July 14, 2008

7:00 PM: Call to Order

Pledge of Allegiance

Roll Call

Members Present: Don Butler, Les Dawson, Dave Fields, Steve Hiester, Warren Iverson, Gordon Moorman, and Peter Rimbos.

Members Absent: Kevin Daoust, Susan Dawson, Eric Harris, Robert Morris, Patrick Seiver, and Beverly Tonda.

Review and Approve Agenda: Approved.

Public Comment on Topics Not Listed on the Agenda: Dick Bonewits announced that a group of "citizen counselors" would be meeting at KCSP #3 on Tuesday, July 15, 2008, at 7:00 PM for the purpose of citizen input to the Sheriff's Department.

Approval of Minutes: Approved.

7:15 PM: Maple Valley Levy - Tim Lemon

The Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety Department is putting forward Prop. 1, Fire Levy Lid Lift. This proposition will last for 6 years. Initiative 747 limited levy increases to 1%. By doing this lid lift for 6 years we will save much in costs of election costs. This lid lift continues the current rate levied. This lift lid supports day to day operations including fire suppression, vehicle accident rescue, medical aid, special rescue operations and fire prevention services. This lid lift will cost$1.50 per $1000 evaluation (a home valued at $350,000 would pay 52.50 per year). The levy needs a simple majority to pass.

7:45 PM: King County Budget - Bob Cowan

Bob Cowan, Director of the King County Budget Office, led a presentation explanation of the challenges facing King County in budget development. All of Washington’s 39 counties are fiscally distressed. Mr. Cowan explained that there is a difference in the fundamental make-up between county revenue and growth. Because of I-747 the county is limited to 1% growth in property taxes, the county’s primary form of revenue. The county is bound, often through continuing contracts to honor those contracts. Often this results in a need to resort of using county reserves.

Council members asked how the county could meet its needs without resorting to reserves.

Mr. Cowan replied there were three things to do:

1) Develop a system that would result in lower costs to meet demands;

2) Develop a strategy with the state legislature that would create revenue relief (tax revision); and

3) Develop non-revenue methods of addressing requirement of the legislature that were unfunded.

According to Mr. Cowan policy changes; charges for regional services; modification of the 1% limitation on property taxes; new regional revenue for criminal justice and public health programs; and utility taxes would help to alleviate this problem.

9:00 PM: Committee Reports and Assignments

Gordon Moorman reported pointed out the DDES establishes their annual budget according to their projected intake of building permits. DDES budgeted total expenses for 2007 was $31,836,058. They get very little funding from the King County Council except certain positions appointed by the council such as the Rural Permit Specialist. Therefore, they establish permit costs based on their cost for services and simply pass it along to the applicants. Remember that the issue that caused the DDES Permit Committee to be formed is the charging of $145/hr. for all tasks including common administrative tasks and the Courts decided (Tiger Mountain, LLC vs. King County) that this was overcharging (patently unreasonable)- $145/hr. is OK for technical tasks.

In that suit, DDES was ordered to:

1) refund fees charged for staff work on permit appeals;

2) lower monthly charges of delinquent payments;

3) formal adoption of public rules regarding fee waivers, fee estimates & lower monthly charges on delinquent payments; and

4) reiteration that King County values transparency in government in regards to costs.

When you apply for a permit, DDES gives you an estimated summary of charges and you pay approximately 60% at that time to start the process. The remaining charges are paid at the time you pick up the permit. Those charges can change depending on what they find when they process your permit. For instance, Gordon’s estimated fee was $4,837.60 at application and increased to $7,463 at issuance because of further fees added such as firespinkler requirements, site engineering, etc.

9:30 PM: Adjourn