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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommittee of the Whole February 26 2008WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL Committee Of The Whole February 26, 2008 Council Chair Carl Weimer called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. in the Council Conference Room, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington. Present: Absent: Barbara Brenner None Bob Kelly Sam Crawford Seth Fleetwood Laurie Caskey- Schreiber L. Ward Nelson 1. DISCUSSION REGARDING WORK ASSIGNMENT PROPOSALS FOR THE COUNCIL'S PLANNING AND POLICY ANALYST (AS2008 -059) Caskey- Schreiber stated Ms. Craven can go through the Planning Department work plan, received at today's Planning and Development Committee (on file). Look for items on the work plan that she could do in few hours. Brenner stated that would be wonderful. Kelly asked how they deal with programmatic things like the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) things that only the Planning staff can do. Rebecca Craven, Council Policy Analyst, stated SEPA duties can be delegated by the Department Head. Caskey- Schreiber stated councilmembers have done their own SEPA checklists. Craven stated staff will then write the determination of non - significance (DNS). Nelson stated that many of the items on the list only need the SEPA review, which can be done in a couple of hours. Craven stated there is a staffing question. Currently, SEPA Official Martin Blackman is being transferred to the Natural Resources Division and away from the SEPA duties, leaving the SEPA staff position undecided. Some of the items on the work plan that would be easy to do. Weimer stated councilmembers have asked Mr. Stalheim to explain how he came up with the required staff hours for certain work plan items. Craven stated the estimated staff hours are estimates. There may be items on the plan that underestimate the staff time needed. Weimer stated he would like Ms. Craven to go through the items and provide her perspective on required staff time. He would like to know if there's a way to streamline the process for the easy items. Craven stated that may be possible. Also, if she were to prepare staff reports for some of the items, it should be taken to the Planning Department first. It would be awkward for her to take items to the Planning Commission without staff review. She will work through some of those issues. Committee of the Whole, 2/26/2008, Page 1 She also has questions about the Planning Department organizational chart and tracking the staff positions. It seems there are fewer staff positions on the organizational chart than there used to be. She wants to be able to follow the number of vacancies and staff so the Council has an honest assessment of the shortfall. Weimer stated the Planning Director said they would shift from Senior Planners to Planners I and II. Fleetwood stated Ms. Craven could be the contact for who gathers the information from the Planning staff on why all these things take so long. He suspects there are many procedural steps that the councilmembers haven't considered. He suspects they've overstated the required staff time on a lot of the items, but he also agrees that the councilmembers don't understand all of it. There is a lot of work to do. There are more work projects than there are resources to get them done. He asked if the Council agrees with that general statement. Caskey- Schreiber stated she agrees. However, some of the little things on the work plan can be done easily. Crawford stated changing the subdivision code is a fairly simple process. Changing Title 20 is extremely complicated. Everything affects everything else. They can't change something in one zone without considering how it will affect other zones. Brenner stated that would be true in a perfect world. This Planning Department has such a turnover that no one will be there for any length of time. They won't have any institutional memory. Non - controversial items should be done on a different track from the big, controversial items. The Council budgeted for more than the number of positions listened. Crawford stated the Planning Department has over 70 employees. The 13.5 full - time equivalent (FTE) employees shown on the handout is for the long -range planning. Brenner stated the Council budgeted for more FTE's than shown, for long -range planning. Things keep changing from what the Council approves. Weimer stated Ms. Craven wants to track the flow of FfE's from a few years ago to now. Kelly stated this Council has asked very clear questions, but staff hasn't been willing to bring back clear answers. They need to know what they don't know, and if the issue is as simple as it appears to be. The Council needs to empower Ms. Craven to get the answers to the councilmembers' questions. They can't get those answers during committee meetings. Getting those answers would allow the Council to make informed decisions, rather than playing a cat - and -mouse game. Weimer stated that if a simple work plan item really does take 200 hours, the Council will need to find out why it takes 200 hours and whether they can streamline the process. Caskey- Schreiber stated she feels like the Planning management just repackaged Linda Peterson's information, which she presented in August. They have done nothing this entire year. There have been no Planning Commission meetings or any work done. Committee of the Whole, 2/26/2008, Page 2 Kelly asked if prioritizing the list is a policy question. The staff prioritized the list. He asked what criteria were used. Staff now wants the councilmembers to prioritize what they've prioritized, with no criteria. Weimer stated the criteria were whether the tasks were core functions or legally required. They didn't define what the core functions are. Caskey- Schreiber stated she would like to hear an attorney's interpretation of how Mr. Stalheim views the docketing process and annual review of Comprehensive Plan amendments. She was blown away that he said they don't have to do anything timely. Kelly asked if the Council could theoretically decide that the least important item on the list is really the most important item on the list. He doesn't advocate that the Council does that, but it's an example. He asked the response the Council would get. Crawford stated the Planning staff would love for the Council to do that. Brenner stated the State has a draft low- impact development (LID) ordinance. An engineer from Whatcom County was part of the process to develop that draft LID ordinance. The Council can adopt it by reference. She asked how that would require an intricate SEPA review. The State already gave the ordinance its blessing. Craven stated she understands that Planning staff just decided what priorities are most important, without any criteria. The department would be open to reprioritizing. However, if something goes above the line, then something else will have to fall below the line. Because of the number of vacancies, what the staff can get done this year is a vast over - estimation. The Natural Resources Division is in reasonably good shape. The Long - Range Planning Division and Permit Division are decimated. Even if they got the number of bodies they need next week, it will be awhile before they're fully functioning. Crawford stated the County has lost two more planners recently. Caskey- Schreiber stated the Council should be talking to the administration about how to stem the flow of people leaving. Crawford stated he's talked to the administration recently. Roland Middleton transferred to the Public Works Department. He's not sure Mr. Stalheim recognizes what a resource the County has in Mr. Middleton, who can cite Titles 20 and 21 without looking at it. He can fill a lot of these gaps, but his duties have been reassigned. Caskey- Schreiber stated she's shocked that they've moved Cathy Craver to the Natural Resources Division. Crawford stated she's still within the Planning Department, and is good at natural resources. Craven stated Ms. Craver will do many of the same things. Weimer stated the Council concurs that Ms. Craven will review the draft Assessment of Resources and Priorities to Address the Whatcom County Long -Range Planning Work Program for concerns and questions. The Council concurred. Committee of the Whole, 2/26/2008, Page 3 Craven asked the deadline and to which Council body she should report. Weimer stated she should report to the Committee of the Whole. Caskey- Schreiber stated schedule this item in a Committee of the Whole meeting before the Planning Committee on March 11. Craven stated she will have a review started by March 11, but won't have all the answers. As she's been working on the comprehensive water resources integration project (CWRIP), she's reviewed all the resolutions and ordinances dealing with the Flood Control Zone District, and its relationship with the County, sub - zones, and advisory committee. A substantial amount of clean -up is needed to clarify the relationship between the district and the County. She would like to clean that up in a resolution and interlocal agreement. Weimer stated that issue came up at a recent Birch Bay meeting. He agrees that the relationship needs to be cleared up. The Council concurred. Crawford stated be careful to keep the continuity of Ms. Craven's work plan. He hopes that they can come out of this process feeling like the County Council and administration expectations are more equal. This has been an issue for more than a year. It's a critical issue. That issue should stay a high priority. Nelson stated Ms. Craven would also review the flood sub -zone relationships with the County and the Flood District. Weimer moved to have Ms. Craven review the draft Assessment of Resources and Priorities to Address the Whatcom County Long -Range Planning Work Program for concerns and questions, clarify the relationship between the Flood District and the County through a resolution and interlocal agreement, and review the flood sub -zone relationships with the County and the Flood District. Motion carried unanimously. 2. ORDINANCE AMENDING WCC 20.92, REGARDING WRITTEN ARGUMENT, ORAL ARGUMENT, TIME EXTENSION, AND TRANSCRIPTS FOR APPEALS TO COUNTY COUNCIL (AB2008 -060) Karen Frakes, Prosecutor's Office, stated the ordinance amends parts of Whatcom County Code 20.92. Nelson stated the Council Chair should have full authority. Frakes stated the Chair still has full authority. There are changes to the Council procedure on appeals from the Hearing Examiner. The Council became frustrated by the request for oral argument. That was removed from the provisions. Council staff also cleared up other sections that have been confusing. The proposed changes comport with the way they do things now. On the request for extensions, the change provides the other side an opportunity to respond before the Chair makes the decision, which makes the procedure fairer. The Chair still makes the decision. Brenner stated the full Council should decide. Frakes stated that isn't a legal issue. The Council can decide what it wants to do. Committee of the Whole, 2/26/2008, Page 4 1 2 Weimer stated he doesn't know of anyone who was turned down for an extension. 3 Frakes stated they don't get that many requests. Occasionally, people use that procedure 4 to stall things. Also, the Growth Management Hearings Board recently granted her motion 5 to dismiss the Concrete Nor'West rezone request. That's one fewer Growth Management 6 Hearings Board case they have to deal with. The neighbors and City of Nooksack are 7 thrilled. 8 9 10 OTHER BUSINESS 11 12 ADJOURN 13 14 The meeting adjourned at approximately 7:00 p.m. 15 16 17 18 Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription 19 20 `���AL 0 lee% proved these minutes on March 11 , 2008. 21 ���� 1 , ..11..•0 ���ii 22 A,HAI' '�/t/ 4. WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL 23 O •'F cb�• C�'' WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON 24 = V OOUNTY 9, •• =_ 25 26 — �' •� 27 28 D`iia Blown- fDd`vis, Council Clerk Carl Weimer, Council Chair Committee of the Whole, 2/26/2008, Page 5