Oh, and Arsen is right on time as well.
Uh,
welcome everyone. I want to call the
June 29th city council meeting to order.
There are no excused absences this
evening. And before we begin, I'd like
to make a change to the agenda to move
regular business item uh C AB9192 school
district interlocal agreement joint use
development of facilities programs uh to
occur before the park bond renewal. So
right now that is item C. Park bond is
item B. We would flip those two around.
And is there any objection to swapping
those two?
Not seeing any. That is how we will
proceed for today's order of business.
We now want to do the pledge of
allegiance. Please join me if you're
willing.
I
>> pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
>> Okay. The next item of business is ID
2049, disability pride month
proclamation. And we're going to invite
Rashny from Kindering to the Lecter. I
will meet you up there.
Whereas the American with Disabilities
Act, ADA, was passed by the US Congress
on July 26th, 1990 to ensure the civil
rights of citizens with disabilities.
And whereas the ADA is recognized as one
of the most important civil rights laws
in history. Whereas the city of Isqua
acknowledges the barriers and challenges
faced by individuals with disabilities,
including societal attitudes, built and
architectural barriers, lack of
accessibility discrimination and
unequal opportunities. And whereas
disability pride month is a time to
celebrate the achievements,
contributions, and resiliency of
individuals with disabilities in our
community and to promote inclusion,
acceptance, and understanding of
disability as a natural part of human
diversity. Whereas we appreciate the
efforts of disability rights activists,
organizations, and advocates who work
tirelessly to advance the rights,
independence, and well-being of
individuals with disabilities and to
create a more inclusive and accessible
world for all. Now therefore, I, Mark
Mullet, mayor of the city of Isquad, do
hereby proclaim the month of July 2026
to be disability pride month in the city
of Isqua and invite the community and
join me in celebrating individuals with
disabilities.
Wally, do you want to do the picture
first?
>> Sure.
>> We'll do the rush. Then you're
>> mic is yours.
Good evening, Mayor Mallet, council
members, and city staff. I'm Roshni
Karthikayan and I serve as the
communications lead at Kindering. I'm
here tonight on behalf of Kindering and
as a resident of Isiqua to thank you for
recognizing disability pride month. As
you may know, Kindred is a local
nonprofit serving children with
disabilities, developmental delays, and
diverse needs. We provide early
supports, pediatric therapies, inclusive
preschool, and more. Last year, we
served 126 young children from the city
of Isiqua. So why is disability pride
important to kindering? It is important
because we work with lots of wonderful
little kids with disabilities who will
grow up into wonderful adults with
disabilities and we want them to grow up
in a world that supports, includes, and
celebrates them for who they are.
Morgan, a kindering parent shared, open
quote, I celebrate disability pride
because I am so incredibly proud of my
daughter. She faces challenges that many
people never see. Yet, she meets the
world with determination, resilience,
and one of the biggest smiles I've ever
known. Watching her navigate obstacles,
finding joy in little things, and
continue to grow into exactly who she
has, who she is has taught me so much.
Disability pride is about celebrating
her, honoring her experiences, and
recognizing the strength, value, and
beauty she brings into the world just by
being herself. Close quote. And that is
exactly why what you're doing with this
proclamation today. You're sending a
clear message to our families that you
care about their kids now. You will care
about them as adults and you will treat
them with the respect and dignity that
they deserve. We appreciate the city
promoting disability inclusion in the
small but powerful way. On behalf of
Kindering, once again, thank you all so
much.
>> Thank you. Thank you.
Next is ID 2046 parks and community
services month and I think we have Jeff
Watley here. And uh
whereas parks, recreation and community
services are an integral part of our
community. And whereas parks and
community services strengthen his
squad's identity by providing
exceptional parks, trails, green spaces,
and recreation facilities that reflect
and celebrate community character,
history culture aesthetics and
landscape. And yes, all parks people
keep coming up. This is good. Uh whereas
Esqua Parks and Community Services
fosters social cohesiveness and creates
memorable experiences through
recreational arts and human service
programs that provide opportunities to
come together, promote social equity,
connect social networks, and ensure the
entire community has access to these
program benefits. And whereas Isqua
Parks and Community Services helps to
sustain and steward our natural
resources by protecting open space and
habitat, connecting people to nature,
promoting the vital ecological function
of our city-owned public land, and
increasing our resilience in the face of
natural disaster threats and climate
change. Now therefore, I, Mark Mullet,
mayor of the city of Isqua, do hereby
proclaim July 2026 to be parks and
community services month in the city of
Isqua and invite the community to join
me in thanking the staff of the parks
and community service department for
their service and outstanding
contributions.
Okay, we doing a bigger joint photo,
Wally before
>> we'll do it with all team.
>> I don't know.
to introduce you.
>> Well, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Uh,
thank you, councel. Um, as a
proclamation certainly would would
suggest, uh, this department is a
compilation of a lot of diverse
professionals and a lot of diverse, um,
services provided to the to the
community. Um, this is very well res
represented in and some of the staff who
are are here to join us. I'm seeing if
LCA Monahan from human services joined
as well. She didn't, but let me
introduce um, this certainly again
reflects the diversity and the and the
just the value and strength of this
department. Amy Dukes uh, with our arts
team, arts manager. Um, Brandon Fesus
with our recreation team at the
community center. Morgan Sheen uh, park
operations uh, and Robin Spear and park
planning. Um, when you think about
recreation and human services and arts
and park operations and park planning,
uh, we really are a five ring circus.
Um, they are all connected. They all do
make sense. Um, it's an amazing team
that really, uh, loves this community
and, uh, loves loves, um, helping, uh,
Isua be a better place, uh, day by day.
So, thank you so much,
Okay. Next item of business is audience
comments. Uh comments can be made in
person or virtual. And if you sign in
advance, you will be called on first.
And if you're doing it virtually, you
can raise your virtual hand. If you're
on the phone, you have the option to do
star three. Uh, as a reminder, written
comments can also be submitted at any
time to city council. It is quais.gov.
And madame clerk, uh, we want to start
calling up the folks who signed up.
>> Sure. Cassidy Zoo.
Is Cassidy here?
Okay. Next, Chandra Ryder.
>> Good evening. My name is Shandra Ryder
and I live in the Talis neighborhood
with my wife Sarah. Um before I get
started, I want to thank the city
council, the mayor, and the city
administrator. Over the last couple of
months since we've started coming to
council meetings, we have discovered
that we are very lucky in Isiqua to have
a leadership team that is so engaged in
the community and really appreciates the
input and listens to the input um and
takes that feedback seriously. We are
proud to support a lot of the
initiatives that the council has put
forward and approved um such as the T
performance improvement plan, um the
environmental plans. Um we're happy to
support the opportunity center tonight
and the park spawn. Um I'm also going to
be commenting on the appointment of our
new police chief. And that's again where
I want to extend my thanks to everybody
that I'm looking at for um taking our
comments and our feedback seriously and
helping arrange a community meeting last
night where we could talk directly with
Chief Milelet. Um he what I want to say
about that first and foremost and what
took all of us by surprise the most was
how open he was. Um he answered all of
our questions. Um he gave us more
context. He went above and beyond. and I
have lots of experience working with
police chiefs. Those are rare qualities
that you see in a police chief. So, um I
want to thank Chief Mlet for his time. I
want to thank Mayor Mullet and the city
council for helping arrange that
meeting. Um as I told him last night, my
personal red flags have been turned into
yellow flags. And um I support the
council's decision tonight, whichever
way that that goes. if he is appointed
as police chief. He has shared his ideas
and his goals for the city of Isiqua.
And uh I understand with my experience
that that's going to take all of us to
implement those ideas. I think those
ideas are great ideas and I think
they're very progressive for any police
department. Um and I hope that we all as
a commit community and a city can rise
to the challenge of supporting that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Next up,
>> Sandra Writer.
>> So, I also live in Talis with my wife.
Um, yeah, I just wanted to thank
everyone for arranging the community
meeting with Chief Mallette. Um, we
definitely had some concerns going into
it and like she said, we've both worked
with a lot of chief of policees,
polices, chief, I don't know, multiple
people who are chief of police, I don't
know how to say it. Anyways, um, and we
did notice just how open he was. He
wasn't defensive. I I told him myself, I
said, 'You know, if someone asked me,
hey, do you want to go into a room where
everyone's going to talk about the worst
day you've ever had on the job and, you
know, criticize your work? Do you want
to do that? I'd be like, no, I'm I'm
good. Thank you. But no. And he was
willing to do that. He was willing to
meet with us. He didn't know what he was
walking into. Um, and we were just taken
aback by just his his openness, his
honesty. Um, so yes, I I will say for
myself, I would be a yes for him. I do
think he is uh an excellent um person
and we look forward to helping his
vision come to fruition in Isqua and
also yes for park bonds yes for
opportunity center.
>> Thank you very much. I might start
paying you to come to more meetings and
just keep testifying. Uh madam clerk,
>> no one further is signed up and we don't
have anyone from the public with us
online at this time.
>> Oh hey, this is your chance.
>> Oh, you're okay. Come on up. Just share
your name, your relationship with the
city, and off you go.
>> I am Terry Fulton. I have lived in
Isiqua for 41 years, seen many, many
changes, and I am here to support the
parks bond. Um, I'm representing the
pickle ball community. Um, and I have
many friends who are also tennis players
and I can say actually I was talking to
they happen to be one of my clients
today. I was talking to them and she is
a tennis player and I was saying oh do
you play at Tibbitz? And she goes oh no
the pickle ball players have overtaken
it and that's sort of like um that's not
exactly the case. And then she goes yeah
well the pickleball players play on the
first court where the backboard is. We
can't even go there and hit balls on the
backboard. So, I strongly support the
bond that would um uh put more pickle
ball courts up in um Central Park. Um I
know, you know, everyone in the pickle
ball community would really appreciate
that. It's, you know, tough in the
summer. You know, we we play outside in
the winter. You know, we're playing in
at the community center and, you know,
we we love that. And um anyway, I just
wanted to come here and say I think it's
very important that we are able to fund
something like that.
>> Excellent. Thank you very much. So Mark,
June 29th, 2026 is the day everyone
discovered there's a pickle ball lobby
in Isiqua and it's alive and well. And
uh is there anybody else wishing to
comment? It is totally Oh, come on up.
The lights are left on uh old time about
18 years. This is what they call just in
time training or uh inventory. So flash
back to work. So leaving that aside, uh
I guess I want to talk on four topics
tonight. Share with you thoughts that I
had. Uh, I'm going to briefly pull up my
cell phone, not because I'm watching for
the phone, but I kind remind myself to
keep on track with what we're talking
about.
So, basically, I'll probably forget some
of what I'm going to say, but I want to
be respectful of your time. Uh, the
first on the park bond proposal, thanks
for director Watlin for meeting with me.
Uh first thing is that I'm strongly
opposed because I don't think we've had
a chance to define what our park
priorities are. We're not g we're gonna
have what 20
some odd million dollar chance at this.
We haven't really identified what I
think what our priorities are strong
enough is communitywide. We're pushing
this to go through before we've had time
to identify what those priorities are.
Uh that said, I want to be transparent.
I'm a big opponent of the dark park in
any form. it kind of got wedged in, but
I wanted to be transparent and about
that in front. Uh I just think we're
rushing this and go now. We're not going
to get the priorities we need. We're
gonna end up with some facilities that
are going to be need to be replaced or
maintained before we have a chance to
find those. So, I'd ask you to
uh wait until we find that better. Uh
that said, I guess I'm
that's my big concern concern with it.
We haven't taken the time to identify
what those priorities are. I'm admit I'm
not a fan of some of the while I'm a fan
of the X house most I don't also don't
know that I see that we're in a dire
need for more hacking trails in we're
already well known for that. There's
just too many questions. I'm sorry. I do
have to look at my cell phone to remind
myself of the other things I want to
talk about.
I hate the dead silence.
I guess I also don't know about the
playfield facilities. I don't know that
we are gearing up towards a larger
area than
the city our size normally has for this
type of facilities. So, I'm tend to be
inclined against the uh is is a quest
school district in the city on local
agreements with park facilities. Uh
transitorian development. I like the
idea, but we've just been told we're
going to be back in 2050 for a park for
a transitory or transitory development
train coming to Isqua.
uh title 18 land code.
I guess I don't think we've looked at
this realistically enough to say what it
is that we
uh expect to get development from the
train coming through. Uh I've always
been I'm getting off target a little
bit. Um
the step back the step back step backs
15. The way I heard it explained one
time is there was a proposal to change
this step step back from the bottom of
the fifth floor to the bottom of the
sixth floor. That was defeated in the
PPC. I'd like to see that reinstated at
the fifth floor. But more realistically,
I'd like us to look at all the things we
talked about. We defined a set of
culture and criteria things we wanted
when we agreed to become a regional
growth center. And we just need to be
setting these aside and not defining
what the things are that we want. When
we decided to become regional growth
center, we said some things we wanted to
have maintained and we're not defining
what those are. We're just going through
and changing them without understanding
what we lose or why those are
maintained. So, I disagree with the step
back or I would set it to
uh
bottom of the fifth floor rather than
the bottom of the sixth floor as was
recommended by the PBC. I'd also like to
see the
uh community area with inside each of
the proposed new parking
building units not decrease the the
minimum facilities. With that, I rambled
long enough. Thank you for your time. I
appreciate it.
>> All right. Thank you very much, Steve.
Is there anybody else here for audience
comments?
Looking going once, going twice. With
that, audience comments are closed. Uh
the next item of business is the consent
calendar. I do not have any remarks on
the consent calendar. Do any of the
committee chairs or chairs as Oh,
council member Walsh. Thank you. Um,
let's see. Get my email up here. Um, I
just want to take a moment to speak
about AB 91182, which is the title 18
land use code clarifying amendments.
This item was reviewed by the planning,
development, environment committee on
June 2nd. It's essentially cleanup and
clarifications that have been building
up over the last year. So I wanted to
clarify that this does not include any
of the promoting building business
promoting building investment work
scheduled for the next two years that we
recently adopted we recently approved
that's coming later in the meeting as
the first item. This is just the
clarifying items and we supported this
unanimously.
>> Right. Thank you very much. Uh consent
calendar was distributed in advance. Uh
they will be approved in one motion.
Have payables and payroll been reviewed?
>> They have.
They have
>> I see two. Uh does any council want to
remove any items from the consent
calendar?
>> Not seeing any. Is there a motion?
>> Mr. Mayor, I move we approve the consent
calendar as presented in tonight's
agenda.
>> Second.
>> There's been a motion and a second. Uh
all those in favor, please say I.
>> I. I.
>> Those opposed? Nay. And that passes
unanimously. So that takes us to the
first item of regular business, which is
AB9211,
the police chief appointment. And so, as
we know, Chief Paul Schwan retired on
June 1st of this year, and we then had a
nationwide search uh to find a new
police chief. We did have, I think it
was 21 applicants apply for that job. We
had three people come in from various
locations in the country, uh, plus one
internal candidate, and we had a group
of panels. It was community panels. It
was staff panels. Uh folks from the
council, three council members were on
the panel. We had a member from the
equity board on the panel. And uh and so
everyone got a chance to interview these
four finalists that were there that day.
And then I basically took into
consideration the recommendations from
those various panels. And that's how we
landed on Chief Steve Milelet. And I
would say when I first went to the
conference of mayors back in January and
you get a chance to ask mayors like
what's your advice in terms of being new
to this role and it's unanimous. Every
mayor says the most important hire
you'll make is your chief of police. And
so I think out of the gate I took this
decision very seriously to make sure
that we did pick someone that we thought
could represent this community. And to
be honest, it was really nice to hear
the comments. Uh to go from two red
lights to a yellow light and a green
light makes me want Chief Mlet to be in
my passenger seat cuz I seem to hit a
lot of red lights every time I come to
city hall and they seem to be red longer
than I want them to be. So that's really
a testament I think to why I do think we
have a good candidate here. And uh and
with that, is there a motion?
And the motion would be I'm looking to
our
to confirm the mayor's appointment of
chief of police.
>> So the motion is to confirm Steve
Milelet as Council President Marks. I
move we approve uh the mayor's
appointment of Steve Milelet as chief of
police for the city of Isaklaw.
Confirm.
>> Second.
>> Okay, there is a motion and a second. Is
there any council discussion? Council
member Walsh.
>> Um thank you. I wanted to start out by
just saying I really appreciate the
public engagement on this topic. This is
another one where we got um quite a few
emails and there were quite a few
questions on there, but it wasn't a
point where people stopped with just
questions. They further talked to
council members and they said, "What was
your perspective?" And we had council
members talk to other council members
from Belleview um who had history with
Chief Milelet. And so there was a lot of
due diligence on this. Um there are
three things that your city council does
really truly. One is approve a budget
that spends your money based on your
priorities. Um the second is set
policies across the city. And the third
is approve the hiring of our top
officials. And all three of those are
really the important areas where we're
doing our due diligence and where the
public's feedback is really essential.
Um, I participated on that hiring
committee with two other council members
as I also did when we hired former Chief
Paula Schwan and I was very impressed
with um, Chief Millet's experience,
knowledge of the area um, and just the
way that he engaged on this interview.
So, I am very grateful that we have this
opportunity to make this decision. you
know, sometimes we go through a national
hiring process and the candidates just
don't bubble up to the level of what we
need in ESUA. And so, it was really nice
to see um someone come through that did
that the um hiring committees uh were
looking at it and saying, "Yes, this is
a really good fit." And then to have the
public come through and really ask the
questions and um see Chief Milelet
respond to that and say yes. Yes, I want
to meet with everybody. Yes, I want to
have that engagement really confirmed um
that decision for me. So I am in full
support and I appreciate that we have
this opportunity.
>> Excellent. Uh oh, Deputy President Jay.
>> Great. Um, yeah, I want to echo
everything that Council Member Walsh
said. Um, I also had the opportunity to
serve on the interview panel alongside
representatives from the community,
Council President Martz, Council Member
Walsh, and um, Chief Millet was the
unanimous top choice of every member of
our panel based on his responses. Um,
also, you know, I will note that after
um, he was announced as the newly
appointed police chief, you know, I go
to various events and everyone who I
talked to from Belleview was very
excited like, "Oh, I heard you have a
new police chief. who's our old police
chief. Um, and so, you know, heard a lot
of positive feedback from folks in
Belleview as well. Um, I think one thing
that a lot of members of the public
might not be aware of is that we operate
jail and given our recent record here in
Isiqua, including two overdose deaths in
2023. I believe it's really crucial that
we have a police chief who genuinely
cares about the well-being in everyone,
every single person in our care. And
based on our conversations with Chief
Milelet, I believe he cares and will do
the work to make sure that we are, you
know, living up to our values here in
Isiqua.
Um, in both Belron, also Chief Millet
made progress in diversifying the police
force to represent the communities he
served. Um, in particular in Belleview,
one, um, example that I think I heard
from someone, one of the council members
in Belleview that I talked to was that,
you know, when there was a rise in
anti-Asian hate crimes in the beginning
of the pandemic, you know, he actually
brought in one of the officers who was
Chinese to speak, you know, to the
community in Chinese. And for me as a
Chinese American, I think that's really
meaningful. And so I have full faith
that he'll be able to do um, similar
work to engage the community here in
Isiqua, which I think is an area where,
you know, we could make some progress. I
will also say, you know, there have been
a lot of questions that have arisen
through this process that's been raised
by the community and they do deserve to
be taken seriously and I want to give a
huge kudos to Chief Mlet for, you know,
taking the time yesterday and for our
community members on such short notice
to, you know, spend two hours talking
through all of these items. I would say,
you know, my yes vote comes with an
expectation that Chief Millet engages
openly, acts with accountability, and
demonstrates through his conduct that
these concerns were heard. and I know
that, you know, he's taken a good first
step with that with yesterday's
community meeting, but we know that we
all need to continue to do the work to
earn the trust of the community. And
that concludes my rocks.
>> All right, Council Member Adair.
>> Uh, yes. So, yeah, so echoing the same
statements. Um, I really tried to kind
of feel the weight of this decision as
really being kind of the most important
uh vote I'm have likely made thus far.
um and really put a lot of thought and
research and care into this. Um you know
I was not on the you know the interview
committee but so once his name came up I
tried to really research look at his
background look at the informations we
were provided in terms of his
application and really do my uh due
diligence u met with him privately also
to ask a lot of the questions and some
of the questions that have been brought
up to us. Um and I felt through all of
that that I did feel that he was the
right person for the job. Um, you know,
I was looking for someone who would
really prioritize um, community- based
policing that would be um, trying to
build a lot of trust with the community
with, you know, all demographics, all
the people that are a part of this
community. Um, I really wanted, you
know, to create a very positive trusting
relationship between the police and
emphasis on the serve aspect of that
role. Um, and, you know, his answers,
you know, gave me confidence that he
would do that. um you know so I you know
as he's said and through his meetings I
do think he has promised to bring a lot
of transparency to really work with
people and meet people where they are
and that I feel he is going to work with
council and the residents to really
build something you know from the
community up really do the job and you
know most importantly listen to what we
have to say and what we want out of this
police force so for all those reasons I
will be voting to confirm yes for his
appointment.
Thank you, Council Member Boyd.
>> Thank you. Um, echoing off of the
comments of my colleagues here that I
have been very impressed um, overall
with Chief Milelet and how he's really
been able to just run head-on into any
questions that he's faced. um you know
the concerns from the community I don't
take those lightly and um I've been able
to ask and um get his context uh for the
concerns that have come up and I know
he's addressed those himself as well and
um I think it just goes to the fact that
um one of the council members mentioned
how just the steward of trust that the
police chief is and um based off of the
decision-m skills um your leadership
I've seen and just your brief weekend
here. I'm very encouraged by that and I
think you know I know I'll keep watching
to see how that continues. Um should you
be confirmed and um I for based off what
I've seen from your character this
weekend, I'm a guess.
Chief Miley Chanel, Council Member
Boyd's mom was a police officer and
council member Adair's stepfather was a
police officer in Texas actually for uh
Council President Marks.
>> Thank you. So uh this is an
extraordinarily important uh
appointment. Public safety has become in
recent years such a complicated topic
around our nation and I'm from
Minneapolis so I've seen it, you know,
horribly impact otherwise. um otherwise
great places to live where where
communities had a hard time defining how
they needed the public safety system to
operate. So u this subject of the
officer involved shooting in Akran came
up in the interview panel and one of the
things that impressed me uh about Steve
was that he was real honest about uh the
process that they went through um the
challenges that he had with his police
force. You know, one of the pieces of
information that that people didn't
necessarily know until they got involved
in the conversation over the last couple
weeks is is when you talk about the
importance of public safety, um you
know, having the when he was chief there
in Akran, um he got the Ohio Attorney
General's Bureau of Criminal
Investigation involved in that officer
involved shooting. um that's a standard
of public safety that we have in
Washington and it was an element of
understanding that if he was going to
become our chief that he would
understand um how we view public safety
in this community. So it was it was
really really important to me. He also
talked about his engagement with
communities of color during that uh
during that time which which was you
know so traumatic for the folks of
Akran. Um and so it I you know really
really impressed me that um he would
keep our communities of color and our
historically underrepresented
communities here in Isiqua safe. So it
made me very positive about him as a
applicant and I'll be excited to support
his uh confirmation this evening. Thank
you.
>> Thank you. Council member Nichols.
>> Thank you. Um before I say anything
else, I want to just thank everybody who
put the time and effort into this
process. I I know this is a lot of work
from the staff. um managing a long
executive search like this takes a lot
of time and it needs to be done very
carefully. Um also my fellow council
members for all the seriousness that
they've brought into it and the uh
concerns from the community and the
comments from the community. I think uh
hiring is the most consequential
consequential decision any organization
makes and uh it really is worth getting
right. Uh and I'm really grateful for
the care everybody has put into getting
it right. Um I will admit I was very
concerned about a number of things. I
read both in the press that were emailed
to us uh and that members of the public
have brought before us. Um after
listening to Chief Mlet extensively
though, including two hours yesterday
that I joined to listen to joined uh
with him uh to listen on my part as he
spent his Sunday talking with community
members who did not pull punches on any
of those topics. I will say I am greatly
reassured. Um I particularly look
forward to seeing him implement the
community engagement efforts he's
described. Uh we have many different
groups within Isqua, some of whom are
very comfortable writing in, speaking
up, and advocating for both themselves
and others. We also have many
communities that demonstrabably do not,
and we never hear from them. I was
impressed with the efforts he led in
Belleview to bring in diverse members of
his community and give them a voice. He
bragged that he has seen crime numbers
go up after instituting these in the
past, not because crime has increased,
but because the residents are
comfortable reporting them. I look
forward to seeing that same in Isqua and
hope we can all be good partners in
making everyone in our community feel
the safety they deserve. So, I will be a
yes.
>> Thank you, Council Member Joe.
>> Thank you. I also will be a yes this
evening. Um just want to let uh the
community know my perspective a little
bit. As many of you know, um I have
served as the prom judge here in the
Isqua District Court. Used to be here.
it's now cross town, but uh served on
the bench here. I al also served as a
prosecuting attorney for four east side
cities for over 10 years. Um so I bring
that perspective to this um process
along the way. And uh it was interesting
because I I wasn't scheduled to meet
with Steve until Sunday, but on Friday I
was having breakfast at a local uh
restaurant and and uh he happened to be
there uh with uh our city administrator.
And so I sat down with him and started
peppering him with questions. I was
quite impressed that he was able to um
take my impromptu light
cross-examination
uh in stride and and answer questions um
to my full reassurance and the the full
uh ability to uh address my concerns
there. Um, one of the things that I was
impressed with was the again the
Belleview process where he brought in
um, Aar Bian from the Asian community
uh, and other leaders in minority
communities to work on community
policing. And one of the last questions
I asked him was that I know that it was
from a different time, but we used to
have police officers that came to our
Rotary Club meetings and our Kowanas
meetings and showed up at the different
events. And he goes, he said, "I I
really want to reinstitute that because
community policing is so important to
me. Our officers and our police
department doesn't know what's happening
in our community unless we're part of
the community and involved with the
community." And that um really impressed
me as well because it's pleasing on one
hand, but it's community building on the
other. And I think Steve's going to
bring that both aspects of that to this
job. And I fully support his uh
confirmation uh this evening. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much. If there's no
further discussion, the motion for the
council is to confirm the mayor's
appointment of Stephen Mlet as police
chief of the city of Isqua effective
July 16th, 2026. All those in favor,
please say I. I.
>> All those opposed? Nay. That passes
unanimously. So, please join me in
welcoming Chief Mlet. And Chief Mlette,
if you want to meet me up here, you can
make a few remarks.
>> Good evening, Mayor Mullet, members of
council, Mr. Bobitz. Um, I I'm humbled.
I truly truly am. Um um I feel a
tremendous amount of pride. Um I thank
you for your confidence and your
support. I promise you the things that I
say I will deliver on. What you see
truly is what you get there. I whatever
I say comes out of my mouth is the truth
as I know it to be in that moment. Um I
am very very excited to be joining uh
the leadership team and leading the men
and women of the Isqua Police
Department. I don't say this because of
the confirmation. I remember this when I
was a chief in Belleview. You have a
good police department. You truly do.
And as I was driving around on Sunday
morning with Officer James and we're
driving through the neighborhoods, I saw
something that I hadn't seen in a very
very long time. People actually waving
at the police, a dad standing there with
his his son, his probably four years
old, pointing at the police car as we're
coming up and encouraging him to wave.
To me, that's that shows me and is a
testament to the relationship between
the police and this community. There's
always room for improvement, always. But
whatever foundation that of positivity
that I'm inheriting, we're just going to
continue to build off of. Um, and yes, I
do listen intently and I thank the
community um for their questions and the
opportunity to allow me to present the
Paul Harvey rest of the story. Um, and
and I I promise you I will not let you
down. I thank you very much, mayor, for
for the nomination. Um, and I can't wait
to get back to the Pacific Northwest and
this beautiful, beautiful community.
Thank you.
I know. I think Ohio right now is 30°
warmer with 100% humidity. Uh, Council
Member Dere, this may only be your most
important vote until two more items.
when you get a vote for pickle ball. So
that's uh so chief millet going to enjoy
his moment of glory for at least a
couple agenda items. Uh the next is
agenda bill 9192 is cross school
district and city interlocal agreement
for joint use and development of
facilities programs maintenance and
operations and parks director Jeff
Watling. It's all yours.
>> All right, mayor. Thank you so much.
Good evening council. Uh Jeff Watling
again. Um and thank you Tisha uh Clerk
Gieser for uh running the slides on both
of these presentations back toback. So
thanks so much. Um next slide
with this item uh the joint use
agreement with this school district.
purpose um and recommendation. Uh the
purpose is uh uh to present um our
recommendation administration's
recommendation and seek um your
authorization for the mayor uh to sign
this updated joint use agreement between
the city and the Isagua school district.
Next slide.
Oh, I do have the clicker. Next slide,
Jeff.
Next slide, Jeff.
Turn it on, Jeff.
There we go. All right. Thank you.
Little levity. Um, this slide is really
to to I think uh trying to answer the
question, why why is a joint use
agreement between two independent public
agencies um of value? Um what is the
intent really? Um four areas I want to
highlight. One is uh the mutual interest
that both of these agencies, a city and
a school district, have in supporting
community programs, both for education,
for recreation, um and athletics. Um a
joint use agreement also recognizes that
all city and school district assets are
publicly owned uh by the residents of
that community. Um, a joint use
agreement allows for a much more
cost-effective way to deliver services
and programs both uh the school district
as well as the city uh running um
running programs. Um and lastly uh the
properties are made available to the
other agency as a first priority um
after scheduling uh for its own programs
and services um have been met. So
tremendous efficiencies
and as I look at the background I think
we can see that as a testament here in
Isiqua. We've had a current joint use
agreement um and the current joint use
agreement has been in place uh since
2003. Um uh so we have a great history
in working with the school district. Um
we also uh recognized it was time uh to
review and and likely update uh this
joint use agreement. Uh so in April of
2024
uh those of you council members who were
uh here at the time uh will recall we
had a joint meeting between the school
board and the Isqua city council that
April. Uh this was a topic uh that
myself and Martin Turney uh presented as
an opportunity to uh pursue a renewal.
Um we got some great um um feedback um a
great discussion uh by both council and
school board that really helped to set
uh the course um uh for that uh for that
work. Uh so we began that in earnest in
2024 and 2025. A lot of great staff work
um happened. Um a new framework to a new
draft was created. Um fast forward a bit
to to early 2026.
uh school boards, our school board,
school district staff uh joined me uh at
a parkboard meeting in January uh where
we presented u the the framework of that
draft. Um Parkboard unanimous
unanimously supported uh moving forward
with that. Um later uh this year uh in
April uh another joint meeting between
the school board and the city council
occurred. Um, at that meeting, um, I
unfortunately wasn't able to attend, but
I know school district staff provided an
update on where, uh, that agreement was
was at. Um, not on this timeline because
it happened so recently, forgive me,
but, uh, just last Thursday, um, on June
25th, um, I had the chance to present at
the school board meeting. Um uh my
presentation focused not only on the
park bond renewal but also the
importance and the relationship that
park bond renewal has uh with this joint
use agreement. Um very very positive
feedback from the school board on both
of those items. I'm going I'm going to
provide a little bit more um of an
update a couple slides from now under um
under next steps.
But first, uh, just to highlight, uh,
really some of the the the primary
additions, um, and changes, uh, to the
joint use agreement. Um, and I really
put these in in two pretty, uh,
prominent categories. Uh, the first
significant change has to do with
scheduling, um, and access. Um, what
we've done in this updated agreement is
further clarify uh, the process for
scheduling and and that coordination. uh
so much of this joint use agreement and
really the the implementation of this
joint use agreement is done very much at
a frontline staff level. So it was a
very important in this um update to
clarify the process and understand how
different facilities are scheduled uh
should require a different or
understanding of a different scheduling
process. So, uh, we broke down different
ways that, uh, that scheduling
partnering would happen with gymnasiums,
uh, with fields and and city parks, uh,
with the Julius Bone Pool, uh, with the
Israel High School Performing Arts
Center. Um, again, all important public
assets, but all have a a little
different scheduling mechanism. So, uh,
this update has really, um, I think I
think modernized our approach, um, and
laid out a a good framework, um, as
opposed to the 2003 plan. In that
regard, another key element in addition
to this joint use agreement is
establishing, um, a process for possible
joint capital projects and programs. Not
just talking about it, but laying out in
uh, this plan a methodology for what
that would look like. Um and that could
include joint capital projects uh such
as athletic fields um like community
sports fields at elementary schools uh
that might be uh in our future. um would
also create a mechanism for um joint
capital projects around uh additional
pool capacity um or any other um capital
uh projects or programs that might
become available where the the joint use
agreement doesn't try and define every
single one of those that might happen in
the future. But it creates a process
which in which addendum agreements would
be uh created for each of those capital
projects that would then spell out the
specifics of how is it funded, how is it
being built, how is it going to be
maintained, um what are the roles and
responsibilities of each agency within
that um that capital project or um or
program. So a a a great um tool and
mechanism that this joint use agreement
um could serve for many years to come.
So, some next steps. Um, and again,
forgive me. I I should have updated this
uh from from last Thursday. Um um before
I jump into these next steps, um should
um should you authorize mayor to to to
enter into this agreement? Um um we also
need the school board uh to to enter
into this uh agreement. So, like any
joint use agreement, we're coordinating
the adoption authorization of of each um
of each agency. Um the next school board
meeting is on August 13th. Uh the school
board is scheduled to adopt um and
authorize the this agreement that
evening. Um, at the the Thursday, June
25th meeting that I attended, uh,
following my presentation, uh, Wall-Ally
and I were provided an update uh by the
school district staff on, uh, the
discussions they've had with the school
board. Uh, they were very positive, very
happy to report that, uh, the school
board has no, uh, programmatic questions
or concerns about the the joint use
agreement. Uh, there were a couple of
um, more legal questions that they're
running down. they uh school board staff
running down with their legal team. Um
I've updated Rachel Turpin, our city
attorney um as to those discussions. Uh
we will work through those. Um a lot of
those legal questions had to do with
some language around indemnification
um as well as some language around uh
dispute resolution. But again more
technical um what we've we've learned is
there is um tremendous support from the
school board uh for all the programmatic
elements of uh the joint use agreement.
Uh so with that said, uh following um
that key next step of both agencies
authorizing the joint use agreement, um
this fall, uh we would um jump straight
into implementation and operationalizing
uh this agreement at a staff level uh
between both agencies. Um and then um
later this winter uh should there be a
potential park bond put on the ballot
and should voters um approve that uh we
would begin working this winter on
entering um into addendum agreements uh
for each of those community sports field
uh projects.
So options before you tonight um um as
administration recommends the first
option is to approve the motion and
authorize the mayor to enter into that
agreement. Um uh another option uh
should you not want to do that is refer
uh this agenda bill to service of safety
and parks committee for more discussion.
Um, another option you would have is,
um, if you don't support this is, um,
not updating the joint use agreement and
continuing with the 2003 joint use
agreement that we have in place right
now.
But with that, our recommendation is
that you authorize the mayor to enter
into this uh, agreement. Um and again as
you see the language there uh provided
um that uh the parties um may make re
revisions that not substantially change
the terms um of that agreement um or
change any of the programmatic terms um
if approved by the city attorney. So
with that, thank you very much. I'm
available for questions.
>> Council member,
>> uh yeah, I had a couple questions. Um so
for the scheduling updates that you did
um what were there were can you explain
a little bit like maybe what some of the
problems were with the current agreement
in terms of that um as well as in the
updated versions did we get any like
more access to things or anything that
happened there?
>> Yeah, great great questions. Yeah, I
would say um operationally what we a a
couple things we recognized as
challenges in the in the prior
agreement. Um, one um it it didn't
differentiate between a scheduling
process for say the performing arts
center uh from scheduling um a gym. Um
it um um didn't have a a a a mechanism
in place on how to most efficiently
schedule the variety of of again public
assets that both we manage and the
school district manages. Um, another u
reality of that 2003 agreement that we
wanted to address um was financial um
and that the prior agreement had the
city paying for half of a full-time
staff person of the school district, a
facility scheduler. Um and so uh through
uh this work and through this update uh
we felt that was important uh given um
again I think the important roles that
we both play in managing our own
facilities that we should no longer pay
for half of a school district staff.
>> Fantastic. And then my other question
was will those will that scheduling
agreement apply to the potential new cap
fields that we might make or will a new
agreement need to make for those
specifically?
>> So a new interlocal agreement wouldn't
need to be made. The mechanism for those
capital projects would be an addendum
agreement would be created. That
addendum would be an attachment to this
interlocal. That addendum will spell out
um how those fields will be maintained
and scheduled. what I shared with the
school board and what I I've shared uh
with with you all and the park board in
prior agreements and been very clear
with school district staff is it would
be our goal that through um again should
should a bond be approved should we be
entering into an addendum agreement with
um those elementary school fields the
city would be the funer of the project
we would be the maintainer and the city
would be the scheduler um of those
fields and So, um that addendum
mechanism allows those elementary school
fields um that the city would be
investing in to be managed and scheduled
differently um than uh some of the other
existing fields. I hope that helps.
>> Council member Nichols,
>> thank you. Um some follow-up questions
on that addendum and the on the
scheduling piece in particular. Uh so
I'd emailed you on this before. You gave
a a great answer at the time. My
question was basically um we have as a
city different policies on how we allow
access to our our outdoor facilities in
general versus many of the school
facilities. A lot of the newer school
facilities, their turf facilities in
particular, oftentimes have access fees
associated with them. And my my hope was
that we would be able to control this as
a city and not have publicly funded
fields, require access fees.
scheduling for big events and uh sports
aside, individual being able to access
those fields at any time, I think is
something that most of us expect out of
our parks. Um has did that discussion
proceed any further? Do you I don't
think there's anything new in this
agreement as is, but you must have
discussed the addendums that you'll
follow up with this in more detail. And
do you have any more um detail that you
can share on that topic?
>> Yeah, I I believe so. If I'm following
your question, um, pertaining to
existing school district fields at the
middle school or high school and how
they manage them, this interlocal Oh,
>> oh, sorry. No, I I don't mean that. I
mean the the ones that this bond will
fund. Okay. If this bond is to fund new
things, will we be will will the city be
able to set its policies on public
access, not for existing fields that the
schools already own?
>> Thank you, Council Member Nichols. Yes.
Yes. the addendum agreement. This the
framework of this agreement as well as
the addendum agreement would give us the
ability to set scheduling um parameters
um very clearly and very differently uh
to allow public use um of those um
elementary school community sports
fields to function just as a
neighborhood park would um after after
school hours. Obviously during school
hours, um it would it would be serving
its primary purpose as a as a school
amenity. Uh but after school, evenings,
weekends, uh summer hours, uh those
community sports fields would be managed
and function just like a sports field
would in any one of our neighborhood or
community parks. Okay. Thank you. Yo,
>> thank you, director, for all of your
work on this uh agreement. Appreciate
it. Um, you brought up the um performing
arts center. I had a couple of questions
about that. Um, we have, um, supported
in the past through our ELTAC grants and
other funding the film festival and the
Nutcracker event. Um uh I have heard
some challenges with scheduling uh with
the school district in the past. Could
you comment on how this agreement will
help smooth that scheduling over should
it be adopted?
>> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the
question. Um Amy Dukes, our arts
manager, still in the audience. Um Amy
played a key role in uh framing up what
that performing arts scheduling se
section looks like um and how uh we want
to administer it. Um yes, I expect it to
um address some of the challenges that
we saw from some prior years uh where um
it became very very hard for community
groups to access that site. So the
intent of this interlocal agreement is
um in many ways the arts manager um Amy
would uh serve as facilitator uh for um
any community groups that are interested
whether we're funding them through ELTAC
or through arts grants. Um uh but be
that um public that cityside conduit
that would work directly with um school
district administration, not just um the
arts director of the community um um the
performing arts center uh but work with
district staff um um setting a and I
don't have the the schedule dates
memorized but we were very specific in
amount of time and lead time that we
want uh to have schedules confirmed. Uh
we also recognize um and put in place um
operationally that um there are large
when there's large regional community
events requested, there will be a a
large uh lead time uh that we will want
and expect. And I would say even as
we've been negotiating this new new
agreement, um it's been encouraging to
see um um at the same time we've been
finalizing this uh the approach the
district's taken to the performing arts
center the last couple of months has
greatly improved and in seeing the film
festival there for the very first time,
seeing the Nutcracker performance uh
there in December, I think the school
district has also seen the value and the
benefits uh that an agreement like this
and cooperating uh in public use of that
will will be a big benefit. So,
>> okay. So, um if the school district
approves this in August and we approve
this this evening, um will I have your
assurances that we'll have enough lead
time to get those November and December
events uh smoothed out and uh scheduled?
>> Yes, I believe Amy's already working on
getting dates set for Nutcracker. Um and
those are are well underway. So, I think
the film festival may have been moved to
January, right? The film festival, I
think they're doing January now.
>> Yes. Yes. Correct.
>> Okay. Thank you very much, Jeff. Uh, is
there any other council
discussion or questions on the inter Oh,
council member boy
>> a really specific question about the um
e house and it's okay if I can send it
in writing afterwards cuz I didn't give
you a heads up, but um the do the
renovations include any part of the
landscaping on the outside? I've heard
uh just one uh community member very
interested in I think there's some rose
bushes maybe around it that they're
interested in preserving. your one
agenda by your one agenda bill item.
>> So sorry, never mind.
>> I'll hold that to the I'll hold that
answer.
>> Uh okay. On the interlocal agreement
if there's
no further council discussion, is there
a motion? Council President Marks.
>> Mr. Mr. Mayor, I move to authorize the
mayor to enter into the updated
interlocal agreement for joint use in
development of facilities, programs,
maintenance, and operations between the
Isiqua school district and the city of
Isiqua in substantially the same form as
the attached agreement exhibit A,
provided the parties may make revisions
that do not substantially change the
terms of the attached agreement or
change the programmatic terms of the
agreement if approved by the city
attorney.
>> Second.
>> Okay, there's been a motion and a
second. Uh, Council Member Walsh.
Thank you. Um
I'm kind of disappointed
that the addendum for the special
circumstances isn't coming through at
this point. Um, I understand the special
circumstances where the city might make
a capital investment and how that
changes uh scheduling priorities because
that was really what was important um in
going forward with the idea of going to
the community and saying that yes, we
have an interlocal agreement that will
substantially change and make sure that
the funds that the community puts into
place means that these facilities um
will have much more public access than
the current um school facilities do. Um
so I I want to put that out there. I I
want to make sure that that is a
priority and that
I don't think the community should wait
until after a park bond is potentially
approved
to know what the details are on that. I
appreciate your assurance that everybody
says that the idea is we're going to
have priority for scheduling and that
the public will be able to engage this.
But words on paper um in that case
really matter. Um so I'm a little bit
disappointed in that. Um that being
said, I do appreciate all of the efforts
to modernize this. I did read over the
um improvements to scheduling for
um the
um facilities um that the uh school
district currently has. And so I I
appreciate that. I appreciate that we
are no longer paying half of the salary
of a scheduler for facilities that we
are not gaining access to. Um, and that
this is an improvement over the 2003
version. So, I will be supporting this
tonight. Um, but I do want to hear back
that we are going to have it as a
priority to get that addendum pulled
together so that the community knows
that their investments um, if they so
choose are have an agreement behind them
that provide them access.
>> And then Jeeoff, correct me if I'm
wrong, but part of our challenge is the
addendum for Clark is different than the
addendum for IBE. It's different than
the addendum at Grand Ridge because
they'll use their fields for different
hours after school. Is that correct or
>> Yeah, all all three of these will be
separate addendum agreements. I I I I
hear you. Um but I I know attending the
school board meeting Thursday night um
and presenting specifically on the
framework of those community sports
fields and talking directly through our
expectation and hope and and hearing the
positive feedback, extremely positive
feedback. Um, thank you. I I I hear you.
It will be a priority. Um Um, and it's I
stand with a a high degree of certainty
that there is high mutual support for
getting this done.
>> Deputy President Jay,
>> um, do you have an estimate on the
timeline for getting those addendum
agreements done at this point?
>> Uh,
no. Soon as soon as soon as possible.
But would it be before the park bond
goes to the voters in November?
>> It would be either somewhere right in
that time frame or or shortly after.
Again, I hard to hard to lay down a
timeline when it's two agencies. Um I I
don't know what their timeline is.
>> Yeah, totally understand.
>> Work will begin in earnest. Right.
>> Council President Marts.
Well, I'm excited about the possibility
of this agreement. Um, I feel like at
least a few times a year
folks in the community who do not
understand that the city of Isiqua and
the Isiqua school district are two
separate governmental organizations that
um only share the word Isiqua. And you
know, other than that, they're they
they're completely different and with
different operating models. And uh but
yet these are the two um entities of
government that many folks in our
community have the most interaction
with, right? Like you're not out in a
sailboat dodging a missile submarine or
whatever. So, you know, you don't you
don't deal with the federal government
all that much. Um, so it's really
important that our two uh governmental
organizations interact in ways that
benefit the community, the ways in ways
that stretch dollars best for the
community, provide services best for the
community, and it is not always thus.
Um, so this is uh this is an important
step forward and I hope that we will
continue to find creative opportunities
um to leverage both our best assets and
the school district's best assets going
forward. Thank you.
>> Has the federal government trying to
shoot down your boat lately?
>> I I see I I see out of the way of the
ballistic missile subs when I am uh
transiting Hood Canal.
>> Council member Nichols. Um, on that
note, um, I echo the, uh, the excitement
that Council President Martz um, offered
on this. I I would really like to see
our our schools and our municipality,
uh, working together however we possibly
can. Uh, we have the same people in many
cases paying for the same types of
things. Um, and if we can reduce
duplication and find ways to synergize
and make everything work better, this is
all great. So, I really, really applaud
this effort. Um, I I will take I will
use a slightly different word um than
Council Member Walsh did as far as being
disappointed about the addendum. I'm I'm
not disappointed per se. I think I'm
more anxious. Um
because I think it is it I'll I'll
express also that this is a key aspect
of this agreement to go well for me. Um,
I think in this case though, we we
really have to just trust that you folks
will be able to negotiate this and get
it done. Um, and I don't want to get in
the way of that and say that even though
I'm nervous about this, I want to have
that done first because I think we will
just not get it at all. And I think that
would be a great shame. So, please, um,
you know, understand our anxiousness,
but also appreciate our, you know, our
our trust in you to to get this get this
signed in a way that will be maximally
beneficial to all of us. And I
appreciate negotiations are always hard,
uh, no matter what they are. Um, and I
imagine negotiations between two
government agencies can't be any easier
than any other type of negotiation I'm
familiar with. So, uh, I appreciate the
difficulty and, um, please also just if
you can keep us updated along the way
and let us know if there's anything that
we can do to help. Right.
>> Council member Joe.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I'm a little
nostalgic because I was on council in
2003 when we first approved this
agreement and uh it was with great
optimism that we were going to have the
opportunity to share facilities and um
hopefully have a
scheduler in the schools that could help
coordinate uh those activities. Uh it's
not often that in my time on council
I've had an opportunity to take a piece
of legislation and make it better uh 23
years later. So I'm quite pleased to be
able to do that. I'm quite optimistic
that we will be able to have better
coordination with our arts groups and
our groups that want to come in and use
the uh performing arts center. It's a
wonderful facility. 600 seat capacity
and um modern sound now, modern sound
board. Uh the acoustics are great in
there now and we need to use it as a
community asset for all the groups that
want to come in and show uh the great
depth and um uh richness of our cultural
heritage and our cultural groups here in
Esqua. So, I'm quite excited to support
this this evening. Thank you.
For those in the audience doing math,
how a young gentleman like council
member Joe could have been on the
council in 2003. He was 12 years old at
that point in time. The youngest council
member in America. Uh okay. No further
discussion. The motion for the council
is to authorize the mayor to enter into
the updated interlocal agreement for
joint use development of facilities,
programs, maintenance, and operations
between the Isqua school district and
the city of Isqua in substantially the
same form as the attached agreement
exhibit A. provided the parties may make
revisions that do not substantially
change the terms of the attached
agreement or change programmatic terms
of the agreement if approved by our city
attorney Rachel who's very wise. Uh all
those in favor please say I.
>> I.
>> All those opposed? Nay. And that passes
unanimously.
Okay, we're getting into Council Member
Boyd's next question. Agenda Bill 9193
Park Bond renewal November general
election ballot item. Jeff, it's still
yours.
>> Thank you, mayor. Hello again. Still
Jeff.
>> At least now you know how to work the
clicker.
>> What's that? And I hear Jeff knows how
to work the clicker now.
>> Yes. An improved Jeff. Yes. All right.
Thank you. Uh purpose and recommendation
uh for this item is to present and to
seek council authorization uh for a park
bond renewal to go to voters on the
November 3rd general election. Um,
administration recommends that the
council adopt uh the attached ballot
ordinance uh placing a park bond renewal
request uh for funding for the
identified projects uh before I is
voters um on the November 3rd ballot.
My intent of the presentation tonight,
we've talked a lot. I want to thank you
council for a lot of the conversations
that we've had over the over the last
couple of months. um they've really
helped to uh to shape. I don't intend to
go over all of those items that we
discussed, but trying to provide some
quick some quick background, some
context, and really um get into your uh
discussion. Um but as to background, um
voter approved Bark B park bonds um have
been a primary uh funding tool uh used
for capital projects here in Isiqua uh
within our parks and trail system. Um,
ISCU has used this tool significantly.
Um, and most recently, um, in 2006, uh,
when voters approved a $6.25 million,
uh, bond measure. Um, and then again in
2013, uh, voters approved a $10 million,
uh, park bond, uh, measure. Um, a
portion of these park bonds are retiring
um, at the end of this year. Um, with
Mayor Mullet's leadership, um, we he
made it a priority, uh, to explore, uh,
renewing uh, these expiring, retiring,
uh, park bonds, um, uh, to see if we
want to make, um, additional priority
um, investments into our parks and
trails uh, that would not uh, currently
be feasible to fund um, right now.
Thank you, Mayor Mullet, for having us
explore this
in that exploration. Uh we began a lot
of work um and discussion not only with
council.
Uh oh,
back I go. There we go.
uh a lot of discussions with um your
park board, with our park board. Um over
uh um four separate um conversations we
had with the park board, we really began
to um look foundationally at the adopted
uh 2024 park system plan. Um as I've
shared with you before, um a lot of
public engagement went into that park
plan update. Um specifically around um
reinvesting into the park system. Um,
for those familiar with that 2024 park
plan, one of the foundational elements
of that is to identify not only priority
projects, but prioritize them as
near-term, midterm or long-term
priorities. Um, it was those near-term
priorities that really became the
foundation uh for projects that we might
consider for this park bond renewal. Um,
so again, um, these projects uh were did
not come out of thin air. They really
came out of previous community
engagement. um and priority projects and
investments uh that the community's
identified.
Um uh along with those discussions uh
with the park board um on the May 18th
park board meeting uh they the park
board uh made a recommendation uh
unanimously seeking and and recommending
for you council uh to move ahead and
place this uh park bond renewal on uh
the November ballot. Um um you'll see in
my staff report um um the specifics of
that recommendation. Uh they had a
second point to that recommendation of
not only proceeding with the the park
bond at the renewal rate which is 8
cents per 10,000 uh which would not
represent a um funding increase uh for
um property owners. They also asked that
uh the city continue to to reactivate uh
the pool advisory committee uh so that
uh the idea the concept the priority of
um expansion of the Julius bone pool
though not on this ballot measure remain
um a conversation with the community as
we try and explore ways uh to fund that
needed priority as well.
Uh following the city council retreat,
the discussion we had on May 9th, uh you
asked that we um have a public meeting.
Uh we had a public meeting scheduled and
followed through with that um June 2nd
at Pickering Barn. Um again a
overwhelmingly positive feedback um as
to uh the purpose of this bond renewal
and also the the bundle of of projects
along with that all that community
discussion and conversation with the
park board. Um a lot of review and
feedback with you the city council. Um
uh on April 6th we had a committee the
whole conversation. Um, a lot of great
feedback, a lot of questions you asked
as as that was your f first real look at
this. Um, so appreciated that that
honest uh feedback from all of you. Uh,
that led to a rather robust conversation
at services, safety, and parks. um on
May 5th as we went through all of those
questions and items that u related to
both financial questions also um sort of
u makeup of of the projects uh
themselves um as well as um size and uh
um uh size of the potential uh levy
package
from that meeting on May 5th. uh that
later that week on May 9th, we came back
to the entire city council, had a
another really good discussion on uh
this uh potential opportunity for the
bond renewal on May 9th. Um at that
meeting u began to get um again some um
good feedback and a sense of um coming
together from um all of you. Um here we
are now in June. um additional um
community conversations um the
opportunity I had to present to school
board last Thursday night um
specifically on uh the bond um and um
more specifically the community sports
field projects uh that are proposed. Um
there was again overwhelming
um uh positivity and overwhelming
support from the the school board um on
um these projects being included and u
again moving forward with that a
commitment of um an addendum agreement.
real quickly
to the to the package itself.
Um the the proposed park bond renewal
projects uh we would have for this
ordinance um include 10 projects. Um
along with those three uh community
sports fields at the three elementary
schools that that uh reside within the
city of Isiqua. Uh we're proposing two
the creation of two new trail corridors,
one on Cougar Mountain and one on Squawk
Mountain. Uh these projects take uh
immediate advantage of the acquisitions
we've been so successful in in the last
five or six years with the Bergsma
acquisition on Cougar Mountain creating
a trail corridor uh that would lead
right up into uh the regional uh Cougar
Mountain Trail Network that King County
Parks manages just outside of the city.
Um and then um equally on Squawk
Mountain, two acquisitions that we did
over the last couple years have created
a 35 acre corridor uh that would for the
first time create a trail network from
the valley floor up into Squawk Mountain
um state park and the trail network
there. um trail head improvements um at
our Senator Bill Ramos Memorial Trail
Head on East Sunset Way. Uh that's um so
importantly serves uh West Tiger
Mountain uh would be a a project. Um um
an e house restoration at Confluence
Park as I point to council member Boyd
and look forward to that question. Um is
also on this. Um Confluence Park is such
a key community park. Uh this would
provide um a really really important um
um investment into that northeast corner
of the park that that really needs some
definition. Uh two projects at Tibets
Valley Park are proposed. One is uh
creating an expanded and all-inclusive
playground at Tibets Valley Park. Um as
well at Tibets Valley Park. Um creating
our second um neighborhoodsized um off
leash dog area or dog park. Um and then
last but certainly not least to our to
our our pickle ball lobby um and pickle
ball posy out there would be some
expanded courts um pick additional
pickleball port courts at um Central
Park um um creating eight new pickle
ball um courts
from a um funding perspective. Um uh
you'll see in the ordinance uh these
projects would be completed uh with bond
funding that would be a maximum of $18
million. That $18 million would then be
leveraged with grant revenues as well as
other revenues um such as park impact
fees um totaling uh about $25 million um
that these all of these projects uh
represent. Um what that would mean to um
voters and to property owners would be
um an 8 cents per 10,000 rate. Uh that
is the rate that's retiring. Um um the
commitment would be staying at that or
actually going a little bit below that.
um as we seek to replace those retiring
bonds.
A map of what these 10 projects
represent is really again a goal that
you said um overwhelmingly that we had
from the get-go is um making sure these
investments have some geographic
diversity uh within the community which
um I think they accomplish.
Should you adopt this ordinance tonight?
Um some immediate next steps that we
would need to take um is we would um
immediately be seeking applications um
and selection. Uh the mayor would select
a recommend a pro and con committee um
um that would come back to you for city
council confirmation um at the July 20th
regular meeting. This is important
because of the timeline we need to by
August 4th um have uh those names um
provided to King County um elections. Um
equally next steps important next steps
there are some other materials that will
be due there in early August uh to meet
that November ballot.
So though this um request um um feels
maybe like an end, it really represents
a beginning um of a lot of work ahead um
should we move forward.
Thank you. Um I've certainly again
appreciated the discussions, the
questions, the feedback that we've had
over the past couple of months. Um um uh
it's taken a lot of work to get here and
um again available for um any questions.
We recommend the adoption of this ballot
ordinance.
And
>> I would say for folks before going on
questions like the language here is what
you would see on the actual ballot.
There is an additional 250word
explanatory statement that is then there
that's like has to be approved as being
kind of non-biased just just the
information of what's happening. And
then you have your pro and con
statements that would also be in the
voters's guide. But I think in the
actual ballot as you're circling your
bubble would be the language you see in
front of you here. Uh questions.
Council member Boyd.
>> Thank you. I don't know if we have a
process for like I have to buy everyone
donuts if I jump the gun on an agenda
item or something, but apologies. Thank
you for your patience with me. Um can
you talk to me about the e house
project, the preservation?
um explicitly says that and uh is does
that also include kind of the
landscaping around it or I think there's
um some interest in preserving
>> um yes it does. I'd be curious what what
the specific question is how far the
landscaping is but yes absolutely one of
the things we want to do and one of the
goals of that restoration from the
beginning is incorporate it better into
the park. Uh so not only landscaping on
the front but also in particular how the
back side of the e house relates to the
playground and the rest of the park. U
this project would include some
plaza-like improvements that would again
create a a cleaner um more accessible
transition from uh the house into the
park.
>> Okay. Thank youair.
Um and just for a clarification for you
know community members and stuff like
that um you know this the bond get let's
say the bond is approved let's say the
voters then approve it then each project
would have a level of community
engagement as it actually was being teed
up and being act you know and shovel
ready and things like that. So there
would be more community input into each
of these projects as we actually got to
their you know start and end.
>> Yes. Thank you council member Dere.
You're absolutely right. Uh there would
be a degree of community engagement um
as each of these projects were being
designed. Yep.
>> Okay. Seeing no other questions for
Jeff.
Is there um Oh, council member. Is there
a motion? Council member Dair. Okay.
Here we go. A lot of language here. All
right. Uh, I move to adopt ordinance
number 3142 providing for the submission
to the voters of the city at a special
election to be held within the city on
November 3rd, 2026 in conjunction with
the state general election to be held on
the same date of a proposition
authorizing the city to issue its
general obligation bonds for the purpose
of improving, constructing,
reconstructing renovating and
equipping various parks and open space
properties and relating capital
improvements in the principal amount of
no more than $18 million provided by
annual property tax levies to be paid in
excess of regular property tax levies
and to levy those excess property taxes.
>> Second.
>> Okay, it's been moved by former park
board member Adair, now council member
Adair, and seconded by council member
Boyd. Is there any further discussion?
Deputy President Jane.
>> Great. Well, um I just want to say how
excited I am for this park bond. Um I
moved to Isiqua because of the parks and
access to trails that we have. So, for
me personally, it's very very exciting
to see that we are getting new trails
and trail head renovations as part of
this package. Um,
and also I think what's really great
about this package is that there's
something for everyone. Whether you're a
pickle ball player, a dog owner, someone
with kids who wants to play on the
playground, someone with kids in the
schools. Speaking of which, I think the
turf field at IBE and Clark, that's the
most support we've ever gotten as a city
council for anything we've ever done, at
least in my time on council, which
hasn't been that long. Um, but I mean, I
think I think the total count of emails
we got in support of that was like 130,
which is a lot. So, you know, people in
Isiqua really love our parks and really
want to invest in um making them even
better. And so, I'm really excited to
support this. Um, there's a couple other
things that I just want to flag. So, I
think, you know, as we're thinking about
remodeling the Senator Bill Ramos
Memorial Trail Head, which is like
pothole city right now. So, totally in
support of making it a lot nicer. Um,
you know, as we're also thinking about
how we can increase, you know, bike
connectivity through our city. I think
one of the big missing gaps we have is
from, you know, the Isqua Highlands down
into town. Right now, it's like you get
off the trail and then you're like on
the sidewalk next to the Ramos trail
head. then that sidewalk, you know, if
you keep going, there's like utility
poles in the middle of the sidewalk. So,
it's not great. But if we can, you know,
use this trail head renovation to think
about, you know, potentially can we
actually have the trail head as a way
for bikes to move through and then, you
know, onto, you know, neighborhood
streets that could then have a really
slow speed limit, which actually
probably the people living there would
be in favor of because they don't like
having cars speeding by. You know, just
thinking about how we can leverage these
investments to also do other great
things in our city. Um, and you know the
list of projects that we have on here,
it's all the projects that are going to
be funded by the park fund, but it's
also not comprehensive of all the park
projects that are in the works. There's
other park projects that are being in,
you know, funded by our regular, you
know, park funds and capital dollars.
And in particular, I know council member
Boyd's a big fan of having um a new park
in North Isiqua, which currently, you
know, in our park strategic plan is
identified as a parks desert. So, I know
there's um you know projects in the
works, but they're not quite ready for
the park bond uh you know this level of
funding quite yet, but they're in the
works and you know hopefully maybe some
developers will pay to do that and won't
even need a taxpayer fund. So, all in
all, very very excited about this park
bond and all the different investments
it's going to make in uh Isqua and I'm
excited to be pay you know a little bit
more in property taxes every year to
support that. So, thank you Council
>> Walsh.
Yeah, not a problem. I was just
collecting my thoughts. You know, I
don't have much to add really in that
obviously, like, you know, as parks
board member, I've been very excited
about this. I'm really excited to be
approving this and getting these
projects up and running, provided the
voters agree to it, obviously. Um, and
just wanted to once again, you know,
commend the parks department, Jeff, and
everyone in there for all the work that
goes into this as well as all the
continued work you do on parks, um, and
developing these plans and will continue
to do to actually get them made. Um, I
have, you know, I was, I try to stay
really involved with this. You know, I
went to the parks open house that was on
this and then when we had our time at um
the uh farmers market, a lot of people
have talked to me about it and I've seen
a lot of positive uh response to this
and it just goes to show how important
the parks are to this city and our
identity and I just love that we have
found a way to, you know, stick with
existing dollars, not affect their
taxes, but still give people more. Um,
and I really look forward to this and
hope it is the vote is successful and
that we get to see all of these. So
again, thank you for all your hard work
and I'm excited for this.
>> Council member Dar's kids have not only
been to Sound Transit Board meetings,
but also park board openhouse meetings.
They are getting full exposure to civic
government. Uh, Council Member Walsh,
>> thank you. Um, I'm probably in the
minority tonight, but I'm going to be
voting no on this. Um, and it's not
because I believe these projects are bad
options. I think these are fantastic
projects. Um, I think they've been
vetted through our park planning and all
of these things. Um, but ultimately
because I have to evaluate this like the
voters will um not as a renewal to
continue certain circum certain
services, but as a property tax when
money is tight. And further, that's the
way that I look at our own budget. Um,
evaluating where we are most in need.
And I think we should only go to the
voters for financial support of those
types of things, which in my mind is
things like operations and for services
that we provide um on a very very tight
budget. Um, things like public safety,
fire, human services. And so while I
very much appreciate all of these
capital projects and would love to have
the money to do so, um I think we have
higher needs tonight. Um as we are
evaluating things, I recognize that many
of my fellow council members have not
gone through a budget cycle and have not
seen really truly how tight those
situations of operations can get. Um,
and so if we are going to go to the
voters, I I think those are the areas
that I would prefer to um put the
funding in. So I will be voting no, but
I appreciate if this goes through the
ability to create those projects for the
residents.
>> Council member Nichols,
>> thank you. Um, so once again, uh, I
think this is a fantastic plan that's
been put together, uh, remarkably well,
uh, for the amount of time that you had
to put it together. So I greatly
appreciate that. Um, you know, it's this
cannot have been easy. So thank you for
getting these these set these options
together for us to evaluate and
understand and and start uh talking to
the public about. Um, I will be a yes on
this. I think it's a um a very good
opportunity for our community to enhance
some of the things that we all love the
best about our community. Uh, my family
moved to Isqua for a bunch of reasons,
but two of the top ones were both our
schools and our parks. um this is a nice
way to combine supporting both of those
into the same effort um in with a a good
part of that funding and it has lots of
other great um uh option great additions
in there as well. Um I am I'm personally
very comfortable going to the voters and
asking for the funding to do this. Um I
think that um
the the residents of Isiqua love our
parks. They love our the the amenities
that they provide and that they will be
comfortable with this as a as funding
that they will help support. I also
recognize that we we do will have many
difficult budget conversations in the
future and I I appreciate Council Member
Walsh's perspective there. Um I think
that we will have to make lots of
choices at that time and I'm I'm also
comfortable asking the voters to pay for
and
asking the voters to um to fund the
services that they that they need. And I
think we're going to have to do that.
And I'm I'm well aware of that that
those will be continuing conversations
that we will have. Um so once again in
summary, I am very much in support of
this. Um, I am I I think that this is
something that the voters of Isqua will
approve and that they will support and
that these will be projects that we will
all love and that um they will also give
us an opportunity to um flex our muscles
as a a government that can build some
build cool things quickly um and show
them the voters that uh when they
approve funds like this we will get
things done on time within budget um and
that they can trust us to continue to
deliver great things for the city.
Thank you, Council President Marts.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to commend
the staff. Um this process um began
months ago, a number of months ago and
uh staff took parks board input,
services, safety and parks, uh the
strategic plan, uh further feedback from
this body, uh and crafted it all into
something that uh really makes the most
uh if approved by the voters will make
the most of our dollars. This is a
replacement bond. Um so for members of
the public what that means is that um
the effort is to have the the monies
basically replace the bonds that are
expiring. Um I think that's important.
This doesn't represent a substantial new
uh impact on the voters. Really what it
is is uh showing this parks department
is really really good at uh maintaining
good parks facilities. The public tells
us time and time again that not only are
parks important, but the city does a
good job with parks. I wish we could say
that all the issues that are important
to the public that we do as well on
those issues as we do on parks issues.
Our our life would be a lot easier if
that were the case, but it's not. Um,
but they but we really do a good job
with these with these bond monies that
come in historically, and I believe
we'll continue to do that if the public
supports this bond. So, I'm very much in
support of this this evening. Thank you,
>> Council Member Joe. Thank you. I was in
Confluence Park this weekend taking a
slow slow jog and uh pass through
Margaret's Meadow and my son uh took a
hike on Margaret's Way on Sunday. And
for those of you that don't know who
Margaret was, it was Margaret Mloud and
she was a person that did a tremendous
job getting grants for our parks. Uh
many of the hills that we have today
were preserved because of Margaret and
the parks and open space that we have uh
can be attributed to all the hard work
that she did. Um I was on council in
2006 when we first approved the bond
that we're thinking about renewing now.
And uh the money that we put away over
all those years uh came through as
purchases of property that helped
preserve our forested hillsides that
helped preserve open space for us. Um,
the parks department with Margaret's
legacy does a fantastic job leveraging
the dollars that we put out through
these bond issuances and leveraging them
to
make those dollars punch far above their
weight and get Isiqua preservation of
land facilities uh with uh using that
money to leverage our our ability to to
to get things done with the Sierra Club
or the county or um the arts
organizations, whatever it might be.
When we come to the table with money,
because we put the money away through
this bond issuance, it makes our
proposals
be more competitive on that on that
scale when we're competing against
everyone else for other funding and
grants. Um, this bond from my point of
view is an investment, a continued
investment by the citizens of Isqua to
say we believe in our parks. We're going
to put this bond money aside and we're
going to rely on our parks department
through the long history of leveraging
these funds to make these funds go
farther than they should and to allow it
squad to punch far above their weight to
get open space and park amenities for
their citizens. So, I'm fully in support
of this and I appreciate all the hard
work that's been done and uh I think
Margaret would be happy uh as she's
looking down from heaven. Thanks.
>> I was not aware we'd have to get halfway
through our agenda before we hit an item
that Council Member Joe had not been
part of 20 plus years ago. Council
member Voit,
>> um I'm very excited to uh be in favor of
this and uh that wasn't always
necessarily the case. When I very first
was appointed, I was concerned at not
seeing anything uh in North Isiqua when
it was identified, you know, throughout
the parks plan and after I've had
conversations with you, Director
Watling, and just, you know, given the
amount of time, right, I'm assured that
uh as Council Member Jen had said, uh
earlier that, you know, we can do things
in concurrence with this um and uh the
amount of projects that are identified
for uh you know, no effectively no cost
increase uh um should the voters pass
this. Uh it was really great to be able
to um tell folks that at the farmers
market when they were looking at the
maps and I was able to show just how
spread across the city um things are.
And so um really appreciate all the
great work that you've done on this in a
short amount of time and looking forward
to continuing to you know bang on my
little pot and pan about North Isiqua in
conjunctions with this and um yeah,
thank you so much for your work. Can I
also add a personal thank you for the I
know at you Pole City the Ramos memorial
trail head but that trail head now has
memorial in the word for it and so um
for someone who he was my boss and
mentor just the care that's going into
um that site um for practical purposes
right for the users of it but also for
me as someone who views that effectively
as memorial um I'm really excited for
the transformation that I'll see thank
you
>> excellent Thank you very much. Uh seeing
no further discussion, motion for the
council is adopt ordinance number 3142
providing for submission of the voters
of the city at a special election to be
held within the city on November 3rd,
2026 in conjunction with the state
general election be held on the same
date of a proposition authorizing the
city to issue its general obligation
bonds for the purpose of improving,
constructing reconstructing
renovating, and equipping various parks
and open space properties related to
capital improvements and the principal
amount of no more than $18 million
payable by annual property tax levies
made in excess regular property tax
levies to levy those excess property
taxes. All those in favor, please say I.
>> I.
>> All those opposed? No.
>> No.
>> Okay. And that passes six to one with
council member Walsh voting no. Which
now moves us on to the fourth agenda
bill item which brought which brings our
departing deputy city administrator to
the council chambers because it's so
important to her. Uh the uh so agenda
bill 9212 transarian development
opportunity center purchase and sale
agreement. We'll have deputy city
administrator Andrea Snider. And when is
your fash is your official last day of
the city squad? Tomorrow or
>> it's uh Wednesday, July 1st is my
official last day.
>> There you go. Wednesday, July 1st. And
then uh and then I think Jillian's also
going to be pinch hitting. And
>> uh well, more than pinch hitting. So I
invite Jillian to come up so you can set
up the PowerPoint. I know that takes
some time. And while she's doing that, I
just wanted to give some opening remarks
for this very big item before council.
Um uh so uh I am pleased to be here
tonight uh to provide some uh
introductory remarks. This will be the
last time uh before you as a
representative of the Siqua
administration. So um don't worry, I'm
not going to make any other surprise
appearances. Uh but just wanted to uh
introduce this item and um our guest
tonight really marks kind of a a change
in this project. The past many meetings
we've had on the toodoc
the um we have focused a lot on the to
portion of the transportation um or or
transit oriented development portion
which is the housing and the whole
development. I am pleased to let you
know that the permits have been issued
for the first uh housing project on that
site. And so that work is underway.
Now, we're going to shift gears and talk
more about the opportunity center, the
OC part of that acronym. And that's
something that we haven't always talked
much about in the council chambers. And
that's really where the bulk of the work
with um council is going to be moving
forward. And also, it represents kind of
a changing of the guard. So, as you
know, uh I am leaving this is my last
city council meeting as I said. Also, we
have Dan Landis with us tonight who is
been the project manager for this
project since the very beginning. Dan
Landis with King County Housing
Authority. Dan is going to be retiring
uh really tomorrow. Okay. Tomorrow. And
he has been working on this project
tirelessly on King County Housing
Authorities behalf since the city issued
the RFP back in 2017.
So, um, wanted to acknowledge Dan and
all of the work that he has done to make
this project happen as, um, it's been
many years of problem solving and
commitment and KCHA didn't pull out
despite all of the complications and how
much this project has taken in terms of
staff time and also just investment. So,
wanted to acknowledge Dan. Also with us
tonight is Nate who is the project
manager moving forward uh for uh the TOD
and uh the OC in terms of we are um
looking at this condominium unit within
the greater development of the project.
So wanted to um also as we talk about
the changing of the guard um really
introduce Jillian Stro who is our
management analyst. You've seen her
before but she is the day-to-day project
manager on behalf of the city. And so
not quite the pinch hitter, she uh is
the subject matter expert and is going
to be handling the presentation tonight.
She is absolutely the expert who knows
everything about this project, the
tenants, all the process that we've been
through over the past couple of years.
Jillian has all of those details and
will be managing the project for the
opportunity center uh moving forward. So
with that, Jillian, take it away.
>> And and Dan, I apologize if we expedited
your retirement by three or four years.
We know this we know this project has
not been easy. Uh Jillian,
>> thank you for that introduction. Um long
awaited I think is a is a good way to
describe the the discussion we're going
to have tonight. So like Andrea
mentioned, we're here tonight to discuss
the purchase and sale agreement of the
opportunity center as well as the condo
agreements that travel with it.
Um, so we're seeking council approval on
purchasing the opportunity center, the
funding used to make that purchase, as
well as authorizing the mayor for some
uh decisions that may or may not be
needed as we work through the purchase
over the next year and a half or so, as
well as feedback on those condo
agreements tonight. So, I'm not going to
read through um all of the
recommendations here because we're going
to spend a lot of time discussing them
tonight. I'll just note that the um that
the first recommendation is to purchase
the opportunity center from KCHA and
designate that funding. The next three
agreements again relate to the um
authorizations for the mayor that may be
needed in the future.
So, let's talk a little bit about what
the opportunity center is. So, there's a
diagram on the right of your screen.
This is the this is the lot that's east
of the transit center on the valley
floor. On the north side, there's going
to be that affordable housing
development. On the ground floor, the
city would own a 10,000 square ft
commercial condo. 10,4 uh 10,438
ft if you want to be particular. Um
there will also be um Leo House units in
this building and it'll be affordable
housing above it. The um KCHA will own
the land and is developing the site per
the 2022 ILA. They're providing the
shell of the or the commercial condo
shell for the opportunity center at cost
to the city rather than market rate. The
city has long designated that there'll
be the provision of sliding scale or
public behavioral health, dental health
or medical health services out of this
space um and that the city would seek
tenants and um offer below market rate
rents to ensure that these services were
provided in the community.
Like has already been mentioned, this
project has been underway for a very
long time. So I'll just hit a couple of
the highlights that that have brought us
here today. So in 2016, the city issued
the RFP to redevelop the tood site. At
the time, the city did not own the land.
Um but they had a very clear vision for
mixed use affordable and market rate
housing as well as um the provision of
these human services and behavioral
health services on the site. In 2017,
the city entered into or selected KCHA
and Spectrum to develop the site for
affordable and market rate housing that
their proposals included the provision
of the opportunity center at that time.
In 2018, city council directed the
administration to find behavioral
health, dental, or medical health
services providers. And the city
selected Valley City's behavioral health
as well as Health Point to provide
behavioral health and dental health
services in the site or in the
opportunity center. In 2019, the city
was awarded a direct appropriation of $3
million under the state's behavioral
health program. And then in 2022, a lot
of work in the interim came to a head.
So, first there was an interlocal
agreement with KCHA for um a Tibet
Tibbitz Valley Park lease to relocate a
cell tower that was on the site. It's in
this ILA that it's designated that KCHA
would provide the opportunity center to
the city at cost. This is also the year
when KCHA secured land control.
Additionally, Spectrum, the market rate
developer, dropped out of the
partnership at this time. In 2024, KCHA
began design and in the subsequent year,
the cell tower was removed from the
site. The city sought reappropriation of
the $3 million to a more flexible state
program from the behavioral health
program and thanks to our legislative
delegation that was awarded. Our health
services providers also dropped out of
the partnership at the time. They had
been on board for seven or eight years
at this point and the the environment
around behavioral health provision,
public behavioral health provision had
changed dramatically in that time
considering the federal um announcements
that were made regarding Medicaid
reimbursements for public behavioral
health services that were going to take
effect in the 2829 time frame.
So the administr the administration came
to the services safety and parks
committee as well as the council for
direction on how to proceed with the
opportunity center knowing that we
didn't have those health services
partners on board anymore. The council
and committee both gave direction that
we should proceed with the the
acquisition of the opportunity center.
So KCHA and the administration have been
working over the the better part of the
last year on that purchase and sale
agreement and the condo agreements that
are in front of you tonight.
So, let's talk a little bit about why
this is a good investment of city funds
and why it's been a priority for so
long. The 2017 community needs
assessment noted that mental health
distress across age groups was a was a
prime concern in Isiqua and that there
was no public behavioral health services
for adults in 2026. That gap remains.
There are still no public behavioral
health services for adults. So, this has
been a long-standing community need
originating with the human services
campus idea and it was enshrined in the
RFP um for selecting our developers in
2016 and in selecting the service
providers in 2018. So, it's been a
long-standing community priority given
both the need and the gap that exists in
Isiqua.
Because our health services providers
dropped out in 2025, the administration
brought a couple of options to the
services safety and parks and later the
council. We brought options that
included pursuing different models for
service provision. Something like the
Together Center where we have quite a
few tenants in the opportunity space
rather than the one or two that we had
previously been seeking. Um other uses
for the the opportunity space like
transitional housing or not purchasing
the opportunity center at that time
where the project was at in design would
have been a good time for KCHA to pivot
without losing time or money on the
design and keeping their their overall
schedule. So that's why we we had
offered those options to services,
safety and parks or to and then to the
city council. City council gave
unanimous direction in September of 2025
to proceed with the acquisition of the
opportunity center.
So with that, let's talk about the
purchase and sale agreement.
So there are quite a few folks who are
kind of involved in this. So I just want
to kind of quickly lay out who all the
agreements are between. The city is
purchasing the condominium from
Trailhead Apartments LLP. KCHA is the
general partner of Trail Head Apartments
and they are here tonight in case you
want to hear more about that because
that's really their purview to explain.
There are also the condo agreements, the
declaration, articles and bylaws that
travel with the purchase. Because we're
purchasing a condo that has not yet been
built, but we will have to establish
what our working relationship is with
the other unit owners. the the
agreements for governing that
relationship are attached to the
purchase and sale agreement. They would
be entered into by Trail Head Apartments
and the Trail Head Plaza condominium of
which the city would be one of the
owners. So those terms have been
negotiated with with each of the units
owners, the city and Leo House and
they're necessary to purchase the the
opportunity center condo.
So, the initial purchase price for the
opportunity center condo, the unfinished
shell, is 7,536,237.
This is an initial purchase price
because it has not yet been constructed.
The way this agreement will work is that
um in 2027 when the construction is
finished and we're at construction
closing, the city would u pay the final
purchase price minus the money put down
in 2026 for the earnest money payment or
5% of the initial purchase price.
There are a lot of provisions for what
happens if the the purchase price
increases that we're going to talk about
tonight. Um, and the first one I want to
note that is that additional costs of
$376,812
or 5% of the initial purchase price,
those costs are the city's
responsibility. Additional costs beyond
that are split split evenly between the
city and the seller.
I also want to note that the the
purchase price includes a fair bit of
contingency. There's a $500,000
contingency built in as a line item to
the budget in exhibit B of the PSA.
There's also contingency that both
Walsh, the construction manager, and
KCHA are carrying, which reduces the
likelihood of us needing to go above the
purchase price as we as we work through
this agreement. I'll also note that what
we're getting for for this purchase is
the 10,000 foot condo as well as 38
dedicated parking spaces on the ground
floor of the parking structure structure
to support our tenants and their
clients.
So when we received the initial purchase
price, we compared it to properties um
in the area to make sure that we were
this was a good use of city funds. So we
compared it to medical office space sold
in the last 2 years, that same kind of
space for sale uh generally in the east
side and that kind of space for sale
currently in Isiqua. The price per
square foot for the opportunity center
shell is $722.
The price per square foot for um spaces
sold um in the last two years in those
categories or currently for sale is $618
to $664 on average. I'll note that this
is an imperfect comparison for a couple
of reasons. One, we're getting new build
construction. We are also getting
transit or in transit oriented
development with easy access to the
services that we would provide. Um and
the fact that this this development is
mixed use. Um the average age of the
properties we compared this to is about
50 years. Not all of them had
renovations. Um but if they did they
those renovations were about 20 years
ago. So just to compare a little bit to
the kinds of properties available
elsewhere.
We also have we also wanted to see um
how this property compared um to other
other properties available in Isiqua if
we wanted to locate the opportunity
center outside of this project. Um, and
realistically there hasn't been anything
sold in Isiqua recently that's in the 8
to 12,000 square foot range, which is
about what we need. Um, or within a half
mile of transit, which is necessary for
for us to use our state grant. I'll also
note that the city is in the unique
position of having recently bought a
city hall and that CBRE had estimated
that the price per square foot um of
that office space was going to be about
$725 in a Siqua and we'd have to do
tenant improvements to the space. So,
this is kind of well within what we
would expect to to pay.
I'll quickly note about the tenant
improvements. While they're not subject
to the PSA tonight, um that they would
be planned for after construction of the
building completes in 2027, we would go
in and construct the interior of the
opportunity center. The city and our
tenants would work out through our lease
agreement who exactly is responsible
for, you know, for example, getting an
architect on board and paying for the
tenant improvements.
um but they would be to build out the
HVAC or plumbing, drywall and fixtures
in the space. We talked with our
facilities team as well as behavioral
health providers in the region who um do
this kind of work and they estimated
that to build out medical office space
would be between $225 a square foot to
$300 a square foot for these kinds of
improvements. Those estimates are lower
if it's just behavioral health provided
in the space and no dental or medical.
The city has set aside funding for the
acquisition and tenant improvements for
the opportunity center for many years.
There are three main buckets of funds.
First, the affordable housing fund. The
city has designated $5 million to go
towards the opportunity center. There
are also funds set aside about a million
in the mitigation fund in the from the
talis development agreement uh fee and
loo as well as the human services campus
and that's about a million dollars to be
used for affordable housing or human
services. We also have a $3 million
direct appropriation in the local
community program from the state. Um
I'll note here that a requirement of
that is that we locate this facility in
that in a way that has transit access
which is why that's so important and
that this funding technically expires at
the end of the bienium June 30th 2027.
We anticipate being able to roll over
till 2029
um and speaking with our program manager
at Commerce so that we would receive
reimbursement after the acquisition in
early 2028. And I'm happy to answer more
questions about that.
Because the initial purchase price for
the opportunity center is seven and a
half million, we propose putting down an
earnest money payment from the
mitigation funds here in July of 2026
and then concluding or finishing the
payment with the construction closing in
late 2027 using the remainder of the
mitigation fund set aside, the
affordable housing fund set aside as
well as an additional million and a
halfish of affordable housing funds that
would need to be set aside to complete
the purchase.
the affordable housing fund would be
um Okay, sorry.
There we go. Um, so in addition to the
$5 million set aside, the administration
is proposing setting aside a million an
additional 2 and a.5 million from the
affordable housing fund to cover the
initial purchase price if there were any
increases to the purchase price, but
also potentially some of those tenant
improvements that we know we might have
to share with our with our future
tenants. Finance has confirmed that the
affordable housing fund can support this
and the reimbursement from the state
state grant would go to the affordable
housing fund meaning there would be um
sufficient fund balance to designate for
other capital investments in the future.
So this kind of concludes the the
purchase and sale agreement part of the
presentation before going quickly into
some of the mayor's authorizations and
the condo agreements. There are some
trade-offs that come with not purchasing
the opportunity center. First, like
we've discussed, it's improbable that we
would find suitable space near transit.
We've conducted these searches in 2025
and 2026 just to see what was out there
and see if there's something else in
Isiqua um that we could where we could
locate the opportunity center. It's also
there's also no guarantee that any other
space found would be less expensive to
purchase and improve than this space
here in the uh in the um the TOD
building. Additionally, the opportunity
center space that's been reserved in
that building would be KCHAs to use, and
they're a housing authority. It's not
their their business to do a um a
commercial space. They're doing it at
the city's request. And they can
certainly speak more to what that space
might become if it wasn't going to be
the opportunity center, but likely
something that's resident supporting.
Okay. So, let's talk about the mayor's
authorization sought tonight. So, the
first is for material adverse impacts.
The PSA stipulates that the seller needs
written approval of changes that qualify
as material adverse impacts and the city
has to respond to those changes within
10 business days. A material adverse
impact is an individual or cumulative
change of $376,812
or more or any reduction in square
footage to the opportunity center due to
unforeseen circumstances.
Um, we're seeking city council approval
for the mayor to approve changes due to
material adverse impacts up to a
$500,000 increase in purchase price.
City council approval is required
because this exceeds what's in the
financial management policy. I think
this is easier to to visualize rather
than talk through. So on your screen you
have um essentially what would happen at
various levels of increase to purchase
price. Um if there were individual or
cumulative changes of $376,811
the seller would be responsible for
approving those changes, not the mayor,
not the city, and the city would bear
those costs. That's the material adverse
impact threshold. After that point, the
city and the seller share the costs
evenly. We're seeking additional mayoral
authority for the next $123,189
for the mayor to be able to approve
those change orders for expediency.
After that point, we're at $500,000
increase in cost and we would come to
city c we would propose that we would
come to city council at that point to
seek your approval.
I again want to note that this is
unlikely given the amount of contingency
baked into the project. Um but we just
wanted to be well prepared.
Additionally, the city may have requests
that increase the purchase price. These
are not material adverse impacts. The
city is solely responsible for this cost
or seeking city council authority to
have the mayor authorize increases in
costs at the city's request. Um that
would have an individual or cumulative
effect of less than $3768
sorry $376,812.
Okay. The condominium agreements. So
there are a couple of agreements
attached to the purchase and sale
agreement that again govern that
relationship between all the condo unit
owners in the north building on the
site. These agreements are between the
trailhead plaza condominium of which the
city would be an owner and the trail
head apartments group.
So the documents include the articles of
incorporation. They define the condo
association's purpose under RCW as well
as the five members of the condo board.
Three of those would be representing
trailhead Apartments or KCHA. One of
those would be a representative of the
city and one of those would be a
representative representative of Leo
House.
There's also the declaration that
describes the units, their boundaries,
common elements, um parking and
permitted uses among other things. It
importantly also establishes voting
power because KCHA um or Trail Head
Apartments owns or has 94% of the
overall square footage of the building.
they have a majority of the voting
power. So there are some elements that
require unanimous vote like changes to
um sorry there are some uh actions that
require unanimous vote uh that uh
include changes to common elements,
adoption of the annual budget or any
changes to the governing governing
documents. There's also mention in the
agreements to a grounds lease.
This is a 99-year lease between Trail
Head Apartments and King County Housing
Authority. King County Housing Authority
would own the land and lease it to Trail
Head Apartments for the length of this
term. It establishes ownership of the
land versus the building. Um, the city's
ownership is of the condominium unit.
So, in 99 years, if that building were
to still be standing, the land and
everything on it would be conveyed back
to KCHA and the city would no longer
have ownership of the building or of the
condo unit.
Additionally, there are bylaws that are
are pretty standard governing meeting
procedures and how the board can act.
The final authorization we're seeking
from you tonight is the appointment to
the condo board. Once the condominium
assoc association is created, the city
needs to appoint a board member. They're
going to decide on things like signage
for its tenants, budgets, things like
that. We're seeking council authority
for the mayor to appoint the appropriate
staff member, likely a department
director. um once the condominium
association is formed.
So next steps, if the PSA is approved,
the earnest money would be would be paid
here in July of 2026.
Over the next 18 months, the city would
continue continue to pursue behavioral
health, dental, and medical health
tenants, conducting an RFP process to
select them, um and beginning the the
negotiations over lease agreements, as
well as designing those tenant
improvements. In late 2027, we would
close on the purchase of the opportunity
center, making that final payment, and
then in 2028, we would receive that
grant reimbursement and tenant
improvements to finish the opportunity
center could begin.
So, with that, the four motions are in
front of you tonight, and I'm happy to
stand for any questions.
Okay, as you could tell that we are in
good hands as Andrea moves on to Swami
Jillian has an amazing grasp of these
topics and I realize council member Joe
you might have when we with John
Writtenhouse put the first million
dollars aside. You actually could have
been involved in that. So I might have
to eat my words of uh on that front.
Council member Walsh,
>> thank you and thank you for the great
presentation. Chillian. Um I am trying
to understand the funding that we have
set aside on this project. Obviously
right now we're talking about the
opportunity center.
>> A lot of our previous conversation as
has been mentioned um was about the
to portion of the project. And so I'm
trying to remember the $5 million we set
aside.
>> Mhm.
>> I believe that was set aside, if I
remember correctly from your emails,
that was an allocation or a promise that
was made in 2018. Is that correct?
>> Yeah. There was um a council
authorization or direction in 2018 to
set aside 2.8 8 million for the
acquisition of the opportunity center,
an additional 2 and a4 million for the
tenant improvements for the opportunity
center. So all for the opportunity
center in that 5 million.
>> Okay. And the affordable housing fund
hadn't been established at that time.
Um, so the idea that we're putting
together here is there was a previous
commitment to just over $5 million and
here we are saying where those revenue
or where those dollars will come from.
Is that correct?
>> That's correct. And there's been
planning and allocation of that
throughout the years. has typically been
held in the affordable housing fund
which was previously co-mingled with the
general fund but it's always been held
for the opportunity center.
>> Yeah. So let me ask about that because I
remember setting aside money from the
affordable housing fund for the to
project. I don't remember anything
specifically from the affordable housing
fund for the opportunity center. the
affordable housing fund made IHIP and
ARCH contributions that would have
supported the um that did support the
TOD part of the project, the the part
that KCHJ is better supposed to speak
to. Um but then later the $5 million
previously set aside in the general fund
when the affordable housing fund was
created, um those revenues would be
would be used for for this purchase. And
that's a set aside that.
>> So, is this a new proposal then or is
because I'm I'm really trying to rack my
brain about when that happened that we
decided to use affordable housing
funding for the opportunity center
portion of things. Um,
given the timing, so the the $5 million
set aside happened in 2018. The
affordable housing sales tax was
authorized, I believe, in 2020.
Um and
there the set aside has always been in
the affordable housing side of the
revenues as long as I've been at the
city. I don't know if there's any other
history there that we could share, but
>> Okay. Um, I would still love to be able
to track that down because I haven't
been able to um figure that out. But
so
we this is moving forward on the
opportunity center.
>> There are also costs on the
transitoriented development side. None
of that conflicts with each other.
Correct.
>> Correct. I believe the city is finished
its contributions to the TOD side of the
project with the last IHIP contribution
and the last dispersement of ARCH funds
that are obviously co-mingled with other
cities. Um so there are no more
dispersements to
the TOD side of the project.
One exception which is a grant that
Jillian actually applied for and was
successful in which is um when we wave
affordable housing fees. So permit fees,
development fees that we charge any
other development, we waved those. The
city actually has to pay a portion of
those back. And so um Jillian was able
to get a grant to help pay for those.
And that's something that we had
anticipated maybe some of those funds
would be used for, but she was able to
secure other funding for that. Okay. Um,
and then further talking about this
funding breakdown, um, because the
conversation is the $3 million
with from the state that is the direct
appropriation for the local community
program, as you said, is not anticipated
until afterward because it's a
reimbursement.
>> Yes. Is there anything in this ordinance
that requires us to reimburse the
affordable housing fund or is that a
decision that we make at a later point?
>> Yeah, let me pull up the motions really
quick um and talk about just kind of the
sequencing here. So, in your first
motion at the very end, it it says that
this would be this purchase would be
funded by mitigation and affordable
housing funds. We spent a lot of time
talking with finance about what kind of
language they would need to know to hold
this as they present to you I believe in
July about the affordable housing fund
or at least throughout the budget
process and their proposal for it. So
this is what they needed to hold those
funds. Um and then it's always been our
understanding if you'd like to add
additional language that the
reimbursement go to the funding sources
that that make the purchase I think that
would be fine. But that's always been
our our proposal. Okay. Is that the
affordable housing fund is made as whole
as it can be through the the grant
reimbursement.
>> Yeah. And maybe I will either we don't
have finance here, but city
administrator Bob Quitz, is there
anything that we need to do to ensure
that
when the state reimbures us that the
those dollars go back to the affordable
housing fund that it was taken from in
addition to what the um language here is
in the proposed motion.
Uh that is the intent. I'll look at the
city attorney. Um that could be included
in this motion or a subsequent motion if
the council desired.
>> To the current motion.
>> No. So during the grant contracting
process, it would come back before
before council.
>> Okay.
>> Okay. My concern there is that we are
taking money from a dedicated fund
without anything that necessarily
requires us to put the money back. Um
>> I I think our understanding is we can't
accept that $3 million grant. We have to
come back to council and so we're going
to put it back in the housing fund. I
mean the housing fund will have three
and a half$4 million. We have to dip
into a little of it, I think, to
complete the final trunch, but the
second the purchase closes, we get the
$3 million and the housing fund is made
whole. And
and I feel like there I agree with the
city attorney. I think when we actually
accept that $3 million, council will I
mean, we're going to put it back in the
housing fund, but if we want to make
that part of the ordinance of where it
goes, that's really easy to do, I think,
when
>> But the appropriate time for that would
be when we accept the grant dollars.
>> You can do it tonight, too.
>> Okay.
>> Either one would work.
>> Okay. I'll save that for my comments.
Um, but that was Yeah, that is one of my
concern areas there. Thank you,
>> Council Member Nichols.
>> Uh, thank you. I'm trying to make the
math work on a different slide. Can you
go to um
uh how do I describe this?
Um, okay. The title is additional
affordable housing set aside.
>> Yeah, right there. Okay. Um,
so that the 2.5 million where is I'm I'm
having I can't quite trace where that
breaks down otherwise. On the slide
before that, it says 1.4 million is
needed and is an additional set aside.
Um, and I don't see another million
dollars making that up elsewhere. So
maybe I can make this a clear question.
Where does that $2.5 million come from?
And is it distinct from the 1.4 4
million on the previous slide.
>> The $2.5 million in additional
affordable housing funding that we are
seeking that you designate for the
purchase of the opportunity center is
really just to be prudent in planning.
So this is in case the uh the purchase
price increases above the initial
purchase price that we have that we have
from KCHA of 7.5 million here today. Um
so that's the additional 1.4 to meet
that purchase price and an additional
million in case the purchase price were
to increase. We also know we have some
amount of tenant improvement subject to
the lease agreements with our tenants.
Um and and all of that to make um so
this could provide funding for that as
well.
>> Okay.
>> Primary purchase is to ensure that we
can complete the purchase of
>> Let me try to restate that to see if I
got it. So we need 1.4. You you believe
we need 1.4.
>> I know that we need Okay, we know we
need 1.4 for of set aside. The 2.5
number is adding another million dollars
of contingency onto that.
>> Okay.
>> But I would say a half million is
contingency. The other half million is
tenant improvement dollars. Okay.
>> Does that make sense?
>> So yeah, so you have that extra half
million just in case it went all the way
up to 8 million. But we also know we're
expecting two to three million of tenant
improvements. We have no idea based on
the tenants if we're responsible for 20%
of that or 80% of that. We think at a
minimum we're responsible for 20% of the
tenant improvements. So that 500,000
lets you at least start on some of the
tenant improvements right away as we're
talking to future tenants.
>> Okay. Got it. Thank you.
>> Uh Deputy President Jane.
>> Um I guess you just answered my first
question which was what city account
would the tenant improvement funding
come out of? So, you're saying it would
come out of the affordable housing fund?
>> Yeah, that's our plan. Um, city council,
we could bring a different proposal if
they were to exceed a certain amount.
>> Okay. Um, and this just out of
curiosity, I'm curious how the breakdown
in cost for the opportunity center is
calculated given that it's part of a
larger building like are we prorating
like a share of the like foundation and
roof or what's the breakdown? Yeah, I
think actually I'd like to turn that
over to to KCHA because they can give
you a more detailed explanation than
than I can.
>> There you go. One day to go to
retirement and get put to work.
>> So, Dan Landis, King County Housing
Authority. Uh we asked our contractor to
uh look in spec specifically what it's
what costs um are properly allocated to
the opportunity center based on it's you
know different kind of space. It's not
finished space. Uh it has a higher
proration of parking than than the other
rest of the building does. So it's all
all of the costs are based on what the
contractor has told us. And we've had a
lot of back and forth to make sure that
they got it right. But it's based on the
square footage. Um, obviously
our square footage cost is going to be
higher because for the I mean you have
more parking, but for the actual space
itself, your space won't be finished.
Our space will be finished. So all of
that's accounted for. Uh, we're not
prorrating the entire cost. We're we ask
the contractor to to actually break it
down.
>> Great. Thank you. Um, okay. And one last
question. So I remember when we had
approved or I think back in, you know,
July or September of last year where we
talked about purchasing the opportunity
center, there was some talk about, you
know, do we want to have one tenant or
do we want to have a mixture of
different tenants? Um so I'm curious
what the current status is on, you know,
finding tenants for the opportunity
center space. Yeah, since getting
council direction, um the administration
reached out to a lot of the federally
qualified health centers and other kind
of larger providers in the Puget Sound
region to make them aware of this
opportunity. We then conducted a letters
of interest process working with the
human services team here in Isiqua to
talk with providers who are already
providing these services in our
community and we left it pretty
open-ended. It was basically a
questionnaire that was basically how
much space do you want? What kind of
services would you like to provide? We
got a few um a few potential tenants
from that process. We also have then
since worked with the Department of
Community and Human Services at King
County to advertise this space as well
and have gotten a a little bit more
interest um and are currently in talks
with two to three um different providers
this week. So,
>> and Jillian and I's coffee tomorrow
morning is with Sami Tribe at 8:30. So
we are going out to Swami Tribe because
they're a potential partner. Amy Winston
is from Udub Dentl is potential partner
on affordable dental access and that
meeting is next week. So yeah, we're
actively pursuing people to fill the
space. Uh council member Adair.
>> Um for the the mayor authorization of
the 376 to 500,000. Um it's noted in
here that if if there is a change that
increases by more than that, you have to
return to city council.
um you know what is the timeline of
these potential changes is like do we
what would that process be if we don't
have a meeting within that 10 business
days like an emergency session or how we
do obviously this would be a big change
and they could just do it without our
approval. So
>> Dan or Nate you want to come back up. I
mean
>> I'm happy to
take the first part of it. The PSA
stipulates that we have to provide a
response within 10 business days. So,
we'd have to schedule a special council
meeting to have the discussion and
provide a decision. And I think maybe
that that timing was chosen to not hold
up the project um on the basis of of
those change orders more than two weeks.
But if there if I got that wrong, please
correct me. Okay.
And I think part of the comfort level
here is if you add up the contingencies
between the two separate buckets that
are already in that $7.5 million price,
you you have 7 to $900,000 of
contingencies if everything went
perfectly according to plan, which would
actually come in at less than 7.5
million. So things have to go wrong to
get to 7.5 million is sort of how I'm
thinking about it. And then they have to
go substantially sort of sideways to get
to the extra half million. Council
member Walsh.
>> Yeah. toward that idea, we should be
able to watch our costs and if we
started to get toward these areas, we
could make an adjustment so that we
didn't have to face a period when we had
a 10day special session or something
like that. But this gives the authority
within a a smaller scope um but which we
think is appropriate. Correct. Yeah.
Okay. I believe that Dan has something
he'd like to share.
If I could just add to this. So our
um interests are very aligned on this.
Our our costs are about 16 times what
yours are. And if your costs are going
up, our costs are going up 16 times
that. And so we I I think we're going to
manage this really carefully. We're
we're confident that our contingencies
are more than we will need uh before
anything above the before the purchase
price would ever change. and uh your
space is also on the ground floor. So um
it will be early on in the project where
uh all of the opportunities for your
cost to drastically increase would
happen. Uh we'll we'll continue to have
risk as we start building above above
the first floor for ours, but that won't
impact you anymore. So, I think there
will be lots of time to figure things
out if we if we hit that kind of crisis,
but it will be a much bigger deal for
our our uh or much more of an
existential crisis for the project from
our standpoint just because we would be
bearing a huge cost.
>> You could be retired on a beach in
Jamaica that
>> I should say. It'll be a bigger a big
problem for them, right?
Okay, looking uh not seeing any other
question. Oh, council member Boyd,
>> I think I know the answer is yes, but
just to hear it from you to clarify any
potential mayoral authorization on the
cost increase that's just for this
particular
>> Yes, that is that is limited to this to
the purchase of the opportunity center.
>> I don't get to buy a Porsche.
Okay. Uh, Council President Martz. Uh,
seeing no further questions, I move to
authorize the mayor to execute a
purchase and sale agreement in
substantially the form as the attached
agreement exhibit A as approved by the
city attorney and other documents
necessary to purchase the condominium to
be known as the opportunity center
located at 1467 Northwest Maple Street
in Isiqua from Trailhead Apartments LLP
at costs for the amount of 7,536,237
plus closing costs to be funded using
mitigation and affordable housing funds.
and authorize the mayor to review and
determine whether to execute change
orders from material adverse impacts as
defined in the purchase agreement as
individually or cumulatively resulting
in a purchase price increase of $376,812
to $500,000
or any reduction in the square footage
of the opportunity center from the
approved plans and authorize the mayor
to review and determine whether to
execute change orders at the city's
request that would result individually
or cumulatively in an increase to the
purchase price of less than $376,812
and authorize the mayor to appoint a
director to serve on the board of
directors at the Trail Head Plaza
Condominium Association.
>> Second.
>> Okay, there's been a motion and a
second. Normally, at my turn, I repeat
the motion, but given that I predict
this meeting at 9:57 tonight, I'm going
to say that I will refer to that as the
motion when it comes time to vote. Uh,
Council President Marks.
So, I'm not going to I'm not going to
talk long because most of have have
heard most of you have heard me app on
this issue many many many times before.
Um, I'll just say that one of the first
things that I did when running for
council in 2009 was go with my friend
Paul Winterstein up to the center in
Redmond and meet with Pam Mock and
understand what having these sort of
community services would can mean to a
community. Um, we have a natural
catchment of approximately the size of
the Isiqua School District. Um, it would
be very impactful for our community. I
continue to strongly support this. I've
been strongly supporting this for 10
years. I'll be strongly supporting this
for however much longer it takes. I hope
the rest of you do as well. Thank you,
>> Council Member Adair. Uh yeah, and I
echo that. This is a project that I'm I
just really, you know, proud of the city
in terms of the work that has gone into
this to keep pushing and keep pushing
forward for something that I think is
really important and is an example of
something, you know, governments can do
if they push hard enough. You know, I do
have concerns. Obviously, we don't have
the tenants and there are issues there.
Um but I am and you know so part of me
gets a little worried about that aspect
of it but I do agree that we need to
continue moving forward and do believe
that the tenants will be there and that
they're you know reservations just been
the climate we're in and how long it has
taken to get here but that once it's
actually there in a physical space it
will not be hard to find those people
and um I think this will bring a lot of
good to this community and I'm I'm glad
we're proceeding and so excited to be
seeing you know the real tangible, you
know, uh, results of this. So,
>> all right.
Oh, wait. Council Walsh,
>> thank you. Um, I am in support of this.
Uh I
defin my only concerns are using the
affordable housing funding um, for this.
And so, yes, I think it's good that we
are stating on the record that the
intention is for the $3 million to be
reimbursed to the affordable housing
um account um that we have. I think that
still means that we have a fair amount
of affordable housing funds going into
this project. And while I think there
are crossovers and it certainly serves
the same population,
um
I am always concerned and I guess this
is just a projection out to um what we
might be looking at for budget and
operations.
um anytime we are proposing using
affordable housing
restricted funds for anything other than
affordable housing capital projects. Um
this is a capital project and so it has
that tiein. Um
but I think any dollar that is not
building or sustaining affordable
housing um is something that we need to
scrutinize um very tightly and so
I am
somewhat comfortable with that source of
funding. Um,
but man, if there is any way that our
general fund can reimburse the rest of
that affordable housing funding, I think
it's something that we should consider
um as we look at the costs and how we
want to stretch that very important um
set of dollars because if we had not
adopted that, that money would be going
to King County and that money would be
used to build actual affordable housing
um to serve a a population where we do
not have very much funding at all. So
that would be my only ask as we consider
this as a council in the future if there
is any way to reimburse that fund. I
think that is something that we should
consider doing.
>> Right. Council member Boy.
Um, I think one of the more difficult
things at my day job is if someone if
I'm doing case work and someone you know
asks like where can I get services and
you know if they're local in Isiqua
sometimes I might have to point them out
of town for that and there's good
services regional partners right but I'm
so excited for the ability and I know
it's still a few years down the road and
we still don't have people lined up
quite yet but I'm um very excited for
the prospect of having something right
here that uh the community council's
past have been working on for a decade
to get here. Um
just the ripples of what that will mean
outward for everyone. Um very excited
for that. Uh I think we have the great
example of as uh director Watling
mentioned with the parks bond of how uh
the strategic plan and the parks bond
set the backbone for what we're going
out for with the parks bond. And uh I
think it's very identified in the human
services strategic plan of again and
again it's identified as um we have no
adult behavioral health facilities. And
so I am very excited for the future of
this.
>> Deputy President Jane.
>> Great. Um well first of all I want to
say I'm very excited to support this
motion tonight. I know it's been a very
very long road and I want to give um
Deputy City Administrator Andrea Leonard
huge kudos for sticking with this
project for the better part of a decade
as you know we work through all this
stuff and I mean it almost feels unreal
that we're going to be able to attend
the groundbreaking of this next month.
So I'm very very excited for that. Um
it's also equally exciting to see the
search for tenants for this space
becoming more real as we actually
approach the groundbreaking. So you know
having identified like actual people who
are interested in this space I think is
really exciting. um on the funding
source piece. So the account that this
is coming out of, I just want to know
it's a special 0.1% sales tax that is
authorized, you know, we have this under
state law and it's housing and related
services is the na is the actual name of
it in the state law and um so you know I
I do think that this is very much a
related service for housing. It is
constructing you know behavioral health
or you know low-income health or dental
facility, which I do think is critically
important and something we should be
supporting as a city government. Um, you
know, in terms of this benefit that it
provides to our community. So, I am
comfortable with using this funding in
this way. But that said, I do think we
need to figure out other ways to use
these capital dollars and deploy them
out in the community. Just, you know,
given the rate of inflation, the longer
we sit on this money, you know, the less
and less it becomes worth. So, I think
we need to, you know, this is one of the
biggest things that we're going to be
spending this money on, but we need to
do more to figure out, you know, with
the remaining millions that we have in
this account, how can we put that money
to work in our community? Um, so that
said, I'm very excited to be supporting
this tonight and attending the TOD
groundbreaking in just a few short
weeks.
>> All right. I think
there's no further discussion. We had a
motion by Council President Mart. I
asked everyone to memorize when it was
read. That is the motion we will be
voting on. Yes, it is on. As Cer Walsh
said, is it on the screen in front of
you? All those in favor, please say I.
>> I.
>> All those opposed, nay.
And that passes unanimously. And I would
add, when I joined the council back in
2009, I filled the retiring seat of John
Writtenhouse, who was the one who had
put the first million dollars towards
this project many moons ago. And so it's
exciting to see that come full circle
and knowing that we have Dan and Andrea
here and their last days. I think these
are a round of applause for their
excellent work effort.
And now we'll move to our last agenda
item. I realize as mayor predicting the
end of a council meeting is a fool's
errand because I don't really talk. You
guys control the talking. I'm not going
to bet against people who have more
control over the outcome on the playing
field ever again. Uh, agenda bill 9207,
title 18, land use code promoting
building investments amendments, three
stepbacks, and outdoor amenity space,
which ironically is relevant because
this conversation came up because King
County Housing Authority informed us of
things in our own code that we might
need to think about adjusting and we
have many here to present.
>> Good evening, everybody. Um, let me
quickly start this. Um,
um, due to lateness of the hour, I'm
just going to breeze through it really
quickly, but feel free to pause and if
you have questions along the way. Um, so
this is um, something that we came to
you all um, to establish our work plan
for the year or couple of years um, and
we called it promoting building
investment in central Isiqua. Um and let
me see if I can um so the purpose of the
meeting tonight is um to look at the top
the first two amendments that have gone
through the process out of the 17 that
were put on the work plan. Um
and those are uh community open space
and stepbacks. Um so you in terms of the
work plan it was the council retreat the
homebuilders staff and the whiteboard
that led to the 17 that we are currently
working on. Uh so out of this the top
two are in front of you tonight. Uh they
have gone through three touches with
planning and policy commission. They
held a public hearing. they then
planning development and environment
committee vetted them out and um now
they're in front of you uh for action.
Um so the first one step backs um also
part of your package is uh the goals and
outcomes and objectives uh that planning
development and environment committee
worked on for all 17 that will become
sort of the the working um north arrow
for the for planning and policy
commission and community conversations
to guide uh these um amendments. Um this
work happened at the council level at
the committee level uh but we had
already started the work on the first
two with planning and policy commission.
So for the stepbacks uh you know we
heard there were higher construction
costs alignment issues um moisture risks
uh and so on. Uh there's also a house
bill that preempts stepbacks for uh all
of these mass timber uh type of things.
Um and then the goal here was to reduce
multiple stepbacks um as long as the
architectural interest uh goals were
met. Uh and also there was discussion
about aligning the requirements of of
stepbacks in the context of other design
options. Um so some possible outcomes
when we um talked to uh planning
development and environment committee
was eliminating multiple stepbacks um
not having them along natural context
areas and also providing flexibility um
for the location. Um and so the proposed
amendments do three things here. They
allow flexibility in the placement of
upper level stepbacks along the streets.
They eliminate uh stepbacks along
natural environment and they also um um
uh set up really a five five you know
dimensions of what the stepbacks uh
really are. Um so here in strikeout so
along the natural areas you're no longer
required to have stepback requirements.
Um along the um public streets you're
only required to have one. You can
choose where you want to put it. Uh as
low as the base of uh floor two up to
the base of floor six, five feet in
depth. Um and then we have this um five
different styles that you can choose
your um op your style of architectural
style in central Eiquay and one of them
is northwest contemporary style which
most of the folks choose this. Um we
also aligned these requirements in this
particular style with the remainder of
the the code which again is you have the
flexibility from floor two to floor six.
Um there are some additional
requirements for design. I'm not going
to get into that. That's not in front of
you today. Um for natural environments
there are also some other requirements
in the code that talk about the
orientation towards natural environment.
Um that's not in front of you today. Uh
moving on to outdoor amenity space
requirements. Uh really the issue here
we heard from the builders was um our
private outdoor spaces like the
balconies. Um our requirements were
excessive. Um and they also sort of
referenced the water penetration issues
when they put it on every balcony a
balcony on every unit. Uh so the goal
was to balance the outdoor amenity space
with development feasibility um and also
to find a way to provide residents with
meaningful outdoor amenity space while
allowing development. So in this case uh
what we've done uh in or what's in front
of you for um action tonight is the
private uh balcony spaces have been
reduced. Uh we've streamlined the code
to eliminate the need for deviations. So
it's an outright uh permitted reduction.
And also while we were looking at this
um there previous state law changes
happened and if there's converting an
existing office building uh to um a a
residential housing projects, there's a
lot of flexibility built into it. But
that flexibility did not include
flexibility from outdoor spaces uh
amenity spaces. And if you have a glass
clad building, you're not going to take
out the glass and put um um balconies.
So, um so we built in some flexibility
for those kind of conversions as well.
Um and so again, I think we I kind of
talked about this. Uh
it's going from 50% to 30% of the the
units have to have balconies. You no
longer have to get deviations.
um and it's a permitted outright um
requirement there. This table kind of
shows you as we went through this
process, planning and policy commission
also looked at really smaller scale
projects. So we used to say anything up
to five unit, you know, five plexes
don't have to have this outdoor space.
They increased that to nine units. So
they felt like for smaller infill
projects that are up to nine units up to
that you don't have to have um um uh
common outdoor spaces that those only
get triggered at 10 or above. Um and
they the the 50% is now only for 30%. Uh
it's no longer a deviation. And then
they added uh this exemption for
converting a commercial uh building to a
residential use. You also get some
flexibility. Um, you still have to
provide some common amenity space to the
maximum extent feasible. If there is
room around the site, you would add it,
but not to the extent that the code
requires. So, that's pretty much a
summary of what's in front of you. If
the if you adopt these changes tonight,
they become effective 5 days from
publication. Uh, we the administration's
recommendation is that you approve these
amendments as presented.
>> Council member Walsh, you're the
committee chair. Did you want to make
comments?
>> Yeah. Um, so PTE reviewed these two
proposed changes to the land use code.
Um, I'll start with the second one
regarding the outdoor amenity areas. We
unanimously agreed to the changes that
PPC had recommended and that staff had
worked up which created more options for
um private spaces without reducing the
overall um required outdoor space. Um
for the stepbacks, the committee
generally agreed that we need more
flexibility here and recommended,
you know, outside of our motion that we
move forward toward a menu of options
for design standards. And so that was
kind of a a change in the approach from
when we had first um adopted as a
council the um promoting building
investments. So we really thought
stepbacks should be part of a group of
things much like we do with um some of
our other sustainability things where we
give a menu of options and um choices
can be made there. So after that set of
feedback, knowing that this had come
through PPC
um and was a change in improvement to
what we currently have in our land use
code, uh two of the members of PTE
agreed that we should move forward with
these stepback adjustments while the
staff works on that menu of options to
be presented to us um at a later time.
Well, one member thought it would be
better at this point to remove the
stepback requirements in the interim.
Um, so there was a little bit of
disagreement there on how we approach
it. Um, but there was
two at least two out of three members um
on both of these areas.
>> Council member Gar. Um, so we had some
emails, you know, on this and you
responded, you know, I was curious about
comparisons to other nearby uh, cities
that we're trying to either emulate or
do better than and stuff like that. And
you sent a list of some of them and, you
know, so like both had no stepbacks, you
know, Bellingham has 15 ft starting at
the fourth floor, Edmonds 5 ft deep at
26 ft. And you know, there's a few
variations here. It's not necessarily
all the areas that maybe we want to
consider. So are there any that does
this mirror any other city that's doing
it in this way that we're proposing in
the changes here or is that still going
to also be isqua specific? Um I'm just
kind of curious in terms of how we're
modeling this you know if we're trying
to match places that have more
development is that what we're doing or
is this something we're coming up with
ourselves?
>> Sure. Um you know um I think we always
hear comparison between Kirkland and
Redmond. So, we looked at those um two
cities um and those are included in your
um chart there. Redmond has some of of a
similar thing that but they have a much
deeper step back. They require 20. So,
we're requiring only 5 ft. Um Kirkland,
you know, development up in their
downtown has a lot of stepbacks of what
actually got built there. Um and but
they are also sort of you know so so
we've gone beyond what Kirkland and
Redmond require already. So it's it's
not that we're um more our requirements
are more excessive than those
communities if if you're trying to just
compare. But each each community has
different conversations. Um Redmond is a
little bit similar to us because they
have high water table. They are also
providing drinking water supply. So they
have fewer um um you know underground
parking requirements. So the look and
feel of those buildings is a little bit
like ours because you get you know seven
stories tall building versus uh Kirkland
where they have been able to get some of
the underground parking in in their
buildings. Um I mean it's not not
doable. It's just more expensive
sometimes to um with a higher uh
groundwater. So there's not like a
perfect like this is what we cop you
know this is another city. They're a
little bit all over the place but we
feel as this went through it it's a good
it's striking a good balance between um
still requiring a little bit of a step
back but giving that flexibility and and
eliminating it on all sides of the
building. Um so just focusing on the
public realm along the street. So like
if you could so like when you bring up
in terms of how we are you know you're
talking about that currently you'd say
we have a higher requirement than like
Redmond and then this would put us equal
or lower requirement.
>> Yes.
>> Uh but but the current version would be
more
difficult for developers than their
current ones. You know I see these and I
see still a lot of like 10 ft deep and
these have things like these look to me
very similar to what we already
currently have. And so that's what I'm
trying to kind of quantify and
understand is is our current system
really that different or more difficult
than similar cities is what I'm trying
to get to.
>> We heard uh that stepbacks are um an an
issue for the builders. I mean that came
in through our builders roundt uh
conversation and we do believe that
there is uh you know we heard from the
to developers they are here. I think the
council approved the housing um
agreement uh to forgo or or allow that
same flexibility that's now in the code
so everyone else has the same
opportunity that we provided to
developer. Um so there's some truth to
the fact that you are you know
construction costs go up um because of
the staggering that the size of the
beams goes up, labor costs are more
stacking of plumbing and and all of
those things um are are important. Um so
yes our current standards to answer your
question are more designoriented
uh that require multiple stepbacks and
things like that. um where what's in
front of you has gone through a process
that uh planning and policy commission
heard from the community, looked at
what's there, compared it with other
jurisdictions and and what we've brought
forth is their recommendation which is
um not having it along the natural
context, only requiring it along public
streets, not having multiple stepbacks,
providing flexibility, and limiting the
depth to 5T. It can be more, but from a
city's regulation standpoint, that's the
bare minimum.
>> Deputy President Jay.
>> Yeah. And I um to respond to Council
Member Adair. Hopefully that's okay. Um
I think you know, you'd mentioned this
kind of came in response to requests
from the um from King County Housing
Authority. So last year, you know, when
they were in the design process, they
came to us and were like, "Hey, the step
back requirement you have basically we
were saying it's required at the fifth
floor." So that's in the part that's a
wood structure. So normally, you know,
with a five-story building, you can like
stack all of them and have all the wood
beams, you know, going up and down. But
then if you had it at the fifth floor,
that would be in the middle of where the
wood is. So because it's an eight story
building, you had three floors of
concrete, five floors of wood, and they
said it would add it would cost $1.2
million to do this. Um, and you know,
given that it's like a publicly funded
housing project, we felt like it was and
they were retaining the step, just
putting it where it switches from
concrete to wood at the third floor. And
actually in the renderings, the one with
the third floor step back looked better
than the one with the fifth floor step
back. And I I showed the pictures, the
renderings to like multiple of my
friends to get their take on the, you
know, relative aesthetics. And so they,
you know, they all agreed. Um, so I
think this
change,
you know, in my opinion, based on the
one project that we've seen, actually
makes the buildings look slightly
better. Um,
and also reduces costs cuz I think there
is an argument to be made that it's
important to have things that look nice.
You know, people want to look at nice
things. But also is it like is having a
step back that costs 1.2 million really
the best aesthetic investment if we're
talking $1.2 million. Like how many
murals could we put in our city for $1.2
million? And would that actually make
people's you like does that have a
bigger aesthetic impact? you know,
murals, landscaping, all that kind of
stuff, you know, just if we're thinking
about the relative cost of different
aesthetic improvements. So, that's my
>> feel potential mural amendment coming. I
like it. Uh, Council Member Nichols,
>> uh, quickly on the range of options that
were considered, uh, did PPC consider an
option like both that has no step back
requirements?
um you know they my um Kristen Leon
who's not here uh explored all different
options with them. I don't specifically
remember if they was like um they
definitely talked about it along the
natural context areas to eliminate that.
That's where they ended up uh with the
natural context because the code itself
currently requires that same um step
back along natural context but they
didn't they felt along the public realm
along public street we still needed to
maintain one step back.
>> So the the this I want to pick on this
because this is going to be the crux of
my comments in a few moments when you
say they that all options were explored.
Um I want to correct my understanding
but I I didn't see PPC discussing that.
So I wanted to see if that was in fact
the case to remove stepback requirements
entirely.
>> You know, I'll have to look at the the
actual questions that were posed to
them. Um we were asking them policy
questions along more broadly. So it
didn't come we didn't at staff level if
you're asking if we said no stepbacks
should be required along uh the public
realm. I don't think that was uh
presented in that way. Yes.
Okay. Not seeing any other questions
or many. Is there
a motion? Customer Walsh.
>> Thank you. I move to adopt ordinance
number 3143 amending chapters 18.6000,
18.602, 602 and 18.702
of the Isqua Municipal Code to allow
flexibility for upper level stepbacks
and adopt ordinance number 3144 amending
chapter 18.608
community amenity spaces of the Isqua
Municipal Code to reduce the amount of
required open amenity space in
multifamily residential developments.
>> Second.
>> Okay. Pay attention to what council
member Walsh just said. I'm once again
not going to repeat that. Uh, Council
Member Nichols.
>> Okay, I'm going to go on for a little
bit, so apologies in advance. Um, I know
it's late, but uh, this is this is the
first one of these that we're talking
about, and I think it's really important
that we get the process for this right.
Um, so I'm going to suggest that we vote
no on the proposed amendments to
ordinance number 3143, so stepbacks, uh,
and send it back to either PPC or PDE.
does I don't think it matters a lot uh
with a greater set of options to
investigate um at our PD committee on
the second I think it's fair to say but
please chime in after that all three of
us were aligned that one we wanted to
see stepback requirements reduced from
their current level um and that we
weren't fully satisfied with the options
that we were presented um I think we
differed primarily on timing of when and
how to address that um and whether we
should have this as a kind of an interim
set of rules on this topic while we wait
for it to become back to come back to
deal with it um as an option in
architectural standards. Um but please
correct me in a moment if I'm if I'm
misquing anyone.
Turning back the clock a little bit um
just kind of zooming out and looking at
what we're doing overall. On Mar on our
March 9th meeting when we endorsed this
housing work plan as a whole, Council
President Mart said something I think
we've also all agreed should guide our
work. Um, and he spoke about the big
knobs on the stereo, and I I think I'm
quoting him correctly there, that we are
trying to tune and that we should run
them through their full range rather
than picking two points on the dial and
calling it done. Uh, I really agree with
that and I I agreed then and I agree
now, but that's not quite what happened
here. And I think it's because this is
the first set of things we were looking
at and that that guidance wasn't fully
understood because we didn't get that
full range. Um, we got some flexibility
that was added. That's great. uh but it
does still leave substantial stepback
requirements in place. So this the
direction of this vector was as PD
requested but the magnitudes we wanted
to see were overly constrained.
Um and again if you'll grant me a little
more time to go on a little historical
interlude here because I think it's
important for the context um of why this
is so important on this particular
topic. So my homework on where stepbacks
came from leaves me really concerned
frankly um and is motivating my
stubbornness on this topic. The first
time stepbacks appear in our transcript
is a 2017 development commission meeting
um and there were some troubling
comments in it. One commissioner pressed
the consultant who was proposing these
new rules on exactly this risk that I'm
worried about about costs um that I I
believe we've seen materialize. Um he
said that design standards like these
will aggregate in aggregate will price
people out um and that a place like ours
will become quote very self- selecting
and quote a boutiquey place. Um the
consultant's answer to that was that
affordability was quote out of scope.
This was the answer in this commission
when this con when the stepback
commission was first concept was first
brought up. Affordability was declared
out of scope. I don't think
affordability should ever be declared
out of scope. Um, and that punt on this
topic has lasted a decade and it's in
front of us tonight. And I think we
really owe it to our residents to get
this right.
Deputy Council President Jiang raised
one of the examples of the cost of this
um $1.2 million. And one example we had,
I've also talked to several home local
home builders about what this means for
people who actually live in these units,
what the rent increase would be for them
due to this particular requirement as
we've got it. It is hard to calculate
precisely. There's there's a lot of
market dynamics at play. I'm not going
to pretend these are exact numbers, but
their estimates landed at somewhere
between 20 to $40 per unit per month for
a step back um for a single regulation
um with benefits that are at at that are
arguably questionable. Um and I think
that's a lot to ask. Um it's five to 10
times more than what we just asked, what
we're going to likely ask residents to
take on with a park bond that has
tremendous benefits associated with it.
Um, I'm also just from a policy and good
government's perspective concerned about
seessawing with these types of
regulations. If we vote yes tonight, but
we as a as a a council plan to revisit
this in a few months under architectural
standards, I think that back and forth
could actually delay housing because
anyone watching to see where we what
we're doing is going to see a moving
target and there's nothing worse for
business than in than uncertainty. So,
I'm a no. Um, thank you for letting me
ramble on that for a few moments. Um,
and I would like to see this sent back
to PPC or PTE. I think either could be
fine with a full review where we turn
the knobs all the way up and down and
see where we land.
>> Okay. And before Council Walsh, I just
want to I there's a question for Minnie
or our city administrator, but can the
council committees can also recommend
whatever they want out of the
committees? Correct.
>> Correct. Yeah. The process is planning
and policy commission makes a
recommendation, planning and development
environment committee makes a
recommendation. You as a body are the
only ones that can actually change the
law.
>> Okay. Uh Council Walsh,
>> thank you. Um,
Director Dollywal, can you talk about I
I think the feedback from PD was pretty
clear beyond this interim period, but
pretty clear that we wanted to look at a
menu of design options that would create
um variability in our buildings and
other things so that we don't get, you
know, flat buildings with just you know
windows or um flat areas. What is the
timeline or the sense of when that is
going to come through PPC all the way to
council? Um so what time period are we
looking at between potential adoption of
adjustments to regulations tonight
versus um a future idea?
>> Yeah. So the architectural uh standards
discussion is quarter 4 of 2026. So it's
a matter of you know next 6 months um to
get that in in place and and in terms of
these two amendments these were really
came from the builder community and so
in terms of sending the message that you
know uh that you are interested in m
taking action taking care of this uh
early and that's how because these were
easy to process so they got put on the
top uh line because we could just bring
that forward even though they were easy
to uh to process. But if you look at the
three packets for planning and policy
commission, I think I sent you one of
them. Um, there was a fair amount of
discussion with them. I mean, we showed
them a lot of samples. I do have those
pictures if you want me to pull those up
uh of what a good design can mean um in
terms of uh getting this in place. So if
you adopt this tonight and then when we
are having a full in-depth conversation
about the total menu of choices for
design later this year um we will have
that policy question with planning and
policy commission. How does the step
back fit fit in with the other other
pieces? And and if this is, you know,
there's a there's a balance between a
predictability of telling people what
the design should be or leaving it too
broad that, you know, it'll be vetted
out with the development commission at a
hearing. But but so so there's always
that balance of predictability versus
too much flexibility. And sometimes the
developers have told us that it's better
for them to know upfront this is what
you want and they can incorporate it
into the designs than leaving it so
open-ended that they can't get an answer
to that question either. So um just just
as some additional background but I'm
happy to pull up some photos uh if you
want to look at actual examples.
So,
I hear that you're saying that a set of
design menu options would come back to
us Q4, but you're also stating in the
same set of sentences that there is
concern about presenting a menu of
options that maybe it provides either
too much flexibility or too much
uncertainty to builders. So
>> it'll happen as part of that
conversation. So architectural, you
know, right now they are too hardwired.
There is not any flexibility of what you
can do. So as we have that conversation
with that number eight item on on the
list of 17 um what you know it can be
make it nice you know for for the sake
of easy. Um I mean there's a 1990
case that they teach in planning schools
that has Isiqua and Anderson case that
our our standards were too vague. Uh we
didn't really say what design standards
should be met. And so all along the
school of thought is that you actually
have design options that that you can
quantify that they're not so subjective.
So as we talk about that conversation,
yes, we'll talk about flexibility, but
at the same time, it'll have to be
something that isn't vague and arbitrary
either.
>> Yeah. So if one of those options on a
menu of design options was stepbacks
with these requirements that we've we
are potentially adopting today, that
provides the certainty to a builder who
might want to look at that versus five
other options. and evaluate what they
think would be most appropriate for sure
their project.
>> Sure. So, you know, the ultimate goal is
you're trying to have modulation in a
building. So, it's not a complete um you
know, concrete jungle with no sort of
design sense. Um part of the the the
intent is to have a base, a middle, and
a top of the building. Um part of the
the intent is to have uh variety in
designs and and so on. Um, so yes, we'll
have all of that conversation as part of
that architectural standards
conversation.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Because we're here.
>> Um, yeah. So, I'm I'm going to be honest
in that I'm very I'm actually still not
even fully sure how I want to vote on
this. Um, you know, I I hear uh Council
Member uh Nichols points, although
actually coming at it from a different
direction and that I'm not
as uh willing to give up code as is,
considering the work that went into it.
I actually do like stepbacks. Um um my
time in LA saw a lot of development of
cities that did become these concrete
boxes that have been spoken of and just
seemed like prisons or lost all
identity. Things that were little towns
that just got wiped out because they
people just could build cheaply and
build whatever they wanted and it just
became places where yes, people lived
there, but it was not a town. It was not
a home. Um equally like the loss of
stepbacks can lead to things like only
the people at the top can see the
mountains but no one else can and things
like that you know views become an issue
and as well as what the ground forth
feels like. So, like I'm not one that
would be, you know, if this said no step
backs, I would have a lot of concerns.
Um, the proposed requirements here, I'm
okay with like, you know, for example,
the TOD project is a great example. Like
it's not that there's no step back, they
just got to drop it down. That to me is
just fine, especially when coupled with
a thing of what they are bringing to the
community in exchange for those changes
and things like that I think are
absolutely great where you are bringing
more to the community and thus yes you
can get these uh deviations or whatever
may come to play and so I'm okay with
the flex that we still have a step back
but there's flexibility to it because
yeah if it's 1 million cheaper just to
put it on three than five that to me is
is just fine and makes sense let's do
it. Um, but I can say that I am, you
know, someone that is, you know, I want
the real tangible changes that get
development moving, which, you know, I
brought up in my email what, you know,
what they've said, these larger issues,
you know, the paved buffers and things
like that. Those feel to me like the
real concrete barriers to development
here and individual line item codes are
everybody has these things and it
doesn't feel that different to me. So,
you know, where I'm coming at right now
is that, you know, I I I'm, you know,
hesitant to just change codes just
because we can without it really seeing
what the tangible benefit is. Uh though
these in particular I don't have a
strong aversion to and so likely would
support these at the moment, but I can
say that I have some uncertainty
overall.
Okay. I'm getting my sequence. I know
Council Member Nichols and then Deputy
President Jen and then Council President
Marks. Is that right? Okay, I'll wait
since I went first. So,
>> okay. Deputy Res.
>> Great. Um, yeah. So, as far as this
specific amendment goes, I think it's
fine. I think, you know, the way that
we've come to this based on the feedback
from KCHA and kind of seeing the actual
cost and impact of it, I think it makes
a lot of sense to kind of do this as an
interim stop gap. in terms of you know
the potential menu of options. I
actually the reason I so this idea was
kind of inspired by actually this
architecture firm in Seattle who had
proposed this as a you know better
approach to design standards um called
Neiman Taber and I'm not I'm not going
to read the whole thing but you know
they have a few examples of and these
are like very you know objective things
that you can give points for. For
example, they say breaker stone masonry,
you can get five points for doing that.
You know, wood siding with the factory
finish or other pre-treatment to enhance
aesthetics and durability, two points.
Um, you know, there's a very, very long
list of different things that have
aesthetic qualities, including
commissioned art. Incorporate
commissioned artwork in a location
visible to the public, one point. This
could be, you know, the murals. And this
is honestly like just for the It
basically gives builders the options to
pick, you know, what makes the most
sense for your site. and you would have
to get a certain amount of points and do
whatever makes the most sense to you
know provide aesthetic value that people
like. Um, one thing that I think you
know folks in isqua would like for
example would be like oh providing
additional open space beyond what's the
code minimum you could get points for
that. So I think as we explore you know
what this actually looks like. I think
the problem and this is kind of what you
see in Seattle is like because they have
very strict design regulations actually
but every building basically looks the
same and it's because it's like okay
everyone you know has to do all these
specific things and so they've figured
out it's like this is the specific town
home floor plan that meets all the
regulations so we're just going to copy
and paste it everywhere and so you know
to the extent that we can give more
optionality and you know do that I think
I'm very much looking forward to seeing
what we do on that in Q4. That said, I
think, you know, for this interim
period,
making the stepbacks less, you know,
prohibitive at by requiring instead of
requiring them at the fifth floor, we
can have them anywhere between that
section, I think, is fine. Um, and then
for the
um, open space, I do think I I do think
it's interesting that we talk about
common open space in apartment complexes
as like the equivalent to having access
to open space, period. In my opinion,
it's like a lot of these open they're
like fine, I guess, but really
I think what we need to be focusing on
is like do people actually have access
to parks within a very short walking
distance of their home? Cuz I especially
for some of these smaller ones where
it's like the size of, you know, open
space that you get. It can be like a
postage stamp size, you know, little
pocket park that doesn't even make
sense, but you're just required to do
it. So, I think we should think about,
you know, in terms of access to open
space, how can we make it so that more
people are living within, you know,
close access to like the really great
parks that we have in our city like
Confluence Park. Um, so those are some
of my thoughts. I think, you know, the
way that we've set up these requirements
now, I think, you know, it's a good
balance with making things, you know,
making it more feasible to do, you know,
redevelopment in Isiqua. But I do think
we need to kind of have a bigger picture
view of you know as we are building out
the city what like how what are the
different things we need to do to make
sure that you know the public realm is
great and people it remains a great
place to live even as you know and
perhaps even gets better as we uh build
more homes for more people. So I will be
voting yes
>> remarks.
>> Thanks. Um I have a chair for a question
for chair uh PTE chair uh Walsh. So did
you in committee look at zero step back
as was there a discussion about um
whether zero step back should be uh
considered?
I think that idea I was trying to
remember if you had proposed that
concept so much as I I think it was more
about when a conversation would happen
and whether or not these were
appropriate ideas as an interim before a
menu of design options.
Is that what you would agree?
>> No.
Well, well, I'm just because I I am very
much uh I resonate very much with
Council Member Nichols idea that we
should be able to turn the the full
knob. And so, um and it seems weird to
me to do an interim step if if we're
going to consider turning the full knob
in a few short months. That seems to be
a weird environment. I will tell you as
a as a parent of a child who had to look
for housing not that long ago, um he my
son loves Newcastle Commons. Newcastle
Commons doesn't have setbacks. It but it
doesn't look like a prison and it
doesn't look like a giant brick and it
doesn't look like a awful place to live.
It's a great place to live partially
because as people have been talking
about here, it's got open spaces nearby
and it's got restaurants within walking
distance and it's got grocery stores
within a walking distance and and so you
know I I I have been convinced by
members of this of this council that um
you know part of our crisis for
workforce housing is not having more
market rate housing. So I'm inherently
inclined towards opening the solution
space up wider. So, as chair of PTE,
um I'm sort of inclined to try to test
the waters and see if there would be um
interest on the council now in sending
this back to PTE and considering that
further. But I I hesitate to I wanted to
talk to you about it first as the chair.
I don't want to be like, I don't like
the decision you guys came to, so I want
you to noodle on it some more. That's
not my That's not my intent.
>> Yeah. I think our main feedback was we
wanted a menu of options that a project
could look at to earn points or whatever
it is to create the architectural
interest. And
looking at how the promoting building
investments plan for the two years came
about, we didn't feel like that was
something that could happen in this time
frame. So what we were looking at was
really do we adopt
an adjustment to these stepbacks
um in this time period so that we don't
have the current rules on the books
versus
do we and I don't think we really
appropriately looked at should we
eliminate stepbacks
altogether
in that interim from time. Um because we
as a committee agreed that the best
avenue forward to achieve all of the
goals was to have that menu of options
and that did not seem like something
that was available um from a staff
recommendation at that time.
>> Thank you for that explanation. Um, I'm
gonna be a no tonight because the the
the path that we're taking right now
does not strike me as having the urgency
and severity necessary for the housing
crisis and affordability crisis we have
in the city right now. So, I'm going to
be a no, but I would also be an amenable
to sending it back to committee if the
committee would be willing to consider a
broader range of solutions immediately
that would have more of an impact on
cost of of build immediately. Thank you,
>> Council Member Dare or Nichols Dare.
>> Um, a couple comments just to clarify
what my my recollection of that meeting
and memory is faulty, but uh my what my
recollection was. So, we um we did not
discuss zero stepbacks. Um I I had
requested that that be something that we
discussed, but that wasn't something
that was presented. Um, I made some kind
of hamfisted attempts to think through
how we might be able to do that in the
meeting, but it's a complic it's it it
needs to this is one of these things
that actually does need the process. I
wasn't going to I I tried to figure out
if I could just figure out how to like
amend it on the fly in the meeting. It
would it would it was going to be wrong.
So, I didn't want to do that. Um, well,
I wanted to, but I didn't. Um, so we did
not discuss that. We didn't go up we and
uh because it does need that it needs
some staff presentation ahead of time to
at least say what are the thing because
it's it's at least 10 or 15 sentences
that have to be right in a somewhat
complicated or ordinance to get this
there. So we didn't look at it then. Um
I also I'm I'm concerned that we're
conflating multiple motions here. Um
this the motion that we're discussing is
about this particular amendment to this
ordinance which is about the stepX. To
be clear, as far as our our broader
bigger picture discussions on
architectural standards go, I'm all for
that. I think it's really interesting
and it's going to it could be really
great. I also I'm extremely skeptical
we're going to be able to do it in the
time frame we think we are because I
think it's going to be really really
hard. Um, as has been referenced, like
this could have all sorts of of
complicated um knockoff effects because
of the added um the
I'll just leave it. I think it's going
to be hard to get a point system that
has never been done before set up in a
reasonable amount of time and that we
shouldn't be conflating this our
whatever our goals are on stepbacks
whatever they are with that. I think we
should just be thinking of that
separately because I don't think it's
going to be done in quarter 4. I think
we're going to debate it a lot and I
think it's going to need a lot more
work. Um so I I'm I'm concerned about
conflating those two things and I think
we should be treating this as this was
the first thing on our housing work
plan. Did we get it right? Um, if not,
if yes, vote yes. Um, if no, um, and if
one of those reasons why no is because
we didn't look at all the options, look
at the options, come back with at least
that those options analyzed and then
present that. Um, and then just finally,
as a specific point as to um, one of
council member Zair's questions on the
the cost of this, we do have we do
understand somewhat of the cost of this.
This is what I was getting at as far as
this having step backs at all is what's
adding 20 to 40 bucks a month per unit
in rent. Um, so that's your that that's
the trade-off. Um, they do have
aesthetic benefits. I mean, beauty is in
the eye of the holder clearly, but I
mean many some will argue they have
that. And is it worth that cost? So, we
have we we we can peg this somewhere as
to what this would cost versus cities
such as like both that does not have any
stepback requirements at all. Um, I
would argue Buffalo is not a concrete
jungle, but I I I don't know how to
quantify units of jungleness, so I don't
want to go down that rabbit hole, per
se. So, um, that's the I think that
those are the the sets of comments I
had.
>> Council Rick,
>> uh, just a comment to, uh, Council
President Marts. Uh, Newcastle Commons
looks to be five stories, so it would
still fit in these exa existing stepback
requirements that we have here, uh, and
still look the same. So, uh, just to my
pros step back step set step back uh
case. Um, as for I I think I'm still
confused. Like I said, these are
specific requirements. I am okay with
them. Um, you know, they add some
flexibility and and and um, you know, to
the code and don't, you know, uh,
jeopardize too much. So, I'm okay with
these as is. And so now, but it seems
like we're falling into this broader
conversation of
what it's like I'm unsure, like I said,
if we approve these, how the future
conversation goes and if we're talking
about this menu, are we creating more
confusion? And so I'm uncertain whether
to vote for this because I think it's
okay as is, but then we're going to be
changing things again later or not. And
so I'm getting a little confused in
terms of where this discussion is going
and what this vote will represent in
terms of the long-term consequences
and
whether this should all be reconsidered
and have a more cohesive package or not.
Um is where I am. You know, like I don't
necessarily need more options
specifically on stepbacks. It's more
like do we do are we going to be working
on each of these one by one like this or
is it that we're trying to get to some
sort of cumulative larger plan? And so
that's where I'm kind of concerned in
terms of how to vote now of whether
we're locking into some really peacemeal
way or if we should be just pausing to
consider it as a more comprehensive plan
or not.
>> And I think before I go to council
member Walsh, I mean I think the we have
17 items I mean this is a long list of
items that you know we're putting
community planning development to come
up with improvements on. So I think our
challenge is every one of those 17 items
you're basically going to say status quo
which is fairly rigid and has aqua
progress that makes it easier to build
because you providing additional
flexibility and choices and then there's
always going to be the full monty choice
which is just saying we're not
regulating this field whatsoever. And
you're going to have that choice
basically on all 17 of these projects.
And I hope people realize like the
committees are going to have that
choice. Like so committees can always
say I want to see the full I want to see
the like removal entirely of any
regulations in the space. And so I think
in every all 17 of these I think uh
that is just going to be in front. And
so but this conversation is never going
to get easier on all 17 of these. I mean
because right now these are the two that
we I think our assessment was were the
lowest hanging of fruit that the fruit
gets higher up the tree as as we go
further down this list and I think as
council member Nichols said when we get
into creating a point system for design
standards and there's going to be
arguments do you need 10 points or 15
points and and how much is open space
worth is it worth one point or three
points like it's going to be an endless
stream of permutations and so it's only
going to get harder and I think that's
just where we're at right now and this
council is going to have to decide I
like I think first off tonight there's
always a choice to divide the question
cuz you have full agreement it sounds
like in the council on the open space
amenities and then I think you're going
to have to decide cuz there's going to
be members of the council that are
comfortable removing all the regulations
and there's going to be members of the
council that want to remove all the
regulations and I think it's just going
to be this is the first of many of these
to come which I I think is going to be
our challenge is we're trying to get
through this but if we want to do it in
a efficient timely manner we're also
going to have to make some difficult
votes where we may not have unanimous
consensus because there's a reason these
things haven't changed is they're not
easy to change. Council member Walsh.
>> Yeah. And I think that's a great way to
frame this conversation. Um, I think
what I would also say is I'm hearing
from several council members tonight
that we need to make sure that the staff
information and that the um council
committees are treating this with the
urgency that it deserves. And so I will
take that as really good feedback and
something that we can look at. I think
this is the first piece out of the gate
and from my perspective I'm comfortable
moving forward with this as as I would
say an interim adjustment as we kind of
look at this larger picture of what are
the most important biggest levers that
we can do. How do we pull something
together that meets our community needs?
And then also just saying this as an
adjustment will allow any building under
the five stories to not have a um step
back. And so that clears a lot of
hurdles for what I would say are
probably the largest set of um
apartments and condos that we would see
um in the next year or so. So I think
this moves us substantially in the
direction that we want to go. I think it
also gives us the larger council sense
of urgency as we look at some of the
bigger areas that um potentially move
forward. So that would be my approach,
but I would love to hear from any other
council members.
Council member Joe.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um,
I think that uh we should go forward
with both the motions this evening. Um,
giving some progress or showing some
progress on
uh the stepbacks
will be important to the development
community. they know
uh that if it's under five, they don't
have to worry about that particular
item.
We're not building a lot of
apartments or buildings over five in
Isiqua that are residential right now,
but if we set a rule right now for five
and below as the committee chair is
suggesting,
um I think it does give the development
community
uh a green light to know that those are
the rules for now. They can put their
plans in. they can get vested under
those rules and go forward if they have
a project that's appropriate. Um,
we need to I I I will commend the mayor
for making great progress with uh the
issue of housing and uh making Isiqua
known as a city that is uh more open to
considering options for housing and
considering new projects for housing.
That's uh a a piece of feedback that I
hear when I'm out in the community. I
think that approving these amendments
tonight uh furthers that message and
also emphasizes that we are trying to
make progress on these things. If we
don't approve the the amendments
tonight,
uh it may be another year before we're
going to get to back to them. If we
approve them tonight, we send the
development community a message that
these are the projects that you can that
we can approve without the stepbacks.
Um, if you have something that you think
you want to get put through and get
vested, go ahead and do it. I think it's
the right message to send during this
housing
uh supply challenge that we're having.
Um, also in addition to that, we're also
seeing that housing
um,
inventories are rising both for new
housing and for uh, existing homes. Uh,
a number of builders have inventory
that's sitting on their books that they
can't necessarily get rid of and sell.
Um, some are taking losses on their
projects, etc. That's just a short way
of saying we need to continue to show as
a council that we are making progress on
rules that are going to help uh other
projects come in uh that make sense and
I think both these amendments, both
these proposals tonight do that. Thank
you.
>> Okay. Uh oh, Deputy President Jane.
>> Yeah, I think I will also be voting yes
tonight. I think to council member Joe's
point, I think saying we're voting no
because this doesn't go far enough is a
bit at least to me strange when we
should, you know, in my opinion it shows
some progress and that's something we
can point to as you know we're making
progress in making it easier and more
cost effective to build an ISQA. We can
always revisit stepbacks. we could even,
you know, put it on for Q3 to say should
should we do another amendment to
completely, you know, abolish stepback
requirements in the city of Isiqua. I
just like given that there's so many
other things on the list and like
anytime, you know, we have to spend
months going through PPC, PTE, etc.
At least
my preference is for us to kind of put
this one to bed for now and keep moving
forward with some of our other, you
know, items that are further like later
in the timeline, including those that
may be more substantive, such as the
paved buffer redevelopment thing.
Is there a boy?
>> I plan on voting yes because I don't
want this to be a case of the perfect
getting in the way of the good. I
suppose
>> her boy gets a brevity award. Council
President Martz.
>> So the hour is late and I want to make
sure that my comments are not
misconstrued as more grumpy because
they're not intended to be grumpy. Um,
one of the reasons that I am voting no
is I think that there has been a pattern
for a long time. I'm not going to say
it's it's this mayor or or this city
administrator. Uh, I think there's there
has been, especially with code, um, I
have a sense sometimes that the
administration
um doesn't always send us the breadth of
consideration that we would like. And so
one of the reasons I'm going to be
voting no tonight is in the future
because this is clearly going to pass. I
I can I understand how these things
work. Um but I I really want to see the
full range in the future. Um I really
when this when this council says we want
to see the full range of possibilities,
we want to see the full range of
possibilities. We don't want to see a
subset. I again I'm I'm not not trying
to be grumpy. Um I'm just setting a
standard for going f for the future. I
think council member Nichols is really
right that we want to see the full knob
and you can say like don't do zero
setbacks because you'll create bricks or
whatever, but I I think we want to
consider those and and so I want to see
it in the future and so that's part of
what my no vote's going to be tonight.
Thank you.
>> Okay. Uh see no further discussion. The
motion for the council, which I will
reread since it's been an hour, adopt
ordinance number 3143, amending chapters
18.60008.602
and 18.72 of the Isco Municipal Code to
allow flexibility for upper level
stepbacks and adopt ordinance 3144
amending chapter 18.608 608 community
amenity spaces disclosive code to reduce
the amount of required open amenity
space and multifamily
residential developments. All those in
favor please say I
>> I.
>> All those opposed, no.
>> No.
>> Nope.
>> That's council president Martz and
council member Nichols voting no. That
passes five to two and that will take us
to committee reports. Council member
Boy.
I uh as of last week have been appointed
to the PSRC Transportation Policy Board.
Uh my first meeting for that will be
9:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 9th. I think
I have that date right. Then I'll have a
report.
>> I know that was your first report,
right? That's good. Council member,
>> uh I have three reports. Uh uh on June
18th was the first meeting of the sound
city's equity and inclusion cabinet,
which I was recently uh appointed to. Uh
it was just an introductory meeting to
kind of get to know all the members. We
tal started talking about what we wanted
to do. This cabinet hadn't been around
and so it's kind of newly formed. So
just kind of getting an idea of what a
work plan might look like. Uh we mostly
ended up discussing you know how each of
our cities have handled different
immigration issues and are kind of
looking to collect our experiences and
resources into like a you know uh
collective list so that we can all
discuss and kind of coordinate ideas uh
there. But so that is you know just
getting going and more more to come as
we meet. Um I had June 24th I had the uh
Kakani ILA management uh meeting. It was
just really talking about the draft of
the 2027 budget which does not have very
much of a increase. So nice and small
there. Um and some updates to voting
procedures for uh if there's like an
emergency and they need to get the
management community together quickly.
Uh and then finally just uh earlier
today was my uh the second meeting for
the East Side Fire Finance and
Administrative administration committee.
Uh so continued budget discussions there
on drafting that. Uh this was really
more detail on the operating expenses.
Um as well as diving in because we
didn't do it in the first meeting about
equipment and apparatus and capital
facilities maintenance. Uh so this is
still more of the detail and the
requests on their side and still big
numbers. But the next meeting will
likely be where we start to really push
back uh and get to what will be a
hopefully uh more uh achievable budget.
Uh and the next meeting for that is July
21st. Uh and that concludes my reports
for today.
>> Yman's work you're doing on that
committee. Uh Council Member Nichols.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have no reports.
>> Council member Walsh.
>> Thank you. I just have a list of
meetings coming up. Uh, planning,
development, environments next meeting
is July 7th. East Side Fire and Rescue
meets next Thursday on July 9th. Agenda
hasn't yet been adopted. Um, a regional
coalition for housing committee of
electeds. Next meeting is July 23rd.
Again, no uh agenda. And King County
affordable housing committee next meets
on July 9th, but it overlaps with aside
Fire and Rescue, so I will miss it. And
that concludes my report.
>> Council member Joe,
>> thank you. The mobility and
infrastructure committee is scheduled to
meet July 14th. Currently, there are no
items uh on the work plan. However,
Director Moon may have a wash uh issue
that may come on the agenda. So, it may
be cancelled. Uh committee members,
please uh watch your emails for that. Uh
Cascade Water Alliance had a board
meeting on the 24th uh that I attended.
The main item was a budget discussion.
Uh water rates are scheduled to rise uh
by about 12.8% for 2027 for Isiqua. Um
the uh
budget is still being formed, but just
wanted to let people know that is in the
future potentially. Also, the Cascade
Supply program uh was discussed. It was
uh asked that uh there be some further
work done on that. It is the the
committee that's going to be overlooking
the 30 mile transportation line that
Cascade Water Alliance is building from
Tacoma to bring water from Tacoma up to
our system. It's a multi-billion dollar
project. We want to make sure the
oversight is correct for that and uh the
board wanted more work completed before
that process for oversight is approved.
It'll probably come back in September.
Uh the
uh Eltech committee will be meeting on
July 28th. We we will be reviewing and
evaluating the new requests for the
second round of funding. $100,000 has
been opened up for new items in the
second shoulder season to support visits
from over 50 mi away and overnight
stays. That concludes my report. Thank
you,
>> Deputy President Shen.
>> Great. I have one report. Um, so the
King County Regional Homelessness
Authority Governing Board met last
Friday, June 26th. We received an update
on KCRA's corrective action plan, which
is the plan that they adopted in
response to their forensic investigation
findings.
Um, and then we also received a briefing
on the point in time count, which has
been in the news recently. So the
topline funding topline fund findings
from that are that overall homelessness
uh between 2024 and 26 went up by 9% and
unsheltered homelessness really went up
by about 21%. And that's actually driven
in part by the fact that the number of
shelter beds in King County decreased
between 2024 to 26 by several hundred. A
lot of this was actually due to one
specific uh uh shelter closing. It was
operated by Mary's Place. It was a
planned redevelopment where they're
actually now redeveloping it into
affordable housing with more units. Um,
but Mary's Place wanted to move into
different building but could not find a
suitable location so they had to close
it. And so, you know, I think one of the
things that this really goes to show is
Seattle really Seattle and King County
really are an outlier in the country in
terms of having such a high proportion
of unsheltered homelessness. And so
figuring out, you know, how can we have
more shelters and transitional housing
available for folks in our community?
Um, including, you know, some like
there's some amount in other
communities. There's none in Isiqua
right now. And so thinking about how we
can, you know, assist with that regional
effort. Um, the other thing to note is
that the point in time count is
conducted at the county level, but it
doesn't have a breakdown on a regional
or city level. I actually back when they
did it in January volunteered at the
site um here in Isiqua um which is uh
you know colllocated with the meals
program. So you know there is a very
significant need not just in King County
as a whole but in Isqua specifically
looks very different in different
communities and so you know we I think
we at least speaking for myself I feel
that we have a responsibility to um do
what we can to help you know address
this regional crisis. So, um, and one,
uh, meeting to report. So, the East Side
Transportation Partnership, our next
meeting is on July 10th, Friday, July
10th. And I think the next uh King
County Regional Homelessness Authority
governing board meeting is Friday, July
24th at 10 a.m. And then we also have a
King County Flood Control District
Advisory Committee meeting uh that same
day, July 24th, at uh 1:30 p.m. The the
Flood Control District Advisory
Committee meeting for June was canceled
because a lot of people were traveling
back from the AWC conference in Spokane
during our normal meeting time. That
concludes my report. Council President
Marts,
>> two things, one sort of boring one a lot
more interesting. Uh, Sound Cities
Association board of directors met on
Wednesday, June 17th at Renton City
Hall. The only thing we did um that
really matters is we appointed council
member Boyd to the as the SEA alternate
to PSRC transportation policy board as
she's already mentioned. Uh, however,
the interesting is upcoming SCA pick
meeting Wednesday July 8th is actually
going to be at the Kirkland Justice
Center. Um, and there is a pre-pick
meeting that is open to all PIC members
and it's going to be a corrections
crisis care center virtual tour. So
although we're going to be there, it
says staff from Connections Crisis
Response Center provide a virtual tour
and Q&A of the Connections Kirkland
facility. Again, that's open to
everybody. um you would then not be
invited to join us for the PIC meeting
that occurs immediately thereafter. But
um this seems like a particularly
interesting um topic. So then at the PIC
meeting that will occur starting at 7
p.m. in the same location, we're going
to take action on the 2027 solid waste
rate letter that promises to be spicy.
Um we're going to have a discussion on
affordable housing levy part two. Uh
we're going to have discussion on the
mid implementation plan. This is the
mental illness drug dependency sales
tax. Um, and uh, and its implementation.
Uh, so it should be an action-packed
pick meeting and I will report back on
that afterwards. This concludes my
report.
>> Oh, and I'm sorry. Well, sorry, Mr.
Mayor. One last thing. Anybody who wants
to car I guess, well, you carpool with
me, but then you wouldn't be staying for
the PIC meeting.
>> You could stay for the PIC meeting. You
would just have to sit in the back of
the room quietly and say nothing. So
anyhow, if anybody wants to come for the
connections crisis care center and karp
with me, you'd be welcome. Thank you.
Yeah,
>> deputy president Jang and I toured that
crisis care center in person earlier
this year. Okay, mayor's report down on
Fourth of July. This is the week. We've
been talking about this event for a long
time. It starts Thursday with the Chalk
Art Festival. That's noon to 4 here at
the community center. It's live music,
lots of entertainment. That is followed
by Friday. Bring your wagons to the
senior center 3 to 7. You can decorate a
wagon. Then you can let it park and hang
out at the senior center overnight. So
you don't have to worry about taking
your wagon back and forth. The more
creative the wagon design, the better.
And that brings you then to Saturday,
the 4th of July. So the farmers market
moves to Memorial Field. So, the farmers
market will launch as normal time at
9:00 a.m. On the 4th, we will then at
10:00 a.m. have uh the parade will
start. And so, I know there's a lot of
cool stuff in the parade. It's uh I was
getting a rundown from Lindsay Marsh on
the parade items. There's going to be
horses, going to be marching bands,
there's going to be clowns and and a lot
of cool decorated wagons. And so,
that'll be at 10:00 a.m. on on the 4th.
That's you can do your wagons, bring
your pets, and then that evening, there
will be fireworks on the on Lake
Smamish. So, people can go watch the
fireworks Lake Smash. I think that will
go off roughly at 10:00. And the
following Tuesday, July 7th, is the
first Kuanas concerts on the green and a
prom date mixtape. I suggest you bring
the disco gliders. They're good. It's a
especially if you like 80s music. So,
I've seen them before at Manolia
Summerfest and I think it's an excellent
way to launch the Concerts on the Green
series. That'll be Tuesday at the
community center at 7 July 7th. And with
that, we are now at good of the order.
Good of the order. Not saying good of
the order. Uh, our next meetings are
Monday, July 13th committee. The whole
Oh, emergency management training right
here. I heard it's going to be crazy
stuff. I heard you're all going to
gather around a table and be put through
emergency management training exercises.
Uh council members safety training as
well. Uh the IT staff will be offering
an optional help session uh at 5:30 p.m.
on July 13th if you have any tech issues
with your devices. Uh Monday, July 20th
will be our council meeting for this
meeting normally would have happened
July 6th. The last World Cup game is
July 6th, so we actually did it on June
29th. So, our next city council meeting
will not be until the 20th. We will then
have I think uh Dale Marky Crimp will
give you options on proposed automated
license plate reader camera use
policies. Uh I think just in full
transparency, I think the options will
be presented in July, but I think the
focus is going to be on getting the
budget adopted this year. So, I think
you're going to have plenty of time to
think on those options because I don't
think we're probably going to dive into
which options go down until the first
quarter of next year. Uh, street
standards, frontage improvements for
public utility projects will be
addressed. Park bond renewal pro and con
committee appointments will be made
along with the climate plan action
update. And there is no executive
session tonight. And yes, I completely
lost the prediction of when this meeting
would end by a whopping 40 minutes cuz
it is now 10:37. We are journed.