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Home My WebLink About12-08-2003MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE December 8, 2003 The regular meeting of the Planning and Community Development Committee was held December 8, 2003 in Room 1 of the Auburn City Hall. Those members in attendance were as follows. MEMBERS PRESENT: Trish Borden, Stacey Brothers and Sue Singer GUESTS: Bill Peloza Staff Present: Mayor Lewis, Paul Krauss, Dan Held, David Osaki, and Carolyn Brown The meeting was called to order by Chair Borden at 5:00 p.m. ACTION: The minutes of the November 24, 2003 meeting were approved as written. 1. Ordinance No. 5802- Amending Chapter 2.06 of Auburn CC titled "City Council". 2. Resolution No. 3630- Food Concession Agreement was approved after some discussion to clarify a statement regarding peanuts and sun flower seeds. Also, committee asked staff to correct two typos in the text. INFORMATION Dan Held, City Attorney, presented possible changes or explanations to sections of Chapter 2.06 of the Auburn City Code (ACC) titled "City Council". Staff has plugged in codified statements and captured the practice of the City Council. Staff removed information that didn't need to be in the ordinance. Over the years, Auburn had entered statements into the code that weren't necessary and the City Council was not as flexible as it could be. Some of the information was not required to be in ordinance form. City Attorney Held had a handout for the Council members and had hi-lited certain statements that could be removed. Chair Borden had several chapters of discussion including deciding where one sits - should it be the Mayor or Committee-on-Committee; and the question that all ordinances and resolutions should be in writing. City Attorney Held said a resolution or ordinance can still be brought to the floor and voted on during a meeting, but has to be in writing after the fact. Chair Borden would like to see that added to the Council rules. Member Brothers wanted to know the reason behind deadlines for agendas and does it affect the advance notice requirement. City Attorney Held said the code was amended as to how agendas are developed and the more permanent a decision it should usually be an ordinance, but that is not a true statement 100% of the time. Member Brothers asked what prompted the ordinance and the timing of this project. City Attorney Held said staff researched other cities procedure and found that Auburn is more formal and these changes will make the City Council more flexible and they can always vote to suspend the rules. Also, as far as the timing, this has been a long term project for staff. Other discussions were on section 7.1 - counterpoint not debate; 8.3 - the mayor can break a tie except where prohibited by law (i.e.-taxes); 8.8 - a motion to table is non-debatable; 11 - the protocol on Public Hearing. Also, Chair Borden would definitely like to see the Council rules made available on a table at the back of the room during meetings. Section 15.3 -if one councilmember requests information, the information is routed to all council members. Chair Borden said she would like to see all the department heads have the memo when a request is made from a councilmember. Planning Director Krauss added that this also can shield staff from extra ordinary demands on staff time. Also, the committee would like to make sure that the Public Works committee and Muni Services "dove tail" their meetings. PAGE 1 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE December 8, 2003 On section 16.2 the committee discussed how council members are appointed to other committees, i.e. King County committees. City Attorney Held said that it should be made clear as to where and when the City is the appointee. Member Singer added that the Mayor designates for ratification by the City Council. In case a council member would prefer not to be appointed to a outside committee, the council member should have the ability to accept or not accept a position on another regional or national committee. There was some discussion on payment of expenses and on that the council member should ask the Mayor. Member Singer asked about Section 15.4, which address influence of staff. City Attorney Held agreed to change to "undo influence". Planning Director Krauss stated that council members are regularly asked to set on interview panel in order to hire consultants to the City. On section 2.6, Member Brothers asked for clarification whether this is referring to City Council meetings or committee meetings. City Attorney Held said like council meetings, committee meetings are public meetings. Planning Director Krauss added that if a meeting needs to be cancelled the chair has to be contacted in time to publish a notice to the public. Member Brothers also had a question on section 3.8, which would set a limit of 15 minutes to speak on a topic. City Attorney Held answered that again the presiding officer can make exceptions. At any given time the City Council can suspend the rules to allow for a longer time for the public to speak. On section 7.4 which covers transgression of the council, City Attorney Held stated that this gives the presiding officer the ability to ask someone to refrain from making additional comments or gives the presiding officer the ability to interject into a situation in order to calm the situation. Section 8.6 covers abstention, which can be a grey area, but it gives the ability to let others determine if a member should abstain. Member Brothers asked if asked if a person should participate at all. City Attorney Held stated that a person should actually absent themselves from the room and have no contact with other council members. Chair Borden asked for City Attorney Held to please make the changes discussed tonight and circulate the changes. City Attorney Held said he will do as noted. 2. Olson Creek habitat restoration project grant was presented Eric Hagen, Environmental Protection Manager. He asked if the committee members had any objections regarding the funding. The grants coordination indicated the process needs to be done before the end of the year, because the King County reviewer need to go through the process. Planning Director Krauss asked Eric to write an agenda bill for the December 15, City Council meeting and to get a resolution number assigned to the agenda bill. Member Singer asked if the restoration will be expensive to maintain. Eric answered that maintenance is an unknown factor. This area is different because it is a community resource. It would be environmental and resource issues more then anything, so hopefully there would be community stewardship. Member Singer asked who would do the upkeep. Eric said the steelhead and trout clubs would like to participate. Also, there has been good participation from school districts and King County would organize the participants. Member Singer recommend approval and this was seconded by Member Brothers, with concurrence by Chair Borden. On the information items section of the agenda, Planning Director Krauss said of the Downtown Plan implementation matrix, the City intends to keep moving forward. There is a $30,000 grant for the Auburn Way South corridor and includes pedestrian traffic. Community Development Administrator will reintroduce the matrix in 2004 to the new council members. PAGE 2 MINUTES OF PLANNING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE December 8, 2003 Planning Director Krauss also spoke on item 2 on this section of the agenda. There has been correspondence with the Port of Seattle trying to resolve the issues on land in the north section of Auburn along 277th. Under Phase II of the agreement, the Port wanted the City to buy right-of-way in such a manner that was adverse to the City. The Port wanted to charge the City 2003 prices, During a recent meeting, agreement was reached on the issues. The City already owns a 60 foot right-of-way across the Port property. Also, the Army Corp of Engineers keeps moving their parameters and demanding more wetlands. The next meeting scheduled will be with the Economic Development people. The committee discussed the location of the port property and asked about the 'T' Street extension. Planning Director Krauss said it will be a collector street, from 277th to Auburn Way North, with signalized intersections. Chair Border stated that she will miss being On the PCDC when her term is up on the City Council. The meeting adjourned at 6:25 pm. PAGE 3