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2017, 07-18 Study Session MINUTES SPOKANE VALLEY COUNCIL MEETING STUDY SESSION Spokane Valley City Hall Council Chambers Spokane Valley, Washington July 18, 2017 Attendance: Councilmembers Staff Rob Higgins, Mayor Mark Calhoun, City Manager- Arne Woodard, Deputy Mayor John Hohman, Deputy City Manager Caleb Collier, Councilmember Caty Driskell, City Attorney Pam Haley, Councilmember Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Mike Munch,Councilmember Mark Werner, Police Chief Ed Pace, Councilmember Mike Stone, Parks &Recreation Director Sam Wood, Councilmember Chelsie Taylor, Finance Director Adam Jackson,Engineer Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Mayor Higgins called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: City Clerk Bainbridge called the roll; all Councilmembers were present. 1.Legislative Update—Briahna Murray of Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs City Manager Calhoun introduced Ms. Briahna Murray of Gordon Thomas Honeywell Governmental Affairs, who he explained,will give a Legislative update. Ms. Murray explained that she is providing this update now as the legislature is still in session;that they are in their third special session which is the Iongest in state history; and that it is scheduled to end July 20. With the aid of her PowerPoint presentation, Ms. Murray explained that there have several very controversial issues during the legislative period, from the McCleary school-funding case to the Hirst case involving water rights,which she said leads to no surprise that the legislators did not finish their work in the 105 days; said they passed an operating budget but there is still no agreement on a capital budget,and the First Supreme Court decision on the Hirst case could have them coming back on Thursday on those items(McCleary and Hirst); and if there is no agreement,she said there could be a fourth special session later this year.Ms. Murray mentioned several things the Legislature accomplished, as shown on slide #3. Ms. Murray explained that in 2018, everyone in the state will see a property tax increase, and in 2019 the local levy will be capped. She mentioned the overall school levy in the Central Valley School District in 2018 will increase to $4.20 per $1,000 assessed value; which will decrease to $2.46 in 2019; she said this issue was heavily negotiated as we all realize that when property taxes move up or down, so do property values. Concerning the capital budget, Ms. Murray said the House passed a capital budget but the Senate has yet to do so, but if it passes, Spokane Valley stands to benefit, and she mentioned the $1.5 million allocated to Spokane Valley for the Barker Road Grade Separation Project as well as the Trail amenities. Ms. Murray also went over state shared revenues and that the House proposed cut would have cost our City$570,000. Ms.Murray mentioned other impacts the 2017 session will have on cities;said that the 5G Deployment and Small Cell Network Facilities was not successful but we are likely to see this again in the future, and that the AWC(Association of Washington cities)is encouraging cities to adopt their own legislation within the next few months. City Attorney Driskell agreed and said that we would rather have our own ordinance in effect instead of being told how to develop those regulations, and said he and Deputy City Attorney Lamb are working on that and should have something for Council to consider this fall. For legislation concerning abandoned/foreclosed homes, Ms. Murray explained that a Supreme Court decision passed immediately prior to the legislative session that financial institutions can't have access to the property, or can't enter the Council Study Session:07-18-2017 Page 1 of 4 Approved by Council:08-08-2017 homes until the foreclosure is complete;and said those institutions will need some kind of a remedy so they can have access,particularly if properties are abandoned;said progress is being made to provide cities with significant tools but they didn't finish, and there was disagreement on the financial institutions having no liability on the homes; she said the stakeholder groups, which included consumer advocates, financial institutions, and cities, could not reach agreement; so she expects this will come back again for further negotiations in the fall. In response to Councilmember Collier's request for information about the creation of port districts,Ms. Murray said that House Bill 1347 was introduced but did not pass, although it made it a fair amount of way through before not passing; she said it would have allowed a county with no port district, to create a county-wide port district via a ballot initiative. 2. Traffic Signal Operations—John Hohman Deputy City Manager Hohman introduced Senior Traffic Engineer Ray Wright; and Mr. Ken Heale, SRTMC (Spokane Regional Transportation Management Center) Manager with the Washington State Department of Transportation. Mr. Hohman said tonight's information is in follow-up to the June 13 workshop as well as the Washington State Department of Transportation(WSDOT)presentation on round- abouts a few months ago; said tonight we will look at traffic signals and some of what goes into the capital purchase as well as the operations, maintenance and powering the signal throughout its lifetime; said Ile would like to delve into discussions about moving forward with future funding needs for the street fund as we will need some revenues to replace the declining phone tax,and will need to look at expenditures to see if we can reduce those as much as possible in order to determine if we can gain any efficiencies. After Mr. Wright explained how many traffic signals we have, how many are maintained by the County and how many maintained by the State; and the number of intersection lights, rapid flashing beacons, and school zone flashing beacons;Mr.Heale went over the types of intersection detections,such as loops,video, and radar; said that there is only one video and that is on Trent and.Argonne and it is very limited in its capability as if it is raining hard or foggy, it doesn't work; he said that radar is the newest and has the best success as it works in all weather, is less invasive and more reliable. Mr. Hohman noted that we do not handle maintenance but we have contracted with Spokane County as well as WSDOT for those services. After Mr. Hohman briefly went over the budget actuals as well as the 2018 proposed budget, Councilmember Munch asked about a cost comparison on switching the lights to LED, and Mr. Hohman said he would gather that information. Mr. Hohrnan also discussed Intelligent Transportation System(ITS) and having all systems communicate to make traffic flow better; said we had implemented our own server but it wasn't communicating with other servers and he said we received many complaints about the corridors not being in synch; said staff has been working on a short and a long term plan to rectify this situation and it requires changing some software; he said staff is working on the best solution for the travelling public so the signals will continue to permit smooth traffic flow. Mr. Hohman said that he plans to bring this topic to Council again next month to discuss participation in the SRTMC;and in the meantime, Mr. Heale and the County maintenance staff will be working to set the controllers, at our expense, and develop an overall ITS plan; said we want to connect all signals but will determine what we can afford,and also establish performance measures to make sure we keep up with maintenance issues; and said all these issues will be brought forward to Council again. 3. Potential Transportation Grants--Adam Jackson Planning and Grants Engineer Jackson went over the information in his Request for Council Action form concerning applying for fora possible grants, adding that the applications are due in November.There was some brief discussion about the individual projects and of the idea of prioritizing those; and Mr. Hohman mentioned about getting into more detailed work concerning pavement management again, and of the criteria for doing a thinner overlay in order to keep the pavement preserved as long as possible.Mr.Hohman said this item will be brought back to Council for a motion consideration next week. Council Study Session:07-18-2017 Page 2 of 4 Approved by Council:08-08-2017 4. Review of Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) Council Goals--Chelsie Taylor After Finance Director Taylor went over the history of the Committee including the rules governing the lodging tax and the current Council goals and priorities, the following are the suggested changes to the goals: Deputy Mayor Woodard suggested a new #7: that no amount can be awarded more than the amount requested by the applicant. Councilmembers nodded in agreement. Councilmember Pace suggested on #4, that the only measure of whether a project or event gets funding, should be based on the number of heads in beds as reported by the hotels. Ms. Taylor reminded Council that not all hotels track the reason for their hotel guests, so it could be a problem getting that information. Councilmember Munch said that with new projects, there could be a delay of as much as a year before we could get accurate numbers; and Councilmember Haley said she talked to some hoteliers and they told her they don't ask people why they come into town. Deputy Mayor Woodard said those submitting the grant usually have a method of tracking their event and that the burden shouldn't rest solely on the hotels, although he said he agrees with the emphasis on the"heads in beds;"and mentioned that Visit Spokane was requesting legislators to change the taxes to be spread by gross dollar amount of restaurants, retail, etc.,for visitor type dollars, but that has never been passed; adding that no one else is paying to help pay for the granting our City does. Mr. Calhoun explained that the application process requires applicants to estimate the number of hotel nights they'll generate, and by the end of February the following year, they report to us and we report it to the Joint Legislative Review Committee; said they are estimates by the applicant and they are on an honor system. There was discussion about changing the verbiage to goal #4, including a suggestion from Councilmember Pace to strike the second part of that goal; and Mayor Higgins suggested taking out the word "however" and beginning a new sentence with "Council will also." City Manager Calhoun said staff will go with that suggestion and when this comes back for a motion, Council can make the final determination on the verbiage then. Councilmember Wood added a final suggestion to add for the second part of the goal,"in a lesser degree."Mr. Calhoun said staff will work on the verbiage between now and the next time this comes up for Council vote, and that Council will be able to vote on final verbiage at that time. Concerning goal #5, Councilmember Pace suggested removing this since the Committee doesn't take the goal into consideration,as Visit Spokane and the Spokane Sports Commission receive a significant amount every year. Council concurred. Councilmember Collier asked about directing our lobbyist to try to remove some of the current law's provisions,and Mr. Calhoun explained that would likely be an uphill battle as we would be fighting the entire hotel industry; said the legislature was Iobbied very heavily by the hoteliers; adding that the Lodging Tax Committee may or may not follow these goals, and Council is limited to a line-item veto. Ms. Taylor concluded by explaining the development of the 2018 budget in setting aside specific funds for lodging tax, including those funds set aside for CenterPlace marketing. 5. Safe Exchange Zones--Cary Driskell, Chief Werner City Attorney Driskell explained that a"safe exchange zone" is an arca where members of the community could safely engage in private commercial transactions, such as buying something off Craigslist, and picking up the item in a safe, public area, and that the suggestion was to set aside parking spaces at the Police Precinct. Mr. Driskell explained that the Precinct is not staffed twenty-four hours a day; that the building has security cameras but they are not continuously monitored,that we do not want to create a false expectation that if something went awry,the police would immediately come out and provide assistance as that would not be the case; said he also assumes Council will not want to hire personnel to maintain that area, and that the Major Crimes Unit has reported that transactions going bad is not a significant issue in Spokane Valley, so we would be trying to create a solution for a problem that does not now exist; he said if people want to use the Precinct Building parking lot,they are likely safer places than others, but we don't want people to see it as a"safe"exchange zone.Chief Werner encouraged people who don't have any other Council Study Session:07-18-2017 Page 3 of Approved by Council:08-08-2017 alternatives to go ahead and use the parking lot as it would be better than some other places, but as mentioned by Mr. Driskell, said we cannot guarantee safety. Councilmember Wood said he got an e-mail from a citizen about this idea; said that he (Councilmember Wood) agrees we don't want to pay for extra personnel to do this, and he will let the citizen know that the area is available but will not be monitored. Chief Werner added that he occasionally gets calls from citizens asking this, and that they are told they can use the parking lot, but as mentioned, it is not monitored. 6. Term Limits—Cary Driskell City Attorney Driskell explained that there had been some interest from Council to hear information on what term limits means at the municipal level; said this is just for information only, and if there is any interest beyond that, to please let him know. After Mr. Driskell went through his PowerPoint presentation explaining about term limits, Councilmember Wood said he still favors term limits, but understands there is no desire for it by elected officials, so he won't push the topic further. 7.Advance Agenda—Mayor Higgins Deputy Mayor Woodard asked if it would be possible to get information on the ten largest cities in Washington to see the percentage they keep in their reserve budget, and if there were any surpluses in the last four years. Mr. Calhoun said he will look into that but he is not sure all cities do as we do, and that we make our budget very transparent and to his knowledge, there are only two cities in Washington that split out recurring and nonrecurring budgets, our city and his pervious city of Wenatchee. Deputy Mayor Woodard remarked about the recommended 15%we had heard about and that we reserve 50% with good reason, and Mr. Calhoun replied that 15% is grossly outdated guidance, and that he included some articles on that at the budget workshop; he said we base our figure on cash flow needs, adding that he will include those articles as well. Councilmember Munch asked about having the topic of interns within the next few weeks, and Mr. Calhoun said he will follow up with Councihnember Munch on that topic, as there might be a better alternative. 8. Council Check in—Mayor Higgins Councilmember Pace said although we have a no panhandling ordinance, he saw someone panhandling on Sullivan and Sprague, and shortly after that, a citizen contacted him to tell him of a noted increase in panhandling, and suggested that perhaps more enforcement is needed. City Attorney Driskell said that the police enforce the ordinance and when they make contact, they speak to the person to educate them about our solicitation provisions to make sure that the people know about not breaking the vertical plane of the edge of a prohibited roadway, and that there is no violation by just standing on the sidewalk. 9. City Manager Comments—Mark Calhoun Mr. Calhoun had no comments. 10. Executive Session: Pending Litigation It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn into executive session for approximately fifteen minutes to discuss pending litigation and that no action will be taken upon return to open session. Council adjourned into executive session at 7:53 p.m. At approximately 8:13 p.m., Mayor Higgins declared Council out of executive session, at which tin* it was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. KITE L.R. Hrggms, o r ,i.t.:r; 1r.1t$e/' —C4,.fiiii `—Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Council Study Session:07-18-2017 Page 4 of 4 Approved by Council:08-08-2017