City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you. So Good evening everybody. Today is Monday, March 9th and by my standard time watch, it is 5:00 and ready to call this meeting to order. I see all council members are present. We have a quorum and no absences. Let's all stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you everybody. We will start with some announcements and committee reports. And Mr. Hogland, if you could minimize. Okay, we got it. Thanks. We're done. All right. So, for our first announcement, got to advance the slide there. Jennifer, could you adv Thank you. All right. So, tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10th, one o'clock at the Senior Activity Center. Uh you are all invited, even if you're not a senior, to join me for an informal conversation, ask questions about uh what we're doing here at the city, hear about our city projects, and provide your feedback. This is a regular series of conversations with the mayor. We're having these at the senior center, and we expect to expand them to other venues as well. You can find out more information at anacortiswa.gov/ayor. So that's tomorrow. Also tomorrow is a parks and recreation open house, also at the senior center, but this time at 6 pm. The community is invited to join parks and rec staff to learn more about their projects, ask your questions, and share your feedback and learn about the funding sources for those projects. So again, that's tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the senior center. The senior center also would like to invite you to any of number of their uh programs. For the full list, you can go to anacortiswah.gov556, /556. But they have uh three significant ones here on the screen. First of all, their St. Patrick's Day lunchon. It is only a $5 suggested donation if you are 60 or older. It's on Tuesday, March 17th, uh starting at 11:00 a.m. Uh they are also hosting a recreational ukulele class for beginners. That is on Fridays in uh April, May, and through June 12th. That's in the afternoon. $5 suggested donation. And then they have an uh successful aging mastery program. This is Wednesdays, April through June.

There's a $40 cost for this one, but there are scholarships available through the foundation. They offer expert speakers, group discussions, and goal setting to help you make small meaningful changes as uh as people age. So again, for more information, anacortiswah.gov556. Uh spring uh parks and recreation programs are starting. Youth track and field starts April 20th. Registration is available now. And the egg dash at Stovvic Park is April 3rd, 6 p.m. April 3 at 6 p.m. at 6:01 p.m. You will be too late for the egg dash at Stovvic Park. Uh for a full list of their programs, anacordiswa.gov/490. Uh again, put in a plug for our projects web page at anacordisw.gov/projects. If you have something going on in your neighborhood, a street project, uh you want to know more about 12th and commercial, you want to know about South Commercial, you can find information at that website and we will try very hard to keep those pages up to date. sacortiswah.gov projects and we'll give it just a second here to catch up.

All right, I think that brings us to our committee reports. Let's start with IT and fiber committee. Who's got that one? Mayor Walter. Mr. McDougall,

the uh com newly combined IT and fiber committee met last week. Uh it was Mr. Young, Mr. Fantini, myself along with the uh IT lead uh the director of IT Mr. Cvantes and head of fiber uh Mr. Lindberg. Quick items on IT went first. Uh on the ERP system, we're looking at the big news is like migration of the city's financial systems targeting July this year. So that's like the big ERP migration. Um almost done with migrating uh phones from I guess to off of Verizon um to Verizon

to Verizon. Sorry the the note my note was uh was not clear here. Um we are doing expanding like storage on one of the main server clusters and then there's also kind of basically a the current geopolitical events have led to kind of heightened security monitoring. So uh the team is doing a bunch of uh additional work to just ensure everything is latest and greatest patching and that kind of thing. Then on the fiber committee, uh we've got basically well I think reported last time we surpassed 3,000 onnet customers. So that's a really nice uh milestone. Then a couple of dark fiber uh potential customers that the team is working with. And dark fiber means like a private network build uh rather than kind of the the standard sort of on on the menu service. And those tend to be like a larger monthly charge. So that's anytime we can get one of those that's a really good one. The EDA grant work is very nearly complete. So, the final 225K reimbursement is expected in Q2. So, that'll be a good hit to just general cash flow. Um, a good boost to general cash flow. And we discussed kind of like some future stuff as well. The the the city's upstream or the routers that connect to the upstream internet are going to probably need to be upgraded and targeting uh budgeting next year's budget cycle. but then replacement in 2028. Um, and then also looking at doing expanding the the service like residential and business service to be able to add a 10 gigabit option and that'll require spending some money on some additional hardware and the pawn system as well. That's what I have. Any uh thing else?

Thank you. All right. Housing affordability, community services and planning. Mayor Walters, Miss Molton.

Um, we met in kind of the guise of planning committee at five o'clock today. It was Mr. Courier, Mr. Young, and myself, and planning director John Coleman, and planning manager Libby Grage. And we had an overview of ordinance 4092 that's on our agenda tonight. And we'll be um also have a PowerPoint presentation, so I won't go into that because we'll get the full presentation. And then we talked about an future amendment to final plat approval procedures which will be for 10 a plat with 10 or more um separate plats and what this will come forward in more detail but it will it is designed to streamline that process as well and that that'll be coming to us later but it's it's further streamlining our planning processes and to just make them more efficient as has been a goal of the cities for a while. Thanks.

And final plat approval is a ministerial action, not one requiring discretion. Uh Miss Clean McGrath, did I see your Yes. Go ahead.

Thank you. So, our public safety committee met on March 3rd, and it now consists of um uh Council Member Molton and Council Member Hunt and myself along with Chief Harris and Chief Floyd, uh fire and police. So, we started with police. Uh we've done the police department has done a great job hiring officers in the last 12 months. I think that a number of us anecdotally have seen a lot more uh uh officers and vehicles on patrol throughout the city uh 24 hours a day. So that is a really exciting thing. We're actually now beginning to see seven to eight officers on those um during the kind of the workday the peak times which is really exciting. Uh we also talked a bit about the fact that uh as long as we keep our staffing levels as is, we should be able to uh have an officer out uh in the forest lands and have a presence during those summertime months, which it'll be really helpful um to have. Uh we talked a bit about the um res the APD is putting together a rescue task force training. So that will be integrated between the police and the fire departments to to do kind of train for medics to be on site for a for active threat situations. Just really good training to have it. There's always interlocals that have to or agreements that have to happen. So that's just great to have and to also combine with Scadget Island County um on that training. Uh we talked a little bit about the evidence on Q the management system that was approved last week. Uh normally that would have come to a committee but we just didn't have a meeting about that. But it is the same standardized evidence management system that is being used across uh Scadget County. So that's a

great a great streamlining option for us. Um we talked a little bit about the smart team. So the smart team is uh combines island representatives representatives from island county and scaja county and they come together when they need to do an independent investigation if there was um some kind of uh gun uh shooting or some incident that needed a third party review. So, um, Scadget County, the detectives in Scadget Island counties have created, um, a program that is actually being replicated throughout the state because they've done such a good job kind of setting putting the systems in place. So, that's really great. The only downside is they each year they've been adding more paperwork. So, we may need to have um an outside uh contract to have uh all of that work done instead of having our a designated officer from each department have to um do that as part of their their regular work. Um we've got a couple of people, you know, have gone solo on patrol. We've got a couple of folks that are finishing up their field training. Um, we've got one person who was is going to be probably starting uh in April uh to do uh the academy. So, that's great for the for the police department. We talked a little bit about the fact that animal control and we have a lost dog. Uh those fees when they have to go and be impounded and taken out, we have not put that on the unified fee schedule. So, we will work on that in the short term. Um we had the opportunity to kind of talk about a couple of other things just because we have two new uh committee members. So uh one of the things we want to talk about was the uh bicycle bicycle patrol. So we actually had one of our one of the uh police officers decided to go back east to get the training. So now we have a person one of our officers who

can actually teach bicycle uh policing to the rest of the department. So, they're going to actually have their first class, which should be about five officers um uh in May. So, we've got three regular traditional bikes and two ebikes that have been purchased over the last few years. So, that's kind of an exciting thing. Should be helpful when we're in the forest lands and on the trail and whatnot. So, a positive. Moving on to the fire department. Uh we talked a little bit about the remodel, the station remodel, um and what it's going to in include um and it the kind of pretty straightforward $260,000. I think we're going to talk about it again in the near future. Uh one one big thing is the there was some concern about having an a deck upstairs. It is a small deck 6 ft by 10 ft. It's also off of the um kitchen area so that they can have a barbecue and not have to keep the barbecue where all of the uh equipment is. Um and there and it makes some makes sense. So it's not uh um more than that. Oops. So, uh, then one of the other things we really wanted to talk about was understanding um the most recent uh grant that was written by the that the Anacortis Fire Department took the lead on. And so this was the grant that um is was handled was through behavioral health crisis outreach and response and education in partnership with University of Washington. And so we had uh Chief uh Harris wrote the grant in combination with the city of Anacortis, city of Mount Vernon, Scadget County Sheriff's Office, and the Scadget and Scadget

County Public Health. Um and we just wanted to have a little bit better understanding. And I think it's a pretty incredible com um joining of efforts. It's the grant will be run through the city of Anacortis. It had to come through a fire department. So we are it's the Anacortis fire department who's who's going to receive $270,000 over 18 months, but it is going to provide um funding for our fire, what is it called? I'm blanking now. Our community paramedic um our outreach person with through AFC. Um it is also going to help with a Burlington outreach. Um a Scadget County public health public mental health provider and then also a new program which is the Mount Vernon is starting a motel respbit program. So folks that do not have are unhoused who are leaving a hospital and need extra care can stay in a hotel for a period of time um and and recover. So we asked why why is Udub doing this? they want to just have some data collection. So the partnership is that anyone who interacts with this these these items will put into an anonymous app um for UDub to collect information. Um so I think that is about all we covered which was a long-winded thing but it was a really fun meeting. We learned a lot of stuff. Um, so thank you to uh, Chief Harris for taking the lead on writing that grant and and receiving it and combining really kind of a Northstar initiative, but um, through our Anacortis Fire Department.

Thank you. Uh, any other announcements or committee reports? Mayor Walters, Mr. Fantini, I just wanted to give um a quick shout out to uh both the parks department and the friends of ACFL who did a phenomenal job um upkeeping our trails around Cranberry Lake on Saturday. Went out there for a hike while they were doing it. It was kind of fun to watch and see how they use all the the trees that have fallen to build all the little borders and everything. And it just it looks great. And I just we're lucky to live in a place like Anacortis where there are so many people that want to come out and help us take care of that. So just wanted to thank them for that. Thank you. Any other uh announcements?

Mayor Walters. Miss Malt,

I just wanted to add one thing to the public safety report and kudos to for the grant and Chief Harris for leading on that is that um the city did not was not able to provide as much funding to the family center this year due to budget constraints and this grant that Chief Harris wrote brought them back up to complete funding. So that was really wonderful too. Uh although not yet because we haven't executed that contract yet, but soon. Yeah. Uh all right. Any other committee reports or other announcements? No. All right. Uh okay. So then uh the only other thing we want to mention is that April 6th will be the state of the city right here uh Pacific Daylight Time at 6:00 p.m. in this room. And then on April 13th, we will have the department head uh first quarter update uh in a work session format. All right. Uh thank you all. Uh that brings us to public comment. I have one person signed up for public comment, but that is about the Northstar Interlocal. So we'll wait until that agenda item comes up. Yes. Yes. Okay. Great. I see no one online for public comment and no other hands raised. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on from public comment to the consent agenda. Council,

it's a short one. May Walters, Mr. Young, I move we approve the consent agenda items 5A and B. Second motion a second to approve the consent agenda. No discussion is in order on the consent agenda. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed say no. The consent agenda is approved. Thank you. All right. Uh next up, a public hearing on our community development block grant annual action plan. Miss Snyder. Good good evening, Mayor Walters. Good evening, members of the council. Thanks for seeing this presentation on the CDBG grant tonight. And I'm going to open up the presentation on this

little tighter on the microphone there. Yeah, better. Thank you.

Okay. So, tonight I'd like to go over the CDBG grant update. We do have some new council members, so I wanted to go over what the CDBG grant is and especially for members of the public that might not know what it is. My name is Stephanie Snyder. I'm the community development coordinator and the button pusher for this program behind the scenes. In this presentation, I'm going to go over quickly what is CDBG, the allocations in the United States, the calendar timelines, the national objectives, and accordis goals and objectives of the 5-year consolidated plan. And we are at the halfway point of our consolidated plan. So, I wanted to give you an update of where we are in the plan so far. and a financial update, grant balances and projects completed. Then we're going to look at planning our 2026 program year, goal setting from our five-year consolidated plan, applications that we've received this year, allocation proposal for the upcoming action plan, the citizen participation timeline, and the next public hearing and council action to approve that plan and submission to HUD follows council action. The community block grant. The community development block grant is a federal program administered by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD. The objectives or goals of our CDBG program is to support local community development efforts, especially

benefiting low and moderate income households. CDBG was authorized under title one of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. It consolidated eight programs into one. And the first CDBG grant was allocated in 1975. Last year was the 50th anniversary of CDBG. It's been around a while and happy birthday to it. The national allocations of CDBG are distributed to smaller entitlement communities and 30% of the national funds are allocated to states for non-entitlement areas. The entitlement communities must have a population greater than 50,000. Anacortis does not reach those numbers. So, Anacortis participates in a regional consortium with Scadget County and the city of Mount Vernon, allowing our combined populations to qualify for the grant. Community development staff from all three jurisdictions coordinate their CDBG timelines, reporting, and submissions while we plan and monitor our own projects for our local communities. So, we communicate a lot during our submissions. And the fun fact is, did you know that Anacortis Washington receives the sixth smallest CDBG grant in the United States of America? It's somewhere between Sebastian, Florida, and Vienna, West Virginia. We used to be seventh. We've slid up the list. The calendar timelines for CDBG is New Year's Day is July 1st and June 30th is the end of the year for CDBG. We are currently in the 2025 grant year and heading into the 2026 grant year on July 1st. That means we are heading into the fourth year of our 5-year plan. I have to report to HUD six other times a year. um four finance reportings to balance the books with HUD and two other reports do which is our action plan and the end

ofear evaluation report. So this is called a Gant chart and it kind of shows the CDBG work in the yellow dashes across this blue screen and there's a lot of activity public hearings planning monitoring and the star you see in the middle May 15th is when the action plan is due for our next grant year and the stop date is June 30th. It starts again July 1st and we have to do all of our reporting for the year before by September 28th. And did did you know what HUD's favorite training word is? Timeliness. In the Code of Federal Regulations, it talks about how HUD really wants to see the performance. We're not allowed to be late on our reports. And if we are to be late, we have to let them know 30 days or more in advance of the lateness and pick a new date and explain why. One of the things CDBG does provide is flexibility. We can do a lot of different things with CDBG and we have to also keep it connected to our consolidated plan. So it's really important when we do our planning that we build in the items that we're going to use. We might look a lot different than Chicago or New York City here in Anacortis. Um the other thing that is built into it is leverage. You can use national funding to do bigger grants which we'll see uh later on in this slideshow. All of the activities we do must meet one of the three objectives. Number one, benefiting low and moderate income people. Number two, preventing or eliminating slums or blight. And number three is responding to urgent community needs. We will probably and hopefully never have to use number three. That's usually going to be in conjunction with FEMA. It's got to be a major catastrophe to be using number three. And we can do acquisition, rehabs of real property, public infrastructure, community facilities, public services, economic development, housing rehabilitation, and

energy conservation. HUD encourages long range projects with lasting community impacts, and it may be layered into large multi-million dollar projects. However, in our local implementation in Anacortis, we use a lot of caution when combining funds with other sources. We try to never do that. Mixing the funds will trigger a lot more significant additional federal compliance requirements for procurement, monitoring, and regulations. It's a lot of work. So, as a project size and complexity increases, the regulatory business gets a lot busier. This can create administrative strain for both the city and our project partners. An accord strategy is just to prioritize targeted standalone eligible projects maximizing impact while minimizing regulatory complexity. One great example we have is the Able Housing Initiative where CDBG funded only 5% of last year's grant just over $5,000 for new appliances rather than blending it with their construction budget. Able Housing used the small allocation of the awarded 2025 grant toward their next step in a grant as leverage to unlock the ability to apply for a much larger state funding. Although the CDBG grant is small, it can be used in mighty ways as we saw done by Able Housing and a standing ovation to them because they were able to get a $4.5 million grant from the state, but they needed the key from CDBG to qualify for that. And that's a great way to use this fund. So in our current con plan, we are here to do these six items. Increase and preserve affordable housing, provide supportive services to prevent homelessness, support energy, and support lowincome individuals and families with accessible services, support efforts to expand economic opportunities for low-income citizens.

And number six was an add-on. In 2024, we amended the consolidated plan to add support efforts to expand opportunities for persons with disabilities. So, here is our midyear update and these are all of the projects that we have completed since the beginning of 2023 and our con plan. We've done public service funds for each year. Each year, we've also helped the housing authority put a new roof on some large multif family affordable housing. We've done exterior repairs on the Anacortis family center. We've resurfaced the floors and added shelving to the food pantry for the Salvation Army. We've done curb cuts and ramps at 24th and H. And we replaced the fire equipment in the homeless shelter and the able housing of course repair. And here is our financial update. On this screen, you can see that we have I I started it in 2020 because there were some balances left over in previous grant years and you can see those across the middle line. So, the beginning of our consolidated plan in 2023 in an orange square, you'll see we had almost $87,000. So, carrying that forward, we continued to get grants for 23, 24, and 25. So at this time we had been funded $469,861. We have expended $468,51 and funds must be fully drawn down within three years of allocations and that's uh back to HUD's favorite word is timeliness. They want us spending the funds down as almost as fast as we get them. So we have been drawing those down and working really hard to get projects completed. If they are not completed, we risk the lose of the we could lose the funds and they get taken back by the federal government. And we have been moving the funds as quickly and efficiently as possible together with in

partnership with our wonderful uh grantees and Anna Cortis to get everything done in a timely manner. At this point in time, we have completed all of our 2025 action plan. All projects are completed and have been funded. And now I'm just doing closeout paperwork. Our balance of CDBG funds at this time is $1,360. So for 2026 planning, um I went back. I need to back up one more screen. Nope, I'm okay. So So for the 2026 planning, the city received five applications for funding. and Aquortis Housing Authority for new roofs for affordable housing and accordis county for public services and accord family center for new HVAC system for the emergency shelter and Salvation Army for three new ADA doors for their facility and this is a financial chart that I worked on together with Mr. Steve Hogland of finance and John M the director of planning. And so the top third shows what is in HUD and you can see the IDIS grant balance. And as we go down to the middle uh this is the 2025 projects that I've been working on and drawing down. That shows you the balance of $1,360 that we have balanced with HUD. And down at the bottom we have our new applications. What we have to work with each year, not knowing exactly how much we're going to get from HUD, is we we use the amount we were allocated in 2025, the middle column of $18,427. That was our 25 allocation. I added the 1360 that we have in the bucket now to come up with the second to the bottom line of

109,000. So looking at the total asks for this coming grant year, we have been asked to put out $224,473. We will have under $110,000 to spend. So what staff is recommending is that we go ahead with public services for community action, uh HVAC for the homeless shelter, and new ADA doors for the Salvation Army. I also have city of Anacortis administrative costs in there for 20% which is the cap by HUD to help reimburse the city for staff costs. It is approximately 700 and change hours for staff. So we recommend funding 15% to community action of Scadget County to expand employment services in the Anacortis location. This aligns with our economic development goals in our con plan. It does not conflict with the city of Anacortis contract and is eligible and it meets new or expanded requirements by HUD to use 15% of the grant for public service. The next funding we're recommending is for the Anacortis family center to replace the HVAC system in the emergency shelter which was built in 2009. This is an urgent need and it does not conflict with the Anacortis city contract with the police department. it is eligible and it does meet the requirements by HUD and we also recommend funding the Salvation Army in the amount that they asked for for $26,000 to add three ADA accesses to their Anacortis location. This meets an objective in the con plan for assistance to the disabled and it does not conflict with the Anacortis city contract for cold weather shelter and is eligible. the upcoming steps and key dates that will be coming is um we are going to

draft this in a HUD formatted report if everybody's okay with it tonight. Um and I'll have that done by next week and uh we'll we'll put that out for open comment and we have a 30-day comment period for the public to give us tips, suggestions, dislikes, likes. Everything will be indexed and put to HUD at the end of it. The comment period will close on April 23rd. The second public hearing will be April 27th and that is when council can take action to vote and approve it. This cannot go to HUD until we have actually uh been approved by council. Once approved by council, we will submit to HUD no later than May 15th, which is its due date. And thank you for attending this presentation. And if anybody has any questions, this is a great time.

Mayor Council, Mayor Walters, Mr. Antini, um, thank you so much. Great presentation as always. I have not very many questions because this is the third time going through this process. So, I definitely understand it a lot more now, probably because of your other two presentations, which were great. Um, the only question that I have is with everything that we're kind of hearing in the news and everything that's kind of floating around there, I'm just curious if like last year's government shutdown, Doge, if there's been any impact um in Anacortis' work with this grant by that.

That is an excellent question, Mr. Fantini. Yes, we were impacted by Doge and yes, we were impacted by the government shutdown. And how that worked is after we had council approval on the 2025 grant, we sent it into uh the approval portal on May 15th and it normally goes to the region 10 or local uh Seattle HUD for approval and they pre-screen it and this time they they pre-screened it and they let us know that it was going to Washington DC. So our plan was reviewed by Doge last year and it took an extra I would say about 8 to 10 weeks before we were funded. So we didn't actually have funds on July 1st last year. We were not funded until midepptember. So there was a delay and uh luckily we were found adequate by Doge and we were able to be funded and that um during the government shutdown which happened subsequently after that a lot of agencies or municipalities under the CDBG grant had not gotten adequate stamps from Doge and they did not get funded. Um, and it we were able to draw down our funds even during the government shutdown because it's in an electronic finance portal. So, we were still able to fund during the shutdown of those three months.

Are we expecting that to be the same case this year? I don't know. We don't know. Fair enough. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. Fantini. Miss Cleveland McGrath.

Uh, thank you. Thank you for your presentation. This was really helpful and I and thank you for adding to the packet today the additional uh descriptions of the projects because I think it's it's helpful to get to see that instead of just those three lines. So I appreciate you getting those in. Um so I my question is really regarding um I'm no longer on the the hacks committee. So I was kind of curious as to um if this these projects had been brought forward to the hacks committee for discussion by the electeds. Um reason being um is that uh the ADA doors the explanation for that makes a lot of sense and important um city administration I think we've talked about that strategically makes a lot of sense. Um the AFC HVAC system um definitely qualifies. I I'm curious as to the um the roofing for housing authority. I know it sound like there was four projects that were smaller, but also really important to maintain maintain um the the the buildings, right? Those are incredibly important. And if when we delay, it can cause more damage. But the one thing that I'm really kind of curious about is that um services component, that 15%. I know that we've we've allocated it to the family center for a number of years now um to support uh their programs that are available to the community. Um, and so I'm kind of curious to know why, like how it was determined that th that that money, the 15% approximately $15,000 would be taken away from existing programming. Um, I know that there was a discussion of whether or not it's it's

expanding programming and I think last year we discussed that it's new clients, so that qualifies. My notes from last year said we were going to do more of a deep dive on that. Um, reason being is that while community action and the importance of employment services, um, making sure there's one-on-one job coaching, career planning, job readiness, job search assistance, resume, cover letter, application, all of those are incredibly important. Unfortunat my my challenge is is that currently they're only there a half a day a week in Anacortis. So that's four hours a week. Um all of those services are currently being provided by the family center during regular business hours, right? So Monday through Friday when the doors open, those those um employment services are already being offered. Um they've also because of the fact that it's part of the program when people enter the the shelter and and those services are available regardless if you are a client living in the shelter or in some of the housing AFC housing those services are available to community members anyone who needs them. Um also the when you when you enter the shelter the clients are expected and required to get a job. So AFC has existing relationships with at least a dozen employers locally um that they can call and they they connect with. So when we're when we're in a situation where we have limited funds, keeping those dollars as close to the clients as possible, I think is really important. And while I think community action does a really good job on a lot of these things, I wonder if we are do what we're doing is duplicating services by community action and then removing support for essential services from a

local organization that is depending on that line item. Um, and I and we can get into the debate. I mean, I I will entertain the debate of, well, we're giving them money for the HVAC system, fine. But there's there's capital projects and then there's just the importance of services for folks to stop to intervene prior to them being in a situation where they actually need to be living on campus. So I just I I wanted to that was a very long- winded thing, but I think it was I wanted to kind of get that on the table for a discussion. Was that a question for Miss Snder?

I guess my question Thank you. My question is um did was there discussion by the um hacks committee uh if there was justification all of those things. So just kind of wanted to expand on that. Mayor Walters, Mr. Carrer, we meet tomorrow. Uh Miss Snder, do you want to address the services issue?

Uh yes. One one thing that is true for CDBG is we are capped at 15% of the grant. We make $100,000 a year. So, it's a very small grant. Some suggestions I had brought forth between Mr. Hogland and uh Mr. Coleman and myself like we're we're breaking down the money and how we have been spending the money during this consolidated plan. I remember having this question absolutely reversed on why we weren't funding community action and we were funding AFC last year. Um, we're about 86,000 that we can put out for services after taking administrative costs back into the city. And we are going to be spending approximately $46,000 on a new HVAC system. And one of the u rules by HUD is it has to be a new or expanded program. And it also met our economic development alignment in our consolidated plan. So, we didn't see um we do need to hit that box because we have these promises to HUD that we're going to do an economic development work which we haven't done. And Community Action is going to be expanding their time that they have this job for more than a day a week. So, it's not going to be four hours a day. It's going to be bringing I can't remember the amount of time, but I think it's like a day a week that they're going to be doing on the job training. and Anacortis family services. We did do their public services for 23, 24, and 25. So this year, we're going to give community action a chance with the community services to also check the box of economic development in our consolidated plan that we have not really addressed yet in so far.

Mayor Walters, Mr. Coleman,

if I may add to that, we also wasn't entirely clear that the AFC program was expanding. So, uh, it was a little bit hard to determine whether or not they met the the standards. There are some additional standards this year also that, um, make it make it challenging with the with the new, um, requirements about what can and can't be done. And so um I don't know if we wanted to talk about um some of the administration's new requirements for um we're required to assure that um you know this money is not used for um various items that um kind of don't want to get too much into because they they follow um you know some of the party the the this administration's requirements for uh who can and can't be receive money. Um so it it became a little tricky for uh making sure that we meet that otherwise the city is on the the hook for repaying all of our HUD money up to possibly six years. Mayor Walters,

just to to kind of respond to that, I I understand that the HUD requirements say we need to continually expand services. Fine. But I we had this discussion last year and there's it's an if if that's the way we're interpreting it, I don't think that's a reasonable interpretation. I am willing to take the chance that HUD will get mad at us because there's no way we can continually expand services while still maintaining services. It's just that it it doesn't make sense. So, we ex hypothetically we expand services for community action for one year and then we're going to tell them next year they don't get the $15,000 to do this. Like I just it is a flawed logic and I'm not saying that it's our necessarily the cities but it's flawed and ultimately like we only have so many dollars. We need to take our chances and make sure we are having the greatest positive impact on our community members that need it. I I tried very very hard to put the economic development of community actions ask under a different category other than public services so I could fund both like to make that real. I I think they both do great jobs. I don't think either agency would be against any of the new administration rules that have come about. Um, but it it's tough like do you you break it in half and give them each $7,000 or you know give one se you know 15,000. It's it's it's not easy and so it's not written either. So this is the great time for feedback. We didn't have all of our applications in our last hack meeting in early February. So those weren't in yet. And the next hacks meeting is in the morning. So I think we will probably be discussing it a little bit more then. I

have not written the HUD plan. this is what we came up with and it's always hard to try to find where we're going to put the money and we have to check boxes for HUD and our own consolidated plan as the same time and some of the new federal rules are uh prohibitions on providing any services to illegal immigrants along with associated reporting requirements, right? Certifications.

It it has to do with uh not funding abortion clinics. It has to do with not uh funding sex changes. It has to do with not uh servicing illegals. Um but it doesn't seem like anything Anacortis has ever done has had anything to do with those. And there's many jurisdictions, probably about half of the jurisdictions that receive entitlement grants around the United States are not funded yet for 2025 and they've not gotten money at all. So, we are actually pretty lucky to be running our horse down this race. Bill Walters,

Mr. Young, thank you. Um, I again, I appreciate the work that you've put in. Um, and I know that these are difficult times right about now. I mean, the rules of what we can or cannot do, what we've done in the past may look no longer apply to what we can do in the future. And in my opinion, it's still very fluid and confusing. It's hard.

With that in mind, with that in mind, we have unemployment that's reaching higher levels. Inflation that's going through the roof. Discussions about where and how we do what we do as a nation and as a city is all under review. I'm not judging rightfully or not. I'm just pointing out this is where we are. And unfortunately for us, um, it means that sometimes in the amount of dollars that we've traditionally had, they're no longer on the table. And part of that is where I think uh, we've been fortunate to have the family center, which done a stellar job of its evolution from beginning to end to where it is now, the continuing process. You know, I applaud that and think that they've done a brilliant job. Again, I've always also always said that when I moved here to Scadget County, I was reached out to by Community Action to make sure that I one felt at home here in the valley, two that the network of people here in the valley would give me a great prism to look at living here in the valley and the things to do. They've never had all the money that they needed in order to do the services that they do. And prior to them coming, prior to the family center um forming, uh it was the community action of Scadget County trying to do what they do. They've suffered a lot under the withdrawal of funding tremendously. So I don't know how they've been able to do the work that they do, but they do. And they service and accord steadily. They really do. And uh it's unfortunate that um you know uh budgetary requirements and their ability to give service to Anacortis has been affected, but I think that that

effect is part of what we're seeing nationwide. And so, you know, I'm very much a supporter of the um community action and the family center. I think the need of our society right now is so great that we just simply don't have enough to meet all those needs that are crucial. And I'm not using a light term, I'm using crucial. And so, you know, I um appreciate the way that you've divided things up. I do think that as uh Miss Clea McGrath said that there are some questions that she want to make sure that we vetted and flushed out. And um um council member Courier has also indicated that we will probably talk about this tomorrow. So I'm looking forward to that. But I wanted to put out that community action just doesn't get enough funding to do what they do. And even when they were doing some of the work that they were doing for um um soldiers, military people trying to raise enough money to have housing or being able to address that. It took them a year and a half or two years and they still couldn't come up with it. You know, they came up with a lot. So, you know, again, I am passionately a supporter of the work that the nonprofits do in that whether it's the Salvation Army, whether it's the housing authority, you know, but it's just not enough. And I'm hoping that we can continue to fund where we can because I think in this town we need both community action and the Anacortis family center as well as housing authority and the Salvation Ar. It's just not enough. The the crisis that we're currently in as a society requires that more of us if we can give more money toward that great cause. But I

think the reason I wanted to say what I'm saying right now what is to point out that the need farclips the availability and um there are parts of this need that community action directly addresses that's not addressed by the family center. Even in those expansions of things, there are things that community action goes for and there are things that the family center goes forward. Now, I I'm happy with both of them and supporter of them all, but I think it's important to remember that.

Okay. So, this agenda item is a public hearing. Uh I've got down here that we are going to have two separate public hearings, right? That's right. Second one on April 27th. So, at this time, if council's okay with it, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing and invite any member of the public who would like to testify on this to come forward. And may I answer the last question from Miss Cleveland McGrath? Uh, well, since there is no stampede to the podium, uh, I think I will go ahead and Okay. close the public hearing.

Okay. Uh and now Miss Snyder uh why don't you go ahead.

Um regarding the roofs for Anacortis Housing Center, we fully plan to continue to work with the um housing center housing authority, sorry. um to continue to do roofs. And on this plan, if any of the other projects are untimely, I want to move to be able to use uh the housing authority as a backup plan to go ahead and Sandy has gotten in a really good groove of getting things done really, really quickly. And there were four smaller projects and we could move 25,000 to like one, two, three or four of them to sum that up. But we do plan to get back to roofs. We just had an emergency with an HVAC and an expansion of employment with checked a couple boxes for economic development. So I think that's everything. Is there any more questions?

Mayor Walters, Mr. Pantini,

I just quickly I don't I think there's was a really important big piece in your presentation that I don't want it to get lost and that is the fact that last year we awarded that just over $5,000 to the Able Housing Initiative and it was a direct result of why they then were able to get that $4.5 million grant that's going to do huge amounts of difference. And I would be curious um next year as we're kind of going out for the application process. I know it's too late this year, but I would love to look for more gems like that where we can give a little and it could possibly lead to a lot more. So just something to think about.

Thank you, Mr. Pentini. Council, any other questions or comments? Uh all right. Uh Miss Snder, do you have what you need then to proceed with the next steps?

I do. The next steps will be I if nobody has any major changes to make to the allocations we are suggesting by staff, I will go ahead and write the HUD plan this coming week and that's uh probably 25 pages that will be published and put on the bulletin board and public comment will begin a week from today with the new HUD plan with what we've outlaid tonight. Unless there's major changes, we should have that tonight. I certainly heard some suggestions for major changes, but no decisions on changes.

Well, our our final decision will actually be April 27th when we come back for our second public hearing and a council action. So, tomorrow at Hacks and Economic Development, which are backto-back meetings tomorrow morning, um we can hammer through some of these ideas and council. Are we done with this agenda item? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, our next item is ordinance 4092 uh amending AMC Title 19 to establish permit review time periods. Miss Gridge from the planning department will introduce this item.

Good evening, mayor, council, and members of the audience. I'm Libby Grage from the uh planning, community, and economic development department and I will push F5. Um so I am here this evening to uh talk about proposed amendments to title 19 regarding permit timelines. Um these are amendments that are intended to uh bring the city into compliance with um SB5290 that was adopted by the Washington state legislature in 2023. Um and also uh to improve predictability and timeless timeliness in permit review. Um, as I mentioned, the bill passed uh in 2023 and um the primary purpose of this legislation was to um consolidate, streamline, and improve local government review processes for um residential permits in order to um help move along those uh permits in recognition of the um housing crisis that is happening in uh the state and country. Um the proposed amendments uh or excuse me the legislation amended uh the revised co code of Washington 3670B which is the local project review act and um that is the uh body of law that talks about how uh local jurisdictions um process and review permit applications. So, some of the key requirements of 5290

um include uh revisions to the um time periods that local jurisdictions have to review and issue a final decision on a on a project permit. Um up until uh the law became effective in 20 in the beginning of 2025 um the standard review time period was um hund typically 120 days except for uh preliminary plat and and final plat. Um the uh I'll I'll go to the next slide. will show you what the uh new review time periods are under this under the statute and what is proposed to be adopted by the city. Um the next key requirement of this legislation was that um cities local jurisdictions would be required to refund permit fees. U 10 to 20% of permit fees if the jurisdiction the city does not meet the adopted permit time frames. unless three of um 10 optional measures that are listed in the statute are adopted by the local jurisdiction. And so um this uh ordinance would proposes to adopt three um of those optional measures. And I'll talk about those in just a minute. And finally, the um the amendment to the law modified existing annual performance report requirements um primarily or it does apply to uh local jurisdictions with populations of more than 20,000. Um however, um there are some reporting requirements you'll see added into uh the proposed regulations. Okay. So 5290. So these are the um default time periods

that are included in the legislation. So um the uh time for review ranges from 65 days to 170 days. And again um these time frames actually became effective on January 1, 2025. Um even though these are not adopted into our our code right now, uh they we have been following them for the last year and and a couple of months. So the uh time frames are broken down by permit type like level of um complexity and the uh so administrative permits, ministerial and and uh ministerial, excuse me. Um so permits that don't require public notice uh have would have a time period of 65 days. So um 65 days from complete application to uh final decision by the city is the time frame for um applications that require public notice but no public hearing. Uh there is a 100 day time period established. And then for those more complex projects that require a public notice and a public hearing, um the statute has a default of 170 days. There are provisions that allow for jurisdictions to modify these um permit time frames if the jurisdiction believes there are special um circumstances or uh things that we want to modify. Um but staff is uh uh recommending that we adopt these default time periods.

Sorry for all the all the stuff on this slide. Um so this is just uh continuing on with the uh review time periods that are proposed to be adopted. 1920160 and the Anacortis municipal code. Um over here is where we currently have our review timelines established. Um and so uh preliminary subdivision and final subdivisions are regulated under a different state law. So those would not be affected by these changes. Um all other development permits again as I mentioned uh until January 1, 2025 we're at 120 days for for turnaround. Um the proposed amendment would delete this table and would add into the table in 1920 which is our review classification and process matrix. So this is the table in the code that we look at to determine um based on the permit type that somebody submits uh what kind of review process does it go through? Um does it uh require a pre-application meeting? Does it require notice of application uh comment period? Um open record public hearing, etc. So you can kind of go all the way down the table and identify what the process for that particular permit is going to be. And so we would add at the end of that table the review time period for that particular type of permit. So all of the um very important information that you would need to know about processing would be in this one handy table. Um, another thing to note here is that the expiration of an application would

become a um, type one decision which would provide an appeal opportunity for an applicant if they disagreed with the um, uh, expiration of an application. So, um, the measures that are established in the state law, uh, there's there are 10. I think it's 10. Um, and so the local jurisdictions, if they would like to not be subject to the requirement to refund permit fees if they don't meet, uh, their turnaround times, um, must adopt at least three of these measures. And so, um, city staff is recommending these three on the right. Um and they are to budget and continue to budget for on call permitting ser uh assistance when permit volumes or staffing levels change rapidly. um adopting development regulations that make housing types an outright permitted use in all zones where the housing type is permitted. And then offering a procedure to offer a meeting with or excuse me, adopting a procedure to offer a meeting with the applicant to attempt to resolve um outstanding issues during a permit review process. And these were these were based on um you know looking at our current review processes and what it what would be easily implemented we thought um and uh what was consistent with uh um the framework that we currently process permits within. And so that's why these were uh suggested.

I won't go into too much detail, but the the um first item about budgeting and continuing to budget for on call permitting assistance. So this is um intended to when uh permit activity picks up and um the staffing um in the department is not able to keep up with the permit applications coming in. Uh this would be an opportunity for um the the city to have an on call uh company consultant that would help review those permits for conformance with um city regulations. And so that would help to make sure that um permits are uh processed in a timely manner. That second measure that I mentioned was um uh making housing types an outright permitted use in all zones where the housing type is permitted. And um so basically what that's saying is where residential development is uh identified in the code as being permitted, it should be a permitted outright use and not a discretionary permit like a conditional use permit. So this legislation only addresses uh mixed use and industrial zones. um the uh resident in within residential zones. The city council has already adopted uh regulations that have a uh permitted outright process for um housing types that are permitted in each zone. So there aren't any changes needed to that particular table. So this is the table just addressing mixed use and industrial zones and residential uses within those.

I'm wasn't going to go into detail. If there are questions about this particular table, I'm happy to Walter, would you prefer I wait till the end of your presentation to ask questions? That's fine. I can do that. Oh either way is fine with me. I'll just ask you now then. Go ahead. So, so, oh, sorry. So, you're saying that right now for this particular one, uh, outright and permanent to use, this is already happening in our code or this is already happening on this table and we're just trueing up the code to what's already happening on this table. is that

um so what I'm saying is that for for this particular measure um the work in the residential zones so there's a separate table of permitted uses for residential zones so all the R1 through R4 um and the city council has already adopted regulations making housing a permitted outright use in zones where that type of permit uh housing is allowed. And so, um, I'm I guess I'm saying that, uh, that work has already been done. So, this legislation only addresses mixed use and industrial zones changing fixing that table to Okay,

perfect. But the table is the law. So, it's not trueing up. It's it's making the change. It's just what it Okay, thank you. Yeah. So, it's strike through underline. So, in the table, you'll see the where a C has a line through it. It's um not So, I guess I should explain a little bit. Um the um we didn't just change conditional to permitted outright. We thought about, you know, what the um purpose of each zone was and is it consistent with, you know, is is new single family residential development consistent with the purpose of each of these zones? And

so, I think the reason that I'm asking the question is not because I don't agree because I do. Um the what I'm noticing though is I've gone to um several um HOAs because I have a lot in W 3 to do presentations and they're always very there's not they don't have the same information that we have here. So they don't understand and I think you've been with me to one of them. They don't understand how we're saying that they can do certain things, but their HOA rules say that they can't. And I understand that obviously we as a city are not going to um enforce any HOA bylaws, and I totally agree with that. Um I I think it could be worthwhile, and it's something that I will I will do in in my area. I just I think it could be worthwhile to talk to some of the HOAs so that they understand these changes because I think many of them don't and I I feel like it could really lead to um as as this starts to be used more and we start to see more of these uh permits come through as I hope that we do so that we can have more housing. I just feel like a little education on the front end could really save us a lot of work and potentially money later. So, just something to to think about.

And that that uh question is a good one, but not really related to this ordinance because this doesn't affect the residential zones. Uh but um the point is well taken. Yeah. Thank you.

Okay. If there aren't any other questions about this slide, I'll move on. Okay. Um, this is uh just I should have brought this up before. This is um showing the zones where this legislation uh would affect allowed uses. So, it's all of the um commercial and mixed use zones. Um, and sorry it doesn't really show that very clearly, but where you have the the large uh labels, marine mixed use, commercial marine manufacturing and shipping, light manufacturing, CBD, commercial, marine mixed use. Those are the only zones um that are impacted by changes to that permitted use matrix that we just looked at. Uh the third measure that the third optional measure that's proposed to be adopted with this code amendment would be to adopt a a procedure to offer a meeting with applicants to attempt to resolve outstanding issues uh that come up during the permit review process. Um and so basically what this would do would add in a procedure that says that um after the uh you know an application is submitted to the department, the staff review it and say you know we need this uh additional information in order to complete the um review process for your application. Um that goes to the applicant. The applicant submits a revised plan or some additional information. Um if they still do not address all of the issues that um staff has identified at that point, staff would reach out and uh schedule or offer to schedule a meeting with the applicant to sit down and go through, you know, line by line here here are the things

that we need to figure out on this application and and just make sure that there's understanding on all sides what what's being asked for. Um and we do try to do that already. Uh just just to put that out there. Um and then this also adds a step where if after that meeting um staff uh again requests additional information and it's not still isn't being provided um you know sufficiently to allow staff to uh make a decision on the application then the permit application gets forwarded automatically just gets forwarded to the next to the decision maker. Um so in administrative uh for administrative permits that would be the director. Um for type three permits that would be the hearing examiner. Uh type four is is city council. Um this is the other part of the legislation that applies to cities over 20,000 in population. So it doesn't apply to Anacortis at this point. Um but uh requires reporting on the number of decisions for certain permit types and counts and average performance metrics for review of those uh per uh permit types. And so it's just providing information to the public about um how the city's doing on meeting its uh permit review targets. And um again, it's not required under the legislation. However, we're uh proposing to add in uh requirements that we do track and publish that information and provide uh reports to city council to let you know how we're doing.

Um so those are kind those are the main changes that are being proposed uh based on the 5290 law uh changes in state law. Um these are some additional changes that are also proposed in order to uh improve um predictability in reviewing and processing permits. Um the first one is to allow the director to wave the pre-application neighborhood meeting requirement under certain circumstances. Um, we've found that in some uh uh you know, permit applications that are unlikely to be uh controversial or don't, you know, aren't occurring in in um areas where there's a lot of uh adjacent properties. So, like some shoreline permits. um you know that the requirement to have a pre-application neighborhood meeting that sometimes will not be attended by anyone. Uh but this would allow for uh the director to take a look at the specific proposal, try to think about, you know, does do we need to um get the word out about this and uh have this neighborhood meeting or or not? And it would allow the director to make that decision. So it's it's not necessarily a required step. Um

Miss Gr that so that requirement um has already been waved under the 2025 development code amendments for most application types. So this new discretionary require or provision is duplicative for most types. The reason it happened that way is because this ordinance got started 18 months ago, I think.

Yeah, I think there were some changes to the required pre-application meeting requirement making some more of those discretionary or at the discretion of the director. Um, but you might be right. Uh, that that is a good point. Um, there have been quite a few or with the adoption of the comp plan and the development regulation updates, there have been quite a few changes that have happened in the background since this was initially proposed. Um the what you have before you is uh the same draft that the planning commission reviewed except for um the that permitted or the excuse me the uh permit um processing table removed the column for planning commission because planning commission is no longer involved in the quasi judicial uh permit review application. So that's the only change between what was initially proposed and now. Okay. Um and another important uh notable change in this uh draft is to provide the director the authority to expire permit applications. So, um we already have language in the code that allows uh the department to expire applications that um have not yet been determined complete. Um and so if if an application is determined incomplete and the applicant does not provide the requested information within a certain amount of days, then the application is expired and they um start again. And this would allow uh expiration of applications even when the permit application has been deemed complete. And so we have um

uh we have in the past had permit applications that are deemed complete and um staff requests additional information to be able to complete the review and there's no response. And you know it can drag on for months or or years and there's no mechanism in the code right now to just say you need to provide this information with this within this amount of time or um we'll expire the the permit. And so this would provide that that lever for staff. Um and then uh there were also some changes uh as we were going through the draft, we noticed that some of the provisions about um adult family homes were not consistent with the state law. So we uh made some updates to ensure that the adult family homes are permitted um in all zones where residential um uses are permitted. Okay. So, um the process that has happened on this proposal, uh the um planning commission held a public hearing and recommended approval on the draft amendments back in December of 2024. Um the director of planning issued a determination of non-significance, SEPA determination of non-significance on November 13, 2024. and that uh threshold determination was appealed and at the time that it was appealed um the city's code had those appeals go to a hearing examiner. Uh it took a while to get the appeal hearing scheduled and held. However,

that finally occurred on um in January of this year and uh the hearing examiner issued a decision on February 18th, 2026 to deny that appeal. And so um that is why we were we are here before you now uh to to finish this out. And that's that's all I have for you. Thank you, Miss Grage. Council, do you have any questions? Mayor Walters, Miss Hunt,

I'm not sure if this is a question for you, Libby, or Mr. Coleman, or maybe Mr. Hogland. One of the three optional steps that staff's recommending is budgeting for on call review. Is that in the 2026 budget, or would we need an amendment for that? We already budget for storm water on call review, and that's sufficient to meet the requirements of one of the 10. Yes, but we could go further. I I do have a small amount budgeted for this in anticipation of this ordinance. Thank you, Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini,

kind of along that same point. Um and I think I might have just heard the answer but want to ask. Um so we did um me uh sorry maintaining budgeting for on call permitting assistance but there was another I'm just wondering why we went that route instead of the one that says uh I which was adopting a program to allow for outside professionals with appropriate professional license. I'm they're those are kind of similar but very different. And I'm just kind of curious why we may have went with uh and not saying we should have gone the other way, but I'm just wondering why we went with H instead of or excuse me, why we went with D instead of I. Yeah, I can actually answer that because I I wrote the statewide guidance for implementation of this legislation for the Department of Commerce and one of the things that we emphasized in the recommendation on se for local government's selection of these measures is to select measures that you find um the most defensible. Uh not all of the measures were written with the level of specificity that you might want. Um, and that one might seem simple, but becomes complicated pretty quickly. Um, and so I don't think I've actually run into any jurisdictions that have adopted that one. Some have talked about it. Uh, but then once they dig in, they find that it it is more complicated and potentially gives away more review authority than you might want.

That's a great answer. Thank you. Um, I also just wanted to uh make an observation that I appreciate that we did not adopt measure F, which limits public hearings. I think that's a great one not to adopt. And also G, uh, which makes pre-application meetings optional. So, I I was just very appreciative of that. Me well to Mr. Got it. Thank you. Um unless there's further discussion. No. Okay. Take public. We have to take public comment. Okay.

We need to take we need to take public comment and then this is also uh only a first read unless you want Yeah. Uh is there uh any other comment or question at this point? Any member of the audience that would like to comment on this item? Seeing none and seeing none online. Okay. Council. Uh, this is marked as a first read. Um, what would you like to do at this point, Mr. McDougall? Mayor Walters, can we move or Mr. Young would like to make a motion move to uh put this item on the consent agenda next week? Absolutely, Mr. McDougall. That's exactly what I was thinking.

Sounded like somebody made a motion and a second uh to move this forward to the agenda for next week. Is that right? No objection hearing. None. That's what we'll do. Thank you. All right. Uh thank you, Miss Grage. We'll now move on to our next item, which is ordinance 5025 regarding dangerous aven animals. Wild animals.

Go ahead. There's no otter in this one, but there's falcons, so that's kind of good, too. This is actually a photo of the fal one of the falcons that worked last year at city hall to help control uh seagulls. So, tonight in your packet is ordinance 5025. And uh so this ordinance proposes to amend AMC chapter 616 which regulates and largely prohibits potentially dangerous wild animals within the city of Anacortis and in fact makes violations of the chapter a misdemeanor. Uh so what we noticed as reviewing this this chapter um looking at some questions about certain animals within the city is that included in the list of potentially dangerous wild animals are raptors like falcons. And there are exemptions to the prohibitions in this chapter in section 61640. Uh but those exemptions currently do not include um institutions authorized by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to have potentially dangerous wild animals within the city. Uh we know that professionals like the the falcon handler who provides those services to the city and other agencies uh are licensed to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and that exam exemptions actually uh listed in the state uh chapter on potentially dangerous wild animals as an exemption on the state level. So it seemed uh like it would make sense to incorporate that exemption in our code as well. So updating the code uh would allow the Falconer, other licensed organizations to be able to have potentially dangerous wild animals within the city. I just like that picture because there's babies

in it. Uh so uh apologies for the amount of text on the screen, but th this is really the the proposed changes. Um there were a couple of tweaks since the version that was in the packet and those were just some language changes. You see we um there was a typo and should have been 61640 and and this chapter does not apply to just sort of a language update to modernize the code which we should be doing whenever we can. Other than that, the only substantive change is adding subsection one here that says institutions authorized by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to hold, possess, and propagate potentially wild animals or would now be exempt from the restrictions. Um, this down here, I just there was this kind of text hanging out at the bottom that says provisions don't apply to people transporting um animals through the city. Uh, so we just made I just made that an exemption to clean it up. So staff is recommending approval. The police department have re has reviewed uh these changes. Chief Floyd um public works has also reviewed them. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Technically, this is the first of a two read. This ordinance seems fairly straightforward. If council's inclined, you could certainly wave the two read role and adopt it tonight.

We already have a signed contract with the Falcon. The Falcon is coming. So if uh if you Yeah. And others others do in the city as well. So if you want um want to move it forward, that certainly wouldn't hurt my feelings. Mr. Courier, it looks like you're antsy over there. Really antsy. I just Mayor Walters. Can you get Can you get closer to your mic?

Yeah. Yeah. Uh recommend I recommend that we move to adopt ordinance 5025 amending AMC 6.16.040 040 regarding exemptions from the potentially dangerous wild animals chapter. This is the first read of the ordinance, but council, if they're willing, we would like to uh wave the two read rule to take immediate action. That would be my recommendation. Second.

I'll take that as a motion to wave the two read rule and then also adopt the ordinance. Uh we do have an asterisk on this item. So, if there's any member of the public who would like to comment at this point, please raise your hand. Seeing none in the room, seeing none online. All right, council. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none, let's uh go ahead and take a roll call vote. And this is on the motion to wave the two read rule and approve the underlying uh ordinance. Mr. Franc, Mr. Young. Yes. Miss Clearly McGrath, yes. Miss Molton, yes. Mr. McDougall, yes. Mr. Fantini,

yes. Miss Hunt, yes. Mr. Courier. Motion carries. Sorry. The eyes's are seven, the nays are zero. Motion carries. Uh, seeing that we have a super majority passing the waiver of the two read rule and a majority on them on the ordinance, the motion is approved. And the ordinance is approved. Thank you, Miss Swatnam. Uh, you want to proceed to the next item, the interlocal agreement with Scadget County.

Thank you, Mayor Walters and members of council. So, I I don't have slides to show you on this next item, but um I'm introducing the interlocal agreement with Scadget County to provide funding for the star center. Uh so, the interlocal agreement is in your packet and I just wanted to make a couple of points about it. Um, first of all, this is uh this is the same interlocal agreement that the other cities in Scadget County are executing with Scadget County. Um, different funding amounts, but the but the substance of the agreement is the same. And by this agreement, the city agrees to commit $250,000, which I believe is in the budget, uh, towards the startup and initial operation cost for the first year of the star center. Uh the agreement also requires the county to provide quarterly reports on the use of the funds and the term of the agreement is through uh June 30th of 2028. And I know we did a presentation about this a while ago, but I think we with the couple of new council members, um, I wanted to provide just kind of a snapshot of the amount of opioid funding that the city has and that is the funding source for this agreement. So, as of the end of 2025, the city had $299,277 of opioid funds that we had received from various settlements. um of those funds that that takes out the $15 that the city has spent, which to date is the only funding that we've spent of opioid money for the for the K9 unit. Uh between 2026 and I think it's 2035, the city anticipates collecting another $485,000

approximately. Um we we're participating in about a dozen different settlements which have different distribution schedules. Uh so so there will be roughly $485,000 coming up. So th those are my comments on the interlocal agreement that's been reviewed by council for the county and myself and we recommend approval. I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you Miss Swinn. And we do have one scheduled public comment on this item which I think I would like to take now. Miss Hill, please state your full name for the record and the neighborhood in which you live. My name is Susan Hill and I live uh the corner of 84th and no, where do I live? 34th and Q. Sorry, that grows.

Um, good evening, council members. Um, I would like to thank the city council members for demonstrating that Anacortez will do their part to ensure the opioid settlement funds will help make Northstar Center a countywide resource for comprehensive care and rehabilit rehabilitation of individuals struggling with opioid addiction. The Northstar Center and the services they provide is a really valuable asset for the Anacortis individuals and their families, our entire community and our county. An accord is deservedly proud to be a vital and continuing part in making that happen. I wholeheartedly endorse the commissioners finalizing the interlocal agreement to that effect this evening. Thank you very much every one of you. Thank you, Miss Hill, and we appreciate your continued commitment to interlocal cooperation on these issues. Council, do you have any questions or discussion?

Mayor Walters, Mr. Vantini,

thank you. Um, I just was curious if we could get kind of an because, um, I've heard lots of different things and seen some cities doing different things and, you know, I I'm very supportive of all of our cities coming together and doing something as a county. I'm just curious if um, we could check a temperature on our other cities still coming to the table and still providing funding. I think with respect and this is from memory but I think with respect to the star city star center all four cities are contributing including cedulli even though they have withdrawn from the no cost interlocal agreement. Uh but we can double check that and actually we have a northstar meeting coming up uh next week.

Yeah. Um at which we can uh have some of that discussion. I was kind of curious about Burlington. Burlington was just reported in the paper I think as uh having contributed. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, I've seen inter executed interlocals I think from two of the other cities and there's discussion amongst the city attorneys that they're all moving forward. So, I haven't heard any opposition or concerns about the agreements moving forward for approval. I understood Bernatin's hangup was that they were asking for a fixed dollar amount rather than a percentage of their opioid funds. They got that amount and then they executed the agreement evidently.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor Walters, anybody? Go ahead. All right. Um, Mayor Walters, Mr. Young, thank you. I move that city council authorize the mayor to execute interlocal cooperative agreement 26-104-exe-001 between the city of Anacortis and Scadget County. Second motion in a second to approve the interlocal agreement. Any further discussion? Mayor Walters.

Miss Ken McGrath. I just wanted to clarify. Um, Miss Swenham, you said that we've only spent $15,000 of opioid funds for the K9. Correct. But, um, we are planning on spending $80,000 in the 2026 budget for the school resource officer. Am I wrong? And 30,000 for AFC. Great question, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Dr. Hogland

in uh during the budget discussions when we were talking about that my recollection was that we would encumber those monies out of the opioid funds in the event that general revenues weren't sufficient to cover the uh second half of that SRO position. So that's that's our intent. We're projected now with spending this $250,000 to end the year with around $115,000. So there is projected to be sufficient money for that SRO position.

That's great news. I'm glad that we remembered that point uh moving forward into 2026. So I'm glad we've got it now in as of March. So thank you. I hope we can continue. Memory is like an elephant. We got it. All right. We have a motion and a second to approve the interlocal agreement. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the interlocal agreement is approved. We have one remaining agenda item under other business and that is a contract award for the fire station one remodel project and fire chief Harris will present this item.

All right. Thank you, Mayor Walters, members of council. So tonight you have in front of you a contract um for the remodel at station 1. Um this is a project that was presented to you briefly during the CFP um discussions last week. It was originally approved in 2024 for completion in 2025. Um but the design process took a little longer than we'd hoped and so now it's slated to be completed here in 2026. Contract total is $260,74. 90% of that will be covered by fire impact fees or about 235,000 of it. Um, this project will expand the kitchen and dining areas. It'll add storage and additional workstation space in the upstairs and will replace the flooring and paint on the second floor, which is over 30 years old. Um, it will also add an outdoor cooking area just off the north side of the kitchen. Um, it's pretty straightforward project, but any questions you might have, I'm happy to answer. And this project, uh, construction is being managed by the public works department, but funded mostly by fire impact fees. Council, any discussion, questions, motions, emotions?

Mayor Walters, Mr. McDougall. I happily move that the city council authorize the mayor to sign the contract as uh provided. Second. Motion and a second to approve the contract as presented. There's no further discussion. I'll call for the vote. All those in favor say I. I.

All those opposed say no. The eyes have it and the motion is approved. Thank you, councel. And thank you to Chief Harris. Uh this will be assumably Chief Harris's last council meeting because as of the end of the month, he's taken a new job in our neighboring center city of Oak Harbor. Uh Chief, we really appreciate the work that you have put in your steady leadership over the last four years. The fire department has come a long way uh especially with addition of eight new firefighters as a result of our public safety levy lid lift, the battalion chiefs, the backfill, new apparatus, uh purchase of our fire station number three. Gotten a lot done in the last four years thanks to council, mayor, the firefighters themselves, and not the least our fire chief. So, thank you, Chief Harris. We look forward to seeing you. What?

May Walters, Mr. Young. No, I just want to piggy back on that, Chief. And also a little bit of tongue and cheek if you would. Um, you know, just really wanted to piggy back on to that and say that from the moment you and your delightful wife stepped into life here in Anacortis, it was uh a beautiful thing. And uh I really appreciate you and her for uh the work that you guys have put into this community, being a part of it and being your authentic self. And of course, I love your dogs, too. So, all right. Thank you.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Young. Council will now go into executive session for litigation per RCW42301101 subsection I, Roman at one for 20 minutes and we'll come back after that and plan no final action.

Thank you everybody. The meeting is adjourned.