HomeMy WebLinkAboutFollowUp1
Julia Medzegian
From:Jamie D. Thomas
Sent:Monday, April 8, 2019 1:59 PM
To:Armondo Pavone; Ed Prince; Carol Ann Witschi; Ruth Perez; Randy Corman; Don
Persson; Ryan McIrvin
Cc:Julia Medzegian; Robert Harrison; Jan Hawn; Denis Law
Subject:040119 Finance Committee Follow Up
Follow up to the 4/1/2019 finance committee meeting:
1. Blue Sky Communications, $4,250
a. Question: What services do they provide?
b. Answer: Lori Meyers from Blue Sky Communications conducts the following marketing and
communication tasks for CS every month:
Liaises with Communications Department on CS programs, activities and events to market
Develops and implements monthly CS social media posts
Works with CS Divisions to identify potential media worthy stories and proactively pitch news stories
to media outlets, (ie, Lori helped get press coverage on our STREAM Team program:
http://www.rentonreporter.com/life/stream‐offers‐after‐school‐curriculum‐for‐highland‐kids/)
Lori helps identify current and new partners that align with the goals of Community Services, and
develops strategies for working with them, to create mutual benefits from the partnership (ie, Lori
recently connected us with the RAVE/Sounders Foundation, in which we have a new partnership
with them to offer soccer camps for low‐income youth in Renton, and will be training our staff
through their Science of Soccer trainer‐the‐trainer program).
2. Thunder Dog Delivery, $344, Mail Delivery Services
a. Question: Why do we use a third party mail delivery service rather than using USPS directly?
b. Answer: All of the City’s outgoing mail needs to be metered, which we don’t have the ability to do in‐
house. We send our mail out for metering and stamping and the delivery service picks up our mail to be
delivered to the metering plant.
3. Williams Scotsman, $893.50, portable rentals
a. Question: why are we paying for the US Customs’ portable rentals?
b. Answer: Per Airport Manager, Harry Barrett: When the airport started providing Custom’s services last
decade sometime (around 2006) – this was around the time that there was discussion about turning the
airport into a jet center. The proposed facilities for the jet center would have included inspection space
for Customs personnel. However the community at the time was against a jet center so the facilities
were never built. Due to the fact that we had international traffic, we still had to provide the
facilities/services – so the solution at the time was to rent a trailer to serve that purpose. The trailer was
supposed to be temporary until the airport could identify space to design/construct a new facility, but
that never happened.
Fast‐forward to current day, the Homeland Security regulations have changed since 2006. Any new
facility that houses Custom’s personnel have to comply with the updated regulations. So, where we
could previously get away with providing Customs with a room, if we were to relocate them now, we
would now have to design an entire new facility which has an estimated cost of $2M. Due to the
economics of it, we opted to keep the trailer – but we are having it appraised as we speak for purchase
later this year.
Like the FAA regulations related to Air Traffic Control – under current Homeland Security department
regulations airports that have these services cannot charge rent for the CBP services. Thus, the airport
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has to pay rent on the current trailer which has been grandfathered in until such time as we purchase
the building.
If you have additional questions, please let me know.
Thanks,
Jamie Thomas
Fiscal Services Director
City of Renton
425‐430‐6929