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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council - Minutes - 8/4/2020 Approved Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Date: August 4, 2020 Time: 5:01 p.m. Place: THIS IS A REMOTE MEETING 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Ralph called the meeting to order. 2. ROLL CALL Mayor Ralph called the meeting to order. Attendee Name Title Status Arrived Dana Ralph Mayor Present Toni Troutner Council President Present Bill Boyce Councilmember Present Brenda Fincher Councilmember Present Satwinder Kaur Councilmember Present Marli Larimer Councilmember Present Les Thomas Councilmember Present Zandria Michaud Councilmember Present 3. AGENDA APPROVAL Chief Administrative Officer Derek Matheson added an item 4.C. "Race and Equity," and item 11.B. to evaluate the performance of a public employee, per RCW 42.30.110(1)(g). The expected time for Executive Session is 20 minutes with no action following. A. Approve the agenda as amended. RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Toni Troutner, Council President SECONDER: Les Thomas, Councilmember AYES: Troutner, Boyce, Fincher, Kaur, Larimer, Thomas, Michaud 4. PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS A. Public Recognition i. Employee of the Month Mayor Ralph recognized Financial Planning Manager, Michelle Ferguson as the August Employee of the Month. Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 2 of 10 B. Community Events Council President Troutner provided details on upcoming outdoor movies at the accesso ShoWare Center and indicated additional information and details can be found at accessoShowareCenter.com Councilmember Fincher invited the public to attend the upcoming Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series on August 13, 2020 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Visit KentWA.gov to register. C. Race and Equity Mayor Ralph provided an extensive review of the work being done in the City regarding race and social equity. There are some things we can do in the short term to make Kent a better place to work and live. There are also some things we need to incorporate into a longer-term plan where we make strategic and continued investments to ensure an equitable future for our employees and residents. Chief advised he asked the Executive Leadership Team to join him in leading the following actions: •The Executive Leadership Team will participate in equity training, over the course of several days, during the month of July. •All Deputy Directors, Managers and Supervisors will go through equity training this year. •All front-line employees will also go through equity training after their managers and supervisors complete their training. •Effective immediately, we will create an Inter-departmental team on equity and social justice. This team will be composed of employees and department leadership and be tasked with three primary areas of focus: ❖Reviewing our hiring and promotion practices to make recommendations on how to diversify the talent pool that applies to work for Kent. ❖Reviewing policies that impact the culture for employees who work at Kent and make recommendations on how to improve the internal culture. ❖Reviewing service delivery policies and procedures that the City executes towards residents from initial contact to issue resolution to make recommendations on how to improve service delivery for our residents. •Soon, we will create a team to focus on our procurement processes and impacts. This team will be tasked with three primary areas of focus: ❖Determining if the City currently spends money with women and minority owned businesses and where there are areas to increase that spend including examining data tracking abilities across all departments. ❖Reviewing the City’s buy local ordinance to determine if there are opportunities to strengthen the ordinance including opportunities to put metrics for success in the ordinance or in the proposed budget ordinances. ❖Determining if legislative changes need to be made and if so recommending those changes to enable cities to prioritize where we Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 3 of 10 spend our money: targeting local companies and M/WBE firms. •Department Directors have been tasked with studying the counterpart departments in the top 10 most diverse cities in America to determine what they are currently doing that we can learn from and implement in Kent. •We will formally add equity as some criteria in the capital budget prioritization process to ensure we are spending our money in a more meaningful way. •We will increase the frequency of Coffee with the Mayor and Coffee with the Chief events to provide additional community access at more convenient times, locations with an increased schedule. •We are finalizing a website called the Kent PD Way which highlights answers to our most frequently asked questions regarding our police department including use of force statistics and training questions. •The Chief and City Attorney will continue reviewing our Use of Force policy to ensure best practices are being met and consistency is applied. •We will incorporate a formal police feedback form and ensure accessibility to our diverse resident population. •We will be changing our legislative agenda to ask our lawmakers to provide us with more tools and resources focused on increasing equity and inclusion. •Department Directors will provide a list of their most frequently used forms, so we can begin translating them into our top languages. This will provide our residents with more access to their local government. •Lastly, we will be coordinating a regional conversation on race and equity in South King County. We recognize that this isn’t a Kent only problem. Lack of equity is impacting our surrounding cities and we are asking them to join us in being part of the solution and in holding ourselves and each other accountable. We will develop a race and equity strategic plan which will include measurable metrics and benchmarks that we must attain to better serve our residents and employees. The Executive Leadership Team and I have met on this and I can assure you we are all committed to making Kent an even better place to be and a place we are all proud of. I want to thank you for taking the time and courage to share your stories and experiences with me. I want you to know that I see you and you matter to me. I recognize I have room to grow and improve - we all do. I hope you will join me in my commitment to grow together. Chief Padilla presented an extensive overview of the Police Department’s work in race and social justice reform. Chief advised the Kent Police Department (“KPD”) has been taking input from the Community and advised “We hear you and we are making it happen.” Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 4 of 10 KPD has been responding to questions and concerns every day. It’s important to acknowledge the volume and pace of the inquiries exceeds our capacity to answer immediately, but we strive to be timely, and we are prioritizing our responses, addressing the concerns of Kent residents first. The issues we are working on are complex and we want to be careful to follow a process to ensure we are getting to solutions that will have the positive impact that is intended, not just in the short term, but true long lasting and effective change. Chief talked about “In Effort to Reform Policing, Experts call Adoption of 8 Can’t Wait Platform Inadequate.”, an article published in the Palo Alto News online website, July 17, 2020. The article basically highlights that the adoption of the 8 Can’t Wait Recommendations is good first step, but we need to identify longer range solutions and we should not rush to do so. Anand Subramanian, Managing Director for PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity, was interviewed for the article and he made several good points. Regarding the pace of reform, he said the following, “We need more time, patience and investments to highlight programs. If we just jump to reform, it will be a mistake.” Policy Changes happened annually and come about in several ways: •KPD is WASPC accredited agency and each year we are required to review and update policies. •KPD does its own research and development. •KPD takes input from our community and implement policy change, which is currently happening with the calls for race and social equity reform in law enforcement Chief Padilla detailed the steps in the process and indicated to enhance the process, when it comes to social justice, racial equity and use of force policies we will take the following additional steps: •Include review and input from community during the review phase •Include review and input from the City Council during the review phase •Meet with the Diversity Task Force this Thursday. •The Diversity Task Force will review and make recommendations on all our use of force policies. Chief Padilla announced, that based on input from Councilmember Larimer and direction from Mayor Ralph, we will be setting to work on establishing a City Proclamation that will signify the city’s commitment and insistence on the development of social justice and equity reforms in the police department and throughout all city departments Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 5 of 10 Chief Padilla conveyed the Progress KPD has made: •Suspended the use of the VNR, pending federal legislation that will provide guidance on the use of that technique •Developed two stand-alone policies that explicitly require de-escalation and a duty to intervene, they are in draft form and we will be moving that to the review stage, including review and input from the Diversity Task Force These will be the first policies that the diversity task force will weigh in on •Received questions as to why our policies didn’t already include de- escalation. It's important to note that although the practice of de-escalation has been in place for years, the specific terminology such as was not common in LE policies or law until recently. Prior to 2020 there weren’t laws that regulated police use of force that spoke to de-escalation. The terms used in the federal and state laws were reasonable and necessary. Which is why when you look at our policies they use the terms reasonable and necessary. We are making those needed updates and again, we are working through our well-established process. •Established a race and social justice coordinator assignment for the department, that will be member of our department the rank of Commander. I have selected Bobby Hollis to take on this responsibility •Hosted four Community Engagement meetings with various community stakeholder groups. •Ramped up our social media efforts, with the launch of three new initiatives ❖The Kent PD Way, ❖Just the FAQs with Chief Padilla ❖8 that Can’t Wait Series Chief Padilla advised that the KPD policies will be available online in the next few days. •Two online training courses have been completed to date o Awareness and training on positional asphyxiation o KPD In-custody Care Training, surrounding what we do pre and post arrest to ensure we are taking care of the people we end of having to arrest •Working with State Legislatures on initiatives ❖Funding programs like CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets). The City has been seeking this funding for two years - strategic plan and have met twice with ongoing meetings planned ❖Funding for a Police Internship Program •Regardless of how the state initiative turns out, Kent PD with strong support from Mayor Ralph will be implementing a community emersion program for all new officers Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 6 of 10 ❖One of the issues that we are trying to address in creative ways, is the issue that officers do not typically work in the communities they serve. The concern is that officers, who continually see some of the worst circumstances of society run the risk of losing empathy and disconnected from their community. ❖My vision, which is still being developed and fine-tuned is that new Kent Officers, in the first months of their employment with the police department would be assigned out to conduct community service work with non-profit organizations, with an emphasis on serving with organizations who serve our community members of color. ❖We would implement this before we conduct any law enforcement training or exposure. ❖Not only will this provide for a significant connection with our community, but it will give our community members an opportunity to provide feedback on our new officers and their ability to effectively interact with people of color. ❖In a sense, it’s an opportunity to have them engaged in the community from the very start of their careers so that years down the road, they will have that experience to keep them balanced and impartial as they perform their difficult job. ❖I am unaware of any department that is making this type of investment and I believe this will set us apart from any other law enforcement organization anywhere. Lastly, I want to acknowledge that there is a lot of fear and anxiety surrounding policing in our country. I know that people want to see rapid but thoughtful change and I get it. We are on it! Suggestions from Council: 1. Set milestones and a timeline for changes 2. Highlight the portions of the current Kent Police Department policy that there will be changes made to. 3. Put the information out on social media and possibly have a one-on-one with Steve Hunter from the Kent Reporter to increase visibility. 4. Post the Kent Police Department KPOA Union contract online. 5. Research statistics and data for policy decisions to ensure we are addressing relevant concerns in the community, and make that information available on the KPD website. 6. Does not want to see lack of funding delay movement on the things that need to be implemented. 7. Requested a frequent report out from the police departments equity group Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 7 of 10 8. Plans for recruitment and hiring surrounding diversity of the police department for next two years 9. Add details on the Council agenda items regarding how race and social equity was considered 5. REPORTS FROM COUNCIL AND STAFF A. Mayor Ralph's Report Mayor Ralph provided an update on the litigation regarding inquests and clarified the issue is regarding King County's authority to change the inquest process. Mayor Ralph expressed appreciation of Kent residents, businesses, and non- profit organizations for their help in providing assistance to Kent residents in need. Mayor Ralph advised of the crisis assistance being provided by Puget Sound Energy and Comcast. B. Chief Administrative Officer's Report Chief Administrative Officer Derek Matheson advised departments are working on their 2021-2022 budget requests that will be discussed during the August 10, 2020 budget retreat that will not be televised. The Mayor will present her budget during a special meeting on September 29th and anticipates adopting the final budget in November. Matheson provided an update on the CARES Grant and small business applications. The remainder of Matheson's report is in the agenda packet. C. Councilmember's Report Councilmember Larimer sits on the King County Affordable Housing Committee discussed affordable housing financing and how one of the case studies done was on Catholic Community Services in Kent. They also issued a recommendation for extended the eviction moratorium which has since been passed. Councilmember Boyce sits on the Sound Cities Association Public Issues Committee and discussed a series on racial social justice and the great impact this series has had on the members. Councilmember Fincher sits on the King Conservation District and noted that until the committee is reformed there will be no meetings. Fincher also sits on the Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Advisory Council where they reviewed the annual report: who did we serve, how well did we serve and Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 8 of 10 what were the outcomes. 47% of those served were white, 15% Hispanic, 15% African American and so forth. The report on this will be put out to the public soon. 6. PUBLIC HEARING None. 7. PUBLIC COMMENT None. 8. CONSENT CALENDAR RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Toni Troutner, Council President SECONDER: Les Thomas, Councilmember AYES: Troutner, Boyce, Fincher, Kaur, Larimer, Thomas, Michaud A. Approval of Minutes 1. Council Workshop - Workshop Regular Meeting - Jul 21, 2020 5:00 PM 2. City Council Meeting - City Council Regular Meeting - Jul 21, 2020 7:00 PM 3. Committee of the Whole - Committee of the Whole - Regular Meeting - Jul 28, 2020 4:00 PM B. Payment of Bills - Approve MOTION: Approve the Payment of Bills received through July 15, 2020 and paid on July 15, 2020 and approve the checks issued for payroll July 1, 2020 - July 15, 2020 and paid on July 20, 2020, all audited by the Committee of the Whole on July 28, 2020. C. Accept the 2020 Crack Sealing Project as Complete - Authorize MOTION: Authorize the Mayor to accept the 2020 Crack Sealing Project as complete and release retainage to Central Paving, LLC upon receipt of standard releases from the State and the release of any liens. D. Ordinance Authorizing Small Cell Franchise Agreement with ExteNet Systems, Inc. - Adopt MOTION: Adopt Ordinance No. 4363, authorizing a 5-year franchise agreement with ExteNet Systems, Inc. for the installation of small cell facilities, subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the City Attorney. Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 9 of 10 E. Ordinance Authorizing Fiber Franchise Agreement with ExteNet Systems, Inc - Adopt MOTION: Adopt Ordinance No. 4364, authorizing a 10-year franchise agreement with ExteNet Systems, Inc. for the installation of a fiber optic network, subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the City Attorney. F. South 228th Street UPRR Grade Separation RailPros Field Services Amendment #2 - Authorize MOTION: Authorize the Mayor to sign an amendment to the Goods and Services Agreement with RailPros Field Services, Inc. in an amount not to exceed $180,000, for the purpose of railroad flagging, subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the City Attorney and Public Works Director. G. Use of CARES Grant Funding to Update Technology – Authorize MOTION: Authorize the IT Department to immediately purchase 500 Microsoft laptops, tablets, and associated accessories utilizing CARES Act funding through a cooperative purchasing agreement administered by NASPO ValuePoint and entered into between Microsoft and the State of Minnesota as the Lead Agency; amend the budget as may be necessary to authorize that purchase using grant funds; and authorize future purchases of laptops, tablets, and associated accessories through that same cooperative purchasing agreement if those purchases can be made within the City’s established budgets and during the term of the master agreement, which is currently in effect through July 31, 2021, subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the IT Director and City Attorney. 9. OTHER BUSINESS None. 10. BIDS A. Frager Road/Midway Creek Bridge Repair- Award Engineer, Mark Howlett briefly described the erosion that has happened on the Frager Road and Midway Creek Bridge and the work that is needed to repair it and recommended awarding the bid to Quigg Bros Inc. MOTION: Award the Frager Road/Midway Creek Bridge Repair Project to Quigg Bros., Inc. in the amount of $387,934 and authorize the Mayor to sign all necessary documents, subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the City Attorney and Public Works Director. Kent City Council City Council Regular Meeting Minutes August 4, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 10 of 10 RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Bill Boyce, Councilmember SECONDER: Les Thomas, Councilmember AYES: Troutner, Boyce, Fincher, Kaur, Larimer, Thomas, Michaud 11. EXECUTIVE SESSION AND ACTION AFTER EXECUTIVE SESSION At 6:15 p.m., the Council convened into Executive Session At 6:35 p.m., Matheson extended Executive Session for 10 more minutes At 6:45 p.m., Matheson extended Executive Session for 10 more minutes A. Current or Potential Litigation, as per RCW 42.30.110(1)(i) B. To evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a public employee, as per RCW 42.30.140(1((g) 12. ADJOURNMENT At 6:54 p.m., the Council reconvened into regular session. Mayor Ralph advised that there is no action and adjourned the meeting. Meeting ended at 6:55 p.m. Kimberley A. Komoto City Clerk Frager Road/Midway Creek Bridge Repair Bid Award City Council August 4, 2020 PROJECT LOCATION