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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/29/91TAPE #926 UNAPPROVED DRAFT CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES JUW /99/ #0018 #0043 MAY 29, 1991 The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Bremerton was called to order in the City Council Chambers, 239 4TH Street, Bremerton, Washington, Wednesday, May 29 1991, at 5:30 p.m., with Council President Lynn Horton presiding. Council members present: Lon Overson, Wayne Estes, Spencer Horning, Hank Waibel, C. R. "Tiny" Collins, Morrie Dawkins, A1 Colvin and Russ Johnson. Also present were City Attorney Ian Sievers and City Clerk Kathleen McCluskey. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Council President Horton and Invocation given by Councilman A1 Colvin. CONSENT AGENDA A. Minutes Of Meeting - May 1, 1991, #AB91-142 B. Minutes Of Meeting - May 8, 1991, #AB91-142 M/S/C/U(Waibel/Estes) to approve Consent Agenda as correction, amending the May 1, 1991, minutes to show Council Hank Waibel as absent. CLAIMS/WARRANT REGISTERS Vouchers audited and certified by the auditing officer as required by RCW 42.24,080, and those expense reimbursement claims certified as required by RCW 42.24.090, have been recorded on a listing that had been made available to the council. M/S/C(Colvin/Dawkins) on May 29, 1991, the Council does approve for payment those vouchers included and further described as follows: 129879, 130029 through 130178 in the amount of $272,654.68; and Fire Fighters Retro Pay for the period ending 4-15-91, in the total amount of $35,238.11; Regular Payroll for the period ending May 15, 1991, in the total amount of $403,648.57. Vote: In Favor: Johnson, Colvin, Dawkins, Collins, Horton, Horning, Waibel, Estes Abstain: Overson President Horton announced Item 6A was pulled off the Agenda for one week. TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 2 of 11 COUNCIL MEMBER REPORT8 Mr. Johnson stated it was with pride that he viewed the avenue of flags displayed by the Cemetery on Kitsap Way. And, he appreciated all the residents who decorated graves in commemoration of Memorial Day. Mr. Colvin announced he invited some guests to attend this Council meeting, the Carl Vinson Golden Eagles Softball Team, sponsor of the Softball Tournament, and James Gwinn of Crista Ministries. These guests will speak during the time of Public Recognition. Mr. Dawkins stated he was pleased with the increased activities for the Memorial Days celebration and he enjoyed the members of the HMS Warspite, who were visiting this area. Mr. Collins stated last week a local newspaper made a statement that citizens of Bremerton were not particularly interested in the new highway into Bremerton. He wanted to let the public know that there had better be some interest in this project because if there isn't there will be so many cars in the neighborhoods that one will never be able to get out of the southwest corner of Bremerton. For example, through the intersection of Callow and Farragut there is an average of 26,400 vehicles per day. Where these vehicles are going is immaterial, that is how many vehicles are traveling through that intersection today. When the Navy acquires all the land to Wycoff, those vehicles will have to go some place. At the present time there are 9,500 vehicles going into the shipyard. Approximately 7,000 vehicles travel along Wycoff Avenue each day. The Navy, in their preliminary E.I.S. stated Wycoff would have to accept another 13,900 vehicles and that Cambrian, which is a 25 foot street, is going to have to accept an additional 13,000 vehicles. Mr. Collins expressed "it can't happen"! He hope people were thinking of alternatives ... the City has with its proposal of using Burwell across to Gorst. The point made by the local newspaper that there was not any interest in this project was wrong...there is interest but people don't know what to do. Mr. Collins explained they should contract the Engineers at Parametrix and tell them what they want, how they want to live, the mitigating things they want in order to live here. The people on Burwell need to be asking questions about noise mitigation. The people in old Charleston had better tell the Engineers the things they need. President Morton announced Council would be holding a Study Session on Monday, June 3, and one of the items to be discussed would be the new entrance into Bremerton. She encouraged anyone interested to attend this meeting to learn more about the proposal. TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 3 of 11 Mr. Estes stated during the past two weeks he had the pleasure of associating with members of the HMS Warspite Association. He commended Sgt. Majors (Retired) Bob Sauter and Richard Chrisinger for their tremendous job in hosting this group. He invited members of the Warspite Association to say a few words about how they feel about Bremerton: Start Lawrence of Great Britain, George Mammering of Australia, Bill Foster, Wittel Enqland, Bill Biars of Scotland, expressed their deepest appreciation for the tremendously warm welcome they received from everyone here in Bremerton. Their entire visit exceeded their expectations and it was with a reluctant heart they were leaving their many Bremerton friends. They gave a special thank you to Bob Sauter and Richard Chrisinger for their outstanding job as hosts to their group. Mr. Lawrence presented Mayor Mentor with a special wreath. Richard Chrisinger introduced Verna Lilly, who will escort the Warspite members on a boat cruse to Seattle. Mr. Waibel stated he was very impressed with Amy Burnett's Gallery Open House and he had already overheard someone in Tacoma taking about the gallery. He was also impressed with Bremerton's Armed Forces Parade, which had a good crowd in spite of the rainy weather. He did have the opportunity to visit with members of the Warspite group during the Navy League reception held on Saturday, May 25, and found them to be very interesting and informative on people and historical events. Mr. Overson pointed out TCI Cablevision was doing some interesting things with channel programming. Mrs. Morton alerted the public about TCI's new practice of "negative billing", whereby they put on a new channel program which is received by everyone on cable and in order to cancel such service it must be made in writing. Mr. Johnson stated if someone had a complaint about their service they should call the City Clerk's office or the Cable Company and ask that your complaint be recorded in their logs and it would be considered when time comes to refranchise. These complains would also be forwarded to the Federal Communications Commission, who keep track of such things. PUBLIC RECOGNITION Mayor Louis Mentor read a Proclamation proclaiming the week of June 2-8, 1991, as NATIONAL SAFE BOATING WEEK. Verna Lilly Commander of Flotilla 45 Coast Guard Auxiliary, accepted the Proclamation and explained they patrol the waters every weekend and all holidays from May 1 until end of September. Jack Hisong, Commander of the Bremerton Power Squadron, TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 4 of 11 announced their Squadron sponsors public boating coarse several times a year and he invited the public to attend the next coarse starting in the fall of this year. Mayor Mentor read a Proclamation proclaiming the week of June 3 -7, 1991, as MANAGEMENT WEEK. Janet Brittain, Past President of the Lockheed/Bangor Chapter of National Management Association and currently a National Director on the Board of the National Management Association representing Western Washington, accepted the proclamation. Jim Gwinn, President Crista Ministries/Seattle based, stated their organization is also located in Kitsap County. He was chairman of the recent Billy Graham Crusade, held in Seattle/Tacoma, and had the opportunity to meet A1 Colvin during that event. The Crista Ministries has taken over as of July 1, Bremerton Christian School (to be named King's West) with an anticipated enrollment of 300 students K-12. They also have two camp facilities in Kitsap County, Miracle Ranch and Island Lake. They have a Counseling ministry (five) throughout the Pacific Northwest and one of those is located in Silverdale. Their organization also owns two radio stations -KCIS (AM630) and KCMS FM. He was pleased to be a part of the greater Kitsap County community. Dave Ajax, sponsor of the Slow Pitch Softball Tournament, held May 25/26 at Lions Field, thanked the City Council and the Kitsap County Commissioners for the proposed new softball fields to be constructed at the sports complex. The only complaints he heard from people involved in the tournament was the limited number of hotel/motel rooms. The winner of this tournament was the Uptown Auto Body Team and second place went to the USS Carl Vinson Golden Eagles. Don Large, sponsor of the Uptown Auto Body Team, thanked the Parks Department for getting the fields ready and the Carl Vinson team for putting up an excellent fight. He was real impressed with Golden Eagles' sportsmanship. A special thank.you was given to KBRO for providing publicity for the event. Bruce LennV stated it was nice winning such a high caliber ball game and he was happy keeping the winning trophy in Bremerton. He was also looking forward to the development of a new sports complex for future tournaments. Gregory Keith, Captain of the USS Carl Vinson Gold Eagles Softball Team, introduced his fellow members of the ball team and expressed their appreciation being able to pay in such a tournament and they had a great time. He congratulated the first place team. The team presented to A1 Colvin a hat, making him an honorary member of their team. And, he stated TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 5 of 11 since the Carl Vinson arrived in Bremerton the crew members and their families had received a very warm welcome from the community and they appreciate that very much. Mr. Waibel noted one of the reasons the Carl Vinson team was so good was due to their practicing on the flight deck while the ship was at sea. Jim McNamara, a Special Olympics athletes, expressed the need to find some ball fields and gyms where the Special Olympic athletes could practice for their events. Many of the local fields are taken up by other organizations. Their goal is to have a tournament in the Bremerton area but they need help from the community to find fields and gyms to hold such events. President Hotton suggested that Mr. McNamara talk with Mayor Mentor and Vicki Vanneman of the Parks Department. Councilman Dawkins left the Council meeting at '6:15 p.m. Del Knauss, Olympic Avenue, discussed the following issues: (1) changing the form of City government - he did not support changing the form of government but rather change the people running City government. (2) Proposed new roadway into Bremerton - he did not believe Mayor Mentor's statements during a hearing before the Parks Commission were good reasons for spending the taxpayers money, if a less expensive route exists (3) Building a Department of Corrections Pre-Release Facility in Bremerton - he did not support this proposal and questioned why form a committee to study proposals if the "deal" was already worked out. (4) House purchased by the City next to Ivy Green Cemetery with the intent to turn it into visitors' parking - he felt this was a good idea but since the lot was not zoned for parking, he questioned if the City would follow the same zoning rules that apply to every other resident in Bremerton? Bean Newsome, Bremerton homeowner, expressed concern over opportunities for the public to give input on the new proposed entrance into the City. He hoped there would be more meetings on this issue at varying times in order to give people working on various shiftsto have the opportunity to give input. President Morton stated there will be more pubic hearings on this issue and invited anyone interested to the Council's Study Session on Monday, June 3, when Parametrix would give a briefing to the Council. Mr. Newsome noted a lot of elder people live in his neighborhood, who have difficultly getting out to meetings at night and hoped there would be some way to assist transporting those people to future meetings. TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 6 of 11 7A - ORDINANCE (FIRST READING) AUTHORIZING ADDITIONAL REAL ESTATE EXCISE TAX, #AB91-144 Bremerton currently imposes a 1/4% excise tax on real estate sales for the funding of local capital improvement projects. Chapter 17 Section 38 of Washington Laws 1990, allows cities to impose an addition to the 1/4% already imposed. This additional 1/4% does not require a vote by the people. The City of Bremerton is authorized by Washington Law to impose the tax by ordinance. In 1990 the 1/4% excise tax generated $140,000. Had we collection another 1/4%, the amount of money collected would have been twice as much or $280,000. The first four months of 1991, the 1/4% excise tax generated $38,300. Had we collection another 1/4%, the amount of money collected would have been twice as much or $76,500. Each member of Council received copies of the Growth Management Act approximately 6 months ago. However, in case this has been misplaced, attached is Washington Law, Section 38 allowing this tax and spelling out how it may be spent. The County Treasurer collects the tax and remits to the City. They are unable to provide a breakdown of commercial versus residential sales. We have requested this information from the local real estate industry and it will be presented at Council, if available. The City's five year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) passed last year and is in the process of being updated. We will expand the CIP as necessary to comply with Section 7 requirements. With passage of the excise tax, we will be following the lead of the County who is collecting and holding the tax in reserv~ until such time as the capital facilities plan element of the Comprehensive Plan is complete. As you may recall, the County and cities employed a consultant to assist in this process. The growth in Bremerton is obvious and the demand for capital improvements is growing. The sooner this tax is approved the better we serve our citizens. Mayor Mentor stated we are a tax poor City and this is an opportunity to increase revenues. When the State gives cities the opportunity to make such an increase and the opportunity is not taken, then cities can be penalized by the State later on. All of the funds collected would be used for CIP projects. Currently, there are a lot of real estate TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 7 of 11 transactions being made and it is an opportune time for the City to benefit for future development. Public comment - none. Mr. Overson stated the additional tax revenue that this proposal would generate would fund needed projects on the CIP and maybe the City would have a change to catch up rather than always slipping behind on making improvements. Mr. Johnson stressed that the general feeling is to shy away from new taxes, however, if the City is to grow there will be need to fund public projects to meet increased needs. He felt it was most appropriate placing the burden of growing needs on the real estate transactions. He stated he strongly supports this proposal and believes it will bring about many improvements for the community. Mr. Waibel pointed out that the description in the title of the Ordinance should read as follows: "An Ordinance imposing upon consumers an additional one-quarter percent (1/4%)excise tax on real property sales". Mr. Morning stated he was not in favor of taxes, however, we must have them to provide needed services. He would support this proposal, but he was reluctant to do so. Because it would become part of the CIP, he will make a big deal out of this if it doesn't go to something that helps the real estate in this town. For instance, he felt the non-arterial streets is a prime candidate for these funds. He would be strongly supportive identifying this money to and moving the non- arterial streets to a high priority in capital improvements. Mr. Collins stated he did not support earmarking any specific amount of money for a known today Capital Improvement project. We do have the Six Year Street Plan as well as another alternative - the Limited Improvement District (LID). If Council feels they should include a non-arterial street project annually on the CIP, using the excise tax, he would support it. Mr. Colvin stated he did not believe there was anything in the proposal to preclude using the funds for non-arterial street improvements. He supported giving street improvements a higher priority because the real estate the tax will be imposed on are located on those streets. President Morton stated she would support this proposal, and TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 8 of 11 there are so many things in the City that need to be improved and could be accomplished through this funding opportunity. Even though those tax dollars may not go as far as we would like, it does show that we are using those tax dollars in a way that the citizens can see it is beneficial to them. And, it commits to something up front and shows we are interested in the non-arterial street needs. #2207 M/S/C/U(Johnson/Colvin) to approve ordinance, on first reading, as amended imposing upon consumers an additional one- quarter percent (1/4%) excise tax on real property sales. 7B - ORDINANCE (FIRST READING) BONDS FOR MUNICIPAL CONTRACTS, #AB 91-145 Under RCW 39.08, a bond is required of any person/organization who contracts with the City to perform work. Cities are granted authority to determine by ordinance the bond amounts, provided that they are not less than 25% of the contract price. Ian Sievers, City Attorney, stated this would take advantage of a local option that is provided in State law that performance bond requirements for public works and in certain types of projects the City may want to set less than 100% bond, resulting in eventual savings on the project. Public comment - none. Mr. Waibel stated while he agreed with the originator of the Ordinance, this would place an additional burden on Council. In the past, there was a strict 100% bonding in place and that may have made it difficult for local people to bid on City projects. The City does want to use local businesses but we don't want the City to be taken advantage of either. We will need to make sure, when reviewing contracts, that this will be one of the items to be reviewed by the Council to see if we agree with reduction of bonding. Mr. Estes questioned what guarantee do the taxpayers of this City have that these jobs will be completed? Mr. Sievers stated this proposal would reduce the security requirement and the City could always sue the contractor and if they go bankrupt the surety could be sued. Hopefully, this would be provided on only those contracts where we are recovering some value on the project as the project proceeds, so that the City would not be at risk on those types of projects. If the surety company goes broke, that could present a problem for the City. There is review of the credit worthiness of the surety. Mr. Estes questioned if there was any advantage to TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 9 of 11 the City to do this? Mr. Sievers stated he believed there was and this would make the contracts more available to local bidders. Actually, all the costs are passed along to the City when bids are made on projects and the City can require less of performance bond, thereby reducing the cost of the public works project. Mr. Johnson questioned who would decide what the reduction of bond would be and what would that decision be based on? Mr. Sievers stated it would be an up front decision made by the administrator and in most cases that would be the City Engineer since he puts together the bid specs for public works contracts. He would have to make an assessment and the contract would be bid based on that as one of the requirements. Mr. Johnson stated he had a concern if he were an administrator and he had a limited budget and bids on a project came in high he might negotiate away the bond in order for it to come in on budget. Or, in making a decision as a Council member he might be influenced to make a decision based on a cost savings for a particular reason, such as paying the insurance. He did not know how Council will know when that decision was made to cut back on the contract costs. Mr. Sievers noted as Councilman Waibel stated perhaps this would be something that would need to be flagged when the acceptance of the bid was brought back to Council. Mr. Johnson stated he would feel more comfortable if the Risk Manager had input or we knew that there was concurrence from that area. Kathleen McOluskeV, City Clerk, stated there is concurrence from the Risk Manger through her review of the contract prior to its going out for bid. The requirement for bonding and who the surety company is, do go through the Risk Manager for review. President Morton questioned if there are types of projects that, by their nature, tend to be more high risk, in which case by Administrative Policy those would be deemed as 100% bond requirement and/or a minimum reduction in the bond? Mr. Sievers noted that was the point when tearing up streets to put in sewers could leave streets torn up, which is a lot worse than when the project was started. When building a building from a piece of flat land the City would be getting value as the project progressed. Mr. Johnson expressed concern with what would be considered appropriate bonding level three years hence. He would like to make the assumption that a project is 100% bonded and if it isn't he wanted to know why not. Mr. Waibel stated the City has had problems in this area and that was why part of the "boiler plate" contract needed one TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 10 of 11 section devoted to "bonding" and that section should be checked each time a contract came to Council. Ms. McCluskey stated unfortunately the contract approval by Council comes after the steps allowed after bid award. Mr. Waibel stated he would assume the administrator would make sure they had good reasons for reducing the bond. Ms. McCluskey stated the intent of this proposal was that the City would get better bids if it had more flexibility in bonding requirements. And, as stated by the City Attorney, the City Engineer is the one who would most likely be making those recommendations. She did not believe the project would be affected under the scenario of not having enough money because the administration is so conscious of the City's liability and exposure that would be of more importance than what dollar amount the bids would come in. The Legislature changed this law to give cities more 'flexibility and that is what the City is attempting to do. Mr. Johnson expressed concern that there was no policy guidance. He suggested checking with some of the other larger cities, such as Seattle and Tacoma and see if they are doing the same thing. Mr. Morning pointed out what is done is to set policy in advance and you don't negotiate it after the contract is let to reduce the price. Council does set policy and that was where he saw the most critical area and why he was uncomfortable with passing this ordinance at this time. He stressed that Council needed a "policy discussion" on this issue and that it was a far bigger arena to be concerned with than is realized. He encouraged Council to not approve this proposal but to set up a time to study the issue. He questioned if there was a particular project that the administration wanted to reduce the bonding? Mr. Sievers stated the Public Works Complex project specs were being developed. Mr. Estes expressed concern that something might happen on a project in Bremerton similar to the disaster of the 1-90 Bridge in Seattle. Mr. Colvin stated he was not prepared to vote on this issue and desired further study of the proposal. TAPE #926 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes May 29, 1991 Page 11 of 11 #2808 M/S/C/U(Horning/Johnson) to continue this item up to three weeks while staff prepares some discussion on this item. with no further business meeting adjourned at 6:52 p.m. KATHLEEN L. McCLUSKEY, C{ty Clerk , Council President City of Bremerton KLM/LH/me cc: Normal Distribution File/Vault