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City Council Regular Meeting Auto captions

Monday, April 6, 2020

7:00 PM · 2h 42m
Topic tracked across meetings:
Creeks to Peaks: Three Trails Crossing Art AB 7947 1/4
Topic
6. CONSENT CALENDAR
6b
Minutes: City Council Study Session, Feb. 25, 2020
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.59–61
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR b) 02-25-20 Council Study Session Minutes Page (0000)
6c
Minutes: City Council Regular Meeting, March 16, 2020
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.63–66
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR c) 03-16-20 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page (0000)
6d
Minutes: City Council Special Meeting, March 23, 2020
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.67–69
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR d) 03-23-20 City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page (0000)
6e
Port of Seattle Economic Development Grant AB 7921
Carried 7-0
Authorize · packet pp.71–83
Topics: Economic Development
Staff report:
The Administration recommends authorization to accept the Port of Seattle Economic Development Partnership Grant in the amount of $37,590 for the programs outlined in AB 7921 and execution of the grant agreement.
6g
2020 ARCH Work Program and Budget AB 7944
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.89–113
Topics: HousingBudget
Staff report:
The City Councils of member jurisdictions in A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH) have authority for review and approval of annual ARCH work programs, budgets, interlocal agreements, and Housing Trust Fund recommendations. Accordingly, review and action on the proposed ARCH 2020 Work Program and Administrative Budget is now requested. Lindsay Master's, ARCH's Executive Manager, included highlights of the City's 2020 ARCH Work Program (Exhibit A) in the March 16 Regular Council meeting presentation regarding the ARCH Trust Fund.
6h
Purchase of Signal Equipment re: Gilman Traffic Signal and Three Trails Crossing Development Agreement AB 7947
Carried 7-0
Authorize · packet pp.115–123
Topics: TransportationParks
Staff report:
This Gilman Lofts project was originally proposed in November of 2016, and the development included the construction of a signalized intersection at NW Gilman Blvd. and NW Juniper St. In May 2017, the City Council approved the Gilman Traffic Signal and 3-Trails Crossing Development Agreement with Gilman Point, LLC for the Gilman Lofts project (AB 7219). The Development Agreement allowed the City to offset the cost of constructing an intersection at NW Gilman Blvd. and NW Juniper St, known as the Three Trails Crossing, a project on the City's non-motorized mobility plan.
8. GOOD OF THE ORDER
8a
Upcoming Council Meetings
0:39 you
0:44 and you know are you ready to start we
0:46 are thank you proceed okay thank you so
0:50 this is an audio gavel welcome everyone
0:53 I'm calling the April sec City Council
0:56 meeting to order again we're doing a
0:58 remote meeting and before we move on to
1:01 tonight's agenda items I'd like to
1:03 acknowledge what our remote meeting
1:05 format looks like on March 6
1:08 I issued an emergency proclamation
1:10 declaring a civil emergency in the city
1:11 due to the Cova 19 outbreak on March
1:15 24th the governor issued proclamation 20
1:17 - 28 prohibiting meetings that fall
1:20 under the open public meetings acts such
1:23 as our city council meetings from being
1:25 conducted in person tonight's meeting
1:28 will be held entirely remotely the audio
1:31 of tonight's meeting will be recorded
1:33 streamed live and available for later
1:35 listing on the city's youtube channel a
1:37 callin number was provided on the
1:40 meeting agenda for members of the public
1:41 who wish to call in by phone to listen
1:44 to Live Meeting those who provided
1:47 advance notice and there are a few are
1:49 also able to make comments under the
1:51 audience comment portion of the meeting
1:53 email was also encouraged for this
1:56 meeting and it will be acknowledged
1:57 later on as a reminder there will be no
2:00 meeting video any staff presentations
2:03 will be limited to the materials posted
2:05 on the online agenda packet staff will
2:08 make every effort to specify which
2:09 materials they are referencing so
2:11 everyone can follow along
2:13 there will be an executive session this
2:15 evening to discuss collective bargaining
2:17 our RCW 42.3 o 1.14 o paren for
2:23 impending potential litigation for our
2:25 CW 42.3 0.1 104 in 1 / n i these items
2:32 are expected to last 30 minutes and no
2:34 action is anticipated in open session so
2:37 at this point I'd like to take a moment
2:39 take the roll call of the council
2:41 members in attendance please say here
2:43 when I call your name
2:45 councilmember de Michelle here
2:52 councilmember Goodman here councilmember
2:56 Hall your council president hunt here
3:04 councilmember marks your deputy council
3:09 president ray you're in councilmember
3:12 Walsh here thank you
3:15 in addition the following city staff are
3:18 participating in tonight's meeting city
3:21 administrator Wally Bob Crips deputy
3:23 City Administrator Andrea Snider city
3:26 attorney Jim hating City Clerk
3:29 Tina Eggers deputy city clerk's Tichenor
3:32 t-shirt finance director Beth Goldberg
3:35 and senior budget analyst Suzy LAN so
3:38 for those members on the Republic on the
3:41 call
3:42 welcome the clerk or I will call on you
3:44 to make comments when we reach that
3:46 portion of the agenda so the meeting
3:49 guidelines before we begin I'd like to
3:51 reiterate some of the guidelines we'll
3:54 be using in our online meeting today
3:56 council members please use a Skype
3:58 meeting messenger to let me know when
4:02 you wish to speak and for those council
4:04 members on the phone I will pause at
4:07 appropriate times so you can indicate
4:08 when you want to speak and for all that
4:12 are participating in the meeting today
4:13 please meet your microphone when you are
4:16 not speaking for all meeting attendees
4:19 state your name each time before
4:22 speaking and for council members that's
4:24 including before you ask a question
4:27 before you make a motion or second
4:30 emotion or before you participate in
4:32 debate
4:33 speak clearly and pause frequently it
4:36 will be a little awkward in the audio
4:39 later on that we need to allow for the
4:41 pauses so that we can track who wants to
4:44 speak and give them time to get on and
4:46 off of you so thank you for your
4:48 patience at this point in time I would
4:51 ask everybody to make sure they are
4:52 muted and I'd also like to give you the
4:56 opportunity to join me in the Pledge of
4:58 Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the
5:02 flag of the United States of America and
5:05 to the Republic for which it stands one
5:08 nation under God indivisible with
5:12 liberty and justice for all the next
5:16 item on our agenda this evening is the
5:18 mayor's report this is not the usual
5:24 order for the mayor's report this agenda
5:26 order is slightly different my message
5:28 deceiving is a very large general
5:32 overview for the community about the
5:35 Cova issue and what the city is doing
5:38 good evening and thank you for joining
5:40 us tonight
5:41 it is hard to pretend that our council
5:43 meeting tonight uses anyway typical of
5:46 the many meetings we do every year in
5:48 five short weeks our world has been
5:50 turned upside down due to a global
5:53 pandemic that is still working its way
5:55 across our country it is stressful and
5:58 anxious for both residents and
6:00 businesses for the health of our
6:02 families and friends and for the
6:03 uncertainty that we are living with and
6:05 for the economic impacts which will not
6:08 be short-lived
6:09 tonight Council will receive a financial
6:11 update on our city and hold a discussion
6:14 about where we are financially and what
6:16 possible actions the city may need to
6:18 take to ensure we stay solvent and are
6:21 able to provide services to the
6:23 community
6:24 before we start tonight I want to say a
6:26 few words of gratitude to our residents
6:29 they are following the physical
6:31 distancing guideline to those that still
6:34 support our local restaurants by
6:36 purchasing meals to go into the amazing
6:38 team spirit of our community our
6:40 owners groups are clubs are businesses
6:43 and all of those who are tipping in to
6:44 support the community their efforts are
6:47 not unnoticed
6:47 thank you many many times over as a
6:51 community we need to ensure that the
6:53 basic needs are being met for those
6:55 whose lives have been upended we are
6:57 working hard to connect our residents
6:59 with resources to ensure they have a
7:01 roof over their head and food to eat the
7:04 city supports many nonprofit social
7:06 service providers in our community and
7:08 at the March 23rd 2020 special meeting
7:10 the council increased the Human Services
7:12 funding by 20% and that will be
7:15 distributed to agencies that provide
7:17 rental relief since the council's
7:19 authorization of funds towards rental
7:22 assistance to date fifty-eight
7:23 households have received help through
7:25 the program the city staff and
7:28 organizations providing rental
7:29 assistance will continue to monitor the
7:32 volume of requests received in the
7:33 upcoming weeks and provide a more
7:35 comprehensive report at the next council
7:37 meeting we are also working with county
7:40 state and federal partners to figure out
7:42 how funding from those levels of
7:44 governments can ensure at this difficult
7:47 time that folks still have a roof over
7:50 their head through the months ahead the
7:52 second basic need for individuals is
7:54 food security we know that paychecks
7:57 have disappeared along with jobs we
7:59 anticipate the needs for assistance to
8:01 dramatically rise over the next few
8:03 weeks and potentially months we have a
8:05 strong network of providers in town but
8:08 more assistance is needed this past
8:11 Friday the city organized a virtual call
8:13 to discuss our local food program seven
8:16 organizations join this call to tell us
8:18 the specific needs of their agencies and
8:20 how the groups can collaborate to meet
8:22 the growing demand this call was
8:25 productive and resulted in several ideas
8:27 for future collaboration on purchasing
8:29 and procurement sharing food and
8:32 volunteers resources and continued
8:34 information sharing tonight I'd like to
8:37 highlight the it's across food and
8:38 clothing bank so they've changed their
8:41 service delivery model the food bank is
8:43 providing emergency food boxes to
8:45 approximately 350 households in the
8:47 Issaquah area our city staff are working
8:50 closely with the food bank to help
8:52 ensure that they will continue to
8:54 open preparing for staffing
8:56 contingencies and the potential for a
8:59 dramatic increase in demand for their
9:01 services in the months to come this
9:03 month we will be receiving some
9:05 assistance from the National Guard who
9:07 will be helping the food bank with their
9:08 distribution packing and other aspects
9:11 of their operations National Guard
9:13 members will be in our community
9:15 tomorrow as well as April 9th 21st and
9:18 23rd I hope you will join me in
9:20 welcoming their assistance here's a few
9:23 ways to help those struggling with food
9:25 insecurity right now
9:27 although drop off donations are not
9:29 currently being accepted you can help
9:31 provide food by having items shipped
9:33 directly to the is request food and
9:35 clothing bank from their emergency needs
9:37 list which can be found on the food bank
9:40 website that is sequestered bank org you
9:43 can check on your neighbors and
9:44 encourage anyone who might need a little
9:46 extra help with food or resources to
9:49 visit the food bank website or send an
9:51 email to this info at Disick loss food
9:56 banks org
9:57 info at DISA cross food bank orgs the
10:00 food bank is preparing for a marathon
10:02 and we will need more volunteers time
10:04 goes on check their website periodically
10:07 for updates on volunteer needs and for
10:10 all of it and for all of us who have
10:15 what we need in our pantries please be
10:17 sensitive to not over shop this puts a
10:20 strain on the food system making it
10:22 difficult for food banks to acquire the
10:24 products they need to serve our most
10:26 vulnerable residents before we begin our
10:29 meeting today I want to reach out to all
10:31 the residents and families in our
10:32 community those that have lost jobs ever
10:36 experienced the direct and dire impacts
10:38 of the Cova 19th iris on their family
10:40 and their loved ones we are strong and
10:43 caring community and we are all here for
10:45 you know that we are trying to help you
10:48 during this incredibly hard time and
10:50 thank you to essica for staying home
10:53 even though it is inconvenient and times
10:56 are anxious right now you are doing the
10:59 right thing for you for your families
11:02 and for our amazing mystical community I
11:05 safe and stay well now back to our
11:09 regular agenda at this point in time we
11:14 are up for audience comments and I know
11:19 we have at least two individuals who
11:21 have signed up to speak this evening and
11:25 tisha or Tina who will be inviting our
11:29 audience to speak certainly this is
11:32 Clerk Baker speaking first on our list
11:35 is well we have two speakers
11:38 Larry Franks and I'm not certain if he's
11:42 on the line if so and then Moriah
11:45 batiste and I have confirmation that
11:47 she's on line thank you very much Larry
11:50 if you're on line we just please come
11:52 off mute and share your thoughts with
11:55 our counsel yes ma'am this is Larry
11:58 Frank so men coming through okay we can
12:01 hear you just fine Thank You Larry
12:03 thank you mrs. mayor I'm a resident at
12:08 two four zero zero one southeast hundred
12:11 and third Street and is a quote for the
12:14 last 48 years what I wanted to share was
12:17 that the corona virus pandemic is a
12:20 serious threat to our way of life how it
12:23 was handled by our federal
12:24 administration removing pandemics
12:27 safeguards and 2018 denial of the
12:30 severity of the threat and totally
12:32 inaccurate statements of risk to the
12:34 American population were deadly many
12:37 more Americans will die in this pandemic
12:39 than if a federal government was cogent
12:42 listen to the medical experts as the
12:45 threat was emerging this sets the stage
12:47 for the impact of climate change the
12:51 data is clear if we as a city country
12:55 and world stay on our current path the
12:59 ice caps will melt sea level rise
13:01 droughts and wildfires will become more
13:04 commonplace many ecosystems producing
13:07 our food will collapse instead of
13:09 hundreds of thousands of deaths due to
13:11 the pandemic we would see hundreds
13:14 millions of deaths do the impacts of a
13:17 warming climate how can any thinking
13:20 person stand by and let this occur we
13:24 must take the hard lessons learned from
13:26 fighting and overcoming the pandemic and
13:29 apply them immediately to climate change
13:33 stop denial take appropriate action
13:36 acknowledge that it'll take resources
13:38 long term commitments to turn this
13:41 around I'm certain the city of Issaquah
13:44 will do what they can to bring this
13:46 about thank you
13:48 Thank You mr. Franks before we proceed
13:51 with audience comments I have missed an
13:54 entire page of my script it is not easy
13:57 to pinch multiple different screens and
14:00 documents at once mr. Franks has
14:03 presented before council before and is
14:05 aware of the guidelines so for anyone
14:06 else on the phone this evening with us
14:08 I'm going to go over the guidelines in
14:10 case you have not spoken in front of
14:11 council before citizen comments are
14:14 extremely important part of the public
14:16 process we take them seriously and
14:19 cancel factors them into the decisions
14:21 that we make please direct comments to
14:24 the whole council and not individual
14:26 them all this is not a
14:27 question-and-answer session we will
14:29 contact you to follow up if needed when
14:31 you are recognized please unmute your
14:33 microphone then star six may be an
14:38 option on your phone if you're looking
14:40 for a way to MU please state your name
14:42 your address and your relationship to
14:44 the city are you a resident a property
14:46 owner a business owner speak clearly and
14:49 pause frequently she's limit your
14:52 comments to three minutes and review
14:54 your microphone when done if you do not
14:58 respond after your name or phone number
15:00 is called or if your connection is lost
15:02 unexpectedly
15:03 the meeting will still need to proceed
15:04 you are encouraged to rejoin the meeting
15:07 if able personal attacks obscene
15:09 language derogatory remarks and
15:11 disruptive behavior is not permitted if
15:13 a speaker is out of order I will ask
15:15 them to stop and mute the microphone if
15:17 a speaker does not comply I may direct
15:19 staff to have their microphone muted if
15:22 a disruption to the media occurs an
15:24 order cannot be restored and major
15:26 or maybe from the call citizen comments
15:29 written and verbal are an important
15:31 aspect of the public process and the
15:33 City Council takes these comments very
15:35 seriously and we thank you for taking
15:37 the time to address us during our
15:38 meeting as a reminder written comments
15:42 can be submitted at any time to City
15:44 Council of this collage gov and if
15:48 comments were sent in by email they will
15:50 be acknowledged later this evening by a
15:52 council president hon as we move through
15:54 the agent agenda next one up to speak is
15:59 former council member varieties hello
16:09 everyone can you hear me all right we
16:12 can hear you fine okay right hi this is
16:15 Mariah the teeth I mean is the core
16:18 resident former council member I met
16:20 1281 northeast Hickory Lane first of all
16:24 I'm hoping every one of you mayor
16:27 councilmembers administration staff and
16:29 your families are doing well and healthy
16:31 I wish I could see your smiling faces in
16:34 person tonight I missed all of you and
16:36 I'm always thinking of you it's hard not
16:38 to be there right now through our
16:41 community members I'm wishing you are
16:43 all safe and well at this time as well
16:46 and I'm spending all my best wishes for
16:50 safety and health to our community and
16:52 really wanted to thank all of our first
16:53 responders sweety's fire fighters and
16:58 all of our medical professionals as we
17:00 deal with this tremendously difficult
17:03 crisis tonight I was calling in because
17:08 I wanted to thank all of you mayor
17:10 council administration and staff for the
17:13 important and effective job that you're
17:15 doing during this crisis I wanted to
17:18 commend you on the proclamation of
17:20 emergency a month ago
17:23 thank you for being so proactive for our
17:26 community the temporary moratorium on
17:28 residential tenants late fees and the
17:31 deferment of be no taxes for our small
17:33 businesses those those items are also
17:36 incredibly important right now the
17:39 website looks
17:40 great and it really gives all of the
17:43 resources that I think people are
17:47 needing to it's very easy to navigate
17:49 and I can find all the information that
17:51 I'm looking for I also really like the
17:54 hashtag ask is applause and seeing the
17:57 City Council members on video answering
17:59 the question it's really important to be
18:02 able to see our readers faces right now
18:04 during the Sun nerving time so I really
18:06 appreciated seeing that I also very much
18:09 appreciate the link for helping others
18:11 the mayor was just talking about how all
18:16 of our nonprofits are really struggling
18:18 at this time and it's so important for
18:20 all of us to be reaching out and helping
18:23 one another and so I was just really
18:27 happy to see that link and also to learn
18:29 just tonight about the 20% increase
18:32 where the Human Services funding so
18:35 thank you thank you to council near the
18:38 administration and the staff tonight's
18:41 conversation for council I've had a
18:43 chance to look through the presentation
18:47 and I it's just an incredibly hard
18:52 difficult and sobering reminder of what
18:56 we will be facing from an economic
18:59 perspective as a result of the Kovach
19:02 crisis and my thoughts have really
19:06 centered on defining our community's
19:09 basic needs including our health and
19:11 safety I think that's probably Burberry
19:13 that he's heads are right now and
19:17 another thought that just popped into my
19:19 head as I was getting ready to get on
19:21 the call is that we had discussed in the
19:23 past about having a future conversation
19:26 about what services should we be
19:28 offering what should we be doing in
19:31 Issaquah what should we be supporting
19:33 and as we really look at that bleak
19:37 financial picture thinking that queuing
19:41 up that conversation might be important
19:44 at that time at this time but all I know
19:48 is that I'm very happy to have all of
19:51 you at the helm I believe in
19:54 and your leadership and with all of you
19:58 I know that we're going to make it
20:00 through and come out the other side and
20:02 I just wanted to thank all of you for
20:04 all of your efforts so far during their
20:06 crisis thank you thank you former
20:10 council member batiste it's awfully nice
20:12 to hear your voice as well thank you I
20:16 appreciate both of our speakers who
20:19 called in this evening the next item of
20:22 business on the agenda tonight is
20:23 committee and regional reports I will
20:26 call each council member by name council
20:29 member Hall Thank You Mara Polly I have
20:34 two quick reports the first report is
20:38 for cascade walk water Alliance on
20:41 Wednesday oh this is council members at
20:43 home sorry I forgot to announce before
20:45 on Wednesday March 25th the Cascade
20:48 water lines Board of Directors held a
20:50 short meeting we only had two major
20:52 items of business on the agenda
20:54 including committee appointments mayor
20:57 poly who's the official voting member
20:59 for the city was appointed to the
21:01 finance and management committee and I
21:03 am the alternate member for the city was
21:06 appointed to the resource management
21:07 committee and our only other order of
21:10 business was to cancel and tell further
21:11 action by the board all standing
21:14 committees so he appointed people and
21:16 then we cancel it due to the public
21:18 health crisis so our next regular
21:21 meeting is on Wednesday April 22nd at
21:23 3:30 p.m. this meeting will take place
21:25 by a conference call and details can be
21:27 found on their website at cascade water
21:30 job org my next quick report is for the
21:35 regional affordable housing committee
21:36 last week's regional affordable housing
21:39 Committee meeting originally scheduled
21:42 from Monday March 30th was cancelled due
21:44 to the public health crisis our next
21:47 regularly scheduled meeting is
21:49 tentatively scheduled for May 15
21:53 with the council and the community is I
21:55 get those but with the passage of House
21:58 bill 2 4 3 2 by the state legislature
22:02 the community now has additional 6
22:04 months to recommend amendments to the
22:06 countywide planning policies for the
22:08 consideration of the growth management
22:10 plan Council so I'm not worried about
22:13 the amount of work our committee has to
22:14 do between now and that deadline and
22:17 again I'll be sure to share additional
22:19 details with administration with Council
22:21 with the community as I get them and
22:23 that's concludes my report
22:27 Thank You councilmember Hall council
22:30 member do myself
22:33 Thank You mayor Polly this is council
22:35 member shall I have two reports on me
22:40 or excuse me March 19th there was a
22:44 phone conference meeting for Eastside
22:46 Human Services and seeds and so about
22:51 the time is so skewed on some of these
22:53 meetings that was five days before the
22:56 governor announced the state home state
22:58 penalty announcement so many of the
23:01 things that we discussed are no longer
23:03 you know relevant so I won't report on
23:06 those it was a very well attended
23:08 meeting we had elected officials from
23:11 Redmond Bellevue Kirkland in Issaquah
23:13 and I was elected to the board at that
23:16 time they had the executive directors of
23:18 Prince abused and hopefully and a board
23:22 member for the Perkins Coley law firm
23:25 and representatives from Evergreen and
23:27 Overlake hospitals so there was a very
23:30 excellent exchange about what is
23:32 happening with our nonprofits and human
23:35 services organizations on the east side
23:38 I would we were asked what our biggest
23:42 challenge was and I will just give you a
23:45 brief summary but I think these are
23:47 things that are very common to any
23:50 organization that's providing services
23:53 right now everyone agreed that the
23:56 biggest challenge is stopping the spread
23:58 of the virus that is job number one for
24:00 every organization that's working with
24:03 people right now
24:04 they were shared commonly that all Human
24:08 Services and healthcare workers are
24:10 stressed and anxious their people are
24:14 very worried about employee burnout and
24:17 people are taking steps to guard the
24:19 mental health of the employees who are
24:21 serving the public and right there on
24:25 the front lines for us there was quite a
24:28 bit of discussion about how the funding
24:30 model for many of our nonprofits has
24:32 simply collapsed in a very short order
24:35 in the last month both Friends of use
24:37 and hopefully get canceled spring flood
24:39 raisers that account for significant
24:42 portion of their annual revenue and they
24:44 are scrambling to find other ways of
24:46 continuing their revenue streams there's
24:49 that are very rapid transitions from
24:52 person-to-person service to online
24:55 services and that's what's occurring at
24:58 a time when the need is increasing and
24:59 where and when the revenue may not be
25:02 there to support this transition however
25:05 nonprofits are stepping up and doing the
25:08 best they can to transition to online
25:10 services for their clients it was
25:13 interesting to hear from the Perkins
25:14 Coley representative that this pandemic
25:18 has created a mountain he called it of
25:21 legal issues and questions of concerns
25:24 and so it was interesting to hear that
25:28 perspective and then finally of the
25:31 executive director friends of you spoke
25:33 quite eloquently to the uncertainty of
25:35 the situation we're facing and the fact
25:39 that it's difficult to plan and yet we
25:42 must plan as we're we will face later
25:45 this evening and so people are making
25:49 plans in an environment where the news
25:52 is changing daily so that's a summary of
25:55 the comments from that discussion the
25:58 next esight Human Services forum meeting
26:01 is May the 21st and then I have a very
26:04 brief report on the healthier here board
26:08 which met on April 2nd
26:12 at that meeting the board unanimously
26:14 voted to release $1,250,000 of
26:18 previously on L hated funding to address
26:22 the covered 19 crisis and those funds
26:25 are all directed to our beating them
26:26 healthier here's mission of integrating
26:29 physical and behavioral housing King
26:31 County's Public Health Network the board
26:34 also unanimously approved increased
26:36 authorization for the executive director
26:38 and executive org to make some
26:41 additional final decisions regarding for
26:44 the release of unallocated funds and
26:46 that concludes my report
26:49 Thank You councilmember do miss Ella
26:51 councilmember Walsh thank you this is
26:54 councilmember Walsh and I have no report
26:58 Thank You councilmember Goodman Thank
27:04 You councilmember Goodman here one short
27:06 report East Side Fire and Rescue has
27:09 canceled its meetings for April and fire
27:14 ground 101 which had been scheduled for
27:16 May 16th has also been postponed and I
27:21 will report out when that has been
27:22 rescheduled for later this year that
27:25 concludes my report
27:27 Thank You councilmember Goodman
27:28 councilmember marks thank you madam
27:31 mayor
27:32 this is councilmember total marks the
27:34 Thursday April 2nd Puget Sound Regional
27:38 Council growth management policy board
27:40 meeting was cancelled and the upcoming
27:42 Wednesday April 8th sound cities
27:45 Association public issues committee
27:47 meeting is unlikely to be held this
27:49 concludes my report
27:51 Thank You councilmember marks deputy
27:53 council president ray hi this is Chris
27:56 ray I have no report this evening madam
27:58 mayor thank you nice and short Thank You
28:01 council president hunt thank you madam
28:04 mayor I have one report this evening the
28:06 Huayra age salmon recovery council met
28:10 on Thursday March 19th
28:13 why rage is the name for our watershed
28:16 and the salmon recovery council had one
28:19 item which was to approve a funding
28:24 request using cherry for
28:26 forward funding for a study of predatory
28:30 fishes in Lake Washington Ship Canal
28:32 this has been identified as a top
28:34 priority to support salmon recovery and
28:37 we also had a report out by the wire aid
28:42 salmon recovery Technical Committee
28:44 regarding a regarding some work that
28:47 they've been doing on artificial
28:48 lighting concerns and the outcomes so
28:51 far from this work was a letter that was
28:53 provided for Issaquah which will support
28:57 our shrine master program work so that
29:01 we can have the most up-to-date science
29:04 and our master program going forward and
29:09 the next meeting relevance of salmon is
29:13 the kokanee Isle a management committee
29:16 meeting this is the first time that we
29:17 will meet and this is about cooking
29:20 which is a very endangered local type of
29:24 salmon that they will we will be meeting
29:26 on Tuesday April 7th at 1 o'clock and
29:30 that concludes my report
29:31 Thank You council president hunt the
29:34 next item on our agenda this evening is
29:36 the consent calendar and just as a
29:38 reminder due to tonight's meeting format
29:40 we will be taking all votes as roll call
29:43 so the consent calendar was distributed
29:46 to council in advance and if authorized
29:48 the items on the consent calendar will
29:50 be considered together and approved by
29:52 one motion have the payables and payroll
29:55 been reviewed they have and that was
30:02 some good member Goodman and Hall at all
30:05 thank you thank you very much
30:08 does any council member desired or maybe
30:10 any item from the consent calendar and
30:12 consider it under regular business
30:18 before we move to the motion council
30:21 president hunt do you have any email
30:23 comments that were shared with Council
30:25 on consent calendar items
30:28 yes this is council president hunch and
30:31 thank you for the opportunity to
30:32 summarize some of these comments so this
30:36 is the summary of emails that we
30:38 received regarding specific items that
30:40 are on the consent calendar
30:41 Elizabeth Mopan wrote to us in support
30:44 of a b79 for for the 2020 arch work plan
30:48 and budget steve pereira
30:51 wrote to us on multiple items he he
30:56 questions the bang for the buck on a b7
30:59 nine to one court of Seattle economic
31:02 development grants and he was he wrote
31:05 in opposition to eighty seven nine to
31:07 eight the PSR C surface transportation
31:10 Block Grant Program and congestion
31:12 mitigation and air quality grants and
31:16 was generally supportive of the arts and
31:20 arts program budget item and that would
31:25 be eighty seven nine four four and then
31:28 we did receive some comments on the
31:31 funding for Koba 19 crisis and I will
31:34 share those when we discuss that later
31:36 in the evening
31:37 thank you house president hunt is there
31:40 motion yes this council president hunt
31:45 I'd like to make a motion okay go ahead
31:53 sorry I would I moved to adopt the
31:56 consent calendar is listed in the few
31:57 things agenda second it's been moved and
32:03 seconded by Councillor Bevin and deputy
32:06 Council President to approve the consent
32:08 calendar as submitted all those in favor
32:10 say aye
32:12 sorry if I look at me I'm already
32:14 forgetting I'm going to return to the
32:16 city clerk for the roll call vote yes
32:20 councilman Verde Michele councilmember
32:25 Goodman aye
32:28 councilmember Hall
32:31 council president hunt i Councilmember
32:36 marts i deputy council president ray
32:43 councilmember walsh i 7i 0 nays thank
32:50 you this is still weird doing it okay
32:54 we're moving on to the next item which
32:57 is regular business ID 0 673 - 2020 the
33:02 financial and work plan impacts of
33:04 covert 19 there will be a report out
33:07 this evening and an opportunity for
33:09 council to provide feedback to the
33:11 administration I'd like to ask finance
33:13 director Beth Goldberg and deputies to
33:15 the administrator Andrea Schneider to
33:17 present this item thank you good evening
33:24 this is best Goldberg can you hear me we
33:28 can hear you just great okay perfect so
33:31 I am speaking to item number seven a on
33:37 the agenda and for people following it
33:41 the link is the second item the view
33:44 presentation and what we're presenting
33:49 tonight is an updated financial forecast
33:52 if we could move to slide two I will
33:56 provide an overview of what we are
33:58 discussing tonight so the purpose of the
34:01 presentation is to provide a revised
34:03 revenue forecast this revenue forecast
34:06 was generated about a week ago in
34:09 response to the köppen 19 emergency and
34:13 then when I'm done presenting that I
34:15 will turn it over to deputies the
34:19 administrator and red spider to lead a
34:22 discussion about the types of things
34:26 we're looking at to reduce expenditures
34:28 and then to solicit feedback from the
34:31 City Council if we can now move to slide
34:34 number three please we will be seeking
34:39 direction from Council this evening on
34:42 feedback or
34:43 the criteria for the changes were
34:46 evaluating as well as feedback on
34:48 funding priorities and as I said deputy
34:52 City Administrator Snyder will be
34:54 leading that portion of the discussion
34:56 if we can move on to slide four now
34:59 please so before we talk about 2020 I
35:03 want to take a brief short minute to
35:06 talk about our 2019 year-end results we
35:10 have not had a chance to discuss these
35:12 and the table on this slide demonstrates
35:15 that we ended 2019 almost exactly and
35:21 this does suggest that the forecast
35:24 models and tools that we put in place
35:27 last year were sound and were good tools
35:31 for forecasting what was going to happen
35:34 I also want to point out and there's a
35:36 memo in your packet about this that we
35:39 ended on a strong note with sales tax
35:42 last year the early part of the year
35:44 sales taxes and weakness but we ended
35:47 the year strong and I'm also pleased to
35:50 report that our January 2020 sales tax
35:54 results were also strong up about 8% but
35:58 as I've been saying a lot lately that
36:00 was so last year so that's probably
36:04 about the last bit of good news that you
36:06 will hear me sharing this evening and if
36:10 we can move now to slide five I'd like
36:13 to start talking through what we are
36:17 seeing for 2020 and you know in a
36:21 nutshell it's not good so we prepared a
36:26 forecast this forecast a little over a
36:29 week ago and as a result of that
36:32 forecast we are anticipating nearly 10
36:35 million drop in general fund revenues or
36:38 approximately 20% of the general fund
36:41 before going into the details of the
36:44 forecast I did want to point out and
36:47 provide some important caveats that I'd
36:50 like you all to keep in mind as you're
36:52 listening to the presentation tonight
36:56 the first caveat is that we are in
36:59 extraordinarily challenging times and
37:02 this makes it very difficult to prepare
37:05 the forecast more basically in many
37:09 respects flying blind because we've
37:11 never seen in modern history a sudden
37:14 and near complete shutdown of the
37:16 economy we just don't have good
37:19 benchmarks to guide what might be
37:22 happening we also don't have access to
37:25 real-time data to shed light on the
37:27 actual impacts as I will explain
37:30 throughout this presentation we could be
37:32 facing unprecedented lags in the receipt
37:36 of data meaning we could be flying blind
37:39 for some time to come
37:42 also the second caveat that I want to
37:44 point out is that were in an economic
37:48 and financial environment that's
37:50 changing rapidly
37:52 I mentioned this forecast was prepared a
37:54 week ago and a lot has changed
37:57 unfortunately in the weeks and since the
38:00 forecast was developed some of the
38:03 things that have changed include the
38:06 Washington State stay at home order
38:08 being extended and just today I'm sure
38:11 you all heard that schools in the state
38:14 will be closed through the end of the
38:17 school year also last week and this is
38:20 at the national level we got the new
38:23 jobless claims report and it was it was
38:27 a pretty dire an additional 6.6 billion
38:31 claims came in last week over the 3.3
38:34 million claims the week before so that
38:36 puts us nationally at 10 million jobless
38:40 claims in two weeks and just as a point
38:43 of reference that exceeds the total job
38:45 loss during the entire period of the
38:49 Great Recession when there was I think
38:51 about a 2.5 million jobs loss so more in
38:55 were in really unprecedented times so
39:00 with all those caveats in mind I want to
39:03 start walking through what we've got for
39:07 the forecast and if we could
39:09 switch over to flights please so on this
39:14 slide we are highlighting the changes to
39:19 what we call the big four revenues and
39:22 the ten million dollar loss in revenues
39:26 that were forecasting eight-point almost
39:29 2 million of that comes from these big
39:32 four revenues and I'm going to go
39:34 through each one of these and explain
39:37 the rationale of the forecast and what
39:41 we'll be watching as time unfolds
39:44 so first is property tax this is
39:48 typically a stable revenue source
39:51 because it is not tied to property
39:53 values but rather it's a 1% increase on
39:59 what was assessed in the previous year
40:02 so is there changes and property values
40:06 we shouldn't see fluctuations here but
40:10 we are recommending that we take this
40:12 revenue down by about 10% because we are
40:17 anticipating that we are going to see
40:20 defaults on mortgages and with that may
40:23 see defaults on people's property tax
40:26 payments it's also important to note
40:29 that we may see lags revenue King County
40:34 announced last week that it is extending
40:37 the deadline for reporting property tax
40:40 for most or for a segment of taxpayers
40:44 originally or typically property taxes
40:47 are due April 30th but King County has
40:53 extended it to June 1st and this will be
40:59 for property owners that are paying
41:02 their property tax directly as opposed
41:04 to those who are paying their property
41:08 tax through their mortgage payments so
41:10 it's about 45 percent of taxpayers that
41:14 may be eligible for delaying their
41:16 property taxes something is maybe a
41:19 question so I will
41:21 I was here for a moment I just want to
41:33 make sure that counsel has the
41:34 opportunity to ask questions as we go so
41:38 I appreciate it that you're taking a
41:40 break and I believe councilmember
41:41 Goodman has a question
41:44 Thank You councilmember Goodman here so
41:48 director Goldberg I I guess I just
41:50 wanted to ask because I didn't see it in
41:54 the materials when we were talking about
41:56 real property taxes that we're talking
42:00 about delays and collection that we are
42:06 also you're also keeping in mind that
42:09 one of the outcomes of this could be a
42:13 drop in market value and that could
42:15 cause that also affect the amount we
42:19 collect how does that and how does that
42:21 factor into all of this because that
42:22 could be a delayed problem okay so the
42:36 way property tax is structured in
42:38 Washington state it's actually not high
42:40 property values so the way it works is
42:45 we we the city of Issaquah assess an
42:49 amount in 2019 and then for 2020 the
42:54 amount that we assess is 1% above what
42:59 was the stats in the previous year so
43:02 property value does not matter in this
43:06 case and others in other places it is
43:09 tied to property values but it is not
43:11 that's not the case in Washington State
43:13 so that's one thing that we don't have
43:16 to worry about here
43:17 where we might have some some concerns
43:22 is in addition to the 1% were allowed to
43:27 collect the value of new construction so
43:30 if this economic slowdown
43:34 slows down the pace of new construction
43:39 then that that might impact future
43:43 growth but of the nearly 10 million
43:47 dollars that were anticipating
43:49 collecting for property tax in 2020 only
43:53 about 200,000 of that is anticipated to
43:55 be from new construction so it's a
43:57 fairly small segment of our property tax
44:01 base councilmember Goodman does that
44:05 answer your question yes I think so it's
44:07 oh it's um it's uh it has to do with how
44:12 it would be that amount that we collect
44:15 is spread over the values anyway okay I
44:23 just wanted it that I didn't see that I
44:25 just wanted to rate that thank you
44:27 yes but you're right it's it's how that
44:31 1% is spread over the value would be how
44:34 it impacts the tap there in subsequent
44:37 years okay thanks huge director Goldberg
44:40 that means the mill rate then would be
44:42 moving in an upward direction as house
44:45 housing prices went down all right
44:47 that's correct
44:48 okay yes they're questions and I'm not
44:51 doing any right now
44:52 please continue and I think that was an
44:54 appropriate stand of time in your
44:57 presentation that if we do that again
44:58 and stop for questions that would be
45:00 good okay that sounds great and feel
45:03 free to send me a note if you want me to
45:05 pause so the last thing I want to
45:08 mention about property tax before I move
45:13 on to sales tax is there have been some
45:16 reports recently about projections of
45:19 default rates on mortgages and Moody's
45:23 they're chief economists was predicting
45:26 that if the economy remains closed
45:28 through the summer we could see 30
45:30 percent of Americans defaults on their
45:33 home loans so this default rate that
45:36 we're assuming of 10 percent is modest
45:40 in comparison to that but we also don't
45:42 know that we're going to stay shut down
45:44 for the summer so we will be watching
45:46 that is
45:48 time unfolds now I'm going to move on to
45:51 sales tax and to forecast sales tax we
45:57 looked at the city of Issaquah
45:59 experienced during the Great Recession
46:01 during the period between 2007 and 2009
46:06 Issaquah saw a nearly 30 percent drop in
46:09 sales tax this was gradual back then it
46:14 happened over a two-year period of time
46:17 this time we're taking that 30 percent
46:20 mark and we're assuming that it happens
46:23 essentially immediately because the
46:26 economy has essentially shut down
46:28 whether this forecast holds or not it's
46:33 about a 4.7 million drop in the forecast
46:36 will depend on the length of time the
46:38 economy has shut down and how quickly
46:41 the economy bounces back so again this
46:44 is one where we're going to have to
46:46 watch closely this is our largest
46:48 revenue source and our most volatile
46:51 revenue source I do feel like you need
46:54 to highlight here and it certainly
46:56 mentioned to this in your council
46:58 materials that we will likely not see
47:01 actual sales tax data for March until
47:04 midsummer normally there's a two-month
47:08 lag on when we receive sales tax data
47:11 from the state meaning that we would
47:13 have received March data at the end of
47:15 May
47:17 however this past Friday the state
47:19 Department of Revenue announced that it
47:21 is extending the filing deadline for
47:25 businesses until June 25th so there is
47:29 going to be a long period and probably
47:32 an uncomfortable period of time or we're
47:34 waiting to see what the actual impact of
47:38 this is on our sales tax with March
47:40 being the first month and as a reminder
47:43 sales tax makes up 32% of general fund
47:47 revenues and I will pause there before
47:50 going on to business and occupation tax
47:53 thank you thank
48:04 that's what I was looking at some of
48:06 your other information it appears that
48:08 the lowest point in 2009 for our sales
48:13 tax brought in approximately nine
48:16 billion that year
48:18 so is this projection which you say is
48:22 based on the worst of what was happening
48:24 during that Great Recession is this 11
48:29 million a little bit higher because
48:32 January and most of February weren't
48:35 affected or is it a little bit higher
48:37 because of inflation what influences
48:41 that yes so the drop between 2007 and
48:46 2009 was about 30 percent it was 20
48:51 points some odd percent so I didn't look
48:54 at the gross numbers back then because
48:57 sales tax base was was different back
48:59 then but I applied that 30 percent
49:02 factor to the 20 20 adopted revenue
49:07 assumptions which happened to be also
49:09 the revenue assumptions that we were
49:11 assuming for 2019 so I applied that 30
49:15 percent to the 15 million dollar
49:19 assumption that was in the budget
49:21 because our base and the two million
49:25 dollar difference that you're citing is
49:27 largely because the base that we're
49:29 starting with in 2019 2020 was a larger
49:35 base a higher base than was the case in
49:38 2007 when the Great Recession started
49:41 thank you that's perfect Thank You
49:45 councilmember well and I'm not saying
49:48 any more questions director Goldberg so
49:50 continue on ok so now I'm going to talk
49:53 about the business and occupation tax
49:54 and looking back at the Great Recession
49:57 this was actually a stable revenue
50:01 source during the Great Recession it
50:03 actually increased modestly during that
50:06 period of time but for this forecast
50:09 we're assuming we're not going to have
50:12 the same experience
50:14 given the number of businesses that have
50:16 had to shut down because of this day own
50:19 orders were assuming that this is a
50:22 revenue source that's going to be
50:23 significantly impacted and we are
50:26 applying the same 30% reduction that we
50:29 assumed for sales tax to our vno sales
50:33 tax base and in doing this it takes that
50:36 revenue source down by nearly two
50:38 million dollars like sales tax and like
50:43 property tax this is another revenue
50:45 source where we are likely going to see
50:48 lags in the receipt of our revenues on
50:51 March 26th the mayor announced the city
50:55 would grant you know filing extensions
50:57 for small businesses other nearby cities
51:00 have also done this including the city
51:03 of Seattle and the City of Bellevue
51:06 so normally small businesses would file
51:10 their first quarter bno taxes by April
51:14 30th but under this extension small
51:17 businesses will have until July 31st to
51:20 file so again we will likely see lags in
51:23 the receipt of this revenue stream and I
51:27 will pause there before moving on to
51:29 utility tax
51:32 thank you for the pause I can see that
51:36 councilmember Ray has a question thank
51:41 you and sorry this is a councilmember
51:44 Chris Rea thanks for the presentation
51:47 you mentioned that a number of
51:50 businesses that were concerned about
51:52 having ceasing operations do we have any
51:56 data yet on the business impact of the
52:02 current crisis I am personally aware I
52:09 don't know if Jen Davis Hayes is on if
52:15 she has any information that she could
52:17 share if city administrator Bob Choate's
52:20 has any information Madame mayor
52:26 councilmember Rey
52:28 miss Davis Hades is gathering that
52:30 information we're working closely with
52:32 our our partners I think we would hope
52:34 to have more information over the next
52:36 couple of weeks as we get to better
52:38 estimates and then just a quick follow
52:41 on to that what's the I can do the math
52:44 but I'm feeling challenged today what's
52:46 the percentage that you're estimating
52:48 the reduction there it looks fairly
52:49 substantial we're applying the 30%
52:54 reduction to be you know similar to what
52:58 we did for sales tax and also I should
53:02 add in case someone wants to do the math
53:05 on the spot did not apply the 30% to
53:09 what we actually collected in 2019
53:14 because the 2020 budget assumed a modest
53:18 increase in business and occupation tax
53:20 so the 30% is on last year's actual
53:23 collections thank you
53:27 Thank You deputy council president ray
53:32 dr. Goldberg if you want to continue on
53:34 with utility talk yes
53:36 so utility tax also a relatively stable
53:42 revenue source people need to continue
53:44 to heat their homes use water things of
53:48 that nature however there are two
53:50 sectors within utility tax that are more
53:53 elastic and ones where we've actually
53:56 seen a steady decline in recent years
53:59 and that is utility tax on telephoning
54:02 stable if the taxpayer see their
54:05 financial situations deteriorate we're
54:08 anticipating that there will be an
54:10 acceleration and the decline of cable
54:13 and television if people are looking for
54:15 ways when their expenses so the forecast
54:19 that we're presenting here assumes an
54:22 acceleration in that rate of decline
54:24 basically doubling what we had built
54:26 into the 2020 budget and then for the
54:30 remaining sectors we're assuming a 10%
54:33 decline again as people are struggling
54:36 to pay their bills we're assuming there
54:39 might be a decline either in usage or
54:41 people
54:41 ability to pay like the other revenues
54:45 that I've talked about tonight we are
54:47 also anticipating a lag in the receipt
54:49 of these revenues the city and other
54:53 utility companies in the area are
54:55 offering payment plans to those who are
54:58 struggling to pay their bill so we might
55:00 see some lags in how this revenue starts
55:04 to roll in as well and I will pause
55:07 there I am NOT saying that there any
55:12 questions lined up so please continue
55:14 director Goldberg okay if we can move to
55:17 slide 7 please
55:20 okay so slide 7 shows our other revenue
55:24 categories and we're taking these down
55:28 by a more modest level about 1.8 million
55:33 dollars and I'm gonna walk through
55:36 similar to the previous slide I'm gonna
55:38 walk through each one of these
55:39 categories and explain the rationale for
55:42 the changes that we are making the first
55:45 category is other taxes and we're taking
55:49 this down about just over eight thousand
55:51 dollars from the adopted budget in this
55:54 revenue category we get revenues from
55:57 pull-tabs and gambling amusement games
56:01 and we're taking these revenues down by
56:04 25%
56:05 assuming that three months shut down
56:07 from the stay at home and physical
56:09 distancing orders and thus here were
56:13 pull tabs and use of the amusement
56:16 gambling games I'll pause there before I
56:20 move on to planning permits and
56:22 licensing for any questions any at this
56:28 time thank you
56:29 okay so planning permits and licenses
56:32 were we've got a number of large
56:37 projects in the pipeline yeah and we are
56:41 assuming that those projects are going
56:42 to continue and the routine excuse me
56:45 the revenue from that source would
56:48 continue in terms of revenue from
56:50 routine work were DSE staff is where
56:55 anticipating that that will hold up
56:58 because there's a backlog of permits so
57:02 DSD staff will be working through that
57:05 backlog but for forecasting purposes we
57:08 are taking this revenue from the more
57:11 routine work down by about 10% or the
57:15 $200,000 that you are seeing on this
57:18 slide and I will pause there in case
57:21 there any questions no questions at this
57:25 time
57:26 okay the next revenue category is Public
57:30 Safety and enforcement and we're taking
57:32 this down by nearly four hundred and
57:35 fifty thousand dollars the forecast
57:38 assumes that the stay at home and
57:40 physical distancing orders will depress
57:43 court revenues jail revenues and other
57:45 smaller revenues in this category or
57:48 roughly three months and so for that as
57:53 I said we're taking that down by about
57:55 $450,000 and I'll pause again there it
58:03 like councilmember marks may have a
58:05 question come to my remarks thank you
58:09 thank you what sort of revenues we're
58:15 all revolving around public safety
58:17 enforcement do people not do during a
58:20 stay at home order yes so a couple of
58:24 things are going home is people are not
58:27 on the roads issuing fewer traffic
58:30 citations the jail has reduced its jail
58:35 population to try and ensure the safety
58:40 and health of the inmates in the jail so
58:42 we've got fewer inmates in the jail that
58:46 were housing for other jurisdictions so
58:48 getting less revenue for that and so
58:51 that that's the kind of thing that's
58:53 depressing
58:55 thank you very much
58:57 director Goldberg is court included in
59:00 public safety and enforcement or not yes
59:03 it is
59:04 so that's where so for example the
59:06 traffic citations that shows up is
59:09 support revenue and so if your people
59:13 are on the roads fewer traffic citations
59:15 are being issued there will be few less
59:17 revenue plan for that okay thank you
59:21 please continue okay so the next
59:24 category is perks and recreation and and
59:30 that one again were assuming that the
59:33 stay-at-home and physical distancing
59:35 orders will remain in place for three
59:37 months and are reducing recreation
59:40 programming revenues accordingly and
59:43 that also I'm wondering if there's a
59:46 typo on that slide because it's the
59:49 exact same number but we're taking that
59:51 down as well and I'll pause there thank
59:58 you we do have a question from
59:59 councilmember Dee Michelle that's going
1:00:03 back to public safety and enforcement
1:00:06 and you mentioned that there wouldn't be
1:00:09 as many people in the jail does your
1:00:16 forecast take into account the savings
1:00:19 for example on food and and other items
1:00:22 for those people who are incarcerated or
1:00:25 are we just now looking at revenues and
1:00:28 we'll look at possible savings on these
1:00:31 things later on or have you taken that
1:00:34 into account in these figures we have
1:00:36 not taken that savings into account in
1:00:39 these figures as you pointed out just
1:00:42 looking at the revenues but as we look
1:00:45 to the expenditures as part of this next
1:00:47 phase leading towards April 20th
1:00:51 certainly some of these activities where
1:00:55 we're seeing declines in youth and the
1:01:00 jail is is an example of one of them and
1:01:03 Parks frankly is another example where
1:01:06 we don't have the part-time staff needed
1:01:11 to run our recreation programs we will
1:01:14 see a natural level of savings that is
1:01:17 generated as a result of those shutdowns
1:01:20 and we'll certainly be capturing there
1:01:23 in what we report back on April 20th you
1:01:28 know unfortunately it's not going to be
1:01:29 enough to close the entirety of that gap
1:01:32 but some of that natural savings will be
1:01:36 capture all of it will be captured and
1:01:39 that part will be you know the air
1:01:41 quotes they're kind of the easy part of
1:01:43 this there's certainly there will be you
1:01:48 know many other difficult decisions but
1:01:50 that natural savings will be captured
1:01:52 thank you
1:01:53 Thank You director Goldberg I just want
1:01:56 to check back in deputy council
1:01:57 president ray did I miss you on a
1:01:59 question thank you awesome council
1:02:04 president hunts has a comment and our
1:02:07 question yes this is council president
1:02:11 I noticed the duplication of the same
1:02:15 numbers under the Public Safety and
1:02:17 enforcement and Parks and Recreation
1:02:18 difference from adopted and it does look
1:02:20 like based on the information in our
1:02:22 packet it does look like that's a typo
1:02:24 and Parks and Recreation in our packet
1:02:26 the difference is three nine five three
1:02:29 five two so three hundred ninety five
1:02:31 thousand three hundred and fifty two
1:02:36 director Goldberg yes thank you
1:02:39 so delegations and I'm actually going to
1:02:44 lump it with the last line on the chart
1:02:47 on this slide transfers in and talk
1:02:50 about those together the forecast
1:02:53 assumes that both of these are stable
1:02:56 these are internal transfers between
1:02:58 funds and we are not anticipating any
1:03:01 change in those categories and then next
1:03:07 I'm going to talk about the
1:03:08 miscellaneous revenue category and there
1:03:11 are several revenues within this
1:03:13 category that I want to talk about the
1:03:16 first of which is passport revenue which
1:03:18 is captured in this miscellaneous roll
1:03:21 up the city provides passport services
1:03:24 where people could come in and renew
1:03:27 their passports and we get revenue for
1:03:32 that for doing that service we are
1:03:34 assuming that that
1:03:36 Vidia suspended during the four three
1:03:39 months during the stay at home orders
1:03:41 and then when we do open back up again
1:03:44 we're assuming a 50% decline in passport
1:03:49 activities because we're anticipating
1:03:51 that the interest in demand for
1:03:54 international travel will decline for
1:03:56 the balance of the year so together that
1:03:59 brings about an eighty five thousand
1:04:02 dollar or I'm sorry it's eighty five
1:04:04 thousand dollars it's the budgeted
1:04:05 amount and we're taking that down based
1:04:08 on what I just described also in this
1:04:12 category is investment interest and
1:04:15 commonly do invests are are cash
1:04:18 balances in safe investments and earn
1:04:22 modest amounts of investment income
1:04:25 about four hundred and forty thousand
1:04:28 dollars was budgeted in the 2020 budget
1:04:30 for this revenue we're bringing that
1:04:32 down by half and we're bringing it down
1:04:35 by half or two primary reasons first the
1:04:39 interest rates have fallen pretty
1:04:42 substantially and also as our cash
1:04:46 balances decline we will be we will have
1:04:49 fewer balances to invest and so that
1:04:52 will reduce our investment income as
1:04:55 well also in this revenue category our
1:05:00 revenues from rents and leases including
1:05:04 renting out our facilities and like
1:05:08 other items that we've talked about more
1:05:11 assuming a three months shutdown and a
1:05:14 reduction in revenues from perfect
1:05:18 facilities rentals as a result and then
1:05:22 the last category will maybe I'll pause
1:05:24 and see if there are any questions about
1:05:26 the miscellaneous category before I move
1:05:28 on to share intergovernmental revenues
1:05:31 their goals are that you know that any
1:05:33 questions okay so the shared
1:05:38 intergovernmental revenues are where
1:05:40 we're receiving a variety of revenues
1:05:42 mostly from the state the one that
1:05:45 council members are likely most familiar
1:05:51 revenues that we get from the state for
1:05:55 the purposes of this forecast we reduced
1:05:58 this revenue line by 128 thousand and
1:06:03 then applied the 30% reduction sales tax
1:06:06 on the balance
1:06:08 however we learned on Friday that the
1:06:11 governor has vetoed this line item in
1:06:14 the state budget meaning we won't
1:06:16 receive any revenue from the source
1:06:18 after July so it's likely when we're
1:06:21 updating the forecast that we're going
1:06:23 to need to take this revenue source down
1:06:25 a little bit farther and then the last
1:06:29 area in this category is took liquor
1:06:32 related revenues down by 10% based on
1:06:36 closures of restaurants and things of
1:06:39 that nature but liquor stores remain
1:06:41 open so otherwise they're assuming that
1:06:43 that revenue will come in as as normal
1:06:47 and I'll pause there Thank You director
1:06:51 goal for councilmember Mart they have a
1:06:53 question thank you madam mayor my
1:06:56 question is whether we know the
1:06:57 magnitude at the finance financial
1:06:59 impact to Issaquah of the governor's
1:07:02 veto for the streamlined sales tax or
1:07:07 all revenue sources of the veto yes so
1:07:13 he vetoed a variety of things but the
1:07:16 one that I've heard that directly
1:07:18 impacts us is the streamlined sales that
1:07:21 we had assumed four hundred and twenty
1:07:24 thousand dollars in the budget for that
1:07:26 and so if you assume that you know we
1:07:30 won't get it after July you could take
1:07:32 that down by a half but some of that
1:07:36 also depends on the extent of sales tax
1:07:39 activity for March April and May well
1:07:45 that is unfortunate
1:07:46 Thank You councilmember Mart director
1:07:51 good okay so can we move to slide 8 now
1:07:58 please so as I mentioned
1:08:04 this was not as much of an expenditure
1:08:08 exercise that will be the next phase of
1:08:10 this but for forecasting purposes we did
1:08:14 look at how we've spent our budgets in
1:08:17 past years and typically we've spent
1:08:21 ninety six ninety seven percent of the
1:08:23 of our expenditures through the end of
1:08:27 the year for the purposes of this
1:08:30 forecast we actually move that to
1:08:32 ninety-eight percent because council may
1:08:35 recall that in adopting the budget last
1:08:37 year it we tightened up how were
1:08:41 budgeting a number of expenses including
1:08:44 we captured a one percent under spend on
1:08:47 salaries and benefits and we also
1:08:50 tightened up how we are budgeting
1:08:52 benefits and you get that a little bit
1:08:55 closer to reality so assuming we're
1:08:58 gonna spend a little bit more and
1:09:00 basically the point of this is and it's
1:09:03 it's a little bit irrelevant but it's to
1:09:05 make the point that if we continue to
1:09:08 course and speed and we came in with our
1:09:12 usual spending patterns we would end
1:09:15 2020 with about a nine point 1 million
1:09:18 dollar deficit and that is obviously
1:09:24 given our revenue picture not
1:09:27 sustainable if we continued spending at
1:09:30 this rate it would reduce fun balanced
1:09:33 by this nine point 1 million dollars
1:09:35 which would bring fund balance down to
1:09:39 about 13 percent of expenditures which
1:09:42 is below the fund balance target that
1:09:47 our financial management policies have
1:09:49 established as a reminder our financial
1:09:51 management policies set a fund balance
1:09:54 target of 15 to 20 percent of
1:09:57 expenditures this would bring it down to
1:10:00 13 percent and not only would we be
1:10:03 below that third that target but it also
1:10:06 would leave us very little wiggle room
1:10:08 if the revenue picture deteriorated if
1:10:11 there were other unexpected things
1:10:14 coming our way to
1:10:16 spawned once fund balances spent it's
1:10:19 it's it's hard to bring that back
1:10:22 absolutely in this climate so the
1:10:26 administration is recommending that we
1:10:28 reduce expenditures to align them to our
1:10:32 new revenue reality and as Andrea will
1:10:36 be talking about in a few moments we're
1:10:39 going to be in the coming weeks looking
1:10:41 at developing recommendations about how
1:10:44 to get there and then before I turn it
1:10:48 over to Andrea I did want to take a few
1:10:51 more minutes to talk about on slide 9 a
1:10:55 few other revenues that we're watching
1:10:57 I don't remember Walsh in Whitten before
1:11:03 you move to the next line perfect thank
1:11:06 you thank you this so you said that if
1:11:13 we were to continue on our current
1:11:15 spending trends with 9 point 1 million
1:11:19 dollar deficit coming out of fund
1:11:21 balance is it safe to assume that since
1:11:24 we've been living this scenario for you
1:11:29 know to a certain extent for the last
1:11:32 month that we have already suffered some
1:11:36 of that and until we act that money is
1:11:41 necessarily coming out of fund balance
1:11:44 is that a safe assumption I would say
1:11:49 that depends yes we're a month into this
1:11:53 we don't exactly know how the last month
1:11:57 looks for our revenues because of the
1:12:01 lag in the data but I think what we're
1:12:04 recommending is that based on the
1:12:07 forecasts that we're presenting tonight
1:12:09 that we use that is what we're planning
1:12:11 to and that we needed to develop a
1:12:15 strategy basically for you know the last
1:12:18 eight months of the year about how we're
1:12:22 going to address that gap so
1:12:25 you know is that through reductions that
1:12:28 we would that we would assume basically
1:12:33 you know May through December or is it
1:12:36 you know a combination of fun balance
1:12:39 that's really the policy discussion that
1:12:41 the council is going to need to have
1:12:43 about how much of this is going to come
1:12:45 from expenditures versus how much of it
1:12:48 will come from fund balance and an ideal
1:12:51 situation the use of fund balance will
1:12:54 be would be more deliberative rather
1:12:57 than more of kind of an oops at the end
1:12:59 of the year of you know we don't want to
1:13:02 miss by the end of the year so what
1:13:04 we're dipping into what we would want it
1:13:06 to be more of a deliberate decision okay
1:13:13 thank you Beth
1:13:17 Thank You director Goldberg I am getting
1:13:20 some comments about some feedback in
1:13:22 particular when I'm coming back into the
1:13:24 conversation so I will try and take some
1:13:26 longer pauses to give people time to
1:13:28 mute their microphones and we'll try and
1:13:30 work on that issue
1:13:32 director Goldberg okay so we can move on
1:13:38 to slide 9 please okay I want to briefly
1:13:43 talk about the some of the other funds
1:13:46 that we're watching most of this
1:13:49 presentation has been about the general
1:13:51 fund but we know we've got a number of
1:13:53 other funds that are probably going to
1:13:57 also be facing some financial difficulty
1:14:00 the first of which is the street
1:14:02 operating fund the street operating fund
1:14:05 gets most of its revenue from the
1:14:07 general fund so we've already talked
1:14:09 about what's going on there but it also
1:14:12 gets revenue from the motor fuel tax and
1:14:17 with people driving lasts as they're
1:14:20 staying at home we're expecting that
1:14:22 revenue to decline and then the street
1:14:26 operating fund also gets revenue from
1:14:29 the refund and I will be pivoting to
1:14:33 that as the next one listed on this on
1:14:36 this slide
1:14:37 during the Great Recession which is real
1:14:40 estate excise tax this revenue source
1:14:42 dropped by 55 percent so again this is
1:14:46 one that we will be watching closely and
1:14:49 will be making recommendations over the
1:14:53 next couple of weeks about how to adjust
1:14:56 our REIT expenditures in anticipation of
1:14:59 a drop there the sustainability fund
1:15:03 that gets revenue from the general fund
1:15:06 we've talked about that a little bit
1:15:08 although it does have a healthy fund
1:15:10 balance so that will help the school
1:15:13 safety school zone safety fund receives
1:15:17 its revenue from the speed cameras the
1:15:22 traffic enforcement cameras near the
1:15:25 high school and when schools are closed
1:15:28 the cameras are not operating and we get
1:15:32 an estimated sixty nine thousand dollars
1:15:34 in revenue per month from the operation
1:15:39 of these cameras so with those shut down
1:15:41 we're assuming that that revenue is
1:15:44 going to contract again we have been
1:15:46 assuming a month closure but now that
1:15:49 schools are closed through the end of
1:15:51 the school year we'll likely see a
1:15:53 bigger hit than we were originally
1:15:55 anticipating there but again this is a
1:15:58 fund with a relatively healthy fund
1:16:00 balance and then the last fund that I
1:16:04 wanted to talk about is the municipal
1:16:06 arts fund this fund gets revenues from
1:16:09 admissions tents with the live theaters
1:16:14 and movie theaters shut down were
1:16:16 expecting that revenue to contract and
1:16:19 then in addition this were fun to gets
1:16:22 revenue from a so if we are cutting back
1:16:28 on capital spending we may have less
1:16:32 money than going into the municipal Art
1:16:34 Fund so we will be doing that analysis
1:16:37 again in the coming weeks and with that
1:16:40 I'll pause again for questions thank you
1:16:50 we have a quick
1:16:51 then from Councilmember home thank you
1:16:55 Mary Paulie this is councilman is that
1:16:57 can you speak a little bit to the
1:16:58 lodging tax frontier I noticed that was
1:17:00 mentioned in the agenda packet but any
1:17:04 additional information you have would be
1:17:05 helpful yeah
1:17:06 so that's another revenue that we're
1:17:09 expecting contraction is people are
1:17:12 frequenting hotels less that is a fund
1:17:17 that also has a healthy fund balance in
1:17:20 the spending on of those revenues is set
1:17:24 by the L tax committee so any changes
1:17:27 that we make in those fundings that
1:17:29 would be required for that fund we would
1:17:32 also need to involve LTAC as well thank
1:17:37 you very much quick follow-up if I may
1:17:39 there Polly sorry can you remind me do
1:17:47 you know who the members of the
1:17:48 healthcare committee are I do not know
1:17:51 does maybe the mayor City Administrator
1:17:55 now I've cut my head this is the mayor I
1:18:00 believe that it councilmember Goodman
1:18:02 but we'll let her way and it is it is
1:18:06 the chair of the LTAC committee thank
1:18:09 you thank you Thank You councilmember
1:18:13 Hall I am not seeing any more questions
1:18:16 so we can move part of the presentation
1:18:21 thanks and for the next part of the
1:18:23 presentation I'm going to turn it over
1:18:25 to the city administrator or Snyder
1:18:31 thank you that this is deputy City
1:18:35 Administrator Andrea Snyder good evening
1:18:38 everybody
1:18:39 so my portion of tonight's presentation
1:18:41 is going to cover what is the city doing
1:18:43 to respond to the anticipated hit in
1:18:46 revenue and in short we are examining
1:18:51 all of our expenditures so we can move
1:18:53 to slide 10 we're examining all of our
1:18:57 expenditures there are a few areas that
1:19:01 we'll be focusing on tonight but please
1:19:03 know that we are really taking a
1:19:05 get everything and part of that effort
1:19:07 we have already made some changes to how
1:19:10 we are approaching staffing so first on
1:19:13 that list there is a hiring freeze in
1:19:15 effect we have frozen a number of
1:19:17 positions and stopped recruitments so
1:19:21 far those savings total six hundred
1:19:24 forty thousand dollars overall for
1:19:26 budget savings and stopping those
1:19:28 recruitments and we examine that as the
1:19:31 months proceed there will be additional
1:19:33 recruitments that we stop as well making
1:19:36 exceptions for essential personnel such
1:19:39 as police officers for example and we
1:19:44 are examining other cost reductions that
1:19:46 could come with staffing I know that in
1:19:49 the past couple of days we've been
1:19:50 talking about looking at benefits
1:19:54 looking at options for furloughs and
1:19:57 other reductions as well a slide 11
1:20:02 please or next for a city administrator
1:20:04 Schneider I believe we have a question
1:20:06 from council president hunt on this
1:20:09 great yes this council president hunt so
1:20:14 on the last slide with the cost savings
1:20:17 from the softs recruitment so far is
1:20:20 this a rate that we would expect to
1:20:22 continue to accrue over time and if so
1:20:26 what's the rate so however how long has
1:20:29 this money accrued so far
1:20:34 so the 640,000 is an estimate and
1:20:37 assuming that we've stopped those
1:20:39 recruitments through the rest of the
1:20:40 year okay yeah okay and then a quick
1:20:46 follow-up we also had adopted in our
1:20:51 last budget a 1% a 1% estimate of not
1:20:58 that included not filling positions on
1:21:01 salary and so is that over is that
1:21:04 savings overlapping with this stops
1:21:06 recruitment savings or are they is it
1:21:08 this completely separate from that this
1:21:13 savings is by and large over and above
1:21:15 the 1% that we had anticipated knowing
1:21:18 that the 1
1:21:19 percent also includes savings from from
1:21:23 moments in time when the position may
1:21:27 not be filled but were under recruiting
1:21:29 and waiting for that position to be
1:21:31 filled this is this is in addition to
1:21:35 that anticipated 1% okay thank you okay
1:21:47 that's greater great Thank You mayor
1:21:51 moving on to slide 11 as we're looking
1:21:55 at all components of our work plan were
1:21:58 really especially paying special
1:22:00 attention on those projects that rely on
1:22:02 outside consultants and professional
1:22:04 service contracts essentially we are
1:22:07 sorting the search into three buckets
1:22:09 which project should move forward at
1:22:11 planned which projects should not move
1:22:14 forward and which projects should move
1:22:17 forward but with the reduced scope
1:22:18 including perhaps more in-house work or
1:22:22 perhaps just a reduced sculpt spoke
1:22:25 altogether as we kind of go through that
1:22:29 sorting effort and we'll be bringing
1:22:31 back our recommendations to City Council
1:22:33 later this month we are looking at
1:22:37 criteria and this is something that we
1:22:38 would like councils feedback on this
1:22:40 evening we're looking at what are some
1:22:43 of these considerations that we should
1:22:45 be making and taking into account as we
1:22:48 examine our projects and certainly our
1:22:50 professional service contracts so when
1:22:54 the strategic plan was formed it was
1:22:56 understood that the strategic plan would
1:22:59 guide our efforts over and above our
1:23:01 mandated or core or essential services
1:23:05 and at this point due to the significant
1:23:08 reduction in revenues that we have
1:23:10 forecast we anticipate being limited to
1:23:13 providing really those core or mandated
1:23:17 services and that we won't be able to
1:23:20 achieve progress on most of our
1:23:23 strategic plan items budgeted for this
1:23:26 year and so you see the first criteria
1:23:28 that we have in this list on slide 11 is
1:23:30 the core or Mandy
1:23:32 city service is it a court mandated City
1:23:35 service if it is then it's something
1:23:37 that we will look at proceeding list but
1:23:39 maybe making into other considerations
1:23:41 for how we can reduce costs and
1:23:43 expenditures then is it a project that
1:23:48 would require a significant amount of
1:23:49 public engagement and dialogue
1:23:51 especially over the next few months
1:23:53 that's going to be our ability to do
1:23:55 that it's going to be really limited we
1:23:56 have some online tools for engagement
1:23:58 and we can be using those but even to
1:24:00 get public intention while people are
1:24:03 trying to work from home while kids are
1:24:05 home from school
1:24:06 Bischoff added complexity in people's
1:24:09 lives and of course people are really
1:24:12 focused on the public health crisis so
1:24:15 public engagement over the next three
1:24:17 months is our ability to that is really
1:24:20 limited and any project that's going to
1:24:22 require that over the next three months
1:24:24 or perhaps even more we're going to
1:24:26 really take another hard look at source
1:24:30 of funding so is it general fund is it
1:24:34 something that we have grant funding or
1:24:36 private funds some of the projects that
1:24:38 we're looking to execute are within and
1:24:42 agreement a development agreement some
1:24:45 of the projects we already have state
1:24:46 funding and we will lose that funding if
1:24:49 we don't move forward with that project
1:24:51 so these are considerations that were
1:24:53 making and there may be even projects
1:24:55 that do have grant funding that we come
1:24:57 back and recommend that we don't move
1:24:59 forward with because there's a City
1:25:01 matching component or there's a staffing
1:25:04 capacity issue or some other issue that
1:25:06 makes that project difficult to complete
1:25:08 but certainly where the funds are coming
1:25:11 from is something that we're taking a
1:25:13 look at staff capacity to perform the
1:25:16 work I touched on this briefly before as
1:25:18 we look at the stopping recruitments
1:25:20 having a hiring freeze other other types
1:25:24 of staffing reductions in ours or
1:25:27 otherwise that come that we consider do
1:25:31 we have the staff capacity to perform
1:25:33 the work also can the project be stopped
1:25:37 some of our projects are difficult to
1:25:40 stop pending where they are in progress
1:25:42 I think about are some of our capital
1:25:45 projects in public
1:25:46 works for example some of them are
1:25:49 essential infrastructure that we are
1:25:51 doing and would be in a very awkward
1:25:53 place to stop and then again can the
1:25:58 scope be reduced for a professional
1:26:00 services contracts especially looking at
1:26:02 how we can modify those scopes of work
1:26:05 and perhaps reduce what the deliverables
1:26:09 are so that we can reduce the
1:26:13 expenditures in kind now this is just a
1:26:15 starting list of criteria that we have
1:26:18 so far been working with in a little bit
1:26:22 the direction that we're asking for from
1:26:25 City Council tonight is on these on
1:26:29 these criteria and if you have
1:26:31 additional criteria looking for
1:26:34 discussions on that and also a feedback
1:26:36 on priority is and I'll pause here for
1:26:39 questions thank you I counsel member
1:26:44 wall shows the question right now Thank
1:26:49 You mayor Polly this has cut some member
1:26:51 Walsh city administrator Snyder can you
1:26:55 give us a sense of scope as to what
1:26:59 percentage of our budget is professional
1:27:03 service contracts something that tells
1:27:07 us hey if we make changes here that will
1:27:09 affect one percent versus fifty percent
1:27:13 of our budget for example I I cannot
1:27:21 actually I'm sorry I don't have an
1:27:23 estimate for overall in terms of City
1:27:25 budgets of in any one fund or across all
1:27:29 funds how many of them are professional
1:27:31 service contracts I'm sorry but that's
1:27:32 something that we might be able to get
1:27:35 to you I understand that it's one of our
1:27:36 significant expenditures as we look at
1:27:38 staffing and then I think the next
1:27:42 largest overall category of spending
1:27:44 might be professional services contracts
1:27:46 I look to a finance director Boulder to
1:27:49 correct me on that but I believe it's a
1:27:51 substantial portion we would have to
1:27:57 gather that data I don't know it the
1:27:59 answer often
1:28:00 with my head thank you Thank You
1:28:05 councilmember wall I'm deputy City
1:28:08 Administrator if you'd like to continue
1:28:12 Thank You mayor so as we move to slide
1:28:15 12 to the next slide and the first thing
1:28:20 that I wanted to talk about was the
1:28:21 assessment of city services something
1:28:23 that we discussed that length when
1:28:25 considering the 2020 budget and while we
1:28:29 look at some actions that we can take
1:28:31 immediately in areas of staffing or the
1:28:33 projects that we're doing we're also
1:28:36 taking the time to look ahead into the
1:28:37 future and with kovat 19 of our
1:28:41 priorities have changed to responding to
1:28:43 the public health crisis and as we've
1:28:44 been working from home we our priorities
1:28:49 have shifted that have been able to help
1:28:51 us reassign some staff to work on the
1:28:54 assessment of city services internally
1:28:56 which we anticipate will save the
1:29:00 majority of the $250,000 adopted in the
1:29:04 2020 budget and general funds that we
1:29:06 had anticipated
1:29:07 to spend on this work so we look to that
1:29:11 assessment of city services specifically
1:29:14 when we look at development service the
1:29:17 development services department or DSV
1:29:19 as it is written on this slide so the
1:29:22 first the first body of work that we're
1:29:25 doing is a cost recovery study on
1:29:27 whether the DSD revenues permit fees
1:29:31 specifically and all other revenues are
1:29:34 paying for the services provided by DSD
1:29:38 I think we need to have a good
1:29:39 understanding of that the next step once
1:29:43 we determine that is to return to
1:29:45 council and have a greater discussion on
1:29:47 where we would like to be I think we
1:29:49 have a target in our financial policies
1:29:51 that somewhere between 70 and 75 percent
1:29:53 of subsidizing or rather that CFC
1:29:58 revenues would cover 70 or 75% of the
1:30:04 DSD expenses and I think we need to look
1:30:06 at or the study aims to find out where
1:30:09 how close we're getting to that target
1:30:11 and then I think that will help inform a
1:30:14 council discussion as to whether it
1:30:16 should be 70 percent or whether we need
1:30:18 to have other considerations given our
1:30:21 our hit to revenues the other part of
1:30:26 that so once we kind of get that
1:30:28 information then if we determine it's
1:30:31 careful determines that it would be
1:30:33 prudent and necessary to look at
1:30:35 increasing development services fees and
1:30:37 permit fees then we would move forward
1:30:41 with that work internally as much as
1:30:42 possible as well to help inform future
1:30:46 conversations in 2020 or perhaps the
1:30:48 budget in 2021 the next the next piece
1:30:53 of this assessment of city services is
1:30:56 also looking at the jail and Municipal
1:30:59 Court both for the jail and Municipal
1:31:02 Court we have in our local agreements in
1:31:05 place with other cities to provide these
1:31:07 services for them and we are taking the
1:31:11 time to gather the data to determine how
1:31:13 well do our local contracts and what we
1:31:17 charge these other jurisdictions for
1:31:19 these services really cover the cost of
1:31:21 providing these services and are we
1:31:23 achieving the economies of scale for
1:31:26 sukwon these other cities by providing
1:31:28 these services and again that data once
1:31:31 we have it will then further inform our
1:31:34 approach moving forward as to whether we
1:31:36 need to revisit some of the fees
1:31:38 outlined in those agreements or not
1:31:42 and whether we consider how we provide
1:31:45 for jail services the municipal court
1:31:47 services in the city of this o'clock
1:31:49 I'll pause for a question
1:31:53 thank you we do have a question from
1:31:56 councilmember Dee Michele thank you I do
1:32:01 not know how extensive we if we get
1:32:07 anywhere with you or a significant
1:32:09 amount of revenue for venue and building
1:32:12 rentals are we including that in this
1:32:16 study of cost recovery because that
1:32:19 there could be significant depending on
1:32:22 how much revenue or how much that
1:32:25 activity takes place
1:32:27 do you have any way to get about whether
1:32:29 that should be included in this overall
1:32:32 assessment of cost recovery so I think
1:32:38 that we are sorry this is this is Andrea
1:32:43 Schneider speaking I think that we are
1:32:45 already considering that in terms of the
1:32:48 budget reduction exercise as we speak
1:32:52 with the parks recreation Community
1:32:56 Services Director and his staff on on
1:33:00 those facilities I think that's
1:33:01 information that we already have a
1:33:03 little bit more readily available and
1:33:06 the analysis that's required for VSD
1:33:10 jail Municipal Court is just a little
1:33:11 bit more expensive Thank You deputy City
1:33:19 Administrator I'm going to see if
1:33:20 administrator Bob Chris wants to add
1:33:22 something to them yes thank you madam
1:33:26 mayor members of the council I think
1:33:28 what we're trying to illustrate with
1:33:30 this slide is the portion of Andrea's
1:33:33 presentation is these are the things
1:33:35 that we want to do right away we think
1:33:37 that they will have the most impact to
1:33:40 that certainly we have talked about
1:33:42 other looks at other costs certainly our
1:33:46 facilities our rentals are all part of
1:33:48 that but given the current circumstances
1:33:50 we want to focus on those things that we
1:33:53 think will have the greatest impact and
1:33:55 I think as the year progresses we'll be
1:33:57 able to take on more but these are the
1:33:59 handful of things that we think will
1:34:01 have the most impact over the next a
1:34:04 couple of months thank you i all sis's
1:34:11 the mayor and we have a question from
1:34:12 councilmember marks thank you madam
1:34:15 mayor so I'm a little confused these are
1:34:21 not things that would have impact these
1:34:25 are activities that would help us plan
1:34:27 the things that we would do that would
1:34:30 have impact
1:34:31 what is the these these all have
1:34:35 timelines associated with them and how
1:34:37 long they would take and the staff
1:34:39 and or external consultants that would
1:34:43 be required to accomplish these things
1:34:45 so I'm wondering what the sort of
1:34:47 timelines are if we pulled that if you
1:34:51 someone pulled the trigger on doing
1:34:54 these things what's the timeline before
1:34:56 decisions could be made and revenue
1:34:59 changes realized thank you oh this is
1:35:02 councilmember marks by the way can you
1:35:05 councilmember marks city administrator
1:35:07 Belle quits
1:35:10 councilmember Mars members of the
1:35:12 council we are doing the DSD review now
1:35:15 our hope would be to come back to the
1:35:19 council with information hopefully
1:35:22 actionable items in the next 45 to 60
1:35:27 days the jail and Municipal Court work
1:35:30 is also something that is now beginning
1:35:33 I don't have a specific timeframe for
1:35:35 that but I would hope that not long
1:35:38 after mid-year if it was feasible for us
1:35:41 to come back to the council with some
1:35:43 information we would do that we
1:35:45 understand that these are important is
1:35:47 andrew has indicated were reallocating
1:35:51 staff resources to take this on we don't
1:35:54 believe we're going to need to use
1:35:55 outside resources um we see these as
1:35:58 opportunities or some significant
1:36:01 savings or at least to provide
1:36:02 information to the council to consider
1:36:04 that for significant savings thank you
1:36:09 thank you to the administrator babka
1:36:12 deputy administrator Andrea which we
1:36:14 would like to continue thank you madam
1:36:19 mayor hey I'm going to interrupt you
1:36:22 right away and let you know that comes
1:36:24 many walls sorry about that
1:36:30 Thank You this is councilmember Walsh to
1:36:33 follow up on councilmember marks
1:36:34 question my understanding is that at
1:36:38 least with the jail in the Municipal
1:36:40 Court that we have contracts with other
1:36:42 agencies and cities and municipalities
1:36:46 do we have a sense are those contracts
1:36:49 through the end of 2020 that we couldn't
1:36:52 out of is there a lag time between us
1:36:56 making a decision and actually seeing
1:36:59 revenue and cost differences how do you
1:37:12 miss traitor Bob crooks we are looking
1:37:16 at all that right now
1:37:17 councilmember Wallace members of the
1:37:19 council we take all this extraordinarily
1:37:22 seriously as being something that we
1:37:24 need to move on if we can we will we
1:37:29 will bring to the council how these
1:37:31 contracts perhaps could be amended we
1:37:33 will work with our partners we are still
1:37:36 in the first stages of that but we will
1:37:39 not let lengths of time be an initial
1:37:41 obstacle for these contracts we want to
1:37:44 be as diligent as we can we think the
1:37:45 circumstances before us are significant
1:37:48 enough that we will work to open these
1:37:51 contracts up as VP you deputy City
1:38:00 Administrator Schneider Ridge late to
1:38:01 continue yes Thank You mayor
1:38:06 so still moving on to slide 13 please as
1:38:12 we look to next steps we are planning
1:38:16 coming back to the City Council at the
1:38:18 regular council meeting on April 20th to
1:38:21 provide our recommendations for the work
1:38:23 plan adjustments and also
1:38:26 recommendations related to workforce for
1:38:29 how we would reduce some of our
1:38:31 expenditures and City Administrator Bob
1:38:35 Choate's indicated the timeline for the
1:38:38 city assessment of services pieces is a
1:38:41 little bit farther out as we look at a
1:38:43 45 day time horizon and being able to
1:38:47 provide an update to City Council with
1:38:49 more information in May and unless
1:38:54 there's no questions on next steps then
1:38:56 I'd like to go over some of the
1:38:59 direction that is still needed and
1:39:00 that's for your discussion and
1:39:02 consideration tonight as we are looking
1:39:05 for feedback on
1:39:06 criteria and any other kind of general
1:39:09 feedback and input that to be counseled
1:39:10 to provide on funding priorities and so
1:39:13 Tina if it's helpful as we could
1:39:18 I'll posture questions here and then we
1:39:20 might need to go back to slide 11 for
1:39:22 that list of criteria again Thank You
1:39:25 deputy City Administrator this is the
1:39:28 mayor that he helps the president Ray as
1:39:30 a question and then before we actually
1:39:32 start the feedback section I do have
1:39:34 some comments that I want to share with
1:39:36 the council deputy council president ray
1:39:42 this is a council member chris ray a
1:39:47 couple of questions and I think I'm
1:39:49 gonna rewind actually a bit into revenue
1:39:51 but because I need to have the revenue
1:39:53 picture before I feel like I can give
1:39:55 you a feedback on the expense picture
1:39:58 we're there so this is a calling
1:40:02 director goldberg back to the back to
1:40:05 the forefront where there are some
1:40:06 underlying assumptions that you made in
1:40:08 terms of the length of the stay at home
1:40:10 order and/or the time for an economic
1:40:14 rebound when you were factory and you're
1:40:18 estimating for the reduction in revenue
1:40:28 and in some areas no so revenues that
1:40:34 were tied directly to a service for
1:40:38 example recreation activities core
1:40:44 activities I cited pull tabs for each
1:40:49 for those kinds of revenues we assumed a
1:40:53 three month shutdown but for the big
1:40:58 four revenues it's really it's it's
1:41:03 difficult to figure out how those
1:41:05 revenues are going to perform and so for
1:41:10 those looks really at our experience
1:41:13 during the Great Recession as is the
1:41:17 benchmark to
1:41:19 tie those forecasts to certainly how
1:41:23 these perform over time will depend as
1:41:27 you noted on the length of the shutdown
1:41:30 and then how quickly we bounce back in
1:41:35 the early weeks of this emergency there
1:41:39 was a sense that you know it was gonna
1:41:42 be like a recovery like a sharp decline
1:41:46 and then we would bounce back pretty
1:41:49 quickly I think as the shutdown persists
1:41:55 I think there are growing concerns that
1:41:58 the the economic fallout of this problem
1:42:03 there but you know as I said at the
1:42:04 outset this is this is unprecedented we
1:42:09 don't have an experience like this so
1:42:11 it's really hard to predict how how the
1:42:14 revenues will perform on the back end
1:42:16 you know with that if I could just add
1:42:19 one more point I mean what that requires
1:42:22 vigilant monitoring you know regular
1:42:26 monitoring of the revenues and certainly
1:42:28 as we get real-time data that that is
1:42:33 going to be extremely informative to say
1:42:36 okay what were these forecasts on the
1:42:38 mark or were they not so we'll be
1:42:41 waiting and watching okay lots of lots
1:42:45 of course corrections thank you this is
1:42:49 the mayor a couple of points given
1:42:51 council president ray thank you for
1:42:53 finishing off forever new questions what
1:42:55 I'd like to do is make sure that if any
1:42:58 other council members have questions on
1:43:00 revenues before we move to the feedback
1:43:03 part I'd like to give you an opportunity
1:43:05 to do that now so while I'm waiting I
1:43:09 also would like to give the council
1:43:10 president an opportunity to summarize
1:43:14 any public comments that emailed to the
1:43:17 council before we start to take the
1:43:19 feedback so I'm not questioned so I'll
1:43:22 go to council president thank you madam
1:43:27 mayor so we did receive some feedback
1:43:30 specific to this
1:43:33 informational item that was in our
1:43:35 packet this evening one correspondence
1:43:39 we received that I think relates to this
1:43:42 was from Debbie Lacey Eastside refugee
1:43:45 and immigrant Coalition and you cite for
1:43:48 all and she wrote to us about the that
1:43:54 is imperative that our cities provide
1:43:55 financial support to a range of
1:43:58 organizations and to be mindful of the
1:44:00 East Side's diverse populations and
1:44:02 needs during this crisis since remain
1:44:04 committed to values of equity and
1:44:06 inclusion and then additionally C prayer
1:44:12 wrote to us about this financial update
1:44:14 section and he wanted to summarize his
1:44:18 comments he was interested in seeing
1:44:21 criteria for how the items support Itzik
1:44:25 was vision mission goals and objectives
1:44:28 and that's a summary of the
1:44:31 correspondence that we've received it I
1:44:33 think directly relates to this Thank You
1:44:38 council president so before we move into
1:44:41 actually the feedback session I just
1:44:42 wanted to give another chance for
1:44:45 council desk any questions on the slides
1:44:49 and a material that was presented by the
1:44:51 deputy City Administrator well give a
1:44:54 few seconds here to see if there are any
1:44:55 additional questions I'm not seeing any
1:45:02 come up I wanted to provide some
1:45:04 comments before we went into the
1:45:06 feedback section because I want the
1:45:09 council in the community to understand
1:45:10 what the administration's going to do
1:45:12 with this information so while we know
1:45:15 tonight that there is no formal action
1:45:17 being requested on this agenda item we
1:45:20 are asking for feedback you started off
1:45:23 with a very detailed presentation from
1:45:27 our finance director on the revenue
1:45:29 picture and the next phase of this is
1:45:33 going to be the direction provided by
1:45:37 counsel on expenditure reductions so
1:45:41 we're asking for feedback in a couple of
1:45:44 areas
1:45:45 the evaluation of project criteria and
1:45:49 deputies the administrator Snyder can
1:45:51 put the slide back up and we can
1:45:52 facilitate that conversation first but
1:45:56 also looking at some point for some
1:45:58 general feedback on our proposed funding
1:46:02 priorities the these next couple of
1:46:05 weeks are going to be difficult there's
1:46:08 a lot of work still to do and a lot of
1:46:10 difficult decisions that need to be made
1:46:12 I hope that the City Council provides a
1:46:18 lot of input tonight on these criteria
1:46:20 so that the administration will be able
1:46:22 to be making adjustments to the livers
1:46:26 of delivery of services and programs I
1:46:29 plan as mayor is to move forward with
1:46:31 these adjustments which will include
1:46:33 staff reductions and a report back to
1:46:37 the City Council on April 20th fading I
1:46:40 would like to review the changes and
1:46:42 seek any comments and he counts them I
1:46:44 have it's my plan to take the
1:46:46 information or I defy you tonight to
1:46:50 prepare information for the April 20th
1:46:52 meeting in order to implement changes on
1:46:55 May 1st and I wanted to put this
1:46:57 information out there for your
1:46:59 consideration while you're providing
1:47:00 your feedback and evening I am seeing
1:47:05 council members starting to weigh in on
1:47:08 making comments deputy City
1:47:10 Administrator Snyder if you'd like to
1:47:12 put the slide back up first on project
1:47:15 evaluation criteria national service
1:47:18 contract criteria we can start there and
1:47:21 I'm going to stare at the discussion
1:47:24 with councilmember marks thank you madam
1:47:28 mayor
1:47:28 would it be all right if I spoke to
1:47:31 funding priorities first don't see why
1:47:36 not if the body would like to flip the
1:47:40 order of providing feedback I think we
1:47:42 could do it my preference is that rather
1:47:44 than have everybody providing feedback
1:47:47 on both that we take one of these areas
1:47:49 at a time so I'm not seeing anybody
1:47:52 opposed to the idea so if we start with
1:47:54 funding priorities let's do that he's
1:47:57 sitting in straighter
1:47:59 thank you madam mayor this is
1:48:00 councilmember Toula marts so we were
1:48:04 facing restructuring already as we knew
1:48:09 as we talked about at the end of the
1:48:11 budget last year we had fundamental
1:48:15 structural questions that we were having
1:48:17 the administration consider and now we
1:48:20 have this higher urgency with the
1:48:24 funding shortfalls we see right now as
1:48:26 well as a recession of unknown length in
1:48:29 front of us we have to temper the urge
1:48:35 to cut with the fact that the cuts
1:48:38 themselves can be harmful the cuts
1:48:40 themselves can impact our community
1:48:43 directly and indirectly as well as
1:48:46 potential revenue increases that we
1:48:48 might choose can be harmful so how to
1:48:51 parse what's in front of us I believe
1:48:55 that we have to sort of bifurcate what's
1:48:59 in front of us into two categories and
1:49:01 the first is what is it what is around
1:49:06 making sure our citizens are safe and
1:49:09 secure and to me that's running water
1:49:13 sewer garbage service working street
1:49:17 signals uniformed officers on the street
1:49:19 and firefighters to go on call and and
1:49:23 that is one category of expenditures and
1:49:28 then there's everything else and I would
1:49:31 I would submit that what I hope to see
1:49:35 is that that category of the things that
1:49:38 involve safety and physical security of
1:49:40 our residents that we attempt to
1:49:43 separate that out and not touch those
1:49:46 areas and rather have our funding
1:49:51 challenges or funding changes occur in
1:49:53 the other body of work I recognize that
1:49:56 those things that I just stated are
1:49:59 probably 50% of our budget I'm possibly
1:50:03 more so I recognize that that suggestion
1:50:06 is is incredibly impactful on what we
1:50:10 choose to
1:50:11 ooh but I think that that's where we
1:50:14 find ourselves and I think that those
1:50:18 are if there's a Maslow's hierarchy of
1:50:20 needs at the municipal level those are
1:50:23 those are our most fundamental
1:50:25 priorities and that nothing else nothing
1:50:29 else functions if we don't if our if our
1:50:33 residents and our businesses folks are
1:50:36 not safe and physically secure where
1:50:40 they're located thank you Thank You
1:50:44 councilmember marks I councilmember
1:50:47 Walsh thank you ere Polly this is
1:50:52 councilmember Walsh my thoughts and
1:50:55 feelings on our funding priorities are
1:50:57 fairly similar to what
1:50:59 councilmember Mart's had just said I
1:51:02 think we need to make no mistake and
1:51:05 recognize that we're facing a 10 million
1:51:07 dollar shortfall plus unknown risk going
1:51:11 beyond that my funding priorities are
1:51:16 the health and safety of our residents
1:51:19 which means continuing to fund police
1:51:23 force fire response water sewer all of
1:51:28 those areas beyond that I want to limit
1:51:34 our risk and maintain our fund balance
1:51:36 understanding that at the very least we
1:51:40 have to remain solvent and recognizing
1:51:42 that it will likely get worse and we
1:51:44 need to be prepared for that I'm in
1:51:48 favor of any restructuring and service
1:51:51 assessment and beyond the health and
1:51:55 safety and kind of core functionalities
1:51:59 I would put a preference on Human
1:52:02 Services and economic development those
1:52:05 are going to be the areas that I feel
1:52:06 are going to be most needed going
1:52:10 forward
1:52:10 and beyond that I prefer keeping our
1:52:14 existing employees over anything that
1:52:17 we're doing with professional service
1:52:19 contracts thank you
1:52:24 Thank You councilmember Walsh
1:52:26 councilmember Hall Thank You mayor Palio
1:52:30 this is councilmember Zack Hall I may be
1:52:34 asked to speak again because I'm still
1:52:37 churning on all of this but one thing
1:52:40 that's top of mind for me is that well I
1:52:44 agree with Councilman Wells who are
1:52:46 Martin Walsh that public safety is
1:52:50 critical
1:52:50 I'm not sure we can necessarily put
1:52:52 something off to the side and and and
1:52:55 not touch it at all but my point of view
1:52:59 would be that we I would like to visit
1:53:04 discussions around when it comes to
1:53:09 budget savings discussions Public Safety
1:53:14 and fund balance last very last I think
1:53:19 we work backwards through looking
1:53:22 everywhere else in the budget and then
1:53:25 see where we're at at that point to
1:53:30 consider using fund balance to consider
1:53:33 making modest cuts to public safety but
1:53:38 my first piece of direction for
1:53:42 administration would just be to work
1:53:44 backwards from everything else and then
1:53:48 to the public safety Rome and the use of
1:53:51 fund balance Thank You councilmember
1:53:56 Hall next is councilmember G Michele
1:54:00 thank you before I start to speak I just
1:54:04 wanted knowledge again what finance
1:54:08 director Goldberg said and that is we're
1:54:11 really in unprecedented times and we
1:54:14 don't have all of the information in
1:54:16 front of us we may not have all of the
1:54:18 information in front of us two weeks
1:54:19 from now and so we will we'll do the
1:54:24 best we can but the things that we
1:54:28 talked about tonight we may be
1:54:31 completely changed in two weeks and I
1:54:32 think we need to acknowledge that we're
1:54:35 and Steph said we're flying a little bit
1:54:38 blind here
1:54:39 I agreed overall with councilmember
1:54:42 marks and Santa Barbara Walsh's
1:54:46 statement regarding our top priority
1:54:50 needs to be the health safety and
1:54:51 security of our communities but I also
1:54:57 agreed with councilmember Hall that I
1:54:59 think everyone is going to have to
1:55:02 compromise everybody's going to have to
1:55:05 sacrifice something even the people in
1:55:08 our core services and the framework I'd
1:55:13 like to put on this a shared sacrifice
1:55:15 and I've thought a lot about this and I
1:55:20 think that means shared sacrifice from
1:55:22 everyone from the council to every
1:55:26 single employee in our in our
1:55:30 organization so we're all going to have
1:55:32 to give a little I believe that human
1:55:37 services given the job losses that were
1:55:40 seeing and the economic impact are
1:55:43 already undergoing are going to be part
1:55:48 of that health safety and security I
1:55:51 think that their their value has been
1:55:54 demonstrated many times over in the last
1:55:57 two to three weeks and so I would
1:56:00 include them in those core services
1:56:03 and then in that context and again
1:56:09 understanding the unprecedented crisis
1:56:14 that we are facing I think that one of
1:56:18 my values would be to try and save as
1:56:20 many jobs as it possibly can and I know
1:56:24 that we won't be able to save everyone's
1:56:27 job but I would like to have that
1:56:30 elevated as one of the values that were
1:56:33 looking at and one of the values that we
1:56:36 would like to keep on the top of our
1:56:38 mind it's it's just a difficult
1:56:43 environment out there and it's going to
1:56:45 get much more difficult over the next
1:56:46 few months so and also
1:56:49 just a note of appreciation for the
1:56:51 council and the mayor and the leadership
1:56:53 that we've seen from while about kibbutz
1:56:57 and many many others in our organization
1:56:59 I'm so appreciative and proud of the
1:57:02 work that's already been done and thank
1:57:07 Thank You councilmember de Michelle next
1:57:10 up is deputy council president right
1:57:12 Thank You Mira Polly this is council
1:57:15 member Chris Rea so there's an
1:57:18 assumption I'd like to challenge and and
1:57:21 it is the assumption that things are
1:57:23 going to get worse before they're gonna
1:57:24 get better I'm a glass half-full kind of
1:57:28 person but I find that our financial
1:57:32 essence though I understand the
1:57:34 methodology behind them and I understand
1:57:37 the uncertainty in our environment I
1:57:39 find them to be based on more than
1:57:46 worst-case scenarios and so I don't know
1:57:49 that we're gonna see those kind of
1:57:50 reductions but from a sales tax
1:57:52 perspective I bet you we look at March
1:57:56 sales tax because of the booms that
1:58:00 we've seen in many of our retail
1:58:03 institutions here we're not gonna see a
1:58:05 drop in sales tax 30% so so I'm less
1:58:09 pessimistic that our financial situation
1:58:12 is as dire is as we think it is that
1:58:17 being said we do have some obligations
1:58:19 and first and foremost of course is
1:58:21 protecting the people who live in the
1:58:23 city and so that's police and fire and
1:58:25 maintaining our roads and our water
1:58:28 system but the thing that becomes very
1:58:31 top of mind to me is if we're talking
1:58:34 about filling this gap we're not going
1:58:36 to fill this gap by reducing our
1:58:39 investment in professional services the
1:58:42 only way to fill a nine point 1 million
1:58:44 dollar gap is with some fairly draconian
1:58:46 reductions in staff and that makes this
1:58:52 problem worse because one of the
1:58:54 problems that we are facing right now is
1:58:56 people are seeing uncertainty and
1:59:00 coming down and uncertainty and they are
1:59:03 laying people off and they're making the
1:59:05 problem worse and it is usually
1:59:07 councilmember Marx who quotes Roosevelt
1:59:11 or Churchill but I'm gonna do it this
1:59:13 time and we have nothing to fear but
1:59:14 fear itself and I think we need to be at
1:59:21 this moment so I'm gonna counsel that or
1:59:24 recommend or provide my guidance that
1:59:27 we'd be very circumspect when we're
1:59:29 starting to think about the level of
1:59:31 cuts that would be required to fill a
1:59:32 nine point 1 million dollar gap out of a
1:59:35 50 million dollar general fund budget
1:59:36 and and we might never recover from
1:59:40 doing that so let's let's go carefully
1:59:43 let's go cautiously into this and we
1:59:46 don't need to be kind of at this point
1:59:54 from where I sit thank you Thank You
1:59:59 deputy counsel president ray council
2:00:01 president hunt
2:00:05 thank you
2:00:06 so I I wanted to this is council
2:00:10 president hunt I wanted to start off by
2:00:12 thanking all of the hard-working people
2:00:17 at the city because I think that this is
2:00:21 this is a very difficult time for our
2:00:24 community and it's a difficult time for
2:00:27 the city employees and as councilmember
2:00:30 de Mesilla talked about this is the time
2:00:32 where everybody is is having to make
2:00:35 sacrifices and I think there's a lot of
2:00:38 people that are really stepping up and I
2:00:40 just wanted to express my thanks and
2:00:43 also to acknowledge that these
2:00:44 conversations that we're having are
2:00:47 going to impact real people real
2:00:51 families I I think that the projected
2:00:55 impacts are very stark I firstly
2:01:00 appreciate the administration bringing
2:01:02 this forward and being very direct about
2:01:05 the projected financial implications and
2:01:09 very much trust that this honesty and
2:01:12 transparency will continue and I'm very
2:01:13 thankful for that and very appreciative
2:01:16 that we got this update when we did and
2:01:18 I I hope to continue getting updates and
2:01:21 to track this because it is a evolving
2:01:24 situation and as as was stated earlier
2:01:28 it's also unprecedented and there's a
2:01:31 lot of unknowns so I think we need to
2:01:33 all be aware of that and to track the
2:01:38 evolution of this situation carefully
2:01:40 and I appreciate seeing this first look
2:01:44 at because I think we're going to have
2:01:47 to continue looking at this over time
2:01:50 and the sooner we can get ahead of
2:01:52 making some changes I think that's for
2:01:54 the best
2:01:56 in thinking about the the funding
2:01:59 priorities overall I wanted to also
2:02:03 clarify the council's role and the mayor
2:02:09 and the administration's role has been
2:02:11 something that I've been thinking a lot
2:02:13 about because this is a different sort
2:02:16 of conversation than what we usually
2:02:18 discuss it council so I did look to the
2:02:23 municipal research services council for
2:02:27 guidance and in their handbook they talk
2:02:30 about you know council councils role is
2:02:33 to discuss develop and adopt city
2:02:35 policies governing many aspects of city
2:02:37 operations and then for the operations
2:02:40 themselves this really is the purview of
2:02:42 the mayor so the direct direct
2:02:46 operations as far as the hiring and
2:02:49 layoffs and furloughs those sorts of
2:02:52 things are the purview of the mayor but
2:02:54 council adopts the policies and Council
2:02:58 also adopts the goals and priorities so
2:03:03 I think that in having these
2:03:05 conversations which we'll continue to
2:03:06 have it's important to make sure that we
2:03:09 are providing feedback in a way that
2:03:14 that reflects that we understand those
2:03:17 differences from from my side I've
2:03:21 really been looking to this
2:03:22 strategic plan because I think that the
2:03:25 strategic plan it remains our strategic
2:03:27 plan we have we had a lot of public
2:03:32 comments we had a lot of good community
2:03:34 engagement and a lot of a lot of voices
2:03:38 that went in to the strategic plan and I
2:03:40 think it continues to be our guiding
2:03:42 light i I know that we will not be able
2:03:45 to do things in the same at the same
2:03:48 pace that we thought we would this
2:03:51 definitely affects definitely affects
2:03:53 that but I also think that those core
2:03:55 values that we we went to with the
2:03:58 community in the strategic plan those
2:04:00 remain our core values I also think that
2:04:06 we need to make changes now to change
2:04:11 course in the short run to actually be
2:04:13 able to revisit our long term mission
2:04:17 and to get back on course for long term
2:04:19 mission because we are seeing or you
2:04:23 know we have these projections of this
2:04:25 very drastic potential revenue reduction
2:04:28 and so I think we need to take proactive
2:04:30 action now to do some course correction
2:04:33 so that we can continue to provide a
2:04:35 core essential services and so we can
2:04:37 continue to provide the services and the
2:04:41 the goals that we've put forward in our
2:04:44 strategic plan so in the long run I
2:04:48 think our mission and the strategic plan
2:04:51 and that we can reaffirm today as a
2:04:53 council is that we want to foster a safe
2:04:56 vibrant livable and inclusive community
2:04:58 through effective stewardship and
2:05:00 quality public services and right now I
2:05:02 think we have to focus on safety and
2:05:05 health of our community as has been
2:05:07 stated by other council members and I
2:05:10 think we need to also look to the
2:05:13 strategic plan for the other goal areas
2:05:15 and think about how we might continue to
2:05:18 affirm those values but with a different
2:05:23 with different revenue projections than
2:05:26 we thought when we went into this year
2:05:28 and future years
2:05:33 Thank You council president
2:05:35 councilmember Goodman Thank You
2:05:38 councilmember Goodman here I agree with
2:05:43 a lot of what I've heard of course our
2:05:49 safety and security as a community is
2:05:56 the most important thing as is all of
2:05:58 our obligations that we have as a city
2:06:01 running a city the core services and the
2:06:04 core obligations that we have are the
2:06:07 most important and also that our our
2:06:12 guide that we have as a strategic plan
2:06:16 going forward helps us determine which
2:06:19 things we're going to work on and
2:06:22 accomplish for our community just not on
2:06:25 the timeline probably not on a timeline
2:06:27 that we had initially talked about I the
2:06:38 how do I say it I in direct response to
2:06:47 councilmember Ray's comments about the
2:06:49 numbers and the dire the dire
2:06:53 projections that we have I agree they're
2:06:55 dire and I also remember I think his
2:07:02 director Goldberg that says to us and
2:07:04 accomplishing is probably not the only
2:07:06 finance director we've had who have
2:07:08 stuff who said this to us and that is
2:07:10 the only thing that we know is that the
2:07:12 numbers today will not be accurate in
2:07:13 the very near future we can all we all
2:07:18 know that that's true that's always true
2:07:20 with the exception of the ending for
2:07:21 2019 thank you that is actually very the
2:07:25 what we thought it was going to be when
2:07:27 she told us earlier ended up about what
2:07:29 it's about what she projected it was
2:07:32 going to be so that is good I would
2:07:34 rather have the projections err on the
2:07:37 side of being overly conservative and
2:07:41 overly cautious I would like to be sick
2:07:44 prai's in a good way so I do think that
2:07:48 we have to prepare for what we know
2:07:50 today are unprecedented times and things
2:07:55 that are happening that we have no idea
2:07:57 what's going to happen in two weeks or
2:07:59 two months we don't know if there's
2:08:01 going to be a next round of this of
2:08:03 things flattened and then they spiked up
2:08:07 again in the fall or next year until we
2:08:10 have an immunization until we have all
2:08:12 of this better handled and know what
2:08:16 we're dealing with and know how to
2:08:18 protect ourselves we just don't know
2:08:20 what's going to happen so I think I
2:08:23 would rather err on that side of not
2:08:25 knowing what's going to happen and
2:08:26 protect ourselves financially although I
2:08:30 do agree with Councilman vorrei that
2:08:32 things could certainly turn out better
2:08:34 than we have predicted and that would be
2:08:36 that would be great news but right now I
2:08:38 think we have to assume almost the worst
2:08:42 which is significant reductions I also
2:08:49 have faced that the administration is
2:08:53 being very thoughtful and what they will
2:08:56 be the actions they will take and the
2:08:58 recommendations that they will be making
2:09:00 nobody wants nobody wants the kinds of
2:09:06 cuts that we're talking about
2:09:07 nobody wants layoffs as council
2:09:11 president hunt said these are real
2:09:13 people these are real families and we
2:09:14 talk a lot about but we have talked to a
2:09:16 fair amount over the last couple of
2:09:18 meetings about the most most vulnerable
2:09:20 folks in our community
2:09:22 and the people who work for the city are
2:09:25 people with families as well and
2:09:30 unfortunately we're at the point where
2:09:32 we have to think about reductions in
2:09:34 some way and those are just those are
2:09:37 just reality I am NOT at this time in
2:09:41 favor of looking at fund balance for
2:09:48 unsustainable spending to me that seems
2:09:54 irresponsible we have a healthy fund
2:09:57 balance the
2:09:57 as we've been prudent and I think
2:10:02 because of the unprecedented time that
2:10:05 we're in and not knowing what's in the
2:10:07 future I think we it's too early to talk
2:10:10 about spending fund balance so I don't
2:10:12 know what the answers are yes for our
2:10:14 feedback on priorities and we've all
2:10:16 given in the first tier of our answer I
2:10:19 think we've all given the same answer
2:10:21 and then from there I think we all share
2:10:24 a little bit but that's my response
2:10:27 right now and and I also want to what
2:10:30 like what everybody else said very much
2:10:32 appreciate the city it's quick response
2:10:36 honest direct transparent and I just
2:10:43 can't thank you enough for all of the
2:10:44 hard work that you all have done in the
2:10:46 last several weeks thank you you
2:10:52 councilmember Goodman the feedback has
2:10:54 been great I do see that we have a few
2:10:57 council members that may want to add
2:10:58 some additional comments so if you would
2:11:00 like to speak please add your name to
2:11:02 the list right now I'll go to
2:11:03 councilmember Hall Thank You Mara Polly
2:11:08 this is I just wanted to know that I've
2:11:14 stood a little bit more I wanted to
2:11:16 advocate for a couple additional
2:11:19 priorities of mine especially in having
2:11:24 conversations over the weekend with
2:11:25 community members that I know from all
2:11:27 over Issaquah there are a couple of
2:11:29 things that came up over and over again
2:11:32 and one was Human Services grant funding
2:11:37 and then to some extent of parks
2:11:38 maintenance so with regard to grant
2:11:42 funding president preservation I read a
2:11:45 cross-cut article this morning entitled
2:11:49 pandemic could empty washington food
2:11:51 banks in two weeks
2:11:54 so obviously I'm worried that we're just
2:11:56 trading one public health crisis for
2:11:59 another and playing my hand here at this
2:12:04 food and clothing bank is on my mind
2:12:06 today and I'd like us to do everything
2:12:08 we can
2:12:09 deserve funding streams for these
2:12:13 organizations to the extent that we can
2:12:15 that support those in our community who
2:12:18 are most vulnerable and most affected by
2:12:21 the public health crisis and actually I
2:12:25 think my head still still doing on fund
2:12:28 balance I agree with what councilmember
2:12:32 Goodman said about that but I see
2:12:36 potentially using fund balance and in
2:12:38 dispenses their most responsible you set
2:12:40 up funding as opposed to two salaries
2:12:42 which which would be a regular expense
2:12:46 so it's what I'm thinking there then
2:12:50 secondly parks maintenance especially as
2:12:53 people are cooped up in there stay home
2:12:55 stay healthy order our residents really
2:12:59 rely on their ability to go for a stroll
2:13:03 or a run or walk their dog through our
2:13:06 great parks here in our great park
2:13:09 system here in Issaquah I see this as a
2:13:12 mental health benefit that we provide to
2:13:16 our residents too so I'd like to make
2:13:19 sure that we are being mindful of not
2:13:24 just the health of our parks but the
2:13:26 health of our residents in our
2:13:29 conversations around parks maintenance
2:13:31 and Parks and Rec funding Thank You
2:13:38 councilmember Hall councilmember ray all
2:13:40 right deputy council president ray
2:13:50 I came come back to you if you have
2:13:53 dropped off I'll go to councilmember
2:13:55 mark I just have trouble finding Chris
2:14:00 Rea the mute challenged one I want to
2:14:05 come back to something I was talking
2:14:06 about earlier and and something we heard
2:14:08 from director Goldberg and also from
2:14:13 deputy City Administrator Snyder which
2:14:16 is we are living through impresses
2:14:18 unprecedented times we don't have any
2:14:20 good catch stones to stay this is what
2:14:25 this looks like and so we're using 2008
2:14:27 as our our best estimate and I think
2:14:32 this is a completely different situation
2:14:33 in 2008 and so I think my my perspective
2:14:37 is different than many of my colleagues
2:14:38 because I think I'm looking at this
2:14:40 through a different and more you'd be
2:14:42 more optimistic lens but I just pulled
2:14:45 up the University of Washington data on
2:14:50 on the Cova outbreak and you know I've
2:14:54 been watching over the last many days
2:14:55 when you know four days till we have our
2:14:57 PA corps seven days that we have our
2:14:59 peak and I just look today I just took a
2:15:01 peak at the peak today and our peak was
2:15:04 four days ago per their projections so
2:15:06 we don't know what this is and I would
2:15:09 advocate for using fund balance because
2:15:11 I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime
2:15:12 experience
2:15:14 and this is not something that's going
2:15:17 to last and affect us for years and
2:15:19 years this is going to be in my
2:15:21 estimation something that'll we will
2:15:24 rebound from it it may not be a V it may
2:15:26 look more like a bathtub before we read
2:15:28 down but we will rebound so from where
2:15:30 I'm sitting the worst thing we can do
2:15:32 right now is to contemplate laying off
2:15:35 or furloughing our city employees
2:15:37 because we're asking our employers and
2:15:39 we're saying oh please try to keep
2:15:41 people on the payroll as long as you can
2:15:43 and I think that's a that's a that's a
2:15:46 walk talk we should walk and we have the
2:15:49 fund balance to maintain some of that
2:15:51 staff for some period of time so as
2:15:53 you're looking at this be creative and
2:15:57 recognize that
2:16:02 to worse we can stage it in but but but
2:16:05 I think to me more important than even
2:16:09 you know providing supports for those
2:16:11 who have been laid off it's not to add
2:16:13 people to the pool of those who have
2:16:16 been laid off Thank You deputy council
2:16:23 president ray next up I have
2:16:25 councilmember marks thank you madam
2:16:29 mayor I I think this question of ending
2:16:32 fund balance is important and certainly
2:16:35 sounds like where we have the most
2:16:38 difference of opinion on the council I
2:16:42 sure I sure hope Chris right
2:16:45 councilmember Ray is right I sure hope a
2:16:48 year from now he and I are having a beer
2:16:51 at the sunset Ale House and he is you
2:16:55 triumphantly pointing out to me that he
2:16:57 called this but I have I have concerns I
2:17:02 agree I follow the eye hme projections
2:17:06 closely things are looking good things
2:17:10 are looking better in western Washington
2:17:13 we're certainly leading the country in
2:17:16 good public policy but I have there's so
2:17:20 much we just don't know the global the
2:17:24 global pandemic then the extent to which
2:17:27 India and Brazil and Nigeria and Mexico
2:17:30 will develop substantial infections many
2:17:34 of those countries are experiencing the
2:17:38 kind of growths that we were seeing two
2:17:40 months ago they're seeing now and has
2:17:43 already been mentioned the possibility
2:17:45 of secondary waves that as people return
2:17:47 to work and as they return to parks and
2:17:49 as they return to life that without hurt
2:17:52 immunity or or a vaccine I many medical
2:17:59 people that tell me they're very very
2:18:00 concerned about the second wave and
2:18:02 nobody knows how to model that yet so I
2:18:05 think being prudent is is the right way
2:18:08 to go around the subject of ending fund
2:18:12 balance one thing because I
2:18:14 I honestly I don't know where I stand
2:18:16 I'm using ending fund balance I
2:18:18 mentioned earlier that cuts are harmful
2:18:21 in our community raising costs like
2:18:25 increasing utility taxes can be harmful
2:18:27 on our community part of me sees the the
2:18:30 old what TV and economics of priming the
2:18:33 pump during the recession but I also I
2:18:39 come back to what has served us well for
2:18:43 the last 11 budgets that I've been
2:18:45 involved in which is you don't use
2:18:48 ending fund balance to address
2:18:51 fundamentals in your business or in your
2:18:54 budget model you use it for one-offs and
2:18:57 you use it for the exception handling
2:18:59 and I will use an example - maybe maybe
2:19:05 inject a slight amount of humor into
2:19:07 what's otherwise a very serious evening
2:19:09 to use an example let us say one was
2:19:12 inclined to want to see Tibbets Valley
2:19:14 Manor sold and if you are considering a
2:19:18 if you are considering spending some
2:19:22 small amount of money to do an
2:19:24 assessment of whether you could whether
2:19:26 there would be a benefit to selling to
2:19:28 the selling manner the the expenditure
2:19:31 that would occur that's a one-time cost
2:19:35 to address a capital asset that's the
2:19:41 kind of investment that using ending
2:19:44 fund balance seems 100% weather would
2:19:47 that what agrees that you should
2:19:49 sellotape its belly manner or not that
2:19:52 you know that time that kind of one-time
2:19:54 cost to help with restructuring to help
2:19:58 with understanding our capital assets
2:20:00 that is exactly I think the kind of
2:20:02 thing that historically the city has
2:20:04 solved was it was a good use of ending
2:20:07 fund balance regardless of if this
2:20:09 particular emergency rises level that we
2:20:13 want to address structural deficits by
2:20:17 using ending fund balance so that I I
2:20:19 would encourage the administration to
2:20:20 consider that criteria of whether
2:20:23 something is uh is a
2:20:27 papering over of a fundamental budget
2:20:30 issue or whether it's a one-time as part
2:20:33 of writing the ship tech cost thank you
2:20:36 then this is councilmember marks Thank
2:20:39 You councilmember merits next up a
2:20:41 council president hunts yes this is
2:20:44 council president and I had a similar
2:20:48 comment to council councilmember marks
2:20:52 on the fund balance question because I
2:20:57 think that we do have a financial policy
2:20:59 which has a target for fund balance it
2:21:04 has a target for a reason and we
2:21:05 shouldn't not spend that money ever we
2:21:10 shouldn't just hold on to it endlessly
2:21:12 for a rainy day I think that you know
2:21:15 this is definitely a rainy day and this
2:21:19 is a global pandemic and it is
2:21:20 appropriate I I believe to use some of
2:21:23 the and I think will be necessary to use
2:21:25 some of the fund balance but I agree
2:21:28 that I think we should use that fund
2:21:30 balance for not not for ongoing but for
2:21:35 one time and I think that due to the
2:21:37 unprecedented nature of this crisis I
2:21:39 think we're going to have one-time
2:21:42 unexpected unexpected costs so that
2:21:46 would also be what I would look to for
2:21:48 the fund balance but I also think that
2:21:51 we have this target for a reason and
2:21:54 that's money that we should be aware
2:21:58 that we should also make sure that we're
2:22:01 being good good stewards of that money
2:22:03 and if that means spending that money on
2:22:07 one-time expenses to support quality
2:22:09 public services for our community then
2:22:11 we should do that take a council
2:22:16 president
2:22:17 councilmember T Michele thank you I'm
2:22:24 like oh sorry I'm a little slow on the
2:22:27 mute button I had asked the director
2:22:35 Goldberg earlier today about where we
2:22:39 stood
2:22:39 in the ending fund balance and our
2:22:42 target is 20% of our expenditures and
2:22:47 right now that ending fund balance is at
2:22:49 30% so we have they have a really good
2:22:52 solid ending fund balance and I'm I take
2:22:56 to our heart councilmember Goodman
2:23:00 comments and others that it is a
2:23:05 one-time expenditure we'll never get
2:23:07 that money back but one of the purposes
2:23:10 of a ending fund balance and of a rainy
2:23:13 day fund is emergencies and I cannot
2:23:16 think of a situation that is more of an
2:23:18 emergency than what we're facing right
2:23:21 now so I would support a quote/unquote
2:23:24 modest dipping into the ending fund
2:23:28 balance to help solve this problem I
2:23:32 don't know exactly what that looks like
2:23:34 in terms of the exact dollar amount but
2:23:36 I would be willing to approve dipping
2:23:41 into of perhaps one to two million
2:23:44 dollars I don't think that we should
2:23:45 drive the fund down to that 20 percent
2:23:48 that we that we would like to have there
2:23:52 I think
2:23:53 but I think that this is a certainly an
2:23:55 emergency time and we should use some of
2:23:58 that money to address this issue the
2:24:02 other comment I have and I'd like to
2:24:05 service this and put it on the table is
2:24:08 many of our companies private companies
2:24:12 I'm aware of just today are occurred of
2:24:14 one of our major corporations in the
2:24:17 area that is imposing at ten percent
2:24:19 salary cut across the board and I heard
2:24:23 of another company that's doing a 25
2:24:25 percent salary cut again the goal is to
2:24:28 save jobs and everybody sacrifice was
2:24:34 something in that process in following
2:24:38 the 2008 recession when I was an
2:24:41 employee at King County everybody took a
2:24:44 3% salary cuts it's a tool that's in the
2:24:48 toolbox and I had asked director
2:24:52 Goldberg earlier
2:24:53 today about how much that might save and
2:24:57 I know that's a complicated formula but
2:25:00 again it's a way of saving jobs it's a
2:25:03 way to have shared sacrifice and it's
2:25:05 another tool that we can have we could
2:25:07 use in addressing this issue so I would
2:25:10 hope that that would be part of
2:25:13 consideration and a discussion with our
2:25:15 employees and in discussion with our
2:25:17 community about how we can address this
2:25:21 issue and hopefully save as many jobs as
2:25:24 we possibly can thank you Thank You
2:25:29 councilmember D Michele councilmember
2:25:31 Goodman Thank You councilmember Goodman
2:25:37 here I'll be quick
2:25:39 I just wanted to say that for the ending
2:25:41 fund balance
2:25:43 you know everybody's acknowledged
2:25:45 everybody that's you know taking part in
2:25:47 this meeting today health either
2:25:50 acknowledged or probably would
2:25:51 acknowledge that not only is it
2:25:54 unprecedented but we are at the
2:25:57 beginning of this and in a sense we have
2:26:00 a long way to go before we know what
2:26:05 what the fallout is what those
2:26:08 emergencies will be that would drive us
2:26:12 to spend to spend money on from our
2:26:17 ending fund balance and so I would guess
2:26:22 that every council member is probably
2:26:27 not opposed to spending the money on
2:26:30 something to help with this emergency
2:26:34 this unprecedented situation but we're a
2:26:37 month in and not going to see where we
2:26:43 might really need to spend money to help
2:26:48 us out of this emergency situation until
2:26:50 we get further down the road that's just
2:26:54 what my comment is thank you
2:26:57 remember Goodman I would like to add
2:27:00 offer councilmember Walsh if she would
2:27:02 like some time to comment everybody else
2:27:04 has had a second round of comments I'm
2:27:06 just checking in
2:27:07 to you thank you Mary Mayor Polly this
2:27:12 is councilmember Walsh I think my
2:27:14 initial comments stand yeah thank you
2:27:21 thank you I have a question for deputy
2:27:25 City Administrator Snyder if the slide
2:27:27 that shows the consulting criteria the
2:27:33 administration proposes to use and
2:27:35 looking at professional services
2:27:36 contracts could be put back up so that
2:27:39 the council would have an opportunity to
2:27:40 comment on that yes thank you I know
2:27:46 that the city clerk has been controlling
2:27:48 the presentation and so I'd like to
2:27:51 extend that question to our city clerk
2:27:53 if they can advise sure while we're
2:28:00 waiting for the city clerk and thank you
2:28:02 for doing that Tina if council members
2:28:05 would like to comment on the criteria
2:28:07 being used to evaluate projects and
2:28:09 professional service contracts if you
2:28:11 could let me know through the comment
2:28:12 box we can queue up those that would
2:28:14 like to see to it okay so while we are
2:28:26 waiting for the slide and if you wanted
2:28:29 to council president hunt you have the
2:28:32 presentation materials as well here we
2:28:34 go okay so we'll start with council
2:28:36 president hunt followed by councilmember
2:28:39 Walsh thank you if council president
2:28:44 hunt I think that the list for me the
2:28:49 this list of how we're looking at
2:28:53 criteria it is missing some
2:28:57 prioritization criteria so I agree that
2:29:03 core and mandated city services those
2:29:05 are things we need to do and I
2:29:09 understand the concerns around Public
2:29:11 Engagement
2:29:12 I basically understand these criteria
2:29:16 but I think it's missing some
2:29:17 prioritization criteria and in our
2:29:20 strategic plan there is there is some
2:29:24 criteria about prioritizing projects and
2:29:27 strategic actions and so I think that
2:29:28 that list provides an additional level
2:29:32 that would be helpful so in that list
2:29:36 the criteria included the level of
2:29:38 impact for and then it goes on to say
2:29:41 what is the anticipated impact of the
2:29:43 action and making progress toward the
2:29:44 objective does it align to our mission
2:29:46 and values control over the outcome
2:29:48 likelihood of success cost and time and
2:29:51 money and then timing and opportunity so
2:29:53 I think that those sorts of things
2:29:55 particularly the level of impact is also
2:29:58 important to consider and since it
2:30:00 wasn't in the list I wanted to put that
2:30:02 out there
2:30:02 the other thing that isn't in the list
2:30:04 that I think would be helpful to
2:30:08 consider at this time is if there are
2:30:12 time so if I think that there's a timing
2:30:16 issue sometimes where if we're deferring
2:30:18 a project and deferring a contract
2:30:22 that's associated with getting a certain
2:30:24 project completed it might contribute to
2:30:27 increased costs later and so I think
2:30:30 that that sort of deferred cost versus
2:30:33 actual cost saving should also be should
2:30:36 also be considered and this also ties in
2:30:39 to the fact that we don't know we don't
2:30:42 know the particulars of how long this
2:30:44 crisis will continue the economic
2:30:47 fallout from the crisis will continue so
2:30:49 I think that the sort of deferral and is
2:30:52 there a cost to not doing the work
2:30:54 should also be included Thank You
2:30:58 council president Ahn councilmember
2:31:00 Walsh thank you Mary Polly this is
2:31:04 councilmember bullsh
2:31:06 I will be blunt on this one basically
2:31:11 I'm fine to eliminate all professional
2:31:13 services contracts as needed I think
2:31:16 your criteria is fine I mean in my heart
2:31:20 of hearts if you could keep title 18 I
2:31:23 would love that but my kind of formula
2:31:27 is that employees are more important
2:31:30 than consultants --is
2:31:32 Sultan's and getting this work done I
2:31:35 would rather keep our employees and have
2:31:38 all of our projects that rely on
2:31:41 professional service contracts be
2:31:43 delayed then eliminate an employee in
2:31:46 order to keep those projects going in
2:31:50 this uncertain time thank you
2:31:55 Thank You councilmember Walsh
2:31:57 councilmember Goodman Thank You mayor
2:32:00 councilmember Goodman here my only
2:32:02 comment is that the one that says public
2:32:07 engagement and just probably goes
2:32:10 without saying because I know you all
2:32:12 will have a more thoughtful deliberation
2:32:15 when you're thinking about this but just
2:32:19 because a project has an engagement
2:32:22 element I want to be careful that we
2:32:26 don't use that as just a criteria to
2:32:28 eliminate something because I mean title
2:32:31 18 is one example so eventually there is
2:32:35 a public engagement heart to that but
2:32:37 there is also a lot of work to be done
2:32:39 before we ever get to that so I just
2:32:44 want to make a comment to that effect
2:32:47 that public engagement that can be put
2:32:49 off work that still can be done I want
2:32:55 to make sure that we consider continuing
2:32:58 some of that work to the best of our
2:32:59 ability thank you Thank You
2:33:04 councilmember good the next
2:33:05 councilmember do Michelle thank you this
2:33:08 is Jeff Wenberg a Michelle in the
2:33:10 materials that were in our packet there
2:33:14 were two examples given of how this
2:33:17 criteria might be applied in the two
2:33:19 examples were a master mobility plan and
2:33:22 then the land use code update and I just
2:33:25 just wanted to express that I have a
2:33:29 concern about the opportunity Tod
2:33:33 Opportunity Center project in
2:33:36 relationship professional service
2:33:38 contracts and the other area I have a
2:33:40 big concern is I believe that there's a
2:33:43 lot of professional service contracts
2:33:46 road maintenance during the summer and I
2:33:50 don't have a particular question or
2:33:52 comment but I'm hoping that before the
2:33:55 20s we should get a comprehensive list
2:33:58 of the specific projects that might be
2:34:01 impacted by this criteria and by the
2:34:05 assessment of the staff and and that's
2:34:08 that's the only comment I have I would
2:34:10 just like to be able to see the full
2:34:12 breadth of of what we're dealing with if
2:34:15 we're deciding to cut professional
2:34:17 service contracts thank you
2:34:20 Thank You councilmember - mister
2:34:22 councilmember marks thank you madam
2:34:25 mayor this is councilmember marks the
2:34:28 reason why I wanted to talk about
2:34:30 priorities first it's because I think it
2:34:33 informs how I feel about this you know
2:34:37 coming back to safety and security and
2:34:40 wanting to view those differently I'm
2:34:44 pretty close to councilmember Walsh on
2:34:46 this I don't think there's much that if
2:34:50 you know if we can by not spending money
2:34:54 on service contracts if we can save jobs
2:34:58 and have people do the work internally
2:35:02 or defer some of the work until things
2:35:05 are a little better I really want to
2:35:07 prioritize around existing staff and so
2:35:11 I am there are not many things I think
2:35:14 that would rights the level of being
2:35:17 absolutely essential off the service
2:35:20 contract list but I would say things
2:35:22 that relate back to turning on the tap
2:35:26 or running water in the sink or officers
2:35:31 on the street or firefighters in their
2:35:34 vehicles responding to calls service
2:35:36 contracts that relate to those
2:35:38 functionalities I see is important but
2:35:40 the rest of it is let's try to conserve
2:35:43 our I would hope the administration
2:35:45 would see to conserving our money for
2:35:48 his existing staff and core services
2:35:51 thank you
2:35:54 Thank You councilmember Mart's I'm just
2:35:57 gonna do a quick check-in we have two
2:35:59 more council members to hear from
2:36:00 councilmember hall and then
2:36:02 councilmember Rey Thank You Melanie I
2:36:15 mean I completely agree with
2:36:17 councilmember Walsh I think she said it
2:36:19 perfectly I much rather protect there
2:36:20 are employees who work day and then day
2:36:22 out to execute our vision and contracts
2:36:37 Thank You councilmember Hall
2:36:39 councilmember ray is fine with what he
2:36:42 sees on the screen so we're continuing
2:36:45 through the meeting and I want to thank
2:36:49 the staff for the presentation and as
2:36:52 was explained earlier we'll be returning
2:36:55 on April 20th the specific
2:36:56 recommendations regarding changes to the
2:36:59 city's work plan and workforce I'll do a
2:37:02 quick check-in with the city
2:37:03 administrator deputy City Administrator
2:37:05 and make sure you've got all the
2:37:07 information you needed or whether or not
2:37:09 you had any questions for Council before
2:37:12 we proceed I may remember the council
2:37:16 ahead Andrea well I just wanted to thank
2:37:20 council for the wonderful discussion and
2:37:22 input you provided today that's been
2:37:25 very helpful and I believe that I have
2:37:28 all that I need and I'll yield the floor
2:37:29 to City Administrator Bob Lewis nothing
2:37:35 dad thank you very much for that so the
2:37:41 next item on the agenda this evening is
2:37:44 for good of the order and is there
2:37:46 anybody that would like to provide some
2:37:49 information for good of the order I am
2:37:54 not seeing anybody show up in the
2:37:56 comment section but I'll keep an eye on
2:37:58 it I'm going up I do see councilmember
2:38:02 Hall come on in join us
2:38:04 thank you very Paulie councilmember Zack
2:38:07 Hall I actually forgot to just add one
2:38:12 comment that was kind of outside revenue
2:38:16 and professional contracts can I just
2:38:21 have a minute go right ahead thank you
2:38:25 very much I appreciate it I wanted to
2:38:28 make sure to encourage you madam mayor
2:38:32 and the administration to provide a
2:38:35 similar presentation of this of our
2:38:41 financial situation and the
2:38:43 deliberations that were both through an
2:38:45 app right now to our state and federal
2:38:47 elected officials as as many of you know
2:38:52 I know from experience how important
2:38:55 this is and I think regular
2:38:56 communication really helps our elected
2:39:00 representatives in Congress and in the
2:39:01 state legislature bringing real real
2:39:05 real stories to the table during
2:39:08 decision-making and during budgeting you
2:39:13 know I said earlier that's unfortunate
2:39:16 governor Inslee you know vetoed the
2:39:20 streamline sales tax part that was in
2:39:23 the operating budget it is unfortunate
2:39:25 it does suck so I think that makes it
2:39:28 more important than ever to be sure
2:39:30 we're keeping people in the loop about
2:39:31 our pain about our decision making
2:39:33 process how we're going through so that
2:39:36 way they can take that context with them
2:39:39 as they think from their perspective how
2:39:42 do we support local municipalities
2:39:45 especially those that have less than
2:39:47 500,000 people in them how do we support
2:39:50 community groups like the food bank so
2:39:53 that way the city can use their
2:39:55 resources on essential services I just
2:39:59 want to ask that of you
2:40:01 thank you thank you for the suggestion I
2:40:06 think it's a great idea there's actually
2:40:07 been much more an amazing amount of
2:40:10 communication recently at all levels of
2:40:12 government extraordinary amount so great
2:40:15 suggestion we'll take that into
2:40:17 consideration
2:40:18 and now for a grid of the order due to
2:40:21 the governor's Proclamation 2228 all
2:40:23 city public meetings except council
2:40:26 meetings have been canceled through the
2:40:27 month of April and this includes the
2:40:29 cancellation of board and Commission
2:40:31 meetings and canceled study sessions the
2:40:34 City Council regular meetings will
2:40:35 continue to occur as scheduled
2:40:37 using this remote meeting platform April
2:40:40 20th there is a regular City Council
2:40:42 meeting at 7:00 p.m. the potential
2:40:45 agenda items are the first 2020 budget
2:40:48 amendment 2020 budget reauthorizations
2:40:52 and a 2020 financial and work plan
2:40:54 impacts of kovat 19 the second part of
2:40:58 this evening session I also wanted to do
2:41:01 a thank you to our amazing nonprofit
2:41:04 network out there they have been doing a
2:41:07 great job retooling and redoing
2:41:09 themselves to support our communities I
2:41:12 also wanted to thank Homewood Suites who
2:41:14 is currently providing space for our
2:41:16 first responders if they need to stay in
2:41:18 town or separate from their families to
2:41:21 isolate and to all of our hospital and
2:41:24 medical workers police fire EMTs Public
2:41:28 Works operation staff for being on the
2:41:30 front lines and out in the community
2:41:33 doing what needs to be done these are
2:41:35 courageous people that are taking care
2:41:38 of us right now and our community and I
2:41:41 am absolutely humbled by their
2:41:42 selflessness the next item on the agenda
2:41:45 this evening is going to be executive
2:41:48 session as early announced I would like
2:41:51 to call for a 5-minute recess as we
2:41:55 switch into executive session and
2:41:58 request that council members using the
2:42:02 links provided for executive session
2:42:04 enter the first session at 9:00 I'm
2:42:09 going to give you a few extra minutes
2:42:10 955 so with that we'll be moving into
2:42:14 executive session

Attendance

Council / Members (9)
Barbara de Michele
Stacy Goodman
Zach Hall
Victoria Hunt
Tola Marts
Chris Reh
Lindsey Walsh
Susan Monsell, Senior Budget Analyst
Gus Tiwana, IT Project Manager

Motions and votes (1)

APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA AS PRESENTED. a) ID 0540 - Accounts: Payables and Payroll of Apr. 6, 2020, $12,578,832.66; Approved. b) Minutes: City Council Study Session, Feb. 25, 2020; Approved. c) Minutes: City Council Regular Meeting, March 16, 2020; Approved. d) Minutes: City Council Special Meetin…
Moved by HUNT · seconded by REH
Carried 7-0