City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. We are having technical difficulties. So if you're watching online, it is not your system. It is our system that is broken. So we regret that you cannot see us tonight, but you should be able to hear us. So I call the Gig Harbor City Council meeting of Monday, March 23 to order and ask assistant city clerk Aliment to please call the roll.

Councilmember Coronado. Here. Councilmember Eckberg.

Here.

Councilmember Martin. Here. Councilmember Rodenberg.

Here.

Councilmember Stone. Here. Councilmember Tessichini.

Present.

Councilmember Almond is excused.

Thank you. Please rise and join us for the pledge of allegiance. Before we begin this council meeting, we would like to acknowledge that we are gathered on not only the ancestral and traditional lands of the Squabash Band of the Puyallup tribe of Indians, but also on the site of one of the largest and longest standing historic villages of their people, the original inhabitants of the Gig Harbor area. Counselor, are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, tonight we have two presentations, and the first is to proclaim April as child abuse prevention month.

Whereas every child deserves to grow up in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment where they can thrive and reach their full potential, and whereas child abuse and neglect remain serious public health and social challenges that impact children and families in communities across the nation, including ours, and whereas preventing child abuse requires a collective commitment from families, neighbors, educators, health care providers, law enforcement, and community organizations working together to create environments where children are protected and supported, and whereas raising awareness about child abuse prevention strengthens our community by encouraging early intervention, promoting family support services, and ensuring that caregivers has have access to the resources they need to raise healthy and resilient children. And whereas the city of Gig Harbor recognizes and values the ongoing efforts of the Peninsula School District, first responders, health care providers, and community based organizations who work every day to support children and families and respond to their needs with care and compassion. And whereas through strong partnerships and a shared commitment to community well-being, Gig Harbor continues to advance efforts that promote youth safety, mental health, and family and family stability. And whereas April is recognized nationally as child abuse prevention month, symbolized by the blue pinwheel, representing the happy, healthy childhood every child deserves.

And during this month and throughout the year, residents of Geek Harbor are encouraged to support efforts, strengthen families, raise awareness of prevention resources, and foster a community culture where every child is valued and protected. Now, therefore, I, Mary Barber, mayor of the city of Gig Harbor, do hereby proclaim April 2026 as child abuse prevention month and encourage all residents, businesses, and community organizations to join in promoting the safety, well-being, and bright future of every child. And we are not presenting that to anyone tonight, so we will just continue. But I think we can all agree that preventing child abuse is a cause we can all get around. And the city will be placing blue pinwheels around the city during April as a reminder of this important month.

So when you see those, think about what you can do to support children in our community. And please support the cause however you are able to do so. So our next presentation is from representatives of our youth council, and I would like to welcome Kim Bourndt and Alexis Morgan to the podium to give us an update on what they are working on.

Hi. I'm Alexis Morgan, and I am the chair of the mayor's youth council. I am also a senior at Gick Harbor High School. Hi. I'm Kim.

I'm a member of the youth council, and I'm a senior at the Science and Math Institute of Tacoma. Our update today will be about our youth summit. We have all voted to change the focus to youth mental health because we see that in our community, there's a growing need for mental health services. The youth council also decided that the summit will be led, designed, and executed by youth. We hope to have a speaker engaging workshops and spaces for teens to gather.

The event will be held 05/30/2026 from 11AM to 1PM here at the Civic Center, and marketing materials will be going out very soon. On top of that, we're also looking for businesses, organizations oh, businesses and organizations that would like to be involved or support the event in any way they can. So if you guys have any ideas, please have them reach out to Shay. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Does council have any questions for these ladies? Great. Thank you. I'm so impressed with the work you guys are doing. Councilmember Rodenberg.

I guess I do have I do have a question. What is this going to cost?

To attend? Or

No. To put to present put on. You asked for support, and I didn't know if that meant financial support or if it it was something you needed.

Do you guys want me to take this one? Yes. Okay. Thank you, councilmember Rosenberg. We currently have a budget set aside, and we have a lot of really big fun ideas of ways that we want this to be entertaining and entice the youth to want to be able to come. So we are working within that budget, but if we have different businesses who either wanna sponsor in different ways to reach out and we can talk about it, whether it's an in kind donation or a financial donation. We would love for anybody who would love to partner so our budget can go as far as possible.

Thank you. That's what I wanted to know.

Councilmember Coronado.

Yes. Hey. What kind of incentives are you trying to get to use to people who go there? I have inside scoop on some ice cream if you would like to get that connection.

Well, we definitely had the idea of food because teens, food driven. Yeah. Candy is very enticing as well. Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. Entertainment, some fun decorations, yeah, and cool activities.

Excellent. I'll get I'll get in touch with Shay and try and make that connection happen then.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. I now welcome public comment on the consent agenda items. If there was anyone in the room who wishes to speak on the consent agenda, please come to the podium now. Or if you're on Zoom and wish to speak about it, please press the raised hand button. This is for the consent agenda only. And I will now close public comment on the consent agenda and open it up for a motion from counsel.

I move that we approve the consent agenda. I'll second.

It was moved by council member Martin and seconded by council member Coronado to approve the consent agenda. If you could please vote on your screens or vote verbally if your screens aren't working. We're missing council member Tessichini.

Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. I think we see.

Okay. The motion passes. It came through. Motion passes six to zero. Thank you, counsel. So for my mayor's report, I wanna start with, happy spring, everyone. Hopefully, we've seen the last of the snow and the atmospheric rivers. I see our public works ops director nodding his head. The trees and the flowers are starting to bloom and are an amazing and wonderful sight to see. This Friday, we'll be dedicating the boat storage building at Ancich Park to the canoe and kayak team founder, Alan Anderson.

That event begins at 04:00. I hope everybody can join us to celebrate this wonderful man and all he has done for our community and especially for young people. We're also getting into the spring event season. I hope you're all signed up for next Saturday's fool's run. There will be minimal road closures downtown during the race, so check the city's website for information on the timing of those.

We're doing everything we can to keep them to a minimum. Also, mark your calendars for this year's Parks Appreciation Day on Saturday, May 2. You can sign up to help clean up Grandview Forest Park, Soundview Forest Park, or Wilkinson Farm Park on the on the morning of May 2. This is in conjunction with Penn Met Parks who there are additional parks that are Penn Met Parks. But it's a really fun way to bring on the spring season and get your family out doing lots of really fun activities.

And before I close, I wanted to acknowledge that a lot of us are going through a lot right now. There is a tremendous amount happening in the world that we can't control, and that's in addition to things we each have going on personally. So I just wanna remind everybody how important it is to remember all of that when you're around other people. Remember to relax, take deep breaths, and enjoy our beautiful surroundings even if it's just for a minute or two. And, as mister Rogers said, find the helpers if you need them.

And please, please, please, please be kind to others. Your words and your actions matter. To the together, we can make the world brighter. Finally, as we celebrate spring, I also wanna wish a happy Passover and a happy Easter to all who celebrate. Those are before both those holidays are before our next meeting. So I will now turn it over to the city administrator for her report.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, council. Couple of items to report to you this evening. First one that I wasn't intending to say, but staff has made progress today. You may know that we have a harbor arbor tree program where when we have trees in our parks that need to come down due to disease or rot, Rather than taking them down to the ground, we have artists come in.

There's several of them here in Grandview Forest Park. You may know that we will be removing several trees from Soundview Forest Park that are diseased and rotting. And there was a community member who has asked, can we leave those as snags to have, for future in the Harbor Arbor program? I'm happy to report that parks manager, Jennifer Harrow, has, spearheaded that with our staff here. And in the construction meeting that's later this week, we will be seeking to if they can leave the several snags there that can be turned into bears or honeybees or something like that that can create that whimsy in the park.

So I wanted to just pass that along to you that that is happening. I can get this to move. The Creative Endeavor grant program was launched in 2019. It's a program that supports art fairs, festivals, concerts, theatrical and dance performances, workshops, and other incentives, with the goal to fund as many new artistic programs within our community with as many individuals and organizations as possible. The funded projects make a clear public benefit and increase public access to the arts in Gig Harbor.

Annually, those applications are due to the Arts Commission in February. The city of Geek Harbor is announcing today that the Creative Endeavor Program is going to be named the Brandini Kililea Creative Endeavor Grant Program. Naming of this honors the lives of Joanne Brandini and Stephanie Kililea, who were both volunteers on our arts commission and died tragically on February 24. For these two souls that loved art so much, this felt like the best way that the city, the best way that their names can live on in perpetuity associated with art projects that are funded every single year through the grant program that they loved so much. So as of today, the Creative Endeavor Grant program is has been renamed in perpetuity the Brandini Kililea Creative Endeavor Grant program.

Can I just add to that that I spoke with both of their families this afternoon? And they are they wanted me to pass on their gratefulness for the community and support that they have received from everyone in the area and, evidently, also, some of them from around the world. They're hearing from people who are so appreciative of what they've done. Both of the spouses I spoke with today are really excited about this name change and think it's a wonderful way to honor their, like, their late wives.

Thank you, mayor. You may have noticed on Harbor Hill Drive, that some people may have at the but the base of it may be called the Scab Of Gig Harbor, where we have a stormwater pond there. You may see that there is work being done there and many hundreds of flags that are planted where shrubs and trees are going to soon be located. That work is ongoing and is in mitigation for the sports complex as well as trees that were, inadvertently removed from a private property owner during the construction of Harbor Hill Drive. Wanted to state right now if people see, for the public, they may see people out there working.

We are busy planting a 192 trees and 699 evergreen shrubs. So not to get ahead of ourselves, communications manager, Laurie, but there will be a from scab to fab eventually. It's a it's a really good beautification effort as

well

as putting our money where our mouth is in terms of our climate goals here in the city of Gig Harbor. So have fun watching that one while it while it goes. And then I've invited police chief Federici up to talk about the twenty twenty five award recipients from the police department.

Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council chief Trey Federici, Gig Harbor City Police Department. On 03/05/2025, we had our all hands, annual meeting. That meeting is multifaceted and allows us to accomplish several things. Those things range from recertific annual recertifications for CPR, AED, and some of our less lethal tools for service, as well as having guest speakers like our city prosecutor and representatives from the Pierce County prosecutor's office to cover things like legal updates, domestic violence updates, and emergency protection orders.

It also allows us to recognize officers who have gone above and beyond, the call for duty, and not only officers, but other members of our department from our support services personnel to our volunteers. This year, this year, in recognition of what was accomplished in 2025, support services person, Carrie Rowan, was recognized as our support services specialist of the year. Officer Matthew Bonzib was our top DUI producer for 2025. We were very proud of him. Chaplain Gary Rudd, who has been invaluable, especially in the current climate we're experiencing in the in the many episodes of mental health awareness in our community, he has been invaluable resource, and he was recognized as volunteer of the year.

The chief's award, which is solely based on, on it's very subjective to what I feel is going on in somebody who goes above and beyond, not just day to day law enforcement activities, but serves the department in in a lot of other ways. Officer Garrett Chapman was selected for that, so he, he got the chief's award. And we felt was a long overdue. Sergeant Joe Hicks was selected as officer of the year for 2025. And it's important to state other than the chief's award, these are awards that are selected by the peers within the organization.

So before every annual meeting, we put out a email and say, please nominate and explain a little bit of reason why you why you're nominating this person. And I will tell you that the the nominations were almost unanimous in every single category, so we were very proud of that.

And very lastly, you may have seen online or social media that there have been some complaints about people being pulled over in the harbor for speeding. I will say with the police chief here that he's done a wonderful job putting that call for service into the department. You may have seen in the News Tribune and also Gig Harbor Now, they're reporting on the amount of traffic stops that have been occurring this year, this time versus last. And I, to the officers that are making these stops, we're saying job well done. They're doing exactly what we're asking, and we are seeing slower, vehicles traveling slower within the city.

So just wanted to let you know that we heard you counsel and that we are doing that, and it is being noticed. That concludes my report. Thank you.

Thank you. And do keep that ticketing up. So we have two business items tonight. Both of those business items pertain to the Gig Harbor Sports Complex and our partnership with the YMCA. The first is the first is the first amendment to the Gig Harbor YMCA sports complex lease agreement, and I will turn it over to the parks manager, Jennifer Harrow, for her report.

Thank you, mayor Barber. Good evening, council. I'm Jennifer Harrow, park's manager. The draft services agreement before you provides a more detailed structure oh, I'm sorry. I'm working on the leases the lease part.

For this agenda item, staff is looking for approval on a proposed amendment to the existing lease agreement between the city and the YMCA of Pearson Kitsap counties. The lease was originally adopted in 2021 with edits completed in March 2025. The YMCA has requested a change to the lease regarding the capital reserve fund. They're requesting to be able to use income from field rentals to pay for operating costs for the fields and have asked that the services agreement and the lease be modified to allow this. The the requested change contradicts the lease, thus this amendment.

Section h I of the lease states, all rental fees collected by the tenant for use of the premises shall be placed in the capital reserve fund. The capital reserve fund will be used for maintenance, repair, and eventual replacement of the turf. Staff in the YMCA acknowledge the need to use field rental income to cover some operating expenses and not just maintenance and field replacement. The proposed lease amendment defines operating costs to include personnel, management software, and utility bills for the field rental program. Council reviewed the proposed lease amendment on at on March 12 at a study session.

The fields are very close to being completed with expected opening next month, and staff recommends authorizing the mayor to execute this amendment to the lease agreement in support of our ongoing partnership with the YMCA. Thank

you.

Council, are there any clarifying questions? I'm not seeing any, so I will open public comment on this agenda item. If you're in the audience and wish to speak, please come to the podium now. If you're on Zoom, please press the raised hand button. And seeing no one, I will close public comment on this item and open it for council deliberation and action. Council member Coronado.

I know it's a large investment, by the YMCA in the city and, into the community for these fields, and so I'm happy to see, the YMCA in the city working collaboratively to continue to move this forward. And so let me get the bill of the unit. Can I move to approve the thank you? Move to authorize them here to execute the first amendment to the Gig Harbor YMCA lease agreement?

Seconded.

So it was moved by council member Coronado and seconded by council member Stone to authorize the mayor to execute the first amendment to the Gig Harbor lease YMCA lease agreement. If you could please vote on your screen. And motion passes. Six to zero. Thank you, counsel. Our second business item is the services agreement with the YMCA for phase one of the Gig Harbor Sports Complex. And I'll again turn it back over to parks manager, Jennifer Harrow, for the staff report.

Thank you, mayor Barber. The draft services agreement before you provides a more detailed structure than the lease and defines responsibilities for the city and the YMCA for the ongoing maintenance and operations of phase one and one a and one b of the sports complex, now known as the Gig Harbor Sports Fields and Doris Heritage Park at the Gig Harbor Sports Complex. The two sites were designed to complement each other and provide a shared restroom and concession building. The draft services agreement defines the roles of the city and the YMCA in regards to operations of these facilities, including utilities, janitorial services, concession stand operations, field programming, city use of fields, financial obligations, etcetera. The city and the YMCA will meet quarterly for the first two years of the agreement to review how it's working, and we will be able to edit and adjust it as needed as long as both parties agree, and it will not cost the city additional money.

This version also contains the changes that were discussed at the January 15 and March 12 study sessions. It includes the update about operating expenses that were a part of the lease agreement that was just discussed. Those are the highlights of the services agreement. I'd be happy to answer any further questions about it, But staff recommends that counsel counsel authorize the mayor to execute this agreement. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any clarifying questions from counsel on this agreement? I am not seeing any, so I will again open public comment on this agenda item. Did you have clarifying or later? Okay. On this agenda item, if you are in the audience and wish to speak, please come to the podium now. If you are on Zoom, please press the raised hand button. And, again, I'm not seeing anybody, so I will close public comment and open it up for council deliberation and action. Council member Martin. I would echo council member

comments prior that the cooperation between the city and YMCA is just a really wonderful experience, and trying to bring our community together like this in a very helpful manner is what I think we're striving for. So thank you for that. So I would move to authorize the mayor to execute the services agreement with the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap counties for phase one of the Gig Harbor Sports Complex.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

It was moved by council member Martin and seconded by council member Rodenberg to authorize the mayor to execute the services agreement with the YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap counties for phase one of the Gig Harbor Sports Complex. And the motion has passed six to zero. Thank you, council. We have no staff reports tonight. We now welcome public comment for items not on the agenda tonight.

If you wish to comment about something, please come forward at this time, or press the raised hand button if you are on Zoom. I'm not seeing anybody who wishes to comment tonight, so I will now close public comment on nonagenda items and open it for council reports. Are there any reports from council tonight? Councilmember Coronado.

Yeah. Thank you, mayor. This last Thursday, I had the Pewter Sound Regional Council meeting, the Growth Management Policy Board, on March 19 where the discussion was around the recommendation of approval for three comprehensive plans for Seattle, the city of Pacific, and Bonney Lake. The conversation after that went to, the amending of the, regional growth centers and the redesignation of those where the recommendation ended up with an amendment to more thoroughly lay out the exceptions, needed for the the size and barriers of the regional growth plan. So the idea was to, put the threshold at one square mile, and so anything over that needed a condition associated with it.

Any, city with a growth area need a condition associated with it to bring it underneath that one square mile. So there was a fair amount of those that were part of that recommendation. After that, the conversation went to kind of upcoming items, including the, excuse me, the youth council pardon me. The youth council's youth planning academy, which is, going under in the summer, which has a stipend associated with it. I do believe we forward that onto our youth council to to solicit applications for the pardon me.

And the general assembly coming up in May, where the budget will be voted upon and new, chair and vice chair will be voted upon. And the Vision twenty fifty awards is out for an open call, and that goes through the end of, this month, the twenty seventh. I believe there is some good applications going in, and that was it for the Puget Sound Regional Council. Later that evening was the Pierce County Regional Council meeting where it was an open, conversation around small cities and kind of the barriers they're facing and opportunities, within the region to work collaboratively. There was a lot of good conversation on just issues with, smaller cities and staffing, and ways that Pewter Sound Regional Council could and Pierce County Regional Council could be benefit beneficial to those, jurisdictions.

Also, it continued to push for the the regional, ADU plan. I dropped that in there as well, hoping to kinda push that forward. Think that was kind of what the conversations for those two meetings revolved around, and happy to answer any questions or talk further offline. Thank you.

Thank you. Council member Stone.

Thank you, mayor. I try to do monthly harbor chats, open office hours, and this year have been trying to incorporate more of our council members one at a time. So last month, council member Martin was able to join me. And, next month on April 2, council member Coronado is gonna be joining me. So I will have information in the gigabyte with more details around time and location, but just wanted to make sure folks can save that on their calendar. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilmember Stone, Eckberg.

Thank you, mayor. At our last work study session, this council began a conversation on what we can do to act real improvement in economic development in our community. I regret only I couldn't be there in person and had to jump in while on the road, but I thought it was a a great start and a great conversation. I'm very optimistic about the things this council's talking about and looking for for the real long term that requires a sustained commitment, but it's a good it's a great start. And I just wanted to share, you know, one of the things that we had talked about was in the short term, what can we do?

And we talked to I talked about customer service, you know, people that are have projects going in the city now and how can we help them move those along because for a long time, the city had a reputation of being difficult to work with. And just in between then and now, I've had two conversations with different individuals that have projects going forward at this time, and both of them had nothing but positive things to say about their experience. So I wanted to share those comments that I heard back with staff, and, unfortunately, director Baker and director Langham already left. But, it was great to hear, so I wanna share. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other council comments? Councilmember Tessichini.

Yeah. On Thursday, I attended the Alliance for, Sustainable Climate Action and that, along with community development director Eric Baker. And so it just to kinda boil it down, there the it was my first meeting, so I was getting to know folks. There was three sections. The the main section and what the most time was spent on, it was a breakout into three different groups on one on buildings, transportation, and tree canopy.

And folks broke out, you know, came up with ideas, whatnot. But the overriding issue, I think, was looking for grants and other types of funding and what were some of the commonalities between those that could be used to leverage. People were talking about and there was a couple folks there that were actually experts in grant development and whatnot. And so it was it was very interesting. I'm gonna I don't wanna get into the weeds. There's no need for that. But it was it was really interesting to be the first timer on that. So so

Thank you. And I don't see any other hands raised. So there is a list of upcoming meetings attached to the agendas that are available at the back of the room or also that are available online. So we will now move into executive session for twenty minutes to discuss the potential acquisition of real estate per RCW four two .30.110 parenthesis one parenthesis I, and no action will be taken following the executive session.

The time is 06:27, and the executive session has been extended an additional ten minutes to 06:37PM. Time is 06:37PM. The executive session has been extended an additional five minutes. The time is 06:42PM, and the executive session has been extended an additional five minutes to 06:47PM.

We have returned from executive session. The time is 06:48. Could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?

Move to adjourn. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.