WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council s2

WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council Meeting Summary 9/16/10

WRIA 8 Salmon Recovery Council

Meeting Notes

Bellevue City Hall

September 16, 2010

Members Present

Dr. Don Davidson, Chair (Mayor, Bellevue); Joan McBride, Vice Chair (Mayor, Kirkland); Eileen Barber (Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery [FISH]); Susan Boundy-Sanders (Councilmember, City of Woodinville); Diane Buckshnis (Councilmember, City of Edmonds); joan burlingame (Cedar River Council); Bruce Dodds (Councilmember, Clyde Hill); Chris Eggen (Councilmember, Shoreline); Ted Frantz (Councilmember, Hunts Point); Ava Frisinger (Mayor, Issaquah); Don Gerend (Mayor, Sammamish); Lisa Jensen (Councilmember, Newcastle); Bill Knutsen (King Conservation District); Kirk Lakey (WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife); Kathy Minsch (Alternate for Councilmember Mike O’Brien, Seattle); Larry Phillips (Councilmember, King County); Sue Rooney (Friends of the Cedar River Watershed); Tris Samberg (Councilmember, Bothell); Peggy Sanders (Alternate, Snohomish County); Gary Smith (Water Tenders); Frank Urabeck (Citizen).

Others Present

Rika Cecil (Shoreline); Peter Donaldson (Friends of the Cedar River Watershed); Jim Erckman (Friends of the Cedar River Watershed); Cheri Grasso (King County); Michael Grayum (Puget Sound Partnership); Sandy Kilroy (King County); Edward Mulhern (Renton); Jason Mulvihill-Kuntz (Puget Sound Partnership); Sarah Ogier (King County); Jessica Saavedra (King Conservation District); Richard Sawyer (Kenmore); Jon Spangler (Redmond); Geoff Tallent (WA Dept. of Ecology); Linda Grob (WRIA 8 Administrative Coordinator); Mary Jorgensen (WRIA 8 Actions and Funding Coordinator); Scott Stolnack (WRIA 8 Technical Coordinator); Jean White (WRIA 8 Watershed Coordinator).

Introductions

Vice Chair Joan McBride opened the meeting and invited attendees to introduce themselves.

Public Comment

There was no public comment.

Approval of Meeting Notes for July 15, 2010 Meeting

The Salmon Recovery Council unanimously approved the meeting notes for the July 15, 2010 meeting.

Updates & Announcements

Jean White, Watershed Coordinator, provided the following updates on recent events and topics:

▫  Salmon SEEson: Please take Salmon SEEson flyers and link to our website to help promote the fourth year of Salmon SEEson. A lot of great volunteers are talking to the public at the viewing events, and they are predicting more sockeye salmon this year than the last two years. Jean noted that joan burlingame is a longtime volunteer with the Cedar River Salmon Journey.

▫  WRIA 8 Salmon Tour: The August 13 Salmon Tour went well on a very nice day. Twenty-two participants attended, including two congressional staff members, three state legislators and several state staff members. Jean thanked WRIA 8 members who attended, and said we have a few extra packets for those who want them.

▫  Levee Vegetation Policy: The Army Corps of Engineers recently announced that the final Levee Vegetation Policy will be coming out earlier than we thought, by the end of October 2010 instead of in 2011. WRIA 8 will be tracking this policy, which still concerns us.

▫  Puget Sound Report:

◦  Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration (PSAR) Funding: We submitted a list of high-priority ready to go WRIA 8 projects for funding in the event the Governor’s $55 million PSAR request is approved. The projects are: Cedar River Acquisition, Issaquah Creek Fish Passage, and Mapes Creek, a tributary to Lake Washington.

◦  South Central Puget Sound Action Area: Met in August to discuss Action Area priorities for reducing pollution to the Sound, and Puget Sound Partnership’s (PSP) legislative priorities. Don Fiene represents WRIA 8 on the committee, and Don Davidson is Bellevue’s representative.

◦  EPA Funding: Over the summer the Environmental Protection Agency requested proposals for Puget Sound entities to become the allocators of future EPA funding for Puget Sound recovery. There has been much discussion and many meetings, and we will be tracking which state agencies and other entities may be applying.

▫  Committee Updates:

◦  WRIA 8 Summit: We are planning an exciting and meaty day for our Summit, which we moved to the Seattle Flagship REI Store. Over the fall the WRIA 8 Team and committees will be taking on analysis to assess progress, and work to present it in a digestible form that we can discuss fully at the Summit. Jean reported that the small planning group is meeting with our facilitator in October, to be followed by a joint Implementation Committee/Technical Committee/Planning Group meeting later in the month.

◦  Green shorelines: Sarah Spilseth, who led WRIA 8’s green shorelines effort, has just left the team for a full time position with the Watershed Company. Before leaving Sarah submitted a CSF grant to continue the green shorelines effort, and we should hear by the end of November is we receive the grant. Jean said we may wait until then to decide how to fill her position.

◦  Fish Counts at the Locks: Scott Stolnack, Technical Coordinator, reported that the final sockeye count is better than the last few years’, but not enough to support a fishery. The extrapolated Chinook count is double last year’s number, but not enough to meet our escapement goals. The number is right around our fifteen year average. We don’t have historic numbers for coho, but they are looking low this year.

Discussion of WRIA 9’s Alternative Funding Mechanisms Analysis for Salmon Conservation

Jean White reminded the group that the WRIA 9 leadership presented this topic at the last meeting, but there was not enough time to discuss it. Three funding mechanisms were recommended by the WRIA 9 Forum, and we want to give you a chance to talk about them, and figure out if we are interested in jointly working with WRIA 9 on further development of the preferred mechanism.

The three funding mechanisms are:

▫  Flood Control District levy increase;

▫  Per parcel assessment or fee or new property tax district;

▫  Creation of a watershed investment district.

Discussion:

▪  Chris Eggen noted that Flood Control District (FCD) levy proposal couldn’t below with the current levy suppression issue with King County’s Flood Control District, and he reported that the Suburban Cities Association (SCA) said there may be legislation introduced in to the state legislator to address the levy suppression issue.

▪  Larry Phillips responded that there will be a levy suppression issue for FCD which means we may not have any funding for the levy next year, or we will have to buy out other taxing districts. We don’t want FCD to only be viable with money that has to be borrowed from year to year. He explained that in terms of a fix, it’s not clear any legislative fix will be happening. He didn’t know what avenue to follow if FCD funding ends up being a severe problem.

▪  Joan McBride reported that she sits on the FCD Advisory Board, and the board is looking at the possibility of buying up a lot of taxing districts at the summer meeting. Larry Phillips commented that his information was updated from the last ten days.

▪  Gary Smith inquired if the FCD taxing issue is on the legislative agenda. Larry Phillips responded that the county, and also SCA, are trying to figure out what they are going to submit.

▪  Gary Smith asked if WRIA 9 has presented the funding mechanisms to the state, or picked the one preferred mechanism. Kathy Minsch explained that WRIA 9 is pursuing the watershed investment district, and has met with PSP. And David Batker, Earth Economics consultant who worked on the funding mechanisms for WRIA 9, is applying for additional grants to continue the work.

▪  Chris Eggen asked if the Mason County Conservation District lawsuit had been resolved – this could affect the fee per parcel option. Bill Knutzen explained that the court hearing will occur in the fall. Lawsuits were also filed in King and Pierce Counties, and the assessment/fees have a lot of major questions around them. Larry Phillips said he didn’t think levy suppression issue will doom the levy funding mechanism.

▪  Joan McGilton reported that we are at a cross roads with funding. KCD is having problems, and if we lose our funding the bar graphs for salmon counts at the Locks will be really bad in the future. She asked if members would like to have further discussion on the funding mechanism proposal, and said that a cross-WRIA meeting could be held.

▪  joan burlingame suggested changing WRIA 8’s funding focus somewhat. Funding in general is going to heritage districts and open space, with an emphasis on not only what are you doing to protect your environment but also how you bring in other populations, like with the work Mountain to Sound Greenway is doing. She asked if we are looking for funding for education and for things like fingers of open space going down to the cities that let citizens feel comfortable going into the forest. joan was not sure we have exercised other funding options as much as we could.

▪  Don Davidson commented that he was also worried that a new Puget Sound funding source might take money raised in urban centers and give it to rural areas. We are getting a lot of pressure from WRIA 9 to participate in the funding mechanism discussion, and he asked if we should sit with them and explore the issue. Dr. Davidson reported that his personal feeling is that a watershed investment district won’t go forward in one session. Chris Eggens said he agreed we need to think this through pretty carefully, but he also thought we should sit down and have a conversation with WRIA 9.

▪  Larry Phillips explained that there will be a full blown effort in the legislation with FCD and we will get some decision on the KCD issue. He said we should go forward with discussing funding mechanisms with the other WRIAs, but it’s a little bit of overload to try and do this right now. Councilmember Phillips commented that we are continually going from meeting to meeting dealing with funding issues.

▪  Jean White reported that if staffing costs continue on the current trends, in 2011 we will bump up against the limits of our current ILA agreement and either need to raise the overall ILA amount or reduce staffing.

▪  Peggy Sanders noted that a lot of different people and groups are running from meetings trying to figure out how to pay for this stuff (flood control, agriculture, buy up of FEMA, etc.). She said she hopes we start looking at how to bring them all under one tent so maybe it won’t cost so much.

▪  Don Davidson said he thought it would be good to have a WRIA 8 subcommittee that could work with WRIA 9, but not run with them right now to the legislature. There does seem to be interest in discussing this further as a subcommittee, but he did not want to go the legislature with a half-baked idea. Joan McBride said we could have one meeting or maybe meet regularly, and report back on the discussion at the next SRC meeting

▪  Ted Frantz inquired what the increase would be if we need to increase the ILA for staff. Don Davidson explained that we are fine with funding for 2011. Mayor Pro Tem Frantz asked if it would it possible to put all our funding on one sheet of paper, and rank the stability of each source of funding.

▪  Diane Buckshnis mentioned that taxing districts are very powerful. She said she is trying to get Woodway to join the ILA, and maybe the Port of Edmonds as well. Jean White explained that 27 of 31 jurisdictions in WRIA 8 have signed on, with the exception of Woodway, Lynnwood, Brier and Everett.

Salmon Recovery Council members who expressed an interest in being on a cross-WRIA subcommittee with members of WRIA’s 7, 9 and the Snoqualmie Watershed Forum to support research and development of a preferred funding mechanism are joan burlingame, Chris Eggen, Don Fiene, Joan McBride, and Mike O’Brien.

Puget Sound Partnership’s Legislative Priorities

Michael Grayum, Director of Public Affairs, PSP, presented the 2011 Puget Sound Legislative Priorities that PSP developed in collaboration with other lead agencies.

The three legislative priorities, with desired outcomes, are:

▫  Funding to implement the Action Agenda, including stormwater and habitat restoration projects:

◦  Enact legislation to establish sustainable funding mechanism(s);

◦  Support $55 million in funding for PSAR for 2011-2013 biennial budget.

▫  Strengthen shoreline protection:

◦  Enact legislation to improve and close loopholes in Shoreline Management Act and the Hydraulic Code;

◦  Incentivize use of soft armoring techniques for new and replacement bulkheads.

▫  Oil spill prevention and response:

◦  Enact legislation to restore and provide adequate funding for DOE and WDFW Oil Spill Programs;

◦  Ensure oil spill and stormwater funding initiatives are well coordinated.

Michael reported that all state agencies may be facing a 7% cut in 2011. There were two proposed taxes in the last legislative session to fund local stormwater permits and priorities, a tax and a fee, and neither passed. He said there is a lot of coordination going on right now to figure out the best strategy for the future, such as having conversations with the business community about their points of objection to the tax and fee proposals. Consultants who are doing this work came up with a cost estimate of at least $1 billion is needed for cities to meet their stormwater permit requirements.