Loading...
2019, 03-05 Study Session MINUTES SPOKANE VALLEY COUNCIL MEETING STUDY SESSION Spokane Valley City Hall Council Chambers Spokane Valley, Washington March 5, 2019 Attendance: Councilmembers Staff Rod Higgins, Mayor Mark Calhoun, City Manager Pam Haley, Deputy Mayor John Hohman, Deputy City Manager Brandi Peetz, Councilmember Cary Driskell, City Attorney Linda Thompson, Councilmember Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Ben Wick, Councilmember Mike Stone, Parks & Rec Director Sam Wood, Councilmember Chelsie Taylor, Finance Director Arne Woodard, Councilmember Bill Helbig, City Engineer John Pietro,Administrative Analyst Jenny Nickerson, Building Official Patty Bischoff, Administrative Assistant John Whitehead,Human Resources Manager 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. APPROVAL OF AGENDA:It was moved by Deputy Mayor Haley, seconded and unanimously agreed to approve the agenda. 1.Northwest Winterfest 2019—Mike Stone Parks & Recreation Director Stone explained that the City has been asked to consider allowing Mirabeau Meadows to host a new public event entitled "NW Winterfest 2019." Mr. Stone said that this event would provide a tourism opportunity, but it will also require taking Mirabeau Meadows out of use by the public for over two and a half months, from the end of October to about the middle of January,which includes the time for set up and take down; and Mr. Stone introduced Ms. Charity Doyl and Mr. Sam Song. Mr. Song mentioned his new handout with information of the results of the Chinese Lantern Festival,which he said exceeded their projection of 50,000 attendees by 60%; and that the overall economic impact of that year's festival was over $4 million. After Mr. Song went through his PowerPoint presentation, there was discussion about some of the logistics of the event such as parking,and Mr. Stone said that the parking area would mostly be taken up by the event activities,but that he could speak to the owners of Pinecroft Business park which is adjacent to CenterPlace,and that we could also work with the Mall to discuss shuttling people to and from the event. There was also some discussion about the displays with Mr. Song explaining that there would only be two interactive tunnels. The fee to attend was also mentioned and Mr. Song said that he wants to keep it affordable and would like to break even for the first year; and if all goes well,he would like it to be an annual event. Mr-. Calhoun added that there is no City money budgeted for this event and if we think we would incur any costs, we would return to Council; that if Council approves of this moving forward, staff will work toward developing a contract, being careful of what costs the City might incur, such as maybe snow removal. In response to Councilmember Thompson's question if there would be any competing events at the same time, Mr. Stone said there would not be; said this time of year would present a minimal impact to Parks; that he wants the City to be supportive but not financially; adding that he has Council Study Session:03-05-19 Page 1 of 3 Approved by Council:03-26-19 worked with Mr. Song for many years and has great confidence in him, and that the Chinese Lantern Festival in Spokane was very successful. There was full Council consensus to move forward and have the City Manager finalize a contract with NW Winterfest. 2. Arts Council Agreement—Cary Driskell City Attorney Driskell gave a brief history of the City of Spokane Valley and the Spokane Valley Arts Council's past interactions and as a means to establish better communication between the Arts Council and our City, explained that staff has proposed entering into a contract so that both parties would have a clear understanding of the mutual expectations. Mr. Driskell noted that in a few weeks, Dr. Harken will be coming to talk to Council about some art pieces for Council's consideration; he said the Arts Council understands that having them come to our Council in March does not give them a competitive advantage over other agencies that would participate in our outside agency process,and that this is more from a budget standpoint to let them know if Council would or would not want a particular piece; that we want this to be successful for the City and for the Arts Council, and said the contract can be amended in the future as needed. There was Council consensus to bring this forward for a motion consideration at the next meeting. 3. 2018 Accomplishments Report—Mark Calhoun City Manager Calhoun explained that this annual report makes for an impressive summary of Council and staff accomplishments throughout the year; said there are times when the same project is referred to by various departments as there is a lot of cross-over between departments with 93 employees. Mr. Calhoun went through the administrative section of the presentation, which included highlighting the 2018 Council goals and some of the associated projects, such as the major grade separation project for Barker and for Pines;the Barker Corridor project;and improvements of the Appleway trail and the various parks,including the acquisition of the new Myrna Park; he noted the number of regional committees Council is involved with, including four in-house committees; noted Council held 53 meetings last year and passed eleven resolutions and 27 ordinances; and noted some of the figures associated with the work of the City Clerk's Office. Next Mr.Pietro went over the Contract Administration slide which includes brief information about our contracts with Spokane County, the new Solid Waste Contract, and mention of the successful 2018 Justice Assistant Grant(JAG); followed by Mr. Whitehead discussing the Human Resources Department; City Attorney Driskell explaining the accomplishments for his office;then Finance Director Taylor giving the highlights of Finance and IT. Deputy City Manager Hohman, City Engineer Helbig, and Building Official Nickerson briefed Council on the accomplishments of the Capital Improvement Program which. includes transportation planning,street preservation,design and construction projects;they also highlighted the areas of traffic operations,stormwater utility, street maintenance,economic development, and building and planning which included mention of various major projects such as Katerra,the Central Business Park, Duluth Trading Company, and the multi-family project of Winter Heights; and ended with data concerning code enforcement. Parks and Recreation Director Stone discussed the various divisions in his department including Administration,CenterPlace, Recreation and Aquatics, and the Senior Center; followed by Chief Werner giving a brief re-cap of accomplishments in the patrol division, traffic unit, investigations, crime prevention,recruitment, and the Valley Precinct building. 4. Advance Agenda—Mayor Higgins Councilmember Wick mentioned that the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) is working to get support from Cities an an affordable housing bill that offers participating cities a sales tax rebate; and noticed among the cities listed as being in support, there are no cities from the Spokane Region. Councilmember Woodard said he would like to know what the legislation includes, and Mr. Calhoun said if there is Council concurrence, staff can look into that legislation; and Councilmembers concurred. 5. Public Works Project Monthly Report This was for information only and was not discussed or reported. Council Study Session:03-05-19 Page 2 of 3 Approved by Council:03-26-19 7. City Manager Comments—Mark Calhoun Mr. Calhoun mentioned that Senator Padden requested we send a letter requesting$2.3 million in funding for the construction phase of WSDOT's Barker/I-90 Interchange Project, specifically for the round-about to be located off the westbound ramp; said WSDOT has actually contracted with our city for the design of that; again mentioned this is a DOT project and Senator Padden is very interested in seeing this through and has requested we draft a Ietter requesting the funding, and that we plan to do that; he added that we are also working with our lobbyist in Olympia; and that this will likely ultimately be a letter signed by Mayor Higgins; so if there is Council approval, staff will draft the letter for the Mayor's signature, and will also send a copy to each Councilmember. Council agreed. Mr. Calhoun also reminded everyone of the Mayor's State of the City address, March 22 at CenterPlace, at 11:30 a.m. with registration for this through the Chamber, and he extended thanks to the Spokane Valley Chamber for organizing the event. 6. Council Check-in—Mayor Higgins Councilmember Woodard mentioned the upcoming public hearing for Thursday concerning the Community Development Block Grant(CDBG); said initially we were recommended for$358,000 for our top priority project of Ella Road sidewalk, but there were some math errors and there are actually more funds,so there is now another$259,453 to allocate; said we put in for three projects, and unfortunately our $395,000 project now no longer qualifies for CDBG funding consideration as we missed it by .24%; said he'll find out Thursday night who will doing the calculating for the census track, either HUD or the County, but said that something changed making that project no longer eligible for funding; said he will be pushing for the#2 project of Conklin Road sidewalk of$75,611; said by his calculations there are about$15,000 to $30,000 additional funds that could be allocated to projects by people who ask for more; but other than that, said he believes the rest will go unallocated; and said he will try to find out whether those will be carried forward to the next year,based on whether they are County pay back funds,or HUD funds; and said this is an example of why he supports forwarding more than one project for these grants. Councilmember Thompson congratulated Multi-care Hospital for getting a five-star rating; and said she wanted to give notice that she will miss next week's Council meeting as she will be in Washington, D.C. next week attending the National League of Cities meeting. It was moved by Deputy Mayor Haley, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 7:54 p.m. I /I ATT ST L.R. Hi';;, or ?"✓—/71 hristine Bainbridge, City Clerk Council Study Session:03-05-19 Page 3 of 3 Approved by Council:03-26-19 Festival More than 80,000 attended the Washington State Chinese Lantern Festival, exceeding our projection of 50,000 attendees by 60% ! 15 Spokane area hotels realized 840 trackable rooms generated by this year's festival . In addition, hotels sold 1,882 additional tickets. The overall economic impact of this year's festival was... WASHINGTON STATE Crr ENITtP64 SI . . a..SPOKANE� • vawNrtcsr, " / p Festival Results Total economic impact : $ 4, 664, 400 . 00 LAtilTtRAI FESnvk�