CITY OF SHORELINE
SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL
SUMMARY MINUTES OF STUDY SESSION
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 - 6:30 p.m.
Shoreline Conference Center
Mt. Rainier Room
PRESENT: Mayor Ryu, Deputy Mayor Scott, Councilmember Hansen, Councilmember McGlashan, Councilmember Way, Councilmember McConnell, and Councilmember Eggen.
ABSENT: None.
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At 6:35 p.m., the meeting was called to order by Mayor Ryu, who presided.
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Mayor Ryu led the flag salute. Upon roll call by the City Clerk, all Councilmembers were present.
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Mayor Ryu proclaimed the day of January 22, 2008 as “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day” throughout the City of Shoreline and presented the proclamation to Sigrid Batara, Teen Program Advisor and members of “Open Your Eyes” (O.Y.E.).
Ms. Batara and two O.Y.E. members thanked the Mayor and the Council for the proclamation and discussed what Martin Luther King, Jr. Day means to them.
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Bob Olander, City Manager, reported on the following City meetings, projects, and events:
· Citizen applications for the Long-Range Financial Planning Advisory Committee are due Friday, January 25 by 5:00 p.m.
· The City of Shoreline, together with CH2M Hill won the 2007 ARTBA-TDF “Globe Award”, which honors excellence in environmental protection and mitigation, for the Aurora Multimodal and Interurban Bridge Project.
· The next regular meeting of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Board will be held Thursday, January 24 at 7:00 p.m.
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Councilmember Way reported that she attended the WRIA-8 meeting and they approved the grant application to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today, she said she testified in Olympia concerning the Evergreen Cities bill which assists cities in inventorying their forests.
Councilmember McGlashan stated that he attended the Shoreline Water District meeting and they are working on their Comprehensive Plan (CP) which will be adopted by the City when it is completed. He stated the only difference in this new CP is that they are centering it on economic development instead of self-improvement.
Councilmember Eggen commented that he attended the WRIA-8 and the Suburban Cities Association Public Issues Committee meeting. He said the Public Issues Committee meeting involved a modification to the Good Samaritan law that allows retired medical personnel to assist in emergency situations and be covered by insurance.
Mayor Ryu stated that she attended the Richmond Beach Neighborhood Association meeting, where the issue of Point Wells was discussed. She said that King County residents may become parties of record by contacting Snohomish County with comments. She said she also went to a Shoreline Historical Museum exhibit called “Faces of Our Community: Connecting Through Story.” She reported on her attendance at the SeaShore Transportation Forum and gave a brief update.
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a) Dennis Lee, Shoreline, expressed concern that residents do not understand the topic of Community Business (CB) and Regional Business (RB) zoning. He suggested that the City revert back to the comprehensive plan framework goals and make the development code go back to it.
b) Les Nelson, Shoreline, agreed with the previous speaker, adding that the public is not aware of the many different City meetings and topics. He asked if the City could prohibit a developer from charging a fee for parking. He concluded that on-street parking issues could be rectified if the City could force developers to provide free parking for tenants.
c) Pat Murray, Shoreline, said the developers of Arabella didn’t have any issues displacing their own residents to park on the street. However, they have the audacity to come to the Council and ask for tax exemptions to build another parking garage. He opposed the idea of giving them a tax exemption unless they take care of their tenants’ needs.
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Jesus Sanchez, Public Works Operations Manager, Jerry Shuster, Public Works Surface Water Manager and Jerry Hardabeck, Chief Operating Officer of Cleanscapes, reviewed the key issues that were brought up during the last Council meeting when the Cleanscapes contract was approved.
Mr. Hardabeck highlighted that no Waste Management employees will be displaced due to the Cleanscapes contract; Cleanscapes has hired employees and is fully staffed to begin the contract. It is anticipated that all the drivers will unionize and their terms will be finalized. He reported that the containers and carts are currently being stored at Aldercrest Elementary School. He reported that residents will receive carts and information about the transition in the next few weeks. Mr. Hardabeck said that the trucks should be built and delivered by February 13, adding that all of them will be equipped to run on bio-diesel. He thanked Waste Management and said they have been extremely cooperative with the transfer of the billing data and customer service information. He complimented Rika Cecil for her assistance in putting together the public education plan.
Deputy Mayor Scott inquired about oil and fluorescent bulb recycling. Mr. Hardabeck responded that the specific instructions are covered in the packets and on the website. He added that used motor oil can be placed in milk jugs, and any fluorescent bulbs and tubes wrapped in newspapers can be collected. He noted that the recycling is included with the commercial garbage service accounts. He pointed out that reducing waste costs for businesses and residents can be accomplished through recycling. He added that Cleanscapes representatives will also be visiting the commercial customers to determine if more of the garbage can be removed and put into their recycle containers or into a food waste service. He said he expects a large landfill reduction in Shoreline from products being transitioned into recyclables.
Deputy Mayor Scott inquired if Cleanscapes is getting the appropriate data in order to compare the amount of landfill the City presently generates with what it might generate in the future. Mr. Sanchez replied that Waste Management will provide the City with the baseline data, which will also be broken down into different measurement points.
Mr. Hardabeck explained the ease of use of the Cleanscapes’ Shoreline website, which is specifically set up for Shoreline residents. He said the information will be linked so it can be accessed from the City’s main website. He explained the transition timetable and apologized that residents will have to store the carts before the service starts. He noted that the first collection day will be March 3, 2008.
Mr. Sanchez added that he is scheduled to meet with all of the Cleanscapes employees to translate the City’s philosophy on customer service.
Mayor Ryu called for public comment.
a) Richard Johnson, Shoreline, asked questions about the new service.
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Joe Tovar, Planning and Development Services Director, discussed the background of the City’s Sustainability Strategy and highlighted projects and the status of the overall strategy. He noted that the City has created two committees to work on this goal: one is the Sustainability Team run by the City Manager and certain department heads; and the other is the Goal 6 Team made up of City staff. He introduced Juniper Nammi, Associate Planner, who provided an outline of the draft strategy.
Ms. Nammi highlighted the steps that have been taken so far in the process, including the public meetings held by the committees. She explained that the Strategy is in the beginning of the process and hoped to have a draft ready for the public review by mid-March. There will be a public hearing on April 14 and a Council discussion on April 21 with the intent of bringing it back for Council adoption in May. She noted that several of the strategies are already underway, such as the Cleanscapes contract and the urban forestry assessment. She then outlined the mission statement and the guiding principles. She introduced Gabe Snedecker, consultant with AHBL, and Kathleen O’Brien, from O’Brien & Company.
Mr. Snedecker reviewed the sustainability strategy highlights. He explained the environmental priorities in the guiding principles, noting that they have been refined into a set of focus areas that are easy to understand and which are interrelated. He reviewed the focus areas, defined the key terms of the strategy, and explained the relationships between those terms.
Ms. O’Brien complimented the City staff and highlighted the implementation capacity assessment, which is the process of evaluating the capacity for implementing a specific recommendation or action. She explained the three methodologies which make up the assessment.
Councilmember Hansen commented that the word “sustainable” appears in so many places in the document that it seems to lose its meaning. He noted that some of the practices that the City has in place are already sustainable so he felt the term was overused. He also felt that an expenditure of 30% over what the City currently pays for a service or item is more than a medium overage. He felt that any expenditure over 10% should be deemed as being in the medium range. He supported the overall strategy and said he would feel more comfortable when concrete examples are available.
Councilmember Eggen stated that expenditures are important, but the cost benefits derived from them are also important. He said he would like to see what the cost benefit is after the expenditures are made.
Councilmember Hansen added that he would like to see cost savings as a result after the policies are implemented. He commented that it is more important to save money rather than spend it.
Councilmember Way said she is excited about the report but it is challenging to locate the different sections of the report. She recommended the report to the public.
Mr. Olander summarized that this is just a compilation of priorities and discipline papers, not necessarily a report. He added that the draft and final products will be in a readable form. He emphasized that a starting point needs to be determined based on Council priorities. He added that costs, data, benefit data, and assessment criteria will help the City make those decisions. This will then provide direction to staff on projects for next year. He appreciated the assessment criteria concept displayed by the consultant.
Mr. Snedecker highlighted that the City can utilize this to make more sustainable decisions and to assess implementation costs and benefits. He added that he will ensure the benefits are summarized so the comparison is obvious. He clarified that the strategy is not a “shadow capital improvement plan” or a parallel budget.
Ms. O’Brien noted that it is critical to look at all of the elements together. She explained that sometimes it is a “deal breaker” for a municipality to increase their expenditures by 30% to implement sustainable practices. She then discussed the focus area examples which contained sample objectives and recommendations for each area.
Mr. Olander noted that a lot of the focus area examples have already been undertaken by the City. He mentioned the funding set aside in the Parks bond for trail connectivity, LEED Certification on the new City Hall/Civic Center, the addition of electrical outlets in the parking garage of the City Hall for new electric vehicles, and the new bio-diesel trucks that will be operating through the waste management services contract with CleanScapes.
Mayor Ryu called for public comment.
a) Maryn Wynn, Shoreline, appreciated the City for this initiative, adding that the King County Council has approved money for the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce to develop a business sustainability program. She said it will be utilized to promote “green” business practices for the City of Shoreline.
b) Wendy DiPeso, Shoreline, stated that this is exciting and will be great for the region. This is a way of measuring what makes a community healthy, she stated. She added that the City needs to ensure the residents are informed because there are issues that will need to be addressed. One of those issues is the need for land use controls during which time a Comprehensive Plan review can take place.
c) Dennis Lee, Shoreline, commented on the difficulty of evaluating the real benefits. He gave an example of the costs expended to rehabilitate criminal offenders and whether or not they come back into society reformed. He asked how the return will be measured on the funds spent towards sustainability when it is so difficult to identify the issues.
Councilmember Eggen thanked the consultant for the examples. He stated that there are more than monetary benefits to this strategy.
Councilmember Way discussed her concerns with street trees, natural drainage systems, the formation of a tree ordinance, and having an environmental quality commission in the City. She speculated about whether the City could derive a funding source by attaching an additional fee to building permits.
Mr. Olander stated that the strategy is not developed at a high level of detail yet. He added that there are potential funding sources that need to be explored to offset some of the programs discussed.
Mayor Ryu inquired if concrete examples of successfully implemented ideas could be emphasized in the document. She said it helps Councilmembers and the residents understand why this is being done, why the funding is needed, and what the cost/benefit is in implementation. She added that there should be a comparison of how much cheaper it is to address sustainability implementation and be proactive rather than being reactive and having to fix problems in the future.
Ms. Nammi summarized that the next steps will be creating the draft Sustainability Strategy from the comments received from the Parks Board, Planning Commission, and the Council.
RECESS
At 9:16 p.m., Mayor Ryu called for a seven minute recess. The Council meeting reconvened at 9:24 p.m.
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Mr. Olander explained that there are five (5) Planning Commissioners who have terms that expire March 31, 2008. The vacancies will be advertised February 4 – 22 with the application process ending on February 22. He said in the past the Council appointed a subcommittee to review all of the applications and have an interview process where a short list is recommended to the full Council. He said the staff recommendation is to utilize the same process.
Mayor Ryu called for public comment. There was no one wishing to provide public comment on this item. Mayor Ryu solicited for Council volunteers for the Planning Commission Appointment Committee. The volunteers were Deputy Mayor Scott, Councilmembers Eggen, McGlashan, Way, and McConnell. Mayor Ryu volunteered for the Library Board. She appointed herself, Councilmember Eggen, and Councilmember McGlashan for the Library Board and Deputy Mayor Scott, Councilmember Way, and Councilmember McConnell for the Planning Commission Appointment Committee.
Mr. Olander briefly reviewed citizen qualifications for the Planning Commission and the Library Board.
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At 9:42 p.m., Mayor Ryu declared the meeting adjourned.
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Scott Passey, City Clerk