Everett Council of Neighborhoods

Council of Neighborhoods Meeting Minutes Jan 25, 2016 Meeting was called to order at 4pm. Agenda and minutes of the previous meeting were approved. Attendance: Karen McAllister, Nikki Oku, Roger Hoot, Michael Trujillo, Kari Griffith, Steve Bugge, Carol Gogarty, Tom Norcott, Colleen Kain, Jackie Minchew, Shelley Weyer, JT Dray, Art Olson, James Prissel, Andrea Tucker, Mary Alexander, Dennis Dudder, Ethel McNeal, Guy Ginty, George Lockeman, Teresa Schultz Staff: Deborah Wright, Eileen Simmons, Jeff Price, Niels Tygesen, Becky Ableman- McCrary, Carolynne Urbanchock Excused: Ben Blacker, Jim Greico, GeorgaDee MacLeod Citizen Comments: None. Mayor Stephanson: Mayor apologized for missing recent neighborhood meetings due to necessity of speaking in Olympia during legislative session. This year the 60 day session compresses the time frame. Mayor has a meeting with governor tomorrow. Mayor delivered his State of the City address last week, which went well with good attendance. The Safe Streets Initiative – first 20 people will be housed by middle of the year, first 5 high at risk individuals will be in scattered housing. City has found a vacant property, considering acquiring it for the first capital project for housing. Since city is in negotiations, the location is confidential at this time. Hope to acquire it soon and will announce in February. City is asking Olympia for $2 million in capital seed money for first project. The site has capacity for 60 low barrier housing units. Governor Inslee has been invited and will speak at housing forum on Feb 1st. Other streets updates - in process of hiring new embedded social workers for police department. The diversion work crew will start next month, out of space at Xfinity. People who are charged with low level crime will work off their sentence by giving back to community, through street litter patrol and trash clean up, etc. Port of Everett had banner year, 195 ships made call. City is working on KC site reuse with port. Strategy is to recreate family wage jobs on that site. Nimitz won’t be back until 2019 but Navy is bringing three new destroyers to Everett. Mayor is working hard on Sound Transit ST3. Decision will be made by Sound Transit Board about options for alignment by mid-year, in order to get on ballot. If all goes well, this will bring rail link to Everett by 2025. Freight mobility is also a focus, with plans to widen intersections at 41st, Rucker and 41st and Pacific at Rucker. Grand Ave Park pedestrian bridge project plans call for construction beginning next year. Construction continues at North Broadway – WSU is building and also there is student housing under construction. Planning staff are working on north Broadway, with College District planning taking place this year. City is supporting WSU on their agriculture degrees, given big need to educate new farmers whose avg. age is 66years in western WA. Need to educate next wave of farmers. On Police Department, city has hired 21 new officers, still has 23 openings. Several people in academy at this time, but turn-over rate is higher than is has been due to retirements. EPD is still making progress. City Council held a retreat on Saturday - Mayor felt it was the best 4 hours in a long time. Big takeaway- Mayor will bring a plan to Council to begin inviting citizens to prepare an updated Vision statement. The last process created was in 2005, this would update the 2005 vision. Question – is housing site for chronically homeless raw land? Response -Yes, it is raw land. Question – status of KC land and lawsuit. Parking lot area is pretty trashy looking. Response – matter is still court. Question - what about low barrier housing and EvHA plans for demolition. Response - Watching the EvHA housing plan,s which are of concern for displacement. Question – on the capital plan for housing – can public help contribute to this plan? Response – Yes, there will be opportunities, it will take funding from multiple sources. About Baker Heights article in newspaper – as a community, we are pushing them to have clear path for residents where they can be re-located, path to affordable housing. We need to figure that out. Housing Authority is not part of city of Everett. They have an opportunity to get federal funding and city is helping to apply. Mayor reported that the Trinity Lutheran site is of interest – county is looking at possibly using the college site for courts temporarily, and then demolish court building. Several local colleges are working with Trinity to get students places as the Trinity campus closes. Students getting help from WSU, Pacific Lutheran and others. City Council Liaison: Council President Scott Murphy introduced himself, and has been on city council for three years. He became president of council three weeks ago. Works with Goldfinch Brothers, lives in north Everett after a recent move from View Ridge. He plans to get out to neighborhood meetings and intends to visit at least once to each neighborhood during the year. Mayor mentioned the retreat. Council updated procedures in the fall. In his experience retreats and less formal agenda process leads to more creativity, teamwork, more effective working together. Council will hold another retreat next year. Update to Visioning process, over 10 years ago. Charter Review Commission candidates have been selected for panel of citizens, 14 names will comprise committee and will select one more member. Meet on Feb 11. Time frame calls for them to come back in June with possible changes to charter. Lodging Tax assessed on hotels each year, revenue is used to give grants out to community for projects that attract visitors to Everett (called “heads in beds”). Applications will be coming in now and are due by Feb 1 at 5pm. About $150,000 total funds are available. Wrap up in early March with decision on projects to be funded. Council public safety committee will meet next on Feb 10 in Council chambers, at 5pm. Councilmember Murphy emphasized that his door always open – he is happy to speak with any of the neighborhood leaders. Michael invited Councilmember Murphy to the Cascade View meeting on Feb 15th. Steve Bugge, Delta, is concerned about economy, with downturns apparent on horizon. Councilmember Murphy responded and spoke about SDAT process. About one third of city’s revenue comes from property tax, and city can’t increase more than 1%. Additional pressure if economy goes back into recession, will continue to look at budget. City and Community Reports: Julie Frauenholtz is the new coordinator for the Community Streets Initiative. Her position is a one year grant by United Way. She is a resident of Everett, and has spent her career working to help coordinate community interest in making city better. She sees a big group of folks in Everett and the county who care about people on streets, and about mental health issues, and homelessness. In July 2014, Mayor created a task force to look at street level social issues, spent six months diving into issues, field trips, to understand issues. In April 2015, a draft implementation plan was developed. It’s a beautiful but daunting plan which is evolving with changing priorities –she is trying to articulate what is already going on and what is planned. There are six key areas of focus among the 63 recommendations. Seventeen top priorities were identified. CHART program is oriented to chronic utilizers of public and hospital services, and has seen some early success. Muni court is working on diversion program that has also had some early successes. In 2015, Mayor announced the Safe Streets Plan, which has three pronged approach: enforcement, housing, and diversion. Mayor proposed $1 million for additional efforts. Question – how do you work on issues and deal with privacy? Agencies can’t reveal information on individual clients. CHART team gets releases from each client. Julie is available to talk with groups about the streets initiative. Parks and Rec – Parks Rec Open Space comprehensive plan Jeff Price, Parks, reported on outreach for the Parks comp plan. They met with community in 19 meetings, including neighborhoods, listening sessions and received lots of good feedback. Flyers for meetings on Feb 2 and Feb 4 in evening will cover a summary of the feedback and possible options. Parks would like feedback on plans to narrow down to one plan. Location of Parks open houses: on Feb 2 at North Middle, and at Walter Hall golf course on Feb 4. Both are set for 6-8pm - drop in. Everett Library - Eileen Simmons – spoke about Everett Reads – a community reading program with a lot going on. On Feb 6, local author Carol Dagg will speak about her writing. She recently finished a historical novel which is being published. “Sweet Homes Alaska” about families relocated to Alaska. She will also speak about how she does research for novels. On Feb 12th, there will be a reception at 7:30pm for Richard Russo, Pulitzer prize winner who will be Everett Reads author this year. Free event, first come first seating. Russo wrote a lot of books, focused on small towns. Empire Falls is novel for this event. Set in a Maine mill town where mills have gone out of business. Book is about life after mills shutdown. Eileen encouraged everyone to attend. Author receptions – refreshments and meet the author, at performing arts center, $25 for Friends members. Eileen encouraged reps to become members of the Friends. April 9 Mary Roach, non-fiction writer on science, educational books, humorous. Titles include Packing for Mars, Stiff, Gulp. Next book is about science of humans in war. Pic fiction – contest. Eileen described this very brief form of writing and the contest. Feb 14 Valentine’s Day at 2pm – Dr John Marslov – ornithologist – will speak about crows and ravens. His book is titled Subirdia. Event is hosted by Friends of the Library. Friends of the Library is trying to encourage new members, makes a lot happen for library patrons. I-pad raffle is next idea to raise funds. Council reps expressed thanks for social media training given by the library staff. Planning staff update – Niels Tygesen – PSRC directed the city to develop a metropolitan plan and to accommodate a lot of growth over next 20 years. Brownfields grant is available to help with planning some parts of the area. The “Metro center” is much expanded version of the core of downtown and includes the transit center. On Feb 2 there will be discussion by Planning Commission – looking at developing an overall city center plan. Public participation plan is included in draft. The draft plan will be on website to view. Question - What is benefit to city? Response - Each area has different zones, and different regulations. A lot of similar regulations, but some differences in zones. Process will ask - are plans and goals in need of amendment, and can city make a plan and policies that are more streamlined, more comprehensive. Farewell to Deborah Wright – she is retiring. She has loved working with Animal Shelter, Senior Center, and neighborhoods. She complimented the many volunteers in neighborhoods and at the senior center and shelter. Key changes during her time at city include much broader involvement in CERT training to enable volunteers to respond in disaster, ham radio operators, July 4th parade support and National Night Out activities. Tom Norcott commented that Deborah is breath of fresh air, and has kept neighborhood associations alive. She has had the ear of higher ups and ability to get things done. Deborah plans to volunteer doing mediations for Coupeville area on Whidbey for VOA Dispute Resolution Center, the League of Women Voters, Rotary Club of Everett. Andrea commented on improvements at animal shelter and parks supervision during Deborah’s time with the city.. Teamwork: Diversity board linkages - Neighbors working on school partnerships and outreach work will be joined by Diversity board members who will be considering their next work plan and whether to renew their focus on supporting outreach to neighborhoods and schools. Mini grant apps are due Friday Jan 29. Wendy offered assistance by phone or in person. Discussion of goals and 2016 projects was postponed given staffing changes and also was delayed for lack of time. Neighborhood Reports: Bayside – Karen McAllister is the new chair. She is new to Everett. Bayside met on Feb 20. Only 7 attendees, police did not attend. Held elections and a business meeting. Changed meeting night to Wednesday nights and updated bylaws. Boulevard Bluffs – Powder Mill Gulch special meeting with Boulevard Bluffs neighbors will be held next month to review Boeing plans to clean up contaminations in Powder Mill Gulch. Plan will be reviewed with DOE at the meeting. Feb 25th there will be Dept of Ecology, City and Boeing staff meeting with community Fire Station 4. Cascade View/Twin Creeks – Ethel McNeal and Jim Greico were elected to council reps. Ethel reported on Jan 18 meeting. They did have police report there. Minor theft crimes Christmas lights. Karl Christian, manager spoke about SnoPac/911 dispatch. 14 took tour of the SnoPac 911 system, learned about 911 calls and how they are handled. Talked about Smart911.com in which people can sign up to list critical medical info on 911 system. 911operator was commended for her duty on Dec 31 fire on Casino Road. Karl Christian phone – (425) 407-3908 – interesting guest speaker. Neighbors are discussing clean-up of individual sites in neighborhood through mini grant, and want to publicize. Liz Hawkins has resigned due to family matters. Delta – met on Jan 13. Had a police report. Guest speaker was Ashley Lomers- Johnson from Everett Housing Authority, who spoke about their housing redevelopment proposal. Had a lengthy, heated discussion about plans by housing authority to demolish and sell property at Baker Heights.  Glacier View – New leadership elected, Mary Rollins is new rep. YMCA staff spoke about re-development of school district site which they now own. Mayor had to cancel his visit due to legislative session. HSG – had meeting 38-40 people, full house. Had police report, book exchange, and robberies in area were discussed. Jeff Price from Parks spoke on comp plan update on wants and needs to improve parks. Next meeting will focus on Emergency management. Volunteer Lisa Harrison is helping HSG update their website. Meeting signs, electronic ways also pull people into the meeting. Bridge at Howarth Park will open the bridge by Memorial Day. Beach work not done yet. Lowell – met last Monday 9 people, police officer, spoke about former system to new crime prevention tool. Megan Dunn spoke about pesticide reduction education. District elections were also discussed as well as mini grants. Group is interested in using mini grant for a clean up event, Red Barn community farm, and for Map Your Neighborhood. Will meet next month for focus on Map Your Neighborhood. The Simpson trail closure issue (related to Polygon construction) may be future guest speaker. Northwest –attendance was 30-35 people. Sgt. Braley attended. Group discussed problem houses, including squatters in house on Colby. On street camping is not illegal, cars can stay for 72 hours. Marla Carter brought info about the bridge project and the open house etc. Shelley reported she is not the neighborhood chair, but next elections are in April. Shelley will be the city contact. On Feb 9, they will have a neigh meeting to get mini grant plans going. Grand Ave Park bridge development, including pedestrian access, is of keen interest. Issues are moving north, with interest in college area development. Pinehurst – At Nov 24 meeting, 10 in attendance, Parks talked about comp plan, had a parents’ night out for families in Pinehurst, partnered with Boys & Girls Club. Lions park bon fire among homeless at park. Residents had two smaller meetings about theft from cache and how to recover from that loss. Pinehurst next meets on Jan 26 (tomorrow). Port Gardner – 22 attendance. Guest speaker was John McAlpine, from Catholic Community Services, Retired Senior Volunteer Program. Port of Everett also spoke. Moving on with plans to relocate the Weyerhaeuser building. Boxcar park will be new location for the building. On March 14 - Port Gardner will host West Seattle Be Prepared – hubs, caches and topics. Discussed mini grant activities. Had holiday party at Van Valey house, auction of pies, made over $1,000 on 24 items. Funds raised for 11 seniors who would not have families at holidays or had needs. Vacuum cleaners were key item needed and Everett Vacuum Cleaners gave 1 yr warranty, for about $37. Gene O’Neil was auctioneer. Riverside – Met in December with 33 people, special event raised $440 for a local needy family. Police reports at both meetings. Jan meeting had 24 present and also raised funds for community nonprofit. South Forest Park – 7 attended, Nick Fisher beat officer attended. Dennis presented a slide show of past grant activities, used pledge sheets to confirm interest and participation in mini grants.  Valley View – had planned a social with Mayor, had cake, etc. but Mayor could not attend. Wendy became guest speaker, Sgt. Zeka gave police report, had a good interchange with residents. Mini grant topics were discussed. New volunteers stepped up to help with for garage sale. View Ridge-Madison – police report, mini grant discussion, resident drug dealers were removed from neighborhood, but showed up elsewhere. More groups on board to help with Easter Egg hunt and St Nick party. Had dinner, gifts for kids, cookie decorating. Announcements: Michael Trujillo, Megan Dunn and Tom Norcott are on City’s Charter Review committee. Jackie announced an event on Jan 29 at 7pm to support the Delta 5 and Rising Tide in Seattle The next Housing First Forum is on Monday Feb 1 at 6:30 at the Everett Historic Theatre. Shakaroo will be on Feb 13 at EPAC Tax assistance is available from United Way for low income residents. Monte Cristo brochures and other info on the table. Please pick up info. New council rep orientation is to be scheduled in February North-end crime and public safety meeting for 5 north neighborhood groups is to be scheduled, possibly in March Top 5 Items to report: Community Streets Initiative making progress with housing for most needy, chronically homeless. And next Housing First Forum is on Feb 1 Parks Comp Plan update open house meetings in early Feb Everett Reads events all spring - including Richard Russo author event City Council president Murphy will be visiting neighborhood meetings Meeting adjourned at 6:22pm. Next meeting on Monday, Feb 22, 2016 Minutes prepared by Wendy McClure