City Council - Special Meeting

21st for Advisory Body Interviews for the Senior Commission. And we're going to start with the Pledge of Allegiance. And Councilmember Walsh, could you please lead us? Why do we do that? We all need to be wearing name badges. So tonight there's only two of you that we're interviewing for the senior commission. And staff, Amy is in the back. So what we're going to do is just, Amy, you're going to be first. And you'll just come to the podium. Tell us why you want to be on the senior commission, back on the senior commission. And then if council has any questions, then they can ask you questions. And if not, at the 6.30 meeting, we'll be appointing people to the commission. No. Yeah, Amy will call you. So if you want to go over to the podium. And Amy is currently our vice chair of the senior commission.

Well, good evening. The last time I did this, it wasn't quite this formal, so I didn't prepare anything. I remember sitting around a table over here and just kind of like an interview. So I've been a longtime resident of Federal Way and would like to serve my community. given that I'm somewhat in the senior category myself or thereabouts depending on what your definition of seniors is it seems a good a good fit I've done a lot of things for you know children as my children were growing and in the schools and this is where I'd like to focus and I've seen probably been four years now that I've been focusing my real estate business on seniors and seeing how many unique needs they have. It's a place I want to be to help with some of that, particularly struggles with technology and all the things that are changing rapidly. of the abuse that is centered at seniors kind of scare them into doing things and and what have you and so in the past that I've served I've enjoyed being able to bring information to our seniors, find our seniors so that we can give them information, and collect valid resources for them, whether it's through our resource guide or our... senior fair that we produce um and just enjoy reminding the city of this you know group that sometimes gets overlooked um i know there are lots of needs for the youth and the children um And we think that those who have lots of life experience are, you know, fine with just continuing. But their needs are unique. And so I like to identify those and bring them to the attention. And then also I love to solve problems and find solutions. So I like to be able to do that. So I guess, ta-dum, ta-dum. I don't know how to end that. Thank you. Any questions?

Does anyone have any questions for Amy?

Go ahead. Amy, you've been on the Senior Commission for a while now. What has been the most rewarding thing for you in serving on the Senior Commission?

Gosh, that's a good question. I would say probably attending and planning some of the lunch connections that we have, or they started as coffee connections, where we can bring a subject matter and kind of get it out in the open. things that people avoid talking about, our own demise being one of them, but knowing what all the resources are that are available. So we get a chance to bring in a speaker who addresses the subject and then people can ask all the questions that they have about it. You know, I see them learning a lot, a lot of aha moments that are out there, you know, for information that's out there that they didn't know where to look for.

Just one more question. Is there anything that the Senior Commission is not doing that you think it should be doing?

Well, I mean, this was my concern when I came to the commission, and it's an ongoing thing, that compared to other cities, we do not have a senior center to serve the senior citizens of Federal Way that other cities do. We have some programs. We have a nonprofit senior center. I'm there almost every week offering sewing services to the seniors. But I have also visited the senior centers in other cities. Some I have just driven by. Some I have actually been into. And one of my colleagues in Dig Harbor was talking about how sad it is that their seniors don't have their own building. But they have a program that provides lunch every day of the week. It might be provided lunch with a small cost to the seniors, but it's still a gathering place at a rented church building where they can go every single day. And we don't have that in Federal Way. We can come to the community centre to exercise every single day. We can go on weekend excursions that are prepared by the city. Twice a week can go have lunch and play bingo at the senior centre. just outside the city boundaries, but we're not offering to our seniors what other places have that are open from 9 to 5, drop in, play pool, or do an activity, or exercise, or have lunch, or take a dance lesson, or it's a place where they can feel that they belong. And so that's my ultimate goal, but I know there's a lot of things that can get in the way of that. Because of the generous donation of a building for the seniors to use outside of the boundaries. So maybe that's ultimately why I want to stick around is, you know, see that get figured out.

Thank you, Amy. And thanks for all the work you've done.

You bet. Okay.

Anyone else? Oh, I'm sorry. Council Member Hamilton.

Thank you, Chair, or Council President. Thank you, Amy, for reapplying and wanting to continue serving. How do you view your role on the commission, and how does the role of the council support that role?

Well, do you mean my role as vice chair or just my role as an individual?

I guess, how do you view your role as a member of the commission?

As a member of the commission?

Yeah, and how does the role of council support that?

I have always been able to say what needs to be said. So I can kind of... I'm a very practical person, so I can kind of cut through some of the fluff or unnecessary or... hyper-emotional parts of something and get down to what we need to, you know, what do we need to solve? What's the problem at hand? And I'm okay with pointing that out, but not in a way that is terribly offensive or, you know, controversial. So I actually participate verbally in the meetings and you know, offer suggestions. And as far as the council, how you guys can support it, is that what the question was?

Yes. How does the role of the council support the role of the commission?

The role of the commission. Well... That's a little, we're looking at coming to more of your meetings so that we can express that because luckily we have Susan sitting with us and so she knows because my understanding is there is not a council member that sits with every commission. So she can represent us if there's a big concern. But I also see that we need to attend more. We need to open that communication path a little bit better if we're going to be an advisory body so that we can advise and not just rely on Susan to do it for us.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Council Member Morse.

Amy, thank you for being here and for applying once again to be a part of this. I really appreciate the content of what you said with Council Member Walzer's question and Council Member Hamilton. So I'm really enjoying the content that you're providing. I appreciate it because I used to be the outreach coordinator for the city of Milton and I ran senior programming, so I understand what you're saying. I think really the only question that kind of comes to my mind is what is – so you guys talk about a lot of things. You guys do a lot of outreach and a lot of events and whatnot that you guys do a great job with. But what is something different that you would like to see the commission do?

like completely different that we haven't touched on yet? I can't say completely different, but something that we've just barely etched the surface of is the communicating. Because of privacy laws and stuff, it's hard to get communication information for our seniors. So we're trying to find outlets that we can disseminate that information through. And that involves, you know, we know we can contact the managers of the shag apartments, for example, and they can disseminate information. We can contact any of the senior living communities, and they can do it. We can do it through the senior center, which doesn't have as many attendees as we potentially could serve. What's trickier is those who are... in their own homes still, and we know that they need some communication. And we've tried doing things like sign up when you come to a lunch meeting if you want to get information, and we don't get a very good response. So now... We even did a Santa for seniors and asked people to nominate their neighbors. Do you have kind of a shut-in neighbor that we could reach? And we didn't get very much response there. We wanted to just get 40 names and only came up with about 20 that people recommended. And we know there's more than that. So we can't really ask doctors, because that would be a HIPAA violation, though they could at least post a flyer of an event coming up. We want to maybe approach HOA organizations of, and then once we've kind of, and just ask them, you know, if they have an active HOA, is there somebody that can send an email? That's all it needs to be, you know, not something mailed. If there's something of interest that comes up, some new program that's being offered for seniors that they should know about.

Go ahead. No, sorry. I was just going to say, I mean, we're going to have to get together because there's so much to talk about because I absolutely love what you're saying. I mean, and I appreciate your response in terms of something new. How do we communicate better and reach out to other seniors? Because I know that we have all had that experience of connecting a senior that's lonely, that is feeling alone and by themselves, and I've come across that and whatnot. So having that center where it's solely dedicated, I think is a really huge benefit because it makes it easier for communication to say, stop by here, you know, instead of saying, go come here during these certain hours where that may prohibit them from coming. So, yeah.

But this reminded me of something else. We have people in Northeast Tacoma who don't have senior programs at their Norpoint Center, but this is the most sensible place for them to come. And they're a little bit restricted because they're not in our city, but we need to somehow reach out and include them. Serving in this position is my first time ever doing anything on a government sort of level with more rules, if you will, to know how that can be done. We actually have someone that comes to our meetings who lives in Northeast Tacoma. She's kind of an honorary member of our commission, but can't hold a position. And so figuring out how to involve them. They all love living in Pierce County, but they are a little bit of an island. So including them somehow would also be ideal.

Well, clearly your passion and your interest in this is showing up very, very clearly. So I just really appreciate you being here and just wanting to continue to serve our community. Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right. Well, thank you, Amy. You did absolutely great.

Okay. Thank you.

And thanks for all you do. You can stay around if you want. Okay. Okay. So Michelle, do you want to come on up? So Michelle and I were just talking, and she has recently moved here from New York City. She's only been here for eight months. Yeah, so welcome to Federal Way.

Yes, good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me. I'm Dr. Michelle Banks. I recently relocated here in October of 2025, so I'm still adjusting. Just a little bit about me. For the last 10 years, I worked in government, particularly the New York City Department of Correction, commonly referred to as Rikers Island. I held a few positions, but the last two positions I held was I was an executive director for the Office of Constituent Grievance Services, and I was also the deputy director for the project management office. And so my career has really been centered on compliance, troubleshooting, and also just making sure that we do what we're supposed to do within the government constraints. Why? Why did I apply for this? It's very simple. When you move somewhere, you want to feel like home. And so I'm a grandma's girl. And so the best way I know how to is get active. I think our seniors are the backbone of the community. They have historical knowledge. They also just have life knowledge. And I know that it is a challenging position because sometimes they just don't want to be bothered or there are other things going on. But I think that they're important and without them two cities can't thrive and I think that what I could bring to the table is I'm a researcher I have the ability to see where there are gaps and implement solutions that's what I do I like fixing problems and implementing things and so thank you for having me and any questions questions councilmember Hamilton

Thank you, Council President. And thank you, Michelle, for applying. And I think it's great that you want to jump in and get involved so quickly. That's one way to make this your home, for sure, is to get involved. Same question. I always ask people the same question. So how do you see your role on the commission? And how does the role of the council as a policy body support that role?

I'll speak from just my experience in government and being in different committees. I find that role as a committee member is to, one, do the work, right? Identify the five Ws, who, what, when, where, why, how, right? And then formulate what needs to be presented to the board, bring it to the committee, bring it to the council, and say, hey, this is what we need, or use the council as a resource to implement properly. So it is a relationship that produces. whatever the need is in the community or within that population. So that's how I view myself and the council.

Thank you. And welcome. Thank you.

Council Member Walsh.

Yeah. What prompted the move from New York City to Federal Way Washington?

I got married. You got married. It's that simple.

All right. That's a great answer. That's a great answer. And what do you do professionally now?

So right now I'm still job searching. I was in, like I said, law enforcement for 10 years, and I'm also a professor. I lecture business management, but also criminal justice courses. What I'm doing right now is pouring into me to see what the next chapter looks like. And so kind of putting my feet here and there, I'll make that decision, but what I can say is I like fixing problems, so I will be somewhere fixing someone's problem.

All right. All right. Thank you, and welcome to Federal Way. Thank you. You moved to the best part of the Puget Sound area.

I agree. All right. Council Member Moore.

Thank you. Well, Michelle, congratulations. I assume you got married recently.

Two years ago.

Oh, okay. Well, congratulations. Thank you. And welcome to Federal Way. It's a great, great city. A huge change. from the East Coast, New York, and I appreciate you sharing. I don't really have a question yet, but I just want to say thank you for applying. Thank you for just wanting and desiring to be involved and engaged, and thank you for the work that you've done in government, especially when you've mentioned that you worked at What island?

Rikers Island, so New York City Department of Corrections.

Yes, I've heard a lot about that. Yes. And I know it's in the, yes, there's a lot there. But I appreciate your public service heart, and I just look forward to supporting this and seeing where you go with it. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

Thank you. Excuse me, I have a question. So what would you like... to see the senior commission do you may not know all that they do but coming in as a new person to the area from a different part of the country what would you like to see happen here

What I would generally like to say is I think across the board in some capacity there's always a need for the council to be present for seniors. You hear about programs, you kind of see it differently, but I think they should always be more robust. And I think what I would like to see is what have we done essentially in the last three years, what worked, what didn't work, how can we enhance it so that, one, the impact is felt with the seniors and that the community can see it and that it can continue to just catch on. And I think that that's just an area of improvement for most places because it's not an easy population to work with because of the privacy laws and also just because sometimes seniors just don't want to be bothered. So that's it.

All right. Go ahead.

I was just going to say, you know, I mean, we need to catch up. I have a cousin who is very familiar with the Rikers Island, spent some time there. So anyway.

Well, tell us more. Well, thank you very much. So we're going to talk among ourselves. And at the 6.30 regular council meeting, part of the agenda, one of the agenda items is to appoint people to this commission.

All right. Well, thank you for having me.

You're welcome to stay if you want. You don't have to, but we will get in touch with you after tonight.

Thank you. Have a great evening.

Thank you, and welcome to Federal Way. All righty. So we have...

four positions opened and uh two applicants discussion i mean if i may sure i mean i think this is pretty straightforward pretty simple i mean i think we need to reappoint amy um and i'd like to see um michelle uh be appointed to this committee obviously and uh commission um where they go i mean It all speaks for itself right there.

Would you like Amy as an alternate? I mean, excuse me, not Amy. Would you like Michelle as an alternate or as a voting member?

I appreciate that question as a voting member.

Okay.

Do we know is Ken Pratt and David Reynolds, are they not?

They did not reapply, which is very unfortunate because they both did a tremendous amount of work on the commission.

And they don't have plans at all of continuing then?

No, they chose not to.

Okay.

Council President, just to confirm, so David and Kenneth did not apply at all?

Correct. And Larry did apply, and he was not able to be here today. So he'll be here at our next meeting.

Oh, to be interviewed?

Yeah.

Okay. so so he when that time comes I mean probably but him in a voting position I would think so yes so he's doing a good job on the condition he's new to our community too I think he's been here about two or three years my suggestion Amy will stay on position nine

Okay. And then Larry can be position seven because they all end at the same time. Right. And then because he was an alternate, now he'll be a voting member. And Michelle would be position seven.

So we appointed Larry, it says 9-16-2026. Is that correct?

That hasn't that date is still in the future.

I believe that's a typo.

Oh, yeah 25 so, okay Dr. Brown have been doing a little time travel, but I Know we can't appoint him.

We can just hold that position for him. I guess seven.

Well, actually It's been less than a year. Yeah, and we typically We don't actually interview Council members, commissioners, if we have interviewed them within a year, if there's a desire to just appoint him as a voting member. Point of order.

Can we have the chair recognize speakers before they speak?

Go ahead, Lydia. Are we going to finish? I'm done, yeah. Okay. Council Member Moore.

Wait, were you waiting to speak? Yes. Okay. So, Council President, I think Council Member Hamilton was waiting to speak.

Oh, Council Member Hamilton.

Sorry. Thank you. No, it's okay. I just want to make sure we're following Robert's rules here. So I would... So are you saying that Larry would not be interviewing, or will he be interviewing at the next special meeting?

So we can do it either way. We made a... A few years ago the council decided that if someone had been interviewed for a commission and within a year of that interview they applied to be on the commission again if they had to or they were an alternate and a voting position came open that we didn't necessarily feel the need to interview them. then there was a council member who felt that that we should interview everyone so we went back to interviewing everyone no matter what so it's it's it's really up to us as to what we want to do i would like to be consistent with the interviewing you know process and i i would like being a new council member especially i would like to hear

from larry okay um i i imagine he will probably be reappointed and so if he's currently an alternate i would uh my prefer preference would be to move him into a voting position after he interviews and then to reappoint amy to her position and then

and then is that it for open positions then or we have we have any we have one more one alternate and three open positions okay and so then move michelle into the next position okay thank you councilmember martin yeah um i actually i was just going to say i i do think we ought to be consistent because i know that people watch us all the time and just want to be really even keel, even with everybody that applies with our commission processes. So I appreciate what you just stated, Council Member Hamilton. And I would also support that. I mean, just wait for us to interview Larry and then make that decision. But for now, I think we can move forward on two positions for two commissioners, voting spots.

Council Member Sessom?

Yeah, I thought both of the candidates were really strong, and I would support them being appointed to position, well, Amy, position nine, where she is, and the other candidate, Michelle Banks, position seven or eight, and then move Mr. Munoz down to a permanent position. And, yes, I would very much like to hear his testimony.

Yeah, I agree with the rest of you. With Larry Munoz, I think that the biggest thing there is not so much an interview to decide whether to appoint him or not, but an interview to see what his feedback is after nearly a year. And I think it would be very good to hear from him and make that point.

formal appointment afterwards I think we have a decision all right well thank you very much and with that oh I'd like to excuse councilmember coach more thank you that the meeting is adjourned