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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-01-12 City Council Minutes Approved City Council Study Session Minutes—January 12, 2015 At approximately 7:00 p.m. Mayor Laurie Gere called the Anacortes City Council study session of January 12, 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 observed the passing of former City Councilmember Jeanne Robinette on January 2, 2015 and invited the community to honor Ms. Robinette's energetic service on the Council from 1994 through 2001. School Bond Presentation Anacortes School District No. 103 Superintendent Dr. Mark Wenzel presented an overview of the $87.9M school capital facilities bond measure on the ballot February 10, 2015. Dr. Wenzel described the lengthy community process that developed the bond proposal to bring district facilities up to date including major renovation of the high school. He summarized the elements of the proposal which includes 100,000 SF of new construction on War Memorial Field, renovation of some existing spaces, and upgrades to Rice Field as well as roof replacement at Mount Erie and Fidalgo elementary schools. Dr. Wenzel reported that the proposal had been unanimously recommended by the district's facilities committee. He said the new high school would serve Anacortes well for the next 40-50 years and allow students to thrive, emphasizing the safety improvements included in the proposal. Dr. Wenzel said the proposed cost to taxpayers is an increase of$0.58 per$1000 valuation and compared that rate to the much higher school levy rates in surrounding communities. He thanked Council for supporting quality public education in the community. Ms. Lovelett, a member of the district facilities committee, commented on the breadth of community representation on the committee and its efforts to pare the proposal down to true necessities. Mr. Johnson reported teacher concerns about security in the current high school building. Mr. Miller, a member of the district facilities committee, said the bond proposal was the right expense at the right time and that while he was usually skeptical of spending taxpayer money, upgrading the high school was necessary to make Anacortes a world class city. Mr. Adams supported the need for renovations at the high school. Ms. Pickett said that investment in education is the best investment a community can make and urged voting yes. Mr. Archibald agreed that the proposed high school renovations were one more piece of the puzzle to make Anacortes a world class city. Mayor Gere said the key to a vibrant, economically viable community is a good school system. She thanked Dr. Wenzel for his presentation. Legislative Priorities Discussion Administrative Services Director Emily Schuh reviewed revised draft legislative priorities which included City Council and community input following the discussion at the December 12, 2014 City Council meeting. She requested councilmember priority ranking of the topics and any additional feedback. Ms. Lovelett shared a fact sheet regarding Governor Inslee's proposal to strengthen response to oil spills and hazmat disasters. She suggested adding a legislative priority supporting the Governor's legislation or something comparable. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Miller indicated they would want to know more particulars of the proposed legislation before supporting it. Mr. Archibald observed that Anacortes councilmembers all support safe oil transportation and that it should be one of the priorities in some form. Ms. Pickett asked for more information about the proposed priority of replacing the 1% property tax cap. She said she didn't want a cap indexed to both population growth and inflation. Ms. Schuh explained that legislators had encouraged cities to come up with creative alternatives since they can't lift the 1% cap but could index it to established measures. Mr. Miller said he had also circled that priority but wasn't sure what the right answer was. Mr. Miller suggested that the fourth priority regarding fuel tax add be revised to "... any new fuel tax ...." Mr. Walters suggested revising the property tax cap priority to support allowing an increase up to the rate of inflation or 1%, whichever is higher. Ms. Pickett and Mr. Miller agreed. Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes January 12, 2015 1 Mr. Walters proposed adding a priority to support proposed legislation to expand the definition of recreational facilities to include trails built with transportation funding so that they would be covered by the recreational immunity statutes. Mr. Walters said that the currently proposed separation of the Public Records Act priority and the body camera priority did not reflect his intent from the December 12, 2014 meeting. He said he did not support modifying the PRA unless there was a specific aspect of that law that Council felt needed to be addressed. In contrast, he said he did support allowing police body cameras but that there would be additional costs to comply with privacy laws when responding to records requests related to them. Mr. Walters supported making body camera records requests affordable but argued against the term "reasonable accommodation"to the public's right to information, calling that public right sacred. Regarding the proposed priority to support reconciliation of recreational and medical marijuana statutes, Mr. Walters said the Seattle City Attorney had that day published proposed language to harmonize the two. Mr. Walters urged proposing something similar. Mr. Archibald said the Anacortes priority as drafted probably already achieved the same end. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Walters engaged in a discussion of the Public Records Act and the costs to cities of responding to requests. Mr. Johnson asked for wording that would support not bankrupting the City to respond to vengeful public records requests. Mr. Walters disagreed. Ms. Lovelett asked the rationale for the proposed modification to records retention statutes. Ms. Schuh described a particularly extensive request made of Snohomish County. She said the goal was to establish parameters to allow staff to help the public focus its requests to obtain the information it actually wants in an efficient manner. Mr. Walters said he didn't see any modifications required to the Public Records Act or records retention statutes to make that easier. He reiterated that he did not want a wide open statement that Anacortes supports modification to either without a specific goal. Ms. Pickett expressed concern about intentionally disruptive records requests. Mr. Johnson and Mr. Walters discussed how the City of Kirkland has begun using its budget to control the cost of responding to public records requests. Mr. Johnson suggested deleting the proposed priority regarding modification of the PRA and watching to see how the Kirkland model plays out. Mr. Archibald countered that he liked the priority as written. Mr. Adams said he was pleased that the draft priorities had been developed by a group of cities under the AWC umbrella. He commented that ranking the proposals could be time consuming and suggested each councilmember email Ms. Schuh his or her own prioritization. Mr. Johnson wondered if the list really needed to be prioritized. Mr. Walters urged developing a short list of three or four topics to actually discuss with legislators. Ms. Schuh said the list didn't need to be specifically ordered but suggested that if there were a few items councilmembers wanted moved to the head of the list where they were sure to be read, or if they wanted some items deleted, or some added, she would like to hear from them. Ms. Lovelett agreed with Mr. Walters and Mr. Johnson that the item supporting modification of the PRA should be removed from the list. She urged moving the international ferry run up the list. Mr. Adams, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Walters agreed. Mr. Miller agreed with Mr. Archibald that the item supporting modification of the PRA should be retained on the list as written. Mr. Walters suggested identifying a smaller section of the Guemes Channel trail to support. Ms. Pickett and Mayor Gere explained that Senator Ranker had requested the City include the complete cost of the trail. Mr. Archibald suggested that if a rail safety item was added, it should be at the top. Mr. Walters agreed, noting that since it did not require state funding it was more likely to be acted upon. Ms. Schuh observed that Anacortes would not be alone in including such a priority. Mr. Walters urged swapping the priority of the marijuana revenue sharing and marijuana regulatory harmonization items. Councilmembers generally agreed to send Ms. Schuh their feedback on prioritizing the list. Ms. Schuh said she would like to bring the list back to Council to adopt by resolution at the January 20, 2015 regular meeting because the legislative session was now open. Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes January 12, 2015 2 Mr. Johnson again said he would remove the item supporting modification of the PRA. Ms. Lovelett inquired if her colleagues would had supported that topic would be willing to drop it from the list. Mr. Archibald and Mr. Miller nodded. Mr. Walters concluded that the Guemes Channel Trail, recreational immunity, oil transport safety and medical marijuana harmonization were his top four priorities. Ambulance Fee Schedule Finance Director Steve Hoglund reported that the Skagit County Commissioners had recently authorized an increase in ambulance fees for non-residents of Skagit County. He referred to the rate sheet included in the evening's Council packet and noted that the rates for Skagit County residents were unchanged from 2014. Mr. Hoglund noted that Anacortes Municipal Code authorizes the mayor to set the ambulance rates but that the city's interlocal agreement with Skagit County agrees that Anacortes will standardize its rates with the County so staff's intent was to match those rates effective February 1, 2015. Mr. Hoglund pointed out that in 2014 Anacortes billed 1744 ambulance transports and only 63 of those (3.6%)were for non-residents. Water Utility: Three Million Gallon Tank Construction and Funding Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer continued the discussion from the January 5, 2015 City Council meeting. He recalled that the three topic areas defined by Council had been which type of tank to build, what source(s) of funds to use to pay for it, and how to raise the required revenue. Mr. Buckenmeyer first addressed the option of building a new 3MG concrete tank. He advised that the cost to reroute the piping to an entirely new tank on the site north of the existing tank would add to the previously announced $4.9M cost of that tank. He also discussed a series of other constraints on building a new water tank on that site and added that replacing the existing 3MG tank with a new 3MG tank would not provide needed redundancy in the system. Mr. Buckenmeyer said staff continued to recommend building a new 1MG tank immediately adjacent to the 3MG existing tank, then rehabilitating the existing 3MG tank. Ms. Lovelett asked how much moving the piping to the new site would cost. Mr. Buckenmeyer said that costing had not been pursued after staff realized the other constraints on using that site, for either a new steel or a new concrete tank. Ms. Lovelett questioned the wisdom of spending so much to build a 1MG tank that would not provide a full backup for the 3MG tank. Mayor Gere said the 1MG tank would provide needed system redundancy and backup that the City had never had and was really a safety feature. Mr. Miller urged establishing a maintenance schedule for the two tanks so the cost would be spread out evenly over time. Mr. Walters inquired about the useful life of concrete vs. steel tanks. Mr. Buckenmeyer said a concrete tank could last 75 years without much maintenance but that with two steel tanks in place they could be maintained to prolong their life indefinitely. Mr. Walters echoed Mr. Buckenmeyer's earlier observation that with regular maintenance neither steel tank would ever need the substantial $1.9M rehabilitation currently envisioned. Mr. Archibald said the 1 MG tank was clearly necessary so the only question was which 3MG tank option to go with. Mr. Miller supported the staff recommendation. Mr. Walters agreed. Mr. Adams and Ms. Pickett nodded. Mr. Johnson agreed. Mr. Archibald said it would be nice to have a concrete tank but that option wouldn't pencil out. Mr. Buckenmeyer then reviewed the five funding options he had previously presented showing the costs of obtaining each $1 M for the$5M project: using the General Fund, using an interfund loan, taking out a commercial 10-year loan, issuing a 20-year bond, and using a 20-year Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan (if available). Mr. Walters advocated applying for a DWSRF loan in September because of the very low interest rate and because it would allow construction to start in 2016. He urged raising water rates to build a capital project fund regardless of whether the loan application was successful. Mr. Miller agreed on the need for a rate increase to exercise any of the funding options but argued against a giant up front rate increase and urged a longer term rate plan. Mr. Walters supported phasing in a rate increase but argued against an interfund loan because of the short payback. Ms. Pickett inquired if the City could use a series of smaller annual interfund loans to stagger and extend the total payback time. Mr. Buckenmeyer and Mr. Hoglund say yes. Mr. Johnson handed out his calculation of general fund needs represented in the current Capital Facilities Plan and said the total was over$40M so relying on the General Fund to fix the 3MG tank was not feasible, even as a loan. He endorsed Ms. Pickett's idea of staggering the financing. Mr. Archibald urged spreading the rate increase over a few years, regardless of which funding source was used for the cash. Mr. Adams said the City has $8M in cash reserves and he Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes January 12, 2015 3 urged using part of that to pay for the tank repair, suggesting using $2M of General Fund reserves and borrowing the other$3M which would require a rate increase of only$3/month/MEQ. He added that if the rates were raised by$5/month/MEQ the City could build capital reserves for future projects at the same time. Councilmembers questioned Mr. Buckenmeyer about the urgency of the 3MG tank rehabilitation. Mr. Buckenmeyer said the staff recommendation would complete the work in 2018 and he would not want to wait too much longer than that. He said it was not an emergency at this point but he recommended finishing by 2018. Mr. Walters questioned Mr. Buckenmeyer about the proposed timing of the project. Mayor Gere asked how the timing would change if the City could obtain a DWSRF loan during 2015. Mr. Buckenmeyer said that would provide a lump sum of cash early in 2016 so design and construction of the tank could proceed that year. Mr. Archibald urged applying for the DWSRF loan in 2015 and using the interfund loan as a backup option if the application was unsuccessful. Mr. Miller, Mr. Archibald and Mr. Adams agreed on the need to increase rates before 2016 regardless of the success of the loan application. Ms. Lovelett inquired what portion of the $5M project cost was for design. Mr. Buckenmeyer said he would provide that information. Mr. Adams asked his colleagues if he was the only councilmember who wanted to spend some General Fund reserves for the 3MG tank project. Ms. Pickett said there was a real strong reason not to use reserves: the water utility can raise water rates but the City cannot raise the tax rates that feed the General Fund by more than 1%. She urged continuing to operate the utilities as the enterprise funds they are and not subsidizing them with general fund revenue that supports public safety and parks. Mr. Walters agreed with Ms. Pickett that General Fund cash reserves should not be spent on utilities. He urged phasing in a water rate increase beginning in 2015 that would fund the entire slate of capital projects projected for the next 20 years, saving up some capital reserves, paying for design of the 3MG tank out of pocket, then using either a DWSRF (preferably)or interfund loan to perform the work. Mr. Johnson agreed. Mr. Buckenmeyer said staff would prepare a proposal for a phase rate increase to go into effect relatively soon to provide funding for the design, then plan to apply for a DWSRF during the autumn application cycle. Mr. Walters urged changing to a tiered consumption rate as well as increasing the base rate. Mr. Miller cautioned that lower consumption could cost the city a lot of revenue. Mr. Buckenmeyer said staff would be meeting with the regional water system rate consultants later in the week and would have them take a look at a tiered rate structure and report back on that. Mayor Gere agreed that the discussion would continue for a few more meetings and requested that Mr. Buckenmeyer bring to the next meeting more information on rate increase options. There being no further business, at approximately 9:00 p.m. p.m. the Anacortes City Council study session of January 12, 2015 adjourned. Anacortes City Council Study Session Minutes January 12, 2015 4