FEDRAC MINS 06-28-2005 A-1
City of Federal Way
City Council
Finance/Economic Development/Regional Affairs Committee
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
5:30 p.m.
City Hall
Hylebos Conference Room
MINUTES
Committee Members in Attendance: Chair Eric Faison and Member Jeanne Burbidge.
City Council Members in Attendance: 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; Mark Turley, Senior Financial Analyst;
Mehdi Sadri, Information Systems Manager; Kurt Reuter, Parks Maintenance Supervisor; Jason Suzaka, Deputy City
Clerk/Management Analyst.
Others in Attendance:
1. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Eric Faison called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Councilmember Ferrell was unable to attend and
excused from the meeting.
2. PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
3. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
a) Approval of the May 24, 2005 meeting minutes
Motion to approve the May 24, 2005 meeting minutes. Motion seconded and carried.
b) Congressional and Legislative Affairs Update
Presented by Derek Matheson
Local Issues: At last week’s Association of Washington Cities Conference, Councilmember
Burbidge testified in front of the House Local Government and House Transportation Committees,
expressing appreciation for funding assistance on Federal Way projects and the important of local
options for next session. The Puget Sound Regional Council Executive Board also voted to create
Federal Way a permanent seat on the Board, as required by the state budget proviso.
Mr. Matheson and Mr. Moseley worked with our city lobbyist Doug Levy on an interim workplan.
Items on the workplan include property tax rate freeze, transportation local options, housing
questions for Rep. Mark Miloscia (chair of the House Housing Committee), trading REET money
for impacted mitigation fees, zoning for gambling, electric transmission facility siting, and public
disclosure.
Next week, Mr. Matheson and Mr. Levy will be working on the 2006 Legislative Agenda, which
will involve meeting with department heads. They are considering using a shortened version that
will focus on key issues likely to arise. If successful, this could be implemented on a regular basis.
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Federal Issues: TEA-LU is in conference committee, as the House and Senate have adopted
different versions of the bill. It is very likely that both sides will be unable to come up with an
agreement by the end of June and will have to file for another extension for a couple of weeks, per
federal law. Currently, Rep. Smith has inserted $2 million for the triangle project, and staff is
working behind the scenes with Senators and staff to increase the amount.
The Transportation-Treasury-HUD bill was discussed in House Appropriations last week. It was
marked up without any earmarks. Washington State was very successful last year. There is a
proposed 6% decrease for CDBG from last year; however, it wasn’t consolidated with 17 other
programs and moved from HUD to the Commerce Department, which the National League of
Cities opposed. The bill will be discussed/adopted by the full House in July, and then to the
Senate, which has also voted to oppose consolidation.
c) Nextel Site Lease
Presented by Kurt Reuter
Mr. Reuter presented and reviewed the lease agreement with the committee. He added that current
city policy is to charge all cell phone providers the same rate. The City also currently does not
have any plans to use the building at all. It was clarified that because Nextel is being charged a flat
fee and not by the square foot, the additional occupied space without an increase in the fee would
not constitute a gift of public funds.
There was a suggestion at the next fee review to implement an administrative, non-refundable, flat
fee to negotiate lease agreements. It was also suggested to re-visit the market rates for leasing.
Motion to forward option 1 to the full Council for approval. Motion seconded and carried.
d) Wi-Fi Project Update
Presented by Medhi Sadri
Mr. Sadri gave a project update to the committee and presented some sample Wi-Fi equipment.
The large circles on the map represent targeted areas; the left circle uses equipment manufactured
by Motorola and Tropos, the right uses equipment from Vivato. The small circles with the large
circles are micro cells that are used to help transmit to areas behind buildings and other “hidden”
areas.
The City is in negotiations with Puget Sound Energy to install antennas on the light poles.
Because there will be some fiber optic lines that will need to be installed in the ground, some
trenching may need to be done in the streets; however, depending on the amount of available
conduit, this may be a minimal amount, if any.
At this time, current staff will operate the system. However, if and when the project is popular
enough and the City decides to become a utility service, there may be a need to create a stand-
alone division.
e) Monthly Financial Report
Presented by Mark Turley
Mr. Turley reviewed the May 2005 Monthly Financial Report. Revenues are $1.12 million (7.4%)
above year to date budget, and expenditures are $592,000 (4.4%) below year to date budget.
Building permits and fees and real estate excise taxes are way above budget. The $166,000 in
miscellaneous operating revenues is mostly from the Han Woo-Ri Festival.
Regarding upgrades to Dumas Bay Centre, Ms. Wang explained that the City is currently
accumulating funds that would be set aside for upgrading the Centre. Staff will also need to
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perform an assessment of what types of upgrades would be needed. Mr. Matheson suggested
placing the item on the legislative agenda, and seek state and federal funding to help with the
upgrades.
Motion to accept the Monthly Financial Report and forward to full Council for approval.
Motion seconded and carried.
f) Vouchers
Presented by Mark Turley
Mr. Turley presented the vouchers to the committee.
Motion to accept the vouchers and forward to full Council for approval. Motion seconded and
carried.
4. OTHER
There was a question as to if staff could predict when the City would see a surplus in revenues. Ms. Wang
explained that most of the surplus would be one-time money, such as real estate excise tax revenues.
5. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
6. NEXT SCHEDULED MEETING
July 26, 2005 at 5:30 p.m. in the Hylebos Conference Room.
7. ADJOURN
Chair Eric Faison adjourned the meeting at 6:25pm.
Recorded by Jason Suzaka