Community Budget Forum - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everyone. We'll call to order the Snohomish County Council for our finance, budget, and administration committee. Today is Tuesday, 06/24/2025 at 10AM. We're meeting in the Jackson Boardroom and also remotely. I'll read the script for public comment and then ask our clerk to take roll. So we'll take public comment beginning in person and then remotely. In Zoom, click on the hand icon to raise your hand. If you're calling in by phone, press 9 to raise your hand and 6 to unmute. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak, and please Next is roll call. Committee Chair Dunn? Here.

Vice Chair Nearing? Here. Committee Member Lo?

Present.

Committee Member Mead? Here. Committee Member Peterson? Chair, we have four members.

Thank you. Next is public comment. If anyone wish to provide public comments online, please raise your hand. We don't have anyone in person. Are there any hands raised? No. Hands are raised. Okay. So we'll close public comment and move on. In the agenda, we have three action items. And first is motion 25 dash two six eight.

Thank you, chair Dunn. Good morning, council members. For the record, Jim Martin, council staff. Post motion 25 dash two six eight approves amendment 11 to the agreement with Aon Consulting for professional services related to the employee assistance program. The amendment is to provide additional services outside the scope of the original agreement, including preparing an RFP for and analyzing responses to vendors that provide COBRA and section one two five plan third party administration services. The amendment also increases the compensation amount by $20,000. Requested action is to move to GLS on June 25 for consideration.

Any questions from counsel? Is there any objection to moving to consent? Hearing and seeing none, this will move to the consent agenda for tomorrow. Next is motion 20 five-three zero one.

Closed motion 25 dash three zero one approves the 2025 professional services agreement with Compensation Connections LLC. Scope of work includes conducting a classification study to evaluate and classify 40 distinct job classifications, analyze job duties, recommend title revisions, pose new classifications, identify essential functions and minimum qualifications, identify unique airport tasks, benchmark positions, prepare and deliver a detailed report, and develop implementation strategy and adhere to the project timeline. Contract is for a not to exceed amount of $99,600 and is for six months from the date of execution. Requested action is to move GLS on July 2 for consideration.

K. Questions from council? I had some questions. Are these represented positions?

These are nonunion positions from what I'm told. Yes.

Okay. And then these are airport funds. We just completed a class comp study. Is this required for a grant?

Not to my knowledge. We do have HR and airport staff on online, I believe, available to, answer specific questions. I believe it's

Is Josh on?

Josh should be on. Yes. Okay.

So if somebody on that can answer questions about the contract could raise their hand, and we can move them over to the panel. Anybody raise their hand?

Yeah. Yeah. John.

Good morning, council member Dunn.

Good morning.

Hey, Dan. I'm here to help. What do you need?

Yeah. I'm curious. I mean, so this is almost a $100,000. We just spent a significant amount on a class comp study that completed not less than two years ago or, you know, not more than two years ago. Would the I know that there were some deficiencies in that study, but you feel like there's a need to perform an additional review. Is this needed for a grant or a contract?

No. It's not needed for a grant or a contract. So the 2020, 2022 study, that countywide comprehensive analysis, was done, and it wasn't an airport industry specific study. And so we were a much smaller subset within that study and that scope, and so it limited the depth of analysis for airport specific roles. And of the different groups or the compare compared, I guess, groups that were studied for this, it it left a lot of gaps, especially in the airport specific positions as we weren't, I guess, compared with other airports.

So the upcoming study really is gonna help us provide more accurate and relevant job matching. And so we've obviously experienced a lot of expansion, operational changes in the last handful of years, and then particularly since this this, 2022 study. So, we don't feel that the the titles and the descriptions actually reflect the work that's being performed by our employees. And so we wanna make sure that we ensure our job titles and our descriptions accurately reflect their responsibilities, especially as we compare ourselves to other airports. And so as you did mention, this was not general fund.

This was an enterprise account, but really the goal is to make sure that the the jobs that we're we're advertising for reflect the work that's being currently conducted.

Did you implement any parts of that 2022 study?

We did not.

Well, is there a plan to implement this study or funding certified to implement this?

We would have the, the funding to meet the needs that this study, produces, I guess, greater benefit for the employees. So we would do that, but the goal is to and it's a part of that contract is to create plan to implement it. But we would look to implement that once the study is done, and that would be if if this moves forward, we're probably looking around the New Year before we get the results and then an implementation sometime next year.

Okay. Any other questions from council?

And, Sherry, I believe, Rhea is also available online, had her hand raised

Okay.

As well. So, Sherry moved her over as well.

Rhea, did you have anything else to add from, human resources? Oh, okay. Okay. Then any any other questions? Okay. I'll put this on the action agenda. So this will go on action for July 2 unless there's objection. Okay. Hearing none, this will move to the action agenda for the second. Next is motion 25 dash three zero five.

Opposed motion 25 three zero five approves the twenty twenty five to twenty twenty eight collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Firefighters Union, local two five nine seven. This four year agreement includes changes bargained in most county bargaining units, including the cost of living increase of 3.63% effective 01/01/2025. For 2026 through 2028, the agreement includes cost of living increases equal to 100% of the annual June CPIW for Seattle, Bellevue, and Tacoma with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 5%. The agreement also provides a reduction in hours for uniformed employees from the current 2,496 per year to 2,184 per year in 2026. In recognition of this reduction, these uniformed employees also have a reduction in their sick and vacation accruals to the same level as the forty hour employees.

This agreement supersedes the agreement that expired December 20 thirty first twenty twenty four and covers approximately 22 employees. Requested action is to move to GLS on June 25 for consideration.

Thank you. Questions from council. I think looking at a, thirty two hour work week, maybe hearing in a year or so how that went would be a good practice. Okay. Okay. Any objection to consent for tomorrow? We try to move these as quick as possible. I think they have to get done. Okay. Seeing no objection, this will move to the consent agenda for tomorrow. Next is our discussion item. So we're gonna hear from Jim Martin on his trip to the Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference.

Yes. Thank you. So in May, I was able to attend the twenty twenty five Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference at Dillingham. Those two days are spent listening to several of the region's top economic academics and representatives from various state agencies as well as breakout sessions on a variety of talk topics important to the economy. I would like to share with counsel some of the things I found enlightening at this conference.

As could be expected, the underlying theme of the presentations was the tariffs and the potential impact on economies of The US and Canada. The consular general of Canada indicated that while US Canada relations were on a more positive track than earlier in the year, Canada will almost definitely be put into a recession from the tariff impact. It is now view viewed as less likely that The US will fall into a recession at least in the short term. It was noted that now more than ever, we are in a global economy, which makes it harder for central banks to control economy through interest rates. This also makes tariffs more impactful than they historically have been.

Efforts to move the source of imports to dodge tariffs is harder due to a wider array of tariffs in the countries they've been placed against. Current effective tariff rate of 15% is the highest since the nineteen thirties. Course, most tariff costs are being passed through resulting in higher consumer goods consumer costs. Excuse me. Inflation has cooled, but it has also shifted.

Core goods inflation is actually near 0%, while core services inflation is near 4%. Tariffs could raise the core goods inflation. One of the more interesting breakout sessions I attended dealt with electrical usage, not only due to shifting of vehicles from fossil fuels to electric, but due to a massive increase in data centers with the Pacific Northwest being an area of significant growth due to accessibility to two main necessities for data centers, water for cooling and relatively cheap electricity. It was noted that data centers will soon use more electricities than many small countries. What was most intriguing about this topic was that while demand for electricity has grown at a very high rate, electric electric usage has been fairly stagnant mainly due to efficiencies that have been developed.

I appreciate council's willingness to send me to this conference. There are always interesting topics discussed and opportunities to learn. Twenty twenty six conference will be held in Portland should council continue to find value in my attendance. Thank you.

Thank you. Portland's not too far? Nope. Any questions from council?

Yes. No questions. Just really appreciate having the report. So thanks for going to that and reporting back to us. Thanks.

Any other comments? Okay. Thank you, Jim. That concludes our agenda, and council is adjourned for the day. Thank you.