Road and Waste Management Policies

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of May 7th, 2013

 

Councilman Bill Erxleben's motion at yesterday's council meeting dealt with trying to maintain a good road system in Newcastle.  In the past, Erxleben implied that a city might as well fold up its tent and disband if they could not maintain good roads for motor vehicle traffic.  That's a little hyperbole, but does indicate the importance that the councilman attaches to this issue, which centered, as usual, on pavement management policy.  The current discussion on pavement management was basically summed up as follows as written in agenda bill no. 13-035 (in italics):

1. The City goal for pavement management is to maintain an overall rating for the road system of a PCI of 76.
2. Each rated road should be maintained in a manner that prevents it from deterioating into a category that necessitates a substantially higher cost of rehabilitation and repair.
3. Deferred maintenance on the entire road system should be managed so as not to exceed the levels of 2011.

Deferred maintenance, which by current policy is the amount of money and work needed to bring a city from its current PCI rating to an average 85 PCI, but the cost of that deferred maintenance, over a six year period, is calculated to be anywhere from 6 million to 10 million dollars, but an independent analysis of Newcastle by a consultant expects the city to fall within the lower range, closer to 6 million dollars.  Even so, that's a million dollars a year that the city will be hard pressed to meet, so there is a constant struggle by the council to devise a road policy that would be very good, but at the same time does not bust the budget.  In any case, the variables in standard road maintenance that could affect costs are so many that budgets are hard to predict.  The city staff opposed any re-calibration that would change deferred maintenance from 85 PCI to 76 PCI, because the lower the number, the more streets that would fall way under the average, and thus would become a self-defeating exercise of more deferred maintenance than otherwise needed.

City staff (mainly, City Manager Rob Wyman and Public Works Director, Mark Rigos) was at loggerheads with Erxleben over the policy detailed in his motion, which was somewhat long and complicated, and in which N.P.R. didn't get a copy of, so we don't really know the details in it.  Councilman John Dulcich said that it appeared to be commensurate with proposed guideline points 1. and 2. (seen above in italics), but then ventured off from there.  Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen said she was flexible in regards to making changes to the overall policy or any proposed revisions, particularly with removing point no. 3 in the above proposed guidelines as city staff recommended (it to be removed).  She and other councilmembers made several amendments to Erxleben's motion (N.P.R. is reiterating that the motion is not the same as the aforementioned guidelines), almost to the point that it wasn't his bill anymore, but Erxleben seemed amenable to the changes (he probably had to be in order to get it passed).  The outcome of the amendments seemed to strike a compromise between the city staff and Erxleben, and thus the motion passed by a vote of 5 -2, with Carol Simpson and Mayor Rich Crispo dissenting.

During public comments, Newcastle citizen, Holly Baker spoke from the podium and brought up the issue of a sidewalk gap -- the sidewalk is oddly disconnected from the other, she said -- on 129th street, which she said posed a public danger and a potential liability to the city.

In the other major agenda item of this meeting, the Council, by a close 4 - 3 vote (Erxleben, Simpson and Dulcich dissenting), approved the Solid Waste Interlocal Agreement by resolution (N.P.R. wrote about this, extensively, in a prior report, "Austerity Versus Practicality"), thus authorizing the city manager to sign the agreement that puts the city in the regional consortium, run by King County, for garbage and re-cycling pick-ups.  Councilman Steve Buri seemed to sum up the mood of the majority by saying let's get this (issue) over and done with once and for all, we've kicked this around long enough, or words to that effect.  Buri thought that Councilwoman Simpson's objection to moving forward with the agreement was ironic, given her quote during the discussion: "They've got us over a barrel."

[updated on 5/8/2013, 9:50 P.M., and revised on 5/10/2013.]