CITY OF SHORELINE
SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL
Monday, February 22, 2021 Held Remotely via Zoom
7:00 p.m.
PRESENT: Deputy Mayor Scully, Councilmembers McConnell, McGlashan, Chang, Robertson, and Roberts
ABSENT: Mayor Hall
1. CALL TO ORDER
At 7:00 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Deputy Mayor Scully who presided.
2. ROLL CALL
Upon roll call by the City Clerk, all Councilmembers were present with the exception of Mayor Hall.
Councilmember Roberts moved to excuse Mayor Hall for personal reasons. The motion was seconded by Councilmember McConnell and passed unanimously, 6-0.
3. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER
John Norris, Assistant City Manager, provided an update on the recent snow weather event, the COVID-19 pandemic, and reported on various City meetings, projects and events.
4. COUNCIL REPORTS
Councilmember Chang said she attended the King County Regional Transit Committee meeting and reported that Metro is beginning to plan for restoration of services and she shared information on how riders can provide input. She said the Service Guidelines are being discussed, and routes are prioritized by considering the contributing factors of equity, productivity, and geographic value. She observed that it may be difficult for the City to meet growth targets if there is no correlation with increased transit services.
Councilmember McGlashan reported he attended the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) Action Days and said he learned that the legislature is moving forward with a transportation package and he listed some of the projects that would be funded by it. He said the recent SeaShore Transportation meeting included an update from Sound Transit on their pandemic recovery methodology.
Councilmember Robertson said she attended the North King County Shelter Task Force meeting and reported that a site manager has been hired for the Enhanced Shelter in Shoreline. She said the Task Force is discussing what their purpose will be now that a North King County shelter has been sited.
Councilmember McConnell said at the recent National League of Cities (NLC) Transportation and Infrastructure Services meeting there were high level reports from several organizations, and that the disruption caused by the pandemic has highlighted the inequities in transportation systems. She said NLC is keeping abreast of the status of infrastructure bills.
Councilmember Roberts reflected that there is interest in what the Federal government will do in terms of the latest relief package and asked his colleagues what the House of Representatives is doing in their budget in terms of the newest relief packages.
Deputy Mayor Scully thanked City staff for the work done during the snowstorm.
5. PUBLIC COMMENT
Adiel Sefrio, Vice President of the Evergreen Point Group, described their first project in Shoreline and the positive experience working with the City. He said there are challenges with upcoming projects under consideration and said details in the form of written comment had been submitted to the Council. He expressed Evergreen Point’s commitment to partnering with the City and offered to be a resource from a developer’s perspective.
Jackie Kurle, Shoreline resident, spoke regarding the Enhanced Shelter. She said that she supports the cause of helping the homeless but there needs to be more transparency on the project. She drew attention to recent emergency events at a shelter in Bellingham and underscored the need to have adequate emergency services in place.
6. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
The agenda was approved by unanimous consent.
7. CONSENT CALENDAR
Upon motion by Councilmember Robertson and seconded by Councilmember McGlashan and unanimously carried, 6-0, the following Consent Calendar items were approved:
(a) Approval of Minutes of Special Meeting of January 20, 2021
Approval of Minutes of Regular Meeting of February 1, 2021
Approval of Minutes of Special Meeting of February 11, 2021
Approval of Minutes of Special Meeting of February 11, 2021
(b) Approval of Expenses and Payroll as of February 5, 2021 in the Amount of $2,353,730.42
|
*Payroll and Benefits: |
||||||
|
Payroll Period |
Payment Date |
EFT Numbers (EF) |
Payroll Checks (PR) |
Benefit Checks (AP) |
Amount Paid |
|
|
01/10/21-01/23/21 |
1/29/2021 |
95258-95460 |
17209-17219 |
81745-81752 |
$930,945.54 |
|
|
Q4 2020 L&I |
81670 |
$45,459.80 |
||||
|
Q4 2020 ESD |
81671 |
$16,433.15 |
||||
|
$992,838.49 |
||||||
|
*Wire Transfers: |
||||||
|
Expense Register Dated |
Wire Transfer Number |
|
Amount Paid |
|||
|
1/25/2021 |
1172 |
$1,650.63 |
||||
|
$1,650.63 |
||||||
|
*Accounts Payable Claims: |
||||||
|
Expense Register Dated |
Check Number (Begin) |
Check Number (End) |
Amount Paid |
|||
|
1/28/2021 |
81595 |
81610 |
$181,791.52 |
|||
|
1/28/2021 |
81611 |
81627 |
$168,185.17 |
|||
|
1/28/2021 |
81628 |
81634 |
$41,064.77 |
|||
|
1/28/2021 |
81635 |
81639 |
$7,406.20 |
|||
|
1/28/2021 |
81640 |
81646 |
$11,317.96 |
|||
|
1/28/2021 |
81647 |
81669 |
$122,008.82 |
|||
|
2/3/2021 |
81672 |
81686 |
$427,508.65 |
|||
|
2/3/2021 |
81687 |
81701 |
$239,587.50 |
|||
|
2/3/2021 |
81702 |
81712 |
$26,437.27 |
|||
|
2/3/2021 |
81713 |
81717 |
$32,465.59 |
|||
|
2/3/2021 |
81718 |
81726 |
$39,658.48 |
|||
|
2/4/2021 |
81727 |
81744 |
$61,809.37 |
|||
|
$1,359,241.30 |
||||||
(c) Adoption of Ordinance No. 897 - Amending Shoreline Municipal Code Section 20.50.620, Aurora Square Community Renewal Sign Standards
(d) Approval of Property Tax Exemption Program Contract for the Trad Apartments Project Located at 17567 15th Avenue NE
8. ACTION ITEMS
(a) Action on Ordinance No. 919 - Amending Title 2 of the Shoreline Municipal Code to Create a New Chapter 2.70, Compensation and Salary Commission, to Establish a Salary Commission for Elected Officials
Don Moritz, Human Resources Director, delivered the staff presentation. Mr. Moritz explained that the Council had discussed the potential for creating a Salary Commission at the 2020 Strategic Planning Meeting and directed staff to prepare additional information and a proposed Ordinance, with was followed by Council discussion.
Mr. Moritz stated that if Ordinance No. 919 were to be adopted, the Salary Commission would convene in 2022, and added that alternative Ordinance language has been prepared in response to direction from Council. He said the proposed amendments would articulate a compensation philosophy that reflects reasonable and fair renumeration for a Councilmembers’ time, effort, and expenses; instruct the Salary Commission to consider comparative market data and duties and responsibilities of the Councilmembers; and establish a compensation plan for elected officials that promotes equity, diversity, and encourages citizen participation. He said staff recommends that Council adopt Ordinance No. 919 as amended.
Councilmember Robertson moved to adopt Ordinance No. 919 as set forth in Attachment B to the Staff Report. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Roberts.
Councilmember Robertson expressed appreciation for the work done to make sure the Ordinance aligns with the City’s diversity goals.
Deputy Mayor Scully expressed support for the Ordinance and appreciation for the work done to include equitable language in it. He added that while he hesitates to start anything that might result in increased expenses during the pandemic, he noted that this does not go into effect until 2022. He summarized that in adopting the Ordinance, the goal is to make sure the salary is right, not to provide an automatic increase. He added that from an equity perspective, making sure the salary is fair will make it financially feasible for more people to participate on Council.
The motion passed unanimously, 6-0.
9. STUDY ITEMS
(a) Panel Presentation on Police Accountability: Legislative Activity in Olympia and the Uses and Limitation of Data
Jim Hammond, Intergovernmental/CMO Program Manager, said tonight’s discussion would include updates on upcoming legislative actions and provide information on the uses and limitations of data when looking into law enforcement issues. He welcomed panelists Devitta Briscoe, community advocate and member of Not This Time and the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability; Sharon Swanson, Association of Washington Cities (AWC); and Jaqueline Helfgott, Seattle University Criminal Justice professor and Director of SPU’s Crime and Justice Research Center; and said they would share their perspectives regarding police accountability. After being welcomed, each panelist had the opportunity to share their professional background, experiences, and affiliations.
The discussion on the challenges of the data collection process opened with Dr. Helfgott summarizing the data collection process and stating that there tends to be issues in terms of capturing useable data that will connect from one agency to another. She shared specific examples of the technical challenges and added that for best results in criminal justice research, quantitative data needs to be supplemented by qualitative data to understand situational specificity. The example of a racial disproportionality in traffic tickets issued in Shoreline was brought up, and Dr. Helfgott explained how important it is to collect a lot of data to reflect all the variables. Deputy Mayor Scully recognized that there is always the possibility that the data may not indicate what you think it might be and there was conversation on the importance of gathering enough data and using research findings for informed policymaking.
Mr. Hammond asked for Dr. Helfgott’s perspective on the best questions to ask on community surveys to collect valuable data and she said capturing public safety scaled data is helpful.
Councilmember Chang said the City has the annual police report and the citywide survey and asked for resources or examples on what kind of questions (data) should be collected to do a better job at establishing scale. When asked for suggestions of the best ways to collect data, Dr. Helfgott recommended looking at agencies that have implemented good data collection practices and templates.
The discussion turned to current legislative activity and Ms. Briscoe said her personal experiences prompted the launch of Not This Time and she shared details of her advocacy work and gave an overview of Not This Time’s priorities and focus, stating that their goal is to infuse real life experiences into the policies around the use of force that are being adopted. Ms. Swanson described AWC’s process to establish police reform as one of their legislative priorities and said the overarching priority is to ask the State to set the standard for use of force while preserving the ability of local jurisdictions to have more restrictive standards if they choose to do so. She said the Legislative Priorities Committee and the Board of AWC feels this needs to be a statewide conversation and include the perspective of the legislature. She described her role in facilitating conversations regarding some House Bills and she is seeing the needed language changes being made. When asked what she thinks the result will be on the law enforcement related bills, Ms. Swanson said AWC supports 12 of the 15 Bills on the agenda and said she thinks there will be many bills that pass that touch upon aspects of the conversation. Councilmember McGlashan brought up questions about how the passage of House Bill 1202 would affect contract cities and Ms. Swanson recommended the City review its contract with the King County Sheriff’s Office and consulting with its City Attorney.
There was discussion regarding the role of collective bargaining agreements and unions in hindering agencies abilities to discipline or dismiss an employee and Ms. Swanson clarified that there would need to be a larger conversation at some point about the role of collective bargaining and unions, but it has not yet taken place.
Councilmember Chang spoke to the success of the Response Awareness, De-escalation And Referral program (RADAR) and other mental health support services and asked if there is any thought about expanding RADAR. Ms. Swanson described AWC’s advocacy for Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs’ co-responder program. She hopes the conversations in the legislature continue beyond this session.
Councilmember Robertson asked Ms. Briscoe for her perspective on priorities and how to fill the gaps, and Ms. Briscoe said that while there are no current bills focused on intervention, she is interested in continuing conversations about ways to be more responsive to people in a mental health crisis.
Councilmember Roberts noted that AWC opposes House Bill 1203, which requires larger cities to establish a community oversight board, and asked what the concerns are. Ms. Swanson shared aspects of the bill that concern AWC and added that they continue to have conversations to reach a compromise. Discussion turned toward impressions of community oversight boards and Mr. Hammond said next week’s panel will focus on civilian oversight. Deputy Mayor Scully observed that the City does not need a State mandate to include civilian oversight and he looks forward to discussing what Shoreline can do independently on the topic.
Mr. Hammond expressed thanks to the panel members and encouraged the Council to share any questions with him that stem from the conversation.
(b) Discussion of Ordinance No. 920 - Repealing and Replacing Shoreline Municipal Code Chapter 3.01 – Fee Schedule, Ordinance No. 921 - Establishing a Fee Schedule for Impact Fees, and Resolution No. 471 - Adopting a Fee Schedule
Margaret King, City Attorney, delivered the staff presentation. She explained that amending SMC Chapter 3.01 to allow for the adoption of the Fee Schedule (except for impact fees) would allow for a more timely and efficient process that would not impact the Budget Ordinance when amendments are needed. She explained that adoption of the three pieces of legislation are proposed to occur concurrently and she described the actions required for the amendment. Adopting Ordinance No. 920 would repeal and replace the existing SMC 3.01 and provide for the adoption of the fee schedule by Resolution and amend certain sections of the SMC to ensure correct citations based on the modification; adopting Ordinance No. 921 would establish the rates and costs for the City’s Impact Fees for 2021; and adopting Resolution No. 471 would establish the 2021 Fee Schedule.
Councilmember Roberts confirmed that Council would still have the final say in adopting fee schedules with these changes, and Ms. King said the only change is the action would be done by resolution instead of ordinance, and fees would not be tied to the budget ordinance. There was discussion on the designation of collection points in the fee waiver provision, and Ms. King replied that she will look into the reasons behind requirements for fee collection and the instances in which the City Manager can waive fees.
It was agreed that the adoption of Ordinances Nos. 920 and 921 and Resolution No. 471 would return as a Consent item.
10. ADJOURNMENT
At 8:36 p.m., Deputy Mayor declared the meeting adjourned.
/s/Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk