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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-02-09 City Council Minutes Approved City Council Study Session Minutes— February 9, 2015 At approximately 7:00 p.m. Mayor Laurie Gere called the Anacortes City Council study session of February 9, 2015 to order. Roll call found present City Councilmembers Eric Johnson, Ryan Walters, Erica Pickett, Brad Adams, Liz Lovelett, John Archibald and Matt Miller. Mayor Gere announced that she would deliver her State of the City address in the City Council chambers at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 10, and would also deliver the address at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, February 12, at the Swinomish Casino and Lodge. Presentation from Arts Commission Parks and Recreation Director Gary Robinson introduced Rita James, chair of the Anacortes Arts Commission. Ms. James introduced fellow commissioners Karla Locke and Marius Hibbard who were present and listed the other members of the Commission. Ms. James provided Council with an update on recent and planned activities of the Arts Commission. She noted the recent installation of the Aerie sculpture in the Commercial Avenue roundabout and described the jury process used to select public art. Ms. James pointed out the art installation in the City Council chambers and City Hall foyer and described the rotating nature of the show. She also mentioned monthly art shows at the Depot coordinated by Karla Locke; the new arts foundation, Fidalgo Culture; the possibility of a pocket sculpture park at 18th Street and Commercial Avenue; restoration of the Kenneth Callahan painting in the Post Office; and the private fundraising effort to purchase Peregrine O'Gormley's How Much Longer sculpture for City's collection of public art. Ms. James distributed the Commission's brochure mapping public art in the city. She announced that the Arts Commission had been chosen to participate in the Mural of America project and explained how that project would unfold in the community in the year ahead. Recognition of Partners in Udd Property Purchase (Friends of ACFL &Skagit Land Trust) Parks Operations and Forestlands Manager Jonn Lunsford thanked the City's partners in the recent purchase of the 20-acre Udd property on the south side of Mt. Erie. He explained the acquisition expertise provided by the Skagit Land Trust and the fundraising assistance provided by the Friends of the Anacortes Community Forest Lands. He described the City's longstanding relationships with both groups to the benefit of the community and the forestlands. Mr. Lunsford introduced Molly Doran, Executive Director of the Skagit Land Trust. Ms. Doran briefly described the mission of the Skagit Land Trust and described a sampling of local SLT projects on Fidalgo and Guemes Islands. Ms. Doran thanked Mr. Lunsford and Mr. Robinson for the very successful partnership which began with the ACFL Conservation Easement Program in 1998. She described the required easement monitoring program and thanked Friends of the Forest for their assistance with that. Mr. Lunsford introduced Denise Crowe, Education and Outreach Director of Friends of the ACFL. Ms. Crowed briefly described the long partnership between the City and the Friends since its inception in 1987 to serve the ACFL in many capacities, particularly through community education and nature literacy. Ms. Crowe extolled the virtues of the Udd property and the value of adding it to the ACFL. She thanked the 150 donors who had contributed private funds for the Udd property purchase and thanked her colleague, Jean Andrich, for processing those many payments. Mr. Lunsford closed by thanking Mayor Gere and Council for their support of the property acquisition. City of Anacortes/Skagit County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Update Planning Director Don Measamer introduced Kerri Love from Skagit County Department of Emergency Management to give a brief description of the Skagit County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan (NHMP) process. Ms. Love discussed Anacortes' participation in the regional NHMP which is reviewed each year and updated every five years, most recently in 2014. She described the collaborative effort to review and revise the plan and its three major elements: public involvement, identifying risks and natural hazards, and setting mitigation goals to minimize damage. She explained that in Washington State a NHMP is mandatory for state, local and tribal governments in order to receive disaster assistance from the state. Ms. Love concluded that by adopting the updated NHMP Anacortes would be creating a resilient future and Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes February 9, 2015 1 working to ensure a healthy and vibrant community by supporting economic continuity and safeguarding the environment. Mr. Measamer reported that the City's NHMP had been updated by the City's Mitigation Planning Committee including the Fire, Police, Planning and Public Works departments. He pointed out a couple of revisions including acquiring seismic studies for various city buildings but said that the update had not required a lot of changes from the previous version. Mr. Measamer said he would like to bring the updated NHMP back to Council for adoption by resolution on the Consent Agenda at the next regular City Council meeting. Mr. Measamer responded to questions from Mayor and Council regarding the plan. Mr. Johnson asked if the plan included an overall prioritization of the risks to be addressed. Mr. Measamer replied that neither the City nor the County plans included that ranking. He observed that the NHMP would very likely be updated again in the coming year with newly available information obtained during the 2016 Comprehensive Plan update and suggested that risk prioritization could perhaps be addressed then. Mr. Measamer suggested that the NHMP could usefully inform the upcoming capital facilities plan and budget discussions. Mr. Walters endorsed that notion and said the intertie with Skagit PUD appeared to be the most important project to address. Mr. Miller observed that the successful completion of the new Water Treatment Plant had removed the risk of flooding at the plant from the updated NHMP. Ms. Lovelett asked how the NHMP harmonized with the Emergency Operations Plan. Mark Watkinson, Interim Director of Skagit County Department of Emergency Management, explained that a mitigation plan is separate from an operational emergency plan. He said that the department does not prepare mitigation plans for manmade or technological disasters because that is not required by the state but that manmade disasters could be added to the 2019 update if jurisdictions wished to pursue that. Mr. Walters inquired if the water transmission lines across the valley would be at risk in the event of a flood. Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer said he did not anticipate great impact to the lines from floods, noting that they have been in place for quite some time through a number of flood events. He confirmed that the transmission lines are all below ground except along the golf course at the south edge of Fidalgo Bay. Residential Energy Efficiency Incentive Pilot Program Presentation Mr. Walters introduced Alex Ramel from Sustainable Connections in Bellingham, coordinator of the Community Energy Challenge with which Anacortes was collaborating as part of the Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP)competition. Mr. Walters said Mr. Ramel had been invited to address HB 1843 sponsored by Representatives Morris and Lytton to create a pilot program offering property tax credits for residential energy efficiency improvements for low and moderate income households. Mr. Ramel congratulated Anacortes on advancing to the semifinals of the GUEP. Referring to a bill summary handout distributed by Mr. Walters at the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Ramel explained the origin of HB 1843, the rationale behind it and the mechanics of the pilot program as proposed. He noted that the program was modeled on the multi-family urban center property tax exemption that Anacortes adopted in 2010. Mr. Ramel explained that the exemption would be revenue neutral for cities that opted to participate in the program and would not affect special purpose property tax districts such as schools. He added that a pending amendment to the bill would allow participating cities to cap the total value of exemptions created. Ms. Lovelett asked how much the current multi-family urban center property tax exemption had affected revenues in Anacortes. Mr. Measamer advised that the program had not yet had any participants and in fact Ordinance 2814 adopting that program had just expired; he said he would bring that program back to Council at an upcoming meeting to consider extending it. Councilmembers discussed the notion of revenue neutral property tax exemptions and how that might shift the property tax burden among constituents. Mr. Walters encouraged his colleagues to support HB 1843, noting that Anacortes would be under no obligation to participate in the program even if it were enacted by the Legislature. He circulated a letter addressed to Representative Jeff Morris supporting HB 1843 and invited the signatures of any of his fellow councilmembers who supported the bill. Mr. Walters said the letter would be presented at the public hearing before the House Committee on Technology and Economic Development in Olympia the next morning. Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes February 9, 2015 2 Recycling and Organics Collection Contract Presentation Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer distributed a printout of his presentation for the evening and advised that staff from Waste Management would first present information about their proposed services, then Mr. Buckenmeyer would discuss the proposed rates for those services. He noted that the Public Works Committee had already viewed the presentation. Mr. Buckenmeyer introduced Will Ibershof and Candy Castellanos, Education and Outreach Manager,from Waste Management NW. Mr. Ibershof reviewed the service summary included in the evening's Council packet and answered questions from councilmembers. He summarized that Waste Management would continue to collect yard waste in Anacortes for customers who subscribe to that service but that it would now provide weekly pick up year round allowing more customers to take advantage of organics collection to dispose of food waste as well as yard waste. Mr. Ibershof said that Waste Management would also take over weekly curbside residential recycling collection from the current provider. He said all customers would receive new blue 96- gallon totes for recycling and would retain green totes for organics. Mr. Ibershof shared information about where recyclables are routed and changing demand and commodity values in the market for recyclables. Mr. Johnson reported that wind presents a challenge for solid waste collection in Skyline and discussed with the Waste Management staff various means of addressing that problem. Ms. Castellanos described at length the important education component of Waste Management's service which helps minimize contamination of the materials collected. Mr. Buckenmeyer then discussed the new rates for recycling and organics collection. He noted that under the new contract residential customers would receive a single monthly bill for all solid waste collection services, issued by the City of Anacortes. Mr. Buckenmeyer reported that under the proposed contract Waste Management would charge the City$8.49/month for each recycling customer and $10.43/month for each organics customer(additional $3.00/month for customers with a second organics bin). He then proposed that customers would be billed $9.00/month for weekly recycling pickup and $11.00/month for weekly organics collection. Mr. Buckenmeyer advised that the Waste Management contract would come back to Council for action at a regular City Council meeting in the near future, then a separate rate ordinance would come before Council for action to implement new retail rates for customers. He added that the Public Works Committee had suggested eliminating the reduced rate charged by the City for additional trash cans in order to encourage customers to separate more of their recyclables out of the waste stream. Mayor Gere inquired if more staff would be required to take on the additional billing. Mr. Buckenmeyer said he did not expect that would be necessary. Ms. Lovelett asked if the customer rate increase would last for the duration of the 10-year contract with Waste Management. Mr. Buckenmeyer advised that both the rates charged by Waste Management and the rates charged to customers would be subject to an annual CPI adjustment. Mr. Walters asked the amount of the cash reserves in the Solid Waste fund. Mr. Buckenmeyer said $1.8-$1.9M. He explained the history of the rates charged for residential solid waste service and observed that the rate charged to customers for recycling had not been covering costs for some time so an adjustment was due to avoid eating into fund reserves. There being no further business, at approximately 9:00 p.m. the Anacortes City Council study session of February 9, 2015 adjourned. Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes February 9, 2015 3