City Council Regular - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

He's about to break into something.

Hanging out the spray for that. Please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, a nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can we have roll call, please? Here.

Alzingray?

Present.

Burke? Present. Larch?

Here.

Eschke? Here. Ganescu? Here. Mullen? Here.

Okay, this is public comments. This is the public's opportunity to provide public comments to the council. While you may supplement your comments with printed handouts, digital aids will not be permitted during public comments. Please state your name and your city of residence. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please direct your comments to the council as a whole instead of individual members, staff, or audience members. Please come forward if you're in the chamber to the at the end of the table or raise your hand in the Zoom app. Please remember that public comments are not a discussion and the public comments are to inform the council of your views. Name and city of residence.

Joel Sopp at City of Camas. Thank you. So I had a disappointing interaction with some of the city employees today, actually. I came home from vacation, a week's, 10 days vacation yesterday, to buy my water off at the house, which is a surprise because I only knew that because the lawn had browned. And so I called up the 24-hour number to see what was going on. And the individual who was very, very helpful said I wasn't on a list to be shut off. And he came out and he turned it back on at 9 o'clock last night, which was wonderful. I was working at the house. It happens to be a rental and I don't have any tenants in it. And I came out midday today and they were shutting the water off again. So I was a little surprised. I talked to him about it. I said, it seems to be a mistake. Told him about last night. They called the finance department and they informed the employee that there was an issue and they did have to shut it off, but they wouldn't communicate what the issue was to me. they said I needed to call the city finance department to take care of it. Um, I did ask them whether when they shut off, if they put notices on the door and they said, no, they try, um, they try to limit interaction because they're concerned about their safety. I completely understand. Um, but it does put us in a difficult situation because we have no knowledge of who shut it off, why it was shut off. Um, I then went in and I did find out that there was a bill that was not paid, but I also found out that they had the wrong address and were sending notices to the wrong address. So I didn't get any notification of it. Now they do say they send it to the address on file of the actual house, but because it doesn't have any tenants, the post office puts a note in saying, don't deliver mail here. Therefore, I didn't get a notice. I realize these are a lot of things that have to align for this to happen, but it did. The downside is I've got a lawn that I put in about four weeks ago at a cost of $850 that now is browned and I may lose. So I may have to fix that. But even more concerning is that we have electric water heaters in the house. And when the water is turned off, if that tank goes dry, it can start a fire. So I actually feel pretty lucky that we didn't end up with that. So what I'm asking the council is to have staff please take a look at this and look at their policy. What I'd like to see them do, and I totally understand the safety issue, but they could put a notice on the door a week to ahead of time where they're not shutting the water off, but they're just notifying somebody. During this vacation time, my son did go to the property He didn't think to turn on the water, but had he seen a notice, we could have taken some steps to prevent this. So that's what I'm asking the council to take a look at.

Thank you. And I get your last name again.

Stop it. And so P P E T. Okay.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the chamber that would like to give three minutes worth of comments?

Hello, Brad Richardson, City of Camas. Well, unincorporated in Clark County, but still got a Camas address. So I'm here on behalf of the Port of Camas Washougal just to provide a quick update. Just a couple few things. This week is going to be a pretty busy week for us. We have our Technical Advisory Committee meeting on July 23rd, so this Thursday. at 11 a.m. and it'll be up at Grove Field. So if you haven't had a chance to be at the field for a while, you can come up and attend that meeting and hear the folks that have the technical expertise having a discussion about the opportunities that we may have up at Grove Field. And then from 4 to 6, we're going to be having an open house where people will be able to talk with the technical advisory committee individuals and learn more about the process and provide their feedback to the port. And then the last thing that we have going on will be next week, which will be our first summer concerts on July 31st. And we'll also be having a heritage fair earlier in the day. So yeah, if you're not busy this Thursday, pop in either at 11 for the technical advisory committee or four to six for the open house. And definitely please join us at the concert on Friday, July 31st. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the chamber that would like to have three minutes for the comments?

Margaret Tweet-Canis, T-W-E-E-T. I was listening into your workshop today, and I appreciate so much the discussion about the alternatives on the road, and I think on the road designs. And it doesn't apply to just this road, it applies to so many of the roads in our area. And one of the things that is concerning on this 58 foot street design, 20 feet were allocated to expensive and difficult to maintain planning strips. And 24 feet was allocated to the vehicles. Now, I was really, I had brought this up before. It's really concerning when there is no way for an emergency vehicle to get through a road. There's nowhere to pull over. There's no margin. And you also, I understand wanting to avoid, you know, a vehicle head on, but sometimes space is what you need. Not a big tree in the way because that's its own obstruction that someone can run into and people have. So it's also difficult to maintain. Look at 38th Street. We saw the trees were planted in the summer and a number of them died. And then there was some effort to replace them. And there's an expensive irrigation system in the middle of the road. Further on down 38, there's no irrigation system and lots of weeds. It's difficult to maintain them. It's expensive to the city. So I think we need to ask, what are the roads for? And I was really disappointed with the conversation in a previous presentation. The city was shown different alternatives in the city of Vancouver and the county that were being employed that were not the giant planners. And they showed the real on the road construction, like there's something different on Pacific Rim and turns into 34th and they have a different mechanism for differentiating between bicycles and cars that isn't a giant planter. It's just very expensive and very consuming on the roads. The other thing that is concerning is over time, when trees are planted next adjacent to sidewalks, Without fail, they pop up the sidewalks. Then that becomes a real problem for whoever is a lot adjacent. Now, all of these lots will be making their own plantings and their own contributions to to the street. So it's not as if there will be no plants or trees if these planter strips. But it is truly excessive to be have it in the middle of the road and five feet at either end. consider public safety in the roads. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Anyone else that would like to step up?

Good evening. Heather Sanders, AMIS. Good evening, Council and staff. On the agenda today is an item relating to changing the curb parking on Fargo in order to make room for an upcoming bike lane installation there. And I'm just here to voice my support for this resolution and this project. Just really wanted to express appreciation for this project that uses a routine repaving as an opportunity to upgrade the safety and comfort of all the road users by adding these lanes. You know, of course, as an advocate, I'm always here pushing for more. But I just today I wanted to say that these really are meaningful upgrades that will make a difference in the experience of those traveling by bike in this corridor. And really more important than this specific project is just this means of operating, taking these paving opportunities as a time not just to do the same thing over again, but to reevaluate our transportation needs. um and and upgrade our streets when it's the cheapest time to to do so um i know in previous meetings i've expressed some frustration with our complete complete streets ordinance and you know, frustrations with lack of results sometimes. But what's happening here with this street and with other upcoming projects is exactly the kind of work I'd expect to see from the city regarding complete streets and and upgrading our streets for all users. And this is something that I really hope to see the city continue to advertise well into the future. So thank you very much. Thank you.

Is there anyone else like to give three minutes of comments? Seeing none, do we have any hands raised in the Zoom app?

There we do have one. Okay.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

I never got in. Randall Friedman in Camas. I've over the last couple of years have talked with you about state law and cleanups and the fact that it's problematical to have the mill properties that are non-operational still designated as heavy industry. I don't expect to hear, so I decided to do some more digging on my own and I decided to go back to 1994 when SB 6123 was passed our legislature and was signed by the governor. Now, a little bit of context for 1994. In the decade from 1990 to 2000, our state added 21% more people. That's 1 million new Washingtonians. Our economy added 27% more jobs. the state was booming and the state needed room to build. What was happening is because there was no agreed order process, because the cleanup process was very loose, property owners who own brownfields were sitting on them and they were stagnating. And as a result, they went to greenfields for all of this to accommodate much of this new development. So in 1994, the Senate Committee on Ecology and Parks sponsored a bill that created the agreed order process and made findings. And If you go back to the bill analysis for that, here's one note. The department must adopt rules providing for the application of industrial cleanup standards at industrial properties and adopt rules prohibiting the conversion of industrial properties to other uses on properties where these standards have been applied. Now, go to a different bill analysis and it says, the department is directed to apply industrial cleanup standards at industrial sites. In counties planning under the Growth Management Act, industrial properties are defined as property zone for industrial use by a city or county. It's pretty clear. I mean, what the legislature is telling the Department of Ecology, we need to create certainty. And certainty is if a property is zoned industrial, it is cleaned to industrial. So, It was interesting going back, reading the summary of those in support, including the Washington Public Ports Association, and in opposition was the Sierra Club. And again, this is 32 years ago. And what opposition was summed up by saying, industrial cleanup standards may not be adequate to protect human health and the environment. Industrial properties are defined too broadly. Well, here it is 32 years later and the Sierra Club was absolutely right. The broad definition of industrial property under SB 6123 means ecology has a closed hand and cannot and expressly cannot approve anything but an industrial cleanup. Moreover, not this industrial cleanup must include a land covenant and SB 6123 gave ecology that power. to prevent anything in the future other than industrial. And that's where we find ourselves in canvas today. We have industrial zone property that you are going to continue. And we have state law that was expressly designed to prevent the state from going beyond an industrial cleanup when that property is zoned industrial. Now they did put three boards in there and it's a second pathway. to clean up and that's based on a future public use.

Bill, can you put this in writing and send it to us?

I will do that. Chair Marshall of the county asked me to submit something to the county, which I'm hoping to do. Because under this new process, everyone has everyone has an equal say. So the Sierra Club, the county, the port, they have an equal access to the process and that limitation does not apply, but there has to be a finding of a future social use.

Thank you.

I will send that and I hope you will in the coming months discuss what is Obviously a problem that this legislature recognized 32 years ago and took action. And you are proposing to do exactly what the legislation was created to stop. So thank you.

Do we do not have anyone else in the chamber that has a hand up or wants to come up? Do we have anyone else on the Zoom app?

There are no more hands raised in Zoom.

Okay. Thank you. With that, we'll move on. What would the council do with the consent agenda?

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda.

Second. It was moved by Burke and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. Are there any abstentions? The motion passes. Mayor announcements? Camas Days will start on Friday. This is the 50th year that Camas Days has been an event in the city of Camas. COVID had a little bit of a gap, but we're on the 50th year of the celebration. There also is a warning out from the Council for the Homeless of a severe weather alert starting tomorrow and going through Wednesday for severe heat. And if you refer to the Council for the Homeless, you actually find a cooling shelter. So the third item is we are going to have two new firefighters graduating from the Academy. They're replacing two former Camas Washougal firefighters, and so We'll be welcoming them into the fire department shortly. And the last item I have is there was an accident on Lackmas Lake where a Ski-Doo exploded and two minor injuries were reported. So with that, I will move on to the next item. I believe the next item is resolution number 26-001. Is that right, City Clerk? Okay. Prohibiting parking on portions of Northwest Fargo Street and Northwest 28th Avenue. Curly Carruthers, Engineer, is the presenter.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening once again, Council. Resolution 26-011 prohibits parking on portions of Northwest Fargo Street and Northwest 28th Avenue. The first section applies to both sides of Fargo Street between Northwest 18th Avenue and 100 feet north of Northwest 24th Avenue. The second section applies to the north side of Northwest 28th Avenue and Northwest Fargo Street from Utah Street to 100 feet north of Northwest 24th Avenue. Paving of 28th Avenue and Northwest Fargo Street is scheduled for the month of August. Following the paving will be the restriping of the roadway to include bike lanes. No parking signs will be installed following the restriping of the roadway to prohibit parked vehicles from blocking the bike lanes. Staff recommends adoption of Resolution 26-011. I'd be happy to take any questions that you might have.

Any questions for Curley? Councilmember, hi.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Curley. A point of clarification on the separated bike lanes. Will those be striped only, or will there be physical vertical barriers separating those bike lanes?

I'm sorry.

Clearly, we're not hearing you very clearly. Can you hear me now?

No.

Wow. Lean in.

Yeah, I'm leaning in. Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Okay. We are not putting in any vertical delineation with this project.

Great. Thank you.

Any other questions from council? Okay. If there's no questions, are there any motions?

Yes. Mayor, I move to approve resolution number 26 dashes.

Second. It was moved by Burke and seconded to approve resolution number 26-0011. Any discussion? No discussion. Read the resolution. The resolution will be read by time only.

Resolution number 26-011, resolution prohibiting parking on portions of Northwest Fargo Street and Northwest 28th Avenue.

All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Are there any abstentions? The motion passes. Next item on the agenda is resolution number 26-012, authorizing investment in the local government investment pool. The presenter is Kayla Mobley, interim finance director.

Good evening, council. Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Great. The resolution before you tonight is really a simple housekeeping correction item. LGIP stands for Local Government Investment Pool. It's operated by the State Treasurer's Office. The City of Camas essentially uses it as a short-term holding spot for cash management. So this resolution, specifically Section 3, removes the former named finance director and replaces it with title only. So it won't show a name, but rather just a title. This will prevent the need in the future for updates each time the role is turned over. The last time this resolution was before council was in 2014, so it's been a little while, but it directly named the former finance director and we're just cleaning that up.

OK. Are you ready for questions?

Sure.

Okay. Any questions or comments from the council? No? Okay. Are there any motions?

I move to approve resolution number 26-012. Second.

It was moved by Elson Gray and seconded to approve resolution number 26-012. Any discussion? None. None. Please read the resolution by title only.

Resolution number 26-012, a resolution authorizing investment of city monies, city of campus monies, and the local permit investment pool.

All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Are there any abstentions? The motion passes. Thank you. Okay, we have another person. opportunity now to have the public comments made to the council. While you supplement your comments with printed handouts, electronic or digital aids will not be permitted during the public comments. Please state your name and your city of residence. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please direct your comments to the council as a whole instead of individual members, staff, or audience members. Please come forward if you're in the Chamber or raise your hand in the Zoom app. Please remember that public comments are not a discussion. The public comments are to inform the Council of your views. Is there anyone that would like to step forward and make three minutes of comments in the Chamber?

Margaret Tweek-Kamis again. Regarding the water fluoridation chemicals, I wanted to remind the Council that Clark Public Utilities does not add fluoride chemicals to the water. And I contacted them and learned that they do use an outside lab to test the water. And they didn't mention testing the actual chemicals themselves. But the safety data sheets that were provided after your hearing in 2025 show that the certifications or the safety claims are being made by the vendor themselves. And these products are sourced from China. So it's not independently verified what is in the chemicals that are being added to our water. And I think that would be an important step to take. Again, Clark Public Utilities does not add fluoride to the water and neither does Washougal. I hope that council will reconsider that the wafer companies in our area have to remove these chemicals for their processes. So it's expensive. It's expensive to the residents and to the businesses. And as you know, it's a local decision. It is not required. So thank you for your consideration.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the chamber that would like to give three minutes? Seeing none. Do we have any hands raised in the Zoom app?

There are no hands raised. Okay.

With that, we'll move on. Non-agenda items. Are there any staff reports?

Just one.

That's why you're at that table.

Yeah, a couple of the first is a CDBG agreement. So as part of Clark County, we participate in the urban county participation agreement for HUD, which is the housing of urban development. And so they have a new agreement that we have to execute. It basically is just administrative incorporating revised language formatting and some new federal requirements. It doesn't change the overall intent of the agreement. Part of our participation remains eligible for CDBG, which is community development block grants, as well as home investment partnership grant funding opportunities. So we plan on just executing the agreement here shortly, but we just want to make council aware in case there was any questions or concerns.

Any questions or concerns from the council members?

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, And the other piece we did have so break losing camp Perez provides great opportunities right updates. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Remember hide had a couple questions on some particular grant opportunities and that would be beneficial just to provide counsel with an update. There was two that he asked about. One was just with you, which is the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. Basically provides like large water capital loan opportunities, right? And so it is an option for us, especially for our long-term PFAS treatment in our lower well field. That's a $60 million project, but it is a loan, right? So there are interest rates as well as agreement terms with that. It is on the table for us to look at. We've recently been updating our water system plan update. We have some issues on the revenue side, particularly with the large capital projects that we are looking at. I know I've mentioned this before. In the past, the city's always really looked at bonds from what I understand, but those have limited terms. And so based off of the large scale $60 million project alone, maybe a better opportunity for the city just with low interest payments, right? With a longer term rather than the shorter term with bonds. So it is something we're looking at. We haven't thrown it out. We've also, you know, I'm familiar with the CWRS loans, which is Clean Water State Revolving Fund through Ecology. That's also a low interest loan. Public Works Board has low interest loans. So again, I wanted to make sure council was aware we are looking at those, especially with some of the financing options that we're facing today. Our water plan right now, we will be coming with a great study next year as well. And so we'll definitely get into the water revenue and what the plan is. And then as far as the BRIC was the other loan that, or the other grant opportunity that was asked about, and that's a Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities grant. It basically identifies if you have hazard mitigations, right? Like flooding, resiliency issues, doesn't really go for like water quality or treatment. I did coordinate with our lobbyist on this when it first came out asking about PFAS specifically. They didn't think it was a great opportunity. We were going to apply for SR 500, the bridge project, just because of the flooding issues and the bridge issues that we have there. That program, though, it's really identifying projects that are construction ready. I think it's like 30 or 40% of the scoring. And so we didn't think we had a great chance, especially since past projects were rotating through. So again, CFM indicated that they didn't feel like it was a good opportunity for us to go for. But those grant opportunities we look at all the time as they come out isn't on the radar for us. So I just want to provide an update.

Any questions? Yes.

So the 400-500 bridge, What is our plan? We first get a grant and a start on planning and then look for a grant.

So I wanted to go for the full package, right? We just submitted a grant. It was the Bridge Investment Program, I think through USDOT. We went for a planning study on that. Again, I wanted to go for the full thing, but CFM's indicating that, again, they're really identifying through USOT construction-ready projects that are ready to go out. I think they want to spend money to get it out. And so we are going for about a $1.2 million planning study. And what that does, it would have a consultant come in You can't call it 30% design. It has to be a full planning study. But public outreach, we want to put a funding plan together, identify grants. We want to go after how we're going to fund this through design and construction. So just kind of preliminary engineering, which you're familiar with. And so we did submit on that.

Any other questions, comments? Council members? Looks like no. Well, thank you, Scott. Okay. Any other staff reports, Doug?

No other staff reports, Mayor. Okay.

Thank you. And council comments. We will start with Councilmember Elzengrater.

Comments, Mayor.

No comments. Okay. Councilmember Hine.

Thank you, Mayor. A few things. One, Scott, thank you very much for all the detail. If you're okay with that, I'd like to forward the responses that you briefed on tonight to everybody else on council, on the grants. The detail was impressive and I learned a ton. So thank you for that. And I also want to thank Chief Free for his detailed response on EMS write offs and the explanation of what happens and how it doesn't impact the city. Council's okay, I'll forward that to you as well. I mean, Councilmember Noor, you probably know all this stuff already, but I learned a ton. So I'll share it if that's all right. A lot of calls on informal government. Update C-TRAN will be providing transit service to campus days this week on shuttle service to help alleviate traffic. And that's it. Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Eschke.

Thank you. So a couple updates. So the first one is on Georgia Pacific Cleaning Advisor Group, July 9th. So the Georgia Pacific is sampling for contamination testing. The result, the report, will be ready in about a year, submitted to Ecology and Public to review. After the result is finalized, the Ecology approved the result, they have to prepare their cleaning plan based on the level of contamination and that result they have to come with. cleaning plan. The overall process takes over five years. So what happened with that talking with advisor group, there's gonna be some flyers to share with public with everyone. So everyone familiar with the process, what happened, what happened in the last couple years, and what we are going to see in the next five years. I love that timeline. So, yeah, so it's going to be the consultant help with that public engagement and providing information. And then on the RTC, Regional Transportation Council, the big new was Shugal received extension for their overpass, 30-second overpass project. for the PE phase obligation, engineering phase obligation due date. It was end of June. They could not make it. So it's extended now to beginning of September, which actually great news. They have more opportunity to secure $1.43 million. Just to share, this extension comes with consequences because every time agencies cannot meet the requirements by a certain deadline, end of June, they receive some negative points. That means for future projects, they have less opportunity to get grants. So hopefully we hear all good news. This is for that project. The other interesting news was ever the C or SR 500 using the list of eligible project to receive transportation grant for the grant calls, Airborne Rural Freight Fund. This program has total fund 10 million, and it's going to be a split of most likely between three projects. The good thing is not that many projects are eligible to meet the criteria. But then the SR 500 or Everett is among eligible one. So hopefully we hear good news. And then I just want to share the comment that provided by Representative John Lee. She he sorry, he mentioned that it's time to look into 20 year plan for the third bridge We also ask for TriMet to provide their financial plan for the deficit they're facing. So more to come on those. And the last is ODOT represented that they're going to be a lot of construction this summer in Portland. Just the advice for checking into all the major highways traffic before taking any there. I think that congestion is going to continue through October.

Thank you. Next, Council Member Burke.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have quite a few comments tonight. There's a lot happening, right? First of all, this is in my cubby. Thank you. I don't know where this came from. Jurassic Parliament. Was that from you? Thank you. All those notes I took, that's just right here in my cubby. You all have one. I looked. Major motions and whatnot. Thank you for that. I had the opportunity to be in a meeting where Joe Kelly, the current bill, he's not called the manager. He's the project director or not the manager. Anyway, it was really great to meet with him. He's very invested in our community and was talking about this $20 million investment, which you already heard about for new equipment, new palletizing machines, new converter from Italy. They're naming that Porsche. Um, there's a deliberate effort with the paper maker, um, people maker shop. What's it called? Paper maker. Yeah. Right. That's the one. And they have hats now. They got swag. So that says paper mill on them. So that's pretty exciting. And then, um, he mentioned that, uh, Green Bay and cameras are the only ones who create the in motion towels in the entire United States. Green Bay, they have 2000. And in campus, I have about 115 employees. And so that he says he's, uh, he wants to capture some of that, some of those orders. So that's exciting that they intend to stay and for quite a long time. ECHO. So much to talk about with ECHO. So ECHO is a community homelessness organization. I mentioned the systems analysts and analyst position that we had approved as a consortium. And then Jordan, who's our handler for that team. He and his wife had a baby, and so that's stalled for right now. You mentioned severe weather. The Council for the Homeless are meeting with CRESA, and they're focusing on fire and smoke right now and cooling filters. We're trying to find a lived experience member for the body, meaning that someone who has or is currently experiencing homelessness to sit and advise us, right, on what they've experienced and where some gaps in services might be. They didn't get as many applications as they were hoping for. So that application window has been extended to August 4th. And we're doing some intentional outreach. Skip over that. There's continued law enforcement outreach. They're creating a subcommittee. So if you recall, Chief Jones went down and sat on a panel. We discussed Clark County, the relationship between homelessness and law enforcement, homelessness and the prison population. And so that was really interesting. So that work is moving forward. I think one of the big takeaways for me is the jail can't possibly hold the number of people that are being referred to jail. So they're taking a look at what crimes might not require someone to be, you know, taken to jail because there's no room for them. So that was really, really interesting. uh they talked about this homeless management information system so we're talking about the analyst right who's going to be able to see what's happening all around and analyze those and kind of distill it into services that people can refer to instead of over here and over here so this is a information management system that all anyone serving um anyone funded by hud they're required to use this system to report on how unhoused individuals. There's 47 in Clark County that inputs data. The idea is that they avoid duplication of services and increase coordination and understand service gaps. So many statistics, but some takeaways were homelessness between 2020 or 2025, because that's the data that is available to us right now. Seniors reporting homelessness was down 50 percent. So, that makes me happy. Families, unfortunately, that statistic went up 16 percent. An 18-year-old reporting being unhoused went down 29 percent. And then some of these people could be counted in more than one category, for example, BIPOC, you know, senior, veteran, things like that. So, what they're doing is comparing or racial disparity, which is very interesting work doing. Also, there's a resolution that they're asking for our support of that. What it is, is every document that's filed in Clark County, a $10 fee is charged and it goes into a fund to, started in 2002, it's affordable housing for all surcharge. And so it goes into a fund. And so 2002, so then in 2009, they re-upped it and they eliminated 30% of that funds that was supposed to go to capital projects. They're setting it to operations and maintenance of projects supporting unhoused people. And now they're re-upping it again and they quantify. So back in 2002, the program was for extremely or very low poverty, extremely or very low. And so, we know we like quantification, right? And so, now they've changed that to quantify it that they're only going to be able to serve Clark County residents who are at or below 50 percent of what any household median.

So, just to quantify that, right?

The funds are held by the Clark County auditors. There's an annual report that's required every year. And any entity chemists Google and the other participants can exit or the whole project could be terminated. And so they're just asking for our support of that. And I will send it to you, Sean. And then it's just, it's re-upping. So I mean, I personally don't know why we would do that, but I'll have Sean, but at first that would be helpful. So many things. So you may not be aware, but Carrie Schulstad has announced that she is separating from the Downtown Canvas Association as executive director. Carrie started with DCA in 2005. So for 21 years, she became an interim, I mean, a halftime director, and then 2009 became a full-time director. Has grown that program to be full-time employees. Our occupancy rate in Downtown Canvas was 60%, and now it's less than 1%. And I believe, many of us believe that's in large part to the work that the DCA does. Merchant meetings, regular merchant meetings, facade improvement grants, things like that. So her last day will be November 30th. Our succession plan had Lynn Nicholson, who's currently our events and projects manager, to succeed to that role should Carrie vacate that role. Carrie is very clear she's not retiring. She's too young. Just to make sure everyone's aware. but she is going to try some new things. And so, Leah will be the Executive Director effective December 1st. The replacement for Leah has been posted. So, if you know someone who's interested in project management, Bree does volunteers. So, what Leah does now is coordinates all the events that we have. We have 11 First Fridays, 24 other events every year, signature events like the Home and Garden Fair, Because I'm going to forget a lot of them, which I'm forgetting them all. There's a lot of things that we do. Yeah, the car show is one, all those sip and shops. Just lots of things. And so if you see Carrie, you know, wish her well. She's very excited. And it's bittersweet. She'll continue to volunteer with us. But, you know, it's bittersweet. So yay for Carrie and yay for Leah, both. I wanted to respond, not respond, but just to remind people that, well, never mind. I'm going to withdraw that statement. I'm not going to do that. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I wanted to ask. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Mr Quinn about discussion of perhaps putting a notice on a door of a home whose water was about to be shut down. HAB-Masyn Moyer- door hangers yeah as as a young single mother, I had my water shut off and it was just debilitating I had two little babies at the time and. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I mean I missed a bill I sure did it was my fault, I didn't have any money at Mr bill my water got shut off and as. Mr. soffit, soffit, soffit said, I called Public Works and someone came immediately and turn my water back on. So it was only offer, you know, maybe 12 hours. That was devastating. And I still remember the shame that I felt like not having any water. So I just need some follow up with you.

Thank you. Council members well large.

Thank you, Mayor. I have no further comments this evening. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Council Member Sonescu.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, if you wait till toward the end, a lot of your stuff gets covered. So I was going to mention, you know, Carrie Schulstad. So we wish her well and are looking forward to seeing what she's going to be doing. Also, I was on the CAG group on the GP mill cleanup. A lot of same comments that you had, but I did want to point out that they did indicate that there will be no more demolition this calendar year, just if anybody's looking for that. And their last outreach event for this calendar year will be Friday at Canvas Days. So if you're looking for information on that, you can come down and I'll have a booth down there. I attended an energy facility site evaluation council, FSEC, meeting the Yakima Nation wanted to meet with FSEC in Toppenish and about the Cascade Renewables Transmission Project that's coming from the dam. And we're involved as KMS and it's going to go to KMS and then go over to Troutdale. Well, let's just say they're not happy about this and it's threatening their way of life. They want to run the transmission line under the Columbia River and they are very upset. And I will say this, quote, a full frontal attack will happen if this moves forward. They cited the Treaty of 1885 that's being violated, Article III. They cited the Constitution being violated. It was an hour and a half of them explaining how this would threaten their way of life and telling FSEC that they need to find a different alternative. I later attended a FSEC meeting, which happened two weeks after this meeting. And there was an update, and there weren't any updates. But they said, oh, the meeting went well. And I just smiled because it was very upsetting. The Yakama Nation, it feels very threatened, their lifestyle, their livelihood, everything, the fish. So stay tuned. We'll see what alternatives are available for that transmission project. Yeah, so learning a lot about energy. I attended Sergeant Tessa Bennett's ceremony. Moving up to Sergeant at the police station. I love that Chief Jones does that for those officers and it's an important stepping stone for them. I didn't have a design review committee meeting, but it was an informal discussion. And we're going to be looking at whether the design review committee is still necessary given some changes in the law. So that will be coming to council. Just wanted to make a note of that, that we will be taking a look at that in the future. And that's all I have.

Thank you very much. Council Member Nor.

Well, it's my allergy season, so I'm going to try and keep it quick before I step out and cough again here. One of the things I want to comment, I had a resident reach out about a streetlight that wasn't working. And it's the second time I've had to direct something to the public works director. So I just want to say thank you that you always respond quickly. Even if you're not able to do anything quickly, you get back to people quickly. And I think that's a big part of people feeling. So thank you for that. And then actually fixing the issue. So the issue did get fixed. So appreciate that. I just want to give a quick update on, so the council rep to DCA, and they sent out a pretty good, and I will forward around everybody, but I just want to hit a few of the highlights there. First half of 2026, the first Fridays are going well, and it had an especially good first Friday on the first Friday in July, celebrating America's 250th birthday. Little Arts Canvas had 400 attendees showing art from 180 artists. The 27th annual plant and garden fair went very well with 10,000 visitors coming through. And I was down there. I would believe every bit of that. And one of the things that they highlighted was the partnership with C-TRAN. And I know Council Member Hine mentioned that C-TRAN was going to be available this weekend also. But they had 800 people take rides on C-TRAN from a shuttle lot for the plant fair. And they will have them up again for the car show, which everyone knows has been moved to the 12th of September. There are some paintings up now on 5th Avenue, the canvas culture art block. So if you want to look on the backside of the building on 5th, there's some things there. 21 buildings have had their facade lighting improved since the program started. There are more tables and chairs at Farrell Plaza. And there is a... student mural on the side of Canvas Antiques. So I haven't seen that one yet. I want to get over and see that. And there were 65 flower baskets this year. So I remember when they hit Fit for a Good Year, it went back up to 65. So that's good. And then I really want to give a shout out to the 210 volunteers who year to date have given 1,100 hours of their time to help out with different DCA activities. It's just a great organization. As Council Member Burke mentioned, Gary, she'll say I will be missed, but I'm sure that Leah will do a good job of picking up the ball and keep moving forward. That's all I have. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

Well, with that, I think it's time to close the meeting. Thank you all for being with us. Good night. Good night.