PO
Box 173
Manchester,
WA 98353-0173
“it’s
a great place to live…”
Action
Items:
1) Haida Park sub-committee chair to report on progress at all future MCC meetings.
2) Chairman Ballard to consider sending the letter on “Entering Manchester” signs.
3) Executive Board to review progress on 501c3 and consider alternatives.
4) John Winslow to investigate Adopt-a-Highway litter pick-up by MCC on Colchester.
5) Executive Board to develop proposal on Conflict of Interest section of Bylaws.
Minutes:
The meeting was called to order by Chairman, Bob Ballard at 6:30PM in the Manchester Library. Bob welcomed the 36 people in attendance and quickly reviewed the MCC’s mission statement from our Bylaws. Bob then briefed the group on the planned agenda for the meeting.
Due to the necessity of an official election on Members at Large to the Executive Committee, we launched into that detail right away. John Winslow presented how the election was going to be handled to insure ballot secrecy. John then called on the nominating committee for their list of candidates. Bob Lamb/Bud Larsen offered the candidates: JB Bartel, Phil Paquette, Ron Rada, Mark Rebelowski, and Debby Trudeau. Chairman Ballard read a note from Dave Kimble declining a nomination. John then asked if there were any other nominations from the floor. Each candidate was then given an opportunity to introduce themselves. A group was then selected to count the ballots; this included the two nominating committee members, and a volunteer member from the floor, Joe Guariz. Ballots were then distributed, which included spaces for write-in candidates. After voting and concealing the ballots, they were collected and counted. The results were to be revealed later in the meeting.
Chairman Ballard then introduced our special speaker for the evening, County Assessor, Jim Avery.
Guest Speakers comments:
Jim Avery’s comments were intended to address the significant changes in assessed property values County-wide which will be mailed in the next week and will be used in next year’s property tax calculations. Jim said that the assessments are increasing to reflect the significant increase in the market value of our properties. Their goal is to uniformly distribute the tax burden amongst all the properties in the County. The Assessor’s office is responsible for analyzing the values of the some 112,000 properties in Kitsap County. This process is aided by many current property sales (about 10,000 last year). The Assessor’s goal is to maintain assessed values at approximately 90% of the current market value. Their acceptable deviation from the target is 15%.
The Manchester area will see a 15-17% upward adjustment to their property values this year due to the trends in recent sales. If a taxpayer objects to their assessed value, they have recourse with the Assessor. The process is to first review the information on the valuation notice to insure that is all correct. The next step would be to look on-line (www.kitsapgov.com/assr), call the Assessor at 337-7160, or visit the Assessor’s office to verify that the data on your property is correct. If all that is correct, you still may contact the Assessor’s office to begin the process to reconsider the assessment.
Jim went on to explain that the Assessor physically inspects each property in the County every six years to insure the data they use for each property is correct. Manchester, which is considered unincorporated Kitsap County, is due for physical re-inspection in two years. Jim also mentioned that one of the factors considered in the analysis is the value of the view from your property. The view is rated on a scale of 1-10 and that the typical nice view in Manchester rates about an 8. He did mention that if your view has changed due to new buildings or vegetation on a lot other than your own, this might affect the view rating and that you might use this in consideration for relief in assessed value. Jim also said that waterfront properties fall into their own special class on assessed value since among other things, the views are generally 180°+ and not easily encroached upon.
Someone from the audience asked what will happen if the real estate “balloon” bursts and sales prices drop. In that case, the assessed values would be reduced, according to Jim. Also, he pointed out that the assessed values always lag the market due to the nature of the process. Jim suggested that those in the audience let other know of the likely hike in assessed values to help minimize the shock. He also pointed out that our actual taxes will generally increase only about 3% next year, despite the change in assessed values. Next year’s increase is primarily due to the voter approved ~5% increase in the school levy rate.
Jim also wanted to insure that all who might be able to take advantage of the tax relief available for those 61 and older or the disabled, who fall under an income threshold ($30,000), were alerted to that option. Contact the Assessor’s office for further details.
Jim’s final note was a display of the new laptop PC’s the assessors use on the job. Due in part to the new technology, he has been able to reduce staffing from 36.5 to 32 individuals in his office.
Business meeting:
Review and approval of past meeting’s minutes:
There was some discussion on the reference to the Haida Park group’s direction as mentioned in the minutes. Greg Albertson was in attendance and mentioned that he had several calls on the subject. The group is seeking some form of consensus on an action plan. At present, the members of the sub-committee have opinions ranging from do nothing to providing access with a trail and stairs to the beach. Once a direction is established, the next challenge will be how to get this done. It was suggested that perhaps this could be a Boy Scout project. Whatever approach is planned, this will require follow-up with the County, since this is their property. The Haida group is scheduled to meet next week to work further on establishing a direction. The group was requested to make reports on their efforts at all future MCC meetings.
At the conclusion of the discussion, the minutes of the April meeting were approved as written.
Correspondence:
Ron Rada presented a draft letter from Chairman Ballard to Jon Brand of Public Works requesting installation of “Entering Manchester” signs at seven locations; 1)Nebraska & Mile Hill, 2) California & Mile Hill, 3) Alaska & Mile Hill, 4) Colchester & Mile Hill, 5) Yukon Harbor & Cole, 6) E. Chester & California, and 7) Beach Dr & E Montana. A member of the audience asked whether we already have too many signs in Manchester, to which Ron Rada replied that we are striving to define the Manchester area of more intense rural development boundaries as established in the Manchester Plan. Another question from the floor asked about the return on investment of the signs, to which no one offered a reply. Chairman Ballard was left with the task of signing the letter and forwarding to the County at his discretion.
Reports:
Treasurer:
Treasurer Carol Kowalski pointed out that this meeting was our first anniversary as a Committee. Our treasury balance is currently $629.91 with no new members in the past month, but two new ones tonight! We still have not established a bank account due to the delay in getting an EIN. We are still considering becoming a 501c3 non-profit, but may consider other alternatives at the next Executive Board meeting to expedite the bank account process. Membership checks made out to the MCC have not yet been cashed and Carol will be contacting those individuals to act as they see fit.
Sewers Sub-Committee:
Group chair Ron Rada reported the LID #8 is currently in the Engineering phase and moving forward. The proposed LID #9 is moving along slowly due to the size of the area impacted. They are currently establishing a legal description of the area. The next step in LID #9 formation will be for the County to call a meeting of all included within the #9 to describe the effort. This meeting will likely occur in the next several months.
Crime Prevention Sub-Committee:
Group chair Bud Larsen reported on the weekly meeting (Thursdays at 6:45 AM at the Manchester Inn) guest speakers. One group, Citizens on Patrol, offers a “Vacation House Check” which Bud has personally used with success. These house checks can be arranged by calling 377-7701. Last week’s speaker was Jon Brand of Public Works and he spoke on issues related to roads, speeding, and other traffic improvements. Bud also mentioned the planning for the Safety Fair in conjunction with the Salmon Bake on June 19th.
Public Facilities Sub-Committee:
See the item above on the Haida Park group activities.
Building Height Sub-Committee:
Bob Ballard reported that there are several lawsuits filed on a home in Manchester that is allegedly out of compliance with the Manchester Plan height limitations. This sub-committee is still looking for a group chair from its eight members.
Old Business:
The tallied votes for Executive Board Members at Large resulted in 18 votes each for Bartel, Paquette, Rada, Rebelowski and 19 votes for Trudeau with individual write in votes for Jack Armstrong and William Reed. The five members will be Bartel, Paquette, Rada, Rebelowski, and Trudeau.
The Executive Board members who are helping to facilitate the new working groups each stood and gave a brief overview of their expectations with each group. The facilitators are:
*** Establish Recreational Venues: Carol Kowalski
*** Revitalize the Village Center: Mark Rebelowski
*** Issues Requiring a Partnership with other Agencies: Debby Trudeau
*** Regain our Historic Village Character: Bob Ballard
*** Develop a Village Commons: John Winslow
Members will be asked to join one of these working groups at the June 28th meeting and begin developing goals. For more information on each of these groups, see our web-site www.manchesterwa.org. During the presentations, it was suggested that one activity we might get going quickly was to do “Adopt-a-Highway” litter control along Colchester. John Winslow will investigate this.
New Business:
A member of the audience suggested that the MCC is not currently doing a good job of partnering with other agencies, as demonstrated by the recent press on the proposed antennae on the Port restroom. He went on to say that the article in the press didn’t represent the community fairly and that it is really important to work with these other agencies directly instead of through the newspapers. Bob Ballard accepted blame for the flurry he initiated by contacting the press on the matter.
One of our Port Commissioners was in the audience and said that the Port had approved the concept of antennae on Port property, including a dish antenna facing Southworth and a 4’ pole antenna mounted atop the restroom. The purpose of the antennae is to improve communications with the ferries and improve homeland security. The Port will be paid $50 per month by the WSF and this will offset the cost of the electricity consumed by these transceivers. The Commissioner had the understanding that the broadcasts from these antennae would not adversely affect TV or radio reception. One of the MCC officers reinforced that we need to do a better job of communicating directly with the Port Commissioners to avoid messy discussions via the press.
Another member of the audience asked whether potential health issues existed with the broadcast radiation being so close to the ground, especially considering the number of young people who visit our Pomeroy Park. No one in attendance had an answer to those questions.
The discussion then turned to our conflict of interest Bylaw. Treasurer Carol Kowalski reported that our Pro-Bono attorney adamantly suggested that we retain some form of Conflict of Interest section in our Bylaws. Mark Rebelowski offered a motion “That during Executive Board meetings, no Executive Board member shall participate, speak for or against: or vote in any matter deemed to be a conflict of interest; and shall recuse themselves from such issues. This motion to be added to our Bylaws: Article XVII Section 5.” After a brief discussion, Secretary John Winslow suggested that we table the discussion until the 6/9 Executive Board meeting where a proposal will be further developed and then brought to the membership for a vote. The motion was tabled with no further discussion.
Topics from the floor: No topics presented.
There being no other discussion from the floor, Chairman Ballard adjourned the meeting at 8:13 PM.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday June 28th at
6:30-8:30PM in the Manchester Library. Bob
Ballard and John Winslow will jointly develop an agenda for our next meeting.
At this point the tentative agenda will focus on formation of our five
working groups. If you have any
additional items for the agenda, contact John Winslow prior to June 17th.
Respectfully
submitted,
John
Winslow, Secretary-Manchester Community Council