CITY OF SHORELINE
SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL
Monday, April 27, 2020 Held Remotely via Zoom
7:00 p.m.
PRESENT: Mayor Hall, Deputy Mayor Scully, Councilmembers McConnell, McGlashan, Chang, Robertson, and Roberts
ABSENT: None.
1. CALL TO ORDER
At 7:00 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Mayor Hall who presided.
2. ROLL CALL
Upon roll call by the City Clerk, all Councilmembers were present.
Mayor Hall reflected on the loss of lives to COVID-19 in the past weeks, offered condolences to those affected, and urged everyone to stay home and stay safe.
(a) National Bike Month Proclamation
Mayor Hall announced that he has proclaimed May as National Bike Month in Shoreline. He thanked all the Councilmembers who have supported the development of the City’s bicycle network.
3. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER
Debbie Tarry, City Manager, provided reports, resources, and updates on the City’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. She outlined the guidelines of the Phase 1 construction restarts and ways to report noncompliance. Ms. Tarry shared information regarding city-sponsored online surveys open for public input.
4. COUNCIL REPORTS
Councilmember Chang said she attended the King County Metro virtual Town Hall. She said it was reported that there has been a definite drop in ridership during the pandemic and described Metro’s efforts to keep drivers and riders safe. She reported on their funding deficits and need to make budget cuts because of the loss of ridership.
5. PUBLIC COMMENT
Kathleen Russell, Shoreline resident and representative of Save Shoreline Trees, said the Sustainability Report lacks information about the valuable contributions of existing trees. She asked that the City share with the public what public-property trees are scheduled for removal.
6. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
The agenda was approved by unanimous consent.
7. CONSENT CALENDAR
Upon motion by Deputy Mayor Scully and seconded by Councilmember Chang and unanimously carried, 7-0, the following Consent Calendar items were approved:
(a) Approving Minutes of Regular Meeting of March 2, 2020
(b) Approving Expenses and Payroll as of April 10, 2020 in the Amount of $1,387,026.82
(d) Approving the PTE Program Contract for the Alexan Shoreline Project Located at 15560 Westminster Way N
8. STUDY ITEMS
(a) Discussing the Sustainability Report
Autumn Salamack, Environmental Services Coordinator, delivered the staff presentation. Ms. Salamack described the City’s history of leadership in sustainability and said this is the first formal report on annual activities and accomplishments in support of the City’s sustainability goals. She said the report provides an overview of the achievements in the focus areas of climate, water, and energy; materials, food, and waste; transportation and mobility; trees, parks, and ecosystems; and resilient communities. She explained that the sustainability indicators were developed by the employee Green Team. She listed the 2019 key achievements as goals being met ahead of schedule for four of the 22 indicators and obtaining Salmon-Safe Certification, and then she recapped some of the successes in 2019.
Ms. Salamack shared the next steps for 2020 and reviewed some of the planned opportunities for community education and involvement. She thanked the members of the employee Green Team for their contributions and commended the Shoreline community for doing its part to help the City meet its sustainability goals. She said more information is available on the Sustainable Shoreline website.
The Councilmembers expressed a general appreciation for the presentation and accessibility of information in the report.
Councilmember Robertson asked how to get the information in the report out to the community. Ms. Salamack replied that the online version is available and offered to explore the creation of a print summation. It was noted that the planned celebration of the one-millionth tree planting has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Councilmember Robertson asked for the status of the study on the perceived barriers around food waste and Ms. Salamack said she would make it available to the Council.
Councilmember Robertson asked how water usage by sector will be analyzed. Ms. Salamack said that both of Shoreline’s water utility companies were not able to provide data on water usage by sector because of a change in measuring mechanisms. She added that the City would be having conversations with the providers to determine how to get the information needed to develop a meaningful water use indicator. Councilmember Robertson asked when to expect the next report, and Ms. Salamack said around Earth Day, annually.
Councilmember McConnell said she is concerned that only single-family homes are doing well in contaminant levels in recycling. She said if this keeps up, as the City grows and more commercial and multifamily housing open, the City might move father from its goal. She confirmed that it is Recology’s responsibility to encourage customers to meet recycling goals. Ms. Salamack said that aspect is a key component of the City’s contract with Recology. She shared that a new contamination monitoring protocol that specifically targets multifamily and commercial properties has been delayed due to the impacts of the pandemic. She said the City is working closely with Recology to determine ways to work with multifamily housing and apartment complexes to address some of the unique challenges in tenant recycling. She said when Recology can return to normal operations they will resume visual assessments of dumpsters and will be working with property managers to educate tenants to improve the outcomes as needed. She explained the planned repercussion that if a property receives three evaluations with contaminants over five percent, they would be charged to have the recycling removed as waste.
Councilmember Roberts suggested sharing the information in smaller nuggets via social media rather than sending the whole report at once. He said it is a challenge to meet the City’s climate change goals and wondered what can be done to beef up the work towards reducing its carbon footprint. Ms. Salamack said oftentimes change begins by starting with smaller, accessible actions to engage community members, but the big actions that are needed are much larger, long term, investments of resources. She said she hopes that the Shoreline Climate Challenge will spark conversation in the community and provide information and ideas on ways to lower one’s carbon footprint.
Councilmember Roberts said policy discussions should include what the City can do to get people off oil heat and if there should be a requirement that every new garage offers electric car charging. Recognizing the earlier public comments, he said he would like to see the metrics of comparing public and private tree removal versus tree plantings in the City.
Deputy Mayor Scully observed that it is difficult to focus limited resources when there are so many potential ways to direct efforts. He said he hopes the City evaluates oil heating usage, and if it is determined that reduction would make a difference, he would like to know how to make it happen. Second, he said he is troubled about the reports of contaminants in recycling in multifamily properties but recognized that pure enforcement is not ideal. Finally, he agreed that tree planting is a priority and he would love to see work done in conjunction with neighborhood groups to get more trees planted in neighborhoods.
Mayor Hall said he is interested in looking at how the City stops putting fossil fuel combustion in new construction before looking at retrofitting, from a cost-benefit perspective. He agreed that it would be helpful to try to quantify the tree impacts and identify ways to measure them.
Councilmember McConnell reflected on the significant budget discussions to happen in the next year or so and asked about the likelihood of meeting the goal of obtaining more park acreage. She also said she imagines it will be difficult to meet the sidewalk improvements goal. Ms. Salamack said she anticipates that next year there will be renewed community conversations about how to adapt and update the Climate Action Plan and where the focus should be, as well as evaluating if the existing indicators need to be adjusted. Ms. Tarry said that the City is the recipient of Conservation Futures funding that will go toward the acquisition of a few properties throughout Shoreline to add to the park inventory, but it remains to be seen if it will meet the goal of five acres by 2023. She said at the Council Strategic Planning Workshop the Council had discussed a potential Park Improvement/Property Acquisition Bond Measure, which will be considered for inclusion on the November ballot but may be delayed as the City assesses the impacts of COVID-19. She said the sales tax measure that was approved by voters will continue to fund the priority sidewalk improvements and added that new development, including that in the Light Rail Station areas, also brings new sidewalks.
9. ADJOURNMENT
At 7:47 p.m., Mayor Hall declared the meeting adjourned.
/s/Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk