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MEDINA CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION
AGENDA
January 24, 2005
501 Evergreen Point Road
A. CALL TO ORDER
7:00 p.m.
Medina, WA
7:00 p.m.
B. ROLL CALL (Adam, Blazey, Nunn, Odermat, Phelps, Rudolph, Vail-Spinosa)
C. ANNOUNCEMENTS
1.
Mayor
2.
Council
3.
Staff
D. DISCUSSION
1. Discussion of Options for Citizen Survey
2. Discussion of 2005 Legislative Action Plan
E. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Purpose: Labor negotiations
F. ADJOURNMENT
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
The Medina City Council encourages public participation and values input from citizens. In an
effort to conduct meetings in a fair, but efficient manner, the City Council will follow previously
adopted procedures, which are available in the City Clerk's Office.
All comments shall be addressed to the Council as a whole in a courteous and respectful manner.
Citizens wishing to address the Council should complete a speaker card and submit it to the
recording secretary prior to the start of the meeting. Speaker cards are on the podium prior to the
start of the City Council meetings.
Meeting Agenda is subject to change prior to approval of the agenda during the meeting.
Persons interested in a specific agenda item may wish to call the City Clerk at
(425) 454-9222 before 4:00 p.m. on the date of the meeting to confirm agenda items.
ITEM D - 1
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CITY OF MEDINA
City Manager's Office
501 Evergreen Point Road, Medina, WA 98039 425.454.9222
www.medina-wa.gov
MEMORANDUM
DATE: January 12, 2005
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Doug Schulze, City Manager
RE: Citizen Survey Options
RECOMMENDATION: Provide direction regarding options for citizen survey.
• Identify goals for survey (improving services, budget preparation, setting new objectives, citizen
priorities, citizen satisfaction, etc.).
• Identify topics/specific information that is desired from the survey.
• Identify procedures for survey questionnaire design and data collection.
BACKGROUND: On January 10, 2005, the City Council directed the City Manager to identify
options for conducting a citizen survey. The City Council also added discussion of survey options to the
January 24th Study Session agenda. There are several research and marketing consultants located in
Washington who conduct citizen surveys. Publication of a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) would also
identify interested consultants.
Hebert Research has been contacted and agreed to send representatives to the January 24th Study
Session for the purpose of assisting the City Council with identification of goals and specific information
needs for the survey. Hebert representatives will also provide information regarding the most appropriate
type of data collection, sample size, and other questions the Council may want to ask.
As a follow up to the discussion during the January 10th City Council meeting, I thought the following
information might be helpful to explain why citizen surveying is not only a good idea but a necessity for
responsive local government:
• Citizen surveying bridges the gap between the government and citizens who don't come to
meetings, but do vote, pay taxes, and make decisions about where to live and build their
businesses.
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• The best way to encourage good performance is to measure it, and the best indicator of
government performance is citizen satisfaction. Two out of three local governments that monitor
their contracts use citizen satisfaction as a guide.
• Surveying is how you measure progress. Surveying is not a one-time event. You start a trend line
with your first survey. In following years, declining scores tell you where to focus improvements;
rising scores reward departments that are improving.
• Surveys done by professionals come with analysis and explanation that put local scores in
perspective. Surveys done by outside consultants are free of bias and establish a neutral
benchmark that all parties can accept.
• Surveying is always done in the context of planning for the future — balancing priorities, setting new
objectives, preparing the next budget, improving services. You create, you measure; you refine,
you reassess. Strong management demands a credible feedback system.
• The cost of surveying is repaid with interest in terms of citizen satisfaction with government, staff
commitment to change, and conservation of resources.
o Source — The National Citizen Survey
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ITEM D - 2
CITY OF MEDINA
City Manager's Office
501 Evergreen Point Road, Medina, WA 98039 425.454.9222
www.medina-wa.gov
MEMORANDUM
DATE: January 20, 2005
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Doug Schulze, City Manager
RE: 2005 Legislative Agenda
COMMENT:
The following issues are suggested for 2005 legislative concerns for the City of Medina. The City Council
is asked to review the issues and be prepared to discuss additions or changes during the January 24,
2005 Study Session.
High Priority Issues:
Streamlined Sales Tax — The Department of Revenue has released a proposal that provides for
both mitigation of losses from going to a destination based sales tax process as well as modest
"backfill" to the most needy cities and counties arising from the loss of the motor vehicle excise tax.
The Department of Revenue proposal will go to Governor Gregoire, who will consider advancing a
bill to the Legislature. This remains an important fiscal issue for the City of Medina. Therefore, the
City should be prepared to communicate support for the proposal to legislators, if a bill is advanced
by the Governor.
• Municipal Court Issues — While this issue has taken a turn toward the positive since last year, it
still remains a priority issue. It does not appear likely that the Administrative Office of the Court's
(AOC) will seek to restrict joint municipal courts, which was our primary concern in 2004. The
AOC's agenda is generally beneficial to cities in that it proposes trial court funding and criminal
indigent defense. This proposal could result in increased state funding for cities and counties to
help pay for the costs of public defenders and municipal judges as well as increase the filing fees
in all Courts of Limited Jurisdiction.
Gas Tax Distributions — AWC is pursuing several options for direct gas tax distributions to cities
as well as increased flexibility for cities use of the gas tax. This could result in changes that will
increase the amount of gas tax received as well as increase the City's flexibility for use of gas tax
revenues.
Other Priorities:
• Street Light Authority — AWC is seeking authority for cities to levy a fee to finance construction
and operation of street lights. Currently, funding for construction and operation of street lights
comes from general funds, which are limited.
• Pension Contribution Rates — The Select Committee on Pension Policy (SCPP) is responsible
for pension policy recommendations to the Legislature on benefit changes for most State
retirement systems, including the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and Plan 1 of the
Law Enforcement Officers and Fire Fighters Retirement System (LEOFF 1). The SCPP has
recommended a number of proposed benefit changes, which will be considered by the Legislature
this session. The most important proposal is one that would phase -in contribution rate increases
over a four year period, to lessen the impact on both employers and members this coming July.
• GMA Revisions — AWC plans to initiate a number of changes to the Growth Management Act,
which will be beneficial to the city family. The proposed changes include: change the frequency of
review/updates; clarify state expectations on best available science; clarify that cities may zone for
residential use at a variety of densities; and seek more flexibility for use of existing impact fee
funding sources.
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MEMORANDUM
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DATE: 20 January 2005
TO: Medina City Council
FROM: Mary Odermat, Mayor
SUBJECT: Facility Discussion
At the January 10th City Council Meeting, in light of the facility topic
being listed on the Council Agenda for the January Study Session,
made a request of the Council for consideration of a group visit to
survey the work space occupied by City Staff. I wish to clarify the
purpose of my suggestion, and correct misconceptions about my
intent.
An exhibition of respect for Staff should not be considered an
indication of rubber-stamping Staff directives. The public record of
my service to Medina over the past dozen years indicates many
instances where my position and final decision have deviated from a
Staff recommendation. At this time, I am not supportive of a
significant change to Medina's public facilities, and several of you
have been well aware of this decision in recent months. Some of you
have shared your desire to "kill" facilities as an agenda item.
However, since various preliminary proposals have been the subject
of Council attention since 1997, it seemed prudent to engage in due
diligence before finalizing the "killing" of the facility topic at this point
in time. Some of us have reviewed the organizational study
commissioned by the city, and the data and concept drawings
presented by the Lawhead Group, as well as participating in various
discussions over the years. The last step, before putting the topic to
rest, would seem to be a group visit and overview of the actual
physical workspace provided for Staff. Such visit should not be
construed as an opportunity for Staff to lobby the Council. Rather,
such visit should be viewed as a twofold educational opportunity: to
learn about the job and to be aware of the working conditions
provided for execution of the job
As a Council, we talk about the need for maximum efficiency and for
increased productivity of employees. As guardians of our City's
financial resources, we are obligated to provide the means for
improvement. It seems reasonable to determine first hand if we are
so doing. By voting to neglect engaging in a group overview of
physical space, and accompanying discussion, -is the Council really
using due diligence to address a Staff identified concern?
I cannot in good conscience put the issue to rest without exhausting
every means of due diligence. After a recent Council Meeting,
Council Member Adam asked me to follow him upstairs at City Hall
so he could point out his solutions for the increased space request.
Perhaps, others of you will have worthy ideas to bring forth. At the
same time, regardless of the outcome, we show respect for Staff, and
an employer interest in employee well-being. Worthwhile action!
Please, when you enter the Council Chambers for the Study Session,
take notice of how cluttered our Chambers are in present time, with
items lacking storage space. Because we've looked at all the extra
stuff on a regular basis, we are desensitized to how messy our
premises appear to one who enters for the first time. Again, I ask
that we seriously consider forming the Chambers into office space,
and moving our meetings to Overlake Golf and Country Club where
parking is plentiful and the surroundings are tidy and can
accommodate a sizeable audience when necessary. I truly believe
the quiet, neat ambience of the Club would foster greater attendance
at our meetings -- a highly desirable outcome.
As we think about space, efficiency and productivity, i hope we will
make every positive effort to provide the Staff with the tools they need
to arrive at the pinnacle of excellence, best serving our citizens who
have entrusted the Council with the challenging task of making
decisions allowing adjustments to the changing times. While
agreement exists that our citizens are opposed to additional City
facilities, I believe we can agree that few are consciously aware of
the circumstances that fostered growth in size of our Staff. We
would do well to educate our constituents to the exponentially
increased building activity, the vast amount of code enacted that
requires enforcement, the state mandates that require local
municipality monitoring and documentation, and the increasing public
safety issues which have driven the need to increase Staff. With this
understanding, the limitations of work space, as it currently exists,
would likely not seem an unreasonable issue to publicly address.
This memo is my final offering relative to facilities. I simply request
you provide some private consideration to my line of thought. If you
do not see fit to grant my wish, I will abide by my fiduciary
responsibility to honor the majority decision. We do have plenty of
others city issues to address during the remainder of my term!
Thank you for any consideration you afford the contents of this
memo.
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