2017/12/06 Council Agenda Packet

City of Everett — 2018 Legislative Agenda Top-Priority Issues at a Glance Provide Capital Infrastructure for Community& Regional Needs Everett urges legislators to act early in the 2018 Session to enact a 2017-19 Capital Budget. The City wants to ensure the budget retains $17 million in investments for the North Sound Behavioral Health Organization (BHO) —including $10 million for facilities in Everett and $5 million specifically earmarked to renovate the Denney Juvenile Justice Center for detox and chemical dependency treatment beds. Provide Affordable Housing, Address Homelessness, Combat Mental Health &Opioid Issues Everett will actively work to enhance existing funding sources and add new tools to help local communities address affordable housing needs and homelessness, and to combat mental health and opioid challenges in urban-core cities. Specifically, the City will support: • Legislation to increase the Document Recording Fee for homeless services; • A 2018 bill modeled after SHB 1797 from the 2017 Session. That bill was designed to provide cities and counties with new local funding options for housing and homeless- shelter capital facilities; • A $106.7 million allocation toward the Housing Trust Fund in the 2017-19 Capital Budget, as well as funding earmarks for the Cocoon House (Colby Avenue Youth Shelter) and Housing Hope (HopeWorks Station II); • A potential funding pilot brought forward by Snohomish County to establish a County Jail diversion center for mentally ill and drug-addicted offenders: Ensure Safe Streets and Provide Public Safety Resources The City of Everett is strongly committed to public safety and to a mutually respectful relationship between law enforcement and the citizens of the community. One of the biggest challenges for the City is to hire and maintain a police force to take on a range of problems from mental health to property crime to drug addiction offenses. In 2018, Everett will: • Support a Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) request to add funding in Fiscal Year 2019 for two additional Basic Law Enforcement Academy(BLEA) training classes; • Initiate a technical-fix bill, with a proposed change to RCW 941.070 that would allow local law enforcement to treat an impounded/surrendered concealed pistol license (CPL) the same as an impounded/surrendered firearm by requiring the law enforcement agency to complete a thorough background check before release. Invest in Transportation Everett's top transportation priority for 2018 will be to work with key Snohomish County lawmakers on securing new funding tools or funding authority for improvements to and ultimate replacement of the westbound U.S. 2 Trestle. (A legislatively-directed study requires the WSDOT to report on and recommend potential financing options by Jan. 8, 2018). Any such improvements must include ways to ensure the best connectivity possible with Interstate 5. 44