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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council - Minutes - 9/29/2020 Approved Kent City Council City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 29, 2020 Date: September 29, 2020 Time: 5:02 p.m. Place: THIS IS A REMOTE MEETING SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA - 5 P.M. 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Ralph called the meeting to order. 2. ROLL CALL 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. OTHER BUSINESS A. Mayor Ralph's 2021-2022 Biennial Budget Message Mayor Ralph presented her 2021-2022 Biennial Budget Message as follows: I am proud to present you with my proposed 2021-2022 biennial budget. I am thankful for the continued collaboration between community members, the City Council and our City Departments. I firmly believe a budget is a road map that reflects the values of any organization. It is why I am grateful that as City leaders we have shared values that center around benefiting our residents and those who call Kent home. I thank the City Council for their teamwork and commitment to improve so we can continue to make Kent a place we are all proud to call home. Within the $687.8 million total balanced budget, $217.5 million is allocated to the General Fund. In 2020, with the assistance of the state and federal government we were able to invest over $11 million on programs benefiting vulnerable populations including our youth and seniors. In my proposed budget, we will invest an additional $16+ million into those programs showing successful results for our community. Additionally, I am pleased to announce the creation of the Human Services Opportunity Fund to further support organizations doing exceptional work in the community and how we can boost their work through financial investment. Kent City Council City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 29, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 2 of 6 We will continue to be on the forefront of transparency and accountability in law enforcement. As one of the first cities in the state to implement body worn cameras in our police department, this budget continues that promise by investing in additional body worn cameras for our officers. Body worn cameras directly increase the transparency and accountability of our police department and have been a tremendously helpful tool. We will continue to leverage red-light camera funds to outfit the remaining 40 members of our commissioned law enforcement staff with body worn cameras. In addition, we will continue with our Car Per Officer program and purchase 12 vehicles per year. This program greatly improves efficiency and is a significant cost savings for the City. I want to ensure that Kent is a place everyone is proud of, which means focusing on equity in our projects, programs and service delivery. My proposed budget creates an Equity Manager to help us with that work. The budget also includes funding to engage a consultant to help create an equity and social justice strategic plan for the City. We are currently working on the development of a job description and it is our intent to launch the recruitment before the budget is adopted. We must continue to tell Kent’s story to attract both residents and businesses ensuring Kent claims its stake as a regional destination. I am pleased to announce the creation of an economic development opportunity fund. This opportunity fund will be available for departments that match initiatives of Economic Development. Example uses could include design of projects in preparation of grants, as was the case with Meet Me on Meeker segments, or to leverage workforce development initiatives like Kent has shown in its partnering with Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee. The fund will provide economic development with a sustainable funding source to spearhead projects to achieve City and departmental goals and objectives. Funds can seed, supplement or leverage other external funding opportunities that are pertinent to City planning or economic development functions. Opportunities regularly occur from Department of Commerce and be useful in forging partnerships to realize City objectives for surplus property redevelopments. While we continue to share Kent’s story, we also have the opportunity to honor and educate the region, including our young folks, about Kent’s past. This budget provides additional funding to the Greater Kent Historical Society to allow them to continue to educate, inspire and share the foundation of Kent with the rest of the region. We are always looking for opportunities to be innovative and we found a perfect opportunity. Currently the City has several locations that are under contract to maintain landscaping of our rehabilitated planted islands and Kent City Council City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 29, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 3 of 6 planting strips. These contracts are set to expire at the end of 2021. The proposed budget provides for a shift from contract work to handling this work in-house by adding two living-wage jobs in our Streets Division to perform this work. Rather than sending our tax dollars to a contractor, we found another opportunity to reinvest those dollars in local people, create local jobs and support local families. As a region, we continue to struggle with the homelessness crisis, often resulting in illegal encampments in our vegetated and sensitive areas. This budget makes an additional investment in cleaning up the encampments within our city to protect vegetation and restore areas critical to Kent’s ecosystem. I would like to applaud the City Council who, on September 15, approved an ordinance extending the square footage component of the City’s B&O Ordinance to include outdoor warehousing activities, closing the revenue loophole and creating equity between businesses that conduct certain warehousing activities whether inside the confines of four walls or outside of a facility. This has allowed us to invest more in our capital program within this budget than we would have been able to otherwise. We are estimating that this would generate approximately $2.1 million in revenue to the City. As a result of closing the loophole in our B&O Tax system, the budget includes the allocation of the new $1.8 million revenue stream to the Capital Resource Fund to support our capital program. Highlights of projects in the 2021-2022 capital budget include: • Revitalization of Mill Creek Canyon. Mill Creek Canyon is one of Kent’s greatest natural recreational amenities. Mill Creek Canyon has the potential to be a connector of people between downtown, Scenic Hill, the historic Mill Creek neighborhood and to our East Hill Shopping area. It is rare to have such a beautiful natural recreational corridor right in the heart of an urban area that connects so many key neighborhoods and businesses. The budget includes $1.5 million for cleanup of encampments, trail restoration and improved access to the canyon. We will also add positive use features such as natural play, small off-leash dog areas and other amenities. • Kent Memorial Park Renovation. The budget includes $1 million in additional funding to complete renovations to the back two fields at Kent Memorial Park that will serve as vital neighborhood park space for the surrounding community. This project will completely transform the park, which was historically a jewel in Kent’s park system, back into a source of pride for our residents that provides opportunities for them to improve their physical and mental health, come together as a community and be an attractive rental facility for regional and state athletic tournaments. Kent City Council City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 29, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 4 of 6 • Street Overlays. The 2021-2022 budget includes a significant investment of over $6 million in the City’s residential street overlay program which is funded through utility taxes collected for solid waste. In addition, $6.1 million of B&O Tax revenue will be used to support the other street overlays throughout the City. • Kent East Hill Operations Center (KEHOC). This $630,000 project is an investment in the current East Hill facility in which the existing office space, restrooms, staff reporting space, lunchroom and men’s & women’s locker rooms will be drastically improved. This project will renovate the existing entrance area and automate the security gate to enhance security and safety. It will provide area lighting to enhance safety and security for staff and city assets stationed at this facility. Acquisition and installation of a modular office and modular restroom will replace the aging office trailers and port-a-potty that staff uses currently. A secondary containment unit will be installed for storage of pesticide and chemical supplies on site. • Technology. During this biennium, we are continuing to invest in the City’s technology by funding hardware and software lifecycles with $1.6 million each year. In addition, the budget includes nearly $10 million in technology projects such as the replacement of our current Lawbase system with one or more solutions for civil, prosecution and probation users, the replacement of Tiburon (the existing Police Records Management System), replacement of our current meter reading equipment (Radix), and a new business licensing system. 2020 was an extremely challenging year for all of us, especially local governments. The COVID-19 crisis came right on the heels after we faced a fiscal cliff, that with your help, we were able to manage in the 2019-2020 budget. Although we were able to mitigate the impacts of the fiscal cliff, it delayed our ability to address the ongoing structural imbalance that the City faces each year as expenses increase annually by roughly 2.2% and City revenues increase by roughly 1.1%. As you know, this imbalance isn’t unique to the City of Kent and is something most local government jurisdictions grapple with during their budget process. With COVID-19, there are many unknowns regarding the timing of when things will be “getting back to normal”. Recognizing that there were going to be financial implications as a result of the stay home order, revenue forecasts were updated. To counter an anticipated $15.7 million revenue loss, as an organization we underwent an extensive citywide budget reduction exercise. The projected revenue shortfall was addressed through a combination of utilizing our reserves, one-time and ongoing personnel and operating reductions, and reductions in non-departmental capital transfers. Kent City Council City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 29, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 5 of 6 The City had strategically established a policy surrounding fund balance for the General Fund, setting aside funds for the purpose of a rainy-day account or an emergency. Not only had the policy been established but the fund balance was purposefully grown beyond the minimum requirement in order to provide us with capacity to address our ongoing structural imbalance. I can’t imagine a time where utilization of those funds would be more appropriate. Although we have tapped into our fund balance to address some of the revenue shortfall, there is fund balance remaining should the crisis last longer than predicted. The revenue shortfalls from COVID-19 only exacerbated the structural deficit we knew we would face with the 2021-2022 budget. Therefore, we looked for long-term solutions that would address our immediate budget crisis but also fill in the future deficit. By doing so, we were able to eliminate our need to make additional reductions during this budget process and made it possible to bring forth a balanced 2021-2022 budget. We made strategic decisions early to prevent drastic decisions later. Despite the deep cuts we had to make, we have not made any reductions in Human Services or community investment. In fact, with the assistance of federal and state funding we have been able to increase support to those most impacted by COVID-19 and to our vulnerable populations. With federal funding we were awarded over $7 million in COVID-19 recovery assistance. The funds are limited in their use and can only be used for costs directly associated with COVID-19 incurred through November 30, 2020. They cannot be used to address the revenue shortfalls impacting our budget. Planned uses to those impacted by COVID-19 include small business grants, rental, food and utility assistance, improved technology to support social distancing efforts and personal protective equipment for staff and residents. Additional examples of some of these uses include: • This funding supports our small business (micro-enterprises), especially those owned by under-served individuals, who require rental assistance along with hands on support to navigate local and federal loan and grant programs through education or assistance in completing documentation. • Many small businesses and nonprofits cannot afford an attorney, but they need to consult with an attorney regarding COVID-19 related business legal questions. This funding will provide online or virtual assistance to these small businesses and non-profits. • From the preliminary data provided by the State, our diverse population is disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and have died at Kent City Council City Council Special Meeting Minutes September 29, 2020 Kent, Washington Page 6 of 6 higher rates than their demographic representation in the population. Funds provided to community healthcare organizations accessible to and trusted by under-served populations is a high priority. • Homeless Services, including shelter and transitional housing, providing for the unhoused impacted by COVID-19 such as support for emergency shelter and transitional housing programs. This budget does not restore positions or other cuts that were made during the COVID budget reduction exercise. While 2020 has provided us with many unprecedented challenges, 2021- 2022 will provide us with many opportunities. Now is our time to rise to the occasion, to show the region what makes us a strong, vibrant and thriving city. We have the opportunity to make continued investments in our residents, particularly communities of color, vulnerable populations and our business community. We have made significant progress over the past several years, but that work must continue if we want to stake our claim as a regional destination. I am confident that City leaders and residents have shared values that will set the roadmap for Kent’s future. I look forward to the adoption of this budget so our programs, services and vision for Kent can continue to move forward. Tonight, I respectfully transmit the 2021-2022 budget to the City Council for consideration. This document is a representation of the collaborative efforts of City leadership, City Council, City staff and the Kent community. I would like to extend my gratitude to Chief Administrative Officer Derek Matheson, department directors and their staff for the dedication and hard work that was put into this budget process. And, thank you to the Finance Department, particularly Finance Director Paula Painter, our newly appointed Financial Planning Manager, Michelle Ferguson, and her team, Kathleen McConnell and Shane Sorenson, who masterfully navigated this budget process while juggling the budgetary impacts of COVID-19. Thank you all for your hard work, collaboration and your willingness to continue to move Kent forward. Our residents, businesses and visitors are counting on it. 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Ralph adjourned the meeting. Meeting ended at 5:22 p.m. Kimberley A. Komoto City Clerk