CITY OF SHORELINE

 

SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL

SUMMARY MINUTES OF DINNER MEETING

 

Monday, March 28, 2005                                                                                                       

Shoreline Conference Center

6:00 p.m.  Highlander Room

 

 

PRESENT:       Mayor Hansen, Deputy Mayor Jepsen, Councilmembers Chang, Fimia, Grace, Gustafson, and Ransom

 

ABSENT:        none

 

STAFF:            Steve Burkett, City Manager; Julie Modrzejewski, Assistant City Manager; and Joyce Nichols, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Director

 

GUEST:           Karen Goroski, Executive Director of the Suburban Cities Association

 

 

All Councilmembers were present with the exceptions of Mayor Hansen and Councilmember Ransom, who arrived later in the meeting. 

 

Steve Burkett, City Manager, Joyce Nichols, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Director, and Councilmember Rich Gustafson introduced Karen Goroski, Executive Director of the Suburban Cities Association (SCA), noting that Ms. Goroski has been attending Council meetings of all the SCA member cities to introduce herself and discuss issues and changes at SCA.

 

Ms. Goroski gave a brief summary of her background, which includes 16 years working in the field of ageing.  She said that at the SCA board retreat last June, it was decided that SCA should make some changes and restructure itself to meet changing conditions in King County.  She was hired in August and asked to implement the changes the board decided upon.  Some of these  changes include:

 

  • Board will focus on policy-making;
  • weighted voting has been eliminated;
  • the population cap for assessments is 80,000;
  • the Board as a group votes on the budget;
  • the City Managers Group now has a seat on the SCA Board; and
  • a new Public Issues Committee was formed, made up of one representative and one alternate from each city.  All cities have one vote.  The PIC is charged with formulating public policy positions to recommend to the SCA Board.  The PIC meets monthly and members have the following month to discuss issues with their respective city councils and report back to the full group.

 

Councilmember Ransom arrived at 6:40 p.m. and Mayor Hansen at 6:45 p.m.

 

Ms. Goroski continued that SCA would serve a dual role in of addressing public policy issues and providing networking opportunities.  She distributed schedules for both the PIC and networking meetings for 2005.  She said she and the SCA Board President, Mary Alice Burleigh, Mayor of Kirkland, have scheduled monthly meetings with Ron Sims, King County Executive, to discuss issues of mutual concern.  This is key because so many issues involve King County.  One of the outcomes of these meetings is a planned session hosted by SCA for SCA elected officials and staff and King County staff.  She said she would like to establish and publish an agenda for the meeting and will be meeting with the City Managers Group in the near future to discuss possible agenda items.

 

Deputy Mayor Jepsen expressed his appreciation for SCA involving the city managers more in the work of SCA.  He was also pleased that SCA is working to be more proactive on issues.  He reminded the group that when SCA has been proactive (e.g., in regional finance and governance), it has had more success.  He asked if SCA could take up the issue of regulation of motorized scooters; or, failing that, develop more of a regional approach on this issue.

 

Ms. Goroski suggested that the City include scooter regulations as one of its top three issues to bring forward to SCA.

 

Councilmember Fimia said that the State Legislature has not moved on the issue due to lack of agreement about who should do the regulating. 

 

Councilmember Grace said that Shoreline can work with other neighboring areas on a scooter ordinance.

 

Mr. Burkett noted that he had read recently that the state group that is involved with monitoring and improving the health of Puget Sound reported to the governor on Puget Sound.  He cited this as an example of an issue that is important to our long term health, safety and economy.

 

Councilmember Gustafson said the PIC is working on issue identification to allow cities to affect the regional agenda and get out ahead of issues.

 

General discussion followed on which issues Shoreline would suggest SCA get involved in.  The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. after Councilmembers thanked Ms. Goroski for coming to tonight’s meeting and for her presentation.

 

__________________________________________________________

Joyce Nichols, Communications and Intergovernmental Relations Director