City Council

Oak Harbor City Council Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 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 Development Services Director David Kuhl Councilmember Jim Woessner Police Chief Kevin Dresker Councilmember Bryan Stucky Police Captain Tony Slowik Councilmember Shane Hoffmire Fire Chief Ray Merrill Councilmember Eric Marshall City Engineer Alex Warner Councilmember Chris Wiegenstein Senior Planner Ray Lindenburg Councilmember-elect Barbara Armes Communications & IT Manager Sabrina Combs City Administrator Executive Assistant Macalle Finkle City Clerk Julie Nester Also in attendance: City Attorney Hillary Evans of Kenyon Disend, PLLC MAYOR Mayor Severns called the workshop to order and welcomed those in attendance. OATH OF OFFICE a. Position 3 and Position 4 Mayor Severns announced the November 8th general election was certified by the Canvassing Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 1 Board for Island County yesterday. Position 3 is a short and long term seat. The elected councilperson for this seat is Councilmember Eric Marshall, who ran unopposed. Councilmember Marshall will then take the Oath again for his full-term beginning January 1, 2024 Position 4 is a 2-year unexpired term seat. Barbara Armes is the elected council person for this seat and will replace Councilmember Christopher Wiegenstein who is the Councilmember-elect for Position 2. Mayor Severns offered his congratulations to Councilmember Marshall and Councilmember-elect Arnes. He called upon City Clerk, Julie Nester, to step forward to administer each of the oaths. Following their oaths, Councilmember Armes and Marshall were welcomed to the dais. DEVELOPMENT SERVICES a. Conditional Use Permit Ownership Code Amendment Senior Planner Lindenburg presented the code amendment to bring the Oak Harbor Municipal Code section on conditional use permits (CUP) (OHMC 19.67) into line with generally accepted practice regarding the transfer of such permits to subsequent owners. Currently, the OHMC requires that when a property that includes a previously-reviewed and approved CUP is sold, the new owner must apply for and receive a new conditional use permit. That requirement adds additional time and complexity to the transfer of property and does not appear to add any additional benefit to the city or the property owner. Review of a standard list of peer cities within the state of Washington show that none of those jurisdictions have a similar requirement, and further conversation with planners at the subject cities confirmed that there are two categories of conditional use continuance through a transfer in ownership: 1. the ordinance explicitly allows the conditional use to “run with the land” per cities: Aberdeen 17.68.160 Arlington 20.16.350 Monroe 22.64.040(b) Moses Lake 18.51.010(e) Port Townsend 17.84.120 or 2. the code does not specifically address such transfers, therefore staff interpretation and practice is to allow for the transfer of the approved CUP at the cities of: Anacortes Burlington Maple Valley Mount Vernon SeaTac Senior Planner Lindenburg reviewed the staff recommended proposed changes to OHMC 19.67. Staff will bring these proposed changes back to the Council at a later date. Councilmember Woessner provided his respective comments. Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 2  b. Code Changes Relating to Subdivisions Development Service Director Kuhl presented the item and explained staff is looking to improve engineering standards and processes. There are three areas of Title 21 in the Oak Harbor Municipal Code (OHMC) proposed for amendment. One area relates to allowing a deposit for engineering services to be created. The second area will allow an extension of time to process a final subdivision. The third area will allow the submittal of a digital record that can be used for final processing of a subdivision. Engineering Deposit (Section 21.30.020) (3) (g) This code change would require payment of a deposit for engineering plan review services as part of the submittal of a final subdivision. The time of submittal will be determined by the City Engineer. The deposit amount will be established in the fee schedule and will be applied to the total plan review fee that is owed. This deposit will cover actual expenses that the Department of Public Works has for reviewing engineered plans and will allow the city to use a third-party reviewer to conduct plan reviews. Permit Expiration (21.40.020) The second proposed code change involves an extension of a final subdivision. Currently, the OHMC allows five years from the approval of the preliminary subdivision to the completion of the final subdivision. The code also allows a one-year extension. This code change would allow a two- year extension rather than one year. Digital Filing (21.40.060) and (21.30.020) (3) (e) The third proposed code change would allow a subdivider to file the final subdivision with the county auditor in a digital format. Currently, the code requires applicants to submit a mylar copy. Mylars are not a format that we need anymore, and applicants, citizens and staff would all benefit from using current technology. There are two code provisions listed above that will accomplish this. The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed code changes on December 12, 2023, with a public hearing scheduled for the City Council on January 16, 2024. Councilmembers Munns and Woessner provided their respective questions and comments. FINANCE a. Enterprise Resource Planning – Request for Proposals Update Deputy City Administrator and Finance Director Goldman provided the update. The City’s current financial software, EDEN, is about 20 years old. While it has been updated a few times in the past, it does not have the advanced functionality found in a typical Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The City received notice from the current vendor that they will no longer be supporting the software in a few years. Based on this, staff communicated to City Council with information regarding our current system and what a new system could provide for us (see attached January 27, 2021 City Council Workshop agenda Item). The City Council allocated $500,000 of Council Priority Project (formerly ARPA) funding (total project funding $525,000) to replace our financial system with an ERP system. Following this direction, 1) Staff reached out to multiple cities, who use EDEN and other ERP systems, to gather information and gain input, Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 3 2) Researched ERP RFP templates, 3) Worked with the Government Finance Officer’s Association (GFOA) on refining the Request for Proposals (RFP) and gathering a list of vendors in this space to send the RFP to (in addition to the standard bid publication), and 4) Reached out to ERP vendors at the exhibit hall at the 2023 national GFOA conference in May to submit bids. The RFP was open from May 1, 2023 to June 12, 2023. Staff included the amount of Council Priority Project funding allocated by the City Council in the RFP. The City received two responses. We invited 33 staff members (and the City’s Information Technology consultants) from every department of the City to review those responses. The City invited both vendors to the City for multiple day demonstrations and to answer staff questions. Based on feedback, staff has identified the top vendor and are finalizing negotiations. Staff plans to bring the agreement to Council for potential approval next month and has asked the vendor to be present as well to provide an overview of the software investment. Deputy City Administrator and Finance Director Goldman reviewed the general benefits of an ERP system including: • Speed up and improve processes. • Share information organization-wide. • Reduce paper and chance for losses and errors. • Enhanced financial and capital project reporting. • Enhanced customer experience. Selected Summary of new available functionality: • Moving from paper-based timekeeping to electronic timekeeping. • More accurate tracking of time and approvals. • Verifiable allocation of staff time to grants can reduce direct expenses to City funds. • Workflow approvals in the system. • Electronic approval workflows defined by department/organization with automatic notifications lead to quicker and more efficient review and approval. • Hundreds of processes can be monitored and flexible business rules can be applied. He provided an overview of the Enterprise document management system: Documents are scanned into the system and automatically indexed with optical character recognition applied and relevant hyperlinks included to reports saved on a highly secure storage system. Includes seamless integration between an ERP module and content manager. Can handle multiple file types. All information relevant to a purchase, revenue, or expense is at the users’ fingertips. Business/Data analytics: Toolbox can be used to create user defined views of information and can be shared with others at the click of a button. Strategic analysis into multiple functional areas using forecasts, trends, and government-specific metrics. Ability to handle program budgeting and in-system budget creation and monitoring. Creates an unlimited number of “what if” scenarios. Integrated lifecycle procurement. Includes electronic purchase order/encumbrance functionality. Tracks procurements from requisition to purchase. Integration with existing software. Provides data integration with other software used by the City (Lama, Microsoft-Excel, etc.). Citizen self-service: Enhanced utility billing that can show the history of usage. Single log-in. Ability to report issues (e.g., potholes) that are routed directly to the relevant department. Councilmembers Munns and Stucky provided their respective questions and comments. Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 4 ENGINEERING a. Geographic Information System (GOS) Update City Engineer Warner provided the update accompanied by Engineering Tech Megan Broadie . To the City’s Geographic Information System (GIS) efforts, including a GIS Strategic Plan drafted by Flo Analytics as part of their support services to the City through the GIS Consortium. This was a continuation of the GIS Update brought to City Council at the April 27, 2022 Workshop meeting GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, are utilized to provide mapping and analysis services. Through the City’s partnership with the Association of Washington Cities, FLO Analytics provided initial technical training. In the Spring of 2022, Engineering published the first internet-based mapping services for City departments and continues to develop applications and data sets. In late 2022 FLO Analytics recommended preparing a Strategic Plan to identify the City’s GIS needs and how to meet those needs. In early 2023, FLO-Analytics and Engineering conducted interviews with Development Services, Finance, Police, Fire, Parks and Rec, and Public Works. Goals of the interviews were to assess how GIS services could assist in making data-driven decisions or to support operational needs. The result of this work is the GIS Strategic Plan. GIS services are provided by the Engineering division of Public Works. Current GIS services: Managing utility data and asset management. Providing other Departments with GIS data Administration, Police, Fire, Parks and Rec, Finance, Development Services and Public Works. Presenting maps and digital mapping applications Field collection tools and workflow integrations Departmental Considerations: • GIS needs and workflows are similar across departments. • There is a need to establish regular GIS meetings with staff from across City Departments to share knowledge, discuss issues and encourage data sharing. • Goals for these meetings include: The creation of a data management plan Determining City GIS data deliverable requirements. Defining additional web mapping applications and tools that will benefit city staff as well as the public SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 1. Develop a formal GIS project request system for other departments to submit requests to engineering. 2. Assign GIS data stewards from City Departments. 3. Create a GIS data management plan. 4. Coordinate regular GIS meetings with stewards to ensure data accuracy and reduce data silos. 5. Determine City GIS data deliverable requirements for internal and external projects. 6. Acquire proper licensing to support Department objectives. 7. Continue to develop and deploy in-house solutions to meet the needs of the Public and Staff City Engineer Warner also reviewed future services. Councilmembers Munns and Stucky provided their respective questions and comments. Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 5 ADMINISTRATION a. Discussion of Legislative Priorities Executive Services Administrator Combs explained the executive office identifies and presents the legislative priorities for the following year to the Council annually. She presented the proposed priority updates: Invest in Our Community Housing Availability Public Records Support NASWI Revise Property Tax Cap Tort Reform Recruit and Retain First Responders Councilmembers Stucky, Woessner, Munns, Marshall and Mayor Pro Tem Hizon provided their respective questions and comments. Staff will make revisions based on Council input and bring the revisions to the next regular council meeting for further discussion. b. City Administrator’s Report City Administrator Oborn acknowledged and thanked City staff for their work on streamlining processes for the citizens we serve. He provided an overview and highlights from his monthly report, including: • Successful All-Hands meeting on November 2nd at which the theme was “Can We Build It? Yes, We Can!” Staff participated in a team building activity using Lego bricks to create a structure that will improve livability in our city while recognizing the importance each employee’s role plays in the future of building Oak Harbor • Acknowledged Executive Services Administrator Sabrina Combs who presented on social media and related topics to the Chamber of Commerce. • With direction from the Mayor, withdrew the Rural County Economic Development (RCED) Grant request for the North Whidby Sewer Expansion Design Project given the complexity of the County linking the grant to existing housing in the high noise zone. • City Council Retreat scheduled for Monday, February 12 from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Skagit Valley College. • AWC City Action Days January 23-25, 2024 in Olympia. Development Services - Working with consultant to determine next steps for the Central Development Area. Finance - The State Auditor has begun the annual audit process for the 2022 financials Parks and Recreation - New Parks Supervisor, Brandon Cable, started on November 20. A new Christmas tree has been placed downtown near the pop-up plaza and preparations are underway for the annual Santa parade and tree lighting on December 2. Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 6 Mayor Pro Tem Hizon and Councilmembers Stucky and Munns provided their respective questions and comments. CITY COUNCIL Mayor Pro Tem Hizon acknowledged the service of Chief of Police Kevin Dresker who is retiring after a 35-year career in law enforcement, the past seven of those as Chief of the Oak Harbor Police Department. She also congratulated Police Captain Slowik for his appointment as Interim Chief of Police. ADJOURN Hearing no other discussions, Mayor Severns declared the workshop meeting adjourned at 3:29 p.m. Certified by Julie Nester, City Clerk Workshop Meeting Minutes November 29, 2023, Page | 7