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FEDRAC MINS 01-27-2004 City of Federal Way City Council Finance/Economic Development/Regional Affairs Committee Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:30 p.m. City Hall Mt. Baker Conference Room MINUTES Committee Members in Attendance: Chair Eric Faison, Member Jeanne Burbidge, and Member Jim Ferrell. City Council Members in Attendance: Mayor Dean McColgan and Deputy Mayor Linda Kochmar. Staff Members in Attendance: Iwen Wang, Management Services Director; Derek Matheson, Assistant City Manager; Pat Richardson, City Attorney; Tho Kraus, Finance Manager; Mary McDougal, Human Resources Manager ; Jason Suzaka, Man agemen t An alyst. Others in Attendance: H. David Kaplan, Christina and Merle Pfieffer. 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Eric Faison called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT Mr. Kaplan suggested that as part of the City’s economic development program, the City talk to Six Flags about getting a better idea of what the requirements are for Enchanted Parks to officially become a Six Flags amusement park (Currently the park is owned by Six Flags, but must meet minimal minimum attendance figures to officially have the Six Flags name). He also suggested that with the departure of Mary Gates as council member (she formerly sat on a number of regional committees), the City should come up with ways to keep Federal Way visible in the region. Chair Faison suggested that staff invite Lenny Freund from Six Flags to the next FEDRAC Economic Development meeting on February 10. 3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS a) Approval of the November 25, 2003 meeting minutes Motion to approve the November 25, 2003 meeting minutes. Motion seconded and carried. b) Legislative and Regional Affairs Update Presented by Der ek Math eson January 28-29 is the Association of Washington Cities Legislative Conference. Four of the council will be attending along with some city staff. A meeting with our state legislators is planned. A-1 Among the issues being discussed in the legislature is sales tax streamlining. The issue is very important because it would create a tax shirt that could be very beneficial to Federal Way. The Ci t y h a s h a d t o h i r e a sepa r a t e l obbyi st on t h i s i ssue beca use i t s r egul a r l obbyi st Doug Levy h a s a conflict of interest. The City will be providing a lot of input on the issue. Ms. Wang recen tly testified in Olympia on behalf of the City in front of the House Finance Committee, Mayor McColgan will be speaking to the AWC Board’s Legislative Committee on the 29th, and City Manager Moseley will be participating on a panel on the 28th. It appears that the House Transportation Committee will be taking final action on a bill that would give Regional Transportation Investment Districts (RTID) more flexibility in projects eligible for funding (including light rail) as well as giving RTID more ways to finance them. The City has not taken an official position on the bill other than supporting additional bonding authority for the RTID. However, even if the bill gets out of the House, it is not expected to go far in the Senate. Another item not expected to go far is replacement funding or new voter options to backfill the I- 776 shortfall. A number of cities including Federal Way will be bringing it up at the AWC con fer en ce th is week. Tax in cr emen t fin an cin g is movin g in th e legislatur e; th e House Fin an ce Committee has a hearing on it scheduled next week. The City has submitted its capital budget to its 30th District legislator s an d sen t fact sh eets on th e Twin Lakes Country Club retention facility and New City Hall evidence room, which Senator Eide expressed interest in. The City of Vancouver is promoting legislation that would facilitate annexation through interlocal agreements between counties and cities. Federal Way is supporting it, on the condition that the legislation is revised to state that it is an optional method only. The Suburban Cities Association (SCA) held their northeast and south regional meetings. Mayor McColgan and Councilmembers Burbidge and Faison were named to a number of regional committees and boards. Staff was asked to issue a press release showing the regional appointments and other committees where Federal Way is represented. c) 457 Deferred Compensation Plan Changes Presented by Mar y McDougal Ms. McDougal presented the proposed changes to the committee. The “catch up” provision refers to when a person is getting close to retirement and hasn’t put in the maximum amount into their retirement account every year. The provision allows them to put in more than the normal contribution limit, allowing them to “catch up” (beginning at age 50) and save more money for retirement. Motion to adopt the attached resolution amending the City’s deferred compensation plan. Motion seconded and carried. d) Fleet Main ten an ce Con tr act Repor t Presented by Iwen Wan g Ms. Wang gave a report on the fleet maintenance contract, which the City entered into with Eagle Automotive and Tire and Sparks Car Care in July 2003. While there have been some adjustments made in coordinating maintenance schedules and repairs, the system is working well at this point. C:\staging\417059C3-21E6-20BA48\in\417059C3-21E6-20BA48.doc A-2 Merle Pfieffer spoke on behalf of Sparks Car Care. He praised the work of Oscar Villanueva, the new quartermaster for the police department, for his work in coordinating maintenance and repair scheduling. He acknowledged that the City does have a shortage of cars, but added that there are about 10-11 cars owned by the City that are “retired,” but still usable. However, they ar e not equipped with the same features as the other patrol vehicles. Ms. Wang also added that those cars are used for special assignments, such as traveling to schools and patrolling the mall. Mr. Pfieffer talked about the ways they have tried to save the City money and other positive customer ser vice action s. A couple examples ar e wor kin g with Eleph an t Car Wash to get a better rate on washing costs and delaying oil changes slightly to get a little longer life out of the oil. Wh en asked about th e n umber of patr ol veh icles in th e city fleet, Ms. Wan g explain ed th at th er e are 35 “front line” police cars. At any given time there are about 10 out on patrol, with 3 shifts durin g th e day an d two officer s per car . Th er e ar e some exception s, with some veh icle specially equipped for their duties, such as the K-9 unit. She also added that the City will have some cars being retired this year. Although the City could keep them, maintenance costs are high, and it costs appr oximately $40,000 to equip. e) Site Lease Renewal Agreement for Voicestream (T-Mobile) Presented by Pat Rich ar dson Ms. Richardson presented the site lease agreement to the committee. The lease is for five years with 3 five-year renewal options. Rent increases from $900/month to a “market rate” of $1,665/mon th , an d is r etr oactive to December 2003. Motion to forward the proposed lease to full Council with a “do pass” recommendation. Motion seconded and carried. f) Preliminary December 2003 Quarter ly Financial Report Presented by Th o Kr aus Ms. Kraus reviewed the Preliminary 2003 Quarterly Financial Report (QFR) with the Committee. This report is only preliminary; the final report will be distributed at the February 24, 2004 FEDRAC meetin g. General operating revenues for the year to date were $1.9 million, or 4% below budget. $811,000 of it is related to utility tax and real estate excise tax collections. The shortfall is primarily due to vehicle licensing fees and sales tax. General operating expenditures are below year to date budget by $4.2 million, or 8% below budget. Approximately $1.2 million is related to one-time savings, and it is possible that these savings will be carried forward into 2004. Of note are savings from police overtime expenditures, which dropped from approximately $924,000 in 2002 to approximately $557,000 in 2003. This is a decrease of approximately $367,000 or 40%. This is primarily due to the filling of vacant positions. Potentially the City could lose some officers to the City of Lakewood, which is forming their own police force. The budget was affected most by the shortfall in sales tax revenues and state-shared revenue (I- 776, which lowered vehicle licensing fees). There was also a shortfall in utility tax revenues, which for the first time in Federal Way, actually decreased over last year. In addition, by law, after the Council approved the 1% utility tax there was a 60-day wait before the tax could be implemented. Some of the utility companies hadn’t reported the full utility tax correctly, and staff is working with them to correct this. C:\staging\417059C3-21E6-20BA48\in\417059C3-21E6-20BA48.doc A-3 Motion to accept the Preliminary December 2003 QFR and forward to full Council for approval. Motion seconded and carried. C:\staging\417059C3-21E6-20BA48\in\417059C3-21E6-20BA48.doc A-4 C:\staging\417059C3-21E6-20BA48\in\417059C3-21E6-20BA48.doc A-5 g) Vouchers Presented by Tho Kraus Ms. Kraus presented the vouchers for approval Motion to accept the vouchers and forward to full Council for approval. Motion seconded and carried. 4. OTHER Chair Faison mentioned to the committee that there is a retail consultant hired by the City of University Place; there are some funds available should the Council decide to hold a workshop. This can be discussed at a future FEDRAC meeting. 5. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 6. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING FEDRAC – Economic Development Meeting: February 10, 2004 at 5:30 p.m. in the Mt. St. Helens Conference Room. FEDRAC: February 24, 2004 at 5:30 in the Mt. Baker Room. 7. ADJOURN Chair Eric Faison adjourned the meeting at 6:32pm. Recorded by Jason Suzaka