City Council - Regular Meeting

At this time, I'd like to call the 03/12/2026 Des Moines City Council meeting to order. Councilmember Pierre Blas will lead us in the pledge. Please stand if you are able. With that, let the record show that all council members are present. Are there any correspondence not previously received by the council?

No, ma'am. K. Thank you. It's now time for comments from the public. We ask that you keep your comments respectful. When I call your name, please come forward to the podium. Be sure to state your name, city of residence. You'll have three minutes to speak except for our first speaker, Dan Walstrom, who's from the Des Moines Yacht Club. And he is speaking on behalf of an organization, and so we'll get five minutes.

I don't mind three minutes, really. So, mayor, city council, city staff, and residents, thanks for the opportunity to speak with you tonight and to provide an update on the Des Moines Yacht Club and our plans for the 2026 boating season. For nearly seventy years, the Des Moines Yacht Club has been helped shape the city of Des Moines, like to think. We have about 300 members, and we're proud to call Des Moines our home board. Our vision for 2026 is is pretty simple.

Wanna strengthen our community connections, honor our traditions, and create meaningful opportunities for people on and off the water. Community service remains a core value for our club. Last year alone, we we donated about $5,000 to many local organizations, including dollars for scholars, the Des Moines Area Food Bank, SR three, Legacy Foundation. And since 2008, our navigating the scholarship program has donated 42 scholarships in total about $50,000, and that supports Mount Rainier students. So thank you for that.

And we're committed to growing that fund and and contributing to however we can for charities in the area. Got a full calendar this year. Starting with this weekend, this Saturday, March 14, is our annual marine swap meet. So if you need parts for your boat or anything else for that matter or just wanna come around and see what people are trying to sell, I know that one man's treasure is another man's junk, they call it, something like that, or woman's for that matter. So, yeah, we're gonna bring a lot of people into the city.

So, hopefully, they're going to restaurants and and and that kind of thing and enjoying the city. April 19, we're gonna participate in the Daffodil Marine Parade and at the Tacoma Yacht Club. And we'll have a decorated boat. It'll have the Des Moines yacht club sign on it, and we're and we like to represent Des Moines as well in that event. In May, the boating season gets officially underway.

May 9 is what we call our south sound opening of boating. And that's a whole that's the ceremony is kind of the culmination of the weekend of activities, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So at the ceremony, we'll have a youth flag presentation, blessing of the fleet, and the mayor's proclamation. So we'll be bringing in quite a few boats into the marina as well and to celebrate that event so it brings in outside folks as well. Few days later on May 13, we're gonna be hosting the dollars for scholar event that benefits Mount Rainier students.

Summertime, July 4. Of course, we're we love all the events in the in the marina, and a lot of our members take place in that too. Wanna celebrate our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. July 17 through the nineteenth, we are gonna be participating in the waterland parade. We'll have several boats in the parade, classic wooden yachts on display, and more than a 100 hydroplanes for kids to decorate.

In the past, we've done this hydroplane project. It's kind of an intergenerational effort between the seniors at Wesley Homes and the children at the Legacy Foundation. Throughout July and August, we're found with the broader community at the Saturday market and the music in the park. Later in the year, December, we intend to grow our lighted boat parade. So we usually put three or four, five boats in the lighted boat parade and travel along Marine Butte around the in the marina in front of the marina in Redondo and up through 3 Tree Point.

And then each February, for the last few years, we've hosted a cruise in in the Des Moines in the in the marina. So we hope to bring in a number of boats into the marina and into the guest moores area in in downtown. So in closing, I just wanna say Des Moines Yacht Club is proud to be a member of Des Moines. And so and wherever we go, wherever we travel, we because we cruise every month. We go places, and we're always promoting Des Moines as a welcoming in place for in an outstanding waterfront destination.

We appreciate the the city's leadership and and all that you're doing with the marina redevelopment and the improvements there, and we look forward to strengthening our partnership in the years ahead. Thank you again and for letting me do this update. We're proud to call Des Moines our home port. Thank you.

Thank you.

Russ Higley with the Mass Center.

Good evening, council, mayor, deputy mayor, city staff, and residents and biz or audience. My name is Russ Higley. I'm the director of Highland College Math Center Aquarium. I'm also a Mount Rainier alumni graduate. And I'm also a faculty at Highline, and faculty need to have visual aids. So I just as a reminder, we are the sixgill shark capital of the world. So I just wanna, you know, just to, you know, give a little shove there. I'm here tonight to voice our full support for the commemorative naming of Sixgill Shark Way that's on the later agenda tonight. This is a logical and exciting step for our waterfront. As we enter our second year celebrating Des Moines as the Sixgill Shark capital of the world, we aren't just celebrating a slogan.

We are celebrating a a global biological rarity and our role in the healthy environment. Gerdondo is one of the few places on Earth where we can see these prehistoric deep sea giants rise into the shallows. Last year's proclamation put us in the news. Tonight's rename renaming puts us on the map. This naming is ultimate welcome map for Shark in the Park on July 12 this year.

Last year, with over a thousand visitors, it showed us the hunger for this type of community event. By creating shark six skill shark way, we are signaling to the region and the media that Des Moines is a destination for discovery. It turns a drive along our beach into an immersive experience reminding every visitor that they are standing above a world class marine ecosystem. At the Mass Center, we see the public's awe every day. This street name for a relatively small cost will anchor that pride in our city's infrastructure. It supports our local businesses by reinforcing our unique brand and inspires the next generation of ocean stewards. Let's make Six Skills Shark Way a reality. Thank you.

Thank you. Chris Dee.

Hello. Chris Della Rosa, Des Moines resident. I'm here tonight to talk about accountability and the protection of our residents' privacy. The BS oh, I mean, SB six zero zero two is heading to the governor's desk and won't be fully mandated until 2027. The standard it sets do not go far enough to protect our Fourth Amendment rights or our data security.

This council needs to act today and follow the leads of cities like Lynnwood, Redmond, Olympia, and Spanaway instead of waiting for the state's permission to protect our rights, our data, and our neighbor. These cities have already moved to suspend or terminate their surveillance programs because they recognize the risk was too high. It is time for the city to decommission our cameras, cancel our contracts with block safety, and ensure our local policies actually protect the privacy and safety of our residents. It is also important to note because it has been brought up several times that that they claim that the shared data with federal agencies isn't happening. Here's an example that just happened in Lynnwood.

In 02/23/2026, Lynnwood discovered that out of state and federal agencies, including those involved in immigration enforcement, were accessing their data thousands of times. Once Lynnwood realized they had no no real control over who was tracking their residents, they chose to protect their community's privacy over a flawed surveillance system and terminate their contract. Let's do the the same here in Des Moines and protect our neighbors and our community. Decommission the cameras now. Please put it on the vote. Thank you.

Judy.

Hello, everyone. I'm my name is Judy Grandi, and I live in Des Moines. I'm here once again to talk about flock safety cameras that record every license plate using automated license plate reader ALPR technology. When you ask people about flock flock safety cameras, how many people even know about them? It is surprising how many people don't know about them even though we've had them in Des Moines for about three years.

People also think they're the same as the traffic infraction cameras. These are two different cameras in use in Des Moines. Traffic infraction cameras are different and only record when you when you commit an infraction, like running a red light. Flat cameras, on the other hand, are recording 247 every license plate and, in addition, make, model, color, dent, bumper stickers that passes by. Your movements are recorded, stored, and are able to be searched.

Thanks to AI, this unimaginable amount of data can be searched rapidly. We are talking mass surveillance that could not have even been considered ten years ago. And yet I fear this kind of surveillance is quietly becoming normal. Now is the time to inform everyone around you and join together to say no. I would also point out that flock safety has ultimate control of this data.

They own the cameras and the software. When you drive through Downtown Des Moines on Marine View Drive South, how many flock safety cameras do you see? There is a flock camera by Red Robin on the traffic light pole recording vehicles heading south, and there is a black flock camera on a black pole in front of the old Kahana restaurant between two nineteenth and two sixteenth recording every vehicle going north. Every time you drive through town, your movement is recorded. I would challenge you to try to drive through Des Moines without passing by a FLAC camera.

How much longer does it take you to get through town? You can check out dflac.me for locations of more cameras. Please note that dfloc.me does not include every FLAC camera. There have been two people who have spoken during public comments in the last month or so in favor of FLAC cameras. After meeting with the police chief, they have relayed how comfortable they feel about flock cameras.

I don't think they realize that an anyone under the Freedom of Information Act could request flock safety camera data if they have these individuals license plate numbers. Both of these commit community members present like me, white, middle class, cisgender. You may feel safe now, but history has shown us that if something is impacting others but not you, that at some point, that dynamic will change, and you will also be impacted. Every week, we hear about more city councils who have decided to vote to end their flock safety camera contract or some of them use another company that uses ALPR technology. I urge you, our Des Moines City Council, to vote to end our contract with Flock Safety.

Thank you for this time to

comment. Thank you. Christie A. Okay. Thank you. I also have Bill Linscott.

I'm Bill Linscott, and I'm from Des Moines. Good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, councils, staff, and everybody else gathered here tonight. I wanted to make a comment on the, recent grant we got on the beach park in the escuary there. I'm excited about that. It's the third grant we've had, And, I've been waiting for it to mention, you know, not not only the fish, but the people that will be in the park.

And this one actually, does some of that, and and that's good news. So looking through it, it it's, it looks like it takes it from an existing about 30% to a 60% design solution at the end of this thing. And what I was really happy with is they had this task in there about, community engagement and, putting together stuff to to to visit the community with. But I was was surprised that it's at the end of the study. The delivery of the plan is at the end of the study, And I would encourage you to maybe look at a earlier input from the public on that because I can't see how you can get a layout right without hearing from the public about what they might visualize having down there.

Example, you've got a stakeholder that runs every Saturday morning. You've got a stakeholder with moms, with walking on Friday morning. It may have some people that wanna exercise like up at the the other park we've got. And, I think we need a performance stage so that, when we have the music in the park, that's laid out in the overall plan. And I I worry about them getting too far along where all of a sudden they're defending their position instead of listening for an input. So please give that some thought, and thank you very much.

Thank you. We are currently running under the committee of the whole meeting. That means that we don't have council committees that are running, but we have council members who serve regionally on other committees. Do any council members have items of interest for the public or the council? Okay. Let's pass that on to the city manager's report.

Mayor and

council have

a couple of items tonight. The first one, Mark Everton from Seattle Southside's

here.

If he wants to come on up, he's gonna do the kind of first part of the presentation, and then I have a follow-up, and we'll open it up for any discussion. But I asked Mark to come and talk in general what are some of the activities Explore Seattle Southside is doing for our area, and then he's also gonna talk a little bit about FIFA, and I'll follow-up with a specific proposal for Des Moines.

Mark? Wonderful. Thank you so much, city manager. And thank you, mayor Matsui, for inviting me, deputy mayor, council members, and members of the public. As I was introduced, I'm Mark Everton.

I'm the CEO of Explore Seattle Southside. We're the Seattle Southside Regional Tourism Authority. So we're a governmental entity that does the official marketing for tourism for the three cities of Des Moines, SeaTac, and Tukwila, and our office is actually in SeaTac. We're funded through, TPA, which is a tourism promotion area assessment that the, state government, the RCW, established. So every guest or every hotel room that's sold in any of the larger hotels in our three cities pays an additional $2.

That money is then paid to the state and then returned back to us, and that's the the basis for our funding. Most of the projects that we do, we attempt to work with all three of our cities and promote the region. There are times, though, that there are certain events or certain opportunities that are specific to a city, but we try to share the wealth as much as we can. We're very much believers. This is an analogy that probably fits with the, with the yacht club.

It's a rising tide philosophy. The more we can raise occupancy in the region, the more all of our individual hotels, restaurants, coffee shops are gonna benefit from that. So I think that's a good segue, if I could, to talk a little bit about FIFA where, my presentation says ninety days out. We're actually eighty nine days. So the clock is definitely ticking at this point for when FIFA will kick off.

So the the term FIFA and the term World Cup are synonymous with one another. So I grew up knowing it as World Cup. And then on the last couple of World Cup tournaments, they've started to use the term FIFA, more frequently. So what I'd like to do today is just take a few minutes and kind of walk you through, six components, overview of what FIFA is for those that may not be following it, where we stand with tickets, viewing and watch parties, which I think is very pertinent to, what the opportunity is here in Des Moines, branding, hotel impacts, and then base camps. So an overview.

It's an international tournament amongst nations. It will run from June 19 to or June 11 to July 19. It's the largest World Cup that they've ever hosted, and it's now 48 teams or 48 countries. There are 18 host cities, the majority of them in The United States, but two, venues in Mexico and two venues in Canada. And there will be a total of a 104 matches played across the across North America with six of them being played here in Seattle.

Group stage starts June 11. Our first match will be June 15, and it's a noon match, and it's Belgium versus Egypt. A very large match will follow that a few days later on the nineteenth. Again, a noon match, and that will be the USA versus Australia. And we're getting a lot of interest in that match. June 24 is Qatar versus a team that's yet to be determined. There are still some qualifiers going on, and we will know who that team is. It is most likely going to be Italy, and that will be on the twenty fourth. The June 26 match was Egypt and Iran. And as we're all very well aware, Iran's attendance is extremely unlikely, and FIFA is determining what to do.

The next runner-up team from a qualifier was Iraq. So we may have Egypt versus Iraq, or they may end up deciding to cancel that match and reduce it to five. So we will know in the next few weeks. We then have two playoff matches. So the first four matches were of a round robin.

There's no elimination. We get to a round of 32 and then a round of 16. That works very similar to the way the brackets work with March Madness. The round of 32 is likely Belgium because they will probably be the winner of their group. The round of 16 match is uncertain, and we're excited because it could be in Argentina or Germany or France or England, which would definitely heighten the excitement around our matches if we could get one of the premier teams.

Tickets. Initial tickets were sold via a lottery. FIFA has 7,000,000 seats to sell. They're currently estimating that they will sell about 70% of those seats or about 5,000,000. Actually, 500,000,000 people entered the lottery to be able to buy tickets.

They didn't sell all of the tickets, primarily because the interest was in the big premier matches and not so much the matches like Egypt and Iran, which would really be more of a tertiary match. So they had an unexpected sale late in February, and all of the Lumen matches seats were still available. And I believe they, again, did not sell out, and there are still tickets available for most of our matches, excluding The USA versus Australia match. We now believe that that's been sold out. There's a final sale planned in April.

We've been keeping an eye on StubHub and looking at kind of ticket prices. As we all were aware, when our Seahawks were playing down in the Bay Area, that cheapest ticket to get into the Super Bowl was, I don't know, 4 or $5,000 and definitely out of our most of our price ranges. Cheapest ticket for Belgium on the resale market right now, which is our opening match, is about $535, and the face value of that was about 475. So, tickets are selling for a slight premium. The USA, Australia match, you can see, are $1,400.

Today, those were tickets. The cheapest tickets were over $2,000. So that that match is is approaching the stratosphere. And then the Egypt versus Iran, which will now probably be Egypt versus Iraq, are actually selling for less than face value. And the price now has dropped down into the low 3 hundreds for that match.

Viewing parties. So viewing parties are encouraged, and there are, first off, that all of the matches are gonna be broadcast on Fox and Telemundo. They will be streaming in Spanish on Peacock and streaming in English on FS1, which is a subscription channel, managed by Fox. The three different types of licenses are commercial public viewing, noncommercial public viewing, and special noncommercial public viewing. I would have hoped that FIFA could have come up with more creative names than that, but they are they are what they are.

And let's go through them very, very quickly. So commercial public viewing, in short, is where you charge an admission. So if you have a theater and you wanna charge $10 to have people come in and watch a match, that's considered commercial public viewing, and you absolutely must get a license from FIFA. And there is a fee associate with associated with that based on the number of people that you're going to host. Noncommercial public viewing is the most common thing.

That's all of our restaurants, hotel, pubs, clubs that have TVs or sports bars that people will be able to come in, and they're not charging a door charge. There isn't a special invitation. It's open to the public. There is no fee for that, but FIFA is encouraging those businesses to register, and that will hopefully unlock a key to allow them to show all of the matches, not just the locally broadcast matches. And then what will probably be for most of our cities that are doing special events or fan zones would be a special noncommercial public viewing.

So it's any noncommercial public viewing that the capacity exceeds a thousand, absolutely license required. But for most of our cities, they're anticipating two, three, 400 people at a time, and that will just be a registration without any additional fees associated with that. Watch parties. So, initially, Downtown Seattle was gonna have a very large fan festival that had been planned for the Seattle Center, and they were predicting about 50,000 people a day. One of the concerns we had and our local cities had is that would be a magnet to draw people to want to go to Seattle Center.

That event has subsequently been canceled, and it's been canceled because the local organizing committee could not generate enough sponsorship dollars to support what they were anticipating to be a multimillion dollar event. So that event has technically been canceled. You have probably heard on the news that New York, New Jersey has also canceled their very similar event for the very same reason. They could not generate enough sponsorship dollars. So instead, Seattle's hosting four smaller fan celebration activations, and these are in partnership with the Mariners, with the Seahawks, with the Kraken, with the Rain, and other organizations.

And they will be spread out into smaller fan celebration areas along the waterfront and encouraging people to go visit those. People will be less inclined to go downtown, and they're gonna be looking for more activations locally. Tukwila, the city, has taken over the 2nd Floor of the vacant Sears Building at Seattle at the South Center at Westfield, and they are gonna have a very large watch party activation going on in there with bouncy houses and activities for kids and really very resident family focused. And they're also planning an outdoor watch party along Baker Boulevard on match days when there will be matches going on at Lumen Field. And that, again, is gonna be very resident focused, family focused, anticipating not

a

lot of tourism or tourists coming to that. SeaTac is creating three activation zones along International Boulevard. The north end one will be in connection with the Kiss And Drop Lot with the SeaTac Light Rail Station. The south end will be at the Angle Lake Station, and then there will be one in the middle. And, again, these are focused on easily located for residents to come and participate.

Big screens, kids activities, little mini soccer pitches, and little mini BMX tracks for families to be able to get out of the house and come down to a a safe family oriented area with food trucks and and refreshments. Branding, really briefly, there are three levels of branding. FIFA, World Cup are absolutely forbidden. They're owned by FIFA. You need to do a $10,000,000 sponsorship to be able to use either of those two words in your advertising or your promotion.

That means Coke, Visa, Adidas get the rights to use FIFA or World Cup. The local organizing committee in Seattle has a Seattle FWC twenty six brand. And, again, that's only for sponsors, and the only sponsor that they've been able to to sign up is the Puyallup tribe of Indians as their sponsor. Fortunately, Visit Seattle, and the Seattle Sports Commission have come up with SEA 26 and Let's Play SEA 26 as brands, and you are very welcome to use those. There is no registration and their fee to use.

Tukwila, being Tukwila, has decided they wanna create their own brand, and they're calling that Tukwila 26. Hotel impact. Economic forecast, we're predicting that 2026 hotel occupancy to be very similar to 2025 with average higher rates. We ran a report today to look at that forecasting. And just FYI, in our area around the Seattle Airport, we're looking at about a 2% increase in occupancy this June over June 2025 and about one and a half percent increase.

Downtown Seattle is flat with no increase of occupancy due to FIFA or the World Cup. Rates for us are gonna be going up about 7% both in June and July. So, again, people are gonna pay a higher price, but we're not gonna be seeing incrementally in an incremental increase in occupancy. And downtown is seeing about the same thing with about a 7% increase. Airbnb is commissioned a study.

They're anticipating about 25,000 people will come into the Seattle area and stay in STRs or short term rentals during the matches. That accounts for about 12% of active Airbnb listings. So we're not looking at a dramatic, you should rent out your house because you're gonna be able to to rent it for thousands of dollars. That doesn't appear to be the case. Looking at our seven night rates at both hilton.com and marriott.com for a week over The USA, Australia match and then a week in July where there is no match, you can see the rates are just about double, which is why we're seeing the overall forecast increase.

And hotels are reporting that FIFA, which had done some room blocks with them, have started to cancel some of those room blocks where they're not seeing the demand for some of the supporters, some of the sponsors, and some of the media that they had originally planned for when they signed contracts with some of our hotels. Base camps. So base camps, there were 64 different locations in the country for countries or teams to select from. We have two of them in Washington. The Sounders facility that's over at Long Acres, it's the facility that the sound that the Sounders have now used as their home base and their training facility in Renton.

And then there's one at Gonzaga in Spokane. The expectation, and neither have been announced at this point, but the expectation is is that, Belgium will choose Renton, and Egypt will choose Gonzaga. The unfortunate thing is neither Belgium Egypt is expected to draw a great deal of fans to the area. We had originally been hoping, back when this first came that we would get an Argentina or a Germany or an England, and we could see thousands and thousands of fans coming. Egypt has a travel ban in, currently in The United States, so we're not anticipating seeing a great number of Egyptians coming.

But we will see some of the Egyptian nationals that live in Washington, coming out for that event. Belgium, again, is not a well traveled European country like some of the others I've mentioned, like France or a or a Germany. So we will probably see some Belgium attendance, but not a great deal of it. Hotel accommodations for that team, that, that country that will be based there, in our case will be Belgium, has been reserved for them at the Hyatt Regency at Lake Washington. So we are not gonna see any impact of that coming towards, unfortunately, towards Tukwila, Sea Tac, or Des Moines. So that's my presentation. And I think you wanted to talk a little bit about what you've got.

Thanks, Mark. Sure. So we've gotten some questions from people on sort of, well, what is Des Moines planning for FIFA. And so we have I'll let pull it up. While she's pulling that up, I'll let you know that we are Mark just went through sort of a recap of the events that we can expect.

And as he mentioned, there's actually very significant events and a very significant investment that is being made by Tukwila and CTEC. So as we were looking at sort of what can we do, especially something that's cost efficient, we are let's see. I'll go ahead. We are planning to, look at partnering with the Des Moines Theater, which has just recently opened, to broadcast the Friday, June 19 game. So that is Juneteenth.

It is a holiday, so we anticipate a lot of people will be off of work since that game is in the middle of the day, so they'll be able to join us. So we have we're in the process of securing a viewing party license. It's the noncommercial public viewing one. It's a very nominal cost, and we would also provide the marketing for this viewing party using the branding guidelines. And then, of course, you know, we'll make sure to let our community know about some of the bigger events in our neighboring communities and encourage them to take advantage of that.

But in exchange, the theater will really handle all the logistics. So I think I don't wanna I don't know what the number is, but they're looking at maybe 500 ish people that will be in there for that, but they're still figuring that out. And so they'll provide the venue handling seating. It will be free in all ages, but they'll kinda handle those elements. There will be food and drink for sale at the venue.

Additionally, this is still sort of in the works, but there may be a free day of soccer that'll be presented by community enrichment services that day as well for families and for kids that wanna do a soccer clinic. So we'll potentially do that that same day. So that is what we are planning. And so I think what we're looking for tonight is to answer any questions you may have and see if the council's comfortable with the city kind of exploring that partnership with the Des Moines Theater.

Council member Simons.

I think it sounds like a great idea. Think there's a huge curiosity in the community for the theater, which will help draw people in even if they're not soccer fans. And, hopefully, they'll watch the game. It'll be a good game, and they'll leave soccer fans. So that would be great. I I think it's an excellent partnership. And if it's the cost is nominal to the city, I'm very much in favor of it.

Councilmember Netting. Yeah.

I I don't have much more to add to that other than I think it's a great idea that the theater's taking us on and that it's free for the community and, a small cost to the city for a great event to draw people in, or even just our community. I mean, I think it's a great idea. So, yeah, I'm all for it.

Councilmember Harris.

Thank you. Mark, this is probably yeah. At the King County emergency, they we've been admonished a bunch of times to not refer to it as Lumen Field. Are there any that they've changed all of the branding for the venues. Are there any limits on how we market it? You know, like, the field is and that kind of thing.

There isn't. As a part of their, sponsorship program from Visa and Adidas and Emirates Airlines, all of the stadiums throughout the country have to remove all of the branding, and they're all named after their geographic location. So Levi's Stadium in San Francisco is going to be called San Francisco Stadium. Lumen is now gonna be renamed for the six weeks or so of to the and a cost of several million dollars. All of the advertisements, all of the signage have to be removed out of the stadium.

There is no prohibition for us calling it. Some of us even still call it CenturyLink because we kinda, you know, forget what the new name for it is. So, no, we there is no qualms at all for us internally. They just, to meet the obligations of their sponsorships, they had to pull that out. And it's a shame because a couple million dollars could could do a lot for a community rather than taking neon signs down and putting neon signs back up. But

And it's confusing for it's just surprising. It's just like nobody wants to you know, you can't help yourself. So thank you for that.

Right. I mean, lot of people that know it as CenturyLink or know it as Lumen are saying, well, they're playing at Seattle Stadium. Is that the Old Memorial downtown? I'm confused where that is. Right.

Okay. Well, and also I would encourage folks to check out much of the activation zones that are happening in CTEC. CTEC is heavily investing in in those, areas, and I think it'll be, a really good time, like you said. And I think they'll be hosting multiple games in those locations as well.

They will. And it's great that they're thinking towards their residents and really doing something that is really resident based. And I think that's kind of what your priority is also. And I think that's wonderful. I think that's something that our residents will remember for quite some time. Great.

Thank very much.

Our next item is a presentation from a representative from South King Housing and Homelessness Partners. And then also so you know, this is kind of preamble to an item that's on the consent agenda item two. So when Dorsal is done with the presentation, if you have questions about that consent item, we would ask for any of those now while he's here to answer them. Thanks.

Wonderful. Well, good evening, mayor, deputy mayor, council, staff, wonderful people of Des Moines. My name is Dorsal Plants, and I'm the program coordinator for the South King Housing and Homeless Partners or SCIP for short. And I am super excited this evening to present the SCIP executive board's twenty twenty five SCIP housing capital fund recommendation for this year. You may recall that this is an annual process, and so we come out every year after our housing capital fund and present, to each of our member cities.

So for those of you who are new to our work, Skip is your subregional affordable housing consortium made up of 11 South King County cities, including Yours and King County. We are a unified, coordinated, and collaborative coalition funding construction and preservation of affordable housing right here in South King County. This is a meaningful opportunity to pull funds together with neighboring cities to collectively make an impact on the subregions' affordable housing shortage. And to date, we have pulled over $15,000,000 to house our low income neighbors or to rehabilitate deteriorating multifamily buildings. Skip pulls substitute House Bill 14 o six, House Bill fifteen ninety, and some general funds listed from the or from the 11 cities listed on the slide here.

In 2019, substitute oh, sorry. 2019, substitute house bill for, 14 o six became law allowing cities and counties to recapture a portion of Washington state sales tax when used, to support affordable housing initiatives. And then in 2020, house bill fifteen ninety became law allowing jurisdictions to impose a one tenth of a 1% local sales and use tax to support affordable housing, behavioral health facilities, and related supportive services. Cities did have a limited window to act to retain House Bill fifteen ninety funds before the county began collecting them, and only four South King County cities elected to collect House Bill fifteen ninety funds. Des Moines was not one of them.

We pull both of these funding sources each year through the execution of the interlocal agreement plus any general funds that cities like to contribute. We use the use of these pooled funds requires approval from each participating city council even though you have already contributed these funds to Skip. Your council will need to authorize the allocation of those funds to specific projects. This approach allows multiple cities to pull their funds together for projects across South King County to maximize the creation of affordable housing. This year or in 2025, so last year, we had six projects that applied across South King County.

The SCIP advisory board reviewed and made recommendations for three of the six projects that applied. After careful deliberation, the SCIP executive board concurred with the SCIP Advisory Board's recommendation to fund the three projects totaling $3,942,850 with the breakdown by funding source listed on your slide and described in your agenda packet under the Skip Executive Board memo January dated 01/08/2026. Per the requirements of our interlocal agreement, we are seeking concurrence from you on this recommendation. So the SCIP executive board recommends the three projects listed on the slide, and I'll just briefly touch on each of them. The African community housing and development African diaspora cultural anchor village located in Sea Tac will be a 129 unit multifamily rental project that will serve 30 to 60% of area median income or AMI.

55 units will be set aside for families with children, and 13 units will be set aside for ham households with a physical disability. And we are recommending $1,200,000 for funding for this project. The second project is the Saint Stephen Housing Association Steely House located in Renton. This is a six three bedroom new construction, townhome project that will serve, families that are earning 50% of AMI who are exiting homelessness. This project did apply to skip for funding last year and did not receive funding last year, but city of Renton did fund a portion of the project.

And this year, we are recommending $1,820,850. And then our third project is the Mental Health Housing Foundation Steel Lake located in Federal Way. It is a 20 unit multifamily rental development that will serve individuals with severe and persistent mental illness earning between 3050% AMI. This project will be built in two phases. The funding is being recommended for phase one, and that is $922,000.

This slide shows the amount sourced from house bill fifteen ninety contributed by jurisdiction that's funding round to the Skip Housing Capital Fund, and of this total, the amounts to be, contributed by jurisdiction for each project. In a moment, I'll show you a similar slide, breaking down the substitute house bill fifth, 14 o six funds. The first two projects we discussed are being funded through house bill fifteen ninety funds pulled by the cities of Covington, Kent, and Maple Valley. This slide shows the total amount sourced from substitute house bill 14 o six contributed by a jurisdiction in this funding round to the Skip Housing Capital Fund, and the total amounts by jurisdiction to be allocated to the construction project located in Federal Way. You can also see here the amount that was carried over from the 2024 funding round, the unallocated interest from 2024, and the unallocated amount that we will carry forward into future funding rounds.

We are seeking authorization from the city council to allocate the amount listed for this project under your sitting in alignment with the executive board's recommendation. This would be $31,264 for the Mental Health Housing Foundation's Steely House. In conclusion, we are looking for your support to authorize the allocation of $31,264 from the city's contribution to the Skip Housing Capital Fund to finance the affordable housing project we've just talked about tonight per our interlocal interlocal agreement. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Councilmember Simons. What

are the other alternatives in the area, if

there are any, for mental health housing that is specific for that? I assume that's supported housing. So there won't be services directly offered on-site. House individuals that enter into the housing enter from a direct referral from a mental health provider here in South King County, Sound being one potential example. So they'll actually enter into the housing with their services already kind of in place and established. I'd be happy to, gather kind of a a list of some of the other, housing projects in our area that serve a similar population. Off the top of my head, I know Navos, I believe, is located in Burien, would be a similar kind of, project.

I suspect there aren't a lot. Certainly not enough to meet the need. Is that correct?

That is absolutely correct. It's a it's a population that we definitely regularly see needing a lot of services in the unhoused community, but, yes, there's there's not a lot of housing directly for them now.

And is that a major criteria when deciding what projects do the advisory board and then the executive board adopted?

That is definitely there's a list of priorities. I believe we're about 10 total priorities, but, yes, that is definitely one of the considerations. Our advisory board begins the evaluation process, and that is something that they were definitely very considerate of is that this was a population that isn't served very often, and this was an opportunity to to invest and serve this population in an area that the the city actually was very excited about the potential opportunity for as well.

And just it wouldn't be limited to current Federal Way residents even though it's located in Federal Way. It would be available to people in Des Moines if they had that need. Correct?

Yes. Correct. Any anyone receiving services potentially could receive a referral to the program. And the Mental Health Housing Foundation does operate a number of locations. I don't believe there's one yet currently in South King County, but I do know that the city of Auburn Human Services Department has done direct referrals, for Mental Health Housing Foundation housing, in the past for other locations. Thank you very much.

Other questions?

Thank you so much.

And our last item is a Mirena Steps project update as Mike makes his way to the podium. Just to I wanted to make a couple comments on this item because we've gotten a fair amount of questions about it. First well, first of we're just giving a project update. But why specifically we included the portion about the holiday tree? There's a couple reasons.

A, we're just trying to see if the council has an interest in this or not. If you do, these type of things take a lot of lead time to purchase an order, so we wanna make sure we're not surprised and hear you want a holiday tree in November. But, also, because the project is under construction, if we need to change the infrastructure to actually include the right type of fitting for a tree, now is is gonna be a lot more cost efficient and less disruptive to do that. So that's really why we're bringing it forward now. Mike?

Alright. Good evening, mayor and council. I'm here tonight to give a quick update on the steps, And then we've been asked to take a look at two other issues. One is public art and how public art would be installed. Public art was not initially designed into the project. This we don't have a 1% for the arts. And so but we have identified locations, both mosaics and others. And then also the possibility of using the plaza as a as a holiday type. But down that same location, we did the the very first tree lighting down there this year using an existing tree. And so what would it look like after the plaza, and how will we do that?

So we've done some research on that to share that with you also. So project schedule, current construction update, just showing you they're just really getting started. Funding holiday tree options, art features, possible possible different art features that that the landscape architect has looked at that is familiar with other other type of of public spaces like this. And then just seeking your feedback. There's no no there's no motion or anything tonight. It's just, you know, do you want us to continue going down these paths or not? And just try and get some of that feedback from you. Schedule. Demolition and utility has started. There's been a little bit of a pause.

We had some delays on some of our, catch basin and pipe deliveries, but they're they're supposed to be here by the end

of this week. So, hopefully, you'll

see them starting back up again. April through June, they're gonna start filling the construction wall. That's the meat of the project. You're gonna see the dirt coming in, getting compacted, and and building the the gaping wall. It's to the south. And then the concrete then after that, the concrete work starts. And so that's when you'll be seeing the walks going, the stairs going, and those types of things. That's July, September. And then October to December, water feature play area and then finishing up the plantings and all of those different things are going on. So, this is what the site looked like, prior to construction.

I just took this picture just a couple of days before, before it opened up, before they got there and started putting fencing in. And then this is what it looks like right now. The construction area is fenced off. We have had some feedback about people still getting used to the traffic patterns and not used to the changes. We've put some, some, signs out there, and we are we have ordered some additional custom signage to try to alert people as they come off or maybe drive another location. So so, that is a little bit of a work in progress. But, the site is secure, and they have, started stripping the site. Now I don't know if this will work or not, but this is supposed to be a time lapse. Let's see. I'm not sure it's gonna work.

I think I'm just gonna go buy it. Oh, it that went quick. Hold on. Here it goes. You can try it again.

I'm not sure if it's gonna go. There it goes. Here it goes. And so we'll have this type of a time lapse for the whole project as we go through. And that's it's just going in a loop now, so we'll just move on.

And so this is the the Mirena steps rendering that everyone's seen here multiple different times. So this is what it looks like. And so taking a look at at this picture and then going forward, where would we put our where would we put possible holiday items? Funding the project does not contain line items for either a public art or for any type of a a holiday function. However, there's a possibility that we may have contingency funds at the end of the project to do that if the council so decided to let us do that.

So those are one of the thoughts. Other possible funding sources could be, the King County Parks Levy. We're taking a look at seeing if there might be some opportunities to use some of those funds towards this. Again, it's not programmed. We don't have the I the money, exactly identified at this point. We wanted to see if the council was interested before we would make that type of a commitment, of course. And we don't have the percent for the arts in in in our codes. So this was the first holiday tree opening last year that we did, on the waterfront at the marina. It was very successful.

It was very well

attended, people were pretty happy with it. And so that was the idea. Well, if we're gonna have a new plaza here next year, should we take a look at expanding on the success of this initial event that was really put together with what we had on hand? And so that's where the idea, I think, came from. And then we were asked to take a look at what would that look like.

How would you put that into the project, incorporate it into the project, and where would you go from there? And so we, got with our landscape architect for the project who's been very familiar with the project from the beginning and said, if we were gonna do something like this, could you help us pick locations, size, and those types of issues? Right? And and that's what they do for a living. And so they this is the location they came up with after several different iterations is the red space there.

It's a 23 or a 26 foot diameter base and about a 50 foot tree is what they're asking for. It's aligned with the two twenty third right down the steps. They wanted to they felt the tree would be best if it was and I'll show some pictures of this in a minute. But if it was high enough where if you're standing on Marineview Drive walking down 2 23rd, you'd see the peak of the tree at the top. And then it gets larger as you come down with the waterfront behind it. It's actually pretty cool. Yeah. So that's that's the that's the current location that they're they would recommending. And then there's three different trees we we're looking at. We actually got some pricing back on two of them, and, we're still waiting on the third.

And these are just, you know, so it's they're they're within what was in the packet cost wise. And so there's just different options, and there's options within the trees where you can have white lights, colored lights. One tree is 26 foot at the base. One tree is 23 foot, but they're all so it's all different kinds of things, with those different tree options. Just from a technical standpoint, about 250 amps of power would need to be put in this in the cycle for the tree.

It's all LED, but they run on different circuits. So you need about 250 amp power box. And then you don't need to put tie downs into the concrete, but it is recommended. The other way to do it would be to bring in every year when you set up the tree concrete ecology blocks. And because it the feet you got 26 feet to work with.

They bring in three or four ecology blocks, you bolt into those. But it would be really nice for our crews if they didn't have to do that, bang up the concrete every year, and we could put anchors in if we were able to do that before the concrete gets set. And this is how it works. It's a it's a either a galvanized, depending on the manufacturer, or a or a powder coated frame. They last around they're warrantied for about seven.

Most municipalities or or malls or whoever's using these types of trees, they they claim a life of around ten to twelve years. Some can get them to fifteen. Just depends. But you figure it's about a ten ten to twelve year lifespan is what is what you'd be looking at. This is a a aerial of where the tree would go with that viewpoint so you can get an idea or a feel of of what it would look like from the air.

This is coming down 2 23rd. You see the top of it. And this would be coming when you first cross the stairs, what you'd be seeing. And that from the base looking up the stairs. Again, it's they're whatever decorations or whatever you wanted to put in there, can do.

They wanted to put some some present boxes on the bottom, so they did an extra one. So it it's it's just again, this is just a rendering. I mean, different desires of the council and the public, of course, could definitely have any different play in here that we would want different size ornaments or anything that you guys would think necessary. And this is from the top view. Costs.

At this at the point that we made these slides up, we were looking at we were told budget wise, it'd be about a 150 k for the tree with a ten to fifteen year lifespan. So about roughly 10 k, 12 k a year, if you go by lifespan. We've since gotten two numbers back. One came back at $1.52, and one came back at $1.00 $1.00 7. So there's two different numbers, and they're two different manufacturers, very similar trees.

Apparently, they discount early before they order them and get them in. So if you in the zone and you put a deposit down now, you some of the discounts one company was discounting at 20%. One one company is discounting at 35%. Live trees can cost anywhere from 30 to 50 k annually. You have to go find a tree, bring them in and out.

That was one of the questions that was asked is why not why not use a a live tree. And so it's just a lot of labor, a lot of trucking every time, a lot of those types of things. Looking at the different ways to do do a tree, I've done real trees in my previous employment, and the artificial tree, have not done. But looking at what other cities have done, it's a very effective way, longer term cost effective way to do things. And we would need to if if the council's interested in this, we would have to do and if the community is interested in this, we'd have to start looking at procurement in, you know, sometime May, June, June ish to have everything here.

Public art, switching gears here. You know, there's a strong tradition of public art in Des Moines. You know, my favorite one is, of course, the alien Spot. Right? So but there's lots of different ways to do.

There's no dedicated funding for this, but the steps is is an absolute opportunity to add add public art in any number of ways, and we're just gonna share a few ways with you right now. The sun the red lines you see there are are are part portions of the wall that go with go down, and they would give a really, a good opportunity to do some type of mosaic work. If you use you got a vertical surface, you could do some I mean, not all of it or some of it or or however you want to do it, but those are areas of opportunity. I'm not saying that we want art for the entire area, but an artist that would be commissioned or would be able to come through and say, hey. I wanna put this piece in this location here.

What are the themes? So these are the areas we would direct them to if we had a mosaic art that wanted to work with a vertical a vertical piece. Here's examples of those types of art forms. On the right upper one, you see more of a just a a statue type, and you see you have a a concrete base. Concrete bases could go in multiple different locations just like in front of city hall here.

So it's pretty much open. There's a lot of so long as you don't block and create safety hazards with visual views and things like that. But generally speaking, there's lots of different opportunities if we wanted to put some type of sculpture or those types of things involved in there. We would do if we had to do if we wanted to do an art process, we do a call for artists. City would release a request for the artists.

We review that selection and some of their ideas and take a look and see what the city would wanna do. And then we do the design and the installation of it with the artist working in tandem either, you know, during the construction if they could be ready or after after we identify the the sites. Summary, recommendations are if we do the Christmas tree that the locations where we showed it to you, there's three different trees. We could provide more information or or more questions. The decision would be if we go forward, you know, price, durability, realistic look.

I think we've done a lot of that. Choices on lighting could affect the cost a little bit one way or the other, you know, whether it's white or color. We believe that the c seven LED lights, they're the larger lights. It's a very big tree, so even the larger lights will look little. But they're also much easier to replace if you lose one or two. You could as you plug in the tree, you can get up there and change them out much easier. I think they're better, and they're also brighter, lower maintenance, and easier to repair. We kinda need to know if you want us to go down this path pretty quickly because of the timelines and the pricing that I shared with you. And then art installations, you know, mosaics are great. Sculptures, anytime, and timing, is is you know, we could start working on it now.

Probably wouldn't be installed after the project. And that's it. We're just the I already mentioned, you know, the feedback we're requesting and what the council would like us to do.

Questions? Councilmember Harris.

Yeah. I'll I'll bite. I'm unclear on the mechanical anchoring. Is it at the base? I mean, in other words, what is what do you need in order to proceed now that couldn't be done?

Oh, it it could be done later. It's just easier and more convenient if you do it now. So or within the next you know, we we'd wanna design the anchor points, put foundations in under the concrete, and there'd be metal anchor hook points. In this one here, they're showing a water barrel, I think. Where was it? Here. They're showing water barrels in this one, and you see how they're tied down on this inside the center of the tree depending on the height of the tree. These trees can grow. And so, like, there's three barrels there. If we used water barrels for a 50 foot tree, I think the number they said was eight barrels.

If you use water barrels, it's four if you do concrete block. And so you just put, but if you had, foundation in under where we're gonna put the tree and you put the anchor points in there, and so on the top, it would be it would be surface covering with a small access port on top that you would pull off when it came time to put the tree, you just hook it right in. It'd be easier, cleaner, and and probably even stronger than it would be any of the concrete or the water. The trees themselves are designed for 70 to 80 mile an hour winds, so even at 50 foot. So the connection point, it's really a structural it's actually a structural engineering problem to make sure there's a blow over. Right? So the so the the bottoms and the foundations would need to be designed to be installed.

So the the mechanical anchor is inside the tree, not those little feet things on the outside?

Oh, absolutely correct. So you see there's some going all the way up to the top, there's there's there's cabling, and they they come down. They they would hook to the bottom. That's a stabilizing platform, but not what actually is connected to the tree.

Thank you.

Councilmember Netting.

Thank you, mayor. And thank you, Mike, for your, presentation there. So we're talking about

a fake tree here. Artificial tree. Correct. It's it's steel with, steel either galvanized depending on tree selected or powder coated just like that triangular thing you see there. Yeah. And then it has all the branches that go into each ring.

My I guess my question is logistics. Where is that gonna be stored?

They're actually these are questions we've asked. They'd probably be stored up at the shop, and they are designed to be nested. A lot of the malls and areas like that also have trees like this. So they're designed to actually fit in a pretty small area. So we'd find space down at the public workshop for storage.

Kinda like a Russian nest.

Like yeah. Yeah. You see, as you take it apart, they just kinda nest into each other. So you need a large round area, but you can you can you can nest them into each other.

Be stored up at the public works?

Correct. And the tree is designed, so that locals, local staff can install it. You don't need to bring you can bring in specialty. There's companies that do this, but it's it's well within our capabilities to do this, and then put it up and put it down every year. So it would be staff time.

And I'm no stranger to being in yards where things are being stored. What what are we gonna do to protect it to give it that ten to fifteen year life?

We'd probably put it inside. We have two different inside areas down there, probably down in the the lower left corner is probably where we'd go with it or one of the other areas. So that would be one of the two things we would do. Alright.

Thank you, sir.

Councilmember Simons.

Yeah. Mike, very nice presentation and a lot of good information. I as I'm kind of understanding it, and correct me if I'm wrong, the the really immediate question is, do we want to install the anchors and the bases that are part as part of our concrete pour that we're gonna be doing? Mhmm. And we could decide to wait a year to purchase the tree.

Mhmm.

And and that would be fine. So that's really the immediate question to everybody. Correct?

That is correct. If the council wanted to do a tree this December, and get the bargain pricing that they're the preorder pricing is what they're calling it because it comes in if you wait till June, July time frame and get delivered in November, they don't do the early order discounts. You know, it's it's it's like any other business. So so the answer is is there's two drivers. One would be early getting permission to order probably before, like, second week in April. They wanted March 31, but that's not gonna happen. But they're negotiable. Right? So that's one thing. If you wanna do it this year, that's a that's a decision point.

If you wanna do it sometime in the future and say, put in put in the foundations, that's that's an important point either way.

And how about on on the art projects, it's the same timeline, putting in the anchor points.

So the the art projects is really dependent, sir, on the on the artist. Right? So we don't wanna make any until we know what the art is, we go out and the artist chooses. We don't wanna make any assumption about what type of connection or anything. Those are all areas we wanna pick areas and things that they can add afterwards because we don't know what the artist's preference is. And having worked with artists before on civil construction projects, I I wanna wait till they tell me what they want because it changes.

So it's it's better to say, tell me what you want rather than saying, I'm gonna put an eight foot pole in here. You figure out the art.

Exactly. The art if you're gonna have public art, the art drives, not the infrastructure. And so we need to let the artist choose that, tell us what they need, and then we need to back plan how to add it after they've come up with what their piece looks like.

And the mosaic concepts, are they a similar thing, or can you attach a mosaic to a wall that's already been pulled?

Yeah. It's it's vertical vertical concrete walls. So there's there's different kinds of features that you could there's different ways you can do that. I don't know which are what the artist would wanna do, but generally speaking, that's a pretty on a vertical wall with mosaic, it's a pretty it's a pretty simple connection point. You might have to add or rough some stuff up in order to get the base on. But there's it's very doable.

Okay. Account yeah.

Thanks.

Anyone else have a question before we go back through the lists? Let's go to council member our deputy mayor Oxiger.

Yes. Thank you, Mike, for the presentation. Do we have any idea what the cost of just doing putting in the supports at this point is as opposed to doing the whole tray?

We have not designed them, but I'm gonna guess basic footings for this type of loading. I'm gonna guess it's probably somewhere between 10 and 15,000 for a change order to the contractor.

Okay. And this is all contingent upon there being contingency money left over? I'm a little bit nervous about spending contingency money before we end the project. So

Yeah. That's why deputy mayor, when the email I had sent out said, we really just wanna know if you're interested in this because then we'll work on it and get refined cost. If you say, we're not interested, great. We'll we'll move on. So if we were to vet this further, you would be further along in the project. But, yes, we're very cognizant of the contingency and the intended purpose of it.

Thank you.

Council member Netting, I saw your hand first, and then we'll go back.

Thank you, mayor. So it it'd be more cost effective to install a foundation now. Absolutely. Even if we choose not to do the tree, we could punt we could kick that can down the road for a couple years if we wanted to.

Yes. That's that's that's absolutely correct.

So the anchoring points could be epoxied in later? Or

They could be, but I I again, we don't have an we haven't vetted it to the design piece. I don't know if they need to be a footing below depending upon the wind loads and stuff. So we may have to do cuts rather than just epoxy because you need to get you need to have a foundation underneath it.

But but we could do the foundation for

Mhmm.

Ten or fifteen thousand dollars Mhmm. And then decide on the tree later.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Councilmember Harris.

Yeah. Darn. I'm taking the bait again. Is it, was that location chosen for aesthetics, or is there some structural?

It was chosen for a couple of different reasons. One, aesthetics, obviously. Let me get to it here. Okay. Well, my corollary is are there other places that will mechanically support the tree if you know how you buy a couch and your wife says, put it over there. So on I mean, does it have to go there? Because there are pipes and conduits. Yes, aesthetics was the first driver. Right? And and the idea that was lined up with two twenty third was really critical.

We looked at different other pipes and different things that would be there. And then the other critical piece is that you need a fire. You'll see there's some ballads there that connect the two parking lots across the cross, so you have to be able to have a fire access. So the place of the tree all that pushed the tree back a little bit further. So there's there there were very a lot of dynamics that the landscape architect looked at and which led them to this location. So you're you're more limited than you might think, and this is kind of almost kinda where if you want a tree this size, it almost has to go here. You know, they looked at two or three other different places, and they just couldn't get it to work out right.

Alright, folks. We are at the time limit set for this item, but I wanna get a sense of what you would like to do. Would you like a vote on the footings in the foundation and look at the tree in the future, or do you want staff to go ahead and pursue whether or not they should look into investing in a tree purchase? And it sounds like I don't know if you need specific direction on the art installation. That's something that can come later as well.

I think we just wanna ensure you're comfortable with us putting that as an item for later.

Do we wanna do a vote?

I move that we in I move that we install the footing for a tree and look at procuring a tree possibly down the future if there's money left over at in in in the contingency.

Go ahead. And I am actually going to say the opposite.

Oh, well, wait. We have to see if there's a second. Oh, sorry. My bad. Second. Okay. So now we have a motion on the table to put in the footing and wait to see if there's money left in the contingency to go ahead and work towards a tree purchase. Any discussion? Council member, let's let's go to council member Netting since he made the motion.

I absolutely think that this if if we're going to continue to hold the tree lighting ceremony down in the marina And as well as it was attended and and as much as the community liked it, I I think this is the way to move forward with this. It is absolutely much easier to install any kind of footing or structural before before the finished concrete is placed. It'll look better aesthetically. It just never looks the same if you just go down and start tearing new stuff up down the road if we have contingency left over. So I I think it's prudent that we look forward and, do this minimal cost at minimal cost too to install the footing for this, prior to finished placement of concrete.

So

Councilmember Harris, I think I saw your hand.

I will vote no on whatever. We just finished our two day strategic plan, and the council talked about fiscal sustainability. And I was struck in watching Olympia this year. I like the fact that they condense all the budgeting into just a short period. What we do is we spend stuff throughout the year, and this is going to be 12, let's say, thousand a year plus the setup and takedown on, say, 5 plus the other things.

So if, you know, we do these ad hoc things and then we get to the budget end of the deal in September, October, and there's nothing left to plan, and this will end up being $2,530,000 bucks a year, and we we barely we couldn't do flowers last year. I'm just saying we should build the steps and, you know, take the win and then make progress each year. But what we're doing now is we're just sort of getting we've got I mean, and it's contingency money. You you know, we I'm I've just been at the marina long enough where I'm like, maybe we'll hit something. I'm just we did the strategic plan in order to we said that fiscal sustainability is our top priority, or I thought that was the consensus.

And the way to do that is to only spend money a few times a year, collect all the needs, wants, and desires. But the reason we have never gotten on top of it is because we do our spending in an ad hoc thing. And because they're all really fun things to do, nobody ever says no. And the moment you say, well, I'm just spending $15 on this and everything. No. The moment you do that, the train starts leaving the station. And, you know, and we have so much nice stuff coming this year. Why can't you just be happy with that and keep making progress a year at a time? Thank you.

Council member Desmoning. I'm sorry.

I got a little bit lost in all that. I am familiar with working with these trees. I have seen the longevity. And in this particular instance, what we're looking at is making the decision now that benefits us for the next multiple years. It is a purchase now where if you amortize, is that the word, that dollar amount, it is currently less than what is being spent on the event, period.

We did just discuss how much the fourth of July event was. I did sit here and make a fiscal responsibility saying that $6,000 a minute for a drone show is not fiscally responsible. This is fiscally responsible. We are planning ahead. We are using the least amount of funds at this time to benefit us for several years in advance. I have a question about several comments that were made. If we're not purchasing a tree for the tree lighting, how are we having a tree lighting?

We would use the tree that we used last year assuming Mike doesn't tell those contractors to take it out like they almost

And I I don't want any part of that, but we did discuss in the numbers. Mike put many tangible numbers up there that we can quantify showing that it is more expensive over the years to use a live tree than this fake tree. And so I do see this as good math, and I do see this as something that should be approached now instead of later and having windows of opportunity closed and having not spread this cost out over periods of time where we may not have the opportunity. The community has spoken. They want to have more events, and the tree lighting was successful, and they have spoken.

They'd like that to happen again. So I will be for this, but I'm confused on the vote because it was for the connection points. We didn't talk about purchasing the tree, so I'm confused on

Right. We could, couple things could happen. One, council member Nudding could change, withdraw his his motion, or we can take the vote, see if it's yay or nay. And if it's nay, we can, someone else can make another motion. Does that seem correct? Yes. Council member Seamans.

Yeah. Thank you. The motion before us, and and I think the only immediate question that we have is do we install the footage? And that's a 10 to 10 to $12,000 change order in what is already being built. That just makes a lot of sense to me.

I think they're they're as we've heard from the strategic plan, from everything that we've done reaching out to the community, they want more smaller events. This will facilitate that event growing. I am not ready to purchase a tree at this point because we don't know what our finances are going to look like. But I do think it is prudent to add the connection points now, and that's what the motion is in front of us. And I think that's the physically prudent thing to do at this moment.

We can look at the tree next month, two months, three months down the road If we, you know, if if we figure out how we could pay for it, I'm not. I just don't think I'm there yet. And so I would really support the motion as made. I think it's a great idea, and it is physically responsible to do that now rather than later.

Council member Bloss.

Well, I'm not in favor of the holiday tree or putting the footing in at this time. It's no surprise that our CD finances are strained. We're looking at deficits starting next year. That's only gonna get worse. I don't see how in the future next year or the year after we'll have more money appear for this tree. So if you put the footing down now, spend 10,000, I don't see how we'll have money in the future to spend on it. I think it sends a bad message to the city. We are, later today, gonna talk about increasing the car tab fees for every resident in the city. That will bring $240,000. To turn around and say we're gonna spend a 150,000 to buy a tree, I know it's two different pots of money, but I think that's just the wrong message you sent at this time.

Maybe in the future, we have more money and we can do that, but I will vote against it today.

I wanted a a quick reminder here for staff about how much is in the contingency fund.

It is 1,375,000.000 within contingency for this project, like, only this project.

So we're talking about spending 10,000 of the 1.375. $3.07 5. Council member Harris, your second.

So you're considering removing the existing tree at the Harbor Master's Office, or did I mishear anything?

Let let's not get into that level of detail for this discussion. But, yes, I think they are still figuring out the footprint. And

Well, the reason I ask is that I did not attend the last tree lighting, but I was told that a lot of people really liked it just at the, bargain price of 0. So I'm just you know, thank you.

That that's correct. It was not $0. There was But it would be Excuse me. Council member Harris.

Of that.

Council member Harris. Thank you. Alright. Any more discussion before we head to that vote? Counts deputy mayor Okser.

Thank you.

Actually, it's a it's a question. What is the proximity of the the where you're planning on putting in the base to the water feature.

Debbie Debbie Merritt's, it's dual purpose. Part of the tree is actually in the water feature because the water feature is closed during that time frame. And so when it's when the water feature is turned off, it's basically additional plaza.

Okay. So one of the things that I think is concerning here is that, one, you've got power Mhmm. In proximity to water feature, and then also you've got piping Mhmm. To deal with. So as to whether or not it's prudent to do to configure this all at once rather than try and come back and do it, know, again, I think that's a that's a consideration. So okay. I'm thank you.

Okay. Let's go ahead, and I'll restate the motion right now. I'll make sure I'm hearing and rephrasing and phrasing it correctly. We have a motion on the table to, direct staff to go ahead and put in the foundation and footing needed only knowing that we can have a future conversation about a tree purchased when we know more about the contingency fund and the health. Is that correct?

Correct, mayor.

Alright. So let's say if you are in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. If you are opposed, please raise your right hand. That's, council member Harris and council member Bloss. Any abstentions?

Okay.

Thank you. That's a name vote. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Let's go ahead and read the consent agenda. Item one, approval of vouchers. Item two, approval of minutes. Item three, South King Housing and homelessness Homelessness Partners allocation of funds.

Item four, density bonus for religious properties ordinance second reading. Item five, tree preservation program grant award and task assignment. Item six, Redondo manhole replace replacement project construction contract award. Item seven, twenty twenty six, field house maintenance, and that concludes the consent agenda, mayor. Council, do we have a motion? Councilmember Netting.

I move to approve the consent calendar as read, mayor.

Second goes to council member Vlas. Does any council member wish to pull an item? Council member Harris.

Item three, the, skip allocation.

Okay. Any other items? Okay. Hearing none, we'll vote on the consent items one two four five six and seven. All in favor, please say your right hand, raise your right hand and leave it until I can say your name. Deputy mayor Oxiger. Council member Stamets, council member Harris, council member Desmoni, council member Netting, council member Blas, and myself. Consent passes, seven zero. Now we'll go to item number three, and that was yours. Council member Harris.

Thank you. This gets into the weeds. I strongly support, dorsal and skip. It's it's a tremendous thing they are trying to do to increase housing opportunities. I always vote no.

The my predecessor in this seat said before I got on too slow. And in fact, our contribution the the our contribution never leads to increasing housing in Des Moines. It is a distraction. We end up building things other places and not increasing availability here. So it's somewhat we pay $31,000 a year to not achieve more opportunities for people to live here, and, you know, let's vote. Thank you.

Do I have a motion? Council member Netting.

I move to enact draft yeah. I move to enact draft ordinance, draft resolution number two six dash zero one six and authorize the allocation of $31,264 from the city of Des Moines, contribution to the Skip Housing Capital Fund and finance affordable housing in South King County communities in concurrence with skip executive board's recommendations.

Second.

Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Do we do discussion? Alright. We'll go ahead and have the vote. All in favor, please raise your right hand. Say aye. Aye. Thank you. Council member or deputy mayor Oxiger. Thank you. Council member Simons, council member Desmone, council member Netting, council member Bloss, and myself. All opposed? Council member Harris. Motion passes six one.

Thank you very much. Let's go to our unfinished business. First up is going to be our planning commission appointments, and we're being led a staff presentation with Rebecca Deming, our community dev community development director.

Thank you, mayor, council. The council approved an ordinance in December, which updated the municipal code for the establishment of a planning commission. In February, the council provided their recommendations and determined the seven applicants, they they recommended for appointment. The council recommended those requested those seven applicants were invited back to return to this meeting and introduce themselves prior to final appointment. Additionally, the council still needs to determine which of these three app which applicants three applicants would serve for the initial two term, in order to stagger those future appointments.

Staff is recommending that you put those either names into a hat or use a digitized random selection to draw those names to serve those two terms, or you can choose a different process. But those seven applicants are here to do the introductions as requested. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm Danielle Anderson. I live on North Hill. And just a little bit about myself. Des Moines has been a part of my entire life. My grandparents actually built their house on North Hill in 1965. And about four years ago, we purchased it. I grew up in Federal Way nearby, so I am a South Sound girl all the way. I went to the University of Washington School of Architecture, and I have been working in the field for over twenty years now. I started my career in urban design and architecture doing transit work and public works projects. I worked on the ill fated monorail project, if you if anybody's old enough to remember that or in

the city,

and some community centers, things like that. And then I've also done medical office planning and commercial work with developers. Most recently, I have my own small business doing residential design right here in Des Moines. So my husband and I are both small business owners. And the reason I wanted to join the planning commission is because I do work in a lot of jurisdictions around the metro area all the way up from Snohomish County down to Pierce County and East and west.

Sorry. And I spend a lot of time in municipal codes. A lot of time in municipal codes. And I have compared contrasted municipal codes for all of the various jurisdictions that I've worked in, which sounds super boring, but to me, it's actually kind of interesting to see the differences and also going through the permitting process in many different jurisdictions. And I have a lot of thoughts on that, as you can imagine, and

a

lot of experience with that. I'm also very passionate about urban planning, about creating a downtown core that is welcoming and attractive. I love the idea of getting pedestrians on the streets, moving around, you know, small shops, people wanting to be here on a Saturday afternoon. I plan to stay here hopefully for my whole life, and I just wanna see this this community just really grow. And I think from the perspective of fiscal responsibility as that has come up many times tonight, proper urban planning and proper zoning and all that kind of stuff can really, really improve city budgets and the ability to collect funds.

So that's why I'm here, and I hope that I can be of service for a long time. Thank you. Thank you.

I wanna go after somebody else. I'm Michelle Curry. I am Des Moines resident, born and raised. I wanted to be on this planning commission for two reasons. First, as a resident, just because I'm a little bit tired of seeing the potential and hearing about the potential and feeling the potential, and it's just time that I get involved in some way and try to help realize that potential. And I decided now was the time I would come up with the time to do it. Second reason, I own a small business in Des Moines with Todd. We own The Print Place, and it's super important to

me that Des Moines continues

to be a place where small independent businesses can thrive for almost forty years, which is what the print place is at now. So I wanna be part of the group that maybe keeps our foot on the pedal, keeps your foot on the pedal, keeps our eye on the prize. I feel like people have tried, and it's go and stop, go and stop, go and stop. And, hopefully, now with new leadership and fresh eyes and a council that seems determined to work together that we can be the group that kind of keeps our foot on the pedal and things actually get realized around here. Thanks.

Well, I kinda wanna go after someone else too. Name is Tracy Buxton. I live in Des Moines. I'm the former mayor of the city of Des Moines. And currently, I'm the founder and president of the new Des Moines Chamber of Commerce.

And so for the last handful of years, several years, I've worked closely with the administration and the council in this city in regard to community development, zoning, planning. And, the in this new position, I I believe that bringing my voice to the table is a nice connecting bridge between the business quarter, the business community, and the administration and council in the city. And so I feel like it's a I think it would be very helpful to have me, a board, and having a voice at the table. And another thing I really appreciate as I look is the invitation to so many women to participate in this arena. So often, even even in the current era, there are still very few women that enter these circles.

So I appreciate this opportunity. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Good evening. I'm, Barton Delacy. I'm not. I don't check any boxes. I I'm, have been a resident here for about six years, but through my wife and and her family that, they moved the house we live in to our site. And they bought the lot in '45, and they moved the house there in 1948. So, my wife is third generation, in the Woodmont area. And and when you count our kids and grandkids that stay, we've we've got five generations now under that roof. So this is very much home. My personal background, I'm I'm an appraiser.

While I went to school in Oregon and and thought I'd go into law and politics, I I ended up loving valuation and went back, got a a master's in urban planning at at Portland State. I've I've actually served, back in Lake Oswego. I served a couple terms as a planning commissioner. My role has always been in the private sector, as a land economist, and as someone who brings independence, objectivity, and impartiality to everything I do in my career. And I would I would bring the same to to this role.

And I I I think this is just a great opportunity to kinda with the greenfield to sort of open up, you know, really restart Des Moines as it as it really should be. I I can I've been coming up here for forty years. I remember when there were still two grocery stores downtown, Elm Trees on Marine View Drive. And and it's it's it's sad for me to go down, you know, see berry patches and lawns that I mean, as the city struggles, there's so much we could do with with economic development by doing a better job with our real estate. So I hope I can help. Thank you.

Hello, everyone. I'm Colleen Gantz, and I am an eight year resident of the Zenith neighborhood here in Des Moines. I live across the street from the Seashore Club that's celebrating its hundredth year anniversary this year. And I am a professional in the community engagement field. I work for many of the municipalities throughout our state and across the country with a people first approach to infrastructure development in the areas of transportation, environment, and health.

And so I look forward to bringing those skills to this work and our city, leading with a community engagement first type approach, which we actually brought to the strategic plan just recently with the citizen advisory board I was a member of and led a community engagement process that led to record setting survey participation. And I am very proud of our citizen advisory board for leading that effort. And I want to do this because I want a way to give back to Des Moines and would love to apply the skills and expertise that I gained over the years to this city and this opportunity. Thanks.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone. I'm Nicole Gunkel, new or Des Moines resident, officially a year and a half here, but a permanent resident here. I have a a ten plus year background in economic development. It's kind of my career at this point, and more recently, a lot with small businesses and how to make a community help small businesses thrive and how to better build a community around supporting those businesses. In Washington state alone, 89% of our economy is driven by small businesses.

The reason I wanted to join the planning committee, I live in the Marina District. I walk it almost every single day, if not, like, three times a day in between work breaks, and I wanna see more. I wanna spend my money here. I wanna walk and get a book from a bookstore, and then I wanna go get some snacks at ABC and then get a coffee, at Andy Irene's. And I would love to spend more money here, and I'd love to figure out a way to help the community, build back. So thank you.

Good evening. My name is Chuck Coleman. I live in Redondo. Retired architect. Career started fifty years ago, with, doing projects, and went to work for real estate developers and jumped on the development side and never looked back.

Been working for some great developers throughout the country and overseas, Gerald Hines, Howard Hughes. And my role in those development companies was to basically do projects from cradle to grave, meaning conceptual design, planning, working with local governments, community groups, con design construction, turning it over to property management. And I've had a blessed career. I've worked on projects that I've only dreamed about from shopping centers to office buildings, master plan communities, pretty much everything except except health care and single family residential. I don't do those.

But so we bought our property about ten years ago. My wife is a fourth generation South King County family, And I agree with everything you said beforehand, and one of my philosophies is always make a place better before you when you leave it than when you got there. So thanks very much.

Thank you. We do have some suggested language here, but I wanted to check about our method for choosing the terms. Did we have a suggestion we wanted to go with? Oh, a a spinning wheel. Check it out. Holy moly. Hold on just a second. Let's go to council member Dismone. Do you have a question?

I actually have a question slash statement. I'm just I'm just wondering if any of you would like to volunteer for the two years, or are we just arbitrarily choosing you? Is there anyone that's interested in that two year term, Or We could let the wheel decide. We could let the wheel decide.

What? Do wanna hear an answer first.

Two or four.

Two or four years. Okay. What? Oh, look at that. I had two volunteers. Really? Chuck and Colleen? You wanna do two? Wait. We only have spots for

I hope you're not, like, this is already expressing disinterest in who even got on it. On.

That is three. Okay. So let's make sure we write those down. You'll do it for ten? So that means that we have let's change this make sure we have some language up on the board maybe for us about who will be the four for four year terms and who will be the three for three.

I'm sorry.

Three for two?

Do you have the slide? I think, Rebecca did you have

a slide with the motion,

or is it just in the

Well, let me make sure I can recap. So we have okay. Yeah. Bungsten Anderson. Curry. Curry. Delacy. Delacy. Four

year. Okay. Delacy. Uh-huh. Coleman, Gantz, and Gunkel are two year. Coleman. Take that personally that you guys volunteered so quickly.

Gance and Gunkel. Okay. I'll help with that if someone needs help with that motion. So we'll start with the motion suggested motion number one. Councilmember Netting.

I move to appoint Danielle Anderson, Tracy Buxton, Charles Coleman, Michelle Curry, Barton Delacy, Colleen Grants, and Nicole Gunkel to the Planning Commission.

I'll give that to council member Steinmetz. It's been moved and seconded. Any oh, we'll wait for a discussion until after the the terms. So let's go ahead and say all in favor, please raise your right hand until I pull them down. Deputy mayor Oxiger, council member Steinmetz, council member Harris, council member Des Moines, council member Nutting, council member Blossom, myself, that's seven zero. Thank you. Moving on to the next motion. Council member Nutting.

I move to

what are the names?

Buxton, Curry, Anderson, and Delaney.

Buxton, Curry, Anderson, and Delaney.

To four For four Delacy.

I'm sorry. Delacy.

Yes. Sorry.

Commissioners for four year terms and

Coleman.

Coleman. And Gunkel.

Gantz and Gunkel. Mhmm. Commissioners to two year terms. And I'd also like to add to that, they have the ability to apply again at the end of their two year term.

Okay. The code allows that.

The code allows that? Okay. So then, I retract that. Sure. So, anyways.

Is there a second? Council member Harris.

I think it's fair to say that I've wanted the planning commission back since it ended in twenty twelve, twenty thirteen. I would just note that it was removed because the council went through another tough spot, and they had these all options on the table meetings at the beach park and really thought about shaking things up. And for reasons passing understanding, they decided that ending the public planning agency, as it was called, was the way to shake things up. I am very pleased to see this back, but my little cautionary statement is that truth be told, the old planning commission made some, man, not great decisions.

Point of order, ma'am.

Yes. Well, I am

recognize the point. Yes.

I am happy to No.

I'm I'm sorry. What is what is your point? State her point. Mhmm. My point is that

this is no longer germane to what we're discussing right now. It is speaking about past events, and we are speaking about a current thing right now.

How does that it yeah. I do not I I do not take the point. It is it is very germane. I am

If you can wrap up.

I am, I believe we have four minutes for these things. It it is

If you could pull it back to these candidates and the

I understand that thing. But please let people say what they have to say. I'm very happy with the selections made today, but it's a cautionary tale. Really, the comments I've heard have been about being objective, and I would that is the part that I look forward to is making interests for the city that people will be happy about twenty, twenty five years from now, not things that are just immediately appealing in the moment. And I thank you so much for your service.

I am just amazed at the talent pool I'm seeing here. Thank

you. Deputy mayor Oksicker.

Yes. Just as a point of clarification, council member Netting, your question about people's ability to reapply after their the initial two year term, are you I assume you're addressing the term limits overall.

And

That was removed.

I removed

that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

That Well, but then okay. I'll raise the question again. Are we saying, yes. Yes. You can apply afterwards, but are we are we having an an eight year and then a two year eight year and then a six year situation, or is the idea that after two years, they would still have the ability to go to eight to meet the term?

The terms will be four years. So I believe there is a term limit of two terms. So people that volunteered for two years, if they then apply for a second term, will have a six year service.

So that's where we're cutting it. Okay.

Thank you.

Those few people. Everybody else will have eight years is the case.

Wanna clarify that. Okay. Thank you.

Councilmember Simons.

Yeah. I just wanna say congratulations to all of you. I I do think we have a a great group. It's a brand new group. I like everything that I I was hearing from everybody up here. This council is an entirely different council. What's passed is passed. We're looking moving forward with you. Thank you. Congratulations.

Councilmember Velasquez.

Thank you for stepping stepping up. Thank you for working with us, and we look forward to, working with you all.

Councilmember Netting.

Thank you, mayor. I just wanna thank everybody that applied for the positions. I mean, it's I've been in the city for twenty four, twenty five years, and the the volunteer pool has run dry a lot. And so I appreciate everybody that and well qualified candidates. And, congratulations to the seven that made it through, and look forward to working with you. So well qualified and look forward to it. Thank you.

Alright. I think I have a motion that I need to wrap up here. All in favor, please raise your right hand. Deputy mayor Oksager, council member Simons, council member Harris, council member Desmoni, council member Netting, council member Blossom, myself, that's seven zero. Thank you very much, and thanks for coming in today. I really appreciate your time.

Trying to

trying to move us on. Let's talk about item number two. Six Gill Shark commemorative Street name, and Tommy Owen is here. Mister Owen.

Wait a second.

Alright. Good evening, mayor and city council. Tommy Owen, city engineer. This evening, I have a brief presentation on the Sixgill Shark Commemorative Street name. So last year, this came up as a topic of discussion for the council a couple times, but no action was ever taken.

Then at the January 22 meeting of this year, council received public comments to reconsider the Sixgill Shark Street name signage. So a staff came back with, at tonight's meeting is Sixgill Shark Way would become the commemorative name of Redondo Way South as shown in the map here, highlighted. Basically, Redondo Beach Drive down to the city limits with, with Federal Way. The cost to implement this commemorative street name signage would be approximately $500. For this location, it's basically two signs in the cost to of labor and install. And with that, I'll leave you with the motion.

Council member, nothing.

I move to enact draft draft resolution number 26Dash015 establishing establishing a commemorative name of 6 Gill Shark Way for the section of Redondo Way South between Redondo Beach Drive South and the jurisdictional boundary with Federal Way to the Southeast.

Do I have a second? Second. I'm gonna give it to council member Dismone just for fun. Any discussion? Council member Harris.

It's actually a question. These are Standard Street signs. They don't have just, like, you know, a shark logo or something

like that. It'll just be

the standard street name sign with the commemorative name underneath it.

Okay. No. I just thought because, like, as part of the thing, like, if they're I I'll I'll ask Russ about it, but just something that sort of draw drew attention to the whole thing. Okay. I'm I'm just $500 seems cheap for street signs for some reason. I don't know. Is that just the that's really why I asked. Is that the going fee?

Yeah. Yeah. That is.

Okay. Thanks.

Deputy Mayor Oksigern.

Yes. So you say placement of two signs. Would one of them be at the at the point of the the jurisdiction with with Federal Way?

We could do that. Currently, there's no signage up there. Right. Yeah. We could look into something like

Well, no. I'm I'm not suggesting that we do it because you'd be putting a to me, you'd be putting a sign in the middle of, you know, a forest. You know? So okay. That was my concern. Thank you.

Alright. Well, looks like we're out of discussion. We have a motion and a second. All in favor, please raise your right hand. Deputy mayor Oscar, council member Steinmetz, council member Harris, council member Dismone, council member Nutting, council member Bloss, and myself. That passes 70. Thank you. Alright. We're moving on to item number three, our salary commission ordinance first reading and a staff presentation by assistant city manager oh, this is not right. But AJ Johnson. Thank you.

I got I got half of it right.

Thank you,

mayor, for clearing up that you do know my name. I appreciate that.

No problem. No

problem. Good evening, everyone. I don't know if I can beat the time box of Tommy's presentation, but we'll see what we can do. My name is Adrianne Johnson Newton or AJ, and I am the assistant city manager. And I am here tonight to follow-up on a discussion we've been having that started in December about a salary commission, and tonight is the first reading for the draft ordinance. Oops. Sorry.

And so just a bit

of a reminder about how a salary commission works. So it's a formal independent body that's established by the city through the action of the city council. Its role is to set the compensation for elected officials rather than council setting its own pay. Members would be appointed by the mayor, confirmed by the council, and then no, city officers, which basically means like myself or department directors, employees or immediate family members, may serve. And then there's some rules around how the salary once a determination is made, how it's filed with the city clerk, and then when an increase or decrease can take effect.

So during our discussion on February 12 with the council, they indicated or you guys indicated that you were interested in establishing a salary commission. And so there were questions that we asked of the council that we needed to place into the draft ordinance that we're reviewing tonight. And so the draft ordinance, what it does is that it establishes a five member salary commission. It states that to in order to participate on the salary commission, you must be a member of Des Moines or a resident of Des Moines. Excuse me.

We have a maximum of two terms and four year terms. And then members would serve without compensation, and the commission would meet every two years. And one thing to note is that the council indicated that they wanted that timeline to tie up with the budget, and so they would like that the salary commission's determination if there is one to happen prior to when you guys would be actually voting on the budget. And so here is the motion before the council, which would be to pass on the ordinance to a second reading to our next available regular council meeting. Or if there are things in the draft ordinance that we captured incorrectly, this would be the time that you would, give us your changes, and we could bring that back.

And then, of course, you can read the other two options you have before you.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion? Councilmember Netting.

I move to pass draft ordinance number two six dash zero zero one to a second reading on the next available regular council meeting agenda.

I see a second by councilmember Steinmetz. And the discussion? Councilmember Harris.

Yeah. For what it's worth, I will again encourage people to change direction. Just if you insist on more money, just settle on a fixed percentage, and, this is yet more stuff, for people to yeah. It's just more administrative junk, and I will be voting no. I encourage you to do so as well. Thank you.

Council member Simons.

Yeah. I think it's a good opportunity to get the public's feedback as to what the compensation should be up here without us having to get in that awkward position of saying, god, do I wanna raise? But, you know, what are the voters gonna say? Let's just put it out there to a community a commission of the voters and so that it can actually happen. It's not administrative. It meets every two years. It's not going to be a burdensome thing, but it's a decision that should be made because we there there hasn't been a change in compensation in, what, a decade or more?

1999.

Yeah. Since 1999. And that's kinda crazy. We do wanna encourage people to feel like they can participate both in setting salaries and in running for the council, and I think what's will accomplish both of those. So I think it's a good thing for the community to do it this way.

I have a couple things to add. While I know it is a tough budget season and I know it's a hard time to look at this, we're not predestined in knowing what the council what the commission will do. They may come back and say that that there's no money to raise or that we're compensated correctly. We don't know what they're going to say. But echoing council member assignments, the council has not considered its own compensation since 1999.

I have seen regional conversations around salary or compensation studies regionally, and they even leave us off the list because our salaries are so low that they don't even wanna consider Des Moines as a data point when discussing it around other municipalities in our area. So we don't know what we're gonna say, but we do know that we're an outlier and absolutely how low that is. And I see it as an opportunity to encourage more people to run for this office because I don't want it to be a barrier for folks to say, I wanna do this, but I know it'll take a significant amount of time and resources, and I'm not gonna get compensated in any way. And if I have to choose between putting food on the table with a job that earns more money or going out for city council, I may have to choose the one that will cover my bills. So I I encourage folks to support, but this is gonna be our first reading.

And so we're gonna talk about it again, and we'll have a chance to get everyone's feelings again at that second time. So I'm gonna pass the two vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Deputy mayor Oksager, council member Steinmetz, council member Desmoni, council member Nutting, council member Bloss, and myself. All those opposed? Council member Harris, Motion passes, six one. Alright. Thank you. Let's move on to our next item, which is going to be our transportation district.

Thank you, mayor. And, this this one is me. Thank

you, ma'am.

Matthew Hatchen, assistant city attorney with the staff presentation on draft ordinance 25 dash zero eight zero, a, $10, card tab fee increase. Since, 2008, the city of Des Moines has had a transportation benefit district or TBD, which is a special, taxing authority to generate funding for transportation improvement projects. Originally, the TBD set a $20 per car per year car tab fee that was increased in 2015 to $40 where it is today. This $40 car tab fee is currently bringing in about $950,000 per year for funds that are restricted to basically roads purposes, oftentimes our arterial paving projects. So in September, staff brought to council a number of revenue generation options given the fiscal constraints of the city.

One of the options that was given to council, something that that council can do strictly through legislation was to increase car tabs from $40, another $10 to bring it up to $50. That's projected to bring in approximately $240,000 per year. Again, that would be risk restricted to transportation improvement purposes. And then after further discussion, council directed staff to bring back an ordinance for consideration, and that is what draft ordinance 25 dash zero eight zero would do. If council did opt to pass the ordinance, just a few mechanical things, There is a waiting period of six months from the date the ordinance has passed before, we can start collecting the higher CAR TEP fees.

And if we want it to take effect in the year 2026, we have to publish the council's intent to raise CARTAB fees, by April 1. And if, council does decide to move it forward tonight, staff is prepared to publish the notes. So what would $240,000 additional per year mean for the city? So one way to look at it is $240,000 means an extra 1.5 FTEs for our street maintenance staff. Another another way to look at it, it is it is increasing our capacity to do do our asphalt paving program to to make sure the streets are in good repair.

And if we use these funds in in projects where we're partnering with utilities, where we're both contributing funds to do the work. It's a force multiplier. And, for example, on the on Midway Source 16th Avenue project, the $240,000 would, mean two lane miles of new roadway. So previous and, current projects have been funded with TBD funds. I include the arterial street paving program, downtown alley improvements, Barns Creek Trail, and the North Hill Elementary Walkway program.

And then just so we know what other cities in the state are are doing with respect to TBD CAR TAD fees. Des Moines is one of 58 cities in the state, that have a TBD and and imposed CAR TAD fees, to raise money. There are at least four cities that are already at the $50 level, Bainbridge Island, Lake Forest Park, Seattle, and Vancouver. And three of those, in addition to the $50, card tab fees, have a additional sales tax on top of their regular sales tax, sort of like the, public safety sales tax you recently passed, but for the money goes to TBDs. There are also several cities, at the $40 level where Des Moines is right now.

And, again, three of those cities, Linwood, Olympia, and Shoreline, have $40 car tab fees plus the additional sales tax. So my takeaway from this is that if the council did opt to raise raise it to $50 right now, we would not be a huge outlier in terms of what, the TBD imposes. So that concludes my presentation. There's just motion on the screen. Are there any questions?

Council member Moss.

Quick question on the timing. So if today we pass a first reading, second reading, we do it next city council meeting that the week after, and then we can have the ordinance in place before April 1. It has to be published by and final by before April 1. We don't have much time is what I'm getting at there.

It it would be best if if it was passed by by April 1. But we we definitely have to have it.

If you're asking if you vote on March 26, will it be in effect for April 1? Answer is yes. So at the point where the council votes, it's in effect. Thank you.

Okay. Is there a motion? Council member Netting.

I move to pass draft ordinance number two five dash zero eight zero to a second reading on the next available regular city council meeting agenda.

Is there a second? Second. Council member assignments. Any further discussion? Council member Voss.

I will reluctantly vote on this to in favor of this card tab fee increase. $10 may not seem like a lot of money. It's not a lot of money for many of us, but it's not the only fee increase that people are gonna be hit with. And that starts to add up. And for some people, that is gonna be hard to, to budget for. But we are very limited in what revenue increase we can get with the city. That's one of the only tools we have right now to improve our, bad fiscal situation, so I will vote in favor.

Council member Simons.

Yeah. I agree with what council member Bloss just said, but I'd just like to point out that there was a point in time when the council was very proud that they were able to start budgeting regular, repayment, and that fell away. Now they've been very creative about trying to do co forget the term term for it. When somebody else is working on it, we can work with them. And so if the street's gonna get dug up, it gets planned out better.

And this is a force multiplier for us. We have a lot of streets in our extra long city even though we're a mile wide. We're six miles long. And, you know, it's just got we've got to have a revenue source to address paving those streets and getting that done, and this is the practical way to go about it. We are not gonna be an outlier on this. Most of the other cities that I've talked to are looking. I've talked to council members in other cities. They're looking at this as a revenue option as well. So I I think this is the right way to go about addressing the needs of the future of the city, and so I'm gonna support this.

Council member Harris.

I too will support this. But, again, like with the Christmas tree and so many things, this should be a cautionary tale. We are becoming we are a fee for service community. We're not a bedroom community anymore. And every time, it's not like just that it's $10.

It's that there are so many fees, and it makes it it's it it just contributes to not having any kind of real plan when you have so many of just it's like having your credit card your bank statement, and it's got, like, 32 of these little auto debits. It's become a third or more of our budget, and it makes it impossible for us to get on top of it when we talk about being sustainable. So we should, you know, vote for this, but just think about what it means to always be just taking all of these fees to the max and struggling year after year. So something to think about. Thank you.

Alright. Let's go ahead and take it to a vote. All those in favor? Deputy mayor Oksager, council member Steinmetz, council member Nutting, council member Dismani, council member Nutting, council member Blossom, myself passes 70. Thank you. Okay. We're moving on to our new business, and that new business item will be new agenda items for consideration. So now is the time for proposing new business items for discussion on a future agenda. Any recommendation will simply need a hand raise from three council members. Do any council members have any new business they would like to propose? Council member Dismone.

Yes. I would like to propose discussing derelict properties and what the city is currently doing about that fines and code enforcement.

Oh, looks like we already have two concurrences making it three. That's all that we need to go forward on the agenda. I do propose that we will kind of wrap this up with some of the work that's already been done in this area, and that is currently underway with our contract with Dan Urnessy. So does that mean

you wanted to come back with Dan's item at the end of the year?

No. I'm sorry. But I want folks to know that there is work going on on this concurrently, and so I wanna make sure that they are working together. So we'll we will come up with something.

Got it.

But it doesn't need to wait that long. Okay. Thank you. Any other new items for consideration? New agenda items?

Alright. Moving right along. We are at the time where we talk about council member reports, which are limited to four minutes. And I have starting with council member Bloss.

Thank you, mayor. I attended the nonprofit forum this last Saturday. Well attended. The city staff did a great job setting it together, and there was a lot of the nonprofits there. It was great to have all the nonprofits in town to discuss ways to partner to discuss their calendar. Turns out that July is packed with events. Like, every week, there's multiple events, and then there's not much in the winter. So it's nice to see what everyone's doing and which dates. The mayor and deputy mayor were there. And yep.

Next, I have council member Steinmetz. Thank you. Councilmember Harris.

Thank you. I did participate in the King County Emergency Management Advisory Committee on Wednesday. There wasn't that much to report beyond what mister Everton said because just frankly, the they're they have gone from having these really big concerns about huge attendance to just I have tickets for a lot of the games, and, you know, they were, like, a couple of thousand. And now I'll probably be able to get some tickets for $39. So that should be indicative of, yeah, so the whole notion of security and crowd attendance and so on.

It's beyond disappointing to me that this is should be a huge thing for the area. I attended the, what people call the second airport committee, the Washington State Aviation Commission. I noted the presence of a couple of our airport committee members. They are extremely long and in the weeds. I wish they had stuck around because, they would have had a chance to speak to our attorney during the third runway who has become something of a national wheel.

We spent a lot of money with his firm, and it's one of the reasons it's it was so fraught because, basically, all of national firms pay plate both sides of the field. They represent a community one month and then the airlines the next. And but, you know, that's just what's what's involved. And beyond that, I attended the port last port commission meeting, and they are I would just encourage anybody who's involved in airport issues to watch what they do because they will have a heads up on anything concerning not only FIFA, the airport, and stuff, but, they gave a very detailed briefing on the notion of these detention centers and why they're just almost statistically impossible in our area. It's just not happening.

I know people have concerns about that. But, you know, they do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of information, and I encourage people to attend and watch what they do. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Desmoni. Alright. Councilmember Nutting.

I have nothing at this time, mayor. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy mayor Oxiger.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. I had the opportunity recently to of course, we had the council retreat. Also, the Chamber of Commerce had its first meeting, the nonprofit summit. And then just this last week, I was at the Waterloo Festival session. And I just wanna say I am so impressed with the amount of enthusiasm that we're seeing. And, you know, I think it bodes well for, you know, all of us. We might wanna, you know, make sure we're not getting out over our skis a bit on some of this stuff, but it's

all positive

reactions that I think we're getting, and I think it bodes well.

Great. Thank you. Like the deputy mayor said, I also attended the several of those same events. I wanna highlight the nonprofit summit. I know some of you actually in the room were there with us.

I really appreciated the energy, the enthusiasm, like like the deputy mayor said. And I think that it's it's when we have participation like that, when people show up and they also feed off of that energy that other folks are there giving, it makes that difference where connections spark and you have that opportunity to see folks go, I I can work with you or here's an idea of ours that match together. And that to me is really exciting. It kind of made my Grinch heart grow three sizes. I would also like to thank Catherine Caffrey, our city manager, Bonnie Wilkins, helping put that on.

Tremendous. Thank you very much for organizing all the groups, the refreshment, the room, and setting the place for all of those folks to come together, and I hope there's a lot of collaboration that comes out of it. There's a ton of ways to get involved in our city, and volunteering is one that's very important, very close to my heart. We learned we have a Des Moines Garden Club. If you don't know, they meet once a month, and they now have entered the Facebook realm and are hoping to get more traction, and and folks can go out and learn more about plants.

There's lots of events that are coming up. Some future events include the Rotary Waterland Pride drag bingo that's happening tomorrow night. We heard about the marina swap meet on Saturday morning. I believe the Jensen Park pancake fundraiser that's an annual tradition is happening this weekend as well. On another note, I I attended the Sound City Association PIC meeting last night, and it was absolutely dominated by a conversation around the King County Transportation District potential rate increase.

And it's a good time to remind ourselves that while I understand that that King County has the same constraints around raising revenue and new streams of revenue that most cities do, the proposal is to put on one tenth of 1% to fund improvements on county roads. Most of that money will be generated by people who live in cities who do not drive on county roads on a day to day basis. And so we, as advocates in SCA, are asking why are more dollars not coming directly to municipalities. So we will be fully involved in that conversation as it moves forward. Thank you so much, but don't go anywhere because we have an executive session.

I know I was about to get a tap on the shoulder right there. At this time, the council will go into an executive session. The purpose of this executive session is to discuss labor negotiations under RCW 42 dot three zero dot four one four zero four a and the sales or lease of a public property under RCW 42 dot three zero dot one one zero one c. This executive session is expected to last twenty five minutes, and that means it will last until about 08:44. No formal action will be taken at the end of this executive session.

Okay. Our executive session needs a little bit more time, so we're going to extend the executive session for another six minutes to 08:50. Thank you.

Alright.

Thank you. We are at the end of our meeting. Our next meeting will be a regularly scheduled city council regular meeting on 03/26/2026. Is there a motion to adjourn? It goes to Pierre, council member Boss.

So move.

Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Thank you. Motion passes. We are adjourned.