City Council - Committee Of The Whole

City of Bellingham Committee Of The Whole Action Summary February 11, 2019, 1:25 PM Mayor Kelli Linville Contact: (360) 778-8200, ccmail@cob.org Council Members April Barker, Gene Knutson, Daniel www.cob.org/council Hammill, Pinky Vargas, Terry Bornemann, Michael Lilliquist All meetings are held in the City Hall Council Chambers at and 210 Lottie Street, Bellingham, WA, unless otherwise noted. Hannah Stone Call to Order Roll Call Council Standing Committee Meetings: Open to the public to attend. Note: there is generally no public comment period for Committee sessions. Standing Committee Members receive reports and information, ask questions and, when appropriate, vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the Regular Meeting. The notice of Committee Meetings identified below also serves as notice of Special Meetings of the City Council at the times identified as Council Members who are not members of the committee routinely attend and participate in the Committee Meetings. Committee Chairs give a report of the Committee Meeting at the Regular Meeting in the evening prior to deliberation and formal vote in the order shown below: Committee Of The Whole Daniel Hammill, Chair April Barker; Gene Knutson; Pinky Vargas; Terry Bornemann; Michael Lilliquist, Hannah Stone Mayor Kelli began by giving a quick update about the Development Agreement with Parberry's Inc. and meeting the needs of Old Town. 22174 1. A Resolution to Authorize Entering into a Development Agreement p. 3 with Parberry's Inc. and Associated Entities Economic and Community Development Manager Tara Sundin provided an introduction to the item. Senior Planner Steve Sundin spoke about the shoreline restoration work that has already been done on the property. Economic and Community Development Manager Tara Sundin continued by answering the remainder of Councilmember Lilliquist's written questions, which can be found on page 90 of the City Council packet. Councilmember Barker brought up some recommendations from Michael Chiavario and other community members. Economic and Community Development Manager Tara Sundin and Senior Assistant Attorney Amy Kraham presented an amendment to the resolution that includes a recital on the City supporting a healthy mix of housing in Old Town. Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 1 February 11, 2019  Gene Knutson / Pinky Vargas moved to recommend approval of the resolution as amended. MOTION CARRIED 7-0. 22208 2. Review of the Planning and Community Development Department's p. 46 2019 - 2020 Work Program Mayor Kelli Linville opened the item by sharing with Council that they have already approved the funding for this work plan. Planning Director Rick Sepler presented the review of the department's 2019-2020 Work Program. Information Only 3. Approval of City Council Committee and/or Special Meeting Minutes Councilmember Lilliquist made a correction to the January 28, 2019 Committee of the Whole meeting minutes to change the typical street tree well size from 50 cubic feet to 100 cubic feet. Michael Lilliquist / Terry Bornemann moved to recommend approval of the January 28, 2019 committee meeting minutes as amended. MOTION CARRIED 7-0. 4. Old/New Business Councilmember Bornemann said the Regional Fire Authority Committee voted to disband the committee with the idea that at this point the City will not move forward with the idea of an RFA. If it needs to be at a later date for an additional funding mechanism, the committee could be started up again. There will be an agenda item at an upcoming meeting and discussion will take place on what was done during that committee. April Barker / Hannah Stone moved to approve Councilmember Barker to work with the Mayor to develop an agenda bill for the next February meeting to discuss development of a robust emergency response to provide shelter for those experiencing homelessness during inclement weather events. MOTION CARRIED 7-0. Mayor Kelli Linville said her staff has been in the process of this in the past couple weeks, and she has information about where they are going. Councilmember Barker said the conversation will take time and some time needs to be carved out on the agenda to have the conversation. There are alot of difficulties in dealing with homelessness. The change in public sentiment is Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 2 February 11, 2019  around this particular issue and it is important to pull the County in and have them take the ball on a larger county-wide issue. Councilmember Lilliquist spoke with a couple other councilmembers about an affordable housing bill that is now moving through Olympia. He would like to continue to talk to legislators in Olympia about it. If it has legs, he would bring it to the administration to be formally added to our legislative agenda. This new affordable housing bill is a local hold back on sales tax that very few communities can take advantage of because you have to had already passed a property tax levy for affordable housing, which we have done. This would be an additional source of funding to address our affordability issues. Councilmember Lilliquist would like to see language that would allow for more mixed income projects that are qualified for this program so long as they had a substatnital component of low income housing. It may not be realistic and it may go nowhere, but Councilmember Lilliquist did not want to go down to Olympia as himself, and wanted to see if Council was interested too.There were no objections. Councilmember Hammill wanted to report out about the Intergovernmental Academy that he, Councilmember Barker, Anne Deacon from the Whatcom County Health Department, County Councilmember Barry Buchanan, attended iin Washington, DC at the end of January. They were there as the midway point for the Young Adult Incarceration and Prevention Policy Academy as a result of the MacArthur Foundation award the City and the County jointly won, They were there with Kalamazoo, Albuquerque, Indianapolis, and Overland Park, Kansas with their mayors, police chiefs, prosecutors, sherriffs, etc. The idea is that they would keep furthering incarceration prevention measures. They were able to talk about very important things like ongoing funding for the crisis stabliization center that's being built and the fragility of ongoing operational dollars so that the facility is funded like a fire station rather than bed day reimbursement, which is not sustainable. Councilmember Hammill also wanted to bring up that it is snowing outside and we are supposed to get several inches. Councilmember Hammill invited Emergency Manager Lynn Sterbenz to talk about expected snow. She said we are expected to recieve 1-2 inches this afternoon and 4 inches by morning. The forecast has been changing regularly, and it is a bit of a messy forecast. The southern part of the Puget Sound is starting to warm up and seeing rain with a temperature of 34 degrees. By the end of the week, we may reach 40, but will still be below 32 during the night. We will see thawing, freezing, thawing and freezing, which will make it nasty outside. Our Public Works Department is doing a fantastic job, and they have all the resources they need to keep the roads clear. Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 3 February 11, 2019  Councilmember Knutson said he doesn't think it's wise for us to trek down here and to have citizens trek down here in the snow. Office of Whatcom County Emergency Services is telling people to stay off the roads. He said we need to be a little more careful with public safety and think about our citizens, not just ourselves getting here. Councilmember Bornemann said he understands the concern, but doesn't think we're there yet. Councilmember Stone said she lives close and can get here easily, but is there any other way that people can give public comment without being physically present? Mayor Kelli Linville said we should add an extra meeting if we cancel tonight's. Public comment could be given in written or electronic form. Councilmember Lilliquist said he leans toward a meeting tonight. Emergency Manager Sterbenz said based on the forecast, it's not that bad. Council decided to continue the night meeting as usual. Mayor Kelli provided a list of things the Mayor's Office has worked on in terms of shelters for those experiencing homelessness. The Mayor provided an emergency proclamation which will lead to a partnership with the County. Michael Lilliquist / Pinky Vargas moved to confirm the emergency proclamation. MOTION CARRIED 10-0. Councilmember Vargas Pinky requested that the City provide multiple updates during the day on a more frequent basis on social media. This is where people are looking for information eventhough the City doesn't always operate that way. Adjournment Committee of the Whole adjourned at 3:33 PM. Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 4 February 11, 2019