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City Council Minutes—November 28, 2011
At 7:00 p.m. Mayor Dean Maxwell called the regularly scheduled Anacortes City Council study session of
November 28, 2011 to order. Eric Johnson, Erica Pickett, Brad Adams, Cynthia Richardson and Brian
Geer were present. Nick Petrish and Bill Turner were absent.
Presentation by Skagit Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services
Mayor Maxwell and Finance Director Steve Hoglund expressed pride that City continues to support social
service programs that are facing budget cuts including Skagit Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault
Services. Mr. Hoglund introduced Jennifer McClain, Community Programs Director at SDVSAS, to talk
about the programs and services her agency offers. Ms. McClain explained that SDVSAS is a private
non-profit agency that has been operating in Skagit County for over thirty years serving domestic violence
and sexual assault survivors. Survivor services include a 24-hour emergency shelter for women and
children fleeing domestic violence, a 24/7 emergency hotline to respond to crisis calls, 24/7 support for
sexual assault survivors facing medical exams and law enforcement interviews, and legal advocacy and
referrals. Ms. McClain said SDVSAS also provides community education including a youth empowerment
program in the public schools teaching healthy relationships and anti-violence. In addition, SDVSAS has
weekly survivor support groups in both English and Spanish.
Ms. McClain said SDVSAS provides all this with a small staff of 10-12 full time advocates. She reported
that social services are sustaining significant funding reductions in spite of increased need. Ms. McClain
quoted statistics from the agency's 2010 Annual Report: bed nights were up 20% in the last 12 months
and up 50% in the last two years, advocacy hours were up 20% in the last 12 months and 45% in the last
two years, and hotline calls were up 55% in the last 12 months. Ms. McClain said last year the agency
received 80% of its budget from state and federal sources and another 11%from city and county funding.
She said the Governor's current recommendations would reduce their funding 10-20%and the elimination
of two state grants in December will cut another$80K. At SDVSAS this will translate to a reduction of 50
hours per week of direct services in the emergency shelters and the elimination of one program director
position. She added that this year the agency cut $19,500 by eliminating operation and maintenance
plans for all three shelters. Overall, she said, in 2012 SDVSAS is facing cuts of $100K out of a budget of
$650K. She thanked Anacortes for the $3,400 it provided last year to help meet critical needs. Ms.
McClain then shared some poignant stories from clients served by SDVSAS.
Mrs. Richardson asked if SDVSAS provides services for male survivors of domestic violence as well. Ms.
McClain said the agency serves men, women and children but that because it doesn't operate a male
shelter it instead finds male victims reduced rate rooms at local motels. Mr. Johnson said that in his role
as motel voucher contact for several local churches he has referred many clients to SDVSAS and they
have always responded immediately. He thanked the agency for its help. Police Chief Bonnie Bowers
said the Anacortes Police Department refers many cases to SDVSAS and calls advocates directly in the
most egregious cases. She added that the department relies on SDVSAS increasingly as other services
are cut. The mayor thanked Ms. McClain for her presentation and SDVSAS for serving the community.
Planning Commission Request for Guidance
Planning Director Ryan Larsen read from his November 22, 2011 memo included in the Council packet
regarding the Planning Commission's request for direction from City Council on the Commission's review
of new Title 19 (Option A and Option B) and changes to Titles 16, 17 and 18 of the Anacortes Municipal
Code. Specifically, the Planning Commission asked whether it should consider a new Option C proposed
by citizens during the public hearing to clean up the code prior during the 2012 amendment cycle before
moving either Option A or Option B forward for Council consideration.
Mrs. Richardson said the process has gotten derailed from its original intent which was to create a new
Title 19 to pull into one spot all the procedures for the various types of land use decisions made by all City
bodies. She said staff took a great first step to cleaning up the code by moving all land use decision
procedures to a proposed new Title 19. Mrs. Richardson said that because one of the things that was
suggested was adding a hearing examiner a lot of focus has been placed on that question at the expense
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of making progress on cleaning up the procedural part of the code. She said that now that the Planning
Commission has held public hearings and done a great deal of work fine tuning the language for Title 19,
she would like to see the product of its work so Council can review it and decide what parts of it to move
forward. She repeated that much of proposed Title 19 has nothing to do with a hearing examiner but
rather with responsible processing of land use decisions and that Council needs to focus on that. She
said it would defeat the whole process to throw Title 19 out now after two years of consideration,
investigation and testimony.
Mr. Geer agreed with Mrs. Richardson. He said Council gave the Planning Commission specific direction
to advise on Option A and Option B and that Option C is irrelevant. He suggested closing the public
hearing at the Planning Commission level and bringing it back to City Council to deliberate on whether to
continue the process to 2012 to consider another option or continue with the current review of Title 19.
Mr. Johnson said the question seems to be more one of process than one of content. He said another
procedural question is how to find a citizens advisory committee to make the sorts of substantive changes
suggested by Option C. He said Appendix G of the Comprehensive Plan enables the Planning
Commission to recommend to the Council that such a committee be chosen and Council then approves
that recommendation or not. He said a citizens advisory committee to discuss the sorts of changes
suggested to the Planning Commission would be a great thing but it should be formed according to
established procedures.
Mr. Adams said it has been a long time since the original proposal to create Title 19 and that Title 19 was
a good idea for how to make the code work better. He reviewed why City Council asked the Planning
Commission to consider Options A and B. Mr. Adams said it was appropriate at this point to bring the Title
19 template forward to Council so they can review something in writing and determine the best process
for tackling all the proposed changes.
Mrs. Pickett observed that if there are a huge number of changes citizens want to consider, the Planning
Commission will face sheer time constraints to do that plus review any new projects and conditional use
permit applications. She urged that the Planning Commission close its public hearing, then the public can
speak before City Council on Options A and B. She added that said she understood there was a concern
that a hearing examiner would interpret the code differently than City Council would but said it's the same
law in either case so she did not share that concern.
Mrs. Richardson said the state requires a comprehensive review of each city's development regulations
on a regular basis and asked when that was next due. Mr. Larsen said 2015. Mrs. Richardson suggested
getting a head start on that cycle by setting a schedule now for thoroughly going through the code while
so many citizens are interested and enthusiastic. She said this needs to be done thoughtfully and
methodically, perhaps with a formally designated committee as suggested by Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Adams requested that the Planning Commission discuss Option B a little more and compare/contrast
it to Option A and weigh in on that even if they don't recommend one option over the other. Mr. Larsen
reported that Commissioner Laumbattus had moved to forward both options to Council recommending
Option B but he later withdrew that motion. Mr. Adams said Council will take time to make an important
decision like this. He added that all the commissioners seemed to agree that the codes need to be
worked on. Mr. Larsen concurred.
Mr. Geer said he was convinced that all options need to come to Council now, that the Planning
Commission public hearing should be closed down and Council should begin its own public hearings to
tackle the issues and make some hard decisions.
Mrs. Richardson cautioned that public comments to the effect that proposed Title 19 gives too much or
too little authority to any particular decision maker aren't really helpful to Council. She requested instead
concrete suggestions of which types of decisions should be handled by each level of decision maker.
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Mr. Adams remarked that three commissioners weren't at the last Planning Commission meeting. He said
he'd like to hear all of the commissioners weigh in to advise Council. Mayor Maxwell reminded that two of
the commissioners have only just joined the Planning Commission.
Mrs. Pickett asked Mr. Larsen what guidance he would take back to the Planning Commission. Mr.
Larsen said it sounded like most councilmembers wanted the Planning Commission to close the public
hearing and move Title 19 forward to Council. The mayor agreed. Mr. Adams clarified that he simply
requested that the commissioners have a good final discussion of it first. Mr. Larsen said the
commissioners can do that even after the public hearing is closed.
There being no further business, at approximately 7:35 p.m. the regularly scheduled Anacortes City
Council study session of November 28, 2011 adjourned.
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