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2024-07-02 Council Special Minutes Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 1 EDMONDS CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MINUTES July 2, 2024 ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESENT Mike Rosen, Mayor Vivian Olson, Council President Neil Tibbott, Councilmember Will Chen, Councilmember Susan Paine, Councilmember Michelle Dotsch, Councilmember Chris Eck, Councilmember Jenna Nand, Councilmember STAFF PRESENT Beckie Peterson, Council Executive Assistant Scott Passey, City Clerk 1. CALL TO ORDER The special Edmonds City Council meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Mayor Rosen in the Brackett Room, 121 5th Avenue North, Edmonds, and virtually. 2. COUNCIL BUSINESS 1. MAYORAL UPDATE Mayor Rosen explained the council requested an update on the items listed. He suggested council questions following his update on all the items in the order of council position with three minutes for the question and answer. 1. Council Work Plan Mayor Rosen said the question some councilmembers asked was whether the work plan was too robust. There is a lot going on; staff tries to populate the planning calendar with everything and with as many touchpoints as possible. The planning calendar was developed by the directors, council president, council pro tem, city clerk and council executive assistant and reviewed weekly. There are a lot of items on the planning calendar that are not assigned to a specific date; he emailed directors asking them to populate those items on the calendar and to remove any duplicate items. If councilmembers have concerns about specific topics or dates, he encouraged them to reach out to Council President Olson so that reassigning items can be considered during the weekly meeting. 2. COMP Plan Touch Points Mayor Rosen said the planning calendar has been updated. If councilmembers have questions or concerns, he suggested reaching out to Ms. McLaughlin and copy him so he can follow up. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 2 3. Analysis On City Owned Assets Mayor Rosen relayed in a perfect world, through the comprehensive plan and other planning processes, there would be effort to look toward the City’s future which would lead to consideration of the structure as well as inform what facilities are needed and take into account workforce needs and the future of the City in terms of growth. With regard to whether any analysis has been done, he referred to the McKinstry report which was presented to council earlier this year. Of the four categories of facilities health, none of the City’s facilities were in the top two. In 2021, the City did a more robust analysis through HCA Assessment on behalf of the insurance policy to look at replacement costs, a 135 page documents that includes lift stations. Those two documents inform the analysis of City facilities. In a parallel process, consideration is being given to opportunities, interests or things that make sense to do today, for example with the Public Safety Complex, City Hall, Wade James Theater, the Neighborhood Office, Meadowdale Clubhouse, etc. 4. Wastewater Treatment Plant Update Mayor Rosen explained the WWTP was built in 1957 and has had a couple upgrades since then. In 2020 the council approved replacing the incineration process with a new gasification system. The intent was to 1) reduce the carbon footprint, 2) increase energy efficiency, and 3) create a byproduct that would have market potential for use in agriculture, filtration, concrete, etc., and 4) destroy PFAS chemicals that incineration does not destroy. The gasification system was very new technology and introducing new technology into old comes with challenges. The sludge that is created must goes through a machine and that machine must operate within certain tolerance levels. The quantity or content of the sludge cannot necessarily be controlled throughout the day or from season to season. The challenge is not just moving the product into the machine but also providing it in a consistent way and a consistency that the machine can tolerate. The system is still experiencing difficulties. Once there is confidence the machine can run for a duration without needing to be shut down or shutting itself down, staff training will be required. In the meantime, the product that had been incinerated in the past and is intended to go through the gasification system is being trucked to Oregon until the difficulties can be resolved. 5. Blue Ribbon Panel Analysis and Recommendations This will be presented to council at tonight’s regular meeting. 6. Ensuring Edmonds is a Welcoming and Safe Community Mayor Rosen said a couple councilmember relayed they had heard about unfortunate experiences by members of the community. This situations is frustrating because nothing can be done unless the police are notified. If people experience something, they need to call the police. Depending on the event, there are specifics related to what lines have been crossed. For example, there are things most people would find repulsive and inappropriate, but might not necessarily cross the legal line. He as well as other councilmembers have been talking with community members and groups about how to influence a culture and that needs to continue and possibly even be more intentional. Everyone needs to lead by example and he plans to lean on the DEIA commission to help inform this effort and give recommendations on how to address it. He reiterated the police cannot address it unless they hear about so he encouraged anyone who hears about inappropriate things happening to reach out to the police. 7. Packet and Presentation Timing Mayor Rosen acknowledged this will never be a perfect science. This discussion began with several specific objectives including providing the council and community more time to review and absorb the packet materials as well as provide time to ask staff questions and for staff to respond. There will always challenges Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 3 with moving up the date the packet is available such as payables, sometimes new information is received or questions come up late in game that require updating the packet. He suggested creating policies/procedures/processes to minimize the number of additions to the packet. A decision was recently made to move packet distribution to Thursday and that will begin next week. There have also been discussions about assuming there will be changes made to the packet so there will be a first edition and a final edition. It will be a work in process. 8. Addressing Retail Theft at Businesses Such as Burlington Coat Factory/Safeway/TJ Maxx Area of Highway 99 Mayor Rosen said his guiding principles are safety in general for the people who live, work, and visit those areas, preserving and enhancing the quality of their lives, providing a favorable environment for those businesses and their customers, not having unintended consequences on individuals in need of housing, food, supplies, physical or behavioral healthcare and ensure people in need, and finding scalable and sustainable solutions instead of one-offs. Some of the things he has been doing include:  Being very responsive such as if the police hear about graffiti or encampments and there has been some good feedback regarding that response  A meeting is scheduled with businesses in the Safeway, Burlington and WinCo complexes to discuss these issues  More than one internal meeting has been held to identify proactive actions that can be taken related to the motels/hotels on Highway 99 and to discuss mitigating their impacts  Attended two very intense briefings with the Snohomish County Drug Task Force and staff is also participating in Snohomish County’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) which provides additional resources  New protocols are being created for encampments cleanup and potentially hazardous materials; some encampments are on WSDOT property and other times they are on Edmonds property  Meeting with the planning department to discuss opportunities via a community renewal plan, exploring economic development opportunities for the area, evaluating the role of the neighborhood center and opportunities for a permanent police presence in the area  Building stronger relations with the mayors in south Snohomish County and north King County to work on issues collaboratively  Meet with nonprofits to explore service options and opportunity  Working on modifications to the City’s volunteer programs to address issues in the area and create better protocols and opportunities for people to volunteer  Receive weekly notifications regarding police activities as well as real time notifications so he can monitor activities 9. Process for Budget Development Mayor Rosen said this year’s budget process, which will include budgeting by priorities, zero based budgeting, a biennial budget and a lot of big decisions, will be bumpy. The council was provided a budget schedule in last week’s packet; a much more detailed and robust schedule with over 200 entries has also been created. With regard to a council question about inputs into the budget process, he is responsible for delivering a budget to council for their consideration and deliberation. Departments have a big role in developing the budget. A statistically valid survey will be conducted as well as a parallel process to allow people in the community to weigh in. The hope is also to reach out to community groups serving populations for whom English is not their first language. The council will receive all that data. There is an internal scoring process where staff does the scoring; directors were intentionally not involved in that process so they would not advocate for their own department. He has also recruited a community advisory group who will also go through the scoring process. The council will see the results of that process as part of the budget. He hoped to do up to six community meetings with specific demographics, similar to focus groups. The Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 4 format will be formalized once the research is available. The council is scheduled to hold a budget retreat on August 16. 10. Financial Health Update Mayor Rosen emphasized he did not intend to lay blame on any person or group for the City’s current budget situation. It was caused by internal and external influences and as requested, he wanted to explain the current situation. He advised the council will also receive a very robust midyear budget review on August 13 along with the survey results. In an ideal world, there would be a process to look at the future of government and what that costs to create a sustainable model. There have been discussions about borrowing internally to get through 2024, use the budgeting by priorities process to inform the 2025 budget and have a conversation with the community how to receive fire/EMS services, a decision that will also influence the 2026 budget. He displayed the following figures (explanation follows the graphic): 38-30 = 8 $3,200,000 = $2,220,000 30 = 19 $3,660,000 ($500,000) ($200,000) ($1,100,000) ($408,000) ($2,208,000) $1,452,000 $3,200,000 -1,452,000 $1,748,000 38 – 30 = 8 Council approved 38 new positions between 2021 and 2024. Due to the hiring chill, the net gain has only been 8. $3,200,000 = $2,220,000 $3,200,000 was an assumed savings in the 2024 budget for vacant positions Current budget will end with $2,220,000 savings 30 = 19 Above assumed 30 positions, 19 are General Fund $3,660,000 Eliminated 3 positions Stopped some major purchases Reduced rental costs and membership fees Reduced professional services Increased revenues ($500,000) Ending fund balance was $500,000 less than projected in adopted budget ($200,000) General Fund revenue forecast was off by $200,000 ($1,100,000) Cost of most recent union contract was $1,100,000 more than budgeted ($408,000) Library damages not covered by insurance ($2,208,000) Total additional expenditures $1,452,000 $3,660,000 - $2,208,000 = $1,452,000 $3,200,000 - $145,000 = $1,748,000 Gap to reach 3,200,000 is $1,748,000 Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 5 Mayor Rosen explained since discovering the above, efforts to address the $1,748,000 include:  Given directors very specific targets  Exploring other revenue streams such sharing resources like the City doing striping for other jurisdiction or providing access to the City’s crime analyst  Considering what can be sold; for example the fleet manager was asked to make a recommendation about opportunities  Considering opportunities to rent space in City building and/or sell space  Potential opportunities have been identified through budget amendments that will be presented to the finance committee Council Questions/Comments Councilmember Eck said she liked the idea of increasing safety in the south Highway 99 and WinCo area and that Mayor Rosen planned to meet with the business owners to brainstorm. With regard to Ensuring Edmonds is a Welcoming and Safe Community, she asked why the City strayed from the hate/crime tracking and if there was there a possibility of going back to that. In think about staffing, she asked if consideration was being given to the fact that Edmonds’ ratio of staff to residents was already slimmer than Lynnwood and other cities. People who move to Edmonds expect a certain quality of life. Mayor Rosen responded when he asked whether people were calling to report issues, the number of calls was very, very small and apparently there has also been some misuse, people calling for things other than the intended purpose. He suggested exploring how to provide opportunities for people to report so the council and administration knows what’s going on. He suggested requesting the DEIA commission investigate creating a process. With regard to staff size, planning staff is down 30% which means service/response times increase. That becomes part of the reality in terms of money and making choices and hard decisions such as can we do it differently, can someone else do it, what can be delayed. He hoped the survey and other outreach will produce what citizens want government to do which will assist with developing a standard of expectation. He was unsure how honest the conversations with the community regarding costs have been in the past. CPI was 4.4% in April so even though inflation is coming down, it is still 4.4%. If the City did nothing differently, costs would increase at least that much. The City also has three union contracts coming up for negotiation this year. There needs to be hard conversations about the costs of what people want Councilmember Chen referred to the figure provided by Mayor Rosen, pointing out 38-30 equals 8, but $3,200,000 does not equal $2,200,000 and 30 does not equal 19, that was the result of actions taken by council. It was suggested an arrow be used instead of = for the second and third lines. He expressed interest in more information about safety in the southeast Highway 99 area. He referred to Mayor Rosen’s comment about having a police presence there and not just a remote office, relaying his interest was moving the entire police station to Highway 99. Mayor Rosen responded that conversation is taking place. Very preliminarily, regardless of the decision that is made regarding how fire and EMS services are provided, South County Fire (SCF) is in the process of purchasing the former Value Village site. SCF is interested in partnering on another use on that property so Edmonds mentioned the City was thinking about a police department built for the future. There are opportunities for shared uses such as conference rooms, emergency operations center, training facilities for other agencies such as the Washington State Patrol or FBI. SCF was intrigued by that proposal and offered to advance the conversation with their consultant and for the City to do their own analysis regarding square footage, etc. He acknowledged that could fall apart, but that conversation is taking place. Councilmember Chen commented that area has great potential. Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 6 Councilmember Tibbott referred to #3, Analysis of City Owned Assets, and inquired whether the current park maintenance levels will be maintained and whether there were any urgent building maintenance issues that are either being deferred or planned for 2024. With regard to park maintenance, Mayor Rosen said he was looking at whether there were opportunities for subtle staff restructuring to increase efficiency and effectiveness. For example, the City has a building maintenance team and a park maintenance team; he wondered if efficiencies could be realized by anything with a drip line being building maintenance and anything that grows being park maintenance. In terms of priorities and must haves, although everyone loves parks, parks frequently are not a must have. The need for parks maintenance was increased via the Highway 99 median and the new park. There have been discussions with other cities about economies such as mowing and restroom cleaning, could that be done collectively or outsourced? Those are choices that will need to be made when considering available funds and the wants/needs. With regard to building maintenance, Mayor Rosen explained some of that is General Fund and some is other funds. For example, there are pumps in desperate need of replacement, tanks are in good condition but their age makes them less insurable. The General Fund has historically contributed $400,000/year for road maintenance, deferring road maintenance will be a consideration. He concluded there is a long list of maintenance needs. Councilmember Tibbott asked if there were specific maintenance projects that Mayor Rosen was thinking of deferring. Mayor Rosen answered no. With regard to safety, Councilmember Dotsch asked the status of adding more police officers. She heard that the department was short 10 officers. Mayor Rosen answered 9. New officers have to go through the academy and when they complete the academy, they have to ride with another officer for six months. There are a couple officers completing that process so there will be more officers on the street soon. Councilmember Dotsch asked about recruiting. Mayor Rosen explained the positions that were held open and the savings anticipated from that, this contract settlement wiped it out. He is not authorizing positions and if anything, is asking if there are positions that could be furloughed or shared. Councilmember Dotsch said she hears from citizens that they do not know who to contact if they see something. In the past they could call the non-emergency number or use the FixIt app. She asked about creating a protocol so people know what to do and the proper place to call. Mayor Rosen commented that is an easy problem to fix. With regard to the comprehensive plan, Councilmember Dotsch expressed concern that council touches are very late in the year. She suggested a monthly update, anticipating with so much information coming so late in the year and right in the middle of the budget, it would be preferable to have a monthly touchpoint until then to describe the status of the elements, next steps, highlights, etc. so everything is not dumped on the council in a few meetings at the end of the year. There are a lot of puzzle pieces that will be stacking and she wanted to avoid having a lot of information at one meeting which makes it challenging to review. Councilmember Dotsch asked if the numbers Mayor Rosen provided were mid-year, noting there could be additional issues that arise by the end of the year. Mayor Rosen agreed it was a moving target and June has not closed yet. The intent of the figures he provided was to identify major impacts. Councilmember Dotsch observed other inputs could change the figures he provided. Mayor Rosen agreed that was possible, but hopefully the changes would be for the better. Councilmember Tibbott advised a monthly update on the comprehensive plan is provided at the PSPHSP committee meeting. Councilmember Dotsch preferred to have a monthly update to council. Mayor Rosen suggested staff provide an update at council instead of at a committee meeting as well as at council. In the context of the budget process which she anticipated would be grueling this year with the loss of programs people care about, Council President Olson suggested councilmembers think to the end of that process and the disappointment councilmembers and the community will inevitably feel, and consider what process would help mitigate the emotion and personalization. She hoped to avoid having community members or neighborhoods pitted against each other. She asked how the council wanted to receive Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 7 information from the administration to help them be part of the conversations earlier. The council is trying to be thoughtful about how to roll it out, but at the end there is always a lot of conversation about what could have been done differently. She was asking councilmembers to think to the end and the disappointments and emotions and what would they want to happen and how to go about it in a way that will best support decision-making and being calm, rational and collaborative. The council and administration knew this would be a very difficult year and have done very well, but the toughest parts, the comprehensive plan and the budget, are still to come. She invited councilmembers to provide feedback to her and/or the council’s executive assistant by the end of July so it could be incorporated into the budget process. Councilmember Paine asked for clarification regarding what Council President Olson was asking for. Council President Olson said she was interested in ideas or input about having the budget process roll out in a way that supports council being collaborative and having good, thoughtful inputs without it becoming emotional and advocating for specific programs. In the end, that is the budget process, making those decisions; things being done by the mayor via statistically significant budget inputs will help so that when the budget comes to council, they will know that’s what the community wants. Councilmember Chen suggested Council President Olson’s request be made at the retreat where further discussion could occur. Councilmember Tibbott asked if Council President Olson was anticipating quarterly budget amendments. Council President Olson said she was thinking about the 2025 proposed budget, trying to be calm and rational and having conversations about subjects so the council can make good decisions that serve the whole community. Councilmember Eck said the council has demonstrated this year that they will most certainly disagree at times, but most of the time councilmembers try hard to show respect for each other. She was feeling optimistic based on this year’s experience that councilmembers absolutely must advocate for what is important and will absolutely not agree on everything, but anticipated councilmembers could come to table being respectful. Councilmember Paine referred to Mayor Rosen’s indication that he has eliminated some major purchases and made other changes. She asked for specifics about what was eliminated, commenting those are usually decisions made by council. She asked what number on the chart that referred to. She asked about next steps for council as a result of the Blue Ribbon Panel’s analysis and for the August 16 retreat. She anticipated it would be very helpful for council to have specifics on what they will be looking at, the expectations for 2025 and have that sync up when directors are creating their budgets and ensuring everyone is still working from the same sheet of music. She did not expect to see a lot of budget changes and wanted to be certain the council was synchronized with the directors and administration in terms of process. For example, she suggested the council be provided a two-year project budget. Mayor Rosen responded he has the authority not to fill open positions. Councilmember Paine agreed and clarified her question was related to eliminating major purchases. Mayor Rosen said one example was the police fence; the cost of the fence and installation was $380,000. Another example is a hook/lift system that was estimated to cost $250,000, professional services were reduced by $150,000, Parks programs, classes and rentals provided $100,000 revenue, rental of the Parks maintenance facility was discontinued ($7,000/month for a total of $42,000). With regard to the budgeting process, the council will have all that information, his responsibility is to deliver a budget to the council on a specific date. Council will have access to all the inputs that inform what he is doing related to the budget, but he was unsure council would be involved in each of those steps until the retreat. Councilmember Paine wanted to ensure the administration and council know the expectations and that those are synchronized with regard to how 2025/2026 rolls out. She wanted to ensure the council understood what Edmonds City Council Approved Minutes July 2, 2024 Page 8 was happening in the biennial budget and ensure the process was well understood. Mayor Rosen agreed, assuring if the administration drifted from that, councilmembers knew where to find him. Councilmember Nand recognized a lot of staff time went into aggregating all this data for council. With regard to the Financial Health Update, she was excited to hear about potential collaboration between other jurisdictions as they have a lot of resources to offer each other. She recalled last year when the administration proposed a climate manager and a grant writer, she suggested they be multi-jurisdictional as many local jurisdictions and municipalities were trying to meet those same needs in their community. It may even be possible to aggregate data and present it to the federal government and nonprofits in a way that would be more professional and garner more interest for funding. It also cuts down on the burden for each individual city to fund those programs. Another opportunity could be helping fund a DEI manager for south Snohomish County or north King County to help reach some of those goals. With regard to Ensuring Edmonds is a Welcoming and Safe Community, Councilmember Nand explained Alicia Crank and she have a history with the hate portal which was used to mock them as diverse candidates. That happened to her again during the last campaign season where she was mocked racially on her campaign page in a way that did not trigger any of the words that would identify it as a hateful comment. She suggested potentially partnering with a nonprofit or university group who have more sophistication, time and energy to ensure resources intended to help vulnerable communities are not used to harm them. She looked forward to seeing what Mayor Rosen and his hard working administrative staff come up with during the budget process. 6. ADJOURNMENT With no further business, the Council meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.