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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOW 2021-05-10 Item 4C - Discussion - Continuation on Prioritizing Service Level Increases and Consensus on Funding Phase ICOUNCIL AGENDA SYNOPSIS ‘1' 4 Initials ITEM No. 4 o Z Meeting Date Prepared by Mayor's revieav Council revieav I 10 1114 01111111;0 5/10/21 Vicky vl 4.C. z°4 1908 ITEM INFORMATION STAFF SPONSOR: VICKY CARLSEN ORIGINAL AGENDA DATE: 5/10/21 AGENDA ITEM TITLE Priortizing service restoration when ongoing revenues exceed adopted budget CATEGORY 0 Mtg Discussion Date 5/10/21 ❑ Motion Mtg Date ❑ Resolution Mtg Date ❑ Ordinance Mtg Date ❑ Bid Award Mtg Date ❑ PubLc Hearing Mtg Date ❑ Other Mtg Date SPONSOR ❑ Council ❑ Mayor ❑ Admin Svcs ❑ DCD Finance ❑ Fire ❑ P&R ❑ Police ❑ PIV SPONSOR'S Consensus on increasing service levels identifed in Phase I, utilizing sales tax mitigation SUMMARY funds. REVIEWED BY ❑ Trans&Infrastructure Svcs ❑ Community Svcs/Safety ❑ LTAC ❑ Arts Comm. DATE: 4/26/21 COMMITTEE 00 ❑ Finance & Governance ❑ Planning & Community Dev. Parks Comm. ❑ Planning Comm. CHAIR: IDAN RECOMMENDATIONS: SPONSOR/ADMIN. Department of Community Development CoMMIYIEE Unanimous Approval; Forward to Committee of the Whole COST IMPACT / FUND SOURCE EXPENDITURE REQUIRED AMOUNT BUDGETED APPROPRIATION REQUIRED $ Fund Source: Comments: MTG. DATE RECORD OF COUNCIL ACTION 5/10/21 MTG. DATE ATTACHMENTS 5/10/21 Informational Memorandum dated 4/20/21 (updated after 4/26 Finance Committee) Minutes from the Finance and Governance meeting of 4/26/21 49 50 Doi of Tukwila Allan Ekberg, Mayor INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM TO: Finance and Governance Committee FROM: Vicky Carlsen, Finance Director CC: Mayor Ekberg DATE: March 16, 2021 SUBJECT: Prioritizing service restoration when ongoing revenues exceed adopted budget Updated for May 10, 2021 Committee of the Whole meeting ISSUE Staff is seeking Committee input into a process for how to prioritize service level restoration if and when ongoing revenues exceed revenues adopted in the 2021-2022 biennial budget. DISCUSSION Recap of Budget and Service Level Reductions The City has been impacted by the global COVID-19 health crisis since February 2020. The pandemic negatively affected revenue streams with reductions in sales and other taxes as well as user fees for recreation programs. Revenues continue to be impacted and it is unknown when, or if, revenue streams will return to pre -pandemic levels. Early on in the crisis, City Council and Administration took action to reduce expenditures in anticipation of the expected decline in revenue. In decreasing expenditures, service levels were necessarily reduced across all departments, but many of the reductions focused on lower priority programs. Reductions included the following: - Reducing labor costs by freezing vacant positions, layoffs, furloughs, and temporary pay reductions - Reducing overtime - Elimination of extra labor - Elimination of travel and non-essential training - Reduced transfers to Fleet - Reduced or eliminated low priority programs - Line -item budget scrub The 2021-2022 budget process began in the early summer of 2020 and continuation of the expected impacts of the pandemic were included throughout the proposed budget. High priority programs, such as human services, public safety, public works, and the court were funded to the extent possible. The proposed budget included support for key initiatives including: - Funding for human services 51 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 2 - Continued implementation of the City's Equity Policy - Reimaging police services by starting a Mental Health Professional pilot program - Maintaining current level of fire services - No additional service or employee reductions above reductions in 2020 - Continued investment in infrastructure - Investment in technology - Teen/Senior Center feasibility and programming While the proposed budget did include funding for the priorities listed above, several service reductions had to be maintained due to a continued reduction in revenue projections. During budget deliberations, the City Council directed the restoration of some services using the proposed budget surplus, including parks and street maintenance and additional funding for human services. While some service levels were restored through the budget and budget review process, several programs continue at a reduced level or were eliminated in the adopted budget, including: - Frozen positions in the Municipal Court, Parks, DCD, Police, Public Works, Admin Services - Elimination of SeeClickFix program - Reduction of extra labor in certain departments, eliminated in other departments - Reduction in supplies, services, non-essential training, and travel across all departments - Elimination of commute trip reduction incentives - Elimination of funding for the Community Connectors program - Programming at the Tukwila Community Center In addition to the program reductions listed above, all departments have experienced general line -item budget reductions for 2021, which leaves no room for unplanned/unexpected expenditures that do occur each year. If revenues return at a higher level than adopted in the budget, the City Council will need to make decisions regarding the return of these services and service levels. 2021 Budget Issues Before service levels can be restored, it is important to understand pressures on the budget that will need to be addressed prior to restoring the service levels mentioned above. Some of the areas include: • Implementation of a previously agreed upon Teamsters' wage and compensation study. Total impact for 2021 is as follows: 52 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 3 2021 Budget Impact Admin Svcs $ 29,175 Finance 18,757 Recreation 15,168 DCD 54,944 Court 5,568 Police 6,926 Public Works 9,552 Total General Fund $ 140,090 Golf Course $ 15,136 • Permit processing concerns due to impact of vacant and previously frozen positions to process workload which has remained steady during the pandemic. Currently, one associate planner position is frozen for a total budget of $147,600 annual salary and benefits and a planning intern was laid off due to reductions in the extra labor budget. Total extra labor budget reduction was $4,000. Permit volumes have remained high through the pandemic but the Planning Division now has fewer staff to process reviews due to frozen positions and vacancies. In addition, the 10% furloughs and the need to develop procedures for electronic plan review and train staff on new processes contributed to development of a backlog of reviews that we are not able to work through at current staffing levels. Restoring the associate planner and planning intern would address the permit review response times and eventually allow staff to address long-range code and policy updates. • Increase in Fire Department overtime costs due to a minimum staffing settlement agreement with the Local IAFF #2088. Costs per overtime shift to maintain minimum staffing depends on which position is backfilled. A firefighter will cost $1,500 per shift, a captain $1,700 per shift and a battalion chief will cost $2,000 per shift. Estimated increase to overtime budget for 2021 will be $200, 000. Ongoing vs One-time Revenues As Council and Administration consider how and when to restore service levels it will be important to keep in mind adopted financial policies that state one-time revenue will be used for one-time expenditures and ongoing revenue will be used for ongoing expenditures. This will also be an opportune time to re -envision how services are provided. Staff will be providing updated projections on ongoing revenues, such as sales tax and gambling tax, to gauge how these revenues are matching or exceeding original 2021-2022 Budget expectations. There are also one-time revenues that staff will be tracking, such as possible Streamlined Sales Tax funds which may be allocated during the current state legislative session. State Funding - Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) Mitigation Funds HB 1521 would restore the SST funding program until 2026, which was approved by the legislature in 2020 but vetoed by the Governor due to the pandemic and associated 53 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 4 revenue losses. There is an effort to add funding to the supplemental budget to replace funding lost during the current state fiscal year, which would result in Tukwila receiving just under $900,000 on May 1, 2021 if the effort is successful. While previously the SST funds were dedicated to the Public Safety Plan, staff removed that funding source from the plan when the Governor vetoed SST in 2020. HB 1521 passed and was signed by the Governor and will go into effect July 1, 2021. The initial amount for the City would be just over $880k and would be decreased by 20% each year on July 1. The funding expires on July 1, 2026. Payments would be quarterly and we could expect, to receive the first payment on July 1 of this year. What is unclear at this writing is whether the supplemental budget will include funding for the lost SST mitigation payments in FYI 21, though staff and our state lobbyist remain hopeful this will happen. With the session expected to end on April 25, staff will bring updates to this information at the Committee meeting. Updated Information for SST Funds The City will be receiving $882,597 in 2021 as backfill for SST funds that were eliminated form the State budget in 2020. These funds are in addition to what was included in HB 1521, effective July 1, 2021. This new information means that the City will receive just over $1.3 million in fiscal year 2021. Expected revenue in 2022 would be $792k, which includes the 20% reduction from 2021 funding. Federal Funding - American Rescue Plan On March 10, 2021, a $1.9 trillion relief package, known as the American Rescue Plan, was approved and provides funding in several areas including state and local aid, education, rental assistance, and transit. At this time, it appears that the City of Tukwila will receive $4.43 million in one-time funds. It appears that half of the funds would be distributed 60 days after enactment and the remaining balance one year later. Because we are considered a nonentitlement city, we will receive the funds from the State rather than the federal government. It is unclear how quickly the State will release the funds to the City. Funds must be spent by December 31, 2024. These funds are not reimbursement for COVID-related costs, and therefore can be used in a variety of ways. From what we know today, the funds can be used in the following ways: - To respond to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19 or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and non -profits, or to aid impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality. - Provide premium pay to eligible workers that are preforming essential work. - Provision of government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue due to the pandemic relative to revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year. - Make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. The funds cannot be used to directly or indirectly offset tax reductions or delay a tax/tax increase. Nor can funds be deposited into any pension fund. As new information becomes available, updated information will be provided. 54 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 5 Other Funding for the Tukwila Community On February 19, 2021 Governor Inslee signed the state COVID relief bill that provides $2.2 billion in funding that has the opportunity to assist the Tukwila community, including: • $714 million in assistance for K-12 schools • $618 million for public health's response to COVID, including testing, investigation and contact tracing; and funding for vaccination efforts • $365 million for emergency eviction, rental, and utility assistance • $240 million for business assistance grants • $50 million for childcare • $26 million for food banks and other food programs • $91 million for income assistance, including $65 million for relief for the state's immigrant population The American Rescue Plan includes a variety of opportunities that can assist the Tukwila community, including: • Direct stimulus payments to qualifying households of $1,400 per person to single households making $75,000 or less and couples earning $150,000 or less. Individuals with dependents will also receive a $1,400 tax credit per dependent on their 2020 tax returns. • Enhanced unemployment payments of $300 per week. • Temporary child tax credit and monthly payments to qualifying households. • $7.25 billion in additional Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for small businesses. • $128 billion in support for educational institutions. • Additional support for the most vulnerable, including more funds for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIEHEAP) for utility assistance, temporary increase to WIC funds and more. • $25 billion for emergency rental assistance. • $65.1 billion for cities. This memo and discussion are intended to begin the conversation so that committee members have a shared understanding of the service level decisions made in the 2021- 2022 budget process and begin to plan for future decision making as revenues return. At the March 22, 2021 Committee meeting, departments were asked to summarize service level reductions, impacts of these reductions, and cost to restore the services. The chart below summarizes budget reductions by department and have been adjusted to remove budget for large, one-time capital projects. Total departmental budget reductions is in excess of $3.9 million. With the restoration of SST funding, certain high priority services could be funded almost immediately. If the missed FY 2021 SST mitigation payment makes it into the supplemental budget, the City could bring back $1.2M in services immediately. (This is because the missed FY 21 SST payment would be a one-time payment of $880k, then the City will receive two quarterly payments of 55 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 6 $220,000 each in the remainder of 2021.) Details by department are included as an appendix to this memo. GENERAL FUND CITY OF TUKWILA GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES 1 Finance budget for 2021 reduced by $500k to remove one-time budget for ERP system 2 Budget for permit staffing moved from PW and Fire to DCD for one-stop permitting 2,3 Fire budget for 2019 & 2020 reduced by $200k each year to remove one-time budget for Knox box project 4 A total of 4 posiitons were moved from Public Works and 1 from Fire to DCD for one-stop permitting Committee members also asked for a list of frozen positions. The list includes frozen positions only and does not include a list of currently budgeted but unfilled positions. 56 EXPENDITURES BY DEPARTMENT BUDGET COMPARISON OF BUDGETS 2019 2020 2021 2020 BUDGET VS 2021 BUDGET $ change % change 01 City Council 432,111 445,312 363,618 (81,694) -18.3% 03 Mayor's Office 2,464,080 2,550,951 2,104,126 (446,825) -17.5% 04 Administrative Services 4,983,869 5,233,173 4,984,464 (248,709) -4.8% 05 Finance 1 2,671,192 2,802,249 2,549,858 (252,391) -9.0% 07 Recreation 5,069,562 5,177,441 4,260,543 (916,898) -17.7% 08 Comm unity Development 2' 4 3,784,889 3,861,831 4,069,943 208,112 5.4% 09 Municipal Court 1,298,228 1,345,060 1,272,888 (72,172) -5.4% 10 Police 19,431,073 19,390,720 18,286,665 (1,104,055) -5.7% 11 Fire 3'4 12,796,287 13,061,272 12,706,860 (354,412) -2.7% 13 Public Works 2' 4 7,741,440 7,264,801 6,584,325 (680,476) -9.4% Subtotal 60,672,731 61,132,810 57,183,290 (3,949,520) -6.5% 20 Dept 20 6,139,961 8,269,140 5,462,760 (2,806,380) -33.9% Total Expenditures 66,812,692 69,401,950 62,646,050 (6,755,900) -9.7% 1 Finance budget for 2021 reduced by $500k to remove one-time budget for ERP system 2 Budget for permit staffing moved from PW and Fire to DCD for one-stop permitting 2,3 Fire budget for 2019 & 2020 reduced by $200k each year to remove one-time budget for Knox box project 4 A total of 4 posiitons were moved from Public Works and 1 from Fire to DCD for one-stop permitting Committee members also asked for a list of frozen positions. The list includes frozen positions only and does not include a list of currently budgeted but unfilled positions. 56 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 7 Department Frozen Positions Position Salary /Benefits Admin Svcs Parks DCD Municipal Court Police Public Works TIS Director Maint & Ops Superintendent Code enforcement Officer Associate Planner Admin Support Tech 0.75 Admin Tech 0.75 Jail Alternative Specialist Community Liaison Officer Anti -Crime (TAC) Anti -Crime (TAC) Sergeant (Investigations) Detective (Investigations) School Resource Officer School Resource Officer Maint Tech (Street) Maint Tech (Street) Facilities Maint Tech 200,000 160,000 120,000 120,000 105,000 105,000 130,000 170,000 176,000 176,000 196,000 175,000 175,000 175,000 110,000 110,000 110,000 2,513,000 " Includes cost of supplies to outfit personnel Total number of frozen positions - 17 Recommended Path Forward Staff is recommending that Council consider addressing restoration of service levels in three phases. Phase one would utilize sales tax mitigation payments expected to be received beginning July 1, 2021 and targeted to those items that would: 1. Provide the most direct impact to improving the quality of life for our community - Streets and Parks Maintenance to keep parks clean and respond to concerns about garbage, litter, and graffiti. 2. Revenue backed services — The Consolidated Permit Center is handling an increased demand for permits which are supported by fees. 3. Services which have been contractually required Including agreements with the Teamsters and IAFF Local #2088 for Fire Overtime. 4. Critical services which should be restored — This includes restoring some necessary services, such as cybersecurity contracts in Technology Information Services. - These funds would be used as a bridge until operating revenues return to pre -pandemic levels and fund the following priorities: 57 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 8 Priority Funding Needed Fire Overtime* 200,000 Permit Activity 125,000 Street/Bus Stop Maint. 167,500 Parks Maint. 80,000 Rec Program Assistance 50,000 DarkTrace - Cyber Security 25,000 Teamster's Contract 140,000 Total 787,500 *Estimate In addition to the items listed above, the Finance & Governance Committee requested that the Economic Development Plan be added as a phase one priority. Staff is estimating that $150k would be needed to complete the plan and would include the following components: 1. Basic Plan: This work includes hiring a consultant to conduct research, analysis, writing, graphic design, and producing a document. It would also include standard community outreach such as an online survey, a limited phone survey, and some public meetings. Estimated cost $50,000. 2. Expanded Outreach: This work includes hiring multiple community-based organizations or firms to assist with outreach to various groups based on culture, language, age, etc. It would include tailoring those contracts to work with those groups using relevant outreach methods, which could include surveys, conversations, interviews, focus groups, or others. As appropriate, methods would include interpretation, translation, childcare, and participation incentives toward a goal of meaningful, not transactional, engagement. Estimated cost $50,000. 3. Improved Business Contacts Database: This purpose of this component is to improve our business contacts database which would help with outreach on the Plan as well as ongoing business outreach. This would include a combination of purchasing a software tool and contacting our businesses to update and/or collect their contact information. In the private sector the software tool would be called a customer relationship management system (CRM) and would track a company's interactions with their customers. In addition to purchasing software, staff would hire a firm to fill in the gaps and expand upon our current business license database by contacting businesses directly. Estimated start-up cost $50,000. There would be an ongoing maintenance cost but that has not yet been estimated. Phase two would utilize American Rescue Plan funds for one-time projects including capital projects. Since funding will be received in two tranches and can be spent through December 31, 2024, there is time to be thoughtful about which projects to fund. Some one-time budget priorities have already been identified and are as follows: • Upgrading equipment in the Council Chamber to allow for in-person as well as virtual participation in city Council meetings and workshops. • Adding internet access to neighborhoods underserved by existing internet options. 58 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 9 • Funding additional human services and/or small business programs and outreach. • Funding to design and possibly purchase property for a youth/senior center. • Economic Development Plan • Other one-time services such as studies, plans or designs. Phase three would address increasing ongoing service levels once revenues exceed budget and have stabilized at predictable levels. 2020 Budget Survey The Finance & Governance Committee suggested that outcomes from the budget survey conducted in 2020 could help inform the Council's decision making on service restoration. The survey listed the City's Priority -Based Budgeting Programs, not including those identified as legally mandated, grant -funded, self-sustaining, or internal services. Participants were asked to select those programs they thought most important, those that could be considered for elimination or reduction, and were also given the opportunity to share feedback on open-ended questions about their priorities, opportunities for savings, and anything else on their mind regarding the 2021-2022 budget. The open-ended nature of some survey questions made statistical data difficult to identify, but the priorities that emerged from the ranking exercise were community policing, equity, fire department community outreach, human services, park maintenance, police body cameras, school district partnerships, street maintenance and teen and youth programming. Given current staffing limitations, it would be difficult to pull together a comprehensive survey in a timely manner. RECOMMENDATION Forward to the May 10, 2021 Committee of the Whole for full Council discussion and consensus on Phase I proposal. 59 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 10 Appendix — Departmental Service Reduction Details City Council: The City Council reduced travel, conferences, and training support and other supplies. Mayor: The Mayor's department reduced service levels in several ways. One of the significant cuts was to the Commute Trip Reduction Program, an employee incentive program that provided employees an ORCA card for use of transit or monetary incentives for use of alternate modes of transportation (carpooling, walking, biking etc.) This program cut was in addition to the furloughs and pay reductions employees took in 2020. The SeeClickFix program was also eliminated, which provided the general public with a convenient tool to notify City staff of concerns in and around the City. Reinstatement of SeeClickFix would cost considerably more than what the City had previously paid. The City is looking at the possibility of utilizing TRAKiT as a community response tool. Training registrations and travel budgets were also significantly reduced limiting the ability to attend conferences and other relevant training opportunities. Funding was also removed for employee recognition, survey initiatives and sponsorship of chamber events. In the Economic Development Division, part time staffing was eliminated and other services were reduced which limits research and attracting development. Currently, there is no budget to create an economic development plan. Funding for an economic development plan would enable the City to hire outside expertise, increase the Plan's scope, and significantly expand community outreach in the development of the Plan. Administrative Services: All extra labor has been eliminated from this department. The direct impact is on the turnaround time for public records requests. Additionally, staff has taken on additional work that was performed by extra labor staff, resulting in slower turnround time on contracts and other documents and services in the City Clerk's office and continued degraded services in TIS. Funding for the Community Connectors program has also been removed. The program has been on hiatus since 2019 due the partner agency's lack of capacity. Staff would bring the program back but it would look a bit different. Once change is that no outside resources would be utilized. Funding was also removed for training which inhibits staff the ability to access new best practices. Professional services was reduced which results in less funds for city-wide trainings and other human resources related programs such as investigations and labor- management support. TIS has one position frozen. In addition, reductions in capital expenses, professional services, training, travel, and supplies were taken. Some of these, such as reduction in Seamless Docs and Sharegate services will have impacts on all departments. Finance: 60 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 11 The Finance department budget was reduced in several ways. Extra labor assisted with front desk coverage for lunch breaks and vacations as well as filing, scanning, and other office support tasks. Staff has had to absorb additional duties and further impact will be felt by the community when City Hall reopens to the public in longer wait times to process utility and other payments during lunches and vacations. Training has also been significantly reduced. Only essential training will be allowed and the limited budget must be shared between 12 staff. Additional training budget would allow staff to keep current on accounting and payroll law changes as well as best practices. Claims & judgements as well as professional services were reduced. All non-essential contracts were cancelled and there is no plan to ask for them to be reinstated at this time. Claims & judgements budget was reduced to reflect prior year actuals. This is one area that the City has no control over. If total claims for the year exceed expectations then a budget amendment could be necessary. Recreation and Parks: For Recreation, Camp Tukwilly and Teen Venture Camp are currently high on needed programs list for our community, before & after school programing will become a high need this fall. Extra Labor staff are needed to provide the programs and services in order to maintain appropriate staff to participant ratios. Other programming costs were removed from the budget due to COVID-19 limiting in- person gatherings. Once restrictions are removed, a number of other programming events should be considered for funding. Parks Maintenance and Operations Superintendent position is currently frozen. Community Development: One of the two general Code Enforcement Officer positions and one Administrative Support Technician have been frozen. There are currently 174 active enforcement cases, 6 pending appeals, and 4-8 cases pending abatement review. Some of these cases involve life safety issues such as unauthorized fill destabilizing steep slopes and unpermitted construction including electrical wiring, gas piping, and structural additions to occupied houses. The rental housing program has 1,700 units due for rental inspection with the backlog due to COVID related concerns about entering occupied spaces during the pandemic. With current staffing we will have to require that property owners hire private inspectors or we will need to waive most of these inspections as a single officer cannot work through the backlog while keeping up with the inspections required in the current year. If we had the third officer that person could be temporarily assigned to rental inspections. Other impacts of the staffing reductions include longer response times, longer violation resolution times, limited scope of enforcement, and overall fewer site 61 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 12 visits/inspections. The abatement fund has been cut in half so there is less capacity to pursue abatements through 2022. Without a full-time dedicated Administrative Support Technician, Officers will also be taking on additional support functions which will further impact the performance bandwidth of the team and reduce the overall time available to Officers for active enforcement activities such as field work. Municipal Court: The Court currently has two frozen positions; one full-time and one 3/4 time. While the Court has been closed to the general public due to the pandemic, service levels have been maintained. However, service levels will be impacted when the Court reopens to the public. At this time there is a projected slow reopening scheduled to begin the first week of May 2021. When the Court welcomes the public back into the facility, security will need to be restored. It will be difficult to maintain the current level of service once the Court fully reopens to the public without filling the frozen positions. The Court also anticipates an increase in filings once the school zone photo enforcement is implemented. It is our intent to hire staff to support this new program. We will need to hire new staff in August to allow efficient time for training and preparation for this increased service. Police: The Police Department's budget reductions come primarily from five areas/programs: 1. Refugee/Homeless outreach: the freezing of one Community Liaison Officer position cuts that team in half. The primary function of this two -person unit is to engage with the City's refugee and homeless community members and to provide them with necessary services. This includes building relationships with Houses of Worship, the Refugee Center, Homeless Camp Leaders, and disadvantaged community members requiring assistance. 2. Human and Drug Trafficking Investigations: our budget reduction includes the freezing of two Tukwila Anti -Crime (TAC) team FTEs. This will result in drug and human trafficking investigations progressing more slowly and cases being filed at a reduced rate. For undercover operations, the TAC team will need to rely on the CPT units to back -fill for security and observational duties. 3. Felony and Juvenile Case Investigations: the budget reduction plan includes the freezing of one Sergeant and one Detective FTEs within our Major Crimes Division. This will result in decreased oversight/leadership (Sergeant) as well as a higher threshold for case filings and investigations into property crimes. We will not allow this to impact any investigation involving physical force or crimes against persons but felony crimes against property may take longer to investigate/file and will not receive as much attention as they would if the team were fully staffed. 4. Tracking K9 Program: the elimination/freezing of this program means that we will have to continue to rely on other jurisdictions to provide a K9 to track felony/Domestic Violence suspects. This also means that our units will have to wait while the OSA unit responds, giving the suspect more time to flee or gain access to a vehicle or other victims. 5. School Resource Officer Program: while budget reduction requires the temporary re- assignment of our School Resource Officers, the Tukwila Police Department will continue work cooperatively with our schools to provide security to Tukwila's students, faculty, and administrators while also maintaining relationships with students and their organizations. 62 INFORMATIONAL MEMO Page 13 Fire: A staffing adjustment has been made for 2021 to staff one shift at 17. The other two shifts will continue to staff at 18. Demand for services from the Fire Department were reduced because of pandemic affects. This caused a reduction in minimum staffing from April 1, 2020 to April 1, 2021, from 13 to 12 firefighters on duty each shift. Pre -pandemic service demands are returning to Tukwila. Travel budget line for education has been reduced and other supply services line items were reduced. Training budget was reduced. Specialty services have been adjusted. Overtime budget for the Fire Marshal's Office was reduced. There will be a delay in projects and requests for records from the community. Public Works: There are currently 2 frozen positions in the Street division, both are maintenance technicians. Additionally, there is no budget for seasonal labor. The impacts to the community include less frequent cleaning of bus stops and graffiti cleanup, large item trash pick-up, homeless encampment cleanup, and mowing and upkeeping of medians and grass in rights-of-way. In order to hire seasonal staff, which would increase these service levels during the mowing season, the full-time positions should be unfrozen. In addition to the frozen positions in the Street division, the budget for snow & ice removal is only $10k. The snow even that occurred earlier this year cost $33k to maintain the streets. Given that the budget for snow events is inadequate, a budget amendment will most likely be required. One facilities maintenance technician is also frozen. Regular maintenance of existing facilities is now done on a delayed scheduled. Responding to the TCC and other facilities occupied by City staff and visited by the general public is a priority and needs attention. Additionally, new facilities are now online and require additional staff time to maintain. 63 64 City of Tukwila City Council Finance & Governance Committee Meeting Minutes Apr/126, 2021- 5:30 p. m. - Electronic Meeting due to COVID-19 Emergency CouncilmembersPresent: Zak Idan, Chair; Kathy Hougardy, Cynthia Delostrinos Johnson Staff Present: Rachel Bianchi, Vicky Carlsen, Joel Bush, Tony Cullerton, Laurel Humphrey, Jay Wittwer, Nora Gierloff, Aaron Williams, Eric Dreyer, Guests Present: Deanna Gregory, Duncan Brown, SteveAmano Chair Idan called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. I. BUSINESS AGENDA A. Grant Application: South 115th St. Property Acquisition Staff is seeking Committee approval to apply for $365,000 in King County Conservation Futures Trust Tax Levy (CFT) grant funding to purchase property at S. 115th Street adjacent to Duwamish Hill Preserve. Committee Recommendation Chair Idan recused himself from making a recommendation due to his employment with King County. Majority approval to apply for grant. B. Ordinance: Debt Issuance Staff is seeking Council approval of an ordinance to issue debt to fund the General Fund portion of the Public Works Shops Phase I Project, refunding outstanding 2011 Limited Tax Obligation Bonds, and refund outstanding 2014 Limited Tax Obligation Bonds Committee Recommendation Unanimous approval. Forward to May 10, 2021 Committee of the Whole. C. Service Restoration Prioritization Staff presented the requested updates to the service level memo along with a suggested phased approach. Items Requiring Follow-up • Move Economic Development Plan to Phase 1, including cost estimate • Add Streamlined Sales Tax Mitigation update • Add associated costs to departmental reductions listed in Appendix. • Add information from 2020 community budget survey to help inform Council on service restoration. Committee Recommendation Forward to May 10, 2021 Committee of the Whole. 65