HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council Workshop - Minutes - 02/04/2003 COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES
FEBRUARY 4, 2003
COUNCIL,MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Judy Woods, Tim Clark, Connie Epperly,
Leona Orr, Julie Peterson, Bruce White, Rico Yingling
STAFF PRESENT: Mike Martin, May Miller, Fred Satterstrom, Christine Nelson, Bob
Hutchinson, Charlene Anderson, Len Olive, Ken Weatherill, Jackie Bicknell
The workshop was called to order at 5:00 P.M. by Council President Judy Woods.
State Legislative Update
Chief Administrative Officer Mike Martin said he had received a call from the director of
the Department of Revenue who said they were going to strike the Part 5 Sourcing
element of the Streamline Sales Tax bill, which was the part that the City was concerned
about that would have swapped away sales taxes attached to various items. The bill is
still going forward but with a directive to the Department of Revenue to study the
impacts on local governments and to get back on January 1, 2004 to the legislature with
that analysis. Mr. Martin said he had met with 10 other affected cities and very few of
• them were aware of the impacts to their cities. Workers are now trying to arrange the
language in the bill, expected to pass this session, to not just study the impacts but to
allow local government to participate in the study and to include recommendations for
mitigating the expected impacts.
It was learned that Microsoft would oppose any legislation at the federal level that would
not exempt the Internet from sales tax, and there are at least two bills at the federal level
that would extend forever the exemption of the Internet from sales tax. City staff will
ultimately suggest that they hold off on any changes to the state sales tax structure until
the federal bill is eminent and, at that point, take some of the new money that is expected
to be received from the Internet sales tax, if it comes, and apply that to the cities that
would lose because of the tax shift.
There are a couple of bills circulating about sex predators. There was internal
consideration of a site near the State Fire Training Facility in North Bend.
Communitv Development Annual Report
Community Development Director Fred Satterstrom said that 2002, in terns of
performance, was a good year and the department reached or exceeded many of the goals
that had been set, both in permit time lines as well as customer service.
Permit Center Manager Christine Nelson gave a Power Point presentation covering The
2002 Annual Permit Process Status Report. Building Inspector Bob Hutchinson
Council Workshop, 214/03 2
. continued with the presentation, relating The 2002 Building Inspection Service Strategy.
(Detailed information is included in the Council Workshop packet.)
Fred Satterstrorn concluded by saying that every other week his staff has a Permit Policy
Group meeting, the purpose of which is to discuss changes that can be made to improve
the process. Most of the complaints that are fielded deal with the regulations themselves.
(Performance on Land Use Permits was over 91% last year.) Mr. Satterstrom said that if
there is a problem somewhere, staff works to take care of it.
The workshop adjourned at 6:14 PM.
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