
looking for the slide from last week
oh no it was much more accession
yeah what did the council mokuba
Thank You anyone else wanting to make
final comments before I call for the
vote
deputy council president batiste
followed by councilmember Rea so I would
I would just like to reiterate that that
I I completely support that we want to
have as much public engagement as we can
going forward and and I think because of
I really feel like because of really the
shift in the timeline is is a little bit
about why we're sort of landing where we
are right now and so I just really want
to make sure that when we go forward
with this in the future regardless of
what the vote is tonight that we have
the opportunity to wrap that into the
timeline so we're really getting out and
being able to talk with the community
about all of these issues before it
comes down to such a short timeframe as
we're in right now I still do have a
concern that the 11 day window is not
adequate time to really go forward and
get everything that that that we really
need to in for the future
let's member ray thank you so I don't
remember goodman thank you for putting
that up so I just go down the list so I
Bonnie I mean by any ole agenda check
focused on two to three top priorities
check or relate to city goals check
consistency build on previous success I
think a check I don't know enough to say
full support of the council and
community maybe check - if funding
requests one priority per budget
operating capital transportation so
really as you look at the success
criteria that our consultants have laid
out for us we've done pretty good but
where we have failed or fallen short I
won't use the word fail that's too
strong fallen short is around community
engagement and getting support from the
community for this agenda so I am a very
cognizant of the time constraints and
is the reason for trying to move this as
quickly as possible
that being said I think some public
input and making a concerted effort to
get that community input which is
something more than sending an email to
300 people because that's what 1% of the
population of the city so we've got to
do something different we've got to find
a different way to engage the community
because this is a topic that if it
showed up in most people's email which
is what it did I don't think it would
necessarily most per their interest and
yet I know that this is something that
is very important to people in this
community so recognize the short time
frame recognize that we don't have a lot
of time to do this
recognize that we need to do it better
next year but I firmly believe that we
need to make a concerted effort to
engage with the community and ask them
what they think our priority should be
and we might be right but we might be
wrong so here's what I'm seeing I have
councilman member hunt council member
Ramos and council president Mart's not
hearing a lot of people changing other
people's minds so let's let's have a
last round of comments I think you are
the last three maybe that having a
second chance so hunt Ramos becomes
president right right question it's my
understanding well that there was a
number of questions about how much can
actually be accomplished in terms of
public engagement in the timeframe
that's proposed my understanding is we
would be able to have a town hall or
some sort of open forum for a discussion
is that correct I think what I would
recommend at this point given that these
folks are part time not here every day
of the week
and if you were to move forward with the
special services and safety meeting on
the 25th is just a couple that meeting
with a public engagement opportunity
prior to the meeting
and so we would just post I want to be
clear because I was clear last time
about what we were gonna do for public
engagement yes I was I said it's gonna
look like we will post a news item
website we will put an email address on
that news item and that's what we would
plan to do and we didn't receive
feedback at that point in time as to
whether or not that was not enough or so
this time I want to be clear again that
we would intend to do public notice for
an open house opportunity where we would
go through the priorities as management
analysts have done tonight and we would
help facilitate that answering questions
pose
the big question which councilmember Rey
posed which I think was along the lines
of are these the right priorities for
the city to ask for funding on lead with
that try to provide some of the
background that you were suggesting
about the contacts so that people can
understand because I'm sure average
residents would come and say you need to
just be asking for transportation let's
say and then we can provide some context
so that's what we would do
notice the public meeting pushed some
social media to make sure that notice
gets out into the community that's what
I would recommend doing if there's
desires to do something I think you use
the phrase more creative then we would
need to talk about our ability to pull
that off given the time constraints and
the part-time nature the folks doing
this work and I just have a quick thing
in terms of this I I had a conversation
with director Fujimoto about the city
strategic plan and I think the city
strategic plan is being in development
as well and I I see this as an
opportunity to talk about how our
legislative agenda our policy are and
and our strategic plan as a city all
aligned and how we can best represent
the community in all of those facets and
so I see this is an opportunity for
engagement on that as well sure and I
just want to add something because David
just made me aware that the Tod open
house is also that same evening as the
25th so just want to make sure I'll
understood that because we haven't we
haven't done that work usually we
look at our calendar and trying to find
out where we have conflicts and try to
avoid those so just be aware of that but
yes we always try to take advantage of
opportunities to then talk about bigger
and different things as well
I have council member Ramos followed by
council president Mertz so basically I
had the same question what exactly would
we be doing so just reiterate again is
is basically trying to get the word out
that you know in a week from now
there'll be a meeting that's gonna be
conflicting with the Tod meeting at the
same time and that's gonna be where is
that located
we believe it's that tivitz Creek manner
I can would get up and disability so
that would be at the same time than that
what it currently is one of our listed
about priorities correct so so the time
to get that word out and the time to
react and being able to to show up there
for that one night I mean but that's all
we've got that's what I wanted to know
thank you well the president marks so as
to this point about full support of the
counseling community I'm at peace that
we have supported the community on this
agenda it went out the September 4th the
agenda went out was posted August 31st I
am confident that if that agenda had
said that we want to see shell sites on
the east side I am confident that many
many members of the community would have
come before us at the council at the 4th
at the work session and at tonight's
meeting to let us know that they think
that would be a bad idea I think the
fact that we've only had one citizen
feedback on this agenda is because it
has not raised a lot of interest in the
community so I I take transparency
seriously I've said it before I'll say
it again I was the one who pushed hard
to get budget meetings on camera and get
committee meetings on camera I take it
very very seriously and I think we've
done due process on this bill thank you
so we've had a couple of rounds of
comments just looking around to see if
somebody is absolutely dying to say one
more thing to provide context or
information if not I'm going to call for
the vote and I'll read the motion again
motion is direct the administration to
engage the public on the legislative
agenda ab7 665 before October 1st 2018
and refer agenda bill 7 6 6 5 - the a
special services and Safety Committee
meeting on September 25th returning to
the full council on October 1st 2018 for
action all those in favor raise your
hands and say aye
all right as opposed
no motion fails you need me to read the
name so did you catch got it hey is
there another motion council president
marks at a mayor I move to approve the
2019 2021 legislative agenda as
presented second did you find my proper
place it's been moved and seconded to
approve the 2019 2021 legislative agenda
as presented is there any council
discussion also a member Goodman yes I'm
not gonna support the motion we have a
list of criteria that was created and it
doesn't meet the list of criteria I'm
very disappointed to hear several
council members say I support public
comment engagement transparency and all
of that but I don't think those I don't
think those two go together I'm
disappointed that we couldn't at least
try to have a more concerted effort or
any concerted effort to actually engage
the public beyond our work session and
business meeting so for those reasons I
will not be supporting it maybe I'd like
to speak to the motion a no other hands
call for Oh seeing councilmember hunts
so I I am concerned about the the policy
manual of the ends that I think there
are so many different things in the
policy manual that are currently of
different priorities but are not ordered
as such I want I would like to is there
is there a possibility for the work in
terms of ordering those by the city
administration so that they would be
prioritized within the different than
the different topics categories and just
for clarification are you looking for
kind of rank order within each policy
area so my my question is really
related to how it will be used my
understanding is that if there was an
opportunity for additional asks that it
would be based on the category there
would be something about transportation
then you would look at the policy manual
and you look at the first one I would
think you look at the first one in the
policy manual and then go forward and
say this is what the city of Issaquah
feels as our first priority under that
category so categorizing by topic that
makes sense but then having them not be
categorized by importance seems
potentially problematic especially this
time sensitive did I get did I
understand your earlier statement about
how it would be used correctly yes I
think you did and tell me if I have
answered your question we have not
contemplated going through the document
and trying to put them in priority order
however we did have one conversation
about wanting to make sure that route 18
was right there front and center and so
we we purposely put that at the top of
the transportation bulleted list but we
did not contemplate the other bullet
points and other sections in the same
way so if we got an ask and that ask was
we have funds available for human
service oriented pieces we would turn to
the policy manual and we would look at
where we might have alignment with that
call for additional projects and if we
had a few that would fit then we might
if we had time we might bring that back
for your guidance if we did not have
time we would likely have a conversation
with at council leadership to decide if
we wanted to submit and which item we
would pick
that's all very interesting just I'm
curious why isn't our lobbyist here this
evening because in past years it wasn't
needed okay okay so I'm passionate we've
never had our lobbyists here at the
evening of the business meeting okay
understood it is unfortunate I think
there's been maybe some questions
tonight that could have been helpful for
I certainly look at an agenda and the
question about prioritizing and ordering
and I think I know how this is used I
don't believe it's a document that's
given to legislators or presented to
them and read to them and there's this
implied kind of preference from Issaquah
for these and less preference for others
I think with Abe dues they become
talking points when issues rise up
there's a committee meeting a topic is
there our lobbyist notes that what's
going on maybe know some committee
members and and and communication can go
out a word of support it's it's a play
sheet that allows whether it be people
city staff council members are lobbyists
other members who are aware of this that
can lend a voice however in support or
against a topic when it arises and when
there's an opportunity there may be some
staff members for various legislators
that maybe spend a little bit more time
on that to know where is the cause
coming from but but I could be wrong
with that too
I am but it would be helpful to maybe
know a little bit more but that's how I
imagine how this is used and and and as
such in years past
haven't felt that a priority order which
I think would be very difficult for us
to change attain anyway it's one of the
in years past that's why we haven't had
a priority order about that content very
interesting about the lack of convert
comments tonight about the
in itself I think it was good I'm really
glad to see highway 18 there upfront top
I mean you know it's it's transportation
and if there's one thing and we want to
have one subtle message about a list
somewhere okay but highway 18 out there
but I know that there is no specific
bills in place right now beyond what we
already know about and so there's no
reason to go for us to go beyond we're
not going to initiate legislation by a
legislative agenda from here in Issaquah
but I do like the Conte I do like the
agenda that's here I do like the way it
is stated I think it's all very clear I
think it is a very useable document
buyer by anybody who wants to use it and
so I it's it's been a good job I
appreciate the effort that that's gone
into this and I'll repeat or any what I
said earlier I think getting more
engagement with it would be great and
but we have to create an opportunity for
that to be successful for everybody who
participates in it and I think that's a
future consideration so thank you I'm
gonna support the motion deputy counsel
Vitesse so I'll be supporting this
motion this evening as we've first of
all thank you for all of the work that
has gone into this I think that were
we're learning a lot as we're going
forward and being able to sometimes get
an out out in front of that we you know
we're engaging with a new lobbyist we've
decided to push things up on the
timeline and that has resulted I think
and we're where we ended up this evening
so hopefully we're taking all of these
pieces and learning from them and that
we can go forward next year and have
additional engagement with the community
and the ability to talk through some of
the issues in including what
councilmember hunt just spoke about in
terms of would would we like to
those an order of priority and and get
more firm understanding but I'd like to
see us go forward and understand from
the counsel up front what we want to do
to get to that point in time where we're
ready to go forward and talk about what
our three top agenda items are before
the governor's budget I I am a firm
supporter in community engagement and I
always want to see that go forward I did
have a concern tonight in regard to the
pas pas and the partnerships that we
talked about and being able to present
that and and move forward thank you okay
remember almost yes I just wanted my
coming too and the public input side as
a someone who does support that we
regardless of what other people say that
is but Public Engagement must be in a
way in which it works for the public as
well as trying to get good input the
data has to come back in a way that's
usable in the time frame and the public
engaged in a way that's respectful and
there's just a whole lot of things go
with that and I've never seen any kind
of public engagement of value in a short
time period it's it tends to be a longer
time getting folks engaged getting that
their input and and putting it into an
assembly of what how you can take that
and add that to what we already have so
I think that timing of the quality of
how that would come out is definitely a
critical piece and yeah I don't like
like me said that not a supporter of
public transparency because I am can't
remember right so I really hate to do
this because I haven't embedded it with
anyone but I'm gonna be a little
extemporaneous I was hopeful that we
would have more time to listen to the
public after that in and then confirm
the legislative agenda but I would like
to make an amendment to the legislative
agenda as currently proffered and that
is I'd like to add a item that is to
pursue the acquisition of open space
within the city of Issaquah and the
reason I want to do that is because I
have heard a lot of public comment that
says this is something that's very
important to us your motion is to
propose to amend the legislative agenda
to add a fourth what fourth priority
priority which addresses the acquisition
of open space within the city of
Issaquah whatever this first chunk is is
there a second second
so it has been moved to propose an
amendment to the legislative agenda to
add a fourth priority which is addresses
the acquisition of open space in the
city of Issaquah and I'm not sure if
it's appropriate but I would like to
maybe provide you an option while you're
considering this which is our lobbyists
have advised us that more than one
capital loss can mean you're competing
against yourself but there is the
potential to amend a legislative agenda
you have a goal statement at the end
that talks about gives a look ahead or a
peek ahead about what the city of
Issaquah might be coming with in the
future and it could read something have
to look here but it's not a specific
ounce for dollars at this time but it
heads up to the legislators to the
governor to the Senators that this is a
priority for Issaquah that they may see
in the future
sure those I just put that information
out there and now I leave it up for you
for our comments president marks so I'm
gonna oppose this amendment because for
a couple of reasons one is that I don't
believe
currently the the major land allocation
question that's in front of us involves
any expected state contributions
I believe the partner contributions are
expected to be at the county level and
some of the other organizations so I
look at this front page and I see very
specific projects that state legislators
can say yes by golly I can help the
residents of Issaquah do this who do
that I am really loath to to put
something on there that we don't know
first and first of all we're not
expecting state contributions to it the
second issue is that it is still an open
discussion slash negotiation right and I
want to be careful about telegraphing
any changes
you know those landowners have are
considering their options in front of
them including private development and
so I want to be very careful what we do
in the in the midst of of those
discussions that that we've been having
with them and then the third is this
issue around muddying the waters with
multiple capital asks you know I'd
rather be I'd rather be strong in one
thing than then medium in two or more
things before I go back to an account
summary let me go around the table a
little bit
council member winter Stein thank you
thank you we asked the maker of the
motion you intend this to be used
this isn't ask for anything something
specific no I I think that thank you for
asking that I think that open space
acquisition within the city as a
priority of the city and I had nothing
particular in mind for what that
acquisition would be but I think that if
we could procure additional state
funding to support acquisitions it would
give us more latitude and flexibility to
maintain some of the things that make
this a charming place to live and you
are proposing it goes where in how into
this document it would be number four
week number four will come after transit
oriented development and Opportunity
Center and I recognize that this blows
the the notion of three and I know that
it blows to capital projects what I'm
reacting to is I know from public
comment on a number of things that open
space acquisition is a priority for the
city and the people who live here and
like I said I didn't intend to make this
motion until we did not pass the last
motion but I think since we're moving
forward this is my my opportunity to
suggest maybe we we look a little broad
and what we know our other public needs
request desire sorry okay thank thank
you for that answer it was it wasn't
clear to me before that was very helpful
to know what the intent of the motion is
it's my where I think your hearts in the
right place who would disagree that we
want to preserve and expand the amount
of open space both within the city
around and to restore those lands that's
been a very important to us has been for
a long time as proposed and as you just
described I don't think that that fits
within the legislative agenda it's not a
specific ask there's and there's no
money there's no legislative action or
action that we've already taken that
it's tied to so I don't think it at this
as proposed it fits within this agenda
in front of us so I'm not going to
support it that's my BrahMos followed by
councilmember hunt I addressed this a
little further and just see if seeing
those things and I second did this so I
want the discussion but would it be
better placed under environmental
Natural Resources as the number one
statement under there considering that's
the way it worded the way it's worded it
kind of follows into into that area and
be the number one priority listed under
that something to think about
look at that I would I would be willing
to work as your second on that as well
more discussion all right sorry
council member had you had your hand up
I I think that the I argue that I think
the motion is to as worded is perhaps
specific and limit limiting I think that
we especially if we think about this in
terms of a goal statement which may be
one possible way to
included in the legislative agenda as a
goal statement I think that one one
priority of the community that is not
strongly reflected in the document as it
stands is our environmental stewardship
ethic it has been it has been I think
more strongly communicated by previous
legislative agendas that have emphasized
the community's strong desire for park
strong desire for that community space
and the community use of parks and the
importance of the natural environment to
Issaquah I I think that in the current
in the current legislative agenda the
part of the agenda that's about the
environment is about peat boss which is
is not does not have that same sort of
use of the environments that kind of
importance for our community that they
want to go out and have hike and have
natural spaces and have parks and have
that that relationship with the
environment so I think that the struggle
to have this reflects our community's
values I completely see that I think
that potentially as a goal statement
this could be worded to have something
I've been kind of struggling to find
appropriate wording but something to the
effect of that the city that the city as
one of its goals and in future
legislative agendas likely would have
likely does aspire to have acquisition
of land for community use for parks open
space and also for operation and
improvements and expansion of services
provided by parks and open space and so
I I think that there's an opportunity to
to make this reflect the community
values and I so I think there's been a
couple of suggestions I mean I also felt
that the environmental section of this
policy document was very my in my
opinion limited and so it could be
strengthened there as well
right any more comments on the motion
which is to propose to amend the
legislative agenda to add a fourth
priority which addresses the acquisition
of open space in the city the squad
tonight can I make a amendment proposed
an amendment proposed I think what would
be cleanest is if people would like to
discuss the motion on the table I would
say let's do that and have a vote and if
it fails you more than welcome to
propose another amendment discussion on
the motion from councilmember ray
proposed to many legislative agenda to
add a fourth priority and I think deputy
council president to you that her hand
up so thank you for that Chris I I agree
we have heard so much public comment
about open space and and then looking
and actually listening to council member
hunt and also hearing the recommendation
from the mayor just thinking more about
how we can incorporate that this piece
into the legislative agenda I would I'm
still thinking about what you're talking
about Chris but I think the the goal
statement and and adding it to our
environmental section or strengthening
that is something that that I would be
supportive of we this is a little bit
difficult in that we we just talked
about trying to go forward and getting
more information and having more of an
opportunity to talk some of the council
talking about we didn't feel like we had
sufficient time and now we have
something else coming forward and trying
to sort of decide that right now so I'm
still thinking a little bit but I am
thinking very much about the comments
that councilmember
has made in terms of goal statement and
then strengthening the language under
the environmental section the other
discussion about the amendments that's
my boo interesting I'm struggling to
hear a legislative a true a tone and a
words and statements that fit within the
legislative agenda template or framework
it seems to me I'm hearing a lot of
comments that sound like elements of our
strategic plan and our mission and our
guiding principles and our priority
areas and goals and objectives bleeding
over into let's how get that reflected
in our legislative agenda and if there
were specific issues policy related or
potential funding related projects that
we're aware of that that could be
reflected on then that would make sense
but in I'm hearing this as a proposal to
get somehow our priorities that come
from our vision somehow reflected as a
statement and our legislative agenda
I agree our priority should influence
what's there but this isn't doing that
yeah their discussion on the proposed
amendment accounts membrane I'd like to
withdraw them motion if your second
agrees I'm okay
ocean has been withdrawn can't agree if
their amendment amendment has been okay
if there's no objection no objection
would anyone care to make propose a
different amendment I'd like to make a
motion to add a goal statement to the OC
okay
so I think as a goal statement it can
have a couple sentences so I'm gonna
propose I'm some ember hand and says
yeah this is just a suggestion if you'd
like to take a five-minute recess we can
talk sure well yeah this and it might
have mine okay take a five-minute recess
Thanks
you
we are back from our recess
councilmember hunt do you have a
proposed amendment I do I would like to
add a policy statement to the
legislative agenda in the policy manual
under the category of Environment and
Natural Resources that as the first
bullet states the city of Issaquah will
pursue opportunities to grow and enhance
the city's open spaces through
partnership acquisitions and or policy
changes second it's been moved and
seconded is there discussion deputy
council president I'm sorry could could
you just read that oh I'm sorry
any discussion yes okay so reading still
digesting that's a president merits
followed by councilmember hunt I will be
supporting this amendment I think that
the public has stated in basically every
time we ask them where our priorities
are broadly as a city acquiring open
spaces is a perennial strong point so
I'm glad this this would be a welcomed
addition I think to Arvind thank you and
councilmember hunt you and I I think
that the city has expressed interest in
this so we will be able to better align
some of our policy manual with with the
community's interests by by passing this
and I also think that in previous years
we have had many asks having to do with
specific Park projects such as in the
last last legislative agenda believe it
was confluence in Lake Sammamish State
Park and then also additional parks
previously so part of that history and
the context is that often typically the
city is looking in their legislative
to have funding for four parks and for
open space and for the community values
that that benefits so I will be
supporting this and I think that it puts
us in a better position in terms of
aligning with the community's values in
our policy manual Thank You council
member Ramos yes this is what I think
was missing his environmental piece so
and I think we've got it in the right
place now where we can maneuver this as
need be and as opportunities arise so I
definitely will be supporting this this
is a top priority for me and I think we
finally got it in here and it's good I'm
very happy Thank You deputy council
president batiste
so I I'll be supporting this this
evening and thank you too
councilmember Rey and councilmember hunt
for their work in this area and and this
is incredibly important it's something
that we've definitely heard so much from
the community and we really did have
need to draw that out and I think that
it now is in the appropriate place in
terms of a goal statement that something
that we would like to pursue thank you
are there comments let's remember ray I
think this is brilliant I really do I
mean we needed to get this in here and
my intent with the original amendment
was to was to elevate this and thank you
everyone for the discussion about how to
refine that and make this better and I
think this this captures it brilliantly
thank you
any other comments councilmember winters
time just a question about the wording I
look at the structure and kind of the
our current or how this would fit in
everything tends to align with
supporting generally modern same
monitoring legislation or supporting
efforts and there may even be supporting
legislation
name a specific program so at for the
intended audience being legislators in
Olympia this doesn't have the support or
monitor or opposed type language in it
so I'm actually just kind of an
open-ended question is like how does
this link how will this language be used
for its intended audience to acts to for
them to weigh as they consider potential
different legislation or policy this is
it is it really it just says we're okay
we're gonna we're gonna pursue
opportunities to grow and enhance
through partnership we are we suggesting
we're gonna partner with the state is
this we're gonna partner with you or
your departments or the legislature or
specific legislation what I'm I wouldn't
this is the first time I'm considering
this and I just don't see language up
there yet that will if we just want a
token statement about this it does that
for a legislative agenda to actually be
something meaningful for its intended
our audience I don't think that language
is as good as it could be but I don't
have an alternative I'm kind of putting
it out there Thanks are there any other
comments or questions are we ready for
the vote
looks like we might be ready for the
vote all those in favor of the amendment
to add a policy statement to the
legislative agenda in the policy manual
under the category of Environment and
Natural Resources that as the first
bullet states the city of Issaquah will
pursue opportunities to grow and or
enhance the city's open spaces through
partnership acquisitions and or policy
changes all those in favor say aye all
those opposed the amendment carry
unanimously back to the main motion
which I can reread if you'd like me to
main motion is to approve the 2019 2021
legislative agenda as amended now I
would guess tisha as amended is there
any discussion on the main motion being
none all those in favor of approving the
2019 2021 legislative agenda as amended
signify by saying aye all right as
opposed nay motion carries five to two
with councilmember Rea and councilmember
Goodman opposed and I know it's highly
unusual but I would just like to add a
few comments that I recognize when we
change processes how difficult it is to
make sure that we can accommodate
everybody's interest and desire to weigh
in on the process and the changes I
think we made very good steps this year
but I can see through this conversation
tonight that this was tough and I
appreciate all your hard work and I also
wanted to thank the city administrator
and our Pollyanna policy analyst team or
procuring our new lobbyist team after
our former lobbyist retired and working
on this new format with them I think
this is really well done and I
appreciate all the effort I did hear
that in future processes you'd like to
talk about earlier or different types of
public touches whether or not the
council would like to consider
prioritizing these policies under the in
the policy manual and I think that was
it but I wanted to thank you for your
really really hard work on this thanks I
know this is tough thank you very much
we're now going to move to good of the
order and I believe council president
has an item for us thanks Bennet Mayor
so or three votes are very tough but I I
want to I want to commit that my
comments about developing a
comprehensive Community Engagement
policy we're
said in the heat of the moment but
rather because I do this is a recurring
issue that we as a council have have
challenged ourselves and and challenged
administration in terms of getting a
consistency as to what engagement we
want on what issues and so I would
welcome any feedback in the next couple
of weeks from people we are heading into
budget season but I sort of want to
pledge to you as council president that
I'm not going to let this issue die on
the vine and that I really want to work
with the other six of you on coming up
with a an engagement policy that all of
us can agree on any else for good of the
order I have a couple names to share
with you I just wanted to do a bit of a
look ahead at the September 24th council
work session the agenda items include
central I suppose owning for the old
route 10 and intensive commercial areas
around i-90 and also looking at some
citywide strategic planning draft
information that the staff teams have
been working on and at October 1st on
our regular City Council meeting the
tentative agenda items includes the
proposed 2019 budget brief and schedule
and the visit escort destination
marketing organization bylaw I'm just
going to go back and check on that is
the administrator proposed 2019 budget
briefing schedule I think that's what's
on the yeah that's our intended play
let's move it okay thank you
and lastly I just wanted to remind those
in leadership this week on Wednesday
that I believe we're meeting at the
Lewis house another tour of another arcs
meeting room and that is the park staff
office and meeting room that is south of
Andrews it's not the trails center it's
the other small house that's where our
leadership meeting will be this week
executive session is the next thing on
our agenda as earlier announced there
will be an executive session held this
evening to discuss pending potential
litigation for our CW 42.3 0.11 o
Maran one gran I this item is expected
to take approximately 10 minutes action
is anticipated to follow an open session
we will now recess into executive
session at 9:55
you
we are back in open session at 1017 p.m.
is there a motion yes madam mayor I
would like to move Lee authorized the
city attorney to commence litigation
against American tower has discussed an
executive session it's been moved and
seconded to authorize the city attorney
to commence litigation against American
Terrace discussed an executive session
is there any discussion all those in
favor signify by saying aye aye opposed
it carries unanimously and there being
no further business our meeting is
adjourned at 10:18
you