In two sessions today, scheduled to start at 9:30 am and 2 pm, the City Council continues the “issue identification” phase of reviewing and potentially changing the mayor’s proposed budget. Today’s reviews include the SDOT and Parks budgets, as well as a discussion of issues that “cross-cut” across multiple departments. Reading the documents, we found some excerpts of interest for potential changes, mostly to be brought up by West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold, though the first one is from north end Councilmember Rob Johnson. First ones are from the agenda documents for Parks, up first at 9:30 am.:

Funding for Daily Operation of Wading Pools (Councilmember Johnson) – This proposal would add $490,000 in ongoing funding to support the daily operation of 22 wading pools in the City. The Proposed 2019 and 2020 Budget includes funding for 15 pools to operate late June to early September, with four open daily (Green Lake, Lincoln, Van Asselt, and Volunteer Park) and 11 open between two and four days a week, for a total of 597 days of scheduled operation. Funding is not included in the Mayor’s Proposed 2019 and 2020 Budget to continue operation of seven wading pools funded by the Council in the 2018 budget. This proposal would restore funding to open the seven wading pools and provide funds for all 22 wading pools to open on a daily basis.

(WSB file photo)
This next proposed change to Parks’ budget is a followup to something we reported on recently:

Open Colman Pool for One Additional Month in Summertime (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would add $60,000 in ongoing funding to support opening Colman Pool for one more month in the summer. Currently the pool is budgeted to operate for approximately 14 weeks (between late May and early September).

The District 1 councilmember has two other proposed Parks changes involving West Seattle facilities:

Winterize Cabins at Camp Long (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would add one-time funding to winterize the cabins at Camp Long to facilitate year-round use. Central Staff will continue to work with CM Herbold to determine the level of resources required to implement this proposal.

Enhance Trail Access Points on SW Brandon Street (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would add $50,000 in one-time funding for a community planning process examining enhancements to trail access points along South West Brandon Street in West Seattle, as recommended in the North Delridge Action Plan. Central Staff will continue to work with CM Herbold to determine the level of resources required to implement this proposal.

After the Parks discussion, the council moves on to SDOT before the 9:30 am-starting session ends. Three pitches that Herbold will make:

Add the Highland Park Roundabout as a separate project in the 2019-2024 CIP (Councilmember Herbold) – This project was identified through the Neighborhood Street Fund process to enhance safety, improve traffic flow, and reduce cut through traffic. SDOT has allocated $200,000 for design of this project and is seeking a WSDOT’s City Safety Program grant to fully fund the project. SDOT’s financial plan reserves an additional $300,000 as a local match for the grant. This action would create a specific CIP project for this work.

Proviso the Arterial Asphalt and Concrete Program Phase II Project related to 35th Ave. SW (Councilmember Herbold) – As part of the Move Seattle reset, SDOT is proposing additions and deferrals of paving projects from the previous 2015 Arterial Asphalt & Concrete Paving Plan. Councilmember Herbold is considering a spending proviso on this program, or other budget actions related to this program, pending further review of SDOT’s paving plan proposal.

Add funding for Landslide Mitigation (Councilmember Herbold) – This action would add $1 million in 2019 and $1 million in 2020 to address high priority potential landslide locations identified in SDOT’s 2000 Landslide Risk Assessment Report. The 2018 Adopted Budget included $1 million of one-time funding for this work, above the baseline $400,000 for landslide response and remediation. This action = would restore funding for this program to 2018 levels.

And in the “cross-cutting” discussion, scheduled for today’s 2 pm session:

District 1 Community Planning (Councilmember Herbold) – This proposal would confirm that there is capacity within OPCD to begin planning with West Seattle communities in 2019. In July, OPCD published “Community Planning Practice + Prioritization,” its response to Statement of Legislative Intent (SLI) 135-1-A-1, which asked for a report on priorities for community planning. In that report, OPCD identified three areas where planning is starting in 2018: (1) Crown Hill in District 6; (2) the NE 130th/145th light rail station area in District 5; and (3) Imagine Downtown – a long-range urban design plan for the Center City. The next three community planning priorities are: (1) Westwood/Highland Park in District 1; (2) Aurora/Licton Springs in District 5; and (3) Columbia City, Hillman City and the future Graham Street light rail station area in District 2. According to the SLI response, future light rail station areas along the West Seattle to Ballard alignment are also intended to be an area of focus of community planning beginning in 2019. This action would ensure that there are resources to begin work with communities in Westwood/Highland Park and the Delridge and Avalon/West Seattle Junction station areas in the 2019-20 biennium through reporting requirements, a budget proviso, or additional staffing.

Increase Pet License Fees to Support an Animal Control Officer (Councilmember Herbold)—This budget action would amend budget legislation to raise the price of pet license fees to the level that would support the costs on an additional animal control officer. FAS is still determining the necessary increase in pet license fees to achieve this goal. Current pet license fees range from $20 to $200, and $120,000 was provided for a similar position in the 2017 Adopted Budget.

The full review documents are linked to the agenda for today’s sessions.

P.S. Just getting pitched in these sessions is no guarantee that these changes will be made – councilmembers have to get support from others on the council, and money has to be moved from somewhere else in the budget. If you support or oppose any of these – or anything else in the budget – you can e-mail council@seattle.gov with feedback.