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2017, 08-22 Special Legislative Mtg MINUTES City of Spokane Valley Council Meeting Special Legislative Meeting Tuesday, August 22, 2017 3:00 p.m. City of Spokane Valley City Hall, Second Floor Conference Room 11707 E. Sprague Ave., Spokane Valley, Washington Attendance: Spokane Valley Council Staff Mayor Higgins Mark Calhoun, City Manager Deputy Mayor Woodard John Hohman, Deputy City Manager Councilmember Collier Cary Driskell, City Attorney Councilmember Haley Chelsie Taylor, Finance Director Councilmember Munch[arrived 3:15] Hemy Allen, Senior Engineer Councilmember Pace Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Councilmember Wood Legislators:Senator Mike Padden, Representative Bob McCaslin;Ms. Janet Voye, Legislative Assistant to Senator Padden; and Ms. Whitney Marshall, Legislative Assistant to Representative Matt Shea[arrived about 3:20] Others in Attendance: Lobbyist Chelsea Hager Two members from the public Mayor Higgins called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. City Clerk Bainbridge called the roll; all Councilmembers were present except Councilmember Munch. It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to excuse Councilmember Munch. Ms. Hager explained that today's meeting is in follow-up to Ms. Briahna Murray's last legislative session update in order to give our legislators an opportunity to speak about the 2017 legislative session. Senator Padden said he appreciates the support regarding the Hirst decision and its many facets such as the problems of not being able to develop new farm worker housing; said there is a lender in Moses Lake that stopped loaning in areas that need wells; said the Senate passed a capital budget in the regular session,but the House chose at that time not to do anything about it; said the Senate wants to make sure the bill gets signed before they take up the capital budget. Senator Padden said that at the end of the third special session on July 20, Senate bill 5239[ensuring that water is available to support development]was over in the House, and there was a recommended amendment that would have been very acceptable to everyone and the votes were there to pass that, however, the votes were never taken because the Speaker of the House kept the democrats in caucus the whole day and they never came out and just ran the clock out. Senator Padden said the Governor is going around the state talking about various items in the capital budget; he said the Governor is the only one who can call this back to session, but he hasn't chosen to do that, and he added that the legislature can call itself back into session with a 2/3rd vote, and at this point,the House democrats are the only group that haven't taken a position on Hirst, adding that this is vitally important for citizens to be able to develop their own property and not to be penalized because they need a well on it; he said that Special Council Meeting, State Legislators 08/22/2017 Page 1 of 4 Approved by Council: 09-12-2017 the position the Senate took is the same position that the Department of Ecology took going into the lawsuit; said this wasn't a radical position but was the position the way the state had been doing things where if you had a well you had 5,000 gallons exempt; he mentioned our aquifer, and said that water is there today as much as there was 70 years ago despite all the development in the valley in the last 70 years. Senator Padden said that as far as the capital budget,there is money for the HUB campaign; all the work they did with the Appleway Trail amenities on the first leg of that; and some other things that are good for our area, and that there is a little bit of money for the Honor Point Military museum,which is technically in the third district but is surrounded by the fourth district. He mentioned that there are a lot of people in the valley who use Felts Field; said there is also some state funding for Mt. Spokane for a maintenance facility. Senator Padden mentioned Senate Bill 5005 on the water rights and said they had several meetings about;said the lobbyists did a good job this last session; and some of that legislation was advanced. He explained that this was one of those situations where there was a bill, it didn't pass,but they were still able to accomplish some things; said the bill was passed out of some of the committees, but they worked with the Department of Ecology, Attorney Joe Carroll,and others and the net result was there will be some more water rights for some of the purveyors. Senator Padden said he has also been working for several years on the DUI felony bill which finally went through and was signed by the Governor so we won't have the weakest DUI felony law in the country;said the Senate amended House Bill 1614, a bill he said he sponsored,which is a bill for forensic phlebotomy; said a current bottleneck on the DUI prosecution, especially with the marijuana DUI's, is a blood test is needed; and in order to get a blood test there is quite a delay,and now they have to be done at the hospitals, and the hospitals don't like doing them because they are non-medical blood tests. [Councilmember Munch arrived.] Senator Padden said this is part of 1614 that got signed and it streamlines some of the requirements to have a forensic phlebotomist; said they could be drug recognition experts; he said some municipalities have already instituted that process; and said he feels it would be great for Spokane Valley City Police to have their drug recognition experts also trained as forensic phlebotomists; adding that there is a possibility of some funding from the Traffic Safety Commission. He mentioned that there were some laws passed against retail theft; that they presented the property rights bill on eminent domain, which passed through the Senate and died in the house; said there was also a bill that extends the statute of limitations for attempted murder, which currently is only three years compared with fraud that has a six year statute of limitation. He said we had our major legislation for reform of the Department of Corrections, an investigation was held by some former federal prosecutors, and a lot of recommendations came out as a result; said they worked those out with the Democrats and with both the Senate and the House and it was all set to go but the Governor lobbied the Speaker and the bill never made it; which he said was disappointing and that it could happen again, and one of the major problems was how they treated whistleblowers; he said he will continue to push that. Senator Padden said a bill that did pass was a bill dealing with human trafficking,and that the bill takes away from the defense that the suspect could state he thought the person was over eighteen; and increases some of the penalties for child pornography. Mayor Higgins added that it is his understanding that about a quarter of Felts Field is in Spokane Valley,and City Attorney Driskell said that some of the hangars and businesses on the southeast end of it are in the City of Spokane Valley,which represents a few city blocks.Mayor Higgins mentioned that Lany Krauter,Airport Director said he would like to come talk to us about the airport plans. Mayor Higgins also mentioned that he heard a report on the radio from the Spokane City Council talking about a resolution in support of the Hirst legislation, and asked Senator Padden if he felt it might be helpful for our Council to do likewise. Senator Padden said he thinks such a resolution would be helpful, and City Manager Calhoun and Mayor Higgins said they could broach that subject during a council meeting. Representative McCaslin said that he, Representative Shea and Senator Padden all voted against the operating budget, which was a $5 billion increase in spending; said that since 2003 we have doubled the size of our state budget; said he is constantly being told by teachers that of course they need to have 52% of the state budget,and it's about time they did;said he hasn't found any study that can say that just because Special Council Meeting,State Legislators 08/22/2017 Page 2 of 4 Approved by Council: 09-12-2017 we have invested all this money that the outcomes are better; said we have a graduation rate in the 70% area yet we have great school districts like West Valley with a 97% graduation rate; said when he was a teacher and in the teacher's union, he was told that teachers didn't get paid enough, but said that he knew they were getting paid quite a bit more than other professions because teaching is a recession-proof profession; you continue to go up the salary schedule simply because of the time one puts in; he said we now start teachers at$40,000 and cap that at$90,000,and school districts still have the freedom to pay their teachers more based on the cost of living; said he thinks they came up with a good compromise on levies so that on a per pupil model,the amount of money being spent on each kid in our state is fairly even all the way across the state; so we just have to get the word out that teaching is a great profession. Mr. McCaslin said the cost of living in our area is fairly low and the quality of living is fairly high; and that this Council has a great part in that and starting a business here is easier than doing so in downtown Spokane. He explained that with the teacher shortage there was a bill that he thinks will help tremendously, bill 1654, which he said passed unanimously in both the house and the senate, and said that it expands opportunities for people to obtain a teaching certificate through some of the more nontraditional ways, like someone becoming a shop teacher who had been a home builder for a long time; and said there will be money in place for those people to get their teaching certificate easier than those who had gone the traditional route; and it will be easier since they won't have to pay the high college tuition fees, and he feels this will invigorate the teaching profession. Representative McCaslin also mentioned the school siting bill which had great support; and when it went to the Governor's desk,the Governor called all the people involved in the bill and said there were some serious problems; said those problems for the Governor were that they wanted to help people in Thurston County, but not so much on the east side of the state; said he and others involved in the bill were asked some serious questions by the Governor, and gave answers to those questions,yet the governor vetoed part of the bill that would have helped Eastern Washington; said it went through the whole process again with a different bill number and it finally passed; so now Central Valley School District can use the land for the high school up on Saltese Flats, and they wouldn't have been able to do that without that bill. Concerning the importance of the Hirst decision,Representative McCaslin said that we currently have between 12,000 and 15,000 condominiums ready to be built in Seattle with no limits on how much water they can use;yet they want to restrict some person who has had property in their family in some cases for fifty years; and some of these properties already have wells drilled, yet if they want to give that land so their kids and grandchildren can have houses on that,they can't do that because they can't get a construction loan; because no bank would loan construction money if there is no use of the well. He also stated that early learning is a really important issue;there is a record number of child cares in our state who are going out of business all because of the Department of Early Learning; said we have a different culture here than in the Puget Sound, and there's a different understanding of what government's role is, and in this case,the Department of Early Learning has been using some selected worst case scenario people who of course, should have been put out of business; said there are people who don't want to buy-in with everything the Department of Early Learning wants; and it's their way or people get targeted; said the Department of Early Learning is now taking over Children's Administration and Juvenile Justice; but to have such a new,small agency as the Department of Early Learning try to take over those other two entities represents a huge challenge. Senator Padden mentioned that all three legislators worked pretty hard to get that $1.5 million in the transportation budget for the Barker Road Grade Separation; said he thought he read something where the City then took some money out that they were going to spend on Barker Road.Mr.Calhoun said that wasn't the case;that we even added some money. Senator Padden also mentioned that he talked to a business man about our industrial park at 100% capacity; and he commended Council and the staff for their hard work and getting those revised figures;and he also commended the County for extending the sewer and working together. Mayor Higgins noted we intend to be applying for other grants for help with the infrastructure; and Senator Padden mentioned that is the largest industrial park between here and Minneapolis. Ms. Hager also extended thanks to Senator Padden for his efforts and his amendment to enable us to get that $1.5 million for the grade separation;and to Representative Shea's amendment in the House,and the amendment Special Council Meeting, State Legislators 08/22/2017 Page 3 of 4 Approved by Council: 09-12-2017 that was ultimately included in the final budget. Mayor Higgins extended thanks to Senator Padden and Representative McCaslin for all they do. Senator Padden mentioned the new flashing stop light at 8th and McDonald and he extended thanks from their neighborhood; he asked about the timeline to finish the landscape on the Appleway Trail and Mr. Calhoun explained that we are holding off to do plantings for a while, and it will likely take place in September. Senator Padden also asked about the move to the new City Hall and City Manager Calhoun noted we will be out of our current by September 30. Senator Padden extended thanked for having the law and justice meeting at the new city hall Oct 24. It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m. NW 1 wilicp110. ATT T L.R.Higgins, ' . or istine Bainbridge, ity Clerk Special Council Meeting, State Legislators 08/22/2017 Page 4 of 4 Approved by Council:09-12-2017