City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 06:30. The meeting will come to order. Good evening, and welcome to the 03/17/2026 Kennewick City Council meeting. Will the deputy city clerk please state who is present and whether a quorum is established?

Good evening. All council members are present except mayor McShane.

Pledge of allegiance. Council member, Trumbo, would you let us in the pledge?

Yes, sir.

I pledge allegiance to

the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Miss Gregory, would you lead us in an invocation?

That's loud. Okay. Heavenly father, thank you for these leaders and their love for our community. We know the power of prayer and the nature of leadership blessed when you are called upon. You call us to worship and allow you to lead. Trust in you while you're accomplishing your will and thwarting the enemy's schemes. You call us to take up our cross daily, put you first, endure joy while in the midst of struggles. We faced a huge struggle brought on by Olympia LRAs in our community. By your provisions and favor, this one was shut down. You know we are still facing strongholds along with new ones Olympia voted to remove our elected sheriffs and force homeless encampments.

We need your guidance, letting Olympia know the laws put on our communities are risks. Jesus, you redeemed people ruined by sin. The gift of faith is in you, lifts us up out of shame, darkness, and brings us together as a body of Christ. The gates of hell cannot overcome us, neither can the enemies defeat your sovereign purposes here in Kennewick. Give us wisdom on how to completely shut down the plan of MTM McNeil Island and placing them in our communities, how to stand against the state leaders that put criminals before community. Thank you, Lord, for bringing our community together against this evil. Equip each one of these leaders in a way of justice and truth that will bring glory to you. In Jesus' name.

Mayor McCain provided advanced notice of his absence. Is there a motion to excuse the absence? Mayor. Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Henderson.

I move to excuse Mayor McShane. Second.

It has been moved by Councilmember Anderson, second by Councilmember Beecham to excuse the absence of Mayor McShane. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion has been properly moved and second to excuse the absence of Mayor McShane. Will the deputy clerk please start the vote? Next on the agenda is visitors. Sorry.

We're still waiting for council member Trumbo.

And

that is unanimous. Next on the agenda is visitors. You are welcome to state your opinions on any topics except for election matters. The deputy city clerk will inform me has informed me there's no online visitors signed in to speak out. If, someone in the audiences wishes to speak, please raise your hand.

I'll go through the spiel real quick. Public comment period is not an opportunity for mutual conversation with council members or for posing questions with the expectation of an immediate answer. Council members will listen closely to your comments, but will not directly respond to you. The deputy city clerk business card is on the table near the door. If you need follow-up after the meeting, please reach out to them, and they will contact you with and put you

in touch with somebody who can help. When it's your turn, please come to the podium and state your name and city of residence before beginning your remarks.

Each person is permitted to speak once for a maximum three minutes. A three minute timer will be displayed on the screen and will start when you come to the podium. A total of thirty minutes is allocated for visitor comments. Deputy City Clerk will start the timer at the thirty minute mark now. And who would like to speak? Sir, I'll put you up first because you're closest.

Evening, and happy St. Patty's Day to are we progress made. And It's a neighborhood that doesn't know the meaning of the phrase there's nothing you can do. And there are all kinds of adjectives I can use to describe the women that led this fight. Beautiful, amazing, brilliant, fearless, devoted, devious, and vicious come to mind.

These women could give lessons to pit bulls, and I truly hope they never get mad at me. But we as a neighborhood didn't have a choice but to fight this fight. If our families and property aren't worth fighting for, then what is? You folks, and I'm addressing everyone in the city's administration, you did have choices when we were all blindsided by this insane threat of an LRA. You could have sat on your hands and shrugged your shoulders and done nothing. It is the law after all, and, again, there's nothing you can do. Right? Or you could have gone along with it. Some folks have even politicized this or possess a misguided notion of the phrase, everyone deserves a second chance.

Mhmm.

We fought this fight for our entire neighborhood, including those who chose party over prudence and did nothing to help. I'd suppose loyalty is a virtue as well, but so be it. This administration and council chose to do the right thing for us and the citizens in this community you represent. You took a courageous stand, and you said no. This isn't gonna happen in Kennewick.

We were here on February 17 and watched as each of you councilmen expressed in a very sincere and eloquent words, excuse me, your outrage and your dedication to defeating this insane proposal. Mayor McShane, we acknowledge and commend you for your outstanding leadership throughout the course of this nightmare and fully realize what an important role you all played in helping us achieve our goal of defeating us LRA. We've only fought a battle here. The war is on the horizon. Those who promote this law are not are a formidable force of politically motivated individuals whose ideology is not grounded in common sense, public safety or transparency.

It's also a money motivated, wasteful and dangerous law that has the potential to wreak havoc on the citizenry of the state and open the doors to corruption, fraud and even more importantly, destroyed lives. And it must be stopped. But from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Janet Romero, I reside in Kennewick. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the city for the support shown to our neighborhood during our efforts to oppose the proposed less restrictive alternative home for sexually violent predators in the 8th And Edison neighborhood of Kennewick. This was not an easy process. It required long nights, extensive research, community organization, a unified commitment to a shared goal. Throughout this effort, the support of city council members and city staff made a meaningful difference.

And for that, we are truly grateful. There were moments of exhaustion, uncertainty and setbacks along the way. However, our community remained resilient. We supported one another during difficult times and stayed committed to seeing this through. I firmly believe that you never know how strong you are until being strong is your only option. And this experience was a powerful example of that because giving up was truly not an option. I am proud to be part of this community and remain committed to advocating for long term changes to ensure that no neighborhood has to experience what ours did. Thank you again for your continued support.

Hi. My name is Tony Sabino from Kennewick. First, I echo what's been said here, before. I also wanna say that this thing has been stopped because everybody came together, but there's somebody I wanna point out, whether you're aware of it or not, the the house is currently in escrow and, will be closing soon here in the next week or so. But the person who made that possible, was a real estate agent that stepped up, didn't take a real estate commission.

To be honest with you, I couldn't even tell you the name of the company she worked for, because that's how unimportant it was to her to to get that recognition. She mainly just came out and said, I'll do whatever I can to help. So I just wanna recognize her, and her name is Kara Sutherland. And this is the young lady here. And I know this is not time for comments or anything from from you guys, but I just wanna say that for anybody out there in this audience or any any of you guys that need a realtor, she's a single mother.

She could use help. She's, you know, getting by. But so I just wanna say, and thank you to all of you guys who've put out the effort, who even though I know there were things that went on behind the scenes that we didn't see, it was important. And I would just express to you, please don't stop. I know there are things going on behind the scenes, but please don't stop because we don't wanna have to have this fight again.

We don't wanna have to deal deal with this LRA and and have to go through these issues. So please keep fighting. My name is Tony Sabino. All the ladies know how to get hold of me if you need to. I will be part of this fight if if you guys need somebody, or if there's anything I can do to help move this ball forward because this is not something we want in Kennewick or any of the Tri Cities. So thank you.

Hi. I'm Wendy Keane from Kennewick, and I also want to speak to the council and thank all of you for everything that you have done as we have come up here week after week in fighting this. I know that there's been a lot that has happened behind the scenes where you guys are having to meet maybe outside of your normal hours, and we are all coming together to work as hard as we possibly can on this. I did also want to thank specifically police chief Guerrero. I know that there were things he's not here, unfortunately, but I know that he was working very hard to continue the safety for the city of Kennewick.

My question for you, though, is this isn't done. As we've heard from a couple of my fellow colleagues, it's not done. What is the city of Kennewick gonna do next to make sure that this doesn't come into our town? We've done the fight for this one house, but it is just one house. So we understand that the work is not done, and I have faith that you guys will continue to show up and continue to fight for the safety of our children and our neighborhoods. Thank you.

Anybody else? Yes, sir.

That doesn't squeak anymore. Warren Hughes, city of Kennewick. I even brought notes. Okay. Hello again.

So I have been attending city council meetings and workshops pretty regularly since August 2024. And the purpose of doing that, besides just meeting everybody everybody and all your smiling faces, is advocating for Kennewick's downtown. Before August 2024, for three or four years, I was involved as a volunteer. I was a, you know, presenter, and now I'm a business owner in downtown. And it seems like over the course of this year and a half, while we have brought many things to the city's attention, action is slowish, and there's a lot that we could do down there that would be very helpful.

We had another building catch fire today, which is not ideal. Another kind of vacant landlord that kinda let things sit for too long. And while the causes of that are being investigated, it's the third fire in my recent memory that we've had down there, which isn't great, especially for business owners. I've talked to a lot of my fellow business owners down there. And after coming and seeing the city work and visiting with y'all, I feel like there are two different ideas of downtown.

I've heard from council several times that there's just something about town down that doesn't work, something kind of innocuous that we just don't know what it is, but it hobbles success down there. And I hear from the business owners that, yeah, it's great. Sometimes things go well, but we have bureaucratic hurdles that come across. One particular case comes to mind in light of the fire. A building owner was renovating a building and wanted to upgrade their sprinklers, and they were told that to do that, they would have to upgrade the water main for three city blocks because the infrastructure is not adequate to support that modern fire suppression system.

It seems like there is a lack of communication between the downtown and the city. I've tried to bridge that a little bit. I was starting to talk to the economic development director about ways that we could communicate better, but I'm gonna have to wait until the next one comes in because he's gone. So I would just like to encourage the council to reach out to us down there a little bit and discuss with your constituents how things could go better in Kennewick's historic downtown. Thank you.

Anybody else? Miss Gregory.

Tina Gregory, I just wanna tell you all thank you also. It's been a hard road with this LRA. And like we've all been saying, please don't stop. We have more things coming down from Olympia, like them taking our sheriff out with the committee. That's against our constitution. These in these homeless encampments that are gonna be anywhere, that that's gonna destroy our city. So these things aren't done. We gotta keep going. And I just wanna encourage you and let us in the community know. You see how local action can come out.

It has national impact. So please put us to work on any way that we can do this. I also wanted to ask you about the prayer. You know, Half the time, you don't have anybody that shows up, and I'm only allowed to do it twice. And it would be nice if you allow somebody from Tri Cities, not just Kennewick, or allow me to do it more often because we really need to seek our Lord first.

And then when we come with spending, you know, I know we're all in a crunch. I know that budgets are tough and just something listening to the workshops and coming here for five years. I don't understand. I love our people, but given, like, a 2% increase raise, that's over their lifetime. That's into retirement. That's the way I understand it. It's just so much money. And so can you guys think about bonuses or something? Because when we save each other money, it helps our city. And so just those kind of things I wanna bring up to you, I thank you for stepping up for us with the LRA, and please push on harder. Thank you.

Bill?

Kelly Murphy, and I just wanna say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lots of tears from me and others and lots of stress. And now thank god there's some joy. And I just wanna say from my deepest heart, I'm so thankful for all you guys have done. So thank you. That's it.

Anybody else? Oh, in the back. I'm sorry, ma'am. I couldn't see you. She's a little young to be talking.

She won't talk, I promise. Okay, so I'm Katie from Kennewick. And I just again wanted to, as everyone has said, express my appreciation, oh my gosh, for the city council and everything. This community has been able to come together and to fight to keep our communities safe and keep our kiddos safe. And I yes.

I I know that this LRA, we are working towards a solution on that. But I as as I've said, we need to continue to work towards making laws and changes because, I mean, as far as the fair share acts are in place and all the different place placement laws are there, this is still an issue and a threat to other communities and other areas. So I hope that we can continue to make those changes. And as Kennewick leads the way, I hope that we continue to lead the way and that you guys can take this fight to as far as it needs to go so thank you

anybody else okay with that the comment period is closed and we now move on to the approval of the agenda if a council member wants an item remove removed from the consent I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve the agenda as presented.

Is there a second?

Mayor Pro Tem, I second that.

It has been moved by council member Brad Beecham and seconded by council member Lauren Anderson to approve the agenda as presented. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion has been properly moved and second to approve the agenda as presented. Will the deputy clerk please start vote? And that passes unanimously.

The consent agenda. The next item of approval is the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Kenilka City Council for reading and studying and are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no separate discussion. I will entertain a motion. Mayor Pro Tem. Council Member Milbauer.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Mayor Pro Tem, I second that.

It has been moved by Council Member Milbauer and seconded by Council Member Anderson approve the consent agenda as amended. Will the deputy clerk please start the vote?

Mayor pro tem, can you please reread that?

No. It has been moved by council member Milbauer, seconded by council member Anderson to approve the consent agenda as presented. And that passes unanimously Next we will consider the adoption of two ordinances After staff report, council will have an opportunity to ask questions and to request clarifying information. General discussion and debate must wait until after a motion has been made. Our first ordinance relates to the 2526 budget amendment.

Will the deputy city clerk please read the ordinance by title?

Absolutely. Item five a is an ordinance providing for modification of the 2526 biennial budget.

Miss Plank, we have a presentation, please. Good

evening, mayor pro tem and members of the council. I'm pleased to be here tonight to give an overview of the 2526 budget adjustment. The budget ordinance provides the opportunity to formally appropriate items that have previously been approved by council and to bring matters of special interest to council's attention. This is the third, budget adjustment to the 2526 biennial budget. Highlighted in the staff report, there are, significant items.

Some of these items have already been approved by council through approval of contracts with the vendors. The budget adjustment recognizes the budget appropriation for items previously approved by council that includes such items as the police axon contract, Toyota Center sign replacement, CIP technology improvements, city hall replacement study, drinking water state revolving fund loan proceeds, and applicable expenses for the rainy collector five PFAS treatment system improvements project. Within the proposed budget adjustment, there are several carry forward items from twenty three-twenty four including projects such as the city facility HVAC replacement and animal control facility, Park Hills storm replacement project, and the storm water fund and water treatment plant improvements. So these are items that were previously budgeted in '23 and '24. Those projects weren't completed.

These items are being carried forward into the 2526 budget. The amendment also recognizes a total of approximately $786,000 in, grant awards that the city has received in corresponding expenses, including 436,000 in grant revenue for the community development block grant home rehab rehab program, 230,000 in grant revenue corresponding expense to begin the Columbia Park Bridge project, and a $120,000 for DOE capacity grant in the storm water fund for equipment. The total increase in the proposed appropriation is $16,500,000 to the city's twenty five twenty six adjusted biennial budget. This is a 3% increase to the current adjusted biennial budget overall. And that concludes my presentation so I would be happy to address any questions that the council may have.

Does council have questions of staff? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor Pro motion to adopt the ordinance as presented. And a second?

Mayor Pro Tem, I second that.

It has been moved by council member Beecham and second by council member Anderson to adopt the ordinance as presented. The floor is open for discussion. It has been very board. Board of of

Directors

unanimously. Our next ordinance relates of to virtual currency kiosks. And we we have an update from staff, please.

Good

evening, mayor pro tem, council members, city staff, and residents. I received a series of questions from council members this morning that, unfortunately, I was unable to address because I was in court at the time and have since communicated with the Spokane Police Department to obtain answers to those questions. I propose that it's more appropriate to provide council members the opportunity to ask those questions at a future workshop to ensure that members make an informed decision if they decide to vote on the ordinance that was originally presented for tonight.

Very And my understanding is we're moving the discussion point to the April 14 workshop and then the next April 21 we'll actually have vote on it. So that gives staff time to find answers and questions and polls. Do you want to add anything to that Ms. Beaton?

That's correct. That's the schedule that we have to move forward with this item.

Okay. With that, then we will go on to new business. We have two new business items to consider. After each staff report, counsel will have an opportunity to ask questions or to request clarifying information. General discussion and debate must wait until after a motion is made. Ms. Beaton, can we have a staff report on the interlocal agreement for Parking Lot E at the Free Rivers Convention Center?

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Torelli, members of council, staff, and citizens here for the council meeting. This item before is a three party interlocal agreement between the City of Kennewick, Kennewick Public Facilities District, and the Port Of Kennewick. The point of this agreement is to share the costs for construction and increases in design for Parking Lot E, which will serve as overflow parking for the Three Rivers Convention Center expansion project and the Vista Field project, which is the port project. So the interlocal agreement lays out how those expenses will be shared. The port of Kennewick commits to paying for 100% of the increase related to changes to the design to serve their needs regarding Vista Field, and they commit to paying for 50% of the total cost of construction, and that contribution goes to the city.

So it's a three party agreement to share the cost for that parking lot. Part of the additional terms in that interlocal agreement is their commitment is contingent upon the city entertaining their request to extend the current development agreement an additional ten years. There are additional terms in the development agreement they would like to modify. Staff has been working with their staff on those modifications. That for a workshop on the March 24, a public hearing with the Planning Commission on April 6, then it will come back to counsel for formal approval on April 21.

So I just wanted to highlight that point agreement, because the two go together. Additionally, the parties are going to be executing a reciprocal parking licensing agreement for shared use of the parking once it's constructed and completed. That's attached as an exhibit to this interlocal agreement. Tonight's council meeting, we're asking council approval for the interlocal agreement, as well as the reciprocal parking agreement. As a part of the parking agreement, it is a non exclusive shared use agreement for as long as that is a surface parking lot.

Should the city in the future, well into the future, have need to expand that parking to a parking structure, then we have flexibility to terminate the agreement or modify the agreement to accommodate a structured parking. In addition, the Port of Kennewick commits to pay for 50% of any repairs parking lot, but the PFD and the city are obligated to cover any regular maintenance costs for the parking lot. Staff recommends council approval. It's our position that this will benefit all parties' interests in that area, will serve our needs for overflow parking, and benefit the growth in terms of economic development for the campus and Vista. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Does council have questions of staff? I will entertain a motion.

Mayor Pro tem. Council member Milbauer. Make a motion to approve the interlocal agreement and reciprocal parking and licensing agreement as presented.

Is there a second?

Mayor pro tem, I second that.

It has been moved by council member Milbauer, second by council member Anderson to approve the interlocal agreement and reciprocal parking license agreement as presented. And the floor is open for discussion. It has been properly moved and second to approve the interlocal agreement and reciprocal parking licensing agreement as presented. Will the deputy clerk please start the vote? That passed unanimously.

And next item concerns a grant from Washington State Department of Ecology for electric emergency vehicle. And Chief Hornet, could we have a staff report, please? You all thought it was Chief Effner. It was not.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council, Deputy City Manager, staff, everyone in attendance tonight, both here and online. Appreciate the opportunity. My name is Jake Van Horn. I'm a deputy chief Kennewick fire department. Talk to you guys a little bit about the, Washington State Volkswagen settlement grant that the city of Kennewick has recently been awarded along with a recommendation from staff to accept the grant as presented.

The city of Kennewick has been awarded up to $1,500,000 in grant funding to go towards the cost of electric fire apparatus with hybrid capabilities. What the Kimmead fire department is proposing is that we replace one of our conventional fire apparatus with a Pierce Voltera engine equipped with a parallel electric drive system. So what this design ensures is that emergency response capability is fully maintained, with built in redundancy while maximizing the use of electric power whenever feasible while still providing a conventional engine for extended emergency operations. The Pierce Volterra is also expected to offer some operational efficiencies and long term cost savings. So just a little bit of background on the Volkswagen settlement grant.

Washington is a beneficiary of the settlement's environmental mitigation trust. A 112,700,000.0 was awarded to Washington State to mitigate damage caused by violating VW vehicles, 5,000,000 of which was made available for emergency apparatus this year. So here in Kennewick, because of federally mandated mission standards, we've seen our purchase costs of new fire apparatus more than double. Maintenance and operational costs continue to increase. Because of this, we're actively looking for solutions that maintain unit reliability, operational capacity while we're still maintaining a prudent management of public funds.

So what does reduced reliance on traditional combustion engine give us? Well, it gives us a decreased maintenance cost over the life of the apparatus due to decreased wear and tear on internal parts, reduction of lifetime injury costs estimated at 88%, and ultimately will reduce out of service time by improving unit reliability while meeting emission standards requirements. Because of the grant funding, we can actually purchase this apparatus at a cost savings to the citizens of Kennewick while maintaining operational reliability, which is our top priority on the Kennewick Fire Department. I'm happy to answer any questions that any of may have, but that concludes the report.

Any questions by council? Councilmember Clifford. Thank you, Mayor

Pro Tem. So this is a a vehicle that is a hybrid, will operate both on fuel and on battery power. Is that correct?

Yeah. And it's really they're separate systems. The way to think about it, it has an electric system, and it has a conventional engine, a 6.7 Cummins v series engine. So it'll operate during normal low acuity calls, day to day business on electrical power. But during extended operations or when those batteries draw down, the operator can either manually put it in conventional mode or the apparatus will automatically convert over to it.

So my question is, my understanding with electric vehicles for cars, there's a battery life. And after that battery life, you gotta get all new batteries for

this vehicle.

Do we have any idea what the battery life for this

So there's no Volterra's in operation that have expanded their battery life. It's our new apparatus. When you purchase a Volterra through Pierce, it does come with a twelve year warranty with a 100% replacement of the of the batteries. If we did have to buy the batteries today, which probably isn't a fair comparison, they would be a $115,000.

Got it. Thank you. Excellent answer. Any other question? Councilmember Anderson.

So on this vehicle, it's predominantly anticipated that going to be using the electric for basic calls. That's correct. And then give me an example of when it would be using the, diesel engine.

The fire this morning may be a good example of that. Something with extended, pumping operations over several hours. Another possibility may be if units have a back to back call, maybe they're running an EMS and EMS and EMS and they catch a fire and that battery redraw downs to that predetermined level, then that conventional engine may may kick in.

And I didn't see in the report, what's the cost the total cost of this vehicle?

2,300,000.0.

Councilmember Millbauer. Thank you. A couple of questions. So repairs, I don't know what the fleet kind of what fleet has for electric vehicles, but our mechanics are gonna have to get some extra qualifications so they have them to work on the electrical side and that, apparently, special transmission if need be, is it all covered through peers for x amount time?

It so, yes, our technicians will need that training. The training is covered in the purchase price of the vehicle. It's a month long training and send two of our tech technicians to it. In that meantime, we do have a Pierce service provider here locally, and they've committed to providing that reliability for the Volterra for us.

And apparently, we have to deconstruct one of our older trucks? That is correct. Not fire engine one?

Yeah. No. Not not fire engine fire engine one. Yeah, one of our older trucks, they actually it has to be completely disabled. So we have

to cut the frame. Or we have to pay to have it done is really what my question is.

Yeah. There will be a cost unless we can do it ourselves. Do we know that is that going

be included as part of the deal or is that above?

Yeah, don't have an answer for that one, but I can certainly get you an answer.

Thank you.

Yep.

Anything else?

The grant is for 1.5? That's correct. The cost of the vehicle is 2.3?

Yes,

sir. Our city budget or the Kennewick Fire budget is $800,000 for the purchase of the vehicle?

Yeah. So we have three Pierce engines on order right now that council previously approved in 2024. What the plan would be is that we would convert one of those three already on order over to the Volterra. So overall, it would offer a cost savings considering that 1.3 that we're already spending currently on the engines on order. And that we'd actually take delivery of it about six months sooner than the conventional engines we have ordered.

Thank you. Thank you. Mayor board tem.

Council oh, council member Beecham?

If if we weren't getting a grant on this, would this ever be a consideration for

We don't have the budget capacity for it without the grant.

So without the grant, would the would the fire department want these? Yes. And what would be the reasoning for wanting these over our

A lot of it is the federal emission standards. Right now, for instance, engine eighteen eleven, which is our our first engine that's equipped with the most current emission standards, we're nearing the original purchase cost of that of that apparatus on on, on maintenance. The other thing that we're having to do with that apparatus as well is is weekly is the recommendation. We're having to take that apparatus on a drive outside the 1st District the first due response area, get it up to operating temperature so we can burn off all that all that carbon and other particulates within that system because emergency fire apparatus aren't designed to ride over the road. So it doesn't take too many lines to intersect over time.

We get more and more of these apparatus where having to make these long trips. Makes sense for street sweepers, but puts us in a bad spot for a fire apparatus. So EV apparatus is something we're looking at. We're also looking at idle reduction technology. We're also looking at putting things in place from a policy perspective to limit the the impact and and exposure.

K. Thanks. Councilman Anderson.

Have you or somebody from the department spent time in Portland to see these in in action and to see them firsthand? Not yet, but that is planned. Also, Redmond, we're working on

a trip with them. We have some we have some contacts.

So that will be part of the plan Absolutely. To look at these. So, effectively, are we making this decision without really getting hands on and looking at these in in person yet?

The decision we're making tonight would be to say yes to the Department of Ecology to start the the formal process of accepting the grant. I talked to the grant administrator today, and we still have an opportunity within that process to say, you know what? This doesn't work for the city of Kennewick. We're gonna we're gonna back we're gonna back out of it. But it's really just moving to that that next phase. But we absolutely would not bring a Volterra into the fleet without getting on getting hands on, talking with people, seeing the apparatus in action, and also looking at places that have the infrastructure we're considering that's already in place.

So you're saying there is an off ramp on

this Yes.

Purchase? Okay.

Yeah. Well, a yes vote today. It's just a it's just a yes to move to the next phase, but there is an off ramp if we wanna pivot.

Anybody else? I will entertain a motion. Councilmember Beecham.

Motion to accept the grant award as presented.

And is there a second?

Mayor Pro Tem. Councilmember Millbauer. I'll second the motion. It has

been moved by Council Member Beecham, seconded by Council Member Milbauer to accept the grant award as presented. The floor is open for discussion. Any comments? One thing I did to you, Chief Horner, was I called Chief Jeff Larson of Madison, Wisconsin. They're one of the users of this technology.

And asked him, and he's been in fire services for thirty, forty years now, Would you do this again? And his answer was, if I had to fund it, probably not because these are expensive engines. They're twice the cost. But if we have grants, absolutely. Maintenance is better.

He has yet to run an engine to the point where they have to switch over to the diesel. The electrical system is really robust. And Madison is about 300,000 people just in the city limits. Have 14 stations. Their budget is $79,000,000 Chief, you'll never get that.

It's insane. So I mean, they are heavy users and Pierce is right there. So they were testing the prototypes when they were first coming out. So overall, as it scales up, he thinks costs will come down. It's like you said, Chief, the EPA type requirements are going to drive us to that to some degree. But they have not had any problems with the reliability of the system at this point. And I called Madison primarily because their weather is very similar to ours. So that was the only comment I had. Anybody else have any comments? Okay.

It has been properly moved and seconded to accept the grant award as presented. Will the deputy clerk please start the vote? That passes unanimously.

Thank you. Let

us go with council comments at this point. Councilman Anderson, how about you?

I appreciate all the people that showed up tonight, and I appreciate the community action. Love to see it, so thank you. And that's it.

Councilmember Millbauer?

Not getting off that easy, but thank you for everyone coming. I do want to bring up first before I get into my report from last week. When I was back for the Waste Management Conference, I did run into and speak with a Richland community member, and we were talking about downtowns. He was telling me what he understood Association or Uptown Association District and Downtown District. Anyhow, I reached out to their economic development manager, Mindy Wallner, today.

Spoke with her a little bit. They have some different ideas they're doing to help their downtowns, and I think it'd be worthwhile. I know we're in the midst of maybe looking for another economic development manager. But to get with her, she'd be more than happy to explain to us and talk about what they do, and maybe that's something we can look at for our downtown association. So I just want to throw that out there.

So I attended the Waste Management Conference, the DCA, which is the Energy Communities Alliance Board, Tuesday, and it was quite the agenda. I won't read everything. We did have Tim Walsh, who is the assistant secretary for environmental management for DOE. He gave us an update on what environmental management is doing. The main thing they're doing is changing their name.

They're getting away from environmental management to nuclear research, nuclear revitalization, calling it n r two, because that's what they're looking at doing is to get into new nukes and small modular reactors and revitalization for the spent fuel. As you know, if you don't know, we don't have a national repository for our spent nuclear fuel in this nation, unlike Unlike the European nations who have them, we have not funded one and certified one yet. So our waste sits at the 94 different nuclear reactors across The United States. And then we did got an update on Hanford. They were the premier speakers for DOE and spent nuclear fuel out at K Basin.

K Basin has been cleaned up. The stacks dropped. They're getting ready. Hopefully, a year or so, they'll have K East reactor cocooned, which will save money to put back into cleanup of Hanford. Same with the strontium and season capsules. They're going to dry storage. When that's done, it'll be approximately 200 $2,000,000 a year savings that can go back into finishing the cleanup. But once K Basin's area is cleaned up, the river area will be cleaned up outside of the water treatment facility. Speaking of water treatment, they did build a new treatment facility on-site for fresh water. They'll be tearing down Fire Station 1 out in the outer areas.

When k is done, they are building a new one right now out in 200 area. And, let's see here. I attended six different panels over two days, and it was interesting to see what the other DOE sites around the country are doing for their spent nuclear fuel and cleanup mission. So and what they're doing for revitalizing the DOE property that is in and around their communities for data centers, small margin reactors, and the way they're looking to do things too. So I was pleased to see that, and I appreciate having opportunity to go there. Other than that, thank you all for coming to the meeting tonight.

Councilmember Beecham.

Thank you. One of the joys of serving this council is I get to attend the mosquito control board, so I'll give you a little update there. It's not usually that glamorous.

A lot of buzz there, isn't there?

There is. That was good.

April 18, we have the annual tire drive. That is important to our community. You can take up to 10 tires for free to get rid of them. They have to be off the rim from seven a. M. Until 1PM. I have learned over the last three or four years a lot about mosquitoes, and we have a big problem in certain areas. So one mosquito can put a I think it's a thousand eggs per season per tire. So some of these areas get crazy when we have all these tires. So take your bad used tires, get clean up your yard and get them done for free.

Would you actually

Mosquito Control Board. It's over in West Richland. It's at their building. So you can look it up on their website. Seven-one, either bring your driver's license if that has the wrong address and bring your utility bill. You have to show proof of where you live to utilize that service. And then just following up on what's been said, I didn't write it down exactly. I think we had a gentleman describe some women maybe as pit bulls or bulldogs. Normally you can't get away with saying that, but in this situation, I think maybe vicious was, I don't know all the words that were used. Normally not the proper words, but in this situation I think it was exactly right.

As a representative of people, we're just like you guys. We have neighborhoods the same way. We're no different. We just sit up here for some silly reason we chose to do this. But we're we we solve this in large part to what you guys did, and we realize that. I mean, we're our hands are tied. There was a lot of work from staff. As much as it could be done, we know that fight's not done, but, you know, I just give you guys a big congratulations because you didn't give up. We didn't have all the right answers at the right times to make everything feel wonderful. I get that, but you guys are the ones that did it.

And so I I it was awesome to see community come together and solve something that's major and give us a big step forward now looking for all the other cities. If this tries to go into some of the Tri Cities, you're gonna your phone's gonna ring off the hook to say, hey. How do you do it? And I think you'll all be there. So I just commend you for your guys' work, and I hope and pray that we do solve this long term because, like I said, it's a step. It's a great step, but we want to solve this so it never has to happen again. I appreciate what you guys did.

Councilmember Clippert.

I'm doing a hair bit of research. Could I pass and allow Councilmember Trumbull to go for me?

Good evening. I have been reminded of how powerful people who pull together can work to accomplish a common goal. And I'm not gonna name names, but when I look at you, you know who you are. Thank you for doing that. It's really what the government is all about, is the people.

I'll just say you did it. You did it. And making no comparisons, Thank you very much. I did have an opportunity to go to a ribbon cutting of the latest apparently state of the art car wash. I'm still trying to figure out the name however.

Surf and turf? Surf through. Well,

you can just say I don't read well. It was a very slick run operation. Think it's going to add some competition in this town because car washes seem to be popular things around here. And that's about all I've got for you, Mr. Mayor Pro Tem. You. Councilman Clipperd.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Several of us, as mentioned, have had the opportunity here recently to go to several ribbon cuttings and even a groundbreaking. So Kennewick continues to grow and prosper and it's very exciting to be a part of that. I had the great pleasure this last weekend. There is a movie showing here locally that was produced and directed by one of our local graduates from Kennewick High School.

It's called Space Cowboy or Cowboys. It's phenomenal. And I just strongly encourage you to go see that movie. Like I said, produced and directed by one of our local graduates here just in the lot about a decade ago from Kennewick High School. And then wanted to say thank you to all those who came up tonight and said thank you to us and encourage us don't give up. Don't take your foot off the gas. Keep the pedal to the metal protecting our community and and the citizens of Kennewick, Washington. So I just say the same to you. Thank you, and don't you dare take your foot off the gas either because we're in this together. When we fight together, we will be victorious.

If we will continue to press on the gas together, we will be victorious in the future. Thank you.

Deputy City Manager Beaton.

I'll be brief. I just want to remind council, kind of in line with the visitors' comments today, about what else is on your agenda related to this issue. So next Tuesday is our workshop. At that workshop meeting, our Brianna Murray, our lobbyist in Olympia, will come provide counsel legislative debrief for 2026. Part of that conversation will be what are items that are on the list for 2027, and how can we kind of work do we need to do now or over the summer in preparation for the next legislative session?

And I know that Council will be interested in talking about possible RCW amendments related to LRA placements, so just be aware that that's going to be a part of the discussion next Tuesday at workshop. I think the only other item is our city managers working hard in D. C. On our behalf with our lobbyists on shoreline reconveyance, as well as some of our direct spending requests related to PFAS and the Columbia Center widening project. So she is out this week but working hard on our behalf. With that said, I don't have anything else to add.

Thank you. Do want to let you know that on the Association of Washington City's legislative committee, we'll be meeting the May. And I've already called up our primary lobbyist, Candace Block, to let her know that this is something we're going to be pushing on as the LRA and Washington State cities, counties. People are getting engaged. I think you're absolutely right that you guys have set an example. You made this work. I don't think there's a lot of communities that could duplicate this. So we really have to change the foundation of it. And we will continue on with that. So again, really appreciate it.

As chair of Hanford Communities, I sat for an interview along with Tridec for the Journal of Business concerning Hanford stuff. Hanford can get really dull and boring. Hanford is also 25% of the local economy. Always keep that in mind. It really makes a difference. You don't do a lot of things without that 25%. 12% of the employment, but an awful lot of the economy. Attended the Joint Coliseum Advisory Committee. Both buildings, the Coliseum and the new hotel, are both on track. Supported the interview committees.

Attended the council retreat, as did all the council members. Attended the KPD promotion ceremony so again congratulations to Deputy Chief is that the official title now Jason Keel assistant chief didn't make deputy just so sorry. Think last one was a deputy. It's a goal it's good to have goals but there were three other folks and just it was a really good council member Trumbo went to a lot of ribbon cuttings. One thing I did want to talk about was the Metro Mart that's going on tenth in Vancouver.

Remember the blue building? That's gone. They're digging big holes. There's going to be a gas station that will also sell diesel. They will also have a laundromat there. They expect to employ about 20 people. So that's significant. Surf Through Express car wash, they employ about 16 people. That's great. So all this employment it makes a difference with all these new businesses. And that's pretty much it for me. So with that, we are done.