Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

All right. Good morning. Welcome to Stonemich County Council Public Infrastructure and Conservation Committee for Tuesday, June 3, 10AM. We're meeting in the Jackson Boardroom and remotely. Before we do roll call, I'd like to read our public comment script. We'll take public comment beginning with in person then remotely. In Zoom, click on the hand icon to raise your hand. If calling by phone, press 9 to raise your hand. When called upon, press 6 to unmute. Each speaker will have three minutes to speak, and please start your comment with your name and city of residence. With that, we'll do roll call.

Committee Chair Lo?

Present.

Vice Chair Dunn? Committee Member Nearing? Committee Member Mead?

Here.

Committee Member Peterson? Here. Chair, there are three members present.

All right. Thank you. Next on the agenda is public comment. Anybody wishing to do public comment this morning? We'll start here in the room. Alright. Nobody's running up to the podium. Alright. Do we have any hands raised online?

No. Hands are raised.

Alright. We'll go ahead and close public comment and move to our action items today. First on the agenda is ordinance 25 dash zero three zero.

Good morning, committee chair Low and council members. For the record, Deb Eveson Bell council staff. Proposed ordinance 25 dash zero three zero would amend Snohomish County code section two point six eight point zero three zero, two point six eight point zero three seven, and two point six eight point zero six zero relating to the administrative responsibilities of the public works director, specifically the appointment by the executive subject to confirmation by the county council. This is in keeping with other department director hiring practices within code. The code amendment also revises linked RCW code sections that had previously been updated at the state level relating to the delegation of authority to determine emergencies and imminent dangers related to hydraulic project approvals and duty to operate solid waste disposal sites.

The request is for council to move the ordinance to GLS on June 11 to set time and date for public hearing with a suggested date of 07/12/2025 at the hour of 10:30AM. This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

All right. Any comments or questions from council members? All right. We'll go ahead and move this to June 11 to set time and date for public hearing unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll go ahead and do that and go to ordinance 25 dash zero three one.

Thank you. Proposed ordinance 25 dash zero three one is for a new interlocal agreement with community transit for the administration of the commute trip reduction plans and programs. The proposed ordinance would adopt the recitals within the ordinance as findings of fact and conclusions and authorize the county executive to execute the interlocal agreement substantially in the form of exhibit a as attached under RCW 78.1502 and RCW thirty nine point three four point zero three zero. The request is for council to move the ordinance to GLS on June 11 to set time and date for public hearing with suggested date of 07/02/2025 at the hour of 10:30AM. This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

All right. Any comments or questions from council members? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move this to June 11 to set time and date for a public hearing unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll go ahead and do that. I move to motion 20 five-two 66.

Thank you. Proposed motion 20 five-two 66 would approve and authorize the county executive to sign the statutory warranty deed to the city of Mill Creek under County Charter 2.2 in Snohomish County code thirteen point seven zero point zero one zero, paragraph two. In 2004, the county completed a road widening and improvements project for 35th Avenue Southeast from 120th Place Southeast to Seattle Hill Road, including that section of 35th Avenue Southeast that is located within the Northwest area or excuse me, the Northeast area. The Northeast area refers to approximately 553 acres of property located within Snohomish County and generally bonded by a Hundred And 32nd Street to the North and Seattle Hill Road to the Southeast and the city limits to the West and the Hundred And 44th Street Southwest to the South. As part of the environmental permits from the Department of Ecology and the Army Corps, wetland restoration and stream bank enhancement was required along with monitoring for plant establishment by the county on three separate tracks within the area.

The permits required a specific length of time for monitoring of mitigation, and this has now been completed. As part of the 2005 interlocal agreement with the city of Mill Creek, the county is to deed that tract of property known as Buffalo Farm, assessor's tax parcel number 28053300204000 to the city of Mill Creek. The proposed motion would transfer that real property via warranty deed to the city of Mill Creek as stipulated. The requested actions for council to move the motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration. And this concludes my staff report, and I'm available for any questions.

All right. Any comments or questions from council members? All right. We'll go ahead and move this to GLS on June 11 unless unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move that to GLS on June 11.

Do you want that on consent?

On consent. Next is motion 20 five-two 43.

Thank you. Proposed motion 25 dash two four three would approve and authorize the county executive to execute the right of way plan for the 228th Street Southeast from 35th Avenue to 39th Avenue Southeast finding improvements project. It also authorizes the public works director to approve appraisals and appraisal review contracts necessary to implement the plan in the amount not to exceed $84,000 provided sufficient appropriation authority exists. And all attendant documents of completion thereof, it also authorizes the county engineer to acquire uneconomic remnants or additional impacted property necessary to implement the plan and authorizes the county engineer to make revisions to the plan and to approve and sign a revised right of way plan to provide for design revisions and to document uneconomic remnants or additional impact to property as acquired under RCW thirty six point seven seven point zero two zero. Snohomish County Public Works in the city of Bothell have been working to widen 20 and to construct a three lane motorway with bike facilities, curb, gutter, and sidewalk with planter strips along drainage and water quality treatment facilities.

City of Bothell is the lead on the project, and the requested action is for council to move the motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration. This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

All right. Any comments or questions from council members? All right. We'll go ahead and move this to June 11 on consent unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll move that to consent. Go to motion 20 five-two 57.

Thank you. Proposed motion 20 five-two 57 would approve and authorize the county executive to execute the right of way plans for South Machias Dubuque Road intersection improvements project and authorizes the public works director to approve appraisals and appraisal review contracts necessary to implement the plan in the amount not to exceed $21,000 provided sufficient appropriation authority exists. And all attendant documents for completion thereof and authorizes the county engineer to acquire uneconomic remnants and additional impacted property necessary to implement the plan and all attendant documents for completion thereof and authorizes the county engineer to make revisions to the plan and approve and sign and revise the right of way plan to provide for design revisions and the document on economic remnants or additional impacted property as acquired under RCW36.77.020. It's a mouthful, I know. In October 2024, Snohomish County Public Works completed the evaluation of five alternatives for improving the intersection of South Machias and Dubuque Road.

A single lane roundabout with the southwest bypass lane for South Machias has been selected, and the design will improve intersection safety and capacity. Chosen alternative also incorporates a new crossing on Dubuque Road for the Centennial Trail. Construction is proposed in the 2027 with funding secured through the Highway Safety Improvement Program federal grant. Requested actions for council to move the motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration, and this concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

Alright. Any comments or questions from council members? We'll go ahead and move this to consent on June 11 unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll move that to consent and go to motion 25 dash two six zero.

Thank you. Proposed motion 25 dash two six zero would approve and authorize the county executive to execute amendment four to the technology solution contract between Snohomish County and OpenText under Snohomish County code three point zero four point one four zero, paragraph 11. The proposed amendment would require 73 additional extended ECMX1 standard named user licenses, maintenance, ongoing support for the health department's migration of archival public health records from the legacy Insight software platform and replace the end of life custom DAVE software. This will modernize the servicing hosting public facing septic records as built in other related historic records. The requested action is for council move to move the motion to GLS on June 4, which is tomorrow for consideration as the department has requested this to be expedited.

This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

Alright. Any comments or questions from council members? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move this, to June 4. Does that have to be on consent, or do we need to do action?

It's my understanding. It can be on consent.

All right. We'll go ahead and move that to consent unless there's objection. All right. Let's move to tomorrow for consent, and we'll go to motion 20 five-two 44.

Proposed motion 20 five-two 44 would approve and authorize the notice to proceed with payment for the year 2025 through 2026 Microsoft services under Snohomish County code 3.040.2 excuse me, 0.203 and Snohomish County code three point zero four point one four zero, paragraph eight. This is an annual payment for renewal for the support services from 06/01/2025 through 05/31/2026. The requested action is for council to move the motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration. This concludes my staff report, I'm available for any questions.

Alright. Any comments or from council members? Hearing none, go ahead and move this to consent on June 11 unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll move that to consent and go to motion 25 dash two four seven.

Thank you. Proposed motion 25 dash two four seven would approve and authorize the county executive to sign the agreement for a shared space of the Blue Barn facility located on county owned property. This is tax ID number 29053500101100 with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and hereby finds it is in the public interest for the agreement under Snohomish County code 4.460.193 paragraph three. The DNR would like to use about a 100 square feet of the surface water management's custodial owned blue barn interior for storage and exterior space for parking spaces for maintenance vehicles and state worker use while at the property. There are no cost or fees associated with this agreement.

The requested actions for council to move the motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration. This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions along with facility staff.

Right. Any comments or questions from council members? Alright. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and move this to consent on June 11 unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll move that to consent and go to motion 25 dash two four eight.

Thank you. Proposed motion 25 dash two four eight would approve a temporary construction and monitoring easement on a portion of county owned land at McCollum Park to establish excuse me, to accomplish an adopt a stream foundation fish enhancement project and authorize the property officer of the Department of Facilities and Fleet Property Division to sign the temporary easement and landowner agreement on behalf of Snohomish County under Snohomish County code four point four six point one nine one, paragraph one. There is an issue with the agreement, the easement, and the motion had been originally attached to the ECAP. A new agreement, easement, and motion have been provided. And with committee consent, committee chair consent, the first request is to swap the documents within the ECAP for the corrected versions.

Then the second request is for counsel to move the corrected motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration. This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

Any concern with swapping the documents on this? Alright. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and swap those documents. Move the corrected, version of motion 25 dash two four eight to June 11 on consent. Unless there's objection? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move that to June 11 on consent, the corrected version, and go to motion 20 Five-two49.

Thank you. Proposed motion 20 five-two 49 would authorize Fleet Services to sell 18 units of surplus ER and R assets as listed in Attachment A in accordance with Snohomish County Code 4.46.201. The surplus equipment values are estimated at $25,000 or more, and a complete list is attached to the motion. Upon yearly review, respective departments determine which equipment can be surplus, and this can either be due to standard fleet rotation or equipment no longer necessary for county operations. Sale prices are estimated based on historical results and can be sold either through public auction, negotiated sale, direct sale, lease, or trade with other government agencies.

Proceeds are then deposited in the corresponding county department reserves funds for future equipment replacement in accordance with Snohomish County Code. Requested action is for council to move the motion to GLS on June 11 for consideration. This concludes my staff report. I'm available for any questions.

Are any comments or questions from council members? Hearing none, we'll go ahead and move this to consent on June 11 unless there's objection. Hearing none, we'll move that to consent and move down to our discussion item. And Vigo, come on up. So we have the enterprise resource planning update discussion item.

Good morning, chair low council members. Before I get into the content, I wanted to remind you of a couple of things on this project. First of all, you see me talking here, but this is not an IT project. This is actually about, business empowerment, making sure that all of the partners in the county have the tools they need to do their job effectively. This also allows our oh, there you are.

You disappeared on me. I was gonna turn and point it to you. The directors of finance and HR to really focus on on the business need and not on all of the administrative stuff around the project. And I think that's noteworthy in the sense that from where I sit, this is one of the more successful projects that I've seen so far. We I've seen a couple in my lifetime, and this one is going very well, and I wanted to get off on that note.

There's a couple of reasons for that re and in particular. I also want to call out Red Cloud Consulting. We have Chris Seiberg from Red Cloud here. We engaged with, Red Cloud over a year ago, and they have really, made it much better for us to run this project. And I am very grateful for them being here with us, allowing us to stay on track and staying focused. I also want to call out Oracle. We went into contract with Oracle, and I'll repeat some of this later, a few months ago. And they are clearly invested in Snohomish County's success. Everything that we see from Oracle indicates that. They have been a wonderful partner.

They are investing in us. And I think all of these factors combined, it really allows us to have a project that's running really, really well. So with that, I will change the slide. There we go. So I apologize to you there by adding a slide here. I went back to our history of the conversations we've had with you for a couple of years now. And one of the things we called out back in November '23 was this exact point around, you know, what exactly is this about? And this is from Gartner. And again, I'll reiterate this. This is not a technology project.

Of course, we use technology or will use technology. But it's really about making the business better. And everybody that's in the ERP business, they know that. They understand that. And it's really about an opportunity to transform how we work at the county.

And it's very important that all of us remember that and continue to remember that as we go through the project. Just a quick reminder, though, exactly what is an ERP. We did actually acquire what I would describe as the whole menu from Oracle. So that gives us lots of opportunities down the road. But as we go out the door, what we're focusing on is the core elements, the finance modules, the human resources modules, operations, so the way everything works together, payroll and purchasing.

Again, there's a whole lot of other modules that we get with the product. Things like grants management, for example, is very high on the priority list. And I would without getting into the detail, that's probably an area that I would recommend we go focus on. If you remember one thing from today, this project is on track, it's on schedule and it's on budget. And that's noteworthy because these are very difficult projects. I will say to the caveat is we are early. We haven't started implementing yet. We have made our vendor selections, and I'll again talk about that. We'll finalize the second engagement over the summer. But the reality is we're building very, very strong momentum across the county.

I also do want to make sure that I comment on the timeline here. This timeline is based on our assumptions based on from the project team and from internal county resources. It's not based on input from the systems integrator. That's the second vendor that we are now, as a matter of fact, today kicking our contract negotiations with that company that I'll talk about in a moment. They might come back and make recommendations to talk about things like timeline.

We did see in the demos from the three systems integrators two weeks ago that many of them do indicate a little faster timeline. This is not the time to talk about that. It's not the place to make those decisions. But I do want you and everybody else to be prepared for possibly accelerating the timeline simply because it's a better way to take advantage of the investments that we are making in Oracle. But at the end of the day, this is still a very large project. It will be with us for a long time. And these assumptions or the timeline here is based on the assumptions we have made so far. Vigo? Yes. When you say

a long time, I mean, obviously, it's going to take a long time to get this up and running. I'm hoping this isn't going to be outdated by the time that we're up running fully operational. Is this something that's going to last us ten years, fifteen years, twenty years? I mean, what when you say a long time or decades, I mean, long are we talking here?

So you might remember when we started, we made some principal decisions, one of them being cloud product. There are a few of them in the world. Oracle Fusion is a cloud product. And what that means is that there will be ongoing improvements and deliverables forever. I expect this to be our account manager or account executive at Oracle in the meeting a couple of months ago, the public meeting we had, he called this a generational change.

And I think he's correct on that. If you look at how long we've been with Kayenta, that is pretty much a generation, and I expect this to be very similar. So it won't be outdated because it's a cloud model. And the solutions will continue to enhance and improve over time because of that.

So a generation is the answer to my question?

Beyond my time, definitely. And I say my lifetime when I say that. I really do believe that this is a generational investment that we're making that's going to provide stability and productivity for the county for a long, long, long time. And if you have any comments over there about that?

Nathan Kennedy Finance. Yeah. Ditto. Kayenta was we implemented in '94. We're getting rid of it here know, 2025, '26, '27. So it's almost thirty years. Oracle updates their, software quarterly. Right? So it'd be an updated quarterly, you know, we'll always have updates and newest software available. And as Vigo said, it's generational not just in terms of the lifespan of the of the software, but also in terms of their use of AI, their use of of other computing techniques.

It's cloud. It's it's a huge change and shift. So, very few people in this room will be around when we switch it out, if any.

Thank you, Jeff. So So real quick before you move on.

So you mentioned AI. So that was gonna be a question that I had for you. It this integrates as the AI revolution is upon us and improvements happen and efficiencies and all that. Oracle's able to then

integrate those Yeah. Improvements. All software vendors today, they build AI solutions into their product.

Whereas, Kinesta would not have. They they were just kinda stuck

Yeah.

By a dinosaur.

And anybody that's in the software business today, specifically those on the cloud model, if you're not investing in AI solutions, you're probably not making the right bet on on your company's future. So that being said, I know this is a very loaded topic area. AI comes in many different iterations and types. There's generative AI, which is probably what we think about when we hear about AI. That's the more maybe more interesting implementations, if you will, that have more risks with it.

Other AI solutions, you use it every day when you use your OfficeSuite for Microsoft. There are AI capabilities built in that just like, the idea of completing your sentence when you type an email, that's AI. Right? So we don't know the detail of what's in the product from Oracle yet. But, clearly, there will be capabilities there. And I fundamentally believe it's our responsibility to leverage that, but also do it in a very responsible way, being very transparent because it does come with risks and issues that we want to be very, very upfront about. All right. Thank you. Yeah. So a little bit more about Oracle.

Recognized global leader. We said at the beginning another principle we defined in addition to cloud was picking a world class leader. We did. Oracle has over three eighty five public sector and government customers globally. We did the RFP last year. We completed it in September. And we signed a contract with Oracle in February. So we are well on the way in building a strong partnership, as I mentioned before. And the next step in the process now, of course, is the systems integrator, we refer to as the implementation vendor. Two weeks ago, we had three companies visiting us here.

And we out of that, from the competitive purchasing process, selected a company called High Street IT. They scored the highest in the RFP process. They are Oracle certified and they are Oracle only practice. I think that will be a real benefit to us for sure. They are also mostly focused on the public sector.

So heavily invested in government clients. And again, the contract negotiations are starting today. We hope to finish this up over the summer so that we can get into a launch conversation or implementation conversation in the fall. Just a little bit of update on what we have done so far. Strong engagement.

This is a place where our between the HR and finance business partners as well as Red Cloud Consulting, we've been able to really engage with all the departments. We've had lots and lots of conversations and engagements over 150 engagements, as a matter of fact, so far, which is pretty impressive given where we are. And we really have also talked a lot about the principle of people first, making sure that we are thoughtful and sensitive around how a new solution like this will impact how people work, which it clearly will. So we're very, very thoughtful around that with respect to both the business engagement, but also around change management. At this phase, at this stage, we are prioritizing HR processes and workloads.

And that's based on a lot of the research that we've already done. But again, we want to reserve the right to have a conversation with High Street once we get into contract with them on ensuring that we also listen to their advice as we go through this process. Already mentioned stakeholder inputs. We're doing a lot of communication. You might have played a little can you beat IT ERP game we did a couple of weeks ago.

We had about 10% of the workforce in the county actually participated. So we show strong engagements in areas areas like that. 10% may not sound like much, but in the world of surveys, that's actually pretty good. We had the town hall meeting back in February, and that had over three forty attendees. I expected maybe we would have 50 or so dial in and we had over three forty.

So again, the interest is strong, the engagement is strong. And at this stage, as we prepare for implementation, one of the things we want to be doing over the summer is to have a leadership level conversation with department heads and critical stakeholders internally in the county to make sure that everybody is clear on where we are, where we're going, and what it means to their business. I'll go through this pretty quickly, but this is just the places where we are asking you to pay particular attention because we are doing very well on the project plan. There's not too many issues and risks here. But you can expect to see another contract coming through with signatures requested in the third quarter, which is our target.

You might recall we requested project FTE for this. That was based on what we understood about the project back in the beginning. So I believe we had 15 at project FTE. Nathan, am I correct on that? Think.

Can you turn on your microphone there?

I apologize. Believe, if I'm not mistaken, it was 14 for finance, 10 for HR? And then, IT may need some resources.

So it's it's not a simple math 14 plus 10 because it's different timing. You know, sometimes we only have an HR resource and sometimes we only have a finance resource. So I think it equates to the cost of 15 project FTE, if I recall. We're just staged differently across the project lifecycle. But the assumptions we made was based on what we knew back then.

So we will possibly adjust a little bit, move one resource from this area to that area. Not expecting that to be budget impacting at this point, but just aligning the resources to make sure we support the project because we are eighteen months smarter than we were the last time we talked about that. And this, again, will become more clear as we engage with the systems integrator. So again, budget is on track. There are no risks or changes that we are here to report on today.

We do want to ensure that we build a buffer. So as we go through contract negotiations with High Street, a successful outcome of that would ideally leave us a buffer so that we have the ability to adjust. Because again, long project, complicated project, there will be change orders along the way. However, my job as the sort of the overseer of the project itself, again, to allow Nathan and Reed to focus on solution and the business needs. My job is to ensure we stay on scope, we stay on budget and that we're really disciplined around that.

So that's certainly the path we're taking and where we are so far. So with that, I'm going to wrap up, leave the quote from Gartner there. And as always, I forgot to say my name in the beginning. And for the record, this is Vigo Ford from the Department of IT.

Well, I did introduce you at the beginning. So are there any comments or questions from council members?

All right. Looks like you're off the hook. Thank you very much. Really appreciate, counsel's interest and support on this and stay tuned. It's going to be a fun one.

All right. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. All right. With that, we'll go ahead and be in recess until our eleven a. M. Planning and Community development meeting. See you at eleven.