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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/10/90 JAN 2 1990 TAPE ~706 UNAPPROVED DRAFT CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES JANUARY 10, 1990 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, January 10, 1990 at 5:30 p.m., with Council President Spencer Horning. Council members present were Lon Overson, Wayne Estes, Lynn Horton, Hank Waibel, Morrie Dawkins, C. R. "Tiny" Collins, 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 Horning and Invocation was given by Councilman A1 Colvin. ELECTION OF CITY COUNCIL OFFICERS President Horning called for nominations for City Council President. Councilman Collins nominated Councilman Hank Waibel. Mr. Waibel stated even though President Horning made a very strong statement last week, in recent past there has never been a more divided City Council. He feels very strongly that the City of Bremerton is at a critical stage and the City Council, as a whole, needs to get behind the Mayor as a majority of the voters have - not just in words but action. His concern had been extremely obvious.., that the entire Council is not behind the Mayor in action; and last week Mrs. Horton publicly stated her support to work with Mayor Mentor. He assumes that Mrs. Horton is sincere in that commitment and with that he desired to withdraw his name from nomination for the position of Council President and nominated Mrs. Lynn Horton for the position of City Council President. And, in a spirit of cooperation he requested all Council members who supported him last week to support Mrs. Horton's nomination, making it a unanimous vote. He hopes this Council can forget this past election and get on with the business at hand of working for the citizens of Bremerton. t0040 M/S/C/U) (Waibel/Colvin) to cast a unanimous vote electing Councilman Lynn Horton to the position of City Council President. President Lynn Horton accepted the President's gavel and presided over the remainder of the meeting. President Horton called for nominations for City Council Vice President. Councilman Johnson nominated Councilman Morrie Dawkins ~0131 M/S/C/U(Johnson/Horning) to cast a unanimous vote designating Morrie Dawkins as City Council Vice President. Nomination carried unanimously. President Horton called for nominations for the position of Mayor Pro Tem. Councilman Horning nominated Councilman Russ Johnson. Councilman Estes nominated Councilman Hank Waibel. Vote taken as follows: Estes-Waibel; Horning-Johnson; Waibel- Waibel; Collins-Waibel; Dawkins-Johnson; Colvin-Johnson; Overson- Johnson; Horton-Johnson; Johnson-Johnson. Councilman Johnson was elected Mayor Pro Tem. CONSENT AGENDA A. Minutes Of Meeting - December 20, 1989, #ABg0-006 B. Minutes Of Meeting - December 27, 1990, #ABg0-007 ~0192 M/S/C/U(Waibel/Dawkins) to approve Consent Agenda as presented. CLAIMS/WARRANT REGISTERS Vouchers audited and certified by the auditing officer as required TAPE #706 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes January 10, 1990 Page 2 of 7 by RCW 42.24.080, and those expense reimbursement claims certified as required by RCW 42.~4.090, have been recorded on a listing which has been made available to the council. :0209 M/S/C/U(Colvin/Horning) on January 10, 1990, the Council does approve for payment those vouchers included and further described as follows: 102768 through 103032 in the total amount of $535,720.62 and Regular Payroll in the total amount of $329,182.66 COUNCIL MEMBER REPORTS Mr. Overson stated he was glad to be back, he did enjoy his trip to Germany. While visiting, he had the opportunity to study why German cities are so clean and found that the citizens take great pride in both their cities and their country. Also, they have street cleaning machines which drive on sidewalks thereby cleaning both streets and sidewalks. And, he related the City of Bremerton was listed in a news article in the January issue of Changing Times magazine, with Bremerton being included in the top 30 cities in the nation for employment growth between 1988 and 1995. He believes this is a good portent to the City and the City needs to get ready for such an influx of people. Mr. Estes reported he had already become involved in some complains from the citizens and was working to correct problems in the following area: old junk car on 9th and Broadway; a hazardous building - Burwell/Chester; toured a slum tenement and saw numerous violations which need to be addressed and the City needs Building Ordinances so people do not have to live in such poor conditions; Ethics Ordinance - he has three volunteers to work on rewriting the City's Ethics Ordinance and would like a City employee to volunteers as well; and he will begin this process in February. Mr. Homing stated he was very pleased with the new leadership of the City Council and the commitment of the whole City Council and the Mayor to continue to more forward for the betterment of the City. During the Executive Planning Council, which met this date, Mr. Don Hurst, Hazardous Materials Director/Bangor and the new Emergency Management Director Jeanie Grijalva made a presentation which was very interesting. Mr. Horning announced that Mr. Hurst and Ms. Grijalva would be speaking at the Council's February Study Session and invited anyone in the public interested in environmental issues to attend that meeting. Mr. Waibel also attended the Executive Planning Council this date and reported the Bremerton Police Department calls were up 7.84- 31,363 to 33,817; teletypes increased 4.84 - 26,534 to 27,882; Fire Department calls were down 2.54 over last year but aid calls were up by 264 and basically in the City 784 of the calls in the Fire Department were for aid in 1988 and 78.54 in 1989. Mr. Johnson thanked the Council for their support and noted in the Council Procedures it still calls for a "Mayor's Report" during a Council meeting, or allows for it, and he wanted Mayor Mentor to know that it is always available to him and he is welcome to use that opportunity. He too hoped the cooperation continues - there are 10 elected officials to deal with all the problems the City is faced with as well as all the activities that will be going on the next year. He also thanked Congressman Norm Dicks' office for their prompt response in sending requested information. In regard to recent Federal Communication Commission regulations relating to Syndication Exclusivity laws (SYNDEX) and the blocking out of Canadian television channels, he has received a number of complaints from citizens who are not happy with the elimination of Canadian channels from the Cable channel selection. He learned it was not the intent of the FCC that complete channels be blocked and if they have been eliminated then it is the local Cable TV companies decision to do so. Cable companies can blank out those TAPE #706 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes January 10, 1990 Page 3 of 7 program times when duplication of programming is encountered and fill those times with other programs. He noted there are a lot of ties between Puget Sound and Canada and the public is interested in what is happening in that area. What can the public do? First of all, it tends to be a local problem - let the local cable company operators know that the public wants to keep programming from Canada and he believes if enough people complain the local cable operators would respond to what is wanted locally. If the public is not satisfied with the FCC's ruling, they can write directly to the Director of the FCC: Mr. Alfred C. Sikes, FCC Commission, 1919 "M" Street N.W., Washington D.C., 20554. Dan Crocker, General Manger TCI Cablevision gave a brief update on SYNDEX and network non-duplication. When this ruling came into effect Olympic Cable and TCI were flooded with requests from stations for blackout. These requests have been forwarded to their legal department and have been pared down substantially - right now TCI has dropped CBUT but are continuing to receive KBOS but blacking them out about three hours per day. TCI will be leaving KBOS due to their efforts to buy programming which will be compatible with local stations. Mr. Crocker noted the FCC ruling is not short term. He was taking under advisement and looking into some suggestions offered by Mr. Johnson, which would consider the possibility of showing Canadian news on the Cable Access Channel during morning and evening hours. He was not sure this could happen, however, he was investigating the possibility. Mr. Johnson passed out a draft Resolution which addresses the issue of toll free telephone calling throughout Kitsap County and possibly Seattle; and would place it on the Council's Agenda for the January 17 meeting for their consideration. Mr. Colvin congratulated President Horton, Vice President Dawkins and Mayor Pro Tem Johnson on their elected positions. He also thanked the Cable Access TV Crew members for their dedication and service to the Council. He suggested that Council might look into the possibility of having a phone hook up in the Council Chamber whereby citizens could call in, either offering information or asking questions. Even though the new one-stop permit center was not a project which he initially supported, he feels that a good job is being done in the remodeling project. Mr. Dawkins congratulated the Council on the way the elections were handled. He related having had the opportunity to watch activities of a fatal accident on the Warren Avenue Bridge on Tuesday evening and commended the Police and Fire Departments for their quick response and handling of the situation. Mr. Collins thanked Police Chief McNeal for the good work - drug bust - the Police Department carried out in his District as well as District %6. Mrs. Horton thanked Mr. Waibel and his supporters for supporting her nomination as President. On Friday, January 5, she met with Puget Power regarding their planned tree pruning in her District and was very pleased with the result of that meeting. Puget Power provided a list of people to contact, phone numbers if there are any problems and if there are any problems the public encounte~ she invited them to call her at her residence or to call the City Council office. She reported Puget Power will be digging up and replacing some of the old poles which will involve mounds of dirt and if the mounds of dirt are not taken care of the same day please don't panic they will be removed. Methods of informing residents of the tree pruning activities included a notice attached to her front door as well as a follow up phone call. On Friday, January 5, Mayor Mentor, Kathleen McCluskey and Mrs. Horton went to Olympia to meet with the Transportation Commission on the Governor's Transportation and Gas Tax issue. She reported Mayor Mentor did a very good job addressing the Commission, keeping his speech short TAPE #706 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes January 10, 1990 Page 4 of 7 and to the point. Amongst a very long list of speakers, Mayor Mentor was the only one who addressed the ferries issue. If the gas tax is not approved and the passenger only ferry issue is not dealt with, the public must come together and put pressure on the legislature to provide the funds to get them back in operation. Mrs. Horton announced the showing of a series called "Our Planet Earth", on Channel 9 starting Monday, January 15. This program received excellent reviews and will give the public some idea what the City Council and other legislative bodies have to go through dealing with environmental concerns...clean air, clean water, landfill issues, etc. Mrs. Horton also thanked Chief McNeal for the recent Police activities in her district relating to recent drug arrests. PUBLIC RECOGNITION Vickie Vanneman, Assistant Superintendent, Parks and Recreation Department, introduced Debby Bogart, member of the part time recreation staff and who was involved in a program review which was conducted in 1987. A result of the program review identified program needs within the community and public awareness of the department's efforts. An area which was in need of improvement was the public awareness of the department functions/programs which brought about the Corporate Sponsorship Program. Through this program several companies have provided funding which is directed to advertising and promoting the Parks Department and sponsored programs. Ms. Vanneman thanked the following companies for their Corporate sponsorship/financial assistance: Parker Lumber, David Evans & Associates, TCL CLeaners and Superior Glass. Mayor Louis Mentor congratulated each of the newly elected Council officers and stated he looked forward to working with them; and he thanked Spencer Horning as past President, Hank Waibel as past Vice President and Marry Crutcher as past City Council member for their service and commitment to the City. He pointed out that he did not expect the Council to always come up with a 9-0 vote on issues and the public should not view that as being "dissension in the ranks". He reminded the public there are vacancies on the Parks Board of Directors, Planning Commission, etc., and he will be advertising in the newspaper, radio stations amd Cable Access Channel 29 for volunteers to fill those vacancies. If anyone is interested in serving on a Board or Commission please contact the Mayor's Secretary. Gordon Byrd, 402 Chester Apt. 3, stated as a continuing effort to obtain necessary funds to establish a home for the homeless he is working with a "grants" person as well as continuing his current fund drive. As of January 9, 1990 he has collected $377.98. He congratulated each new Council officer and encouraged them to keep up the good work. Also, if the City is interested in purchasing buildings at Burwell/Chester (Don's Grocery) - contact Jim Cramer at 593-3336 (Seattle), Mr. Colvin introduced Pastor Rachel of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. Pastor Rachel stated he recently relocated to the Bremerton area and was interested in becoming involved in the City, in the capacity as a Pastor. He looked forward to attending more Council meetings and learning more about Bremerton. 6A - INCAKCERATION OF CITY PRISONERS/ADDENDUMTO EXISTING CONTRACT WITH KITSAP COUI~T¥, ~AB90-003 Under Section 10(a) of the contract for Housing Prisoners, between the City of Bremerton and Kitsap County it states..."It is the intention of the parties that City pay to County the actual cost incurred by County in incarcerating City prisoners. In establishing the per diem fees it is not intended that County receive any profit...". TAPE #706 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes January 10, 1990 Page 5 of 7 Mr. Nogle, Director of Financial Responsibility for Kitsap County addressed the increase for 1990, projecting $42.16 (pg. #2 of letter) for one (1) prisoner, per day cost. The increase requested by Kitsap County, per the attached addendum, is $40.00 per 24-hour period to house one (1) prisoner. This is less than projected and agreeable with the Bremerton Police Department. Therefore, this will be an increase of $10.00 per day, per prisoner. The City is currently paying $30.00/day. This item was discussed at the January 3, 1990 City Council meeting and tabled for one week during which time Police Chief Del McNeal would gather additional financial information. Police Chief Del McNeal stated he had received the Kitsap County Jail's 1989 and 1990 budget documents. One of the questions raised related to expenditure of $1,100,000 by August of 1989 and why such a sharp rise in costs? The Kitsap County Under Sheriff explained that at that time they were under staffed and were working to improve staffing levels, which was accomplished by the end of that year. Their ending budget for 1989 amounted to $1.9 million and the 1990 budget is $2,089,355.00, which has been authorized by Kitsap County. When the bed-day is calculated from that budget it comes to a cost of $41.48 and the City is being requested to pay $40.00 per day. Mr. Johnson stated his question had not been answered and again questioned why costs rose from a little over $1 million to $2 million in such a short time. He doubted the total increase could be attributed to staffing. Chief McNeal stated three people were added last year and one more this year. Mr. Colvin questioned if the City had any other options for housing prisoners? Chief McNeal explained Kitsap County is the only jail in the County at the present time. Mr. Colvi~ questioned how much would i? cost if the City desired to get back into the jail business? Chief McNeal stated if the City built a brand new jail it would cost between $32,000/per bed to $66,000/per bed. A 50 bed jail would amount to approximately $2 million at that rate. To renovate the City's old jail there are a lot of questions that would have to be dealt with in bringing it up to acceptable standards. The greatest cost would involve staffing to do it properly. He re-emphasized that the requested $40.00 per day rate for costs is an accurate rate. Mr. Colvin questioned if adequate dollars were included in the Police Department's budget to meet this cost? Chief McNeal stated when jail services were budgeted for 1990 they looked at the $40.00/per day rate and the numbers of beds used over the past year as well as the possible use of "home detention" devices, which could save the City money. The jail budget was designed to have "home detention" devices in operation and the Municipal Court office is currently working on this proposal. He noted the home detention device costs only $5.00 per day, which would be a considerable savings to the City. Mr. Collins questioned what crimes would bring about a jail sentence? Chief McNeal explained assault, drinking, driving while intoxicated, fighting, etc. If someone commits a felony crime they would be dealt with under the County Court system not Municipal Court. The City averages about 25 people per day in jail. Mr. Collins questioned if Chief McNeal feels this is an inordinate amount of people in jail? Chief McNeal stated the activity within the City, considering the type of community Bremerton is, does generate a higher activity level than some other communities. Bremerton has a high rate for domestic violence crimes and people who are involved in this type of activity do go to jail. Once a person is before the Judge he, as Police Chief, has no influence over where the person might go...jail/home detention/probation. TAPE #706 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes January 10, 1990 Page 6 of 7 Chief McNeal feels use of the home detention devices may have a more long lasting effect on individuals than just sitting in jail. Mr. Johnson stated he was disappointed in the information provided as he did not feel it addressed the specific question as to what caused the jump from $1.2 million to $2.1 million jail costs. Chief McNeal stated he understood the question but whatever is going to be authorized by the County Commission will dictate the cost of bed days. Mr. Waibe~ stated from the discussion it is evident that the City desires to reduce the number of beds used per day by using some other alternative method, i.e., home detention devices, etc., or looking at the Federal regulations for jails, which are a little more in line with what the City's jail was. Possibly the City could look at those Federal regulations and bring back the City's jail with very little cost to the City. Chief McNeal restated his jail budget is built on the premise that costs will be reduced through home detention. If the Judge does not sentence people to home detention then the jail budget will not work. Mr. Waibel pointed out there are State and Federal mandates on who has to go to jail on specific crimes, so the City will have to come up with the best ways to manage incarceration of City prisoners. :1999 M/S/C(Overson/Horning) to approve the contract addendum to house City of Bremerton Police Department Prisoners in the Kitsap County Jail at the rate of $40.00 per day (24-hour) per prisoner. Vote: In Favor: Colvin, Dawkins, Collins, Overson, Estes, Horning Opposed: Waibel, Horton Abstained: Johnson 7A - ORDINANCE (FIRST READING) AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF A $1.75 MILLION TAX ANTICIPATION NOTE, ~AB90-008 As indicated in the attached projection, the City's General Fund operates in a deficit cash position for several months during the year. These deficits are due to timing differences between the fund's revenues and expenditures and the small average cash balance compared to the monthly cash flow. Issuance of a tax anticipation note is recommended as the most advantageous method of financing this cash flow. Rich Hanna, City Treasurer, stated it is important to point out the City is not running the operations of the City on borrowed funds. Because of timing differences between when the City is required to spend money and later when the property tax revenues are received it is necessary to have borrowed funds during the course of the year with which to finance those temporary cash flow deficits. They have investigated financial alternatives between doing the Tax Anticipation Note or issuance of interest bearing warrants. The alternative of using interest bearing warrants, which had been used in the City in years past, is approximately $35,000 more expensive than the Tax Anticipation Note issuance. The reason for this cost saving is because the City can borrow the money at a tax exempt interest rate and the surplus funds that are not necessary to meet the operations of the fund are available to invest at a higher yield in a taxable instrument. :2355 M/S/C/U(Collins/Dawkins) to approve Ordinance, on first reading, authorizing the issuance of tax anticipation notes for the purpose of paying City expenses pending the receipt of general City taxes; creating a note redemption fund; providing for the sale of those notes to Seattle-First National Bank of Seattle, Washington; and, because of its urgency, providing that this ordinance shall take effect immediately. TAPE #706 City Council Reg. Mtg. Minutes January 10, 1990 Page 7 of 7 With no further business meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m. KATHLEEN L. MCCLUSKEY, CITY CLERK APPROVED ' Council President City of Bremerton KLM/LH/me cc: Normal Distribution File/Vault