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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFinance November 25 2008I WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL 2 Finance and Administrative Services Committee 3 4 November 25, 2008 5 6 Committee Chair L. Ward Nelson called the meeting to order at 11:00 a.m. in the 7 Council Chambers, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington. 8 9 Present: Absent: 10 Sam Crawford None 11 Bob Kelly 12 13 Also Present: 14 Carl Weimer 15 Barbara Brenner 16 Seth Fleetwood 17 Laurie Caskey- Schreiber 18 19 20 COMMITTEE DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL 21 22 1. ORDINANCE ADOPTING 2008 BUDGET SUPPLEMENTAL REQUEST #12 IN THE 23 AMOUNT OF $22,130 (AB2008 -391) 24 25 Kelly moved to recommend approval to the full Council. 26 27 Motion carried unanimously. 28 29 2. REQUEST APPROVAL FOR THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE TO ENTER INTO A 30 CONTRACT BETWEEN WHATCOM COUNTY AND CH2M HILL FOR TECHNICAL 31 SUPPORT TO ESTABLISH A FUNDING MECHANISM FOR COMPLIANCE WITH 32 STORMWATER REQUIREMENTS IN THE AMOUNT OF $79,734.79 (AB2008- 33 395) 34 35 Kelly moved to recommend approval to the full Council. 36 37 Nelson asked to incorporate an evaluation of impacts to County government staff 38 work load and impacts to community in terms of completing projects. 39 40 Kirk Christensen, Public Works Department, stated they have to bring in staffing as 41 funding becomes available. The stormwater plan includes staffing needs. 42 43 Nelson stated they have many programs, and they must evaluate program 44 administrative impacts to County government. 45 46 John Hutchings, Public Works Department, stated the first activity in this contract 47 would be to establish a six -year budget for a stormwater utility, including costs of 48 implementing things such as staff time necessary. It will also includes costs of establishing 49 and operating the utility itself. There will be costs associated with things like billing. 50 51 Nelson stated that information isn't in the deliverables. Christensen stated where 52 various costs are included in the contract. 53 Finance and Administrative Services Committee, 11/25/2008, Page 1 Hutchings stated they want a comprehensive look at what would be accomplished with a stormwater utility and ensure it's consistent with expectations and requirements. That would include the cost of administering the program. Nelson stated that once the utility is established and running, they will have the taxing revenues. Before that, there are costs associated with engineering and right -of -way purchases. Christensen stated item four in the contract addresses those tasks. Nelson asked if the program would pay for those operation costs. Christensen stated it would. Nelson asked if they can pay for all the costs for preliminary work without increasing staff or adding any other work. Hutchings stated they will maximize resources to accomplish this. They will best -use the County's in -house resources to get the information they need to make a decision. Staff will do most of the groundwork in -house and will get professional assistance on only those activities for which they don't have the capacity or expertise or to get a second opinion. Brenner stated they don't need a consultant to do this. The Public Works Department staff should do this. Every time there is a problem, they blame it on the consultant. Do this in- house. Christensen stated they don't have the resources or financial experience to lay out a six -year financial plan or develop a stormwater utility. They must have someone with experience to make it successful. He doesn't have the staff to do this right now. Brenner stated they can use a plan that's already been done elsewhere. Christensen stated this is a very complicated situation with the watershed and urban growth areas (UGA's). Crawford asked about task five. He asked if they did that already for Birch Bay. Christensen stated all the work they did in Birch Bay will help. This has more complications. It may not be done exactly the same. Crawford asked if they are layering another stormwater utility on top of the one they already have. Christensen stated it does not. It will work with the existing utility. Fleetwood stated the Council already budgeted this for 2008. Now they're just authorizing the contract. He's thrilled about this. This was envisioned for many years. It is extremely complicated and requires expertise they don't have on staff. He asked if the final deliverable will come forward June 2009. Christensen stated they will. Kelly asked if this is consistent with Council direction given during a surface water work session. Christensen stated it is. Brenner stated it doesn't matter if it's consistent. They already did Birch Bay. She disagrees that they have to reinvent the wheel. They ought to use the existing Birch Bay plan as a template for now, and fine -tune it as they work on it in- house. Nelson stated they should have a prioritization based upon the County's needs that they can use during the budget process. Finance and Administrative Services Committee, 11/25/2008, Page 2 Motion carried unanimously. Brenner asked if these water utility districts are based on the watersheds. Christensen stated this one is a combination of the watershed, the census area, and the urban area. It combines the total maximum daily load (TMDL) area, the national pollutant discharge elimination system ( NPDES) phase two area, and the Lake Whatcom watershed. Brenner stated they have talked for years about the water utility districts being based on watersheds. She asked if that's changed. Christensen stated that was the plan when Bruce Roll was with the County. Now, they've reconsidered and changed their approach. They are heading toward a stormwater utility approach that includes the developed areas and watersheds. Brenner asked if everyone in the county will eventually be in a water utility district. Christensen stated it depends on how the Department of Ecology (DOE) moves forward with NPDES phase two. Hutchings stated they are still considering the best assessment boundaries. No decisions have been made about those boundaries. There are two things relative to stormwater management in the urban unincorporated areas that the County will have to pay for. Those are stormwater management under the NPDES permit and stormwater management in the Lake Whatcom watershed area pursuant to the TMDL study. Those two things have to be paid for one way or another. The question is how they should be paid for. The Council decided that the local benefit accrues to the folks inside those TMDL and NPDES boundaries, and they should initially pursue those options. Brenner stated stormwater occurs within a watershed. Hutchings stated this contract will uncover that information and present it to the Council. They will continue to have this discussion in the work session. Kelly stated they are not going to charge people twice if they are already paying a stormwater fee and they live in a city, so that means those in the UGA's will primarily benefit. 3. REQUEST APPROVAL FOR THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE TO ENTER INTO A CONTRACT AMENDMENT BETWEEN WHATCOM COUNTY AND WILSON ENGINEERING FOR THE ACME EARLY CHINOOK RESTORATION PROJECT IN THE AMENDMENT AMOUNT OF $40,000 (AB2008 -396) Crawford moved to recommend approval to the full Council. Motion carried unanimously. OTHER BUSINESS DISCUSSION REGARDING THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE 2009/2010 BUDGET (AB2008- 227E) Bill Elfo, Sheriff, stated, that .8 percent totals about $200,000 per year from the jail fund. There is no room to cut anything other than direct services. He reviewed the planned revenue, and they discovered that they underestimated revenue by about $250,000 per year from the various revenue sources, including jail fees, commissary, grants, and other Finance and Administrative Services Committee, 11/25/2008, Page 3 sources. Reconsider the .8 percent reduction and restore the .5 full -time equivalent (FTE) drug task force support staff to one FTE in the amount of $20,000. Crawford moved to request that the revenue shift as presented be prepared before the evening meeting. Motion carried unanimously. Crawford asked about delaying the Parks Department move to the Roeder Home. Dewey Desler, Deputy Administrator, stated the idea is to create a task force to develop a plan to more - effectively use the Roeder Home based on comments from the public. The task force will provide a report to the Council by the Council's last meeting in April. The County included six -month bridge funding for 2009. Crawford stated the task force must address how to best deal with the cut, and not try to get the money back. Desler stated that is correct. The task force may be able to identify additional revenue or accomplish their objectives by re- invigorating volunteer efforts. They won't need to make any change to the County budget to implement this plan. Brenner asked if it costs $300 per person who is signed up for a class. Desler stated the County employs two staff for the program. The expenses for the facility also include maintenance. The cost for those two staff is about $153,000 per year. They can operate the facility with other staff, without the benefit of those two positions. That cost of $153,000 will be focused on organizing classes and other events. Divide the cost of $153,000 by the 500 people who take the classes. That equals a total of about $300,per person. Fleetwood stated a reason for this plan is to allow citizens the opportunity to consider alternative future uses. It also gives the City a chance to take a position. Crawford stated the net effect of the change is to reduce the Parks Department budget by $153,000. The net effect of the public's use of the Roeder Home is elimination of the arts program classes. About 500 people have taken those classes. However, they must incorporate a bunch of other costs into the equation. The idea is to make the change as transparent as possible, with one exception. It is clearly a cut of the classes. The planned cut is simply to say that 500 beneficiaries will no longer have those classes. They are no longer going to attempt to make that up. If anyone chooses to not look at it this way, it's inconsequential. He asked if the City is interested in paying for some of the cost. Fleetwood stated that is one of the many options the task force will explore. Caskey- Schreiber stated the task force should investigate any hybrid option. She's concerned about the rate to which the County has subsidized the program. Crawford stated that most information he's received from the public was about how the County should continue making the Roeder Home available to the public. Almost no information has been specifically about the classes. Parks Director McFarland has been clear in that the Roeder Home will still be available to public use. Caskey- Schreiber stated she agreed with Councilmember Crawford. She hopes the accurate word will get out to the public. Most people are complaining about the Roeder Home not being available to the public. That's not the reality. Finance and Administrative Services Committee, 11/25/2008, Page 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (Clerk's Note: End of tape one, side A.) Fleetwood stated the proposal will give people an opportunity to envision a better future use of the Roeder Home. That's the primary reason he's supporting this plan. They may still decide to use the second floor for department staff offices. Crawford stated he has no problem with that. Make sure that the budget they pass has a $153,000 reduction. It does, and he is happy with that. He encourages these task force meetings to go forward, at no cost to the County, and discuss possible future uses. Kelly stated the task force wants the opportunity to make those programs better. They want to look at programs that will better - generate revenue to augment the cost of the program. They don't want the program to die. They want to rejuvenate the program. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 11:53 a.m. Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription XIII iiii►► //// ATT� H A TC • �fi '�. COUNTY Daita BrftA/n 0�1�-tiun ci�Clerk WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON Finance and Administrative Services Committee, 11/25/2008, Page 5