BI looking for project ‘wins’ before King arrives

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 5, 2021

The Bainbridge Island City Council is planning a retreat with new city manager Blair King a little after he comes onboard in late May.

But that doesn’t mean they want to hold back for three months.

“We need some wins so we can feel like we accomplished something,” Deputy Mayor Kirsten Hytopoulos said after last Tuesday’s study session.

Rather than taking on something huge, she recommended checking off small projects dealing with major issues such as climate change, race equity and affordable housing.

Councilmember Leslie Schneider agreed. “Being on target to get things done would be very motivating for us,” she said.

Much of the meeting was spent trying to figure out how to prioritize all the things the council wants to get done.

Interim city manager Ellen Schroer said a staff of 13 spends only a portion of its time of council wishes.

Mayor Rasham Nassar said the community wants to see outcomes, not delays. So there needs to be better communication on what staff can handle.

“Everything we do means something else can’t be done,” Nassar said. While the council knows there will be “tradeoffs. What are we compromising when we make those priority decisions?”

She said the council doesn’t want to “build a work plan that’s so ambitious that it can’t be done. “

Nassar said the council needs to be informed how much staff time projects will take “within the context of the resources we have to work with. Make it more realistic.”

Schneider said, “Some of our intentions get undermined” because the council doesn’t get informed about staff time.

She added that maybe they need to know that so they have the “right information to make a choice.”

Councilmember Joe Deets said the council needs to be aware of staff limitations.

“The more we know what the tradeoffs are the better decisions we can make,” he said.

Councilmember Brenda Fantroy-Johnson brought up the idea of having information on all projects that would be online available with the click of a mouse. Councilmember Michael Pollock agreed, saying such a living document should have a web link.

Schneider also agreed, saying a webpage with such information would be ideal.

Schroer already had that information available to the council, but it was in the form of an Excel spreadsheet.

Councilmember Christy Carr said that information is key to help council direct staff on what to work on next.

Schroer said city staff could “identify the tradeoffs and offer you choices.”

Hytopoulos said it’s an interesting time to be talking about the work plan while in transition waiting for a new city manager to start. However, she, like the others, didn’t want to wait.

“We’re hungry to do things,” she said of the council.

Nassar added, “I don’t like wasting time.”

Carr said they don’t have to wait three months for King.

She said they could prioritize some projects related to things like land use.

“I don’t want to waste time and not to do anything,” Fantroy-Johnson agreed.

Deets mentioned a “bridge plan” they could focus on between March and May.

“I really want us to get going on the affordable housing element we did not get to in 2020,” he said.

He said they each should come up with something they’d like to see done this year.

“We’re a pretty action-packed council group,” he said, adding they could look at “climate change and equity issues that need to get done now.”

Other ideas: Nassar said the council should follow the Comprehensive Plan; Pollock said there needs to be a timeline so projects can be tracked, and Fantory-Johnson said results need to be measurable, “So what we set out to do is what we end up doing.”

Schroer opened the discussion talking about the 2020 work plan, which saw 24 priority projects completed, seven removed and some others added, like those related to COVID-19.

She said in the 2021 work plan there are 115 items, but many are ongoing related to things the state requires of the city, operations funded by the budget, capital projects and policy. She said 45 have been called by the council as “high priority.” That’s one-third of what we work on, Schroer said, adding that’s why they need to be prioritized. Schroer mentioned six categories for goals: Climate, Community, Housing, Mobility, Safety and Governance.

Nassar said since diversity, race equity and inclusion are so important to the city, that should be added as its own category. Deets said that category could be broadened in scope to just equity because beyond race there are other issues related to that; Carr mentioned gender and economics, as example.

Hytopoulos said equity “should be a piece of every single one” of the six categories.

Workplan highlights

2020 accomplishments include: Climate Action Plan, Race Equity Standing Advisory Committee, CARES Act Grant, body cameras for police, council member search.

Goals removed include: WSF viewing platform, city academy, city dock management, Vincent Road options, Day Road project, Teen Mental Health workshop.

Four areas: Required, 11 projects; Operations, 45 projects; Capital, 20 projects; Policy, 39 projects.

Example of categories:

Climate: PSE solar; SEPA update; Tree policy; Green Building; Shoreline; Critical Areas; Manzanita Watershed.

Housing: Multi-family tax exemption; Triage; RVs; Tiny home villages; Sign Code; Winslow Master Plan.

Community: Opioid lawsuit; public farmland; community needs assessment.

Policy: Traffic calming; Complete Streets; Sustainable Transportation; Ethics Program; Stormwater Master Plan; Water System Business Plan.