City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I call this hybrid regular council meeting of June 23rd, 2026 to order at 7 o'clock p.m. And looks like I have a little bit of a weird background there. I apologize. Maybe we'll try this option. There you go. That looks a little bit better. So tonight, leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance, I'm not there, but I believe we have Breckin Pazaruski. And if they would like to come up forward, looks like Matthew's given them a microphone. And so Breckin, if everyone would please stand and you take it from here.

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.

All right. Thank you, Brecken. I appreciate that. And is mom going to give him a little certificate there?

Nice.

Perfect. Thank you, Council Member Pasarewski, and thank you, Brecken. So, would the clerk please call the roll?

Mayor Olson?

Here.

Deputy Mayor Creeley?

Here.

Council Member Pasarewski? Here. Council Member Ramirez?

Here.

Council Member Keith? Present. Council Member Rasmus?

Here.

Council member Edwards. Here. Council member Southard. Here. Rolls complete.

Okay. Thank you, Jill. Thank you, Council. Council, as you know, Council Rule 9.3 allows you the option to add or delete an item to the agenda. Does anyone have anything they would like to add or delete to tonight's agenda? Okay, didn't think there'd be any, but I asked anyway. So next up is audience comment. And I understand we have one person that has signed up. So Daryl Eidinger, if you'd like to step to the podium and take your, we now give five minutes for audience comment, Daryl, a new change. So you have up to five minutes. So take it away. Take it away.

Mr. Mayor, Council, staff, it's a pleasure to be here again on behalf of the Edgewood Summerfest. I know this is just a couple weeks after your melt-apart thing or whatever you're doing on the 3rd, but we're excited about that. Just wanted to invite you guys, as I always do. We'll have space for you. Again, we'll clarify, it'll be right next to the welcome booth. I would like you to be able to have someone there to answer questions. You have to bring your own chair. I'll supply the chairs. How's that? I'll bring the chairs. As long as you guys show up, I'd be excited to have you. We've been doing this for over 25 years now. So it's a pretty exciting and it becomes a tradition here in Edgewood changed the names a couple of years ago, but, uh, The idea is the same. We have a lot better entertainment this year. We have a street magician. We have face painters. We have just about everything that people would want. I'm still looking for a younger band to fit a slot, but, you know, they'll come along between now and then. So just look forward to having you, you know, show up at new hours. New hours starting later for all you sleep in people who need to start a little later, 11 o'clock, but go on there to six. We just got approved on our alcohol permits. So three local establishments will be providing alcohol for those who consume. I'm not one of those, but if you consume, we've got that. I'm here to answer any questions because I have three minutes and 30 seconds left.

Well, we don't normally ask questions, but I will ask one. What is your definition of a younger band?

Well, you know, I grew up before you were born, and so younger band would be, you know, something like Creedence Clearwater Revival, you know, but... all right there we go if you if you know local bands we really strive for having local bands we've had local bands for the last couple of years and we we can adjust around the timing if uh if somebody comes along so uh we actually pay band members to come and so it's a it's a paying gig i don't know i was a musician a number of years couldn't get a paying gig to save my life but uh So that's what I think a younger band is. We don't do questions. Let's do questions.

I did have a quick question. So planning is going well. Are you in need of volunteers?

We're always in need of volunteers. If you go to the Edgewood Summerfest website, there's a page to have volunteers. There's actually a volunteer coordinator this year, and it's not me.

Nice. I'll pitch in, so I'll get up and fill out your form.

The main effort that we like to see, probably, as I talk to Councilmember Ramirez, is at the end, because we have a bunch of things to knock down, and sometimes it's a little messy and... Murray's helps us out with extra recycled bins and stuff. And so it goes fairly quickly, but we really like to leave it better than we found it. So we are always looking for volunteers. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Darrell. Is there any other audience comment tonight? Remember, you don't have to have signed up, but does anybody else have any?

We have one person with their hand raised.

Okay, well, go ahead and step right up to the podium. You got your five minutes.

Okay, my name is Karen Sotak. I have two homes here in the city of Edgewood. Mine isn't so much something that's fun. Mine is trying to get information from City Hall on things that are happening or should be happening, who I go to. Every time I get something set where I'm working with somebody, their job changes, they go away, the next person knows nothing about it. What kind of briefing are they getting in between? I have a water mitigation issue that's been on for probably close to seven years that I still can't get any answers on. I have a, back up real quick. Just so you know, both of my homes have been involved with the drug houses next door to them. And so the drug and the homeless and the other things that have been going on in Edgewood. So I dealt with all of that stuff for... Five years, six years. And so trying to get information to get our property settled has been difficult. The latest one is the property that was given to the state of Washington for mitigation for water. I came in and asked. They were quite a ways back. We were asking, you know, how far are they going any further back? Are they on Edgewood property? Are this nobody from the city even knew that they were mitigating down there? at that time. And so I guess if the city owns the property that borders it, somebody should know from the city what's happening down there. it's frustrating to ask questions about things and not have anybody to go to. Well, oh, I'll do it and I'll get back to you. And then I never hear anything back. So I have a water mitigation issue. We have questions about the land down there. We know that it was given to the state for 10 years is what I was told. And it's supposed to come back to the city as a park. I've actually stopped down there because the guy here says, well, I don't know. You have to talk to DOL. So I went down and I stopped. and looked for the supervisor on and did some asking of questions. But the question that's come up from my neighbor is, who is the one that handles it? We've had a lot of problem with homeless on the Hill. We've had a problem with the drug situations. Now we've got that property down there being mitigated. If they do put any parking or anything down there and it does come back as a part, right now, who do we call if there's a problem down there? Do we go to Edgewood? Do we go to the state? Which police division will be handling that if it's no longer Edgewood property? So we've got a lot of questions. We just don't know where to go to get answers.

Right. Okay. I will work with our staff and we'll try to sort through this and get an answer that satisfies you. We do have a pretty stable staff right now. Fortunately, we have not had a whole lot of turnover. So we will collect our information and we will get an answer back to you on who does what and what is...

the state do what does edgewood do what does the police department do because they all have a hand in it so stay tuned we'll we we i know that may sound like a hollow promise but trust me we will get an answer back to you i would like to get the answer on the mitigation on my property here in edgewood and what's edgewood's doing we were way down at the bottom we moved all the way up where we're in the top five and now i haven't been able to get an answer for three years So where are we on that? You flood the property, we want it done. I brought Jeremy pictures of my granddaughter out there in her kayak in the middle of winter. That stuff has to be taken care of. So if I can come in and talk to you, we can sit down and figure out what things and you figure out what department needs to handle it, that's fine. But we need to try and get some answers.

Sounds good. We will work on that and get you some answers.

Okay.

Is there anyone else there? I have a little bit of a limited screen. I don't see anyone, any hands raised. Are we good? I'm seeing some head nods no. Okay. So that concludes audience comment. which takes us to the mayor's report. Just a couple of things. I'm over here in Spokane at the AWC Annual Conference, the Association of Washington City's Annual Conference. I'm on the nominating committee, so I spent all day interviewing about 20 candidates for positions here. So I'm kind of interviewed out. uh and also just a reminder to our three appointed delegates that thursday at four o'clock is the annual meeting so this is the annual conference a four-day conference and then the annual meeting itself is thursday at four o'clock from four o'clock until 5 45. so You've been submitted as delegates. I assume you've received some email confirmation of the link and all that kind of stuff. But if you need it, you got between that, or if you don't have it, let me know between now and four o'clock and I'll make sure you're good to go. I also want to mention that the America's 250th event is progressing quite nicely. We're now kind of in the home stretch. We have 10 days till our event, so looking forward to that. It's going to be a busy next 10 days. And my last thing of my mayor's report, just want to point out that the 10-member Tricentennial Time Capsule Committee has been named, and they will be there on site in City Hall at 8 o'clock tonight. for a group photo. I assume the time capsule is somewhere around there so they can hold the time capsule for their photo. The 10 members are, I'll just mention their first names because they're all minors, but we have Abby, London, Violet, Elliot, Samantha, Jordan, Brecken, Lucy, Micah, and Sophie. So congratulations and thank you for those 10 members of the Tricentennial Time Capsule Committee. They all have the opening on their calendar 50 years from now, and I trust that they'll all be there to open up the time capsule in 2076. So that concludes my mayor's report, takes us to our consent agenda. Council, are there any items to be amended or pulled from tonight's consent agenda? Yes. Deputy Mayor Creeley.

Just a question. On the special meeting minutes um should that include the staff that was present and that at that as well as which attorney conducted that executive meeting just for the record it shows all the council members that were there but just in case it ever comes up should we have them listed that they were in on that executive session and i can answer that mayor go right ahead

So it is not required, Deputy Mayor. So typically advice from city attorneys would be to put the minimum requirement. But if that is optional, so if the council would like to have additional information, you can. Gotcha. Okay.

I wasn't sure.

Okay, so if nobody has any item that they would like to amend or pull, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So move.

I'll make a second Pazurowski.

Okay, it has been moved by Deputy Mayor Creeley and seconded by Council Member Pasarewski to approve the consent agenda as presented. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Okay, motion carries. Takes us to our first official council business item, item A. This is agenda bill 25-26-112. These are the mayoral appointments and council confirmation of Stephen Weiss, Kelsey Morgan, and Kenneth Linares to the Economic Development Advisory Board, and Joanne Overfield to the Planning Commission, with terms ending June 30, 2028. And I'll just go straight to a motion. Do I have a motion to approve those mayoral appointments as just listed? So moved. I'll take the second. Edward's second. Edward's second. And who was the first? Rasmus. Rasmus. Okay, it has been moved by Council Member Rasmus and seconded by Council Member Edwards to approve the mayoral appointments as announced. Council Member Rasmus, you have the floor.

I think it's great to see people coming back to do more service. Thank you guys.

Now, Council Member Edwards, you have the floor. Nothing at this time. Any further Council comment on this motion? See, no additional counts. So, yes, I'm sorry. Council member.

And that shadow in the distance. Yeah, I just also want to thank the, um. quite a few people that are coming on for second, third, fourth terms here, or second, yeah, actually second, and then a few with the third term, and then with the new person, appreciate their call to service of volunteering and making great leaps and bounds in their positions.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Pasarewski. Any further Council comments? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Okay, motion carries. Takes us to council comments. Who would like to kick things off with some council comments tonight? Deputy Mayor Creeley.

Yep, I was just wondering, just to make sure we're having the budget retreat as a hybrid.

That is correct. Thank you. It'll be at council chambers hybrid, just like a pretty much a normal meeting. Council member Keith looks like she has her hand raised.

So last week I nearly got splattered on the sidewalk in front of Safeway by a person on one of those bike things. And I wondered if our police representative would give us an update on how the new legislation is going down.

Thank you, Councilman. I'll be glad to. So we were able to get all of our education materials out to all of our schools before school got out. We did that electronically in a form of email to all the parents from their school's email lists. So that was with Northwood, Mountain View, Hedden, and Edgemont. So thank you to our SRO that helped with that and some representatives at the Fife School District to help us with Hedden. We've issued out multiple warnings. We have made one arrest so far of a 13-year-old that knocked down and drug a gentleman on the Innerwood Trail on his electronic motorcycle, which is now, that bike is now in our custody at the Tacoma County City Building. And I don't think we've issued any tickets yet. So far. Everybody's been 1st time offenders. So they've all gotten warnings and they've all been minors. They can't get tickets. So they've all been given the juvenile warnings and notifications to parents. So it's going quite well.

Okay, any further council comments. Uh, yeah, really quickly Edwards.

So I just wanted to say thank you to staff for getting me that information about the heating and cooling center. So thank you for that. It was interesting to learn that our heating and cooling center only activates when we are at a level three or level red for heating. And as of right now, we're only at a level two. So it is not active, which I was kind of surprised by because I thought with the heat that we're having, it would be higher than it is. But just thank you for getting that to me.

Okay. Any other council comment? I have one kind of sort of thing just to point out, you know, the budget retreat next Tuesday from five to nine. Right here at council chambers. Available via zoom. We are using edgewoods own wine spot. To provide dinner sandwiches and salads and I believe. jill or somebody there should have the menu if you want to select your menu item and we will be sure to place the order in time to for a dinner break at the middle of our budget retreat so just want to remind you to select your menu choice okay so i think that concludes council comments uh We have an executive session tonight. So the council will now meet an executive session to discuss with legal counsel matters pursuant to RCW 42.30.110, parentheses A, parentheses I, I, parentheses I. And the council will be an executive session until, Maylee, how much time should we allot? It's 7.20 right now.

I'm going to estimate 15 minutes.

Okay, so council will be an executive session until 735 and we are not expected to take further action following the executive session. So. Nothing will be exciting afterwards. So audience members, you're welcome to call it a night because we'll pretty much just come out of executive session and adjourn the meeting. But we are now going to head back to council or to the Rainier Room. Deputy Mayor Creeley, Council Member Rasmus and myself will sign in with a different Zoom link and we'll see you back in the Rainier Room in a couple of minutes. So we'll see you back at 735.

Hey, Mayor.

Yes.

I don't have my city council email accessible. Can that be sent to my other email?

Do you feel comfortable saying the email out loud on the record here? Because I can forward it to you right now. Okay.

Yep. Jason at American-NW.com.

And so you will have to keep this email in your nw.com email because it could be quasi a public record. But I would just recommend don't get any more city emails to this email address. So we're just going to do that right now so you can get the link.

Okay.

That's understood. Thank you, Maile.

You're welcome.

Bye.

All right. I'll see you in there in two minutes.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yep. Yes, good.

I had no information.

Yeah. And do it again. And do it again.

Either way. Awesome. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah.

. .

. . . . .

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Yes. uh... or

Thank you.

I think I want to go back to our initial question. So I just want to go back to our initial question. So I just want to go back to our initial And so the water line. Yeah, that was the point.

So . people to occupy a zone. Yeah, especially if you can't have it .

We're extending 10 minutes until 745.

Okay.

Okay, everyone, we are back out of executive session and it's about 743. Technically, I'm supposed to probably sit here and wait till 745, but I'm going to trust that no one's going to be too concerned about that. So I will now adjourn this regular council meeting at 743 p.m.