FEDRAC MINS 02-25-2003
City of Federal Way
City Council
Finance/Economic Development/Regional Affairs Committee
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
2:00 p.m.
City Hall
City Council Chambers
MINUTES
Committee Members in Attendance: Chair Michael Park and Member Mary Gates.
City Council Members in Attendance: Deputy Mayor Dean McColgan, Council Members Linda Kochmar and
Jack Dovey
Staff Members in Attendance: Iwen Wang, Management Services Director; David Moseley, City Manager;
Derek Matheson, Assistant City Manager; Donna Hanson, Assistant City Manager; Pat Richardson, City Attorney;
Michael Olson, Deputy Director of Management Services; Mehdi Sadri, Information Services Manager; Greg
Fewins, Deputy Director of Community Development; Mary McDougal, Human Resources Manager; Ken Miller,
Deputy Director of Public Wor ks; Jason Suzaka, Man agemen t An alyst.
Others in Attendance: Erica Jahn, Federal Way Mirror
1. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Michael Park called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a) Approval of the January 28, 2003 meeting minutes
Motion to approve the January 28, 2003 meeting minutes. Motion seconded and carried.
b) Legislative and Regional Affairs Update
Presented by Der ek Math eson
Staff and some council members attended the AWC City Legislative Action Conference last
week, and met with all three state legislators representing the Federal Way area, plus Sen. Jim
Horn who chairs the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee.
Transportation Issues: State tr an spor tation package pr oposals ar e expected to come out in th e
next week or so. Staff is hearing that the legislature is looking at a gas tax increase of around 4
½ to 5 cents, and vehicle weight fees, which would affect mainly commercial vehicles. Regional
leaders have together a $14.4 billion proposed regional transportation investment package that
would be funded by a sales tax and referred to voters for approval. The next step is for the full 25
members of the King, Pierce, and Snohomish County Councils to review the proposal and place
it on the ballot.
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Secure Community Transition Facility: One bill being proposed is a 30-mile buffer around
McNeil Island which would remove South King County from consideration in placing one of
these facilities. Another would create a 5,000 foot buffer around each site for risk-potential
activities. Currently the buffer stands at 600 feet as established by DSHS. Another bill would
con sider “fair sh ar e” an d look at South Kin g Coun ty or an y oth er ar ea’s cur r en t cor r ection al
facilities. Mr. Matheson cautioned that these bills do not have much of a chance in going
anywhere.
Gambling: Th er e was a wor k session con ducted last week on th e pr oposal by th e en ter tain men t
industry coalition to allow additional non-tribal slot machines. No bill has been presented yet,
but one is expected to be in the near future. City staff will continue to monitor the issue, as will a
group called CAGE (Citizens Against Gambling Expansion).
Annexation: A bill that would correct the Court’s ruling on petition-method annexation cleared
the House by a 95-2 vote last week. A similar vote by the Senate is expected to follow later on.
There is also a bill written by counties to require that cities and counties enter into a interlocal
agreement before any annexation can happen. This could potentially result in mandates such as
revenue sharing and transfer of staff; the cities association is very much against this proposal.
Regional Issues:
Metropolitan Parks Task Force proposed a 5.5% voter-approved property tax levy to fund
regional and unincorporated rural parks. The County Executive lowered it to a 5% proposal and
would like to see it on the May 20th ballot. The City of Seattle is very opposed to the issue.
The Budget Advisory Task Force: The cities have been working on a position paper to share with
that group as they look into the County’s budget. A presentation will be coming up in March.
A Governance Commission of 9 members (8 so far) has been appointed to review issues such as
the County’s revenues, expenditures, dedication of revenues/expenditures, number of county
coun cil member s, an d basic str uctur e of th e coun ty gover n men t. Th e tar get date for th e
commission’s findings is March 31, 2004.
Chair Mich ael Par k r epor ted th at h e atten ded th e AWC con fer en ce last week with
Councilmembers Burbidge, Gates, and Kochmar, speaking with legislators about the issues more
important to the City.
c) Official Newspaper
Presented by Iwen Wan g
Ms. Wang reviewed the history of the official newspaper with the committee.
Councilmember Eric Faison was excused from the meeting by Chair Park at this time.
Council member Kochmar asked if there was an ending date for the Federal Way Mirror as the
official newspaper. Ms. Wang responded, saying that the agreement is renewed automatically on
an annual basis. Ms. Wang also passed out two submitted written comments – one by Mark and
Adele Freeland (stakeholder member) and one by Ann Gygi of the Law offices of Hillis, Clark,
Martin, and Peterson.
Debbie Kaufman (Publisher of FW Mirror): Ms. Kaufman presented written comments from
Chris Carrel, Joe Ganum, Tony Tebeau, Pat Jenkins, Skip Priest, Mark Clirehugh, and Russ
Wolf. She expressed her suppor t for opening up the bidding to all newspapers, daily or not.
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Barbara Reid: Concerned, wondering why no minutes were taken from the Stakeholders Group
meetings.
Rober t Hitchcock (Gen. Mgr. – Foundation House) representing the Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors: They applauded the Council for revisiting the criteria in regards to selection
of the official newspaper, and confirmed that they voted unanimously to recommend that they
reexamine the criteria and look for ways to not exclude the two local newspapers from
participating in the bidding process.
Susan Strifle (Member, Board of Chamber of Commerce): Ms. Strifle passed out a letter from
Bob Couper of the Chamber. She confirmed that the stakeholders committee did vote
unanimously to forward all of their recommendations to Council. She also urged the Council to
listen to all the information, and decide what is best for improving the permitting process.
Both Chair Park and Gates noted that the whole permitting process was a very open one.
Councilmember Gates noted a number of meetings that were open to the public to offer comment;
however, it wasn’t until much later in the process that the public seemed to become aware of the
issue. There needs to be a better away to get the public involved from the beginning. Both
members felt that the issue is not local vs. non-local businesses, but rather a matter of how to
improve the permitting process to save both time and money for the business community as a
wh ol e.
Donna Hanson gave a quick review of the permitting process presentation. Greg Fewins then
passed out a handout “Permit Process and Improvements” (front side) and “Official Newspaper
Timeline” (back side).
Mr. Fewins then reviewed the front side of the handout. He noted that the daily newspaper
impacts the public input/decision section the most. Referring to the chart on page C7, discussion
centered on which types of advertisements/notices is considered time-sensitive. One proposal
was to publish the full version of advertisements in the Federal Way Mirror, and an abbreviated
version in the Tacoma News Tribune (TNT). Ms. Richardson noted that state law requires that
the full version be published in the official newspaper. Abbreviated versions may be published in
paper s other than the official.
Council stated that it has a policy of not only trying to get bids out quickly, but to time them as
well. If the City asks for a bid and all the contractors have a full schedule, the City won’t get a
very good response. Mr. Miller concurred, saying that his department puts in a lot of time in
planning and preparing the requests for bids. Because of the process involved, the earlier the
request is put out, the better.
There was some discussion that in trying to improve the permitting process, the stakeholders
group could possibly have not understood the consequences of this one particular item. Deputy
Mayor McColgan stated that he would like to hear from each individual member of the group to
hear what th ey would r ecommen d.
There was a suggestion that one option may be the use of expedited permit reviews fees to help
fund official newspaper ad costs. Pending a financial analysis, the savings could potentially
benefit both the City and the applicant.
Mr. Fewins then reviewed the back side of the handout (official newspaper timeline). One rule
cited is that the City is required to post the notice in twice in consecutive publications, which
could push the time need to post notices even further out.
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A question was raised by some Councilmembers as to how many times the deadline to post
notices in the official paper were missed. If the number missed was very small, relative to the
total number of notices, then perhaps the issue is not as critical. One suggestion was to track and
further analyze the official newspaper issue for a year and then revisit it, meanwhile moving
forward with the other 37 initiatives adopted by Council. Mr. Moseley stated that if needed, staff
can con ven e an oth er stakeh older s meetin g if dir ected by Coun cil.
After consulting City Attorney Richardson on tabling the issue, the committee decided to table
th e issue, tr ack an d an alyze th e issue for six mon th s, an d
Motion to table the official newspaper consideration for six months to allow for tracking of
performance data and examine the possibility of receiving payment for expedited noticing.
Motion seconded and carried.
Staff was also asked by the committee to determine how publishers determine their circulation.
d) Creation of Independent Salary Commission
Presented by Pat Rich ar dson
Ms. Richardson reviewed the ordinance with the committee. However, the ordinance is being
amended as follows:
On page D7: Amend the term of commission members to four years, instead of 3;
Page D9: Amend to the commission will meet May 31, 2003 and then every even –numbered
ye a r .
Motion to send the amended ordinance to full Council as Council business. Motion seconded.
e) Con tr act for Upgr ade/En h an cemen ts to Public Safety Recor ds Mgmt. System
Presented by Mehdi Sadri
Mr. Sadri reviewed the agreement with the committee. Corrections: 1) The amount noted in the
committee action should read $43,292, not $42,292 as written. 2) The words “…and forward to
full Council” should be inserted after the word “approve” in the committee action.
Motion to approve and forward to full Council the amended contract with Spillman
Technologies. Motion seconded and carried.
f) Modification to FWCC Ch apter 9, Licen ses an d Busin ess Regulation s
Presented by Pat Rich ar dson
Ms. Richardson reviewed the code amendments with the committee.
Motion to approve and forward to full Council the proposed amendments. Motion seconded
and carried.
g) December 2002 Final Quar terly Financial Report
Presented by Th o Kr aus
Ms. Kraus reviewed the Quarterly Financial Report (QFR) with the Committee. Also reported
were the Jan-Feb sales tax figures. Year to date revenues are $85,000 below (-4.1 %) last year’s
figur es.
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There was discussion about Celebration Park and whether or not the revenues from the park were
sufficient to cover its expenses. Also raised was a question on page G20 about the -557.7% under
“Operating Revenues over/(under) Operating Expenditures.” We have a favorable variance of
just under $5.9 million, but -$1.0 million was budgeted, so this is actually a favorable figure.
There was also concern about the impact of the increase in gambling establishments in the City.
City Attorney Richardson stated that the state statute says that you either have to allow all
gambling establishments, or ban them outright in the city limits – there is no middle ground.
Motion to approve the December 2002 QFR and forward to full Council. Motion seconded
and carried.
h) Carryforward Budget Adjustment
Presented by Iwen Wang
Ms. Wang reviewed the adjustment with the committee.
Motion to approve the carry forward budget adjustment and forward to full Council. Motion
seconded and carried.
i) Vouchers
Presented by Iwen Wang
Ms. Wang presented the vouchers for approval.
Motion to accept the vouchers and forward to full Council. Motion seconded and carried.
4. OTHER
None.
5. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
6. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING
March 25, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. in the Mt. Baker Conference Room.
7. ADJOURN
Chair Michael Park adjourned the meeting at 4:10pm.
Recorded by Jason Suzaka