Annual reports from the Mountlake Terrace Police Department and South County Fire were among the items before the Mountlake Terrace City Council during its March 31 work/study session.

The council first reviewed the police department’s 2021 year-end report. Construction work at the Mountlake Terrace Police Department, as part of the Civic Campus redevelopment project, is now 98% completed and the new training room has been in use for several months. With some of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions oosened on in-person training, the department far exceeded the previous year’s total training hours.

The department became the first agency in the state to fully implement the training mandates from the 2019 Law Enforcement Training and Community Safety Act (LETCSA), completing the training seven years ahead of the legislative deadline. And its Patrol Tactics In-Service training curriculum has become one of the model programs used by the Criminal Justice Training Commission for training other law enforcement agencies.

The police department’s embedded social worker program — operated in cooperation with the Lynnwood Police Department, Verdant and Compass Health —  has been expanded to include a second mental health professional, who has specialized training in crisis intervention. Police Chief Pete Caw noted the program has been “very successful,” the additional social worker’s specialty “is exactly what we need,” and he is “very optimistic” about it moving forward.

Caw also discussed policing legislation, noting that “some of the reform legislation adopted in the state (Legislature) in 2021, although it was well-intentioned, was not well-authored and gave us some contradictions in terms of legal terms and made it very difficult to do our job.

“I want to issue my compliments to some of the members of the legislature that engaged with all of the police executives,” Caw said, adding that lawmakers “really listened to our reasoning and made some significant changes and I can tell you that from my point of view things are 95% fixed.” One issue still remains under question involving vehicle pursuits, which the chief thinks will be resolved “very shortly.”

It was noted that despite many other law enforcement agencies experiencing difficulties, both regionally and nationally, with hiring and maintaining staffing levels, the Mountlake Terrace department has managed to remain nearly fully staffed despite some recent retirements of long-time personnel. Recruiting efforts have also focused on finding a range of candidates from differing backgrounds to help ensure the department resembles the community it’s policing.

The department continued utilizing technology to assist with crime analysis and solving crimes along with community outreach and feedback. It also developed and implemented an unmanned aerial vehicle or drone program to help increase officer and community safety. The drones provide officers in the field with advantages in time, distance and shielding during certain situations that present increased dangers, such as building searches and high-risk traffic stops.

You can see a video of the department’s presentation on drones below:

The department also expanded its use of the remote restraint device program along with developing and implementing programs for using less lethal types of munitions.

The operations division experienced increased levels of calls for service and traffic stops that were similar to metrics from 2019. Last year, the number of incidents involving a use-of-force response was also in line with totals from two years prior. It was noted that all reported applications of force response are reviewed at multiple levels throughout the chain of command to learn from those situations.

There was one complaint received last year involving the allegation of bias-based policing, but the complaint was not sustained and instead appeared to be a misunderstanding between the two parties involved, the report said.

South County Fire also presented its annual report to the council. It was noted the agency recently added a 24-hour EMS unit and two additional firefighters at Station 20 in Edmonds to help alleviate increased calls for service throughout the area. A majority of the agency’s calls are for providing emergency medical services and 82% of incidents South County Fire responded to in Mountlake Terrace last year were dispatched as such.

The agency averaged approximately seven calls per day locally for those services last year and the total number of incidents rose to a level similar to those of the three years immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. Response times on 90% of the calls received in 2021 dropped to pre-pandemic base levels, similar to when personnel wasn’t required to wear as much personal protective equipment when responding to incidents.

After those additional safety guidelines were initially implemented, “it slowed our people down while they developed some new muscle memory” when being dispatched, Deputy Chief of Operation John Chalfant said. He added, “And with that practice behind us in 2020, I’m hopeful that we will continue to improve those (response time) numbers as we look forward.”

The agency’s cardiac arrest save rate continued to remain greater than 50% which is well above state and national averages. South County Fire responded to one major fire incident in the city last year that was for a residential garage fire that caused substantial property damage, although no one was injured.

South County Fire has been busy recruiting and hiring to fill increased staffing needs and as a result, it will hold an additional third fire academy this summer. Chief Thad Hovis said, “We’re really working hard to really work on recruitment of our most important asset which is our people.”

As in-person events return after being paused due to Washington state health guidelines during the pandemic, South County Fire will also continue to offer its various online community safety classes and outreach programs. Staff noted that shifting classes to Zoom over the past two years had been very successful and resulted in a 500% increase in participation rates.

The agency highlighted a nearly $352,000 grant received last fall from the Verdant Health Commission to help fund its Community Resource Paramedic program for connecting at-risk patients to services. The program also helps to reduce emergency calls for services.

It continued to assist in countywide vaccination efforts during 2021 and to date staff has administered more than 8,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses. The agency’s endeavors include mobile vaccination teams that can help reach some of those most vulnerable. In Mountlake Terrace last year, those mobile activities vaccinated 58 adult home residents and employees, 22 homebound residents, and assisted with several drive-thru vaccination clinics in the community.

This summer, South County Fire will open up a life jacket loaner kiosk at Lake Ballinger to help address the issue of drownings that have occurred there over the last few years.

In other business, the council reviewed the 2022 Tour de Terrace festival agreement between the City of Mountlake Terrace and event sponsors. It’s scheduled for the weekend of July 22-24 and will be held a week earlier than is traditional due to the carnival vendor’s availability.

The Tour de Terrace Organization will offer the same events as it did in 2019 – the last year the festival took place prior to the COVID 19 pandemic – including a beer garden, carnival, classic car show, fireworks display, live music, pancake breakfast, parade, street fair and a 5K fun run/walk.

Under the agreement, the city would contribute police security at the parade and festival, park maintenance services to repair the fields used and light rental, along with public works services for the placement of event banners, barricades and street closures in support of the parade and 5K run/walk.

The agreement includes provisions for complying with any applicable Washington state regulations or guidelines pertaining to COVID-19, if any changes should be instituted between now and the event.

The council previously approved a 2022 lodging tax allocation of $15,000 to the Tour de Terrace Organization. At its next regular business meeting, the council will vote on authorizing an agreement between the city and the organization for the use of public property and the allotted lodging tax money.

City Clerk Virginia Clough also noted that staff has been working on coordinating a local event for National Night Out, which is on Aug. 2, 2022.

In other business, staff recommended the approval of a work order with Osborn Consulting, Inc. for analysis of flooding, culverts and removing fish barriers along Hall Creek. The survey is intended to help inform efforts to reduce the frequency of flooding and also to determine where barriers to fish passage could be safely removed. In addition, it will develop planning-level cost estimates for potential repair or replacement of culverts and to address problem areas identified.

Stormwater Program Manager Laura Reed said the effort requires special engineering skills and tasks such as hydrologic and hydraulic modeling that city staff is unable to carry out. Conducting the analysis will assist the city in making cost-effective decisions for future culvert replacement and related stormwater capital improvement projects.

Hall Creek runs south through 22 culverts and bridge crossings in Mountlake Terrace before flowing into Lake Ballinger. The creek floods on average every one to two years the area where it crosses 216th Street Southwest near 70th Avenue West. During large storm events, flooding of the area can extend to 220th Street Southwest and severely restrict traffic.

Reed noted that completing the work can help inform efforts to reduce the area’s flooding risk, increase traffic and pedestrian safety, and also protect the City of Mountlake Terrace from increased liability for downstream flooding.

Some of Hall Creek’s culverts and bridge crossings in the city are fish migration barriers, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has identified five fish barriers and 11 unknown blockages. The analysis work would help to determine the severity of all potential fish barriers and blockages.

Consultants will build computer flooding models for differently sized storm events along with developing potential alternative solutions for flood reduction and habitat improvement. The work will assess the severity of fish barriers and use models to indicate the upstream and downstream impacts of potential culvert replacements along Hall Creek. It will also analyze the opportunities, risks and challenges for all solutions identified, and conceptual designs of potential structural solutions will be developed in tandem with planning-level cost estimates.

The contract for analysis services is drawn up as a “work order,” with a not-to-exceed cost of nearly $148,500, under a contract the council previously approved for on-call stormwater engineering services. If approved, the analysis is anticipated to be completed by the end of this October. The city council will vote on the proposed work order on April 4.

The councilalso reviewed an amendment to the professional services agreement with ARC Architects, Inc. The amendment proposed will provide contracting, coordination and consultant fees needed for services related to closing out the Mountlake Terrace Civic Campus redevelopment project. It includes time spent by ARC Architects to perform inspection and construction administration services above and beyond the base services agreement, along with previously approved amendments for such services.

The architecture firm has been working with the project’s contractor to complete items previously referenced in a punch list. However, a number those items still remain on the list and the city has requested that ARC Architects and its sub-consultants conduct inspections on all the punch list’s items in order to determine the extent of its completion and identify which tasks still remain.

Because the project’s completion has taken longer than scheduled, the firm is nearing the end of funding previously provided under the base professional services agreement and subsequent amendments as related to performing construction administration services.

Although the amendment would authorize more than $15,500 in additional funding to cover contracting, coordination and consultant fees for ARC Architects and their sub-consultants, it was noted that not all amounts related to the base services agreement and related amendments previously approved have been expended.

Approximately $17,000 in unexpended funds remains when compared to what was already authorized. As a result, there would be no net increase in the base services agreement and related amendments expenditures above what has been previously approved by the council.

City staff had requested a new proposal from ARC Architects and then prepared an updated amendment to more directly connect work performed to expenditures. The council will vote on the proposed amendment as part of Monday night’s consent calendar.

The city council will hold its next regular business meeting Monday, April 4 at 7 p.m. It will include an update from Snohomish Health District. See the agenda and information for watching/participating online here.

— By Nathan Blackwell