Seattle’s Park Rangers won’t have dedicated SPD help with tweaks to 2014 budget

There are new strings on cash earmarked for improving the Egyptian

Monday afternoon the Seattle City Council’s budget committee voted on its tweaks, updates, changes and newly attached strings to the 2014 city budget proposed by outgoing mayor Mike McGinn. CHS looked at the budget framework for 2014 here including $4.8 million for the 23rd Ave greenway project and lots of line items for citywide expenditures that will help shape the neighborhood in the new year. The City Council members didn’t touch the greenway cash but they’ll make the final vote next week on changes that will impact other Capitol Hill elements including funding for homeless shelters, park rangers, the Egyptian Theatre and, yup, paid parking changes. A Capitol Hill-focused roster of additions, cuts and provisos and the entire document outlining the Council’s planned changes are below.

Capitol Hill-related Budget Change Highlights

• “Add $45,000 of GSF to the OSE BCL for the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, and impose a proviso” (PDF) Proviso would limit how Capitol Hill Housing can spend the $45,000 in identifying “opportunities for removing regulatory barriers that thwart sustainability goals, and create incentives for achieving City sustainability goals.”
• “Place a proviso on $75,000 GSF in OACA for capital improvements to the Egyptian Theatre” (PDF) Would require “the Seattle Community College District has entered into a long-term operating agreement with a nonprofit organization that will continue to operate the Egyptian as a historic theater” before handing over $75,000 for capital improvements including new seats. CHS reported on SIFF’s bid to re-open the Pine at Broadway theater here.
• “Do pass C.B. 117950 – Department of Planning and Development Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance Program Fees” (PDF) “This green sheet recommends passage of C.B. 117950, which would add fees to the Department of Planning and Development’s (DPD’s) fee ordinance for the Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance Program” — the result? $3.4 million in fees to DPD by 2015.
• “Add $580,000 in GSF funding to provide emergency housing/shelter and long term housing to Homeless Families and Young Adults (ages 18-25) as part of a collaborative and streamlined regional effort” (PDF) A portion of the funding and matched contribution from King County would go toward re-opening the shelter in Orion Center CHS reported on here.
• “Police: Do not dedicate three police officers exclusively to assist Park Rangers” (PDF) The budget action description states, “The Police Department reports that Park Rangers called for police assistance 55 times between 1/1/12 and 10/27/13, or an average of once every 12 days. This level of assistance does not warrant the full dedication of three officers to this purpose.” CHS reported on the effort to bolster Seattle Park Rangers to counter crime in Cal Anderson here.
• “Police: Cut $190,000 and 1.0 FTE for Restorative Justice Initiative Pilot” (PDF) CHS reported on the East Precinct restorative justice pilot here.
• “Provide $1.1m instead of $1.5m in GSF for downtown crime and street disorder interventions.” (PDF) Cuts a small amount of the money planned to be dedicated to “a City-led multi-disciplinary team that is intended to address low-level street crimes and disorder in Seattle downtown area.”
• “Add Strategic Advisor 2 position in FAS to re-engineer the City’s Public Disclosure process and increase transfers from the GsF to FAS by $192,387” (PDF)
• “Police: Add $1,017,863 GSF and nine positions for the creation of a dedicated Force Investigation Team. Cut $500,000 GSF in overtime for investigations of use of force” (PDF)
• “Add $230,000 GSF and two positions to the Law Department’s Criminal Division for DUI prosecutions” (PDF) “Currently, one designated DUI attorney oversees 1,200 DUI cases per year and attends to other duties.” The department had requested another $200,000 but will, apparently, have to make do.
• “Add a proviso to SDOT’s budget related to the Pay Stations CIP project” (PDF) The City needs to replaces its parking pay stations: “… the Proposed Budget includes $1.3 million in 2014 to begin replacing all 2,200 of the City’s aging pay stations over a three year period. SDOT estimates the total cost of replacement will be $30M.” This proviso limits how $1.2 million planned to get the replacement process started can be spent.
• “Add $130,000 GSF and a Strategic Advisor 1 position to OED to implement a  business assistance service for restaurants” (PDF) CHS reported on Seattle restaurant regulation reform here.
• “Add 4.0 FTE to the Seattle Animal Shelter, increase appropriations in FAS accordingly and increase GF support of FAS by $340,165” (PDF) Mitigates a planned cut of six employees.
• “Proviso Finance General Reserves for ‘Gender Wage Equity Reserve’.” (PDF) “None of the money appropriated in the 2014 budget in Finance General Reserves BCL may be spent on gender equity related activities until authorized by future ordinance. This proviso makes clear that Council needs to approve the release of any funds set aside for gender equity activities. In passing this proviso, the City Council expects all department directors to  undertake an in-depth review of department level data and policies to assess where, how, and to what extent gender disparities are found in certain job classes and how these disparities may be leading to wage differentials by gender.” A study of gender pay equity in July showed that in city employment, men, on average, are paid 9.5% more than women and constitute nearly two-thirds of the workforce, Crosscut reported.
• “Cut $151,000 GSF from OED for Startup Seattle and add $151,000 GSF to Finance General for the same purpose” (PDF) Start-up nerds were pissed. The Council thought better.
• UPDATE: There’s also more than $1 million in planning dollars for two projects important to Capitol Hill public transit. $175,000 for TC367240 Broadway Streetcar Extension (PDF) “provides funding to complete formation activities for a Local Improvement District (LID)” while TC367480 Madison Street Bus Rapid Transit’s $1 million earmark “funds preliminary engineering and environmental analysis. Would enable the project to be grant ready in 2015. CHS reported on the planning for the streetcar’s push for Volunteer Park here. You can read more about Madison BRT from the Central District News.

Budget 20131118 Agenda