City Council - Committee Of The Whole

[Music] I'm here when okay all right I'm gonna call this meeting to order for that um this is October 7th um we are in commune the whole and we have one item here for the well two it items for the this morning good morning um the first is a budget work session uh in this session staff will PR on new inverted revenues police department and fire department out this morning turn it over to mayor or to how about me foris Longman Deputy Administrator yeah we have three topics today um for our budget work session we wanted to go into detail with you all about the revenue changes that we've proposed in this budget because they are significant and worth having everybody understand really well what we're doing there uh and then we'll go to the police department they'll give a pre a brief presentation on changes to their budget we'll have handouts for you and then fire department so with that um here is the first handout on Revenue changes I have enough for everybody around the room so we might need to make copy this uh yes so handful of changes here I've have them divided into proposed permanent Revenue changes uh proposed temporary Revenue change and one-time revenues um so I will dig in here the first move is in regards to sales tax and so as you all know our sales tax comes in and we divide it up between the general fund the street fund and the radio fund currently so the 2024 column that first 2024 allocation that's how it's currently broken out so 60% to the general fund 37 to

the street fund and 3% to the radio fund what we're pro proposing for 2025 is upping the allocation of the general fund to 68% the street fund reducing to 32 and eliminating the radio out uh percentage part of that choice on the radio is just that all of our other internal Services we fund through direct charges to the Departments that use them and radio is something that's very easy to charge out can charge per handset it's very easy to allocate out so we just thought it was more appropriate um and so the dollar amount changes there it adds 2.6 million doll to the general fund but as you can see it actually it also increases the radio expense to the general fund by 1.2 million so uh that Nets it to 1.4 other question about the radio since if we're charging out per head um handset I imagine that's police fire and Public Works are their budgets increasing uh the same amount so we're just basically dropping that line item but their budgets will go up so that there's not a net loss overall for that that's right yeah correct and in fact the um you can see the sales tax revenue last year was about a million do or this year's about a million dollars and the allocation next year will be about $1.5 million so the income to the radio fund will actually go up to keep Pace with some uh Capital Improvements that need to be done for our radio system but yeah the budgets for fire police Public Works um and Parks uses them as well I think will all go up and do you see that as a permanent

change year over year that we're just dropping radio as a okay yeah yeah so just real quick little of thec that applying chamber isn't fine here but it's kind of chummy in here but I want to make sure that we everyone gets heard so please um allow or ask me be recognized that's right um yeah so any other questions about the street fund uh or and the and the sales tax changes there happy good yeah so tell me a little bit more about the street fond I think in session last time you talked about um making um a nonbing and probably permanent draw from the rund yeah um and so overall for street I'm trying to find Street overall for Street when we get there will it be affected by this shift in Source or will the the dollar amount be kind of the same with little annual changes yeah yeah great question thank you uh the intent is that there is no operational impact on the street fund so when we dug in and we looked at the street fund spending you know there's a big chunk of that that's capital expenditures you know um so we felt that if we reduced their revenue from the sales tax by one that $1.6 million that's shown in the third column we could easily backfill that uh with Reit too um that's uh shouldn't be a big Challenge and be able to maintain those Capital Investments and then have the operational side shouldn't be impacted at all because it wasn't the operational size wasn't using that 1.6 to begin with all right if that's good for sales tax we'll go on to the next segment which

is investment Revenue so another change that we've done to try and add some Revenue to the general fund and we intend to do on an ongoing basis is basically sweeping the investment revenue from most of the other uh City funds so the City maintain pools all of the cash that it has and then we invest it in bonds mostly treasury bonds and agency bonds uh the state investment pool nothing very exciting uh but we do make some money on that and in the past what we've done is we've allocated out that investment Revenue based on the fund balance of each individual fund and what we're proposing to do is to just take all that and give it to the general fund with the exception of the funds listed here which is the utility funds that's water sewer and storm the endowment funds which is the Greenways endowment and the um n there's a natural resources endowment fund the cemetery fund and the park impact fee fund um those those all with the exception utility funds We Believe those all are required to retain their their interest and the utilities we felt it was appropriate for those uh fee based business operations ations um that have do important infrastructure work for the city to retain their uh interest as well uh oh never mind right here that's $2 million as what will be swept in all those various accounts sorry I can see it y y that's that's our projection uh you know that's in flux uh interest rates uh are probably starting to come down which really impact our return although we do

believe uh it's a stable projection for at least the next year maybe two um because of how our our our our investments are structured I've also got the RCW here that just references that this is a legal maneuver to do so any other questions about that Jas and is there no way for that to be retroactive for previous years no we don't no I don't think so we we actually will have an ordinance that will come to council uh as part of our budget package uh that that basically allows this yeah um the if there's nothing else on that uh the next item I want to talk about that we're proposing as a permanent change is to increase the solid waste utility tax uh which will bring an additional $1.1 million to the environmental remediation fund and have some indirect general fund benefit this is an increase from 11 and A2 to 17.25 a 50% increase in the tax we estimate this will cost the typical residential garbage customer additional 2 or $243 a month um and the the the intent here is to uh is is a handful of things one it's to help cash flow the the remediation efforts on the water front so we're about to begin uh hopefully uh beginning 2025 the uh RG Haley and Cornwall remediation projects which is a are huge huge projects and um we believe we have most of the funding sorted but we we are a little concerned about cash flow long term there will be Debt Service associated with that as well uh that we'll need to need a little additional revenue for and long term there will be other

Remediation in the future certainly and then we also would like to have the funds to uh provide long-term stable funding for cleanup and sanitation work on city property and City RightWay which is currently funded out of the street fund um and and averaging around $600,000 a year and so this would take some of that pressure off the street Fund in the long term as well U so any questions about that thank you um the $243 for residential thanks for providing that I'm assuming the utility tax is that also applyed to Commercial and do we have any ballpark what that impact might be on businesses I I believe that it is but I don't think we have a good ballpark on that and I think part of the problem is we were able to get to this number because most people most residential customers like a single tote uh picks up every two weeks so there's a there's a typical residential customer I I don't know that there's a typical commercial customer but I will dig in more of that on that and I'll I'll let you know what I can figure out that would be appreciated y any more on Solid Waste tax uh so those are our proposed permanent Revenue changes uh we believe that those um could be longterm on the back the next item is a proposed temporary Revenue change so this is shifting property tax revenues that go to the fire uh pension fund to the general fund uh for the time being so that's about $2.9 million there's a bunch of data here uh with from our 2023 yearend Actuarial report um I'll walk you

through this is for I put in Fire ample just so you'd have sort of the full picture of our pension liability um so the the First Column is the the pension liability for each uh group the second column is the OPB which is other uh benefits long-term benefits what's opep stand for other post-employment benefits other post-employment benefits uh for fire and police the total liability and then the fund balance in each of those funds as of um the end of uh August and then the percent funded so you can see the fire pension is funded at 134% the police pension is funded at 79 and this this money has not been going towards the police pension in the previous years we stopped a few years ago transferring uh general fund dollars into that with the thinking that when that fund if it does run out we can use the fire pension dollars or we can fund it um on an as needed basis from the general fund because the liability and the fund balance difference are not terribly significant um but you can see combined they're funded at 114% uh and then I just put some membership numbers in there so you could get a sense of how many people we're talking about so these Pension funds aren't in in lot boxes they're just loose boxes we created to keep the fund so they can move back and forth yes that is that that's right anyway almost any general government purpose what's in there so based on this RCW here the um that's noted the fire pension Levy once um we have an actuary that says that it's fully funded

then the funds can be used for any other purpose and so but the actu um those can adjust year toe u based on interest rates or other impacts to uh changes within the pinion and OPB uh available benefits um and so so yes it can it can be used now for other purposes we consider those other we are the Pension funds as uh agency funds or trust funds so we have allocated that money specifically for that purpose in those two funds I don't want to go too deep down in the rabbit hole but um there were some changes in some gazb in the past that then created the fact that you needed to have it in a qualified fiduciary or a qualified third party administrator so it really qualifies as a agency fund and it doesn't so on our financial statements we actually roll that into the general fund because that qualifies more of a special Revenue fund now so we are looking to make that adjustment within the financial statements we made the adjustment within the financial statements we haven't made the adjustment within the actual um software yet because that takes a little bit more planning and a little bit more uh figuring out but that is more of uh more like special Revenue funds now from that purpose but the pension board does authorize the payments out of that F first I'm glad I don't have your job all those uh designations and categories uh what does fully funded mean what what percentage is considered fully funded given as you you say Andrew that um the ACT projections actually kind of go up

and down rather than in One Direction so what does fully funded mean well um I think that fully funded is 100% but there is obviously some room for that could change as Andy said over time if uh as interest rates go up membership declines obviously membership's going to go up um but I we believe that being at 134% being well over 100% uh feels like this the the fire pension no longer needs this Revenue coming in uh we feel very comfortable with that and I want to make clear we're not dipping Into the Fire pension or police pension amounts those are those are there and will be held fast until there's no longer any liability associated with it yeah other questions right then just the last item is looking at one-time revenues just to be clear uh why we showed that million and a half dollar um deficit and then I said that there's actually more like a $6 million deficit when you take out the propos this temporary but also the one time and so those those one times are repayments from the watcom construction fund after the bond sale so the general fund lent the watcom construction fund $1.5 million to be begin design work uh so they didn't have to sell bonds before we knew what we were building and so when we sell those bonds we're allowed to sell enough to repay ourselves for any money we've already spent so that's what we'll do and we'll get that $1.5 million back into the general fund and then we'll be getting $500,000 from the Sports Flex fund to reimburse debt payments that

we've paid over the last couple of years so after covid uh Sports Flex uh the operation there was struggling and was unable to make lease payments to the city the city uses those lease payments to pay the debt service on that building uh from its initial purchase um they were able to begin paying that money back and so now we are going to repay the general fund for those debt service payments that it made and then finally we made a medic a um interfund loan to Medic One a couple years ago and so that's been being paid back over the last two years and I think next year is the last year I think um will be $500,000 there's no questions on any of that stuff we can move on to our next item so just a quick question with respect to so I understand permanent permanent future on the temporary Proposal with respect to those pions is that are we saying that year by year or that one we uh thank you for qu that question we are looking at that Year bye uh to assess the need for it um I will also offer that this funding source goes away when the last pensioner passes away so it is explicitly tied in the RCW um to those pensioners so that makes it temporary in a very meaningful way um but we also would like to find a longer term solution to this funding Gap that that isn't going to go L than yeah so um I'll hand it over to the chief here to go through the police department budget all right so we're looking to the Future before we look to the past based on the Run of order here but we'll

start with our operating budget um this budget calls for two more additional police officers um to help continue to build our our base we're looking to try to be in the mid 70s in terms of Patrol Staffing it's in and of itself when I first got here we were in the 50s right now we hover around the 60s and remember those fluctuate as people get injured have to take time off as we as they retire as we onboard new people it's just a constant ever evolving number so we are looking uh better than we have in the past our uh budget for the jail continues to climb I think that um we can almost it's hard to predict why but a lot of it has to do with competency the longer people are in custody obviously that makes our bill higher so when people are waiting for those competency hearings when they have increased medical expenses while they're there um as they rack up uh warrants sometimes they're in there longer so um are we're just we're seeing kind of a constating fine in those expenses um it also calls for uh we have uh we entered into agreements with Western and the Department of Corrections uh the watcom admin board voted to approve that last week was it last week or two weeks ago um and that will add another dispatcher to watcom um you'll see the watcom facility on there um that's exciting but also um it's been um well it's exciting they need a new building really bad but no new construction doesn't come without challenges so we're working through those and I think it's going to be

a great uh facility at the end of the day um so that 12 that's 12 million that's block yes thank you um so looking back um we responded to 75 a little over 75,000 calls and then I thought it would be pertinent to include um that Community Connector that's embedded in watcom they uh handled about 2,000 calls so those calls go to Art and core that's the co-responder unit with the county and art is our alternative Response Team uh from there those those calls get diverted out to various providers throughout the city depending on the situation so um that's been a a huge value uh to the officers working and um we some pretty significant benchmarks and hiring we had 15 officers eight dispatchers four support staff I included um the time we spent in the downtown core to make improvements there that's 400 hours estimated and not concurrent so if I had five officers working down town for an hour we counted that as one hour not five hours so um that number is reflective of also concurrent time as well um we rejoined the task force that was pretty significant as well we' um I'm already hearing about some pretty significant um um drug bus where a lot of fanol has been seized and so that's going to have an increasingly um great impact on the drug trade in our area um kind of goes to show you that when the when those units are staffed appropriately we gave them two which they really you know in the past we've only had one so I think as M as much as we can provide to the to the drug task

force um those are detectives or what it's a sergeant and and an officer yeah um and then a pretty significant achievement uh this last year was our accreditation and that's good for every four years again that's an outside entity coming in and taking a look under the hood and being very critical of our practices and making sure we're following best practices um for next year we're going to continue handling those calls for service and continue our excellent recruiting strategy um as we sit here today I believe we're at eight vacancies and eight conditional offers out if you're to ask me again in two weeks I would tell you five because we're we're looking at hiring three more um and then before the end of the year an additional three more after that so then we're going to be really into that hire at the same time people retire but not having a huge impact on our operations because it's all lining up in a way that it hasn't in the past on October 22nd the Northwest Regional Academy is going to open and again that cuts those weight times down for those entr hadab Chief can you back up to you the comp restoration component for the jail cost what's what's the weight time that we're seing for Bellingham uh only charges that would have I'd have to take a deeper dive into the corrections World in order to find out that that number good a quick question on um the additional dispatcher for to support ww and the Department of Corrections I'm assuming those agreements that we entered

that that additional dispatcher position is being paid for through those agreements yes so we're not subsidizing gonna follow up real quick here on the first bullet point under 20124 achievements for the U 1970 uh calls for art and core are they fully spun up at this point or is that kind of like the art and core or the in art in particular um that' be a great question for the health department I'm not sure what they how they're understanding they're fully position they've been allocated I believe they're looking for more position yeah thank you on one of your questions on restoration I've had two uh in there recently one was six months before they went for restoration the other one was three okay so we were charged and then consequently we were't charged when they were in restoration so I had to go get a credit for that but okay because they never come back to speed competency right now expeditious is at least 10 weeks right so that's the challenge okay a year ago it was 30 like 12 days almost a year so it's getting better but not great right yeah um yeah the two extra positions are going to help us again to rebuild our our base and then also start exploring specialties as we move forward but um we also know that we're in a time to be fiscally responsible as well so we uh um we're continuing to have great policy have great training and great supervision to make sure that we're being the highest level Professionals in that we can what are the expectations for retirements over

the next couple years so hard to predict that because some folks are one bad day away from deciding to go but um I think we were estimating about five to yesti uh how are we uh with um hiring a place so yeah last year I think we did 19 we're um this year 15 with several more we're probably going to get that around 20 which is phenomenal when you look at other agencies too they're not able to hire at that rate um so we're we're we're now plugging away to we're going to be in the positive as we year toe versus only years past we've been under we've been we haven't been able to hire as fast as people have been leaving so now we're not in that place anymore so again very unpredictable to figure out but um I think we're we're definitely on an upward Trend I'm glad to see that there's two additional given the budget constraints but I also know in order to to get fully up and running I i' said this before I'm really worried about annexation because that just stretches a short team even shorter um but if money just started getting really healthy again and we're not looking at Mass retirements um how many do we need to get to to be fully restored with special teams and um be able to handle the the the call volume because a lot of times that should be the indicator of what we need not population it depends on how many special teams you'd like well yeah and what would they be right now we're trying to really just go back to our our base which is like we don't have a Traffic Unit right

now we need to get that back next right so I'm kind of you know one piece at a time as we go we had Behavioral Health officers at one point we had school resour off school resource offic officers at one point I think those really um fundamental Specialties will need to come back first and then I think we really need to be looking at this year to year it's hard to say I mean again with our base level of 76 on patrol and 18 in detectives then we build out from there I'm just trying to get a a big picture look at the police budget and I'm subtracted out the 12 million to try to get a better picture and what I'm seeing then is an overall 9% Incas in in the budget um I'm trying to compare what am I compare an actual 2023 to 2025 so I'm going across two years for I don't have a projected 2024 and I'm seeing a $3 million increase that's over that twoyear of year over year um we're adding three positions this year total and I'm trying to understand because I don't really have the 2024 projections how much of an actual year-over-year increase is that and of that can we say that most half less than half of that is the three new positions and the other half or less than half or more than half is just other programs and costs that are also going up um yeah I mean our our training budget I don't know if that's a line item in here but things things increase over time right cost of Technology cost of training um there's some unfunded mandates from the state sometimes of in terms of our

training that can that can account for those things um I don't know if I'm more of it so um on this sheet I tried to because the biannual budget made it really hard to do this comparison right so I tried to sort of make an annualized average budget for the previous two years right so um to allow that comparison a little easier but a lot of it so there's positions there's also especially if you're comparing 23 to now there's settle there's labor settlements so we've had pretty good growth in labor costs over the last couple years um so that's that's been a driving Factor we're also seeing um you know our Fleet our facilities our internal allocations have been going up as we like as you I'm sure aware cars are way more expensive than they were four years ago so all that kind of stuff has really driven across the board you're gonna for can I clarify I'm not disputing the costs are going I'm just trying to get a big view if there is about a 9% increase or based on this one like a 10% increase excluding Capital um can we say that you know oneir is due to new positions oneir is due to say uh salary settlements and and wage AB uses and onethird is due to just general costs like cars and paper clips I mean can you can I get a big bucket view of what's deriving most of the increase we could probably cook something up to to answer that question I just want to R more of magnitude on like where what the drivers are for the growth I'm not disputing the no not yet at least I I I didn't I

didn't think that you were I was just trying to give I don't have a good breakout like that I was just trying to give you the whole uh the broad scope of it jail costs have been up a lot also tell me the top four drivers or something I can absolutely do that yeah thank you other questions okay chief I want to go back to to Specialty units you talked about um adding uh traffic and like that's that's the next that sounds like the probably the next priority right now yeah okay and then for bhoos um Behavioral Health officers is that is there a projected like year for that to be there's too many variables to say year to year I think but um I mean it's higher on the priority list then let's say Outreach okay you know sometimes the batting order changes too I thought we'd go to traffic before bikes but I feel like bikes is the higher priority right now okay Y and then neighborhood Patrol officers that's somewhere somewhere down the road yep okay could go just to conf how many Do's now too we have zero we have zero like two positions we we have we have Grace people folks that are assigned to our station but our Behavior Health officer position had to be yanked that's nothing by the way this isn't disease this is the Seahawks louder all right any further questions C Williams you have anything you're muted skip yeah not not at this moment um we can't hear uh you can't hear me we can't hear you hold on for a second on end I is there like a is the red light on the volume switch hello

hello [Music] hello yeah he's Frozen put on speaker yeah yes yeah cotton Chief would you be able to provide like um a kind of a triage of the specialty unit since the current I I know they're will be changed but would you yeah I mean if you're asking me right now today I'd probably say traffic um and then some of these are entire teams and units and some of these are one-offs or you know start with one and then build after that so i' probably put a um District resource officer in there because that's a one person thing but it really should be every high school and then probably after that BHO with two and then an anti-r team after that if you had to if I had to pick right now [Music] today hi Dan hey Skip I'm pushing speaker just make sure that okay you've got an opportunity to speak yeah yeah no I don't are you there I'm here we're all here okay yeah I can see you're all here um no I don't have any major uh questions just on the uh policing uh questions um Becky you had said that the bike Patrol seems to be taking a priority over the others um how soon do you predict that this is is it one year two years yeah I don't I don't intend to put any Specialties back and then yank them away it's far too time consuming and difficult to get them spun up so that's why we really want to make sure we have a good stable Foundation before we start with with Specialties and so um I expect bites to be here and stay here okay yeah I don't have any major questions about this in another format

so as I digest all this okay okay all right thanks I'm gonna sign you out here okay thanks come more so I guess I have a question about the the decision for right bike Patrol to be of traffic and I know I've seen you know just focus on downtown and others and also wanting to be mindful that you know the council's authority as far as budget right I know we revisit time and time again that it's like okay our Authority is really with respect to allocation of that total budget Authority but the individual line items are really the administration's role um so I don't want to step on that um but I don't know if it's something that there could be a broader policy discussion around because I just think about the traffic um and the broader impacts I think CommunityWide right where members of the community are saying yeah we don't have a Traffic Unit and what that right what that impact is then on individual behavior and just sort of how yeah people treat all of our traffic laws and Street um so I don't know if that's something that's you know open for discussion at all and or wondering the comparison as far as is it an easier lift to bring bike Patrol now back versus what would it require for traffic that's definitely a factor right training up motorcycle we have a few that are already trained but uh we sold our motorcycles because we knew it was going to be a while before they came back so we'd have to buy those again and with budget constraints that'd be difficult there's there's uh

budget factors spin up time factors but I think ly um and we can go deeper if you want but it's um when it a bike unit is very versatile right they can be both reactive to calls like we are now they can be proactive they can be out there looking for you know proactive police activity which is great um very much a problem solving type unit where if there's a problem within the downtown core or even in the broader City I can be like you know go solve that problem and and it's very versatile in that respect and then there's a there's an entire Community engagement component of bikes that you don't get with any other unit because they're out of their cars they're on the streets they're engaging with the community they're going to businesses and um I really feel like we're going to hire a really excellent team because they're all very excited to do something different that um you're going to get that some of the best out there um that that Billingham police has to offer so that's kind of the where my mind went when I was trying to decide on what and when and how I think the other piece I would add to that answer in response to your question which is I think really important but we've had like our nap our neighborhood traffic safety study going on there's other ways that we can create safer um traffic and management besides just policing in the community so we're talking about how do we accomplish those things too so so just on a followup what would it take for the Traffic Unit to

come back I mean went I think to counc Anderson right and I I Envision this to be a little more of a slow roll out because the The Upfront costs um of having a Traffic Unit where perhap and we have to broaden our view of traffic right um I would like to see DUI emphasis going on and that's in vehicles with our current equipment you know it's going to cost additional training to send people to that um um to be dedicated full-time um UI emphasis folks there's even some grant opportunities that are getting pushed to the state that would pay for it for three years so we're exploring that for sure it was just it's a it's going to be a slower process because as soon as we can establish the bodies to have on traffic then it would be okay now let's see who's still here that's trained in motorcycles buying the motorcycles training people up and going through that process it's just yeah okay can any further questions um I've got one regarding wcom the um construction it's here uh listed as a 2025 Capital item is that to be completed within the next year or how does that part work I think we're hoping to break ground this summer probably not completed in calendar year 2025 but certainly started in calendar year 2025 what happens to the to the old building or the the building that's that you're in right now once we've taken in the new building it be demolished but not until they both in the same site all right okay further questions okay I just wanted to add one thing on Michael's

question about the um the cost increases I just wanted to point out that we work really hard to ensure that all um policy level and and major changes to the budget are are listed in here and that we present those to you and all the the changes other increases are either going to be internal services or or salary Ser increases so um we work really hard not and I know you need to trust but verify but I just wanted to let you know that we work really hard to make bring make sure that all the major changes all the things that add dollars that aren't one of those internal services are are highlighted in these presentations so thank you so just one pH I appreciate the response mayor about um just thinking about infrastructure and right other other pieces of the puzzle when we think about traffic I know there had been other discussions it's a much broader policy discussion I know we're not there about cameras um and I just on a budget I'm just wondering is that a would that fall under police or would that be public works if and when that was if you're asking me I say public well that that is a that's a complicated question that we are it's a topic of discussion yeah where that's put in it yeah I think this will to L discussion though in the coming year get direction from Kel on that yeah uh committee further questions um I have one just so the so the budget for 2025 is a 4 million increase just on operation uh alone and so there's a there's you know four bullet points here regarding

some you know increased uh expense with uh watcon and additional uh ftes here why does have add up to 4 million that doesn't seem like the math so there's a couple different things at play here and you'll see this again and again in all the Departments is is one is that that operating budget number for the 23 24 is the average of 23 and 24 so it's probably actually a bit little bit lower than what the 2024 was but because of that Bal budget it's really hard to parse it out the way that we move money back in between 23 and 24 because if you don't spend your whole budget in 2023 right now that additional budget moves into 2024 because it's authorized for both years so then we get skewed perspectives um so that's part of it uh the other part is we we have seen our internal costs for that Fleet facility stuff has gone up quite a bit uh the cost of living adjustments are meaningful and so I'll break down some of the bigger ones uh to give us so counts going have a sense for what where those things come from but it's a combination all those okay yeah and radio is in there too right radio shift we talked about that radio shift would be in there absolutely yep Y and I think we're maybe thinking of just the additional FTE that we're authorizing but we're like making offers today that will'll be adding to payroll in 25 if that makes sense me further questions okay see none than okay now should be good um skip will you try to unmute and see if we can hear you now hello there sports fans

can you hear me can you see me yeah yeah we can see and and okay good now I'm G to disappear and listen gonna go ahead and proceed the fire all right well um so yeah on the one page there I'm going to jump right into kind of following up on council member will question there so you see from the bium average through next year it's about a $6 million increase the um keep in mind we had a pretty significant increase the mid by adjustment for this year so that increase is relatively smaller and the the reality of it is majority of it is anticipated settlement of our local 106 contract that's coming up so um just a for can get you deeper numbers later but that um it looks like a much bigger number than it is from 24 to 25 because there was a big jump between 23 and 24 so when you average those um so for the 25 budget we are adding one fire inspector um and the priority for that inspector is to um get back into existing occupancies and um do proactive inspections on those um we've that's been an area over the last several years as our construction has boomed a majority of our life safety staff staff has been focused on that initial construction um development piece of it and so this will allow us some greater capacity to get into existing buildings for ensuring codes are maintained um we're also looking at uh converting for firefighter positions into captains this creates what we call a swing captain on each shift where uh it's basically a relief Captain so currently um our on each

shift we have one person for each seat every day and then we have what we call our relief pool or swing pool um which is um four to six additional firefighters each shift that fill in for vacation sick leave um because we've had such a large turnover here uh I think we're about 115 out of our 190 uniform folks that have been hired in The Last 5 Years um because we've had such a big shift we have a low number of folks that are qualified to act in the captain position so this allows us to actually have an extra promoted captain in that swing pool um so it's not an not additional FTE it's just converting firefighters in there to try and uh increase the availability of an a captain for Relief um we're hoping that ends up in an overall uh savings on overtime because there are days right now where we're hiring overtime to fill captain seats but we have extra relief people in the pool so um recognize M yeah just clarify captains still like do work they're not just like office people so when you convert a firefighter captain and they're still out in the field they still have your call yes yeah every every one of our crews uh every one of our suppression Crews has a captain a driver and a firefighter um and then the captains oversee all of the crews in the fire stations so they're they're out there're filling those minimum staff seats um we're also also in this budget is some onetime funding to convert our uniforms we're currently um in the process of test testing out two or three

different brands I believe of uniforms that meet the NFPA requirements but no longer are have the pasas in them so we are um with this that'll give us an opportunity to change out all of our noax uniforms into uh past free materials um so those were the significant Chang is here this year um there's also some minor adjustments for equipment cost increases software increases um but those are the three main um main new initiatives here for next year um as far as looking back at 2024 we hired 24 new firefighters here this year um they're still in various stages of training um we brought two ambulance or added two ambulances to the fleet to um help with the use that we've seen with the dedicated BLS car and then in anticipation of standing up the second BLS car here next year uh we also completed a department-wide cultural climate assessment this year and um we have a team that's working on completing an inclusion plan for the Department um and our call volume continues to go up we've saw we're on track to hit about 24,000 24500 there this year that's about a 7 and a half% increase over 2023 as far as our work plan next year um implementing the second BLS car um that's was a item that's been budgeted but we've um as we've gone through just trying to keep up with attrition and get the Staffing out there we're um hopeful here at the end of the year we will finally be at full Staffing um I I should clarify have the staff that's fully trained in and out filling minimum staff seats um

so we anticipate having the adequate staff to launch that second BLS car here at the end of the year um again increasing inspections to existing occupancies um we'll continue to respond to 911 calls and we anticipate that load just continues to grow um next year is also um in the office of emergency management they've been working hard this year and we'll continue um through next year to update our comprehensive emergency management plan that's a one three year update um and then we'll uh also going to be working with the mayor's office on continuing planning efforts to um for what we're going to need here in the future so Anderson um so uh the the head of the firefighters Union scottt Perell had sent a message out this morning at 4 a.m.

so I don't suspect everybody's had a chance to read it um the mayor and uh Chief huitt was included um I don't expect you to answer the various uh needs that they've identified but if you could look at that email and perhaps respond to some of that it's in regards to um past annexations and not having enough fire inspectors they deem that we should have two it looks like we're hiring one another is issues with the lad truck um and not having you know designated people to operate that versus you know people doing other positions um but if that could be looked at and perhaps um let us know your thoughts or how we'll be addressing it I know in 2025 we may not be able to get there we um we did look at that so the request was for two that's been outstanding ongoing request the line item for two fire inspectors was over $520,000 for those two FTS and our current fiscal constraints that is not achievable so we can only say yes to one yeah and then I was wondering as far as the way Staffing is allocated regarding those lad trucks yeah and the lad truck uh conversation is one that we've been having a lot internally so um just for some clarity the lad truck is currently um has it its own first do area where they respond to Fire and EMS calls and um they're cross staffed and I think most council is familiar with that term they cross staff BLS unit um which means there are times where they're you know 80% of our business is medical calls times where they're on a medical call in their

ambulance and that means that the lad truck is not available um countywide ladder trucks are a pretty thin resource we have three of them in the county the next closest one coming from Church Road and Ferndale the one after that's coming from the Birch Bay station um so when we when we do have a need for that specialized piece of equipment that secondary resource is a long ways out um and um and so we we've been looking internally um we know that we're going to make some shifts here um when we get that second BLS car out there um we also know that we have we have a bit of a Time Clock coming um that uh we're we have a new ladder truck that's on order when it arrives um we won't be able to cross staff the ladder company anymore just because the demands of operating that vehicle um and so the second BLS car is pretty much part of that picture though of trying to um be able to get that resource at least where it's not no longer cross staffed um and so that the crew is always with that resource still doesn't mean that they might not be available for calls because we always deal with the call in front of us first um if we if we held back resources for the call that might happen we'd be talking about a 90 million budget instead of a $45 million budget so um yeah just just made Forest gag a little there so uh the you know so that but but those um we are definitely in the middle of planning around that but the the answer to the question is there's no fast answer to it we need to get

that second be car up and running and then hopefully that'll um once we get that and we get some data behind what that does to everyone else's call volumes then we can look at pulling back on at minimum pulling back on the cross Staffing C more question yeah going back to Mr frell's question about the Life Safety Division I went online I tried to find like data information on that for I found a lot of information on our call volumes going up for the units but I didn't see anything that call a case load or workload for fire safety do we have goals or targets or standards or benchmarks or industry comparisons on case load for Life Safety I mean it sounds what the mayor is saying is that we we kind of agree that another inspector would be good can can I get some numbers that show kind of how far away from good we are um that might be useful and I didn't see I didn't find a strategic plan I don't know where it is and the the annual reports didn't appear to have life safety data well we'll try and get you some additional data on the life safety we don't it isn't reported in our annual report because the requirements in the RCW for the annual report are around the call volume yeah um but uh certainly we can we can take a look at that I can tell you that uh again you know their priority has been um maintaining timelines for the permitting process and getting yeah getting the new construction out the door and built correctly and inspected properly um and then uh they also um they do

have um couple years ago we switched to an electronic reporting system for um existing Fire Systems sprinkler systems fire alarms Hood systems and restaurants and that where when they're getting their annual maintenance they have to report to this online reporting system that that we're using and we have been doing some uh proactive stuff with that and follow up on that but uh um we can certainly look and and numbers in Mr Ferrell's uh email there I think he called out seven positions that was a study that uh we did looking at the NFPA um NFPA goals or National Fire Protection Association goals for the number of occupants that we have um I think um there's a lot of things that NFPA has that are goals that are great but not necessarily affordable or attainable um but the yeah so there we we can look though and try and get you some additional numbers for what our actual inspections on that so sounds like have may have different targets and goals for new construction versus ongoing inspection maybe we're meeting one set of goals and not another that might be nice to know yeah no I mean that yeah yeah we can we can definitely pull those numbers but that that is the short version is that we focused on maintaining those timelines to get them uh keep the permits moving that's where the majority of our work has been um because that's yeah Mr long then I've got C Huffman uh Anderson and then Stone go I just wanted to mention that we do have budgeted in the mayor's office for 2025 a

public safety strategic plan that's intended to look at our fire operations and our police operations and determine over the next planning period what's needed and critically how we could possibly pay for those things so um this is definitely on our radar the need for um additional resources in both of those Arenas going forward but we are resource constraint and so we need to look at both of those pieces together um back to the inspectors I'm interested in learning a little bit more about scope of work for uh inspectors can um specifically for existing bu construction existing buildings and businesses not the new construction um so as a as a business I carry commercial insurance and part of that is I have an inspection of a year to verify um that the fire suppression systems are up to date fire extinguishers exit signs um occupancy permits those sorts of things where does um the work of uh our inspectors on existing businesses start with that sort of work and what I'm getting at is um I know that there's concern in um with existing businesses that that stuff isn't being verified by our own inspectors but I know it does get insurance commercial Ins Insurance has a definite interest in all of that being um up to date as well and so where what does the work of the fire inspectors do Beyond with the commercial insur inspectors well and I'll say your commercial insurance policy I haven't um I have not heard a lot of um folks complying with that so that that's a that's a new one

and um that's interesting enough yeah yeah um I it's great it's a great opportunity and I think it is interesting a lot of insurance companies have changed quite a bit here in the last couple of years I'm sure everybody's read about increasing uh people being dropped by insurance companies um due to various things they're get working much harder at scrutinizing but our the the workload of our inspectors um or Life Safety Vision the workloads kind of three-fold and I it is basically taking a building from what I'll say birth to death here we start with when the building permit comes in they review those permits they ensure that they meet the codes that are in place at the time they go out they do the inspection make sure they're that the systems are built properly installed properly after that building gets occupied then yes ideally we go visit every occupancy and and each occupancy has a different kind of time cycle on it um we look at the higher um higher fire threat higher Life Safety threats we try to inspect those more often um one of the first ones that um our inspectors are going to be going out looking for will be um bars nightclubs assembly occupancies that serve alcohol um because that when we look at the history of fatal especially Mass fatality fires in the United States those are our big uh areas of concern so um they'll typically uh something like that they do more often than say the 7-Eleven um where they might inspect that once every three years but they might

focus on the assembly occupancies every year so so that's kind of that middle part is we get out uh in an Ideal World we get out we see every occupancy and and yeah we're looking for a lot of the same things that your insurance company is looking at but we're also looking you know are the keys in the lock box up to date you know so that we can make entry you'd be surprised how many times building ownership will change hands and nobody calls us and let lets us know that we have Reed the whole place and we don't find out till it's two: in the morning on a firearm um so they look at those they'll look at you know do you have the correct occupancy um you know again a lot of businesses move into a new um they'll move into a new location um that was designed or built for a different type of a occupancy and so a lot of what we do then triggers more work for Blake's crew um with a change of occupancy um permits and that um that's where a lot of those are discovered in other jurisdictions during the annual uh fire inspections um so we we do those inspections throughout the life of the building and then the other the other key piece with the in the Life Safety Division is then when we do have a fire the inspectors are the ones who go out and do the cause and origin um investigation into the fire so they'll go out identify where the fire started try to identify the cause and with that we can hopefully use those determinations to better educate people in the future Andor change codes

when we need it need to so that's that is the main body of work it's kind of that life cycle of a building they they start it off they make sure it stays right and then if something happens they figure out is there some way that we can learn from that so we can prevent it in the future got Anderson and then Stone well what budget meeting would ever happen without asking about over time um so sorry that's all right so uh looking at past years you know running about 2.3 to 2.6 million and I know 2024 we don't have the full actuals yet and it shows 1.5 and then what's proposed again would be you know kind of closer to one 1.58 um with the overtime coming in right now are you going to be is the fire department going to be meeting close to that 1.5 that's been allocated or are we going to expect a budget adjustment I would say you're going to be expecting a budget adjustment we um we're on track that numbers right now um the numbers that I have were the August month end but we're on track to be about 2.4 here this year and big portion of that though again is you know we we have been hiring and training people as fast as we can here for the last 5 years we've been hiring 24 to 26 people a year trying to get them trained to fill uh the positions on the BLS cars the ALS unit and then the um at the same time keeping up with attrition we do see a light at the end of the tunnel um I think I told you that last year though and then I said I was GNA say and then I'm wondering if it's not

the train coming back at me um but enough so that right now we are actually um like I said we've been doing twois of 12 every year plus hiring some additional laterals in there for next year we're planning one Academy of nine um and and that in and of itself will reduce the overtime budget because there's a portion um almost 400,000 of that overtime is just in training um which goes into that part part of it's are ongoing training but part of it's also recruit Academy um instructors and um pump Academy and couple other uh programs that we have there so by getting back down to one Academy next year that draws that piece and half and then January we should be for the first time actually at our full allotted FTE out filling minimum staff seats thank follow up um I know I always feel like I'm picking on you but um I'm looking at next year proposed 1.5 and I probably would it ride about over time if the budget said two million and we're 100,000 over that um it's just always been a significant jump but it always makes me as I did last two times question whether or not we're actually allocating a correct amount um so that we're not always having to adjust so um um I guess in conversations with the mayor and staff do you feel that the amount being allocated for 2025 is really a fair assessment of what will be so that we're not adjusting it next December and I I can tell you mathematically the numbers that we have the and it's kind of a complicated math but when you look at the hours

hours that each firefighter is contracted for Less the average hours of vacation less what our average s leave rate is um mathematically January we should have the correct number of FTE to fill the number of hours that we need to cover problem with math is math is all based on averages um and it's so it's it's based on having 14% of the shift calling sick uh on a given day um where the reality is we have days where it's 25% and days where it's 4% um and so that's you know that that is the problem with math um but the hard part of it is is we've never been able to because we have not been able to achieve that that goal of having all those people trained in filling the minimum staff seats we haven't seen the math work yet and so that's you know that is where I where my optimism yeah it continues to be um although it wains I'm sure is your belief my answers dude that's you know I I just wanted to add and the and the overtime number is based on that math too so in the budget system for each group we put in the number of hours that are anticipated in over time and the based on the averages and the expectations and then that produces that number so um it's all tied together and I realized that the numbers too is based on the increase of pay and R you know going back so there's an adjustment there but um I recogniz for another question so it's a two-parter and one part might be just a longer Term Policy um question so I don't necessarily expect that to be answered but I'd like to

throw it out um so with District 8 that's been a issue in the past when we did the um when the analysis was done is that we were subsidizing based on how much taxation was coming in from that District to how much were we spending in order to provide services so is it currently based on the contract and how much taxation we're bringing in is it kind of a net neutral that we're not subsidizing it or are we subsidizing it and then the second part of the question is um with that District it is fairly large space and it includes part of lumy um area are we providing the level of service or are we looking that we might have to possibly expand the type of services out there in order to meet the need of that Community Based on call volume and types of call um because if it's under the city it should expect City level resources when it's we're providing that service so again that last thing might be a larger discussion to have later about what the needs are um out there but my concern is is are we meeting that need and two is the taxation covering the budget to make that need so on the level of service thing we our agreement with Fire District 8 is that we provide the level of service they were providing um prior to our contract and so the county has an adopted um in the County's U comprehensive plan they have an adopted level of service for um Suburban rural and remote areas in the county we meet the appropriate county level of standard in the county so when we look at fire district

date there's portions of fire district date that are that are Urban um basically the urban growth area in those areas we meet the the County's adopted level of service and and honestly we're we meet the city's level of service in those areas as much as we meet the city's level of service everywhere else in the city um so we um in that urban area now in the rural P portions of fire district dat um we meet the County's rural level of service and that that is the adopted level of service out there we do not anticipate um providing a city level of service um and the level of service is talk basically talking about respon time response time and how many firefighters on scene in a certain period of time so um we do yeah again that that was in the agreement as far as the question on the subsidy um you know when we converted the volunteer program to Career um we knew that we were going to have a couple years where we were really subsidizing that swap while uh the fire district was going out for their next M Levy so they every four years they renew a levy we just renewed here at the beginning of the year um when we did the planning so that went to the ballot in February we did the planning for it in 2023 so we're doing planning in 2023 for 2025 um the dollars that we planned on all of our projections in indicated that yeah that we would have enough to fully pay for the program and we did increase um said half million dollars yeah we for next year we are seeing a significant increase

in that first year that M was um that being said if you ask me to relook at the numbers in January I'm guessing that they're probably well we thought was going to be well into them fully funding the positions um in anticipation of a settlement in um with our contract that our planning in 2023 did not anticipate as high of a settlement in our labor contract as what we have tally agreed to so um so there's still there there is still room in there there um for us to still room in there for us to recover more there we just got to figure out what that looks like one once we get that bargaining unit settled so the good news is in that in that m&o Levy though there was in addition to fully funding the the positions we put in extra money for Capital because um there's a lot of cap needs out there in the district we have two stations that are in desperate need of replacement and um we are but that Capital that funding for the capital does give us opportunity to look at balancing that out once we know what the full ramifications of the contract sement are thank you for the update so customer has been very patient um so my question I guess it's not necessarily specifically related to fire but when we're adding additional FTE right in the budget um so similar with police I'm just curious on the timing of that obviously the budget Authority is not in place until January 1 of that year but I know with lead time to actually get people on the ground right trained and actually in our um in

our force is there right any movement that's able to take place beforeand in hopes that someone would and there may be other factors right that delay that actual how long it takes to come to fruition um so it might be longer lead time that's needed but I'm just wondering is work able to start even based on preliminary projections to hopefully Advance you know when people are able to actually be on payroll uh so yeah they won't have the F the legal FTE Authority until January 1 and I think when it's positions like this um that are already exist in the city you know it's it's one thing when it's a a new type of position like something we haven't done before and we have to do all this sort of background work and that can really delay things but I would expect that they'll be able to um go out for these right away um I mean in the case of a fire inspector that's a promotional type thing I would imagine so we have an existing list um we will more than likely um you know budget adoption will occur in early December once we have Clarity on budget adoption we'll be prepared to start that position January we are in a unique situation at the moment where um I won't say luckily but uh but by chance we happen to have where are we up to now six people on night Duty I think um so we have moved some light duty resources into Life Safety to help with workload I think we have two extras right now that are working they're not fully certified inspectors so they're they're doing some of the

other work that doesn't need the certifications make sure that the basically to maximize the uh work that the inspectors are doing so um but uh yeah and in terms of the back fill for that promotion too I mean fire uses this training pool model that has been trying to keep up and keep a pace and so they can hire for training a little bit ahead of time of the actual vacancy so that helps with that I think with police it's probably a longer timeline because they already have some um oant positions that they're trying to fill right um and then s to that and maybe right a future discussion but if internally um thoughts about right about measure or Public Safety let me if that's something that right we will be discussing obviously that wouldn't happen immediately um but just looking at that will be part of that strategic safety plan Y and and really because the how we address this Revenue question is a primary concern that's in large part why it's going to be in the mayor's office and it's not just in the fire department strategic plan or the police department's strategic plan we're trying to figure out what are the comprehensive approaches we can take as a city to to address our Public Safety costs and so yeah I'm trying to understand Fire District 8 piece um first a simple question um the revenue that you know the contract we have fire distri does that show up under some intergovernmental revenue and so that number kind of goes up and down a lot so I can't track annually what

we've been getting under the contract so that's just a simple question about can I get like just a pull out of what we get from fire district and then the other question I'd like to see things from the fire District's 8 point of view and the chief too right when they when they look at their budget what are the issues they're concerned about um where are their stresses what are they looking at in the future um I'd like to understand how it looks from 5 AG point of view because we're gonna be we're going to be dealing whatever they're seeing so can you tell me how it looks from their point of view yeah I I can tell you the again with fire district a it's interesting because it's um their the entirety of their revenue is based off of property taxes um and the great thing about that is for the most part that's fairly stable Revenue um and they have a fire Levy plus then what we call the M or maintenance and operation Levy maintenance and operation Levy is renewed every um every four years and and renewals it's actually a new Levy every four years um but it's um and every four years we we've gone through significant increases there um I think you know the biggest issues again facing them is you know with the M Levy we've gotten for the most part we've gotten handle on um having the correct funding for operations it's really just trying to figure out that Capital piece fire district 8 is also very unique in the county in that the majority of the Property Holdings do not pay

property taxes so the Port of Bellingham um being you know all the port property out at the airport and and the Airport Industrial Area um and then a large portion of the the lumy peninsula um is not paying property taxes and so um you know we continue to work with those Partners as well though we get increases from the Port of Bellingham um every year pay L taxes yes yeah they have a they have a requirement under the rcws to pay for fire protection and L taxes out there um the lumination does not have the same requirement but they have been a wonderful partner for um the whole time that I've been involved um they've been a great partner and we've seen consistent increase from them so um and a lot of U yeah so Bill Fire District 8 commissioner looking my Capital problem are there can there state grants or other things um will they be able to solve their Capital problems because it sounds like they've got this small piece that type of capital something sound great and you also indicated that Capital pie might actually be shifted if operations so what is what is their outlook on solving the capital book um it's yeah it is we we kind of take it one piece at a time right now we're focused on uh replacing the McKenzie Road fire station which is the primary um service for Lumi Nation um we did receive A2 million Grant from the Department of Commerce um to help get us there and then we're uh using USDA Rural Development uh loans to fund the other portion of that um that once we lock

that in then we have a better idea of how much of the capital money is going to be used to pay that Debt Service um the problem is is that that project um like a a lot of construction projects that project's been uh ran into different issues throughout the permitting and and until we actually get it out to bid we don't know what the true costs are going to be so we haven't been able to lock in that Finance piece yet um again that this will be a good one to ask me in about three months um because we will hopefully have that locked in and then we'll once we're obligated on that Debt Service then we'll know how much other Capital money is there is a viable Tap maybe yeah and and the voters of Fire District 8 have been very strong in their support for I mean our our last um both um all three of the M levies I think the first one that's 80% um second one was in the high 70s this last one with zero advertising and except for one informational flyer we passed it at 7 3% so we have a a very supportive Community out there that um is willing to fund the service um it it is just problematic because uh some of the rules and the rcws on debt service there there is a limit to um to what we can do there just because that assessed value of the district is so L good just a odd question that just like jumped in my brain um and no expectation this will become a reality but if for some reason we turned back District 8 to the county does that debt service because we I'm imagining we go into an

agreement for the the you know to you know do the building and stuff does that just stay with the district whoever oversees it but also a request that once you have a better idea what the expense and cost and the Outlook of that new facility you know perhaps just a memo or quick presentation so we're updated I'm just kind of curious when we take on debt for a contract area how does that we do not yeah fire district data is its own independent Municipal Corporation they're not subordinate to wam County and or so they're they have their elected Commissioners um take on that debt on behalf of their their constituents their debt has nothing to do with the city um or vice versa um yeah so that um if if we were to discontinue the contract and split they would continue to collect their taxes and use those to hire their own staff directly and and continue their operation yeah I assume so that was good toar thank you okay committee further questions okay uh committee goes first chair goes last um so I've got a couple questions here um one is pursuant to the last bullet item under your 2025 work plan continue planning efforts for dealing with the needs of our going community so we've um sat here at this table with the 40th and 42nd delegation and talked about um any opportunities to provide for capital for a fire station for the growing needs of the North End of of Bellingham and we're in very like what I would characterize as very preliminary discussions regarding that with no

guarantees at all um I I want to uh understand what the plan is for um our oversubscribed uh fire stations including demer which is our newest um fire station that's 20 plus years old uh at this point the response um times in that general service area given the fact that the the buildout um in the North End of the community is significant and we've we've got a lot of folks that are older and retired and maybe more prone to uh medical uh assistance so I just want to understand what the plan is moving into 2026 and 2027 I know that this we're we're we're resetting here because we're going to an annual versus a biannual but I just want to understand what that looks like I I don't require an answer at this point but I just want to put that on uh the radar screen that um having a new station out there would be beneficial if we could collocate um police with the at at the fire station kind of like we do now at at deer where they can write their reports and kind of be stationed out of that would be uh hugely um beneficial and then my other question is we've uh in this board room we we've talked about Regional Fire Authority years ago under the lindel administration and I'm wondering if that um would ever come back into play in terms of um a discussion with with Council and again I don't need an answer right now but I want to just make sure that that's in the uh in the com I would say that both of these items are things that we hope to flush out with that Public Safety strategic plan

so the needs for a new station in the future um you know one of the biggest challenges with that isn't so much the capital investment of the building but it's the staff associated with operating that that we would need to have a plan for so so evaluating where those needs are where those locations might be uh how and then how we might pay for it and that's where part two comes in is we hope that part of this will be looking at all the options whether that's a a public safety Levy lid lift an RFA what what are the options that are out there what are the pros and cons yeah thank you comme further questions go just closing with respect to the um Public Safety strategic plan do we have a I know that's a long process a timeline and that that's something we hope to finish this year I mean this year being 2025 we're talking about or is that something longer I mean do we have any sense of at this stage how long that be I think the intent is for 2025 we um I don't see any reason that couldn't be achieved in 2025 yeah it's it's in the budget committee other questions skip you're still still there all right anyway um yes I'm here and I don't have any questions all right good all right um I think that's that's it are there any other presentations this morning yeah that's that's it for Budget okay y so that's it then we've got an exact session schedu sorry got one more ed funding and then new session that in here what we do uh yeah yeah we can do all here so EDI let me just go and get so

thanks your voice by the way you sound like Aon win the game oh my God was so close dve me yeah you meter going we're trying to get over 106 109 on4 down okay well I'm going to go ahead and move us to the next item so the next item is economic development investment uh EDI into local Grant agreement with SW and countes for the construction of the bhan mitigation Bank U this is pursu to the bar Corridor site I'll goad and read the summary statement in 2016 the city initiated the development of the Bingham mitigation Bank as a means of establishing a programmatic approach to uh compensatory mitigation that can on one hand provide ecologically significant and functional mitigation and on the other hand promote economic development in the region by helping public and private developers meet their regulatory mitigation requirements with less time and agency coordination the city has invested 3 point or 3, $640,000 in property acquisition uh studies and consulted contracts to develop the bank this Economic Development investment Grant provides key funding to construct the first sight within the mitigation Bank the bear freek Corridor the interlocal grant agreement requires approval by both city and county councils why we're going to be discussing that here today and staff's recommendation is to authorize the execution of the interlocal grant agreement and that takes through is interim uh Public Works director uh Joel F good morning um we're really pleased to have been able to

secure this um EDI grant for the first part of the mitigation Bank um and I'm actually going to turn it over to Emily SPS who's the habitat and restoration manager to talk just a little bit about um what this first project represents and how it relates to the grant thank you Analise um Burns Public Work natural resources and this is an exciting uh Milestone um as the agenda Bill indicated the city has invested quite a lot of money already into the development of a mitigation bank and that's what mitigation Banks requires a lot of upfront investment um in order to open it and then repay yourself uh through credit sales and a lot of municipalities are not able to open a bank because of that um upfront investment and and that dedication it takes for keeping that investment in place for almost 10 years before you start seeing the revenue um and so uh this grant is um Builds on a presentation I gave in September about where we are the progress with the bank we're getting um closer and closer to that bank opening and um once it's opened uh in order to generate credits you have to meet certain milestones and one of the biggest Milestones that this uh site the BARC Creek Corridor would have would be going to construction to do the on site improvements including planting plants um removing invasives multing and all those things in a very complicated Beaver Dam um complex uh site which is exciting but very expensive to do um so this grant allows us um to to offset that cost of

construction entirely with this grant U dollar amount and um one of the things that we wanted to do by coming and and presenting this to you in addition to needing to approve the grant but we also wanted to highlight that this uh is a a shared recognition that the bank does help the city and the larger region not only achieve our environmental goals having uh better outcomes for our Watershed but it does it in a way that ALS Al helps us meet our development needs specifically housing um including affordable housing so um the EDI Grant is an economic development investment Grant and so that recognition is is trying to also highlight um that when you make mitigation more effective and um pre-approved essentially um you are streamlining the process that an applicant would have to go through it does not reduce the environmental obligations and it actually increases the success that project but it does it in a way that is much more conducive to um Expediting getting housing on the ground and reducing their costs I have a small question and I'll come back with a bigger one on my next turn um we're keeping track of these funds we're spending and then we're going to get credits back can do is that fund 702 I'm trying to find it in the is it a separate fund and if so where is it uh it's it's not a separate fund uh it's sort of been cobbled together all over the place uh and up till now uh the street fund purchased one of the sites Greenways purchased one of the sites and what we're

actually doing in this budget we're consolidating all of that into the storm water utility um so the storm water utility is going to buy that site from Street and buy the site from Greenways ultimately which one is which do you remember oh gosh it's okay so uh buying the be creek site this year for just to what it paid for it was Greenways it was Greenways okay so buying that from Greenways um so that then we can move forward with this and then in the future all the activities of the mitigation bank will occur in the storm water fund and we'll be able to track it separately within that with the county y okay and we have been tracking it as a project to there's project number toci to do with capital projects because the funds have been coming from various places we have that account to it I'm kind of a two-part question I thought I read in here and now I can't quickly find it is the work being performed by inhouse by City staff or are we going to be contracting out the work and then the second question um the amount of money we've already spent plus this 1 million is there a projection of how much more money perhaps out of the next year or two will have to be spending in order to get this up and going MH um so the first question was are we going to hire it out I think it's yet to be determined whether we have the staff capacity to take on um it's quite a lot of additional acreage and a lot of work and so there is some internal discussions about what what staff capacity we have

if we do not have the staff capacity we would be hiring it out and we are budgeting for that uh scenario it's probably a more expensive scenario to contract it out um as far as your second question was with the money we've already spent that was 1 million is there an estimate of additional funded needing in order to get this fully operational that we can start selling credits like crystal ball are we looking at another million or two going forward and then we're ready or we don't anticipate any additional expenditures to get it up and running and getting Revenue in um we have already budgeted for the remaining um con we have a consultant who's helping us through the approval process though so that has already been um encumbered that amount of money to get um the F the finishing up the design approval through the agencies and permitting um that million dooll grant that we're getting from um the county is closing that gap of um it's actually moving us Beyond operate or beyond the opening date we could go to opening without constructing we just wouldn't have many credits to sell we might sell out fairly quickly and so going to construction gives us another credit release and allows us to make sure that we can meet the market to the end um there will be additional operating costs in the long term right it's a it's a obligation we're going to have in perpetuity to maintain this site and that um we anticipate um being funded through credit sales um so no additional budget sprad

okay for questions ccil um so it looks like right the million dollars was the maximum um and I don't know if this is something that in future years right there will be additional funding um options from the county in this respect but I didn't find anything in the um paperwork included in the packet but I just wanted to confirm acceptance of this grant then does not provide any obligation with respect to credits to the county or right yeah okay just wanted to come yeah and I want to just correct what I said there is no additional cost for this Bank uh site be Creek Corridor we do Envision that the city and the region will want more credits than just the be Creek Corridor can um support and so we have a second site that is ready to go when we want to pursue that and that would take additional costs if we wanted to open the site when I went and made this case before the EDI board it's always the balance their preference is not to do grants it's to do the loans because they make interest and add to the funds and so it was a conversation about the grant versus Lan approach and I'm incredibly grateful that we received the grant to move this forward and it's because we have such a need in watom county that they were willing to support this request so as as we brought it forth so I'm very grateful my question is about the EDI fund actually you sit on are you a voting member on that board yeah so I mean I want to know more about the EDI fund I want to know basically I I it seems to me

like the city has been getting our fair share of Grants and um and Loans okay I would like can I please get information some from a county view of their EDI County oh skip you're unmuted oh sorry I I would like to get a view of uh the administration's past requests and success rate and uh future use of the EDI funds um because they're they're a really important fund and we are a big part of the county and I'm really glad to see this particular Grant I just I wonder if I can get a view of of yeah what the count is seeing when it looks at ondi funds that is a great question and it's not that we haven't been successful I think we have um been putting really high Bar for our asks that we've been putting forward where I would say maybe other cities have just been trying to like move things forward can we get a yes or no what about this what about that and we've been a little bit more I think critical in what we're moving forward and so um I think um but the EDI board is actually meeting to um the state legislature opened up EDI funds for for affordable housing and so that is a conversation before us and I think the tension there is with the fund balance that we have one affordable housing project could completely disburse that that fund and so we have to think about is are we adhering to the way that we've traditionally allocated These funds for infrastructure projects or what does it look like if we open it up to housing needs so um but yeah you're welcome to attend any well

maybe I and I I I'm not on the board and you are and you do represent the city for us but I I I I do wonder if we shouldn't be stronger advocates for ourselves and the council shouldn't be at least a prived if un included in forming that it always seems like applications the EDI board are are administrative and I just hear about them later on getting a $300,000 grant for this roundabout or a loan um we've never really been involved in when those requests go out how much we request so I I guess I'm I I will need to talk to the DAR County and and maybe the administration can help me figure out that as well okay Anderson was gonna say onetoone meetings with our mayor um I should know this because I know I've asked this before and I'm just having a brain bubble on it and quicker to ask than go back through old video um yes right here definitely um with once this mitigation is uh bank is up and running is this solely for the use of the city of Bellingham or will people outside the county be able to buy um credits it's a great question and one worth repeating the answer um the bank has always been envisioned as a community larger Community benefit uh we worked very closely with the entities we thought would be the biggest users so of course private developers but also School districts and the county and utility providers and the port to try to anticipate what is the regional need and where is that need um and that is what our bank is tailored to and so our there's something called

a service area that is defined if your project is within that service area you are eligible to apply for um Bank credits it doesn't mean that the agencies who are issuing the permits for that let's say Wetland impact will agree but the Apple is eligible to apply and then when they when they apply for their permits those Regulatory Agencies which are which is not the bank sponsor it's you know the Army Corp of Engineers um Department fish and wildlife they would try to see if the impact makes sense to have Bank credits from an ecological stem so anyone um that has development within um the service area which extends to the it's a watershed based one so extends north to the 10 Mile Watershed and South to the Chuck net um Watershed it's about 68,000 uh Acres it is a small service area compared to most banks but it's one that um met the needs of the community and also was palatable um to the extent that we can understand to The lumination Who provided um several comments on our stus area um yeah and I I did fail to mention I know Jill was thinking it might be appropriate to just remind you where this bank site is it is in the be Creek Corridor which is just North north of the city of ellingham within our ug outside of the city limits just barely up um off of Northwest Avenue and construction would be 2026 is there just as a followup um given that um outside of the city of Bellingham could potentially uh purchase and given how long it takes for us to get another one set up have

there been conversations that a certain percentage or a certain amount of credits will be reserved and held for the city of Bellingham to make sure so we can meet our internal needs um those conversations have been uh they're Ono and they'll be articulated in a draft nebling ordinance that Council will be able to review and discuss and we haven't we haven't finalized that draft yet for you not as part of the conversation thank you P committee forther questions p on looking for a motion here move approval of the chap million Grant second okay motion made by counc member lqu by council member Anderson and third by counc Williams apparently and all those in paper signifi by saying I exensions recusals motion Carri is 7 Z thank you okay we have our last item here next um is old and new business for October so this is just a Communications piece I know that the um Chiefs left there was some discussion I know the unveiling of the new vehicle or the R I guess for the new vehicle at the police department um for this month um recognizing both Breast Cancer Awareness Month as well as the mive violence Awareness Month of the pink and purple um I know that the at least publication that went out on the um on social media did acknowledge um that the um just that the I think it was saying that the design and actual um what did they say implementation is not the word installation um of the Wrath right was from science plus um but didn't specifically mention that that funding was covered I

mean that there wasn't right taxpayer money paid for the the raap itself um and so you know lots of discussion as always on that so just wanted to highlight the um that rolling out but also the fact that um science plus not only my understanding is the design and installation of that but that you know that cost was um provided by them so we're appreciative um and it's great to see that out in the community thanks for highlighting that thanks other items for old new okay seeing none um will conclude the committee the whole our executive session is scheduled for 11:10 doing you to um we need to wait till 11:10 for ex I don't think so we can go ahead yeah we'll we'll do a pause here real [Music] quick skip we're gonna shut down the zoom meeting and we'll invite you to a separate teams meeting in a moment okay there's pumpkin friends