City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Federal Way City Council meeting for Tuesday, September 1st. Would you all please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. 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, welcome everybody. Let's see here. Now, we've got item three, proclamations and presentations. Item A, community volunteerism proclamation. Council Member Walsh.

All right, thank you, Mayor. And tonight, we're proud to recognize the incredible impact of civic engagement by proclaiming September 11, 2026 as Community Volunteerism Awareness Day in the City of Federal Way. And true strength comes from neighbors helping neighbors. And before I read the official text, I would like to take a moment to recognize the hands-on service in this room right here tonight. First off, our city commissions are made up of dedicated volunteers who spend countless hours helping Federal Way be a great place to live, to work, to play. And if you are currently serving on a commission or have ever served on a city commission, please stand up.

Council members can stand up too.

Yeah, council members too. All right. And remain standing. Okay. Remain standing. Remain standing.

Hold on. Okay.

All right. Next, the volunteer work of our civic organizations, such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Alliance, or Optimist, and a multitude of others, provide critical support across our city. If you're involved with any of our local civic or service clubs, please stand up and stay standing. All right. Thank you. Finally, we have so many other groups supporting our youth, families, and vulnerable neighbors, including organizations like We Love Our City, the Moldy Service Center, local food banks, faith-based organizations, school volunteers, neighborhood groups. If you volunteer with any of these organizations or serve the community in any other capacity as a volunteer, please stand up. Look around the room right now. This is a visual that shows exactly why Federal Way is such a great place to live and to be. It's the community involvement and the spirit of volunteerism in our cities. And I would like you to give a big hand to yourselves and all of the other volunteers who could not be here tonight. You can go ahead and be seated. to help make volunteering as accessible as possible for everyone in Federal and our city. Federal Way is excited to highlight a great platform, JustServe.org, as a way to connect our residents with local volunteer opportunities. JustServe brings nonprofits, civic groups, churches, and others who have the volunteer opportunities together with volunteers with willing hands into one easy-to-use place. And we're honored to have representatives from JustServe. JustServe is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. but it's open to all organizations, volunteer organizations, as a platform to provide volunteer opportunities and then where people can go and find where those opportunities are. And so I'd like to invite Colleen Elkington, who is the just-served specialist, and Christoph Reiner, president of the Federal Way Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to come over here to the podium, and I will go ahead and read the proclamation. Whereas the strength, the resilience, and vitality of the city of Federal Way relies heavily upon our residents' willingness to selflessly share their time, talents, and resources. And whereas dynamics of engagement and community volunteer service enrich our local neighborhoods, bridge social divides, and address critical community needs across our diverse population, and Whereas Federal Way is incredibly fortunate to have a strong foundation of service championed by dedicated community organizations which consistently uplift our community. And whereas we nurture a culture of giving within our city, emphasizing that volunteerism is a profound source of personal fulfillment, where working side by side increases mutual understanding, corrects misconceptions, and builds lasting friendships. And whereas we urge all citizens, regardless of background or belief, to care for one another and engage in acts of service and kindness that contribute to our city's betterment. And whereas fostering deliberate cooperation between municipal government, nonprofit, faith-based and civic organizations, businesses, and individuals builds a lasting culture of kindness, unity, and mutual support throughout our city. Now, therefore, we, the undersigned mayor and city council members of the City of Federal Way, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2026, as Community Volunteerism Awareness Day and encourage all residents, community organizations, and local businesses to recognize the immense power of community service, explore local needs, and participate in projects that uplift and strengthen the City of Federal Way. Signed this first day of September, 2026. And I will be presenting this to the JustServe representatives. However, it can just as well be presented to all of you who were standing a few moments ago. And if you'd like to make a quick comment, please do so. Or if you want to...

Thank you. Mayor Farrell, members of the city council, and friends of our community, thank you for this proclamation and for recognizing the important role that volunteerism plays in strengthening Federal Way. On behalf of the Federal Way stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, We're grateful to be part of a community where so many people and organizations are committed to serving and caring for one another. For us, service is an important expression of our faith, but it is also something that brings people together across faiths, cultures, and backgrounds. Some of the best relationships in our community are formed when we simply roll up our sleeves and work side by side to meet a need. Through JustServe and our many partnerships with local organizations, we are committed to continuing to look for meaningful ways to contribute. Not for recognition, but because we believe strong communities are built when neighbors care for neighbors. We're grateful to the city for encouraging that spirit of volunteerism, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside those who are helping to make Federal Way a stronger, a kinder, and a more connected community. Thank you very much.

thank you council members thank you mr mayor just serve connects people and organizations an organization can post volunteer opportunities on justserve.org or the just serve app and then any resident of federal way can go on those those platforms and find meaningful ways to serve our city. I'm excited that Federal Way has become a just serve city. In fact, there are already opportunities on the app right now that anyone can go on. Local opportunities right here in our city that anyone can sign up for at any time. Any opportunity that meets your gifts, your talents, your level of time commitment that you have available or your interest level. I would love for all of us to discover together how much good that we can do here in Federal Way together, one act of service at a time. Thank you very much.

Well, thank you very much, and thank you very much for the work you do. All right, now we're on item B, the Arts Commission Mid-Year Update. Arts Commission Chair Tom Bristol. share a few comments. Tom?

Thank you, Mayor, City Council. We put together a little presentation for tonight and see if this can hold up. All right. Yeah. Okay. And with me is Cindy Dusich, my co-chair. I think a few of you know her. So I'm always very happy to have her help and support. And then let's see. I think I can advance the slide here. yeah okay so this year we had a pretty extensive list somehow got shrunk but it's a pretty extensive list of activities that we've participated through the year and I just wanted to kind of hit some highlights and do an update for you as on where we're at next slide please oh it's right in front of me there we go Okay, here we go. Okay, so we did some tabling of public events this spring. We hit the State of the City in February. On March, we did the STEAM Night at Federal Way High School. And in May, we were at the Senior Resource Fair. All of those events just turned a really great connection with the community in ways that were unexpected. So we intend to continue to kind of keep that up in the new year. Arts Explosion this year was a huge effort on all fronts, and it was a great success. We rebranded the event, we did an earlier call for artists, we updated the categories, we did some new advertising and marketing, and coordinated with the PAC for onsite point of sale of art. And because of that, for those of you that attended, we had over 300 original works of art, which really went well in this space. The students that were participating in kicking it did these flags that were hung on the ceiling and really filled the Performing Arts Center again in an awesome way. we had double attendance from 2025 um i think in big part to the effort we did and our marketing rebranding but also you know the decision to move the um farmers market into that area that weekend just brought a whole lot of additional foot traffic so big shout out to the parks team for all the work that they did and the mayor um to get that up and running in tandem And then we increased artwork sales by four times, over $12,000 to community artists. And all the artists in this show are from the region, so we didn't do any out of state or out of area. It was all local art that we get to put money back in their pockets for future shows. So that was a really great part of it. After Arts Explosion, we did the Student Art Contest, and a big thank you to Judge Havens for the Municipal Court Tour. It was my first tour of the Municipal Court, and I really enjoyed it myself. So if you haven't been, for good reasons, it's a lot of fun. And then thanks to City Council for recognizing the student artists. We did three new city murals, which is part of Civic Plaza for kicking it. And it was, again, it was a really great experience to commission artists locally to come and do this art on a piece of these containers that we used to store and had summer events. We also did a traffic graphic at 288th and Military Road with art by Sade Brown, who's a local artist in the region, and just sort of incredible piece of work that we all voted on and chose for that location, so it's worth checking it out by Safeway there. And then we went to the Red Whites and Blues Fest, which we saw all of you at, many of you, and assisted with the Parks Department staff at the craft table. And so that was also a really excellent way to kind of connect and engage with the community. Big shout out to all the commissioners that showed up for that event. Huge success, I feel, all in all. um one of the events that for me this year really stood out was the summer concert series at steel lake park it's wednesday nights in july we've had it for a couple years and this year each each wednesday night there's a different theme so we had like a beatles night we had like an 80s hairband night an rv night and i got to tell you the crowds for each of those nights were significant and a very different group of people at each one All ages, anyway, I just feel like this is the other event we'd really love to prop up in future years, because the attendance was awesome, and I saw some council members there, and yeah, really great time. And also we attended some neighboring city events So we went up to the Seattle Art Fair is one that really continued to watch at and see the art that's coming through it and The Dune Peninsula concerts in Tacoma were a really great experience to kind of compare outdoor concerts with Coming up for the remainder of the year, we're in process with our grants program where we do giving to art orgs in the community. We'll be running our gallery program, Arts Alive, this fall. In November, we're going to have our commission retreat at Dumas Bay, and then we'll be doing the holiday tree lighting with a lot of others of you in December. So it's been a pretty packed year, but the commission's been really active, and we're happy to answer any questions or just appreciate your support in general.

Well, thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you for the work you do every day. Let's give him a big round of applause. Thank you. All right, and now we've got the Health Through Housing update, and we've got the King County Health Through Housing section manager, Shana Clinton, will present this item. Shana?

Good evening, Mayor Farrell and Council. I'm Shana Clinton. I use she, her pronouns. I'm the acting manager of the Health Through Housing initiative at King County, and I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update tonight on the Booker House, which is now fully implemented. and delivering permanent supported housing in federal way for adults exiting homelessness who have extremely low incomes and disabling conditions. The Urban League, who you'll hear from in a moment, has created a service rich program supporting people in a housing first model which provides safety and dignity of housing and actively engages people in care tailored to their individual needs. They'll share more about an array of services and resources that are available to residents, some of which are offered within the Health through Housing initiative, and some are unique to the Booker House, leveraging the Urban League's organizational expertise and local partnerships cultivated by program staff. It has been a busy year for this site, with construction wrapping up in December when residents first began moving in. We had a grand opening event in January. And then there was a delay of multiple months in filling the second and third floors of the building due to issues contracting a vendor for interior painting after the major construction was complete. So resident lease up resumed in April and is nearing completion with 82 out of 86 units currently occupied. Very excited to celebrate that completion of this. Here are some interior photos from the construction stage to present, including a remodeled kitchen to support community meals, a health care provider exam room on site, and a finished unit, which is now someone's home. Starting in August of last year, we engaged a wide range of local service providers who were already working with people in this community who would be eligible for health through housing. And we maximized the capacity allocated to local referrals at 65% of units. Regional referrals from coordinated entry, which is the homeless service system's centralized front door for housing, came last in the lease-up process, including the remaining few people who will move in soon. As there's availability in the future through unit turnover, we'll continue to draw from local and regional referral sources in this proportion. However, evaluation of health through housing overall demonstrates a 93% retention rate for permanent supported housing, so we anticipate limited throughput as a result of successfully keeping people housed. One of the kinds of information collected when people move in is their self-report of the community where they're newly housed. Overall in the health through housing portfolio, we see a 98% rate of people having connection to the community of their housing site. At Booker House specifically, Everyone who answered this question indicated a personal tie to this area, most commonly that they had experienced homelessness here. Notably, this includes people who came in through the regional court of entry process, which indicates that local people are also coming to Booker House through a regional pathway. King County deeply appreciates the city's partnership in addressing homelessness here through siting, permitting and inspection, ongoing coordination with human services staff, partnership of fire and police departments to support a safe environment and respond to emergencies when they occur. I'll turn it over now to the Urban League to share more about programming and life at the Booker House.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having us.

Hello. My name is Shakitha Howard, and I am the intern manager for Booker House.

And my name is Fozi Bilal, and I am the vice president of operations at Urban League. All right. Urban League, we are an organization that serves, housing is one of the things that we do. We do many other things. We have entrepreneurship as a program. We do education, workforce development, and public health, advocacy and civic engagement, and financial empowerment. So housing is one piece of our theory of change and how we impact our communities. I'm going the other way. We also, I want to go back to the slide. So part of our work also is to engage the youth through our ULMS young professionals. So we mentor many folks in the community that are getting out of college and helping them pursue jobs in the careers that they choose. Also, the ULMS Guild is engaging our seniors in all the community events and programs that we have. The Booker House was a vision that one of our amazing directors came up with as a name, and it honors Mr. Harold Booker. And we have, I'm sure he has family here in the room as well. So they were part of the celebration and opening. And his legacy goes back to really advocacy for housing equity in Federal Way specifically in South King County and also nationally. And I can spend all day talking about Mr. Booker and his contribution to housing. So we appreciate, we're honored to have that name in our building and continue that legacy. And I'm going to... Our colleague shared some of the amenities and some photos from our building. We do have a community lounge. We have a computer lab. We have a food pantry. We have a health clinic. We provide opportunities for transportation. We also have... The case management and we are a pet friendly building and we have staffing 24 seven to support our residents and we are fully furnished. So when residents get there, they have everything they need. And our amazing partners thought of everything that our residents need because we want to make sure that once they step into their homes, they have a welcome kit that includes all the necessities that they need. So we are, our service model is based on three different teams and my amazing colleague here leads all three of those teams. So I'll let Shakitha share a little bit.

So we have our housing and case management and then we have our health team and then our assets and property facilities. Each one of those teams are designated specific roles. Our housing and case management, we follow our residents daily for their routines. We get them what they need. generate referrals, whatever it is that they need. Our health team provides services. We have on-site nursing. We have a provider that comes once a week, and our assets, property, and facilities make sure that the property is safe. For our residents, it is fully surveillanced 24-7, and it just makes sure that not only of our residents are safe, but our community as well. From arrival to stability, one coordinated resident's journey. So ready before their arrival, we do a welcome and intake process. They come in, we do a welcome to their home. That is where they sign their lease and get their keys. We connect them with health through connection, and that's through our public health and equity team, and stabilize and follow through, and that is what our case managers do. We are nearly full completely. Um, as of today we have 82 residents for 86 units. Our onsite partners expand, um, access to care and basic needs. This is health for, um, critical access. Also we have behavioral health in crisis, peer connection and basic needs and dignity.

Thank you very much for having us.

Oh, and stay close just in case we have any questions. And a great presentation from you both, from both groups. Council, are there any – oh, Council President Honda.

Thank you. I saw on one of the slides that you accepted a resident from the youth shelter.

I can see that. Okay. I believe you're talking about New Horizons. Yes. They're like a regional youth shelter that includes transitional age youth that extends up to age 24.

So they're older than 18?

Yeah, this person is over 18. Yeah. They were not initially one of our local referral partners, but they do serve that population kind of countywide. And so we had a special kind of single case consideration for their referral.

I was hoping you were taking youth under 18 who need housing, so.

Unfortunately, this is not the research for that, but we do know that resource is essential and needed in our community.

Okay, thank you.

Well, you've really scaled up very quickly. I could see the numbers going way up. So I know we were asking about that just recently, and it's great to see so many folks getting into that program. Council Member Walsh?

Yeah, with the people moving into the Booker House, has it actually reduced the number of people living outdoors here in Federal Way?

Yeah, that's hard to measure. we would need to talk to some homeless service providers about what they're experiencing and seeing. As I shared, the data shows that everyone who moved into this site expresses that they have a local connection, most of which experienced homelessness here. So at least 82 people are now housed. I know that that doesn't solve homelessness in a federal way, and so there's ongoing work to do to address the need.

And second question, how have things been as far as, I mean, you know, Booker House, I think it has done a tremendous amount of good. We also need to protect the safety of the people who are residents there and the safety of other people in the community. Have there been any incidents there at the Booker House so far that police have needed to be called or anything?

Yeah, I... I don't know if there's been any incidents that the police have been called, but we have established a good rapport with the police team, and we've been engaging with them constantly and making sure that they're a resource for us when we need them. We are dealing with a very vulnerable population, so we are very alert and aware, and our teams are very well trained in handling that. situation as they escalate and meeting the needs of our residents where they are.

Okay. Thank you for doing that. Thank you. That's good news. Thank you. Council Member Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for that great, great presentation. I'm the council member who probably asks the most questions about the Booker House, but the reason why I ask so many questions is because I want to see this succeed. And it's because as the people's representative, I get asked a lot, what are we doing to address homelessness? I mean, I think I get that question probably once a week, if not more. And sometimes, you know, it's a genuine question. What are we doing to address homelessness? Sometimes it's an accusation that the city's not doing anything to address homelessness. And I would say that that's really a specious argument because we have the Booker House now, and we just heard 82 of 86 units are filled, and that's great. We have the William J. Woods facility. We have Fusion. we have um the red lion that's going to be converted and we have the day center that helps our community during the day and so this city is doing a lot i want our community to know doing a lot to support our homeless and unhoused community and so great work i have received no complaints about about you know the facility and that is wonderful news so thank you for being a good partner um with that um I do see Jan Barber in the audience here and she's brought up something interesting so I have kind of an odd question but with with the harm reduction supplies being provided do you have a way for residents to dispose of sharps because we're finding out that there is really nowhere to drop off sharps in this community and so I'm just curious about that because of the environmental concerns and we don't want that being thrown in the trash and

With harm reduction, we don't supply needles. So if they have them, I'm assuming they have their own sharps containers, but we do not supply needles.

okay all right thank you I know it's an odd question but I'm seeing Janet and she brings us up a lot with the sharps container and I just thought I would ask if there was anywhere for people to drop that off well thank you we can look into that as the county manages the property and we can explore the need for that at this site yeah yeah okay well thank you very much and thank you for your presentation and good job

Councilmember Sefa Dawson the councilmember coach Marta councilmember more Thank You mayor and thank you for your presentation and thank you for the work that you're doing and it's we've been waiting for this for a very long time so we truly appreciate your effort and also appreciate the report that we heard I mean it sounds very positive I also want to caution us when we're asking questions around The increase of crime around these facilities, I get a little frustrated because I don't want homelessness or people experiencing being unhoused to be criminalized. And so to be looking for that kind of information, to me, sounds very harmful. Instead, I think I want us to see the best in what's happening in those neighborhoods or how the people are being. And you talked about compassion. You talked about how you're treating them. And I just want to say thank you for that level of care. because it's necessary it's important a lot of times they're overlooked i worked in transitional housing i currently work for housing authority and so i i'm around people who are housing insecure right so for example currently the current administration has gotten rid of emergency housing vouchers so as of december a lot of them are going to be unhoused. They're going to lose their voucher, which means they're not going to be housed. They're not going to have a place to go for the most part. At least the housing authority is trying to house a lot of them as people are leaving through attrition. But still, people don't choose to be homeless. It's just the circumstances that put them there. I've experienced it, but I was blessed to have amazing friends where I could couch serve. And it stays with me because I couldn't be around my children. Well, I was around them, okay. But I had to say goodnight to them every night when I dropped them off at their dad's. So I just want to say thank you. And I also want us, our community, to really embrace this process and not look for – negativity because there could be an issue but it happens all the time and everywhere so I just don't want to isolate a location a group of people and look for that so I'm just saying to the public please let's embrace this process and be supportive and see where it goes because we're still helping over 80 people there and then another you know so I'm excited I really am and I'm hopeful so thank you

Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kochmar.

Thank you, Mayor. So I have two questions. I realize your union gospel mission and the county owns the property. So what is your anticipated length of stay? This is for single men and women, correct, not families? Correct. And so what is your anticipated length of stay for the individuals?

Are they stay forever? The model is permanent supported housing and we mean permanent that these people can stay, particularly if they need this level of support in order to retain housing, we want them to stay as long as they can. We do keep statistics on the length of time people stay. And whether they move on to permanent housing or to some other situation, we have a very strong rate of retaining people in housing or them moving to other permanent housing. I quoted 93% across our portfolio. Usually the length of time depends on how long the building's been open and it's been able to retain people in it. so I don't have a Clear answer for that expected link of thank you.

So do you? So the people the same question is kind of a little more involved more complex. So the people who live there are they can Use they can use drugs they can drink what as they would in their own homes. That's correct They can use

We call that standard lease, how people might use substances within a standard lease. If you want to talk a little bit about kind of substance use policies or strategies at the site, that's an Urban League policy response.

So we'll get into that, but I'm just curious with part of that, do you offer them educational training, rehabilitation training that they'll accept it? And then my final question would be, what is your success rate for them to become independent?

Thank you for those great questions. We do meet residents where they are. We want to make sure that they're getting the support. By going through the referral process and being a resident, they have to, through that process, they're making that decision. that they need the help that we're gonna provide. We're gonna do everything in our capacity to make sure that they get the support they need while they're there. They're gonna have access to resources that can help them heal. We are very deliberate about not stigmatizing their situation. We want to make sure to treat them as human beings and make sure to meet them where they are. We can create the environment for behavioral change, but we cannot enforce something that is bounded by a lease and what folks can do in their own space.

So then again, what would be the success rate, probably not in this facility because they've been open long enough, but in other facilities of this nature?

Yeah, I think we don't have any data, but I can tell you since we've opened, we haven't had any overdoses. We don't have any issues. We haven't had any... And that's a bigger structural question that's being asked. We are... accountable for the well-being of our residents and the capacity that we can provide for our residents. And we can speak to that. And we'll update you next time. I think we are providing health care resources. We're connected with mental health resources. We're connected with support systems that can be conducive to our residents getting well.

So part of that, they wouldn't necessarily have to accept rehab services, that you don't have that as part of your model?

Not necessarily. That's not a condition for joining, for being a resident at the Booker House.

Well, I can certainly appreciate what you do. I've been to your facility. It's lovely. Having had members of my own family that I've had that have had issues, and how important it is, in my estimation, to be offered rehabilitation services. Sometimes they won't take it unless they're forced. And I am of the assumption that I want these people to be successful and not simply housed, but that would be my opinion. But thank you for what you're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. And then we also have Council Member Moore.

Thank you so much for being here again. I appreciate it. I went to your grand opening and I just want to say this is an important service that you guys have that you're offering here in our community. And as I'm listening to the report that you're giving, I'm appreciative of the words you guys are choosing to use. I think that's really important because we're all human beings. We all deserve dignity and respect. And I just appreciate how you're going about doing that. And I appreciate the partnerships that you guys are creating, the fact that you're building relationships with local law enforcement to make sure that the property to everybody inside is safe. I think that's really critical. And I do like, and I'm just going to repeat it again because I want to make sure everybody hears it, and that's From what I'm gathering from what you're saying is this is a one-stop shop area where they're going to get treatment, they're going to get support in any way they possibly can. And the way I'm perceiving this is that you're going to be constantly tweaking. If there's a need, you'll look to see if you can resolve that, which I think is just huge. And I guess one thing I do want to ask is job connections. Obviously a person that may have a background or may have been homeless. How do you guys work with giving people a sense of belonging to get themselves into a job? How do you guys go about doing that?

Absolutely. And that's part of our service model at Urban League. We do provide job trainings. We have our workforce development team who plans to do workshops there. And I also want to iterate that not all of our residents don't have jobs. Some of them do have jobs and they just cannot afford living. because of the cost of living. So I think that is also a bigger question, but in terms of providing job skills, we do have that tied into our service model through our workforce development team.

Fantastic. Thank you for that. And I, like you just alluded to, I am looking forward to the updates. And I know that you guys have just started, technically. And so I am looking forward to, at the most appropriate time, to be able to look at the data of what's going on in the Booker House. And one last question. Obviously, there's There's people that are excited about this, and there's people that are just apprehensive. What's the process? Is there an opportunity for people to volunteer?

Yeah, absolutely. Through our community engagement process, we're meeting actually Thursday morning with all the faith leaders in Federal Way, hosted by one of our community members. We did that last year, and we have a yearly check-in. We had folks participate in the welcome kit, for example, of providing, helping people. get items for the welcome kit when residents get there. So we are constantly looking into ways to integrate our community. But we're also really, these are people's homes as well. So as you know, imagine this, it's a building, it's a hotel that used to be rooms. And we want to make sure that we are really intentional about how we engage the community. We do have some events scheduled. We have, I think, are we doing the dinners as well? Yes. So I'll let you speak to some of those programs.

Yeah. So, um, every Sunday, well, we've partnered with a lot of, um, local food banks and also cook unity where they have donated food. So every Sunday, um, we get in and we serve them hot meals, um, and throughout the week just to bridge the gap with, um, food insecurities. So there's those, these programs that we have to not necessarily in totality change everything, but at least bridge the gap until we can get there.

No, that's fantastic. I appreciate hearing that, and I do want to make sure that we capture your contact information as well. And then, ooh, I just lost my train of thought there. Oh, 82, so I heard you say that you guys have 82 of the 86 rooms filled, and the majority of that is, in doing that survey, they're from this local area, is that correct? Am I off a little bit with my numbers?

Correct.

Okay. Okay. Well, that's good. I'm glad we're – thank you for that. Thank you, Mayor.

All right. Thank you. All right. Council President Honda.

Thank you. So you have to be referred to the Booker House to be able to reside there. Have you turned down anyone who's applied? And if you've turned them down, why would you turn them down and what services were provided to those that – might not be able to live there.

I can speak a little bit about that referral process. Does this go back? That's okay. There was a slide that showed the local referrals that came in and the proportion of referrals that were received versus people who moved in. So definitely there were people referred who did not get an opportunity to move in. The reason that there is a referral process by service providers is that essentially other service providers are kind of pre-screening people who would be eligible to move in. Thanks. Thanks for pulling up the exact slide. So the yellow bars here represent referrals which were complete and eligible. So we also received referrals for people who were not eligible. Maybe their income was too high or they didn't have a disabling condition that was demonstrated in documentation or that their current service provider could attest to. Um, so we don't, um, we don't push out resources for the, from the county for, um, people who are referred and we're not able to move in. Uh, but we are expecting that those service providers that are already working with are helping them navigate to other housing resources and other things to meet their basic needs. So,

If they're not able to get in here and they haven't found housing when Red Lion opens, do you know if they'll be able to be housed there?

I am not familiar with the referral pathway that's set up for the Red Lion at this time.

Okay, thank you. All right. Oh, Council Member Sepin-Hawson?

Yes, thank you, Mayor. In your service plan, I think you have financial literacy also? And that's something I'm very interested in personally, and I would love to even be a part of. So just a comment.

Absolutely. We'll send you an invite next time we have a workshop at Booker House.

Thank you. Well, on behalf of the people of this community, thank you so much for the work you're doing, both King County and the Urban League. And thank you so much. And thank you for this informative and very thoughtful presentation. Thank you.

Thank you so much for having us.

Okay, and now we're under the Mayor's Emerging Issues and Report. So we've had a lot going on in the past few weeks. We had what is now, I believe, with a fourth annual back-to-school haircuts events. We started in 2023. A big, big thanks to Kristen Speakman, who owns and operates Bella Red Salon and the dozens of stylists not only that work there but throughout the community and they gave hundreds of haircuts to young folks getting ready for school and one of them was right there and it was just great. It was great to see. A big thanks for our Parks Department, the Good News Department that made sure that there was water and there was food and there was some refreshments and when we got there, it started at noon, there was already a line. Susan, how long did you think the long line was? Maybe 100 feet?

At least and people waited up to two hours. Yeah, it was a long line.

It was great. It was it was really just one of those great events becoming really one of the great events in our community was right there in Town Square Park. And it was it was also Councilmember Hamilton and Council President Honda were there as well. And just a really it was a beautiful day. And it was really fun to see that happening in our community. Then, on August 25th, we had the Good Eggs Breakfast put on by our King County Councilman, Pete Von Reichbauer. He brings in local elected and regional leaders, school districts, city councils, members from pretty much all of South King County. We were at Emerald Downs on the 25th, and we actually heard from The Washington Public Lands Commissioner, Dave Upthegrove, we've seen Mr. Upthegrove on CNN and all kinds of international news outlets as they've been battling historic, devastating wildfires in eastern Washington and in that area. And it was very, very interesting and informative to hear the great work that Commissioner Upthegrove and his team do every day. And so a big thanks to Pete. And we had some great folks there. We had actually another King County Council member present as well and mayors and city council members from around the region. Then we had the annual Lions Club car show. That was a lot of fun. And on August 22nd, that Saturday, there was my friend Frank. And the Lions were out in force. You can see their jackets here. They're hard to miss with their jackets. And Bob Jan and Frank and Denise and everybody that's involved with the Lions, they do so much great work. And it's always fun to see the cars and Bob, how many cars do you think we had at the show? 111. 111 cars. It was on the backside of the Commons Mall, and it was just a good time. It was had by all, so really a nice annual event. Then, on August 15th, we had the grocery outlet. The 80th anniversary of that company, we had essentially a ribbon-cutting for that company, to commemorate the 80-year anniversary of Grocery Outlet as a company. We're very fortunate. We had a lot of folks there that were celebrating the Grocery Outlet, including the husband and wife team that run the business. And then we had actually Councilmember Jack Walsh who was doing his – you want to tell us what this was that we're all reacting to?

They had us there with my business, Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream, freezing ice cream with liquid nitrogen. And when you toss the nitrogen out onto the sidewalk or drive, great billows of fog come out and it makes a great photo opportunity.

Exactly.

And so, and it kind of, you can tell that the mayor there is, he had not seen it before and was somewhat surprised at what happened.

It was an involuntary reaction. I'm like, oh my God, what's that? So, yes. So, you know, the asphalt was not on fire, but it was fun. And that's a really, if you haven't been in that location, it's really It's beautiful. Right there on where Dashpoint Road starts at about 312th and Dashpoint Road. And they're doing, there's a lot of work about getting businesses in that business park. And we're really happy to see that there. Okay, then.

Mayor, can I make a, and at that same time, the Grocery Outlet made a great donation to the Federal Way Senior Center Food Bank.

That's right. Susan, how much was that? Do you remember?

$5,000?

$7,000. $7,000.

$7,000.

That's right there on the check.

I have donations from the public.

That's right. Yeah, that's really nice. And Council Member Hamilton was there, Council Member Walsh, Council President Honda, and it was just a great group. Okay, next we've got some upcoming community events. We've got Rainfest at Steel Lake Park on September 12th. That will get started about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And really just talking about just sort of the – you know, the environment and, and, uh, you know, rain trees and, and, uh, we've got, you know, important work being done, uh, by the folks, uh, in our public works department, uh, in our parks. Also, we've got Taste of Federal Way at the Federal Way Farmer's Market on September 26th. And I believe that'll be the last Saturday of the Farmer's Market. Um, and also, For those that have been visiting the Farmers Market, we have actually, we started this year, we moved the Farmers Market from behind the Commons to 316th, you know, that street between Town Square Park and where the Performing Arts and Events Center is, and we sectioned off that section. We didn't have as much room there as we wanted to, and we had food trucks, and we wanted to bring it all together. So starting this Saturday, we are going to be having the Farmer's Market at the top of the stairs. There's going to be plenty of parking. All the food trucks are going to be there. It's all going to be at one location as opposed to working with those steps. So that gets started about 9 o'clock in the morning, and we'll go to about 2 p.m., but then the last one of the year, we're going to have the Taste of Federal Way, and it's going to be a great opportunity to taste some of the local restaurants' food and do a little award ceremony or competition with regard to you know, what people consider the best.

Can you tell people where they can buy tickets? No, I don't. Is it poverty bay?

Jason, how can people buy tickets to the Taste of Federal Right?

Yeah, and that's a good one that I'm going to have to get back to you on, and we'll make sure to do a social media post so that it gets out to the public.

And they're $25?

Correct. $25. Okay. Well, we'll put that on social media, and we'll put it on our newsletter as well. Okay. Okay, upcoming community events. We've got the Pumpkin Plunge at the Federal Way Community Center on October 17th. You know, when I was walking in like mid-August, I walked into some place and they're already talking about, they're already advertising for Halloween. I thought, my gosh, it's going to be right around the corner. So we've got the pumpkin plunge at the community center at that time and that'll be on a Saturday the 17th $10 for youth $12 for adults then we've got the tricks and treats at Federal Way Community Center on the 24th and then the following Saturday will be the actual Halloween so on the 24th tricks and treats there at the community center so now on the final item is we've got the Bobtown Financial Literacy Program Thursday from September 24th to November 19th. Register now. Limited to 40 participants. So it says to email Bill Vedino. Just email the Mayor's Office or City Council Office. We'll get the information to Bill and it's as the good Council Member, Council Member Sefa Dawson was just talking about, it really is one of the, we've got a lot of support from the Council on this program. It's about helping people find you know, ways to grow financially, get out of debt, and just all kinds of very useful life skills. Okay, that completes my report. Now we're on to council committee and regional committee reports. And we'll start with Council Member Walsh, land use and transportation.

We did not have a Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting in August, as most of the committees did not meet. Our next one will be September 14th, which is a Monday right here, and look forward to seeing some of you there.

All right, great. Council Member Sessoms, Parks, Recreation, Human Services, and Public Safety.

Hi, everyone. The committee last met on July 14th. We didn't meet in August. But as we prepare for the budget season, I'm going to be setting up virtual meetings with all of the directors to learn their priorities and their concerns going into this new biennium. Our next meeting will be next week. All are invited Tuesday, September 8th. 5 o'clock right here.

All right, thank you. All right, Council Member Kuchmaier, Finance, Economic Development, and Regional Affairs Committee, also known as FEDREC.

Thank you very much, Mayor. So our next finance meeting will be September 22nd, 5 p.m., right here in Council Chambers. And thank you very much to our Economic Development Director, Tanya Carter, who just spoke with me about her report for economic development. So we'll be doing that once a quarter. So the first one then, this... end of this year will be in October. And so moving forward, I'm hoping that we can, you know, we'll be in the middle of the budget, which is going to take up most of our time. And so I'm assuming we're going to be getting that budget document fairly soon.

I'm working on it.

Okay. It's a work in progress. Thank you. Just make a miracle, provide money out of nowhere, and we'll be good.

That's right. That's right. So I'll be giving my budget presentation at our next city council meeting in two weeks, and council will receive it days before that. Okay, and we'll see it before the public sees it. Okay, now Council Member Sefa Dawson for Lodging Tax Advisory Committee and Regional Committees.

Yes, thank you Mayor. We, unlike the other committees, we did have a meeting in August. We had it on August 13th, and we kind of had like a retreat to just go over the budget and talk about other things regarding the grant applications and the review process. So our next meeting is on September 8th at 2 o'clock, and we're going to, again, go over a little bit over the budget. And we have 10... tourism enhancement grant applications to review so it's going to be a long meeting and with regional reports with the PIC meetings the next meeting is Wednesday September 9th from 7 to 9 and there are a lot of discussion items no nothing that requires or asks for a vote or action so the topics are breaking the cycle investments and revenue work group Report and then there's SCA 2027 state legislative agenda and County priorities SeaTac Airport expansion 2027 SCA appointments briefing and then Pre-pick which is a 6 p.m. There's going to be a workshop on regional utility rates Educational season session and so you're all invited if you're interested in going to the pre-pick meeting so it's from 6 to 7 And I think it's a good topic to learn a lot about because it's happening, it's coming up, and I think we need to be informed and updated on the regional utility rates.

Okay, thank you very much now report from our council president, thank you I'm excited to invite everyone to attend coffee with council.

It'll be held September Saturday September 19th from 10 to 12 it'll be at the farmers market but you attended kicking it you saw that there were some little shops in those temporary buildings that have the murals on them and we will have that available to go into in case it's raining so please come rain or shine you don't have to get wet we will have coffee and pastries it's not an event where we have an agenda and you can just meet and uh sit down with those of us that are there and talk to us about anything that's on your mind we hope that you you come and um come see us so rain or shine you'll stay dry i promise you and um an early notice our council retreat for 2027 is scheduled for saturday january 30th from eight to four at dumas bay so um get ready for that For Council, AWC News, they have a survey, a member survey, that they really want people to return it by Friday, this Friday. I've looked at it. I haven't done it yet. It's September 4th. Isn't that Friday? Yeah. So it takes about five minutes. I looked at it. I think it would take longer if you really take time and answer their questions. But I would encourage you all to look at the questions because they do want to know how they're serving us and what we like, what we don't like. And I'd also like to talk about 9-11. You know, that happened 25 years ago, and our lives were all changed because of that. We have an event that is always held on 9-11, whatever the day of the week that is, and this year it's on a Friday. And it's at Fire Station 64, which is a fire station down on 320th by Weyerhaeuser Way. It starts at 1 o'clock. And I would really encourage you to come. I realize that people may be working that day and children are in school. But it's really important to come in and recognize our firefighters and our police officers because that day really did change our lives here in this country. And it's something we can never forget. So I would please encourage you to come. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Okay, and now for the most important part of the meeting, to hear from the folks that we work for, you, for public comment. So I'll name a number of individuals, and if you could sort of cue toward the back there, and then after we go through a few, then I'll call some more up. Green means go, yellow means you've got about 30 seconds, red means please stop. Everybody's got three minutes unless you're here with five other folks and you've listed them. Okay, now first we've got Janine Barber, Jack Dovey, Jeffrey Tancredi, Bob Derrigan, Lana Bostic, Julie Oliva, Paul McDaniel, Allison Fine, Nathan Orth. Jen Barber.

Good evening, Mayor Farrell and members of the council. My name is Janine Barber, and I've been living in Federal Way more than 15 years. And yes, you had an idea what I'd be talking about. So I'm going to be talking tonight about what happens after a person has given themselves an injection and they have something left over. And this is an example of what is called a SHARP. And I've learned recently that it's called an unexposed SHARP. State Department of Health says that unexposed sharps can be put in this red or similar biohazard container. And I have also discovered through a series of explorations that this is a mail-back container. The pharmaceutical companies provide the money for this. This is not tax-funded. I found where you can order it for yourself, and the box will be sent to you. You put your sharps in the container and drop it in the box. There's a little bit you have to do on the outside of the box, but you can take it to the post office. They'll scan it and send it. And you can even track if you want to their QR codes for your specific. As a member of the Federal Way Lions Club, we believe in support and education around issues related to environment and also helping people with diabetes. I have also learned, through the State Department of Health, that these boxes can be ordered. They can order 50 at a time, up to 250. However, in the state of California, it says the pharmaceutical group will, shall return the number of boxes requested. And in the state of Washington, it says may or might. It might return it. We are talking among ourselves in the club about how we can best, uh, best help. And we're also talking about trying to put together a trifold brochure. Recently, someone from the fire department, a new member of our club has volunteered to help put together something. We'd like to make it as simple as possible. And the good news is if we do a trifold and it meets people's understanding the, um, The school said they'd provide eight languages. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Jan. Jack Dovey.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council, for allowing me to come forward and give you a few bits of information. I'm on the board of directors for Fusion. I happen to be the treasurer. And I thought it would be good to give you a report just how our gala went. and give you some insight. It's a good night to be here. We've heard about housing and we've heard about how great the Parks Department's doing. We've heard about support, public support and Fusion is all run by volunteers. We have some paid staff. The support of the community is amazing. The city of Federal Way has done a great job, and our whole mission is to house people with families for emergency times and for long term to get them to be stable. So at our gala this year, all of you were here and many of the citizens, we raised over $750,000, which is our biggest year ever. We're very, very excited about that because it helps us with our budget through the remainder of the year. And just like you, we're coming up to doing our budgets here in two months. So I know what you're going through. But we're very thankful that the City of Federal Way was a sponsor. And I just wanted to make a comment. You have an amazing manager at Dumas Bay, David Clemens, who made our life so easy. He helped us out. tremendously to pull off a great gala. And the staff down there was a real plus to what we do to raise money to help families in need that are homeless get a place to stay. We have over 19 places that people can stay a little over a year. And we have the Pete Anderson house, which you may be aware of, that we have an average stay of 82 days. And then our whole mission is to get those families with children into stable housing so they can move on. And if you were at the gala, you heard a great story about one of our people that we helped, her and her family. She came to us after living in her car. She got help, mentorship, things that she needed. And she just bought her house through affordable housing. And it was a great story. And it's posted on our website if you want to follow it. But Fusion is here to help the community to continue doing what we're doing to help the needy in Federal Way, We've heard about people that are unhomed, and that's what our mission is, to help families get into a stable position, be in a home, and be great citizens in our city. So thank you all, and I just wanted to give you that report, and we're looking forward to next year already. Thank you. Thanks, Jack.

Jeffrey Tanqueriti.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council President Honda, and Council. Good to see you all again. Thanks for letting me speak tonight. According to Como 4 News, on November 2, 2025, Federal Way Police arrested a Mexican national in the United States illegally for rape, second degree, according to the US Attorney's Office. Six months later, in April 2026, he was arrested again and booked into the King County Jail for escape, theft, and a warrant for rape. Federal prosecutors obtained a judicial warrant to take the illegal alien into custody. Even with his extensive criminal and immigration history, Local jails released this criminal alien rather than turning him over to immigration authorities, which allowed him to allegedly commit rape, according to the U.S. attorney. He was deported five times, five, between 2007 and 2013. This is what happens when you don't have a secure border. Both Democrat and Republican presidents failed miserably over the last 50, 60, 70 years. Whoever is the president, he or she has the complete authority to secure the border, to lock it down. Section 212F Foxtrot of the Immigration and Nationality Act gives the President of the United States the authority to shut down the border. That law went into effect 70 years ago. But past politicians failed. When you don't have a secure border, drug trafficking, child sex trafficking thrives. Under the last administration, over 400,000 children were sex trafficked into the United States. So far, 150,000 have been rescued by this administration. This is what happens when you have porous borders. For the first time in my lifetime, we have a secure border. for the first time. If you go to dhs.gov, I encourage you to go to dhs.gov and scroll down to news updates, and you'll see all of the people that have been deported. Many of them are sex predators. You'll see the name of the person, you'll see the country, and you'll see when they were deported. Many of them are sex predators. Thanks for letting me speak.

All right, thank you. Bob Derrigan.

Good evening, beloved. I attended a first responders event put on by the Rotary recently. And I was sitting there and thinking, hmm, as the people's poet, I've never written a poem about first responders. And guess what you're going to hear tonight? It's called All In. On alert and ready to actively respond in a moment's notice. Selfishly devoted and committed to an urgent need. Moving in a timely manner, promptly galloping in a metal steed. First responders dressed in blue who exquisitely train men and women combat medics en route, coming to the aid of anyone and everyone, for that's what they're all about. To protect and serve is their motto, for they risk their lives and much more carried by the wings of prayer by family and friends to return safely back to their home door. For dangers are real around the corner when each public servant answers the call and moves with privileged determination, offering their all for all. A sacrifice they gladly make with a sacred oath to deny themselves each second minute and day and do their job professionally with care as they journey along the way. All of us, all of us should never, ever forget the 9-11 call for help that made us stare. Without hesitation, they took action which few, if any, can compare. They are always ready and prepared, compassionate and faithful to their mission true, hopefully confident that their lives will make a difference, memories of their goodness etched in our hearts brand new. We are deeply grateful for our heroes of the day. And when we hear the siren call piercing the air, we pray God will guide them along their way. Yes, it is with divine thankfulness that we pray from our hearts within for the men and women who have chosen and sealed each promise all in.

Lana Bostic.

Hi. I'm Lana Bostic. I live in Federal Way for many years. That's a hard act to follow. Thank you. That was wonderful. So thank you for that. I am just here because I do not want to have any data centers in Federal Way. And I know you're going to probably vote on that tonight, but I think that if you could join Seattle, Burien, Marysville, Renton, Moses Lake, Spokane, and I believe Tacoma just voted for moratorium to not have any data centers in their area. I don't see any positive reason to have them, and I'm hoping that you will vote no to any data centers. I also was wondering if, Mayor, you could give us just a really quick update on the Red Lion as to when the contract is signed and when you can expect people to be able to use that facility. And that's it.

Thanks. All right. Thank you so much. Next is Julie Alava.

Very good. Thank you. I'm Julia Olava. I've lived here about 30 years. So, Mayor, City Council, thank you for listening. I am also here to request your support in keeping the moratorium on the data centers I think that what we're hearing from all over the country and I think is true in our community is the desire to slow this process down and to give our society and our community a chance to understand the impacts and to allow time for societies to adjust to the changes, to retool, And to understand the impacts of our community before just barreling ahead. This is something that's happening very quickly. And so I just would like to ask for your support to slow it down. And yeah, that's it. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Paul McDaniel.

Good evening, Paul McDaniel, resident since the 1990s. Originally, I came tonight to talk about finance, but after walking through Celebration Park this morning, I'd rather talk about safety. I have two safety concerns I'd like to mention, and the first one is the increase in temporary residents that are roaming our streets, hanging out at our bus stops, and living in our forests and parks. I've started to see the increase again this year. Same as last year, but this time it looks like there are different crew, especially down in the Costco area. While walking around Celebration Park today, I noticed multiple incidents of concerns. The first one started off with the entrance at the T intersection of 11th and 324th, where those people just passed out sleeping on the sidewalk and the benches right there at the entrance of the park. As we turned the corner and walked by the softball parks, there was another little campground set up in between the sidewalk and the actual fencing for the softball. They had a little bedspread set up. They were doing a little work on their bikes. It looked like they had slept there at least a day or two. And then as we walked closer towards the parking lots where the playground is, there was a big RV there. The RV wasn't the biggest issue. It was the person sleeping in a blow-up pool behind it that kind of concerned me a little bit. This is around 9 o'clock in the morning that we did this. There was two dogs tied to the RV on the outside with leashes, and one dog that was not on a leash, just running around. They did not look like pleasant animals to see and something I would not want to see if I was a young child or a mom with a child there. And a lot of garbage. There was strode bags of garbage everywhere. I happened to run into an employee there and asked him who I should talk to. They told me to talk to you guys. So I'm here to discuss it with you guys. The next thing I want to talk about is the question on whether the Celebration Park is a safe place for families to go to and enjoy nature. I think the city needs to start doing patrols. We have cops with bikes. It's not that hard to ride the bikes there and I believe the council passed a law or an ordinance that would allow you to enforce your decisions you want to make there. So I think now would be a good time to actually look at doing that. I'll speak briefly to the red line since it was brought up tonight and also last week, excuse me, last meeting. I heard it's supposed to be opening this month, full opening in October and then fully functional first quarter of next year. I personally hope it doesn't happen. I do not see this as a positive thing. This does not have the regulations it should have on it if you really want to make this a successful operation. Most likely you're going to have a lot of people with mental illnesses, drug addictions, and those who decide to make the street their lifestyle. I believe Walmart is going to see a hit. I believe that Costco and the little businesses around there are going to see a hit, and I believe the city is going to see a decrease in revenue from that area. Rainier State School in Buckley is designed for some of this stuff. You have the Seattle Gospel Mission designed for other things. I think the proper purpose for that would be a place for people aging out of foster care for temporary residents. I ran out of time. I'll talk about finance next time. Have a good evening. Thanks, Paul. All right, Allison Fine.

Hey, friends. First of all, when I come here in shorts, it's because I ran out of time and didn't get to go home. It's not because I'm being disrespectful to the council. So I apologize. I had a lot of errands today. First of all, I'm here to say thank you to the mayor specifically. I was not able to come to the other meetings in August. But a month ago today, we had Federal Way Pride at Town Square Park. I know that we are collectively as a community tired of talking about flags, which I don't know, you guys could do something about. But until that gets resolved, I really appreciate that there was a commitment from the city, specifically the mayor's office, and they spent about $1,000 in helping us buy those signs that we put up. Special shout out to Bill Vedino for helping get those signs out in the community and then retrieve them for us. I think federal pride was amazing. I don't know what you said about it at the meeting. I'm sure it was great. But thank you so much. We only got one complaint, apparently, and it was because someone said a bad word, to which I say, I teach middle school. I'm sure we're all going to be okay. So thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. sort of to the people that came prior to us even starting the day. Hopefully next year you'll actually come during the event. And for those of you who couldn't make it, totally understand. A couple of things I want to talk about. Somebody from the Arts Commission said they spent, there was like a $4,000 increase in art that was bought at the explosion. My daughter has a paper mache pig for sale if you are interested. And it is currently at our home. She is a special needs as most of you know, the inclusion program was included in a special display. That paper mache pig is amazing and doesn't need a space in my house. See me after the show. I will also say data centers, yeah, we don't need them. Also, I would say if we keep putting a moratorium on them, it's going to end up like weed. I think we should just take it to the people, let the people vote like we had to do with weed, and stop even considering that these data centers come to federal way. Last of all, Well, not last of all. Let's see. 40 seconds. Let's see. Sex predators. Sex predators, boys and girls, they're in our own families. They're born right here in the United States. Sex predators come from everywhere, including our aunts and uncles, maybe in this room. Who knows? Last but not least, I don't know how many people have been to the Booker House. I have not. But city council members I would think should go visit. Maybe you wouldn't have so many questions about what happens at the Booker House. But I am going to make a connection with the Booker House to talk about bringing some arts programs there, bringing some maybe entertainment programs there, and maybe talk with the Arts Commission to get their walls LIVENED UP A LITTLE BIT. AND I HAVE SOME OTHER THINGS, BUT THAT'S GOOD. I AM GOING TO GO OVER TIME REAL QUICK, SORRY. LAST BUT NOT LEAST, OVER AT PYC SUITES. IT IS A LOVELY BLACK WOMAN-OWNED WINE BAR RIGHT OVER BY JP'S. WE ARE BRINGING COMEDY THERE IN A FEW WEEKS. I WILL GIVE YOU ALL INVITATIONS. There's like 45 seats, y'all. It's going to sell out. Buy your tickets. I am producing it. Y'all know I'm a comedian. I do have some flyers. Please come and support this black-owned business. We want to do it every single month if we can. But this business is important to this community, and comedy is a great thing for everybody. So thanks. Bye. Thank you so much.

Nathan Orth. And as Nathan makes his way up here, we do have some three other folks. Sean Damon Hagler, Harold Booker, and Gordon Bach.

I originally intended to speak during the public hearing portion, but I'll just go ahead and do it now. Good evening, everyone. My name is Nathan Orth. I've been a resident of Federal Way for nine years.

Hi, Nathan.

Hello. I came tonight to speak about the data center moratorium and how I believe the city should approach researching and creating any permanent zoning rules it chooses to put in place before that moratorium expires. The term data center is so general as to include both the small server rooms in the back of many offices all the way up to the facilities that are being proposed that span hundreds or even thousands of acres. There are a few of the smaller ones in Federal Way already and they are a vital part of the modern economy and importantly are non-disruptive to the community. The bigger ones are springing up all over the country and disrupting communities, power, water and general sense of well-being. There is also an existing data center classification system that breaks data centers down into four tiers by metrics like uptime and redundancy. It's an important classification system for IT professionals and companies trying to decide where they want to host their data. I would ask that we as a city look to that model as a guide, but add new community-focused metrics like power consumption, water consumption, baseline decibel levels, permanent jobs versus temporary jobs, renewable energy versus fossil fuel use, closed loop versus open loop cooling systems, et cetera. We should absolutely have hard caps for how much resources a single company can use to prevent costs for ballooning for everyone else that is sharing the grade with us. Really look into what makes sense for our community because while I think we can all agree no resident wants to see an industrial scale data center anywhere in Federal Way, I do believe we want to find ways to be open and welcoming to modern businesses that operate in ways that are not disruptive to communities that they choose to join. Thank you.

Thank you, Nathan. All right. Sean Damon Hagler.

Good evening, fellow Federal Way citizens. Good evening, City Council and Mr. Mayor. Tonight I'm coming to ask you for some assistance. I'm going to get the opportunity, if you'll assist me, to merge two things that I love very much. I've been a martial arts practitioner for over 30 years now, and the alliance that I'm a part of, having started very small school in my garage. We have an international alliance seminar every year. Well, particularly the last four to five. The proceeds, 100% of the proceeds goes to wounded warriors. My instructor, founder of the system, founder of the alliance said, I want to have it in Federal Way this year. So he asked me to come and ask, what is the procedure to go about doing that? If someone could contact me to discuss it, again, martial arts is good for the community. It will help unify the martial arts community and small businesses here in Federal Way. Likewise, the members of this alliance literally are from all over the world. And he wants to hold that seminar here. He's again held it the last four or five years. It's been in Seattle. He lives in Covington. I live in Federal Way. We'd like to bring it here annually. So if someone could approach me or get a hold of me to discuss how we could go about doing that, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you all very much.

Thank you, Sean. We're going to have Bill Vedino in the back of the room. Get your contact information, and we're going to get that to you tomorrow.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, and you guys, when we get all done with public comment, then I'll follow up on some of the items that have been discussed. Mr. Booker.

Mr. Booker was my father. I don't answer to that. Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. I'm going to talk about the data center moratorium shortly. Nathan's point about the scope and the size is really critical. What folks are really unhappy about and not looking forward to is large industrial things, and I agree. I would not like to see that. Now to the point that I came to talk about tonight, which was compassion, collaboration, and compromise. bipartisan council. Though we appear to have clicks in our council. We'll call them clicks. We have a lot of four to three votes. And I wonder where we look to find compromise. The last council meeting we had nominations and selecting of commissioners and alternate commissioners. And we had click A who wanted two alternate commissioners, click B wanted two alternate commissioners, but we never seemed to look for a compromise where one group would get one alternate commissioner and one group would get another alternate commissioner. If we don't even look for compromise in something as simple as that, how do we work together? That seems like the easiest method to find some level of compromise. I just thought I'd point that out. Looking forward to compromise, folks working together for all of the citizens of this city. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Harold. Okay, Gordon Buck.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. I am representing the City of Federal Light Human Services Commission, and I'm grateful to have many other commissioners here, including Donna sitting in front row here, who's the Vice Chair. We are here together and speaking on behalf of the Human Services Commission. So the Human Services Commission is requesting the City Council support pending legislation for the creation of a Washington State Boys and Men's Commission. The proposal was advanced through the House Bill 2401 during the state's 2026 legislative session. The bill focuses on improving physical and mental health outcomes, reducing mental health stigma, and expanding educational and vocational access. A focused effort on the needs of boys and men complements the important work currently being done for women and girls. It recognizes that boys and men experience distinct challenges that warrant attention. When boys and men are healthier, better educated, and employed, their children, families, and the entire community benefit. Why should the City of Federal Way care about the formation of a statewide commission? State-wide statistics illustrate ongoing challenges affecting our residents, families, and our community. Although many of the policies and resources addressing these issues are established at the state level, their benefits would be felt here in Federal Way through the reduced need of crisis response, behavioral health and housing services, youth support, and assistance for individuals and families. Washington State Boys and Men's Commission would bring together state experts, community partners, and people with lived experience to identify gaps in recommended coordinated policies addressing health, education, employment, fatherhood, and our court systems. For this reason, the Human Services Commission respectfully recommends the City Council support House Bill 2401 for the creation of Washington State Boys and Men's Commission. And I have this signed on behalf of a unanimous vote of the Human Services Commission. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Gordon. And thank you, Nathan and Harold. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, is there any other public comment? I'm out of pink sheets, at least at this stage, because I know we've got the public hearing, which I do want to let everybody know we're not going to be voting tonight on the data centers. We did issue a six-month moratorium as required, 12-month moratorium, thank you. What's that? One year. One year. But what's required is a public hearing. So that is the public here tonight, and we thank everybody who's here to let us know your opinion on this issue. So that's going to be item 6A, as you likely know. That's why you're here. And thank you very much for being here and letting us know your thoughts on the issue. With regard to the red lion, do you know off the top of your head? And I know I see Angelina here as well.

Yeah, Mr. McDaniel's assessment was accurate. Their plan, I believe, is to start next month, being October, to start accepting tenants. But if Angelina is... Okay, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate, Mayor.

Great, okay. Okay, and if Bill gets here, we'll have her come back up. And Celebration Park. Chief, I saw the same thing about the RV in Celebration Park at exactly 9 a.m. this morning. So let's have a conversation about that. I know you've got patrol. Our parks director, did you hear anything about that today?

No, that was the first I heard of it. I plan on following up with staff tomorrow. The 324th entrance is a... Is a pathway. A lot of the transient population uses that as a path to a safe way to get food and groceries.

We close off that parking lot every night?

Every evening it's locked. The gates are locked, yes, sir.

And we wouldn't leave an RV there overnight, would we?

Unless it was mechanically not functioning and there was something to that degree. But, no, we try to check out all the vehicles every night. But, like I say, on occasion there is a vehicle that's locked in here and there. Chief?

I'm familiar with the RV. The gentleman comes there every morning and stays in the parking lot and leaves at evening and then comes back every morning generally. Okay.

All right. Council President, did you have?

I would say the other day I ride my bike through there frequently. The other day there were four RVs camping there.

And they're allowed to do that during the day. They're allowed to, you know, there's nothing, you know, it's a parking lot. So, okay. Okay. Angelina, I know I was trying to, do you know anything about where we're at with, this is Angelina Pisi, everybody, our human services manager. Angelina, would you tell us anything you may know about the Red Lion status?

Sure, good evening everyone, good evening council members. From what I understand, when they came here about earlier this last month, they talked about October. Yeah. Early October. And so that's what we are, you know, that's the target date. However, there is a meeting that we will have with King County tomorrow, and I'll be able to provide more real-time information after that meeting tomorrow afternoon.

Great. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks. All right. Okay, now that concludes public comment. Thank you, everybody. We have the consent agenda. These items, we only have one item, and it's the approve the minutes for the August 11, 2026 City Council Special and Regular Meetings. Council President Honda, do you have a motion?

I move approval of the consent agenda item A.

Second. It's been a motion to second. Is there any discussion?

No one wants to pull it. Exactly.

All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. The minutes are approved. Good job, Heather. All right. Item 6, public hearing. Item A, public hearing ordinance number 26-1048, data center moratorium. I will now open the public hearing at, what do we have here, 8.07 p.m. And Senior Planner Evan Lewis will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor, Council President, Council Members, and members of the public. This is a public hearing on the moratorium on the siting, creation, or expansion of data centers in Federal Way. So on July 7th, Council passed a 12-month moratorium on data centers. That moratorium ordinance declared an emergency, which enabled its immediate effect. The ordinance prevents the acceptance, processing, and approval of all applications related to data centers. It prevents the citing, creation, or expansion of data centers citywide. And it directs staff to develop a work plan, and the work plan's found in your packets, for studies and potential amendments to Federal Way Revised Code on the issue. And it also set this hearing date, which has also been properly noticed. And this is one of the unique council actions where the hearing actually takes place after the council action, which was adopting the ordinance two months ago. And this will be an opportunity for the public to comment on the ordinance that's already been passed, but also to inform the work plan implementation over the next 10 months at this point. So the definition in the moratorium is that a data center is a facility used primarily for the housing, operation, or co-location of computer and networking equipment and the handling, storing, managing, processing, retrieving, and backing up of digital data with a planned capacity in excess of one megawatt or exceeding 4,000 square feet of gross floor area. So that is the definition as applicable to the moratorium. The moratorium findings, they were elaborated on in great depth by law, but this is just a summary. So data center proliferation could significantly affect the city's public health, environment, and economy. The potential negative impacts include extreme energy and water consumption, the potential to exceed infrastructure capacity, greenhouse gas emissions, heat emissions, noise, and aesthetic impacts. AND THE FINDINGS ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT FEDERAL WAY REVISED CODE CURRENTLY DOES NOT LIST DATA CENTERS AS A PERMITTED USE. SO WE DON'T CONSIDER DATA CENTERS ALLOWED IN GENERAL AT ALL IN THE CITY. THEY'RE NOT A PERMITTED USE. AND FEDERAL WAY REVISED CODE ALSO DOES NOT INCLUDE DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS SPECIFIC TO DATA CENTERS THAT ACCOUNT FOR THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF DATA CENTERS. So this is the same timeline that Law presented in July. The only addition is some additional details summarizing the work plan. And that's shown in purple there. So through this fall, staff is doing a much deeper dive to study this issue of data centers, as are a lot of cities that have recently passed moratoriums. That would include looking at the impacts of data centers, acknowledging, as mentioned in the public comments, that there are different categories of data centers, different sizes, different amounts of energy consumption, and understanding how those impacts differ based on the size and type of data center. The study will also look at codes and policies that can mitigate the impacts of data centers, as well as other aspects of data center permitting, not just the review processes, but starting with what is the definition that we're going by for data centers into the future. And we're also going to be reaching out to different stakeholders. So that will definitely include utilities like Lake Haven for water and sewer, Puget Sound Energy. I expect some conversations with industry, but also we'll be reaching out to cities likely that have already dealt with the permitting of data centers to better understand what they've learned from those experiences. I think the city of Puyallup and Tukwila and some others have already done permitting processes for large data centers that we could probably learn a lot from. And then from the study, we'll bring back to council various policy alternatives and some recommendations to get further direction from council. And then based on that direction, get to work on actually working on code amendments that would then go through the normal code amendment process. So with that, are there any questions? Or we can move on to public comments.

All right.

Council Member Coachmark?

Well, could you tell us, we know the cons, but what are, I'm not interested in a data center, but I want to know what the pros are for data centers. In particular, the smaller data centers that are called edge, I think.

Yeah, so there's various pros that are thrown around as far as the tax benefits. I know one city that is cited frequently in Washington state for having a lot of data centers is Quincy. I think the majority of their tax revenue in recent years has actually been from data centers, since they've actively worked to attract them. Construction jobs from the construction of data centers has been cited. And so those are just some of the common pros that you hear. And there's a good page actually on the MRSC website that outlines pros and cons of data centers. There's probably many more on both ends of the spectrum.

So you're talking really quickly. So the MRSC website, that's the Municipal Research Services Corporation. So anybody can go, if they're interested in the public, can go to the MRSC website and see the pros and cons. But you're not going to present those here?

Not tonight. Staff is at the very beginning of implementing the work plan.

So can you tell me what a small data center, an EDGE, what that is?

I can't. It probably depends on the size and the power consumption. The data center definition in the moratorium is the one that's applicable to tonight's hearing. And the threshold for that is one megawatt or 4,000 square feet.

Sure. Nobody here wants that. But when you make your presentation, can you put in about the edge and the smaller data centers? I'm just wondering what the pros and cons of those are. and you know what so a lot of the stuff that the data centers will be addressing is ai implementation speed speed of your internet user correct is that okay and so i'm i'm in order to um keep up with business as it develops new businesses as they develop um you know i mean literally it's amazing how things are changing so quickly um whoever thought we'd have a space force academy i mean not not that that's going in here it's just that things are changing rapidly and i just want to make sure that we keep up with the changes that are coming and not that i want one or the other i just want to know what they are thank you

The MRSC is Municipal Research Council. You can access that through the AWC website, the Association of Washington Cities. So if you go to the website for AWC, Association of Washington Cities, you can access. It's really sort of a clearinghouse of all kinds of information. not only for elected officials but also for the public as well. And so if you look on the AWC website, you can look under MRSC, Municipal Research Council, and many individuals on this dais and around the state rely on some of the information there. Council Member Moore.

Thank you so much, Mayor. Evan, I am looking forward to the studies and that you guys can be doing the research and having a really fruitful conversation when the time comes. Next year, I guess, I should say. So I am very, very curious. Correct me, this is just kind of a curiosity question, and I am looking forward to the public comments, and I know that this is only meant for public comments, for us to open that up. And not to get into the weeds or the details yet, but I'm just curious. FedAway does have one smaller data center, is that correct? That may be classified as old or out of use?

I don't know. It really depends on how... we're defining data center. That's one of the things we're looking at in the study is looking, doing a deep look at our permit history, not just our, since we've been an incorporated city, but even prior to that. And so I can't say definitively that we have one existing data center. It depends on which definition we're going by. So that's, the definition is kind of the starting point for a lot of this to understand how we're defining it before we can say this is or isn't a data center.

Good. Well, I'm looking forward to that research and that conversation when the time comes.

I would note, I think you're talking about the former DeVita building. Yeah, thank you. Which is no longer being used. This is on 32nd. It's that first light on the other side of the freeway on 320th. where you take a right, right there, it's the street where KOAM is at, at the very end of that street where DeVito was, that's now empty and it's not being used for that purpose. Perfect. I just want to make sure that it's clear about that.

And that's perfect, and that's exactly what, because I've heard it in the community, and I just thought we can kind of clarify a little bit. And also I'm grateful for the council that we unanimously voted. to put a moratorium because I know is a concern amongst the community and This to me seems like we're listening So this is step one and I'm hopeful that I certainly have my opinion, but obviously you want to wait till we do the research and have that thorough conversation Thank you.

I think it also just said, you know, I've been on I was on the council. I've been mayor for a while Normally when we do a moratorium, it's usually it's almost always for a six-month period, and then they could always make it a year. Here, the council did a full 12 months right off the bat. So, okay, the most important thing is we need to hear from the folks that showed up here. I've got four public comment sheets. The last one is via Zoom. So we've got Gail Mailer. It's okay, Gail. As you make your way, I'll announce the others. Ryan Lee will follow. Then Jenna... Karofsky Weeb, or Weeby, and then Sarah Lee on Zoom. All right, Gail.

Hi. It's Gail Mahler, and thanks for having me tonight. Hello to everybody. I've been trying to educate myself regarding data centers since I heard that this was coming up for discussion. And I kind of learned a bit about the smaller ones that use the small chips, and they basically use cooling, air, a lot of electricity, versus the AI data centers. that can be quite large. They have super hot chips, and they have a lot of them. And those are the ones that seem to use water and a lot of water. So as I was trying to do some research, I was interested to come across an evaluation where they talked about climate risk. And FEMA rates some of these data centers as really high risk in terms of climate. And I just want to talk about that a few minutes. The climate risk for data centers refers to the potential threats posed by climate related events. And many data centers are located in areas that are vulnerable to these hazards, making them susceptible disruptions and increased expenses. And that could be vulnerability issues, 80 percent of global data center capacity faces heightened climate risk affecting the reliability and operational costs. It could be location risks, 54 percent of global climate events or Data capacity is situated in regions that are prone to natural disasters, and we're sure seeing a whole lot more of those these days. Long-term impact, the risk of climate change events is expected to accelerate. Projections indicating that one-fifth of data centers could face a significant climate risk by 2050. And operational challenges, extreme weather, can lead to increased cooling costs, potential downtime, and impacting service delivery. And as they seem to be planned now, They're really focusing on growth, and climate is really kind of a secondary issue that's not being considered a lot. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute indicated that in 2023, data centers consumed 4.4 percent of U.S. electricity, and it's expected to go to 12 percent by 2030, a few years away.

Anyway, there's currently... You can finish your thought.

Oh, well, there's currently about 3,000 in the United States, and there's 1,500 that are in the process of being planned. And so I just want to raise that because we're experiencing a lot of issues with fires, floods, et cetera. I'm not particularly worried about that necessarily in a federal way, but as things move out, so... I'd like that we could consider that.

Thank you. Thank you. Ryan Lee.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Ryan Lee. I've been a resident of Federal Way for about four and a half years now. I'm a software engineer by trade, and I would like to thank the Council for having instituted this moratorium. It may surprise you that I am also in support of continuing whatever it looks like in the future to continue restricting having data centers of the size and scale that we may be talking about. I'd like to get into a little bit about why. The data center is not usually something that makes money for these corporations. It is on the negative side of the ledger. It costs money to run it, and the profit comes from the software or the ads that are running on the software that run inside the data center. But the data center itself is not usually the part that is actually making money. In order to make that work, you want to make that part, in business experience, you want to make that part cost as little as possible. To do that, you probably want to run it somewhere where the environment is cool, the environment is dry, the utilities don't cost very much, you have a favorable tax environment. Federal Way doesn't really seem to fit the bill too well for that. You see where data centers are placed today. They're in Virginia, Georgia, Texas. On this coast, they're in Oregon. Even in the state, they're not here in Federal Way. They're not really too much in King County. They're mostly, as has been said earlier, in Quincy, where things are colder, things are drier, and electricity is cheaper. So I don't think anybody is actually looking to put a data center in Federal Way. I think we've heard no one has actually asked to do so yet. So to attract someone here to do that, I think you'd have to make some sort of terrible concessions on the taxes, on the electrical rates, just for anybody to look at Federal Way as a place to put something of the size of scale that we've been discussing. And that doesn't seem like a good idea to me. It's already not going to bring you much money because it's not a profit center. Yeah, this just doesn't seem like a good idea to try to grab for that kind of industry when they're probably not even looking here in the first place. So I would encourage the council and staff to continue doing the research. It sounds like you're on the right track to me. But, yeah, I hope to hear where we're going in a year, and I hope it's to keep data centers out of Federal Way. Thank you. Thanks, Ryan.

Jen and Karadosky, Wiebe.

Good evening, Mayor Farrell, esteemed council. I'm Jenna Karadosky-Wiebe. I'm a 30-year Federal Way resident, and I'm here to also ask that As you deliberate and do the research, you look at making this moratorium permanent. We know that across the nation, communities are experiencing noise pollution, polluted water, and increased energy bills. We know that our grid is stressed. We know that because every time the temperature goes above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, I get a text from PSE asking me not to charge my devices or cool my house. And a remarkable thing has happened across the nation as communities face the idea of data centers, and that is that across the political spectrum, people are opposing this in their communities. So Federal Ways at a Crossroads, we not only have an opportunity to protect our environment, to protect the decibel rates in our community, to protect our power bill, but to make a decision that across the nation we are seeing has bipartisan support. And that is something I think that our council would love to do. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Okay, we've got Sarah Lee via Zoom. Sarah, can you hear us?

I can, can you hear me?

Not Siri, Sarah.

Sarah, the floor is yours. Thank you. Yes, my name is Sarah, and I'm a homeowner in Federal Way. And I want to also thank Council for enacting a temporary moratorium on data centers in Federal Way. I'm asking you to make that moratorium a permanent ban on large-scale data centers. Industrial data centers have no data showing they contribute to the well-being of their host communities in any meaningful way. Time and again, study after study has shown They only provide a few long-term jobs while increasing utility rates for water and electricity for their neighbors. They increase the demand for both utilities, but there is a limited supply, so while they get breaks on their usage, we have to make up the difference. And if a data center disconnects from the grid to use its backup power, It can cause a sudden disruption in the energy flow of the whole grid, and that can cause a cascading failure across multiple states. We've seen what that looks like in Texas when the grid goes down. We've had issues here. We don't need any more chances for that to happen. That can also happen to water infrastructure too. It can disrupt our water pressure, our sewage systems. Sometimes data centers outright steal more water than they're allowed. We're in a drought here in Washington and water is a precious resource. What happens in emergencies like we had last winter? Who's paying for the upgraded infrastructure required to prevent these issues? I certainly don't want my taxes to go to supporting a data center that's only here to take our resources and turn a profit for someone else. So please make the moratorium a permanent ban on resource guzzling, environmentally dangerous, large-scale data centers to protect all residents and businesses in federal way. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. And then Gordon Buck. Mayor, we also have someone else on Zoom. Okay, great.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. This is not a topic I could have not said something about. I've had over 25 years in IT experience, worked in data centers, and worked at Microsoft. I think a lot of the comments here are very well intended, very well thought out. The impact of the power. The cost of building a data center, if there is a company that wants to build a data center here, there's a strategic reason for it. It's generally cheaper to build in Quincy or Utah or Texas or some other region where power may be a little bit cheaper. So that strategy is really kind of important, and it could impact jobs. I don't know. What I wanted to come up here and say is I think the city has a great approach. When I listen to city planner, when I listen to your moratorium to really understand the issue, understand the whys and what the impact will be, I want to thank you for taking a thoughtful approach on this and making sure that there's a net positive for the citizens of Federal Way. So it's a complex issue. I want to acknowledge that. There's a lot of risk, but there could be some rewards as well. I don't think it's a net negative. But I just wanted to say that and commend you for taking some time to really think it out. So thank you.

Thank you. All right. That concludes a public comment for this. Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Peter Garcia.

Peter Garcia. Peter Garcia, can you unmute your mic?

Yeah. Hello? Yeah, we can hear you.

Awesome. Um, yeah, I would like to talk about the drug use and the homelessness that's going on in Federal Way. I took my son this morning to Chick-fil-A for breakfast, sat inside. And while we're sitting inside, we look outside and there's drug usage being used around the kids. And then every morning as I'm driving to the light rail station, I take that right off of 312 and go by the old little Walmart. And then I take that left and then take another right. And then there's a homeless man that's there and there's garbage is being piled up on the sidewalk. I think it's, it's being a real issue. You know, it's coming. It's almost like seeing it coming from like Seattle since the light rail has been here. But the issue that I'm having is I feel like no one's doing anything about it. So I just wanted to bring awareness to the situation I'm in and let you guys know that we're seeing this.

Okay. Is that it, Peter?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you very much for that. And stay on the line just for a second. Okay. Council President, you said you know where this is?

Yes, the gentleman has been there for a number of weeks at this point.

What location?

That's right. Town Square Park. Oh, on the east side.

That's right. I got that picture.

It's the same person I told you about. I was hoping we could connect them with services.

That's right. Chief, we talked about this. Peter, I just want to let you know that I actually spoke with the chief about this very issue yesterday. Chief, what can be done? I know that you and I spoke about this issue. Council Member Hamilton brought it up. People are seeing this. Can you tell us what's going on with that individual or at least why we keep seeing that repeated violation on the east side of Town Square Park on that sidewalk?

Yeah, when you brought it to my attention Saturday, our special operations unit went to that location and had the person leave. For whatever reason, he likes to stay at that sidewalk by the transit center, so we will continue to address it. I want the caller and others to know that We are very active in addressing illegal criminal activity, particularly with drug activity. Every month I get a report and we are continuing to do drug enforcement and no doubt The situation has improved in terms of what's happened the last two years or so. We used to have a lot of open drug usage, and once the law changed, we were able to begin enforcement activity. You don't see people huddled with umbrellas, you know, openly doing drugs. You don't see that, but I will tell you that we're still in a drug epidemic. The problem isn't completely over. But we don't tolerate in Federal Way. We do take enforcement, and we'll continue to do that. Because where we're located is a city, you really can't go north or south without going through Federal Way. We have I-5, Pacific Highway, very robust public transportation. So we have people come here. So with our businesses, it draws people. So there's a certain level of criminal activity, but we're not tolerating it. Our patrol officers and our special operations, you know, are continuing to conduct enforcement activities. So I think the conditions have improved significantly over the years, but we have more work to do.

Okay. If you could let your patrol know, obviously, about that location that Peter was talking about right there at the Chick-fil-A. And remember, we had that issue right next to or right behind the nearby Starbucks as well that I think has been very much addressed. So, you know, it's a little bit of a moving target, but it's important to hear that.

We're not going to allow the – now that I'm aware of it, we're not going to allow the person to live on the sidewalk. We'll address it.

Okay, thank you. And Peter, if you're still listening, keep letting us know about it. And also to the folks out here, please let us know what you're hearing and seeing, and we'll take care of it and do our best to get people back on the right track. Okay, now back to this, the public hearing. Council Member Walsh, do you have a motion just with regard to the public hearing?

Yeah, I move to close the public hearing. Second.

There's been a motion and a second to close the public hearing. Is there any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? It closes unanimously at 8.34 p.m. Okay, thank you very much. Item 7, we're on to a number of second readings. Item A, second reading and enactment for Council Bill 943 for an ordinance residential parking code amendment for the city center core and city center frame zones. Would the city clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council bill nine four three ordinance residential parking code amendment for city center core and city center frame zones in ordinance of the city federal way Washington relating to residential parking requirements in the city center core and city center frame zones amending federal way revised code 19, two, two, five, zero five, five 19, two, two, five, zero seven, zero 19, two, two, five, zero seven, five and 19, two, three, zero zero six zero.

Council Member Walsh.

I move to approval of the proposed ordinance.

Second.

There's been a motion to second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The matter passes unanimously. We're on to item B. Second reading and enactment. Council Bill 933, Ordinance Condemnation for Pacific Highway Non-Motorized Corridor 16th Avenue South. Parenthetically, it reads South 308th Street to South 288th Street Project. Would the City Clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council Bill 933, Ordinance. An ordinance of City 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 308th Street to South 288th Street project, describing the public use and necessity of such property, directing staff to exhaust reasonable negotiation efforts to 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 very much. Council Member Walsh.

I move approval of the proposed ordinance.

Second.

It's been a motion. A second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Matter passed unanimously. Item C, second reading in the APMEC, Council Bill 944, Ordinance, Rough Grading Code. Would the City Clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council Bill 944, ordinance. An ordinance of the City of Federal Way of Washington relating to providing for a rough grading permit amending Federal Way revised code 19-25050, 19-12080, and 19-120110. All right. Council Member Walsh.

I move approval of the proposed ordinance.

Second. It's been a motion to second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? The matter passes unanimously. Item D, second reading and enactment, Council Bill 945, Ordinance, Sign Code Amendments. Would the City Clerk please read the ordinance title?

Council Bill 945, an ordinance of the City of Federal Way Washington relating to updates to the sign code amending Federal Way Revised Code 19-140-060, 19-140-065, 19-140-075, and 19-140-125. All right. Council Member Walsh.

I move approval of the proposed ordinance.

Is there a second? Second.

It's been a motion and a second. Is there any discussion?

Yes. Council Member Hamilton.

as far as the sign code amendment goes I would like to offer a technical amendment to the ordinance before final adoption and maybe we can talk about that but I don't think the city intended to distinguish between different types of houses of worship and I noticed in the ordinance under land use under the the tables it says church and it just says church and so I would like to make sure our terminology reflects all religions, and so.

Church or house of worship?

Well, I have an amendment, if I can.

Let's have a ruling by Ryan Cole.

Well, so I do believe, and I see Evan walking up, that our intent was to change. We caught that, too. Church was in a few different areas, and we meant to catch them all and change them to the term house of worship, I believe is what we were using. So I believe that's an oversight.

It's in the ordinance right now.

I believe there's actually going to be an opportunity because if you're referring to the use charts, the land use charts, we're soon going to be bringing to council an ordinance that will include every land use chart or almost every land use chart with the church, what's currently named as the church use, with the parking reform ordinance. There will be an opportunity through that ordinance if this one moved forward to make that correction as part of the parking reform ordinance, since we're basically including every one of those church use charts in that ordinance in a couple months.

Let me get a ruling here. Ryan, can we amend this now?

No, we can not pass it. And that's fine.

Is there an opportunity to amend it later, is what you're saying? Because I want to make sure that we're not just saying church. Because right now, this ordinance only applies to churches, not temples, synagogues, mosques, and other houses.

So as Evan was saying, the intent was to change all of these definitions the next time we are addressing the table. So this is how it was phrased originally. We didn't make this change. This time. It predates. So our intent is to do it holistically in the next batch.

Do you have a recommendation with regard to, I mean, should we?

There's probably a lot of other errors that we did not address in this ordinance. So our intent was not to, we're going to handle it at the next one, I believe is the plan.

And when is the next one?

When is the next one? So the parking, if it's through the parking reform ordinance, that should be to council within a couple of months. And we also try every year or two to bring to council a code cleanups ordinance.

But this one has the incorrect language in it.

The incorrect language has always been in the code is the problem. So we didn't change it is the issue.

So am I not able to make an amendment to this?

I don't know if this is the only thing that it affects is the issue.

All right. So would it be advisable to pull it at the stage and to fix it? I don't advise you to pull it. I'm sorry, what?

I do not advise you to pull it, no. Like I said, it's been this way in the code for almost 20 years, so we're going to fix it the next time we have a chance to address that table. So that's my recommendation.

All right. Council, Council President?

And that we would fix it in – We would fix it in about two months.

That's my understanding.

And it would fix this.

Well, because I don't have the full sign code ordinance in front of me, if you're referring to a reference to churches, specifically in the sign code, because I know there were other parts of code that were also touched in the sign code ordinance. So if you refer to the use charts, which I believe do say churches, et cetera, and that's how they're named, those will all be coming to council with the parking reform ordinance. Right now, we didn't intend to bring any aspect of the sign code ordinance to counsel with the Parking Reform Ordinance. But if there's a reference to the church land use tables, in the sign code ordinance. I would have to see it in front of me to confirm that. How they are referenced in the land use tables, I believe right now it says churches, et cetera, which is an odd phrasing that's always been that way in our code. So we're going to be bringing, with the parking reform ordinance, every land use chart that has the church use within a couple of months when that ordinance moves forward out of committee.

And I would like to add just, As politically insensitive and kind of absurd it is to call it churches, et cetera, we've always interpreted that phrase to mean all places of worship. So you're correct, it shouldn't be phrased that way, and it's our intent to change it.

I don't see et cetera. I just see church.

Which one are you looking at?

I'm looking at... Table 2, standards for all residential zones.

Yeah.

So the table, sir. It just says church, period. That's it. It doesn't say et cetera. I'm just worried about the technicality of this.

Brian? So the technicality is not an issue, but it is politically insensitive.

So should we not be politically insensitive, I guess, is what I'm asking.

it's mike it's our goal to to fix it it isn't before you tonight to be fixed is the problem but we we could pull that uh... brandon java uh... we were just talking before so in when i was director church came up and so it was always plied to church to be a house of worship we don't have and others to be in that umbrella of houses of worship house of worship i don't believe is defined in the code so if you made the change now it really would kind of be undefined but so The fact that church is throughout the code, it covers the interpretation by the director means that that includes other houses of worship and not just church. So the fix is more to be more respectful, and that is what we're intending to do with the next change. But for purposes of this ordinance, it doesn't affect the legality of it.

I do think it's important to be sensitive especially when we're talking about religion and inclusiveness and so if you're not recommending that I make this amendment now I'll follow that advice but I would like to make sure this gets changed And what I would suggest, I won't make the motion tonight, I guess, but what I would suggest is to strike the word church and just put in religious facilities.

All right. Okay. Thank you. Council President?

I would suggest that we go ahead and pass it tonight but have a date that this comes back to us for a change, that we know that it's coming back within the next two months, which is what you're telling us.

If the vehicle for that was the parking reform ordinance, but we could certainly initiate a very small targeted separate ordinance just focused on this correction. It's also worth noting we have a separate code cleanups ordinance in the works that we're going to be bringing to council. This is a natural fit for the code cleanups ordinance to fix things like this.

And this will be coming before the end of the year?

I don't have an exact timing on that. I know there have been higher priority things in the pipeline, but it could be moved up to the top of the list if need be. Or, again, we could break out a separate ordinance and just have one ordinance to you soon that just addresses this issue.

I just don't want it to be forgotten and that it goes to the bottom of the list. You know, we always hear that there's priorities and sometimes the things that council – are concerned about sometimes drop to the bottom. And since this seems it's a concern, and it's a very good concern, I agree with Councilmember Hamilton. I don't want it forgotten. So I would like it to be addressed sooner than later.

I will talk immediately to our planning manager, as well as the community development director. And they'll definitely have those concerns expressed.

Thank you. All right, Council Member Moore.

Yeah, I mean, I appreciate that Council Member Hamilton caught that and saw that and saw the lack of inconsistency there, but what I'm hearing is that it'll be covered in a future meeting where there's going to be a cleanup on all sorts of things to make sure everything's consistent is the way I kind of understand it.

Yeah, it's not in there right now. It's a very easy addition. That's a very specific, easy addition to the code cleanups ordinance.

Right, and that... Yes. So I'll leave my comment at that. So I think this is procedural. I mean, I see that as pretty normal, but I appreciate the fact that you got that. So thank you.

Okay. Council Member Rousseff. Okay.

Is it practical to have that code cleanup ordinance before us before the end of the year?

IN MY PERSONAL OPINION, I THINK THAT IS PRACTICAL. I THINK WE CAN MAKE THAT WORK. WE CAN GET IT TO YOU AS SOON AS WE NEED TO. IT'S ALREADY BEEN DRAFTED ESSENTIALLY. IT JUST NEEDS TO GO THROUGH THE NORMAL REVIEW PROCESS AND THEN GET TO A HEARING AND COMMITTEE AND COUNCIL. OKAY. THANK YOU.

BRIAN, WERE YOU GOING TO SAY SOMETHING? NO. OKAY. ALL RIGHT. BRIAN, DID YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD?

NO. WE DO HAVE A FRONT BOARD THAT WILL COVER THIS, SO IT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN.

OKAY. ALL RIGHT. Okay, there's been a motion, a second, and a quite vigorous discussion. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right, matter passed unanimously. All right, now we're on to council reports. Council Member Sepedosin.

Thank you, Mayor. And, yeah, I appreciate the Human Services Commission, the email that we received and them reading the letter. uh... boys and men commission and i think it's i just wanted to talk about it because i'm a mother of three sons and uh... they happen to be black and so i've always made sure that they understand their values and their uh... ability to make positive change in the community so that was my main focus when they were uh... when they were growing up And I also wanted to live that by example. So actually, that's why I'm here on the council is one of the reasons how I just continue to do something to show them that this is doable. We can reach greatness. And I think it's, there's an elementary school in Rainier Beach where at the beginning of the school year, a group of African American men welcomed the students back to the school. And it's so important to see that others care about them. And that they're there to support them because especially in the black communities, you see that a lot of young boys are raised by their moms who are busy also. And so I do appreciate what they're trying to do with this because it's important. Education is important. Their mental health, their well-being is important. So I just like the idea of this. and so I just wanted to highlight what was brought up by the Human Services Commission, and I just want to say thank you to them for elevating this to us, and so thank you.

All right, thank you. Council Member Moore. That's it.

Thank you so much. Well, welcome back, everybody. I feel like it's been years since, never mind. It's only been a few weeks. I know you guys miss me. But it's good to be back, and it's good to hear the public comments as well. And before I go any further for personal privilege, I'm sad, Mayor. I'm sad because the kid that I held as a baby is now going to kindergarten for the first time. Wow. And I'm sure you remember Ben going to kindergarten for the first time, and I think my colleagues on the diets remember their kids going off to kindergarten. And let me tell you, my son is absolutely ready. There's a lot of learning he's going to be doing, a lot of do's and don'ts uh so uh but i'm very it's a it's an interesting moment it's like a bittersweet um moment it's it's it's quite special so uh lucky for for us uh this can be the boohoo breakfast tomorrow at uh green gables so i'm very happy that my little guys can be a little gecko um so that's funny and fun um so that's that and uh mayor you'll be pleased to know that i have i'm a pta dad So I was rushing home to tell Sarah so that she wouldn't have to sign up, that we've already signed up and we're going to get involved in the PTA, and I'm looking forward to it. So that's that. And I appreciate the public comments tonight, so thank you to those that came and spoke. Appreciate your words of wisdom through the poem as well, Bob. So that's always beautifully said. And I appreciate all the comments about the data center. And I just value that. I will say that one of the topics I think we need to, and I think we have been talking about it, but when I was on the board for Fusion, one of the projects they're going to be working on, and I was very grateful that Jack spoke and kind of gave a little update. But one of the things that they're studying and have actually got state funding to do so is youth homelessness. And so they're going to be talking about that. I know that some on this dais have spoken about youth homelessness. But I think it's a real serious thing. And I think the amount of time we spend talking about homelessness is the amount of time we need to spend talking about youth homelessness. And so a real huge challenge. You know, I know that we're starting to see a lot more homeless people. I shouldn't say a lot more, but we're seeing homeless individuals out and about. And so they are human beings. They do deserve to be treated with dignity and care. I'm confident that our PD is offering them services and help that they need with respect and whatnot. So that's that. It is interesting because I have seen more and more of them. So it's always a dilemma of how do we solve the problem and do it in a very thoughtful, compassionate way as well. Let's see. The other thing I wanted to kind of mention is in the news, we might have been hearing about voting and mail-in voting. I will say that we have a ballot box right here at City Hall. And there's one, I believe, at the King County Library, if I'm not mistaken. So, you know, we have 60 days, 60 days. two days to vote, I would highly encourage people to just drop their ballots in the Dropbox. There's a lot of questions going on about mail-in, and I know our Secretary of State is working really hard, and I know that we're all committed to making sure that everybody exercises their right to vote and has the accessibility. to vote as well. So I will leave it at that. And on that, I will hand it back to you, Mayor. Thank you. All right.

Thank you.

Council Member Hamilton.

Thank you, Mayor. I have a few events that I attended to report on. I attended the grocery outlet ribbon cutting. That was super fun, especially with Jack there with his nitrogen, whatever it is. I'm no scientist, but Jack is apparently. And I also attended the Summer Watercolor Festival at the PAC. Great opportunity to do some art together as a community at that event. And then a really special event, the Korean American Day. Lots of cultural performances during that event. It was a packed house at the PAC. And I'm a big fan of K-pop. And so they had a lot of K-pop performances. And it was just really a lot of fun. um attended the back to school haircuts at town square park hosted by bella rad and i gotta say kristen speakman just um she uh had this idea and and um it is making a difference in our community and helping kids go back to school in style and feel confident and when you have confidence that's everything Had a few constituent meetings. It's always good to hear from people one-on-one and to just talk about issues that they see. Also wanted to point out that we have a survey on our website as far as the red light cameras. And so surveys are only as good as their sample size. So we really need a lot of people to fill that out to get a good sample and to have, you know, meaningful information come out of that survey. So I would encourage our community to go to the website and fill that out and share their thoughts there. And, you know, I heard a public comment about the Pride event, and I just want to... say that I did come when the time was listed on my calendar. I'm more than happy to come at a different time, if that's a better time to come for that event. The event said 12 to 5, and I was there at 12. And maybe the event hadn't started yet. Maybe they were running late. I'm not sure. But again, if there's a better time to come, please let us know, and we'll come at a different time. And then on a personal note, I dropped my daughter off at Gonzaga Law School. and went to Spokane, and that was a fun trip. And just rooting for her to do well and get through her first year and have fun learning about the law.

That's right. That's right. All right.

That's it. I end my report.

All right. Go Bulldogs. All right. Councilmember Walsh.

Hey, just kind of going back to the volunteerism thing, Martin, Joining the PTA, that is a great volunteer organization. And once again, the volunteerism is so critical and Federal Way is awash with great volunteers, and I appreciate that. I was gone for about nine days out of state, and so I missed some of the events. I was here for the Korean American Day celebration. And it was great. Before that, to be honest, I'm not up as much on pop culture, but I wasn't even sure what K-pop was. Sorry about that. But it was very, very, very good. And I loved the fusion of the traditional Korean dances with the modern also. And the pack was packed. So, anyway, great. And great, you know, hats off to the great Korean American community here in Federal Way, another great part of our culture. And with that, it's good to be back, and that's my report.

Very good. Thank you. Council Member Sessoms.

Thank you, Mayor. Yeah, it is good to be back, and I'm looking forward to many of the events that we discussed tonight, in particular the coffee with the council on September 19th. I hope to see everyone there, and I'm looking forward to that big time. I really enjoyed the presentation on the Booker House. feel that it is an asset to our community and I hope that we can build on the successes and maybe next time as we hear about the reports of progress made with occupancy maybe we can hear even more about the outcomes I'm very optimistic that we will realize some of the good outcomes that the initial proposals made. I'm really looking forward to working with the council to make sure that we are providing the support and we're being good stakeholders in support of that. Sound Transit and the OMF Operation maintenance facility, I think that is going to be huge 600 jobs coming to our community Making sure that those jobs pay livable wages Let's look at You know what they built in Bellevue in Seattle when they built those facilities. Can we model our plan after theirs because I'm pretty sure they use the construction trades and they use the pre apprenticeship models let's get them empowered to bring in or let's get organizations like the RPAC organization and the what they're doing at the Federal Way High School as far as pre apprenticeship programs let's make sure that they have the workers we've got While waves closing or has closed those youth are going to need opportunities, and we need to make sure that they're there I Hadn't heard about the survey for the red light camera, so thank you councilmember for bringing that to my attention I was recently in New Mexico for a visit with my mother-in-law and I they have a program there, a very successful program, a red light camera program, where it's flush with money. And that's a good problem to have because their problem is money is coming in so fast, they don't know what to do with it. that's a good problem to have so maybe we can come up with something like that and let's see House Bill 2401 I'm all for that I started my career over 30 years ago working for a mentorship program at the time the organization was called Big Brothers of King County, and I was a case manager, and I made it my livelihood to go out and try to find mentors for young boys and men who needed to connect with older adult males who were positive role models. So I'm hoping that that is going to be a successful effort that the city can partner in in some way. But, yeah, that concludes my report. I want to thank everyone for their public comment. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Coachmark.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you to our staff who worked so hard all summer on all of the events that we had. Really a great job. So the mayor likes stories. I'm going to tell you a story. So if you look at your picture on the wall over there, I would imagine that that was what this area might have looked like about the middle 1800s when it was being homesteaded. 1873, they found gold in the stream in Liberty, Washington, which is up by Leavenworth. And so that was part of the start of the gold rush. We were the jumping off place for Alaska. 1889, I believe, we became a state. We joined the union. And can you imagine that the legislators had to ride horses or go on a horse with a wagon to a schoolhouse, I believe, in Olympia to pass their first statehood bills? You know, what they're... At that time, they weren't worried about what we worry about. They were worried about education. And so that was the primary focus of the state and has been ever since is education. That's their primary mission. And the reason I'm telling you this is I'm getting around to what the primary mission of the city is, which has been since the beginning, which is public safety. And so that is our primary goal in this city. And I'm very proud of some of the work that we've done on public safety in this city, particularly since my daughter's a nurse, lives in the University District, and is telling me what's happening in Seattle and what's spilling over into the neighborhoods there. And it's pretty worrisome. You know, so... I think that we need to be very proud of what we've done as a community with all of our volunteers and our multiple places of worship. Because I used to say we had a church in every corner. But I think that there's more work to be done, and I think that if we come together as a community, we'll continue to do that and help those people that need help, help them to move forward. And I think that that's very, very important. I would like to know at some point, maybe in one of the committee meetings, a report on the massage parlors, how we're doing with those. I was wondering the other day. And then... I think that what my final thing I'd like to say is that if you'll all read the mayor's Next newsletter he'll tell you all about Metro flex and so if you weren't at our meeting prior to the council meeting you might be very interested in hearing about what Metro flex is and how it's going to affect you in the neighborhoods and how you're going to be able to call up a car through Metro and have it take you to places around the city such as light rail Thank You mayor.

All right. Thank you. That's president Honda.

Thank you. I So the haircutting event at Town Square Park, I volunteered for the fourth time. And the non-haircutting volunteers, we had way more than we needed this year, but that was good. And it's not just Bella Red Salon, but it's Castaway Beauty Salon too. So there's the two women who started it. And there was one little boy who was in line for a while. With his sister, he was a little shy about getting his hair cut. He was so cute. Oh my gosh, he was going into preschool. And he got his hair cut, and he walked by me, and he was going like this. And oh, he was just adorable. Anyway, it's always a great event. And I'm sure that they'll be doing it next year, too. And it was a beautiful day. We had a magician. There was ice cream, coffee. uh the splash park the kids were playing it was a beautiful day uh the qantas golf tournament is friday september 11th it's at the old north shore golf course now it's called cedar iron irons golf course and if you can't attend i would encourage you to get i don't golf um i was going to start golfing and then i got hurt so I'm lucky I can walk, but a foursome? Are you going to golf this year?

Perhaps, yes.

Perhaps, yes?

Perhaps.

Awesome. I know the city has a team, and the city's team's been very good in the past. So, yeah. So, okay. Anyway, I hope you all turn out. We still are looking for people to golf, and the money that we raise goes towards children here in Federal Way and around the region. So I would encourage you to come. I have been working with Jan Barber on the sharps container issue. And this is a public health issue and an environmental issue. But I do have a new idea I'd like to throw to you, Mayor. And I will do that maybe tomorrow if we have time to talk. It does not. have the lobby involved. But I talked with the pharmacy today, and they are willing to help us with an idea that I have. So I'm hoping that you will agree to it, because it's a safe idea. It's going to solve some issues. And tomorrow, school starts, at least here. So drive safely. Please use Know the law when it comes to stopping for a bus. And please stop so that everyone is safe. And let kids use crosswalks safely. Don't be in a hurry. Children are children. And we need to make sure that they all get to school safely. So thank you very much.

Hear, hear. And with that, we're adjourned. Thank you, everybody.