HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council Workshop - Minutes - 03/05/2002 � 4
COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES
MARCH 5, 2002
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: President Tim Clark, Connie Epperly, Leona Orr, Julie
Peterson, Bruce White, Judy Woods, Rico Yingling
STAFF PRESENT: Mike Martin, Dena Laurent, John Hodgson, Fred Satterstrom,May Miller,
Charlene Anderson, Len Olive, Tom Shepard, Judy Bennett, Katherin Johnson, Christine Nelson,
Bob Hutchinson Jackie Bicknell
The workshop began at 5:05 PM.
CDBG BLOCK GRANT ENTITLEMENT
Housing and Human Services Manager Katherin Johnson gave a report on the City of Kent's
entitlement status for the CDBG Block Grant. As a member of the King County Community
Development Block Grant Consortium, the money flows from the Federal Government(HUD), into
King County and is administered by King County and then flows to Kent. Kent has to pay for the
services received from the county, and in this case, 10%of the total allotment is taken off the top,
which is approximately$60,000 immediately put into administrative costs. The consortium also
often chooses to do "set asides" for things like having each city set aside a certain percentage of their
Block Grant money for housing stability. The set aside fund is administered by the county but
benefits all the residents of the county. For Kent last year, that was beneficial, because $18,000 was
put in and $35,000 taken out.
• Staff came to the Council two and a half years ago to suggest that it was time that the City became a
metropolitan city and accepted the entitlement from the federal government. A major reason for this
is to have local control and to have the administrative money for Kent. That money can be used to
fund a planner to work in the community, developing the things that need to be happening. And the
HUD money can be used for a wide variety of things. It can be used for community development, to
create jobs and micro enterprises, which are businesses that have less than five employees.
To get the money, the city has to write a consolidated plan, which is the application to the federal
government. The plan looks at the City as a whole—human service issues, housing issues, and
economic development. The consolidated plan is used to set local priorities and the projects to work
on. Staff is in the process of hiring a consultant and has released an RFQ to write the consolidated
plan and is putting together a body of citizens to help select the consultant and oversee the work. The
consolidated plan is a five year plan,which is updated every year with an action plan,based on the
programs chosen. Additional money is received for planning and administration. Public/citizen
participation is required as part of the HUD Program, and Kent citizens would get to have more
opportunity to participate. Funding is based on population totals and the percentage of low income
population in the City, and part depends on what the legislators in Washington, DC do with the
Community Development Block Grant. Staff is hoping the City will receive $700,000 to go into the
Capital Fund.
Update on Mobile Home Park.
Katherin Johnson said staff met with the Still Manor residents with the purpose of trying to get a
good inventory of what that community needs in terms of housing. Only three available spaces were
r
Council Workshop, 3/5/02 2
found. Some repairs have been done on some of the mobile homes, but many of the homes will not
be able to be moved. Staff is working with agencies to help the affected people relocate.
Permit Process Update
Christine Nelson, Permit Center Manager, Christine Nelson gave a Power Point presentation on the
2001 annual report on the Permitting Process. She said some of the challenges for 2002 were titiled
Customer Service Strategy 2002, Inspections, Inspection Strategy 2002, Increase Technical
Competence and Tools, Permit Streamlining, and Improve Reporting Capabilities. Bob Hutchinson
continued with the Power Point presentation, giving information on Building Inspections that deal
with the purpose for inspections, the inspector's role, service standards, and the inspection strategy
for 2002, which is improvement, and technological advancement.
Leeislative Update
Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Dena Laurent gave a legislative update on the state and
regional transportation packages. She said it wasn't clear what was the best option, but the regional
version is more flexible and offers more money to more cities.
The meeting adjourned.
Council Office
2od Floor, City Hall
220 -ld'Ave. South, Kent, 98032
PLEASE SIGN IN
DATE: 3 ,-/U 2
Name Address Phone Number
JS
1A1 _p. - c�
767
- 7d t