Drafter
Clerk 07/20/2017
Title
AN ORDINANCE providing for the submission to the qualified electors of King County at a special election to be held in King County on November 7, 2017, a proposition authorizing a property tax levy in excess of the levy limitations contained in chapter 84.55 RCW for a consecutive six-year period at a rate of not more than ten cents per one thousand dollars of assessed valuation in the first year, and limiting annual levy increases to three and one-half percent in the five succeeding years, all for the purpose of supporting veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families; seniors and their caregivers; and vulnerable populations in King County by funding capital facilities and regional health and human services to promote housing stability, healthy living, financial stability, social engagement and health and human services system improvements and system access; providing for limited mitigation of prorationing of metropolitan park districts and fire districts levies to the extent the prorationing was caused by this levy; directing proposal of a transition plan and an implementation plan for the veterans, seniors and human services levy; and directing proposal of an ordinance to create an oversight board or boards, contingent upon voter approval of the levy.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. In 2005, the metropolitan King County council passed Ordinance 15279, placing a six-year veterans and human services levy on the ballot for a special election. King County residents voted for the veterans and human services levy with a nearly fifty-eight percent approval to fund services for veterans and their families, military personnel and their families and other individuals and families in need across King County. In 2011, the metropolitan King County council passed Ordinance 17072, placing a renewal of the veterans and human services levy on the ballot for a special election. King County residents voted for the renewal with a nearly sixty-nine percent approval rate.
2. Since the veterans and human services levy's 2011 renewal, the current veterans and human services levy has served more than one hundred and eighty-three thousand clients, more than thirty thousand of whom have been veterans, military personnel or their families.
3. The current veterans and human service levy's accomplishments in pursuit of its goal to reduce homelessness include: awarding levy proceeds to go towards building eight hundred fifty-seven units of affordable housing; gaining or maintaining housing for more than three thousand two hundred persons; reaching more than seven thousand one hundred clients through outreach and mobile services and then connecting them to housing, medical or behavioral health services; and convening a network of partners to house more than eight hundred fifty homeless veterans during a focused housing initiative in 2015.
4. The current veterans and human services levy's accomplishments in pursuit of its goal to reduce emergency medical and criminal justice system involvement include engaging more than three thousand eight hundred incarcerated or formerly incarcerated veterans, parents, or persons at high risk of recidivism with reentry case planning, supportive services or connections to housing or health care. A levy funded database and housing placement program for high utilizers of public services calculated that since 2012, supportive housing placements achieved estimated cost offsets of seven million dollars that otherwise would have been incurred to incarcerate or hospitalize the high utilizers who received housing.
5. The current veterans and human services levy's accomplishments in its goal to increase self-sufficiency for veterans, military personnel, their families and other individuals and families in need include the King County veterans program serving more than twelve thousand veterans and family members; screening more than twelve thousand seven hundred mothers for behavioral health conditions at integrated community health centers; providing civil legal case assessments for more than one thousand one hundred veterans, more than three hundred of which resulted in successful resolution and more than five hundred of which resulted in referrals to outside counsel and provision of more than fifteen thousand four hundred hours of posttraumatic stress disorder counseling to more than one thousand two hundred veterans or their spouses and children.
6. The current veterans and human services levy will expire at the end of 2017. In light of this levy's accomplishments for King County's residents and acknowledging the veterans and human services levy's importance to maintaining basic health and human services for veterans and vulnerable populations, the current levy's regional health and human services for King County's veterans and vulnerable populations merit continuation.
7. The veterans and human services levy has provided an increasingly large share of King County's funding for essential basic human services as the general fund's structural deficit reduces the portion of the general fund available to support human services.
8. Recognizing the changing landscape of regional veterans and human services needs and funding since the 2011 renewal of the veterans and human services levy, the metropolitan King County council directed the executive to produce two reports to inform deliberations about renewal of the current veterans and human services levy. Executive staff combined the findings of staff research and community input from thirty-four in-person engagement meetings and two online surveys, totaling seven hundred and forty-two responses in seven languages, to compose and present the reports. The metropolitan King County council approved the first report in Motion 14822 and accepted and approved the second report in Motion 14823. The reports provided information, analysis and recommendations to inform deliberations about a potentially renewed or replaced veterans and human services levy.
9. In addition to confirming the ongoing need to support the veterans and vulnerable populations eligible to receive support within the current veterans and human services levy, the report approved by the council in Motion 14822 provides evidence that some populations and issues not supported within the current veterans and human services levy now merit consideration for support from the replacement levy proposed in this ordinance. Those populations and issues include supporting seniors and their caregivers and healthy aging; supporting survivors of traumatic experiences that include sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking, including labor trafficking and sex trafficking, and commercial sexual exploitation as well as services to prevent those types of trauma; support for refugees and immigrants; support for low-income residents of rural communities and improved health and human services delivery in rural communities; support for civil legal services for persons with low income; and support for persons with disabilities and their caregivers.
10. From 2010 to 2015, the number of King County veterans living below the federal poverty level increased by forty-three percent to a total of eight thousand two hundred ninety-nine, even as the overall population of veterans in King County has fallen to an estimated 2015 level of one hundred twelve thousand eight hundred veterans.
11. Nationally, an average of twenty veterans commit suicide every day. On average, only six of the twenty veterans committing suicide every day are enrolled in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs services. The remaining majority are not receiving federal veterans services.
12. As of January 2017, an estimated two thousand one hundred two veterans were homeless in King County. Despite a strong partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs and a network of local housing and service providers who together house an average of forty homeless veterans in King County per month, the number of homeless veterans increases by a net average monthly inflow of sixty-six newly homeless veterans. If sustained for a year, this monthly rate of growth would generate seven hundred and twenty newly homeless veterans per year.
13. Eight percent of King County residents live in rural communities. King County's rural residents consistently report difficulty in accessing the network of federal, state, county and philanthropically funded health and human services. Travelling to urban centers to seek services is difficult or impractical for many persons from rural communities who require health and human services.
14. At least fourteen thousand persons experience domestic violence each year in King County. Survivors of domestic violence experience disproportionately high rates of homelessness and experience an average of more than nineteen civil legal problems, more than twice the average experienced by the general low-income population.
15. Approximately three to five hundred youth are sexually exploited within King County each year. Commercial sexual exploitation of children remains a poorly understood yet urgent challenge for King County residents to confront.
16. More than one hundred thousand persons with physical, intellectual or developmental disabilities live in Washington. More than seventy percent of persons with a disability live with a family caregiver, and twenty-three percent of those family caregivers are aged sixty or older with an additional thirty-five percent aged forty-one or older.
17. Eighteen percent of King County residents are aged sixty or older, a number that will increase to twenty-five percent of the county population by 2040. As seniors make up an increasing percentage of King County's population, funding for senior services is not keeping pace. Funding through the federal Older Americans Act, as well as state and county funding for seniors, is falling. Philanthropic funding for seniors is also waning. The result is a trend toward reduced senior funding just as King County's population of seniors is increasing.
18. Seventy-eight percent of persons sixty or older have one or more chronic health conditions. Thirty-five percent are women living alone. Nine percent are living in poverty. Racial, ethnic and place-based disproportionalities unevenly distribute these conditions and risk factors across King County.
19. Elder abuse is a growing challenge. The King County prosecuting attorney's office reported more than seven thousand allegations of abuse and neglect of seniors in King County in 2015.
20. The responsibility to care for vulnerable seniors impacts all generations. One-third of today's King County residents who are sixty-five or older will need some form of long-term care service or support in the future. That work will in many cases require assistance from unpaid caregivers, including spouses, adult children and acquaintances.
21. Seniors, many of whose incomes are fixed, find it increasingly difficult to afford to live in the King County communities they helped nurture and build as housing costs increase dramatically.
22. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer seniors in King County are at extreme risk of the health-harming effects of social isolation and poverty, with nearly one quarter of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer seniors in King County living below two hundred percent of the federal poverty level, forty-five percent living alone and sixty-eight percent reporting having experienced three or more incidents of victimization or discrimination.
23. Adults aged sixty-five and older comprised eighty percent of the more than two thousand people who were hospitalized for falls in King County between 2008 and 2012. The rate of death of seniors hospitalized for falls is more than seven times the county average. In 2015, more than fifteen percent of King County emergency medical services' call responses were for seniors who had fallen.
24. Actual and perceived social isolation are both associated with increased risk for premature death. The influence of social isolation on the risk of death is comparable with risk factors for mortality such as smoking. Social isolation's influence on risk of premature death exceeds that of physical inactivity and obesity. Adults seventy-five and older who are lonely, socially isolated and inactive have a mortality rate of fifty-three percent compared to a mortality rate of thirty percent among their age peers who are not lonely, inactive, or socially isolated.
25. Since its inception in 2006 and through its renewal in 2011, the veterans and human services levy has served hundreds of thousands of veterans, military personnel, their families and other individuals and families in need. In addition to the veterans and human services levy's achievements, changed conditions and newly emerging needs present additional opportunities to set the conditions for persons in King County to fulfill their potential. Given the levy's track record of success and the additional need within the community, it is appropriate to ask the voters to replace the current veterans and human services levy with the veterans, seniors and human services levy provided for in this ordinance.
26. In 2010, the county adopted Ordinance 16857, establishing the King County Strategic Plan. In 2015, the county council passed Motion 14317 updating and revising King County's vision, mission, guiding principles and goals. Included within the county's goals are improving the health and well-being of all people in King County, increasing access to quality housing that is affordable to all, implementing alternatives to divert people from the criminal justice system and ensuring that county government operates efficiently and effectively and is accountable to the public. The county's guiding principles command that pursuit of the county goals should address the root causes of inequities to provide equal access for all; engage with partners, stakeholders and public and private organizations to achieve goals; align funding, policy and operational goals of King County government; and provide effective, efficient local governance and services to unincorporated areas.
27. In 2016, the council adopted implementation plans for the best starts for kids levy and the mental illness and drug dependency sales tax renewal. Both plans expressed the council's and the executive's intent to design, implement and evaluate strategies that are outcomes-oriented. It is the county's intent that the veterans, seniors and human services levy provided for in this ordinance, if approved by voters, shall have an outcomes orientation that appropriately aligns with the plans for the best starts for kids levy and the mental illness and drug dependency sales tax.
28. King County actively engages in equity and social justice efforts to eliminate racially and ethnically disparate health and human services outcomes in King County, and this priority shall guide the council and the executive in the process of designing, administering, and evaluating the policies and programs related to the veterans, seniors and human services levy, if approved by voters.
29. It is the intent of the county that over the course of the six-year levy the majority of levy proceeds expended to build capital facilities under authority of this ordinance shall be for very low-income households of which the total income is no higher than thirty percent of the median income level for the county as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or its successor agency. Specific very low-income threshold levels vary according to household size.
30. It is the intent of the county that the transition plan required in section 7.A. of this ordinance provide a mechanism to continue, without interruption, currently funded regional health and human services to veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families, and other persons in King County; to provide substantial investments in housing stability early in the levy term; and to engage in planning activities until the new implementation plan is adopted in accordance with section 7.B. of this ordinance.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Definitions. The definitions in this section apply throughout this ordinance unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
A. "Caregiver" means a person who, without pay, cares for or supervises another person who requires such care or supervision due to disability, chronic illness or, in the case of a senior, age-related decline. Government-provided benefits or financial assistance provided directly to a person for being a caregiver are not considered pay within this definition.
B. "Levy" means the levy of regular property taxes for the specific purposes and term provided in this ordinance and authorized by the electorate in accordance with state law.
C. "Levy proceeds" means the principal amount of moneys raised by the levy and any interest earnings on the moneys.
D. "Limit factor" for purposes of calculating the levy limitations in RCW 84.55.010, means one hundred three and one-half percent.
E. "Military servicemember" means a person who is serving as either an active duty or a reservist member of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard, or in the National Guard.
F. "Regional health and human services" means a wide range of those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that promote outcomes relating to healthy living, housing stability, financial stability, social engagement, service system improvement and service system access to meet basic human needs and promote healthy living and communities including, but not limited to:
1. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that promote housing stability or that contribute to making homelessness rare, brief and one-time by creating housing, preserving or modifying existing housing or supporting persons in gaining or maintaining housing, including an assistance program to support persons who qualify for a property tax exemption under RCW 84.36.381;
2. Those health care and health promotion services, programs and operations that encourage healthy lifestyles and wellness, promote healthy aging, support recovery, improve physical and behavioral health for individuals and families, promote suicide prevention efforts, reduce unintentional injury and support survivors of domestic violence;
3. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that promote social engagement and community building such as senior centers for individuals and groups in culturally, geographically, economically or linguistically isolated communities and for others such as seniors experiencing or at risk of social isolation and its health-harming effects;
4. Those services and programs that promote financial stability or financial mobility, including access to, preparation for and assistance in gaining or maintaining employment, income, education and financial literacy, including an assistance program to support persons who qualify for a property tax exemption under RCW 84.36.381;
5. Those services and programs that promote equitable and affordable access to child care in King County, including but not limited to services and programs that promote equitable and affordable access to child care for families of veterans and military servicemembers;
6. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that promote and support diversion away from the criminal justice system, and services and programs that promote and support criminal justice system-linked services or other services that assist individuals, including children, youth and young adults, and their families, in preventing, mitigating or recovering from the effects of their involvement with the criminal justice system, including services that promote restorative justice or reentry to society after incarceration or detention, such as services aimed at supporting justice system-involved individuals to attain or retain housing;
7. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that improve or expand the delivery of health and human services, improve health and human services system access and navigability, reduce or prevent the disparate or traumatic effects of systems upon vulnerable populations, build the capacity and support the operations of health and human services providers to serve their clients and communities, including strategies to promote retention, recruitment and pay of high quality service providers and build the capacity of communities to partner with King County;
8. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that improve or expand the delivery of civil legal aid to vulnerable populations;
9. Those services and programs that promote, encourage and support employment opportunities for veterans and military servicemembers, including employment opportunities in King County government such as the veterans internship program, a version of which has also been known as the Vets 4 HIRE program, established by Ordinance 17450;
10. Those services and programs for incarcerated veterans and military servicemembers, including assessment and referral for substance abuse treatment, mental health counseling, transitional housing assistance and job referral and placement services such as those provided through the incarcerated veterans pilot program established under Motion 14632 and Motion 14766;
11. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that further a goal of allowing seniors to age in place and enjoy a high quality of life in their own homes;
12. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that improve and expand services for youth in crisis; and
13. Those services, programs, operations and capital facilities that provide education and work force development and training for vulnerable populations.
G. "Senior" means a person who is at least fifty-five years old.
H. "Technical assistance and capacity building" means assisting small organizations, partnerships and groups to enable such entities to provide regional health and human services and capital facilities funded by the levy proceeds. Assistance may include, but is not limited to, providing or funding legal, accounting, human resources and leadership development services and support.
I. "Veteran" means a person who has served as either an active duty or a reservist member of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force or Coast Guard, or in the National Guard.
J. "Vulnerable population" means persons or communities that are susceptible to reduced health, housing, financial or social stability outcomes because of current experience of or historical exposure to trauma, violence, poverty, isolation, bias, racism, stigma, discrimination, disability or chronic illness. Examples of vulnerable populations include, but are not limited to survivors of domestic violence; survivors of sexual assault; survivors of human trafficking, including labor trafficking and sex trafficking; survivors of commercial sexual exploitation; persons who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or intersex; persons with a disability; African Americans and other persons of color who have been disproportionately impacted by policies and practices resulting in housing instability or housing insecurity; family caregivers for persons with a disability; immigrants and refugees; low-income residents of rural communities; persons living in poverty; persons at risk of or experiencing homelessness; youth involved in the child welfare system, including youth in the foster care system, and young adult alumni of the child welfare system; minors who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, by law or custom, is responsible for doing so; persons reentering society from criminal justice system involvement; and persons at risk of criminal justice system involvement due to disproportionate practices of enforcement, mental illness or substance use disorders.
SECTION 2. Levy submittal to the voters. To provide necessary moneys for the provision of regional health and human services to King County's veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families, seniors and their caregivers and vulnerable populations, technical assistance and capacity building, and for limiting the impact of this levy on metropolitan park districts and fire districts due to prorationing mandated under RCW 84.52.010, the county council shall submit to the qualified electors of the county a proposition to replace an expiring levy and authorize a regular property tax levy in excess of the levy limitation contained in chapter 84.55 RCW for six consecutive years, at a rate not to exceed ten cents per one thousand dollars of assessed value in the first year, 2017, and collections commencing in 2018, with annual increases in years two through six of the levy (2018 through 2022) limited by the limit factor.
SECTION 3. Deposit of levy proceeds. The levy proceeds shall be deposited in a special revenue fund, which fund shall be created by ordinance.
SECTION 4. Eligible expenditures.
A. If approved by the qualified electors of the county, at least one percent of each year's levy proceeds must be used to fund technical assistance and capacity building.
B. From the remaining levy proceeds after the amount required in subsection A. of this section, except for three hundred thousand dollars of each year's levy proceeds reserved for the purposes set forth in subsection C. of this section, all levy proceeds shall be divided into three equal parts and used for the following purposes:
1. One third of those levy proceeds shall be used to plan, provide, administer and evaluate a wide range of regional health and human services and capital facilities for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families. In this levy's first year, at least fifty percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund those capital facilities and regional health and human services that promote housing stability for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families. In subsequent years, at least twenty-five percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund those capital facilities and regional health and human services that promote housing stability for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families. No more than five percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund the planning and administration of the wide range of regional health and human services and capital facilities to be provided under this subsection;
2. One third of those levy proceeds shall be used to plan, provide, administer and evaluate a wide range of regional health and human services and capital facilities for seniors and their caregivers and to promote healthy aging in King County. Until either (a) seventy-five percent of the number of those seniors, who are also veterans or military servicemembers in King County and who as of the enactment date of this ordinance are homeless, obtain housing or (b) a total of twenty-four million dollars from the levy proceeds, except those levy proceeds described in subsection B.1. of this section, or from other funds administered by King County or both are spent to house seniors who are also veterans or military servicemembers in King County, whichever comes first, at least fifty percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund capital facilities and regional health and human services for seniors who are also veterans or military servicemembers and their respective caregivers and families. In this levy's first year, at least fifty percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund those capital facilities and regional health and human services that promote housing stability for seniors. In subsequent years, at least twenty-five percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund those capital facilities and regional health and human services that promote housing stability for seniors. No more than five percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund the planning and administration of the wide range of regional health and human services and capital facilities to be provided under this subsection; and
3. One third of those levy proceeds shall be used to plan, provide, administer and evaluate a wide range of regional health and human services and capital facilities for vulnerable populations. In this levy's first year, at least fifty percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund those capital facilities and regional health and human services that promote housing stability for vulnerable populations. In subsequent years, at least twenty-five percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund those capital facilities and regional health and human services that promote housing stability for vulnerable populations. No more than five percent of the levy proceeds described in this subsection shall be used to fund the planning and administration of the wide range of regional health and human services and capital facilities to be provided under this subsection.
C.1. Of the levy proceeds annually reserved in subsection B. of this section, the council may by ordinance authorize the expenditure of those levy proceeds to mitigate the levy's impact on metropolitan park districts and fire districts to the extent their levies may be prorationed as mandated by RCW 84.52.010 and to the extent the prorationing was caused by this levy. Metropolitan park districts and fire districts shall use any moneys received under authority of this subsection C. to fund, within their districts, regional health and human services for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families, seniors and their caregivers and vulnerable populations.
2. Unless the council by ordinance otherwise directs, reserved levy proceeds not expended as authorized in subsection C.1. of this section shall be, no earlier than June 1, 2023, divided in thirds and one third expended for each of the purposes set forth in subsection B.1. through 3. of this section.
SECTION 5. Call for special election. In accordance with RCW 29A.04.321, the King County council hereby calls for a special election to be held in conjunction with the general election on November 7, 2017, to consider a proposition authorizing a regular property tax levy for the purposes described in this ordinance. The King County director of elections shall cause notice to be given of this ordinance in accordance with the state constitution and general law and to submit to the qualified electors of the county, at the said special county election, the proposition hereinafter set forth. The clerk of the council shall certify that proposition to the director of elections in substantially the following form, with such additions, deletions or modifications as may be required for the proposition listed below by the prosecuting attorney:
PROPOSITION___; The King County Council has passed Ordinance ______ concerning funding for veterans, seniors and vulnerable populations. If approved, this proposition would replace an expiring levy and fund capital facilities and regional health and human services for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families, seniors and their caregivers, and vulnerable populations, including domestic violence survivors and persons with disabilities. It would authorize King County to levy an additional property tax for six years, beginning in 2017, and collections commencing in 2018, with annual increases in years two through six of the levy (2018 through 2022) of up to 3.5%.
Should this proposition be:
Approved? _____
Rejected? _____
SECTION 6. Governance.
A. No later than August 23, 2017, the executive shall develop and transmit a plan for council review and adoption by ordinance to create and prescribe the composition and duties of a board or boards to provide oversight of the expenditure of the levy proceeds described in section 4.A. and B. of this ordinance. The creation of the board or boards shall be contingent upon voter approval of the ballot proposition described in section 5 of this ordinance.
B. The board or boards shall be charged to oversee the distribution of levy proceeds consistent with section 4.A. and B. of this ordinance and to report annually to the executive and council on the fiscal and performance management of the levy. The plan may describe additional matters on which the board or boards are empowered to provide advice to the executive and county council.
SECTION 7. Implementation planning.
A. No later than September 29, 2017, the executive shall transmit for council review and adoption by ordinance a proposed transition plan for the veterans, seniors and human services levy. Contingent upon voter approval of the ballot proposition described in section 5 of this ordinance, a transition plan, for spending of levy proceeds in 2018 or later years as authorized under this ordinance, should address the following elements:
1. A recommended course of action that would minimize service discontinuity for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families and other individuals and families in need during the transition between the veterans and human services levy and the veterans, seniors and human services levy;
2. Any proposed new staffing and planning activities required to plan for and administer the veterans, seniors and human services levy during the transition period, and prior to the adoption of the implementation plan required in subsection B. of this section;
3. A plan for the portion of veterans, seniors and human services first-year levy proceeds required in section 4.B.1. through 3. of this ordinance to fund those capital facilities and regional and human services that promote housing stability for veterans, seniors and vulnerable populations. The executive shall develop and include a definition of housing stability that shall address but not be limited to: the appropriate percentage that housing costs should represent of a person's income as compared to costs of other necessities, such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care; risk factors for housing instability or housing insecurity; and housing safety and quality. The transition plan shall include and utilize criteria that address geographic differences and trends in housing stability, including housing costs, to assess the need for and to allocate housing stability investments. The transition plan shall include a process to streamline the review and approval of capital facilities designed to promote housing stability for veterans, servicemembers and their respective families, seniors and vulnerable populations so that resources are made available in an expeditious and responsible manner while also reducing administrative costs;
4. A methodology to determine the number of seniors who are also veterans or military servicemembers and who are homeless as of the date of the enactment of this ordinance and to track the number of veterans and military servicemembers who obtain housing over the term of this levy and the plan to implement that methodology and tracking; and
5. Definitions of planning and administration as those terms are used in section 4.B.1., 2. and 3. of this ordinance and the percentage of levy proceeds by each of the three equal parts as described in section 4.B. of this ordinance that will be used to perform these activities.
B. Contingent upon voter approval of the ballot proposition described in section 5 of this ordinance and no later than March 16, 2018, the executive shall transmit an implementation plan for the veterans, seniors and human services levy for council review and adoption by ordinance. The implementation plan shall describe the expenditure of levy proceeds to achieve outcomes related to healthy living, housing stability, financial stability, social engagement, service system improvement and service system access for veterans and military servicemembers and their respective families, seniors and their caregivers and vulnerable populations, consistent with the eligible expenditures described in section 4 of this ordinance. This plan shall include definitions of planning and administration as those terms are used in section 4.B.1., 2. and 3. of this ordinance and the percentage of levy proceeds by each of the three equal parts as described in section 4.B. of this ordinance that will be used to perform these activities. The definitions and percentages may be refined from the definitions and percentages included in the transition plan required in subsection A. of this section. This plan shall include a definition of housing stability for the purposes of expenditures of levy proceeds that shall address but not be limited to: the appropriate percentage that housing costs should represent of a person's income as compared to costs of other necessities, such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care; risk factors for housing instability or housing insecurity; and housing safety and quality. The definition may be refined from the definition included in the transition plan required in subsection A. of this section. The implementation plan shall include and utilize criteria that address geographic differences and trends in housing stability, including housing costs, to assess the need for and to allocate housing stability investments. The plan shall include identification of services, programs, operations and capital facilities that build the capacity and support the operations of health and human services providers to serve their clients and communities, including strategies to promote retention, recruitment and pay of high quality service providers. The plan shall also identify and describe: accountability measures, including measurable outcomes or results expected for each of the three populations, which are veterans, seniors and vulnerable populations, across each of the five outcome areas, which are healthy living, housing stability, financial stability, social engagement, service system improvement and service system access, due to the expenditure of levy proceeds; a regular performance monitoring program that will assess and report on how well the veterans, seniors and human services levy is achieving those outcomes; and how this veterans, seniors and human services levy program-specific performance monitoring and reporting will be coordinated with performance monitoring and reporting on other dedicated human service funds, such as the best starts for kids fund and the mental illness and drug dependency fund. Among the accountability measures shall be the goal of housing seventy-five percent of the number of those seniors, who are also veterans or military servicemembers in King County and who as of the date this ordinance is enacted are homeless, obtain housing. The plan shall also include the methodology of how the number of seniors, who are also veterans or military servicemembers and who were homeless as of the date of the enactment of this ordinance was determined and the methodology to track the number of veterans and military servicemembers who obtain housing over the term of this levy. The plan shall also provide for the implementation of the tracking. The methodology and plan may be refined from those included in the transition plan required in subsection A. of this section. The plan should describe how performance monitoring and reporting will focus on results and not simply on numbers served.
C. Until the council adopts by ordinance the transition plan referenced in subsection A. of this section, subject to appropriation, levy proceeds may only be expended to continue services provided in 2017 at 2017 service levels and such expenditures shall be governed by the Service Improvement Plan 2012-2017 - Veterans and Human Services Levy adopted by Ordinance 17236. No levy proceeds may be expended for new regional health and human services or capital facilities until the council adopts by ordinance the transition plan referenced in subsection A. of this section. Until the council adopts by ordinance the implementation plan referenced in subsection B. of this section, the transition plan, adopted under subsection A. of this section, shall govern the expenditure of levy proceeds. After adoption of the implementation plan, it shall govern the expenditure of levy proceeds and the transition plan shall no longer have force or effect.
SECTION 8. The additional regular property taxes authorized by this ordinance shall be included in any real property tax exemption authorized by RCW 84.36.381, including any amendment that is adopted by the state legislature during the term of this levy.
SECTION 9. Ratification. Certification of the proposition by the clerk of the county council to the director of elections in accordance with law before the general election on November 7, 2017, and any other act consistent with the authority and before the effective date of this ordinance are hereby ratified and confirmed.
SECTION 10. The plans specified in sections 6 and 7 of this ordinance are countywide plans included in the work plan of the regional policy committee and as part of the council review shall be referred to the regional policy committee in accordance with Section 270.30 of the King County Charter and K.C.C. 1.24.065.D.2.
SECTION 11. Severability. If any provision of this ordinance or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the ordinance or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.