Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council - Minutes - 12/05/1983 i Kent, Washington December 5, 1983 Regular meeting of the Kent City Council was called to order at 7 : 00 o 'clock p.m. by Mayor Hogan. Present: Mayor Hogan, Council- members Bailey, Biteman, B. Johnson, J. Johnson, Kelleher, Leahy and Woods, City Administrator Cushing, City Attorney DiJulio, Planning Director Harris, Public Works Director Wickstrom and Finance Director McCarthy. Also present: Fire Chief LaBore, Personnel Director Webby and Associate Planner Hansen. Approxi- mately 30 people were in attendance at the meeting. CONSENT BAILEY MOVED that the Consent Calendar Items A CALENDAR through K be approved, B. Johnson seconded. (Questions raised on Consent Calendar Items 5D and 5E by Biteman were clarified by the City Attorney. ) Motion carried. MINUTES (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5A) Approval of Minutes. APPROVAL of the minutes of the regular Council meeting of November 21, 1983 . WATER (CONSENT CALENDAR 5F) 208th/212th Street Wells. AUTHORIZATION for the Mayor to sign the agreement with CH2M Hill for manganese treatment investigation for the 208th and 212th Street wells. (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5H) Twin Firs. ACCEPTANCE of the bill of sale and warranty agreement for continuous operation and maintenance of approximately 904 feet of water main improvements and 160 feet of street and storm drainage improvements constructed in the vicinity of 116th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 258th, as recommended by the Engineering Department. The cash bond will be released after expiration of the one-year maintenance period. (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5I) Armstrong Sprin s Well. AUTHORIZATION for the Mayor to sign an easement to Puget Power covering their facilities which provide electrical service to the Armstrong Springs well site. - 1 - December 5, 1983 HEALTH & (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5G) SANITATION Sewer Rates. ADOPTION of Ordinance 2446 amending Section 7 . 05. 280 (Ordinance 2374) increasing the sewer rates consistent with the Metro increase, to become effective January 1, 1984 . BUSINESS (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5D) LICENSES Pawnbrokers/Secondhand Dealers Proposed Ordinance. The Council will conduct a public hearing at the regular meeting of December 19, at 7: 00 P.M. on the proposed new ordinance for licensing pawnbrokers and secondhand dealers. (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5E) Security Guards/Merchant Patrol Licensing. ADOPTION of Ordinan ndn g ce 2445 amei Section 5. 23 . 100 of the Kent City Code to correct a typographical error in Ordinance 2387 . TAX LEVY Tax Levy Ordinance. The deadline for submitting the 1984 property tax levies to King County is December 12 , 1983 . This meeting has been set to finalize the tax levies. As of November 30, the completed tax levy information, based upon the maximum amount the City can levy, was not available from King County. The 1984 budget anticipates an eight percent increase in property taxes above the 1983 levy based upon preliminary information about assessed valuation and new construction. In addition to this General Fund Levy, additional levies will be required for currently existing voted bond issues and a . 1 mill levy for the second year levy for the LID Guaranty Fund. All these levies were proposed and described in the preliminary budget. Cushing noted that the agenda item was written before the County had supplied complete information and that the proposed ordi- nance follows the City' s practice of levying the statutory maximum allowed by law, limited by the 106% Lid Law. The general fund shows a levy rate of 2 . 38344 which is up from the current levy rate of about 1. 9 . He pointed out that all taxing districts will experience this type of increase due to the removal of inventories from the assessed valuation. BAILEY MOVED to adopt Ordinance 2448 setting the tax levies for 1984 , Leahy seconded. Motion carried. - 2 - I i December 5, 1983 CABLE TV (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5J) CATV Contract for Services - Renewal. AUTHORIZATION to renew the annual contract between the City of Kent and Cable Communications Consultants, a division of 3-H Management and Consultants, Incorporated. PERSONNEL (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5K) Deferred Compensation - ICMA - Ordinance. ADOPTION of Ordinance 2447 and the summary thereof] amending Ordinance 2361 to add the ICMA Deferred Compensation Program to the existing program. ARTS (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5C) COMMISSION Arts Commission Appointments. Reappointment of Carolyn Wiley. Appointment of Donald L. McLean, to replace Emily Kelly Koons. Appointment of Betty J. Vickers to replace Harty Drangsholt. All are four- year terms and will expire in October 1987. FIRE Surplus Property. Leahy noted that Chief LaBore DEPARTMENT had reported that the Fire Department has approxi- mately 25 helmets stored which no longer meet the requirements of State and Federal law. The Depart- ment also has a radio tower located at Hillcrest Cemetary which is not in use. The cemetary directors would like to have the tower removed . LEAHY MOVED to authorize the Fire Department to dispose of the helmets and tower as surplus equipment. J. Johnson seconded. It was determined that the City would be held harmless. WEST [west Hill Comprehensive Plan. In June, July and HILL August, 1983, the Planning Commission held a series PLAN of public hearings on the formulation of the West Hill Plan. The hearings were concluded on August 9 , 1983 and the Planning Commission' s recommendation is being forwarded to the City Council for consider- ation. To comply with Resolution 989 concerning the procedure for City Council review of Planning Commission recommendations for the Kent Comprehensive Plan, a public meeting must now be held by the City Council to approve, disapprove, or modify the Com- prehensive Plan; or refer the Plan back to the Planning Commission for further proceedings. - 3 - December 5, 1983 WEST HILL Mayor Hogan noted that four items of correspondence PLAN had been distributed to the Council with the agenda packet and that four more had been distributed tonight. The correspondence consists of the following: Petition with 128 signatures from Midway Historical Society and the Midway Park Group and Concerned Citizens Peggy Tauer, Coordinator of Citizens Against Midway Landfill, signed also by Robert Brown, Jean McCarthy and Waneta Bosshart Letter signed by Lillie Pottsmith, Vernon Eberly, Christi Houser, Albert Malgarin II, Juan Robertson, Thomas Hardv and Greg Greenstree. Letters: Marguerite Frazier G. G. Hotchkiss Dr. Juan Robertson Daniel Ferm of Capple, Ferm & Wade, Attorneys Richard LaShance of World Wide Distributors, Inc. All have been filed for the record. Mayor Hogan noted that the Council might want to refer this matter to a workshop, and if there are matters the Council wants the Planning Commission to explore further, it could be referred back to the Planning Commission. Both B. Johnson and Bailey noted that a public hearing was not held at the Council level because public hearings had already been conducted by the Planning Commission. Upon B. Johnson' s question, Hansen noted that although not as much time was spent on the West Hill Plan as was spent on the East Hill Plan, that the time was spent more efficiently because the staff had had the experience of working on the East Hill Plan. He noted that 10 committee meetinas had been planned but that 13 were required. The Planning Commission had five workshops on the proposed plan in addition - 4 - i December 5, 1983 WEST HILL to five public hearings and that notice of the PLAN meetings had been given in the Federal Way News, the Kent News Journal and the Seattle Times South Section. It was suggested that this matter be considered at a workshop set specifically for this purpose. WOODS MOVED that the Council con- vene a special workshop in January and further that the Planning Commission reconvene to consider the input of those who have expressed concern, plus any other concerns resulting from the workshop. B. Johnson seconded. Wednesday, January 11, was agreed upon for the date and the time was set at 7: 00 p.m. It was made clear to the audience that the Council was not conducting a public hearing on January 11 and further that workshops are open to the public. Woods clarified that the intent of her motion was for the Planning Commission to hold another public hearing sometime after the workshop so the Council will be able to advise the Commission what concerns are especially to be addressed. Bailey noted that it would be help- ful if those citizens having similar concerns pre- pare a joint statement for presentation to the Council at the January 11 workshop. The motion carried unanimously. BUDGET 1984 Budget - Ordinance. Public hearings on the 1984 City Budget and on Federal Shared Revenue Funds were conducted at the November 21 regular Council meeting. The Council then met at a Budget workshop on November 22, to finalize the Budget. An explanation of the budget changes was prepared by Mr. Cushing and was distributed with the agenda packet. BAILEY MOVED to adopt Ordinance 2449 adopting the City Budget for 1984 , Woods seconded. J. Johnson referred to Item B on page 2 of Cushing ' s memo which reads as follows: "A Police "Master Plan" will be prepared by Mid 1984 , the acceptance of which by the City Council would demonstrate the need for the two additional officers. The "Master Plan would not be as complex or time consuming as the Fire Master Plan, but would address such issues as establishing acceptable levels of service and forecasting the manpower necessary to accomplish it. " - 5 - December 5, 1983 BUDGET Johnson stated that the plan should be confined to the scope of the proposed program, "public oriented police service to the community" , and that in 1985 a complete Master Plan be authorized for the Police Department. He pointed out that originally the Police Department had asked for five new officers for the new program which would include commercial beat patrol and park patrol. It was his understand- ing that authorizing two new officers to start in mid 1984 would depend upon a study having been done on this portion of the Police Department proposed program and not upon having a completed Master Plan. He pointed out that the study would have to justify the hiring of these two officers and that the com- plete Master Plan would come later. Bailey clarified that the discussion at the budget workshop called for a two stage situation. Cushing pointed out that he had suggested that in addition to deciding whether or not to have officers with community relations emphasis, we need to look at the Police Department overall manpower needs and how to measure the acceptable level of service. This would tell us whether we have the capacity within the existing staff to handle the existing level of service as well as whether we have the capacity to handle an expanded level covering the community relations area. He pointed out that J. Johnson' s proposal was a far more restricted study than a study to determine the overall effective- ness of the Police Department, and that the brief study relating to the community relations project would not take long at all, maybe as short a time as one month. B. Johnson stated that limiting our Police Department community relations to just a few officers was the wrong way to go about this, and that she hoped it would be found that this could be done with the existing staff . She pointed out that Kent' s Police Department was better manned per capita than any of the valley cities. J. Johnson stated we needed to find out if there is a need for this type of program and further that in order to do justice to the community as well as to the Police Department, we also needed to look at a long range Master Plan. - 6 - December 5, 1983 BUDGET In answer to Leahy' s request for clarification, Cushing noted that regarding funding, the City would monitor revenues, and if it appears that there will not be enough to fund the two additional officers for the portion of 1984 or the entire year of 1985, the matter would have to be re-evaluated and additional taxes might be levied or perhaps the officers would not be hired. He noted that he understood that the study would be completed and would demonstrate the need for the officers before they were hired. Leahy reiterated his position on this matter stating that it makes no sense to hire additional employees in any department until the need is clearly established and documented and that we should not commit to hiring until such need is established. J. Johns on st ated d tha t this t to have this or tion of the study his intent, P was , don e before mid 1984 to see if the two additional officers are needed. Biteman agreed that a two stage plan was needed, so that a determination on hiring could be made before mid 1984 and that the long range plan could be completed after this. Cushing suggested that in addition to looking into the hiring of new officers , we should check the current demands now made upon the Police Department, as well as the current staffing. He suggested that using the data now available that we could do this by mid year. Bailey concurred with this suggestion. B. Johnson stated that the need for additional officers had not been justified and with the budget and tax levy increases , this was not an appropriate time to add personnel. She MOVED to amend the motion to delete this item from the budget, thus reducing the General Fund by the amount needed to employ two officers at mid year . Leahy seconded. Biteman noted that the matter had been thoroughly discussed at the budget workshop, and the proposal outlined in Item B was what had been tentatively approved. Bailey contended that it was necessary for the Council and staff to have a long range pro- gram for the Police Department, and supported the budget item. He agreed with B. Johnson that we have a high ratio of police officers per capita, but stated that he supported the long range study. B. Johnson stated she wasn ' t against the study but wanted - 7 - December 5, 1983 BUDGET to delete the mid year salaries for the extra officers, until the justification was shown. She said that she feared that if the funds were allo- cated, it appeared that we were promising the hir- ing of the two officers. The proposed amendment FAILED with only B. Johnson and Leahy supporting it. J. Johnson proposed an amendment regarding Item B, MOVING that the emphasis of the study be on the program to justify whether or not there is a need for a community service program. Biteman seconded. Johnson explained that he was only trying to clarify the intent of Iter. B and that it really would not change the budget ordinance. Bailey opined that Item B covered the situation. The proposed amend- ment failed with J. Johnson and Biteman supporting it and Bailey abstaining. The original motion to adopt Ordinance 2449 adopting the City Budget for 1984 then passed unanimously. COUNCIL Public Works Committee. Biteman reported that the COMMITTEES Public Works Committee would meet Thursday, December 8 , 1983 at 3 : 00 p.m. Parks Committee. Bailey reported that the Parks Committee would meet on December 20, 1983 at 3: 00 p.m. FINANCE (CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM 5B) Approval of Bills. APPROVAL of payment of the bills received through December 2, 1983 after auditing by the Finance Committee at its meeting at 4 : 00 p.m. on December 15, 1983 . ADJOURNMENT J. JOHNSON MOVED that the meeting be adjourned at 8 : 00 p.m. , B. Johnson seconded. Motion carried. / 1 Marie Jensen, CMC City Clerk 8 -