Report from Joe Beaver, Gold Bar Resident, Titled:

"JOE'S CITY COUNCIL MEETING NOTES

TUESDAY DECEMBER 05, 2006"

The following are from my notes taken at the council meeting.  They are not intended to be minutes of the meeting.  My comments are in italics.

Tuesday was a regular council meeting.   All council persons were in attendance except for Lonn Turner who had pneumonia.  Laura Koenig, Sultan City Clerk and Cheryl Beyer, from the City Attorneys office, were in attendance.  Chief Ruchty, Laura Kelly, and John Light were in attendance.

AGENDA APPROVAL

Jerry Wood asked that an Emergency Shelter Preparedness discussion be added to the agenda.  The agenda with that change was approved 4-0.

MINUTES APPROVAL

Minutes for October 03 and 17 were approved 3-0.  Robert abstained as he was not present at those meetings. 

WARRANTS APPROVAL

Payroll warrants were approved 4-0. 

MAYOR’S REPORT

There was no Mayor's Report due to the potential length of the meeting.

STAFF REPORTS

John Light discussed the Tree Lighting ceremony at 5 PM the coming Sunday, December 10, that First Street bids were going out, and the US 2 Open House that would be held Wednesday, December 6 at 5 PM.

Laura Kelly had no report to make.

Chief Ruchty had no report to make.

COUNCIL COMMENTS

Dorothy, Richard, and Jerry had no comments to make.

Robert thanked the staff and Laura Koenig for their work in developing the preliminary budget presentation.  He noted that the Snohomish City and Towns Association was setting up their legislative lobbying priorities for 2007.  Their goals were to decrease the number of car thefts it took to get prison time (now it is 7), be able to use the REIT Tax for Park Maintenance in addition to Park Acquisition, and to support the US2 Route Development Plan and US2 Safety Coalition.

CITIZEN COMMENTS

Lee Gerry reported an accident on First Street from two weeks ago and asked when the speed bumps were due to be installed.  He noted that there were a lot of robberies in town, a car theft, and break-ins.  He did some sidewalk duty and was advised of potential liability problems with him doing this.  There was a discussion between John, Robert, Lee and Jerry on the speed bumps.  The conclusion was that John would bring two locations for the bumps to the Council at the next regular meeting for approval.

Al White discussed a theft at his neighbor's house.  She called 911, was told that they were too busy to respond immediately, and that a Deputy showed up two days later.  Crystal told him to have his neighbor contact City Hall directly about this issue.  Richard said that he lives across the street from the neighbor and someone did open his garage door that day, but did not take anything.  Robert said we need to raise revenue to add an additional officer and wanted the issue of raising additional revenue added to the next meeting agenda.  Richard and Jerry agreed to this.

Mike Moore said he lives and works on First Street and knows that the traffic is too fast and there are too few officers to patrol the street effectively.  He questioned the speed bumps, saying that kids would use them as skateboard jumps with the potential of someone getting run over.  Laura Kearney said she would rather see speed bumps slow down traffic, that we have to do something.  Lee Gerry said he has seen kids on skateboards being pulled behind a car at 30-35 mph on First Street.  Jerry said he thought the speed bumps would be too shallow for an effective skateboard jump.

NEW BUSINESS

VARIANCE FOR 1ST AVE WEST RESIDENCE

John discussed the variance for a new home to be built with a 70 foot setback from May Creek, against a Shoreline Master Plan requirement of 100 feet.  The house will replace an older residence at the same location.  Other residences there were built before the Master Plan and are about 70 feet from May Creek.  There were no comments received against the plan, all neighbors were OK with it, no agencies responded against it.  Robert asked if there was anyone against the site plan, John said no.  Richard said the site plan showed the drain field within 20 feet of the road, a violation of standard practice.  John said the field was moved from between the house and May Creek to between the house and the road and that it could probably be moved back a few feet to meet the 20 foot requirement.  There was a lot of discussion about what could be discussed as the owners were present at the meeting.  It turned out that the drain field had already been moved back and the variance passed 4-0.

Robert asked if the Council could see the documents when the Planning Commission sees them.  Cheryl Beyer spoke at length, evidently saying "No".  Dorothy said that Richard could have cleared up the 20 foot issue by talking with John before the meeting.  Richard said it was just a curiosity question, not something that would have affected his vote.  Dorothy then noted that a new policy was not needed concerning planning documents.

MAY CREEK BRIDGE CONTRACT

John said the additional $ 45 K needed for the bridge was received from the TIB, in a match format.  He noted that the Council needed to approve the addendum in order to get the money.  Crystal said this was more of an accounting issue, moving existing money around.  The addendum passed 4-0.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANNING

Jerry noted that he had been working with John on a worst case scenario emergency plan.  He assumed an earthquake and flood occurring at the same time, with the Wallace River dike breaking and no significant outside help available for two weeks.  Based on his investigations of expected flood areas, he came up with 200 homes being destroyed, with 500 people displaced.  He and John had developed a budget for shelters, blankets, sleeping bags, food, water, and supplies for 14 days for a total of $ 42,100.  John said he felt there would be grants available to help with this, Jerry felt we needed to do something now.  Robert said there were citizens willing to help out, did they want to form a committee.  Jerry said that Lonn and Ray Coleman had already been working on some of these things.  There were various discussions for a while, then Crystal indicated things should finish up.  Robert asked what action items were needed.  Jerry said we should buy shelters and blankets for $ 8,400.  Crystal said to put that amount into the budget discussion.

BUDGET WORKSHOP

Robert asked what the budget approval process was, Crystal described the public hearing process of two hearings.  Robert said he had talked to the City Attorney and that after the final public hearing, no substantial changes could be made to the budget.  There was an extended discussion on due dates.

Laura Koenig presented the budget.  My summation of the budget is:

                        Expected City Revenues                $    852,455

                        Expected City Expenses                 $    644,061

                        Expected Water Revenues             $    346,800

                        Expected Water Expenses             $    267,006

                        Expected Tank Grants                     $    261,150

                        Expected Tank Expenses               $    250,000

                        Expected Bridge Grants                  $  1,549,230

                        Expected Bridge Expenses            $  1,549,230

The budget was the first draft, created from previous years data and consultations with city staff and Laura Koenig on a volunteer basis.  The numbers are expected to change during the review.  This draft indicates revenues exceeding expenses by a comfortable margin.        

Robert asked what the $ 1,000 in Council Benefits was for.  There was a discussion concerning the status of Council Members.  Previously they had been paid as independent contractors with a 1099 form at tax time.  It was explained that the new Small Towns State Auditor had said this was incorrect, that they needed to be employees of Gold Bar and the $ 1,000 was for Social Security payments.

There was a discussion of Prosecuting Attorney charges, the need for them, and the uncertainty in what they would be, as they depend on the number of cases handled which depends on the number of criminal actions that would occur in Gold Bar. 

There were miscellaneous discussions on line item costs, including the cost of dog food for the city kennel.  The discussions were paused at about 8:30 PM so that any citizens who wished could make their end of meeting comments. 

CITIZEN COMMENTS

Ray Coleman discussed the Green Water Meadows meeting at the Fire Station and the Flood Insurance Rate Map meeting in Sultan.

Mike Moore asked about the 3% increase in law enforcement, if this was a new contract.  Crystal said it was just a cost of living increase and she was looking into the contract to check the actual costs.  Mike noted that the crime problem is not the Sheriff's doing, they are simply following the contract.  Robert said he was looking into this problem.

Chuck Lie said that Lee Gerry's question on sidewalk maintenance was never answered.  He noted that there was no money in the budget for storm drain repair and maintenance.  During the flood time, there was standing water on May Creek Road that could not be easily seen by car drivers and cars would hit the standing water.  Cheryl Beyer said that there is no way to say someone would not sue someone else.  She noted that most cities have an ordinance requiring the homeowners to clean the sidewalks in front of their homes.  John said that Gold Bar has such an ordinance, but it is not pushed.  Crystal said that poor design engineering of the south side drain on May Creek Road was evidently the problem causing the standing water.  John agreed and said they pumped water from the old sump into the new sump provided with the Wallace River Estates development and the new sump took the load.

NEW BUSINESS CONTINUED

Dorothy asked John about the status of the Well 4 pump.  John discussed the status.

Robert then pushed for a street light on 13th Street and US 2 in the budget.  Cheryl Beyer, Laura Koenig, and Crystal all noted that the homeowners pay for new street lights in established areas and cities pay for operational costs.  Jerry said he didn't think that was fair for a street light that would serve multiple residences.   

Cheryl Beyer suggested that to stay on schedule, the Council get out a bare bones budget and not go into great detail on new items.  She continued that it was not necessary to adjust line by line at this time, that Gold Bar simply needs a balanced budget to meet state requirements.  The Council can then schedule planning and budgeting issues over the first few months of 2007.

Laura Koenig said that the Council can amend the budget at any time.  She continued that good ideas were presented, but to get notes to staff for costing and timelines.

Richard emphasized that the Council should meet in a retreat or other venue to set goals for the city and that the budget finalization should come out of that effort. 

The next meeting was set for Tuesday, December 12.  The meeting was adjourned until that time.