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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-06-10 Special MinutesTUKWILA CITY COUNCIL June 10, 1982 Tukwila City Hall 5:00 P.M. FLAG SALUTE AND CALL TO ORDER ROLL CALL OF COUNCIL MEMBERS APPROVAL OF VOUCHERS Acceptance of Mayor's letter dated June 3, 1982 (intent to retire) 5:10 P.M. to 5:25 P.M. SPECIAL MEETING M I N U T E S SPECIAL MEETING called in accordance with RCW 35A.12.110 to consider the following: (1) Letter dated June 3, 1982 from Frank Todd, Mayor, concerning his intention to retire from public service prior to July 1, 1982. (2) Approval of Vouchers Current Fund Golf Crse. Spec. Rev. Street Fund Federal Shared Rev. Water Fund Sewer Fund LID #30 *MOTION CARRIED. 67,483.05 35,341.00 29,302.61 506.40 21,535.13 20,542.10 88.00 $174,798.29 3 67 Council Chambers Mayor Todd led the Pledge of Allegiance and called the Special Meeting of the Tukwila City Council to order. GEORGE D. HILL, LIONEL C. BOHRER, Council President, MABEL J. HARRIS, DORIS E. PHELPS, JOE H. DUFFIE, EDGAR D. BAUCH. MOVED BY HILL, SECONDED BY DUFFIE, THAT THE AGENDA BE REVERSED TO CONSIDER THE APPROVAL OF VOUCHERS FIRST. MOTION CARRIED. MOVED BY HARRIS, SECONDED BY BAUCH, THAT THE VOUCHERS BE APPROVED AS SUBMITTED.* Claims Fund Vouchers #12129 #12229 Alan Doerschel, Finance Director, noted that there is one voucher that will be included for approximately $1,000 to pay for the Excise Tax. He asked Council for approval to include the voucher. Councilman Harris and Bauch agreed to include it with their motion of approval. Council President Bohrer explained that this meeting was called because of a letter Mayor Todd sent to the Council notifying them of his intent to retire from public service prior to July 1, 1982. A subsequent note set the effective date of retirement as July 15, 1982. After consultation with the City Attorney and attorneys at the Association of Washington Cities, it was their recommendation that, in order to be valid, this resignation must be accepted by the Council. MOVED BY BOHRER, SECONDED BY BAUCH, THAT COUNCIL ACCEPT THE MAYOR'S INTENT TO RETIRE AND THAT IT BE EFFECTIVE AS OF JULY 15, 1982.* Councilman Hill asked Council to consider the fact that only six members are present. He suggested postponing the meeting until seven are present. Councilman Harris agreed that seven members should be present. MOVED BY HARRIS, SECONDED BY DUFFIE, THAT COUNCIL RECESS FOR 15 MINUTES TO ALLOW COUNCILMAN VAN DUSEN TIME TO ARRIVE. MOTION CARRIED. Councilman Van Dusen arrived and Mayor Todd called the Special Meeting back to order with all Council Members present. Councilman Duffie, speaking against the motion, said that the job of Mayor for the City is growing. It should be a full time job. The Mayor is responsible for everything that goes on in the City of Tukwila, and he is trying to run the City part time. He recom- mended that Council reconsider the Mayor's resignation and give him what he wants for the rest of his term. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL, SPECIAL MEETING June 10, 1982 Page 2 Acceptance of Mayor's letter dated June 3, 1982 (intent to retire) Councilman Phelps agreed with Councilman Hill. The last time Council voted on this she voted in favor of a full time Mayor and said it deserves a try for a brief period of time. She said she also favors pursuing the option of a Council- Manager form of government. 3c, $J Councilman Hill said he would like to see somebody at the "helm of this ship" full time. During his first term, we were lucky to have Mayor Todd here 8 hours a day on a part time salary. The next Mayor tried to do this on a part time basis. It inter- fered with his job and finally he retired. I would like to try the full time Mayor on a trial basis for the rest of this year and next year. Then, I would like to give the citizens of Tukwila the opportunity to vote on changing the form of government. We have never paid for a full time Mayor position. It would cost the City approximately $13,000 for the rest of this year to bring the Mayor's salary up equal to the top three Department Heads. This includes all benefits. He recommended turning down the resignation, try a full time Mayor with full time pay to see if it would move the City forward. Then, allow the people to make the decision. The only reason Mayor Todd is retiring is that there are a lot of responsibilities and very little pay. Councilman Bohrer said Council has been through this a number of times. Most of the elected officials go into public service, not on the basis of salary, but rather, they wanted to serve the public. The conditions of the office were fixed at the time of filing for the office. Just prior to filing Council denied a motion to make the office of Mayor full time for the following year. At the last Council Retreat, six members of Council agreed that the subject of change in form of government would be con- sidered sometime in the next eighteen months. The reason for doing it that way was to cause minimum disruption to those people in office. This would also avoid the issues that involve per- sonalities in office. We are, again, being asked to make a decision before we have collected the data and held the discussion. Councilman Phelps said that the change in form of government can still be studied in the interim. Also, what has taken place historically based on personalities is not valid. Councilman Harris noted how she hates hassling over the same thing. It is distasteful to discuss someone's salary -full time, part time job. The position was there at the time of filing for election. Mr. Todd knew it was a part time job. There are only about 6 full time Mayors in the whole state. Tukwila, with 3,500 people, does not need a full time Mayor when other cities with more people and more assessed valuation get by with a part time Mayor. Some of them have a City Manager, but we have an Admini- strative Assistant which should compensate for that. This meeting was to either accept or not accept the Mayor's resignation; he offered it. Are we illegal discussing something that doesn't belong on this agenda. Attorney Carl Carlson said that the Mayor's letter included issues of concern that went beyond simply the fact of the retirement or resignation. It gave reasons and expressed an interest in Council changing the method of compensating the Mayor in the future. It did not explicitly ask that any change be made in this Mayor's com- pensation. A Special Meeting has to consider only those matters for which it is called. This discussion could be interpreted to be within the subject matter contained in the June 3 letter. Councilman Bauch reminded Council that, when he was Mayor, three out of the four years he asked for the position of Mayor to be paid a full time salary. Just prior to the election, it was con- sidered again and turned down. Mr. Todd know, at that time, that it was a part time position and he know the full time position had been turned down four times prior to that time. He ought to serve out his office. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL, SPECIAL MEETING June 10, 1982 Page 3 Acceptance of Mayor's letter dated June 3, 1982 (intent to retire) 369'3 Councilman Phelps said she sees two very different Mayors asking the Council for the same consideration over the past few years. Council is saying we have always done it this way -we have always said no. Council President Bohrer noted that in the middle of Mr. Bauch's term Council established the position of Administrative Assistant to assist the part time Mayor. It would be someone available full time to coordinate the activities the Mayor chose. We all knew what the rules of the game were before we filed for office. Now, we are asked to change the rules of the game in mid stream. Councilman Harris noted that if anyone asked to be relieved of their duties, they should be relieved to do something else. Mayor Todd sent the letter in good faith. He felt he could not give the City as much time as necessary. It is a Christian and humane thing to listen to him. Mayor Todd explained that there seemed to be a difference in opinion of what his letter stated or intended to say. It said the City Council should consider the responsibilities of the office and that they should be willing to protect the City, to be willing to con- sider increasing the salary disregarding the occupant of the of- fice. We are handling 10 to 15 million dollars of tax payers funds. There are 105 employees and each is responsible to the Mayor and the Mayor is responsible to the tax payers. There aren't many fairminded people in this world who expect a person to devote 24 hours a day liability type of tension to a duty for the pay of less than the janitor in the City of Tukwila. The City is growing. My letter had an alternative to accepting my retirement and that was to change the pay. Does Council feel responsible enough to the citizens to provide the small amount of money it takes to have this office covered in a full time fashion. Certainly, the salary should be considered before a motion to ac- cept my resignation. Council President Bohrer pointed out that all of the Council people feel very responsible to the citizens of Tukwila or they wouldn't be here. We have excellent staff and increasing the Mayor's salary so he can spend more time in the City is not going to have an ef- fect on this. Mayor Todd said the Department Heads are qualified people that handle routinely the affairs of the City. They all answer to the Mayor. Councilman Bauch said while he was Mayor he never saw a group of people asking to have the position made full time. Even during the discussion at budget time, there were no citizens there to suggest making the job of the Mayor full time or increase his pay. Councilman Harris commented that none of the cities with full time Mayors are close to our assessed valuation or budget. It is almost ridiculous to say we need a full time Mayor for the size of city we are. Mayor Todd noted that his Administrative Assistant has become more of a Personnel Officer than anything else. She does very little of the Mayor's work. There are many cities that have a staff con- siderably larger than ours and they all get paid more money. ROLL CALL VOTE: HILL NO VAN DUSEN YES BOHRER YES HARRIS YES PHELPS NO DUFFIE NO BAUCH YES *MOTION CARRIED: 4 YES, 3 NO. TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL, SPECIAL MEETING June 10, 1982 Page 4 ADJOURNMENT 6:00 P.M. MOVED BY HILL, SECONDED BY PHELPS, THAT THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE TUKWILA CITY COUNCIL ADJOURN. MOTION CARRIED. j/ Mayor ,,eo 4.7,Ae> 7:27-1e7e City' C1 erk 36 9'