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2008, 09-16 Study Session MinutesPresent: Councilmembers: Dick Denenny, Deputy Mayor Rose Dempsey, Councilmember Bill Gothmann, Councilmember Gary Schimmels, Councilmember Steve Taylor, Councilmember Diana Wilhite, Councilmember Absent: Rich Munson, Mayor MINUTES CITY OF SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Deputy Mayor Denenny called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and welcomed everyone to the meeting Staff: Dave Mercier, City Manager Mike Connelly, City Attorney Ken Thompson, Finance Director Mike Stone, Parks & Rec Director Neil Kersten, Public Works Director Kathy McClung, Community Development Dir. Morgan Koudelka, Sr. Administrative Analyst Inga Note, Senior Traffic Engineer John Whitehead, HR Manager Sara Richardson, HR Tech Carolbelle Branch, Public Information Officer Bill Miller, IT Specialist Chris Bainbridge, City Clerk Roll Call: At the request of Deputy Mayor Denenny, City Clerk Bainbridge called roll; all Councilmembers were present except Mayor Munson. It was moved by Councilmember Taylor, seconded and unanimously agreed to excuse Mayor Munson from tonight's meeting. Introduction of Visitors: Councilmember Schimmels, echoed by all Councilmembers, welcomed the members of the Flanigan family to tonight's meeting. Special Presentation: Quilt Guild President Deborah Holmes, on behalf of the Quilters Guild, presented a quilt made by the Guild's immediate Past President Deanna Griffith, to honor the City's 5 Birthday. Ms. Holmes explained that the colors are those of the City's logo; and mentioned the quilt squares with signature blocks of Mayors Mike DeVleming, Diana Wilhite, and Rich Munson; special block of Mike Flanigan's signature; the middle square signifying the City's 5 birthday; and several squares with apples, representing the apple orchards that were formerly prevalent throughout the Valley. Deputy Mayor Denenny expressed Council's appreciation for this very thoughtful, beautiful gift, thanked Deanna Griffith for her work, and asked that this be displayed in a predominant location at City Hall. 1. ACTION ITEM: Proposed Resolution: Adopting Appeal Findings APP 02 -08 and APP 03 -08 — Mike Connelly City Attorney Connelly explained that the resolution before Council contains those Findings of Fact which resulted from last week's decision where Council determined to deny the appeal of the Hearing Examiner decision and instructed the City attorney to draft these findings. It was moved by Councilmember Gothmann and seconded to adopt Resolution 08 -020. [Note: Draft Resolution 08 -020 affirmed the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision of the Spokane County Hearing Examiner in the matter of rezone from the R -3 district to the R -4 district, and preliminary plat of Summerset Estates.] Councilmember Taylor stated that although he was not in attendance at the Council meeting last week, he listened to the tape recording of that meeting, and stated he would have voted in favor of the appeal; that regarding section 2 of the resolution, in particular #2 of Section 2: "The decision is an erroneous interpretation of the law, after allowing for such deference as is due the construction of a law by a local jurisdiction with expertise" he stated that he feels this comes down to legislative intent; and Study Session Meeting Minutes: 09 -16 -08 Page 1 of 4 Approved by Council: 10 -14 -08 said keeping in mind the preponderance of paperwork from the Hearing Examiner, Council should not feel intimidated going against that opinion; and that he feels in this case, the Hearing Examiner did not know what Council was talking about concerning the criteria for rezone. Councilmember Taylor said that he reviewed previous minutes and most of the discussions hinged around how far from an arterial, but not much discussion about change in environment; and questioned if that was the intent by Council to have broad language next to specific criteria, and added that there were no contentious issues discussed back then, and he feels therefore that the intent was that the language was broadly based and aligned with other jurisdictions, that by being compliant with the comp plan, it says it meets that particular criteria, and he said he is uncertain if that matters at this point; but repeated Council should not be afraid to overturn the Hearing Examiner decision when necessary; and added that he would have preferred to wait on this matter until there was opportunity to have a full council vote. Vote by Acclamation to adopt Resolution 08 -020 (which affirms the Hearing Examiner's opinion): Councilmembers Schimmels, Gothmann, and Dempsey. Opposed: Deputy Mayor Denenny, and Councilmembers Taylor and Wilhite. Abstentions: None. Motion resulted in a tie vote; consequently, motion failed. City Attorney Connelly clarified that this means the appeals have failed; thus the moving parties lose; and the record will show the motion did not pass due to a three to three tie vote. 2. Argonne /Indiana Road Traffic Issues — Neil Kersten/Inga Note Public Works Director Kersten explained that at the June 3 meeting, traffic concerns were discussed and Council asked for follow up information on the Argonne /Indiana road concerns. Senior Traffic Engineer Note went over the highlights of the September 16 Request for Council Action, including collision data, comments from affected business, which was only from Marie Callender's Restaurant which was opposed to the median extension proposal; impact on travel times, U -turn movement at the Knox Traffic signal; modifications of signal timing, destination of left-turns on Indiana, signing for businesses, and evaluation of mitigation options, including a sign for "no left turn during peak hours "; extend the median and eliminate the northbound left; install a warning sign for left -turn traffic; modify the I -90 ramp signal; and modify Argonne /Knox traffic signal; with staff's recommended best option of extending the median and eliminating the northbound left turn movement. Discussion ensued regarding the legality of U -turns; trying to access Marie Callender's via the backside; whether citizens obey or would obey signs and suggested verbiage for signs; and mention from Mr. Kersten that while other areas in town have accidents which are mostly due to driver error, accidents at this intersection are the same type of accident due to the condition of the street; as the southbound right lane continues to flow and make right turns on the freeway, as they turn the far lane is concealed, and as people move at fairly high speeds, the same T -bone type intersection accidents keep occurring. Ms. Note mentioned she could research sign verbiage such as "business access — Left Turn at Knox "; and Mr. Kersten even suggested having another independent traffic engineer take a second look at this intersection and have staff come back with further data. Councilmember Dempsey stated her preference for the $500 signage over spending the $47,000 for extending the median; Councilmember Wilhite said she preferred to leave the area as is; Councilmember Taylor said he realizes the intersection is dangerous and of the need to let people know how to navigate around it; Deputy Mayor Denenny said for $500 or $1,000 he would be inclined to try the signage such as "no left turn between stated hours;" and Councilmember Gothmann said he would like to see the median extended but with a sign about how to get to Marie Callender's; and Councilmember Schimmels said he would agree with the $1,000 signage. It was determined since it is not necessary for Council to approve sign verbiage, that staff will move forward with the necessary signs, and evaluate the situation again in a year. 3. Departmental Highlights & Work Program Presentations — Department Heads City Manager Mercier said that this is the portion of the budget development process where all department heads report on their department's highlights to undertake in the 2009 budget; that the 2009 draft budget has been provided for council consideration, and Mr. Mercier stated the Council's six goals Study Session Meeting Minutes: 09 -16 -08 Page 2 of 4 Approved by Council: 10 -14 -08 for the coming year, after which he introduced Police Chief VanLeuven who discussed the public safety highlights, followed by Administrative Analyst Koudelka who went over the Operations and Admin Services; then Finance Director Thompson's part was the finance side of operations and admin; followed by Parks & Recreation Director Stone explaining his department's highlights. Councilmember Schimmels asked Mr. Stone about a master signing plan for such things as park rules and hours, reservations, and alcohol policy, and Mr. Stone said they are working on acquiring permanent standardized signs. As part of her explanation, Community Development Director McClung mentioned that her department managers are working to have control over their staff's budget as they create an administrative division; and Public Works Director Kersten gave his department highlights including the $30 million in capital projects for next year, which he stated is by far the biggest year with the most aggressive schedule. Deputy Mayor Denenny asked about the County's sewer budget, and Mr. Kersten said he would have to research that figure, but added that the amount will be higher this year as they bring the Ponderosa area on line, as that area is harder to sewer due to slopes and heavy rock. In response to question about the adequacy of the stormwater funding, Mr. Kersten said it is likely adequate at this point, but staff will learn more as they move into these programs, that they will need to update the facilities as they don't meet standards; and said that over half of the drywells will need to be upgraded, adding that our fees for stormwater are the lowest in the state. Mr. Mercier mentioned that there are approximately 14,000 stormwater structures and at our current cleaning pace, we will not even get close to cleaning all structures, and said we might want to re -visit the work done a few years ago on the six -year schedule and perhaps look at other options to see if we can pick up the maintenance pace. 4. General Budget Discussion — Dave Mercier City Manager Mercier brought attention to the yellow budget page inserts, and mentioned that any figure change in one page generally affects a number of pages' calculations; and that several typographical errors were also corrected. He explained some of the major changes including updating the figures based on Council enacting the 6% utility tax on phone usage; page 25 street fund which previously showed a fund balance of $700,000 and now shows an increase to about $3.9 million, and added that figure doesn't account for the payback of the two loans; and the other major change was to account for the increased allocation for outside agencies. There ensued brief discussion about the two loans, the street fund, the winter reserve and comment from Mr. Mercier concerning the concept that all funding for street maintenance or repair should be accounted for in the street fund rather than the general fund; and if we continued subsidizing the street fund without ever repaying, such would jeopardize the general fund likely by the year 2013. 5. Classification Database Administrator Position — John Whitehead Human Resources Manager Whitehead explained that the classification for the database administrator was placed on the salary matrix some time ago, and the attached materials define that position, placing it at grade 15. After Mr. Whitehead explained some of the duties of the position, there was mention by Mr. Mercier that a budget allocation for this position was made in 2008; and that with adoption of the OBM 87 Cost Allocation Plan, there is an accounting process to identify how centralized costs can be allocated under various departments and /or funded by state or federal programs; and that staff continues to look at opportunities to recapture costs. There was Council consensus to bring this resolution back for Council consideration on the September 23, 2008 Consent Agenda. 6. Pilot Flex - time Program Proposal — John Whitehead Human Resources Manager Whitehead explained some of the highlights of the proposed pilot flex -time program, including flexible schedule options of four, ten -hour days; 9/80's; and shadow schedule; and stressed that this would be a pilot program for non - represented employees, adding that flex schedules can achieve multiple benefits without incurring additional expense, such as reducing energy consumption, and can result in increased employee satisfaction thus increased employee retention and higher productivity; stressing that the city work remains the priority and not the employee schedule; and said the goal is to ensure the services will not be hampered in any way, and City Hall hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00 Study Session Meeting Minutes: 09 -16 -08 Page 3 of 4 Approved by Council: 10 -14 -08 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. would not change. There was Council consensus to place this resolution on the September 23 regular agenda for council consideration. 7. Advance Agenda Additions — Deputy Mayor Denenny Councilmember Gothmann asked if Council could direct City Manager Mercier to report to Council on ways to partner with the Sheriff's Office on their store -front opening at the mall, which is a cost of approximately $4,000 a year. Mr. Mercier responded that administration does take its direction from Council, and said we recognize the Sheriff Office's as the law enforcement elected across the county who has the opportunity to initiate experimental practices as deemed appropriate; and suggested it might be wise for this community to observe these for some time to determine after a while what interaction we may want to make; and after an observation period, to then make some judgments if council wants to embrace that and formalize the notion of a satellite office; and said he feels perhaps it would be premature to look for an early report as that office is not yet populated; that he is not sure that usage is stabilized so that we know who the occupants will be over the next five, six or seven months. Councilmember Gothmann said we need to go to the Sheriff's Office and ask how we can assist him, and to do that, we need to create a dialogue, that this is a city -wide problem and other cities have similar centers with more direct access where people can walk in without having to go through a metal detector; and is a place where people are, including seniors who are concerned about safety as they walk at the mail; and he feels this as an effort to reduce crime through partnering, and he wants to be a good partner to reduce crime in the community. Deputy Mayor Denenny said this is the first he has heard of this and would like time to consider it further. Councilmember Taylor said that a proper partnership would be the Sheriff's Office coming into the City and Council ahead of time to ask how to work this into the overall law enforcement plan, instead of stating that they are opening this in our City and would like some funding for it; that he feels this needs to be examined, and said the Sheriff's Office can work outside their contract area as a pilot project, but added that treading over jurisdictional boundaries doesn't create good partnerships, and that he can pick out other neighborhoods that have more significant issues with crime then at the mall; that this would be a good discussion for the future, and should be directed through the City management and the police chief. Councilmember Schimmels also suggested monitoring this for the next ninety days and reviewing this issue the first of next year. Councilmember Gothmann suggested that "we as a Council need to meet before we start negotiating a new contract with the sheriff." 8. Council Check — in — Deputy Mayor Denenny Councilmember Taylor mentioned in regard to the recent appeal, that there remains the outstanding issue of that particular criteria which was used to deny the application for a rezone, and he feels that needs to be revisited as soon as possible, or we would have significant issues in implementing the comp plan. Attorney Connelly said he plans to bring that issue back and will discuss this matter with Community Development Director McClung concerning scheduling that item. Councilmember Taylor stressed that the sooner this is addressed the better as he doesn't believe that was the legislative intent of council. 9. City Manager Comments — Dave Mercier Mr. Mercier stated he had no comments. As there was no Executive Session, Deputy Mayor Denenny adjourned the meeting at 7:40 p.m. Christine Bainbridge, ty Clerk Study Session Meeting Minutes: 09 -16 -08 Approved by Council: 10 -14 -08 ick Denenny, Deputy Mayor Page 4 of 4