Audio Index and summary of May 11, 2005 Sultan Council Meeting - Agenda packet (Word, Acrobat)
(All audio files are MP3)
Audio File #1 (10 minutes, 1.8 mb)
Changes to Agenda: Boyd: Request to add Discussion Item re permitting of binding site plans
Comments from Public:
Dan Barmon: Thanked G.R.I.T. for recording Sultan meetings. He plays these recordings for friends and customers and it's interesting to hear what goes on, and what action is taken, and what is not taken. Regarding his permit - he receives a caution from City Attorney Graafstra that his comments on his site-specific issue will not be part of the record and he cautioned council members not to respond to matters that might come before them later in a quasi-judicial setting. Mr. Barmon continued by stating the city should be able to resolve his problems without him having to initiate an expensive hearing examiner procedure. He does not feel it's cost-effective for any business owner to apply for improvements or permitting because the city requires property owners to jump through too many hoops.
John (??) - Items required to complete his Eagle Scout project.
Vicki Perea McIntyre - Requests another Police Officer, hopefully who can address speeders along 3rd Street.
Audio File #2 (6 1/2 minutes, 1.2 mb)
Opening Council Member Remarks/comments:
Champeaux: Comments on Barmon, 3rd Street speeding issues and raises problem with people crossing the street across from the Medical Clinic/Pharmacy/espresso stand; comments by Connie Dunn re Community Transit's feedback on this subject.
Audio File #3 (10 minutes, 1.7 mb)
Criswell Expressed concerns that the City has paid for Sultan Police Officer training. Requested who authorized the expense for the training. Tolson requested that Chief Walser respond.
Chief Walser I'm curious as to what kind of training the City wants its police officers to have? The reason behind it is, in reviewing the growth that is occurring in East County, and the fact that Cadman prevailed in their appeal [for an expansion of their Gold Bar plant] and has continued to open up their gravel pit east of Gold Bar, which has placed roughly 300 truck trips for per through the city of Sultan and all the attendant issues involved with that, I thought it would be prudent to train an officer to do weights and vehicle inspections. And in researching that, I found out that the City when a truck is cited and weighed by a certified officer, the city will get 80% of fines back for that citation. In some cases that runs into thousands of dollars for overweight trucks. The second thing is that the officers are certified to do vehicle safety inspections for NHTA National Highway Transportation Association, for which they have paid the city $25 per inspection, in addition to whatever citations they make. It also allows the police officers to gain access to loads and illegal loads, other issues that we do not now do. And Scott Berg, the officer who was just here, has been certified and is working on [unintelligible] vehicle enforcement. And as I said, the class that he attended was funded by the state. And we are working on an agreement right now to gain access to the scale house right here at the city limits to utilize the state's facility for this purpose. And Berg is going to be cross-training with one of their weight people, troopers, in the very near future, probably next week or the week after, for a short period of time so he can become fully familiar with their procedures. That's the specialized training that I sent him to. I also attend to send officers to other types of training to upgrade our capability to handle criminal events in the city. And that has not been the case in the past. I've sent officers to homicide investigation school. I'm sending two to blood splatter and spray school, [unintelligible] classes. I have to keep - in order to have a professional police department that is able to handle all the crimes that come before us, we have to train. And it's ongoing all the time. That's a fact of life. The other side of it is the liability issues that come with not training an officer are enormous. And I imagine [unintelligible] that basic training, I'm not sure what that really is or how to respond to that. But my position as chief is trying to give the citizens of this city the best trained, best-equipped police department that their budget can afford.
Criswell I'm not saying this is a bad thing, Fred. I'm just wondering - we discussed that at quite length in council, if I remember correctly… And if you're so - if you wadn't (sic) afraid you was gonna be told no, you would've brought it up and you probably would've got a yes on it anyway. But we do these things - And I didn't want to bring this up in front of the council. But this is the way it is. You do these things, and then we hear about them after the fact. If you bring them up and say, This is what I'm thinking about doing, great, you'd probably get all the blessings in the world, but you don't do that.
Tolson Well, Rob, to address that, this was brought up to myself that [train whistle blew; obliterating some words] was something that was [unintelligible]. That they were looking at as a free option for training with that. And I don't recall - [unintelligible] my taking in opposition -
Criswell No sir. That's the [unintelligible] we just had a couple months ago. [unintelligible].
Tolson The issue of that, in light of that, with the budget freeze that we are still under, presented as a free opportunity with regards to training, I was -
Criswell That's fine. What I'm saying is, why can't we tell - or anybody - tell the council what's going on so we've not blindsided by these questions out on the street?
Tolson Well, let's back up a little bit here. Were you blindsided by this question?
Criswell Yes, I was.
Tolson by whom?
Criswell Well, that's a private….citizen and I, I can't reveal.
Tolson Are you sure it was a private citizen and not a public official at an accident scene?
Criswell I'm absolutely sure. [unintelligible] because I talked to him about it and he's the one [unintelligible]. I actually asked about the first one.
Tolson I think this issue could be brought up in another timeframe at another time, but I believe that, uh…we may need to move on with this.
Criswell That's fine. I [unintelligible] --
Chief Walser Mr. Mayor, I could say this was brought up by me two months ago I mentioned Scott Berg by name and what he was doing and the fact that he was going to [unintelligible]. I'm unaware and surprised at - if I'm surprising the council, I certainly need to know that, because I try to keep you, Mr. Mayor, and the council updated on where they're going, what they're doing, what the training is, [unintelligible]. If it costs "X" number of dollars, I have to go through you anyway. And this was free training. As was the training in [unintelligible] Alabama that I sent an officer to.
Derek Boyd Well, there's no, there's no free training, Fred. I mean, we [unintelligible] --
Chief Walser You pay them a salary. I'm talking about spending for the class.
Boyd [unintelligible] pay the overtime to cover that shift on the street. And it is costing.
Chief WalserWell, as a matter of fact, the sergeant and I cover their shifts, so we're not paying the overtime for that. I'm not trying to play games with this council or create surprises or anything else. I'm trying to create a professional, well-trained police department. That's all. That's the only agenda at work here.
Criswell I wanted to do this in executive session, but I was advised [unintelligible].
Tolson Would you like to set an appointment and meet with me?
Criswell Not really.
Tolson Well, I would like to get this thing -
Criswell If I have anything to say, I want the whole council on it.
Tolson Well, that's, that's fine as well. But I would like to get this hashed out, because there seems to be an ongoing issue that, that needs to be resolved.
Audio File #4 (3 minutes, 0.5 mb)
" No comments by Councilmen Boucher, Seehuus, Flower or Boyd.
" Kristina Blair Requested a copy of what John (Eagle Scout) needs.
" Brief comment by Student Representative.
" Councilmember Champeaux asked Donna Murphy about procedure for next year; this will be a subject for future discussions.
STAFF REPORTS
Audio File #5 (6 minutes; 1.1 mb)
Donna Murphy's Report:
" Discusses Downtown Visioning workshop to be held all day Sat., May 21st
" Recapped school evacuation drill procedures scheduled for the next day
" City will be purchasing camera for passport photos (which she believes will bring in an addl. $4,000 per year revenue for the city)
" Gave recap of Sultan's Centennial event 8:00 PM, Friday, May 20th
Audio
File #6 (3 minutes; 0.6 mb)
Connie Dunn's Public Works report:
First St. Bid opening resultings; Fifth St. bid opening; signage authorization from WSDOT for west sign, east sign will be moved further eastward past McDonald's.
Audio File #7 (6 1/2 minutes: 1.1 mb)
Chief Walser's Report: and brief report by Craig Bruner re # of permits this year.
Audio File #8 (30 seconds; 72 kb)
Consent agenda
ACTION AGENDA BEGINS
Audio File #9 - BUDGET AMENDMENT HEARING (in two parts, due to its 21-minute legnth)
File #9, Pt. 1 (9 minutes, 1.6 mb): First half of hearing.
File #9, Pt. 2 (12 minutes, 2.0 mb): Second half of hearing
VOTE: All ayes, except Criswell.
Audio File #10: ORD. 877-05: vacating Emory street right-of-way (1 minute; 251 kb)
VOTE: All ayes.
Audio File #11: JAIL SERVICE INTERLOCAL (in two parts, 14 minutes total)
File #11, Part 1 (9 minutes, 1.6 mb)
File #11, Part 2 (5 minutes, 0.9 mb)
VOTE: All ayes.
Audio File #12: ORD. 878-05 Cable Extension Agreement (3 minutes, 0.5 mb)
VOTE: All ayes.
Audio File #13: Spott Wireless Agreement (6 minutes, 1.0 mb)
VOTE: All ayes.
Audio File #14: 2005 Budget Amendment (first reading) (3 minutes; 0.6 mb)
VOTE: Boyd, Blair, Flower, Seehuus, Boucher, Champeaux, aye; Criswell, nay.
Audio File #15: Resolution 05-10 Shindig (4:42 minutes; 0.8 mb)
VOTE: All ayes.
Audio File #16: Resolution 05-11 Centennial Picnic (2 minutes; 0.4 mb)
VOTE: All ayes.
Audio File #17: 1st Street Sidewalk Bid Award (2:39 minutes; 0.5 mb)
VOTE: All ayes.
DISCUSSION AGENDA BEGINS
Audio File #18: Council Workshop re permitting (5 minutes; 0.9 mb)
Workshop date set for 6:30, Thursday, June 16th
Audio File #19: Citizen Workshop (a.k.a. town meeting) (3 minutes, 0.6 mb)
Workshop/town meeting set for 6:30, Wednesday, June 29th. (Boyd requested that Donna publish this on the City's website.)
Discussion regarding possible code changes needed, such as Binding Site Plan revisions, credits for size of an already-existing building if/when a new building is being replaced; council concensus that residential is taking precedence over commercial/industrial development; Tolson warns against "designer" codes; i.e., changing codes to accommodate site-specific or owner-specific needs.. (8 minutes, 1.4 mb)
Audio File #21 - PUBLIC COMMENTS (8 minutes, 1.5 mb)
Jay Emory, Vicki Perea McIntyre, Ryan Spott and Bill Pearson spoke.
Audio File #22 - COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS (2 1/2 minutes; 0.5 mb)
Criswell, Blair and Boyd had comments.
Audio File # 23 - EXECUTIVE SESSION RESULTS (3 minutes, 0.4 mb)