Arts Commission - Regular Meeting

Good

evening, and welcome to the Olympia Metropolitan's Park District Board meeting for October 21. Pardon me while I adjust my voice to this very loud microphone. We have a couple of board members that are excused the this evening. So board member Madrone, Quinn, and Gilman are all excused, but we do have a quorum. I need a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any amendments? Inside voices. No amendments. All in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed?

Motion carries unanimously. Okay. So then let's go to public comment. We have no one signed up for public comment. Is there anyone that would like to make public comment to the Metropolitan Park District Board? K. Hearing none, we'll move on. I'm looking for a motion to approve the April 29 minutes for the OMPD. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion or amendment? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye.

Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. So we'll go on to item four b, which is a presentation of the Olympia Metropolitan Park District Advisory Committee's annual report regarding compliance of 2024 funding levels, and we'll go to Silvana, our new director of arts, parks, and recreation. Congratulations, Silvana.

Alright. Thank you. My name is Silvana Neehauser, director of Parks, Arts, and Recreation. And, James Redick, who is the chair of the Metropolitan Park District Advisory Committee, is here to speak on behalf of the advisory committee and the compliance report.

James Reddick with the chair of the Olympian Metropolitan District Advisory Committee. At our last session, we reviewed the 24, information, and it was in client in compliance with the interlocal agreement that we have. And I think the other thing is we really like what's going on because it's getting to the point where there's very few questions coming up about the interlocal agreement and the compliance. And we're the envy of most of the cities in the state of Washington because I've talked to a number of people, even like when we interviewed for Savanna's position, there was somebody from Skagit County that said, oh, I wish we had what you guys have. So, you know, there I think you guys have really done a good job.

Anything else? Thank you.

Thank you, James. Any questions? Okay. And then, yeah, I don't have this up. Do we need to take action to accept this or approve it?

You do not need to take action to approve it. It was, their, review and report to the board.

Okay. Great. So then just before we go on to, our next agenda item, James, I wanted to just thank you personally for your lifelong service to the city, in particular in the parks and recreation arena. I'm not gonna get a chance to do this publicly before the end of this year, and I wanted to be able to do that today. So let's give James Redick a round of applause.

Okay. So we'll now move on to item four b, which is a presentation of the Olympia Metropolitan Park District Advisory Committee's annual report oh, wait. Four c, which is a public hearing the 2026 preliminary Olympia Metropolitan Park District budget. And we'll go back to Silvana.

Great. Thank you. And I have a little presentation here, to present the, 2026 preliminary Metropolitan Park District budget. So every year, we present what we are proposing. And, this year, we're proposing about $4,000,000 moved to the operating budget, and, the remainder will go to capital budget.

And a little bit, you'll see there for our insurance and our audit costs. That comes directly out of the Metropolitan Park District, fund. So you'll notice there's a green slice that's new this year and or for 2026, and that is our bond payment for the Armory And Yum Highway. We're gonna be making our first, interest only payment in 2026, and then, it we will be making, after that, payments that will be much higher and include, principal and interest. This is how the operating, budget is, or the money is allocated to the different programs within Parks, Arts, and Recreation.

So the Metropolitan Park District, supports a variety of our programs. It, completely funds our stewardship and ranger program. It funds a portion of the overhead for planning and design, whereas the rest of the program is project funded. And then it funds about half of our parks maintenance budget, which is really important to our parks maintenance to give reliable and dedicated funding to continue to maintain our infrastructure. And then the armory, so as we've added staff for operating the armory, we have moved some of the Metropolitan Park District funds into that cost center.

On the capital side, you'll probably remember that we combined our ADA and our, CAMP program, which is our capital asset management program, together into one fund because often what we are doing with our ADA improvements is we are addressing the backlog of improvements as we are doing major infrastructure upgrades. So we allocate 750,000 a year towards that. And I am happy to report that we are at 50% of completing our ADA transition plan. We also put $160,000 aside for Perceval Landing. That is a very valuable asset that costs a little bit to maintain.

And then we put $500,000 towards a future project. So we have Lily Road Neighborhood Park earmarked for that 500,000. So tonight, we're proposing a budget that's slightly over what we estimate the revenue to be, but we do have some fund balance that'll close that gap for us. The proposed proposed budget is 5,900,000.0. The estimated revenue is 5,700,000.0, And the estimated rate will be about 48¢ per 1,000 assessed value.

Of course, we don't set the rate. That's something that's done at the county, but we can estimate what we think that might be. And when the voters pass this Metropolitan Park District funding, we had a promise to the voters to keep it around 54¢ or less. So we are within that. Any questions?

Questions for Silvana? K. I just wanted to point out that when we went to the voters, they approved 75¢ per thousand. And so when we were talking at finance last night about the erosion of the levy, that's what that is. So they approved 75. But as the AV goes up, we only can collect 48 to get the maximum available dollars.

Yeah. We didn't take the maximum statutory allowed amount to begin with. And so the the maximum statutory allowed amount is 75¢, like you're saying, president Cooper. And we took a little bit less than that, but that's exactly right. As those assessed values go up and our, 1% cap, it drives the rate down. And, actually, this year, we'll be collecting less than we did, in 2025.

So if anybody ever tells you you can bank it for later, say no. Collect the maximum. Right? Okay. That's your lesson for today. Okay. So we need to take an action to direct staff to prepare a budget resolution in the amount of 5 point $5,919,004 for the OMPD board approval on November 10.

I move approval.

Second. The motion and a second. Any questions or amendment or discussion, I mean? Sorry. All in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Oh, you know what? It doesn't because I'm supposed to do a public hearing, and I can't pass the budget before the public hearing. Yeah. So I need to ask the lawyer, do we need to undo the action, or is it mute moot because I never opened the public hearing?

Okay. Great. So we'll go ahead and open the public hearing for the budget that was just presented for the 2026 Olympia Metropolitan Parks District. The public hearing is open. We have no one signed up online or in person. But I'll ask, is there anyone in the room that would like to testify on the public hearing on the OMPD budget? Okay. Hearing none, now I will ask mister Mayer if you wouldn't mind repeating your motion. Oh, sorry. Yes. The public hearing is now closed. Thank you, board member Green. I'm not doing very well tonight.

Okay. One second. I had it up.

I can I can help you?

Yep.

Okay.

I move approval of the 2026 proposed OMPD budget in the amount of $5,909,004, as proposed for the 2026 levy.

Second.

K. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Everybody clear? All in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay. Now we have directed staff to bring us a budget to approve. Thank you.

Thank you.

So we'll go now to our final item, which is item four d, which is a public hearing on the 2026 Olympia Metropolitan Park District ad valorem tax, and we're gonna go to Joan Lutz.

Thank you. Good evening. For the record, Joan Lutz, senior budget and finance manager. This evening, I'm here to speak to you about Advilarm, and the public hearing. K.

And so a few quick reminders. State law limits property tax growth to 1% or the implicit price deflator, whichever is less. For 2026, the IPD is 2.44%, so we will be using the 1% limit. New construction, state assessed properties, and refunds are not subject to the 1% statutory maximum. And as mentioned in the previous presentation, there is a, statutory limit of 75¢.

The county assessor, values all the property within the county, while the Department of Revenue handles the inner city and utility properties. We are provided an assessed valuation in 2025 for collection in 2026. The 1% limitation mentioned in the previous slide creates an inverse relationship between the assessed value and the levy rate. So as you can see from the examples, as the assessed value goes up, the rate goes down and vice versa. The 2025 valuation for 2026 collections is almost $12,000,000,000.

The highest levy, lawful levy amount is 5,500,000.0. And so with the 1% factor, the highest 2026 levy amount is 5,600,000.0. The legally allowed add ons for new construction, assessed property, and refund brings our levy to 5,700,000.0 or 48.17¢. And as mentioned, we are actually collecting overall less, than we were in 2025 due to the large refund amount, which is, people who, file claims to have their assessed value reevaluated. And then just to make some math easy for you, we have some examples of the different valuations and the impact to the property owner.

And that is my presentation.

Any questions for Joan? Okay. So then we need to have a public hearing this time. And I have no one's well, so I'm gonna open the public hearing on the ad valorem tax for the OMPD, and I have no one signed up. Is there anyone in the room that would like to testify on the public hearing for the ad valorem tax?

Okay. Hearing none, I'll close the public hearing. Clo public hearing is now closed, and I need a motion to direct staff to prepare an ad valorem tax resolution in the amount of $5,760,213 for the OMPD board approval on November 10.

So moved.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Okay. So November 10 will be our next meeting where we will look at resolutions for the budget and the ad valorem tax. Silvana, will anything else be on that agenda? Okay. I don't hear you on the speaker, so I'm gonna just repeat that those are the only two items that will be on that agenda. Okay. Wonderful. Anything for the good of the order before we adjourn? Okay. We're adjourned. Thank you, everyone.