SUMMARY MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING

The purpose of these minutes is to capture a high-level summary of Council’s discussion and action. This is not a verbatim transcript. Meeting video and audio is available on the City’s website.

Monday, August 8, 2022 Council Chambers - Shoreline City Hall

7:00 p.m. 17500 Midvale Avenue North

PRESENT: Mayor Scully, Councilmembers McConnell, Mork, Roberts, Pobee, and Ramsdell

ABSENT: Deputy Mayor Robertson

1. CALL TO ORDER

At 7:00 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Mayor Scully who presided.

2. ROLL CALL

Upon roll call by the City Clerk, all Councilmembers were present except for Deputy Mayor Robertson.

Councilmember McConnell moved to excuse Deputy Mayor Robertson for personal reasons. The motion was seconded and approved by unanimous consent.

3. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

The agenda was approved by unanimous consent.

4. REPORT OF CITY MANAGER

Debbie Tarry, City Manager, reported on various City meetings, projects, and events.

5. COUNCIL REPORTS

There were no reports from Council.

6. PUBLIC COMMENT

The Council heard comments from the public from approximately 7:03 p.m. to 7:06 p.m. Written comments were also submitted to Council prior to the meeting and are available on the City’s website.

Nancy Morris, Shoreline resident, expressed the need to address the climate emergency and protect established trees for the sake of the youth.

7. CONSENT CALENDAR

Upon motion by Councilmember Pobee and seconded and unanimously carried, 6-0, the following Consent Calendar items were approved:

(a) Approval of Minutes of Regular Meeting of July 18, 2022

(b) Approval of Expenses and Payroll as of July 22, 2022 in the Amount of $5,871,671.98

*Payroll and Benefits:
	Payroll Period	Payment Date	EFT Numbers (EF)	Payroll Checks (PR)	Benefit Checks (AP)	Amount Paid
	6/26/22 - 7/9/22	7/15/2022	103352-103604	17887-17907	86239-86244	$926,705.00
	6/26/22 - 7/9/22	7/21/2022			WT1276-WT1277	$118,827.91
						$1,045,532.91

*Wire Transfers:
			Expense Register Dated	Wire Transfer Number		Amount Paid
			7/15/2022	WT1275		$855,937.48
						$855,937.48
*Accounts Payable Claims:
			Expense Register Dated	Check Number (Begin)	Check Number (End)	Amount Paid
			7/13/2022	86106	86140	$578,662.06
			7/12/2022	80969	80969	($351.00)
			7/13/2022	86141	86141	$351.00
			7/13/2022	86142	86167	$53,670.36
			7/13/2022	86168	86168	$1,667.70
			7/20/2022	86169	86199	$1,035,576.02
			7/20/2022	86200	86238	$2,300,625.45
						$3,970,201.59

(c) Adoption of Ordinance No. 970 – Amending the 2021-2022 Biennial Budget (Ordinance No. 945)

(d) Authorize the City Manager to Approve Real Property Acquisitions for the 145th Corridor Phase 1 Project in the Amount of $18,000 for the Property Located at 2356 N 145th Street

8. STUDY ITEMS

(a) Discussion of the 2021 Police Service Report

Interim Chief Ryan Abbott described the staffing of the Shoreline Police Department. The Department consists of 54 full-time equivalent positions but vacancies are high at 12 unfilled positions. Police are operating at minimal levels due to the staffing shortage but a full-time recruiter joined the Department to help increase staff levels. In order to prioritize 9-1-1 calls, officers have been removed from the traffic unit to fill patrol unit needs. The Department intends to reestablish the traffic unit when staffing is built back up. Interim Chief Abbott explained the average response time for service calls. The highest priority calls were responded to in 4 minutes and 23 seconds on average. This average was 7 minutes and 39 seconds for mid-priority calls and 9 minutes and 78 seconds for routine service calls. Eight hate crimes were reported in 2021.

Captain Kelly Park stated that officers responded to 14,575 9-1-1 calls and 8,855 instances of police-initiated activity in 2021. An additional 105 Alternate Call Handling reports made up a total of 23,430 police contacts for that year. Of that total, 748 interactions resulted in arrests and 10 (or 0.043%) involved use of force. Pain or injury complaints were made for five of the force instances.

Captain Park also reported that commercial burglaries are up 72% and residential burglaries are up 29%. She said she believes this is due to businesses opening back up and people returning to work. She then spoke about the Response Awareness De-Escalation and Referral (RADAR) program. In 2021, RADAR made 514 contacts in Shoreline. Of the interactions, 20% involved individuals with major mental health issues and 35% were experiencing homelessness. Navigators were able to connect 35% of people with community services.

Captain Park noted that in 2021, traffic collisions increased to 361 from 345 in 2020. Traffic citations decreased 92% from 1,347 in 2020 to 408 in 2021. Interim Chief Abbott explained that for police-initiated traffic stops, data shows that black individuals were disproportionately ticketed in 2020 and 2021. He stated that the City Manager, the future Police Chief, and himself are committed to take steps to change the trend of structural racism.

A Councilmember asked who was most impacted by commercial burglaries, and Captain Park answered that there were two significant cases on Aurora but no particular type of business was more impacted. Interim Chief Abbott and Captain Park were asked to provide an explanation of the partnership between police and mental health professionals. Captain Park shared success stories where officers were able to build a relationship with an individual after referring them to mental health and community services. Following a question about vandalism in the City, Captain Park clarified that vandalism has not increased and explained that Retired Sergeant Paul Klein often worked to clean up graffiti in parks without making a police report. Since his departure, officers are doing what they can to patrol parks and report graffiti incidences. They are working closely with Parks, Fleet, and Facilities Manager, Nick Borer, and the Code Enforcement and Customer Response Team to clean up vandalism.

Mayor Scully commented that 12 police officer vacancies is a crisis. He mentioned the push to increase diversity in Police but noted the need to recruit qualified individuals and encouraged the officers to reach out to Council for support to do so. Mayor Scully advised that stop data be used opposed to citation data in order to clarify racial disparities. He also suggested that expert consultation is necessary to address institutional racism. Mail theft was brought up as a concern but Captain Park stated that the there has not been a significant increase in the issue. Mayor Scully pointed out that Shoreline does not have a receiving facility for individuals experiencing mental health crisis. He said Shoreline is working with other cities to establish a mental heath crisis center but recruiting qualified staff is the priority.

(b) Discussion of the Update of the Wastewater Rate Study – General Facility Charges

Administrative Services Director, Sara Lane, said this installment of the wastewater rate study presentation will focus on revising the General Facilities Charge (GFC) and policy updates. Tage Aaker, Project Manager at FCS Group (FCSG) clarified that the General Facilities Charge is a one-time charge, not the ongoing rate. It will provide revenue for capital projects as growth occurs while recovering proportionate share of cost of capacity from growth. He noted that State Law requires that property owners bear their equitable share of the cost. Per the RCW, the study was able to be calculated with a 20-year plan and exclude grant funded or donated facilities to keep on the conservative side of the calculation.

Currently, the City’s GFC is $3,012 per residential customer equivalent (RCE). The updated charge would be a maximum of $4,351 per RCE. This cost was calculated by adding the existing cost basis of $40.3 million with the future cost basis of $96.5 million and dividing that by the future system capacity of 31,443 per RCE. The GFC for the City of Edmonds Wastewater Treatment Plant (Edmonds WWTP) is currently $2,505 per RCE. Using the same calculation method, the updated maximum GFC for Edmonds WWTP is $3,377. Customers serviced by King County Wastewater Treatment Division (KC WTD) pay a separate wastewater capacity charge equivalent to $12,670. Key Drivers to the GFC increases include:

· Reviewing and updating the Capital Improvement Plan to 2021 dollars.

· Utilizing a 20-year Capital Improvement Plan.

· Incorporating 2021 booked assets and construction work in progress.

· Calculating an additional year of interest on eligible assets.

· Updating the King County and Edmonds RCE counts.

Ms. Lane reviewed the policy changes made in response to Council comments from the previous presentation. Staff revised their recommendation on the credit card processing fee, and now recommend the fee be reinstated as credit cards are not a predominant payment method. Staff also recommends reinstating the $11 refund request fee for open accounts. The fee would be waived when an account is being closed. The reasoning for this is the cost of providing refunds is significant and encouraging account credits is more cost-effective. Staff updated the recommended policy for interest fees so they are only charged on accounts that are sent

to collections and have not implemented or are out of compliance with a payment agreement.

Ms. Lane explained that the original recommendation to eliminate credit card processing fees was to encourage credit card payments. Credit cards account for a small percentage of payments due to clunky qualities of the current processing system. Staff have a plan to update the processing system and will revisit this policy at that time.

Responding to a question about implementing the GFC, Mr. Aaker confirmed that the Capital Improvement Plan assumes a 41% increase in RCE over the next 20 years. The GFC will be imposed only on new developments and some cases of redevelopment. A Councilmember asked if the GFC will be modified to align with the King County model rather than a single-family or commercial distinction. FCSG Senior Program Manager, Gordon Wilson, clarified that the City already has adjusted to defined RCE for the purposes of calculating the GFC in a way that aligns with King County. He explained that the RCE for the purposes of calculating capacity charges is different than the RCE used in monthly rates. The relevant RCE in this case is the one used for GFC.

Councilmember Roberts and Mork shared support for the staff recommendations on the policy issues.

9. ADJOURNMENT

At 8:00 p.m., Mayor Scully declared the meeting adjourned.

/s/ Jessica Simulcik Smith, City Clerk