body is realize that that sometimes
what you hear in council you may have to
think a little bit more broader
community actually thinks the certain
thinner is good and most you know
majority of
by the end of the
technology test here for a moment, but
the balance you're describing. No, not
that one. Oh, sorry. We'll get to those
um the different hats you wear, right?
And so, you know, there are um different
roles that you have to perform as an
elect body. Uh and sometimes you have to
change them, right? And you have to be
alert to them. Um you know part of it is
you know being a representative and and
yes listening to who may bring a
representative to your community. Uh
there's also important role a steward
right and so you are looking for the
greater good and making sure that you
can maintain progress on long-term
expectations for the better of a
community uh thinking strategic you
strategic thinker is another role you
have to want. Uh and these are are
different lenses. Kil oversight and just
the brass tax of being, you know,
fiscally responsible and and making sure
that everybody is accountable uh to the
work that you're doing missing trustee
at
>> Okay. Excellent. Thank you. That was
that was a trick question.
Well, you can share it. Uh but but the
important point on your at different
points in time and with different topics
and items that come before you, you're
going to
all are important. So if you get
sidelined into one specific lane and
you're only thinking about, you know,
I'm an advocate, I'm a rubber stand.
about the community then you're missing
out important important trans what it
means to be a vet.
>> Yeah. And I'm um on the point of
transparency, I don't think that always
means you know doing what the like.
I think one of the things here also it's
you know what's pandering is something
that's but I think it's like you know
when you make a decision being able to
explain to me why they came into that
decision I can experience
or disagree with public but doing so in
respectful manner it's
listen to me
>> I'd like to
deputy council person.
Cinnamic. Cinnamic. Cinnamic. Cinnamic.
Cynic
penic.
Vimic
>> I'll expand on that. We have had a
policy over the last couple of years as
to how council member Shaker
>> listen question is is that policy
working
and if not
what changes
>> listen to me
>> sorry I missed how public brings issues
>> housing council new business request
>> listen to me listen to me you unlike for
one site I mean here I'm just saying how
we solve that but just like that that if
we don't do a good job at that and I
probably a better job at that then the
outl are essentially the the right side
of the columns you said try
als
>> okay so maybe as far
Yes, I think you're hearing that not
everyone's happy about buses.
>> Yeah.
>> You want to like today to talk about
that are specific in Is that better to
you bring back as a wall?
>> I I'll cut through.
>> Okay. Yeah.
So what's that? So I think what council
wants is policy that allows them to put
20 million money instead of
sp
there are you know probably half dozen
ways communities do this um you know
house member good the order can make
motion some communities motion is good
enough and then another community makes
motion and a second get a motion to
second it some give you a motion and a
second and a majority vote to the
council to put it um and then it usually
comes back at the next meeting or maybe
two meetings depending on what the
policy says and gets discussed for next
steps. So my sense is that's what you
want. So you just all have to decide how
much of the body needs to agree or chunk
of my senses that and I experienced this
but one person could never do it. It's
you know in Evston I had writers would
come with 15 things every meeting and
they all they had to do was propose that
they did need a second they didn't need
vote and then ultimately they came down
to a vote so that you need majority of
your colleagues to agree with you that
so it's probably if not majority maybe
one or two authors on and then come back
I think the the caution gorgus is not
this group but other or somebody else
comes on the council and says, "Okay,
I'm going to use this as my own bully
pulpit." And then drags you all and
that's what other council members hate
is when one person can say, "These are
my priorities and now I'm going to force
you all to." So, if we can come up with
something that doesn't do that, that's
fine. I think from the administration
standpoint, Mr. correctly wrong. We just
worry about being inundated because in
some communities, I'm sure you took
plenty of examples. Some communities
everything stops because all the council
is doing is responding to those group
items to discuss versus trying to do
them up front process like this and say,
"Okay, this these are our priorities.
We're going to work on them through the
next three, six, nine months." versus
every meeting setting new priorities
because sometimes come on the latest
>> well I will always mention too is that
there is an impact on pass the staff too
when when there are lots of ideas
generated because if each one even if it
feels like it's an arguing thing still
let us need to spend time so your
intentionality behind you know where
together you want to move forward for a
bird or the bopsy sheet
>> I like the idea of a second or a second
and a third here's It allows me to lobby
at night without doubting about proced
one or two other council members who are
excited about that. But I think the idea
the current policy is it's like well
since I guess you guys kind of want to
know if the where the will of the body
is and I can't go figure that out
without breaking
>> concerned about it going wrong. I agree
that would be bad. It does go off. I
also think that we if if we see that
happens because presumably the dust will
step it does happen. Sure. But I'll I'll
guess
you think I can
>> because because then that individual
says you are stifling me if you council
member Nichols don't want to talk about
things I want to talk about. You tried
to change the policy to stiple me and
here are 20 of my friends who are now
going to spend five minutes each. That's
a book saying how orange or st by so
>> hopefully you pick something that's
going to last. I it would be better to
pick the right number, but uh it's not
we're not zone out. It's just
>> and I think there's a few other ways
that we could approach this. The way we
had done was council new business
request process. We do also have maybe
the process for setting the annual work
plan and maybe involvement there. The
mayor has also called individual
meetings on certain policy areas which
is going to give us another area input.
So I think there's a lot of approaches
that we could take at some point trying
to figure out what the best process for
this. we set that into our policies. You
got it. There's certainly lots of
different uh dimensions that could be
explored with this and certainly lots of
examples that need to go to from other
communities that have been tested and
you can decide you know ultimately it
has to fit here right as manyities are
but there are plenty of examples and
yeah just going in eyes of what the the
choice choices
uh but you understanding uh that there's
important value in raising you know
bringing forward ideas as they come
forward But also recognizing when you
have work plan and other things that
you've decided as a body that you want
to work on um you want to make sure that
you don't speak July and have all that
sense of that's the pain is what can can
happen if not
breath good conversation important uh
sounds like to spend some more time on
so we'll make sure that that comes back
to let's see other questions too I don't
want to get into the specific discussion
around expectations of each other
Uh so what values are important to you
uh in government? What are the things
that you bring to the digital?
One thing that I think has always worked
well for us is and it was surprising.
Um so being able to we feel like I feel
like we have had a very responsive
strength of the leadership to be able to
say okay this is something that I'm
going to come out you know and there are
exceptions obviously if um something
comes up during meeting but I think that
ideal
keeping everybody informed ahead of time
rather than coming in with a
in the mix.
>> Yeah. Well, this is, you know, uh sounds
like in practice what you've been doing
and that's certainly what Karen Gren
expectation for working, you know,
together, but also with the
administration, right?
Uh and documenting these I tell you it's
when things, you know, it's great when
things are working really well. It's
when things start to not work well for
whatever reason. And you know, go and
see a company to be able to say this is
good.
All right, Mr. What what other values do
you bring?
>> Say a lack of ego that this isn't about
us. This isn't about our essence people.
This is about you know it's the city
that we're doing all the sports. We've
asked you to have arguments and things
like that. This isn't
what individual about their pride of
being at something. This is not about us
at all. This is
Yeah. Listen to me. You're opening up
about, you know, good job. It's about
the community. I love that. Same idea
that
listen to me.
>> Um I mean pretty basic integrity spect
um and then I think another is
preparedness to know how much gets to
show up having done over and ready to
know they've
>> I want to boldly say something kind of
personal. Um, on the preparedness side
of things, um, we have swung, maybe it
was during the co era, we swung from
having class of in-depth presentations
from our staff to read the packet and
get ready to talk about. I think we have
swung too far and I mean, I'm interested
to hear what other people think. Um, but
I think we have swung too far and one of
the reasons I think we don't get as much
public engagement as we used to get. I
mean, there's the fact we don't have
these claw grass. there's, you know,
postcoid, all that kind of stuff. I
think is also that there isn't a lot to
grab on to or there isn't as much to
grab on to at council meetings as used
to be. And I'm not looking for seven 45
minute meetings. I don't think we had a
time. Uh, but you know, I I I would
humbly suggest that I think we've swung
too far and that we don't provide enough
insitue uh teeing up of the issues
before we launch into them. Uh if the
public comes to a council meeting, I
think they get a very very very light
set of presentations from staff and then
you get council debating.
>> Listen to me.
>> Yeah. Why would uh
>> listen to me?
>> So would it be the agenda then plus like
more of an executive summary of staff of
what or what would be
>> I think it's five slides or or topic,
right? that just says here's the issue,
you know, here's it is it isn't a
restating of of the you guys do a very
very good job in case I needed some um
but it's the here's the issue some some
pictures right I'm a very visual
engineer a lot of times we're having
conversations about land use or uh
things go about in the city and we don't
te up pictures anymore like we used to
when we're talking about issues as an
example of what I guess and what if the
bing as long as that does result in a
reduction pizza or the packet.
>> Listen to me.
>> Some of us like, you know, I'm like
saying pizza. We'll go into it. Uh,
well, in the old days, you know, we
still had 500 page packets, but we also
kind of we also, like I said, I'm just
talking three to five slides per topic,
right? That just says here's what the
issue is. Here's the salient points. I
mean, you guys always do put a slide up
that says here's what we're asking,
right? Here are the questions that we're
asking today. But the thing before that,
I think we don't we don't do silo.
might be easy topic but the for the
broader perspective current
I think that doesn't necessarily go to I
think it's just like you know what is
people here and like how does this
further goal I think would be helped
kind of remind everyone because I think
we're all a little bit in the weeds and
I think the reputation honestly they get
very creepsy at times perhaps at the
expense of you know like for someone
especially for me like the big gay I you
know just coming in
for every like sonic and then I think
you know trying to understand what's the
context you know what's the goal here
how how everything fits in I guess some
of that more topic setting and perhaps
that even makes the presentation need to
be a bit more high level and you know we
maybe we actually don't spend as much
time talking right like you know oh
here's the schedule of when road is
going to happen at this we can just look
at it we don't need to read out every
single
Um, so you know, I I think finding that
right balance of going into detail of
theation versus of you know how it
sounds to me like what you're saying is
we need for that podcast totally
like context setting make sure
everyone's on the same
increase context setting bigger picture
and in the packet still having the
detail that
>> and toward that idea
I kind of come into my preparation for
the meeting feeling like if I read the
packet and the memo and the staff
information, I don't also have to look
through the slides to get all of the
information because I know I'm going to
get that at the meeting. There have been
some instances
where I got information from the slice
it wasn't in the memo and that is a
little bit of a dominant system by far
for the most part.
>> I mean I will honestly say I don't read
every 500 page packet from not on a
Thursday I have a like
>> this is a chunks of the system.
Yes. So, so you know, I I start with
them would be the staff summary and then
I decide what details I need to dive
into from there, but I would also I mean
I think an example of something where we
did have a good amount of detail and I'm
struggling to remember if we did that in
full counsel just committee was on
bicycle policy or electric bike policy,
right? And staff put together a decent
amount of okay, here's a here's a matrix
of the type of vehicle situation. that
kind of detail. Um I liked that because
that is how we used to do it and it felt
more like that. We did that full
council, right? And so just because yeah
like that's the kind of detail I'd like
to see more of in working issues.
So what's the difference between the
presentation of the committee and
presentation counc
>> yeah are we okay with having the
information repeated
>> and that's because I feed back our view
that says we've heard it in committee
then it should be higher loans
>> purpose of the committee is to dive into
the the details and so council members
who serve on the committee don't have
told me they don't want to hear exactly
the same presentation again at council
because that's what it reads. So
>> believes the context portion
>> maybe is is the piece that needs to come
out more than the details. I guess
>> says your staff some of your staff will
think your staff wants to give you every
little nugget. I
>> and what I try to do is I try to hold
them back say put the nuggets in the
staff report the council members don't
want to get it because this this is a
time management issue too you know and I
I think an idea of adding a section to
everything that's background
couple slide she can she can do that but
the the push and pull that back
you know our up or the detail of the
committee. That's what the committee is
for. It's doing the work for the G. The
council doesn't have to do the word
section. So if that's the case, we can
continue to do that. But make sure that
that contact backs
both same. Does that make sense? Yeah,
I'm going to add a point here. As a new
person that does not have the full
background in this question to me kind
of sounds to me like what's the intent
to these changes in terms of like are we
trying to make this better for council
to make the decision or are we trying to
make the public have more access to this
information?
Which which goal are we trying to
achieve in this? And is is is crucial to
how this is going to be handled.
if it's more for the public or it's more
for us.
>> Listen to me and try and meet that goal
on what that side be.
>> Listen to me.
>> Well, I mean to use the electric bike
example, um it is a potentially
contemptuous issue. So members of the
community think that it is dumb for us
to be restricting their use electric
bikes at any capacity. Right.
>> Right. So to the extent that we can
provide publicity the rationale behind
the decisions that we make I think it's
valuable for us as a council and
valuable
so if you just say
you know
you know at committee
>> I want to pivot back to coming on I was
right about the my expectation in
committee is if we have an ordinance
that committee reviews every plan the
ordinance itself is
typically four, six, eight, right? But
that full council doesn't do ordinance,
right? We don't we in recent years we
haven't done as much writing or
sufficiently previously, but at least on
ordinance and sash is the the answer to
your question about detail. Well, PD
does take line by line.
>> Yeah. But certainly not at full counsel,
right? Right. They did. So I think that
was that's a I think a good example of
what the committee should operate is
that then the committee came each time
there was some peace and kind of
summarize this concern. I mean I will
say the discussion of uh the overcast is
a is an example of where I think there
was not enough detail and footh
detail in the uh in the content but I
think the decisions that we made that
night
>> would have been a little bit hard to
follow by the public um because then
there wasn't as much tech information as
it would have been historically.
So is there at least there are consensus
to that
>> golden item. So
>> but I mean I mean
>> part of my job as gatekeeper and to try
to manage I just want to make more to do
all this. It just adds elapse time and
it's repeating in some respects what's
already in the packet. And if again back
to council member Rod's issue about who
is the audience of the audience
community then this makes great sense
I'm just not convinced that you're all
there
is there a role for committees to
suggest what needs more detailed context
if the full
because a default for everything asked
about you know the form that you forget
the agenda I can see that be uh the tide
some and out like informing type public
um there I think is a role for
discretion what are
the barons and crash these signs
I love that idea because every there's a
point where these say now it's just
going on versus going regular business
you're also saying well you know how
much
and so for those things I'm very
>> what does that okay
>> well that's that's basically
So if if that's sort of a guide post we
could try and again we'll add Tisha
I'll ask you for any comment if we if we
add to there's a sort of a format to
what we requesting the parks to do in
presentations why here was the requested
action we asking twice so if we do a
background context piece
that makes sense right and that's not
something at the end that says how
relationship to curricul that that the
staff of the committee get so Andrew and
because we're trusting our committees to
do that that first line work
>> and that's why we have the committees if
not we would do everything everything
>> by laws of choice so I think the
committee served that terms great that's
one area I noticed where We have road
for improvement. What about the Spanish
road closure discussion? We always
needed to have headline slide. said six
weeks in March and April slows and from
July to No September that road like we
had a slide that had every permutation
poramish road of which ones were narrow
and it was hard to discern I think for
people that lived in that community the
exact which road
>> which months and our job and I think it
would be helpful for council to have
that same summary at Paul's point
helpful for the community to walk
anybody who watched that brief preset
saying I'm interested about how impact
me we can kind of we can do I think a
better job of kind of spelling out these
are the main impacts this is and now
we're going to give you a little bit
broader you know sense of what's
happening but the main thing if you're
just going to watch 30 seconds of this
is your world's going to be closed for
six weeks coming up in a couple months
and it's going to close by
all just
>> all right so so using the committees to
help inform the level of detail but
really around uh helping to set context
for those important need perhaps more
complex issues or topics that come
before but what I also heard was
obviously the community is part of the
audience but also within the body to
frame it and that helped to address the
question of oh why right you have the
impact u of the decision I'm forward so
just kind of zooming it up to make sure
that that's crystal clear audio so I'm
hearing that so okay Great. Um, all
right. Well, let's let's look at that
last question there and then I want to
>> kind
of um just an observation that I have
from uh other boards. Um, so I had
limited time on our council though I've
been to years. It's about two months
total. So much of that that is from
perspective of working on both startup
boards as well as government boards. Um
an observation that I have is that the
uh the
>> the startups that boards which um that
are most successful are those where the
boards can can
um and openly criticize and provide help
in a way where you're on the same page
of
guess assistance. Um but that's that's a
key function of those bodies. it's to
>> be a rubber stamp. Um, and the ones I'm
still on have done that effectively. The
ones I've not when it was effectively
rubber staff for CEO and customer, uh,
they don't exist. Uh, alternatively, the
I'm on a federal board right now that is
effectively a rubber stamp for the
federal lead of that. Uh, it exists
indefinitely because there's no
selective pressure. Uh so we in
government I think we have this um like
we we can't fall in traps where we
aren't able to where boards cannot
necessarily get feedback there's not
necessarily a good quick sight per turn
uh to tell you if you're doing good if
you have questions but all so often so
uh from a good government's goal in
general that I like to see it's a
culture where that's accepted and
embraced and be helpful u and where a
rubber stack is not is practically not
even desired forming better policy
differing discussion and debate
discussion
>> where it's like you know the the
conflicting discussion between the
result of that is something that's
matter what a
>> well I think an underlying principle
that is so important to make that
something that that doesn't go south in
terms of relationships and all that is
really clear understanding of a your
Why? Uh and so we get in touch immediate
that you're you're here for the
community. That's why and that uh and
then hugging each right and so bringing
new perspectives, new ideas, you know,
different opinions to the table and be
healthy in a respectful manner. And so
being the how is one that can be able to
facilitate robust conversation and
responsive sharing. Well, I think the
job like if I use my state investment
board for example and board a lot of
time like we're rubber stamping staff
but then I have to explain to people
we've done it recently. We've told them
we want this percentage of real estate,
this percentage of fixed income, this
percentage of equities and then they
come back with their best proposal. So
it looks like we're rubber stamping them
but we're just telling them what we as a
board have decided we want the mix to
look like. And so sometimes I think when
you have the high functioning
organizations I think you guys are
giving us really good direction but in
terms of you know the priorities and
that's what I hope we walk out of here
kind of today with and and then I think
it's our job to come back and say hey
based on what we heard here's the best
ways we think we can kind of achieve
some of those goals and so that is sort
of the challenge and I think on
committees that I chaired I think it was
always useful in trying to get consensus
to better public policy. And so I think
our hope is I think the administration
as we have challenging issues. I would
rather push it back a month to figure
out how to address as many of the
concerns from council as possible and
try to bring it forward when we think we
have I think just better public policy
if everyone feels like they have some
issues. So I think our challenge is put
the ideas out there. You guys get the
feedback, try to see how we can address
that. I would much rather take a month
or two longer to have a 70 vote and to
rush something just because you got four
votes and you're like, "Okay, we're
going to run it." And I I think from my
perspective is we try to reach out and
and I don't want if we aren't successful
in doing that, I don't want people to
feel like the council's rubber stamping
what we're proposing. I just want people
to realize there's a lot of work that's
happened to make that proposal something
the entire council couldn't support and
my thing is idles
>> I hide the method value
>> so uh I'm an engineer uh we use metrics
correct fact we have metrics
uh our use of that uh is spot right and
coming back to the what do we present at
caps meetings, right? Often times the
sort of uh statute required metrics are
buried on page 34 stat and they should
be top of line, right? Um I'm not sure
we have, you know, you're going to hear
later about things that are priorities.
I'm not sure any of those priorities
have good metrics like and some metrics
are expensive. Like you can have a
metric that says what fraction of your
top 50 intersections have a C or better,
right? And that's a mobility metric.
It's expensive to go get every top. We
have to go get a thr I know $50,000 or
something like that, but we don't use
any of that, right? And if the public
said to me right now like on public
safety, how are we doing? Um I don't
have metrics right now and I feel that
we consistently topline when we're
discussing public safety. And so I I
don't know exactly how you solve that
problem, but I I think it's a persistent
and it's related back to what you
present.
at what you want to use and see.
Listen to Well, I was going to say I
mean on the data and effectiveness I
think I mean I actually brought that in
the what do you want to stream out
course like just based on data and being
resources so we're very much there but I
think with the data I think that's kind
of a bigger discussion on like how we
use the data that we do have right it's
like we have the dashboard we have one
presentation per year where we go
through everything and then it's not
clear to me how that actually translates
into our agenda right so like when we're
setting priorities is that when we
should be looking through the agenda
through the data that we collect and
that's the cadence or is it like you
know with this policy we actually say
this policy is intended to have this
effect and then we actually have a
cadence we reviewed does this policy do
what we thought it was going to do I
actually don't think that's a thing that
typically happens in
I think there's some and
that takes a lot of resources so I know
the state of California theft you know
on housing they're like okay you know
we'll pass this policy and then we'll go
back a year later and see if it thought
it would and it doesn't then say we
should do the few things but I don't
think we really have that as like small
thing and I also know you know doing
that stuff does take a lot of resources
so I don't want to you know then it's
like your effectiveness goes down and
spending all your time generating your
progress not you know like I just need
to things but I think it's it's
definitely an area that I think we still
have to cross that because I think we're
doing a decent job of what we have with
dashboard you know I personally have
I some of the metrics that we put should
be different. I actually never got a
good answer to like are you know how
would we change some of the metrics that
we select to be more informative to what
we're doing. Um but I don't think issue.
Yeah. Anyway,
>> well
at least
>> three years Dale, four years, three
years. Every spring we come to the
council at a meeting like this. We
present the data you say is this giving
you the information you want? How does
it inform budget? And I think what's the
date of this next meeting this very I
believe May if we have a meeting already
which we'll do is share the data that we
like we'll get confirmation from you
it's meaningful uh then that will help
that's the first step of informing the
2728 budget process
>> so I mean as we get closer to that maybe
we talk about how to make that as
meaningful as possible. Yeah, but we
>> I think it's kind of like the council
new business request process. Sure, we
have a way that we've been doing it, but
I'm not sure it's been effective toward
our goals. And so the idea of like do we
rather than having it in one meeting and
talking about that, do we bring it into
different sets of policy discussions,
but then also have a cycle back for have
they been effective? And so I think
there's maybe a conversation about how
are we using this and is
>> it
today when we talk about uh priorities
and we want to talk about what does that
look like? What does success look like?
you know, that starts to point you in a
direction and how do you measure and
quantify success using that conversation
and then looking into May it sounds like
at the data that you have available you
know to be able to look through that
lens and what else might you need to
know or what different bits of you might
be helpful
>> I was going to say but it's not just
about reviewing the whole dashboard once
I to counsel Bart's earlier point about
you know setting the context I think for
every policy decision right it should
tie back to you know Oh, here is the
item that's ambient to address. The
problem is, you know, we have this data
point that says X and and sometimes
things come up that aren't necessarily
in the data, right? Like the E mode is
like that's not the thing data on, but
it's something we heard a lot of. So, I
think that have being able to, you know,
in every policy decision saying, hey,
here's items like the data that leads us
to that is an issue that needs to be
addressed
like setting both, you know, for council
lines.
I think that's the question of how do
you use the air, right? So, you know,
the the cadence as you mentioned, but
also the the opportunities for engaging
with the air. I I think this one's
really important. So, you can control
the temperature in your house by a valve
on your furnace, right? Adjusting how
much uh gas or electricity is going into
your furnace. Or you can have a
thermostat that measures the temperature
and automatically calibrates that uh
signal based on the actual temperature.
Right? The first thing is called running
open loop and the second thing is called
running closed loop. Right? We don't run
closed loop on our policy in March. We
don't say all right here's the policies
we did last year which ones worse than
here's the data. Now I don't know if you
can do that with everything but um we
need to do it on some things and the
things that we prioritize here today we
need to do it on well and I think that
you're I think the effectiveness things
important but so like if land use gets
changed in the valley floor like there
should be a change in amount of building
permits that are applied for by the end
of 2027 there's not clearly everything
we did didn't work out to the point what
the goal was and so I Those are I think
there are very specific examples of
things where we can I think it's a
fairly good idea to say we do the policy
we're going to measure it at the end of
27 and we're going to say this is how
many permits are in the pipeline and if
it having gone up then find out like
what did we get wrong sort of
>> well and starting with one of the rooms
in council is the place to start you
know and you you can look at you know
you can have a desire for data in all
directions But starting there, make sure
you have the right ventric.
All right. Well, in the interest of
keeping us moving, um the question that
was at the bottom there and uh run to a
little bit was what do you want this
council to be known for? What do you
want to be known for? uh when you look
back or you know in the voices in that
community um
>> ungrerive
yeah
>> proous
it doesn't mean you don't
still have strategic plans and things
like that but at the end of the day the
strategic plan is just a plan like I
think you have to really I would love to
see this council be known for the
effectiveness
I guess having that sort of sense of
urgency see like which is hard to find
anything
that says every secret and actual
outcomes
>> subtype
say I'm trying to how to say this but
like accessible like as I feel like
there's a lot of distrust of government
as a whole and I would love to
government that people feel like oh well
yeah the over there are crazy but here
our government helps our government is
good for us our government successful
and pretty
yes
connection to our community then they go
with me crazy but here it's done right
it's like homemates I can feel say
>> yeah and even do that not only by being
accessible if I'm being affected y
>> because if you are somebody who listens
and you know hears everything and they
can get in touch with you if you don't
do then your
undstead
on Paul's point. I think I'd like our
council to be known uh in this sense
that every person that lives here
regardless of race, gender, association,
status, can point to one or two things
that the council did that helped make
their life better the past year. Um you
know, whether that's a a new crosswalk
or south board. Um, you know, you you
funded some additional money for seven
days to help make the festival better.
Everyone should be able to point to the
one or two things made your life better.
We did it to make that happen.
>> Second
tangible results too. Something that's
just some things for people to be aware
of that I think we do going like the
social media aspect like that is that
know presuming that we are effective and
we get things done is how we get that
out to the community because it's good
government is often invisible people
don't realize things are working like
what went into things working if it's
working and so how we translate that and
and broadcast that to the community like
in all the audience that that's auto
scroll It's not funny.
>> Well, I would say it is actually also,
you know, everyone's problem, right?
like seeing how there's some, you know,
local electric officials in the country
who are amazing at social media, you
know, like I saw a video of how the dump
trucks in New York are being repurposed
at snowplow and they're out there like
explaining all that and that's you see
that and you're like, oh, our city
government is like being creative and
doing things to make our lives better so
that you know there are snows
everywhere. I think to the extent that
we can kind of communicate more of that
because honestly a lot of people are
sciented
use of social media to you know help
them read things that we're doing
storytelling. Yeah. And storytelling I
think is important because also you know
with social media obviously we don't
want to be out there like our
constituents but you know some of the
good things like showing that on social
media and make and people will see it
and oh that's great you know city
government doing all kinds of great
things. I think that is honestly like
people aren't most people aren't going
to know most of the things that would be
right like you're the average focus
you're not going to hear about Chase
or
what have you. I think most people know
it's like oh they want to see anything
like oh yeah we saw a new park all those
types
>> yeah
help me connect the dots right between
the work that you're all reing how the
city is doing with the lives of your
community helping them to see the
relationship between
>> I on that on that point I I I think the
city had some treat
not working.
>> Sorry, Pete.
>> Um,
>> we're still glad it's working.
>> I I think the city has done a good job.
There's always room to improve, but uh
communicating the the that kind of happy
fun stuff that the city does um that
getated well. Um I'm on things that are
more contentious. I think those are
harder. Um and this is where you don't
want individual council members again
arguing with public because when does
that go well? Um but you know that's
that would be a good aspirational goal
to figure out how the city or someone
I'm not sure who that is exactly um is
able to when we have contentionous
discussions that get out there most
people are I mean we you know we can
either completely seed all public the
public forums next door um or we can try
to find some way to constructively
have someone or some entity trying to
engage and contentious things as well.
>> Yeah, that's a good I mean I would say
obviously we got a lot of negative stuff
on having the immigration gaining air
last weekend. Uh I don't know. I find it
hard to figure out cuz sometimes I feel
like engaging with some of the people
upset about that. I don't know where
you're going to end up. I mean it's just
hard. I mean it's uh listen to me. I I
don't know. It's really tough cuz I
think social media has many great things
about it. But I found during my time in
the Senate, the people who are most
upset, I just said, "Get their number.
I'll call them. I drive home tonight."
Because I found I could not do anything
with them by email or text, I had to
actually have a human to human
conversation so they felt like they were
heard and listened to. And I just I
think for some of the people that are
upset with Wilson's doing, I think I
don't know. I don't know if we can solve
those concerns via social media. I do
think direct outreach I mean we're a
community of 42,000 people is not so
overwhelming. I think and there's not
that many people normally that are super
pissed off. I think
>> um
>> if we discover they're upset by social
media I think my default I'm just
speaking I guess off the cuff. I mean, I
haven't thought about this, but is I
would feel comfortable just to reach out
to them saying, "Hey, I'm willing to
talk to you directly." Or if anyone on
the council wants to, I think we'll have
more traction in our community. And that
means if they're bombarding us from
somewhere else in the country or
somewhere else in the state, like, "No,
I'm not engaging in that." But if
they're an Isqua Yeah.
>> business or resident or anything, I
would rather have try to get through
conflict with direct human interaction
rather than
>> social media. Response to that. So um
first of all I recognize it's very easy
for me to say this is an aspirational
goal and not suggest any mechanism to do
so. Um
just I I think you're pro for a city
like is I think you're right about the
the the most vocal. I think what would
be interesting and useful to focus on
would be one level down where they're
not the most vocal, they're not the most
angry. It's not the people that are
showing up with pitchforks. It's they're
upset. um and they're one level of
engagement down where they're not
necessarily getting going to get the
personal outreach because they're not
being loud enough, but it's a it's
that's actually going to be a lot more
people. Um so finding that figuring out
how to engage with them would be useful
if possible. You know,
>> it's almost a universal truth and
figuring out how to reach people that
are not actively engaged in the positive
or the negative. And so it's a good
>> great focus. I I I I think it becomes
how do you get people there Monday night
at 7 p.m. or or or equivalent because I
think social media is designed to bring
about discord and uh and unhappiness. I
think we're all living in a giant
episode of MTV uh was the old show.
>> Real world. Yeah, we're all living and
and the producers have decided to make
it as unpleasant and and fracturous as
possible like big causes.
That was that big brother.
>> Big brother.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> The last one I watched was Real World
like 30 years ago. So I don't know any
of those other ones you're talking
about. But um but you know it it's
really designed to to to to bring out
discordant people acting horribly and in
ways that they would be embarrassed to
say. They say things that they would be
embarrassed to say in front of their
parents or grandparents. And so I don't
find those forums um generally
conducive. I don't generally come away
from those forums with a better idea of
how to do governance. Um, but how do you
get people like that? That that thing
Mondays at 7 p.m. is a big deal, right?
I was on council when that kid was
killed on Newport and we spent six
months hearing from the community about
how we killed that kid and my job was to
sit there and listen and take it. Right.
And so, um, I don't I'm not saying
everybody needs to physically come in at
7 p.m. on Monday nights, but that thing
where people can come to the council is
to me the closest thing that I would
call sacred. Like, we have to be there.
We have to do it. We have to hear
people. We have to listen to people. We
don't necessarily have to do what they
want us to do. But I just get really
nervous about social media because it is
such a in, you know, it is a feature
that it causes everybody to be angry
every single time they go on it. And I
know people who don't engage in it. In
the same way that there's an equity
issue because there's people who don't
access have access to computers, there's
people who have decided they're not
going to do social media because life is
too short. So, how do you get people
involved in the structured conversations
where all eight of us elected officials
hear them at the same time? Well, so I
think we could probably talk about
social media and the the highs and lows
associated with that for the rest of our
time together because there are so many
important and significant touch points
and influences of that world. Um, but if
we're comfortable, I think that the the
important message here is continue to
pursue transparency and find ways to
engage, you know, at your council
meetings via social media,
but also perhaps other ways that
>> Jen mentioned you could do the copy
things, right? That could be something
that you guys could do on your own or
you could have a more structured thing
where everyone does.
>> Maybe that's a good bike rack thing too.
You know, the council's done different
things like that over the past several
years. This council needs to decide what
you want to do.
>> Yeah. What our public engagement looks
like because we have tried multiple
things. I think the ultimate challenge
that we have is the council meetings
like I think it's like we're presenting
information you as a governing body are
voting on those things like it's not a
dialogue of us arguing and stuff back
and forth we want to hear from the
community but it's been very clear this
is not the place for us to have a back
and forth argument but then the question
becomes where is that place is it online
is it in person like because if you
don't create it
>> it will happen
>> maybe bad things happen and so I don't
know the answer to that. But at this
point, I will admit that I think back
criticism of our process is valid. There
is no forum for us to kind of have this
back and forth. And I don't know how you
fix that, but it's worth doodling on.
>> Yeah, everybody has different
strategies.
>> The council meetings, I really want them
to be like, we're doing business like
we're going to present information. The
council is going to vote on the
information and then things will become
law or not become law. And that's the
reality of it. Well, the other piece to
those is the committee of the whole. You
all have to decide what that looks like.
I think in part committee of the whole
was an opportunity for people to call
issues. Um, so you all need to figure
out how best to use the committee of the
whole chief. I will say that on services
and safety, I always let a certain
amount of back and forth with the public
occurring, right? if if Connie or Steve
or anybody else wanted to come in and
ask a question, I would usually reframe
that question back to staff if it was a
if it was a good question. And so there
was some of that back and forth, but
we've never done it at committee as a
whole. We've allowed we've allowed
input, but the same way we allow input
at at regular meetings. It's also about
engaging the other 38,000 people on the
right. We don't have the time to look at
that.
>> Okay, great conversation. All right. So,
I want to just I I want to make sure
anybody who has additional comments
around what you want to be known for if
we can capture those. Uh yeah, good.
>> Stewardship. So, we write laws and we
write checks, which is a nice way of
saying we take people's money and we
take their freedom. Um so, the question
is, you know, that is you know that is a
big important job and I always feel like
people like taxes. Nobody likes nobody
loves paying taxes. People pay taxes.
They are enthusiastic to pay taxes on
the things they care about and they are
unenthusiastic pay taxes they're not
enthusiastic about. So that stewardship
is if a if somebody comes up to me and
says, "Council member Martz, you voted
for a tax thing. Shame on you." Right?
You supported the school district's uh
levy. Shame on you. Right? You as a
stewardship means that you can look them
in the eye and say, "Yes, I did and
here's why." And the subtext on that is,
and if you want to vote me out next
time, vote me out. Right? My hope is
that people take a look at the sum of
your work over the course of your term
if you choose to run again and and
decide how they think you did because
you made some tough decisions. But that
stewardship is is the thing. And how do
we and some of that comes back to
metrics and some of some of that comes
back to how do you engage the public,
right? But we have to be able to people
need to be able to come up to us in the
grocery store or at church or at the
park and say, "I think you made a bad
decision." And we have to be able to
say,
>> "Here's Yeah, here here's why I made
that decision."
Is that slide still
the rules? One
>> rules. Yeah, it should be next if it
updated. It's
>> there are two rules. Yeah. So this was
the one we were trying to find earlier
and I don't want to go down a big path
because I'm conscientious of the time
dear but you touched on a lot of these
things and I think your comments I think
bring us back to uh that stewardship
trustee steward right and so again these
are the different hats that you wear
collectively all of them right and so
there are times when you're leaning
perhaps in one or the other direction uh
but to be aware that you're you're
setting strategic direction right as a
governing body you are the trustee you
are the stewards for the longer horizon
to to look at where the city has been,
where it is going, and to be able to
make sure that there's that throughput
there. Um, representative, of course,
you know, representing the voices of
your constituents of residents of the
community. How you do that, you know,
matters. Um, being a community builder,
you're also bringing people together.
That's part of part of the rolling up
decision maker. Sometimes that's not
easy. Sometimes that's hard. Having good
information and data as we've been
talking about obviously is an asset to
be well and general oversight. So these
are the the six roles that you you need
to harp to and keep in you and think
about how they show up in a college and
typically you'll have you know certain
members of the body that might lean
towards you know be really focused on
stewardships
uh and that's like really you know I got
to make sure we stay the course and we
moving forward others might be really
focused on building community bringing
people together that's great um but
understanding the different roles that
you're performing can
provide some additional information in
our report on this if that's helpful
too. Um, yeah, lots of lots of
information, lots of the directions we
can go, but I thought it might be
helpful to just drink.
Okay, so I am looking at the time
because I want to make sure we have
adequate time for our priority
conversation. And the next slide we had
was we've talked about a bunch of this.
I think we've touched on it in a lot of
ways, but I want to ask the question in
an intentional way around kind of
expectations of each other, interactions
with the the mayor administration. And
so um we've talked about some of the the
norms, some of uh information flow,
transparency, uh these sorts of things
and we've captured that. But is there
each of the let's ask the question if
there's anything we haven't touched on
already. So what type of relationship do
you hope to have within council with
your colleagues? You know, this is part
of the how do you show up for each
other? You know, earlier was mentioned
and this I think probably goes both ways
around no surprises, right? and you get
attention, having difficult
conversations, bringing information into
the room. These were some of the themes
I think I touched on there. Is there
anything additional that you were
thinking of ahead of our meeting uh that
we want to bring into the room? So,
first of all, the the relationship among
us
>> politics is seen as a competitive sport
where you're battling inside the arena
as gladiators. I would hope that uh when
we're asking questions of you know if I
asked Paul about his position on you
know crosswalks or whatever it is he
would see it as an opportunity to learn
and gain understanding between the two
of us and not as a challenge to him. I'm
just trying to find the best policy that
we can going forward and understand
where he's coming from and try to learn
from what he might be bringing to the
conversation and I would hope that we
could bring that collegiality to our
relationships with
>> that's that's a a spirit of curiosity,
right? And that you're like I tell me
more
>> uh assuming good intentions.
Yeah, I think that that's that's a
really important foundational
perspective and that allows you to have
difficult conversations if you're, you
know, really authentically showing up
knowing that people want what's best for
the community. Yeah,
>> that was like a Senate rule. Don't
impugn the motives of others because it
just
>> nothing good can happen in public
discourse if you're impuging the motives
of others because I can definitely say
having interacted with all set members
of the council like everyone's here for
the right reasons. Everybody's here for
the right reasons. I think my hope is I
feel like I've gotten to know everyone
but my hope is that the people on the
council that don't know other people on
the council as well, sorry Paul, you're
new. But uh it just try to do outreach
so for the people that you're not as
connected with because I think it will
benefit the community of Isakqua.
>> Yeah.
>> For that outreach to occur.
>> Yeah. Stay curious. I think just stay
curious and get to work. Good job.
That's other
>> I mean the the acid test will be when we
have a 4-3 or a 52 vote on something and
people feel absolutely passionately and
and if you're on the losing side of that
you there will come a day where you will
feel like I want to quit like I'm so mad
about this issue. I feel so passionately
about it. I wonder if I should quit. In
17 years I have felt that a few times
and soldiered on. Um my exemplar in all
this and forgive me several of you have
heard this before is we had a debate one
evening and uh council member Ray chose
to mention um you know how this current
topic related to another decision that
we made previously and how that was a
bad decision. Well, you can't do that in
Robert's rules. You can't re uh judicate
rejudicate a a resolved issue. And I
point of ordered it and I said point of
order that's a that's a settled issue.
And Chris said you're right. I'm sorry.
Then moves on. And that was the finest
moment of collegiality I've ever
experienced in 17 years on council. So,
we will have moments like that. So,
we're just going to have to figure it
out. And my hope is that when those
moments arrive, the the eight of us and
the staff that support us have the
rapport that we can
settle the butterflies,
hurt ourselves, and move on.
>> And then when we do have those four
three votes, not undermine
that. and take it and accept that that
is the will of the body and that's how
we move forward.
>> Yep.
>> And trust that there will be other days
and other close votes that will go your
way on things you care about.
>> Exactly. To today I just have to go with
the body understand the will of the
majority. But you're right. Yeah. It's
what what happens when you don't get the
policy that you had hoped for, but also
what happens when you do like and how if
if you are in the four to the four, how
do you how do you approach that also is
equally important. Uh
>> yeah, don't run down the sideline
taunting those players.
>> No Rick Wallen.
>> Exactly.
Well, I really liked how Russell started
out the idea of, you know, politics is
often about what can I get from you and,
you know, one up everything. And so,
similarly, I like to think of learning
from my colleagues as a an abundance
mindset rather than scarcity. oftentimes
when you're sitting there trying to make
votes in, you know, a just policy, it
feels like, oh, it's only a few things
and so that real scarcity mindset, but
the idea that, oh, okay, I can come away
with something and it creates more
nuance and we can grow the pie with the
abundance of working together because
we're all coming from different
perspectives that can ultimately make
things better as a whole.
>> Yeah. Which is great. I mean, yeah. When
you have bringing and be able to take
advantage of all of the experience,
lived experience
>> and and part of it is is focusing on the
big picture. I'll tell you of a time
early in um being on the council. Mark
and I were both proponents of a bill
that um the the plastic bag
>> and uh we had a council member that we
were with whose support we wanted and
they had been supportive of
environmental policies previously and
they had really gone out on a limb and
we got together with them and they just
said I need these three things
>> I'm not going to support it and you know
we sort of hammered through and he said
well I can give you these two but like
this third thing is going to be really
impossible and they were just like I'm
not support I'm not supporting it. I'm
like, but you know, it's a good policy
and you know that the city would be
better off with it than without it. And
they were just like, no. So that got it
get, you know, that got too
transactional and too far away from like
where is the city today? Where could the
city be tomorrow? And I proudly every
time I'm at the grocery store and I and
you know, if a if a if a clerk mentions
about, oh, you got to do this bag thing,
I'm like, I supported it. I support it
today. It was the right decision that it
was the right decision now. So So
there's some of that in there, too,
right? staying focused on like how do we
make the city better and you know there
is some of that if you support this I'll
support this but we don't do you know we
we don't if the public thinks that
there's a lot of smoky backroom politics
there just isn't
so so keeping keeping a focus on where's
the city today where could the city be
tomorrow solves a lot of that
>> less transactional bartering more
developing better policy together
>> my goal is not to have when I had
committees I chair that had unanimous
votes out committee on everything for
the entire session. So it like my goal
is to do what Tola just said and you go
out and you find out what it is that
people need to have changed or added to
the policy. I would rather have a policy
with broader support and work harder to
get it. I'm not saying it's it's harder
to get th that broader support, but I
think my I view my role in this process
is to get as much consensus from the
council as possible on everything that
comes in front of a committee agenda or
council agenda. I'm committed to doing
that. I mean, I do not
I've seen too many split votes where it
just ends up not being public policy
with the most buying. And so my goal is
to try to
>> do more work to build more amongst this
group.
>> But com I'm on accept the will of the
body. Um
um so some of us have jobs where we're
council members and then we're lobbying
for policy somewhere else. Um so I'll
just say that last Thursday.
So last Thursday I had a meeting with
Ken, our representative, and I was
talking about things for my job with my
job hat on and they didn't conflict with
anything that we have decided here, but
I could see a situation where that may
happen. And so don't I'm just saying
don't impugn as as was said before,
don't impugn negative motives on the
part of the person. Please ask what hat
I was wearing when I'm saying those
things or I need to ask what hat Tolen
might be wearing if for you know cloud
computing or science or whatever you
might be doing as opposed to imputing
motives and just throw that out there
for people to just keep in mind when
>> all right the second question which is
kind of in response maybe are there
things that are in that relationship
interaction with the mayor and
administration
You're one phone call away
>> which is great
>> have a conversation to ask
>> how and what's the long range
application for what we're thinking
about doing appreciate that
>> I have one on the so on the high
performing council side of things uh
information equity uh I don't have
anything that I'm specifically saying
but this is a a thing that I think can
help organizations much better is if we
if we are serious about that if there's
something that you think is important
that we all know about it. Um or none of
us knows about it. Um and there's
discretion that will be required. I
understand that sometimes it should be
done some but if it's if it's one it
should probably be called.
>> Yeah.
>> Fair.
>> I think does a great job of that. That's
exactly what I was going to say is
coming into this, I feel like Wall-E has
done a really good job doing the
outreach to each of us to make sure that
we at least have access to the
information or in some cases chasing us
down if he really feels like we need to
have the information. Um,
>> I'm talking to you at the Cancun
airport.
>> I know.
>> Yeah, that it was a good example of
things. Um, so I I I love that you are
accessible to us and that you feel like
you want to hear from us. It does leave
a little question about
what information do some council members
have that others don't and how how are
we developing that relationship
cohesively along or across everybody?
And so just something yeah
>> we'll have to kind of think about and
figure out how we negotiate everything.
people know I trying to be a fairly open
book and I think I don't know what you
and been doing after the weekly meetings
in terms of sharing
>> well we've only had one
I know but yeah but uh it's a yeah I
mean it does raise a question which is
you know um how do we uh populate
information from the leadership
>> and how do we do it in an OPMA compliant
way and we haven't really completely
figured that out we have some ideas on
that meeting, right?
>> Well, I mean, and all of public
meetings, you know,
>> probably the biggest key to failure for
a council, check me on this now, is when
what one knows, they all know. If you
don't do that, that is probably the
single greatest
>> undermining. You agree? I mean,
>> so you may not realize it, but
>> religious about it. absolutely
positively religious. I am learning that
because he talks so much with each of
you individually, I have to catch up.
>> Sometimes if he shift piece information
with one of you, then I make a point
when I see you next to share it with all
maybe just transactional not. But if
it's anything of any consequence, you
know, you have my
obligation that you're going to hear it.
So that and the staff that's here too I
think knows that that we live by that it
is a if it's not be very top
it's up there. So don't ever think that
that that there's things going on that
you don't know. Um and the reason I
communicate so much with all of you is
just just to make sure nothing slipped
through crack because occasionally
something will slip through a crack. you
haven't seen an email because you're
busy living your life.
>> Oh no.
>> But that know that that's a top top list
thing because because if you don't do
it, it's the shest way to failure.
>> 100%.
>> Do do you do that with the Wednesday
meetings too? Because I have felt like
ever since we stopped having the roundro
and third council member those
leadership meet and again we've had one
staff meeting since I've been back
>> and you're just trying to bring that
back. So
>> that has felt like a
>> that has felt like a black box to me.
Like I felt like I didn't know at all
what was going on in those meetings
>> and I'll look to folks that were there
too. Not every meeting has things that
are worth sharing because they're really
transactional.
>> Sure.
>> So, you know, we try to we've tried in
the last few years to use these settings
for all the big talks. And so the
council leadership meetings are really
bit more of okay how are we gonna
schedule it out because you know you do
all compliant the meetings get long
sometimes and so we spend
>> those of your colleagues
every
one of my mayor goals. Sure. So I I
don't think that there's been
>> what's happened in leadership has not
been anything magical. Um, and so I
share, you know, cadence and direction.
>> And there have been some times during
leadership where I'd be like, "Hey, this
sounds like an issue that council needs
to know about it. Wall-E, will you be,
you know, our conduit and you've done
outreach,
>> but it's
>> once every couple months?" Exactly.
>> I can see to Lindsay's point, I can
already see like a flaw just from this
first month where I discovered there's a
park levy that is going to expire at the
end of the year. I think it makes sense
to renew it. I So, I've worked with Jeff
on what that would look like, but I
realize I haven't literally sent that
out. I I think I've had random one-off
meetings with people where I mentioned
that because I'm trying to be open and
transparent, but to your point, I
probably haven't sent out that. Yeah.
everybody.
>> And how does something like that become
okay, you've discovered something, you
think it's important, you're starting to
work with staff. When does council come
into that conversation? Does it happen
through the annual work plan? Like,
>> well, it happens in the next hour.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> But what about things that come up, you
know, next month and then we don't have
another retreat to surface those things?
>> And that's what I think this is valid. I
think I have to Mr. For Wally's point,
I'm doing every meeting that's asked of
me. I'm doing like as quick as people
can have the meeting happen. And so I'm
happy to
>> I'm happy to do summaries, I guess,
after those meetings. I'm Hey, this is I
met
>> Well, I I also think that it's somewhat
on council president Michelle and I I
think we've been trying to have a
conversation about how do we have
regular engagement with the other five
council members that do not attend that
meeting in an OPMA compliant way, right?
And I think there's room for us. There's
no OPMA violation of them just sending
out a summary email from that or we
could even create the summary email to
share
>> mutually that goes through.
>> Yeah.
>> And so I think that would be a to me a
great idea.
>> But there was a time where council
leadership had regularly scheduled
meetings. The two the the council
president and deputy president regularly
met with the other five council members.
Right? I'm not necessarily suggesting
that's what we should be doing, but but
there's I'm just saying that there's
room. You know, I'm not just saying you
people need to do this or you people
need to do that. Um, council president
and I
>> we have to remember open poke means that
you can be in the same room together.
You just cannot be discussing things
that are going to be like
>> Yeah. your mission to the
>> Well, I think then this is a good
conversation. I think that uh making
sure awareness and shared information is
important. It's also an art like you're
really always working on it to make sure
and find ways to peel it for timing
sometimes factors in like there are lots
of things to keep in view. Um but the
commitment to making sure that you all
have the information that you need to
stay a breast of emerging issues or you
know questions that are emerging um is
important and you know you the
commitment to doing that and test
driving different ways can be
>> just to close. Oh go ahead. Uh, I was
just going to say I do think there is
still some of that question of you're
going to have to negotiate for yourself
when something like a parts levy comes
up and you're like, "Oh, I want to move
on that." How much do you have the
ability to just do it?
>> No, I don't think I have. I It's all
comes from the council. I think it's
just a question of
>> like I think right now it's like, "Hey,
Jeff, what could we do? what does the
what does your guys's kind of parks
board universe look like of projects and
then how do we share that with the
council and so I think we're working on
that to Wally's point I think the
thought was we could discuss it while
we're here but I just I think to close
because I think I made the comment about
trying to be unanimous on the votes but
I will also say like in the 22 session
we had a bill around state workers man
collectively bargain it was we had 28
votes for the bill so it was a 2821 vote
like we did not need any Republican
votes and I intentionally delayed paid
the vote for a week to let all the
Republicans, even though they were not,
they were very clear they're not voting
for the bill. I said, "You're going to
be impacted cuz your staff falls under
this. I want to know what your feedback
is." And we put the feedback in the bill
and they voted against it, but it ended
up being better public policy. So, I
think people on this council should know
even if you're against something, it
does not preclude your input being
factored in. And just because we take
that input doesn't mean you have to
switch your vote. I think it is
something that I think just generates
better public policy and so and to
Tola's point I think on the bag issue I
think it was better in the end just even
if it was small changes and it didn't
change the vote like at least I think
people feel like they're being listened
to and heard and that's my goal for this
council is every member to feel like
they're being listened to and heard from
the administration and even if it
doesn't change their vote it doesn't
mean their input's being disregarded and
I'm committed to doing that. I think
it's create the best way to create broad
supported public policy
>> also services blind spots you might have
otherwise uh right
>> all right
>> you sure
>> I think we should take a break uh we
good with that is there I don't want to
leave anything hanging if you are like
but I just wanted to say the one thing
all right let's take a break uh it's
quarter after 11 now let's
>> that's 12 well no 11 you're right
>> not 12 or now you're gonna tight like we
have socks to do. Uh so we take a we're
going to take a short break stretch um
get your circulation going. When we come
back we're going to start talking about
priorities and so I want to make sure
the time to really talk about what these
mean for you. So we come back at the
bottom of the hour 11:30
give you some what relatively clear day
on Saturday the rest of the day. So
before we have lunch, I want I'm going
to share with you the priority themes
that I've heard in our conversation so
we can get them into the room. Uh and
really want to start off there kind of,
you know, have I missed anything? I'll
I'll share context and have some
conversation on those just to make sure
that we're sort of naming what I call
big rocks, right? Where the big things.
Um we'll have the mayor also share kind
of his priorities that how that fits in
with the council priorities just for
full openness. you spot there. That's
your heads up. Um and so we'll we'll
have that conversation kind of get them
uh roughly defined around what we're
talking about. Then after lunch, we want
to talk specifically about the big
important priorities, the things that
are, you know, most important to you all
for the next year. What does success
look like? What does that mean? You
know, what what what translates into a
work life? What are the things you want
to actionize? Actionize. Is that a word?
not the kids not my mom did um for the
next year. And so I think if we can sort
of frame the conversation and get get
agreement on one of the the big rocks
maybe even without the conversation
behind them before lunch then we'll come
back and so I'm trying to keep our
pacing kind of flowing and that's the
>> So just to make sure I understood you
want to go through what the big topics
are but not dive deep on individual ones
and we'll come back to the big topics.
>> Exactly. That's right. Yeah. So, I
definitely want to have the conversation
on the on the big ones, but I want to
make sure that we're talking about the
right things. Uh, and so that's why I
want to frame it up first. So, um,
>> yes,
>> that's my that's my So, we will come
back. So, I guess the temptation will be
want to want to go deep into the the
early topics and I'm just saying let's
let's keep it up here first and then
we'll go through each.
>> Okay.
>> Okay. All right. So, there we go.
Strategic alignment, council priorities.
That's what we're shifting gears. So,
you know, and you'll be successful
because of all the things we talked
about already today, right? That's
that's the next. All right. So, here are
the themes. And so, shared priorities.
So, this where multiple people brought
them up. Let me hear me here. Let me
share a little bit about what I heard
and and what this means just to provide
some context to that. So, housing
affordability and don't get one to the
wording. We'll talk about that. I think
everybody mentioned that in some shape
or gosh and this is something that's
really important to a lot of lot of you
on council. Uh and this looks in
different ways. You know, this uh is um
looking at land use code. This is
looking at the um time it takes to get
through the permit process. There's a
lot of dimensions to this, but the focus
is how do we increase housing stock and
address housing affordability
all all levels. And so that's that's
stuck plenty
definitely had the most energy I would
say conversations I had. Uh the next
one, transportation mobility. Um I've
heard this as important and critical but
also a longer term th uh that there's a
acknowledgement and a concern around
traffic um and footprint that happens
every day uh particip uh and there are
some great opportunities on the horizon
with light rail and other things that's
a longer play. What I would say then
between those two the intersection is
around transit oriented development and
so touches a little bit on both the
housing affordability focus and also
transportation mobility. So it sort of I
think touches in both of those areas. Uh
I heard from some the importance of the
budget keeping an eye on that um can
being those fiscal stewards and and
recognizing that we're we there may be
some uncertainty on the horizon. So
being alert to the budget, not losing
sight of that. Uh public facilities.
This one um was specifically around city
hall and the police station. I'd heard
about uh but infrastructural projects
generally might fall into that
conversation. I don't want to be
limiting, but I heard it more around
public facilities and and hotspe
uh and then the last two, parks and open
space, public safety as well as
emergency management. Uh I heard we do
this really well. We're really good at
these things. you don't want to lose
that. And so I didn't hear those as we
need to do something dramatically
different, but we don't want to let the
fall down. Like we want to keep a focus
on those because they matter and they
contribute to quality of life uh in our
community. So um those were the the
themes that stood out to me. Now there
may be things that I have either
misrepresented or they are in addition
to that. And so I this is where I wanted
to start. So, uh, what's missing or or
or framing that would be helpful to the
conversation
>> comments?
I I I will ask my fellow council members
and and mayor um jobs. Do we care about
jobs? Because one of the things, the
reason that 6,000 cars a day leave in
the morning is because all the jobs are
in every job I've ever had when I've
lived in this in 20 plus years living
here has been in Bathl
and they've never been in and I've been
so does I feel like jobs also relates to
these but if other people if I'm the
only one that's fine.
Um I would say I think the whole like
figuring out economic development is a
big challenge because I think in terms
of jobs right like now that we're moving
more toward just like society there's
more of like hybrid stuff we also don't
like for like regional mobility honestly
most people that live in Isqua aren't
going to work in Isqua or if they work
in Isqua now maybe they'll take a
different job somewhere else and it's
not realistic to really expect that you
know a new employer in Isqua is going to
only be for
folks. We've tried that you know with
like I mean with Highlands and Talis
there's this whole concept like oh there
will be a Microsoft here and those all
kind of fell through. So I think you
know bringing in new major employers I
think is good for like the tax base and
those types of things. Um, I think also
on business, I know there's like I I
think economic development is something
that just broadly, you know, I think one
thing that's probably missing in here is
like small business and how do we
support that, right? Like we've talked
we talk a lot about permitting for
housing, but to me the bigger issue that
people see and like my friends complain
about is, oh my god, it takes so long
for all these small businesses to open.
Like what's what's wrong with the city's
permitting process? And so I think
that's something that, you know, could
be
>> Yeah,
>> I I would definitely I I
In principle, if somebody was able to
figure out a way to bring in a large
employer that would have a good benefit
to the community, I think that would be
great. Not sure it's not my personal
priority. Uh, but I will say that I
think it could it could dubtail very
nicely with housing affordability as a
topic as just like Kelly said and on the
permitting side of things and making
sure that the same in the same way as we
want to make sure we don't have things
that we know are counterproductive from
a housing affordability side standpoint
on this on the peritting side of things
that we don't have things that are
counterproductive from an economic
development perspective on the
permitting side of things and they could
many of those things could go hand in
hand and I think that's where we might
be able to defined agreement on things
that are dos related.
It almost seems like the connect not not
to have to cluster them but yeah that
whole idea sort of inqua economic
vitality meaning jobs housing you know
mobility like these pieces all fit
together and land use choices permitting
process they all sort of contribute in
that so maybe that's narr
so
>> well I think I will add just on the
economic development side I think I have
a very clear idea
what the role of our emergency
management team is and what the goal and
the point of our parks team and our
public facilities team. I think there
are many ways that you can use an
economic development staff and I don't
think we've necessarily been very clear
about what that is because it could be
focused on bring in the big businesses.
It could be entirely focused on support
our small businesses. you know, there
there's a lot of aspects there and I
think at some point we should
decide what that is and what we want to
get out of that. Um, I'm not sure I
would say it's necessarily my priority
for 2026.
Um, but I think it's it's an open
question out there.
>> All right. Thank you. You've answered my
question.
>> I would agree with To though that it's a
it should be a priority. I mean, you
look at all the people that have been
laid off, Amazon and Microsoft, and we'd
like them to stay in the community. We'd
like them to be here, but we need to
create opportunities for them to stay
here. Otherwise, they'll be moving away.
I think there's an opportunity as well
with uh the Seattle head tax. Um, you
know, that
policy choice by Seattle resulted in
many jobs going to Belleview and many
jobs going to Redmond, right?
um if the head tax gets passed on a
state level, right? What are we going to
do here in town to keep the jobs here so
they do not leave? Just the jobs that we
have so they do not leave. What can we
do from a policy point of view to make
the tax impact something that doesn't
result in jobs leaving our city? And I
don't know how the legislature is going
to go on that, but if I were a betting
person, I'd say they're going to pass a
head tax because $1.3 billion is too big
of a hole for them to do other things.
No one was talking about when I was down
in Olympia, no one was talking about
cutting any programs.
No one's talking about doing anything
that's fiscally responsible.
So, you know, I think that the tax is
coming. How do we want to be prepared to
take advantage of it? I think is is an
opportunity discussion we need to have.
>> Well, that's thank you. Good point. So,
so the focus on on jobs and and
forecasting, you know, potential
contributing factors as to where people
are going to be, what they're going to
do is important and the housing
affordability perhaps is a part of that
equation too, right? For people to be
able to save.
>> I guess from my perspective, if we're
really talking about attracting big
business, I think that goes into the
kind of fiscal sustainability bucket,
right? like we have every local
government is facing a structural
deficit. So how can we attract more you
know jobs, more development, more
investment in our city so that we
actually have you know the ability to
have the revenues to do all the things
that people in our community expect you
know police, fire, parks and open space
all the other great things that we do.
We need to make sure that know we're
continually
making sure we have the economic
activity in our city that's growing.
Otherwise, if that's not happening, then
the only way you can get more revenue is
by increasing taxes on people that are
already here, which have the effect of,
you know, potentially driving folks out.
And that's probably the opposite of what
we want. And so, I think, you know, I
think the attracting business and stuff,
I think should fall under the fiscal
sustainability category of, you know,
how do we be fiscally sustainable at the
water?
>> That's where I was going to go with
things. When I talk about our problems
with the budget, uh the terminology
fiscal sustainability to me um suggests
a scarcity mindset and suggests that the
only way that we can be sustainable is
through cuts and cuts and cuts. And I
think we haven't yet approached the idea
of growing the pie and what that would
look like for us if you know is there a
benefit to
streamlining permitting and economic
development and bringing in jobs of
growing our revenue streams and how
would we go about doing that? Is that
something that we would want to pursue
to address some of our budget issues
given the limitations that we have from
the state level? And so I would be
interested in having that conversation
when it comes to budget, not just a how
can we make sure we are cutting to stay
within
what we currently have.
>> But it's interesting too people people
respond to words in different ways. So I
appreciate you bringing that up because
you know sustainability could be defined
in so many ways but if it means
something specific that it's induction
then you know that's important to get in
the
>> I mean one way to think about this issue
is we have not had a jobs focused
development agreement in at least a
decade
>> right we've had a lot of housing related
development agreements we've had some
some development agreements that have
retail aspects to them but I mean Costco
was the last jobs related agreement
Right.
And you can argue I guess the rally one
is also some jobs related but it's it's
been a long time right and if we talk
about strategic relationships uh with
potential companies to come here to help
because every job every uh living wage
job that we provide is one less car on
freeway every morning or or one less
seat on a bus. You think
>> I think in the transport there's a
connection I think like when
>> light rail committed to Belleview the
spring district I mean kind of blew up
with people I think are willing to make
it their their global headquarters if
they know so I think there is a
connection the transportation piece of
light rail coming to Isiqua and Deputy
President Mart's goal of having more
jobs in Isqua because I do think there's
a if we can pull off if we can pull the
rabbit out of the hat on Sound Transit
that I think we open the floodgates to
the kind of investments you want to see
of large employers
>> that are willing to locate here because
like your example is they could live on
Lake Samish have a fiveminute drive in
work their employees could be commuting
from anywhere on the network like
there's a lot of really cool
opportunities I think
>> so I I think if it's added on the list
it's
>> helpful not and and the other the only
other one and I don't know it's I mean I
can give examples later uh cuz
a list that we came out with I think for
the administration side the only one
that's not on there is this customer
service mentality of city staff and it's
something I just want to throw out as as
something because it would kind of
overlap kind of the administration goals
like I'll give like a really
like somebody complained that utility
bills there used to be a number on the
top of the bar graph saying this is how
many CCFs you use and then we switch
vendors that went away and when they
complained about it. Our first response
was you switch vendors. Sorry. And then
the second response was let us ask the
new vendor if they can put the little
number on the top of the bar graph. And
so I think our goal I think is just
having our first response be that second
response. Like we're really trying to
make our first response of every time
gets a Cclick fix or whatever it is. Our
first response we want to be let us see
what we can do. and we're trying to
avoid and kind of retrain staff into
saying we can't do that and just say let
us look into this and we'll get back to
you with potential solutions. And I
think because I do think that is a free
improvement because we're not talking
about hiring a new staff or creating a
new agency. We're just talking about
changing the culture of as we get
feedback from our residents of how we
respond to that feedback.
>> There we go. I would love if that was
people are open to putting that on
there.
>> There know that that's council's
priority as so much as that is an
effective use of government and
directing staff.
>> Well, it can tie into housing
affordability or any of the other job
stuff if we're if we're talking about
>> customer service being one of the things
that no customer likes in any situation
is having to wait. Um, so I I see a tie
in there that's obviously aligned with
priorities.
>> Is that it?
>> Just on the the details on fiscal
sustainability. Another thing I'd like
us to discuss um is what our revenue
tools are. Um we I know we've had we've
have lobbying efforts uh and our
legislative priorities on things that
can be done to affect to help with the
structural deficit, but I mean most with
the state where it is at the moment
they're in the middle of cutting 8
billion themselves uh and otherwise
trying to plug holes, I don't see it as
being a priority. It doesn't seem like
it's one of the priorities at the
moment. Um so I think we may have to
take this into our own hands and see
what those tools are. We have levies
that are under consideration. What do
those look like? and uh should we should
we try to utilize those and see what the
people are are open to paying for um and
not losing the things that they've come
to take for granted that his squad
provides in the future some point these
curves cross and we won't be able to
anymore if we don't do something
different or the cavalry doesn't come in
so
>> a little caliber
>> okay so um this is great so a couple
things so first of all on the economic
development the jobs. So, it sounds like
uh along with you know kind of the
opportunities that are on the horizon
relative to uh the transportation
mobility and opportunities there's
there's a long play there, right? And so
keeping it in view and the opportunities
that uh may arise as a result and so uh
you know some of these aren't going to
have you know tactical this year. we
need to f you know do these things and
others are like let's let's keep an eye
on this and keep focused and be
opportunistic when we can right for
perhaps you know bringing in additional
business and and pursuing other things
um for the um financial sustainability
components of having some conversation
around the full array of how do we make
sure that we are are truly we'll call it
responsible in how you're moving forward
right and then the only other thing I
wanted to bring into the room that I
heard earlier here today that may or may
not land on here. It may be more of um
you know a how uh but that that focus
and the interest around engagement
um and connecting with the community and
I think it touches a little bit on how
with the customer service pieces you're
describing, but it sounds like something
also that it's not a it's not a a dollar
thing, but it sounds like there's some
agreement that that's important. And so
I just bring it back to you as something
that I heard this morning. I I just want
to say I I don't think the jobs thing is
a long-term thing. I think it's a
near-term thing. Okay.
>> I want to put Mayor Mullet in front of
CEOs tomorrow.
>> Like we have been losing jobs here. Uh
we lost Marketing Masters is an example
of an aerospace firm uh that was based
here. Uh they had a they rented a
property rallies. They're a world leader
in um mounting hardware for aerospace.
They're gone. Um we need to we need more
jobs. We can't be a better community.
>> Okay. I guess the one maybe that thank
you for clarifying that and you actually
your headline even spoke to that but I'm
just sure we're gonna do that. So thank
you for for calling that out. Um in
terms of revenue on the back end how
that economic development investments
can come back and help to build the pie
and you know sometimes that does take
time. So
>> yeah but very important clarification.
Thank you for that. I think on the um
kind of communication and process and
all of that standpoint, I think this is
one where I'd like clarification from
you, Mark, is you're going to do things
differently than our previous mayor did.
And so figuring out how do you want to
message out and have the community
conversation around what our needs are
for transportation, what our needs are
for housing. And I think, you know,
you've already done a great job of
laying out those two meetings for us to
discuss those and further, but then the
next step of how do we take that to the
public is going to be a really good
thing for us to think about and figure
So there we kind of pocket that one in
that administration
>> side. All right. Anything else that's
fundamentally missing from so jobs
economic development generally? I heard
some clarifying comments relative to the
south.
>> Does it resonate?
>> That's right.
>> Excellent. I had this is
anything else?
Sorry, that's a little much at this
point. Go back and change it at this
point. Z
>> I mean I think I'll try to quickly share
I think kind of off the list of five. I
mean transportation's
the first one we have, you know, to
council member Nichols point, we have a
$2.2 million revenue stream coming in
from the point one on transportation.
The thing I look at is we have to do the
trail from the South Lake Mamish
neighborhoods in that's going to involve
bonding, but that cannot start till
after all the Culbert work we heard
about at the last council meeting is is
wrapping up. So that is the summer of
28. So I think the question is how do
you utilize that to start projects
between now and the summer of 28 where
you can move the needle? I think the
sense and Andrea and I have been working
on this with Emily and you know John
Martin is our current list of projects
is all like mega projects like $700
million. We don't we're talking about
what kind of improvements can you make
by doing $10 to $20 million of
transformation investments outside of
the lakes trail. I think it's really a
little bit of everything. I think you
have crosswalks you could put in in a
couple places. I think you have, you
know, a trail section along Newport that
we think we could be eligible for a PSRC
grant to improve and and upgrade that.
You know, part of it's already moving
forward. There's a second leg that we
think we could try to apply for. I think
intelligent transportation system
investments in terms of how our lights
line up. I think there is like a couple
million dollar project you can do it
front and sunset but at the end of the
day I think it's not just going to be
like here's one project you're going to
do that's going to solve this cause
transportation problems I think it's
going to be like here's investments in
intelligent transportation system
improvements of how the lights
coordinate with each other in certain
areas and it's hard to do that in SR900
because of the work on SR900 we cannot
restripe because we don't have the space
but we could lengthen the right turn
lane into that community into Talis to
kind of make it a little easier for them
to get out of the misery of that. And so
I think my guess is on the 9th that's
sort of roughly what you would hear. I
think in the park space I think you know
Jeff in the parks group is kind of
putting together a rough kind of
potential list if you were to do not
only so renewing the parks levy you
basically can bond for $9.5 million and
that's our current revenue stream that
expires the end of the year if the city
were to renew. Uh we also have two and a
half to $3 million of mitigation money
that's been dedicated to park
improvements that's also sitting there.
And I think uh on top of that we have
other things we could kind of invest if
that was the choice of the council. And
and I think once again it's a little of
everything. It's like I think the Ramos
trail head it would be nice if that was
paid and it had a bathroom so people
could access it. I think we have ability
to do trails on both Bergsma and Squawk
now that we can invest in. I think you
have a lot of we're having this big push
for the school district cooperation of a
shared use agreement. Part of that push
could be about us investing in
improvements on school district property
like IV having turf dod having turf the
sand lot behind Grand Ridge could be
better utilized you know to connect in
with those. So I think the vision on
parks is kind of coming back to this
group with kind of here's a variety of
projects you know the e house at
confluence with I think there is looking
at could you make upgrades there and so
that I think will be the parks piece I
think the housing piece
it's very I don't know it's a challenge
to get things moving on the on the floor
of you know central Isiqua I think it's
been a challenge to understand the
mitigation fees involved of you know
there's a daycare on locust street where
our impact fees for transportation were
half a million dollars. There is a
coffee shop idea, you know, as you enter
that lakeside property, you know, at the
base there of their there's half a
million dollars like the salon Newport.
Once again, you just have really large
impact fees that are basically making it
impossible for some of these businesses
to open up in our community right now.
So, I think we have to revisit what that
looks like. I think that uh look you
have to decide if on the infill I think
around you know Gilwin Boulevard where
there's already concrete do we want to
make it easier people to redevelop where
there's already concrete or do we want
to make it harder to develop there in
which case they're going to be pushed to
places that currently have trees. I
think our goal is to try to have
redevelopment of places we've already
paid, but I don't think our current code
makes it easy to redevelop on places
we've already paid. And so that's a
challenge. I think with public safety,
another to Kevin Nichols, Council Member
Nichols point, we have 2.2 million that
started coming in as of January 1st.
Granted, we have to get certified by the
CJTC to be able to actually, you know,
spend this money. And so that's our
challenge as administration is to
actually get that certification process
to the finish line. But I think that
creates the ability for us to bond and
provide improvements for, you know, our
police station. We can't move our police
station as dispatch has a jail. It has
to stay there. So I think our goal is to
find a place we can move the people
above the police station somewhere else.
And the meeting with King County
Executive Germay on Monday is going to
be around King County Courthouse as kind
of plan A of where we could potentially
maybe buy it from the county so we could
move some of the people above the police
station over to that area. And so I
think that uh you know public safety and
the building and the public facilities
are kind of overlapping. I think the
goal is want to show the community like
this new public safety is being
dedicated to improving public safety. I
think the the challenge you constantly
have in Olympia is people you say you're
you're going to do it for one thing and
then you supply it and you move the
money elsewhere. So I think our goal as
an organization is to try to figure out
how we can show the community that this
money is staying in noticeable
improvements to public safety and and if
you want a nugget like this is you know
it used to be you called 911 escort you
went by King County King County wasn't
great so it might take you six or seven
seconds before somebody picked up that
can help you because they had to
transfer to us. Now, if you call 911 in
the Isqua city limits, you're at our
dispatch center. Our response times went
from six seconds to two and a half
seconds. Like, we have some of the
quickest 911 response times in the
country because they're going directly
to our dispatch. There is no middleman
anymore.
>> There's a positive story and I think we
heard this I think from council member
Nichols. How do we share some of or
somebody was saying share the positive
stories we have? And so, I think that's
our challenge from our communications
department because in public safety, we
have a really recent positive story and
the customer service example. I think I
already gave it's not starting a new
department or anything like that. It's
really just changing how we interact
when people give us feedback whether
they're a resident or a business owner
in the community. How do we kind of get
everyone in the even though we are the
definition of a monopoly? You can't do
anything. If you need a building permit,
you can't get anywhere from us. Like you
have no choice. But how do we make that
process in a way where people feel like
we're acting like a small business
that's competing for, you know, a
five-star review based on their service
interaction with our city? And that's
kind of our goal to to lay out. And I
think from the administration side, I
said, I think a lot of our goals are
overlapping with the council priorities.
And I think it's my job to figure out
the finances of how to make these
investments. And that's my background is
in that finance space. And that's what
I'm committed to figuring out. And I
think it involves bonding some of the
new revenue streams that have come
online for our community. And and it's
not getting cheaper to build anything.
So I chair the state construction budget
in the Senate. People said you're
wasting money on these things. And I'm
like, if we have to build it, say
waiting to build it later is not saving
us any money. Trust me. It's like the
cost of construction is higher than the
interest rate to borrow money right now.
I think I'm definitely going to be
advocating for utilizing I think some
bonding capacity to make some of these
investments now because there's not
going to be this magic pot of money
that's going to fall out of the sky. As
council member Nichols said, the state's
not going to send us $50 million to
invest in our community. Like we're
going to have to figure out how to
create our own opportunities to make
these investments.
>> There we go.
>> Um on this, you know, the smaller public
works and transportation projects. Yeah.
I'm curious, you know, there's been
this, you know, the boardwalk on SR900
that's been busted for nine months now.
>> Um maybe Ted um and under the previous
administration there is kind of this
approach like you know that's in wash
right away. It's their job to fix it. Is
that going to be the approach that we're
going to continue to take because right
now wash is very preoccupied with fixing
you know all the highways in the state
and understandably that needs to be
where their focus is and you know
doorbelling in Talis people complain
that people complain about that you know
they're like oh you know now I can't
like and for me living in Talis to be
able to get onto the east like Samville
now I have to do this weird detour going
on these sketchy
>> bike lanes 100% I think that I mean I
think being with Ryan original rep on
wash Uh,
>> okay.
>> It's very clear they're going to
cooperate with us if we want to make
investments to improve things along
there. But I agree like wait for the
state to fix some of these things. We
could be waiting a really long time. So
I think and to me that's like the ideal
example of something we want to be
looking at is you know it's not a $120
million mega project. I mean Newport I
mean the last quote I got was like 70
million. I mean for for Newport to
Sunset I mean Maple to
>> Sorry. It's just a side road over here
like that to put roundabout. I mean it's
this road right here
>> in that direction.
>> In that direction. Yeah.
>> Got to guess. Thank you.
>> I mean they're mindboggling numbers. And
so I think part of my hope is just
everything we kind of go down. I think
we're trying to go down by the starting
point being what can we actually afford
to do and then we're going to build a
list of projects based on what we think
we can afford to do. And that's in
parks. It's in transportation. It's for
city facilities. It's where everything
we're going to do is going to start from
that starting point of what's a
realistic amount of money that I think
we can get access to. And then we're
going to try to find projects that fit
in that list. And they're not going to
be these big giant projects. They're
going to be smaller projects. And I
think like your one would fall in that
list of something.
>> I mean that's like $10,000 maybe, you
know.
>> Yeah. Sherry's born that. But it's like
10 ft.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. but also noticeable and impact. I
think you got the dots, right? For the
community to be like, okay, I see my my
government working for me, right? Those
are the tangible.
>> And I think to go back to like what's a
successful outcome for 2026, you got to
have a long-term vision. That's
important, but at the same time, you can
walk and chew up like you have to do
stuff that is noticeable improvements to
our community that happen in the next 12
to 18 months. And I think fixing stuff
like that would fall on that list. And
and that's what I think you can do both.
Like they're not mutually exclusive. So
you have a long-term vision. You make
short-term progress in these little bits
and pieces throughout our city in
different areas from transportation to
parks to facilities to public safety.
And that's that to me is the successful
outcome this whole process we're having
today if we kind of win in that space.
>> Excellent.
>> Yes. Oh, well, just I wanted to say that
I I I respect this mindset and like it
and it's part of why I came here is that
I very much feel that in this point in
time we are on our own and cannot rely
on a lot of outside resources. And so
what can we accomplish here on our own
to help this community is kind of the
mindset we have to have in order to do
anything. So I like that as a mindset.
Okay, what do we actually have access
to? What jobs? what you know they're the
small ones can we actually do is I think
the right mindset to have going forward
>> it also keeps you empowered and
motivated right so you don't feel like
you're at the wills of those that are
outside of your community
>> and I think a unique opportunity we have
is if we as a city governance structure
here commit in this parks and
transportation space to making these
investments to council member's point
everyone else is broke so when you go
out for grants this summer whether it's
in parks or transportation very few
other places are going to have money to
bring to that grant process if we kind
of say hey we're committed to doing this
and like I said the parks levy would
have to go to the voters other things
could be councilmatic like we're looking
really good I think this summer to kind
of have staff unleashed on grant writing
opportunities for all these different
projects because other jurisdictions are
going to say we don't have any money to
do it and they're going to ask the grant
they're applying for to pay 100% of it
and we're not we're going to be asking
for sheer participation so I actually
think if we can commit to this sort of
path, I think we actually have the
chance to fare very well in some of the
grant process applications this summer,
but they happen this summer. So this is
why goes back to the sense of urgency
like we've got to come up with a I think
a commitment in the first you know
four to six months of this year that hey
we're willing to go down this path of
trying to make some investments now and
I think it will open up a lot of grant
dollars that because no one else has any
money to to put on the table right now.
So um our current deferred
infrastructure 350 million 450 like that
the
>> it's more than 50 million.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean that's just I mean
the fundamental challenge is like where
do you even start? How do you parse it?
We did have a a public uh ad hoc
committee right that looked at uh uh
earlier on at infrastructure and the
mechanisms to pay for infrastructure and
and just you got to parse it at some
point. You got to say what's in that
first 30 million, what's in the next 50
million, what's in the next 220.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> But I think the street I did a whole
tour. I just drove around, you know,
with Bennett looking at different street
overlay throughout the city of Islam and
the challenges we have ahead. And I
think it is my job is to find the money
in the budget so we can make sure we're
making consistent infrastructure
investments that people can rely on. it
isn't at the whims of oh there's enough
money in our budget to do it this year.
I think our challenge is to try to
figure out a way to make sure those
investments consistent and reliable
because if you don't prioritize them,
you will fall behind. And I think that
being said, I think our
other cities are in worse shape than us,
I think. But doesn't change the fact
that we have to have budgets. The
budgets you're going to see presented
from us are going to prioritize like
street overlay, making sure it's
happening. And so those are the budgets
that you will see I think coming this
administration as a starting point. So
>> I want to double down on what to said.
There is a huge amount of deferred
maintenance and this building that we're
in is one really good example of that.
Um,
I want to make sure that we recognize
all of the things that are already on
the CIP that are needs
before we're starting to add a whole
bunch new to that and also that we're
looking at what our maintenance
schedules are. Whether or not we're
investing enough in our fleet system so
that we can keep that up to date.
whether or not we are, you know, what
our pavement and um overlay schedule is
on that, what we are looking at as far
as
>> things that have roofs that are leaking
and things like that. Um the school
district
there
>> because of the way that they do funding
always kind of consistently has money
for building maintenance. And one of the
things that I'm always super impressed
with Isiqua on is we can stretch a
dollar. We can make something work. We
can have all of the boxes piled up in
the police station rather than going and
getting storage and things like that,
but when we push that
so many years, it becomes a bigger and
bigger and bigger problem. Um, so
recognizing
some of our
>> there we go
>> long overdue needs before we necessarily
dream big about new things I think is
something that I'm very interested in
making sure that we have a full
understanding of what those are.
>> Yeah. And the other thing is that local
I mean just from an accounting
perspective right local governments and
all governments actually operate on
acrruel accounting rather than generally
accepted accounting principles. So if
you actually like I I think in we treat
infrastructure as assets when really
they are liabilities because that you
have to pay for it to go there. So it
would actually be really interesting for
us to kind of like actually take stock
of what the total liability is and how
that compares to you know all the
revenues that we have so that we
understand you know okay we're doing all
these new things now there's some
maintenance obligation in the future
what do we have to do to make sure that
we can continue paying for that right I
think with you know this came up in the
utility rates conversation right we have
to keep maintaining the system we have
that is completely non-negotiable we
cannot have a dysfunction sewer system
but then how do we make sure that you
know we have the money to pay for things
20 years down the line if we're making
new investments, they're going to have
to be maintained. You know, just like
having a full understanding of that so
that we're not doing things now that we
can you be like, "Yay, we're doing all
these great things." And then 20 years
down the line like, "Oh, now we're
totally screwed." Um, but I think part
of that also is, you know, getting more
economic value out of our existing
infrastructure. You know, doing like
redevelopment, all the roads, you know,
it's like the same roads, we're going to
have to repave them anyway. if you can
have more economic activity in that same
area that helps with our long-term
fiscal sustainability. So, you know, I'd
be interested in seeing like what types
of analysis we could do on that um as
we're thinking about what new
investments we're making, how
>> yeah, how the parts and pieces fit
together briefly on Do you want to move
on
>> on on this on what we can learn from or
avoid from avoid from what we see and
how schools operate and are funded? um
that that they that they have these
ongoing what are basically operations
levies I think is interesting and that
schools in Washington several decades
before most cities hit this had what
their own structural budget crisis where
we have basic education that's funded at
Temple u and if you want to go from kind
of like a sea level of quality to an A
level of quality individual
jurisdictions have to decide to do that
on their own um unless something changes
at the state level From our structural
deficit perspective, I think cities will
more and more have to take that path
themselves if they want to where we will
have what can be based essentially basic
city services um preservation of life
and those sorts of things taking
priority. And then if we want to have
the nice to have haves that people
actually make you want to move to a city
like arts programs all those sorts of
things we're probably going to have to
take those of a general fund and look in
other ways of raising revenue on that at
some point. Um, I don't know if this is
the point, but it's something that I
think most cities are going to have to
accept or allow services to continually
cut until people can realize that. And
it'll be a slow boiling of that fraud.
It'll be hard for a lot of people to
notice until they don't have the music
on streets anymore and these things just
start disappearing that people notice,
but they're going to be cut because
there's going to be money because we
have to pay for the the basics of
government first.
So I I just want to come back to the
conversation about deferred uh
infrastructure and deferred uh that
topic.
>> Part of the challenge is going to be how
do you bring the public along? You you
cross that with the stewardship
conversation, right?
>> Um we had last time we checked when we
said how much would we need to spend to
be completely ADA compliant in this
city. Last time we asked it was
something like 70 million and that was
quite a while ago. So if you went to the
public and you said we'd like a $70
million bond to put sidewalks in
everywhere, you would have a very heavy
lift versus we would like uh here's a
here's a recreation package, right?
That's a pool and three more soccer
fields, maybe a maybe a uh cricket
pitch, like that kind of stuff. The
public would, you know, beat a path to
your door. Um, and they're and they're
they're going to say, "You want $70
million for your for your uh ramps on
your sidewalks?" And this came up the
last time we tried to do a bond in the
city, right? We did a camel bond, right?
A camel is a horse designed by
committee, right? And so we put together
like five things. Camels think they're
quite
>> Yeah, I'm Camels are wonderful. But like
we we we put together like five things
and we said, "Well, you know, this thing
appeals to this group and this thing
appeals to this." But it didn't really,
right? like it included sidewalks on
sunset, right? Which if you live in in
the Highlands, great. Um, but it wasn't
something that the public said they want
to spend like $25 million on, right? So,
so that's just part of this conversation
is we talk about the $300 million worth
of deferred infrastructure we have,
right? We have to talk about we can only
go get the money that we can go get,
right? We can we can hose ourselves
financially and do it all councsatic,
but we know we're not going to do that,
right? So, it's it's what can we bring
the public along for
>> and and we don't really know. We just
know what doesn't work, which is the
last part we
>> Yeah.
>> But as as a conversation and as a
priority, it's to be able to say this is
important for stewardship for long-term
and for the um not to use the word
sustainability too much, but you know,
the the health and sustainability of the
community that you're not paying more
down the road because you are
shortsight, right? And so as a priority,
you'll have a percent.
>> And then the feds do say you have to
make progress on that $70 million
deferred ADA, but it's like you can
spend $4 a year,
>> right? Well,
>> but if you do some street overlay, I
learned my tour triggers it. No, some if
you have the worst. No, you have to do
the concrete sidewalk for
>> like there's lower level, you know,
overlay like slurry seals,
>> but other things. Yes, you 100% you
trigger it, but then that's a choice
like you say, but I think it's going to
probably those upgrades will happen as
you continually do kind of your street
pavement management program. You're
naturally going to trigger some of those
because some of these things are just
buying you an extra five or 10 years.
Eventually, you're going to do the
overlay. Once you do the overlay, you
got to do the side.
So, it'll happen. It's just not going to
probably happen overnight.
>> And I just want to be really clear. I am
in no way like I'm all for making our
city more uh accessible for our folks
with disabilities. It's just we don't
have $70 million and don't know how
we're going to find it.
>> Well, infrastructure investment,
deferred maintenance or new either way.
I mean, that's that's a conversation
around, you know, what are you able to
do now? What are the resources you have?
And so, you know, having the plan in
place is step one. You know, how are you
going to tackle this? Uh what are the
resources you have available currently?
And what do you need to go find? So
yeah, name but naming it as something
that you don't want to lose sight of can
be really helpful to keep in
like yeah I think to council member
Walsh's fear like we're not going to
fund investments in intelligent
transportation it stuff by rating the
overlay fund is 100% not going to be how
it's funed the overlay fund will be like
>> priority and
>> Barb is just absolutely here in this
moment
>> it was something she was interested in I
will
Yeah,
>> I'm just saying it will come from us
finding Yeah. from being creative of of
finding ways
>> to enhance the other transportation
infrastructure but maintain the
investments we need to make to maintain
our critical infrastructure.
>> Okay. So, uh, I want to make a break for
lunch, but what I want what I want to
just check with what I what I'm hearing
and tell me if I if you need to sort of
think differently is that including
infrastructure investment and kind of
the the focus on that. The conversation
here I think is pretty clear around how
you want to tackle that. Uh, and I
wanted just to confirm and so that
public facilities, parks and open space,
public safety generally, the mayor laid
out kind of hopes, expectations and were
pretty clear. uh does that feel
comfortable and that we kind of lay that
out in terms of I'm trying to prioritize
what we want to converting
uh housing economic development maybe
transportation mobility although it
sounds like you know that's also a
longer term play but you know the trails
pieces there are other pieces to that uh
and then fiscal sustainability
responsibility sorry
seem like the areas that we really want
to have some conversation around today
but I want to confirm that uh or do you
want to talk about all
>> you mentioned at the beginning that uh
transportation oriented development
intersection of transportation mobility
and fiscal sustainability it deserves
its own lighting.
>> Okay.
>> And some of these may find overlaps
beyond this uh and we'll listen
carefully to the conversation and try to
you know encapsulate the conversation in
in a form that
>> council priorities.
So we'll add that one too. So we'll have
those. So I have housing, TOD, economic
development, transportation, mobility,
and then responsibility kind of big
areas of conversation around what do we
what do you want that to look like in
the next 12 to 18 months? Does that feel
comfortable? And does that feel like
we're missing something important?
>> There you prioritize what gets talked
about first because I'm just also
concerned we're going to run out of
time.
Yeah, I give you that. Oh, I want to
start. Yes, that we only have so
>> your humble city administrator would say
the number one thing for all of you is
the housing build things faster. So, I
would recommend you start there.
>> Well, I think that that
>> is reasonable. I mean, they're all
important, but if you don't leave here
today with a clear understanding on
where you're going, then that's a missed
opportunity. The rest are all really
important. How does that overlay with
the fact that we've got two sessions,
one on transportation, one on housing
kind of coming up? Are we double dipping
into those ideas?
>> I think the March housing discussion
will be influenced by today's housing
discussion. So, I think this is
>> we want to be able to come back and
March and operationalize everything you
decide today.
>> SW
>> because it's because it's the most
important. I mean, and I think the
mayor's already outlined the
transportation piece. You've kind of
given us the bit, you know, you want
smaller things, the mayor wants smaller
things. Sound transit, light rail, big
really important thing. Uh, that's how
we've been tracking because that meeting
is only 10 days from now. But we really
need you to say and agree to what the
barriers on permitting, real, perceived,
whatever they are, the uh the the
whiteboard stuff. How are you guys deal
with all that? Talk about all that today
because we got to then spend the next
month getting ready for you to make
decisions and then the rest collect. I
don't want to deemphasize any of the
rest, but
>> well, I think we've already sort of
touched on some of the expectations that
helps council and those others, but I
but I think that tell me if you guys see
in a different way conversation around
housing, economic development and to
touch on a lot of those things you just
described in terms of urgency and what
that looks like a little bit and so with
some nuance perhaps in different
directions. Uh so if we start with those
three um does that make sense to
everybody? Sir Street,
>> housing, economic development, TD. Okay.
>> Yes.
>> So, Council President D. Michelle was
also really perplexed in talking to all
of you because you all talked about
emergency management
and so she wasn't quite sure what piece
of that you were still concerned about.
So
it's some point place today to double
back to that because that was kind of
her takeaway from her conversations with
all of you that that kind of all popped
up. Now maybe it was because we had just
gotten through the range she did it
those conversations I think in December
but I'll put that out there.
>> Well and the conversation what I had
heard was uh that uh the community is at
risk for emergency. We do it well. We
want to continue to do that, but that
there are risks of fire. There are risks
of other, you know, natural disasters to
be.
>> So maybe if we get time, we could double
that.
>> I say as being someone who just going
through meeting staff, Jared seems like
kind of the best emergency managing
person you could buy. I mean, he seems
>> I guess that's what I would say is I
feel like we're doing it really well and
Jared is doing it really well. I would
want to know what's the next part of
that that we could do well. Is it more
staff? Is it we need to invest in, you
know, backup batteries? You know, what
what is the next thing that we need to
anticipate in that area so that we
aren't going to end up behind?
>> There we go.
>> Um, on parks and open space, I'm very
intrigued by the concept of Mayor
Mullet's parks levy renewal. We know
that people in this community like
parks, people in this community will
vote for parks levy. And so I think it
would be good for us to have a pro
probably not today, but like it should
definitely maybe another special meeting
about like what that would look like.
>> Yeah, I think we're thinking there's
facilities.
>> Okay.
>> Large on parks in this is a
consideration for the same levy. If we
can also think of what arts could look
like then that as well.
>> That's it.
>> Arts funny
>> again. Barb is here.
>> Arts and hearts.
>> This is being channeled. I want Martin.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. I I just want to touch on um what
city administrator Baboot said. Um some
of Barb's concern was not about if we
have a wildfire or if we have an
earthquake, right? It's about if we have
uh a really awful uh ice,
>> right? and or even just any in the you
know coming back to this evolving state
and federal environment right um you can
envision any number of calamitous uh
events occurring in the next 12 months
doesn't necessarily have to involve ICE
um just take a look at any federal court
docket that's occurring right now that
has to do with states and their
relationship to federal government the
eight of us all want to go help in the
in the event that that happens right so
one of Barb's concerns was about um
Council President D. Michelle's concerns
was about how do we make sure that we're
all singing off the same himnel when
those things occur and that we're not
going off in eight different directions,
right? Because because we're all
motivated by empathy and we all want to
respond to the pain that we see in our
community. But I think she had some
concerns around the ice thing, right?
and about how we all how how can we
respond in those kind of kind of events
in in a way that we're all pulling in
the same direction even if we're not all
exactly on the on the same page. So that
that was part
>> of that comes from leadership from the
top and being able to express that out
and then you know maybe we are less
fractured but
>> sure I'm just saying that that was the
thing that she wanted us to to consider
talking about here today. So, can can
you all agree? So, the breaking news
piece, the administration can't there's
something happening. This is what we
know.
We're good at that. Um, if you are
concerned about
a city response, if the council will go
to council leadership with that
>> and then the mayor can deal with council
leadership to sort through that, uh,
that would be really helpful. um because
there's too many permutations to what
might happen. But if you're concerned
that we're not doing something or you go
to council leadership and then the mayor
can talk to council leadership and then
we'll push out
>> whatever the next steps might be. Does
that make sense? So I think the breaking
news stuff we're we've got that we know
at the first ICE thing we didn't think
was as big a deal to all of you as it
was. we we know better and so we will
share what we hear that's happening or
anything. So to that makes sense.
>> I mean we're talking about so just so
everybody knows I'm I am talking this is
this is an issue I'm certainly concerned
about and um I've been trying to talk
with some members in the community to
find out where there are disconnects
between what we think we're doing and
what we're actually doing. Um I think
we're good at sharing what we know. I'm
not sure that we're always good at
finding what is actually happening and I
don't know if we want to I don't have
time to dig into this today, but that is
um that's certainly where I was coming
to Barb on this side of the
conversation.
>> That may need to be it.
>> Yeah, maybe this is another bike rack.
>> Yeah, I I think it is, but you you're
bringing it up as a topic we might want
to talk about. I'm not I don't know that
this is the right time to uh but that
that's where my concerns with public
safety and emergency management are uh
in terms of
>> making sure that our policies are
clearer than they currently are and uh
that those are debated essentially. So
what we do
>> well in some of the stuff like somebody
in the thing last here last week ago
today said it'd be nice if our website
had stuff in like Spanish and other
languages around know your rights and
stuff I think.
>> Yeah.
>> But but I but but I think Nichols's
>> the world is different. The li lines are
different and how are we reacting to
those different lines?
>> Yeah. And can we have those discussions
in advance of them happening instead of
having to always
understandably uh react?
>> Sure.
>> Well, getting in alignment so you have a
shared set of expectations.
>> Yeah. I mean that's I I don't know what
that's good enough. I don't know how
else to do that.
>> I know it's quick bullet but that will
ping your
work if people want
>> management response policies. pizza we
were going to work over lunch or not.
>> Yeah.
>> Well, I think break and then come back
and and keep going.
>> Well, let's just I think we come back
and have that discussion other time.
>> We could do that maybe over lunch
because
there
got them. Uh but I want to check it. How
are we how are we feel? Are we doing
okay?
>> Russell's very happy with the food.
It does help that we know what's the
astrophy. We're going to go quickly
before that sets in. Okay. So, we only
have I mean an hour to 15 minutes. So,
we'll have to be relatively intentional
about this conversation. So, I want to
make sure that we're on the same page
with what we want to cover. So we've had
a number of topics that still have some
like let's get some clarity around what
we mean by that that and we can
acknowledge that there may be some inter
that's uh but so housing affordability
or housing housing generally I would say
you know economic development
t you know the opportunities with that
transportation mobility again all of
this maybe you know have opportunities
connected to them and that potentially
you know setting on fiscal
responsibility for eliminates what are
revenue of lovers. I put that in italics
because you we may or might not have
time to get to all to all of these and
so does that feel comfortable in terms
of trying to work through the music and
I put one question there but the bigger
question starts off with when we say
housing is a priority what does that
mean to you right and so
question that's kind of where we're
going to so yes
>> I think the first thing on housing
affordability we need to distinguish
whether we're talking about affordable
housing, the kind that Arch does, 6030,
6080 for the AMI, or we're talking about
bringing housing to Isqua that is
affordable for people that are earning
workable wages in town, the 80 AMI and
100 AMI and above. Um, they're two
different categories and we need to be
intentional about in our discussion.
>> Two different ways to solve the problem.
>> Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
I would start with both our commitments
and our plans, right? We have
commitments to PSRC. Um, and we have a
plan in the form of central Isqua plan
>> and uh
the words on the
>> Oh, sure. Sorry. Um, isn't it PSRC?
>> Yeah.
>> Puget Sound Resource Council
>> regional. Yeah,
>> regional council. We have what 2050
goals at the current set.
>> That's right. Um, in addition, we have a
central Isqua plan, right?
>> Um, that calls for development on the
valley floor.
>> Y
>> um,
>> and plan
>> and our top. There you go.
>> So, I I would start there, right?
>> Great. Okay.
>> And, you know, how are we doing? How are
we not doing? We There was a precoid
trajectory and there's a postcoid
trajectory and they're very different.
>> Okay. And so, so the commitment first of
all to those plans and the goals that
are laid out and then it means
I'm not gonna have time to discuss all
of those, but just to I'm assuming that
everybody is
>> you'll get you'll get up to speed.
>> Reasonably aware uh of the context
within them. Is that is that a fair
assumption that you're committed to
keeping focus on those long-term plans?
Well, I think to me success is you have
things we know that you know to council
Nichols and Jen's point that make it
difficult to navigate our process in a
timely fashion. But I think for Walsh I
like the term kind of natural
affordability which is just more could
be rental units in the 300 400 foot
range. It could be more home ownership
opportunities of the 700 to,200 foot
range. So I think to council member
Joe's point, we're going to pursue
affordable housing things like the
transit orient development project. Now
any chance they come up, we will go
after those. If there's public subsidy
dollars that we can have, we will get
them. I think our question is knowing
those public se, you know, the public
subsidy dollars are very finite and we
can't control whether we what's
available. What we can control is how do
we create an environment to get what we
would refer to as natural affordable
units based on basically being smaller
than what's currently in our community
and what kind of changes do we have to
make to attract people to invest in
building those homes.
But I don't have the answer to that. But
I think to me if we come out of this
discussion with some ideas on that front
it makes it a lot easier to come back to
market.
So because I'm going to say something
that's going to make Wally mad. Uh I
think we are past time that we need to
hire a full-time specialist on this
subject. I think that we have these
conversations and we say but we don't
know how to do it right. Both and did
this but we don't know how they did it.
You know I don't think it's hiring more
consultants. I think that this has been
a problem. I ran on this in 2009 and I
ran on it in 2013, 2017, 2021 and now
again in 2025 and it's you know there
are we've had bright spots along the way
but it is not the trajectory that we
want. So I think in the same way that we
invest in uh economic development and we
invest in you know certain other areas I
think it's time to have somebody on
staff who can just quickly do it right
who can be sitting here and saying well
here's why we don't have what Boston has
right and here's how we could get what
both has and we don't have that
expertise
to cl just clarifying uh question that's
all you're taking
you said I ran on this in 2009 housing
generally workforce housing
>> every every four years I have said
workforce housing in living wage shops
>> right
>> and the public has seen fit to realize
>> so but every but it never it never goes
away
>> ever persist
yeah I just want to clarify too because
it's sure sure work workforce housing
right housing for uh what we now like to
call the miss we didn't at the time we
didn't call it that Arthur Sullivan told
me we didn't have any problems for like
five and I said, "Yeah, we do."
>> Well, kind of a term these days. Yeah.
>> So, I think toward that idea, rather
than jumping necessarily to we need a
new staff member, starting with the we
need to the the problem you've defined
then is both and Woodenville have been
able to create a certain type of housing
that hasn't happened here. And so maybe
starting with what do we think the
problem is?
>> Is the problem? And I would say we have
a housing shortage that does not enable
the workers who live here to be able to
afford housing. And some of the ways we
will inevitably need to
work on to create more of that naturally
affordable housing is size. Some of it
is barriers that we have put into our
code that have put too many requirements
on that make it too expensive or
difficult to build. And so I would pause
it. I think and I'm again I'm jumping
right to what I said don't jump to a
solution but I feel like we need to have
a home builder round table that the
experts who have tried to build on our
code and have run into barriers
what are the things that they've
identified because they might have
things in like storm water codes that
they're like yeah you've been off for 10
years and I've never considered building
an Isqua since then because of these
problems.
>> Well, now I'm going to say something to
make Russell mad because I mean an equal
opportunity
couple makers.
>> Yeah.
>> Terrific. Thank you.
>> Um I I I want a a neutral third party,
right? Um part of the challenge to me is
if I'm an investor and I can go invest a
certain amount of money in both, I can
invest a certain amount in Isiqua and I
can make $10.20 20 cents in both brothel
and $1010 at N isqua and I'm going to go
invest in both not in Isiqua but that
doesn't mean there's a problem with code
or any of that kind of stuff right so I
I would like a third party whose answer
isn't you have to help me make it pencil
out but can actually say here's you know
that can compare our policies to other
municipalities I picked Bon Woodenville
because they're comparable to our size
and if we had what they had we probably
would be meeting our central ISQA and
and we'd have we'd be a lot further
along towards our PSRC goals than we are
currently
>> because they have huge five over one or
four over one um developments in both of
their downtowns, right? So, I I I don't
think it's a bad idea to ask developers,
but whenever they come see us, they're
always like, "You just have to give us
more money and then we can do what you
want." like, yeah, I don't know if
that's the
>> to council member Walsh's point that
like King County Housing Authority could
be one of the people that's at that
table because they've just gone through
our code and so they don't have to all
just be on the private side. I think we
could invite nonprofit
>> Yeah. affordable housing.
>> We can do we can do both. I think we can
do is try to invest in our own internal
expertise and try to listen to those who
have at least knowledgeably tried to
invest in the area and understand why
why they didn't
and I think
>> I want to try to give our I think I
would like to give our current staff the
ability to have clear guidance from this
group and see how that works out because
I have faith
>> between
>> many and Kristen like I have faith they
just need the right guidance I mean and
so this is the part of the challenge I
think is
it's it comes out of what this
discussion looks like and I think the
thing hoping for is to kind of hear from
everybody what are the ideas like what
ideas are out there and I mean I think
like self-certification I think is
really interesting to talk about saying,
"Hey, we're going to we can do
self-certification on ADUs. We do
self-certification in general for
projects. If they hire a professional
engineer and they say this is sound,
like do we have to pay somebody
separate?" Because then that goes into
the billing, it also slows down the
timeline. Like all these things I think
there's a lot of ideas and I think we've
heard, but we haven't all been in a room
to have all the ideas put on a board.
And so to all's point, we don't have a
lot of time left. So I think if people
have ideas,
>> I would like to just have them so we can
kind of go through we can then ask staff
who's in this weeds of how these things
work to say well okay some of these are
easier than others but we don't even
know what the universe of options is
right now. So I think we need to leave
today with a universe of options. So the
developer round table is scheduled for
February 26th.
>> I'm like he's on a board now.
>> Agree.
>> My idea is hire an expert.
>> Uh well just to be clear so this is
around is this are we talking about
workforce housing specifically or are we
talking about housing generally and the
opportunities available? Guess that
>> it's all the above.
>> Okay. I just want just wanted to make
sure because we had the conversation
around what is that? So our housing did
you have comment? Um, yeah, I was going
to comment, you know, on the home
builder route came out. I think King
County Housing Authority, other, you
know, um, nonprofit affordable housing
builders are very, I mean, I went to the
King County affordable housing symposium
in Redmond on Thursday and they're very
interested in participating. Um, I think
also just generally,
you know, to your point about we want to
have smaller um, home ownership options.
It's been interesting to see like what
things in new construction is selling
for compared to I have some friends in
Seattle that are buying new construction
town homes in Seattle. This town home in
Seattle, she's like, "Oh, I'm overpaying
it." So, expensive. It's like $900,000.
And for me living in Isqua, I'm like,
"That is like 30% less than what the
equivalent home itself is." And so I
think there I mean they have the same
labor costs, materials costs, all sorts
of other things. So I really want to
understand like what in our code is
making things that much more expensive
than in Seattle. It could also be that
permitting is an a aspect of it. Um so I
would want to you know and I think we've
made progress on but I would like to see
how we compare to some of the other
cities especially the ones that are
doing really well. Um and some of the
other processes you know like what are
what are some of the best practices? Um
I um the self-certification for ADUs
where it's like you know the
professional engineer architect can sign
off on it themselves that's great. Um I
think also for other buildings is that
could there be something where you know
the builder can they can choose from a
preferred list of people to check their
work and they actually just contract
them directly without having to have a
city be the middleman to check their
work. Like that seems like something we
could do. So just finding ways to make
the process smoother without sacrificing
quality, right? because I think with ads
it's so small it you know it's not
really going to collapse but for like
things you really do want to have
someone else check their work but if
they can do that directly and like my
firm you know sometimes we do that on
like energy related stuff um but just
making it easier um streamlining stuff
>> I like to see a comparison between
multiple cities so at least at a high
level um if we have cities that we think
are doing a better job than we are in
whatever way that may be Um, can we try
to identify the
>> there we go
>> some salient points of their code that
are noticeable differences than ours
that may or may not be causing some of
the things that we've observed. If
they're actually causing them or not is
it is a level below that. First
understanding what some of the
differences are would be a very useful
first step.
>> Yeah. So there's tons of items in there.
It could be, you know, parking.
>> Yeah. Exactly.
>> Get them up.
>> Getting them. Yeah. So, parking
requirements, self-certification,
you know, types of housing, whether or
not we um effectively have a review
process and everything for different
town homes versus five ones. There's the
difference between structured parking
and not
um there's
>> FN. Yeah.
>> Um
floor area ratio F
There we go.
>> Architectural standards.
>> Yeah, there we go.
>> Open space, private outdoor amenity
space requirements.
I
>> think right now you have to have a
balcony.
>> Yeah.
>> Mandating underground utilities is very
expensive.
>> We need to take a look at our tree code
>> balancing retention versus
>> infill and remodels.
We need to take a look at road west for
developments. Can they be uh less than
full standard roads that go into some
developments because they're not
traveled all the time?
Are fees excessive for the ones that we
control? Transportation parks and we
compare them to other cities.
>> You said RFP
>> fees fees like impact fees.
>> Impact fees. Okay, I got you. I miss
her. Y Thank you.
>> Are there excessive frontage
requirements that we have?
>> There we go. on the way
>> is there inconsistent
>> water utility
uh hookup fees and requirements come to
mind.
>> Okay. So looking
>> review that on there.
>> Yeah. Selfcertification.
>> Um also inclusionary zoning whether or
not requiring
>> Yeah. home builders to build affordable
housing at 80% is actually reducing the
number of units or whether or not
they're willing to uh
>> There we go. There you go. There we go.
>> Okay. So, some some deep analysis in
terms of the barriers that could be
getting in the way of developers,
investors wanting to uh build in a part
>> I don't think they're saying deep
analysis. They're saying right I mean
like you you don't want to plan this for
the next two years we're going to study
this come back to you how about an array
array of
areas of interest I guess
>> so there's so there's a thing we haven't
touched on yet and I don't it's not a
list of of item like it's a more
fundamental question which is do we want
to create market rate housing in the
hopes that that impacts workforce
housing because there is a there is a
spread of opinions on that in this
council.
>> Okay.
>> So, more fundamental if somebody comes
back with a here's a solution for how to
get more market rate housing built in
the next two or three years.
>> I don't think you'll have seven council
members that I'll say huzzah.
>> That's why I referenced I think council
member Walsh's natural affordability. I
think the challenge is I think Tesla
Deputy President Mart doesn't want us to
do all this just have a bunch of $2
million condos or you know one and a
half million dollar town homes get built
>> because that is they selling as we
already have those. I think our
challenge is how does our code
incentivize
rentals in the really kind of micro
space and ownership like is ownership in
the 700 to,200 foot space is not going
to be selling in I don't think for seven
figures. I just don't think it is. And
so I think you're going to create
natural
affordability which I think and I think
it's a big difference between building
80 to 120% AMI. I think the numbers are
very clear that improves life for
everybody.
>> Building something in the two to3
million dollar range. Yeah, I think it's
much harder to argue whether or not how
much that's trickling down to benefit
kind of everyone trying to live in our
community. But I do think 80 to 120% AMI
units benefit
>> and that's I would say in many cases
most of what is being built. The other
part of that is we're in a situation
where we have a cruel musical chairs
type thing. There are not enough homes
going around and so the people who are
workforce housing are not getting
options. Whereas if there is a situation
where more homes are built, even if they
are luxury, it opens up spots. And I
heard this directly from the rallies
that when Atlas was built, they could
not raise their rents for a year. They
had to offer two months of free rent.
And so the older homes that people are
moving from to the new luxury housing
opens up spots for people who have a lot
of heavy meat in our community. Yeah,
>> I'd like to see us doing both. There is
it is a pretty overwhelming body of
evidence that creating housing at almost
any level reduces housing costs at all
levels. Um I'm I'm unaware of any
convincing
>> we we there is disagreement in the room
on that statement. We're not going to
solve it this afternoon. I just wanted
to that there is disagreement on that
statement. That's fine. But there like
>> there we go. We should have some process
to be able to discuss that
characterizing it as a subtle subject is
overstating
>> the law supply and demand.
>> Okay.
>> I was just saying you that you and I
have discussed the fact that there are
there are I can go find studies that say
that it doesn't that market rate doesn't
help uh workforce and you have studies
that say that it does and we can put our
competing studies on. We're not going to
solve it today. I'm just saying that it
is a it is a subject that will impact
how this council responds to housing
policy down the road and we should spend
some time figuring it out. That's all
I'm saying.
>> But I think we're talking about creating
the environment,
>> how we want to set the table for housing
to come in or not.
>> Two more that are controversial that we
haven't put up yet are our setback
requirements
>> and our um wetland and um stream buffer
requirements. We all like our streams
and wetlands and the way they are, but
if you talk to some of the people that
want to build projects in there, that
has been a deterrent to building a
project. I'm not saying it needs to be
changed, but it's just a factor that's
there.
>> I mean, what I'm hearing and I I there
are different paths to get to
the portability, right? And so that's
fine, but I think that there is
agreement that we should pull up the
hood and be like, what are the things
that are potential barriers to housing,
right?
>> But there are just things to talk about
as a community before we get an
ordinance in front of us for
consideration. If the mayor likes to get
to seven, there are things that we need
to have conversation.
>> And I think that's a principle that we
really landed on earlier this morning,
the importance of making sure to hear
different perspectives. But I think that
for today what we want to do is help to
shape the the focus which is increasing
housing affordability capacity
right um for lots of these things uh the
the work plan and the details must
follow and so today we want to make sure
that we're having a conversation around
what does that mean to you
>> the one I would add is just the infill
requirements because I think that's
where we're real outlier I think some of
the other communities in terms of if
you're building on a lot that's hard to
like what do we expect someone to do if
they're if they buy a lot
here is currently asphalt
>> like what do we expect them to do and
right now the expectations from the city
are for them to put in all the current
code standards so that means if the
asphalt currently goes up to 50 ft of
the stream they got to pull out 100 ft
of asphalt which means what they have
left to put homes on is substantially
smaller. And so it provides a giant
disincentive for people to invest in
building in our community in that area
where we want them to build because this
I think is we also I think have to be
intentional that like Talis is more or
less built out and there's one last
project obviously going in. The
Highlands already has 2,000 homes under
basically permit that are going to be
built in the next four to six years.
Squawk is I mean these other communities
are pretty well established. We're
really focused on this area north and
south of I90 along this corridor which
is currently all paved and and our
question is can we get homes this parcel
and what in our code stands out from
author wooden bill? I would say a big
thing that does stand out is that
requirement that you are supposed to rip
up asphalt and put in a stream buffer
that does not currently exist. I think
is a challenge to get people to invest
here and but that is a community
discussion. I mean it's it's not there
accidentally. It was put there because
people had strong feelings that but I I
think we now in hindsight have three or
four years of lived experience. That
requirement means Gilman Boulevard will
look the same 30 years from now as it
does today. I think is the reality of
it. Uh yeah, if we look at our map of
the regional growth center within the
central lqua area, um I I believe this
is true that there's not a single house
or a single unit of housing that's been
built in our regional growth center
which is a subset of central um transit
development that will be right at the
border of that and just inside but
otherwise I think the answer is zero for
how many houses homes we've built in
that area. Anybody is can correct me
this is just me playing with maps but I
think this is true.
>> Yep. And that's a threat to our regional
growth centeration.
Yeah,
>> which we're reapplying for next month.
So staff has done that
>> so that it comes to you know I'm on that
board as an alternate for PSRC but uh we
do want to get that.
>> Yeah I think one of the other things
that I would want to explore is you know
I think Kevin mentioned floor area
ratios. I think right now we have very
restrictive rules on like the number of
units per acre which is a huge
disincentive against building smaller
units because the incentive to do that
is that you could put more units into
the same space but then then you know
you're capped at a certain number. It's
like, "Oh, well then we're all going to
build like a thousand square foot, you
know, three-bedroom apartments." And
it's like, is there a way that we, you
know, we can relax that in some cases or
even just say like you can build the
out, you know, we can have rules on what
the outside looks like. For example,
like in Oldtown, I understand why there
are architectural standards, but why do
we care how many units are on the
inside, right? For example, I have
friends who, you know, five of them will
rent a single family home together and
and that's totally fine, but that is no
different than it being looking like a
single family home on the outside, but
then having, you know, five micro
studios on the inside with a shared
kitchen. So like you know just like any
those opportunities because when we look
at things for population growth and
housing growth the average the average
household size is decreasing and that's
actually driving a significant amount of
growth in the number of homes needed
because there's going to be you know
it's like right now the average
household size I actually don't know the
numbers but basically so you know people
mine
>> drawing it out.
>> Yeah people people are going to need to
downsize and how can we enable more of
that while also you know for example
maybe
My parents, for example, live in a five-
bedroomedroom single family home, you
know, could there be a world in which
that could be split up into a few
housing units or or or is that not
legal? Um because then it would be four
units and it's you know those types of
things. So kind of exploring how we
could use that to also get more homes
but in a similar footprint that already
exists.
>> Two bar items for the list. Um
transparency requirements. We have a
requirement for certain amount of window
um space and stepbacks which are
different from setbacks.
>> Step back,
>> sod modulation.
>> So, so okay.
>> So, to council member Jang's point about
related to ADUs, we did a turn on ADUs
like five or six years ago, right? It
would it seems like it would be
>> valuable to understand how that has or
hasn't, right? We we loosened up the ADU
language considerably like we made a big
turn and spent a lot of time on it and I
don't know if we I don't I don't think
we've had a lot of ADUs built since
then. So there's a there's a question on
again last time did yeah I looked at the
number it's quite low like 20
>> impervious surface
sorry PD I'll just email it. Yeah.
>> What do you mean exactly by that? uh in
Oldtown area 50% of the land needs to be
permeable to water for the aquafer and
so it means that 50% of the land can't
have homes built on it. So that's
something to think through figure out
what what that is affecting and in an
area that has high impervious surface
requirements so that our wa water
aquifer can be recharged maybe we need
to increase heights or you know
Yeah. Okay.
>> Give me one more. Um, how quickly we are
compliant with new state mandates versus
peer cities and other cities overall.
Um, for example, some of the things from
last year, I think we've got like three
years to comply with them. Um,
how are other cities doing? Um, is are
we choosing the right speed that
>> we've been early on compliance mostly?
>> Well, I think that was good.
>> I mean, 5290 we were pretty early. Um,
and so with middle housing, I think we
were a little late, but we were kind of
right in the middle of where the general
finished
>> Miguel doesn't want to get operational
next step.
>> What you do?
>> Ju just procedural next steps.
>> Okay. Well, yeah, let me just show let
me summarize and then I'll I'll let you
jump in there. Uh, because I think that
some of these these topics too, we're
starting to think about how do you
quantify our impacting success, which I
think is also good about. We talked
about metrics earlier and so looking at
some of those you know rates of return
and how it's impacting good things to
keep in new. So let me just summarize at
the high not the detail level the high
level of what I heard in terms of um
areas of action. We'll call them that.
Uh so first of all lifting up the hood
and looking at all the requirements what
are barriers that could be potentially
getting in the way of development. And
so it's a long list and Julie's got a
whole long list of there that you
captured. So that's that's one. Uh from
there then looking at how to streamline
the process and that might be you know
directly related to some of the things
you uncover in that analysis. Um we
talked about you know bringing people
together in the development round table
and so you have an opportunity to hear
and listen and learn uh from others that
might be potentially inform the
direction you have strategic capacity
staffing capacity. Um, so those were the
the four kind of actionable things I
heard and then it's kind of evaluating
progress ADUs policy success looking at
turnaround times for state mandates. So
kind of lots of things to potentially
drive the conversation to the next
level. Does that feel like a decent
recap? Then I'll let
>> Well,
you all want more than that, I think. So
you know we'll come back on March 9th.
Minnie
Minnie
uh with an outline of a plan through the
balance of the calendar. So we will look
to see what we can commit to do. Some of
this we're going to have to spend some
time on. Um so we'll prioritize things
that we think we can do. Many what uh
three months, six months, nine months
kind of time frame. will look at um
resource issues because we only have one
principal planner that does this sort of
work. Um we have some money already
allocated for $250,000.
>> Yes.
>> Which people are kind of waiting for
today to hear your thoughts before we
program that out. So we'll come on the
night with some specific recommendations
and how how things have. Uh we'll have
done the round table.
Alexis, raise your hand. Alexis, she's
your housing person. Her job is do all
the banks act.
>> Um and so that we'll talk more about how
that will work. Uh and we'll also talk
about funding um funding for housing. We
have affordable housing money um which I
have not programmed out from the IHIP.
Uh so we'll talk a little bit more about
that, but that would construct basically
a work plan. I think we're we're
probably not going to have a city-wide
work plan of stuff, but we're probably
going to have subject specific work
plans. So, that would be the plan to do
a work plan that would take us through
the end of 26.
Does that make what you're hoping to
hear or are you hoping to hear something
different?
>> There we go. There we go.
>> There we go.
>> You're hoping to hear
something different. Yeah, I think I
think that sounds great
>> because we can't re-calibrate. We can't
every three months decide that we're
going to reinvent this wheel. Uh we
could reinvent reinvent it now for the
current calendar year, but when we come
to you in March, we're going to say this
is the plan and we're going to commit to
go uh with what's on this plan through
the end of the calendar year. Um and we
want you to feel okay about that.
>> Yeah. I think the other thing that I
would like for us to all come to
agreement on is what are the metrics
that we're going to use to evaluate our
success. Okay. I think a key one is
probably number of you know homes
permitted in central Isiqua, number of
homes built in central Isiqua um
affordability of those units. And I
think one of the things, and maybe this
is getting a little off track, but like
to the extent that we're able to track
the affordability level of non um
covenant restricted homes, I think
that's also something that would be very
useful for us to know because right now,
you know, on affordability, we're just
like, oh, we have this number of income
restricted units. But then that doesn't
say anything about what is, you know,
the affordability of other homes in the
area. You know, I would to the extent I
know this is probably something that's
really really difficult to get data on,
but to the extent that we're able to do
it, it'll help a lot with our
>> So, another piece, Dale, would be
working with the planning staff. We
already have some of those metrics in
place, so we just have to look at what
we have, what we would need to add.
>> Yeah. And the size of new homes built
for both rental and ownership, um, I
think would be another metric.
>> Right. So, we'll come and we'll help. So
is a part of what's coming back then is
the data that's available then you can
track and respond on Molly or along with
the work plan or no
>> I mean we'll we'll come up with some
data points that we think we can some of
the last ones that council member Jane
referred to harder to get um but we can
find out if they're just harder or um
and so we can speak to that but the hope
would be that we bring this to you we
get your feedback and then we go
>> and I think another thing not to
complicate it But you have current
residents applying to remodel like a
kitchen or whatever. I think we got to
look at how much of our permit staff
time is being taken up by those things.
Like what on that list of things could
we
>> possibly visit to say what how involved
do we want to be in some of these?
>> Yes. And uh and because I think if you
look at the whatever we do here, we have
to make progress to the current
residents of how they interact with the
perfect apartment to do stuff any sort
of addition to their house no matter
what it is, bathroom, kitchen, any any
structure. I think we've heard from
people that that process they wish was
quicker. So I think it's kind of like a
parallel track. And I think our
fundamental challenge kind of talking to
mayors from around the country this past
week is the common refrain from most
cities is we haven't revisited this in
20 years. So we got to go in and fix it.
We are an outlier in the fact that we
literally just revisited this in 22 and
23, but the changes we made didn't lead
to any permits
anyone applying to build here. So we we
made a lot of changes in very recent
history compared to other cities that
are going through the process we're
talking about today. So I think to
Wallally's point, we have to figure out
like it's not fair to staff to just
flip-flop every five years. Like I think
we have to really say, hey, this our
goal is if if the goal is to get how
many homes are actually physically
didn't get built in this, you know,
section of Isqua we're talking about
north and south of I90, like what does
that look like? And and I think that's
how you judge success. And
>> and I think the staff's general feeling
is that despite the macroeconomic
stuff that's happening everywhere is
that the environmental restrictions in
Isiqua deter blowing. And so the
council's prepared to, you know, pull
some of those back that should have a
real impact. But we'll be we'll speak
more to that. And I think that's what
we'll we'll speak more to that. Some of
the price categories can fit into the
1220 legislation and that's an easy way
to have apples to apples in the
comparison.
>> Yep. And time toing.
>> Yep.
>> Okay.
>> One other quick thing. Um is there a
role to leverage our relationship with
Arch in this like when I think about
Metro Monday night council meeting.
is
>> uh a regional coalition for housing,
>> the east they're the uh multi-ity
organization based out of Belleview uh
that we are members of and they
contribute money to every year both
operationally and towards projects.
>> So you contribute money the housing may
or may not be built in your city. They
their point is everyone puts money in a
pot and they build it where it makes the
most sense. So you could be donating
money that gets built outside of your
community but for the region.
>> Yeah. For the regional greater good.
>> The regional greater good. That is all
premise of that organization.
>> And you'll hear Monday night from them
that who worked for Alexis. Did you
Well, I saw this.
>> But so you're going to hear, you know,
we use their staff second only to
Belleview to make affordable housing.
>> Great to hear. So you will hear a little
bit of that. It's a big presentation.
The packets already out, right? So then
there's there's a pretty substantial
presentation.
>> All right. And she look great again. Um,
okay. Do you feel comfortable with where
we are in terms of next steps? And I
mean, quite clearly a priority, right?
We can name this as a priority for the
next year, uh, 2026. Okay. Can we move
to the next one? I'm just see how many
we can get through.
>> I just want to point out we did the hard
one first.
>> Likely, right? All right. Uh, so can we
just go the order we have here? Talk
about economic development next. Okay.
So we're talking about a we added that
question what is the problem we're
trying to solve just to provide some
definition to it and then you know
what's the area for the next 12 months
>> I think this one is the one where is the
biggest uh just like lack of consensus
on what the problem is that we're trying
to solve. You know I've read our
economic development action plan and to
me honestly it doesn't seem like it
addresses economic development. like we
want more businesses in the arts or
outdoor recreation when you know I I
think most of us would think of economic
development as attracting large
businesses with you know office jobs and
those types of things. Um, so I think
honestly like and I don't know
necessarily how much time we want to
spend like coming up with the whole
plan, but like if we do agree that
attracting jobs is a priority, then I
think it then the question is what can
we do to do that? And so then the
question is like what competitive
advantages do we have over the orman?
And I would say the one that advantage
that we do have is that we have
proximity to Costco. And I was thinking
of this because when we sold off City
Hall Northwest, it was to a toy company
that is a major supplier to Costco. So
potentially one of the strategies we
could do, it's like, you know, hey, who
are the major suppliers to Costco? Could
we meet with them and advertise to them,
hey, you come to Isiqua, we're great.
And then you can be super close to
Costco HQ and that could help because,
you know, just like going out and having
Mayor Mullet talk to random CEOs may not
necessarily be as effective as like, oh,
you know, we have Costco as kind of like
the anchor. They're going to be here for
the long term. they just built their
super beautiful fancy new office, you
know, how can we kind of build the
ecosystem around them? So,
>> there's a correlary to that involving
Swedish and the medical facilities
around Swedish. Same concept.
>> Well, and quite honestly, we probably
need to add Swedish to our list because
we don't want them to close that
hospital.
>> No, we don't. So
>> did not know that was a that Lexus we
>> know
>> hospital
>> it's a full service we have a major they
have 175
Swedish as
>> all right so please keep in mind
>> there we go
>> please keep in mind we we give hundreds
of thousands of dollars to visit Isqua
each year to be our economic development
tourist arm out there so is maybe it's
too which is that about the right
amount.
>> What did we give them?
>> Not that much.
>> It's
>> $120,000. Yeah. To them. So, they're the
ones that are out there um trying to get
the business for us to fill our hotels,
have people come here to dine,
recreational activities, um and they
work with Eltech and um so they're a
significant arm. We need to figure out
how to coordinate with them with
whatever we decide uh we want to do
because they have been following our
leads so far as you know as as kind of
incongrous as it might be from time to
time. They've been following what we've
been telling them to kind of do at this
point.
>> They're slightly I mean they're
definitely trying to get heads and beds
and and stuff like that. This is I think
>> yeah to a little more focused on I mean
it's weird because you have the old
Microsoft campus at South End of the
Lake which was three giant buildings.
They're trying to build in free
employers too.
>> Very affordable in terms of price point.
Like I don't know are to your point is
there a way we could market like that
campus and those opportunities to find
out if there is a business that would be
interesting to them but I don't know how
uh it'd be awesome if it worked out. I
just don't know what we could bring to
the table aside from the fact that we're
an amazing community.
>> I mean just connecting supplier with
demand, right? I mean, we this came
about originally um when Mariah Batis
and I were the council leadership. We
were both working at companies that were
relocating. Both of the companies, the
companies she worked for and the company
I worked for were both based in
Belleview. It was clearly going to be a
CEO followup. We were going to be
wherever the CEO wanted us to be. And
both of us had companies that couldn't
find something in Isiquad workforce. And
so this idea of figuring out supply and
demand, putting them together, you know,
I had a situation where we needed like
120,000 square feet of industrial and
maybe 30,000 square feet of of general
uh commercial. We just couldn't do it.
It didn't exist in Isiqua and it
couldn't be built in the time frame we
needed. So we just have to figure out
where companies are out there looking.
If we could get 5% of Belleview's
squeeze, right, we would be amazing.
like it would be transformative if we
could get 5% of of what Bel used to be.
>> I think that uh supply is really
important. I mean we couldn't find a
place for us as a city. So we know there
is a squeeze out there
and so yeah but I think we need to have
that conversation around economic
development. What's the problem we're
trying to solve?
that clarity and then figure out what is
the barrier to that goal. So, so
question because I'm hearing when we
talked when this first came up, it
sounds like the focus initially anyway
is on attracting uh and supporting
facilitating companies new jobs like
bringing people and whether it's uh
companies that relate to existing people
but it's it's really about the larger
companies and bringing them attracting
them versus what we heard earlier which
could be also supporting small business
or like these are different directions.
>> I wouldn't say it that way. I would say
it in terms of uh living wage jobs like
we we you know you can do business
incubators right in business incubators
don't have to be huge um but they but
they bring living wage jobs you know I
would like to bring jobs that that the
people who live in our housing here
would find s you know people who live
here could work here it doesn't have to
be everybody I you know it doesn't we
could still have people living in town
but to have more jobs beyond Costco
white shops.
>> I think I think of economic development
where you have to like I think our kind
of asset we have to make sure it doesn't
go away is historic is aqua has been
there for 100 years but I think as a
small business restaurant owner if you
don't have foot traffic those businesses
are all at risk. So I think part of our
economic development strategy from the
administration is this idea of closing
Front Street for 10 weekends in the
summer. I think we're looking at doing a
shared parking program where we might
incentivize people financially to put
their parking spaces if they're along
that corridor into a shared parking pool
that people can use on the evenings and
weekends. Like we're looking at ways to
draw foot traffic because from economic
development perspective, you need more
foot traffic on historic Front Street if
you want it to be th vibrant and
thriving 20 years from now. I think if
we get everything right and my hope is
that area on Gilman north and south of
I90 looks substantially different 15
years from now but historic Front Street
still sort of has the same charm and
eclectic feel. But to keep that charm
and eclectic feel, it's not going to
happen organically. I think we have to
do things that draw people to that part
of our town. And then we have the
ability with light rail and the land use
decisions we make to think create its
own completely different kind of vibrant
walkable village feel in an area right
now that looks very similar when I came
out to this quad when I was a kid. I
mean going in the 70s and 80s look very
similar how G looks now. I mean it just
it was that's when it was built. It's
very large strip mall with giant sea of
parking and that's just what's there I
think. So economic development in my
mind though we have to keep in mind that
historic front street corridor as part
of our vision.
>> So two years ago the city council
adopted an economic development action
which is supposed to be a three-year
plan from 24 to 27. So are you saying
you want to redo this plan? You want to
revisit the plan? you want to look at
the component parts of it. Uh because
that because the plan was basically
let's look at what our strengths are for
smaller businesses. So that's where you
get the outdoor recreation, the creative
economy and the homebased businesses.
Now the world's bigger place two years
out um is the focus again to start over.
is the focus to you know have this
document in front of you hear where
we're at uh get some feedback for some
of the discussion here and then decide
what would you like the next step to be
>> there
how are we doing on that plan that start
>> I think that's a good starting point uh
I think also just having the
conversation around what problems are we
trying to solve and did that plan
address that or did it I think
>> yeah right or was it focused on a
different set of like
>> there could businesses be um
>> so the the why of why we want to bring
in
>> the why of city economic development
>> there's a difference between saying you
know we want to
>> take advantage of the idea that We have
green space near us and outdoor
recreation businesses and all of that.
That's that's different from the concept
of
>> looking for living wage jobs and
you know it's a different approach to a
problem
>> and and and it may be that this sitting
council just has a different view and
that's perfectly reasonable. I'm just
trying to operationalize how we get from
an adopted plan that was in theory
supposed to go one more year um to
>> really two more years, right? It goes
through 27 or is it end?
>> Yeah. No. Well, two more years. So, if
it's working or if it's not working.
>> Well, no, but I I think that the the the
the goalposts are changing. So, I think
if the expert this this worked in 24 for
the council, it doesn't seem to be
working in 26 for the council.
>> We had a hope when we passed it. that
doesn't mean that it's working, right? I
I mean, if you tell me here's the vision
that you had two years ago, you did this
thing and we're and we're and we're
executing to it and it's going great,
then I'm less likely to want to fiddle
with it. But if you if you
>> Why don't you start So why don't we
start there and we'll we'll we'll give
you an update on where we're at. We'll
address some of these other issues, you
know, the corporate headquarters stuff,
all of that we can we can address. And I
will turn to talk about retention too
because REI is here now but they may
leave like we may have to
and Swedish is in deep trouble and
unless we're able to help them in some
way they may just close that hospital
because it might be cheaper for them
just to shut it than it is to continue
to operate and what does that do to us
as a community. So, um, we can, you
know, we've got committee the hole in
February and March filled. Do you want
to do a special something or you want to
wait till April?
>> There we go.
>> Also getting to the point we're going to
start talking about budget.
>> There we go.
>> In May.
>> There we go.
>> A special meeting to talk about.
>> I would defer to council leadership and
that
>> you've been waiting all day to see it.
that also facilities in part. So
>> let's let's agree for today that the
starting point this conversation is to
put fresh eyes on the economic economic
development strategy. What's working?
What's missing? And just that need a
refresh. That's
>> I would suggest it could be a time
because I think we have a May retreat
the second weekend in May. Maybe.
>> Sure. We and we maybe we
>> and I think that we could come back at
that one with more information on the
current economic development plan and
what's working.
>> Okay.
>> All right. We're going to move to the
next one. That's that gives us some
momentum. Right. That
>> great. All right. Tood was our next
topic.
>> I think everything that we're doing in
the first topic is going to enable
transit oriented development
>> connected. Yeah. I mean
>> I'm talking specifically about to doc.
Oh, this one project.
>> That's what I'm talking about for the
next 12 months is I want us to finally
make
>> change. They because we met with Avalon
Bay. Did they commit last week? We
already see
>> they they haven't signed contract yet,
but let's see. The project's in for
permit. They expect to break ground this
year in June or July. So AW Bay's
request when Andrew and I met with them
on Monday was their fear is that we said
these two projects have to go together.
They're a little worried about investing
tens of millions of dollars and then the
King County Housing Authority side
>> drives the street.
>> So they're just saying I think well
that's
>> goes away.
>> Well,
we I think wanted the timing to be
concurrent because our fear was the
private side might come a lot later,
>> right? and the private side, even though
they haven't done anything yet, they're
saying we're going to move fast and our
fear is we don't want to be at the whims
if King County affordable housing money
decides like if they have their own
issues. So I think both so I think their
question to us right Andrea was are we
willing to provide some flexibility like
they get to once they decide to move
forward they're moving forward they
don't want to be told you can't open
your doors because King County Housing
Authority decided to screw around for an
extra year or two. So that's their ask
>> we are working with them and KCHA on how
to make sure that the city still gets
the things that we've wanted out of this
project. the city put a lot of time,
money, investment in this project. We
want to make sure that
>> we think their ask is not necessary. We
think King County Housing Authority is
going full steam ahead and we think
>> so they're they're worried about
something we don't think it's going to
happen, but they they're lawyers
involved. So,
>> do they want to pass a certain point
like if their permits best then they're
allowed to go through no matter what or
what are they asking? They didn't
proposed a specific solution other than
KCHA's willing to put up a bond to try
to help guarantee their project will get
built. So, we're working through we want
to minimize risk to the city. Um, we
want to make sure these projects get
built. We're going to find solutions.
>> All right. Thank you. This is going to
happen.
>> Yeah.
>> I know you've heard that forever.
>> Smallest of the hurdles we've
encountered. I will say that.
>> All right. If if we're on if we're on a
good glide path, we don't have to talk
more about it.
>> Eight years. Okay.
>> And we they talked about, do we need to
have, you know, basically a terrace
patio for every single unit or can it be
half the units? They were like, so
they're asking things that were not
crazy. They were just reasonable ask, I
think. And I will say one takeaway I had
from that conversation was what I think
we're missing in the valley floor is
more rooftop outdoor space. So I think
it'd be really interesting for us to
have a conversation as a council I think
around can outdoor space be a communal
rooftop deck where you can go up and you
can look at this Alps you can look
towards like Sam you can look but not
have this requirement that every single
unit has to have a balcony which is our
current requirement. Uh there's very few
rooftop spaces. Like I go to what well
that place is now closed, the beastro or
whatever on the islands, but I look at
every time I go there, I'm like if there
was a place up there to eat, I think it
would be like hugely popular on that
roof because you'd be looking westward
towards the Olympics in Seattle. We just
for some reason our city you've never
done it. Like it just hasn't happened.
It's like a missed opportunity. I think
>> I think it's going forward. We will and
I think we're being very collaborative.
there's no part of our conversations
with anyone involved in the activity
project like we're trying to get to yes
with every group we talk to
>> to Tula's point of this this individual
building being a a council priority
though um I think that's probably true
and if we want to make that that most of
this will be on the administration to to
work out the nuts and bolts but if we
want to make it a council priority
>> we could say that
>> if anything comes up that needs to be
you know it needs in any way to have
council involvement that takes
precedence something. Yeah, let's do it
the way that we can be.
>> It's great.
>> And keep us updated as things go through
because we're eager.
>> There we go.
>> Right now,
>> years, eight years.
>> 95% Avalon Bay will be the private side
partner and uh is my guess. They had a
place in the islands originally. they
sold. I think that's the one 15th
they're
>> right and then
>> but so they're familiar with our
community and and I think if this
process goes well I think their
indication is are open to looking at
other investments on the valley floor
and so but they want to see this go
>> yeah and I to be a even a little bit
more specific I think the sorts of
things that could come up is do they
need some sort of deviation and would we
be willing to put that on our agenda
>> right happy about putting that on our
agenda very quickly the sort sorts of
things. I think that's how we can yeah
action make this actionable to have this
priority for council
>> and I would say I think if if there was
a deviation of saying half the units
have to have outdoor terrorists I think
the question is I think they're going to
go forward I think the deviations would
be to incentivize kind of a show of hey
we're going to be a partner if you
decide to invest in building more homes
in Isqua like and so I think that would
be the purpose of because they're making
it clear like they're willing to go
forward so Anything we do is kind of
icing on the cake I think at my
>> be value in naming point right don't
guess council that's a priority for
council is that is that a kind of
priority just second okay
>> great
>> all right
okay so
>> balls
wanted to stop the meeting and get up
>> my elder
I'm back.
>> What else do we need to talk about
related to transportation and mobility?
So, we heard about, you know, some of
the MCOMei pieces with trails and other
elements and their comments there. Are
there other things that are critical
path? Oh,
>> no.
>> It's not lights.
>> Maybe.
Yeah, it's the fan that
>> the
Do we need to talk about Metrolex
alternatives? Well, should we do a a
braid list like we did for housing?
Sure.
>> For interest of time, Andrea, can you
rattle off what we're going to talk
about on
>> I would love to. Uh so, uh we have a
couple of presentations lined up. One is
on PMP, pavement management program,
which um we are doing the pavement
condition index so we can go over the
latest data on how our streets are
doing. We're also going to be talking
about some pavement treatment techniques
the city's been piloting for the past
few years. There's been some feedback
from the community that um they don't uh
like the pavement uh treatments. There
has also been some positive feedback,
but um so we're going to go over those.
And then the policy question for that
item is whether or not we should change
our techniques or we should keep moving
forward with the techniques we're
piloting and setting a community
standard for those pavement techniques
and treatment techniques. The second
item is going to be on metrlex. We had
promised council that we come back and
talk about um we uh success measures and
what our goals with the project um or
with that program. We're also going to
be uh talking providing a little bit of
information about some possible
alternatives and asking council whether
we should investigate those um more
fully and then uh the third
>> I will say in that space just to share
kind of what we've learned is circuit is
the one that does the bell hop circuit's
going to revenue they're they have via
currently is the back end of metrlex
made it very clear to us they they were
like at the conference the mayor is like
trying to get everyone to sign up, but
they're they're not going to violate
what they have with King County. So, if
we want to do anything with VIA, it's
through King County. They will not
>> risk the King County contract by doing
something separate with us. So, there is
no ability to remove the middleman if we
want to use VIA and they're basically
circum are the two big ones. And then
the third outlier is Uber uh you know,
we're talking to Uber about just doing
straight up Uber vouchers. So those are
basically so I would I would have said
it's three options really. It's status
quo versus circuit or Uber vouchers is
probably going to be the lay of the
land. I mean
>> so all of these entities I spoke with
personally over the past month and they
were supposed to give me proposals and
they have not yet. They were supposed to
give me proposals last week and this
week they promised them again and I
don't have. So if I'm going to I'm going
to bring as much information as I can
bring for the February 9th meeting. Um,
but otherwise we may have to keep the
conversation general because I I only
have so much information. Um, and then
the third conversation is on the
transportation benefit district sales
tax. Again, last fall we told council we
would come back and talk about that
funding and um what council's priorities
are for that funding. That conversation
is going to help inform us shape the
transportation improvement plan which we
update on an annual basis and coming
back to council for uh adoption in June.
So having a conversation about how you
want to use those funds is then going to
be reflective and we'll see you get you
see later. Um so that's uh that's the
general those are the three topics.
We're also going to be providing an
update on light rail and the city's
efforts on light rail uh which are
really heating up. That's true.
>> Well, and I think the last piece is
really the mayor has asked us to look
for small impact high small projects
high impact
>> that we can do this year. Yep.
>> So, we are going to
>> Yeah. 2627 type projects like projects
need to do before we do the big trail
connection coming in from South Lakes
>> and we'll be talking about that in
context of the transportation b district
sales sites and tip upkeep. That's been
a major question of the mayor's ears. I
want to do something now, not just talk
about it for three years.
>> I know the little wooden thing.
>> The quality of life issue.
>> Yeah. The the survival rate of your
talis based council members is
>> at risk.
Not we still going to get to go get a
ton for Christmas.
So that's the outline of what we're
planning for transportation. Um, you
know, we'll we'll continue moving
forward, but the tip process is soon,
right?
>> Yeah. We It goes by state law. It has to
be adopted by July 1st. And so we take
it to TAB and a few other advisory
boards and then it goes to M&I and then
it goes to council for adoption. So
we're working on it now based on Mayor
Mullet's priorities that he has provided
those small simple capital projects that
can have a small impact which adds up
over time.
>> There we go. There we go.
>> Yeah. So doing a few more brains things
not for this meeting but as a topic.
>> Um so metro
um as one topic. Uh like
>> has asked Beluchi is asking us for a
venue to talk about the metro levy
because I think it sounds like I saw you
guys advised them not to go on the metro
levy. Are they
>> focus on transportation specifically? Is
that
>> Metro King County metros or the buses?
>> Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> Yes. on that. I think one of the things
that we on East Side Transportation
Partnership want to do. I think with
with Metrolex, the big issue that has
been brought up repeatedly is just the
high cost per rider and there really is
no way to bring it down significantly if
you're having on demand stuff. So, with
the King County Metro ballot measure, if
we're able to get some, you know,
priority intracity routes in there, that
could potentially replace, you know,
some of like a large amount of trips
that are made with metroplex, then
potentially that could be deprecated and
we could get all this new funding from
King County to run local buses. Um, so
that's something that we're going to be
working on through East Side
Transportation Partnership and seeing to
what extent we can get some of our PEP
projects in there. Um I think that with
administration in some this direct way
could make it a heck of a lot more
likely
challenge
>> there
>> like if I look at the parks levy like if
you add up what we as is qu pay for the
parks le I think it's 4.4 million we get
$500,000 back but then perspective 4.4 a
million like like 10 million pays for
epher. So like basically we're paying in
so I think we have to
I I think and I'm meeting with KMA on
Monday but I think the I think we have
to be really strategic as a city and
supporting stuff that King County is
doing because basically the stuff they
fund ends up benefiting Seattle 10 times
more than it benefits us. We're funding
all the improvements that are happening
in Seattle. So we have to and the parks
levy is the poster child of that. Like
we could be doing a crapload of stuff
that that 4.4 million our residents are
paying for parks was just half of it was
coming back to us. I mean so this is our
and I'm I come into the King County
Metro levy conversation of just a fear
that once again they're going to use our
residents to subsidize transit service
in Seattle.
>> Yeah, I understand that. I've also if
it's going to happen anyway, the more we
can push ourselves into it, the better
off we might be have to get something
out of this thing.
>> Yeah.
>> That's what we're trying to work on
with, you know, just a transportation
partnership. Because I think if it's
like all the east side cities, you know,
we're like, "Hey, if you don't put our
stuff in there, we will not just not it
but possibly even it."
>> Yes. And
>> I think that's the message you want to
continue to send is this is not a time
to play nice. This is the time to demand
that our taxpayers get a return on
investment because we haven't been with
K County
>> want to be a donor
>> much less SD3.
>> Well, yeah. This is I mean and it's like
we all love transit. So, we don't want
to be viewed as being out transit, but
at some point we can't just keep having
our residents pay for investments that
we just want our fair share. That's all
we're asking for, I think, is our fair
share. If you're going to ask us to pay
and support it, like just give us our
fair.
And then just from a council priority
perspective, coordination on that
would be wise.
>> Yeah, I think on the small projects
front, I mean, I'm curious how you think
about like street safety improvements.
You know, I saw that email from that guy
about like, hey, I'm concerned about
speeding here. Can you put in a speed
bump? And the answer is we can't even
begin to consider it until 2028. And I
have, you know, Fred who is concerned
about, you know, cars speeding down her
street to drop kids off at daycare. And
she also, that's the same response that
she gets about like putting it in speed
bump, which is not something that's
expensive. So I think that's something
where we can explore explore like is
there a way to get those done, you know,
do the analysis faster, pour concrete
faster, do something temporary, see how
it works, and then evaluate whether
permanently like those types of quality.
This goes to the core of how to open the
whole meeting in your example, right? Is
that the initial investigation on that
was the speeds were not as high. So it
seemed like a little bit more of an So
then you ran the risk I think of a speed
bump then having 10 come out and say I
can't believe you put speed bumps in on
25th like that was not like and so this
is the balancing act like to me like the
middle ground which we haven't I think
deserves a lot more you know looking at
is the little signs that just flash and
tell you when you're going too fast
because that is not a speed bump and
it's not a ticket it's just and and I
will say just anecdotally when I get
flashed saying slow down because you're
going 10 over. I usually do slow down
because I'm like, "Oh I realized I
was going that fast." So those things do
work and they're in a they're kind of a
middle ground way that you can slow down
speeds without making physical changes
that might piss off the other 75% of the
people that don't want to have to drive
over speed bumps every single time they
come in or out of their neighborhood,
which sometimes is eight or 10 times a
day. So that's
>> I think that's a good potential
solution. I think one one thing that
guys might be getting at at this a
bigger issue is from the perspective of
customer service. How can we at least
answer these questions in a more
important time even if the answer is
any any business
best way to make me annoyed is it I'm
told I have no one nobody ever wants the
package saying it's one of the council
priorities
it's always I think I I doubt there's
anybody who's going to say don't worry
>> it's a priority of the administration
regard.
>> Exactly.
>> It doesn't have to be your priority
priority.
>> I a
see it's catchy.
>> Um
>> there we go. There we go. There we go.
>> That and if there's any I don't know how
council gets involved in that.
>> I I mean this this is the whole reason
how the customer service discussion came
up for all the reasons you just said
like that person is probably frustrated
with the city of Bisqu right now because
they basically got a very governmental
answer. It's a it's a challenge, right?
I mean,
>> so I'm not sure I see a strategy or a
set of priorities within the
transportation and mobility area. I've
heard pavement management, light rail,
small projects, metroflex, TBD sales
tax, you know, talking about metro levy,
safety challenges.
I don't know. That's a lot of things.
>> I don't know what of that is our
priority. And is our priority in what
metrics are we looking at? What are we
trying to achieve with that? Are we
focusing on
vehicle movement? How much of our focus
is on pedestrian and bike safety? How
much of it is on maintenance versus
building new capacity and otherwise? I
think there's there's a bigger set of
conversations that I don't know has
really happened
there.
>> I think I would definitely say
congestion relief is probably
a strong approach here. It's just
projects that provide congestion relief,
but I think the if we can get if we're
in a good position to get the grant from
PSRC, we just have to put up our share
of the money on the Newport project,
like I'm all for it. And I think the way
we approach things as a state that there
was federal dollars in the line that
went to the top of the list because if
we could do a project and we have to pay
for 20% of it like it's becomes you know
political malpractice to not pursue it.
So I think coming in with not knowing
where that stuff is going to lay out is
a little bit harder. I think the the
general broad theme I would say is
congestion relief is really important.
We also want to put in sidewalks. We
want to do the bike stuff when it makes
sense to be honest those score a lot
better for getting grants than just
doing congestion relief projects like
fixing front sunset which is when I say
that you're fixing the sunset part of
front and sunset not the front part and
uh we're not going to get a dollar for
that like we're going to have to pay the
entire 2.4 4 million to do that project.
No one's going to help us out is my
guess. But these other projects like a
Newport, you know, bike trail stuff, I
think we can get a lot of money for
those projects. So I think it's uh but I
think the overall if you want to know
the overall theme I would say congestion
relief is definitely
the the immediate goal right now kind of
responding to the community saying what
can we do where we can point to and some
of the safety stuff is like the
crosswalk of village theater and the
idea is another crosswalk we have you go
from the party store across black nugget
to where the 24-hour fitness is you know
we just are trying to find two places
where we seem to have a lot of
pedestrians crossing treats it don't
seem very safe.
>> So I think just to give sort of more
specific examples of of things we're
looking at that have come up in this
kind of first month of analysis
>> for the next six months we have to do
everything we can to save life.
>> Yeah.
>> So at six months time it either will be
there and they will have doubled down to
say yes we're committed to do it or it's
gone. And so either way that's going to
free.
We can channel the resources, different
kinds of resources, new money into light
rail or if light rail is gone, then
everybody who's fighting right now to
keep it, we'll have time to do it.
>> We cannot lose light rail. I was going
to say that
>> that's that that's layered on top of
everything we talked about is the next
six months of making sure that Sound
Transit
>> and anytime somebody sees I every time
we met with Canwell or Murray and
somebody said something about getting
live rail to Tacoma I said and is aqua I
want to ever and is aqua like it was
like we all have to pound this drop
every time you're talking to anyone in
the sound transit board you have to
pound the drop because everything's
going to happen like Wally said between
now and June 3rd
everything and it's I know some people
in here
>> Marie Fwell heard it from him because
Angela Bernie was busy saying I want
more I want more I want more and he said
but don't forget about isqua and the
senators each time turned to him and not
the mayor of Redmond and said and we're
listening so that advocacy at the
federal level with our two United States
senators last five days four days is
really critical
>> can I ask about this Newport is is
Newport We're reduction congestion
really the 70 million we're going to
spend it
>> we're we're not spending 70 million on
>> we're not spending it
>> okay if we spend 14 because we get 80
cents on the dollar from somebody else
is it congestion really
>> I think it would be I think it would
flow better I mean it's roundabouts it's
two roundabouts or three roundabouts
right
>> al also that would be like adding the
bike
>> you'd have you'd have
>> which I bike there all the time every
time
so it would like help with
>> you haven't eaten it all you know
inducing demand for cycling
too.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know.
>> Good.
>> Okay.
>> We'll worry about
>> we what we'll do is we will bring the
conversation and then put this back so
you can define what you want that to
look like. But I you know I like rail
advocacy sounds like it should be you
know important to prioritize.
>> You bet the ranks. So all right
there we go. Final final thoughts at
that time said suggest one thing that I
put on my list of things that I would
like to see. I would um and I think this
goes into economic development and also
on some level transportation mobility to
me mobility is about getting to
destinations right it doesn't
necessarily mean it doesn't have to mean
making traffic flow better on streets if
you have a grocery store that's closer
to your house that you can get to and
you don't have to drive all the better.
So, I think looking at the permanent
uses within our neighborhoods to
potentially allow neighborhood
businesses, cloth did this recently.
They have a whole section of their code
that we could just straight up copy to
our code, looked at it, and so that
could definitely be something to
investigate as well.
>> Is it working for them?
>> Uh, I mean, it's been like a few months.
>> Oh, okay.
>> So, but it's hope they're hopeful that
>> it may be. Yeah,
>> because like upper squawk will never
guess this.
So, I know we're over time, but we we
skipped the last bullet. We just agreed
to come back to that at some point. So,
the second weekend in May,
>> the next time you get together, and that
will be the top line.
>> Yeah, mom. We'll make sure to keep it in
the
>> Well, I think that's Nichols. I mean, my
background's finance. Like, I I think
Kristen, we've already talked. I think
she's already shifting money out of the
US bank account into the local
government investment pool. So, we start
earning interest on our cash reserves.
Uh, I mean, and like I got a city car
mayor, I donated to the fleet. I was
like, we're
there's going to be a serious attempt to
try to find ways to have our budget in
balance. And uh, and every time somebody
we have natural nutritionists in the
city, Wally and I are looking at these
spots like we're not just we're being
very intentional about how we do
everything, I think, this year. And I
think the goal is to put us on a very
sustainable fiscal path. And and that's
the focus. And so everything I think
that we can do from the administration
side, trust me, is just kind of what I
think about coming to work every day.
>> There we go.
>> I did.
>> Okay. Is that cool?
>> All right. So we are we're at time, but
what I want to do is I I wanted just to
kind of wrap us up. Um, with all of this
context in mind, uh, sort of quick table
stuff that you had to say the one thing
that you're most excited about for the
next year based on what we've been
talking about each year just to kind of
get into the room that I'm really
excited about this hard priority. Uh,
and then one word describe how you
feeling about this next year based on.
So those two things I want to ask you to
do. We'll just do a quick round round
the table knowing that we are
technically past.
>> I'm excited that we're going to get
going on transit or development and uh
I'm just uh extremely optimistic about
this group.
>> Thank you, sir.
>> No, and I would ditto the optimism of of
the crew for working with us. I mean, I
was I heard some horror stories this
past week of people. mayor's how they
interact with their councils. It is I
think I'm very optimistic and and I
really do want to see smart investments
in transportation and parks. I mean
parks when I say parks I mean trails I
mean the whole kind of umbrella of that
area and so that's what I'm most excited
about.
>> Correct.
>> I'm excited about the discussion about
the housing barriers of the future.
Cautiously optimistic.
>> That's as happy as I get.
>> It's fine. We'll take it.
So, first of all, how are you feeling?
Does this feel like did you get a lot?
>> I've got a lot. I'm extremely hopeful
and excited. This is really interesting,
exciting, and I'm really looking forward
to all of this. Uh, I'll try to just
pick one. I think all of these
priorities are fantastic. I'm really I'm
not actually most of the thing that
comes to mind most is just I'm excited
to know one way or the other on light
rail is what I'm most excited
>> that is such a pivotal moment of our
future that just to kind of get to the
answer of that is where the us all
rowing together like light rail is no
better example where all eight of us
need to be rowing that boat in the same
direction and not to say that bus rapid
transit isn't a form an option out there
but I'm just saying I think we need as a
community to really say this project's
important and we can do it under cost
and ahead of schedule and we want to be
the pilot projects. You guys actually
get a win rather than public ridicule
and which has been their MO.
>> Yes.
>> Um I'm excited to see action on all
kinds of things. I mean hearing about
the builder round table and the housing
meeting and the mayor retreat time
budget it just it feels very responsive
to both the community and council needs.
Action
your one word.
>> Oh god.
>> Action. Yeah.
>> Actionable.
Yeah. The action of evol.
>> Okay. Kevin.
>> Um I guess I I think I'm most excited
about uh getting to hopefully personally
shovel at least a half a cubic foot of
dirt. Mhm.
>> That will be the location of a transit
oriented development. Uh
>> much more than that um work-wise, but um
and then otherwise seeing us dig in and
hopefully make some very good progress
on um hous
>> describe how you feel about next year.
>> Uh optimistic.
>> Okay. Not cautiously, just like full.
Hold on. That's two words.
>> Oh,
by the rules.
>> Okay. I think uh Kevin stole my answer.
I'm excited to attend the groundbreaking
of the TODC. I'm excited to ride the new
shuttle bus that's going to go from
Isiqua Transit Center to Talis that's
going to be funded from the King County
Metro Levy. I'm manifesting this for
myself. Um, and uh I'm excited to see a
another housing development in central
Isiqua get through permitting that's not
the TODC.
So am ambitious
and your word is um progress.
>> Progress. All right. Very good.
Only one word. One word.
>> Thank you.
>> I'm sorry, Shannon. All right. Well,
that that is a wrap then unless there's
anything else that needs to happen here
today. Um great conversation, you know,
lot we have lots lots to pull together
to bring back to you and follow. Uh
thanks for having us to be a part of the
conversation. Appreciate it.
You're not even
>> Oh, one last piece of business. I know
that uh Kelly and Lindsay both need
Seahawk.
>> Anybody else need Seahawk wear? might
I'm going to see if I can get something
but I might think I got something
I have nothing to do Friday is turning
into blue Monday for the council
meeting.
>> It's smart ball like I