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.
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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.
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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...
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Festival Results
Total economic impact :
$ 4, 664, 400 . 00
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