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City Council Regular Meeting Auto captions

Monday, August 7, 2023

7:00 PM · 2h 27m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topics tracked across meetings:
WSDOT Fish Passage Project City Liaison Contract AB 8845 2/3
Puget Sound Regional Council Vision 2050 Environmental Stewardship ID 1503 2/2
2022 Year End Overview & 2023 24 Revenue Forecast ID 1470 2/2
Section
Topic
3. SPECIAL BUSINESS
3a
Puget Sound Regional Council Vision 2050 Environmental Stewardship ID 1503
Award (Carbon Forest Credits) · 5 min · packet pp.5
Topics: TreesClimate
Staff report:
Executive Office 130 E. Sunset Way | P.O. Box 1307 Issaquah, WA 98027 425-837-3020 issaquahwa.gov
5. CONSENT CALENDAR
5a
Accounts: Payables and Payroll of Aug. 7, 2023, $4,422,715.64 ID 1476
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.7–33
Topics: Budget
Staff report:
Finance Department P.O. Box 1307 Issaquah, WA 98027 PH: 425-837-3050 www.issaquahwa.gov
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, Mayor pro tem
5b
Minutes: City Council Special Meeting, March 30, 2023
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.35
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR b) 03-30-23 City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page (0000) CITY OF ISSAQUAH City Council Special Meeting – Community Listening Session 6:30 PM Atlas Apartments Lobby March 30, 2023 MINUTES 1036 7th Ave. NW
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, Mayor pro tem
5c
Minutes: City Council Committee of the Whole, April 24, 2023
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.37–39
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR c) 04-24-23 City Council Committee of the Whole Minutes Page (0000)
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, Mayor pro tem
5f
Minutes: City Council Committee of the Whole, May 22, 2023
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.53–54
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR f) 05-22-23 City Council Committee of the Whole Page XXXX Minutes CITY OF ISSAQUAH City Council Committee-of-the-Whole – Special Meeting 7:15 PM Council Chambers May 22, 2023 MINUTES 135 E. Sunset Way
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, Mayor pro tem
5g
Dept. of Ecology Pollution Prevention Assistance (PPA) Partnership AB 8659
Carried 7-0
Accept Grant; Authorize Agreement · packet pp.55–80
Topics: Critical Areas
Staff report:
The Washington State Dept. of Ecology (Ecology) works in partnership with local governments in Puget Sound to reduce or eliminate hazardous waste and pollutants at businesses from entering stormwater, groundwater, and the sanitary sewer. Ecology currently provides inter-agency PPA agreements to over 22 local governments to fund staff known as Pollution Prevention (PP) Specialists, who conduct technical assistance, site visits, education, outreach, reporting, and other elements with the objective of reducing sources of pollutants.
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, Mayor pro tem
5h
Interagency Reimbursement Agreement with Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts (State v. Blake Decision) AB 8669
Carried 7-0
Authorize · packet pp.81–154
Staff report:
On February 25, 2021, the Washington State Supreme Court entered its decision in State of Washington v. Blake, invalidating as unconstitutional the crime of simple possession of a controlled substance under RCW 69.50.4013. The Supreme Court voided the law, not only prospectively, but also retroactively, with the effect that previous convictions were void at the time of conviction.
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, Mayor pro tem
5i
Broadband Public Outreach AB 8671
Carried 7-0
Direct Administration · packet pp.155–157
Staff report:
As the Administration first conveyed through ID #1115 in the June 6, 2022 City Council meeting packet, feedback from the community survey conducted in the spring of 2021 helped identify the need for a Broadband Assessment. In that survey, close to 78 percent of respondents replied that they planned to continue working from home at least one day a week after the COVID-19 pandemic. For those who work from home, about 70 percent of respondents said high-speed internet was the most critical amenity. The Administration was also aware at that time of anecdotal evidence that portions of the City experienced internet service that did not meet the 2021 broadband speed standards of 25 Megabytes per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload.
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, Mayor pro tem
6. REGULAR BUSINESS
6b
WSDOT Fish Passage Project City Property Impacts ID 1486
Direct Administration · 30 min · packet pp.203–225
Topics: TransportationWater
Staff report:
1. Lewis Creek at SE Newport Way
6c
2022 Year End Overview & 2023 24 Revenue Forecast ID 1470
Receive Report · 30 min · packet pp.227–247
Staff report:
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 General Fund budget finished close to the 2022 year-end projections presented to Council in August 2022, with a slight decrease in actual ending fund balance due to an increase in actual expenditures primarily due to the filling of vacant positions:
9. INFORMATIONAL UPDATES
9a
Informational Update: ICMA Fellow Presentation ID 1519
10 min · packet pp.249–255
Staff report:
International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Fellowship Reflection AUGUST 7 TH , 2023 | CITY COUNCIL MEETING
10. GOOD OF THE ORDER
10a
Upcoming Council Meetings
11. EXECUTIVE SESSION
11a
Executive Session - Property Acquisition per RCW 42.30.110(1)(b) ID 1522
40 min
0:02 okay welcome everyone I council
0:05 president Walsh called the August 7th
0:07 city council meeting to order mayor
0:09 Pauley has an excused absence tonight so
0:11 I'll be serving as mayor Pro tem as a
0:14 reminder we continue to have a remote
0:15 aspect to our meetings so both staff and
0:18 members of the public may be
0:20 participating in tonight's meeting
0:22 remotely via WebEx we have several items
0:25 on our agenda tonight and we will have
0:28 several opportunities for public comment
0:31 but we are going to start with the
0:32 Pledge of Allegiance I welcome you to
0:34 join me
0:57 thank you everyone so the next item
1:01 business is special business we've got
1:03 ID 1503 Puget Sound Regional Council
1:06 Vision 2050 environmental stewardship
1:08 award related to our carbon Forest
1:11 credits so I'd like to invite a psrc
1:14 executive director Josh Brown and parks
1:16 and Community Services director Jeff
1:19 Watling to the lectern
1:33 thank you so much
1:36 thank you for having me here today
1:38 members of the council I'm Josh Brown
1:40 executive director of the Puget Sound
1:42 Regional Council and I'm here to be able
1:45 to share congratulations so one of the
1:47 things that we do at psrc
1:50 as the Region's Regional planning
1:52 agencies through our vision 2050 Awards
1:54 is to recognize great efforts to
1:57 implement our regional plans as you all
1:59 know as we're developing Vision 2050 our
2:01 transportation plan our economic
2:03 strategy we're oftentimes looking long
2:05 term Over the Horizon the big things we
2:07 that we need to get right but it's our
2:09 member governments our cities counties
2:11 Transit agencies tribes Sports other
2:14 partners that are the ones that are very
2:17 much implementing those Regional plans
2:19 and we have we have different categories
2:22 for our vision 2050 Awards this is truly
2:25 an implementation award it's our on the
2:27 ground category which really recognizes
2:30 great efforts to take those plans and
2:32 and put them into place
2:34 so what's being recognized well the
2:36 city's carbon Forest credits program to
2:39 support environmental stewardship is
2:41 being recognized and if you're not
2:43 familiar with the program this is a
2:46 unique Innovative way to generate
2:47 Revenue to support
2:49 preservation and stewardship of urban
2:51 Forest lands something that'll benefit
2:54 Issaquah benefit the surrounding areas
2:57 and benefit Western Washington in the
2:59 region
3:00 so I want to congratulate the city for
3:02 your fantastic Innovation
3:04 congratulations I know as it is with you
3:07 know my case at fpsrc it's our staff
3:10 that that does an amazing job so
3:12 congratulations to your staff for for
3:14 all their great work pulling this
3:15 together and job well done
3:27 okay
3:45 yeah so I just want to take a moment and
3:49 recognize how important this is this was
3:52 an activity that I know the council was
3:55 all passionate about but you're right it
3:58 really is about staff and so I want to
4:01 think take a moment just to thank
4:04 director Watling for really seeing the
4:07 vision of this and being able to push
4:09 that forward it's never easy to be
4:12 Innovative and to start something new
4:14 and do something different and the fact
4:17 that our staff is looking out for what
4:20 the community wants and taking the time
4:22 to go that extra mile to do the things
4:26 that make Issaquah just a thriving place
4:29 to be I think we have to celebrate so I
4:31 just wanted to take a moment I know
4:33 you've got a few things to say as well
4:35 but yeah thank you
4:39 thank you so much yeah thank you as well
4:42 um Council council president for those
4:44 kind words Council for your trust and
4:47 and giving this a go as you know this
4:48 was a pilot project
4:51 um in in exploring the the carbon Market
4:53 uh we don't do this without Partners uh
4:56 the partners at City forest credits were
4:58 sort of our non-profit group that helped
5:01 us navigate into the carbon Market
5:03 that's not an easy Market to navigate
5:05 for the first time
5:07 um excited as we launch into our Urban
5:09 Forest Management program and our first
5:11 urban Forest management plan taking a
5:13 look at how we can take that pilot and
5:15 what that might look like to replicate
5:17 either through Acquisitions or through
5:19 plantings
5:20 also want to go back in time a little
5:22 bit and thank you Council for your
5:25 courage to purchase bergsma this pilot
5:28 was that acquisition and so that bold
5:32 effort that we took as a city to
5:34 purchase that align Grant Partners our
5:37 partners at save Cougar Mountain again
5:40 an effort to not only innovate with
5:43 carbon and in this market but you're all
5:46 innovators as we
5:49 meet our environmental goals through
5:50 acquisition so thank you very much
5:54 congratulations
6:05 well we don't get to toot our own horn
6:07 very often or even better get a regional
6:09 partner to toot our horn for us so
6:12 appreciate that
6:14 yes so the next item on our business is
6:17 audience comments members of the public
6:20 May address council at this time in
6:21 person or virtually those who signed up
6:23 in advance to make comments will be
6:25 called on First and if you're joining us
6:27 virtually and would like to make
6:29 comments please raise your virtual hand
6:31 or send the host a chat message if
6:32 you're on the phone you can press star
6:34 three if you've joined by computer or
6:37 smartphone one second uh look for the
6:40 hand icon if you're in the room and did
6:42 not sign up I will of course ask for
6:44 speakers before closing this portion of
6:46 the meeting I'll also remind people we
6:49 have this opening portion of public
6:51 comment but we'll also have public
6:52 comment after each of the agenda items
6:57 not today it's a regular meeting not a
6:59 okay I apologize I'm just appreciate our
7:03 staff once again
7:06 um so clerk has anyone signed up to
7:07 speak for General audience comments yes
7:10 okay so I'm just going to say a few more
7:12 words and then we'll get people up for
7:15 those making comments please direct
7:16 comments the whole counsel and not
7:18 individuals well this is not a question
7:20 and answer session we will contact you
7:22 to follow up if needed when recognized
7:24 you can unmute your microphone for a
7:26 virtual intendee or step up to the
7:28 lectern in person for the in-person
7:30 attendees and you'll have to press a
7:31 little button to get the red light to
7:33 turn on state your name address and
7:36 relationship to the city to speak
7:38 clearly and pause frequently and limit
7:40 your comments to five minutes
7:42 if you're attending virtually and do not
7:45 respond after your name or phone number
7:47 is called or if your connection is lost
7:49 unexpectedly the meeting will need to
7:51 proceed you're encouraged to rejoin the
7:53 meeting if able personal attack subscene
7:55 language derogatory remarks and
7:57 disruptive behavior will not be
7:58 permitted resident comments written and
8:01 verbal are an important aspect of the
8:02 public process and the city takes the
8:04 comment seriously we thank you for
8:06 taking the time to address us so
8:09 um I believe the first person signed up
8:11 to speak is Heather Clark of Eastside
8:14 Mobility coordinator for nonprofit
8:18 yeah and council president I don't see
8:19 Heather in the audience here we do have
8:21 two members of the public on virtually
8:22 so if either of you are Heather Clark
8:24 please send me the chat a message sorry
8:28 me the host a chat message or raise your
8:31 virtual hand if you're the person on the
8:33 phone you can do that by pressing star
8:34 three and the next person we have signed
8:37 up for public comment is here in the
8:38 room Ann Fletcher
8:41 and if you want to come to the lectern
9:05 good evening
9:09 good evening
9:12 my name is Anne Fletcher I'm a resident
9:14 here 255 Southeast Andrews Street
9:17 Issaquah
9:19 lived here for 35 years
9:21 and I'm also a facilitator for people
9:24 for climate action
9:26 I'm here today to speak in favor of the
9:29 Metroflex on-demand system which is one
9:31 of your agenda items
9:35 I brought something to show you and if
9:38 you'd like to take some of it home you
9:40 are welcome
9:50 the Earth gives abundantly to us
9:55 filling our needs
9:57 how are we going to give back to the
9:59 Earth what it needs to sustain us
10:10 but we have an opportunity
10:12 to improve that reciprocal relationship
10:15 with the Earth
10:17 making our transportation system less
10:20 polluting will help significantly
10:24 reduce single occupant vehicle travel by
10:27 making public transit available to
10:29 underserved areas
10:31 this is a worthy investment in our
10:33 future that's why I wore my
10:46 a pilot program to assess and build
10:49 Transit ridership is an important part
10:51 of issaquah's climate action plan as you
10:54 know
10:55 so let's stop thinking how things might
10:58 not work
10:59 and instead start finding ways to make
11:02 them successful
11:05 look at the cities that already have
11:07 Metroflex and learn from them while it
11:09 works
11:11 and let's have a city and Community
11:12 campaign to make this transition in our
11:16 habits
11:17 it's not easy
11:19 for us as human beings but it's super
11:22 important and I think we could do it it
11:24 could be really fun
11:26 and people for climate action would like
11:28 to help with that sort of a campaign
11:32 having lived here for 35 years I've seen
11:34 that we've had many years of struggling
11:36 to find solutions to issaquah's Unique
11:39 traffic woes
11:41 and here is finally something we can do
11:44 the urgency of climate mitigation as
11:46 well as the Practical benefit
11:49 of reducing traffic congestion
11:52 leads to the reasonable conclusion
11:56 to approve Metroflex or Issaquah now
12:01 so that we can have it possibly starting
12:03 as early as October
12:06 thank you
12:07 and I'm going to leave those for you
12:09 you'd like some
12:12 thanks Anne
12:15 and clerk do we have anyone else signed
12:17 up to speak no one else signed up and I
12:19 don't I don't believe Heather was able
12:21 to join us tonight okay opening it up to
12:24 anybody else in the public in the room
12:26 who would love to speak I know we've
12:28 received several emails so we let those
12:31 speak for themselves but
12:33 okay well
12:34 um appreciate hearing from the community
12:36 always and in this case speaking in
12:39 favor of one of our agenda items
12:42 um a Metroflex as a reminder you can
12:46 always email US Written comments can be
12:48 submitted at any time to city council at
12:51 issaquah.gov
12:54 and the next item of business is the
12:57 consent calendar
12:59 are there any committee chairs who would
13:02 like to report on any of the consent
13:04 calendar items
13:05 no okay so the consent calendar was
13:09 distributed to Council in advance if
13:10 authorized the items on the consent
13:12 calendar will be considered together and
13:14 approved by one motion have the payables
13:16 and payrolls been reviewed yeah they
13:19 have thank you does any council member
13:22 desire to remove any item from the
13:23 consent calendar and consider it under
13:25 regular business
13:28 seeing none is there a motion
13:34 I'll move to approve the consent
13:36 calendar as presented in tonight's
13:38 agenda packet
13:39 second thank you
13:44 okay
13:45 is there any
13:48 um Council discussion at this time
13:51 hearing none the motion before council
13:54 is to approve the consent calendar as
13:55 presented all those in favor signify by
13:58 saying aye
14:00 those opposed
14:02 that passes unanimously
14:05 and the next item of business is regular
14:09 business we're starting out with ab8624
14:12 Metroflex on demand pilot program
14:15 and I'd like to invite Transportation
14:17 program coordinator John Larson friend
14:19 to present this item
14:58 uh good evening thank you council
15:00 president Walsh good evening council
15:02 members my name is John Larson friend I
15:05 am the transportation program
15:06 coordinator here at the city I'm joined
15:08 this evening by Meredith Sampson from
15:09 King County Metro as well as Brian Henry
15:12 from King County Metro
15:14 this evening we're here to talk to you
15:15 about Metroflex on demand pilot program
15:23 the purpose of our presentation this
15:25 evening is we are seeking authorization
15:27 of the proposed Metroflex on-demand
15:29 pilot program
15:32 first a little bit of background
15:35 on our endeavors to bring some sort of
15:37 shuttle or on-demand program to the city
15:41 uh the efforts to bring some sort of
15:44 shuttle to special especially
15:47 squawk and Talus neighborhoods
15:49 has been going on for at least 10 years
15:52 if not longer for our purposes tonight
15:54 we're going to start the timeline at
15:56 2017. that is when the city applied for
15:59 the community connections program
16:01 in 2018 Issaquah was chosen for this
16:04 pilot project
16:06 a group kind of committee was formed and
16:09 an exploration was begun in early 2019
16:11 or late 2018.
16:14 uh late in late 2019 Metro asked uh
16:19 basically the higher ups at Metro s that
16:21 group to reevaluate the data that they
16:23 were seeing just to make sure that isqua
16:25 was good fit and that project was put on
16:28 hold at the time
16:30 into early 2020 covid-19 struck us all
16:34 and Metro Services were suspended
16:37 in late 2020 Metro announced suggested
16:39 priorities
16:41 and that led to in 2021 Metro announcing
16:44 the cancellation of the Issaquah portion
16:46 of that pilot program
16:52 so bringing us to that 2021 uh time uh
17:01 at that time staff brought
17:05 at that time uh staff brought this topic
17:08 to council and Council directed staff to
17:10 pursue the Metro partnership uh even
17:13 more
17:14 around at that time uh the
17:16 transportation program coordinator
17:18 position was also created to help
17:19 explore that
17:22 after I was hired we found out that
17:24 Metro would put all pilot projects on
17:26 pause until further notice
17:28 so between March and September of that
17:30 year we found basically three options
17:33 wait for Metro fund our own system or
17:36 some sort of uber Lyft subsidized
17:39 service partnership which we spoke to
17:40 them about
17:42 uh Mobility infrastructure committee
17:45 recommended that the city pursue Metro
17:48 for the pilot project and that was
17:51 because around that time we started
17:52 talking with these folks over here who
17:55 expressed that we might be in the
17:57 running for bringing Metroflex pilot to
18:01 esqua
18:03 uh so this summer June July we brought
18:06 the topic to Tab and mobility and
18:08 infrastructure to consider the Metroflex
18:10 program
18:12 looking forward we know that routes 214
18:14 216 and 217 to Seattle that service
18:17 Squad are going to be suspended due to
18:19 driver shortages that will happen in
18:20 September and then in October hopefully
18:24 Metroflex will begin service
18:30 when it comes to public Outreach there's
18:32 been a lot of public Outreach around
18:33 this topic done
18:36 uh during 2018 when there was a first
18:40 exploration of this topic uh there were
18:43 some surveys that were put out to the
18:45 squawk and Taos neighborhoods which
18:47 returned these results but the most
18:50 significant Transit barrier was the
18:52 first mile Last Mile issue
18:55 uh just a reminder first mile last mile
18:57 is that first or last portion of a
19:00 Transit trip and is often the Gap and
19:02 therefore a barrier ridership
19:05 the top three things that would help
19:07 folks get around using Transit is a
19:11 transportation service when needed that
19:12 connects to transit or local
19:14 destinations
19:15 access to destinations not served
19:17 currently not currently accesses
19:20 destinations not currently reached by
19:22 bus
19:23 and then tied for third was the
19:25 guaranteed ride home low cost for four
19:27 Riders and knowledge confidence in
19:32 at the time the group committee
19:35 recommended uh more Peak ride more
19:37 around commute times and an on-demand
19:41 ride option
19:44 more recently in preparation to bring
19:47 this topic before you we conducted a
19:49 survey of this of the squawk Talus old
19:53 town and isqua Valley neighborhoods
19:56 we found that Transit use in Issaquah
19:58 has gone down 20 since 2020 which is in
20:01 line with national trends
20:04 65 percent of folks would use Transit if
20:07 it was available within a block of the
20:08 residence
20:10 and the top issues we found were first
20:13 my last mile issues still persist
20:16 lack of safety familiarity or Comfort
20:18 when writing which is also in line with
20:20 national trends
20:22 and difficulty understanding or planning
20:24 around transit schedule and these last
20:27 two can be probably attributed to either
20:30 an inability to get to transit or just
20:32 lack of Education around the transit
20:34 system
20:37 at this point I'm going to hand it over
20:39 to Meredith
20:54 hi everybody I'm Meredith Sampson with
20:56 King County Metro I work on their
20:58 service planning team the focused on
21:00 East King County and I'm here to talk
21:02 through some an overview of overview of
21:05 Metroflex and a potential partnership
21:06 with the city of Mexico
21:10 so for the last several years Metro was
21:12 operating in on-demand Services through
21:13 a couple different vendors and in March
21:15 we Consolidated under one vendor called
21:18 via so all of our on-demand services and
21:20 all service areas are operated by via at
21:22 this point and we call the service
21:23 Metroflex
21:24 the service is open to the general
21:26 public and the main premise is that
21:28 people can use the service to travel
21:30 from any point to any point within a
21:32 service area
21:33 the main priorities of this service are
21:36 to connect Riders to the transit Network
21:37 either through major stops Park and
21:40 rides Transit centers or to connect
21:42 people to community assets such as
21:44 grocery stores or hospitals locally
21:48 Fighters can request a Ride On Demand
21:50 using either the Metroflex app or call
21:52 center or a website
21:54 writers can designate a start
21:55 destination and an end destination for
21:57 their trip within the service area and
21:58 then are given an ETA
22:01 they are instructed to walk to a nearby
22:02 pickup location usually the nearest
22:04 cross street and the rider then gets in
22:06 the Metroflex vehicle which may be a
22:07 shared ride
22:09 the average wait time currently across
22:10 all service areas is about 15 minutes
22:13 and when a rider books a ride they can
22:15 designate in their profile whether or
22:16 not they need a wheelchair accessible
22:18 vehicle or not and the profile will
22:20 remember that for future trips or if you
22:22 call the same thing it'll remember for
22:24 future trips so that will always be
22:25 available to Riders
22:29 um and if you do designate that you need
22:31 a wheelchair accessible vehicle you will
22:33 not be required to walk to the nearest
22:34 cross street it will pick you up at your
22:36 door
22:37 interpreter services are also available
22:38 to request a ride and one thing I want
22:41 to emphasize about this service is that
22:43 is the same Fair as a bus
22:45 um you can use your ORCA card you can
22:47 use a Transit Go ticket or you can pay
22:48 through the app
22:52 here is a map of our current Metroflex
22:55 service areas there are seven of them
22:57 Juanita Sammamish and Othello Rainer
23:00 Beach Skyway Renton Highlands and
23:02 Tukwila King County is very large area
23:04 wise with a huge mix of different
23:06 densities and land uses as you all know
23:08 any Services areas really vary from more
23:11 urban land uses to lower density
23:12 Suburban land uses and putting areas or
23:15 service areas in these different types
23:16 of areas is helping Metro learn a lot
23:18 about the service area design and where
23:20 these Services really do well across the
23:22 county
23:24 um so part of a learning opportunity for
23:25 a service area in Issaquah would be
23:27 monitoring how the service impacts the
23:28 local fixed route Network that exists
23:30 after the East link network is
23:31 implemented
23:36 this slide shows the existing Sammamish
23:38 service area and how it's performing as
23:40 of the week of June 18th we wanted to
23:43 provide you with some data because you
23:44 may be wondering how this type of
23:46 service performs and some of the metrics
23:47 and we chose to show some Amish because
23:49 it's your neighbor but we do realize
23:51 that Sammamish has different land use
23:54 patterns and is is different than
23:55 Issaquah so this is not exactly what we
23:58 will see in Issaquah the service is
23:59 implemented
24:01 um you can see that the service area in
24:03 Sammamish is averaging 2.3 bytes per
24:05 vehicle hour an average wait time of 10
24:07 or 9.4 minutes
24:11 for an average travel time of 9.4
24:13 minutes sorry an average wait time of 10
24:14 minutes
24:15 and one thing I do want to mention is
24:17 that we have seen consistent growth in
24:19 ridership across the in the Sammamish
24:21 service area over the past year even
24:22 through the transition to operating
24:24 under a new um under via now like at our
24:27 new operation operating model so the
24:29 ridership actually increased 193 between
24:32 June 2022 and June 2023 so we're seeing
24:35 a huge growth in demand in that area
24:42 and something that we are seeing across
24:44 service areas as well is that the top
24:46 destination that writers are using
24:47 Metroflex to travel to is a Transit Hub
24:49 whether that be to a park and ride a
24:51 Transit Center or a bus stop or whatnot
24:53 so this map is a heat map and it shows
24:56 where Riders are
24:59 mostly connecting to within the
25:00 Sammamish service area the top three
25:02 destinations or Origins are the isqua
25:05 Highlands Park and Ride the QFC grocery
25:08 store or Beaver Lake Middle School
25:12 this is a tool that Canon is being used
25:14 to provide First and Last Mile
25:15 connections which were mentioned as a
25:17 key need earlier and as well as connect
25:19 folks to community assets that may not
25:21 be accessible by transit
25:23 we expect with the Zone expanded to
25:25 include a larger portion of Issaquah
25:26 including the squawk and Telus
25:27 neighborhoods to see Riders connecting
25:29 to the squad Transit Center to the
25:31 Highlands Park and Ride the hospital and
25:33 other community assets as well
25:35 so with that I will hand it back over to
25:37 John to talk about this
25:41 thank you Meredith
25:44 yeah let's talk about the service area
25:48 so early in the planning process we
25:52 looked at having two distinct service
25:53 areas between smash Nisswa but came to
25:56 the conclusion that a combined service
25:57 area would serve all demand in the area
26:00 assume growth and create a much more
26:02 Equitable efficient and cost efficient
26:04 service
26:06 so we're looking at a service area that
26:08 would connect squawk and Talus
26:09 neighborhoods and the former route 200
26:12 service area plus a lot more
26:15 it would serve Central and common
26:17 destinations it connects to important
26:19 Transit centers specifically R2 and
26:22 connects to the semamish service area
26:26 service would provide accessibility to
26:28 Transit and local businesses medical
26:30 services including Swedish Hospital
26:32 which uh to note we recently they
26:35 recently lost their bus stop
26:37 and natural areas like trails and Parks
26:40 you'll remember that Trailhead connects
26:42 no longer serves as Squad trailheads
26:44 either
26:45 it would provide some Amish residents
26:48 with access to issqua businesses we also
26:50 work to include apartments in lower
26:52 income areas and access to Lake
26:54 Sammamish State Park and I will note
26:56 specifically that it fulfills the goals
26:58 of the mobility master plan
27:01 and then just really quickly through my
27:03 work at the city I've come across a few
27:06 examples of Need for some sort of
27:09 on-demand option that would connect
27:12 for example we have an employee here at
27:15 the city they live at the Anthology
27:17 apartments on the west side of town off
27:19 Newport Way
27:20 they have a partner that was using their
27:22 one car to commute
27:24 Metroflex would have provided a very
27:26 short commute for them but instead they
27:28 had to tell we I had to tell her to walk
27:30 a mile to Transit Center to take a bus
27:31 or buy a bike and she did tell me that
27:34 she was paying 25 to 30 dollars a day to
27:36 get to City Hall
27:38 another example a city staff member told
27:40 me that he recently met a person at the
27:42 Issaquah Transit Center who had taken
27:44 the 554 to Issaquah and then needed to
27:47 get to a person's residence for their
27:48 job doing in-home care
27:51 and then thirdly during our Transit
27:53 study Outreach at the senior center the
27:56 seniors there expressed the need for
27:57 more transportation choices to get
27:59 around for daily errands like going to
28:01 the store medical appointments and going
28:03 to the nail salon
28:10 so shifting over to budget
28:13 Metro has a budget for this area of 907
28:16 thousand dollars which is a combination
28:18 of Metro's 644 000 contribution and isk
28:22 was 263 thousand dollar contribution
28:26 this is based on Metro's demand
28:29 estimates this funding should be
28:30 adequate to meet existing and expansion
28:33 demand and address growth in demand over
28:36 time as well
28:38 so we approached Metro on your
28:40 recommendation and offered to pay for
28:41 the service because we know it's such a
28:43 high priority for Council to connect our
28:45 neighborhoods specifically squawk and
28:47 Talus
28:48 uh this would provide access to parts of
28:50 issquad not ever served by transit
28:53 funding the funding agreement in the
28:55 contract protects Issaquah from
28:57 fluctuations and costs and is a
28:59 commitment to issqua as a priority needs
29:01 area for this service
29:03 also Issaquah is first in line for this
29:05 service expansion there are other cities
29:07 who want this vote we're number one in
29:09 line a huge reason for this is because
29:12 why Metro wants to partner with us is
29:14 that we at the city
29:16 is that we at the city based on past
29:19 Council decisions and directions uh have
29:21 expressed that we're willing to
29:22 financially contribute and we would not
29:24 be considered for this program without
29:26 that contribution nor will any other
29:28 community be moving forward
29:33 looking at the proposed contract
29:38 so in summary this contract was updated
29:41 slightly this morning I think you
29:43 probably saw that email just a just I
29:45 think a sentence
29:47 um but in summary the service would
29:49 begin in October of this year
29:52 service will be provided a minimum of
29:54 two years and expires on December 31st
29:56 2025 operation would be Monday through
30:00 Friday 7 A.M to 6 p.m and Saturday 9 A.M
30:03 to 6 p.m
30:04 the Affairs are a part of the Orca
30:06 system and that means it's also free to
30:08 youth
30:10 the city will fund the service at a cost
30:12 of 262 611 per year and performance data
30:17 will be provided quarterly
30:23 Mobility infrastructure asked for a
30:25 couple of things the first is uh how are
30:28 we going to fund this
30:29 uh the expenditure forecast assumptions
30:32 prepared for tonight include for
30:34 demonstration purposes the Metroflex
30:36 contract
30:37 the forecast shows that the contract can
30:39 be paid by the general fund
30:41 the funding will be sixty five thousand
30:45 six hundred and six hundred fifty three
30:47 dollars for the project for this last
30:49 quarter October through December 2023
30:51 and then 262 611 for 2024 and then again
30:57 for 2025.
30:59 this will of course uh need a funding
31:01 authorization request to amend the
31:03 budget to include 2023 and 0.24 costs
31:10 we're also asked to talk about a
31:13 Communications plan I'm going to invite
31:14 Meredith up again to talk about the
31:16 Metro side of the marketing plan
31:23 and just give a high level kind of
31:25 update on what I've heard from our
31:26 marketing folks and what the game plan
31:28 is for this kind of expansion
31:31 um but first I would say that all of
31:33 this would be coordinated with the City
31:34 of Issaquah as a like a coordinated
31:37 effort we wouldn't do anything about
31:40 um so this is our first this would be
31:42 our first expansion after the launch of
31:44 the Metroflex consolidation but to
31:46 celebrate that Milestone and in new
31:48 service we would want to kind of do an
31:50 Outreach and planning campaign that
31:52 included targeted mailers Outreach
31:53 events starting a couple weeks before
31:55 the service launched through the winter
31:58 our market research shows that Ryder
32:00 stories and testimonials help to Foster
32:02 trust and interest in the service
32:04 so we look forward to showcasing the
32:06 diversity and positive experiences of
32:07 current Riders through our marketing
32:09 campaign and we also look forward to
32:11 partnering with the city of issaquada
32:13 Leverage your communication channels for
32:14 instance we'd like to consider a series
32:17 of ride-alongs with city of iskwa staff
32:19 and council members if they'd like to
32:20 serve as kind of a media moment
32:22 showcasing the convenience reliability
32:24 and safety of Metro
32:31 thanks Meredith
32:33 on the city Side we've been able to talk
32:35 to our Communications team we will of
32:39 course leverage uh you know our city
32:41 newsletter the city website uh lots of
32:43 social media posts uh we also have uh
32:47 several City events coming up including
32:49 salmon days which it would be in
32:50 operation for
32:52 uh I think most importantly is I think
32:55 we're we're going to engage our
32:56 stakeholders those are our HOAs and
32:59 neighborhood associations our vision
33:00 partners like visit Issaquah
33:03 uh youth ride free so talk to our youth
33:06 specifically through the school district
33:07 and uh talk to our senior centers and or
33:11 the senior center and our retirement
33:13 communities as well
33:19 finally we have a request for Success
33:22 criteria so when talking to our data
33:25 analysts here at the city we came to the
33:29 conclusion that we could look at success
33:31 criteria in kind of two different
33:32 buckets the first comes from that
33:34 performance data that they will give us
33:36 quarterly so we'll be able to see
33:37 progress over time very kind of every
33:40 quarter
33:41 um and then we also have a long-term
33:44 Community outcomes that we can look at
33:47 so with the performance data we will get
33:50 ridership average daily trips preventive
33:52 preventable accidents PMT VMT which is
33:55 person miles traveled and vehicle miles
33:57 traveled percent of trips in equity
34:00 priority areas rides per vehicle hour
34:02 cost per ride and percent of shared
34:05 trips
34:06 looking at our long-term
34:09 uh looking at our at a long-term success
34:11 criteria we already have a lot of data
34:17 that we're collecting already that we
34:18 could Leverage
34:19 so we can look at our resident
34:21 perception of Mobility modes within
34:22 Issaquah through our city data which
34:25 comes from the National American
34:27 Community survey data
34:29 and then our biannual Community survey
34:32 we ask the questions of how residents
34:35 use Transit the ease of travel by public
34:38 transit in Issaquah and then
34:40 satisfaction with Mobility options
34:43 talking to our data analysts we also
34:46 came to the conclusion that we should
34:47 definitely track whatever engagement we
34:50 do with the community whether it's
34:52 social media posts whether we're at
34:54 farmers markets whether we're at salmon
34:56 days whatever we're doing we need to be
34:58 able to uh basically track exactly what
35:02 we're doing see that progress over time
35:04 because marketing is very important
35:10 so coming to a past Council committee
35:14 and Advisory Board Direction
35:18 back in June we took this topic to the
35:21 tab and it came out with a 3-2 split
35:24 against
35:25 uh I want to note that three members
35:28 were absent and I as the staff liaison
35:30 was not in the room because I had
35:31 coveted and it was also the same night
35:34 as a council meeting so uh the staff
35:36 that were in the room were coming here
35:38 so it was it was kind of a different
35:40 situation
35:42 the three opposed had concerns about
35:45 service success due to past outcomes
35:47 namely the route 200 and it being taken
35:50 away ultimately
35:52 because they were also concerned about
35:54 uh the cost per ride being higher than
35:57 bus service
35:59 and then they also requested more data
36:01 from King County Metro which they have
36:03 more than provided since then
36:05 the two members in favor were concerned
36:09 that viable Mobility opportunities were
36:10 being missed out on over time
36:12 uh they saw they see point-to-point
36:15 Service as very much needed in the
36:17 community and they think the cost to the
36:19 city is minimal for what services is
36:21 going to be provided
36:26 last month we brought this topic to mni
36:29 and uh the committee recommended that
36:32 the pilot agreement be approved they
36:34 requested that the administration bring
36:36 more information to the council
36:37 concerning proposed marketing and
36:39 Outreach for the service which I
36:40 provided before how the pilot would be
36:43 funded which I also provided and what
36:45 success criteria the city will use to
36:46 evaluate the pilot which
36:48 write it
36:52 looking at next steps hopefully we can
36:54 finalize and approve the contract we'll
36:57 be looking at the two-year pilot
36:59 estimated launch in October
37:01 we'll get quarterly reports on
37:03 performance and Metro will consider or
37:05 will continue to evaluate the service
37:07 based on their service guidelines Equity
37:10 productivity and efficiency
37:14 so that being said our recommendation is
37:18 to authorize the mayor to enter into and
37:20 execute the agreement as revised on
37:22 August 7th today with King County Metro
37:25 to begin the Metroflex pilot program
37:28 authorized 65
37:30 653 dollars in funding for the project
37:32 in 2023 and 262 611 in 2024 to be
37:37 included in the 2023 2024 mid biennium
37:40 budget adjustment
37:43 thank you we can take any questions
37:46 okay I will start to see if Council has
37:50 any questions that we'd start with
37:51 councilmember marks
37:53 can you um give me a little bit more
37:55 information on the uh cross how it's
38:00 going to work if somebody's coming from
38:01 some Amish into Issaquah uh they're
38:03 going across regions how's that going to
38:06 work uh financially
38:09 it will be the same cost basically
38:13 do you wanna provide any other
38:15 additional I was thinking more who pays
38:18 for it
38:20 so the the way the funding would be set
38:24 up is that Metro has the contribution
38:26 that John mentioned earlier issaquah's
38:28 funding the 262
38:30 000 but um it would just it's all under
38:33 one bucket so so someone writing from
38:36 Sammamish to is
38:39 one
38:40 funding so the the uh funding that
38:44 Issaquah provides would be a basically a
38:47 fixed fee for the service and it
38:49 wouldn't be variable if it turned out
38:51 that twice as many people from Sammamish
38:53 wanted to come into Issaquah it wouldn't
38:55 change at least
38:56 within that calendar year wouldn't
38:58 change that correct correct it's a set
39:00 the first set cost for the City of
39:02 Issaquah and if demand exceeds that then
39:04 Metro
39:05 thank you
39:10 any other questions
39:15 yep Deputy council president home could
39:18 you go back to the slide on um
39:21 performance metrics the different
39:23 success criteria I'm just wondering if
39:25 we considered so these are all great
39:27 success criteria and we talked about it
39:29 a little bit at committee too and we
39:31 were kind of going back and forth as to
39:33 whether or not to like assign particular
39:35 goal values that we want to achieve by
39:37 the end of the pilot program did did we
39:38 consider that
39:39 um from staff side kind of setting kind
39:42 of benchmarks that we want to meet for
39:43 percent of share trips cost per ride
39:45 that kind of thing or is that something
39:47 we just want to analyze over time
39:50 uh yeah great question uh my thought was
39:52 we were we would start we would get the
39:55 first quarter data and then we would
39:57 basically see what would be a good
40:00 feasible goal over time and of course
40:02 work with Metro on those as well
40:10 uh council member right I'd like to make
40:14 a motion
40:15 went away though
40:19 um I moved authorized the mayor to enter
40:20 in to and execute the agreement with
40:23 King County Metro begin the Metro
40:25 effects Ireland program and authorize 65
40:30 653
40:34 um dollars in funding for the project in
40:36 2023
40:37 262
40:39 611 in 2024
40:43 to be included in the
40:46 2023-2024 mid biennium budget adjustment
40:51 second
40:52 and can I just clarify that that is the
40:55 as revised August 7th
40:59 there was a small revision to the
41:01 contract with some legal terms
41:04 right you are as revised and second
41:07 degree is okay fantastic so turn off the
41:11 package
41:12 well things change quickly around here
41:14 it's a dynamic place yes
41:18 um looking through that uh committee
41:20 chair right would you like to summarize
41:22 the mobility and infrastructure
41:24 committee recommendation for this item
41:26 yes I would love to uh thanks on uh July
41:29 11th mobility and infrastructure
41:30 committee met and uh received a
41:33 presentation on Metroflex and we're
41:35 generally pretty impressed
41:38 um we also realized that there were
41:40 reasonable concerns that were raised by
41:41 the transportation Advisory Board and we
41:44 consider those
41:45 um since those
41:47 uh concerns when making our
41:49 recommendation to approve this agenda
41:51 bill
41:52 um the the data presented by Metro uh
41:55 clearly highlighted the value of
41:57 Metroflex it's clear that we have a need
42:01 for uh this kind of a program in the
42:04 city
42:05 um and it makes sense from a couple of
42:07 perspectives I'd just like to talk about
42:09 one is we've been talking about squawk
42:11 and Talus integrating them in the
42:13 transfer transit system for as long as I
42:15 can recall
42:17 um this program addresses that
42:19 interconnectivity and provides a
42:21 flexible tool that provides Transit
42:23 options across this one not just the two
42:26 uh two Hills
42:28 the plan to expand into Sammamish
42:31 service area makes a lot of sense to me
42:33 it provides connectivity between the two
42:35 cities that are really highly
42:37 interconnected and it provides some
42:39 Amish residents and opportunity to
42:41 access some really important
42:43 destinations here in Issaquah which I
42:45 think is good for business here in town
42:50 we had talked about last Mile and you
42:53 know using Metroflex as a way to be a
42:56 Transit Center feeder but it's more than
42:57 that it can be a way to feed the transit
43:00 centers but it also provides a more
43:02 robust interest City Communications
43:04 which was something that came out during
43:07 our community survey was that intracity
43:10 Transit was as was an important item
43:13 I was really happy to see the
43:15 communications plan the performance
43:16 metrics updated thank you very much for
43:18 that as a result of the feedback we
43:20 provided and there's much to be said in
43:23 support of this agenda bill but I know
43:26 that my mobility and infrastructure many
43:28 colleagues are
43:30 uh um waiting to weigh in so I'm going
43:33 to stop there and
43:34 let them
43:36 elucidate
43:39 council member D Michelle
43:42 well councilmember Ray did a good job of
43:44 summarizing
43:45 um so I'll just focus in on one of the
43:47 issues that I wanted to address and that
43:50 is the cost of the of the system which
43:53 was one of the main concerns of the
43:55 transportation Advisory Board
43:58 um what we're doing with the 262 000 in
44:01 funding is we are investing in a
44:03 two-part strategy that will get in
44:05 Issaquah a significant return on
44:07 investment over time
44:08 the first part of the strategy is to
44:10 build a transit system in partnership
44:13 with Metro and Sound Transit that meets
44:15 the needs of our community
44:17 Metroflex helps us to do that but the
44:21 second part of the strategy is to build
44:22 a customer base and building the
44:25 customer base is as important as
44:27 building the system
44:28 without robust ridership Issaquah will
44:31 not be able to rationalize future
44:32 Transit Investments but more importantly
44:35 we will not meet our Issaquah climate
44:38 action plan goals of reducing carbon
44:41 emissions by reducing the number of
44:43 signal occupancy vehicles on our roads
44:45 this investment in a Metroflex fan
44:48 program will help us build a customer
44:50 base of riders who will use transit for
44:53 more than just commuting we've all we've
44:55 been a good commuting Community but we
44:57 need to broaden the use of transit in
45:00 our community
45:01 people who will weave Transit use into
45:03 their daily lives and that is something
45:05 that will pay handsome environmental and
45:08 transportation dividends in the future
45:09 in my opinion so I will of course
45:13 strongly support this proposal I am
45:17 excited and I'm going to raise my hand
45:19 and volunteer to be one of those
45:21 council members
45:23 who's riding in the van when it's going
45:25 around I think this is a great proposal
45:28 and as John said we've been waiting a
45:30 long long time and really thrilled that
45:33 Metro came forward with a really
45:34 excellent proposal thank you
45:39 other comments
45:43 okay uh council member hunt
45:46 okay
45:48 I I am also supportive since we do have
45:51 a member a representative of Metro I
45:54 wanted to also speak to the importance
45:56 of bus service to Issaquah we're taking
45:59 action for the last mile problem that we
46:02 have in escar right now but
46:04 um it is also very important that we
46:07 have the best service into and back from
46:10 Seattle and that that is also efficient
46:13 and convenient and all of the all of the
46:18 things that we're looking for this
46:19 Metroplex program we want people to know
46:22 that that bus service is
46:24 reliable and safe and comfortable as
46:27 well so
46:30 stress that because this will help
46:34 people get to our transit station but if
46:38 we are losing bus service then that
46:40 makes that less uh less desirable and so
46:44 it's really important for people's
46:47 livelihoods
46:48 that we keep and hopefully continue to
46:51 improve upon our connection to Seattle
46:54 and at least in Issaquah Light Rail is a
46:56 long ways out so we really do rely on
46:58 that connection
47:02 um tab the trans Transportation Advisory
47:04 Board was correct I think to be
47:06 concerned about the loss of bus service
47:08 that we have experienced
47:10 recently to Issaquah there is a sort of
47:13 there can be a sort of downward spiral
47:15 effect where if we have less service it
47:18 becomes
47:19 um less efficient and we have less
47:23 people using that service and therefore
47:24 there's less funding and then you get
47:26 less service so I want to make sure that
47:28 we are doing the opposite we're having
47:30 we're allowing more people to access the
47:32 service it becomes something that people
47:34 are more comfortable with they
47:37 rely on it more and it becomes more a
47:40 usual part of their day-to-day uh work
47:44 experience for example and we increase
47:47 ridership
47:49 that all said I'm very supportive of
47:51 this
47:52 um one one additional concern I have is
47:54 I want to look back on this and not
47:57 wonder if people just didn't know about
48:00 the service so we definitely I think
48:02 need to get the word out when we look
48:04 back I want to I wanted to either have
48:07 succeeded or you know if we see that it
48:10 didn't this is a pilot program so I want
48:12 to be able to look at that data but one
48:13 thing I don't want to wonder is if it
48:15 just if we just didn't get the word out
48:18 um so in addition to the proposed
48:21 marketing that you
48:22 uh the marketing strategies that you
48:25 mentioned I wondered about something
48:27 with paper because a lot of those were
48:29 online and there are
48:32 um there are folks that don't go to the
48:34 website and we have these word on the
48:37 street
48:38 things that we put out for construction
48:41 projects and
48:43 um I've oftentimes seen those where they
48:45 don't have the fires anymore because
48:46 people have taken the taken the Flyers
48:48 so I wonder about something with paper
48:51 something to reach those people that
48:54 aren't using the online system I think
48:58 it's really important that we reach
48:59 people that aren't hearing all the time
49:01 about our programs that might want to
49:03 use this service and so I just really
49:06 encourage us to be
49:08 creative and very
49:11 expansive in the ways we try to get the
49:13 word out about this program
49:18 um so and
49:19 this is a new thing for Issaquah and and
49:22 that's exciting but it also means that
49:23 people don't currently use this program
49:26 so we need to quickly get over that
49:29 learning curve and have people
49:31 understand the program and that it's
49:32 there and start using the program
49:35 the last thing I wanted to mention is we
49:37 have heard from a lot of different
49:39 perspectives on why they're supporting
49:41 Metroflex we've heard from visit
49:43 Issaquah which is representing the
49:45 tourism benefits of this hope link uh
49:50 Issaquah people for climate action for
49:53 the emissions reductions benefits also
49:56 for salmon conservation reducing runoff
49:59 and then for seniors as was mentioned so
50:03 I think this also has potential to
50:05 reduce congestion a little bit if people
50:06 are reducing their single family vehicle
50:09 trips so there's just a lot of benefits
50:11 here and
50:14 I I agree with the opinion that did come
50:18 out of the tab that this um
50:21 this expense will be really worth it to
50:24 see if this helps us address what has
50:26 been a long-standing
50:28 issue for our community with this last
50:29 mile connection
50:31 so I look forward to seeing the results
50:33 I look forward to using the service as
50:35 well I would be happy to do a ride along
50:36 as well and
50:40 thank you for all the work that was done
50:42 on this
50:45 council member marks
50:46 thank you uh I'm going to be supporting
50:49 this this evening
50:51 um I supported it the last couple times
50:52 we talked about it I've been on Council
50:54 now for 14 years I've I've voted for
50:57 this three or four times I can't
50:59 remember uh it's at least three might be
51:01 four uh we need this in our community
51:07 this is a community that believes in
51:09 Mass Transit and I I want to Echo some
51:12 of the comments um councilmember hunt
51:15 made about the importance of bus service
51:17 this is a community the supported st3
51:20 despite the fact that it's quite a ways
51:22 away and perhaps taking even longer than
51:25 we thought and you know we see Transit
51:29 developments where you know 214 goes
51:31 away 554 will eventually get routed
51:34 through Bellevue and won't take us
51:35 directly into Seattle and so this is a
51:38 community that really needs to see some
51:40 positive movement on on mass transit to
51:44 provide for the the folks that we have
51:46 in this community so I'm going to
51:47 support this I want to see it Thrive but
51:50 I also want to see both Metro and Sound
51:53 Transit you know commit to East King
51:56 County and you know uh and and uh you
52:00 know what's the word I'm looking for you
52:03 know basically uh
52:06 support the commitment we've we've made
52:08 to Transit you know we want to see that
52:10 out of Metro and and Sound Transit so so
52:13 I'm going to support this
52:15 um and and I hope that this is the
52:17 beginning of a real
52:19 continued strengthening of mass transit
52:21 into East King County thank you
52:26 council member Joe
52:28 thank you
52:30 um I'm very supportive of this program
52:32 I'd like to talk a little bit about
52:34 um the danger that the city is is facing
52:37 a little bit in terms of
52:39 becoming um an area that has some
52:42 grocery store deserts if you will uh
52:46 when the Front Street Market moved away
52:47 the people in Hutchinson house and some
52:50 of the other uh senior living areas
52:53 couldn't go down the grocery store five
52:55 or six blocks away would have to go all
52:57 the way to Safeway which is three
52:59 quarters to almost a mile away so
53:02 um I think this program is so important
53:04 to make sure that those senior citizens
53:07 have an opportunity to make those trips
53:09 I see them walking in all sorts of
53:11 weather and in nine degree temperatures
53:13 and
53:14 um you know it's important that we
53:16 support their ability to continue to
53:17 live independently in this community as
53:20 much as possible
53:22 um so that being said I would hope that
53:24 we'd also look to opportunities to bring
53:26 another grocery store back to the
53:28 downtown area but that's another
53:29 discussion for another day
53:32 also I really think that this is uh an
53:35 important program for us in the sense
53:36 that uh it's going to allow our youth to
53:40 get our youth our young people to get
53:42 out in the community a little bit more
53:45 um my son likes to go fishing and he can
53:48 only go to places that he can walk to
53:50 but if this comes into play he could go
53:53 to the state park and go without me
53:55 having to drive him there and stay on
53:57 the beach for hours and hours with no
53:59 cell phone service so I would really
54:02 appreciate it if that would happen as
54:04 well
54:05 um that being said I I do want to Echo
54:07 some of the comments about uh Issaquah
54:10 as a as a commuter Community
54:13 when I first moved here for many years I
54:16 took the 214 into town and if I missed
54:18 the 214 and I had to take the 210 at 8
54:20 o'clock at night and get home at 10
54:22 o'clock at night service wasn't that
54:24 great back then it has stabilized
54:27 somewhat recently but but it still is
54:29 something that I think we're going to
54:31 need to look at as we pull out of this
54:33 coveted situation and get more people
54:35 going into town and I'd urge all my
54:37 fellow council members to find creative
54:40 ways to encourage Metro to come back out
54:43 here and provide additional services or
54:45 the city to step up and provide those
54:47 Services as we want Issaquah to be a
54:49 Vibrant Community that has people that
54:51 go all the way into Seattle people that
54:53 live in community in the community here
54:54 and still working here as well along the
54:57 way so I'm very supportive of this
54:59 program I look forward to a success and
55:01 I would be happy to be a a carpool dummy
55:04 or a carpool tester as we take my son
55:08 out to Lake Sammamish thank you
55:13 okay
55:16 um I'm going to take a moment to just
55:18 speak on this as the sole resident of
55:21 the Highlands on the council uh I'm kind
55:25 of frustrated at this point honestly
55:27 because if I'm looking at this
55:31 our city has three Hillside
55:33 neighborhoods and I I mapped this out I
55:37 took the farthest point on squawk
55:40 Mountain on Telus and in the highlands
55:42 and they're all 1.9 miles away from the
55:47 transit centers for each of them
55:50 and so I'm sitting here and going hmm
55:53 this is a little bit confusing because
55:56 we've got the highlands which is one of
55:58 our densest neighborhoods
56:01 um that has quite a bit more low income
56:04 housing than those other two
56:06 neighborhoods that don't have access to
56:11 Transit
56:13 in all three of those neighborhoods it's
56:15 a 35 minute walk to the transit center
56:18 and I understand when the initial
56:20 conversation for this happened in 2019
56:23 and before the highlands actually had an
56:25 on-demand shuttle we had route 628 which
56:30 ran from 2015 to 2020 before it was
56:34 canceled
56:35 um and now we don't and so I'm kind of
56:38 looking at this and going
56:40 are we shooting ourselves in the foot by
56:43 not including
56:46 one of the densest neighborhoods
56:49 that could see a lot of access to
56:52 transit to again further emphasize and
56:56 be able to utilize the full system but
56:59 also be able to get into town
57:03 um so I would just ask my council
57:05 members to think about this I love this
57:09 concept of being able to provide Last
57:12 Mile Transit I think the benefits for
57:15 Youth and seniors people with mobility
57:18 issues low-income folks really really
57:21 important I just think we have an
57:25 opportunity to think about how that
57:28 should be utilized in a way that best
57:31 serves all of the residents of Issaquah
57:35 and so I have a few other comments but I
57:39 the also council member Ray has his uh
57:42 makeup so I will let you see if you have
57:45 the comment thank you um thanks for
57:47 letting me uh kind of jump in the middle
57:49 of your comments but my understanding
57:51 and I make sure I'm not missing this
57:53 because one of the things I thought was
57:54 a neat feature was it wasn't just you
57:57 know from Talus to the transit center
57:58 from the squawk to the Talis Center it
58:00 was anywhere to anywhere so it does
58:02 include
58:04 everybody everywhere in the city and
58:07 Sammamish too so
58:10 um I just want to share that's
58:12 that's correct
58:16 my understanding is the highlands and
58:18 the South Lake Sammamish are not
58:20 included in the service area is that
58:22 correct
58:24 that is correct
58:30 although just be clear the lower
58:31 Highlands is there's a chunk of the
58:33 highway uh yeah lower Highlands is
58:35 currently served right now actually by
58:37 Metroflex
58:41 so I think this is that's my frustration
58:44 with this as a concept
58:48 um is when you look at it and you look
58:50 at the map and you're like oh it serves
58:51 Issaquah and then you're like wait
58:54 there's a whole other part of Issaquah
58:55 that is
58:56 one third of our population
59:00 or more if we're also including the
59:02 South Lake Sammamish area and I can
59:05 understand the South Lake Sammamish area
59:07 because it's in some ways closer to
59:10 Bellevue so you could look at some of
59:12 that connectivity it's also lower
59:14 density but the highlands has and I will
59:19 tell you I've been door knocking
59:21 recently and there is
59:24 large area of low-income housing up in
59:28 the highlands that
59:30 is super frustrated that they're they
59:33 don't have access to get into all of the
59:36 things that they need including
59:39 um down to Transit from my house it's
59:42 1.8 miles down to the transit area so
59:47 I guess I will just say that I I think
59:51 for a city-wide cost we should consider
59:54 how this might best serve the city and
59:58 all of its neighborhoods
1:00:00 other comments on this I will ultimately
1:00:03 support it but I would like to look at a
1:00:06 way that we could include the highlands
1:00:09 in that and see what any adjustment to
1:00:12 cost would be I think without that we're
1:00:16 looking at potentially not being able to
1:00:20 really very well evaluate how our
1:00:23 community as a whole responds to On
1:00:27 Demand but I will say for public
1:00:29 Outreach
1:00:31 um I think this could be huge for high
1:00:32 school students I'd really like to get
1:00:35 connected to the high schools I think
1:00:38 you could absolutely utilize gibsonek as
1:00:42 a way to talk about how to
1:00:46 get everyone involved as a way they're
1:00:49 I'd like to make sure we involve the
1:00:52 chamber
1:00:53 and other areas I'd like to make sure we
1:00:56 involve the YWCA and any of the
1:01:00 low-income groups
1:01:02 speaking to some of the other things
1:01:05 that I've heard here I really appreciate
1:01:07 the success criteria focusing on both
1:01:10 the performance data and the community
1:01:11 outcomes
1:01:13 but I do strongly believe that we should
1:01:16 set goal targets
1:01:19 that would help us evaluate whether or
1:01:21 not this is a good expense for us to
1:01:24 renew when the time comes and I think we
1:01:27 should do it before we get the initial
1:01:30 because I don't want to set our sights
1:01:33 if our initial data says there's only
1:01:35 100 people writing on it I don't want us
1:01:39 to go well we should be satisfied with
1:01:41 150 or 200 I really want us to look at
1:01:45 what the population that this would
1:01:48 serve would be and use some of the data
1:01:52 out there but really stress we want this
1:01:56 type of ridership in order to know that
1:01:58 this is
1:01:59 um useful for us so
1:02:01 that's what I would say any other
1:02:04 comment
1:02:07 oh City administrator yes thank you
1:02:09 council president maybe John could talk
1:02:12 a little bit more about the situation in
1:02:13 the highlands and and the uh the path
1:02:16 that brought us here
1:02:19 yeah the the current service area that
1:02:21 we're proposing uh came from analysis
1:02:25 that Metro conducted into uh
1:02:28 what kind of service area would be the
1:02:30 most efficient uh what kind of density
1:02:33 so for example uh South Lake Sammamish
1:02:36 not very dense therefore it was left out
1:02:38 at this time
1:02:40 um but I I'd love to invite Metro to
1:02:43 speak a little bit more in detail about
1:02:46 uh the proposed service area
1:02:52 hi so when we're looking at service area
1:02:55 design there's really a sweet spot for
1:02:57 size that makes a service area efficient
1:03:00 and reliable for Riders
1:03:02 um and the service area proposed is
1:03:05 currently 13 square miles which is at
1:03:07 the larger end of our service area size
1:03:09 Spectrum across the different Metroflex
1:03:11 areas
1:03:12 um and kind of when the city approached
1:03:15 us about this we were really looking at
1:03:16 the mobility solutions for squawk and
1:03:18 Talus based on that Outreach from 2019
1:03:20 that was mentioned so that was the focus
1:03:21 of kind of creating a service area that
1:03:24 works for those different neighborhoods
1:03:26 and then when we were exploring that it
1:03:28 came to the well we can really use
1:03:30 efficient like resources efficiently and
1:03:31 money efficiently all the way around if
1:03:33 we combine and do an expansion of the
1:03:35 Spanish service area
1:03:37 um and that's kind of how we came to
1:03:39 this service area design right now but I
1:03:41 definitely hear you with the need in
1:03:43 this Highlands
1:03:45 um but that's kind of just a
1:03:47 little backdrop into how we came to the
1:03:49 service area we want to make sure it's
1:03:51 the the size that is able to be the need
1:03:54 is able to be met by Metroflex and
1:03:57 increasing the demand over a certain
1:04:00 point kind of just makes the service
1:04:01 less efficient and will increase wait
1:04:03 times and so
1:04:05 Ryan do you have anything you want to
1:04:07 add I would just add that we're
1:04:08 continuing to learn so as we as we you
1:04:10 know if we move forward with this pilot
1:04:12 we need to learn experiment and I mean
1:04:15 resource is like part of the equation
1:04:17 here about what's available
1:04:19 um in terms of funding but if that
1:04:20 changes in the future we could also look
1:04:22 at like experiment so I think
1:04:25 it's a it's a starting point um like
1:04:27 Meredith said with trade-offs
1:04:29 um but we we want to keep learning how
1:04:32 we can uh evolve over time
1:04:35 let me ask two questions based on that
1:04:38 and I appreciate the information
1:04:40 um do you know the size of the Sammamish
1:04:43 service area
1:04:45 or can you
1:04:46 I can look that up okay great I'll ask
1:04:48 my second question while you're going
1:04:50 through that
1:04:52 if in the middle of this contract we
1:04:55 find that there isn't a lot of user or
1:05:00 ridership in a certain area and we
1:05:02 wanted to potentially drop that and add
1:05:05 the highlands would that be something
1:05:07 that we could discuss and figure out or
1:05:11 is that something that would have to
1:05:12 wait until the end of a contract
1:05:15 I think we'd be open to I think we'd be
1:05:17 open to having discussions
1:05:18 um with City staff and kind of looking
1:05:20 at the metrics that we have in the
1:05:21 ridership patterns yeah because I
1:05:24 imagine you want to maximize ridership
1:05:25 as well and all of that yeah we
1:05:28 definitely want this service to be as
1:05:30 successful as possible and the Sammamish
1:05:32 service area as it is currently is seven
1:05:35 square miles
1:05:37 so if what I'm hearing is we're
1:05:40 basically combining the ridership area
1:05:43 between Sammamish and Issaquah and ours
1:05:48 is at the max but theirs is not
1:05:51 I will caveat that and say it's the
1:05:54 existing Samantha Stone does serve a
1:05:56 portion of Issaquah right now
1:05:58 um I don't know
1:05:59 based on the city boundaries and the
1:06:01 service areas
1:06:03 yeah it serves a portion of Issaquah
1:06:05 because it takes the Sammamish residence
1:06:07 to the Highlands Park and Ride
1:06:11 anyway I
1:06:14 I wish this had been brought up in
1:06:17 either tab or the mobile Indian
1:06:19 infrastructure committee to recognize
1:06:22 that there was a large portion of our
1:06:24 community that is not being served by
1:06:28 I hope that this is something that we
1:06:31 can look at because I think it
1:06:33 potentially puts a thorn in trying to
1:06:36 advertise to say all of the kids at
1:06:39 Issaquah High School and say you can use
1:06:41 this service and then they go
1:06:44 but I can't get my house to it or I
1:06:47 can't get to Central Park where I want
1:06:49 to go play soccer or something else like
1:06:53 that I I just think it's short-sighted
1:06:55 to not include that area but
1:06:57 I will move on on that if there are no
1:07:03 other discussion the motion before
1:07:05 council is to authorize the mayor to
1:07:07 enter into and execute the agreement as
1:07:09 revised August 7th with King County
1:07:11 Metro to begin the Metroflex pilot
1:07:13 program and authorize 65 653 in funding
1:07:17 for this project in 2023 and 262 611 in
1:07:24 2024 to be included in the 2023-2024 mid
1:07:27 biennium budget adjustment all those in
1:07:30 favor signify by oh
1:07:33 okay a comment from council member hunt
1:07:36 just before we I'll be brief but
1:07:39 it seems like you've raised a good point
1:07:42 um there is an opportunity for more
1:07:44 discussion on this
1:07:47 um as far as the service area we're
1:07:49 doing a pilot we're going to learn a lot
1:07:51 hopefully quickly I'm wondering if it
1:07:53 would be helpful or something that we
1:07:56 could
1:07:57 have a checkpoint and agree that after a
1:08:00 year or after maybe two quarters we
1:08:03 would look at the numbers and look at
1:08:06 whether there's
1:08:08 um the possibility of evaluating what
1:08:10 part of the Highlands could be
1:08:12 City administrator uh uh thank you
1:08:15 council president councilmember hunt uh
1:08:17 I think practically we're going to have
1:08:19 to anyway because we'll be going through
1:08:21 a biennium biennial budget process a
1:08:23 year from now and so if the the
1:08:25 council's interested in continuing this
1:08:27 Beyond uh the pilot we'll need to do
1:08:30 some budgeting for that but I think that
1:08:32 we could we could come back in a year
1:08:35 um so that would be
1:08:37 too late for the budget process
1:08:39 um but we could come back probably uh
1:08:42 Springtime of 24 with a touch Point
1:08:45 that'd be roughly six months uh because
1:08:48 if there's this is something the council
1:08:49 wishes to expand uh I think we'll have
1:08:52 to come up with dollars we'll need to
1:08:53 talk uh with the Transit Agency uh to
1:08:56 see uh what they are prepared to
1:08:59 additionally add to this um I think
1:09:01 that's a key component and our
1:09:03 colleagues uh from King County Metro
1:09:06 alluded to it but I'll put a sharper
1:09:07 point on it that there's only so much
1:09:09 money that they have available so uh if
1:09:12 we're looking to expand that that means
1:09:13 our proportion of this will likely
1:09:15 increase uh and that will be something
1:09:17 the council will have to consider this
1:09:19 is a general fund cost we could use this
1:09:23 for roads police officers parks and we
1:09:26 are using it for the shuttle service so
1:09:28 we're looking to expand it it will also
1:09:30 be a general fund cost and we'll compete
1:09:32 with other priorities in the city sure
1:09:35 but we can commit to come back uh to
1:09:37 Transportation Mobility next spring as
1:09:40 we're gearing up the budget process for
1:09:41 25.26 and Report out usage and all the
1:09:45 things we've talked about
1:09:48 I will say I recognize that our staff is
1:09:51 always good at doing that type of
1:09:54 check-in and definitely when it comes to
1:09:56 the budget period do you feel like there
1:09:58 is a need for an amendment or just
1:10:00 recognizing
1:10:04 um I'm I am satisfied with that timeline
1:10:07 I thought it would be good to put a
1:10:09 finer more detail on that timeline
1:10:11 before we
1:10:13 um vote but I am satisfied with that
1:10:16 given that I just read the motion I'm
1:10:20 just going to continue and say all those
1:10:23 in favor signify by saying aye
1:10:27 those opposed
1:10:29 that passes unanimously
1:10:32 if I can just say one more word uh
1:10:35 thanks to John Larson friend uh the city
1:10:38 council uh 18 months ago said we're
1:10:42 tired of this not getting done we don't
1:10:44 care if there's no money we don't care
1:10:45 if they're not if the Metro's not doing
1:10:48 this we want it done and mayor Paulie
1:10:50 heard you loud and clear mayor Paulie
1:10:52 included in her budget this position and
1:10:54 John has tirelessly worked to make this
1:10:57 happen and so we're very proud of of
1:11:00 John's work mayor Paulie I think is
1:11:04 proud that she was able to hear the
1:11:06 council's frustration and propose in the
1:11:08 budget at this position because what it
1:11:10 really took was a dedicated staff person
1:11:12 to dogged legal after our dear friends
1:11:15 and colleagues at King County Metro who
1:11:17 are worrying about a big County coming
1:11:19 off of a pandemic lots of other service
1:11:21 issues yet the City of Issaquah was on
1:11:24 their doorstep over and over and over
1:11:26 again saying this is important for our
1:11:28 community so I want to thank ameripawley
1:11:30 for her leadership I want to thank the
1:11:32 cow Council for funding the position and
1:11:34 most importantly want to thank John
1:11:36 coming out as a new staff member this
1:11:38 was on the top of his to-do list and
1:11:41 while he can't quite check it off uh you
1:11:43 could at least highlight it at this
1:11:45 point that a great and job well done so
1:11:48 very much John
1:11:50 thank you appreciate it
1:11:53 okay uh the next item on our agenda is
1:11:58 id1486 the wash dot fish passage project
1:12:02 city city property impacts
1:12:06 and for this okay director Moon you're
1:12:12 starting us out
1:12:17 by the way I used your address as a
1:12:19 mapping down to the transit center so
1:12:22 you're you're one of the edges
1:12:54 hi good evening Emily Moon Public Works
1:12:57 director I'm here with Jeff Watling your
1:13:00 parks and Community Services director
1:13:02 we're here to talk about the fish
1:13:05 passage project we were here
1:13:08 um in February last time to give you an
1:13:11 overview of the project
1:13:15 and we did that in concert with wash
1:13:18 shot staff being here as well
1:13:21 so tonight though we are having a more
1:13:25 focused presentation talking about some
1:13:27 real property impacts City of Issaquah
1:13:29 property impacts and our hope is to get
1:13:32 some feedback from you so that we can
1:13:34 take that feedback to washdot help
1:13:37 inform their RFP process which should be
1:13:40 launching in October and also provide
1:13:44 some direction for future agreements
1:13:47 that we anticipate may need to come
1:13:49 before you
1:13:52 there are three locations that we will
1:13:55 talk about tonight Lewis Creek at
1:13:57 Southeast Newport Way West Village Park
1:14:00 and Schneider Creek within Sammamish
1:14:02 Cove Park and Tibbetts Creek Crossing of
1:14:06 sr900 at the southern part of the city
1:14:14 we'll also review very quickly a project
1:14:17 timeline we have shared that in the past
1:14:20 with you we're going to then go into
1:14:22 depth on each of these locations and at
1:14:26 the end hopefully get that feedback from
1:14:30 so the project is very complex as we
1:14:34 have said before
1:14:35 we're anticipating right now that washed
1:14:40 up will issue a request for proposals in
1:14:42 October this date has just recently
1:14:45 changed they haven't announced a
1:14:48 particular date we think it's about two
1:14:50 weeks later in October but their plan is
1:14:54 then to receive those responses they
1:14:57 have already run a request for
1:14:59 qualifications so they've narrowed the
1:15:01 field already they'll get those RFP
1:15:03 responses back in January and then by
1:15:07 about March we'll we'll have an
1:15:09 indication of who the design Builder
1:15:12 will be
1:15:13 as we said in February this is a very
1:15:16 long project
1:15:17 they must complete the project by 2030
1:15:21 for the federal injunction and so City
1:15:25 of Issaquah will be living with this
1:15:27 project for many years
1:15:32 first location is Lewis Creek and this
1:15:35 is at the Far West boundary of Issaquah
1:15:39 the creek currently
1:15:42 passes from the Lakemont side of the
1:15:47 city Bellevue side of the city and goes
1:15:50 under I-90 that isn't changing except
1:15:53 that the Creek's alignment will be
1:15:55 slightly to the east of where it is
1:15:58 currently located today and they will
1:16:01 attempt to Daylight portions of the
1:16:03 creek
1:16:04 in order to do that
1:16:07 they are proposing to change worthy
1:16:10 on-ramp is or I-90 moving it to the east
1:16:15 and create a roundabout to help with
1:16:18 traffic control as you are passing
1:16:22 East-West on Newport and off out of
1:16:26 Lakemont Orchards driveway and again on
1:16:29 the on-ramp
1:16:34 so some of the property impacts that we
1:16:36 wanted to talk to you involve how
1:16:38 ownership or maintenance
1:16:41 responsibilities may change on these
1:16:44 Parcels so this is the current condition
1:16:47 washdot has existing right-of-way
1:16:51 shown in red here and then the City of
1:16:54 Issaquah
1:16:58 and I'm going to show you what they have
1:17:00 proposed but I want you to get a quick
1:17:03 look at this you'll see that red extends
1:17:05 just up to the roundabout but not
1:17:08 through
1:17:12 this is what washdot has proposed
1:17:16 as you can see the city of issaquah's
1:17:19 ownership would be discontinuous the
1:17:22 city's portion would be sandwiched in
1:17:24 between city of Bellevue and wash dots
1:17:28 there's not yellow segment after the red
1:17:31 segment to the east but that is where we
1:17:33 would pick up
1:17:34 the last little bit on your screen there
1:17:36 the bottom right hand corner
1:17:40 Bridge span that is in that yellow
1:17:43 section would be a hundred and
1:17:44 approximately 160 feet
1:17:49 city of Bellevue does own operate
1:17:52 control some of the intersection that
1:17:55 you see there on the Far West End I'm
1:17:59 going to come back to why this is not
1:18:01 our recommendation but I wanted you to
1:18:04 have a clear look of what they are
1:18:06 proposing
1:18:08 City administration's recommendation is
1:18:10 that we do indeed ensure that city of
1:18:14 Bellevue has right-of-way abilities can
1:18:16 control
1:18:18 legs of the intersection in order to
1:18:20 make sure the whole intersection
1:18:23 performs the way that it needs to we
1:18:25 have good collaboration with them we'll
1:18:27 be able to share data technology all of
1:18:30 that but it makes sense to us that they
1:18:33 would take this portion of the
1:18:36 right-of-way this is actually outside
1:18:37 the city limits as well so for that
1:18:40 reason we are supporting
1:18:42 washdot's recommendation to
1:18:45 change the right of way
1:18:47 ownership to the city of Bellevue on the
1:18:50 Far West End however
1:18:52 we would recommend that washdot takes
1:18:55 maintenance responsibilities ownership
1:18:58 responsibilities right-of-way
1:18:59 responsibilities all the way from that
1:19:02 point where Bellevue ceases
1:19:04 up until we get past the roundabout and
1:19:09 the on-ramp and then the city's
1:19:11 right-of-way ownership and maintenance
1:19:14 responsibilities would begin
1:19:16 and again I'll come back to that and
1:19:18 kind of talk about why that is our
1:19:20 recommendation
1:19:23 in addition before we move off of this
1:19:25 Slide the City
1:19:27 would also work through some maintenance
1:19:30 agreements with washdot we would have an
1:19:32 interest in doing that because this is
1:19:33 the Gateway One of the gateways to our
1:19:35 city we want to make sure that it meets
1:19:38 our standards we also have an interest
1:19:41 in making sure that this initial
1:19:44 entrance into the Newport Corridor fits
1:19:48 our Newport Corridor design that city
1:19:51 council blessed some time ago
1:19:54 and we would want to make sure that snow
1:19:57 removal and those types of activities
1:19:59 are again up to our standard here so
1:20:01 it's not uncommon for the city to have
1:20:03 some agreements with washdot or the
1:20:06 county to caretake in order to make sure
1:20:11 that it meets our standards
1:20:16 so our recommendation is that the
1:20:20 right-of-way is converted in that middle
1:20:24 sandwich section that wash that had
1:20:27 proposed for the city to wash that
1:20:29 limited access and then include the
1:20:31 roundabout through Lakemont Orchards
1:20:34 driveway
1:20:36 you'll see here I didn't mention earlier
1:20:38 but there is a multi-use trail proposed
1:20:41 the mountains the sound Greenway Trail
1:20:43 proposed on Newport and we would want to
1:20:47 make sure that washdot is planning for
1:20:49 that Trails construction
1:20:51 existence in this portion of the project
1:20:55 we also would ensure that the city's
1:20:58 utilities that would likely be located
1:21:00 in that vicinity are hung under the
1:21:02 bridge would be maintained through a
1:21:04 city easement
1:21:07 we think washdot should own the bridge
1:21:10 that's a huge future financial
1:21:12 obligation that the city would take on
1:21:14 if it was in our ownership
1:21:17 we also believe that there are some ways
1:21:21 to share those maintenance
1:21:23 responsibilities with the city taking
1:21:24 some of perhaps some day-to-day
1:21:27 maintenance obligations but why should I
1:21:30 having those longer term
1:21:32 bigger Capital replacement costs
1:21:35 and then as I said the city
1:21:37 administration supports Bellevue
1:21:41 converting the ownership on that West
1:21:43 End to Bellevue so that they would also
1:21:46 be able to control the Lakemont traffic
1:21:48 signal
1:21:51 that's Lewis Creek
1:21:55 next I am going to move to the East and
1:21:59 talk about Village Park West Village
1:22:02 Park Creek and Schneider Creek and in a
1:22:05 moment I'm going to turn it over to
1:22:07 director Watling so that he can talk
1:22:08 about the property impacts at this
1:22:11 location but I'm going to set it up by
1:22:13 helping you understand this engineered
1:22:16 map here what you see in yellow are City
1:22:20 roads Newport Way on the bottom of the
1:22:22 slide Northwest Sammamish road on the
1:22:25 top I-90 in between what you see in blue
1:22:29 is proposed West Village Park Creek
1:22:32 alignment
1:22:35 joining up with Schneider Creek which is
1:22:38 coming in from the far right of the
1:22:40 screen Crossing I-90 roughly where
1:22:44 Schneider Creek crosses today but new
1:22:48 Crossing for West Village Park
1:22:51 and continuing on to Sammamish Cove
1:22:56 currently the West Village Park Creek
1:22:59 crosses I-90 to the west of here at
1:23:04 approximately just east of Southeast
1:23:07 51st Street
1:23:08 so just slightly to the west of the
1:23:12 proposed Crossing
1:23:14 in this slide
1:23:16 also it's important to note that West
1:23:19 Village Park therefore would run
1:23:22 parallel to I-90 for a longer run than
1:23:25 it currently does today and uh
1:23:29 it would combine with Schneider just
1:23:33 Northwest of the Revel senior apartments
1:23:36 that are on Newport hopefully that helps
1:23:39 to orient you
1:23:49 thank you director moon for that for
1:23:51 that overview so now continuing on to
1:23:54 the park so as these two Creeks are
1:23:56 proposed to merge they then would go
1:23:58 underneath
1:24:00 a 90 and this new Leah line Schneider
1:24:05 Creek wood
1:24:07 go through Sammamish Cove Park in a in a
1:24:11 new alignment a little bit of background
1:24:13 on some Amish Cove Park just for context
1:24:15 this park was purchased by King County
1:24:18 in the 90s
1:24:19 it was transferred to the city in 2007
1:24:22 as part of the South Lake Sammamish
1:24:25 annexation
1:24:28 the city now through that annexation
1:24:30 we're now the owner and the steward of
1:24:32 this King County utilized multiple Grant
1:24:35 sources when they purchased the park so
1:24:38 those deeds those covenants are now our
1:24:40 responsibility
1:24:42 as the map shows
1:24:46 this relocation does represent a pretty
1:24:49 significant change to the property
1:24:52 it brings now a creek and its buffer
1:24:55 into the into the property
1:24:59 you'll notice on the map that there's an
1:25:02 existing trail that that existing Trail
1:25:04 would now be in the creek buffer
1:25:07 certainly something that we've noted to
1:25:10 wash Dot
1:25:12 something important to note too as as
1:25:15 we've been talking with washdot about
1:25:16 this proposed impact and their interest
1:25:18 in using the the park
1:25:23 this property has some real key
1:25:26 opportunities for trail connection this
1:25:29 property joins Lake Sammamish State Park
1:25:31 and so as we begin thinking
1:25:34 um into the future opportunities for
1:25:37 Trails opportunities for education on
1:25:41 the site are something of importance and
1:25:44 and something that was sort of
1:25:46 identified even with the original
1:25:49 acquisition of of this property
1:25:57 go to the next slide
1:25:59 um Watling we have a question
1:26:01 Deputy council president Hill
1:26:04 just trying to decide if I should wait
1:26:06 to the next slide or not but I might as
1:26:07 well just ask uh two quick questions on
1:26:09 this so
1:26:10 um when you say significant will it be
1:26:12 will it be noticeable so like you drive
1:26:15 along Northwest Spanish road right now
1:26:17 and you look out and it's just to see
1:26:18 pretty tall grass you can't see anything
1:26:20 but you know envisioning this happening
1:26:23 would you would there be a noticeable
1:26:24 Creek going through the property yeah I
1:26:27 think that design is still to be had but
1:26:29 yes this would be a exposed Creek
1:26:34 environmentally it brings some real
1:26:35 benefits
1:26:37 um but again that is a a new creek and a
1:26:41 new buffer a new critical area that
1:26:44 would need to be managed as as part of
1:26:46 the park and manage with any current and
1:26:48 future recreational use
1:26:51 and I know there is a I won't use the
1:26:54 word Trail but Trail in quotes
1:26:57 from kind of the residential area
1:26:58 through that park into that's kind of
1:27:01 heavily used by that Community I imagine
1:27:03 that would then be impacted something
1:27:05 like this right it would be that is not
1:27:07 a uh that's not a sanctioned Trail right
1:27:09 no it's not um but as something as we've
1:27:11 partnered with public works and as we
1:27:13 look at Road improvements on that road
1:27:15 uh we do think a sanctioned Trail
1:27:18 connection through Sammamish Cove park
1:27:20 into Lake Sammamish State Park is a is a
1:27:23 really important priority and something
1:27:24 that with this proposed new use we would
1:27:27 want to be very aware of and and
1:27:30 cognizant of
1:27:32 perfect thank you great questions so
1:27:36 um where we're at
1:27:37 um uh you know washdot is seeking to
1:27:39 utilize the park we do not have an
1:27:42 agreement in place yet between washdot
1:27:46 and the city
1:27:47 for the use of the city's real property
1:27:51 and that is something that we
1:27:55 want to sort of talk through
1:27:58 administration's recommendations for how
1:28:00 we approach those those negotiations and
1:28:02 and get your get your feedback on
1:28:06 um the city does support
1:28:10 the use of Sammamish Cove park for this
1:28:13 purpose we do feel like there are some
1:28:15 environmental benefits to this happening
1:28:17 to these Creeks joining
1:28:19 um however we feel like there are some
1:28:22 really important conditions and
1:28:24 considerations that we should approach
1:28:28 for allowing another public agency to
1:28:30 use to use the park property
1:28:34 and those items really fall our approach
1:28:37 would fall into three categories or
1:28:40 three areas of interest that we would
1:28:43 want to to begin with and I'll go
1:28:45 through those real quickly the first is
1:28:47 habitat restoration as you mentioned
1:28:49 Deputy council president Hall that tall
1:28:52 grass that you see throughout the
1:28:54 property that's Reed canary grass that's
1:28:56 invasive we know that that is something
1:28:58 we want to mitigate and have wanted to
1:29:00 mitigate so
1:29:02 what that is going to be our first
1:29:05 approach is to have expanded habitat
1:29:08 restoration on the property and not just
1:29:11 habitat restoration of of the impacted
1:29:14 area we think that is a
1:29:16 a public benefit that would both benefit
1:29:19 the project as well as that property
1:29:22 near-term and long term without quite
1:29:25 frankly
1:29:26 expanded habitat restoration that Reed
1:29:30 canary grass is only going to threaten
1:29:32 any more small mitigation that they want
1:29:36 to do on the on the creek and the buffer
1:29:37 so habitat restoration is our first
1:29:39 approach for expansion of that work and
1:29:43 then the other area of Interest I
1:29:45 mentioned earlier is Trails so any
1:29:47 mitigation or restoration of the current
1:29:49 Trails we would ask washdot to do as
1:29:52 well as some degree of contribution for
1:29:54 in consideration for future Trails
1:29:57 within that newly created Creek and its
1:30:00 buffer we don't feel like assuming this
1:30:04 new use is necessarily a financial
1:30:06 burden that we the city should take on
1:30:08 when it comes to Future recreational
1:30:11 Trails of of this existing property
1:30:16 and the third area of Interest would be
1:30:19 those Grant deeds and the deed
1:30:21 restrictions and recognizing that the
1:30:23 two grants that were utilized to
1:30:25 purchase the property we don't
1:30:27 anticipate but should a conversion be
1:30:30 needed because of washdot's proposed new
1:30:33 use we would ask that washed up be
1:30:35 financially financially responsible for
1:30:38 any any conversion requirements that
1:30:42 might come from those two Grant agencies
1:30:48 um I would point out that as we enter
1:30:50 into these conversations with washdot
1:30:52 and again invite your feedback on these
1:30:54 negotiations like any real property
1:30:57 um any final terms any transaction any
1:31:01 agreement on this real property will
1:31:03 come back to you as city council for
1:31:05 your approval so what really what we're
1:31:07 seeking tonight with this approach for
1:31:09 washdot's interest in the park property
1:31:11 is just your feedback on how we enter
1:31:15 into these conversations with washdop
1:31:18 director Watling before we move on to
1:31:20 the next one we've got council member
1:31:22 Marts and Deputy council president Hall
1:31:24 well very rare for me I'm complete
1:31:27 completely confused by your map and uh
1:31:30 where is Schneider Creek
1:31:35 in this map that in the city
1:31:38 the proposed Creek is the blue line
1:31:41 where is it I see Tibbetts Creek I see
1:31:43 Lewis Creek to the west where is
1:31:45 Schneider Creek with respect to Tibbetts
1:31:48 and Lewis creeks
1:31:50 so on this this map doesn't this map is
1:31:54 very confusing
1:31:58 this isn't a creek that I know so it is
1:32:01 not an existing Creek so this is the
1:32:03 proposed alignment of Schneider Creek on
1:32:07 Sammamish Cove Park
1:32:09 but I don't know what Schneider Creek is
1:32:11 I know Lewis Creek and I know Tibbetts
1:32:17 please
1:32:20 it's an existing Creek it's very small
1:32:23 and somewhat seasonal
1:32:27 so it does not show up if you look on a
1:32:30 Google map for example it's not a named
1:32:33 Creek typically at the level of detail
1:32:36 that you'd see on Google Maps if you
1:32:38 were to go on the city's GIS you could
1:32:40 find it okay and so to answer your
1:32:43 question
1:32:44 Shiner Creek is to the west of Tibbetts
1:32:50 it is of course to the east of Louis
1:32:56 great great
1:33:01 excellent
1:33:03 so it exists today it runs right on on
1:33:07 the property line between
1:33:10 Park and a private of butter which was
1:33:14 going to be the second half of my
1:33:15 question because Sammamish Cove Park is
1:33:17 also not
1:33:18 okay now I know where we were talking
1:33:21 about thank you so much
1:33:23 Deputy council president Hall uh props
1:33:26 to whoever pulled that map up very
1:33:27 quickly thank you
1:33:31 oh dear I've forgotten oh no um these
1:33:34 terms that we want to talk about with
1:33:36 Wausau or do we think they would be
1:33:37 receptive to things like this or would
1:33:40 they consider this outside the scope
1:33:41 what are we thinking
1:33:46 again they're requesting use of of our
1:33:48 public property right so typically there
1:33:51 is compensation from one public agency
1:33:53 to another so we have not begun those
1:33:55 negotiations we think this is extremely
1:33:58 reasonable approach that um
1:34:02 again sort of meets the Nexus of their
1:34:04 project and also meets the original
1:34:06 intent of the purchase of the property
1:34:09 just quickly weighing in Rachel Turpin
1:34:11 City attorney they're also legally
1:34:13 required to do mitigation to
1:34:18 minimize the impacts of their work so
1:34:21 to the extent that there will be
1:34:24 interfering with the critical areas and
1:34:27 whatnot they they will have they they
1:34:30 legally have to do it on that basis as
1:34:33 everywhere all over the state wow don't
1:34:36 send me down okay thank you
1:34:40 okay go ahead
1:34:49 okay the last location is at the
1:34:52 southern boundary of the city on sr900
1:34:56 and there's limited impact to city
1:35:00 property our right-of-way and the city
1:35:04 boundary line does some jigging and
1:35:07 jogging in this area but
1:35:10 we do have a parcel that is
1:35:14 designated as native growth protection
1:35:16 easement area and the restoration work
1:35:19 that washdot would need to do in order
1:35:22 to build this Culvert is in part on that
1:35:26 easement area
1:35:28 we think that the work that they're
1:35:30 going to do in habitat restoration and
1:35:33 enhancement is consistent with the
1:35:35 native growth protection easement area
1:35:37 and as you heard they would need to do
1:35:39 some mitigation restoration as well so
1:35:43 this is this is a location where we are
1:35:46 supportive of their proposed property
1:35:50 impacts but we wanted to highlight it
1:35:53 for you it is a place where city
1:35:54 property will be affected
1:36:01 next steps I just want to reiterate what
1:36:04 director Watling said
1:36:07 City Administration is supportive of
1:36:09 this project
1:36:10 we are supportive of the project as a
1:36:14 way to remove fish barriers and to
1:36:16 enhance habitat
1:36:18 there are though some significant
1:36:20 impacts of this project some of them we
1:36:23 talked about tonight as real property
1:36:24 impacts others we talked about in
1:36:26 February and we'll continue talking
1:36:28 about as the project is designed and as
1:36:31 we have a better understanding of those
1:36:32 impacts such as traffic impacts
1:36:36 but tonight we are hoping to get your
1:36:39 feedback on these real property impacts
1:36:41 as we know them to be today
1:36:43 so that we can provide that feedback
1:36:46 your questions your concerns to washdot
1:36:49 so that they can refine their RFP so
1:36:53 that they can instruct the design
1:36:56 Builder appropriately and so that we can
1:37:00 enter into negotiations knowing your
1:37:03 viewpoints and advocate for the city's
1:37:05 position effectively
1:37:07 there's a lot of work that still has to
1:37:09 be done as they build their RFP as they
1:37:14 collaborate with a design Builder on the
1:37:16 design Builders intended
1:37:19 pursuit of the project there's some
1:37:21 flexibility there so we will continue to
1:37:24 learn as we go and we will keep you
1:37:28 apprised
1:37:31 after we have this impact
1:37:35 response from you we will begin those
1:37:39 negotiations and we anticipate we will
1:37:42 have some formal agreements that will
1:37:44 need to be executed by the city council
1:37:46 so we will bring those back to you I
1:37:48 don't have a timeline this evening for
1:37:51 when that will occur but I anticipate
1:37:54 that most of them will follow after the
1:37:58 RFP has been kicked off by washed up
1:38:02 with that
1:38:05 be happy to answer any questions that
1:38:07 you have and to hear any of your
1:38:09 thoughts about these property impacts
1:38:12 and the city's City administration's
1:38:14 recommendations on uh how how we would
1:38:18 like to respond to washdot
1:38:22 and we've had a few questions
1:38:24 um so far I'm just going to ask if there
1:38:26 are any questions first Okay so we've
1:38:29 got three questions starting with
1:38:30 council member hunt then Martz then D
1:38:33 Michelle
1:38:34 on the Sammamish Cove Park stream
1:38:38 realignment for the trails piece of this
1:38:42 when it says restore and mitigate for
1:38:44 current Trails would they
1:38:47 um in the scenario would they hands the
1:38:49 trail they would build trails and hand
1:38:51 them back to the city for maintenance
1:38:53 after they finish them or would they be
1:38:55 responsible for maintaining those Trails
1:38:57 for any period of time
1:39:00 for current Trails they would need to
1:39:02 mitigate either the trail Improvement
1:39:05 itself or if the trail is now in a newly
1:39:08 formed buffer they would need to provide
1:39:10 that or perform the mitigation for
1:39:12 keeping that trail in the buffer but
1:39:14 eventual you know Trail maintenance
1:39:17 would then be handed over to the city as
1:39:19 it's part of us within a city park
1:39:22 okay so they would they would have to
1:39:24 follow current code as far as what that
1:39:26 mitigation would be depending on how
1:39:28 much I was in the buffer okay
1:39:33 are any of these Creeks harmonic and if
1:39:35 so do they have regulatory or treaty
1:39:41 yes is the answer to that question and
1:39:44 washdot has a whole set of additional
1:39:47 rules including NEPA
1:39:50 um hydrological studies that they need
1:39:52 to perform and so they are abiding by
1:39:57 all those requirements
1:39:58 thank you
1:40:01 Michelle
1:40:03 so going back to the bridge over Lewis
1:40:06 Creek and and I'm having difficulty
1:40:09 actually looking at that map as well
1:40:12 is that bridge going to then extend over
1:40:16 Newport Way or is it too early in the
1:40:19 design process to answer that question
1:40:22 but it looks like
1:40:24 it goes across Lewis Creek and then
1:40:26 across Newport Way is that correct
1:40:29 it will become in essence Newport way it
1:40:33 is going to be part of the roadway
1:40:35 structure we just call that portion a
1:40:38 bridge even though it it will largely be
1:40:41 flush with a big existing elevation of
1:40:47 Newport Way just slightly raised to
1:40:49 enable the Culvert Crossing underneath
1:40:53 so and is that the reason you're
1:40:54 recommending that that also be owned by
1:40:56 watchdot then so it would be so
1:40:59 basically it would all be read in there
1:41:01 and it would all be managed by washed
1:41:04 out when it's when the whole project is
1:41:05 done correct as they need to construct
1:41:08 it for this project in order to build a
1:41:10 bridge structure that is part of the
1:41:12 Culvert structure that they then would
1:41:14 be responsible for its large-scale
1:41:17 maintenance and and replacement in the
1:41:20 future okay thank you
1:41:24 Deputy council president Hall
1:41:26 um forgive me did we already say that
1:41:28 for that particular segment of road for
1:41:30 Lewis Creek that we would want it to
1:41:33 conform to our adopted Newport Way
1:41:35 Corridor design standards so it would
1:41:38 meet whatever
1:41:40 whatever potential improvements we would
1:41:42 do down the road would sink nicely with
1:41:45 yes so I'm going to answer that in two
1:41:47 different ways I'm going to I'm going to
1:41:49 relay that we have provided them with
1:41:52 the corridor plan and we have asked them
1:41:54 to instruct the design Builder to make
1:41:57 it consistent with that plan
1:41:59 they must also adhere to Federal
1:42:02 standards and state standards for this
1:42:05 type of roadway so the art will be in
1:42:10 marrying up those two things and making
1:42:12 sure that it it functions in a safe and
1:42:16 consistent with both of those
1:42:19 regulations
1:42:21 please ask a
1:42:23 follow-up question it might be a dumb
1:42:25 question on my part that's not to say
1:42:27 that our Corridor design doesn't meet
1:42:29 Pacific state or federal standards right
1:42:32 no but our Corridor standard also
1:42:34 doesn't speak to on-ramps and in other
1:42:36 facilities like that
1:42:41 okay so I'm not seeing any other
1:42:43 questions so at this point
1:42:46 um we need to provide comments back to
1:42:49 the administration on
1:42:51 any or all of these three so who would
1:42:55 like to start with
1:42:57 comments on the administration's
1:42:59 proposal
1:43:04 okay I'll start
1:43:07 okay I've got my comments already down
1:43:10 on here um first of all I absolutely
1:43:12 concur that washdot should own the
1:43:13 bridge for Lewis Creek
1:43:16 um I remember times when other
1:43:19 jurisdictions have built things like say
1:43:22 the wall behind Fred Meyer and then
1:43:25 gifted it to us and it has not come
1:43:28 across very well so I very much think
1:43:31 that they should own that I am also
1:43:33 concerned about having an orphan road to
1:43:36 maintain between roadways owned by other
1:43:38 jurisdictions so I think that's
1:43:40 absolutely sound on the samash Cove Park
1:43:48 I think that becomes a little bit of a
1:43:50 conflict for me because we're also
1:43:53 having them construct something for a
1:43:55 Northwest Sammamish road but I don't
1:43:58 think there's any proposed right-of-way
1:44:00 or ownership changes there and I don't
1:44:02 think there should be
1:44:05 but I do wonder what the cost and
1:44:07 responsibility it would be to maintain
1:44:09 that Culvert and the roadway bridge
1:44:11 going over it also I think given that
1:44:14 this is now then two Creeks coming into
1:44:17 one in an area that is fairly flat and
1:44:21 fairly well visited by beavers
1:44:25 um I would just wonder what the
1:44:28 possibilities are for flooding both for
1:44:31 properties nearby and for the trail and
1:44:34 if there is flooding who would be
1:44:38 responsible for that or responsible for
1:44:40 removing or taking care of any beaver
1:44:44 dams so that would be a question I would
1:44:46 want to come up and be resolved as we're
1:44:48 coming through this process
1:44:52 a council member hunt
1:44:58 um well I agree on the Lewis Creek
1:45:01 Bridge one with Mr President Walsh on
1:45:05 the second
1:45:06 um the second recommendation which is
1:45:07 the one with Schneider Creek and the new
1:45:10 stream alignment that it seems like a
1:45:13 lot of the things were
1:45:15 um asking for in exchange for the use of
1:45:18 this are things that are currently in
1:45:20 the code that are required anyway as was
1:45:22 also pointed out by our City attorney
1:45:25 um so I wonder also because it is a site
1:45:29 that has a lot of of invasives
1:45:33 um it's very very much we canary grass
1:45:37 currently I know there's been a lot of
1:45:39 work elsewhere in Lake Sammamish State
1:45:41 Park for example to remove invasives
1:45:44 it's an ongoing very
1:45:46 labor-intensive process takes a lot of
1:45:49 work over a long period of time and can
1:45:51 very quickly revert back to that state
1:45:55 um so I do think since it seems to me
1:45:57 like like what we're mostly asking for
1:45:59 is is both very reasonable but also
1:46:00 mostly what our code already requires if
1:46:03 there is room to extends that time when
1:46:07 they need to maintain that property and
1:46:09 maintain it in the restored State and
1:46:11 continue monitoring so it doesn't revert
1:46:13 back to all read canary grass and undo
1:46:15 that work
1:46:16 again also it is a important stream for
1:46:21 fish and you know I think that habitat
1:46:23 for fish so maintaining that habitat
1:46:25 would be important and if we have room
1:46:26 to ask for more in exchange I would ask
1:46:29 for more years of monitoring and
1:46:31 maintenance and make sure we
1:46:32 keep it in that positive State and then
1:46:35 similarly we didn't there wasn't as much
1:46:38 information provided about the Tibbetts
1:46:39 Creek
1:46:40 area where they're doing restoration of
1:46:43 that native
1:46:44 protection growth area but I would say
1:46:47 similarly just make sure that if if we
1:46:49 have room to make sure that they're
1:46:52 monitoring and maintaining that
1:46:53 restoration for as long as possible that
1:46:55 would be my ask
1:46:58 thank you uh Deputy council president
1:47:01 I just have another question based on
1:47:03 your comments so the um
1:47:06 Creek going under I-90
1:47:09 um this is the work to Sammamish Cove
1:47:11 Park would that have any impact to our
1:47:13 ability to expand into the right-of-way
1:47:15 for our remodel of Northwest Sammamish
1:47:17 there'd be any impact we have been
1:47:20 collaborating with them
1:47:22 since I can't even tell you a long time
1:47:25 and they are aware of our preferred
1:47:30 alternative design for Northwest
1:47:32 Sammamish Road they are instructing the
1:47:35 design Builder to build to that design
1:47:39 and uh
1:47:41 it is cities Road it is not within
1:47:44 washout right-of-way right now which is
1:47:46 the difference with the location at the
1:47:48 at the far west end with Lewis Creek so
1:47:51 the city well own and maintain that
1:47:54 stretch including the Culvert moving
1:47:57 forward
1:47:59 all right thank you hon all I have to
1:48:01 say then it seems like staff are really
1:48:03 on top of it and the record of the
1:48:04 administration's recommendation seems
1:48:06 very straightforward and Common Sense
1:48:08 yeah I think you found a good path
1:48:10 forward and keep a good work with Boston
1:48:16 anyone want to just thumbs up what yeah
1:48:21 satisfies our needs do you guys have
1:48:23 anything else you need from us we do not
1:48:25 thank you for the input we'll relay that
1:48:27 to watchdot
1:48:30 excellent as always okay we've got one
1:48:34 more uh regular item of business
1:48:38 uh which is
1:48:39 id1470 the 2022 year end overview in
1:48:43 2023 2024 revenue forecast uh this is an
1:48:47 informational item so no action is
1:48:49 requested and I would like to bring up
1:48:53 Chief Financial Officer Robert hamoud to
1:48:56 present this item
1:48:58 members of the council is Robert settles
1:49:01 in there's a lot of information that we
1:49:03 have for you this evening
1:49:06 I'm going to ask Robert to uh
1:49:09 walk over the larger economic issues
1:49:13 facing the region I think you're very
1:49:15 familiar with it it's well documented in
1:49:17 the staff report it's in the
1:49:18 presentation if you have any questions
1:49:19 at the conclusion we'll be happy to talk
1:49:22 to that I think in the interest of time
1:49:24 we'll when we get to those points in the
1:49:26 presentation just kind of skip over them
1:49:29 and head right on to the uh impacts
1:49:32 roughly this off so with that Robert
1:49:34 good evening
1:49:35 and I will add on to that we read them
1:49:38 so we we're getting the information
1:49:41 don't feel like it's it was wasted to
1:49:43 give it to us so thank you
1:49:48 thank you council president Walsh that's
1:49:49 always flattering to us budget Geeks to
1:49:53 hear that of course
1:49:55 so I will summarize there's two parts to
1:49:57 this presentation that
1:50:00 2022 year-end summary in the 2023 Robert
1:50:03 we're not seeing anything shared
1:50:31 so I'll go through the tables on 22 and
1:50:34 then just ask your patients for
1:50:36 questions at the end of that and then
1:50:38 we'll talk about 23 afterward
1:50:42 and so I'll go right to the tables here
1:50:44 with the general fund actuals the
1:50:45 beginning fund balance because he
1:50:48 started with the adopted budget of 26.2
1:50:51 and the actuals end of the year at 33
1:50:55 million
1:50:56 and so revenues
1:50:58 into the 67.1 million expenditures at
1:51:01 64.8 million you can see that was a gain
1:51:04 revenues over expenditures however if
1:51:06 you remember the August of 2022
1:51:08 projection that we gave Council that we
1:51:10 built the budget on we actually did come
1:51:13 in with the fund balance at the end of
1:51:16 the year a little bit lower than we
1:51:17 predicted and part of that was a
1:51:20 decrease in the under Spin and also a
1:51:22 decrease in the year-end revenues as
1:51:24 well based on that prediction so we saw
1:51:26 sales tax start to slow down and we saw
1:51:29 some expenditures increase
1:51:35 and as I said on the property tax
1:51:37 we have
1:51:41 right on the budget that's one of the
1:51:43 most predictable because we get the
1:51:45 county the information from the County
1:51:46 sales tax
1:51:48 end of the year you could see on this
1:51:50 chart we actually added another
1:51:52 percentage so you can see percent change
1:51:53 actuals over budget and then percent
1:51:55 change actuals over projections so if
1:51:57 we're looking at the projection at 2022
1:52:01 sales tax was down slightly from our
1:52:03 projection it happened at the end of the
1:52:04 year's construction started to slow down
1:52:06 a little bit on sales tax and so did
1:52:09 consumer spending just a little bit
1:52:12 businesses and occupation tax however
1:52:14 was very strong
1:52:15 however it's
1:52:17 again slightly under that projection so
1:52:20 again kind of following that term but it
1:52:22 did if you go from the forecast to
1:52:24 budget of 6.4 we did end at 6.9
1:52:27 for that utility tax was strong we saw
1:52:29 increases some of that was returned to
1:52:31 work and returned to offices so we saw
1:52:33 more activity that increased energy
1:52:36 costs especially in the commercial
1:52:37 sector and we also had small rate
1:52:40 increases so that was about 5.7 Millions
1:52:43 were at end of the year departmental
1:52:45 revenues this includes Recreation as it
1:52:47 was Community Development was at 10.7 so
1:52:49 that was higher than the adopted budget
1:52:51 especially in the Parks Parks finished
1:52:53 the year strongly thank you Jeff
1:52:57 and other revenues including transfers
1:52:59 10.4 million that also includes interest
1:53:01 so interest rates are higher so our
1:53:03 investments that the city were higher
1:53:05 than forecasted at the beam of the year
1:53:09 general fund expenditures you can see
1:53:12 that the the under spend is still there
1:53:15 we did fill positions and by the end of
1:53:17 the year there was some spending a
1:53:19 little bit more than when we came on the
1:53:21 forecast so we did end up the actual
1:53:23 64.8 the forecast was 63.5 in August
1:53:27 that was because of the filling of
1:53:29 positions that increase expenditures as
1:53:30 a result however you could see most
1:53:33 categories were still down from the
1:53:35 budget based on those vacant positions
1:53:38 and based on kind of ramping back up
1:53:39 after covid
1:53:43 any questions those are the 22 slides
1:53:48 great
1:53:49 823 we'll skip over the conditions
1:53:52 the revenue projections for 23 go to the
1:53:54 the drum roll story for tonight
1:53:56 you can see that property tax is holding
1:53:59 flat and so this is a little different
1:54:02 than we showed this slide in the past
1:54:03 because now we have the two-year budget
1:54:05 so we want to show you
1:54:07 24 is still a ways out but we do at
1:54:10 least want to show you what our
1:54:10 projection is for 23 and our best data
1:54:13 right now for 24. now keep in mind most
1:54:17 of these items are only most of these
1:54:19 categories really have data through June
1:54:22 and so we are lagging a couple months on
1:54:24 that data we'll have another update for
1:54:26 you in October but this is right now
1:54:28 everything held constant this is what
1:54:30 our forecast is you can see with sales
1:54:34 on the 23 projection it is slightly
1:54:37 lower so what we're doing is we're
1:54:38 monitoring construction so construction
1:54:40 has dropped construction if you add in
1:54:44 all the construction activity we have in
1:54:46 the category we have in sales tax and
1:54:48 you include Home Depot and you include
1:54:50 lows and some of the other hardware
1:54:51 stores in the lumber yards it's about 20
1:54:53 of our total sales tax so that's the
1:54:55 most volatile piece and so that's what
1:54:57 we're seeing right now is
1:54:59 a slight decrease in sales tax however
1:55:03 that's for construction for consumer
1:55:05 goods consumer spending and online sales
1:55:07 retail sales we're at about 4.4 percent
1:55:10 so just under the rate of inflation so
1:55:12 that's still increasing so we're again
1:55:14 in three months we'll come back to you
1:55:15 to show you how the year ends we still
1:55:17 do not have the the summer construction
1:55:19 activity to see if that
1:55:21 that rebounds a bit so that's what we're
1:55:23 monitoring right now but business and
1:55:25 occupation tax
1:55:27 same thing we're going to see how that
1:55:29 lands some of that is again tied to
1:55:31 construction so right now that is the
1:55:33 projection is slightly under the
1:55:34 adoption budget
1:55:36 and then 2024 you can see there
1:55:40 when you have that growth rate that's
1:55:42 still a question mark how things are
1:55:44 going to end at the end of the year for
1:55:46 23 and then going into 24 so utility
1:55:49 taxes as well that's pretty much on
1:55:52 budget right now so about 6.1 million
1:55:55 same thing for next year 6.2 million
1:56:00 departmental revenues again are
1:56:04 a little bit less than the adopted
1:56:06 budget right now but we're still
1:56:08 monitoring this Community Development
1:56:09 revenues is the one we're monitoring
1:56:11 right now to see how the year ends
1:56:12 there's a couple of items in such as the
1:56:16 Avalon development that we built into
1:56:18 the budget that is not going to happen
1:56:19 this year and then also the high school
1:56:21 the high schools will be pushed out to
1:56:22 25 so we push that more into our
1:56:24 long-term forecast after this biennium
1:56:26 at this point
1:56:31 the year-to-day expenditures this is
1:56:32 through May 30th again we have a lag
1:56:34 time with our invoicing and with our
1:56:36 reporting but we were on track as far as
1:56:39 we were on budget at this point
1:56:45 and we have presented this site in the
1:56:47 past I know it's a little busy with both
1:56:48 23 and 24. this is the same slide we
1:56:51 used to present last year in our
1:56:53 forecast for the biennium what we're
1:56:55 looking at where to focus on is the 23
1:56:59 adopted budget beginning fund balance at
1:57:01 the top left corner again these figures
1:57:03 are unaudited for 2022 right now but the
1:57:06 beginning fund balance is 34.4 million
1:57:09 our new projection if you go to the end
1:57:11 of the biennium if you're looking at a
1:57:12 two-year lens would be 22.6 million
1:57:16 so you can see there was a question I
1:57:19 know from a council member regarding the
1:57:22 affordable housing sales tax revenues
1:57:24 that is in restricted revenues
1:57:27 and so the bottom line on the fund
1:57:29 balance you can see ongoing resources
1:57:32 because of what we're seeing right now
1:57:34 with revenues and the revenue
1:57:35 performance and also an increase in
1:57:38 expenditures as we get back towards that
1:57:40 appropriation it's pretty much a flat
1:57:43 projection right now so just about a
1:57:45 hundred thousand under budget so just a
1:57:48 flat projection right after 23 but if
1:57:50 everything held constant we would be
1:57:53 below 700 024. now just a caveat we did
1:57:58 build in
1:57:59 the Metroflex as Council approved
1:58:02 earlier this was built into the budget
1:58:03 again that small portion for 23 and then
1:58:06 the full year for 24 is a one-time
1:58:08 expenditure and we also built in
1:58:11 um as an assumption for police cameras
1:58:13 this year in the jail
1:58:16 it's part of that total
1:58:18 and you can see the undesignated fund
1:58:20 balance against the council Target is 15
1:58:21 percent
1:58:23 I'm just under it a 14 as a projection
1:58:25 right now like I said before we're going
1:58:27 to come back to see how
1:58:29 the construction revenues really end at
1:58:32 the summer so have a better picture of
1:58:34 how we're going to land in three months
1:58:35 when we get to October
1:58:37 the 24 budget you can see it's 12
1:58:39 percent of everything he'll console
1:58:41 right now
1:58:43 and just a question on that I'm doing
1:58:45 some quick math
1:58:48 um with the undesignated fund balance
1:58:50 there of 8.6 million divided by the
1:58:54 62.6 of
1:58:58 is it that for ongoing expenditures or
1:59:00 is it the total of the three of those
1:59:02 62.63 yes okay it goes up and down
1:59:05 that's why we're included fantastic
1:59:06 thank you you're welcome
1:59:10 any further questions on this slide
1:59:13 so when we talk about unpredictable
1:59:14 revenues or most unpredictable Revenue
1:59:16 Source in the city is Reit and again
1:59:18 it's because
1:59:19 it's very very hard to predict the
1:59:22 housing market especially right now in
1:59:23 the environment we're in and so I wanted
1:59:25 to show on this chart actual and there
1:59:28 are four actuals through 22 in the
1:59:30 forecast for 23 24 is the blue line and
1:59:33 the budget is the gold line so you can
1:59:35 see that the correlation is very
1:59:37 difficult at times depending on the year
1:59:39 as far as it's a very difficult Revenue
1:59:41 per to predict and one of the items now
1:59:45 the volume of homes sales down 14 point
1:59:48 five percent or so year over year
1:59:50 through June and July that's where this
1:59:53 forecast comes from the biggest story
1:59:55 here compared to 22 is we had a lot of
1:59:57 large commercial transactions in 22 that
2:00:00 we're not seeing in 23. and those are
2:00:02 difficult to predict
2:00:09 and the next step City staff will
2:00:11 continue to monitor revenues and like I
2:00:13 said we'll be back to you in October
2:00:14 with those updated numbers from the
2:00:16 summer the focus will be on the revenue
2:00:18 Outlook and the performance of
2:00:20 construction Community Development
2:00:21 revenues as we go through the summer
2:00:23 and we're looking at balancing the
2:00:25 budget in 24 with updated Revenue
2:00:27 expenditure information at those
2:00:29 meetings and then we did include the mid
2:00:32 biennial budget update schedule we've
2:00:34 showed this to you once again today is
2:00:36 the August 7th meeting August October
2:00:39 30th is the mid biennial adjustment
2:00:42 presentation at the Council of the
2:00:44 committee of the whole and then November
2:00:47 20th would be the public hearing for the
2:00:48 property tax levy and the mid-bennial
2:00:50 adjustments and December 4th would be
2:00:53 the tentative adoption of the
2:00:54 mid-bedding ill adjustments
2:01:01 any questions
2:01:03 okay questions council member Joe thank
2:01:07 uh Robert hamoud you had previous
2:01:10 experience going through a biennial
2:01:12 budget with your previous employment the
2:01:14 city of Snoqualmie yes this is the first
2:01:16 year the first opportunity we've had to
2:01:18 do it here in Issaquah is there anything
2:01:20 you can share with us that you have seen
2:01:22 that is different or is a new experience
2:01:24 in Issaquah that we can learn from and
2:01:28 and incorporate into our next budget uh
2:01:32 in in 25.
2:01:34 and again I think it's pin putting again
2:01:37 the volatility of the sales tax revenue
2:01:39 sources so again we delineate already I
2:01:42 think it's very strong here between one
2:01:43 going and on one time and ongoing
2:01:45 revenues and expenditures I think that's
2:01:47 very helpful when you look at that lens
2:01:49 which is funding which to make sure the
2:01:51 volatile Revenue sources are funding the
2:01:53 one time and there's enough capacity in
2:01:54 the ongoing I think we do a good job
2:01:56 here compared to other places again the
2:01:58 second year of the biennium we're only
2:02:00 25 percent into it as far as these
2:02:02 numbers that becomes more unpredictable
2:02:05 but as as far as having that spending
2:02:07 plan and kind of keeping towards that
2:02:09 spending plan and that Target of where
2:02:11 we're going to be revenues and
2:02:12 expenditures and keeping that Reserve
2:02:13 level I think is very important
2:02:15 and so as a follow-up with the
2:02:17 uncertainty of that Revenue Source are
2:02:21 there any recommendations you might be
2:02:23 coming forward with and you don't have
2:02:25 to tell us now but yeah recommendations
2:02:27 that you might be coming forward with uh
2:02:30 for the next budget that will enable us
2:02:32 to kind of buffer that a little bit more
2:02:34 or anticipate
2:02:36 um the volatility so it doesn't
2:02:38 necessarily promise as much and just
2:02:41 something for you to consider and think
2:02:42 about as you're looking at the budget
2:02:44 for next the next budget in the
2:02:46 forecasting for it so that we can at
2:02:49 least protect ourselves a little bit
2:02:50 more from that volatility
2:02:51 sure we always look at the long term
2:02:53 obviously the long-term picture and how
2:02:56 the trends are going and what we can
2:02:57 fund so that's something we look on an
2:02:59 ongoing basis and can you continue to do
2:03:01 so going to the upcoming budget as well
2:03:03 great thank you very much for your hard
2:03:04 work yes thank you
2:03:07 so this is just an informational update
2:03:09 so any questions comments
2:03:14 anything else I will just jump on I find
2:03:17 it fascinating dug into the numbers
2:03:19 really appreciate
2:03:22 um getting the information
2:03:24 as we come into the October 30th date
2:03:29 and then even before the December 4th
2:03:31 will we have any more updated numbers
2:03:34 for particularly read I know we will for
2:03:37 sales tax yeah read is the same thing so
2:03:40 we do get monthly reports we are same
2:03:42 thing we're looking at the summer season
2:03:43 to see how the peak real estate sales
2:03:46 are going through September I think
2:03:49 that's going to be really indicative of
2:03:50 how the market is going here okay and
2:03:53 with the previous chart that you had on
2:03:56 the general fund balance with it showing
2:04:00 the 2024 projected year and ending
2:04:03 undesignated fund balance as a
2:04:05 percentage of expenditures below our
2:04:09 Target rate are given this is the second
2:04:13 part of a a
2:04:16 biennium budget and kind of like you
2:04:19 said there's a lot more uncertainty in
2:04:21 that latter half is it an appropriate
2:04:25 practice to make changes so that we stay
2:04:28 within the goal setting for our
2:04:31 financial policies or is it something
2:04:33 where we say we're willing to have a
2:04:35 little bit of wiggle room in that and
2:04:38 could potentially correct at a later
2:04:41 point
2:04:42 okay that's a council policy decision of
2:04:44 course but again we'll have updated
2:04:46 numbers and updated recommendations from
2:04:49 administration at the October meeting
2:04:52 and as our policy is the current
2:04:55 standpoint um if we didn't change it
2:04:57 then your goal would be to propose a
2:05:00 budget that then fits within the
2:05:02 financial policies that is correct if
2:05:04 revitus and expenditures held constant
2:05:06 of those forecasts yeah okay
2:05:08 any questions comments
2:05:11 okay I think we can just say we
2:05:13 appreciate getting the data and all of
2:05:15 that you have what you need from us yes
2:05:17 okay thank you
2:05:19 fantastic so looking back at the script
2:05:26 um the next item of business is
2:05:28 committee and Regional reports and we'll
2:05:32 start with councilmember Joe
2:05:34 thank you
2:05:37 um the August 2nd Cascade water Alliance
2:05:39 public affairs committee meeting was
2:05:41 canceled
2:05:42 council member Ray will give an update
2:05:45 on the Cascade water Alliance board
2:05:48 committee meeting that occurred and last
2:05:50 week of July
2:05:52 August 3rd I had an opportunity to
2:05:53 attend the port unplugged event in
2:05:55 Woodinville that we were all invited to
2:05:57 had an opportunity to talk to many of
2:05:59 our East Side leaders and electeds on
2:06:03 issues impacting Us and how the port can
2:06:05 be more of an economic engine for our
2:06:07 region and perhaps help us be a Gateway
2:06:11 for environmental tourism in the east on
2:06:15 the east side here
2:06:16 and that ties into the August 8th ltch
2:06:19 meeting lodging tax advisory committee
2:06:21 meeting which we held at Hilton Garden
2:06:22 Inn in Issaquah 3 P.M I will make sure
2:06:27 that I do talk up the Metroflex idea in
2:06:30 my city report and pass on that current
2:06:33 news so that organizations such as visit
2:06:36 Issaquah can get that out to their
2:06:39 constituents
2:06:41 one make you aware of a meeting August
2:06:44 17th at 5 30 PM the chamber board of
2:06:46 directors summer barbecue meet and greet
2:06:49 will be occurring August 17th 5 30 at
2:06:54 one of the apartment buildings
2:06:57 Atlas excuse me right near Safeway and I
2:07:00 will be attending as the council liaison
2:07:03 to the chamber but everyone on the
2:07:06 council is invited to attend you just
2:07:09 need to register on the chamber website
2:07:11 that concludes my report thank you
2:07:14 thank you councilmember D Michelle
2:07:16 thank you I have no report tonight
2:07:18 Eastside Human Services Forum will be
2:07:21 holding a brief meeting on Thursday
2:07:24 August 10th otherwise I have no report
2:07:26 thank you
2:07:28 councilmember hunt
2:07:30 thank you the Kokanee work group met on
2:07:33 July 26th Kokanee is a kind of salmon
2:07:36 that spend their lives in Lake swamish
2:07:38 and the surrounding streams and so I was
2:07:42 there as the chair of the Kokanee
2:07:45 interlocal agreement management
2:07:47 committee we had recently approved the
2:07:51 recommended funding levels for programs
2:07:54 that are used to support Kokanee
2:07:55 including continuation of a captive
2:07:57 brood Stock Program because the latest
2:07:59 returns were not what we had hoped for
2:08:02 Kokanee so that work is ongoing and I
2:08:05 reported to that group that we had
2:08:08 funded at that level and there was a
2:08:11 good conversation about what needs to be
2:08:13 done and needing to take action that we
2:08:16 know is improving the Kokanee returns
2:08:20 and not doing things that we now have
2:08:23 evidence are those actions those
2:08:25 management actions that are not
2:08:27 contributing to opening conservation so
2:08:30 it was going good conversation there
2:08:32 will be a salmon Recovery Council
2:08:34 management committee meeting which is
2:08:37 actually a different Committee in August
2:08:40 but that date is not yet set um so I
2:08:42 will report back after that and there
2:08:44 was no August meeting of the Planning
2:08:45 Development and environment committee
2:08:47 that concludes my report
2:08:49 councilmember gray thank you council
2:08:52 president
2:08:53 um as uh council member Joe mentioned I
2:08:56 attended the Cascade water Alliance
2:08:58 board meeting on July 26 pinch hitting
2:09:01 for council member Joe there was one
2:09:04 item of significance and actually quite
2:09:06 significant on the agenda and it related
2:09:09 to Seattle and Tacoma contract
2:09:11 negotiations to meet our longer term
2:09:14 water needs and so they superimposed the
2:09:18 potential contracts with Seattle and
2:09:20 Tacoma over our projected water
2:09:23 requirements so we're looking out out in
2:09:26 the 50 to 70 year planning Horizon so
2:09:30 there is a document that I will send to
2:09:32 everybody that I just got on kind of the
2:09:35 CWA member update so a lot of
2:09:38 interesting
2:09:40 a lot of interesting planning around
2:09:42 Water Supplies so as not to
2:09:45 tap late Taps until as little as late as
2:09:49 possible so that that's uh that's what
2:09:52 we're working for is to defer that
2:09:54 the use of that Resource as long as we
2:09:57 possibly can by using other sources
2:09:58 locally and that concludes my report
2:10:02 thank you for the dad joke there
2:10:04 appreciate it uh councilmember Martz
2:10:06 thank you madam mayor Pro tem uh the
2:10:09 sound cities Association is not meeting
2:10:11 in August the council services safety
2:10:13 and Parks committee however is meeting
2:10:15 in August and we are at a special time
2:10:18 that is this Wednesday here at 6 30 in
2:10:21 council chambers and we will be
2:10:23 discussing ID 1457 affordable housing
2:10:27 Capital funding and Pioneer program
2:10:28 since the city began collecting the 0.1
2:10:31 percent sales tax from House Bill 1590
2:10:34 and receipt of State pass-through funds
2:10:36 from House Bill 1406 in 2021 we
2:10:39 currently have 2.4 million dollars
2:10:41 available for uh affordable housing and
2:10:45 we're going to have a conversation about
2:10:46 some of the things we might do with some
2:10:48 of that money so it should be a
2:10:51 really really interesting conversation
2:10:53 this concludes my report
2:10:55 thank you Deputy council president Hall
2:10:57 no report this evening great for my
2:11:01 report the August meeting of the Puget
2:11:02 Sound Regional Council growth management
2:11:04 policy board has been Council canceled
2:11:07 the next meeting will be held on
2:11:09 September 7th and that concludes my
2:11:12 report now I'm going to go on to the
2:11:14 mayor's report
2:11:16 um there will be an executive session
2:11:17 this evening discuss property
2:11:19 acquisition per
2:11:21 rcw42.30.110 parent1 parent B the items
2:11:24 are expected to take approximately 40
2:11:26 minutes no end action is anticipated to
2:11:28 follow an open session
2:11:30 uh the 2023 National Night of National
2:11:34 Night Out event was a huge success there
2:11:36 were 250 to 300 people out for the event
2:11:39 we saw 30 or more dogs accompanying
2:11:42 their owners this year
2:11:44 we had representation displays from Fish
2:11:48 Wildlife and Parks King County Animal
2:11:49 Control King County Guardian one
2:11:52 helicopter flew over our event show
2:11:54 their support for the Issaquah Police
2:11:55 Department
2:11:57 aphis influence the choice the city of
2:12:00 Issaquah emergency management office and
2:12:02 Behavioral Health all got involved as
2:12:03 well the Issaquah police also had all
2:12:07 representation from each each of Patrol
2:12:09 Corrections dispatch crime analyst and
2:12:12 detectives there were raffle prizes and
2:12:14 pup cakes to celebrate the Department's
2:12:16 Comfort support dog riggs's second
2:12:18 birthday here at the department
2:12:21 and that also made the kids kind of sad
2:12:23 that they could not have any of those
2:12:25 pup cakes so uh we also had requests
2:12:29 from five different isqua neighborhoods
2:12:30 to have officers stop by their events
2:12:32 Corporal Fulbright and officer Sims took
2:12:35 care of that detail showing ipd's
2:12:37 appreciation for community support this
2:12:39 here was the most successful event for
2:12:41 National Night Out we have held special
2:12:43 thanks to Executive consultant Katie
2:12:45 Larson for all her hard work making the
2:12:47 event amazing
2:12:49 some upcoming community events the
2:12:51 concerts on the Green in blue velvet
2:12:53 Groove join us Tuesday August 8th from 7
2:12:56 to 8 30 p.m at the escort Community
2:12:58 Center for some soul Funk and disco
2:13:00 cover band this concert is sponsored by
2:13:03 law office Lynn Moberly and Rachel
2:13:05 Turpin from Madrona law
2:13:07 there we go
2:13:09 also the global grubbin Groove Indian
2:13:12 Independence Day come join us at the
2:13:14 Village Green for food fun and free
2:13:16 entertainment to celebrate culture and
2:13:19 Community this summer series continues
2:13:21 with a celebration of Indian and Indian
2:13:24 independence day on August 11th at 6 to
2:13:26 8 PM free to attend all are welcome
2:13:29 bring a blanket or lawn chairs to enjoy
2:13:31 the entertainment experience traditional
2:13:33 and modern Indian dancing Indian music
2:13:35 dancing art and food experience henna in
2:13:39 the game of cricket this event is hosted
2:13:40 by the Issaquah Highlands Council gas
2:13:43 station Blues in partnership with the
2:13:45 downtown disco Association Washington
2:13:47 Blues Society join us for gas station
2:13:49 Blues this series features notable and
2:13:52 talented blues artists every Thursday
2:13:54 night from 7 to 9 pm at the historic
2:13:56 Shell station located at 232 Front
2:13:59 Street North
2:14:00 and finally the restoration work party
2:14:02 on Dogwood Street come join Forest
2:14:05 Stewart Stephanie for restoration work
2:14:08 party on Dogwood on August 8th at 9 00 I
2:14:13 assume am to 12 p.m we will be removing
2:14:16 blackberry and Ivy those pesky plants we
2:14:20 will provide the know-how gloves and
2:14:22 tools for everyone to be successful
2:14:24 closed-toed shoes long sleeves and pants
2:14:27 are recommended don't forget your water
2:14:29 snacks and any additional layers to keep
2:14:31 yourself comfortable while you're out
2:14:32 please make sure to register by visiting
2:14:36 issaquah.gov and that concludes the
2:14:38 mayor's report get back over to the
2:14:41 script we have an informational update
2:14:44 id1519 the informational update from the
2:14:47 international City County management
2:14:49 association icma fellow presentation so
2:14:53 I'd like to invite himena Havas Chavez
2:14:56 raised to the lectern and City
2:14:58 administer Bob quits before Ximena
2:15:01 begins do you have any comments start us
2:15:06 yes thank you madam mayor portam uh Ben
2:15:09 has been with us for much of the summer
2:15:11 and I thought it would be good
2:15:13 opportunity as she's wrapping up her
2:15:15 time with us uh this week to have her
2:15:18 come and make a presentation on what her
2:15:20 experience has been what she's learned
2:15:22 so I need to get around so I can take
2:15:24 pictures
2:15:36 all right um well it's good to see some
2:15:38 of you guys in person again or to meet
2:15:40 some of you guys again for the first
2:15:42 time I've seen you all through the
2:15:44 screens through the live streams but um
2:15:47 um while I said I'm pretty much giving
2:15:48 you guys a recap over like my summer
2:15:50 kind of like what I've learned and just
2:15:52 my experience overall
2:15:55 okay to introduce myself I'm a rising
2:15:58 senior at Skyline and I'm planning on
2:16:00 taking a pre-law path through University
2:16:03 and I want to go into immigration law
2:16:05 and originally I was kind of drawn to
2:16:07 this position
2:16:09 um because like most importantly I want
2:16:10 to know the system so I can serve the
2:16:12 system like I want to know with the
2:16:14 people in my community do and like how I
2:16:15 can like help them help the people that
2:16:17 I want to help and Equity work is just
2:16:20 like really my passion in life so I just
2:16:22 kind of wanted to know more about that
2:16:23 for Issaquah specifically
2:16:27 okay um so one of like my primary roles
2:16:30 is that I worked um with Christie and
2:16:32 municipal court and so I would sit down
2:16:34 on most of the Court sessions and so I
2:16:36 learned that it's because there's a lot
2:16:37 of communities like Duvall and North
2:16:40 um outside of others and just kind of
2:16:42 the roles of Municipal Court employees
2:16:45 um something that I learned from that is
2:16:46 that people of all backgrounds like you
2:16:48 need help people with like different
2:16:49 disabilities like different languages
2:16:51 like everyone like kind of turns to the
2:16:53 city when they need something and that
2:16:55 it can be hard
2:16:56 um to want to be able to help people who
2:16:58 only have so much power to do so which I
2:17:01 thought was like interesting at this
2:17:02 level of government
2:17:04 um and then kind of my tasks throughout
2:17:06 it is that I created the core Services
2:17:08 pamphlet which include like information
2:17:09 on emergency housing food banks core
2:17:12 contacts safe parking and then a Court
2:17:15 Referral List
2:17:17 um about substance abuse treatment gun
2:17:19 safety classes
2:17:20 um Victims Impact panels and domestic
2:17:22 violence treatment among other things
2:17:27 and then I also worked with Equity board
2:17:29 like I mentioned with Dale and so I went
2:17:31 to a couple meetings for what work
2:17:33 cities wwc and so that was pretty much
2:17:36 talking about the ways that Issaquah can
2:17:38 kind of like grow and change and make
2:17:41 um just like
2:17:42 the system more Equitable make more like
2:17:45 informed decisions and so I went for
2:17:48 some meetings for the Equitable
2:17:49 decisions tool which focuses on
2:17:51 data-driven decision making across all
2:17:53 departments and so kind of one of the
2:17:55 challenges that the equity board is
2:17:57 facing right now is learning how to
2:17:59 bridge divisions and beliefs of already
2:18:01 like regarding Equity like what does
2:18:02 Equity look like and kind of how does it
2:18:04 differ from equality so that's kind of
2:18:06 like one of the conversations that we're
2:18:07 having right now and then the
2:18:09 overarching question is just how do you
2:18:11 serve the most people and how do we do
2:18:13 that without compromising like what we
2:18:15 already have going on so that's what's
2:18:17 happening with that so I'm excited to
2:18:19 see where that takes place
2:18:21 and then just some other General
2:18:23 responsibilities is that I went to
2:18:25 senior leadership team senior leadership
2:18:27 team meetings
2:18:28 um and so from that I kind of just took
2:18:30 away that Department's work really
2:18:31 collaboratively with each other to be
2:18:33 efficient and kind of create a more
2:18:34 positive work Community environment
2:18:37 um I participated in other community
2:18:38 activities
2:18:40 um like Fourth of July and Juneteenth
2:18:42 which were really really fun
2:18:44 um I observe your guys's City Council
2:18:46 meetings either in person or through the
2:18:48 live stream and other board group
2:18:50 meetings I've met with different
2:18:52 department heads to kind of talk about
2:18:53 their roles for the city and just what
2:18:55 they think their priorities are and then
2:18:57 icma lessons on careers and roles in
2:19:00 local government and pretty much what I
2:19:03 learned from that is that there are so
2:19:04 many different ways to serve and work
2:19:06 for the community
2:19:09 and so my overall takeaways is that work
2:19:12 and local government is really driven by
2:19:13 a desire to help people in your
2:19:15 community which I get from all of you
2:19:17 that you all seem very passionate about
2:19:19 like wanting to like help others
2:19:22 um and that can also be very very
2:19:24 challenging because sometimes people
2:19:25 don't really understand how much work
2:19:27 local government does for you guys or
2:19:30 for me I guess
2:19:32 um which is like kind of my next Point
2:19:33 as well and that local government isn't
2:19:35 just made up of city employees like
2:19:38 the committee like community members do
2:19:40 so much to kind of like
2:19:43 do boards and like keep events running
2:19:45 which like I just thought was really
2:19:46 interesting kind of like coming from a
2:19:48 high schooler that like I don't really
2:19:50 see how much goes on but it was really
2:19:53 like interesting and I think just like
2:19:54 very impactful to see that like everyone
2:19:57 in Issaquah loves it so much that like
2:19:59 we all want to do what we can to make it
2:20:00 the best place for everyone
2:20:05 um my experience just like overall was
2:20:07 really positive and very educational I
2:20:09 learned a lot about the ways that I can
2:20:11 serve the city after my internship is
2:20:13 over and I just have a better
2:20:14 understanding of
2:20:16 um how much work the database does to
2:20:18 make my life easier
2:20:21 I feel very fortunate to meet people
2:20:23 from different backgrounds with similar
2:20:24 passions to me and my experience the
2:20:26 city's work environment focuses a lot on
2:20:28 uplifting others which was helpful to me
2:20:30 considering that this was like my first
2:20:32 real job so it was nice to have people
2:20:34 that wanted to like uplift me and just
2:20:36 help me learn and it just kind of
2:20:38 reinforced that Civil Service really is
2:20:40 my passion and that this is what I want
2:20:42 to do with my life and at some point in
2:20:45 my career like either straight out of
2:20:46 high school or university I do want to
2:20:49 go back into local government and kind
2:20:51 of just
2:20:51 finish the work that I started doing
2:20:54 that's it
2:20:58 questions
2:21:00 I can ask if oh okay councilmember Joe
2:21:04 Amanda thank you first for everything
2:21:07 you've been doing for the city in
2:21:10 particular I'd like to thank you for all
2:21:11 the help that you gave during the Fourth
2:21:14 of July parade
2:21:16 um you were awesome in the sense that
2:21:19 you were able to
2:21:20 identify the different parties that were
2:21:22 coming down the street and then you even
2:21:24 went so far as to find out the names of
2:21:27 the pets or The Gerbils or the snakes
2:21:29 that were in the individual individual
2:21:31 numbered uh items so
2:21:33 really appreciate that it made the
2:21:35 parade uh much more uh Hometown and much
2:21:38 more personal for everyone involved
2:21:40 thank you uh the the question I had was
2:21:42 as you heard during our discussion about
2:21:44 the uh Transportation augmentation group
2:21:48 idea that's coming in terms of getting a
2:21:51 a on-call service we talked about
2:21:54 reaching out to seniors and trying to
2:21:56 get them to understand what was
2:21:58 happening and what was going on and to
2:21:59 get them involved you're not a senior
2:22:02 but you are a high school student and a
2:22:04 young person in our community what is
2:22:06 your experience or what have you learned
2:22:08 about reaching out to high school
2:22:10 students and young people in our
2:22:12 community so they find out what is
2:22:14 really going on with our city and all
2:22:15 the work that you've seen how do we pass
2:22:17 on that message and get people that are
2:22:20 in your age category involved
2:22:23 um that's really good question I think
2:22:25 in my experience like the biggest thing
2:22:27 really is word of mouth because I think
2:22:28 like social media is obviously like such
2:22:30 a strong platform and like I'm on it all
2:22:32 the time like my friends are like my
2:22:34 classmates but not everyone thinks like
2:22:36 oh I should go to like the city I lives
2:22:38 in like Issaquah like I don't want to go
2:22:39 to issaquah's like Instagram or like
2:22:41 their YouTube like it's not my first
2:22:42 thought and so honestly like what I
2:22:45 found is that people my age really do
2:22:47 want to be involved in the community
2:22:49 they just don't know where to start and
2:22:51 so it really starts with like getting
2:22:53 like an opportunity like this like
2:22:55 seeing kind of like firsthand like
2:22:57 that's where it goes because like this
2:22:58 makes me talk to like my friends and
2:23:00 then they talk to their friends and like
2:23:01 our teachers and our classmates and so I
2:23:04 don't think it's enough to just like
2:23:05 send out like a newsletter because like
2:23:07 people my age like we're not really
2:23:08 interested in like checking stuff like
2:23:09 that in my experience and so I think it
2:23:12 really is kind of creating like targeted
2:23:14 opportunities for like high school age
2:23:16 students or like even younger or older
2:23:18 and like that can be like through like
2:23:21 talking to like a principal like having
2:23:24 a meeting with the school and like when
2:23:25 people see kind of the work that like
2:23:27 needs to be done like they will become
2:23:29 involved like a lot of people my age
2:23:31 just don't know how to do that given the
2:23:33 resources that we have right now
2:23:37 thank you so much for that information
2:23:39 much appreciated and uh best of luck to
2:23:42 you in the next school Year and thank
2:23:43 you for your service yeah of course
2:23:47 any other questions
2:23:50 all right there you go okay
2:23:54 so the challenge was what do you get a
2:23:57 high school senior as a uh Memento of
2:24:01 their work you know the idea of a
2:24:02 certificate in a frame just didn't seem
2:24:04 right so
2:24:06 um fortunately we have smarter people
2:24:07 than me working in the city and they
2:24:10 suggested one of these beautiful uh uh
2:24:13 Yeti uh containers but
2:24:17 you will see on it we have this little
2:24:19 logo it says Ximena Chavez Reyes City of
2:24:22 Issaquah to 2023 icma Turner fellow so
2:24:27 you'll have that so as people when you
2:24:30 use that next year at school you'll
2:24:32 wonder what is that on your
2:24:34 on your container
2:24:36 I think I guess hold it facing out
2:24:39 I think
2:24:44 somebody else finally taking the picture
2:24:46 opportunity from you Wally
2:24:53 Bigfoot say hi CMA
2:24:58 I just want to say I'm half of the staff
2:24:59 we really appreciate having you here
2:25:01 this summer the great addition and and
2:25:03 hopefully icma will be able to do this
2:25:05 in communities All Over America
2:25:12 super impressive
2:25:16 okay how can we even max out beyond that
2:25:19 um we've got a good of the order does
2:25:23 anyone have any items council member Joe
2:25:28 thank you just one item really quick uh
2:25:32 the ACW representative uh Wendy weiker
2:25:36 sent out a survey for ACW to all members
2:25:40 and it looks like it went out to staff
2:25:42 members as well I would encourage you to
2:25:44 fill it out give AWC your feedback and
2:25:47 and let them know what we think about
2:25:49 the job that they're doing thank you
2:25:52 fantastic
2:25:54 um I will throw on a fantastic event
2:25:58 down at City Hall from the police
2:26:01 department for a National Night Out
2:26:03 really enjoyed going to that and they
2:26:06 were right the pupcakes were very
2:26:08 popular from that event
2:26:12 um upcoming Council meetings the second
2:26:14 regular city council meeting in August
2:26:16 is canceled to allow for a summer break
2:26:18 next regular meeting will be held on
2:26:20 Tuesday September 5th anticipated agenda
2:26:23 items include the transportation benefit
2:26:25 district councilmanic sales tax public
2:26:28 Outreach plan
2:26:30 oh uh do we have any other items for go
2:26:33 to the order
2:26:35 no okay so we have an executive session
2:26:39 uh this evening so the next item of
2:26:41 business is an executive session the
2:26:43 city council will now recess into
2:26:45 executive session to discuss property
2:26:47 acquisition per our
2:26:49 cw42.30.110 parent1 print B the items
2:26:52 are expected to take approximately 48
2:26:54 minutes no action is anticipated follow
2:26:57 an open session please note executive
2:26:59 sessions are closed to the public we
2:27:01 will now recess into executive session
2:27:03 at 9 27 PM I asked the clerk to move the
2:27:07 city council and any relevant staff into
2:27:09 a separate session within this meeting
2:27:11 anyone who's not part of the closed
2:27:13 session will remain in the main meeting
2:27:15 you are welcome to stay in the meeting
2:27:17 until it is reconvened

Attendance

Council / Members (7)
Barbara de Michele
Zach Hall
Victoria Hunt
Russell Joe
Tola Marts
Chris Reh
Lindsey Walsh, Mayor pro tem

Motions and votes (2)

Authorize the Mayor to enter into and execute the agreement as revised Aug. 7 with King County Metro to begin the Metro Flex Pilot Program; and authorize $65,653 in funding for this project in 2023 and $262,611 in 2024 to be included in the 2023-2024 mid-biennium budget adjustment. . b)
Moved by REH · seconded by HALL
Carried 7-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Victoria Hunt, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh, Mayor pro tem
APPROVE THE CONSENT AGENDA AS PRESENTED. Page 39 of 773 CONSENT CALENDAR b) 08-07-23 City Council Regular Meeting Minutes Page (0000) a) ID 1476 - Accounts: Payables and Payroll of Aug. 7, 2023, $4,422,715.64; Approved. b) Minutes: City Council Special Meeting, March 30, 2023; Approved. c) Minutes: …
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, Mayor pro tem