← Back to City Council Digest

City Council Regular Meeting Auto captions

Monday, October 19, 2020

7:00 PM · 3h 25m
Section
Topic
1. CALL TO ORDER
1a
First for Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Hall
6. INFORMATIONAL UPDATES
6a
Climate Convening Recommendations ID 0768
packet pp.5–18
Topics: Climate
Staff report:
The purpose of this informational item is to provide an update on recommendations from the Community Convening on Climate that was held in July.
6b
Visit Issaquah Annual Update ID 0749
packet pp.19–54
Topics: Tourism
Staff report:
The purpose of this item is to provide the City Council the required annual update on Visit Issaquah, Issaquah’s Destination Marketing Organization (DMO). At Monday’s Council meeting Visit Issaquah Executive Director Beth Javens will provide a presentation.
7. CONSENT CALENDAR
7c
Minutes: City Council Special Meeting, Sept. 29, 2020
Approve · packet pp.89–90
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR c) 09-29-20 City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page (0000)
7d
Minute: City Council Study Session, Sept. 29, 2020
Approve · packet pp.91–92
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR d) 09-29-20 Council Study Session Minutes Page (0000)
7e
City Council Special Meeting, Oct. 5, 2020
Approve · packet pp.93
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR e) 10-05-20 City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page (0000)
7f
City Council Regular Meeting, Oct. 5, 2020
Approve · packet pp.95–100
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR f) 10-05-20 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page (0000)
7g
Human Services Commission Mid Term Appointments AB 8026
Confirm · packet pp.101–102
Topics: EquityBoards & Commissions
Staff report:
Four regular positions and one alternate position of the Human Services Commission were vacated before the terms expired. Due to the number of vacancies and the work plan of the commission, it is important to fill the positions as soon as possible.
7h
King County Youth and Amateur Sports Grant AB 8033
Accept Grant; Authorize Agreement · packet pp.103–129
Staff report:
Metropolitan King County Councilmember Lambert, District 3 awarded the City one-time funding totaling $10,000 to support programs to address athletic and fitness needs of youth and seniors.
7i
Franchise Agreement with Zayo Communications AB 8041
Accept Grant; Authorize Agreement · packet pp.131–154
Staff report:
Zayo’s original five-year telecommunications franchise was adopted under Ordinance No. 2667 and expired on March 11, 2018. Renewal negotiations were put on hold while the City Council reviewed and adopted a new telecommunications code earlier this year.
9. REGULAR BUSINESS
9a
2020 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Funding Amendment AB 8029
Carried 4-2
Approve · packet pp.393–452
Topics: BudgetTourism
Staff report:
In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the City recognizes that tourism and tourism-related industries have been greatly impacted. These businesses and not-for-profit organization are integral to the local economy and community. Upon
Roll call:
Moved by GOODMAN · seconded by REH
In favor: Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
Opposed: de Michele, Hunt
9b
2021 Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Funding Request AB 8030
Carried 6-0
Approve · packet pp.453–480
Topics: BudgetTourism
Staff report:
In 2019 and 2020, the City's lodging tax fund provided $220,000 annually to Visit Issaquah for promotion and visitor attraction services. With the reduction of lodging tax revenues due to COVID-19, the LTAC reviewed the fund balance and anticipated revenues and voted to proceed with a reduced allocation of $125,000 in 2021. This will preserve approximately $200,000 in reserves for 2021 and beyond. This allocation was included in the 2021 proposed budget transmitted to City Council on Sept. 29.
Roll call:
Moved by GOODMAN · seconded by HUNT
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
9c
Proposed 2021 Budget: Amending Community Planning & Development Fees AB 8028
Carried 6-0
Forward to Nov. 16 Council Meeting · packet pp.481–521
Topics: Budget
Staff report:
The Administration and City Council’s last in-depth examination of cost recovery for permitting in CPD occurred from September 2016 to January 2017. This process, which used a 2015 study prepared by the FCS Group, culminated with the City Council taking action on Agenda Bill 7050. That action included: • Adopting an updated fee schedule • Setting the permitting cost-recovery revenue target at 80% of non-excluded costs
Roll call:
Moved by HUNT · seconded by REH
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
10. GOOD OF THE ORDER
10a
Upcoming Council Meetings
0:00 one i'm calling the october 19th city
0:02 council meeting to order
0:04 before we move on to tonight's agenda
0:06 items i'd like to acknowledge that we
0:08 are meeting in a remote meeting format
0:10 on march 6th i issued an emergency
0:13 proclamation
0:14 declaring a civil emergency in the city
0:16 due to the covid19 outbreak
0:18 on march 24th the governor issued
0:20 proclamation 20-28
0:23 prohibiting meetings that fall under the
0:24 open public meetings act
0:26 such as our city council meetings from
0:28 being conducted in person
0:30 the prohibition has been extended
0:32 through november 9th
0:33 so tonight's meeting will be held
0:34 entirely remotely
0:36 the meeting will be recorded streamed
0:38 live and available for later viewing on
0:40 the city's youtube channel
0:41 and a call-in number has been provided
0:43 on the meeting agenda
0:45 for members of the public who wish to
0:46 call in by phone to listen live to the
0:49 meeting or to make comments
0:50 for those members of the public on the
0:52 call welcome
0:53 for those of you who submitted the
0:55 online form to make comments
0:56 your name will be called under the
0:58 audience comment portion of the meeting
1:00 and if there's anyone on the call
1:02 who did not sign up but would like to
1:04 make comments tonight
1:05 please press star 3 on your phone and we
1:08 will add you to our speakers list
1:10 so at this point i'd like to take a
1:12 moment do a roll call for council
1:13 members independence so please say hi
1:16 when i call your name councilmember d
1:18 michelle
1:19 here councilmember goodman here
1:23 councilmember hall here council
1:26 president hunt
1:28 here thank you and council member martz
1:31 has an excused absence this evening
1:33 deputy council president ray here and
1:36 council member walsh
1:38 here thank you all we have six of our
1:41 seven council members in attendance this
1:43 evening
1:44 there are also various city staff that
1:46 are joining us uh city administrator
1:48 wally bobkowicz deputy city
1:49 administrator andrea snyder
1:51 finance director beth goldberg economic
1:54 development manager
1:55 jen davis hayes sustainability
1:57 coordinator megan curtis murphy
1:59 management analyst jean paul and our
2:02 city attorney jim haney
2:03 as well as our deputy city clerk fisher
2:05 geezer
2:06 there may also be some other city staff
2:08 in attendance
2:10 um others that are presenting or on hand
2:13 for questions this evening
2:14 is ann fletcher from people for climate
2:17 action
2:18 welcome in lindsey frickel from the
2:20 issaquah alps
2:22 trail club hello lindsey nice to see you
2:25 beth
2:26 javens with visit issaquah glad to have
2:28 you here
2:29 and martin cha and matthew hudson
2:32 consultants with the fcs group so
2:34 welcome to all of you
2:36 you take a moment now to reiterate some
2:38 meeting guidelines
2:40 please remember to speak clearly and
2:43 pause frequently
2:44 state your name each time before you are
2:46 speaking
2:48 mute your microphone when you're not
2:50 speaking and for members of the public
2:52 if you are also streaming the live video
2:54 feed
2:55 please turn the sound off as there is a
2:57 delay
2:58 the next item on the agenda is the
3:00 pledge of allegiance and i would ask
3:02 everyone to
3:03 keep your microphones muted but to
3:05 please join me in the pledge of
3:07 allegiance
3:08 i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
3:11 united states of america
3:13 and to the republic for which it stands
3:16 one nation
3:17 under god indivisible with liberty and
3:20 justice for all
3:23 the next item on the agenda is audience
3:25 comments um
3:26 city clerk has anyone signed up to speak
3:28 or indicated a desire to speak this
3:30 evening yes
3:33 i will read some guidelines then for
3:35 those making comments please make sure
3:37 to direct your comments to the whole
3:38 council and not to individuals
3:40 and while this is not a question and
3:42 answer session we will contact him
3:45 we will contact you to follow up if
3:47 needed when you are recognized please
3:49 unmute your microphone
3:50 state your name address and relationship
3:52 to the city
3:54 speak clearly and pause frequently and
3:56 limit your comments to five minutes
3:58 when you are done please remute your
4:00 microphone
4:02 and if you do not respond after your
4:04 name or phone number is called or if
4:05 your connection is lost unexpectedly
4:08 the meeting will still need to proceed
4:10 and you are encouraged to rejoin us
4:12 at the meeting if you are able there are
4:15 also two public hearings this evening
4:17 ab7990 which is the proposed 2021 budget
4:21 levy and revenue sources and ab 7991
4:25 the proposed 2021 budget and salary
4:27 ordinance
4:28 if you would like to make comments on
4:30 these topics you will have an
4:32 opportunity later in the meeting
4:34 and again for those who have joined us
4:35 tonight and would like to speak under
4:37 under
4:37 con their audience comments but did not
4:40 sign up in advance
4:42 please press star 3 on your phone we
4:44 will call the last two digits of your
4:46 phone number when it's your turn to make
4:47 comments
4:49 personal attacks obscene language and
4:51 derogatory remarks and disruptive
4:53 behavior will not be permitted
4:55 and if a speaker is out of order i will
4:57 ask them to stop
4:58 and use their microphone if the speaker
5:00 does not comply i may direct staff
5:02 to have the microphone needed if a
5:04 disruption to the meeting occurs an
5:06 order cannot be restored i may direct
5:07 staff to remove you from the call
5:10 citizens comments written and verbal are
5:12 an important aspect of the public
5:14 process
5:14 the city takes your comments very
5:16 seriously and we thank you for taking
5:18 the time to address us
5:20 declare can you please identify the
5:22 first person who signed up to speak
5:24 tonight yes the first speaker is deepa
5:27 sivarahan i'll be requesting you to
5:29 unmute deepak
5:46 deepa i'm going to request you to unmute
5:49 one more time
5:50 you may need to press star six on your
5:53 phone
6:01 hello can you hear me yes we can
6:04 we're sorry about that thank you for the
6:06 opportunity to to give comment tonight
6:09 um my name is deepa sivarajan and i'm
6:12 the washington policy manager for
6:14 climate solutions
6:15 which is a local nonprofit working to
6:17 accelerate clean energy solutions to the
6:19 climate crisis
6:21 climate solutions had the opportunity to
6:23 participate in the climate convening in
6:25 july
6:25 and we're very pleased to see that the
6:27 recommendations from that event are
6:29 being shared tonight
6:31 i wanted to share some suggestions for
6:33 how the city can move forward
6:34 after these recommendations to take
6:36 action on reducing isoqua's
6:38 greenhouse gas emissions firstly i want
6:41 to urge council to not let process get
6:44 in the way of progress
6:45 and to take action on climate impair on
6:47 climate
6:48 in parallel to other planning efforts
6:50 that are happening at the city
6:52 we're really excited to see the
6:53 formation of the environmental board
6:55 um which will be able to focus on
6:57 climate and sustainability issues
6:59 and i believe that the convening
7:00 recommendations include the development
7:02 of a climate action plan for the city
7:05 we strongly support a robust plan but we
7:08 urge council to not let these planning
7:10 efforts preclude other policy actions
7:11 that can be taken in the near term
7:14 we also encourage the city to take these
7:16 actions in close consultation
7:18 with vulnerable communities such as
7:20 black indigenous and people of color
7:21 communities
7:22 and low-income communities to ensure
7:24 that these plans are implemented
7:26 equitably
7:27 in terms of policy we believe that the
7:29 most impact
7:31 can be made in the near term in the
7:32 transportation and buildings
7:34 sectors transportation is washington's
7:36 largest source of greenhouse gas
7:38 emissions
7:39 and it is also responsible for other
7:40 toxic air pollution that damages our
7:42 health
7:43 we're pleased to see that that the
7:44 convening recommendations
7:46 include passing the mobility master plan
7:48 which works to both reduce vehicle miles
7:51 traveled
7:51 and to electrify vehicles both of these
7:54 strategies are needed to decarbonize and
7:56 they are complementary of each other
7:58 recent climate solutions research
8:00 concluded that a combination of these
8:02 two strategies
8:03 is likely to reduce personal
8:04 transportation costs by over four
8:06 thousand dollars per year by 2050
8:09 including yielding as much as 600
8:10 million dollars in annual health savings
8:12 across washington and oregon
8:15 residents should have the option to
8:16 safely and conveniently get around
8:18 without a personal vehicle and all
8:20 remaining vehicle travel
8:22 including personal transit and freight
8:24 will need to be electrified to meet the
8:26 city's emissions reduction goals
8:28 a simple way for issaquah to support
8:30 vehicle electrification
8:32 would be to pass an ev readiness policy
8:35 buildings of all types to provide
8:36 parking should be covered by this
8:38 requirement
8:39 while existing state law covers some
8:40 multi-family and commercial buildings
8:42 issaquah can and should go beyond this
8:44 minimum requirement
8:46 this low-cost policy is strategic to
8:48 ensure that new construction includes
8:50 parking
8:50 including parking accommodates future ev
8:53 charging without the need for expensive
8:54 retrofits
8:56 access to convenient charging is a major
8:58 concern when people consider buying
9:00 an ev and the majority of ev charging is
9:02 done at home
9:04 seattle has already passed such an
9:05 ordinance and king county is considering
9:07 one currently that would cover
9:08 unincorporated parts of the county
9:10 so given that neighborhood neighboring
9:12 jurisdictions are already acting
9:14 it makes sense for issaquah to do the
9:16 same to ensure that new development
9:17 is future-proofed moving on from
9:21 transportation
9:22 i also want to reiterate the importance
9:23 of reducing the use of fossil fuels in
9:25 the buildings
9:26 sector the use of natural gas to heat
9:29 and power buildings
9:30 currently accounts for 15 of king
9:32 county's total greenhouse gas emissions
9:34 and residential energy emissions have
9:36 grown in king county since 2008
9:38 which is largely attributed to increases
9:40 in natural gas use
9:41 combusting fossil fuels and buildings
9:43 also increases outdoor and indoor air
9:45 pollution
9:46 living in a home with gas cooking
9:47 increases a child's chance of developing
9:50 asthma by 42 and certain outdoor air
9:53 pollutants emitted from building exceed
9:55 those from power plants in washington
9:57 these impacts tend to be
9:59 disproportionately felt by vulnerable
10:00 communities
10:01 black indigenous latinx and asian people
10:04 as well as people with lower
10:05 socioeconomic status have higher risks
10:07 of death from
10:08 air pollution in part due to the
10:10 historical impacts of segregation and
10:12 redlining that has led communities of
10:13 color
10:14 to be pushed to live in places with
10:15 greater exposure to air pollution
10:18 we were really encouraged to see that
10:19 many different participants at the
10:21 climate convening supported
10:23 uh all electric clean buildings and to
10:25 that end we strongly encourage that
10:27 issaquah move towards
10:28 supporting all electric buildings for
10:30 any new construction in the city
10:32 in 2019 washingtonians spent an extra 67
10:36 million dollars building homes with gas
10:38 a very recent study by the rocky
10:40 mountain institute found that in seattle
10:42 a new home that uses gas for space
10:44 heating water heating air conditioning
10:46 and cooking
10:46 has a higher upfront cost of four
10:49 thousand five hundred dollars more than
10:51 an all-electric home
10:52 which uses the heat pump system for both
10:54 heating and cooling
10:55 we can expect similar numbers in cities
10:57 uh like isogloss depending on the
10:58 utility serving
11:00 the area requiring clean new buildings
11:02 will not only protect residents from the
11:04 health and safety impacts of gas
11:06 but will also prevent an unnecessary
11:08 expansion of gas infrastructure that
11:10 poses a risk of stranded assets in the
11:11 future
11:12 given that new buildings constructed
11:14 with natural gas infrastructure will
11:15 last for over 50 years
11:17 on the other hand if new buildings
11:18 continue to be built with gas
11:20 infrastructure
11:21 it will be the low-income residents who
11:23 will bear the highest burden of costs in
11:24 the future
11:25 for rising gas prices and retrofit
11:27 conversion to all electric buildings
11:30 i hope that you will consider
11:31 implementing these actions on
11:32 transportation and building
11:34 mitigation in the near future so that
11:36 issaquah continued work
11:37 can continue working to a cleaner more
11:39 just future
11:40 thank you for your time and for all your
11:42 hard work in protecting the residents of
11:44 ithaca
11:46 thank you gifa i just want to let the
11:49 public know as well
11:50 as we go down through our list of public
11:51 speakers this evening there may be a
11:53 slight delay
11:54 in the timing between when the speaker
11:56 is unmuted and they actually start to
11:57 speak
11:58 so just so everybody is aware uh uh
12:01 city clerk next on the list yes next we
12:04 have corey walters
12:06 corey i'll send the request to unmute
12:08 you now
12:15 hi can you hear me
12:18 yes you can go ahead okay good thank you
12:22 um well this is corey walters i'm the
12:26 executive director of the issaquah food
12:28 and clothing bank and
12:29 i am calling in tonight um
12:33 to thank our community and thank the
12:35 city of issaquah
12:36 for an upcoming event
12:40 we have the mayor's day of concern on
12:42 halloween
12:43 so october 31st and it's
12:47 the mayor's day of concern of the
12:48 kickoff of our food drive
12:50 season and i just want to thank
12:53 everybody in advance we'll have two
12:55 drop-off locations
12:57 in one in issaquah at our savior
13:00 lutheran church
13:01 and one in some manish at central
13:04 washington university
13:07 um as many of you know the izakawa food
13:11 and clothing bank has not been able to
13:13 receive
13:14 food in its typical traditional
13:18 ways because of covid19 so food drives
13:21 like the mayor's day of concern
13:23 are very important to our organization
13:26 and our community it's super important
13:28 to ensure that we are getting our enough
13:32 food for our community members
13:35 um and just a little data from march to
13:38 april this year so the
13:40 first six months of covid we provided
13:45 7262 services to issaquah
13:48 residents and that included residents
13:50 who
13:51 drove through and picked up food and
13:53 resources from the food bank
13:55 and residents who we were able to
13:58 deliver
13:59 food to through our groceries to go
14:01 program and our emergency
14:03 delivery program that we started when
14:06 covid
14:07 started so i just would really like to
14:10 thank
14:11 mary lou and the council and city of
14:14 issaquah and our community members for
14:16 stepping up
14:17 during this time period and
14:20 making our work work at the food bank a
14:23 lot easier and allowing us to serve
14:25 the growing need so thank you so much
14:28 and mary lou thanks for supporting the
14:30 mayor's day of concern
14:33 thank you miss walters it sounds like if
14:35 it's on the 31st site there might be a
14:37 costume expectation which could be tough
14:39 city claire is there anyone else signed
14:41 up to speak today
14:43 yes our next speaker is kathy mcquarrie
14:45 cathy i'll send the request to unmute
14:56 now
14:59 and kathy i'm going to send that request
15:01 one more time
15:15 kathy i still see you're muted you
15:17 should be able to press star six on your
15:19 phone
15:20 to unmute yourself
15:31 and i see that you're unmuted now kathy
15:33 can you hear us
15:40 mayor i'm i'm not certain of the problem
15:42 but we don't seem to be able to hear
15:44 kathy
15:46 that's super unfortunate because she did
15:47 do the test as well
15:49 well hopefully kathy can call back in
15:51 and we can try again
15:52 is there another speaker on your list
15:54 this evening
15:56 we don't have any more speakers on the
15:57 list but i do see we have a number of
15:59 phoning callers
16:00 if anyone else is interested in making
16:02 comments if you can please press star 3
16:04 on your phone
16:05 to raise your hand that's star three
16:09 so we'll take a few minutes or take a
16:11 minute or so to make sure
16:12 anybody that is here this evening
16:14 wishing to speak under audience comment
16:16 and let you know and i'm gonna
16:23 oh yeah kathy came off the line um
16:27 okay i do see one hand raised phone and
16:30 caller with the last two digits one
16:32 four i'll send a request to unmute you
16:35 now
16:48 and one more time phoning caller with
16:51 the last two digits one
16:52 four i'm going to request you unmute now
17:10 phone and caller with the last two
17:12 digits one four can you please try
17:14 pressing star six on your phone
17:16 unmute
17:21 hi this is steve calvera i've been
17:24 naming old times
17:25 for about 13 years can you hear me thank
17:27 you steve we can hear you really well
17:29 thanks very much sure thanks so i had
17:32 two
17:33 pieces of input that i wanted to provide
17:34 tonight the first was uh
17:36 looking back on the last
17:40 city council meeting one of the issues
17:41 came up was a
17:43 proposed tax increase by king county to
17:46 pay for
17:52 service needs for low-income housing
17:55 that type of thing i forget
17:58 the breadth but i had two pieces of
18:02 i guess my thought on that was i
18:05 initially liked the idea and i thought
18:06 it was a good idea and i
18:07 still think probably still a good idea
18:09 what i kind of disliked was hearing
18:12 that that perception that a lot of the
18:14 city council members were
18:15 approaching the idea from the
18:16 perspective though we're already going
18:18 to earmark that towards the
18:20 transit oriented oriented development
18:22 project for low income housing
18:24 already earmarking and already said that
18:25 that's best use of the funds and
18:27 that kind of concerned me and bothered
18:29 me with that perception
18:31 uh it wasn't that we're going to see if
18:34 that was the best need or it was already
18:35 most
18:36 putting the decision ahead of the line
18:38 that we've already said do that and
18:39 you're marking for that
18:40 so the way that came down the way that
18:42 happened bothered me
18:44 it bothered me a little bit less i know
18:47 that i've heard
18:48 city council talk about uh taking an
18:50 input or perspective to
18:52 offer input to other bodies that have
18:54 thought about raising taxes and maybe
18:56 that would have been a good discussion
18:58 to have on whether or not this should go
18:59 forward as well i didn't hear that
19:00 discussion happen so i just wanted to
19:03 write those two pieces of input on that
19:04 peaker legislation just that
19:06 again i was kind of bothered by the way
19:08 it happened the way it went down that
19:09 there's almost seemed to be a
19:10 [Music]
19:12 decision after the factor for marking
19:14 the best uses of those funds
19:16 uh the second piece of input i wanted to
19:18 provide tonight was
19:20 on the uh logging or the ltch hasn't
19:23 lodging tax authorization committee or
19:25 something to that effect
19:26 uh i guess in part i'm kind of bothered
19:30 with the whole concept of ltac
19:31 in that i know that previously
19:35 in the previous attack mean a decision
19:38 had been made not to
19:40 provide funding for the
19:43 village theater and so i'm kind of
19:47 bothered i would like to see
19:48 maybe the city better decide how to use
19:50 those funds and i have a separate
19:52 body that decides how to use those funds
19:55 to better reflect what maybe the needs
19:57 of the desires of the community are
19:59 i know and i would also like to see an
20:02 increased amount of funds used to
20:03 support the
20:05 uh village cougar mountain zoological
20:09 society uh i think both them in village
20:12 theater are
20:13 a large draw to
20:16 israel i've seen more funds earmarked
20:19 for that but i don't see the
20:20 all-tech body decided to be either and i
20:22 think that's
20:23 a shame and i would like to express the
20:26 opinion that
20:27 maybe ltc isn't giving us what we need
20:29 or best use of those funds
20:31 [Music]
20:33 i would support with that in mind i
20:36 guess
20:36 i know there's earmarked or certain some
20:39 52 000
20:40 worth of guns looks like maybe in
20:43 funding or additional funding
20:44 uh i definitely support most of those i
20:48 would almost like to see the
20:53 chamber of commerce not receive the
20:55 funding and that when i see signs go up
20:57 i would almost like to see instead of
20:58 presented by this chain of converse
21:01 presented by the city of this water
21:03 presented by the residents of izakawa
21:05 uh i just want to make sure we're
21:09 getting the bang for the buck
21:11 that's my input for tonight thank you
21:13 all for the good work and please keep it
21:16 thank you steve going to check back with
21:19 city cleric to see if kathy mccrory was
21:21 able to get back on the line
21:23 yes she is if i could ask steve if you
21:26 could please press star 3 on your phone
21:28 to lower your hand
21:32 i'm going to check in with kathy and
21:33 then we do have one more member of the
21:34 public who's indicated a desire to speak
21:37 so kathy i'm going to send a request for
21:39 you to unmute now
21:54 and one more time kathy i'll be sending
21:56 you a request to unmute please press
21:59 star six
21:59 when you hear the voice on your line
22:13 that looks good kathy are you able to
22:15 talk with us this evening
22:22 well that's unfortunate i can see that
22:24 mute is off but we still can't hear her
22:28 yes i'm going to keep her line open and
22:30 we'll move up to the phone and caller
22:32 with the last two digits 2-8
22:36 i'll request you unmute now
22:52 and one more time caller with the last
22:55 two digits two
22:56 eight i'm requesting you unmute now
23:00 hello hi we can hear you go ahead
23:03 hi i'm good um so hi i'm danny
23:06 and i'm a student at issaquah high
23:09 school
23:10 and i would just like to speak in strong
23:12 support of all of the
23:13 recommendations from the climate
23:15 convening
23:16 specifically number five i think
23:19 education is obviously critical to
23:21 environmental justice but
23:23 um it's also really important in
23:25 encouraging
23:26 youth involvement which is um a
23:28 particular
23:29 is one of my particular passions and i
23:33 would implore the city to
23:34 offer youth opportunities in city
23:37 projects i know
23:38 that is a really cool part of the
23:40 environmental board
23:42 that there's some youth positions which
23:44 is awesome
23:45 because i think it's really important
23:47 that you
23:49 get involved in these kinds of things i
23:50 know there's so many of us who are
23:52 just super passionate about the
23:54 environment and really want to do
23:55 something
23:56 and are confused on how exactly to take
23:59 action so
24:00 i really love what the city is doing and
24:02 i appreciate the support of
24:04 councilwoman d michelle in particular on
24:07 a food waste project i'm working on with
24:11 nana shankar so thank you so much um
24:14 and yeah just to thank you for
24:16 everything you guys are doing
24:18 and thanks for your time thank you danny
24:22 city clerk should we go back to miss
24:24 mccrory again and see if we can get her
24:26 comments yes real quick danny if you
24:29 could
24:29 please lower your hand by pressing star
24:32 three thank you
24:33 and i've left kathy's line
24:36 open kathy can you try talking with us
24:41 yes hopefully you can hear me now
24:43 finally
24:44 yes miss mccrary we can hear you go
24:47 ahead
24:49 all right thank you good evening members
24:51 of the city council and mayor polly i
24:53 apologize for
24:55 my technical issues my name is kathy
24:58 mccrory i'm the ceo of the greater
25:00 issaquah chamber of commerce
25:02 we're located at 155 north western
25:04 gilman boulevard
25:05 boulevard and on behalf of the chamber
25:08 we would like to comment on ab-802829
25:13 3 before you this evening regarding
25:17 ab-8028
25:20 the chamber would like to thank city
25:22 staff for doing all of the research
25:24 regarding fees of nearby
25:26 communities regarding permits if our
25:28 local developers find the increase is
25:30 success
25:31 accessible we certainly do not disagree
25:34 we would like to share a quick thought
25:35 however it's our hope that these fees
25:37 will not adversely affect affordable
25:39 housing in the future
25:40 or that these fees will be adjusted when
25:43 affordable housing opportunities present
25:46 themselves
25:47 we also would hope that projects
25:48 currently under review or
25:50 submitted before the end of the year
25:52 will receive current rates since it is
25:54 more likely that these are the fees on
25:56 which they are
25:57 basing their project costs
26:00 regarding agenda bills 8029 and 8030
26:04 both of these agenda bills seek city
26:07 council approval this evening
26:10 ab-8029 to review and approve the
26:12 funding allocation recommendation from
26:14 lodging tax advisory council
26:16 to provide fifty two thousand and
26:18 seventy five dollars from the lodging
26:20 tax
26:21 tax fund reserved to support businesses
26:24 and nonprofits and
26:25 a b 8030 to award the 2021 selection and
26:30 funding allocation
26:31 for promotion and visitor attraction
26:34 services
26:35 as recommended by the lodging tax
26:37 advisory committee
26:39 the greater issaquah chamber would like
26:41 to thank ltac
26:42 and the city of issaquah for the
26:44 opportunity to apply for both the
26:46 funding
26:47 services and the service contract
26:51 chamber visitor center information
26:53 center not only
26:54 staffs it but maintains a website
26:58 a community calendar a facebook page
27:01 that shares activities
27:02 events and tourism related businesses
27:05 we create and distribute the visitor
27:07 guide the official
27:08 issaquah road map a restaurant guide
27:11 lodging guide
27:13 camping and rv guide a things to do
27:16 website and guide visitor information
27:18 packages an event welcome kit in a box
27:22 for events hopefully they'll return
27:24 someday
27:25 and a new resident package all of these
27:28 take time and money to produce
27:30 maintain promote and distribute
27:33 there are not many opportunities for
27:35 non-profits like ours to receive funding
27:38 and we thank ltac for thinking of how to
27:40 support organizations
27:41 like ours and we thank the city council
27:44 for your considerations this evening
27:46 regarding 8030 specifically even though
27:49 we are not the organization of choice by
27:51 ltc
27:52 we want to reiterate all the services i
27:54 just mentioned here this evening
27:56 the chamber continues to provide for the
27:58 city
27:59 visit issaquah and the entire community
28:02 there are many ways to promote tourism
28:04 and market issaquah and we are one of
28:06 many
28:07 we would like to remind city council
28:09 that we provide these tools for all
28:11 businesses of issaquah regardless of
28:13 their membership
28:14 and if the city and ltac believe in
28:16 additional agencies needed to promote
28:18 tourism
28:19 rest assured our guides sites tools
28:22 and services are available to everyone
28:26 after all our mission at the greater
28:27 issaquah chamber is to be the catalyst
28:29 for growth
28:30 the convener of leaders and the champion
28:32 for the business community
28:34 as always i would like to thank you for
28:36 all of your hard work
28:38 the time you dedicate to serving our
28:39 community and for your thoughtful
28:41 consideration on the issues that come
28:43 before you
28:44 thank you thank you kathy i'm glad that
28:48 we got the audio stuff
28:50 figured out uh city clerk is there
28:52 anyone else would like to speak this
28:53 evening
28:54 no so i would like to
28:58 thank all of those that participated in
29:00 audience comments today
29:01 there were speakers in favor of city
29:03 action on the findings from the climate
29:06 convening
29:07 support for the mayor's day of concern
29:09 on october 31st supporting the isque
29:11 food and clothing bank multiple comments
29:15 on the two agenda bills we have this
29:18 evening dealing with recommendations
29:19 from the lodging tax advisory committee
29:22 and also a resident expressing concerns
29:24 over king county's 0.1
29:27 sales tax to support um
29:31 low-income housing so thank you all for
29:33 attending we appreciate
29:35 that you spend your time your evening
29:37 with us
29:38 as a reminder written comments can also
29:40 be submitted at any time to city council
29:42 at issaquah.gov
29:44 and any comments that have been received
29:47 this evening on tonight's agenda
29:49 topics will be acknowledged by the
29:50 council president council president hunt
29:52 under the relevant agenda item
29:55 so the next item of business this
29:56 evening is committee and regional
29:58 reports and we'll start with council
30:00 member hall
30:03 thank you mayor paulie this is
30:04 councilmember zach hall just a couple
30:06 quick reports this evening um nothing
30:09 new to report for
30:10 cascade water alliance i'll just
30:13 announce that the next meeting of the
30:14 board of directors is wednesday october
30:17 28th
30:18 um for the king county affordable
30:21 housing committee
30:22 of the growth management planning
30:26 council
30:26 um i mentioned at our last regular
30:28 meeting on october 5
30:31 that the committee is currently working
30:34 on developing a list of shared
30:36 principles to guide county city business
30:39 and non-profit efforts to implement new
30:42 and or untapped revenue sources for
30:44 affordable housing
30:46 and i also shared that earlier this
30:49 month that the sound cities association
30:50 caucus had a number of concerns
30:53 with that city's uh with the first draft
30:56 um and i was actually just made aware
30:58 earlier today that we should be seeing a
31:00 new draft by the end of the week so i
31:01 just wanted to give everyone our council
31:03 a heads up that
31:04 as soon as i get that i'll be asking for
31:06 your feedback we didn't want to move
31:07 forward as a caucus until
31:09 we we ran the committee's draft by our
31:12 councils so
31:13 just a heads up that that will be coming
31:15 to you and our next committee meeting is
31:17 tuesday november 3rd
31:19 um for ether i'll let um council member
31:22 goodman or deputy council president ray
31:23 give that report and that concludes my
31:25 report this evening
31:27 thank you councilmember hall
31:28 councilmember d michelle
31:33 thank you mayor pauline um i have no
31:36 report tonight
31:37 i will be meeting with east side
31:38 transportation partnership tomorrow at
31:40 nine o'clock in the morning
31:41 and that concludes my report thank you
31:44 councilmember walsh thank you this is
31:47 councilmember walsh
31:49 um i met with the isoqua chamber of
31:51 commerce
31:52 on friday and just continue to keep them
31:55 up to date about what is going on with
31:58 our budget in particular
32:00 the items that were important for them
32:02 to note
32:03 was the permit fees and so they know
32:06 that's on our agenda tonight
32:09 and i think we've received some emails
32:11 about it since then
32:13 um and just generally keeping them
32:16 apprised of you know what's going on in
32:18 this crazy world
32:20 that we live in in 2020 issaquah um
32:23 but nothing nothing other than that that
32:26 was uh
32:27 notable so that concludes my report
32:30 thank you councilmember walsh
32:31 councilmember goodman
32:34 thank you mayor paulie councilmember
32:35 goodman here since we
32:37 last met um eastside fire and rescue
32:40 board of directors met
32:42 and there were two items on the agenda
32:44 for regular business one was the
32:46 budget the proposed budget which the
32:48 board approved
32:50 and then the second item was the new
32:53 entity type formation which the board
32:56 recommended
32:57 approval of and that will be coming back
32:58 to our
33:00 council as well as all the other um
33:04 voting bodies for all the other members
33:05 for final approval
33:07 and then lodging tax advisory
33:10 committee met on wednesday and the two
33:13 topics both of the topics that we
33:15 discussed are on our agenda tonight
33:17 so those will be fully covered later
33:20 and that concludes my report thank you
33:23 great thank you and just a reminder
33:25 councilmember mertz has an excused
33:26 absence this evening and we'll be going
33:28 to deputy council president ray
33:30 thank you mayor paulie this is chris
33:31 wray i have no report this evening
33:34 thank you council president hunt thank
33:36 you
33:37 mr council president hunt the king
33:39 conservation district advisory committee
33:41 met on october 13th at 10 am
33:44 king conservation district is a public
33:46 agency that assists landowners and
33:48 communities
33:49 in protecting and enhancing their
33:50 natural resource and they serve
33:52 communities throughout king county
33:55 this was the first meeting of this
33:56 committee this year and we
33:58 discussed what we want to do as a
34:00 committee
34:01 to support kcd for the rest of this year
34:03 and into 2021
34:05 in particular we discussed one thing
34:07 that the
34:08 advisory committee would like to work on
34:11 is have a role in the process of hiring
34:13 a new executive director for kcd
34:15 they are undergoing a leadership change
34:17 and currently have an interim director
34:20 i also spoke to the our recent
34:24 discussions about
34:25 the wildfire preparedness which is one
34:29 of the services that they
34:30 provide and wanting more information on
34:32 that and
34:34 as well as food insecurity because one
34:37 of the other services they provide is
34:39 assistance with community gardens
34:41 and urban gardening the next meeting of
34:44 this committee is not yet set
34:46 the issaquah school district and the
34:48 city of issaquah
34:50 leadership uh will meet on october 21st
34:53 this is part of a recurring meeting
34:55 schedule between the
34:57 leadership of the squash school district
34:59 school board as well as city council
35:02 leadership
35:03 and i will report back after that
35:06 meeting with the synopsis of our
35:07 discussion
35:08 and then lastly the title 18 ad hoc
35:10 committee met
35:11 on october 15th and we discussed
35:15 the outcomes table that we brought to
35:17 council on october 13th
35:19 we made some changes based on the
35:22 feedback we received at the meeting as
35:23 well as subsequent
35:25 feedback that we received from council
35:26 members on that outcomes charts
35:29 and um we will also be meeting
35:32 again later this week to begin
35:34 discussing the deliverable
35:36 services and scope of external work that
35:39 will
35:39 that is in the current proposed budget
35:41 for this next year for the title 18 work
35:44 and title 18 is the land use code for
35:47 the city of issaquah and we are
35:48 currently undergoing
35:50 a um a big revision of that
35:53 so that's what this ad hoc discusses and
35:56 that is the end of my reports thank you
36:00 thank you council president hunt the
36:02 next item on the agenda this evening
36:03 is the the mayor's report uh there was
36:07 an executive session held earlier this
36:09 evening to discuss collective bargaining
36:11 for rcw
36:13 42.30.14 parent for print
36:15 a and no action is anticipated to fall
36:18 in this evening
36:19 session open session i also want to make
36:22 an affordable housing week proclamation
36:24 tonight
36:25 whereas all people should have access to
36:27 safe healthy and affordable homes
36:30 within communities that provide
36:31 opportunity and whereas the us
36:33 department of housing and urban
36:35 development
36:36 defines affordable housing as housing on
36:38 which the occupant is paying no more
36:40 than 30 percent of gross income for
36:42 housing costs including utilities
36:45 and whereas the covet 19 pandemic has
36:49 exacerbated
36:50 many existing financial constraints for
36:52 low and moderate income households
36:54 and whereas housing stability and
36:56 staying socially distant from those
36:58 outside of our household
36:59 has become our state's core public
37:01 health strategy
37:03 and whereas everyone benefits from
37:05 affordable housing including the people
37:07 who reside in these properties
37:08 your neighbors businesses employers and
37:11 the community as a whole
37:13 now therefore i mary lou paulie mayor of
37:15 the city of issaquah
37:16 you hereby proclaim october 12-16 2020
37:21 to be affordable housing week
37:23 in the city of issaquah
37:26 i have another proclamation to do it's
37:28 on the topic
37:30 that miss walters brought up earlier
37:33 it's the mayor's day of concern
37:35 proclamation
37:36 whereas our king county cities recognize
37:38 adequate nutrition as a basic goal for
37:41 each community member
37:42 and whereas food insecurity when
37:45 individuals or households
37:46 lack reliable access to a sufficient
37:49 quantity of affordable nutritious food
37:51 and whereas with the onset of the covet
37:54 19 pandemic
37:56 and the implementation of strategies to
37:58 slow the spread of covet 19 in the
38:00 community
38:01 that have led to businesses and school
38:03 closures
38:04 food insecurity has increased in king
38:06 county
38:07 and whereas food insufficiency has
38:09 almost doubled after implementation of
38:11 strategies
38:12 to slow the spread of covet 19 and
38:15 whereas
38:16 food banks emergency and hot meal
38:18 programs working within our cities local
38:20 churches
38:21 social service agencies and hundreds of
38:23 volunteers are striving day in
38:25 and day out to stem the rising needs
38:28 however still more help is needed
38:31 and now therefore i mary lou paulie
38:33 mayor of the city of issaquah
38:35 do hereby proclaim october 31st 2020
38:38 to be the mayor's day of concern in the
38:40 city of issaquah
38:41 and i strongly urge all residents to
38:43 join the ischool food and clothing bank
38:45 and other
38:46 area food banks to share what they can
38:49 to nourish those who are food insecure a
38:52 couple of little
38:53 announcements to add on to the first one
38:55 is about a farmer's market grant from
38:57 the king county karazhan funding
38:59 and tonight's consent agenda does
39:01 include a ten thousand dollar grant
39:02 award for the issaquah farmers market
39:05 king county council has allocated four
39:06 hundred and ten thousand dollars of its
39:08 cares act allocation
39:10 to assist king county area farmers
39:12 markets in their compliance work related
39:14 to the covet 19 pandemic
39:16 and the delivery of farmers markets this
39:18 spring and summer
39:19 this reimbursement amount was targeted
39:21 to be between 10 000 and 15 000
39:24 depending on
39:24 how many markets apply with qualifying
39:26 expenses and eligible expenses included
39:29 increased personnel costs and new
39:31 operational costs due to covet 19 in the
39:34 modified protocols
39:35 issaquah offered a modified and safe
39:38 version of its successful and popular
39:40 farmers market this season this was done
39:42 in close collaboration with king county
39:44 public health
39:45 and following their guidelines related
39:46 to vendors customers
39:48 and the event location the issaquah
39:51 market averaged over 2 000 visitors each
39:53 saturday
39:54 like all federal cares act funding this
39:56 grant must be distributed and expended
39:58 by december 31st
40:00 2020 as a reimbursement grant for
40:03 expenses we've already made
40:04 that will be easily accomplished and
40:06 that's all for the mayor's report this
40:08 evening
40:09 i'm going to move on to the next item
40:11 under our agenda which is informational
40:13 updates
40:14 and we have id 0768 climate convening
40:18 recommendations and i'd like to ask
40:19 sustainability coordinator
40:21 coordinator megan curtis murphy to make
40:24 a presentation
40:25 megan great thank you
40:28 share my screen
40:34 great good evening madam mayor and
40:36 council members i'm megan curtis
40:38 murphy with the office of sustainability
40:40 and i'm joined this evening by ann
40:41 fletcher
40:42 the chapter leader for people for
40:44 climate action and lindsey frickel the
40:46 executive director of the issaquah alps
40:48 trails club
40:49 together we're going to share the
40:50 recommendations that came out of the
40:52 community convening
40:53 on climate that we had in july
41:02 back in february of this year the
41:04 council directed the city to work with
41:05 the community
41:06 on a course of action to address climate
41:08 change due to covid we had to cancel our
41:11 in-person convening planned for may
41:13 and instead held a two-part virtual
41:15 convening in july
41:17 we worked with community partners
41:18 including people for climate action
41:20 issaquah alps trails club friends of the
41:22 issaquah salmon hatchery
41:24 and the greater issaquah chamber of
41:26 commerce to co-host the convening
41:28 this group met a couple times a month
41:30 for several months to plan the meeting
41:32 and afterward to digest the information
41:34 and develop the recommendations
41:36 we also distributed the recommendations
41:38 to attendees
41:39 and got their input for this final
41:41 version you'll be seeing this evening
41:45 prior to the convening the group
41:46 developed four goals for the meeting
41:48 which i will share
41:49 along with their outcomes from the
41:51 meeting itself
41:52 the first was to bring together a broad
41:54 cross-section of community stakeholders
41:57 for a thoughtful discussion and feedback
41:59 about local climate action
42:01 we invited a large spectrum of attendees
42:04 and had about 50
42:06 50 people on each of the two webinars
42:08 attendees include community members
42:10 educators non-profits businesses
42:14 environmental professionals utility
42:16 representatives and our waste hauler
42:18 we had four breakout groups focused on
42:20 climate topics
42:21 where attendees could share ideas and
42:23 engage in discussion
42:25 the next goal was to provide for a
42:27 common foundation of knowledge and
42:29 awareness of climate data and issaquah
42:31 as well as past and current efforts i
42:34 shared the greenhouse gas inventory that
42:36 was presented to city council in
42:37 february
42:38 as well as several actions the city has
42:40 taken to reduce
42:42 greenhouse gas emissions this allowed
42:45 all attendees to start with a baseline
42:47 of information
42:48 about climate change and issaquah to
42:50 help inform the breakout groups that we
42:52 had in the second part
42:54 the next goal was to provide
42:55 opportunities for building and
42:57 strengthening relationships for common
42:59 action
43:00 the first day we heard from government
43:02 representatives including the mayor and
43:04 myself
43:04 a business representative from microsoft
43:07 and community representative from people
43:09 for climate action
43:10 it's important that climate be addressed
43:12 in each of these sectors
43:14 and our impact will be the greatest when
43:15 we work together
43:17 since the convening we have heard about
43:19 additional meetings
43:21 new members for organizations and
43:23 strengthening of relationships
43:24 formed as a result of the convening
43:26 itself
43:28 the last goal was to identify
43:29 recommendations to the city
43:31 and community leaders for a course of
43:33 action to address climate change in
43:35 issaquah
43:36 these recommendations are meant to
43:38 inform city work
43:39 but also help guide work within the
43:41 community
43:42 throughout the conversations we heard
43:45 themes about wanting to take bold action
43:47 and lead in the region
43:48 these recommendations provide
43:50 opportunities for each of these sectors
43:52 to do so
43:54 i will now hand it over to ann to take
43:56 us through the first four
43:57 recommendations
43:58 this will be a brief overview but
44:00 there's more information included in the
44:02 memo
44:02 as well and
44:13 up and it looks like you're still on
44:14 mute
44:17 and megan this is the mirror if i can
44:18 get you to go and mute when the other
44:20 speakers are on because your microphone
44:21 loves to pick up your breathing
44:27 hi i'm ann fletcher with people for
44:30 climate action
44:35 it's convening i thought it was such a
44:38 great idea
44:39 that wally bob kowitz first proposed uh
44:43 last winter and because megan curtis
44:46 murphy
44:47 was so great to work with and invited
44:49 such wide participation
44:52 it was a great opportunity for me and
44:54 others
44:55 to work in our own community to resolve
44:58 what i consider one of the crucial moral
45:02 and survival
45:03 issues of our time so i am really
45:06 excited to be here to share the
45:07 convening recommendations with you
45:11 the first recommendation is to develop a
45:13 climate action plan
45:15 to help focus the city's climate efforts
45:19 and prioritize actions
45:22 the city has done a lot of work on
45:24 climate
45:25 but as you know we as a community are
45:27 not meeting our goals
45:30 a climate action plan will allow the
45:32 city to develop
45:33 a cohesive framework to prioritize goals
45:38 and actions and make them known to the
45:41 community
45:43 and we the people for climate action are
45:46 here to help with that
45:49 the the second is to improve
45:51 environmental
45:52 and sustainability standards and
45:53 requirements
45:55 specifically making updates to the
45:58 issaquah municipal code
46:00 title 16 buildings and construction and
46:03 title 18
46:04 land use we learned at the convening
46:08 that buildings make up 62 percent
46:11 of our community-wide emissions and thus
46:15 it's so important to look at how our
46:17 codes support or don't support
46:19 our greenhouse gas emission goals
46:22 the third recommendation is to actively
46:26 support
46:26 the transition to electrification of
46:29 buildings
46:30 and transportation systems and at the
46:32 same time
46:33 the transition away from fossil fuels
46:38 our state is moving toward a clean
46:41 electric grid thanks to clean
46:42 energy transformation act which passed
46:46 the state
46:46 legislature in 2019
46:50 and as megan mentioned there was a theme
46:53 throughout the convening
46:54 to take bold action and this is one
46:58 important area where we may have the
47:00 opportunity
47:01 to do so in the near future
47:05 the fourth recommendation is to
47:07 implement the mobility
47:09 master plan and prioritize projects
47:12 that reduce vehicle miles traveled
47:16 this would mean promoting modes other
47:18 than single occupancy
47:20 vehicles including walking
47:23 biking ride sharing transit
47:26 and teleworking the remaining 38
47:31 of our community's emissions is from
47:33 transportation
47:35 and although not always popular we need
47:38 to figure out ways to drive less and
47:40 make it easier to get around
47:42 with other modes the mobility master
47:46 plan includes climate goals
47:49 and our recommendation is to prioritize
47:51 those
47:53 so thank you for listening and for your
47:56 support
47:57 in helping us reach our community wide
48:00 climate goals the future of our
48:03 community
48:05 depends on the important work that we're
48:06 doing right here now
48:09 and now i'll pass it on to
48:12 lindsey frickle
48:20 hello everyone can you hear me
48:25 yes we can lindsay oh great
48:29 good evening members of the city council
48:31 and mayor paulie
48:32 i'm lindsay frickel i'm with the isqua
48:34 alps trails club
48:35 and as executive director of the iatc i
48:38 took part in this convening to represent
48:40 our organization's interests in the
48:42 preservation and protection of our
48:44 beloved isquad alps
48:45 and my own interests as a mother of two
48:47 little ones and making sure that we're
48:49 able to offer the next generation
48:51 healthy forests and public lands to
48:53 enjoy throughout their lifetimes
48:55 and beyond and the iatc board and i have
48:58 made climate action a priority
49:00 and collaboration with the city and
49:02 partner organizations
49:04 a major focus in our organization's new
49:06 strategic plan
49:08 i'll be sharing the final three
49:09 recommendations from the convening with
49:11 you
49:11 this evening the fifth recommendation
49:15 is to engage and educate
49:18 the community on climate change and what
49:20 they can do
49:21 to help by providing resources to make
49:23 taking action easy
49:25 and fun we had heard a lot of energy
49:28 around this recommendation because
49:30 people want to do their part to reduce
49:32 emissions but they don't always know how
49:34 each of the co-hosting groups including
49:36 the esco alps trails club
49:38 is committed to helping connect their
49:40 supporters to climate actions
49:42 so we're looking forward to engaging
49:44 with the city and our partners on that
49:47 the next recommendation i'll talk about
49:49 is the most is
49:50 the most related to our work at the iatc
49:53 which is to establish programs and
49:55 partnerships to help manage
49:57 and protect our urban forests with
49:59 special attention to privately owned
50:01 land
50:02 this year we saw devastating wildfires
50:04 as you all know along the west coast and
50:06 several
50:07 not too far from our homes here in
50:08 issaquah at the
50:10 alps trails club we are dedicated to
50:12 engaging the public
50:13 to preserve protect and promote the land
50:16 wildlife and trails
50:18 of the isla alps for present and future
50:20 generation
50:21 generations and managing our forests
50:24 will help
50:25 our organization's service mission but
50:27 we must pay
50:28 careful attention to reducing the
50:31 increased
50:32 risk of wildfires due to climate change
50:35 and it's critical as well to engage
50:38 private landowners in these efforts
50:42 our final recommendation that i'll speak
50:44 about is
50:45 to build on the community's passion for
50:47 recycling
50:49 a popular one with special attention to
50:51 multi-family and commercial sites
50:54 and extend that passion to wasting and
50:56 consuming less
50:58 as we learned in the convening recycling
51:01 and composting are important but the
51:02 emissions associated with our food
51:04 and our purchases are much greater we
51:07 want to help the community to buy local
51:09 and save money through use reuse and
51:12 repair of items which will help us
51:14 reduce emissions as a city so i want to
51:17 thank you
51:17 so much for your support on these issues
51:20 and i look forward to working with the
51:22 city
51:22 the council and mayor paulie on the
51:24 implementation of our community's
51:26 recommendations
51:30 thank you ann and lindsay for sharing
51:32 the recommendations
51:33 and to the rest of the planning team
51:35 pictured here from one of our many
51:37 virtual meetings
51:38 i think the relationships we formed
51:40 through this effort will be long lasting
51:42 and will help the community meet our
51:43 climate reduction goals
51:45 we'd love to answer any questions or
51:47 hear comments or recommendations from
51:49 the cap from the convening
51:51 the city has set aside budget to develop
51:53 a climate action plan next year
51:55 however some of these recommendations
51:57 don't need to wait to be put in a plan
51:59 for example the city has been working
52:01 with king county and other local
52:03 jurisdictions
52:04 on electric vehicle infrastructure
52:05 ordinance for new construction
52:07 which we plan to bring forward soon we
52:10 also want to get input from the
52:11 environmental board
52:12 on these recommendations and their
52:14 thoughts on implementation
52:16 i want to thank all the climate
52:17 convenient attendees for their time and
52:19 input on these recommendations and to
52:22 counsel for having us here this evening
52:24 this concludes our presentation thank
52:26 you
52:27 thank you megan this is the mayor while
52:29 i'm waiting for council members to see
52:32 if they want to
52:33 ask any questions or provide any
52:35 comments i just want to thank you
52:37 and ann and lindsay and all of the
52:39 people that you got together
52:41 in a crazy year like this to have this
52:44 convening
52:45 and have it be so meaningful and just
52:47 watching you guys smile as you do your
52:49 presentation you can tell this is the
52:51 stuff you guys
52:52 love it was very fun to watch
52:56 um so we'll go first to council member d
52:58 michelle
53:00 thank you mary paulie uh this is
53:02 councilmember d michelle and i just uh i
53:04 just want to echo
53:06 this was a wonderful presentation and i
53:09 was able to attend one of the sessions i
53:12 wasn't able to attend both i think
53:14 you've done a masterful job of
53:16 reflecting the comments that were
53:19 um offered up by the community and i
53:22 think that that is
53:23 um such a great process to have people
53:27 give input and then see that input in
53:29 the final product
53:31 i also love the uh emphasis on
53:34 urgency and that um as
53:37 danny our student earlier said that we
53:41 you know we not get um lost in process
53:44 but that we actually move forward in
53:46 action and so i really commend you and
53:48 i'm looking forward to
53:50 um the progress that we're going to make
53:53 thank you so much thank you
53:55 councilmember d michelle councilmember
53:57 hall
54:00 thank you mayor paul this is
54:01 councilmember zach hall um i'll just
54:04 add my support thank you so much for all
54:06 this great work you put in
54:08 and i want to give you an opportunity to
54:10 expand a bit on how
54:11 isoqua's youth have been involved in the
54:13 process
54:16 sure thank you um we've worked with some
54:19 of the issaquah green teams to
54:21 start to recruit specifically people
54:24 from the issaquah high schools
54:26 to attend the convening so we had good
54:28 representation there
54:30 we've continued some of those
54:32 conversations again kind of forming
54:34 those relationships
54:36 danny mentioned her her food waste
54:37 project earlier so i've been able to
54:39 connect with her on that as well so
54:41 i think through this we've just really
54:42 started to open a dialogue
54:44 i think we'll continue as we form the
54:46 environmental board and have
54:48 a couple youth representatives there and
54:50 then as we get involved in implementing
54:52 the climate work i imagine we'll be
54:54 bringing this group back together and
54:56 hopefully including more students as
54:58 well
54:58 specifically as we start to implement
55:00 the climate action plan
55:04 thank you megan um i actually forgot to
55:08 go to council president hunt
55:09 first to see if there were any emails
55:11 that she would like to summarize on this
55:12 so council president
55:14 i'm circling back to you thank you um
55:17 this is council president hunt and we
55:18 did receive a email on this topic from a
55:20 member of the community
55:22 and this member of the community wrote
55:24 to us that this
55:25 is the issue of our time climate change
55:27 is the issue of our time and was
55:28 especially
55:29 moved by the dedication of the community
55:31 leaders that have
55:32 elevated this issue and pushed it
55:35 forward
55:36 and spoke to the importance of acting
55:41 that concludes comments on thank you
55:45 council president i'm going to give a
55:47 few seconds to see if there are any
55:48 other council members that would like to
55:50 make comment or question before we go
55:52 council president hunt thank you
55:55 this is council president hunt i too
55:58 am very very enthusiastic about this
56:02 work and i really appreciate the
56:03 community convening to have 50
56:05 individuals from our community in both
56:07 of the sessions is really remarkable and
56:09 i want to commend you all of the
56:12 organizers on that and all of the
56:13 community leadership
56:14 that have really pushed this forward so
56:17 thank you very much
56:18 i also wanted to speak to
56:21 the importance of acting in parallel to
56:24 the planning that we're doing
56:26 we will be developing a climate plan as
56:28 part of these recommendations and
56:30 implementing these recommendations and i
56:32 want to make sure that we
56:33 use our existing processes while we
56:36 implement
56:36 or while we work on developing a plan as
56:38 well as we
56:40 spin up this new environmental board and
56:42 there's a king county
56:45 k4c toolkit that we also want to use so
56:48 while we're
56:48 working on all these things i want to
56:50 make sure that we're also making
56:52 meaningful progress where we can in
56:54 terms of policies
56:55 and as was mentioned one area where i
56:58 think we could act
56:59 now to demonstrate that we do have this
57:03 willingness to act is around the
57:06 electric vehicle readiness
57:08 there's a draft ordinance that um is
57:12 that will set forward us on a path to
57:15 having
57:15 more infrastructure ready for electric
57:18 vehicles
57:19 and um this would go through the
57:21 planning policy
57:22 process and could return to council in
57:26 january so i would like to see that
57:27 happen
57:28 i think there's a lot to be done and i'd
57:31 like to make sure that we
57:32 take action where we can i'll also
57:36 i also wanted to point out that this has
57:37 been on our city work plan
57:39 since the beginning of this year there
57:41 was a action item on our city work plan
57:43 for electric vehicle infrastructure
57:46 and then with covid and all of the
57:48 shifting around
57:49 that became that was on track in it
57:53 looking at i think this is the august
57:55 version of that work plan it became
57:56 on hold as has some other sustainability
58:00 actions so
58:01 lots of work to do but this is one i
58:02 think we could accelerate and i would
58:04 like to do that to
58:06 to keep this momentum and enthusiasm and
58:09 show that we can
58:10 act and then also in the near term we
58:14 will be looking at our legislative
58:15 agenda i know that this is something
58:17 that is on um
58:18 megan's radar but as we look to the
58:21 legislative agenda
58:22 i would like to make sure that we
58:24 reflect
58:25 these community values in our
58:27 legislative agenda especially around
58:29 encouraging the electrification of
58:31 transportation as well as
58:32 buildings and making sure that we can as
58:35 a city
58:36 implement that so that concludes my
58:39 comments and i
58:40 i did want to just make sure that if
58:44 other council members
58:45 would like to see the acceleration of
58:47 the electric vehicle ordinance
58:48 be very helpful to make sure that you
58:50 indicate that
58:52 thank you thank you council president
58:54 hun i'm going to take a second to go
58:56 back to city administrator bob kueps
58:58 a commitment to january sounds great if
59:01 they can actually get the work done
59:02 so let me go to the city administrator
59:04 and megan and see if you have comments
59:05 on the time frame and
59:07 is there anything that gets put aside or
59:09 is this something that is
59:11 easily accomplished by january so either
59:13 wally or megan
59:15 uh madam mayor members of the council um
59:18 you know certainly uh we have talked
59:20 with the council president about this
59:22 we believe that there's been a lot of uh
59:24 groundwork already done on the issue and
59:25 we believe
59:26 we should be able to get this back to
59:28 the council of the first year
59:31 fantastic thank you very much any other
59:34 comments i'll give a few seconds and
59:35 look in the chat box to see if any other
59:37 council members have any comments i know
59:46 yeah i can say i know as soon as i say
59:48 there's none something will pop up come
59:50 over hall thank you my polly
59:52 councilmember zachel here just real
59:53 quick and just for the sake of direction
59:55 that i would be supportive of moving
59:56 forward with the ed readiness
59:58 um coordinates by the first of the year
1:00:01 thank you that's great
1:00:06 still looking in the chat box i got a
1:00:08 thumbs up from council member dean
1:00:10 michelle
1:00:11 and a couple of head nods so looks like
1:00:13 we're looking good
1:00:15 um not seeing anybody else wishing to
1:00:17 chat again i just really want to
1:00:19 thank our staff member megan and the
1:00:23 community team that pulled together to
1:00:25 do this
1:00:26 uh you know there's there's a lot of
1:00:28 stuff that we didn't get to this year
1:00:30 but you got this work done and it has
1:00:32 really gotten people excited in the
1:00:34 community
1:00:34 so thank you so much for everything you
1:00:36 guys did did a fabulous job
1:00:40 okay two thumbs up i'm going to move to
1:00:44 the consent calendar next
1:00:46 the consent calendar was distributed to
1:00:48 council in advance
1:00:51 madam mayor this is this is tisha i
1:00:53 believe we have one more informational
1:00:55 update this evening
1:00:56 did i just breathe right through that i
1:00:58 did oh my goodness
1:01:00 beth i'm so sorry i was bound
1:01:03 too far down my script yes the next
1:01:06 informational item is
1:01:09 nine id0749 issaquah's annual update i
1:01:12 apologize
1:01:13 beth and so what i'd like to do right
1:01:16 is ask economic development manager jen
1:01:18 davis hayes
1:01:19 to start us off on this item
1:01:23 thank you madam mayor and good evening
1:01:25 council members
1:01:26 my name is jen davis hayes i'm the
1:01:27 economic development manager for the
1:01:29 and i'll do a quick introduction tonight
1:01:32 we'll hear
1:01:33 the annual report from visit issaquah
1:01:35 and beth javens the executive director
1:01:37 will be here to present that
1:01:39 we realize that october typically isn't
1:01:41 the end of the year but we have two
1:01:42 other ltac
1:01:43 and lodging tax information items on the
1:01:46 agenda we thought it was a good time to
1:01:48 have a
1:01:49 more thorough discussion about what's
1:01:51 happening in our tourism industry
1:01:53 and so i'm going to be the slide sharer
1:01:56 and beth is
1:01:57 uh going to present and i will share my
1:02:00 screen and go ahead beth take it away
1:02:04 great thank you jen and good evening
1:02:06 madam mayor
1:02:07 and council members and city staff and
1:02:09 are engaged as aqua civic community that
1:02:11 is on the call
1:02:12 thanks for the opportunity to present
1:02:14 this evening i'm beth james i'm the
1:02:16 executive director with visit issaquah
1:02:18 and jen is going to be my handy uh slide
1:02:21 slide changer this evening so thank you
1:02:24 um i'd like to acknowledge our volunteer
1:02:27 board of directors who
1:02:28 um our current board who currently serve
1:02:31 the members
1:02:32 of the community and visit issaquah they
1:02:34 are professionals in their own right
1:02:36 and they are in the travel and tourism
1:02:38 space in hospitality recreation
1:02:41 and event marketing um second i wanted
1:02:44 to express
1:02:46 a great deal of gratitude to the mayor
1:02:47 the mayor's recovery task force the
1:02:49 council
1:02:50 and dia for implementing and acting on
1:02:52 the front street
1:02:53 streetery um i think we have a lot of
1:02:56 information and certainly as a resident
1:02:58 here i enjoy
1:02:59 seeing it being open and i also know
1:03:01 that there are a lot of people that
1:03:02 that come and enjoy it and it's been uh
1:03:04 welcome for the business community in
1:03:07 downtown
1:03:08 um and i want to reiterate our efforts
1:03:10 as a tourism promotion
1:03:13 entity at promoting issaquah throughout
1:03:15 the last year and a half
1:03:17 through our website through our
1:03:18 community calendar through our
1:03:20 newsletter
1:03:20 and e-blast both in-person and virtual
1:03:24 sales efforts our visitor fulfillment
1:03:27 the current uh tools that we use for
1:03:30 promoting tourism
1:03:31 in the region and that supports over 50
1:03:35 businesses on our community calendar and
1:03:36 over 170 businesses on our website
1:03:39 but before i touch on the focal points
1:03:41 which include our 2020 business outreach
1:03:43 and successful digital
1:03:44 and marketing strategies and our future
1:03:46 content and data that resulted in direct
1:03:48 business to the issaquah community
1:03:50 i wanted to share an article that was
1:03:52 briefly a briefly shared article that
1:03:54 was written by a colleague at seattle
1:03:55 south side
1:03:57 and they were writing about what uh dmos
1:04:00 like visit issaquah
1:04:02 are doing this year to impact their
1:04:03 communities and why they matter
1:04:05 so i'm going to insert visit issaquah
1:04:07 into the narrative here but megan
1:04:08 mcguire of seattle southside writes that
1:04:11 cmos like visit us aqua are helping
1:04:13 promote immediate revenue generating
1:04:15 programs
1:04:16 that's supporting our local businesses
1:04:18 who sell gift cards
1:04:19 who are supporting the businesses that
1:04:21 have pivoted to online
1:04:22 and supporting their innovation and
1:04:25 helping promote their virtual activities
1:04:27 and supporting what can be sold right
1:04:28 now including expanded dining
1:04:31 seating and takeout like the streetery
1:04:33 dmos like visit issaquah
1:04:35 are marketing our destinations with
1:04:37 sensitivity to the audience
1:04:39 and pivoting to meet market conditions
1:04:41 creating demand for our businesses when
1:04:43 travelers do make a destination decision
1:04:45 to travel in the future
1:04:47 dmos like visit issaquah are providing
1:04:49 data to our businesses
1:04:51 to our chambers of commerce to our
1:04:53 washington state parks to our friends of
1:04:55 lake zuma state park
1:04:56 to the zoo to village theater and others
1:04:59 about
1:05:00 traveler sentiment traveler spending
1:05:02 traveler demographics and trends
1:05:04 and we do this regularly and on a weekly
1:05:06 basis with our vision partners
1:05:08 and the city dmos like visit issaquah
1:05:11 are centralizing and coordinating
1:05:13 recovery efforts with the issaquah
1:05:15 vision partners
1:05:16 with a focus on business operations
1:05:18 health and safety campaigns
1:05:20 and economic recovery strategies and
1:05:22 finally dmos like visit issaquah
1:05:24 are creating and advocating awareness
1:05:27 for diversity equity and inclusion
1:05:29 social and environmental and sustainable
1:05:31 marketing programs
1:05:32 like recreate responsibly advocating for
1:05:35 a city's climate action plan
1:05:37 and all within the hopes of the
1:05:39 destination being better for visitors
1:05:41 and the host community after covid than
1:05:44 it was before the pandemic
1:05:46 thank you for letting me share that um
1:05:49 jen can you move to the next slide
1:05:51 please
1:05:53 so we all know the effects of the
1:05:54 pandemic and uh
1:05:56 we want to look ahead at when business
1:05:57 is likely to recover and we're seeing a
1:05:59 full recovery perhaps in the year 2023
1:06:02 but the pent-up demand for travel
1:06:04 started this summer and i think we all
1:06:05 saw some of that
1:06:07 trends are pointing to business small
1:06:08 business group travel emerging sometime
1:06:11 maybe in late spring
1:06:12 or um in the summer and a full uh
1:06:15 gathering
1:06:16 um ability for people to gather is about
1:06:18 a year away so we're looking at the fall
1:06:20 of 2021.
1:06:22 in either case seeing more business
1:06:24 travel emerge and small
1:06:25 group travel is going to help um our
1:06:27 hotels and get our largest
1:06:29 meeting facility up and running and help
1:06:32 assist with other
1:06:33 uh citywide meeting facilities that that
1:06:35 are sitting empty
1:06:37 next slide please thanks jen
1:06:41 um one more
1:06:45 thanks so we're often asked what our
1:06:48 impact is to the community
1:06:49 and um we have been educating
1:06:52 our partners we've been educating our
1:06:54 community and local residents
1:06:56 we've been educating our visitors and
1:06:58 also educating other tourism-related um
1:07:01 advocacy groups uh in a number of ways
1:07:04 how we've been educating the the
1:07:07 partners and business community
1:07:09 we educate and support the verticals
1:07:11 like the chamber of commerce like
1:07:13 issaquah highlands
1:07:14 dia um and our other organizations and
1:07:17 retailers like ryan ridge plaza
1:07:19 gilman village and our arts and
1:07:21 recreation community
1:07:22 um and we've been doing that with
1:07:24 webinars throughout the year
1:07:26 as well as keeping up with trends that
1:07:28 we've evolved with through the pandemic
1:07:30 and one of the examples of our education
1:07:32 with our partners is our window cling
1:07:34 program that we distributed over 175
1:07:38 window clings to local businesses in
1:07:40 every retail center in the city after
1:07:42 june 19th
1:07:45 an example of educating our broader
1:07:46 community and our residents is
1:07:48 mainly done through digital and social
1:07:50 campaigns currently
1:07:52 and it supports districts like the
1:07:53 creative arts district
1:07:55 it supports districts like downtown
1:07:57 issaquah and dia
1:07:58 there are several campaigns that happen
1:08:00 throughout the year approximately 13.
1:08:03 we're talking about our issaquah loyal
1:08:05 program that we've been promoting
1:08:07 the streetery the east side coalition
1:08:10 which is a collaboration of cities from
1:08:12 redmond to kirkland to bellevue
1:08:13 issaquah and others we posted all of our
1:08:16 restaurants on their
1:08:17 external websites when um we had the
1:08:20 early um covet
1:08:21 pandemic shut down we also had issaquah
1:08:25 strong and eastside together
1:08:26 and our program right now is uniquely
1:08:29 issaquah which is a hyper local business
1:08:31 feature and features only businesses
1:08:33 that can be found in issaquah
1:08:35 that distinguishes issaquah as a very
1:08:36 unique destination
1:08:38 that can all those businesses can only
1:08:40 be found here
1:08:42 uh in addition we have three other
1:08:43 campaigns and giveaways that um
1:08:45 reach 20 additional businesses and many
1:08:47 residents
1:08:50 next two slides jen
1:08:56 we also educate visitors and we do that
1:08:58 with content and we do it on social
1:09:00 media
1:09:00 and the the goal is to really keep
1:09:02 issaqua top of mind
1:09:05 so when travel resumes people have
1:09:08 issaqua in top of mind to visit and that
1:09:12 includes facebook it includes instagram
1:09:13 it includes twitter
1:09:15 it includes mobile id features and apps
1:09:18 the impact our website since we have
1:09:20 engaged in um
1:09:21 featuring this content has been
1:09:23 astronomical
1:09:25 um we are mindful that we're in phase
1:09:28 two we know that
1:09:29 people are looking for safe protocols
1:09:31 and safe travel and we think our
1:09:32 issaquah business community has done an
1:09:34 amazing job
1:09:35 at doing that and providing that for for
1:09:37 the community and for others
1:09:40 next slide please
1:09:45 and finally educating our community and
1:09:48 also our other businesses
1:09:49 on the regional level on the state level
1:09:52 and in some cases on the national level
1:09:54 with tool kits from the washington
1:09:56 tourism alliance promoting
1:09:58 travel and visitation and safe safety
1:10:00 protocols within the state
1:10:02 the washington hospitality association
1:10:04 which has been very involved in the
1:10:05 restaurant
1:10:07 guidelines and we did a presentation on
1:10:10 phase two guidelines
1:10:12 about three months ago to the chamber of
1:10:14 commerce and others
1:10:15 and then finally um the united states
1:10:18 travel association which oversees travel
1:10:20 for the
1:10:20 brand usa and we are proud to be a
1:10:23 representative on the board of the
1:10:24 washington destination marketing
1:10:26 organization
1:10:27 and we also have collaborated with
1:10:29 recreate responsibly
1:10:30 musical alps trails club and mountains
1:10:32 to sound greenway heritage area as well
1:10:34 as rei
1:10:35 to promote that program next slide
1:10:39 please
1:10:42 so the amount of traffic on our social
1:10:44 media has just steadily increased month
1:10:47 over month
1:10:47 our presence and our features of the
1:10:50 businesses are hundreds of hundreds of
1:10:51 businesses featured
1:10:53 thousands of engagements and reach and
1:10:55 it's steadily increasing
1:10:57 at about 10 almost 10 percent per month
1:11:02 next slide
1:11:06 briefly just want to show you a few
1:11:08 other
1:11:10 promotional engagements that we've been
1:11:12 involved with we
1:11:13 um were fortunate to get the uh port ad
1:11:16 again and we had a mini spectacular
1:11:18 which was a grant from the part of
1:11:19 seattle
1:11:20 we've had so much positive response on
1:11:24 the creative content on this ad it's not
1:11:27 as clear in this picture but because of
1:11:28 the glare at the airport
1:11:30 we know that only about 20 000 people
1:11:32 are going through the airport right now
1:11:34 we've had some stunning feedback on on
1:11:37 as well as some other posts and our
1:11:40 washington state visitor guide ad which
1:11:42 was distributed
1:11:43 to 350 000 households next slide please
1:11:50 one more site
1:11:54 so the digital growth as you can see um
1:11:56 month over month
1:11:57 again google search search engine
1:11:59 optimization this is the way that people
1:12:01 are finding out about
1:12:02 issaquah and so it continues to be
1:12:04 important that we feature that in our
1:12:06 promotional activities on digital
1:12:08 next slide please
1:12:12 our most popular website topics you can
1:12:15 see from just a screenshot here
1:12:17 our organic search is driving all of our
1:12:20 search at the moment and then we also
1:12:22 have um
1:12:23 paid referred and social but overall our
1:12:26 most popular
1:12:27 topic has been cougar mountain zoo since
1:12:29 april when we launched our um
1:12:31 our website um followed by plan your
1:12:34 trips
1:12:35 both in hotels and dining and the reason
1:12:37 for that is because of the feature
1:12:38 content that we use for mobile id and
1:12:40 i'll explain that in a minute
1:12:42 we also had experiences events salmon
1:12:44 days and triple x root beer drive-in as
1:12:47 very um
1:12:48 popular topics since we launched our
1:12:49 website next slide please
1:12:54 so we were one of the first
1:12:56 organizations to feature and support the
1:12:57 diversity equity and inclusion online on
1:13:00 and advocating for social justice and
1:13:02 black lives matter advocacy
1:13:04 and and hoping to build an inclusive and
1:13:06 welcoming environment in the outdoor
1:13:08 space with the
1:13:09 one of the seven tenants of uh the
1:13:11 recreate responsibly campaign
1:13:14 and we want to continue to do this this
1:13:16 is one of our most
1:13:18 important posts this year and we hope to
1:13:21 do this
1:13:21 again continue our work in our
1:13:23 newsletter and other content
1:13:25 next slide please
1:13:29 so with regards to the data and the
1:13:31 popularity on our website there's
1:13:33 definitely a correlation between the two
1:13:36 we were very well prepared to leverage
1:13:37 our outdoor community
1:13:39 we knew that people were interested in
1:13:41 getting out and being out in the
1:13:42 outdoors which were
1:13:43 very well known for and so we started to
1:13:46 feature in july
1:13:47 some content including mountain biking
1:13:50 hiking paragliding
1:13:52 beer it was very popular and we wanted
1:13:55 to keep issaqua again top of mind so
1:13:57 whenever people were ready to travel
1:13:59 they would click on this ad and they
1:14:01 would immediately go to our website and
1:14:03 we can follow these
1:14:05 um these these ids in perpetuity even
1:14:08 when the ads have
1:14:10 gone away so if somebody decides to
1:14:12 travel next year in july
1:14:14 we would be able to um just to see that
1:14:18 so in july we served a million
1:14:20 impressions of this ad
1:14:22 with those features and it resulted in
1:14:26 300 hotel stays directly to the hotels
1:14:29 here in our community
1:14:31 and again we do realize we're in phase
1:14:33 two we want to be sensitive to safety we
1:14:35 know our hotels have engaged in a lot of
1:14:37 national
1:14:38 programs and are doing everything they
1:14:41 with protocols and safety um next slide
1:14:44 please
1:14:46 so part of the data that we retrieved
1:14:48 and i've talked about this in previous
1:14:50 presentations is that tiger mountain
1:14:52 drives a lot of the business
1:14:54 into the area but it also we also need
1:14:57 to capture
1:14:58 more of that business and so that would
1:14:59 be definitely a focus what we
1:15:01 we would like to do again um going
1:15:03 forward in the future is find ways
1:15:05 to see how we can capitalize on that and
1:15:07 you can see from this data
1:15:09 that from july 2nd what the correlation
1:15:12 is for the zip codes of people visiting
1:15:14 from idaho
1:15:15 oregon and these are just out of state
1:15:18 but there is a correlation where they
1:15:20 have traveled beyond tiger mountain if
1:15:22 they've been to downtown if they've gone
1:15:23 to gilman village
1:15:24 stayed in the hotel or have traveled to
1:15:26 grand ridge plaza and we also have data
1:15:28 for in-state as well which is
1:15:29 significantly uh our region our region
1:15:32 and seattle metro area
1:15:35 next slide please
1:15:38 and one more so
1:15:41 um our website again absolutely had a
1:15:44 jump in
1:15:45 um and a correlation between the
1:15:47 features of both mountain biking and
1:15:49 hiking and now
1:15:50 we turn our attention to salmon viewing
1:15:53 and in a virtual salmon days which we
1:15:55 uh launched at the end of august and
1:15:58 um served up a hundred thousand
1:16:00 impressions on that and um have
1:16:02 witnessed thousands of devices
1:16:04 from people who have come to the area to
1:16:07 hopefully take tours and embrace the
1:16:10 fish hatchery and to
1:16:11 to join in the virtual salmon days event
1:16:15 um and i think what i'm trying to get at
1:16:17 is the result is that our content
1:16:19 features are working we can do more
1:16:21 and we can do better going forward as we
1:16:24 evolve through the phases and and travel
1:16:26 becomes more accessible for everybody
1:16:29 and then finally on the next slide
1:16:33 we donated a hundred thousand dollars in
1:16:35 sponsorships to
1:16:36 11 recipients who are non-profit
1:16:38 organizations from history to culture to
1:16:41 performing arts
1:16:42 uh events advocacy and they were awarded
1:16:45 sponsorships that's providing relief for
1:16:47 programs
1:16:48 and for volunteer needs and operations
1:16:50 and we believe
1:16:51 and our board of directors firmly
1:16:52 believes that this is an investment in
1:16:54 building an essaqual destination
1:16:56 that is thoughtful of its residents it
1:16:58 um admires its treasures
1:16:59 it promotes its attractions and it
1:17:02 supports a visitor economy as well
1:17:04 and i know that there are remaining
1:17:06 slides and we submitted several and
1:17:08 some got rearranged i would say that the
1:17:10 remaining slides are basically a general
1:17:12 statement
1:17:14 featuring industry sectors in retail and
1:17:16 restaurants
1:17:17 um we were on a call earlier today with
1:17:19 mayor paulie
1:17:21 about restaurants and the importance of
1:17:22 restaurants to
1:17:24 economies and that people join
1:17:27 together at restaurants and for memories
1:17:29 and so that's why they're very important
1:17:30 in our restaurant sector here is very
1:17:32 strong
1:17:33 so with that i thank you very much for
1:17:35 the time this evening
1:17:36 and we will be happy to entertain
1:17:38 questions thank you
1:17:42 thank you for the presentation beth and
1:17:44 thank you jen before we go to council
1:17:46 member questions i'm going to go to
1:17:47 council president hunt and ask if there
1:17:49 was any
1:17:49 um email or comments from the public you
1:17:52 received on this agenda item
1:17:54 thank you this accounts president to
1:17:56 know we did not receive any emails
1:17:57 specifically on this informational item
1:18:00 great well beth and jen have offered to
1:18:03 take questions and i'm going to keep my
1:18:05 eye on the chat
1:18:07 look for questions or comments from the
1:18:08 council members
1:18:20 council member d michelle christian
1:18:26 and i remember to unmute again
1:18:30 um beth and jen uh this is an annual
1:18:33 report and so i
1:18:35 had asked earlier um are we going to get
1:18:37 a financial report
1:18:40 and i know it's been a crazy year and
1:18:44 things went topsy-turvy after about
1:18:46 march but uh
1:18:47 i was hoping to see a financial report
1:18:49 as part of the presentation
1:18:54 we'll work with beth to uh to collect
1:18:56 one and
1:18:57 share it with the entire council
1:19:01 thank you jen going to go to council
1:19:04 president hub
1:19:04 next thank you this is council president
1:19:08 um in addition to the web presence i
1:19:10 believe
1:19:11 you also have a physical presence for
1:19:13 the office and
1:19:14 um in several emails today that we
1:19:17 received it was pointed out that the
1:19:19 the um greater issaquah chamber of
1:19:22 commerce's
1:19:23 visitor information center is ada
1:19:25 accessible and i wondered if your
1:19:27 office is ada accessible and then also
1:19:29 if not what the plans are
1:19:31 to address that
1:19:36 thank you very much for that question so
1:19:38 we are located
1:19:39 um in a loft in a second floor um we are
1:19:42 not currently
1:19:43 the um the official visitor information
1:19:47 center we
1:19:48 serve visitors we do have a box outside
1:19:50 that is accessible for visitors
1:19:52 and um with with mobility issues or
1:19:55 disabilities
1:19:56 um that we don't have out there right
1:19:58 now currently due to the weather but we
1:20:01 can offer some information out there
1:20:04 we can certainly entertain relocating an
1:20:07 office to
1:20:08 a ground floor location that is ada
1:20:10 accessible but i believe that
1:20:12 the ada accessibility requirement for
1:20:14 the official tourism information office
1:20:16 that is
1:20:18 part of a perhaps a contract with the
1:20:20 department of transportation
1:20:21 um is is something that's required by
1:20:24 them i'm not
1:20:26 entirely familiar with with what that
1:20:28 contract is but if um
1:20:29 if the chamber is still on the call i'm
1:20:31 sure kathy would be happy to answer that
1:20:33 question as well she probably has more
1:20:34 familiarity with that
1:20:38 council president hunt did that answer
1:20:40 your question
1:20:41 um it did and just to clarify i just
1:20:44 referenced the visiting
1:20:45 visit her center which is a separate
1:20:47 building because that was what was
1:20:49 that was raised in emails that that was
1:20:52 ada accessible and so that was the
1:20:55 purpose of my question
1:20:56 thank you
1:21:00 i'm not seeing any other questions
1:21:02 council president hunt was the last one
1:21:04 to sign up does anyone else have any
1:21:05 questions or comments for beth
1:21:07 or jen
1:21:12 councilmember hall thanks mark paulie
1:21:15 uh this is councilmember zack hall just
1:21:17 a real quick question
1:21:19 uh for uh either beth or jen one of the
1:21:22 slides that was presented to us today
1:21:24 was the anatomy of a travel recovery
1:21:26 with kind of a schedule
1:21:28 of when things might be expected to open
1:21:31 up i was just wondering what that was
1:21:32 based on
1:21:34 that was really interesting to see i
1:21:35 haven't seen anything like that before
1:21:40 so thank you council member hall um well
1:21:43 follow a lot of uh what we'll call
1:21:46 destination analysts or
1:21:47 um i believe that one was completed by
1:21:51 tourism economics it was a screenshot of
1:21:53 a webinar that i was on that i wanted to
1:21:55 capture because i felt like that was
1:21:56 um that's a lot of what we're hearing in
1:21:59 in our
1:22:00 business is this is when things are
1:22:01 going to start opening up and as i've
1:22:03 mentioned
1:22:04 um to ltac and and others our hotel
1:22:07 community
1:22:07 is 75 percent corporate based so
1:22:11 um while there's a huge void in that
1:22:14 particular market at the moment and that
1:22:16 what's really hurting the hotel
1:22:18 community here
1:22:20 that's why our focus is going to be on
1:22:22 leisure business but we
1:22:24 fully expect in the spring and sometime
1:22:26 in early summer
1:22:28 of course this is all vaccine dependent
1:22:29 i would think uh by
1:22:31 you know health health protocols but
1:22:34 i also we've also been told that just
1:22:36 because we have um
1:22:39 more flexible phases and people are able
1:22:42 to travel more does not necessarily mean
1:22:43 they're going to or they feel
1:22:44 comfortable doing so
1:22:46 so we we always want to keep our eye on
1:22:48 what's what people are saying out there
1:22:50 and um you know again be mindful of the
1:22:53 protocols and sensitivity to that both
1:22:55 with the community and with the visitor
1:23:00 thank you councilmember halda to get
1:23:02 your question answered
1:23:04 that's great and not seeing anyone else
1:23:07 right now signing up for a question
1:23:10 give it a few seconds
1:23:17 okay i want to thank both jen and beth
1:23:20 for coming in to give the annual report
1:23:22 and i think councilmember d michelle had
1:23:24 a great great request there for the
1:23:27 annual financial report be very
1:23:28 interesting to see so thank you very
1:23:30 much for coming tonight i appreciate
1:23:33 having you here
1:23:36 now i will move to the consent calendar
1:23:38 which i tried to jump to
1:23:40 earlier so this consent calendar was
1:23:42 distributed to council in advance and if
1:23:44 authorized the items on the consent
1:23:46 calendar will be considered together
1:23:48 and improved by one motion have the
1:23:51 payables and payroll been reviewed
1:23:56 this is councilmember walsh they have
1:23:59 and this is councilmember hall they have
1:24:01 thank you i'm going to go to the city
1:24:03 clerk just quickly because there is a
1:24:05 comment for a correction on the consent
1:24:07 calendar city clerk
1:24:10 yes uh prior to tonight's meeting a
1:24:12 revised version of consent calendar item
1:24:15 f the october 5th regular city council
1:24:18 minutes was distributed by email
1:24:21 the corrected minutes revised the maker
1:24:23 and seconder of the amendment made under
1:24:26 ab-80-47 with approval of the consent
1:24:30 calendar tonight
1:24:31 we will consider the city council to be
1:24:33 approving the revised version that was
1:24:35 circulated
1:24:37 thank you thank you for that and thank
1:24:40 you to council members for reading the
1:24:41 minutes
1:24:42 and finding things like that that's
1:24:44 awesome
1:24:45 does any council member desire to remove
1:24:47 any item from the consent calendar and
1:24:49 consider it under regular business
1:24:56 before we move to the motion i'm going
1:24:58 to come back to council president hunt
1:24:59 just to see if there were any emails on
1:25:01 any items on the consent calendar from
1:25:03 public that you would like to share this
1:25:05 evening
1:25:06 there were no comments thank you thank
1:25:08 you very much
1:25:12 do i have somebody ready to make a
1:25:14 motion
1:25:17 council president huh i move to adopt
1:25:20 the consent calendar
1:25:22 as it appears in our agenda
1:25:27 deputy council president ray this is
1:25:29 chris rails second the motion
1:25:31 thank you very much it's been moved and
1:25:34 seconded i'm gonna move back to the city
1:25:35 clerk for her to do a roll call vote
1:25:40 starting with council member hall aye
1:25:45 council president hunt
1:25:48 aye deputy council president ray
1:25:51 aye council councilmember walsh
1:25:55 aye council member d michelle
1:25:58 aye councilmember goodman hi
1:26:02 that's 6i zero nays thank you that
1:26:05 passes unanimously the next item of
1:26:08 business this evening
1:26:09 is a public hearing ab7990 the proposed
1:26:14 2021 budget
1:26:15 and its levy and revenue sources and we
1:26:18 will be conducting the public hearing
1:26:20 tonight uh tonight the required public
1:26:24 hearing is conducted however
1:26:26 council is not being asked to take any
1:26:28 action so i'd like to invite finance
1:26:30 director beth
1:26:31 bulger
1:26:34 beth goldberg to make a presentation
1:26:38 thanks beth good evening everyone
1:26:41 uh so tonight is public hearing night
1:26:45 of our annual budget process we have two
1:26:48 public hearings this evening
1:26:50 uh one on the property tax and
1:26:54 uh revenue sources and then uh
1:26:57 the other one is a public hearing on the
1:27:00 budget which will be the first
1:27:02 of two public hearings i've got two
1:27:03 quick presentations
1:27:05 for you before we start each of the
1:27:07 respective public hearings
1:27:10 starting with the property tax
1:27:19 okay so um
1:27:23 uh just one moment here
1:27:27 so rcw 84 55 requires
1:27:32 jurisdictions allowing a property tax to
1:27:34 hold a public hearing
1:27:35 prior to adopting the property tax levy
1:27:38 rates for the subsequent fiscal year
1:27:41 so that public hearing is happening
1:27:43 tonight
1:27:44 and then we will be back on november 2nd
1:27:48 uh with an ordinance and a substantial
1:27:50 need resolution that i'll explain in a
1:27:52 moment
1:27:53 for city council vote on november 2nd
1:27:56 in addition the uh proposed budget is
1:28:00 supported
1:28:01 by revenues from some proposed increases
1:28:05 to our cpd permit fees
1:28:09 and there will be a presentation on that
1:28:11 later tonight
1:28:12 and we'll be looking for council to vote
1:28:16 that proposal on november 16th which is
1:28:19 also the day that the
1:28:22 budget is scheduled to come before the
1:28:23 council for a vote
1:28:25 so just a quick overview about property
1:28:28 tax property tax represents
1:28:31 21 of the city's general fund which is
1:28:34 46.6 million dollars
1:28:36 uh property tax is the green portion in
1:28:39 the upper right hand corner of your
1:28:41 screen
1:28:42 it's represents about 9.8 million
1:28:45 dollars
1:28:46 i will point out that the amount that we
1:28:49 are putting forth now
1:28:51 is about 49 000 higher than
1:28:54 what we assumed in the original proposed
1:28:58 budget
1:28:59 is a reminder to council members that
1:29:01 have been through this process
1:29:03 in past years our property tax
1:29:07 levy is based on assessed property
1:29:10 valuation in the city of issaquah
1:29:13 including new construction
1:29:14 and the king county assessor's office is
1:29:17 the one that determines
1:29:18 what that assessed valuation is
1:29:21 and they go through their process goes
1:29:24 through
1:29:25 november where they're updating that
1:29:28 valuation
1:29:28 including a new construction so the
1:29:32 numbers do tend to bounce around a
1:29:34 little bit
1:29:35 while we're waiting for them to finalize
1:29:37 that valuation when we
1:29:38 update the revenue forecast for you in
1:29:41 early november
1:29:42 we will reflect that forty nine thousand
1:29:44 dollar increase
1:29:46 in property tax revenues um
1:29:49 so uh about a little bit about property
1:29:52 so state law allows jurisdictions to
1:29:57 increase the property tax levy annually
1:30:00 by one percent or the implicit price
1:30:03 deflator which is a measure of inflation
1:30:06 whichever is lower plus new construction
1:30:10 most years the implicit price deflator
1:30:12 is in excess of one percent
1:30:15 uh but on occasion uh it falls below one
1:30:18 percent
1:30:19 and uh being that it is 2020 um
1:30:22 and strange things happen in 2020 we are
1:30:26 um this is a year where the implicit
1:30:28 price deflator
1:30:29 is falling below one percent which uh
1:30:31 it's falling at 0.605
1:30:34 percent so state law allows
1:30:37 jurisdictions
1:30:38 to still levy 1 if the implicit price
1:30:41 deflator is less than 1
1:30:43 if the jurisdiction declares a
1:30:46 substantial need
1:30:48 and the administration is recommending
1:30:50 with this year's budget
1:30:51 that uh the city council adopt a
1:30:54 substantial need resolution
1:30:56 so that we can levy uh the full one
1:30:58 percent
1:31:00 so uh the chart on this slide
1:31:04 shows a history of the implicit price
1:31:07 deflator
1:31:08 this is set by the department of state
1:31:10 department of revenue
1:31:11 um based on second quarter implicit
1:31:14 price deflator
1:31:15 and what you will see here is that as i
1:31:18 mentioned on the previous slide
1:31:20 most years the implicit price deflator
1:31:21 is above 1
1:31:23 but there have been two instances in the
1:31:27 10 years where the implicit price
1:31:29 deflator fell below one percent
1:31:31 and those are the two years shown
1:31:34 in red on this chart in those
1:31:38 two years the isoqua city council did
1:31:41 adopt
1:31:41 a substantial need ordinance or
1:31:44 resolution
1:31:45 so we do have precedent for for this
1:31:47 action
1:31:48 uh substantial need resolution in 2021
1:31:52 would protect about 38 000
1:31:55 in property tax revenue if the city were
1:31:58 to not adopt uh the substantial need
1:32:01 ordinance um
1:32:03 we would be collecting 38 000
1:32:06 less in property tax and then that would
1:32:08 lower our base
1:32:09 uh that future years property tax is
1:32:12 calculated
1:32:13 uh in terms of impact on the average
1:32:16 property owner it would represent about
1:32:20 2.65 cents
1:32:22 a year annually for the average property
1:32:25 owner in the city of issaquah
1:32:28 so as i mentioned at the outset uh the
1:32:31 proposed budget also
1:32:33 includes um uh revenue proposals to
1:32:37 increase the permit fees charged by
1:32:40 community planning and development
1:32:42 to achieve the uh the council
1:32:46 stated policy of 80 cost recovery
1:32:49 so there will be a an initial
1:32:51 presentation this evening
1:32:52 about the proposal and then as i
1:32:54 mentioned earlier
1:32:56 we will be coming back with
1:33:00 asking the council to vote on the
1:33:02 package on november 16th
1:33:05 which is the evening that
1:33:08 the budget would be considered as well
1:33:11 so with that
1:33:15 my presentation is
1:33:18 is concluded i'm happy to answer
1:33:22 any questions and then um the council
1:33:25 open the public hearing that sounds
1:33:28 great
1:33:29 thank you director goldberg um council
1:33:32 president did you receive
1:33:33 any email summary that you needed to
1:33:35 summarize before we go to questions
1:33:38 no not on this topic thanks thank you
1:33:41 so uh looks like we'll be starting with
1:33:44 councilmember goodman for questions
1:33:47 uh thank you mayor paulie councilmember
1:33:48 goodman here um director goldberg
1:33:50 uh you mentioned the um in one of your
1:33:54 last couple of slides the ab
1:33:55 the impact of the average issaquah
1:33:58 property owner
1:33:59 um is 265.
1:34:03 is that two six two dollars and 65 cents
1:34:06 increase in 2021
1:34:10 that's correct can you tell me what what
1:34:13 the definition of
1:34:14 average is um i
1:34:17 don't have that off the top of
1:34:20 my head i know i believe uh
1:34:24 gene paul is on the call tonight and
1:34:27 he he may know what that what that
1:34:30 dollar value is
1:34:32 and if not um i realize i'm putting him
1:34:34 on the spot
1:34:35 if not uh we can get back to you with
1:34:38 okay um and then i would be curious to
1:34:40 have just a few sentences on why
1:34:43 just because we have a one percent um
1:34:47 increase in collections does not mean
1:34:50 that folks pay more because it depends
1:34:53 on how it's spread
1:34:55 um over the assessed valuation um
1:34:58 and so i would be interested to get a
1:35:00 little bit more information on why
1:35:02 there's an increase at all given the
1:35:04 um the assessed valuation of properties
1:35:07 um has the rise yeah so so it depends
1:35:11 um you're right it depends on how
1:35:14 your property in particular is is valued
1:35:17 by the king county
1:35:18 assessor and i'm using you in a in a
1:35:21 royal use sort of way
1:35:23 so the way property tax works in
1:35:26 washington state
1:35:28 is that it's a budget-based tax
1:35:31 so uh we're allowed to collect
1:35:34 one percent more than the previous year
1:35:38 if we were levying a hundred dollars
1:35:41 in 2020 we could levy
1:35:44 101 um the
1:35:48 the following year plus new construction
1:35:51 so how that then is parsed among
1:35:54 property owners is dependent on the
1:35:58 valuation
1:35:59 of of the homeowner's home or the
1:36:02 property owner's
1:36:04 property and so if property values are
1:36:07 increasing the percentage that people
1:36:11 are paying could
1:36:12 actually decrease because of
1:36:15 of the way the math works
1:36:18 the washington state the way property
1:36:20 tax is calculated in washington state
1:36:22 is among the most complicated because
1:36:24 they're sort of
1:36:25 it's a little bit counterintuitive in
1:36:28 large part because
1:36:30 it's pegged not to the value of your
1:36:34 your home if you looked at your property
1:36:36 tax bill it may go up by one percent it
1:36:38 may go up
1:36:39 by more it may go go go up less
1:36:43 depending on the valuation but we're
1:36:45 allowed to collect
1:36:47 one percent more plus new construction
1:36:49 the other thing i guess i should point
1:36:51 out here
1:36:53 is that we're not the only jurisdiction
1:36:55 collecting property tax
1:36:56 so residents property tax bills
1:36:59 include property tax for the city of
1:37:01 issaquah it includes property tax for
1:37:04 the school district it includes property
1:37:07 for the port of seattle for king county
1:37:10 so what those other jurisdictions are
1:37:14 doing for example
1:37:16 there is a property tax measure on the
1:37:18 ballot this fall
1:37:19 for harborview if that passes
1:37:23 that will impact our taxpayers property
1:37:27 tax but that is not a tax
1:37:29 that we are directly responsible for or
1:37:32 revenue that we are are directly
1:37:35 receiving
1:37:38 thank you um yes i still would like a
1:37:41 little bit more information on the
1:37:43 the average um homeowner in the 265
1:37:47 and if it needs to come later that's
1:37:49 fine thank you
1:37:53 thank you councilmember goodman is there
1:37:55 any other
1:37:57 council questions before we go to public
1:38:00 hearing
1:38:04 okay not seeing any
1:38:08 the guidelines for citizen comments also
1:38:11 apply to
1:38:11 our public hearing well
1:38:15 let me so i am now going to open the
1:38:18 public hearing
1:38:19 at 8 38 p.m and um
1:38:23 again for those who are still with us
1:38:24 tonight if you would like to speak on
1:38:26 this item and you didn't sign up in
1:38:27 advance
1:38:28 you can press start three on your phone
1:38:30 and we will call the last two digits of
1:38:32 your phone number when it's your turn to
1:38:34 make comments
1:38:36 to declare has anyone signed up to speak
1:38:38 this evening or indicated a desire to
1:38:39 speak
1:38:41 no no one has signed up to speak in
1:38:43 advance so i'll just reiterate your
1:38:46 comment that
1:38:46 any of our phone and callers if you
1:38:48 could please press star 3
1:38:50 on the phone if you'd like to make
1:38:52 comments this evening
1:38:54 give me just a moment to monitor that
1:38:57 will do thank you
1:39:02 and i don't see anyone indicating a
1:39:05 desire to speak
1:39:07 thank you so is there any objection
1:39:10 to closing the public hearing
1:39:15 just looking at faces okay
1:39:20 seeing none i will now close the public
1:39:22 hearing at 8 39
1:39:24 pm and
1:39:27 we will move on oh as stated earlier
1:39:29 there was no council action being
1:39:31 requested this evening and this item
1:39:34 will be back before council for action
1:39:36 at the november 2nd
1:39:37 council meeting so the next item on our
1:39:39 agenda this evening is ab7991
1:39:42 the proposed 2021 budget and salary
1:39:45 ordinance
1:39:45 and again we will be conducting a public
1:39:47 hearing
1:39:49 so i did present my 2021 proposed budget
1:39:51 at the september 29th council meeting
1:39:53 and since
1:39:54 then the council has considered the
1:39:56 budget at october
1:39:57 6th and october 13th city council study
1:40:01 sessions
1:40:02 tonight the first of two required public
1:40:04 hearings will be conducted
1:40:05 but no council action is being sought
1:40:07 this evening so i will go back to
1:40:09 finance director goldberg to make a
1:40:11 presentation
1:40:20 on mutes thank you madam mayor uh the
1:40:23 uh the second public hearing of this
1:40:25 evening
1:40:26 is uh the uh preliminary public hearing
1:40:29 on the
1:40:30 proposed budget and salary ordinance
1:40:37 this one is required um
1:40:40 under rcw 35a 0.33
1:40:44 which requires cities to hold two public
1:40:46 hearings prior to adopting
1:40:48 the budget uh tonight is the preliminary
1:40:51 public hearing
1:40:52 and then um the um
1:40:55 the final public hearing and there is a
1:40:58 typo on the slide is november 16th
1:41:01 not november 18th so
1:41:04 just to clarify that point is a reminder
1:41:08 um is a reminder
1:41:11 oop okay sorry i'm having some technical
1:41:15 difficulties with
1:41:16 my toggle switch sorry about that is a
1:41:19 reminder our
1:41:20 schedule uh this chart should look
1:41:22 familiar to all of you
1:41:24 our schedule we are now on october 19th
1:41:26 the public hearing
1:41:27 and then um we'll be moving towards
1:41:31 future budget deliberations on october
1:41:35 and november 5th as i just mentioned uh
1:41:38 property tax
1:41:39 will be up uh for a vote on november 2nd
1:41:42 and then we'll be marching towards
1:41:44 budget adoption on
1:41:46 november 16th so
1:41:49 uh is an overview of the budget this
1:41:51 year's budget totals 122.6 million
1:41:55 dollars it's
1:41:56 uh 20.5 million or 14.3
1:41:59 smaller than 2020 as we discussed
1:42:03 um at some of the earlier budget
1:42:05 deliberation sessions
1:42:07 um this is largely um uh
1:42:10 because of a smaller capital program
1:42:13 this year
1:42:15 the budget is meeting the city's
1:42:18 strategic priorities this is a
1:42:20 chart that shows how the dollars are
1:42:23 allocated
1:42:23 among the various priorities in the city
1:42:26 strategic plan this is the first year
1:42:29 we have been able to display the city's
1:42:31 budget
1:42:32 by strategic plan category
1:42:35 in terms of the general fund the general
1:42:37 fund totals
1:42:39 40 49 million dollars
1:42:42 and uh this is about 1.8 smaller
1:42:45 than 1.8 percent smaller than the
1:42:48 2020 adopted budget
1:42:56 uh in terms of ftes the budget
1:42:58 eliminates 36 ftes and prioritizes
1:43:02 uh several other positions uh as we
1:43:05 discussed at the last budget
1:43:06 deliberation session
1:43:08 uh the total number of ftes
1:43:11 is lower than it has it's been
1:43:16 even following uh or even during the
1:43:19 great recession
1:43:22 in terms of the impact of the budget on
1:43:24 fund balance
1:43:26 the budget does make um use of
1:43:30 some of our fund balance but it does
1:43:32 leave
1:43:33 the ending undesignated fund balance
1:43:36 above the 15
1:43:37 to 20 percent target is highlighted in
1:43:41 light green bar in the middle of this
1:43:44 slide
1:43:46 and that concludes my overview
1:43:49 of the 2021 proposed budget happy to
1:43:53 answer any questions prior to opening
1:43:55 the public hearing
1:43:58 thank you director goldberg um council
1:44:00 president hunt did we have any public
1:44:02 comments received by email on this
1:44:04 particular public hearing
1:44:06 thank you madam mayor um we did receive
1:44:08 an email which was
1:44:10 on the budget and we received it between
1:44:12 now and the last time that we
1:44:14 had a discussion on the budget so i i
1:44:16 will summarize it now
1:44:18 and this community member was concerned
1:44:20 about the increase in the budget for
1:44:22 police and felt that this was going
1:44:23 in the opposite direction that it should
1:44:25 and this community member was also
1:44:27 excited about the new community services
1:44:29 positions that are in the proposed
1:44:31 budget
1:44:32 and that concludes uh budget related
1:44:34 emails that we've received
1:44:35 since the last time we've discussed the
1:44:38 proposed budget thank you council
1:44:40 president
1:44:42 looking over in the chat to see if
1:44:43 there's any council members with
1:44:44 questions
1:44:45 or our director before we proceed to the
1:44:48 public hearing
1:44:54 not seeing any questions at this moment
1:44:59 the guidelines for citizen comments also
1:45:01 apply to those made under the public
1:45:02 hearing and i'm going to now open the
1:45:04 public hearing at 8 45 pm
1:45:07 anyone that is still on with us and
1:45:09 would like to speak tonight can press
1:45:11 star three
1:45:12 that will raise their hand and show our
1:45:14 city clerk and we'll get you added to
1:45:15 the list
1:45:17 and city kirk has anyone signed up to
1:45:19 speak or indicated
1:45:20 a desire to speak this evening
1:45:24 no mayor no one has signed up to speak
1:45:26 and i'm
1:45:27 looking at our participant list here and
1:45:29 i don't see any of our phoning callers
1:45:32 indicating a desire to speak
1:45:35 thank you is there any objection to
1:45:39 closing the public hearing
1:45:44 seeing none i will now close the public
1:45:47 hearing at 8 46
1:45:48 pm and
1:45:52 as stated there was no council action
1:45:54 being requested this evening the council
1:45:56 will continue to deliberate their budget
1:45:58 at the remaining council study sessions
1:46:00 and this item will be back before
1:46:02 council on november 16th for a public
1:46:04 hearing
1:46:04 on the final budget and potential
1:46:06 adoption
1:46:08 moving on to regular business i thought
1:46:10 i would take
1:46:11 the temperature of the the group and see
1:46:14 you've been here
1:46:15 for a little over two hours now before
1:46:18 we move into regular
1:46:20 business is there a desire to have a
1:46:21 short break
1:46:24 or keep on going
1:46:27 short break okay let's take five minutes
1:46:30 and be back at 8 51.
1:46:31 thank you all
1:52:16 can i give you a 10 second warning to
1:52:28 restart
1:52:35 welcome back everyone from the break
1:52:38 we'll be moving into the regular
1:52:39 business items right now
1:52:41 the first item is ab-802 2020
1:52:45 lodging tax advisory committee funding
1:52:48 amendment
1:52:49 the action before the council this
1:52:51 evening is for approval and this is the
1:52:53 first time this item is coming before
1:52:55 council
1:52:56 i'd like to invite economic development
1:52:58 manager jen davis hayes to make a
1:52:59 presentation
1:53:03 good evening madam mayor and council
1:53:06 members
1:53:07 um i am going to start sharing my screen
1:53:09 and then start the presentation because
1:53:10 i think that's
1:53:11 kind of how it works with this
1:53:13 powerpoint so
1:53:15 um we are here this evening to talk
1:53:18 about a request from the lodging tax
1:53:20 advisory committee
1:53:22 about a budget adjustment and funding
1:53:25 several organizations that applied for
1:53:28 application um so they uh
1:53:32 have a recommendation ltc has made a
1:53:34 recommendation to fund six and i believe
1:53:36 i might have
1:53:36 uh had a wrong number in here in the
1:53:38 packet six applicants not five
1:53:40 applicants for a total of fifty thousand
1:53:42 fifty two thousand seventy five dollars
1:53:44 um and they currently do not have that
1:53:46 budget authority
1:53:48 so we're here tonight to um uh seek your
1:53:51 approval or your review and approval for
1:53:53 the funding initiatives for the
1:53:54 businesses and nonprofits have applied
1:53:57 we haven't been to the council for uh
1:54:00 for a bit uh regarding ltac and so i
1:54:02 just wanted to
1:54:03 remind some of those so everybody who's
1:54:06 watching
1:54:06 as per the ordinance ltac members must
1:54:10 an even number of members that are
1:54:12 funders and potential recipients
1:54:13 obliging tax and then
1:54:15 our council member chairs it so here's a
1:54:17 list of those who are on the current
1:54:21 committee earlier this year
1:54:25 we i we had a discussion about
1:54:28 the lodging tax lodging tax funds we saw
1:54:32 a drastic reduction
1:54:33 of the lodging tax collection for march
1:54:36 which is received by the city in may
1:54:38 february collections were over fourteen
1:54:40 thousand dollars
1:54:41 march was twenty nine hundred and april
1:54:44 was twenty four hundred
1:54:46 so obviously we know that we had a
1:54:47 reduction of um
1:54:49 travel because of kova 19 but we also
1:54:51 have the holiday inn which
1:54:53 um is a hundred rooms um
1:54:56 that is a temporary change from the use
1:54:59 of a hotel to a cova 19 facility
1:55:01 motel 6 suspended operations for a while
1:55:04 until june and that's 103 rooms
1:55:06 and the hilton garden inn is currently a
1:55:09 suspended operation to send us another
1:55:11 179 rooms so we have a total of 650
1:55:14 rooms
1:55:15 in the city um so again one one
1:55:18 hotel temporary suspends operations it's
1:55:21 a reduction of our revenues so the ltch
1:55:25 committee looked at excuse me um
1:55:29 at these numbers and decided to take two
1:55:32 two steps to respond um one of them is
1:55:36 support the tourist amenities and
1:55:38 businesses that currently exist
1:55:40 so obviously we want to make sure that
1:55:42 the the reasons that people come to
1:55:44 visit a squad and take advantage of
1:55:46 all the wonderful things we have
1:55:47 continue to exist they decided to do
1:55:50 a two twofold approach is to have a
1:55:54 funding opportunity for those
1:55:55 non-profits and businesses in the fall
1:55:57 of this year the fifty thousand dollars
1:55:59 which is what we're here to talk about
1:56:00 tonight
1:56:01 and in the spring again and so we'll
1:56:03 we'll come back um
1:56:04 actually that fifty thousand dollars is
1:56:06 in the budget proposal that you're uh
1:56:08 talking about now so we will come back
1:56:10 in the spring once that
1:56:12 application process has done to discuss
1:56:14 those the other piece of that effort was
1:56:16 to reduce the funding for 21
1:56:19 efforts which we'll talk about later
1:56:20 this evening
1:56:23 so for the funding application sorry
1:56:26 my mouse um basically again we have to
1:56:29 follow the lodging tax regulations on
1:56:31 how to spend those resources so we
1:56:33 looked at
1:56:34 supporting marketing to visitors outside
1:56:36 issaquah
1:56:37 and the operations of non-profit owned
1:56:40 tourism-related facilities we opened up
1:56:42 to businesses and nonprofits and they
1:56:44 could make a request
1:56:45 up to ten thousand dollars we did
1:56:48 receive
1:56:48 six applications um and here's the list
1:56:52 of those applications and what they
1:56:54 requested his funding again up to ten
1:56:56 thousand dollars was was allowed
1:56:58 and it has the initiatives on the slide
1:57:00 as well so for instance cougar mountain
1:57:02 zoo is looking to modify the reindeer
1:57:04 festival
1:57:05 uh geocoin fest is looking to do a
1:57:08 self-guided city-wide tour next
1:57:11 summer again it's not an event that
1:57:13 comes together but
1:57:15 people can do that on their own the
1:57:17 greater isquad chamber is looking to
1:57:18 support the visitor information center
1:57:21 the uh esqua history museums apply for
1:57:24 the trolley operations and we'll
1:57:25 mention that in a second and talk a
1:57:27 little bit more about that and
1:57:28 triple x root beer talked about uh
1:57:30 continuing to be a community
1:57:32 uh landmark and village theater applied
1:57:36 theater operations so as we know
1:57:39 the um ethical history museums
1:57:42 announced on friday that their trolley
1:57:45 operations would would not occur in 2021
1:57:48 due to
1:57:49 several actions including um
1:57:52 several reasons including the financial
1:57:54 increase of of cost
1:57:56 that include insurance and some other
1:57:58 things as well as potential
1:58:00 concerns around covet 19. we are
1:58:03 proposing that we continue to
1:58:06 fund the full 52075 because of lt
1:58:09 lodging tax rules if any changes are
1:58:12 made to the
1:58:13 to the recommendation we would have to
1:58:16 go back to the ltch committee
1:58:19 and get comments on that on the any
1:58:22 changes and then come back to council
1:58:23 before we'd be able to fund these
1:58:25 initiatives and so we really want to
1:58:26 make sure that the funding gets
1:58:28 out in people's hands we will not do a
1:58:31 contract with an organization that does
1:58:33 not want to move forward so
1:58:35 but it gives us a flexibility to move
1:58:36 forward this evening
1:58:38 and talking about timeline um so again
1:58:41 we uh very quickly move through this uh
1:58:44 the applications were
1:58:45 finalized by ltc on september 1st we
1:58:48 allowed for a month
1:58:50 for applications to get in at the 14th
1:58:52 which was last wednesday um
1:58:54 application reviewed by ltch so that was
1:58:56 before the trolley
1:58:57 the history museum board met
1:59:01 we're hoping for a decision tonight and
1:59:02 we'll move forward with contracting
1:59:04 this month and next so again we're
1:59:07 looking for
1:59:08 a um a budget amendment
1:59:11 of fifty two thousand seventy five
1:59:13 dollars and funding of the six
1:59:15 initiatives that recommended by
1:59:17 altac thank you for the presentation jen
1:59:22 council president hunt were there any
1:59:24 emails from the public you'd like to
1:59:26 share on this
1:59:26 agenda item thank you madam mary yes we
1:59:30 receive an email from the um
1:59:33 executive director of the issaquah
1:59:36 history museum
1:59:37 regarding the trolley decision that had
1:59:40 been made and also offering to
1:59:42 discuss with us discuss with us give us
1:59:44 more information um
1:59:45 have a conversation and then we also
1:59:48 received um
1:59:49 comments on this from the ceo of the
1:59:53 greater isquad chamber of commerce and
1:59:54 she spoke through her comments earlier
1:59:56 this evening so i will leave that
1:59:59 leave that summary as she spoke through
2:00:00 her comments directly and that concludes
2:00:03 topic comments on this topic thank you
2:00:06 council president let's start with a
2:00:07 question from deputy council president
2:00:12 thank you mayor paulie this is chris ray
2:00:14 jen just i want to make sure that i
2:00:15 understand what you just told us um
2:00:18 so even though the uh it's called
2:00:22 history museum is not going to operate
2:00:24 the trolley and it's not going to need
2:00:25 the 75
2:00:26 100 that was allocated we're going to go
2:00:28 away you're asking us to go ahead and
2:00:30 approve this agenda bill as written
2:00:32 recognizing that
2:00:34 we will authorize more dollars than will
2:00:38 spent that is that a fair summary i just
2:00:40 want to make sure that
2:00:41 i understand what we're being asked to
2:00:45 yes and lodging tax again is a little um
2:00:48 unique where they have rules so it's if
2:00:50 a proposal that comes from ltac to
2:00:52 council
2:00:53 is changed in the funding amount or
2:00:55 selection of items
2:00:57 it has to go back for 45 within 45 days
2:01:00 for comment to
2:01:01 the committee then come back before
2:01:02 council can take action
2:01:04 so the one thing is that this money is
2:01:07 coming from the fund so
2:01:08 if that 7 500 is not spent it will
2:01:11 remain in the fund it doesn't get lost
2:01:13 this budget year to
2:01:15 uh anything else so there's not a uh
2:01:18 you know a problem with ltac than losing
2:01:20 those dollars so it is a little
2:01:22 a little different but again it's uh
2:01:24 something that we have to follow the
2:01:26 rules for
2:01:26 the statewide uh lodging tax revenues
2:01:29 yeah polling rules is good thank you
2:01:31 thanks jen appreciate the clarification
2:01:34 thank you council president deputy
2:01:36 council president ray i'm looking i know
2:01:38 we have a couple of folks who
2:01:39 want to make some comments and we can do
2:01:41 that after the motion is there anyone
2:01:43 else who would like to ask a question
2:01:45 before we move to the motion
2:01:48 i'll give it a few seconds
2:01:56 okay i think oops seeing no additional
2:01:59 questions but lots of comments
2:02:02 it looks like uh councilmember goodman
2:02:04 will is prepared to make a motion
2:02:07 uh yes thank you mayor paulie um i would
2:02:09 move to
2:02:10 approve the allocation of 52 075
2:02:14 to fund business and non-profit
2:02:15 tourism-related activities as
2:02:18 recommended by the lodging tax advisory
2:02:20 committee
2:02:20 and direct the finance director include
2:02:22 52 075 dollars
2:02:24 in a subsequent 2020 budget amendment
2:02:27 from the lodging tax reserve fund
2:02:29 and i'm looking for a second
2:02:38 now for president hunt second
2:02:42 thank you so let's start with some
2:02:43 comments i'm not sure if demotion maker
2:02:47 councilmember goodman would you like to
2:02:48 start with a comment
2:02:50 uh the only uh comment that i
2:02:54 i guess a couple of comments um we had
2:02:56 fairly
2:02:58 significant discussion all of the
2:03:00 applications
2:03:02 and um
2:03:05 very thoughtful um conversation and i
2:03:08 know that that
2:03:10 the committee is
2:03:13 wants the money out into the hands of
2:03:16 these organizations
2:03:18 um and i would like to follow up on
2:03:21 um jen davis hayes comments about the
2:03:24 um approving and allocation for funds
2:03:28 we think today might not be used um
2:03:32 who knows what could happen this was new
2:03:35 information and it could be that
2:03:37 something changes over the next
2:03:39 few months you know a few weeks or so um
2:03:42 the trolley who knows could run again so
2:03:46 um i i'm hoping that the council will
2:03:49 support that allocation
2:03:51 and again as um as ms davis hay says if
2:03:54 it's not used then it remains on the
2:03:56 razar fund
2:03:57 thank you thank you councilmember
2:03:59 goodman i will go to council president
2:04:02 thank you this is council president hunt
2:04:05 i firstly appreciate that this
2:04:08 money is going out to these tourist
2:04:10 supporting organizations
2:04:12 in our community that are that do have
2:04:15 specific
2:04:15 challenges right now around covid 19 and
2:04:19 helping them
2:04:20 get through this time so i appreciate
2:04:22 that and
2:04:23 i i hope that this can be a continued
2:04:25 pattern of
2:04:26 using some of the lodging tax funds to
2:04:29 continue to support these businesses
2:04:30 again we don't know what will happen how
2:04:32 long these challenges will remain
2:04:34 um and so i think that this this kind of
2:04:37 support is
2:04:38 so critical right now so i will be in
2:04:40 support of the full
2:04:41 funding amount um and then
2:04:45 on the topic of the squad history
2:04:48 museum's trolley we did receive an
2:04:50 email indicating a willingness to have a
2:04:53 conversation and provide more
2:04:54 information about the decision that was
2:04:56 made regarding the trolley
2:04:58 and personally as a mother of small
2:05:02 children
2:05:03 and then you know just having lived in
2:05:05 this community with my kids
2:05:07 um since they were infants we've really
2:05:11 enjoyed the trolley and i know
2:05:12 so many families have done that and then
2:05:14 also when people come from out of town
2:05:16 if you have small children
2:05:17 it really is one of the one of the fun
2:05:19 things to do with small children
2:05:21 and it does connect um
2:05:24 families with the history of issaquah so
2:05:28 i hope that we can get more information
2:05:29 about this decision
2:05:30 the city also has supported the issaquah
2:05:33 history museum
2:05:34 in numerous ways in the past and
2:05:37 i would like to ask city administrator
2:05:40 bob quits if it would be possible to
2:05:43 have more information brought back about
2:05:45 this decision also so that if there are
2:05:47 community members
2:05:48 who are wanting information about this
2:05:52 that that it could be brought forward
2:05:53 put on an agenda and
2:05:56 and that we could have a discussion
2:06:01 uh madam mayor council president hunt uh
2:06:03 certainly we could
2:06:04 bring that back at the council's
2:06:05 direction
2:06:09 thank you city minister administrator
2:06:11 council president does it answer all
2:06:12 your questions
2:06:14 um it says thank you very much
2:06:18 going to go to council member dear
2:06:20 michelle
2:06:22 uh thank you mayor paulie um i
2:06:26 was also going to propose that we
2:06:29 have the issaquah history museums uh
2:06:31 come in
2:06:32 and address this uh at a council meeting
2:06:35 i appreciated the executive director's
2:06:38 offer
2:06:38 to talk to us i think that talk should
2:06:40 be to all of us all at the same time
2:06:43 so that would be at a council meeting i
2:06:45 am concerned because
2:06:47 um the loss of the trolley is exactly
2:06:51 at the time when we are needing um items
2:06:54 uh to attract tourists to issaquah and
2:06:59 i'm hopeful that perhaps we could find a
2:07:02 solution
2:07:03 and perhaps that solution will be in the
2:07:05 allocation of the grant that's being
2:07:07 proposed tonight so i will be supporting
2:07:10 this motion as well i and um very
2:07:13 hopeful that perhaps we as a community
2:07:16 can find a solution to the
2:07:18 problems facing the history museum so
2:07:21 and i think uh the other grants that are
2:07:23 on this list are also equally
2:07:26 uh valuable and positive and i
2:07:29 i too think that this is an excellent
2:07:32 way for us to distribute
2:07:33 our funds so thank you thank you
2:07:36 councilmember d michelle
2:07:38 um i see a question and then
2:07:41 maybe a final comment from councilmember
2:07:43 goodman we'll do the question
2:07:44 first council president huh thank you um
2:07:47 i believe this is a question for city
2:07:49 clerk easter
2:07:52 should we uh if i am going to make a
2:07:54 motion
2:07:55 should i make that motion now regarding
2:07:57 um directing
2:07:59 for a presentation um an opportunity to
2:08:02 talk with the director of this quest
2:08:04 history museum should i make that now or
2:08:06 following this um i'm not sure that you
2:08:09 really need to do that we've heard you
2:08:11 and we'll reach out to her
2:08:12 so but thank you okay bringing that up
2:08:15 we'll definitely reach out to her and
2:08:16 we'll
2:08:16 ask for it to be done on camera so that
2:08:19 you be able to ask questions so likely
2:08:20 an informational item
2:08:22 okay thank you for clarifying
2:08:25 and not seeing any other questions i'll
2:08:28 go back for a final comment from
2:08:29 councilmember goodman
2:08:32 thank you madam mayor councilman mark
2:08:33 goodman here a couple of things
2:08:36 um you'll recall from miss davis his
2:08:38 presentation that
2:08:40 um the amount that um lodging tax
2:08:43 advisory committee is planning to
2:08:47 get out into the community is a hundred
2:08:48 thousand dollars fifty thousand now and
2:08:50 fifty thousand in march
2:08:51 um and then you will see that if the
2:08:54 allocation
2:08:55 today it um is fifty two thousand oh
2:08:58 seventy five
2:08:59 um oh but wait you ask what does that
2:09:01 leave us for march
2:09:03 um and so the committee is uh not
2:09:06 recommending
2:09:07 spending more than a hundred thousand
2:09:08 dollars so uh the
2:09:10 the call in march would be for
2:09:14 uh whatever the remainder is and so if
2:09:16 the trolley doesn't utilize their money
2:09:18 then that will include that money um if
2:09:20 they do
2:09:21 uh then it will be uh less than fifty
2:09:24 thousand dollars because
2:09:26 we're going over 50 50 000 in this
2:09:30 funding cycle and then the second thing
2:09:32 um just to be clear to
2:09:33 everybody here um in this meeting
2:09:35 everybody watching listening and
2:09:37 including the council members
2:09:38 um that um the lodging tax advisory
2:09:40 committee's um
2:09:42 purview is very narrow it makes
2:09:43 recommendations to the council about how
2:09:45 to spend funds
2:09:46 um it is not trolley operations or any
2:09:50 other
2:09:50 um attractions events businesses
2:09:53 nonprofits anything in in issaquah and
2:09:56 any concerns that we might have them
2:09:58 have about them um whether they're not
2:10:01 operating or
2:10:02 suspended or um you know similar issues
2:10:05 with the
2:10:05 um village theater and not having um
2:10:08 even though they're open not having full
2:10:09 operations so
2:10:10 i'm just just to be clear for everybody
2:10:12 watching that's um
2:10:14 of course you know the committee would
2:10:17 have been concerned as well on wednesday
2:10:18 had we
2:10:19 heard about the uh the trolley um before
2:10:21 friday
2:10:22 or before our meeting um but we just
2:10:24 have a we just have very narrow
2:10:26 very narrow questions so um that that we
2:10:29 address which is funding
2:10:30 so that's why um even if we had heard
2:10:33 about it
2:10:34 um we we don't address those questions
2:10:38 i think it's great that we look into the
2:10:40 the trolley issue more
2:10:42 it is a um an important attraction for
2:10:44 issaquah it's very popular
2:10:46 um and i'm just and i know that
2:10:48 everybody on the committee
2:10:49 um would be supportive of the council
2:10:52 getting more information
2:10:53 um but it's not really the business of
2:10:55 ltch i just wanted to remind everybody
2:10:57 who's watching of that
2:10:58 thank you thank you very much um
2:11:02 not seeing any additional uh
2:11:05 questions or comments and
2:11:10 i'm going it has been moved and seconded
2:11:12 or it has not i can't remember
2:11:15 it has okay so if there is no other
2:11:19 comments or questions the motion is
2:11:21 to approve the allocation of fifty two
2:11:23 thousand and seventy five dollars to
2:11:25 fund business
2:11:26 and non-profit tourism related
2:11:28 activities as recommended by the lodging
2:11:30 tax advisory committee
2:11:32 and direct the finance director to
2:11:34 include fifty two thousand and seventy
2:11:36 five dollars in a subsequent 2020 budget
2:11:39 amendment from the lodging tax reserve
2:11:42 and i'll go back to the city clerk for a
2:11:44 roll call vote
2:11:46 starting with council president hunt
2:11:50 i deputy council president ray
2:11:54 aye council member walsh
2:11:57 aye council member d michelle
2:12:01 aye councilmember goodman aye
2:12:05 councilmember hall aye that's 6i zero
2:12:11 thank you that passes unanimously we
2:12:14 will move on to the second item under
2:12:16 regular business
2:12:17 which is the 2020
2:12:20 lodging tax advisory committee funding
2:12:23 request
2:12:23 the action before council tonight is to
2:12:25 approve and this is the first time
2:12:27 that this item has come to council night
2:12:29 again like to
2:12:30 invite ben davis hayes economic
2:12:33 development manager to make a
2:12:34 presentation
2:12:46 jen we cannot hear you
2:12:52 oh okay that was great i owe a dollar or
2:12:55 whatever it is
2:12:57 painful okay i said all these amazing
2:13:00 things so
2:13:01 thank you madam mayor and uh thank you
2:13:04 um the previous uh vote uh as
2:13:07 councilmember goodwin mentioned there
2:13:08 was a lot of thoughtful conversation
2:13:10 and i think you know the ltac did a
2:13:12 great job about pivoting and
2:13:13 responding to the current situation so
2:13:17 again in you'll see some of the similar
2:13:19 slides here
2:13:20 um tonight this agenda bill looks at
2:13:23 looking at 2021 promotion
2:13:25 and visitor attraction services we did a
2:13:28 request for proposals
2:13:30 and uh ltac has uh is recommending
2:13:33 visit isqua for your consideration and
2:13:35 approval
2:13:36 um again you'll see these are similar uh
2:13:39 slides in the other presentation but
2:13:40 these are the members of the lt
2:13:42 current ltac committee and again we had
2:13:46 discussion about the actual budget uh
2:13:49 and projected
2:13:50 uh fund balance so in discussing that
2:13:53 did not they did not want to continue to
2:13:56 invest at the same level for
2:13:57 tourism services and so
2:14:00 again decided to reduce the 2021 efforts
2:14:04 in order to maintain some of those
2:14:06 reserve funds but still continue to do
2:14:07 the work and so
2:14:09 the rfp that we did requested from
2:14:13 qualified organizations or or
2:14:15 individuals
2:14:17 and we looked at these items so looking
2:14:20 experience
2:14:20 approach technique ask for their goals
2:14:23 and metrics
2:14:24 how it addresses economic development um
2:14:26 their visitor statistics
2:14:28 and their budget we talked about things
2:14:31 uh that again previously was looked at
2:14:34 um these services so recruitment of
2:14:36 outside conferences and trade shows and
2:14:38 events as
2:14:40 safe safety allows and coordinating with
2:14:44 our hotels attractions and restaurants
2:14:46 to create attractive packages and
2:14:49 developing
2:14:50 targeted promotions and so that's just a
2:14:52 few of the ideas that we looked at
2:14:54 to provide some some information for
2:14:57 those who respond
2:14:58 who responded we did receive
2:15:01 five uh proposals and i realize this may
2:15:04 be confusing because the j
2:15:05 ray and velocity are actually two
2:15:07 separate proposals but this is the
2:15:08 actual ranking
2:15:10 of uh the proposals from the ltch
2:15:13 members and again we had a very thorough
2:15:14 conversation going through each of the
2:15:16 proposals um there was a uh
2:15:21 when we they ranked each proposal all
2:15:24 all the members and visitor squad was
2:15:25 the top ranked
2:15:26 greater esquad chamber commerce uh was a
2:15:29 second and
2:15:29 space media was a third jrain velocity
2:15:33 are two
2:15:34 um marketing firms that are from outside
2:15:36 the area and they kind of tied
2:15:38 um in that fourth range there so
2:15:41 looking at visit issaquah's proposal um
2:15:44 they talked about their experience and
2:15:45 so this
2:15:46 this information comes directly from
2:15:48 their proposal which is in the
2:15:49 agenda packet and they talked about
2:15:51 their board and their staff and the
2:15:53 consultants that they have and
2:15:54 i could have used for the past two years
2:15:57 that they
2:15:58 their approach is to promote issaquah
2:16:00 the stories of people
2:16:01 and using assets like the demographic
2:16:04 psychographic and geographic profiles
2:16:06 they're going to build upon what they've
2:16:08 done already as a foundation
2:16:10 and continue to use the tools
2:16:13 that they have used to to do their work
2:16:16 to date
2:16:18 they're going to look at really to
2:16:19 promoting is called lodging
2:16:21 to drive more dollars to the lodging tax
2:16:25 and again that's the intent for lodging
2:16:27 tax dollars
2:16:28 and they had a long list of industry
2:16:31 specific
2:16:32 goals and metrics that they could use um
2:16:36 we'll be gathering visitors to
2:16:37 statistics from several sources so that
2:16:40 could include some expedia data other
2:16:43 booking
2:16:44 information to really get to the crux of
2:16:46 how many people
2:16:47 did visit our area and i think beth in a
2:16:50 previous
2:16:51 presentation talked about the actual
2:16:53 data they can get from
2:16:55 credit cards and cell phones and all
2:16:57 this kind of great stuff so they can get
2:16:59 that information
2:17:00 and in general their their budget covers
2:17:02 personnel
2:17:03 contracted services marketing marketing
2:17:05 and events
2:17:07 so a quick uh look at the timeline uh
2:17:11 rfp scope was finalized by the ltch
2:17:14 committee on september 1st
2:17:16 we had it um proposals solicited through
2:17:19 the 30th and so
2:17:21 we not only contacted those who who were
2:17:23 interested who contacted us
2:17:25 of interest but also put it in the daily
2:17:28 drill or
2:17:28 journal of commerce had it in our rfp
2:17:32 uh project uh our system
2:17:36 then the proposals were reviewed prior
2:17:38 to the ltch committee
2:17:39 meeting on the 14th and again they
2:17:41 ranked them and
2:17:43 had that discussion council decision uh
2:17:46 we're looking for one tonight and we'll
2:17:48 if we get a count a decision tonight
2:17:50 we'll work with the selected provider
2:17:52 to create the scope in november december
2:17:56 but no services will begin for this
2:17:58 contract until
2:17:59 2021. so again looking at the selection
2:18:03 for the 2021 promotion and visitor
2:18:06 attraction
2:18:06 services provider and eltax
2:18:08 recommendation is visit
2:18:10 issaquah
2:18:16 thank you for the presentation jen i'll
2:18:18 head back to the council president to
2:18:20 see if there is any public comment she
2:18:21 would like to share that she would
2:18:23 counsel received by email on this topic
2:18:25 thank you madam mayor yes we received
2:18:28 several emails on this topic from
2:18:30 members of the community
2:18:32 we received three emails that were very
2:18:34 similar two of which
2:18:36 indicated they were from local business
2:18:38 owners
2:18:39 and these emails all spoke to
2:18:42 the chamber of commerce as being
2:18:46 a a good choice for
2:18:49 managing tourism specifically the assets
2:18:53 of having a large professional staff
2:18:55 ada compliant building locals that are
2:18:58 familiar with the chamber of commerce
2:19:00 highway signs that point to the chamber
2:19:02 and also salmon days and
2:19:04 other things that the chamber does we
2:19:07 also heard
2:19:08 directly from the chamber as well about
2:19:11 the various ways that the chamber
2:19:14 promotes
2:19:15 tourism and as i indicated earlier she
2:19:17 also spoke directly to her comments to
2:19:21 and then we heard from another
2:19:24 member of the community that spoke to
2:19:28 the chamber as a trusted organization
2:19:30 has experience with salmon day's
2:19:33 suggested that we might merge or
2:19:35 suggested that
2:19:36 the chamber of commerce and the issaquah
2:19:39 might merge
2:19:40 and work together but did suggest
2:19:44 that we let the chamber manage tourism
2:19:48 and then lastly a we received a
2:19:51 email in support of visit issaquah
2:19:55 and urging us to not give up on visit
2:19:58 issaquah and to support them
2:19:59 and to allow them to continue their work
2:20:02 and spoke to the work that they've done
2:20:04 including the
2:20:04 web presence and creating one voice
2:20:10 that concludes the comments on this
2:20:11 topic
2:20:13 thank you council president i see that
2:20:15 deputy council president ray has a
2:20:16 question
2:20:18 hi um this is chris ray thank you mayor
2:20:21 paulie uh
2:20:22 jen have we notified the unsuccessful
2:20:24 bidders that they
2:20:25 were not selected to be the destination
2:20:27 marketing organization
2:20:29 for the city yet no we have not so they
2:20:32 haven't
2:20:32 had a chance to um either
2:20:36 uh protest or in any other way complain
2:20:38 about the
2:20:39 procurement not suggesting that they
2:20:41 would but just giving them an
2:20:43 opportunity before we finalize it
2:20:45 correct okay thank you
2:20:49 um jen would that
2:20:53 would that kind of information or
2:20:55 activity happen
2:20:57 front of council or in front of ltch
2:21:02 council yes or no is council a yes or no
2:21:05 on this
2:21:06 expenditure so if a
2:21:09 vendor was to say that they wanted to
2:21:12 provide additional information or
2:21:14 contest it would they do that before
2:21:18 um i believe so i think there's for any
2:21:20 rfp process there's some
2:21:22 language in there i don't have it in
2:21:23 front of me that says that there's a
2:21:25 process to do that
2:21:26 yes okay thanks um
2:21:29 not seeing any other questions i'll give
2:21:31 it a minute
2:21:32 before we move on to emotion
2:21:41 councilmember goodman i questioned a
2:21:43 question
2:21:45 thank you it's a procedural question
2:21:47 apparently there's a note in here from
2:21:49 um that there will be a motion to
2:21:51 postpone
2:21:52 um so i don't know what that motion is
2:21:55 about
2:21:56 but maybe we could get some illumination
2:21:59 on that
2:22:00 so that we can get the clerk to
2:22:03 tell us if we need a motion
2:22:07 to approve the committee's
2:22:08 recommendation first
2:22:10 and then a postponement of our
2:22:13 continuance or whatever we call it
2:22:15 i'm just curious about my processes
2:22:16 thank you okay i think that allows for
2:22:18 council discussion then
2:22:20 um city clerk i'm assuming that we would
2:22:22 go with the main motion
2:22:24 and as the council deliberates there may
2:22:26 be an a different motion
2:22:28 interjected introduced
2:22:32 so um there are actually two options
2:22:34 with the motion to postpone
2:22:36 it could be offered at this point as the
2:22:38 main motion
2:22:40 to postpone the agenda bill to a future
2:22:42 meeting date
2:22:43 or someone could make the motion to
2:22:46 approve
2:22:47 the request and then someone could
2:22:51 offer what we call a subsidiary motion
2:22:53 to postpone
2:22:54 so it can be achieved either way great
2:22:57 i do think we need to have some
2:22:59 discussions so
2:23:01 whatever the council's presence
2:23:04 preferences
2:23:07 i look to the ltch chair
2:23:10 were you going to do a main motion which
2:23:13 could be followed by a subsidiary motion
2:23:17 um thank you mayor paulie this is
2:23:19 councilmember goodman
2:23:20 i um i think
2:23:24 yes and the reason is even though
2:23:27 i understand emotion to postpone is
2:23:29 coming i think if we have a main motion
2:23:31 perhaps we can have a fuller
2:23:32 conversation than if we only have a
2:23:35 motion to postpone
2:23:36 that would be the reason i would bring
2:23:38 the main motion um
2:23:41 uh and again understanding that there
2:23:43 would be a motion to postpone
2:23:44 so thank you so would you care to make a
2:23:48 motion
2:23:49 i would thank you i would um
2:23:52 move to approve the lodging tax advisory
2:23:54 committee's request to appropriate
2:23:56 125 thousand dollars from the lodging
2:23:58 tax fund
2:23:59 to the destination marketing
2:24:00 organization visit issaquah
2:24:02 as proposed in the 2021 budget deputy
2:24:06 council president ray
2:24:07 this is chris wray i second that motion
2:24:10 it's been moved and seconded so i will
2:24:12 go to the motion maker to see if you
2:24:14 have comments first or the deputy
2:24:16 and otherwise i will start with council
2:24:19 member d michelle so councilmember
2:24:21 goodman would you like to speak to this
2:24:23 thank you mayor paulie councilmember
2:24:25 goodman here yes just very briefly
2:24:27 i think miss davis hayes did a pretty
2:24:29 good job of
2:24:30 summarizing we did have a lengthy
2:24:33 conversation
2:24:34 um about all of the applications
2:24:37 and the for different reasons that
2:24:41 the two applications that
2:24:44 from organizations that are not local
2:24:46 fell to the bottom
2:24:49 some of the members preferred local
2:24:52 and um at least one of the members um
2:24:56 put them at the bottom for different
2:24:58 reasons one was because it looked like
2:24:59 it was going to
2:25:00 cost um that was actually me cost more
2:25:03 money
2:25:03 um and one of them proposed that they
2:25:05 would have a one day
2:25:07 trip to issaquah to familiarize
2:25:09 themselves with issaquah which i didn't
2:25:10 think was sufficient
2:25:11 um and then one was going to charge
2:25:13 travel and we had a 125 000
2:25:15 cap so i didn't think that that was a
2:25:18 good option
2:25:19 um and
2:25:23 it was a four to one vote um for the
2:25:26 um for the current recommendation um
2:25:30 with the um kathy mccrory voting against
2:25:34 and the rest of us voting for the
2:25:37 dmo visit issaquah um i'm trying to
2:25:40 think of anything else
2:25:44 i think that was i think that was all um
2:25:48 that i had and
2:25:51 i will wait until later to make
2:25:53 additional
2:25:54 comments as a council member rather than
2:25:57 just a maker of the motion
2:25:59 thank you thank you deputy council
2:26:01 president ray did you want to jump in
2:26:03 or should i move to council
2:26:04 councilmember do michelle
2:26:19 pretty sure he can hear me just can't
2:26:21 hear him
2:26:35 pretty bad i feel like he's writing me a
2:26:38 actually we can hear you i can hear you
2:26:42 can you hear me yes even though your
2:26:44 microphone shows that you're muted
2:26:57 thank you can you hear me we can i don't
2:27:00 know why the mute symbol's still showing
2:27:01 we can absolutely hear you
2:27:03 this is so weird okay um so i would
2:27:07 uh like to move to postpone ab-8030 to
2:27:12 the council meeting on november 2nd
2:27:14 2020.
2:27:19 okay um okay
2:27:22 is there um um i
2:27:25 i would second the chat is also not
2:27:27 working evidently
2:27:30 oh interesting okay then i'm gonna have
2:27:32 to look for hand signals
2:27:33 um okay it's been moved in seconds
2:27:48 can you still hear me oh my god
2:27:52 okay i don't know what this is um i just
2:27:55 want to check in with the city clerk and
2:27:57 is this
2:27:58 your expectation of how it would go with
2:28:00 a subsidiary motion
2:28:03 yes it is and if i can comment i appear
2:28:05 to have been having some connection
2:28:07 issues which might have been what threw
2:28:09 off the meeting just now so my apologies
2:28:12 for that inconvenience
2:28:13 awesome okay so it has been moved and
2:28:17 seconded to postpone
2:28:18 um uh customer review michelle would you
2:28:20 like to speak to that
2:28:25 yes now can you hear me thank you
2:28:28 sure that we're doing it okay um
2:28:32 yes i i would like to postpone because i
2:28:35 have some
2:28:36 uh deep concerns about the this proposal
2:28:40 um as noted earlier uh the first concern
2:28:44 that we don't have a financial report
2:28:46 that were provided during the previous
2:28:48 presentation
2:28:49 so we don't have an accounting of how
2:28:51 previously allocated funds were spent
2:28:54 two i would like more information about
2:28:56 the process
2:28:58 uh specifically the transparency of the
2:29:00 process
2:29:01 uh the appearance of fairness in the
2:29:03 process
2:29:04 um especially noting that
2:29:08 members of the l-tech board are also
2:29:11 members of the visit issaquah board
2:29:13 and also representing the chamber
2:29:17 we received several persuasive to me
2:29:19 emails from members of the business
2:29:21 community
2:29:22 with concerns about duplication of
2:29:24 services
2:29:25 already provided by the chamber of
2:29:26 commerce and
2:29:28 um i didn't see anything in the
2:29:31 application that was submitted that
2:29:33 differentiated between those services
2:29:35 already provided
2:29:36 and those that would be provided under
2:29:38 this funding
2:29:40 and then finally on the issue of goals
2:29:43 and metrics
2:29:44 i only saw in the application
2:29:48 a series of possible goals and i didn't
2:29:52 any metrics and i think without those
2:29:55 two things we really don't have a plan
2:29:57 in front of us
2:29:58 and so without a financial report and
2:30:00 without proposed metrics
2:30:02 i can't um i can't vote to accept this
2:30:06 recommendation
2:30:07 so rather than just voting against it
2:30:10 this evening i'd prefer that this matter
2:30:12 be postponed
2:30:14 until the november 2nd meeting so that
2:30:16 we can have a response from the ltch
2:30:19 board
2:30:20 and further discussion with a lot more
2:30:23 information
2:30:24 thank you thank you council president
2:30:29 um thank you this is council president
2:30:31 hunt i have similar concerns
2:30:33 to council member d michelle i
2:30:36 i specifically am interested in better
2:30:39 understanding the
2:30:40 operations of visit issaquah from the
2:30:42 perspective of
2:30:44 if the board meetings could be public
2:30:46 for instance and also if a city
2:30:48 representative could be
2:30:50 on the board and if they might consider
2:30:52 those things
2:30:53 um i think it would also be helpful to
2:30:55 have the financials and
2:30:56 the other thing um as was mentioned we
2:30:59 did receive a number of emails about
2:31:00 duplication of efforts and one thing
2:31:01 that was pointed out
2:31:03 uh in several of the emails was the
2:31:06 visit
2:31:07 the visitor information center ada
2:31:10 compliance and i think that that is
2:31:13 interesting it's a physical location
2:31:15 that's
2:31:16 ada accessible um in the one case and
2:31:20 that doesn't um appear to be an amenity
2:31:22 provided
2:31:24 so i would i was interested in the
2:31:26 suggestions around merging the chamber
2:31:29 or the very least understanding how
2:31:30 those services could be complementary
2:31:32 but would
2:31:33 at this time support the motion to
2:31:37 postpone so that we could get more
2:31:38 information on these various
2:31:41 questions thank you are there additional
2:31:45 comments on the motion that's on the
2:31:46 table
2:31:47 uh deputy council president ray
2:31:52 thank you mayor foley this is chris ray
2:31:53 this is really isn't a comment so much
2:31:56 as it's a question
2:31:57 about the motion and i wonder if we
2:31:59 could have a brief discussion about what
2:32:02 additional information we would want
2:32:04 so that we can make a better informed
2:32:06 decision
2:32:07 when we bring it back so i mean i heard
2:32:10 a couple things but
2:32:11 i think it's if we're going to postpone
2:32:14 i'd like to know what it is we are
2:32:16 postponing so that we will have
2:32:18 i mean so we have financial statements
2:32:22 visitor squad i wasn't sure what else
2:32:24 was on that list
2:32:26 thank you very much deputy council
2:32:27 president ray i can have jen
2:32:29 after all of the questions are out on
2:32:31 the table and we may hear that there's
2:32:32 other council members that are
2:32:34 interested in different information i'll
2:32:35 have jen summarize it back what you've
2:32:37 heard
2:32:38 so you can make sure it's the list that
2:32:40 you want it's a list
2:32:42 thank you list any
2:32:45 other questions i see that council
2:32:48 member goodman is up again but deferring
2:32:50 to see if anybody who hasn't spoken
2:32:52 would like to speak
2:32:59 it looks like you're up councilmember
2:33:00 goodman thank you councilmember goodman
2:33:03 so i did hear mention of something about
2:33:06 um so
2:33:09 we need to um
2:33:12 i'm not sure what ltc's role is
2:33:16 unless it gets voted down
2:33:20 um or changed and gone back to ltch
2:33:24 so clarification yeah so i don't know
2:33:28 exactly what
2:33:29 the um what the proposal is for
2:33:33 involving ltch
2:33:36 let's go to um jen for a question and
2:33:39 and see
2:33:40 maybe the council's um role in this
2:33:43 would be
2:33:44 an oh looks like our administrator has
2:33:46 comment um mr bob quits
2:33:50 uh yes uh madam mayor members of the
2:33:51 council uh i think at this point the
2:33:54 issue is before the council so if there
2:33:56 are questions that need to be answered
2:33:58 your staff can do that unless ltch
2:34:01 feels that they would like to reconvene
2:34:04 i agree with councilmember goodman i
2:34:05 think they have done their job in
2:34:07 transmitting
2:34:08 the information to the council and your
2:34:10 staff would be happy to follow up and
2:34:11 get whatever answers you need for
2:34:13 november second
2:34:15 thank you mr bapquist um dan i'm going
2:34:18 to come back to you then i'm not saying
2:34:19 that anybody else has a question could
2:34:21 you go over what additional information
2:34:23 uh you have listed the council's
2:34:26 requesting
2:34:27 yes so um i heard twice financial
2:34:30 reports
2:34:31 looking at the the funds for 2019 or
2:34:34 2020 sorry
2:34:35 and more information about the process
2:34:38 and um we can actually address that now
2:34:41 if we'd like but about the transparency
2:34:42 the process
2:34:44 due to the way that lpac is set up with
2:34:46 having members
2:34:47 of other organizations that applied for
2:34:50 it on
2:34:50 on the board and more information about
2:34:54 the goals and metrics
2:34:55 one of the things we plan to do is to
2:34:57 come back with the contract which would
2:34:59 have to be
2:34:59 approved by the council so we were going
2:35:02 to develop those fine
2:35:04 tune those goals and metrics for them so
2:35:07 you can uh let me know with further
2:35:09 information about how
2:35:11 how much of that goals and metrics you'd
2:35:13 like to see by the second
2:35:15 and then i heard a request to open up
2:35:18 their board meetings to the public
2:35:20 and consider a city represent
2:35:22 representative
2:35:23 on the board was there anything i missed
2:35:28 um if you want to indicate in chat if
2:35:31 there's additional information that you
2:35:32 request
2:35:33 councilmember goodman thank you
2:35:35 councilmember goodman here
2:35:36 um opening the board to the public and i
2:35:39 think i heard a suggestion
2:35:41 for a city elected
2:35:44 or staff on the board
2:35:47 if i'm mistaken um is that right
2:35:51 okay so i guess my question
2:35:54 um as a council member not an ltch chair
2:35:57 um you know the city provides um money
2:36:00 to other organizations that have
2:36:02 boards so is a similar request
2:36:06 does that mean that the city every time
2:36:08 the city gives money to an organization
2:36:10 then the city is the council going to
2:36:14 those board meetings to be public
2:36:18 and have a city person on the on the um
2:36:23 on the board a city staffer city council
2:36:26 member on the board they're just
2:36:27 they're just questions um so i think
2:36:30 that's one thing to consider
2:36:33 with those questions is how do we
2:36:36 how do we play with others with that
2:36:38 request
2:36:39 thank you i didn't think that i thought
2:36:41 councilmember do you michelle was
2:36:43 indicating that she had wanted to talk
2:36:45 were you um in line
2:36:48 uh my uh my chat is not working
2:36:55 yeah and and i i am quite fine with
2:36:58 following
2:36:58 uh council member ray after and then
2:37:01 following him that's just fine
2:37:03 but i just wanted to note that i can't
2:37:05 put anything in the chat anymore very
2:37:06 strange
2:37:07 okay thank you if you just raise your
2:37:09 hand i'll catch you
2:37:10 um council president hunt followed by
2:37:12 deputy council president ray
2:37:15 um thank you council president hunt so
2:37:17 in response to councilmember goodman's
2:37:19 clarifying questions i um think that
2:37:23 there were a lot of questions raised
2:37:24 about
2:37:25 in particular duplication of efforts and
2:37:30 duplication of services uh the website
2:37:33 calendars etc and so my ask
2:37:36 is really about how we might have more
2:37:39 transparency
2:37:40 into the this organization and what
2:37:43 they're doing to support tourism and so
2:37:45 these are
2:37:46 considerations that they they may have
2:37:49 other
2:37:50 ideas but those are specific
2:37:53 considerations regarding how we might
2:37:56 have transparency and through that might
2:37:58 better understand the process
2:38:00 and then better understand these
2:38:01 duplication concerns
2:38:03 and then it's not specific to anything
2:38:06 other than the
2:38:06 matter at hand so no i would not
2:38:09 extrapolate to
2:38:10 other businesses at all or other
2:38:14 organizations do you have a couple of
2:38:17 uh questions councilmember goodman or is
2:38:19 that a okay thank you
2:38:21 um deputy council president ray
2:38:25 no thank you very paulie this is chris
2:38:27 wright this is really hard when we
2:38:29 first started talking about formation of
2:38:31 the dmo way back in the day
2:38:34 one of the things that we lobbied for
2:38:38 was that this was going to be a
2:38:39 significant
2:38:41 organization to the city because it was
2:38:43 going to represent
2:38:44 all sorts of different interests and we
2:38:46 we had we had
2:38:48 suggested i thought required that that
2:38:51 there be a
2:38:52 city representative on on their board
2:38:55 visibility and coordination so
2:38:58 that didn't happen but
2:39:01 as i look at it and i look at this
2:39:04 particular
2:39:06 procurement that we've gone through and
2:39:09 we wouldn't ask space media to put a
2:39:12 uh a person on their board and as best i
2:39:15 can tell because i just
2:39:16 looked it up the chamber doesn't have a
2:39:19 city person on their board either
2:39:21 so i mean it um i think it
2:39:25 councilman walsh is saying that we do
2:39:28 well council member wallace attends
2:39:30 their meeting as a city representative
2:39:32 but she is not on their board
2:39:33 yeah so so that's what i was you know
2:39:35 don't not a
2:39:36 not a voting member on their board so we
2:39:38 have some disability but but we don't
2:39:39 have that same level of control that
2:39:41 we'd be asking for
2:39:42 um and then from financials i mean i
2:39:44 kind of
2:39:45 am aligned with um the city
2:39:47 administrator like we
2:39:48 we this is an ltch responsibility they
2:39:51 went through a process
2:39:53 unless we want to throw out their whole
2:39:54 process and say you know start over
2:39:56 again which i guess is an option
2:39:58 i'm okay with that but i think this is
2:39:59 their decision to make and i don't know
2:40:02 if i see um business class financials
2:40:06 um i'm gonna feel any more or less
2:40:09 comfortable so i'd rather
2:40:11 just move forward with this and let's uh
2:40:14 let's get this done tonight
2:40:17 is there any other comments on the
2:40:19 subsidiary motion
2:40:20 uh council member d michelle
2:40:26 all right i just want to make sure you
2:40:27 can hear me um
2:40:30 i i certainly did not take this action
2:40:33 lightly i always want to order or
2:40:36 honor the the work that's been done by
2:40:39 boards and commissions
2:40:41 having been a commission member myself
2:40:43 for a long time i know how important
2:40:45 that is
2:40:45 i know the hard work that's done this
2:40:48 particular
2:40:49 um proposal that's coming before us has
2:40:52 raised
2:40:53 numerous red flags for me and i we
2:40:56 as a council we act as the
2:40:59 final gate and we have a role
2:41:03 otherwise why bring it to us and so i
2:41:05 think in this particular case there
2:41:07 are just a number of questions that need
2:41:09 to be
2:41:10 answered before we move forward before i
2:41:13 can be comfortable
2:41:14 moving forward to approve this
2:41:17 proposal i would
2:41:21 in addition to the things that have
2:41:22 already been mentioned i would
2:41:24 like to see
2:41:26 [Music]
2:41:28 and it it doesn't have to be
2:41:30 terrifically detailed but i would like
2:41:32 to see a strategic
2:41:34 some some strategic planning around
2:41:38 um introducing um
2:41:41 tourism back into issaquah in the wake
2:41:43 of covet another thing that i noticed
2:41:45 about the application
2:41:46 is it doesn't address the impacts
2:41:50 of coping 19 and i would think that that
2:41:52 would be the most significant thing
2:41:54 that the that the application should
2:41:56 address
2:41:57 so there are just uh um a lot of
2:42:01 issues that i have with uh this
2:42:03 presentation
2:42:04 again i didn't take this action lightly
2:42:07 i i think that there are
2:42:08 significant things we need to hear back
2:42:10 before we approve this
2:42:13 council member hall
2:42:19 thank you mayor paulie um this is
2:42:21 councilmember zach hall
2:42:22 a quick question and a comment first
2:42:25 question is
2:42:25 when was visit issaquah established
2:42:31 jen in 2018
2:42:39 i will um say that i share um
2:42:43 a lot of concerns that have been emailed
2:42:44 us um
2:42:46 about duplication of efforts but i guess
2:42:49 i'm just
2:42:49 genuinely in a place where i feel like
2:42:50 we haven't given them enough time to be
2:42:52 able to give us a product
2:42:54 that um
2:42:55 [Music]
2:42:58 we think rises to the level where every
2:43:00 year we just want to
2:43:02 re-up it because we're comfortable with
2:43:04 it so
2:43:06 i'm not sure i quite know where i'm at
2:43:09 delaying it but i am concerned with
2:43:13 not putting our support behind visit
2:43:15 issaquah only after two years into the
2:43:18 process
2:43:19 so that that's where my those are my
2:43:21 comments right now
2:43:22 councilmember goodman ah thank you
2:43:25 councilmember goodman here
2:43:27 um uh that was one of the
2:43:31 thank you councilmember hall i wanted to
2:43:33 remind everybody that
2:43:34 it's really only been the second full
2:43:36 year and
2:43:37 um the most of this year has been taken
2:43:41 up by the pandemic so i'm not sure
2:43:43 um visit disqua has had a fair
2:43:44 opportunity to get going
2:43:46 um and then um
2:43:50 ah i had another thing and i forgot
2:43:53 oh um all of the uh
2:43:56 i think it's important for um the
2:43:58 council and the public to know that all
2:44:00 of the comments
2:44:01 that we have received and it's not been
2:44:03 a landslide i mean it's
2:44:04 you know maybe half a dozen at the most
2:44:07 um that we've received
2:44:08 um at the council level regarding
2:44:11 this this agenda bill has been since
2:44:15 met ltch received no public comment
2:44:19 um there was a letter that was submitted
2:44:22 before the ltch meeting
2:44:23 it was addressed to the council with one
2:44:27 member copied i did share that with
2:44:29 eltak
2:44:30 but all of this information has come
2:44:33 since the ltch
2:44:34 meeting and i just think everybody ought
2:44:36 to know that um just in case there was
2:44:39 any idea that ltch didn't address or
2:44:43 ignore the issues that were in the
2:44:46 communications that have been sent
2:44:47 received by the council that's not the
2:44:49 um we have the ltch did not receive any
2:44:52 of the public
2:44:53 comment um
2:44:57 i think that's i think that's it for now
2:44:59 thank you
2:45:03 okay can you hear me
2:45:06 okay just checking because my headset
2:45:08 died um
2:45:09 thank you councilmember goodman we have
2:45:11 a question from councilmember walsh
2:45:12 followed by a comment from deputy
2:45:14 council president ray
2:45:16 thank you this is councilmember walsh um
2:45:20 checking in on this idea of postponement
2:45:24 um what timeline are we looking at um
2:45:28 for being
2:45:28 i know we obviously haven't been able to
2:45:31 ask for the information so it would be a
2:45:33 loose
2:45:33 idea of when it could come back um but
2:45:36 do we see
2:45:36 any negative impacts of that on making
2:45:40 this decision
2:45:42 did you administrate above groups uh no
2:45:45 as uh
2:45:46 mr davis hayes said this will be for the
2:45:48 year beginning january 1 so there
2:45:50 certainly is time
2:45:53 deputy council president ray yeah thank
2:45:56 you mayor paulie chris ray just want to
2:45:57 clarify
2:45:58 um the comments or discussion right now
2:46:01 isn't on whether or not to approve
2:46:03 the um the motion
2:46:06 to fund the dmo the question now is
2:46:09 whether or not
2:46:10 we want to defer making that decision so
2:46:13 um i think the the comments are really
2:46:15 cogent but i really would like us to
2:46:17 focus on
2:46:18 um whether or not we're going to make
2:46:20 that decision tonight or at some future
2:46:22 correct so if there are any other
2:46:23 comments on the motion to postpone
2:46:25 ab 80 30 to the council meeting on
2:46:27 november 2nd
2:46:29 i'll look in the chat box and otherwise
2:46:30 i'll call for the vote
2:46:40 okay so the motion on the floor is to
2:46:44 postpone ab-8030 to the council meeting
2:46:46 on november
2:46:47 2nd 2020 and i'll get the city clerk to
2:46:49 do a roll call vote
2:46:52 starting with deputy council president
2:46:55 no councilmember walsh
2:46:59 i council member d michelle
2:47:03 aye council member goodman
2:47:08 nay councilmember hall
2:47:14 nay council president hunt
2:47:22 that is a tie with three eyes and three
2:47:26 that the mayor could choose to break
2:47:30 thank you city clerk so there are
2:47:31 certain occasions uh if it doesn't
2:47:33 involve an ordinance or
2:47:35 um i can't remember what they are but
2:47:38 our attorney can tell you that the mayor
2:47:39 actually can break a tie
2:47:41 i choose not to break the tie um so that
2:47:43 means the motion goes down
2:47:45 and we are back comments or questions
2:47:48 on the main motion
2:47:53 and i wonder city clerk if you could put
2:47:55 the main motion back up into the chat
2:47:56 that'd be helpful
2:48:09 and i will be looking for comments on
2:48:13 on the main motion
2:48:22 council member goodman followed by
2:48:24 council president hunt
2:48:26 thank you madam mayor councilmember
2:48:28 goodman here um
2:48:30 i uh i supported
2:48:34 the um and ranked the visit issaquah
2:48:39 at the highest
2:48:42 for a couple of reasons um
2:48:45 after reviewing the application and
2:48:48 knowing the circumstances
2:48:49 um as mentioned before if this is a
2:48:52 brand new organization they haven't had
2:48:54 an opportunity to fully get going
2:48:57 and the
2:49:00 especially with the pandemic and
2:49:03 the council just approved the
2:49:05 destination marketing
2:49:06 organization um in 2018 or
2:49:10 shortly before that so i think we owe it
2:49:13 to the organization to
2:49:15 continue i don't see any reason even
2:49:18 though
2:49:19 there were excellent applications and i
2:49:22 know we have had
2:49:23 comments encouraging us to make a
2:49:27 a different decision i don't see any
2:49:29 reason to
2:49:31 [Music]
2:49:33 pound away at this right now or blow
2:49:35 things up right now
2:49:37 not sure that this is the thing that we
2:49:38 want to focus on in the middle of a
2:49:40 pandemic
2:49:41 i think the dmo is working just as hard
2:49:43 as it can
2:49:45 on tourism and marketing and
2:49:48 and again i i didn't see a reason
2:49:51 to make a different choice at this time
2:49:55 given all of the circumstances um in
2:49:57 terms of the process and the
2:49:59 transparency
2:50:00 the reason that and when we had this
2:50:03 conversation with
2:50:04 the ltch board had this conversation in
2:50:07 the summer
2:50:08 early in the summer we met for the first
2:50:10 time that um
2:50:12 the membership of the ltac committee is
2:50:16 uh required and dictated by state law
2:50:18 and so
2:50:19 if it looks a little strange that there
2:50:22 are appearance of fairness issues
2:50:25 the that's because it is what it is
2:50:29 um the people who are on the committee
2:50:30 are ones are the people who
2:50:33 um assess that who are part of
2:50:36 organizations that assess the tax
2:50:38 organizations that receive the tax
2:50:40 receive the funding
2:50:41 um and then we have to have somebody
2:50:43 from a council member and that council
2:50:45 member has to be the chair
2:50:46 it's not they voted me in and it's not
2:50:48 that i argued or lobbied for it it has
2:50:50 to be our council member has to be a
2:50:51 chair
2:50:52 um so there is no um
2:50:55 appearance of fairness issue um the
2:50:58 process has been fully explained
2:51:00 um we each had um
2:51:04 we had a list of things that we agreed
2:51:07 would be the standards by which we would
2:51:10 judge the applications which we did 40
2:51:12 percent experience
2:51:14 40 responsiveness to the rfp and 20
2:51:16 percent
2:51:17 competitiveness of the fee structure um
2:51:21 if there are goals and metrics that are
2:51:23 an issue you heard ms davis hayes talk
2:51:24 about that being part of the contract
2:51:26 um and the last the stretch the
2:51:28 strategic um
2:51:31 uh planning perhaps that's something
2:51:33 that could work on with the organization
2:51:35 or that we could
2:51:36 um ask
2:51:39 the dmo organization to work on with the
2:51:41 administration so that also isn't part
2:51:43 of their
2:51:44 contract and as far as the financial
2:51:46 report goes i can't imagine that that's
2:51:49 complicated and we could just
2:51:51 potentially just ask for that
2:51:53 information
2:51:55 so i'm going to be voting to support it
2:51:58 for those reasons and i hope that you
2:52:01 do that as well and give that
2:52:03 organization an
2:52:04 opportunity to do the work that it's
2:52:06 been trying to do over the past
2:52:08 year or two years but really hasn't been
2:52:10 able to
2:52:11 fully implement because of the pandemic
2:52:13 thank you
2:52:15 thank you councilmember goodman council
2:52:17 president hunt next
2:52:20 um thank you this is council president
2:52:22 hunt i
2:52:24 do look forward to seeing should this
2:52:27 pass i do look forward to seeing details
2:52:29 in the contract about
2:52:30 metrics i think that's very important
2:52:33 and i had hoped to get more information
2:52:36 before we had this
2:52:37 decision this evening i think that there
2:52:40 a lot of areas where the chamber
2:52:44 as as was indicated in these comments
2:52:47 that we received the chamber
2:52:48 um is well known to the community does
2:52:51 have relationships with the community
2:52:53 with the tourists promoting businesses
2:52:56 in the community and so i think there is
2:52:58 a overlap in the services that they
2:53:00 provide
2:53:01 between the chamber and visit issaquah
2:53:03 and i hope that there's a way that
2:53:06 that that can be complementary
2:53:10 in the future and i have concerns about
2:53:13 going forward at this point without more
2:53:15 information about
2:53:16 visit issaquah and how it how it is
2:53:18 complementary at this time
2:53:20 thank you deputy council president ray
2:53:24 thank you mayor paulie this is chris
2:53:26 wray a couple thoughts on this one
2:53:31 i'm going to support or echo what
2:53:36 councilmember hall said which is this
2:53:38 organization really didn't get started
2:53:39 until 2019 so it's a
2:53:41 it's really about a year and a half old
2:53:43 and i think it's fair to give
2:53:45 the organization a chance to demonstrate
2:53:48 it is a value or not a value so
2:53:51 i think that this makes sense what i
2:53:54 think is
2:53:54 probably more important and really is
2:53:57 the question that we should be wrestling
2:53:59 is the larger question about how do we
2:54:03 synchronize all of these business
2:54:05 development activities
2:54:07 across the city how do we get our
2:54:10 destination marketing and our downtown
2:54:12 association
2:54:13 and our chamber of commerce to focus on
2:54:16 a single
2:54:19 unifying set of goals so what i would
2:54:22 like to do is to move forward with
2:54:24 this particular initiative because i
2:54:26 think
2:54:27 it is only fair to give it a chance to
2:54:29 thrive and we made the commitment to it
2:54:31 in 2018 but i want to come back to this
2:54:35 larger issue about
2:54:37 how are we doing this and what is the
2:54:39 way to do this and how do we
2:54:41 leverage the resources that we have and
2:54:43 it's all of the things that we're
2:54:44 talking about
2:54:45 but i'd rather talk about them in the
2:54:48 context of economic development
2:54:50 than in the context of a destination
2:54:52 marketing organization
2:54:54 thank you deputy council president ray
2:54:57 and i'll just add in a piece
2:54:58 about our escort recovery task force and
2:55:02 we want to have a covered republic
2:55:04 recovery plan for various
2:55:06 segments of our community and definitely
2:55:09 the growth of our local economy and
2:55:11 tourism again is one of those and so i'm
2:55:14 assuming as we bring in our regular
2:55:16 boards and commissions to take up those
2:55:18 pieces
2:55:18 we'll end up wobbling together a
2:55:21 comprehensive
2:55:22 uh covid recovery plan so i hope we get
2:55:24 you to where you need to be
2:55:26 i'm not seeing any other comments in the
2:55:28 box right now is there anyone else who
2:55:29 would like
2:55:30 to make some final comments before i
2:55:33 read the motion
2:55:39 okay seeing none the motion on the table
2:55:42 is to approve the launching tax advisory
2:55:44 committee's request to appropriate 125
2:55:46 thousand dollars from the lodging tax
2:55:49 to the destination marketing
2:55:50 organization visit issaquah
2:55:52 as proposed in the 2021 budget and i
2:55:55 will go to the city clerk for a roll
2:55:56 call vote
2:55:58 starting with council member walsh
2:56:01 aye council member d michelle
2:56:05 hey councilmember goodman
2:56:09 aye member hall
2:56:13 aye council president hunt
2:56:18 deputy council president ray hi
2:56:22 that's four eyes two nays
2:56:26 thank you the demotion is
2:56:29 approved just scrolling through here
2:56:33 uh and passes four to two
2:56:36 the next agenda item this evening and
2:56:38 the last one on regular business
2:56:40 is ab-8028 proposed 2021 budget
2:56:45 uh amending community planning and
2:56:47 development fees
2:56:51 this item was last before council at the
2:56:55 23rd council study session and the
2:56:58 action
2:56:58 this evening is just to forward this
2:57:02 into the budget process i'd like to
2:57:04 invite management analyst gene paul to
2:57:07 introduce this item
2:57:08 gene thank you madam mayor good evening
2:57:12 members of the council
2:57:13 as the mayor indicated i'm gene paul the
2:57:15 management analyst from the executive
2:57:16 office i'll be presenting tonight on the
2:57:18 amending cpd fees while they won't be
2:57:20 presenting the consultants from the fcs
2:57:23 group who assisted on this project
2:57:24 martin cha and matthew hobson are all
2:57:27 also with us tonight
2:57:28 and available to answer questions about
2:57:30 their work
2:57:35 so the purpose of tonight's presentation
2:57:37 is to provide the city council an update
2:57:39 on the administration's recommended
2:57:40 adjustments to cpd fees
2:57:42 and receive feedback as both director
2:57:45 goldberg and the mayor have indicated
2:57:47 the actual adoption of these fees
2:57:49 is scheduled to occur with the 2021
2:57:51 budget on november 16th
2:57:57 as background cost recovery for cpd was
2:57:59 last studied in 2016
2:58:01 by the fcs group using data from 2015.
2:58:04 the city council acted in january of
2:58:06 2017 to update the fee schedule
2:58:09 and set an 80 cost recovery target
2:58:12 this year the administration examined
2:58:14 cost recovery again
2:58:15 as part of the city-wide services
2:58:17 assessment the first update on this was
2:58:19 provided at the june 23rd study session
2:58:26 here's the high level summary of cost
2:58:28 recovery shown at the june study session
2:58:31 as you can see both revenues declined
2:58:33 and expenses increased each year
2:58:35 which caused cost recovery to decrease
2:58:37 below the 80 target
2:58:38 in 2019 in addition to providing this
2:58:41 historical cost recovery
2:58:42 the administration sought city council
2:58:44 direction on the cost recovery target
2:58:46 and at that time the city council did
2:58:48 not express a desire to change the 80
2:58:51 target
2:58:57 because of the declining cost recovery
2:58:58 the administration examined a number of
2:59:00 measures
2:59:01 that could help restore the desired 80
2:59:03 percent as part of the
2:59:04 2021 proposed budget new and adjusted
2:59:07 fees were one of these measures
2:59:09 for the fee recommendations themselves a
2:59:12 staff working group developed these
2:59:14 proposed changes
2:59:15 first that group identified areas where
2:59:18 adjustments were needed
2:59:19 these included permits where staff spend
2:59:21 a considerable amount of time
2:59:23 with little or no revenue connection and
2:59:25 it also included a significant
2:59:27 realignment
2:59:28 of fees for site work and engineering
2:59:30 permitting
2:59:32 after generating these recommendations
2:59:34 the administration contracted with the
2:59:35 fcs group
2:59:36 to verify that the changes would achieve
2:59:38 the desired cost recovery
2:59:40 the fcs group consultants did this by
2:59:43 examining the past
2:59:44 five years of permitting data and
2:59:46 creating a projection for the next five
2:59:47 years
2:59:49 they then use this projection with the
2:59:51 recommended fee changes to create a
2:59:52 revenue forecast
2:59:54 in that forecast which i'll show in
2:59:56 greater detail on the next slide
2:59:58 cpd's cost recovery is expected to
3:00:00 remain above 80 percent
3:00:02 for the next five years after confirming
3:00:04 the adjusted fees achieved to cost
3:00:06 recovery
3:00:07 the administration conducted outreach
3:00:09 with stakeholders and further refined
3:00:11 the fees
3:00:11 before arriving at the final
3:00:13 recommendations
3:00:17 here's the projected cost recovery over
3:00:19 the next five years
3:00:21 the increase in the first two years is
3:00:23 the result of several large
3:00:24 one-time development projects generating
3:00:26 higher revenues
3:00:28 in 2023 and beyond the projection shows
3:00:31 the fees continue to recover at least 80
3:00:33 percent
3:00:34 even in a relatively normal year that
3:00:36 does not have large one-time boost
3:00:38 to revenue
3:00:43 in summary the recommended fee
3:00:45 adjustments will generate an estimated
3:00:47 1.36 million dollars
3:00:48 in 2021. this is 000
3:00:52 more than the estimated than was
3:00:54 estimated as
3:00:55 part of the proposed budget in total
3:00:58 over 50 changes are being recommended
3:01:01 these range from brand new fees or new
3:01:03 fee models
3:01:04 adjustment for existing fees or simple
3:01:06 code improvements that do not affect
3:01:08 revenues
3:01:09 over the course of the next slides i'll
3:01:11 cover these significant adjustments
3:01:17 the first recommendation and the largest
3:01:19 change would be to the site fee
3:01:21 work site work fee which includes the
3:01:23 review and inspection of clearing and
3:01:25 grading
3:01:26 currently these fees are based upon the
3:01:29 number of units in residential
3:01:30 construction
3:01:31 or the square footage of commercial
3:01:33 construction
3:01:34 there are two issues with this fee
3:01:36 structure first
3:01:38 the terrain at a project really dictates
3:01:40 the site work required
3:01:41 and there may not be a direct connection
3:01:43 between the building size
3:01:44 and how complex that site work is second
3:01:48 the fee structure has historically not
3:01:50 generated enough revenues to meet cost
3:01:52 recovery
3:01:55 instead of simply increasing the fees
3:01:57 using the same inputs
3:01:59 the administration recommends a new
3:02:01 model based on the city of renton
3:02:03 in this model an applicant pays a fee
3:02:06 based on the parcel size being graded
3:02:08 and the value of ground improvements
3:02:10 renton obviously provides the best
3:02:12 comparison for these new fees
3:02:14 that city has a few more tiers to how it
3:02:16 differentiates the size of projects
3:02:18 but a relatively straightforward new
3:02:20 single family project
3:02:21 would cost seven thousand five hundred
3:02:23 dollars in renton but seven thousand
3:02:25 dollars
3:02:26 in issaquah overall this change will
3:02:29 generate an estimated 1.1 million
3:02:31 dollars of revenue
3:02:32 that is approximately 550 000 more
3:02:36 than the projected revenues under the
3:02:37 current fee model
3:02:43 the next recommendation is a new fee for
3:02:45 consultant administration
3:02:47 first the administration is recommending
3:02:49 moving away from
3:02:50 expedited review where applicants pay
3:02:53 for consultant review and a reduced time
3:02:55 to permit approval
3:02:56 there currently exists a five thousand
3:02:58 dollar fee for the administration of
3:03:00 those reviews
3:03:01 that fee would go away but as consultant
3:03:04 expertise will still be necessary
3:03:06 the administration is recommending a new
3:03:08 fee equal to the consultant fee
3:03:10 but not to exceed two thousand dollars
3:03:13 this fee would cover the costs
3:03:15 of staff reviewing and integrating
3:03:16 consultant work with other staff
3:03:18 comments
3:03:19 but would not result in faster review
3:03:22 the three thousand dollar reduction from
3:03:24 the current fee is a better alignment
3:03:26 with the staffing time spent on this
3:03:28 overall this fee will generate an
3:03:30 estimated 850
3:03:32 or correction eighty five thousand
3:03:34 dollars annually
3:03:38 the next fee recommendation addresses
3:03:40 additional reviews
3:03:42 currently one fee covers as many review
3:03:44 cycles as needed
3:03:45 for land use planning or engineering we
3:03:48 are recommending a fee that is 30
3:03:50 of the initial permit fee for each
3:03:52 review beyond the third review
3:03:55 as you can see from the slide this is a
3:03:56 common practice with slight variations
3:03:59 based on how cities charge this fee
3:04:01 but our recommendation compares easily
3:04:03 to both bothell and renton
3:04:06 this new fee is estimated to generate
3:04:08 fifteen thousand dollars annually
3:04:14 the next new fee recommendation is land
3:04:16 use review of building permits
3:04:19 currently land use review occurs on
3:04:21 building permits that don't
3:04:23 also require a land use permit for
3:04:25 example
3:04:26 a new single-family construction project
3:04:28 may only require a building permit
3:04:31 but a cpd planner will still review the
3:04:33 project for land use components
3:04:35 such as setbacks and building heights
3:04:37 the administration is recommending a
3:04:39 five hundred dollar fee
3:04:40 for one and two family dwellings and a
3:04:43 one thousand dollar fee for new
3:04:44 commercial
3:04:45 or multi-family construction waffle is
3:04:48 the only city that assesses a separate
3:04:50 land use planning fee at 167 dollars for
3:04:53 single family
3:04:54 and 334 dollars per building of
3:04:56 commercial
3:04:57 or multi-family construction overall
3:05:00 this fee is estimated to generate
3:05:03 five hundred dollars gene before you
3:05:06 move on to
3:05:07 another slide i believe council member
3:05:09 walsh has a question
3:05:11 and i'm just going to join council
3:05:13 member d michelle in having a
3:05:15 non-functioning chat
3:05:16 i can see what i can't answer there you
3:05:20 thank you this is councilmember walsh um
3:05:23 i was able to fix my chat by being able
3:05:26 to select
3:05:27 the drop down button or to set it to
3:05:30 everyone
3:05:30 just in case that helps anyone else um
3:05:34 uh jean could you go back to the
3:05:35 previous slide
3:05:38 thank you um when i brought up the
3:05:42 permit fees to the chamber um
3:05:46 there were several concerns one of which
3:05:49 was the fact that many
3:05:53 reviews go into a third fourth
3:05:56 if i even heard seventh review cycle
3:06:00 and so they were concerned about the
3:06:02 idea of additional
3:06:05 um cost happening if there were reviews
3:06:09 beyond
3:06:09 the third review and how
3:06:13 they have kind of a lack of control over
3:06:15 that idea i'm wondering if
3:06:17 uh director niven could speak to that
3:06:20 idea um
3:06:21 and the general sense of nobody wants to
3:06:24 get to third review
3:06:26 how can we um avoid that and also avoid
3:06:31 a penalty um
3:06:34 for a party that may not have full
3:06:36 control over the situation
3:06:40 good evening city council keith niven
3:06:42 director of community planning
3:06:44 and development so this is um this is a
3:06:47 hard one
3:06:48 um what what happens
3:06:51 is that generates that need for multiple
3:06:55 reviews
3:06:56 is sometimes a fault of city staff
3:07:00 because maybe they did a partial review
3:07:04 and they don't generate full comments
3:07:07 until
3:07:07 the second or third review but a lot of
3:07:10 times what happens is
3:07:12 uh it's not uncommon for city staff to
3:07:16 generate
3:07:17 um pages of correction comments
3:07:20 off the first review and the second
3:07:22 review and it's
3:07:24 it's not uncommon that applicants in
3:07:27 their rush to
3:07:28 resubmit applications don't respond to
3:07:31 all those comments
3:07:32 and so by doing this there's
3:07:36 there's a responsibility put on city
3:07:38 staff to
3:07:39 make sure that each review is complete
3:07:42 uh to ensure that um if there
3:07:46 are if we do get to the second or third
3:07:48 review
3:07:49 that it's because the applicant has
3:07:52 either modified their project
3:07:53 or has not been responsive to city
3:07:56 comments
3:07:57 and not because city staff have not
3:07:59 provided a full set of comments for each
3:08:01 review
3:08:02 so that there is a burden put on us by
3:08:05 enacting this fee and that's one of the
3:08:07 reasons why i like it
3:08:10 fantastic thank you thank you
3:08:13 councilmember walsh councilmember hall
3:08:15 you have a question
3:08:18 i do mayor paulie thank you um council
3:08:21 member zach call here
3:08:22 uh first uh director niven love your
3:08:24 background it looks like it might be
3:08:25 amsterdam
3:08:26 um i'm if feel free
3:08:30 um if this will come later in the
3:08:32 presentation
3:08:33 feel free to just wait to answer this um
3:08:35 this is just another one of those you
3:08:37 don't know what you don't know but
3:08:38 um how how does this impact
3:08:41 adu permitting you were talking a little
3:08:44 earlier about um
3:08:47 moving away from expedited review um and
3:08:50 this might be another question as well i
3:08:51 thought we had something in the book so
3:08:52 we have expedited review of adu
3:08:54 development
3:08:55 i guess that would be my first question
3:08:56 and the second question is how does this
3:08:58 impact
3:08:58 adu permitting
3:09:02 accessory dwelling unit for the
3:09:03 community sorry sorry about that
3:09:06 i think there were about four questions
3:09:08 bundled in that council member hall so
3:09:10 let me let me try and
3:09:11 and do this so there's
3:09:14 so accessory dwelling units uh receive
3:09:18 priority review and the distinction here
3:09:21 is what this what the department offered
3:09:25 uh what was called expedited review
3:09:27 which meant that
3:09:29 an applicant could choose to pay for
3:09:32 consultants
3:09:33 to completely review their permits well
3:09:36 the problem with that
3:09:38 is ultimately it does
3:09:42 connect in with staff and that staff are
3:09:45 coordinating consultants
3:09:46 and because you know our stormwater
3:09:48 expert is a staff member
3:09:51 we'd have staffs trying to run at the
3:09:53 speed of our consultants and ultimately
3:09:55 it was causing a lot of friction within
3:09:57 the department so
3:09:58 so we've decided to stop offering that
3:10:02 basically fast lane pay to go faster
3:10:05 because i think we've got a lot to fix
3:10:08 just under
3:10:09 normal speed so so we're getting rid of
3:10:12 the expedited as an
3:10:14 option for now um but as far as
3:10:17 say um accessory dwelling units or i
3:10:20 could add schools
3:10:22 we have a number of things that are
3:10:23 identified as priority reviews within
3:10:26 city code and what that means
3:10:28 is that we will process those permits
3:10:32 faster than other permits that are in
3:10:34 the queue
3:10:35 so that's the management on our part to
3:10:38 make sure that that does happen
3:10:40 and so hopefully i got to most of your
3:10:42 questions and if i missed any please let
3:10:44 me know
3:10:47 no i think that was clear i i appreciate
3:10:49 that answer thank you
3:10:51 oh and it's uh it's copenhagen by the
3:10:56 thank you director gene do you want to
3:10:59 carry on with the presentation
3:11:01 yes thank you mary
3:11:08 so the next new fee recommendation is
3:11:11 for a temporary certificate of occupancy
3:11:13 tco the building official is currently
3:11:16 authorized to issue a tco for a project
3:11:18 when construction is substantially
3:11:20 complete
3:11:21 but minor items like landscaping remain
3:11:23 there's currently no fee for this
3:11:26 tcos are a beneficial practice but they
3:11:28 do create additional inspections and
3:11:30 require processing
3:11:31 both the tco and the original permit in
3:11:34 parallel
3:11:35 to recover the cost for the staff time
3:11:37 the administration is recommending a 500
3:11:39 fee for a 60-day tcl for one and two
3:11:42 family projects
3:11:44 that tco can be renewed at the same cost
3:11:46 for another 60 days
3:11:48 a tco for a commercial or multi-family
3:11:51 project
3:11:51 would cost 3 500 for 180 days
3:11:55 and 750 dollars for renewal
3:11:58 in terms of comparisons mercer island
3:12:00 charges 560 dollars for a single family
3:12:04 and five thousand thirty eight dollars
3:12:06 for commercial and multi-family projects
3:12:08 in total this fee would generate an
3:12:10 estimated ninety thousand dollars
3:12:18 a street cut fee is the final
3:12:19 recommended new fee
3:12:21 while many factors impact the condition
3:12:23 of a road cutting into it to access
3:12:25 utility components underneath
3:12:27 can seriously affect service life to
3:12:29 help recoup the repair costs
3:12:31 the administration is recommending a fee
3:12:33 based on the square footage of the cut
3:12:35 in a road this fee would also double
3:12:38 when the pavement condition index or pci
3:12:41 is greater than 90.
3:12:43 as you can see from the slide kirkland
3:12:45 bellevue redmond
3:12:46 and bothell all have versions of this
3:12:48 fee the cost of a 20 square foot and 200
3:12:52 square foot
3:12:53 cut are shown for comparison and the
3:12:56 revenues from this fee
3:12:57 which are estimated at 75 000 would go
3:13:00 to the street operating fund
3:13:02 to support street maintenance
3:13:07 the next recommendations are not new but
3:13:10 adjustments to existing fees
3:13:12 currently an applicant pays 300 for a
3:13:14 traffic control plan review
3:13:16 which evaluates how traffic will flow
3:13:18 when work will be conducted
3:13:19 in the city's right-of-way the second
3:13:21 fee of 1
3:13:23 150 for street use is required for use
3:13:26 of the right-of-way
3:13:28 the administration is recommending
3:13:29 increasing these to two thousand
3:13:31 and two thousand five hundred dollars
3:13:33 respectively this reflects the increased
3:13:35 staff time
3:13:36 spent problem solving with applicants to
3:13:38 minimize impacts
3:13:39 rather than simply providing a safety
3:13:41 review
3:13:42 adjusting these fees would generate an
3:13:44 estimated two hundred thirty thousand
3:13:46 dollars in traffic control plan revenues
3:13:48 and seventy thousand dollars in street
3:13:50 use revenues
3:13:57 in addition to fee adjustments the
3:13:58 administration is recommending
3:13:59 improvements to the code
3:14:01 first content that was previously in
3:14:03 footnotes was brought into the main body
3:14:05 to make it easier to find
3:14:07 second some fees that historically could
3:14:10 be performed by either staff or
3:14:11 consultants
3:14:12 have been adjusted to only being
3:14:14 performed by consultants
3:14:15 to match current procedures finally
3:14:19 the registered plan program in chapter
3:14:21 16 will be removed
3:14:23 this program allowed for expedited
3:14:24 review for plants that remained
3:14:26 unchanged from multiple homes in a
3:14:28 subdivision
3:14:29 as most of the flat areas where
3:14:31 subdivisions could utilize this feature
3:14:32 of the code are built out
3:14:34 the registered plan program is now
3:14:36 outdated
3:14:38 the administration does expect further
3:14:39 updates and code improvements to title
3:14:42 in the first quarter of 2021
3:14:47 thank you gene i think you're getting
3:14:49 close to done but it does look like
3:14:50 council member walsh has
3:14:52 a question how many more slides do you
3:14:53 have to go
3:14:55 i believe there's two councilmember
3:14:57 walsh do you want to jump in now with
3:14:59 your question
3:15:00 i can't do you oh you wait okay thank
3:15:04 go ahead
3:15:07 here's a summary of how these
3:15:08 recommendations affect a sample of
3:15:10 projects
3:15:11 for a single family interior remodel or
3:15:14 a commercial tenant improvement
3:15:15 there are no changes to fees from 2020
3:15:17 to 2021.
3:15:19 single family new construction project
3:15:21 would increase by six thousand dollars
3:15:23 with these new fees
3:15:25 this would include five hundred dollars
3:15:26 for the land use review of building
3:15:28 permits
3:15:28 and a five thousand five hundred dollar
3:15:30 change in sight work costs
3:15:36 in terms of timing and next steps the
3:15:37 administration is recommending adoption
3:15:39 of this ordinance with the budget
3:15:40 and new fees would go into effect on
3:15:42 january 1 2021.
3:15:44 to set up adoption with the budget the
3:15:46 city council may forward the agenda bill
3:15:48 to the november 16th meeting
3:15:50 or refer to another meeting prior and
3:15:52 that concludes my presentation i'll be
3:15:54 happy to answer any questions
3:15:56 thank you jane councilmember walsh would
3:15:58 you like to start off uh
3:16:00 actually hang on one second um do you
3:16:04 mind council member walsh if i go to
3:16:05 council member hunt first if there's any
3:16:07 that's fine
3:16:08 thanks okay council president hunt did
3:16:10 you receive did the council receive any
3:16:12 public comments
3:16:13 on the site yes thank you thank you
3:16:16 madam mayor yes we did
3:16:17 we received a letter from the master
3:16:20 builders
3:16:21 association and expressing concern
3:16:24 about the fee increases
3:16:28 concerned about discouraging future
3:16:31 development and worsening our
3:16:33 housing supply shortage and we also
3:16:34 received comments from
3:16:36 the ceo of the chamber of commerce
3:16:40 concerned about the comparisons that the
3:16:43 comparisons were
3:16:44 not the comparisons to other cities were
3:16:48 um similar cities and then also
3:16:51 concerned about the effect this might
3:16:52 have on affordable housing stock
3:16:54 in our city that concludes the summary
3:16:56 of commons
3:16:58 thank you very much councilmember walsh
3:17:01 thank you this is councilmember walsh um
3:17:04 i was looking to talk about the street
3:17:08 fees so first i love that we're
3:17:11 including
3:17:12 something like this as a new feed that
3:17:15 because this is ultimately a cost to the
3:17:18 taxpayers us having to
3:17:20 repave um streets or deal with
3:17:24 streets that have been cut into but i
3:17:27 kind of surprised that the proposed fees
3:17:30 are i mean
3:17:34 less than i it looks like it could be
3:17:37 compared to
3:17:38 other cities and so i'm wondering if
3:17:40 there are any
3:17:41 comments about how our proposed fees
3:17:44 were chosen thanks
3:17:48 gene um did you want to take that
3:17:49 question or refer it to
3:17:51 someone else on the team i can take
3:17:54 uh first crack at it and then either uh
3:17:57 deputy administrator
3:17:58 andrea snyder or potentially director
3:18:00 keith nevin might be able to
3:18:02 also provide comment but essentially
3:18:05 benedashbah who's the
3:18:07 manager for the most of the pavement
3:18:08 management type projects and endeavors
3:18:11 in the city
3:18:12 uh did some background research and he's
3:18:14 the one who who
3:18:15 generated that recommendation in terms
3:18:17 of how he landed on those numbers i
3:18:19 don't have
3:18:20 more information so if if either
3:18:23 andrea or keith have more information
3:18:26 they could hop in
3:18:27 and answer that
3:18:32 great good evening good evening members
3:18:34 of city council good evening madam mayor
3:18:37 this is deputy city administrator andrea
3:18:39 snyder
3:18:40 and i believe that one of the things
3:18:42 that we looked at when setting those
3:18:44 fees were
3:18:45 other uh fees that we charge
3:18:49 when utilities do go into the
3:18:51 right-of-way i think there are other
3:18:52 permitting fees that are involved
3:18:55 so we wanted to be able to balance the
3:18:57 fees that we
3:18:58 charge versus other cities of course i
3:19:00 think you'll hear us say
3:19:02 time and time again that there are no
3:19:04 great apples to apples comparisons when
3:19:06 it comes from one city to another in
3:19:08 terms of what fee they charge and
3:19:10 exactly what
3:19:11 that fee covers for that city very rare
3:19:15 to get
3:19:15 a full comparison because every city is
3:19:18 a little bit different so we wanted to
3:19:19 be able to balance out
3:19:21 those fees with with the other fees that
3:19:23 we charge that
3:19:24 may pertain to the use of the city's
3:19:27 right of way for that purpose
3:19:31 that's remember walsh take a follow-up
3:19:34 i appreciate the analysis and
3:19:37 i guess i would just say
3:19:40 that i i feel like maybe we should
3:19:43 give our roads and uh the taxpayers
3:19:46 money the respect that it deserves
3:19:48 and maybe look at charging a higher fee
3:19:51 there
3:19:52 would be my thought process
3:19:55 thank you councilmember walsh i am not
3:19:57 seeing anybody else signed up for
3:19:59 questions at this time or comments
3:20:02 remembering that the action is to move
3:20:04 this one forward
3:20:06 to november 16th i'll give it a few
3:20:10 two more seconds
3:20:16 okay do i have somebody prepared to
3:20:19 there we go council member hall has a
3:20:21 question
3:20:23 thank you mayor paul this is councilman
3:20:24 remembers that call i guess my only
3:20:26 question would be
3:20:28 have we run this through the lens of um
3:20:34 our desire to support affordable housing
3:20:37 and what this would do
3:20:38 and who we've talked to or what
3:20:41 discussions we've had
3:20:43 about that internally or maybe that's
3:20:44 something we can do before now in the
3:20:47 meeting but i'll just be interested in
3:20:50 what city administration thinks about
3:20:51 that generally
3:20:53 if you city administrator snyder do you
3:20:55 have some comments
3:20:59 thank you madam mayor we do waive a
3:21:02 certain fees for affordable housing
3:21:04 development
3:21:05 so for for those fees that would apply
3:21:08 they would already be waived
3:21:14 does that help council member home
3:21:17 that's a good point
3:21:18 yes thank you very much awesome good
3:21:20 question
3:21:21 um is there anyone prepared to make a
3:21:23 motion
3:21:28 council president huh thank you this is
3:21:32 council president hunt i moved to
3:21:33 forward ab-8028 to the november 16 2020
3:21:37 council meeting for deliberation and
3:21:39 action
3:21:40 great deputy council president ray
3:21:42 second
3:21:44 it's been moved and seconded is there
3:21:46 any discussion
3:21:47 and i'll leave it open for a few seconds
3:21:49 give people an opportunity to be in the
3:21:52 council president hunt thank you this is
3:21:55 council president hunt i
3:21:56 um i would also be interested when this
3:21:59 returns
3:22:00 to know if any of these would be
3:22:04 expected to affect affordable housing
3:22:07 i think both you know the informal
3:22:10 affordable housing as well as formal to
3:22:12 the extent possible just to know how
3:22:13 this might affect
3:22:14 um affect that and that would be
3:22:19 information that would be good to have
3:22:21 before we make a decision
3:22:22 on november 16th thanks thank you
3:22:26 councilmember walsh thank you this is
3:22:29 councilmember walsh
3:22:31 i just wanted to say i appreciate the
3:22:33 administration being creative
3:22:35 about revenue and also being responsive
3:22:39 to our policy of having an 80
3:22:42 cost recovery so that you know our
3:22:45 lower income households are not
3:22:48 paying more in taxes to support
3:22:53 developers building something that's
3:22:55 ultimately going to create them revenue
3:22:57 and having us
3:22:58 subsidize that to a certain extent by
3:23:01 having our
3:23:02 um cpd department
3:23:06 um pay for that in tax dollars so i very
3:23:10 much appreciate the responsiveness of
3:23:13 um and the respect of our taxpayers
3:23:17 in um making sure that we have a cost
3:23:19 recovery target and that our fees
3:23:21 reflect that
3:23:22 thank you thank you councilmember walsh
3:23:26 um i am not seeing anybody else in
3:23:29 the chat box at this moment i'll give it
3:23:31 a second
3:23:33 [Music]
3:23:39 if there is no further discussion the
3:23:42 motion before the council is to forward
3:23:44 ab-8028
3:23:45 to the november 16 2020 council meeting
3:23:48 for deliberation
3:23:49 action and city clerk can you do the
3:23:51 roll call vote
3:23:53 yes are you able to hear me okay yes
3:23:56 great my headset also died all right
3:23:58 councilmember d michelle
3:24:01 hi councilmember goodman hi
3:24:05 councilmember hall aye
3:24:08 council president hunt aye
3:24:12 deputy council president ray aye
3:24:16 council member walsh aye that's six
3:24:19 eyes zero nays thank you that passes
3:24:23 six to o we are working our way
3:24:27 through the regular business and now
3:24:28 we're at the good of or good of the
3:24:30 order on
3:24:31 our um agenda do any council members
3:24:35 have something for good of the order and
3:24:37 would you please indicate so in the chat
3:24:39 and i'll call upon you
3:24:47 okay while i am waiting because i'm not
3:24:49 seeing any i will go through some
3:24:50 upcoming council meetings
3:24:54 the following meetings will be held
3:24:55 virtually there is a city council
3:24:57 special meeting on monday october 26th
3:24:59 at 7 pm establishment of the
3:25:01 environmental board
3:25:03 there is a city council study session on
3:25:05 tuesday october 27th at 6 30
3:25:08 pm which is going to be on the 2021
3:25:11 proposed budget
3:25:12 and the city council regular meeting on
3:25:15 monday november 2nd
3:25:17 with potential agenda items including
3:25:19 the proposed 2021 budget
3:25:21 levy and revenue sources housing
3:25:24 stability
3:25:25 local defense against evictions and
3:25:27 contract for mediation
3:25:29 services
3:25:32 next as i said earlier the executive
3:25:34 session was held prior to the meeting
3:25:36 so there is no executive session being
3:25:39 at this time and there being no further
3:25:42 business the meeting is adjourned at 10
3:25:44 25. have a great night

Attendance

Council / Members (6)
Barbara de Michele
Stacy Goodman
Zach Hall
Victoria Hunt
Chris Reh
Lindsey Walsh
Excused
Tola Marts

Motions and votes (5)

Approve the allocation of $52,075 to fund business and non-profit tourism-related activities as recommended by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee; and direct the Finance Director to include $52,075 in a subsequent 2020 budget amendment from the Lodging Tax Reserve Fund. . b) AB 8030 - 2021 Lodging T…
Moved by GOODMAN · seconded by HUNT
Carried 6-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
Approve the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee's request to appropriate $125,000 from the Lodging Tax Fund to the destination marketing organization, Visit Issaquah, as proposed in the 2021 budget.
Moved by GOODMAN · seconded by REH
Carried 4-2
In favor: Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
Opposed: de Michele, Hunt
Postpone [the motion on] AB 8030 to the Council meeting on Nov. 2, 2020. Page 52 of 324 CONSENT CALENDAR e) 10-19-20 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page (0000)
Moved by DE MICHELE · seconded by HUNT
Failed 3-3
(Proponents: de Michele, Hunt, Walsh). (Opponents: de Michele, Hunt). c)
Moved by DE MICHELE · seconded by HUNT
Carried 4-2
In favor: Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
Opposed: de Michele, Hunt
Forward AB 8028 to the November 16, 2020 Council meeting for deliberation and action. .
Moved by HUNT · seconded by REH
Carried 6-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Stacy Goodman, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh