Mill Creek View Volume XXIII - Issue 05 March 2020 A 3
Mark Harmsworth
Capping the working week at 32-hours is a bad idea
Some in Olympia believe that we can cut the working week by 20% to reduce costs and improve productivity. Citing examples from companies like Microsoft who recently experimented with 4-day work week, they claim that with the reduced hours, we can have better employee satisfaction and still be competitive in the market. While this may be true for some industries, it doesnt work for everyone. Consider hospitals, police departments, fire departments or other critical infrastructure industries. Limiting hours would certainly result in either higher employee costs or a lower quality of service. You cant, as an example, spend 20% less time spent putting a fire out at your home. The job must be done right. Senate Bill 6516 would pay overtime for hours worked over 32 hours at time and a half. From an employees perspective this sounds great, but there is a problem. It would
by Mark Harmsworth
Legislative Update
Washington Policy Center Small Business Director increase the employer wage costs by at least 12%. In industries such as retail where the typical profit margin is less than 5%, many businesses would be forced to raise prices on consumers or lay employees off. Similar to the minimum wage impact, the increased payroll costs could not be absorbed by many employers and they would be faced with a stark choice. They would need to reduce costs by shifting to work schedules under 32 hours, lay off employees or start employing more temporary workers. Many employers, that are happy to provide benefits to full time employees, could no longer cover the costs. Government wouldnt fare much better. The likely option would be to increase taxes to continue paying government employees to provide essential services. For the employees now working 32 hours a week, they would find the cost of good and services increasing and their dollar not stretching as far as it used to. Many employers already operate on 4 day work week and offer 32 hour flexible schedules for their employees.
Comments expressed in this column are the sole opinion of the writer.
This column is written by mayor Pam Pruitt. It contains her thoughts, opinions and editorial on city and regional matters.
Pam Pruitt
City News
by Pam Pruitt
There is a new dog in town
Hondo is his name and bad guys are his game. MCPD Officer Nathan Lerma and his new partner have returned. Hondo will be officially presented to the public after he settles in and completes his training. Welcome Hondo! You have some mighty big paws to fill.
ADA play equipment coming to Heron Park
Thank you to Mill Creek Public Works and Development Services Director Gina Hortillosa and her staff for their successful efforts to include ADA accessible play equipment in the Heron Park upgrade. Specialized play equipment is larger and more expensive than typical playground equipment. Until this project, the city had no ADA accessible play equipment. Look for the Heron Park upgrade to be finished this summer. Its going to be wonderful.
Retreat briefing
The council just had a retreat with city manager Michael Ciaravino. It went very well. Primary topics were economic development, development of the citys 15 acres of park land near the sports park and communications.
Everyone had an opinion on the development of the 15 acres. Included were a cultural/performing arts center, hockey rink, boys and girls club, community center, sports fields, etc. All of these ideas are expensive and money losers. The only question is how much. There will be lots of time for public input. I will want to know what our residents would like to see there and how much they are willing to pay for it. As we complete our due diligence, we look for partnerships and grants. Stay tuned as we move forward. The council is strongly committed to economic development. Our town center is a good base to build upon but its not the entire city. The city needs to promote economic development throughout the city. Communications was another big discussion area. The council realizes
We re with you every step of the way
Providing seniors and their families housing and care guidance
Determining the best housing and care options for seniors looking for more community or who are no longer safe at home can be overwhelming. Our complimentary service offers a hand-in hand approach to help navigate this transition. Call or email for information
Frank Simons (206) 228-1678 frank@seniorcareconsultants.net Juli Simons (425) 876-2053 juli@seniorcareconsultants.net
www.
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enior
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are
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onsultants.net
we need to better communicate with our community, promote the city for economic development and improve the tools we have (the city website is not easily searchable). We also want to be a central resource for community activities. It could be schools, sports and city events. Id like to see one stop information about whats happening throughout our community. What do all these things have in common? We need to update or create new plans. We need an updated strategic plan to set priorities. This is key for our city. We need an economic development plan. What can we do or what should we do to promote economic development in Mill Creek. Finally, we need a communications plan especially for crisis communication. Without a plan, we are victims of disinformation, the rumor mill and lost economic opportunities. Bottom line: The council has a lot of work to do over the next few months. Im looking forward to it.
Memorial Day events
Its not too early to put Monday, May 25 on your calendar. We will have our annual ceremony at the Veterans Monument at 9 a.m. and the parade at 11 am. They understand that sometimes flexibility is what it takes to attract and retain the best talent. Together, employers and employees have already figured out how to make the working schedules work. Senate Bill 6516 is legislation looking for a problem that already has been solved.
Mark Harmsworth is a former Washington state legislator and current Small Business director at Washington Policy Center, an independent research organization with offices in Spokane, Seattle, Olympia and the Tri-Cities. Online at www.Washingtonpolicy.org.
At its February 25 meeting, The city council authorized city manager Michael Ciaravino to sign a contract for slightly more than $1.2 million for the Seattle Hill Road preservation project. This bid was almost $60k be- low the engineers estimate. In 2016 the city was awarded a fed- eral grant in the amount of $720,000 for the overlay of Seattle Hill Road from Village Green Drive to 35th Ave. The project includes a full width, two-inch grind and overlay, recon- structing damaged extruded concrete curbs around the landscaped medians, upgrade curb ramps to current ADA standards and upgrade existing pedes- trian push-buttons to accessible pedes- trian signals The project was originally planned for construction in the summer of 2019. Due to the need to secure tem- porary construction easements, city staff requested a six month extension to advertise the project in December 2019. The total construction contract time is 60 working days and construc- tion is planned to begin in spring of 2020 and continue into the summer months. According to the city staff presentation, concrete work is sched- uled to begin in April 2020. Grind and overlay work to begin in June 2020 with completion in September 2020. A communications plan will be de- veloped to keep residents, neighboring jurisdictions and partner agencies in- formed of the construction schedule. It is anticipated that noise levels generated by vehicle tires on Seattle Hill Road will decrease after the proj- ect is complete due to the smoother surface. This assumes other factors such as vehicular speeds and traffic volumes remain the same. Total cost of the project is $1,583,917.28 including an estimated $240,000 for a construction manage- ment consultant and a 10% contingen- cy of $131,000.
Seattle Hill Road paving project coming this summer
Following a major disaster, people will have to rely on each other for help in order to meet their immediate life- saving and life-sustaining needs. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers learn basic disaster preparedness skills so they can assist others during a disaster. As a CERT member you learn how to prepare, how to put out small fires, basic disaster first aid and medical tri- age, conduct search and rescue opera- tions and understand the psychological effect of disasters.
Spring CERT class will be held on April 17, 18 and 19. The cost is $40 and the fee is non-refundable. It is due prior to the first day of class. Payment details will be provided upon registration.
Classes will be held at South County Fire Headquarters, 12425 Meridian Ave. S, Everett. Participants must finish all three days to complete the program. There is also a new, free two hour night introduction to emergency pre- paredness. For more information email Com- munityOutreach@southsnofire.org.
Community Emergency Response Team class
The Sno-Isle Libraries version of March Madness starts on Wednesday, March 4 with Prose Bowl 2020. The annual online contest deter- mines which title published in 2019 was most popular with Sno-Isle Libraries readers. Voting will begin March 4 at blog. sno-isle.org/bibliofiles/ and continues with a new round each week until the winning title is announced on Sunday, March 29. Help decide the fate of 80 titles divided into eight genre categories. Heres how it will unfold: Round 1 will be voting by genre categories. Round 2 will pit the top two titles from each genre category against each other. Round 3 will take the winning titles from each genre category for a face-off. Round 4 presents the top three titles in a winner-take-all finale. The genre categories are: Biography Crime and mystery Fantasy Graphic novels General fiction General nonfiction Romance Science fiction
Sno-Isle Libraries March Madness: 2019 most popular books
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