City Council

City Hall City of Olympia 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Information: 360-753-8447 Meeting Minutes City Council Tuesday, April 16, 2013 7:00 PM Council Chambers 1. ROLL CALL Present: 7- Mayor Stephen H. Buxbaum, Mayor Pro Tem Nathaniel Jones, Councilmember Jim Cooper, Councilmember Julie Hankins, Councilmember Steve Langer, Councilmember Jeannine Roe and Councilmember Karen Rogers 1.A ANNOUNCEMENTS Mayor Buxbaum noted the flags are flying at half-mast in honor of the victims of the bomb explosion at the Boston Marathon yesterday. 1.B APPROVAL OF AGENDA Councilmember Langer moved, seconded by Councilmember Hankins, to approve the agenda. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 7- Mayor Buxbaum, Mayor Pro Tem Jones, Councilmember Cooper, Councilmember Hankins, Councilmember Langer, Councilmember Roe and Councilmember Rogers 2. SPECIAL RECOGNITION 2.A 13-0206 Madison Scenic Park Trail Extreme Makeover Associate Planner Jonathon Turlove provided a description of the work done on the Madison Scenic Park Trail and showed before and after photographs. Councilmembers thanked those who worked on this project. City Manager Steve Hall announced City employee Seth Chance received the Washington Recreation Park Association's "Outstanding Field Staff Person" for his landscaping designs. The recognition was received. 2.B 13-0322 Special Recognition of Arts Walk Arts Program Manager Stephanie Johnson noted the Spring Arts Walk will be held on April 26 and 27. She shared photographs from past Arts Walk events and noted Olympia received the "Best Art Event" designation by the Weekly Volcano. She also said the Procession of the City of Olympia Page 1 City Council Meeting Minutes April 16, 2013 Species will be held on Saturday, April 27. The recognition was received. 3. PUBLIC COMMUNICATION Mr. Gurinder Singh Sodhi, 420 Sherman St SW, urged citizens to clean up after their pets and urged the City to prosecute those who do not. Ms. Lois Loucks, 402 Bates SW, asked for more information about teams of people who are following her. Mr. Jim Reeves spoke of an impending eruption of Mt. Rainier. Mr. Igor Lukashin, 3007 French Road NW, spoke of records requests he has made and the need for an official seal on these documents. He also spoke of utility billing practices and assignment of accounts to collections. Mr. Jeffrey Trinin, 1011 Wilson St NE, spoke in support of the downtown clean-up and beautification event to be held this Saturday. He thanked all who have worked to make this event a success. Mr. Thomas Glennon, 1824 Chambers St SE, spoke against implementing low-barrier shelters in the downtown area. Mr. Glen Morgan with the Freedom Foundation said he is unhappy to see that the City hired an outside consultant to review downtown properties for the Community Renewal Area. He urged the Council to refrain from using eminent domain within the Community Renewal Area. Ms. Sara Pete', 313 8th Ave SE, Acting Branch Manager of the Timberland Library, provided an update of future events at the library. Mr. Gus Guethlein, 3222 Wiggins Rd SE, spoke on the need to improve community development processes and laws. Ms. Jane Stavish, a resident living in the Urban Growth Area (UGA), spoke of the need to improve community development. COUNCIL RESPONSE TO PUBLIC COMMUNICATION (Optional) City Manager Steve Hall said Mr. Lukashin is in litigation and it is improper for Councilmembers to comment on his issues. Mayor Pro Tem Jones asked with regard to utility billing and collections if there are procedural issues we should explore. He also noted there are many examples where a Community Renewal Area has been successful. City of Olympia Page 2 City Council Meeting Minutes April 16, 2013 Councilmember Rogers noted permitting can be a confusing process and staff is in a difficult position. Mayor Buxbaum suggested installing appropriate signage for pet owners. 4. CONSENT CALENDAR 4.A 13-0321 Approval of April 9, 2013 City Council Meeting Minutes The minutes were adopted. 4.B 13-0159 Approval of Easement Agreement with Puget Sound Energy at Ward Lake Park The contract was adopted. 4.C 13-0216 Approval of Bid Award for West Bay Drive Lift Station Upgrade Project and Final Determination of Bidder Non-Responsibility The decision was adopted. 4.D 13-0299 Approval of Interlocal Cooperation Agreement for Thurston County Emergency Management Council The decision was adopted. SECOND READINGS - None FIRST READINGS - None Approval of the Consent Agenda Councilmember Langer moved, seconded by Councilmember Cooper, to adopt the Consent Calendar. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 7- Mayor Buxbaum, Mayor Pro Tem Jones, Councilmember Cooper, Councilmember Hankins, Councilmember Langer, Councilmember Roe and Councilmember Rogers 5. PUBLIC HEARING - None 6. OTHER BUSINESS 6.A 13-0235 Council Priorities for 2013 - 2017 CDBG Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan Housing Program Manager Anna Schlecht presented the Community Development Block City of Olympia Page 3 City Council Meeting Minutes April 16, 2013 Grant (CDBG) draft Five-Year Consolidated Plan and One-Year Annual Action Plan. She said the five-year plan needs Council action to identify the plan’s strategies and the annual action plan needs Council action to identify the goals for the first program year. She reviewed the national objectives and subcategories and said this is a joint plan with Thurston County. She said the goal is to strengthen a regional approach to regional challenges with regional resources. She stated the Council had questions about the specificity of the annual action plan. Ms. Schlecht also presented the additional information as requested by Council. Deputy City Attorney Darren Nienaber said HUD's position on the annual action plan is that it needs to provide sufficient detail, including location, to allow citizens to determine the degree to which they are affected. Sometimes the exact location is not entirely obvious such as when you are providing social services, and in that case, the action plan should identify who may apply for the assistance, the process by which the grantee expects to select who will receive the assistance, including selection criteria, and how much and under what terms the assistance will be provided, or in the case of a planned public facility or improvement, how it expects to determine that location. With regard to allocation of all or a portion of the funds, Ms. Schlecht said HUD regulations state that we have to describe specific activities with respect to all CDBG funds that we are expected to have available during the program year. Mr. Nienaber confirmed this is City Attorney Morrill's understanding as well. Mayor Buxbaum said the greater issue is timeliness of the expenditure. Ms. Schlecht reviewed the cash flow chart and noted the spend-down deadline is June 30, 2013, at which time the City needs to spend down to less than $488,418 in CDBG funding in order to meet the HUD timeliness requirement. Questions and comments included the following: - With regard to the spend-down issue, the Smith Building is not progressing quickly enough to make the spend-down deadline. These funds may be carried over and added to what we need to spend by next year’s spend-down deadline. - Staff expect to spend the majority of the Smith Building funds by August 15 of this year. - On the Smith Building project, the City is working with the Family Support Center to transfer some of the State-funded early-phase work over to the City-funded portion of the project, such as the demolition. - For this first program year 2013 (9/1/13 - 8/31/14) we need to pick a project that is ready to go and the applicant has a good track record of performance. - Council will need to address the timeliness of expenditures in year one and we need to get ahead of the schedule for the next cycle. - The City will receive notification of program year 2013 funding by May or June stating the amount of CDBG funding to be received on September 1. - In the future a Council Committee should consider reviewing this before it comes to the full Council. After discussion, Mayor Buxbaum suggested moving ahead on the RFP for the 2013 action City of Olympia Page 4 City Council Meeting Minutes April 16, 2013 plan as proposed by staff and is open to any of the citywide, including general benefit projects. He suggested a more general purpose approach to include the following criteria: - Readiness to proceed - Demonstration of need - Organizational capacity to carry out projects/track record - Expected impact - how funding will affect direct beneficiaries and other stakeholders - Leveraging of other fund sources The Council agreed. Ms. Schlecht stated the “general purpose” CDBG RFP will be released on April 17 with a deadline of May 7, 2013. Council agreed to a Special Study Session on May 9 at 7:00 p.m. to review the proposals after having been screened and ranked by staff. The Councilmembers present at the Study Session will develop a recommendation for CDBG allocation to be presented at the May 14 City Council meeting agenda for action. Council agreed on the following for the consolidated plan - Affordable Housing - Public Facilities - Public Services - Economic Development - Land Acquisition Considerations for next steps and new business approach: - Recommend an economic development focus, leveraging, and expedited process. - Develop a new timeline and public process that will allow more time for review, deliberation and allocation of CDBG funds. - In program year two implement a multi-year allocation plan. - Refine and define economic development with a high impact on low to moderate income individuals. - Work with the County; Send a letter to County Commissioners asking them to consider a 3-year consolidated plan. - Assess if we want to join in countywide “Urban County CDBG” consortium, currently composed of the other seven jurisdictions in Thurston County. - Land acquisition. The decision was approved. 6.B 13-0319 Proposed Process for Improving the City's Approach to Community Development and Land Use Approvals City Manager Steve Hall asked to move this item to a future agenda. Council agreed to move it to a time after May 14, when Councilmember Langer will be back from his trip. Discussion of this item was postponed. 7. CONTINUED PUBLIC COMMUNICATION City of Olympia Page 5 City Council Meeting Minutes April 16, 2013 8. REPORTS AND REFERRALS 8.A COUNCIL INTERGOVERNMENTAL/COMMITTEE REPORTS AND REFERRALS Councilmember Langer provided highlights of the LOTT Board and Land Use and Environment Committee meetings he attended. Mayor Pro Tem Jones proposed the Council check in on its working relations before the mid-year retreat. He distributed a two-page document entitled "Affirmation of Council Expectations" and asked to put it on the May 14 agenda to adopt the intent and expectations on interactions. Council agreed to bring back this issue at the next meeting to schedule on a future agenda. Council also agreed to set a date for its mid-year retreat. 8.B CITY MANAGER'S REPORT AND REFERRALS Mr. Hall said he had no report. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 10:28 p.m. City of Olympia Page 6