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FEDRAC MINS 05-25-2004 City of Federal Way City Council Finance/Economic Development/Regional Affairs Committee Tuesday, May 25, 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: De p u t y M a yor L i n d a K oc h m a r Staff Members in Attendance: Iwen Wang, Management Services Director; David Moseley, City Manager; Derek Matheson, Assistant City Manager; Pat Richardson, City Attorney; Tho Kraus, Finance Manager; Patrick Doherty, Deputy Director of Community Development; Medhi Sadri, Information Systems Manager; Rob Van Orsow, Solid Waste/Recycling Coordinator; Jason Suzaka, Management Analyst. Others in Attendance: Rick Donaldson, Lindsey Hoon, Sheri Knox, Lisa Epperson, Melissa DePaul, Jennifer Eide, Ryan Tober, Travis Hoeft, Chris Carey, Hector Orozco, Armit Lamba, Audrey Franz. 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Eric Faison called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS a) Approval of the Apr il 27, 2004 meeting minutes Motion to approve the April 27, 2004 meeting minutes. Motion seconded and carried. f) Steel Lake Soccer Field – Accept as Complete (taken out of order) Presented by Jen n ifer Sch r oder Sources of funding: $400,000 came from IAC, $300,000 from the City, and $100,000 from the Feder al Way Youth Soccer Association . Th e r emain in g mon ey will be sent to the general fund. Motion to recommend a “do pass” to place acceptance of Steel Lake Soccer Field renovation and authorized the release of the retainage on the Council consent agenda. b) Legislative and Regional Affairs Update Presented by Der ek Math eson Mr. Matheson gave a brief explanation about SST. The sales tax streamlining mediation group (of which the city manager is a member) held their first meeting last month; establishing a set of ground rules, and agreed to hire an SST expert for a future meeting. A-1 Th e RTID (Region al Tr an spor tation In vestmen t Distr ict) r ecen tly met. Staff was disappoin ted that it only got $100 million for the triangle study project instead of the $200 million it had been seeking. It does not look like a vote will take place this November. U.S. Senate Bill #150: Extension of the ban on internet access for an oth er 4 year s. Th e City is opposin g th e ban because of th e expan sion of th e ban to h igh speed in ter n et tech n ologies, wh ose definitions could be used to undermine local utility taxation and franchise fee authority. It would also affect the state B&O tax. The bill is still in negotiations between the House and Senate. c) New City Hall Project Report Presented by Der ek Math eson The pr oject continues to be under budget ($225,284), with none of the $684,000 contingency touched. The target move for the police and courts will probably be moved to July 10-11, since the week before is the Red, White, and Blues Festival and the July 4th weekend is not a good date for the department to move to the new building. d) New City Hall – Use of Project Savings and Contingency Funds Presented by Der ek Math eson Mr. Matheson introduced Rick Donaldson, who is serving as the furniture consultant for the new building. He then gave an overview of the options available to the Council regarding the use of project savings and contingency funds for Phase II of parking and furniture acquisition. Councilmember Ferrell stated his support for option 1 to allow staff to fully maximize use of the new building, and complimented staff for keeping the project under budget. Mr. Matheson stated that there would be some economies of scale to bidding both phases of the parking lot at the same time. Councilmember Burbidge expressed her support of option 1 as well. Chair Faison expr essed his support for option 3, stating his belief that he did not see a long-term future in the n ew buildin g. However , h e did feel th at staff sh ould pr oceed with ph ase 2 of fur n itur e acquisition. Councilmember Burbidge expressed interest in the parking ratio of the new city hall to that of the old city hall. Mr. Moseley stated that building the parking lot now will increase the value of the whole property should the City decide to sell the property in the future. The parking lot should also be finished for aesthetic reasons as well; a completely finish city hall with a finished parking lot would exhibit some civic pride. After hearing the recommendation from the City Manger, Chair Faison expr essed his support for option 1. Motion to recommend that Council authorize the City Manager to construct phase two parking and purchase phase two furniture using anticipated project savings and, if necessary contingency funds (option 1); and to forward the recommendation to full Council for approval. Motion seconded and carried. e) Use of Old City Hall - Options Presented by Iwen Wan g Ms. Wang reviewed the options with the committee. When asked what her recommendation would be, she felt that the market would be tight either way; probably the best choice is to put the buildin g up for sale or lease an d see wh at offer s th e City r eceives. Estimated staff time cost to administer a lease of the building could be around $20,000. The assessed value of the building is $3.2 million. C:\staging\417051A2-068A-08D9F1\in\417051A2-068A-08D9F1.doc A-2 However, the committee did not feel that they were ready to make a decision; it was decided that a Coun cil study session would be appr opr iate to discuss some of th e issues an d possible oth er options with local real estate brokers and then make a decision at a later date. No action taken – schedule study session. g) Regional Solid Waste Issues Update Pr esen t ed by Rob Va n Or sow Mr. Van Orsow gave an update on the latest issues regarding the efforts by King County and the surrounding cities to come to an agreement on solid waste. Federal Way’s next opener during negotiations is September 2004 – February 2005. Staff will seek direction from Council regarding this opener at a future meeting. City Manager Moseley added that a private hauler (Regional Disposal, Inc./Rabanco) has sued the County over the solid waste issue and prevailed. The City of Bellevue may decide to join that suit; he suggested that the Council may want to hold an executive session regarding the merits and demerits of that suit. Disclosure: Mr. Moseley disclosed that his wife’s firm has a contract with Regional Disposal, Inc./Rabanco. The City of Federal Way cannot enter negotiations with a private hauler until it is out of the interlocal agreement with King County. Motion to forward the memorandum to full Council and direct staff to continue engagement with the workgroup and negotiation processes, participate in staff group meetings, provide input on the County’s plans for a regional solid waste system, and make periodic reports to FEDRAC and the full Council. Motion seconded and carried. h ) Inter local Cooper ative Agr eemen t for th e Replacemen t of Cour t Computer Systems Presented by Mehdi Sadri Disclosure: Councilmember Ferrell disclosed that his wife works for the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and recused himself from the discussion. Motion to forward the Interlocal Cooperative Agreement to full Council for approval and authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement. Motion seconded and carried. i) Update on Cable Franchise Negotiations Presented by Mehdi Sadri Research and preparations for the negotiations are around 95% complete; the negotiations team is looking at what other cities negotiated, and they are also looking at Comcast’s proof of performance. The team has had some difficulties in getting information from Comcast; items that could be negotiated ten years ago may not be this time around. Mr. Sadri passed out a memorandum from Pamela Beery, one of the attorneys working on the negotiations. What are the implications of a possible City annexation? According to the FCC, Comcast is only required to provide service within the city limits. Language in the agreement will address annexation. One idea brought up was that the City could bypass Comcast and send city videos to King Co. and have them broadcast (would go county-wide). Another is the use of Video On Demand time to air city videos (e.g. council meetings). C:\staging\417051A2-068A-08D9F1\in\417051A2-068A-08D9F1.doc A-3 There are some cities that have also banded together to create a public access ch an n el (located in Renton); this is an old agreement. If the City did annex, Comcast would have a deadline to provide ser vice to th e ar ea. Councilmembers Burbidge and Ferrell suggested looking into broadcasting at outside community events, such as performances at Dumas Bay Centre and the MLK Celebration at Decatur High School . Finally, Mr. Sadri added that there is not much room for negotiating fees, as the cable companies ar e well pr otected by FCC r ules. j) Developing News/Informational Videos on City Projects Presented by Mehdi Sadri A short video on the City of University Place by Rainier Cable Commission was shown. It is an example of what a video explaining the City’s economic development program could look like. Councilmember Ferrell questioned if it is too early to decide whether to do the video, since Council hasn’t decided on how to present the message. Chair Faison explained that it would be used to educate th e public on h ow th e pr ocess wor ks an d wh at th e issues ar e, n ot explain wh at actions the City is going to take. Councilmember Ferrell stated that if the video focuses on the powerpoint pr esentation given on May 11 and emphasizes the need for public input, then he would give his consent. Once the video is formulated, staff will bring the item back to FEDRAC at a later date. Motion to approve funding up to $7,500 for the production of an informational video regarding the proposed economic development program. Motion seconded and carried. k) Demonstration of Customer Action Request System Presented by Mehdi Sadri Mr. Sadri gave a demonstration of how requests/complaints/comments are tracked by the Citizen Action Request Tracking System. Most of the input is forwarded by Council to staff via email, alth ough th e City Man ager s Office does also r eceive in put in th e for m of ph on e calls an d letter s. The committee was very impressed with the presentation; suggestions included showing other agencies how the City tracks requests, patenting the system for possible sale to other government entities. It was also suggested that the systems shows citizens that their input is taken seriously; Chair Faison suggested presenting to the full Council so that citizens can see in person and on FWTV. Council member Ferrell felt that an ombudsman is still needed for those whom a simple email would not be sufficient or effective, referring to a conversation he had a citizen who was closing down his business. It was suggested that an ombudsman position be discussed during the formulation of the upcoming budget, possibly as a volunteer position. l) Budget Policies Review Presented by Iwen Wan g Ms. Wang reviewed the budget policies with the committee. Reserve funding is normally used for one-time funding. While you could use reserves for ongoing operations, doing so on a regular basis would then be violating the Council’s fiscal integrity policy, and would need to find a way to use ongoing revenues to fund these operations. An example is the City hiring four additional C:\staging\417051A2-068A-08D9F1\in\417051A2-068A-08D9F1.doc A-4 C:\staging\417051A2-068A-08D9F1\in\417051A2-068A-08D9F1.doc A-5 officers using one-time money for 2004, and then implementing the 2.5% admissions tax as the ongoing revenue thereafter. There was a suggestion to revisit #2 of “fees;” to use the “profits” to fund other services. However the City Attorney warned that excess “profits” could be characterized as a tax. No action taken by FEDRAC. m) April 2004 Monthly Financial Report Presented by Tho Kraus Ms. Kraus presented the April 2004 MFR to the committee. Motion to accept the April 2004 Monthly Financial Report and forward to full Council for approval. Motion seconded and carried. n) Vouchers Presented by Tho Kraus Ms. Kraus presented the vouchers to the committee. Motion to accept the vouchers and forward to full Council for approval. Motion seconded and carried. 4. OTHER None. 5. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 6. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING June 29, 2004 at 5:30 p.m. in the Mt. Baker Conference Room. 7. ADJOURN Chair Eric Faison adjourned the meeting at 7:40p.m. Recorded by Jason Suzaka