HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council Workshop - Minutes - 08/20/2002 . COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES
August 20, 2002
COUNCIL MEMBERS: Leona Orr, filling in as Chair, Tim Clark, Connie Epperly, Julie
Peterson, Bruce White, Rico Yingling
The workshop was called to order at 5:10 PM.
COMMITTEE MINUTES
Councilmember Leona Orr made a correction in the memo included with the packet: "Currently
the City Clerk's office prepares transcripts of council and council committee meetings. " Ms. Orr
said that was incorrect; Jackie Bicknell does the minutes for all of the Council committee
meetings. City Attorney Tom Brubaker noted that she was correct, and that the City Clerk
prepares the minutes for the council meetings and Jackie prepares all of the minutes of council
committees.
The question arose of how thorough the minutes had to be of council or committee meetings.
Mr. Brubaker said another way to pronounce minutes is minute. They don't have to be long or
extensive. They only need to be a brief summary of the events that transpired in a meeting.
We're going to work at shortening the minutes particularly of the council committees. The one
instance where you need to have a verbatim record is for a quasi judicial transaction, a sight
• specific rezone, or any number of quasi judicial matters that come before the Hearing Examiner
and occasionally before the council. A verbatim transcript is kept, usually in the form of an
audio tape,but it can also be a video tape. It does not have to be a written transcript of the
transaction. Anybody involved in a quasi judicial matter in the city can order up a written
transcript, but they have to pay for it. When it comes to minutes of the council and committee
meetings, they can be brief.
Leona Orr commented that Jackie spends a lot of time doing minutes. Eleanor transcribes them
and actually types out the minutes pretty much verbatim and then Jackie goes back and edits
them. There's got to be a better way when we're looking at budget issues and ways to help trim
the budget—as long as we still get the information and as long as the minutes are kept, and if
there's ever a question we're able to go back and look at the tape. It doesn't seem like we need
to have pages and pages of written minutes.
Councilmember Julie Peterson questioned how that would help the budget. Ms. Orr said that if
Eleanor didn't have to sit and transcribe the minutes,that would mean there were hours that she
could be spending doing something else and it might mean the other person didn't need to be
hired.
Julie Peterson asked what else Eleanor would fill her time with and what her job description was.
Council Secretary Jackie Bicknell responded that right now Eleanor was answering phones at the
front desk for the City Clerk's Office, as well as typing minutes from the tapes. There's not a lot
• of time budgeted for her but all of her time is being paid for by the Council budget. She's
Council Workshop,8/20/02 2
needed in the Clerk's Office, which means that it is difficult to use her upstairs to do some of the
• things that needs to be done such as filing. Eleanor also keeps a record and destruction log of all
of the past minutes. Basically her duties are to do whatever the Council Secretary doesn't have
time to do and to be there at the front desk.
Julie Peterson remarked that it didn't sound like Eleanor's time would be reduced, but just that
her job description would be changed, and there wouldn't actually be any savings of money. Ms.
Bicknell confirmed that Eleanor's time would not be reduced because the City Clerk's office
needed her for even more hours than had been budgeted for her and they didn't have any money
in their budget to pay for more hours, and there would be no savings of money. Leona Orr
concluded that there would be a citywide savings if Eleanor was able to do some other jobs. For
example, in the City Clerk's office, another Deputy City Clerk, which is a position that's on hold
right now, might not have to be hired if she was able to assist them and make their lives a little
better without impacts to the budget. She said she was looking at using existing people in the
best way possible, and right now transcribing the minutes verbatim on reams of paper is not in
the best interest.
Chief Administrative Officer Mike Martin added that we often run into situations where a
division or department hasn't been allowed to fill vacant positions, that when somebody is sick
or has a flex day coverage is needed for the front desk so somebody can take a lunch hour and
then it costs some lag time, which is another version of overtime. One of the paramount issues in
the Clerk's Office in its present location, is that somebody must be present to greet the public
when they walk into the building. These people, in addition to answering phones, often on an
• extremely regular basis are directing people upstairs, to customer service, and that sort of thing.
In general,we are short of staff down there, there's no question about it. We occasionally see it
show up in this lag time issue where people can't leave to take their lunch and that sort of thing.
It certainly would be a help, there's no question about it.
Julie Peterson asked if there was money in the Clerk's budget to pay the person to not be on the
council budget but to be in the other division budget. Mike Martin said there was not. Nothing
in that budget has been rebudgeted. Ms. Peterson asked how three hours of lag time a week for
Eleanor would be paid if the council has money in their budget to pay her but yet another
department needs her and they have no money to pay her. Mike Martin said that often her time
is split or she happens to be there typing the minutes so she can greet the public. Julie Peterson
questioned whether the council budget was still paying for Eleanor no matter where she was.
Mike Martin confirmed that it was.
Finance Director May Miller clarified that if it was found that Eleanor was being used in
different ways, payment could be transferred from one department to another.
Councilmember Bruce White questioned if Eleanor was part time. Mike Martin said she was.
Mr. White wanted to know how many hours a week she worked. Jackie Bicknell said that about
10 hours a week was budgeted for her at $10 an hour,but when she moved to the Clerk's Office
last fall, she got an increase in pay to $12 an hour. Ms. Bicknell said she didn't know where that
extra money was coming from as she didn't have anything to do with that. She concluded that it
could very possibly show up on the Council budget as a minus figure.
Council Workshop,8/20/02 3
. Councilmember Connie Epperly remarked that Eleanor, was actually a part time person but still
worked a lot of full time. Ms. Bicknell said that she had been working full time last fall when
there was money in the City Clerk's budget for her to be there over the 10 hours per week that
the council budget was paying for. At the beginning of this year,that changed and she is now
only working 10 hours a week. However, she is gone some weeks on vacation, so there are days
she's able to work more than 10 hours to make up for the weeks she was gone.
Julie Peterson wondered what the change would be to the perception of access to the minutes or
public information. Mike Martin said the audio tape could be made available to people that are
really interested in a particular item on the minutes. A place could be provided for them to listen
to the audio tape. If there was an issue that Council was particularly interested in having written
down, that could always be accommodated. Experience is that a lot of time is spent on putting
the minutes together and there is very little demand. He said he could see where a particular
issue might need to be highlighted and taken more at length. I suggest we try it a couple of
weeks and we can always go back if the public doesn't like it, if the council doesn't like it, or
somebody else doesn't like it.
Leona Orr said that some time back there were committees where no minutes were ever
produced because there just wasn't the staff to do it and somehow everyone managed to muddle
through and nobody ever seemed to complain. The video tape or audio tape was available if
there was a question. If you compare the minutes from our Council meetings to the minutes
from our committee meetings, they're about one-fourth of the information, and I've never heard
anyone from the public complain that those minutes were inadequate. They give you the topic,
• results, and highlights of who's spoken, and if you need more information, it is always there to
go and get. I was just interested in looking at being more efficient from our office standpoint as
to whether or not the Council really cares if we have three pages of minutes or if it could be
reduced down to one.
Tim Clark suggested putting the minutes on the web under Archives.
Kent Station Video
Mike Martin showed an informational Kent Station video. Economic Development Manager
Nathan Torgelson said that there was a lot more information on the City web site and that a flyer
with Kent Station information had been put together for hand out.
Secure Community Transition Facilities
Planning Manager Charlene Anderson said that the Secure Community Transition Facilities were
to provide living arrangements for sexual offenders who are ready for conditional release from a
total confinement facility such as that located on McNeil Island. The living arrangements would
be less restrictive than those in total confinement but the residents would have supervision and
security, and there would be a provision for treatment services. The state requires the city to
establish a process for siting secure community transition facilities. The city cannot, according
to Growth Management Act,preclude the ability to site such facilities in the City of Kent. At
their July 22nd public hearing, the Land Use and Planning Board recommended forwarding a"No
• Change"recommendation to the city council regarding secure community transition facilities.
Council Workshop, 8/20/02 4
Staff s recommendation was to allow the facilities only in the Gateway Commercial Zoning
. District. (Detailed information can be found in the council workshop packet.)
Deputy Chief Chuck Miller expressed his concerns that if such a facility were to be located in
Kent, that during heavy traffic times, the response time would be longer. He said there are about
120 registered sex offenders in the City of Kent already, and it would be better if the City made
the decision on where the facility would be located than to have someone else come in and say
where it would be sited.
Elizabeth McNagny, Department of Social and Health Services, said the department was looking
for one site in King County that would eventually hold 12 beds. If a community decides that
they will not look at amending their Comprehensive Plan and Development Regulations to allow
for the siting process, it would make them subject to preemption under state law. The statute is
very specific in outlining a whole list of criteria. Once a first round of possible sites have been
identified, the DSHS would start working with the local governments,whether or not they had
the process on their books that allows for siting. A public hearing process is built into the statute
and required by law, and if there isn't preemption, an appeal would be through the normal
process. There is a special process for preemptions.
Charlene Anderson said that staff was looking to move the issue to the full council on September
3`d.
• The workshop adjourned at 6:23 PM.
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