City Council - Regular Meeting

At this time, I would like to call the August 27th, 2026 Des Moines City Council meeting to order. I'm going to be leading us in the pledge. Please stand if you are able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Please let the record show that we have all council members' attendance and are present. Is there any correspondence that has not been previously shared with the council?

No, ma'am.

All right. Now it is time for public comment. We ask that you keep your comments respectful. When I call your name, you'll come up to the podium. You'll have three minutes to speak. Please state your name and your city of residence. First, I have Susan Aigner. Okay, thank you. Christy.

Hello. Thank you for allowing us to do this. My name is Christy, and I'm a long-time Des Moines resident. I'm here to please urge you to end the contracts and hood all flock cameras in Des Moines. We're seeing reports all over the country of the backlash that flock is facing and citizens are screaming from the rooftops that they do not want mass surveillance. Not only are people upset about this abuse of power, but we're also scared. We've had a considerable uptick in kidnappings in Des Moines and the surrounding areas lately. I find it hard to believe that these cameras are not adding into the ice grabbing these young men from our sleepy coastal little town. Mass surveillance and constant kidnappings don't make anyone feel safe. School is starting soon, and I am a teacher, 20th year in Highline, and I've already had families come to me because last spring there was someone kidnapped in our parking lot. How do I help them? How do I make them feel better, right? People are scared, and the cameras don't help this. When I drive through Des Moines, I frequently see police officers patrolling the streets. I trust the Des Moines police officers to protect us, right? I feel safe when they're around in the streets. I don't feel safe being under surveillance all the time. So please give us back our freedoms in Des Moines and end mass surveillance and end our contracts with flocks and please hood all of the cameras. Thank you.

Thank you.

Judy Grandy.

Hi, my name is Judy Grandy and I live in Des Moines. Have you all had a chance to visit the Des Moines Police Department's Flock Transparency Portal? Please raise your hand if you've checked it out. Yeah, it took me a while to get to it too. THE PORTAL IS EASY TO FIND UNDER THE POLICE DEPARTMENT TAB ON THE CITY WEBSITE. GO CHECK IT OUT TO SEE WHAT INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE THERE. THERE'S NO QUESTION THAT FLOT CAMERAS TAKE AWAY EACH OF OUR FOURTH AMENDMENT PRIVACY RIGHTS. WE DON'T EVEN HAVE THE OPTION TO OPT OUT. SOME PEOPLE THINK IT'S OKAY BECAUSE CRIMINALS ARE BEING CAUGHT. I DON'T THINK THERE ARE MANY CRIMINALS BEING CAUGHT WHEN THERE WERE 40 SEARCHES IN THE LAST 30 DAYS. THERE WERE ALSO 951 HOTLIST ITEMS as compared to 428 hot list items when I checked in July. But there were 233,215 vehicles recorded in those same 30 days. Is this worth giving up our privacy rights for? How would crimes be solved without flock cameras? The UW has shown that Border Patrol has been able to access flock camera data. This info is being used to track and kidnap immigrants right now. I say kidnap because the immigrants are not given due process, which is a right for any person on U.S. soil. You may not be worried about it now if you're not an immigrant, but the big question is who will the flock data be used to track next? Immigrants today and who tomorrow? Peter Thiel is an investor in flock safety. Peter Thiel is also the chairman of the board of Palantir. Palantir is being paid to create a massive database with all of the data that Doge took from many US departments like the IRS and Social Security. Information will be consolidated by person into one place. Why would Peter Thiel be interested in flock safety? The bottom line is that flock cameras do more harm than good. I urge the City Council to vote to cover the cameras and then vote to end the safety the flock safety contract, which will save the city about $36,000. Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Bonita Reister.

Good evening. Bonita Reister, a resident of Des Moines. Just a couple things to say about my opposition to flock cameras, not from personal experience yet, but from others' comments and experiences with the type of surveillance. Mothers with children being pulled over by police, taken out of the car, handcuffed, and put on the ground only to find out the flock camera misidentified the license plate. The license plate they were looking for was actually for a motorcycle from another state. Then there was the judge who decided flock camera info was public information and released it to the domestic violence suspect who had subpoenaed it. and was trying to track down his wife. Stories of police viewing or reviewing camera information for their own inappropriate uses. I don't know whether the non-flock cameras at 216th and Marine View Drive are catching all or most of the crazy driving that goes on at that corner, but being at the plaza a few times a month and observing traffic, I can't help but think how money spent on flock cameras that may be catching a criminal once a year or maybe two does not compare with the money that could be made via the cameras at 216th and Marine View Drive. Granted, the traffic infractions are far from the flock camera criminals they're looking for. But money-wise, Des Moines seems to be prioritizing the wrong thing. And if the city council hasn't seen or been watching programs that have analyzed flock cameras, you need to do that. It has not been positive. Thank you. Thank you.

We're currently running a committee of the whole meeting. However, council members do serve regionally on other committees. Do any council members have any items of interest to the public or the council they'd like to share? All right, then we'll move on to our city manager's report and I'll turn the meeting over to city manager, Catherine Caffrey.

Mayor and council, we have four items tonight. To start with, we have our state senator, Tina Orwell, here. It is only days away to the legislative session. So, Senator Orwell, do you want to come up and address the council? I mean, I guess it's weeks. Maybe it feels like days.

I was thinking months, but... Good evening, Senator Tina Orwell. I want to say good evening to the mayor and the council, my neighbors. I do live in Des Moines. Thank you for inviting me today. I think we're trying to get a jump start on the next session. And I can tell you the last two were very difficult. We had very difficult budget situations, but I always remain hopeful that when we all team up that we can get really good things done. So my plan, I didn't know I could bring a fancy PowerPoint. I would have, so I'm so sorry. But I was going to talk a little bit about some of the legislative priorities, some of the bill ideas that constituents in this area have brought to me, and then maybe see if there's any kind of dialogue on issues you really hope I'm working on. So my priority for next session is airport mitigation. And I want to thank you all. You have been great partners on looking at airport impacts and mitigation. I want to just take the backdrop of the history for a minute. You know we started partnering on this a long time ago and our community is so impacted and we have always known that. But I think we have learned through the UW study and the Department of Health what kind of impacts we actually have. So I remember a number of years ago, constituents had approached me about asthma, that we had a really high rate of asthma in our community. And it's interesting. It's unfortunate. My kids have asthma. And a lot of us have compared notes. And a lot of our kids have asthma. And what they found when the Department of Health started looking at health areas in our district is that we had the highest rate of children going to emergency departments for asthma. In fact, when you look at the landing path in Des Moines, when the planes are landing, it mirrors the highest rates. And so what do we know about ultrafine particles in aircraft? We do know from the University of Washington that did the move-up study that ultrafine particles They pass the blood-brain barrier. They cause inflammation. They're associated with asthma, heart disease, preterm labor. And so we kind of knew those things, but we didn't really get understanding of the actual impact, and so we start looking at the health conditions. We also know that noise, noise impacts us all. I was talking to a gentleman, and we came together to talk about the failed noise packages. And he said, you know what, my doctor did a sleep study. And they looked at it for a week. And they were like, you keep waking up at the same time every night. And then they realized that was the Taiwan flight. And so I think it impacts us sometimes more than we realize. And we think of all the kids who are trying to get a good night's sleep, trying to go to school. And so one of my concerns for our community is we started a partner. We've made progress. But we still have this cumulative impact and now we're trying to tackle the airport trying to expand 22 percent and it's mostly going to be cargo and international flights which again means the evening. So what are the things we've done in our partnerships. Well I think we started early on trying to get the HEPA purifiers into our schools and thank you we partnered on that. We saw other parts of the country doing this. And those HEPA purifiers remove about 70% of those ultrafine particles that make their way indoors. So this is a great strategy that we've used for schools. We started an asthma impact study with the climate change dollars. And UW studied it. And they've served like 300 kids. And they looked at before and after the HEPA filters and the HEPA and they have found this huge decrease in use of asthma relief inhalers for them going to the emergency department, better attendance. So what we know as a community is there are things we can do to help the health and well-being of our community. We know the cities, and we've looked at this a number of times, the impact it has on cities, right? We're impacted by our real estate, OUR PROPERTY TAXES BY THE AMOUNT OF PORT PROPERTY THAT DOESN'T PAY TAX. AND ALL THOSE THINGS, YOU KNOW, ROADS, SAFETY, ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE IMPACTING US BECAUSE WE HAVE A MAJOR AIRPORT. I THINK AT THIS POINT, YOU KNOW, IT ISN'T, YOU KNOW, WHAT I KEEP TELLING THE PORT AND A LOT OF US DO IS IT'S NOT ABOUT THE GROWTH OR EVEN HOW THE PORT OPERATES, BUT HOW CAN THEY BE A GOOD COMMUNITY PARTNER. How can we all work together to do what's right for our community? One of the things I also want to say, I know we partnered, was air monitoring in the community. And it used to be when we looked at the Department of Ecology, we looked at the reports, they looked at air quality throughout the state. We had no air quality monitoring by the airports. Like the whole state had it, but our air, but our community. And so we do have it in SeaTac and I want to say congratulations. I know we partnered and we're opening it here. We are the first in the country that took an EPA grant to monitor air quality and combined it with ultrafine particles thanks to UW. So the first in the country that will do that. And one of our challenges is that at the national level, the FAA The EPA don't recognize ultrafine particles. So we are the tail wagging the dog, right? And so it's difficult when we're trying to do things like get air purifiers when they're not recognizing it and helping us fund those things. So we really do have to look local when we're looking at those dollars. And so some of the strategies we're looking at is how do we look at stable funding? You know sometimes we get some money from the climate change and it's like you have to go back every year to ask for more or we get one time dollars from the airport and even the South King County fund that they have through the airport a lot of that money doesn't go to airport communities. So how do we look at aviation fuels tax. How do we look maybe at a landing fee. How do we look at funds that should be dedicated to our community. So I think part of the strategy is for us all to come together. We've been trying to involve the governor staff, the King County exec staff, our congressional staff. And I have to say, Congressman Adam Smith has been a champion for us. He has been moving legislation to challenge the EPA and the FAA about the noise, because the 65 DNL is a very archaic way of measuring noise. They're kind of ignoring a lot of the sleep studies that we know from noise. And they also aren't recognizing the EPA. So he's trying to, or the ultrafine particles. So he's doing everything he can at his level. But at the state level, we probably need funding. And I would imagine, ideally, we would be bringing in 5 to 15 million a year for cities and people that need their port packages fixed, the expansion of port packages, When they did the part 150 10 years ago, a lot of us participated. And then right after they finished it, they changed the landing path. So many people have planes going over their homes that were never offered port packages. And so we have a new part 150. I know they'll be re-looking at that. But that is another place to try to get some understanding of what areas need mitigation. The good news for mitigation, is that if we use state dollars, they take our property dollars, the port, all those dollars are flexible. We have the discretion to use that regardless of the 65 DNL, regardless of whether the national level recognizes ultrafine particles. So again, I think we're trying to pave the way. One of the things I thought about, and I mentioned it to some of you, is do we need like an airport community bill of rights? Like should there be certain rights that communities have when they have a major airport. And so I think we have we're building traction. I have to also recognize Senator Karen Kaiser who retired and so many of you have been working on this for years. So I feel hopeful that we can go into next session really identify some goals around collecting funding. I've also been trying to make the port subject to the HEAL Act, which again is saying you can't expand until you look at the health and safety of the community and the impact on health conditions. And then we're trying to see what we can do for our state agencies, like Ecology, to be looking at the SAMHP and the SEPA, because there is a state role. So those are some of the areas we're looking at regarding the airport. So that I don't know if you have any questions that before I jump on other things but I feel like that is by far the most important. This is really timely for us to take action is during this time where they're expanding. And so again thank you. We have our aviation dream team we're setting up and it's going to involve folks from every level of government. We are going to sit down with the port and the port commissioners but it's a difficult time right now. So yeah. Yes.

Thank you, Senator. I appreciate that. I would suggest that there's been some rumblings on council about going back and re-implementing some of the STC codes that we had back 10 years ago or something like that. And I would actually push the port to either reimburse developers and homeowners that decide to do remodels with that STC package as opposed to forcing that cost onto the developer or the homeowner.

No, that makes sense as well. Absolutely. Yes. And I think there should be airport packages that all of us get that includes noise, air quality, and air conditioning. I mean, we have these hot summer days. We can't open our windows, right, between the pollution and the noise. It would be good to look at that, and I appreciate that.

Thank you, Senator.

Yeah. Anything else on airports? I was going to jump to some other topics, but this is the big topic.

Council Member Harris.

Just thank you. That's really it. It's just I have just – There's been this notion that the airport is this intrinsic good, so much so for, like, when I talk to your colleagues, you know, the county, the state, the planet, and so on. And I'm just, there is something about the Pacific Northwest. It would just be a given back east with any factory, any large system to consider impact fees. And since I've lived here, it has been stunning to me, this notion of like the airport just does it for you, you know? And I appreciate the fact that you have just worked at this for a long time to change that attitude, because it's not that way in big industrial things. And we don't think of the airport that way, but that's... It really is this big industrial system. And thank you for working at it for so long. It's hard changing a culture, isn't it?

Sometimes it feels like Dave and Goliath. But thank you, Councilmember Harris. And I appreciate the times you've approached me to work on things like the monitoring. And I know you work hard on these issues too, like the mayor does, and so many of you here. So again, I look forward to our partnership on that. I think we're going to make some progress. I feel really good about that. So thank you. Some of the other things I'm working on, I do a lot of work on supporting people that are trafficked, women and children. And we have a very high rate of trafficking in this area. I've been working on it a number of years. I had legislation that didn't move last session. But it really holds businesses accountable that are knowingly allowing this activity to happen, such as like hotels or other things. And so we didn't get through last year. I did come to agreement with the business community on the language. So they're supporting it now. Again, it comes with some pretty severe fines for businesses that really allow this activity. And I work a lot with survivors, and I I think she must have been 18 or 19, and she came to testify in Olympia. And she had been trafficked in one of the hotels in our area. And she said the staff would come and go. They would see them in the corner. They'd see them crying, and they never called the police. They allowed that activity to happen. And so we don't want that in our community. And we want to make sure we're holding them accountable. So that's one of the bills we're doing on trafficking that I think impacts our area. The other thing I wanted to mention is the Kent Des Moines station, which is so awesome. I think it just gives a whole different feeling to our community to have that. It's awesome. So the two things related to that, one is I've been working on a bill because there's been a lot of copper and fiber and things stolen. and really has impacted Sound Transit. It's impacted a lot of our businesses. I've been approached by PSE. Obviously, it's Fiber and T-Mobile. And so we have a bill. We didn't get through last year. But again, we really want to hold those people accountable. It's really going to attack on our infrastructure. And it has huge consequences. We had an area of Kent where they took down, I think it was Xfinity, And you can call 911. If you had an emergency, you had no way of getting out. And so it's a huge implication. So again, we're going to try to move that bill next year. The other thing related to that area is that we are looking at putting workforce housing there. We're working with the city of Kent, but there's additional land that maybe could be in partnership with the city of Des Moines. I think Councilmember Fain and I will be approaching you. I'm looking at the mayor. But what we're looking at is housing that's 80, 90, 100 percent AMI, which is area of medium income. And it's housing that would be built by the unions, would include maybe some carve-outs for apprenticeship living there. And we have this ability to leverage what's called HIT dollars from the AFL-CIO. And it's a three to one match of one, you know, one third is state dollars and two thirds is federal. And we're thinking that's a great location. We have a lot of people that work in the service industry and labor and that can really provide some very affordable housing. So we're working on that. So I think the meeting is also going to include Highline College to be part of that conversation. I know there's a Welcome and Healing Center that is being built in Des Moines. Are you familiar with that? Again, it's to help welcome our immigrant community that is feeling worried and scared right now. And it provides mental health services, and they want to have that clinic designed for that purpose. I also work in mental health in the schools. I have to tell you, families are under such stress right now. It's very difficult. I was one of two legislators that toured the ICE facility, and it's hard not to think about what I saw. And we've been trying to get the Department of Health in there, and they have been refusing access. They keep winning court cases and still can't get in. I THINK ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO PROTECT OUR IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY WOULD BE GREAT. AND SO I THINK A WELCOME AND HEALING CENTER. I CAN'T REMEMBER THE LOCATION, BUT I WAS APPROACHED ABOUT THAT. WE'RE ALSO LOOKING AT SOME TAX REFORM RELATED TO THE B&O TAX. SO THE B&O TAX IS A VERY REGRESSIVE TAX. WE ALWAYS TALK ABOUT HOW REGRESSIVE OUR TAXES ARE IN WASHINGTON. AND SO REPRESENTATIVE BURG HAS A PROPOSAL that looks at what's called a margins tax. We have certain deductions so you know right now with the B&O you kind of pay regardless of your costs right so you could not make any money and still pay quite a bit of tax and so we're going to be holding forums in South King County and inviting the business community to come and give feedback on her proposal. I'm especially WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL OF OUR MANUFACTURING AND STUFF ARE CONSIDERED ON ANY NEW TAX, RIGHT, THAT WE'RE CONSIDERING OUR BUSINESSES AND HOW IT IMPACTS THEM. I THINK IT WOULD ACTUALLY PROVIDE A LOT OF TAX RELIEF FOR A LOT OF BUSINESSES, THIS PROPOSAL. SO THAT IS UNDERWAY. THE LAST TWO ITEMS, ONE IS LESHER DID BILL ON AI AND PRE-AUTHORIZATION FOR MEDICAL CARE. And we did get that pass, and basically it says AI cannot deny health care. We were having, like, they can review thousands of claims within seconds. And we said, no, I mean, you can use that for your approval process, but you cannot deny someone care unless it's a doctor or some medical profession talking to each other. And so we got that in place. The other thing, though, is that we have people who have to go to pre-op who have cancer and sometimes they're waiting weeks or months to get into oncology. You know time matters so much when you're struggling with cancer so we're looking at that to see if we could take some of those treatments off the pre-op and just authorize them because we think it has such a profound impact on people's ability to recover. And the The other two things were brought by constituents in Des Moines. One is around the Saltwater State Park and ADA access. I don't know if that's on your radar, but I guess when they had that bad storm, it hurt some of the trails and they're no longer ADA accessible. So we've been in contact with the state parks and we're looking at what are the resources to fix those trails so they're more accessible. The other thing, There's so much going on on AI. It's so hard. It's moving at the speed of light, right? We're all like, innovate, but do no harm. And so there's a constituent that really has brought a lot of concerns around AI, and we're teaming up to see what are additional protections we can put in place. So again, those are some of the things I'm working on. But again, I just wanted to say thank you, because I feel like you're all so approachable. I love all the activities we're seeing in Des Moines. It's phenomenal, right? All the concerts and the farmer's market, and it just really feels like we're coming together as a community, and I want to thank you for your leadership.

Questions? I heard at least seven bill topics. So questions or comments from anyone else? Council Member Simons.

There are two separate areas. Yeah. What you just described about the affordable housing and getting the unions in there, that sounds like a wonderful idea, and that much more affordable housing is needed. There is a bow wave to that, however, because then the cities have to provide services to all these new residents that are moving in. And there can't be a disconnect between those two, because the cities do not have the ability to expand services to that many more right now because our budgets are shrinking. And twofold. One is that we need help from the state just simply to provide those basic services that cities do. And two, the other thing is that the 1% cap on property taxes is old, it is outdated, it makes no sense, and we really, really need to get that lifted. Not done away with. but lifted so that at least cities can try to keep up with inflation.

You know, the state does need to be a good partner with the cities, and I do think we need revenue, but you do as well. And I think even on the stuff like the millionaire's tax or some of the other things we've done, I don't know that we've always made sure you get the share of the resources you need, and I think we could do a much better job on that. What I would say about the development that we're talking about with the unions, is market rate housing. And so I don't know that it's going to have tremendous service needs for market rate housing, but it is still more people calling 911 potentially. And so I appreciate that. I don't know if you are doing anything with the sales tax on, are you looking on that for the law enforcement? I'm glad to team up to see what we can do for cities because we do have a heavy burden in this area. So I'm glad to look at that. And, you know, maybe there's more things we can do with some of the property and taxation. I don't know, but I'm open to ideas you have about how to bring in more revenue.

Yeah, and I wasn't meaning to suggest anything about low income versus market rate housing, but just more.

Well, one side is 30% and 50% AMI, which is the international, we call it the multicultural village. and that'll prioritize families with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And this other side was agreed by the city of Kent that'll be market rate.

And that's fine.

Yeah. No, what you're saying is any time you increase anything within cities, it means more infrastructure needed. So I appreciate that.

And then the other thing is sort of my, I think the criminal defense caseload standards for public defenders, you know, that is an incredible... burden on cities. Cities do not get any state funds at the moment for public defense. And it's all got to come out of our court budget to pay for public defense, which is a constitutional right that everybody deserves. And Sound Cities Association has asked me to be on a task force that they're putting together that's going to look not just at the sheer numbers, public defense per population, but the disparate impacts. When you have, for example, Kent versus Bellevue, they're roughly the same size city. But Bellevue has a much higher tax base and a much lower crime rate. Kent has a higher crime rate and a much lower tax base. And so putting the same burden on them is going to be very disparate between the two communities. So the legislature's got to figure out a way to address this. And, you know, eventually we're going to have to pay for those standards, and it can't just simply come out of the city. So I hope there's a way that we can figure out how to address that and to address it proportionally.

You know, I really think you're bringing up some excellent points. I know a portion of the millionaire tax will go towards that, but maybe we need to look at how that's divided up.

They took the cities out of it.

Well, I think there's a discussion of making some changes there, because I think that was a big oversight. And we have time, right? We have a couple of years to fix that. No, these are excellent points. Yeah, it's difficult. I'm not going to lie. We're going into another difficult budget. We're also seeing the number more families struggling. We're seeing the number of foreclosures going back up. It is a tough time in our community. Yeah. Is there one other hand?

No? Thank you so much for coming. We really do have the privilege of having you be a resident here in Des Moines and be so closely tied to us. And so thank you for all that you do. You just said a couple of things that you said you were going to touch on and then went into some topics that are just very significant to many people in our community. And I just want to say thank you so much. And I appreciate our working relationship. And we really are privileged, so thank you very much, Senator. Thank you. I appreciate it, too. Thank you.

All right, Council, our next item. The Des Moines Historical Society has recently hired a new executive director, and so she is here. But I'll turn it over to Richard initially.

Your Honor, Council members, city managers, city staff, and Senator, The Des Moines Historical Society was founded in 1978 and was basically volunteer run for decades. But after the COVID epidemic struck, we lost many board members and it's very hard to get volunteers. So we decided we had two ways to go. We could either close the museum completely and disperse the collection or to try to move forward. Well, my wife and I are funding a executive director for at least the next two years. to bring the museum to the next level and to make it a tourist attraction for the city. So it's my pleasure to introduce to you this evening our new executive director, Virginia J. Kopatsky. And if you call her Virginia, she will ignore you because she always goes by VJ.

I promise I won't ignore you. I might just not realize you're talking about me. My own mother doesn't call me Virginia. Thank you so much for having me this evening, Mayor Matsui, City Manager Caffery, Council Members, and also Senator. It's lovely to be in the same room with all of you. As Richard mentioned, my name is Vijay Kopaki, and I'm very honored to serve as the first Executive Director of the Des Moines Historical Society. When I first started this position, which granted was just about two months ago, one of the first things that really surprised me about this community is just how much Des Moines feels like a small town. I've worked in museums for a long time. I might not look like it, but I have. And I've lived and worked in much larger cities than this. But there's something very special about a place where everyone recognizes each other, where community organizations know one another, where members of the community show up to meetings such as this, where nonprofits and businesses are invested in the same places and telling the same stories, and where people genuinely care and are invested in what happens in their community. I'm very fortunate that Des Moines has that feeling. Des Moines also has something that I think we all know, and that is incredible potential. We have the waterfront, we have parks, we have trails, we have restaurants and small businesses. We also have arts and culture, community events, and a growing number of people who are discovering just what makes Waterland so special. And I'm so glad that the Des Moines Historical Society gets to be an important part of that story. Right now, DMHS is a very small organization with a very big responsibility. I like to say that we're here to punch above our weight. We get to be the stewards of history of this community. The photographs, documents, archival materials, objects, stories, and memories that help us understand where Des Moines came from and where we're headed in the future. We're a place where history gets to be kept safe for our future generations. I also want it to be a place where history gets to be experienced. I want it to be a place where a longtime Des Moines resident can walk in through the front door and learn something about their neighborhood that they never knew before. This actually happened last Saturday. I want someone to come to our exhibits and be touched by the memories that they have. This also happened two Saturdays ago when a woman walked in and cried holding my hand because she remembered attending a Jimi Hendrix concert as a teenager and was so thrilled to see our exhibit on the Spanish Castle Ballroom. I want children to come in and see and learn that the history that they have become familiar with in school is taking place all around them even now and that they are part of that story. I also want new residents whether they are moving across the country like I did or from other countries entirely as immigrants I want them all to understand what makes this place so special that they have decided to call home. And I also want them to come here not just because the history is exciting but because Things are exciting now, too. That's the future that I see for DMHS, our historical society. I want the museum to become a community gathering place, a kind of third place where people can connect, share, learn, create, and celebrate. In the future, we'll be hosting exhibits, educational programs, field trips, talks, workshops, community events, performances, all of the above, and so much more. We can partner with artists, educators, historians, businesses, other nonprofits, and community groups that have been doing great work in this city for many years. We can also provide space for organizations and people that might not otherwise have a place to call their own. And I want the museum to be part of the reason why people visit Des Moines. When someone comes here to visit the waterfront, go to an exciting new restaurant, or simply because they're spending the day exploring, I want the museum to be part of that itinerary. I want people to say, while we're in town, let's see what's going on at the museum, instead of, you know, I've driven past here every day for 30 years and I've never stopped by. The strength of Des Moines, it is so clear, is in its people. So please, let me know how I and how Des Moines Historical Society can help amplify the incredible work and the incredible stories that exist here. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We're small, but I like to think that we're mighty. We need to continue improving how we take care of our collections to ensure that the stories of our past can be preserved for future generations. We have already more than quadrupled our open hours. So if our open hours were a barrier in the past, we're now open Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from noon to 4. We're also open more than that by request for special events and for programs. We need to make the museum more accessible so that more people can find us and find their community there. Ultimately, we want to be and create a sustainable home for our community for the future. With all of these challenges and goals alike, I'm so thrilled to get to be part of that journey. And I want to say how grateful I am to have been welcomed to this community. In the very short time that I have been here, I've already experienced so much generosity, enthusiasm, and genuine pride in Des Moines. People have been willing to introduce themselves, come up, shake hands, invite me to coffee, share their stories, open doors, and even donated dozens of boxes of craft supplies when I put a simple call out for help on Facebook. Those craft supplies will help ensure that our programs at the museum remain free or at very low cost for years. All of those things were enthusiastically given, no questions asked. That means a great deal to me. The history of a community belongs to its people, and so does its future. My hope is that the Des Moines Historical Society can help bring all of these things together, preserve the stories that brought us here, while creating new opportunities for people to connect with one another and write the next chapter of Waterland together. Thank you so much for inviting me tonight and thank you for the opportunity to be part of this community. I'm very excited about what we all can build together.

Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next item is the second quarter financial report.

OKAY. GOOD EVENING, MAYOR, COUNCIL, CITY STAFF. I GUESS EVERYBODY ELSE IS GONE. THIS IS THE SECOND QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORT. IT IS NOT TOO DIFFERENT FROM THE FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORT, SO WE'LL PROBABLY MOVE THROUGH THIS SPEEDILY. AS THE FINANCIAL POSITION AS THE FINANCIAL POSITION AS THE FINANCIAL POSITION THROUGH JUNE 30TH, THROUGH JUNE 30TH, THROUGH JUNE 30TH, WHAT WE ARE SEEING, WHAT WE ARE SEEING, WHAT WE ARE SEEING, GENERAL FUND REVENUES EXCEEDED GENERAL FUND REVENUES EXCEEDED GENERAL FUND REVENUES EXCEEDED BUDGET BY 1.4%. BUDGET BY 1.4%. BUDGET BY 1.4%. EXPENDITURES WERE 2% EXPENDITURES WERE 2% EXPENDITURES WERE 2% OVER BUDGET, SO VERY SMALL OVER BUDGET, SO VERY SMALL OVER BUDGET, SO VERY SMALL MARGINS AGAIN, WHICH IS TYPICAL MARGINS AGAIN, WH The reason being is the report through June has six months of revenue for all six months, but because of our accounting methods, or any accounting method actually, it has not six payrolls, or I should say 12 payrolls through June. We have 11 because the first payday in January is pulled into the prior year, so that means Throughout the year, we're always short one payroll. And in December, we have three. So therefore, when you don't pay one of the payrolls, you have extra money. So a payroll is about $600,000 to $700,000. And so that's why underneath it says the general fund is on track to break even despite showing that extra funds or being in the black $690,000. What we are doing, sorry, skipped why it matters. General fund performance is slightly below budget expectations. Again, we have those small margins, and the general fund is on track, as I said, to break even in what we're doing. We're continuing to monitor the revenue and expenditure trends and incorporating current trends into the 27-28 budget, which is being heavily informed by the trends right now as we are working on that budget currently. Property tax updates. What we reported for the first quarter was that King County confirmed THAT IMPROVEMENTS ON TWO BUSINESS PARK PARCELS WILL BE ADDED TO THE TAX ROLLS BEGINNING IN 2026, AND THAT ADDITIONAL TAXABLE PROPERTY MAY STILL BE IDENTIFIED. THE QUARTER TWO UPDATE, THEY SAID NOT REALLY. BASICALLY, WE CONTINUE TO MEET WITH KING COUNTY, AND THE FURTHER THEY DUG INTO IT, IT WAS KIND OF A CLASSIFICATION ISSUE ON THEIR END WHERE THE PROPERTY TAX FOR THOSE BUILDINGS WAS CLASSIFIED AS PERSONAL PROPERTY, WHICH IS NOT ON THEIR WEBSITE. SO UNDER FURTHER REVIEW, which is good news. The city has been receiving the money that we should have been all along. We're continuing to talk to King County about other parcels and making sure that they are aware of new construction, such as Business Park West and such. So King County is continuing to assess new construction projects. And what we're doing is we're continuing to work with King County and we're reviewing additional parcels and working with King County to ensure it's identified. So it's good news that we've been getting the money over that period of time that we should have been, but a little disappointing we don't have a big lump sum coming our way. One-time revenues remain strong. So what we see through June is that both categories of sales tax and B&O tax have both already exceeded their entire annual budget. WHY IT MATTERS, THE MAJOR CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY IS GENERATING SIGNIFICANT ONE-TIME REVENUES, AND THESE REVENUES IMPROVE CURRENT YEAR RESULTS, BUT ARE NOT A SUSTAINABLE SOURCE OF ONGOING FUNDING. SO RIGHT NOW, WE'RE HAVING A LOT COME IN, BUT AS ONE-TIME REVENUES SHOW, THEY CAN BE STRONG IN ONE PERIOD AND DISAPPEAR IN ANOTHER. SO THAT'S WHY WE CANNOT RELY ON THEM ALL THE TIME, AND THEY ARE NOT SUSTAINABLE. ON WHAT WE'RE DOING, WE ARE CONTINUING TO SEPARATELY TRACK RECURRING AND NOT RECURRING non-recurring revenues. New public safety sales tax revenue. What we see is the city began collecting the public safety sales tax this year. Collections so far through June are about $181,000. We budgeted to receive $450,000. We're on track for that. That is for 10 months of receipts. Current collections remain consistent with achieving the annual budget. So why it matters, it provides a dedicated revenue source for eligible public safety expenditures and helps offset increasing public safety costs, such as public defenders. What we are doing with revenues now being received, eligible public safety expenditures will begin to be charged to the fund during the remainder of the year. So if you look in the report that is in the packet, I think it's in there. ANYWAY, WE HAVE NOT CHARGED ANYTHING TO THOSE FUNDS THROUGH JUNE, BUT WE ARE CHARGING IT NOW. SO BY THE END OF THE YEAR, THOSE FUNDS SHOULD BE FULLY EXPENDED. SPEAKING OF PUBLIC DEFENDERS, PUBLIC DEFENDER COST PRESSURES IS CONTINUING TO BE AN ISSUE. WHAT WE SEE, PUBLIC DEFENDER COSTS TOTALED A LITTLE OVER $187,000 THROUGH JUNE, AND COSTS ARE TRENDING ABOVE HISTORIC LEVELS. WHY IT MATTERS, AS MENTIONED PREVIOUSLY THIS EVENING, NEW STATEWIDE PUBLIC DEFENSE REQUIREMENTS CONTINUE TO INCREASE COSTS, AND NO DEDICATED FUNDING SOURCE EXISTS FOR A PORTION OF THESE COSTS, AND PROJECTED ACTUALS EXCEEDED BUDGETED EXPECTATIONS. WHAT WE'RE DOING IS WE'RE KEEPING OUR EYE ON IT, EVALUATING BUDGET IMPACTS AND FUTURE FUNDING NEEDS. SO AS I MENTIONED, WE ARE WORKING ON THE BUDGET, AND THIS IS A HIGHLY RELEVANT PIECE OF THAT is paying for these costs. And we're also utilizing public safety sales tax revenues where eligible beginning in quarter three. This is a chart that we did have this in the first quarter report. This is updated for the second quarter. That projected bar for 2026 on the right. I think in the first quarter, it was closer to 300, between 300,000 and 350,000 on the left. IT'S CREEPING UP CLOSER TO $400,000 NOW, AND THAT'S JUST, YOU KNOW, A QUARTER LATER. SO WE ARE KEEPING OUR EYE ON HOW THAT IS TRENDING. SPEAKING OF TRENDS, GENERAL FUND REVENUE TRENDS. REGULAR SALES TAX IS ABOUT $25,000 BELOW JUNE THROUGH JUNE OF LAST YEAR, SO COMPARED TO THE SAME TIME PERIOD IN THE PRIOR YEAR. IT'S A LITTLE TINY BIT LESS. And red light camera revenue from the red light running cameras is significantly below budget. Why it matters, regular sales tax is one of the city's largest recurring revenue sources. Collections provide an important indicator of underlying economic activity and future revenue trends. Continued flatness or decline could impact future general fund performance. And what we are doing is monitoring expenditures, EVALUATING BUDGET IMPACTS AND FUTURE FUNDING NEEDS AND USING PUBLIC SAFETY SALES TAX REVENUES WHERE ELIGIBLE. SO, ON THE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY FOR SALES TAX, AS FAR AS WHAT WE SEE AND AS FAR AS THE BUDGET PROCESS FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS, WE DO SEE FLATNESS. I DID GO TO A PRESENTATION BY KING COUNTY CHIEF ECONOMIST, AND THEY'RE PROJECTING ALSO JUST, THERE'S GROWTH, BUT VERY MINIMAL GROWTH. BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO FACTOR IN THE TARIFFS high gas prices and whatnot. And people's dollars are stretched, but we're keeping an eye on it and projecting out just not much growth, but just really a flat line. Other revenue trends. What we are seeing is redondo speed. Camera revenue is significantly below budget. Regular real estate excise tax is gradually declining. Why it matters is the real estate excise tax, or REIT, is a key funding source for capital projects. Redondo camera revenue funds, traffic safety costs, so we've been relying on those, and continued flatness or decline of REIT could require the city to seek more external funding for capital projects. So speaking about REIT, for this year, thanks to a certain $110 sale of a warehouse in January, our REIT balances are fine for this year compared to budget. But we are, because we are budgeting for the next biennium, we are projecting it to be a little bit low in the past than it was in the past. And so when interest rates are high, there's fewer sales, but there's also fewer refinancing than when interest rates are lower. So that's really relevant to how much REIT we receive, and that's why we're seeing a slight decline. And what we are doing is we're evaluating budget impacts and future funding needs. This is a graph that shows the Redondo speed camera revenue by month last year compared to this year. The bars on the left that are maroon are 2025. The blue bars are 2026. So you can see just how much activity as far in terms of revenue drop off there has been month by month But for some reason, July, everybody wanted to go get tickets or something this year. But other than July, it's significantly less. Looking ahead, not much change to these lists since the first quarter report. Opportunities continue to be strong development activity and the new public safety sales tax. Risks. We put in there, again, public defender costs, red light camera revenue decline, soft regular sales tax collections. Those were all apparent after quarter one. After quarter two, we added redondo speed camera revenue at lower than expected levels. And then one-time revenue should not fund recurring expenditures. That's a risk. It's good that we have one-time revenue, but we cannot continue to rely on it. FOCUS AREAS MAINTAIN EXPENDITURE DISCIPLINE, MONITOR RECURRING REVENUE TRENDS, AND PRESERVE GENERAL FUND STABILITY. SO WE NEED TO CONTINUE TO BE AS DISCIPLINED AS WE HAVE BEEN AND KEEP OUR EYE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING AS FAR AS TRENDS. QUESTIONS?

COUNCILMEMBER SIMONS.

Yeah, there's a whole lot going on there. But a very nice presentation. Thank you. Kind of trending back, in Redondo, the cameras seem to be working until the month of July. Is that accurate, that we're actually seeing a change in behavior, do you think?

In terms of revenue, I don't know about the number of infractions, but what we see on the revenue side is a steep drop off. So I would assume that behavior has improved.

But infractions equal revenue. There's a correlation between the two. Well, it's nice to know it's worked up until the summer. Yeah. But yeah, I've at least heard from people in Redondo that it's been really noisy again. So maybe August will be another high revenue month. It'll be interesting to see. And then the one other thing is I think it's great we're using the law enforcement sales tax to help partially offset the public defender costs. But that's probably the biggest thing that's rising right now. Is that correct?

Yeah. So there's three items that are budgeted in that fund. Yeah, and if you compared the three, that would be the one that is increasing at a more rapid rate than in the past. So we have the public defender costs, we fund some police salary for an officer, and then we have animal control. So yeah, the three, that was the one that's the most concerning.

And is there a chance that the public defender costs are going to swallow up all that additional revenue?

Not all of it. Well, I mean, we have budgeted a certain portion for that fund, so we'll use that portion. The rest of it will be in the general fund. So it's more of a general fund issue in that sense.

Okay, so it pushes... Yeah. We have the budget set for those funds, which includes public defender and officer and animal control, and those are going to carry forward into the next budget, is that correct?

Right, so everything we know now, like if we... looked at that chart where it was almost reaching $400,000. So we're probably going to assume about $400,000 in the budget going forward for public defender costs. And we'd use both funds, again, to help pay for them. OK. Thank you. If it's not the state.

Councilmember Vlas.

Thank you, Jeff. Good presentation. Senator Orwell mentioned that there was a raise in foreclosures in the state, and I'm seeing that their property taxes are 5% below what we estimated. Is that related? Are we seeing some foreclosures increase in Des Moines?

I'm not sure about in King County. I saw that same 5%. Part of that could be just how many delinquent accounts we've collected. in the off months, that could be part of it, and part of it could be Wesley not paying. So that would be my first assumptions, aside from it being foreclosures.

Council Member Harris.

I'm sorry, I can't see this. So is this it, or is there like a part two? Because I thought I didn't should catch the stuff like on the marina and

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention we do have an appendix, so if you want to ask a question about the marina, we can put that up on the...

Okay, well, okay, so the thing regarding the B&O, it was really high, and so could you explain why it was really high, just for the... Yeah, that was a good catch.

I've seen a lot of numbers lately, and I should have explained that in the report better than it was, because I didn't explain it, but Yeah, so they were up 186%. So we're looking at that. My first thought, I shouldn't say my first thought. I would say B&O tax has been something we've been working at for a number of years. So the history of that is it used to be in another department about five years ago. Finance took it on, but they took it on at the same time they did a software implementation of our accounting software. So it was a very rough transition, so much so we did lose a staff member during that time. But since then, we've gotten a lot – we've stabilized the process, and we have staff that are really assertive in collections. And so over time, I think that that's been a big factor in increasing the receipts.

And just to be clear, normally you hit these things within – MOST OF THE KEY ONES PEOPLE TALK ABOUT A GENERAL FUND, JUST FOR THE PUBLIC, THEY'RE USUALLY REALLY NAIL THESE THINGS. IT'S SOMEWHAT PSYCHIC ON THAT. SO WHENEVER THERE'S SOME BIG VARIANCE. AND THE OTHER TWO THINGS, I NEVER CAN UNDERSTAND THAT NET CHANGE IN THING. IS THERE SOME SHORT EXPLAINER THAT I CAN JUST ON THE TWO ENTERPRISE FUNDS OR IF IT'S not, I can take it off.

I think you're referring to the net change in net position. So as you had pointed out in an email, that is a couple of nets. So we can just say change in net position. So net position is basically like equity in your house or change in your reserves. So if you have more revenue than expenditures, then your change in your position is going to go up. And if you have more, spend more than you brought in, it's going to go down. So that's That's really what it's about. Yeah. It could use one less word.

No, no, no, no. That's my sense of humor, but I honestly, I'm expecting a starting number. Yeah. And when I look at the marina, it looks like the thing went 300 grand over budget, and maybe that's my mistake.

Yeah, we can, in future reports, we will incorporate that change with the beginning and ending balances. Okay, thank you.

Deputy Mayor Oxiger.

Yes, Jeff, thank you for the presentation. I'm curious on the property taxes. Is that still reflective of the dispute that Wesley has with, I guess, the state over?

I think so, because I have not had word that they've had a solution to that dispute, so I don't expect that they would have made a property tax payment. and they are on our tax rolls, is we're expecting money. So I think that is part of that deficit.

Okay, is it, you're showing a 1%, is that?

Well, that's all taxes.

All taxes. Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

All right, our last item is, KYLE ELLERS FROM OUR COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT IS COMING UP TO TALK ABOUT FALL AND WINTER PROGRAMMING. EVEN THOUGH SUMMER WINDS DOWN, KYLE DOES NOT.

NO, NO. NO, WE'RE WINDING UP. WE'RE TURNING IT UP. EVENING MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, EVERYONE HERE IN THE CROWD. THANKS FOR HAVING ME. KYLE ELLERS, PROGRAM SUPERVISOR. HERE TO GIVE YOU A BRIEF SNAPSHOT OF WHAT WE GOT GOING FOR THE NEXT COUPLE MONTHS. So before we jump into fall and winter programming, I think most of you might have some local art featured in front of you. This is from some of the finest artists you'll ever find just down the street from Camp Chaos. I just want to take a minute and recognize the large numbers that we had each and every day of up to 120 kids Monday through Friday, really. So that was a challenge for us, but we took it and we ran with it and it all ended up really well. So our goal for this fall and winter season is to continue to build on established programming while exploring new opportunities and creating new avenues to demographics that we may not have touched ever or in a long time. So just to start with some of the events that we have going on, we have a stacked October month with some spooky family nights, holiday karaoke parties, our annual Halloween costume swap, And then we move into kind of that holiday season with our annual Breakfast with Santa, our holiday tree lighting, which we are going to name this year is our Winter Waterland. So we're running with that. We're going to expand on all of these, including the Burning Boat Festival. So we're really trying to think out of the box on how we can get more and more people to each and every one of those events. Moving down into just some recreation and enrichment programming that we're going to continue to offer. So we'll be doing our chaos break camps, our taught time, open gyms for youth, adult, and now 40-plus and over. We'll continue Melanie's dance. We'll do Amy's art. We're bringing in some different STEM programs and other instructional programs that will maybe feature some cooking, some team-based programming. Again, areas that we haven't traditionally touched, we're trying to really get access to those. And then new this season, we're bringing back some Taekwondo. So this is from Seattle Taekwondo. We're offering RC Plane Air Open Gym. So they are remote control airplanes that you can bring in and kind of fly around the gym. And then again, just focus on increasing team programming as we're seeing that area is definitely in need of access to what we can offer them.

Kyle, before we leave that slide, can you put out the date for the holiday tree lighting?

Yeah, so that's going to be December 4th. Friday, December 4.

I thought we were Saturday. Are we really Friday?

It's Friday.

OK, thank you. See, this is a quiz. It's Friday, not .

So yeah, as we move into sports classes, activities, Just wanted to kind of touch on our fall soccer. We're trending upwards in terms of our registrations, which is really good to see as a lot of that's going to carry over to our youth basketball league as well. High numbers in the younger age groups mean that they'll be with us for a longer period of time, and we hope that they will carry over for multiple programs. We are also offering indoor instruction for pickleball with Pickleball Rick. Skyhawk Sport Camps continue to see rise in numbers as well. And then classes and activities that will continue to offer Melanie's Dance Unlimited, Art with Amy. She does a variety of age groups. And then we're kind of trying to work in some senior and intergenerational areas in that as well. Playwell Technologies, Pokemon Engineering Camp is going on actually this week. They just finished. So that was a really good hit. We had, I think, eight to ten people in that class. some that I know. And then Amy will also be offering basket weaving, which is an 18-plus class, our dog obedience with Jen Magnuson, and then country line dancing, which is 16 and over. And then we just work our way through some senior programming. We're still doing our hot lunch program, which averages anywhere from 30 to 50 people per day. We also do monthly dessert socials, and Kim leads bingo, which gets fairly heated. So anytime you guys want to come up and join that, that starts about 1 o'clock. It's really intense. So in addition to that, we're also doing card and craft days for the holidays, and we are seeing an uptick in our chess club participants for that age group. Just some educational and support things for this age group. We have our AARP smart driving, Medicare workshops, our continued foot care and grief support, Shiva advisement, elder law advisement. And then new this year, Kim is bringing in a gift-making workshop, which is slices of wood that will be turned into ornaments, which you can hang or give for gifts. And then, again, that Card and Craft Days, which is, you know, it's a big hit with all of our groups up there. It gives them something to do while they're on site. And then continued health and social service programs, which are what I mentioned above. We're going to be looking at fitness and movement. Tai Chi and enhanced fitness is what we currently offer, but we'd like to expand this group to more of aerobics, to yoga, to keep that generation moving. It's good for their health. and that kind of balances them out as they move out through the day. But that's just kind of a snapshot of what we got for fall and winter. We're looking forward to riding the momentum through the season, so stay tuned.

Council questions. Council Member Nutting.

I just have one comment. My new project, senior project manager, lives in Three Tree Point and found out that I was a council member on the city of Des Moines, and he can't wait to tell me all the stories of his seven-year-old son and all the fun he has. He takes him to the camps from Normandy Park to Berrien and all over the place, and he says by far his son has the most fun in all the camps in Des Moines that he is. So you guys are doing a great job, and I applaud you for that. Appreciate it. All right.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

Agenda please. Item 1 approval of vouchers. Item 2 approval of minutes. Item 3 judge pro tem compensation first reading. Item 4 ILA with Highline Water District for 2026 North Hill AC water main replacement project. Item 5, Hempstead Consulting Contract Extension. Item 6, Citizens Advisory Board Appointment. Item 7, Marina Steps Innovative Stormwater Bioretention Testing Grant and Consultant Contract Amendment. Item 8, Groundwater Remediation Consultant Contract. Item 9, Barnes Creek Trail Project Joint Utility Trench Agreement with Comcast. And that concludes the consent agenda, Mayor.

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve? Council Member Nutting.

I move to approve the consent calendar as read.

Thank you. Any second? I hear it from Council Member Steinmetz. Does any council wish to pull any item? Council Member wish to pull any item? Council Member Harris.

Item 8, please.

Item 8? Okay, sorry, I couldn't hear you. Item eight is gonna be our groundwater remediation. All right, let's go ahead and vote on the items one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and nine. Oh, great, thank you. Is there, thank you, sorry. WENT OFF INTO LA LA LAND. LET'S START DOWN AT THE END. YOUR VOTE, THANK YOU. DEPUTY MAYOR OXINGER, COUNCILMEMBER STEINMAN, COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS, COUNCILMEMBER DISMONI, COUNCILMEMBER NUTTING, COUNCILMEMBER BLOSSOM, MYSELF, THAT PASSES 7-0. WE'LL NOW CONSIDER ITEM NUMBER 8. COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS, YOU CAN SPEAK TO THAT ITEM.

I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHEN IT'S GOING TO END, YOU KNOW, JUST AS SUCCINCTLY AS POSSIBLE. You know what I'm asking about, hopefully. OK, so just in 100 words or less.

Yeah, we're trying to do the complete cleanup and complete our remediation project. It's been going on for many, many years. In this scope of work, we are actually making significant progress where we're decommissioning a majority of the testing wells, meaning they met compliance. We're down to one well out of 15 plus that were out of compliance. Any year.

Is it shifting? I mean, no, because I mean, your predecessor, Lauren, would talk about gravity and changes in weather and so forth. And so some years it would feel like we were there, and then another one would pop up. And I'm just, you know, is it?

This contract before you, we are going to explore why this last well is being so stubborn. I don't have an answer for you today. After this contract, hopefully we have more information of the path forward.

Okay, that's it.

Thank you.

Any other questions on that, or is there a motion to approve Item 8? Councilmember Nutting.

I move to approve the consult services contract with WSPUSA, Inc., to provide consulting services services for the public works yard groundwater remediation project in the amount of $119,356 and authorize the city manager to sign said task agreement supplement substantially in the form as submitted.

Is there a second? Second. Member Steinmetz, all right. All those in favor of consent item eight, please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy Mayor Oskar, Council Member Stamets, Council Member Harris, Council Member Desmone, Council Member Nutting, Council Member Bloss, and myself. That motion passes 7-0. Thank you very much, Tyler. It's on to some new, oh, I'm sorry.

Second motion.

Oh, that's right.

I will read that. I move to direct. There is two. Sorry, my fault. I MOVE TO A DIRECT ADMINISTRATION TO SUBMIT A BUDGET AMENDMENT FOR THE 2026 SELF-ENSURE FUND TO INCORPORATE THE 2026 WSPUSA, INC. CONSULT SERVICES CONTRACT.

ANY DISCUSSION ON THAT ONE? ALL RIGHT. LET'S MOVE TO A VOTE. DEPUTY MAYOR OXFORD, COUNCIL MEMBER STEINEMANZ, COUNCIL MEMBER HARRIS, COUNCIL MEMBER DISMONI, COUNCIL MEMBER NUTTING, COUNCIL MEMBER BLAS, AND MYSELF. THE SECOND MOTION PASSES 7-0. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION, COUNCIL MEMBER NUTTING. I APPRECIATE THAT. OKAY. NOW WE ARE ON TO NEW BUSINESS. AND OUR FIRST BUSINESS ITEM, AND I'M SAYING IT SLOWLY BECAUSE SOMEONE IS APPROACHING THE PODIUM, A PRESENTATION BY DIRECTOR FRIEND.

Okay, presentation this evening is on the capital improvements plan for 2027 through 2032. I'm not used to saying the 30 part. And it's also shared presentation with the city manager who will address some of the slides. So I guess that's not one of these.

I also went into La La Land for a second. Okay. But now I'm very much here. So... STUDY SESSION A WHILE BACK, THE COUNCIL, WE PRESENTED THE CIP. YOU HEARD ABOUT A SAMPLING OF PROJECTS. AND THERE WAS A LOT OF INTEREST IN WHERE ARE THESE PROJECTS COMING FROM? AND WE'RE GOING TO TALK IN A LITTLE BIT ABOUT PRIORITIZATION. BUT JUST SORT OF SO WE CAN GIVE A MORE FULL EXPLANATION, PROJECTS COME FROM A VARIETY OF SOURCES. SO YOU CAN SEE THE LIST UP THERE. IT CAN BE THINGS RELATED, YOU KNOW, FUNDAMENTALLY TO THE STATUS OF THE INFRASTRUCTURE. IS IT FAILING? IS IT A CRITICAL PIECE THAT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED OR REPAIRED. AND THEN, OF COURSE, THERE'S ALSO A LITANY OF MASTER PLANS, RIGHT? THERE'S A SURFACE WATER MASTER PLAN, A PARKS MASTER PLAN. MASTER PLANS GALORE, RIGHT? AND A LOT OF THOSE IDENTIFY CRITICAL CAPITAL PROJECTS. AND THEN, OF COURSE, WE ALSO GET PROJECTS FROM REGULATORY OBLIGATIONS THAT MAY COME INTO PLAY. AND, OF COURSE, COUNCIL GOALS AND YOUR STRATEGIC PLAN. SO THAT'S A LITTLE SAMPLING OF HOW THE LIST IS MADE.

FINANCIAL OVERVIEW. FOR THE PLAN, WE HAVE 76 PROJECTS AND A TOTAL OF $220,393,000 REPRESENTING THOSE PROJECTS. AS WE'VE SAID IN PREVIOUS PRESENTATIONS, NOT EVERY PROJECT IS FULLY FUNDED OR EVEN FUNDED THAT'S IN THE PLAN. IT IS REALLY A PLAN. PROJECTS THAT CAN OCCUR IN THE NEAR TERM TEND TO BE THE ONES THAT ARE FULLY FUNDED. As you move out in time, they kind of move from fully funded to partially funded. And then out in the far term, further out in the timeline, because this is a six-year plan, you're more likely to find the unfunded projects. CIP expenditures. So we talked about unfunded and fully funded. So the first dollar amount here represents secured funding. And because so much grant funding funds the projects, we need to apply for those grants and secure that grant funding. So secured funding is grants that we've been approved for. So that's $166,222,000. Unsecured grants, so these are grants that we've applied for and maybe we just haven't heard back yet. That would be $49,072,000. And then just unidentified funding, like we know we want to do this project, We haven't figured out how we're paying for it yet. So that's about $5,097,000. That equals your $220,393,000 that's in the plan. Expenditure overview. The columns are the years. So you have 2025 and prior, then 26, 27, 28, now to 2032. So for this year, the amount in the plan is about $36.5 million. In 2027 next year, you got $15.5, and then in 2028 is $23.4. So the amounts do go up and down according to the size of the projects that are being done. So in 2026, we've had the steps. The pier was finished, so it had some significant projects, and then we'll see it drop a little bit next year according to the THE PLAN AND THEN RISE UP A BIT IN 2028. SO PROJECTS OVERVIEW, FULLY FUNDED PROJECTS, WE HAVE 58. PARTIALLY FUNDED, 14. AND UNFUNDED, WE HAVE FOUR. AND THAT EQUALS TO 76 TOTAL PROJECTS. WHEN PROJECTS ARE COMPLETE, THEY'RE REFERRED TO AS CLOSED IN THE PLAN. SO THESE ARE PROJECTS THAT ARE CLOSING. WE HAVE ON THERE THE MARINA DOCK REPLACEMENT. We've got the 24th Avenue pipeline replacement. And down at the bottom, we have a lot of 24th Avenue projects are closing. And you also see the Redondo Fishing Pier on that list.

OK, I'm not zoned out on this one. Also, we got a request to at least prioritize sort of the top five from each category that we are actively working on. So as we look ahead to the next couple of years, these are our top five from each category. I won't go through each of them, but what you can see is in addition to the project ITSELF, WE'VE INCLUDED WHAT'S MAKING IT A PRIORITY. A LOT OF IT IS SAFETY ISSUES, SO YOU CAN SEE THAT ON A LOT OF THE SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOLS OR SOME OF THE PEDESTRIAN SAFETY GRANT IMPLEMENTATION. IT ALSO IS COMPLIANCE WITH GRANTS WE'VE RECEIVED, SO ENSURING WE'RE FULFILLING ANY OF THOSE REQUIREMENTS. OTHER ITEMS YOU'LL SEE ON THERE ARE THINGS RELATED TO SIMPLY INFRASTRUCTURE FAILING, FAILING CAN SEEM LIKE A SCARY WORD TO HEAR, BUT IT REALLY JUST MEANS IT'S REACHED ITS END OF LIFE AND WE NEED TO ADDRESS IT. AND THEN YOU'LL ALSO SEE SOME OTHER ITEMS, PARTICULARLY ON THE STORMWATER SIDE, WHERE WE'RE SIMPLY DOING PROJECTS THAT ARE CONSISTENT, AGAIN, WITH A MASTER PLAN. SO THESE ARE REALLY JUST TO SHOW YOU A HIGHLIGHT OF OUR FOCUS AREAS. SO WE DEFINITELY HEARD THE COUNCIL'S DESIRE TO, INSTEAD OF GETTING, I THINK IT'S LIKE A 300-PAGE LIST AND THINGS ARE NUMBERED AND THE NUMBERS DON'T ASSOCIATE TO ANYTHING, So beginning for next year, we will bring you a CIP that is prioritized. It is very challenging for us to prioritize it literally number by number because we do take advantage of opportunities that come up through grants or something could have looked like it was okay and then something happened and now it's risen to the top of the list. So what we are proposing is we'll bring you the CIP organized by high, medium, or low. And that will show kind of the priority level The prioritization will be based on the need or criticality. Is it something that we are legally required to do or we're needing to fulfill a regulation? And then obviously consistency with adopted plans. So we will workshop this with the council so we can get your input on that. But that is our plan for 2027.

these are significant uh list of 2027 projects uh for next year this is uh the projects that make up the 15 a little over 15 million dollars not i don't think all of these are fully funded uh for example the city fiber loop i don't believe has funding but for the most part these are you know probably a lot closer to fully funded than not These are also the different categories of projects. We have building facility projects. We have marina capital improvements, municipal capital improvements, surface water management capital improvements, and transportation projects. And we have a motion.

Council, do you have any questions? Please, questions only. And we're going to do one question at a time. Okay. Is there a motion? Council Member Nutting.

I move to adopt draft resolution number 26-098 approving the City of Des Moines 2027-2032 Capital Improvement Plan.

Second. Motion made by Council Member Nutting and seconded by Council Member Steinmetz. Now we move to discussion. Council Member Nutting.

I like going to the high, medium, and low aspect of the replacement projects and stuff that we need to do. It'll just give us a better idea of where we need to go. So, appreciate that. Thank you.

Council Member Simons.

I also like the high, medium, and low, but I do, I would like to see something of a time, you know, near-term, mid-term, short-term factored into that. I don't know if that's part of, I would expect, you know, a high correlation between near-term and high priority, but it just gives me a little better sense of what's the time frame that we're looking at getting it done. But I think that would help make things a lot clearer. I do appreciate all the work that went into this.

I think I get you.

And boy, when a lawyer starts understanding a finance guy, that's rare synergy. But I think this is a good plan.

Councilmember Blass.

I understand that priorities can change depending on what grants are available. I'd like to have a better view of what grants we're applying to and kind of timelines on these grants. I only hear, I'm new to the council, but I only hear things when it's been already approved and get the funding, but I don't have a general idea of what grants we've applied to.

Let me think about that, because candidly, we actually apply to many, many, many, many, many grants. AND YOU DO ONLY HEAR ABOUT THE ONES WE GET. SO LET ME TALK WITH STAFF ABOUT WHAT'S THE RIGHT WAY WE CAN KEEP YOU ALL LOOPED IN, YET NOT ALSO BRING YOU DOZENS OF ITEMS THAT MAY NOT TURN INTO ANYTHING.

WHAT'S THE PERCENTAGE OF HOW MANY GRANTS WE APPLY TO?

IT DEPENDS ON WHAT THE TYPE OF PROJECT IT IS. SO LET ME TALK TO STAFF, AND YOU AND I CAN FOLLOW UP, TOO.

COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS.

I'M NOT EXACTLY WOWED ABOUT THIS CONSOLIDATED priority list you know we have this tip and because stormwater and transportation are funded so fundamentally differently so just it I think it encourages a myopia what you want to do is you want to encourage where the money actually is you know you have this list of things that you want to do And then when the money shows up, you want to chase that. If you have this hard list, if you make that like the prime directive, then you run the risk of, I think that's why we have a separate CIP and TIP, just basically because the financing is so different and people thinking of them as one thing, it's just not a good way to look at money, in my humble opinion. No, it's not in my humble opinion. It's not a good way to look at the way cities are financed. So I would just have the TIP, have the CIP, and I think there's a lot of wisdom in having them separate. Thank you.

So we're not proposing that any of those plans go away. The feedback I heard from the majority of council was that when you get this massive CIP that has hundreds of projects on it and we tell you we're working on number 73 and number 36 and 18 and all of a sudden 49 is top of our radar, it doesn't connect. So this does not replace or change your approved TIPs or things like that. This is really so you can say to a resident, these are the projects that we're working on this next year, these are the ones we're funding, and these are the ones that are high priority.

Any other discussion? Well, I heard from a couple folks here that the priorities are very helpful. We talked about adding a time frame or potential time frame along with that high, medium, low priority list. I do think it is another way to organize just a giant list of 78 projects. It's not combining it or changing it. It's just reorganizing it in a way that may be a snapshot that folks can take a look at. I appreciate and I understand how much time that you all will invest in the next year to do that for us, and so I very much appreciate APPRECIATE THAT. ALL RIGHT. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR? I'M SORRY, CAN WE MOVE ON TO THE ADOPTION? TWO QUESTIONS, YEAH, DISCUSSION ITEMS. SURE, GO FOR IT.

YEAH, SINCE WE'RE GOING TO MOVE ON TO THIS, YOU KNOW, THIS STRATEGIC PLAN AND THESE, YOU developer agreements and we're trying to think in terms of the long game. It has always been my desire to educate the public as to that long game that these projects take forever and somehow reassure them that I understand you've got pants on fire about this today, but we're going to get to all of this stuff. And by asking staff to prioritize stuff It runs the risk of, you really want to show people that, okay, we have this five, ten-year process that will get to all of this stuff. People have this sense that it's like, if we don't do it tomorrow, it's never going to happen. And that's just not how I think we want the public to think. Think about it. They want to have that trust that everything is going to happen, but it's going to happen in the most efficient way, the way that minimizes their tax obligations and so on. Thank you.

Just taking a long pause in case I missed somebody. Okay, let's go to that vote. All in favor, please raise your right hand until I call your name. Deputy Mayor Ochsinger, Council Member Steinmetz, Council Member Harris, Council Member Desmoni, Council Member Nutting, Council Member Blass, and myself. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you. And approaching the podium, we have item number two, Development Agreement Ordinance, the first reading and a presentation by Director Demming.

Thank you. So development agreements. This is an ordinance to put a municipal code or chapter for development agreements, which is a binding agreement on all parties and their successors, which provides assurances to the developer that the regulations will not change during the term of the agreement. THE AUTHORITY FOR THIS IS IN THE RCW UNDER CHAPTER 3670B, WHICH IS A SPECIFIC AUTHORITY FOR DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS. AND THE BENEFITS FOR THIS, IT PROVIDES FLEXIBILITY OF OUR DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS TO ACHIEVE PUBLIC BENEFITS. IT LETS US RESPOND TO CHANGING COMMUNITY NEEDS AND ENCOURAGE MODIFICATIONS THAT PROVIDE A FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENT OR ADEQUATELY ACHIEVE THE PURPOSES OF OTHERWISE APPLICABLE TO CITY STANDARDS. So within the ordinance, what we're trying to do is create standards that all development agreements would have to do. So it would basically say that all development agreements must include the following. They must define in detail the permitted uses and densities and building sizes that they are proposing. They must define the design standards of the project, their parking, if there are provisions for affordable housing, any parks and common open spaces, The amount of payment of impact fees whether they're going to do if they're setting any any permanently or whether they'll pay at time of permits any phasing their preliminary site plan and any conceptual plans for open space recreation parking landscaping lighting and building design. Within that general provisions they are going to if there's any departure requested from the owner from the development standards. THIS CODE ALLOWS THAT THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT, AND IT HAS TO BE OFFSET BY A BENEFIT TO THE CITY, AND THE COUNCIL GETS TO DETERMINE WHAT THAT EQUAL OR GREATER VALUE BENEFIT, THAT THERE MUST BE AN EQUAL OR GREATER VALUE AS DETERMINED BY THE CITY. IT ALSO PUTS A MAXIMUM TERM OF 20 YEARS, AND THEN WITHIN THE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT, IT ALLOWS AN ADMINISTRATIVE MINOR MODIFICATION, AND WE CANNOT DO A MINOR MODIFICATION IF THEY ARE REQUESTING A REDUCTION IN LANDSCAPING, A SETBACK REDUCTION, A HEIGHT INCREASE, A CHANGE IN THE EGRESS OR INGRESS, AND ANY INCREASE IN ADVERSE IMPACTS. OTHERWISE IT WOULD HAVE TO COME BACK TO THE COUNCIL. THEY CANNOT THROUGH A DEVELOPMENT ACCREEMENT REQUEST A MODIFICATION TO BUILDING CODE, ENVIRONMENTAL CODES, OR SURFACE WATER CODES. AND WITH THAT, I HAVE THE MOTION.

COUNCIL, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS? QUESTIONS ONLY, PLEASE. DEPUTY MAYOR OXAGER.

YES, THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION. WE DID RECEIVE A LETTER REQUESTING STANDARDIZATION WITH OUR NEIGHBORING MUNICIPALITIES. WAS THAT CONSIDERED AND IS THAT A POSSIBILITY?

So there is no standardization. We looked at Edmonds, Kenmore, Kent, Mukilteo, North Bend, Poulsbo, SeaTac, and University Place. It is a mishmash of all of it. There's absolutely no standardization for development agreements.

Thank you.

Councilmember Harris.

Yeah, I would agree with that. Does your draft, I did not see the magic word trees, I think 1625 or whatever, I don't know why I have that one memorized, but is that included in your understanding or is that something that would need to be added?

We're working on an ordinance for trees.

I guess what I'm getting at is that this provides a lot of certainty in terms of a lot of stuff. but not so much like the whole tree in lieu kind of a thing. Do you expect that to be folded into this or that's my concern is this being a get out of jail free card on any kind of future tree replacement, tree in lieu, that sort of thing? I mean if it is, it is.

Yes, technically they could come and ask for an exemption from a future tree because that wouldn't be If it wasn't part of a critical area, then it wouldn't be able to be... No, I don't mean one tree.

I mean like on the whole Des Moines Street business park. We're just not going to replace trees.

If it wasn't part of specifically a critical area, so we can't exempt the critical areas. So if it was a slope, they could not come. That's in here protected. But if it was just a flat, non-critical area, they could come and ask for it.

JUST BECAUSE YOU ASK.

DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO GRANT IT.

PLANNING COMMISSION REVIEWS IT, COUNCIL REVIEWS IT.

BUT IT'S UNDER A PART THAT WE DON'T HAVE A CODE FOR NOW. SO IT WOULD BE IN A SECTION THAT THEY COULD DO IT NOW. SO IF YOU COULD REMOVE THE TREE NOW WITHOUT A CODE, THEN THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT WITH THE DA IN THE FUTURE AS AN EXAMPLE.

And my other question is just, is there any kind of, you know, there are projects and there are projects. I mean, I mentioned the business park, and that really was a very long-range kind of a thing. Is it somewhat, is it typical to have some kind of sliding thing like... five years for one kind of project. I don't want to micromanage this, but I also have this vision of somebody signing something and then moving to Bali and 18 years go by. I'm just giving you the edge.

There is. That is usually where we negotiate. We don't usually put something in a code that would have a size and a scale because it could still have differentiating complexity. So a small lot could have different complexity based on the lot itself. So I wouldn't normally write that into an ordinance, but we would negotiate different terms and situations into the individual situation.

Okay. Thank you.

Councilmember Steinmetz.

I'VE GOT A NUMBER OF CONCERNS THAT ARE KIND OF, I DON'T WANT THE CITY TO BE IN A POSITION WHERE WE'RE SIGNING A DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT AND THEN WE END UP WITH THE PIT. YOU KNOW, WE WANT SOMEBODY TO HAVE TO TAKE ACTION, AND I GET THAT DIFFERENT PROJECTS HAVE DIFFERENT COMPLEXITIES, AND SO IT DOESN'T GO BY SIZE, BUT WOULDN'T, INSTEAD OF WRITING A 20-YEAR maximum, however, wouldn't it be better set by the Planning Commission as to what the duration of that development agreement would be?

With a 20-year maximum, they would still be able to set anything underneath it.

I understand that.

Or it could have no maximum and they'd still be able to set it, but then there'd be no maximum within it.

But potentially there could be a project for 20 years, more than 20 years might be reasonable. I guess it seems to me within the function of a planning commission to really understand the project and come up with the reasonable timeframe.

Council doesn't want to put a maximum. There's no issue with removing the maximum. It was just a suggestion.

Can you fill us in about I believe a conversation was already had with the Planning Commission because they did a public hearing on July 7th and already discussed this and so this this specific item was already considered by the Planning Commission.

Yeah the Planning Commission was suggesting a shorter time frame and they determined that they felt 20 years was an appropriate amount of time. They felt that 20 years it gave it was an appropriate amount of time that wasn't too short that it was unuseful for developers but at 20 years that they should be coming back and renegotiating with the city if it had gone about 20 years that it shouldn't just be an either an auto renewal or it should be returning to be rediscussed and if it made sense to have the same terms.

Who is it that then determines whether, I'm assuming a developer will probably want 20 years to amortize their expenses over it. Who is it that determines then when we do less than 20 years or not?

The final decision is always council.

Okay. And does it go before the planning commission?

Yes.

Okay.

So the developer The developer agreement comes to the Planning Commission and then to the Council. Correct.

Can I go on to someone else in case there's other questions? Come back to you.

Three points, but if we want to.

Right. I'm trying to cap us on questions because we've kind of drifted into many questions. So I want to make sure that other folks have some airtime, and then I'll come right back to you. Does anyone else have any questions?

I just have a comment, but I'll save it. Save that for later. Okay.

Questions is good. Yeah. We haven't had the motion yet. Council Member Harris, your second time.

before we vote on this.

Is there a motion or that was not, I didn't hear a question there?

No, I'm just, if we're strictly in the question phase, then no, I will defer to the discussion phase, you bet.

Questions? Council Member Simon, it's your second time.

How does... This proposed ordinance addressed transferability of the agreement from one development entity to another, given that developers are often forming different companies as they move things around.

It allows it to transfer.

Is there an approval process, or is it just automatic?

It's automatic. Our legal felt that that was the best process.

And then revocability. OF THE AGREEMENT AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT COIN IS ABILITY OF THE DEVELOPER TO CURE. I DON'T SEE THAT ADDRESSED. AM I MISSING IT?

NOT THE BEST HAT TO CURE THE TERMS OF A DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WOULD JUST BE ENFORCEMENT OF I THINK THAT GOES INTO THE TERMS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT VERSUS A GENERAL.

SO EACH YEAR AND TERM. EACH DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT IS UNIQUE AND NEGOTIATED. SO IT WOULD HAVE WHATEVER, YOU KNOW, DEFAULTS AND REMEDIES THAT THAT AGREEMENT IS GOING TO HAVE THAT THEY NEGOTIATE. THIS IS SIMPLY AN ORDINANCE SORT OF ESTABLISHING A VERY ROUGH OUTLINE FOR HOW WE'RE GOING TO APPROACH EACH OF THOSE INDIVIDUAL UNIQUE AGREEMENTS THAT HAVE THEIR OWN TERMS AND NEGOTIATIONS.

IF I CAN, WHAT I'M THINKING OF IN STATUTORIAL LANGUAGE, WELL, WE WOULDN'T DICTATE WHAT THOSE TERMS ARE, BUT IT SHOULD BE CLEAR THAT THE CITY RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REVOKE WHEN THEY FIND NONCOMPLIANCE WITH THE AGREEMENT AND GIVEN X NUMBER OF DAYS OR REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME FOR AFTER NOTICE FOR THE DEVELOPER TO CURE OR THE CITY MOVES FORWARD. BECAUSE THAT WAY YOU'VE GOT BOTH SIDES WORKING WITH ONE ANOTHER. And as a statutory basis, that gives you the ability to do that rather than trying to negotiate the general. And you just say, OK, these are the specifics that we're looking for or not.

If the council wants to make a motion for that, come back with language that addresses that.

Can I ask a clarifying question? Was that something that was already reviewed by the Planning Commission in July, and was there a recommendation?

It was discussed a little bit and determined that it made more sense because, as an example, the one that was more just process, for instance, the Salty's one that really didn't have much in terms of development, the idea of revocation for a process It was more, it just expires if they don't apply. How do you add in a revocation language because you're not really revoking anything. It just terminates automatically if they don't apply within a year. So some language doesn't make sense in every situation because that DA really just changed the process of an application and didn't have remedies because there was nothing to remedy. It just expired. So I think that's... I think it was an idea of not every DA had a need for remedies. And so I think the idea was it didn't always make sense to have remedy language in every DA.

And so... Because they are negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And sometimes I've had DAs that were just phased agreements and not other, you know, and so it was... Right.

I want a point of information here. Okay. We've talked a little bit about who did the deep dive on this, how has it been reviewed so far has folks looks at other jurisdictions. And that is part of the work that the planning Commission already did so essentially the Commission did do that foundational look. and that primer, and now we're getting the result, which is, I believe, why we have a planning commission. And so they've already attempted to answer and debate some of these questions that have come forward, and this has already been shaped by that conversation. Any other questions about the ordinance? Okay. Is there a motion? Councilmember Nutting.

I move to pass draft ordinance number 26-030 to second reading on the next available regular council meeting agenda.

Is there a second? I can do that? So we get to discussion? Discussion? With Councilmember Simons.

Yeah, I really do think it's important to include revocability and contrary ability to cure. There are structure of the agreement may fundamentally address a cure or not. So it may be like the Salty's agreement that if they don't apply it just goes away. There wouldn't be that. But that wouldn't fit then. But the ordinance needs to give I think the city, the ability to put that language in there. Otherwise, I think you end up in a situation where the first defense is, well, you didn't have the authority to do that because there is no statutory authority. The lawyer in me says, I really think we should have the statutory authority to do that and the reciprocal ability to cure after notice. And that's how, you know, there are a lot of business contracts. So I would ask on second reading that that language be put in. I think that's an important piece. I also would like to see that transferability of the development agreement is not allowed without the approval of EITHER THE PLANNING COMMISSION OR THE CITY COUNCIL. SO IF IT'S GOING TO GO TO A DIFFERENT ENTITY, SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT THAT NEW ENTITY IN FACT IS GOING TO BE, AND EITHER IT WOULD GET TRANSFERRED OR IT WOULDN'T, BUT IT'S NOT JUST AN AUTOMATIC, OKAY, DEVELOPER SAM NOW IS GOING TO GIVE THIS TO DEVELOPER JOE. DEVELOPER SAM AND DEVELOPER JOE MIGHT BE VERY DIFFERENTLY SITUATED. we should put a barrier up there that assures that we are going to continue dealing with somebody that is reputable and that can do the project. So I would like to see that added in as well for a second reading.

Before we address that, why don't we go through the other ones. But it sounds like there's two ways that we can do that. We can either have a vote to amendment or A THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN. BUT LET'S GO THROUGH ALL OF OUR DISCUSSION FIRST BEFORE WE VOTE ON THAT.

CAN I ASK A QUICK CLARIFYING QUESTION?

OH, YES, OF COURSE.

I'M ASSUMING, COUNCILMEMBER STEINMETZ, YOU'RE SAYING THAT IN THE CASE BY WHICH THERE'S LIKE PROBABLY A SALE OR TRANSFER OF THE LAND. BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES IT'S THE SAME DEVELOPMENT GROUP, BUT THEY CREATE, AS YOU POINTED OUT, LLCs THAT ARE FOR THAT SPECIFIC PROJECT. SO IF IT'S STILL, IF THE OWNERSHIP IS STILL THE SAME PARTY AS WHEN THE DEA WAS SIGNED, Can we distinguish that case from a case in which developer Joe sells it to developer whoever?

If it can be tracked that well.

We can track a sale.

You can track a sale, but you can't necessarily track the change of ownership as well. You form a new LLC, and that LLC takes it over. So I don't think it's easily done. I think if it's going to transfer, you come to the council or the planning commission and you make your presentation, we would like to transfer this. This is the new group that's taking it over. And, you know, we've got somebody reputable and something's going on that just gives us a check that the agreement that we've entered into will be honored.

And I also have a point of information here to you, Rebecca. Section 11, enforceability, says it's binding for parties and the party's successors.

Correct. Yeah, I think that's why there was a concern if it gets denied when it's transferred, is there a liability on the city on why we denied one party and not another? And I think that's why it was suggested not to have it come back for approval.

I see.

Yeah.

The successor is exactly the problem. We don't know.

I see what you're saying.

And we're just going to let them do it.

Yeah, but if it's the same terms, I think that was where the concern is, why you would deny one party and not another.

Well, because they came back to, I'm sorry. I'm just, yeah.

It's quite okay. I think we're drilling down. I'd like to hear some more issues before we start making some changes. So go ahead, Council Member Harris.

I would move that this be remanded to a study session for a fuller tutorial. Apart from this, and I have any number of questions, this is too big a thing to drill into in this kind of format. Furthermore, just at a more fundamental level. Please.

The discussion is after a motion is seconded.

Yeah. We should have a study session on this.

Is there a second? That does not proceed. Okay. Other discussion? Council Member Harris, that's your second time. Go ahead.

So it sounds to me like from the packet it says that it's you know, to make the area more developer friendly. And this is just more rhetorical. I see that it addresses a lot of the concerns of the residents. But frankly, we've had a very free and open doing it one at a time for a very long period. And I'm struggling to understand how this makes the area are projects any more developer-friendly? That's a serious question. But I definitely want more drawings and more information and so forth. I know residents do. But as to how it will draw more investment, I don't know. Thank you.

Council Member Desmone.

I feel like there's just still many questions, some unclear areas, some confusion, and I think maybe if this does go to a second reading that some things just need to be tightened up. I don't feel confident in some of the things I read. I'm hearing questions, concerns from other council members. I think it's just maybe it's a little premature for us to be talking about this since there's so much that's not understood well.

Do you have a specific amendment or something you want to clarify? No. All right, other questions or discussion, sorry. Yes.

I recognize this is my second time. And I just, I do want to say, this has been a lot of work and it's really pretty well done. I'm trying to add a couple of tweaks that caught my eye, just given my background and done this, that I think will put the city in an advantageous position. I think it will make us more developer friendly because there are clear standards and they know what they're getting into. Let's sit down and figure it out. They don't know what they're getting into and developers would prefer to do that, but I do think that we need to make sure the city is fully protected. And that's just, I'm really just down to two things now that I think are worthy tweaks when it comes back for Second Amendment that I would like to see addressed.

Okay. Are there any others that we haven't heard from that want to add? No. Okay. So like we said earlier, I heard one of them, which is the revocability and also transferability. Are those the two? I want to make sure I'm reading.

Revocability and reasonable ability to do it.

Okay. So... got it so those are the two things yeah absolutely I need two other folks at least to give me a thumbs up that they would also like to address that all right we've got one two three and so I'm looking for some options when we come back to the second reading absolutely thank you very much I appreciate it vote WITH THOSE, KNOWING THAT THOSE TWEAKS ARE COMING BACK FOR OUR REVIEW, IT'S APPROPRIATE TO GO AHEAD AND TO FORWARD THE FIRST TO THE SECOND READING, CORRECT? ALL RIGHT. KNOWING THAT THOSE ARE COMING BACK AND WE'RE GOING TO PASS THESE ON TO A SECOND READING, ALL THOSE IN FAVOR PLEASE RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND UNTIL I CALL YOUR NAME. Deputy Mayor Ochsinger, Councilmember Steinmetz, Councilmember Desmone, Councilmember Nutting, Councilmember Blass, and myself all opposed. Councilmember Harris, the motion passes 6-1 to pass to a second reading. Thank you very much. Let's go on to new agenda items for consideration. This is a time for proposing new business items. Any recommendations do need a hand raised from three or more council members. I'm going to take a point of privilege here, and I know that we had left our discussion on 223rd Street as kind of a presented with three options and didn't take any of the three options, which felt very much like that wasn't an actual decision. It was an agreement to make no decision. And so in really hearing that feedback and knowing that our staff want a direction on this, I have... proposed and have been working with City Manager Caffrey to put that on a future agenda on September 24th. So that will already be on the agenda when that agenda is released. Other new business items for consideration? Okay.

So will it be what was termed option B?

Yes, I believe that is one of the things we'll consider.

Yes. Do we have multiple considerations again, or are we just bringing one thing forward?

I heard that there was really more interest because of the discussion in option two. Option one was do nothing. I don't think we need to discuss that again. And option three will be no longer available in the same way.

In the same way.

Yes.

I would support that.

Is this a question?

Yes, it is a question. Okay. But that will not include the water quality grant, which will expire, correct?

Correct. New items. A call for new items. All right. Let's move on to council member reports, which is limited to four minutes.

Do you have three head nods to move that on?

I ACTUALLY DON'T NEED THREE HEAD NODS TO PUT SOMETHING ON THE AGENDA, BUT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO, YES, ABSOLUTELY. YEAH, ABSOLUTELY. SURE, LET'S DO IT. IS ANYONE, AS EVERYONE SAY, I GOT FIVE, SIX, SEVEN. ALL RIGHT. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I'M SORRY, I SAID SIX AND THEN SEVEN. YOU'RE RIGHT, IT'S SIX. Thank you. It's time for Councilmember reports. What is going on first is going to be Councilmember Blass.

Nothing great, Port Mayor.

Councilmember Steinmetz.

I really don't have a lot to report for city business, but I have enjoyed a great summer so far, a lot of good community events. The night market has been just an outstanding success. I'VE ENJOYED THE CONCERTS THAT I'VE BEEN TO. I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET TO THE MALL. AND REALLY, IT DOES FEEL MUCH MORE LIKE A COMMUNITY COMING TOGETHER OVER THE COURSE OF THIS SUMMER, AND I REALLY THINK THAT'S A GREAT THING.

THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER HARRIS.

THANK YOU. IT ALWAYS FEELS TO ME LIKE SHIPS PASSING IN THE NIGHT, BUT I ALWAYS APPRECIATE THE PEOPLE WHO SHOW UP FOR PUBLIC COMMENT. the people discussing flock, you know, it's one of those funny things in concert with the Citizens Advisory Board meeting. I was struck by the concerns over public safety in contrast with the budget, and we spend the highest as a percentage of any of the cities around in public safety. Chief says that crime is down, but It's really hard to get a sense of just what's really happening. I know, anecdotally, when I show up with my red hat at different places, children and parents really do freak out. I thought it was a joke for a while. It's not a joke. They have these real associations and fears about immigration and stuff. And I don't know how to address that. As far as the citizen advisory board, they talked several people passionately about greater outreach. And I agree. I would just say that you could do a lot worse than to try to schedule something at St. Phil. I've been attending since I've lived here. It has gone from being like 90 plus percent people who look like me to 10 percent people who look like me. The masses shift. And if you wanted to reach out to the Hispanic community, that would be it. I showed up for an event because the changing of the seasons means that it's time for script. and learning what real volunteering means. If your child goes to Catholic school, that's something you're going to really get a feel for. But if you want to reach out to the communities that we don't see, they do have gathering spots. We just don't hit them, and they're not that hard to find. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Desmoning. I have nothing to report. Council Member Netting.

Thank you, Mayor. The only thing I have to report is that the Des Moines and Normandy Park Rotary are putting on the Poverty Bay Blues and Brews Festival this Saturday from 11 to 7 p.m. in the Des Moines Beach Park. You still have time to buy tickets online at dmnprotary.org. or tickets at the gate, and I do know that the print shop has got tickets as well, and I will be attending, so I hope to see everybody there. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Deputy Mayor Oxigurn.

You stole my thunder. That was what I was primarily going to advertise is Blues and Brews. It's a tradition, and... Hopefully the rain will be gone by the time and we'll have another successful event. Hopefully a park as full as it was for epigraphs. Anyway, that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you. I just wanted to spotlight a couple of things. We recently had our budget town hall where we had many folks come to the activity center and talk to us about budget priorities. I should have asked for this but I was very fond of the visual representation of all of our special funds with 37 different buckets out on a table, some of which were big, meaning like the general fund, some of them were smaller like REIT, and then some that were thimble size. I just think is a great way for folks to access that information when they say, why can't you take this money from here and put it over here? And we actually laid out 37 buckets to say, these can't co-mingle. You can't pick one up and plunk things in here. And actually, that general fund one should have been kind of much bigger, but it also has probably 30, 40 things that have to draw out of it, right? So that we have to pull out of it. So it was a great activity. Thanks to all the staff and all of you who participated, stood up at your boards, talked to committee members, council members, and other folks who were there about the city programs and all that we do at that budget town hall. We're also engaged, a few of us here, on a community engagement for budget outreach and so you'll be seeing more of some of those great graphics representations that go out over social media. So I want to say thanks in advance to Bonnie and folks who are going to be working on educating and sending out some of those great materials to our community so everyone can get some information about how money comes into the city and how money comes out. And I think you may be surprised by how little comes in. I was, yeah, I was. I'll save that story for another time. But anyhow, I want to say, like people have said, a special thank you to our Arts Commission for a fabulous summer concert series. I was unable to attend on Tuesday, but so many people stopped to send me pictures because of the overwhelming attendance, and it just looked like a fantastic time, so I hope you all had a great time. My understanding is that the Arts Commission is working on a little mini film festival coming up in November, and we'll learn more about that. I also want to pause here and say that we've had some very passionate, and you can hear it again today, discussions about developing, about projects, how things are worked on, capital projects in our area, and I just want to say a thank you to our public works area, to our surface water management folks. I do know that you can walk and to gum at the same time. We know that you do a tremendous amount of work balancing all of those priorities. It's not always easy, but I don't want that to get lost that we acknowledge the amount of work that you do on all of those projects already. So thank you. I appreciate that. And I think we're at the end of our meeting. So our next meeting is going to be a City Council Committee of the Whole Study Session joint meeting, our first one ever, with the Planning Commission. And it's going to be on September 3rd, 2026. Is there a motion to adjourn?

So moved, Mayor.

Second. Council Member Simons, I heard it. All those in favor, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. And we are adjourned. Thank you.