City Council - Special Meeting

Recording in progress. No problem.

This one I can't actually lean back on it. Good evening. I'll call the Federalway City Council meeting for Tuesday, March 24th of 20 2026 to order. Would you all please rise for the pledge of allegiance? 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. Well, good evening everyone. Okay. Uh first, uh we have under uh we're on item 3A, we have the World Down Syndrome Day proclamation and Council Member Aphidosen will start us off. Thank you, Mayor. Yes. Thank you.

Oh, you're welcome. You're welcome. Okay. So, um I'll read the proclamation. Thank you for being here and thank you for your story last a couple of weeks ago. Beautiful. And I really appreciate it and for our gifts and everything. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that before we get started. So, once we read the proclamation, you guys, if you want to can go up there and say a few words. Um, and then we also have another recipient, but unfortunately they couldn't be here, so they're going to be on Zoom, I believe, Dr. Okay. Um, okay. So, we'll get started. Meanwhile, Dr. Rosie, thank you. All right. Proclamation World Down Syndrome Day. Whereas Down syndrome is a genetic disorder affecting one and over 700 babies or approximately 6,000 births per year in the United States. And whereas Down syndrome is a naturally occurring chromosome chromos chromosomeal arrangement resulting in an extra or third set of chromosome number 21. And whereas individuals living with Down syndrome are independent, valuable, and active members of our community who are dignified participants in a wide range of educational, occupational, social, and recreational activities. And whereas the theme for 2026 World Down Syndrome Day is together against loneliness, highlighting the common and painful experience that many with Down syndrome feel each day. And whereas creating real inclusion, welcoming spaces, and meaningful relationships help to combat loneliness. And whereas individuals with disabilities have the right to be treated fairly and have the same

opportunities as everyone else. Now therefore, we the understand mayor and city council members of the city of Federal Way do hereby proclaim March 21st as World Syndrome Day and Federal Way and urge all residents to continue to build a more inclusive and welcoming Federal Way. Signed this 24th day of March, 2026. Thank you.

And we'll have uh Ariana Graham and Alicia Viella with 321 Buddy Foundation. Uh show It's done this way. Awesome. Let me see. But if she if she's here if she's here then she'll be able to see.

Okay.

And if you want to step up just a little bit, it's okay. Come. Hi guys, it's Mi. Thank you for seeing me. Thank you for hearing me. Thank you for celebrating me. and all my friends with Down syndrome. You can celebrate with us more in October. Get your calendars out. I am inviting you to be part of my buddy walk team. On October 3rd, 2026 in Tacoma. One more thing, hard hands are fun to do. But did you know they are even more special when you make the heart with another person? Go ahead and try it. Good job.

Hi, my name is Alicia Vala and I'm the executive director of 321B Buddy. And first we would like to thank you all for seeing us um for seeing our families and seeing our loved ones. Um, because of children like Ari, so many of us families are given the support to advocate and educate people about individuals with Down syndrome. Ari has been a leader in our community as her family has also supported her. So, thank you so much for seeing her and seeing all of our children. I'm Andrea, but most of you and most of our community actually knows me as Ari's mom. I'm not as cool as her and I could never be. It's that extra chromosome, I'm sure. 11 years ago, when I held her for the first time, we adopted Ari at birth. I made a promise to her that I would advocate as her mom until she could do so herself. And as you all saw three weeks ago as she stood in front of you, she advocated for herself for the very first time. I promise I held it together here, but I was a hot mess at home when I rewatched it when we shared it because that's what we're going for. Ari builds her speech and all of the things on her a AAC with our help, but if she doesn't like it, trust me, we know it. She lets us know. So those are her words and it's amazing to watch her grow into that. But that's exactly what we hoped for 11 years ago. We advocate because the world is aware of Down syndrome and we often hear Down syndrome awareness. But the world is aware and with that awareness often comes kind of a negative

perspective or fear. Um people see those with Down syndrome as unable or not going to be a person within our society that is successful. We know individuals with Down syndrome that have graduated college that have degrees that got married and there is a young woman in Washington DC lobbying right now that has Down syndrome. It is possible for our loved ones as long as our community sees them and hears them and accepts them. And so we ask for acceptance because with that acceptance comes a community that comes around Ariana and helps her grow into be the most amazing person that she's going to be. And that's our goal and that is why we advocate so hard. And so I appreciate and thank every single one of you here for seeing Ariana, hearing her three weeks ago and acknowledging that she's part of the Federal Way community because she makes Federal Way a better place to be.

We'd like to give um each council member some paperwork. We Alicia and myself and a couple other families here started a program down in Tacoma. The Tacoma group is called 321 Buddy. Um and we have a buddy walk that we're doing as Ariana invited you all to once I have her team made which will be over the summer. Um she'll we'll send out an invitation to the city council. We'd love to have you guys join us. Um, but I'd love to share information because we also opened up a community center for people with Down syndrome where they can go with their families. It's a resource to teach different things such as reading, job um, skills and so on. But we are now in the process at next week. Uh, we are opening a day center for individuals not just with Down syndrome but with disabilities. Um, and so if I could hand them and have you guys fabulous. Um, and one last thing, we had a goal as Ari shared um, to spread 21 or place 21 heart hands. Unfortunately, Ari got sick and uh, we had to lay low for about 10 days. Um, she has a slew of other health stuff that got in the way. Um, so she has hidden, well, not hidden, but she's placed heart hands inside, outside, and we'll finish this evening around the community for people to find her.

Thank you. Oh, and as you pass uh pass that out, you can give that to the city clerk, and she'll pass it this way. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. And Ary, I put my uh heart hands on my Ary, I put my heart hands on my shelf in my office. So, thank you so much for bringing those. It's great to see you both today. Thank you. Okay. Um, and thank you council member Sepodawan. It was council member Suffadan who put this on the agenda who uh suggested we put this on the agenda after we heard from Ari. So, thank you council member for following up very much.

Okay. Uh, now we've got mayor's emer emerging issues and report. We've got uh recent events. Okay. Uh uh we had uh in this very Oh yes, that's when we did the Ziply. Um I uh the uh that's Jared Newenhouse who works for Ziply, but he's also a council member with the city of Belleview. And he kept insisting even though it was a little bit of snow uh that we have umbrellas. I'm like, you don't need umbrellas for snow. Um but anyway, that's right outside the city of Federal Way. And we're having a couple of different uh um internet providers. Thank you. Bye you guys. Bye.

Bye. Thank you. Um and they're coming to the city of Federal Way and and uh we did uh one function at Steel Lake for one company and another um in the in the snow. They kept pushing the umbrellas. All right. Next. Okay. Uh in this very room, uh we had probably one of the most monumental and significant events uh that has ever occurred in our city hall chambers. And that was that individual on the bottom picture is the head of the Seattle FBI office. And uh uh they the um the Federal Bureau of Investigation uh put a Federal Way case, a defendant um Samuel Ramirez on the one one of the 10 most wanted uh in the nation. And there was a news conference in this room. Um myself, I I spoke, the chief spoke, uh the head of the Seattle office spoke, uh the uh U United States assistant United States attorney handling the case. It was the 538th case that the FBI had ever uh in I think over 70 years had uh uh placed on the 10 most wanted. Within an hour and 13 minutes in Mexico, Mr. Ramirez was found um and put into custody and flown back later that day uh where he now sits in the King County Jail awaiting charges for the horrible murders of two individuals in our community. And I just want to say a very special thank you to the chief, to the FBI, to everybody involved and um I was just very uh it was great to see the Federal Mirror here, all the regional media, and uh we're very gratified that we got an answer to that. that individual had fled not only the state uh in our jurisdiction but had fled the country and we needed federal law enforcement assistance and they also worked with the Mexican authorities uh and made the arrest in Mexico uh within like I said a record time of an hour and 13 minutes. So that was u in in it's a silver lining

and uh now it's time for accountability and justice. So that event we'll we'll keep you posted how that case goes. As I mentioned, we had uh the Ziply uh fiber groundbreaking right here uh uh in front and it was one of those days where it was uh snowing pretty hard. Uh so it was great to see the team with Ziply and we've had sever several other uh uh companies uh breaking ground and and what that really means is greater access to our community uh for um you know what the things that connect us all together. connectivity whether it's for education or work or you know the things that that help us uh uh compete in the uh in the marketplace or get ourselves educated or just to connect uh to our neighbors and friends in the nation. So uh that those connections are ongoing and different companies are um uh installing uh that um uh that hardware essentially that that uh uh uh infrastructure into our community. Uh the bottom picture was uh myself, council member Walsh, uh uh Haime Munoz uh in the sort of middle left there. He's the owner of Aztec and Meredith Neil, our economic development director at the Chamber of Commerce lunchon. It was a very interesting uh lunchon uh talking about uh uh searches and uh AI and and all kinds of uh how that's changing the marketplace and and changing uh the dynamics of the marketplace. Uh, next, uh, we had the Federal Way KoreanAmerican Association celebration, the uh, uh, swearing in to their new officers and, uh, uh, that was on March 7th, Saturday night, at KOAM. It was a great celebration. It was, uh, great to see everybody there, and congratulations to the new officers that were sworn in. Congressman Adam Smith was there as well. Upcoming events, we've got the repair cafe on March 28th, and that's over there uh, where where the uh, tool library is. We've got the community clothing swap on April 11th, same location. And the drive-thru shutting

event um on April 16th. Um is that at that same location as well. Um EJ, I believe the drive-through shredding event is at Red Canoe Credit Union. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Okay, and that's on April 16th. All right, next. Okay, we've got Parks Appreciation Day on April 18th. We've got the uh u several locations there. John, can you tell us the uh the three locations for the parks appreciation day? Uh Steel Lake, Brook Lake, and Celebration Park. Very good. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

We've got a town hall meeting on April 30th at the uh at uh Olympic View Elementary. I believe it's on uh 26th and about 3:27th. Uh it's a beautiful uh rebuilt school and uh we'll get started there at about 6 p.m. Um and an opportunity to talk about all kinds of things that have been mentioned. Uh previously we had talked about whether we were going to have a meeting uh just on uh the issues related to ICE and federal law enforcement, but we want to talk about all the things that are happening in our city. Our council will be there. The uh directors will be there. And again, town hall meeting April 30th starting at 6 p.m. We've got the I'm Hooked uh on I'm Hooked Family Fishing event. That's uh May 2nd at Steel Lake. I would get there early. Um and uh uh the gets a little crowded. And uh Council President Honda, you normally attend that event. Any uh any descriptions or suggestions?

Dress for the weather and don't be afraid to catch a fish. I try every year. All right. Last year it was pretty comical. Okay. Next. Um senior health and resource fair on May 12th. Um and uh um let's see here. Then we've got and I would assume that's over at the performing arts and event center. Yes. Yep. And what time? 10 to 1. 10 to 1. We've got Touch a Truck on May 16th. Um and that's uh going to be over John. Where's Touch Truck this year? That is at Wild Waves this year from 11 to 2. It's going to be a great event.

Yeah. And that's a great event. The kids absolutely love it. They've got fire trucks, garbage trucks, dump trucks. Uh it's a pretty fun thing. I remember taking Ben uh you know, uh it was I remember one year I got stuck in the uh uh Didn't they have one of those mini um hydroplanes? Yes. It was a lot easier getting in than getting out. Um uh but anyway, it was uh they they bring all kinds of things there. It's a lot of fun and you guys do a great job every year. Um okay. Um let's see here. We've got Kicking It Federal Way June 19th through 21st uh for the uh World Cup. That's going to be a lot of fun. Meredith, just a couple of quick highlights on that.

Sure. So, uh Kicking It is a three-day festival June 19th through 21st. It includes a watch party of FIFA World Cup games that are happening that weekend. So, there'll be uh I believe 12 matches played at the Performing Arts and Event Center. There will also be a live music stage, games, activities, soccer tournaments and clinics, food vendors, uh, and a lot more. So, it's free, familyfriendly at the performing arts and event center.

That's great. And the senior health and housing health and resource fair is a big deal. A lot of folks there. They fill up the uh the um uh the atrium there and the performing arts and event center. It's a great time. And uh any anything else to say on that? Uh we have 85 vendors and so we're full once again and uh every year it's a great event. It's uh if you know a senior or you plan on becoming a senior one day, you should attend. Very good. Okay. Okay. Uh council committee and that concludes my report. Thank you, Ben. Um council committee reports and regional committees. We got council member Walsh, our land use and transportation committee. Chair.

Yeah. Uh on our last meeting we uh talked about another number of items uh items A through E on tonight's uh consent agenda came out of that meeting and our next meeting will be uh April 6th, Monday, April 6th right here. And uh though it doesn't pertain directly to the uh land use and transportation committee, it's parks on April 18th. Once again as the mayor said parks appreciation day I expect everyone on the dis to be there and everybody in the audience to be there as well. It is a wonderful this will be the 20th year for the parks appreciation day. Literally thousands of volunteer hours have been spent over the last 20 years improving our parks and making them federal way a better place to live and play and work and everything else. So be there.

All right. Thank you. All right. All right, Council Member Cessums for Parks, Recreation, Human Services, and Public Safety Committee.

Thank you, Mayor. Our committee met on 3:10. Uh our next meeting is April 14th at 5:00 p.m. Uh among other things, we did have a chance to take action on several items. Uh you can read about them. Uh items F, G, H, I, and J. Um we also discussed uh sever an information only item that included approval for city hall emergency roof repair. Uh there were three information items moved to the April 14th parks committee meeting due to time constraints. So uh again uh April 14th is our next meeting at which time we will be taking up taking on uh the following the f flag policy overview. Uh we'll have a pack update and we will hear from hear a presentation about capital projects priority list. That concludes my report.

All right. Thank you. All right. Council member Kochmar, finance, economic development, and regional affairs committee. Thank you, Mayor. Our next federal act meeting will be March 31st, 5:00 pm in council chambers. All right. Council member Sepha Dawson, uh, lodging tax advisory committee and, uh, uh, pick, I believe, as well.

Okay. Thank you. Um, the, um, lodging tax, we're going to be meeting on Tuesday, April 14th. 24th, I'm sorry. 14th. Okay. And uh we're going to be reviewing, we've already talked about and met with all the um grant applicants. And so we're going to be reviewing the applications, discuss them, and come up with funding allocation for each of those programs. And so that's going to be April 14th. And with that, I conclude um that report. And with PIC, um we had a meeting two Wednesdays ago and um as um council president Susan mentioned at the last meeting, this had to do with uh King County's t um transportation district where um they were asking all the cities to pay to increase taxes sales tax and put 1% towards um building the streets on unincorporated King County um regions or areas and the cities were not going to benefit from that. So it was a very long conversation, long discussion and we had to cancel the other agenda items just to focus on this and finally um uh SCA Sun Cities Association came up with um a proposal um that went to King County um executive suggesting that maybe a percentage of whatever they raise um come to the cities to um use them for streets. So, we don't know what the outcome is going to be, but that letter is going to or has already gone to King County Executive for their consideration. And so, that's where we're at. And so, hopefully our cities will benefit from this tax that could be potentially would be collected um for again unincorporated King County streets. And yeah, that was it. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you. Okay, Council President. Thank you. Um, just to add a little bit to uh, council member Dawson's report, uh, the King County Transportation Board did hold a meeting, an emergency meeting last week. I was unable to watch it and haven't been able to watch it since, but I I plan on it. They didn't make a decision moving forward, but it is expected that they will. It'll be a 0.1% sales tax increase. Um hopefully the cities will get some benefit from it, but most of the benefit will be for the roads and unincorporated King County. If you have an opinion about that, I would suggest you talk to uh King County Council um including our representative um King County Council member Von Rocker and let let them know your opinion uh if you have one. So, uh, anyway, we do expect that there there will be a decision made sooner than later on that. I also want to talk about our upcoming retreat as a council. It'll be held on April 4th, which is a Saturday, in this room. Uh, we'll be sitting down here at tables so that we're not as formal. Uh, doors open at 8:30, and the retreat starts at 9:00 and will conclude at 3:00. And the public is welcome to attend. We will be talking uh later during council business about our trip to Washington DC. So the rest of my comments will um will be during council business. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right. Now the most important part of the evening uh which is public comment. Uh these items have uh oh actually uh on public comment uh you've got three minutes unless you've got individuals that are present five I believe and that would give you five minutes. Um, I'll go ahead and uh list the individuals and uh please if you could cue in the back. Uh, we've got Pam Ash, Stephanie Papy, Mike Bulich Ziggler, Paul McDaniel, Jeffrey Tanki, Jan Barber. I see a few more coming in. All right. Uh, Miss Ash.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Um actually my my comments were more of a question than a statement and it's already been answered because um you did mention that uh at the upcoming town hall meeting on the 30th, you are considering um putting the uh issue of the February 17th meeting that was so contentious on the agenda which was the discussion of um uh law federal law enforcement activities in federal way. Um, and so I hope that you will consider uh doing that and ultimately decide to do that. I don't know if uh anyone in the audience has read or familiarized herself with the uh comments from um Superintendent Danny Feifer, uh Superintendent of Federal Way Public Schools, but she did issue a very heartfelt and um uh serious comment in her weekly newsletter last week indicating that the staff of the uh district administration as well as some building staff have been um uh participating in training in terms of how to address this issue and to be uh more of a support and uh guidance for our families and our scholars. Um I have taught at Federal Way High School for 35 years. It is ranked as the eighth most diverse high school in the state of Washington and 17th most diverse in the nation. So, I know that this is of major concern to our students, to our staff, and to our families. Um, there there have been families already impacted in my building by encounters with federal law enforcement. We have students who are, as we mentioned at the February uh 17th meeting, fearful of even leaving their homes to come to school. So, this

is an issue of import and concern and I think it deserves to be mentioned at that town hall meeting. Um, I feel like if the superintendent of our public schools is aware of how deeply this is impacting our students and has gone to the effort and taken the initiative to show concern and caring and support for our families, I think it's only fitting that our city government do the same. So, I would really appreciate that being put on the agenda and giving some very serious um and heartfelt attention to that issue which does deeply impact our community, particularly our students at Fedway High School.

Thank you, Miss Ash. It we scheduled it for the express purpose of following through with my uh uh statement at at that meeting in February. And um uh it will be one of the very first items we discuss. It will be on the agenda. It will be discussed. That's actually why uh we're going to be calling the meeting, but we'll there's all kinds of issues in Federal Way and we'll talk about the talk about those as well. All right. Stephanie Pepk. Is Stephanie here? Okay. All right. Uh if Stephanie reappears um Okay. Or is that Yeah, it's in person. Okay. Mike Bulich Ziggler. Good evening. My name is Mike Bollik Ziggler. I'm a Federal R Federal Way resident in the Twin Lakes neighborhood. Unfortunately, I'm here this evening because kids in this city keep getting struck by drivers and the city needs to act. At least four kids in the last five months have been struck at the intersection of Southwest Campus Drive and 19th Avenue Southwest. That's the intersection next to the post office in Twin Lakes. The most recent one was this Sunday when it sounded like a 13-year-old was struck in the intersection. It was reported as a hit and run. In January, two kids were hit head-on by a driver on their way to Taff at Sahali. The kids went on to the hood of the car and tumbled to the street and all the other kids on the way to school rushed over as first responders. In October last year, another child on their way to school was hit by a driver and flung about 10 feet down the street. These are kids who were in the crosswalk and crossed with the lights in January and October. I'm not sure the details of this weekend's collision, but so many kids use that intersection. It's a very busy and chaotic area. And I can only assume there have been more incidents of unreported close calls given the high number of collisions. I've shared these concerns with the the city traffic folks. I understand this intersection

and the area surrounding it will be a focus area of the city's traffic safety action plan, which is great. It's needed, but plans take time, and I'm doubtful any of the recommendations will have immediate funding. The city must prioritize funding for these projects and ensure they are completed as soon as possible. These kids unfortunately didn't have time for that plan to be made, and I fear more kids and others won't have that time either. I'm sure there'll be lots of conversation this evening about public safety and how we fund it. This is a public safety issue and unless the city wants to have officers there on crosswalk duty 247, it must invest in design improvements that prioritizes the safety of pedestrians. In this case, primarily children. In case you weren't aware, the penalty for running over or striking a child in the crosswalk with your car is a $200 failure to yield ticket. That's a small price to pay compared to the lasting physical and mental trauma these kids will have after being struck. There's essentially another form of violence and no one, especially our kids, should have to experience it. This intersection is clearly unsafe and immediate action is necessary ahead of any hope any hopeful longer term improvements the city may take. Please do not wait until another person is struck or worse. Thank you. Thank you. And uh Mike, uh uh immediately following public comment, what I'm going to be doing is we'll go uh we'll respond to each one and that'll be I've written that down. We're going to talk about that. Um, and we'll likely have a a follow-up item in the next meet in the next meeting, but um, we'll do followup after following a uh, public comment. All right, Paul McDaniel uh, for five minutes. I see you've got the signature of five individuals.

Yeah, hopefully I won't need the five.

Thank you. Uh, good evening. Paul McDaniel, resident since the 1990s. Um, I'd like to start by pretty much making the statement. Uh, I will not be going anywhere. Uh, I'm also here to help. I'm not just here to bring up uncomfortable situations. A lot of the times, uh, I believe light is needed sometimes, and sometimes, um, uh, transparency and accountability are two things I really care about. So, with that said, I'm going to start off with my main concern I've had, uh, for the last couple of months, and it's going to be an $8 million change in the expenses. I received an email from Director Groom uh explaining that to me and how the ARPA money was transferred from its fund to the general fund and then how that ARPA money was then used. I believe it to pay police salaries last year and that's where the uh $8 million difference was. Now with that change the uh city, if I understand correctly, and I did send an email out, but I believe uh Grooms, did you happen to receive an email today?

I don't we don't

Oh, sorry. Sorry. Um, but I believe I had some people mention that emails were not coming through. So, I'll resend that one to find a way to get it to you. Uh, one of the questions I had was with the current standing, it shows that the 2025 uh, standing for the uh, funds were unfavorable by 1 million. My question that I have in there is that 1 million included the $8 million of ARPA. What would be if the ARPA money was not there, what would our real standing uh, balance be uh, without ARPA? Uh, then I'm going to move on to the revenue streams that I looked at through the financial reports. I had to use 25 and 26 t since it's split up now. Uh sales was unfavorable by 1.2 million. REIT is unfavorable by 1.6 million. This is for 2025. Business licenses were unfavorable by for 40,000. Red lights which pays for quite a few cops was unfavorable by 1.2 million. Permits is unfavorable by 300K. Uh investments is unfavorable by 135,000. Uh but utilities actually had a gross increase of 12.8% 8% and electrical uh electricity uh utility rate tax uh collected by the city was actually increased year-over-year by 21.4%. That's massive. Um I bring those up uh because I was told that we were in a good standing. And every time when I was on FedRack, I brought this up. I was always told we're in a good standing. Today you guys are going to ask about money. You're going to be asking for an increase in sales tax. I'm very confused on why we need to increase the sales tax if I was told for two and a half years that everything was fine. So, I'm going to move on to the target property. Target property was supposed to be sold. We had not collected the $10 million. So, we had to redo an interfund loan for $4.9 million costing the general fund $180,000 in um interest to ourselves. Again, still $180,000. It cannot be used towards the arts or some other party uh some other commission. Uh right now uh my property taxes were increased. King County is looking at adding a 0.1 tax incre sales tax increase. The federal

community se uh community center fees are going to be increased. I now have to charge a 10% sales tax to my my uh customers. Some of my customers are now going to be hit with an income tax because I don't work for poor people. They cannot pay me. Um and now utility taxes. I will see a rate increase in almost every single one of my utility taxes. And I've heard electrical will be a double digit increase. So, you guys do not have an easy job ahead of you. It's a budget cycle. Uh, monies are down. They're down everywhere. Um, but tonight you guys are going to be talking about sales tax increase of.1%. Um, I do not think you guys have enough information to make that decision. I do not like that the fact that you guys have been given one meeting parks, not even Fedra parks to talk about it is now being brought forward to be voted on. That's a huge change. And then on top of that, you're told if you do not vote on today and do not vote on the next meeting, it will not make the cut for this year. You have till 2028 if you want to increase the taxes. My recommendation is to wait to collect all the information to find out what the real standing of the financial situation of the city is. And then once you have all the information, if it is necessary to increase the sales tax, to do it then. Right now, you are taxing everybody out of their houses. The number one population who gets hurt with this is the senior citizens. This is a regressive tax. Almost everything I mentioned was an regressive tax. And I will also point out our property tax, which we increased by 1% the last two times, even though I voted against them. The first time it brought in $150,000. Last time it brought in half of that. Our property for the city is slowing down and is increased in value. That means property tax will bring in less money every single year if we continue this. And the last item is going to be our revenue. We actually have money that comes in from uh investments. Our investment income is down. If your investment income is down this year, there is no way to make up for that next year. We have built in that investment income into our budget. So you guys need to take pay need to pay attention to that and you also need to get a full picture of what's going on before you

vote on something tonight. Thank you for your time.

All right. Thank you. Uh Jeffrey Tenret. Good evening, mayor, mayor, council president, council. Welcome back from Washington DC. My parents were born and raised in Northeast, so a city I love and are very familiar with. Um, Mayor uh Jeff Tani from um the West Campus area, Federal Way. Mayor, three years ago, I went to the Pacific Community Center because I heard that our state representatives were there and I I I decided I might as well go and check it out. So, as I walked in, it's a small venue. As I walked into that venue, the lady at the door said, "Write your question down." So, I thought for a minute and I wrote my question down. So, the state reps were at the front of the table. So the question that I wrote down and they read to the audience, my question was this. What are you and your colleagues doing to the state reps? What are you and your colleagues doing to reverse low standardized test scores for African-American students in the federal way K through 12? My question wasn't finished. I continued. From 1870 to 1955, the students at all black Dunar High School in Washington DC scored higher on standardized tests than two of the three all-white high schools in the District of Colombia. One of the three state reps answered for the other two. I won't say who. It's not necessary. The one state rep said, "We

do not want to go back to segregation." I'm not joking. That was the answer. That tells you how much of an appetite that our state representatives have to tackle a serious problem. And in fact, you can go to any deep blue city in the United States. African-American students in the K through 12 have the lowest standardized test scores versus Caucasians and Asians. The Democrat party has failed the black community. I want you all to understand that because in this state, the Democrat party controls the executive, the legislative, and the courts. And that's and I gave suggestions to the school board president. I gave suggestions to the superintendent on how to reverse that here. They they don't want to hear it. They don't want to have a discussion. How about more federal publicmies? How about school choice? It's really sick. They're worried about federal law enforcement. Hey, if they're going to look for a gang banger or a criminal, they're going to get them and there's not a damn thing you're going to do about it. You focus on federal way and helping these kids with their test scores and uplift the black community instead of crapping all over them. Jen Barber, then Nathan North. Mayor and Council, thank you for this time. I have something that is going to take more a little bit more time and some planning, but I want to talk to you for a minute about about sharps and the best way to uh dispose of them in Federal Way. I have been researching this ever since I discovered that both Auburn and Federal Way, which currently have an

outdoors freestanding, they call them sidewalk disposal bins for sharps, they were the contract for those are discontinued as of March 28th. And and I was the one by by working Thank you, Mayor Frell, with by working with your office. Um, that information was shared with HR in this city, but also HR in Auburn. It was the only way they learned about it was my cell phone picture of the of the discontinuence uh notice. I have learned since that $21 million is used for our from our property taxes for hazardous waste disposal. And I saw a chart 60% or so was going to wastewater treatment that there are many many uh things that are necessary but um but in Auburn they said why not ask the the health board to do a an ad campaign show people that the the proper way of disposing of sharps uh in a rigid container with a label and yeah I had one um because people don't know the uh recommendation chat GPT says that 3% to 8% of any uh county is going to be people that use sharps and for they recommend um one sharp disposal uh bin or whatever for every uh 20,000 anyway they our city would come up with five Auburn has 80,000 people we have 100,000 in counting. Uh I did learn that the public health that what's happened is the bins are used for everything else besides the sharps. So I understand that that can be a problem.

And one time I went and it was jammed open with with stuff. I I don't know what was at the bottom of the bin. I could see. Anyway, this is a problem. And I'd really like to um I I'd really like to connect with other people that are willing to um spend some time solving and coming up with with a solution that's going to help because leaving us out in the cold is not going to work. It will be a toxic problem and a public health problem. Thank you. Thank you. May I add something?

Yeah, of course. Um, I learned about disposal of sharps at home when our toy poodle was diagnosed with diabetes and needed injections twice a day and it is illegal to put sharps in your garbage and if if you're caught, you're going to be fined. So, um, there needs to be a solution. All right. Thank you very much. All right. Uh, Nathan Worth, uh, followed by Harold Booker. Good evening, Mayor Frell and council. Uh, my name is Nathan North. I'm a resident of Federal Way. Uh, a regressive tax is one where the lowest income earners bear the highest percentage percentage of the burden relative to their income. Sales taxes fall into this category because people living paycheck to paycheck are already spending everything that they make. Adding a sales tax forces them to either spend less on necessities or take on credit card debt. A gamble many take hoping to push their current burden onto a higher earning future self that may never materialize. If spending less uh means spending less on food, the city gains a little revenue while creating more hungry people who then go on to burden social programs whose costs only escalate. The net gain to the city may well be nothing if we end up needing to plug those gaps we are needlessly creating. Uh consumer spending is already down in this economic climate. Uh, and with job losses accelerating from Trump's tariff disruptions and the rapid largely unregulated unregulated growth of AI, that trend is only going to deepen. I'd suggest a different approach. Last year, uh, Paul invited me to council chambers and walked me through the previous budget. You all know how much Paul loves

the budget. Um, one detail that stood out was how much revenue the red light cameras generated. enough, if I recall correctly, to cover somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 to 13 officers. I don't remember the exact figure. Um, I'd expand that model. Pack highway and South Dash Point Road has seen multiple fatalities in the past year. Motorcycle versus RV, car versus pedestrian, right in front of an emergency room, and it's still one of the deadliest corners here in Federal Way. Um, so I would put a camera there and and maybe look at other corners where you're seeing lots of accidents. Um that way you're targeting people whose behavior can be moderated and you're targeting uh um these deadly crashes rather than targeting the poorest people in our city. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Nathan. Mr. Harold Booker, he's uh specifically requested four minutes on a one-time basis. I'm going to do I you you'll see he's got a topic with regard to the council retreat. Uh but sir uh but uh four minutes. The floor is yours, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Harold Booker. I've been a resident of Federal Way for since 1963. This evening, I want to share a story from my life in this city. During high school, there was a group of four of us, Eric, Lenny, Tom, and me. We really came together as friends in the end of our sophomore year. We came from similar social economic backgrounds and we'd all grown up here in Federal Way. But that was where the similarities ended. We had different approaches to situations. We had different religious beliefs. We had different political feelings. What we shared was a common goal to do what was in the best interest of our student body, our constituents. and a willingness to listen to those different perspectives. Over the years, we've drifted apart from each other and reconnected countless times. Life, families, distance, and countless other distractions have been introduced. But our friendship has survived almost 50 years. We've continued that friendship with diametrically opposed on a variety of issues that cover the length and the breadth of the spectrum. But how did we make that continue to work? We truly listened to each other. We appreciated the differences and we learned from listening to those differences. and learning from that.

I think that's why that it works. We really listen to each other. I was thinking about the city council and my observations over the last year or so. You're a diversified group of people thrown together with different backgrounds, perspectives, personalities, points of view, and approaches to problem solving. who have a common purpose trying to do the best for your constituents, the citizens of this city. So, how do you develop a working relationship? How do you build a team? Seems to me that's what the citizens of this city are expecting. Seems to me he had a really large mountain to climb. Personally, I've observed a lot of talking at each other, but not talking with each other. My humble suggestion is this body and each of the individuals involved needs to take a step back and consider your role in how we got here. Each of you, including the mayor, has played a role in arriving at this place. If you don't make the effort to step back and make an honest assessment of the one thing you can control, your actions, I don't know how you get to a place where you can have an honest working relationship. I wish you good luck. God's speed on this journey. We, the citizens of this city, are counting on you.

I'll close my remarks this evening with a quote from a World War II veteran, Vernon Baker, also a Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Give respect before you expect it. Treat people the way you want to be treated. remember the mission, set the example, and then keep going. Thank you for the time. Thank you, Mr. Burgerer. And that uh retreat will be in this uh uh will be in these chambers um a week from this Saturday, which is April

4th. 4th. So, Saturday, April 4th. uh he will get started about doors open at 8:30, retreat starts at 9:00 and concludes at 3. Thank you very much. Okay, now just a quick couple quick follow-ups. That's the last public comment I have. Uh we've got some uh folks have signed up to talk on uh one of the agenda items. Um but with regard to uh EJ and the chief um 348th and 19th southwest um are you uh EJ you want to maybe uh start with this? So I'm not familiar with an accident on sun on this past Sunday. Um so I haven't seen an accident report for that yet. Okay.

There go ahead. it. Um, as was mentioned, as part of the citywide traffic safety plan, um, we have received a number of feedback on Southwest campus from the partner agencies that were involved in that study. So, we went back and forth on two different locations to study in further detail as we're required to under that program. Um, and as was mentioned, Southwest Campus, roughly centered just slightly to the west of that intersection, is the selected focused area. Um so we are we've already authorized the consultant to start a deeper dive into the crash statistics for the last five years as well as um the design refinements and the city standard designs that are used throughout that corridor um to see what we can do related to traffic safety because there there is an elevated crash history through there um you know in that entire corridor not necessarily that intersection. Um so that is what we're looking at. Um, but to the point that was made, um, that's a study that identifies what should or could be done. It's not actual construction projects. So, we need to do that work first and figure out what we're talking about before we can we can do that. But certainly, you know, as accidents are attributed to certain intersections, there's a a sense of urgency in there as well.

Okay. Thank you, Chief. I believe the intersection we're talking about is Southwest Campus Drive in probably 19th Avenue Southwest. That's it. That's it. Correct. Um what I could tell you is that over the years uh in the city is for safety reasons, we put uh photo school zone photo enforcement um when school's in session on Southwest Campus Drive and also on 21st Avenue Southwest. And as a main arterial street, we do uh conduct enforcement periodically on those uh on the roadway. I'm not aware of these four accidents that it was mentioned. Was it four accidents?

I think that's what Mr. uh Bulock Seagler said. Could you Let's do this. Why don't we add this uh to an item and we're gonna I'm going to call on uh council member Moore in just a moment and then the council president, but could you uh research uh the recent uh maybe in the past year um the accents of that location and then um EJ, let's uh let's talk internally about this and about where the where this stands and let's talk about this at the next city council meeting for a presentation since it was raised publicly. Council member Moore and then the council president.

Thank you, mayor. I appreciate it. Um EJ, thank you for your content and what you said and recognizing that it is a sense of urgency. Uh I did send out an email to chair uh Jack Walsh. Uh seeing if we can maybe add this to the land use and transportation committee to kind of study it further because I I also know that Rick had, if my memory serves me right, Rick had put together um a prioritization of sidewalk uh school zone sidewalk. I forget what it was called. Um and I wanted us to kind of review that uh in that committee potentially. Um but uh the question I had was is there something that can be done in the meantime? Is there something temporary uh until then? Because you just said yourself there's a study to study what you know what's happening but that's not the construction. So, I just wondered if there could be a discussion between maybe the mayor and staff or whatnot about what can we do temporarily.

I think that we need to dig into it a little bit um potentially, but I I don't think that's something we can sit here and and figure out from the dis. I mean, we we need to look at the accidents and see if there's a causation that has something that we could temporarily do to it. Sure. Be able to get you an answer. Yeah. I'm I'm not asking for the conversations to happen right now. I'm just saying can can it be discussed of what we can do temporarily soon? Well, and whatnot. We're going to bring it back at the next city council meeting with the accident history and where we're at. Council President,

thank you. I was actually in an accident at that intersection years ago picking up my kids from Sahali by an impaired driver. And when Sahali opened, my ch my oldest son was a seventh grader. And uh the day before school opened, we had a fatality. a student was um hit on 21st Avenue and didn't survive and it was devastating. um 19th in campus drive. The only thing I I drive that I'm there a lot um suggest that I can think of that might make it safer would be uh no right turn, no no free right turns unless it's green because there's the post office, you have the crosswalk where um going across the street and I can guarantee you people are not looking if there's someone in that crosswalk. They're just looking to see if cars are coming, but they're not looking at the crosswalk. It's just a suggestion from years of experience of driving that road.

And a big apartment complex with hundreds of units just on the other side on the north side. So, well, we'll look at it. Let's talk about it internally. Thank you, Chief. And we'll look for look for those numbers and then um u Heather, let's make sure we calendar that and let's put it under mine uh and we'll have it on the last we'll talk about it at man at um uh agenda setting. Um okay. And then the second item um uh was uh Steve Groom. Um there was a mention is there any I know that we're in a budget year. I know that you give we all know that you give um you know monthly updates in regard to uh uh the pos the financial position of the city. Any comments? There was a a mention of transferring $8 million from uh from ARPA and and you know any uh comments you'd like to make now in response just preliminarily as we start the budget year. Mr. McDaniel brings a lot of questions and to give a short answer is well I can tell you that the $8 million it came to city council on a budget amendment. It was a carry forward from unspent funds that were originally from the ARPA grant brought forward from from from one year to the next when and and it made a big significant difference to the to the general fund uh fund balance. We weren't able to book that of course until we brought the budget amendment uh to to city council. Um we meet monthly at FedRack and and I update uh city council uh monthly on how the how the uh revenues are coming in. Uh our revenues come in at one and two month lags. So do our expenses as invoices come in. So uh we we uh bring all the information publicly as as we get it and I'm always happy to answer questions.

Okay. All right. And uh we do have a um Brian any any comments on this or not? Uh there there was a comment that uh when Mr. McDaniel was on council, he was always told that everything was fine. And I I if I misqued you, I apologize, but that was kind of the message that that I heard. Um the the responses that we gave at the time was that we were aware of a potential shortfall, but that we did not need to take any action at that time to um to to correct it, but that we would monitor it as as Steve mentioned as things came in. So if we I don't believe we gave the impression that everything was fine but that we were monitoring the shortfall as things progressed throughout the year.

All right. And what would you characterize for those in the audience and watching at home? What is the scale of the potential shortfall at this point? Um it it uh in rough terms. Sure. It's it's about right now it's about one and a half uh uh million from projected revenues with um our current expenses. Now revenues are actually up from actual revenues that is are actually up from last year but the budgeted uh amount is is short and that's what we'll have to correct uh this year. We'll have discussions with the council about how to accomplish that.

Very good. Okay. All right. Well, the conversation will be ongoing. Thank you uh Mr. McDaniel um for uh um sharpening the uh I always want to say metal the the iron on this side. So, thanks for bringing the iron and we'll we'll continue working on our end. Um okay. Um now that uh concludes public comment at least for now. Uh we've got the consent agenda. These items have gone through um uh uh the uh committee process. It could be passed all at once or uh I after I read the all the items, I'll ask if a council member wants something pulled for separate consideration. Item A, approval to submit to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the NPDES annual report. Item B, authorization to award street sweeping services contract. Item C, authorization to bid an 85% update for the sitter city center greenway project. Item D, contract increase authorization 2024 Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA retrofits. Item E, resolution setting public hearing on the proposed street vacation of a portion of 16th Avenue South. Item F, authorization to award the Federal Community Center electric vehicle EV charger stations contract. Item G, authorization apply for King County forcultures grant building for equity project development. Item H, authorization contract, Federalway Community Center gym curtain replacement. Item I, Washington State Department of Enterprise Services piggybacking goods and services agreement for generator maintenance services. Piggybacking, it's not a a phrase you normally see in an agenda item. Um, and item J, authorization to award the Civic Plaza turf project field to Field Turf USA incorporated. Council, are there any items you blunt hold for separate consideration? Hearing none. Council President Co, Council President's Honda.

I move approval of the consent agenda items A through J. Second. Been a motion, a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? I I

opposed. Matters passed unanimously. Okay. Council business. Item 6A, North Lake Management District Advisory Committee Appointments. Uh, Council Member Cessums. I move to appoint the following to the North Lake Management District Advisory Committee. Larry Flesher to position number four for a term to begin April 1st, 2026 and expire March 31st, 2028. And Darren Nash to position number five for a term to begin April 1st, 2026 and expire March 31st, 2028. Second.

All right. Uh there has been a motion, a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. All right. Those uh individuals have been uh confirmed. Thank you very much. And good work uh council doing those interviews. Okay. Item B, council confirmation of the human resources director, Julianne Briggs. Brian Davis, our city administrator, will make a brief presentation.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, members of council, it's my privilege to introduce Julianne Briggs as the mayor's nominee for the human resources director. Um, I almost feel like she doesn't need an introduction, but I'll give a brief one. Um, because she's been here with the city since 1994. Uh, one of our longest serving employees. Uh, she started off in the parks department as an office tech and, uh, and then, um, switched to human resources in 2009 and has, uh, se seen and heard a lot. So, um, she knows the city well. Uh, it's great to see, uh, a promotion like this to director from within, uh, especially in a position like this. Um, so, uh, the mayor's recommendation is to confirm is for you to confirm his nomination of Julian Briggs as HR director.

Council, any questions? She's here to, uh, say a little bit if you if so desire or answer any questions that you have directly of her as well. All right. Council, any questions? Oh, I see. Uh, Council Member Sappawson and Council Member Moore, not a question. I just want to say congratulations and we're happy to have you um in this role and um long live 32 years. My Council Member Moore,

uh Brian, thank you. Um I'm excited for this. I mean, obviously, u u I think I think one of the things I appreciate about you is is your nature, uh your personality, uh easy to connect with, easy to talk with. I think it's a really important role uh for whether you're applying for a job or needing to be in the hot seat. Uh and so uh I just appreciate and and really thank you for your dedication to to the city of Fedway. Uh we're we're truly lucky to to have someone that served this long in our community. Thank you. Great. Uh Council President Honda, congratulations. Thank you for serving for so long here and we appreciate you.

All right. And with that, um Council member CL. Oh, I'm sorry. That uh that uh water uh is is blocking. Actually, I it would be nice if you came to the podium so everybody else could see who we're talking to. Hello. Yeah. So, your name and your title.

Yeah. Um my name is Julianne Briggs. Uh I will be hopefully uh the HR director here at the city of Federal Way. I have been here for uh more than half my life and uh I feel a deep connection to Federal Way uh its citizens, its electeds and most of all maybe uh its employees. I feel like um HR is a little bit my calling and um I appreciate this opportunity and I hope I serve you very well. Thank you. Thank you, Julian. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. and thank you for your long-standing service to our community. Um, all right, Council President, do you have a motion?

I move to confirm the mayor's appointment of Julianne Briggs as human resources director. Congratulations. Second. There's been a motion in multiple seconds. Um, is there any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. It's unanimous. We have a new HR director. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Okay. Uh now um uh we are on to the National League of Cities NLC congressional city conference report. Uh and why don't I just turn this over to the council president. We'll go from there.

Thank you. I'm going to start with an introduction of what National League of Cities is and then we're going to go down through the um council and everyone will discuss their um conference and what uh they learn from it. I've asked uh no more than five minutes from each council member because there's seven of us. And uh I w will also have our um uh EJ talk about what the project is that we went to ask money for in a little bit. So National League of Cities or NLC's which we will be calling it from now on has 2,675 cities from around the nation as members. Uh it is 100 years old as of last year and the mission is to advocate for for and to protect the interest of cities, towns and villages by influencing federal policy, strengthening local leadership and driving innovative solutions. We have been a member since 2019. Uh however, the city of Federal Way was a member earlier before the great recession and uh during that time needed to uh save some money and so chose to step away for a little bit. NLC has two major conferences a year, one in November, one in March. The March one is always in Washington DC. It's a shorter conference and our mission there is to go to Capitol Hill and uh and bring home some money. I am on the board of WIMIG which is women in municipal government and Apamo which is AsianPacific Islander Municipal Officials and on the first tier serups council. You can only serve on three committees at NLC and I have been serving on three for several years. I've also served on the public safety and

crime prevention commission and the information technology and communications committee which when I was asked to join that I was really excited because I like to communicate but it was all about technology and I'm not very good at technology but it was an interesting committee. Um other members of council are also serving on committees as at NLC as well as staff. This year the theme was local governments deliver and we had a lot of talking about how local governments deliver and why local governments are your best government. We talked about civility and uh it was really an interesting conference. So, what going forward, if we can ask AJ to talk about the reason we went there, which was to um get $5 million for the city center access project so you understand why we went.

Is that okay? Yeah, of course. EJ,

sure. So, happy to, Council President. So, City Center Access Project as a a brief background is a project that's been going on since the early 2000s. Um it looked at multiple options historically and then in a couple years ago a preferred alternative was selected which is to create a braided interchange at 320th and um add capacity to 324th. So for um anyone that's familiar with 405 through Belleue the fourth and eighth interchange where you get off at fourth but then you have a choice to either take fourth or continue on the flyover bridge and take eighth. Basically, we're talking about the same setup um as that for get off at one gore point off of I5 and then you can either take 320th or 324th. Um and the driver behind this project is we can't keep adding lanes to 320th. Um, you know, we know that there's a large portion of the population that wants to get into downtown Federal Way to shop and recreate and do everything there, but there's also a significant number of people that want to get past that and to their houses or to their um, you know, down towards the water, whatever the case may be, but are trying to get through that area. So, the city center access project is multimodal. So, it is looking at cars, freight, buses. um it does integrate the light rail train that's been constructed recently to increase the capacity and ex and ultimately expands the city core as well. So the project holistically was costed two years ago and cost approximately $500 million to build everything including new bridges across I5 at 324th expanding the bridge at 320th um adding bike lanes um extending the BPA trail and and much much more. So project one or phase 1A of it um is funded already um through a collaboration with Sound Transit and their early work to move the BPA

transmission lines and build the roundabout at 23rd and 324th. So, what the phase 1B project is, which is the one the council president rec um recognized, is expanding 324th from that roundabout that's being constructed as part of the light rail project down to pack highway. So, phase 1 bill will expand that to the ultimate crosssection um increase the capacity of that section. Phase 1 C, which is not funded at this point, is uh redoing the intersection at Pack Highway and 324th and then extending that all the way through to the end of the existing BPA trail at Celebration Park. Now, um but this this is a a huge project um that will take 20 to 30 years to build out realistically. And you know, the goal is that we can get this project to a position that um ultimately the city does a bunch of the earlyphase work um via actually performing the work. Um but then it's we position the project that wash takes it over to do the interchange work that you know we as a city cannot change the interchanges. That's a washd task. But we need to get enough of the leg work done to position this project for them to be able to take over. So that that total cost includes everybody's washouts portion, our portion, etc. So phase 1 A is fully funded with the uh financing that um city council lobbied for this past week. Phase 1B will be fully funded um which is very exciting. And phase 1 B is shovel ready at this point. So once we have the funding secured, we are we're ready to go.

Very good.

Thank you. We also uh requested $2 million for the Celebration Park turf fields and uh don't know if we'll we'll get that, but our um both the the meetings with the senators were very excited to know that the city center access project needed $5 million and they were very um interested in listening to us. I also want to say before council starts talking, uh, we had economic director Meredith Neil accompany us and our very own Amy Glandon from the council office was there and we could not have done what we did without those two. So, thank you very much. So, um, Council Member Sephawson, do you want to start and then we'll just go down the line and I'll finish. Thank you.

Yes, we can. I'll use these.

Okay. Thank you so much. Um this was a great conference and one thing I like about it is the um diversity of workshops that they offer and um unfortunately some of the ones that we were really interested or excited about um cost extra money or additional money so we weren't able to attend. Um, but the ones that we attended, at least the ones I did, there was a lot. And I'll just kind of look at my notes and see what um the nuggets of each of the workshops that I went to, um, the first one that I actually attended was around reducing community- based violence for safe, healthy, and hopeful communities. And I did like that hopeful word in there. And so they talked about um, public safety, the values of public safety and public safety redefined. And so redefining um was like interrupting the cycle of violence, dismantling systems of inequity and investing in infrastructure. And so um there was a lot about that. And then also talking about the um public health approach. And so as you all know public health u when they talk about it usually they talk about um how zip code defines um people's lifestyles and their health. And so um that also with public safety that does follow that uh the zip code idea. And so using the public health approach to make sure that everyone has equitable um access to services is um one of the things they focused on. And then there was road map um and one thing they said is develop a plan that will outlive the people. So what we decide here today should support and help the young generation that is in our room today. And how do we not focus on what's in it for me or for you know I want this or I don't want that but you but how do we do come up with a plan that really lives outlives us as leaders here on the dis um

there was more on this but okay and then um actually the firstear cities one of the um groups that we belong to because of the size of our city at um a little over 100,000 Um, one thing that was really excited about that was um um different cities who have um who had like blight neighborhoods and redevelop the downtown and so there was like Goodyear, Arizona. I did not know there was a city called Goodyear by the way. Um so like their downtown revitalization um and then how they did it and then there was another city um what was the name?

Yeah. So different cities right multi actually they were all fighting over their um names but um uh around the marketing around videos that they showed and then there's strategies for revital revitalization and so as we're building our um downtown and TC3 I think this there's some nuggets there that we could um utilize and see how they did it and what they did um and then one one city actually I think it was um Goodyear that talked about when they were planning this they didn't even think about egret and Ingress and so tra traffic is really now impacted because that wasn't really in the plan when they were when they were designing this and so it looks beautiful. It's great um when you look at the before and after but yet there's that issue. So how we need to make sure that those things um are addressed and then there was a opioid settlement funds and how they're being used and all in the different um regions. Um and then yeah and there was one on bridging community divides and stren and strengthening civic trust and that's the one Susan touched a little bit on and um there was um we learned about dignity index and um what was the other index oh civility pillars of civility and and dignity index and they were really helpful and I think um as we engage engage with each other and as we you know have have these different discourses and different conversations I think there's some um um useful tools in this as to how we can communicate um because we all want the same at the end of the day we really want the best for federal way um and so if we look at the human composition and humanness then maybe we have these um different tools that we could use so that we see what the other person sees or what the values that bring us here Um I don't think anybody's here to harm Federal Way

at all and so how could we have that civil civil conversation um and then immigration was a very interesting topic but before um my time's up I wanted um they were talking about 2030 census and um they are going to be doing um um so they're concerned about accurate um count and why it's important one is of course for funding because each state gets funding based on their population and then also for representation. And so again, the delegations that are um sent is based on the population. And so underounting is a very huge um concern um especially um depending on what form they use. So, there's going to be a pilot study here or pilot um they're going to go out and do some and I don't know what the what the pilot areas are but um there's a census test or there's the American I think community survey and this one the American community I believe it is um asks uh citizenship questions and so the question the then the concern is are there people who are of course are not going to complete or fill um do participate in the census is counting again which impacts our cities or our states I'm sorry and so and this one is actually in English only um and so and USPS does all the uh testing so it's actually is they're doing delivering their mail is when how that's going to be done and so um yeah so that was a little concerning and um we'll see how that turns out and then it's of course census is for 2030 and so they're they're rolling out all these and testing and checking out and making sure trying to see what works best. Um, but again, there was that concern that came up and I think I will end mine here. Yeah,

thank you very much. And we are going to the mayor is going to time everyone. Five minutes. All right, let's start.

Oh boy. Timing when I starts to Okay, never mind. Um, all right. Uh well, mayor and council, um and to the public. Uh first, I want to give a shout out to our students from Fedway High School. Uh if you can wave, do the princess wave. Thank you for being here. I know you'd rather be doing other things. Thank you. Uh and I know that you'd rather be texting and and calling your buddies and whatnot, but you're choosing to be here, and so I really want to say thank you. with that um uh for the purpose of our students and uh we're obviously given a report from our trip from DC and and why it matters and whatnot and what we got out of it. Uh this conference obviously brought together lots and lots of local elected officials from across the country to discuss challenging uh challenges facing cities and to advocate for policies and resources that support our communities. Um, a primary focus of this conference was preparing city leaders to effectively engage with members of Congress, particularly as federal decisions continue to have significant impacts on local governments. One of my most valuable aspects of this experience was hearing directly from other cities that are navigating many of the same issues we are seeing locally. I attended sessions focused on simplifying federal grant processes, workforce development, strengthening civic trust, and understanding the legal responsibilities local governments face related to immigrant population, uh, excuse me, immigration policy. A key takeaway from these conversations is that cities across the country are working to navigate a complex federal uh requirements while continuing to deliver services and maintain community stability. Many cities express the needs for clearer tools, guidance, and partnerships from the federal government so that they can effectively respond to

the level of impacts federal decisions are having right here in Federal Way or local other local jurisdictions. As part of the Association of Washington Cities, we also traveled to uh Capitol Hill to meet with US Senator Patty Murray and US Senator Marie Campwell to get a briefing. Um, and they, as I just said, they provided updates on congressional activities, infrastructures investments, and how they are working to deliver resources for Washington communities. They also discussed challenges they are currently facing and communicating with federal agencies, noting that some traditional coordination uh, channels are not operating as they typically have in the past. Despite these challenges, they emphasized their continued commitment to assisting local governments and advocates for Washington residents. And this was this this kind of took me back a little bit. You know, um a lot of people call into local governments in our city council to ask for help. They do the same thing with the state and they do the same thing with Congress. You know, every day residents call in to say, "I need help." And normally it takes a US senator to communicate with federal agencies, but this time they're having a very difficult time uh doing so. Sometimes they're not even communicating with the US senator. And so they're having to somehow solve that individual's problems and they're committed to that. And that was something that kind of took me back a little bit. We also connected with staff from our our US senator's offices to discuss the needs of our city and ensure federal remains part of the conversation when federal decisions and budgets are being decided on. I can say with confidence that this trip was successful because we are coming home with stronger relationships because of our attendance over the last three years and clearer pathways for resulting for federal. I believe it's three years that we've gone. Is that right, Council President? Is it four years? maybe four.

Okay, thank you. In addition, we had the chance to meet with our federal lobbyist. I really appreciated the opportunity to ask Luke uh questions, gain a better understanding of the strategies being used to advocate for our city, and get to know him. Based on those conversations, I am really confident that uh confident in the work being done to represent the interest of Federalway at the federal level. I really was convinced and walked away being really impressed. I also want to acknowledge Amy uh who coordinated uh this trip. I like to call her our chaperon. Uh she did a very good job at that. Uh she really made the experience extremely smooth and easy to navigate. Uh and her support throughout the whole process was really really helpful. And I want to echo uh what council president Honda said which is Meredith. He she also uh went and she was a fantastic chef. I mean uh leader uh who uh attended many of these workshops with us. It was uh I really appreciated having that support system there. Another important part of attending conferences like this is the opportunity to spend time with colleagues outside of the council chambers. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with council member Jack Walsh um as we explored Washington DC and we certainly got our steps in. I also appreciated the dinners we shared uh where we had the opportunity to better uh get to know one another.

That's time. That's time. Well, let me just finish. I just have one couple more lines. Uh thank you, mayor. Um moments like this uh are really important because our community deserves leaders who can work together collaboratively to help govern and manage the this incredible city. Overall, attending this conference helps ensure that FedE remains informed, engaged, and well positioned to access partnerships and resources that benefit our residents, which is you. Thank you so much, Mayor, and I will give it back to you. All right. Uh thank you. And now we've got uh Council Member Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, this was my first time participating in the NLC conference. Oh, and I I need to just make one statement. I had a dental procedure done today. So, if you're hearing a little bit of a a uh speech impediment, that's why uh I just thought I would put that disclaimer out. Um so, this was my first time participating in the National League of Cities conference, as was some of the other council members on the dis. And I have to say it was a great experience. It was a rewarding experience. We got to meet with our federal delegation members. We have three. We have Congressman Adam Smith um who represents us as as a representative and then we have Senator Murray and Senator Countwell. Uh let's see. We we thanked uh Congressman Adam Smith for um helping us thus far. He's been a great partner at the federal level with helping us uh secure federal funding for our city. And then we were able to hear an update from Senator Murray and Senator Canwell on one of the days. And then the next day we went back and we were able to lobby for what our city needs uh with their staff. And um overall I felt like it was a very positive uh response. I felt like it was a very optimistic response and the trip was I would say a success and we'll be able to begin improving our downtown core infrastructure which we heard about the city center access project hopefully in the very near future. So that's the most important part of the trip in my opinion is to bring the bacon back to our community and that is what I call uh the tush push of local government. And here in Seattle, we call it the barnyard, I know, but uh it's the tus push. It's when we all link arms together as colleagues and we push for what our

community needs. Um when we weren't meeting with our federal delegation, we were able to learn about different issues that were affecting local communities through roundts, um general sessions. I chose to attend three of those. The three that I attended was uh one on economic development and that was about what federal tools and resources cities are tapping into and how that's helping supercharge their local economies. Uh the second one was the round table on immigration and with that one really it was about understanding how federalism, the supremacy clause and the 10th amendment all intersect and uh what that means for local uh governments. And then the third one that I attended was probably my favorite one and it was titled bridging community divides and strengthening civic trust. And so a consistent theme at this year's conference was the importance of restoring civility in local government. And many of the speakers noted that the the the local politics is increasingly mirroring the partisan federal politics and it's not a good thing. It's it's a lot of division. It's a lot of um focus on conflict and performative politics rather than on getting results. And uh the key takeaway that that I took from that was just how we treat one another matters. It matters a lot. And uh disagreement it's it's going to be, you know, expected. That's that's that's we're debating policy. We are debaters. We're professional debaters. That's what we do. So there's going to be uh disagreement on the dis. But it it needs to remain respectful at all times and it needs to be focused

on policies, not personal attacks. And uh civility really is a sign of strength. Uh it it's a sign of strong leadership and it it's it's essential to building trust in our community and with one another as colleagues. And so as city leaders, I think we all took away that that we set the tone for our community when it comes to civility. And one of the speakers made the statement that um if the goal is being in the headlines, division will get you the attention you want. But if the goal is to be effective and to deliver for your residents, civility is the better path. And so that's uh my commitment to you. And I think I think we can all uh probably make that commitment together as a city council. I was really glad to participate in this uh year's NLC conference and uh one thing that my colleague did not mention was that he celebrated a birthday

at the conference and so happy birthday Martin. We uh went out to dinner and celebrated Martin and uh he blew out a candle and we sang happy birthday to him. You know, I have to say thank you to to Amy and to my colleagues for that. And and I have to say, Council President Honda and Hamilton uh actually made me laugh pretty hard. It was a a good good uh session. Very good. Thank you, Casper Walsh.

All right. Uh amen to the the comments that my uh my colleagues have made. Um I'll I'll keep this they they've covered most of the stuff really. Um I it was a very successful uh successful time there. I I think that you know this is the third or fourth time that that I've been there. I think that our meeting with the the one that that uh council president Honda and and council member Cesums and I met with u Patty Murray staff and I think that that meeting with Patty Murray staff is one of the most uh the one of the meetings that we connected the best with of all the times that we've met with the different different senators or staff members. I was very impressed with that. they they listened, they they were very attentive. Uh and and I think that we made some great progress there. One of the things that's important to realize is that that that developing relationships with the staff of the senators and congressmen is equally as important as developing relationships with the congressmen and senators themselves because the their staff is who helps them uh put in their place their priorities. And so that's that's very important. Uh some some great uh great sessions um with the one that was mentioned on on bridging community divide. I I I thought that that was outstanding. Uh one of the one of the speakers that it was uh was Tim Shrivever. Uh he is uh probably best known as he's the chair of the of the Special Olympics International. his his mother was uh he he's a nephew of of of President Kennedy and his mother was the uh uh was the the one of the founders of of Special Olympics, but he was one of the creators of of what was has been

mentioned the dignity index. And uh the dignity index there there's eight steps to it. and he talked about how it's important to be on using on on step uh five or higher on the the different things and and the top step uh goes with each one of us is born with inherent worth so we treat everyone with dignity no matter what I think that's that is the ultimate goal number one place just the opposite is they're not even human it's our moral duty to destroy them before they destroy you know, a a little bit of a of a of a difference here. And so we need to take that that higher plane. Uh step five that we need to be at this step or higher is the other side has the right to be be here and the right to be heard. They belong here too. And I think that that should be the the minimum of what we go with. Uh I think that every most people here have heard me say repeatedly that it is uh that you can disagree without being disagreeable. and and disagreement is part of the American way. It it's if if we all agreed on on everything, life would be kind of boring also. But uh we but we can disagree without being disagreeable. And and really truly the things that unite us are much greater than the things that divide us. All of us want what's best for Federal Way. We may have a different idea of how to achieve that, but we all want the want the best. Um, I think that spending time together as a council was was great. I I enjoyed uh uh you know the the the the long walks after sessions with uh council member Moore. Uh I think that his feet may be uh still recovering. Uh but anyway, it was was very very good. And uh uh afterwards I spoke briefly with with Tim Shrivever

and I mentioned a book that I had read a while back called Love Your Enemy by Arthur Brooks and he said that much of what he came up with with the uh dignity index came from that book and it's a book that I would recommend to everyone here in this in this room is take a look read or listen to uh uh Love Your Enemy by Arthur Brooks. I mean, a profound statement on on what we can accomplish. Uh, and anyway, with that, that is it. Thank you. 34 seconds to spare. Yay.

All right. We're getting better. All right. Oh, was that my outside voice? Council member Cessums.

Yes. Attending the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference last week was an awesome experience. It was incredibly valuable experience for me as a newly elected council member. The the conference provided a strong foundation for understanding the broader national context in which local go governments operate while also offering practical tools I can bring back to serve federal way. The opening general session set an inspiring tone reinforcing the importance of local leadership in shaping resilient and inclusive cities. I also found great value in the workshop entitled public safety and tech what local leaders need to know session which highlighted emerging technologies and the responsibilities that come with implementing them effectively. Additionally, the workforce development session was particularly impactful as it deep deepened my understanding of strategies to expand employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, an area I'm eager to support more intentionally in my role as uh as a coun council member. Beyond the sessions, the opportunity to connect with peers and leaders from across the country was equally meaningful. Attending the AWC or Association of Washington Cities reception allowed me to build relationships with fellow Washington leaders. uh had a chance to get to know Deanna Dawson who's the executive director of the ADC AWC. While Tuesday's workshop entitled Bridging Community Divides and

Strengthening Civic Trust Workshop provided thoughtful insight into fostering unity and public confidence in local government. The workshop entitled the immigration roundtable understanding local legal responsibility session was also highly informative equip equipping me with a clear understanding of the legal landscape cities must navigate. A major highlight of the conference was participating in Hill Day on days two and three where I had the opportunity to hear directly from Senators Maria Canwell and Senator Patty Murray and Representative Adam Smith. Listening to their perspectives on legislative priorities and engaging in the federal local dialogue reinforced the critical role local leaders play in advocating for our communities. Most importantly, I had a chance to meet with the senior staff of Senator Senator Patty Murray. As my colleague uh Council Member Jack Walsh pointed out, it was invaluable. Mr. Steven and Mr. Noah um uh many meeting with them to advocate for $7 million in funding to complete two projects here in Federal Way. Five million for the city center access project and two million for celebration park turf fields. We we did receive very positive feedback from our lobbyist Mr. Luke uh to highlight what council member Walsh uh said. Uh overall, this experience strengthened my confidence, expanded my knowledge, and reaffirmed my commitment to effective and informed public service.

Uh going to this conference with my colleagues uh really uh gave me a chance to get to know them a little bit better. Uh I look forward to uh continuing the dialogue. Uh I hope that we we can get some business done uh once our cards are out there on the table. Uh and by going to this conference, I'm able to see or was able to see uh a little bit more clearer how uh things are operating. Uh so I appreciate the resources that uh we we were able to tap into to enable us uh to go. I think I'm a more uh stronger, more confident leader and I'm happy uh to answer any uh other questions. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Time to spare. Okay. Uh Council Coach Mark. So, at 4:00 a.m. on the day to go to the plane, I went out to my car, suitcase in hand, threw the ice and slush, and went head down. So, I wasn't able to go. And it's probably a good thing because we would have had an emergency on the plane and I would have been heading looking for a doctor and heading back this way. Um, so I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there with my colleagues. Um but I have gone it 13 times and to let you know that how important this is that um there are 281 cities in Washington state. Not all of them go. Uh not all of them are fortunate enough to go, but if you don't go, you're not going to get anything. You may go and not get any money, but at least you're at the table. And it looks like we're being successful. And it's not a one-time and done. It's a process. And so, thank you. You did a good job. I'm glad you all got along so well. I think that was wonderful. And, uh, I think moving forward, I think that was a really, really good start for all of us. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Council President.

Uh, so to wrap it up, my first meeting I attended on Sunday was the uh, Transportation and Infrastructure Services Federal Advocacy Committee, and what I learned there uh, was repeated several times throughout the conference. There is a bill um going through Congress called the basics act, bridges and safety infrastructure for community success and uh it needs support. So if you want more information please ask me but uh that was talked about at almost every class I attended on the importance of that. My favorite um class was bridging bridging community divides and strengthening civic trust. And I was able to um get up and talk about a few years ago when we had a young woman come in and ask us to sign a civility pledge and then she took that to Congress and that was before COVID probably 2019. And 2019 was when I was first introduced to the um dignity index at the National Foundation of Women Legislators. And so it's been around for a while and I know we're going to be using it on um here in in Federal Way. We also as a city uh sent a project that the diversity commission did to the um celebrate diversity awards. Uh we did not place this year, but I was a judge last year and so I attended the breakfast this year. Belleview uh came in second place on um a community event that they had. I've already um thinking about what we can submit next year because I think that the um arts explosion would fit in really well with what uh diversity and arts and bringing the community

together. So, I'll be talking to staff about that and to the arts commission about how we can um celebrate that. Washington DC didn't disappoint. From a high of 87 to a snowstorm to tornado watch to an earthquake the day I left. It was interesting. I'd like to thank Luke who is one of our lobbyists in Washington DC for his help and his support. Uh he made going to the hills successful in my opinion. And I'd like to thank the council for being prepared and I think uh we did a great job in DC and represented Federal Way. So, thank you. Okay, that's more

Thank you so much, Mayor. And um I I think we'd be remissed if if we didn't acknowledge the uh the fact that when Council Member Coach Mar slipped on ice and still took it upon herself to pick up Council Member Hamilton and still drive to the airport. Um when I heard talk about that.

Yeah. When I heard about that, uh, thanks to Amy and and Susan sharing that, I was a bit and and quite frankly, councilor, uh, Hamilton stated that as well, I was a bit floored and shocked. And I think we can now say that council member coach is one of the strongest um, German American individual. Martin, I was wondering what I was going to say if Andy stopped me. Right. So, hide hide my arm under my coat or something.

I I I I have to say that that took a lot of courage uh will and uh uh absolutely phenomenal. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that effort. All right. So, this was my book my on it was well used. I keep these forever. So, anyway, thank you very much and uh moving on to our next item of the day. Well, great job, council. Well, and I got to tell you, I really uh it's the first time I've seen the D dignity index, and you know, when I as soon as I read through it, I thought it sure would be nice if our you know, we all watched the congressional hearings

and it's it's kind of sad to watch both sides, you know, kind of go back and forth and and uh I I think uh the our congressional leaders uh should probably be uh reminded of this as well. It's easy when you're in the in in you know you're giving that argument and you feel so passionate about the issues but it's really about the people. It's what it's actually what people in Reichbowers taught me a long time ago was about you know most of most all things come down to relationships and um and so uh it sounds like it was a total success. Glad you did it. Um and u and thank you for bringing this back and and all of the lessons you learned. Okay. So now uh we are on to item seven. This is uh the ordinance first reading council bill 933. It's an ordinance condemnation for Pacific Highway non-motorized corridor 16th Avenue South uh South 308 street to 288th Street uh project. First we're going to hear from John Cole, our civil engineer. Uh then we'll have an opportunity for some public comment. John.

Thank you, Mayor, Council President, council members. I'm here today to uh present present condemnation ordinance for Pacific Highway non-motorized corridor phase 2 project maybe there we go uh should uh my policy question for you today should city council enact an ordinance authorizing property acquisition through condemnation for the Pacific Highway non-motorized corridor phase 2 project uh background information ordinance describes the property uh required for each project and I have a map of the parcels here for you. Um there is one tracked and then two other parcels. Uh actions taken tonight is uh that we've already had done is certified mail has been sent and legal notices has been published. Uh next step is the next uh council meeting. We'll have the second reading uh to enact as scheduled to occur at the next council meeting. Uh we will communicate with property owners as always an attempt to reach and negotiate a settlement and as always I'm always available for questions.

John, for those folks u you know at home and in the audience, can you just briefly describe why we're doing what we're doing, where we're talking I mean it's obvious around the 288th area, but why are we doing what we're doing?

Right. Right. This is a um non-motorized corridor, a trail. Um and parts of it, it's it amounts to a wider sidewalk, 12ft sidewalk uh through the majority of this area. It's kind of a where I grew up, we called it a pole line or service road, uh that runs through there. Um it will get um bicycle, foot traffic, um safer routes to schools, off of pack highway, and onto a non-motorized corridor. Um there's just a couple of parcels here that are left. Um, actually the majority of them are temporary construction easements. They're not even property takes. They're just a a use of. Right. And there's a some historical context. Some of this goes back to the 1800s.

1800s original plat who's no longer with us. Uh, could you just briefly explain some of that?

Right. Right. um original plot 1800s 1900s um named um was supposed to name King County as success or for right away through here. So it's we call it a a non um awarded rightaway through that area and um because it was it was not named to the county and left in the names of the family um then we have generations and generations of people that are impossible to track down to um locate. So, um through our law department, um has facilitated um trying to get uh the the proper ways of notifying the public of what we intend to do here.

So, we're just cleaning up the books here. We really are. Yeah. All right. Council, any questions on that uh for for John? Um thank you, John. Stay close. Um is there any public comment on this? Okay. Um uh thank you, John. Um, so, um, would the city clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council bill 933, ordinance condemnation for Pacific Highway non-motorized corridor, 16th Avenue South, South 308th Street to South 288th Street project. an ordinance of the city of Federal Way, Washington, providing for the acquisition of certain property for the purpose of constructing right-of-way improvements in the vicinity of SR99 at 16th Avenue South from South 308th Street to South 288th Street, known as the Pacific Highway non-motorized corridor, 16th Avenue South, South 308 Street to South 288th Street project, describing the public use and necessity of such property, directing staff to exhaust reasonable negotiation efforts to purch purchase such property, providing for the condemnation of the property, and directing the city attorney to initiate all necessary actions and proceedings in the manner provided by law for said condemnation if attempts to purchase are not successful.

All right. Thank you. Um, Council Member Walsh, do you have a motion? I move to forward the proposed ordinance to the April 7, 2026 council meeting for second reading and enactment. Second. There's been a motion, a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. Matter passed unanimously. Thank you very much, John. Thank you. All right. All right. Now we are on uh to item B, first reading, council bill 934, ordinance authorization to enact a.1% onetenth, excuse me, point onetenth of 1% local sales tax and use tax for public safety and criminal justice purposes. First, we'll have a presentation from Brian Davis, the city administrator. Brian,

hello again, mayor and council. Uh the policy question before you tonight is uh should the city council enact an ordinance authorizing a onetenth of 1% local sales and use tax for public safety and criminal justice purposes? This is authorized through the legislature through house bill 2015 uh to this was presented to the parks committee and there were we had some good discussions at that committee level in preparation for this meeting tonight. Uh some of the questions were related to some of the things that I'll talk about uh tonight. This graph uh is an indication of our uh current uh public safety expenses in relation to our current sales tax. And as you can see from the graph, uh the uh darker shaded um bar chart on the bottom represents the sales tax over the last few years. Uh the last one being in 2025. So last year when the books were closed and then everything that is unshaded moving forward is what is uh projected and as you can see from the line above which is the public safety expenses uh they were expected to see those increase over years and the sales tax to uh increase slightly but not to keep pace with the expenses that we expect from public safety tax. uh as was indicated earlier the the property tax is a is is a something that increases it's a fixed amount. It's not something that is keeps keeps pace with uh expenses. And then we have other uh funding sources as well uh that help out with this. But the sales tax is the most uh variable that we can gain insight into uh comparing expenses versus revenue. And again as you can see the line will the rate of increase of the line will uh exceed the rate of increase of the uh

bar charts below that. This is a forecast and it could be different but uh based on what we've seen uh through um the um the salaries. Sorry, let me go back here. Um, okay. Let me go to this one first, then I'll go back to the other bar chart. Uh, but the the as I mentioned before, the cap property tax is uh something that doesn't allow us to uh rely on heavily for increased expenses. Then that's why we're shifting to an increased reliance on sales tax. uh and as a result the sales tax trajectory uh currently we're in a a cycle and right now we're in a cyclical pause on seeing that sales tax increase. Uh there's a number of other factors as far as expenses goes. Two examples are when we used ARPA to purchase vehicles, the replacement um we're trying to replenish the funds that replace those vehicles over time uh in addition to the ones that we uh did not purchase, but the ones um that we will or that we have purchased, we'll need to replace those in the coming years. And so there is an increased cost to that as well as salaries of benefits. uh we see as reject on a trajectory to in exceed uh inflation. So with that in mind again as you can see from this the the line is what we see as being that increase. Now it what we're talking about tonight is a percentage of the sales tax. We're talking about a onetenth of 1%. So, as you see the the bar charts increase slightly, the we're talking about a rate of taxing on those um on the uh taxable uh goods and services in the city. And so that would uh increase only at a uh as you can see

from the bar chart, it would it would not increase the uh the rate, it would just increase the amount. And so why I mentioned that is that this is going to we're going to have to have likely to have discussions in the future about how to correct this uh this this gap that we'll be experiencing. Now as you can see from previous years uh we have been able to control that somewhat uh and we've had good uh leadership good financial stewardship that has helped us uh stay uh within range. But um those costs are going to become a factor in the future and so every little bit is going to help. So even if we were to um talk about this year alone um that's that's we're not talking about that. We're talking about the long this is the long game that we're talking about for this proposal tonight. It's not just to correct uh this year. Obviously uh there was a question about what percentage of our budget is public is related to public safety. public safety, including uh the police department, includes the municipal court, court, includes the jail, includes public defense, um prosecution, and a number of other things. Uh other criminal reduction services that we uh use uh and it's about a half. Uh there's been a couple of things in recent years that have skewed that. uh the main thing being ARPA and then also the recent issuance of the bond for the maintenance and operation facility. Um the when we're talking about percentages that kind of uh skews that somewhat and so the red box uh indicates gives us a good picture of what the percentage of on a regular basis of what our public safety is in relation to the rest of the budget. um a pre pandemic analysis of that and it's just under half of of of our budget. Okay. And I mentioned this already.

We're we are seeing increased budget pressures and again we've had we we've seen similar pressures before and we've been able to manage them again again with your uh with the mayor and council's leadership. um we've been able to um uh manage those uh pretty effectively but that's going to be become more difficult in the future. So this gives you a brief history uh at least for the last 10 years of sale sales tax in the city of federal way. Uh the big one uh is the ST3 in 2017. That was the big increase of of um 0.5% point uh 0.5% um for the among other things the light rail that we now enjoy in this city. uh that the the that particular uh revenue stream went for the entire system and for other upgrades uh throughout the system, but particularly for Federal Way, we do see uh a light rail station in our city uh two if you count Star Lake uh in our city now, which is a tremendous asset, but did come at a cost. Uh and then starting in 2021, there was a series of uh legislative measures that allowed the county to increase sales tax uh for a number of items for permanent affordable housing, for cultural access programs, and then for uh public safety, which the county has acted on. They acted on it um late last year. And then what we're propo the bottom line is is propose and that's what's before you tonight and that is for the city to take that action. Um so uh I really appreciate the the comments before about um that the you know that the increased taxes are a burden which they are. Uh this is the first time the city on its uh before

this body is proposing to to increase from from my memory. So uh this is this is not I wouldn't characterize it as the city taking any measures to uh overt tax it citizens. This is the first time again in my memory that the city has proposed this. What we see from from other cities in the region uh these are comparable cities uh within the within King County and these are the ones that have taken action on this so far. When we met at the parks committee there was a lot of things in flux. Uh we do have a better picture now of who has moved forward on this and so this gives you a sense for who has uh taken the proposed action that is before you tonight. Um couple u comments on this uh graph. De Moines's is is not over 50,000. Um we're we're deleting cities that were under 50,000. That was one that we neglected. So I apologize for that. However, it does give you an indication that there are several other cities which I did not include on here who have taken action on this. Um, but just they're not comparable uh with Federal Way, but there have been several that have done that. Uh, the other item that I do want to mention is that Kirkland is I've showed on here that they have enacted a 1% tax. They they did that not through House Bill 2015. uh but this is something that they took action on their own about uh seven years ago and and they did that on their on their own. So I did include them that they have taken a taken action to increase their local and use sales tax on a onetenth of 1% um just not under the house bill that is uh allowing us to do it at this time. But this gives you a flavor for what has transpired thus far uh in the region on jurisdictions jurisdictions taking access action on this um on this uh on this legislation

question of how much will I have to pay? Uh so if we if you in fact uh move forward with this uh then the federal way tax sales rate would go to 10.4%. 4%. So for every $100 that you spend uh in the city, then you would pay uh 10 cents as a result of of the tax. And that's again that's similar to what you would spend uh in any of the other cities that have increased their sales tax since taking that action to increase it. Uh so the options before you are to adopt the ordinance or to not adopt it. And the mayor's recommendation is to adopt it. Okay. Uh, let's hear from the council. What's your pleasure? Do I actually Why don't we have questions for Brian first, then we have the public comment. Uh, council questions for Brian while he's here at the podium.

Uh, Council Member Hamilton or are you wanting us just to ask questions or to debate the issue? Oh, just right now as he's Any questions for the the presentation? Okay. No questions then.

Okay. All right. Uh, thank you, Brian. You may want to stay close as the uh uh we're going to hear from uh the folks that we work for. We've got public comment. Um if you want to comment on this, I've already got pink sheets. I'll call the ones I have now. And if you don't hear your name and you want to, please submit a pink sheet. We've got uh Mike Bulich Ziggler, Harper uh Vani, Sarah Lee, that's virtual. Let's do Sarah Lee uh last after we've done the in person. and Paul McDaniel. So, Mike Bulich Ziggler.

Hello again. Uh, I'm here to speak at best skeptically of this t tax, especially the rushed feeling of this process. I listened to the council committee discussion and I'm unconvinced that the city needs to act right now. During that committee discussion, I heard that this tax is a requirement to receive grant funding, but it sounds like King County has already passed their tax and so it doesn't seem like that's actually required of us for the grant. that's unrelated to this tax necess like the separate process for public safety. I also heard that the city will have to make public safety cuts if it doesn't pass this tax now in time for July. But as I understood from that discussion, it sounds like they aren't cuts to existing services, but instead delayed future hiring and delayed uh increased spending. I want to hear how long-term the city is addressing its revenue shortfall and prioritizing its spending before it quickly acts enacts a regressive sales tax. If the city were to implement this tax, it should be in the greater context of our budget planning process. This tax may make the difference between a budget that includes cuts or investments to essential services and other services over the next couple years. But I personally want to hear the bigger picture on how the city plans to address its revenue shortfalls. How is it making decisions on what to cut or invest in? And how is it working to increase non-regressive revenue? In the context of this rushed process, I have been thinking back to the many discussions and many meetings the city had just to release funding for the day center, which was, I think, $50,000. How much time did the city and public spend to ensure their concerns were addressed compared to this, which is one council committee meeting and two council meetings the city will hold in order to pass this tax is expected to bring in $3 million from residents and those who shop in Federal Way. In the grand scheme of things, this tax on its own will result in a fairly small increase in costs, which I'm personally okay paying as long as I know how the city plans to use it. This tax and any other small increases will have a much greater impact on our lower income residents. And the seriousness of that impact cannot be overstated. I'm only supportive of this tax if it's utilized to free up general revenue funding from

PD for other services, especially after hearing our police chief state the city is more or less happy with the forecasted staffing levels and department funding. Without knowing those budget details and how that freed up funding will be directed, which I don't think the council and city can commit to right now, I think you should delay. I think the city should at minimum take more time and have a detailed and public budget process before passing this tax increase. Thank you. Thank you, Harper Villani.

Sorry if I stepped on the applause there. Didn't mean to. Okay. Hi. So, I am not Harper, but Harper had to leave, so I have what they were going to say, so I'm just going to be their voice here today. Can you tell us who you are? Oh, I'm Rachel Jones. Great. Hi, Rachel. I live in Federal Way. Very good. Okay. Um, actually, can hold Can you hold on for a second? Can you restart our clock, please? All right.

Okay. So, this is what they were going to say. I don't believe this tax is fair or necessary for the reasons a previous commenter mentioned, but in the event that it does get passed, the funds it generates should only go to meet the current budget of the PD. This tax should not increase their budget. Instead, the extra money from this tax should be used to fund other city services that make Federal Way truly safer, not just in terms of crime, but in terms of emotional well-being, safer in the knowledge that your community has your back. Instead, I would ask at least 100K from this tax should be added to the neighborhood traffic safety fund to double the funding to 200K total. Uh, this funds traffic calming project projects on neighborhood streets. After this, any excess funds should go to funding mental health programs and s social services that provide financial stability to residents. More funding for the police is not the only thing we need to invest in to make Federal Way safer. We need to spread the money around in order to create well-funded services with specific goals and agendas. It should not funnel into the PD, which it seems will never have enough funding. So, if this bill is passed, we should put the money towards programs in which we would see visible and real change in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Paul Mc Paul McDaniel.

Uh thank you. Um like the uh previous uh speakers, um my recommendation is to table it till you guys have more information. Uh just seeing the results of that uh presentation gave more insight. Uh it's $20 million difference per year. This is a $3 million tax. That's a big jump still to make up on. So I don't know how you guys plan on doing that in the near future. Um I will actually put a little blame on Olympia. If you looked at that chart, you'll see a big dip in cost. That's when the defund the police movement started. And because of that, it has blown up our cost of police exponential. I mean, that number is radical what it cost. People talk about how we don't have as many police per uh thousand of citizens, but you look at how much we pay compared to it. We have had to increase the bonuses continually in order to bring police to even get onto the force. It has thrown off the whole economy in that area. One of our biggest issues is we provide vehicles for every police officer. You guys need to look in your contracts and make that after they've been here for three years. The police vehicles alone are what's causing most of this problem. Every single one is provided a vehicle. Those vehicles, in fact, in January with this budget issue we have right now, we bought 16 more police vehicles. 16. That's a lot of vehicles when we're having a tight budget. What's more important, vehicles or personnel? And then one of my other comments I'll make on this one, it's not a pause, not one that most people like or agree with, is when you're running for office, police and safety might be number one. when you're actually in office, it's infrastructure. I cannot build roads. I cannot put that stuff into play. I have a second amendment and if you have a clean record, you can protect yourself. You can hire security. There is ways for people to protect themselves. You cannot build roads. So, when you take this consideration, I think infrastructure needs to be thought of as number one. And then this police need to be thought of as number two. That's just in the budget side of things. Um, I'll also mention that we bought drones, clock, uh, excuse me, flock cameras, Tesla vehicles. Tesla doesn't make a police vehicle, but yet we bought them for testing. Is that good use of our budget? Is that good use of our money? Is we've

also flown uh multiple officers outside of state to receive awards. Is that good use of our money? If you're going to take the money from us, you better spend it wisely. I do not think it's being spent wisely right now. I think you need to look at maybe tightening up your budgets a little bit more and seeing instead of putting people in room to write up grant proposals, seeing what can be cut. I'm tired of being threatened with my safety every time a budget gets short. It's either the kids or it's my safety. It doesn't need to be. There's a bigger picture here to be played. You saw the numbers there. Your $3 million doesn't even get close to covering what's going to happen in the next couple of years. Look at the big picture. Take your time. Do not rush this vote. Know what's going on before you make the vote. Thank you.

Thanks, Paul. Doug Stenby and then we're going to hit Sarah Lee on the phone. I'm Doug Stenby. I've lived in in Federal Way for for 20 uh one years. Um I will say that uh and certainly as a a taxpayer I I read the news and I think to myself, oh boy, not another one. And on the other hand, I do recognize that uh public safety is a priority. Uh perhaps as Paul Paul says, it's not not not the only one, but it is something that needs needs to be supported and certainly the costs there are going up. Um I understand what I would ask is for the assurance that this task tax will go to to that particular uh place and not be funneled off to something else uh in um the general fund. Thanks. Thank you.

Thanks, Doug. All right. Now, it's time for Sarah Lee. Hi Sarah, can you hear us? Hello. Yep. Hello. Okay, Sarah, the floor is yours for three minutes.

Um, my name is Sarah Lee and I'm a homeowner in Federal Way. Um, we are in a time of economic uncertainty due to inflation, tariffs, the war in Iran. Um, we're also in a time of uncertainty regarding how Federal Way plans to protect its residents should I show up and illegally detain them regardless of their criminal or immigration status. As such, I'm not supportive of attacks to increase funding for the police department. Supposed safety funding is already going to things like flock cameras, which endanger our immigrant population now that ICE has access to them. Regardless of the police department stance on that, a new camera just went up in an immigrant heavy neighborhood yesterday. Mass surveillance does not make us safer, as history has proven time and time again. There are better ways to raise funds that don't impact the most vulnerable residents in federal way, such as those Mr. Orth suggested. However, if this council votes for this increase and Federal Way receives the King County grant already applied for, Federal Way will be able to maintain its current police department budget and staffing levels. So, I'd like guarantees that the city will use this tax revenue to fund other services that help make federal way safer, like the neighborhood traffic safety fund, mental health programs, library funding, or public school funding, or any other social service that provides more economic health or educational stability to residents. All things that prevent crime more so than making our city into a surveillance state. Building a strong community that takes care of all our residents will always be a better investment than that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. All right. Would the uh city clerk Now, that's the last public comment sheet that I have. Would the city clerk please read the ordinance title? Council Bill 934, Ordinance Authorization to enact 0.1% onetenth of 1% local sales tax and use tax for public safety and criminal justice purposes. an ordinance of the state of federal a Washington relating to the imposition of an additional sales and use tax of onetenth of 1% 0.1% for criminal justice purposes as authorized by RCW824 345 and adding a new chapter 3.70 to the federal way revised code entitled additional 0.1% sales or use tax for criminal justice purposes.

All right, thank you. All right, to get us started. Council member Cessums, do you have a motion? I do. I move to forward the proposed ordinance to the April 7, 2026 council meeting for second reading and enactment. Is there a second? Second. It's been a motion, a second. Is there any discussion? Council member Hamilton.

Yes. Thank you, Brian, for that uh presentation. We had a very lengthy discussion on this uh in one of our committee hearings. So um I just want to give a little bit of background. This is a result of House Bill 2015. That was a House bill that was supported by your state representatives, uh Representative Reeves, Representative Taylor, and Senator Wilson. I will be and also I want to say thank you to the public for for coming and sharing their concerns. I share many of your concerns as well. I will be urging a yes vote on this uh adopting the.1% criminal justice sales tax. But I want to start here. I don't generally support tax increases because I understand very well what our citizens are going through right now with all of the state taxes and I want to emphasize that the state taxes that are being levied. We are feeling the pressure. Um, but this is the one funding tool that I will support because I know what the consequences for our community are going to be if we leave this funding on the table and we walk away. We do have a core responsibility as local government to provide for public safety. That is our core responsibility. The core responsibility of the state legislature is education. The core responsibility of local government is to provide for public safety. So that includes police, prosecution, public defense, and I'm going to talk

about public defense in a minute, courts, the justice system as a whole. At this time, Washington state ranks dead last in the nation for police officers per capita. I have a few theories on why that is. I think it's because of the parade of anti-law enforcement bills that were passed over the last several years and we're we're still recouping from that as a state. So, this bill was one of the bills that was um put forth to try to solve that issue for our state. Now, in regards to public defense, the Washington State Supreme Court levied a policy decision to reduce public defender case loads standards, drastically reduced public defense case load standards. What that means is that we're going to have a huge expense on our hands uh here real soon. We're going to have a crisis with not having enough public defenders. We have requested as a city for the state legislature to provide for public defense. Public defenders defend constitutional rights. If we don't have public defenders, cases are either delayed or more likely they are dismissed outright. I think personally that is a huge injustice to victims whether it be individuals, businesses or society. We have asked repeatedly for provision for public defense. This is the funding tool the legislature gave us. It's not my preferred vehicle. It I

would have liked to have seen a different uh funding mechanism for this, but this is what we got. So, what I will say is that uh this does have to be used for criminal justice purposes and that's pretty clearly defined. It's defined as domestic violence services, public defenders, diversion programs, re-entry work for inmates, reducing homelessness, improving behavioral health, community placements for juvenile offenders, community outreach, alternative response, mental health crisis response, as well as uh hiring and re retaining uh police officers. As far as hiring police officers, um there's been a mass exodus and so it's been difficult and it has become very competitive to try to get good officers. We want good officers here in Federal Way. We we don't want bad officers because that's not good. Uh so we do need to remain competitive. So the issue here is do we adopt the 0.1% sales tax authorized by the state legislature to fund criminal justice public safety services or do we attempt to meet these obligations without this funding tool? And uh another way to look at this is are are we going to use the same funding tool that every city around us is going to be using or do we choose to do it differently? And I I would argue that that we would be trying to do this at a at a disadvantage. Um, this funding tool is unique to me because it's going to broaden who contributes to public safety and a as a sales tax. Again, it's 10 cents on every $100 purchase. It's not paid only by federal

a residents. It's going to be paid for by people who visit our city, commuters, um, regional shoppers, people who benefit from our public safety are going to be paying into this system and help share with the cost. I think that is a more fair um because we all benefit from public safety. The the big thing too is I I believe it's going to reduce the pressure on local property owners. There is a huge push in Olympia to remove that levy lid on on property taxes. I am adamantly opposed to that. If we walk away from this from this funding tool, the the argument against that becomes stronger. Um, so I know I I hear I hear that we need to be wise with our budget. We need to be frugal with our budget. I think Federal Way has has been pretty good about that. Um, but I also think that we need to be open and transparent about the cuts that we're going to make in services if we do choose to to do our own thing and to walk away from this funding tool. What city program and services are we going to cut? I think we owe it to the public to lay that out. What are we going to cut? specifically when we walk away from this um if that's what we choose to do. So again, I completely understand the concerns. I don't like taxes either. I definitely don't like what's going on in Olympia. Again, it if you're feeling a lot of pressure like I am with state taxes, please reach out to your state legislators. Uh there there's ways to to let them know how you feel. Um, but I I know that if we walk away from this

and vote no, Federal Way is going to be without the resources that every other city around us is going to have, and that's going to put us in a real bind. So again, I am urging a yes vote on this. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Sepha Dawson.

Yeah, thank you so much for your um for what you said, Council Member Hamilton. Um, mine's kind of a um question also. So, King County did um pass the 0.1% also for the same thing, right? And then King County is also going to is considering to do a 0.1% tax if it passes for the uh transportation um that we um talked about earlier. And so if King County already passed it for the same um reason then it's almost and I don't know if federal would even benefit from what King County is doing but it just seems like we're paying double taxing taxation I think on the same purpose or maybe you can explain that to me or how that works. Uh yes. So they um my understanding is they benefit from the taxes of the entire county jurisdiction, not just the unincorporated areas where the county law enforcement area uh administers the services.

So it doesn't come back to us in any way. Right. So the there's there's two taxes that in currently in play with the county. They passed one in the 90s that we do share from. Uh the one that they most recently passed is for again that's for the entire uh jurisdiction that they then collect for uh for the c for the sheriff. Well, I shouldn't I shouldn't just limit it to the sheriff. How they administer it, I don't know, but it's for it's for county uh law enforcement crime reduction purposes. So, yeah. So, it doesn't come back to federal way or doesn't pass through back to us. Not not that we've seen.

Okay. Um and so it's just yeah I know you know it's like 10 10 cents I mean not but 10 cents on every hundred but that's what we keep hearing and so it just becomes problematic but at the same time I do hear what you're saying um because this is an opportunity and all the other cities are also implementing the same uh tax. Um, yeah, it's um, so next we can still have this conversation at the second hearing, right? That's right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Yeah,

council. Any other uh questions? Any other com comments? Council member Walsh. Yeah, I you know, I fully support public safety. I I do think it's the number one priority of of the the local government

and the things that that Council Member Hamilton said, I they are very very valid concerns. Very valid concerns. Um, with that being said, you know, if you take a look back at the the the graph that was shown before of the of the tax increases, in 2020, the sales tax was was 10%. With this, in all likelihood, the King County is going to pass a another onetenth of percent tax for roads, which would bring it to 10.4. So, this would bring it to 10.5. So actually a half a percent and thinking that that in in 5 years well six years I guess has gone from 10% to 10 a 12%. And I'm concerned about that that creep. Um with that I think that the time that I spent on the city council this is the vote that I'm the most conflicted with. Um uh you know absolutely public safety is the number one priority but I am con very concerned about about taxes as well. Uh you know you think that that uh just those few cents on a on a $100 thing isn't much but it it accumulates it accumulates. It accumulates and so like I say I am I am conflicted with it. Uh if this does not pass, I will fully support the police, you know, it it would mean cuts to other areas, but I don't think we should be cutting public safety at all. And so if we need to, as dear as some of the other programs are to me, they would what need to be cut rather than public safety. And so those are my those are my thoughts.

All right. Thank you, uh, Council Coach.

Well, I think that we need to stay competitive with other, um, police agencies. We need to, all of our surrounding agencies are all pulling from the same ever shrinking pool of folks that are willing to put their lives on the line and uh, in our ever changing world. And I really think that it's a small amount that if we don't do it, um I think we're going to be behind where we need to be. And so this is simply a vote to move it forward from this meeting to our next regular meeting. Um but I am concerned about being competitive.

All right. Council member Moore and then council member again.

You know, Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to know if someone put something in my Pepsi Zero because I tell you um I appreciate the words of Council Member Hamilton and what uh Council Member Coach Moore just said and that ought to be breaking news. I see Keelin right here. So, uh yeah, there you go. So, uh Council Member Hamilton, I I appreciate what you said. I think you hit up on a lot of good points. I think the real debate is is is how if this is gets passed um and the funds start to come in, how are we going to utilize it? And I think that's where I really want to have a watchful eye um as the legislative body of of of the council. Um and uh and have that debate um and I think um um I'll be voting yes on this. Um, and I'll be voting yes because uh I I believe what Council Member Coach Marger just said is we need to be competitive and and that's uh that's something that um is absolutely important. Um and I'm voting yes on this because I'll tell you um I am absolutely reminded um and it's a sign I think I'm going to put in my office, but uh the answers are within the community. And I I find myself saying that quite frequently. the answers are within the community. Um, and you know, we know that we're going to be hitting up a um a a we're going to be uh discussing um our upcoming budget cycle and it's going to be difficult. I think it's going to be a lot of challenges. Um and my job is to deliver. My job is to deliver for the people. Um and like we've all said and we've all sworn to and that's to protect the people of Fedway. Uh and public safety is our paramount duty. I wholeheartedly agree with that. I agreed with that for the eight years that I served in the council

and I agree with that as I returned on the council. Um and you know I think for me um it's very disheartening for me to hear uh individuals uh saying that our community is not safe, you know, or uh maybe realtors saying that our community is not safe. I just recently saw a video that

uh we're an un uh undesirable place, so to speak, you know, the fifth undesirable place kind of uh um and and uh uh and so for me, I look at we've we've got to strengthen public safety. That is just absolutely important. We cannot walk away from that. Um and uh and I think for me, um we're talking about $3 million. Yeah, that's small, but that's $3 million that could be going from as the mayor looks to build his budget, that could be $3 million that could be diverted to somewhere else. Am I right, Brian?

Am I right? Okay. Thank you, mayor. Uh, so uh, so therefore, was that excuse me, was that a yes?

That is it's a it's a qualified yes. As council member Hamilton said, this is restricted by statute that we need to dedicate whatever income we receive from this tax to law enforcement. Um the the shortfall that at least for this year is is going to we've looked at everywhere else in the city. We're now at a point where we got to look at the police department. So um yes to your question, but the majority is going to we're looking at the police department to fill this gap and so this will help that specifically. But if before I lose my my train of thought, if this tool wasn't here, uh we would have to be looking at $3 million to put in here. And because this tool is here and the potential that we could use it, that could mean that $3 million could go somewhere else from the general fund as we build it is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah. I I wouldn't say all of it, but yes.

Okay. So So that's that's my point. Uh and uh and so for me, I know that we'll be I'll be looking at how do we fund mental health uh because that's a serious problem. How do we fund um uh youth organizations um uh like progress pushers, like uh other organizations uh maybe even Young Life uh that help uh create uh that that keep our kids on the right track uh and uh uh and keep them busy. And I think that's really really important because as I meet amazing organizations that do a lot of incredible work, uh I'm I know that I I'm thinking to myself, h how do we fund them? How do we support them? And this could be a tool uh for that. Um and um and so I that's why I'll be really is the biggest reason why I'll be voting yes for this. And um and I think um so I'll leave it at that. Um I'm sure I'll have more to say uh but u I wanted to at least uh provide that as part of the conversation. Thank you.

Okay. Council member Cessums, then Council Member Dodson, Council Member Hamilton, and then um the council president. Council member Cessums.

Yeah. Uh I am uh leaning very much uh towards voting yes for this. Uh council member Hamilton, you raised uh many salient points um among of of which uh that this money can be used in a variety of ways. mental health programs, diversion programs. Um, public safety is a very broad term and uh the members of the community deserve to feel safe and secure in their persons. Uh so with that said, public safety uh the money for public safety uh this money will enforce uh the the the police department uh enabling the chief to be able to identify qualified people to hire and support their salaries. Uh I'm, you know, I'm I'm excited for the fact that uh what you raised in your uh testimony, Council Member Hamilton, that this burden will will be shared by a broad range of people, uh not just Federal Way residents. We're talking 10 cents for every $100 spent. Um that's not a lot of money. And I know we're that's a lot to say during these uh trying times, but honestly 10 cent is a dime. It's it's it's not a lot of money. We can we can definitely um uh and and should uh go after this money while it's on the table and not let it get away. uh

especially going into a a tough budget cycle like uh I've been hearing, I I would hate to leave this money on the table and then um cut services that we're going to need that we know we need and u because we don't have the funds. Uh so I appreciate you bringing all of those things up. Uh I'm I'm leaning heavily uh towards uh voting for it. Um yeah, I I I just feel that uh because of the flexibility that we'll we'll have in in um spreading this money around uh not just towards the police department, but other uh services. I I Yeah, I'm I'm likely to vote for it unless something uh emerges that I don't know yet.

All right. Thank you, Council Member Seven Dawson.

Yeah. Um what I was going to put off for next week um to better understand is what I'm going to talk about now, but my question is I um and looking at the ordinance, I didn't see, and correct me if I'm wrong, none of this things that you brought up around mental health um uh professional school responding. And I remember council member when you were a council member uh Paul McDana this is something that he really brought up and pushed for to see how we could do that and that did not you know that didn't happen and then we talked about DV programs youth you know all these things and homelessness and I did not see that in the ordinance what I saw if I remember is around training and other things that just been that are just within um the police department and so all this other things that are being brought up I did not read. So, I want to make sure that if that's what we're doing or if that's how the money could be spent, I really want to see that happen um in in order to enhance public safety and not just be spent on um uh police department. So, if if it wasn't there and I missed it, please let

Yeah. So, um Council Member Hamilton brought this up. The statute defines what we can spend it on and it includes many of the things that you all have discussed this evening, but it's not in that language then in the ordinance. I believe it references the statute if I'm not mistaken, which then includes all of that. Right. So, the list that you're referring to is the qualifications that we had to comply with in order to be eligible to get the grant that makes us eligible to pass the tax. So, those aren't the things we plan to spend the money on. Those are things we've already done to make us eligible to be able to pass this tax and we'll continue.

And then the statute says that we have to use it for criminal justice purposes. So we didn't write it into the statute into our ordinance because maybe the state will change that list at some point and we will be we'd have to change our ordinance at that point. So we will use it for those purposes that the state has allowed us to use it for and then if the state changes then we have to change accordingly or can we continue doing what we

it references the statute so we'll just change along with with him. So we don't have to if we enumerate it in our own statute and then they change the rules on us we'd have to change the local rule again. So by not including it explicitly in the ordinance and deferring instead to the state law as it is currently written when they changed the state law, we don't have to change anything. Does that make sense?

It's about the definition for criminal justice purposes. So at some point the legislature may refine what criminal justice purpose means, but it's always going to include police, public defenders, probably mental health issues or just the the whole variety, you know, public defense, the whole variety of public defense. It's about generally referring to that definition of of criminal justice purposes. So if they change that and we want to continue doing like the mental health corresponding or homelessness, addressing homelessness or youth, all these programs, does it mean that we need to not do them if the state decides not to do them anymore? That's

if if the state takes something away, which is highly unlikely, but if they took if they're more likely to expand the definition of criminal justice, but if they narrowed the justice the the the definition of criminal justice, we would have to use that money in compliance with the state statute. So, yes, we would have to find another source of funds to do those things, but that seems unlikely. The more likely scenario is that they would expand the use of these funds. Okay. Thank you. All right, Council Hamilton and then Council President.

Yeah, just to follow up on that real quick. This is connected directly to HB 2015 and that's where you find that language. Um, you know, with the broad use. Um, I I do want to bring up just one uh thing that I I do appreciate about the the bill is it it does give us local control in an era where we're getting, you know, less and less local control. This actually does give us the control to choose how how we're going to use. I mean it does have to be for criminal justice purposes but that is um broadly defined within you know those things that I had listed off. So that's a good thing is that we do have discretion for how we will use this funding. I do still believe though that we need to be transparent and honest with the community about what exactly we would be cutting if we do choose to walk away from this. And so some of the the interesting thing is that if we choose to walk away from this and we cut things from our budget, a lot of those things are are going to be probably connected to public safety in in an in an interesting way. Things like community policing might go away. We might not have coffee with a cop anymore. Things like graffiti cleanup, that might be something we have to cut. Shopping cart removal and pickup, we might need to cut that. Um, programming within our parks department, youth, teens, senior programs, food voucher program. I think we really need to start thinking about what it is exactly we're going to cut very specifically so that the community

knows what we're going to be looking at cutting. Now, I'm not saying that that's exactly what we would cut, but it's just examples. And um I don't want to see any of those things go away. And um yeah, I just I want us to specifically, you know, think about what we're going to be cutting if we walk away from this because there will be cuts. That's that that's a given. All right. Thank you, Council President Honda.

Thank you. Um expanding on what Council Member Hamilton is talking about, the reason that this has come before us now is so that we could start collecting this in July. Um, RCW82.14.345 authorizes cities and counties to impose the 0.1% tax by ordinance through June 30th of 2028. The Department of Revenue must receive at least 75 days notice before the tax taxes effective date and the tax may take effect only on January 1, April 1, or July 1. So that's why King County wants to pass that um the transportation benefit tax um soon so that they can start collecting on collecting in July and why the city wants to do it now. My concern is um I don't know what we will be cutting from any programs in the city if we don't pass this. So, you know, we have a budget. We're in our last year of our budget, and I would like to know what cuts we would be making in 2026 if we don't pass this. I'd like to know um what decreases in programs we might be making if we don't pass this. And I'd like to know what would happen if we don't pass this now, but pass it and

have it start on January 1, 2027. When we put the ARPA funding into the public safety budget just I should just seem like a few months ago that helped public safety, right? I mean that that funded public safety did. So did that the money that we put the ARPA money that we put into the budget for public safety was that money used for other projects and programs in the city or did the part of the portion of ARPA that went to police? Right. I'm sorry.

So we put the ARPA money into the public safety budget and that was just a few months ago. Correct. When did we do that, Steve? 2025 or 2020?

Sure. Uh, council authorized a long list of projects to be funded by ARPA. Those projects were all shifted to the general fund, and we did charge public safety to the ARPA to fully exhaust that grant, but the ARPA uh funding allowed us to specify a large list. Now, it did did include 28 police cars that we were able to purchase. Uh, I think that was the only direct benefit to the police program. So, the money from ARPA that we put into the public fund, public um safety fund purchased the police cars. Yes.

And if we didn't put that into that the public safety fund, then we would not have been able to purchase those police cars. That's true.

There were also retention bonuses for all of the staff. um the majority of which would be uh police because they comprise uh a good bulk of the uh enrollment or the workforce of the city. So, when this was discussed at the last uh at the parks meeting, um I did ask if the city would advertise it so that we, you know, people would know that this was happening because I I don't want I don't want to surprise people. I want to hear from from the public. um the newspaper ran an article on it and then just a few days ago it's been on Facebook and every comment I've wrote on Facebook has been against it and um I will not be voting for this tonight and I'm not going to vote for it tonight because I want to hear from the public. I want to know how the public feels about it. It's not that I don't support public safety and our courts. It's because I want to hear from the people who live here in in Federal Way and I want to hear how it's going to impact them. The problem that we have as a city and that we've always had as a city and federal way since before I was even on this council was you have your school district and they they do their levies and their bonds and then you have Lake Haven and they increase their fees and um every so often you have uh PSSE they're increasing their fees. you have the state, uh, the county, and everyone's increasing their fees and their taxes, and then it comes to the city, and we're like, "Oh boy, we can't do that." Because people are overburdened. They're having a difficult time, you know, buying food and medication and things that they need to

live on. Um, and right now, gas, I mean, gas is through the roof and it's going to only get worse. And yet, as a city, we need to also have the funding to provide the services that we are responsible to provide for. And so, I'm really I'm, you know, I feel like Council Member Walsh, I'm really divided on this because I know we need the funding. I know we need this, but I also know that this is going to be really difficult for people. And at just because it's only a little bit of money, a little bit of money added up to a lot of other little bits of money is a lot of money for people. And I think we need to really think about that. So what I would ask for um at our next reading in two weeks is I'd like to see a list of what

No, no. We we won't be able to see that. I'm sorry. Go ahead and finish your I was just going to ask that a list of the cuts in 26 that we might be facing.

You know, we're going to be I'm going to spend between now and September 1st, what is that? Five, six months working on a budget. We're going to take down we're going to go down to the studs on every budget and we're we can't like give you a list in one week of that work. I mean, we're going to be we're going to do that regardless. We're going to go through and we run a very very lean operation. Each and every one of our departments, whether it's parks, whether it's HR, whether it's law, every department is, you know, it chronically understaffed. So, we're going to take a look and and go through every department and find everywhere we can we could save money. But I can't give you that list in a week and I'm not going to because what we want to do is hear from we we take a look at all the spreadsheets and we go through we're talking you know we've got a bianial budget of over 300 350 360$ 360 million so we're there's a lot we'd have to go through. we can give you some ideas. And one of the things right now, we got a $ 1.5 million budget. And I have to tell you, right now, we've gone down to the studs in every but as a metaphor uh for building a house. We've gone down to every department and we've squeezed every bit and we've denied new hires in all these different departments. The last department is the police department. So, we're talking about what we want to do is get to where, you know, we've got a couple of positions. We'd have to like hold off on those positions. we'd have to hold off on, you know, it almost all of it would come down to the police department and not hiring those officers that that we've told the community we're going to have. And then we're probably going to have to try to find savings, you know, here and there, but we're going to we're going to go through every department. This is a budget year. That's what we're going to do. Um and you know right now 1.5 right as we've as we looked at it most of it's

going to come from the police department and about not hiring new people and finding ways in which we can you know uh save money in that department but we've saved it you know like I said we've gone through every department and we run very lean our IT staff park staff all of it we need to add we need to add people not subtract them. So that that's my answer to that and and I don't want to pretend like I we can give you a list and that that would not be doing justice to the the 360 $360 million uh for the bienial budget, but it's going to take a long time before I put it together.

So well, I would just like to know how my vote is going to be impacted if I vote against this and how it will impact the city. That's what I'd like to know. Well, I think if you're talking about $3 million of uh just to to answer that question, that's a lot of money. And what we what we're talking about really is making sure that we have a fully fully funded police department, that we have everything we need to address the safety of our community. And also, it will take the b it will take the the pressure off really once again sort of buckling down. One of the things that happened in this city, and I want everybody to know this, we when the great recession occurred in 2008, and between 2008 and 2010, this city lost 80 employees. We basically just absolutely went down uh uh to the rivets, so to speak. And uh we are still, you know, this this and we went six years at a city government without a cost of living adjustment for our employees. Um, I want you to think, let let me say that again. This city went six years without a cost of living adjustment for non-represented employees. That put us at a much disadvantaged position in our uh in our community. I would also note that there are other cities like Kent and uh that have a much more robust because of the the warehouses and the in and the infrastructure of their taxing system uh that like the city of of Kent gets about twice the receipts that we do in regard to revenue because of the because the way the structural system is taxation system is set up. So instead of $300 million in in revenue, they have twice that. and so so does some other cities. That's why we don't use Kent as a comparable with our salaries and we have to keep comparable with not only our police officers for retent retention and

recruitment but every employee who works here and we don't want to make we want to make sure that we don't fall below that. So, while the situation is not dire, it's important. It's serious. Uh, and it's going to take it's going to take all efforts, all ores in the water to get us there. And I want us to have a very I want us to have a thoughtful process in regard to the budget. And, you know, the the position of of this administration is we don't want to leave $3 million on the table for for 10 cents out of $100. So from I So from July to January, this would raise $3 million. No, it' probably be half that. Half that.

Half that because we're it's half the year. So it's 1.5 for this year, which coincidentally is what the I mentioned what the shortfall is as well. But that is what the what that happens to be what the shortfall is. But I do want to say that that's not just a quick plug. We're going to go down to the rivets on every department. It's what we do line by line by line by line and and really think about and look for ways. But we've got staffing needs that we may need to add staff at certain areas like it. It is chronically under understaffed and you you know that I know you support a you do you support that.

I've always supported adding staff to it and I I know it's chronically understaffed and I I'm concerned about that. I I um I think this is our first disagreement, but I I would say that I would like to have a better understanding if this doesn't pass what the impact over the entire city function is. Yeah. And you may not be able to give me a list, but you've got an idea of Yeah. of the the impact, and that's what I'm looking for.

Okay. That you will get. Um so, Brian, that we can commit to. I just want to one of one of the things I want to do is my wife taught me a long time ago, don't agree to things you're not going to do. And and so I what I my commitment to you is is that we will sit down with Brian and uh Steve Groom and give you some ideas on where we're going to, you know, like first with regard to the 1.5. The 1.5 is a starting figure because I think we owe it to where we're a service delivery organization. I think we owe it to our community to figure out where we at parks in regard to staffing, where are we at with it, which is as we've talked about, and do we need to pick up a couple of positions to make sure that we're providing that service delivery and not over and not burning out our employees. So, uh, yes. Uh, so Brian, let's get, uh,

Mayor. Yeah. Did your wife also say never never ignore her? Council member Coach Meer. Yes. Yes, she did. Okay. I was just going to say maybe we need to turn this whole idea around because we keep talking about, you know, we've always been a very frugal city. That that's been one of our hallmarks. But what we need to do is attract business. And we're not going to attract business if we don't have a safe city. Yeah.

I've heard people over and over say, "I'm so happy that we don't have graffiti, that we have clean streets, that we have we now have police officers that are responding." Um, I've heard that repeatedly and I think that that's really important. If you want to attract real estate, you can't lose planners. You need to have people for building. You, you know, if you want to expand the city and if you want to have your your businesses that are going to come and bring um revenue to the city, they have to feel safe. That's one of the most important things be that and good schools. And so I think that we need to look at this in a in a broader spectrum of things. And so you can say, well, we're going to lose perhaps a a plan or we might lose something or not be able to hire who we need. But for the most part, you know, we need to move forward and make sure that we are competitive with other cities because you can bet they're going to pass that onetenth of 1% for their cities. And if we don't, we're back being penny pennywise pound f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f foolish. So I I just wanted to say that. Thanks.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Thank you. So at at the parks meeting, it was also discussed about the HB 2015 $100 million grant funding for public safety and criminal justice purposes and that we already qualify for to so according to that uh the grant funds will be used for the following purposes. personnel, 10 commissioned officers, um training at the basic law enforcement academy, equipment and deployment readiness, retention and workforce stabilization, and that's a grant of over $5 million if we get the entire amount over three years, I believe. Um one time $5,000 retention bonuses for 150 commissioned officers and 36 civilian employees. So, I mean, that works into this, too. It's not just a simple vote for a 0.1% tax sales tax increase. I mean, there's other things that go into this. And um I I want you I I think we need to think about the the the big picture and so um that's what I will leave it at. But thank you.

Very good. Oh, you're welcome. Oh, and I didn't consider this a disagreement. We'll get there. All right. Yes. I'm sure one day we will. Council member Hamilton. Well, I just want to say healthy disagreements are good and we're having a really good robust conversation, which I appreciate and I appreciate all of my colleagues and their perspectives and what they've argued today. Um, just to clarify, HB 2015 provides two funding mechanisms. Just so the public is aware, two funding mechanisms, separate but linked. The $100 million grant that has to be used for law enforcement, hiring, and and retention, I believe. And and that's the total bank for the state, right?

Yeah, that's the total bank for the state. We're going to go for a portion of it. We're going to go for, I think, 5 million and we'll see what we get. Um, but then there's what we're talking about right now, which is the 0.1% sales tax. That is where we have discretion on what we can use uh within that broadly defined criminal justice purposes. We can also use that to retain the officers that we have and then all the other things. My thing is the public defenders. I am really concerned about that. I don't think people realize just how what a bind that is going to put us in. Um I I' I've been hearing the concerns and here's what I'll say. I don't want our city to be left behind and to fall behind because of what's happening at the state level. Like I said, there are ways to address what's happening at the state level with your state representatives. We we have to keep pace with every city around us and and if we don't, there's going to be consequences. officers, you know, that they might love the environment here, but if if Kent or Auburn or De Moines has got better pay, that's where they're going to go. And so I I just want to, you know, make that clear that that if if we if we choose to walk away from the one funding tool that the state has given us to to provide for public safety, we're we're going to really have to contend with that decision. So, um I appreciate the robust the debate and and uh conversation and uh that's where I'll end.

Council President Hinda and then Council Member Moore. Uh I have another question. In 2026, our uh the pay for our police officers and our police staff. uh that's already been set. So this would not impact them if we did not uh move this forward in 2026. Is that correct? Um right. The So the Go ahead. Well, I was I was going to say the collective bargaining unit sets the cost per officer. Doesn't set how many officers we have.

So, but that's how we control our cost is we have fewer officers in 2026. Their salary is said their salary. So correct. So if we need to control that number, we need fewer officers. So in 2026, if this isn't passed, then we would lose officers potentially. Chief, you want to let's get the chief in here. Um because I I think he's got a Chief. Is that okay? That's fine. Okay. Chief,

couple things. Uh Council Member Hamilton talked about uh two funding source with House Bill 2015. So, the intent of the legislature is the $100 million grant is one-time funding. It'll pay for officer hiring retention for a three-year period at entry level, 75%. So, the mechanism for continuing to pay the officer position is the sales tax onetenth of 1%. That's the ongoing funding. Um, city administrator talked about saving $1.5 million in 2026. That's the shortfall. uh they've looked at every department. Uh they've uh approached me now about reducing $1.5 million. So within the police department, so what I would tell you is that uh we're really thin on the civilian side with as an agency. So we're waiting for this grant funding. Um and I need to disclose to you this grant funding 100 million. Um we were just informed uh a couple of weeks ago that there is supplanting language that we'll need to um address that when we do the budgeting for the 2728. But bottom line is if we have to reduce that kind of money, we're looking at probably 8 to 10 officer positions that I will not be filling uh to reach that 1.5 just this year. But as a policy group, you can say we don't want to reduce police officers. We're going to reduce it somewhere else. You can make that decision. But if it if it's up to me to come up with $1.5 million, I probably need to reduce not hire 8 to 10 officers towards the end of the year or some sometime in the year. But I'm really waiting for this decision and also uh the $und00 million grant funding. So I hope that helps. But we're at a point where I if it's up to me to reduce that budget, I have to eliminate or not hire those officer positions to make budget. I could I I thought at the parks meeting when I asked about how

many officers we had, I thought we were only short. Um I think you said three or four.

Yeah. Right now we're budgeted 151 today. Uh July of this year there's three more positions to fill, bringing us to 154. So as of today at 151, I'm short. I have four more positions to fill to get to 151. So I'm at 147 now. paid positions. So there's four positions to be filled and three more in July. So there's little bit of salary savings already up to this point with these four vacant positions. So I have some but if I really the if the delta is 1.5 million I will not make it with these vacancies. I will have to just at when attrition occurs let's say an officer leaves retires I just won't I won't be filling them is what will happen. I won't be laying anybody off. I just won't fill positions that become available and I'll just have to look at the math. But I'm telling you right now, if it's 1.5 million, I need to not hire eight to 10 officers.

Thank you. Okay. Um council. Okay. All right. There has been a um there's been a motion, a second, a very uh robust good discussion. Um it's time for the vote. Um all those in favor say I. I. I. I. I. Opposed. Reluctant. I uh nay. All right. Council member Sepha Dawson. I council member Moore. Hi. Council member Hamilton. Hi. Council member Walsh. I. Council member Sess. I. Council member Kochar. I. And council president Honda. Date. Motion passes six to one.

All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh thanks once again. Thank you Brian. Thank you everybody. Um now council reports. It's the second meeting of the month. So, we'll start at position number seven. Council member Coach Mark, I've been otherwise indisposed. No report.

All right. Thank you very much and I hope you feel better soon and thank you for be thank and thank you for being here through all this. Council member Cessums uh attended the NLC conference last week. Uh looking forward to the council retreat on April 4th. also looking forward to participating in the parks appreciation day, April 18th. Uh a reminder that the Gapuna Heritage Month celebration on April 25th is coming up. That'll be at Town Square Park and April 30th. I'm looking forward to participating in the Federal Way public forum.

All right. Thank you, Casper Walsh. uh great discussion just now and and I I think that it uh also shows that we can can uh disagree agreeably without being disagreeable. So anyway, uh great discussion. Um and for the sake of brevity, that's it. All right. Thank you, Council Member Hamilton.

Don't have a huge report. We spent a lot of time and you know focusing on DC and I already reported on that. A great trip. Um I appreciated the discussion tonight. I think it was a good robust discussion and uh thank you Council Member Walsh and um yeah I I look forward to uh the retreat and that's my report. All right, Council Moore.

Thank you so much, Mayor. Um, yep. Uh, just uh same thing DC uh was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. Um, and uh I will also follow my colleagues uh steps and say that this was a good conversation. The only thing I want to be careful with is we have really good state lawmakers that are representing the 30th and there's a lot of diversity in those votes and I just want to be careful with that because we consider them partners because we need them quite frankly. Uh, and so I just as we're having this conversation of sales tax, I know that debates like this can get it's easy to to to point the fingers and I just want to make sure that we're staying true to local um how do we solve the local uh local challenges. U so that's the only thing that kind of comes to my mind. Um but other than that um yeah there's really nothing else to say. I just thank you.

All right. All right. Thank you, Council Member Sepidasawa. Thank you, Mayor. And I have nothing to report on, so thank you. Thank you, Council President Honda.

Uh, thank you. I'd like to um just talk about Jet City Chorus. My husband and I went to a concert on Sunday. Excuse me. Uh they are going to a um contest next month and they sang their uh the pieces that they're going to be singing at their contest. And I thought they did an amazing job. So, congratulations to them. Good luck to them and I hope they do well. They're an amazing um performing group that we have in Federal Way. I also picked up at the pack and um Meredith might be able to help me on this one. It's a call for youth artists to rep your flag to celebrate the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The Federal Way Kicking It Festival is inviting K through2 students to participate in a creative flag art contest. Is there a deadline for that? Because I don't see it on the flyer. There is a deadline. So on the flyer, there's a QR code. I believe that the initial deadline has passed. Um but there are a number of deadlines along the way. So there's sort of like an initial call for artists um responsiveness and then there's additional deadlines. Um we can send that information to you.

Okay. Thank you. Well, I'd like I'd like the students to get it. So, yeah, absolutely. And if you don't have enough students who have because I I understand you want all the flags represented, um you'll keep it open until you get enough students. Is that how it's going to go? Um yeah, I can check and see. This is mainly going through um the arts foundation. Okay. And so I believe that they did get a good number of responses. Oh, good. Okay. Thank you. Um, and other than that, uh, please send me your thoughts and opinions on the 0.1% sales tax increase potential, and I'd love to hear what you're thinking. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you, council. Great job, uh, staff. Thank you for the public we serve. Thank you very much for being here and for your participation. With that, we are journed.