City Council - Regular Meeting

Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of Allegiance.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Mayor Land, would you like to take roll call, please?

Yes. Heather Watland? Here. Rob Toyer? Here. Yvonne Gallardo-Van Ornam?

Here.

Michelle Blythe? Here. Nathan Senth? Here. Tim Abrahamson? Present. And Leisha Nobeck? Here.

Mayor Vanni, I move for approval of the agenda with the removal of number five and moving it to another date. Second.

Question? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? None heard. Motion carries. Okay, we'll start off with our first item tonight, the workshop items. Item number one, city council rules of procedure, update to section 7.4, manner of addressing the council.

Thank you, Mayor. We made a proposed change to the council's rules and procedures. It was a small change in uh... seven point three and then seven point four and i apologize normally we send the red line version out uh... and it uh... the changes gotta be accepted in the red line version is not in your packet makes it i know that makes it much easier to to follow Ray Lynn did pass out red line versions so that you can look at it and see the change word for word. What this does is just when we have items on the agenda where we get 10 or more members of the public that want to speak about it, this proposes to reduce the individual speaker time from three minutes to two minutes in that case. That way we can still maintain our 30 minute public maximum for public comment, but we can get a few more people in. So that's the only proposal. It doesn't change anything. I know you got some public comments that came in. I'm sure they didn't understand it because again, we didn't have the red line version in there. Concerned about the workshops. This doesn't affect the workshops. We still have public comment. on the workshops at the end of the meeting instead of the beginning. So happy to answer any questions.

Any questions? Tim?

Yeah, Paul. Looking at this, and I know you're saying 30-minute maximum. Is there an opportunity for, say, the chair or the mayor to extend that comment period time, if so voted or brought forth to the council?

It can be extended. The mayor can propose to extend it just depending on what the agenda looks like.

No, I just wanted to make sure we had the opportunity or option.

Yeah, that didn't change. Certainly does.

OK, thank you.

And then that would mean we would have to propose that even the same council meeting or workshop to the mayor, if the mayor goes, I would like to extend it, then we'd have to vote as a council that same.

Right. Just for that meeting. So it doesn't change the... That's the other question.

My second one is just putting it out there from our public comment that because I was reading through before we did a change. It is nothing major change except for making it known that it's 10 or more people. It goes from three minutes to two minutes. Nothing else has changed because I think there was confusion on what a public hearing versus a public comment is from what our submitted notes were. So public hearings are mainly for bigger projects, planning commission related things. Public comment is anything that you as a community wants to purposely say in front of us, but public hearing is a totally different entity. So I'm just making that clear.

Yeah, right. We put public hearings on the agenda separately and people can comment on those items separately under the public hearing.

Thank you. Alicia.

I actually, I think this is really good. I think we can hear more from people this way when we have a huge group and we have to limit it anyways. So I think cutting it down, but getting more of the community's voices heard, I think is actually a great idea.

I think that was, that's the intent.

Any other? Go ahead, Heather.

Okay, thank you. I just wanted to clarify now. So if we have more than 10 people that sign up, let's say today, then can we vote today to extend the time or does it have to be prior if that makes sense? The day of. The day of we show up and out of nowhere we have 10 people from the public come in and sign up. Can we vote on that day that we see those 10 plus names on the paper to extend the comment period per the way this is written?

Yes, that's what you would want. Would that be the mayor's recommendation, not us?

Yvonne?

Thank you. Yeah, I echo everything. I think it's a great opportunity and I like that we're trying to give more people an opportunity to speak because it does get a little, sometimes we just run out of time. And so it's nice to hear from more people. But just as a reminder, this isn't stopping anybody from still emailing us, right? Like they don't, and is the only way to email us through the public comment or they literally can email us, right? Like they don't have to go through the public comment page.

Not necessarily, your emails are public.

It's all online, right? Okay.

But the public comment's an easy way to get to all the councils. Yes.

But there's multiple ways that if there's more information that needs to be shared or that they would like for us to know about, they're not losing other opportunities. It's just get on the podium, tell us in two minutes, put that bug in our ear and let us know, right?

Okay. Alicia.

I may have read this, but I don't remember. The timing starts after they state their name and their address, correct? Or does it start while their name and address?

I think it's when they say their name and address. I'm looking at the timekeeper.

When she pushed start. Any others? Oh, go ahead.

Follow up. So does that, is that required to be in here that like your time starts the second you get on the podium or does that, do we need to put that detail in there?

Usually starts when they start speaking. Okay. Yeah. As soon as they start speaking. Have we had any concerns about it? It's not defined in the rules and procedures. It's just what we do. Okay.

And we usually, most of the time with like the three minutes, as I've seen in the past, I mean, some keep continuing and we get them to where we can get them cut off and they usually get another 15, 20 seconds. So they do get a little extra. Okay, any other questions?

Okay.

I'm seeing, and we'll move on to item number two. Request for waiver of fees for FAA Arlington Municipal Airport Runway 34 approach lighting project. Paul.

Thanks again, Mayor. This is really just a housekeeping item. More than anything, council does this when we have city projects. They have the authority to waive the permit fees just because it doesn't make sense for one department to pay another department within the same government. This one is a FAA project, but it is for the airport. And the fee amounts $1,125 is for the approach lights that are being relocated down on 172nd, which in part is because they're outdated and need to be replaced. And then the main driver is it's to accommodate the 172nd project. So it's kind of double benefit for us.

Any questions? Okay, none is seen. We'll move on to item number three, the Perimeter Fencing and Improvement Project, Stage Two, Professional Services Agreement with Design Amendment. Lorin.

Good evening, Mayor Vanning. Good evening, council members. Attachment C is for the perimeter fencing improvements project stage two. It's a design amendment in the amount of $29,153. The perimeter fencing improvement project stage two was approved as part of the airport's biannual budget and involves design and construction services. We're returning to City Council for this amendment, the Professional Services Agreement with Dow Engineering, who is our on-call airport engineering consultant for this project as well. We're requesting This amendment, because the design has changed a little bit, needed some more work. This project, as you may recall, is the design for perimeter fencing along the west side of the airport per FA technical specifications. Airport staff is returning to council to request this amendment for Dow's current design contract for this project. The amendment will provide additional design services that were needed to address tenant and IT feedback. Again, this is just for design services only, not construction. Happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you.

Any questions? Nathan?

So is this an IT feedback based on the readers of plates? If somebody were to come in, is that what is? Correct.

Yeah, we needed to remove a portion that was originally written in the specifications so we can receive the product to be consistent with what's already out there. With FA requirements, if we were to bid the project, we couldn't... pick a specific product we couldn't name a specific product in the specification so we decided to remove that portion and have that come out of the airport's budget so we could be consistent throughout the airport thank you tim no i think that answered my question my question was was this coming out of the enterprise fund from the airport and we're just approving the use of being able to use the funds So the perimeter fencing improvement project is a federal project. It'll be funded 95% from the FAA and as well as a 2.5% from wash dot. And then that it portion that we removed will be part of our own funds.

Oh, okay.

So we're just basically doing the housekeeping saying that we're approving $29,000 in additional of the original council approved contract amount for design only.

Any others? None seen, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we'll move on to item four, Skydio X10 drone procurement for the Arlington Airport, Monroe.

Good evening, Mayor Vanni, council members. As stated earlier, today I'll be speaking about the Skydio X10 quote and tips purchase agreement. Airport staff requests, let me go back. The expenditure request is actually $18,770.92 coming from the capital outlay expenditures. And the airport staff request that the City Council authorize the purchase of the Skydio drone for airport operations through the TIPS purchasing agreement. This agreement is comparable to a state agreement and it meets all City of Arlington's requirements so we don't have to go out to bid. Airport staff consulted with the city's information technology staff and they support the proposed purchase based on Skydio's established reputation, security focus, software platform, and suitability for city operational needs. Skydio meets airport operations needs and will improve city's ability to conduct inspections, respond to incidents, and support staff safety. Key features include all weather flight capabilities, which reduces need to reschedule operations, advanced collision avoidance for safer survey work, and thermal imaging to improve safety during trail checks. The remote flight capabilities to support airfield incidents and weather response during unstaffed hours while saving staff time and resources. The Arlington PD recently purchased the same model, which will support shared training, familiarity, and coordination between departments. Brief history, the airport did purchase a drone in 2019. However, it's reaching its useful life, and unfortunately, the drone's proprietary software does not meet city, state, or federal security standards. Any questions? Any question? Tim?

Yeah Monroe looking at the quote does the quote also include any kind of training and or maintenance that would be needed.

It does include the maintenance. Yes, the training staff have already has already gone through the training through the FAA and we've actually had Skydio come over and we've actually got to fly the drone ourselves.

Yeah, that was my concern was this product-specific training.

Sure.

You know, making sure that you guys are aware of everything.

We are familiar with it, yes, sir.

And are capable of doing it. But you said the maintenance comes with it as well. Is that for one year or is that for?

Over a lifetime. We will have to upgrade, not upgrade, but a subscription for the maintenance, yes.

Okay, thank you.

You're fine.

He took my questions. I'm good now. Thank you. Okay.

Any others?

Nathan?

So I was just going to ask the capital outlay, is that your capital project funds for the airport or is that from the city's capital funds? For the airport. Okay. Thank you.

Great. Okay. No other questions seen? Thank you, Monroe. Thank you. Okay. Paul, do you have anything for administrator report or staff reports?

Welcome back, everybody. Hope you had a nice break. hit the ground running here uh just i sent out a calendar invite but just to remind council we also have a budget retreat coming up the first friday in october so we're working on putting that material together right now yeah good the only thing i have for my report too is uh welcome back council to the

heavy running i think the next few meetings we're going to have some heavy loads from being off for the month of august but no i like to welcome everybody back and hopefully everybody's ready to go okay any comments or reports from council members nathan you want to go um

Okay.

So I have a few things in it. Yvonne and I started our, what did that lady call it today? The mature, maturing community. We're back out on our tour with different aging facilities. And we actually got two more added to our tour that wants to see us. So we're going to be busy. We had one this morning with Nate Nearing. So that was really nice. But The one we were at last week, they were so excited that we came back. They were like, yeah, you're back. And Yvonne and I thought, oh my gosh, they must have a lot of questions. And I guess Paul will be hearing about that when we meet with him. Yeah, there's some good stuff. So what happens is we take all their any concerns or whatever they might have. And then we meet with Paul to see if anything can be fixed or we can help them in any way. Sure.

yeah sometimes it really isn't necessarily anything fixed it's just oh you know thank you for this or in case you didn't know this is happening here yeah and paul fixes everything he does just saying um anything else to add to that we have one on wednesday too we have one on wednesday and then mayor manny will be at the end of the month towards the end of the month 25th is that right i think so yeah so we're set through october and with other requests

So our volunteer part-time job. But it's fun. So we always enjoy it and we were ready to come back. I attended the 25th anniversary of 9-11 and Tim was there and Don. Chief Krasky and his team really put on an amazing... Holly's fire commissioner, she was sitting there crying almost the entire time with the music. But it was very emotional and inspirational. The speakers they had were just so good, especially that one Navy captain that got up. He was incredible. I think Tim cried at that one. But it was... I'm so glad I went. to miss something like that, I think I would have been really kind of bummed, but it was very, very good. But while I was there, oh, did you want to add anything on that?

No, you're doing just fine.

All right, Yvonne and Tim. Good. While I was there, I ran into Chief Gilbert, Commander Gilbert, and I started telling him about a ride-along I did the night before and how amazing it was and how cordial and professional the police officers, and I'm going to say their names just to make sure I get it out there, and then I'm going to tell you two stories that happened that night. I'll try to be super quick. So, officers Josh Heltney, Matt Braniff, Mike Adrian, Jeremy Stalker, and then Sergeant Seth Kinney. And sure enough, there was another flock. Last time I was out, there was a flock. Officer Josh Heltny actually was able to pull the individual over, and he was a violent offender. It turns out that he had a gun on him. Several police cars and sheriff all came. It was amazing to see how calm, cool, and collected our Arlington police officers were. It was scary, but it was amazing to watch them. There was another incident where it was in a neighborhood, and it was a fight, and it was two juveniles. And one guy was just, he drank way, way too much, and he was out of control. And I watched Braniff and Heltny sit there for probably 30 minutes and talk to him. And like I have no patience, so I can never have done that. But they were so amazing just to watch what they did with him and try and calm him down. And they never gave up at all. Another individual ran away. So that gave jeremy stalker the opportunity to bring up his drone and so that was really interesting to see also so two great resources for police officers the drones and flock i got to witness the entire process of it but i was telling mike about these commander gilbert about these officers and he said you know michelle it's not about each individual person what I really look for in our officers is for them to be heroes in our community. And I said, well, I observed that with five different officers tonight and just kind of went on and on, and he was probably tired of hearing about it. But then when I called Sergeant Kinney to get the correct spellings of their names so I don't mess up their name when I'm talking about them tonight, Seth said to me, it's not about me. Make nothing about me. It's all about the crew. So make it about them. And I thought, well, gosh, I heard that from Commander Gilbert. And then I hear that from Sergeant Kinney. And no wonder these officers were so amazing out there because they have great leadership like those two individuals. So it was a great experience. And of course, I leave and I'm like, I can't wait to come out again. And they're probably thinking, please don't come out. because I always have questions about what they're doing, because it's just fantastic. So anyways, that's my share. I can't believe you just yawned. That's it for me.

Great, thank you. You're welcome. Any others? Heather.

Thank you. Um, just to kind of add to your, um, your nine 11, I didn't go to that because I was working, but I did go to the, um, Arlington food bank auction, which was really awesome and well attended. Um, but they showed the video of what happened and I wanted to highlight, um, we have some great local talent, um, the Bay. Hey boys, they saying, and they did amazing. And every time, they get up on stage, I'm just in awe of how great they are. So I wanted to give a shout out to them as well.

Great.

Go ahead. People were going up saying, man, you guys are our future superstars. They were so good. And they're so humble too, right? Yeah. Thank you for mentioning that.

Tim?

Yeah, again, I just wanted to echo. It was a very moving ceremony on 9-11. that we were able to attend and I was grateful to get an invite and glad to see as many community members that came out. The other thing I wanted to do, and I had sent this email to Chief Ventura already, but I, Michelle got to see some of the tools of the trade, but I got to see a tool that I think is very good. I'm very glad our to our community has and that's the community outreach team and just being inadvertently just because the incident happened in front of my house being able to witness not only our Arlington Police Department, but our outreach team. work, keep a situation calm, and be able to get a citizen the help and care that they needed really impressed me. Again, I shared this with Chief, and I know he shared it with his team, but again, Chief Endura, great team. Appreciate you guys putting these programs together to make sure our citizens stay safe and know that we do care here in this community.

Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Yvonne?

Do you want to go? It's okay. First, as you two were talking, I just want to say thank you for bringing this stuff up. There is so much misinformation out there about what these tools do. the wrongs that can happen that to hear what's really going right and the facts of how they're helping our community and keeping our community actually safe and possibly deterring the bad guys from coming into our community because they know we have these tools is amazing. So thank you for being able to experience that firsthand and sharing those stories with us. And I hope people that are listening really appreciate that it is really being experienced firsthand by all of us in some way, right? So thank you for sharing that. I'll let you say that one, but I just wanna give a shout out to everybody on the team, Sarah and Mandy and Rick and everybody who helped put on Fiesta at the Park this weekend. It was so well attended. And I mean, I'm sure you've heard me say this millions of times, but like coming from Texas and living in El Paso my whole life, like there's just something different, right? There's the music is different, the food is different, whatever. But to be able to bring a piece of that from my childhood here for a moment and be able to share those memories and that story and those feelings, and having the support to be able to put together something like Arlington Loteria, which is basically Mexican bingo, and being able to really feature our businesses and our community and our organizations in a different way that's not just boring and markety. It's fun and to be able to share like the fun facts about our parks or our groups. I just really appreciate that Sarah and Mandy have supported me on being able to put that together and like really being open to seeing this through and to organize the groups that they organized that brought such a fun feel and like to see people out there dancing it was really cool and um and i think holly and steve were there they were dancing out there and it was so much fun um so i just i just want to give a big thank you to everybody who supported that and allowed that to happen and then to everybody who came out and attended and were there playing loteria or dancing on the stage or singing along. We even had somebody from the audience come up and sing with the mariachis because she knew the songs and she got all excited and her friends made her go on stage and they were so supportive and like, okay, come sing with us. And she was amazing. And so to be able to actually just listen to those songs was great too. But so thank you. I can't wait to do it again next year. And then, you know, one of the takeaways from 9-11, you know, when they always say like, you remember where you were, like how many people remember where they were, that moment, that feeling. I actually sat in the back and I almost stayed behind the building, like kind of hiding because I get so emotional. I'm such a cry baby. And so I didn't want Michelle to see me crying because I knew she'd make fun of me I sat with Glenn. I was like, or Jean. I was sitting back there with Jean. But I really appreciated the message of don't taking a day for granted. You know, you just, it's so easy to take it for granted. And I just really appreciated that, the strength that it took for them to get on that mic and retell their stories and the moments. And it took everything in me to not cry. But I just, it means something, right? And so I just really appreciate everybody that was there to help support that event and the police and the firefighters and everybody who puts their life on the line for us and keeping us safe. Thank you. One more shout out for Farmer's Market. We have two left for the year. I did get a bunch of compliments from a few vendors this weekend. I was kind of walking around saying hi to folks. And again, a couple of businesses just excited. It was a little slower, so they were a little bummed that it was a little slow on Saturday. They really love the support that they're getting in Arlington and one of them even was like, maybe one day we'll have a business here, you know? And so that's why we do these kinds of events, right? Hoping that they see that there's a market here for them and hoping that they understand that we want them to stay. And so I just, again, shout out to everybody who helps put that together. The Chamber does a great job of keeping those vendors happy. To be able to see the community going out there and supporting these farmers market vendors, our farmers and everybody else that's out there, thank you so much.

Thank you. Any others? Heather?

Do I have to make it this awkward? Okay. Yvonne remembered, and I'm very embarrassed that I didn't remember, but the Sip Sip Hooray is Thursday, September 24th from six to nine at Dwayne Lanes. The money goes towards local educators in our school district. So I can't believe I forgot to mention it. And it also goes towards students in the community for scholarship, things like that. It's a really great event. And there's wine, so. How can you go wrong? Yeah, how could you go wrong?

Okay, thank you. Okay, at this time, we'd like to open it up for any public comment. For the members of the public who would wish to speak to the council, please limit your remarks to three minutes. If you could step up to the podium, state your name and address. Looks like we have Dwan Kinney. Rob, can you make sure the mic's on?

Hi, my name is Dwan Kinney. I'm an Arlington citizen for 30 plus years. I'm here today. I just found out that the reason I came is to make sure there's public comments at the workshops. And I heard earlier that that was a mistake in the Appendix A. Is that correct? There's public comment in the workshop meetings. Okay. I guess when I was reading, I've never read Appendix A. I am very interested in better communication with the City of Arlington. So I went through number one. It was already taken care of. And if you go through Appendix A, there's number 6.3, which is a public hearing process. I guess you said there's only one thing that's changed on this document, but this is my first time I've ever read through the whole entire thing, and I think it would be good for a lot of citizens to be able to read through the whole entire thing, to come here and communicate better. The public hearing process, I would like more public hearings. When's the last time we had a public hearing about anything that was a big, enormous event in Arlington? And to me, living off 172nd and Smoky Point area, what's going on at the airport? what's going on right across from Glen Eagle, the 400 homes that are being leveled and being developed, what's going on at Project Cascade, which still seems to be on the books because it's still on the project map. I think citizens in that area would like to hear and have an open forum more where we could have responses and feedback from the City of Arlington directly and able to voice our opinions and it seems like when we're coming to City Council meetings when I used to come there was more dialogue back and forth you felt like you got your answers from people before you left that night and it doesn't seem to be that way anymore so that's why I read through this document. I really appreciate that there's a section 10 on personal integrity. Loved hearing, reading that. It made me feel better. And the last part is I'm concerned about the project cascade as I already brought up. It seems to still be on the map. And then I recently viewed the land use codes that are going to be discussed and adopted tomorrow night at the planning commission meeting. And it seems that the added vocabulary to support maybe having Project Cascade reapply. And now we have the vocabulary to support them. And so if that is happening and Project Cascade is going to reapply and they're going to be built, I think that would be an appropriate time for a public hearing.

Thank you. Thank you. Do we have anyone else of the public that would like to speak at this time?

Okay, none seen, then we'll close their public comment period.

Review of consent agenda items. Thoughts on that? All of them? Two, three, four, leave item, leave item one on there. Everybody good with leaving one on on the agenda for next week Okay, okay two three and four Okay, this time looks like we have an executive session.

Yeah, we do. Thanks, Mayor. We do have an executive session tonight to discuss pending litigation pursuant to RCW 42301101I. I expect to take about 20 minutes, which means we'd be back at 6.54. No action will be asked to council after the executive session.

Okay, we'll convene to executive. Back to order, and I think our next action is... Motion to adjourn.

Second.

Question. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Meeting adjourned. Thank you.