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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-07-08 Finance and Safety Minutes City of Tukwila Finance and Safety Committee FINANCE AND SAFETY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes July 8 , 201 4 5: 30 p.m .; Hazelnut Conference Room PRESENT Councilmembers: Verna Seal , Chair ; Joe Duffie, Kathy Hougardy Staff: Derek Speck, Joyce Trantina, Vicky Carlsen, Eric Drever , Bob Giberson, Laurel Humphrey Guests: Omar Lee, Christine Lee, and Matthew Chan, Washington Place C ALL TO ORDER : Committee Chair Seal called the meeting to order at 5: 3 0 p.m. I. PRESENTATIONS No presentations. II. BUSINESS AGENDA A. Purchase of Replacement Major Crimes Vehicle Staff is seeking Committee approval to purchase a Ford Taurus in the amount of $26,497.82 for the Major Crimes Division using surplus funds. Due to a significant cost savings in the replacement of the Jail Transport Van, the 2014 Police fleet replacement budget has a surplus of $79,696.58 , so funds are available to accelerate the replacement of one of the Ma jor Crimes vehicles, six of which will be approaching or surpassing their 100,000 mile replacement criteria UNANIMOUS APPROVAL. in the 2015 - 2016 budget cycle . B. Resolution: Authorizing Issuance of Checks Before Council Action Staff is seeking Council a pproval of a resolution that w ould allow the City to occasionally issue checks before the Council has taken action to approve those claims. The City currently pays claims twice a month, immediately after Regular Meetings. Occasionally issues arise that re sult in invoices being paid late. In addition, the City receives a large rebate for timely payment to US Bank for the PCard program. RCW 42.24.180 allows taxing districts, including Cities, to issue checks prior to legislative approval if certain conditio ns are met. If this proposal is approved, the City Council will continue to retain full authority for review and approval. If a claim is disapproved by Council, it will be recognized as a receivable to the City and collection will be pursued until funds a re recovered or the Council approves the claim. Committee members asked clarifying questions and asked that the voucher review form be revised to include a mechanism to alert them to which claims have already been paid under this practice. Staff agreed to revise the UNANIMOUS APPROVAL. FORWARD TO JULY 14, 2014 COMMITTEE OF THE document. WHOLE. C. Discussion of Options for Washington Place Fees Staff provided a briefing to the Committee regarding a request from Omar and Christine Lee that the City reduce or defer fees and taxes for their mixed - use development project at 223 Andover Park East known as Washington Place. Because financing for this $ 100 million project is challenging, and the Lees are looking at ways to address an $18 million budget deficit, they have requested the City examine any possibility for reduction or deferral in taxes and/or fees to ensure funding success. The Lees plan to u se the Federal foreign investor program (EB - 5) to provide at least $50 million of the project funding, and given the repayment schedule they would arrange with those investors, they believe they would have greater ability to pay the City s tarting five year s following receipt of the certificate of occupancy. Finance & Safety Committee Minutes July 8, 2014 Page 2 building permit fees and development impact fees for this project are estimated to be $1,792,000 (based on 189 hotel rooms and 370 apartments), $251,000 of which is du e at the time of permit application and $1,541,000 due at the time of permit issuance. T he Lees have requested that the City limit the development permit fees to $600,000.00, reduce the development impact fees to the extent possible, defer those fees for payment in years 5 - 8 after receiving the certificate of occupancy, and receive approval for an eight - year multi - family property tax exemption. City staff agreed to evaluate the request s and contracted Heartland LLC to provide a third - party market - based perspective of The Heartland analysis deems the project financially reasonable only as a result of the EB - tors but also indicates building permit and development impact fees are not normally responsible for project feasibility or infeasibility. Staff requested that the Committee discuss the proposal and consider whether or not there is merit i n moving it forward to the Committee of the Whole for further review. The Council may ultimately opt to do nothing, grant a multi - family tax exemption program, defer building, permit or traffic, fire, and park impact fees, or reduce permit or impact fees. Multi - family tax exemptions are common and there is staff support for such a program being applied to a limited region in the Tukwila Urban Center core . Deferral of permit fees or impact fees is also something other Cities have granted. Reduction of fe es would be challenging and requires more research, which staff will provide if there is Council direction to do so. innovative development while also ensuring . It is important to note that there is no precedent in Tukwila for reduction or deferral of fees, and any consideration to do so much be carefully considered. Staff is prepared to complete its research and make a recommendati on in August, but believes Council discussion will guide the remaining research. To aid in the Committee discussion, staff prepared and reviewed a document outlining a scenario for deferral of traffic, fire, and parks impact fees and a multifamily proper ty tax exemption for 8 years. Committee members asked clarifying questions and requested to hear from Mr. and Mrs. Lee and Mr. Chang, who each spoke to the difficulties in financing great value as a pioneering development. Mrs. L ee raised the concern that impact fees are charged per unit rather than per square foot which is a disadvantage for a project such as Washington Place, which includes studios and one - bedrooms alongside larger units. The Committee agreed to forward this ite m to the Committee of the Whole for further discussion, and requested that staff clearly outline the options discussed. In addition, Committee Chair NO RECOMMENDATION. Seal asked that the Heartland report be provided to Council . FORWARD TO JULY 14, 2014 C OMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FOR DISCUSSION. D. Resolution: City of Opportunity Scholarship procedures in response to lessons learned during the inaugural 2014 process. The Committee reviewed and discussed the proposal at its June 3 and June 17 meetings , most recently requesting the following two changes: Include a request for the applicant to provide a written statement that describes his or her financial need; Add a procedure that prohibits an employee or elected official on the selection panel from scoring a candidate to whom they are related. Finance & Safety Committee Minutes July 8, 2014 Page 3 Staff incorporated these changes and the Comm ittee was in favor of forwarding the resolution to the Committee of the Whole with these revisions as well as the previously approved UNANIMOUS revisions to make - up and size of the selection committee and award amounts. APPROVAL. FORWARD TO JULY 14, 2014 C OMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. (Note: this item will be forwarded to the July 28, 2014 Committee of the Whole due to staff availability.) E. Ordinance: Creating Tuk wila Municipal Code Chapter 2.97 Code of Ethics Several iterations of a process to address allegations of ethics violations by elected officials have been discussed in Committee since 2013. At its June 3 meeting, the Committee decided to move forward with the creation of an Ethics Board made up of the Chairs designee . They decided to retain the current Ethics Code (Chapter 2.95) to apply to City employees and appointed officials, and asked to create a new Chapter applicable to elected officials. At its June 19 meeting, the Committee decided that the role of the Ethics Board would be to make an initial determination of sufficiency, and upon receipt of findings of fact by an independent investigator, determine whether or not the violation occurred and the n draft a recommendation to the Council. At that meeting, the Committee discussed legal counsel to the Ethics Board and requested that if independent counsel is brought in to serve in this role, that the ordinance reflect specific qualifications for that i ndividual. process, the Board may seek legal advice from the City Attorney or independent legal counsel as assigned by the City Attorney. Assigned independent legal counsel shall have a recommendation and supported moving the proposed ordinances forward with that change and other amendments previously approved. It is expected that the Committee of the Whole UNANIMOUS APPROVAL. FORWARD TO JULY 28, 2014 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. III. MISCELLANEOUS Councilmember Hougardy noted that she has recently inquired about Councilmember . C urrently, Councilmembers must request reimbursement for expenses or request that the Council Analyst handle all pre - authorizations for travel - related expenses. The other Committee members were supportive of pursuing this and Staff will start reviewing the request. Meeting adjourned at 7:09 p.m. Next meeting: Tuesday, July 22 , 2014 5:30 p.m. Hazelnut Conference Room Committee Chair Approval Minutes by LH , Reviewed by DS