2009, 08-18 Study Session Minutes MINUTES
STUDY SESSION MEETING
SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL
Spokane Valley City Hall Council Chambers
Spokane Valley,Washington
August 18 2009 6:00 p.m.
Attendance:
Councilmembers Staff
Rich Munson,Mayor Mike Jackson,Deputy City Manager
Dick Denenny,Deputy Mayor Cary Driskell,Deputy City Attorney
Rose Dempsey, Councilmember Mike Stone,Parks&Rec Director
Bill Gothmann, Councilmember Ken Thompson,Finance Director
Gary Schimmels, Councilmember Greg McCormick,Planning Manager
Ian Robertson, Councilmember Rick VanLeuven,Police Chief
Diana Wilhite, Councilmember Neil Kersten,Public Works Director
Carolbelle Branch,Public Information Officer
Greg Bingaman, IT Specialist
Chris Bainbridge, City Clerk
Mayor Munson opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. and welcomed everyone to the study session.
Introduction of New Employees: Human Resources Technician Lindsey Skinfill was introduced by
Human Resources Manager John Whitehead, and Accounting Technician Melissa Holten was introduced
by Finance Director Ken Thompson.
ACTION ITEMS:
1. Second Reading Proposed Ordinance 09-016 Amending City Code Relating to Small Works Purchases
—Cary Driskell
After City Clerk Bainbridge read the ordinance title, it was moved by Councilmember Wilhite and
seconded to approve ordinance 09-016. Deputy City Attorney Driskell explained that this amends our
Municipal Code to raise the small works roster limit from $200,000 to $300,000 to keep it consistent with
the recently enacted state legislative change; and added that this does not change the City Manager's
contract authority of up to $200,000; and anything over that $200,000 limit would still come before
Council. Mayor Munson invited public comments; no comments were offered. Vote by Acclamation: In
Favor: Unanimous. Opposed:None. Abstentions:None. Motion carried
2. Proposed Emergency Resolution 09-011 —Neil Kersten
It was moved by Deputy Mayor Denenny and seconded to approve Resolution 09-011 declaring an
emergency and authorizing staff to execute a contract with Poe Asphalt Paving, Inc. in the amount of
$90,073.72. Public Works Director Kersten explained that this is the third step in putting the snow
removal program together; that this contract will cover the costs to prepare the equipment and facilities
for winter snow operations with a second contract coming later for the actual winter operations; he
mentioned that they are still working out some of the details, and that the labor rates shown in the contract
are those from the original contract done three years ago, but the actual rates will be based on the renewed
contract done in 2009. Mayor Munson invited public comment; no comments were offered. Vote by
Acclamation:In Favor• Unanimous. Opposed:None.Abstentions:None. Motion carried
3. Setting Public Hearings for 2010 Budget—Ken Thompson
It was moved by Councilmember Robertson and seconded to set the 2010 budget hearings for September
8 and September 22, 2009. Finance Director Thompson explained that this is part of the budget process,
Council Meeting Minutes: 08-18-09 Page 1 of 5
Approved by Council: 08-25-09
and the statute requires that Council set these public hearings. Mayor Munson invited public comment; no
comments were offered. Vote by Acclamation:In Favor: Unanimous. Opposed:None. Abstentions:None.
Motion carried
Mayor Munson invited general public comments; no comments were offered.
REGULAR STUDY SESSION ITEMS:
4. Swimming Pool Pass Program—Mayor Munson/Deputy Mayor Denenny
Mayor Munson announced that with a partnership with the Spokane Valley Partners, the Spokane Valley
City Council from their personal funds, have donated a sum of money to buy passes for children who
can't afford to buy swim passes; and he said they have collected enough to pay for 630 swims; and he
thanked members of Council for their generosity; and he invited Connie Nelson of Spokane Valley
Partners to come forward and accept the funds. Deputy Mayor Denenny thanked the Valley Partners for
working with members of Council to set up the mechanism to use their resources and knowledge about
those in need and to administer and set up this "swim-ship" program for those who don't have the
resources to use the swimming facilities. Ms. Nelson extended her thanks for being invited tonight; said
she feels swimming is a basic need in keeping in mind the value of having the children exercise and enjoy
the outdoors; and she said she looks forward to having the kids "get wet" next year. Deputy Mayor
Denenny encouraged others in the community to participate in this program, and Mayor Munson
emphasized that this is just the beginning and he too encouraged members of the community to contribute
to the Valley Partners so that all can take advantage of these facilities; and he extended again his
appreciation to the Valley Partners for all they do for members of this community.
5. Comprehensive Plan Quarterly Update—Greg McCormick
Planning Manager McCormick said the time is quickly approaching to begin the annual update of the
Comprehensive Plan as the cut-off date for applications to modify the Plan is November 1; he said they
are advertising now and posting notices to alert the public of this process; and said that after November 1,
staff will begin with staff review, evaluating the environmental checklist and getting staff reports ready
for the Planning Commission. Mayor Munson stated that Councilmembers either individually or as a
Council have the opportunity to submit changes they fee would be appropriate.
6. Planned Action Ordinance(SEPA)—Greg McCormick
Planning Manager McCormick said staff is working with a consultant team to prepare an Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) and a Planned Action Ordinance for the City Center area as designed in the
Sprague/Appleway Plan; he said initial work began on this plan early this year with an EIS scoping
meeting in April; that the final EIS scope was established in May after which the City's consultant team
began the work of drafting the EIS; that the work continues and staff anticipates an administrative draft of
the EIS for review no later than the end of August; once staff has reviewed this draft and changes made,
an official draft EIS will be issued for public review, which review period generally lasts from thirty to
forty-five days. Mr. McCormick said once the public review period is complete, the comments reviewed
during this phase will be addressed in a final EIS and once that final EIS has been issued, any proposed
development within the City Center area that is consistent with the parameters of the EIS will be deemed
to have complied with SEPA and may proceed directly into the commercial permit process.
7. Pandemic Response Plan—Mike Jackson
Deputy City Manager Jackson explained that the City of Spokane Valley is preparing its Continuity of
Operations Plan (COOP) to ensure the delivery of essential services in the event of a public health
emergency; that there have been approximately thirteen cases of swine flu (H1N1) in Spokane County,
and 145 hospitalized and twelve deaths throughout the State. After Mr. Jackson explained the highlights
of the Plan via his PowerPoint, Councilmember Gothmann mentioned that there was incorrect
information in a recent newspaper article that this flu affects the elderly, but H1N1 really targets infants
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Approved by Council: 08-25-09
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and pregnant women; while the seasonal flu generally targets the elderly, and said there are two different
vaccine periods. Mr. Jackson concurred and said it is likely older people have a built-up immunity to the
flu, but if they get it, it could be more severe. Mr. Jackson also mentioned there are no well-defined plans
from the County or State or the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that we could "dove-tail" into, and
Mayor Munson suggested we share our plan with the County and State, and Councilmember Gothmann
also suggested we keep the Spokane Regional Health Department advised of our plans and to coordinate
with them on any pandemic. Mr. Jackson stated that there are seminars on this subject and our Public
Information Officer is planning to attend. Mr. Jackson said that in a few weeks he will bring a Plan and
Resolution with a proposal on how to compensate employees who may be willing and able to report to
work, but would be asked not to report due to a pandemic; he said we will have operation plans for each
department and that our IT Specialist is putting together some new information that would enable our
telephone system to plug into any computer system.
8. Tourism Promotion Area Interlocal Agreement—Cary Driskell
Deputy City Attorney Driskell said they have been requested by Spokane County and the hoteliers to
amend the TPA interlocal agreement to increase the nightly room assessment from $1.50 to $2.00 per
night; and that Spokane County has already adopted that change. There was Council consensus to bring
this forward as a regular item on the next council agenda.
9. Advance Agenda—Mayor Munson
Mayor Munson asked Council to consider not meeting election night,November 3; and Councilmembers
agreed to tentatively not hold a meeting that night.
10. Council External Committee Reports-Councilmembers
Councilmember Wilhite said that regarding the Spokane Regional Transportation Council, they are
working on revising the structure of the Board and expanding their mission; that the proposal would
increase the board membership by two; currently they have two representatives from the City of Spokane,
two from Spokane County, one from the City of Spokane Valley, a public member, the head of the
Regional Department of WSDOT, the person who represents Eastern Washington on the Transportation
Commission, and one representative from the STA and that has been designated as representing the small
cities. Councilmember Wilhite said the proposal is to add a committee called the Transportation Advisory
Committee which would be appointed by the SRTC members, and the membership would elect a Chair
from that committee who would sit on the SRTC board; and to allow the STA to select one board member
from any of their board members; and with the small cities, using 5,000 as a population designation, she
said there are several small cities over 5,000 who have different needs from those cities with populations
under 5,000; so there was a proposal to have two representatives, one from each small city category. Ms.
Wilhite said they are going to add other people as ex-officio, one would be the Executive Director of the
STA, someone from the Airport Board, someone from the Rail, and that they would invite any of the
elected representatives to attend to present to SRTC what things they see coming in the legislative branch
that would impact the funding the SRTC would have for transportation projects. Ms. Wilhite also reported
that the formula for determining who sits on the SRTC council is based on population, and because the
City of Spokane Valley is now a few people less than 90,000, we are getting close to the population
densities of the City of Spokane as well as Spokane County, which resulted in discussion if the City of
Spokane Valley would want to consider adding a second member from Spokane Valley; and she asked for
Council discussion on that consideration. Councilmember Wilhite said the SRTC is funded based on
representation, she said their budget is divided by the participants and that's the dollar figure they come
up with.
Mayor Munson said the formula for determining the number of people on the board was determined prior
to our city incorporating, so it doesn't recognize our population and the affects the SRTC will have on our
420 miles of roads; and said if we move forward with the new structure, it will put it in the position of
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Approved by Council: 08-25-09
being one of the most influential committees in the County and he said it is important to recognize that
the City of Spokane Valley is the second largest city in Eastern Washington, is the second largest city in
Spokane County, and close to the same size as the County; and he said he would like to recommend to the
SRTC to re-examine the formula used to determine how much to pay, as that was also done many years
ago and should be discussed concerning how equitable that formula is based on current conditions; and he
said he would recommend that Council ask our representative, Councilmember Wilhite,to forward to the
SRTC that the City of Spokane Valley be given two positions, and that the funding formula be examined
and reconsidered. Councilmember Wilhite said the current formula is based on the budget, divided by the
number of participants; and she asked Mayor Munson if he had suggestions for changing that formula.
Mayor Munson replied that it could be looked at on a per capital basis.
Councilmember Gothmann said in reading the WACs (Washington Administrative Code) shown on the
Transportation Improvement Board (TIB)website,they allocate by taking the population of, for example,
Spokane Valley, divided by total population; add to that the total lane miles within Spokane Valley
divided by total lane miles within the County; and add those two together, and that is the method used by
the TIB. Mayor Munson asked if Council would like Councilmember Wilhite to move forward with a
recommendation, and they concurred, and concurred as well that they would like Councilmember Wilhite
to report that this Council would like the formula used by the TIE as the formula to be used by the SRTC.
Deputy Mayor Denenny asked Councilmember Wilhite how the vote came about at the last meeting as the
issue was not on the agenda and neither of the two County Commissioners were present. Councilmember
Wilhite said they had a prior discussion to do the recommendation when Latisha Hill did the presentation,
to let the Board think about it and bring it back to the September meeting; and she said she feels this issue
will be brought back up at the September meeting since both Commissioners were absent at the last
meeting and their input should be considered. Mayor Munson said he personally feels since the SRTC
Board is evolving into a policy board which has not formerly existed, as such they should consider their
Board as representative of the governments represented by the individuals; which means that when they
take important votes, the committee members must get input from their councils and not make decisions
without doing so; and said he feels such input gathering should be done now and if not, that perhaps
Spokane Valley should re-examine its participation. Councilmember Wilhite said she suggested to the
membership that the rule used by Spokane Valley Council might be one for this Board to consider, e.g.
the"three-touch rule."
Public Works Director Kersten said the discussion of doing population and lane miles is great, and said
there needs to be further research since TM is urban areas and caution should be exercised in comparing a
remote gravel road to a paved Sprague in terms of cost; and to further research how that should be
allocated; perhaps one wouldn't get as many points as another. Councilmember Gothmann said that
within the WACs there is an arterial program and an allocation formula for cities with less than 5,000
population; and added that the formula he previously discussed above, was also to take those two
fractions, add them together, then divide by two. Mayor Munson said he would turn to the experts, the
staff, and based on the WACs, to have the experts come back to the SRTC with a formula which is most
equitable. Councilmember Wilhite said to clarify for the SRTC September meeting, that Mr. Kersten will
be asked to do some research, and said we'll prepare a report that she will give to the SRTC looking at the
idea of increasing membership in Spokane Valley from one to two; and also to examine the allocation,
and she said she will do a presentation to them based on this information.
Mayor Munson asked if Councilmember Schimmels or Deputy Mayor Denenny had anything new to add
concerning Solid Waste. Councilmember Schimmels said at the last meeting they had a discussion about
more or better information, and he suggested bringing the technical group in with a report every meeting,
and said they had a report on the audit, but there is no financial data included as that "bit the dust" so
really half of that effort is still not there. Deputy Mayor Denenny added that solid waste comprehensive
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Approved by Council: 08-25-09
plan deliberations that will take place on Thursday, there is a lot of input regarding single flow stream
regarding recyclables, and that the audit has taken a different turn as they are not getting the information
they had hoped to get in the time frame they had hoped. Councilmember Schimmels said concerning the
audit, that the audit they assumed would have the report from, was actually through a whistleblower,
which is guarded, private information; so they would receive that report and no one else would have that
report.
Councilmember Gothmann said he had nothing to report on the Health Board, but mentioned a meeting
he had this week with Chuck Simpson of Simpson Engineers about the planning department and possible
ways to improve the process; that he carried suggestions to John Hohman, and Community Development
Director McClung said she plans to have a developer's conference in October where these suggestions
can be considered; that many of the issues that came up are ordinances that would have to be amended;
and he mentioned we should always be trying to improve the system with our partners,the developers and
the neighborhoods. Mayor Munson said in talking with City Manager Dave Mercier,that Mayor Munson
recommended another stakeholder meeting, and said Mr. Mercier was enthusiastic and supportive of such
meeting, as Council is receptive to change and refinement of ordinances and policies.
11. Council Check in—Mayor Munson
Deputy Mayor Denenny mentioned the unveiling of the statue in front of Mirabeau and said it is an
impressive piece of art, and he hopes the community respects it as Dr. Harkin and others did a lot of work
to bring this to our community.
12. City Manager Comments -Mike Jackson
Mr. Jackson mentioned an upcoming information item concerning the "Hot Topics" newsletter, and
Mayor Munson requested an advance copy prior to sending it to the printer.
Executive Session: Pending Litigation. It was determined an executive session was not necessary.
There being no further business,the meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m.
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Council Meeting Minutes: 08-18-09 Page 5 of 5
Approved by Council: 08-25-09