okay welcome everyone I council
president Walsh called the May 20th city
council meeting to order mayor Paulie
has an excused absence tonight so I will
be serving as mayor proem and council
member Hunt is attending remotely as a
reminder we continue to have a remote
aspect of our meetings so uh both staff
members of the public and council
members may be participating in
tonight's meeting remotely via WebEx but
we have a lovely group of people in the
room so that's always nice it feels less
lonely up here that you guys are here uh
the first item on our agenda is the
Pledge of Allegiance and I welcome
everyone to join me in the
pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to
the Republic for it stands one nation
under God indivisible liberty and
justice okay and we are starting off
tonight to celebrate many of the people
that are in the audience uh with a few
proclamations for the first one I will
invite Greg Keith water operations
manager to the
podium excellent so it's not often that
we get to celebrate one of our employees
um but in this case we've got Greg
retiring after almost 35 years of
service to the city so it's a really
important time to say thank you um for
all of your work so Greg Keith or gpk as
he is known around Public Works uh
started in the city as a par part-time
Parks maintenance Aid in June 19
1985 he made you remember how much he
made per
hour yeah 650 is what we have down there
so uh it's grown a little bit since then
I hope um he returned the next year to
the same role but then had a three-year
Hiatus from the city when he managed the
convenience store at the G gas station
at sunset at front at the time and in
1989 he returned to the city as a
part-time uh parks maintenance worker
and 6 months later joined the public
works department as a utility
maintenance worker he's had just a few
title changes in between their
promotions over the decade um and
ultimately became our water operations
manager on
111 very auspicious
date uh Greg has been a uh he's
therefore served as our drinking water
manager as he likes to say because there
are lots of other water that we manage
in the city um so for over 23 years he's
been the drinking water manager and has
served the city for nearly 35 years he's
been a devoted caretaker of isqua's
vital water ensuring its ample and
reliable Supply and its quality as isqua
has grown and as regulations have
changed as new issues have emerged
somebody want to say p
maybe okay not on not today okay
uh Greg was always focused on doing
whatever needed to be done to deliver
safe and clean drinking water to our
customers um within the public works
department Greg has been a champion for
and a mentor to the employees and an
invaluable member of the management team
so we are very grateful for your almost
35 years of service and we want to wish
you a wonderful retirement full of great
concerts and successful Seahawks seasons
so yeah um we've got a plaque for you
but do you want to say a few
words okay step right up
um thank you uh it's been it's been a
great opportunity a great career I
couldn't have done it without uh support
of um the people I work with and um and
the backing of the leadership all all of
you so thank you very much
it's been a good
ride so we will do the plaque and then
while he going to take a picture so if
you want to step out a little bit
[Applause]
okay and we will follow up with our next
Proclamation um presenting to Public
Works director Emily moon for Public
Works week
Proclamation so whereas this year marks
the 64th annual National Public Works
week and whereas the 2024 National theme
advancing quality of life for all honors
the Public Works professionals and
Public Works is the thread that connects
us all no matter where we live in the
world and whereas our Public Works
professionals focus on infrastructure
facilities and services that are of
vital importance to sustainable and
resilient communities and to the public
health high quality of life and
well-being of the city of
isqua and whereas these infrastructure
facilities and services could not be
provided without the dedicated efforts
of Public Works professionals Engineers
managers and employees at all levels of
government and in the private sector who
are responsible for rebuilding improving
and protecting our
transportation water supply water
treatment and Solid Waste Systems public
buildings and other structures and
Facilities essential for our community
and whereas we pay tribute to the
substantial contributions these
individuals make to protecting our
health safety and quality life now
therefore I on behalf of Mary L poly
mayor of the city of isqua do hereby
Proclaim May 19th to 25th to be Public
Works week in the city of isqua and
invite the community to join me in
thanking the public works department for
their service and outstanding
contributions and I know you want to get
these guys up here do you want to make a
few words
or fantastic come on over thank you very
much um very happy to be joined by quite
a few of my team members tonight mostly
to honor Greg so thank you for that
recognition of him and my Shameless plug
is Wednesday evening from 4: to 6:30
come to Public Works we're having an
open house a tour all sorts of family
fun it's going to be a great
time thank
you I'm not sure you pluged that enough
there's like Touch a Truck and you get
to know all of the things that are going
on I'm really excited about this idea
fantastic you guys want to come up and
we can take a picture
yep e
so we've got another Proclamation coming
up um and this one is presented by
council member Joe for travel and
tourism
week yeah yeah if I could have John prac
come forward he's the board chair for
visit
isqua I also have the pleasure of
serving with John on the ltac committee
and really appreciate the work that our
hot tellers our hot tellers give to help
make isqua strong in the tourism
Department whereas this year marks the
40th anniversary of national travel and
tourism week and whereas the travel
industry fuels every industry and will
continue to be an essential part of
isqua's economy development and
Workforce and whereas travel is an
economic Powerhouse for every state and
destination across the country
with an economic output of 2.6 trillion
in 2022 supporting 14.5 million American
jobs and whereas travel spending
supports vibrant life and safe
communities in isqua and across the
United States by generating 84 billion
billion with a B in state and local tax
revenue in 2022 to support essential
services such as education emergency
response Public Safety and more more and
whereas travel enables success for all
Industries including
manufacturing agriculture defense
healthare and more by driving sales
growth Innovation education and
operations that move our economy our
nation and isqua forward and whereas the
travel industry cannot recover without
the full return of leisure business and
international inbound Travelers
increasing travel to and within the
United States drives America forward to
a more prosperous future and whereas the
travel industry's success will grow
isqua's economy and Workforce since
prior to the pandemic small businesses
accounted for 60% of leisure and
Hospitality employment and whereas
travel is an essential industry and we
must continue to communicate that
growing travel leads to economic growth
benefits businesses and fosters Mutual
understanding now therefore on behalf of
mayor Mary L paully mayor of the city of
isqua we you hereby proclaim the week of
May 19th to the 25th to be travel and
tourism week in the city of isqua and
your citizens of isqua to join us in
recognizing the critical role this
industry plays in isqua in witness where
whereof I have here on to set my hand
and seal of the city of isqua this 20th
day of May 2024 Mary L poly
mayor um thank you to everyone
that works at the city all of our
partners and everyone that lives in the
city um one of the biggest things about
being in the tourist industry is it's
not just us in the hotel or the
restaurants that make a good place this
day it's everyone working as a team all
of our wonderful Partners uh and the
opportunity to go through a wonderful
travel program to learn more to make our
city just an even better place to stay
and being conscious with all the changes
that happen so thank you
[Applause]
AR
thank you and next up we've got council
member Bray presenting a proclamation
for Emergency Medical Services week and
so we'd like to invite Deputy uh Chief
AO and the crew of station 73
up um so I just wanted to start by
saying um I spent I think six years on
the board for Eide fire and rescue and
was one of the great um privileges of
being a member of the city council here
was to be also able to work with these
fine people and as a um unfortunate but
grateful uh recipient of Emergency
Medical Services I ever in your debt so
um whereas in
1974 uh President Gerald Ford announced
the and authorized the First National
Emergency Medical Services week and
whereas medical services are vital
Public Services and whereas members of
East Side Fire and Rescue stand ready to
provide life-saving care to those in
need 24 hours a day 7 days a week and
whereas access to Quality Emergency Care
dramatically improves the survival and
recovery rate of those who experience
sudden illness or injury and whereas
Emergency Medical Services have grown to
fill a gap by providing important out of
hospital care including preventative
medicine followup care and access to
Tele medicine and whereas members of the
East Side Fire and Rescue whether career
or Reserve engage in thousands of iows
of specialized training and continuing
education to enhance their life- saving
skills and whereas it is appropriate to
recognize and value the accomplishments
of emergency medical service providers
by designating Emergency Medical
Services week therefore it is hereby
proclaimed the week of May 19th to 25th
to be Emergency Medical Services week in
the city of isqua and I invite the
community to join me
in thanking East Side Fire and Rescue
for their service and outstanding
contributions be would you like to say a
few things
pleas yeah on behalf of uh the men and
women of East Side Fire and Rescue I
really thank you so much for
acknowledging the fine work that uh
these folks are doing out there over 70%
of our call volume is medical and it is
so important to us that we have a
healthy Community which is why we spend
so much time training and preparing and
equipping all of our folks so thank you
very much for the
honor right as much as you'd like to get
out of it you've got to do the photo
[Applause]
we've just been enjoying all the
Privileges of being able to celebrate
everybody in our community we've got uh
one more tonight uh council member
Marts
what yes uh council member Mart who you
can see up there is an avid Boer is
presenting National safe boting week and
uh we are welcomed by the US Coast Guard
auxiliary member you can join him yeah
please please do join I believe Dale
Voda with US Coast Guard auxiliary and
uh yeah I thought I would use a picture
this was from about 48 hours ago on at
Eagle Harbor so with h PFD nice to see
you sir S I didn't bring one for you
that's quite all right quite all right
my wife and I are we wear ours always
when we're on Deck uh whereas the
national safe boating week is
coordinated each year by the national
safe boating Council and its boating
safety Partners across the US and Canada
and for nearly 100 million Americans
boating continues to be a popular
recreational activity and from coast to
coast and everywhere in between people
are taking to the water and enjoying
time to gather boating sailing paddling
and fishing and on average 650 people
die each year in boating related
accidents in the United States with the
vast majority of those accidents caused
by human error and poor judgment and
whereas this campaign serves to remind
us to keep safety front and center all
season long and whereas a significant
number of Voters who lose their lives by
Drowning each year would be alive today
had they worn their life jackets and
whereas the city of isqua is adjacent to
Lake samamish it encompasses numerous
other waters now therefore the city of
isqua does hereby proclaim the week of
May 19th to the 25th to be National safe
boating and paddling week in the city of
isqua and I encourage all community
members to make responsible possible
decisions when taking to the water for
boating sailing paddling and fishing
activities and to wear a life jacket in
witness thereof the mayor uh put her
hand unto her hand and seal of the city
on the 20th of May
202 you care to make a comment or two
I'd like to thank the city of isqua for
issuing a proclamation uh for those that
are not aware the Coast Guard auxiliary
is the civilian volunteer branch of the
Coast Guard so um and U we have uh I'm
the member of the local floella for the
east side I'm also the current elected
officer for the division which is
greater King County basically so uh yes
we would like to uh draw your attention
that uh paddling is the
uh paddling is what we're going for this
year because uh during the pandemic
there was a great uh surge of people
looking for uh socially distance
activities and paddling was discovered
and we went from uh in the state of
Washington we went from in the like 15th
in the nation in deaths and injuries to
over seventh in in in in
2022 so this year fortunately we we're
coming back down on that but uh just
make sure that everybody wears a life
jacket when you get in your car you wear
a like a seat belt when you go on a
bicycle you wear a helmet You Will Go On
A Boat you wear a life
Jack uh so thank you very much
[Applause]
[Applause]
and now we get to get into the just
nitty-gritty business not celebrating
people but getting into the rest of our
business um the next item of business is
audience comments and members of the
public May address council at this time
in person or virtually those who signed
up in advance to make comments will be
called on first if you're joining us
virtually and would like to make virtual
comments um you can raise your virtual
hand or send the host a chat message if
you're on a phone you can press star
three if you're on a computer or
smartphone you're going to look for that
hand icon or you can send the CH host a
chat message if you're in the room and
did not sign up for speak uh did not
sign up I will ask for other speakers
before closing this portion of the
meeting so I notice there are no members
of the public in uh in the chambers
anymore they've all left uh but clerk do
we have anyone online uh making a
interest to
speak council president we have one
attendee online but they have not
indicated a desire to speak at this time
okay well as a
reminder you can always email US Written
comments can be submitted at any time
city council at isqua
wa.gov and we'll reply because we like
hearing from
you so let's see next item of business
is the consent
calendar
and
see do I start out with the uh mayor's
remarks Okay so we've got a few items on
the consent calendar but the mayor has a
few remarks that she wanted to convey on
those um the first is AB
8850 the psse community solar lease and
easement agreement the city of esqua is
enthusiastic to partner with Puget Sound
Energy to construct the fourth Community
solar project west of the
Cascades this solar installation on the
community center roof will offer no cost
subscriptions for up to 82 isqua
households with low income and help to
reduce their electricity bills by $10 to
$20 per month the 193 kilowatt solar
array installation is expected to reduce
our community emissions by over 117,000
lbs of CO2 per year that's equivalent to
consuming 7,000 gallons of
gasoline and it supports implementation
of the city's climate action plan there
are about 3 megawatts of community solar
in Washington hosted by other Utilities
in addition to psc's 16 megaw of
installed capacity the office of
sustainability is lead for the project
and working in close coordination with
facilities and parks and community
services and we look forward to
celebrating the installation early in
the fall pretty exciting uh the next one
is ID 1724 informational update on
posos um in the packet tonight there's
an informational update on per and poly
floral alkalol substances or posos from
the public works director Moon uh larger
discussion on POS will take place on the
July 8th meeting in the meantime ecology
is accepting public comments now until
June 6 on documents for two cleanup
sites in isqua where posos were found
for more information you can visit the
city's website at isqua
w.gov
pfas okay um are there any committee
chairs or chair designes who would like
to report on any of the consent calendar
items tonight
not seeing any okay the consent calendar
was distributed to Council in advance if
authorized the items on the consent
calendar will be considered together and
approved by one motion have the payables
and payroll been reviewed they have and
they have I'm I'm number two on that
one a little bit awkward but that's fine
um does any council member desire to
remove any items from the consent
calendar and consider it under regular
business NOP
okay and is there a
motion Deputy council president D
Michelle thank you I move that we accept
the consent agenda as
presented second
okay the motion to approve the consent
calendar as presented has been moved and
seconded is there any Council
discussion not seeing any so the motion
before council is to approve the consent
calendar as presented all those in favor
signify by saying I
I those
opposed okay that passes
unanimously the next item of business is
regular business we get a presentation
on AB 8834 the wildfire and Wildland
Urban interface code update and
mitigation efforts if I do not hear the
acronym wooi at least a few times
tonight I'm going to be sorely
disappointed I will just preface right
now woy is the Wildland Urban interface
um because I'm sure it will come up so
I'd like to invite building official
James Gray and emergency manager Jer
Jared Snyder to the podium thank you
thank you so much council president um
we are here tonight to talk about the
Wildland Urban interface code our wooi
and also Wildland Urban interface um
mitigation efforts that the the city is
working on I'm co-presenting with Jared
Schneider tonight so first of all our
recommendations we recommend we
recommend to wait to adopt the mandatory
provisions of the Wildland Urban
interface code we'll get into a little
bit later what the mandatory Provisions
from the State Building Code Council
were about uh that we we had some
mandatory Provisions that were
recommended and we decided to hold on
those th those were adopted but then
they were recced um in addition to that
we are recommending that we amend the
building code to adopt the driveway
turnaround provision which is one of the
structural hardening Provisions that we
that we can that we can adopt there are
some updates to the barbecue section and
the fire code that came about as part of
another emergency um last minute
adoption and some discussion about the
state and King County efforts to develop
Regional maps that have to do with
Wildland risk a little bit of background
um ESB 6120 is the encumbered Senate
bill that wrapped up the Wildland Urban
interface code and the State Building
Code Council Provisions into a emergency
ordinance that pulled it that pulled it
back basically pull it back from from
the adoption that had already happened
so and that happened on March 15th but
and then that's after the council
adopted this Council adopted the codes
on March 4th which included those
Provisions in in addition there was the
emergency rule that we talked about at
the barbecues and I will give the Fire
Marshall a chance to talk about that if
there if we have some some questions
little bit of background about
encumbered Senate Bill
6120 it required Department of Natural
res resources to develop some Wildland
Maps Hazard maps that cover the entire
state so Bas level Wildfire risk Maps
which we'll talk about in a moment and
it stipulated which portions of the
Wildland Urban interface code that had
to be
adopted soon as they did that they
withdrew it at the end of the section
session so that's that's what that's
what left us with this action today uh
but it did permit cities and counties to
adopt all of it or portions of it or of
it and again it neither this legislation
or the rule affected our ability to to
adopt any pieces of
that so just a quick review at April
April 2nd we presented for the Planning
Development economic commission and
committee pardon me and the committee
recommended accepting the staff's
proposal to not adopt the Amendments
from the State Building Code council's
first draft um we also recommended
looking at other provisions of the code
that we could adopt that might be less
painful at this point and might might
make more sense for our
community and before we jump into that I
want to Turf it off to Jared Schneider
the emergency manager and talk about our
Wildfire mitigation
efforts thank you James and uh good
evening Council it's a pleasure to be
here again I was just looking back at my
email and this is my work adversary so
it's spent about one year at the city of
isqua and it's been a a great year
indeed so it's a pleasure to be in front
of you again to talk about wildfire and
um not just in the context of wooi codes
because our Wildfire mitigation efforts
expand so much further um um than just
the wooi code elements so what I'm going
to do is set the stage a little bit and
talk about some of the challenges of why
the there's been this back and forth
going on um at the state level um and
kind of explain why this is such a
difficult topic to tackle as local
jurisdictions lawmakers and uh decision
makers so with that um there's really
two types of wildfires that we have here
on West Side of the Cascade communities
um we have our small brush fires that
you see on the left here um those are
typically fires that are around power
lines um Highway medians or even you
know localized around small uh
neighborhoods and then we have what we
call mega fires and that's what you see
on the right um this is the oult burn of
1902 that red area is actually what
burned um it was about 328,000 um Acres
it claimed the lives of 38 individuals
this was back in 190 yeah 1902 and the
fire moved exceedingly quick it was um
about a mile an hour which is very fast
for Wildfire and what was really driving
it was these dry East Winds um the fire
was so um the winds were so high that
the Embers actually jumped the Columbia
River and started um fires over in
Oregon so those are kind of the two
types of wildfire scenarios that we're
planning for on the west side of the
Cascades now our friends on the east
side of the Cascades have a completely
different fire regime and that's really
what's been making it challenging for
for
lawmakers so this next slide you see um
this graphic here um on the left side of
the graphic you see um our own local
forests they're wet forests they're
highly productive um what see is 300 to
400 years without fire suppression or
Wildfire below it you see 300 to 400
years with fire suppression um notice
how there's not really any difference
there uh on the right side we have our
Drive forests that are more
characteristic of the east side of the
mountains and what you see is much more
abundant and dense forests as a result
of wild of wildfire suppression efforts
now the reason that we're highlighting
this is just because um the vegetation
management element of the wooi co
has been particularly the element that's
there's been a lot of back and forth
around James is going to talk about that
a little bit more in detail about what
that would mean for our community but
just keep this in mind um that you know
our Force actually look the way that
they're supposed to look like um you
know we don't have that same issue as
the east side of the uh mountains where
Wildland firefighting has led to the
problem becoming you know worse in in
some of those communities um and then
the last thing I wanted to do on this
slide was just highlight a quote from
the King County Wildfire risk reduction
strategy which is a strategy that uh
prescribes 12 actions that we can take
to reduce Wildfire risk uh it reads
unfortunately no amount of property or
vegetation management can completely
eliminate Wildfire risk particularly in
the case of large wind driven Wildfire
events and I'm just highlighting that
again to keep in mind as we go through
these slides and talk about our efforts
to reduce risk that you know Wildfire is
a very challenging topic and um our
forests as we've discussed are very
abant under the right conditions dry hot
um low snow pack and those East Winds
you know we could likely have a large
Wildfire um before we turn it back to
James I just want to highlight some of
the things that we are already doing
right as I mentioned W code
implementation isn't the only way that
we're addressing Wildfire risk in the
city you know it's a small part of our
strategy or but an important part of our
strategy and how we deal with
Wildfire so I'm happy to announce
um that isqua is um undergoing a
wildfire evacuation study um this is
something that I'm personally very
excited about and I think it's going to
answer a lot of our community questions
and desires that we've been all
clamoring for you know when it comes to
Wildfire now evacuation is very
important because we have a lot of
neighborhoods that have one way in and
one way out right in many neighborhoods
there's also Service Roads and um
potential areas that we might want to
mitigate to um to create new roads and
and things like that this study will
give us a baseline time estimate on how
long it'll take a neighborhood to
evacuate and for the whole city to
evacuate what this study does is they
actually build your city piece by piece
within a virtual model down to even like
stop signs and other road signs um it's
a complete replica of your city then
once they complete that you know they
run a whole bunch of traffic simulations
and you get a time estimate out of it
but what makes it so exciting is the
fact that they can actually play with
the model so if we wanted to make a road
in Forest Rim we can actually see and
quantify the benefit that it would have
in terms of uh time reduction and
evacuation same is true for the service
roads so we can model you know if we
open up the service road 30 minutes
after the fire start it would help you
know with an hour you know in evacuation
times it also gives you best practices
um like where at which intersections to
position police officers and how and the
positive benefits that would have on
evacuation time
um so really I think it'll help us guide
our future decisions and guide our
future mitigation actions when it comes
to Wildfire in a really tangible way
right we'll have hard numbers that we'll
that we'll know for our evacuation times
and we can know what we can do to reduce
those times so frankly I'm very excited
about it because it gives us something
to work with right um so our current
timeline for that is we're hoping that
it'll be done by the end of the year um
if not it'll be you know very early next
year so this is um this is Full Steam
ahead and I'm going to be happy to share
the results with you all when they're
completed a similar effort um that we
are undergoing is something that is
called chipper days now we're not the
First Community to do a chipper days you
may have already heard about it
essentially what it is is um individual
homeowners pile their large Woody debris
up in on the street and someone comes by
with a wood chipper in this case it
would be our parks department comes and
chips that Woody debris um and then you
know our parks department will use those
wit chips later but you what it does is
it reduces the risk around you know
Wildfire but it also gives us a really
good chance to talk to community members
about Wildfire risk right so East Side
Fire and Rescue has a wildfire
mitigation specialist it's uh their
whole job uh they go around they look at
homes and they give recommendations
she's hoping to come on out with us and
so as we're chipping people's you know
Woody debris we can also talk about
other tangible ways uh that Wildfire
risk can be reduced on their property so
we're really excited to Pilot this we're
going to Pilot it up in Forest rim on
Parcels that border city-owned property
so that's going to be our first initial
pilot program area we hope to expand it
later if it's if it's a success King
Conservation District um we've been
working with them closely they've been
doing these for quite some time and they
recommended that we start small first
because the logistics behind them are
actually surprisingly large so we don't
want to um have our Parks employees
chipping through the night or anything
like
that all right all right so those are
some of the mitigation efforts that
we're taking but we're also preparing
our operational side at the city so
we've had a couple exercises um that I
want to highlight this was a Timber
Ridge evacuation exercise that we did
about a month ago um Timber Ridge is a
independent living assisted living
community up in the Talis neighborhood
um we were able to simulate a wildfire
event up there and actually evacuated um
30 of those residents brought them down
to isqua Senior Center which is our
resilience Hub check them in and uh had
them essentially go through you know
step by step what it would be like in an
evacuation now Beyond just the residents
getting that experience for us that is
really invaluable you know just thinking
through this challenge of evacuation and
providing for our community members in
those times um was something that I
think was very beneficial for all
involved our CT team helped out to which
I know some of you have taken part in um
and it was a very very good exercise one
that we don't have a slide for um only
happened a couple weeks ago but uh isqua
staff joined in isqua's emergency
Operation Center training and exercise
um and what an EOC is an emergency
Operation Center is essentially where we
coordinate our Disaster Response in the
event so we had a training for about 50
staff members um it was it was a good
training but was really valuable too at
the end is we had an exercise a
discussion based exercise and you can
probably guess what the hazard was it
was Wildfire so we talked about a
wildfire starting outside of the Talis
neighborhood and went step by step you
know through our actions and what we
would do even beyond the response but
even into recovery and you know we had a
lot of good takeaways from that and I
think we all learned um quite a bit but
I just want to highlight that you know
we're actively thinking through um our
response you know at the city level
right we are we're we're moving forward
to not get cut flat footed in any one of
these uh
incidents all right talking about public
education real quick um the public being
aware of this risk is very important
here's a picture of our Emergency
Management intern Lisa Sergeant at the
sustainability Fair spreading the word
about uh wildfire and all hazards within
the city here are a couple tweets that
we posted last summer with the help of
the communications team raising
awareness around Wildfire particularly
in those high-risk uh late summertime uh
days that we that are that our risk is
worse and then um I've been hitting a
lot of our neighborhoods in HOAs um
lately talking about Wildfire risk and
all hazards too so um just last week I
was up in the highlands at a community
presentation there um with C Robinson
East Side Fire and rescues Wildfire
mitigation specialist um just talking
about Wildfire so I've been to Talis um
Providence Point the highlands you know
really just missing squawk now so we're
making a concerted effort to get out
into the community you know to make sure
that they're aware um it's really
important that they are notified in in
an in an emergency particularly in a
wildfire so a few other initiatives um
we're expanding our emergency alert um
subscribers we're also encouraging our
partners and community- based
organization Partners to take part in
what we are also partnering in the
trusted partner Network that's a lot of
Partners but uh what this is It's a
volunteer group that helps push
emergency broadcasts to their community
in which they find themselves part of so
you know we may not always have inroads
with every Community right that uh of
individuals that live in isqua right but
someone likely does so if they can help
us rebroadcast our emergency alerts to
that Community you know they're getting
it from a source they trust and they're
getting it in a way that they would
expect so whether it be WhatsApp or
Discord or any of these other um
communication methods that we don't
typically use um these individuals will
rebroadcast that message for us so we're
really excited about trying to expand
that in this qua like I said
notification is essential uh in a
wildfire we're also developing our
community wildfire protection plan in
partnership with Eide fire and rescue so
um Cat Robinson again Wildfire
mitigation specialist is leading that
effort that will give us tangible
actions that we can take to reduce our
our risk uh lastly the resilience Hub
efforts which I've alluded to earlier um
we are expanding these resilience hubs
what they are if you're unfamiliar with
the concept is there a single location
that um will remain essentially
operational during an emergency where
the community can come to um they can
get help they can get connected with um
other services that may not be available
to them at that individual resilience
Hub and uh we're doing this project in
partnership with the sustainability
group and we're seeing great great
progress so far and we hope to really uh
make sure that this holds firm in isqua
we have many resilience hubs in our
community all right so with that we've
set the stage on what we're doing uh
with Wildfire risk um and a little bit
about our particular risk as James
alluded to
um there is Wildfire risk maps that are
being developed in association with the
new ruie codes now there's two maps
actually that isqua will get a chance to
partake in um the first one is dnrs Maps
so they'll be developed in about a year
and a half after their completion local
jurisdictions will have about six months
to adopt either that map or an
additional map or a different map that
they've made um jurisdictions will also
get a chance to provide feedback on
those state maps so we can you know have
a say into the mapping process um but
little more is known about that effort
so far it's still relatively new we
haven't heard much from the state about
what that's actually going to look like
or what our opportunities will look like
to really influence that mapping Pro uh
that mapping product but um we will stay
on top of that the second uh Wildfire
risk map that's being developed is
actually through King County they
received grant funding to develop a
community Wildfire protection plan and
part of that Grant is to um do a risk
map for their community and um I guess I
should take a step back too and
highlight that risk maps are different
than wooi Maps I think you've all seen
the wooi map that I think I've even
presented here before right risk maps
are not wooi maps uh risk Maps take in a
whole bunch of different other factors
that say not just where vegetation is
growing right next to development which
is wooi Maps risk Maps taken to effect
things like weather pattern
right fuels burn probability um
historical um occurrences of wildfire
that all makes up risk Maps so it's not
going to be another Wii map what what
it's going to look like is completely
different from what we're used to
seeing so with that we really have two
options we can either wait until the
development of uh Washington Department
of Natural Resources risk map and King
County's risk map that consider our own
local modifications or option two we can
procure our own city of visal wildfire
risk study now um a little bit later in
the presentation I'll be up to talk
about what that actually looks like at
the recommendation of PDC when James and
I were there U that was one of the
takeaways as they wanted us to do a
little fact finding Miss Mission so I'll
uh present on that
soon okay so let's take a look at what
risk Maps currently are saying about
isqua's uh situation so here is the
United State Forest Services Wild risk
mapping uh tool they show isqua is
having a low risk of wildfire lower than
most communities in the US I think it's
at
78% um now what you see in this map
right is you have these top boxes that
say low right but then exposure part
that says high right down in the left
quadrant and that's really the wooi map
right that's that's the wooi you know
all of our neighborhoods have large
amounts of vegetation around them and so
while the exposure is high our risk is
still relatively low
uh the same is true for FEMA's National
Risk Index um this is essentially a tool
that all Hazard mitigation professionals
use to understand their exposure to a
natural Hazard for a community so what
it says about King County it doesn't get
down into the city level is that there's
relatively low risk um especially when
you compare it to somewhere like Chalan
you know you see it in the Risk Index
score of
9917 right katas is 98.57%
counties Pearson to homish they have
kind of similar risk to us right but
again this is just to highlight right
what current risk products are saying
about isqua the last one I I want to
show you is actually what private
insurers look like oh sorry yeah can we
uh go back I think you got a question
from council member Mars yes
yeah pardon me does that does that
include an estimated probability of fuel
load yes yeah okay because most of the
year we're pretty wet except when we're
not exactly exactly and that's what
really contri that's what our risk is
right on those hot dry East Wind days
right that's what makes our extreme fire
hazard you know uh days right that's
when we get the red flag warnings which
are quite rare but yes these risk
mapping products account for that
account for that vegetation
load great all right so risk factor um
is what private insurance companies used
to understand risk for for hazards um
what they say about isquad this is
actually taken at the forest Rim uh
community so arguably our highest risk
Community for Wildfire risk they say
that we have a less than 0.1% chance of
a wildfire in uh 30 years so um still
relatively low right so the reason I'm
highlighting all of these right is to
say there's a good chance if we do
procure our own Wildfire risk study it's
going to read pretty similar right it's
going to it's it maybe may not um reveal
much more than what you know the models
are already showing uh these risk
modeling um services that these that
these companies do it's a standard
equation um the math is is set um you
just plug in a jurisdiction right and
and it spits out the the information
right so there's not too much variance
is what I'm trying to say right if we do
create if we do choose our own risk
mapping uh effort I'm afraid that it'll
look very similar to the states and the
counties um and it may not be the best
use of our funds but I'll talk about
that a little bit more too we have a
whole slide devoted to our to those risk
maps and I can give you some more
information
then okay so with that um I plan to
track and participate in the state
Wildfire risk mapping effort uh we're
provided the same is true for King
County's Wildfire risk mapping effort as
well um I'll be on the planning team and
I'll you know stay on top of it and then
whatever pream are maps that we get back
um I'll come before PDC and you all to
provide feedback on those maps and get a
chance to you know have your input and
sway in those in that mapping effort now
what that really looks like at the state
process you know yet we're still we're
still questioning ourselves we just
don't have those details um but again
this is a a very important element of
the wooi codes because this is really
what those wooi actions are filtered
through through these risk Maps so great
um now with that James is going to talk
about just how they are applied or could
be applied within our community so back
to James thank
you g thank you for that he's that's
much more exciting than what I've got to
talk about he's a hard act to follow so
much more interesting so the um wadland
Urban interface code one more time this
is so it's kind of a representation of
what we did with PDC on April 2nd just a
quick overview of the mandatory and
non-mandatory provision
so once the Statewide maps are completed
the structural hardening requirements
will be mandatory for those that don't
know structural hardening are elements
that have to do with how we protect the
structures from Wildfire but the
structures themselves roof and exterior
wall construction decks driveways and
ventilation
restrictions if the city wishes to
enforce the non-mandatory provisions
that are not in the RCW that's listed
such as defensible space we would would
need to adopt some or all of those
pursuant to this
RCW so defensible space this is the one
that's gotten the most attention it's
the most difficult and it is also
retroactive in the Wildland Urban
interface code defensible space has to
do with vegetation that is around a
structure and I've got a graphic here in
just a moment to show what this looks
like but for instance uh vegetation
within 30 ft of a structure has to be
removed there's exception for trees
you've got 10 foot tree crowns uh but
there are distances to the power lines
that have to be measured do we have have
a question yeah and um could you just
talk um as you're coming into this how
this code compared
like trying to frame it according to
what I heard from the pte meeting is
this something that you're proposing at
this time or is it a potential future
future
conversation it's a good qu uh question
council president we are proposing to
remove this stuff from what was adopted
previously okay and council member is
there an exception for critical
slope there currently is not so uh I'm
on the upper side of Idlewood and my
neighbor cleared some space around his
house very unwisely and he now has a
$400,000 retaining wall below his house
because he destabilized the hillside 30t
of critical slope creates
slides so what do we do about that and I
mean it it would be you you're trading a
wildfire risk for an extremely well
understood slide risk when you uh when
you do things like that on critical
slope I'm I'm stunned to hear there is
not an exemption for critical slope
thank you council member our
recommendation is to not adopt this
stuff we um we we got a mandate from the
state and then that mandate was
withdrawn and we tried to beat their
deadline and get it adopted which this
this body was uh did for us and then
they withdrew it so we are kind of
rolling back on that now um the the
maybe the the overarching summary of
this whole thing and the emergency
managers presentation is that isqua in
this area in Western Washington is
probably not ready for this code this
may be a code that is more applicable to
drier more desert area I was just down
in Southern California this weekend
actually and talking to some folks who
um live under this code in that area it
it looks very very different than our
community um probably our recommendation
is our community maybe mentally is not
ready for it and our forests aren't
ready for it that's why we're what we
want to present tonight um these
defensible space requirements also fly
in the face of our uh tree canopy goals
several other Provisions in Title
18 so the policy question is should we
wait to adopt the Wildland Urban
interface code until the state does
their piece and the maps are completed
the committee recommended waiting for
the State uh on adoption of the Wildland
Urban interface code but look at what
portions of the defensible space we
could adopt that would help the
situation might not be quite as
painful and then the second question had
to do with it with adopting the maps and
creating our own maps and emergency
managers that a little
bit additional questions we had from PDC
is can we adopt just portions so we
consulted with our legal counsel yes we
can adopt portions and uh some comments
were made about driveway lengths which
would probably help this is for new
structures over 300 ft this would give
Emergency Management been an opportunity
to get up to a structure and be able to
Turner and get back out of the driveway
exceeded 300 ft and we are recommending
that keep that piece of structural
hardening
provision another question from PDC had
to do with the estimating the cost of
creating our own
maps about
that thank you James yes so um we
contacted multiple vendors to procure
quotes for doing just that to develop
our own Wildfire risk maps and what we
got back was a wide range between about
$10,000 to $880,000 to develop those
risk Maps um yeah kind of the reason for
the variance is what you would expect
the level of analysis in details on the
high end you know you could uh even
analyze certain win patterns and things
through certain topography and things
like that but time estimates for the
creation of the maps were about 6 months
to one year and so I think um James kind
of went through it right but the PDC
recommended that the committee uh the
committee recommended waiting to adopt
isqua Wildfire Hazard and risk Maps
until after DNR and King County finished
their Maps so that's what we found from
procuring those quotes about the risk
mapping efforts um I know council member
Hall you um looked like you had a
question about those risk Maps before
earlier um did that answer your
question okay um most of it yes I I
guess I'm I'm curious as to how two M
two maps might look different and why
they might come to that yeah and so I
think that's what I we're all asking um
I think likely they will not look
different because the inputs are pretty
well understood at this point for
Wildfire risk Maps um it's standard it's
kind of backed by the science so that's
my big fear is that we will spend money
to develop our own Wildfire risk map and
it'll look exactly like the states it'll
look exactly like King
counties any other question on the risk
Maps before I turn it back to James
okay and council member Mars a previous
meeting we had you asked about the steep
slopes and your your backyard uh so I
was at a I was at a a building officials
conference and I was talking to a couple
of my peers and one of them was from
Seattle and actually brought this this
thing up I said look we've got you we
have steep slopes like yeah we've got
steep slopes too so what some of them
are are talking about is ranking these
risks so there there's a risk of there's
a risk of uh slope erosion there's a
risk of Wildland and ranking which one
is is more important but we really need
to get to what the state is going to do
with that code before we even got to
that piece at this point we're just
thinking we probably this is probably
not something that we would
recommend so again looks like we've got
a question on that before you move on
along that note I'm just wondering if
the state has that kind of feedback
about thinking about slopes um this
context or or are they kind of chewing
on this in a different so another good
question I and I have not heard it and I
don't know if jar heard something like
that or
no essentially some of these concerns is
what caused you know the yeah the State
Building Code Council to to go back you
know on adoption it's not just steep
slopes too but it's also heat um heat
risk reduction as well trees do a Wonder
for heat so I think it was kind of all
these concerns wrapped together maybe
not just one that did kind of lead to
that so in back to our recommendations
we're we're recommending that we wait to
adopt the mandatory provisions of the wo
until the state's ready there's the
provision on barbecues which again is uh
going back to what was in the original
code and uh waiting to for the for the
state and King County's mapping efforts
so for our timing and next steps uh we
are here at the council code
modification adoption we're requesting
that this minor fire code modification
and we roll back these pieces of the
wooi and that would give us an effective
date for that code of July
1 that we
will questions and before we go to
questions I'm actually going to turn to
PD chair hunt and see if she'd like to
kind of summarize the meeting that we
had over this topic if there's anything
to add
thank you thank you council president
Walsh um yes so the Planning Development
and environment committee met on April
2nd to discuss this item and um some of
the things that we covered were that
Wildfire risks are increasing um due to
climate change and the impacts of
climate change and we want to make sure
that we're proactive in perfecting our
residents and giving our residents tools
to um protect their their homes um
members wanted to be uh to consider
other ways of um protecting residents
and giving residence tools other than
what the State Building Code Council had
um mandated and then rolled back because
the situation with that particular code
was so unclear um we adopted it after
they had mandated it then they they
rolled it back and so now we are also
rolling it back um the city uh wanted to
um uh let's see we wanted to make sure
that we are taking actions that uh we
know are going to be in the future code
to help the contractor and the building
Community um so I think for example the
driveway turnarounds that's something
that we expect to be in the code that's
something that will be um uh important
for contractors to know is going to be a
requirement and so we we were interested
in considering those sorts of parts of
the code um and so I appreciate that
that that was brought forward um today
in our
recommendation and uh we agreed with the
city um the city staff that we didn't
think it made sense for the city to make
its own fire hazard Maps firstly the
time that that would have taken was
about what it's expected to take from
the King County and the um state maps
that are upper ends of how long we think
it would take us to make our own maps
with a year and the lower ends of theirs
was about a year um additionally we as
was as was stated um by Jared we expect
that the results wouldn't be very
different and it would be an expense to
the city when we have other things that
we can do specific to isqua that will
benefit our community such as the
evacuation um study that is going
on and um we did we did think it was
important that the city remains involved
in the planning for the state maps and
in the state map
process we had a discussion about the
defensible space um we we too felt that
the critical slopes is really important
to be considered and the erosion uh
prevention importance of trees and that
wasn't um factored into the current code
so we didn't think that this code the
defensible space made sense and and as
was explained it also got rolled back
probably in part because it that part of
the code may not apply um across the
state including to our part of the
state and
um and then lastly we wanted to make
sure that there were discussions going
on with the homeowners associations
because some of our homeowners
associations in town have um have
requirements that prevent structural
hardening against fire for example so we
want to make sure that those homeowners
associations know that there is this
wooi code that is likely coming it will
likely um require some changes and so we
want to help them prepare and we also
want to make sure that they know what
the status of the Wildfire risk is so
that they can help their communities um
prevent forest
fires excellent well thank you very much
um for that as you can see it's been a
lot of back and forth and back and forth
um but I think we're we're settled maybe
for a little while uh so we're going to
two questions I see Deputy council
president D Michelle starting
out oops so there was a small um item in
the packet about uh barbecues and multif
family uh dwellings and I was very
interested in that I live in a multi
family dwelling and we did have a
barbecue incident at at at mine um and
so I got a good explanation was Jeremy
yes thank you so much that was a really
good so it sounds to me if if I cap you
know kind of capture what was said
somehow this item about barbecues got
adop what we're doing is resending that
adoption so there really there is no
impact to our multifam dwellings if we
follow the
recomend that correct and the second
part was uh
like hunt said uh concern about how you
communicate these changes to multifam
management company as well as
HOAs yeah thank you Council Jeremy Hicks
East Side Fire and Rescue Fire Marshall
South Division uh I think you hit the
nail on the head there um essentially
what happened is um this has not been
adopted by code by model code um to set
um to set the table we'll say this time
um on this there's a couple different
version of the code we have the
international code that then comes to
the state and through a uh lack of
better terms of legislative process the
state reviews it and then makes
recommendations amends the code and then
it goes to the city or the county level
to do it even
further the international code in this
case has a section that's adopted um by
um in in their code language it says
that you cannot use barbecues on
multifam decks and it has a couple
different exceptions on their
non-combustible constructions or
sprinkler
um and then the state chose not to adopt
that section it's been like that for
about the last two or three code
revisions saying this section not
adopted um through this legislative
process I was discussing at the state
that that got thrown out that they got
missed so we accidentally adopted the
code in in a revision that the state
said this isn't going to be adopted so
ironically the same day that they made
the code adoption they also made the
emergency rule saying we're not going to
adopt it almost identical to what they
did with the wooi code so
um planning ahead like we do uh we put
this into our code Amendment sections
saying hey we need to get this out there
get this aware get everybody known and
then the state decided not to adopt it
as you can imagine adopting a code
saying you can't have barbecues on your
deck that it could be a little bit of an
enforcement nightmare right on multif
family it it wasn't thrown out there the
communication so I think uh what we want
to do with the messaging which we've
been doing with the messaging is saying
hey here's the things you should have
follow your manufacturers
recommendations on how you use these
grills and and use them safely um and
that's the communication route we're
going with so what we're asking is just
to roll back that code to match the
state code yeah I really appreciated the
the explanation that you gave me and and
uh also uh the explanation of how you
communicate with multif family because
that's a little different than single
family homes um and it's harder in some
ways to communicate with all of the
people that are involved in a multif
family uh unit so I really appreciated
your response thank you so much no
problem
yeah okay I didn't see Mike speed uh
council member Hall followed by council
member Mars thank you I have a handful
um so I guess I'm a little confused on
on the barbecue because there is some
amended language in the code language in
here about barbecues that talks about
rooftops so is that what we're rolling
it back to is that right yeah so the
code that what you have in front of you
is what the code packets essentially the
amended code and nequa has been for the
last two code
Cycles um let's go back to setting the
table um and when we were doing uh the
table setting before we put the stuff
about barbecues under open burning
because it seemed like a logical place
in the code to put the
amendment when we saw that the barbecue
stuff was coming out it seemed like a
logical place to take the barbecue stuff
and put the barbecue stuff with the
barbecue stuff well now that the
barbecue stuff wasn't being amended
we're asking we still want to keep that
stuff about rooftop barbecues so we're
putting it back to where it was so again
it was it's one of those cases where
you're prepared and then it kind of they
get you like ah um shouldn't shouldn't
have been that prepared so we're just
putting it back to where it was uh
nothing's changing okay thank you that
that clears that up for me
um and then one question for James and
two for Jared and then my other two
questions were already answered by James
so thank you very much um so for the
driveway aspect of this I I just want to
clarify it's not clear to me in the code
language that this applies only to new
build so can you clarify is that right
it's just for new build driveways that's
correct that' be new new new
construction only okay cool I just
couldn't I couldn't find it in the in
the language so perhaps control fing
wrong been scoping as long as okay as
long as your confident there good thank
you um Jared um these are just questions
that came up during your presentation
because you're so passionate and I
appreciate the work that you do and also
thank you for the the talk you and Cat
just did up in the highlands I heard it
was well received so thank you um I'm
curious I've actually had a chance to
sit in on an EOC training Emergency
Operations training it was a water issue
the one that I sat in on but I'm just
curious as a city how often do we go
through EOC trainings do we have some
sort of policy around that yeah I don't
I don't think we have an official policy
but we're trying to figure adjust that
out actually probably a one-year Tempo
is what we're going for so y that sounds
good thank you and then um can you
remind us who the resiliency Hub
candidates are right now I know of the
senior center in Blakeley hall and then
what are the other ones that are kind of
in the mix that yeah um isqua Middle
School is one and then the food bank
we're doing some scoping for potentially
more of a partnership with them because
I know that they might be making some
changes to their facility uh potentially
how other discussions you know aside
from that go um and those are those are
the three currently yep
okay council member
Ms thank you um
so I have a lot of questions but
unfortunately they're not all directly
related to the bill that's in front of
us we have to have a plan um I remember
um State Fire Marshal Chuck Duffy told
me isqua is the poster child for
Wildland Urban interface fires and there
can be models that say well you know 360
days a year it's the fuel loads are
really low but you know then there's the
days that it's not right so we need to
have a plan and on some level we got to
do what Olympia tells us to do because
unfortunately that's the law but I don't
really care what I care about is that
down the road God forbid there's some
sort of uh fire my understanding is on
this side of the P it's about Crown
fires not about understory so there's a
house fire and it goes to the crown and
we lose a neighborhood right y God
forbid but we need to be able to say
that we did everything that we knew
science could tell us to reduce that
risk right and so we need to have that
plan and what we're talking about today
is part of that um there's other parts
of it right we need to on you know maybe
it's that on Red Flag Warning days we
need to have a different um threat
posture for house fires I don't know I'm
not this I leave to the the
professionals at epher um but you know
we need to have a plan such that if and
when again God forbid a bad day happens
we can look our residents in the eye and
say we did everything we could that was
reasonable to prepare for that and again
we have to do what we need to do for
Olympia and we should take our time
especially if it doesn't fit well for
isqua I appreciate that we want to do
that but we have been talking about this
for a while and as a homeowner who lives
adjacent to an open space you know every
time that the fuel loads go up you know
I just I go to bed at night thinking I
just hope there's not a you know
something bad that happen right and I
have a 270 foot long driveway that's 8
and 1 12 ft wide that doesn't have any
kind of a turnout and I'll be lucky to
get off the mountain if something bad
happens so that's my again my my
questions I mean topping versus
polarizing we need to have conversations
about if there's things we can do to
reduce canopy uh fuel load risk that
that makes sense ecologically and
environmentally we need to be having
these conversations Beyond just reacting
to what's going on in Olympia so I'm
hoping that we will get to a point in
the next you know tell me 6 to 12 months
that we'll have a a more comprehensive
plan about what we want to see done in
this community to reduce that's great I
completely agree yeah um you're
preaching to the choir in a lot of ways
I it's one of the things that I'm most
concerned at about too as the emergency
manager yeah we have many neighborhoods
right with such limited ESS that it is
it is a huge concern and you know we're
we're taking we're taking these steps
and yeah it's my commitment to see it
all the way through um honestly and and
you know even to your point in in July
we're going to be hosting um a group of
about 80 professionals around Wildfire
risk reduction at uh the Pickering Barn
to share best practices and as where
conversations you know like that will
will take place and so you know we're ha
we were happy to host it because this is
something you know we got to we got to
figure out um as the west side of the
the Cascades communities you know it's
we have a little bit more grace you know
but it's it's our days are heating up so
you're exactly right I agree council
member Mars thank you
okay wondering anybody else any other
questions thoughts
comments any of
that um we have a public comment period
on this I don't have it on my no okay
fantastic so um do we have anyone who
would like to make a motion on that uh
council member hunt
thank you um I move to adopt ordinance
number
3058 repealing and replacing section
16.04 one11 of the isqua municipal code
regarding adoption of the 2021
International Wildland Urban interface
code and adopt ordinance number
3059 amending the city's fire code by
amending section
16.06 point0 50 and repealing section
16.06 51 of the isqua municipal code
regarding
barbecues
second okay the motion has been moved
and seconded is there any Council
discussion okay council member
hunt thank you council president Walsh
um I completely agree with council
member marz marz's ear earlier comments
on this and in our committee meeting we
mostly talked about things we could do
to make sure that our community was
protected against fire and had taken
those preventative steps um other than
what was in the code that was before us
and so I think that this uh conversation
this presentation today um um by Jared
and James that has been a continuation
of of that conversation trying to make
sure that we are taking actions to
prevent uh Wildland fires and you know
for example doing this evacuation study
making sure that we know what would be
the improvements that would uh decrease
our evacuation times in different
neighborhoods so those are those are
things that are responsive to the uh
need for that action um and uh I think
this is an
unusual uh unusual conversation of this
Council because of that we're not we're
not really talking that much about the
Wildland Urban interface code that was
mandated by the state and then repealed
but rather what else we can do and so I
I too hope that we can continue that
conversation I think there have been
some great things mentioned and great
resources for the community including um
our partners at epher have uh trainings
that they can help people um do
structural hardening of their homes
against fire and and create defensive
space around their homes um also the
evacuation study and then the king
Conservation District work um with the
chipper days so I think we will continue
to see those sorts of programs and
continue the conversations with multif
family homes and with our HOAs um but I
I completely agree that we need to do
more and I think today we're just taking
this first step of ping back the code
that um was problematic for all the
reasons that the state identified and
that our our staff have also
identified excellent um not seeing any
other comments so there's no further
discussion the motion before council is
to adopt ordinance number 3058 repealing
and replacing section
16.04 1111 of the isqua municipal code
regarding adoption of the 2021
International Wildland Urban interface
code and adopt ordinance number 3059
amending the city's fire code by
amending section 16.06
.050 and repealing section 16.06 point0
51 of the is municipal code regarding
barbecues all those in favor signify by
saying I I
I those
opposed that passes
unanimously okay
the yes yeah I heard her
eye um the next item of business
business is committee and Regional
reports so we are starting with council
member Joe thank you um May 22nd uh the
Cascade water Alliance board of
directors will be meeting and uh on June
5th the public affairs committee for
Cascade water Alliance will be meeting
as well that concludes my report thank
you thank you um see I think we'll go
council member
hul thank you uh no
report okay and next council member
Ray thank you council president uh the
committee mobility and infrastructure
committee met
on you want to
rewind oh okay thank you I appreciate
that on on um May 14th here in uh
council chambers we had one agenda item
it was to look at five potential
additions to the transportation
Improvement plan um after reviewing
those five improvements the committee
recommended that they be included in the
tip for this year and then subsequently
in the capital Improvement plan um
the activity is scheduled to come back
to council for a public hearing on the
13th and then adoption um by Council on
June uh 24th so that we can submit to
the state by our July first first uh
Target date and that concludes my
report excellent I think I need to go to
council member um
hunt thank you council president um on
May 16th there was a meeting of the
salmon Recovery Council of Ria 8 which
is the name of our Watershed and we had
one decision item which was the 2024 RI
8 Grant round spending there were around
$2.5 Million worth of grants that were
distributed all across the Watershed
they do really great work for um habitat
recovery and
education about salmon recovery one
project of Interest was there's um
continued funding for the artificial
night at light so light pollution um
work that has been going on this
includes work on lake samamish and um is
looking at how we might reduce the
impacts of light pollution on our salmon
populations um there the next meeting of
the s Recovery Council will be July
18th and uh there was a May 7th meeting
of the Planning Development and
environment committee we had one item
which was uh C uh Comm 0014 amendments
to Title 18 for Emergency Shelters and
Supportive
Housing this was response in response to
a um State House bill that was passed in
2001 which mandated cities to take
action um to allow for the citing of
emergency uh shelters and Supportive
Housing for people experiencing
homelessness um or at risk of
experiencing
homelessness and uh we were uh asked to
deliberate on two specific questions um
in this with this Ordinance one was if
we agree with removing operational plans
as a requirement for day sensors and
night shelters um where people spend uh
one one day at a time and uh we did
agree with the recommendation of staff
that we could remove those operational
plans they didn't really provide any
additional tools for the city to um help
support or interact with these
facilities and it also could have been
seen as a action that
would um prevent the sighting of
facilities so it could be counter to the
intent of the law um if the plans were
more restrictive if the operational plan
requirement was more restrictive than
the funding a gency for
example and the second question we were
asked to discuss was if there was
additional changes to the um to the
recommendation the one thing that we
talked the most about was that the um
occupancy maximum of 50 people in a day
Center or night shelter we discussed as
a committee if that was the number that
um made the most sense we considered
other neighboring
communities um and also the uh occupancy
of the Motel 6 where we are currently
leasing rooms um where people that are
experiencing homelessness can stay for a
for a period of time um and so we did
agree ultimately that we thought 50
people as a maximum occupancy made sense
at this time but we also wanted to make
sure that the city um staff kept an eye
on this and made sure that that number
wasn't preventing the sighting of these
facilities and that number was in line
with what other neighboring similar Siz
communities are are doing um just to
make sure that that is
consistent we also the one other thing
that we discussed um other than sort of
standardizing of the definitions was the
zones where these facilities could be
cited and the state's requirement was
that these facilities be in places where
there are also they where hotels are
also allowed this is because some in
some cases hotels have been converted to
Emergency Shelters or day and um night
facilities and so um we thought that
this did make sense the zones that allow
hotels also um have other facilities and
transportation Transit oftentimes and so
we thought we ultimately thought that
that made sense but again we wanted to
make sure that um this is tracked over
time since this is a new a new uh law
and um and then last thing is we uh
there was a question about if this
impacted the ability of churches to have
um tent cities as as has been the case
in isqua previously and this does not
impact that because that is through a
different kind of a permit so that is
not impacted by these um
amendments uh and there is no so that
concludes that meeting report and there
is no meeting um in June of the Planning
Development and environment committee
that concludes my
report thank you thank you next go to
council member Ms thank you madam
council president the sound cities
Association public issues committee met
on Wednesday May 8th at 7M we talked
about a number of things but um the the
issue that was probably most informative
and that I want to share is uh asy and
Refugee crisis so one of the things
that's happening is um as folks are
coming into the country and uh applying
for Asylum and Refugee status um they
are winding up the distribution of those
folks is occurring uh really at the
moment without any coordinated um effort
or uh planning and so our our friends in
Tuck Willa all of a sudden have four to
500 uh folks that are uh seeking Asylum
or Refugee status um and at present
don't have um any services or help from
the county or the state uh to help this
and so uh the conversation that occurred
is that uh we really need a regional
solution to this um other communities it
can you know um folks can start showing
up and it tends to be self-reinforcing
because if there are folks in the
community uh from a given ethnic group
then other folks want to go where
there's folks that they know and then
pretty soon uh you know it's just not
being coordinated in a way that's making
sure to get resources in so it's a it's
an emerging problem nobody has a really
good solution right now other than to
say that it's not just tuck is problem
um it uh we need to have at the very
least a countywide and possibly a
solution to this problem more to come
clearly the services safety and Parks
committee will be meeting on a special
date uh Tuesday May 28th we would
normally meet tomorrow uh here in
council chambers but there is the annual
awards ceremony so instead uh we are
going to meet like I said Tuesday May
28th 6:30 p.m. here in council chambers
there are two items on the agenda
Comm
0041 court and Criminal Justice Services
and the doozy Comm
0042 Traffic Safety camera update both
of which promise to be mey uh exciting
topics that uh will generate a lot of
interest in the community this concludes
my thank you next up Deputy council
president D Michelle thank you so much
uh on May 10th I chaired the East Side
Transportation partnership and we had a
full agenda beginning with a report from
King County legal council regarding the
open public meetings act as it pertains
to ETP so going forward based on the
legal advice that we received um ETP
will start meeting uh in remotely twice
per quarter and then the third meeting
will be done in person and we will
adjust the public comment opportunities
accordingly so this new um hybrid it's
not exactly hybrid but this new remote
in-person schedule is uh going to
pertain to everyone of the king County's
Regional Transportation groups so it was
brought about with concern by legal
council around
opma uh after we received that report
and took that action uh we next had a
legislative wrap-up report from Robin
kosy of pug sound Regional Council and
our own representative Bill Ramos Vice
chair of the house Transportation
committee
uh and representative Ramos emphasized
in his remarks the need for a new
Revenue source to supplement or replace
the gasoline tax for transportation
improvements and he said that that he
thinks yes it's exciting uh he thinks
that that will be the a number one uh
issue that the transportation committee
will be working on in the next
legislative session and then finally the
group adopted a policy and procedure
related to Municipal requests for
letters of support for federal and state
funding for local projects so um we
adopted the policy procedure that means
that now local municipalities can come
to the Eastside Transportation
partnership and request letters of
support for uh Grant applications that
they are making and those will be done
according to a process of a review
process and uh procedure so it was uh it
was a good meeting um then the regional
transit committee met on May 15th under
the general manager Michelle Allison's
report we learned that Metro intends to
restore 18 Dart or dialer ride Transit
routes and the trail head direct routes
um the meeting focused uh on Metro's
pandemic recovery uh progress and as
soon as I receive the PowerPoint from
that presentation I'll be Distributing
it to you the bottom line is that
ridership uh has increased
year-over-year
133% so
slow but sure progress we're still not
back to 100% Allison emphasized that the
goal of recovery efforts is not
returning to business as usual uh during
the pandemic and since Metro has
increased its focus on Equity they are
really U trying to uh emphasize their
jurisdictional Partnerships and starting
out with learning what community needs
and trying to meet those needs so he
said they're really not looking at at uh
success in
recovery uh with how much they could
duplicate what was happening in 2020 but
how can they go forward with these new
initiatives so the June RTC meeting will
be cancelled and replaced by a Metro
ride along with details to follow I'm
excited and then finally on May 16th the
Eastside Human Services Forum held a
webinar on data collection and sharing
for nonprofit Human Services agencies it
was excellent discussion and I will also
provide Prov you with the uh link to the
recorded uh webinar as soon as uh it is
up on the website so that concludes my
report great and I'll just head on into
mine uh Council leadership met last week
with the isqua school board leadership
continuing our quarterly meetings there
um and the agenda included just both of
us providing feedback on the recent
joint meeting of the whole of the groups
making sure that it met everybody's
needs we um did an update on the ISA
School District bond and potential
support mechanisms we talked about uh
discussion of school traffic issues and
how the school district might help by
encouraging bus usage um both to
mitigate traffic but also help with
sustainability um and then we uh the
school dist District asked about the
city's growth plans and specifically
about the Pioneer project wanted to know
more about that um and then also wanted
a better understanding of the council's
timeline for pool uh conversations about
pool expansion and we talked about how
that is a much longer term conversation
where we have to go back to the public
before Council will have a touch likely
even in the next year or so um so that
concludes my report
rep next item is the mayor's report um
there will not be an executive session
this evening uh the landmarks commission
vacancy so the city is Seeking a
volunteer to serve as a special member
of the King County landmarks commission
the king C King County landmarks
commission is composed of nine members
the isqua special member to the
commission serves the 10th member when
the commission acts on behalf of isqua
interested candidates must reside in
isqua and have a demonstrated interest
in historic preservation applications
will be accepted through June 5th and to
learn more you can visit isqua
wa.gov
apply Public Work Public Works week
festivities um the public works
department is hosting a public open
house and tour of the Public Works
campus on Wednesday May 22nd from 4: to
6:30 p.m. we will have lot lots of fun
opportunities for our VI visitors
including and I really love this whoever
came up with this idea was brilliant a
petting zoo of bobcats deers scorpions
and
caterpillars thank you very much for the
dad joke on that one uh demonstrations
of the CCTV van that is used to inspect
storm water and sewer Ms and how a fire
hydrant Works Touch a Truck photo
opportunities informational booths
highlighting programs and services such
as adopt drain and snow routes tours of
the EOC the emergency Operation Center
um and a scavenger hunt and more so very
exciting Public Works hasn't hosted this
in several years so they're looking
forward to having the community back in
and going off all the cool things they
do uh the following day May 23rd will
conduct a public works Rodeo where our
equipment operators will perform fun
skill tests for bragging rights from
1:30 to 3:00 p.m. we've invited City
staff to visit for tours to watch the
rodeo and to participate in a
collaborative skill with Public Works
Operator just in case anybody wanted to
go do any of those things together uh
for more information please contact
Public Works director Emily moon at
Emily M isqua
wa.gov um upcoming events trail head
direct service to isqua travel right
from Seattle or the isqua transit center
to isqua Trails trail head direct a
seasonal program that provides Transit
service to Trail heads along the
Interstate 90 Corridor returns May 25th
service to mount Sai and the ISA Alps it
will run from May 25th to September 15th
trail head direct was first launched in
2017 as a pilot project sponsored by
King County Metro's Community
connections program and King County Park
to expand access to hiking trails and
reduce trail head congestion in the ISA
Alps where illegally parked Vehicles
created a traffic hazards and safety
concerns for more information please
visit isqua
wa.gov that concludes the mayor's report
next item I believe is good of the
order anybody have any good of the order
item I do let me just pull up the agenda
and make sure there was nothing else I'm
supposed to be touching on nope good of
the order okay with all of that this
meeting is adjourned at 8:35 p.m. thank
you everyone