Finance Committee

City Hall Meeting Minutes 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Finance Committee Information: 360.753.8244 Wednesday, July 13, 2016 5:00 PM Room 207 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Cooper called the meeting to order at 5:03 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: 3 - Chair Jim Cooper, Committee member Jessica Bateman and Committee member Jeannine Roe 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 3.A 16-0787 Approval of June 8, 2016 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes The minutes were approved. 4. COMMITTEE BUSINESS 4.A 16-0831 Police Body-Worn Camera Analysis Including Records & Technology Issues Olympia Police Department (OPD) Administrative Services Manager Laura Wohl presented information on body-worn cameras. The department has been studying the topic for five years and the main concerns are accountability of police vs. right to privacy, and both funding and staff resources. Ms. Wohl recommends a community discussion to find a balance between police accountability and citizen privacy (victims and witnesses). Accountability of Police vs. Right to Privacy According to the Washington State Attorney General, all police actions are public. Therefore, all police recordings are public. Victims and witnesses must state at the time of an incident that they want their identity withheld. Police do not have to notify people they are being recorded. This presents privacy issues. Ms. Wohl used the case of a mother cutting her children as an example of how complicated a single situation could be. In that case, there were five officers on the scene for twelve hours. If they had been wearing body cameras, that would have produced 60 hours of video footage -- all subject to public disclosure requests. Once a video is released for any reason, it can be uploaded to the Internet and be seen by anyone, forever. Resources Ms. Wohl estimates the cost associated with use of body-worn cameras to be City of Olympia Page 1 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes July 13, 2016 $500,000 per year. Initial implementation would be approximately $165,000. Annual cost would be approximately $472,000 and includes the cost of three additional staff, training, equipment replacement, and storage costs. Redaction costs are unknown because it depends on whether it gets done in-house or outsourced. Ms. Wohl noted there was one serious allegation against OPD in 2015. There were 14 service level complaints and 109 uses of force complaints. Chair Cooper proposed a study -- hire a contractor to design the process of public education and community involvement. Ms. Wohl indicated OPD workload would not allow time to devote to this prior to 2017. The Committee wants to see a proposal go to Council early in 2017 to try to find funds to start the process. The report was completed. 4.B 16-0823 Review of the 2017 - 2022 Capital Facilities Plan (CFP) Administrative Services Director Jane Kirkemo presented the Preliminary 2017-2022 CFP to the Committee. She stated the Preliminary CFP will go to City Council for approval on July 19, 2016. Ms. Kirkemo noted this CFP is the first in a decade to cover more than maintenance because of additional revenue sources. The 2017-2022 Preliminary CFP includes an update to the ADA Transition Plan and improvements. Additional revenues are coming from the cable tax, Transportation Benefit District, and the Olympia Metropolitan Park District. Ms. Kirkemo informed the Committee the 2017-2022 Preliminary CFP does NOT include: - Expansion of the library - Money in the General Fund to address sea-level rise - East Bay erosion project - A parking structure - Hazard tree funding - Sidewalk maintenance - Percival Landing - Maintenance Center renovations/relocation The Finance Committee wants to talk about hazard trees and the Maintenance Center at the July 19 Council meeting. Ms. Kirkemo closed the discussion by noting that only $6 million of the $133 million in the Preliminary CFP is unrestricted in its use by City Council. The discussion was completed. 4.C 16-0820 Review of Conversion to Monthly Billing for City Utilities Fiscal Services Utililty Billing Supervisor Bill Sampson spoke about the possibility of switching to a monthly billing system from the current bi-monhtly billing system. Rates have increased 40% since 2007 and there has been a corresponding rise in shut-offs. City of Olympia Page 2 Finance Committee Meeting Minutes July 13, 2016 It will cost the City about $280,000 to make this change. Benefits to monthly billing include: - Ability to offer budget billing - Ability for customers to better budget their money - Fewer shut-offs* - Ability for customers to make changes in consumption based on more timely useage reports * City of Lacey has monthly billing. Their shut-offs are half the number of ours. The Finance Committee is interested in pursuing this option. Staff will return at a later date with more realistic cost estimates. The report was received. 4.D 16-0822 Review of Business & Occupation (B&O) Tax Rates and Threshold Adjustment Administrative Services Director Jane Kirkemo introduced this topic. She stated the B&O rates in Olympia have been the same since 1959 (.002 for Services and .001 for everything else). She explained the calculations for the tax and informed the Committee the statutory limit for the B&O tax is .002. Rates may only be changed once every three years. If the Committee wants to change the rate structure to increase revenue, Ms. Kirkemo recommends tying the additional money to a particular project (e.g. public restrooms, Police body cameras, etc.) Fiscal Services Utility Billing Supervisor Bill Sampson discussed the opportunity to raise the taxing threshold to benefit small businesses. The current threshhold is $20,000. The Committee responded positively to the idea of raising the taxing threshhold. Committee members wanted to think about raising rates and return to the topic on a later date. The report was received. 5. REPORTS AND UPDATES - None 6. ADJOURNMENT Chair Cooper adjourned the meeting at 6:46 p.m. City of Olympia Page 3