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HomeMy WebLinkAbout121211 CITY OF PORT TOWNSEND MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL BUSINESS MEETING OF DECEMBER 12, 2011 CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The Port Townsend City Council met in special session the twelfth day of December 2011, in the City Council Chambers at 540 Water Street. The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m., Mayor Michelle Sandoval presiding. ROLL CALL Councilmembers present at roll call were David King, Laurie Medlicott, Kris Nelson, George Randels, Catharine Robinson, Michelle Sandoval, and Mark Welch. Staff members present were City Manager David Timmons, City Attorney John Watts, Finance Director Michael Legarsky, Public Works Director Ken Clow, City Clerk Pam Kolacy, and Development Services Director Rick Sepler. CHANGES TO THE AGENDA Mayor Sandoval stated that an executive session would be held at the end of the meeting to discuss a personnel evaluation. The session is expected to last 30 minutes with no action following. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Bob Gray advocated the City providing more Christmas lights for town as a way to encourage tourism and shopping activity. CONSENT AGENDA Mr. King asked for clarification that regarding Item C (Downtown Tunnel Lid project), the resolution refers to the advertisement for the bid but the Council reserves the right to award the contract. Mr. Timmons confirmed this is correct. Approval of Bills, Claims and Warrants Voucher 116379 in the amount of$744.93 Resolution 11-040, authorizing the City Manager to execute an agreement with the Teamsters Local No. 589 (representing General Government Employees) to modify and extend for 2012 the 2011 Agreement Resolution 11-042, authorizing the City Manager to include supplemental items in the advertisement of the bid for the construction of the Downtown Tunnel Lid replacement project City Council Special Business Meeting December 12,2011 Page 1 of 6 Motion: George Randels moved to approve the consent agenda. David King seconded. Vote: motion carried unanimously, 7-0 by voice vote. OLD BUSINESS Ordinance 3069, Adopting the Budget for the City of Port Townsend, Washington, for the Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2012 Staff presentation Public comment Council deliberation and action Mr. Timmons stated he has talked with individual Council members about their budget questions in the past week and just a few issues remain outstanding. These include expenses for the pool in 2012, adjustments affecting reserves and the effect on fund balances if certain placeholders are inserted. Mr. Timmons suggested that the Council go forward with adoption of the budget this evening and staff will return on December 19 with a resolution addressing particular outstanding items. He agrees that an executive summary of the budget document would be desirable. Mr. Timmons suggested that in 2012, the Finance Committee be assembled as a committee of the whole monthly or semi-monthly to discuss budget issues, including capital project initiatives. Discussion followed and members were generally in favor, although the value of continuing to have a standing three member Finance Committee for some issues was noted. Mr. Timmons listed the budget issues which will be addressed in a budget policy resolution: 1) reconciling the Equipment Rental Revolving (ERR) Fund as a priority item; 2) developing a financing plan and alternatives for the pool; 3) need for an executive summary of the budget document; 4) details of capital financing, particularly projects related to water and sewer utilities; 5) repair and maintenance accounts - whether to budget in anticipation of expenses or use the supplemental approach if expenditures are needed; 6) provide detailed line items for Lodging Tax expenses. It was suggested that a reckoning of all capital project grants is desirable because often the payments are not on a calendar year schedule. Other topics added during discussion included a footnote to explain why year end balance for one year does not match beginning balance for the next year, details on Mountain View expenses and revenues, need for a community conversation about funding for the annual fireworks display, addressing the perceived shortfall in fire funding, and a better explanation of interfund transfers. Public Comment City Council Special Business Meeting December 12,2011 Page 2 of 6 There was no public comment. Consensus was that approving the budget ordinance now makes sense so that the numbers will be fixed; more last minute adjustments simply defer adoption. Mr. King requested that every document produced for Council review have a date and page numbers. Ms. Nelson stated she is approving the budget with clear knowledge that it is important that the accompanying budget policy resolution will be presented for discussion and adoption at the next meeting. Motion: David King moved to approve Ordinance 3069, Adopting the Budget for the City of Port Townsend, Washington, for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2012. George Randels seconded. Vote: motion carried unanimously, 7-0 by voice vote. Motion: David King moved to ask the City Manager to bring back to Council for consideration on the 19th a resolution outlining the financial and budget issues identified during this budget discussion this year to consider in 2012. Kris Nelson seconded. Vote: motion carried unanimously, 7-0 by voice vote. NEW BUSINESS Resolution 11-041, updating and providing for Public Works Department and Development Services Department Land Development Permit Application and Appeal Fees, and updating and providing for Pool Fees Staff presentation Public comment Council deliberation and action Development Services Department Director Rick Sepler reviewed the packet materials and noted that a new table (Exhibit B) has been prepared with better formatting and some minor scrivener's errors corrected. The proposed action is to update the fee schedule established November 15, 2010, and affects land use and pool fees. Regarding land use fees, the intent is to allow the Development Services Department to recover the actual costs incurred in reviewing applications for a variety of permits and review processes. To this date a number of fees were flat fees but the exceptions were very costly. Several years of land use fees were reviewed to develop the standard for new fees. Research was also done on other jurisdictions and indicates that Port Townsend's $50/hour charge is less than most other jurisdictions. Mr. Randels asked if a sliding scale has been considered for design review fees (lines City Council Special Business Meeting December 12,2011 Page 3 of 6 32 and 33, Exhibit B) as the Track 2 multi-family design review fee appears to be 20 times greater than the Track 1 fee. He asked if this means a six unit project would cost 20 times more than a five unit project as this seems out of proportion. Mr. Sepler replied this probably relates to the structure as set forth in the municipal code. Staff will provide an explanation. Questions were raised about consistency regarding the hourly rates contained in the fee schedule, specifically that the "base" fee is listed as $50 but some fees are established as $25. Mr. Sepler noted that rates for planner time are twice as much as administrative staff time. Staff will review fee schedule language for clarity and consistency. The Hearing Examiner fees were also questioned as both a fixed cost and an actual cost are indicated. Staff will review. Some discussion ensued about what protection the citizen has if the hourly costs for a permit or review process become very expensive and out of their control. Mr. Sepler noted that applicants can request an estimate and staff will let them know when they are approaching the stated cost. Building in some sort of recourse for an applicant if they feel that development costs are too high would help both citizens and the City. The suggestion was made to offer a credit to the customer so that if a pre-application conference results in a permit application, the permit fee would be offset by a credit based on the fee already paid for the pre-application conference. This might provide incentive to move forward with a permit and also offer some sense of fairness to offset the fact that a fee is now charged for a service that used to be free. The value of pre-application meetings was discussed. The discussion included consideration of the potential effects of making these meetings mandatory. Further discussion took place about estimates. Mr. Sepler stated giving estimates is difficult because new information comes in continuously. He also noted that a small percentage of the DSD permits fall into the discretionary categories, which have the greatest risk of being highly expensive. Public Works Director Ken Clow reviewed the change in pool fees, which provides a different scale for City and out of City residents. Public Comment Bob Gray questioned whether this is a good time to raise fees for pool use. Mr. Randels noted that the discrepancy in fees between city and county residents reflects the fact that city taxpayers are shouldering the entire cost of the pool. Mr. Sepler stated a revised resolution will be presented at the next meeting. Ordinance 3070, amending Section 17.30.050 - Mandatory Design Review of the Port Townsend Municipal Code to add additional categories of minor alterations City Council Special Business Meeting December 12,2011 Page 4 of 6 that would be processed administratively Mr. Sepler reviewed the packet materials. He noted this is a process change in how historic design review of certain minor alterations to structures is handled. The recommended action is to add several categories of minor alterations now requiring design review by the Historic Preservation Committee to the list of those processed administratively by the DSD Director. These tend to be non-controversial and could best be done by staff, saving time for both staff and the HPC. Public comment There was no public comment. Mr. Randels stated that he questions Item 8 where the exception is going from additions of less than 300 square feet to those resulting in a 50% increase in gross square footage. He noted that 50% of a 2500 square foot house is 1250 additional square feet which is significant even if limited to a nonprincipal facade. Ms. Sandoval expressed concerns as well about #7, citing the need to take into consideration the entire landscape of historic homes. She also noted that although there is a high level of confidence in current staff, the regulations will be long standing and should give clear guidance about the intent of the review. Mr. Sepler noted that garages and outbuildings are currently reviewed administratively but that at some point the Council might like to separate out accessory structures. Mr. Watts noted that the Council recently approved revisions to design review that provided specific standards for accessory buildings requiring daylight plane, etc. so there was some response to this concern. Mr. Randels believes deletion of accessory structures from the list makes sense. If HPC becomes burdened with a massive number of non-controversial new accessory structures, the issue could be reviewed again. He believes it makes sense to leave it with HPC for now. Motion: George Randels moved waive Council rules requiring two readings and approve Ordinance 3070, amending Section 17.30.050 - Mandatory Design Review of the Port Townsend Municipal Code to add additional categories of minor alterations that would be processed administratively, changing item 7 to strike the words "or the construction of new accessory structures."Laurie Medlicott seconded. Vote: motion carried unanimously, 7-0 by voice vote. PRESIDING OFFICER REPORT Mayor Sandoval reminded the Council a retreat has been scheduled for January 9. She also asked if there were comments on the proposed process for interviewing potential advisory committee members. Councilors Robinson and Nelson expressed support. Mr. Welch stated he had concerns about having any of the process take place in public. It was agreed to schedule further discussion at the retreat. City Council Special Business Meeting December 12,2011 Page 5 of 6 CITY MANAGER REPORT Mr. Timmons asked that Council members provide any notes for the upcoming retreat to administration staff so an agenda can be prepared. He said a catalog of the outcome of prior council retreats would be distributed. He distributed a visual graphic of revenue to expense for Taylor Street. He noted a letter of support from property owners on Water and Taylor for the sidewalk tunnel project, adding that some property owners have indicated they may be able to work with city to address the funding shortfall if necessary. He noted that Main Street is responsible for Christmas lighting and he doesn't know why the lights are not up this year. SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT OR FUTURE AGENDA, REGULAR MEETING AND/OR STUDY SESSION EXECUTIVE SESSION - PERSONNEL PERFORMANCE REVIEW Mayor Sandoval stated at 8:45 p.m. that the Council would go into executive session regarding a personnel performance review. She indicated the session would take no more than 30 minutes and that no action would be taken after the session. The meeting was reconvened at 9:15 p.m. ADJOURN There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:18 p.m. Attest: �f Pamela Kolacy, MMC City Clerk City Council Special Business Meeting December 12,2011 Page 6 of 6