HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Meeting - Council Workshop - Special Minutes - 05/07/2021
C ITY OF K ENT C ITY C OUNCIL
ANNUAL PLANNING SESSION, PART 2
Friday, 7 May 2021, 8:30 a.m. 4:00 p.m.
Senior Activity Center, 600 E Smith St.
S UMMARY
OF THE MEETINGS KEY DISCUSSIONS AND AGREEMENTS
A TTENDEES: Council President Toni Troutner; Councilmembers Bill Boyce, Brenda Fincher, Satwinder Kaur,
Marli Larimer, Zandria Michaud, and Les Thomas; Mayor Dana Ralph; Chief Administrative Officer Derek
Matheson; Executive Leadership Team (ELT) members Chad Bieren, Mike Carrington, Pat Fitzpatrick, Kurt
Hanson, Kim Komoto, Paula Painter, Julie Parascondola, Raf Padilla, Teri Smith, Uriel Varela, and Margaret
Yetter; Staff Members Patti Belle, Natalie Winecka, Michelle Ferguson, and Police Department
s; and facilitator Jim Reid
_____________________________________________________________________________________
NOTE: PowerPoint Slides accompanied most of the presentations at this retreat. They were sent
to the Councilmembers following the meeting. Therefore, summaries of staff comments when they
were aided by slides include the most important points and are intended to complement the slides.
S UMMARY OF K EY A GREEMENTS
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING
Prior to this retreat, a number of Councilmembers expressed an interest in participatory budgeting as
a means of increasing public involvement in budget allocation decisions. Based on his interviews of each
Councilmember in April, facilitator Jim Reid heard the Councilmembers express this mutual interest:
processes is meaningful.
Finance Director Paula Painter presented three potential strategies for advancing the Co
1) expand the Budget Road Show; 2) involve the public in citywide and/or project-specific budget
decisions through participatory budgeting, using Seattle, Tacoma, Sequim, King County, and Victoria,
British Columbia processes as role
and priorities for balancing the General Fund budget.
, Council discussed the ideas. From this discussion another interest
emerged:
Engage people and communities who have not previously been involved in budget development
in the process.
To achieve their two interests, the Council agreed to:
Expand the Budget Road Show. Build on the success of the neighborhood meetings that Mayor
Ralph hosted in 2018 19-0 was being developed by hosting more
than three meetings. Additional meetings do not necessarily need to be geographically based.
Some meetings could be held to attract specific communities and/or organizations. For example,
the City should strategize how to involve renters as well as homeowners. Councilmembers also
expressed a willingness to be involved in efforts to attract a wider, more diverse audience and in
joining the Mayor at the presentations.
Revise the Neighborhood Grant Program to achieve the goals of participatory budgeting. Build
on the program to secure more public participation in setting priorities and choosing projects.
Focus on neighborhood projects in a manner similar to the City of Sequim. The Council was
asking residents of specific neighborhoods to suggest projects
and then vote to select the project that would be funded. This could mean that a pool of funds
separate from the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) list would be established since the CIP list is
prioritized with public input and according to criteria that identify costs, benefits, urgency, etc.
Implement the Balancing Act or a similar online tool as a means of taking the budget to the
people and making budget development accessible to more people. (Note: Tools such as the
Balancing Act allow residents to state their preferences for citywide and/or neighborhood
projects, and require that they suggest what should be cut to fund their priorities. Therefore,
the City would learn what the participants consider the difficult tradeoffs that need to be made.)
During the discussion it was suggested that the City should help engage residents who do not speak
interests and that there may be variations of these strategies and additional strategies to engage a
broader, more diverse spectrum of the public.
HB 1590 IMPLEMENTATION
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On February 5Chief Administrative Officer
Derek Matheson updated the Council on 1590, the state
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legislation that authorized 1/10 of 1% sales tax for affordable housing. The City began implementing this
law during the Autumn 2020 when the Council imposed the tax and directed staff to work on a plan.
Derek also stated that:
HB 1590 mandates a 60/40 split in the use of the funding: 60% must be devoted to constructing
affordable housing and 40% may be used for housing-related services. In South King County,
Kent and looking at pooling the 60% for construction under
the South King Housing and Homelessness Partners (SKHHP). For the other 40%, staff are
working on a mental health co-responder program, a Human Services Grants Program, and an
allocation of one-time funding for youth mental health.
SKHHP was established a couple years ago based on A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH)
model, the consortium of north and northeast King County cities that was formed nearly thirty
years ago. Kent and Covington are members of SKHHP and Maple Valley, which has expressed
interest, needs to formally join. Renton is going in an independent direction because it has a
Housing Authority. The partners an initial analysis
indicates we could not use HB 1590 funds because state law restricts spending to new
construction. SKHHP may be allowed to use funding generated by HB 1406, the 1/100 of 1%
sales tax credit. Similar to King County, we are supporting the provisions of another piece of
legislation, HB 1070, to allow acquisition.
As presented to the Council last fall, the City has also discussed with King County the idea of
SKHHP concept because the County is a member of ARCH, which it views as successful. On a
related note, the Kent Housing Options Plan (KHOP) is already underway. Ivehicle to
figure out how to direct SKHHP to allocate funding to different types of affordable housing. Our
Comprehensive Plan Housing and Human Services Elements and the 2020-25 Human Services
Strategic Plan also offer guidance. The Council will need to approve the SKHHP Inter-Local
Agreement and the KHOP.
At this meeting, Derek stated that:
Last month the State Legislature approved and Governor Inslee signed HB 1070, which builds on
HB 1590 by expanding allowable uses of the 60% portion for affordable housing to include
acquisition of land and facilities, not just construction. This makes the preservation of affordable
housing possible.
Kent and two of the three other cities that impose the HB 1590 sales taxCovington and Maple
Valleyare still looking at pooling their 60% for housing with SKHHP. As stated above, Maple
Valley is not now a member of SKHHP and would need to join.
is to build the
, as ARCH does. The
SKHHP Board recently hired Cedar River Group to facilitate this effort.
There are two Inter-Local Agreements (ILA) thus far. The first, which forms SKHHP, borrows
HB 1406
funding, the 1/100 of 1% sales tax credit, to begin to build organizational capacity.
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applications, and recommend grants to acquire and/or build housing. The Advisory Board will
consist of 12-15 community members with knowledge and understanding of affordable housing
and homelessness issues in South King County. The Executive Board is emphasizing the inclusion
of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) members on the Advisory Board because 45%
of South King County residents identify as BIPOC. The Advisory Board will also include affordable
housing and non-ducators and advocates, people
with personal and professional knowledge of homelessness, people with affordable rental and
homeownership housing finance expertise, and people from population groups such as aging
adults and seniors, the LBGTQ+ community, multigenerational households, veterans, and youth,
and people with a criminal history.
o The current plan is to open the Advisory Board application process in mid-May and for the
Executive Board to make the appointments in August. (Note: Mayor Ralph serves on the
SKHHP Executive Board.)
Cedar River Group will help SKHHP create strategic marketing materials and identify
philanthropic organizations who may become donors.
The Kent Housing Options Plan (KHOP) is getting close to the finish line. It is the vehicle to
determine how to direct SKHHP to allocate different types of affordable housing. We can also
look to our Comprehensive Plan Housing and Human Services Elements and the 2020-
Human Services Strategic Plan for guidance.
Later this year the Council will be asked to approve another ILA to pool the HB 1590 funds
SOUTH KING COUNTY CO-RESPONDER PILOT PROGRAM
updated the Council on the South King County Co-Responder Pilot
Program.
At the February retreat the Council heard that:
The South King County Co-Responder Pilot Program includes nine cities, the Kent Valley cities
plus Black Diamond, Algona, and Pacific. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police
Chiefs has provided a six-month grant; Des Moines parent agency that will manage the
contract with an agency. The cities have not yet agreed on the agency, but in the running are
the Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC), Valley Cities Counseling and Consultation
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(VCCC), and Sound Mental Health. The pilot will be located at 272 and Pacific Highway South.
The concept is this: People will call 911 and Valley Communications will dispatch police and/or
responders or crisis responders (similar to animal control). Kent officers
will overhear the communications but the County will handle the crisis response because cities
lack authority to involuntarily commit people in crisis. The next steps in advancing the pilot are
to produce formal Memoranda of Understanding and to develop the contract between Des
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Moines and the agency that is selected. We expect the partners will seek a one-year grant
extension.
The pilot program will help Kent decide whether to continue to participate in the regional
program or go it alone.
At tostated that the primary goals of the Co-Responder Program are
to: 1) get people treatment as early as possible; 2) avoid incarceration; and 3) decrease response times.
A major challenge in achieving these goals is that King County includes 2.26 million people distributed
throughout 2116 square miles (larger than Rhode Island or Delaware).
For this reason, the Kent Police Department recommended to the Council that the City establish its own
program. The Department would team up with the Behavioral Health Response Team (BHRT); its
members would act as the navigators who would take over from the Police to serve people in crisis.
The team would have an office in Kent that would be open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 7:30
p.m. After hours and on weekends police officers would be able to contact the BHRT as needed.
Councilmembers asked how the program might be more proactive. Mike stated that the mental health
experts on the BHRT could continually follow up with people who have been served to see how they are
doing. He also stated that the Police Department and BHRT would be able to respond to after hours and
weekend calls more quickly than they would be able to if the program were countywide. The Council
inquired about the safety of BHRT members. Mike emphasized their level of training and experience and
the teamwork between them and the Police Department. Finally, Councilmembers urged that the
program be strategically communicated to the public and behavioral health agencies and advocates.
should be communicated is that the co-responder concept is not newwe have tested it.
The Council agreed that Kent should establish its own co-responder program.
Chief Padilla said that the Administration will bring back to Council a proposed structure that would
begin to be implemented during the First Quarter of 2022. He estimated the program would cost $1-1.4
Mayor Ralph and Derek commented that there would still be sufficient HB 1590 funding for other
human services programs.
RACE AND EQUITY STRATEGIC PLAN
External Relations Coordinator Uri Varela updated the Council on the Race and Equity Strategic Plan that
he is developing with input and support from the Cultural Communities Board. Uri briefed the Council
on both external and internal efforts to advance racial equity and social justice.
highlighted these engagements with the community:
The Race and Equity Strategic Plan will be finalized in December 2021.
Community engagement is geared toward reaching new organizations and people who have not
be engaged previously by the City.
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Uri is conducting listening sessions that are intended to hear new voices, learn new perspectives
and opinions, and build new relationships.
role is advisory but Uri is working closely with its members to
solicit their perspectives and advice, and to take advantage of their expertise and experience.
Therefore, the Board will influence the strategic plan.
A Speakers Series has been hosted by the City to help both residents and staff engage in the
difficult and challenging conversations about race and equity.
Uri also summarized internal actions:
Council will be updated about the Race and Equity Strategic Plan every 4-6 weeks between now
and December.
The 14-member interdepartmental Race and Equity Core Team has begun operating. This
internal employee-led group will help steer the City through the process of developing and
operationalizing equity. Its functions are capacity building, communicating, collecting and
To reach deeper into the organization, each department will build its own race and equity team
with guidance from the Core Team .
which to focus. The dashboard produced by the City of Tacoma for the same purpose will serve
as a model.
One of the Speaker Series speakers, Erin Jones, conducted a three-part training that was
mandatory for all employees, including ELT members.
The Council asked how the City will learn that employees not only participated in training, but took away
meaningful lessons that they apply. One idea was to include at the end of the training a few discussion
questions.
At the end of the session with Uri, the Council and ELT applauded his efforts.
CREATING AND MAINTAINING A DIVERSE WORKFORCE
Leading up to this retreat, Councilmembers expressed an interest in ensur
reflects the diversity of the community. Teri Smith and Natalie Winecka, the Human Resources
fun
-
City, statistics about the diversity of applicants and how it has changed in recent years, steps underway
rategies going forward.
They also noted that the numbers of open positions, applicants, and people hired in 2020 were
significantly lower than in 2019. Another interesting fact from this statistics was that the number of
women who applied for jobs with the City declined last year.
Regarding strategies to diversify the workforce, Teri and Natalie mentioned that Human Resources is:
actively participating in the Race and Equity Core Team as well as in GARE;
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reviewing job descriptions;
diversifying interview panels and training panelists on implicit bias;
surveying employees to ensure they feel safe and included;
mandating race and equity training for all employees;
materials.
revising the exit interview surveys to obtain better metrics on the reasons why people are
leaving the organization;
partnering with neighboring cities to understand better what is and what is not working to
diversify the applicant pool and workforce; and
participating in local and regional job fairs
The Council suggested that the City needs to ensure that employees who function but are not proficient
in English, such as landscapers, are not discriminated against but instead are valued as members of the
team and treated fairly and respectfully.
patrick then provided an overview of the impact of race and equity
considerations on procurement policies. He highlighted these issues:
Washington State has prohibited Affirmative Action considerations in hiring and procurement
since the voters passed Initiative 200 in 1998. When the Legislature voted to allow Affirmative
Action practices a few years ago, the voters again prohibited them.
Restrictions in Public Works contracting also have an effect. According to the law, the bid that is
But the City has opportunities to attract diverse businesses to its processes. The Race and Equity
Strategic Plan is providing strategies for how to do so.
Through marketing and advertising and by working with professional organizations in fields such
as Information Technology or Parks and Recreation, the City can help to expand the diversity of
businesses and other enterprises who do work for Kent.
Regarding the last point, Parks and Recreation Director Julie Parascondola stated that her
department works with a variety of organizations with unique expertise, such as museums, to bring
programs and services to the community.
COMMUNITY POLICING
Police Department Commanders Andy Grove and Bobby Hollis briefed the Council on two efforts to
strengthen the relationship between the community and Police Department.
Andy presented the Community Immersion Law Enforcement Project, an unprecedented program to
immerse newly hired police officers into community-based non-profit organizations so that the officers
gain a stronger understanding of the community. Andy defined the Community Immersion Program this
way:
The first assignment of newly hired Kent Police officers will be to serve as volunteers in
community-based organizations for 320 hours.
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Community organizations will apply to host the local police recruits and will assign them a
mentor for their service experience.
Police recruits will interact with their community mentor, non-profit employees, and a wide
range of community members.
These are program goals:
Provide officers firsthand experience and in-person engagement designed to ingrain
understanding, empathy, compassion, and trust.
Develop community-centered law enforcement training partnerships with community
stakeholders who serve our diverse community members .
Provide officers with one-on-one guidance and ongoing mentorship from community leaders
who represent our BIPOC community.
Forge life-long personal relationships between officers and community members.
Strengthen communication between the Kent Police Department and community members.
Andy credited Chief Padilla for envisioning this program and working with State Representative Tina
Orwell to secure state funding to launch it. Councilmembers expressed support for the program and the
hope that someday it can be expanded so that veteran officers may participate.
Commander Hollis then discussed the Police Race and Equity Advisory Board. He emphasized that
working with the Board provides him the opportunity to talk to and work with community members
who he may not have met about race, equity, and inclusion. Then, he brings their perspectives to the
ore Team, of whiBobby is also building a new partnership for
development of a Strategic Race and Equity Plan and work with his colleagues to transform race and
relationships throughout the community.
In the final segment of the discussion about how race and equity are shaping community policing, Raf
summarized for the Council the various bills that were passed during the 2021 Legislative Session that
could transform policing. Some of the bills have taken effect immediately while the others will become
law in late July. He described some of the challenges that the new legislation will present to the
department and observed that Kent is ahead of many other police departments across the state in
implementing the kinds of reforms the legislation requires. Mayor Ralph observed that the City needs to
communicate to th
the Council on how the department is operationalizing these measures and the lessons learned from
doing so.
LAND USE NOTIFICATIONS
The Bridges Neighborhood comprehensive plan amendment process indicated to some Council
members that it may be necessary to notify a greater number of potentially affected people/households
about potential land use changes than current policy requires. Kurt Hanson, Director of the Economic
and Community Development Department, initiated the discussion of land use notifications by
summarizing current requirements, how they were applied in the Bridges Property case, and the lessons
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learned. ovide sufficient
notification of neighbors in cases like the Bridges Neighborhood plan amendment. (Kurt estimated that
there are 4-5 similar cases annually.)
After discussing the five ideas, Council reached agreement on three options, including:
Require Notice Of Application (NOA) for site-specific legislative actions.
Increase the radius for legislative actions.
Ensure the whole neighborhood is notified.
Kurt told the Council that these revisions could be implemented at a minimal cost. Kurt and Pat
Fi
submit them to the Council for adoption.
Kurt also addressed the permitting process by informing the Council that the KIVA Software that has
become outdated and cumbersome will soon be replaced by Amanda Software. Unlike KIVA, which
allows the public to file permit requests online 24/7, Amanda gives applicants a virtual appointment.
This allows staff to manage the flow of permit requests and, therefore, prevent backlogs.
ISSUES AND INVITATIONS ON THE HORIZON
Councilmember Larimer mentioned the City possibly addressing the Co-LEAD model among police and
community organizations to reduce barriers to service for repeat offenders of low grade offenses, such
as misdemeanors. One focus might be on getting repeat offenders into housing to provide them stability
and safety.
Councilmember Fincher invited her colleagues to join her on an upcoming tour of a tiny house village.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE RETREAT
The two substantive discusses that were mentioned were the Co-Responder and the Community
Immersion Law Enforcement Programs. One Councilmember commented that the retreat offered proof
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