Council Meeting

Snohomish County Council Council Meeting Meeting Minutes Jared Mead, Council Chair Nate Nehring, Council Vice-Chair Councilmembers: Sam Low, Megan Dunn, Strom Peterson Friday, April 7, 2023 1:00 PM Gary Weikel Room Willis Tucker Park 6705 Puget Park Drive Snohomish, WA 2024 Budget Process-Council Priorities SPECIAL MEETING (no audio/video) PRESENT: Council Chair Mead Vice-Chair Nehring Councilmember Low (remote) Councilmember Dunn Councilmember Peterson (remote) Heidi Beazizo, Chief of Staff Jim Martin, Council Staff Nicole Gorle, Council Staff Deb Bell, Council Staff (remote) Ryan Countryman, Council Staff Russell Wiita, Council Staff Darcy Cheesman, Council Staff Angela Ewert, Council Staff Joshua Thompson, Council Staff Cheri Danner, Asst. Clerk of the Council Debbie Eco, Clerk of the Council 1. Call to Order Council Chair Mead called the Council to order at 1:03 p.m. 2. Public Comment There were no persons present wishing to provide public comment. Page 1 of 5 Council Meeting Meeting Minutes April 07, 2023 Jim Martin, Sr. Legislative Analyst, provided a meeting packet including 2024 Budget process materials. The Council and council staff discussed the following topics. 2024 Budget Retreat Meeting Packet 2023-0401 3. Budget Calendar Mr. Martin spoke about the proposed budget calendar and said the target date for Budget adoption is November 8th. Mr. Martin spoke about Department Presentations. He explained the proposal to move the presentations back one week, beginning the week of October 10th, incorporating the Department’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) presentations into their regular presentation instead of having the departments come back for a second week to present a second time. Discussion ensued. Responding to Councilmember Dunn, Mr. Martin said he would watch for holidays when scheduling. He also said he will be sure to get feedback from Directors attending NACO to be certain there are no scheduling conflicts. There were no objections from councilmembers to move forward with moving the department presentations back one week in October and combining the CIP and regular presentations. Mr. Martin spoke about the resumption of committee meetings after Budget adoption . He said he thought it would be helpful to allow for, at least, two meetings, per committee, before the end of the year to process ECAFs. He wanted to make sure analysts and clerks have enough time. After further discussion, Council decided they would wait to decide. 4. Strategic Priorities Council Chair Mead provided an introduction for this topic. Vice-Chair Nehring raised the subject of considering a process to prioritize Council District projects and maintaining control over funding. Lengthy discussion ensued related to priorities between Executive’s and Council Offices, process, requirements, and where responsibilities lie. Mr. Martin, briefly, spoke of a potential property tax increase in coming years. Councilmember Low expressed his interest in including the motocross racetrack at the Fairgrounds as a priority. He said the Parks Department has requested the racetrack be moved because of more equestrian events. He offered suggestions such as the use of the Fairgrounds multipurpose facility. Chair Mead said he is interested and is comfortable making this a priority. Page 2 of 5 Council Meeting Meeting Minutes April 07, 2023 Darcy Cheesman, Legislative Aide to Councilmember Low, and Chair Mead responded to Councilmember Dunn’s questions about why motocross doesn’t mix well with equestrian. Ms. Cheesman explained that locations are being looked into, the community has said they are looking for under cover locations, and it is also on Tom Teigen’s [Conservation and Natural Resources Director] radar. Brief discussion ensued related to possible funding. Russell Wiita, Legislative Aide to Vice-Chair Nehring, raised the issue of ramping down ARPA spending. Responding to Chair Mead, Mr. Martin said he would work with the Office of Recovery and Resilience (ORR) to get a list of funds and agreed with Mr. Wiita that it’s not too early to have those conversations. Mr. Martin suggested that one question to departments could be, how will spending be ramped down. Councilmember Dunn predicted that in six months there will be unspent funds so things will need to be shifted around, she said it will be beneficial to see what has already been spent. Heidi Beazizo, Chief of Staff, suggested a budget note. Nicole Gorle, Sr. Legislative Analyst, will follow up with the Executive’s Office for a master list. Ms. Cheesman stated that there should be a website explaining where all the dollars have been spent. Mr. Martin said he would follow up with Kara [Main-Hester, Chief Recovery and Resilience Officer] regarding the website. Councilmember Dunn spoke about wayfinding on the county campus. She said it began two budgets ago and then just stopped. Deb Bell, Sr. Legislative Analyst, said she will follow up. Councilmember Dunn spoke about treatment court expansion. She said with the new Blake Decision and if the Robinson Bill passes there will be a need. She said she has been meeting with Superior and District Courts and the Prosecutor’s Office regarding this. Vice-Chair Nehring commented and stated he has had the same thoughts. 5. 5-Year Forecast Mr. Martin provided detailed information related to the five-year forecast. He spoke about potential impacts due to the Classification Compensation Study. He did not believe it would have an impact in 2023, but spoke about the outyears. a. General Fund Mr. Martin responded to high level questions from Chair Mead related to the General Fund. Page 3 of 5 Council Meeting Meeting Minutes April 07, 2023 b. REET 1 & 2 Mr. Martin spoke about REET 1 & 2 forecasts. He said based on preliminary projections, REET is dropping quickly, he said REET 1 is in good shape. He responded to questions from Councilmember Dunn. c. Fund Balance Targets Mr. Martin explained that the General Fund target is at 14% and REET I & II targets are at $6 million. He said that is not a change, just a reiteration of previously set numbers. Vice-Chair Nehring said he would like to have Council agree on a fund balance level that they will not go under with amendments to the Budget. 6. Early Revenue Consensus Mr. Martin spoke about revenue forecasting. He provided an overview of the Revenue Forecasting Committee, which consists of Debbi Mock and Brian Haseleu of Finance, Ms. Beazizo, and himself. Mr. Martin provided a report of their meeting last week where they discussed the current status and an early look at 2024 and beyond. Mr. Martin responded to questions from Councilmember Dunn and Vice-Chair Nehring. 7. Elected Officials' Requests Mr. Martin asked if the Council would like to set a policy on how to handle elected’s budget requests. Discussion ensued regarding timing and deadlines. Chair Mead suggested that it might be better to come to an agreement on how Council handles the requests internally as he expressed that he is not comfortable setting a deadline for the electeds. [Councilmembers Low and Peterson left the meeting at approximately 2:47 p.m.] Further discussion ensued on how Council might encourage departments to submit requests at the earliest time possible. Mr. Martin said they can put in a request to the Departments, as Directors, they are not bound, it is only a suggestion. Page 4 of 5 Council Meeting Meeting Minutes April 07, 2023 8. Improvements to Budget Process Mr. Martin requested feedback on the Council one-page summaries used last year. He said Viggo [Forde, Department of Information Technology Director] would like to update the format, not content, of the outdated presentations. Mr. Wiita suggested adding a question related to how the departments will ramp down ARPA spending. Mr. Martin proposed a type of tracker to track questions to departments. Councilmembers concurred. Mr. Martin said to get back to him with any feedback councilmembers may have for any improvements or other suggestions to help update the process. 9. ECAFs Ms. Beazizo spoke about criteria to automatically move certain ECAFs to Committee of the Whole during Budget deliberations and how that process might work. Mr. Martin spoke about the fiscal impact section on the ECAF form. He spoke about how this is a great tool for councilmembers and analysts and how it has not been used in recent years. Discussion ensued regarding getting fiscal impact information from the department prior to further processing. Closing remarks were made. There being no further business, Chair Mead adjourned the Council for the day at 3:16 p.m. Page 5 of 5