New planning commissioners and no tax hike on cable TV

By JEREMIAH O’HAGAN Staff Reporter

Stanwood City Council waded through an agenda chock full of business last week.

Their first act was the appointment of Elizabeth Callaghan and Jeff Laycock to a two-year term in the Stanwood Planning Commission.

Mayor Dianne White selected Callaghan and Laycock from a pool of four applicants and recommended them to the council, which unanimously approved their service Thursday evening.

For the third time, Crystil Robinson brought Ordinance 1269 before council, proposing an increase in the cable television utility tax. The tax is currently 3 percent, while all other utilities are taxed at 6 percent.

Increasing the cable TV utility tax to 6 percent would bring the city $33,000 additional revenue each year.

The first time the ordinance was brought before council, they tabled it. The second time it failed. Thursday night, they failed it again, by a vote of four to two. Council members Leonard Kelley and Conrad Ryer voted in favor of the increase.

Councilman Bill Carlton said he was opposed to the ordinance.

Councilman Andy Chapel was excused from the meeting.

“We can call it what we want,” Carlton said, “but in the end it’s a tax that gets passed to the citizens.”

Carlton maintained that if the city is going to tax citizens, it needs to figure out what’s required to fund the city, come up with a plan for collecting that money, and then present an entire package to the citizens, rather than “nickel and dime-ing them.”

White got approval to sign documents to relocate city utilities in cooperation with the downtown phase of the SR 532 corridor improvement project. The construction will be paid on a time and materials basis, the cost of which is not to exceed $107, 200.

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) notified the city two years ago that work would require the relocation of some utilities, and that the city would be responsible for the costs, per existing agreements.

Andy Bullington, public works director, reviewed three options for the work and recommended the city obtain quotes from a certified contractor and pay as they go. This option was the most flexible and economical, allowing city workers to complete as much work as possible and subcontract as necessary.

Council approved this option unanimously.

Rebecca Lind, planning director, brought two ordinances before council.

The first amended code language regarding a clear “sight triangle” at intersections. The planning commission found two regulations for keeping a clear sight triangle — one in the city’s landscape code and one in the public works standards. The commission recommended adhering to the public works standard, which bases the sight triangle on speed limits rather than distances.

In addition, the commission recommended an encroachment permit fee of $100 for structures such as fencing, landscaping, parking or retaining walls that use the city’s right of way. The permit would catalogue the encroachment and allow standards of maintenance to be enforced on a complaint basis.

Council voted unanimously to table this ordinance for a future meeting.

Lind also introduced Ordinance 1266, which establishes a preliminary plat approval period and a final plat vesting period of seven years each and eliminates any extensions except those approved by council. Current code sets these periods at five years each, with provisions for a one-year extension of preliminary plats.

This change came about as the result of legislation passed at the state level that made approval and vesting periods of seven years mandatory. The new law will go into affect June 11, and sunset in 2014. At that time, the periods will revert to five years each.

Stanwood’s ordinance also reverts to five-year periods at the end of 2014. Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance in alignment with new state law.

Joyce Papke, city administrator, presented Ordinance 1270, which establishes an emergency management organization.

Papke explained that the city applied for Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) funds, which are provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security. One of the requirements for these funds is that the city maintains its own emergency management organization.

Additionally, both Darin Reid, assistant fire chief, and Ty Trenary, police chief, said they felt the city could be best served by its own emergency management team, rather than relying on a partnership with Snohomish County, as per their current arrangement.

Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance, which details the mayor or designee as director of emergency services.

Papke also distributed to council the scope of work the city is presenting to Jack Lyons to be used as the basis for formulating options for a

full-service contract for fire

and EMS services in the city. Council asked for time to review the materials and scheduled a round-table discussion for April 19 at 7 p.m. The discussion will include firefighters and fire commissioners as well as council members and city administrative staff.

Council will meet at a 6:30 p.m. special session before their April 22 meeting to further discuss the scope of work.

Other city council news:

• Shelley Klasse, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, announced that Wave Broadband and four local businesses would be sponsoring fireworks for Stanwood’s Fourth of July celebration.

Viking Village Shopping Center, Lenz Trucking, Roy N. Carlson, and the Law Offices of Dale Wagner each contributed funds, and Waste Management committed to renting portable toilets for the event.

Klasse said she will be in contact with local nonprofits to provide food sales as a chance to earn money, and there will be a stage for bands.

Klasse is in the process of obtaining bids for the firework display from two companies on the fire marshal’s list of approved vendors.

• Trenary reported the police department had “arrived at a unique opportunity” for a short-term project focused on school-zone safety.

Trenary said the department currently has someone on staff certified as a motorcycle officer to focus attention on school zones.

He added that safe school zones are vital, and that “it’s incumbent upon the police department to work on it.”

• Trenary also noted that the police department had received a grant to receive eticketing devices at no cost to the city.

“The whole state is moving toward e-ticketing,” Trenary said, “and this allows us to get started now, rather than having to pay for the devices once they’re standardized.”

• Council requested that the planning commission and economic development committee review the economic development plan and bring recommendations before council.

• After adjourning to executive session, council reconvened and unanimously authorized White to transfer ownership of a small portion of the City Hall parking lot to WSDOT, for use in widening the intersection of SR 532 and 270th Street. WSDOT agreed to pay the city $11,625 for the property, based on square footage and the cost of reconfiguring and re-striping the City Hall parking lot.

The next council meeting is on April 22, 7 p.m., in the school district’s administration building.