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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Committees - Planning and Economic Development Committee - 10/16/1990 cruv of RPA CITY COUNCIL PLANNING COMMITTEE October 16, 1990 4: 00 PM Committee Members Present Planning Staff Christi Houser Lauri Anderson Jon Johnson, Chair Lin Ball Leona Orr Jim Harris Margaret Porter Fred Satterstrom Other City Staff Others Present Ed Chow Nancy Ashley Alana McIalwain Judy Woods Carol Morris HUMAN SERVICES ROUNDTABLE UPDATE (L. Ball) jenior Planner Lin Ball did not have an update at this meeting. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RESPONSE SYSTEM (L. BALL) Senior Planner Lin Ball stated that for the past several months information has been given to the Committee on the progress of the Human Services Roundtable in developing a regional domestic violence system. In September, voters pased the Law/Safety/Justice (L/S/J) measure which provides funding for the regional domestic violence response system. Ms. Ball stated the Committee is requesting City Council to allocate a minimum of lit of the additional sales tax revenue that comes from the L/S/J measure to support the Regional Domestic Violence Response System. The estimated dollar amount for 1991 is 46, 114. The Human Service Commission considered this item at their September meeting. They are recommending to City Council that a commitment be made to allocate a minimum of 11% of its Law/Safety/Justice sales tax revenue to help fund the regional domestic violence system. Ms. Ball passed out a memo at the meeting written to Ed Chow from Chief Rod Frederiksen stating his support of the proposal to fund the domestic violence system with Law/Safety/Justice revenue. Ms. Ball introduced Nancy Ashley at the meeting. Ms. Ashley is a Roundtable staff member working with the regional work group of the Roundtable that is developing the domestic violence system. Ms. Ashley was at the meeting to explain what the City's money would be funding, how it would tie in with the whole regional system and to answer any questions. 1 Tanning Department ,ity Council Planning Committee October 16, 1990 Ms. Ashley explained how this project was started, what the system is, and why they are asking for action at this meeting. Ms. Ashley stated that the Roundtable began the domestic violence project because in the Roundtables initial survey in all the areas of the county, domestic violence kept rising to every communities agenda as an issue that had an inadequate, inappropriate or no response available in those communities to deal with the issue. The collective cost of that issue was not only individual in terms of the losses in injuries to individuals and their families and loss productivity from work, but also increased health care costs, increased criminal justice costs, and increased social service costs. Ms. Ashley stated that domestic violence accounts for 22-35% of womens' visits to emergency rooms. In King County last year, there were 10, 000 calls from women and children who were seeking shelter whose situation were so severe that they had to leave their homes and had to be turned away because there was no shelter available. In 1989, Kent had 337 domestic violence calls or almost one per day which led to 234 arrests. According to 1990 statistics the rate has increased substantially; nation-wide, the FBI estimates that only one act of domestic violence in ten is actually reported to the police. She said that statistics can be overwhelming and widespread but the question is what can be done about it and how this problem can be olved. Ms. Ashley mentioned the Emergency Medical System (EMS) as an analogies that has been studied as an example in solving the problem of saving people from dying of cardiac arrest. EMS is now helping people to survive from heart attacks and King County is a nation-wide leader in the field. EMS shows that when a community makes a commitment to an issue it can make a difference. She said EMS was able to to do this by attacking not just one part of the system, but beefing up the crisis response, educating people about life-style changes, diet changes, exercise changes, and giving CPR training to a broad range of people in the community. A comprehensive approach was taken to see what kind of system was necessy to attack a problem this wide-spread and causes this much loss in the community. This same type of comprehensive approach is what is needed to address the problem of domestic violence. Ms. Ashley said the domestic violence system can make a difference and can make a change with a community commitment. It takes vision, leadership, and resources to do this and it takes time. The Rountable work group consisted of 35 people from divergent professions who came up with four categories that would be needed for a domestic violence system: 1. Leadership 2 . Training and Education 3 . Services and Coordination 4. Protocol Development 2 lanning Department _ity Council Planning Committee October 16, 1990 In an earlier packet a chart was enclosed showing the proposed system. Ms. Ashley stated that for training and education they are recommending a public education campaign through the media, employers, schools, child and family agencies, professionals, social workers, etc. To help develop protocols, the Harborview Medical Center emergency room was studied on how it handled suspected domestic violence in that if a traumatic injury comes in an assessment is made on whether it was caused by domestic violence by interviewing the patient privately to see if he/she needs help or information about domestic violence. In regard to the the local service delivery system, Ms. Ashley said there is a need to increase all the services that now exist, such as: confidential shelters, safe homes, transitional housing, support groups, legal advocates, and community based advocates. Ms. Ashley mentioned that some system coordination needs to be created that would involve local teams that would be multi-disciplinary within a fixed area and then have some county-wide coordination. Ms. Ashley stated one of the main points in speaking to the committee today as to comment about community advocates. Community advocates are individuals who work in a community domestic violence agency such as D.A.W.N. They assist victims in documenting their legal status, information that would be needed for court; they give referrals to other services such as child care, food bank, housing, and essential services that the victim might need. They help with on-going problem solving and counseling and might refer women to a support group. Community advocates would match up and work in a coordinating system with legal advocates and eventually be regionally coordinated so that the same service is available whether someone lives in Bothel, Kent, or Auburn. The domestic violence system is huge, with King County devoting 11% of its funds to this purpose. She said Mercer Island is the first suburban city to have made a formal commitment and the City of Kent has the opportunity to be the second. Councilmember Judy Woods, who is the City's Roundtable member, was at the meeting to support the domestic violence system. Councilmember Christi Houser MADE the motion and Councilmember Leona Orr SECONDED to approve the allocation of a minimum of 11% of our City' s Law/Safety/Justice sales tax revenue to fund a community advocate and training and protocol to support the regional domestic violence system; and that a resolution outlining this commitment of funding be recommended for approval by the full City Council at its November 6, 1990 meeting. The MOTION carried. 3 tanning Department Aty Council Planning Committee October 16, 1990 HISTORIC PRESERVATION ORDINANCE INFORMATION (L. Anderson) Senior Planner Lauri Anderson stated that a couple of months ago she had come to ask if there was any interest in an interim ordinance that would require owners or developers to hold off for a period of time on the demolition of a historic site to give the City enough time to negotiate with them, time to require that they advertise the house for moving, etc. Ms. Anderson commented the Planning staff prepared an ordinance to come back to the committee, but when it was sent to the legal department for review some issues came up. One issue was the proposed ordinance was based on a survey done in 1978 and updated a couple of years ago, of historical sites in Kent. The law department advised the committee that the City could not require the recommended actions based on the survey. The legal issue had to do the way the survey was conducted. Even though photographs were taken and the site was documented, there was not a public process. This would occur when people come and view the homes under an established set of criteria before they were placed on a historical preservation list. There is not a formal register, but there is an informal inventory at this point. Based on that, the committee cannot require these other measures. ttorney Carol Morris came to the meeting to clarify the procedure. She said that in order for the City to have a valid historic preservation process, what the City needs to do is establish a criteria for selection of homes or other structures. This can be based on whatever the City thinks is important in preserving a historic structure. The ordinance designating the criteria has to go through a public process and has to be acted on formally. Then, the City can use the criteria to view proposed structures and decide which structures fit the criteria. Ms. Anderson stated no action was needed at this meeting. REPORT ON LABOR FORCE EMPLOYMENT AGENCY (C. Proud) Senior Planner Carol Proud stated that for a year she has been working with Labor Force to obtain a development permit. Labor Force had submitted their permit application and Ms. Proud has made several red-line changes to the plan. The Public Works Department sent the plan back to the applicant for additional information. Today, the resubmitted site plans meet all of the Planning Department's requirements but it does require another review by Public Works regarding drainage requirements. Ms. Proud placed a condition on the zoning permit for the project that once the permit is issued Labor Force will have 30 days to complete all site improvements. Ms. Proud mentioned a difficult situation for this project is that the two parcels to the west have people camping out in back and are using the parking lot without it being brought up to Code. Ms. Proud mentioned that the uses are 4 lanning Department ,ity Council Planning Committee October 16, 1990 zoning violations, but separate from Labor Force. The Police Department is aware of this. A company in British Columbia appear to own the lots. A certified letter will be sent on this particular violation to the owner. No action is needed at this time. ADDED ITEM - COUNCIL POSITION ON INITIATIVE 21 - (J. Johnson) Chairman Jon Johnson mentioned that at the last Suburban Cities meeting, the Suburban Cities Association agreed to support King County Proposition 21. This is one-tenth of a percent added onto the excise tax on real estate to purchase open space and acquire a pool of money and local agencies would get a share of that money sent back to them to acquire open space lands. The Suburban Cities Associates were instructed to have each city bring it before their City Council to either vote for it, vote against it, or vote for no action taken. The Committee response was that no action was to be taken at this time. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:25 P.M. a:pco1016.min 10/29/90 5