City Council - Special Meeting

federal way a more walkable pedestrian friendly city so I appreciate all of that but the same question to you how would you go about including residents in into the planning process who otherwise may not be familiar with the planning process or public hearings

Yeah, so the Planning Commission meets on Wednesdays at 5 o'clock, which is sometimes a tough time for folks to attend in person. Those meetings are also not recorded or streamed, I think, in an accessible way. So I think there could be one option, especially for some of these hearings where you're making decisions that are going to impact not just today but in the future. So I think one step would be... to stream those sessions. They happen in this room. That could be a way to make it more accessible for folks who can't attend otherwise. And then it's also hard to know sometimes what you can actually impact with the planning process. Sometimes it's something that's being done by the state. There's not much room for the city to have much of an impact. And so really educating people about what are the questions that are actually being asked in this space and at this time and where you can get opinions that are going to make the most impact. to address what can be changed and focusing that conversation, educating people about what that might be because most folks aren't planners. They don't know all the details and all the intricacies that go into that. So really making it approachable and clear about what this decision would do, where the input is most valuable, and making sure you make it as accessible for folks to give that input.

Thank you very much, Mike. We appreciate you being here. Now we have Kiko Raber.

Hello, my name is Keiko Raymer, and I've been living in the Federal Way for about five years. I came from Las Vegas and then I've been enjoying this wonderful weather here. It's been great. And then my background is finance and accounting and then also process improvement. And I'm interested in serving in the planning commission because I would like to involve with the community and I would like to contribute my skill and experience to help make their city the great place to live and work. so i've never done anything like this i was a little intimidated about this setting because i was told like only five minutes interview so i wasn't really planning and i know you guys did a wonderful job explaining but i just want to be my just the one residents and that would like to contribute to the city because it's been wonderful to live here i've got a wonderful neighbors and we've been having wonderful time My kids love being here, and then I know the city planning. I don't know anything about it. I don't have the right kind of background, but I just like to see what's going on and then just kind of contribute my idea.

Well, you're doing fine. Don't worry about it. You're doing great. Does anyone have any questions? Go ahead.

So welcome. Thank you very much for stepping up to the plate. So the same question to you. How would you go about including people who otherwise would not be involved in the planning or public hearing process?

Well, I think the social media is a good thing. That's how I get a lot of information. You know, I just go in there like a far away group, and then they actually provide a lot of information. That's actually a great thing. One thing I like about my neighborhood, and we have really good neighborhood supporting group, and then that's what a lot of older people get the information from the different stuff going on. So because a lot of older people don't go to social media because they don't really understand. Social media is great for a younger generation, but the thing is something more like a focus on some older generation. How do they like to get the information from? Something I don't know what it is, but still it's just like, Maybe just start interviewing some people. How do they like to receive information? Or what is the easiest way for them to get the information? So just to get the idea for the actual senior citizen, and then they can provide you the feedback. So that might be a good thing.

Akiko, can you attend evening meetings? Huh? Can you attend meetings in the evening? You didn't check off a box, yes or no? I did what? So we have two boxes. If you could attend daytime meetings or evening meetings.

Daytime, evening, right now. I'm kind of between job right now.

So yes, you could?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. All right, are there any other questions? All right, thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it. All righty, we have Vitaly. And Vitaly, can you pronounce your last name? Because I don't want to mess it up. See, I would have said it wrong. Thank you.

Hello, everyone. My name is Vitaly Pihutin. I am a resident of Federal Way over 25 years. I'm a husband and father of five kids, private business owner. I'm running a construction company, so I do have some experience in planning. And I do have an address here, just an example to represent myself. I don't want to read this address. I just want to share it as a story, which shows my character. WHEN I WAS TRYING TO PURCHASE ONE OF THE PROPERTIES IN FEDERAL WAY, WHEN I CAME TO THE FRONT DESK, AND ACTUALLY THE PLANNER WHO MET ME, SHE ASKED ME, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BUY THIS PROPERTY? I ASKED, WHY? BECAUSE THIS PROPERTY IS UNDEVELOPED FOR OVER 40 YEARS, AND MANY BUSINESS OWNERS AND BUILDERS USED TO OWN THIS PROPERTY, AND THEY COULDN'T DO ANYTHING. So I listened to her, and I said, yes, definitely, I want this property. And so I was working with the city of Federal Way for two and a half years, and at the end, I received a building permit, and I built a nice house. So I built quite a few houses here in Federal Way. So I really would like to be involved in the city planning commission and to work for... our future generation, on behalf of my kids, on behalf of our Slavic community, I represent them and to bring them, give them more opportunities to be involved in the city life. It's pretty new for me, but I'm a learner and I love to work in a team. And I really would like our city to flourish and to dedicate my time, my skills, my experience, because I'm from the family of the builder. My father, he used to own the company in Ukraine. He had 600 workers. I was helping him since my teenage time, and now for the last quarter of a century, I'm working and building here locally. So I really would like to dedicate my time and skills for my city. Thank you.

Do we have any questions? Go ahead.

Welcome. I just want to ask you, what are your ideas about including more people in the planning process and making sure that we know of them? And how would you go about doing that?

I would like to give applause for all speakers here. I would like to join this team. I think the social media is the best thing right now, and even elders, everyone right now is on social media, and they're following all the updates, and we have the local community groups, so I think it's the best thing. And for me personally, as a community organizer and local activist, I do work with different communities. Since I'm an immigrant, so I do love other communities, immigrants, and really open and respect them. So I'd like to bring more information to every group that consists of residents per city.

Cats that report your hi Vitaly so You said that it took you two and a half years to build the house on the difficult lot Yes, so I'm assuming a lot of the problems had to do with a lot Maybe that yes elevation or the whatever did you find it difficult to work within the city permitting process or the Planning

I think I had maybe some miscommunication, maybe language barrier, because I stepped into the shoes, like somebody mentioned, like boots on the ground. So I put my boots on the ground, and I had to learn how to be the planner. how to be an architect, how to read the language of engineer, geotech, biologist, and lots of planning commissions. So I went through lots of processes, but I learned a lot.

So do you have any suggestions on how we can improve the process? In the process that you were involved in, for example, would you have any suggestions? I mean, did you have any trouble with getting your questions answered in a manner that was acceptable? Did you?

I think it was an issue because some code's been changed. Like, every year we have some improvements. And zone and codes have changed. So that might be an issue in my case. But I love to work with the city and planners.

So we've been trying to reach out to different communities because we're very diverse. And how many people are here that are in the Slavic community? Can you take a guess?

I actually came one time to City Hall, and I asked the same question. I didn't receive an answer, so I'm sorry. I really would love to have this answer. I asked only one question. Do you guys know how many people moved here from Ukraine? So our city? No. We don't know.

I don't even know if they ask that in the census, to tell you the truth. Anyway, because, well, yeah, they sort of do, because we get Asian population and so on and so forth. But I don't know if they ask about a Slavic population. I think you'd probably be Caucasian. I don't know. They have these groupings. I don't know what they put everybody in. But that would be interesting. I certainly would like to know. We're getting a lot of different people from different countries. It would be interesting to see who we're dealing with because of language barriers and what their needs are. Thank you.

Thank you. Vitaly, have you served on a commission before?

No, never.

Okay, thank you. Great. Thank you very much for being here. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you.

It's okay. Vitaly, I've known you for a long time, and I appreciate your involvement in the community. I appreciate you showing up and playing a vital role in starting up our sister cities with revenue in Ukraine, and I appreciate your service on the South King Fire. as their chaplain. So I really appreciate your personality as well. And so I did find it a little bit interesting how you just said that the language might have been a barrier in working back and forth with the city. So I'm curious about that whole process and what that looked like, but I can ask you off. I'll ask that offline, but just obviously, you know, being a developer, you have that interest in being on this commission, and I appreciate you having been in this city for a long time, especially as an immigrant. I appreciate you stepping up and applying to serve our unofficial capacity. So thank you for telling me. Thank you. It will be an honor for me.

All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. Mr. Bassey? I don't know how to pronounce your first name, if you could do that for us. I don't want to mispronounce it.

That's OK. My first name's German Jeet.

OK, thank you.

Yeah. So my name is Gurmanjit. I'm a business management major from UW. I spent a few years in real estate and development. And the reason I actually applied to the planning council was just due to my experience with the permitting process and just the planning process. I've lived in Federal Way for most of my life in and out. I went to school in Federal Way, grew up in Soholly. That's where I went to middle school and then went for high school, moved out. But in general, I looked at the planning council and when I personally went through the permitting process for one of my dad's properties, I was guiding him almost through the permitting process and learning. along the way. One big thing that I noticed here, especially here, and I heard from everyone, was direct outreach, and a lot of people don't have very much knowledge about the planning process, especially your average resident of Federal Way. For example, my dad owns a property in Federal Way, and that's our home, and when learning about the permitting process, he is an immigrant, and I was born here, so the English language kind of helps me because I can read a lot of this heavy information-based sites and kind of learn, but for him, a lot of these are very overwhelming, and so one of the big things that I kind of, and even listening from everyone here and learning, what I noticed was I feel like a simplification of how to, which is a really broad term, but a way to outreach these communities in a simple way where they almost have a guide of steps that they can follow. What I found when I went personally through the permitting process was when you open the site and there's a whole bunch of information, I ended up choosing and scheduling the wrong meeting, but in the meeting they let me know where I needed to go and how I needed to how I need to go about that. That's one of the big reasons I saw. Another reason, I saw the link station being built right by my house and I saw the effect that that had around the community. And I noticed a lot of young people and older people utilizing link, whether it be to go to work or go to school or just transport themselves around the city. And I saw myself when I was going to high school or middle school, I was like this sort of transportation could have greatly benefited the community and I want to be a part of When new for example the next light rail station new developments like this happen in and around the city Thank you questions Go ahead Well, thank you very much for your application I appreciate

your sentiments about outreach. Do you have any other ideas on how you would include others who may not be familiar with the process?

Yeah, I feel like direct outreach is definitely the best way, me personally. My dad's Punjabi, I'm Sikh, I visit the temple every Sunday. I know that direct outreach in that way where we can't spread information to everyone But I think if we spread information to a couple people, I know the best way me and my dad learned was from other people. For example, you ask your friends or your family if they know any information about this. That would be one of the best ways. And a lot of that would be actually in person, maybe having a simplified scheduled Zoom meeting if I had any project. That was one of the ideas that I thought of. It would be nice to have, for example, instead of a pre-application meeting, just a meeting where someone could discuss a couple of the questions they had if they were in the process of wanting to build something on their property or start a project in any sort of capacity. And I know that's a really broad idea, but I feel like what helped me was definitely face-to-face contact and being able to speak to someone regarding any questions that I had. That definitely simplified everything down for me and gave me a clear sense of direction.

Any other questions? No? Thank you so much. Vicky. Vicky Chenoweth. And she's currently on the commission and applied for reappointment.

Good afternoon. I do apologize. So there was some confusion in the time. I was originally scheduled at 5, and then she changed it to 5.30, and I could not change my schedule around.

No problem. Here I am. So go ahead. We have five minutes or so for each interview, and so you can talk about whatever you'd like to talk about, what you want to be on the commission, what you want to see the commission do, and then we'll ask you questions if we have any.

Okay, well, originally when I first came to be on the commission, I just wanted to see... I had the vision of so many people of what they see for this community. You know, it's not just Highway 99. It was everybody wants a walkable community. They want the parks, which we have a lot of beautiful parks. They wanted it to be family. They wanted... Shopping places to go to you know, and then all everybody a lot of People were looking at the light rail to be like this thing that was going to change the city and everything about the city But the light rail is just like one little piece of the city there is so much more to the city than just the downtown what they call the downtown core area of the light rail system and And if that was so important, the city should have started building around that core area at least a decade before the light rail system ever got there. Because other cities, other communities, if you look at other communities, Northgate, all these other shoreline, Linwood, they started building around their hub. light rail a decade before the light rail got there just so they could have something there one that light rail got there so yes on the Planning Commission we do need to look at what is coming down but right now a lot of things that are coming down is what the state wants the city of Federal Way to do what the state wants the city of Federal Way where they want to place the housing what they where they want to do these things so a lot of things that the Planning Commission are are brought to us from the state level and what they want to see for our city and not what the people wants to see for our city so what I would really like to do is help educate people so they're not blaming city staff City Council A lot of people are upset about certain things that happen when there's really nothing that you folks or the planning commission, it has nothing to do with any of those. So yes, educating our community is a big part of it. Getting people to participate. Sometimes you look at the city council meeting, there's 23 people watching. I mean, out of 100,000 people, there's 23 people watching the city council meetings. So, yes, we do need to inform our community. When the transit center was going to put in their maintenance facility, there was 18 people at the meeting to say whether they agreed or disagreed of the public. So, yeah, there is a problem getting public to come to meetings. On the planning commission meeting, we will be sitting in a room here, and the only people that will show up are staff. for the planning commission not not staff of the city not residents of the city but hardly ever does anyone come to the meetings and it's open door and i do believe they are recorded thank you questions i have counseled evermore yeah uh more of a comment vicky um

I see you everywhere, Vicky. Everywhere. And that's a good thing, and I appreciate that. I also appreciate how you approach everything. My impression is that you come across as fair, pragmatic, and I just appreciate that as well. I think what you and other candidates are saying about Communicating with the public I think is duly duly noted and I think it's Extremely valid night. I couldn't agree more the fact that Even when we do budget times only, you know, very few people come During the most pivotal months before we get to voting day And so I can't certainly understand that but I appreciate you applying and Look forward to hearing more of your answers to the questions. Thank you. I

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Vicki, for being here, and thank you for your outspokenness. I think that it's very valuable when people share what they want to share. And thank you also for... highlighting the local control issue that's very important and I agree with you that's very important that our constituents and our residents understand because a lot of what the Planning Commission does is they they work to implement what's been handed down from the states you're absolutely correct so my question for you is how would you work to educate the public even on just showing up to meetings when there's issues being discussed or or other types of education for the public

Well, I know that when the planning commission was working on the comprehensive plan, they had booths out. When we have a lot of people at the Red, White, and Blues Festival, the tree lighting, there's a lot of people there. I just think having them out in public at certain times when there's festivals or some community event where you know that there's going to be a lot of different nationalities or a lot of different people coming out. And the Red, White, and Blues Festival is one of our biggest festivals in the city of Federal Way, and I don't know how many thousands of people come to that. thank you and and you're correct language access is a big deal in our communities specifically because we are the fifth most diverse city in the nation yeah so I agree with you language access is huge yeah it is huge and so a lot of you know you can talk about social media or a signage but a lot of people are English is their second language so they're not necessarily going to be on Facebook they're not going to come to the city web page and look look for something and the signage that you have on you know the street signage or on different billboards or stuff a lot of people can't read them so it's it's just about getting more people aware of the different community events that the city has and outreaching that way thank you very much Vicki that's my report sure

Well, I think you're right about how do you get people to watch the meetings. And you know what? You're right. We used to have the Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts. We used to have school groups coming in. That's how you get people to get involved, and you get kids involved. And they come in, and they sing, or they do the flag salute. Maybe we need to talk about that again. But you've been in real estate for a long time, and I know you've been involved with planning of the arts. What do you think it is that brings people to Federal Way that want to come from other areas to live in Federal Way?

Currently, it's the price. It's what? It's the price. The price of the cost of living here is because if they're further north, they're outpriced on housing. And so that's why they come to Federal Way. It's convenient. It's convenient to Seattle. It's convenient to Tacoma. And that's why they come here.

Do they come for the bigger house on the bigger lot, or are they more concerned about smaller house that they can afford? I mean, that helps us with our planning idea.

Well, it's just affordability. And so with your planning for how big the houses are going to be, you're going to have to talk to the state about that, on how many houses they're going to let you have on a lot. Yeah, well, they already told us that. Right. like so many so the days of the houses on you know i mean you can get a million dollar home yes on a you know ten thousand eight or ten thousand square foot lot or something but you know for for the average person the average family you know they come to federal way and they're gonna pay six hundred and fifty thousand dollars average yeah so do we get a lot of people looking for generational living Oh, absolutely. Multi-generational families is one of the bigger selling points. I sold like three homes just last year with multi-generational. They were specifically looking for multi-generational because the parents will sell their home for them and the children to move into another home.

Really?

Because they have more equity in their home.

So then who's the real owner of the house? Are they joint owners?

It could be either or. It just depends on how they set up their plan and it also depends on people's credit so and what type of loan they're getting so that means usually so if it's a VA loan you can't have several family members it's just either the either the spouse or the VA or the spouse and the spouse that's it you can't have all the family members on it so the VA member and the spouse of the VA that's it wow so it depends on the loan type

That's interesting so so if we have smaller houses Do you think that will attract more people I I can imagine people are going to be very upset about parking having being a problem Well parking is is always going to be a problem. I believe but do you think townhomes are going to be the wave of the future or detached ad user

Well, if you go to Seattle, townhomes are the way of the future, and everybody parks on the street. I just showed townhomes yesterday in Seattle, and for $700,000, you get a 1,200-square-foot, three-story townhome, and you get a garage that you can't even park a full-size car in. And so your car has to be in the garage because you have four units, and all of them back, the garages back up to each other. So you cannot park. there you can only park in the garage and not if you have a full-size vehicle only if you have like a Mini Cooper or something and then the rest of the family members will park on the street thank you that's very interesting thank you all right thank you Vicki all right thank you so Heather did did all of council get this okay so are you in agreement that we'll interview our last okay so Joseph is it

Joseph Santana? Hi. Thank you for being here. Does anybody need an extra minute to read the application? You're okay? All right, so you're okay? One minute? Okay, we're going to wait just a minute or two.

Okay.

So we are, for those in the audience, we had a miscommunication and we just got Joseph's application a couple of minutes ago. So we're taking time to read it. Are we ready? We're all ready? Okay. So I'll let you go ahead and start, and you can tell us a little bit about yourself, and we will ask you some questions.

Sure. Sounds good. Great to meet you all. My name is Joseph Santana, and I grew up here in Federal Way. It's really been wonderful being a part of this community for the past two decades and seeing how it's grown, how it's changed, how it's built for the future, and how we've invited so many new people. I'm excited about this position because of how important I think planning is for the future of Federal Way and I want to continue growing and building a better community here. So my background is more so on the public health side. I studied biochemistry in undergrad and then did a master's in public health. And one of the biggest things I learned is how there's this kind of social ecology of things and how we run our society really is very much impacted by permitting, zoning, and these things that impact our communities for decades at a time. And so that's kind of where my interest began. My skills mostly lie in facilitation, public health and teaching. I have done some teaching in the past. But I think my big goals are really threefold. And I think they're encapsulated by first working with the council's goals, council members' goals, but also with the public's goals and what the public is asking. And you all, as being representatives of the public, I think know as well what people are wanting. hope to achieve these three goals through those levers with you all together. The first goal, I think, is really giving this long-term approach to the Planning Commission. I think we've said it before, I think walkable and communities and a thriving economy is really important to us. But it's difficult when it's WHEN WE HAVE PERMITTING DIFFICULTIES THAT ARE UNFORTUNATELY BASED ON TECHNICAL LANGUAGE THAT ARE MADE FOR LAWYERS AND BY LAWYERS WITH GOOD REASON. BUT ALSO I THINK THE PLANNING COMMISSION HAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD THAT COMMUNICATION ASPECT TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR EVERYONE TO UNDERSTAND WHETHER IT'S SOMEONE WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH THAT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES OF A PERMIT AND JUST WANTS TO DEVELOP OUR ECONOMY AND IMPROVE IT. Or someone that's just new to the language, as people have mentioned, and new to like business and improving Federal Way. So I bring this up because even right now currently I work on asthma program and a clean air program in the South Seattle area. And one of our strategies is improving outdoor infrastructure to improve air quality. And it's so interesting how we work with a green infrastructure developer and it just becomes very difficult because of all the permitting nuances for them to just build something as simple as a green wall or plant a tree sometimes. And on top of how difficult it is to understand some of these permitting technicalities. AND SO I THINK THAT'S KIND OF ONE, THIS INITIAL KIND OF GOAL, LOOKING ABOUT AND TRYING TO MAKE A MORE COMMUNITY-FRIENDLY PROCESS FOR THIS PLANNING COMMISSION. THE SECOND PART THAT I HOPE TO ACHIEVE IS DOING MY HOMEWORK. I REALIZE, AGAIN, THIS IS VERY SPECIFIC TECHNICALITIES IN ZONING. and master plans. And I think it's my duty to be able to do my homework and very closely analyze some of the texts and be able to disseminate them carefully and appropriately to people that need to understand them. Whether it's anyone from someone in the community that's trying to start a business to someone else that's looking about zoning in their area might be afraid of lack of parking, as has been mentioned before. And then the third part is community engagement. I think I've been a teacher and currently I've actually led over I don't know, over like 30 meetings, public meetings with community members from youth to people over like 60 years old, usually in groups of 10, about things from like clean air to city planning, specifically with Seattle's Comprehensive Plan Now based in the South Park. And I'd really like to bring something like that very, like here, it's a federal way as well, with this role as a commissioner. I've facilitated workshops. And also one of the most rewarding and I think most imprinted memories that I have is literally just going to a block party on my street and meeting all neighbors nearby me and talking about things that are impacting us. So I hope to bring that to the council, to the community commission too.

Thank you. Questions? So I have a question for you. You said you were on the Walla Walla Community Truancy Board.

Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.

So I was back in the early 2000s on the Federal Way Community Truancy Board.

Oh no way, okay.

And the school district eventually did away with it.

Yeah, yeah.

But it was a fascinating board to serve on. We had a year's worth of training.

Okay.

And it was very, very interesting. So, I've never met anyone else who has .

Yeah, I mean it was interesting. Yeah, I was just starting. I'm not sure, I think I attended maybe a total of seven meetings because I ended up graduating. But yeah, yeah, that's neat that you were a part of that too.

Our goal was to get kids to stay in school and graduate.

Exactly, yeah. Exactly, yeah.

That was our goal. All right.

Councilmember Safford-Dawson. Actually, I don't have a question, but I was on the Highline Transition Board. Wasn't it interesting? When I worked at CTAC. But you went to Columbia, and did you go to Federal Way High by any chance?

I went to Todd Beamer High School.

No! That's okay.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Federal Way High, yeah, it's really nice now. Like, everybody, anyways.

Councilmember Sessoms. Well, welcome. Reading your application, I can tell that you have vast experience working with the communities, not just locally, but all over the world. How would you go about working with the community, bringing them in, maybe for people who may not have participated in the process previously?

Yeah. And I think that's, again, a great question. And I think I could talk about that for a long time. Again, I think it's summed up in doing my own homework. What is technically some of the things that are very important for community members to know? How do I distill that into very appropriate communication? And I'm thankful for, again, some of my facilitation teaching skills to be able to do that. And then, yeah, how do you gather groups? How do you communicate that, whether it's through social media, whether it's through these hyper-local meetings, block by block, or at least not necessarily block by block, because Better Way has a lot of blocks. But I think... Yeah, literally doing my homework and appropriately distilling that information. So we've done that with some of Seattle's comprehensive plan right now in South Seattle. A lot of technicalities on, like, LR1, LR2, LR3. What is NR? What are all these specific things that nobody knows about, but then they, like, impact us for decades? And, like you mentioned, like, the parking situation. It's like, that's a big decision. People don't know about that. And so if you can somehow, like... just distill this somewhat complex information, again, made by lawyers for lawyers, to someone that doesn't have that expertise. That is possible. That's what I've done, I think, for the past year or two, really. And I think that's what needs to be done first as an initial step. But then, of course, when are these pivotal meetings that are happening for the Planning Commission, for any others? Identifying those and making sure people are aware of those through nonprofits, through food banks, through schools, Through churches, but also, yeah, just having also a very local base of who is interested in planning, who isn't. And who is can provide more support to those who are maybe more lay participants in our planning process. But again, it starts with just appropriate communication, dissemination of what we need to know. And then developing more like... Yeah, dissemination events. I know people have mentioned social media, which is great. But also, again, people have mentioned people don't go on social media. That's very true. My grandma doesn't go on social media or isn't plugged into the same algorithms that we're seeing here that impact our local government. But my grandma does go to the community center's events once in a while. She goes to other events that are hosted for senior citizens. And yeah, so I think a great idea that I've developed recently is kind of these hyper-local kind of like meetings in neighborhoods or in schools where it's like, let's have some food and talk about what's happening planning-wise. So that's just one brief idea.

Thank you very much. We appreciate your thoughts. All right. So what we're going to do now is have a discussion. And then we'll have a discussion at the 6.30 general council meeting is when we actually make the appointments. So you can go ahead and sit down if you want. And thank you so much for being here. I'm glad you're here. So let's start with the senior commission. I would highly suggest a party both Ian and Larry to the voting positions We just have to decide who wants what so I Would suggest Larry position five and in position seven that works it is

Any issues?

You guys all good with that? So these are just suggestions because we are not voting right now. We're just making suggestions.

So do they start in September, next month?

So position five would be upon appointment. But we actually don't have another meeting until September. We just had our August meeting last week. Yeah, last week.

Yeah, I think that's fine. Do we need a third position, position seven?

No, so the alternate position is still open. Is that what you're asking?

Well, oh, I see. Did you say, I'm sorry, did Lydia say in for seven? Correct, yeah. Okay, so then the alternate is then open.

Great. All right. And moving on to the Logitech's advisory committee.

Go ahead. Harrington Griffin for position five.

Does that give you a balanced committee?

Yes, that's what we were missing. So, yeah, that gives us the balance that we need.

Any concerns? Okay. So to the planning commission, Council Member Coachmarcy, you're light on it. Do you want to make a nomination?

I certainly would like to see Anna and Vicki. We didn't hear from Tom Meadors, but I'm assuming Tom is reapplying. Is that correct?

He reapplied. However, he's out of the country. And due to budget, there will be presentations throughout the month of September. I'm not sure where you'd like to fit him in if you'd like to interview him.

Well, we've heard him many times over the years. I'm not sure what everyone else thinks. We certainly can reappoint Ann and Vicki if we're all agreed to that one. And Tom, I think I've heard from him so many times, but I'd like to hear from somebody else.

I'll go down the line, so go ahead, Jack.

Yeah, I'd say that normally, I mean, I like people being here for the interviews. However, Tom has served so faithfully on the Planning Commission for many, many, many years, and I think he's a critical part of it. So I'd be willing to make an exception this time and go ahead and reappoint him without an interview.

council member Hamilton thank you madam chair I normally like to hear from applicants as well I think being out of the country is sort of a special circumstance so I would nominate Tom Anna and Vicki to be put back on the Commission since they're currently serving and then are we moving on to also to our nominations for the oh yes do you mind if he goes sure go ahead actually yes never mind I I misread something so yes okay are we moving on to alternate positions all right okay so I first of all I thank you to everyone who came it's always a tough decision when we have more applicants than open positions and every single person brought something to the table that i thought was valuable um and so no matter what happens tonight i would say stay engaged and stay involved my nomination would be to put um vitali picotin and uh garmanjeet basi

All right. Um, thank you.

Thank you. Council president. Um, yeah, this is, um, these decisions are hard and it's difficult because everybody did bring, um, something to the table. Um, and there's a lot of thoughts are going through my head. Um, and right now, um, for me, um, Well, first let me ask this question to the council president and or staff. What's our rule of thumb policy, I don't know what to call it, of whether or not people are here or not to be accepted to a position?

It is up to the council as to how they want to proceed.

So that's how it's written in our council rules and everything?

I don't believe. We'll ask our legal opinion.

There's nothing on this in the rules.

So it's up to you. Okay. I just want to make sure.

In the past, we had a couple council members that had a strong opinion about not appointing people. And so I think council was deferring to that person's opinion.

preference but he's not here now so do whatever you want yeah i mean the reason why i asked that as some of you some of you guys know is i just want to be consistent and fair all across the board um and so if that person's not here then i want to be consistent um i i will note that that um well i know tom at hearst i know counselor assessment doesn't know tom at hearst um and so uh and tom has served with um he brings a wealth of experience so i i i um you know i think for me what i'm where i'm having a hard time with it is that um having experience in the commission is really important having that historical aspect is really important but i i think it's it's okay to go with new people New perspectives. Federal way is changing constantly. Diversity is changing constantly. And it's okay to bring those voices into the commission versus the alternate position. And it's a very difficult position to be in because I know Tom, Anna, and Vicki have served. And I would like to see... mike uh be added as a commissioner uh i'd like to see could you put the positions well i'm just kind of i'm talking out loud really right now and i do appreciate that question request um i i like what michelle has to offer as well because she obviously brings a lot of experience and i really like john no joseph boy talking about public health and development i think it's something we don't often hear enough of and i would i don't recall having public health people on the commission at all ever um and um and uh and i was impressed with bossy uh with his these are all new voices and it's okay for them to be on the commission of course i see vitalia as well um so this is a difficult one um i can assume that the council uh i can i can make an assumption of where i think the council will go but i think uh where i would like to see is uh for number two i'd like to see mike to write that down because this is going to get very confusing in a few minutes uh for position six um i would like to see uh what six uh for position six uh i'd like to see um joseph uh and for position number seven um i would like to see Tom to it yes and council president for alternates I'd like to see bossing and I would like to see Michelle that would be my recommendation thank you councilmember Saffi Dawson Europe so for me I would like to

I do agree with a lot of things you said. And I believe Tom has been on the commission for the longest. But that said, yeah, what I would like to see happen is Mike alternate three and Joseph alternate two and leave the rest as is.

All right. Council Member Sessoms, you're up.

Yeah. Okay. Everyone interviewed extremely, extremely well. And I concur, I agree with Council Member Moore. I would appreciate it, or appreciate nominating Mike Bollick, Ziegler, for alternate number two, position two. Dr. Michelle Banks, position number seven. Ms. Vicki Chenoweth, position number six. And Anna Patrick, position number two.

So can you go through that again for me? So who for alternate number two?

Number two, mine.

Okay. And three, alternate? Alternate.

uh was that michelle yeah thanks no um dr bates went into uh position number seven okay i believe that uh mr manhurst as much as you guys have referred to him as a great leader and i respect that and i wish he could have been here the others uh who applied that were here they they uh very strong statements.

So who did you have for alternate number three?

You know, I really like Mr. Santana's application and his response to outreach. So I'm going to nominate him as the alternate.

Position number two, you had who?

uh position number six you had who uh okay so you had

alternate okay so i see that we have some work to do here so can i ask point of information uh thank you council president um could we so i know here it says there's seven voting members and three alternates can i ask legal if we can add an alternate position you can ask legal anything you want okay what's your favorite flavor of ice cream You said anything?

Go ahead.

Thank you. Actually, I assume we can add an alternate position. Okay, thank you.

Can we add regular?

I don't think so. We cannot? It's a state statute. It's part of the reason why.

This is the one commission we're required by the state to have. Keith, do you have any? so the voting positions are in code are the alternate positions in code okay up to three so we have well we already have one alternate already so up to i'm sorry ryan can you say that again and we already have one

well this certainly is getting a little confusing I'm trying to track what everybody is saying so here's my thought what we let me let's talk about the Tom Medhurst position what we have said in the past is if that somebody was unable to attend we would keep that position until that person was able to attend to apply it there was no reason that it needed to be filled immediately that was just in the last couple years that we did say that yes right and so if they're making an issue about the fact that they don't know who Tom Meadors is they haven't met him or whatever don't know anything about him I think would be fair to him for all of his years of service to have the ability to interview him unless there was a rush to fill that particular position And I think Tom's position is... Is position number seven. Correct. And so what I've heard one member say is that he wanted to have a total change for the whole planning commission. And, you know, we've had this before, this discussion before. You need to give me a reason why you want to change. So if you want a full-swell change to an entire commission, like planning, which is not easy in any way, shape, or form, a lot of different issues involved with that, it's one of our most difficult positions to be on and one of the most boring positions to be on. And, you know, usually we only fill one or two positions so that the majority of the council or the commission remains, you know, pretty stable. And then we add new ideas. And so I'm perfectly open to new ideas. But the whole, not in my estimation, I think that would be nuts. But that's my opinion. Everybody else has their own. It's fine. I just get to express my own. So what I'm going to tell you, because I don't want to take your time, I think we should hold off on position seven so that Tom has a chance to reapply. I would like to see Anna for position two for the 2030 position, Vicki for position six for the 2030 position, batali for the 2028 position and i'm open on alternate for number two for the 2030 position i'm open on that one so i'd like to hear some arguments for that one uh councilmember hattleton thank you um

I'm not sure if I actually said which positions and so I want to make that clear I'm nominating Tom for position seven Vicki for position six Anna for position two Vitaly Pikotin for alternate number three and Mr. Basi for alternate number two And like I mentioned before, I feel like every single person brought something valuable to the commission. And it makes me sad that we can't appoint them all. But sometimes we have to make hard choices. And so this is one of those decisions. And that's my nomination. Go ahead, Council Member.

Council Member Kosmar, I think you're talking about my comment and I did not say.

No, I'm not talking about anybody. I'm just making a statement.

It just seems like you're commenting towards me, which is.

Why don't you go ahead and say what you'd like to say.

Thank you, Council President. I do believe a change, but I also added Tom in there. And I think the rest of the commissioners that are currently serving, like tim o'neill and others have a lot of institutional knowledge as well that's on the commission and i think getting new perspectives is not a bad thing that's my why i mean joseph brings public health mike brings community parents a perspective that's in on the ground doing the work already And I think all that is really vital. And change is okay. Change is okay. But I am in agreement, let's see, I would be supportive of uh council president alternate number two uh for vitality alternate number three for mike uh to be on there and um i am fine with with um anna and vicky being on there although Wouldn't be telling you truth if I didn't tell you this that's I feel like we ought to have a change in there new Commissioners, but I respect the folks that have taken the time to reapply I'm fine on holding off on number seven only because I do want our newest counter to hear from from Tom, maybe we can consider the other applicants at that moment as well

but I really do like Joseph I can't so are you saying that Vitaly for alternate two Mike for alternate three Anna and Vicki for their current positions in holding off on position seven is that what you said I'm so sorry council president I'm just really processing this

You know what, if I may, I'm going to change. For number three, no, for number three, it would be Mike. Number two, I'm going to put Joseph in there.

Okay, so the alternate positions?

Yeah, so number two would be Joseph. Number three, it would be Mike. And then two and six would be Anna and Vicky.

All right, so we don't actually vote. Go ahead. I'm sorry, I didn't see your light. Has it been on for a while?

It's been on for a while. I am so sorry. It's been on for a while.

You should have just done something. Okay, I'm sorry.

Go ahead. You know, with the reappointments, position number two, Anna, position number six, Vicki, position number seven, Tom, I'm fine either appointing him now or waiting until he returns and interviewing him later. I'm fine either way with that. But I think that he's a vital person there. So it really comes down to the alternates. You know, I'd like to see Itali as an alternate, whether it's alternate number two or alternate number three. Either one is fine with me. And then with the others, Ghermanji, did I say that right? Close to right? Anyway. And Mr. Bassey. also mr. Santana I I would be fine with either one of those and with with with that and so I think they I was impressed with both of them and so so I'd go with with either either one of them fine so chair it sounds like if I may summarize it sounds like we're all pretty much agreeing on Vicki and Anna

okay and it sounds like the only thing that well we're going to talk a little bit more about matters but the only two we're talking about is the two alternates if i'm hearing that right and then um as i said i'm open on one uh one of the alternates and the other one i think if i'm sounding that maybe there sounds like their agreement on vertali But so maybe, I don't know if we need to go over those two positions.

Let me ask legal, because we have to get into executive session. So if we, since we mostly have an agreement on position number two and position number six, position number seven, do we want to interview Mr. Medhurst? Yes. Okay, so we'll hold off on that on position seven. So the alternates, should we leave them empty and have a discussion at the council meeting so we can get into executive session?

So generally, in the past, you've reached consensus in this meeting by talking about it. If you can't reach consensus, which doesn't sound like you're going to, you need to just vote on it.

Okay.

So that would be my recommendation, just to have your debate at the regular meeting and vote your conscience.

All right. Is that all? Yeah. Okay, because we do need to get into executive session. Yeah.

All right. Can I make a comment? Yes. I don't know if it matters whether it's position one or two, so can we see who the top two are first, at least, based on what you got?

So I have Vitaly, and I have Mr. Bossy from my notes. From my notes.

Okay.

But we do need to get into executive session. So we can have the, because it's going to be a longer discussion. All right, thank you for attending. I appreciate it. And we are now going to move into executive session to discuss. Property acquisition pursuant to RCW 42.30.110-1-B. And we will resume the regular council meeting at 6.30.

And, Chairman, I just say that, you know, we will interview, it sounds, Medhurst. But that position, you know, that's still a possibility to be open. Also, all of you who have applied... don't go away because you can apply for other positions, you can apply again. You are all wonderful. So thank you all for being here.

Thank you. So we are adjourning to executive session. Thanks for being here.