Spokane Valley City Council Highlights October 2022

Your Connection to the Spokane Valley City Council

October 24, 2022

As the year winds down, the City’s legislative agenda becomes more populated in the rush to complete its business in the remaining time to year end. Chief among items to be finalized are 1) adoption of the 2023 budget, and 2) passage of the 2023 property tax levy. However, changes in the 2022 budget have to be addressed by amending that budget which was the first item of business on tonight’s agenda.

Since the May 31st, 2022, budget amendment, (the last Council action dealing with the 2022 budget) events have transpired in the normal course of operations that necessitate a second 2022 Budget Amendment. Those changes affect 16 funds resulting in total revenue increases of $8,839,854 and decreases in expenditures of $8,318,416. The affected accounts and balances are encompassed in Ordinance 22-022, the next order of business on the agenda. Specific numbers and accounts can be found on the City’s website: www.spokanevalley.org.

In its next action, Council approved moving Ordinance 22-022 to a second reading.

Property taxes are the second major source of recurring City Revenue, representing $13,199,900 (25%) of the City’s 2022 budgeted recurring revenue. State law sets the maximum levy rates for property taxes in a jurisdiction. The formula for calculating the rate is to take the total levy, divide it by 1,000 and then divide that number by the total assessed value of the taxing authority.

The County Assessor’s Office determines the assessed value. That value currently stands at $16,306,359,527, producing a levy rate of $0.832138 per $1,000 of assessed value which is $0.187169 less than the $1.019307 rate for 2022. The passage of an ordinance is required to levy and collect 2023 property taxes. Ordinance 22-021 levying the 2023 property tax accomplishes that goal. The motion to advance Ordinance 22-021 to a second reading passed unanimously. 6-1

This evening marked the City Manager's presentation of the City’s 2023 Preliminary Budget. This is the fourth of eight budget reviews enroute to final passage on November 8th.

The City budget has two salient parts. Like any business, financial wellbeing depends on cash flow. In City parlance that is demonstrated by: 1) Recurring revenues and expenditures which are the normal sales and property tax collections, paired against the regular expenses of conducting City business, i.e., Public Safety, and 2) Non-recurring expenses such as capital projects like the acquisition of police vehicles or permanent park facilities.

Non-recurring revenues and expenses have largely recovered from the impact of COVID-19. However, the City’s finances are undergoing a new challenge: INFLATION.

The City’s stable financial condition highlights the consistently prudent management of its revenues and the continuing commitment to fiscal responsibility. That commitment is reflected in the proposed 2023 budget.* Moody’s bond rating service has awarded the City an Aa1 rating, an advancement over last year’s Aa2 rating, which was at that time the highest rating a city of our size could achieve.

The City’s full-time employee count will increase in 2023 by 2 to 105.25. The two additions are planned to be a paralegal and a Traffic Signal Technician.

The recurring revenue estimate for 2023 of $56,418,900 is 2.26% greater than the amended 2022 budget of $55,173,500.

The 2023 proposed recurring expenditure total of $52,726,223 is 5.33% greater than the 2022 amended appropriation of $50,058,688.

Budgeted recurring revenues will exceed recurring expenditures by $3,692,677 or 6.55% of recurring revenues.

*A more detailed breakdown of this budget analysis can be found at www.spokanevalley.org/agendas

The City annually provides partial funding for local economic development and social service agencies. By this process, the City contracts for services that it might not otherwise provide. The 2023 budget sets aside $244,000 for this purpose. Deductions for contractual arrangements with Greater Spokane Inc. ($43,000) and Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce ($19,000) leave $182,000 available to applicants.

The City received applications from 22 agencies totaling $602,666. At a previous Council meeting each agency was permitted five minutes to present its case for funding. The Council members individually considered the amount to award each agency applicant. If a requesting agency does not get four or more votes, it was not considered further for funds. Agencies finalized for an award are:

Elevations Children’s Therapy: $11,041

Meals on Wheels: $21,185

Inland Chess Academy: $1,457

JAKT: $10,714

Junior Achievement: $4,143

My Turn theatre: $4,286

Spokane Valley Arts Council: $17,326

Valley Heritage Museum: $16,469

Spokane Valley HUB: $4, 286

Spokane Valley Partners: $46,155

Spokane Valley Summer Theatre: $10,326

Teen & Kid Closet: $10,000

Transitions: $8,571

Widows Might: $16,041

The motion to approve the awards passed 4-3.

For a list of applicants, amounts requested, and individual councilmember allocations please visit www.spokanevalley.org/council.

State law requires that the City’s Solid Waste Management Plan and Moderate-Risk Waste Management Plan be current, reviewed and periodically revised as needed. To accomplish those goals the City, after issuing a Request for Qualifications, chose Great West Engineering as the most qualified. The motion to authorize the City Manager to finalize and execute the agreement with Great West Engineering for updating the City’s Waste Management Plans for a cost not to exceed $269,600 passed unanimously.

For years City Council has been studying and considering a variety of potential enhancements and/or improvements to Spokane County’s Plante’s Ferry Sports Complex. Recently, the City was contacted by Spokane County Parks about a funding opportunity for improvements at Plante’s Ferry, that it will be submitting a proposal to use approximately $4 million of County ARP funds for a master plan, design, and construction of improvements at Plante’s Ferry. They have requested a letter of support from the City in proceeding to hire a consultant to begin the master planning study process. The potential cost to the City would be in the neighborhood of $100,000. The motion to submit a letter of support for hiring a consultant to begin the process passed 4-3.

The City manages its Stormwater Utility Program pursuant to various laws and regulations from the state and county. That program is funded through the collection of 1) Storm and Surface Utility (Utility) fees from developed parcels located within the City, and 2) the Spokane County Aquifer Protection Area (APA) fee.

The Utility fee is $21 per year on single family residences, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. All other developed property is charged $21 for every 3,160 square feet of measured impervious surface area. The Utility fee will generate about $1.9 million in 2022 to the City. That fee has not increased since the City’s incorporation in 2003.

The APA fee is imposed on each water meter within the City by meter size. That fee is collected by the County and reapportioned among the various participating municipalities. That fee is expected to generate $460,000 for the City in 2022.

The City has recently developed a comprehensive stormwater plan to establish goals, strategies, and solutions for compliance with permit requirements and a sustainable plan for future compliance. This study identified two Levels of Service (LOS), Minimum Required and Pro-Active. Public input was solicited and received for guidance. The Minimum Required LOS, if adopted, would increase the Stormwater Utility Rate by $24 per year to $45. The Pro-Active LOS, if adopted, would increase the rate by $37/year to $58. Consensus to bring forward the Pro-Active Required LOS was reached.

The City is a member of the Spokane County Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) consortium which receives HUD funding for Spokane County. In this agreement, the City has an automatic set-aside but must apply for its grant under the program. This year, two sidewalk projects were identified for application: 1) 4th Avenue-Eastern Road to Catherine Johnson Apts.; $420,000 and 2) Progress Road-Mission to Broadway; $500,000. Council selected #1 as its priority application for a grant.

In another opportunity for grant assistance, the Washington State Recreation & Conservation (RCO) offers a program, “No Child Left Inside,” for outdoor education and recreation experiences for underserved youth. Requests can be for up to $25,000. Spokane Valley’s TEEN (Together Engaging & Exploring Nature) Camp was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID which matches the program goals. Staff is seeking consensus to apply for a $25,000 grant to re-establish the TEEN program. Consensus was unanimous.

City Hall is open for business during normal business hours. The Public is invited to participate in action items or public comment periods in person or via ZOOM. Call 509-720-5000 or www.spokanevalley.org prior to 4:00 p.m. for access instructions.

October 18, 2022

This Study Session of the Spokane Valley City Council commenced with a long overdue resolution (Resolution 22-018) declaring the termination of Emergency for COVID, effective October 31st. The governor, after nearly three years of “emergency” powers exercised over the state has decreed the official end of the “emergency” on that date. Resolution 22-018 makes it official. The motion to adopt Resolution 22-018 was unanimous.

The Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) is meeting to review and allocate lodging tax funds collected to benefit attracting tourists to visit and stay in Spokane Valley. That committee consists of five members: two from businesses required to collect the tax, two from businesses in activities authorized to be funded by the tax, and one City Councilmember who acts as the committee chair.

The Committee is scheduled to meet on October 20th; however, it has been discovered that the two representatives involved in activities funded by LTAC would be absent. There is no provision for their replacement and the inequity of representation has necessitated the appointment of alternates. Mayor Haley nominated Ms. Cherne Haskell from the HUB board of directors and Mr. Clint Branz from the County Fair board. The motion to approve the appointments passed unanimously.

Councilmember Arne Woodard will be out of town on Council’s October 25th meeting and has indicated his wish to participate remotely in the meeting. The motion to approve his remote participation passed unanimously.

The City lobbyist, Briahna Murray, joined the meeting to present potential discussion items for the City’s 2023 State Legislative Agenda. This year’s draft Agenda includes both capital requests and policy priorities. Highlights include:

• A Pines Grade Separation Project request made as a placeholder pending final approval of the Move Ahead Washington award expected in the coming weeks.

• Request to fully fund grants requested for Greenacres Park, Phase 2.

• Consideration of support for minor league baseball stadiums and a request to approve a $1,175,808 grant from the Youth Recreational Facilities (YRF) program and a $1,848,577 grant from the Building for the Arts program for the Idaho Central Spokane Valley Performing Arts Center located in the City.

• Request to revisit public safety policies, particularly related to the crime of possession of a controlled substance, restrictions on vehicular pursuit,s and increasing investment in alternative response teams.

• Requesting changes to the Growth Management Act relating to local flexibility, a change to municipal utility taxing authority, and removing barriers to the construction of housing.

• Continued commitment to defending local control and protecting and enhancing local state-shared revenues.

No action was taken at this meeting. Because discussion revealed a possible need for more forceful language regarding crime and public safety, Staff will return with a subsequent administrative report followed by a November meeting to adopt the agenda.

Ann Easterly, trustee of the Ann S. Easterly 2018 Living Trust, has requested the vacation of a 21-square foot piece of public right-of-way located adjacent to University Road. The area was previously the site of a school zone flashing beacon. The beacon has since been relocated to the north and only the foundation remains. Consensus was reached to place proposed Resolution No. 22-019 on the October 25th Council Consent Agenda for setting a public hearing before the Planning Commission.

That vacation request triggered an analysis of how the City wishes to conduct and pay for property vacations, i.e., should the City be reimbursed for all vacations (yes); should the costs of vacations initiated by the City be borne by the City (yes), should citizen-initiated vacations be paid entirely by the applicant with no administrative fee deduction (yes), and is the formula for compensation fair and accurate (yes, so long as all participants are informed)? Consensus was reached to place a resolution on compensation for street vacations on a future agenda.

The City of Liberty Lake has filed a Notice of Application for a development totaling 98.2 acres, divided into 16 parcels, encompassing residential and commercial properties. The plan calls for 1,176 apartment units and over 1,000,000 square feet of commercial space. The project developer is Centennial properties.

The impact on traffic patterns in the area including Barker Road, Country Vista Blvd, Appleway Avenue, and Sprague Avenue promises to be overwhelming, and the City of Liberty Lake appears not to be considering the effect on its neighbors. The City of Spokane Valley and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) have both filed notice that fulfillment of the plan would produce failures in their respective transportation systems. No action was taken but the issue continues to be reviewed.

The contract under which the Sheriff’s Office provides law enforcement for the City of Spokane Valley specifies periodic replacement of vehicles. In the past that has included purchasing new vehicles, used vehicles, and refurbishing current vehicles. The County, through this plan, has financed eleven vehicles per year dedicated to Spokane Valley service. However, that plan has proven to be inadequate to address the aging fleet.

The City proposed in its 2022 budget that $1.4 million be dedicated for purchasing twenty replacement vehicles: $360,000 for transitional costs for upfront vehicle replacement purchases and $1,040,000 for the initial fleet buys. To keep the fleet up to date, a replacement schedule would apply to all vehicles, placing them on a five-year/100,000-mile replacement cycle. The plan would replace fifteen vehicles per year.

However, because of order backlogs, price changes, etc., Staff has asked that the budget for 2023 be increased to accommodate 1) $150,085 for the 2022 vehicle re-order necessitated by production shortages, and 2) $304,332 for the 2023 purchase of 14 additional vehicles, increasing the 2023 budget by $454,417. Consensus was reached to increase the 2023 budget to accommodate the request.

Since 2016, the City has been studying and considering participation in a variety of potential improvements to Spokane County’s Plante’s Ferry Sports Complex. Recently the City was once again contacted regarding support for the County’s plan to use approximately $4 million of its American Recovery Plan (ARP) funds for a master plan, design, and construction of initial improvements at the complex. There would be no City contribution at this stage. Discussion centered on consensus whether to prepare a letter of support, and if so, the content of that support. The letter will be available at the next Council meeting.

October 11, 2022

This Regular meeting of the Spokane Valley City Council commenced with a Public Hearing on the City’s 2023 Preliminary Budget. This was the fifth of eight visitations on the budget leading up to its adoption. The First Reading on the ordinance adopting the 2023 budget will occur on October 25th. The final public hearing on the 2023 Budget will take place on November 8th followed by the Second Reading of the ordinance adopting the 2023 Budge

Finance Director, Chelsie Taylor, presented the Supplemental Budget* increases which include:

• $353,608 in the General Fund

• $207,200 in the Street Fund #101

• $160,000 in the Parks Capital Projects Fund #309

• $513,000 in the Equipment Rental & Replacement Fund #501

The City’s full-time employee count will increase in 2023 by 2 to 105.25. The two additions will be a paralegal and a Traffic Signal Technician.

The recurring revenue estimate for 2023 of $56,450,500 is $44,200,800 or 8.04% greater than the amended 2022 budget of $52,249,700.

The 2023 proposed recurring expenditure total of $53,731,079 is $3,628,391 or 7.39% greater than the 2022 amended appropriation of $49,102,688.

Budgeted recurring revenues will exceed recurring expenditures by $3,719,421 or 6.59% of recurring revenues.

*A more detailed breakdown of this budget analysis can be found at www.spokanevalley.org/agendas

Property taxes are the second major source of recurring City Revenue, representing $13,199,900 (25%) of the City’s 2022 budgeted recurring revenue. While city governments are generally thought to be the culprits setting the tax rates and collecting the larger percentage of property taxes, they actually receive, in most cases, less than 10% of the collected property tax revenues.

Who then benefits the most from property taxes? Two taxing entities compete for that title. On a $400,000 home, school districts (education, local and state) and fire districts take the lion’s share. The simplified table below demonstrating collections in the East Valley School District reveals:

Spokane County $411.94 9.5%

City of Spokane Valley $407.72 9.0%

Fire District. $1,082.10 24.9%

East Valley School District $1,218.70 28.0%

State Education Tax $1,063.92 24.4%

In a similar scenario, Central Valley School District collects 31.9% of the total, the State Education Tax gets 23.1%, and the Fire District receives 23.5%.

So, it is very apparent who gets most of your property taxes; it isn’t your City.

State law sets the maximum levy rates for property taxes in a jurisdiction. The formula for calculating the rate is to take the total levy, divide it by 1,000 and then divide that number by the total assessed value of the taxing authority. The County Assessor’s Office determines that assessed value. That value currently stands at $15,947,457,031, producing a levy rate of $0.840214 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The passage of an ordinance is required to levy and collect 2023 property taxes. That action will take place on the October 25th Council Agenda.

The Spokane Housing Authority (SHA) is a joint housing authority established under state law to provide affordable housing opportunities within the entire Spokane county region, including within the boundaries of Spokane Valley. Since its establishment in 1971, SHA has worked to provide safe, sanitary, and affordable housing opportunities to low-to-moderate income and senior citizens.

SHA operates several affordable housing facilities and provides other types of assistance as well throughout the region. The SHA operates independently from the City and does not use City funds or staff. However, the City appoints two citizen/members to represent the City on the SHA commission. Ms. Pam Par, SHA Executive Director, provided an update on SHA activities. Ms. Par’s visit was intended to strengthen SHA’s ties with the City and to collaborate on program participation.

In recent years, the City has received an increasing number of complaints regarding on-street parking on streets adjacent to various multifamily developments. The current code allows individual garages and for-fee parking spaces to count toward the number of required parking spaces per dwelling unit. CTA-2022-0002 is a proposed city-initiated code text amendment revising City Code relating to multifamily parking standards that would increase the required number of parking spaces to two.

The Planning Commission conducted a hearing and recommended the City Council deny CTA-2022-0002. After discussion of Planning Commission’s recommendation, Council concluded that additional study was needed. CTA-2022-0002 was referred back to the Planning Commission for additional consideration.

Since the May 31st, 2022, budget amendment, a number of events have transpired in the normal course of operations that necessitate a second 2022 Budget Amendment. Those changes affect 16 funds resulting in total revenue decreases of $2,260,146 and decreases in expenditures of $15,518,461. Council reached consensus to move forward with the amendments to the 2022 Budget as presented.

October 4, 2022

This first meeting in October of the Spokane Valley City Council led off with a discussion of the Sullivan/Trent Interchange. The Sullivan Road/SR-290 Interchange Project is rapidly gaining importance because it connects rural freight traffic with one of the region’s busiest urban corridors. As such, it appears to qualify for possible grant assistance.

The area along Sullivan Road between I-90 and SR-290 is home to 9,000 jobs, 85% of which are related to freight movement. Large employers move their goods and employees via Sullivan Road and Bigelow Gulch within Spokane County. Sullivan Road South of SR 290 is a designated Freight and Goods Transportation System freight corridor carrying over 10 million tons of freight annually.

Traffic is projected to increase in peak hours from 1,400 trips to 2,400 trips once Bigelow Gulch is completed. The current rated level of service on that route is ‘B.’ However, with the increase in traffic, that level without upgrading the infrastructure, will degrade the level of service to ‘F.’ Current estimates to reconstruct the interchange range from $35 to $43 million. Staff will be hosting a public meeting with project stakeholders later this month to gather input on alternatives.

The City manages its Stormwater Utility Program pursuant to various laws and regulations from the state and county. That program is funded through the collection of 1) Storm and Surface Utility (Utility) fees from developed parcels located within the City, and 2) the Spokane County Aquifer Protection Area (APA) fee.

The Utility fee is $21 per year on single family residences, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. All other developed property is charged $21 for every 3,160 square feet of measured impervious surface area. The Utility fee will generate about $1.9 million in 2022 to the City. That has not increased since the City’s incorporation in 2003.

The APA fee is imposed on each water meter within the City by meter size. That fee is collected by the County and reapportioned among the various participating municipalities. That fee is expected to generate $450,000 to the City in 2022.

The City is in the process of developing a comprehensive stormwater plan to establish the long-term goals of the Utility, identify solutions to address flooding, water quality issues, and strategies for applying sustainable rates and compliance with pertinent laws and regulations. To that end, the stormwater utility work plan is guiding a Stormwater Utility Rate Study with recommendations for potential stormwater utility rate structures and fees for adoption and implementation for 2023

View Past Spokane Valley City Council Highlights

The City Council holds more formal meetings the second and fourth Tuesday of each month and holds Study Sessions on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Agendas, minutes and background materials can be found on the City’s website: www.SpokaneValley.org by 5pm the Friday before each meeting.

Contact City of Spokane Valley:

10210 E. Sprague Ave.
509-921-1000
www.SpokaneValley.org