Sandpoint City Council takes up Comp Plan workshops, Russell Sports Center fund and fire services agreement

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The newly installed Sandpoint City Council — featuring incoming Councilors Pam Duquette and Kyle Schreiber, along with reelected Councilor Deb Ruehle and new Mayor Jeremy Grimm — conducted its first regular meeting after the Jan. 3 swearing in, with highlights including the establishment of a number of future workshops and other engagement opportunities related to some of the big-ticket issues facing City Hall.

Grimm introduced a new feature at the top of the Jan. 17 meeting, instituting reports from department heads — a change intended to increase public awareness of projects that will feature on future agendas.

Regarding future agendas, the council will get to work starting Thursday, Jan. 18 on identifying time, date and location details for at least one — and potentially more — public work sessions devoted to finalizing the long-delayed update to the Comprehensive Plan. 

Photo by Ben Olson.

“I’d like to see us work through the public comment that was received toward the end of the year on the Comp Plan and if any changes or redactions or additions are needed to the draft, work through that, and then bring it to the council — unless there’s material changes for consideration and adoption,” Grimm said, later adding that when he worked on the most recent Comp Plan — adopted in 2009, when he served as city planner — it required 22 meetings, in which the document was parsed word by word and chapter by chapter.

“The goal is to reach consensus in this document so we can approve it unanimously,” he said.

Ruehle said she’d be in favor of doing additional work on the plan — but only in one session — underscoring how long the plan revision has already been in the works and indicating that she didn’t want to “draw this process out.” 

What’s more, she said the major priorities should be addressing the wastewater treatment plant and taking up code changes related to downtown design guidelines and historic preservation.

“We need to prioritize the code and the code is the document that really has the teeth in it that’s going to keep Sandpoint ‘Sandpoint,’ and I think that’s what the public is really asking us to do — they’re not asking us to dwell on the Comp Plan,” she said, later adding, “I think the code will better protect the public and inform the developers.”

Grimm responded that the Comp Plan is needed to inform the code priorities, and, “If you can do it in one meeting, hallelujah. … Let’s set that aspiration.”

More information on when and where that work session — or sessions — will occur is expected in the coming week or two.

Under “old business,” the council took up an item that members voted to table at the Jan. 3 meeting related to the establishment of an endowment fund to support ongoing maintenance and operations of the James E. Russell Sports Center at Travers Park, which is currently about 27% completed.

The council voted 3-2 to set up the James E. Russell Sports Center Endowment Fund through the Innovia Foundation, which will manage interest earnings on the Russell family’s $7.5 million gift to the city. While the monies from that gift are restricted to construction of the sports center and gateway plaza at Travers Park, the endowment fund will hold interest earnings in excess of that amount to “ensure perpetual funding towards maintenance and operations and capital improvements to the facility and associated gateway,” according to the city’s resolution.

Innovia is a nonprofit foundation serving eastern Washington and North Idaho, which provides financial support and assistance to communities throughout the region, with a leadership council for Bonner and Boundary counties.

The Russell endowment fund will generate annual income to be invested, reinvested and disbursed on behalf of the city, and will be able to accept gifts in the form of cash, bonds, real estate and other assets from donors.

Grimm opened consideration of the agenda item by cautioning councilors that “we don’t really know what the costs of this project will be,” and advising that, “it would be wise to await the project’s completion and revisit this opportunity.”

Council President Jason Welker moved to approve establishing the fund with Innovia, seeding it with an initial transfer of $25,000 already collected from excess interest earnings on the Russell family’s gift. Additional dollars will be placed into the fund, drawn from any remaining interest earnings once construction of the center is concluded later this year.

Councilor Justin Dick seconded that motion. Both Duquette and Grimm then asked Sandpoint Director of Finance Sarah Lynds to provide her analysis.

Specifically, Grimm asked Lynds if it was within the city’s power to create its own restricted fund, rather than going through a third party, and, “Whether this is premature to create a fund to support maintenance and operations prior to the project being completed.”

Lynds said that not only could the city set up its own internal fund, but, “in fact that’s what we normally do.” What’s more, Lynds agreed that such a fund would typically be established after completion of a project. 

“I would caution you that we don’t know all the costs of this,” she told councilors, later adding, “now we’re going to tie up $25,000 — what happens if the project goes over budget?” and informing council that half of the funds for the sports center haven’t been encumbered yet and a second change order on the contract is already due to go before councilors at their next meeting.

Ruehele suggested amending the motion to stipulate that the endowment fund would be created at the point of project completion, and determine at that time whether to partner with Innovia or establish an internal fund at the city. Grimm indicated his support for that amendment, though when it came time to vote, Ruehle and Dick voted along with Welker’s motion to accept Innovia’s offer to immediately create the fund. Duquette and Schreiber voted “no.”

The final item on the agenda related to whether Sandpoint should continue being a part of the Selkirk Fire joint powers agreement, which establishes services in the Sandpoint, Sagle and Westside fire districts.

Grimm stated that it was “unfortunate that we’re in this position,” later adding that he hoped “we can avoid a rush and a rush decision and that we might have the chance to pause and present the facts and perspectives on this.”

Members of the JPA — including fire district commissioners and representatives of the firefighters union — agreed to extend their contract negotiations and hold off on any collective bargaining agreements until a public workshop could be held to discuss the intricacies of maintaining and improving the current arrangement, which was established in 2016.

Union President Clint Frank — a 22-year veteran of local fire services — said he was “happy to hear that we’re going to put a pause on what’s a really important issue for the community,” going on to say that, “To move back to three individual departments … is probably a 15- to 20-year step backward.”

Councilors voted 4-1 to direct Grimm to schedule a multi-party workshop on the issue — with date and time to be determined — with Ruehle voting “no.” Schreiber, who recently accepted the nomination to serve as the council representative on the JPA, said he takes his new responsibility “very seriously,” and “what I’ve found so far is opportunity.”