FEDRAC MINS 06-25-2002
City of Federal Way
City Council
Finance/Economic Development/Regional Affairs Committee
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
3:00 p.m.
City Hall
Mt. Baker Conference Room
MINUTES
Committee Members in Attendance: Chair Michael Hellickson, Member Eric Faison.
City Council Members in Attendance: Mayor Jeanne Burbidge, Councilmember Linda Kochmar.
Staff Members in Attendance: Iwen Wang, Management Services Director; David Moseley, City Manager;
Derek Matheson, Assistant City Manager; Pat Richardson, Deputy City Attorney; Michael Olson, Deputy Director
of Management Services; Patrick Doherty, Deputy Director of Community Development; Mehdi Sadri, Information
Ser vices Man ager ; Jason Suzaka, Man agemen t An alyst.
Others in Attendance: Lon Hurd, The 3-H Company.
1. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Michael Hellickson called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. Member Mary Gates was excused due
to illness.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a) Approval of the May 28, 2002 meeting minutes
Motion to approve May 28, 2002 meeting minutes. Seconded and approved.
b) Legislative and Regional Affairs Update
Presented by Der ek Math eson
A group is pushing Refer endum 51, which contains a number of transportation projects,
including $3 million for the triangle study (I-5, and Highways 18 and 161). The city is taking a
hands-off approach, but is monitoring the situation closely. There is also a regional
transportation initiative out that the city is very involved in.
The Regional Transportation Investment District Board, which contains the county
councilmembers from King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, met in Bellevue last week to
discuss the proposed regional transportation plan. The general consensus is that the group
needed to make a decision soon on wh eth er to place it on th e ballot. However , because of a
number of uncertainties (project lists, costs, time, campaigning etc.), there is a lot of skepticism
that it will be placed on the ballot. A decision will most likely take place shortly. The city would
support postponed its placement, as they would like to see how voters react to the state
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transportation plan in November, and to work with the legislature to fix what the city views as
flaws in the bill.
Mr. Faison commented that it is also important to mention the 312th – 320th 6 year TIP study,
along with the triangle study.
Doug Levy (l obbyi st for t h e ci t y) h a s st a r t ed wor k on l egi sl a t i ve a gen da for 2003. Mr. Matheson
is working with Mr. Levy to try and prepare it by September for FEDRAC and full council.
The Regional Policy Committee is working on human services issues, and specifically how the
county’s budget problem is going to lead to them cutting human services programs. The city is
probably going to play a part in forming the work plan, but will likely not take a leadership role.
Metropolitan Parks Task Force has been studying what to do with the county’s parks system.
The task force has made a number of options, including shifting the parks to the cities themselves
to run. The next step is for the county executive to review the recommendations and make a
decision. Meanwhile the county parks department is contacting cities about their parks.
c) Amen dmen t of Feder al Way Ch amber Con tr act
Presented by Patrick Doherty
Mr. Doherty reviewed the contract and amendment with the committee. Committee asked staff
to add commas to the dollar amounts for consistency.
The committee asked if there is work being done by the Chamber that could be done in-house to
save money. Staff replied that the Chamber is better suited because they have a larger pool of
resources to handle the workload and that the amount of work that would need to be done would
take up too much staff time to be effective.
The committee requested that staff bring back a report showing an accounting of what types of
work the city is paying for to the next FEDRAC meeting.
Motion to forward to full council the amended contract. Motion seconded and carried.
d ) Ca bl e Ra t e Revi ew
Presented by Mehdi Sadri w/Lon Hurd (3-H Company)
Mr. Sadri gave an overview of the report, with Mr. Hurd giving supplemental information to the
committee.
Mr. Faison asked why the city is “split into two sections.” Mr. Mehdi replied that previously two
companies provided cable services the area: Viacom and TCI. Both were bought out by AT&T;
however no new cable fr an ch ise agr eemen t h as been r en egotiated sin ce th en . Th e n ext con tr act
will hopefully combine the two agreements.
Mr. Faison also asked if staff h as r esear ch ed th e idea of h avin g Click! Net Ser vice pr ovide cable
service as it does in the City of Tacoma. Staff did look into it 2 years ago; at the time Tacoma
was not interested in expanding service into the surrounding jurisdictions. The problems lies in
the infrastructure of the cable wiring and issues of obtaining rights to the pipeline.
Asked what the options are, Mr. Hurd said that historically there has been little public comment
on ra te in cr eases. However , r ecen tly AT&T h as r aised th eir r ates dr amatically on th eir expan ded
and premium cable rates as well as their internet service. Another problem is that the FCC
requires cities to seek out public comment, but they can’t do anything with it, putting cities in an
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awkward position. However, the biggest problem is that the appeals process, with the FCC is
backlogged nearly 5 years.
e) Utility Tax Audit Proposal
Presented by Iwen Wang
Ms. Wang went over the proposal with the committee. Most notable is that the city does not have
to pay the company (Microflex) unless they find something in the audit. If the auditors do find
something, the city pays a percentage of the amount found in the audit. Ms. Wang noted that
because the audit is contingency based, there may have to be a budget adjustment down the line.
The committee asked staff to enter into an agreement with Microflex and perform the audit.
f) Monthly Financial Report
Presented by Michael Olson
Ms. Kochmar noted the following: Real Estate Excise and Gambling taxes are up, as are
licensing fees, and utility tax receipts. However, lodging tax revenues are down. Mr. Olson
noted that the lodging tax is primarily due to one hotel (La Quinta) not paying their taxes, which
the state is currently in collections right now.
Some discussion revolved around Celebration Park as to why expenditures are much higher than
revenues (excluding transfers from utility tax). Ms. Wang explained that most of the revenue
will come during the summer and the expenditures come from the preparation of the fields. Mr.
Hellickson reported that he has received complaints about the playing conditions of the softball
fields from both players and umpires. They offered a solution of watering down the fields at
5:30pm before the games rather than in the mornings to soften the fields.
Motion to forward to full council the month financial report for the month of May. Motion
seconded and carried.
g) Vouchers
Presented by Michael Olson
Mr. Olson presented the vouchers for approval.
Motion to approve and forward to full council the vouchers. Motion seconded and carried.
4. OTHER
None.
5. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
A. Olympic Pipeline
B. Gambling Tax Code Update
6. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING
July 23, 2002 at 2:00 p.m. in the Mt. Baker Conference Room.
7. ADJOURN
Chair Michael Hellickson adjourned the meeting.
Recorded by Jason Suzaka