City Council - Regular Meeting

I think we can start the meeting. Thank you, everyone, for being here. We appreciate to hear from you, and we're glad you're here. City clerk, can you just do the roll call, please?

I will. Thank you, mayor. This evening, council member Robinson will be joining us late, and council member Breyer will not be in attendance. So with that, mayor Malikutian? Here. Deputy mayor Hamilton? Here. Councilmember Bargava? Here. Councilmember Newhouse? Here. Councilmember Sumoduaria?

Here. Councilmember Bargava, would you please lead us

in the

flag salute?

Yes, sure. Please write if you can.

I pledge allegiance to 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.

We do have three proclamation. The first one is International Firefighters Day. Council member Newn House will read that. I will invite captain Nate Caudill, engineer Aaron Clare, firefighter Mason Kays of engine one hundred ten. Whoever wants to come to the table, please come. Chief Mark Anderson, staff assistant Mark Van Winkle, firefighter paramedic Mon Park, and Nick Henry from battalion one zero one. Please join us here. And after the Council of Newnhams read the proclamation, we hear from you and your comments. Please go ahead.

Thank you, mayor. I'm honored to read this, especially after having a private personal tour of the new Fire Station ten on Saturday this weekend, was so well attended by the public. Whereas, International Firefighters Day is observed annually on May 4 to honor and remember the courageous firefighters who have lost their lives and service to their communities, to express gratitude to those who have served and to recognize those who continue to protect and safeguard our residents today. And whereas this global observance was established following the tragic loss of five firefighters in a wildfire in Victoria, Australia on 12/02/1998 as a way to honor their sacrifice and recognize the dedication of firefighters worldwide who risk their lives daily in the line of duty. And whereas firefighters face significant personal and physical challenges, demonstrating exceptional bravery and selflessness as they respond to fires, to medical emergencies, and disasters, often at great personal risk to protect lives, property, and the well-being of their communities.

And whereas the Bellevue Fire Department continues to uphold the highest standards of excellence, maintaining its international accreditation from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International since 1998, reflecting the department's ongoing commitment to professionalism, to preparedness, and public safety. And whereas Bellevue's firefighters serve with dedication, responding at a moment's notice to emergencies, ensuring the safety of individuals and families, and supporting the resilience and economic stability of our community. Now, therefore, I, council member Newhouse, on behalf of Mo Malakutian, mayor of Bellevue, Washington, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim 05/04/2026 as International Firefighters Day in Bellevue and encourage residents to show appreciation for their courage, for their dedication, and for their sacrifice of our Bellevue fire department personnel and firefighters everywhere while also honoring the memory of those who have given their lives sir given their lives in the line of duty.

Thank you. Councilman Neuhaus. Please.

Malikuchi and Council, just want to thank you for recognizing the honor that we get to play in being a part of this community and serving the needs here. And especially want to thank you for your support. It's fun for us to be able to operate out of a brand new fire station. And thank you for that. And it helps us serve the community better with all the growth that we have. Thank you for supporting us and allowing us to do a faster response and provide the resources for us to do that. So thank you for recognizing the role that we have the honor of providing to this community. And it's just it's truly is an honor for us to be able to do this every day when we come to work. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you very much for giving us the ability to respond quickly to this area downtown where we have so many more calls. We work hard to try to be prepared to do a good job for you, and we appreciate your support in allowing us to do that.

I appreciate you. Thank you. We usually wait till we do all of our proclamation, but because I'm sure you have a job to do, we just come right now to take a picture to let you guys go Wow. Thank you. Faster than if something happens.

Our second proclamation is Traputi Court Month. Council member Bargava will read that. We have our honorable judge, Lisa Othul, please come to the table from King County East Division Community Court. And of course, we have Craig Fritz from city of Bellevue probation manager. Councilor Borgawa, please go ahead.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. And so whereas therapeutic courts improve both public health and public safety by using evidence based approaches to support adults, youth, and families affected by substance abuse and behavioral health conditions, helping individuals make lasting changes that strengthen our community. And whereas Bellevue residents benefit benefit from access to King County's therapeutic courts, which provide meaning meaningful alternatives to traditional case processing and create pathways toward recovery, stability, and family reunification. And whereas therapeutic courts connect participants to treatment, case management, peer support, housing, education and employment resources along with structure and accountability to address underlying challenges and support long term success and whereas these programs have a positive upstream impact helping to interrupt cycles of substance abuse and involvement in the legal system while reducing adverse childhood experiences and supporting stronger families and whereas the therapeutic courts have demonstrated a measurable outcome, including increased participation in treatment, higher rates of family reunification, improved employment outcomes, and reductions in recidivism and emergency system use, and whereas participants and alumni of therapeutic courts contribute to Bellevue's community as engaged parents, employees, neighbors, and mentors, creating positive ripple effects that strengthen the city as a whole.

Now I therefore, I, Vishal Bhargava, on behalf of Momo Alacuchin, mayor of Bellevue, Washington, on behalf of the entire city council, to hereby proclaim May 2026 as therapeutic court month in Bellevue and encourage all residents to recognize the value of these programs and support efforts that promote recovery, stability, and public safety in our community.

Thank you, council member. Judge, please.

Thank you. So I'm judge Lisa O'Toole from King County District Court in Bellevue, and I wanna thank our city council for recognizing and honoring the value of therapeutic courts in our community. I'm honored to have launched our brand new Bellevue Community Court. It's an alternative therapeutic court with a restorative justice model. And it's a beautiful partnership between the city of Bellevue with our Bellevue Police, our Bellevue Probation, the Bellevue prosecutor, King County Library here in Bellevue, and the King County District Court.

What we do in community court is we, have nonviolent offenders who are individually assessed to determine what obstacles that they may face that may be the root cause of their criminal behavior. And these obstacles are things like substance abuse, chronic unemployment, chronic homelessness, and community court seeks to provide these individuals with services such as treatment and the support and the tools that they need. The goal being removing these barriers and hopefully preventing future community act pardon me, criminal activity while holding them accountable to our community, through service to our Bellevue community. Community court is structured to provide each of these individuals hope. We encourage our participants to believe that their future can be better than today and that they have the power to make it so.

We, at Community Court, offer them the tools and the pathway and the services and the support so that they can reach these goals of a better future. Director, mister Fritz, will tell you more about, Bellevue Probation's involvement in community court, and the service component of community court.

Thank you. Thank you, judge. Good evening, mayor Malikutian, deputy mayor Hamilton, council members. It's good to see you all. On behalf of community court and our probation teams, I do want to personally thank you for taking the opportunity to recognize this month.

Your acknowledgment does share a or does reflect a shared to approaches that not only uphold accountability like Cho Jo Toll mentioned, but also do create very meaningful and lasting pathways to both change and to stability. It is an honor to serve within this type of system that's that holds both of these values together. I'd like to highlight, especially just very quickly, the the community resource center that kind of spurred out of community court, I guess. Since opening in June of of last year or or it was July, I think. July.

Think I did. Yeah. I got that wrong. It has become a very vital and welcome welcoming access point where individuals can connect with a wide range of coordinated services, mental health and substance use treatment and support, housing assistance, employment and job training, education, public benefits, legal aid, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. By bringing these partners together under one roof, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that that roof is under is over with our friends at the Bovie Library who have been incredible through this journey.

The the resource center reduces barriers that all too often prevent people from taking that very first step toward the change. It meets people where they are often at moments of of real difficulty and real challenge, and it helps them open doors that might otherwise remain closed. Many individuals in our community have been connected to these critical resources through the community resource center often for the first time. And, of course, behind each of those connections is a person taking a step forward in a community that is stronger for it. Just last week, for example, and I really wanted to highlight this, DOL2Go was on-site at the resource center, and it provided multiple individuals with the opportunity to obtain a Washington State ID, something that many of us do take for granted.

But we also know that for them, it represents a real turning point toward employment and housing and that overall sense of renewed stability. We are also seeing really quickly, as Jojo Toole mentioned, meaningful impact through our accountability based programs through the probation division's work crew program. Since we started, 15 individuals have completed more than a hundred and fifteen hours of community service across the city's farms, the parks, the public sites, and the trail systems. And that work, as we know, is not just maintenance, it is contribution. It is individuals who are giving back in visible and tangible ways while at the same time building responsibility structure and pride in progress.

And most importantly, to wrap it up, it is a reminder that change is possible. And when we do invest in people with both expectations and support, we see better outcomes for them and for the community as a whole. These efforts reflect Belvieu's ongoing commitment to smart, compassionate justice and stronger community outcomes. And again, I thank you for this opportunity and for your continued support and for recognizing the importance of this work.

Thank you so much. If you just hang out two minutes, we'll do the next proclamation, and then we'll take a picture with you guys.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Our third proclamation is Public Service Recognition Week. It's going to read by deputy mayor Hamilton, and Nathan MacCammon, our deputy city manager, will receive that. I will invite Nathan to come to the table. Deputy mayor, please.

Thank you. Whereas public service recognition week is observed during the May to honor the people who serve our nation as federal, state, county, and local government employees, and whereas public servants contribute to the growth, safety, and quality of life in our communities through their commitment to excellence, innovation, and service across a wide range of professions and departments, and whereas the city of Bellevue is proud to be served by a dedicated and diverse workforce of public employees who uphold the city's values of exceptional service, stewardship, and accountability, And whereas public service professionals in Bellevue, including those in planning, engineering, police, fire, parks, finance, technology, human services, and more, play a vital role in supporting the city's continued growth, equity, resilience, and sustainability, and whereas the work of public servants continues to be essential as they adapt, lead, and respond to the needs of a dynamic and diverse community while maintaining the highest standards of professionalism, and whereas it is important to recognize and show appreciation for the work, dedication, and integrity of those who choose public service as a career and who help ensure that government is responsive, effective, and accessible to all. Now, therefore, I, Dave Hamilton, on behalf of Mo Malakoutian, mayor of the city of Bellevue, Washington, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as public service recognition week in Bellevue and encourage all residents to recognize and thank our public employees for their outstanding contributions to our community.

Thank you, deputy mayor. Please, Nathan.

Wow. What a marvelous proclamation. So thank you, mayor and council, for the proclamation. It's very important to recognize employees and what they do. A hallmark of Bellevue City employees is excellent customer service. In fact, it's one of our core values. Our employees are out there every day doing excellent service for our community. And they do it quietly. They do it purposefully. They do it with pride.

And their public service is really the backbone of how we engage the community, connect to neighborhoods, maintain a high quality infrastructure, support families and youth, support businesses, provide the right level of regulation, and keep the community safe, clean, and vibrant. From smart planning for growth and timely emergency response, our employees do make a real difference every day. Public service touches every part of this city. And on behalf of all the staff, thank you, counsel, for taking the time to issue this proclamation every year, in fact. It honors those people providing that service, which means not just the city employees here in Bellevue, but our community based organizations, the employees of county, state, and federal governments as well.

So thank you very much.

Thank you. Let's just have a picture with every employee that we have in the room, please. Can I have a motion to excuse council member Briar from this meeting, please?

I move to excuse council member Briar. Second.

It has been moved with deputy mayor and seconded by council member Newhouse. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? There is no opposed. The motion passes. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? I move to approve the agenda. Second. It's been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by council member Newnhouse. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? There is no opposed. The motion passes. City clerk, our favorite part, oral communication, please.

Perfect. There were two preregistered speakers this evening, but one of them has dropped off, so we only have one. But I do wanna mention before I start calling names that the council does appreciate all of the public engagement and folks contributing their perspectives. But, comments shared during oral communications do represent the views of the individual speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or values of the council or the city. And, a few of our rules for folks.

The total time for oral communications is for a period of no more than thirty minutes and all topics must relate to City of Bellevue government. People speaking to items on tonight's agenda will be called first and if time remains, people speaking to items not on the agenda will be called. The presiding officer has authorization to give preference to those who have not spoken to counsel within the last sixty days or who will be speaking on items coming in front of the counsel within the next sixty days. Speakers are allowed up to three minutes to speak and only three people are allowed to speak to any one side of a particular topic. And then in compliance with Washington State campaign laws regarding the use of public facilities, no speaker may support or oppose a ballot measure or support or oppose a candidate for election.

You do begin talking about that, we will ask you to stop. So with that, I'll call our only registered speaker, which is Maria Hudson.

Welcome.

I'm back here tonight because you guys are still in control of an investigation that should be with a third party. I wanna be very clear that child sex trafficking historically and presently is lynching, sexual assault, domestic violence, terrorism, white male sexual impunity, lynching. And because you violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, specifically to bury child sex trafficking reports and evidence, I'm going to ask you again to turn it over to a third party. Because you've been running a school to prison pipeline that is nothing short of a eugenics exploitative based convict leasing genocide program. And it is offensive for you guys to hold on to this case.

I think you are adding insult to injury, considering the fact that your police department didn't just cover up child sex trafficking forensic interviews. You also buried evidence. You buried witnesses. So I'm here hoping that you take me seriously because it is beyond offensive that you guys are allowing them to investigate themselves. And this is legally lynching.

Rosa Parks went to Mississippi, my parents' home state, to investigate sexual assault that was happening to black men, women, boys, girls. So I'm gonna ask you again to please have the integrity you've already been identified as conflict of interest by East District Court Judge Clinch, 07/27/2022. I think part of racism operates as this being dismissive and disregarding and further disrespecting parties that have been injured by your police department by allowing them to investigate themselves. And I just want to be clear that the Ku Klux Klan Act is the most relevant statute. And what I understand your police department to be doing is to be investigating your entities administratively, and you will refer out any kind of crimes that you find.

That's not good enough. It is not. You should not operate a eugenics based exploitative convict leasing genocidal program. As a parent, I want this case turned over to third party professionals so your officers can be held accountable. And I know other African American families who feel the same way that I do. You guys do not operate safety for us. It's safety for you. So I would appreciate the integrity of you handing off your criminal investigations of your officers to a third party. I really would.

Thank you.

Preregistered list. So at this point, I would ask if anyone joining us online or if anyone joining us in the room would like to make a comment to counsel, please raise your hand. No hands, mayor. I'll turn it back to you.

Thank you so much. I believe we can go to the consent calendar. Do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to approve the The being

recorded. Our The first study session is is Seattle World Cup, and we are going to hear from our deputy city manager to introduce that to us.

Very good. Thank you, mayor. I think as everyone knows, the twenty twenty six FIFA Men's World Cup will take place this summer with six soccer matches taking place in Seattle between June 15 and July 6. On April 14, city staff came to the council and presented the coordinated work that is specific to Bellevue, including an overview of related events in Bellevue. And today, to share the greater regional context in Seattle of Seattle FIFA World Cup twenty twenty six, coordination efforts from the local organizing committee were joined by Dylan Ordonias, senior vice president of external affairs.

And this presentation is for information only. With that, I'll turn it over to mister Ordonez.

Welcome.

Thank you very much. Dylan Ordonez, senior vice president of external affairs for Seattle FWC twenty six. We are the nonprofit local organizing committee, for Seattle fulfilling our responsibility as a host city for FIFA World Cup twenty six. Thank you, mayor Malikutian, council members, and city of Bellevue for inviting me here tonight for part two of your World Cup preparations following up on your April 14 presentation from Jesse and other city staff on the amazing work being done here, to prepare Bellevue for this historic occasion of welcoming the world this June. As SVP of external affairs, part of my job is making sure that as many people as possible know who we are and what the World Cup is and what is on the ever closer horizon for this region of state.

So grateful to be here, this evening to share how this event goes beyond Seattle to hopefully reach as many Washingtonians as possible. So let's see here. There we go. So thought I'd begin by doing a quick refresher on the LOC and the tournament itself, which I'm guessing most people know, but just wanna do a level set. We're leading with legacy.

We're using this moment to make lasting progress, this moment of global focus to make lasting local progress. We feel if we just host six matches and call it a day, we will have failed our job. So we're partnering with the Ray Foundation to install mini pitches across the state. We've installed work with local artists to put up murals and other pieces of art in and around Seattle. We just unveiled Vital Spirit yesterday at the stadium, a new sculpture to commemorate the hosting of the World Cup and and other other parts of our legacy program.

We really wanna make sure that we have that lasting impact moving forward and broadening the benefit and celebrating who we are. The tournament itself is thirty nine days, runs from June 11 to July 19. 16 host cities, first time ever across three host countries. This will be the largest tournament, World Cup ever, expanding from 32 teams in Qatar in 2022 to 48 nations, a 104 matches, and projected 3,000,000,000 global viewers for the final. Seattle is one of six host cities, hosting six 16 host cities hosting six matches between June 15 and July 6.

The cumulative viewership for our matches is projected to be over 2,000,000,000. We will have the United States men's national team playing here. We're one of only two host cities guaranteed to host the home team. For that, we're very excited. We'll also be hosting Australia, Belgium, Egypt, Iran, Qatar, and Bosnia And Herzegovina. There are forty four days until this tournament begins. We are counting down. Forty eight days until kickoff in Seattle. So here's the here's the schedule itself. See if it pops back there.

There we go. Belgium and Egypt on the fifteenth at noon, USA versus Australia at noon on Juneteenth. We are leaning into the fact that we're hosting the men's national team on Juneteenth, using it as an occasion to educate the world on the meaning and importance of that national holiday as well as telling stories of black soccer legends inspiring the next generation of black soccer players. We have Bosnia Herzegovina versus Qatar on June 24. Those three matches are at noon.

Then our last group stage match is on June 26, Egypt versus Iran at 8PM, and that match is taking place on the Friday of pride weekend. Right now, we have not been told that Iran is not playing here, so we are continuing forward with our planning as if they are. We have a round of 32 and a round of 16 knockouts on July 1 and July 6 at 1PM and 5PM respectively. And, we believe that the match on the nineteenth and the match on the sixth are gonna be the most, swell of swell of people in the region. Those are those are gonna be some pretty, pretty heavy matches.

We're very excited for that. We were hoping to get a quarter final, but we didn't. But we do get the the honor of hosting the home team, so we'll take that. We'll take that. This our focus this past month has been on adjusting our plans based on the learnings from recent exercises that we've done, safety and mobility. We're also eager to implement our activation plans, which I'll talk about further down in the presentation. We hosted the United States Women's National Team here on fourteenth, followed by the She Believe Summit. I believe the trophy tour came through Bellevue. Anybody go to the trophy tour here? Okay.

I heard the line was long. I hope good. It We have more events happening between now and the tournament. More and more is popping up because we just want to make sure everybody's ready. And so, again, appreciate the opportunity to be here today. At the stadium, every match is going be at full capacity. I mentioned the kickoff times already. We are expecting dignitaries from the nations that are going to be playing here. We don't know who. We don't know when.

Expect to know that closer to match days. There will absolutely be enhanced security protocols in effect. Our chief security officer is John Diaz, former Seattle Police Department chief. He's worked tremendously well with all levels of law enforcement, federal, state, local, to coordinate this this massive event. We are also encouraging as many people as possible to take transit, walk, take bikes, scooters, etcetera.

Do not use a car to get to the stadium area. It's the there's gonna be no parking there. Gates, three hours prior and closing two hours after after last kick. So, again, really pushing that sustainability element of people getting people to and from. We are grateful that our partners at Washed Out are pausing, revive I five. And there's gonna be more group travel between here and Vancouver. Vancouver BC is also host city. They're hosting seven matches. So with our six, we have 13 matches in our Northwest corner here. Bellingham is very excited, but also very terrified at all of the traffic and bottlenecks on I on I 5 there.

So they are a fan zone, so hopefully some of those folks will will exit and and check out Bellingham. Next month, you'll see a pretty aggressive know before you go public education campaign to make sure our residents are aware of what's on what's on the horizon for June. So here's just a a quick snapshot. I don't know if anybody was in Downtown Seattle for the for the Seahawks parade. But the area, this zone one kinda red area right around the stadium into the North Piner Square, there's gonna be a pedestrian only zone.

And that will be in effect four hours prior to kickoff two hours after final whistle. Then going from there to Zone 2, just more of everything. Again, more congestion, heavier transit usage, additional on street activations with the with the last mile. And then it continues to dissipate as you as you move away further away from the stadium with folks taking I 90 heading north to Vancouver, south to Tacoma, Olympia, Vancouver, also fan zones, We're coming over here to Bellevue. So Bellevue, integral to our region's success.

Again, grateful for all of the amazing work that's being done here. I had a chance to view the meeting on the fourteenth. Apologies, I wasn't able to be there. It's really, really great, all the work that's happening. So this picture is from my inaugural ride across, the Cross Lake connection. When I moved here almost twenty years ago, my first job, I was actually in Bellevue. So it's always grateful. Bellevue always has a special place in my heart, and it was really great to take that picture crossing the lake on the link after so many years of waiting. So really grateful that you all are leaning into the two line for your planning. Kudos to the city.

Kudos to Brad and the team at Visit Bellevue, Patrick and company at BDA, and many others for encouraging residents and visitors alike to make the most of this moment for community engagement. I understand that hotels are tracking for a slightly higher rate during the tournament. And you all have a number of amazing activations lined up, including watch parties, pop ups on the plazas. I believe I recall a soccer themed fashion show as well, and other other great things. So grateful to the city's community programming fund to make some of these activations happen.

On a side note, also know that my nine year old twins would be partial to the Science of Soccer event at Kids Quest, which has always been a favorite place of theirs. Also know that Visit Bellevue has partnered with the city to start a campaign to draw in visitors from out of the region, as well as highlight all these events and activations. So I truly hope that residents and others who normally come downtown aren't dissuaded from doing so during the tournament. It's gonna be really exciting to be downtown and be in the mix and kind of feel that new environment that we haven't had before because we've never hosted a World Cup in this region. So I really hope that folks are are encouraged to do that.

There's also a lot of watch parties happening, not just in Seattle, but other places. I know the city of Redmond is planning for an event at Marymore. Know there's going to be events here in Bellevue. Redmond also has a couple other watch party events happening. Renton's going be hosting watch parties. And I imagine there are going to be many other kind of organic things that pop up. Anybody can host a watch party. It's only if they're above 1,000 and commercial if you need a viewing license. But if it's under 1,000 and non commercial, anybody can host a watch party. Any bar or restaurant that has Fox or Telemundo, which is FIFA's broadcast partners in the regular course of business, they can host a party.

And we want that. We want people to feel the excitement for their nations and excitement for the tournament. So in Seattle, the official fan celebrations that are happening will be at Seattle Center, at Pacific Place, at the Waterfront, and at Victory Hall in So To. We originally envisioning one kind of larger event at Seattle Center, And we heard a lot from a lot of feedback in our on our outreach in the city that what are we doing to spread the the joy, the excitement, the economic benefit, the opportunity. And so we took that to heart and came up with this distributed model, still free and open to the public.

And most of them will be open for a majority of the matches. We're really excited about this. And the collective capacity will still be what we were expecting at Seattle Center. So Seattle Center and SOTA will be open through the thirty nine day tournament. Waterfront will be active on Seattle Matchdays, and Pacific Place will be active from the beginning of the tournament through June 6 or July 6, Seattle's last match.

Again, we believe this event is a statewide event. We know that not everybody is gonna be able to come to the city. Not everybody is gonna be willing to come to King County across the mountains or up from the South or the Peninsula. So we came up with this concept of fan zones, partnered with the nine largest cities and the nine largest counties outside of King County to help them put on an event, put on watch parties. So they all look different.

They're all active for different days. Bremerton, I think, is active maybe ten to twelve days. Spokane is active for two days, but they're going in big on June 19 for the men's national team game and then the final. So we're really excited about about these fan zones and how they're gonna be exciting and reflective of their community and community's values. Base camps are on their Renton and Gonzaga out in Spokane. They were on the menu, which would be a home away from home for a team during the tournament. They've both been selected. You may have seen something in the news about it recently. FIFA hasn't confirmed officially, but you may have seen news on which nations will be there. And then our practice fields are at UW and SU, and that's where teams will practice match day minus one when they arrive to market.

We have a community calendar, which we're really excited about. Understand you all have one as well. This is going to be our kind of one stop shop for any soccer related event that's happening in the state. So we'll coordinate coordinate with you all on making sure that we're sharing information about events that are connected to or inspired by the tournament so that residents and visitors alike can see all of the different soccer related goings on here in the state. So if you visit that web page, anybody can fill out a form and submit their event for consideration to be on our website.

We have our app, See and Win. This is our way of it's our interactive mobile game that invites everyone to explore Washington in the lead up to the World Cup. I've never played Pokemon Go, but I'm told it's very similar. I've kind of gamified this this experience of exploring. There are many small businesses, arts, cultural, public parks, locations along different loops in Seattle and at our fan zones.

Encourage people to go to those when they're in that kind of geo fenced area. They can play a game, earn points, earn enough points for prizes like stickers, pins, I believe water bottles, scarves, and a few other things. Score enough points, you have the opportunity to win two tickets to a match on us on the organizing committee. So please tell your friends that you do have the chance to win World Cup tickets to a match in Seattle downloading and playing see and win. Really excited about that.

All the other host cities just kinda made a welcome to the host city. It kinda generic information, of course. We decided to do something completely different than that. But hopefully, it'll be a tool or something that other large events can use moving forward if it's a successful model. The app gets people to these places. It's on the businesses and other institutions to get people to come in the door. So we just we wanted to try something different. So we'll see how it goes. We have many playbooks on our website. I believe some of these may have been cited in the presentation a couple weeks ago.

Branding guide, an inclusion playbook, preventing trafficking, watch parties, public viewing, and the small business mega events playbook. These are great assets that anybody in the community can use. So please feel free to view and share. And I have I'm available to answer any questions you may have, provide any other information. There are any number of other things I can talk about as we prepare for welcoming the world here in June.

But I understand I have limited time this evening. I will just end that this is our host city poster by local artist Shogo Ota. He is the same artist that did the Bruce Lee kit jersey for the Sounders a few years back, if anybody remembers that. But this is the number one selling host city poster by far. We're really proud of it and feel that it really does a good job capturing who we are as a region, our history, our connection to the Salish Sea, soccer in this place. So thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today.

No. Thank you so much, Dylan, for a great presentation and a great work you are doing. As you mentioned, this is our second presentation that we are getting about this. We are all excited to have this big event for our region, and we are part of that. Is there any questions for Dylan? Councilman Newhouse, please.

Dylan, thanks for being here. Appreciate it. For those watching or those interested in the available slots to learn and be able to identify trafficking, unfortunate aspect of the world's largest athletic men? How can they learn more and see if they qualify and get information about signing up for that?

So we did partner with BEST with businesses and things like urban trafficking. We have training slots available, primarily for frontline employees, but really for anybody, any organization, any company business that would like to receive that training, not only for recognizing the signs, but also what to do if you recognize the signs to take action. We have those training slots available still. So I believe the information's on our website. But I can also follow-up with you and make sure you have the information you need.

Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. Important service. So thank you so much for the great update as the momentum and the and the excitement continues to build. I agree. I think we have the best poster. Even without you telling me that it's the best selling one, it's just such a fantastic poster. And I see more and more people wearing it as a T shirt too, you know, as well. So it's really seemed to to to capture what the what the tournament will all be about and and what Seattle can offer. So one last question. Who do you think is gonna win the World Cup?

Who who do I think is gonna win the World

Cup? Yeah.

I I don't I don't know who's gonna win the World Cup. I think there's some pretty strong teams.

You got Of

course, I'd love the home team to make a strong run. I'd love the home team to make a strong run. One thing I didn't note, which I should have, is we're a lot of us are former government employees. We're planners. We like to think through different scenarios. And not to presuppose anything or tempt fate, but in the event that The United States Men's National Team wins their group and wins their round of 32 match, they will play here again for that round of 16 match on July 6. So really hoping they they have a strong showing, so that we can have them not once but twice.

100%.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, council member Neuhnhaus. Any other questions? Council member Borgavo, please.

Yeah. Soccer, very excited. This is great. Really appreciate everything that's going on to prepare our region for this and however, Bellevue is helping to also contribute to that readiness. We've had a few presentations, one here and then other forums as well on the readiness. So I'm gonna ask you for your sort of assessment. One is, like, what's keeping you up at night as what you think are the most critical risks here that we should be thinking about?

Well, besides the fact that we're in double digits for days for the countdown, I started on this when there were four digits back in 2017, and now we're down to forty four days. I feel like, you know, just what we don't know. You don't know what you don't know. Right? This is the first time we've hosted a World Cup.

And we have some really great minds, really great people with, you know, lifetimes of experience in event planning, law enforcement, government affairs, other community outreach, all of the areas that you need to put on a big event. And I think we're doing an Okay job. I have confidence in all the different areas of planning. We have been planning this for nine years. And we are on the precipice of shifting shifting fully into operations and execution mode.

I think what's always in the back of my mind is just like, what are we missing? What do we not know? Because we've never hosted a World Cup before in Seattle, this region, in Washington state. But I will say that we have a lot of great things going for us besides stellar colleagues and leaders we have, both in public service and in the private sector and community and nonprofits. Just our region has so much to offer to be able to make this a success.

And our stadium is located right in the heart of downtown, unlike other host cities that are, you know, it's like an hour or more away, not even in the same city. And I think that is was was it's it's really a benefit to us right now. You know, it's at the nexus of a lot of different modes of trans transit. You know, you have light rail, Amtrak, all the buses, ferries, highways, everything right there. So being able to move people in and out is is is good, and that's kind of foundational to hosting at the stadium.

I'm gonna stop rambling right now, but, yeah, it's just really the really the unknown is what what keeps me what keeps me up.

Got it. And, you know, first of all, I really love the ideas and the playbooks that you outlined for the various things, economic development, trafficking, etcetera. And also the gamification, I think that's a really smart way to get folks engaged. My last question would be like as part of the Bellevue City Council, is there anything that we can do coming so close to the actual execution for something that you've been planning for so long that you would need help for in the next thirty days here?

I can't think of anything specifically other than just keep doing the amazing work that you're already doing. It's really kudos to you all for pushing and Sound Transit for delivering on the Cross Lake connection. We're all really wanting that to happen before the tournament. And I think that's just going to provide an incredible opportunity for Bellevue and the East Side, for visitors, for people just if they're staying here at a hotel or just curious about what's going on out here, because they can ride the rail line out here. So I think just continue doing what you're doing, making sure that your community is engaged and feels a part of this historic occasion is all we can hope for, for Bellevue and all of the other cities across the state.

But if there's anything that you all ever need, any questions you have, any information, please do not hesitate to reach out. If you have any more questions right now, happy to stay as long as you'll allow and as long as they'll allow. So we stay on track. But really, we're really grateful for everything you're doing. And I have some scarves for you too, if that's

all right.

I was hoping for tickets, but okay.

No. Tickets are usually the first question that's asked. Oh, wait. Council member.

Yeah. Go

ahead. Thank you for doing this. By the way, the app is excellent. It is better than Pokemon Go.

Oh, yeah?

Yes. It's so fun. Awesome. That's it. Great.

Better than we'll take it. Better than Pokemon GO.

Deputy Mayor. Great. Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation, Dylan. Glad you're here. Really pleased with all the planning that's taken place and have every confidence that residents of Bellevue and the region will have a wonderful World Cup experience. You had kind of touched on some of the security and the coordination that's been done. And we've had, as you mentioned, other briefings. So satisfied that a lot of time and attention has been put into security. So obviously, that would be a top priority, and I'm glad you've addressed that. I do have a question and it's there's kind of a couple of parts here. But I wanted to dig into it a little bit. And that's and you kind of touched on this, making this a really positive historical event for everybody that gets to come and participate.

And so I'm curious about maybe some of the interactions that the and planning that the committee has had, with federal authorities and specifically with immigration authorities. Our city and our police chief have been very clear that our officers will not directly assist any federal agencies in their immigration work, nor will officers provide nonpublic information about our community members. And I would just appreciate it if you could kinda touch on what the local organizing committee has done to prepare for potential, federal immigration enforcement, activities. And then, two, just kind of your general stance on federal the committee's general stance on federal immigration enforcement actions and what has been communicated to federal immigration authorities regarding that stance.

So thank you for the question. We are the nonprofit local organizing committee. FIFA is in charge of the tournament. FIFA is in charge of everything inside of the secure perimeter of the stadium. And we're responsible for things outside of the stadium.

Federal immigration policy, federal policies on that is not something that we control or can impact. We focused on what we can control at the local level. I will say that we worked with the federal government on safety and security funding and preparedness, all 11 US host cities together. And we're grateful for having received resource to ensure that these events are going to be safe and secure. But with regard to immigration policy, that's not something that we have commented on or that we're able to influence or control.

I will say that what we've seen publicly is that there has been a presence of pretty much every level of federal law enforcement at previous large events like the Super Bowl as well as Club World Cup last year. But those if ICE was present, I believe it was for the customs enforcement portion of their scope. And it was at the stadium on-site. There were no immigration enforcement mechanism. So that's the extent of what I know.

Okay. Yeah. And of course, understand there wouldn't be any influence on the policy itself, but I I hope that preparations have been made at least to accommodate folks in case something like that, some action was to occur and attendees, were in a position that might need some support. So, obviously, well within the bounds of the law, that's our policy here. But it's something that we've been clear about and and wanted to make those statements so that, Bellevue residents and those who visit here are aware of our stance. So, appreciate

that. Thank you.

I'd certainly think that, we're in for an amazing summer. Certainly excited to about welcoming people to Bellevue and to the region, and I know all the fun that we're all going to have. So thank you for that. Thank you, mayor.

Absolutely. Welcome, council member Robinson. We are talking about World Cup and FIFA. Do you have any questions for Dylan?

No. I appreciate council member Hamilton's questions and comments. I'm just excited, and I'm looking forward to all the activations in Bellevue. Thank you for being here.

Yeah. Thank you.

Dylan, thank you so much for being here.

Alright. Yeah. Appreciate it. Very much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

We can move and you have something for us. Am I right? Tickets?

Don't forget that. Not quiet.

Not quiet. Okay. Thank you. We appreciate you, man. Thank you.

Here you go. Thank you. City star. Okay. Awesome.

Thank you. Yep. Thank

you

very much.

And great color, by the way, UW HUSLI color. We appreciate that color, not some other universities.

We I hear grumbling from over here.

Thank you, Dylan. Yeah. We can go to the next topic, preserving equitable swear rates. Deputy city manager, please.

Thank you, mayor. Tonight, council will hear the recommendation from the Environmental Services Commission as a result of a financial equity analysis of the sewer utility. Utility staff is here to share with the council key factors that informed the analysis, the considerations of the Environmental Services Commission and its eventual recommendation for the council's consideration tonight. So joining the presentation is Environmental Services Commission Chair Ken Wen, utilities department director Lucy Liu, and fiscal manager Matt Hobson. And they are seeking council direction tonight. So with that, I'll hand it over to director Lucy Liu.

Thank you, mister McCollum. Good evening, deputy mayor, and council members. Tonight, we are sharing the results of a recent sewer rate equity analysis along with recommendations that are aimed at making our rates as fair and balanced as possible across customer types. This includes single family, multifamily, and non residential. I just want to know that evaluating our store rates is one of a number of efforts utilities is doing to enhance customer equity and affordability.

Other initiatives that are underway include evaluating options to expand utility bill assistance, as well as to improve how we collect utility connection fees. And we look forward to bringing those items to you in the coming months. So tonight, we are asking for your direction and how to move forward with improving fairness in our rates. The analysis that you will see will highlight where our current rates are out of balance, and it identifies practical steps to fix that. With your guidance, we will incorporate the Environmental Services Commission's recommendations that we are presenting tonight into the proposed sewer rates for your consideration in the fall as part of council's upcoming budget deliberations.

So here is tonight's agenda. We will start with some background on the goals that guide our work to ensure our sewer rates are fair and equitable. Then we will share the results of the analysis, which identified opportunities for the city to make our sewer rates fairer across customer types. After that, we will share the recommendations, as well as what the typical customer bill will look like in the coming years with these recommendations in place. And then Chair Juan will then share the work of the Environmental Services Commission, the work that they did to develop the recommendation for counsel tonight.

At its core, this work is about making sure our rates reflect our shared values. That includes supporting a thriving community, being a high performing and responsible government, and balancing affordability and fairness for all of our community members. And so before we get into the findings of the analysis, let's talk about the goals that guide our work in this area. First is fairness and equity, which you will see represented by the balance scale icon as we walk through our presentation tonight. Consistent with state law, city financial policies, as well as industry best practice, a key goal of the rate equity analysis is to ensure all customers are paying their fair share in rates based on the cost of providing service to each type of customer.

The purpose of this analysis is revenue neutral, meaning the goal is not to change the total amount of revenues for the sewer utility. Rather, our goal is to make sure the sewer rates are fair for each type of customers. And as you will see later, the analysis shows that we have an imbalance that we have an opportunity to correct. Our second goal is supporting affordability, which you will see represented by the piggy bank icon on the upcoming slides. And we recognize affordability is a real and growing concern in our community, and that utility costs are part of everyday life.

And any changes to rates can have a meaningful impact on households, as well as on businesses. And so as we think about making changes to rates, we want to be thoughtful about how those changes will affect our community members, especially those who may already be feeling cost pressures. And our third goal is to make our utility bills easier to understand, which you will see represented by the paper icon on the upcoming slides. Our rate structure should be clear and transparent so our customers can easily see what they are paying for based on their use of the sewer system. Simple bills will help build trust and make it easier for our community members to manage their utility costs.

Together, these three goals fairness, affordability, and simplicity are guiding how we are approaching changes to our store rates. And with that, Scott Edwards, who is our deputy director, will review the findings of the rate analysis reviewed by the Environmental Services Commission.

Thank you, Lucy, and good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, and council members. The first step in completing this type of analysis to achieve financial equity is to identify the unique customer types in our community. Generally, a customer type is a group of customers that place similar demands on the sewer utility. Measuring demand in a sewer utility generally refers to indoor water consumption. And the assumption here is that indoor water use generally finds its way to a sink, through a dishwasher, or down a toilet.

There are three customer types in the city sewer utility. On the left, single family is the city's largest customer type by number of accounts, comprising almost 33,000 unique customer accounts. In the center, multifamily includes approximately 700 accounts with 33,000 individual dwelling units. Multifamily customers are unique from single family customers and that they are generally smaller households with fewer sewer fixtures which translate to lower demand on the system per household. On the right, the non residential includes small and large businesses, schools, hospitals, and government agencies and sewer use varies widely from account to account.

We determine equity by comparing how much revenue we collect from each customer type to what it actually costs to serve them. If a group is paying more than 100%, it means they're paying more than their fair share and are helping cover costs for others. If a group is paying less than 100%, it means they're paying less than their fair share and are being supported by others. In some cases, state law does allow for intentional subsidies like lower rates for low income customers, But our goal with this analysis is to reduce unintentional subsidies as much as possible. Because this type of analysis relies on detailed data and assumptions, we use a reasonable range of 90% to a 110%.

And if a group falls within that range, the rates are considered generally fair. What we found is our multifamily customers are currently outside that reasonable range. By 2027, they're projected to pay about 123 percent of their of their share, meaning they're paying about 23% more than what it costs to serve them. As a result, multifamily customers are unintentionally helping to subsidize single family and non residential customers. Single family and non residential customers are both projected to be at about 91% which is at the low end of the reasonable range.

Before we look at the decline in multifamily usage, I'm sure not everyone is familiar with the CCF measurement. A CCF is a unit used to measure water and sewer usage. One CCF equals 100 cubic feet of water or seven forty eight gallons. 11 CCF is about 8,000 gallons. The main reason multifamily customers are paying more than their fair share comes down to how their rates are structured.

The structure that structure hasn't kept up with how water is used and therefore sewer flow has changed over time. Over the past twenty years, use in multifamily homes has steadily gone down. Back in 2005, the average multifamily unit used about 11 CCF every two months. Today, that's dropped by about 40% to around eight CCF. Single family homes have also reduced their water use mostly thanks to more efficient appliances and fixtures, which is a positive trend.

But that decrease hasn't been as large as what we've seen in the multifamily housing. The key issue is that even though multifamily customers are using less water, their rates are still based on an older assumption. Each unit is charged a fixed amount that assumes 11 CCF of use even though actual use is much lower. In simple terms, multifamily customers are being charged for more usage than they actually have. That's why this group is paying more than its fair share overall.

This analysis highlighted that the base charge is where the inequity is happening and updating it has been identified as a recommended change by the Environmental Services Commission to improve fairness. While we recommend adjusting rates for the three customer types to improve equity, it is top of mind that these adjustments would be occurring at the same time as significant rate pressures on the utility. To this end, we want to give counsel a preview of the preliminary early forecasted rates for the sewer utility. Over the next six years, the early forecasted rates for sewer includes annual rate adjustments of nine to 11%. And these rates are for illustration purposes only.

The final rates will be determined as part of the upcoming budget process. Wholesale costs from King County is the largest driver. Roughly two thirds of every new dollar from these rate increases are due to the anticipated cost increases from King County's wholesale sewer treatment services, which are directly passed through to customers consistent with our financial policies. These rate increases reflect the recently announced wholesale wastewater treatment cost increases King County is proposing for 2027 and projecting for 2028 through 2032. King County will come before council in a couple of weeks on May 12 to review their sewer rate proposal with you.

You'll receive more information on what is driving King County's cost increases to Bellevue at that meeting. The remaining one third of rate increases support Bellevue's local wastewater operations, including the city's capital investments in aging sewer infrastructure, long term asset management plan, state and local taxes, and operations and maintenance. Next, we'll review the Environmental Services Commission recommendations to achieve fairer sewer rates, support affordability, and simplify customer bills. Affordability is a top priority as we develop strategies to achieve full cost recovery. We wanted to make sure we understand and find ways to mitigate the affordability challenges associated with achieving fair and equitable rates.

Staff used the equity analysis results to craft three rate strategies to transition existing rates towards full cost recovery over the next several years for the Environmental Services Commission's consideration. Specifically, three scenarios were developed over a three, five, and seven year phase in period to evaluate bill impacts. An accelerated phase in eliminates the subsidy paid by multifamily customers sooner. A longer phase in helps to manage higher bill impacts to single family and non residential customers. The commission struggled with eliminating the unintentional subsidy by multifamily customers quickly with the resulting cost impacts to single family and non residential customers and landed on a five year phase in recommendation to strike a balance.

Chairperson Juan will speak later in the presentation on the commission's discussion and recommendation. This slide highlights the commission's recommendation for annual equity rate adjustments by customer types smoothed over five years to manage bill impacts. This five year rate strategy reflects slightly higher rate adjustments for single family and nonresidential relative to the overall rate increases from 2027 to 2031 and smaller rate increases for multifamily. For example, the overall sewer rate increase in 2027 is projected at 9.9%. The equity adjustment for single family as a customer group would add 2.5% to the 9.9% overall rate increase.

The equity adjustment for non residential as a customer group would add 2.1% to the 9.9% overall rate increase. And the equity adjustment for multifamily as a customer group would reduce the 9.9 overall rate increase by 4.4%. The annual equity rate adjustments for multifamily would be lower than the overall average rate increases to gradually eliminate the subsidy provided by this customer type to other customer types. We expect to achieve full cost recovery by 2031, so all customer types will have the same rate adjustments in 2032. Going forward, we'll continue to monitor for rate fairness to help minimize the need for future rate equity adjustments.

It's important to note that households participating in the long term utility bill assistance program will continue to receive a 70% discount on their sewer bills. This program is available to both single family and multifamily households. And as Lucy mentioned, we're developing options to expand bill assistance to help more community members in need. In addition, the commission also recommended rate structure changes to address the affordability challenges from achieving equitable sewer rates, and Matt will highlight this next.

Great. Thanks, Scott. Good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council Members. This is my first presentation, so I'm going to adjust with this microphone in front of me. It's just staring down at me right now.

So improving rate equity will impact customer bills across all three customer types. To that end, several rate design changes are recommended by the commission to support the proposed five year phase in period to help manage bill impacts. These strategies will simplify our rate structure. These changes will also better align our rates with our own financial policies and provide customers with greater control over their bills when possible. For context, when I talk about rate design changes, these refer to the schedule of charges used to compute each customer's bill, which includes two types of rates.

There's a fixed charge that does not change from month to month, and then there's a variable rate that is based on sewer flows that can change from bill to bill. Sewer flow, as Scott mentioned, is generally synonymous with domestic indoor water use. The three recommendations depicted here focus on adjusting the fixed and variable rates for each customer type. The first recommendation on the left is to create a uniform volumetric rate for the single family customer type. Rate structures that may have made sense twenty years ago may not make as much sense today.

And in this example, we would eliminate a unique sewer variable rate that is assessed on bimonthly flow that exceeds 50 CCFs or about 20,000 gallons per month. As you might imagine, less than one half of 1% of our bills ever hit this threshold, and so by eliminating this rate, it simplifies the customer's bill. In the center, the next recommendation is to align the multifamily rate structure to the single family rate structure, which will better align it with the city's financial policy that requires the department to pass through wholesale costs directly to customers. Specifically, this recommendation aligns the fixed charge assessed to multifamily residential customers with an equitable share of the King County wastewater treatment costs required to serve multifamily customers. This change will lower the multifamily fixed charge and make it more affordable for lower users by giving customers more control over their bill.

In addition, we will lower the non residential minimum charge to align it also with King County's wastewater treatment rate. This change also aligns with our rate structure with the city's financial policy to pass through these wholesale costs to our customers. These recommended rate design changes, as Scott mentioned, they are revenue neutral to the sewer utilities' overall revenue requirements. However, rate design changes can have both favorable and unfavorable impacts on individual customer bills. If rate design changes are not carefully measured and evaluated, utilities can often find themselves looking at unanticipated and significant impacts to customer bills after the fact.

And for this reason, our team conducted an evaluation of the bill impacts from these proposals on each of the 200,000 bills that we send out each year to our customers. The following slide provides some bill impacts for the single family, the multi family and the non residential customer types. All right, time for some graphs. The graph here illustrates the monthly bill impact for a typical single family customer. And that is based on sewer flows of about 5.5 CCFs per month, which is about 4,000 gallons.

I'm going to spend a bit of time on this chart for orientation purposes because you will see similar graphs in the following five slides. The dark blue bar illustrates the projected typical sewer bill before any equity adjustments. It is important to note here that the sewer bills are projected to increase each year over the next six years independent of any adjustment to improve equity across the customer types. The light blue section on top of the dark blue bars for 2027 through 2031 show the equity adjustments for each year to achieve full cost recovery by 2,031. By 2032, no further rate equity adjustments would be needed and all customer types will have the same rate adjustment.

The total bill after the equity adjustment is shown in that orange text at the top of the graph. For example, the current typical monthly sewer bill for a single family residential customer today is about $109 and is projected to increase to $119 in 2027 before an equity adjustment. This is shown in that dark blue bar. In 2027, the equity adjustment will add $3 per month to the bill, increasing it to $122 as shown in that orange text. To put that $3 into perspective, that bill impact could be offset by a household collectively trimming about five minutes per day off their shower schedule.

By 2031, the projected bill impact would be $194 and represent the single family customer's equitable share of the sewer utility. These figures include both the King County treatment costs and the smaller local portion of the sewer bill. Keep in mind that this bill impact on the slide here is for customers with typical sewer flows. As I mentioned earlier, bill impacts will vary based on the household's actual use of indoor water use. Customers will continue to have the opportunity to manage bill impacts through conservation measures.

What might that look like? Well, small changes in daily water use can help up the household to manage these projected bill increases. Running a full load of dishes in the dishwasher or a full load of dirty clothes in the washing machine or as I mentioned earlier, even trimming a couple of minutes off your daily shower. Additionally, the Cascade Water Alliance provides high efficiency faucets and showerheads to our customers free of charge and Puget Sound Energy provides rebates to Bellevue households for high efficiency appliances like washing machines and water utility as the existing subsidy is slowly trimmed away over the next five years. By restructuring the multifamily rate design, multifamily accounts will also begin to have more control over their sewer bills as a higher share of their bill will shift from being fixed month to month to being variable with respect to their water use.

Multifamily buildings with less sewer flows per dwell unit will see an even smaller rate increase. To illustrate this concept, we have two examples of sewer bill impacts for multifamily buildings based on varying size as a function of number of dwell units in the building. The first example here is for a building with 25 dwell units with sewer flows that are more typical of an average apartment building. In this first example, the monthly bill would grow from $81 in 2026 to $131 in 2031 before any equity adjustments. That's shown in the dark blue bar.

The equity adjustment shown in the light blue bar will reduce that bill by $1 next year and then by $20 by 2031. So by 2031, their predicted monthly bill would be $111 and represents the multifamily customers' equitable share of the sewer utility. The second example is for a building with 50 units with lower flows than we typically see on average in this class. As I mentioned earlier, customers in this example generate less flow and can expect to see an annual rate increase even lower than the previous example. In this example, their monthly bill would increase from $81 today to $102 by 2031.

We want to also provide two examples for the non residential customer group. The first example is for a customer with relatively low sewer flow of about 4,000 gallons a month. Typical examples of this type of customer would be a faith based organization or a small convenience store. Non residential customers with low sewer flow like this example are currently assessed a minimum charge per month. The Commission recommended to decrease this minimum charge and index it to the King County treatment rate.

This change would align the minimum charge with the fixed charges assessed to all of customer types. Adjusting the basis for the minimum charge would decrease the monthly bill next year from $124 down to $93 We estimate that approximately one quarter, one in every four customers in this group would experience a rate decrease next year like this. Following the rate structure change in 2027, the customer's monthly bill would increase each year over the next five years to achieve full cost equity by 2031. The second example is for a non residential customer with higher sewer flows of about 40,000 gallons a month. Examples here would include a small business park, an auto body shop or a medical office.

In these examples, lowering the minimum charge for the smaller lower flow customers will result in a higher sewer bill for this customer example. The combined effect of the five year rate equity plan and the adjustment to the minimum charge would increase the monthly bill for this customer from $795 today to $927 next year. This example is on par with the remaining roughly three quarters of customers in this customer group.

Lucy? Thank you, Matt. Before I turn it over to Chair Juan, I just want to take the opportunity to thank the Environmental Services Commission for their thoughtful study and deliberation on this rate analysis. The analysis is very technical. We are very fortunate to have a commission who took the time to study the results and the recommendations in detail over three meetings between October 2025 and January 2026 to arrive at their recommendation this evening.

The commission's feedback and guidance was instrumental in crafting a rate strategy that enhances customer equity while also recognizing the affordability pressures on our community. With that, I'll turn it over to Chair Juan.

Thank you, Lucy, and good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council Members. As Lucy noted, this analysis is very technical and therefore some may say rather complex. I do appreciate Scott and Matt walking counsel through the materials as it's not easy. The commission was very pleased to review the equity analysis, findings, vet the considerations, and provide a recommendation for counsel to consider. The commission recognizes that these recommendations come at a time as anticipated increases in wholesale sewer treatment costs are increasing.

Even with these pressures, preserving equity across all three customer types remains a core priority. The commission recognizes the goal is to balance rising system costs while ensuring each group pays a fair and proportionate share. The commission weighed the pros and cons of the various strategies to transition existing rates with these considerations in mind. The consensus was the seven year option would take too long to correct the subsidy paid by multifamily customers. This inequity has been in place for several years now, so waiting even longer to correct it did not seem like the fair option.

There was interest in accelerating the phase in strategy to a three year plan as it presented the quickest option to reach equitable rates for all customer classes, albeit with higher rate increases for single family and nonresidential customers. But in the end, the commission voted in favor to recommend the balanced five year strategy for counsel's consideration. This approach satisfies both a legal requirement and is the right thing to do for our community. The commission's five year recommendation takes a thoughtful, measured, and forward looking approach to rate setting. We remain committed to regularly reviewing and updating rates to ensure ongoing fairness and equity over time.

The commission also supports recommendations to simplify rate structure and support affordability. To further support affordability, I am looking forward to returning to City Council in June to provide the commission's recommendations to expand the bill assistance program to help more members of our community facing financial challenges. Thank you.

Thank you, chair one. So in conclusion, staff is seeking direction from council this evening to incorporate the rate equity analysis and rate structure recommendations into the sewer rates to be submitted in September as part of the proposed budget to be considered by council doing budget deliberations in the fall. In summary, this work is focused on achieving three key outcomes. First, reaching more equitable sewer rates by 2031 so customers are paying their fair share based on how the system is used. Second, simplifying our rate structure to make the bill easier to understand so customers can clearly see what they are paying for and why.

And third, supporting affordability, especially for multifamily and residents and nonresidential customers who may be more impacted by how rates are structured today. And so with that, that concludes our presentation. We're very happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you so much, Lucy, Scott, Matt and the whole team. Great presentation. Appreciate Chair one be here, and please give our regards to the whole Environmental Service Commission. As you mentioned, three session, very, very technical analysis, and you guys have been doing an amazing job of representing the city and giving us this presentation. For sure, not an easy topic, especially when we are talking about rate changes for people that affect them directly, but you are doing your best to handle this carefully, especially the phasing out, appreciate the fairness, affordability and simplicity, your three thing And And do we And

today. As the mayor said, appreciate all the great work around this difficult technical analysis, but analysis is certainly worthy of our time and effort to get to a more fair and equitable rate for single family, for multifamily, and for the nonresidential. So that is all really important work, and I like the recommendation, as know, of going the five year route, not quite as big of a shock to the system, and then the seven year maybe taking a little bit too long. So I feel like it's a great balance. So I think you definitely have, think, put the checkmark beside the fairness behind the easy to understand.

I really appreciate that too. The affordability piece, I don't think anything to do with you and your work. But you know, when we see, like, double digit increases, to me, that's not sustainable. To me, that's not really I mean, in six years, they're gonna see an a $100 increase to their that's just to their sewer piece of their bill. Just to the sewer because I I wanna make sure because you just said, you know, you and you did a great job explaining it, the bill, but it's not the entire bill that they'll be getting.

And while I greatly appreciate the fact, and we talked about this during meetings about expanding that bill assistance, I'm not sure it's enough, but I would love to get updates on that going forward in terms of how many folks, I think, are taking advantage of our assistance now and what kind of increase we see in the next couple of well, we wouldn't want to wait years, but in the next year or so, when you come back, it would be great if we can get some data on that to see what the impact is. Are we seeing more people not pay their bill or pay late, and how many are applying or receiving assistance from the city? I think that would be information that we'd all like to know in terms of the overall impact of these overall utility increases. And I'm glad you mentioned King County and that King County will be coming here to talk about this shortly as they try to address, if I remember the number correctly, about it's a $14,000,000,000 infrastructure improvement that is really driving these rates? Is that a fair assessment, Lucy, and that pass through that we are obligated to do?

That is correct. Certainly, I have an opportunity to dive deeper into that on May 12.

Okay. Well, I look forward to that conversation. I also look forward to getting your analysis of that prior to that meeting, arming this council with understanding of how we got to this point and why it feels speaking for myself, it feels the opposite of what we have tried to do from a utility perspective where the rates remain predictable, we keep investing heavily into our infrastructure to stay away from those dramatic increases. Unfortunately, we're gonna be impacted by and maybe not all of it was in their control, but that lack of investment in that infrastructure is now going to end up hurting Bellevue, repairs, and and and, that's very challenging for for us, it's very challenging for our community to have those dramatic increases. So look forward to that conversation, but as it goes tonight, great job on the analysis, seeing the inequitable piece to it, correcting it.

I think the timeline completely makes sense. I think it's just great work around, and I'm glad that we're going to keep tracking this as well so we don't get, not necessarily surprised, but we want to make sure that we stay on top of it so that we can make those adjustments as needed going forward. And I think the community is really going to appreciate that, that we are watching this closely and just making sure that, hey, everyone's willing to pay their fair share, to make sure it's equitable across the board. So again, great work overall. Really pleased with the results and the plan moving forward. Thank you.

You, Councilmember Newnhams. Councilmember Sumodu, where are you? Thank

you for the presentation. I think I was reading the material. I was I would say I was surprised how long has been the multifamily has been overpaying for, I think, compared to, I think, being quietly covering the cost of other type of households. I just have a few questions. I think I love I think the recommendation, I mean, the five years plus one to council member Newhouse, I think is way more balanced approach.

And seven years, it is a little bit long. And also, one thing I find that comforting is is as a whole, the revenue of the sewer waste is still the same for our city. So which means it's gonna be sustained productivity and also efficiency, how we can service the community. That's really important. So I think overall, it's a really balanced approach. Well, we can operating smoothly and while still reach the equity side. That's really helpful. So thank you for thinking through that. I have three questions. And then first of all, because as we see, I think multifamily proportionally has more lower income families.

What kind what type of tools are we thinking about to supporting the families?

So our bill assistance program is available to both multi family as well as single family residents in the city, irregardless whether they actually get a bill directly from us or they pay their utility bill through their rent. We have several programs. We have a long term assistance program for qualified residents who are 62 and or disabled. It provides a 70% discount or a rebate of their utility bills. And then we also have some temporary assistance programs.

We have two of those. One is the emergency assistance program that is available to all low income members of our community, regardless of age or physical ability. It's available once every three years, it weighs up to four months of utility bills. And then in addition to that, the most recent program that Councilor approved is the Neighbors Helping Neighbors program. And that allows us to waive up to two months of utility bills each year, as long as funds are available.

This is the program that we also are accepting donations from the community to help with. So that is the suite of assistance programs that we currently have. And we look forward to coming back in June to provide some more options for your consideration. The other avenue, really, is through the conservation education and technical assistance that we provide to try to help community members try and manage their usage, if they're able to.

Thank you. That's just one to my one other question, because I also want to ask about fixed income elderly who live in the single family. Right? They may have, I think, equity or they have income that sustain themselves. They they don't have actually revenue I mean, income. So that's why I think you answered my question. Thank you. My last question is, I think for the small I mean, more commercial, nonresidential, what is the I didn't actually know there's a minimum rate for that. What is it? Just out of curiosity, what is the minimum rate for the commercial Yes, it's

off the top of my head, it's about $240 every two months. And so as I mentioned, roughly

a quarter of our

customers actually generate flow, a quarter of our non residential customers generate sewer flows that is less than what they would pay under that minimum charge. And that was the recommendation to lower the minimum charge to bring it more aligned with actual usage for these lower user customers.

So would that be a correlation and then working with the landlords to get actual numbers, how much they're using?

Most of our for the nonresidential customers to have a direct account with us, they'll receive a bill from Bellevue Utilities that shows their actual usage. There are examples of strip malls or multi business complexes where a third party actually controls the distribution of the sewer charge. They would get with their landlord in in those cases.

Okay. So, like okay. The triple net come like, shared. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for the presentation.

Thank you, council member Smadu. Very Councilmember Robinson.

Thank you, mayor. I share councilmember Sumandueria's concerns, so I appreciate you asking those questions. I really appreciate the work that you have done, chair, and your commission. It's very thoughtful and responsible, and I agree with you on the five year recommendation, this five year strategy. I am astounded by King County's rate increase.

I have to tell you, I've watched this over the years coming, and I'm gonna be honest, I think it's kicking the can down the road for too many years. You know, we should have been doing what our city does, which is gradually increase the rates to pay for future infrastructure projects. And we're being hit with a just ridiculously increase bill that I think is gonna be very hard for a lot of people to stay in their homes or stay in our city, and I am deeply concerned about that. So I appreciate some of the relief programs, but I hope we have a robust public education program too. And I know that we were in a drought about fifteen years ago, and we did a public education program to the city, and people cut their water use, like, in half.

It was unbelievable. And Bellevue used to always have brown lawns, and that was from that time. So, public education and including the schools would be great. I hope that on our legislative agenda, we're looking at a federal infrastructure grant because it's not just happening in Bellevue, and it's not just King County. It's across the entire country.

Every everybody's infrastructure is needing replacement, and it's very hard to find the funding to to do it, which is the reason they kick the can down the road, because it's hard to pay for. So I hope that we can lobby for some sort of a federal grant program. And then, honestly, maybe I'm the only one in the room, but I would love to contemplate a local treatment plant program. If we're able to get some kind of a grant, I would love to look at what would it take for Bellevue to have its own treatment plants. And we're not reliant on other people to do this necessary work.

And with new technology coming, it may be more feasible than we know. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Robinson. Councilman Borghava?

Yes. Thank you. I also echo the appreciation, Lucy, Scott, Matt and Chair and the entire Environmental Services Commission, really deep, thoughtful work. So thank you. And many of the comments that my peers have already made, resonate strongly with me. So, I think that's really great. I do support the goal for improving the equity, especially if you're taking a total cost to serve lens to it. There's a few things I want to understand a little bit better. First, to what extent do you think the imbalance is driven by actual cost to serve differences versus the current rate design that we have?

Yes. For in this particular case, for the City of Bellevue's equity analysis, it's the latter, that our rate design for multifamily simply just has not kept pace with changes in use in that class. That rate design was set in the at the end the day, that that rate design that we have today was set in the in the early nineties. Water use was very different back then here in Bellevue as council member Robinson just mentioned about, you know, differences in in water consumption. And so one purpose of these analyses is really a checkup on our rates.

Sometimes we view these analyses as scary studies. They're meant as checkups like we go to the doctor to check up on the equity of our rates. We make adjustments as needed. And this is an example where we have the opportunity to adjust our multifamily rate to be more reflective of actual use and cost.

Okay. That's helpful. I mean, I'm glad that we're doing this because this is really overdue in many ways for what we're doing. Second, when I was looking through the material, this seems like a shift towards more variable and less fixed charges. And when you talk about getting the right balance there, it may introduce risks for predictability for us in terms of what our total revenue will be. And so I'm curious if you have thoughts on that.

Thank you. Great question. Yes, the shifting towards more variable and less on the fixed rate certainly provides more control to our community members that control their bill. We have studied your question. We do not anticipate a meaningful impact to our total revenues in the sewer utility.

The good news is sewer revenues are generally stable from year to year because sewer flow is generally stable from year to year. The good news about a five year phase in is that it also allows us to monitor and identify any unanticipated impacts so that we can address them timely.

Okay. So I guess constant monitoring is going to be really, really important from that aspect then from that point of view. Of going to the inputs question for me. All of this analysis is predicated on some assumption of single family and nonresidential and multifamily mix within Bellevue. How do you know that that mix that you're forecasting is going to be correct? Because if that mix changes significantly, all of this analysis is essentially going to significantly shift.

So

as Matt mentioned, these cost of service studies are checkups that we can do. And so going forward, we plan to do periodic checkups certainly by the in five years. Once we'll monitor it annually to make sure that there are no surprises in terms of revenue stability. But then our plan is towards the five year mark, we will do another study just like this one to evaluate where we are and also make sure that there's not changes in demographics or usage or the mix of how each of the three customer groups are driving the cost of providing service. And so that's how we will monitor and adjust in the future as needed.

Is five years too long for that?

Industry wide, these studies are done three to five years. But if we see that there is a change in the demographics in Bellevue, we will certainly do it sooner.

Okay. So I'll that up. The final comment I have, those couple of points. But I do, as a number of my peers in the council have already noted, affordability, I think, is definitely one place where we're getting snagged here because imagining a significant increase like that. One, it assumes in some ways all single family homes have the same level of ability to pay.

And as council members, Sumodhubera, sort of mentioned, fixed income seniors is one category and there can be many such stratifications or additional stratifications where increases as large as this, as councilor Raojun pointed out, can be very, very onerous for folks. And this is only one of many bills people are seeing increase year on year. And so I would be very interested in addition to what my cupboards have already said, what opportunities we have for affordability programs beyond what you've outlined to try and get a really robust set of opportunities, really robust engagement with the community because five years seeing a doubling of your monthly bill for Sur is is a and for a last large swath of the community seems like a big impact. And it's easier from a normative lens of planning to see the equity, may not be as easy as a resident to see the same rationale. And so, my nudge to that would be very strong effort in trying to find places where our residents need the help with this change and our adjustment.

Totally understand it's net revenue neutral, but, it's not for a lot of people. So that would be my push. And then to round out the first couple of points, I think monitoring and some kind of clear view of reporting on some of those inputs, whether it's the impact of fixed versus variable charges, whether it's the impact of mix in our demographics or our residential, non residential building count or resident count, I think, be really important for us to keep a constant eye. I'm sure you're gonna do that, but I think I would be really keen to know where this is going maybe every year so that we are making sure that we're not shocking the system on a regular basis. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Barkhava. Deputy Mayor Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Appreciate all of the work that Chair Juan and the Environmental Services Commissioners have done to prepare this recommendation. Thank you for the presentation. And really, thanks to all of the really important work that you all do in managing our utilities and always keeping our ratepayers at the center of your work.

And it's good to see you all. I think the financial equity analysis here is really important, and I'm glad that it's been completed. I think the recommendation in front of us clearly fits in the city's ongoing effort to streamline our processes, including calculation, payment, and management of utility bills making our rate structure more simple and easier to understand giving more control of rates paid to rate payers and making sure our rates are equitable are achieved through this recommendation. Just a quick note on affordability. I certainly appreciate all the comments that have been made so far.

I mean, the consolation prize for single family households is they've gotten an especially good deal over the last few years. So this really is just a process of truing that up. So again, thanks for all of the hard work here, and thanks again for always keeping our ratepayers as the top priority as they should be. I'm ready to move forward.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much. Great presentation and great job. I do not have anything else to add to what you have heard from my colleagues. I just doubled down on the affordability that everyone bring up, and I'm looking forward to that session that you come and talk to us about all of those ways that we can help. Councilwoman Newhouse.

Just one small comment because I loved councilmember Robinson's idea about building our own wastewater treatment. However, North Bend did that. They built it, and they operate it, and they're not Their all their ratepayers are still paying. Why? Because much further downstream, it still touches the King County system. So I wouldn't want us to make that mistake, unfortunately. I'm not sure it's a mistake, but unfortunately, their ratepayers are still having to pay that extremely high level of increases. I just wanted to add that as I learned that about an SCA meeting.

Thank you. You. I have the

facility wouldn't use King County at all. Exactly.

We can learn something from that.

Can I have the motion, please?

I move to direct staff to incorporate the commission's sewer rate recommendations into the submitted utility rates to be considered by city council as part of the upcoming biennial budget. Second.

It has been moved by deputy mayor Hamilton and seconded by councilor Newnhouse. Any discussion? All those in favor, aye. Aye. There is no opposed. The motion passes. Thank you so much. Appreciate you all. It is 07:51. Let's just be back by eight Great. I think we can start with our last item. Deputy city manager, would you please introduce that to us?

Thank you, mayor. This topic was last before the council in December. And after discussion, council gave direction to staff to return at a future council meeting with draft code changes required to implement curb pricing. And for some of the newer council members, this topic has been in development for a few years. And with the launch of the curb management plan. And returning tonight with proposed code amendments that would allow the city to initiate and maintain such a program are from the transportation department, director Andrew Singelakis, assistant director for mobility operations Chris Long, and staff is seeking direction from the council this evening. And with that, I'll hand it over to Director Singulakis.

Thank Deputy City Manager, McCorman, Mayor Malakutian, Deputy Mayor Hamilton and City Council. And as Nathan mentioned, tonight is a culmination. It's a large body of work that has occurred over several years. And we have put together code changes to implement the curb management plan. We've had significant public outreach with regard to this topic.

Its parameters and how revenue generated would be used for the enforcement implementation of the recommendations of the curb management plan itself. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Chris.

Thank you, Andrew. So as a reminder tonight, we're looking for counsel to consider directing staff to finalize the Bellevue City Code amendments and to prepare an ordinance to allow for establishing and administering a paid on street parking program. So today, we're gonna talk about a background of where we've been with this project and what the code changes look like and then the timeline and next steps if given direction to move forward. So a little bit on the background. This concept of paid parking started even before the curb management plan.

It was included in the comp plan as a policy that we then modified when developing other policy changes for the curb management plan. Ultimately, the plan was adopted, or the policy changes were adopted in 2022, and the plan was adopted in 2023, and included 28 curb practices or initiatives to consider, implementing through the plan, with curb pricing being one of a few high priority items to consider. And as Andrew mentioned, this has been a journey. We started in 2022. Over the last four years, we've been, doing a lot of work with the commission and the public and and you to advance this concept to where we are today.

So one of the important notes of this project is that our top priority here is to improve access to the street level businesses that rely on the street parking. And today, the street parking is a challenge. Through most of the day, starting around noon, the parking is full. And we're finding that in addition, that through the data collection we did in 2024 and '25, that about 25% of vehicles are also overstaying the limit due to the limited enforcement that we have, throughout the project area. To further gain insight into the project, as Andrew mentioned, we've done a significant amount of outreach.

We really focused on meeting people at the curb. We did went door to door to businesses throughout Downtown Old Bellevue and Spring District and learned about what their challenges are related to parking. We did intercept surveys as people were had just completed parking to talk to them about what their experience was like, and then a lot of tabling in high traffic areas near where we have on street parking, as shown in this photo, to better understand the concept and to present to them what we are envisioning a paid parking could look like. So the information gathered and the work we did with the commission was ultimately summarized into the curb implementation strategy, which included a staff recommendation to move forward with paid on street parking. That was presented on December 2, and counsel gave us the go ahead to move forward with the code changes we'll be presenting tonight.

Some of the main components of the strategy is that the pricing program will be structured around what's called a dynamic pricing approach, where the council would adopt a price range, and then the price at the curb would be adjusted administratively the director, Andrew, after evaluating how the initial, rollout of the pricing is impacting the the use of the curb. Our goal is to create one to two open parking spaces on every block face within the study area so that, people no longer see parking as a barrier to visiting these dense areas of the city. We also are looking at, expanding enforcement within the curb pricing area so that it is uniform in the approach, and then providing multiple payment options that can support different users of the system, including text to pay, mobile payment app, and pay stations. And then as part of our commitment to the community, we do intend to continue the robust engagement. One concept was to create an ad hoc advisory committee or focus groups to continue that, to inform how we're doing our project, and also committing to reinvesting the revenue that's, the net revenue of the program beyond what it costs to operate back into the curb management program and into the area where the revenue is generated.

A couple of questions came out of the last council meeting that we wanted to touch on again, and one of them was on performance evaluation. The key quantitative data point that we'll be collecting is parking occupancy. As mentioned, that's how we're going to determine whether the rate should go down or should go up to achieve that goal of one to two parking spaces being available. We'll also look at turnover rate to see how we are doing at improving the number of patrons that we can service at the curb, and then other traffic studies that look at more unique issues like the functionality of load zones. Qualitatively, we'll work with an advisory committee or focus groups to gather information, continue with the outreach to the business community and the small businesses in the pricing area, and then lastly, surveys.

And one of the key benefits of the mobile payment option is we can do surveys through the payment platform to get some quick feedback on their experience. Another item we were asked to look into was the concept of providing the first thirty minutes free. We started this effort by looking nationwide at where on street parking had a free thirty minute option, and we found very few examples. We worked with payment vendors to see where they have used it, and the only peer city that was close by that we could speak to was Boise. In talking to Boise, they noted that it does create quite a bit of user confusion and had an impact on revenue.

We dug a little bit more into the revenue side and found that through additional turnover studies we performed that, depending on the area, we were seeing 25% to 50% of activity being less than thirty minutes. So with that loss of revenue and the loss of the first 30 of every other stay at the curb, it results in a significant impact to the overall gross revenue, which would basically leave us with no additional revenue to reinvest into the curb management plan and be able to do the other initiatives that were envisioned through that document in that effort. So our recommendation is to not pursue that concept. So moving on to the code changes. As mentioned, the council will establish the range in the code changes that provides the high and the low limits that we can work within.

And then the established the curb pricing zone, which is the area where we could deploy paid parking. We are currently assuming that paid parking would not be on every street within the curb zone. In downtown and Old Bellevue, it would be all the streets in that area. It's really Wilburton and Bell Red where we're still seeing that development occur that not every street would see it initially. The transportation director would be given the authority through the code to make those rate adjustments, and we would do those up to two times a year based on the data we collect.

And then we're also taking the opportunity of making these changes to update some of the language around the authority of the city traffic engineer. This is a position that is identified in state code and the city code, and it would we would be changing how we define time limited parking today. Our current approach has been to, or historically, to create a new ordinance every time we create a new section of time limited parking. And through work with the city attorney's office, we determined that those ordinances aren't necessary to enforce the curb. What's necessary is clear signage, which we have always had and have relied on as well for enforcement.

So the intent in the final in the ordinance that we'll be bringing back will be repealing those previous ordinances and instead using an online map that'll show all the locations where time limited parking exists and then also where paid parking will exist. And one item of note, with these changes, we are not changing how we approach residential permit zones. That system will stay the same in how those elements continue to come to council. The map on the right here shows the curb pricing zone. This is effectively the same area that was included as the study area for the original curb management plan.

And this will be defined, or the code will reference this map, which will also be on the same website for curb management. The code identifies the outreach requirements for when we change the curb rules. This is a practice we have today. When we make other changes like adding layover in the downtown or adjusting no parking limits, we would continue to do that with how we do time limited and paid parking changes as well. It defines requirements for payment signage and the systems for payment, and then lastly, we reinvest the revenue from the program.

On the topic of the revenue, as I've discussed, funding the curb management plan is the top priority out of the net revenue that comes from the program. Another, key piece that seemed to resonate well with some of the businesses was also the concept of funding, late night service of bellhop in the downtown. So the idea here is that it provides an alternative for folks that may work a late dinner shift at restaurants, that they can find a more accessible and timely way to get to either the light rail station or South Bellevue Park And Ride, where earlier in the day they could have parked for free, taken the bus to where they are in the downtown, and then use bellhop to get back. Other concepts like street activation were identified in the curb management plan through the concepts of parklets and on street dining, and then traffic safety improvements were some of the other feedback we received during outreach of trying to improve sidewalks in some areas where we would have also have paid parking. So when it comes to the timeline, if given the direction to move forward, we would first start with the solicitation of payment vendors for the sys for the program and start the designage of the new design of the new signage and pay stations that would be deployed.

We have two staff that we intend to hire as part of this program to help manage and perform outreach and continue that engagement with the community. We'll look into how we establish the ad hoc advisory committee, and then early in 'twenty seven begin notification and outreach. And this would include informing people about the app for payment so that they get the word out so they download the app before they make their first trip into downtown or Spring District and need it to make a payment versus using a pay station. And then last, we look to launch the program in Q2 of next year. And with that, we're ready for questions.

Thank you so much, both Andrew and Chris. Such a great work you have done on this topic. It seems small, but you have gone above and beyond and especially become very important if someone trying to find a parking spot in downtown or make a delivery or pick someone up or run into a coffee shop to drink a quick coffee. Let's just go and start with our deputy mayor, Hamilton.

Great. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. Also, for all the hard work and professionalism you've put into moving the curb management program forward. I think you've been thoughtful and smart in this effort, and you've done everything possible to ensure that it ultimately succeeds.

Generally supportive of the program and the proposed code changes. Would like to get a little bit more clarity regarding the code strike draft and referring to Section 11.23.14, where it calls for reinvestment of revenue beyond what is required to administer the curb pricing program to support eligible activities such as parking studies, traffic improvements, street activation, investment concepts identified within the curb management plan and investments that support access and ridership for transit and micro transit services. But maybe before going to that, I just want to be completely clear. The parking fee revenue will go into the general fund, but its use is restricted. And I'm wondering if you could just describe those restrictions.

Yeah. Would be anything that obviously, the enforcement and the increased enforcement that would go into the operating budget for us. And then all the activities that you saw in the current management plan are eligible for funding. Things like way finding, we've heard a lot from the community about working with businesses so that they can get their employees to find possibly parking that is not right on the curb. So it really funds all the activities that we could have within the curb management plan, which covers that geography that was just shown on the map that Chris showed in the slides.

Okay, good. Mean, I I think that certainly makes sense to use that revenue for curb management related investments. So of course, supportive of that. I would like to just drill down a little bit. I understand, obviously, parking studies and traffic safety improvements, and you touched a little bit on this. But could you just describe, with some examples, street activation, investment concepts identified within the curb management plan or investments that support access and ridership for transit and micro transit?

Yeah. So the start with the street activation. The concept that we we did hear from the the in the various outreach events that we held, the the interest in reinvesting back into the community. And one of the ideas that we we pitched was the supporting the community programming fund that economic development currently champions. And this is a grant program where businesses or organizations in the in the area can submit an application.

I I believe it's once a year for funds to do little activation events. So this comes in the form of last year, there was a parklet that was put in near the downtown park. There's been other events that have been done as well. So this would be a small contribution into that program to help show support of of that effort. On the transit side, I mentioned the bellhop.

That's the the a a big portion that we're supportive of. But another piece that we've we heard a lot about was enhancing transit stops. We have a a number of transit stops around the downtown where the waiting area for the bus and the sidewalk are one and the same, and so looking for ways to create improved space at the curb for both activities to occur. We also on the capital investment side, one of the areas that we are behind on is upgrading some of our existing infrastructure to accommodate ADA parking. It goes beyond just putting up two signs that designate a space for ADA.

We need to make it the right width so people can use the proper you know, can position their vehicle to be able to get out of it depending on their mobility device. And so those are some of the physical improvements that we'd be looking to do too. So, yeah, I think that And adding you

know, just really adding into that to creating additional loading zones, more enforcement of that type of activity as well, and creating more pickup and drop off slots between like Lyft and Uber.

And that's really gonna weigh into our enforcement approach too. We wanna study both how off street loading is being used to then better understand, is it a matter of lack of loading space or just lack of convenient loading space and and weigh that into how we how we assign the precious little curb space we have in the downtown.

Okay. Oh, those are excellent. And, really, the bellhop idea, I think that makes a ton of sense, certainly helps folks that need to move around late at night and especially folks in the hospitality business and those businesses as well. So I think that's great. Then like the you know, who makes the decision on which of those categories gets funded? What does that process look like?

So our our current thought is that the there would be an allocation for that for the curb management plan that would be standing that is, again, that would be sort of the first piece off the top that we'd want to do. And with the staff that we're adding, we won't be able to bite off all 27 initiatives at once. So that would be sort of a slow rolling approach once we get that staff in house, start working on a work plan for how we roll that out. Then some of these other items are more capital in nature. And so we we would include them in our our capital in the in the portfolio that would be presented to council, each year, for for those bigger elements.

I think the the bellhop and this contribution to the community, fund would are would also be sort of fixed, especially if we make that commitment to visit Bellevue. We want to make sure we're not reneging on that after one year. So that would also be a fixed portion.

Great. Good. Alright. Great work. Really appreciate it. Thanks for answering the questions. I think it all sounds good. Ready to move forward. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, deputy mayor. Councilman Ewenhouse.

Thank you, mayor. Great presentation. Is usually Andrew and Chris. Thank you so much. Just gonna jump into some questions.

So first of all, on the the range of rates. So council set the range of rates, but then the director has ability to increase, and I assume decrease, as needed. Is that within the full range, or is that a percentage that you can increase, or can you literally go from $1 to $8 And what would precipitate that change? What would you need to see in order to I'm assuming that we're not covering or recovering our costs from implementing the program would be number one, but what else would you need to see in order to consider a rate increase?

Detail about it.

Basically, would be based on the data and what we're observing on the curve. So if we're not seeing a lot of parking that's happening there, that means the signal to lower the rate. Or if we're not getting that 80%, it succeeded Right. That would mean to increase the rate. But if it can't go beyond the range that's established by counsel.

Okay. As in the implementation strategy, we talked about it being a nominal change. So we would never do a big jump like that. It would be a 25¢ to 50¢, you know, roughly adjustment. So definitely want that to be incremental because we don't want to, you know, overshoot and and really make it a a challenge.

We wanna be right at that sweet spot where we're seeing that that access. Another piece to this is, we do want to make peep we're hoping through the payment app, we can make people aware of what other options there are for parking because there are quite a few private lots that use similar apps that we would use on the street that have, reasonable rates, especially in the evening. There are garages that are under $10 an hour that that I just today, taking a walk before the council meeting across the street here at the Bellevue 600, it's $5 after 05:00. So and that's a flat rate for the rest of the evening. So there are other options out there that could also help folks, and I think that that's one of the big efforts we're looking to do.

And then if you were to increase the rates, how would we communicate that to the businesses and to residents?

The the definitely, that's it is identified in the code that we need to do that outreach. So we would, we would share the data that we've collected to justify the change and and use all our typical communication channels to announce the the rate change. We see this in other cities as well. In in other bigger cities, they often you know, it'll be in the news. This would be probably something that would be picked up in our, local areas. It's the time for that adjustment again, and here's what the changes are, and we'd update the map on our website as well. Okay.

So Okay. Yeah. It comes to enforcement, are we still looking at a third party vendor like a Diamond Parking as we've done previously? Are we looking to shift to, Bellevue PD to cover enforcement, or what would that look like?

Yeah. Great question. Today, we have, one of our officers back here volunteering.

Yeah. Yeah. They they would they are they're pointing at each other. Yeah.

So the so today, downtown is enforced by Diamond and and then supported by police for certain more technical issues. And in Spring District and beyond is enforced by Bellevue PD. And I right now, Diamond is in the first year of a three year contract, so we would probably start with them and then evaluate that that, where we're migrating as we see how well the program, how well both work. The police have, we've engaged with them on this topic already and they are and we'll continue to do that here in the next you know, as we move forward because either way, we'll need to add staff. And so I think our first we'll first look to them because the biggest change is gonna be in their in their area of Spring District where we really would wanna see a more consistent enforcement there.

So Okay. Yeah. So that's that's the first step is is that engagement there.

Okay. Would like to see I mean, it's understandable it's in the first of three years. But before making, I guess, more of a long term decision on who's going to be doing the lion's share of the enforcement, Love to see some analysis on what makes the most sense for the city, not only just the enforcement piece, but just in terms of the return on investment that we're going get from this as And I have no idea what the diamond contract looks like, but nor what it would take to hire additional police officers to to take on more of an enforcement piece, but I'd like to see that analysis before we make a a longer term decision on who would be doing that lion's share of enforcement in the future. The residential piece, so no change to that whatsoever at this point, correct? Yeah.

Okay, great.

I also had a question, I appreciate deputy Hamilton bringing up, about going above and beyond the you know, paying for the program and then what we do with those additional funds. It it would seem to me that something as rooted in transportation would need to stay in transportation as our state does it. Right? Yeah. The street activation, to me, feels a little outside that that as much as I love street activations, it feels a little bit outside and rightly should be in the in the in the community development bucket.

So how did that come about? Because everything else you've listed here makes sense to me in terms of the parking studies, the traffic safety, the the curb management, additional concepts there. That all makes sense. The street activation to me doesn't quite fit. Can you explain how that

came about? So when we started the curb management plan, there was still on street dining happening in Old Bellevue. And in the last two seasons, we've not had that. And a big reason for that is is the cost. And so the if this came up is, you know, how can we is there a way that this program can help support initiative or, you know, public supportive elements like on street dining, that that does, you know, bring more people into the downtown and and generate, more interest in in Bellevue?

So that was something we heard from the community, and we thought this is a fairly, small piece that we could contribute to that to to make that be less of a burden. You know, there's there's a a flip side to it that that means we're not there's no revenue being generated from those parking spaces, but it wasn't the entire street. So and and we know that there was value brought from that concept to the community. So that's where it originated, and so we thought, well, we don't wanna be necessarily having to manage a whole another program, that for distributing the funds. So we looked to our friends in economic development and said, oh, how can we work together on this? And this community fund was the concept that came forward.

It's an eligible activity. It's a little simpler with the capital side of it because you'll see it in the CIP. But you raise a good issue. And we will be coming back to the council to give updates on how this is going and to talk about issues like that too.

Okay. Okay. Because there was one piece missing here that I'd like to also see that we take a look at, and that's congestion relief. I mean, that's one of our principles that we are always trying to address. But I didn't see anything related to congestion relief, especially around some of the core areas of downtown that suffer from it for on Old Main, for for for example. Looking for other ways to tackle that issue to me would be something that some of these funds might be rightly appropriated towards that.

Well, the whole point of doing it is for congestion relief so people aren't driving around everywhere trying to find parking. And we do have, and you'll be seeing it coming up Yep. As we talked about last week in the budget process, a category for that sort of thing.

Okay. Good. I'm glad to see it. Because, I mean, come on. I mean, we're not gonna see might we might see some relief, but it's not gonna solve the complete problem. Right? Sure. No. Okay. Great. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Those were my questions. I'm ready to move this forward too, but, yeah, we'd definitely like to see see some of those categories as as as as we move forward as well as the the way we manage the rate increase or or or decrease going forward, and then analysis in terms of long term who's gonna be doing the enforcement. But thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You. Councilwoman Newhouse. Councilwoman Robinson.

Thank you. So I'm not a big fan of paid parking. I was really hoping that our city could continue its tradition of not charging for parking because it's such a unique thing in this region, but, I understand the need to try this. And so I think it's been so thoughtful in all the studies that you've done, the outreach that you've done, the input you've been given, and the plan that you have proposed here tonight. And so I I appreciate that, and I will support trying this.

I just wanna do a major check-in in three years. And really, my bottom line is our business is benefiting from this program. And however you measure that, I hope it's thorough. Maybe council member Sumidwaria can help you come up with some questions of what helps a business. But I really do want to do a strong qualitative review.

And I think it's going to have a much bigger impact than you think in a positive way. You think you're going to have one to two more spaces? That's every three hours. You know, I think that every every parking segment of time, you're gonna have one to two new spaces. And we used to have people who would just park all day, and those were taken up. And I think that's going to get rid of that. I think that's the biggest problem that we have. So I'm intrigued about what enforcement will look like. I would love to have a volunteer enforcement program. I know it has its issues, but I'd like to think we could utilize something like that.

Are we charging for parking in the parks as well? I couldn't tell.

That's not part of the program. We do intend to increase enforcement in the parks, and that's something that is part of the enforcement contract that we'll be modifying that right now, there are the downtown park and Ashwood Park has three hour parking. So and there's segments of there certain stalls around Maidenbauer Bay that also are time limited. So we would do that enforcement to support that.

Are we gonna watch for walk offs?

That's that's a little more challenging. And I don't know that we wanna completely discourage that because there is a lot of back and forth.

Why wouldn't we just charge at the parks as well?

That's you know, if we wanna look into that as phase two and and bring their parks friends along, that would be something that we can consider as well.

I just feel like we're gonna funnel everybody to the free parks. Let's see. When you with your payment stations, you're gonna do design of new signage design for new signage and payment stations. I hope that we can be consistent with the character of the neighborhoods we're putting this in. I think that's important to the people. I love the late night bellhop to light rail. I love to increase on street dining. I think that's really important. I know other neighborhoods would like to see that as well. I think that was it. So I'm looking forward to moving this forward and seeing how we do. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank Thank you so much, customer Robinson. Customer Sumada, where are you? Thank

you for the briefing today. It was super helpful. And I think parking is not only important for business, also as a safety issue because everybody's skill of parallel parking are different. So I do have a few questions to ask and more like clarifying. So I'm I had the same question with council member Newhouse about what triggers the director to authorize to an adjustment. But what I'm caring about is what is I think there's a range. Right? Is there, like, a floor to ceiling range you can share with us? What's your mind?

Oh, you mean is to what that occupancy change would need to be?

The rate.

Oh, the rate.

What's the floor, like, to ceiling?

So the the the current code is gives a range from a dollar to $8. We do not intend to start at the top of the range. That would be for a very unique situation if we are finding that there's a a challenge in in getting that turnover. So but yeah. So that's the intent.

Okay. And that's I would say that's a really high range.

Mhmm.

Right? Yeah. And then looking at the map about the streets, the proposed area, can you remind me how did we decide on, you know, these these certain streets?

Basically, these are all the streets that today have time limited parking. So, we are not I don't believe we're adding any new time limited parking, as part of this initial rollout. So that's that was the intent.

Okay. And I'm assuming they're not currently monitored. Are they currently monitored by time limited?

They're they the time limited parking is well, I guess, they're so it's a combination of in downtown, it's Diamond. Outside of downtown, it's police. And they have two parking support officers today. They they will they will touch the there's a couple of fringe locations near downtown near Maiden Mower Bay Park, the police do, and then over in the Spring District. But that's on top of them currently doing the rest of the city as well. So this would give through this program, we would be able to support adding police staff in those areas that are focused in those areas.

Okay. Yeah. I think this program is very exciting, could be really beneficial for different areas. And so for when you evaluate performance other than, you know, the rate and then the revenue, I guess how often and how what's the length you're gonna be able to report back to us? Like like, how is it going?

I would expect that we would certainly come back within the first year of operation. I I would imagine that, the council will be interested to see to hear, and we would I I intend to do, a round of surveys similar to what we did at the beginning to to measure how well we're adjusting. As as one of the examples, when we did the first round of surveys, we asked, we asked folks finding a parking space as a barrier to visiting downtown, and 52% of people said yes. And that was tailored to the different areas. But so we'd like to see that number improve. So we would continue to ask that question and see what kind of response we're we're getting from the users at the curb.

Okay. And then I'm very good job about collaborating with the account development for the street activation. I think that's, like, the the exciting side of when doing policy, but you can get to work with a colleague on different departments. So that's a great plus. So I would say, like, that one year review checking, if it's not benefiting the business, it will be a little bit too late.

That's just a suggestion just because those three level business, they will have that benefit or versus hit faster than any other businesses. And are we collaborating closely with, like, old mains old old main and or, like, BDA to make sure that we can engage the street level business first and also educating them as I think that they would be the first businesses experience that right away or can give us even feedback faster than any other businesses.

Yeah. Old Belvieu Merchants Association was very generous with their time as we work through this program. We met with them, I think, four times during the course of the development of this. And then the BDA also was very helpful. I think prior to you being on council, you participated in one of the the focus groups. And so we do intend to reach out to them. Same in the Spring District. We Wright Runstead helped us pull together some of the users or some of the street level businesses there as well to help with that engagement.

Okay. Well, thank you for doing this. I really appreciate we going through this length and study this. And I for me, I would really advocate for us have that feedback from the business sooner than Okay. Here. Just because every business usually you look at the review and then, you know, the revenue and the up and down in sales quarterly. Sometimes they even work monthly, month by month. How do I doing to able to support the business. So if the business are done not benefiting or like because we don't know what's gonna be looking like. Right? If there's any chance that's gonna be negatively impacting any street level business, we wanna be there supporting them before it's too late. Yeah. I don't wanna paint a gloomy picture, but I think we need to be proactively supporting our local business, making sure that we are doing something benefiting for everybody.

Yeah. We're we're we're committed to continuing to work with the businesses downtown, not on an ongoing basis And with this for

also, like, don't have to do it alone. We have great partners in Old Main, like, busy Bellevue and the BDA. So we can always work with them together to get information faster.

Great.

Thank you.

You, Council Member Smode. Council Member Borgawa, you go first and then we go to Council Member Robinson.

Think we got something.

Yes. You go

back to me.

So I'll be quick. So thank you, Andrew and Chris. Really appreciate coming back with thoughtful recommendations and changes broadly supportive of what you presented here. A few things come to mind. One, I'll start with the most structural for me.

Clearly, there is a there's a you've received feedback, you've done studies, you've also talked about constant monitoring and a feedback loop ongoing on impacts to businesses, local businesses, especially street level businesses from this approach. I see the upside potential of having available parking spots in front of small businesses that can allow for increased utilization and in revenue and just customer ease as well. But one of the golden tickets for Bellevue has been the idea of like, Bellevue Square has free parking, and it draws tons and tons of people. And as long as you know, I've talked to people in the last couple of years, that feels like a massive draw and an attractive proposition for for folks. And so I'm just curious structurally if there is a flip side argument about the change in customer behavior as we start to put paid parking in place for utilization of small businesses in our city.

It could be local. It could be a little bit more regional for things like restaurants and other things that draw people due to patronage. I know you've thought about this, and I'm sure since you've engaged with so many stakeholders, there has been input. I'm just curious to what the thesis was and how we will monitor that beyond what you talked about going forward. That's my first question.

Well, I guess that it comes back to the mechanisms available to to improving the management of the curve. And what we've what we've studied in looking at other cities is the when you when you find yourself at this position where you're you're the the demand far exceeds the supply on the street, that pricing is the industry standard for how to how to do that management. This is you know, there there there is I think we've mentioned this before. This is 1% of the parking in the downtown, but it's one of the most desirable 1% of parking. And so we we recognize that, and we we wanna be fair in how we price it, but understand that there's you know, most of the other garages around the downtown and Spring District are paid parking as well.

The the mall is very unique. And at the mall, it's it's technically only free if you're shopping at the mall. There's there are the garages on some of the garages do require validation certain times a day. And so it is you know, we're we're seeing this change in a in a lot of places because it's the only way to really manage that demand at the curb. So that was the the the driving force behind it is to try to do this in a more equitable way that that also will,

you know, that

will help pay for the other components that would also support safer operation on the street, like dealing with parking that's happening illegally and deliveries that don't seem to have enough space to make that happen?

Yes. Don't need to oversell the benefits that you've laid out. Completely sold on those. And what I'm anchoring from what you just said is the demand for these spots is high enough that you project or we project no loss in revenue to these businesses based on possible changes in customer behavior. Is that accurate?

That is our hope. We want to

see an

increase. Because they're able to see more more people be able to get to

a shared model.

That's Yeah.

That's great because then we can come back and subsequently test our assumptions and do all of that. But right now, it's clear from the inputs you received that is how we're moving forward. Okay. Just a few tactical questions. I'll go to my third one actually because signage and way finding is a great opportunity here for us, in what we do because it is going to be developed and more flavor full based on the neighborhoods, and you heard that feedback already.

Free parking might be available not too far from these spots potentially. And it might be really beneficial for our app to integrate that guidance and for way finding and signage to provide that to folks who do not wish, to pay or may not mind the inconvenience for short walk to free parking if that's available. And so I would strongly encourage for I think we talked about this at the last session as well. I would strongly encourage us to think about that, especially given the first thirty minutes recommendation that you've come back with.

It's a really appropriate capital investment is that way finding and for that very reason to get people to be able to find a parking that's either free or low cost.

Yeah. And the third thing sort of tags into that. The next thing I want to talk about is just things like bellhop you talked about late nights, but I would also encourage to think about how to increase the frequency through the day for things like that. For folks who may not want to pay for the parking or don't mind the inconvenience or for folks who work in these areas to have shuttle services to free spots or things like that, which I think will really enable the decongestion of what you're looking for as a reinforcing factor. So maybe that's part of your capital improvements that you bring from your surplus revenue as investments we could consider is the nudge I would make that would cover folks who may be occupying spaces today that may find relief as we think about the solutions.

And the last thing I just wanna educate myself because I know you've thought about it is, how does the Uber Eats kind of services work in this updated scenario of the world?

Yeah. Interesting question. I mean, they they should be able to use the load zones and and be able to get the the hope is that there's an enough of those to be able to get in and out and pick up the the deliveries they need. There are buildings in downtown that offer short fifteen, thirty minute parking for pickup and delivery because they have a lot of street level restaurants as well. So that is another mechanism that, you know, trying to get the the word out and the education on those services so that those drivers know to use those facilities and not park illegally.

Okay. Really quick paraphrasing of that question maybe. Have you done any kind of a demand analysis on what is required for these services as we look ahead five, ten years?

Yeah. No. And that's one of the one of the items that we really would like to spend more time on. We've we've seen it recently increase even more in the last few months. There's a few hot spots in the downtown where we have a lot of illegal parking happening, and it's and we've actually started engaging with those the property managers to to start that discussion as well. But this is where that that study I was mentioning before of you know, is the issue that there there's lack of off-site space for doing loading and deliveries, or is it that it's just not convenient?

Yeah.

So and and getting a better handle on

that. Yeah. I mean, I I say this because it's just almost personal experience as well. There have been multiple instances where people double park, and you don't know where they are. And they're coming back quickly enough, so you don't start crazy frustration. But it is a safety issue. It's a inconvenience. And I feel like it's not something that we have adequately planned for as we think about our parking systems?

Yeah. It's it it is you know, we do have a a limited amount of of usable curb space for that type of activity, and so anything we can do to encourage the the that usage of off-site is is gonna be where where we go next. I mean, lot of the newer buildings do have porticos and circular drives where the where you can get off as well. So that's you know, that that does help alleviate some of that stress also.

Okay. Great. Thanks again. Much appreciated.

Thank you, councilor Morgawa. Councilor Morgawa. Morgawa Robinson.

Thank you for that. I the one of the most important things I wanted to ask about is employee parking. Mhmm. I have real concerns about, especially young employees who work at night and minimum wage jobs, cannot afford to pay for parking for that time and and, you know, can't stay there as long as they need to. So I hope that, you know, we can have some kind of a voucher program with employers or contract with people who own large lots in the evening that's not being used by other people that we could maybe use that for some kind of a parking program for employees?

We can definitely look into it after the program gets going. And again, another solution is also Bellhop, which is more of a commitment from staff to be working with the businesses to find out what the needs are and how to serve that very important aspect of it, which is people who are working, the workers and getting them into good locations to park. We'll take in to encourage transit too.

Yes, of course. But yeah, a little combination of so great. Thank you for that. Thank you.

Thank you. Of course. Great job again. Majority of my questions have been asked with my from my council members. Just wanted to ref maybe re reask it and say how we will know if this is working.

And I think that came from several council members. And I just wanted to know if you have all of the metrics that we can look at benchmark and then see after a year or two or whatever you said operation wise. And then we see, yes, turnover, occupancy, help small businesses, access to us. Again, I don't know what are those metrics, but do you have them that we can just look back and say this is working?

Yeah. And that's items like the survey questions we asked before and finding are the people who are using the curb finding that the changes we have made are actually making it better for them and how they get to the downtown. The metrics with the businesses is one that we will be talking to them about during engagement. A lot of our we did ask for feedback from businesses as well. That survey was not, specifically targeted to them, though.

It was it was still broad for for everyone to answer, businesses, residents, visitors, everyone. So I I before we launch, I think, a a a updated survey for the street level businesses that ask them some targeted questions about you know, that we can use as a measuring stick will be helpful as well.

Do you think beside just survey, you can do some quantitative data. For example, can we somehow measure one of the goal is reduce circling. You just said we don't want it to congestion. That can probably reduce people are circling for a park. Do you think we can measure that in different way than just serving people?

I think measuring congestion would be in the small in the areas that we have the dense operation of parking could be challenging. Just not enough space to get good quantitative data. It is that's probably you know, that's I I see that being more of a qualitative, you know, feedback that we receive from users of the curve. But it's an interesting question I can bring back to the team. We have we have mechanisms to measure travel time.

Mhmm. It's just typically done in slightly longer segments than we see in in, like, Old Bellevue or Spring District. So I but that'll be a, you know, one we can look into.

Right. And there's a lot of data that's gonna need to be collected just to run the program that we can give information about.

That would be great. If any, of course, survey and qualitative data would be great, but some quantitative data that we can measure somehow with increasing technology, how the turnover of this spot is changing due to this new parking. My last question would be, I am maybe I'm not hearing conflicting messaging, and that's why I wanted to clarify that. There is one of your slide, you told me that or it was mentioned that we cannot have a half an hour free because if we do half an hour free, it won't generate enough money to run the program.

Ish? So no. Based on what we calculated, we can operate the base program. What we can't do is any of the reinvestment into the curb management plan. So any of the other improvements that we've talked about today, the bellhop, the the community program, the the physical improvements we want to be able to do in the curb pricing zone, we wouldn't be able to afford any of those improvements.

Okay. So if we do have an hour free, we cannot do any additional money to do anything else?

Right. You just have to pay back the infrastructure for the pay stations and all that. It's just and enforcement, and that would be it.

Okay. So so I just wanted to cautious ourselves that we can go to then increasing the price in a way that we can achieve all of our other goals. And I think that's also not a good balance. Like, I don't want we start increasing the parking price in Bellevue in a way again, we have a lot of expenses. I understand that.

But I don't know what would be that balance that we I understand the intent. The intent is help small businesses, avoid Moma Lakutian to park six hours in a spot and block that area. Get all of those intention. But at the same time, I don't we don't I don't want it to be a start charging people at the high end pricing because we have a lot of buckets that needs money.

Right.

Well and that's, again, not the motivation.

That's not motive.

Yeah. The the motivation is to get that turnover and to to make to reduce that barrier to visiting downtown and Spring District. So we none of the documentation talks about increasing the price just to be able to, you know, expand other capital programs, if that makes sense.

Or any care management, yes.

Yeah. Was not the intent. Great.

Yeah. Thank you so much. I appreciate you all. And can we have the motion, please?

I move to direct staff to finalize the Bellevue City code amendments and prepare an ordinance to allow for the establishment and administration of a paid on street parking program in Bellevue.

Is there a second? Second. It has been moved by deputy mayor and seconded by Councilmember Newnhaus. Any further discussion? All those in favor, aye. Any opposed? There is none. The motion passes. Thank you so much. And I think on that note, we can adjourn the meeting. See you all next week. Thank you so much.