City Council - Regular Meeting

Freeland, would you like to take roll call, please?

Yes. Heather Watland. Here. Rob Toyer. Here. Yvonne Gallardo-Van Orno. Here. Michelle Blythe. Here. Nathan Senf.

Here.

Tim Abrahamson.

Present.

Leisha Nobeck. Here.

Mayor Vanni, I move for approval of the agenda.

Second.

Question?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? None heard, agenda's approved. Okay, we'd like to start off our meeting tonight with presentation and swearing in ceremony of several new officers that we have. I'll turn it over to Jonathan at this time.

Good evening, Council and Mayor. We're going to start this evening with badge pinnings and then we'll follow it with the swearing in of the three officers all together. We'll start with the pinnings so they have their badges when they're sworn in. I'd like to first start with the introduction of Officer Riz. Officer Riz brings more than a decade of public safety experience spanning law enforcement, correction, medicine, and military service. His career began as a certified nursing assistant, followed by serving in the Washington National Guard as an aircraft electrical Through 2015, he earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Central Washington University, where he also completed flight school. He did 10 years in corrections with Washington State Department of Corrections and Snohomish County Corrections. He was a police officer with Lake Forest Park before coming to us, and during his career, he's also been awarded a lifesaving medal for saving a victim that was experiencing an overdose. Officer Riz was born in Egypt but raised in Washington State since he was 14 years old. And outside of working in law enforcement, he enjoys woodworking, camping, fishing, and spending time with his wife and his daughter. Officer Riz is going to be pinned today by his wife, Kristen, and his daughter, Sophie. And Officer Riz, if you want to come up to the flag and we'll do the pinning there so we can get some photographs. Next, I'd like to introduce Officer Holland. This is kind of a special one for us because Officer Holland is a native of Arlington. She actually graduated from Arlington High School. And unfortunately, Officer Sergeant Kinney was her SRO. So a little bit special there. She also comes to us with experience over from Bothell Police Department. So we were quite lucky to talk her into coming back to Arlington. It was kind of fun to watch her this last street fair because she actually got to walk up and down the street with her with their daughter, and that was kind of neat to see, and I'm glad to see that. Something she might not have been able to do in Bothell, so that was enjoyable for me. So tonight, Officer Holland will be pinned by her daughter, Sienna, and also joined by her daughter, Lena. Come on up. Thank you.

Did your parents make it?

And last this evening, but definitely not least, is Officer Tatro. Officer Tatro is a member of the Stillaguamish tribe. He is with us, kind of special circumstances, somewhat of a long-term loan for us. He actually just recently graduated the academy. He just turned 21 years old in May, and He graduated the academy as a tribal police officer for Stillaguamish Tribe, and under unique circumstances, their academy program is not— is really based more on experienced officers. And they asked if we might be able to take him on and help get him trained and maybe get him some experience with Arlington for a while, with the hopes that at some day, maybe when he becomes more of a veteran officer, that he will go back to the Stillaguamish tribe and help you know, lead that tribe someday. So, we'd like to keep him here as long as we can, get him lots of experience, and we're definitely happy to have him. Today, he will be pinned by his mom, Regina, and his dad, Jeff. It is my honor today to introduce Judge Rancourt who will be presenting the oath of office for us.

Judge, if you guys want to step over.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm you are a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States to assume the office of police officer in the city of Arlington, Washington, that you will support the Constitution and the laws of the United States in Washington, and you will faithfully, diligently, and impartially discharge the duties of the office of police officer to the best of your judgment, so and so.

And that is what we have this evening. I would just remind everyone that the badge is a representation of our oath of office. It does represent a symbol of authority and trust the public has in us. It's our sworn duty to uphold and protect the community. It has roots in harkening back to medieval times of the knights of old, representing a shield. It's often referred to as a shield, and that is why we wear it over our heart, just as a reminder of the vow that we took. So congratulations.

Thank you.

If any of the family would like to leave at this time, you're more than welcome to.

Yeah, the party's over at the other side. Thanks for coming, though.

Thank you.

Okay, at this time I'd like to open it up for a portion for public comment. Looks like we have a few signed up for tonight. The first one would be Holly Sloan Buchanan. Nope, nope, okay, not Holly. Okay, then we got Mary O'Farrell. Please limit your remarks to three minutes and state your name and address. I think, is the microphone on up there still, Chief? Okay, thank you.

Good evening, Arlington City Council and Mayor. I'm Mary O'Farrell, PO Box 12 from Stanwood, and I'm coming back here tonight to follow up on two things. The first thing is that those of us who are concerned about the Amazon project cascade think that we need a well-publicized public meeting describing the project before the deadline for comments is reached on July 29th. Usually when there's a project of such massive size and cost, there's a big board at the side of the site, you know, like a four by eight piece of plywood with a lot of information on it. And this time, the only thing we saw was a sign Well, there were two signs that we found. One was on 67th, and the second one was on 172nd. And on Friday night when I drove by there, the only indication there was any notification was this little sandwich board, which was laying on the shoulder. I went back two hours later, and it was still laying on the shoulder, so I stood it up and took a picture of it. and so I have a picture for the record. I don't think this is adequate notification. Secondly, the information provided so far is very general and poorly publicized. The legal notice in the Everett Herald on July 15th was illegible even when enlarged to 150 percent. And then One of our members found the public notice on the city's website, which has a lot of the same information as the legal notice, which was size two or three font, I swear. And then a site plan, which is also illegible. And I've brought examples of that along for you to see for yourself. And there's enough copies for every member. So thank you. I have extra copies of that public notice on the chair back here. Finally, I have two pictures of the current airport trail along 59th. It's a very sad sight, so I urge you to enroll in the Somish County LIDAR Tree Canopy Survey. your sister city Marysville is doing this to help monitor what's being lost and trying to increase the canopy survey in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, at this time do we have anyone else from the public that would like to speak? Okay, none seen. I think we'll move on to the consent agenda.

Mayor Vanni, I move for approval of the consent agenda as noted.

Second.

Question.

All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None heard. Motion carries. Okay, we'll move on to the first item of new business, the First Amendment to Agreement for Indigent Defense Conflict Counsel Services with Snohomish County Public Defenders Association. Paul.

Thank you, Mayor. It's exactly what the Mayor just said. This is the First Amendment to our contract for Indigent Defense Conflict Counsel. This contract is used when our regular public defender, there is some kind of conflict with one of the defendants and requires another council this is being used a little bit more and more than we have in the past so it's kind of new territory for us we haven't had quite so many as as we have so there is a cost increase for both 26 and 27 this contract spans June to June so it's a little bit different than our our normal fiscal year meaning that we have a little bit of an increase for the remainder of 26 and then for six months into 27 and then we'll be into Presumably into amendment number two. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you any questions Tim Yeah, Paul so with this we're looking at an additional cost that we weren't budgeted for for this year for the 5700 correct and then For 2027, is this something that we can account for in our budget or is this something that we already have the budget?

We don't have a 2027 budget, so we'll be accounting for this in our 2027 budget. Okay.

But this is above what we thought we would be?

This is above what we thought, yeah.

And it's still general fund, correct?

Correct.

Any other questions? Okay, none seen. Do we have a motion?

I move to approve the first amendment to the agreement for the Indigent Defense Conflict Council Services with Snohomish County Public Defenders Association and authorize the mayor to sign it.

Second.

Question. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? None heard. Motion carries. Thank you. Okay. That looks like our only item of new business tonight. Paul, do you have any report?

just wanted to remind council we have one more cycle so one more workshop and one more meeting before we go on break for the summer and so they we might have a few items because we are trying to get done what we can get done before we go on break but it doesn't look too painful right now

Okay, thank you. The only thing I have tonight for my report is I got an update from the Snohomish County Health Department and some of the things they were talking about is basically they were talking about the respiratory virus season. Basically, it sounds like the season is over. They're not expecting anything. Numbers were way down for 25, 26. Opioid-related deaths. This is the one that I was really surprised with and fascinated with. February of 2025, we had 21 opioid-related deaths in Snohomish County. This year in February 2026, we had one. So that was very impressive. It was interesting to see that. The other item of interest to me was, and you all know we've been working on an e-bike ordinance and stuff, but e-bike and electronic scooter injuries from 2010 to 2025, from 2019 to 2025, about 21 e-bike and scooter injuries occurred in Washington State. While the number of e-bikes and e-scooter related injuries deaths each year remain below 10, the number of deaths for these items have increased by 300% from 2019 to 2025. Also the e-scooter related injuries accounted for 71% of these deaths. So I just wanted to pass that on, the importance of us trying to finalize our e-bike ordinance and stuff. There's some big numbers there. And that's all I had for tonight. Any reports or comments from Council? Okay. Oh, Nathan.

Even though I didn't get a chance to come to the mural, ribbon cutting on 211th. I passed by it as I was coming into town for this meeting, and I just wanted to say it was wonderful looking. It's something that's really nice and has a lot of tribal related, still tribal related information. And they also put a QR code that shows you how to pronounce things and the story behind it, which I think is wonderful. And thank you to Nikita and her mom for doing that over the last month or two. braving the heat, doing things during the rain, just doing a wonderful job, and it's wonderful for our city. Thank you.

Thank you.

Michelle?

Far away. Heather, myself, and Lisa were there along with Steve and Randy from the Parks Commission. It was a really cool event to see that and the dedication, so it was great to attend it.

Yeah, no, it was very good, very well attended too by everybody. I'd like to thank Sarah for all the things she did for today's ceremony and stuff and the great job from the Parks Department, Arts Council and stuff for picking the designs and stuff. I appreciate that. Other than that, I think we are done.

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Question.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? None heard. We're adjourned. Thank you.