City Council - Regular Meeting

I call this hybrid regular council meeting of 02/10/2026 to order at 07:00PM. Tonight, we have Ruby Rasmussen leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Ruby just completed a page service, whatever. She was a page down in Olympia. So she's fresh back home up here in Edgewood, so she's gonna lead us in the pledge.

And I think this microphone's on, so you can step back here a little bit.

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.

Nice job, and I've got a little certificate here for you. Okay. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Olsen.

Here.

Deputy mayor Creeley?

Here.

Council member Pazaruski? Here. Council member Ramirez?

Here.

Council member Keith? Here. Council member Rasmus?

Here.

Council member Edwards? Here. Council member Suthard?

Here.

That's complete.

Okay. Thank you, Jill. Next up on our agenda well, I should ask, does anyone have any items to add to tonight's agenda? We normally don't, but I asked that question anyway. So okay. Nothing to add. Next up is me reading the state of the city address. And the state of the city address comprises of me requesting input from staff to kinda give out some little highlights of the year. So I'll just read those here, kinda read those into the record. The first one comes from police chief, chief Youngman.

So here's what he shared. There were overall reductions in crimes such as robberies, narcotics related crimes, and weapon involved incidences. Property crimes such as burglaries, auto thefts, vandalisms, fraud, vehicle prowls and other thefts also showed significant reduction. Multiple traffic and joint traffic emphasis leading to a record number of proactive traffic stops within the City Of Edgewood. So I'm going to say that one again.

There were a record number of proactive traffic stops within the City Of Edgewood in 2025. So note to self, slow down in Edgewood. There were also reductions in motor vehicle collisions and injury collisions. There was another successful community academy as well as creation and completion of the first ever junior police academy, which sergeant Chapo helped with. And finally, our police department participated in multiple community engagement events throughout the year.

So that's the highlight from our police department. Next up, our community development department. They completed the 2024 comprehensive plan periodic update process, including code amendments to implement the plan, update critical areas regulations and comply with recent state laws on accessory dwelling units, parking and middle housing. They perform several additional code updates including animal regulations, science standards, tree preservation and other land uses continuously updating and refining tip sheets and handouts for permit and development review applications and finally updated the Transportation Impact Fee Program to establish reduced rates for non residential uses. Next up in the IT department.

They applied for and received $66,000 in grants to strengthen the city's cybersecurity program, conducted an internal and external penetration test of the city's network demonstrating the effectiveness of the multiple layers of defensive tactics used by the city to protect our citizens' data. That's a tricky one, sounds pretty complicated. And finally, through careful evaluation and review, the city reduced its computer subscription cost by 25% by replacing software and reducing user count while maintaining all services. Next up in our city clerk's department. Throughout the past year, the clerk's office remained focused on fostering transparent and accessible government.

This included providing timely public notice, maintaining accurate agendas and records, and ensuring public meetings were accessible to the community. Election and legislative functions were carried out efficiently and in full compliance with applicable state laws. Advancing records management and regulatory compliance. The city continued to strengthen its records management and public disclosures practices. These efforts support the proper preservation of information, responsible handling of public records request, and ongoing compliance with changing state requirements.

Supporting council boards and community participation, city staff provided consistent administrative and procedural support to the City Council and advisory boards and commissions. This work helps promote meaningful resident involvement in local governance and ensures volunteer bodies have the resources needed to operate effectively. And finally, investing in professional development and organisational well-being. Ongoing attention was given to training, professional standards and internal expectations to reinforce a respectful workplace culture and ensure employees are prepared to meet the needs of the community. And I should say when I said this is from the city clerk's department, city clerk and human resources, so Jill covers both of those departments.

Okay. Next up, finance. City staff has worked diligently to improve processes and rightsize the organization for responsible spending. By implementing strategic changes to address budget challenges in 2025, we successfully closed the year with a surplus. Additionally, the city has produced a balanced budget for 2026.

I'll say those two things again. In 2025, we successfully closed the year with a surplus and the 2026 budget will be a balanced budget. We continue to monitor the five year outlook accounting for an inflation and economic impacts on primary revenue sources, including development, property, sales and utility taxes. While projections for the next three years remain strong, we are actively engaged in long term planning beyond that window. In addition, we look forward to concluding a clean financial audit with the state auditor's office.

And then finally, just a couple of two miscellaneous items that I added on here. We renamed the street out in front of City Hall to Dom Collado Way this past year. Numerous people contributed to this accomplishment that honors the legacy of one of our fallen officers. And finally, we secured two local community project funding allocations out of Olympia. One was for $309,000 for an aquatic mitigation study, also known as a wetlands banking study, and the other one was for $114,000 for the Nyhom Windmill relocation and refurbishment.

So that concludes my 2025 state of the city address. Thank you very much. Next up, we are to audience comment. Is there anyone in our audience here in council chambers or online that would like to step to the podium for their three minutes? Not seeing anyone. We will go ahead and close audience comment. Mayor's report. More me talking. So this is what I've got. A couple of things.

I attended the city action days couple of weeks ago down in Olympia. Had a good two day conference down there, networking with other elected officials throughout the state. I'll be back down in Olympia tomorrow and Thursday for the mayor's exchange. So this is just mayors. So looking forward to being down there for two more days.

Also wanna point out, I think we've mentioned that the Fife Milton Edgewood Chamber of Commerce has a new executive director. It's a former Milton mayor, Shanna Styron Sheryl. She's doing she's chosen to combine the mayor's annual address. It used to be each mayor, Fife Milton Edgewood, would get a meeting, but we're gonna all do it together at the same meeting. So on March 11, if you have any interest in hearing an update from all three mayors, they'll meet together on March 11.

Just wanna point that out. We also our assistant city administrator, Rachel Pitzel, and I met with the Fife and Milton leadership teams last week for our quarterly mayor's lunch. That's always a good productive time to kinda network with what they have going on and hear hear what's going on in their respective cities. So we had a good quarterly lunch last week. And then finally, I wanna announce that in celebration of our thirtieth birthday as a city, which is coming up on February 28, I have invited all six former mayors of the city of Edgewood to lunch.

And with myself, that'll be all seven mayors that have ever served in that capacity for the city of Edgewood. They're all gonna be there. All six said yes, so I'm looking forward to treating them to to lunch and just showing my appreciation for the work that they did and serving our community as a mayor. So that concludes my mayor's report, which takes us to the consent agenda. So finally, someone other than me can talk. So are there any items to be amended or pulled from the consent agenda? Seeing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

I move, Southard. Second, Creeley.

Okay. It has been moved by council member Southard and seconded by deputy mayor Creeley to approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. K. Motion carries. Council business. We have one item tonight. Item a, it's agenda bill 26 dash o six nine nine. This is the second reading and adoption of ordinance twenty six zero six nine nine, granting unto forged fiber thirty seven LLC, a franchise agreement for telecommunications. Mister Chuck Hendrickson, our public works director, would you brief the council on this item?

Thank you, mayor, council, members of public. This is an agreement. This is the third reason twice. It is to allow forged fiber to the air balloon to be in the right of way. It does not cover construction. We handled individually for surface restoration, street closures, things like that as part of our right away permitting process. This is simply granted.

Are there any questions for Chuck on this item? K. Don't see any questions, so I'll entertain a motion on this item.

So moved, Edwards.

Second, Keith.

Okay. It has been moved by council member Edwards and seconded by council member Keith to approve the second reading and adoption of ordinance 26 dash o six nine nine, granting under Forge Fiber thirty seven LLC a franchise agreement for telecommunications. Council member Edwards, you have the floor.

It seems pretty basic kind of stuff, and I just think we should just vote on it, make it quick, be done with it.

K. And council member Keith, you now have the floor.

No comments. Normal business.

K. Are there any additional council comments? Okay. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Okay. Motion passes. We are to council comment. Does anyone have any council comment tonight?

Yes. Council member Ramirez. Jeremy, last night, you shared that the city received a grant for the climate component. Could you elaborate a little bit more on that?

I will give you a very brief elaboration this evening because coming to you next week for discussion is the continuation of the climate element requirement that the legislature put on cities. It's not due until June 2029, but the money became available. It's funded by the Climate Commitment Act. We thought it was appropriate to pounce on that, and they gave us a agreement for the full amount.

I have one thing I'll mention just to point out. Pierce County Regional Council meets monthly, and once a year, they have a a wide open, it's open to everyone type of thing. So I'm the current council liaison. Council member Ramirez is the alternate, and we usually attend those meetings. But you have an invite that if you have nothing going on the Thursday and wanna attend the PCRC, please let me know, and I will make sure that you have the the Zoom link forwarded to you.

There will be a couple of votes taken, so you won't be able to vote, though, but you you can participate and listen in on the meeting if you should choose to do so. So that's all I have. No further

Fill out your f ones. They're due soon.

Yes. For elected officials, f ones are due soon. So, yeah, don't don't forget to fill those out. So thank you for that. Okay. Seeing no further council comments, we are adjourned at 07:17.

Now you're betting. Take care.