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City Council Regular Meeting Auto captions

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

7:00 PM · 1h 50m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topics tracked across meetings:
2023-2028 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program AB 8331 5/5
Code Enforcement Changes AB 8366 2/2
Equity Framework AB 8416 2/2
City Council Regular Meeting · Mar 23, 2021 City Council Regular Meeting · Jun 21, 2022
Section
Topic
3. SPECIAL BUSINESS
3a
Recognition of Superintendent Ron Thiele ID 1190
5 min
3b
Recognition of Japan Local Government Center Delegation ID 1194
5 min · packet pp.5–6
Staff report:
Former Police Chief Scott Behrbaum resigned on Nov. 3, 2021. Commander Paula Schwan was named as the Interim Police Chief.
3c
Police Chief Appointment and Swearing In Ceremony AB 8413
Carried 7-0
Confirm · 15 min
Topics: Public SafetyBoards & Commissions
Roll call:
Moved by HALL · seconded by MARTS
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)
7. CONSENT CALENDAR
7a
Accounts: Payables and Payroll of June 21, 2022, $8,287,280.07 [n/a] ID 0999
Approve · packet pp.7–38
Topics: Budget
Staff report:
Finance Department P.O. Box 1307 Issaquah, WA 98027 PH: 425-837-3050 www.issaquahwa.gov
7c
Code Enforcement Changes AB 8366
Adopt Ordinances · packet pp.45–91
Topics: Land UsePublic Safety
Staff report:
The City's Code Enforcement Officer is responsible to enforce the civil provisions of Issaquah Municipal Code. This often includes enforcement of the following issues: • Construction without issued permits (accessory structures (sheds, decks), mechanical (a/c units, heat pumps, hot water heaters, etc)), plumbing, interior and exterior remodels and additions • Zoning violations (sign code, setbacks, vehicle storage, home occupations) • Land Use (grading and/or clearing, paving, new impervious surfaces) • Environmental (critical area encroachment, land alterations) • Unpermitted Tree removal • Graffiti • Junk or inoperable vehicles • Accumulation of rubbish, garbage: potential to attract rodents • Violations on privately owned property, can be residential or commercial (except for sign code violations on public property)
7d
Small Business Flex Fund Agreement AB 8378
Authorize · packet pp.93–134
Topics: BudgetEconomic Development
Staff report:
The Small Business Flex Fund is a low-interest loan program initially capitalized by the State of Washington. The Flex Fund distributes the loans through local Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These CDFIs provide not only the loan, but also technical assistance that will help businesses take full advantage of the opportunity.
7e
WSDOT Transportation Demand Management/Commute Trip Reduction Agreement AB 8408
Authorize · packet pp.135–151
Topics: Transportation
Staff report:
In compliance with the Washington Clean Air Act, Chap. 70A.15 RCW, local governments and major employers (as defined by RCW 70.A.15.4000) are required to develop and implement CTR plans to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and fuel consumption by encouraging commuters to use sustainable modes of transportation, such as buses, carpools, vanpools, bicycles, and walking instead of single occupancy vehicles. Each local government with impacted major employers must prove through its CTR program implementation how it is supporting the major employers in implementation and reporting of annual efforts to the State.
7f
King County WaterWorks Grant AB 8410
Accept Grant; Authorize Agreement · packet pp.153–167
Staff report:
Significant water quality impacts from bacteria pollution have been documented within the Issaquah Creek watershed and State thresholds have historically been exceeded.
8. REGULAR BUSINESS
8a
2023-2028 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program AB 8331
Carried 7-0
Approve Resolution · 20 min · packet pp.169–225
Topics: Transportation
Staff report:
RCW 35.77.010 requires all cities to develop and adopt a six-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) consistent with the comprehensive plan. State law requires the City review and update its TIP every year, following one or more public hearings. The deadline for adoption is July 1. Within 30 days of adoption, the TIP is required to be filed with the Washington State Secretary of Transportation. The TIP is a planning document that allows the State to identify the financial needs to support transportation within the state.
Roll call:
Moved by HALL · seconded by JOE
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)
8b
Equity Framework AB 8416
Carried 7-0
Direct Administration · 40 min · packet pp.227–244
Topics: Equity
Staff report:
An Equity Framework is a tool utilized to analyze proposed policies, programs, and budgetary decisions to ensure that those decisions do not have unintended adverse consequences on marginalized groups.
Roll call:
Moved by HALL · seconded by DE MICHELE
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)
9. GOOD OF THE ORDER
9a
Upcoming Council Meetings
0:12 good evening and welcome everyone i call
0:16 the june 21st city council meeting to
0:18 order
0:19 and as a reminder we do still continue
0:22 to have a remote aspect to our meetings
0:24 both staff and members of the public may
0:26 be participating in tonight's meeting
0:28 remotely via webex
0:30 and we do have a very exciting lineup of
0:33 things for you tonight
0:36 councilmember walsh is the is up on our
0:39 screen she is
0:40 attending remotely this evening
0:42 so our first item is the pledge of
0:44 allegiance and if you'd like to stand up
0:46 and join me please feel free
0:51 i pledge allegiance
1:08 thank you so we have a few special
1:11 business items today but the first is i
1:14 would like to
1:15 ask retiring superintendent ron thiele
1:18 to join me up at the podium so i can
1:21 provide an expression of our community's
1:23 appreciation for his 33 years of service
1:50 very exciting for me tonight to be able
1:52 to congratulate our
1:54 current superintendent on his upcoming
1:57 retirement
1:58 ron has served
2:00 in the educational field for 33 years
2:03 i had the great fortune
2:05 of meeting him on practically his first
2:08 day of work in the issaquah school
2:09 district i was as many of you know our
2:13 elementary schools come together during
2:16 middle school and you can end up with a
2:18 co-president model for ptsa so i joined
2:22 somebody from cougar ridge and i was
2:24 from the valley and we were ron's first
2:26 ptsa presidents
2:29 it was fun to meet a new
2:32 new principal coming into our district
2:34 but the story i want to share with you
2:36 tonight
2:37 is much different it is
2:40 he thinks it's going to be a funny or a
2:41 bad one it's not the story is about the
2:44 amazing connection ron made with me one
2:47 day after having worked together for six
2:50 to nine months
2:52 interest in doing ptsa was to really
2:54 assist with students with learning
2:56 disabilities and my partner in pta
2:59 covered all the rest and
3:01 i was down at work 55 miles away from
3:04 issaquah middle school
3:06 when i received a frantic call from my
3:08 one of my children who was attending
3:10 middle school and if you remember when
3:12 the cell phones came first out she had
3:14 the little cell phone it looked like a
3:15 dog bone it couldn't do much but she
3:18 could call her mom or dad if something
3:19 was up
3:21 she was having an immediate
3:24 major emotional breakdown and she asked
3:27 that i come right away and pick her up
3:29 at school and being 55 miles away was a
3:32 really upsetting thing for any parent to
3:34 hear um i called ron in his office
3:38 and he immediately had someone from the
3:40 office go and gather her and comfort her
3:43 and take her into a place where she
3:45 would feel safe and welcome
3:48 and comforted until i got there
3:51 he is such a kind and generous and
3:55 empathetic person
3:57 who
3:58 has demonstrated his love of children
4:00 and his love of learning his entire
4:02 career but that moment for me was just
4:06 that's just ron that's the whole picture
4:08 of ron and i am forever grateful that i
4:10 got to personally work with him
4:13 and just for the kindness and love that
4:15 he has in his heart for all of our kids
4:17 thank you
4:19 [Applause]
4:28 i promise to be brief
4:30 i i have a bit of a reputation for being
4:32 long-winded but uh
4:34 i absolutely loved our time together it
4:36 is middle school i thought we were a
4:38 pretty dynamic team the three of us
4:41 i was a little bit younger and had a
4:42 little bit more energy in those days
4:45 you seem to not have aged during that
4:47 time though mayor
4:49 just thank you thank you for your
4:51 kindness and your collaboration over the
4:53 years i think our two organizations have
4:56 uh worked really well together that
4:58 doesn't mean we've always agreed but
5:00 we've accomplished a lot
5:02 and i'm so grateful for the
5:04 opportunities that this community has
5:06 given me to lead and work with just the
5:09 amazing young people
5:11 some of them who are now council members
5:14 here and
5:15 as i look at the council i
5:18 have personal connections with each one
5:20 of you and have over the years and our
5:23 two organizations are so intertwined so
5:26 i i'm just very very grateful
5:29 it's been a great run here i've been in
5:31 issaquah 21 years and and i do have to
5:34 say on a personal note i've lived in
5:36 issaquah my wife jill and i twice
5:39 and uh we just recently moved as we're
5:42 relocating to another part of the county
5:44 in our retirement
5:46 but i absolutely love this city and i
5:48 feel so fortunate that we were here
5:51 during that awful time during the
5:52 pandemic at the height of the pandemic
5:55 because issaquah was a great place to be
5:58 salmon run in confluence park were our
6:00 backyards and i probably walked all the
6:04 trails of issaquah countless times i
6:06 know i've walked them countless times
6:08 over the years and it's just a beautiful
6:10 community and you've all done a
6:12 wonderful job not just through the
6:13 pandemic but just driving here tonight
6:16 and all the energy that was on front
6:18 street and the music that i as my
6:20 windows were down it was really
6:21 incredible so
6:22 thank you for everything i know that um
6:25 the incoming superintendent miss heather
6:28 talyak is excited to meet all of you and
6:31 work with you and collaborate
6:33 i'm very optimistic about the future of
6:36 this community and the school system i
6:39 know there'll be challenges but there's
6:41 a lot of really great smart people here
6:44 and like i say i'm just very optimistic
6:46 about the future of this area so thank
6:49 you again for everything and um
6:51 i just wish you all the very best and as
6:54 i will i'll tell you what i told my
6:56 administrative team just this morning
6:58 i'm not saying goodbye i'm just saying
7:00 i'll see you later so thank you very
7:02 much
7:04 [Applause]
7:09 i do know that councilmember d michelle
7:11 who was sir who has served on school
7:13 board would also like to share a few
7:14 thoughts thank you
7:16 thank you mayor paulie
7:18 ron this is a really good example of the
7:20 circle of life isn't it
7:22 so i was there in 2001 when the school
7:25 board approved your hiring as isaqah
7:27 middle school's new principal
7:29 and i distinctly remember that evening
7:31 because our board colleague mary scott
7:34 who was a teacher in the tomah school
7:36 district was absolutely ecstatic that we
7:38 had poached you from tahoma
7:41 so you proved yourself immediately as an
7:44 excellent administrator and always
7:46 always as mayor paulie said an advocate
7:48 for young people you've had too many
7:51 accomplishments since then to review all
7:52 of them but i do want to highlight two
7:54 that are especially dear to me
7:57 and the first one is gibsonic high
7:59 school
8:00 providing 200 students a year with an
8:02 alternative internship based and
8:04 community service oriented education
8:07 that school is a jewel in our community
8:10 and you fought hard for it and you
8:12 weathered a lot of criticism some of it
8:15 from me
8:16 and not to mention the difficulties of
8:18 earning state acceptance and recognition
8:20 for the graduates that is a fabulous
8:23 legacy ron
8:24 and i can't thank you enough for the
8:26 hard work and the fighting that you did
8:27 to get that
8:28 and then secondly is your early and
8:30 continuous support for behavioral health
8:32 services for students including creating
8:35 a unique partnership between the school
8:37 district and swedish hospital
8:39 for mental health counseling services
8:41 and of course your long-standing support
8:43 for influence of choice drug prevention
8:45 alliance
8:47 ron you will be missed you will be
8:49 missed dearly and i wish you the very
8:50 best in a well-deserved retirement thank
8:52 you so much
8:58 thank you very much councilmember d
9:00 michelle
9:01 oh one more picture
9:03 your social media guy is there
9:11 thank you again everybody
9:23 the next item under special business
9:25 also really fun
9:26 is id 1194 the recognition of the japan
9:30 local government center delegation i
9:33 would like to invite our delegates up to
9:34 the microphone this one would be great
9:37 um and introduce yourselves to our
9:39 community and our council welcome
9:45 uh hello
9:47 oh it is a great honor for us to attend
9:51 this city council meeting
9:53 and
9:54 well thank you very very much for the
9:57 city
9:58 for the city of izaka to give us such a
10:01 great opportunity
10:03 so we are just japan local government
10:05 center based in new york
10:07 and our mission is to facilitate
10:11 grassroots relationships between us and
10:13 japan
10:14 and
10:16 connect to connect the
10:18 [Music]
10:19 connect local government between u.s and
10:22 japan
10:23 and we have three other member staff
10:26 from new york and each of them are from
10:29 one of the local government in japan
10:31 originally
10:32 and
10:34 yeah so they just came to the us this
10:37 april and uh
10:38 yeah
10:39 in the city of izaka um
10:42 give us kindly give us a great
10:44 opportunity to learn
10:46 what the city is doing for
10:49 its residents and
10:52 how the city is operated
10:55 yeah so thank you very very much for
10:57 giving us such a great opportunity and i
11:00 hope so
11:02 have we're
11:04 in a great um
11:09 yeah i hope so we can work
11:12 with
11:13 for a long time so thank you very much
11:15 indeed
11:16 claire thank you very much
11:19 [Applause]
11:23 there's a lot of excitement in the city
11:24 of missouri this week as the delegation
11:27 is visiting many of our different local
11:29 attractions and meeting our staff and
11:31 our council and learning about city
11:33 government and issaquah we really
11:35 appreciate the exchange of information
11:37 so welcome and thank you so much
11:41 the last item under special business
11:43 tonight is another
11:45 activity that doesn't occur very often
11:47 ab-8413
11:49 the police chief appointment and
11:51 swearing-in ceremony
11:53 tonight the city council is asked to
11:55 confirm my appointment of paula schwann
11:58 as police chief for the city of issaquah
12:00 if council proceeds to make the
12:02 confirmation i will then swear in the
12:04 new chief this will be followed by a
12:06 short recess to allow for
12:08 congratulations by colleagues friends
12:11 and families in attendance
12:14 is there a motion
12:17 deputy council president hall
12:19 thank you i moved to confirm the mayor's
12:22 appointment of paula schwann as police
12:24 chief for the city of visqua effective
12:25 immediately
12:27 second
12:30 is there any discussion
12:32 come on put all those microphones up
12:33 lots of discussion
12:37 not seeing any discussion so
12:42 i forgot
12:43 okay council president on video please
12:45 go ahead
12:47 thank you i just wanted to take a moment
12:50 and reflect on the amazing opportunity
12:53 that we had
12:55 that i joined in on the
12:58 interview process and we
13:01 were interviewing three candidates all
13:03 of whom had very different backgrounds
13:06 trying to understand what the
13:08 appropriate
13:10 response is for the city of issaquah
13:13 and
13:14 i mean gosh i had
13:16 become so
13:18 amazed with interim chief schwann
13:22 in the months since she had taken over
13:26 but seeing that interview on top of it
13:28 all and seeing the way that the
13:30 community was impressed
13:32 just
13:33 really sealed the deal for me
13:36 and so i just wanted to thank the mayor
13:39 for
13:39 that amazing opportunity and say that i
13:44 very much in support of this and very
13:45 much looking forward to
13:48 what
13:49 future chief schwann will do
13:51 in this role thank you thank you council
13:53 president deputy council president hall
13:56 thank you i just want to share how happy
13:58 i am to be supporting this motion to
14:00 confirm the appointment of paula schwann
14:01 as our next police chief
14:04 for a couple reasons she's proven
14:05 herself to be an exceptional public
14:07 servant
14:08 she's responsive to community engagement
14:10 as we've seen even recently in ways that
14:12 we all greatly appreciate and she's
14:14 already demonstrated the ability to
14:16 effectively manage and grow our police
14:18 force with confidence and grace and so i
14:20 just want to thank the administration
14:22 and the mayor and everyone who
14:23 participated in the interview process
14:24 and i'll be voting yes tonight thanks
14:27 thank you deputy council presidents
14:31 i'll be proceeding to the vote uh the
14:34 motion and the second on the table is to
14:36 confirm the mayor's appointment of paula
14:37 schwann as police chief for the city of
14:39 issaquah effective immediately all those
14:42 in favor signify
14:46 all those opposed
14:50 that carries unanimously congratulations
14:52 chief swann
14:54 [Applause]
15:07 before i invite to swan up for her
15:09 swearing in i also just want to add
15:11 comments to what you have heard tonight
15:13 from others
15:15 it's a difficult time in policing in
15:17 this country and in many many
15:19 communities and the task that paula took
15:22 on seven months ago to work on many many
15:25 issues that we were struggling with
15:28 she excelled
15:29 we heard that through the interview
15:31 process we heard that when we heard from
15:33 her team members about the impact that
15:35 she was having
15:36 as she was working on
15:38 more issues that i can possibly imagine
15:41 i appreciate her she knows this
15:44 directness and bluntness with the mayor
15:46 that's that that's what i like to hear
15:48 that we have been able in seven short
15:50 months to establish a great relationship
15:53 and really super open and clear
15:56 communication and dialogue
15:58 i'm
15:59 ever grateful that the council has done
16:01 this tonight but certainly not surprised
16:03 do you want to join me up at the podium
16:31 from police to the position of chief of
16:34 police for the city of issaquah
16:35 washington for the city of issaquah
16:37 washington do solemnly swear do solemnly
16:40 swear that i will faithfully but i will
16:42 faithfully and impartially and
16:44 impartially perform the duties of my
16:46 office perform the duties of my office
16:48 as prescribed by law as prescribed by
16:51 law and to the best of my ability and to
16:53 the best of my ability and that i will
16:55 support and maintain and i will support
16:57 and maintain the ordinances of the city
16:59 of issaquah the ordinances of the city
17:01 of assaqua and the laws and constitution
17:04 from the laws and constitution of the
17:06 state of washington of the state of
17:07 washington and of the united states of
17:09 america of the united states of america
17:11 so help me god so let me go
17:13 congratulations
17:14 [Applause]
17:29 so at this point in time before we take
17:31 the recess i would love to give chief
17:33 schwann the opportunity to introduce her
17:36 guests who have come to see this event
17:39 this evening and share her thoughts with
17:41 you
17:51 do you want to introduce yourself first
17:53 no i'm good no he's not in his husband
17:55 with the badge that's what we have
17:57 tonight
18:10 you'll find this during break but we
18:11 haven't met
18:16 thank you council thank you mayor
18:18 thank you
18:19 to all staff
18:21 and to my friends and family who are
18:23 here
18:30 the last seven months um i've been here
18:32 for five years and the last seven months
18:35 i could not have done
18:37 all the work that i did
18:39 with all the staff that has stayed and
18:42 that's the biggest thing that made this
18:45 place a success
18:47 and
18:48 that excites me to continue that work
18:51 that we've started
18:52 and that's
18:54 it's my honor
18:55 and i intend to work just as hard
18:59 all the way through moving forward and
19:00 it's i'm excited to continue
19:03 not start but continue what all the
19:05 staff that's here new officers and those
19:08 that have been here it couldn't have
19:10 done without them
19:12 they're the ones
19:14 who deserve the applause right now so
19:16 thank you very much and i look forward
19:19 continuing working with all of you as
19:20 well and all of them so thank you
19:36 thank you chief at this time we're going
19:38 to take a 10 minute recess so council
19:40 and others can
19:42 can gather around and congratulate the
19:44 chief themselves
19:46 thanks
19:47 [Music]
30:54 welcome back from our break we are now
30:57 moving into the audience comments
30:58 portion of our meeting
31:00 many members of the public may address
31:02 the council at this time in person or
31:05 virtually those who signed up in advance
31:07 to make comments will be called on first
31:10 if you are joining us virtually and
31:12 would like to make comments please raise
31:13 your virtual hand and if you're on the
31:15 phone you can press star 3
31:18 if you have joined by computer or
31:20 smartphone look for a hand icon
31:22 this can vary by device one option may
31:25 be to go to the participant panel and
31:27 choose the raise hand icon in the lower
31:30 right hand corner
31:31 if you're in the room and did not sign
31:34 up i will ask for other speakers before
31:36 closing that portion of the meeting
31:38 clerk has anyone signed up to speak for
31:40 general audience comments or indicated a
31:42 desire to speak this evening yes
31:45 thank you so uh as a reminder
31:48 for those making comments
31:50 please make sure to direct your comments
31:52 to the whole council and not to
31:54 individuals
31:55 while this is not a question and answer
31:57 session we will contact you to follow up
31:59 if needed
32:01 when you are recognized please unmute
32:03 your microphone for virtual attendees or
32:06 step to the lectern if you are here in
32:07 person state your name address and
32:10 relationship to the city
32:12 please speak clearly and pause
32:14 frequently and limit your comments to
32:16 five minutes
32:17 if you're attending virtually and do not
32:19 respond after your name or phone number
32:21 is called or if your connection is lost
32:23 unexpectedly the meeting will still need
32:25 to proceed and you are encouraged to
32:27 rejoin the meeting if able
32:29 personal attacks obscene language and
32:31 derogatory remarks and disruptive
32:33 behavior will not be permitted
32:36 citizen comments written and verbal are
32:38 an important aspect of the public
32:39 process and the city takes comments
32:42 seriously we thank you for taking the
32:44 time to address us this evening
32:46 city clerk can you please identify the
32:47 first person who has signed up to speak
32:51 yes nathan bassler has signed up to make
32:53 comments nathan i'm making you a
32:55 panelist now you should then see the
32:57 option to unmute and can choose to turn
32:59 your video on
33:02 hello everybody can you hear me yes we
33:04 can
33:05 awesome
33:07 i am nathan bassler i know a lot of you
33:09 i live at 960 northwest juniper street
33:11 here in the squan squawk
33:14 i've recently heard about the scooters
33:15 proposed here in issaquah and as a local
33:18 resident and business owner and member
33:20 of the chamber i'm definitely not super
33:22 happy to hear about this idea being
33:24 brought to issaquah
33:26 i have visited many cities and when
33:27 traveling i've used these bird electric
33:30 scooters and once in san diego yet i
33:32 admit they're fast and while riding i
33:35 remember actually thinking
33:36 thank goodness they are these are not at
33:38 our home in issaquah
33:39 for many reasons they are an eyesore a
33:42 drain on our energy and a dangerous
33:44 vehicle to welcome to our sidewalks
33:47 they are not for commuting carrying
33:49 groceries or your personal items
33:51 they are for one person with a group of
33:52 their friends zipping along the
33:53 sidewalks only discard them in front of
33:56 a local business curbside
33:58 ditch stream or lake
34:00 i really personally do not want to see
34:02 these in issaquah and it's
34:04 i believe not our culture of who we are
34:06 and what we've worked hard to become
34:08 i ask you to reconsider your time spent
34:10 on considering this
34:12 please do not bring this program to our
34:13 home uh we need to be able to control
34:16 the current problem with shopping carts
34:18 scattered around the city before
34:19 entertaining
34:20 items like this bring brought to
34:21 issaquah
34:22 the reason why i live work and support
34:24 local businesses here in issaquah is
34:26 because i love the quality of our city
34:28 i love our friendly residents and last
34:30 of all
34:31 i love our clean streets and sidewalks
34:35 on a second note i ask you to please
34:37 also not get rid of the cable franchise
34:39 committee
34:40 if you get rid of the committee it's
34:42 just the first step towards
34:43 the end of our channel i fear
34:46 these cable companies lay their cables
34:48 through our cities
34:49 and they do require ongoing support and
34:52 attention
34:53 trust me i work with hundreds of cable
34:55 stations and companies around the
34:56 country and they have unfortunately some
34:58 of them lost their franchise which is
35:00 not good especially because it's such a
35:02 great public service
35:04 thank you in advance for your
35:05 reconsideration it's important that we
35:07 keep conversations and efforts towards
35:09 our capable channel here in issaquah
35:12 lastly just a quick shout out to ron it
35:14 was always a good time working with you
35:15 buddy congratulations
35:17 thank you for your time everybody you
35:18 have a great evening sorry i couldn't be
35:20 there in person
35:21 thank you nathan
35:23 city clerk do we have anyone else signed
35:24 up this evening
35:27 mayor no one else is expressing an
35:29 interest to make comments tonight
35:32 thank you very much
35:33 um so
35:35 nathan's comments were around scooter
35:37 proposal and the cable tv commission
35:40 thank you nathan
35:42 as a reminder written comments can be
35:43 submitted at any time to city council at
35:45 isqua.gov
35:47 um i'm going to go to looks like she
35:49 turned her camera on council president
35:51 walsh
35:52 do you have any email comments to
35:53 summarize on tonight's agenda topics
35:58 i believe deputy council
36:00 uh deputy
36:01 council president hall is going to
36:03 summarize them tonight thank you thank
36:04 you very much
36:06 uh yes i do um so with regard to uh
36:09 items on tonight's agenda we had one
36:11 resident email in about agenda bill 8410
36:15 king county water works grant or the
36:16 isquad creek watershed bacteria bacteria
36:19 study
36:20 this individual expressed concern about
36:22 the testing for fecal coliform and what
36:24 the city plans to use the study data for
36:27 that was the only
36:29 email that we received on an agenda item
36:31 for this evening thank you thank you
36:32 deputy council president
36:35 the next item on our agenda this evening
36:36 is committee and regional reports and
36:38 we'll start with council member joe
36:41 thank you madam mayor
36:43 on the 14th of june the mobility and
36:47 infrastructure committee met the only
36:49 item on the agenda was the scooter topic
36:52 previously referenced by our public
36:54 comment speaker tonight
36:56 it's my understanding that has gone back
36:58 to staff to work on
37:02 potential for a
37:03 mou which will be coming back to council
37:06 for additional discussion
37:08 and
37:09 deliberation
37:13 council member barb d michelle and i
37:14 will be going down to the association of
37:16 washington cities conference in
37:18 vancouver
37:19 wednesday thursday friday some of the
37:22 interesting topics on the agenda are the
37:23 missing middle housing topic
37:26 discussion of federal infrastructure
37:28 funding and political civility
37:32 the other item is cwa and the finance
37:35 committee met today to talk about the
37:37 water supply development fund
37:40 budget rates and cost of living
37:42 adjustments for
37:43 staff based on the inflationary
37:46 environment that we're in
37:47 and the cwa board will will be meeting
37:50 tomorrow
37:51 if at 3 30.
37:54 that concludes my report thank you thank
37:56 you council member joe councilmember d
37:58 michelle
37:59 thank you mayor paulie
38:01 on june 9th i attended the east side
38:03 human services forum the forum is
38:06 presenting a remote town hall discussion
38:08 on human services pay equity on thursday
38:12 june 30th at 9 00 a.m and i will be sure
38:14 to send everyone an invitation very
38:18 important topic and a very hot topic in
38:20 the human services field
38:22 in addition various eastside human
38:24 services forum committees have completed
38:26 a financial policies document are
38:28 working on an eastside human services
38:30 legislative framework and planning for
38:32 another town hall on the topic of
38:34 permanent supportive supported housing
38:37 to be held in august
38:40 so and then a lot of exciting things
38:44 from transportation on june 10th i
38:46 attended the east side transportation
38:48 partnership
38:49 and on june 14th and 15th i attended
38:52 meetings of the regional transit
38:53 committee both groups discussed and rtc
38:56 or the regional transit committee
38:58 unanimously approved the proposed zero
39:01 youth fair program for referral to the
39:04 king county council
39:05 this program is part of the move ahead
39:07 washington legislation which required
39:09 local transit agencies
39:11 to offer zero fares for people under the
39:13 age of 18 in order to apply for future
39:16 grant funding
39:18 if approved by the king county council
39:20 the program goes into effect on
39:21 september 1st 2023 in time for the
39:24 school year
39:26 the plan is to provide every youth in
39:28 king county 18 years and under with an
39:31 orca youth card and metro will be
39:33 working through school districts to
39:35 distribute the cards
39:37 questions were asked about how metro
39:39 plans to work with school districts such
39:41 as issaquah snoqualmie riverside and
39:44 others with rural populations that have
39:46 little access to transit
39:48 whether there will be alternatives to
39:50 cards such as apps for phones and how
39:53 metro plans to serve students who are
39:55 not in public k-12 schools such as home
39:58 school students students in homelessness
40:00 and running start students
40:02 general manager white had
40:05 very good responses to that but he did
40:07 admit
40:08 that due to the requirements of the
40:10 legislation that they are building the
40:12 program at the same time that they're
40:13 learning how to fly it so
40:15 um many of these things will be worked
40:18 out as we go along
40:20 but we're very very excited that all
40:22 young people in king county will be able
40:25 to ride buses for free
40:27 and also across the state of washington
40:29 for every transit agency that would like
40:31 to apply for grant funds so
40:34 it was a really exciting meeting we had
40:36 lots of good discussion and i'm looking
40:38 forward to seeing how it works out so
40:41 that
40:42 ends my report thank you thank you
40:44 councilmember d michelle councilmember
40:45 hunt
40:46 thank you madam mayor i have two reports
40:48 this evening
40:51 june 7th the planning development and
40:53 environment committee met and we had two
40:55 items the first was title 18 zoning and
40:57 uses title 18 is our municipal land use
41:00 code and so this was the section
41:02 specifically on zoning and uses
41:05 the main conclusion from our committee's
41:07 discussion was that we
41:09 were
41:10 had one area where
41:12 we felt
41:13 there needed to be more discussion and
41:15 that it needed to go back to the
41:17 planning policy commission which is our
41:18 volunteer commission that looks at these
41:20 issues and makes recommendations to
41:22 council and that that one area where we
41:25 felt there needed to be more
41:26 consideration was on goal six of our
41:30 goals and outcomes chart which we're
41:31 using to guide this work and goal six is
41:34 increase housing diversity
41:37 specifically that goal hadn't been
41:38 evaluated by staff or the planning
41:41 policy committee against this part of
41:43 the code and so we felt that that should
41:45 be re-examined
41:47 we also had a number of process-based
41:50 recommendations um this was because we
41:53 had some public comment that really were
41:55 about wanting to understand the process
41:58 of how things were
42:00 how recommendations from the community
42:02 and comments from the planning policy
42:05 committee were being considered and so
42:08 we had a couple recommendations to
42:10 clarify the process one would be
42:14 um make what we're referring to as the
42:15 whiteboard of topics publicly accessible
42:18 so when things are um considered out of
42:22 scope that they are considered that will
42:24 be considered later that that list is um
42:26 available for for people so they can see
42:29 that those items are not
42:31 falling through the cracks but rather
42:33 on an agenda for future consideration
42:36 and then we also had a recommendation
42:38 about
42:39 a table to explain how our climate
42:41 action plan actions are being
42:42 implemented in the code update
42:44 and
42:48 and lastly to make the goals and
42:49 outcomes chart available accessible easy
42:52 to see because we are using that
42:54 as a guiding document
42:56 as we go through this process
42:58 so the
42:59 staff was
43:01 able to confirm that those those
43:03 recommendations from the committee would
43:04 be possible and so we look forward to
43:06 just seeing those and um
43:08 and having some of those community
43:10 concerns addressed in that way
43:12 the second item that we discussed was
43:13 amendments to title 16 stormwater manual
43:16 and floodplain code
43:18 this was actually seen by the council
43:20 previously at a study session so this
43:21 was a follow-up on that previous study
43:24 session
43:25 there was additional detail
43:27 in some areas for example we had
43:29 information about we were presented with
43:31 information
43:32 about how ada compliance would be
43:34 achieved with the code
43:37 and the committee
43:39 generally agreed with the administration
43:41 recommendations specifically we agreed
43:43 with removal to recommend removal of the
43:45 exemption from the stormwater design
43:46 manual not requiring enhanced treatment
43:49 of employee only parking lots at
43:50 commercial and industrial project sites
43:52 so basically to require
43:54 enhanced treatment it was double
43:56 negative
43:57 and then also recommending adoption of
43:59 the proposed codes and amendments by the
44:01 council there's one follow-up question
44:03 that we requested additional information
44:05 on and that had to do with uh raising of
44:09 roads and the the city's
44:12 requirements city's role in the raising
44:14 of roads that would potentially be
44:16 required
44:18 as a result of this code
44:20 the next meeting of the planning
44:22 development and environment committee is
44:23 june 28th
44:25 and we have two items the first will be
44:28 the heat pump program for low-income
44:29 residents and uh the second will be
44:31 issaquah clean buildings initiative
44:33 and then one other very brief report
44:35 king conservation district advisory
44:37 committee met on june 14th we didn't
44:38 have any action items
44:40 but i did want to
44:43 mention that a subcommittee of us is
44:45 continuing to work on how to best
44:47 include equity in a meaningful way into
44:49 the agency's jurisdictional grants
44:51 program so that work is ongoing and that
44:53 concludes my report
44:55 thank you councilmember councilmember
44:56 ray
44:57 thank you mayor paulie the east side
44:59 fire and rescue board of directors met
45:01 on june 9th
45:03 of note on the agenda we had special
45:05 recognition of two retirees battalion
45:07 chief
45:08 dave mcdaniels and lieutenant rick
45:10 reynolds both retired so we wish them
45:13 well
45:14 also significant is in the chief's
45:16 briefing the woodenville
45:20 fire department police department will
45:21 be expanding our core connect which is
45:24 the fire department's use of
45:26 of social workers to provide behavioral
45:28 health and social services so it's
45:30 exciting to see that program expand into
45:31 woodenville
45:32 and probably the most
45:34 exciting thing on the agenda was the
45:37 board created a subcommittee to
45:40 bring forward recommendations on how to
45:43 replace
45:44 retiring fire chief jeff clark i think
45:47 everyone knows that jeff is retiring
45:50 the subcommittee came back with a
45:52 recommendation to
45:54 appoint
45:56 assistant chief ben lane as the
45:59 new fire chief when
46:01 chief clark retires the end of the year
46:03 and the board unanimously accepted the
46:06 recommendation to appoint ben lane as
46:09 our new fire chief for 2023 and that
46:12 concludes my report
46:13 thank you council member ray
46:14 councilmember mertz
46:16 thank you madam mayor the sound cities
46:18 association public issues committee met
46:20 on wednesday june 8th virtually from 7
46:22 until 9 00 pm uh of note we decided to
46:27 plan on taking potential action
46:29 this upcoming month july on the sca
46:32 clean water plan draft guidance
46:34 principles and so as i mentioned at my
46:36 last
46:37 in my last report
46:39 i asked them at the time to put together
46:41 minutes from that meeting because there
46:42 were a bunch of good comments
46:44 from other municipalities and i
46:46 forwarded that on to all of you and my
46:48 hope is that in at the good of the order
46:50 this evening i can get some direction uh
46:52 from the council on how they feel about
46:54 uh that potential action on adopting
46:57 those guiding principles
47:00 and very exciting the inaugural meeting
47:04 of the
47:05 services safety and parks committee of
47:07 the issaquah city council after several
47:09 false starts
47:11 council members d michelle and ray and i
47:14 will be
47:17 holding that committee tomorrow evening
47:19 at 6 30 p.m here in council chambers and
47:22 we have a meaty subjects we have a we
47:24 have a full dance card for tomorrow
47:26 night we have id 1088 important
47:29 commission consolidation potential board
47:31 and commission consolidation id 1169
47:34 human services strategic plan grants
47:36 program and emergency housing options
47:38 that's probably the biggest of the bunch
47:40 and then also under uh discussion will
47:42 be id 1162 tenant and landlord
47:46 protection options and a number of these
47:48 topics have already generated a lot of
47:50 interest in the community and i suspect
47:52 we may hear from community folks i
47:54 suspect we may have more than one public
47:56 comment at tomorrow night's meeting this
47:58 concludes my report
47:59 thank you councilmember mart's deputy
48:01 council president hall thank you no
48:03 report this evening
48:04 thank you and i saw that she was just
48:06 coughing but i'm going to give her a
48:08 shot
48:09 council president do you have a report
48:11 this evening thank you yes i do um just
48:14 one single report on june 7th
48:17 myself and city administrator bob quits
48:19 as our leadership team met with the
48:21 issaquah school district leadership and
48:24 the only item on the agenda was really
48:26 talking about uh
48:28 our
48:29 administration
48:32 retirement and the transition and what
48:34 we can expect with the new school
48:37 district superintendent and so it's
48:39 really just closing up the school year
48:41 and looking forward toward next year um
48:44 so that we can be on top of developing
48:45 that relationship that concludes my
48:47 report
48:48 thank you council president walsh the
48:50 next item on the agenda this evening is
48:52 the mayor's report and because we had so
48:54 much fun early on it's really short
48:58 kind of out of character
49:00 there is no executive session scheduled
49:02 for this evening
49:03 uh the 2021 water quality report is out
49:07 and the city has met all water quality
49:09 requirements for safe drinking water the
49:12 city continues to prioritize safe and
49:14 resort
49:15 to provide to prioritize safe and
49:18 resource efficient water management more
49:20 information is available in the report
49:22 online
49:23 and there are a bunch of upcoming events
49:26 come help us celebrate pride the city is
49:28 hosting a virtual event honoring pride
49:30 month on june 23rd at 6 30 p.m
49:33 you can hear from local professionals
49:35 and members of the lgbtqia plus
49:38 community as we engage in a meaningful
49:40 dialogue to help us shape a better
49:42 future where everyone belongs and feels
49:44 welcomed registration is available
49:46 through the city website
49:48 issaquah's down home 4th of july
49:50 celebration is back the event will
49:52 commence with the parade at 11 a.m
49:55 family fun activities will be available
49:57 in memorial field until 2 p.m and
49:59 concerts on the green are back for the
50:01 summer the first concert is on tuesday
50:03 july 5th
50:05 the 2022 lineup is available on the
50:07 city's website
50:09 and city hall will be closed on july 4th
50:12 for the holiday and that concludes the
50:14 mayor's report
50:16 next item on the agenda this evening is
50:17 the consent calendar and it was
50:19 distributed to council in advance
50:21 if it is authorized the items on the
50:23 consent calendar will be considered
50:25 together and approved by one motion
50:28 have the payables and payroll been
50:29 reviewed yes yes thank you
50:32 does any council member desire to remove
50:34 any item from the consent calendar and
50:36 consider it under regular business
50:40 seeing none uh is there a motion
50:45 uh yes i move to approve the consent
50:47 calendar as presented in tonight's
50:48 agenda packet
50:51 second
50:53 it's been moved and seconded um
50:57 is there any council discussion
51:01 hearing none the motion before council
51:03 is to approve the consent counter as
51:04 presented and all those in favor please
51:06 signify by saying aye aye
51:12 that carries unanimously
51:14 we're now moving into the regular
51:16 business portion of our meeting and our
51:17 first agenda bill this evening is eight
51:19 three three one
51:21 the 2023 through 2028 six-year
51:24 transportation improvement program the
51:26 request before council this evening is
51:28 to approve the resolution
51:30 this item was before council at the june
51:32 6 city council meeting for a public
51:34 hearing
51:35 i'd like to invite deputy city
51:37 administrator andrea snyder to make a
51:39 brief presentation welcome andrea
51:42 thank you very much mayor good evening
51:44 council and those of you who are
51:46 watching
51:47 um i am standing in for transportation
51:50 manager uh john mortensen and also
51:53 bennett uh is able to join us on the
51:56 line tonight if you have any questions
51:58 but uh is
51:59 is recovering from a cult so couldn't
52:01 quite make the presentation himself
52:05 as the mayor indicated i think uh
52:08 other slides that you're
52:10 showing
52:13 okay
52:15 um great
52:17 so as uh
52:19 the mayor indicated
52:21 uh this is a follow-up to
52:24 the previous uh
52:26 hearing on the transportation
52:27 improvement program that was on june 6.
52:30 so next slide please
52:32 thank you what we're asking you tonight
52:34 is for your approval of the
52:36 transportation improvement program the
52:38 tip by state law is required to be
52:40 updated once a year
52:43 and
52:44 by july 1st so that's why we're here
52:46 tonight
52:48 next slide please
52:50 a little bit of background very quickly
52:53 tab a couple meetings with tab
52:56 to update project descriptions found
52:58 within the program
53:01 and also we heard comments from the
53:03 environmental board which i think you
53:04 went over at the last meeting
53:07 the
53:08 proposed transportation improvement plan
53:10 also went to the mobility and
53:11 infrastructure committee
53:14 and tab was updated again so we had the
53:16 public hearing last time on june 6 and
53:18 here we are tonight for council adoption
53:21 next slide please
53:25 one of the revisions we heard from you
53:27 council last time is to move up the
53:29 squawk mountain multimodal improvements
53:31 it was listed as
53:34 a future year project and that was a
53:37 newer project we'd heard from the
53:39 community some desire for this project
53:41 to be moved up and so at council's
53:43 request we did move it up
53:45 so that
53:46 there will be some
53:47 programming and design work that begins
53:51 next year
53:53 next slide please
53:56 and so our
53:58 recommendation from the administration
54:00 is to please approve the resolution to
54:02 adopt the 2023-2028
54:05 transportation improvement program as
54:07 proposed
54:08 any questions
54:13 thank you andrea taking a look around
54:14 the room does anyone have questions on
54:16 the presentation
54:19 oh better keep my eye on lindsay she's
54:21 hiding on the screen
54:25 great is there a motion
54:29 my deputy council president
54:32 i move to approve resolution number
54:35 2022-10
54:37 adopting a six-year transportation
54:39 improvement program and directing the
54:40 same to be filed with the state
54:42 secretary of transportation
54:44 second
54:46 it's been moved and seconded is there
54:47 any council discussion
54:54 okay sure deputy council president uh
54:57 just real quick since we had so much
54:58 conversation on this item um a few weeks
55:01 ago but
55:03 again just to say you know it is an off
55:05 year from our typical
55:07 cip process so i'm comfortable moving
55:09 this forward i want to thank the
55:10 administration for being responsive to
55:12 council uh shifting council priorities
55:14 with regard to the new addition of
55:16 funding that was added to the document
55:18 i'm sure we all look forward to hearing
55:20 more information about that and also
55:22 how the administration plans to um
55:25 approach staffing when it comes to the
55:27 capital finance community task force
55:29 recommendations so we look forward to
55:30 that as well
55:31 and finally i look forward to
55:35 hearing how we plan to
55:37 go through the cip process next time
55:40 to really put an emphasis and focus on
55:42 alignment with the mobility master plan
55:44 and with the issaquah
55:46 climate action plan and i know the
55:47 administration is eager to
55:49 get into that with us too so um thank
55:51 you very much and i'll be voting yes
55:54 are there any other comments this
55:55 evening
55:58 i will reread the motion to approve
56:01 resolution number 2022-10
56:04 adopting a six-year transportation
56:05 improvement program and directing the
56:07 same to be filed with the
56:09 state secretary of transportation all
56:11 those in favor signify by saying aye
56:17 it loves to turn me off those opposed
56:21 that passes unanimously
56:23 i am just going to add a little word of
56:25 clarification for some of our guests who
56:26 might be watching this evening and not
56:28 familiar necessarily with what you have
56:30 just done but you have approved a
56:31 document that allows us to apply to the
56:33 state for grants and during your budget
56:35 projects this project this process this
56:38 fall you will take year one of that in
56:41 the draft
56:42 for you to be able to discuss exactly
56:44 which capital projects you would be like
56:46 what you would like to do in the 2023 so
56:49 thank you for your consideration tonight
56:52 the next item of business under regular
56:54 business is ab-8416
56:57 it is the equity framework and we are
56:59 looking for some direction this night uh
57:01 direction for the administration this
57:03 evening
57:04 we are asking for your concurrence on an
57:06 equity framework and while this would
57:08 typically be in an item heard at
57:10 committee of the whole meeting due to
57:12 scheduling considerations it is being
57:14 brought forward for discussion at
57:15 tonight's council meeting i'd like to
57:17 invite human resources director
57:19 stephanie johnson to make a brief
57:20 presentation welcome stephanie
57:23 thank you good evening i'm not going to
57:26 get too far off topic to start but it is
57:28 just really fabulous to be here in
57:30 person with you tonight
57:32 we've been really successful in doing a
57:33 lot of good work from home the last
57:35 couple years but there's nothing like
57:36 being together at times and so
57:40 that's just really exciting to me and
57:43 really what better
57:44 topic to kind of revisit and bring back
57:47 an important topic like the equity
57:49 framework
57:51 so tonight
57:52 and tisha's going to help me slide
57:55 advance with this above my head so
57:58 we'll try to partner as best we can here
58:01 we're looking for direction from you
58:04 on input to a framework model that the
58:07 administration
58:09 the equity board and the internal equity
58:11 team has been working on
58:13 really over the last year
58:15 you know we're going to hopefully have
58:17 some good discussion tonight
58:19 our take away we'd really like the
58:21 administration
58:22 to cut to to take your feedback tonight
58:26 use this tool to pilot a handful of
58:29 projects in the months ahead and then
58:30 report back to you uh really in q3
58:34 so malay agenda this evening i um we're
58:36 gonna go through uh introduction uh i am
58:39 not presenting alone this evening i have
58:42 an equity board
58:43 member here with me i'm gonna walk
58:45 through a little bit of background
58:46 that's brought us here tonight
58:49 and then we're going to talk about the
58:50 actual
58:52 draft equity framework model that we're
58:54 putting before you we like that
58:56 discussion and talk about what those
58:58 next steps are
59:00 so in terms of introduction
59:03 i would like to introduce to you
59:06 preethi modi pan she is a equity board
59:09 member
59:10 she joins us virtually this evening
59:13 as you all know you all formed the
59:16 equity board in late 2021
59:19 and the charter of
59:21 that committee is to support and
59:23 cultivate you know the voices of diverse
59:25 communities in issaquah by advising all
59:28 levels of the organization the mayor you
59:31 all as the city council city departments
59:34 on our plans our policies regulations
59:37 programs
59:38 all the things that we have as far as
59:40 equity initiatives in the city
59:43 so certainly you know what better tool
59:47 get feedback on
59:49 our framework from a member of our
59:51 equity board
59:52 so with that said i would like to pause
59:55 a moment and ask that preethi
59:58 introduced herself i don't think she's
1:00:00 met the council before um we've also
1:00:02 asked her to identify just you know why
1:00:05 why she you know uh took the leap in
1:00:07 joining the equity board and and
1:00:09 representing this group
1:00:13 yeah thank you for that stephanie
1:00:15 um so my name is preethi modipan and
1:00:18 i've been a resident of issaquah for
1:00:20 over 10 years and i've lived in the area
1:00:23 for about 25 years now
1:00:26 i have two teenagers who go to the
1:00:28 issaquah school district
1:00:30 and um i am a first generation u.s
1:00:32 citizen my parents immigrated here from
1:00:36 india about 50 years ago
1:00:40 i joined the equity board because it's
1:00:42 i've always been committed to issues
1:00:45 around diversity equity and social
1:00:47 justice
1:00:49 uh my first jobs out of uh school were
1:00:51 related to research and evaluation uh
1:00:54 getting women and
1:00:56 other underrepresented groups into
1:00:58 science technology engineering and math
1:01:00 fields i later extended that work into
1:01:03 thinking about early learning and
1:01:04 kindergarten readiness for all kiddos
1:01:07 especially thinking about early math
1:01:09 readiness
1:01:10 and currently i work in for another
1:01:14 local jurisdiction doing operational
1:01:16 management reform
1:01:18 that's designed to improve the use of
1:01:20 data to inform decision making and
1:01:23 continuous improvement and also to use
1:01:26 race and place-based disaggregated data
1:01:29 and community engagement to support
1:01:32 pro-equity
1:01:33 anti-racism goals and outcomes in
1:01:36 addition to other high priority uh work
1:01:38 so i'm really excited to be here
1:01:41 and to uh help uh fulfill the equity
1:01:45 board's role in terms of advising the
1:01:48 mayor
1:01:49 council and departments into uh
1:01:52 incorporating equity into their work
1:01:57 thank you bracey so as as you've heard
1:02:00 prefi is really a subject matter expert
1:02:02 in this work and so i'm really fortunate
1:02:05 to have her here this evening to to
1:02:07 co-present and facilitate this
1:02:08 conversation
1:02:10 i want to just remind everyone what is
1:02:12 an equity framework
1:02:14 this is a tool a resource
1:02:17 that we all can refer to and use to
1:02:20 analyze propose policies programs
1:02:23 budgetary decisions to ensure those
1:02:25 decisions don't have an unintended
1:02:27 adverse consequences on market are
1:02:29 marginalized groups excuse me
1:02:32 you know
1:02:33 i think um when we think of you know a
1:02:35 framework or a tool um we're going to
1:02:37 talk about the one that we have before
1:02:40 you this evening
1:02:41 i think about our internal core salmon
1:02:44 values of sustaining trust acting with
1:02:47 integrity
1:02:48 leading with respect mastering
1:02:50 communication owning actions and being
1:02:53 engaged
1:02:54 we created that framework some years ago
1:02:56 and we've done you know a lot of work
1:02:58 within the city to embed that into the
1:03:00 culture of our organization
1:03:02 our goal the administration's goal is to
1:03:04 really do the same with an equity
1:03:06 framework or tool we build a tool
1:03:09 and then we we use it as long as we need
1:03:11 to before we can then just build it into
1:03:14 our culture
1:03:15 and all the things that we do
1:03:17 to be able to then recite some of the
1:03:18 things we need to be thinking about as
1:03:20 we're making policy decisions so
1:03:23 you know i i think sometimes we think
1:03:25 about getting all the right perfect
1:03:27 questions
1:03:28 but it's really just that tool that we
1:03:31 can use to really kind of embed this
1:03:32 into our culture
1:03:35 next slide please
1:03:39 you know
1:03:40 we have not been back out to the council
1:03:44 around this body of work
1:03:46 in almost a year
1:03:48 that does not mean that
1:03:50 some behind the scenes work has not been
1:03:52 happening
1:03:53 in the course of that year
1:03:55 we've had really six events that i'd
1:03:57 like to just kind of walk you through a
1:03:59 quick background
1:04:00 as a refresher
1:04:02 so back in march of 2021
1:04:05 you all city council participated in
1:04:07 equity framework training
1:04:10 following that training in march of 2021
1:04:13 fast forward to july of 2021 the city's
1:04:17 internal equity team and you all
1:04:20 reviewed two common styles of equity
1:04:23 frameworks in a study session and
1:04:25 piloted them on real world examples
1:04:27 pulled from another jurisdiction
1:04:31 when we
1:04:33 when we presented those two different
1:04:35 models one was a step model one was a
1:04:37 postcard model
1:04:39 you all gave feedback on input that the
1:04:42 administration could come back and and
1:04:44 bring back
1:04:46 as we developed a draft model
1:04:50 the city council favored what we call a
1:04:52 postcard model which is really direct
1:04:55 directly lays out a series of questions
1:04:58 to ask typically in a format that could
1:05:00 easily fit on a postcard so there's not
1:05:02 some big fancy thing about a postcard
1:05:05 other than it really being a easy
1:05:07 document to refer to on a single sheet
1:05:09 of paper as you're making policy
1:05:10 decisions
1:05:12 fast forward to november 2021
1:05:17 the equity board was launched and let me
1:05:19 go back for a minute
1:05:21 in july of 2021
1:05:24 uh council's feedback was that you
1:05:26 favored the the postcard model you
1:05:28 directed the administration to take the
1:05:30 feedback and come back with
1:05:32 really what we're here with tonight an
1:05:34 equity framework model
1:05:37 given staffing restraints and and other
1:05:39 work in the course of the pandemic when
1:05:41 we were to come back to the council in
1:05:43 in q3 or q4 2021
1:05:46 we needed to push that date a little bit
1:05:49 to q1 of 2022 and during that time is
1:05:53 the next significant date
1:05:55 we you all were busy forming the city's
1:05:59 equity board
1:06:01 that was formed in august of 2021 and
1:06:03 the equity board had its first meeting
1:06:06 in november
1:06:07 city council had interest in the fact
1:06:10 that we were
1:06:11 forming an equity board
1:06:13 boy you know looking back at the charter
1:06:16 of the equity board
1:06:17 what what better group to provide input
1:06:20 into a framework or model
1:06:23 so here we are at 2022
1:06:26 when the equity board had its first
1:06:28 meetings human services
1:06:31 manager monito and i took to the equity
1:06:33 board on february 2nd
1:06:37 this exact background in history what
1:06:39 the council had participated in in
1:06:41 training
1:06:42 what the staff had participated in in
1:06:44 training where we were at and that this
1:06:47 council sought input
1:06:49 into a framework from from that team or
1:06:51 that board
1:06:53 the discussion that evening led to the
1:06:55 fact that many members of the equity
1:06:57 board have impressive resumes like
1:06:59 preethi
1:07:01 but then others had never used a
1:07:03 framework before
1:07:04 and they the equity board had asked wow
1:07:08 really before i give input into
1:07:10 what i would recommend to the city
1:07:12 council for use i'd love to participate
1:07:15 in that same training that the council
1:07:16 participated in
1:07:18 so just uh last month on may 4th at
1:07:22 their regular meeting the equity board
1:07:25 participated in a training very similar
1:07:27 to what you all participated in the year
1:07:30 almost a year ago in july of 2021
1:07:33 but rather than look at both the step
1:07:35 model and the post postcard model they
1:07:37 took your feedback of favoring the
1:07:39 postcard model
1:07:41 and piloting two real world examples
1:07:45 pulled from other jurisdictions very
1:07:47 different samples
1:07:49 a parks project and then a human
1:07:50 resources item so that they had two
1:07:53 different samplings of very different
1:07:54 things to use a model on
1:07:57 and then that's what really kind of
1:07:59 brings us here tonight is to
1:08:02 take us to a place where
1:08:04 they have put a recommendation together
1:08:06 for your review so i'm going to stop
1:08:08 there on the history in the background
1:08:10 and i'm going to hand it back over to
1:08:12 preethi
1:08:13 to talk us through the recommendation of
1:08:15 the equity board
1:08:20 oh um maybe before so i see the slide is
1:08:24 up about the questions and i'll share
1:08:26 those questions with you all but first
1:08:28 just wanted to share a little bit about
1:08:31 the equity board's reflection of this
1:08:33 framework and um
1:08:35 before doing so wanting to acknowledge
1:08:38 shannon kelly ray who's the city's
1:08:40 equity consultant and her uh
1:08:43 development of uh kind of refining the
1:08:47 postcard model to be appropriate for the
1:08:49 city of issaquah she pulled together
1:08:51 this from various models and led the
1:08:54 equity board in a training and
1:08:55 facilitated our conversations so this is
1:08:57 largely uh i think due to her
1:09:00 her work moving this forward
1:09:02 um so
1:09:04 with the equity board we reflected on
1:09:08 the the fact that there's this list we
1:09:10 have a list now of 13 questions and
1:09:13 these the set of questions is the tool
1:09:16 that will help uh
1:09:19 staff
1:09:21 council members members of boards and
1:09:23 commissions inject diversity equity and
1:09:26 inclusion into the conversation
1:09:30 the focus here should be on the spirit
1:09:32 of the questions and not necessarily the
1:09:35 literal questions as this is a work in
1:09:37 progress
1:09:39 we wanted to
1:09:42 make the recommendation to move this
1:09:43 ahead so we can start seeing
1:09:47 projects
1:09:48 highlighted using this tool so we can
1:09:50 start a cycle of continuous improvement
1:09:53 and refinement on the tool we don't want
1:09:56 perfection to be the enemy of progress
1:09:59 and so the intention here is for whoever
1:10:03 the user of the tool is to respond to
1:10:06 these questions deliberately
1:10:10 the hope is that we all train our brains
1:10:12 out of making assumptions about living
1:10:15 in a monolithic community we live in a
1:10:18 diverse community and so this will
1:10:20 proactively get us to more equitable
1:10:23 solutions because we will think
1:10:25 intentionally about the impacts to
1:10:27 various
1:10:28 uh communities in issaquah we want to
1:10:31 start small to get started and just
1:10:35 i mean really the hope is to just get
1:10:36 started here
1:10:38 and um so our recommendation was to
1:10:42 uh ask city council to direct um an
1:10:47 administration to
1:10:49 uh accept this framework as a to pilot
1:10:53 we did have some feedback on the
1:10:55 framework um some of that feedback was
1:10:57 trying to maintain
1:10:59 uh data on how the pilot projects are
1:11:03 using the tool
1:11:04 to to continue the improvement um of
1:11:08 this tool
1:11:09 and also to see what the the impact is
1:11:11 of using the tool
1:11:13 and we also recommended uh including a
1:11:16 list of marginalized groups so uh the
1:11:19 folks using this can you know think uh
1:11:22 intentionally about the different groups
1:11:24 who could be impacted
1:11:26 and then
1:11:28 we also want the the use of this tool
1:11:31 not only to prevent harm or further harm
1:11:34 to marginalized communities but seeing
1:11:36 how this tool can be used to create and
1:11:38 promote social justice and close the
1:11:41 inequities that we're seeing or may see
1:11:44 between different groups
1:11:46 through the use of this tool
1:11:48 and so that that was some of the
1:11:50 recommendation and conversation that the
1:11:52 equity board had upon taking the
1:11:54 training
1:11:57 so i can
1:11:58 maybe read through these questions now
1:12:02 orient
1:12:03 the council's discussion
1:12:06 and so the the first question is
1:12:08 have i made any assumptions about the
1:12:10 cultural identity genders abilities
1:12:13 identities and or background of those
1:12:15 impacted by my by my decision
1:12:19 the second question is what is my
1:12:21 understanding
1:12:22 of the groups being impacted by my
1:12:24 decision are there unique cultural
1:12:27 circumstances that i should consider
1:12:30 how is my decision going to specifically
1:12:33 impact marginalized people have i
1:12:35 considered how to mitigate harmful
1:12:38 results
1:12:39 how has the council's past contact and
1:12:42 involvement with marginalized
1:12:45 stakeholder communities
1:12:46 influenced or how might it influence
1:12:50 my decision-making process and findings
1:12:53 the fifth question is what evidence has
1:12:56 supported every conclusion i have drawn
1:12:59 and how have i challenged unsupported
1:13:02 assumptions
1:13:06 thank you oh and it got smaller
1:13:09 the sixth question is how am i convinced
1:13:12 that reasonable efforts have been made
1:13:15 in an individualized way to match the
1:13:17 needs of the entire community
1:13:19 particularly marginalized populations
1:13:23 question seven
1:13:24 have we heard from disparately impacted
1:13:27 communities before we make any final
1:13:30 determinations or decisions
1:13:33 number eight is my own personal
1:13:35 experience culture and or background
1:13:38 preventing me from understanding and
1:13:40 taking the cultural issues of
1:13:42 marginalized stakeholders into account
1:13:45 in deciding what issues exist for those
1:13:48 disparately impacted
1:13:51 question 9
1:13:53 have we sacrificed the experience of
1:13:55 marginalized people for the comfort and
1:13:58 safety of those holding privilege
1:14:00 the majority population
1:14:02 and stakeholders not negatively impacted
1:14:06 question 10
1:14:08 are we giving full credibility to those
1:14:10 who are sharing concerns even though
1:14:13 their numbers are small or quiet in our
1:14:15 community
1:14:18 eleven
1:14:19 what are the racial equity impacts of a
1:14:21 particular decision
1:14:23 number twelve
1:14:25 who will benefit or be burdened by the
1:14:27 particular decisions
1:14:29 and the last question are there
1:14:31 strategies to mitigate unintended
1:14:33 consequences
1:14:35 so it's a it's a list maybe it fits on a
1:14:38 front and back of a postcard but um
1:14:40 those are the ones that uh we we think
1:14:42 will be a step in the right direction if
1:14:44 we um
1:14:45 are able to uh start piloting this tool
1:14:49 and i guess backup reduced stephanie or
1:14:52 well maybe i'll just wrap up here um so
1:14:55 um as part of our recommendation wanted
1:14:57 to incorporate
1:15:00 a list of different marginalized groups
1:15:04 that could be disproportionately
1:15:06 impacted by policy and so this is um
1:15:09 probably not an exhaustive list but one
1:15:11 that we suggest to get started which is
1:15:13 around race gender identity sexual
1:15:16 orientation age physical ability
1:15:20 language and immigration status
1:15:24 okay now i think it's back over to you
1:15:26 stephanie
1:15:27 thank you preethi
1:15:29 you know earlier in tonight's agenda i
1:15:31 heard uh council member d michelle say
1:15:34 uh you know building and flying
1:15:36 something at the same time and i think
1:15:38 the equity framework is exactly one of
1:15:40 those things that we need to do
1:15:42 um you know we can have analysis
1:15:44 paralysis on all the questions that are
1:15:47 perfect
1:15:48 um you know to build such a model but
1:15:51 the thing is you know
1:15:52 you know the equity board the internal
1:15:54 team um you know the we really feel
1:15:56 we're at this place that we've built
1:15:58 something we need to go fly it we need
1:16:01 to test it out on some projects and then
1:16:02 see what works and what doesn't um we've
1:16:05 gone in discussion from three questions
1:16:09 30 questions to 13 questions
1:16:12 we need to figure out where the right
1:16:14 cadence is and we've also tried to build
1:16:16 a tool
1:16:17 that really is used in
1:16:21 all audiences but three distinct
1:16:23 audiences the internal staff our boards
1:16:26 and commissions and then you all as as
1:16:28 council members um so i think you know
1:16:31 if we think of a workflow and and um you
1:16:34 know i'm going to get to next steps here
1:16:35 in a minute and some discussion but you
1:16:37 know does this work in the internal
1:16:39 staff level and let's figure that out
1:16:41 and then okay if it's working there
1:16:43 let's figure out if it works at board
1:16:45 and commission level and then if it's
1:16:47 working there and we refine is it
1:16:48 working at the council level so it's
1:16:50 really kind of one of those things that
1:16:51 we need to
1:16:53 we we're building and need to fly it at
1:16:55 the same time so
1:16:57 um in terms of discussion i would like
1:17:00 to ask you know
1:17:02 you know some distinct questions to you
1:17:04 all because uh really what we need
1:17:06 tonight is to know
1:17:08 have we missed anything
1:17:10 is there anything that you all feel is
1:17:12 helpful or not and then just overall
1:17:15 comments questions uh thoughts with what
1:17:18 we have presented this evening
1:17:22 thank you stephanie thank you preethi
1:17:24 that was awesome um so we've got a few
1:17:27 microphones ready
1:17:29 i'm not sure how the council would like
1:17:30 to proceed would you like to go
1:17:33 but one question at a time would you as
1:17:36 a speaker like to address all three of
1:17:37 the questions how would you guys like to
1:17:38 proceed
1:17:43 barb let's go for all three questions
1:17:47 um thank you well first of all uh really
1:17:50 really good work and
1:17:54 very thoughtful discussion
1:17:56 um and i like i like a lot of what i see
1:17:59 there
1:18:00 my only thought was with the uh the
1:18:02 first question any items missing
1:18:07 with a with the marginalized groups
1:18:10 and i'm going to ask it's a question
1:18:12 really more than a comment maybe
1:18:13 something that the equity board wants to
1:18:15 discuss in more depth but i'm just
1:18:17 wondering if we should add religion to
1:18:19 the marginalized groups and the reason
1:18:21 i'm asking that is with the rise in
1:18:24 white supremacy that we're seeing i know
1:18:26 the jewish community feels very much
1:18:28 under threat
1:18:29 the sikh community
1:18:31 [Music]
1:18:32 unfortunately had the massacre at one of
1:18:35 their temples
1:18:36 the muslim community since 9-1-1 has
1:18:39 been under kind of unrelenting
1:18:42 discrimination
1:18:44 and i'm sure we can find other examples
1:18:48 on the other hand there is the question
1:18:50 you know what is the difference between
1:18:52 some some religious groups
1:18:54 um are built around a theology and some
1:18:57 religious groups like the hindu groups
1:18:59 are built more around a culture
1:19:01 and so it may be religion may not be the
1:19:04 right word we want to use maybe culture
1:19:06 is the right word but anyway i i would
1:19:09 trust the equity board to be able to
1:19:11 discuss that in more depth and come up
1:19:13 with the right
1:19:14 right
1:19:18 what would you call it the right name
1:19:20 for that
1:19:21 for that but i i do think maybe it needs
1:19:23 to be drawn out but in this particular
1:19:26 in our history in this united states
1:19:29 um it does seem as though those groups
1:19:32 are under particular microscope so
1:19:36 for the other one are any items that
1:19:39 were helpful or not helpful no i didn't
1:19:41 see anything that i wanted to comment on
1:19:44 just overall i'm very pleased it looks
1:19:46 like a really good piece of work and i i
1:19:49 really appreciate it so thank you so
1:19:51 much thank you councilmember dave
1:19:53 michelle councilmember martz
1:19:55 thank you madam mayor um i would also
1:19:57 ask the equity board to consider primary
1:20:00 language
1:20:02 we have we have heard through our human
1:20:04 services
1:20:05 uh audits that our
1:20:08 spanish-speaking population our hispanic
1:20:10 population uh which i realize isn't
1:20:12 identical it's not identical things
1:20:16 has a very different uh economic uh
1:20:18 baseline and so may have uh equity
1:20:21 issues that are unique um to that
1:20:23 community here and they're uh they're a
1:20:25 not small uh part of our community uh
1:20:27 and that we don't hear from
1:20:29 as often as we maybe like the word quiet
1:20:31 in here
1:20:33 strikes me we have some quiet
1:20:34 communities
1:20:36 in terms of comments questions and
1:20:38 thoughts
1:20:40 i have long said every issue that we
1:20:43 face as a council is a tug of war
1:20:45 between at the one end the will
1:20:47 of the majority to set uh the policies
1:20:50 of their community and the rights of
1:20:52 individuals or under uh we could add
1:20:55 underrepresented communities at the
1:20:56 other end to not have their rights
1:20:58 trembled and and really every issue is
1:21:01 figuring out where the where to parse
1:21:04 and and some of those issues are hard
1:21:06 and so it'll be interesting to me to see
1:21:09 how this is used we had a sustainability
1:21:13 rubric in this city for many years that
1:21:15 would be attached to bills and it would
1:21:17 say you know have you considered
1:21:19 economic sustainability have you
1:21:21 considered environmental sustainability
1:21:23 have you considered social
1:21:24 sustainability and we would say yes yes
1:21:27 and yes
1:21:28 and so um you know the the proof will be
1:21:31 in the pudding when we get to an issue
1:21:34 that is fraught where the the push pull
1:21:38 between um
1:21:40 you know a strong will of the majority
1:21:42 and then
1:21:43 a strong sense from individuals or
1:21:46 smaller communities
1:21:47 differing points of view and how such a
1:21:51 standard would work so
1:21:53 i will be interested to see how we pilot
1:21:55 this down the road i think it's a
1:21:58 it's it's a great idea um
1:22:00 but you know politics is is often messy
1:22:03 and this won't make it not messy but
1:22:05 it's certainly things that we should
1:22:07 consider more actively um as we
1:22:09 adjudicate issues thank you thank you
1:22:11 councilmember martz councilmember ray
1:22:16 fully hand raised
1:22:18 um thank you for this this is great i'm
1:22:20 super excited about the approach of
1:22:23 let's take it out for a spin and we'll
1:22:25 learn and we'll we'll evolve and we'll
1:22:27 make it better because i think this is
1:22:28 too complex and too hard to get it right
1:22:31 the first time so kudos on that so thank
1:22:33 you um just recently and i think it was
1:22:35 yesterday the new york times did a story
1:22:38 about
1:22:39 race and
1:22:40 the issues faced primarily by
1:22:44 african-american and hispanic
1:22:46 populations and one of the things that
1:22:48 came out in the study they did was
1:22:49 around
1:22:51 status as much as it was around race so
1:22:54 i would just and i don't know the answer
1:22:56 but i want you to think about it equity
1:22:57 board
1:22:58 is socioeconomic uh position status
1:23:02 whatever
1:23:03 a marginalized group that we want to
1:23:05 consider also so
1:23:08 i don't know the answer i'm just going
1:23:09 to suggest that you look at it because
1:23:10 it's a top of mind
1:23:13 and then the only thing that i would
1:23:17 suggest you consider is 13 is a lot of
1:23:19 stuff salmon is great it's six six you
1:23:22 can wrap your brain around so if there's
1:23:23 a way to consolidate um
1:23:27 polish out themes to make it more
1:23:31 internalizable if that's a word um
1:23:35 because
1:23:36 what we wanted is we don't want people
1:23:38 have to pull out the postcard every time
1:23:39 they have to make a decision we want it
1:23:40 to become kind of who we are second
1:23:43 nature and and with 13 it's going to get
1:23:45 hard but if but you did great with
1:23:47 salmon so
1:23:49 so um so i i that's just
1:23:51 a thought if there's a way to
1:23:53 make it a little easier to uh process
1:23:56 and consume i think that would make it
1:23:57 more useful and i think we'd end up with
1:24:01 higher adoption so but thank you
1:24:05 councilmember joe
1:24:08 thank you madam mayor
1:24:10 ms johnson has there been any discussion
1:24:12 about um
1:24:16 what a potential
1:24:18 item that we might be having
1:24:21 coming before the council soon
1:24:23 that we might want to test this on in
1:24:25 other words
1:24:26 has there been a discussion in terms of
1:24:28 what might be the best test case so to
1:24:30 speak to
1:24:31 kind of test this out and see if it
1:24:33 flies
1:24:36 really good question and i i'll take a
1:24:38 stab at this but i welcome city
1:24:40 administrator bob kuitz to
1:24:42 provide some input too
1:24:44 i literally have a postcard of of
1:24:47 suggested
1:24:48 things that i've been
1:24:51 writing down each time
1:24:54 we're considering a policy or project in
1:24:57 the city and we say oh we should run
1:24:59 that through maybe an equity lens or
1:25:01 framework
1:25:03 they go from very large things to very
1:25:06 small things and i think
1:25:08 do we have it pinpointed as to which one
1:25:10 no but i do think uh by the fact that we
1:25:13 are um building and flying at the same
1:25:16 time we probably need to start small and
1:25:18 and go bigger um you know obviously
1:25:21 something like any infrastructure
1:25:23 investment decisions are probably rather
1:25:25 large but you know there's a lot to
1:25:27 unpack in that
1:25:29 we have some different programs in the
1:25:32 that we're looking at
1:25:33 shuttles and scooters and things
1:25:36 civil service rules i have you know some
1:25:39 oversight um
1:25:40 you know staff liaison to the civil
1:25:42 service commission
1:25:44 um looking at i i was looking at some
1:25:46 rural revisions um i think that would be
1:25:49 um you know an item that we could
1:25:51 certainly take as a policy through
1:25:54 equity lens
1:25:59 administrative services director autumn
1:26:01 monahan
1:26:02 we have an engagement
1:26:04 toolkit in the city
1:26:06 she's had a work plan item to look at
1:26:09 we've talked about ways in which we
1:26:11 could uh put that through an equity lens
1:26:13 so a lot of brainstorming
1:26:16 no landing yet
1:26:18 but i'll pause there and see if city
1:26:19 administrator bob quits has input
1:26:23 you did yourself thank you director
1:26:25 johnson members of the council um
1:26:27 again we've said a couple of times that
1:26:29 we're building this and flying the plane
1:26:30 at the same time and so i think we're
1:26:32 going to continue to do that um you know
1:26:34 we don't see this as a form we don't
1:26:36 want people to check boxes we want
1:26:38 people to uh deal with us and i think i
1:26:41 think the salmon values is
1:26:43 an excellent example that we've been
1:26:44 talking about internally
1:26:46 so we're going to try it with 13 we want
1:26:48 to be respectful to the equity board to
1:26:50 cover all of those various topics
1:26:53 you know my take on this is that some of
1:26:55 them will be easier than others and so i
1:26:57 think we'll have to come back to the
1:26:58 mayor and to the council over time and
1:27:02 what is the value to perhaps dig deeper
1:27:05 in some of these and is the time and
1:27:07 energy
1:27:08 worth it compared to the value that
1:27:10 comes out once we're we're done with
1:27:12 that discussion and i'm not sure what
1:27:14 the answer will be but
1:27:15 my guess is 13 is going to be difficult
1:27:18 to institutionalize and that if we are
1:27:20 able to have it be half the number but
1:27:23 make sure that whatever those
1:27:25 let's say six or seven are truly
1:27:27 meaningful
1:27:28 that will be the challenge the salmon
1:27:29 values
1:27:31 you know really are very elegant um and
1:27:34 you know many many many communities have
1:27:36 tried to get mission vision values uh
1:27:39 down in a meaningful way and you know we
1:27:41 have succeeded others prior to my i'm
1:27:43 not gonna take any credit others prior
1:27:45 to me have succeeded so our challenge
1:27:48 now is to do this with an equity
1:27:49 framework equity lens uh communities all
1:27:52 over america are having these
1:27:53 conversations and i fear what sometimes
1:27:56 happens is that people do get bogged
1:27:58 down and it becomes too difficult and it
1:28:00 gets sent back to committee and in the
1:28:01 meantime governance continues projects
1:28:04 continues decisions continue and you
1:28:05 still don't have anything so
1:28:07 we'll i think stephanie's posted is
1:28:10 exactly correct and others
1:28:12 projects we need to train the staff we
1:28:14 need to have the staff to have this kind
1:28:16 of discussion as well that says how can
1:28:18 we institutionalize this uh get their
1:28:21 feedback as we use it
1:28:23 it's going to be very inelegant for the
1:28:25 next few months and we're going to come
1:28:26 back to you with a report after one
1:28:28 quarter and you likely will be
1:28:30 frustrated and we'll be frustrated too
1:28:32 but at least we'll have tried and we'll
1:28:34 i think we'll share honestly with you uh
1:28:36 feedback and we'll go from there
1:28:39 thank you very much that's uh
1:28:41 encouraging that you're starting to
1:28:43 think about how it would apply my last
1:28:45 comment would just uh echo council
1:28:47 member ray's comment about economic
1:28:51 social status in essence if you look at
1:28:53 the categories in the boxes
1:28:56 underlying all of those often
1:28:59 is your economic status
1:29:01 based on you know where you started
1:29:04 and the challenges you had all the way
1:29:06 through
1:29:07 your life with with
1:29:09 your life's journey so i think that
1:29:12 having
1:29:14 that is
1:29:15 another category to consider uh would be
1:29:17 something very helpful along the way so
1:29:20 i'd encourage an examination of that
1:29:22 thank you thank you councilmember joe i
1:29:24 just wanted to add in a little
1:29:27 context or history i think the council's
1:29:30 done an excellent job over the last five
1:29:32 years and looking at
1:29:34 the disparity that happens with
1:29:36 those that are on the lower end of the
1:29:38 income scale and adjusting the programs
1:29:41 one of the things i've been hearing from
1:29:42 the equity board is the potential that
1:29:44 they'd like to change it to the race
1:29:47 equity board
1:29:48 and again that's a movement slightly
1:29:50 different from what you're saying so i
1:29:52 think one good future council
1:29:53 conversation would be
1:29:55 do those belong together or is there a
1:29:58 program and lens that you've been
1:30:00 currently using some of the stuff you
1:30:02 saw in the 13 questions i don't think
1:30:04 are questions that pop up in our head
1:30:05 but there are several council members
1:30:07 who always ask how would this affect a
1:30:10 low income renter how would this affect
1:30:11 a senior so i think we have made a
1:30:13 little progress in that area but this is
1:30:15 a good conversation for you guys to have
1:30:16 in the future
1:30:18 any other comments or questions
1:30:23 deputy council's present uh
1:30:25 thank you uh no um
1:30:28 no additional uh comments here i agree
1:30:30 with everything that's been said by my
1:30:31 colleagues and thank you very much for
1:30:32 the hard work of the equity board and of
1:30:34 course all of our um
1:30:36 equity consultants and even our first
1:30:38 trainer benita horn um who kind of
1:30:41 introduced the issue to us i believe but
1:30:45 just to clarify so the pilot of these
1:30:48 questions would be for internal city
1:30:50 decisions essentially
1:30:52 running it against some test case or
1:30:54 running it against some decisions of
1:30:56 internal staff and then coming back to
1:30:57 council with a report card of how it
1:30:59 worked and
1:31:01 potential areas for improvement is that
1:31:02 right
1:31:05 i do think so um i think we're making
1:31:07 this up as we go a little bit right and
1:31:09 so absolutely in terms of um next steps
1:31:12 i don't know if we want to
1:31:14 move totally off this yet but i'll um
1:31:16 answer your question you know um like
1:31:18 city administrator bob quit said you
1:31:20 know we we've trained the council and
1:31:23 the equity board but we have not you
1:31:25 know had the conversations internally in
1:31:27 training the staff and so that will be
1:31:29 you know the first order of business
1:31:31 i imagine that we're going to need to
1:31:32 bring this conversation to all the
1:31:34 boards and commissions as well and so i
1:31:36 think there would be some good value if
1:31:39 we can achieve you know not just the
1:31:41 internal conversation but we also take
1:31:44 whatever we pilot and and figure out how
1:31:46 it parallels with the work of any board
1:31:48 and commission that's on that project or
1:31:52 if they're involved and then bring it
1:31:54 back to council so i think there's three
1:31:56 eyes on it we just have to figure out
1:31:58 exactly
1:31:59 what that looks like in that workflow
1:32:03 okay so potentially
1:32:07 piloting piloting it through internal
1:32:10 staff decisions and then also board and
1:32:14 commission decisions
1:32:16 and then after
1:32:18 because you said that there are kind of
1:32:20 three eyes here like internal city
1:32:21 boards and commissions and councils so
1:32:23 council will be last it sounds like from
1:32:24 your presentation what kind of so this
1:32:27 first pilot this first stage essentially
1:32:29 will be running it through internal city
1:32:31 in boards and commissions and then
1:32:32 coming back and saying did that work do
1:32:34 you think we have enough
1:32:36 time to do all that it seems like it
1:32:38 go oh go ahead and you just started
1:32:40 answering your own question uh the the
1:32:43 issue is going to be time and that's why
1:32:46 we are not prepared to commit to a
1:32:48 specific framework rubric
1:32:50 you know it will be six projects with
1:32:53 three pages of analysis on how we did it
1:32:55 for each we're not prepared to do that
1:32:57 but we are saying tonight is with the
1:32:59 council's concurrence we're going to
1:33:00 move forward start using it and we'll
1:33:03 come back to you in a few months and
1:33:04 report how it's happened i think we're
1:33:07 trying to you know be as realistic as we
1:33:09 can we want to start using it period
1:33:12 and we don't want to get too bogged down
1:33:16 i was just going to get too bogged down
1:33:17 with the details i mean i guess that's
1:33:18 kind of what i want to say we want to
1:33:20 start using it we want to start having
1:33:22 impacting how we do business and so let
1:33:25 us do that we'll come back in a few
1:33:26 months and tell you how we did
1:33:28 um you'll be frustrated you'll want us
1:33:31 to do more but we're we're committing
1:33:34 tonight that we're going to start using
1:33:35 it so i wish i could be more precise but
1:33:38 i want to set expectations tonight to
1:33:40 say it's not going to be as precise as
1:33:43 any of us would like
1:33:45 okay thank you very much
1:33:47 council president i heard you have your
1:33:48 hand up as well
1:33:51 thank you and i appreciate the
1:33:52 opportunity to provide some feedback um
1:33:55 i'm excited about using this i love the
1:33:58 idea of trialing and testing it and
1:34:00 building it as we're using it
1:34:03 and seeing it in the each of those
1:34:05 instances when i look over the set of 13
1:34:09 questions my mind starts to boil them
1:34:12 down to a few
1:34:13 different concepts some are
1:34:16 questions that you ask yourself about
1:34:20 the assumptions that you've made
1:34:23 what your understanding of things are
1:34:25 what your biases
1:34:27 those to me seem pretty straightforward
1:34:30 and they hearken back to
1:34:34 you know some of the concepts that we've
1:34:36 really learned through our equity
1:34:38 training
1:34:39 others um other sets of questions
1:34:42 to me almost seem like
1:34:45 something that needs to be a baseline of
1:34:48 consideration those are from my
1:34:50 perspective or more of the who what
1:34:52 where when
1:34:54 questions so there's a few on here what
1:34:56 are the racial equity impacts of a
1:34:58 particular decision who will benefit or
1:35:00 be burdened by the particular decisions
1:35:02 are there strategies to mitigate
1:35:04 unintended consequences so when i'm
1:35:06 looking at that from
1:35:08 a board and commission member or council
1:35:10 member
1:35:11 those
1:35:12 to me are some of the questions
1:35:17 i would want to make sure came through
1:35:19 on a staff report or if it was something
1:35:22 for an internal conversation it was
1:35:24 these are the questions that we need to
1:35:26 get answered at the beginning so that we
1:35:28 can start to consider some of the other
1:35:31 pieces
1:35:32 as a whole
1:35:33 and so that everyone's coming into it
1:35:36 some of the same pieces of information
1:35:39 and then a third piece of it is really
1:35:42 about
1:35:43 did we get the feedback
1:35:45 needed to make these effective decisions
1:35:49 and that to me
1:35:51 is where i have the most concerns
1:35:54 because historically we've had a very
1:35:57 quiet community we've had a fairly
1:35:59 satisfied community at least as far as
1:36:04 rocking the boat um maybe that's a
1:36:06 little bit of our seattle niceness
1:36:08 coming out
1:36:13 i become concerned what we do
1:36:17 we have
1:36:21 questions here that say have we heard
1:36:24 from the disparately impacted
1:36:25 communities before we make any final
1:36:27 determinations or decisions and i say
1:36:30 and staff says well we tried to reach
1:36:34 out but nobody responded
1:36:36 and so i would think
1:36:39 i would like
1:36:41 as we're going through this trial
1:36:43 process
1:36:44 to think about what happens when
1:36:46 something like that is the situation
1:36:49 what happens when we don't receive the
1:36:51 engagement when the stakeholders aren't
1:36:53 present
1:36:56 how much of that is further pushed back
1:36:58 on staff to say
1:37:00 we can't make this decision without
1:37:02 other people's contributions versus
1:37:06 we received
1:37:08 all the feedback that we're going to get
1:37:10 and we need to do the city's business so
1:37:13 that that's my only area of concern and
1:37:15 then i would just say toward the idea of
1:37:19 kind of boiling down in my head to kind
1:37:21 of these three chunks of conversations
1:37:25 that might be
1:37:26 one or chunks of questions that might be
1:37:28 one way to simplify
1:37:31 use of this as a document
1:37:35 streamline the number of questions but
1:37:36 maybe group them according to how
1:37:38 they're to be used
1:37:40 but if not i would definitely give a
1:37:42 plus one to
1:37:44 council member ray's comments on
1:37:46 consolidation and the elegance of the
1:37:48 salmon values so thank you
1:37:53 thank you council president
1:37:56 is there any further discussion or are
1:37:58 we looking for a motion
1:38:02 deputy council's president
1:38:04 thank you i moved to direct the
1:38:06 administration to proceed with
1:38:08 implementation of the equity framework
1:38:10 as recommended by the equity board
1:38:16 second thank you is there any further
1:38:18 discussion it's been moved and seconded
1:38:25 uh the motion before the council is to
1:38:28 direct the administration to proceed
1:38:29 with implementation of the equity
1:38:31 framework as recommended by the equity
1:38:32 board all those in favor signify by
1:38:34 saying aye aye
1:38:39 those opposed
1:38:41 that carries
1:38:42 that passes unanimously
1:38:44 and before we move on to good of the
1:38:46 order um i just wanted to add one
1:38:48 comment to the conversation you just had
1:38:50 those were excellent comments and
1:38:51 suggestions i think a future
1:38:54 conversation about expectations of what
1:38:56 this is is this a list that we that we
1:39:01 check as we go through it
1:39:02 is this a section in a report it's a
1:39:05 checklist
1:39:06 um and it would be great to even ask the
1:39:08 equity board how they envision it to be
1:39:10 used because the way they presented it
1:39:13 as an equity framework felt to me like
1:39:16 it was an exercise for us to stretch our
1:39:18 brains
1:39:20 and that if we had 13 questions or six
1:39:23 we will be asking them ourselves and
1:39:25 that we will answer them differently and
1:39:28 so i just think maybe having a future
1:39:30 conversation about the use of it might
1:39:32 be helpful because i heard several
1:39:33 different things tonight about youth so
1:39:37 preethi thank you so much for coming
1:39:39 stephanie thank you so much for coming
1:39:42 uh at good of the order i have a few
1:39:44 other words about this amazing equity
1:39:46 board that i'm going to share with the
1:39:47 group but we are moving into good of the
1:39:49 order does anybody have any items
1:39:51 councilmember mertz
1:39:53 thank you madam mayor so as i mentioned
1:39:55 in my report on sca pick there is a
1:39:58 draft sca clean water plan guiding
1:40:01 principles document out there there are
1:40:04 19 of them
1:40:06 i shan't go through all 19 of them here
1:40:09 this evening but um sca will be asked or
1:40:12 pick will be asked
1:40:14 to consider uh formally supporting these
1:40:18 draft principles and i want to get a
1:40:20 sense from this body
1:40:22 whether people are generally comfortable
1:40:24 with that you know i have sort of three
1:40:26 options
1:40:28 in a situation i can either say my
1:40:30 counsel supports it or i can say my
1:40:33 council doesn't support it or i can say
1:40:35 we didn't really have a sense of the
1:40:38 so i'm just gonna sit i'm gonna ride
1:40:39 this this vote out
1:40:42 um i would open it up to feedback from
1:40:46 my fellow council members on on the
1:40:49 draft principles councilmember hunt
1:40:53 thank you and thank you for the
1:40:54 opportunity to speak to this
1:40:56 i serve on the regional water quality
1:40:59 committee we make recommendations on a
1:41:01 number of issues up to the king county
1:41:04 on issues having to do with sewer and
1:41:06 water quality and wastewater treatment
1:41:09 and this was
1:41:11 this draft the sca clean water plan
1:41:13 guiding principles this was something
1:41:15 that i had an opportunity to work on
1:41:17 with other sca member cities in our sca
1:41:20 caucus for the regional water quality
1:41:22 committee
1:41:23 and um
1:41:24 i i do support it i would um
1:41:27 i would recommend that our our city does
1:41:30 support this at pick and i wanted to
1:41:32 give some context about why
1:41:36 so the
1:41:37 there are a lot of principles um the
1:41:39 main ones which got moved to the top
1:41:42 because they're the main important ones
1:41:43 are about the scope of the clean water
1:41:45 plan and concern about keeping it
1:41:47 specific to wastewater specific
1:41:50 actions and
1:41:51 clarifying
1:41:53 the clarifying the program what is in
1:41:55 scope and what is out of scope and the
1:41:57 reason why that's especially important
1:41:59 for this plan
1:42:00 is that
1:42:02 [Music]
1:42:03 is a number of things but one of the
1:42:05 important pieces of context is that
1:42:07 there's
1:42:10 a proposed 10-year rate plan
1:42:12 currently which would which shows a
1:42:14 doubling of the regional monthly sewer
1:42:16 rate by 2032. so a doubling over the
1:42:19 next decade of a sewer rate um and that
1:42:22 is potentially very burdensome cost
1:42:25 burdensome to a number of people in our
1:42:27 region
1:42:28 and um
1:42:30 is is a big concern if you think about
1:42:32 the doubling of rate over that period of
1:42:33 time the other issue is that there was a
1:42:35 proposed 2023 rate of 5.75
1:42:38 a proposed rate of 4
1:42:40 and then just eight months after that
1:42:42 they actually increased that to 5.75
1:42:45 that was a recent increase over what
1:42:47 they pro what they were
1:42:50 projecting and that change happened over
1:42:52 it over a very rapid period of time
1:42:55 so the costs are very high and the
1:42:59 committee felt that it was very
1:43:01 important to get a handle on what's in
1:43:03 scope
1:43:04 and you know how do we evaluate the
1:43:06 rates there's also some concerns about
1:43:09 quality but also about affordability and
1:43:11 the effects on the rate payers and and
1:43:13 needing to really understand that um so
1:43:17 that's some of the context that i
1:43:18 thought was
1:43:20 important there's a letter which i which
1:43:22 i can share which is from the
1:43:24 metropolitan water pollution abatement
1:43:26 advisory committee this is a
1:43:28 technical
1:43:29 committee that also makes
1:43:30 recommendations and gary schimack is a
1:43:33 he is the
1:43:35 engineering and planning chair on that
1:43:36 committee he advises me on this
1:43:39 committee um
1:43:40 and uh he he and his
1:43:43 colleagues drafted this letter that
1:43:45 really explains like why this is a
1:43:47 um why this is such an important issue
1:43:49 for our region so um
1:43:52 i i wanted to give that context and
1:43:54 wanted to say you know i think this is a
1:43:55 very important plan it has a lot of
1:43:58 important
1:43:59 implications for our region and so we
1:44:02 just drafted these guiding principles to
1:44:04 make it clear
1:44:06 how we see this this plan
1:44:09 uh providing
1:44:11 quality service but also taking into
1:44:14 account this this affordability issue
1:44:16 that we are currently facing
1:44:20 thank you councilmember hunt um anybody
1:44:23 else because yeah that that issue of
1:44:25 wastewater specific um that was also as
1:44:28 you saw the notes from the sca pic
1:44:30 meeting that was also the primary topic
1:44:32 of discussion um at the initial
1:44:34 conversation with pic we add a comment
1:44:36 as well oh thank you
1:44:38 um really so proud of this council in
1:44:40 their regional work over the last 10
1:44:42 years to move themselves into chairs
1:44:44 where we really need people sitting so
1:44:46 this has been um there are many topics
1:44:48 out there that affect the 38 cities
1:44:51 outside of seattle and sitting in the
1:44:53 right chairs and sitting in the picture
1:44:55 as long as councilman martz has really
1:44:57 gets to bring those issues here home
1:44:59 but i also sit on the sc i sit on the
1:45:01 executive board who has a chance to
1:45:02 review these documents as they're
1:45:04 ongoing and i did mention the other week
1:45:05 that this is the best work we do when
1:45:08 the 38 cities sit down and come up with
1:45:10 a quite list of criteria or very
1:45:13 important
1:45:15 aspects of something that's coming
1:45:17 through because this body speaks so
1:45:19 loudly so i read the draft as well i
1:45:21 thought it was excellent i didn't have
1:45:23 any corrections to it at all i just
1:45:24 really appreciate those that are sitting
1:45:26 on the regional committees and those
1:45:27 that are sitting on pick for what you
1:45:28 guys are doing it's very very powerful
1:45:32 thank you madam mayor anything else for
1:45:34 good of the order uh council president
1:45:36 welsh
1:45:38 thank you um and first of all i just
1:45:41 really appreciate you making sure that
1:45:44 summary information was there from the
1:45:47 minutes that was very useful in trying
1:45:50 to navigate this idea
1:45:54 think this is a very well thought out
1:45:57 set of ideals around you know recreating
1:46:00 or re envisioning what the clean water
1:46:03 plan is um i would say if there's
1:46:06 anything i would put a highlight on
1:46:08 under 18b
1:46:11 which was really about
1:46:12 collaboration between wtd and
1:46:16 the communities
1:46:19 i very much appreciate the fact that the
1:46:21 king county solid waste comprehensive
1:46:24 had to be approved by a certain number
1:46:27 of cities i think that's one of the
1:46:29 things that makes us stronger as a
1:46:32 community and so i would i would
1:46:35 highlight that and the
1:46:38 as much as we can do to push that as an
1:46:40 idea either at the 66 percent um that
1:46:43 they proposed or at the 75 which is the
1:46:46 same that we do for the solid waste
1:46:50 contract so um
1:46:52 very much in support just put as much
1:46:54 power behind it as possible
1:46:57 and i can highlight that in my comments
1:46:58 at pick oh great
1:47:03 thank you councilmember martz any other
1:47:05 items for this evening on good of the
1:47:06 order i do have a few meeting
1:47:07 announcements coming up
1:47:10 except that my computer died
1:47:16 that's okay
1:47:19 somebody please have another item for
1:47:20 good of the order so i can
1:47:24 okay i'll jump in okay
1:47:27 when i i had so much to talk about with
1:47:29 the regional transit committee that i
1:47:31 didn't really give
1:47:32 everything that happened so
1:47:34 um this was just a good news item uh
1:47:38 uh general manager of white announced
1:47:44 a metro bus driver named jonathan futch
1:47:47 futch was selected as the seattle pride
1:47:50 parade grand marshal this year he's
1:47:54 representing all of the essential
1:47:55 workers who continued in-person work
1:47:58 during the pandemic and he's also
1:48:00 representing the many members of the
1:48:02 lgbtq community who are essential
1:48:05 workers and there was just this great
1:48:08 feeling when
1:48:10 general manager white announced that and
1:48:12 they had shown pictures of him and
1:48:14 everything and he's going to be the
1:48:15 grand marshal of the pride parade so
1:48:17 just a little feel-good item
1:48:20 that is awesome thank you for saving me
1:48:22 um i did have one equity board uh
1:48:26 item to share for good of the order too
1:48:28 um so while the equity board is less
1:48:30 than a year old um
1:48:32 the folks that chose to interview and
1:48:34 got selected to sit on this are some of
1:48:36 our most passionate board members
1:48:38 uh the work that they're doing is
1:48:39 amazing
1:48:40 and i'm hoping through sca to be able to
1:48:43 do a few spotlight moments on equity
1:48:46 where i can present or use them to
1:48:48 present two of the things that they have
1:48:50 done so far which is
1:48:53 city cultural calendar which i have been
1:48:56 asked for you know 15 times already and
1:48:59 they just want to use it and i know i'd
1:49:00 say no it has to reflect your city
1:49:03 and also this
1:49:05 piloting of an equity framework not
1:49:07 waiting till there's a big study and a
1:49:09 big document and all that but just being
1:49:12 courageous enough to
1:49:14 build it while it's flying through the
1:49:16 air and so i've asked sca for hopefully
1:49:18 to at some of those social functions to
1:49:20 spotlight moments and i'm hoping maybe
1:49:22 to use equity board members in a short
1:49:24 little video clip instead of me talking
1:49:26 so they're really really doing like
1:49:28 amazing amazing work
1:49:31 the meetings that are coming up monday
1:49:34 june 27th is a city council committee of
1:49:36 the whole
1:49:37 the anticipated agenda item includes the
1:49:39 community investment strategy this is
1:49:42 related to arpa
1:49:43 and i believe also use of ending fund
1:49:46 balance wally are they both in there
1:49:47 they're both in there
1:49:49 uh city council photos will be taken
1:49:51 prior to the committee of the whole
1:49:52 meeting
1:49:54 so that means i don't have to have the
1:49:56 pictures done
1:49:58 uh the meeting will begin at 7 pm uh
1:50:00 tuesday july 5th is our regular city
1:50:03 council meeting
1:50:04 that is a different date for us because
1:50:06 of the holiday and the anticipated
1:50:08 agenda items include the electric
1:50:10 scooter share pilot program and the
1:50:12 continuation of the community investment
1:50:15 strategy item if necessary from the
1:50:17 committee of the whole
1:50:19 there is no executive session this
1:50:21 evening so with there being no further
1:50:23 business we are adjourned at 8 51.

Attendance

Council / Members (7)
Barbara de Michele
Zach Hall
Victoria Hunt
Russell Joe
Tola Marts
Chris Reh
Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)

Motions and votes (3)

Confirmed the Mayor's appointment of Paula Schwan as Police Chief for the City of Issaquah effective immediately. . Following the confirmation, Mayor Pauly swore in Paula Schwan as Police Chief. AUDIENCE COMMENTS The following public comments were provided: • Nathan Bosseler, resident and business o…
Moved by HALL · seconded by MARTS
Carried 7-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)
Approve Resolution No. 2022-10, adopting a Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program and directing the same to be filed with the State Secretary of Transportation. . b)
Moved by HALL · seconded by JOE
Carried 7-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)
Direct the Administration to proceed with implementation of the Equity Framework as recommended by the Equity Board. .
Moved by HALL · seconded by DE MICHELE
Carried 7-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh (Attended Virtually)