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2014, 08-26 Regular Meeting MINUTES City of Spokane Valley City Council Regular Meeting Formal Meeting Format Tuesday,August 26,2014 Mayor Grafos called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. Attendance: City Staff: Dean Grafos,Mayor Mike Jackson,City Manager Arne Woodard,Deputy Mayor Cary Driskell, City Attorney Bill Bates, Councilmember Mark Calhoun,Deputy City Manager Chuck Hafner,Councilmember John Hohman,Community Development Dir. Rod Higgins, Councilmember Mike Stone,Parks&Rec Director Ed Pace, Councilmember Eric Guth,Public Works Director Ben Wick,Councilmember Sean Messner, Senior Traffic Engineer Micki Harnois,Planner Rick VanLeuven,Police Chief Carolbelle Branch, Public Information Officer Chris Bainbridge,City Clerk INVOCATION: Pastor Don Jutila of Valley Fourth Memorial Church gave the invocation. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Council, Staff, and audience rose for the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: City Clerk Bainbridge called the roll;all Councilmembers were present. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to approve the agenda. INTRODUCTION OF SPECIAL GUESTS AND PRESENTATIONS: Introduction of Deputy City Manager—by City Manager Mike Jackson City Manager Jackson introduced newly hired Deputy City Manager Mark Calhoun; and after giving a brief history of Mr. Calhoun's work background,Mr. Calhoun was welcomed by all in attendance. COMMITTEE,BOARD,LIAISON SUMMARY REPORTS: Deputy Mayor Woodard and Councilmembers Bates and Hafner had no report. Councilmember Wick: said he will be traveling to Olympia this Friday for the AWC (Association of Washington Cities)Ad Hoc Rail Committee meeting. Councilmember Pace: said he attended a meeting with Cathy McMorris Rodgers at the Davenport, and that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke about how the government needs to catch up with industry with it comes to cost renovations; said he also attended the Spokane Valley Business Association meeting; and went to the Chamber of Commerce lunch at the Fairgrounds. Councilmember Higgins: said he attended the Solid Waste Advisory Committee meeting where the consultant for the County presented and solicited comments on a draft Plan. MAYOR'S REPORT: Proclamation:Diaper Need Awareness Week After Mayor Grafos read the Proclamation, Mr. Jessie Shelton, founder of Inland NW Baby, accepted the proclamation with thanks. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Mayor Grafos invited public comment; no comments were offered. Minutes Regular Council Meeting 08-26--2014 Page 1 of 5 Approved by Council:09-09-2014 1. CONSENT AGENDA: Consists of items considered routine which are approved as a group. Any member of Council may ask that an item be removed from the Consent Agenda to be considered separately. Proposed Motion:I move to approve the Consent Agenda. a. Approval of claim vouchers on Aug 26, 2014 Request for Council Action Form, Totaling $$987,184.71 b. Approval of Payroll for Pay Period Ending August 15,2014: $317,051.59 c. Approval of August 12,2014 Regular Formal Council Meeting Minutes It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to approve the Consent Agenda. NEW BUSINESS: 2. First Reading Proposed Ordinance 14-010 Amending Setbacks-Micki Harnois After City Clerk Bainbridge read the ordinance title, it was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard and seconded to advance Ordinance 14-010, modifying the regulations regarding rear and side yard setbacks in the industrial zoning districts adjacent to residential zoning districts and uses, to a second reading. Planner Harnois went over the background of this citizen-initiated code text amendment, which is to reduce the side and rear yard setbacks within the industrial zones. She explained that with the assistance of the City's GIS Specialist Dan Neyman, as well as the assessor's tax code data and business license information, potentially impacted residences were located in the industrial zones, and she went over the information as shown on her PowerPoint slides, including how many residences were in the Yardley, Montgomery, and Flora industrial areas. Mayor Grafos invited public comment. Mr. John Renshaw, from Spokane encouraged Council's acceptance of the proposed recommendation. There were no additional public comments. Vote by Acclamation:In Favor: Unanimous. Opposed: None. Motion carried. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS: 3. Potential Projects for Public Facilities District—Mike Stone Parks and Recreation Director Stone said he was asked to determine if there might be CenterPlace projects to consider in a request for funding assistance from the Public Facilities District(PFD) as a result of the savings they will realize as a result of our re-financed 2003 LTGO bonds. Mr. Stone said the accompanying list is not in any order of priority, and his estimates are conservative; that he seeks Council's input and then Mr. Jackson will decide if some of these projects can move forward as he meets later with members of the PFD. Mr. Stone said that all the projects are located at CenterPlace since that was the focus of the previous bond issue. After Mr. Stone explained some of the projects in further detail, there was Council concurrence that their top priority was the sound system in the Great Room, followed by updating the sound system in room 109 and other rooms if funding is available; and it was noted that the amount of funding is at the discretion of the PFD. Mr. Jackson explained that the PFD does not have cash on hand, so the funding would be handled over time instead of a lump savings, and said the PFD's total savings as a result of our re-financing the bonds is estimated at$1.7 million. 4. Street Maintenance Contract—Eric Guth Public Works Director Guth explained that the current street and stormwater maintenance contract,which was originally signed in 2007 with seven annual extensions, expires at the end of this year, and staff will seek new bids, with a hopeful bid opening of September 18. Mr. Guth said his staff worked with our legal department, as well as a consultant to assist in the RFB (request for bids) packet; he said the intent was to take the service contract and make it fit within the state bidding laws, and said that significant changes have been made to the verbiage and bidding documents since that original bid package of 2007. Mr. Guth went over some of the highlights of what will be included in the new contract; said this is a public works program so we are governed by state regulations, which includes that contractors must pay Minutes Regular Council Meeting 08-26--2014 Page 2 of 5 Approved by Council:09-09-2014 prevailing wage as a minimum wage; said the labor rates, equipment and material rates must be fully loaded,and he explained that before we had hourly rates for labor,equipment and materials,and asked for overhead and profit margin,so it was a cost-plus style contract; now, he explained it will be a fully loaded rate which means no overhead and profit will be shown as a separate plus into the rate;that it will include all the positions for the subcontractors so we will know the rates even before the work starts, which will allow us to manage the contractor as well as the subcontractor. Regarding the term of the contract, Director Guth said they liked the one year with the possibility to extend an additional year, but felt eight years was too long, so they are starting annually with an extension of four years for a total of five years. Mr. Guth said before, the compensation was negotiated and the contractor could request an increase within sixty days of the end of the year, with a cap of CPI (consumer price index), but with the new contract, we didn't want to get into the negotiation aspect and felt it would serve better if we allowed an increase over the five year term for the prevailing wage, and/or the price of oil since that price fluctuates. Mr. Guth said we have also removed the snow removal portion of this contract and are looking at handling the snow removal with in-house forces along with hiring some temporary snowplow drivers. Mr. Guth said that the request for bid is a draft and that staff continues refining some aspects of the package. Mr. Guth said that the legal department has reviewed this and is comfortable this will keep us within the state bidding laws; and that we will be looking at the lowest responsible bidder while looking at the ability to do the work, as well as some other considerations bidders will need to meet in order to be responsive to this bid. Councilmember Higgins said he thought that September 18 is a narrow window; but Mr. Guth said the bid forms are basic, with the labor spelled out for most bidders that it must be prevailing wages or better; that the bidder will know their own overhead and profit as well as equipment rates; and regarding the materials, we will mostly get current pricing from current vendors; he said if they are putting together bids for any projects, a lot of these are normal requests, adding the process including the timeframe is similar to what we do for most of our projects, and that this was how we handled the Sullivan Bridge bid. Councilmember Bates said he assumes Mr. Guth has specific projects in mind with the total of $1,366,000; and Mr. Guth listed some of the basic projects that it will cover. Mayor Grafos said he thinks there was a lot of thought put into the process and appreciates the effort as it will save a lot of money. There were no objections to Mr. Guth bringing this back for a motion consideration at an upcoming meeting. 5. Thierman Traffic Analysis—Sean Messner Senior Traffic Engineer Sean Messner explained that during the June 3 Council meeting, Council requested a more detailed analysis of the Sprague/Thierman and Appleway/Thierman intersections, using the VISSIM traffic analysis software to detail the options of keeping the existing conditions, modifying the northbound lane to a shared through left-turn lane with no changes to Appleway/Thierman, and modifying the northbound approach to have dual left-turn lanes and a single through lane and reduce the southbound left-turn lane length at Appleway/Thierman. Via his PowerPoint presentation, Mr. Messner explained that the analyses reveal that the alternate lane configurations provide additional queue storage for the northbound left-turn traffic, but degrades the operations of both Sprague and Appleway-Thierman intersections; it showed that 36% of the crashes at the intersection were the result of left-turn crashes; and he suggested the installation of flashing yellow arrows for the northbound approach to help mitigate those accidents. He explained that this type of arrows are used in various places throughout our city to allow permissive and protective left-turns, and could improve the operations of the intersections. Mr. Messner explained that the approximate cost for this installation at Sprague/Thierman is $6,000, plus County and City staff time. The next best option, Mr. Messner explained, would be option #1 with an estimated cost of$14,000. Mr. Messner said that his previous opinion that all options increase a delay on Sprague by three to five second per vehicle, was confirmed with the VISSIM analysis and that average queues increased except Minutes Regular Council Meeting 08-26--2014 Page 3 of 5 Approved by Council:09-09-2014 for the northbound Thierman; also his previous opinion that based on current traffic counts, updated analyses and periodic monitoring, the option to keep the current operations with no changes was also confirmed with VISSIM and he said the current configuration and traffic signal timings provide acceptable levels of service. Mr. Messner said he also looked at the safety analysis which shows very few crashes, which he said is a dead give-away that operations must be good as traffic is high and if the operations were not good, there would be more crashes. Mr. Messner explained that left-turn crashes are one of the worst crashes and result in the most injury; he also noted that installation of dual left-turn lanes to replace a single left-turn lane would likely increase sideswipes as much as 41% based on national data, adding that the 2008-2013 data shows that there have been no sideswipe crashes. Mr. Messner explained that dual left-turn lanes from Thierman to Sprague would create trap lanes, which can also increase sideswipes and rear-end crashes; he said his recommendation is to maintain the existing lane configurations, but to replace the existing signal heads with flashing yellow arrows, which will improve safety and should improve operation as well. Mr. Messner said he conducted a twenty-four hour video surveillance and did not see any blocking issues. Councilmember Higgins said a concern was raised by a business owner about the corner, and perhaps the twenty-four hour sampling is not sufficient to address his problem. Mr. Messner said he didn't want to spend any more money to conduct further studies; said the analysis indicate that a dual lane will help the situation for the northbound, but would impact all other movements of the intersection. Mayor Grafos asked when the video was done and Mr. Messner replied that it was a twenty-four period on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Mayor Grafos said we do not know how many out-of-town people make that turn who are not familiar with the intersection, or were in the wrong lane and had to turn around further down the road,and he asked if the intent was to change the dual left turn lane to a single lane. Mr. Messner said that was not the intent as the comparison was going from a single to a dual. Mayor Grafos said he has seen people try to get into that one left turn lane and end up right next to a truck; said he feels it is a problem and would like a dual left turn off Thierman, which is option #1. Councilmember Hafner stated that it was just one person who started all this, and feels we need to do whichever option is best. Councilmember Bates said Mr. Messner's recommendation is to leave the configuration as it is; that this is the third report Council has heard on this and all recommendations seem to be the same; that a lot of time and effort have been spent on this and he said he wondered what changed since 2012; said he feels we don't have more traffic, there has been no increase in crashes, and he asked if we are getting complaints. Mr. Messner said he is not aware of any complaints. Councilmember Bates said he feels Council needs to take the recommendations of the experts and not waste any more time on this issue. Councilmember Hafner said he does not understand why Council is not seriously considering the safety factor of people in this community, and that to keep it the way it is now is far safer. Mr. Messner confirmed that the existing configuration is safer than the other options as the other options increase the chances of sideswipes. Deputy Mayor Woodard said he doesn't think Council would be voting for less safety; and said perhaps after a change we could discover that the dual option is wrong; adding that perhaps the software analysis is wrong; said he doesn't feel Council would be jeopardizing the public safety by using a dual arrow. Discussion turned to the expense of the options as shown on Mr. Messner's slides. Mr. Jackson said this issue is not slated for a motion tonight,but if there is Council consensus,the matter could come back as a motion to select one of the options. Deputy Mayor Woodard asked about having a trial period of perhaps ninety days to get statistical data; and Mr. Messner suggested such trial period should be at least a year. By a show of hands, those favoring to bring this back as a motion included Mayor Grafos, Deputy Mayor Woodard, and Councilmembers Pace and Higgins; those opposed to bringing the matter back as a motion included Councilmembers Hafner, Wick and Bates. The matter will be scheduled as a motion consideration for the September 9,2014 council meeting. Mayor Grafos called for a recess at 8:00 p.m.;he reconvened the meeting at 8:06 p.m. Minutes Regular Council Meeting 08-26--2014 Page 4 of 5 Approved by Council:09-09-2014 6. Goals and Priorities for Lodging Tax Advisory Committee(LTAC)—Mark Calhoun, Erik Lamb Deputy City Manager Calhoun briefed Council on the information contained in his Request for Council Action Form, which has a focus of the Council's goals and policies for the LTAC, and said he seeks Council consensus to bring these forward through the lodging tax award process. Councilmember Wick suggested removing #1 as it really isn't a goal, and Mr. Jackson noted that the list includes goals and policies and said Council could remove it, but in future years, Council might find they are having that discussion again. It was noted that the $30,000 set aside for CenterPlace, which is the subject of goal/policy #1, will be shown as a reduction in the total amount of funds available for the LTAC grant awards, as would the 5% allocation for funding new projects, activities and/or events. Councilmember Bates said he preferred that #1 goal/policy remain; Councilmember Wick said that information could be included in the information given to the committee, but said he doesn't feel it needs to be on the goals' document. There was Council consensus to have it removed from the list. 7. Advance Agenda Councilmember Wick asked about inviting the new GSI (Greater Spokane, Inc.) director to come to Council to discuss GSI's new direction; and Mr. Jackson suggested waiting until after their funding presentation September 2°1. Council concurred. Deputy Mayor Woodard asked about the situation on Carnahan and 8`h where someone keeps running through a fence, and Mr. Jackson said he will have staff research that issue. INFORMATION ONLY The (8) Radio Car Club; and (9) Department Reports were for information only and were not reported or discussed. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS. Mr. Jackson said that he and Mr. Guth, along with Councilmember Wick will be attending Friday's AWC Rail Meeting; and mentioned that the Mayor will be hosting Patty-Murray's assistant for a transportation meeting; and noted the upcoming September 9 Department of Ecology meeting concerning rail oil transportation. 10. EXECUTIVE SESSION: [RCW 42.30.110(1)(g)1 Review the Performance of a Public Employee It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn into Executive Session for approximately sixty minutes to review the performance of a public employee, and that no action would be taken upon return to open session. Council adjourned into Executive Session at 8:19 p.m. Mayor Grafos declared Council out of Executive Session at 9:45 p.m., after which it was immediately moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. AT Ed. can Grafos, Mayo LII Christine Bainbri.ge,City Cler Minutes Regular Council Meeting 08-26--2014 Page 5 of 5 Approved by Council:09-09-2014 GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT SIGN-IN SHEET SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING August 26, 2014 GENERAL CITIZEN COMMENTS YOUR SPEAKING TIME WILL GENERALLY BE LIMITED TO THREE MINUTE: Please sign in if you wish to make public comments. 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