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10-26-16 Study Session MinutesYELM CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION WEDNESDAY, October 26, 2016 5:00 P.M. Mayor Foster called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. Present: Councilmember's Tracey Wood, EJ Curry, Russ Hendrickson, Joe DePinto, Tad Stillwell. Councilmember Molly Carmody arrived at 5:15 p.m. (Excused Absence: Jennifer Littlefield.) Staff: Grant Beck, Chad Bedlington, Noah Crocker. Guest Presenters: Kathleen Collins & Davor Gjurasic, City Lobbyists. Audience: Graham Perednia, NVN; and Scott Bradley. 4a. Review upcoming Legislative Session — Presenter: Lobbyists Kathleen Collins & Davor Gjurasic — Kathleen & Davor introduced themselves, thanked the city for renewing their contracts for the upcoming legislative session. Davor continued with a list of the issues that they will be lobbying for — for the city. The 2017 legislative session will begin as always on the second Monday in January, January 9, 2017. It will be a 'long' session, 105 days — being the first year of a two year biennium — when they put together the three budgets: Operating, Transportation and Capital. This session will be the 'funding session' — so it's the time to lobby for project money. Kathleen explained the state education funding issue — (the "McCleary" decision) — and how that impacts other funding needs/requests through -out the state. There are many funding pressures on the budget, including education, mental health with provisions for law enforcement and homelessness issues too. Good news for Yelm is we already got transportation funded in the 2015 session — so that is a separate budget and less susceptible to the upcoming funding pressures. Kathleen asked if there were any questions. Discussion followed regarding the state funding of 'basic teacher salaries'. Davor spoke of Yelm's priorities for the upcoming session: • Transportation Budget item: 'Yelm Loop'— money ($58.5M) is earmarked to complete the loop — but the problem is — the funds don't begin until 2019. Davor & Kathleen would like to work towards getting some of the funding now (approx. $4.6M) to get the ball rolling now on the loop project — and then the remainder of the money in the 2019 & 2021 biennium's. • Capital Budget items: 'New Playground Equipment at Yelm City Park/Community Center'; 'Additional Parking at Longmire Park'; 'Extension/Upgrades of Chehalis -Western Trail (Yelm to Tenino)'. Discussion followed on funding strategies by Kathleen & Davor. Councilmember Carmody stated she would like to get feedback from the citizens of Yelm before the city just decides what the city's funding priorities should be for the lobbyists. Davor agreed, but said the city council can direct city staff to put dollar amounts on the list of priority projects and then once they get the 'green light' to proceed with the list — it will be easier to move forward with strategizing for the legislative session. Mayor Foster agreed with Councilmember Carmody, but also thought it best to tag these projects with some numbers and get the list of priorities to Kathleen & Davor as soon as possible. Davor explained the timeline for requests. Noah Crocker asked if the legislature will fund any capital projects for'energy saving' projects (i.e. solar panel projects), anything like that? Kathleen said yes, funding for these types of projects come from the Capital Budget and this is something they need to watch for. Some discussion followed about water. Mayor Foster asked Kathleen & Davor to move forward with this list of priorities, and stated that if we have other ideas/projects that come up — we can add them in as deemed necessary. City staff will be directed to prioritize and add numbers to the list — so that we can get this information to Kathleen & Davor soon. Short Break for 15 minutes — `off the record'— allowing council and staff to eat dinner. Meeting back `on the record' - Mayor Foster thanked staff for making arrangements for the meal, and he asked the group if this arrangement is ok, then we'll proceed with the same plan for future study session meals. If not, he'd ask the group for suggestions. Councilmember DePinto stated that he'd be willing to 'fore -go' the meal all together. After a brief discussion, it was the consensus of the group to address the meal issue in the next month or so. Page 1 10/26/16 4b. Budget Discussion — Presenter: Noah Crocker, Finance Director Noah explained the budget process and then presented the Preliminary 2017 Budget via a PowerPoint presentation. The presentation included discussion on the following budget items: • General Fund Projected Revenue & 2017 Revenue Forecast 0 Property Tax Revenue Trendline & Sales & Use Tax Revenue Trendline • Business & Occupation Tax Trendline & General Fund Major Revenue Sources • General Fund Projected Expenditures & General Fund Budget Summary • City of Yelm Debts/General Obligation Debt, Water & Sewer Obligations • Capital Expenditures & Water Operating Fund Projections • Water Fund Operating Expenditures & Water Capital Funds • Sewer Fund Projections, Sewer Operating Fund & Sewer Capital Fund • 2017 Projects 5. Mayor's Report • Mayor Foster attended the 'International Association of Shopping Centers" meeting/conference in Tukwila last night. He thanked Grant Beck for creating the "Yelm hand-outs" that he took with him to the meeting — where there were 18 other cities also in attendance. Mayor Foster feels confident that we could see bigger businesses coming to Yelm in the future. • Mayor Foster reported that they concluded union negotiations today with the Admin./Clerical staff. Next week, he will begin the union negotiation process for a new contract/agreement with the Public Works Union group. • Mayor Foster received a call from Bill McDonald from the Prothman Company. He will be meeting with Bill tomorrow to go over the new list of applicants for the City Administrator position, hopefully narrowing it down to three applicants for final interviews, We're hoping to schedule this next round of final interviews for November 16th. Discussion followed. • Mayor Foster recently spoke with Carmen Ottley- who runs the "Truly Motivational Living Houses" which are located on the outskirts of Yelm, down Bald Hill Rd — near the Four Corners area. He said it's an exceptional organization which provides transitional living for people who've been through tough times in their lives — helps them get back into their community etc... Ms. Ottley talked with him about an issue the residents face during this transitional living period of time — which is, many of them don't have their drivers licenses — and one of the current Yelm Intercity Transit (I.T.) bus routes — only goes as far as Creek Street. Mayor Foster asked Councilmember Carmody if she could ask I.T. what it would take to extend the '94 line' bus route out to the Four Corners area? Discussion followed. Councilmember Carmody asked for the address and contact information for Ms. Ottley — and she will find out more information from I.T. Council Initiatives • Councilmember's Stillwell and DePinto talked about Cynthia Schmier attending the city council meeting last night — addressing the city council on behalf of the Yelm Business Association (YBA). She talked about naming the community center after the Wolf family. There was discussion about the process of naming a city facility, park, etc... Mayor Foster handed out a document which talks about "Memorializing" a public facility. More discussion followed about the current process. Mayor Foster suggested the city council and staff refer the current request from the YBA to one of our current committees (i.e. the Yelm Historic Commission) — or we create an "Adhoc" committee for this purpose - to talk about the request, and follow the city's current policy and maybe make a recommendation to the city council. Councilmember Carmody suggested (per the current policy) that we appoint the Historic Commission to initiate the process of gathering public input on ideas for names of the community center, and then proceed from there. Grant Beck stated a different committee than the Historic Commission would be better at this time, because the Historic Commission is not currently scheduled to meet for a while - due to current city staffing issues. Grant suggested the Community Development Committee with maybe a couple members from the Historic Commission joining this group for this purpose. Councilmember DePinto would like to see a response to the YBA's original request. Mayor Foster agreed and after more discussion, stated it is the consensus of the group to proceed with Page 2 10/26/16 the suggested Adhoc committee — and direct staff (Grant Beck, Comm. Dev. Director) to engage this committee with the request and make a recommendation to the city council based on their findings. Councilmember DePinto stated for the record, he supports the YBA's letter and their request, and he doesn't support the way the city council is moving forward on this issue. Councilmember Hendrickson asked how someone finds out who the members of the YBA are. He said it doesn't show on the YBA website who the members are. Councilmember Carmody stated the YBA would have to be contacted directly, she isn't a member of the YBA — but she could find out who the contact person is — and she will email that information to Councilmember Hendrickson. Councilmember Carmody asked about the study session schedule for November. Mayor Foster said that there was a discussion about this — and it was decided to move the November study session up one week — to Weds., November 16th — instead of having it the night before the Thanksgiving holiday. Councilmember DePinto said that Councilmember Carmody asked the status on the YMCA last night. He contacted the YMCA today — and they are in the process of doing their studies and surveys. The YMCA is working towards having numbers and information from the surveys and studies by the end of November — and they are hoping to be able to make their decisions from this compiled information. Discussion about upcoming public forum/town hall meeting on Friday, November 4th. Mayor Foster explained the agenda and process of the meeting on Nov. 4th. There was discussion about the format of this meeting. Adjourn: 7:45 p.m. - J\/V Foster, Mayor Page 3 10/26/16 Attest ori Mossman, City Clerk