This is where we just wave at our city.
Aha.
That is our our magic red light. So we
will call this meeting to order. It is
May 4th. Uh is Quas City's meeting? Yes,
we will acknowledge May the 4th be with
you. And we are going to open with the
pledge of allegiance. Please join me.
Pledge to the flag of the United States
of America and to the republic for it
stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all.
>> Okay, we are going to now
go in to proclamations. I'm looking out
in the audience to see who's currently
here.
The first proclamation is for dedicated
correction officers. Uh, Andrew Albert,
come on up. and
whereas the city of Isqua's dedicated
correction officers are essential to our
justice system and where as much is
expected from the men and women who
every day supervise offenders and
correctional facilities without whose
daily hard work and sacrifice we could
not operate. Whereas correction officers
are skilled professionals who must act
as counselors, communicators, educators,
and experts
as crisis intervention and must protect
our safety while maintaining their
professional demeanor, often in a
challenging environment. And whereas
correction officers must possess the
intuitive sense to resolve conflict and
support restorative activities while
housing offenders in a humane
environment, often to the risk of their
own well-being. And whereas all are
committed to a common goal, the secure,
safe, and humane operation of our jail
facility facility where employees work
to reduce future crime and change an
individual's criminal behavior. Now
therefore, I, Mark Mull, mayor of the
city of Isqua, do hereby proclaim the
week of May 3rd to May 9th to be
correction officers week in the city of
Isqua and invite the community to join
me in thanking the city's correction
officers for their service and
outstanding contributions.
So, we're going to let you you do your
comments and then we'll do the photo.
>> All right. Well, thank you, mayor, and
and city council and uh citizen, those
that are here. Uh good evening. On
behalf of the dedicated men and women
who serve in our correctional facility,
I am honored to accept this proclamation
recognizing National Corrections
Officers Week. This occasion invites us
to pause and reflect on a work that is
often unseen yet deeply important. Those
who serve in corrections carry a quiet
and steady responsibility,
one that requires vigilance, integrity,
and compassion each and every day. At
its heart, this work is about people. It
is about protecting our communities
while also recognizing the worth and
potential every day of everyday
individual. It is about creating an
environment that is safe, orderly, and
humane while allowing space for change,
growth, and accountability. Those who
serve in this profession do so with a
sense of duty and purpose. They strive
to act with fairness, to lead by
example, and to uphold standards even
when the work is difficult and
demanding. These are not just
professionals professional
expectations. They are reflections of
character. To those who lead and support
recognition, thank you for your
acknowledging the value of this work and
the individuals who carry it forward.
And to our correctional staff, those
present, and those continuing their
duties this evening, please know that
your efforts matter. The work you do
makes a difference in ways that are not
always visible, but are deeply
meaningful. Thank you for your
commitment, your steadiness, and your
service not only to the city, but to me.
Thank you.
Oh wait wait
>> Rabbi. You guys want to come on up?
Okay.
Our next proclamation. Whereas Jewish
American Heritage Month is celebrated
every May to honor the significant
contributions and rich history of Jewish
Americans to the fabric of our nation.
And whereas Jewish Americans have played
a vital role in shaping the cultural,
economic, scientific, and social
landscape of the United States,
contributing to the advancement of arts,
education business medicine and
public service. And whereas the Jewish
community in Isqua has been an integral
part of our city's diverse and vibrant
culture, bringing with them a deep
commitment to family, faith, and
community. And whereas while
anti-semitism anti-semitism has been
rising in an alarming rate in our
country and community, we must let it be
known that anti-semitism has no place in
Isiqua nor anywhere in the United
States. We must continue to create an
environment that fosters mutual
understanding of tolerance and respect
for everyone. And whereas the
celebration of Jewish American history
month provides an opportunity to reflect
on the historical struggles and
achievements of Jewish Americans and to
celebrate the enduring spirit of the
Jewish community in Isiqua and beyond.
Now therefore, I Mark Mullet, mayor of
the city of Isqua, do hereby proclaim
the month of May 2026 to be Jewish
American Heritage Month in the city of
Isiqua and urge all community members to
join in special observation and
celebration of Jewish American heritage.
Thank you, Mayor Mullet. Thank you, city
council. And thank you, community
representation. here. We uh as a Jewish
community leader at Isiqua for the last
22 years under four mayors
starting from Mayor Fryinger all the way
to Mayor Mullet we have always felt the
welcoming loving openhearted connection
with the Jewish community celebrating
the Jewish holidays together
um achieving a tremendous feeling of
safety
that necess necessary for the Jewish
community, especially in in times like
this, knowing that the city,
the city council, the officers in the in
the Isqua police district, uh, everyone
always looking out to make sure that the
Jewish community feels safe here, feels
at home here. And by proclaiming the
month of May as the Jewish heritage
month, it's an invitation to every
member of the community to become
knowledgeable on the gifts,
contributions,
all the wonderful things that the Jewish
community has given not just to the
community in Isiqua as far as social
services and holiday celebrations, but
also as active members in the education
systems and hoping And God willing, the
rest of the community will continue
seeing the light that the Jewish people
are bringing to this community. And as
we celebrate this month, every member of
the Jewish community living in Isiqua,
uh, reading this proclamation, knowing
of this proclamation feels
a lot safer and a lot more at home. So,
thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Right.
Let's go out here. We can do the
Okay. Commander Nice.
Close your arms.
Whereas in 1962, President Kennedy
proclaimed May 15th as National Peace
Officers Memorial Day and the calendar
week in which May 15th falls is National
Police Week. And whereas the members of
the law enforcement agency of the city
of Isqua play an important role in
safeguarding the rights and freedoms of
our community members. And whereas it is
important for Isqua residents to know
and understand the duties and
responsibilities of our police
department as well as the problems they
may face in the line of duty. And where
is that all members of our police
department recognize their duty to serve
the people by safeguarding life and
property, protecting them against
violence or disorder, protecting the
innocent against deception, and the weak
against oppression or intimidation. And
whereas Isqua Police Department has
grown to be a modern and scientific law
enforcement agency, which increasingly
provides a vital public service. Now
therefore, I, Mark Mullet, mayor of the
city of Isiqua, do hereby proclaim the
week of May 11th to the 17th to be
police week in the city of Isiqua and
invite the community to join me in
thanking the Isqua Police Department for
their outstanding service and
contributions to the Isqua community.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Good evening everyone. Uh today I'd like
to take a moment to recognize Police
Week, uh a time dedicated to honoring
the courage, service, and sacrifice of
law enforcement officers across our
nation. Police Week traces its origin
back to 1962 when John F. Kennedy signed
a proclamation designating May 15th as
Police Officers Memorial Day and the
week in which it falls as National
Police Week. Since then, communities
across the country have come together
each year remembering the officers who
have lost their lives in the line of
duty and to show appreciation for those
who continue to serve. This week is
important because it reminds us that
every badge is a person, someone who has
chosen a life of service, often facing
danger and uncertainty to keep others
safe. It is also a time to support the
families who stand behind them, sharing
in both the pride and the sacrifice.
Here in Isquar, recognizing police week
gives us the opportunity to connect as
community and express our gratitude to
the officers who protect our
neighborhoods, respond in times of
crisis, and work every day to build
trust and safety. So this week, let us
pause to remember those we've lost,
honor those who serve, and reaffirm our
support for the men and women who
dedicate their lives to protecting ours.
Thank you.
Here.
Come on.
Okay, here's our fourth and final
proclamation of the day.
Whereas Asian-American, Native Hawaiian,
and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is
an annual celebration that recognizes
the historical and cultural
contributions of Asian-Americans, Native
Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in
creating the American story. Whereas, we
celebrate the growing diversity of
Isiqua with the second largest race
being Asian-American residents
representing 28% of our population.
Diversity brings richness, opportunity,
and growth. And whereas we acknowledge
those contributions of Asian-Americans,
Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders
to our local arts, education, sciences,
and to our economic, social, and
democratic institutions that strengthen
our city. And whereas we admit the past
and current hardships for Asian and
Pacific Islander Americans and strive to
foster inclusion to ensure all people
have an equal opportunity to live and
prosper. whereas we come together as a
community in a spirit of unity to
celebrate the invaluable contributions
that enrich our city with Asian and
Pacific Islander heritage. Now
therefore, I Mark Mullet, mayor of the
city of Isqua, to hereby proclaim May
2026 to be Asian-American and Pacific
Islander Heritage Month in the city of
Isiziqua and I urge a community to join
in special observance and celebration of
Asian-American and Pacific Islander
heritage.
Thank you to Thank you to Mayor Mark
Mullet and the city of Isiqua for this
meaningful AAPI month's uh proclamation.
The circle truly appreciate the city of
Isakqua for recognizing and celebrating
the rich diversity and contribution of
our AsianAmerican and Pacific Islander
communities. On behalf of our community,
I would like also like to warmly invite
all of you to our AAPI celebration on
May 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Isakqua
Community Center. This event will
feature cultural performances
representing communities from China,
India, Pakistan, and Filipinos, Japan,
and Pacific Islanders along with
interactive cultural stations
highlighting traditions from China,
Korea, Japan, India, and Hawaii. We are
also excited to launch a Chinese history
reflection project in partnership with
Isaakqua History Museum. the um during
these events helping to deepen our
shared understanding of our local
history. We would be honored to have all
of you in joining us celebrating
cultural community and connection. Thank
you again for your support. Thank you.
>> We're going to do a we're going to do a
photo, but we're going to get you the
shift kit later on.
The next item of business is audience
comments. And for those of you who
signed up in advance, you'll be called
on first. If you're joining us
virtually, you can raise your virtual
hand. You can press star three if you're
on the phone. And we will ask people
when you do speak, please state your
name and your connection to the city of
Isiziqua. That could be your home
address or your business address or just
whatever it is that connects you to
isqua. And please be respectful. And
madam clerk, you want to go ahead and
call up the first person.
We have the sheet coming.
And I I had Maddie on here first. Is
that still right?
Oh, Dave is Dave. You got in ahead of
Maddie.
The the veteran has outdone you.
>> Good evening, council. My name is uh
David Wagner and I live uh at 22529
Southeast 42nd Terrace. That's in
Providence Point. and I'm probably the
oldest is aqua here tonight. I've lived
in Isiqua since 1945.
Um,
gone for 26 years serving our country.
Want to say congratulations to Erica.
Erica and I served on a couple of boards
together in the city. So, it's nice to
see you up there. Um,
wow. I'm down to one second already.
>> Time flies when you're having fun.
>> There we go. Um, this will be the formal
invitation for our Memorial Day service,
which will be held on the 25th of May,
and we're going to change it up a little
bit this year. In past years, we've
always had that service up at the
cemetery.
However, as your cemetery board chairman
for 12 years, I would always see the
damage after we had that service and I
would watch people and not on purpose
drive over gravestones. We don't want to
do that anymore. So, we are moving this
service to the senior center thanks to
the city for letting us do that. and
it'll be 10:00 on uh Monday morning, May
25th. Flintto's funeral home will
provide refreshments. The service
probably won't last more than 45
minutes. Our illustrious mayor will be
our speaker and uh we look forward to
you coming down. I think parking will be
better here downtown than it uh is up on
the hill.
We're going to still have volunteers
from the community uh when we set the uh
cemetery up on Saturday morning
beginning at 9:00. So, I want to say to
the city, come on out, enjoy it. Again,
Flint Off Funeral Home will have
refreshments for us to set up flags and
crosses. and uh take down will be uh
Monday night at 6:00 p.m. need the same
help there. Mayor, I want to report that
uh the numbers from flag retirement. Our
mayor attended our flag retirement on
the 25th, Saturday the 25th. It went
from 8:00 in the morning till 3:00 in
the afternoon and we retired 800 to a
thousand flags just on that Saturday.
Thanks to uh East Side Fire and Rescue
for being up there. That fire was hot.
We want to make sure the kids were safe.
We had uh
an Eagle Scout project which was
completed. 60 scouts trained in proper
flag etiquette for disposal and
wonderful camaraderie between the
community and East Side Fire and Rescue.
Um to date uh I think we're closer to
10,000 flags that we have uh disposed of
for the city of Isiqua since 2006.
That's a lot of flags.
And the last thing uh tonight
flag
that flag represents uh
six new flags that we're presenting to
the city of Isiqua. Just so you know,
we've lost 13
soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines
since this Iran war has started, and we
don't want to forget them. So, between
East Side Fire and Rescue and the city
of Isiqua, we on Memorial Day will be
flying brand new flags in their honor so
that they are not forgotten. That's all
I have. Thank you. Hope to see you at
Memorial Day.
All right, thank you very much. And
here's a public service announcement. I
didn't know this until I became mayor.
If you have an old flag at your house
outside of the senior center, there is a
box. Looks kind of like a mailbox where
you can actually put in your old flag.
And I will say being at this event, I
saw flags with 48 stars on them. Hence,
flags that were obviously made pre-1959.
So, there were some old flags that were
retired. And it is actually a very
effective way to retire flags by
bringing them down to the senior center.
Uh madam clerk, next
>> Maddie Coats.
Excellent. Good evening, Mayor Mullet,
council members, and city staff. Thank
you for the chance to speak today. My
name is Maddie Coats and I live in North
Isiqua. I'm the editor of the Isiqua
Spotlight and I'm here to share some
exciting details about the future of
local news in Isiqua. In 2017, the
Isiqua Press shut down after 117 years,
leaving behind its legacy as a trusted
so source of local news coverage.
For generations, that paper documented
the stories, decisions, celebrations,
and challenges that shaped this
community and helped residents stay
informed and connected. In the years
since its closure, Isiqua has become
known as a news desert, a place with
limited access to consistent, locally
focused reporting.
As our city has continued to grow and
evolve, there's been no dedicated
newsroom regularly covering the issues
that directly affect daily life in
Isiqua.
The loss of local news didn't just mean
fewer headlines. It meant fewer
opportunities for civic engagement,
accountability,
and shared understanding. We know that
communities are strongest when residents
have trusted information about what's
happening around them. That's why I'm
proud to introduce a new chapter of
local journalism that's about to begin
in Isiqua. The Isqua Spotlight is a new
digital newspaper launching in June
2026. This is an independent
community-led effort to deliver
meaningful news and information to the
greater Isiqua area. It's entirely free
to subscribe. All you need is your email
address. Every Friday, subscribers will
receive three to five stories in their
inbox dealing detailing the topics that
matter most to our community. In
surveying residents, we've heard that
people want to read about local
government schools businesses arts
and culture, transportation, history,
human interest stories, and of course, a
police blotter.
Our coverage of Isiqua City Council will
focus on breaking down complex issues in
a clear, accessible way for residents.
This ties into our mission of delivering
independent local news that helps Isiqua
residents understand their community and
feel empower empowered to participate in
civic life.
I do want to address some test content
that briefly appeared on our live
website several weeks ago. Um we want to
set the record straight that what we're
building is a serious professional
newsroom for Isiqua. Our content is
nonpartisan, fact-based, and distinct
from existing blogs and opinion-driven
content. Our publisher, Adam Pinkinsky,
started building the foundation for the
Isqua Spotlight almost exactly one year
ago. Um, as a 30-year subscriber to the
Isqua Press, he missed having a local
source of news coverage in the greater
Isqua area. In the early days, Adam
partnered with a group of volunteers to
research similar startups across the
country and better understand what makes
community journalism successful today.
With support from the Isizakiqua Kuanas
Club, um he hosted community input
meetings to gather feedback on what
residents value in local news and what
they felt was missing. Ultimately,
community members voted to select the
isol spotlight as the name of this
publication last year, last fall. Since
then, we've hired a reporter and editor,
established a board of directors, many
of whom are sitting behind me, launched
our website, and built a clear financial
plan. Our team has submitted an
application to the IRS to become a 501c3
nonprofit and until that's approved,
we're fiscally sponsored by the Isqua
Kuanas Club. We rely on donations, grant
funding, and sponsorships to succeed.
Over the next month, we've scheduled
three community public community
meetings to hear feedback from Isiqua
residents. Our first meeting is
Thursday, May 21st at Blakeley Hall. Our
second one is online via Google Meet on
Wednesday, May 27th. And our third one
is um on Tuesday, June 2nd at the KCLS
service center. And each meeting is from
8 7 to 8:00 p.m. We encourage you all to
attend. Um and this will be an
opportunity to meet our team, share
story ideas, ask questions, and learn
how to subscribe and support our launch.
We ask that you all continue spreading
the word about this fresh era of news in
Isiqua. Please subscribe and encourage
your new networks to do the same. Um,
more information you can find at
isakqualpotlight.org
and I welcome the opportunity to meet
with each of you before our launch to
share more details about our coverage
strategy. Thank you for listening.
>> Thank you very much. I was with Adam at
Timber Ridge today and we we had Timber
Ridge all excited about an online
newspaper coming back and Kashif, you
get the award for best sneaker game at
the May 4th council meeting. is very
impressed with the purple sneakers. Uh,
madam clerk, next
>> John Perisc.
>> Mayor, council, thank you for having me
tonight. Uh, my name is John Pzik. I'm
the general manager of the Hilton
Guardian at 1800 Northwest Gilman, as
well as I'm the board chair for Visit
Isiqua. Uh, I'm here today to talk about
just tourism in the city, as well as
the, uh, annual report you receive for
Visit Isiqua. I do urge that you spend
some time to read it. It was a very good
report of what we've done last year and
with Christy and Kimberly in their
positions, they have moved um Isqua as a
tourist destination so much. Um with the
destination stewardship project
gathering local companies together that
didn't realize that they were part of
tourism. Um, one of the things we love
about Isiqua is, you know, the
restaurants, the shops, Gilman Village,
Front Street, the high school,
everything is related to tourists, not
just the hotels. Um, tourism is based on
people wanting to have fun experiences,
and Esqua is here for that. Also,
there's a few fun things coming up with
tourism. Uh, last year, we were able to
do a feasibility study for the upcoming
aircraft paragliding festival, which
will be the first in the US. It's based
off of one in France and has never
occurred in the US before and we're very
excited for that to happen. Um, other
thing that I just want to mention is if
anyone ever has questions about what
Visa is doing, what we're doing with
tourism, how we're growing the city,
making money, feel free to reach out.
We're always here. We love talking about
um just what is happening, what we're
doing. It's a lot of fun. For those
who've not worked in a hotel, we bounce
around. We're bartending. We're cleaning
rooms. We're at the desk. We're all over
the place at the council meetings. Um,
we really enjoy being out and talking to
people. That's what we do. So, I thank
you for your quick time. Reach out if
you guys ever have any questions and do
please read that report because it'll
answer everything you need.
>> Excellent. Thank you very much, John. I
will I will be starting that aircraft
festival landing on a paraglider on
August 15th at 1:00. Yes.
uh could be the end of my mayor term.
Uh Madam Clerk,
>> the next speaker is a virtual attendee,
Joe Kler. Joe, we're going to make you a
panelist now. You should then see the
option to unmute and can choose to turn
your video on.
Hello. Can everyone hear me?
>> Yes.
>> Thank you, clerk. Thank you staff for
getting the technical issues worked out
so we could have some virtual public
comment tonight. Some moral support for
Isaakiqua as you well 12 Isaakqua as you
go for your uh Sound Transit Link
competition. Huge supporter of this
community uh winning over Kirkland uh
for several reasons. Number one, you
actually proclaimed Jewish American
Heritage Month. That's important. Uh,
number two, you unlike Kirkland, are
going to deal with the threat of Alex
Zimmerman and other anti-semmites coming
and hurling hate and drawing a line in
the sand. That is very much appreciated.
Um, not looking forward to the
conversation with Kirkland tomorrow
night. Um, I'll leave it at that. Uh,
because they haven't done the work that
Redmond's done, Belleview's done, 12 has
done. And uh number three, I'm really
excited for Thursday morning uh where we
can make our case for the right
communities that accept sound transit
values such as inclusion and integrity
and community and environmentalism
and accountability
uh to be be placed ahead and uh complete
these projects because Sound Transit
isn't just a a mass transit provider.
It's also a community builder. And when
you lay light rail down somewhere, you
are making an a statement that that is
where when you put light rail and
stations together, you're making a
statement. That is where community is.
That is where community matters. And I
am rooting for you 110% as much as ever
and the great north uh and at some point
Tacoma. Um and I just want you to know
you've got support uh out there. And uh
I know Thursday is going to be a tough
day. We're still waiting on Sound
Transit to drop the draft resolution. On
that, I'm uh refreshing the Sound
Transit website and uh like you all
probably are and
just uh hoping for the best possible
outcome out of all this so we can build
back better from uh the past few years.
Want to thank you all for your public
service and go get them. Go 12 visiqua.
Thank you.
>> Thank you, Joe. We like the Seahawk
encouragement. It's uh this is awesome.
Madam clerk,
>> no one else uh has signed up in advance
to speak.
>> Is there anybody else in the audience?
This is your chance. Raise your hand.
All right, come on up.
Good evening. My name is Aur Kamaria. I
am 13 years old and even though I don't
live in Isiqua, I live in Samish.
I want to start by telling you something
personal. I have a congenital heart
condition. It was never
life-threatening, but I know what it
feels like to be a kid going through
something, something that feels bigger
than you, something that makes the world
feel heavy and uncertain and hard to
navigate alone.
And I looked around and I thought, there
are so many kids going through something
hard. Not just kids in hospitals, kids
dealing with loss, kids going through a
family divorce, kids carrying weight
that no child should ever have to carry
alone. Nobody was asking these those
kids what they imagined. Nobody was
asking them what they dreamed about.
Nobody was asking them what they would
create if they could create anything.
That silence is what started Printable
Dreams.
Printable Dreams is a nonprofit I
founded that turns children's drawings
into real 3D printed objects. A kid
draws something, a dragon, a rocket, a
garden creature, a superhero, anything
their imagination can conjure up. And we
bring it to life as something they can
actually hold in their hands. Something
that is entirely, completely, uniquely
theirs. Every single print is made
specifically for that child. No two are
ever the same. Principal Dreams is not
just for sick children. It is for every
child going through something hard.
Every child deserves a moment where the
world stops feeling heavy, where their
imagination becomes something real and
joyful that belongs entirely to them. I
believe that when a child holds an
object made from their own imagination,
something shifts inside them. It tells
them that their dreams are real, that
their ideas have power, that even in the
hardest, darkest moments of their young
lives, their creativity belongs to them.
And nobody, nobody can take that away.
I've seen what happens when a child
realizes their imagination can become
something tangible. Their eyes change,
their posture changes, something in them
wakes up. That moment, that one single
moment is worth everything. I am funding
this entirely myself. From June to
October of last summer, I spent every
weekend helping an elderly vendor at the
Redmond Farmers Market seller products.
Week after week, I showed up. I stayed
the entire day. Every time I earned
$300. That $300 is what is backing
Principal Dreams today. Not my parents,
not a loan, not a donation. Months of
work I did with my own two hands because
I believed in this before anyone else
did. My teacher at my school, Englewood
Middle School, Mr. Henderson, has been
gracious enough to let me use the
school's 3D printer with my own
filament. I have a mission. I have my
teacher support. I have my parents
support. I have a website and I bought
the raw material from the money I
earned. Here is my dream. I do not want
principal dreams to say in Samish or
even in Washington. I want to build a
global network of 3D printing
volunteers, people all around the world
who sign up. And when a child anywhere
in a hospital in Seattle or a clinic in
rural rural Kenya or a children's ward
in Tokyo sends in a drawing, I match
them with a volunteer nearby who can
print it and deliver it directly to
them. Free. Always free because this
will never be about money. This is
always about making a child feel seen.
I'm asking tonight for your support,
your connections, and your help in
growing printable dreams into something
that reaches every child on this planet
who needs a moment of joy. Because every
child deserves to see their imagination
be real, be become real. If you want to
learn more, my website is
printabledreams.com.
>> Thank you.
>> That was really impressive. Uh,
>> thank you.
>> You get the award for most profound
13-year-old testimony of 2026. And I
think we're all glad that at least
there's one election cycle where he
could run for office and beat all of us.
So,
anybody else wishing to testify?
No. Audience comments. Okay, we are now
going to end audience comments and the
next item of business is the consent
calendar. I do not have any remarks on
the consent calendar items. Committee
chairs or chair doesn't any reports on
consent calendar items. Looking looking
not seeing any. Uh I think madam clerk
you might have a minor update.
>> Yes. I just wanted to let everyone know
per your policy that there was a
correction made to the April 27th
meeting minutes. Uh that was circulated
to you a few hours ago. It was just
better clarifying the location of an
item of discussion at last Monday's
special meeting. With approval of the
consent calendar, you'll be approving
the revised version.
>> Okay. So the consent calendar was contri
was distributed to the council in
advance. If authorized cassette calendar
will be considered together and approved
in one motion. Have the payables and
payrolls been reviewed?
>> They have.
>> That is affirmative. Does any council
member want to remove any items from the
consent calendar and place them in
regular business?
Not seeing any. Is there a motion?
>> Mr. Mayor, I move the consent calendar
as listed in today's uh packet.
>> Second.
>> There's been a motion and a second. All
those in favor, please say I.
>> I. I.
>> All those opposed? Nay. And that passes
unanimously. The next item of business
is regular business. ID 2018
informationational update on the Q4 2025
year end report. I think we have Kristen
Garcia coming up to present this item.
>> Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh, give me just
a moment to get my screen.
Let's see. Okay, we can. All right.
Thank you, mayor. Good evening, members
of council and for those members of the
audience um here tonight and maybe
viewing online. I'm Kristen Garcia, the
finance director here and here to give a
2025 year end financial update. Um, I do
want to take a moment to thank council
for all the questions um that were
received on this report. It's helping to
inform me and our new budget manager of
some of the information that you're
interested in, the level of detail that
you're looking for. Um, and so that'll
help inform and direct on future
reports. So, thank you for uh providing
that feedback. I've also been trying to
expand the information that's been
presented to council so you have a more
holistic view of um all city finances. I
know historically we've tend to focus on
the the general fund, what we call the
big four revenues and the refunds. And
so um hopefully the expansion of the
information that I'll share will be
helpful as you move forward with some of
your decision- making. And the last item
that I want to note before I get started
with the presentation is that we do have
a new budget manager. His name is
Michael Blunt. and you will all get the
opportunity to meet him as he's invi
been invited to attend our council
retreat this Saturday.
>> Michael's from Goodyear, so our
icebreaker is going to be who's seen the
Goodyear blimp and you'll have to share
Goodyear blimp stories.
>> Yes, that was a fun exercise.
All right. Uh so the purpose of tonight
is to um intended to provide city
council with an overview of the
preliminary unodudited 2025 year
financial results. Um, I do want to make
note that the amounts in the document
are subject to change pending final
review, internal review of the financial
statements and then of course pending
final outcome of the audit. I don't
expect there to be any changes. Um, but
the CPA and me wants to make full
disclosure that if there are any
changers if there are any changes I do
expect they would be very minor and not
material.
So the general fund started uh 2025 with
fund balance of uh 17 million uh 48% of
which was restricted and related to the
affordable housing sales tax. Uh
beginning I do want to note that
beginning in 2026 the city did create
the affordable housing sales tax. We
have moved all of the restricted fund
balance out of the general fund into the
new fund. So now going forward all
revenues and expenses will be accounted
for in that fund. So that should
eliminate or significantly reduce u the
amount of stricted u monies reported in
the general fund. Um I want to note that
the city also received 9.6 million in uh
from the sale of the capital assets of
the uh northwest city hall northwest and
the food bank and this is a one-time
source of income. So that's why it was
noted separately in the report and uh
removed from fund balance calculations.
The total ending unrestricted fund
balance at the end of 2025 was 8.1
million or 12% of total unrestricted
expenditures. A reminder that city
financial policy requires unrestricted
fund balances to be between 15 and 20%
of unrestricted expenditures. And um if
you might recall during the mid uh
bianium process last fall we were
targeting to hit the forecast was
targeting to hit about 10% at the end of
2025 and 12% by the end of 2026. So
we're actually ahead of where we
forecasted last fall.
The city has four main revenue sources
um in the general fund. Uh property tax,
sales tax, business and occupation tax
and utility tax. We historically have
referred to these as the big four
revenue. So if you hear that term, um
that's typically what we're referring
to. Um collectively, these four revenue
sources comprise about 69% of all
general fund revenue. And this chart is
comparing the 2025 budget to Q3 2025
forecast and then year-end actuals. Uh
property tax revenues came in at about
10.8 million uh both aligned with budget
and forecast. Sales tax revenues at year
end were aligned with budget both at 20
million but the forecast was indicating
that we would come in a bit higher at
about 21 million. Uh we looked back at
the forecasting model and the historical
forecasting methodology was based on an
average percentage of total revenue
rather than the change from year to
year. So I think that's might what be um
driving the higher forecast. So, um the
new budget manager and I going to take a
look at our forecasting models for 2026
just to see if any adjustments might
need to be made and um to make sure that
we're trying to forecast as accurately
as we can. Uh BNO taxes, those are a
little bit harder to predict. Our
actuals came in about 7.5 million versus
6.75 million uh for budget. Actuals
though were actually within about 45 or
46,000 of what we forecasted. So that
actual forecast was a little bit closer.
Um I did notice in the last um couple of
years the budget has been quite a bit
lower for BNO tax. Um so that's
something that I want to take a look at
as we start begin developing our 2728.
>> Kristen, I'm going to go ahead and I'll
do questions as you go. So council
president Marks.
>> Yes.
>> Thanks. So we're we're gonna I mean
there's information in this packet. I'm
I'm confused about these numbers a
little bit because there's information
in the packet that says for revenue
general fund uh 2025 revised 67 million
2025 actual 79 million over under 12.4
million. So how do those numbers relate
to the numbers on this slide?
>> So the you're referring to um probably
this
>> this chart.
>> Yeah, there we go.
>> Yeah. So the 12 million 9.6 Six of that
was the sale of the city hall northwest
and then 3 million of that was from
other changes um related to let's see I
have that in there um we have investment
interest park rentals and recreation
classes BNO taxes I just talked about um
plan check Bes so other miscellaneous
but the the the $12 million difference
9.6 six was from the sale of city hall
northwest.
>> I see. Okay. So, I'm just Okay. It just
It wasn't obvious why they would be
different.
>> Why that didn't connect. So,
>> no, just why they would be different,
but Okay.
All right. Thank you.
>> Okay.
Okay.
And then um as for utility taxes, the
budget of 8.3 million uh was projected a
little bit too high. We looked at the
projections for the incremental tax
increase that would have been received
when we increased the tax rate. So the
change in the utility tax rate uh was
overestimated. Um so the the forecast
was also um affected by that. Uh and
that's something else that we'll need to
address as we look at the 20 27 and 28
budget is that I think historically um
because of that change we've been
budgeting a little bit too high. So we
want to bring that into an alignment.
Okay. So this chart is referring just
very high level at um the general fund
the utility funds kind of rolling in a
high level view of all the city funds.
Uh total revenue uh collections across
all city funds for the city were about
181 million. Um, as I mentioned, the
general fund, uh, the variance is 12.3
million. 9.6 of that was the revenue
from the sale of City Hall Northwest and
the food bank. And then other items that
contributed to that I just mentioned,
um, investment interest, park rents,
recreation class, BNO tax, um, and plan
check fees. That list is not all
comprehensive, but those were some of
the big variances that contributed to
that. uh water and sewer revenues came
in over budget because of us user
charges. Uh there was a rate increase
per the ordinance that affected 2025
rates. So that impacted revenue and we
did have a a slight increase in the
number of customers being built. So that
would also contribute to the increase in
revenue. Uh storm revenues came in under
budget. Um that was because of the
Laughing Jacobs Creek project. So I'll
I'll talk a little bit in a few slides,
but the enterprise funds do account for
both operating and capital revenue
expenditures. And so it it's not just
user charges. Any capital grants or um
connection fees would be included in
that. So I wanted to point that out. Uh
we did budget in the the storm fund to
receive a grant of about 995,000 related
to that Laughing Jacobs Creek project.
Uh but we had very little expenses
related to that. So we didn't seek uh
reimbursement so we wouldn't have had
revenue to compare against the budget.
Uh REIT came in over budget because of
the sale of the Anthology apartments.
That was a very large transaction. Um
quite an anomaly, not uh not something
that we typically see. So that drove the
uh revenues up and came in quite a bit
over budget. Uh mitigation revenues also
came in higher than budget. We received
about 600,000 more in traffic impact
fees, about 148,000 more in bike
pedestrian impact fees, and about
117,000 more in fire impact fees. Um the
other category is kind of a combination
of all the other city funds rolled in
together. Um the biggest piece of that
about half is the capital projects fund.
Uh we also have other uh funds, internal
service funds, the debt service fund,
the other special revenue funds like
school zone safety, lodging tax and
cemetery. Uh but the biggest difference
um the $5 million variance is related to
the capital project fund. Um and that's
really related to the timing between
grants. So in the capital project fund
that doesn't generate its own revenue.
revenues typically come from transfers
from other funds like mitigation or REIT
or the TBD fund or grant funding. Um
sometimes the timing between uh when we
plan for a project and when the project
occurs sometimes uh that timing is
shifted or when we might expect to see
the revenue um because they're typically
reimbursement based. So the biggest
difference is uh as an example we have a
project TTRO96 the northwest Samameish
road project. We budgeted about 3.1
million to receive for that project. Um
but as of year end we only received
about 4,000. That's probably because we
haven't expended enough to seek
reimbursement. So that would be an
example of why that variance would be so
big.
Okay. uh total general fund expend
expenditures came within about 500,000
of budgeted expenditures. Uh police and
parks are the largest departments in
terms of budget. Um in the undefined
category, the biggest piece of that is
the east side fire and rescue services.
And then um the next largest category
within undefined would be transfers out.
Um that would primarily be the general
fund support transfers to the street
operating fund. Uh there were some
departments that had overspends, some
that had under spends, but a reminder
that we budget at the fund level and
2025 is year 1 in the bianium. So this
is kind of our midbian checkpoint and we
look at expenditures between 25 and 26.
So overall for bianial budgeting
purposes, expenditures coming within
500,000 is pretty aligned with budget.
So no concerns there.
>> Council President Marts,
>> thank you. So at at the highest level,
so setting aside uh the sale of City
Hall Northwest,
I I I think what you said was that we
exceeded our budget for revenues, right,
by something like three million.
>> And you said our expenditures were
within 500,000 of budget. So why did our
ending fund go down? I would have
thought that our ending fund would have
been up by something like two and a half
million.
And part of this is because we don't
have line item on expenditures the way
we do on revenues,
>> right? Um so we have
>> plus 3 million minus 500,000 is plus 2
and a half million, right? What am I
missing?
>> Well, you're looking at actuals. I'm
comparing bud budget to budget. So our
actuals, our beginning fund balance was
17 million and then our ending fund
balance was 17 million. So that's actual
to actual. So it we actually increased
our fund balance.
>> I'm sorry. We increased our fund balance
by how much?
>> By 800,000.
But that was total restricted and
unrestricted. See that's that's one of
the complications of when we're coming
co-mingling restricted and unrestricted.
So if we look at unrestricted, let me
move my screen here.
>> I'm just trying to understand, it seems
like we had a good year for revenues and
if we towed the line on expenditures,
why didn't we have a good year in ending
fund as big as big of a good year?
If we were really like plus three
million,
>> I would have to dig into that more
because I guess I'm not that's the big
that's the big question, right? What?
>> Yeah, I guess I'm not understanding
because I'm showing the fund balance did
increase. So,
>> but if it increased by 800,000, you
showed that we were our actuals in 2025
were 12.4 million over and you said
roughly nine of that was the sale of
City Hall Northwest.
>> Right.
>> Right. So, that should mean um three and
a half million. Right. We were we
overperformed on revenue by about three
and a half million dollars. Right.
Right. And then we overexpended as well
>> by about 500,000.
>> Mhm.
>> 3.4 minus 500,000 is not 800,000. But
again, because we're not seeing the
expenditure numbers, it's hard for me to
guess, but I'm just trying to
understand. It seemed like we had a good
year on revenue, and if we to if we held
the line on expenditures, we should have
had a really good year on ending fund
balance. Is that wrong?
>> That's not wrong. I I'll need to look
into it a little bit more detail. I
think you want to see the line item
detail. Also, I think it's better.
>> I want to see the big picture, right? If
the big picture to the community is we
did better than expected on revenues, I
would hope we would do better than
expected on ending fund balance. If if
we held the line on expenditures, if you
told me that, oh, expenditures were also
three and a half million high, then I
would see then I would understand why
the ending fund balance was, you know,
within the margin of error the same as
before. But that's not what I I think
that you're saying. It's really the big
picture on revenues versus expenditure
on the general fund, right? Which I
think we have control,
>> which is what I think I'm providing, but
happy to have an offline conversation so
I can continue the presentation and dig
into the information a little bit
further for you.
>> I I think starting with having line item
on expenditures the way we have on
revenues would be a good start.
>> Okay, that sounds great. Well, and I in
the very bottom of the general fund
balance slide does because it's 15.3
million 2025 Q3 forecast and then 2025
actuals end up being the 17.8. So it
lines up. I don't know, but I I
understand kind of what you're saying,
but that's the only point on this chart.
So, uh, Deputy President Jen and then
Council Member Walsh.
>> Yeah, I was I was going to ask. So my
understanding is the last the last two
lines on here relate to the total ending
fund balance and then or is the like
increase in revenues by 3.6 million was
that like between the Q3 forecast versus
the actuals essentially
>> that was between budget to actuals I
believe.
Okay, because I guess I am slightly conf
Okay, anyway, whatever. We don't we
don't need to dwell on this point for
too long now, but it does seem like
there's a pretty big gap between the Q3
forecast versus actuals on um
unrestricted ending fund balance, which
is
>> So, if you look at this chart that's on
the screen, that's comparing the 2025
revised budgetary numbers to 2025
actuals. So, that was the the 12
million. So, 9.6 Six of that was the
sale of city hall northwest and then the
rest was those miscellane miscellaneous
items that I talked about. So that was
comparing revised budget to actuals.
>> Okay, that makes sense. Then I think
then on this slide the difference
between Q3 forecast and actuals is you
know at least in the same ballpark as on
slide five.
>> Yeah, council member Walsh.
>> Yeah, I was just going to follow up on
what I was hearing from Council
President Marts. um where is that
500,000 coming from? Because when I read
slide three, if you'll go back to it,
the difference between unrestricted
expenditures,
um that 66.359
million on the budget and the 68.036
on the actuals is actually 1
almost 1.7 million.
So, I'm not sure where the 500,000
came from. Maybe it was another part of
the document, but at least if I'm
looking at, you know, the revenue was up
2.6 million between budget and actuals
there on unrestricted,
ignoring the sale of capital assets, and
the expenditures is up 1.7 million. So,
if I'm reading that correctly, then I
want to take on your question, which is
why were our expenditures $1.7 million
over budget
on unrestricted funds?
>> So, you're comparing
>> I'm comparing the budget of 66.4
million.
>> Yes. Okay. I think
>> and the actuals.
>> Yes. So I think I see where the
confusion is coming from. So um this
make sure you can see. So this column
right here was the original budget. Um
and I I thought this could cause some
confusion. So that's my apologies. So
this is the 2025 original budget. We use
the original budget because we didn't um
have a breakdown of restricted and
unrestricted. But in this other section
right here, we're actually comparing the
modified budget. So that's so we
actually modified the budget. So that's
why the budget to actions were a little
bit closer. So um I think I need to
provide that detail. So my apologies
that that is I caused that confusion.
>> So the the charts the budget columns
aren't apples to apples if that makes
sense. We started the first piece with
comparing original budget original
forecast and then went into modified
because we didn't have the original
breakdown. So would it be safe to say
that while the difference between the
original 2025 budget and 2025 actuals
for unrestricted expenditures is large
some portion of that is expenditures
that we approved
>> correct
>> during the bianium.
>> That is correct.
>> Okay. Yes. I would like to understand
what those were compared to how did we
you know did we overspend to our
modified budget?
>> We came we overspent by the 500,000.
>> That's the difference. So
>> do you get that?
>> Uh Council President Marts, she was just
explaining the 500,000. Yeah. I I we're
we're using some some different terms
here. This Q this Q3 sometimes we say Q3
sometimes we say revised. I'm I'm
choking over the terminology. Um
>> I think what I am hearing is that uh
all I care about at the end of the day
is when the voters and our residents
stop if somebody stops me on the street
and they say how are we doing? Are we
spending like we said we were going to
spend and are we are we matching that to
the revenues? Are we being good stewards
of their money? What I look for in these
reports is the ability to answer that
question. So, so the extent to which we
blow out expenditures or blow out
revenues is is the bit that I want to
understand. So, this is a helpful
conversation and I will go back and
watch this video again um to make sure
that I understand. I I think the answer
is that um our expenditures compared to
original budget were on the order of
increased to the extent that revenues
increased and so um that's why the
ending fund balance doesn't change as
much as we thought it would. So thank
you for your help and thank you for your
help
>> and we have 90 minutes on May 9th to
this topic.
>> Thank you. Yes. Well, no this is very
helpful um for me to understand you know
terminology. I know we do think do use
things interchangeably. So it helps
provide more clarity for me. So my
apologies if I um caused any confusion,
but I I have a better understanding
going forward on how to better meet your
needs. So hopefully it'll be better next
time.
Um okay, I think we left off with um
going into the enterprise funds and I
think this is something maybe newer that
we haven't seen before. I believe um
maybe quarter two or quarter three we
might have kind of dipped our toe a
little bit into the enterprise funds but
um again this is just a highle
broadbrush overview what this chart was
um trying to indicate. So I guess I
should stop so I should stop just to
make sure everyone understands. So the
city has enterprise funds which are
comprised of water sewer and storm water
revenues. Those funds are a little bit
unique in that they do account for all
operating revenue, operating expenses,
and capital revenue and capital expenses
um unlike some other funds. And so the
next three charts are going to show the
inflows and the outflows of those funds.
Um again, which include both operating
capital. And um I did want to note I
mentioned it into in the memo that the
enterprise funds are designed to be
self-supporting and structurally
balanced in that over the long term the
rate should be set to generate enough
revenue to cover both the operating and
capital. Um what that also means is that
I have an expectation that fund balance
may go up as we're accumulating revenue
because we might be saving money to pay
for a future project. But then fund
balance might go down because now we've
planned for that big project that we've
been saving for. Um so I I think you'll
the a question came up um in the report.
So I did kind of want to explain that
that um just because you see a dip in
fund balance does not mean that there's
a structural fund balance. It it's the
funds are structured to operate that
way. Um so in the case of the water fund
uh the overall revenues were more than
um expenditures and so in this case that
added to the ending fund balance.
Um in the case of the sewer fund the
total expenditures exceeded total
revenue. So here's where you're going to
see that the fund balance um actually
went down but it was used for capital
outlay. Um but if you look at the ending
sewer fund balance, it's still about 1
million more than what the sewer
revenues um generated. So in 2025, as an
example, there was total expenditures
which included the uh Newport sewer
relocation project and that project cost
was about 4.8 million. So again, that's
why you would see a reduction in fund
balance. Um, and then, uh, the fund
balance for storm water, it increased
just slightly. There wasn't any, uh,
major fluctuations or any additional
items that I needed to talk about there.
Um, but again, based on feedback that
I'm hearing and in future reports, I
think it might be helpful we can also
provide a more of a breakdown for this.
um because it's hard to see kind of how
it's how the u utility funds are
operationally functioning because of the
coing co-mingling between the operating
capital. So if council would like in
future reports we can provide a better
breakdown for those funds as well so you
can kind of better understand how
revenues are performing on the
operations side. Uh so in summary again
just a reminder this is year one of the
bianium so this is kind of a mid
checkpoint. Um generally I would say
revenues are steady with moderate growth
and uh from my perspective the financial
results are generally aligned with
forecast and budget and I I don't have
any major concerns with how we're we're
performing financially at this point and
then our next steps will be to bring
forward a quarter 1 2026 update.
Council President Mortz,
>> did it surprise us that our revenues
turned out fine? Because I feel like
we've had a lot of conversations where
like grim tidings are coming and we need
to tighten our belts and we need to be
careful. And um we are always careful,
but this this feels like maybe revenues
did better than we had been fretting for
the last six months. Is that true?
>> I would say that is true. However, I
would also say that based on what things
are happening nationally or even
statewide indications, I think we were
accurate in taking a pause and
evaluating where things were to
understand how things would h be
happening locally. So, while I'm
pleasantly surprised to see that we did
outperform,
um, I still think there's things out
there that I'm seeing at the state level
and nationally that we still should be
in a a period of caution, not
overreaction.
>> So, too soon for a giant disco party is
what you're saying.
>> Correct.
>> Okay.
>> Yes.
>> Thank you,
>> Council Member Adair.
This is probably kind of outside the
scope of this, but a number I've been
after is after the the recent the
millionaire tax with the decrease in
sales tax that's going to hit cities. Is
any number that we have yet to assess
what isqua's feeling of that is because
obviously sales tax was the biggest bit
of revenue in our column here and I know
that's still a couple years away but
like some idea of what that's going to
be. I c I just be very so I can tell you
we did see a small uptick when the new
taxable services did come online. Um it
wasn't significant to maybe change our
whole financial picture. Um but I
imagine now that the millionaire tax
with the changes in that we'll we'll see
that reduction again. But again, it
wasn't it was only one month, so I I
can't give you any kind of a trend or an
estimation, but I can just tell you we
did see a slight uptick. I'm fairly
certain it was attributable to that um
taxable change. Well, and I think
council member Dere would say at the AWC
legislative affairs committee last
Friday, I think we heard from the
legislators who were there that yes,
this sales tax like on IT services,
which is like I think one of the things
that Starbucks is now shifting their IT
to Nashville so they don't have to pay
sales tax on their IT services. They
made it very clear that that is going
away at some point. So, we're all going
to get this small kind of lift in sales
tax from that. But I think in the back
of the envelope guess for us I think on
diapers, overthec counter medicine, like
hygiene products, we're probably losing,
you know, a few hundred,000 I think in
sales tax uh from that. That will go
away. But right now, those haven't gone
away yet. But we are getting additional
sales tax revenue from service sales
tax. But like I said, I think the the
back fill we're going to be asking from
the legislature is for the ones that we
expect to stay around. and they made it
very clear they're not going to backfill
the IT sales tax. We should treat it as
kind of one-time revenue that we
shouldn't expect to be ongoing because
they're saying after 2028 assume it's
going away. So, I think they're trying
to manage city expectations that the
short-term sales tax from the service
expansion
is not something we should be relying on
and we should treat it as one-time
revenue. So, that'll be our challenge, I
think, as we prepare the two-year budget
is to do exactly that and try to strip
out that sales tax on service expansion.
>> Okay, that concludes my presentation.
>> Other questions?
>> Thank you. Um, are we ready for feedback
or just Yeah. Okay, great. Um I did find
the um whatever inflows outflows charts
um that you provided for enterprise
really useful. I would like to see those
as you said for operation versus capital
just to have an understanding that you
know that will show the picture of we're
saving for certain capital pieces but
we're covering all of our operations
needs.
>> Yes. I would love to be able to create
that story for our general fund and be
able to really understand. I think we've
we've had a hard time telling the story
and creating a visual picture of what
our general fund health is and what the
inflows and the outflows are compared to
expectation. Um and so I think that type
of picture if it's possible could be a
useful way to show look this is the um
balance the fund balances
this is the revenue this is the
expenditures and the result because
another piece that I think we're all
cognizant of is trying to understand
that we are growing that fund balance
>> because we recognize that the 10% we
thought we were going to be at and the
12% you're now saying we're at is not
where we want to be. And so being able
to show that we were able to grow that
is really important. I think also
recognizing that
maybe telling a story over the last few
years of some of the mid budget cycle
additions that we've had. How what
percentage of our expenditures that is?
How how are we trending on that so that
maybe we can utilize that to create a
little bit of you know fiscal restraint
during the mid bienium so that you know
because it's very easy to say yes to
something that's presented to us as a
need when it's a one-off
>> right
>> but when I have to balance it against
our staff members and whether or not in
a budget cycle we are going to be
cutting staff
that is much harder. And so recognizing
when we make these changes what the
impact is to our overall budget, I think
would be a really good story for us to
have in our back pockets as we um are
presented with those opportunities.
>> Okay. Yeah, that's great feedback. Thank
you,
>> Council Member Boyd. Uh I why is a BNO
tax I think you mentioned earlier it's
like kind of harder to um plan around
>> because that's based on businesses
revenue and so we're really not privy to
that level of detail on how an
individual business is performing other
than when we get the tax return. So we
can really just rely on trends and the
best we can kind of pay attention again
to the local economy to see if we're you
know sensing that a particular business
might be struggling or performing really
well. Um but but that's why it's um yeah
we're not privy to that level of detail
on how individual businesses are
performing.
Does that
>> And I think Kristen too in the BNO tax
we felt like some of the forecasts were
just deviating from actuals in a way
where I think going forward we're going
to try to make sure the BNO forecast
lines up really closely to what we've
actually been getting. So I think we had
some forecast
>> correct
>> and that's in the
>> this is forecast I think coming from pre
Christristen. So I think going forward I
think our goal is to have forecasts that
we think are going to be more accurate
what the actual BNO revenue has been
>> correct. Thank you.
>> Okay. I think you're off the hook.
>> Okay. Thank you so much.
>> May 9th we get we get this times three.
We get 90 minutes of uh
Okay. So next
ID 2001 public records and open public
meetings act training. I did make a
request to have this as the committee
the whole item. I was told that I too
need said training and and so that was
not an option and here we are. Rachel,
>> sorry. We'll we'll try to make it as
painless as
>> make it spicy. Yeah, you got to spice up
our training here.
>> All right. Good evening everyone. Rachel
Bender Turpin. I am here to talk to you
about the um P and the Open Public
Meetings Act. Sorry, just a second. I
lost it on my screen here.
>> And you can ask questions as we go.
It'll keep us engaged.
>> All right. So, we're going to start by
um well, a little overview of the
evening. We're going to talk about,
surprise, surprise, the public records
act and the OPMA. And we're going to
have a special emphasis on social media
because I understand that the council
rules of procedure are before the
council this evening as well, including
a social media component. So, this is
very uh timely and topical.
Sorry, getting used to the remote. So,
what's the the P and why should you
care? The Public Records Act is a it's
the Washington State Sunshine Act.
Essentially, it's a strongly worded
mandate for broad disclosure of um of
public records and access to public
records, which is um essentially in the
interest of keeping government open and
transparent.
It requires agencies to make records
available for inspection and copying to
anyone who requests. And it also
requires that we you know retain set
records in um conjunction with other
separate local government retention uh
schedules that set how long those have
to we have to keep those. It's important
because um first of all you all have to
have this training. it's required by
statute. So, by law, you have to learn
about these things. But also, public
records act violations, um, they can be
really expensive. And so, it's good for
everyone to know a little bit about the
Public Records Act so that not only we
can comply with it, but we can um, you
know, understand how important it is to
comply so we can avoid lawsuits.
The definition of public record is very
broad. It includes any writing that
contains information relating to the
conduct of government or the performance
of government that is prepared, owned,
used, retained by um the government
agency and it's regardless of the
physical form or characteristics. So
essentially they define writing to be
very broad to include um pictures
uh
audio recordings basically any any type
of record you know writing is not just
written words let's put it that way maps
you know anything like that it includes
emails and other uh digital documents it
also includes any of course any paper
files it includes recordings your web
content content. Um, it also includes
public records that are created in your
personal accounts or on your personal
equipment. So, that's um an important
thing for us to think about and discuss
this evening because um you know there
are challenges with that and it may also
include uh social media posts which
we'll talk about more.
I've already kind of talked about this
but these are some examples of public
records. Um, it includes things like
draft documents. It includes phone logs
for um, you know, any sort of city cell
phone and potentially
maybe even personal phone logs to the
extent you're using personal phones for
city business. That's kind of a a gray
area one. Voicemails, text messages, and
it can also include social media posts.
um but also the comments that are made
on posts either on a council member's
post or on someone else's post um
depending on the circumstances and what
exactly is said. Location and format
don't matter. So that's kind of the the
most important thing.
Now we'll talk about some tick. You're
gonna
>> before
me
>> before you go on um just uh that piece
there you've listed you know potentially
um notes or anything like that. Can you
talk about the difference between
something that gets typed up but doesn't
get saved versus um otherwise because I
know there's just this if something is a
temporary piece um and gets immediately
gotten rid of. Yes, great question. So
yes, if a document is transitory then it
doesn't generally have any retention
value and it can be disposed of as soon
as it's no longer needed. So, um, often
folks maybe just write themselves little
notes to during a meeting or something
to just sort of, you know, keep track of
things. Uh, if if that document truly
doesn't require any sort of retention
and you'd have to look at the, you know,
retention schedule to see what the
retention was for that particular
document, then yes, you could get rid of
it legally under the retention schedule.
However, to the extent you didn't, let's
say you had it, you would have to
provide it in a public records uh
request response if you had it. So,
that's kind of a that's actually one
that I had it come up with a a different
uh client earlier this last week. Um
they was confusion about a document that
didn't have any retention value. It was
actually um
um browser information, browser history
for various users. And yes, that can,
you know, there is no real retention for
that. You just need to keep it as long
as the agency needs it. And so if you
don't need it, it can be, you know,
gotten rid of, but the request came in
before any of that had been deleted. So
you have to give it all up. So that's
kind of how that works.
Council President Martz.
>> So, so I I have a confusion.
>> Yeah.
>> So, text messages.
>> Yes.
>> Um, I assume obviously like text
messages between me and fellow council
members. Text messages between me and my
son-in-law like what what constitutes
depends. I mean, if they're about city
business, if they're We'll get a little
bit more into that when we talk about um
social, you know, the the idea of it
being created, it has to be created
sort of to further the interests of
government. It has to relate to the
conduct of government. But if you are
actually, you know, it doesn't, it
doesn't matter if you're talking to a
member of the public or a council
member. If it is
about city business and you're sending
it in your capacity as a council member,
then it is probably a public record.
>> So, my son-in-law who lives in New York
City is a trolley affeionado and has
asked me about
>> uh the trolley and and getting the
trolley back up. That's potentially
a a discoverable record with my
son-in-law about the trolley.
>> Potentially. It depends, I think, on
exactly what the messages say.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> All right.
So, now we're going to talk about some
local government responsibilities and
challenges under the public records act.
So, the agency has a lot of lawful um
statutoily mandated requirements. We
have to adopt and publish a P policy
which Isakqua has done. We have to
appoint and publicly identify our public
records officer. This is our city clerk.
And uh we have to ensure that the public
records officer as well as all of the
members of the governing body uh
complete P training which you are doing
this evening. We also have to publish
and maintain a list of exemptions that
are outside the P. Um, that one's tough
because they kind of change all the
time, but we try to do the best we can.
We have to maintain a public records
index. Um, and we also have to adopt
some sort of fee schedule, at least if
we want to be able to charge fees. And
then we have also additional statutory
requirements to track and log and report
on our public records request
information.
>> Council member Boyd.
>> Yes. Um the this training how of is
there a recurrence is it like if I this
is just it no matter if I'm on
>> every four years. Yeah. You don't have
to it's not annual thankfully. So
>> and then of course we have to keep them
for as long as the retention schedule
says we have to keep them.
>> Can we set the fee schedule or is that
there's it's in statute as well?
>> We can set the fee schedule but within
parameters that are included in the
statute. So we, you know, we had to do
like a kind of a study in order to
charge fees that are different than what
the standard statutory fees are.
Uh challenges that the agency often
faces and we keeping up with technology.
It's hard to um find ways to capture and
retain that are public records that are
created on new platforms. So um you know
anytime I mean co you know posed one
example you know we had to move to a lot
of online uh platforms for a while and
uh we had to figure out how we keep all
these records and what we need to keep
of these various meetings and things
like that. Some some apps are easier to
capture the data from than others. We
have to keep up with the volume of
records and in particular the volume of
digital records. Um, email in particular
is really challenging because people
send emails all the time, all day long.
And um, it's not only uh timeconuming
for us to have to search all the emails
during when we get a public records
request, but it's also just expensive to
store all of those records. So, the city
actually has implementing new um
procedures for deleting records so that
we're not just holding all emails um in
our server for ever indefinitely because
that's just not really necessary or
really useful. Uh a huge problem for
every city that I work for is uh funding
and staffing levels. you know, it's, you
know, these are not really um these are
not positions I think that the public
really necessarily sees a lot of value
in just on the, you know, it's not it's
not somebody out on the street
performing a service. It's really
internal and so um you know, it's just
not as is not as uh cool looking to to
fund these positions, but it's very
important. There's also um sometimes
serial or difficult requesters. We're
fortunate that we don't really have any
here, but you know, I've seen agencies
that were almost um brought to
bankruptcy by public uh records
requesters who um continue to sue the
agencies um in frivolous lawsuits.
And then it's also just, you know,
timeconuming to keep up with those
requests even if they're not suing you.
And then of course, you know, we have to
keep this consistent documentation. And
then oh and then we have to um acquire
and then maintain records from various
third parties in some instances. So not
every contractor that the city contracts
with is someone that we would have to
potentially uh keep that we'd have to
produce public records for. If they're
truly an independent contractor and
they're not performing as the functional
equivalent of a city employee, then we
would not have to go, you know, ask them
to search their records. But we do have
a lot of staff here or a lot of um
consultants here for the city that do
actually act as a functional equivalent
of a city employee. So that can raise
issues as well.
>> All right, Tisha Gizer, city clerk. I'm
going to take a few slides here. Um so
responding to public records requests.
Yeah, this is a little slow. Um, so this
is something that, uh, Hannah Haver, who
is here with us tonight, uh, shadowing
as city clerk, is our public records
analyst in the clerk's office, um, and,
uh, is handling a lot of, uh, these
requests and provided this information.
Thank you, Hannah. Um, I skipped over a
slide here that I want to cover. Um, so
some of the agency's obligations when we
get a public records request, um, is to,
uh, respond within 5 days. If it's a
straightforward request, we try and get
the records out to people within that 5
days. But regardless if we can uh get
any records together for them, we have
to provide them a response. And this has
become challenging as we are getting uh
requests in all sorts of different ways
including sort of things that are going
into junk email that are going to
employees that you wouldn't expect.
People are really creative um and I
would say and sometimes maybe even
trying to sort of catch agencies um
missing these requests. So that in
itself is a challenge. Uh so if uh
records are available, we'll provide
them. If not, we'll pro we're required
to provide an estimate of when the
records will be ready. We'll then search
for the records and provide responsive
records uh which often for larger
requests includes providing them in
batches which we call installments. Um
this sounds very straightforward but can
be very complex um especially if a
request deals with a lot of sensitive
information that might need to be
closely reviewed and potentially
redacted.
And as uh Rachel said, we deal with high
volumes of records here. I was just
taking a look at some numbers we
compiled last year. Um, outside of our
thirdparty systems, we have about 40
terabytes of data and we currently have
80 million emails around 80 million
emails. As Rachel said, we are taking
some steps to significantly reduce those
to help limit our liability and time
spent reviewing them.
All right, so these are just some
numbers I thought you might be
interested in. Um Hannah has just
compiled um the reporting that we're
required to submit to the state for 2025
and our public records requests are up
uh 56% from last year. We'll be
providing you a more detailed report on
this once we fully flesh out um some
additional information and cities around
the state will be reporting. So it's
always interesting for us to do some
comparisons. Um this is showing you a
breakdown of common requests. As you can
see, police tends to be our largest
um type of records that are being
requested. So, I wanted to provide you a
couple of um current recent uh email
request examples um just to give you a
sense of the types of requests that
we're um fielding from dayto-day and
also to just really emphasize to you
that it is important that our records
are centralized in city systems which
includes your records um because Hannah
here um is querying uh the city's email
repository on a daily basis um to
respond to public records we get that
include communications. And when people
request communications, we uh sometimes
need to do some clarifying with them,
but typically we're thinking of things
like Rachel mentioned, text messages,
emails, um phone messages, whatnot, and
uh we're searching our city repositories
and making an assumption that in general
that our records are in those places. So
that's why we really want you using your
city email, your city cell phone so that
when we're doing these queries, we have
confidence we're getting all the records
um that we need. So this is a request
here on screen that I know has taken
many I think this is still in process.
This has been a many many many month uh
request.
One more example here um that actually
called out specifically communications
between city staff, elected officials
and the police department. And you know
it might be that in certain cases we're
reaching out to you to get affidavits to
confirm that you don't have any of these
records on a personal device. But again
as part of this training just really
want to emphasize the value of
centralizing
Uh so searching we're required to
conduct an adequate search and this
means thinking about all the all the
places a records records might be all
the people who might have them um which
could include personal devices and
providing responsive records. Um we need
to be resourceful. Often when we start
searching for records we get leads we
find other names we get sort of tips to
other places we need to be looking and
so it can become a bit of a research uh
project. Um and then uh as I mentioned
uh if you are uh called out as as your
records being um desired as part of a
request, we might reach out to you to
have you attest search any uh locations
you might have records and let us know
through an a formal affidavit. Thank
you.
All right, we're going to talk about
exemptions. So when we get a public
records request, we have to release the
document uh essentially in its entirety
unless
the document is exempt in part or whole.
So what is an exemption?
Exemptions are um statutory
allowances to withhold records or
statutory um
demands I guess comp like their
requirements that a record be held as
confidential. Sometimes exemptions are
uh kind of up to the agency's discretion
and then sometimes it's unlawful to
release a particular
p piece of information or data.
Exemptions are to be narrowly construed.
So um you basically go by the plain
language of the exemption. This can be
really challenging at times because
exemptions are usually the result of
lobbying activities and it will be a
very specific request to the legislature
for an exemption. So you may see an
exemption that is for certain personal
information in the RCW, but it will be
for information that information as held
by the Department of Health. And so we
might have the same information, but
we're not the Department of Health. And
so obviously that puts us in a pretty
awkward position because we know that
there is that at least the legislature
is saying that there's some sort of you
know privacy interest in this
information but at the same time the
statute has to be narrowly construed and
if it doesn't say any agency can
withhold on that basis then that's the
way we have to operate. Um the general
rule is that we withhold only the exempt
information and we release the rest
which basically results in us redacting
most of our records. It's very rare that
we withhold a record in its entirety.
There's only a few potential statutes I
think where um it would we'd have a
plausible case for doing that. So it can
be a really timeconuming because for
instance um applications for public
employment are exempt but we wouldn't
redact the form that they're on. So then
you're just going through and redacting
everything that's in each little text
box. It's a lot of fun. You can ask
Hannah
common exemptions. Um there's the
attorney client privilege uh and work
product exemptions which are honestly
probably some of the more common ones uh
for the records that we we deal with and
certainly the most common ones that I
have to personally handle. But then
there's also um a few others that we see
a lot for uh such as personal
information in personnel files. the
statute actually describes what that
personal information is and uh that's
one where I think we have gotten gone a
long way in the last 10 years on in
terms of the legislature kind of
expanding that and having a little bit
more protection for employees and what's
in their files. Uh also investigative
records um can be withheld when they
when the non-disclosure is essential for
effective law enforcement or if a victim
or witness requests it and or if it
would endanger someone's life to priv uh
life or um right to privacy. But I think
the one that's really interesting here
is that basically anyone who reports
something to the the police as a victim
or witness, they can request
non-disclosure. And regardless of
whether we think that their life would
be in jeopardy by releasing that
information, their request uh governs
and so we wouldn't be able to release
their information. And then of course
things like financial accounts and
social security numbers are fortunately
exempt from uh release. So, we don't
give those out. This is just a sampling
there. I mean, I have a key that I use
when I help process public records
requests. And, you know, it's it's
probably 10 pages long full of, you
know, single space. It's it's very long.
There's probably hundreds of exemptions
total. They're not hundreds that we use
on, you know, a regular basis, but there
are quite a few. And they're not only in
the public records act. They're they can
be in other statutes. can be in federal
statutes and rigs. So, it can be pretty
complicated to figure them out.
All right. Now, we'll talk about social
media and texts and other electronic
records that I think are probably the
most commonly created records for
council members. Um, that can be kind of
the also the trickiest to deal with
under the public records act. I mean,
your emails are easy. they're in your,
you know, city email archive and, you
know, we can pull those up um ourselves.
But these kind of records can be a
little bit more challenging because of
where they're held and uh the tests that
we have to use to decide whether they're
public records.
So, text messages and and social media
uh posts on your personal devices and
accounts may constitute an agency's
public records and be subject to the
disclosure under the P if two things are
met. The record has to relate to the
conduct of government and it has to be
prepared within the scope of employment
or official capacity or when the
position requires it, the agency directs
it or when it furthers the agency's
interests. Obviously, that's not a very
clear test. Um, I I'm a lawyer and I do
a lot of public records work and I'm not
even uh very clear on it that that this
test came from a case um a couple of few
years ago and um it's what we'd call
kind of a resultsoriented decision where
maybe I think the court was probably
trying to do the right thing but in it
they they created a very complicated
test that's very hard for us to sort of
apply in practicality.
So, um, kind of as you'll hear
throughout the evening, my my my
recommendation is always just sort of
air on the side of caution and retain
various texts, social media posts and
what what have you that you are creating
sort of, you know, as a council member
and have to do with city business. I
would probably just air on the side of
caution and keep those and consider
those to be public records. And we may
you may be asked at some point to fill
out what we call a Nissan affidavit. So
don't be alarmed if that happens. That
is just an affidavit that says that you
searched your personal devices and you
know either says what you found on the
personal device or that you didn't have
any public records on those personal
devices.
And another thing that's just kind of
important to keep in mind here is that
judges can order um review of your
personal devices too, which is just
another reason to not use personal
accounts to the extent you can or if you
are going to use a personal account like
I know I've talked to a few of you about
um maybe having like a separate Gmail
account so that you can send various
things to your yourself um that are
related to your job as a council member.
I you know I strongly recommend that you
have it be solely for though you create
a separate personal account that's
solely for city work because it is
possible that you would have to just
open that like just sit give it all
access to a judge and I don't think most
people would want to do that with all
their entire um email archive.
way.
All right. Okay. So, let's um talk about
text messages a little bit. So, the city
has adopted a text message policy and uh
one of the things that we say in the
policy is we encourage staff to not use
text too much. So, obviously we need
everyone to be able to function. We need
you to be able to function in your role.
But I will tell you querying text
messages is very challenging. there's
not a lot of context as you can imagine
it's number to number. So we just say as
a best practice just just think about
that. Um if you are going to have a more
lengthy dialogue in writing certainly
email is is going to be preferred and
then always a phone call a meeting um
and inerson conversation are are
wonderful um methods to communicate as
they don't produce records or minimal
records. Um however certainly texting is
something that we have to acknowledge
happens. This is why you have your city
cell phones. And as part of our text
message policy, we're capturing, we're
archiving the text messages of all of
our senior level staff, our entire
police department, the city council,
mayor, and uh supervisors in most of our
departments. And uh those so your phone
you when you uh got your city cell
phone, you at some point got a message
from the clerk's office letting you know
that your phone was archiving. So we can
now query your text messages um if we
get a public records request. Um, and
the copies on your phones are therefore
copies. Uh, I'll tell you in a minute
why we felt very motivated to to do
this. A comment that uh your phone your
photos may or may not be syncing to your
one drive. If you're someone who takes
photos a lot as is part of your role, um
maybe reach out to us and we can work
with it to just make sure that's
happening. Um if you're not using photos
often, don't don't worry about it.
All right. So, um you know, just some
comments about your personal phone. Um
if you end up I I know carrying two
phones is probably a a huge hassle. So,
let's just acknowledge that. Um but
also, let's acknowledge that if you are
using a personal phone for texting
related to your role as a council
member, you have a responsibility to
retain those records. Um I know recently
I'm reaching the end of my uh iCloud
storage and so one of the things I was
suggested to do was change my text
message retention to 30 days. So, if you
have uh council related texts on your
phone, just be mindful of that and
consider getting us uh text messages of
substance um which you could screenshot
or we can uh work with you on exporting
them. Um as Rachel said in earlier
questions, some of those text messages
if they're things like running late,
I'll meeting you here, you know, things
like that, those can be deleted.
Anything that has any more substance
than that um we should be preserving
because in your roles there's a high
value on your records and a long
retention period for your communication
records. Um so as I mentioned at this
last point here if you know you have
some text
>> one second.
>> Yep.
>> There's a deputy president Jen.
>> Yes.
>> Um you mentioned there's a long
retention period. Out of curiosity what
is that period exactly? So for uh the
archives, I'm I'm not pleased with uh
how how they've construed this, but they
say for your records, anytime you're uh
communicating with stakeholders, which
can be community members, each other,
other elected officials, um the records
have to be kept as long as you're in
office, and then they have to be
appraised by the state archives for
potential transfer and archival
preservation. We have not yet attempted
to transfer text messages and I suspect
that when we go to they may not be
interested which might change our
approach but at this point we're just
following that advice.
>> Great. Thank you.
Uh so one of the reasons we were
motivated to put this policy in place
and pay for this archiving tool, as you
might have seen in the news, there was a
pretty significant lawsuit that the city
of Seattle had to pay because um some of
their staff, including their mayor's
text messages, were accidentally, you
know, deleting or or not accidentally,
they were deleting. Um and so we just
really wanted to provide some protection
to um our council members and staff in
this area.
All right. So, I'm going to transition
and we're kind of doing a preview uh uh
presenting the council's draft social
media policy that is technically part of
your next agenda item, but we thought it
the context fit well here. So, I'm going
to go ahead and talk to you about the
council rules ad hoc committee and then
the work they did to uh create the
council's first social media policy. So
in general, the social media policy is
very flexible and encouraging and
acknowledging that council members may
choose to use social media platforms. Uh
and but does say that you know the
contact and tenor of uh those
communications in your role as a council
member should um be professional.
Uh there's also uh some suggested uh
disclaimers that council members can use
that talk about the fact that the
viewpoints that you are relaying are
yours and not those of the city council
and also uh kind of disclosing to anyone
who's interacting with you on that
platform that those communications may
be subject to the public records act. Um
there will be a a URL provided with this
information if you choose to use it.
uh also the the second part of the
policy. So in general the policy is
offering some guidelines on the use of
social media but it's also acknowledging
there are some legal requirements to be
aware of and this um is a list that if
you've taken a look at the council rules
there's a little more information
provided with each of these as to some
of the uh things that you should be
considering when you're using social
media. The training tonight is covering
the first two and and really the
confidential and sensitive information.
Um is just thinking about information
you're sharing on those public
platforms, potentially public platforms
um ensuring it's not confidential or
sensitive. And then quasi judicial
matters are um things that come up from
time to time and shouldn't be shared
or shouldn't communication shouldn't be
occurring outside of meetings. Um, so
the the policy also says, well, it wants
to have a very open-ended approach um to
council members using social social
media, but also encouraging some best
practices. And these are a list of best
practices that Madrona put together. Um,
our commitment is to work on um building
this out a little bit as well as some
FAQs to provide council members as
they're onboarded and then just sort of
maybe periodically as some friendly
reminders and as um technology changes.
So, this includes avoiding co-mingling,
as Rachel said, and we talked to staff a
lot about this. We really want a bright
line between your personal devices and
accounts and your official accounts. I
will add here, if you have um things
that you're using uh in your uh
employment or systems or um calendaring
tools, I don't know what it might be,
and it's something you're interested in
using in your council member role, reach
out to us because it our IT department
has licenses for a lot of different
software systems. And if it's something
that you would like to use in your role
as a council member, we want to try and
help you and we want to try and get a
city account for you. So, um please
reach out. Uh then the second point here
is back to those disclaimers we talked
about and then um understanding if you
have authority which you are you are not
issued uh sort of city sponsored
accounts but certainly as council
members you have the ability to
communicate about city issues. Um so
some other best practices trying to keep
an open forum so avoiding blocking other
users avoiding removing or hiding
comments on posts for these platforms
and then directing people to and to and
that's towards your uh protecting first
amendment rights. Then also directing
people to official methods of
communication trying to help ensure that
people are getting consistent messaging.
So pointing people to the city website
when able. As Rachel explained, another
best practice that we will be using on
occasion is requesting an affidavit,
ensuring that you've searched any
platforms you're using. Um, don't be
scared of using social media, but be
mindful about it being the message
there.
So, a few um I'm concluding this section
with a few just uh practices in general.
>> One second, Council President Mart.
>> Um, can we go back a slide? Um I am
surprised that this is not more
restrictive. Um I it was my
understanding that like if I go post in
Facebook to uh my friends and I say to
my friends something about the city
that's a meeting is it not?
>> You are jumping ahead. There are some
definite open public meetings act
considerations if a quorum of you are
interacting on a social media platform
including commenting on each other's
posts that Rachel is going to touch on.
So that is a problem
>> more coming there there there's more
coming about social media beyond this
slide.
>> Well not we're w we're wrapping up um
social media but as far as open public
meetings act. So four of you or if
you're on a committee two of you
>> no I I was I wasn't talking about any
other council members. Okay. just me and
my set of friends, right? And let's say
my let's say I'm not friends with any of
these people. Um for the sake of
argument, uh my understanding is if you
have a if if you have a social media um
list that is closed, that is a violation
of OPMA, is it not?
>> Uh I would say that is not a violation
of the OPMA if you're the only elected
official in Isiziqua that's that's on
it. that would be permissible under the
policy recognizing folks including
friends and family who are commenting on
your post. Those posts could be subject
to the public records act. Um you would
need to figure out how to preserve which
we'll I'm about to talk about preserve
that record. Um which could be tricky
but no this policy wouldn't preclude
that.
>> All right. Thank you. It it it's easy to
>> it does create a situation where it's
easy to
uh inadvertently violate the OPMA
though, but it isn't in it in it of
itself. The post is not a
>> OPMA doesn't care if I were to get like
physically if I got a hundred people in
the community together. I said I'm going
to invite persons ABCD EFG but only
those people and I'm going to have a
conversation about isqua policy and
everyone else is excluded from that
meeting. That's not a violation of OPMA.
Well, technically if you are just the
only council member there and there's
not a quorum then it's not a meeting
because it has but
>> all right
>> you know it is a problem if you are
friends with other council members and
they might be interacting on your post
>> right thank you
>> all right so first first point use city
stuff uh second point avoid forwarding
emails to and from your personal
accounts when possible. As Rachel said
as well, just thinking about the fact
that just because you're doing something
on your personal email doesn't preclude
it from being city record. It doesn't
really matter where it's at. It's more
about the content. If you're unsure if
you should be using city email for
something, you can always reach out to
us um for some clarification there. But
like Rachel said, we would heir on the
side of being conservative in um using
your city account for things that might
be perceived as city business. also um
using for note takingaking and just
other records you're generating as part
of your council work. You all have a
city one drive account. Um so we I'd
encourage you to you you know I don't
know if you are OneNote users but
certainly in one drive you can save any
type of um file and those are those
records are all searchable when we're
search doing eiscocovery in Microsoft
purview. If you don't know how to use
your one drive account or and would like
a little refresher on that um let us
know. We're happy to show you that. Um,
if you're using a third-party tool,
which would include a social media
system or a or something else, um, if
it's something that you need in your
role as a council member, let's talk and
see if we can get you a license to
something. If you're uh generating
records in this new uh in this in the
social media area on a social media
platform, um, we would encourage you to
be pro proactive about capturing those
records. So, you know, it's easy to
think, okay, I I know where all of these
posts are. Um, but years down the road,
it could become challenging for you to
retrieve those. And while we have been
fortunate in the last few years to not
have a high volume of council focused
public records requests, they can come
at any time and they can be ownorous.
And so, um, we'd encourage you to save
content to your one drive account.
Again, if you'd like some assistance
with knowing how to best preserve um
some of your social media content, we're
happy to provide some advice. Another
best practice would be making content
publicly available. So, if something's
easily available with no login, we can
just point people to the records. We
don't have to actually provide them. So,
that's something to consider when you're
generating content. And then tracking
dates. So, if you have a blog or you're
on a social media platform, I would
strongly suggest making some notes about
that time frame. So, if we get a request
and you get that Nissan affidavit, you
know, you didn't have a Blue Sky account
or a Reddit account at the time period
that's being um requested. So, this is
something we're trying to train staff on
as well.
With that, I'm going to turn it back
over to Rachel.
>> Council member Walsh,
>> just a question on that. it um if you go
back a slide suggested something about
um not forwarding emails to and from
your personal accounts. If someone did
send something city related to a
personal account then it does make sense
so that we can create the record in our
city email. Correct.
>> Absolutely. Okay. Yes.
>> Thank you.
But it would also still be a record in
your personal account that you would
have to keep. Just a sad aside on that.
Okay. Thank you, TA.
Legal challenges and penalties. The
really fun part of this. So, the public
records act is judicially enforced.
However, cities can adopt an
administrative review process, which is
not quite an appeal process, but it's a
mechanism for requesters to ask you to
reconsider your decision under the
public records act or relook at
something that they think maybe you got
wrong. Is aqua does have that in their
policy. Um, but someone doesn't have to
use that. So, it's not like other
lawsuits where you have to um exhaust
your administrative remedies. uh a
person who is feels they are agrieved
under the public records act can sue and
the act is enforced by the courts. The
penalties as I mentioned previously they
can be very hefty. Uh a court can award
penalties up to $100 uh per record per
page per day. It's not common. you would
you'd have to be um it would have to be
a pretty egregious violation to see $100
per page. Uh but it it does happen. The
requesttor is also uh entitled to
attorney's fees and costs if they
prevail. Note that the agency is not
entitled to their attorney's fees and
costs if they prevail. So unfortunately
that's just a cost that we have to bear
and um then we would have to bear it for
the requesttor if we ended up losing the
case.
The um court can also review records in
camera which means that they you know
privately review the records and they
can decide whether or not they the
exemptions apply and whether or not they
should have to be disclosed.
There can also outside of the P there
can be potential criminal liability for
willful destruction or alteration of
public records and uh then there there
actually it's potential that you could
um forfeit your your office if you were
to have found to have engaged in that.
There's a one-year statute of
limitations on P lawsuits and it starts
to run from the date that the agency
claims the exemption or when we last
produced records as our final definitive
response. And so we actually put in a
little disclaimer that says when this is
occurring so that there's no um
confusion in court as to whether or not
the statute of limitations has begun.
Oh, and another thing on the penalties
is that um the court can look at
aggravating or mitigating factors, and
they do the um and I won't go through
all of them, but essentially, you know,
if you there are
factors that make the city look bad,
like it looks like you intentionally
took too long, you intentionally were
messing with a requesttor, you were
deleting records, then you're going to
see um larger penalties than if there
was just a truly inadvertent error or
someone just dropped the ball, which
does happen from time to time. So,
courts tend to try to be a little bit
more lenient about that.
You want me to just keep going? Yeah.
Okay. So, we already talked a lot about
retaining public records. They have to
be retained in accordance with the local
government's uh retention schedule. As
Tisha said, your records in particular
have a a pretty long retention. Uh it's
it's not uncommon for records to have to
be reviewed by the archives to decide
whether or not to keep them. I'm glad I
don't have that job. And if they decide
they don't want them, then we can
destroy. Or if they've met the retention
and there's no review by the archives uh
required. If you've ever been to the
archives, it's very interesting. It's
already really full, so I don't know how
they keep all of this stuff, but that's
their problem, not ours. All right.
Finally, we're going to talk about the
Open Public Meetings Act or the OPMA as
we like to call it. So, as you're aware,
all meetings of the governing body are
um must be open to the public and
accessible to all.
What is the governing body?
That's you. That's um or it could be
other groups too, but it's the
multi-member
board committee commission council
or other policy or rulemaking body of a
public agency or a committee thereof,
which um important to note that it does
apply to council committees here.
And what is a meeting? A meeting is uh
means any it's one of those really
circular definitions. A meeting means a
meeting. A meeting means a meeting where
any action is taken. Well, action is
very broadly defined under the OPMA to
basically mean um any deliberation, any
discussion, any decision or uh making a
final decision is final action. But just
talking about something is a meeting
technically under the OPMA.
So we already kind of talked about this,
but you know, receiving public
testimony, things like that, all of
these things include these all fall
within the broad definition of action
under the OPMA.
Yes. Council member Derek.
>> Yes. So it's like the committee's one is
the one where I often have question and
concern. So like as part of you know
safety services and park in terms of
what I can talk about and is it really
like with my other council members of
anything that could fall into that
committee? Is it only stuff that might
be on an agenda? It's like I'm not quite
sure what we can talk about with that
specific committee since that's only two
of us and suddenly that could be a
quorum.
You're right that that does pose a
really tricky thing. I would say that at
the very least don't talk about anything
that you know is going to be discussed
in the committee. Um it's kind of an air
on the side of caution thing there. I
think that
obviously
if something comes up, you know, weeks,
months down the road and you happen to
talk about that, I I don't think we're
talking about serious risk there. But um
no like it it it does make it difficult
for a committee to operate because I
think you know it would be great if you
know two members of the committee could
sit around and talk together about what
should what we should bring forward to
the committee. What are topics to add?
And unfortunately that's just those are
conversations that just should be held
in a committee meeting because otherwise
I think you're potentially you know we
treat our committees as subject to the
OPMA and that means that if you know a
quorum of of that committee is two
people so it is better to air on the
side of caution and have those
conversations publicly but I do know
that it's hard and you know really does
pose some logistical challenges to the
functioning of the committees.
Um, a meeting can be t over email. A
meeting can be out in the parking lot
after a regular city council meeting if
you're continuing to talk about city
business. If you're talking about, you
know, your kids and personal things, not
a meeting. But once again, if you were
talking about uh matters that are effect
of to that are related to your role as a
council member, it's probably a meeting.
>> Deputy President Chen,
>> Council President Marts,
>> people confuse us all the time. So, um I
just for the newer council members, I
just want to provide a little context on
the subject of of committees. Um, this
was a this was a thing that we really
went back and forth before any of you um
well well Russell was off council and
before I think any of you except uh
Lindsay uh the we went through a phase
where we didn't have committees right
and we had you know fiveour committees
in the whole and we had all seven of us
digging into every issue and so this you
know if the the the challenges
associated what what you are hearing is
the real challenges is associated with
committees and it's why we tried going
away from committees for a while. And if
it feels awkward um in and and you feel
hamstrung at all by have by how things
have to work, just recognize that this
is the lesser of two evils. The large
larger of two evil was was having five
hour cows every month. So thanks.
Now, we're going to talk about serial
meetings because when you're talking
about the OPMA, I think it's really
important to talk about them because I
think they're probably the biggest
source of inadvertent
uh OPMA violations. So, what is a serial
meeting? It's a meeting that occurs when
a majority of the governing body has a
series of smaller gatherings amongst
themselves or communications
um that ends up resulting in a majority
of the governing body taking action
which once again can just be discussion
or deliberation um even if the majority
isn't actually ever a part of this
communication. So it can it can um
occur, you know, by forwarding emails
around or just by playing games of
telephone where a couple people talk to
someone or talk to each other and then
someone calls another person and says,
"Oh, so and so and I talked about this
and what do you think of this?" There's
multiple ways that it can occur. It does
require the collective intent to meet.
Um, so you know it's it there is there
does have to be some sort of measure of
intent there. However, as you probably
you know you saw my email communication
regarding the Burian case last week. Um
that collective in you know you council
members can potentially
you know submit declarations to the
court saying they didn't have the
collective intent to meet and it could
be potentially found that they they did.
So there still is a risk there. passive
receipt of information is not a
violation, which is why the council is
able to be copied on, you know, emails
that the um council president and deputy
council president send out to the
community. Um as long as, you know, it's
just important that people aren't
replying all and having a conversation
there. But um that's that's okay.
executive sessions. Uh, as you know, the
the OPMA has several or exceptions to it
and the the main one is for executive
sessions or closed sessions, which are
technically a little bit different, but
we won't get into that. But, um,
executive sessions can only be held for
the limited purposes that are set forth
in statute. Obviously, uh, pending or
potential litigation is a really common
one. also real estate acquisitions or
sales. Executive sessions um may only
occur if the before the executive
session the presiding officer announces
the purpose of and the time the
executive session um is going to be over
and then the discussion can take place
behind closed doors. But then any
decisions have to take place in the
public meeting and of course we can't
vote or use secret ballots.
So what is the test for an OPMA
violation?
So it occurs when a majority of the body
meets with the collective intent to
transact official business and once
again business you know is it's a broad
definition here. Um and during the
meeting the council members take action
which is also of course um broadly
defined.
So,
what happens if someone violates the
OPMA? The penalties,
the court can impose $500 civil
penalties. Those are a personal
liability. That's against each council
person that is found to have committed a
violation. If there are subsequent
violations, the civil penalty increases
to $1,000. The court will also award
costs and attorneys fees to a successful
party. Um, and that's I mean a
successful challenger. Once again, this
is another one where the city does not
get its attorney's fees generally for
these. Uh, but that I would say that's
the the biggest source of risk for the
city at least as an entity. Um, because
those attorneys fees can be really
costly. Not that $500 or $1,000 isn't
also costly, but it's not 20,000 or
$50,000. So, it's less than that. They
can also find that the action is
declared null and void. Um, but we we've
see cases where folks sue even when
there was no action to be declared null
and void. You know, they just sort of on
principle want to say that there was a
violation and they can do that and the
um court can award them their attorney's
fees for that.
Come on.
Now, we're going to talk just briefly
about best uh practices for not
violating the OPMA.
Meet more frequently. Use the committee
system like we have here even though it
is sort of limited and uh so that you
don't have to have you know cows as
frequently. Use the city administrator
or another staff person to filter your
information or questions through. Don't
discuss uh city business with more than
two other council members outside of a
open meeting. And of course, be more
careful when it's a committee. Uh don't
discuss really committee business with
other members of the same committee
outside of a committee meeting.
Uh and if you have discussed something
as a group of three, just all three of
you be cognizant about that and don't go
talking to a fourth person about the
same thing because that can be an issue
there too. And when in doubt, discuss it
in a public meeting.
Be careful with executive sessions. This
is why we stay on topic. We don't
overuse them. They have these like the P
exemptions have to be narrowly
construed. So, um, you know, that's why
we have to be kind of careful and we
can't talk about everything related to a
real estate acquisition, only certain
things. Don't uh dis make sure that you
discuss matters publicly after the
executive session prior to voting. So,
it makes it clear to the public that you
weren't making a decision in the
executive session. And then, of course,
don't discuss what happened in uh an
executive session with anyone else
outside of that executive session
because um it's illegal to disclose this
type of confidential information that
you obtain as a part of your role at in
your position. And there's actually a
$500 penalty and the potential for
forfeite of office for that. Council
President Martz.
>> So this um Can can you go back?
>> Yes.
>> Um so this um
confident So we're going to have a
conversation later as part of rules of
procedure about confidential
information. Does RCW42.23.070
section 4 define confidential
information?
>> No, it does not. H
>> so
we have to sort of
it's a good question of is is anything
that you discuss in executive session
confidential. This does come up from
time to time. I would say
the fact that you discussed it in the
executive session is confidential. So
you wouldn't want to say we discussed
XYZ
in the in an executive session. you
wouldn't want to tell that to to a
public member of the public. However, if
X was something that is public
information, you're not suddenly then
procluded from sharing that information.
You just wouldn't want to tell the
person that you just were discussing
that in the executive session. Does that
make sense?
>> Does RCW42.23070
cover only executive sessions? No, I'
I'd actually
that one that's let me look at that one
really fast. That is does look like it's
within the OPMA
>> conversation we're going to have later.
>> There are
generally I do think that No, this is
within the code. Yeah, this is this
covers everything. This is not within
that. This is just it's it's actually
part of the code of ethics for municipal
officers. And so this would uh apply to
like an email. If I send you a
privileged email, you can't you are
putting yourself at risk of forfeite of
office if you share that with publicly.
So any confidential information that you
obtain as a
>> Okay.
>> Part of your role.
>> I'm going to I'm going to come back to
this topic later.
>> Absolutely.
>> Thank you.
Um, avoid situations that can uh present
an appearance of an OPMA violation.
Texting during meetings is one of those.
Uh, the people can see you kind of, you
know, on your phone leaning over doing
that from time to time. Your situation
up here is a little bit better than some
of the dases that I've seen before. But
um I've I've sat in meetings where I saw
the governing body text each other and
it was very obvious they were texting
each other during the meeting and it did
result in um some distrust in the
community. So that's something that's
just something to be careful of. And
obviously even if you're texting other
people, no one knows who you're texting
and people can be, you know, they can
kind of make bad assumptions. So be
careful about that. Um,
just remember that your text messages
are regarding the city business are open
to disclosure. So, just be careful what
you put in text. Be careful when you're
using social media. Um, make sure that
you, like we talked about previously, if
you are posting, um, make sure that you
are watching the comments and making
sure that four council members aren't
engaging in a discussion. you you just
have to be kind of more mindful of those
those things. I've seen other agencies
have really complicated procedures for
that like having a social media
ombbudsman who's the only person who's
designated to respond in comment strings
and things like that. I don't think you
necessarily need to do anything like
that but you know you just have to be
kind of mindful that you're not
having multiple people engage in a
conversation online.
There's some additional resources that
you'll have in your packet if you need
them. And I think with that, that's it.
Anyone has any questions? Otherwise,
we'll move on.
>> I think we asked them as we went. Oh,
Council Ral.
>> I don't have any questions. I would just
say as someone who came on council
before we had city cell phones and had
to deal with a public records request on
our personal phones and personal emails.
Uh thank you very much for having us
trained and getting us the resources so
that we don't have to do that other than
in very rare cases.
Thank you. Well, we just wait until they
ask for your data with with for the the
uh records in native format with
metadata. Then that becomes a real
nightmare if it's on your personal
device. So yes, good word of caution.
Okay, I think this takes us to agenda
bill 9137, amendments, council rules of
procedure. And we're going to have our
city clerk, Tesha, come back up.
All right, Tisha Geyser, city clerk. I'm
going to make this real quick and then
um turn it over to the committee to talk
further. Um but I am speaking to AB 9137
amendments to council rules of
procedure.
Trying to There we go. Okay.
Okay. So, uh, at your February 23rd
council meeting, there were 23 proposed
review areas to the council rules, and
the council decided wisely, um, to
appoint an ad hoc committee to take a
look at those areas. Uh, council council
president D. Michelle at the time had
been appointed to the committee, but
ultimately the committee membership was
council members Walsh as chair and
Nichols and Joe. Uh, the committee was
tasked with making recommendations on
amendments to the rules in time for this
meeting. And I say the committee was
timely in their reporting. So the
committee met uh four times starting on
March 24th ending last Tuesday. Um the
majority the committee did request the
first meeting was not in a in an open
forum and the committee did request that
the remainder of the meetings be held in
an open space and the materials be uh
publicly available. Uh the committee
reviewed those 23 review areas that were
included in the February 23 packet and
then added uh five additional review
areas. A few of those were staff
motivated, a few of those were committee
motivated. Those additions were included
in your packet but were special
meetings, virtual attendance,
confidentiality, use of staff time and
correspondence.
So the uh committee recommended uh many
changes throughout the rules, many of
which were fairly minor. These are the
eight areas uh the committee felt it
would be useful to uh briefly cover
these items with the council. So I'm
going to walk through these pretty
quickly here. So the first one regarding
standing committee appointments um the
council committees as council president
Mart stated were reinstated in 2022 and
in the years 2023 24 and 25 the council
waved this struck out provision in the
council rules and appointed in all those
cases the deputy council president to
two committees which was precluded in
the rules. And so the committee
recommended removing that sentence which
the effect of that is that um the three
committee chairs can only serve on one
committee but if this is removed the
other four council members including
council leadership could serve on two
committees.
>> Council President Mart.
>> Yeah. Could the folks on the committee
explain a little bit why they wanted to
uh change this policy?
>> Yeah. Um, I brought this up uh because
as council president um previously it
was often very difficult based on
council members schedules to find a way
to make this work and so we wanted to
provide the flexibility. I think it's
still a best practice to try and
distribute that out. Um but we felt that
both it gives the flexibility and by the
fact that we had had to make the
adjustment uh three years in a row that
it was a needed um bit of flexibility.
>> Thank you. I appal
comments. Um,
>> this council has been kind of boxing
above their weight in terms of committee
commitments at SCA or other regional
committees as well. And we're finding
that because we're doing so much outside
of Isiqua itself to balance the
workload, often times it's important to
have more people on the bench, so to
speak, fill those spots for our internal
committees. So this allows the
flexibility to do that outside work and
still have a robust uh bench to fill the
committees here internally.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that uh
explanation.
>> The next item is virtual attendance. Uh
the committee is recommending more
increasing the flexibility for attending
virtually. This policy was added when
the council came back in person
following uh COVID and I think it does
make sense that it would be looked at
again a few years down the road. So the
changes so there's these two
classifications of why you might attend
virtually if it's for medical reasons.
There weren't uh really changes there.
There might have been a little softening
of the language but there's no
restriction on the number of meetings
you can attend virtually. No approval
needed. Um, what the committee requested
changes to is if you're attending
virtually for another reason, they
wanted to change it from requiring
approval of the council president to
just notifying the council president.
And then there had been a limit of four
meetings per year by which a council
member could attend virtually for
non-medical reasons. They wanted to
increase that to five and then add a
process if a council member uh wanted to
attend or or needed to attend more than
five council meetings a year virtually
whereby they could request it from
council leadership and council
leadership would provide sort of
approval in writing.
Council member Boyd,
>> more of a comment and I'm not supposed
to really make that should be a
question, but I just uh as someone who
commutes during a particular season uh
of the year for my day job, I sincerely
appreciate this proposed switch.
All right, the next section is
confidentiality. Um this was something
that was brought forward by the
administration. So the council rules do
talk about uh council members
responsibility to maintain information
confidentiality confidential in the
context of executive sessions. But there
wasn't anything more in the rules about
other information the council might be
receiving such as Rachel said related by
email attorney client priv privilege
information
about active police investigations. Um
information you might be provided in
advance of an executive session in
writing by phone. Um and so there is a
section in the proposed rules. This is
just one excerpt. There is more there.
Um the committee had uh there was a
minority report on on this item and the
council member council member um may
want to speak to that. Um, but there was
some concern that there could be some
subjectivity here and there was a
sentence that was added basically saying
the administration needs to be
responsible to identify to the council
members when they're conveying something
that needs to remain confidential. Um,
so that you know um so that language was
added but there was um still some
disagreement on this point.
>> Council President Marts. So, so I've
I've looked at section 311
and it specifically talks about
information that's exempt from
disclosure under the public records act.
So my question for the administration is
uh
do is there anticipated I mean I I guess
I want confirmation that that is the
definition that we're going to use on
confidential information especially
after hearing tonight that the penalty
for sharing confidential information is
potential uh you know relinquishing of
office. So that's how it's worded here.
If if we get two weeks into it and the
administration says they have some
information that they consider
confidential, but it doesn't uh meet the
exemption from the public records act,
um then then then we're not in
compliance with what's in section 311.
So I think it's important. So I just
want to ask um is that the
administration's understanding? because
that's how it's written in 311. And it's
fine if that's what it is. But if it's
then what the administration decides is
confidential and it's not um exempted by
the uh public records act, then we have
a problem.
I'm looking at Wally or Rachel to see
who wants to take the first.
I think that's a pretty safe and broad
enough definition of confidential to
meet everything that we would want to
keep confidential. I feel pretty
comfortable with it. I'm sitting here
and I can't think of anything that
wouldn't fall within that. Once again,
my only caution would be, you know, to
the extent it's executive session, just
don't talk about what you talked about
there, period. Even if it there's a
little, you know, non-confidential
information scattered within it. But um
no, as far as a definition goes, this
should cover everything. It's going to
cover attorney client privilege. It's
going to cover work product. It's going
to cover all sorts of sensitive
information about people in the city.
So, I think we should be good.
>> Thank you, Council Walsh.
If that isn't our interpretation of
that, is it possible to change that
chapter number from 46.56
to the actual portion in there that
um defines exemption or confidentiality
because that is a big honken chapter.
>> I mean there's literally like hundreds
of exemptions under the public records
act. So I don't think there's any way to
site
them all.
>> Okay.
>> Council member Dair.
>> Uh so yeah, my question with this uh
section is like I read it as that
essentially if you know we're talking to
city staff and a city just tells us this
is confidential, it just becomes
confidential and we're not allowed to
relay that. which to me then makes me
just wonder it's like if the city just
feels something is embarrassing and it
just doesn't want it out and it tells us
it's confidential, we now can't talk
about it anymore. And so I'm curious if
there is any kind of if one if I'm
misunderstanding that that it really is
only very specific things or how this
confidentiality is decided from the
administration for us of what we're
allowed or not allowed to say. I would
say from the administration's
perspective here that we would be we
would only be telling you to keep
information confidential to the extent
that it is ex essentially something that
would be exempt from public disclosure.
That's been our background conversation
here is that if you know we want you to
have information you know and we'll even
give you all of this information but if
something is if something is not
information that we would release to
just anybody our I think the intent of
this section is that we would indicate
that you know in our communication to
you and why
>> and and I think the practical
application is it's almost easier for to
share just the entire email with all the
information cuz to create the public
records version takes a fair amount of
staff time to redact. And so I think our
initial response and open transparency
is to try to just share but then I think
any council member does have the option
of saying well I do want to be able to
share this information so please give me
the redacted version and and so I think
that's kind of I think the vision of how
it would play out.
Correct.
And you know just also just something to
keep in mind just to make yourself feel
better here on this point. A court would
never if we said well this is
confidential just because it's you know
embarrassing. A court would not be using
our definition of confidential when they
when they were deciding whether or not
to assess you a $500 penalty for
disclosing confidential information. And
for you know you would there would have
to be a legal basis for us to consider
it confidential for the purposes of that
>> council Walsh.
So if the concept is that information
can be provided to us that might be
confidential
but if we wanted to request it we could
get a redacted version. Does that
isn't
mentioned in here. um that isn't
uh referenced as a a concept or
a solution and what then makes something
not
confidential. So I'm still having a hard
time with that.
I mean, I would think like it's
and correct me if I'm saying this wrong,
but I think you as a council member can
request information. We you would get
two versions. You would get like the one
that you would get. It's just an Isqua
resident, which would be what is how you
release your public records with
redactions to honor all the stuff. you
as a council member, the way our
administration is pursuing it is is
willing to give you all the information
but then say this is confidential. So
now you might know names of people who
specifically I think to Rachel's point
can say like I consider myself a victim
of this situation. I do not want my name
released. And so now their name is
sacred through public records. It does
not it cannot be released through public
records. you as a council member in our
current situation is we are sharing that
name, but then we're putting the
disclaimer like we're giving you
confident confidential information cuz
this person said they were a victim in
this situation and because they said
that we're not allowed through any
public records request to reveal their
name because they have that right. And
so I think that's
>> and I get that. I guess I coming from
the rules ad hoc, uh, one of the points
we were trying to create is clarity that
both someone who reads these rules
maybe as a future council member can
understand how they handle confidential
information and what the remedy might be
for a situation. So, we did try and put
in there, you know, something related
to, hey, if you disagree, this is how.
But I think that additional information,
I guess I'm I would ask um our city
clerk, is that an adjustment that we
could potentially make in order to
reference
um a possible way to address the receipt
of confidential information that
we still feels
bears information that could go out to
the public.
I'm sure we could come up with some
language to achieve what you're um
talking about. And you know, it's always
um an interesting balance with the rules
kind of figuring out what level of
detail to include. Um so yes, if the
body would like to have some language
explaining how council member might
approach I from my understanding, a lot
of this is really about timing and
you're getting information early in some
cases. So,
Wally, do you have anything to add?
>> You know, we'd be happy. I I would just
hesitate to do this on the floor
tonight. So, if this is something you'd
like us to continue working on, we can
take that as a to-do. We can can finish
the presentation if there's anything
else and then bring this back. I mean,
we would like to wrap this up, but
there's no great urgency if it takes
another meeting to do that. So, we'll be
happy to work through some language and
come back at a future meeting.
All right. Oh,
>> council member Nichols.
>> Uh, go back for a second. So, yeah, I
thought it'd be useful just so I was the
dissenting council member on this one.
So, I wanted to give the my rationale
for that. And it's it's not on on the
face of this. I think this is a very
reasonable
part of any rules. There's often times
confidential information that will come
up. Um my concern was that as on is on
part um related to what council member
Walsh brought up about um it if if we're
going to add this in there we should
have it should be complete in a sense
that it should also give some advice to
people of how to respond in certain
situations and part of that is because
this is this is truly a hypothetical. I
think we have a a good um situation at
the moment where we are able to share
confidential information and that seems
to be working fine. Um I did ask the
question if there was that this had ever
been a problem and there weren't any
examples given of this being a problem
with the council. So I think if we
knowing that it is purely a hypothetical
um
the utility of this becomes in guidance
for future council members to understand
here's some norms written down a little
more explicitly as well as here's some
expectations for or our expectations of
the administration in terms of what
paths are available when there is a
disagreement or some sort of pathway to
have this not be the the final
um act so to speak that ends with a
reference to
bindings and removal from office.
So um I I would also
I I would say I would prefer to to
strike this for the moment come back to
it. I think it's something that is
reasonable to have in there in some way,
but to slightly clarify um
both escalation pathways if we do
disagree with something as well as an
understanding that public records are
always requestable by anybody and they
should understand that and it's it's
also something you can do as a council
member as well. And I would say just as
a I mean my plan was to give council
member Walsh as the chair of the
committee a chance to kind of explain
the committee recommendations. And so
why don't we get into those nuances, but
let's try to get through the rem of this
presentation and then I think I'm going
to turn it over to council member Walsh
as the chair to kind of share comments
and then I think we can have council
discussion.
>> Okay. All right. So the next uh policy
much more benign, travel and meals. Uh
council basically has a really old
resolution that got a bit lost there for
a while from 2008. So uh the committee
recommended uh repealing the resolution,
moving the council's expenditure policy
into the rules and made some changes.
There used to have to be council
president approval if you were going to
spend over $250 on travel or training.
The committee recommended increasing or
just going with a $500 threshold, which
uh is also consistent with the past
policy. The $500 threshold would require
uh council approval under good of the
order at a council meeting. And in other
regards, the council would be looking to
the city's internal uh travel and meals
policy for the nuances of travel and
pdium and reimbursement and all of those
things.
The social media policy we covered in
the uh training earlier, so I wasn't
planning to discuss that uh further.
Uh the committee spent a lot of time
talking through the new business
process. Uh the new business process has
been used a few times recently and it
does have multiple steps uh three steps
before an item gets added to the
planning calendar. the committee
discussed what has emerged as a bit of a
um practice which is for items in
recently and actually looking in the
past I've saw a few examples of for
example a resolution supporting a ballot
measure. Um council uh member Walsh
brought one up where uh she had an
intention to amend a resolution the
council had previously adopted. Um, in
these cases, council members made a
motion under good of the order and these
items got put on uh typically was the
next meeting agenda. And so the
committee agreed to enshrine that
process and distinguished those items as
um not requiring significant staff time.
So they're things that really are
council um motivated and led. And then
uh they also took a look at the uh
current new business process which
requires the form introduction by a
council member then another meeting for
the staff response and they wanted to
compress that and so they basically
compra recommend compressing that
council member introduction with the
staff response and that happening at one
meeting. And then they wanted to reduce
the overall threshold to add new items
to the planning calendar and subsequent
agendas to three council members instead
of currently it takes a majority of the
council and that's just a majority of
the members present.
Uh the next change uh was recommended by
uh staff. The council rules uh currently
say that if you abstain from voting it
counts as a yes vote. That is not a
common understanding of what an
abstension is. Typically abstaining is
not voting. So we recommend uh changing
that. Um but council members intending
to abstain, you do need to say something
because we do voice votes here. It's
really difficult to know if someone
abstains. So you under discussion would
clarify that. A reason you might choose
to abstain. Abstensions are strongly
discouraged in the municipal code and in
the rules still. But a reason you might
choose to abstain is if you have a
perceived conflict of interest, but it's
not significant enough to be a
full-fledged conflict of interest, but
you just can't get comfortable voting.
That might be a reason you choose to do
that. Another change to this section was
currently the rules say that a majority
of the council has to agree that you not
vote if you have a legitimate conflict
of interest, which was just confusing.
So, if you have spoken with the city
attorney and understand you truly have a
conflict of interest under state law, we
do not want you voting and the rules
would say that you would actually leave
the room for that portion of the
meeting.
Um the last change and this actually was
a no change but it was something that
there was some attention on before the
um committee met. though uh we thought
it warranted mentioning is the committee
did discuss for some amount of time this
concept of a potential audit committee
or financial committee and ultimately
felt comfortable with the council's
existing processes of designating one to
two council members to participate in
the city's annual audit entrance and
exit meetings with the state auditors
and using the committee of the whole
meetings and the retreats to kind of
discussing those bigger financial
picture issues. Um so ultimately in your
rules you do not see um any kind of new
committee being formed as was that idea
had been tossed out um last year. So uh
again thank you to the ad hoc rules
committee again four meetings a lot of
review a lot of thoughtful um review and
consideration of these ideas. Um there
are some proposed amendments in your
packet and I'll turn it over to you
mayor. Thank you.
>> Okay. I'm going to turn it over to
council member Walsh. Oh. Oh council
president Marts first. Can um uh clerk
Geyser, can you mention one topic you
did not cover uh was around rules for
public participation
and it there were some changes there pro
proposed changes.
>> Thank you. Yeah, there were some
proposed changes there and that was
really to better clarify the rules had
some language that the city attorney and
I both felt mildly uncomfortable with
because it implied that the chair could
um remove someone from the chamber or
cut them off um because they had sort of
dispar disparaging comments and weren't
having what we might consider
appropriate conduct. But uh we know um
that first amendment protections are
strong and actually the recommendation
is and and we've had this experience
here where unfortunately we've had to
listen to some pretty um terrible public
comment but unfortunately um we feel
that it's uh in the agency's best
interest to go ahead and and endure um
the public comment. So it it draws a bit
more of a line between just saying
something that might not be appropriate
versus truly disrupting the meeting in
which case if someone is truly allow
preventing the council from moving
through their meeting in those cases we
could have someone removed legitimately.
>> Yeah. My eye actually caught a little
bit different part of it. It was an
addition that said um and to set an
overall maximum duration for the public
comment period. Maximum duration is set.
Efforts will be made to ensure there is
equal opportunity for individuals to
speak in support of and opposition to an
issue.
>> Sorry, thank you. Um, yes. So, that was
another uh recommendation. So, the
council has a limit of 5 minutes of
public comment and there is some
discretion by the presiding officer, but
there's nothing in the rules saying that
there can be any cap put on public
comment. I think not in the real recent
past, but the council has seen some
issues come here where the room is full
and we have 50 people wanting to make
public comments. And so this was
recommended to the suggested to the
committee as a potential tool to be used
sparingly and thoughtfully, but to if
the council has a busy agenda to allow
some parameter to put in place. Maybe
it's two hours of public comment. Um, so
that's why the addition was suggested.
Committee members might have other
thoughts, but that was the
administration's thought.
>> I would love to know what the committee
thought about that.
>> Well, Council Member Walsh, this leads
to a good segue. Go ahead.
>> Um, this was a staff recommendation and
we did mention that it was important to
make sure that we were hearing um from
um both sides of an issue and not just
necessarily in the order um at which
people signed up. So that that could not
be used to silence a group um and that
it be used uh sparingly but that um it
was a tool that we were comfortable
adding into our rules.
>> Thank you.
>> Council Robert Nichols.
>> Yeah. And just to to second that, um I
think sparing is a the the key word and
if it ever became a problem, I think we
would want to address that perhaps
immediately even at that same meeting we
could. Um the uh to be take effect the
next meeting perhaps. But the um the the
thought here is that there there are
going and um some regional board
meetings come to mind where there are
you know 100 people that have signed up.
something that happens frequently at
those is just to reduce the total amount
of time people have to speak
individually so everybody can still
speak um but overall compressed to a
more reasonable amount of time uh and I
I think there there is also looking at
that charitably there is a public
benefit to that in some sense and that
people have busy lives and if they if
they want to make their comment but
they've got to wait four hours that's
also somewhat problematic. Um, I don't
that that's there's a there's a very
careful balance that has to be struck
there and I would generally much rather
weigh on the side of increase public
participation whenever possible. But as
long as we were reviewing this rule, I
was okay with giving the chair some
additional flexibility to be used very
sparingly um and have that be a part of
our culture that it would be very
sparing as well.
>> Thank you. And council member Walsh, did
you want to give a broader macro kind of
explanation or do you feel comfortable
that everyone has it based on the
presentation
>> uh with just everything that we did?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. No, I I wrote down just a few um
comments in that, you know, there were
three of us tasked with this um initial
scope was six primary areas, four minor.
When we got started, there were five
additional items, three added by staff,
two by committee members. So, 28 total
areas of review. Um, we did end up uh
first of all moving our meetings to a
public location, which we thought was
great. Um, and providing online access.
We did have two members of the community
who did end up joining us for one of the
meetings and so that was great as well.
Um, I think Tisha did a wonderful job
just covering um, all of the pieces. I
will add in there along with the new
business request process, there was a
request from uh, staff on council member
use of staff time. And we did decline to
pursue limits on um use of staff time
believing that it's both our job to
provide oversight um but also that staff
already has the tools that they need to
provide the limitations so that we are
not taking over um the um staff time
that we've already allocated via budget
and pieces of that. Um the new business
request item really came to us because
it had been very rarely used um in the
previous um council. And so we wanted to
make sure that we reviewed and reduced
barriers there. And I think we
accomplished that both in creating a
single touch um item for minimal staff
time and uh reducing the number of
touches for larger non uh new business
request items and reducing the vote
threshold from a majority to three
council members. that ensures that
something that is of interest but we
don't have the full information on yet
um if it's of interest to at least three
council members it can then go onto a
planning calendar in a future agenda. It
does not require the interest of a
majority of the council in order to hear
um all of the information related to
that. Um, and then as we've touched upon
here, the confidentiality was really the
only area where we had a minority
opinion. Um, and Council Member Nichols
has spoken to that a bit. Um, but
overall it was a very successful
committee and I will just note that
after we do the approval, the committee
will be disbanded until there is any
future use. And we have tended to do
this every year or two just as items
have come up over time.
>> Council member Joe,
thank you. I'd like to thank uh Council
Member Walsh for her leadership during
this this process. Uh the meetings were
uh robust and the conversation was
lively. Uh just one thing for council to
keep in mind is these are rules that
we're setting to kind of manage our own
behavior and our conduct. However, uh
always keep in mind that these rules may
be suspended by a majority vote when
situations arise that may be unusual or
may uh require us to take extraordinary
action or um you know to to address a
specific situation. So, while these are
rules that we're agreeing to all abide
by, um they're by no means a straight
jacket. They're just a guideline for us
and then we can suspend the rules if the
situation should arise. Um and the
flexibility is still there for us to
address situations that I think our
citizens would want us to address in
either an emergency situation or a
situation with some um expediency
required. So, just please keep that in
mind as we're approving these or
considering these this evening. Thank
you. Council member Nichols,
>> very briefly at the high level. Yes, I
also want to thank our chair. Uh thank
my fellow committee members overall. Uh
I agree we had some good discussions and
uh also thank you to the staff. Uh I
appreciate this is a lot of work um with
many many many red lines um to get
through a very long document and
condense those opinions both from the
the council and the staff into a a good
overall compromise. So thank you.
Can I ask uh
is there are we going to do a motion and
then do amendments? Is you said that you
mentioned amendments I guess or
>> Yes. Yeah. The uh you you could do that
and also as Wally shared if there was
the desire to add some more thoughtful
language that might be difficult to come
up with at this time the item could also
be postponed and language could be
brought back at a subsequent meeting.
>> Got it.
So, council member Nichols
>> question. Um, would it be advisable to
accept to to strike one session with an
understanding that that might be brought
forward and otherwise vote on this as is
or would it be better to bring it back
in its entirety later?
given the the extensive nature of the
revisions, probably just be good to have
one revised copy of this versus adopt
this and then revise it in two weeks.
So, we could come back uh as early as
the 18th of May. The city clerk won't be
here. Um the next regular meeting after
that is this June 1st. So,
I look to the chair of the committee if
you have a preference.
Yeah, I think I am interested uh and I
think I've heard from several council
members here on the dis that um
postponing is potentially a good idea.
Uh were you just suggesting June 1st
>> just so we have adequate staff support?
June 1st might be appropriate.
Yeah, I if somebody is out of town that
would provide uh staff support, we I
think are perfectly fine to
wait on that.
>> So, we'd recommend June 1st then.
>> June 1st. If you'd like to get it done
tonight, I do have some language that I
can offer for your consideration.
>> I think the administration would
appreciate the council's generosity to
give us some extra time.
>> Yeah. So, do we need to make a motion to
table or
>> um
>> date certain?
>> There there's not a motion pending right
now. So, I think it's fine if we're
hearing that there's no objection to
bring this item back at the June 1st
meeting with some suggested revisions to
the confidentiality section to talk
about remedies to providing redacted
information. There's not an objection to
that. We can just proceed.
>> Okay.
>> So, I have a question um for clerk
geyser. First of all, I I I just I even
though we don't have a motion in front
of us, I want to thank you, Clerk
Geyser. I I did this last time we we did
this update and your leadership on this
is great and the materials today.
There's a like it was extremely well put
together and extremely easy for me
sitting on an airplane flying over
Minnesota um to understand as as I was
reading this. But I do have a question.
If a council member wanted to consider
potential amendment language um on the
first, would you like to know that now?
Okay. So, I I will be suggesting on the
first that we strike this new language
and to set an overall maximum duration
for the public comment period. If a
maximum duration is set, efforts will be
made to ensure there is equal
opportunity for individuals to speak in
support of and opposition to an issue.
So, I will be proposing that amendment
on the first, just so you know.
I like it. Okay. Uh
>> we don't have to de we we can't can't
debate it now, but I wanted you to know
that that's something I will be
suggesting.
>> Okay. So, this one's coming back on June
1st. So, this will take us to committee
and regional reports and we're going to
start with council member Boyd.
>> Um no report. I am not on any yet. So, I
think this is maybe next time
>> you get the brevity award. Council
member Adair.
>> Uh, I just have that tomorrow, May 5th
at 6:30 is the services, safety, and
parks committee meeting here where the
agenda items are equity goals and
evaluation and an update on the
potential park bond renewal.
>> All right, Council Member Nichols.
>> Okay. Uh, I'd like to note that the East
Side Transportation Partnership uh will
be meeting this Friday, May 8th, at 8
a.m. I will be the sole representative
for the city on what is normally a very
wellrepresented committee u by Isqua. Uh
in that meeting, we will be discussing a
letter of support for the four line uh
with a vote u scheduled. Uh this is a
letter that our vice chair has been
working on with several other members of
the committee to, as the title of the
letter says, express the East Side
Transportation Partnership's broad
support for the four line. Uh we will
also be receiving a report out on the
FIFA men's World Cup transportation
panel. Um which I hope to get some uh
good information back on what to expect.
Um and uh we'll report out after that.
>> Can we submit the four-line letter on
purple card stock?
>> Uh I can I can try to make that motion
and see how the what the body's uh
opinion is.
>> Okay. Council member Joe.
>> Thank you. Uh Cascade Water Alliance
will be holding a special meeting on
tomorrow, May 5th. Um I believe you're
attending mayor uh concerning a
personnel matter. Um the mobility and
infrastructure committee will be meeting
on May 12th at 2:30 May 12th. Um we'll
be looking at the amendments to the
street standards for utility facilities
and a transportation improvement update.
Um in the monthly report for Cascade, I
apologize for jumping around. They
didn't indicate uh that that report will
be sent out to you, but in the outreach
report, I would just note that they did
report that 409 people visited the
Cascade Water Alliance booth at the
recent Isiqua Sustainability Fair on
April 26. So, they are out in the
community. They're out in in Isiqua um
doing outreach for us. So, just a note
when you review that report, it should
be coming to you in the next day or so.
May 15th, uh we'll have a chamber board
liaison meeting. Uh, Wally, uh, Bob
Quitz and I will be attending that to
keep the chamber informed on what the
city is doing. That concludes my report.
Thank you.
>> Excellent. Council member Walsh.
>> Thank you. Uh, the rules ad hawk met.
I'm not going to give you a summary of
that because we just did. Uh, the
planning development environment
committee. Our meeting that was supposed
to be tomorrow has been moved to May
19th as a um change with SSP. Our agenda
includes review of a goal and outcomes
chart for our housing work. Um plus our
progress on code amendments thus far. Uh
east side fire and rescue still big
topics. Um we meet May 14th. The agenda
includes a presentation from Puet Sound
Fire Authority um their chief. Um and so
we are hearing because they went through
the process of starting a regional fire
authority 15 years ago and they are just
now adding the um fire district around
Maple Valley. They're also of similar
size to East Side Fire and Rescue and um
when they include uh Maple Valley, they
will butt up to us. So they will be one
of a few potential
uh fire authorities that we could um
they could annex us as a potential
um
and then we will get the remainder of
our presentation on possible funding
models. So just to be very clear on an
update, we are hoping to get feedback
from uh the board at our June meeting
about whether the idea of
pursuing
a planning committee to pursue the idea
of a regional fire authority is
something we want to go for. If so, the
next step after that June meeting would
be for the chief to contact all of the
cities and districts and schedule a
meeting with each of those councils
because in order to take that next
official step to create a planning
committee, we need to write a letter to
all of the other municipalities and
organizations um that would potentially
be merging together um in order to
invite them into a planning committee.
That would also require us to appoint
three elected officials from our
organization into that. So if we are
talking about nine different
organizations, that would potentially be
a lovely planning committee of 27
members, which is not going to make
anything easier. Um, but that planning
committee would potentially take a year
to two years to do all of the work of
what levy should we set, what fire
benefit charge, what should be the
governance model, who should be
represented on the future board, all of
those things. So, giving you a sense
that this will potentially come back to
council in September
to ask for that.
um letter to start a planning committee.
I am more than happy to brief anyone,
talk to you all. I just know this is a
big thing. Finally, the King County uh
affordable housing committee meets this
Thursday at 3:30 p.m. virtually. The
agenda includes revisions to our 2026
work plan, feedback on the five-year
action plan, and an update on our
dashboard data.
health president words.
>> So I I have a question about the epher.
So when when do we know when we're going
to know when we're going to make a
decision?
>> So the hope is that the the east side
fire and rescue board of directors will
have all of the information they need by
June to figure out if this is ready to
go to the cities.
>> Okay. If all of the nine cities and fire
districts agree and write a letter and
appoint people, that would start a
planning committee. The planning
committee would then go through all of
this full process
and that would potentially take a while.
And so I think at this point we are
looking at like a 2028
potential for an election.
So we as a body have an option
opportunity this summer to uh impact
that trajectory and then that's kind of
it. Then it
>> and then it would be up to the three
elected officials from Isiqua to
represent our views on that planning
committee and come back and provide
updates on what it is. you know, maybe
get feedback from council. I'm sure we
can provide, you know, regular updates
and a sense of the big decision points
so that we can make sure, much like you
do for pick, if there's a decision
coming up, we want to make sure that
council
agrees with those ideas and can then
bring that back to the planning
committee.
So, so it would be essentially the train
would leave the station this summer.
>> The Okay. So, the train would
potentially leave the station on
creating a planning committee. A
planning committee at any point can be
dissolved
by any of the members by writing a
letter
>> any of the members. So, it's a unanimous
decision. Uh, I believe any of the
members can choose to leave,
but that would bring in all these
questions about how do we fund East Side
Fire and Rescue if eight of the members
were to continue with a regional fire
authority and one decided not to. That
will be also a topic of conversation
amongst the planning committee because
we would need to also determine how
someone leaves a regional fire authority
once it was created. There are a lot a
lot of decision points and
conversations. Um I guess what I would
say from a starting point is East Side
Fire and Rescue is way ahead of the
times in that we created a regional
fire
organization
before such a thing existed at the state
level. And so this regional fire
authority is something that the state
created because there was a need for
regionalization here and it gave us some
funding levers that we cannot currently
take advantage of. But it does come with
a lot of decision-m
>> I'm just trying to understand where the
gates are. Yes. Like I realize it's a
complicated decision and we need a lot
more data and all that kind of stuff.
I'm just trying to understand where the
decision points are where we get to say
yes or no. Understanding that a no can
get complicated if we get very far down
the process.
>> Yeah. And I will bring that feedback
back to the chief in that we need to be
very clear when he is doing those
presentations in September where the
gates are and what the opportunities of
each of our organizations is to provide
feedback throughout the process.
>> Thank you. I appreciate that.
>> Yeah.
Deputy President Jen.
>> Great. Okay, two updates for me. Um, so
the King County Flood Control District
Advisory Committee uh had our first
meeting of the year on Friday, April
24th. We discussed the flood control
district budgets and the process for
projects to move from proposed to
prioritized to funded to implementation.
Notably, there is an additional $40
million in spending allocated to help
with recovery from the major floods that
happened in December 2025. And also, you
know, there's kind of a discussion on
just budgeting for the flood control
district in general. Um, the flood
control district is quite underfunded
relative to the need. Basically, they're
like, if we implemented all the projects
that people have applied for, we would
have a balance of negative $200 million.
Um, and I I mean, just given where we're
trending with the climate, I think the
need for that will continue to increase.
So, we'll be interesting to see how that
goes. The other uh very interesting
meeting that I attended that day was the
King County Regional Homelessness
Authority governing board meeting. Um we
met in person at the Seattle Library and
we had to move to a different room to
have space for the members of the media
that were there with us. Um which was
very interesting. So uh as you may have
heard, we reviewed the results of a
forensic audit. Um an accountant from
Clark Newer, which is an accounting firm
based out of Belleview spoke with us.
You may have read about this in the
news. If you have any questions, feel
free to reach out to me directly. Um,
but basically the main action that was
taken in that meeting was creating a
finance committee to provide oversight
as well as institute a hiring freeze
unless specific exemptions are granted
by the finance committee. I will be the
representative from Sound Cities
Association on this finance committee
along with two representatives from
Seattle, two representatives from King
County, and one lived experience
representative. So, more to come on
that. That concludes my report.
>> Council President Mart,
>> how can I follow that? Um there is an
upcoming SCA pick meet Sun Cities
Association Public Issues Committee
meeting Wednesday, May 13th. Uh it's
relatively juicy, not that juicy, but um
we're going to have a discussion on a
potential affordable housing regional
initiative. Uh we're going to so a start
point, but no no um uh no action
anticipated. Uh there is an action
anticipated on the 2027 proposed sewer
rate response letter. There have been a
number of potential amendments and so I
have just forwarded you all. I don't
think you were necessarily on the
original note from I think it was Laura
Belmont. Um but please take a look. Uh
there's no guarantee that all those
amendments will be supported um by pick
but if you if you have strong feelings
one one way or the other please let me
know um before the 13th because that is
the second touch on this issue. So this
is when we will um make a recommendation
to the full board uh which I am on um
but that occurs after the next full
council meeting. Uh so I will have
information at the next regular council
meeting on how that goes and what's
going to be going to the board. Uh
there's also potential action on a Sound
Transit Enterprise initiative. Uh I
don't know anything about that yet, but
that's another one of those two-step uh
two-touch processes. So I'll have more
information on that after the meeting.
This concludes my report.
>> Okay. As you heard from council member
Joe, uh, Cascade Water Alliance will
have a meeting. We will choose a new
executive director tomorrow's meeting.
And so I will share the name of that
individual at May 18th, our next council
meeting. I will also share it by email
after the selection is public. Uh, I am
confident there's good plan for
leadership for Cascade Water going
forward. In terms of community events
coming up, the Isqua Rotary has their
Grape Escape at Pickering Barn. That's
5:30 this Wednesday. It is a great
fundraiser. All the money they raise
goes into the scholarships for various
Isiqua School District High School
students. The Sound Transit Board
Meeting is this Thursday at May 7th. We
are encouraging our amazing community
who has been so active and engaged in
this process this entire year to meet
outside of City Hall here at 9:00 a.m.
The bus leaves at 911, I think. Uh and
and for those who want to just drive
down, they can also just meet downtown
in Seattle at at the building where the
executive board meets. And the final we
do expect the Sound Transit overall
board to take action right now, we're
told of the May 28th meeting. So I think
the understanding is that there will be
a executive from Chair Summer's proposal
on Thursday morning right before this
meeting starts at 10:30. And so we will
digest that proposal when it comes out
and and at this point in time that's
when we'll find out if it's aqua on the
ST3 light rail map or if our plans have
been changed. U it's called farmers
market. First uh kickoff event was last
Saturday over 3,700 shoppers attended
and it will be every Saturday from now
through December 26th. So coming out to
Pickering Barn and it's an amazing
event. Down home fourth of July is quad
community mosaic creation. So there's
two upcoming opportunities to join local
artist Cheryl Smith to create a
beautiful mosaic piece to celebrate
America's 250th anniversary. Uh first
will be Saturday, May 9th from 5 to 8:00
p.m. along Front Street in Oldtown in
conjunction with Iska Arwalk and music
stroll. And then there'll be a second
one on Saturday, May 23rd at the farmers
market. uh participants will have a
chance to engage in a collaborative
artwork that become part of the city of
Isqua's permanent public art collection
and that should be fun. The Isqua annual
community awards is going to be next
Thursday evening, May 14th from 5:30 to
8:00 at the Fairfield in uh and that is
coming up next week. In terms of
uh obviously the ALPR discussion has
been in front of this council this year.
Uh, I think just so folks have an update
of where we're at right now is I think
council member Walsh and Council Member
Nichols will meet with Del Marie
when she is back from vacation on May
11th. I think the the sense I've gotten
from the council is to pursue pass in
the space where you have a different
a less likelihood of potential data
breaches where you have a local server
where if information if you are using
any sort of camera technology it's it's
being stored on a local server. I think
the the sense is that council member
Walsh and Nichols will give Dale
guidance in this space which then she
can take that guidance and see what's
available on the open market and then
come back to council with uh potential
options that that could be pursued uh in
June and so we will but Dale is on
vacation this entire week. Uh with that
that concludes the mayor's report. Uh we
will now go to good of the order and I
want to make sure at some point during
good of the order we try to nail down a
July meeting time. So let's go to
council president Martz first followed
by council member Walsh.
>> Yeah. I just want to say thank you to
city attorney Turpin for the public
records and open public meetings act
training this evening. Um, it's it's dry
but important material and it's also
hurting cats and it's also I'm always
struck how impressed I am that so many
council members get their questions in
early. I'm not like that and so um what
to the extent that staff fields all my
ad hoc questions that come up. Um it was
really important this evening and and
thank you so much because it really did
then inform um the conversation that we
had about rules of procedure. So it was
it was deeply appreciated. Thank you. I
can share the AWC legislative affairs
committee last Friday. The most common
agreement on cities was we need to have
some fix on the public records side. I
think it's uh it definitely came up that
I think there's a lot of people building
AI models that'll send requests to
cities which are very timeconuming and
very burdensome. And so I think there is
kind of a sense that going into the 27th
legislative session we might have to
come up with some sort of proposal
acknowledges the importance of the
public knowing what we're doing but
doesn't let people you know from
elsewhere in the country who are just
trying to build AI functionality just
overwhelm our public records
departments. Council member Walsh.
>> Yeah. I just want to provide just a
little bit of clarity on the ALPR
portion that you had mentioned. Uh,
council member Nichols and I, I think,
are very willing to talk to Dale Marky
Crimp um about that, but I don't think
there was necessarily agreement among
council that we are looking for a
particular solution that provides more
limitations. I'm happy to look for it,
but I don't want the public information
out there suggesting that we've had any
conversations or that there's a sense of
agreement more that we heard the
public that they want to make sure that
whatever you know if we do something
that they have um transparent
information on it. So I I just want to
make sure there is nothing out there
suggesting that we already know where we
are going with something or that we have
a sense of where we would like to go.
>> Okay. Council member Nichols.
>> Yeah, I'd like to second that. Um and I
also think that other things that of
course will be on the table and that
always are on the table will be the
adoption by council of various
ordinances that could put guard rails of
varying degrees on anything that might
be uh pursued. So that's that's
something that I think the public should
also be aware of is is always a
possibility um and and something that we
can investigate not simply looking at
systems but also what are some what are
guard rails that um
would come back to council that could be
that could for example take the form of
an ordinance.
>> Any other good of the order before I go
through my good of the order items? Uh,
okay. The upcoming council meetings, uh,
this Saturday, uh, May 9th, we have a
city council retreat, Gibson Hall, 9:00
a.m. to 2 p.m. Topics are economic
development plan update, 2026 citywide
work plan, 2025 performance measures,
potential park bond renewal, 2728,
budget planning. That is we then have
the committee of the whole uh on May
11th, next Monday with anticipated
agenda items of the Isqua climate action
plan, the Isqua Police Department
congressional community appropriations
grant. Uh before the council meeting on
May 18th, we will have council photos
taken outside Mario Field before the
meeting. And also that evening at 6:30
p.m. we have a reception right here in
council chambers uh for council member
Barbie Michelle and our retiring police
chief Schwan. Council member Boyd, I see
you with a question.
>> Council photos are on the 11th or the
18th.
>> Oh, they're on the 11th.
>> Oh, okay.
>> Sorry. Yes.
>> Just checking.
>> Good fact check, Council Member Boyd.
Well played. Uh the
and Oh, the regular I think we may have
a resolution on self-p permanent
agreement with Sound Transit would not
be it would just be a a resolution. And
I think the the nuances of how that
plays out is through some sort of
interlocal agreement, which is actually
fairly complicated. But I think we may
we'll see how things go on May 7th. But
if things on May 7th are fairly
positive, then I think we may bring
forward a resolution just to kind of
indicate that the city's open-minded to
this to this process. And with that, I
hope people brought their calendars cuz
I think our goal
appreciating that summers in Seattle,
summer weekends are very finite. And so
I think our our suggestion is to shift
the July financial planning update to an
evening in the second half of July
between 5:00 p.m. and kind of 8 or 8:30
p.m. sort of thing. And I think we
are looking at potential dates. So
Tisha, you can help me out here. We have
I think Thursday July 23rd was one
option and I think another option
correct me if I'm wrong is I don't think
there is any meeting on Monday July 27th
right now. So I think Monday because the
one downside of the meeting if we do it
on Thursday July 23rd was that there is
a lot of other meetings in the evening
that week already.
If we did it on Monday July 27th
we don't think there's really another
council meeting in the evening that
entire week. Is that correct? And so I
just don't know if folks are available
on Monday, July 27th, 5:00 pm to
potentially do our kind of Council
Walsh.
>> I will just note that I have a regional
coalition for housing uh committee of
electeds meeting on that Thursday the
23rd from 5 to 7 p.m. So I would prefer
not to have to meet one or not to have
to miss one of only four meetings.
>> Yeah. But Monday the 27th for you is
open. We're saying thumbs up on Monday,
July 27th at 5:00 p.m. So, we're going
to
have an appointment on my calendar that
just says appointment at 3:00. So, at
3:00,
>> I'm sure it'll be fine. That's great.
>> That's a 3:00 appointment. This is 5:00.
You your other appointment, you have to
be highly efficient. Uh, okay. So why
don't folks put a hold on that? We will
get back to you with some sort of
council member Boyd.
>> Sorry. Is it like it starts at 5 or
we're doing like a normal council time
like seven?
>> It starts at 5. I think the thought is
sometimes it's 3 hours. It can stretch
to 3 and 1 half or 4 hours. Uh and so I
think if we start at 5 that makes sure
we're out of here at a more reasonable
time. But if there is a request to move
back to a later start time,
>> would you entertain 5:30?
>> We can entertain 5:30. I'm seeing nods
from the council. 5:30.
>> Thank you.
>> Okay. So, we will pencil in kind of 5:30
tonight. Council Walsh,
>> can I just ask that the clerk send us
out a hold for our calendars? Okay.
Thank you.
>> Yes, we will do that. There is no
executive session this evening. And
saying no further business before this
council, we are adjourned at 10:13.