Weekly Updates from Mayor Pete Lewis

Update November 6, 2009
(An update to the people from Mayor Pete Lewis)

Listen to this week's update.

Finance, Flu and Flood, but we’re going to be OK.

Finance, Flu and Flood have pretty much been the main sources of meetings this entire year yet for much of this year I was involved in the election process as well. That time is past, the elections are done and now I can go back to the incredibly complex problems we face today.

FINANCE

Yep, we’re in a recession and just like each of us, like our businesses here at home, times are difficult for cities as well. Like your home check book, like the small businesses of America, cities must balance their budgets every year. Our General Fund budget has three sources of funds; property tax, sales tax and fees.

We have already been notified that the property tax assessment for all of Auburn for 2010 is down more than 10% from 2009. We know that property tax will be down millions.

In 2008, sales tax was down almost 20% and 2009 has been down another 18%. Every thing we see says that even if we begin to see the recovery next year we cannot expect any more than a 2% increase in sales tax receipts each year. We know sales tax is down more than $5 million or 10% of the entire General Fund.

As far as fees I don’t think anyone has seen a lot of construction going on in the whole Puget Sound region, well except for downtown Auburn, so fee income is down by more than two-thirds from last year.

That means that the sources of income for the General Fund that pay the salaries of your employees are all down at a time of flood and the bare beginnings of economic recovery when they are needed but there are few funds.

Add to that the fact that your Council has always been conservative and I’m just flat cheap and we’ve always run a tight budget. So it is a difficult year. Now, that’s not all the money. There are grants for Public Works like streets and water pumps, police cars and sewer lines. Those are locked funds that can only be used for a single specific purpose. Then there are the enterprise funds for water and sewer and storm, the golf course, the cemetery and the airport that are paid for with the fees from people that use that service but none of that money pays for the people to keep you safe and run the business of government. Your Council is hard at work right now trying to find their way through the financial planning for this year and the years to come.

FLU

We have all been watching as the flu marches across the country and we have already seen its effects here. But for your city we must continue to operate. There must be police officers keeping you safe, the traffic lights must work, the drains must be clear and your water must flow and the sewers work. You must be able to access your government regardless so we work to ensure we can isolate our employees from each other as much as possible to keep them working for you. Our plans include different employees using different entries and exits and different shifts so that the business of government, the business of your safety goes on.

FLOOD

On Thursday morning I issued the following statement to Council and Directors:

“I just got off a phone conference with Col. Wright with the Corps of Engineers at Howard Hanson Dam and the four Green River city mayors. The grout curtain and preliminary tests are underway. Tests to date will allow him to announce at 11 a.m. this morning that the chance of flooding at the Auburn gauge has been reduced to 1 in 25. Further the efforts of the four cities and King County has reduced that changed further to 1 in 33.”

While it is not time to relax it does give us a degree of hope that all of the work we have been doing will indeed make a difference. Your great group of city employees, backed fully by their Council, has been hard at work on the levees. Once we got the approval from the King County Flood Control District and the Corps of Engineers to work as their agent on their levee system in Auburn we have been hard at it. Most of the new barrier from about 22nd St. NE out past 40th St. NE is now complete. There are trucks on up on the levee heading south to complete a wall and sandbag structure on the levee from 22nd all the way down to 8th St. NE by the Porter Bridge going up to Lea Hill. Now it’s pretty messy. There’s a lot of mud and we had to create a flat surface to drive trucks across what amounts to what a lot of residents thought of as back yards. Yet if we don’t build the barrier then residents might have water from the river in their house. We do ask for patience as we go through this very difficult season for us all.

Up past The River Mobile Home Park and 40^th St. NE another group is continuing that same barrier to the west to I St. NE and then north to S. 277^th St. If any when the possibility of flood arrives we will then place plastic wrapped jersey barriers on that flat portion of 277^th all the way west past Auburn Way North blocking the possible flood from entry on the north. As 277^th comes back down from the two truck rail crossing we would establish that same jersey barrier only at time of flood on that portion of 277^th and then run it due south on the streets east of SR 167.

We are continuing our work to inform and protect. The sandbagging lots are open. We have been conducting training for levee walkers for this winter. Cold dark days with high flows are not the place for untrained volunteers in the middle of the night. We will continue to hold meetings and work with populations in need. We will always have updated information on our web site and in the Auburn Reporter, our Auburn Alert and my Updates for you as well as our Emergency Radio station if need be. We do prepare for the worse and work for the best and our pledge to you is that as soon as we have the information so will you. Sign up for our reverse 911 system, email alerts and have a battery powered radio so you can stay informed. Get all the information you need here: http://www.auburnwa.gov/Emergency/disaster/Green_River_and_Howard_Hanson_Dam_Information.asp.

I went to the Auburn Food Bank Breakfast this Friday morning with a heavy heart. I was concerned about our people, thinking about all I have shown you. I knew that the shelves of the Auburn Food Bank were empty with all the people in need. We’ve been giving out their phone number of 253-804-5696 for anyone who wants to help. They had hoped to fill up 50 tables in this so difficult year. The room was filled to capacity, more than 71 tables of people who care so much.

The speaker was Bob Jones the Athletic Director at Auburn High School. As part of his keynote address Coach talked to us all. He said here in Auburn with all the fear of flood, with the people out of work, ill with the flu and in need of food he knows we are going to be O.K. He said that unlike other communities we are in Auburn where people still do care for each other; where more than 550 people show up on a cold blustery morning at 7 a.m. in the morning for a Food Bank breakfast to help others. He said he knows that even if it floods, even if we have more economic problems we’re going to be OK because we are in Auburn where people still care.

Saturday we will be out in the streets rain or shine for the largest Veteran’s Day Parade west of the Mississippi, third largest in the entire nation. A giant Air Force jet will fly over Main Street and 200 units including 30 of the best bands in the region will march through our town. I don’t know what the weather will be but I know in this most special place that rain or shine, together in Auburn we’ll be O.K. because we all are so much More Than We Imagined!

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