City Council - Regular Meeting

We are on air. Welcome, everybody. I now call the 05/05/2026 regular city council meeting to order. We will take a moment to take a roll call of the council members by position number. Please say here when the city clerk calls your name. City clerk.

Thank you. Council member Anguleri?

Here.

Mayor Thompson?

Here.

Deputy Mayor Aldirks?

She's Sorry. Here.

Thank you. Council member Kerr. Here. Council member Miles. Here. Council member Dodd. Here. Council member Alcabra.

Here.

All present.

Thank you. First up on our agenda tonight is meeting agenda approval. Kicking it off with the city manager review of the agenda.

Thank you, mayor, and good evening, deputy mayor and members of the city council. So May is a popular month for events, recognitions, and areas of awareness in your agenda reflects that by having three proclamations by the council tonight, each with outside guests. So welcome to those who joined us this evening. We're glad you're here. The majority of tonight's meeting is gonna be spent though on section 10, ordinances and resolutions.

Contained in that section are decisions by council, related to a recommended next step in considering fire service and a potential ballot measure to the community related to annexing into the fire shoreline fire, regional fire authority, acceptance of amendments proposed by the Department of Ecology for the shoreline master program adopted way back by council in 2023, consideration of property purchase in Downtown Bothell, and an opportunity to adopt an update an update to the city council vision for 2014 and review of the council's priorities for the next three years. Also, on your agenda tonight are four items on your consent calendar, which include adoption of the report from that retreat where the vision and priorities were discussed, which will serve as minutes of the retreat, approval of minutes from the April 21 meeting, and routine approval of March vouchers and payroll. And I do recommend approving all four items.

Alright. Are there any changes, to tonight's agenda we would like to propose? Seeing none, we'll move on to public engagement opportunities. Grow your own small business. Applications are open for entrepreneurs and small businesses to participate in the POP Shops on Main Small Business Incubator Program. This program helps small businesses bring their vision to life in the heart of downtown Bothell. Applications are due by May 11. Traffic Calming Project Open House. The city's traffic calming program is planning a project along several corridors in Bothell, including 15th Avenue Southeast, 19th Avenue Southeast, and 23rd Avenue Southeast. Join us for an open house to learn more about the project and share your thoughts.

The Wayne Open Space Action Plan Open House. During the second open house for the Wayne Open Space Action Plan. There's Open House and Open Space, and it's just breaking my brain. Get an update on the project, explore preliminary design concepts, and speak with Park staff and project consultants. That's Thursday, May 28, six to eight p. M. And it here at Bothell City Hall. And I'm gonna move on to proclamations. As the city manager mentioned, we have three of them tonight. The first one is for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Whereas the month of May is nationally recognized as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the cultures, histories, and immeasurable contributions of these vibrant and diverse communities across The United States, and whereas we recognize that AAN HPI is not a single story but a collective of many spanning over 50 ethnic groups and hundreds of languages, traditions, and histories each with unique roots and lived experiences And whereas in Bothell and beyond, AAN HPI individuals have enriched our city as neighbors, educators, artists, caregivers, scientists, small business owners, farm owners, agricultural workers, and leaders often in the face

of

systemic discrimination, xenophobia, and cultural erasure, and whereas we honor the generations of AAN HPI community members who have shaped our local history and continue to build a more just, inclusive, and vibrant future despite legacies of exclusion, anti Asian violence, and colonial harm. And whereas the City of is committed to building trust and authentic relationships with our AA and HPI community, ensuring that our programs and policies reflect values of equity, belonging, and visibility for all. Now therefore I, Mason Thompson, mayor of the City Of Bothell, do hereby proclaim May 2026 is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the City Of Bothell, and call upon all residents to deepen their understanding of AAN HPI histories and cultures to listen with care, and to actively reject anti Asian xenophobia, hate, and discrimination in all forms. And I believe we have a A. C.

Peterson here to accept. Where's oh, behind.

Good evening, mayor Thompson, deputy mayor Aldrichs, council members, and attendees in person and via Zoom. My name is AC Peterson. I live in Bothell. I also serve on the Bothell Arts Commission. The month of May is Asian American, native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander AANHPI Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the many cultures of AANHPI communities by honoring our shared history while acknowledging our diverse and unique experiences.

The month of May marks many important milestones in American history, including the 1943 arrival of the first Japanese immigrants and the 1869 completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, built in large part through the labor of thousands of Chinese immigrants who labored under horrific conditions. While celebrating our rich diversity, we also reflect on how our how our people have carried decades of resilience in the face of violence, racism, forced removal, and incarceration of American citizens. We must keep these dark parts of American history fresh in order to recognize when and how we are repeating it, both as individuals and institutions. I encourage folks to explore the many ways that the AANHPI community is part of the region, including on Saturday at the King County Bothell Library, all ages kid friendly puppet theater showing of a Japanese folktale Saturday at 2PM, dining at one of the many AANHPI owned and inspired restaurants in the area, visiting the Seattle Asian Arts Museum in Volunteer Park any time of year, or the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian American Experience in the International District, again, any time of year, not just in the month of May. Bothell is a welcoming place for all, and we can embody that by embracing all who live here, whether recent arrivals or those whose families have been here for generations.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have National Police Week. I would have liked to think that they were just going to come say hi because they enjoyed coming to these council meetings so much, but it's nice to have you here to accept this anyway. Whereas in 1962, president John F. Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day, and the calendar week in which it falls is National Police Week to honor the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty while protecting our communities.

And whereas more than 800,000 law enforcement officers are serving in communities across The United States, including 77 dedicated members of the Bothell Police Department, and whereas since the first recorded death in 1786, twenty seven thousand three hundred and fifty two law enforcement officers in The United States have made the ultimate sacrifice and died in the line of duty, including 350 officers from Washington State. And whereas in 2025, one hundred eleven federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, including two from Washington State. And whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed in the line of duty will be honored on May 15, designated as National Peace Officers Memorial Day. And whereas both the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial bear the name of our own officer Jonathan Shoup, who died in the line of duty on 07/13/2020 while heroically serving the city of Bothell. Now therefore I, Mason Thompson, mayor of the city of Bothell, do hereby proclaim May 2026 police week in the city of Bothel and publicly acknowledge the brave service of law enforcement officers in our community and communities across the nation.

Alrighty. Thank you, mayor, deputy mayor, and city council members. It is with great pride and sincere gratitude that I stand before you this evening to accept this proclamation on behalf of the dedicated staff of the Baldwin Police Department. It is a time in a time when the challenges facing law enforcement are complex and evolving, this proclamation stands as a meaningful reminder of the unwavering commitment shown by our officers and staff each and every day. It affirms not only the risks they take but the values they uphold of courage, integrity, and service to others.

Police week is a time for reflection and recognition. It reminds us of the sacrifices made by those who have taken an oath to serve and protect, including those who have paid the ultimate price, like our fallen officer, Jonathan Shupe. It is also a time to celebrate the vital role law enforcement plays in keeping our community safe, just, and connected. Our officers serve as guardians responding to crises, protecting the vulnerable, ensuring that all people regardless of background or status are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect. Behind every badge is a commitment not just to enforce laws, but to build trust, offer compassion, and make a meaningful difference.

As chief of police, I could not be more proud of the work our team does each day. From the officers on patrol to the professional staff behind the scenes, they serve with integrity, resilience, and heart. They meet challenges head on with a quiet strength that reflects the highest standard of public service. But even as we honor these achievements, we recognize the ongoing importance of collaboration between law enforcement and the communities that we serve. Building trust is not a onetime task.

It is a continuous effort grounded in transparency, empathy, and mutual respect. By working together, we move closer to a safer, more inclusive community where all voices are heard and valued. In closing, thank you for this proclamation. It is a meaningful expression of support that affirms the purpose and professionalism of those who wear the badge. On behalf of the entire department, thank you for standing with us during police week and every week. Thank you.

Thank you, chief. Alright. We have a third proclamation tonight for Jewish American Heritage Month. Whereas May is recognized annually as Jewish American Heritage Month to celebrate the enduring heritage of Jewish Americans whose values, culture, and contributions have shaped our community, and whereas the first Jewish immigrants arrived in America in 1654 fleeing oppression from other areas of the world and looking for a place where they could practice their faith and lead their lives freely and safely. And whereas Bothell has a thriving Jewish community of neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family members who continually make contributions to our society and culture in science, medicine, literature, the arts, sports, business, technology, government, and more.

And whereas as we celebrate the accomplishments of the Jewish community, we must also recognize the bigotry and violence that Jewish people have faced throughout history and that shamefully persist today. And whereas it is the responsibility of all Bothell community members to ensure that hate has no safe harbor here and to protect the sacred ideals of religious freedom, equality, dignity, and respect. Now therefore, I, Mason Thompson, mayor of the city of Bothell, do hereby proclaim May 2026 is Jewish American Heritage Month in the city of Bothell and encourage all community members to join in this observance by building bridges of understanding and friendship across lines of difference so that we can work together to create a better, brighter, and more promising future. And, Rabbi Rivkin, here requested this proclamation, and we're happy to do so. He's unable to attend tonight, and he'll accept it at a future date.

But being that it is May, it is Jewish American Heritage Month, we decided to do it today, and we will accept it later when the rabbi is able to make it. Would you guys like pictures? They're like, why do you think we came? Alright. Moving on to public comment.

The city has accepted public comment in writing as well as accepted sign ups for those who wish to speak at tonight's meeting. Written comments submitted to the city clerk no later than three p. M. Today were forwarded to all city council members and are part of the record. When the clerk calls your name, you'll have three minutes to speak. Please note that council will receive your input, but we do not engage in discussion of these topics. Staff will make note of items requiring follow-up. City clerk.

You, Mayor Thompson. We had one written comment from Whitney Naggenbauer, who is complementing the council on their 2,040 vision and strategic priorities. And I have one gentleman here to sign up to speak, Colton Brown. If you'd like to come to the podium, you have three minutes.

First of all, thank you very much for allowing me to speak. I'm thankful to be here. I'm actually originally from Seattle and grew up up here in Brier, so I'm very familiar with the area. My name is Colton Brown. I'm actually the public affairs specialist for the small US Small Business Administration Office Disaster Recovery and Resilience.

I'm here on behalf of not just ourselves, but also FEMA. But I'll stay off the FEMA and stay in my lane. We're here because of the storms and the mud, you know, the mud sides, the the bad weather that occurred in the December, for proclamation number 21499. Pretty sure that most of the most of the council members on those city manager and emergency manager have received the email. So if you wish to get any additional information and also to all the constituents of how we can assist you guys.

They do have it. Or you can also just go to our website, which is sba.govbackslashdisaster. Sometimes I don't know if it's backslash or forward slash, but you understand. So what we offer is long term disaster recovery. Unlike we're not a stop gap. We are actually we actually do small business, nonprofit, faith based businesses as well. We do loans with this particular proclamation. It's also for homeowners and renters. And what we do is we attempt to make sure that we keep the cash moving and the cash flow within the community to allow people to get back to be whole. Okay?

So I'm not blinking yet. We don't want it. So that way it's up there. There we go. There we go.

And so what it is is it's 00%, zero payments for the first twelve months. We specialize in assisting those that are underinsured, uninsured, and those that cannot get, disaster funding anywhere else. In addition to that, it's, we have the economic injury disaster loans, and these are similar to what people are aware of. But this is also the stopgap to allow those nonprofits that may have ran into ran into the the the disasters and depleted their ability to be able to help should anything else occur, as well as businesses that are having issues as far as their accounts payable, accounts receivable. So once again, I wanna thank you guys for the opportunity to speak.

Yeah. There we go. So you once again, thank you very much, and you guys have a blessed day.

The timing, like, you've done this before. Yeah. Just You're a pro. Yeah. Just Yeah.

Thank you. That is all I have signed up. However, if there is anybody else in the audience who wishes to speak, please step to the podium, state your name for the record, and you will have three minutes. And if you are online, if you wish to speak, please use the raise hand function, and we will panel you in for three minutes. That is all I have, Mayor Thompson.

Thank you. Alright. Moving on to reports. We're gonna start off with the city manager report.

Thank you, mayor. And I have three items of update tonight. No presentations, but, some some factual updates that I hope will help the council. Earlier tonight, I mentioned that March is or May. Excuse me.

May is a busy month for proclamations, and, we were able to hear, about police week tonight. This weekend, if you, didn't catch it, the president is the last week declared, Sunday and Monday of this week as, National Firefighters Memorial Day. So some great and sobering reminders of the service that many of our colleagues, put in to serve the Bothell community twenty four seven. We'll be hearing from public works next week for public works awareness. But one other that I don't want to pass by the radar is that, I I suspect there's probably a professional courtesy that limits their, desire to add one more proclamation.

But I wanna acknowledge that May is the fifty seventh annual municipal clerk's week. Municipal clerks support transparency for council and you doing your work, but also for members of the public who have access to meeting records as well as through public records management and disclosure. Being in the center of that of those processes and touching every aspect of the city government, they also tend to be a wealth of information to colleagues who work here internal to organizations. So with that, I wanted to make sure to thank our city clerk Laura Hathaway, our deputy city clerk, Amy Ross, who supports the technical workings of council meetings and makes them literally happen and run, as well as Mason Kay, who serves as our deputy city clerk focused on the city records management program. So thank you to all three of you for keeping us moving.

Appreciate it. Second update is, putting all that into action. So they had some work to do after our last council meeting. As you may recall, we had a item that was delayed from the from the agenda, our April 21 agenda. So I wanted to just acknowledge that that postponed study session for downtown parking will be coming back to you on June 2, and the team will be back to present you to you at that time.

So you can stay tuned for that. And then finally, a little news to get you focused on outdoors and dining. Council will be hearing next more next week on a staff report about the pop shop program that happens at Triangle Junction. And so you'll hear from Ashish and get a lot more detail about that. However, we did not want to miss the moment to update council that the very first day of operations from one of our new mobile food incubator program participants at Triangle Junction starts tomorrow from one to six.

So the the vendor, two guys grill on wheels, will be serving barbecue this week and will regularly be located on-site Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with extended hours of l, eleven till eight as one of the, one of the two food program pads that you'll find at Triangle Junction. There's two other selected vendors who I signed one of the contracts just before this meeting. We'll be joined by brat brat brat brat and brat brat Maklava. So say those two really quickly, and they'll be serving meals from eleven to six on additional days. We're working on securing a few more contracts so that there's a seven day schedule where there will be up to two food vendors each day.

Each vendor is allowed to operate between ten to twenty hours per week, so we'll be able to have a rotation and a variety, and the schedule will be posted on our website as soon as we have a couple more, which might be as soon as this week, again, with those contracts flowing. So as a reminder, for those of you who may not be familiar, hopefully, know about the pop shops by now. But the program for the mobile food, operators is designed to support early stage food entrepreneurs in Bothell, helping them to learn with within the county construct of what, health regulations there are in city approved space. So we've taken care of all of those approvals so they can just focus on creating a viable business. They'll be able to do that for up to one year.

In return, vendors will pay a small concession fee in lieu of rent or space payment, so it helps them have a place to go consistently without paying a large fee. They don't have to get a right away permit, which is typically what a food truck would would need out in the wild. And also, it gives them an opportunity to focus on learning the bottle market and figuring out what works and what might be appealing. So we're hoping to see increased food locations and variety across the street as across the street and to the city as a result as, the businesses take hold and maybe spread out and become independent businesses outside of this program as well. But we're also looking at, additional ways to contribute to the vibrancy and activity of Downtown Bothell.

So we're excited to have that start. And, again, we'll be starting tomorrow, and you'll start seeing that regularly throughout the year. With that, I'll turn things back over to you.

I'm on their website right now, and I wanna go eat Filipino barbecue. Like, yes, please. Next up is council reports and conversation. Colleagues.

Council member Kerr. Thanks. Shout out to the clerk's office for getting documents to me that were twenty years old within, like, one business day. That was amazing earlier last month. So we have a great team, and we appreciate everything that you do.

Couple of events, that I have attended in the past couple of weeks, on April 25, Bothell's Earth Day celebration in partnership with Whale Scout happened at Blythe Park with some stewardship activities of pulling blackberries at the former Wayne Golf Course along the Burke Gilman Trail there. It was really well attended. I was there and gave some opening remarks and introduced Whale Scout staff. Deputy mayor Aldrichs was there too. We had some great conversations with students and volunteers and families who showed up to the event.

Thank you for all of the volunteers who helped make our park a more beautiful place and more resilient. Then last week, let me look back at my notes here.

Yeah.

Last week was law day. That's what it was on Friday. And I'll let other council members, talk about their experiences, but it was really refreshing to see the, municipal court staff set up this event for high schoolers around in the schools, that touch Bothell, is really also well attended and looking at the social media, chatter from the city and, students around in the districts. Looks like it was really well received. So thank you for continuing your commitment to leadership in our community about civic government.

Oh, deputy mayor.

Thank you, mayor. I can also share that on the same day as the Earth Day celebration, there was also a really special event at City Hall where, Susan DelBene, our representative to congress, brought together student artists from around the 1st Congressional District and some judges, and the judges selected art to be displayed in the tunnel in Washington DC. Council member Miles was also there that day, and it was really cool to see just how talented students in our area are and to see the process that the congresswoman uses to select art. From there, I was able to go over to Blythe Park and over to Wayne to to, you know, see the work that was being done along the river there. And it was just really a fantastic experience just to see, like, how how vibrant our community can be and how how there's many ways to contribute.

I also want to share that last week, I joined council member Susan Payne of the Edmunds Council to present on a topic relating or a presentation on city solutions to childcare growth. And we were able or I was able to, with the help of talking points from staff, summarize some of the work that we have done in our community to increase the supply of of of childcare in our community. And I also just wanted to share with council members that I received some really interesting information from both, like, a report written by enterprise community and the Balmer group talking about ways that cities can increase the supply of early childhood education facilities in Washington state. And I I've sent it to our assistant city manager, Becky Range, but I'll make sure that everybody else gets a chance to see that. Some of the some of the strategies recommended in that report were to waiver reduced development and impact fees for providers, exempt or streamline environmental review when a childcare provider wants to expand or start a new center, eliminate or reduce the requirement for a minimum of parking spaces for child care providers when opening a new center, providing local tax abatements or credits that stack with state or federal child care incentives, and streamlining the permitting process for child care owners.

You will notice that several of those items are things that we have taken action on as a council, but there may be some additional additional strategies that we could do to help address just the the difficulty that families experience in being able to access childcare within their neighborhoods and and nearby their homes. So wanted to share that with you all and let you know that the report will be in your inbox so you can all get a chance to view it.

Councilmember Dodd.

Thank you. I just wanted to say thanks to mayor Thompson and councilmember Kerrd for joining, law day, and thanks to the municipal court and also to our DEI coordinator for planning a really fun day. We got to see and I might miss one, but I know we saw Innovation Lab High School, Bothell High School, and North Creek High School, and it was, as usual, just super fun and great energy. And thanks to all staff who worked on it.

All right. I will move on to projected agenda discussion, if anybody has something they'd like to discuss. And if not, I would love to accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. Council Member Dodd?

You know, I'd like to move to approve the consent agenda.

You know? Second.

Snooze, you lose. I've got a I've got a motion to approve the consent agenda from council member Dodd and a second from deputy mayor Aldrichs. Would anybody like to speak to the motion? Seeing none. City clerk.

Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Anguluri? Yes. Mayor Thompson?

Yes.

Deputy mayor Aldergs?

Yes.

Council member Kerr? Yes. Council member Miles? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Council member Alcabra? Yes. Passes seven zero.

Thank you. First up on our agenda tonight is consideration of a joint meeting with the Shoreline Fire Department Regional Fire Authority Board of Commissioners. It's agenda bill twenty six zero six nine. I could have talked a little slower and given you guys a bit more time.

It's true. I'm the normal tap dancer. Alright. We made it. Set up complete.

Thank you, counsel. So as I mentioned earlier tonight, we have four items for consideration on ordinances and resolutions. So we'll be spending the bulk of our well, in the remainder of our evening at this table tonight. So little unusual, but some important work to do. Tonight, the first item is a further discussion about fire services in Bothell, a conversation that's been ongoing since 2022 or, again, earlier than that, if you are so inclined.

I did, recently. Somebody gave me a copy of the 2013 study for when this was being considered back in the day. So we know we know there's been a few, few iterations of that. But tonight, specifically, we're returning following a study session in March discussing next steps for providing fire services to the Bothell community. In that discussion, council recognized two prominent options to consider, remaining Bothell Fire and then two, pursuing annexation into the Shoreline Fire RFA.

Tonight at the table, I'm joined by Kwan Wong, the finance director here for the city of Bothell as well as Deanna Gregory of Pacifica Law Group, who's been retained by the city to help us navigate through these discussions. Also in the audience is shoreline fire chief Matt Callan who is available if you have questions pertaining to the RFA. He is in fact our subject matter expert and a great fire chief. We are also, I wanted to note and acknowledge that we are also joined tonight by Chris Barnes, a lieutenant in the Bothell fire department who also serves as the president of the Bothell professional firefighters local two zero nine nine as well as Chad Gustafson who's also a lieutenant and serves as the vice vice president president of the local. They're also available for questions in the event council wishes.

I know there's been some comments in the past about wondering what the perspectives of firefighters were and also, so they're available for that and also just for you to be able to meet, if there's an opportunity tonight. So as we dive in, the question before you tonight then is, around taking a next step towards the RFA. So tonight, there is a resolution in your packet that would, if approved, would direct the city manager to schedule a joint meeting between the Bothell City Council and the board of commissioners of the Shoreline Fire Department Regional Fire Authority. That would be something that, I have an email ready to go just in case you direct that, and we will get to work on scheduling and finalizing an agenda. That is the specific action that is before you tonight, and I am recommending that you take it.

We'll discuss a little bit more through this presentation. And you also during that conversation, I'll try and come back to this too is that I think important would be some feedback about, what type of attendance would would quantify, the right date for a meeting. So there's a couple options council could have in terms of aiming for perfect attendance. We'd be looking for 10 board members and seven council members. You could also just determine that a quorum of each body is sufficient or a subcommittee or anything in between, but, just some indication that doesn't have to be part of the motion, but as we pull for dates, what we will be able to help identify of what the winner is.

Before we get to that vote though, we'll be summarizing a bit of the information, including, getting to the little bit of the background of the three year process. I recognize that there's always somebody who this is the first time they're hearing about something, so we'll try and provide a little bit of context as well as follow-up with additional information that was requested in the study session specifically pertaining to financial considerations and governance. And before we dive into that, I do also wanna ground the conversation in appreciation of the fact that no matter the outcome that is reached through this process tonight or beyond, the commitment to the Bothell community remains strong. Is Bothell fire or as part of an RFA, our firefighter firefighters are ready to safeguard the lives, property, and environment of this community through exceptional service, and I can never thank them enough. Back in 2022, as we were starting, there was some, some guideposts as they were referred to that we put in place, and they were used, as we narrowed things down and reached the conclusion of contracting with the Shoreline RFA to for executive leadership of the fire department.

And as counsel directs the next steps before us tonight, these guiding principles will remain in place as well as we, work through with the community and with our department. You'll also remember that, there was a conversation of looking at all legal options. So, again, these principles helped us narrow that down. So we'll continue to operate in this in this light. And then the other thing I wanted to remind as grounding was there's just a bit of a reminder about regionalization of how did we come to the conclusion of taking a step towards regionalization by contracting with Shoreline Fire for fire administration.

So we're we're definitely seeing a trend in our country. It may be more stronger than a trend by now. It may be more of a norm, but in our region as well about regionalization, not just in fire service but in other things as well. So a few things to keep in mind is in why do cities consider regionalization. These are a few of the reasons.

One is call volumes are higher and that they're increasingly EMS driven. So emergency medical services, will keep the name fire department, but a lot of times they really are responding to fire or, medical events. A regional model helps allow for dynamic deployment that across jurisdictions. Again, emergencies do not know borders, and so having a, cohesive team that crosses borders great, creates consistency of response methods, approaches, time, and coordination, improving reliability when multiple calls stack up, something that a single city system can struggle with, unless it staffs for peak conditions, which is a difficult thing to accomplish. Another is that existing regional infrastructure is already something that we we look at.

Many aspects of public safety already rely on a regional approach, including for Bothell. Both our 911 dispatch, which is administered through NORCOM nine one one, now in its seventeenth year of operations, which dispatches for 660 square miles and a population of over 600,000, as well as the regional crisis racer agency or racer, which covers the jurisdictions making up the shoreline RFA, and and including and then in addition to Bothell and Kirkland. These are successful examples of where we have turned to regionalization to provide services to our communities working across borders. This council may also recall in conducting a scan of both King And Snohomish County, not only is the fire regionalization, again, that trend that I mentioned, what we found was in our in our very region, there's only eight cities that are still providing stand alone service. Those are both Bothell include and then as well as Bellevue, Everett, Kirkland, Muckleteel, Redmond, Shoreline, and Snoqualmie.

So mostly larger larger cities and then with our our service, Muckleteo and Snoqualmie being examples of smaller cities. There's also 12 cities that are currently partnering with another agency through some sort of contract and then 38 that are members of an RFA or fire district. So we're starting to see where this is where cities are turning to provide services to their communities. One of the also, when when asked there again, in our guiding principles, this wasn't about saving money. We'll never claim that, anything that we do for into the future will save money, but there are financial pressures that are alleviated by tools available to RFAs that cities just don't have.

And you'll, make hear of that from our finance director tonight, including fire benefit charges and the ability to spread costs efficiently across a larger population of residents. Finally, there's also impacts to service levels by having a broader range of staffing and resources to deploy, maintaining, and improving response times, as it goes. Again, our goal is always going to be to keep service response times, at at a consistent level and and improvement as much as we can. That takes resources. And so in a larger pool, there's an ability to, to cross staff, to make adjustments, and be a little bit more nimble than we can when we have fewer pieces on the board, so to speak.

So we those are some of the reasons that I it we believe that you're gonna be seeing this trend just continue and continue. So then what we talked about specifically getting into the more near future or near term is that there was the March study session and two two major themes of questions came in. There's questions around the financial impact for a Bothell fire remaining, city department versus joining the RFA. And then also some questions, and and mainly of, like, how would they work related to a structure and of of governance. So we're gonna touch on some of those tonight, but we're also recommending that if council chose to have a joint meeting with the, with the Shoreline Fire Authority board, these would be good discussions for the elected officials of both bodies to have together because, again, we can we you can hear from staff all day long about what's possible, but I think it's really then, to make it real, it'd be up to, having that joint meeting to be able to really get into the details and figure out what's possible.

So, again, it's with governance, you know, one of the assumptions we made is that, there would be seats at the table for council members, who would be appointed to serve. So those are the things that we'll be really, covering tonight. Backing it into just, again, I think this was in a helpful reminder as part of this the discussion and the study session was what are the things that, council has approved so far that have invested towards considering going to the voters to discuss an RFA. So, again, back in 2023, we appointed an interim, fire chief when our previous fire chief had retired, chief Cron. Chief Reisen was here for a little over a year serving as interim fire chief so we could get started on a fire services study without having any connections to either another entity or somebody who would would have a vested interest in their future.

Chief Ryzen was very much retired, and we are very thankful that he very much unretired for a little bit with us. We also then conducted an RFP at the direction of council for an executive level services contract and ended up choosing the Shoreline Fire Department for that. We also then contract or that ILA came back for execution in 2024 in June, and that's when it started. We also had a second ILA for maintenance of our fire rigs and apparatuses. This is another one of those examples of where there's streamline opportunities in either option of where, you know, maintaining a fire truck is a little different than maintaining, my car.

And so there's specialized mechanic skill set. And, Shoreline, in this case, was able to be responsive to our needs because they do have very well trained mechanics to keep our apparatus on the street versus where we want them serving the community. In June '25, we provided a one year update to city council of how things were going. And then also then in the fall, signed an MOU to extend collective bargaining, really aligning the contracts of Bothell Fire and the Shoreline RFA, which helped to have consistent operations of both across both jurisdictions and aligning administrative positions. Next slide, one of the things I wanted to cover with you tonight is a timeline.

So, again, the recommendation before you before we get into the details of finance and before we get into the details of governance, we'll come back to this slide too, and I want you to kinda know what's what's on the table before you. This is some of the milestones that you would be facing to go towards an r f, RFA annexation. So I don't wanna just focus on the first step. I want you to know what's coming behind you. So we start with the March 2026 study session that's done.

And tonight in the box, you'll see the question before you is scheduling a joint meeting. The remaining steps then to get towards a question that the community would be to hold that joint meeting. And then as a city council, you'd wanna come back and based on that meeting and what you've discussed and what's come together in terms of financial answers and quest to your questions as well as for governance and what would be possible. Council will need to have the discussion about is it time then to annex into an RFA? And with that, the first thing is is asking a formal question.

So this is where the relations get ship gets serious is that, we would need to, present an resolution to you to adopt to then send it to the shoreline board officially saying we would be interested in join joining, and then they need to take action saying we would be willing we're we're interested in accepting. So both bodies have to act. And then with that, counsel would be able to with with the request to annex, we would start preparing ballot language and pro con committee advertisements to get this, ready to go before the voters, which then a deadline is, August 4 to get, paperwork to the county elections teams in order to be on the general election ballot in November. With that then, if all things went, then the decision really lies to the voters of Bothell, and it would just be for Bothell, not for the RFA cities as well. So Bothel residents would decide, do we annex into shoreline fire?

That would take place on November 3. And then if approved, we would begin our transition work in in the 2027 is when we would anticipate making that formalized. So with that, I'm gonna turn things over to Kwan to start discussing some of the analysis. Now I will note in your packet tonight, there is multiple attachments. So attachment three is a good summary and attachment four is a lot and a lot of detail. So, hopefully, you had a chance to review that and it answered some of your questions. Kwan's gonna review it. And then, again, at the end of the presentation, we'll be able to respond to questions as well. With that, I'll turn it over to Kwan.

Thank you, city manager. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor and city council members. So tonight, I'm going to talk about the financial impacts. And again, finance is not the only consideration, but it is a very important consideration before you and the debarthold community. So we follow-up on your request from about two months ago, and we ask ourselves the question.

So what will the first question is, what is the impact on both of if we remain as an independent fire department to be part of, again, keeping the status quo? The next question is what is the impact of joining the Shoreline RFA? And the third question is, I think is the most important one is what's the impact on the property owners and the greater Bartholomew community. So our analysis is surrounding those three questions. But instead of asking more short term questions, we really did our analysis with a ten year duration.

So our analysis not only answer what's the impact right after the transition or remaining as a city department, we ask ourselves what is the impact ten years from now because I think looking at the long range as it would be as important. So answering the first question, so what will be the impact if Barthol remain as a city department? Well, first of all, our ongoing cost, and that is to operate the fire services. That will be about $9,900,000 as a net impact to the to our budget. So that's the current cost.

Projecting from between now and ten years from now, by 2035, our projected cost of keeping fire department as our owned will be about $18,800,000 And part of the $18,800,000 is the cost to operate a new third fire station, and we call it Station 41. That will impact our budget by about $5,000,000 a year, starting, again, just an assumption by about 2,031. So that is an important consideration. And the other consideration is we also need to have our voter approved levy bond to be kind of asking the voters to consider funding by 2030. The current public safety levy will expire by 2030.

And among that levy, we are using about $1,900,000 to support ongoing firefighter costs. So those are really the considerations. So what if we join the Shoreline RFA? So if we decide to join the RFA, the cost of our ongoing operation will be absorbed by the RFA. So that means we will free up about $9,900,000 a year into the future.

And also by 2035, we'll be able to not pay about $18,800,000 of annual operating cost. And again, a future Fire Station forty one is important financial impact. If we join the RFA, they will be able to use what they call a fire benefit charge to balance the budgets. So meaning, if we can join the RFA, the ability for the RFA will be able to balance between how much they will levy on their property tax and also using the finance the fire benefit charge to balance their budget. So the so I think, again, in the long run, we'll be able to really share the costs, as Kyle said, among the property owners in the expanded RFA.

Of course, there will be additional financial matters to be negotiated if we decide to move toward that direction. They would include benefit pension benefits, the liability, how do we handle those as well as if we need to meet their reserve level. So those to be negotiated down the road. Okay. Moving to the third area, and that is the impact on property owners.

So right now, we are charging around a $0.78 per $1,000 assessed value in our general levy. So the equivalent of fire rate will be about $0.48 per 1,000. So that means if we want to give the property owners some relief because of transferring the burden to the new RFA, we may have to, again, negotiate between a $0.78 to $0.30 rate. Then again, that is up for further discussion if we choose to go to that route. And I have to note that the both firefighters will be part of the new RFA and their pension will also be moving over there.

So the impact on the property owners will be, again, absorbed by the new RFA. To continue to do the analysis, we will be able to look at different areas if counsel choose to explore different options.

So we have a a couple of slides to discuss some of the governance information, and Diana will lead that part of the conversation.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor, deputy city mayor, and members of the council. I am gonna spend a few minutes here talking about governance. It's not as technical as a financial discussion, but an important consideration nonetheless given that I know that oversight transparency and control are important considerations as part of this overall discussion. We have two slides, focusing on governance.

And before we kinda dive into what the options are, because there are a lot of options, I wanted to take a step back and just talk about the, shoreline RFA in general and RFAs within Washington state. RFAs, of course, are creatures of state law. They're independent municipal corporations and taxing authorities, and they have to, of course, abide by the parameters outlined in state law. They're also governed by or, administered by a plan. Each RFA has a plan in place that when the RFA is originally, approved by the voters, it is what is really the guiding kind of document for, the composition of the board, their operations.

And it's a very high level document, but it is extremely important in terms of the overall, operations. The RFA board of commissioners has the, authority to amend their plan, with certain exceptions. They can do it, unilaterally, or without having to go back to voters. And as part of this overall discussion, because their governing board and the guidelines for their governing board is provided for in the plan is one point of discussion between Bothell and the RFA is how will that plan be amended to incorporate any seats for Bothell council members, to join the RFA board. And, really, the, only two requirements for an RFA board in state law is that, one, if they are individuals that are appointed from the participating underlying entities,

they need

to be elected officials. Otherwise, there's a methodology for doing commissioner districts. Shoreline RFA is, of course, comprised of elected officials from its initial initial forming entities. So presumably, it would be, a combination of you all, if there's representation from Bothell on that, on the RFA's board. So part of this discussion would be, that I would encourage you to have, as as you're making decisions and kinda going through this decision tree is what you would like Bothell's representation to look like on the RFA board of commissioners and what that overall composition looks like.

And then part of that discussion is what does the total RFA board look like, which, of course, needs to involve Shoreline RFA. The next slide, please. Alright. So as part of that kind of back and forth, relationship dance that the city manager referred to earlier, is this process that of Shoreline RFA approving the request for Bothell to join or to annex into the RFA, of course, to voter approval. As part of that approval process, that is when the RFA board of commissioners would, approve the amended plan.

So that amendment to the plan happens before the vote and needs to be, again, something that everybody blesses, or and approves because, again, it goes from, the request goes from Bothell to the RFA to to annex into the RFA. The RFA approves that, or considers and approves the request and amends their plan, and then that amended plan comes back to you all for, your approval. So, again, it's another element to this relationship building between the two entities. There are, good examples out there. There are a handful of other jurisdictions who, when they did annex into an existing RFA, that RFA's plan was amended to incorporate and provide seats for representation from for the new jurisdictions, onto their boards.

Tukwila, for example, is one into the Puget Sound RFA. There's two entities, going through the process of potential annexation right now. They also have, seats that will be incorporated in a whole reconfiguration of their board if those move forward. So there are a lot of examples out there, and it's really is up to the parties. Commissioner districts, for an RFA that is, governed by commissioner districts are, determined by population, but board membership when it's a an RFA that has electeds from the participating entities is not. So there's a lot of room, for discussion on this on the governance point.

Could you repeat that last part?

Yeah. You bet. Commissioner districts, if it's an RFA that's ran by a commissioner district, those are determined by population. So when there is an annexation, population can reconfigure the districts. The Shoreline RFA, though, is not, and so there is a lot of room to discuss and reach an agreement on what the governance structure and representation should look like going forward. It's not determined necessarily by population. Other things can be considered. Thank you. So

that brings us back to the milestones for consideration. Again, if you follow the, motion to approve the resolution for you, it wouldn't really kick off the next dot on the map, which would be to hold a joint, meeting. And with that, then the question before you is whether or not to consider a resolution directing the city manager to schedule a joint meeting between the Bothell City Council and the board of commissioners the of Shoreline Fire Department Regional Fire Authority. Staff is here to answer questions. And then once there's a motion in a second, we will take furious notes in terms of any comments or direction that you give, and, we'll see where the direction goes. With that, I'll turn things back over to you, mayor.

And I will turn things over to council member Dodd.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I wrote down 10,000 questions, but, I probably won't go through all of them all at once. Trying to figure out what's, like, the good first question. So I guess with when we had the slide around finances and the cost of our fire service, do you happen to have and a good estimate from our finance director is fine with me, but how that compares to other departments? I'm thinking our police department just in terms of services that we fund well so that are there all the time. But I'm wondering, the increase that you talked about, is that in line with other services we offer? Or is that more than other departments?

So that's a great question. So most of our assumptions behind the increase is really 4% COLA or inflationary. So we are just making a basic assumption that if nothing else changes, our basic cost increase would be about 4% per year and then compound that to two thousand and thirty five, ten years later. So that's how we arrived that figure. Whether it's police, it is engineering or fire, that's really the basic cost.

That makes sense. We want everyone to have cost of living increases.

So the fire station staffing, so why you saw a huge increase between 2026 and 2035 is the assumption that we will be adding a third new fire station, station forty one, and the cost of staffing a regular fire station is about $5,000,000 a year.

That makes sense. I'm sure everybody's tired of hearing about things that have been the same my entire life, but that fire station is one of them. So I also wanted to ask with the current public safety levy we have, is it part of what we negotiate that those funds I think you said 1,700,000 a year, but I was writing a lot. Would we negotiate, like, as part of the agreement, is that if that goes to the RFA or if that like, what do we have to do by statute or what's what are our options?

So we will continue to collect the public safety levy. So right now, it supports about $1,900,000 worth of fire services, and we will just write a check to the RFA.

Okay. And then this question is ridiculous, but I thought about it. When we talk about collective bargaining, we get a lot of insight from our HR director, who is the Matt Pruitt of the RFA. Who would advise that board on that?

From from what I know, and chief Cowen will come to the table if I'm wrong. The the chief primarily plays a role in that as does, he'll at times appoint one of his deputy chiefs to sit into that role. And, for for now, that's where things are at. I do know just from job postings and recruiters never contact me. But if they did, I probably see a brochure for an administrative services director, so I know that they're expanding as well. But Gotcha.

I I'm glad they know better. And then with a joint meeting, I've I've I've been in a fair amount of joint meetings as a council member, and sometimes they are smooth. And sometimes they are like, who's in charge? Who's leading it? What's the agenda? Would that be the mayor and the chair of that board working out the agenda and figuring out who holds the gavel or whatever that contest is?

Yeah. Chief Cowen and I would work together to at least draft one, but we would be running it by the exactly as you said, the mayor and the chair to to see if that if that holds. I think there'd be interest to have, similar to our joint meetings with the, North Shore School District of having kind of a time box on it too. Because, again, these are, difficult decisions can take a really long time, but we'd go into it with a structure that really supportive of how long do we anticipate spending and trying to move things through.

And we could probably and I'm looking at you, mayor, because you're not you know, you're the the dude. So if we we could have staff kind of make sure we're getting through discussions. Because I that's if it's everybody, it's 17 people plus staff, which is a lot.

17 elected officials. That's a lot

of talking.

It's a lot of chatty people. So that sounds doable. You're you're nodding. Okay. And then, obviously, I don't talk a lot, but some people do. And then, just a random thought. So I understand how we got to 10 with the RFA board now because of the the last, election. But is that something that could change with the amended plan? Would it ever go down? Or because it just it's it's a big board, and maybe that's normal for RFAs.

But I think that'd be a great conversation to have with the board. I mean, I can tell you what we know factually and from conversations with the chief is, you know, this was two boards that came together, North Shore and Shoreline. So there's five each. And they've known since that formation of the RFA that administrative contract as well. And so when they go out when there is a change to the plan, there will have to be a formal process, including with with voters. And so they are waiting patiently to see what happens here to do it once, if possible.

That makes sense. And then the the last one, I'd super promise, is thinking about we would negotiate with this amended plan, like, what council representation or Bothell's representation would look like on a potential RFA board that we're a part of, the fact that that it can be councilmanically changed, I don't think this would happen, but I have to ask the question just it feels like my job. We change it to have, let's say, three council members join. And then a year later, they're like, and now you're off. You know? Like, it could be changed again with the vote. So is there a way in the agreement to kind of set a floor like, okay. It's x amount of years that this sort of structure exists, and then it it's up for debate after that amount has passed.

Yeah.

So I think that would be, again, what's, in the governance conversation of getting electeds to electeds to commit to things, that would be a great a great be a great

Totally part of the negotiation. I'm just wondering, is that possible under the law?

It yes. It is possible.

I just I I wanted to know if it was possible and then yeah.

It's not just a dream. It could happen.

Very cool. And then oh, how do we plan sort of public engagement around this whole proposal?

So the city's role, much like any time there's a ballot initiative before the community, much like our safe streets and sidewalks, the city can provide factual information. So we would begin if if you've given the direction to to move forward on this, we'll we'll have some outreach, but also then in the appointment of a pro con committee that are those are the folks that are really gonna go. And through the process, the city would continue to provide factual information, put up a website, that sort of a thing.

Fair. But, I mean, prior to us as a council deciding whether or not to move forward, how do we engage our residents to make sure that they're on board with even just moving forward? Like, is there any plan to get some kind of feedback? It's it's a very weighty topic for a survey, but I'm wondering how we can engage folks if we have we can be like, this is something we're considering. Please let us know what you think.

You know, there are tight lines in what we can and can't do. But if that's something the council would want us to do, there'd be some resourcing to it, but we can look at options to to get some feedback.

It's possible that it's too niche, and there wouldn't be, but I'm just curious. So and that is, for real, my last question. Thank you.

Councilmember Miles.

Thank you. I was just wondering, just looking at your slides in terms of your timeline, you don't have dates associated with that. So it looks as if things have to move at a fairly brisk pace, you know, back into November 3. So how fast would we need to be moving on this?

The date that really matters the most on this, I would say, is is August 4. That is when if if we don't have paperwork into the county, it doesn't matter what we do. And then by hitting that mark, that's what makes November 3 possible. So we would be looking to schedule, a joint meeting, with urgency. But, again, even the very next council meeting, you'd be able to have the conversation of, while it's still fresh, what do we want to do? And then at that point, things come together pretty quickly. So our window then really is between, you know, tonight and August 4, and I think we can fit those steps in there.

Yeah. I think so too. I think we have enough time, but it feels as if this has a certain amount of urgency. And I wanna make sure that we're clear as a council that this has urgency. Not to say that we make decisions quickly, but I think, at this point in time, we need to be stepping.

Yeah. It's a it's a very fair point is that kind of embedded in that decision to hold the joint meeting is is that you would be saying you would be giving an indication to our phenomenal municipal clerks that this is an agenda item that has priority over some others, and we would definitely have to carve out time for it.

Sure. And if we're saying tonight we do wanna schedule a meeting, that means we are basically kicking off this whole entire process. Correct?

Yeah. I I would think of it as, it's a it's a a journey with off ramps. Right? So, like, you take the first step and see what did we learn in that joint meeting. And if the things that you learned that's why the conversation back as Apothel City Council is so important is that what did you learn? What did you hear? What was validated? What was challenging? And that will inform again, it's the the the next step after that is that you like, whether or not you were having a joint meeting before the the, we could consider going to the voters, you have to have a resolution that says we want to. And Shoreline has to have a resolution that that says we're cool. So, it is it is really then, that's that's the the heart of it.

Okay. My final question would be, since this is just an in exploratory introductory meeting to see how all parties would work together, would staff's recommendation potentially change based upon the information that comes out of that meeting?

Certainly. I think there are some things that, from staff that we'll we'll give you, we'll give you the feedback on. Those guiding principles really come into that in terms of, again, if we hear something that we think that is not gonna provide the same or better level of service for the community, for example, that's a no go. If there are things again, we have, we've been pretty consistent in the advice around governance, especially as you get started and making sure that there's you don't go from having the council is the voice of, resourcing to no voice. So that's, I think, something that you would be watching for too.

And then I think clarity around, some of the financial parameters of, again, what the intention is. And it might be a good opportunity for you to hear from your colleagues too around how, you know, Kwan touched on fire benefit, charges, that sort of thing. But hearing more about that and how the board is is, seeing thing trends like response time. So I think those are all things that, yes, we'll all have our ears wide open. And as we come back, we'll be we'll be prepared to advise and and, problem solve with you.

Okay. Great. Well, thank you. Great presentation, and good seeing all three of you again. Take care.

I hate to say it, but you'll see me a few more times today.

I was gonna say that was quite the official sounding handoff there.

Miles now.

Deputy mayor.

Thank you. Council member Miles brought up a good point around the deadlines for ballots. And so I just wanna ask the next kind of obvious question is if we don't make that August deadline, what is the next opportunity for a ballot measure to get on the ballot?

I mean, it's kind of a it's kind of a tricky question. I think that's also, you know, something that becomes decisions of elected bodies to election bodies. The the rhythm of of how this goes plays out just like anything else that's a voted measure of there are be February special elections. We see them in August. We see them in general elections.

But ultimately too, just as the reminder, and I think the fire chief mentioned this in the in the study session is is that while our ILA for services doesn't have an expiration date, at a certain point, things have been on hold for Shoreline Fire and for the board where they have not they're they're waiting on on next steps on this. And at a certain point, they'll have to make business decisions and moving forward as well. So, the the answer to that, again, I'm gonna lead with we can absolutely hit this mark. And if it didn't, we'd be looking at a later filing in November if there were still interest by both parties.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for answering it in that way. And and I'm glad to hear your confidence in in the ability to to, you know, kind of meet these deadlines. I I know that this is a time for questions, but are you looking for feedback or opinions from counsel at this time around, around governance, the the joint meeting?

What I would recommend is, in the spirit of municipal clerks week would be, let's get the questions on the table. And then if there are any remarks, after the motion and the second, I think that's where some of the direction would be helpful.

Got it. Thank you. I know that a lot of my questions, basically, will need that joint meeting to be asked and answered, especially around, you know, what are the financial financial opportunities or differences between joining the RFA. I think there was some really great information in our packet, but I I think it it is probably more appropriate to have some of those conversations when we have some of the RFA commissioners present with us.

Councilor Dodd?

Do do we have the time to have a study session focused on what we wanna bring to the joint meeting? Because I I think a more casual back and forth would be helpful for building that, but I don't I don't know what timeline we'd be looking for if we move forward with this tonight to have the joint meeting and if we have time in our agendas between now and then.

Could I ask one question with that? Council member Dodd, what there, what do you want to do in terms of creating an agenda? So we're creating an agenda for the meeting already? Or Not

an agenda so much as, like so we have to figure out there's there's land, there's fire stations, there's equipment, there's a lot of negotiating that we'd be doing in the joint meeting. Mhmm. So I think it'd be good for us as the Bothell City Council to do some pre discussion about where we all kind of stand. Mhmm. And then, obviously, we're going into a negotiation. So it's kind of, I think it gives me a bit of like when I go buy a car, I'm just buying a car. But like when I'm maybe joining an RFA, it's six other people that I'm not related to who also do that discussion with 10 other people who run the RFA. So kind of figuring out where we're at could help us have a better group conversation in my mind.

Fair enough. I just worry about bureaucracy. That's all. Because it just feels like we it's becoming a thing. Like, it feels like through this conversation, the the meeting is becoming a thing. And it is a thing, but I'm just wondering, do we need to have some guardrails or parameters around it? That's all. About what we're trying to get out of that one. The first one, and could we have another one afterwards, perhaps?

Yeah. I just I I think it's a big it is a big thing, as you said, and so just some some prep. And, you know, I we since out off out of the meeting, we can only talk to two other people, Max, about something. It'd be good to have a good open discussion about where all seven of us are in my mind. But I can be talked out of a lot of things.

No. Fair enough. I just wanted to understand. Thank you.

And I would just say that that conversation might illuminate the need for a study session where we can have a conversation back and forth like that. Council Member Koretz Cabra?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. I have a few questions, not about the governance per se, it's about the alternatives. I mentioned to you, city manager, during our call yesterday. Yes, it was yesterday, wasn't it?

We focus I know there's two big topics, which is the financials and the governance, but also it will be good for me at least to hear about what the level of service, how that will be impacted positively or negatively. If we join Arfa, it's probably positive, but it will be good to hear get some of that information, not necessarily data wise, but mean, what would the operational efficiencies give our residents? That's one thing. Are you looking for questions right now, right? Yes.

There is a need for a new oh, so the other question is if there if there's a need for a fire station in South Bothell, like, it's won't annexing the to the RFA slow down the building process or the process of getting that building, bringing it live, building it and or does the Shoreline have the funds right now to construct immediately, if we go down that path, if there's a big need right now?

I mean, I think both both processes lead to the same place, which is a vote of the a vote of the stakeholders. If it was if we were doing that, then it's a vote of the Bofam community in itself. If Shoreline if we're part of the RFA, then it's to the Shoreline, group. So it it's there is an effect of, lessening the per capita impact to homeowners, by being part of the, RFA because the cost spread. And I think they are prepared to to move something along pretty quickly.

You mentioned level of service, and this is from a pat we've we've discussed it. Again as we discussed it. There's been conversations throughout this process of kind of what we're looking at. So I do just wanna bring up their response times because I think that's when we're talking about level of service. That's really the one that's the most tangibly connected for our for our residents.

And what we'll what you'll see is there's definitely, like, in in this case, there is a stoplight effect of this of, response times in minutes as represented by the the scale on the left. So, darkest green is the fastest at one minute. Red is the slowest at around seven minutes. And what you'll see is that there has been a cumulative impact of, increasing response times and number of incidents, which makes sense. Right?

If you have the same amount of resources for a number of years and population goes up, which we know is the case, you're gonna see that diminishing. In in addition, as we think about the future of Bothell and some of the, the commitments that this council has made around trying to increase the availability of housing in our community, then we're gonna see density too. And with density, there's more people, and with more people, there's more incidents. There's just percentages to that. And so even, in the areas of where that are well covered right now, as density increases or, you know, as we think about, there's the pre application in over by, the the chef store right now, right, for a from an eight story building.

So there that's something new to Bothell that would be more. So not only death intensity, but a different, stakes. So that's gonna pull resources from, Fire Station 42, for example. So, a couple of things on that for a level of service then is that I mentioned in what some of the benefits of regionalization is being able to be, more flexible in deployment. And you may recall, for our two new council members, I'll I'll take a step back a little bit when but when, I mentioned interim fire chief Rizen was here, pretty quickly into his tenure, he was assessing how did we have our resources deployed, and he, ended up moving a ladder truck, but also, moving staffing and a one of our ambulances to another fire station and saw an impact, especially on those aid responses of of improved response times.

So we only have I like to use, you know, chess pieces in this. We have three pieces on the board, and so we can only move resources among three stations. Whereas in a more regional model or when you get to more stations, have more deployable resources that you can shift and move as the communities grow and change. So in terms of we can't predict the future in terms of incidents and response times overall. But when you model it, having that flexibility, of both increasing staffing in different ways, but also moving staffing and resources around, including trucks and, ambulances, there's a better opportunity to shift and grow with the communities as they change.

Then the other thing that I I would just mention to you around the the fire station, the additional fire station is this does then show the, the south end of the community, of where we we do not see green. And, so that is the the area that, would be, considered and served from this. So hopefully that gets to a little bit of your questions. I think there's more to be said that in that. And I think that is as we again provide factual information to the community.

That's the thing that people are gonna wanna know the most about. But our commitment through this process has either way, we're gonna find ways to preserve, if not improve service levels because this is not a service that people are looking for cutting. We're never gonna hear that. And so in that, we will continue to invest. And I think the question then becomes is, are we gonna invest simply, you know, within Bothell or is there enough of a benefit in regionalization to be able to make those investments in a broader range with different options. And again, that's where the theory holds that, yes, there is an advantage. And I hope that helps a little bit.

I mean, yes, I get the theory that Economies of scale work. That's why corporations merge. So it makes sense from a costing perspective and maybe improving operational efficiencies, all that stuff. It will be good to see it documented somehow. Because this chart that you just showed, which I saw, you're going to have to figure out how to make the red green regardless of what path you take, right?

So it's just what's the best thing for our residents because now linking it to the table in our packet, which wasn't on the presentation, but there's the four scenarios that were mentioned with the so taxes, if I read that correctly, might actually increase for the next few years. And then depending on the scenario, might decrease less increase less than other years. So if the taxes are going if the residents are going to feel impact, assuming level of service improves, but then they have an impact, is that a good ROI for the residents? I know life is invaluable. So if EMS is the majority of the calls and somebody's life, like, you gonna put a dollar value on this?

But at the same time, when somebody sees that bill that comes to them, are they gonna is it gonna be justified?

Yeah. Absolutely. And that is where we see, like, when we do go to our Snohomish County voters and say, do you when you get to put on your other hat and not be the Bothell City Council, but be the emergency management board and go to Snohomish County to say, do you want the same level of services for advanced life support as King County? Over 70% of them say yes time and time again. And so you're right.

Like, when given the choice, that is something that that voters are gonna prioritize and and rightfully so. And, again, what you're seeing in the in those four scenarios is exactly as described as that the slower growth like, there's gonna be investment either way, and there is there is a tax impact of all these scenarios. Again, this is part of why when we come to budget season, we don't focus department by department because we're not pitting scenarios of this department or that. But in this case, we really are targeted on one department. So it is, a little more important to call out what the impact of investing in this one department is gonna be, and investments to cost money.

But that slowing of growth, while there's growth in all the scenarios, that slowing of the growth does come from the economies of scale, as you mentioned, from a business scenario of where we have one chief instead of two chiefs, and we have this instead of that. We can we can have different apparatus distribution, that sort of a thing. So, yeah, that is something. Again, it's a it's a it's a complicated math problem that the community will be highly interested in. It'll be up to us to explain it and explain it well.

It'd be good to mention that. Another aspect we did not talk about or not in the presentation, but we also discussed is now you talk about the long term, long term when you have a full fledged organization with a lot of room for growth for the folks when you improve an employee's satisfaction. Now you also improve the retention and you improve the level of service and you do this and that. So this will be good to evaluate and also discuss this and see what are I don't want to say pros and cons for things, but it'll be good to also have a discussion of because that might be a discussion with the governance board of the RFA on from that aspect as well.

Very helpful comments. Thank you, council member.

Council member Kurt. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I think my fellow council members have touched on all the questions that I sort of have, and, I think that the next step is to move the recommended action. So I move to adopt a resolution directing the city manager to schedule a joint meeting between the city council and the board of commissioners of the Shoreline Fire Department Regional Fire Authority.

I second.

Alright. I have a motion on the table from council member Kerrd and a second from council member Ongulari.

Would anybody like to speak to the motion?

Council member Kerrd?

This is where we, get to put some nuance on the meeting. I recognize that, 17 politicians in a room is a lot, but I would prefer all of us to be there. I think that each of us have slightly different perspectives and different concerns. We represent different constituencies, and I would prefer everybody to, be there to at least, yeah, intake the information. I don't I wouldn't wanna be left out, if we were gonna just make it a quorum.

So, I I I would prefer everyone to be there.

Councilmember Angulare.

Thank you, mayor. I just want to make a, one statement. This is a very tough decision for the council and everyone. We look after all our residents. One thing that makes at least me comfortable, the decision is on our residents, not entirely on the council. If our residents say yes, we all may feel comfortable. If residents say no, I think it's a stop. So that gives, more comfort to me. So, hopefully, we'll move forward quicker and see what our residents want to say, because they wanted to move forward yes or no. I just want to say that.

But this looks like a corporate major or it's it's a lot of work. Let's see what it can work, what we can do, how we can do quicker.

I also want oh, deputy mayor.

Thank you. I agree with council member Kerr that all seven of us should be present. However, I am of two minds if we want to have all 10 commissioners present. And so I'm wondering how how you all feel as my colleagues of having, like, a quorum of the commissioners present with all of us, or would you prefer to have all all commissioners, all council members?

I think that'll be up to them.

Yeah. I don't think we can bind them, but like I know that like I'll cancel anything I have going on. Like, this is an important thing to be at. So alright. I would also like to speak to the motion.

I'm gonna be voting in favor of setting up the joint meeting and continuing the process to be upfront with that and really appreciate the additional information and context we've gotten over the last couple weeks. I have a couple. Well, this isn't the time for questions, and I don't think I need to have these quest that question answered before the next meeting. I will just say that also governance is gonna be a really important thing for me as we continue these conversations. I wanna make sure that we have a strong presence on the Board.

Giving up taxing authority to a different organization inside of our city is not a small decision for us. And I want to make sure that we have a strong presence on the Board as this moves forward. I guess the one thing that I'll say that doesn't need to be the one thing I want to say aside from the other things I have written down that we can absolutely handle in the next meeting is we go through the process to figure out what the best option for our residents is, I just want to say a quick thank you to the union leadership from Bothell and Shoreline. It's not a secret to us that your members are very enthusiastic about this. And we we know that you have opinions, and really appreciate how you've been you haven't put a lot of pressure on us throughout the process.

We absolutely wanna do right by you because we appreciate the work that you do. Like, it it matters. It's a big deal. Like, I mean, there's a reason that this, you know, the EMS service passes with 70%. Like, the community really appreciates it.

It's our job to make this decision based on what the right thing for our residents is, and the respect that you've shown us by just kinda letting us make that decision and not putting a lot of pressure on us buys a lot with me, and I really appreciate it. So thank you for that, and I'm sure thank you on YouTube or streaming to the Shoreline Union folks who are absolutely watching the meeting right now. I assume we're streaming on every firehouse in the city. The so I I'm looking forward to the next meeting. I like the idea of having a a potential study session to talk things through as we go through and, like, figure out, you know, what we how we wanna handle that meeting. And customer dot?

Thanks. I will be voting in favor of the motion, and I I wanna say thank you as well. You said it really well, so I won't try to do better. But also that when we, I think, come with lots of questions about governance and finances, it's because we're setting a framework that, the whole city is gonna inherit for a very long time, and, people who will have our jobs after us will inherit. And we just wanna make sure it's it's worth inheriting. I think that anybody who does an elected job has inherited one small aspect where you're like, oh my goodness. Who did this? So we don't wanna be those people for the the next folks. So, please take the questions as wanting to do a very thorough job. Thank you.

City clerk?

Okay. Please. So we have a motion on the table. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member O'Gilleri? Yes. Mayor Thompson? Yes. Deputy Mayor Aldergs? Yes. Council member Kerr?

Yes.

Council member Miles? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Council member Alcabra?

Yes.

Passes 70.

Fantastic. Oh, we are absolutely gonna take a break. Alright. It is 07:30 is twelve minutes long enough? Yeah. Alright. It's 07:33. We will take a break until 07:45. All right. Welcome back.

We are back with agenda bill 26,070, the 2023 Shoreline Master Program final approval. It does feel like this should have been done by now, and this might be a good time to do it because as soon as possible seems like a good time to do it. I'll kick it over to the city manager and stop rambling.

Mayor, I thought for sure you were going to steal my joke from one drawing line to another, but here we go. Yeah. Unfortunately, no city manager's office presence at the table right now, but Christian Goetz is a is a pro. So I know he's gonna lead us through this well.

Kyle Kyle, tonight, you are the Apex dad.

Thank you. One for Kyle. So Christian Gatz is your deputy community development director, again, to fill you in on all of the updates since 2023. Take it away, Christian.

Thank you, city manager. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, and council. Just wanna do a brief overview, touch on this topic that, yes, as has been mentioned, we would have loved to wrap this up a while ago. For those watching at home and just for a little bit of background before, considering this ordinance, just wanna give you a quick a quick summary of how we landed here. This started back in 2022 with a docket, docket process, worked through and was adopted in 2023 under ordinance twenty four zero two.

Some of you were on council and may remember that, but that was a seems like a lifetime ago, I bet. It's before my time. Following the the ordinance adoption, a shoreline master program is sent off to the depart Department of Ecology to complete their process. They have a public noticing, a public comment process that that we they went through in 2020 wrapped up in 2025 after their review. We received one comment from the tribe. We responded to that comment. And then the final step is the conditional approval. If if everything's perfect, the and there's no changes, then we wouldn't really be speaking here. We it would just become effective. There were a few edits.

Those are on page a 159 of the packet identifying a few very minor minor ads regarding the mitigation sequencing for for offsets if you're if you're impacting a wetland. And then we had proposed back in '23 removing the category one forested bogs or wetlands of high conservation value. I believe we removed those because they they they weren't present at the time. Ecology in their notes, you can see on that on that page of their conditional approval, they identified, well, they could exist. And so just in case they do, when somebody utilizes this code, they wanted to make sure that those mitigation ratios were kept in in in the code.

Staff have no issues with this. If council decides to approve this separate ordinance to kind of piggyback on the original, these will be effective fourteen days from receipt of ecology regardless of of timing. So if we if we don't accept these, then we go through another process. Staff recommend accepting those, and we will transmit it, first thing in the morning, and we'll see this effective in fourteen days. And that's all I have.

If nobody has any questions, I would also accept a motion. Councilmember Kerrd?

Thank you. In the event that we do have any bogs hiding around, Bothell that need more protections, I move to adopt the ordinance accepting the conditional approval amendments from the Department of Ecology finalizing the BMC 13 Shoreline Master Program 2023 update.

Second.

I have a motion from council member Kerrd and a second from council member Dodd. Would anybody like to speak to the motion? Council member Miles? Oh, no? You had your finger on it. I was anticipating. Okay.

Say yes.

Yes. I you get to say that again here in just a few minutes. I just wanted to say the bogs of baffle because it seemed like a thing I should say, and we'll kick it over to the city clerk.

Bob.

Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Anguleri?

Yes.

Mayor Thompson? Yes. Deputy mayor Aldergs? Yes. Council member Kerr? Yes. Council member Miles? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Council member Alcabra? Yes. Passes seven zero.

Feels like we should have done Christian first, so he didn't have sit through the last one. I

would have missed the joke.

Alright.

Wait. Wait. Do we have a competition going on over there?

You you need to you need to get in on it? Yeah. You'd be a strong contender. Alright. Next up, we've got agenda bill twenty six zero seven one, the Nguyen property purchase. Purpose of King County parcel number, I'm not gonna read that. From Tina Nguyen.

Thank you, mayor. Yes. You're you're fine not to read. Thank you very much. I'm here again this time to talk a different topic of purchase a potential purchase of property here in Downtown Bothell. I also wanna acknowledge that Hutch Goodman from principal and managing director of Goodman's Faith is here. He is supporting the city on many things. You'll see his name a lot associated with our Bothell Way, acquisition and other public works, acquisition of right away and property. He's also supporting us on this conversation. And that conversation is that council tonight has the opportunity to adopt a resolution which would authorize the purchase of King County parcel number 0826059133.

This is an agreement then between the city, which would be the buyer, and Tina Nguyen, who would be the seller. The agreement establishes terms for transferring the property to the city and, really is representative of a unique opportunity to take site control of a long vacant and substandard building at a key downtown core location, transforming the property, into the future and something that will benefit the entire community. So let's talk a little bit more about that. By way of orientation, because parcel numbers don't roll off the tongue, locations do and addresses do. So we're talking about the property at 10015 Main Street, and it is highlighted here in yellow.

It is the former Gallo de Oro. And Tina Nguyen, who is the, is the current owner, approached the city and indicated her intent to sell the property earlier this year, shortly after a for sale sign was posted on the side of the building, so, for all to see. The city put in an offer on the property in mid March, and, we were not the only bid, but we were the successful one, as of shortly after. We were able to put in contingent contingencies around feasibility tasks, closing an appraisal on the property that was for both sides to make sure that the price was fair. And also to determine, I'll I'll note, actually, the negotiated price was $1,500,000 and the property appraisal upheld that amount.

We also then, ordered a phase two environmental site assessment. As you'll know, and we'll talk a little bit more in the future, many of our parcels that have been acquired in the downtown previously were for environmental remediation steps. And so wanting to know, are we walking into a zero year project, a two year project, a fifteen year project. And then ultimately, there is another contingency which is council approval, which is being sought tonight. So the purchase and sale agreement has been signed by me, but again, the ratification of council is a state law and a contingency of this agreement.

The c the really ultimately of where the interest of the city comes in on this is that it is key location on the South Side Of Main Street and again adjacent to land that the city already owns and is pretty particularly well suited to improvement for redevelopment. Securing ownership of the site can maximize the development potential of adjacent properties as well. Really, there's a lot anticipated with the upcoming and and updating downtown sub area component of the comprehensive plan in the 2026 updates. On, March 20 March 27, the city did enter the feasibility study as I mentioned. What we found from that is that the wind parcel is there's no environmental cleanup of soil or groundwater within the parcel that's required or recommended.

So that is good news. Meaning, this is not a multiyear project. It is, it is property that is is is buildable. As noted in your agenda, that analysis of soil, groundwater, and sub slab soil vapor samples indicate no solvents above cleanup or screening levels in the area sample. The phase two recommendation was also to further was to further investigate petroleum impacts after the building has been razed.

I also wanna acknowledge future considerations. So the neighboring property, which is at 10007 Main Street, which is the current home of Baskin and Robbins as well as a office space is, also something that the city has been in negotiations for. And in fact, we will be returning to you on June 2 with a proposal to purchase that property as well. The together with all three of what the city already owns of Lot E F And G or Triangle Junction is a a tremendous opportunity of being able to help shape this the future of downtown. So just putting this all into context too in terms of why have we gotten into redevelopment and what are some of the things that the city's been working on.

Again, as many will will know, the city has previously acquired property to support redevelopment. There are currently remediation activities ongoing. You'll see from the picture on the right, this is from our signs that are posted throughout downtown and on our website for the downtown, redevelopment, is the property adjacent from City Hall had solvents that were, contaminants and things do in fact roll downhill, all things. And, so what we have, we're currently in the in the process of cleaning up the property. We're looking at a expected timeline of around two additional years, potentially longer, but things have been, fortunately going on a on a fairly positive path but no jinxes allowed.

The current city owned property then, Triangle Junction, is undergoing, active remediation to clean up soil and groundwater contamination. It's all from, particulates from a dry cleaner that was located on the West Side of City Hall back in the day. And so there's more information too. Again, I always acknowledge there's somebody who's watching their first council meeting and said, what? If you search our website with downtown revitalization, you'll find a full history of this.

The property discussed tonight, though, I'm zooming in back to, the former Gallo De Oro site, currently includes an existing building that is vacant and deteriorating, and so redevelopment redevelopment would would be be a a a helpful thing, but again, doing this in a cohesive way with all three properties really does support both environmental needs, but also shaping Bothell's Bothell's downtown future and enhancing our downtown. All of this comes at a cost though, of course, so we do wanna acknowledge that as well. As I mentioned, $1,500,000 is the negotiated purchase price and it does align with the with the appraised values, so that's good news. As part of the conditions and what part of what makes the city's offer attractive compared to other offers that the the seller did receive is that the city has the ability to pay upfront in cash. We have longer processes, but we have certain processes, and that makes the city's offer a strong one.

The price itself will be paid out of the general fund balance at closing. Once we have final information of the second neighboring property and close on that transaction as well, staff is anticipating financing the financing the acquisition to reimburse the general fund at closing. Additional financial considerations in all of that financing will include potential demolition of the current structure at Gallo De Oro. That's the vacated restaurant and as well as tenant management of the neighboring property, which has an attached wall. So no guarantees on demolition of Gallo de Oro, but we're gonna look at what's possible and then also trying to keep the current tenants of the the adjacent building that we'll discuss on June 2 able to be there because ultimately, most of our work has been to try and encourage business in downtown while we can.

But the staff has also been recommending not only that that financing at this point, but the intent would also be as we consider what the future impacts to the budget would be is that at the point of, disposition of these properties for redevelopment, there would be, an intention that of paying off that financing at that point. So this process would be made whole. Again, the value in this to the city is the combination of the properties of being able to, as council goes through that disposition process and, puts in the desired requirements for the developer of who the city will negotiate with. Having the issue parcels connected is gonna open up a lot more possibilities of what can be there and really makes that process a lot more appealing in development as well. Again, we're hoping for that to be within around a two year time frame, slightly long longer possibly, but we're doing our work right now to put together a schedule and plan to be able to discuss process of counsel and make sure that it moves forward quickly.

So with that, again, before you, is a resolution authorizing this purchase of King County parcel number 0826059113, and I'm happy to answer questions that you may have.

I will take a motion if nobody has. Oh, council member Dodd.

I'd like to move the recommended

action. Second.

I have a motion from council member Dodd and a second from council member Alcobro. Would anybody like to speak to the motion?

Council member Kurt. Thank you. I think I recognize that this building has generated a lot of questions over the course of, probably the downtown walks, and that it's not lost on me that this, structure was Bothell's first Mexican restaurant in 1976. And I think that it's, fitting on a a day that we celebrate Mexican American heritage to remember, the the impact that this structure has had, in our downtown. And I will be voting yes, obviously.

City clerk.

Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Anguluri? Yes. Mayor Thompson? Yes. Deputy mayor Aldrichs? Yes. Council member Kerr?

Yes.

Council member Miles? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Council member Alcabra? Yes. Passes seven zero.

Alright. Next up, we have council vision 2040, an endorsement of three year priorities. And I'll kick it over to the city manager in just a second. I wasn't sure if you were going to stay there or not.

No. It's good to have friends. Counsel. And as discussed, earlier tonight with the approval of, of the agenda and the consent calendar, there was opportunity to revisit the retreat report from a very successful time together. And as directed in that report, tonight's staff is bringing back your vision for updated vision for 2040 for Bothell. And that will be up for approval. And then we're also providing an update on the three year priorities to put them in front of you. And with that, I'm gonna turn things over to the very, very capable Claire Corey, deputy city manager and assistant city manager Becky Range. Take it away.

Thank you, city manager. Good evening, Mayor Thompson, Deputy Mayor Aldergs, and the Bothell City Council. Becky and I are really excited to be here with you this evening to talk about the City Council Vision 2,040. So the action before you today is adoption of a resolution approving the Council Vision 2,040. We're going to start with the adoption of the vision since it's going to remain the same over the course of the next three years.

After adoption of the resolution, we will discuss your endorsement of the priorities and those we anticipate being reviewed and adjusted on a regular cadence as priorities progress. As you know, three years ago, the council first created and adopted Vision 2,040. In addition to a preamble, the vision included seven focus areas and outlined the council's aspirations for the future and acted as a guide for policy, budget, and planning decisions. It stood as a forward looking community focused road map with actionable strategic priorities and outcomes to guide the city's growth and development. Over a month ago, the full council gathered at a three day retreat with city staff leadership to review and reassess the vision and the priorities that had been set and determine if any revisions were needed based upon today's priorities and what you expect in the coming years.

The language you have before you in the vision is exactly as you discussed at the retreat, and staff has made no recommendations for changes. As a reminder, during the retreat, you made minor changes to the preamble and then minor tweaks to some wording throughout the seven vision areas. One big change from 2023 to today's version is the addition of an eighth focus area of regional leadership. And Becky will talk more about that as we dive into the strategic priorities after adoption of the resolution. So before we talk about the updated vision, I always think it's important to take a moment and celebrate the accomplishments that you've had.

And since I got here only a few weeks ago, we've talked a lot about the work that's happened over the last three years. So we can't talk about it all tonight, but I wanted to take a moment to at least highlight one major accomplishment that's happened in each of the seven vision areas. So in the connecting neighborhoods for one city vision area, we had the development of a comprehensive plan and major steps taken towards implementation. In the economic vitality vision area, we had the creation of an economic vitality plan to enhance business growth. In the community of Trust And Respect vision area, we had the development of a DEI road map, which included the creation of a DEI advisory committee and then considerable progress on youth engagement efforts.

In a joyful and healthy way of life vision area, we had considerable progress on the PROs plan to guide prioritization of our park's investments. In the Building Bothell's beloved community vision area, we had the development of a human services plan, including executing a new mental and behavioral health services clinic. And in the environmental stewardship vision area, we had the development of a strategy to preserve Shelton View Forest to maintain open space for recreation and the creation of a climate action plan with work now underway. And then finally, in the moving in and around Bothell visionary, we had the creation of a transportation safety plan that meets both the local road safety plan and safe systems approach and stands ready for implementation. And as I mentioned earlier, so many more accomplishments that we just don't have the time to talk about this evening.

So just as the 2040 vision guided the work of the city over the last three years, so too will the adoption of your vision this evening guide the city for the next three years. We will pause now for council discussion on the adoption of the eight vision areas that you see before you. The complete wording is included in your packet in the council vision 2040 attachment. If you don't have any questions about the wording in the vision, we will now be seeking approval of the resolution for adoption of the vision.

Councilman Valcabro.

I move to adopt the vision.

Second.

I have a motion from councilmember Alcabro and a second from councilmember Dodd. Would anybody like to speak to the motion? These are gonna be the three fastest agenda items in, like, the history of the Bothell City Council. I'm good too. City clerk?

Thank you. Please say yes or no when I call your name. Council member Angela Lurie? Yes. Mayor Thompson? Yes. Deputy Mayor Alderges? Yes. Council member Kerr? Yes. Council member Miles? Yes. Council member Dodd? Yes. Council member Alcabra? Yes. Passes seven zero.

Alright. And now we are going to roll back and take a look at those strategic priorities.

We are. Thank you. As Claire mentioned, during your retreat, you did discuss your next version of your three year strategic priorities. And in many of these areas, you just extended some of the strategic priorities that were in your previous version of your vision and also added a few new ones to the mix. Immediately after the council retreat, staff and some key leaders throughout the departments met so that we could do some action planning and take a look at the strategic priorities that you had set forth for us.

We went through those items, and we set some tasks and some actions and some timelines. And of note, many of those action items, they do flow from several plans and programs that you established in your previous council vision. So in many of the plans, there are several several action items that we'll just continue to work on for you. So in the interest of time tonight, I will highlight just some of the items from the vision area strategic priorities. So a connected and thriving city, we will of course be refining the housing strategy that you've already put into place, and there are also several other action items surrounding planning for BRT and downtown development.

In the economic vitality focus area, we will, of course, continue, implementing the economic vitality plan that you had already set forth for us. We will also be discussing how we could diversify revenue options, and a new item is you had asked for a new tourism strategy. In the area of a community and trust and respect, something that kind of relates to all of the strategic priorities is that you asked if we could have a more clear reporting framework for how we track the progress as we move forward these action items and strategic priorities. And one of the new items in this focus area, council had mentioned that they really would like for the community to have an easier, more simple way to submit service requests, to submit concerns or issues that they have, and so you have set a strategic priority to modernize and update the customer action request form and put in, a new three one one service request system. We will also be studying and digging in to more youth engagement, and you have set forth a priority to do a youth advisory pilot.

One of the largest items in the focus area for a joyful and healthy way of life is you have asked us to work on development of a parks levy ballot. We also will be increasing events and celebrations throughout the year. Building Bothell's beloved community, we will, of course, continue to implement the DEI strategy. We will be focusing on programs and resources to enhance civil dialogue throughout the community and to work a little bit on community building. And we will also be taking a closer look at how we can continue to fund the human services program and have more of a sustainable long range plan for those very important services.

Under the area of environmental stewardship, this is a really great example of how you had previously directed us to start several new plans. And so what we'll be doing is implementing these very important plans and continue with those actionable steps. Those include the storm and surface water action plan, the urban forest management plan, and the climate action plan. And, again, one of your requests is that we make that progress very visible and easily accessible to the public with dashboards or other clear reporting frameworks. There is also some priority given to complete the Wayne Eyede Creek restoration project.

In the area of moving freely around Bothell, we will be implementing the transportation safety plan, and we will also be working on a new overall parking strategy for the community. And we'll continue to work on connections to bus rapid transit and more access to transit. If you see that item creating the first and last mile, that's what that refers to, and we will also be working on the bike plan that you had already set forth for us. And then finally, this eighth and new vision area for regional leadership, council really had requested to have a strategy to enhance their leadership and influence in several different areas throughout the region, and it was really interesting to hear this discussion. It was in areas how you could make life better for Bothell residents and improve their their way of life here.

And with that, we wanted to just touch at a high level on what next steps are. So currently, we're working on setting up internal governance, something that I love, and tracking so that we can hold ourselves accountable and report back to you on the status and the progress as we advance these strategic priorities that Becky just went over. Next, we do expect to preview that reporting with you and come back to you in the next few months and get your feedback so that we can continue to improve that reporting. And then we do expect a regular cadence of updates to you both on the overall vision and strategic priorities, and then of course bringing information to you on the respective briefings and study sessions as the individual priorities continue to advance. So with that, we conclude our presentation, and we're available if you have any questions.

Did the fire agenda bill just ruin us for the night? Councilmember Kerr.

Thanks for the presentation and just helping to visualize the elements of our strategic priorities over the next three years. I wanted to reflect a little bit on, some of the elements that we had discussed and come up with new or revision new areas or revisions. And, one that is close to my heart is the environmental stewardship area of the the vision. And we got a public comment earlier today about how, it seems small, but I recognize that the storm and surface water action plan has project actions to to help clean up our storm water. And our urban forest management plan has some actionable steps and also our climate action plan.

So we have a lot of actionable steps in the works. And writing them out into our three year priorities might get a little confusing. And so we just for transparency, we kind of rolled them into these action plans that you discussed. And I'm going to be really keen to see, not just dashboards to show progress, but how we communicate the progress on those elements to, the people who interact with us not on just on social media, but everywhere. I'm really excited.

We have some really groundbreaking, literally groundbreaking, things that we're doing as a city, and I wanna elevate those. I wanna hear from staff. And so, just encourage folks in community development and public works, to come and strengthen the relationship with council to hear we wanna hear and celebrate the wins with them. So, would encourage them to in parks, continue to bring, projects that are ongoing and that might be sort of adjacent to these action plans or in management plans, but, just really want to, help elevate those, at the council level and with our constituencies and community. Thanks

again. Council Merrdad.

Thank you. I appreciate the presentation. It was a long retreat. It was all in one weekend. And I left the retreat with this thought, and I I it's still rolling around. It doesn't sit well with me that we took preserving the Shelton View Forest out of our environmental stewardship goals. And I'm wondering if you can review for us, is adding that back as simple as a majority vote from up here? Is it more complicated than that? Is is there a path to that, or is this set now?

Yeah, go ahead.

Well, I mean, I'll try, and then correct me, city manager, if I'm wrong. I think that's part of the goodness of not doing a formal approval on the priorities themselves. So I think if you wanted to add that back into the priority list, that it would be a nod from the council to have us do that.

I appreciate that. I think it's awkward that it remains a priority for the city. It's work that we're still undertaking, but we took it off of our priority list. And it's one of the shorter sections of our priorities now, and it just it's kinda like, trust me. It's in there. But if it's in there, we should be able to talk about it. And we our our staff does a really great job of linking the work they're doing back to the council vision, so it makes sense to me that it would exist there. So I I will make a motion to add preservation of the Shelton Reef Forest back to the environmental stewardship priorities and hope for a second and robust discussion.

Do we need a motion to do that given this is informal? Or

You know, as long as there's consensus, I'd it'd be great to hear from anybody who has an opposing view of adding it back in. But otherwise, again, because this is existing work and there's not a resource, you know, again, if you were asking for something that was a new body of work, there'd probably be we'd be coming back to you with more information later. But, again, preservation of Sheldon's view for us. We didn't stop working on that. So, certainly, certainly easy to add back in. Again, unless somebody has an opposing view of why it shouldn't be.

Anybody wanna speak to that? Deputy mayor, you've had your hand up for a minute.

But it is not to oppose that that suggestion.

Alright. Perfect. Well, in that case, I think we've given clear direction, and I will call on you for the next topic of conversation.

Sounds good. Thank you, mayor. And thank you for the way that this conversation to staff for the way that this conversation has been kind of guided and given us an opportunity to reflect back on the priorities by approving the vision and the changes that we made to it, but then also letting us kind of reflect more on on the priorities because I too came away from the retreat really like, it hasn't left my mind. I've really been thinking a lot about it since then, especially this piece around environmental stewardship. So I'm glad that, you know, both both council members who've spoken so far have had something to say about environmental stewardship.

I like the approve the the suggestion of adding back in Shelton View because I think there's part of it. We don't necessarily know what's next in that process, what's maybe the next challenging thing in that. And and I I don't wanna lose sight of that work, so bringing it back makes a lot of sense to me. The other piece that I've been thinking around, especially with

some of

the really great work that we've done, and I don't even know if this is a good suggestion because it's built into the urban forest management plan. So I'm gonna try to take a careful, like, a careful tactic in terms of thinking about engaging the public in our environmental stewardship work. We have some really fantastic community partners in our area who have really set a high bar for how to engage, you know, hundreds, if not thousands, of our community members in environmental stewardship and preservation and restoration work. And we have set ourselves some, I would say, modest goals in planting trees over the next, you know, 300 trees over the next twenty years. I'm wondering if my colleagues would support adding an environmental stewardship priority around developing a public engagement strategy and volunteer program so that the community is engaged and welcome to participate in the planting of those trees?

Is it worthwhile to pull that out and make it a separate, strategic priority?

I would just ask staff, is there another forum in which we could make that clear, or do you think it's worth putting something like that here? Like, is there or if nobody has a good answer, you can forget I asked that question and we can move on and have and talk about it up here too. Because I don't want to take Deputy Mayor's question to the rest of us and like, refocus it before we've had a chance to talk if you're not confident in that.

Yeah. I think what we can do is to talk to the to the team of who's who's behind that and then see of, like, again, if the goal is to highlight it in order to make sure the part of the community engagement is to be able to see it in the priorities and its work that's in there, great. I think if there are any things that would need a tweak, that could be something we could bring back even before the next update to explain kinda what we've seen. But I think deputy mayor made it clear of the intent

of it,

and so we can evaluate again if there's I'm gonna presume there's no objection to that, but we can come back with clarity in terms of the intent of that of what it would look like. And then if that feels right, make it so.

Would anybody else like to talk about it or have any concerns? Council member Kerr?

Thanks. Thank you, deputy mayor. I think I'm hearing you say that you wanna find ways to support, the nonprofits that are working in our city to do environmental stewardship. Whether their priorities are to work towards planting the annual 318 trees we need or not, kind of remains to be seen and is outside of our control, really, as that they are nonprofits and they work separate from the government. But I I understand and I I recognize the huge impact that and kind of working in the salmon recovery world and sitting at Riot eight, seeing how many, robust partnerships, with the city that we have with nonprofits and how these nonprofits are pursuing grant funding from the region as well, we have a really strong community.

And, writing into there somehow about support without really directing, their body of work, I think, would be really helpful.

So to clarify, I'm not suggesting that we make community partners continue or to be involved in the tree planting process. I'm just pointing to them as examples of how to engage the public in environmental stewardship so that we can learn from their good practices with how they've been successful in developing volunteer programming so that members of the community can contribute to the city's tree planting effort. Does that clarify it for you?

Yes. And I think that's the role of those nonprofits is to be nimble and responsive. And it's the city's responsibility and duty to create those opportunities for those nonprofits. I don't I don't actually necessarily from, like, a risk standpoint and from a like, a volunteer coordination standpoint if that's actually the city's role or if that's the job of these nonprofits and that's their space and their bailiwick to, continue performing that role. And there may be ways that we can support them, for example, with doing cultural resources plant, like, studies to make sure that the areas that they're gonna be planting, on city properties are ready, shovel ready to to to do that work.

So I I'm hesitant to put the city in a, expectation within our, vision and our three year within three years to set up a volunteer program that's robust enough to take on some of the work that is already being performed by, these nonprofits on city owned properties. So I think that we have something really special going for us and that these nonprofits are able to do things that we, as the city of Bothell organization, are not ever gonna be able to do with in terms of volunteer coordination, in terms of trust building with communities that may be impacted by environmental injustices. And so I would prefer to find ways that we can partner with them or help expedite their work or even fund, whether that's financially or some of these other examples that were listed were performing stream assessments or doing these cultural resources analyses, those sorts of background work that we can do to make their jobs easier and help them be really resilient organizations of their own.

I would suggest that the city manager earlier gave an expat, basically just said that, like, he's going to kind of workshop this with staff and bring us back something that has the intent in mind. And I have great confidence that through that process, you know, they're not gonna bring us something that we can't do or shouldn't do or isn't our role. I think the intent of oh, I think the intent of what the deputy mayor said was pretty clear, and I think that staff can probably figure out a way to word that in a way that's productive. Deputy mayor?

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. My understanding is that when we set out the the goal of planting 300 trees a year, that there was an intention on the part of staff to include the public in a volunteer role in in doing that planting, and it was not my understanding that we would be relying on community partners, like community partner organizations to do that work. And so it might be helpful to have some clarity from staff around, like, what the correct, like, intention was for engaging community in tree planting. That that might be helpful for me.

Councilmember Dodd.

Thank you. I appreciate the discussion. I think we're getting too into how this is executed instead of what the policy priority is, and I do support the deputy mayor's policy priority of involving the community in our environmental stewardship goals. And I'm as the mayor said, I think our staff will come back with what is doable and possible in a three year time span, so I look forward to finding out.

And with that, I'm gonna hit the hammer and adjourn us.