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City Council Regular Meeting Auto captions

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

7:00 PM · 2h 19m · Council Chambers, 135 E. Sunset Way, Issaquah WA
Topics tracked across meetings:
Memorandum of Understanding with Washington State Council of County and City Employees Issaquah Administrative Staff Association (AFSCME) Re: One Year Contract Extension Ratify AB 9092 1/2
Parks & Community Services- Summer Highlights 2025 (I) Jeff Watling- Parks and Community Services ID 1916 2/3
Transit Oriented Development Proceed AB 9056 6/6
Eastside Welcoming Week Proclamation ID 1852 2/2
Section
Topic
3. SPECIAL BUSINESS
3a
Eastside Welcoming Week Proclamation ID 1852
5 min · packet pp.5–6
Staff report:
WHEREAS, Welcoming Week has been celebrated in solidarity on the Eastside since 2016, with the cities of Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, and Sammamish seeing this as an opportunity to honor the history, achievements, experiences, struggles, and contributions of immigrant and refugee people to the social, economic, educational, artistic, and civic life of our country; and
3b
Washington City/County Management Association Innovations in Government Award ID 1914
5 min · packet pp.7–20
Staff report:
Parks & Community Services Summer Highlights 2025 SEPT. 2ND, 2025 | CITY COUNCIL MEETING
3c
Informational Update: Parks & Community Services Dept. Summer Highlights ID 1916
Receive Report · 15 min
Topics: Parks
5. CONSENT CALENDAR
5a
Accounts: Payables and Payroll of Sept. 2, 2025, $9,947,617.04 ID 1797
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.21–48
Topics: Budget
Staff report:
Finance Department P.O. Box 1307 Issaquah, WA 98027 PH: 425-837-3050 www.issaquahwa.gov
Roll call:
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Deputy Council President de Michele
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Kelly Jiang, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
5b
Minutes: City Council Special Committee of the Whole, July 12, 2025
Carried 7-0
Approve · packet pp.49–59
Staff report:
CONSENT CALENDAR b) 07-12-25 City Council Committee of the Whole Minutes Page (0000)
Roll call:
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Deputy Council President de Michele
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Kelly Jiang, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
5c
Informational Update: 2025 Q2 Grant & Contract Report ID 1894
Carried 7-0
Receive Report · packet pp.61–68
Staff report:
The Q2 2025 grant and contract
Roll call:
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Deputy Council President de Michele
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Kelly Jiang, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
5d
Civil Service Commission Appointment AB 9037
Carried 7-0
Confirm · packet pp.69–70
Topics: Boards & Commissions
Staff report:
There are three members of the Civil Service Commission. One position was recently vacated by Henry Farber, requiring a mid-term recruitment to ensure the Commission can continue to meet and have a quorum. The position to be filled will expire on April 30, 2030.
Roll call:
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Deputy Council President de Michele
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Kelly Jiang, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
5e
Amending IMC 5.02, Business Licenses AB 9057
Carried 7-0
Adopt Ordinance · packet pp.71–76
Topics: Land UseEconomic Development
Staff report:
In 2018, the Association of Washington Cities (AWC) created a model business license ordinance which was adopted by the City of Issaquah. The model ordinance established a minimum threshold to exempt businesses from licensing requirements if they were not physically located within City limits. If the business had $2,000 or less in annual income derived from business within a city, they were exempt from getting a business license. The City adopted IMC 5.02.080 and established a higher threshold of $3,000 or less in income derived from business within the city.
Roll call:
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Deputy Council President de Michele
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Kelly Jiang, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
6. REGULAR BUSINESS
6a
Transit Oriented Development Proceed AB 9056
45 min · packet pp.77–101
Topics: Transportation
Staff report:
At the Dec. 5, 2022 City Council meeting, the City Council approved the Interlocal Agreement with King County Housing Authority (KCHA) which included provisions for the City to acquire a 10,000 square foot commercial condo within the affordable housing transit-oriented development (Exhibit A). The City and KCHA have been partnering since 2018 to acquire the land and build this development and the City has set aside funds (from mitigation funds, a State grant, and affordable housing sales taxes) to help pay for the acquisition, construction, and tenant improvements for the Opportunity Center. KCHA owns the property and will be submitting for building permits for the project in September.
9. INFORMATIONAL UPDATES
9a
Informational Update: From Ashes to Action: Bega Valley’s Resiliency Journey ID 1909
Receive Report · 40 min · packet pp.103–149
Staff report:
The purpose of this informational update is to provide the City Council with lessons learned from Autumn Monahan’s Tranter-Leong Fellowship trip to Australia, where she studied Bega Valley Shire Council’s inspiring resiliency journey following the Black Summer Bushfires of 2020.
10. GOOD OF THE ORDER
10a
Upcoming Council Meetings
0:04 [Music]
0:07 Welcome everyone. I call the September
0:09 2nd city council meeting to order. This
0:11 meeting is being held a day later than
0:14 normal due to the Labor Day holiday. As
0:17 a reminder, we still continue to have
0:18 remote aspect to our meetings and both
0:20 staff members and staff and members of
0:23 the public may be participating in
0:25 tonight's meeting remotely via WebEx.
0:27 The next item on the agenda is the
0:29 pledge of allegiance and I welcome you
0:30 to join.
0:34 >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
0:37 United States of America and to the
0:39 republic for which it stands, one nation
0:43 under God, indivisible, with liberty and
0:46 justice for all.
0:51 >> Thank you. Uh we start off this evening
0:55 with some special business and I'm going
0:57 to move over to the podium for it. This
1:00 is ID1852
1:02 East Side Welcoming Week Proclamation.
1:04 Or are we going to switch this one?
1:05 Okay, push it. So we are going to push
1:08 this one um down a little further down
1:11 the agenda this evening to allow Nahed
1:13 some time to get here. He's the one
1:14 receiving the proclamation. We'll move
1:17 to ID1 1914, Washington City County
1:20 Management Association, Invitations in
1:23 Innovations and General Government and
1:25 City Administrator Bob Kowitz. Welcome
1:27 to the lect turn.
1:29 >> Great. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor,
1:30 members of the council. Good evening.
1:32 Um, two weeks ago, the Washington City
1:34 County Managers Association had their
1:36 annual meeting in Walaw Wala. Uh as part
1:39 of that meeting, they had an awards
1:41 dinner and I'm pleased to report that
1:44 the city of Isiqua was a big winner uh
1:46 at this NA this statewide event. Uh
1:50 first uh we had one of our employees,
1:53 Dale Marky Crimp, will receive the
1:55 outstanding municipal assistant of the
1:57 year in the state of Washington. And so
1:59 unfortunately she was not able to attend
2:01 as she continues on uh her family leave,
2:04 but we will be getting that plaque to
2:06 her. Uh so that is a great honor uh
2:09 given to the most outstanding uh
2:12 municipal assistant in the state of
2:13 Washington. So we're very pleased with
2:15 that. Um another award that was received
2:18 by the city of Isiqua, which is why I am
2:20 here this evening, is their annual award
2:23 for innovations in local government. Uh
2:25 this is a single award that is given to
2:27 one jurisdiction every year in the state
2:29 of Washington uh for innovative programs
2:31 and the city of Isiqua uh received that
2:33 for its data and performance management
2:36 system. And so I'd like to read to you
2:38 um the uh words that were read uh at the
2:42 event in Walaw Wala. The city of Isqua's
2:44 data and performance management system
2:46 is nationally recognized for its rigor,
2:48 transparency, and effectiveness. In
2:50 2021, the city began a comprehensive
2:52 data reporting system organized into
2:54 public dashboards. The dashboards cover
2:56 topics ranging from progress on the
2:58 city's climate action plan to homeless
3:00 outreach efforts to overall performance
3:02 on the city's strategic plan. These
3:04 dashboards tell the story to the public
3:06 and elected officials about progress on
3:08 community developed plans and
3:09 effectiveness of programs. The system
3:12 has improved the service the city can
3:13 provide to its residents as exemplified
3:16 by the homeless outreach dashboard. By
3:18 collecting information beginning in 2022
3:20 on connections to shelter, permanent
3:22 housing, and other services, the city's
3:24 behavioral health team was able to
3:25 demonstrate that the problem of
3:26 homelessness was much more prevalent in
3:28 Isiqua than previously considered, and
3:30 that emergency shelter was critically
3:32 needed. This data prompted the team to
3:34 pursue a partnership with a local hotel
3:36 to provide emergency shelter and allowed
3:39 them to track this program if this
3:40 program was successful. Due to trends
3:42 revealed by the data and the adjustments
3:44 to the emergency shelter program, the
3:46 team was able to make 300 critical
3:48 connections to emergency shelter through
3:50 the hotel partnership. These tangible
3:52 benefits to the community are replicated
3:54 in the police, arts, and economic
3:56 development sectors, as well allowing
3:58 staff to make datainformed decisions to
4:00 benefit the public. For example, the
4:02 city partnered with local businesses to
4:04 collect data and reduce retail crime
4:06 with thefts reduced by 26% in 2023. In
4:10 addition to programmatic changes, this
4:11 information has been invaluable
4:13 throughout the city's budget processes,
4:14 helping staff determine what programs
4:16 should receive the limited funds based
4:18 on impacts to the community.
4:21 This work is not undertaken alone.
4:23 Rather, the city created data qua, a
4:26 data training program that all new hires
4:28 get exposed to through onboarding and
4:30 that power users benefit from uh tier
4:33 training to grow their data collection,
4:35 analysis, and visualization skills. By
4:37 dispersing these talents throughout the
4:39 organization ensures that the formalized
4:41 dashboard process can be continued
4:43 despite staff turnover and invite staff
4:45 to use the data in other ways throughout
4:47 the course of their job. Given its
4:49 effectiveness, transparency to the
4:51 community, and integration throughout
4:52 the organization, the city's data and
4:54 performance management system was
4:56 awarded Bloomberg Philanthropy's
4:57 what'swork city certification in 2023.
5:00 The certification is the leading
5:02 standard for excellence in data usage
5:04 for local governments. And Isiqua is the
5:06 only city in the United States with a
5:07 population under 50,000 to earn the
5:09 certification and only the third city in
5:11 Washington state to do so. The city's
5:14 intentional and effective program can be
5:16 a model to other governments who want to
5:18 use data to enhance transparency,
5:20 identify issues, and make more impactful
5:22 decisions. It is deserving the city's
5:24 deserving of this recognition through
5:26 the innovations in local government
5:27 award to its due to its impact in the
5:29 community and to demonstrate that cities
5:31 of all sizes can meaningfully engage in
5:34 the best practice of local government
5:36 and the modern age. And so we're very
5:38 proud to have been recognized uh among
5:40 our peers in Walaw Wala and I wanted to
5:43 take a moment uh to bring you this
5:45 plaque. Madame Mayor, members of the
5:47 council, we will proudly display it at
5:48 city hall.
5:49 >> Nice. Thank you, city minister.
5:56 >> Thank you very much. Uh the next item
5:58 under special business is ID 916. This
6:01 is an informational update from our
6:03 parks and community services department
6:05 of our summer highlights and I'd like to
6:07 invite Director Jeff Watling to the
6:09 podium. Hi Jeff.
6:11 >> Hey, thanks mayor. Good evening council.
6:13 So so happy to be here. Uh thank you
6:16 clerk geyzer for sharing uh the screen
6:19 and showing the presentation. Very much
6:21 appreciate that. Well, much like uh city
6:24 administrator Bob Kowitz um just
6:26 mentioning that award and uh the the
6:29 homeless outreach dashboard. Um in all
6:32 of parks and community services as a as
6:34 a team, as a staff, we often talk about
6:36 getting beyond the face of the program.
6:39 So I I'm going to share with you a lot
6:41 of fun, a lot of games, a lot of amazing
6:44 things that happened as we served
6:46 thousands, literally thousands of people
6:48 in this community. Uh but but know this
6:51 as a as a very dedicated team of of
6:54 professionals uh we go beyond we realize
6:57 that program that public space that that
7:00 service is merely a vehicle. It's a
7:02 conduit for so much more. So uh you all
7:05 know this I I'm saying this to many
7:07 maybe in the viewing audience. Um as as
7:10 you think of some of our major city
7:12 goals of envir environmental goals,
7:14 economic goals, public safety goals, um
7:18 um addressing uh loneliness, um um so
7:23 many things uh we recognize and I hope
7:26 you see as I mentioned some of the data
7:27 and the and these highlights um the
7:31 return the community return on these
7:33 investments um goes really really deep.
7:35 So with that, thank you. Next slide,
7:37 Tisha. I'm going to go division by
7:39 division and try and again uh provide
7:41 some highlights of what happened this
7:43 spring and summer. Um first starting
7:46 with park planning and development uh
7:48 division very very busy season and
7:50 summer. Uh thank you. You know in May we
7:52 celebrated a ribbon cutting with the
7:54 neighborhood up at Hill Hillside Park um
7:57 with the completion of the park and the
7:58 mitigation area. I'm happy to report the
8:01 neighborhood is just loving uh their
8:03 first summer um in that uh new uh with
8:06 those new park improvements um in that
8:08 very very special park. Pedestrian park
8:11 and senior center plazas as you know
8:13 right behind us I'm pointing or over um
8:16 across the street maybe not right behind
8:17 us. Uh those were just recently
8:19 completed a very very complex project.
8:22 Um, hats off to our our park planning
8:25 and development manager and project
8:27 manager on that, uh, Robin Spear. Um,
8:30 when you do a project like that in a at
8:32 a pretty intense urban space over an old
8:34 spur rail line, uh, there's a lot of
8:37 things you'll discover, uh, along the
8:38 way and and she and the contractor did
8:41 uh, some amazing work. We look forward
8:43 to a ribbon cutting with the community
8:45 on September 15th, but early returns
8:48 show the community is really loving
8:49 those new those new plazas. Um we
8:52 haven't stopped on the acquisition
8:54 front. Uh you know earlier this year,
8:56 thank you. You uh approved a purchase
8:58 and sale agreement for 17 acres on
9:01 Squawk Mountain uh known as Kilkari
9:03 phase 3 that adjoins the 20 acres we
9:06 just uh recently purchased giving us a
9:09 eventually hopefully a 37 acre corridor
9:11 from the valley floor up to to Squawk
9:14 Mountain State Park. happy to report um
9:17 you if you recall we delayed the close
9:20 of that until Q1 of next year so that we
9:23 could go seek some grant funding. Um we
9:26 were successful uh we submitted an
9:28 application just received news from King
9:30 County Conservation Futures. We're going
9:31 to receive a little over $2 million for
9:34 that $2.5 million acquisition. So that
9:37 will go again a long long ways. Thank
9:39 you for your commitment to um allowing
9:43 us to have some some funding uh to seek
9:46 these acquisitions. Um it allows us to
9:48 not only make these acquisitions happen,
9:51 but then leverage that funds that
9:53 funding with with other grant dollars.
9:55 So, so great news there. More to come
9:57 this fall. Um as we clean up title and
10:00 do some work to prepare closing, we'll
10:02 have a much better idea of when we might
10:03 be able to close on that. Ideally, we
10:04 might be able to close on that uh before
10:06 the end of this year. Um, not to be
10:10 forgotten, the the dog park um by the
10:12 community center, the Rainineer Trail
10:14 Dog Park um is projected to be out to
10:17 bid um here in September. Uh a bid award
10:21 scheduled to come to you in October, so
10:22 we can construct that in November.
10:26 Next slide.
10:28 Moving on to our park operations team.
10:31 Um a little bit of of the numbers. um
10:34 hard to kind of get our our arms around
10:36 sometimes the the size and scale of of
10:39 what it is that they steward for the
10:41 community. Uh 53 acres of turf uh that
10:44 they mow over 7 acres of of landscaping
10:47 beds that they take care of. Um
10:50 literally a ton of trash, 13,000 bags of
10:53 trash. Um important important data point
10:56 when you think about it in terms of uh
10:58 trash means the parks are being used. So
11:00 we we see that as a as a really good
11:02 thing. Um, lots of doggy bags are are
11:05 being used throughout um, our system,
11:07 which is great. Um, over just over 250
11:11 uh, picnic shelter rentals uh,
11:13 throughout our park system that the park
11:15 operations team supported. Um, along
11:17 with their just day-to-day maintenance.
11:19 And I and I I want to point out um,
11:21 along with some of the the hard um,
11:24 budget decisions that had to be made
11:25 last last fall, a bomb cyclone in
11:28 November set that team back. Um, often
11:30 what you're doing in the winter and
11:32 spring is preparing for summer. Um, that
11:34 prep was was um, short changed a little
11:37 bit and so you had a park operations
11:39 team working really really hard uh, to
11:41 get our parks into uh, the great space
11:44 that they are uh, for the summer. Uh,
11:46 some projects that they've been working
11:48 on. Uh, thank you again for for your
11:50 work and and um, our partnership uh, our
11:53 our 18-month partnership with Lake
11:55 Samish State Park. Uh the team is now uh
11:58 beginning to put together an operations
12:00 plan. Um we've already have rentals and
12:03 u a schedule lined up. Um just later
12:06 this week and into next week, we're
12:08 going to be installing two Cricut
12:09 pitches um in partnership with state
12:11 parks there. So um that is that is ready
12:14 to roll.
12:16 Some tree replacement projects again due
12:18 to the bomb cyclone and also just um
12:21 implementing our our urban uh forest
12:23 management plan. um some drainage
12:26 improvements, some maintenance work we
12:27 did at the community center lawn. You
12:29 may have noticed if you went to the
12:30 concerts that front of the lawn gets
12:32 pretty mushy, wasn't so mushy this year.
12:34 It held up extremely well. So, uh great
12:36 work by the team there. U and then just
12:39 annual work that that we do on play
12:41 areas is is really really important.
12:43 Next slide.
12:46 Also within our park operations team,
12:48 uh, green isqua and the park ranger
12:50 program, uh, really continuing to build
12:53 on such a rich history, decades of
12:55 history of volunteerism in this in this
12:57 community. Uh, both of these programs
12:59 continue to, um, expand their reach um,
13:02 in into the community. Um, some
13:05 highlights um, I mentioned earlier imple
13:07 beginning to implement the urban forest
13:09 management plan. Um, our park ranger had
13:12 70 enforcement or education contacts uh
13:15 throughout our uh park system just this
13:18 summer alone. Uh the the last 10 weeks
13:20 of summer. Often this is anything from
13:23 dog dogs off leash to other unsanctioned
13:26 recreation activities that uh people
13:28 need to be either educated on or um
13:31 given reminders of. um a number of
13:34 outreach events that uh both Taylor, our
13:37 green is aqua volunteer coordinator, and
13:39 Alex, our park ranger, uh took part in.
13:41 We did something fun this summer. We did
13:43 a coexistence day at the farmers market.
13:46 Um hundreds of of individuals of of
13:50 shoppers came over and and took part in
13:52 that um in that educational forum. Um 13
13:57 agencies partnered with us in that. uh
13:59 really really good feedback um and
14:01 something we want to uh continue to do
14:04 on an annual basis and just again
14:07 increased engagement with schools,
14:09 community organizations, businesses um
14:11 continuing to uh want to um step up and
14:15 and support uh the management and
14:17 stewardist stewardship of our um open
14:20 space and forest.
14:22 Next slide.
14:26 Pivoting a little bit over to our
14:27 community services side of the house. Um
14:30 human services uh continues to do
14:32 amazing work. Um this year alone we have
14:36 seven individuals who have been
14:37 transitioned to housing. Um
14:41 here in 2025
14:43 um 72 unduplicated referrals from um
14:47 IPD. Um that is such an integral
14:49 partnership. Um those referrals are
14:52 really based on an individual who finds
14:54 themselves in crisis that needs
14:56 behavioral health support. Um many of
14:59 those um involve a um co-response where
15:03 we'll go with PD. Uh but what's really
15:06 really important in the work of Brenda,
15:08 she's here in the audience and the
15:09 behavioral health team. The followup
15:11 that's done on those 72 individuals.
15:13 That's not a one-hour conversation.
15:16 That's weeks, months um of work to help
15:19 to to understand and get um that um
15:23 person into a place where they're ready
15:26 to to consider moving forward. And and
15:28 that really spans the spectrum of those
15:30 72 individuals. Many of them are housed.
15:32 Um some are some are unhoused. Um
15:35 another great uh point uh earlier this
15:38 spring and as we've done work this
15:40 summer, we're now a approved partner
15:42 with coordinated entry. uh coordinated
15:44 entry is a really really important tool
15:47 uh for helping individual individuals
15:49 find housing. So we're now plugged into
15:51 that confirming with Brenda that's
15:53 that's a daily uh that's a daily
15:55 resource uh that we use uh to get again
15:59 people connected to services. Um
16:02 Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage
16:04 Month took place this summer. Uh great
16:06 turnout there. Um uh community clothing
16:10 closet. Um you may recall this this was
16:12 late spring um a partnership between
16:15 human services and our our Pickering
16:16 Barn staff um and community group. Uh we
16:20 hosted a a clothing closet um at at the
16:22 barn. Um over 500 visitors came and and
16:25 got clothing. Um you would not believe
16:28 that the amount of clothing donations
16:30 that this community um rallied and and
16:33 provided. It was a um it was a it was a
16:36 great great event.
16:39 coming this Friday, September 5th,
16:40 Culture Fest, um at the Community Center
16:43 lawn, uh with that that um that great
16:46 turf.
16:48 Hope you come. It should be a great
16:49 event.
16:52 Pivoting a little bit over to our arts
16:55 uh group, arts team, Amy Dukes, and and
16:57 the arts commission. Um those of you
16:59 that maybe saw the Chuck Art Festival,
17:01 which is a really rich tradition here in
17:03 the community, uh we expanded on it. We
17:05 we we twisted it up a little bit. um
17:08 added uh some some on-site entertainment
17:12 um some live music um over 450 people
17:15 came and and enjoyed that event. The
17:17 community center lawn was again used in
17:20 um used in a great community way.
17:23 Shakespeare in the park took play place
17:24 also on the community center lawn. Uh
17:26 over 300 um attended that event. Uh the
17:29 Isqua Film Festival, I know a number of
17:31 you have already commented when that
17:33 happened. What a a great success story.
17:36 um uh both by Amy, the arts commission,
17:40 um the Isiqua Arts Group, but I also
17:42 want to mention the three uh alumni, the
17:44 three Isiqua High School students who
17:46 have graduated who have really come back
17:47 and wanted to uh do this within their
17:50 community is is incredibly meaningful
17:53 and incredibly impactful. Um and to see
17:55 what that's become just in two years is
17:58 um is is fantastic. Also, a big thanks
18:01 to Isqua School District. Um you all
18:04 know it's been a goal of ours. um and
18:06 yours uh to see if we can get more
18:09 community use of the Isiqua Performing
18:10 Arts Center. I I find it somewhat
18:12 poetic. Uh the first real community use
18:15 of that space was the film festival um
18:18 and and was a really big success. So
18:20 really really important that we want to
18:22 continue to cultivate trust um in that
18:24 relationship with um school district
18:27 staff.
18:30 A public art installation took place. If
18:32 you've if you've walked through the the
18:34 pedestrian plaza, um Isiqua resident,
18:37 longtime Isiqua resident, June Seekuchi,
18:40 um created that art. Um wonderful art
18:43 piece. Um those blooms are um blooms
18:47 that you would see off of a cedar tree
18:49 if you're if you're curious. Um so it's
18:52 really paying homage to um the cedar
18:54 tree and and look forward to uh seeing
18:57 how the community enjoys that new art.
19:00 And then coming soon in collaboration
19:02 with our our partners in public works,
19:05 uh we're going to be you'll be seeing a
19:07 new asphalt mural um taking place and um
19:12 as well as new um crossings within the
19:15 rideway um at the three trails location.
19:18 This is on Gilman Boulevard. This is a
19:20 really really important trail
19:21 connectivity for the East Lake Seamish
19:23 Trail, the Reineer Trail and the Juniper
19:25 Trail where they all come together. And
19:27 so using art, art with a purpose, uh to
19:30 really um celebrate that space u make it
19:34 safer for pedestrians um as well. Um
19:37 look for that to roll out this fall.
19:41 Now switching over a couple slides with
19:43 our recreation divisions. Um a team
19:45 that's really really been hard at work
19:47 um really looking at um how we deliver
19:51 services, deliver programs, and um
19:53 continuing to adapt to what the
19:55 community needs. um summer camps um an
19:58 an amazingly successful eight weeks. Um
20:01 again, as we looked at um a slight
20:04 decrease in resources, uh we got really
20:06 really creative as a team and actually
20:08 created capacity, additional capacity
20:10 within our camps and really looking at
20:12 the age groups that were most um in
20:15 need. Um and so with that added
20:18 capacity, we saw 1,200 registrations in
20:21 our day camps alone. That's our cityrun
20:23 day camps. So that's kinder camp, camp
20:25 qua, and adventure camp uh saw 1,200 um
20:29 participants. Um those camps employed um
20:33 39 teens and young adults uh to make
20:36 those camps happen. You'll see this as a
20:38 little thread. I'll say this with a
20:39 couple of other recreation divisions.
20:41 Teen employment is a program. Teen
20:43 employment is something we take very
20:45 very seriously. Um, and though they are
20:48 helping us deliver programs, uh, we are,
20:51 um, offering this community, uh, that
20:54 opportunity. We think it's really,
20:55 really important to be a first-time
20:56 employer, uh, for teens. They're going
20:58 to turn pro in something else, uh, but
21:00 we're teaching them leadership and and
21:02 so many other qualities.
21:07 >> Jeff, how much more do you have in your
21:08 presentation?
21:12 >> Six more minutes.
21:13 >> Oh, six more minutes. Go ahead, council.
21:16 >> Thank you. Uh, thanks for the
21:18 presentation. I had a question about the
21:20 registration uh, the system that we
21:22 changed a little bit so that city
21:24 residents could register first and then
21:26 open it up to the general public. How
21:28 was that received and what were the
21:30 results that you saw in the program?
21:32 >> Great question. Great question. Uh, very
21:35 well received amongst Isqual residents.
21:38 Um, um, harder received amongst um,
21:41 non-residents. um with the increased
21:44 capacity this year. We we instituted
21:46 that last year if you recall was the
21:48 first year we instituted and we had
21:49 still had a pretty long wait list. This
21:51 year we're happy to say g giving
21:53 residents that priority um allowed them
21:56 to register. We still had capacity uh
21:59 when non residents were able to um
22:03 register. So it it certainly went went
22:05 better this year, but um those camps do
22:08 continue to hold a wait list. Um but um
22:13 residents were were appreciative that
22:16 and understanding uh that they were
22:19 given a priority.
22:20 >> Yep.
22:23 All right. Uh moving right along. Uh
22:26 there are other camps along with our day
22:27 camps. We contract uh with many many
22:30 providers. We offer what we call steam
22:32 camps. So think of STEM plus arts steam.
22:35 Um so a variety of of of contracted
22:38 camps as well as sports camps.
22:40 um another nearly thousand um um young
22:45 youngsters registered in those programs
22:47 as well. Next slide.
22:53 Summer events again saw great impact and
22:56 and benefit to the community. Um our our
22:59 kids triathlon was back. This is
23:01 something we partner with youth advisory
23:03 board. We saw record uh registration
23:05 this year. over 250 youngsters coming to
23:08 to swim, bike, and run um in that uh
23:12 that great event. Uh the downhome fourth
23:15 of July um a great interdep departmental
23:18 uh partnership to to provide both the
23:20 parade and the community picnic. Um
23:23 extremely wellreceived by u by Isa
23:26 residents and then concerts on the
23:28 green. um hard to believe that we
23:30 continue to see uptick in um in um
23:35 participation in in attendance, but we
23:37 averaged over a thousand um individuals.
23:40 The the community center lawn was
23:41 literally busting at the seams. Um my
23:44 gauge is often Harvey Manning, the
23:46 Harvey statue. Um there's many people
23:48 now sitting at Harvey and sort of on the
23:50 other side of of Bush. Um so great great
23:54 popular concert series. Um, thank you
23:57 not only to Kuanas for that continued
23:59 partnership, Rotary stepped up and
24:01 partnered uh with us at the event and uh
24:04 took food donations which was a a big
24:06 success as well. So great great
24:09 community um community event.
24:13 real quickly with adaptive recreation.
24:15 Um, thank you to you. Um, postcoid we
24:18 brought back our adaptive recreation
24:20 program if you remember with a staff
24:22 person, Cali Weber is fantastic to have
24:25 that dedicated staff person. Uh, she is
24:28 doing really really impactful meaningful
24:30 work and partnering with Leo um offering
24:33 uh after hours club at the senior
24:36 center. Um, Special Olympics was really
24:39 struggling and didn't offer softball. We
24:41 took that on and had softball for 30
24:44 individuals. Uh this is incredibly
24:46 meaningful work um looking at how we can
24:49 um not just do separate programs but um
24:53 um incorporate our adaptive participants
24:56 into programs that we're doing. Uh those
24:58 of you that came to the concerts know
25:00 that we partnered with Tavon. We had 30
25:01 to 50 of our adaptive um our adaptive um
25:05 clients and customers there enjoying the
25:07 concerts and being part of community.
25:09 And that's that's really really
25:10 meaningful for us. Um that's where and
25:13 how community happens.
25:16 Next slide. The senior center um um
25:19 continued work and growth there. Um
25:22 trips continue to be immensely popular.
25:25 Um we we we seem to not be able to offer
25:28 enough trips um uh for the community. Um
25:32 111 new members. I I caution the word
25:35 member. I know it says members there. We
25:37 are not an exclusive senior center.
25:39 We're an immensely inclusive senior
25:41 center. And so 111, we we do ask anyone
25:45 who comes to the senior center to get a
25:47 card so we know who they are, know that
25:49 if and when they check in. But to see
25:51 that that increase in participation even
25:54 throughout the summer um is really
25:56 really meaningful. um Kristen and the
25:58 senior center team have really made that
26:00 such an inclusive um inclusive space um
26:04 that we're seeing um multicultural
26:07 um seniors um activities um happening
26:11 there on site. Uh we've now offering a
26:13 veterans breakfast once a month that's
26:15 improve that's uh um certainly seen to
26:18 be very very popular as well.
26:22 Next slide.
26:25 Not to be outdone. I'm trying to be
26:27 quick here. Um, our athletics uh team um
26:30 saw great uh great things happen this
26:33 summer as well. Our gliders track and
26:34 field program, you might recall we
26:36 started this about five or six years
26:38 ago. Uh we offer a spring and summer
26:40 sort of track focused program and then
26:42 in the fall we offer cross country. Uh
26:45 we saw 580 uh registrations. That's the
26:48 most we've ever seen uh so far this
26:50 year. So, uh, certainly a program that's
26:53 continuing to see growth and and impact
26:55 in the community. Um, we're another teen
26:58 employer, uh, through our athletics
27:00 programs, uh, with 70 plus, uh, teens
27:03 employed to to make gliders and and and
27:05 those other programs happen, offering
27:07 some new programming at the community
27:09 center and other spaces. Um, our
27:11 athletics team also manages all of our
27:14 scheduled athletic field use, four very
27:16 large tournaments this year. um bit of
27:19 an economic uh incubator there um as
27:21 well as as certainly other other
27:23 benefits. Um so a lot of use of our um
27:27 two athletic complexes, Tippetsz Valley
27:29 Park and Central Park.
27:32 Next slide.
27:37 The pool u continuing to to to be
27:40 bursting at the seams as well. Over a
27:42 thousand um people taught in swim
27:44 lessons. Um that brings our total to
27:47 over 3,100 um individuals um taught and
27:51 gone through our lessons program this
27:52 year. Uh water polo's been introduced.
27:55 Um we have 41 participants now in water
27:58 polo classes. Uh that was just
27:59 introduced last year. Uh the underwater
28:02 egg hunt is still a hit. Um lifeguard
28:04 training is something we do not only for
28:06 our own employees but we do lifeguard
28:08 training for some of the beach programs
28:09 that other cities do. Uh so seeing uh
28:12 training 33 lifeguards there. We have
28:14 implemented a new junior junior
28:16 lifeguard program. Uh we had 10
28:18 individuals go through our junior
28:20 lifeguard program. Um again a great way
28:22 to learn leadership. Um we we'd love to
28:25 be considered a future employer for
28:27 these junior lifeguards. Uh but great
28:30 great work that um Zach and the and the
28:32 pool team are doing. And again, we're a
28:35 teen employer at the pool. Um 85 plus
28:37 teens employed uh to help make our um
28:41 pool um happen. Uh so when you even just
28:44 look at those three examples, we are
28:47 employing
28:49 250 almost 300 teams to make um these to
28:54 deliver these programs and services. So
28:56 when I say it's a it's a program in
28:58 itself, it really is a program um in
29:00 itself.
29:02 Next slide.
29:04 Last but certainly not least, the
29:05 Pickering Barn. Um an amazing amazing
29:08 summer there. um 72,000 shoppers uh to
29:12 date uh for the farmers market, $1.6
29:15 million in vendor sales uh year to date.
29:18 Um hard to believe, but the record we
29:20 broke last uh in 2024, we're 5% ahead of
29:24 that. Um this market continues to be an
29:28 amazing amazing place and is really I
29:31 think becoming the premier market on the
29:33 east side in many ways. EBT SNAP program
29:37 um is we're seeing increased numbers
29:39 there from from two 2024 when we
29:41 introduced it. We're going to have to
29:42 pay attention uh with new federal rules
29:45 and reductions. Um EBT SNAP's going to
29:48 look very very different uh next year if
29:50 if at all. So we'll we'll I think need
29:53 to to get creative and think how we
29:55 still might want to um provide access uh
29:59 to to healthy food for all for all
30:02 residents that that's something we want
30:03 to consider. uh the homegrown program
30:05 that we partnered with economic
30:07 development has been a certainly a huge
30:09 success as well. Um on the event side of
30:11 the barn, uh we've hosted a sustainable
30:14 wedding show. It's really we think it
30:16 positions us well with the barn um and
30:19 what our ethos is as a as a city. Um
30:22 we've gotten a lot of of use out of
30:24 that. Um and then one lastly, a great
30:27 example of how the barn has really
30:28 transitioned from being just an event
30:30 space to really a community hall. um,
30:33 Rock and Roll Rink. Um, our our economic
30:36 incubator with a with a young budding
30:39 roller skating company has has certainly
30:41 seen a lot of initial success as it's
30:43 rolling out and will continue to happen
30:45 this fall. Uh, look uh, during Boo at
30:48 the Barn weekend. Uh, the roller skating
30:50 is going to be part of that part of that
30:52 program. So, um, great work by Kella
30:55 Dean and and the team down there. Our
30:57 last slide
30:59 really just to say thank you. It's
31:01 through a a an amazing team of dedicated
31:04 staff, um an amazing number of community
31:07 partners, your support, council and
31:09 mayor, uh that um we're investing in
31:12 people, we're investing in our
31:13 residents, we're investing in public
31:15 spaces, and great things are continue to
31:18 happen here in Isiqua. Thank you.
31:21 >> Thank you, Director Watling. Uh council
31:23 questions, Deputy Council President.
31:26 >> Yeah, just a a comment. Well, first of
31:28 all, the depth and breadth of the things
31:30 that you do are is just amazing. And the
31:32 fact that you could cover all all of
31:35 those things is is incredible. Um, I
31:38 thought for a minute there that you were
31:39 going to forget to talk about the roller
31:41 rink because that was going to be my
31:42 question. Uh, I ran into the roller rig
31:45 people this past uh, weekend and you and
31:49 they echoed what I know personally
31:51 because of my dealings with the parks
31:53 and recck staff and which is the comment
31:56 that I hear all the time and that is
31:58 that the staff is so wonderful to work
31:59 with. They are open to new ideas. I
32:02 mean, who could imagine someone walking
32:05 in the door and saying we'd like to have
32:06 a roller rink at Pickering Barn and
32:09 somebody approving it. So uh and Bennett
32:13 is a big success. So
32:16 so uh yeah so they were complimentary
32:19 but I'm also my personally very
32:21 complimentary. You have a wonderful
32:23 staff. Uh please extend our thanks to
32:26 them uh for all the work that they do.
32:28 It really makes uh living in Isiqua such
32:31 an enjoyable experience for so so many
32:34 people. So thank you.
32:35 >> Thank you very much. And just a reminder
32:37 they're not my staff. They're they're
32:39 your staff. really this community staff.
32:41 But thank you so much. You're an amazing
32:43 amazing team.
32:44 >> Any other comments or questions? Council
32:46 member Joe
32:47 >> director. Um could you comment on the
32:50 success or what we saw from the
32:53 homegrown program this year? I really
32:55 enjoyed having different new vendors in
32:58 there. Um there was a bean vendor from
33:00 the east of the mountains that that was
33:02 there and I had a great time striking up
33:03 a conversation with him and bought some
33:05 beans for my emergency kit. Um but if
33:07 you can comment on the other successes
33:09 that might have been there um over the
33:11 summer with the homegrown program.
33:13 >> Yeah, I I not a lot of specifics. Um I
33:15 know there have been eight so far um um
33:18 and it's been um so very well much
33:22 appreciated for um these um new
33:27 businesses that haven't had a lot of um
33:30 community spotlight um to have a
33:32 platform where you know you're going to
33:34 get 5,000 shoppers. um um in a 5-h hour
33:38 span at farmers market. Uh they've just
33:40 um are are immensely excited. So um I
33:43 know Kella Diane and Jack will have a
33:45 much more thorough report uh that
33:47 they'll be providing later uh later this
33:50 fall.
33:52 >> Comments and questions. Uh Council Jen,
33:56 >> uh not to pile on too much to this
33:58 roller ring thing, but uh obviously, you
34:01 know, I've been there. I love it. Um,
34:03 and I was talking to the folks there and
34:04 they mentioned that they're searching
34:05 for a more permanent location. Um, so
34:08 I'm curious like is that something where
34:10 are we trying to, you know, get them to
34:12 stay in Isiqua, you know, cuz they're
34:14 generally like looking all over the east
34:15 side. I know just some history. So I
34:18 actually know those people cuz I grew up
34:20 skating at Skate King in Belleview and
34:23 that became a Harley-Davidson and at the
34:25 time they're like, "Oh, can Belleview
34:26 Parks and Rec take this over and make it
34:28 like a city, you know, facility?" And
34:30 that didn't end up happening. So I'm
34:31 curious, you know, if we've given that
34:32 any type of thought.
34:34 >> Yeah, great connection. I would say um
34:38 yes, we think there's great value in
34:40 relationships and let's establish a
34:42 relationship with this business and
34:44 let's do everything we can and and
34:46 partnering with economic development
34:47 when the time comes. I I know they have
34:50 a financial goal. um I'm not sure the
34:52 timing of their financial goal, but as
34:54 they begin to look for that permanent
34:56 location, we would love to have a great
34:58 relationship with them um and see if
35:00 that is something that they're
35:02 interested in locating here.
35:04 >> Great. Thank you. Any other comments or
35:06 questions?
35:09 >> Director Watling, thank you for the
35:10 report and as you already heard, so much
35:13 good information and also hearing about
35:15 expanding programs. We just have not
35:18 been able to do that for such a long
35:19 period of time. I'm so excited that
35:21 we're now showing work to do that. Thank
35:22 you very much.
35:24 >> Thank you.
35:25 >> I'm going to move us back to the first
35:27 special business item. Um, ID 1852 East
35:32 Side Welcoming Week Proclamation. I'm
35:33 going to invite Brenda to the lectern
35:35 since Nahed will not be able to make it
35:37 tonight. down
35:48 the black nectar.
35:52 And I'll start off with an invitation.
35:53 If you have not been to this event, it
35:56 is one of my favorite ones in Isla. I am
35:59 was not born in the US. I am an
36:01 immigrant to this country. I have
36:03 learned a lot in my three decades here.
36:05 But I get no more joy than watching
36:07 others who have arrived and are trying
36:09 to figure out um what it is to be in
36:13 this country. I couldn't even understand
36:14 the school supply list the first year we
36:16 were here. We don't call things those
36:18 same things at all. So this is a real
36:21 real joyous event and the staff and the
36:23 community does a wonderful job putting
36:25 it on.
36:27 Whereas welcoming week has been
36:28 celebrated in solidarity on the east
36:30 side since 2016 with the cities of
36:33 Belleview Isiqua Kirkland Redmond
36:34 and Seamish. Seeing this as an
36:37 opportunity to honor the history,
36:39 achievements experiences struggles
36:42 and contributions of immigrant and
36:44 refugee people to the social, economic,
36:46 educational, artistic, and civic life of
36:49 our country. And whereas we recognize
36:52 that many immigrants and refugees
36:53 continue to face systemic barriers,
36:56 shifting policies, and discrimination.
36:59 And we commit to fostering a community
37:01 where all community members can feel
37:02 safe, supported, and fully included. And
37:06 whereas East King County is one of the
37:08 most racially and ethnically diverse
37:09 regions in the in Washington state with
37:12 37% of our residents coming from places
37:15 outside of the United States and 40% of
37:18 residents speaking a language other than
37:20 English at home. And whereas immigrant
37:23 and refugee community members have
37:25 historically faced significant
37:26 challenges in building a new life in the
37:28 United States, often navigating limited
37:31 resources and systemic barriers along
37:33 the way. And whereas immigrant refugee
37:36 community members are especially
37:37 impacted by the current federal
37:39 regulatory environment, facing fear,
37:42 harassment, uncertainty, and trauma
37:46 regardless of their legal status.
37:49 Whereas federal policy changes are also
37:51 affecting many human services programs,
37:53 limiting vital resources to immigrant
37:55 and refugee refugee community members
37:58 and many other people in need, impacting
38:01 their education, employment, income,
38:05 food supply, housing, and well-being.
38:08 And whereas it is important to counter
38:10 many of the negative stereotypes
38:12 regarding the contributions of
38:14 immigrants and highlight that 36% of new
38:17 businesses are immigrantowned.
38:20 That American agriculture relies heavily
38:22 on immigrant labor and that undocumented
38:26 immigrants paid over 96 billion in
38:28 federal, state, and local taxes in 2022
38:31 alone.
38:33 Whereas despite the ongoing challenges,
38:36 East Side Welcoming Week will continue
38:37 as part of the region's annual
38:39 celebration honoring the contributions
38:41 of immigrants and refugees and
38:43 highlighting the vital role communities
38:45 play in fostering equity, inclusion,
38:49 belonging, and a sense of welcoming. And
38:52 whereas there are many ways to celebrate
38:54 East Side Welcoming Week, including
38:55 amplifying the voices and experience of
38:58 immigrant people, uplifting them to
39:00 share their stories or attending
39:03 Welcoming Week events, visit East Side
39:06 for all for a list of the regional
39:08 events. Now therefore, we the mayors of
39:10 Belleview Isiqua Kirkland Redmond
39:12 and Samish, who couldn't all be here
39:14 tonight uh Washington jointly
39:16 proclaim September 12th through 21st,
39:19 2025 as East Side Welcoming Week. We
39:22 invite the community to engage in
39:24 opportunities during Eastside Welcoming
39:25 Week and beyond to learn, connect across
39:29 differences, and take joint action to
39:32 achieve a welcoming, equitable, and
39:34 inclusive community. Did you want to say
39:36 anything? just uh really excited about
39:40 Friday at 5:30 to have this will be my
39:43 very first event, but I've heard so much
39:45 about it and I'm just I'm thrilled to be
39:47 here to accept this and I appreciate all
39:49 of your support, mayor, and members of
39:51 the council.
39:51 >> Thank you so much. Take a picture.
39:53 >> Absolutely.
39:54 >> Okay.
39:55 [Applause]
40:17 Thank you.
40:20 It's as funny as you're still on mute.
40:22 Okay. Audience comments is the next part
40:24 of our meeting this evening and members
40:26 of the public may address the council at
40:27 this time either in person or virtually.
40:30 Those who signed up in advance to make
40:31 comments will be called on first. And if
40:33 you are joining us virtually and would
40:35 like to make comments, please raise your
40:37 virtual hand or send the host a chat
40:39 message. If you're in the room and did
40:41 not sign up, I will ask for other
40:42 speakers before closing that portion of
40:44 the meeting. And city clerk, have we had
40:46 anyone signed up to speak for general
40:48 audience comments or indicate a desire
40:49 to speak?
40:50 >> Yes.
40:51 >> Okay. Thank you. So for those making
40:53 comments, you're invited to address the
40:55 council regarding matters that are
40:56 directly related to programs, projects,
40:59 services, or events. Comments related to
41:02 political campaigns are not permitted.
41:04 Please direct comments to the whole
41:05 council and not individuals. And while
41:07 it's not a question and answer session,
41:09 we will contact you to follow up if
41:11 needed. If you are virtual, when you are
41:14 recognized, please unmute your
41:15 microphone. If you're in the room,
41:17 please step up to the lectern in the
41:19 center of the room and press the
41:21 microphone button on the base to be
41:24 heard by your council. State your name
41:26 and address or relationship to the city.
41:29 Speak clearly and pause frequently. And
41:31 please limit your comments to 5 minutes.
41:33 If you are attending virtually and you
41:35 do not respond after your name or phone
41:36 number is called, or if your connection
41:38 is lost unexpectedly, the meeting will
41:40 still need to proceed. You're encouraged
41:42 to rejoin the meeting if able. Personal
41:45 attacks, obscene language, derogatory
41:46 remarks, and disruptive behavior will
41:48 not be permitted. Public comments
41:50 written and verbal are important aspect
41:52 of the public process, and the city
41:53 takes comments seriously. We thank you
41:55 for taking the time to address us this
41:57 evening. City Clerk, could you please
41:59 identify the first person who signed up
42:01 to speak?
42:02 >> Yes, Corby Castler. Corby, I'm making
42:05 you a panelist now. You should be able
42:08 to unmute and can choose to turn your
42:10 video on.
42:29 Corby, in case you're having issues
42:31 unmuting, I'm going to put a request in
42:34 that you unmute.
42:38 >> Here we go.
42:41 >> Can you hear me now?
42:42 >> We can hear you, Corby. Thank you.
42:44 >> Good. Can you see me?
42:46 >> Nope.
42:48 >> Well, you'll have to just imagine me.
42:50 I'm sorry about that. Um, I'm Corby
42:52 Castler. I'm the director of
42:55 communications for and marketing for the
42:57 downtown Isqua Association. It's nice to
42:59 be with you all. It was wonderful
43:01 hearing from the parks department about
43:03 all the great things going on in the
43:04 summer. That's what I wanted to cover
43:06 today with Dia. We're concluding a
43:08 summer just filled with economic impact
43:10 activities that have delighted our
43:12 visitors and locals in the form of art
43:14 walks and music strolls, wine and art
43:16 walks, the 11th annual gas station
43:18 blues, and just this last Sunday we had
43:20 the Confluence Music Festival. All have
43:23 brought thousands of folks to Ignite
43:25 Vitality in our downtown. Um, our
43:27 research shows us that one quarter of
43:28 attendees at our events come from
43:30 outside of town. So, we like to show off
43:32 our town to the outsiders and make
43:34 people feel at home if they're
43:36 residents. So either way, we'll take
43:38 them. We love the pedestrian traffic
43:40 that really helps our businesses. Um,
43:42 art is the means by which we bring those
43:44 programs to life. And of course, it
43:46 helps shine the light of our designation
43:48 as a creative district and we couldn't
43:50 do any of this without the city support
43:52 through the arts commission. So very
43:54 profound thank you to all of you for
43:56 your support. We plan to conclude the
43:59 summer with this much anticipated wine
44:01 and art walk this Friday, September 5th.
44:03 It does coincide with culture fest, but
44:05 the timing is a little bit different.
44:07 So, I think you can do both. But please
44:08 join us. We've got 16 Washington
44:10 wineries, art by 17 artisans, and music
44:14 by local solists and bands. We even have
44:16 Nature's Cheese and Cheese Land there to
44:18 do some pairing, so you won't even have
44:20 to worry about dinner. But it's a great
44:22 time. It's from 6:00 to 9:00. You could
44:24 go to CultureFest and then come and go
44:26 back and forth. Either way, we would
44:28 love to have you. Um, I just hope you
44:30 have been able to enjoy some of the
44:32 programming because we've brought a lot
44:33 of life to downtown, a lot of
44:35 sustainability and just people wanting
44:37 to come back again and again. So, thank
44:40 you for everything that you've done to
44:41 support us. We're looking forward to
44:43 working with you on activating
44:44 pedestrian park. Congratulations to
44:47 everybody in the parks department for
44:48 such a beautiful park and it's it's
44:50 going to be really fun to bring that to
44:52 life as well. So, thank you very much
44:53 and um hope to see you on Friday.
44:56 >> Thank you, Kirby. And um, city clerk, do
44:59 we have someone else on the list or
45:02 online?
45:03 >> We don't have anyone else on the list.
45:05 We do have a few others with us
45:06 virtually, but I'm not seeing them
45:08 indicate a desire to speak.
45:10 >> And we do have folks in the room. So, if
45:12 you would like to speak at this point in
45:14 time, could you raise your hand? We'll
45:15 call you up to the podium.
45:19 No hands going up. Okay. Um, back to my
45:25 script.
45:27 Well, thanks to um Courtney for coming
45:30 in and giving us an update on Diaz
45:33 summer activities and what's going
45:34 through to the fall. Um
45:38 as a reminder, you can always provide
45:40 written comments to your city council at
45:43 the city councilwah.gov
45:45 email address. We're going to move to
45:48 the next item of business, which is our
45:49 consent calendar. And I do not have any
45:52 remarks on any consent calendar items.
45:54 Are there any committee chairs or chair
45:55 designates who would like to report on
45:57 any of the items? I am seeing head
46:00 shakes. No. Um the consent calendar was
46:03 distributed to council in advance and if
46:05 authorized the item on the consent items
46:07 on the consent calendar will be
46:09 considered together and approved by one
46:10 motion. Have the payables and payroll
46:12 been reviewed?
46:13 >> They have.
46:14 >> They have. Thank you. Does any council
46:16 member desire to remove any item from
46:18 the consent calendar and consider it
46:19 under regular business? Not seeing an
46:22 indication of that. Um, and would
46:24 somebody be prepared to make a motion?
46:25 Council President.
46:26 >> Yes. I move we approve the consent
46:28 calendar as distributed.
46:31 >> Second.
46:33 >> Um, all those in favor. Are there any?
46:35 Uh, Nope. All those in favor signify by
46:37 saying I.
46:38 >> I.
46:39 >> I.
46:40 >> Opposed? That carries. Seven and no
46:43 unanimously.
46:44 >> We're going to move into regular
46:46 business and we're going to start with
46:47 AB9056 transit oriented development
46:50 opportunity center acquisition. And I'd
46:52 like to invite Deputy City Administrator
46:54 Andrew Snder to present this item.
47:16 Thank you, Madame Mayor. Hi, I'm Andrea
47:18 Snyder, deputy city administrator.
47:22 Uh and tonight we want to talk about the
47:25 opportunity center. Uh and specifically
47:29 the issue before us tonight is we're
47:32 looking for direction on whether or not
47:34 the city should proceed with the
47:36 acquisition process for that 10,000 foot
47:39 condominium that we call the opportunity
47:41 center within the transit oriented
47:43 development. Um, we're coming before you
47:46 tonight with this issue because King
47:48 County Housing Authority, our
47:50 development partners, are about to apply
47:52 for building permits for that
47:54 development. And so, this is kind of a
47:57 critical uh point in the timeline where
47:59 we want to make sure that um given
48:02 changing conditions that we're being
48:03 thoughtful about how we proceed in order
48:05 to stay being uh good partners with
48:08 KCHA.
48:14 So specifically the direction needed
48:16 tonight is should the city proceed with
48:19 uh the acquisition and building of the
48:21 opportunity center that process without
48:24 currently identifying uh tenant or
48:26 service provider or should the city
48:29 modify our interlocal agreement with
48:31 KCHA and remove the requirement to
48:33 provide the opportunity center? We'll
48:36 talk more about that.
48:39 At this point, the administration re
48:41 recommends moving forward with the
48:43 acquisition process for the opportunity
48:45 center while we undergo recruiting for
48:49 the tenants and uh human service
48:51 providers.
48:54 A little bit of background, the city, as
48:57 you know, has a lot of years of history
48:59 with this project. So, we'll just cover
49:01 2025 tonight.
49:03 uh the Health Point and Valley Cities
49:05 were the human service providers that
49:07 the city had selected and um had been
49:10 partnering with since um almost the
49:12 inception of this project. In spring of
49:16 2025, these human services providers
49:18 notified us that they would no longer be
49:21 able to partner with us on this project.
49:23 and so they pulled out of um the
49:26 partnership which means that we have no
49:29 current tenants for this 10,000 foot
49:31 space.
49:33 Since then, the administration has been
49:35 surveying other types of service
49:37 providers that are similar to
49:39 Healthpoint and Valley Cities uh to see
49:42 what interest may be from other similar
49:44 service providers, seeking really one
49:46 tenant for that 10,000 square ft of
49:48 space to provide behavioral health
49:50 services, medical and dental services
49:53 for lowincome populations.
49:56 We have found that there is some
49:58 interest in other service providers. So
50:00 we are aware um and in contact with a
50:03 couple of other service providers that
50:05 are very interested in locating in
50:07 Isiqua. So it seems really promising
50:09 that we could find a tenant uh to
50:11 replace Health Point in Valley Cities.
50:17 And um we have also been looking at the
50:19 possibility if we don't have a tenant
50:22 identified given the timeline for this
50:24 project and the timeline for
50:26 construction of the um to the
50:30 opportunity center. What's our ability
50:32 to use funds? And so we've been looking
50:34 at uh the affordable housing sales tax
50:36 funds and the state grant that we've
50:37 received um just to make sure what our
50:40 risks are. And we'll talk about those
50:41 later in the presentation today.
50:44 Um and also uh as part of background, we
50:48 have talked with the safety services and
50:51 parks committee. We'll be reviewing
50:52 their feedback tonight on what our
50:54 options are moving forward.
50:58 So while we have been identifying a
51:01 couple of other options for health uh
51:04 human services providers in the
51:06 opportunity center, we also wanted to
51:09 have a discussion with the safety
51:10 services and parks committee and seek
51:12 their guidance if we cannot find that
51:14 one tenant to uh replace health point
51:18 and valley cities. And on the July 22nd
51:21 meeting with that committee, uh they
51:23 recommended uh their preferred
51:26 alternative, which is to pursue a
51:27 variety of smaller service providers to
51:30 help share that space. And it could mean
51:32 rotating service providers, but it
51:34 wouldn't be that single one tenant to
51:36 take over the space. And that was their
51:39 their uh recommended option. We reviewed
51:41 some other options like using the space
51:43 for transitional housing. Um, and we
51:47 also talked about the possibility of
51:49 building the opportunity center without
51:51 having identified a service provider.
51:53 Maybe we hold out for that one tenant uh
51:55 if we cannot find one um this year.
52:00 And finally, another option we discussed
52:02 was pulling out of the agreement with
52:03 KCHA for that opportunity center space.
52:07 So, as I said, the committee expressed a
52:09 preference for the option highlighted
52:10 here, option one as our kind of plan B
52:13 for the opportunity center and um also
52:17 expressed some concerns over the risk of
52:19 having a vacant space since we don't
52:21 have a tenant identified right now. What
52:24 is the risk of proceeding at this point?
52:28 And um we'll go over that. So, we looked
52:32 at a couple of different risks. Um, this
52:35 is if the city kind of pulled out of
52:37 that agreement to do the opportunity
52:39 center within the tood.
52:42 Uh, the what would likely happen is that
52:44 KCHA would retain ownership of that
52:46 10,000t condominium. They would redesign
52:49 the pace for live work lofts um and uh
52:55 perhaps other resident amenities as
52:57 well. what this would mean at this point
52:59 in the process or if they were to
53:01 proceed and get building permits um
53:04 there would likely be costs associated
53:06 with this redesign and having to reapply
53:08 for building permits. So that's why
53:09 we're asking for council direction
53:11 tonight is in order to be a good partner
53:13 with KCHA
53:15 um to provide as much early direction to
53:18 them as we can.
53:21 Uh other risks associated with pulling
53:24 out of the um opportunity center is a
53:28 loss of space for human services and
53:30 especially close to transit. It would be
53:32 hard to find another space that's like
53:34 it or similar to that certainly within
53:36 the city of Isiqua limits.
53:39 Um but certainly we can search for other
53:43 spaces and we can find other other
53:45 spaces if that's the direction of
53:46 council at a future date. It would mean
53:48 we would delay uh the opening of a human
53:51 services center like the opportunity
53:53 center.
53:54 Financial risks of pulling out of the
53:56 agreement. If we um don't have an
54:00 opportunity center, if we're not going
54:01 to be contributing to that, then we
54:03 would likely forfeit the state funds.
54:05 Even if we tried to seek a space within
54:07 another development or a different type
54:08 of space, those state funds are really
54:10 tied to this project and this location
54:13 for it to be transit oriented. And um we
54:17 have looked at other spaces that are
54:19 within walking distance of transit and
54:21 there's just not very many of them. So
54:23 it would be likely that we would have to
54:24 forfeit that $3 million of state funds
54:27 if we were to pull out of the agreement
54:29 at this time and look for space in
54:31 another location.
54:36 We also looked at the financial risks of
54:39 building the opportunity center without
54:41 a tenant since while we feel like it is
54:43 promising and we have some good leads on
54:46 tenants um we don't currently have one
54:49 right now. So looking at the financial
54:51 risks we talked to various uh
54:54 departments within the state to
54:55 understand what are some of the strings
54:57 attached to the state grant that we have
54:59 received. Um, if we do not have a
55:02 tenant, then we would likely not use
55:04 that $3 million of funding to help pay
55:06 for the construction costs. We would
55:08 likely rely more on the affordable
55:10 housing sales tax that the city
55:12 controls. And as we look at the
55:14 affordable housing sales tax, um, it is
55:18 a great source of funding for this. Uh,
55:20 and we could still use that those funds
55:23 to build the opportunity center. What we
55:26 would need to do likely just to mitigate
55:28 some of the risks is to make sure that
55:30 we're dedicating that space for the
55:32 intended use that we don't use
55:34 affordable housing sales tax dollars and
55:36 then turn around and um open up some
55:40 type of commercial business or something
55:42 that's not related to the funding that
55:44 we're using.
55:47 Um other risks associated of building
55:50 the opportunity center without a tenant
55:51 include service risks. So not just
55:54 financial but um if the opportunity
55:56 center remains vacant uh then what what
56:00 do we do to this space uh to still be
56:03 able to provide some human services or
56:05 use the space for a human services
56:06 purpose? And one of the things that we
56:08 could do is we could house our human
56:10 services division in the space to
56:13 provide some services.
56:15 Um and we would still continue to seek
56:18 tenants for that space.
56:23 As part of examining risks, we also
56:26 talked with a number of other centers
56:28 that are a lot like our vision for the
56:30 opportunity center. So, we talked to the
56:32 Together Center um and two other centers
56:35 as well, uh one in Skyway and a new one
56:38 that's opening at the Sunshine Center.
56:40 And um more information is available in
56:43 the packets on this, but basically what
56:45 we've heard from them is the need to be
56:48 creative and flexible with um those
56:50 tenants and how we use that space, how
56:52 we build that space. That uh the tenants
56:55 really rely on below market rental
56:58 rates. Um so we would like to cover
57:01 city's costs of maintenance and
57:02 operating of the facility, but that
57:04 doesn't necessarily mean market rental
57:06 rates. So it' be submarket, but still
57:08 covering city costs.
57:10 And um also we heard from some of these
57:12 other organizations that finding a lot
57:15 of service providers especially under a
57:17 multi-tenant model uh securing leases
57:20 etc is really one FTE and while that's
57:22 the case for these other centers we have
57:25 a different model here which is
57:26 something that the city is much more
57:28 involved in. And at this point in time,
57:31 uh, we believe that between our human
57:33 services division staff and between our
57:36 facilities staff, we have the staffing
57:38 capabilities to be able to find tenants,
57:42 to secure leases, and to manage the
57:45 space within um the staff that we have.
57:48 So, at this point, we don't anticipate
57:49 needing to hire an additional FTE if we
57:52 were um to move forward. we would just
57:55 need to look at work plans, rep
57:57 prioritize, and some of those work plans
58:00 might change uh depending on um the need
58:04 to really manage the space and manage
58:05 the tenants.
58:10 Um so at the July 29th safety services
58:14 and parks committee meeting, we had
58:16 additional feedback after going over
58:18 some of those risks. The feedback we
58:20 received first was unanimous
58:22 recommendation to pursue the acquisition
58:25 process of the opportunity center. Uh we
58:28 also heard continued support for the
58:30 opportunity center concept as we've been
58:32 discussing over these years. And also uh
58:35 the committee requested additional
58:37 information on the cost estimate for the
58:40 opportunity center to really assess
58:42 whether this location and investing in
58:45 this location makes sense costwise
58:48 compared to other options. And so we'd
58:50 like to present that information to you
58:52 tonight. Uh what we were able to do
58:54 since our last week's meeting is look at
58:58 other properties uh within the east side
59:01 that are for sale and look at those
59:02 prices per square foot. The properties
59:05 that we found that were listed for sale
59:07 that were also within a quarter mile of
59:09 transit. So trying to
59:12 excuse me uh compare apples to apples
59:14 when it comes to the opportunity spa
59:15 center space. Uh what we were finding is
59:19 that uh across the east side properties
59:22 are going for sale for $478 to $627 per
59:26 square foot. By comparison, the
59:28 opportunity center cost is $64 per
59:31 square foot. So it's within that range.
59:34 The other thing that um I would note
59:36 here as we're trying to compare apples
59:37 to apples is that uh the properties that
59:41 we found for sale in other places of the
59:43 east side were not class A or new
59:44 construction. uh they were uh class C
59:48 and class B buildings which would likely
59:51 need a lot of tenant improvement
59:52 upgrades as well. Um and those buildings
59:56 too of course range in the number of
59:58 square feet they are. So we're looking
1:00:00 at an opportunity center that's 10,000
1:00:02 square ft within an affordable housing
1:00:05 development that's right next to
1:00:06 transit. Um there's really nothing
1:00:08 comparable to that, but just trying to
1:00:11 compare costs of of acquisition and the
1:00:14 opportunity center is within the range
1:00:17 uh that's in the market on the east side
1:00:18 today.
1:00:20 And then as we look at what constitutes
1:00:22 this price per square foot for the
1:00:23 opportunity center, that information is
1:00:25 here on that slide. Um, we see this
1:00:28 number here for acquisition and that
1:00:30 really covers the acquisition of the
1:00:32 land and the portion of the land um that
1:00:35 the square feet really occupy since KCHA
1:00:38 had to purchase that property. Um,
1:00:41 that's really the portion of the land
1:00:42 acquisition cost. And I don't believe we
1:00:44 went over that at the committee meeting
1:00:45 last week. So, I wanted to highlight
1:00:46 that specifically.
1:00:52 Timeline moving forward. Here we are,
1:00:54 September 2025. Uh we do anticipate KCHA
1:00:58 applying for building permits this
1:01:00 month. So the decision on whether we
1:01:02 should uh modify our agreement and not
1:01:06 uh proceed with the 10,000 foot
1:01:08 opportunity center within this
1:01:10 development really want to make that now
1:01:12 in order to uh reduce costs for our
1:01:15 development partners. And um we're
1:01:19 looking at other council touch points on
1:01:22 this timeline. um October 2025, the city
1:01:26 would like to issue an RFP or a letter
1:01:27 of interest really asking tenants who um
1:01:31 provide behavioral health services or
1:01:33 medical dental services if they're
1:01:35 interested in locating in this space. Uh
1:01:38 we've done some informal uh canvasing of
1:01:41 human service providers, but this would
1:01:42 really allow us to assess who's really
1:01:44 interested and who wants to um start
1:01:48 talking to us uh seriously about this
1:01:50 space. As we look at uh spring in 2026,
1:01:54 we would undergo a condo agreement and
1:01:57 acquisition process with KCHA. That
1:01:59 would be something that would come back
1:02:00 to council for decision. And at the same
1:02:04 time, that process of negotiating our
1:02:06 condominium agreement and the purchase
1:02:08 and sale agreement will help inform our
1:02:11 lease and tenant agreements because that
1:02:14 will help us refine what those costs are
1:02:16 and set and establish rents.
1:02:19 We do anticipate building permit
1:02:21 issuance in May. Um construction slated
1:02:24 to begin in 2026. Pretty exciting after
1:02:27 all these years of talking about the
1:02:28 project. with uh an opening date slated
1:02:31 for May of 2028.
1:02:36 So again, direction needed tonight is uh
1:02:40 whether the council agrees with the
1:02:41 administration's recommendation to
1:02:43 proceed with the acquisition process for
1:02:45 the opportunity center even though we
1:02:48 have not currently identified a tenant
1:02:50 or human services provider.
1:02:55 Thank you very much and thank you for
1:02:57 presenting all the options that you went
1:02:59 through with the committee. That's super
1:03:00 helpful. Um, Councilwoman Mars, you're
1:03:02 the chair of service, safety, and parks.
1:03:05 Would you like to summarize the
1:03:06 committee's recommendation on this item?
1:03:08 >> I I can, but I I think all my talking
1:03:10 points were already in in the
1:03:12 presentation. Um, but I So, yes, the
1:03:14 committee did meet uh last Tuesday,
1:03:16 August 26th here in council chambers,
1:03:19 and this was our only item that we
1:03:21 discussed. I will say um just to clarify
1:03:25 maybe as I said all the points were
1:03:28 already covered as to things we asked
1:03:29 about but I just want to say there was
1:03:33 um it's a bit of a fine point um there
1:03:37 well two two things actually one was
1:03:39 that there were a couple of different
1:03:40 opinions about one service provider
1:03:43 versus multiple service providers we had
1:03:45 committee members who basically had a
1:03:48 preference for one service provider but
1:03:49 were comfortable if multiple were needed
1:03:51 did we had other committee members who
1:03:53 were totally fine with multiple service
1:03:55 providers. Um but there was um a
1:03:59 disagreement. There was a question about
1:04:01 with this being a lot of money and um a
1:04:05 question that basically said if we're
1:04:06 going to spend a bunch of money, are we
1:04:09 are we certain that this was the best
1:04:11 option, best location for human services
1:04:14 campus? However, there was that
1:04:17 question, but then all three of us did
1:04:18 support the administration's position.
1:04:20 So, you know, coming back tonight, if
1:04:22 there are additional questions about the
1:04:25 confidence, you know, the confidence
1:04:27 that this is the best location and that
1:04:29 all um you know, all options have been
1:04:33 turned over and examined differed on in
1:04:35 the debate, but in the end, all three of
1:04:37 us chose to move forward with the
1:04:38 administration's recommendation. Thank
1:04:40 you for the opportunity to summarize
1:04:41 that.
1:04:42 >> Thank you for the summary. Does council
1:04:43 have any questions?
1:04:48 Council member Rick.
1:04:50 >> Yes, just just a couple. They're kind of
1:04:52 followons. Um, so thank you for the cost
1:04:55 estimates, but they're estimates. When
1:04:57 do you think we would be able to when do
1:04:59 we nail down the cost estimates? So we
1:05:01 say, yes, here's the check for X dollars
1:05:04 and we get that for it.
1:05:07 >> Uh, that should occur in the spring. So
1:05:10 let me go back to
1:05:13 the timeline here. Um, so we're going to
1:05:16 begin working with KCHA on uh the
1:05:19 condominium and purchase and sale
1:05:21 agreement this winter
1:05:24 as they finish up those building
1:05:25 designs. That is going to inform the
1:05:27 final cost estimate. And that's when uh
1:05:31 city council will have the ability to
1:05:33 either approve the purchase and sale
1:05:34 agreement, continue negotiating, or
1:05:37 reject the purchase and sale agreement.
1:05:39 >> Great. And my so I I I'm kind of viewing
1:05:42 this as two major risks. One is the cost
1:05:44 risk because we have an estimate and we,
1:05:46 you know, it's still an estimate until
1:05:48 purchasing sale agreement. Great. And
1:05:49 the other is the tenant risk, which is
1:05:52 we don't have a tenant lined up. So,
1:05:53 we're kind of going in um um on spec.
1:05:57 What's what are the plans or when do we
1:06:00 feel like we will have a better sense of
1:06:04 one tenant, multiple tenants, who it
1:06:07 might be? Is that predicated on the RFP?
1:06:10 >> Yes. curious how to how to reduce the
1:06:12 other dimension of risk.
1:06:15 >> Yes, that is the intent of the RFP or
1:06:18 the letter of interest that we'd be
1:06:20 requesting in October. So, we would have
1:06:22 a good idea of whether it is one tenant,
1:06:25 whether it's multiple tenants and the
1:06:28 strength of that interest. And then we'd
1:06:29 be able to proceed with the respondents
1:06:32 and go over things like uh their
1:06:35 finances, their ability um to be a
1:06:38 reliable and and sustainable tenant as
1:06:40 well. So that work would start in
1:06:42 October once we receive responses and
1:06:45 continue through the winter with again
1:06:47 hopefully a tenant lease agreement in
1:06:49 the spring.
1:06:52 >> Council member council
1:06:55 >> um yeah kind of adding on to that. So
1:06:57 I'm curious if you have a sense of what
1:06:59 the likelihood is of us finding tenants
1:07:01 like what you know that there's a risk
1:07:03 of us not finding tenants and we have a
1:07:05 contingency plan but like what do you
1:07:06 think is the chance that we have to go
1:07:07 with that option? Well, I think we have
1:07:10 a couple of things that are on our side.
1:07:12 One is we've already done some canvasing
1:07:15 of larger human service provider
1:07:17 organizations as I've said and there is
1:07:19 interest even though the national um
1:07:22 funding environment and political
1:07:23 environment is a little unsteady. Um
1:07:26 there is still interest with these
1:07:27 organizations to expand and um they're
1:07:30 talking about it internally um how ready
1:07:33 they can be. So, we know that there's
1:07:35 some interest and ability even for a
1:07:37 single tenant option. Um, there is um we
1:07:41 have the ability to be flexible and get
1:07:43 multiple tenants. We've heard from our
1:07:45 community the need for space. Um, we
1:07:47 would need to identify providers that
1:07:49 fit the funding model for these spaces.
1:07:51 Um, but we've heard uh a desire for
1:07:54 space. So, um I think both of those
1:07:58 things are going in the city's favor.
1:08:00 And then finally, the timing of this for
1:08:02 organizations to um anticipate a 2028
1:08:07 opening. This gives them time to plan.
1:08:10 Um and so all of those things I think
1:08:13 are going in our favor plus um what
1:08:15 we've heard from our organizations that
1:08:17 we've been talking to is the city has um
1:08:20 some funding to help assist and and that
1:08:24 they don't have to pay market rate
1:08:25 rents. um that we can subsidize some of
1:08:28 the upfront capital costs. All of these
1:08:30 things are what human service uh
1:08:32 organizations and nonprofits need in
1:08:34 order to provide the service. And that's
1:08:37 usually the hard part for them. And so,
1:08:39 um I think it's very promising. There's
1:08:42 always a risk. I can't sit here and tell
1:08:43 you today there's not going to be a
1:08:45 risk. Um but we have a lot of things
1:08:47 going for us. And so I think it more
1:08:49 likely that we at least have um some
1:08:52 space uh uh occupied when the center
1:08:56 opens.
1:08:57 That makes sense. I'm curious. So you
1:08:59 mentioned that the rents that we charter
1:09:01 aren't going to be based on market
1:09:02 rates. They'll be based on, you know,
1:09:04 basically just cost recovery. Do you
1:09:06 have a sense of like what amount of
1:09:08 discount that would be relative to
1:09:09 market rates at this point?
1:09:11 >> I do not. I do not.
1:09:14 >> Thank you. Other questions, Council
1:09:16 Jang? No, looks like you're in late. Any
1:09:20 other questions? And if there are none,
1:09:23 I would ask if committee chair would
1:09:25 like to make a motion.
1:09:27 >> I I would. Thank you. Uh, and I had it
1:09:31 up in front of me. There we go. I And I
1:09:34 indeed I do. Um, I move to proceed with
1:09:36 the acquisition process for the
1:09:38 commercial condo known as the
1:09:39 opportunity center, part of the transit
1:09:42 oriented development to project to be
1:09:44 constructed at 1550 Newport Way
1:09:46 Northwest to be used for community human
1:09:49 services as outlined by the interlocal
1:09:51 agreement between the city and King
1:09:53 County Housing Authority.
1:09:55 >> Second.
1:09:56 >> It's been moved and seconded. Is there
1:09:58 any council discussion? Council
1:10:00 >> Merz, council president, Deputy Council
1:10:02 President. So for f for folks who don't
1:10:05 know, this has been one of the longest
1:10:09 community conversations I think in uh
1:10:12 certainly while I've been a resident
1:10:14 here in in Isiqua. You know, Hillside
1:10:16 Park is like a blip in history uh
1:10:19 compared to the how long this
1:10:21 conversation has been going on. You
1:10:23 know, the new skate park, which isn't
1:10:25 the new skate park anymore, uh was, you
1:10:27 know, a a blip in history compared to
1:10:30 how long this conversation has been
1:10:31 going on. How long has it been? It's
1:10:34 been going on since before even I was on
1:10:36 council. This was uh with turbocharged
1:10:40 by a $1 million
1:10:43 um uh commitment from uh the Talis uh
1:10:48 development project. We had been seeking
1:10:50 out uh some way to provide the kind of
1:10:53 services or even something in the the
1:10:56 kind of ballpark of what the Together
1:10:58 Center could do. Um, and it was
1:11:02 frustrating
1:11:03 uh challenge after frustrating challenge
1:11:05 after frustrating challenge after
1:11:07 frustrating challenge of of finding
1:11:09 potential options and realizing it was
1:11:12 just for for some reason not quite
1:11:14 right. But this has been going on for 17
1:11:17 18 years. This need has been identified.
1:11:21 Uh, former council member John
1:11:22 Writtenhouse spoke to us in committee
1:11:24 about how important this was. He was one
1:11:26 of the folks that was very active on
1:11:28 this. it it uh just lots of folks in the
1:11:32 community. It was uh something that was
1:11:34 also near and dear to former council
1:11:36 member Winterstein uh who who uh was was
1:11:40 part of all that activity as well. It
1:11:43 was so when we identified um this
1:11:46 transit ordinant development project as
1:11:48 as an opportunity um we knew it was
1:11:52 going to be a bunch of money. It's it's
1:11:53 always
1:11:55 looked like it was going to be a bunch
1:11:56 of money. We got help from our friends
1:11:58 in the state legislature when their help
1:12:00 was needed. Um, and so we we moved
1:12:03 forward many many times. And so, you
1:12:07 know, here we are uh yet again coming
1:12:10 back to council looking to reaffirm the
1:12:13 wisdom of um needing to provide these
1:12:16 sorts of social services in our
1:12:18 community. And I I have stood with it
1:12:20 for 16 years and I'm going to stand with
1:12:23 it uh today. Um, I just uh I'm excited
1:12:26 to see some of these dates. It's never
1:12:28 been closer. Um, and hopefully we can
1:12:31 get out of this cycle of increased costs
1:12:34 and increased costs. It's it is right
1:12:36 and proper to ask what this will cost.
1:12:37 It is right and proper to ask um what uh
1:12:40 what we could do otherwise with the
1:12:42 money, but um this need has there's just
1:12:46 been an ironclad need and I I think the
1:12:49 money is still uh reasonable compared to
1:12:52 what we would get. And so I'm delighted
1:12:55 to continue to move this forward tonight
1:12:57 and uh hope the rest of my council
1:13:00 members, fellow council members will
1:13:01 join me. Thank you.
1:13:02 >> Thank you. Deputy Council President,
1:13:04 Council Member Jiang, did you have yours
1:13:06 up or not? Okay. Council member Hall
1:13:08 then council president.
1:13:10 >> I'm up next.
1:13:12 >> Yes.
1:13:12 >> Okay, great.
1:13:14 Yeah. Um thank you and thank you Council
1:13:17 Member Mart. And also I do want to also
1:13:20 thank Council Member Raid. Um, you know,
1:13:22 the consideration about risk is always
1:13:25 important and I think you've raised
1:13:26 important questions. Um, however, I and
1:13:30 I think that deputy city administrator
1:13:33 um did an excellent job of talking about
1:13:36 why this project can go. I'd like to add
1:13:39 a couple of more reasons why I think the
1:13:41 risk is actually quite low. And one is
1:13:44 what we talked about earlier tonight and
1:13:46 that is that we have a staff that has
1:13:48 demonstrated that they are creative and
1:13:52 flexible and innovative. Uh we just won
1:13:54 a statewide award for it
1:13:57 and uh we talked about the roller rink
1:13:59 project and uh you know we do things
1:14:02 that other cities don't do. Uh it's been
1:14:04 my history with this city that it's been
1:14:06 a leader because it is willing to take
1:14:08 risks especially when there is a high uh
1:14:12 return and benefit for the people that
1:14:14 we are serving. Um and in this case uh
1:14:18 the I want to go back to the original
1:14:20 vision which was uh we will have a
1:14:23 housing that will be serving lowincome
1:14:26 individuals. Um and we know from uh much
1:14:31 history that those kinds of tenants are
1:14:34 well served when they are coupled up
1:14:37 with uh direct access to human services.
1:14:40 And so that was the model. That's the
1:14:42 together center model. That's the model
1:14:44 that we wanted to replicate here. And so
1:14:47 it is really important for us to follow
1:14:49 through on that vision. And uh uh the
1:14:52 city administrator sent all of us a a
1:14:54 Seattle Times article this week uh that
1:14:57 talked about what happens when that
1:14:59 essential support is not there. Um and
1:15:02 there's a lot of empty low-income
1:15:04 housing in Seattle partly because um the
1:15:08 people that need those social services
1:15:10 are not receiving them. So, here we have
1:15:12 a model where we're placing this kind of
1:15:15 of a human services provider right next
1:15:18 to a um affordable housing complex. And
1:15:23 I think that this will make it
1:15:25 successful and I think we need to stay
1:15:27 the course on that vision.
1:15:30 Um and so I too will be supporting this.
1:15:33 I too have been involved with this
1:15:35 project for a long long time. um even
1:15:39 before it came before the city council,
1:15:41 the Together Center was looking to
1:15:43 expand here. And uh Council Member Mart,
1:15:46 maybe you want to uh add in uh at the
1:15:49 safety services and parks committee,
1:15:52 Council Member Mart did a really good
1:15:53 job of talking about the kinds of
1:15:55 assessments that were done before it
1:15:58 even came to council. There was a long
1:16:00 vetting process that we went through
1:16:03 trying to find locations that were
1:16:05 suitable. And it's not easy. It's not
1:16:07 easy. So, we have this opportunity uh
1:16:10 before us and I will be supporting this
1:16:13 opportunity
1:16:15 uh center and uh vote in favor of the
1:16:18 resolution. Thank you.
1:16:20 >> Thank you very much. And I believe we're
1:16:22 going to Council Member Hall and then
1:16:23 Council President.
1:16:26 >> Thank you very much. Um I have kind of
1:16:29 three groups of thoughts I'd like to
1:16:31 share um with the council. First, a kind
1:16:33 of an acknowledgement like the others
1:16:35 have said of why we're here and kind of
1:16:36 what it's taken and to get here. Second,
1:16:40 um some concerns that I still have and I
1:16:42 really appreciate the service safety
1:16:44 parks conversation uh that you guys had.
1:16:47 I I listened to it on my way back from
1:16:49 my road trip um last week and it was it
1:16:51 was good road trip listening. So, I
1:16:53 appreciate that. Um and then third,
1:16:55 while I'll be uh voting in favor of the
1:16:57 um initiative tonight um despite some of
1:16:59 these concerns. So, just starting at the
1:17:01 top, um I've been incredibly proud, like
1:17:03 the others have said, to support this
1:17:04 really ambitious project over the years
1:17:06 that I've been uh on the council
1:17:10 um that brings much needed density,
1:17:11 affordable housing, access to transit,
1:17:13 and critical services in central Isiqua.
1:17:16 In many ways, this is exactly the kind
1:17:19 of project that we hope to see in
1:17:20 central Isiqua. In many ways, it fits
1:17:23 exactly the vision that many councils
1:17:25 and strategic planning documents have
1:17:27 envisioned for central Isiqua. Um, and I
1:17:30 say ambitious intentionally, too,
1:17:32 because I have no doubt that there are
1:17:35 many a council and many a city that
1:17:37 would have thrown in the towel by now.
1:17:39 Um, the challenges this project have
1:17:41 experienced and continues to experience
1:17:43 is really like nothing else I've
1:17:45 experienced in my nearly six years on
1:17:47 the council. Uh, so I just also want to
1:17:49 share just a deep gratitude for Deputy
1:17:51 City Administrator Snyder and and other
1:17:53 city staff who've shown real commitment
1:17:56 and resourcefulness and and tenacity.
1:18:00 >> exactly. I mean, all the synonyms there.
1:18:02 Um, in the face of all these challenges
1:18:06 all all over the years. So, anyways,
1:18:08 just big appreciation for you. Um I
1:18:11 still do have some concerns and I think
1:18:13 it's important to acknowledge them
1:18:14 especially because there are some
1:18:16 potential outcomes here um that are
1:18:18 different than we had originally
1:18:20 intended. So I think the circumstances
1:18:22 that we find ourselves in with tenants
1:18:24 pulling out because of the environment
1:18:27 um and approaching permit deadline does
1:18:30 make this decision feel a little bit
1:18:31 rushed just in my thinking. Um, and I
1:18:34 worry about a potential new scope
1:18:36 without a full policy analysis that was
1:18:38 kind of mentioned a little bit in
1:18:39 committee of what our options are to
1:18:41 address the underlying policy problem
1:18:43 that that we identified back when this
1:18:44 all started. I guess in my mind it
1:18:46 seemed like the policy problem that we
1:18:48 were trying to address in these years
1:18:50 and feel free anyone to kind of add on
1:18:51 to this was that Isiqua and East King
1:18:54 County were deserts for lowincome
1:18:57 behavioral health, medical and dental
1:18:59 care, right? And so given the risks
1:19:02 identified here, the question that keeps
1:19:04 popping up in my head as I'm considering
1:19:06 this is do all of the potential
1:19:08 outcomes, one tenant, multiple tenants,
1:19:11 no tenants, but human services staff
1:19:13 help to solve that problem statement
1:19:15 that we originally crafted, right? So,
1:19:17 for example, um would moving our human
1:19:20 services staff into the condo space,
1:19:22 which I think we can all acknowledge
1:19:24 would solve a problem and be really good
1:19:27 for the community. Um but would that
1:19:28 solve the specific problem that we've
1:19:30 identified? Uh and if not, are there
1:19:32 other options that could exist? And I'm
1:19:35 imagining some policy analysis matrix
1:19:38 with all the different options that
1:19:40 solve our problem statement or or even
1:19:42 things that we pull from the human
1:19:43 services strategic plan that have been
1:19:45 identified in our gaps analysis already
1:19:47 that solve the problem um in other
1:19:49 direct ways. Are they worth considering?
1:19:52 Even if those options, as hard as it is
1:19:55 to kind of dream, exist outside of this
1:19:59 centralized on-site opportunity center
1:20:02 model that we've been reaching for. even
1:20:04 if they're completely different
1:20:06 options like direct funding to these
1:20:09 kinds of providers who provide um
1:20:12 resources and care for our residents
1:20:14 that live here in Isiqua. And I think
1:20:15 just given some of the financial risks,
1:20:17 it's particularly important to just be
1:20:18 able to say that regardless of any of
1:20:20 the options, this is the best course of
1:20:23 action. Um like I kind of previewed at
1:20:27 the beginning, given all that, I'm still
1:20:28 going to support the proposal tonight uh
1:20:30 for a handful of reasons. You can see I
1:20:32 like I like lists. Um I'm comforted by
1:20:35 the fact that staff are determined
1:20:38 really determined to um find tenants
1:20:42 that meet our original intent and solve
1:20:44 the problem that we clearly identified.
1:20:46 And it sounds like there's actually some
1:20:48 preliminary interest just from
1:20:49 canvasing, which is great. I'm comforted
1:20:52 by the fact that the location is
1:20:53 attractive, that our plans to provide
1:20:56 submarket rates or submarket rents is
1:20:58 attractive, that our plans to provide
1:21:00 assistance with tenant improvements is
1:21:02 attractive to different human services
1:21:04 providers. Um, I also asked some
1:21:06 questions earlier today and it does seem
1:21:07 like it would be possible to delay the
1:21:10 opportunity center without delaying the
1:21:12 building permits, but as you said during
1:21:14 the presentation, that could also mean
1:21:16 additional costs for KCHA. Um, and I
1:21:19 think we're all committed on this
1:21:21 council to ensuring that nothing
1:21:23 jeopardizes the larger housing project
1:21:25 and the larger vision of this as well.
1:21:27 And so to that point,
1:21:30 I think what it comes down to for me is,
1:21:33 you know, this is just one tool in the
1:21:35 tool chest that we have, right? Um, we
1:21:37 all know that space for human service
1:21:39 providers near those who need it is
1:21:41 really hard to come by. So if we can't
1:21:44 take the time to look into this kind of
1:21:46 fuller range of other riskless options,
1:21:50 those even exist um available to us that
1:21:53 directly address the problem we have
1:21:54 identified. I feel like we can't let
1:21:56 another tool, we can't let another
1:21:58 opportunity go by us, even if it doesn't
1:22:01 perfectly fit the mold of the problem
1:22:03 statement we were trying to address in
1:22:04 the beginning. Um and you know too, just
1:22:07 thinking about this over the weekend,
1:22:09 sometimes that's our job as policy
1:22:11 makers, right? We weigh the risks. So,
1:22:13 we ask for as much possible information
1:22:14 as we can and and um we have to make
1:22:18 those kinds of tough decisions um even
1:22:20 if we're not entirely sure if it's going
1:22:22 to fit our original vision. So, anyways,
1:22:24 thanks for letting me ramble. That's
1:22:25 just kind of where my head sits right
1:22:26 now and I'm going to support the motion
1:22:28 tonight.
1:22:29 >> Thank you, Council Member Hall. Council
1:22:30 President,
1:22:32 >> thank you. Um, I appreciate the
1:22:35 discussion here and Council Member Ray
1:22:37 and Council Member Jen's questions about
1:22:40 risk and Deputy City Administrator
1:22:43 Snyder's response um about the
1:22:46 advantages of this site and our funding
1:22:48 options and all of the relationships
1:22:50 that we've made with human services
1:22:52 providers that um put us at an advantage
1:22:55 even as we are sitting here without um a
1:22:57 signed on provider. Um, I am fully
1:23:01 confident in our staff's ability to find
1:23:03 service providers for this location
1:23:06 given the need in the community. Um, and
1:23:09 I just think this is a really excellent
1:23:11 site. We know there is a lot of need and
1:23:14 a lot of interest for um, being able to
1:23:17 provide services. So, I would like to
1:23:20 see us move forward despite not having a
1:23:23 single clear provider lined up. Um, and
1:23:25 I'm also fully on board with kind of our
1:23:28 original needs analysis and the $3
1:23:30 million that the state provided that are
1:23:33 tied to providing location for that
1:23:35 services. So, I I appreciate that this
1:23:39 is brought to us, but for me, this is
1:23:40 kind of a shrug of that's the risk of
1:23:43 doing business and I'm perfectly
1:23:45 comfortable moving forward because the
1:23:47 need is so great and our staff is so
1:23:49 amazing at solving problems.
1:23:52 >> Any other comments? Council Menang.
1:23:54 Great. Yeah. Um, appreciate everyone's
1:23:56 comments so far. Um, you know, I asked
1:23:59 some questions about the risks of doing
1:24:01 this. You know, we talked a lot about
1:24:02 the reasons that we should be doing
1:24:04 this. I think there's also risks of not
1:24:06 moving forward with this project.
1:24:07 There's many which we've talked about in
1:24:09 previous council meetings. Number one,
1:24:10 we got a $3 million grant from the state
1:24:12 to build the opportunity center. And
1:24:14 it's been mentioned in the past, if we
1:24:16 don't do what we said we were going to
1:24:17 do after getting it reapproved by the
1:24:18 state four times, that really loses its
1:24:20 credibility in the eyes of our state
1:24:22 legislators. We don't want to do that.
1:24:24 So I think that alone is reason for us
1:24:26 to move forward alongside you know this
1:24:28 is a massive need in the community.
1:24:30 Another thing is that you know one of
1:24:32 the concerns with the development in
1:24:33 central Isiqua is that the developments
1:24:35 to date haven't really had you know
1:24:37 groundf flooror amenities for the
1:24:39 community. And so if we're not able to
1:24:41 provide that in this development which
1:24:43 is our flagship development that we're
1:24:45 all like you know this is the number one
1:24:46 priority of the city. That's why Andrea
1:24:48 spent hundreds of hours over many many
1:24:51 years making sure that this happens. If
1:24:53 we you know if we're like oh actually uh
1:24:56 it was too difficult so we're not even
1:24:58 going to try and instead it's just going
1:25:00 to be live work units or resident
1:25:02 amenities what signal does that send to
1:25:03 the rest of the development community
1:25:04 about what we value in the city. So I
1:25:07 think ultimately you know those reasons
1:25:09 I think those risks outweigh the risks
1:25:11 of you know potentially having
1:25:12 challenges with finding tenants. I'm
1:25:14 sure it's going to be a challenge, but
1:25:15 our staff has shown they are able to
1:25:17 address these challenges. You know,
1:25:18 other cities have also had some amount
1:25:20 of challenges in finding tenants for
1:25:22 commercial spaces and have worked
1:25:23 through them, and I'm confident that our
1:25:25 staff um can find solutions to that as
1:25:27 well. So, for those reasons, um I'm
1:25:30 supporting uh this uh uh recommendation
1:25:34 to proceed with acquisition process
1:25:36 tonight.
1:25:37 >> Thanks. Additional comments, Council
1:25:39 Member Joe. Well, since everyone else
1:25:41 has spoken, I guess I will talk a little
1:25:43 bit. Um,
1:25:46 Council Member Marts talked about the $1
1:25:48 million that was secured from Talis, and
1:25:50 it was a little before his time. It was
1:25:53 actually during my time uh on council
1:25:55 the first time um back when. And we did
1:25:59 that with a bit of idealism, a bit of,
1:26:01 you know, we're not really sure what's
1:26:03 going to happen with this, but we need
1:26:05 that seed money. We need that process
1:26:08 started. And um we need the vision of
1:26:12 moving forward with uh the ability to
1:26:14 provide human services uh within walking
1:26:17 distance as council member DM Michelle
1:26:19 points out so that they can be linked
1:26:21 together. Uh that successful model has
1:26:25 been shown to work. We're going to try
1:26:26 to do it out here because we do have a
1:26:29 little bit of a a human services desert.
1:26:31 So I'm fully in support of the um
1:26:35 direction that you're going tonight. And
1:26:38 um I do agree that um our staff is well
1:26:43 equipped to have the imagination to find
1:26:46 um a tenant or tenants that can fill
1:26:49 that space and uh we as a council I
1:26:51 believe need to move forward with this
1:26:53 and continue to have the opportunity for
1:26:55 the opportunity center to show it can
1:26:58 work and to show that it will flourish.
1:27:00 Thank you.
1:27:00 >> Thank you. Any additional comments?
1:27:04 I will reread the original motion, but I
1:27:07 do want to make sure it's entirely clear
1:27:09 to the public that what you are voting
1:27:10 today is to continue with the process.
1:27:13 You have many more decisions, you have
1:27:15 many more votes, and you will get a lot
1:27:17 more data and information. So, I
1:27:19 appreciate the fact that you're talking
1:27:20 about making sure this pencils out, that
1:27:23 this makes sense and it doesn't become
1:27:24 an albatross for a future administration
1:27:27 and a future council to deal with
1:27:28 because it was a big investment that
1:27:30 didn't work out. So, I like your
1:27:31 optimism and more information to come.
1:27:34 If there's no further discussion, the
1:27:36 motion before council is to proceed with
1:27:38 the acquisition process for the
1:27:39 commercial condo known as the
1:27:40 opportunity center, part of the transit
1:27:43 oriented development project to be
1:27:44 constructed at 1550 Newport Way
1:27:47 Northwest to be used for community human
1:27:49 services as outlined by the interlocal
1:27:51 agreement between the city and the King
1:27:53 County Housing Authority. All those in
1:27:56 favor signify by saying I.
1:27:58 >> I. Those opposed that carries
1:28:01 unanimously seven and0 and you you've
1:28:03 heard it many times deputy city
1:28:05 administrator but many other cities and
1:28:08 many other teams would have just folded
1:28:09 their tent and so we appreciate so much
1:28:12 that you are still keeping the process
1:28:14 going as as all these different things
1:28:17 are changing so frequently. Thank you
1:28:19 very very much.
1:28:20 We're going to move to committee and
1:28:22 regional reports and we'll start with
1:28:23 council member Jiang and this may be
1:28:25 light tonight just so the public knows
1:28:27 um a lot of the committees that we do go
1:28:29 to do not meet in the month of August so
1:28:31 you may have fewer reports tonight
1:28:33 council member Jang no report for me
1:28:34 tonight
1:28:36 council member Joe
1:28:38 >> thank you the eltac committee is
1:28:39 scheduled to meet on the 15th of
1:28:41 September at 2 p.m. Um items for the
1:28:45 agenda are still being worked out at
1:28:48 this point. Uh the Cascade Water
1:28:51 Alliance Board will be meeting for the
1:28:53 board meeting on the 24th of September
1:28:56 and the Cascade Water Alliance Public
1:28:59 Affairs Committee meeting tomorrow has
1:29:02 been cancelled. I can lose my report.
1:29:05 Thank you.
1:29:05 >> Thank you, Council Member Hall.
1:29:07 >> My apologies. I have three reports.
1:29:11 >> I'm sorry. One of them's quick. Uh so
1:29:13 planning development environment
1:29:14 committee our next meeting is next
1:29:16 Tuesday a week from today with comm 0109
1:29:19 the title 18 tree code update on our
1:29:21 agenda. I also just wanted to give a
1:29:23 quick heads up to the council that our
1:29:25 prioritization of the future title 18
1:29:28 amendments often called our title 18
1:29:30 whiteboard is on Monday I believe uh the
1:29:33 committee the whole is that right? Um so
1:29:34 just make sure to set a time that uh set
1:29:36 aside some time whatever time you need
1:29:38 to prepare uh for that exercise and um
1:29:40 appreciate appreciate your willingness
1:29:42 to move forward with that.
1:29:44 >> Uh Eastside Fire and Rescue um the fire
1:29:47 chief ad hoc committee met on August
1:29:50 20th to review all of the semi- finalist
1:29:52 applications that came in for fire
1:29:54 chief. If you haven't seen, we have
1:29:56 selected three finalists to go through
1:29:58 the process. They are Will Ao, our
1:30:01 assistant chief uh at Eastside Fire and
1:30:03 Rescue, one of them. John Drake, a
1:30:06 retired deputy chief with the Los
1:30:07 Angeles City Fire Department, and Mo
1:30:10 Sasoka, the assistant chief with Las
1:30:13 Vegas Fire and Rescue. And you can find
1:30:16 more information on the Eastside Fire
1:30:17 and Rescue website if you'd like to read
1:30:19 their bios. There will be a week from
1:30:21 today on September 9th. Did you ever uh
1:30:26 there will be a week from today on
1:30:27 September 9th a candidate reception up
1:30:30 at Seamish City Hall in their council
1:30:32 chambers. If you're interested in
1:30:33 joining uh no need to RSVP, just show up
1:30:36 to Samar City Hall from 2:00 to 4:00 and
1:30:38 you can meet them. Uh the next day on
1:30:40 September 10th, we're going to be pretty
1:30:42 busy all day with panel interviews.
1:30:45 Those panels are governmental,
1:30:46 operations administration and
1:30:48 community. Uh and then the next day on
1:30:51 September 11th, the board meeting, uh
1:30:54 Tola and I and all the other members of
1:30:56 the board will will make our pick um for
1:30:58 the next fire chief for our entire
1:31:00 service area. So very exciting. Um and
1:31:03 then once we've done that, the board
1:31:04 will um give some direction um for the
1:31:07 next part, which is then negotiating a
1:31:09 contract with um our new fire chief. So
1:31:12 let me know if you have any questions or
1:31:14 want to be involved in that process at
1:31:15 all. Uh no report for Ry 8 salmon
1:31:18 recovery council. the Lake Seamish
1:31:20 Cooney ILA management committee. We met
1:31:22 with the full Lake Seamish Cook work
1:31:24 group um on August 13th here at Tividz
1:31:27 Creek Manor. Um just specifically the
1:31:30 ILA management committee is just made up
1:31:32 of the cities that help fund it. The
1:31:34 actual work group, Cooney workg group is
1:31:36 the scientists and fishery experts that
1:31:38 do the work. We ran through our 2026
1:31:40 work plan which we had adopted earlier
1:31:42 in the summer. A lot of similar recovery
1:31:45 incubation monitoring work except we
1:31:47 have added some new items. which I
1:31:48 thought you might be interested in cuz
1:31:49 it's like some amish um an effectiveness
1:31:52 monitoring study of invasive aquatic
1:31:54 vegetation treatment um around the lake
1:31:56 to see what works best and then also
1:31:58 there is not a lot of good science um of
1:32:01 6 PPDQ which is the tire residue runoff
1:32:05 that that comes in through storm water
1:32:07 into our different um rivers and lakes
1:32:09 and stuff on the effect of 6 PPDQ on
1:32:12 cooking specifically. So, um, a study,
1:32:15 um, to kind of understand that in Lake
1:32:18 Smash. Um, also, you may not know, I
1:32:20 certainly didn't know this, that Dairy
1:32:22 Gold here in town has a well in a water
1:32:25 system that supplies water to the fish
1:32:27 hatchery. Uh, and it supports
1:32:29 coconcation at the hatchery. So, that
1:32:32 has had some problems in the past and
1:32:35 um, the uh, IA management committee sent
1:32:37 a letter to WDFW, the Washington
1:32:39 Department of Fish and Wildlife that run
1:32:41 the water system. They have replied uh
1:32:44 eager to help and we now have a task
1:32:46 force of work group and DFW reps to
1:32:48 collaborate and ensure that it doesn't
1:32:49 happen again. We're feeling much better
1:32:51 about future season's ability to have a
1:32:54 reliable water supply that it just runs
1:32:56 right over the the cocon eggs as they're
1:32:59 incubating. Anyways, I can show you if
1:33:00 you ever want to go inside the hatchery.
1:33:02 It's interesting. I had no idea it was
1:33:03 there. Uh there was also um just a heads
1:33:06 up to the council, there was also some
1:33:08 noted concern by several workg groupoup
1:33:09 members that Isiqua doesn't have a
1:33:12 member of the King County Flood Control
1:33:13 District. Um there are some questions
1:33:16 that we're working through as to whether
1:33:17 or not we would we actually have a
1:33:19 permanent seat or not. So we're looking
1:33:20 into that. Um but there's definitely
1:33:23 interest in the Lake Sami Lake Seamish
1:33:25 Cook community of having an Isiqua
1:33:28 representative either elected or staff
1:33:31 in that work in the King County Flood.
1:33:33 Thank you for that reminder. Council
1:33:35 president and I have been working on
1:33:36 that for 40 years. So
1:33:38 >> Oh, right.
1:33:38 >> We we can get a seat on that. But we
1:33:41 need to have somebody who make can make
1:33:42 those meeting times work for
1:33:43 >> is it like through or something like
1:33:45 that or I mean if it's not
1:33:46 >> No, it's jurisdiction wise. Jurisdiction
1:33:49 wise,
1:33:49 >> but we do have an isqua seat.
1:33:51 >> We have an opportunity. It's not a
1:33:52 dedicated seat that we
1:33:54 >> Yeah. It seemed It seemed like some of
1:33:55 the other actual licks mammoth cities
1:33:58 have a specific seat. So I thought it
1:33:59 was kind of
1:34:00 >> We do not have a vacant seat.
1:34:01 >> That's very odd. But we have an
1:34:02 opportunity before us.
1:34:03 >> Yes, there is interest if anyone on the
1:34:04 council is interested in stepping up and
1:34:06 serving there. Um and that concludes my
1:34:08 report.
1:34:09 >> Thank you, Council Member Ray.
1:34:11 >> No report this evening.
1:34:12 >> Thank you, Council Member Mertz.
1:34:15 >> Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um the Sound
1:34:17 Cities Association Public Issues
1:34:19 Committee will be meeting Wednesday,
1:34:20 September 10th at 7 PM in person uh at
1:34:25 the Mercer Island Community and Event
1:34:27 Center. Um I'm a big supporter of um
1:34:30 having that group meet uh physically uh
1:34:34 be physically present. So I'm excited.
1:34:36 Um a number of important topics will be
1:34:38 covered. There'll be a discussion on the
1:34:40 King County Library system levy lid lift
1:34:43 update uh from uh King County Library
1:34:46 System. a discussion on uh prepping for
1:34:49 an upcoming discussion with uh King
1:34:52 County Council regarding King County
1:34:55 Transit District sales tax and then
1:34:58 potential action on an SEA draft letter
1:35:00 to the Washington State Legislature on
1:35:02 the indigent defense case standards. I
1:35:05 talked about this I think at the last
1:35:07 meeting. This is something that city of
1:35:09 Isiqua has um considered important for
1:35:12 many months. Um, it would be uh I have
1:35:15 not seen a a copy of the letter, but I
1:35:18 believe it would ask for uh deferral of
1:35:21 implementation of the standards until a
1:35:23 Washington state specific um study uh
1:35:26 has occurred to help um frame this
1:35:29 issue. Um it's also a request for
1:35:32 funding. um these um municipalities
1:35:36 um essentially all municipalities um
1:35:38 feel that this will put an incredible uh
1:35:41 burden um financial burden on
1:35:43 municipalities. So uh that conversation
1:35:46 will occur as well. So and I will report
1:35:48 back the results of that conversation.
1:35:49 Madam Mayor, do you have something to
1:35:50 add on that?
1:35:51 >> No, you described that very perfectly
1:35:53 actually. Thank you.
1:35:54 >> Well, thank you. And that concludes my
1:35:56 report,
1:35:56 >> Deputy Council President.
1:35:59 >> Uh thank you. So on August the 21st, the
1:36:03 board of the East Side Human Services
1:36:04 Forum unanimously voted to form a new
1:36:07 organization with the Together Center
1:36:09 and the Alliance of East Side Agencies.
1:36:12 Uh the new organization will be
1:36:14 dedicated to the benefit of all East
1:36:15 Side Human Services, including
1:36:17 providers, community leaders, cities,
1:36:20 school districts, hospitals, faith-based
1:36:23 organizations, and others. Uh the
1:36:25 together center will convene a task
1:36:27 force to plan for the creation and
1:36:29 transition to a new entity tentatively
1:36:31 to occur in 2026.
1:36:34 Um so this is something um just a couple
1:36:37 of remarks about it. Uh this is
1:36:38 something that has been under discussion
1:36:40 for at least three years. We've been
1:36:42 exploring this through a lot of
1:36:45 different uh meetings with uh together
1:36:47 center and uh A.E.A. And uh for many
1:36:52 similar reasons uh that discussion has
1:36:55 gone on. Um and about two and a half
1:36:58 three months ago together center came
1:37:00 forward with a formal proposal. Um and
1:37:04 the AEA board is uh voting on that and
1:37:07 this board the site human services forum
1:37:09 looked at it and considered it a very
1:37:12 viable proposal and so we voted to
1:37:14 support it and we'll be moving forward.
1:37:17 uh together center is currently and they
1:37:19 will be taking the lead. They would be
1:37:20 the lead agency. Uh they will be taking
1:37:23 the lead and are currently scheduling a
1:37:26 meeting of all three agencies to form a
1:37:30 planning group that would begin to work
1:37:32 out the details of this transition to a
1:37:35 new organization. So, uh if you have
1:37:37 further questions, please talk to me.
1:37:39 And uh that also goes for anyone
1:37:42 listening online. Um, uh, I'm glad to
1:37:45 answer any questions about, uh, this
1:37:47 move forward. Uh, and then the only
1:37:49 other announcement is, uh, September the
1:37:52 19th at 10:00,
1:37:55 uh, the joint meeting of transportation
1:37:57 boards is going to be held at, uh, Sound
1:38:00 Transit offices. So that's East Side
1:38:02 Transportation Partnership, skateboard,
1:38:05 and seashore. And we'll be meeting
1:38:07 together. This is an annual event uh
1:38:10 that's uh uh hosted by King County every
1:38:13 year and so this will be that annual
1:38:16 event. It's usually a really good
1:38:17 discussion that the three boards have
1:38:20 when we get together. So that concludes
1:38:22 my report. Thank you.
1:38:23 >> Thank you, Council President.
1:38:25 >> Thank you. I just have two quick
1:38:27 reports. Um on Thursday I have two
1:38:29 meetings. Um first the Puget Sound
1:38:32 Regional Council's Growth Management
1:38:33 Policy Board. Um we are recommending
1:38:36 comprehensive plan certification for
1:38:38 eight jurisdictions and conditional
1:38:41 certification for two jurisdictions. Um
1:38:44 so we'll see how the votes for those go.
1:38:47 And then we will also have a discussion
1:38:49 item on regional senators monitoring. As
1:38:52 you know we have a regional growth
1:38:54 center. Um there is some concern that
1:38:56 there has not been housing um
1:38:59 development in that area and so that
1:39:01 will be part of that discussion is
1:39:04 figuring out how that designation um
1:39:07 will respond. Um on Thursday I also have
1:39:10 the King County affordable housing uh
1:39:13 committee meeting and we will get a
1:39:15 briefing um on housing market pressures
1:39:18 and shifting area median income in King
1:39:21 County which I know we have all seen as
1:39:23 much as we can provide um potential for
1:39:26 affordable housing is the median income
1:39:29 shifts that shifts where the need
1:39:31 dynamics happen. Um, and then we'll also
1:39:34 review the preliminary draft of the 2026
1:39:37 state legislative agenda. And that
1:39:40 concludes my report.
1:39:41 >> Thank you. The next item on our agenda
1:39:44 this evening is the mayor's report. And
1:39:46 there will not be an executive session.
1:39:49 Um, I'm dedicating the majority of my
1:39:51 mayor's report tonight to my friend
1:39:53 Susan Neville, who passed away in
1:39:55 August. Susan was a founding member of
1:39:57 Save Cooper Mountain, an advocacy group
1:40:00 that influenced policy on land
1:40:02 development in the city of Isiqua and
1:40:04 raised community awareness and voices to
1:40:08 preserve undeveloped forested land
1:40:10 unsuitable for sustainable buildout.
1:40:13 After almost the flat buildable land was
1:40:16 developed in Isiqua, proposals started
1:40:18 to be submitted to develop steep wet
1:40:21 forested parcels on Cougar and Squawk
1:40:24 Mountain. Susan and the Save Cougar
1:40:26 Mountain organization worked tirelessly
1:40:29 for years to ensure the Isiqua City
1:40:31 Council could find a pathway to purchase
1:40:34 the Bergsma property on Cougar Mountain
1:40:36 for the community and place it in
1:40:39 conservation. It was a monumental
1:40:41 effort. Susan and I first met around
1:40:44 2015 to discuss some development issues
1:40:47 that she and her neighbors on Newport
1:40:49 Way West had been experiencing. We met
1:40:51 at her house with about 30 residents and
1:40:53 neighbors and we went through the
1:40:54 ongoing projects and the impacts that
1:40:57 they were experiencing.
1:40:59 Susan was a rather quiet spoken person
1:41:02 but fierce in her commitment to ensure
1:41:04 that development should be focused on
1:41:06 buildable land that could support the
1:41:08 scale of the project and that would be
1:41:10 protective of the beautiful environment
1:41:13 it was surrounded by. Her husband Tim
1:41:15 and I recently spoke about her tenacity.
1:41:18 If Susan wanted to ensure something was
1:41:20 done, she was doggedly persistent in her
1:41:22 pursuit of that goal. I am enormously
1:41:25 grateful for the work of Susan and Save
1:41:27 Cougar Mountain, who were able to
1:41:29 present a scroll with over 10,000
1:41:31 signatures, encouraging the city council
1:41:34 to find a path forward to fully purchase
1:41:37 the entire Bergsma property, which the
1:41:40 city council eventually did with
1:41:42 assistance from the trust for public
1:41:44 lands and King County and the state.
1:41:47 Susan told me during one of our many,
1:41:49 many coffee meetups that this kind of
1:41:51 local advocacy work was all new to her
1:41:54 and not exactly in her comfort zone. I
1:41:57 have heard that from so many others over
1:41:59 the years as well as they put their toes
1:42:01 in the water to try and influence
1:42:03 policym and land use development in
1:42:05 Isiqua in profound ways and how they
1:42:08 found the going long, hard, and uphill.
1:42:12 But unlike most people, when the going
1:42:14 got hard, Susan got more committed and
1:42:16 drummed up more support. She led with
1:42:20 passion and a heartfelt love for this
1:42:22 community and its beautiful forest and
1:42:24 hillsides. A land acquisition of that
1:42:27 scale takes an engaged and activated
1:42:29 community. As council on the
1:42:30 administration sought a path forward
1:42:32 with a very complicated and ambitious
1:42:34 funding strategy, Susan and Save Cougar
1:42:37 Mountains work was essential to getting
1:42:39 it over the endline. They not only
1:42:42 advocated for the council to move
1:42:43 forward with the acquisition, but they
1:42:45 also met with King County and other
1:42:47 partner agencies to tell the story of
1:42:49 why this partial should be conserved. I
1:42:52 do not believe this acquisition would
1:42:54 have moved forward without their stellar
1:42:56 efforts. I will miss my friend, but I
1:43:00 will never forget her due to that
1:43:02 beautiful green forested slope on the
1:43:05 northeast corner of Cougar Mountain that
1:43:07 you see as you enter Isaba from the
1:43:09 west. that she so bravely and
1:43:12 determinately worked to muster a
1:43:14 community to save it. Thank you, Susan,
1:43:17 for all you have done for our community
1:43:19 and for shaping the ways in which Isiqua
1:43:21 can grow in a sustainable way without
1:43:24 losing these beautiful forested
1:43:27 truly be missed. Susan's memorial will
1:43:30 be held in Seattle at St. Thomas
1:43:32 Episcopal Church on Monday, September
1:43:34 15th at 1:30 p.m. I will be attending
1:43:37 and can provide transportation for any
1:43:39 other council members who wish to
1:43:40 attend.
1:43:42 A couple of last items. Um, you've heard
1:43:45 earlier that culture and community
1:43:48 connection are going to be front and
1:43:50 center at Isiqua's Culture Fest. So,
1:43:52 join us for this fun, free family event
1:43:54 in celebration of Isqua's rich cultural
1:43:57 diversity. The festival brings our
1:43:59 community together with a vibrant lineup
1:44:01 of live performances, interactive art,
1:44:03 hands-on communities, and delicious
1:44:04 global leads. And it's all on the lawn
1:44:06 of the Isiqua Community Center. There's
1:44:08 a resource fair hosted by hosted by the
1:44:10 city of Isiqua Human Services to connect
1:44:13 with local organizations and help folks
1:44:15 discover resources celebrating what
1:44:18 makes our community unique. The event
1:44:20 starts on Friday, 5:30 on Friday,
1:44:22 September 5th. I hope to see you there.
1:44:26 And big big excitement. After months of
1:44:27 construction, the pedestrian park and
1:44:29 senior center plazas are reopened to the
1:44:31 public. These reinvisioned plazas will
1:44:33 serve as a multigenerational hub where
1:44:35 children, families, and seniors can all
1:44:37 spend time together. Join me to
1:44:39 celebrate these newly improved community
1:44:41 spaces with a ribbon cutting ceremony on
1:44:42 Monday, September 15, 5:30.
1:44:46 And that concludes the mayor's report.
1:44:49 Um, we are going to move to
1:44:52 anformational update. ID1909
1:44:56 is from ashes to action uh bag of
1:45:00 valley's resiliency journey and I'd like
1:45:02 to invite administrator administrative
1:45:04 services director Autumn Monahan to
1:45:06 present this item which has a very
1:45:08 interesting name so I'm sure you'll all
1:45:09 be very curious. Welcome Autumn.
1:45:14 >> Thank you madame mayor mayor members of
1:45:15 the city council. Uh good day.
1:45:19 Haha.
1:45:21 Um very grateful for your time this
1:45:22 evening. Thank you um for your interest
1:45:25 um and time as I share some lessons
1:45:28 learned from my recent fellowship trip
1:45:30 to Australia where I studied um Vega
1:45:33 Valley Shire Council's inspiring
1:45:35 resiliency journey following the Black
1:45:37 Summer Fires of 2020. Um this is very
1:45:40 timely as Isiqua just had a wildfire
1:45:43 very close to us on Friday. Um
1:45:46 thankfully firefighters were able to
1:45:47 contain the fire quickly, but it's a
1:45:49 reminder this is very much a hazard for
1:45:51 our community.
1:46:05 Apologies. Let me see if I can get my
1:46:07 screen to
1:46:53 Apologies. One moment.
1:47:45 Thank you.
1:47:48 All right. Apologies for that um delay.
1:47:50 So, a bit of history on this fellowship.
1:47:52 The International City and County
1:47:54 Management Association or ICMA awards
1:47:57 two of these fellowship uh trips each
1:48:00 year to somewhere else in the world and
1:48:02 I was very lucky to be awarded one of
1:48:03 them this year. Uh my trip was
1:48:06 completely funded through this
1:48:07 fellowship and I'm just so thankful for
1:48:09 the professional and development
1:48:10 experience that it offered. So in June I
1:48:14 spent two weeks with my host city in New
1:48:17 South Wales, Australia.
1:48:19 Uh while close in
1:48:22 Side please.
1:48:31 Uh so I spent two weeks um in uh New
1:48:34 South Wales, Australia um with um Bea
1:48:37 Valley. While close to Isiqua as far as
1:48:40 population, um actually Bea Valley is
1:48:42 about 190 times the size of Isiqua. Um
1:48:45 most of that is state and uh uh national
1:48:48 parks. There are rural inland towns,
1:48:51 farmland and bushland. And most of the
1:48:53 industry in that area is dairy, retail,
1:48:54 and tourism and accommodation.
1:49:00 Here's just a photo just you'll see some
1:49:03 you'll see some really horrible photos
1:49:05 here in this presentation. So I wanted
1:49:06 to share one of um how I will remember
1:49:08 at Bea Valley in my trip. Um really
1:49:11 beautiful bushland also right along the
1:49:13 coast in Australia.
1:49:15 Um so why did I travel across the world
1:49:17 to Bea Valley uh to study with um this
1:49:20 wonderful community? Um and if you see
1:49:22 in this timeline of incidents that have
1:49:24 happened for this community, um starting
1:49:26 in 2018, they continually piled on each
1:49:29 other. So you've got massive bushfires,
1:49:32 consistent floods, they've had drought
1:49:34 conditions, uh heat wave, and then you
1:49:36 pile on the CO 19 pandemic. Um these
1:49:39 have all continually tested this
1:49:40 community's resilience.
1:49:43 The first um uh major bush fire in that
1:49:46 period um started in March of 2018. Um I
1:49:49 took this photo on a tour. It um it was
1:49:51 started by um a tree that hit a power
1:49:53 line and then we drove from that spot
1:49:55 all the way to the coast to really track
1:49:57 how the fire spread. Um it was fanned by
1:50:00 40 mph winds. There were horrible
1:50:02 conditions. Within hours, it destroyed
1:50:04 69 homes and thousands of acres of
1:50:06 forest and farmland. Um the speed and
1:50:08 the scale of that fire definitely
1:50:11 overwhelmed their emergency response.
1:50:14 And here's just a photo of that fire
1:50:16 that made it all the way to the coast.
1:50:20 Five months later, the Yankees Gap Bush
1:50:23 fire hit. Um, this was started on
1:50:25 private property and four additional
1:50:27 homes were lost. Um, you know, while the
1:50:30 community and the and the council staff
1:50:32 were working on recovery efforts and,
1:50:34 you know, really reeling from dealing
1:50:36 with these two bushfires, little did
1:50:38 they know what disaster was to come. Um,
1:50:41 so following several years of rainfall
1:50:44 deficits, uh, Australia had the historic
1:50:47 2019 2020 Black Summer Bush fire. Um, in
1:50:51 Bea Valley, uh, the fire first raged in
1:50:53 December of 2019 and it lasted 64
1:50:57 horrific days. Uh, four people lost
1:50:59 their lives and 467
1:51:02 homes were damaged along with a thousand
1:51:03 sheds and outuildings. So close to 70%
1:51:07 of the Shire or uh city was burned um
1:51:11 making it one of the most catastrophic
1:51:13 natural disasters in Bea's modern
1:51:15 history.
1:51:17 Here's just a couple photos to give you
1:51:19 some idea of what um
1:51:22 uh what it looked like. So this is the
1:51:24 act of fire and the next photo is um
1:51:27 some of the aftermath that uh some of
1:51:29 the council staff took. Um, and the next
1:51:32 one is a before and after of one of the
1:51:34 communities that I visited called
1:51:35 Corbago. Um, thankfully it looks more
1:51:38 like the left fix picture now than the
1:51:39 right. Um, but these are just really
1:51:42 dramatic before and after of how a fire
1:51:43 can rip through a community.
1:51:46 So, still reeling from the bushfire,
1:51:49 then the Shire was hit with the first of
1:51:51 many floods, which you see on the left.
1:51:54 Um, they had gone from one disaster
1:51:55 declaration to another and then COVID
1:51:58 hit. Um so it just completely
1:52:00 compounded. Um this next graphic um and
1:52:03 I encourage you to look at this a bit
1:52:04 more in the report. Um it's quite
1:52:06 complex but really this is showing um at
1:52:09 some point there's a threshold where
1:52:10 emergency management's capacity to
1:52:12 manage all of these disasters is
1:52:14 exceeded. Uh you can see that there with
1:52:16 that line where you the green and the
1:52:18 and the pink are popping up where um all
1:52:20 of those different disasters really
1:52:22 compounded to a point where um the
1:52:24 ability to manage it was exceeded.
1:52:28 So um Bea Valley is a very inspiring
1:52:31 community and one that I'm so grateful
1:52:32 to have visited um and to know um years
1:52:35 later they have always focused their
1:52:37 value that people matter in their
1:52:39 response and that is grounded in
1:52:41 everything that they do and they have
1:52:42 received national recognition for their
1:52:44 response um and again I'm really really
1:52:46 grateful that I was able to um meet and
1:52:49 learn from them during my trip.
1:52:52 So once that bushfire hit um um in 1920
1:52:57 um the the the council had to really
1:52:59 organize its recovery efforts and so the
1:53:02 leadership team stepped back and said
1:53:03 okay we need to form a new internal team
1:53:06 to just work on response uh that
1:53:08 included community health and well-being
1:53:10 rebuilding infrastructure and economic
1:53:12 development. Um so a majority of this
1:53:14 team were the day-to-day employees
1:53:16 meaning um they had to really
1:53:18 temporarily backfill all sorts of
1:53:20 day-to-day positions. Um, you know,
1:53:22 after the bomb cyclone, a lot of our
1:53:24 staff were working on recovery efforts.
1:53:26 That lasted weeks. For some, it lasted
1:53:28 months. Um, for Bea Valley, it lasted
1:53:31 years. And so, um, that was a huge
1:53:34 undertaking, especially for the HR
1:53:35 department to find temporary uh, you
1:53:39 know, u positions to really backfill
1:53:41 that work. Um, and that's all sorts of
1:53:43 recruitment and hiring and support. and
1:53:45 I sat with their HR director and just
1:53:47 talked about that workload alone as far
1:53:49 as how to staff up uh in a recovery
1:53:51 effort. Also, most of their employees
1:53:53 lived in the area that was impacted by
1:53:55 the bushfire. And so, thinking through,
1:53:57 you know, all of the emotional and
1:53:58 social support they were providing their
1:54:00 community, they also had to provide to
1:54:01 their internal staff.
1:54:04 So leveraging a model that they uh
1:54:07 worked well in their Tothra bushfire um
1:54:10 Bea Valley with help from the state
1:54:12 opened up several bushfire recovery
1:54:14 centers that served as these one-stop
1:54:15 shops um to support the community
1:54:18 through resources. This is very similar
1:54:20 to Isiqua's resilience hubs. Um so we
1:54:22 had a lot of discussions about it's
1:54:24 amazing how many similarities are
1:54:26 happening across the world even in
1:54:27 emergency management and these centers
1:54:29 were very very helpful to Bea Valley in
1:54:31 its response. Um, as time went on, those
1:54:34 centers did shutter, but they moved to
1:54:36 more of a case manager program where
1:54:38 they had staff that were reaching out to
1:54:40 uh members of the community and families
1:54:42 to provide support on housing and
1:54:45 homelessness, financial issues, um, the
1:54:48 anxiety and trauma of the incident. Um,
1:54:50 and then the compounding impacts of
1:54:52 course of CO 19 on top of it. Um so half
1:54:55 a year after the bushfires about 2,000
1:54:58 people in their community had registered
1:55:00 um for that service as far as um working
1:55:02 with a case manager. About a year later
1:55:05 eight case managers were still working
1:55:06 with uh community members. So it was a
1:55:08 very long-term effort.
1:55:11 Along with those essential needs, um Bea
1:55:13 Valley also recognized the need for just
1:55:16 community recovery. And so they were
1:55:18 providing grants of up to $2,500 for
1:55:20 community-led recovery activities that
1:55:23 focused on social connection and
1:55:25 resilience and health and well-being. Um
1:55:27 in total they um gave out $54,000 to 23
1:55:31 meaningful events in their community. I
1:55:33 met with Bea Valley's mayor, uh, Russell
1:55:35 Fitzpatrick, who really reflected on how
1:55:38 important those events were. And it was
1:55:40 anything from live music to, um, writing
1:55:44 workshops to even whale watching tours.
1:55:47 And having that moment for community
1:55:49 members to have a moment of happiness
1:55:51 after such um, such a a horrific
1:55:54 incident really provided that emotional
1:55:57 restoration that was needed for the
1:55:58 community. um which I just found really
1:56:00 unique as far as a program to happen
1:56:02 after. Um so this photo here that's
1:56:04 featured is at the family funday after
1:56:06 the first anniversary of the bushfires.
1:56:11 Um the Shire actually also operates a
1:56:14 library. They were fascinated by the
1:56:16 King County Library system as we shared
1:56:19 a lot about the differences and
1:56:20 similarities of our government. Uh they
1:56:22 operate their own library. Okay. So,
1:56:23 they also had librarians who were
1:56:24 cultivating collections that case
1:56:26 managers could use to hand out books of
1:56:28 just how to do repair work on your home
1:56:30 or how to apply for grants. Um, I had
1:56:33 some time to go look through that
1:56:34 collection and pulled a few um actual
1:56:37 these are books that are part of their
1:56:39 collection of artwork from children um
1:56:41 that really just spoke to me around uh
1:56:44 processing trauma and how the community
1:56:45 was going through that even with a very
1:56:47 young age.
1:56:49 So, five years post- disaster, Bea
1:56:51 Valley continues to demonstrate the
1:56:53 importance of using trauma-informed
1:56:55 communication uh with the community. And
1:56:57 as a communications nerd, you know, I
1:56:59 copied all of these. I was I was really
1:57:02 impressed and amazed with how much they
1:57:05 um understood that um processing trauma
1:57:08 is different for everyone and that
1:57:09 timeline is different. Um and they did
1:57:12 an excellent job in that communication
1:57:13 and still do 5 years later.
1:57:16 Um, speaking of processing what
1:57:17 happened, I was also honored to visit
1:57:20 uh, it's almost completed. It's called
1:57:21 the Corbago Bushfire Resilience Center.
1:57:23 So, this space is absolutely beautiful.
1:57:26 It'll open here in a few months. It
1:57:28 includes a theater, an exhibition space,
1:57:31 a commemorative courtyard, which you see
1:57:33 there on the left, um, and even a
1:57:35 streetside cafe and shop. And this will
1:57:37 be a place for the community go to for
1:57:38 decades to come to reflect on what
1:57:41 happened um, during the Black Summer
1:57:43 Bush fires. Um, and amazingly too, this
1:57:45 is also going to be a catalyst for their
1:57:46 main street as far as their economic
1:57:48 development recovery efforts. So,
1:57:50 everyone's quite excited to um open this
1:57:53 center up in Corbago.
1:57:56 Uh, next up, providing easy and trusted
1:57:58 and transparent ways for folks to um
1:58:01 provide donations after an incident is
1:58:03 essential. Um, Mayor Fitzpatrick shared
1:58:06 a story with me that a very popular
1:58:08 Australian comedian amazingly raised $50
1:58:11 million after the bushfires um and
1:58:14 donated it to the Royal Fire Service.
1:58:16 Come to find out, the Royal Fire Service
1:58:18 could only use those donations for
1:58:20 equipment, training, and administrative
1:58:22 costs. So, none of that money actually
1:58:25 went to support directly, you know,
1:58:27 directly supporting the victims. So
1:58:29 being really purposeful in how you fund
1:58:31 raise, how you collect that money, and
1:58:32 how how it's distributed is really
1:58:34 important. Um, donation management was
1:58:37 also a lesson learned during the Tothra
1:58:39 bush fire. Um, when they created a
1:58:42 mayoral bushfire relief fund that raised
1:58:44 $1.6 million in that first fire. Um,
1:58:47 however, those donations only went to
1:58:49 that specific incident. So when the
1:58:51 Black Summer fires happened um soon
1:58:53 after the council decided to then create
1:58:55 more of a perpetual community disaster
1:58:58 relief fund um they partnered with a
1:59:00 local nonprofit to make sure that those
1:59:02 donations were then taxdeductible for
1:59:04 those who were donating. the council or
1:59:06 the city provided the inkind support um
1:59:09 and administration for that fund and
1:59:12 it's governed by a board that includes
1:59:14 members of the council as well as
1:59:16 community members and nonprofit um
1:59:18 representatives. They make those
1:59:20 decisions on how to award the funds. So
1:59:23 after the black uh summer fires, that
1:59:25 money went toward things like
1:59:30 fresh food hampers, the replacement of
1:59:32 household items that people lost, the
1:59:34 delivery of mental health programs, uh
1:59:36 storage units for those who lost their
1:59:38 homes, um and even a tool library for
1:59:41 folks to um share their tools. So this
1:59:44 fund now remains active and and open um
1:59:46 in Bea Valley um to support future
1:59:49 community uh needs and disasters. Um I
1:59:53 was um thankful that I got to actually
1:59:55 join one of the committee meetings as
1:59:56 they were brainstorming how they were
1:59:58 going to continually raise funds um
2:00:01 preparing for the next disaster.
2:00:03 Turning now to infrastructure um since
2:00:06 2018 the um Bea Valley has created a
2:00:09 disaster recovery team. It's about six
2:00:11 and se or seven consultants that have um
2:00:14 specialty in project management and
2:00:15 engineering. Um they have not they've
2:00:18 not ran out of work since 2018. This
2:00:20 separate consultant group um and they're
2:00:23 focusing on not only emergency repairs
2:00:25 but much larger infrastructure projects
2:00:27 um for the council and again this has
2:00:29 not subsided both to the bushfires and
2:00:31 all of the floods that have impacted
2:00:32 that community.
2:00:35 Um speaking of uh infrastructure, I
2:00:37 think one of my biggest takeaways and
2:00:39 what was very fascinating was the idea
2:00:41 of betterment. And um you know, as a
2:00:44 community that's facing increased
2:00:45 frequency uh and intensity of disasters,
2:00:49 they're really focused on the idea of
2:00:50 recovery efforts, not just replacing,
2:00:53 you know, what was lost, but how to
2:00:56 improve it for next time. And so they're
2:00:59 doing some really innovative work with a
2:01:00 national science uh agency in Australia
2:01:03 to leverage a evidence-based tool that
2:01:05 will help them as a council make
2:01:07 decisions on their future resilience
2:01:09 improvements which is fascinating. Um a
2:01:12 key challenge to all of this though is
2:01:14 money and um most of the funds uh that
2:01:17 this council receives um are state and
2:01:19 federal dollars and those are typically
2:01:21 restricted to recovery and not to the
2:01:23 idea of betterment. Um, in fact, only 3%
2:01:26 of the natural disaster funding spent in
2:01:27 Australia is on mitigation. The 97% is
2:01:31 just in recovery. So, it is an uphill
2:01:33 battle, but one that Bea Valley is very
2:01:35 much a leader on.
2:01:37 And then this next slide um you'll see
2:01:39 onto the left there's that little bump
2:01:41 um on on that step. And that's the idea
2:01:44 that um building that resilience then
2:01:47 also builds a community's capacity to
2:01:49 really um cope with future impending
2:01:52 disasters. So, it's that extra bump um
2:01:55 for communities.
2:01:58 The goal of Betterment was top of mind
2:01:59 for the council um in many ways
2:02:01 following the bushfires. Um they operate
2:02:04 several landfills and um uh this is one
2:02:07 that I visited as part of my time there.
2:02:12 the amount of waste and disposal
2:02:16 uh needs were very intense after the
2:02:18 bush fires. So, you've got 467 homes. A
2:02:21 lot of them had asbestous waste. Um they
2:02:25 immediately had to figure out how to
2:02:26 build an emergency cell to take on all
2:02:29 of that waste. Uh immense pressure,
2:02:31 stories of immense pressure around um
2:02:33 building that cell and getting it ready.
2:02:35 Um but they also worked on betterment.
2:02:37 They improved the roads toward that uh
2:02:39 landfill and opened up another space
2:02:41 that would just be used for emergency
2:02:43 waste. So once they opened that uh
2:02:46 landfill, 20 trucks were coming in every
2:02:49 hour with debris and typically they get
2:02:51 20 trucks in a day. So the need was
2:02:53 huge. Um so this emergency cell is now
2:02:57 sealed and reveated actually during my
2:02:59 stay and tour. U this is where I saw
2:03:02 most of the kangaroos uh was on this
2:03:04 emergency cell. Um but this is prepared
2:03:06 and ready now for accepting waste in the
2:03:08 future. And so this is now designated as
2:03:10 their emergency cell for that reason. Uh
2:03:13 water was another challenge during the
2:03:14 bush fires. Um the SH was using a
2:03:16 onestep chlorination process and so all
2:03:19 of the catchment area for the council's
2:03:21 water supply um was heavily damaged. So
2:03:25 significant drop in water quality. They
2:03:27 were on uh boiled not water notices for
2:03:30 months and months. Um thankfully they
2:03:32 now have some new facilities including a
2:03:34 close to $21 million treatment plant
2:03:37 through a state grant and also some
2:03:38 local funds to provide reliable water in
2:03:41 the future.
2:03:45 We can skip to the next slide.
2:03:48 Um, meanwhile, there were, as I've
2:03:50 mentioned, a lot of homes destroyed in
2:03:51 the bush fires. Um, and this only
2:03:54 exacerbated this community's housing
2:03:56 crisis. So, uh, with two within two
2:03:59 years after the fires, only 34 homes had
2:04:02 been rebuilt. 78 were also approved for
2:04:06 development. Um many community members
2:04:08 decided to stay on their land but
2:04:10 instead live in tiny homes or caravans
2:04:13 or pods or sheds. Um many many different
2:04:17 types. Often these did not also um
2:04:20 provide any basic you know necessities
2:04:23 like running water or a shower or a
2:04:25 toilet. Um, the state uh of New South
2:04:29 Wales does not recognize many of these
2:04:30 tiny homes as legitimate housing types,
2:04:33 which has left Aika Valley in a very
2:04:35 interesting situation as a local agency
2:04:37 that should be enforcing these rules,
2:04:40 but a community um who has a whole lot
2:04:42 of questions around that. Um, so here's
2:04:44 an article that uh just dropped right
2:04:46 before my visit in Bea Valley. 5 years
2:04:48 later, their community is still dealing
2:04:49 with this issue. Um, and it was very
2:04:51 much a hot topic during my stay.
2:04:56 So we talked a bit about infrastructure
2:04:58 improvements. Um there's also private
2:05:00 development and as that remodeling um
2:05:02 takes place ensuring that there's also
2:05:05 betterment happening on private
2:05:06 property. So um development in bush
2:05:10 bushfire prone land requires additional
2:05:12 mitigation in that area. Um the
2:05:14 government has created the bushfire
2:05:16 attack levels or BALS which factor in
2:05:19 the type and proximity of vegetation
2:05:23 landslope several other things that are
2:05:25 quite fascinating to get to that level
2:05:27 uh to then determine what kind of
2:05:28 mitigation's required for new
2:05:30 development like larger setbacks or
2:05:32 water retention on site or the use of
2:05:34 fire resistant building materials.
2:05:38 Um, so this next picture here, this I
2:05:40 took this picture. This is a new home in
2:05:43 Bea Valley that um is very very close to
2:05:45 that bushfire area with a high BAL. Um,
2:05:48 Bea Valley is one of the few places in
2:05:50 the state that employs a full FTE called
2:05:53 a bushfire planning and assessment
2:05:54 officer and his tour was my favorite. It
2:05:57 was really cool to see the improvements
2:05:59 made in the community that make um this
2:06:02 area more resilient.
2:06:04 uh he reviews development applications,
2:06:06 he reviews the BILS and then verifies
2:06:08 and ultimately permits the construction
2:06:10 um in the bushfire prone areas.
2:06:13 Along with um government, there's also
2:06:16 community efforts made to build
2:06:18 resiliency. So here's another example in
2:06:21 um Corbago. This is a small town that
2:06:23 are leveraging grants to um build and
2:06:25 design their own renewable micro grid.
2:06:27 So that would provide energy security
2:06:29 during um the next disaster.
2:06:33 Um just really quickly on economic
2:06:34 development. So this is a community
2:06:36 heavily reliant on tourism um retail and
2:06:40 agriculture. So the bushfires had a
2:06:42 significant impact on their local
2:06:43 economy. Um Bea took a very coordinated
2:06:46 multi-layered approach um including
2:06:49 financial support, professional guidance
2:06:51 and then storytelling. And in my next
2:06:53 slide, the stories of change is um a web
2:06:56 page that I can share with all of you
2:06:58 that has um really awesome videos um
2:07:01 that do a great job in doing some
2:07:03 storytelling on what um was provided as
2:07:06 far as support for local businesses and
2:07:07 then how they were able to um come back
2:07:11 and be more resilient in the local
2:07:13 economy.
2:07:15 So, um I did a lot of presenting as well
2:07:18 at Bea Valley. Um, here's a picture of
2:07:20 me with their city council after I
2:07:22 presented to them. They had a keen
2:07:24 interest in Isiqua. Um, if you see
2:07:27 behind us, there is a a map of Talis
2:07:30 behind us. Uh, they they wanted to talk
2:07:33 a lot about uh the proximity of our
2:07:35 built environment to our open space. Um,
2:07:38 they were fascinated and so we had a lot
2:07:40 of really spirited discussion um and
2:07:42 time together that was super valuable.
2:07:44 Um there are council those council
2:07:46 members had clear advice for our council
2:07:48 members and for our community especially
2:07:51 one that's not been impacted in such a
2:07:52 way by wildfire and that is that
2:07:55 community and education should be our
2:07:57 number one focus. Um so to that end um
2:08:02 you know they and these council members
2:08:04 said as they work and talk to community
2:08:06 members who have elected them um and
2:08:09 most say oh yeah I'm prepared or oh I
2:08:11 may you know I lived through this
2:08:13 incident or that incident. Um work on an
2:08:16 exercise around a what if. So okay so um
2:08:20 you say you're prepared. So would you
2:08:22 stay or would you leave if there was an
2:08:24 advisory to evacuate? Okay you're going
2:08:26 to stay. So what happens if your water
2:08:28 service stops and it stops for months?
2:08:31 Okay, well you've got water on site.
2:08:32 Okay, well what if your power is out and
2:08:34 your power is out for months and how are
2:08:36 you able to pump that water? Or what if
2:08:38 you are alone for days and emergency
2:08:39 management isn't coming in a very very
2:08:42 huge incident. So keep asking the what
2:08:44 if and at some point the community
2:08:46 member goes all right I do have work to
2:08:48 do and so I found that quite interesting
2:08:50 and that's an exercise that several of
2:08:52 the council members use in talking with
2:08:54 community members even now as they
2:08:56 advocate for preparedness.
2:08:58 So um our team has been doing a lot and
2:09:01 our emergency manager Jared Schneider
2:09:03 had presented to this to you a few
2:09:04 months ago our work around education and
2:09:07 outreach. Um we've been partnering with
2:09:09 Eastside Fire and Rescue on some
2:09:10 community events around wildfire. We've
2:09:12 updated a lot of our web pages. We've
2:09:14 created some preparedness videos. Um,
2:09:16 and right now focused on a social media
2:09:18 campaign on increasing the subscriptions
2:09:20 to Alert King County, which is our our
2:09:23 alerting system for um, emergencies. I'm
2:09:26 really thankful for our communications
2:09:28 team quick thinking on Friday. As we
2:09:30 were doing outreach around the wildfire
2:09:32 that was active on Friday morning, soon
2:09:35 after, we then promoted, hey, next time
2:09:38 why don't you sign up so that you get
2:09:39 alerts? and um we had 828 clicks from
2:09:44 Friday till today um just on that kind
2:09:46 of promotion. So um it's really really
2:09:48 key to recognize those moments when you
2:09:50 have community members attention and ask
2:09:52 them to take action. So that was really
2:09:54 good news. So um just a few takeaways um
2:09:57 from my trip. Again, continuous
2:09:59 education and outreach is key and was
2:10:02 the number one um guidance from um from
2:10:04 the council. organizing a recovery fund
2:10:07 ahead of time is really intriguing to me
2:10:09 and the idea that we're better prepared
2:10:10 for accepting donations and having a way
2:10:13 to then distribute those to those who
2:10:14 need it the most. Um, making a plan for
2:10:17 business continuity for long-term
2:10:19 staffing, like I mentioned, you know, we
2:10:20 were able to manage after the bomb
2:10:22 cyclone, but imagine a year'sl long
2:10:24 recovery process. Um, you need a
2:10:26 long-term um, uh, business continuity
2:10:30 plan for um, city hall operations,
2:10:33 encouraging resilient development. um
2:10:35 both private and public and then
2:10:38 leveraging any betterment opportunities.
2:10:40 So as we're making improvements to our
2:10:41 community, how can we make sure that we
2:10:43 are also more resilient to our hazards?
2:10:45 And then just a reminder that recovery
2:10:47 takes years and it's something that I
2:10:48 witnessed even 5 years later is very
2:10:50 much happening in Bea Valley. Um so with
2:10:53 that, thank you for um for taking the
2:10:55 time especially late on on a nighttime u
2:10:58 meeting um to really um hear about my
2:11:02 trip. And I just also want to say thank
2:11:04 you um professionally. It was a
2:11:06 wonderful experience. Um here's a photo
2:11:08 of me with their senior leadership team.
2:11:10 Um so I got to also attend a whole lot
2:11:12 of um staff meetings and learn about
2:11:14 their local government which was
2:11:16 fascinating for both of us to share how
2:11:18 we do business. So um thank you. With
2:11:20 that I can answer any questions.
2:11:22 >> Great. Uh well congratulations on
2:11:24 getting the fellowship and bringing all
2:11:25 this back to us. Uh any questions for
2:11:27 Autumn? Uh Deputy Council President.
2:11:32 Thanks, Autumn. That was that was
2:11:33 fantastic. Um, I was at the AWC
2:11:37 conference and we got to hear from
2:11:39 Medical Lake and uh I think it's Maltton
2:11:42 is the name of the other city where they
2:11:44 had, you know, major housing losses and
2:11:46 the mayor of Medical Lake said uh
2:11:49 something along the line of we started
2:11:51 working on recovery as soon as the fire
2:11:54 started. And I'm thinking from this
2:11:56 presentation, we start working on
2:11:58 recovery well before the fire starts. Um
2:12:01 and and like you said in your
2:12:04 presentation, um neither of those cities
2:12:06 had any planning in advance um for a
2:12:11 possible wildfire. And so it again
2:12:13 getting ready for these events is so
2:12:15 important. Um I recently read a book
2:12:18 called W uh fire weather which is about
2:12:21 the Alberta fires.
2:12:23 >> Um excellent book. I recommend I've been
2:12:25 recommending it to every everybody. Uh
2:12:28 but in there he describes what a modern
2:12:31 fire is like which is different from the
2:12:33 fires we've experienced in the past and
2:12:36 there's an explosive effect and so they
2:12:38 travel really rapidly. So the part that
2:12:41 you were talking about in terms of
2:12:43 behavioral health, uh they luckily in
2:12:46 the Alberta fire they didn't lose a
2:12:47 single person. They also didn't plan. I
2:12:49 mean it was a miracle that that nobody
2:12:52 died. But um he he talks about the
2:12:56 thousands of people who were suffering
2:12:58 from PTSD
2:13:00 >> following that event because of the
2:13:02 violent nature of these of these modern
2:13:05 fires that we're experiencing. So
2:13:08 getting ready for all of that is not
2:13:10 something you do on the fly. Yeah. And
2:13:12 so I think this was a really important
2:13:14 trip for you and a really important trip
2:13:16 for us. So uh thank you so much for the
2:13:18 presentation.
2:13:20 >> Thank you DCP. Any other comments?
2:13:21 Council member Hall.
2:13:22 >> Just a quick question. It doesn't even
2:13:23 have to be answered tonight too, but the
2:13:25 bushfire attack levels thing was super
2:13:27 interesting to me. I'm just curious if
2:13:29 there's some state or federal analog
2:13:31 here that code is based on. Maybe that's
2:13:34 something
2:13:35 >> not to my knowledge. that's similar to
2:13:36 the way that the BALS um work in
2:13:39 Australia. It was it was fascinating. Um
2:13:41 and like I said, it was my favorite day
2:13:43 was spending time with um with the
2:13:46 person that you know assesses the um
2:13:48 development proposals. Um I can send you
2:13:51 plenty of information on BALS, too. It's
2:13:54 Yeah, it's great.
2:13:57 >> Any other comments or questions?
2:13:59 >> Well, Autumn again, thank you and
2:14:01 congratulations. It's great that you got
2:14:02 to go.
2:14:04 So, we're going to move into our last uh
2:14:07 item of business this evening, which is
2:14:09 good of the order. And council
2:14:11 president, you wanted to make a motion.
2:14:15 >> I actually have two items for good of
2:14:18 the order. Um the first which I'd
2:14:20 written down even before the
2:14:21 presentation was just a really big thank
2:14:24 you to East Side Fire and Rescue um for
2:14:28 the intensely quick containment and
2:14:32 suppression of the wildfire. Um I'm up
2:14:36 in the highlands and it woke us up with
2:14:39 just the intense smoke um with our
2:14:43 windows open and so knowing that our
2:14:47 you know fire department staff had
2:14:49 people there not only to do that
2:14:52 immediate containment um but also to
2:14:55 watch that area and make sure that it
2:14:56 would not um recombust um over the
2:15:00 weekend was just really quite a
2:15:02 reminder. And so I wanted to say a quick
2:15:04 thank you there. Um but for the second
2:15:08 item, um I did want to give notice that
2:15:11 at the September 15th council meeting,
2:15:13 so our next council meeting, I plan to
2:15:15 make an amendment to resolution number
2:15:18 2025-16,
2:15:20 renaming the East Sunset Way trail head
2:15:23 in order to change the proposed name
2:15:25 from the Bill Ramos trail head to the
2:15:28 Senator Bill Ramos Memorial Trail Head
2:15:30 and request that this item be added to
2:15:33 the agenda. So tonight, I think we just
2:15:35 need a majority vote on that item,
2:15:37 whether to add it to a future agenda,
2:15:39 but not really a debate on the idea
2:15:42 itself.
2:15:44 >> Great. It's just a move it to put it on
2:15:46 the agenda for discussion and it needs a
2:15:48 council vote. Uh, is there a second?
2:15:53 >> Second.
2:15:53 >> It's been moved and seconded. Is there
2:15:55 any council discussion
2:15:58 member Joe?
2:16:01 >> Oh, sorry. saw the microphone move.
2:16:04 Okay. Um, so the motion is to add an
2:16:07 amendment to
2:16:09 resolution number 202516
2:16:11 renaming the East Sunset Way trail head
2:16:13 in order to
2:16:15 change the proposed name from the Bill
2:16:17 Ramos trail head to the Senator Bill
2:16:19 Ramos Memorial Trail Head
2:16:21 >> to this September 15th agenda. All those
2:16:23 in favor, please signify by saying I.
2:16:25 >> I.
2:16:28 >> Those opposed? That carries unanimously.
2:16:31 Uh, the next item of business is
2:16:33 upcoming meeting. Well, actually, I have
2:16:34 one item for good of the order, too. I
2:16:36 think um I think Wally gave city
2:16:39 administrator might have given a heads
2:16:40 up on it. I'm not sure. Um, Sun Transit
2:16:43 had a meeting last week and there's a
2:16:44 lot of press right now on um, a process
2:16:48 that they're going to go through in 2026
2:16:52 recalculate
2:16:54 what they believe the true projects
2:16:56 costs are based on the way they used to
2:16:59 estimate construction projects to
2:17:01 actually going back and looking at
2:17:03 projects they constructed. And so in all
2:17:06 likelihood, it's going to mean some
2:17:08 recommendations to Sound Transit 3
2:17:10 projects. And as everybody knows, the
2:17:12 design of the station in Isiqua is in
2:17:14 the same package. Um I just want the
2:17:17 council to think about a couple of
2:17:18 things. We have you know an over
2:17:21 thousand acre area in central Isiqua
2:17:23 that um densities tie into
2:17:27 transportation modes and over
2:17:30 undercrossing. And so when those
2:17:32 elements may or may not come through, we
2:17:35 have to have backup plans. And so the
2:17:37 goal I would think for our city is to um
2:17:41 make the bestase assumption which is
2:17:43 that things will go forward as scheduled
2:17:45 but also begin to have conversations
2:17:47 with the whatifs. So setting the ceiling
2:17:49 and setting the floor and we have uh
2:17:52 staff member Tom Thomas Valdre working
2:17:54 on that and there's going to just be a
2:17:56 lot of interest especially for those
2:17:58 projects that are at the back end of the
2:18:00 ST3 package as to whether or not they
2:18:03 will um dates will change um types of
2:18:07 projects will change and so we we'll be
2:18:09 monitoring it paying attention coming
2:18:10 back but it also means we as a community
2:18:12 need to be thinking about our land use
2:18:14 our transportation projects that are
2:18:16 listed in the environmental impact
2:18:18 statement for central Isaqua and plan
2:18:20 for the whatifs because because things
2:18:22 change. Sometimes they don't, sometimes
2:18:24 they do. So, I just wanted to let you
2:18:26 know about that. It was a very
2:18:27 interesting meeting.
2:18:29 There are some upcoming council
2:18:30 meetings, a committee of the whole on
2:18:32 Monday, September 8th, and the
2:18:33 anticipated agenda items include
2:18:35 prioritization of future future title 18
2:18:38 amendments. The next regular city
2:18:41 council meeting is Monday, September
2:18:43 15th. And prior to the meeting, there'll
2:18:45 be a ribbon cutting for Pedestrian Park
2:18:47 and Senior Center Plaza. At the 7 PM
2:18:49 regular meeting, anticipated agenda
2:18:51 items include public safety and civic
2:18:54 facilities task force report, public
2:18:56 safety sales tax, informationational
2:18:59 update on permit process improvements,
2:19:01 informationational update on report on
2:19:03 municipal building decarbon
2:19:05 decarbonization analysis. There's no
2:19:08 executive session tonight. So there
2:19:10 being no further business, we are
2:19:12 adjourned at 9:20. Thanks.

Attendance

Council / Members (7)
Barbara de Michele
Zach Hall
Kelly Jiang
Russell Joe
Tola Marts
Chris Reh
Lindsey Walsh
Staff (4)
Wally Bobkiewicz, City Administrator
Andrea Lehner, Deputy City Administrator
Rachel Bender Turpin, City Attorney
Tisha Gieser, City Clerk

Motions and votes (2)

approve the consent agenda as presented. . a)
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Deputy Council President de Michele
Carried 7-0
In favor: Barbara de Michele, Zach Hall, Kelly Jiang, Russell Joe, Tola Marts, Chris Reh, Lindsey Walsh
Add an amendment to Resolution No. 2025-16, renaming the East Sunset Way Trailhead, in order to change the proposed name of the trailhead from the “Bill Ramos Trailhead” to the “Senator Bill Ramos Memorial Trailhead” to the Sept. 15 agenda. Mayor Pauly: Sound Transit Meeting - Provided an update on …
Moved by Council President Walsh · seconded by Councilmember Hall
Carried 7-0
In favor: de Michele, Hall, Jiang, Joe, Marts, Reh, Walsh