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09-13-2022 PRHSPSC MINS - Regular K:\PRHSPS Committee\2022\09-13-2022 Minutes.doc City of Federal Way City Council PARKS, RECREATION, HUMAN SERVICES & PUBLIC SAFETY COUNCIL COMMITTEE Tuesday, September 13, 2022 5:00 p.m. SUMMARY Committee Members Present: Chair Walsh, and Committee member Norton Committee Member Present via Zoom: Committee member Assefa-Dawson Council Members Present: Council President Kochmar and Deputy Mayor Honda Staff Members Present: Kent Van Alstyne, Assistant City Attorney, Deputy Chief of Police Steve Neal, Brian Davis, Interim City Administrator, Autumn Gressett, Contract Administrator, Jason Gerwen, Parks Deputy Director and Mary Jaenicke, Administrative Assistant II. Guests: Brian Hoffman, General Manager of Spectra, Board of Directors Mary Gates and Jeanne Burbidge from the Federal Way Performing Arts Foundation. Chair Walsh called the meeting to order at 5:00pm BUSINESS ITEMS Public Comment Susan Strong stated that Shopping carts are taken by the homeless to move their possessions around town. Possession of a shopping cart off the store property needs to be treated as a theft; there must be penalties for stealing a shopping cart. Without penalties the stealing will continue. Christine Smart, the Makerspace Librarian spoke about the Grand Opening to be held on September 17 at 10:30am. The mission of the Makerspace is to develop science, technology, engineering, arts and math skills at your community library. Ken Blevins: Spoke about how important the shopping cart ordinance is to the city. There are state laws that have the requirements that retailers are supposed to follow. He stated that many of the retailers are national chains and they place specific plaques on carts for each city; they buy them in bulk. He stated that it’s up to the city to explain exactly what we want from them. Anna Patrick stated that shopping carts are a huge problem and that they’ve been trying to solve this problem for a very long time. The city has been trying to address this in various ways; it’s not an easy solution. People that are walking around with shopping carts are stealing them and items in the cart are often stolen. If the shopping cart is labeled with the business and with the warning that that shopping cart belongs to the store it needs to go back to the store. Ms. Patrick added that city workers need to be empowered and able to tell them that the shopping cart does not belong to them and hand them a bag for their items and return the cart to the store. She is hoping that the city can come up with something feasible, but is aware that there is a staffing issue. Panhandling and people walking around with shopping carts full of stuff is not a good look for the city. Craig Patrick spoke in favor of a cart ordinance. He stated that he is not concerned with the taking of the carts, but if there’s an ordinance it would give the opportunity for city staff to engage with these individuals and see if they could benefit from services or contact them and see if they have any warrants or offer them other options other than a cart. He added that it’s not a good look for the city to have abandoned shopping carts or people pushing shopping carts around the city; it sends a message that we don’t care about the community. Geoffrey Tancredi stated that in the past few years there have been people walking around with the carts; they don’t look healthy and it’s not a good look for Federal Way. It’s also not good for them, many of PARKS, RECREATION, HUMAN SERVICES & PUBLIC SAFETY COUNCIL COMMITTEE Tuesday, September 13, 2022 Summary Page 2 them have drug problems. They need help and get off the street. He would like these individuals to be arrested or taken off the street and get them into treatment. Mr. Tancredi suggested taking the first two floors of the hotel that the city bought and turn them into treatment centers. Carolyn Hoover stated that she has very strong opinions about this issue as a business owner and a community resident. The business side of the shopping cart theft should be an easy conclusion. Laws of theft should be applied evenly no matter who you are. Stores have tried to deter the behavior and some stores have given up entirely. This ordinance is needed to help businesses. The homeless who are stealing carts do so to make the transportation of their belongings up and down the roads and into the woods. We don’t call it stealing because we think that’s compassionate to help them live this lifestyle when in reality we are enabling them. Ms. Hoover told a story about meeting a woman on the streets two years ago, who just a few months ago was given a shopping cart theft citation. Ms. Hoover has been accompanying her to court for the past month. This is the best chance for her to move forward in her life. She accepted the chance to defer her jail sentence to our community court. It is now up to her to take advantage of this opportunity. Approval of Minutes Committee member Norton motioned to approve the July 12, 2022 minutes as written. Committee member Assefa-Dawson seconded. Motion passed. Shopping Carts – Discussion Only Staff Davis reviewed the proposal that he received from Chair Walsh and Council member Dovey. He also provided statistics regarding shopping cart complaints and retrieval from January 2022 to August 2022. The average number of carts collected is 150 per month. City staff typically retrieve more carts than are actually complained about. There was an increase in the number of carts that were in seen in the City because of a staff shortage. Now that they’re fully staffed the number of complaints has decreased and the retrieval of carts has increased. Staff Davis stated that there are two issues: 1) the act of the people that we are dealing with and 2) shopping carts. Some people want to deal with both issues at the same time and others want to deal with the issues separately. He stated that the proposal needs to be reworked in order to work and he does not have an alternative solution at this time, but he would like to continue the conversations regarding this issue. Citing a person that cannot pay for it is ineffective and arresting them for an offense that the jail is not going keep them is also ineffective. It is a struggle to dedicate police resources to an end goal that is difficult to envision what it would result in. If it does go to court they can state that they didn’t steal it then they’ll be released if there are not any witnesses. A long discussion took place regarding the proposed ordinance. Council President Kochmar asked how does the city get the carts back to the stores without penalizing the store owners. She would like to have an ordinance on the books to be used as a tool. Staff Davis replied that he agrees, but he does not want to have an ordinance on the books that is not effective or enforceable. This program would require a full- time and a part-time staff person to collect the carts, inventory their belongings and a storage unit to store their belongings. Deputy Mayor Honda stated that it’s not a bad idea to have an ordinance against shopping cart theft and the proposed ordinance is a good start but it needs more work. Council President Kochmar suggested creating a task force for this issue. The task force would included store owners, members of the community, police and city staff. Staff Davis stated that the Supervisor of this program is also the Supervisor of the building division and he is down two staff on the building side. Staff Davis is currently trying to hire an Economic Development Director and doing the budget. He stated that he would have more time to focus on this issue once the vacant positions have been filled and he is thru the budget process and the Supervisor of the program would also have more time to sit down and talk and collaborate on this issue. He would like to come back to Council at the beginning of 2023. He does not want to take something that has not been vetted with the current operations and legal research and put it on the books just to have something on the books. Committee Chair Walsh is in agreement with creating a task force with representation from the stores, citizens, Council and staff. Committee member Assefa- Dawson stated that she is concerned about penalizing someone $500; it’s not realistic they cannot afford PARKS, RECREATION, HUMAN SERVICES & PUBLIC SAFETY COUNCIL COMMITTEE Tuesday, September 13, 2022 Summary Page 3 that. The cart is used to carry haul things around and she agrees with the suggestions of providing a duffel bag and perhaps that would minimize people needing a cart. She also suggested having someone that has experienced homelessness serve on the task force. Staff Davis would like to dedicate December, January and February to the development of an ordinance and report back to the committee in March with a proposal that works for everyone. Committee Chair Walsh would like to have a task force developed by December. Report on PAEC Operations Spectra General Manager Brian Hoffman provided an update on events that were held at the Performing Arts and Event Center (PAEC) for the month of June and July. The PAEC hosted two events in July and they were closed for a little over two weeks for their annual updates and maintenance. Some of the updates included painting the stage, annual inspection of the pit lift, fire alarm panel system and the elevators. They also attended various meetings throughout the month. The broken lobby window was replaced, landscaping was completed throughout the property and there were multiple fire calls for burning or smoldering beauty bark. Mr. Hoffman also reviewed the financials for June and July 2019 vs. 2022. Thru the end of the year they are forecasting to beat budget by about $150,000.00. They are about $90,000.00 up in gross revenues through July. In partnership with the Federal Way Performing Arts Foundation there will be the annual Gala Fundraiser at the PAEC on October 15th. Proceeds from the event will help support the Arts for Youth program. Jeanne Burbidge and Mary Gates were present to answer questions regarding the MOU between the Federal Way Performing Arts Foundation and the Arts Commission, provide an update on the upcoming gala and discuss how their mission benefits the Performing Arts and Event Center. The mission of the Performing Arts Foundation is to advance, enhance and enrich performing arts in the community. King County Registered Sex Offender Cost Reimbursement Agreement Deputy Chief Neal presented the background information. This is a grant that the department receives every year. The maximum amount of the grant is $16,982.87 and it is used to pay for officer overtime expenses incurred while verifying current addresses and residencies of sex and kidnaping offenders. Committee member Norton moved to forward the proposed agreement to the September 20, 2022, consent agenda for approval. Committee member Assefa-Dawson seconded. Motion passed. Agreement between the Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) and the Federal Way Police Department to Provide Grant Funding for Traffic Enforcement Deputy Chief Neal presented the background information. The City of Federal Way will receive $5,000 in grant money from WTSC to work overtime emphasis patrols focused on distracted driving enforcement. Committee member Norton moved to forward the IAA between WTSC and FWPD to the September 13, 2022 (September 20, 2022) (Scrivener Error) City Council Consent Agenda for approval. Committee member Assefa-Dawson seconded. Motion passed. Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force (PSATT) – 2022 Mini Grant Award Deputy Chief Neal presented the background information. The FWPD has been a member of the Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force for many years. Several agencies along with the State Patrol participate in this program. Committee member Norton moved to forward the proposed mini grant award for PSATT to the September 6, 2022 (September 20, 2022) (Scrivener Error) City Council Consent Agenda for approval. Committee member Assefa-Dawson seconded. Motion passed. CJTC BLEA TAC – Officer Agreement Deputy Chief Neal presented the background information. The TAC officers are made up from Police Officers around the state. There is only one academy in the state of Washington. The academy depends on departments that have the ability to send someone to become an instructor. This will save the City the salary and benefits in exchange for one FWPD officer being assigned as a TAC-officer at the academy. PARKS, RECREATION, HUMAN SERVICES & PUBLIC SAFETY COUNCIL COMMITTEE Tuesday, September 13, 2022 Summary Page 4 Having a FWPD TAC-officer at the BLEA benefits the agency by way of priority enrollment for student officers from our agency; the normal wait time is 4-6 months. Committee member Norton moved to forward the proposed agreement to the September 20, 2022, consent agenda for approval. Committee member Assefa-Dawson seconded. Motion passed. Contracted Electrical Services Request for Quotes Staff Gerwen provided the background information. The City has used contracted electrical services for as-needed routine electrical repairs and maintenance at all City of Federal Way facilities. We are required to re-bid this type of service every three years. Committee member Norton moved to forward the proposed request for quotes to the September 20, 2022, consent agenda for approval. Committee member Assefa-Dawson seconded. Motion passed. Other Business None NEXT REGULAR MEETING September 13, 2022 ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 6:38 p.m.