City Council - Regular Meeting

Do it again. Good evening. I call the Wednesday, June 17th, 2026 council business meeting to order. At five o'clock, the council met in the sixth floor conference room for a briefing on tonight's agenda. We've now reconvened in the chambers to conduct our business meeting. As always, we encourage community participation and welcome residents joining us in person, remotely through Zoom, or watching on BCAT. We're all present and accounted for tonight. The council will accept oral public comments on items under the consent agenda, the public hearing and general business portions of our, of tonight's agenda. We also have reserved time at the end of the meeting for community comment. This provides an opportunity for community members to address the council on topics that are not included on tonight's agenda, but are related to the work and business of the city council. Each speaker will have 90 seconds during each oral comment opportunity and is asked to address the council from the lectern, please. Following adoption of the updated council rules and procedures this evening, We anticipate launching a new online process for requesting remote public comment accommodations. This option is intended for individuals who are unable to attend meetings in person due to a disability, limited mobility or other barriers. Additional information including instructions on how to request remote accommodations will be available on the city council webpage beginning next Thursday. As always, written questions or comments are also welcome at any time to city.council at bremertonwa.gov or via mail. To be distributed to council members in advance of the business meeting, written comments must be received by noon on the day before the meeting. We will start tonight's meeting with a consent agenda.

Thank you, Council President. For approval on the consent agenda are the following items. A, claims and check register. Approval of the following checks and electronic fund transfers. One, check numbers 415218 through 415318 and EFT numbers B46406 through 46492 and the grand total amount of $2,411,093.49. Two, regular payroll for pay period ending May 31st, 2026, in the amount of $1,201,483.30. And three, retiree payroll void check number 1006235 and the amount of $606.10 and reissue check number 1006238 and the amount of $606.10 for pay period ending May 31st, 2026. B, minutes of council meeting June 3rd, 2026. C, minutes of study session June 10th, 2026. D, contract modification agreement number three with Atwork Commercial Enterprises LLC for landscaping, maintenance, and services. E, resolution number 3413 authorizing application to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office for a youth athletic facilities grant to fund improvements at Pentergast Regional Park. F, public works agreement with Pump Tech Integration to repair Conference Center Plaza Circle Fountain and expenditure of REIT funds to complete the repair. G, ordinance number 5537 amending ordinance number 5529 amending ordinance number 5503, which adopted the biennial budget for fiscal years 2025 through 2026. and H, resolution number 3414, adopting revised Bremerton City Council rules and procedures and repealing resolution number 3394. This concludes the reading of the consent agenda.

Thank you. We received a request to comment online. Is Roy Runyon signed in and does he have his hand raised? Go ahead, Mr. Runyon.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Good. Well, I want to comment on a couple items, and so 90 seconds. You've cut our public comment time in half. I think we had to cut your property tax revenue in half and see what happens. Item G, which is the amendment to the biennial budget. First of all, on your agenda bill, fiscal impacts. Why can the finance director not provide the fiscal impacts? We have to go through the entire thing and look for any of the changes to the ending fund balances in any of the departments. That is not very transparent or helpful to your citizens who pay your taxes. I recommend you vote no on this until they can simply indicate the fiscal impacts on the agenda bill. Second item I want to comment on is the new public comment rules, item H resolution 3414. Please vote no on that. And I've already alluded to it. So you've cut our public comment time in half. Let's work on cutting your revenue in half. I'm going to make it my personal goal to do that. until you restore the full three minutes per citizen. This is inappropriate. This is a government of, by, and for the people, for Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg Address. And you are further restricting the ability of citizens to comment to the city council who you serve. So vote no until that is fixed. Also, there's a word used in this, equity. Can you describe that, maybe council president?

Mr. Runyon, your time has been over for a bit. Sorry. Thank you for your comment. Is there anybody else who wishes to address items on the consent agenda?

Jose Camacho, Francis Smith Cove, Rock the Block. I'm here about your new council rules and procedures. Brenda Smith-Cove has previously condemned your one voice policy. And of course, you're crapping on free speech and atma. The one voice policy really came home when we had a revelation that council member Anna Mockler actually acknowledged the Evergreen Point rig when she inquired to Ecology, why did Ecology allowed the flouting of the Shoreline Management Act. And what this means is that a retired ecologist under your one voice rule did not feel free- Hold on a second, please, Mr. Camacho.

Is there something wrong with the... Okay. I'm sorry. Can you add 10 seconds to him, please?

I appreciate that. Can I begin?

Thank you. Why don't you wait till they readjust your time, please.

May I? I'm like Medusa. I killed the mic. The one voice policy just encourages concealment and actually fear. The first time my eyes laid on Mockler and Rebelowski, they literally looked like they were cowering in fear with Denise Fry berating them for saying something that was actually lawful, conflict of interest as to Jack Paul. So you should get rid of one voice and you should also stop deceiving the people of the Harrison Heights area with this spot zoning nonsense. You are violating Atma. You're violating free speech. Denise Fry and mockers emails are in the comment I sent in today. You can find us on friends of Smith cove, the YouTube channel. We have a bit link. If anyone doubts what we say, look us up, give me an email. We'll explain.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to comment on the consent agenda, please?

Now, I want to comment on two things. And can I have 90 seconds for each?

No, it's 90 seconds.

That doesn't seem like good participation, allowing people to participate when you put so many things in a block of consent agenda items and that we can only have 90 seconds. How in the world are we supposed to comment on all of them? I mean, that is not public participation. And my thing is off. Great, I'm going. Okay, my name is Robin Weldon. And all you guys need to do, I mean, first of all, do not vote on this code of conduct because it includes the public. It includes restricting the public. And that is against free speech law. That is against our First Amendment rights and protections. And our Washington State... rights and protections. Just remember your oath. You know, that's all you need to know. Remember your oath. It's to be impartial and to uphold Washington state and U.S. law. You know, it's really simple.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to comment on the consent agenda? Okay, I don't see anyone. We will go to council for a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Do you have a second? I'll second. Okay. Seeing no further discussion, let's vote on the consent agenda, please.

Council Member Chamberlain? Yes. Frye?

Yes.

Camerata? Yes. Goodnell?

Yes.

Mochler? No. Tift?

Yes.

Rubelowski. Yes. Motion carries six yeses. One now. Next on the agenda is public hearings. Item number four, a resolution number three, four, one five, adopting the 2027 through 2032 six-year transportation improvement program. Our presenter tonight is managing engineer Gunnar Fredrickson.

Thank you, counselors. This is our yearly update for our TIP process. Dave? As you know, Washington state law requires the adoption of a six-year transportation improvement program after a public hearing. This has to be adopted by July 1st of every year, and that is per the RCW. And then we have to file the TIP with the Secretary of Transportation no more than 30 days after it is fully adopted. As part of this presentation, I did add a couple extra slides per your request at study session last week, Dave. So projects on the tip come from a variety of sources. They come from planning studies and reports. They come from staff observations, and they also come from citizen comments. Potential projects are scoped and then scored for inclusion into an overall project list. As projects move up through these tiers, additional projects are brought up from this list into tier three. Next slide, Dave. projects are scored now on six categories. We have safety and security, which is our top category, 20 points, system preservation and major maintenance, which is also 20 points, complete streets and accessibility at 18 points, concurrency at 15 points, efficient mobility at 15 points as well, and then equity in the environment at 12 points. When we do these projects and we scope them, cost is not a factor in the scoring. We want each project to stand on its own merits. Next, Dave. And so for this year, the changes in our TIP for Tier 1, we moved the following projects from Tier 2 to Tier 1 as they are now fully funded, and that includes the Sixth Street Active Transportation Project, View Ridge Elementary phase two, the Warren Avenue Bridge, multimodal improvements as well. We did move one project, Finney Bay Guardrail retaining wall and guardrail, retaining wall and guardrail to tier four as when we reviewed that project scope, we reduced it quite significantly. So it dropped off the list. Next slide, Dave. Tier two, we did move three construction projects. All of the phases for the 11th Street project, which has a fully funded design phase, and that's phase one, two, and three, and that got moved to tier two. And then for tier three, we deleted the Riddell Road SR 303 to Elmira sidewalk improvements, as this was completed by the recent apartment complex that was built up there. We deleted the RFB on Sheridan Road as our current RRFB project is actually putting one on Cherry. And it doesn't make a lot of sense to have those two so close together. We moved the 11th Street reconstruction project, which technically is a stormwater project, out of the TIP. And we'll be doing that as a stormwater project with sewer money as well. And then we added the following projects as these projects move up. Sheridan Road reconstruction. Belfair Valley Road shoulder widening and guardrails, Snyder Avenue sidewalks, enhanced Wyckoff Avenue streetscape, and the Crown Hill Elementary Safe Routes to School Phase 2. And that's it for my presentation. If I'll take any questions.

The purpose of the public hearing is to accept public comments and action is anticipated. Since we received the request to comment online, is Mr. Runyon signed on and does he have his hand raised? Yes, go ahead, Mr. Runyon.

You hear me okay?

Yes.

First of all, the agenda bill, fiscal impacts, I don't see any numbers in that. And in the list of the projects, fully funded, partially funded, I would like to see what percentage of these project budgets is funded from local funds, transportation capital that takes utility tax from the stormwater. So in the name of transparency, how many local dollars are being put into each of these projects? Also, please add the additional two slides that are not in the packet. I downloaded this, I don't know, 30 minutes ago. And so the grading criteria, equity and environment. Can someone please define equity in light of a public works transportation project and the merits? Let's quantify that.

Thank you for your comments. Mr. Fredrickson, do you want to answer that question, please?

I can. With the equity, what we do is we look at basically disadvantaged or overburdened communities. A good site for this is on WSDOT, the Sandy Williams Community Outreach Program. And we take a look at, there's a number of categories in there for that, which we review and score accordingly. Hopefully that answers the question.

Okay, thank you.

Are there other members of the public who would like to comment or question the tip?

Yes, my name is Robin Weldon. And speaking to equity in transportation, I had to read through so much that I didn't read through the transportation section, but I did hear I didn't hear him talking about it. So I believe that that transportation equity should include buses that run beyond eight o'clock because people who work downtown, as you guys call essential workers, they can get to work, but they can't get home. And people who work the night shift can't get to work, but they can get home, I guess, maybe if they wait long enough in the morning. But the point is, People are being pushed outside of Bremerton, especially minimum wage workers, because they can't afford to live here anymore. And we need equity, transportation equity, where we have bus routes that'll actually take people back and forth because not everybody can afford a car. Can you answer that, please? Can I comment on that? Ms. Weldon, Kitsap Transit is who runs all of the bus system. We do have people on the board for Kitsap Transit

that the mayor's on the board and I'm on the board. So we do discuss that with them along with all of our county commissioners are asking Kitsap Transit to do what they can to start increasing bus service, especially in communities like Bremerton. But that's not part of our staff's projects to build things. They will work in conjunction with them, like on a Safe Routes to School project. They'll work with them to see if there's a bus pullout that makes sense or a shelter. So they do work with them, but they don't scope their projects for them.

If you are on the board, that is something that has been needed for such a long time.

I agree, but point of order, we can discuss that more later, okay? Thank you. Is there another comment?

Hello, my name is Chance. I live in District 5. I would specifically like to talk about changes to the Tier 2 plan, specifically the proposed phases for the 11th Street project. I'm going to forfeit. I live on 11th Street in one of these phases, and it is not the phase going first. but it is at least every other week that I walk by the intersection of Callow and 11th and there is some sort of major accident. I don't know why places where people are already driving slower and we're not looking to change major sections of infrastructure are going through planning and design before the section where we are looking to change the intersection of 11th and Calo. That seems like if we're looking to reduce harm, if we're looking to make it a more walkable city, if we want to give Calo a chance to be more walkable and to bring some more local businesses back, putting that before the sections that are not as community centered makes the most sense. I'd ask that you'd look at changing that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. but they have listed a priority.

Hello, my name is Anna Whalen. I am the Community Planning and Liaison Officer for Naval Base Kitsap. As part of your TIP plan, I know your staff has talked to us in the past about the basically the road diet or putting bicycle lanes on Naval Avenue that leads into our main gate. In the past, your staff has asked us if we would support a defense community infrastructure program grant, which we've done in the past with the city. We've done that for two sewer projects. The most recent one was $8 million that you received in 2024. For this one, we do not see a benefit to the Navy in reducing the number of traffic lanes that come into the base. And so we'd not be able to support a future defense community infrastructure program grant that would reduce those traffic lanes into Naval Avenue and into our main gate. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there other community members? Yes.

Hello there, Michael Simons, District 3. As a former commuter to the PSNS base via bike on Naval Avenue, I disagree firmly with the statement that was just previously made because I did not feel safe traveling via bike to the Navy base from Hewitt and 13th, where I used to live. And so I think more people would benefit commuting via bike because there's no parking off the Naval Ave gate. So people aren't traveling by car. They're traveling by walking, one wheel, or bike. And so I think making that road safer for people taking non-motor vehicle transportation is a priority. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to address the Transportation Improvement Plan?

Jose Camacho, friends of Smith's Cove, Rock the Block. Every time I see equity and the environment, I get excited now because I learned Washington has a new idea of injecting environmental justice in certain agencies. There are enumerated agencies and some of those agencies provide funding for city programs. So when I see that, I ask myself, Does anyone acknowledge the concept of aporophobia and the innate unacknowledged inner hatred of the poor in city council, anywhere in city government, because it seems like it's baked into the city. So when I see something like this presented by a competent gentleman and well thought out, I wonder how aporophobia is dealt with in something like that. Because there are a lot of good faith workers and technicians in Bremerton. But then you have this depravity on the street. Transportation also involves walking, resting on a bench. A lot of the safe streeters, smart street, whatever they're called, talk about safety. But it always seems like in that vision, the persecution of the homeless just doesn't exist. And we see them. I've been homeless. I've also been an ultra runner. I used to run the streets for 30 miles. And I've also been homeless on the streets where I fainted on the street. You know, you need to make equity mean something.

Thank you. Is there anybody else in the audience who would like to comment on the transportation improvement plan? name. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. Go ahead.

Hi, I'm Christy Schultz. I live out in the UGA, but I do commute through Bremerton periodically. There's a lot of speeders in this town and a lot of citizens probably won't care for what I have to say, but I think you need to put traffic cameras in and start issuing traffic For people, they're speeding up and down 11th and 6th and probably up and down Naval. I don't see it so much on Naval, but 11th and 6th really have a problem. And this is a safety issue. And there are a lot of people, the bicyclers and so forth. So I think the camera system would pay for itself in a year. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to comment on the transportation improvement plan? Okay, seeing none, I close the public hearing. We will go to council for a motion.

I move to approve resolution number 3415, which approves the city's 2027 to 2032 six-year transportation improvement program. and allow the mayor to forward the resolution and plan to the Puget Sound Regional Council and Washington Department of Transportation.

Second.

Okay, we can open for discussion. Ms. Wright? Gunnar, I see you standing there almost anticipating. We talked about in study session how the decision was made about phase one, two, and three of the 11th Street improvements. And I wonder if you could just give a quick summation of what you told us at study session.

Well, basically nothing is quite set in stone and we can change those phases around as needed. We started off this project just to go ahead and do the simplest portion of it first, which is basically a mill and fill between Naval Avenue down to Warren Avenue, which is about the worst section of the roadway. The second phase would be the construction of the community boulevard or continuation of the improvements that were done on Washington and 11th Street. from Pacific Avenue over to the Warren Avenue. And then the third phase, which is going to be the most difficult and the most tricky, and also include right-of-way acquisition, because we do not have the right-of-way there for that turn lane, we're going to have to buy property. And so it's going to be expensive and it's going to be a little bit more work to get that fortune done. But we aren't in design yet. We won't get that money until 2027. And once we get the money, we can take a look at it and relook at what our phasing is, and if we want to prioritize that intersection, we can.

Thank you, Gunnar. I know the Public Safety Committee has been working on these tips now every year for a long time. They've certainly come through it in the past few years. I want to commend you and your staff for the improvements I've seen. and being more transparent about the process, about the scoring criteria, using a criteria. I've seen significant progress with this, and it is a work in progress. So first of all, I want to say thank you, and I appreciate that. As far as the Naval Avenue program, I believe the Navy was included in that process. And is that correct?

The Navy has been, we have worked with the Navy on the process. That is correct.

And I know that there was disappointment on the Navy's behalf with this. It saddens me to hear that a decision has been made to not cooperate with the city of Bremerton on grant applications that would benefit both the Navy and the residents of Bremerton. It saddens me. Quite frankly, it shocks me. So thank you for your work on this. And again, it's a working document. So thank you.

Anna? Thanks, Council President. Managing Engineer Fredrickson, how are you? I'm doing fine, thank you. Good. Is there a secret plan to remove lanes from Naval Avenue for the road diet?

I don't believe there's any secret plans. It's been that way for a long time. It's going to be wider sidewalks, the bike lanes, and then a center turn lane, which would help with the accidents we do have there.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Um, yeah. So, um, I, I share counselor, vice president, hang on council, vice president, Denise Fry. There we go. Um, I, I share counselor fries, um, shock that the Navy, uh, has not only chosen not to cooperate with the city of Bremerton, but has, taken the time to come here and tell us so that in future, apparently, that just seems so strange to me when we, the city of Bremerton, make so many efforts to smooth the commute of shipyard workers. And I think if you look at the Transportation Improvement Project, you'll see that virtually all of the projects are destined to occur along commuter routes. Um, to smooth the commute, um, just to briefly tell all of you that we discussed this at study session last week, and we're going to look more closely at the scoring in so much as in us lies, because I am not an engineer. Nobody on this council is an engineer, so we can't go around saying, well, this is easy. Just, you know, do it like this. But I really look forward to working with public works to make sure that safety and security are not just for vehicles, but for everyone who is using the road or crossing the road. Yeah. everybody who is even just taking their dog out for a walk so thank you that was all the all that I had on this one are there other council members who'd like to add to the discussion great um thank you um President revelowski

So I want to say I was not a council member when these projects on this TIP were proposed, but I want to start by saying I sincerely appreciate the work of Public Works and Engineering for all the effort that has gone into preparing the plan before us tonight. I support public safety across our city, but I feel I must speak out regarding my concerns with the Naval Avenue Road Diet, specifically item TR00010 as it's currently proposed, specifically the south end of the project where it transitions to the Naval Avenue Gate. I worked for the Navy and therefore I lived the traffic that happened in the early mornings it's you know largely it's way early it's 4 a.m through around 7 30 in the morning and the evening so my experience is firsthand and from that experience i learned that even the most minor of traffic disruptions quickly result in large backups into the surrounding neighborhoods, largely emanating from all directions of Burwell, both sometimes north all the way to 11th. We are aware of east that sometimes blocks the police station. And then, of course, west the other direction. It's my belief that narrowing the southern portion of the roadway near the end, basically gate will increase the chances of unexpected disruptions to the circulation patterns in that part of our city with impact to pedestrian and bicycle safety presuming we pass this transportation plan tonight i request that we reevaluate the naval avenue road diet project specifically near the naval base kids at gate to consider the impacts on surrounding neighborhoods and maybe even a commitment to do a demonstration project in that area, just to validate whether my concerns are relevant or practical. So thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Goodenow. One up.

I'll use this one because then Council President can't cut me off. Okay. Since we're on Naval Avenue and it's in my district, I just wanted to touch base on a little bit Like Mr. Simons, I have also ridden a bicycle to the shipyard to go to work. And it's probably the most harrowing part is navigating the gate. So I would also surprised by the statements from the Navy representative here tonight as a retired retiree myself. I mean, the challenge here is let's work together. We've got huge growth happening at the shipyard. There is no plans to improve the gates. There is no plans for parking. So let's work together and get some people on bicycles in there. You know, like... This is not a new thing, right? The community clearly has brought it up. We're trying to build the infrastructure, not just on Naval Avenue, but Naval Avenue to Kitsap Avenue and up the Warren Avenue Bridge so that we can move people around with alternate modes, right? Gas is crazy. It's really crazy right now, right? We need to be thinking differently. We need to be thinking of the future. We're literally doing a modernization program on the shipyard, and we're not forward thinking about how that's going to work and how we're going to get all these workers in. Let's get together. Let's work together. Let's figure it out. It's a little crazy. One thing I was going to start with was, really, this is more of a status document. It's not really a working document. We don't move things on it. We don't move money on it. It's a report from our public works team to the state of Washington to say, this is the status of where we're at, where we're at on priorities, what we're thinking about in the future, so they have an idea of the scope of projects in the future. Anyways, I want to commend the department for your hard work on this. Thanks.

Ms. Chamberlain, Councilperson Chamberlain.

You can just call me Councilor Chamberlain. As Councilor Walker pointed out, it does save a little bit of time to just say Councilor. What was the name of the grant again that Ms. Whalen said we weren't going to be receiving? What was the name?

DSIP.

DSIP. What does that stand for? Defense?

Department of Defense.

I think it's still working now. Yeah, it's the board department.

Oh, okay. I mean, I'm going to say something might ruffle some feathers, but it does not surprise me that the feds are not willing to cooperate with us as is kind of the theme these days. So I have the most respect for Ms. Whalen, who we've talked, we sat together during KRCC. I know maybe she doesn't really want to be delivering this information. I don't know. I can't speak for her. And I find it just, what a shame, you know? And this isn't just about bicycles either, y'all. This is about creating safe sidewalks. I had the opportunity and I was kind of talking about it in my council, my seven minute council report last week about the Naval Avenue bike bus. And I had a chance to ride the streets on bikes. By the way, again, I was the very last bicycle rider um including all the little kids with their little legs and but i i had a chance to ride the streets and um thank goodness the police were with us and i had so many people with us we were um it was not safe but it's also about being able to walk a stroller safely on these roads it's also about creating a walkable city. If the traffic is a problem, if backups are the problem, the problem is the traffic. The problem is the number of cars. That makes logical sense to me. Why are we not promoting more busing, as Ms. Weldon was requesting? Why are we not promoting more walkability incentives for carpooling? There are programs that exist, but why are we not promoting them and In fact, we should be bragging about those programs more. So I think we need to be talking about the carpool, all the programs that are available through Kitsap Transit, even though we know it's a little bit short for our area. All right. I'm going to get off my soapbox about that. I wanted to check in about the scoring. And I wanted to find out throughout the age of the TIP, does the scoring change? The scoring has changed. And so can you tell me a little bit about how the scoring has changed this time around for the TIP as far as the standards?

We're going to discuss this specific thing at a future study. Sorry. Point of order. We decided last week to discuss this specific thing, the scoring and how that works at a future study session. Just.

I recall that differently. I recall that we asked the managing engineer to bring the scoring and explain it to us because we didn't fully understand it. And that's why he added the additional slide. That's what I recall. I don't know if anybody recalls it differently.

My recollection with respect is that it also was discussed whether or not we could start this process a little earlier so that we aren't at the end of June. approving something and that maybe Public Works Committee could be better informed about the scoring and projects and how they're scored in that process, but earlier in the process so that we could wait in. We have three different recollections from the same meeting, go figure, but that's my recollection.

Council President, should I proceed? Yes. Okay. So my question was, because I really appreciated your explanation. I'd love the public to know how the scoring has changed this time around. It seems like you're working to get better best practices for scoring as to the priority of these projects. Are you comfortable sharing a little bit about that?

Correct. We didn't make that many changes this year to the scoring. It's very similar to what we did last year, but it is a living document. And that's what I recall from the meeting, too, is we are going to meet with you guys sometime later in the fall and to start this process a little bit earlier. So you've got a better opportunity to take a look at our projects and how we're scoring it. And we're more than happy to do that with you.

Okay. So my recollection about the scoring was that was that there were some added metrics. And so it sounds like there's still some more work to be done on creating a best practice that maybe it's still fluid on this living document, which is great because I would love to see the Pine Road construction reevaluated for scoring. And just to give you kind of a heads up, I will be showing at the next council report some problematic areas in Pine Road so the public can see why I'm so concerned about that. but I am grateful that let's see was it the Sheridan or the Sylvan SR 303 to Sheridan project has been moved up so that's going to shore up a little bit there and my hope for that is that it's going to be an improvement for multimodal improvements will be included in that there's a wide enough street so hopefully we can get a bike lane on that and also make sure that we're not kind of, I was noticing on Sylvan when I went on a walk with one of our representatives that we have this center area with trees, which are great, but I don't know that they're native trees. My hope is that for that space, that it's going to be a multimodal focus and less kind of random tree planting. And thank you. I look forward to the discussion about the scoring. Sounds like we all will be on the same page at some point. Maybe.

And it may be that what we did discuss is that we did have some comments this year with the scoring where we were looking at maybe making some changes, but we haven't made those changes yet. And that might be, I think, more of what you remembered.

Okay, so you're continuing to refine the best practice. Yes. Okay, great. So that you can actually explain it. Okay, thank you so much.

I was disturbed too with the comment made by the Navy representative because I do appreciate that you helped rebuild the sewer line. That also is a sewer line that the Naval Base Kitsap uses. But I also recall that the shipyard workers were given pedestrian enhancements well before any of our school children were with downtown Bremerton. So there's definitely a balance and Kitsap Transit has built lots of park and rides. And if you look at McWilliams, which was built for shipyard workers, there may be 25% usage. So I do believe that the community is spending lots of money to try to help the situation. But I did like the comment that Counselor Goodnow made about maybe modernizing your gates too would help. And I'm not trying to not appreciate what Naval Base Kitsap does for our community, because I know, especially there's lots of volunteer effort that's put out and you supply employment to, I think about 18 to 20% of your workforce actually lives in the city of Bremerton. And I'm glad for those great jobs, but I think we need to meet and have further discussions about how we can really look at the joint compatibility study that both the Navy and the city did. And then for Mr. Fredrickson, I know you're talking about the phase of Warren Avenue to Naval being a simple grind and pave, but I have had a lot of constituents come to me asking that it be more than that. They would like safer sidewalks and enhancements at more intersections. So I'm just putting that out there. And I know that phases can be modified and I agree that Calo is gonna be the most problematic and the most difficult and the most expensive and there's right of way. But it's also, it appears to be the most urgent based on accident history. And it might just be anecdotal, but I know I've personally seen numerous accidents there, but also at Naval and 11th, I've seen multiple accidents there. So I appreciate the work you've done and that this is strictly a planning document and that things change as we go on. So. Is there anybody else who would like to speak again? Councillor Tiff.

Your advice. I, you know, I, I do not represent the Navy, but I have some, some at least previous information and I don't know whether it'd be relevant or not. So let me start. And then you tell me you can do this. Okay. Okay. So there are a lot of comments often about new ways Kitsap could do better. But for the record, there are more than 2000 employees who ride mass transit every day. Carpools, van pools get priority. If you form a carpool, you get parking quickly. The ships all stagger shifts so that they don't all get off at the same time when they when they're on board. The yard itself stagger shifts so that there is there's actually.

Well, I'd like to kind of I think we can have I think we can have a fuller discussion and put something on the agenda where we could ask representatives of the Navy to come and give us some presentations so that we could ask questions. And I think that would be. a bit more appropriate. Does anybody else have additional questions about the TIP? Is there further discussion? Okay, seeing no further discussion, I call for the question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilmember Frey? Camerata? Good now?

Yes.

Mockler?

Yes.

TIFT?

Yes.

Chamberlain? Thank you. Rebelowski?

Yes.

Motion carries unanimously.

Got disconnected over there. I'll have to reboot the whole system. How long does that take? About 20. Can we just shout?

As long as you're okay with us talking louder if it's very cool. People on Zoom.

Can we take a five-minute break?

Five-minute recess. We will reconvene at 625.

Testing.

Is my microphone working? Yes. We are back in session. Are we going to, are you going to introduce Yes. We've got a quorum.

Our next section is general business. General business item 5A, ordinance number 5538, establishing Bremerton Municipal Code section 11.18.080 entitled Honorary Naming of Public Streets. Today we have presenter city attorney Kylie Finnell.

Hello, good evening. The proposed ordinance is in the council packet and it was developed with input from Public Works Committee and study sessions last month. And it fills a gap that the city doesn't have right now, a policy for the naming of honorary streets. And so this was put together at the council's request and with the criteria that we gathered from the council feedback.

Since we received a request to comment online, is Roy Runyon still online? Does he have his hand raised? Okay, go ahead, Mr. Runyon.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes, I'm going to comment on this. First of all, it's not honorary streets, it's public streets. naming them with honorary names to correct Ms. Fennell. Your agenda bill fiscal impacts none. And in the list, in the actual ordinance, the draft ordinance has kind of the criteria by which the council would use to evaluate these requests for renaming. You know, it talks about 75% of the property owners agreeing. However, in a commercial district, the property owners are not always the business owners that are directly affected. So I suggest you amend this. Someone make an amendment, offer an amendment to also include the potential cost to business owners in any commercial districts in this process. That has to be considered. Also, there's no mention of consulting the post office. So renaming a street could potentially cause delivery problems. In my experience, the US Postal Service is having some delivery issues. And just a little footnote, you may find this interesting. The former Postmaster General of the United States under Ronald Reagan was a cousin of mine. So that doesn't make me any expert on the post office, but you might find that interesting. Thank you. So please offer the amendments. Otherwise vote no, because it's not ready for prime time.

Thank you. I would not now like to invite any member of the public to the podium to comment on this item. Speakers will have 90 seconds to address the council. Please remember to state your name clearly before providing your comment. If you wish your name to be included in the meeting record.

Good evening, Lillian Robertson. I'm here to request permanent renaming of 8th Street to Bishop Robertson Way. A man of 50 years of dedicated service, dedicated his life and his service, built a community center, changed the lives of several people in this community. He participated as board president of Olympic College, KEDA, member, also a member of Bremerton Housing Authority. I have letters here to support from Olympic College, from Bremerton Housing Authority, from Kitsap County, from the NAACP, Kitsap Strong, and also from KEDA. His service was far beyond what we can imagine, touched the lives of so many. We believe that an honorary street name expresses appreciation. A permanent street name recognizes a lifetime of extraordinary service and enduring impact. Bishop Robinson's service was for nearly 50 years, deserving a lasting tribute in the form of a permanent street name change. It's our request. We believe that name change of streets tell generations what we value, who we value, and what sacrifices the people who shaped our city have made. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Are there other members of the public who would like to speak to this issue?

Well, I'm early. My name is Shannon Turner. And I am one of those people that he touched. And guiding through what he has brought to this community, what he has done for Remington, but most importantly, what he's done for the constituents. You know, he's seen everybody and touched everybody. I wouldn't be where I'm at today had I not spent time and got some mentoring from him. So I think this is one way that we could definitely understand and pay back what he has given his whole entire life to, the sacrifice. So I don't think this is something that takes, to me, this is a no-brainer. Nothing is being asked that shouldn't be and has been deserved. So, but without him, I can tell you my thoughts and where I'm at today, wouldn't be here, would not be here. And there are a lot more just like me. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Is there anybody else who would like to address the council with your comment?

Actually, I can't see. My name is Robin Weldon, and I'd like to pose and ask you to remove this, because I saw the study session where you were talking about taking the official naming of streets. to honorary name change only for 10 years. And for about, you know, almost six years after Bishop Robertson's passing, people have been, you know, working with the city and they've been, you know, meeting all the requirements that are necessary to get that name change on 8th Street to Bishop Lawrence Ray Robertson Street. And After hearing people come on June 3rd to the council, we heard from young adults who were children who were inspired and positively affected by him, other community members. This is something that... that is really important to the community. And it would be really a betrayal not to go through with naming that street.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who would like to speak to this issue?

I am Floyd Hewson.

I just want to just, Floyd Hewson. Bishop Robinson was also my mentor.

Bishop Robinson has dedicated many years to the embedment of the city. The outreach. Mentorship. Charitable initiatives and unwavering commitment to the well-being of the residents. His leadership has touched families, supported youth and provided stability and hope during times when our community needed. His contribution. His contributions are not symbolic, but they were lived, measurable, deeply felt across generations. Renaming this street in his honor was served as a lasting acknowledgement of his legacy and a visible reminder of the values he embodied, service, compassion, integrity, and community unity. It would also inspire future generations to continue the work of building stronger and more connected city. I kindly request that the council review this proposal and consider initiating a formal process in renaming. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who would like to talk to this issue?

Mm hmm.

My name is Justin Hamilton. I'm a member of the Man United Apostolic Church. I've been there since I was young, attended it now under Pastor Houston. I believe that street does need to be changed because he's done a lot in this community. He's been faithful servants in this community and to the people in this community, including myself. Just like the brother said, he probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for some of that mentorship from Pastor Robinson. Same here. Another thing I want to say, there's a lot of streets named in Bremerton. And some of them people ain't done nothing for Bremerton. It's just because they're famous or they got an Olympic gold medal. But they ain't brought nothing to do nothing for the city. And I think it would be disrespectful if you didn't change his name, change that to his name and be there because he's put work in for that. That's all I'm saying.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak to this issue?

My name is Michelle Babs.

Can you put the microphone down a little bit?

Okay. Thank you. I have a big mouth.

So do I.

Okay, great. My name is Michelle Babs. And I also am one of the people's lives that was changed by Bishop Robertson. And for Bishop, when Bishop was just Bishop, he didn't do it just to be seen. It was just who he really was. And one thing that sticks out with me all the time, I always think about this. We were doing we went to the Salvation Army. And so we were going to feed in the homeless. Well, thanks for Thanksgiving. And, you know, Bishop, we always want to take care of Bishop, make sure he was good. And he said, better not. Nobody else come ask me if I'm OK. Or whatever. I'm fine. And when I saw him cleaning tables, I mean, he was just talking to everybody, being bishop, just who he really was. And the next thing you know, that Sunday morning, the church was full of people who he had talked to. And some people joined the church. Some people come back in and out. It's just who he was. And so for me, he was a blessing to my life. I'm not going to cry. He was a real blessing to my life and to change a name of a street. If he knew that we were doing this, he'd be like, what are you guys doing? I don't need all that because that's just who he was. And so I think it's nothing compared to all the things that he's done. Thank you, ma'am.

Is there anybody else who would like to speak to this issue?

My name is Akoye Karen Vargas. We have been working diligently since 2021 and 2022 to get this name permanently changed for Bishop Lawrence Ray Robertson. We have worked with Tom Nookie. We've had city council members that have moved on and are no longer here. in these positions, but we have been working diligently to get this. I'm not understanding the honorary name change when we have requested for permanent and then you came back and you asked us to be able to make sure that we were doing proper policies, meeting with the community, doing all that you all have requested us to do. And so as we move forward to get this, I think whether or not you guys are changing your policy, these should be grandfathered in. We've been years now advocating to get this street renamed. And I think it is very... dishonoring for our community that we have a tremendous leader that when you needed him with gang members and drugs flooding into this this community that he put his own life on the line to be able to serve this community in a way and then for this city council to disrespect and dishonor by not even allowing us to rename the street. I think that it is dishonoring to all of our community members.

Is there anybody else who would like to talk to this issue?

They come out show friends of Smith Cove rock the block. Um, As a Puerto Rican, I'm always an outsider, no matter where I go. Even if I return to Puerto Rico, I'm always an outsider. So I've always had to combat gaslighting and the implicit racism and just the Just a defective human mind where without knowing it or admitting it, you can actually be doing harm. I spoke to Dr. Naomi Levine about hostile architecture. I read up on acoraphobia. I tried to explain to the Parks Commission that people can do or feel horrible things about people and just make them invisible. This town is extremely white. We have an all-white council. I remember Roosevelt Smith talking about how he was kind of embarrassed by you guys when you all disrespected Judge Flood. It won't kill anyone to see a highly venerated African-American man on the street sign. I can't believe that you're actually going to vote no. To me, it's like hostile architecture. Acknowledge African Americans in your community who have done so well. The young people speaking up on his behalf actually touched me. You need to vote yes. You need to make it happen.

Thank you.

Can you hear me? Yeah. I want to separate two issues here. The process you guys are setting forward for naming streets in honorarium in the future, I think is great. It is a good path to have. It is amazing that we have a plan in the works to honor future leaders. And I think that is an important thing that we look at how in the future we are going to honor people, how we are going to make these changes. I think it's wise in the future to do honorariums. A huge part of that has to do with 911 response, with mail response, with delivery response. There's a lot of cost associated with changing a name permanently, and I understand that. But I also, I am aware that this process has been going on on 8th Street for a while. So while I understand wanting to do honorariums in the future and that I like that this process is going to be in place going forward, I think it is important to honor the work of these people behind me that have been fighting for five years to have 8th Street renamed, to consider renaming it as a separate goal and a separate policy. Thank you.

Are there any other comments? Okay. Oh, I'm sorry.

Good evening. My name is Antoinette Yousen. And I wanted to say on behalf of Bishop Robertson, Bishop Robertson was like a father in my life. I got here In 1979, I was only 18, my husband was 20. We went to their church five months later, and I have six kids, 15 grandkids, and three great-grandkids. And he helped my family and other families of this community help raise and taught us very well how to be mothers and fathers of our community and also along with our church and our families. He was definitely a family man. And he served very well to our community. He served very well with the constituents that's even here. He served very well in everything that he'd done, even with the college. He served very well. And so I'm here to say that on behalf of our church, our community, it should be named, 8th Street should be named Emmanuel, I mean, should be named Larry Robertson Street. It should be named after Larry Robertson. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Chris Tiller, United States Navy retired. came to the city in 1993, 1994, been here ever since. Uh, like it was said earlier, went to Bishop Robinson's church, met him for the first time, um, served directly under him, kind of like his right hand man. Um, I watched him over these years talk nothing about except the community, bringing a community together, not just in the immediate community, but the surrounding areas, reaching out as far as Suquamish and even farther. I watched him bring people together to make the Marvin Williams Center happen. And as you can see, it's there and it's thriving and it has brought many community personnel to that place. So it would behoove me to not see a gentleman of his status to not be recognized as a person who is trying to make this city grow, expand, and just do the marvelous thing that the city has already done. So again, it would behoove me to hear his name not be posted on this street, simply from the standpoint that he brought a lot of people together. Let's honor him by doing this. Thank you.

Do we have any additional comments from the public?

Okay. Good evening. My name is Vicki Collins. And unlike most of the people who've come forward, I did not attend Bishop Robertson's church. or had my membership there. However, I was a friend of that church and they've always thought of me as family. I have found that Bishop to have been in this community, a coalescer of people. He was a man of peace. He was a peacemaker. And if there were ever any odds between people, he was the one that could bring them together. They would come together for him, even if they did not care for one another. And that is a hallmark of a gentle, magnificent individual. Blessed are the peacemakers for they are the children of God. And so I, I, ask you this evening to make the right choice. Do the right thing. Do the right thing for the community that you're serving. Hear the people in the room that you are serving and grant them this very small token of what this man has brought to this community. Thank you.

My name is Sharon Tiller, retired Navy. I also met Bishop Robinson. Actually, people was talking about him when I first got here in 1993. They invited me to the church. I went. His first sermon touched my heart. He was talking about people owning their homes, not renting. Six months later, I own my home. I got out the Navy. He encouraged me to go to OC College where I got my degree in early childhood education. I got a job, first job at the embassy at EAC. Then I got hired at Suquamish Tribal Center. And now I'm working at the Marvin Williams Center helping children develop, learn who they are. and be proud of what they are. And that's because of Bishop Robertson. It would behoove you to honor the street in his name because that's what he did for all people. Thank you.

Are there any other comments from the public? Okay, we'll go to council for a motion. I can't. Oh, okay.

I just don't want to move to pass ordinance number 5538 to establish Bremerton Municipal Code section 11.18.080 entitled honorary naming of public streets.

Seconded.

Okay, we're open for discussion. Counselor Goodenow, did you want to start the discussion?

Sure. And I'll try to maybe give a little explanation of where we're at. So thank you. I'm sure there are so many more stories about Bishop Robertson. Today is a step that we're taking to be kind of forward thinking on naming of streets. So today wasn't specifically about 8th Street, nor was any of this document specifically about 8th Street or Bishop Robertson. But I believe a lot of process folks here, when we got the request, they're like, what do we do? And so what we're looking at right now is an option. It doesn't preclude from, from what's being requested by so many of you tonight um and uh it's a um i don't know who's the the deepest to speak on the real technical stuff um but somebody had mentioned they didn't exactly understand what the honorary was so the honorary would be um I feel like it's most common, maybe like in a historic district where it'll be 19th Avenue and up above it'll say, you know, Bob's neighborhood or something like that. So it would be something similar. In its own color. An option would be. 8th Street, and then it would have an honorary Bishop Robertson moniker. That's one I completely understand. You don't have to shake your head. I'm just explaining this in a way where what this document is about. Again, it doesn't preclude something else. So I think that's all I want to say. I just really want to say that I really feel like I heard folks and I appreciate everybody who came out to speak on behalf of Bishop Robertson. Well, I'll just stop at this point.

Are there any other counselors who would like to comment? I would, yeah.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you all for your testament to what a great man Bishop Robertson was. I had the pleasure of meeting him several times and he was just good. Just clear through. So the reason we're looking at this honorary thing is that in the last 15 years, I'm sure all of you have noticed that the internet has become a big deal and that our data is increasingly available to more and more people who want to sell it. So here's the thing that for me was the tip and point is if we formally change the name of a street, Every single person who lives on that street, everybody who has a business on that street is going to have to go through all of their stuff and change their address. That's not crazy. A person can do that. The thing is that now with so much data out there and so many people collecting it, it's really easy for somebody, they put in a change of address and then they go into a list of as it were of people who move too much, right? Like if they have maybe only been there for three years and then they file a change of address, it's like, why do you keep moving? There's something suspect about you. And this is, this was the, This was the point that convinced us, or convinced me at any rate, to go for the honorary naming because we didn't want to accidentally harm the very large vulnerable population that we have here in Bremerton. Eighth Street's a long street. We don't know every single person who lives along there. I would like to propose a compromise and let us consider, let us work together and consider renaming perhaps the fountain that's about to be repaired at the conference center after Bishop Robertson. It's, yeah, it's not germane.

Yeah. To this conversation.

It's not germane, but anyhow, this, this fountain, she said, she did not say bathroom. We are repairing a fountain fountain. Yes. The rushing forth of many waters. Anyhow, this was the, this was the consideration that, that convinced me that we should use honorary street names only.

um so i just wanted to put that out there thank you again for your testament to the bishop councillor chamberlain uh council i don't like none of that i don't like any of this um because what i'm hearing from the um from the community is that they feel like they've been made promises from the government from other people who are representative and that there's been no consultation with them so I'm just not comfortable with any of it right now. And I'd like to make a request that perhaps we table this until we have consultation with members from this so that we can actually be on the same page when we move forward. So I'd like to make a motion to table this.

Well, can we have the rest of our discussion first, please?

I mean, it's fine if you want to have your discussion, but y'all, can I just make a point about our discussion? It's going to continue to sound like we're telling these folks things that they may already know. People have listened to our study sessions. They're not ignorant, and they know what they know, and they want what they want, and I feel like there's a division there. And we need to pause rather than continuing to talk at people and have a round table because this is the appropriate action right now. But if you don't want to second my request to table it, that's on you.

Councillor Fry, would you like to speak?

I'm really sorry that this seems to be so adversarial, including on council. I met Bishop Robertson when I first moved. to Bremerton and I was with the YWCA and I had many absolutely fabulous conversations with him. I grew every time I talked to him. I left better than I was before. And I can commiserate with all of you around the need to recognize him and honor him for who he was. There are things that as a city council, we sometimes have to consider that are outside of that. And yet, I think there are also times when that needs to be or come from. And for me, as I heard more and more about this, and quite frankly, I wasn't aware of how long this had been being discussed. I could have been clued into that and simply missed that part of the conversation. But I do feel like there's been a period of time that the city has interacted around this issue with community members. Council wasn't a part of that. I'm not saying we are taking no responsibility for that, but I'm just saying that's news to me. And I came in here ready to just do business, right? Let's just do the business of the city. We have to protect people. We have to keep in mind the demographics of our city. and what the cost to our residents would be of this, the impacts to them, all of that. I came in here to be practical and kind of like a business person, right? But there's a huge part of me and most business types of people that also have hearts and recognition for the will of the community. We have a strong black community here. I'm proud of that. I wish we did have representation. We should. We have. I just saw the Flemisters at CK the other day and remember Faye and her service here. I am wishing that it didn't take the renaming of this street to push us into policy action. We should have had policy around this a long time ago. And this discussion with y'all is what has triggered that policy discussion. And I am agreeing with Council Member Chamberlain that certain things need to be respected for the process that has already been taking place. And so I do think that this needs more conversation. I definitely, if I was asked to vote on this, I don't think we did a good enough job of separating these things out. It got personal really quick and the love gets triggered and words like we're betraying and people leaving the room Um, you know, that's how adversarial it becomes and Bishop wouldn't have wanted that. I wish that he was here. I wish that he was here to bring our community together around a whole lot of things, quite frankly. Um, and so I, I'm, I'm feeling that right now and I'm not, I really am not willing.

to move forward uh with this uh and that's just my my vote but well i think i think everybody should have a chance to talk if we want to before we move that point of order i would like to point of order was that a second to my amendment request to table table it So you're saying you don't want me to give thought.

I'm just asking for clear point of order. I'm just asking for clarification. If that was from counselor Fry a second to my amendment request to table this issue pending consultation.

I don't, I I'm not ready to do that because the rest of council hasn't been allowed due process here. So that process is being interrupted. Um, and, and, and with, well, good intentions, We want to honor y'all. We want to, you know, say, wait a minute, let's think about this. But there's also a process here, you know, and there's a respect here for city council members who are duly elected, who haven't had an opportunity yet to weigh in. So I want to do that as well.

Well, I would like to weigh in. Council had no idea that you had been working on this for so long. The first I heard of it and I'm the council president was about two months ago when all of a sudden I spoke with his widow and I had heard about it maybe a week prior to that. So I'm sorry that this was going on so long. Staff, And I'm not trying to call out staff, but nobody actually told council that it was even under consideration. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that. And the reasoning why we were having a discussion about honorary is because of the costs to folks who have to change their mortgage, change their passport, change their driver's license. And that's why we were looking towards honorary i'm fine with tabling this but i think that everybody on council who wants to should have a talk a chance to discuss it if they like so are there any other council members who would like to speak to this issue i don't sure

So in this tonight, what I was looking at was this is not about any one individual, what we did notice through, you know, and the timeline that Jane has the same timeline that I have, I was told about this a few months ago, I sat down. discussed the issue, kind of looked into it and found that we don't have a policy for it. We have a policy for naming things, for naming streets. And so that's why it went through the Public Works Committee because it was looked at of how do we do this? And I'm not on Public Works, but my understanding and why we were looking at this today was because there already is policy that's written in the Bremerton Municipal Code on how to name streets in general. Well, we found that there wasn't a better mechanism to have community members coming forward and saying we would like a street named after, and that's what's in here. It can be an individual, it can be, what is it? Figure, place, or events of significance to the community. And that's what we were recognizing is that it doesn't all just fit into that Bremerton Municipal Code of I'm making a new street, therefore I want to name it whatever it is. We wanted this to be broader. We wanted it to be easier for the community to understand what the criteria is to have something renamed and make it quicker for everybody. So my understanding was Public Works looked at it and the renaming of streets is written in the Bremerton Municipal Code on what the requirements for streets were. And we were looking for a mechanism to expand that, to make it easier, to make it a little bit better. Because the other discussion was, when you rename a street, do you have to rename the entire street? Is it top to bottom? The honorary mechanism for doing that makes it easier for the community, makes it streamlined. And we were also setting up criteria to help people understand what we would be asking in order to come forward with this. Because if those expectations are clear, then this is an amazing process for everybody that we would get to come up and celebrate an individual and talk about why the renaming of something should happen and why it is so deserved. And it becomes something that, again, is celebrated and not a contentious issue. So that's what we were looking at with the honorary. It wasn't meant for any one individual. We just noticed that this was a problem. And is it something that we want in our community so that our community reflects everybody in the community? And that's what we brought forward with this. You'll notice that we did not have any discussions of any one individual in this. We were coming up with a very clear and concise policy to make it transparent and kind of clear the way to do this. And so that's what we were looking at tonight. That's what we were voting on. And that's what we were hoping to do in all of this. I think we can all tell that it went down a certain path tonight. But that was the intention of this and it wasn't geared towards any one individual in this. We just wanted to come up with an easier mechanism to celebrate.

Is there any other further discussion?

So, yes, Attorney Fennell? We just want to provide some clarification on the tabling versus a different motion because I am hearing, I heard a motion to table and then I've heard a motion to postpone. And I wanted our parliamentarian to explain those so that we absolutely understand what we're doing because I don't want it to be misunderstood. Okay.

Thank you. So when you table an item, it does require a second. It's not debatable and it cannot be amended. When you table an item, you either have to pick it back up. It needs to be taken from the table before the end of that meeting or the next meeting. When you postpone, you're going to be able to postpone to a certain time so that like a study session or the next city council meeting for you to be able to, you wouldn't have to take it from the table. It's a postponement. So you indicate a certain time. It does require a second. It can be debatable and it can be amended and it does require majority vote. Thank you.

Can I refine my? Sure. Okay. I'd like to move to postpone this topic. And do I have to choose a date right now?

Yes, we do need a date certainly.

And this is because I want to make sure we have time and due process to consult with folks. Um, and this is not, I'm going to put a date out in a couple of months. Okay. Because we're going to have a fifth Wednesday and we already have a full agenda and I want to make sure our council president has time to meet with you. Okay. So I'm going to propose that we move, uh, to postpone this item until is it, um, August 12th would be the next study set would be the first study session in August.

That would be, but I really, I, I don't have the, future council agenda in front of me so I wouldn't want to say for sure I can say in August but I'm not going to say that it would be the first study session so I have to pick a specific date and I was just trying to comply with that so is that is that correct we have to have a specific date You have to have a date certain, yes, a specific date.

I'm going to say, I'm going to just put it out there. That's two months and we can debate it or not. Okay. I moved to postpone this discussion item until the August 12th study session pending consultation with the community interested in renaming a street. Is there a second? Pardon?

We need a second.

Second.

And so just for this point of information, I just want to make sure so we can debate this and we can amend my amendment. Correct. Okay. Thank you.

Is there any further discussion on this?

I'm wondering if we can make a distinction here. Council, at least a couple of us, a few of us were not aware of the ongoing nature of this request on the length of time that it's been in process. It seems like we're extending that now. When I would, I would rather grandmother something like this through notice my choice of words because I don't want to give the impression that we're pushing this off y'all have been delayed enough and so can we even pass this tonight for future but make it a part of I don't know how to manage this

clerk cooper or city attorney is that something that's possible i know but if this goes into into policy can i just point of information i want to make sure we don't have just to clarify we do not have an amendment in front of us from our legal department or from another council member. We have not specifically discussed it in a study session, which is our protocol to rename a specific street after a specific person. So this is just to clarify, this is not even, we don't even have that on the table because it's not a bill that we have. So is that correct? Am I correct in all that?

Right, correct. Tonight was on the policy, and so it wasn't noted on the agenda as a specific street or noticed to the people or to the public as a changing of the name of a specific street.

Thank you. We haven't given notice.

So I will. I'm okay with delaying, but we just have to really define what we're going to do. And it, to me, would appear that anything that we need to do has nothing to do with this document. And I... I may have lost track, but I don't think I have seen the request from the community to rename 8th Street for Bishop Robinson. I think I've heard about it. I knew it was coming, and we were trying to go down a path to work on this. So I almost think I would actually suggest that we... put this in place and then immediately pick up getting that in front of us. Because again, somebody mentioned, I don't know if you want it from Kitsap Way to the waterfront or if you want it to kind of mirror MLK. So I don't know. And again, this whole discussion for this document had nothing to do with 8th Street. It was more, we looked at what other contemporary cities are doing and things like that. That's a whole nother thing. But- I don't want to push it out for two months to then beat up this document when we have other work to do. I think this document is sound and it doesn't prevent us from renaming a street. It's a path to honor somebody, correct? If we passed this, we could still rename a street.

No. No.

Oh, well, it says here, official renaming of a public street is a significant event which can affect addressing blah, blah, blah. And it says, official street naming is permissible only when necessary to change a street name that does not meet the criteria outlined. Well, the community doesn't feel like the criteria is met.

The reference to, as it exists right now, whether the street is misnamed. So it was the official. So my understanding and how this was brought forward was that the council wanted honorary street naming to move forward, not official street naming to move forward. And so this was an honorary street naming ordinance. It can be rewritten to allow for official street naming. We had two versions, but this one was for honorary only. The official street naming would be limited to circumstances that are existing in the code right now, which is outlined in 11-18-070. That's whenever it's a street name that might be confusing or too many characters or things like that when it's brought forward by Public Works.

Right. And council president point of order, I believe the maker of the motion and the second actually get the first dibs at talking afterwards. And I don't know that either one of us have had the chance to.

You presented.

So I presented prior to the motion. I just want, but how about the second? The second has next. That's just Robert's rule. I'm just following the rules that were, you know, y'all gave us. So I had the rules and procedures. You're the second, right? I'd like to defer to Councilor Mockler if you'd like to add.

OK, so I'm listening to all of these arguments. And if passing this document tonight means that we cannot officially rename a street in the future, is that accurate? Like if we pass this, we can no longer permanently rename a street.

You could, but it would be if it met the criteria in the other section of code, not the community-based version. And if that's not what the community wanted, that's what I understood the council wanting to move forward, was it was going to be honorary only. And if that was not what the council wanted to move forward, then don't pass this one, I'll rewrite a different one.

Based on the information we had, which was we, honest to gosh, did not know that this had been going on for what, five years? Is that correct? Four or five years?

Nope.

That's a really long time. And we really did not know about that. I'm going to agree with the idea of postponing this. Um, but if we can possibly squeeze a discussion into June 24th, where we have a cancellation, that'd be a lot better than letting it hang fire until a lot until August.

Are you amending the amended motion? Can I recommend, can I ask something?

If we just vote on this existing and we vote against it, which I'm guessing most of the council members are going to do, then we could come back with a new street renaming ordinance. I don't know if you would be able to put it on next week's study agenda or not, but.

So I have multiple versions available. So I'm happy to put one together that is for official naming and then have a backup where there's also honorary. You could do one or the other. I mean, it would be odd to do both. That's not necessary. But I can write it however you want it to be. And I can do it by next week.

Okay. So I move that we just... Can we just vote no on this? Do we need to vote no, or we can just table it forever?

I'll defer to the parliament. You don't have to vote on it at all.

Yeah. Correct. We do need to make a vote on the amendment to postpone it to August 12th. So that would be the first thing. If that fails, then we go back to the main motion, which is to approve the resolutions.

So do we have to vote on that amendment, or can we modify that to be next week instead to have a study session?

Correct, but you're still going to be voting on... August 12th. Well, this document, this...

ordinance um i'd like to withdraw can i withdraw my amendment or we have a second sorry in the table it needs i'd like to call the question on that amendment is that what i gotta do now so we can just on the amendment no okay yes yes is there a second to call the question you want to vote on this amendment recall the amendment i second can i recall the amendment or do we have to vote on it parliamentarian you have to vote on it okay so i'd like to call the question to vote on the amendment that i put on the floor and you guys can vote now and then we can go back to voting for the other thing august 12th i can't recall it

All right. Okay. Any other discussion? Call for the question, please. Okay. This is only on the amendment to postpone to August 12th.

Yeah.

Okay.

Council Member Goodenow.

Goodenow. No. Right. Right. No.

Mockler. I'm so sorry.

No.

Thank you. Tift.

No.

Chamberlain? No. Fry? No. Camerata? No. Rebelowski? No. Okay. That motion fails. So now we're back to the main motion, which is to the ordinance establishing Bremerton Municipal Code 11.18.080 entitled Honorary Naming of Public Streets. So you can continue your discussion on this item. unless or you can call the question council president or if this fails um so this ordinance would not come back it would be a new ordinance that will come back that would be different all right is there any further discussion from council members nope call for the question please council member camarada It's a no. So you are right now voting on ordinance 5538 to pass.

I'm going to go with no. To establish. Come back and have discussions. And that is why I'm voting no. Okay.

No. Good now. No. Thank you. Mockler.

No.

Thank you. Tift.

No.

Thank you. Chamberlain. No. Fry. No. Thank you. Revolowski. No. Motion carries unanimously. I mean, I'm sorry. Motion fails unanimously. Sorry.

So I'm going to work with the city attorney so that we get. Sorry, I'm going to work with the city attorney so that we can get a different ordinance approved. up for discussion for our study session next week and then after the study session we would vote on it the following uh council meeting council president may i ask just a point of information again um if uh

I feel like my point was that there's been a lack of consultation with this council. And so will we be able to count on you to reach out to some folks to have? Absolutely. Okay.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Yes. And if you guys could reach out to us because we don't know about all those in all those years.

Okay.

Thank you. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Next up, we have the mayor's report. Welcome, Mayor Wheeler.

All right. Well, thank you. Thank you, City Council. Good evening. All right. We've got a slide coming up here, Dave, whenever you're ready. All right. So just a picture of our KRCC board. And I wanted to share a little bit about this picture, Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council Executive Board. And we collectively won the Puget Sound Regional Council Vision 2050 Award. And it went out to the jurisdictions who created the ADU, Accessory Dwelling Unit Plans for Development. So the plans are available for free in the city of Bremerton, varying in size from 480 to 1,000 square feet. And as of today, the city has 11 permit applications for pre-approved ADU plans, five in review, three issued, two waiting for payment, and one completed. And the reason I wanted to show you this is this was a combined effort of multiple jurisdictions, not just four cities in the county, but Squamish Tribe Transit Agency included in here. So thank you. Next slide, Dave. All right, we are putting the call out. We need folks to step up and to serve on commissions. The request is for the City of Berman and Planning Commission. So if you can help put out the word, we want folks to sign up and get involved in their city. So I'm just sharing a little bit of the criteria here, and you can see it on top. It's thoughtful growth, housing, land use, long-range community planning. These are things you can do as a planning commissioner. So thank you, Dave. Kitsap Lake Park Ribbon Cutting. This is coming soon, Friday, June 26, and we have accessible picnic tables and restroom partitions that are yet to be installed, but they will be ready for this ribbon cutting. I encourage you, if you have not been out there, I encourage you to take a visit. You're going to like what you see, the bottom picture there. If you've ever seen any of those shows, and obviously these are not actors, but they're supreme athletes, but they're also young kids who go through obstacle courses. And this playground reminds me a little bit of that. Kids can challenge themselves, their physical abilities. It's a lot of fun. Next slide. All right. Warren Evans' Multimodal Project is coming soon. The project status, I'm going to point right to that. Okay, so 6.30 from 5.30 to 7 p.m. Right here in the Norm Dix Government Center. The project status, if you'll take a look at that, the design is progressing towards 60%. Utility coordination environmental permitting is ongoing. Bridge rail, shared use path, lighting improvements, and safety improvements are being advanced. through the preliminary engineering. So there's a lot of benefits to this project. We're moving forward. And I encourage everybody to get the word out so we can get some more input here on this design. All right. That is it. Thank you, Dave. Council, have a good night.

Thank you. Okay, this is next step is council member reports. This is an opportunity for council members to share updates on activities, issues, and events occurring within their district highlight community meetings or events they've recently attended or plan to attend and provide information on other matters related to the work and business of city council. And please limit your report to no more than three minutes.

um next step our first step is district seven council member rick tiff would you like to give a report tonight uh i i have no report tonight but i will echo the mayor's comments about the ribbon cutting on the on june 26th so hopefully we'll see a lot of the community out of it thank you nice of next up is council member anna mockler do you have a report tonight

I do. And I'm timing it. Good.

So do I have a slide, please? There weren't any slides that were turned in not even the district.

Oh, just the district slide would do. Okay, great. So this is district six that I represent. And I would like you and everyone you know, to write to me and to city council about safety issues that you experience in traveling around this district on foot, by bicycle, by scooter, by vehicle, whatever it may be. And traveling around the district would include going for a walk, taking your dog for a walk, taking your child for a walk, taking your older person for a walk. I'd really like to know about these so that I can be a more effective representative for you guys. Other than that, I wanted to talk about a couple of things that council's been discussing. One is the audit committee is working on a variety of property tax exemptions, but I'd like to speak specifically to two opportunities that are open to seniors and disabled people to get your property taxes significantly reduced. That would be done through the county and through the city to go to the water billing department, where if you meet the criteria, the income criteria, which I think is what, less than 65 grand a year now? Yeah. You can get a 40% reduction on your water bills and a significant reduction on your waste management bills as well. There's also something about cable that I've never understood. You'll have to talk to them. I just wanted to ask you to talk to the people around you and make sure they know about these opportunities. Okay. And that was really all I had. It's I've mentioned a couple of times that there's a child care. Now at the Methodist Church on Marine Drive, they will eventually be ramping up to 155 spots, which is pretty great. And I recommend that you stop by there if you know anybody who's looking for child care. And with that, well under three minutes. Thank you all. And please write to me if I'm messing up in how I represent you or there's a way I could represent you better.

Thank you. Next, District 5 Council Member Michael Goodenow. Do you have a report tonight?

We can go to the first slide, please.

Okay.

The Charleston Business District hosting a Midsummer Magic. It's a solstice event on Saturday, June 20th from 4 to 8 p.m. So if you can check that out. And then we'll go to the next slide. And since I'm sort of the pride guy, I also wanted to kind of announce that Kitsap Pride will be, the festival will be on July 18th up at the soccer fields at the fairgrounds. And it's the 30th festival for Kitsap County, if you can imagine that. And we are super excited. This whole weekend, we kick off on the USS Turner Joy on Friday night and then do the festival up at the park. And then we even have a brunch the next day. And another thing that's just been announced is we have a comedy night on July 11th. You can find all those details at Kitsapride.org or on that QR code. That is my last slide. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, District 3, Councilmember Christy Camerota, do you have a report for tonight?

I'm sorry if my teeth are chattering. It is freezing where I'm sitting. I've been watching the flag move. The air conditioning is like straight coming right here, so I'm all tucked up. If you want to go to the first slide, please. So FIFA had their kickoff for their fan zone. This was last Friday and I brought all my kids down. They weren't willing to stay the entire time. So I ended up being able to just walk back and forth and check in on it three different times and got to see that it was packed from the very start when I got out there to the very end when I was ready to call it and they were not. So it was a ton of fun and a really, really good event. So I recommend looking at quincy-square.com to see the other dates for the fan zone events that are happening. One really big one is this Friday as well, where they combine it with a Juneteenth ceremony. Next slide. was the Juneteenth ceremony that happened last Saturday. So my kids and I went down to this as well. We did not make it to the March portion of it, but we did go down for the community event that was at Evergreen Park. And I saw some faces here. It was very familiar tonight. But this was an amazing event as always and was just a ton of fun and my kids always have a great time because their school actually has a booth there so we intended to just spend what I said a little bit of time we'll walk around we'll see. And we were down there for a few hours so that was amazing and you always love those events where you think you're going to be there for an hour, and you end up spending to. The last thing that I want to talk about is not a slide that I have, but is something that when you're new on City Council, you have a lot of questions. There's a lot of things that are coming. As you know, when you're in a transitionary chair, there were a lot of things that were brand new at the beginning of the year that were kind of old business carryovers from the last year and a lot of questions that I have had. And I just want to let everybody know what an amazing city that we have, because not only am I able to email different directors, all of my exhaustive questions that I may have, but they have been reaching out. And so for the last two weeks, last week, I spent almost three hours with community development with Mr. Jackson, going over the Harrison Heights website that we have. So if you go onto the city website, you'll see Harrison Heights sub plan. We went in a conference room and he opened up every single document that was on that website and let me ask all of my questions, which started out wonderfully and then it just was me peppering him with odd things. And it was amazing and I learned a ton, but targeting those areas that I know for the next four years are gonna be things that come up and getting a good foundation of knowledge for that. I have been met with nothing but kindness and Mike Riley over there, Director Riley, met with me this week for three hours as well going over the budget and letting me ask my embarrassing questions things that i didn't understand so i just want to let everybody know that i appreciate it and that um there has been really good back and forth between you know the executive branch and the legislative branch here i went over you did thank you uh council vice president and district 2 council member denise fried do you ever

report tonight? I do. I do. You can go to the next slide. Thanks, Dave. Um, I had a delightful walk and talk today with David McBride, who is a consultant that Kitsap Regional Library has hired to kind of oversee their planning process for the redevelopment of the library property. That building is aging, the maintenance is growing, and they have reached a point where they must take action on that property. And they're having community dialogues and listening sessions about ideas that we might have to bring to the table. I was delighted to hear some of the ideas that had already been floated, including outdoor learning spaces for children. You know where my mind went with that. Why not a park? And so I felt really positive after that conversation. I think they're even scheduling a pre-submittal meeting to start getting into some of the planning process with the city. But that entire area, as I've talked about before, Harrison Heights, well-documented, that school district property and library property, You know, there's a lot of potential there to really create impact for the community. And I encourage anyone to engage and share your thoughts about what might be necessary. There are even floating ideas about how to access that campus from Armanjar, you know, across the state highway. Good luck with that because it involves WSDOT. But I was very, very impressed. This is definitely a community-based organization and wants community input. I, of course, gave him a full report on what my own vision is for that area. Continuation of the multimodal path. The library has been great about allowing us their property there to continue that. And they're on board. I'm very pleased. I think this is showing progress. It's forward thinking, as Council Member Goodnow always says. And, you know, let's they also are going to be at the fan zone. So you can get involved there if you happen to be down there. And I think that's it. Yes. Survey. Yes.

Thank you. Next, City Council District 1, Councilor Jennifer Chamberlain, do you have a report?

Yes. I heard I heard I got a little bit of flack on the Internet, on the interwebs for going seven minutes. So I'm going to start my timer now. So next screen. All right, Kitsap 9-1-1 launches new AI powered non-emergency line. I got a chance to visit Kitsap 9-1-1. They wanted me basically to remind you about this non-emergency number. So come 4th of July, which we're already gearing up for. If you have a problem with some fireworks in your neighborhood, please call 360-328-7711. Okay, that was 360-328-7711. Next slide. You guys, check this out. This is some beautiful pictures that one of my constituents provided to all of us about a nuisance property. So I want to talk a little bit about this. We had Mr. Yandel and Mr. Kennison come and they gave us a little briefing on the issues they were having in their neighborhood. And I believe that Director Barthume will be getting back to them with some questions he asked about earlier in the week. And then again, wanted to know a little bit more about it. More will be revealed on some solutions for this neighborhood. And I want to throw a shout out and thank you to Melinda Monroe. and also to Director Berthiaume for coming up with some creative solutions that might help this car hoarding situation. Now, we're not talking about folks living in their cars here. We're talking about somebody who has collected cars, I believe about 15 to 20 of them, and had them lined up all along the neighborhood and potentially fixing cars out of their home. But what's happened is it's creating a barrier for folks in wheelchairs. It's creating a blight or a Certainly not a lovely sight to see in the community. Potential environmental hazards. And you can see grass growing. It's been that long since these cars have been moved. So this is a problem for all the neighbors. And they came together and came and spoke to us last week. And we appreciate that. Next slide. cleanup. I'll put that on my post on my website someday. I say it every month. I want to give you guys some data. The last point in time count, we can just go off the slide. Last point in time count on homeless, we had 2,671 people requesting housing assistance. The average monthly income for those households was 843, while average rent was 1,744. 640 people that they could find in a point in time count, which we know there's more. It gave causes of homelessness as mental health, health issues, job loss, unable to work, eviction, loss of housing. What we know is housing works. We need more housing for folks who want it. I have some statistics and I only have 20 seconds to give it. Five years prior at Pendleton Place, 63 people had 304 less ER visits in the zero to four years that they were in Pendleton Place. They had 646 less hospital days. In the five years prior, 58 people at Pendleton Place, 22 of them were arrested. Zero to four years after, eight people. We had five years prior, 1,237 days in jail. After housing, 33 days. Housing helps. Housing saves lives. We need to do what we can to increase housing for our vulnerable. Three minutes and 16 seconds. Sorry, I went over.

Thank you. The next step is my report. I think I have a, I think there's a slide afterwards. So I was thrilled the other day. I don't need a timer. I got to visit Peninsula Community Health's new respite center. That's going to be opening shortly. And one of the really great things is they have a huge day room. That's beautiful. Lots of light. They're welcoming everybody who is unhoused to spend the day there. They have a full clinic. They have meeting rooms for all kinds of self-help programs. groups. They'll also be giving quite a bit of mental health treatment to those who would like to get that treatment. They even have a beautiful roof deck. So folks who are living there, which will be people who are released from the hospital before they you should just kind of leave them on the street and say, good luck. They'll have a place to stay and recover. And a lot of folks in that situation aren't sleeping well. So they'll be able to go up on the roof deck at night and look over the city in a nice, beautiful, clean building. It's really, it's gorgeous. So do I have another slide here? Oh, yeah. And that was funded in part by ARPA funding from the city council awarded to them. So it's a great project. Also, I've been working with... our office staff and a couple other people on council and we put together a community budget survey and that's going to go live in the next few days so that members of our community can actually put a voice into what their priorities are because often um It's usually in the past, it's we go in, a budget is shown to us and we have basically a day to say yay or nay. And so this way we can have the community weigh in so we can help with those priorities, trying to get those things funded. So next week that should be coming out and I hope everybody fills out that survey. So another slide. So the upcoming meetings council study session on the 25th at five on the 30th, there's finance investment and parking committee. And there's also the Warren Avenue bridge open house. So you can come in, make your comments. There'll be very enhanced pedestrian and bicycle facilities on it. So come see what they're planning. And then our next regular council meeting will be on the 1st of July at 5 30 PM here. Thank you. Meetings. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm tired. Next step is community comments. And as a reminder, community comments is an opportunity for community members to address the council on topics that were not included in tonight's agenda, but are related to the work. And you can also talk about items that were on the agenda. I would like to also remind everyone that the city council meetings are official business meetings, the city of Bremerton and serve as a workplace for city employees. While the Council welcomes public participation and values, a wide range of viewpoints. These meetings are not open public forums for unrestricted address the city has an obligation to maintain a respectful safe and harassment free environment for all participants. Commons that contain harassing language or personal texts are not humane to city business and will not be permitted. Harassing language includes, but it's not limited to ethnic, racial or sex-based slurs and other discriminatory remarks. Speakers who engage in such conduct will receive one warning from the chair. And if behavior continues, we'll be directed to conclude their comments and to return to the seat. And I don't anticipate any of those issues. So we did receive a request for online comment. Is Mr. Runyon online and would he like to speak?

Yes. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Thank you. Go ahead.

Yeah, I have three comments. First of all, I want to address Greg's comment regarding pre-approved ADUs. Quote, plans are available for free. Plans are available for free, which is not correct. I phoned DCD, requested the plans package for the Sydney plan because I wanted to provide that to contractors. I was going out to bid. I want to know what that's going to cost to build because costs had gone through the roof in Western Washington. And I was told that they're not going to provide the plans package to me so I could provide to the potential contractors. I have to file for a permit. So I have no idea what it's going to cost. I don't have a materials list. I don't have a foundation plan. Nothing. Any of you build a house? Have any of you built a house? You go in and say, hey, I don't really care what it costs. I'm just going to build it. No, you don't. That needs to be revised. Secondly, I want to congratulate Council Member Mockler who represents District 6, the district I reside in, for her joining my tax revolt. Yes. Number one, you need to challenge your tax assessment. apply with the county by July 1st. There's a deadline. Number two, file for an exemption. And actually, the threshold is $93,000.

If you meet the requirement- Mr. Bunyan, your time is up.

Thank you.

Sorry. Thank you for your comments, though. Okay, from the floor- It's nice to see you getting around.

Oh my God. It's so good to be able to be back here. Thank you. I'm Jocelyn. I'm from the prayer walk. I also do rock the block and I just wanted to come here and just really advocate. We've done a lot of work. Bremerton has done a lot of work and there's a reason why people keep coming back here. And it's because it's a city of hope. I fell in love with the city. The first time I set foot in it because it does have so much hope and And what we're seeing right now, though, is something that's so tragic because we know this homeless problem is not a one size fits all. We know that there needs to be multiple solutions to this problem. And yet every time we look for even part of a solution, we spend so much time talking about it instead of doing anything about it. And we have a real incredible opportunity. I was at my house and I was watching individuals who have been pushed out. And that's what people are seeing. Nobody wants to be pushed out. We need to have a place where we welcome people in. And as you know, this property is right across the street from the Rejuvenation Day Center, which we had already discussed back during COVID for it to be able to be used as a day center for individuals that were unhoused. So we've already had this communication about it. What's planning on going in is not an encampment. As you know, it's higher services, higher services. So anyways, thank you. Thank you.

I'd like to talk with you after the meeting. So please don't leave. Okay. Do you have a couple minutes? Okay, let's talk. Thank you. Next, who would like to give community comment?

Madam President, council members, my name is Shannon Turner, of course. A couple of things. Juneteenth, please go. Experience, have fun, and most importantly, embrace the culture and everything that's taking place there. I think that's very vital. The second thing is I think tonight you got it right. You definitely got it right. And I thank you because a lot of times we don't know if we're being heard and we don't know if we're being recognized. But tonight, I will say thank you because you got it right. Attorney Fennell, thank you because you brought it home and allowing this to take place. And I really appreciate that. And that means a lot because you made this happen and you allowed this to proceed forward in order for them to get this right. So I see you. I recognize you guys. And it ain't easy. It's not easy at all. And I understand that. But tonight, I'm in tears because it means that much. And it means that much to me. And I thank you guys. My community thanks you guys. And I'm looking forward to it. Thank you.

Thanks, Shannon. Next, is there anybody else who would like to speak?

Jose Camacho, friends of Smith Cove, Rock the Block. Here's your civics lesson for today. I saw the BHA hybrid shelter meeting at the planning commission, and there was a deluge of spot zoning talk. I actually mentioned Denise Fry's sabotage of that project back in September 24 in the study session, the same session in which you started talking about pausing people who did this, who you just couldn't bear it. So we have emails from Denise Fry. When I spoke about her collusion with developers, I got some pushback. One of them said, well, you don't know what you're talking about. I don't believe it. Well, we have the emails. Frances Smithcove has them, if anyone wants to see. She also colluded with Andrea Spencer. And what you can see is that Frye basically Wanstack shelter sabotage. She got her spot zoning language from our contentions about the rigging of the Evergreen Point project. So unfortunately for her, she doesn't know the law. Piecemealing is a shoreline prohibition, which just doesn't exist in a zone that you all made mixed use. You're violating all kinds of laws and you're misleading the Harrison Heights residents basically, so Denise Fry can muck up the words.

Sally has from returns many partnerships rely on public trust, But the Bremerton Housing Authority's recent behavior regarding the Harrison Heights project completely shatters that trust. At the June 15th Planning Commission meeting, the BHA director requested to fast-track the project by completely bypassing the scheduled July 20th public hearing. This comes after BHA canceled the May meeting because they weren't ready, leaving the public with just one session on June 15th. Furthermore, they have failed to post physical zoning change signs or engage property owners within the 500 foot boundary. Look across the sound. A massive forensic audit just revealed that the homeless authority in Seattle has a $44 million budget deficit and millions in completely unaccounted for funds due to lack of oversight. Bremerton is not immune to this. When an agency attempts to dodge public scrutiny, ignore neighbors, and rush city leadership, that's you, into skipping steps, it's a glaring red flag. The public is owed due process. I urge this council to reject any attempt to fast track the process. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, council members. My name is Janice Allison. I live in District 2, just one block from the proposed Sheridan encampment. Tonight, I'm asking you to do something very simple. Give the residents of District 2 the same respect and opportunity that was given to the residents of Oyster Bay in 2023. When the Oyster Bay Bay Vista shelter site was being considered the city of Bremerton, the city of City of Bremerton and Bremerton Housing Authority notified the residents, held community meetings, listened to concerns, and engaged directly with the neighborhood. With people that agreed or disagreed with the proposal, they were included in the process. This has not happened in Sheridan. Many of us learned about this project long after discussions were already underway. We have attended many council meetings, many Bremerton Housing Authority meetings. trying to understand a proposal that could significantly impact our neighborhood, our schools, our seniors, and our local businesses. What is especially concerning is that the executive director of Bremerton Housing Authority recently on Monday ask the Planning Commission to sidestep the normal public process for the proposed zoning text amendment. That request should concern every resident of Bremerton, regardless of where they stand on this issue. We are not attorneys with resources to threaten lawsuits. We are not special interest groups. We are simply taxpayers.

Thank you. Thank you.

Barbara Randall? For the same reason, those two ladies. This is directly from the person from Bremerton Housing Authority's written February 23rd, 2026. Unsheltered homelessness is an humanitarian crisis playing out on our doorsteps, on our sidewalks, and that business is across Kitsap County. It is a community challenge that demands a deep sense of urgency, compassion, and practical solutions. And this is what I had. for all, especially residents, students, and elderly that live there now. The next step is to follow, this is again what she wrote, the city's permit and zoning processes and launch a broad outreach effort with three parts, education, clear information about the model operations, safeguards, impact, how we intend to measure outcomes of reduced neighborhood harms, and respond to concerns. In parallel, Bremerton Housing Authority will begin developing planning for a future permanent affordable housing at the Sheridan site because lasting solutions depend on expanding the inventory of housing that people can afford. Homelessness is solvable through dignity, health, and partnerships. We invite our neighbors and local leaders to join us in this next step because every person deserves a safe, dignified, and affordable place to call home.

Thank you.

Evening. There are two things I want to talk to you about. First, I want to start off by thanking the mayor, who I know left, for his June 1st proclamation of Pride Month this year. I also want to thank you guys for the recent work you've done with resolutions and things that are coming down the pipeline regarding pride. I know that to some people, these seem like very minor things, but given the hill that some of us have climbed to get them, they are big steps, even though they don't appear to be as big. We'll take our steps when we can get them. Thank you. The second thing I wanna really, really reiterate, the people who come here to Bremerton to work in Puget Sound Naval Shipyard don't spend property taxes here in Bremerton other than the 20% that live here. Most of them are not spending sales taxes here in Bremerton. Therefore the roads that are funded by property taxes and by sales taxes need to benefit the people who are paying for them and the people that live here. I don't care if there is a backup to get into the base. That sounds like a base issue and something that they need to address with their workers and they can get on more worker driver buses. Those lots are not being used and those programs aren't being used. And I'm sorry if that means that some of the Navy people and some of the shipyard people are late for work. but they had other options to get into the base on time and securely. Thank you.

Thank you.

Michael Simons, District 3. You guys have a thankless job. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Staff, thank you for being here. We appreciate you. I know you get yelled at a lot, all of you. your citizens do actually appreciate you. Remember that.

Thanks.

Hi, my name is Chuck Henderson, and I'm a property manager down here in the city of Remington. I managed two buildings with about 40 tenants between the two. I congratulate the city on the idea that you're going to be putting in more bicycle lanes. But the problem with that for downtown tenants is the parking. you were eliminating a ton of parking. So I think it's time that the city addresses the shuffle that's occurring in downtown with two hours on each street and get rid of that. Because if you are not down there and watching the shuffle, you don't understand what I'm talking about. So my suggestion is let's do three hours one time each day that eliminates the shuffle. Regarding shipyard workers, they all have ORCA cards. The city or the county, I should say the permanent transit is willing to put in special buses to go to all of the park and rides with express buses downtown. All we have to do is sit and meet with them. I talked to John Clausen the other day, and he's ready to do that. He is actually getting ORCA cards for all OC students to use buses. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Is there any other member of the public who would like to make a comment?

I think there's only three people here who haven't, so. Okay, well, that concludes tonight's meeting. Thank you all for coming. Good night.