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2014, 03-04 Study SessionMINUTES SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING STUDY SESSION FORMAT Spokane Valley City Hall Council Chambers Spokane Valley, Washington March 4, 2014 Attendance: Councilmembers Staff 6:00 p.m. Dean Grafos, Mayor Arne Woodard, Deputy Mayor Bill Bates, Councilmember Chuck Hafner, Councilmember Rod Higgins, Councilmember Ed Pace, Councilmember Ben Wick, Councilmember Mike Jackson, City Manager Cary Driskell, City Attorney Eric Guth, Public Works Director Mike Stone, Parks & Recreation Director Mark Calhoun, Finance Director Rick VanLeuven, Police Chief Chris Bainbridge, City Clerk Mayor Grafos called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: City Clerk Bainbridge called the roll; all Councilmembers were present. ACTION ITEM: 1. Decant Facility Phase 2 Bid Award — Eric Guth It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard and seconded to award the Spokane Valley Regional Decant Facility, Phase 2 Project to S &L Underground, Inc., in the amount of $841,619.53 and authorize the City Manager to finalize and execute the construction contract. Public Works Director Guth explained the history and background of the Decant Facility, as noted in his March 4, 2014 Request for Council Action form; he went over the bidding process and explained the difference between the September bid and the January bid; he explained the magnitude of cost savings and said that as part of the funding recommendation, he will be asking that $41,000 be added to our contribution from our APA fund. Mayor Grafos invited public comment; no comments were offered. Vote by Acclamation: In Favor: Unanimous. Opposed: None. Motion carried. NON - ACTION ITEMS: 2. Police Department 2013 Accomplishments Report — Rick VanLeuven Police Chief VanLeuven explained some of his Department's 2013 accomplishments, including their success with the Intelligence -Led Policing; mentioned the crime reduction unit and of the results of the Intelligence based emphasis conducted June through August; spoke of the Lethality Assessment Program, modeled after the program from Maryland, with the goal of preventing domestic violence homicides, serious injury, and re- assault by encouraging victims to use the support and shelter services of domestic violence programs; discussed the traffic unit and mentioned the two additional Drug Recognition Experts, and gave statistics on the number of DUI' s and the age of the offenders, and spoke of the positive results connected with our city's amended towing ordinance; he spoke about the traffic school and of the number of positive attributes of those classes; he reported on the success of the False Alarm Program; of our participation with State and Federal agencies focus on regional crime problems; and talked about crime prevention and of the Active Shooter Exercise. 3. Legislative Agenda Update — Mike Jackson Mr. Jackson said that Deputy Mayor Woodard and City Attorney Driskell spoke before our legislators in Olympia last week about our legislative agenda item proposing additional lien authority to recoup code Council Study Session 03 -04 -2014 Page 1 of 3 Approved by Council: 03 -11 -2014 enforcement costs. Deputy Mayor Woodard said that he testified last Thursday on this topic; said that Spokane County Treasurer Chase was also there and they had an opportunity to briefly discuss the bill; said that this is the second of twelve bills the Senate Operations Committee was examining; he said that Senator Pam Roach chairs that committee and he met her previously in January; he said she helped sponsor the bill for us and for Tacoma. Deputy Mayor Woodard said he was only permitted to speak for about a minute but they appeared to understand the situation; he said it was somewhat of an uphill battle during the testimony, and overall proved to be a frustrating day. City Attorney Driskell said the bill was discussed and had changed a little over the weeks and isn't identical in the senate and house, but that each would characterize these issues as a special assessment, which he said is a term that allows them to be collected through the County Treasurer if we had a contract to do that; he said the house passed it by a wide margin; but in the senate, it passed out of committee with a 4 -2 -1 vote, (the 1 vote was an abstention); and is now in the rules committee, and he said it must get their approval to move to the floor and that it must move by Friday or the bill would be dead. Mr. Driskell explained that during discussion at the committee level, he was asked if he thought it appropriate to put a cap on how much could be included, or if all that is appropriate is to include it as a special assessment and have special higher priority, which he said would be the more critical part because then it couldn't be included in a bankruptcy. Mr. Driskell said the discussion about a cap passed out of the rules committee without including the cap; but that Ms. Taylor tells us it might be necessary to include that cap if we want to move it further. Mr. Driskell said they felt a $5,000 cap would be appropriate; that we have done several of these abatements in the past and only had one that cost more than that; he said he feels strongly that we should consider the $5,000 cap as it goes a long way to address these concerns and gives us tools to help deal with these situations. Deputy Mayor Woodard said the priority seems to be the biggest problem for the community bankers as they seem to be the only ones opposed to the legislation, as they don't want anyone to have the opportunity to collect money before the banks do, which Deputy Mayor Woodard said, seems greedy. He said these properties reduce property values, and he hopes this new cap will go through. Mr. Driskell explained that we are trying to have the same authority the County currently has; that this is about cities being self - sufficient and having the ability to recover funds already spent, as well as have the people who create these problems be responsible for paying to correct the problem. Mr. Jackson stated that the cap is in response to the bankers' protest; that we don't know when the rules committee met, and he asked Ms. Taylor that if it comes to the rules, to proceed and offer the cap, which was discussed at $5,000. Mr. Jackson reported that Ms. Taylor also mentioned the issue of restoring liquor funds to cities, and the idea is to work on restoring those funds and then work on gaining some of the marijuana revenues. 4. Advance Agenda — Mayor Grafos Councilmember Wick asked about the next TIGER grants and Mr. Guth said they are tracking that to see what it might take to put in an application; he said they are considering perhaps applying for those funds for the Barker overpass and Pines underpass, but are working to evaluate their best strategic application; he said WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation) has some large projects that will be competing for those funds as well, and said he will bring back an update if we determine to proceed with that grant application. 5. Council Comments — Mayor Grafos Councilmember Bates said that he and Councilmember Hafner attended the annual SCOPE retreat last Saturday and their concentration this year is working on programs that will attract younger people. Mayor Grafos reported that he met with County Commissioner O'Quinn about solid waste, and that the topic was discussed at a regional meeting last Thursday, as well as at the Council of Governments meeting last Friday. Mayor Grafos also mentioned he went to the library last Saturday for the Dr. Seuss birthday celebration. Council Study Session 03 -04 -2014 Page 2 of 3 Approved by Council: 03 -11 -2014 6. City Manager Comments — Mike Jackson City Manager Jackson said there were several meetings last week regarding solid waste; and that last Monday our Council met with the Commissioners and reviewed a draft interlocal agreement; he said it was reported that cities that are going to prepare their own plan need to let the County know by the end of March; and said he proposes bringing back material on this topic at next week's council meeting to discuss various options, the interlocal agreement, and a potential solid waste plan and about what we would like to see in an agreement; he said he anticipates we will move quickly and possibly come back for a vote; he said staff has been working on all options, that it would be good to begin those discussions and he suggested having this on next week's agenda. Councilmembers concurred. There being no further business, it was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m. ATTEST: Kristine Bainbridge, ity Clerk Council Study Session 03 -04 -2014 Page 3 of 3 Approved by Council: 03 -11 -2014