City Council - Committee Of The Whole

City of Bellingham Committee Of The Whole Minutes December 6, 2021, 1:30 PM Mayor Seth Fleetwood Contact: (360) 778-8200, ccmail@cob.org Council Members Hannah Stone, Gene Knutson, Daniel Hammill, www.cob.org/council Pinky Vargas, Lisa Anderson, Michael Lilliquist and All meetings are held in the City Hall Council Chambers at Hollie Huthman 210 Lottie Street, Bellingham, WA, unless otherwise noted. 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 Hannah Stone, Chair Gene Knutson, Daniel Hammill, Pinky Vargas, Lisa Anderson, Michael Lilliquist, Hollie Huthman Please be advised that if the City Council is ahead of schedule, they may start with old/new business before the official Committee of the Whole meeting time. 23184 1. A Resolution Establishing Juneteenth as a City Holiday and Setting p. 3 Forth the Revised City Holiday Schedule Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the emancipation of those who have been enslaved in the United States. Juneteenth became a federal holiday and a Washington State legal holiday earlier this year. The proposed resolution adopts Juneteenth as an official City holiday and also establishes Juneteenth as a paid holiday for City employees starting in 2022. Establishing Juneteenth as an official City holiday will bring awareness and consciousness to a crucial day in history. It also designates a day not just to reflect on the harms of the past, but to actively work towards dismantling discriminatory systems and creating an antiracist future in our city and country. Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 1 December 6, 2021  By creating an additional City holiday, there will be some holiday and budgetary impacts, including $130,000 already included in the mid-biennium adjustments. MOTION CARRIED 7-0. 23145 2. An Ordinance Amending the 2021-2022 Biennial Budget, Providing for p. 7 Adoption of the Mid-Biennium Adjustments to the Biennial Budget Pursuant to the Terms of RCW 35.34.130 This proposed ordinance is the culmination of the 2021-2022 Mid-Biennium Budget adjustment process that began in early October. It adds new Citywide revenues of $64.9M, including $12.6M in the General Fund, and Citywide expenditures of $66M, including $8.9M in the General Fund. It also adds, removes and changes budgeted positions throughout the City for a net increase of 49.5 full time equivalents (about half which are Firefighters or EMS response). The new budgeted total is $780 million for the biennium (revised 2021-2022 expenditures). MOTION CARRIED 7-0. 23185 3. Council 2022 Work Plan Priorities p. 15 Lisa Anderson expressed the following: an interest to look at the rental licensing inspection (citizens put forward an initiative that has to do with tenants' rights), small adjustments that may not require separate legislation, e.g.: mail theft (b/c there is drop down mailbox) - implement locked mail boxes (as an example). Furthermore, Anderson advocated for community policing, a tree canopy between Sehome and York (lost 14 very large Douglas Fir heritage trees), and finishing up other projects that Council has talked about. Anderson spoke of the importance to continue the conversation about fiber - continue conversation, as well as the long term restoration and habitat improvement of Whatcom Creek, taking a look at Right-of-Way (which has value to transportation and how to legitimately look at them for additional value - e.g. Satpal's goal to plant a million trees for climate impact and ways to expand carbon sequestration. Moreover, Anderson discussed the need to have a long-range look at emergency sheltering from extreme cooling or heat wave and fires - providing inclement weather shelters. She recognized that a lot of the work to make these goals happen, is because of the staff. Pinky Vargas spoke about the need to continue discussion related to housing (in COVID times) - due to homelessness and weather, Vargas would like to make progress to reduce housing costs in Bellingham, expedite permitting (getting Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 2 December 6, 2021  support for the Planning Dept) - update policy (update family definition) – provide more resources and to ensure housing policies get updated ASAP to reduce the cost of housing. Also, LTAC - welcome to Bellingham sign. And related to tourism and arts - passed 1% for arts but has a high million-dollar threshold - option to do 1% for the arts with lower threshold ($100,000) to ensure small projects have art theme to them. Communications: Pinky Vargas hopes that after every City Council meeting, there is a report out to social media and neighborhood associations. Adding a Town Hall - allowing community to have direct face-to-face communication, even if 1/4 or 1/6 of the time. Ensuring that the hot topics page on City Council is always fresh and that citizens can look them up. Stressing importance of accessing the waterfront - container storage/container village by the waterfront - wonderful for Tourism, as well as local access. Hoping that strategic plan would include: a library location in the North side of town (predominantly Senior population). Vargas spoke in support of criminal justice and health and understands that others share her concerns. Michael Lilliquist believes Council is doing what it should be doing. Lilliquist spoke of incoming members and their similar alignment to Council priorities (Martens: housing, environmental resilience and response to homelessness and Skip: affordable housing, police accountability) stressing that all Councilmembers have similar goals. Lilliquist says there is need to deepen these items and keep them going. Dan Hammill advocated for a continuation of the work that has been started especially in regard to the behavioral health category, Lehigh pier (continuous accessibility), continuing to work with the Port, changes in laws - ensuring that people can get interventions of mental health and substance abuse disorder at the time, and support shared priorities with the County. Hammill expressed concern with the annexation plan and wants to ensure emergency response, looking at ways to improve economic development, and have the ability for the police to interact more with the community, and continue work with county health department. Hollie Huthman echoed support for housing as a priority for the upcoming year. Furthermore, she stressed the importance regarding communication from Council (making it easier for the public to know what council is doing), continue support of alternative, continuing to work and support diversion to incarceration and legal system (in addition to county - looking at court system), and discuss changing the consequence for code violations. Gene Knutson said he saw most of what he wanted to see get down - youth of the community - progress in the waterfront are and how demanding things are getting done, and is looking forward to future diverse Council. Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 3 December 6, 2021  Mayor Fleetwood had a follow-up with the Welcome to Bellingham sign regarding its location. (Vargas said it was proposed for multiple locations, but failed). Hannah Stone shared the City Council Top Issues page from the City Council website – requesting that Council highlight three top issues - she welcomes the feedback, stressing that it is Council's website. Stone stressed the need to disseminate Council happenings throughout social media, including improved communication both internally and externally. For example, who is responding to emails? Stone admitted that public comment sessions were not an ideal solution but would like to explore other options to provide opportunity for engagement and dialogue within the community (perhaps topic-specific meetings (more like public hearings), but at least provide an opportunity for response from City Council and/or Staff to engage directly with community). She urges others to provide feedback on a continuous basis. Stone all added that there needs work to be done relating to housing, racial equity and inclusion, behavioral response especially with staffing shortage – adding that some police dept efforts on a temporary pause. Councilmembers agreed that Council has a communications issue and would be in support of a Town Hall to increase public engagement. Overall workgroup themes included: continued interest in environment, affordable housing, climate change, responding to homelessness and issues of mental and behavioral health, better ways to addressing public safety and policing reforms, the importance of continuing work on the waterfront, continued work on broadband initiatives, emergency sheltering, economic development, support from the tourism industry, support businesses recovering from the downturn, establishing greater library service, and enhancing communications to the public through social media and having more engagement opportunities (e.g. Town Hall) Councilmembers were asked to look at the Top Issues section of the website to determine if those in fact are the current issues, or if Council should add or remove some topics (and decide if the website needs to be updated to reflect current focus and priorities of the Council). New Councilmembers will also have an opportunity to weigh in during the upcoming meeting in 2022. 4. Approval of City Council Committee and/or Special Meeting Minutes Gene Knutson / Michael Lilliquist moved to approve the Committee meeting minutes from November 22, 2021 MOTION CARRIED 7-0. Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 4 December 6, 2021  5. Old/New Business Hannah Stone will not be present this evening - Michael Lilliquist will cover. There will be 7 items for executive session. There being no further discussion, the meeting adjourned at 2.23 pm. Adjournment Committee Of The Whole Minutes Page 5 December 6, 2021