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2004, 02-07 Special Retreat MinutesAttendance: Councilme.mbers Michael DeVleming, Mayor Diana Wilhite, Deputy Mayor Dick Denenny, Councilmember Mike Flanigan, Councilmember Rich Munson, Councilmember Gary Schimmels, Councilmember Steve Taylor, Councilmember NOTES SPECIAL MEETING WORKSWOP /RETREAT SPOKANE VALLEY CITY COUNCIL February 7, 2004 9:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m. Staff Dave Mercier, City Manager Nina Regor, Deputy City Mgr Marina Sukup, Comm. Dev. Dir. Ken Thompson, Finance Director. Cary Driskell, Deputy City Attorney Neil Kersten, Public Works Director Mike Jackson, Parks & Recreation Director Cal Walker, Police Chief Tom Scholtens, Building Official Chris Bainbridge, City Clerk City Manager Mercier gave a brief overview of the purpose of this retreat/planning session, that it is a time for "big picture viewing," and a time to discuss what Council wants, and how and when they want it as council and staff discuss the trends that will affect operations for the next several years. In summary, City Manager Mercier said this will be a brainstorming session in a relaxed atmosphere as council and staff review the draft materials presented. 1. Review of Departmental Work Plans and Submittal Timetables: a. Legislative and Executive Support (goals and objectives chart) City Manager Mercier went over the 2004 Organizational Goals and City Manager Objectives, and stated that the objectives include some tasks identified to begin to satisfy the goals of the Council; and as indicated by the YfN, the question to consider is, is that the right objective to achieve the goal? Mr. Mercier said we want to make sure we know the definition of Managed Competition Program and that we can do this by checking with other entities to see how they have addressed this issue; that in connection with the Comprehensive Plan, we need a 20 -year plan to make certain we are well acquainted with and are meeting the requirements of the Growth Management Plan. Mr, Mercier then discussed the other goals listed on the handout. b. Public Works: Work Plan, Capital Projects, Key Decisions and Policy Issues W astewater Services Public Works Director Kersten discussed the issue of wastewater management and spoke of Spokane County's October 14, 2003 letter regarding the development interlocal agreement; adding that it is his hope that the draft agreement will be ready for council review by early March. Mr. Kersten also stated that the DOE has committed for a five year NPDES permit, but that not all negotiations with the EPA have been finalized as the EPA is not comfortable with that direction. Mr. Kersten said the EPA considers the river a stressed body of water and has concerns with discharging into the river. Director Kersten said that staff is attempting to schedule a meeting with the EPA to discuss their concerns, one of which is use and attainability (UAA) concerning the TMDIL analysis. Mayor DeVleming mentioned that we also want to project when we will run out of capacity so that deadlines can be set prior to that point; and for staff to alert council as specific issues arise which could cause major problems. Councilmember Munson suggested gathering more information from other jurisdictions, and obtaining alternate plans in case what we have won't meet EPA or other mandated requirements. Notes, February 7, 2004 Council Retreat Page 1 of 4 County En ineerin Contract Discussion turned to the County Engineering Contract, and Director Kersten said the County provides additional engineering services to the City of Spokane Valley, and that any changes to this document should be accomplished by June 1, adding that he does not anticipate any further changes at this point. Develop Six -Year Street Funding Plan Director Kersten said that staff will be gathering data to project total costs and are working on getting the historical numbers in order to fully understand the maintenance cost including preservation projects for maintaining neighborhood streets. A goal is to determine cost in order to fully fund the streets, including maintenance and capital projects, and that pavement management is also a part of that six -year plan. Update Six Year Transportation Plan Staff is working to bring a draft plan to council for approval consideration, which plan will include a three -year list of projects to be funded. Director Kersten also reviewed the list of projects and activities to be working on this year. A question arose concerning the corridor right -of -way and Director Kersten said that staff is drafting a letter for Council to send to the County Commissioners that address the right -of -way issue. Council then turned their attention to the vision statement and upcoming meeting(s) with the Planning Commission. It was determined that two groups will meet: one group will focus on the vision process for the couplet, and the other group on the vision of the entire City. Mayor DeVleming suggested forming questions for the survey and to get Council and the Planning Commission together perhaps on the 23 to discuss the responses. After Director Kersten went over his remaining work plan, the group took a break at 10:45 a.m., and reconvened at 11:00 a.m. c. Planning and Community Development. Develop First Comprehensive Plan Community Development Director Sukup reported that the development regulations will probably not be quite as "on- target" as other tasks, adding that upcoming issues such as sidewalks are complex. Councilmember Denenny said he would like to look at other communities' processes used to identify areas of problems /challenges in an effort to help avoid those legal challenges, and to determine best practices. City Manager Mercier added that Deputy Attorney Driskell has been looking at what procedural problems arise as a result of the processes applied, and Director Sukup said that the Comp plan involves various other City departments as well as outside agencies, and the concern is to make sure the implementation regulations follow the comp plan; she also stated we need a draft of the plan before we can decide the direction to proceed. Improve Overall Communication Director Sukup mentioned staff will be continuously working to improve established ordinances. Councilmember Flanigan mentioned he would like to see in print, what we can do as a city and as a region, to identify the tools available to accomplish what we want to accomplish, and to do that he feels we need more specific definition of "economic development." Mayor DeVleming; added that he would like to see what other communities in the state are doing in this regard, and then asked about the schedule to implement public participation. Director Sukup said we will start meeting with identifiable neighborhoods and the business community and if changes are made to the sign regulations, there will be additional public input. Director Sukup mentioned that staff will start going out to meet some of these civil /social groups beginning the end of the month in an attempt to get invited to their meetings also. Mayor DeVleming added that he wants to expand council information by seeking input from fellow councilmembers, City Manager, and Department Heads. Ms. Sukup mentioned staff will also be conducting a citizen survey to help determine what information we need from the community. She also asked council to send topics to her concerning areas where they want the community to give us answers, Notes, Fcbrunry 7, 2004 Council Retreat Page 2 of 4 perhaps via a 10 -12 minute telephone survey. Councilmember Munson said that he will contact the Valley Rotary Clubs to see if they are amenable to having Director Sukup and /or other staff discuss issues with them. Cross - Training: Director Sukup said staff will engage in cross training to ensure code enforcement officers can assist in residential family code compliance. Building Official Scholtens said he spoke with the electrical division of Labor and Industries and told them the amount of work is more than one person could adequately handle but not enough work for two to handle; and that he feels it would be inefficient for the City to take over the electrical program. Mr. Scholtens speculated about the possibilities of issuing permits at our center by stationing one L &I employee in our office as we currently do with the fire inspector, to service our customers by selling permits and to have someone in the office at a particular time to answer questions. In response to a question about sewer permits, Mr. Scholtens said the County handles sewer permits and there is no evidence of cooperation from the County; that the County does the inspection up to the house, and we take the backflow valve and sewer reversal inspections, and that the public is not happy having to go to both places. City Manager Mercier said if Council wants staff to explore the possibility of handling sewer permits, perhaps we can extend an offer to the County that we can extend office space and perhaps use the fire marshal space when not in use. d. Parks and Recreation Parks and Recreation Director Jackson said that staff hopes to have an RFQ to submit in a few weeks regarding the Masterplan. Additionally, Director Jackson said that he hopes to get council direction on summer programming as staff needs to start reserving space in some of the schools; that his proposal is similar to last year but hopes to increase participation to make it economically feasible to contract with a private bus rather than use a van; and that day camps will likely increase from 17 to about 40 participants. in reference to sport events, Director Jackson said staff has started inventory, and it could be argued that entities in town could cover privately what we have offered; that he could try to direct interested patrons to others who have the service, or we could offer it ourselves, like summer camps. He said all programs for camps are contracted, and that there is no difficulty in cost recovery for direct costs. City Manager Mercier said that last year's direction was to expand pool use/hours and that was implemented; there were ancillary programs started last summer and as we move forward, we seek to identify the core functions in terms of overall recreation programs in the community; that he's noticed a large amount of adult and youth programs available; and if those services are being offered in the community there is not necessarily a gap to fill; so the question remains how do we engage in this process without: running afoul of the private sector. Director Jackson said he needs to try to inventory all the extra circulator activities in the community so we can give council information to make decisions about creating programs to meet community needs and wants. Council agreed that Jackson should continue to gather information and work on the master plan. Director Jackson said he feels that over 90% of the program direct costs were recovered last year, except for the playground program which had no fee; and the pools did not fully recover all costs, which was expected. Concerning cost of programs, scholarships were mentioned and an idea was presented concerning giving social service organizations scholarships. Director Jackson also said he seeks one or two councilmembers to be on the Senior Center Committee and Mayor DeVleming asked councilmembers to let Director Jackson know of their interest. Councilmember Schimmels indicated his interest as did Councilmember Munson, and Councilmember Munson added that if only one councilmember is needed, that he need not participate. e. Police Department Police Chief Walker explained his department's work plan and discussed cost effectiveness and cost allocation in relation to the contract, and stated he expects approximately $20,000 to be credited back to the Police Department. Chief Walker said that the police department is getting a better handle on the defined partnership with the county, that we identified some things that needed to happen but did not, and that the County finalizes their budget very late in the process and he's working on how to fix some of Notes February 7, 2004 Council Retreat Page 3 ot4 those things to get better at projecting budget for future years. Chief Walker said he wants to continue looking at how other agencies develop their contracts and wants to spend more time putting man hours into viable public safety issues instead of so much time into the actual contracts. City Manager Mercier added that the City will maintain service levels equal to that in the unincorporated territory, but there is no baseline data of service level, so the overall challenge is to define the service level in this and other areas. Chief Walker said the number of officers per thousand population is not the driving force into bringing a number recognized as an acceptable level; that staff did an analysis of how many people it would take to bring us up to that acceptable level and that there is no way to measure that. Chief Walker explained that the department tracks business on reports generated. He stated he is working on those statistics to report type of call, area of call, and how long it took officers to arrive on the scene, and then to compile all those pieces of data into some reasonable way to measure the level of service. City Manager Mercier said we continue to operate in a data vacuum, making it difficult to accurately measure level of service. A break was taken at 2: 15 p.m.; the meeting reconvened at 2:30 p.m. f Operations and Administrative Services Deputy City Manager Regor discussed the work plan and said staff is experimenting with a managed competition program and hopes to present a draft program to Council in April. Program areas mentioned to consider included the library, animal control, roads, parks, municipal court, and the jail. Councilmember Munson said he feels we have not done well in getting the word out about who we are and what our philosophy is, and that he hopes to be able to develop a community outreach program to give media news releases. Ms. Regor said staff is using more of a reactive approach to media public relations. City Manager Mercier said the media is adept at discerning issues of greater concern, and it night be more effective to continue to have good notice of items that will be discussed by council; that council does speak with the public as in the "conversations with the community," but that perhaps we should look at having a regular featured article where council can address certain issues; or have council volunteer spots in film media or other ways for council to reach out to media to inform them of upcoming issues. Mr. Mercier added that newsletters are generally more expensive and have little impact; but that perhaps Council could consider a column letter in the newspapers; and that all can spend some time thinking about venues where council can go out and offer to be the noontime speaker. Mr. Mercier said that part of the reason for the advance agenda is to inform the media of upcoming issues. The paperless agenda option was mentioned but greeted with little enthusiasm, as many councilmembers prefer to have paper copies upon which to make comments. g. Finance /Budget Related issues Finance Director Thompson discussed the draft five -year financial forecast as shown on his outline, and said staff keeps track of all programs and how they interrelate to help determine if there is need for other programs. Director Thompson then discussed the actual sales tax versus the estimated sales tax, the street funds, general funds, smaller funds and projections, bonding limitations, and the five -year projected shortfall summary. City Manager Mercier added that there is a vast amount of expense associated with contract services, and perhaps alternate providers and /or other options could be explored. Finance Director Thompson then briefly discussed the 2005 budget calendar. As it was nearing 4:00 p.m., it was decided that items not covered in today's discussion (Facilities and Contracts, and Community Involvement & Outreach) could be discussed either in study sessions or at another retreat. The meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted Chris Bainbridge, City Clerk Notes, February 7, 2004 Council Retreat Page 4 of 4