Drafter
Clerk 12/02/2010
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A MOTION directing the road services division to establish an implementation plan in 2011 to carry out the findings and recommendations contained in the Strategic Plan for Road Services.
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WHEREAS, in 2010, the road services division completed a Strategic Plan for Road Services that identified several serious challenges facing the road system over the next five years, including:
1. Annexations that will leave King County with less revenue but with continuing responsibility for rural roadways, which are the most difficult to support;
2. Growing populations in both rural areas and adjacent cities that add traffic to the rural road system and create high service level expectations;
3. Aging county roads that will fail or be at risk of failure because of inadequate funds to perform all needed safety, maintenance and preservation work;
4. New environmental and safety regulations and engineering standards that continue to increase the complexity and cost of supporting the road system; and
5. Climate change trends that have wide-ranging effects on roadway management and could lead to an increase in the number and severity of winter storms and associated impacts on roads, and
WHEREAS, the unincorporated area road system is heavily utilized by people throughout the region, as demonstrated by the more than one million daily trips currently taken on unincorporated roads and the over two hundred fifty thousand people from local cities and neighboring counties who use the unincorporated road network in addition to the more than three hundred thousand residents and taxpayers of the unincorporated area, and
WHEREAS, the post-annexation service area contains a high proportion of King County's streams, rivers, flood plains, steep slopes, environmentally sensitive areas and higher elevation terrain, so is more susceptible to the impacts of severe storms, flooding, snow and ice, and has a road network with fewer facility redundancies and alternate routes, making it more challenging and expensive to serve, and
WHEREAS, in 2010, the road services division also completed a staffing plan proviso that reported on the staffing and organizational changes proposed in the 2011 midbiennium supplemental budget adjustment, those changes that have occurred in recent years, and indicated a guideline for future staffing level and organizational directions, and
WHEREAS, the King County executive and King County council share a goal of bringing down the cost of government and delivering on strategies outlined in the King County Strategic Plan, including those in the areas of financial stewardship and service excellence, and
WHEREAS, the King County council desires to have greater insight and information regarding the implementation strategies and directions that will follow from the strategies, directions and recommendations identified in the Strategic Plan for Road Services and the staffing plan proviso response that are required to prioritize the budget and balance the road fund and road construction fund financial plan over each of the next five years;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
The King County executive shall develop an implementation plan to deliver the programs and services of the road services division within the policy framework of the Strategic Plan for Road Services and within the financial constraints forecasted by the office of economic forecasting and analysis. The work plan shall:
A. Address the topics listed in Attachment A to this motion;
B. Include a schedule that incorporates an interbranch review process with participation from: the executive office; the office of performance, strategy and budget; the department of transportation; and the environment and transportation committee or its successor; and
C. Include an update to the Organizational Structure and Staffing Plan for the Road Services Division.