Council is still operating under the governor’s order placing a moratorium on public meetings. This meeting was once again conducted under the ZOOM program where each councilmember is located in a separate room, either at home or in City Hall, and attends the meeting via electronic participation.

City Hall remains closed except by appointment. This means that by calling 509.720.5000 or going online to www.spokanevalley.org you can make an appointment to visit with whomever you need to see, or better yet, conduct your business online. This mode of operation will remain in effect until the governor lifts the moratorium.

There was no Council meeting last week. At the previous week’s meeting, Council agreed to consider updating its participation in the Spokane County Hazard Mitigation Plan. City participation is required for compliance with the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Spokane Valley approved its participation in the original plan in 2007, updating its involvement in that plan in 2014. The County plan requires an update every five years, and the City is past the date for renewal. In order to qualify for federal assistance under the Disaster Mitigation Act, the City must officially adopt the Plan. Council unanimously approved Resolution 20-007 updating and reaffirming its participation in the County Hazard Mitigation Plan.

In other business, Council unanimously approved the Mayor’s appointment of James Johnson to represent the City on the Spokane County Human Rights Task Force. The appointment is for a four-year term expiring on March 31, 2024.

The City of Spokane Valley participates in the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). In 2005, the City qualified to become an ‘entitlement community.’ As such, it is authorized to receive federal funds for capital projects in the City.

Thus far, the City has elected to participate as part of the urban county, but every three years the City must decide to continue with that joint participation or choose a different course of action. The choices are:
1.    Receive CDBG funds directly from HUD.
2.    Enter into a joint agreement with Spokane County.
3.    Participate through the State CDBG program, or
4.    Participate as part of the urban county with Spokane County.

A joint agreement with the County continues the City’s acceptance of its entitlement status under federal guidelines and cedes administration of the program to the County. Further study, however, indicates that the allowance for the County to administer the City controlled plan under option #2 would not cover the County’s administrative costs.

The discussion presented other options which could serve to enhance or increase the City’s financial participation and/or representation on the advisory board. Council reached consensus to instruct staff to negotiate with the County increase the City’s share of allocated funds and increase its membership on the controlling board.

The Washington State Shoreline Management Act (SMA) requires the City have its own Shoreline Management Program (SMP). After an extensive public process, the City, in 2015, adopted its SMP, albeit two years after the intended date in 2013. The SMA requires a review by the City of its SMP every eight years, which in this case is due by June 30, 2021, and every eight years thereafter.
The Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) is offering a grant of up to $28,000 to assist in completing the SMP update. The City would hire a consultant to complete that update. Council reached consensus to apply for the grant and bring the matter back for consideration.

Council considered grant requests to the State Resource and Conservation Office (RCO) for 1) Development of Balfour Park, ($500,000), and 2) Acquisition of Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) land near Flora Road ($1,000,000). The request under #1 was postponed until future City and State financial conditions can be ascertained. The WSDOT/Flora grant, if approved by RCO, would require a 50% match and approval by the State Legislature. Council reached consensus to move forward with an application for the RCO grant.

In its first item of business, Council suspended the rules to move past the First Reading of Proposed Ordinance 20-005 to directly adopting it. The Ordinance calls for vacating approximately 380 feet of 12th Avenue, 13th Avenue, the alley between 12th and 13th Avenues and approximately 500 feet of Chronicle Road, encompassing 1.58 acres. The requested Right of Way vacation is immediately west of Carnahan Road, south of 8th Avenue and north of 14th Avenue. The request is made to allow development of the entire property without hindrance of ROW requirements. City code requires reimbursement to the City, which in this case amounts to $34,744.84 under the City’s formula. The motion to suspend the rules to proceed to passage without a Second Reading was unanimously approved.

At its last meeting, Council considered a request from a number of small businesses asking if the City might consider waiving the gambling taxes on punchboards and pull tabs for the first two quarters in 2020 due to the economic hardship being experienced by those small businesses that rely heavily on those revenues. In 2019, the City collected $76,573 from punchboards and pull tabs. The resultant loss of revenue would be approximately $19,000 for one quarter.

The matter was brought forward at this meeting in the form of a motion to suspend the rules and approve Ordinance 20-006 deferring remittance of gambling taxes on all gaming establishments for the first and second quarters of 2020 until September 30th for the first quarter and November 30th for the second quarter. Once again Council suspended its rules, passing the motion unanimously without a Second Reading.

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued a call for projects on February 18th for the BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) discretionary grant program. BUILD applications are due May 18th. If awarded, the funding must be obligated by September 30, 2022. The City’s interest in a BUILD grant would lie with the Pines/BNSF Rail Crossing, but there is not a strong likelihood that a BUILD grant would be awarded for it as a stand-alone project at this time. Council moved to proceed with the grant application to keep the Pines project visible to those making the grant decisions. Motion passed unanimously.

Spokane Valley Meals on Wheels, which feeds so many of our aged and infirm in the Valley, has been financially pressed by the events of these last few weeks. A request for an $8,000 grant to augment their available funding was approved unanimously by Council.

Spokane County has a Hazard Mitigation Plan for compliance with the federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Spokane Valley approved its participation in the original plan in 2007, and an update to that plan in 2014. The plan requires an update every five years, and the City is past the date for renewal. In order to qualify for federal assistance under the Disaster Mitigation Act, the City must officially adopt the Plan. Council reached consensus to place a resolution on a future agenda for consideration.

From the time of its construction, CenterPlace’s roof has been beset with problems. Lately a succession of leaks has reached the point of requiring buckets placed at various locations to catch the water. At a budget workshop in 2019, Council, after discussing the problem, directed staff to hire Architects West to provide consulting and design for replacing the roof. The resulting plan was to replace the existing tile roof with a metal roof for an estimated $532,000, which did not include contingencies for replacing the damaged infrastructure supporting the existing tile roof.

The three initial bids were rejected. The project design was updated, resulting in new estimates of $935,000 for a metal roof and $760,000 for an asphalt composition roof. These revised prices were based upon the mid-range of the rejected bid prices. The metal roof offers a 50+ year life. The composition roof offers 15-30 years but can be more inexpensively replaced when that becomes necessary. Considering these uncertain financial times, Council reached consensus on the lower cost solution recognizing that the current state of repair/replacement presents a problem that cannot be further delayed.

An opportunity to place electric automobile recharging stations at City Hall and CenterPlace has been offered via a grant from the State Department of Commerce. That grant would supply 50% of the cost, with the remaining 50% to be covered by Avista Corporation. Council reached consensus to direct staff to coordinate with Spokane Regional Transportation Commission and Avista on submission of the regional grant application.

Please note:
1. City Hall remains closed except by appointment under the Governor’s ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ order.
2. Next week’s City Council meeting (Tuesday, 4/21) is cancelled.

Under City Code, the City Manager has the authority to negotiate for and purchase real property on behalf of the City with approval of Council. By resolution in 2008, Council granted some authority to acquire real property, but the resolution proved to be unclear resulting in Council having to approve minor items such as stormwater and access easements that should and could be handled by the City Manager’s office.

 

Resolution 20-006 as written clarifies the intent of the City Code in the matter and limit the acquisition authority to $50,000 without Council approval. Motion to approve Resolution 20-006 passed unanimously.

 

Council over the past few meetings has been discussing acquisition of land from Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to be added to the City’s inventory of developable parkland. That property is located just east of Flora Road, south of the Union Pacific tracks and north of the Spokane River. It encompasses approximately 45.73 acres appraised at $2,091,600.

 

As Council considered the motion to purchase the property, it became apparent that under the City’s uncertain current financial circumstances Council was not inclined to commit to the purchase, but would consider continuing the discussion after the coronavirus threat had passed and the City’s financial condition was more certain. Council reached consensus to revisit that matter in 60 days.

 

However, the opportunity to apply for a grant from the Washington Recreation Conservation Office (RCO) to 1) Assist in the development Balfour Park (possible $500,000) and 2) Assistance with the purchase of the Flora/WSDOT property (possible $1,000,000). The application for the RCO grant(s) does not obligate the City to complete the purchase of the Flora/WSDOT property if financial conditions do not warrant, but a resolution of intent is required. The motion to approve Resolution 20-007 authorizing application for the RCO grant was withdrawn pending more information regarding the wisdom of submitting two possibly competing grant applications.

 

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued a call for projects on February 18^th for the BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) discretionary grant program. Projects are evaluated on safety, state of good repair, economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, quality of life, innovation and partnership. BUILD applications are due May 18^th. If awarded the funding must be obligated by September 30, 2022. The City’s interest in a BUILD grant would lie with the Pines/BNSF Rail Crossing, but there is not a strong likelihood that a BUILD grant would be awarded for it as a stand-alone project at this time. Another option is to not submit a BUILD application but support the County’s Bigelow Gulch individual application. No consensus was reached. The matter will be considered after additional discussion with the County takes place.

 

Recently a councilmember was approached by a small businessman asking if the City might consider waiving the gambling taxes on punchboards and pull tabs for the first two quarter in 2020 due to the economic hardship being experienced by those small business who rely heavily on those revenues.

 

In 2019, the City collected $76,573 from punchboards and pull tabs. The resultant loss of revenue would be approximately $19,000 for one quarter. Under current closures and reduced hours of operation, that figure promises to be much lower. Gaming revenue in 2019 from individual sources was: Punchboards and pull tabs, $67,000; Bingo and Raffles, 1,000; Amusement games, $13,000; and $285,000 from Card Games. Council directed staff to explore the impact of possibly deferring payment of those taxes until at least after September.

 

Council further discussed the impending reduction in Lodging Tax funds caused by the Governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” proclamation made on March 24^th. Oktoberfest has already announced it would not occur in 2020. Others might follow. Staff will contact the nine grant applicants to ascertain if their plans for the use of the allocated grant money will be carried out. With that information, Council will once again discuss options for equitably apportioning Lodging Tax funds.

 

In compliance with the Governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” edict, City Hall will remain closed except by appointment through May 4^th. For more information, please call 509.720.5000 or go to www.spokanevalley.org.

In its first item of business, Council suspended the rules to move past the First Reading of Proposed Ordinance 20-005 to directly adopting it. The Ordinance calls for vacating approximately 380 feet of 12th Avenue, 13th Avenue, the alley between 12th and 13th Avenues and approximately 500 feet of Chronicle Road, encompassing 1.58 acres. The requested Right of Way vacation is immediately west of Carnahan Road, south of 8th Avenue and north of 14th Avenue. The request is made to allow development of the entire property without hindrance of ROW requirements. City code requires reimbursement to the City, which in this case amounts to $34,744.84 under the City’s formula. The motion to suspend the rules to proceed to passage without a Second Reading was unanimously approved.

At its last meeting, Council considered a request from a number of small businesses asking if the City might consider waiving the gambling taxes on punchboards and pull tabs for the first two quarters in 2020 due to the economic hardship being experienced by those small businesses that rely heavily on those revenues. In 2019, the City collected $76,573 from punchboards and pull tabs. The resultant loss of revenue would be approximately $19,000 for one quarter.

The matter was brought forward at this meeting in the form of a motion to suspend the rules and approve Ordinance 20-006 deferring remittance of gambling taxes on all gaming establishments for the first and second quarters of 2020 until September 30th for the first quarter and November 30th for the second quarter. Once again Council suspended its rules, passing the motion unanimously without a Second Reading.

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued a call for projects on February 18th for the BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) discretionary grant program. BUILD applications are due May 18th. If awarded, the funding must be obligated by September 30, 2022. The City’s interest in a BUILD grant would lie with the Pines/BNSF Rail Crossing, but there is not a strong likelihood that a BUILD grant would be awarded for it as a stand-alone project at this time. Council moved to proceed with the grant application to keep the Pines project visible to those making the grant decisions. Motion passed unanimously.

Spokane Valley Meals on Wheels, which feeds so many of our aged and infirm in the Valley, has been financially pressed by the events of these last few weeks. A request for an $8,000 grant to augment their available funding was approved unanimously by Council.

Spokane County has a Hazard Mitigation Plan for compliance with the federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. Spokane Valley approved its participation in the original plan in 2007, and an update to that plan in 2014. The plan requires an update every five years, and the City is past the date for renewal. In order to qualify for federal assistance under the Disaster Mitigation Act, the City must officially adopt the Plan. Council reached consensus to place a resolution on a future agenda for consideration.

From the time of its construction, CenterPlace’s roof has been beset with problems. Lately a succession of leaks has reached the point of requiring buckets placed at various locations to catch the water. At a budget workshop in 2019, Council, after discussing the problem, directed staff to hire Architects West to provide consulting and design for replacing the roof. The resulting plan was to replace the existing tile roof with a metal roof for an estimated $532,000, which did not include contingencies for replacing the damaged infrastructure supporting the existing tile roof.

The three initial bids were rejected. The project design was updated, resulting in new estimates of $935,000 for a metal roof and $760,000 for an asphalt composition roof. These revised prices were based upon the mid-range of the rejected bid prices. The metal roof offers a 50+ year life. The composition roof offers 15-30 years but can be more inexpensively replaced when that becomes necessary. Considering these uncertain financial times, Council reached consensus on the lower cost solution recognizing that the current state of repair/replacement presents a problem that cannot be further delayed.

An opportunity to place electric automobile recharging stations at City Hall and CenterPlace has been offered via a grant from the State Department of Commerce. That grant would supply 50% of the cost, with the remaining 50% to be covered by Avista Corporation. Council reached consensus to direct staff to coordinate with Spokane Regional Transportation Commission and Avista on submission of the regional grant application.

Please note:
1. City Hall remains closed except by appointment under the Governor’s ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ order.
2. Next week’s City Council meeting (Tuesday, 4/21) is cancelled.

Under City Code, the City Manager has the authority to negotiate for and purchase real property on behalf of the City with approval of Council. By resolution in 2008, Council granted some authority to acquire real property, but the resolution proved to be unclear resulting in Council having to approve minor items such as stormwater and access easements that should and could be handled by the City Manager’s office.

 

Resolution 20-006 as written clarifies the intent of the City Code in the matter and limit the acquisition authority to $50,000 without Council approval. Motion to approve Resolution 20-006 passed unanimously.

 

Council over the past few meetings has been discussing acquisition of land from Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to be added to the City’s inventory of developable parkland. That property is located just east of Flora Road, south of the Union Pacific tracks and north of the Spokane River. It encompasses approximately 45.73 acres appraised at $2,091,600.

 

As Council considered the motion to purchase the property, it became apparent that under the City’s uncertain current financial circumstances Council was not inclined to commit to the purchase, but would consider continuing the discussion after the coronavirus threat had passed and the City’s financial condition was more certain. Council reached consensus to revisit that matter in 60 days.

 

However, the opportunity to apply for a grant from the Washington Recreation Conservation Office (RCO) to 1) Assist in the development Balfour Park (possible $500,000) and 2) Assistance with the purchase of the Flora/WSDOT property (possible $1,000,000). The application for the RCO grant(s) does not obligate the City to complete the purchase of the Flora/WSDOT property if financial conditions do not warrant, but a resolution of intent is required. The motion to approve Resolution 20-007 authorizing application for the RCO grant was withdrawn pending more information regarding the wisdom of submitting two possibly competing grant applications.

 

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued a call for projects on February 18^th for the BUILD (Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development) discretionary grant program. Projects are evaluated on safety, state of good repair, economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, quality of life, innovation and partnership. BUILD applications are due May 18^th. If awarded the funding must be obligated by September 30, 2022. The City’s interest in a BUILD grant would lie with the Pines/BNSF Rail Crossing, but there is not a strong likelihood that a BUILD grant would be awarded for it as a stand-alone project at this time. Another option is to not submit a BUILD application but support the County’s Bigelow Gulch individual application. No consensus was reached. The matter will be considered after additional discussion with the County takes place.

 

Recently a councilmember was approached by a small businessman asking if the City might consider waiving the gambling taxes on punchboards and pull tabs for the first two quarter in 2020 due to the economic hardship being experienced by those small business who rely heavily on those revenues.

 

In 2019, the City collected $76,573 from punchboards and pull tabs. The resultant loss of revenue would be approximately $19,000 for one quarter. Under current closures and reduced hours of operation, that figure promises to be much lower. Gaming revenue in 2019 from individual sources was: Punchboards and pull tabs, $67,000; Bingo and Raffles, 1,000; Amusement games, $13,000; and $285,000 from Card Games. Council directed staff to explore the impact of possibly deferring payment of those taxes until at least after September.

 

Council further discussed the impending reduction in Lodging Tax funds caused by the Governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” proclamation made on March 24^th. Oktoberfest has already announced it would not occur in 2020. Others might follow. Staff will contact the nine grant applicants to ascertain if their plans for the use of the allocated grant money will be carried out. With that information, Council will once again discuss options for equitably apportioning Lodging Tax funds.

 

In compliance with the Governor’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” edict, City Hall will remain closed except by appointment through May 4^th. For more information, please call 509.720.5000 or go to www.spokanevalley.org.