Members of the Tumwater City Council ended up tabling an ordinance that would establish a residential energy performance rating and disclosure ordinance — also known as a Home Energy Score (HES) — after a vote to pass an amended version of the ordinance during their last regular meeting on Oct. 20 ended in a 3-0-3 vote, with three councilors voting to approve it and three abstaining.
After some more discussion, the council moved to further debate the issue at an upcoming regular Tumwater City Council work session.
Tumwater councilors first considered the HES ordinance back in July, but asked for the newly-formed Tumwater Equity Commission to review the draft ordinance first and make recommendations before the council voted on it, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
While opponents to the HES ordinance have raised concerns about the cost of getting a score on a home in the first place being unaffordable for some, the Equity Commission proposed instituting a city subsidy system — where sellers of homes making 80% or less of the area median income (AMI), including those selling an estate or under hardship, qualify for subsidy assistance.
The original ordinance stipulated a subsidy system which to be eligible for, a seller must be making 150% or less than the AMI in Tumwater. Should the city run out of subsidy funds, sellers could apply for hardship waivers.
Initially, a motion was made to approve the ordinance with the Equity Commission’s recommendation to change the AMI requirement to 80%. While Councilors Meghan Sullivan, Joan Cathey and Eileen Swarthout voted to approve the amended ordinance, Councilors Brandon Weedon, Peter Agabi and Mayor Pro Tem Kelly Von Holtz abstained from voting.
Agabi had questions about how the ordinance would be enforced if approved, and Weedon acknowledged climate change, but was concerned about the lack of safeguards preventing investors from buying up the city’s affordable house supply. Von Holtz was concerned about how much the program would cost the city, especially amid other budget concerns, along with the affordability of getting an HES in the first place for homeowners.
A motion to approve the original ordinance without the Equity Commission’s recommendations also failed by a vote of 3-3, with the three councilors who abstained on the previous motion voting “no” this time.
Following this second failed vote, Sullivan moved to table the ordinance for further debate at an upcoming work session, a motion which was approved unanimously.
This was all preceded by around an hour of public comment, with the majority of it being meeting attendees either speaking for or against the HES system being implemented in Tumwater.
Supporters of the HES stated they were in favor of it not just for the possible environmental benefits, but to help home owners save more money in the long run. While the cost of obtaining an HES can be upwards of $500, supporters stated buyers who find a home with a good HES could end up saving more than that on future energy bills.
Opponents of the HES, mainly members of the Thurston County Realtors Association, proposed having a voluntary HES program instead. The voluntary system would inform buyers and sellers of their HES options, but ultimately still leave it up to the consumer.
HES systems have been adopted by the City of Olympia and Thurston County, while the City of Lacey has yet to approve a proposed HES program along with Tumwater.
Other council business
Aside from the HES discussion, councilors approved an amendment to the purchase and sale agreement for a purchase and sale agreement on the building located at 310 Israel Road, just down the road from Tumwater City Hall. The building is currently owned by Vine Street Investors.
The building is being eyed for purchase by the city to become the new Tumwater City Hall, as Tumwater City Administrator Paul Simmons explained the current city hall building suffers from overcrowding and privacy problems for staff. The current city hall was opened in 1987, when the city’s population was around 8,500 residents and only 63 employees worked for the city at the time. Now, the city has 255 full-time employees with a population over 30,000.
The amendment to the purchase and sale agreement knocks around $1.5 million off the sale price, bringing it down to $14,080,000. Simmons explained the price was reduced as after performing their own pre-sale inspections, they discovered the HVAC and other mechanical systems were in need of replacement. Additionally, the building will need to be remodeled in order to better accommodate city staff.
To finance the purchase of the building and the renovations, Simmons stated city staff will be selling general obligation bonds.
Once renovations are completed and city staff move into the new city hall, the current city hall building will be given to the Tumwater Police Department, who already operate out of the building and have complained about overcrowding issues in the past.
Councilors also approved the purchase of a pair of properties totalling 67.5 acres for the Bush Prairie Habitat Conservation Plan for the habitat of the mazama pocket gopher from Puget Western, Inc.
The plan was prepared by Puget Western, and the purchase approved by the council also includes a 79-acre plot of land already designated as protected habitat by Puget Western. The total purchase price was $12 million, which included the cost of extra habitat conservation plan credits and an endowment.
To account for an increase in staff time to process Washington Public Records Act requests for body-worn camera footage from the Tumwater Police Department, councilors approved a new fee for the footage — $0.89 per minute of video. A charge of 10% of the estimated total for the redacted footage will be collected before staff begin working on the footage as well.
The vote was held after the council held a public hearing on the matter, where Tumwater Police Chief Carlos Quiles Jr. explained that since instituting body cameras this past March, the department is receiving on average 127 records requests each month, with 92% of the requests being for body camera footage and the number of requests rising.
Those requesting footage directly related to a case involving themselves, along with legal representatives of those involved, are exempt from the fees. Quiles added since March, the average time his department takes to fulfill a records request has gone from under a day to at least three and a half days per request.
According to Tumwater Police Records Supervisor Ashleigh Clark, the fee was calculated using the monthly fee of the video redaction software, the average time in minutes police staff spend making video redactions for public records requests, which must be done frame by frame, and the lowest paid police staff member handling requests. Redactions can include anything from license plates to victim or undercover office identities, or even their reflections in windows. The City of Tumwater uses Axon video redaction software.
For comparison, the City of Olympia charges $0.75 per minute of body camera footage, while the City of Lacey charges $0.90 per minute. Clark added the differences in costs came from different salaries the lowest paid staff member gets in the respective cities.
