City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

I call this hybrid regular council meeting of 02/24/2026 to order at 07:00PM. Tonight, we have fifth grader Sebastian Sebastian Hernandez fresh over here from, Northwood. He's gonna come lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Sebastian, you can come stand right next to me right up front here, And I'll let you hold the microphone and our flag is right there. So 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, and liberty. Best is

for all.

No. That's right. Did I say Hernandez? Oh, I'm so okay. Okay. Alright. Sorry. Sebastian. Yes. And Sebastian?

Okay. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Olsen. Here. Deputy mayor Greeley.

Here.

Council member Pazariski. Here. Council member Ramirez?

Here.

Council member Keith? Here. Council member Erasmus?

Here.

Council member Edwards?

Here.

Council member Sethard?

Here.

Rules complete.

Okay, council. Before we start tonight, or before we continue, does anyone have any item that they would like to add to tonight's agenda? K. Didn't think so, but just wanted to ask that anyway. Okay.

Audience comment. Folks, this is your opportunity to step to the podium and or raise your hand in the virtual audience. And before we do, I would like to we've talked about extending the audience comment time from three minutes to five minutes. But instead of trying to do a council rules of procedure, I felt it made more sense maybe to hold off until we do the whole thing. But in the meantime, we can I'll entertain a motion to suspend the council rules of procedure to allow for up to five minutes tonight.

So if someone like to entertain that motion, it's kind of a stop gap way of getting what we want now and still trying to handle everything in a nice clean orderly manner a little bit later down the road. So I'll I'll entertain a motion if someone like to move to extend audience comment time from three minutes to five minutes.

I'll make a motion, to extend audience comment from three to five minutes.

And do we have a second?

I second.

And Randy Schaefer, our city attorney, a motion to suspend council rules of procedure, I believe requires a super majority. So we have seven, so we would need five votes. Is it a debatable amendment or I'm sorry. Debatable motion, or do we just go straight to the vote? I should have forewarned you. I was gonna do

sorry about that. You. Let me check on that. One moment. Option to suspend. Cancel rules. And you're asking whether you need a super majority, or do you need to debate it?

I know we need a super majority to suspend council rules of procedure. Just not sure if it's debatable or if it has to go straight to a vote or if it needs to. Christie Keith is which one need

Debatable. It's it's debatable.

Yeah. Okay. Alright.

Sorry. Put on the spot with my Robert's rules. It is debatable. Thank you.

And I'm so, so sorry that I I knew I was gonna do that. I should have forewarned you. I apologize. So there we go. Council member Pazarusky, you have the floor.

I think it's a good idea. Historically, when we've had public comment, we've had quite a few that have reached their three minute time limit and at times haven't gotten to their main point. So I think allowing a few extra minutes, they'll be able to say everything that they need to say in that allotted time.

And councilmember Ramirez, I believe you had the second, so you have

the floor. I just think as our demographics in our city change and we have more citizens where English isn't their first language and coming up in front of the public can be already, a very nervous thing, I think it would be in our best interest to extend that a little bit.

Okay. Is there any other council comment before we vote on this matter? Council member Creeley and and then council member Erasmus. Looks like you took your oh, maybe you that was inadvertently. No hand. You didn't raise your hand, but you took yourself off mute. So I thought maybe, but you're good.

I was I was getting ready. No. Just a vote.

Okay. Got it. Councilmember Rasmus, did you have a comment on

this motion? To clarify. It's a great idea. The this is this is active until we vote, or is there any expiration when we do a motion like that?

We'll we'll have to I I believe we're gonna have to do it for at least three meetings. So we just do that with the goal Three meeting for the next three until we vote on the new council rules of procedure. Okay. Okay. Any other council comment? K. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any any opposed, say nay. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Okay. So audience, you now have five minutes this evening. So if anyone would like to step to the podium or anyone in the virtual audience.

No virtual attendees tonight, and nobody's stepping forward. So okay. Well, still, I think, the right thing to do, and but we have no audience comment tonight. So we will move on to the mayor's report. So here's my mayor's report.

Since we last met on February 10, I spent two days down in Olympia at the Mayor's Exchange, had a good conference there with a bunch of fellow mayors from throughout the state. Also was able to head over to the hill and spend some time with senator Fortunato and representative Penner, both representing the 31st District. So had some good meetings and interactions with them. So that's always good to get some time in front of them. We also had a meeting last week.

I'm pretty sure it was last week with congressman congresswoman Marilyn Strickland's office about a recent, $250,000, federal budget earmark towards our trail. So that was good that that has been moving through and looking good, and now it's official official. So they wanted to meet with us to talk to us about that. So that was a good productive meeting. Also attended the PCRC meeting with council member Ramirez.

That was the general assembly. So there was a few more participants than normal because all council members from all 23 cities were invited to that. And assistant city administrator Rachel Pitzel and I met with Angelina Koenig today. She is the new executive director over at the Mountain View Community Center. So just wanted to get to know her and hear a little bit about some new things going on over at the community center and address some questions she had about us as a city.

So it was that was a good productive meeting. And then finally, just wanna acknowledge or remind people that I'm hosting all the former mayors in this Edgewood's history this coming Friday down at Mama's Tortini's, and all six mayors have accepted my invitation and to bring a guest with them. So it should be a nice lunch. And and this is just a a personal thing. This is just me taking the former mayors to lunch.

It's not an official city of Edgewood thing. So it's just just me going to lunch with some former mayors, and so I'm looking forward to spending some time and just thanking them for their commitment to our city through the years and just have a nice lunch with them. So that concludes my mayor's report. Next up, we have the consent agenda. 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? So moved, Erasmus.

Second.

And is there a second? Okay. It has been moved by council member 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. First council business item, agenda bill 26 dash o seven eight eight. This is a resolution, regarding the 2026 annual comprehensive plan amendment docket. Mister Jeremy Metzler, community development director, would

you please brief the council on this item? Thank you, mayor. Good evening, council, members of the public. Tonight, this is our annual comprehensive plan amendment process docketing procedure. The final docket was presented last week at our study session. With council's action tonight, it does not formally change any zoning or approve anything other than going forward with the study, working with the planning commission, and coming back to this council with the ultimate recommendation before the end of this year. With that, I'm happy to take any questions you may have.

Okay. Are there any questions for mister Metzler on the 2026 annual comp plan amendment docket? K. Don't see any here. So may I have a motion to approve resolution 26 dash o seven eight eight, the 2026 annual comprehensive plan amendment docket?

I make a motion to adopt a b 26 dash zero seven eight eight.

K. And is there a

second? Second.

Okay. It has been moved by council member Ramirez and seconded by council member Edwards to approve resolution 26 dash o seven eight eight. Council member Ramirez, you have the floor.

Just wanna say thanks to staff, the planning commission, and I think this falls in line with the study that we paid for last year and helps us reach some of our goals in our comprehensive plan.

And council member Edwards, you now have the floor.

Nothing. Just standard business.

Okay. Any other council comment on this item? K. Seeing no further council comment, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. K. Motion carries. Next up, agenda bill 26 dash o seven nine one, a resolution regarding the fee schedule update. Again, mister Jeremy Metzler, will you please brief the council on this item? Thank you, mayor.

Again, this is an item that was discussed at last week's study session. Staff has performed an analysis to see what it actually costs to perform development review business and have proposed adjustments to the city's fee schedule accordingly. With that, happy to take any questions you may have this evening. What's presented, it would propose an effective date of March 30 to give time for the development community to become aware.

Okay. Council member Rasmus.

Yes. After a great meeting with with you and Chuck, Jeremy, it it really was a great meeting. Very informative. I asked for that on at the last study session. I am asking to move this to the April 7 study session agenda.

Okay. So we have a motion on the floor to, postpone this item to a date certain, which is April 7, for that study session. This motion needs a second. Is there a second? A second. K. So we have a motion by council member Erasmus and a second by council member Ramirez to postpone resolution 26 dash o seven nine one to April to the April 7 study session. Councilmember Erasmus, you have the floor.

Yeah. Thank you. Again, just a great meeting. I'm really pleased that you're open to kinda giving us some more time to maybe hash out some different options and work together as a team to get to a yes on this eventually. So definitely don't wanna my intentions are not to delay this indefinitely or forever, but just give us some some time to think about it and review it together. So thank you.

Councilmember Ramirez, you now have the floor.

Yeah. The more time that we can work as a unit and have a deep, deep discussion on this, some of the topics have been discussed in fragments over the two years I've been on and over the seven years I said in the audience, and I think just having a holistic picture, and it wouldn't be pretty much would be beneficial for me and I think also beneficial for the citizens.

Okay. Any further council comment? K. A motion to postpone to a certain date requires just a simple majority. So all those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Are there any opposed? Okay. So resolution 26 dash o seven nine one is now on the April 7 study session agenda. K? Next up, council comments. Does anyone have any council comments tonight? Yes. I'm sorry. Council member Pazaruski. Right right in my face there. So and then deputy mayor Creeley has his hand raised. So first, Jennifer.

So at last year's council retreat, I had two things that I brought up, and that was to inform the community and involve our community. With the recent talks that I sadly missed at the prior study session since I was on military orders regarding the firework ban discussion. It seems that we are going to be having a study session about the fireworks ban and then a council vote the week after, coming up here in a few weeks. I don't think this is ample time to involve our community and inform our community. Therefore, I would like to postpone the discussion of the fireworks ban.

I I don't want to feel pressured to vote on this based on fireworks stands having to, you know, buy their fireworks from China wherever they have to buy, because I know they have to do all this stuff months in advance before an event. I I I don't feel like we should act upon the need of that pressure. I feel like we should, since we are the voice of the community, take a step back. We were having a discussion at the March 17 study session about a newsletter to hopefully involve more of the community. I wanna get more community involvement.

If it's ideally ideally, in my world, if there was ample funding to have some type of advisory vote like the city of Milton had last election season. Or a public hearing where we could notify the public and not just have the majority of the people attending the public hearing, to be the fireworks stands. So I would like to delay not only the study session, but the vote until further notice, until we can figure out a way to involve the community and inform them.

Second.

Okay. Well, Randy, you might wanna come off mute here. Now we don't make formal motions here, so nothing new because well, no. I'm I'm sorry. Let me take that back.

Educate me, Randy, about a council member's ability to make a motion to remove an item that another council member has placed on the agenda. We don't have a well, tell tell me how that how does that work? The council has already voted or has already put an item on the agenda, and it was by the council, by two members of the council to put a discussion on a study session. But can another council member make a motion to remove that item from how does that work?

Well, there's no formal motion on the floor at this point right now, so there there won't be a need for a second. I believe that the study session agenda is a planning calendar event even if it was agreed to be discussed then. So I I don't believe that a formal motion's required to remove it or to add it. That's it's kind of a planning event. It's not necessarily something that's been set in stone. It's just something the council agreed to discuss.

Right. Okay.

So you you can remove it from that agenda, or you can keep it there.

Well, when you say you

The council. Excuse me. The council can agree

to this. The council is already two council members have already put it on the agenda per their ability to place an item on the agenda. So now can two other council members take a vote to remove an item from the agenda, or do they have to wait for that item and then move to postpone? Or I I don't know.

I would recommend waiting and then moving to postpone when it becomes an agenda item.

Point of information. Make an oh, go ahead. Sorry.

I I also remember some little bit about not being able to remove items only to delay them to time certain.

Yes.

So we need to be really specific in our language whatever motion we're gonna make whenever we make it. I don't think we can just say, no. We're not gonna talk about that. And I don't think we can say, no. We're not gonna talk about it until some unnamed time. I think we have to do, date certain, and then that kicks in the discussion portion and the vote portion. Do I have that right, Randy?

Yes. And that would be when the agenda item comes

up live.

Yeah. Yeah.

It's it's now. Yeah. Hang hang on just a minute. Let let me let me let Jennifer finish up her comment, and then we'll go straight to deputy mayor. Yeah. She just says one other thing, then we'll go

straight to Mark.

Just to be clear, my intent is never to remove this item. Obviously, you can all understand my stance on this topic. And it's my you know, it's my right now, it's my personal opinion. But I also want to involve the community. So my intent is never to remove it.

We are a we are a democracy. I want to get as many in our community involved. I just want to postpone it until we have things in order, mainly our March 17 study session to talk about the newsletter. I think that is such a great topic. If it's gonna be a email newsletter or a paper newsletter, it's gonna be something that's gonna involve people and get topics like fireworks, on on that newsletter. So do we need to come up with a hard date today, or can this just be something that we postpone until until a further date?

Well, for now, it's on the agenda, and and it's gonna be tough to, you know, at least being on the study session agenda agenda per two council members' request. I I think it's we're kind of we have to follow the the protocol. And I think for now, it stays on the study a session agenda. Your your points have been very well made tonight. And if at the agenda next week, it's or at the study session next week, it's decided, you know what?

I think we need to hold off, then council consensus can say, let let's hold off. So I'm gonna go to deputy mayor Creeley. And, again, I'll just remind you, we're a council comment, so this is not a a debate on the fireworks ordinance. So but deputy mayor Creeley has a chance and then anyone else oh, sorry. Deputy mayor Creeley, you're you're trumped by our city attorney.

Was gonna say I'll defer to,

lady. Sorry.

I just wanted to clarify for the record that the word remove was my word, and I apologize for that. I meant to say postpone to a time certain. So any reference to removal, I believe that came from me, and not from the council member. I just wanted to clarify that. I apologize for that.

Yeah. No worries. Alright. Deputy mayor Creeley, you've been, patiently waiting with your hand raised there.

Well, now jump in on this topic too. It just, since I'm the one that brought it up to put it on there, I'm not averse to, you know, that final vote being pushed out, but there's no need not to start the conversation at the next meeting. And then, you know, I I think we're gonna we're gonna have a discussion at the the retreat. I like to call them advances rather than retreats to reflect progress. But I'm not averse to, you know, putting off the final vote, but let's let's begin the conversation.

And, you know, as as we start to talk about things, the word spreads as well. So, like I say, let's let's at least start the conversation and get the ball rolling and get things started, and people will catch on.

Right. Well, I'm gonna take that opportunity to take you at your word for that, and let's pull it from the March. But let's keep it on for the study session because

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's fine.

Yeah. Yeah. So make a note of that that the future agenda list will be updated to remove the or fireworks ordinance on the March 10 regular council meeting, but we'll keep it on for the March 3 study session, as a a topic. So I think that's a great compromise. So

That's good.

Okay. Any other oh, sorry.

You had something else. Somebody else said something.

Well, yeah, we'll we'll yield to some, and we'll come back to you, Mark. Council member Ramirez.

So I've been contacted by Citizens and now two businesses that front Meridian about these dirt bikes, scooters, ebikes. I understand RCW 46Dash61Dash70 and Dash715 deal with ebikes, mopeds, motorized boot scooters. Our code does not speak directly to this. And if we're considering being a multimodal city, these are going to be things that are gonna increase. I would like to put on our retreat a discussion on possibly the city creating local code and or customized regulations for all class one, class two, and class three ebikes as well as scooters, areas of concern that were brought to my attention by local business and citizens parking on the sidewalk blocking ADA accessibility, sidewalk use of riding up and down doing wheelies, trail riding in the parks, and everyone asked me, where's the parental responsibility?

So I would just like to ask the chief if there are any suggestions or what you're seeing so that we can keep these kids safe, but also keep them from being a nuisance on our revenue generating businesses, especially their private property like parking lots. So I would like to put this on as a discussion. Maybe chief could join us there, but I think it's gonna be even bigger once the summer comes around.

Yeah. I do believe chief Youngman is planning on attending our retreat. Yep. I got a thumbs up. So he already has been working on some things to share with us, and I'm sure, even if we wouldn't have asked, he might have shared something about that because that's a hot topic for every police department, every city. So, duly noted chief, I'm sure you'll add some some code language stuff that we might wanna consider looking at to help our citizens and business owners along Meridian. So thank you, councilmember Ramirez. And, chief, you're good? You're on what you need to

oh. I think council member Ramirez was looking for some comment there from me, and I do have some. I actually would thank you for bringing this up. It's not the highest priority when it comes to crimes within the city and stuff like that, but for safety reasons, it is something that we pay attention to. It's a topic that, unfortunately, we don't have a lot of heat on because we don't have it in code. There's a few things in code, helmets. They're actually not allowed in the parks. We are code. But as far as the RCWs you mentioned, that's what we're relying on. It's just the RCWs.

For kids, that's not something where we're writing them a ticket. That's something where we have to forward to a prosecutor for charges. We've been in communication with the the prosecutors at the district court level, and they've expressed that they will not charge kids for those RCWs that they've mentioned. They would be interested in perhaps a reckless endangerment charge if, you know, kids are running people off the sidewalks, things like that, and we have an actual victim that's willing to go through with the process. So we're left with not a lot to be able to do.

We do make it a point to have our deputies go and contact these kids when they have time and when they can and when they'll actually stop for us. Sometimes they actually flee from us, and because of this, that's the safety impacts of that, we will not pursue them. We're not gonna cause a kid to run out into traffic trying to get away from us. It doesn't make sense. We try to focus more on the ones that are in the more dangerous areas, like the Long Meridian and things like that.

Those are the ones that we wanna contact more often. So, yes, having something in the code that gives us a little bit of teeth would be super helpful, especially something that will allow us to maybe confiscate the property for a short period of time and them come back with their parents and pick it up or something like that. That gives us something that we can actually do. We're not gonna be able to give kids a, you know, fine for city code violation. Again, fine the kids for that.

But if we can maybe bring the property into play and get the parents to have to come down and pick it up, something that goes along those lines would be super helpful for us as a police department, because it actually gives us a tool that we can now use other than just kinda empty threats of, hey, don't do that, or or we might file a file a report with the prosecutor's office that won't go anywhere. So it would be super helpful.

Okay. Thank you, chief. Deputy mayor Creedly, you had another item.

I did. When I was riding my bike by the Nelson Nature Park, I noticed that we now have the big metal sign that used to be over the south driveway that was knocked down by a truck several years ago, and it was just sitting up alongside the barn there. It's now nicely placed in front where they've cleared things out, and it looks really great there. So I wanted to give kudos to whoever thought of putting it there and actually getting it installed if that was somebody different. It looks pretty good.

Okay. Yes. Councilmember Rasmus. So

this is kinda late notice. But tomorrow, I'm going to be joining my folks at Master Builders and the BIW at our annual hill climb at Capitol Hill in Olympia. We get to go see a handful of our state reps and senators. I actually get a a one on one with the privilege of being a city council member of the city of Edgewood. I get to go one on one with rep Stokesbury. So I'm just gonna leave it out there. If there's anything with current bills that are going on right now that are in session, if anybody has anything they want me to to relay to the folks that I'm meeting up with tomorrow, then send me a a message.

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? I have two oh, council member Keith. Go ahead, council member Keith.

So I'm looking at the next study session, and I still don't see a conversation about the newsletter scheduled. When were we gonna put that on?

I believe we decided March 17, I thought. I thought the last time we talked is it on the March 17? Or I well, I don't know if you've yeah. I I can't. Christy, I'm pretty sure it's on the it's Okay.

But it's it's officially scheduled somewhere, and we're gonna have that conversation.

March 17.

Okay. Gotcha.

Okay. I have two quick items. Just wanna point out that, I'll be attending the raise a toast for hope event Friday night at the Mountain View Community Center. I know some of you are involved there. I don't think we're gonna have a quorum.

I don't assume a bunch of you were going, but I just wanted to point that out that I'll be there Friday night. And then just to remind you to please pass on to your constituents, your friends, family, neighbors here in Edgewood that the property tax seminar is coming up on Monday, March 2 in the afternoon here in Council Chambers. Pierce County will be presenting that. So if you've ever talked to somebody about complaining about property tax and they might be a a senior or qualify for a reduction or elimination altogether, then March 2 is the time to be here at City Hall for the property tax seminar. 1PM.

Yes. I'm sorry. 1PM on Monday right here in Council Chambers, and it's put on by someone from Pierce County. K. That concludes it for me. Are we good? With that, we are adjourned at 07:33.

Good night, everybody. Take care.