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2006, 08-16 Special Meeting MinutesPress: Craig Howard, Valley 14crald In attendance: Mayor Diana Wilhite Deputy Mayor Steve Taylor Councilmember Dick Denenny Councilmemeber Mike DeVleming Councilmember Bill Gothmann Councilmember Rich Munson Meeting with Congresswoman Cathy MeMorris August 16, 2006 1:00 p.m. — 2:30 p.m. CenterPlace Executive Conference Room Staff: City Manager Dave Mercier Deputy City Manager Nina Regor Parks & Rcc Director Mike Jackson Police Chief Cal Walker Public Works Director Neil Kersten Community Development Dir. Marina Sukup Public Information Officer Carolbelle Branch Deputy City Clerk/H.R. Assistant Carrie Acosta Council and staff gave self introductions to Congresswoman McMorris and her staff. Mayor Wilhite gave a brief overview of Spokane Valley, currently a population of 87,000, started with 82,000. Deputy Mayor Taylor said we are the seventh largest city in the state — we're a contract city, and just recently contracted for parks maintenance. Part of parks maintenance is upkeep of pools and programs and the YMCA runs the swimming lessons at the pools allowing the pools to be open longer through the summer season. The City tries to be innovative. We contract with the county for law enforcement services with 101 full time employed police, 82 of which arc allocated specifically to the Valley while others are shared such as S.W.A.T. and the detectives. The County also does some of the plowing and winter street maintenance. We adopted our first comprehensive plan and our first master parks and recreation plan. The State Auditor's office recently gave us a report of outstanding and the credit goes to the City Manager and Finance department. We're planning to spend a half million dollars for a study of the SpraguuelAppleway corridor. Citizens are concerned about the one -way streets and the Toss of the retail corridor. We are currently in the process of developing the Uniform Development Code. Street maintenance is very important as we don't want roads in disrepair. The comprehensive plan was approved April 25, 2006. Growth management keeps the Council busy talking with County Commissioners. Councilmember Munson explained that it is up to council to approve or disapprove the comprehensive plan. Councilmember Gothmann said that prior to Council approval the plan goes to the Planning Commission for review and comment. Congresswoman McMorris stated that she is very involved with NEPA and believes if everyone communicates well from the beginning we will all have better progress and success. Neil Kersten discussed the street projects and reviewed the map showing federally funded projects. The Valley corridor project is on hold due to the sub -area plan corridor, but it will be a major project. Deputy Mayor Taylor asked what the ratio of our local dollars spent is leveraged against state and federal grants. Mr. Kersten indicated it is about 10 %. He would like to get state funds as well as federal funds on the Sprague /Appleway project. Congresswoman McMorris asked how much of the funding comes from local funds and how much do we seek elsewhere. Dave Ivtercier explained that we always have local money earmarked but we try to take advantage of state and federal grants and other funding options. Congresswoman McMorris encouraged us to continue as we have been. Mr. Kersten discussed the Bridging of the Valley project, indicating it will be a very large project. The Sullivan Road bridge will also be a major project. Traffic is very restricted going north and this will connect to Highway 395 and link into the North -South freeway. Special Meeting w /Congressman ,Malorris 2006, 8 -16 Page 1 of 3 Police Chief Cal Walker apologized for being repetitious of past conversations. He expressed thanks for Congresswoman McMorris' support on several issues. Funding has made dramatic impacts, particularly the weed and seed program and its impact on the Edgecliff community which has become a model across the nation as a community coming together with a little seed money and turning it around. The neighborhood had code enforcement issues, cars filled with garbage, and with just a little money to clean up the neighborhood, a community can go a long way to rebuild morale in the neighborhood. The city plans to create a regional training facility using homeland security money and asks that the congresswoman please considers our needs, and recognizes we can manage the funds without so many restrictions. Congresswoman McMorris stated she hopes they're making progress to get local dollars to law enforcement that will give the opportunity for cities to manage the funds. Police Chief Walker stated he'd like to have Spokane Valley put the money to work in the community as is needed. David Condon, aide to Cathy McMorris indicated that General Lowenberg will meet this Friday and will talk about homeland security grants and try to uncover where the funds go. Police Chief Walker stated he appreciates that Congresswoman McMorris listens and causes action to happen; she works very well with the city. He mentioned that our nearest EDU asset is hundreds of miles away and we do not have redundancy money, whereas on the west side of the state the nearest EDU is only four miles away. He is tremendously happy with the amount of grants specifically focused to Spokane Valley and stated we have been successful in gaining grants and reporting back to congress those successes. Councilmember Gothmann summarized Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) allocated this year. He stated we were limited to $236,000 for city services and public infrastructure is a central part. Housing and Community Development Advisory' Committee establishes the priority of services and the grants to pursue. Councilmember Munson explained that Council made the choice not to make its own zone even though that would have meant more money would have been allocated to Spokane Valley because it would also mean smaller cities would get Tess. By staying with Spokane County it helps the larger community as a whole. Councilmembcr Gothmann detailed seven grants and the impact on the community. Greenhouse provides free emergency food, clothes and assistance for several northern areas. Space is donated by Zion Lutheran Church and they are an excellent example of cooperation between the private and public sector. Only one -third of requested funds are typically made available. The Street Valley improvement project provides full width paving in a community in which 53% of residents fall within low income levels. Deputy Mayor Taylor stated he believes some restructuring of the CDBG program needs to be clone but he wants to make sure cities like Spokane Valley have a lot of community participation and have the funds well spent. Congresswoman McMorris sees infrastructure needs and supports this source of funding for local governments to use for these types of projects. Council appreciates her support. Without these funds, the work likely would not have been done. Mayor Wilhite said the money is well spent to get funds for those most needed projects. Congresswoman McMorris asked who determines how much money a zone receives. Councilmember Munson responded that HUD has a formula based upon how many people in the zone fall below the income levels. Councilmember Denenny summarized the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program, stating that when Spokane Valley became a city, the County was removing septic tanks in this region due to being over the aquifer. Spokane Valley comprises 75% of the County's treatment plant capacity and they are looking at possibly running out of capacity. After 18 months of discussion, the TMDL committee was able to come to an agreement that should be workable. The foundational concepts create a manageable regional plan. We will look at how to eliminate pounds based on equivalents throughout the region. There will be a 20 -year manageable plan that will be assessed after 10 years. The plan is drafted and Council will likely approve an understanding agreement and we are currently working with the Department of Ecology. There may be some issues in Idaho controlled by the EPA. The goals for the discharge pounds per day are very low numbers and it takes a lot of funding to get the reduction levels so low. if dischargers were completely eliminated from the river, the river would still not meet the goal requirements. We need regional cooperation and collaboration and to have a vested interest. Special Meeting w /Congressman McMorris 2006, 8 Page 2 of 3 Congresswoman McMorris inquired as to the timeline for all the entities involved to approve. Councilmember Denenny responded that within the next month we should start seeing things on the table. Councilmember Munson discussed the COPE 13i11 and stated he hopes the result of this meeting will be more collaboration between our staff and the Congresswoman's staff. He would like to see a continuation of funding that has been cut and would like Congresswoman McMorris to be a champion of Spokane Valley to help people understand the City should be responsible for right -of -way funds rather than the federal government and the Economic Development Council. He expressed that he doesn't want franchise fees to go to the federal government because this cuts too much out of the city's budget. Congresswoman McMorris stated this is a complicated issue. Councilmember Munson said that currently if someone wants a franchise in the City, it is something the City negotiates. In the proposed change, cities would have no input in the national franchise and would not be collecting the franchise fee. Congresswoman McMorris pointed out there are several disagreements as to how the right -of -ways will be affected by the bill. Her staff is working hard to ensure the language in the bill is friendlier to cities with respect to right -of -ways and franchise fees. Deputy Mayor Taylor believes it's important to promote competition. Congresswoman McMorris' aide Ryan said he understands the importance of the fees and will fight for then for the cities. Congresswoman McMorris expressed that the goal should not be to kill the bill because the bill does have some positive aspects to it. City Manager Mercier suggested Congresswoman McMorris be in contact with Councilmember Munson for input as new language is developed. Marina Sukup stated that as a new city we have the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan and part of that is the revitalization of the Sprague /Appleway corridor. Sprague Avenue used to be the only highway through the City and has changed throughout the years. The Auto -row businesses are doing fine, but left -over businesses from some of the 1980's development have died away. We are currently working on designing roadways to extend Appleway to make a City Center and asking for citizen participation. In July we had consultants present some ideas and the session was well attended. A community meeting of seven focus groups will be held in September and Council will put together zoning regulations by the first of the year and will seek economic development help. Washington is at a competitive disadvantage with Idaho due to what we can and cannot do. One of the consultants discussed housing on Sprague Avenue and we are being creative in looking at the opportunities. We need to paint a vision of what the area can look like and try to stimulate economic development and get citizens excited. Councilmember Munson stressed that this is a very big plan and will be a legacy for the city, stating "People will not be able to recognize the city in ten years." Mayor Wilhite referred Congresswoman McMorris to the presentation binder for information on the Children's Universal Park, a park for kids with all abilities to access. Congresswoman McMorris stated she is very impressed, appreciates everyone taking the time today to meet with her and commends council on their vision. One of the roles of her office is to partner with the City Council and keep the lines of communication open. She encourages working together to keep moving forward and fulfilling the goals of the community. The meeting ended at 2:20 p.m. Carrie Acosta Deputy City Clerk/Human Resources Assistant Special Meeting w /Congressman McMorris 2006, 8 -I 6 Page 3 of 3