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Home My WebLink About11/09/2004 Adjourned Meeting 1 401 CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 9, 2004 - 8:30 A.M. - NOON COUNCIL CHAMBERS - CITY HALL 1. Roll CaII Present: Council: Mayor Paul George, presiding, Council Members Dave Edler (until 12:05 p.m.), Neil McClure, Mary Place, Bernard Sims, and Susan Whitman Staff: City Manager Zais, City Attorney Paolella and City Clerk Roberts Absent: Ron Bonlender 2. PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT (Contingency Reduction Pages 9 -18) • Public Works Administration (Budget Page H -1) • Transit Policy Issue (Pg. PI -82) • Ken Mehin, Transit Manager, explained a request to hire a DA -II to assist with four major responsibilities; Drug and Alcohol reporting, record keeping with Dial -A -Ride, ADA grant assistance, and the Van Pool program. The position will be fully burdened and cost $35,600. • Transit Budget (Page H -35) Discussion included the addition of the used Gillig buses, ridership being down, overtime, and fuel prices. Also discussed was work on a plan to extend bus service to Selah. Insurance for both the van pool and the buses was discussed. • Public Works Administration (Page H -1) Chris Waarvick, Director of Public Works, per Councilman Sims request, read a summary of the department's accomplishments. In response to a question from Council about diminishing resources and when will we reach the point where vital services are no longer able to be provided, Mr. Waarvick said it is coming in steps. The Streets Division has seen the drop years ago in terms of street preservation activities. City Manager Zais announced a new development with regard to stormwater and policy issue considerations affecting Streets and Wastewater. The County has cancelled all stormwater hearings for the balance of this year and are discussing appointing a citizens committee to evaluate the issue and in doing so, will carry it over into next year. He said we still may want to hold the Public Hearing scheduled for November 23 although there may be no action necessary at that time. This will have a bearing on the budget with one contingency option being the absolute minimum planning process going forward to comply with the discharge permit that will not likely be issued until 402 ADJOURNED MEETING — BUDGET REVIEW NOVEMBER 9, 2004 next year. We have removed the Street budget expenditures that have been subsidizing the stormwater program. There are one or two options; the creation of a phased transition utility stormwater plan, or the fall back position of shifting the subsidy for a period of time to the Wastewater Division. Council Member Sims recommended holding the hearing. Although we may not make a decision at that time, he is concerned about the deadlines. • Streets (Budget Page H -12) Shelley Willson, Street and Traffic Operations Manager, Joan Davenport, Supervising Traffic Engineer, and Wayne Deason, Streets Maintenance Supervisor, were available for questions. Mrs. Willson addressed a previous question from Council Member Edler advising areas where programs have been reduced or eliminated. The list is available on page H -12 of the Budget. One item that raised discussion was the elimination of 50% of the trash cans in downtown and the reduction of their collection to once a week. This raised the question of who should be responsible for maintaining the area around City Hall, and where is the appropriate place to fund the downtown cleanliness. Council Member Sims suggested a recommendation be brought forward at the budget wrap up meeting. Also discussed was the need to replace poles in the city and the problem with catch basins not having a maintenance schedule. Half of the 5,000 basins are either blocked completely or broken and no longer serving their purpose of catching stormwater runoff. Other areas of reduction noted were street lighting, the chip seal program and wheel path grinding, ongoing street maintenance, sidewalk repair and replacement, night sweeping of arterials, tree trimming, and spring cleanup, as well as reduction in the painting of crosswalks and stop bars. In the Equipment Replacement Fund (page H -61) Mrs. Willson noted that, rather than purchase new dump trucks when existing units reached replacement age, we are now refurbishing them. Discussion went into replacing two sweepers and Council Member Place asked why that was not in the stormwater budget. Mr. Waarvick explained there was concern about the supplanting issue. City Manager Zais noted the footnote in the report staff did in May on the street gap analysis. Fundamentally, they are under funded by $2.8 million in the annual streets operating budgets. There needs to be significant new dedicated funding for street maintenance in the future; not just street bonds. • Refuse ( Budget Page H -67, Policy Issue PI -73 & -80) The first policy issue is for a refuse rate increase by an overall 9 %. Residential can service is proposed to increase 5 %, automated refuse cart service by 15 %, extra refuse charges, bin service, and yard waste cart collection are proposed to increase by 9 %. Discussion covered causes of increased costs such as the tonnage increases. The second policy issue is to purchase a route analysis system to be installed in refuse collection vehicles. _2 ADJOURNED MEETING — BUDGET REVIEW O NOVEMBER 9, 2004 • Equipment Rental ( Budget Page H -56, Policy Issue PI -55) Policy Issue - Richard Wonner, Fleet Manager, explained a planned reorganization to increase customer service by making staff available when the fleet is down. They would start a 3 -11:30 p.m. shift when vehicles are available. They are proposing taking one storekeeper position and converting it to a lube tech, filling a vacant position as a mechanic and starting the night shift with those two people. Overall this saves one FTE. • Parks and Recreation ( Budget Page H -66, Policy Issue PI -57, 66, 68) Policy Issues - Denise Nichols, Parks & Recreation Manager, explained the first policy issue is a consideration of an increase in fees and charges for the Parks and Recreation Division. This year the aquatic fees will increase twenty - five cents for the youth recreational swim. The Budget Strategy Team is reviewing whether the City can afford all the swimming pools but all five are budgeted for 2005 at this time. Mrs. Nichols noted that the fiscal impact of $80,000 is high but that it also includes an aggressive rental program at the Harman Center and the new Kiwanis facility. They are optimistic that those facilities can generate additional revenue. The second policy issue is to increase the In- Lieu -of -Tax on private and public utilities by 1% to secure additional stable funding for the park system. It is currently 14% and would go to 15% with Parks getting 4.5% instead of 3.5 %. This would raise about $250,000 a year. Mrs. Nichols explained that the increase will help accomplish the maintenance of all the new properties we have. There have been a lot of additions of park facilities with Kissel, Kiwanis and Gailleon. Also discussed was the contingency budget plan reduction and the resulting hard choices. The third policy issue is regarding funding for the Central Business District landscaping. There are three options; 1) fully fund the cost of providing downtown landscaping, 2) fund at the same level as 2004, and 3) fund at a reduced level of $15,000 versus $20,000 (recommended by YDA). Budget - There was discussion on the Southeast Community Center, new land acquisition plans, Fisher Golf course, and the new Harman Center. It was noted that Parks and Recreation's capital expenditures have gone down significantly because they have completed almost all their capital projects. There is still a request pending with the legislature for additional funding for the completion of the fourth ball field at Kiwanis Park to complete the project. Mrs. Nichols advised there were three outside agencies they were not supporting this year. Historically they have funded the Allied Arts Van but due to limited participation have not set aside funds to do so this year. The Salvation Army - Milroy Park summer project did not have matching money and they pulled their request. Also deleted was $7,000 for RSVP on the premise that the City is already funding senior services through the Harman Center. Rita Anson, Director of Finance and Budget, advised that outside agency requests would be reviewed during a public hearing at the regular Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 16 3 :4O4 ADJOURNED MEETING - BUDGET REVIEW NOVEMBER 9, 2004 ® Cemetery (Budget Page H -103, Policy Issue PI -70) Policy Issue - Mrs. Nichols explained the policy issue is to increase fees and charges for Tahoma Cemetery. She said the increased fees are still well within market of other cemeteries and that we are still subsidizing the cemetery. 3. Municipal Court (Contingency Reduction Page 20) • Municipal Court (Budget Page C -1) City Manager Zais explained that the revenues and expenditures resulting from the recent passage of a .3% increase in sales tax for the criminal justice system has not been included in the budget yet. The wrap -up document will update a number of items including this new revenue source and the expenses that go with it. Judge Susan Woodard and Linda Morris, Court Services Manager, gave a brief overview of the Municipal Court and were available for questions. ® Probation Center (Budget Page C -5) Colby Way, Probation Services Manager, gave a brief overview of the Probation Center and was available for questions. 4. Adjournment PLACE MOVED AND SIMS SECONDED TO ADJOURN TO 7:00 P.M. FOR A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE 2004 DOMESTIC WATER UTILITY RATE STUDY. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote; Edler absent. READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY C COUEMBER / DATE CO NCIL MEMB DATE ATTEST: -∎-- 2 Cc.>52 --� ; CITY CLERK PAUL P. GEORGE, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins. An audio and video tape of this meeting are available in the City Clerk's Office • 4