Council,
Here are this week's items:
Council Direction
- Petition to State Parks Board - I forgot to mention this in my comments on Monday night. I'm attaching
additional information in advance of our 11/13 conversation, where we’ll need to take action if we are going to meet the 11/15 deadline. We will be recommending that we sign the petition.
Council Follow-Up
- Next Budget Discussion - We have some parking lot items planned for our final budget discussion. We will also provide a listing of the major changes to this budget vs. last year, in case there are any changes before we print a version of the budget for action. The 13th will also be our typical discussion of revenues, budget public hearings, etc. We are planning action for the second meeting in November.
- Webinar on Bicycling Tourism - Several staff and community members viewed an international webinar on this topic on Wednesday. We are excited about the possibilities of continuing to make the ODT, and Sequim in general, an easier destination to visit for cyclists. Much of what we learned was around the organization of information online and signage in the city, which we'll be more closely evaluating. Anything we do for tourists will benefit all of our residents.
- Promoting Remote Technology Workers on the Peninsula - We'll be hosting a meeting today with the EDC and local businesses to do a deeper dive on state legislative changes that could help remote workers in rural areas. We'll let you know if there are any possible edits to our legislative agenda and policy as a result.
- Youth Services Task Force - We have our monthly meeting today. The two key items for discussion are Youth Summit Next Steps and Teen Center Development. We'll be splitting the Teen Center project into a separate team and have a check-in on that project planned with the Council by the end of this year.
- State Emergency Management Director - The State's Emergency Management Director will be on the Peninsula today. We are meeting with him this afternoon.
- Emergency Management Incident Management Team - We are working with Fire District 3 and FEMA to train a blended team from both agencies to run our Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the future. As we put this effort together, we'll be bringing forward an interlocal agreement to support it. Combining resources will allow both agencies to have more depth and versatility to handle an extended incident, especially those that require 24 hour EOC operations. We'll be training our staff to specific positions in the EOC and training heavily over a multi-year period as we get this system put together.
- Community Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) Update to Begin - Our November meeting will begin the kickoff to our plan update that we have scheduled for 2018. Eventually, we'll be bringing a revised plan to you for action. The Police Department will be leading a multi-departmental team to complete this project.
Related Items
- Records Focus for 2018 & Beyond - We've set a goal to become a top performing records management organization at the national level by 2025. We'll be determining the measures for success for this goal over the next year. I'm creating capacity within the organization to allow us to focus resources on further records process definition and process improvement, disposal of unnecessary records, strategic digitization of records, IT systems to manage records, and transparency. We are looking to make it easier for the public and our staff to find the information that they are seeking. We'll be asking you to also help us create capacity internally by further focusing Council priorities for the next several years.
- Capital Project at Carrie Blake Park - While we are opening the road, punch list work continues on site. The project is a lot broader than just the new entry to the park. It includes new pathways, landscaping, pickleball court grading, rain gardens, etc. We are planning a ribbon cutting for mid-November when all of the work is done. We'll let you know as soon as we have a date finalized. We should know the exact date in the next 1-2 weeks.
- Project with Azerbaijan Shaping Up - A step that is a US State Department condition of our hosing Professional Fellows from foreign countries is organizing an outbound project. Charisse and I have been working with Aydan to put together a one-week project for June 2018 in Baku, Azerbaijan with Aydan's department (State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations). The project is focused on presentations and discussions around civic engagement and organization development. We are fortunate that our previous fellow, Seymur, also works in her department so we have two contacts there. Only about 25% of projects proposed get funded but if we are fortunate to get selected, I'm confident that both sides will benefit tremendously. The model we've developing for collaborating with Aydan's department is one that we can replicate in the future. It involves continued collaboration via internet conferences, and even the formation of international project teams to tackle common/emerging problems experienced by both of our organizations, well after the in person visits are complete. We are going to test it further with Shiso City, Japan in 2019-2020 as we look to expand that relationship.
- Chamber Business Showcase - I attended this event on Tuesday night at Sunland. It was a packed house, a great turnout! Businesses are also still talking about the business Blitz. It was greatly appreciated.
- BIG Ideas Conference – I attended this weekend-long conference, through the Alliance for Innovation, in Raleigh, NC in early October. This year’s conference focused on pre-emption of local government powers by state and federal governments. It was a fascinating and thought provoking experience, as always. I described some of our efforts to keep focused on local issues despite all of the partisanship going on at the state and federal levels. I will be participating in a follow-up session with a small group hosted by the Drucker Institute in January to further conceptualize how we can take actions from the discussion we had at the conference. Here is a link that includes the white papers that formed the context for the discussion at the conference if you are curious to learn more. This issue of pre-emption is evident in many arenas. A good example that you may recall was federal limitation on our ability to regulate small wireless facilities. http://transformgov.org/en/learning/big_ideas
Charlie's Schedule
- Out Monday - I'll be out of the office Monday for a family celebration, but I'll be in town.
Thanks,
Charlie Bush