CNA MEETING Minutes
November 14, 2022 6:30pm
Present:
Martha Worcester (Redwood Estates), Bob Jacobs (Governor Stevens), Dana McAvoy (East Bay Drive), Judy Bardin (Northwest), Dana McAvoy (East Bay), Leah Davis (Wildwood), Melissa Allen (Bigelow Highlands), Bruce Coulter (Northwest), Tim Smith (Olympia Planner), Larry Dzieza (Nottingham), Charlotte Persons (Bigelow NA), Clark Gilman (Councilmember), John Newman (Burbank/Elliott), Karen Sweeney (Eastside), Dave Marty (Indian Creek), Aaron BeMiller (City of Olympia Finance).
6:30 – 7:00 Neighborhood Reports
Martha Worcester – Current concern is maintaining the fences in the neighborhood.
Dana McAvoy – Board will be first of next year.
Leah Davis (Wildwood) – Fall Photo Booth was a big hit. Winter Walk-about and caroling event coming up this December. Was going to have the annual meeting at the school but they are now requiring insurance costing about $400. Held in private home instead. Some residents would like to pay their dues online, like Venmo. But they have not figured out the way to go. Online payment services seem to charge fees upfront. Young people don’t use checks. Bruce Coulter offered to assist with information.
Bruce Coulter (Northwest) – had first meeting in person in two years. Fifty people showed up and almost all were new to the neighborhood. Almost all found out by the signs being posted up the Friday before the meeting. Bruce recommends that all neighborhoods use them. Sara Hammond from Oly Ecosystems spoke about West Bay Woods to their association.
Melissa Allen – After 5 years she is no longer President but will be the representative to the CNA as she is on the Board. Melissa asked for help in dealing with the new rules with the Secretary of State requiring an employee ID number (EIN). They have no employees. Several members in the meeting offered assistance and Larry said he would send out an RNA wide email requesting help.
Bruce Coulter suggested that the city might be able to help.
Bob Jacobs – Talked about neighborhood improvements to the area for snow sledding and offered advice to Melissa on the EIN issue.
Dave Marty – Continued concerns with Wheeler homeless issues. Indian Creek is investigating a name change. As one of the larger neighborhoods there is some talk about splitting it up. The funding for the domain name is coming up.
Karen Sweeney – Eastside does a winter event, a winter walkabout using a map of the neighborhood displays. The Armory will be hosting the annual meeting November 30th. They will be having a solar presentation.
John Newman – Had neighborhood meeting following their night out event. Complaints about park related issues. Code enforcement was responsive to concerns about a fence and tree cutting. Discussion of the Capital Mall Triangle Area planning continues.
Larry Dzieza – Had their Board meeting to setup for the required neighborhood wide annual meeting. Larry asked if anyone has ever used a food wagon for neighborhood events. Clark said he attended an event that had one and felt it was a good alternative to BBQ.
7:00 – 7:15 Council Liaison Report
Clark reported that a lot of council time has been on the budget. Land Use is working a Landlord Registration program. A half dozen groups will be the recipients of a grant to use the Armory space which will give the city experience on how to manage multiple uses. Reimagining Public Safety working group just sent their recommendations to the city council. It is kind of a survey. Ensign road has now been cleared. 50 people (most of them) moved to the Quince Street Village. He lauded the Faith Alliance who built a hundred tiny houses at the Quince Street Village.
Clark said that Percival Landing is crumbling and is falling down the list to sexier park projects. Do we want to make it a priority investment? Only essential repairs have been done. But it needs a seawall. Larry pointed out that the Landing is more than just a recreational issue as it is an important economic development one as well. Clark agreed, its transportation and it’s a park managed property.
Melissa said she was surprised the city had not planned for rebuilding it. It’s a wonderful space and hope it can be preserved.
Larry asked if there are grants and can the Port help? Clark said yes, the repairs have been largely grant funded and the Port has a role in seawall.
7:25 – 8:15 Olympia Budget Presentation – Aaron BeMiller, Finance Director
Aaron reviewed the fund structure features of city budgeting and the budget calendar.
Larry asked about the timetable as it seems when ever neighborhoods try to engage or even the Planning Commission about the budget, they are always told its too late to make changes. Aaron said that by the time it gets late in the year its too hard to make changes. He relayed that when working for a county up north a big turnout of people resulted in changes even late in the process. The opportunity for involvement is there all year not just on the days of committee meetings. Emails and communications can come anytime.
Clark said while it is unlikely to rewrite the Capital Facilities Plan at this late date but a topic like sidewalks being talked about at these later stages and formal hearings had utility in putting the sidewalk funding on the agenda for the next cycle.
Aaron said the goal is have revenues match expenditures. He displayed a slide that showed every year that revenues are less than expenses.
Larry asked how this is possible to continue to use the fund balance on an ongoing basis? The slide, Larry said implies there was a $25 million fund balance, was there? Unless the fund balance is being replenished you would need a big fund balance. Aaron explained the chart is really just the budgeted numbers, not the actuals. The actuals have varying revenues and expenditures are almost always lower due to vacancies, for example. He said that he should add to the slide where they actually ended.
95% of the time is spent talking about the general fund even if its not 95% of the budget.
The following chart is about sustainability of budgets.
Because revenues fall behind planned expenses, especially property tax, the gap exists.
Bob asked if they do an inflation and population forecast and actuals to compare the budget with? Aaron said the new line doesn’t include new functions and new staff.
Property tax is limited by state law.
As property values increase, the tax rate goes down.
Larry asked if the new population coming in pay for the services that they receive. Aaron said it depends upon a lot of variables. Aaron says that growth does pay for itself overall. Larry related it to the RFA where the statement is that we can’t afford the current system because of growth.
The RFA means about a $13 million loss to the GF. The net fire costs are more netting about $300,000 difference. The Interlocal agreement means that the 11% reduces the amount by about $1.2 to $1.3 reduction to parks.
There was a question about the expenditures for personal services. Larry demonstrated the city’s budget visualization tool.
8:15 – 8:25 Updates on City Issues of Neighborhood Interest
Karen discussed the work of the subcommittee on Sidewalks. She reviewed the Planning Commission’s comments on refusing to approve the capital facilities plan because of the lack of investment in sidewalks. She also discussed the shortfall when the city removed their current expenditures for sidewalks following the public vote for funding sidewalks.
Karen pointed out Jim Lazar’s presentation on funding and the failure to use the voted funds for the projects presented to the voters. Karen also raised the problem with the “in-lieu” sidewalk fund not getting the results intended.
The committee also talked about ways of providing mobility at lower costs using the Lion’s Park Sprayground example. Asphalt or gravel as possible alternatives.
Melissa highlighted her comments to the city about sidewalks. She talked about sidewalk repairs and new sidewalks. Said we need to have money added to 2023 for at least a pilot of repairs for sidewalks. Pilot lower cost approaches and sharing cost approaches. Concern that the city’s focus on growth is leaving existing neighborhoods behind. We also need city staff to be assigned to engage on these issues.
Below is the white board from the meeting that Melissa walked the meeting attendees through.
Melissa called for creative ideas with an emphasis on just doing something now. Larry said that the Committee understands that we can’t fix it all at once but there are other cities that are doing much more than Olympia.
Bob Jacobs suggested that the city really took away the money (about $150k before inflation) and should give it back for repairs. Melissa suggested CNA should contact the Council about sidewalks. Melissa said she will testify tomorrow. Larry suggested that hearing from each neighborhood would make the most difference.
A motion was agreed to that Melissa will speak for the CNA at the meeting.
Technology topic was brought up and Karen talked about Nathan Allen who runs the Swantown Inn who offered to help neighborhoods and he mentioned Dave and Bruce. Using matching grants would be great too.
Larry said he will pull together a committee on technology.
Larry talked about the MOU in process with the city. The RFA meeting and the Airport meeting all happening at the same time as the CNA meeting.
Larry asked Tim where we are with meeting with the Planning Commission. It was the preference to do it next year and at a regular planning meeting.
8:25 – 8:30 Minutes Approval and Agenda Ideas
Minutes were adopted.
8:30 Adjourn