AN ORDINANCE providing for the submission to the qualified electors of King County, at a general election to be held on November 3, 2020, of a proposition authorizing the county to issue its general obligation bonds in the aggregate principal amount of not to exceed $1,740,000,000 or so much thereof as may be issued under the laws governing the indebtedness of counties, for the purpose of providing funds to pay for public health, safety and seismic improvements for Harborview Medical Center.
or any members. Okay. So we will move on. This was not for action today. This is going to be on the council agenda next week. This brings us to item number six, which is a proposed ordinance number 2020 20176, which would place on the November ballot a bond proposal for public health, safety and seismic improvements at Harborview Medical Center. We're going to have a briefing on this in a moment. But I just want to alert folks that when the briefing is done, we will be going into executive session, which means that the council members will leave this Zoom meeting. The Zoom meeting will continue without us in it. We are going to another meeting to have our executive session to discuss an item that I will describe if the chair isn't back. And and then we will come back into this Zoom meeting to take final action on the Harborview Bond and move on in our agenda. So that will all be announced and flagged as we go ahead. But I wanted to make sure people knew that was coming. And before that, we have a briefing from our council central staff, Sam Porter and Nick Bowman. Why don't you are you are you on the line, Sam or Nick? Yes. I don't think. You don't have. To. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Materials for this item begin on page 67 of your packet. As the committee was previously briefed on this item at the May 19th meeting, I will just provide a very quick, high level overview today and lead with the only notable change since May 19th being the Revised Office of Economic and Financial Analysis on the weather forecast that was released earlier this month. This forecast anticipates significantly lower assessed values than previous forecasts, the result of which being that while the average rate of approximately $0.08 per thousand dollars of assessed value has not changed for the proposed harbor view bond, the average increase in property taxes is now estimated to be approximately $75 annually for homeowner over the life. Of the. Proposed bond. This is $7 more than estimates previously provided based on the August 2019 forecast, and that was included in the previous staff report for this item. The staff report in your packet has been revised to reflect this change. The proposed ordinance 2020 0176 would place a 20 year $1.74 billion capital improvement bond on the November 2020 general election ballot, the proceeds of which would go towards new construction, renovation, seismic retrofitting and other health and safety improvements of Harborview Medical Center facilities. Attachment of the proposed ordinance provides a high level overview of the improvements which may be funded with levy proceeds. These improvements are based on the Harborview Leadership Group recommendation report that was transmitted to council on April 8th of this year. This report, requested through Motion 15183, provides background and detail on the Harborview Leadership Group efforts and summarizes the size and scope of their bond recommendation in order to meet the elections deadline to include the proposed bond on the November ballot. The last regular council meeting to adopt with maximum processing time is July seven. The deadline for elections to receive the effective ordinance is August 4th. And that concludes my remarks. I'm happy to answer any questions. And we have Nick Bowman available as well. Thank you. Councilmember Bell, did you are there Councilmember, other council members, other questions? This is our second briefing on the item. C-note Councilmember Dombrowski. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. And thanks for having this second briefing on this important legislation. Sam, thanks for the report and the updated information with respect to the property taxes. My recollection from reading the materials in the first briefing was that in the first, certainly first year, but maybe then the second and third that the actual amounts collected are quite small. And then it goes. Then it begins to peak and then tapers off. Can you confirm that? And I'm just and then I'm wondering, is there any ability I don't know that we'd want to do this, but is there an ability to seek approval this November? But because the amounts are so small in the first year, or to actually delay collection or commence collection some time, say, in 2022 or 23 without materially impacting the time or or length of the of the period of taxes imposed. Yes. Council Member, I will direct you to pages 72 and 73 of your packet. This is a revised debt issuance schedule with the estimated annual levy rate based on the June 29th 2020 or even forecast the first few years. And the estimated levy rate for 2021 is about $0.12 per thousand dollars and then goes up from there. Does that kind of get to the answer of your question? Yeah, I thought the numbers were quite works worse, much smaller in the first year or so. I just missed the mystery of calling. I believe Patrick Hamacher is available to answer this. I think I think I think so. Very briefly in this book, that's not $0.12. That's quite $0.22 in the first couple of years. And Sam said $0.12. It was just an honest mistake. So it doesn't even get to a full penny until the third year. It's 2.8 $0.08. But I was I was coming on the line to get to the second part of your question, Councilmember, because it's a little different than what we normally have about can we not? Levy Initially, and I think we would ultimately want to ask legal counsel about that. But in general, I believe the answer is yes, because in as opposed to your normal little lift levies where you say we're going to collect a certain rate per year or up to a certain rate per year, what you approve in bond ordinances is a principal amount up to a certain amount. So what you would probably need to find out in the first couple of years if you didn't want to levy it initially, is how you were going to raise the cash to do the planning and design work in the first couple of years, which is why that rate is so low. It's a small expenditure if you're on the way to do that. I do believe you could wait a year or two before you started levying it, but it's such a small rate too. That would kind of be a policy option. Yeah, it's a it's such a small rate for a small amount of money. You could maybe look at an inner fund loan. And I even wonder if the administration of collecting that small amount is is very efficient. So I don't know, we probably lost weight deeply and I don't want to do anything that would take this off of that the track toward a strong launch. But given the economic times it and the very small sums collected, I know that sounds somewhat inconsistent, but I just wonder if we might take a look at that between now and final adoption as to when the collections would start. So. Councilmember, I'm still here. Oh, Dwight. And I think Mr. Henniker had the right idea. You should ask legal counsel, but my recollection when we did something similar many years ago, when I was at the city of Seattle with the Libraries for all bond issue, if you put a measure on the ballot in a year, I believe the legal advice we received at that time is you have to levy the tax the next year, even a very small amount. Otherwise, you're basically asking voters for something that's speculative that way in advance. And the law, as I remember, does not allow you to do that. Thank you. Appreciate it. Right. Mr. Chair, are you looking to advance this to a full council today? Not at this moment I am, but not at this moment. Okay. Are there any other questions? Colleagues. Colleagues, for your information, this is one I would anticipate questions, certainly, which is why I'm asking for questions. And then we do have a unrelated matter regarding Harborview. They will introduce as an executive session and we'll go into executive session before I would be seeking a motion on the bond measure. And just so you know what course we're charting here. So questions on the policy of the bond measure. Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to know in the chart when he heard that estimated rate is three and a quarter. With what's happening right now, is it a possibility? The best estimate actually could be lower. Mr. Hamacher. Yes. Like that king sized insect. What might it be at this point? But remember that because of this, we might issue some debt in the first year. Back to the customary Damascus question, but it'd be for very small amounts to do planning and design. So when we start to issue the construction debt in maybe three years, the market could be completely different. If we were selling 20 year bonds today, I think the rate would be closer to 2% than it was to 3%. But because of that, the executive, I think they did they have brought the estimate for the interest rates down during the time the council's been considering it. But I think they do want to plan to be more conservative than less conservative when they're trying to guess the interest rates for a couple of years down the road. I think if. Hey, no further questions. While not related to the bond proposal, the Harborview Medical Center Board of Trustees has been directly and indirectly authorized as directly and indirectly off until agreements for four properties that are being operated under Harborview is a hospital license and the rents paid out of Harborview Medical Center revenues. However, both the county code and the Hospital Services Agreement specifically define what properties are considered to be part of the medical center. These additional properties are not included in those definitions. The Council needs to go into executive session to confer with the county's attorneys to obtain legal advice of potential actions the county may take related to this matter. Therefore, the grounds for executive session under RTW 4231 ten are to discuss with legal counsel legal risks of a proposed action when public knowledge regarding the action is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the county. The committee will be the executive session for approximately 15 minutes until about 3:02 a.m., asking QC KPTV to please post the virtual meeting to that effect. And I'm asking only council members and any county employees directly necessary for the discussion to join the executive session by state at this time and council members, you may still stay logged in to zoom and leave yourself muted and step and committee assistance will make sure that you're muted when you leave Zoom as well so you can leave zoom open and I will see you in the executive session scope momentarily. Thank you. All right, then we're coming out of executive session and as we've ascertained that all members are accounted for. Councilmember Dombrowski, I would entertain a motion if you were so inclined. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I move adoption of the Harborview Bond ordinance, and as the prime sponsor, I defer to you for opening remarks. Thank you, Councilmember Dombrowski, for moving. We give a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 176, and it was my pleasure to serve with you, Councilmember Dombrowski, people from Harborview, people from UTEP Medicine, our labor partners at the hospital and neighbors around Harborview on first tail, and perhaps most importantly, the mission population. The hospital's duty is to serve. And as you already heard, when the board chair for Harborview Board of Trustees testified during public comment, the recommendation from that working group was unanimous for the package that has continued from the working group that Councilmember Nebraskan I served on through the Harborview Board, the Facilities Committee and the executive to arrive to us in the same form. We see now in the middle of a pandemic the work that Harborview and its partner that we contract with operate medicine do so well. But to single out and be particular the work that Harborview does as the county hospital and in fact serving our mission population, recognizing that they have a mission to serve non-English speaking poor persons, the uninsured and underinsured victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, people incarcerated in our jails, people with mental illness or substance abuse issues there has been treated and voluntarily. People with sexually transmitted diseases and those who require emergency trauma or burn care. That's truly the mission population of the hospital and who they serve every day. The bond measure itself does some critical work that Bernie spoke to in her testimony, particularly making the the hospital rooms single patient because of the number of beds that end up unusable on any given night due to infection control, something that I think the layperson is probably more aware of today in this pandemic than we might have been before. As we come to understand the transmission of COVID 19, and this is a as the current by measure is expiring, this is our chance to make substantial investments in the Harbor Harborview campus and truly its mission, including up to 150 respite beds in Harborview Hall while maintaining the shelter capacity at the most appropriate place within the campus, redesigning the arrival of the medical helicopter. Because currently, if you arrived at Harborview by helicopter, you're under being transported from that building to another by ambulance rather than simply an elevator ride down into an emergency room. That that will be addressed within the bond measure and enhancing the greatly enhancing and in investing in behavioral health, in the investments that are so needed in behavioral health and our ability to provide support and treatment to people. So I will ask my colleagues to join in this sustained investment not only in our county hospital, but truly in our community and our own well-being. Further remarks. Saying None. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Council member belt reaching. I council member Baluchi votes. I Council Member Dombrowski. I Council member Belsky. Both I Council member. Done. High Council member downvotes i council member calls I Council Member Commonwealth Votes Council Member Lambert i. Member Lambert I council member us across. Council member of After Grow. Councilmember Vaughn right there I. Councilmember Vaughn right there are both I council members online. Council members on lifeboats. I. Mr. Chair. I. Mr. Chairman. Mr.. Full time. Mr. Chair, the vote is nine zero on us. By your vote, we have given a do pass recommendation to ordinance 2020 176, and we will send that to full council without it. Without objection, we will expedite. So it appears that the account on the council agenda one week from today. See? See? No objection. So order. Thank you, colleagues. This takes us to briefing 2020 B 51. It's a briefing from the Charter Review Commission. You remember that last year the co-chairs of the Charter Review Commission, Louise Miller and Ryan Simms, presented their early reports.