looking for a magic lighty,
we are ready when you are.
Aha.
Welcome everyone. We're going to call
the April 7th special city council
meeting to order. The purpose of meeting
your presentations for the applicants to
the city council vacancy. Uh the first
item on the agenda is public comment. a
lot of times we do not get a lot of
public comment at these meetings. But
madam clerk, is there anyone signed up
for public comment?
>> I don't believe so.
>> I don't see anybody. I'm assuming I
don't see anyone in the room who looks
like they want public comment. If there
is anyone online or on the phone who
wants public comment,
audience comments are now closed. Uh so
we will now go to the city council
vacancy agenda bill 9171.
City council currently has vacancy in
position number three. The position was
held by council member Barb D. Michelle
resigned due to health reasons. The city
council has 90 days from March 2nd to
make an appointment to the vacancy. The
city received well eight applications
fill the vacancy or nine applications,
one withdrew. So the city council will
hear presentations remaining eight
applicants this evening. After the
presentations occur, the city council
will go into an executive session which
is a closed session where they can
discuss the qualifications of the
applicants. After the closed session,
we'll reopen the public meeting. the
city council's expectation to to move
some of the applicants forward to the
next round of interviews which will be
April 20th. I think the rough goal is
try to narrow it down to to two or three
finalists and the presentations you will
have 5 to 7 minutes. You don't have to
use that entire time. Uh there I'm not
saying there's brevity bonus points but
I'm just saying it's not a requirement
to use whole time. And when your name is
called, please come to the lect turn and
turn on the microphone and we will start
the timer. Now the list of how people
present is completely random and Landon
you are number one.
Thank you members of council. Thank you
uh Mayor Mullet uh thank you for for
holding this forum tonight for and for
giving us the opportunity uh to present
and share uh why we believe uh we should
be on the Isiqua City Council. Uh I am
seeking appointment to the Isiqua City
Council because I care deeply about this
community. I care deeply about its
residents and I care deeply about its
future and I want to be a part of the
conversations that impact all of us. By
day I'm a regional account manager with
a group called Lehi. Uh we're a
subsidiary of Rocky Brands. Uh we
specialize in safety footwear,
prescription eyewear, and managed PPE
solutions. Uh in my job, I'm working
with safety managers, safety engineers,
uh and others all day, helping them to
streamline their programs, helping them
to identify efficiency gaps, uh
potential cost savings, all while
ensuring they're still uh maintaining
OSHA's regulatory framework. Uh so I
think that these skills are transferable
to council um both from finding
efficiency gaps uh to maintaining
general um regulatory structure. Um in
terms of the city, my commitment runs
steep. Over the past several years, I've
had the opportunity to serve in a
variety of capacities. Uh I've served as
a volunteer in multiple organizations
across our city, including the Isqua
Food Bank, the Isqua Downtown
Association, and other groups. I've had
the opportunity to be part of boards and
commissions such as the Isqua Economic
Vitality Commission, an experience I'm
very thankful for. Uh, and I've even had
the opportunity to run for uh, council
myself. I did these uh, experiences or
had these experiences because I care
deeply uh, about the future of our city
and again want to be part of the
conversations that impact all of us.
uh it in also now uh in regards to what
I am doing currently uh I am a member of
the isqua philill harmonic orchestra uh
I have play the violin I consider it an
absolute blessing to be able to make
music in our community every week but
more than that I am thankful uh that
we're able to offer full symphony length
concerts uh to folks throughout the year
a lot of work to learn that amount of
music and continue to turn it out for
folks uh but it's something we do uh and
have a lot of fun doing it uh I'm also
part of a group called Livable Isiziqua
we advocate for policies regarding
walkability, multimodal infrastructure,
uh, and other things like that. U, we we
advocate for broad policies, but we've
also undertaken specific goals. One of
the things that I'm working on currently
in conjunction with a few other folks,
uh, in the city is potentially
establishing a bike valet for salmon
days. Uh, that's something that we've
been talking about now for about a month
uh, and are working on that. And we've
also had discussions about how we can
get the isquatroly back up and going.
Uh, so we have exciting conversations.
And again, these are just a few of the
ways that I I'm working to stay involved
uh and uh maintain an active role in the
city. So, now on to policy. Two issues
that routinely come up when I talk with
members of council as well as members of
the community are housing and transit.
I'm in full alignment with uh the city's
recent stated goals in regards to
housing, transit, uh and mobility. I
believe we need to increase our housing
stock uh of all kinds um and uh want to
ensure that we are focused on transit
oriented development. Um last year I had
the uh opportunity to tour uh the
together center uh with former council
council member D Michelle uh and see
that as sort of a a template for what we
could potentially do here. It is of
course aspirational um but I think we're
at the stages with transit oriented
development where that aspiration is
good where that's positive. Uh and I
definitely would support transit
oriented development here. Uh I'm also
in agreement with the city's uh strategy
on light rail planning. I do believe
it's important uh that light rail come
to our city. Um, part of that advocacy
is showing up uh to sound transit
meetings, but more than that uh it's
advocating for specific things um
advocating for specific policies that
makes it easier for light rail to come
to isqua. I support um recently proposed
ideas like self-p permitting uh for
Sound Transit. I support the creation um
of a tax increment financing district um
so that the project has legs to stand on
from the very moment it gets started.
Um, these are things that that I know
current uh members of council uh and the
administration are working on and
they're things that I would support as
well. Uh, another area of focus that is
important to me is public safety. Uh, I
feel that public safety is critical uh
to our residents. Um, luckily uh crime
has been decreasing since uh the end of
2022, beginning of 2023 in part because
of things that are beyond the city's
control, but also in no small part uh
because of the hard work uh of our
police department and our human services
department. um as well as council's
efforts uh to curb retail theft. Uh I
believe uh that we should continue to
prioritize public safety. We do that by
continuing to invest in our police, but
I also believe that we need to take a
multi-pronged approach that continues to
make meaningful investment in human
services, in crisis response. Uh this is
good for everybody involved. Uh and I
support this approach to policing. Uh
two other issues that I am passionate
about. Uh as I mentioned, I'm part of
the isquael harmonic orchestra and being
a liaison for arts and culture is
something that I would really like to
undertake. I believe we have access to
immense cultural capital uh in our city
in regards to the people who live here,
the people who choose to be here. Uh and
I believe that we have more of an
opportunity uh to connect with those
people. I would want to be active in
connecting uh local creatives, our arts
commissions, um local nonprofits and
others in figuring out ways that we can
really um in reinvigorate u more arts
and culture here in Isakqua. I think
that we have a lot of untapped
potential. Uh another thing that is
really important to me that I am
passionate about that I would hope to
serve um our community with on city
council is my commitment to youth. Uh I
as a former educator, I care really
deeply about our young people, uh our
middle school and high school students,
um and ensuring that they have
opportunities to get involved in the
city that they live in. Um one, I think
it's irresponsible to have conversations
about our city's future without
including the people who are are set to
experience the most of that future.
That's our young people. uh but also I
think it is so important for them as
residents of our city to feel heard to
be seen uh for their development um to
know that they play an active role in
our city. So things like connecting DECA
students you know marketing and
accounting uh or uh marketing and
advertising students with local
businesses. We know from business
surveys that the city has done that
advertising and marketing help is
something that our local small
businesses need. uh DECA students are
required to do 20 to 30 page papers some
of them uh that detail their work uh in
case-like studies. This would be a
perfect opportunity to connect them. Uh
so I'm excited to potentially introduce
those new ideas. Uh we'll continuing to
talk about the things that we've been
focused on um or that I have been
focused on in my involvement uh with the
city and and that is housing uh public
safety and transit. Thank you all. I
appreciate it.
>> Excellent. Thank you very much.
Next, we're going to call America. You
guys obviously have the list since
people are getting up before I even
call. So, I like the fact that
Can you all hear me? Great. Council
members, Mayor Mullet, city staff, and
my neighbors. For those of you who don't
know me, but hopefully most of you do.
My name is Erica Boyd, and I believe
with my whole heart that moving to
Isiqua has fundamentally changed my life
for the better. No matter how they ended
up here, whether born or raised or moved
in here like me, I want every resident
of this town to feel the same way. When
I moved here in March of 2020, as the
world plunged into social distancing, it
was the beauty of this town and the
warmth of his people that kept me going.
Back in those tenuous days, despite
keeping six feet apart, I was struck by
the neighborliness that surpassed
distance, and I knew I'd found something
special. When my family comes to visit
me, they remarked the same thing.
Speaking of my family, I was born to a
19-year-old single mother, and I grew up
in a small farm town near the Canadian
border. My mom's resilience and not
letting her circumstances derail derail
the pursuit of her dreams of becoming a
police officer, the first woman in my
hometown to do so, inspires me to this
day. I would not be at this podium
without her raising me to believe that
dreams and better situations are worth
fighting for. For me, this meant being
the first person in my immediate
biological family to get both a
bachelor's degree and a masterers of
public administration. Before I got
there though, I worked as a barista, a
childare worker, an Americanore
volunteer,
and a decade of summers as a farm
worker. My experience in the service,
child care, and agricultural industries
along with my Americanore experience
reinforced my mom's lesson that better
circumstances are worth fighting for.
Witnessing the stories of those I worked
alongside grew my passion for looking
out for all within my community. I asked
myself, how could I have the most amount
of impact? helping the greatest amount
of people. Fast forward a few years, I
currently serve as a senior legislative
assistant to one of our local fifth
legislative district representatives,
Lisa Ken, on a district team known
amongst our work group and my
supervisors as one of the most
effective, dedicated, and collaborative
staff teams. My job has given me a
unique insight into what can help make
the best policy. strong engagement with
policy partners, a good grasp of what
the problem is that's being solved,
measurable goals, and targeted
communication throughout the process,
especially after decisions are made.
This there is an incredible feeling of
lift that comes when all are working
towards a common goal. This is
particularly true in the realm of human
services, youth, and behavioral health.
These have become familiar policy areas
for me. I worked in direct services
during my Americanore stint, case
managing low-income students at risk of
disengaging from school.
In my legislative roles, that has meant
connecting constituents to a state
agency or local services to access
resources. There is no better
satisfaction in my job than finding
someone help that looks and feels like
help to them. Sometimes this is on an
individual scale, like helping break
down barriers to accessing unemployment
insurance while they're searching for
work.
Sometimes it's on a wider scale, like
helping secure Washington's first
systemwide youth behavioral health
strategic plan. Greater change and
improvements are made when networks are
formed and all involved are rowing in
the same direction. As more safety nets
are dismantled due to policy decisions
at the federal level, it is my northstar
that Isiqua feels like the safest and
the most reliable of government for all
of our residents. As highlighted by
Isiqua's human services strategic plan,
there are gaps and great needs to fill.
There are also pockets of brilliance
within the city that do so much good for
our residents. As our city grows and we
increase housing, my goal is to maintain
equitable access to our current current
services with the flexibility to expand
to align with the level of need. This
includes ensuring that there are trusted
human service partners that get to call
the Isiqua Transit oriented development
project home. Speaking of our residents,
I want us to add more of them,
especially those that want to live here,
but they can't afford to. I think we can
do this by continuing to build
efficiencies in our city code to make
our wonderful town an attractive place
to develop multif family housing. Not
just any multif family housing, but
homes that serve to connect neighbors
rather than silo them, and homes to
showcase the vibrancy of what this city
can truly be. I am all in on the goal of
increasing housing stock in the central
Isaka regional center as soon as we can
but without sacrificing design that
connects neighbors with neighbors like
shared courtyards or plazas and parks.
The importance of parks as shared spaces
has been on my mind as I moved from
renting in the highlands where I had
great access to parks, open space and
trails to owning a town home in North
Isiqua. In my neighborhood, I believe
we're missing a vital space like a
shared park. And with the current parks
levy expiring, I'd support a new levy
that includes community informed parks
and green amenities in all corners of
this town. In my tenure on the
transportation advisory board or the
TAB, we've used the guiding principles
of the mobility action plan to encourage
the prioritization of bicycle and
pedestrian infrastructure and safety,
the reduction of congestion, and
projects that better connect Isiqua to
itself and the greater region. This
includes light rail planning, something
I believe is key to Isiqua's connected
future. I had the privilege of attending
the opening of the Cross Lake
Connection. Experiencing the delight and
being able to be a gorgeous train ride
away from amenities and employment has
gotten me even more hooked on transit
than I was. I want people to feel the
exact same way when they take our future
light rail line into our shining
businesses and our amenity gems. It has
been heartening to see Isiqua, including
members of the TAB, advocate to keep our
light rail station on track while
offering partnership and collaboration
to do so.
Whether selected for this vacancy or
not, I'm eager to further support these
efforts. Hopefully, long after I have
passed on, this town will remain. Should
I be chosen to fill this vacancy, my
hope is not that my name or my time on
council be remembered. My hope is that
the decisions made as a council
positively ripple out to support the
generations of future Isiquans that will
walk our trails, use these crosswalks,
catch the light rail that's just a block
down from their home.
enjoy their neighborhood park or local
public art place,
sip their coffee from the small business
just around the corner, and delight in
the return of the salmon year after
year. I'm humbled to be considered for
this opportunity to make lifelong
impact. Thank you so much for taking the
time to listen to me.
>> Excellent. Thank you very much, Erica.
Okay, next we're going to Quan.
Do I need to press this or Okay.
Um, good evening, council members, Mayor
Mullet, city staff. Thank you so much
for the opportunity to speak today. Um,
my name is Wlab Palmer, but I go by Quan
Palmer. Um, I've lived in Isiqua for
over six years with my husband, Aaron,
and my little fur child named Donut. Um,
I'm really excited to be here today
because um I care deeply about this
amazing community just like everybody
else who's in the room today and I want
to help ensure that our city grows in um
grows it does so that it's equitable,
thoughtful and sustainable and safe for
everybody. Um I approached this work in
two lenses. One is being human first. Um
grounded in transparency, empathy and
humility. Um the second one is lens
grounded in data lived experiences by
the community and um especially
community input. Um I currently work for
our beloved village theater um as the
human resources manager. So if you
haven't seen Greece yet, please check it
out.
Um so a little bit about me my
background. Um I bring a decade of
experience in human resources. I've
worked at tech, utilities, local
government, and currently a nonprofit.
Um, my work focuses a lot on employee
and labor relations, budgeting,
workforce planning, safety. Um, I
regularly have to balance competing
priorities and make data informed
decisions. Um, and really trying to push
it with being fair and consistent.
Um, throughout my career, I've built it
with partnering with leadership to
navigate complex issues sometimes,
especially in unforeseen circumstances.
um uh being able to navigate the
challenging environments uh facilitate
really difficult conversations and bring
people together to reach a practical
thoughtful outcome together. Um I've
also had the unique opportunity to seen
local government in um different
perspectives. Uh I spent the majority of
my career in local government in HR. Um,
and then I'm now on the city's equity
board and I am now um going and hoping
to serve as a city council.
Through my work on the equity board,
I've helped uh I led efforts to review
the city's equity framework through an
equity lens uh which is still in
progress. Um I'm also um you know I
think staying engaged in the community
is really important. Um, I participated
most recently in the cultural festival
where I helped introduce a conversation
with um, internal equity versus
equality. Um, and I am also a mentor at
the Gibson EK High School as well. Um,
living and working directly in Isiqua, I
think, um, I have a lot of firsthand
experience with kind of the mobility,
the environmental sustainability and
economic vitality um, piece where I
think it is deeply connected together.
Um, I know that the strategic plan, we
have subcategories about that, but I
think that they're all intertwined
somehow. Um, you know, how people move
through the city, including both
residents who leave to go to neighboring
cities to work. Um, and also those who
commute into Isiqua. Um, this really
shapes our access. It shapes the jobs
that we have. It shapes the services and
overall the quality of life here.
Um, at the same time, community safety
is foundational to all of this. I think
that people should feel where they they
should feel safe where they live, where
they work, where they go together as
friends. Um, and that safety should
reflect the needs of the entire
community. As the city continues to
grow, maintaining that balance requires
thoughtful long-term planning aligned
with city's strategic plan and the
community survey that we already
currently do. Just as important,
ensuring people feel sense um feel a
sense of belonging. While our community
and Isqua is vastly diverse that the
diversity is not always reflected across
all spaces and especially in decision-m
um expanding the representation and
bringing forward a broader range of
perspectives help ensure decisions
better reflect the full community of
Isqua. Um, affordable housing is also a
key part of that, ensuring people can
continue to live, stay, thrive, and
especially as the city evolves.
Um, if I'm selected to, uh, fill this
vacancy, I will carry the two lens in
this role. Um, you know, I will lead
with human first approach grounded in
empathy, humility, and ensure
transparency uh by communicating the
reasoning behind decisions whenever
possible. Um, at the same time, I will
rely on data. I will rely on community
input, long-term thinking, and aligning
with the city's strategic plan as well.
I also bring an understanding that
cities operate with limited resources um
through my own personal experience
working in local government. And so I
think that um thoughtful resource
allocation is really important. Um, so I
would approach the budgeting by pri
prioritizing what is needed, what is
absolutely mandatory and not what is
wanted um to guide that. And I also
recognize that each council member
brings different strengths and I will
bring mine as an asset to the city while
working um collaboratively.
This is also a pivotal moment um to
ensure underrepresented voices are at
the table and I'm here and ready to help
create that change. Um, I am committed
to serving with honesty, transparency,
and accountability, and um to helping
foster a community where people feel
represented, supported, and a true sense
a true sense of belonging. So, I would
be honored to serve and contribute to
the city that continues to to grow in a
way that is inclusive, sustainable,
responsive, and safe for all residents.
Um, thank you for your time and
consideration.
>> That was excellent. Thank you very much,
Guan. Uh, next we have Donovan.
Hello.
Thank you so much, council members,
mayor, my colleagues here who are here
today. It's just been an honor to even
go through this process. Just thankful
that I have the time to chat here and
and just go through this. So, quickly
just want to say hello. Say my name is
Donovan Richards. Uh I've been living in
Isiqua for about 10 years with my wife
and two kids. We live up in the
highlands. Um, I'm here today because I
care about community. I really want to
serve in whatever way I can. Um, and my
why is really based around this concept
of how important it is to have the
ability to work and live in Isiqua and
whatever we can do to make that the case
for anyone who chooses to call this
place home. Uh, so I want to give you a
little bit of a story to understand why
my why is that why. Um, I have a friend
who is looking to buy a house and settle
down uh with his partner and two kids.
Um, even though he's in a dual inome
household, his salary alone puts him
above the King County medium income. I
suggested he opted to Isiqua. He loves
to hike. Um, he plays viola, so he'd
probably want to be a part of the
orchestra. Um, his wife also plays uh in
orchestra as well. I think they'd be an
incredible addition to the community.
Um, but when I suggested he moves to
Isqua, the response was, unfortunately,
homes were too expensive. There's no way
that he'd be able to
make the move. Um, honestly, my friend
doesn't carry much debt. He doesn't max
out his credit cards every month or to
live beyond his means. And the thought
here is that if a family that's above
the median income is unable to make
Isqua home, how many people are kept out
of this community? How many incredibly
talented individuals are we losing? Uh
people who would have contributed to
seeing this place flourish. So the
decisions we make on housing are one of
the biggest questions we face when we
look into Isiqua's future. Um but
housing is really just a surface to the
deeper question. What kind of community
do we want to be and who gets to belong
in it? And my belief and experience
drive me to to try to find this answer.
And that's what I want to talk about in
the next few minutes here is is what I
bring to the table recognizing that I'm
a bit of a newcomer to these sort of
conversations. First off, I believe in a
fundamental way that humans uh are not
built merely to survive, but to thrive.
And I believe a community's deepest
purpose is to create the conditions
where that flourishing is possible for
everyone, not just those who got here
early or those with the most resources
or those who already know where to look
to find that help. That conviction has
led me to what I'm doing right now,
which is uh co-founding a nonprofit
called Culture and Service. We're just
in the pilot stages with it right now.
Um but we're planning to la land launch
it locally. Um, and it exists for
professionals in transition, people who
have lost not just a paycheck, uh, but
the daily rhythm of contribution, uh,
the community of colleagues that you
have with the job, the feeling that you
have something to give. Uh, we're
building this fellowship model that
pairs people with local businesses to do
meaningful work. Uh, while rebuilding
that internal resilience that career
transitions can quietly strip away. Uh
and the idea here too is that if you can
keep people locally, local people
helping local businesses, you know, from
a transportation perspective, maybe that
takes one extra car off the road as we
bring people and connect them to those
uh local businesses. Um and honestly, we
believe that purposeful work is not a
luxury. It's a human need and building a
great community helps its people stay
connected to that great community. Uh on
the professional side, I bring a lot of
practical experience over the past
decade. I've worked as a program
manager, strategic consultant, and
client delivery leader. I've managed a
$6 million account. I've led teams of 10
or more at a time to drive complex
initiatives for clients um such as
Intel, Microsoft, and SAP. Uh I know how
to take strategic vision and build the
accountability structures, the work
streams, and the stakeholder
relationships that turn into real
outcomes. And before that, earlier in my
career, I also worked um with human-
centered design uh through
organizational culture work. And they're
learning that lasting change is
relational, not procedural requires
patience, trust, and a genuine
orientation toward the people that
you're serving. And lastly, the last
part of what motivates my why would be
my background, my academic background.
Um, I have a basis in philosophy and
ethics. And that's trained me over the
years to think carefully about the
questions that are underneath policy.
Not just what to build, but who it's
for. Not just what is efficient, but
what is right. And I'd also add beyond
that, just always thinking about that
third route. When considering an A or a
B, sometimes C is actually the best
answer. So, I'm always trying to think
outside the box in that way. because of
these experiences that has shaped my
alignment uh to the Isiqua strategic
plan and it's the reason why I want to
serve on this council. The plan's vision
of a welcoming, sustainable, equitable
community is not just aspirational
language to me. It's a description of
the city that I want to try and help
build. When the plan commits to reducing
social isolation, expanding culturally
relevant services, and ensuring that
Isiqua's quality of life is accessible
to everyone, it is making a statement
about human dignity. And I want to help
that council make good on that
statement. I'm not running for the seat
because I have all the answers. I'm
running because I care deeply about
Isiziqua. Because I have relevant skills
to contribute. Because I believe the
best version of this city, the one the
strategic plan is working toward is the
one where my friend's family could
afford to move here. Where the people
who work here can live here. Where every
resident has not just shelter and
safety, but access to meaningful
contribution and the conditions for a
genuinely flourishing life.
The decisions we make around housing are
one of the biggest questions in need of
answering as we look into the future of
Isiqua and what will make our community
a vibrant place where we want to raise
families, start businesses, and spend
our time at leisure. I hope my
experience and my alignment with
Isiqua's strategic goals will help me be
an asset in creating the Isiqua we all
envision. I thank you so much for your
time.
>> That was excellent, Donovan. Thank you
very much.
Okay, next we have Connie.
Good evening. Uh my name is Connie
Masalunis and I would like to thank the
council and the mayor uh for extending
this opportunity uh for me to present
myself. I'm a 26-year uh resident of
Isiqua and a relatively recent retiree
and I now feel I have an opportunity to
serve the city with uh the time and the
attention that it deserves.
I'll start by saying that I have no
public office experience. Uh however, I
do feel that I have applicable skills. I
worked in procurement and supply chain
management for close to 40 years. My
main commodity was procuring um
construction and facilities related
services and I was also proficient in uh
contracts management, contract ex
execution and contract review. Um, some
other uh experience I feel that is is
pertinent to being on the council is
I've served on several boards of uh
directors including for a community
theater organization
um two homeowners associations
and I I served as both u members at
member at large as well as president for
each of those organizations.
I'm currently serving as president of an
association of a 128 unit complex that's
preparing to undergo a complete exterior
recladding project. So, you know, I'm
involved in the coordination of, you
know, the the board and meeting with the
engineers and the and the contractors as
we move through the project.
Um, in all of these roles, it's been
necessary to interact with diverse
personalities and frequently competing
goals. It requires maintaining open
discussion and keeping an open mind to
differing opinions. I think I've been uh
very successful in managing those
divergent conversations to reach
consensus, which I think is key when
you're working with a large council. Um
and and with members of the community.
Um no one opinion is ever 100% correct,
right? And we have to be able to work
with each other.
Um, my interests in seeking a council
position, like many in this room, are
affordable housing and the
infrastructure to support it,
including the public transportation,
road improvements, and the other
multimmodal options that uh a few of the
candidates have discussed as well. Um,
in that regard, I'm happy to have just
been uh uh added to the transportation
advisory board. So, I'm really excited
about that and excited to join Erica
coming up in May. As for housing,
there's currently 40 to 50 permits
approved in the city. These are mostly
for single family units, town houses,
and rental facilities.
In addition to these, I would like to
advocate for condominium units to be
considered to address accessible
facilities for those individuals who
wish to own a home versus rent who can't
comfortably live in the multi-story
housing um which is very prevalent in
Isiqua today. Um, this might include
seniors, empty nesters, middle inome as
as Donovan uh discussed, uh, and
disabled individuals. I know this type
of housing is not desirable as far as
developers are concerned, but I wonder
if it would not be in the city's
interest to approach developers
um, and on the subject. And I would,
that is something that I would be very
interested in supporting. Um, I think
that there's a a an opportunity that's
being missed again, especially for those
individuals in the middle income where a
a million-doll townhouse is just not not
uh accessible to them. Um, I'm also
enthusiastic about maintaining our
historic downtown. I understand that the
city has funds to complete uh
preliminary design as uh for Alder
Street to be a festival street as well
as pedestrian walkability improvements
to the downtown area. Actually, I would
love to see Front Street to be a
festival street and have it be that way
all the time. I think that that's highly
improbable. Um, but I I would uh like to
see temporary front street closures,
especially during the summer um to
assess community response uh in addition
to any of the surveys which may be
conducted in conjunction with the Adler
uh street project. And then finally, as
a a former thespian and current season
ticket holder to um Village Theater, I
am very interested in the arts and
culture of Isiqua as well. and in
expanding on the many venues that are
currently offered. And I think that
there's uh a lot of additional
opportunity,
orchestras and and summer concerts. I
think that we do a very good job. Um but
I think that there's room for
improvement there. Um so with that, I
will conclude uh and thank everyone for
the opportunity and I actually made it
on time this time. I was late. I was
over it last time. Thank you.
>> Thank you very much, Connie. Summer
weekends in August, Front Street will be
closed. You have five weekends to show
your love for pedestrian Front Street.
Uh, okay, Mark.
There we go. Okay, now you can hear me.
Hey, Andrea. Hello to you all. My name
is Mark Rigos and I live in the Oldtown
neighborhood of Isiqua. Thank you for
considering me for the vacant city
council member P position. This isn't my
first time attempting uh to be appointed
on city council. It is my second. In
2013, there was a council vacancy. I
applied and I was not selected. I would
like you to consider me for the council
position due to my strengths in
transportation, housing, public works,
and local government experience. But
first is a bit of a background about me
so you get to know me better. Since
1999, I have 27 years of experience in
Isiqua, either living or working here.
From 1999 through 2011, I worked here uh
on Reineer Boulevard at Concept
Engineering as a professional engineer
and a project manager. While at concept,
I designed roads, water, sewer, and
storm drainage systems for subdivisions,
commercial projects, and multif family
projects. King County listed me as a
preferred civil engineering consultant.
I have created approximately 4,000 new
lots in the Puet Sound region. Um, at
our peak, concept had about 40 employees
in 2008. Um, projects in Isiqua that I
designed included Isiqua Highlands,
storm drainage ponds, several large
apartment complexes along Black Nugget
Road. I think the one that you live on
with all those rockeries. Uh, and Grand
Ridge Drive at the top of Isqua
Highlands, too. So, let's go back
further in time. I was born in Seattle.
I was raised in Belleview. I obtained
bachelor degrees in civil engineering
and biology from WSU. In 1997, I spent
several years in South King County at a
consulting firm designing utilities and
roads for large projects before I came
to concept engineering in Isiqua in 1999
where I became fascinated in Isiqua. In
2002, I obtained an MBA from Seattle
University. About a week after
graduation in 2002, my wife and I had
our first child. Since 2002, we've
raised four boys in Isiqua. Three are
now 18 years old. They're adults, so I
have five Isiqua voters in my household.
U fast forward to 2008, my wife and I
decided to move to Isiqua because we
started to fall in love with Isiqua. In
that same year, unfortunately, the
global recession hit and I found myself
with a new home in Isiqua, a large
mortgage payment, a growing family, and
an uncertain future in civil
engineering. In 2011, after 15 years in
the private sector, I decided to try the
public. I was appointed city of
Newcastle's public works director and
held that position for three and a half
years. In 2014, I was promoted to deputy
city administrator and even had the role
of interim city administrator for a year
as we built a $12 million new city hall,
survived 2019 snowmageddon while
investing 40 million into our wastewater
treatment plant and designing nine
roundabouts.
2019 was the busiest year of my life.
Um, from 2020 through 2025, a return to
public works director and deputy city
administrator. By 2025, our CIP at
Northbend grew to nearly $200 million.
In the fall of 2025, I wanted to take a
break, a seventh inning stretch in my
career. Today, I'm not fully retired as
I do some engineering consultant
consulting, but I have time for this
position. Uh when I meet with this Aqua
residents, the two biggest talking
points are traffic and housing. Um
what's interesting to me is that when
more housing is added, then there is
more traffic on the roads. So, we need
to be strategic and proactive on how we
improve our transportation grid and
encourage housing in the right
locations. I can help with being
strategic and proactive with my
experience on transportation and housing
and development. Here are five examples
on transportation experience that will
help me as a council member. First, I'm
a licensed professional engineer in the
state of Washington. That's the highest
as you can go in engineering. Much of
this is in transportation. I have
prepared 15 annual transportation
improvement plans for cities. So I
understand transportation policy,
planning, analysis, design, cost, and
construction. So much so that we
revamped Northbend's tip to become more
roundabout focused while taking policy
direction from city council. While at
Northbend, we designed nine large
roundabouts. Five have been built and
four more are coming. Um, I've been the
responsible party to maintain 200 miles
of roads and utility inf infrastructure
in two cities. uh as a public works
director for 15 years. Uh third or
fourth, I'm I'm a member of the SEAL,
the Southeast Area Legislative
Transportation Coalition SR18 team for
the next phase of highway 18.
Previously, I was a technical adviser on
wash DOT's diverging diamond interchange
that you may have driven through it I90
and 18. So as part of that process and
also locally um I am a guest speaker at
Mount Sai and Isiqua high schools
providing lectures to engineering class
students on the basics of transportation
but I also talk about public works and
how local governments function. Um here
are several examples of housing
development related experience that show
um what I can do. Um in 2017 I was
Northbend's interim CED department
director. So I collaborated with
planning commissions and economic
development commission commissions. Uh,
we planned and built many parks. I have
worked for builders for a long time, so
I appreciate the challenges and
constraints that developers are up
against. At Northbend, I helped
successfully lift two housing
moratoriums. I did this with frequent
communications with individual city
council members. The first was sewer
related. I collaborated with city
council to craft a sewer concurrency
ordinance as our outdated wastewater
treatment plant was was running out of
capacity when I arrived in 2014. The
sewer concurrency allowed physical sewer
connections for commercial and mixed use
only projects as commercial properties
are more tax advantage advantageous to
cities as cities receive a higher
percentage of sales tax than property
tax. While we allowed subdivisions to
move forward by requiring developers to
sign sewer affidavit acknowledging they
understood the risk of subdividing but
they could not physically connect into
our treatment plant until our treatment
plant was constructed. Uh there was a
second housing moratorum that I was
involved in due to a water shortage on
the east half of the city because the
local water purveyor's demand nearly
exceeded their water right. I worked
closely with city council and main uh
and our mayor to brainstorm options.
Ultimately we elected to enter into a
water supply agreement where city would
sell domestic water to the Salo water
purveyor and Salow um would sell that
city mitigation water. mitigation waters
where we would physically move water
from the Cedar River basin to the
Snowqualami River Basin. Senator Mullet,
thank you. Was very helpful to the
cause. Back then as a city and Sal
received grants from Washington state
for construction of those two water
inner ties. Um as we entered that into
that water supply agreement, I worked
closely with city council members on
setting policy and the pro pros and cons
of each mitigation option. Um,
during Northbend, we added 1,800 homes
and doubled the city's population while
I was there for 11 and a half years. And
locally, I was an alternate on the
city's Isiqua Development Commission in
2010. Oh, I better finish up. So, um, in
summary, I believe Isiqua needs somebody
on council who has a strong background
in transportation, housing, and I would
be one of those people for this group.
Additionally, public works is the
department that spends the most money in
the city. So, city council should have a
few folks with deep experience, and I
have 15 years of of government
experience. I'd use my skills and
experience to provide sound policy and
priority budgeting for Isiqua. In
conclusion, there are many great
candidates in this room, but I like but
I feel like my relevant experience
closely fits what this council could
use. I am shovel ready to start this job
and I can hit the ground running. Thank
you for your interest in me.
>> Thank you very much, Mark. Sorry. I'm
I'm jealous that Newcastle 12 years ago
could build a city all for $12 million.
Uh we need to go back in time. Uh
where's our Delorean? Uh Yago. Hi
everyone. Uh before I begin, just uh
would like to express a word of deep
gratitude to Barbara who is one of the
most endearing examples of public
service that I've ever witnessed. Very
grateful to to know her and to be your
friend. So I'm Doo Migen. Uh the council
has seen me up here before um and is
very familiar with my qualifications and
with the several detailed policy and
position statements that I continue to
give voice to with regards to the
challenges that our neighbors face both
locally and nationally. So I'll keep it
simple today. Uh we are blessed to have
many council members and applicants who
are long-term residents of Isiqua and
bring tremendous valuable knowledge of
the history of our city.
As important as those voices are, I
believe it is also important to bring in
fresh voices that offer new
perspectives.
Although I'm relatively new, a new
arrival, I think my journey to Isiqua is
mimics several or is similar to so so
many of your stories. Um, when my wife
and I first visited Isiqua, we fell in
love with the city and chose to make it
our home for our long-term future. As a
city council member, I'll be focused on
maintaining and building an inclusive
and prosperous future for the next years
and decades to come. I do have goals. I
do have visions for our community,
namely sustainable development, transit,
and energy solutions that will carry us
through the next years. But I want to
emphasize,
yes, I do have a vision, but I do not
have an agenda. My strengths lie in
listening, mediation, and problem
solving. I'm here to listen to what the
residents, businesses, and government
need and to find measured but ethical
solutions that look to our is look out
for isiqua's present and future.
My friends and family know me as a kind,
supportive listener and advocate. My
colleagues and co-workers know me as
someone who can pursue the bottom line
while always maintaining regulatory
compliance and ethical values. And I
want to apply those skill sets to
advocate for Esiqua for my family, for
everyone who's fortunate to live here
and work here. And I know I mentioned my
family a lot. My wife Emily is in the
audience. So, thank you everyone for
your time. And thank you all fellow
candidates. We're very, very lucky to
have such a wonderful community of
people who care deeply. Thank you.
>> Excellent. Thank you very much, Diego.
Uh, and Adam, I think you are batting
cleanup.
Hello everyone. Testing. Is this on?
Okay, it's still on. Okay. Uh, long time
no see. Uh, it's been a quarter since we
were here before. Um, I've noticed that
we almost have a quorum for the
transportation advisory board here. So,
we might try to take over the meeting.
Um, so let's see. I'm Adam Fuch and I'm
honored to be considered uh for another
appointment to the city council.
In January, you get to hear me wax on
about economic challenges that we face
and how to address them. Uh so in part
two of my lecture series, I'd like to
dig into the concept of test-driven
development uh and its implications on
achieving success in government.
Uh so first of all, what does it mean to
be successful as a city government? Uh
setting the vision is the first
challenge. So what is it we want to
achieve as a government? Should the city
grow? Should we leave growth to other
cities across the mountains? uh should
we move away from car centric
development or build more parking
garages? Uh so in my opinion, the city
does a pretty good job of setting the
vision largely relying on representative
democratic methods. Uh so our community
survey, our strategic plan, other
founding documents uh present and
reflect the majority opinion. Not
everyone agrees, but we work through the
differences over time uh and we adapt
the changes requested by our
constituents.
So, so given a vision and I think most
of us are are pretty much in lock step
with what the vision is, uh, how do we
achieve it? And so, this is where the
city's success gets a little bit more
complicated. So, many of Isiqua's
strategic goals are implemented by
others outside of the city's direct
control. So, Sound Transit and King
County Metro must route buses and build
light rail to Isiqua. Uh developers must
build housing within a quarter mile of
transit. Residents uh must reduce their
carbon footprint.
Commuters must choose to carpool or take
transit to work in school. So the city's
action plans don't directly achie
achieve the city's strategic goals uh
but instead they establish incentives.
So given our action plans, will we
eventually converge on the city's vision
or will we diverge into a less desirable
outcome?
So there's a significant amount of
uncertainty in the answer to this
question.
So how do we address uncertainty?
Uh try out some new city codes, look for
deviations, and course correct over
time. Unfortunately, trial and error is
a very slow way to converge on the
desired outcome with many iterations,
each one lasting years.
Uh so let's look to other domains for
ideas of how we can govern more effic
effectively.
In software engineering, for example, uh
there's a concept of test-driven
development.
You write tests first that check the
properties that you want and then you
iterate over the code until the tests
pass.
Computer code is generally assumed to be
broken until it's tested. So what does
this tell us about city code?
Well, the city uses tests in a few
areas. So major road modifications go
through discrete event simulation,
measuring impact to mobility in a
variety of scenarios.
Development projects on city property
are usually held to the same standards
that all developers follow, a practice
known as eating your own dog food.
Uh however, many city actions, codes,
and procedures are enacted without
testing. Uh and these are prone to
unintended consequences.
Uh the tree code is expensive and
ownorous for residents and city staff,
and it's not going to get us to our uh
canopy coverage goal.
For several recent years, Isiqua had
zero growth in housing despite 7% growth
in the region.
So let's dig into housing development a
little bit. The city needs developers to
build housing in Isiqua to achieve its
goals in affordability, alleviate
homelessness, etc. Of course, we want
developers to build with best practices
in mind. Smart growth, transit oriented,
mixed use, walkable, access to green
space.
What is it that will make developers
take on a project? And which project
will they decide to build?
Developers use a wellestablished
business practice that includes a
pre-development stage, testing whether a
project will pencil out before taking on
construction. Pre-development often
costs tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars for developers and covers site
control, feasibility, zoning,
permitting, architecture, financing,
environmental assessment, and more. Many
of these aspects are directly affected
by city code. So pre-development is
where most projects die for developers.
How does the city know whether a
desirable project will live or an
undesirable project will die? Right now,
we take our best guess and let the
developers test it for us. This takes
years and often diverges from the city's
vision. A better way might be to build a
test, enumerate a suite of hypothetical
desirable and undesirable projects and
execute mock pre-development on them.
Use the results to identify which parts
of the city code need to change. But
Adam, you say pre-development is
expensive and timeconuming.
Well, good news. AI takes
pre-development from tens of thousands
of dollars and months of work to
hundreds of dollars and days.
Uh now this isn't a talk about AI but
this is just an example of a tool that
we can use as we improve our practices
in testing before we enact.
The world continues to produce a wealth
of tools making this sort of testing
ripe for adoption by city staff as a
testing process. So, can you imagine
what we could accomplish if we knew
ahead of time what the probable result
of our action plans would be?
In industry,
especially engineering, these kinds of
tests are best practices. Uncertainty is
met with modeling and simulation, and
assumed resilience is tested with
tabletop exercises.
Several of my friends and neighbors in
Isiqua are entrepreneurs building AI
enabled tools to do pre-development and
guide tabletop exercises for resilience.
There are many places where the city can
improve its outcome with testing. Not
just in housing, but really everywhere
that isqua's success depends on the
actions of others.
Our vision is a great one, but we won't
get there in my lifetime if we don't
test it. So, let's continue to raise the
bar in city government and give
ourselves the best chance to achieve
success.
Given the opportunity, I'd be happy to
apply my extensive experience building
systems across public, private, and
nonprofit sectors as a member of city
council. Thanks.
>> Excellent. Thank you very much, Adam.
And I will say, sincerely, that was uh I
know it's not easy to get up here and
talk to this group. I know for many of
you that was probably your first time at
that lecture, but everyone did a great
job. That was really impressive. And
there's sometimes I really wish I had a
vote on the council. And there are some
nights like this where I'm really
grateful that they have to decide.
And so with that, the council will now
go into executive session to discuss
qualifications of appointment for
RCW42.30.110
parenthesis 1 parenthesis H. The closed
session is expected take approximately
20 to 30 minutes. It may be extended. If
the time is extended, the clerk will
make an announcement. The city council
is planning to act after the close
session as part of the open meeting to
narrow the applicants moving forward.
And if you don't want to stay around,
you don't have to. The clerk will email
the folks who are moving forward. The
executive session is closed to the
public. And the executive session will
now begin at 7:23
p.m. We will start in 5 minutes to give
folks a chance to get settled.
Okay, we are back in open session at
8:12 p.m. I will look to the council.
Would you like to narrow the number of
applicants tonight? I am seeing head
nods. Council member Joe.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would uh
nominate Donovan Richards.
to go on to the process.
>> Council member Adair,
>> I'll second.
>> Okay. So, we have a nomination for
Donovan Richards and a second and then I
will look for there's any other
nominations. Council member Walsh.
>> Thank you. I would nominate Erica Boyd.
>> Council member Nichols.
>> I will second.
>> So, there's a motion and a second for
Erica Boyd. I'm checking to see if
there's any other nominations
right now. I'm not seeing any. So then
my ask would be once again we're going
to do the oldfashioned head nod or
headshake approach. Does the council
prefer to to do a vote as a slate?
Okay. So we Yes, we may. And so we will
now have a nomination on a slate to go
to the April 20th meeting of Donovan
Richards and Erica Boyd. And it is now
open for discussion. Council member
Walsh.
Thank you. Um, I nominated Erica
because of all of her experience on tab
chairing all of that, but part of it was
just the story that she painted, both
about her history and what brings her to
this level of service, um, but also a
hopeful story about Isiqua, what Isiqua
can be as residents, as a community that
supports each other as a place that um
provides housing and welcomes uh new
neighbors. And so that just very much
spoke to
what I think is an ideal situation for a
council member.
>> Council member Joe.
>> Thank you, Mayor. Um I nominated Donovan
Richards. Uh as we look at the council
up here, we have three members that are
relatively new and uh the times they are
changing and we need to have uh new
voices that bring new ideas and uh
Donovan had a compelling story about
advocating for housing but advocating
for people that have not moved here yet,
advocating for people that uh want to
move here and want to come to Isiqua and
be part of our community. I thought that
was a compelling story and a compelling
uh idea to uh explore further in the
next step in this process. Thank you,
>> Council President Marks.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I want to
speak to the seven people whose names
were not part of that slate um uh for
going forward. And this is a little bit
like what I said at the open house a
couple weeks ago. Um, the hardest part
of this is we get every single time we
get an amazing uh group of people who
come forward uh and and and and put
themselves out there and make themselves
emotionally vulnerable and then um and
then we get where we get. But um it is
one chapter in your relationship with
the city and I always point to Mary Lou
Paulie sought appointment to the council
twice. Twice she got turned down, right?
Bill Ramos, uh, a master guy who
basically won everything I think he ever
did except he sought appointment twice
as the sitting or former uh, chair of
the human services commission, got
turned down twice, ran for a seat and
got it. Um, so please uh, if if you
leave here this evening and you're not
part of uh the conversation for two
weeks, please please please do not get
discouraged. Um, please stay engaged. So
many people who have sat where you are
have gone on um to be huge and vital
parts of our city. Thank you.
>> Okay. I'm not seeing any other
discussion and so the vote now will be
in favor of moving forward the slate of
Erica Boyd and Donovan Richards to the
April 20th council meeting for final
consideration. All those in favor,
please say I.
>> I. I. I all those opposed? Nay. And that
passes unanimously. So, congratulations
to Eric and Donovan. The the format for
the April 20th meeting is the council
between now and then will create a
series of questions that you will not be
told what they are. And so, I think the
thought is there'll be a random I don't
know if we flip coins or I don't know
what we flip, but we flip something. And
then whoever goes first will go first
and the person who goes second will be
asked to be in a different room so they
don't hear the questions and have time
to formulate their thoughts in advance.
Uh and so we'll try to make it as equal
as possible in that scenario. And then
the plan is that at the end of that
meeting on April 20th that we council
will hopefully make a final selection on
the appointment process. And and just so
you know, that council meeting happens
to have roughly 90 minutes of business
before we get so the council will start
at 7:00 p.m. on the 20th and we expect
to somewhere around 8:30 or 9:00 be at
the point where we will then start this
final interview process uh at that point
in time. So I think that's sometimes we
do it first, sometimes we do it second.
uh the April 20th meeting. It will be
the the latter half of the meeting. And
I will echo what what Council President
Mart said. I I genuinely appreciate
everyone who came out to to volunteer
their time for the city of Isiqua. And
it was an impressive group of people
tonight. We had to extend executive
session twice because it was really hard
to narrow down into kind of this final
stage and we are a very fortunate
community to have the volunteers who are
willing to step up. I know nobody's
doing this job as I look around for the
money. Everyone's doing it because they
really genuinely care about this
community and want it to be a better
place to live. And we are very grateful
for for that passion. And with that, we
are ajourned.