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Council staff reviews midyear summit action items including public safety tax, grant status and Community Cares expansion
Summary
City staff presented a midyear status report on the council’s January summit directives, including implementation of a public safety sales tax tied to House Bill 2015, an awarded but not-yet-received grant, options to expand the Community Cares program and policy work on license-plate readers and battery energy storage systems.
Regan, a city staff member, told the Covington City Council on July 14 that the city is conducting a midyear check-in on the action items adopted at the annual council-staff summit.
Regan said the public safety sales tax tied to "house bill 20 15" took effect July 1 and that the city applied for a related grant under the same legislation. "They informed me that King County Sheriff's Office actually has our award letter," Regan said, adding that the county departments had not yet completed their internal review and the award had not been officially sent to the city.
Regan outlined funding options to expand the Community Cares program, including moving the current part-time position to full time to provide at least two years of additional staffing if grant funds come through. "That grant process has been pretty confusing and a little tiresome to navigate," Regan said.
Staff also summarized ongoing work on automatic license-plate readers. Regan said the city adjusted camera locations and angles to comply with new legislative restrictions and that the city has submitted a memorandum of understanding to the Washington State Patrol to enable hot-list sharing once training and guidelines are finalized.
Other items on the summit list included research into mandated jail time and civil forfeiture for third convictions, continued council direction on battery energy storage systems with planning commission review, parks district outreach, parking programs, and work to streamline permitting for religious facilities and food banks. Regan noted that several items are moving forward in parallel with planning commission work, public hearings and potential grant applications.
Council members asked clarifying questions but did not take formal action on these agenda items at the meeting. Regan offered to provide more detail to councilmembers as items progress and to coordinate with planning staff and commission liaisons when public hearings approach.
The council will receive further updates at future meetings as staff completes grant processing, refines funding options for Community Cares staffing and finalizes memoranda of understanding and guidance for license-plate reader use.
