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HomeMy WebLinkAbout Mayor's Message JuneCity of Port Townsend From Mayor David King - I want to report progress on two of the issues that I wrote about in the February newsletter and touch on one we’re about to take up. The City Library On May 6, after an extensive public process, City Council authorized placing a scaled- back version of the library expansion project on the August ballot. Subsequently, and re- quired by the ballot measure, the City and the Library Foundation reached an agreement to provide funding for the $4.2 million cost if the ballot measure is a success. This is in contrast to the esti- mated $8.2 million cost of the project that we were considering in October of last year. We have scaled the project back by reducing the footprint and eliminating the basement but it still provides for a significant expansion with enough space to leave the top floor of the Carnegie building open as originally designed, provide shelf space for the Library’s current collection, and increased support for the humanities in order to secure the $500,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. If the not-to-exceed $3 million bond is successful, the owner of a $300,000 house would pay an estimated $42 per year in additional property taxes instead of the $88 per year I estimated in February for the larger project. The City is preparing an FAQ for the ballot measure that will be posted on the City website in the next couple of weeks and will be included in the July Utility Newsletter. The ballot measure will require a favorable vote of 60% for passage. Thanks to all who participated in the reconfiguration of this project. Metropolitan Parks District Following up on last year’s recommendation by the Exploratory Regional Parks and Recreation Commit- tee (ERPRC), the City and the County met in February and approved a process to provide recommenda- tions for the creation of a Metropolitan Parks District. In March we jointly created a steering committee to provide guidance and oversight for that process (Resolution 13-006). That steering committee has met several times and has scheduled the first public open house on the subject for June 1 at the Chimacum High School library. Under state law a newly created Metropolitan Park District has the authority to levy up to 75 cents per thousand of assessed value in its district. However the “Guidelines to the Steering Committee,” adopted by the City and the County at the joint meeting on February 11, require that the MPD “Sets a levy rate that protects junior taxing districts from prorationing.” Proration results when the sum of the tax rates of cer- tain districts exceeds the statutory limit of $5.90 per thousand of assessed value. Recent devaluations of assessed values throughout the County have brought us closer to this aggregated statutory limit and the devaluation of City values that will take place in 2014, when we are assessed for the first time in four years, will bring us closer still. Though the City and the County are unable to directly impose a levy limit on a new MPD, it can be limited by the agreements we must reach with the MPD in order for it to acquire or manage properties and programs, and receive any funding, currently under our control. So the effective limit of the initial levy of the newly created MPD is likely to be 30 – 40 cents, or about $125 per year of ad- ditional property tax on a $300,000 home, instead of the $225 figure I used in the February newsletter. The MPD would “bank” the difference between the actual levy and the 75 cent maximum and, if assessed valuations rose, could draw on that capacity without an additional ballot measure, with elected officials that run the MPD answerable to the voters for their decisions. Now for Water This month Council will take up utility rates, primarily water and sewer. An ongoing issue we have been dealing with is that reduced usage through conservation has reduced revenue to the extent that collec- tions based on usage no longer cover the fixed cost of maintaining the systems. This situation is not unique to Port Townsend or to our water system. From solar panels on roofs that reduce the demand for electricity, to Priuses on the highway that pay less in fuel tax for highway maintenance, municipalities eve- rywhere are having to deal with this. (360) 379-5047 (email: citycouncil@cityofpt.us) www.cityofpt.us June 2013 The larger issues for us are the impending capital costs to replace our reservoir, finish the bypass project at City Lake, and install a secondary treatment system as required by the EPA’s Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2). Though generally out of sight, the unique Olympic Gravity Water System (OGWS) is as much a part of the community’s historic legacy as City Hall, the Courthouse or the Bell Tower, and its care is our responsibility. Two picturesque “diversions” on the Big and Little Quilcene rivers in the Olympic Wil- derness provide us with fresh water via a 28.5 mile pipeline. Other than Lords Lake and City Lake, which are owned by the City, 95% of the municipal watershed is in the Olympic National Forest with the remainder in the Olympic National Park. Our water right, established in 1927, allows us to divert water from these streams, and cooperation between the City and Forest Service for protection of the watershed allows us to bring the water here. The OGWS is a surface water system, unlike the PUD which is a ground water system, and we have to modernize it in order to comply with recent regulations. Council has chosen ultraviolet light (UV) treatment as the most cost-effective method to comply with the LT2 requirement to inactivate Crypto- sporidium and other pathogens in the water supply. Details on the EPA LT2 rule can be found here: http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/lt2/index.cfm. We have qualified for loans from the Washington State Public Works Board to assist in financing our utility projects at 0.5% to 1.5% inter- est for the life of the loans. While the City of Portland, at great expense, has received a variance from the LT2 requirement for secondary treatment, the Washington State Department of Health, which ad- ministers the LT2 requirement on behalf of the EPA, does not permit similar treatment exemptions (WAC 246-290-060 - Variances, exemptions, and waivers). As always Council will struggle with providing what is necessary while minimizing the costs and im- pact on ratepayers and taxpayers. The Finance and Budget Committee has already discussed ways to mitigate the impacts of these projects on utility ratepayers. As with the Library and the MPD we will be able to blunt the impacts significantly, but not eliminate them altogether. Looking Forward The library, parks and utilities issues will carry over into the coming year. As will surprise no one who reads these newsletters I favor a moderate approach to dealing with city business. Everyone ap- plauds compromise as a concept but it has few champions on specific issues - no one advocates strongly for less than they want or for higher taxes. City councilors are elected that are believed by the majority of voters to best represent their approach to managing the city. Councils churn through issues, sometimes for years, striving to keep tax dollars working for community wants and needs. When a ballot measure is desirable or required we try to provide a balanced solution, since the vot- ers’ options are limited to a yes or no. The City provides access to all public records. An ever increasing percentage of these records, and the deliberations of council through a video system, are available online. But access to information does not automatically guarantee a deliberative and informed electorate. It is difficult to investigate an issue impartially and one naturally seeks confirmation of a preconceived conclusion or belief when searching online. As the author Nate Silver has written “The instinctual shortcut that we take when we have “too much information” is to engage with it selectively, picking out the parts we like and ignoring the remainder, making allies with those who have made the same choices and enemies of the rest.” Particularly when we are daily deafened by emails from those allies encouraging us to do just that in order to get us to vote or open our wallets, when mostly we just want to get on with our lives. The ten- sion between general elections and day-to-day operations of legislatures is part of the republican (small “r”) form of government guaranteed by Article IV of the Constitution. Governance is analog. Politics is digital. At the national level politics has pretty much displaced governance. I will continue to share facts and sources of facts that I believe are pertinent to the issues we face and hope that in- creased access to information and opportunities to participate will trend to the reverse of that at the local level.