City Council

Oak Harbor City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023 This was both a physical meeting location and a virtual meeting The meeting was viewable via YouTube www.youtube.com/cityofoakharbor and Facebook or could be viewed on Channel 10/HD 1090 following the meeting. Public Comments are not normally taken or included for Council Workshops, although the Council may allow or request participation. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Severns called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m. ROLL CALL City Council Present: Staff Present: In-person or Videoconference Mayor Robert Severns City Administrator Blaine Oborn Mayor Pro Tem Tara Hizon Deputy City Administrator/ Finance Dir.David Goldman Councilmember Beth Munns - absent Public Works Director Steve Schuller Councilmember Jim Woessner Parks and Recreation Director Brian Smith Councilmember Bryan Stucky Police Chief Kevin Dresker Councilmember Shane Hoffmire Police Captain Tony Slowik Councilmember Eric Marshall Fire Chief Ray Merrill Councilmember Chris Wiegenstein Communications & IT Manager Sabrina Combs City Administrator Executive Assistant Macalle Finkle City Clerk Julie Nester Also in attendance: City Attorney Lisa Marshall of Kenyon Disend, PLLC MAYOR Mayor Severns called the workshop to order and welcomed those in attendance. He noted Councilmember Munns was excused. Mayor Severns thanked the Oak Harbor Planning Commission once again for hosting yesterday’s joint meeting with the City Council to review and hear staff reports on the process for the 2024-2025 Comprehensive Plan work, along with its many components, and related topics of mutual interest. Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 1 PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT a. Park Plan Implementation Parks and Recreation Director Smith presented and provided background, with additional input from Public Works Director Schuller. Director Smith explained the intent of the discussion was to provide a brief history of the park’s Phase I development, constraints of the Harbor Heights site, opportunities for alternative uses, and strategic planning direction for additional sports fields including alternative locations. Background: The Harbor Heights parkland area was purchased by the City on January 24, 2020. This 75-acre undeveloped parcel of land on the north limits of the City was being planned as a regional park to provide multiple sports and activities to benefit the community. The first phase of the project was the construction of two soccer fields and a 50-space parking lot prior to the construction of a new school at Fort Nugent by the Oak Harbor Public School District. The City is currently working closely with Oak Harbor Public Schools to understand the impact and timeline of the school construction. Subsequent phases of the project included developing the land into a regional park and sports complex to attract sports tourism. Shortly after the acquisition, the City hired David Evans & Associates (DEA, design consultant) to prepare a park master plan for the full site and process community feedback. Concepts were provided to the community and feedback received during a virtual open house from the 8th through the 15th of March 2021. The City received responses in favor of Concept Two with soccer fields and street access from Gun Club Road with Trails being a close second for desired use of the property. The Park Board also provided a recommendation to City staff for Master Plan Concept Two, and made recommendations to City staff regarding parking, restroom facilities, future concessions, trails, and a dog park. The estimated cost for the development of the full master plan, which includes an access roadway, is approximately $60.7 million. The original 2016 budget for Phase I was approximately $1.65 million but the cost did not include the access roadway. Staff was unaware of any construction cost concerns as an estimate was developed based on standard practice design to get to the $1.65 million budget level. However, when the consultant did not provide the design estimate at 60% design level, staff developed a Phase I cost estimate based off the original master plan site cost estimate. The Phase I cost estimate came out around $4.7 to $5.1 million. This was approximately $2.8 to $3.5 million over the original budget that was offset by seeking additional grant funding. The consultant provided the cost estimate at 90% design level which came in at $9,969,037 adding an additional 15% for contingency and putting the estimated cost for Phase 1 of the Proposed Harbor Heights Sports Complex at $11.5 million. Last year staff notified Council of the drastic cost increase, canceled the pending grant requests, and put the project on hold. With further study, staff found the original Phase I budget of $1.65 million budget was based on a flat site, it assumed that utilities were stubbed to the site, drainage was addressed in a pond on site, and the access road to the site was existing. Additionally, long-term operation and maintenance of the new fields assumed that the Fort Nugent school property would no longer be maintained by the City and that any shared use fields would be maintained by the school district. It should also be noted that the road access to the site had not been designed, and only a rough cost estimate was generated. Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 2 Moving forward, staff proposes that alternatives be discussed including a short-range plan with Phase I, and include alternative park usage, such as hiking/walking paths, bike trails, moto cross track, dog park, and other temporary usages until a long-range plan on the future development of a Regional Sports Complex can be best achieved as well as other alternatives that could be included in the strategy plan. Mayor Pro Tem Hizon, and Councilmembers Stucky, Woessner, Hoffmire, Wiegenstein, and Marshall provided their respective questions and comments. Input was also provided by members of the Park Board and City Administrator Oborn and Deputy City Administrator and Finance Director Goldman Staff will work towards developing some of the alternate uses discussed and will return to the Council with updates at a future meeting. DEVELOPMENT SERVICES a. ACTION ITEM: Amendment No. 2 to Professional Services Agreement: Hemstad Consulting for the Multi-Family Tax Exemption (MFTE) Program Development Service Director Kuhl presented the action item, which was moved forward from the October 17, 2023 Council meeting for further information and discussion before potential action. The Development Services Department would like to amend the Professional Services Agreement with Hemstad Consulting, the firm currently developing the Multi-family Tax Exemption program in Oak Harbor. The original contract was signed on April 4, 2023. The contract was extended on July 11, 2023. The development of the program will take more time than was first anticipated and this extension will extend the contract from October 31, 2023, to October 31, 2024. The current contract is $24,500 and this amount will not change. The MFTE Program was among the topics of the October 24, 2023 Special Council Meeting – Joint Meeting with the Planning Commission. Mayor Severns confirmed there had been no public comments received regarding this item. Councilmember Stucky provided his respective questions and comments. Motion: Councilmember Stucky moved to approve the Professional Services Agreement amendment with Hemstad Consulting for the development of the multi-family tax exemption program, The motion was seconded by Councilmember Wiegenstein and passed unanimously. ADMINISTRATION a. Boards, Commissions, and Committees Proposed Bylaws Updates Communications/IT and Records Manager Combs was assisted by Senior Legal Assistant Perrine in presenting the proposed updates. Background The City of Oak Harbor has both internal and external boards, commissions, and committees. These are referred to as advisory boards. The internal advisory boards are Civil Service Commission, Community Police Advisory Board (CAB), Firemen’s Relief and Compensation Fund Trustee’s Board, Investment Committee, LEOFF Disability Board, Salary Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 3 Commission, Wellness Committee, and Safety Committee. The external advisory boards are Arts Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC), Marina Advisory Committee (MAC), Park Board, and Planning Commission. Over the last year, the Administration Department has been working to provide more transparency and consistency for the advisory boards starting with providing videos of advisory board meetings for the public, consistent templates for agendas and meeting minutes, and increasing notifications of meetings with agenda details. The next step in this process is to update outdated bylaws and ordinances for the external advisory boards by drafting a Uniform Policies ordinance, and individual ordinances and bylaws for each one. Uniform Policies Ordinance Some of the changes highlighted for discussion by the City Council were: • Changes to advisory membership and residency requirements to provide more diversity. • Staggering term expiration dates so odd numbered positions expire in odd years and even numbered positions expire in even years. (For example, Position 1 expires in 2027 and Position 2 expires in 2026) • Attendance policies. • Steps for addressing annual bylaws updates regarding meeting calendars, training, officer elections, and replacing members that resign from a board. To update the ordinance relating to advisory boards, staff, in working with the City's legal counsel, is recommending the Council repeal Oak Harbor Municipal Code (OHMC) Chapter 2.65 – Organization of Boards, Commissions and Committees. This ordinance will be replaced with a new OHMC Chapter 2.65 titled, “Uniform Policies for Boards, Commissions, and Committees.” The new chapter includes revisions to establish a process for City boards, commissions, and committees, and review processes to ensure that the organization is efficient and nonbureaucratic. Additionally, it will assure public access to all meetings of such boards, commissions, and committees. The recommended changes to Chapter 2.65 include the following items: Application process Residency requirements Membership - Appointments/Vacancies Attendance policies Non-voting and Non-quorum members (Student and Ex-Officio) Staff support roles Quorum Terms of office Required training Bylaws and Rules of Procedure Annual Work Plan Ordinances for External Advisory Boards Each advisory board has a specific ordinance. For consistency the first few sections will be like the other advisory boards, followed by specific items that align with the specific advisory board and its members. Specific changes for each board: Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 4 Arts Commission – OHMC Chapter 2.29 Membership requirements. Meeting schedules. Monetary donations and gifts of works of art. City funding of the arts language. Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission – OHMC Chapter 2.30 Name change of the advisory board from Park board to Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. Updating of powers and duties to reflect the expanded role to include recreation programming. Meeting schedules. Adding a non-voting student member. Park definition. Marina Advisory Commission (MAC) – OHMC Chapter 2.39 Name change of the advisory board from Marina Advisory Committee to Marina Advisory Commission. Changes to membership requirements: • Three (3) members shall be customers of the Oak Harbor Marina (boat owner/lessee or storage lessee). Guest moorage only shall not be included. • Two (2) members shall not be customers of the Marina. Add an Ex-Officio member. Option for a student member. Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) – OHMC Chapter 2.66 No changes to membership. No Ex-Officio or student members. Two additional sections include committee proposals and grant application information. Planning Commission – OHMC Chapter 18.04 Options to add an alternate, Ex-Officio, or student member Added specifics relating to procedures, hearings, and rules of conduct. These items are specific to this commission. Historic Preservation Commission – OHMC Chapter 18.50.040 Currently, this group is not meeting. However, new members have recently been appointed and the plan is to restart this commission soon. Drafted recommendations based on other advisory boards. Confirmed other municipal references for this type of commission. Naming Convention of Boards, Commissions, and Committees Staff researched changing all the names of the boards, commissions, and committees to commissions. However, RCW 67.28.1817 specifically references the Lodging Tax Advisory Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 5 Committee, meaning LTAC must remain a committee. Bylaws for External Advisory Boards Some of the bylaws have not been updated in over 20 years. Others do not have bylaws specific to their advisory body and role in the City. Staff addressed this by revising or drafting bylaws for each advisory board to meet the proposed, OHMC Chapter 2.65 titled, “Uniform Policies for Boards, Commissions, and Committees.” The new and revised bylaws provide a more consistent and standardized format. The bylaws include Membership - appointment, attendance, and vacancies; Officers, elections, and duties; Meetings – set annual calendar, date/time/location of meeting, special meetings, work sessions/site visits; and agendas; Quorum; Serial meeting information; Conflicts of interest; Voting; Minutes; and Video recordings; Annual report to Council; Budget, expenditures, and funding; Co- sponsorship of programs; Open Meetings and Public Records requirements/training; and Bylaws and amendments to bylaws. Next Steps After receiving recommendations from Council for edits or approval of suggested edits, staff will revise the documents, present them to the advisory boards, and return them to Council for approval of the ordinances and bylaws. Once approved, the City Clerk will submit to Code Publishing for revisions. Mayor Pro Tem Hizon and Councilmembers Stucky, Woessner, Hoffmire, and Mayor Severns provided their respective questions and comments. b. City Administrator’s Report City Administrator Oborn provided an overview and highlights from his monthly report, including: Leadership • Reviewed appeals submitted as part of the non-represented positions classification and compensation implementation with the Mayor and Human Resources Director. • Conducted a department retreat on September 25 to discuss department updates to projects/priorities, team building, the Central Development Area (CDA), and planning for future happenings such as the All-Hands staff meeting and 2024 City Council retreat. • Presented on the North Whidbey Sewer Expansion RCED Grant request at the October 11th Island County Commission Workshop. The County will likely include provision to maintain affordable housing in the area with incentives from County to do so. • On October 11 participated in Washington Cities Insurance Authority (WCIA) Legislative Committee as part of cities encouraging Legislators to oppose any efforts to expand tort law liability and/or the remedies available under tort law in an effort to prevent further escalation in insurance costs that can take away funding from vital City services. • Attended the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) annual conference in Austin, TX September 30-October4 with 5,500 attendee, 225 Education Offerings, 488 Speakers, and 2010 Exhibiting Companies Legislative Outreach Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 6  • The City received 6 responses to the Government Relations RFP. The review panel consisting of CA Oborn, Mayor Pro Tem Hizon, Councilmember Hoffmire, Parks and Recreation Director Smith, and Grants Administrator Horn held interviews with the top 3 on October 10. The panel recommendation is scheduled for City Council consideration on November 8. • With support from State Senator Muzzall and State Representatives Paul and Shavers, staff was able to convince the State Department of Ecology to consider refinancing the City’s five existing Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) loans at the lower rate offered to new loans given the City’s current hardship. Staff is also working on refinancing the City’s $25 million commercial bond with 3.43% interest callable in 2025 at the much lower CWSRF rate. Community Support • Attended the September 27 Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization (IRTPO) meeting which included selection of the Safe Streets and Roads for All consultant selection, CAPRON Brief, RTP action items and future endeavors. City Administrator Oborn also provided updates from the Development Services, Finance, Fire, and Police departments. There were no comments on the report by Council. CITY COUNCIL Mayor Pro Tem Hizon requested to add a discussion item regarding pervious concrete as a request for future development – and the pros and cons of such, for a future workshop. ADJOURN Hearing no other discussions, Mayor Severns declared the workshop meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m. Certified by Julie Nester, City Clerk Workshop Meeting Minutes October 25, 2023, Page | 7