City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress

red it's on and it's just a one

Good evening. Call the Auburn City Council meeting for August 3rd, 2026 to order. And we will begin with a land acknowledgement. We would like to acknowledge the federally recognized Muckleshoot Indian tribe, the ancestral keepers of the land we are gathered on today. We thank them for their immense contributions to our state and local history, culture, economy, and identity as Washingtonians. Tonight's meeting will be held both in person and virtually. If you would all please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge 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. Thank you. Please be seated. And Sean, will you please call roll?

Deputy Mayor Taylor. Councilmember Amer?

Here.

Councilmember Baldwin?

Here.

Councilmember Lott? Here. Councilmember Rakes? Here. Councilmember Sturgis?

Here.

Councilmember Taylor? Here. Thank you.

All right, tonight we do have one mayor's proclamation, so I'm going to go over to the podium. The mission areas of prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery align with the core capabilities identified in the National Preparedness Goal. Whereas City of Auburn Emergency Management, emergency managers across King and Pierce counties, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, community partners, the Washington State Emergency Management Department, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency dedicate countless hours to developing preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation programs to protect the lives and property of all persons living in the City of Auburn and surrounding jurisdictions. And whereas emergency managers are charged with establishing and maintaining the capabilities necessary to effectively direct, coordinate and support emergency and disaster preparedness and recovery efforts. And whereas, emergency managers serve the community by responding to emergencies and disasters each year, demonstrating commitment, compassion and professionalism in protecting the public. And whereas the mission, areas of prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery align with the core capabilities identified in the National Preparedness Goal. And whereas emergency managers serve the community by responding to emergencies and disasters each year, demonstrating commitment, compassion, and professionalism in protecting the public. And whereas efforts of the City of Auburn's Emergency Management Office have helped community members across King and Pierce County through all phases of emergencies. And now, therefore, I, Nancy Backus, Mayor of the City of Auburn, do hereby proclaim the month of August 2026 as National Emergency Management Month in the City of Auburn. and urge all community members to express their sincere appreciation for emergency managers in every sector who work diligently to prepare, protect, and serve our cities, counties, states, tribes, territories, regions, and organizations against all hazards and risks. Dated this third day of August 2026. I will give you that with my thanks. If you would like to introduce your team and maybe say a few words.

Absolutely. So we have Camille Schitza. She's our emergency management coordinator. Marlee Hansen, who is our emergency management intern for the summer. And just thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council, for this. And thinking of all of our partners in eastern Washington right now. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Turn that on. First, at the last city council meeting, council voted down a motion to have the city create a request for proposal for a third party audit to the flock camera system or automated license plate readers that we have within Auburn's purview. Since that meeting, I have spoken with our council members about my concern and hope that we could come to a better resolution. I'm happy to share that they are in agreement with that from both sides of the voting that evening. And since that time, we have been actively engaged with the state auditor's office about having them perform the audit. I also was not initially clear on the type of information that could be audited. And since then, I'm better informed, and while only APD can access the system, an auditor could review the reports that are generated from the system to confirm such items but not limited to the fact that the officers that access the system had a valid license plate and case number associated with the search. And there is also the opportunity for the State Auditor's Office to audit the audits that are done on a monthly basis by the Auburn Police Department. And while we do not have an official word back from the state auditor's office as of today, I am pleased with the progress and will keep everyone informed on the outcome of the potential engagement. And I want to thank all of the council members for their willingness to remain involved with this because I know all of us want what's best for our community. Second, There was an article in the Auburn Reporter last week related to the use of automated license plate readers, or ALPRs, and there was some incorrect information initially provided by us. The original story and headline read, Auburn Police Say Wrong Man Was Involved in Shooting Case. The original story by the Auburn Reporter noted a wrong man was arrested after a spokesperson for the Auburn Police Department said that the man had no involvement in a 3 a.m. July 28 shooting from one vehicle at another near the intersection of Sixth Street Southeast and Auburn Way South. That information was picked up on the automated license plate reader or ALPR. That information was erroneous. The man was involved in the incident and the swift action by the Auburn Police Department and the use of the ALPR information along with an interview of the gentleman that was identified allowed for a quick resolution and arrest of a different suspect. So our apologies for the incorrect information being shared initially, but I wanted to correct the record in case people had read that initial report and did not see the updated online version. All right, we will move now to appointments. We have one appointment this evening. Junior City Council, City Council to approve the reappointments of Fia Chia, Michaela Pedraza, and Rowan Santos to the Auburn Junior City Council for a one-year term expiring August 31st, 2027. Is there a motion? Deputy Mayor Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the reappointments of Fia Shia, Michaela Pedrea, and Rowan Santos to the Auburn Junior City Council for a one-year term.

Thank you. Is there a second? We have all kinds of seconds. Council Member Ammer. I second. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Taylor.

Very excited to see our youth continue to be civically engaged in our Junior City Council. I'm looking forward to working with them for another year and see what they bring forward to us. Thank you. Thank you.

Council, any questions or comments? All those in favor? to approve the reappointments of Fia Chia, Michaela Pedraia, Rowan Santos to the Auburn Junior City Council for a one-year term expiring August 31st, 2027. Please say aye. Aye. All opposed, please say no. Motion carries.

Sean, do we have any agenda modifications this evening?

No, Your Honor.

All right. We will now move to public comment. This is the place on the agenda where the public is invited to speak to the City Council on any issue.

Mayor, I misspoke. I'm sorry. Yes, there will be an executive session added to the agenda. Thank you.

All right. So the public can participate in person or submit written comments in advance. Did we receive any written comments?

No, Your Honor.

And there is no one online, I take it? No, Your Honor. To provide comment. All right, we will move to in-person comments. Has everyone that wants to provide comment signed in this evening? Yes? OK. Typically, if there is a long list, I do use that to call them off. I did not do that two weeks ago. We will do that this evening. So I hope y'all wrote legibly. Did somebody already raise their hand and say they didn't? You didn't write legibly. Oh, you didn't, okay. We'll just have you come up at the end. First is Mr. Ken Blevins.

My name is Ken Blevins. I'm an Auburn resident since October of last year. I lived in Federal Way for 50 some years and went to my first city council meeting in like 2021 or something like that. So what prompted me to do that is the homeless drug addiction problem. And what prompted me to continue to go to council meetings is I realized that a lot of council members wouldn't um, Wouldn't say the word addiction when it comes to homelessness, which is really weird, but it was kind of a thing back then. It really just wasn't said. Nobody wanted to say, oh, these homeless is not addicted, that kind of thing. But the thing is, if you don't know, and I'm not saying all homeless people are addicted. They aren't. Some aren't even in the woods. Some aren't on the streets. Some are in cars. Some are maybe on someone's couch. Maybe they would count them as homeless. But the real problem is the people out in public doing drugs behind umbrellas or whatever makeshift whatever it is doing hardcore drugs in front of our kids in front of our families and it's the environment that we live in as citizens of a city and i started organization in federal way because i thought that you know if you're going to represent our city you should represent our city and you should tell the truth you shouldn't just be you know virtual signaling and all this other good stuff or political stance you know I think nonpartisan is everybody appears nonpartisan right you don't have a R or D in front of you and I think it's super important to do that you can't be ran by King County or or other political organizations you ran by us we vote for you so I know in order to get voted in you need those political organizations but so I you know I'm not that political. I really don't like it. I think nonpartisan is the way to go if you could, but I just don't think it's possible really when it comes to money in politics. But, you know, when I was in Federal Way, I helped a lot of people out of the council because they weren't working for the city. They were working, again, for someone else, not us. And I don't know anybody up here. I've called and tried to get an appointment with the mayor and I think you're deflecting me. But I just want to talk and and let you know about my personal feelings about the city just coming here. And then also about the homeless camp that's right below my house. We figured out it's in King County. It's not in Auburn. But it's still Auburn residents that live in the homes above it that their houses will burn down if gas catches on fire. And look what's happened in Spokane. That could happen right here in Auburn. And so, yes, it's a King County thing, but it's also your job to make sure that they're doing their job. So please meet with me because I'd like to talk about it more. Thanks. Sorry for going over.

Jay Wright, and I didn't say it, but your name and city of residence for the record, and please limit comments to three minutes. And thank you, Mr. Blevins, for doing all of those.

My name is Jeff Wright. I'm a resident of Auburn, have been for the past 19 years. And I'm here this evening because I want to voice my concern about the use of any network constantly running and personally identifying surveillance technology, of which Flock is one example, although surely not the only one. You know, by their very nature, the mere presence of such systems violates the Fourth Amendment rights of every citizen surveilled and identified or detected by them. As such systems, including but not limited to flock, invades the privacy of people who have clear and reasonable expectation of privacy. I'm not a lawyer, but I have saved you the trouble of Googling. You'll be enchanted to learn that the basic protections against electronic surveillance in this country have been in place since 1967, when the Supreme Court determined that the Fourth Amendment protects privacy rather than property, protects people rather than places, and applies to electronic surveillance. More recently, in 2012, in the United States versus Jones, the court affirmed that while logging a small data set, one vehicle trip, might not violate one's expectation of privacy, aggregating a month's worth of personal data allows the government to create a mosaic about an individual's personal life, and that violates that individual's reasonable expectation of privacy. In 2018, the court confirmed in Carpenter versus the United States that the Fourth Amendment is implicated when government action violates individual's reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their physical movements. like driving down the road, regardless of whether such violation of privacy involves a physical trespass. And finally, as I'm sure you're aware, since you're aware of what's going on in the country, on June of 29 of this year, SCOTUS ruled in Chaudhry v. the United States that using geofenced cell phone data constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. And while this ruling did not mention ALPR specifically, the implications are clear. ALPRs along with all other forms of pervasive surveillance constitute clear and obvious infringements of our rights to privacy and our freedom from warrantless search and seizure. This includes our ability to move, converse, and convene in public without being tracked by government, by law enforcement, or anyone. Setting aside the legalese and the technobabble around this issue, let me ask, rhetorically, obviously, do you, do you really want to live in a place with cameras everywhere, with someone anonymously watching and logging your every move? Are you really, are you really so afraid of your neighbors, of us, that you willingly squander your own and also our constitutional right to privacy? I find myself here once again asking the city council to do what I consider to be the absolute bare minimum in this context. Protect the constitutional rights of the citizens who elected you. Do not participate in unconstitutional surveillance of us. Ms. Wright, I need you to wrap up. Cancel the contracts and take down the cameras. Thanks. Thank you.

Next, Core Ash.

Hi, my name is Cor. I live in Auburn as I have most of my life. There are a number of Auburn residents raising concerns about public safety at the last meeting. Many people were saying that unhoused people make them feel unsafe. Many more have come back multiple times to ask you to get rid of ALPRs. The stated goal of ALPRs is reducing crime, but your residents are telling you that these cameras are not making us feel safer or less worried about crime. ALPRs commonly misread license plates anyway. How do license plate readers address crime that isn't associated with a license plate? Will they rely on inaccurate facial recognition tech? What about when someone has concealed their identity? Can Auburn afford to pursue the wrong person who is incorrectly associated with a crime who may choose to sue the city for damages? I just don't think that license plate readers are the right tool for addressing the public safety concerns that residents have been raising. So I ask you to cancel ALPR contracts, remove the cameras, and use that money to address homelessness at the root. Crime rates in King County have been declining since before ALPR cameras were in place. Meanwhile, rates of homelessness have been increasing year over year. According to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, housing can be three times cheaper than criminalization. Housing First pays for itself within 1.5 years and can reduce homelessness and government reliance. Many cities have found success with community safety patrols instead of armed police to address homelessness through connection to services and housing. The neighbors from last week may be seeing more people than usual right now, but if APD simply tells unhoused people to move along, they will gather in other neighborhoods and will keep seeing more and more unhoused people in our streets. License plate readers do not address the reasons for homelessness. They are only a tool for finding cars and jailing people. Uprooting people, throwing away their possessions, finding them, antagonizing them only makes people more agitated and desperate. It seems like a lot of people think jailing them would disappear the problem, but jail perpetuates the cycles of homelessness and is incredibly expensive for taxpayers. The average cost of jailing one person for one year was $60,000 to $77,000 in 2024. Studies show it is cheaper to try to address the basic needs of unhoused people than it would be to find reasons to jail them. People who are concerned with property crime or personal safety can buy home cameras or other portable tech that is wearable. I don't want to be recorded, but I've not been allowed to opt out of being recorded 24-7 by ALPRs. We are telling you we don't want to pay for ALPRs. Please cancel the contracts and use the money to help people in Auburn. Thank you.

Thank you. Raina Harrington.

Good evening, friends. My name's Raina Harrington, as you already know. I'm a resident of Auburn, have been for nearly two years. Just a bit of preface here. This will make sense. My degree field is aviation. I've spent nearly a thousand hours in the cockpit as a flight instructor and countless more as a professor and ground instructor. To paraphrase the Federal Aviation Administration's publication, the pilot's handbook of aeronautical knowledge, one of the five main hazardous attitudes that contributes to pilot error and loss of life in aviation is invulnerability, the attitude that it won't happen to me. I bring this up because at our last meeting, I heard something that sounded a lot like a feeling of invulnerability about the pitfalls of unaccountable surveillance tools. Not exactly something you want to hear from the leaders of a city of 87,000. Now, I'm heartened to hear that we've settled on moving on towards an audit of these cameras. I do want to say that before I continue. According to the Institute for Justice, an American law firm, there have been at least 27 unnecessary confrontations between police and citizens since 2018, mostly since 2023, as a result of failures by automated license plate readers, resulting in a number of innocent people spending time in jail. As of July 25th, the same organization tallied 28 cases of officers misusing access to flock systems alone for stalking. This is not a conjecture. This is a tally of only those cases that have generated widespread media attention. There's no way to know what the actual count is, but it's certain to be far higher and it will only continue to grow. It is too dangerous for us to continue to shoulder the weight of legal and fiscal liability that will fall on the shoulders of taxpayers in Auburn when it eventually and inevitably happens here too and the city finds itself in court. In aviation, we don't watch 55 airplanes crash for the same reason and go, it won't happen here. And we don't ask, why now? Because it doesn't matter why now. All that matters is that it's happening and we can fix it. Time and again, outsourcing what ought to be a job for humans to some hallucinating AI slop trough goes wrong. Time and again, residents express fear and disgust over the surveillance. Let's learn from the mistakes of others before a mistake that harms us happens here. Residents continue to stand in this very room begging for help with drug dealers, homelessness, and harassment and threats. We only hear more at every meeting. It doesn't seem like those cameras are stopping those reports or helping them. They aren't fixing the actual problems that people in the city experience. We have police officers for that, humans with curiosity, empathy, and senses well beyond that of some snake oil magic camera system. They should be addressing these concerns. They should be out in our community watching for stolen vehicles or suspicious activity. They could respond to the harassment, the narcotics crimes, and engage productively with the people in our community that need their help to keep themselves and businesses safe. It's time we, as a community, got actual solutions for our problems. I, for one, don't feel any safer leaving my home at night to know that if I'm assaulted or worse, some camera somewhere just might catch those responsible after the fact. I'll start feeling safer when the city starts taking proactive steps to prevent crime and keep our streets safe in the first place. Ditch the ALPRs. We can spend the resources on something that actually helps us. Thanks. Thank you.

Next, Ava Hahn.

Hello again, Auburn City Council. My name is Ava Hahn. I'm a homeowner in our delightful town, and I am very thankful to hear that conversations are being held about potential audits. I, of course, came with a statement advocating for such an audit, so I'll take this time instead of just advocating to talk about the kind of information that worries me as an Auburn resident to potentially better equip an audit if that's the kind of thing you're receptive to. So, according to Phlox Auburn Washington Transparency Portal, we're operating 37 cameras. Now, at 3K a year for Phlox cheaper options, that's six figures at least a year for ALPRs. As recently reported by Business Insider, the Roseville, California Police Department, in an audit of their systems and surrounding suburbs, found that a whopping 71% of their Phlox camera license plate alerts were total misreads by the AI, 71% of them. That's a mystery by the AI looking at the camera footage. Our transparency portal shows Auburn Police Department got 2,915 of these kinds of alerts in the last 30 days. So 71% of those are bogus. That's 2,070 of them. Then given our 2024 census data, that is one in 40 Auburn residents a month at the risk of being pulled over at gunpoint by officers who are out looking for violent criminals. And that's exactly why I've been advocating for an independent third-party audit of our ALPR systems. Such an audit, as you know, would only cost a drop in the bucket compared to our current flock budget and, of course, compared to any price of litigation led by an Auburn resident who's been wrongfully harmed in some kind of occurrence of a false alert. In addition to that, in October of 2025, as we all know here at the University of Washington, published findings showing that we had left our systems open to abuse by ICE and other federally deputized armed agents. According to our transparency portal, we're still sharing that data with 80 different external organizations, including police departments in Washington who don't even have contracts with FLOC anymore. An independent audit will help make sure that we aren't still undertaking actions that were now prohibited by State Bill 6002 from undertaking, as well as answering questions like why Johnston, Indiana and Huron, Ohio are sharing ALPR data with Auburn Surveillance Net. Those cities are like across the country. They don't even have the same regulations we do. It kind of begs the question, like, why are we as taxpayers paying to be this nexus of surveillance data from across the country? Anyways, I'm thankful to hear that we're having conversations about auditing this information. I just wanted to bring a couple of points to your visibility where the currently released information shows that there are problems. So thank you very much.

Thank you. And Lilith, is that correct?

Hello, my name is Lilith. I've lived here for 30 years. Two weeks ago, the invasive nature of ALPR systems were downplayed by comparing them to the ability to be tracked through your debit card transactions or your phone. This argument fails on two points. The first is easy to explain and obvious. I can leave my phone at home. I don't need to pay with a debit card. I can use cash. We can opt out of these forms of surveillance, corporate owned surveillance. We can't opt out of these cameras. We weren't even given a choice to have them. The second reason this argument fails is that there are legal and industry standards protecting our phone location data and credit information. The Supreme Court has ruled that tracking your phone is all-encompassing and thus a Fourth Amendment violation, or a Fourth Amendment protected. And as these ALPR networks grow, they also become all-encompassing. become an all-encompassing record of your car and by extension where you've been by corporation the city has no control or oversight over the your credit and debit Your credit and debit card information is protected by the Federal Trade Commission and payment card industry data security standards, which failure to follow results in fines and other penalties. ALPR companies have no security standards that they are held to and have already been repeatedly hacked or compromised. leaving the footage they store to capture license plates open to abuse. Please cancel the contracts with Flock. The lack of regulations and the potential Fourth Amendment abuse leaves the city open to future litigation and fines while violating citizen trust.

Thank you. And I'll write your name down when you say it.

I also appreciate, my name is David Fairchild. I've been an Auburn resident for over 20 years. I also appreciate that you guys are looking into that third party audit, or at least the state auditor's office for FLOC. You stole a little bit of my thunder, so I'm gonna move down my comments just a bit. Last week, or the last session, some council members said that you had not heard any compelling reasons for a third-party audit. Sounds like maybe there's been some discussions about that. It's difficult for the public to bring up any of these concerns about usage on an internal tool, but I had some time and started looking at public information. I was pleased again to see that Auburn has a flock transparency portal. During the flock study session on July 13, the flock representative said these portals are our baby. Very proud of those things. Their baby must not be very cute because less than 8% of their customers have one, and many that do redact data to the point of providing no transparency. These transparency portals are hidden from search engines, hidden from archiving tools, and are barely mentioned in public announcements, Auburn included. Out of 12,000 plus flock customers, only 950 have transparency portals. I looked at every one of them. Several states, including Washington, limit data sharing to in-state only. I found cities in California, Illinois, and Connecticut that violate their state laws, and all of these cities share data with Auburn, Washington. Most of them only share with Auburn and the entire state. I don't know why. Judging by the number of networks searched in Auburn's public search audit, more than 2,400 organizations nationwide share data with Auburn. Only 151 of them have transparency portals. Few had public search audit logs, but I did find people's names, potential crimes, and fled from ICE amongst the reasons and offense types from the people that are sharing data with Auburn. After reviewing the portals, I turned to Auburn specifically. Again, as mentioned, Auburn shares data with about 80 organizations. Three immediately stood out. Tulalip Tribal Police Department, Spilgan Tribal PD, and Suquamish. To my understanding, tribal entities are not covered by SB 6002. Only state and local agencies are covered. Tribal entities can access and share data with whomever they want, including out-of-state organizations and federal agencies. The public search audit log does not provide enough detail to determine if any searches of Auburn's data was done by one of these three organizations. Auburn has access to dozens of Washington City's data, including Eatonville, Lakewood, Kennewick, Mount Vernon, Newcastle, Olympia, Prosser, Renton, and Walla Walla. These cities and more have canceled or terminated their flock contracts, but their transparency portals are still active. Auburn's public search audit log shows searches routinely include more than 2,400 networks. The audit does not provide enough detail to determine if Auburn conducts searches against data sets from cities that have terminated contracts. But chances are they do. Auburn searches 20 times more networks when compared to other Washington organizations. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak tonight that didn't get a chance to sign in? Anyone else want to speak this evening? All right. We are going to close public comment. And we are going to, Council is going to adjourn into an executive session per RCW 42.30.110 sub 1, sub i, sub 2i to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation to which the agency is or is likely to become a party when public knowledge regarding discussions is likely to result in adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency. The length of time for the executive session is 15 minutes. We will resume at 7, I'm going to give us a minute to get in there, 7.49. And in addition to myself, the city council, city attorney Jason Whalen, and director of public works Ingrid Gaub will be required to attend. And there is planned action following the executive session this evening.

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All right, we will call the Auburn City Council meeting back to order. Sean, do we have any correspondence this evening? No, Your Honor. All right, we'll move to the consent agenda. All matters listed on the consent agenda are considered by the City Council to be routine and will be enacted by one motion in the form listed. Is there a motion? Deputy Mayor Taylor. I move to approve the consent agenda, Mayor. Thank you. Is there a second? Council Member Ammer. I second, Mayor. Thank you. Deputy Mayor Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor. As seen on your agenda, it's minutes from the July 20th, 26th council meeting, July 27th study session meeting, claims and vouchers. Thank you. Thank you.

Questions or comments or any items on the consent agenda that you would like removed for separate consideration? All those in favor of the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say no. The consent agenda passes. Moving to ordinances, ordinance number 7029, an ordinance relating to electric motorcycles and electric-assisted bicycles, amending section 10.56.010 of the Auburn City Code and adding a new chapter 10.57 to the Auburn City Code. Is there a motion to approve? Councilmember Amor.

I make a motion to approve ordinance number 7970. Thank you. Is there a second?

Council Member Lotz.

I'll second that.

Thank you. Council Member Ammer.

This ordinance update came because we are responding to concern raised by public. Council asked staff to review recent state update, and we had a meeting in July 13. This update, which will be allowed City of Auburn, update Auburn, City code to address electrical motor cycle, electrical assistant bio cycle. It's add clear rules for their operation within the city and provide enforcement authority for Auburn Police Department to help improve public safety.

Thank you. Questions or comments? All those in favor of ordinance number 7029 please say aye. Aye. All opposed please say no. Ordinance number 7029 passes. Moving to resolutions. Excuse me. Resolution number 5910, a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute on behalf of the city a lease termination agreement followed by a new lease agreement with Longhorn Barbecue Outpost, Inc., doing business as Bogey's Public House. Is there a motion? Councilmember Sturgis.

Thank you, Mayor. Motion for council to adopt resolution number 5910. Thank you. Is there a second?

Councilmember Ammer.

A second.

Thank you. Council Member Sturgis.

Thank you, Mayor. Adopting resolution number 5910 will have us take this lease and replace the existing concessionaire agreement for Bogies Public House at the Auburn Municipal Golf Course. The new lease provides a more organized and comprehensive framework that better defines the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of both the city and the tenant. And, yep, that's it.

Thank you. Questions or comments? All those in favor of resolution 5910, please say aye. Aye. All opposed, please say no. Resolution number 5910 passes. Resolution number 5924. A resolution adopting supplement number one to the city of Auburn's automated traffic safety camera 2025 program expansion study and program overview and affirming that enforcing speed limits with an automated traffic safety camera on Auburn Way South at the current location is consistent with state law and supports city safety goals. Is there a motion to approve? Council Member Sturgis.

Thank you, Mayor. A motion for the council to adopt resolution number 5924. Thank you. Is there a second? Councilmember Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor. I second. Thank you. Councilmember Sturgis.

Thank you, Mayor. This resolution adopts a supplement to the city's original study that specifically evaluates potential impacts of the speed camera on Auburn Way South to the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe and confirms that the current camera location meets state requirements and supports city safety goals. Thank you. Questions or comments from council?

All those in favor? Council Member Baldwin.

Thank you, Mayor. As noted on the agenda page of this particular resolution, the final paragraph indicates the following. The adoption of this supplement number one to the study, the city will move the Auburn Way South Camera from issuing warnings to issuing infractions as the minimum 30 warning period required by statute has been met. Can you provide an update for council around what the expectation would be for activating cameras?

If passed. Go ahead, Director Gow. Yeah.

So at this point in time, because they've been in a warning mode for so long, we would anticipate doing some additional signage, variable message signage at the location of the camera to provide a minimum of two week notice for the public to know when infractions are actually going to start.

Any other questions or comments? All those in, Council Member Baldwin.

Thank you, Mayor. One of the things I wanted to check on with this is in our partnership with the Muckleshoot Tribe, what would our plan be after activation of the cameras for working with the tribe to review the data for how our safety numbers are affected and for the number of people that would be receiving citations?

Yeah, so I believe you're talking about some of the previous conversations with the tribe about offering a check-in point after the cameras go live. We are happy to do that at three months, six months, whatever makes sense from how the data is collected and shows the information necessary to show kind of what is actually happening in there.

Council Member Baldwin.

Thank you, Director Gob. I just wanted to... make sure that we were all in alignment that that continued opportunity would be there for additional conversation going forward and making sure that our data is shared so we can work together to have safety in that corridor. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? All those in favor of resolution number 5924, please say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All opposed, please say no. No. No.

I believe the motion passes 5 to 2. Would you like a hand vote? I believe, just to confirm, Council Member Lott and Council Member Riggs voted no. Thank you. Okay.

All right. The motion carries. Resolution number 5924 passes. All right. We have come to the end of the business portion of the meeting. We now move to mayor and council member reports. At this time, the mayor and city council may report on significant items associated with their appointed positions on federal, state, regional, and local organizations. And we will begin with Deputy Mayor Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor. I'll make it quick. Over the past couple weeks, I had the opportunity to participate in several meetings and some regional conversations, including the Sound Cities Association Summer Social, where keynote speaker Shannon Braddock from the Seattle Greater Partners was there to speak on a lot of things, including the economy. Thursday, July 23rd, I had the privilege of attending the 6th Annual King County Substance Use Recovery Conference at Renton Technical College. hosted by King County Council Member Reagan Dunn. Valuable opportunity to hear from addiction specialists, service providers, and people working directly in the field to support individuals and families impacted by substance abuse. And there were some great conversations and sessions around behavioral health, substance abuse, and of course, deeper discussions there. I also want to take a little moment because Mayor and two of my other council members, Sturgis and Ammer, had participated in a leadership program through the Association of Washington Cities. I spent a little time with my team at the University of Washington last week because this was the last they did a consolidated session on this leadership class or I would say program around and a lot of the conversations were extremely valuable. Collaborative leadership, managing conflict, understanding how elected officials can work across different cities and perspectives. Our council members that I are on this team with are from Maple Valley and Renton. Our project is focused on strengthening our downtowns and supporting small businesses across our communities. Our team project is centered around small business, of course, and elevating our downtown areas as well. That framework is taking shape. We have invitations to city staff and key stakeholders going out really soon. And I'm super excited to see where this is headed because, quite frankly, just think a destination within a destination. So I'm very excited to see this take shape. Also, really want to take a moment to commend the first responders that are responding to the fires in Spokane. My parents were on the evacuation zone. They are safe. They're fine. But a lot of my friends and family have lost their livelihoods. I'm thinking of them and super grateful for their first responders. So, thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Hammer.

July 22nd, I attend the Forensic Investigation Council meeting, two hour. I don't know why all my meeting usually two or three hours. So in the meeting, we review grant funding requests where we had to make decision where the funding need to go between sending staff for training or increase the evidence kit. I learned that take around 18 month to train and certified firearms lab examiner. I was shocked. It takes 18 months. So one of the proposal I ask why not the state will have overall class, like the police, to certify them. July 30th, I attend Fairfax Station Grand Break, the 38th and Pacific. It's usually good to see that we will have a new construction fire station, which will support all public in the area. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Sturgis.

Thank you, Mayor. Last week I had the opportunity to, I was super honored to be invited by a local nonprofit, the Washington Ethnic Studies Now in the Seattle area to serve as a guest speaker at their first annual Youth Power Lab. It was a summer camp program for high school age students. middle school and high school. And I got to spend time with about 15 to 20 young folks from across the region. There was a couple students all the way from Thurston County there in Beacon Hill. And each of these young people signed up because they were seeking an opportunity to be uncomfortable and step out of their comfort zone so they could learn about how to lead in their communities and how to make a difference in their local neighborhoods and cities that they lived in. So we talked about leadership, got to share some of my journey from being a young mom to being in banking to then why the heck did you join city council and how do you join city council and what does a mayor do? So it was really fun. We talked about overcoming challenges, really sparking and inspiring pride in your community to create more civic engagement and the importance of using your voice to create positive change. So that was a special opportunity. I also attended the Wasalli networking reception so that was a lot of fun. Each year the cohorts come together so that and AWC is really intentional in making sure that each of the cohorts can network so that as each group is receiving and learning the collaborative leadership skills that we're able to build relationships across the state with all those folks. So to keep it alive. So it's a really great opportunity that I was grateful for and got to exchange lots of ideas and see how each year's projects continue to kind of build off of each other as well. So it was special. And congratulations for completing it. We're excited.

Council Member Taylor.

Thank you, Mayor. Last week I had an opportunity to attend the Senior Center's Volunteer Award Banquet along with Council Member Rakes and Baldwin, and it was a lot of fun. First time I had been to one, and it was great to be able to see a lot of the folks that make things happen behind the scenes that a lot of times don't get the recognition or, you know, the thank you. And so to publicly thank those folks and celebrate with them was awesome. And I look forward to attending again next year.

Thank you. Council Member Lott.

Yeah, I'm not going to talk about the past. I want to talk about tomorrow, which is National Night Out. And I just want to remind everybody in their communities to go out and meet your neighbors and have a discussion and build relationships. And that's really the first step in making the community safer is on the ground level at all your places, your houses, your businesses. And so take the opportunity that we all get tomorrow night and meet your neighbors.

Thank you. Council Member Baldwin.

Thank you, Mayor. As noted by Councilmember Taylor, on the 24th, I had attended the Senior Center Volunteer Awards. which was great to see. I had an attendee at my table. We were joking that our table represented the KP duty, or kitchen patrol, because it was a lot of folks that help out doing dishes, cleaning dishes, clearing tables, and making sure that folks are taken care of. But we had someone who had over a decade worth of volunteering that they had done within our community, which was very impressive. In addition to that, I had a meeting with Ms. McNeil of the Gold Star Families of Washington to begin exploring what it could look like to have Auburn become a Gold Star City in our state, which would be a great thing and something that I'll be bringing forward for council to look at in the future. And in addition to that, I had a brief conversation with the mayor about 10 minutes before the meeting tonight where she informed me of the news that we will be exploring an audit of our flock cameras through the state auditor's office. That was the first that I had heard of it and very excited to see that that's something that so many members of council are now amenable to. And that's my update, thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Rakes.

I won't go on too much about the volunteer lunch, but it was a great time. It's been my fourth year going, so I will continue to always go to those. On Friday night, I attended up at Muckleshoot, welcoming the canoes back. And this year was very special since they had a couple news that overturned this year. And thank goodness nobody was hurt. And so each tribe gets together when they come back on the canoes. Each tribe hosts something at their city and Friday night was at Auburn so there was a lot of people a lot of people and just had fun watching the kids and the dancing and the singing and the Party and from them coming back.

So I think that's it my report Thank you So as an update for The fires in Spokane, Deputy Mayor just showed me and I just got the news too that they have determined that those fires were intentionally set and they have arrested an arson suspect. But wanted to say thank you to Valley Regional Fire Authority, Valley Professional Firefighters. We have 14 members of who are over in Spokane right now. But Chief Day assured the mayors that, however, we maintain full capability and staffing reserves to handle anything unusual within the VRFA service area. So we typically in the Valley Regional Fire Authority do deploy firefighters to many of the wildfires in this state and outside this state. So it speaks volumes to the professional abilities and the compassion and care of our firefighters. Godspeed and safety to each and every one of the firefighters, the first responders that are involved, as well as praying for those who are at risk or who have, as the Deputy Mayor stated, lost their homes and their livelihoods to this horrible fire. Excuse me. On Monday, July 24th, I attended a Seattle Regional Homelessness Forum with Dr. Robert Marbet of HUD who came into town with the Assistant Secretary of HUD to have a very off the record conversation about what funding is going to look like. And while there has been some concern that funding was going to be cut, the funding is not being cut. It is actually being increased. But the allocation amounts between Emergency housing transitional housing and permanent supportive housing are going to be re evaluated in 2013 those three categories were equally funded. But after 2013, it started going more towards permanent supportive housing as opposed to shelter or transitional services. And so the goal of the administration is to try and rebalance those funding dollars. So while funding for permanent supportive housing in the next couple of years may look different, the funding levels overall are going to remain at and increased. That evening, we had our first party on the plaza for the year. It was a beautiful night. A lot of people attending, having a great time, a great band. And we do have another one scheduled for Friday, August 28th. So if you missed the first one or you didn't miss the first one, Come on out for another fun event on August 28th, Party in the Plaza. And on Saturday night, the 25th, attended the Bonadori as part of Obon at the White River Buddhist Temple. A huge thank you to them for always inviting us and their graciousness. Monday the 27th, I was invited to a meeting with Governor Ferguson along with five other mayors to discuss the upcoming legislative session and the governor's budget. This will be the first budget that Governor Ferguson is submitting on his own, the last one he inherited from Governor Inslee on his way out. The request that the mayors made was to basically do no harm to cities. Over the course of the years, there have been lots of shared revenues that have been shrunk or have evaporated from cities. And so we ask that there be no harm done to the cities in this budget and that the Public Works Assistance Account, or as most people know it, the Public Works Trust Fund, is not swept because cities like Auburn utilize those low-interest loans out of that account to pay for much needed infrastructure improvements around our city. So the governor said he is not going to recommend any new taxes, which sounded good to all of us. He was focusing more on quality of life issues, which included he's going to have a recommendation that all school districts banned cell phones during the school day. Now, I will tell you that the city of Auburn or the Auburn School District has already implemented that approach. Some of the schools within the district started it a couple of years ago, but the Auburn School District implemented that ban last year and met with great success. So I shared the experience of our school district with the governor during our meeting. And I believe that is it. So we have already had our executive session for this evening. With that, we are adjourned.