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2019, 06-11 Special Budget WorkshopAttendance: Councilmembers MINUTES SPOKANE VALLEY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING BUDGET WORKSHOP Spokane Valley City Hall Council Chambers Spokane Valley, Washington June 11, 2019 Staff Rod Higgins, Mayor Pam Haley, Deputy Mayor Brandi Peetz, Councilmember Linda Thompson, Councilmember Ben Wick, Councilmember Sam Wood, Councilmember Arne Woodard, Councilmember Mark Calhoun, City Manager John Hohman, Deputy City Manager Cary Driskell, City Attorney Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Chelsie Taylor, Finance Director Mike Stone, Parks & Rec Director Mark Werner, Police Chief Bill Helbig, City Engineer Gloria Mantz, Engineering Manager John Whitehead, Human Resources Manager Morgan Koudelka, Sr. Admin. Analyst Jenny Nickerson, Building Official Mike Basinger, Economic Development Mgr. Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Mayor Higgins called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. WELCOME: Mayor Higgins welcomed everyone to the meeting. ROLL CALL: City Clerk Bainbridge called the roll; all Councilmembers were present. Worksheet Overview — Mark Calhoun, Chelsie Taylor City Manager Calhoun explained that the purpose of today's workshop is to discuss the 2020 budget. He noted the workshop is being recorded so it may be viewed later, but it will not be broadcast; and he encouraged Councilmembers to ask questions as they arise. He explained that the budget reflects the City's priorities in terms of budget commitment and staff effort, and stresses the priorities of public safety, pavement preservation, transportation and infrastructure, which he said includes parks and recreation and various capital projects, and economic development, and that we will focus on those combined items throughout the meeting. Mr. Calhoun expressed appreciation to Finance Director Taylor and the directors and support staff for pulling these materials together and said he hopes everyone will find this first budget presentation helpful. Mr. Calhoun said that there will be changes as we move forward but the changes will not be material; said the revenue estimates are reflective that we are only four to five months into this year, and said the revenue estimates show the general fund trends. Mr. Calhoun noted that the state revenues in the general fund will be updated about mid to late July, and he briefly explained the contents of today's budget packet including Tab 23 for an executive session, which he said should only take about 20 minutes. City Manager Calhoun noted that Tab 22 includes the Business Plan and said that budget companion document is for informational purposes, and it will not be discussed today. Mr. Calhoun stated that this time last year we were in one of the longest economic expansions, but that with each passing day we are one day closer to the next recession; that the 2020 general fund recurring expenditures show a 2.3% increase over 2019 and reflect what will allow the City to deliver a status quo level of service. However, he continued, Tab 14 includes supplemental budget requests which could increase the recurring expenditures; he noted the CPI (consumer price index) for Pacific cities average 2.9% and we are about 2.23% in the budget, and that each year we have been able to do better than the CPI as we very responsibly manage our Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 1 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 budget. He mentioned there is variation in individual departments due to department operations, and some changes are a result of a change in staff, and said we can come to Council in future study sessions if needed to follow up on any of these items. Finance Director Taylor gave a brief overview of the pages immediately prior to Tab 1, including the proposed 2020 budget calendar which shows among other dates, the November 12 proposed adoption of the 2020 budget; she mentioned General Fund #001 recurring revenues and expenditures and the ending unrestricted fund balance of $36,203,666, and explained that the ending fund balance as a percent of recurring expenditures equals 84.48%; she went over the General Fund Department Changes from 2019 to 2020 for items such as wages, supplies, and services and charges, which includes a summary by category. Director Taylor noted the property tax figure does not include the construction estimate, and Mr. Calhoun added that this budget is being prepared without a 1% property tax increase, and if that holds true to the adoption of the budget, this will be the eleventh time our City has not taken the 1% increase allowed by law for property tax. Ms. Taylor explained that the updated figures on the state shared revenues should be coming out soon, as well as estimates from MRSC (Municipal Research and Services Center), and that the recurring expenditures will be explained as the day progresses. Director Taylor noted that the street fund summary shows estimated 2020 revenues of $3.9 million, which is about $94,000 less than the previous year, and said it is primarily related to the utility tax which appears to be declining less rapidly, but is still declining. She also mentioned that at this point last year the deficit was about $907,000; today's figures show a negative $506,000 if there are no changes. Mr. Calhoun said we will need to talk about expenditure reduction since as can't make revenues greater, and how we might go about developing the 2020 street fund budget. Director Taylor noted that the last page prior to Tab 1 shows a ten-year history of our full-time equivalent employees (FTE); and that for 2020, some employees have been reallocated but the number did not increase. Tab 1: City Council Mr. Calhoun noted the total Council budget increase of 1.6%; said the nonpayroll portion decreased by 2% and one of the biggest change was the federal lobbyist reduction of $10,000; he explained that we usually see the biggest changes during an election year as medical coverage can change depending on selected family coverage. After going over some of the major items under City council general fund, Mr. Calhoun noted that the figures are generally status quo from the previous year. There was brief discussion about monitoring of legislative issues and of the benefit of having a resource in Olympia for that purpose. Tab 2: City Manager Mr. Calhoun stated that overall this budget increased 2.65%, although the nonpayroll portion of the budget did not change nor did the number of FTEs; said one of the larger items is the $20,000 for professional services, which he said he often uses for other departments; and noted that the legal notices include publication in the Valley News Herald and the Exchange. Tab 3: City Attorney City Attorney Driskell briefly explained the purpose of his office, and said that his department is also status quo from the previous year, with 3.5 FTEs, which includes a half-time code compliance attorney and two interns; said his budget often uses funds for outside counsel to help on items where we might not have expertise, and said that any funds not used are returned to the general fund. Mr. Calhoun said that statement applies to all budgets; if funds are unexpended they return to the general fund, fund balance as we do not have a 'use it or lose it' philosophy. There was a question from Councilrnember Wick about buying new office chairs upon moving to this building, and Mr. Driskell said that office chair in the budget is to replace a chair we got 14 years ago; said some staff elected not to get new furniture if we didn't need it. Mr. Hohman added that prior to the move, we conducted an inventory and assessment on which chairs to bring over, and said that staff was very careful not to increase the budget by buying new materials if current materials and supplies were still functional. Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 2 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 Tab 4: Public Safety Mr. Koudelka explained that this budget is mostly comprised of our Spokane County contracts for public safety; he said this budget is more challenging in that we can't tell County directors how to budget, but we do try to control costs, and in some cases we try to negotiate, and we always try to do the best we can to determine costs for the year. Mr. Koudelka said the centerpiece of this budget is the law enforcement contract at $21 million. Mr. Koudelka said that we are facing a staffing shortage and are trying to maximize the number of officers on the street; said Council previously saw a presentation about possible state funding as a result of the Trueblood* settlement, which could mean funding for mental health professionals as part of a co -response team, thereby reducing police officer overtime. Regarding officer vacancies, he stated that we want to make sure we are only charged for positions that are filled. Chief Werner added that overtime is an issue they are trying to control although training sometimes necessitates overtime; said they are identifying how many people do we need at these tests to get to the number of people we need to hire; and said that the pre -academy is still moving forward. There was some discussion on a co -response team and our hope to have one dedicated mental health professional on such a team, and Chief Werner mentioned that we currently do not have the staff to pursue that. The topic of officer uniforms was brought up and Chief Werner acknowledged buying uniforms is a large expense; he said the County has agreed to assist with a clothing allowance over the first two to three years once the officer has successfully passed their probationary period. It was also mentioned that it is not known if the funding for co -response teams would be long-term funding, but the goal is to have a successful model. There was brief discussion about recruitment efforts with Chief Werner explaining that their best recruitment is often from their own employees. Concerning the actual costs over the last few years under non -departmental, Mr. Koudelka noted the overall number of cases going to court has decreased for various reasons; mentioned the largest portion of supplies falls under the JAG grant; noted the $500,000 need for the contingency as a few items remain unsettled; said the law enforcement cost methodology is still new and they are trying to make some corrections regarding overtime where they hope to see additional savings; said SCRAPS is a fixed 20 -year contract and that organization is having some difficulty as they don't have sufficient revenues. Mr. Koudelka mentioned the intergovernmental services is where we have our contracts like District Court, which increased 11%, some of which was due to an error that the County discovered when auditing, that apparently some deputies were not properly logged in so some valley costs were being charged to the County, although it appears those figures are leveling off. Mr. Koudelka said that we just received word that Spokane is pulling out from Emergency Management so there have been discussions about what that means to the remaining jurisdictions as the County might be passing some additional costs to other jurisdictions. Tab 5: Deputy City Manager Mr. Hohman said this is mainly a status quo budget; said he worked to refine some of the figures for office supplies, small tools and minor equipment; he noted that the software item and maintenance isn't just for him; and said Q -Alert is in this budget, which was a little higher last year due to start-up costs. Tab 6: Finance & Information Technology Finance Director Taylor gave a brief explanation of what her department does, mentioned they have 11.75 FTEs, and said the budget is very much status quo from the previous year, with just .09% decrease. Tab 7: General Government Finance Director Taylor explained that anything city-wide not attributable to any single department falls under the General Government; that it includes a lot of the general IT (Information Technology) expenditures for hard and software; and mentioned the $3.3 million total recurring expenditure which is about .03% less than the previous year's budget. Councilmember Wick mentioned that there are some council areas on the third floor that don't have power yet, and Mr. Calhoun said he will make that sure that happens in the near future. Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 3 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 Tab 8: Human Resources Human Resources Manager Whitehead went over the highlights of his budget information; said the budget is mostly status quo with a decrease in supply costs as the employee identification access cards were ordered in bulk so we don't need to do that annually; said training includes first aid and CPR, and this year AED (automated external defibrillator) will be included; he mentioned that he likes to use the training services of AWC (Association of Washington Cities) and/or WCIA (Washington Cities Insurance Authority) as those costs are reasonable as those agencies have an interest in keeping our liability down; said the professional services item covers things like offers to employees like a field person who would need a physical. A recess was called at 9:58 a.m., and the meeting reconvened at 10:15 a.m. Tab 9: City Hall Operations & Maintenance Building Official Nickerson gave a summary of this budget, noting it too is mostly status quo, with some increases in supplies and professional services. Tab 10: Community & Public Works — Building & Planning Building Official Nickerson explained that the Building and Planning division includes 20 FTEs with several new team members hired over the year; and she gave the highlights of the areas of code enforcement, building, and planning. Councilmember Wick asked if overtime is a concern and Ms. Nickerson explained that those figures are due to staff vacancies and not an ongoing trend, and said now that this division is fully staffed, overtime should not be a concern other than the end of the year. Tab 11: Community & Public Works - Engineering City Engineer Helbig said that the shaded area is general engineering, and the non -shaded area is development review engineering; he explained a little about what they do, and said the biggest changes were reallocating people to where they actually serve; after going over the number of FTEs in each area, he noted that there is no change in FTEs to the city; said the supplies budget shows an increase due to reallocation of vehicle maintenance supplies in general and in development engineering; said professional services also increased but the budget is generally status quo; and mentioned that the added staff this year has proven to be very beneficial. Tab 12: Community & Public Works — Economic Development Mr. Basinger said this budget is mostly status quo; that memberships and registrations are a little more accurate; and he highlighted what the department does with its five FTEs. Tab 13: Parks & Recreation Parks & Recreation Director Stone explained what his department does; said he has 9 FTEs and is currently down two: an office assistant and a senior center specialist; said overall his budget increased 2.23% but also it is primarily status quo; and noted that the minimum wage increases have affected the budget. Mr. Stone said that CenterPlace is open seven days a week and in some cases, can be open from eighteen to twenty hours a day due to the variety of events. In going through the various divisions, Mr. Stone noted that as they embark on the master park process, they want to look at re -purposing the horse arena area; said they anticipate a grant for Balfour Park; they have a park maintenance contract with Senske, and a contract with the YMCA to manage the city's pools. Mr. Stone noted his department processes about 450 park reservations a year; said they also handle the City's special event permit process which includes things like Valleyfest. Mr. Stone noted the maintenance contract includes Appleway and Centennial Trail; the dog park, and the gateway area, and said water is the largest utility cost. Under recreation, Mr. Stone noted an organizational change as they do not intend to fill the senior specialist position; and said the Senior Center is under the recreation budget. Mr. Calhoun added that they are not removing support from the Senior Center, as this is just an internal reorganization and an opportunity to take advantage of not needing 40 hours a week for the Senior Center. Councilmember Wick asked about having a separate budget for the Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 4 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 senior center versus putting it all under recreation, and Finance Director Taylor replied that splitting it allows us to segregate expenditures related to the Senior Center. Mr. Calhoun said that having the separate budget is not a substantial amount of effort, but we could look at that in the future. For the recreation budget, Mr. Stone noted the temporary seasonal wages of his ten to fifteen seasonal staff who manage the summer day camp, free park programs, new teen camp and other programs. For the aquatics division, Mr. Stone said there are no staff as we contract with the YMCA for the pools maintenance and operations, and said without the YMCA, we could not offer the free outdoor swims; said we pay a small administrative fee and the rest we pay the Y based on actual expenses. Councilmember Thompson asked if we are running out of scholarships and Mr. Stone said we are not; said we partner with the Spokane Parks Foundation as they reimburse for 100% of those who qualify and apply. Mr. Stone said the Senior Center is a small budget and that he will look where they might best fit that in in future years. Mr. Calhoun noted that the Senior Specialist shifted to a recreation specialist and a portion of what that position does will be in the senior center. Mr. Stone said he will have a newly hired office assistant at CenterPlace starting next Monday. At CenterPlace, Mr. Stone noted there are two maintenance workers who do primarily all the setups and maintenance; said there were over 1,000 events at CenterPlace last year and noted we have the ability to rent the Senior Facility after 4 pm and on weekends, and having the lounge makes it a very popular place to rent. Mr. Stone noted that the cost of linens has increased; said this service was started a few years ago and is gaining in popularity; said he hopes to replace some of the Center's inventory as the chairs and banquet tables are showing wear and tear. He mentioned the RFQ (request for qualifications) process for janitorial services this spring and that there has been no increase over the last five years, so this increase is modest. Mr. Stone stated that CenterPlace is now 15 years old and they try very hard to maintain it and keep it looking as good as possible but it is starting to show its age. Deputy Mayor Haley asked if staff feels it is still valuable to continue advertising in the Hagadone Black Book as the books are getting smaller, and Mr. Stone said staff needs to look at that to see where we might get the most for our advertising dollars. Councilmember Wood asked about getting swings for Edgeclift Park and Mr. Calhoun mentioned there is funding in the 2020 budget. Tab 14: Supplemental Budget Requests City Manager Calhoun said that Council has heard a lot today about departments staying with the status quo level of service, but each year we include a section for consideration for supplemental budget requests in addition to what has been done historically. Finance Director Taylor gave an overview of the supplemental requests, followed by a more detailed explanation by each department/division for each request as noted on the documents included in the packet. Following Mr. Basinger's explanation of the retail recruitment contract request, Councilmember Wick suggested continuing retail recruitment more as an ongoing expense. Mr. Hohman said that it would be prudent to incorporate that in the next year's budget, and Mr. Calhoun agreed. Under the Building & Planning Department, Mr. Calhoun noted the justification for an additional code enforcement officer and said if this request is approved, we envision our half-time attorney moving to a full-time position; and if we don't get the additional code enforcement officer, then we won't need the other half-time attorney. Building Official Nickerson stated that fuel and supplies could be shared for the two code enforcement officers; that a new officer would help not only with the older cases but also with new cases, like people working in the right-of-way without a permit; said when we dropped to one code enforcement officer, we saw calls drop, but now calls have increased to a similar level when we had two officers. There was some discussion about vehicle use with Mr. Hohman noting that we would acquire a new vehicle for that new person, and the other older vehicle would continue as a pool vehicle, and Mr. Calhoun stated that we have a replacement fund for all vehicles. Councilmember Thompson asked about additional budget funds for cameras for building security. Ms. Nickerson said there are no security cameras in this building, although there has been some discussion about having them in CenterPlace, and said staff is examining ways to better use our existing security. Mr. Calhoun mentioned that Deputy Johnson came through City Hall and had some suggested security changes, one of which will be incorporated immediately, Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 5 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 that of keeping the upstairs doors locked at all times. Councilmember Thompson asked to get some ID badges since many Councilmembers only have a plain white card and Mr. Calhoun asked Councilmembers to bring in the cards and said we will get a photo printed for the cards. As Parks & Recreation Director Stone went through requests for his department, the discussion focused on the request to repair the CenterPlace roof leaks, which led to mention of possibly appropriating more in the 2019 budget to get the entire roof addressed during the dry season instead of waiting until next fall. Mr. Calhoun said staff will follow up on this issue and report again to Council, noting it is important to maintain the facility and that we have the general fund reserves that could make this happen. Director Taylor brought attention to the CenterPlace West Lawn summary page where it appears we are paying out $2 million, but noted that figure doesn't show the transfer in. Councilmember Thompson expressed her concern with having a special event beer garden so close to the playground and suggested moving the farmers market once the west lawn is completed. Concerning the past debates of funding the west lawn all at once or by phases, Mr. Calhoun noted phasing can be expensive and inefficient and he asked for Council's input. Concerning farmers market, Councilmember Woodard said he heard from several handicapped people who like having the event on the hard surface; noted we will also have to prepare Balfour in the next couple of years, but he suggested Council strongly consider getting the west lawn completed and agreed phasing will hinder a lot of things. Deputy Mayor Haley agreed and said she too is for finishing the west lawn and not doing it in phases. Concerning the snowplow replacement, Deputy City Manager Hohman explained that we were on a program to have this in the 2019 budget, but we deferred that to complete the consultant review of maintenance activities; said he feels this is the time to get a new vehicle; we had a program for replacement every three years and we want to maintain that three-year cycle. Councilmember Woodard said he is in full support of replacing a snowplow, not adding another. Mr. Calhoun said that we had the funds in 2019 budget but didn't make that purchase, so the one scheduled for 2019 would be moved to 2020, and then the next would be in 2022; said we have ten trucks and two in reserve and are not increasing the number of that fleet. Mr. Hohman said when it comes time to make the purchase, staff will check to see if any of the local dealers would be able to beat the state price. When Councilmember Thompson asked what happens to the oldest vehicle, Mr. Hohman said once we don't need them any more for parts or otherwise, we auction them off or dispose of them otherwise. There was further discussion about having an additional mental health officer (co -response team) and Mr. Calhoun said that will be built into the conversation as a place holder at the August 20 Council meeting so he can get a sense if we could get that through the grant funding, or should use other funding mechanisms like a general fund expenditure. Mr. Calhoun noted that all of the supplemental requests will be before Council again when Council sees the 2020 budget; but if anyone is opposed to any request, he'd like to hear about that now. There were no opposing comments. Tab 16: Stormwater Fund At Mr. Calhoun's suggestion, it was decided to move to Tab 16 and skip Tab 15 until after lunch. City Engineer Helbig explained the functions associated with stormwater; said there are two FTEs within the stormwater fund and noted the increase in labor/wages was more of a reallocation of some staff; said they have taken on a lot more facilities including the public facilities on the public rights-of-way; mentioned they were very successful in obtaining grants but that grants have corresponding costs; said an update to the comprehensive stormwater master plan hasn't been done in many years and they will start in 2020 to hire a consultant to help update that plan. Mr. Hohman added that stormwater fees haven't changed since incorporation and that will also be reviewed. Finance Director Taylor mentioned that as seen in the summary for fund 402, over the years there have been shrinking recurring revenues, which suggests inadequate revenues to cover our costs. Mr. Hohman noted the street sweeping contract also has not increased over the years and we don't have enough funds to sweep the entire city. The meeting recessed at 11:45 a.m. for lunch. The meeting reconvened at 12:18 p.m. Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 6 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 Tab 15: Street Operations & Maintenance Fund Deputy City Manager Hohman said this department has 7.475 FTEs and includes three components: street, snow, and bridges; said some of the increases and decreases are due to wages, and he summarized the figures. Mr. Helbig mentioned the reports Council has heard from Nichols Consulting Engineers (NCE) about pavement management and that we are switching vendors this year for the scanning and management system; said there were associated decreases in the budget for 2020 as costs go down, but there are other areas where costs increase. Concerning bridges, Finance Director Taylor said there has been some fairly recent development in splitting out those costs as we do more work on the bridges, so those costs are still being refined. Concerning the waste disposal services and charges, Mr. Hohman said more items are being dumped in the right-of-way which increases costs; said the street maintenance contract increased as it has not seen an increase for several years; mentioned this is the final optional year for the Poe Contract so staff will be putting that out for bid shortly. There was brief discussion about employees with Mr. Hohman explaining that the individuals are only in the street fund during snow plow operations and as noted on the top of the page in the yellow highlights, the snow plow wages as well as the snow plow temp/seasonal wages were increased for 2020. Councilmember Thompson asked how do we handle a situation where a utility company does repair and the repair isn't adequate, and Mr. Hohman explained that Mr. Scott Wallace, the City's right-of-way inspector, is fully dedicated to reviewing street cuts and rights-of-way and that he has a reputation for being the a tough inspector; said he tries to be there on the larger patches so he can verify the work; said he and the utility companies get together twice a year with a discussion facilitated through Avista; also there is a five-year warranty on each of the patches and when Mr. Wallace conducts the final inspection, if there is any deviation from the utility policy, the work must be re -done. Mr. Hohman continued giving the highlights of the funds, and reminded Council of last year's evaluation of street and stormwater maintenance programs by LA Consultants and said it might be a good time to look further info that now; he mentioned for sign maintenance, the County has a sign shop but staff can research to see if there are other viable options. Councilmember Thompson asked if wayfinding signs are in the budget and Mr. Hohman said they are not, as that item is currently on the pending agenda; said Council had a report on that topic several years ago and that staff will look for a time to bring that forward. Mr. Calhoun mentioned that in looking at the street fund #101 summary document prior to Tab #1, that we just looked at the line item expenditures and expenditures are greater than revenues by over $1 million; said we will have to address that as we move through the 2020 budget process; said that last year Council agreed to take a portion of the reserve, $907,000 to prop up the street fund for another year; he said we need additional revenues of $1.244 million or in the alternative, need to reduce expenditures by that amount, or some combination; said we do not need to solve that issue today but we do need to discuss it at some point. Mayor Higgins agreed we need to solve the bigger longer term problem. Mr. Calhoun also noted that the street operation and maintenance is one part and that pavement preservation is the other piece; he said next week Council will hear an administrative report on pavement preservation with a staff recommendation that Council consider appointing an ad hoc committee with the ultimate goal of having a recommendation later this fall as a determination needs to be made on what condition does Council and the community want to see for our roads: good, fair, or poor, and to try to come to conclusions on pavement preservation. Mr. Hohman explained that the idea for an ad hoc committee came up as a way to generate more public information at community meetings. Councilmember Peetz said it is difficult for her to implement a tax and feels we should use the reserve and then talk about a more permanent income source later. Mr. Calhoun said that proposal is what Council did last year. There was mention of the waste management contract and the use fee for the trucks, which would be part of the $5 million we spend on average every year. Mr. Hohman again referenced the Nicholas engineering evaluation and said the feeling is the ongoing budget of $10 million is required to keep the roads in their current condition, and just to maintain what we have at the current level, assuming we spend $5 million; he said we are going to scan the roads again this year and we learned with working with the consultants, they recommend a different scanning frequency of scanning 100% of the roads every three years; he said he doesn't think $1.5 million is enough to make a difference and we will continue with the degeneration of the Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 7 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 numbers if we stay with the $1.5 million. Mr. Helbig added that in working with the pavement management systems, the numbers are continually updated, so even with the amount of funds we have, there is still degeneration system -wide. Mr. Calhoun noted when we heard the Nichols report, we had split the information between residential and arterials, and the consultants zeroed in for pavement preservation at $5 million. Councilmember Woodard mentioned we have lost millions over the years in state shared revenues, which funds could have been put to pavement preservation. Mr. Hohman said as we are about to embark on an intense public participation process, if Council has no confidence in the figures generated, we need to know now and not go forward with that public process yet; said about a year and a half ago we separated the pavement preservation from the street fund issue, then Council said to combine them and come with a total picture, which staff did; that if Council wants to postpone pavement preservation a couple of years, we can keep an eye on that, but we still need to solve the street fund issue; and we need a solution for revenue or cut the street maintenance contract, and said that some clarity would be helpful. Councilmember Woodard said the issue is not necessarily a lack of confidence; that last year we approved that one-time payment, but said he would have a difficult time moving funds again and that we can't keep going on one- time solutions; said we have to have some influx of new money/taxes; that we are a growing city with a growing number of cars on the streets. Mr. Hohman reminded Council that they have options now since we are in a robust economy, but we need to look to the future and when we are in a recession, there won't be the option of using surplus funds. Deputy Mayor Haley said she is not opposed to an ad hoc committee and questioned if we should try to get input on the idea of a new tax; that if citizens want better roads without taxing, then there needs to be a means to determine how much citizens are willing to pay. Councilmember Wick said we had three different consultants come up with different numbers; so he too thinks a committee would be a good way to get community feedback. Mayor Higgins agreed and said he feels there is a need to educate the citizens on the issue, but not necessarily how to pay for that, as that is Council's purpose. Councilmember Thompson said she supports the idea of using reserves this year as well as the need to look at next year to do something to prevent roads from getting worse. Councilmember Peetz agreed with the idea of involving the public and that prevention and education are key pieces to this issue. Tab 17: General Fund — Fund Balance City Manager Calhoun briefly explained the math behind the six-month operating reserve, and that it is a cash flow issue; followed by further detailed explanation from Director Taylor concerning items to consider in setting the minimum fund balance. Tab 18: Potential & Pending Capital Projects City Manager Calhoun said this spreadsheet gives a sense of what we have accomplished and what is remaining to be accomplished, and between him and Ms. Taylor, they explained about the various projects, went through the information in the box in the left-hand side of the page, and asked for discussion of where Council might want to see that $3.9 million applied, adding that Council might want to consider these over time as we work toward the Sullivan Road project, and as Bigelow Gulch is completed. Discussion ensued about the CRISI Grant award and that we likely will need an additional $1.5 million to complete the design on Pines and acquire the needed right-of-way; about perhaps earmarking some funds as unallocated; the idea of keeping pressure on the Pines/Barker Road Corridor projects, the Balfour Project, taking care of CenterPlace, and the idea of purchasing come pieces of land for parks; that Pines is extremely important but we don't want to spend funds we don't have; and that ultimately this topic can be discussed further as we move through the budget development process. Mr. Calhoun said this might be a good discussion for August 20, and that we will need to talk more about the street fund as well. Tab 19: Fiscal Policies Mr. Calhoun explained that as we adopt our entire budget document, these are the fiscal policies important for the long-range fiscal strength of our City; he said that Moody's Corporation likes these fiscal policies and that we not only state them, but we live by them. Mr. Calhoun went through the policies, and Councilmembers had no suggested edits. Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 8 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 Tab 20: Council Goals 1. Work with state and federal legislators towards advancing the concepts outlined in the Bridging the Valley study including obtaining financial assistance for the Pines and Park Grade Separation Projects. After brief discussion, it was determined to add in Sullivan and have the projects listed in the following order: Pines, Sullivan and Park. 2. Continue to pursue a plan to sustain the City's Pavement Preservation Program to include sustained financing in Street Fund #101 and Pavement Preservation Fund #311. There were no suggested edits. 3. Pursue state and federal financial assistance to address transportation concerns along the entire Barker Corridor. There were no suggested edits. 4. Continue with and expand where possible, economic development efforts including the retention and expansion of existing businesses and recruitment of new businesses. There were no suggested edits. 5. Continue to foster relationships with federal, state, county and local legislators. Although initially there were no suggested edits, Councilmember Thompson said she isn't sure this is a budget goal, and she suggested adding something like `while continuing to foster relationships with... " to have that more of a working goal. Further, Councilmember Thompson suggested adding something like working hand-in-hand; said relationships are fostered already; mentioned she attended a local government meeting yesterday where there was an announcement about the Liberty Lake Barker Project with Senator Padden mentioning that the Department of Transportation would administer the funds as it was intended and Spokane Valley would pick up part of the portion not covered by the funds. Councilmember Thompson said she was taken aback by that as she didn't recall our City ever committing to cover any overruns from Liberty Lake's project. Deputy City Manager Hohman said staff can work to refine that goal's language, and he concurred that Council has not had that conversation about us picking up the overrun; he said staff will keep Council appraised if there are any changes with the Department of Transportation. Speaking to the goal, Councilmember Woodard added that those relationships are important for many reasons, such as knowing what projects people are working on as that information would be a direct benefit to citizens. Mr. Calhoun said some goals are budget related and some are not, but they are all goals to aspire towards. Councilmember Thompson suggested including a statement at the beginning that would cover all the goals, adding that she is ok with the way the goal is stated now. 6. Pursue financing for Browns Park, Balfour Park and Appleway Trail amenities, and continue acquisition of park land. Discussion included whether to keep Browns Park and/or add in other parks, and it was ultimately decided to remove Browns Park and leave the rest as stated. 7. Update the Bike and Pedestrian Masterplan to include connections between the Appleway Tail, Balfour Park, Dishman Hills and the Centennial Trail to create a continuous loop for users. There were no suggested edits. Mr. Calhoun asked if there were suggestions for other goals, and Councilmember Wick suggested adding something about community engagement and identifying that we are trying to get more community involvement; he mentioned the criminal justice system and to identify cost savings or that we are judiciously involved in that to keep costs under control, regardless of whether or not we support the jail. City Attorney Driskell said that he and Deputy City Attorney Lamb are currently on that jail task force so are participating in that issue. Councilmember Thompson said she likes that idea; said that since 67% of our budget goes to law enforcement and public safety, maybe add something about enhancing the opportunity to recruit, train Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 9 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019 and retain Spokane Valley Police officers and to provide growth opportunity for our officers to become leaders in the Police Department. Mayor Higgins reminded everyone that we have a contract with the Sheriffs Office and they operate under a union. Mr. Calhoun said perhaps we could write a general goal in support of law enforcement and the efforts of our officers. Councilmember Thompson agreed. Deputy Mayor Haley mentioned the idea of adding our support of the police and fire departments, and again Councilmember Thompson mentioned that it seems public safety is missing from the goals. Tab 21: Advance Agenda There were no suggested changes to the Advance Agenda, and it was mentioned that likely the Tuesday, June 25 Council meeting will be cancelled as Councilmembers attend the AWC Conference, and that we will schedule a special Council meeting for Monday, June 24. Mr. Calhoun said he hopes to know by Thursday. Tab 22: Business Plan This was for information only and was not discussed or reported. Tab 23: Executive Session It was moved by Deputy Mayor Haley, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn into executive session for approximately twenty minutes to discuss pending litigation, and that no action would be taken upon return to open session. Council adjourned into executive session at 2:19 p.m. At 2:41 p.m., Mayor Higgins declared Council out of executive session, at which time it was nioved by Deputy Mayor Haley, seconded and unanimously agreed to adjourn. ATTEST: L.R. Higgins, `b04/ Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk * According to Washington State Association of Counties, the state legislature introduced bills that attempt to address the Trueblood settlement agreement, which passed out of the Senate March 7 and does several things, including expanding police authority to divert individuals to treatment rather than for criminal production. Council Special Meeting Workshop: 06-11-2019 Page 10 of 10 Approved by Council: 07-09-2019