• SIGN ORDINANCE HEARING - rescheduled to March 5^th council meeting
• LID 97-1: SPECIAL MEETING ON SEGREGATION OF LID ASSESSMENTS for Mayor Rowe's and Janie Botting's properties; Foster, Pepper & Shefelman counsel Lee Voorhees advised city that Mayor Rowe should divulge the buyer of his property and that Planning Commissioner Janie Botting needs to privately resolve existant legal problems with the purchaser of a portion of her property on the east end (Snohomish PUD; the warranty deed failed to include LID assessment), with a recommendation that the city not approve requested segregation until that is done. Even though not required by law, Voorhees made the recommendation that the city author a standard notice/explanation to prospective buyers/sub-dividers/developers of LID 97-1 property of the need for assessment segregation.
• PARKING ZONE RESOLUTION: On hold pending determination of city's ability to post "no parking" signs along Rt. 2. Re issues in Eagle Ridge, Councilmember Raney made an oft-heard statement from many that such problems are the result of approval of sub-standard developments.
• RUBBER STAMPS (SIGNATURES) BY CITY EMPLOYEES: Mayor Rowe expressed no knowledge that anyone other than he had a rubber signature stamp; Councilman Raney suggested that some city functions -- such as building permit issuance -- should require an original signature.
• TOUR OF SULTAN BUSINESSES for Council/Planning Commission great success; plans to do one again next year. Businesses visited: Northwest EMC, Industrial Fabrication, East Teak, Werner Paddles, Pure Foods, Honeymead Wine and Steve Gould's warehouse/kayak manufacturing facility.
• LID 97-1 BOND SALE FINALIZED; Bank of America has committed to sale of $3.6 million in bonds (Jane Towery: "We have met with some success."). Have sold $1.7 million thus far.
• ORD. 803-02, EMPLOYEE SALARIES passed unanimously; Jeff Everett requested that J. C. Becker be included.
• POST OFFICE LEASE - Thanked ex-councilmember Bob Ostrom for his work; a bill for services will be sent.
• PUBLIC DEFENDER SERVICES: Will expand selection base by requesting bids from others. PD Chief Walser indicated public defender services cost $20,350 in 2002 and $24,214 in 2001, and a private Pub. Defender is more cost effective.
• SULTAN FLAG - Donna Murphy will work with school again, as she did on the Sultan Gateway sign, on a design. Anything more than 3 colors gets "spendy" (per Mayor Rowe).
• COUNCIL RETREAT will begin at 9:00 A.M. March 30^th in the Sultan Community Center; Open to the public, with the exception of periods where executive sessions may be necessary.
• COUNCIL MEETINGS' LENGTH: Councilman McPherson made the logical suggestion to hold executives sessions before council meetings. While no vote was taken, this seemed to gain a consensus, and Mayor Rowe indicated future compliance with this suggestion. Councilmembers Raney and Boucher both felt the solution to shortening meetings was better time and meeting management. (We certainly concur. Two glaring examples of time management are; (1) once a subject has reached an impasse, i.e., when it's obvious that questions need more information before a decision can be made and questions start to come around again for a second time, it's clearly time to stop the discussion by requesting that more information be presented at a subsequent meeting; and (2) insist that councilmembers and the mayor keep Laura apprised of their schedules before each meeting, so that 10-20 minutes of painfully slow and frustrating time isn't spent trying to "find" a free date for all. It's basic time management, folks.
• FREE POLICE VEHICLES: Chief Walser is researching a company that is "giving away" new police cars for $1. The catch? Advertising on those vehicles. Tentative support seemed to exist among the council and Attorney Graafstra, but Fred was directed to research this in greater depth. One thing all councilmembers seem to agree on: advertising for donuts should be avoided.
• HARDWARE/SOFTWARE UPGRADE FOR PD: Chief Walser requested, and was granted, $1,421 for the purchase of a new Dell computer. Chief: "We are in serious need of technical and computer upgrading." Software upgrade is another problem area. Their reporting system is currently awkward and extremely time-consuming, requiring computer forms to be filled out manually, then printed out, then having the data entered into their current software program called "Expeditor," the licensing fee for which costs $3,600 annually. Chief Walser has been working with Monroe on an entirely new state-of-the-art reporting system called "Justice." Monroe's initial cost is $36,900 and Sultan could "tail-gate" onto theirs for about $10K. Questions remained on issues such as annual licensing fees, and the Chief was directed to proceed tentatively with a plan to dovetail onto Monroe's system, but more information is still required before any decision will be made. (A side benefit to "Justice" is that WSP's dispatch uses it, which fits in nicely with Sultan's switch from SnoPac dispatch.
• CLOSING OSPREY PARK'S restrooms during the winter: No firm decision yet made, but several suggestions given to try and curtail "nasty" activities in those facilities: close them only at night, give keys to teachers for sporting events, etc.
• MEDALIA CLINIC CLOSING: Mayor Rowe will be out of town today and may not be back in time for the Rally, but said, "I do support having a clinic in town." During Councilman Jimmy Porter's report of a committee meeting with the Snohomish County Health Department and his suggestion that Sultan craft a resolution on this issue, Councilman Mark Raney said there's a draft resolution already in circulation and being reviewed by Monroe and Gold Bar.

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