City Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 6.30 and the meeting will come to order. Good evening and welcome to the September 1st, 2026 Kennewick City Council meeting. Council meetings are streamed live on our website. Go to kennewick.com. Viewers can enable closed captioning by accessing the setting feature in the preferred web browser either during the live broadcast or when watching the recording. Will the city clerk please state who is present and whether a quorum is established?

Good evening, Mayor McShane. All council members are present with the exception of Council Member Trumbo and a quorum is established.

Thank you. Will Councilmember Milbauer please lead us in the pledge?

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.

Thank you. No one registered to provide tonight's invocation. Persons interested in giving the invocation can find information on our website or through the city clerk's office. Council Member Trumbo provided advance notice of his absence. Is there a motion to excuse the absence?

Mayor Machain?

Mayor Pro Temporelli?

I move to excuse the absence of Council Member Trumbo.

Is there a second? Mayor? Yes, Council Member Millar. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to excuse the absence of Council Member Trumbo. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to excuse the absence of Council Member Trumbo. Will the clerk please start the vote? It has passed unanimously. Thank you. Next on the agenda is visitors. This is the only opportunity for visitor comment at tonight's meeting. Visitors are welcome to state their opinion on any topic except for election matters, quasi-judicial matters, and items under a pending or previous public hearing. Comments this evening will not be heard for the rezone docket under item 5C. The public hearing has been held and the record for this matter is closed. The city clerk has informed me there are no online visitors sign up to speak. If someone in the audience wishes to speak on anything other than item 5C or the other things accepted today, please raise your hand. The public comment period is not an opportunity for mutual conversation with council members or posing questions with an expectation of an immediate answer. Council members will listen closely to your comments but will not directly respond to you. The city clerk's business card is on the table near the door. And if you need help or follow up after the meeting, please reach out to her and she will connect you with someone who can help you. 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 of three minutes. A three-minute timer will be displayed on the screen and will start when you come to the podium. A total of 30 minutes is allocated for visitor comments this evening. The city clerk will please start that 30-minute timer now. All right, so first on, yeah, please.

For the record, my name is Laura Blomberg. I came today because I wanted to talk about the intersection of Clearwater and 10th. My parents live off of Tranquility. I, three times a week, use 10th and Clearwater. There's been all these accidents. What is it going to take to get the lights installed is the thing that I'm thinking. We need the lights installed because it's an unsafe intersection. Yes, I'm thankful that you guys did weed whack the weeds to make it a little bit safer, but it's not completely safe to be able to see around the building. And I don't feel like, like I'll use an example. Yesterday I went to Yakima. Instead, I went down 10th. Turn, use the roundabout, went up to the steptoe and clear water intersection light, and then turn left. And instead of turning left, onto clear water from 10th. Because I thought that was the safer way to go. And plus, you also have all these feeders on clear water as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Warren?

Warren Hughes, Kennewick. I feel like a bad penny, I just keep turning up. So today is September 1st, and September 1st was kind of a red letter day on my calendar. Today was the day when I was gonna start moving vendors into a new space downtown to set up my next business. And that effort has been kind of obstructed for a multitude of reasons. But what I'm here to talk about is, the difference between where the city sits and where we sit as businesses downtown and try and add some context to this. So there's 128,000 square feet of retail space downtown roughly, and currently about 30 or 40,000 of that is unoccupied. The 100,000 that is occupied generates roughly $100,000 a year in direct tax collection for the city of Kennewick. We are currently trying to renovate about 30,000 square feet in downtown. That is three local developers, not out-of-staters, three individuals who are putting their time, money, effort, some who have mortgaged out their private residences to remodel and restore these buildings. And some of these range the gambit. Some of them are restorations where they're trying to improve the building and make it into something newer and better. And some of them are simply repairs where they're trying to restore a building that was damaged back to the state that it was before. And it seems like in all these cases lately, we have run into repeated miscommunications, delays, and just generally these are complex projects that don't get done. And so five months ago is when they started, they got financing to finish the repairs on the Cascade building, which at that time was installing flooring, putting up drywall, putting in the two bathrooms and electrical. And that's maybe a month's worth of work. It is still not done, and most of that has been delays and miscommunications with the city planning department regarding that site. There is the Victoria's Academy who's doing Washington hardware right now, and she's been having problems. And there's about to be, they're working on the demolition and repair of the Farmers Exchange Sage and Aloe building. And I'm pretty sure she's going to have problems. In fact, most of us down there grit our teeth every time someone comes in and says they want to work on one of these buildings. So I've been told a lot about how the folks down there need to do their due diligence. They're hiring architects. They're hiring engineers. They're doing pre-con meetings. I would ask that council do its due diligence to see what's going on down there. Thank you.

Additional public comments this evening? Who are we?

Good evening, Council. Thank you for your time. We Creek Kennewick. I just want to publicly thank the Parks and Recs folks. I'm not going to mention any names. Ha ha, Brandon and his crew for a great job done this summer with the rec to you events that we had. I got to go to both of them and they were awesome. They're doing a lot with what they got. And I also went myself to the last one over at the pool. A lot of fun. Some people came. We really need another pool. Come on, guys. It's, you know, it's 2026. Pasco, Kenwood, Richland, we got to get this show on the road. I know it's money. It's always money. But the families were doing the best they could with what they had, but it took me back to when my daughter was, when my daughters were little, right? They're 41 and 37. It's the same pool. So anyway, thanks, Brendan, and all your staff for all that they did this summer and all the fun that folks were having, but we can do a little bit better. Thank you.

Any additional public comments this evening?

Okay.

This comment period is closed. The next item is approval of the agenda. If a council member wants an item removed from the consent agenda, please be recognized by the mayor and state the item number you want to remove for further discussion, and that item will be considered separately. I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor McShane.

Mayor Pro Tem Torelli.

I move to approve the agenda as presented.

Is there a second?

Mayor, I second that.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to approve the agenda as presented. The floor is open for discussion. There being no further discussion, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote? That is passed unanimously. Next item is the approval of the consent agenda. All matters listed within the consent agenda have been distributed to each member of the Kennewick City Council for reading and study, are considered to be routine, and will be enacted by one motion of the council with no separate discussion. I'll entertain the motion.

Mayor McShane.

Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Is there a second?

Mayor.

Yes, Council Member Millar. I'll second the motion. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Millar to approve the consent agenda as presented. Will the clerk please start the vote?

Council Member Anderson?

Yes.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you. That motion is passed unanimously. Next, we will consider the adoption of several ordinances. After each staff report, Council will have an opportunity to ask questions or to request clarifying information of staff. General discussion and debate must wait until after a motion has been made. First is a docket pertaining to boards and commissions. Ms. Johnston, will you please read the ordinances by title and provide a staff report?

I will. So first we have under Item 5A1, an ordinance relating to Historic Preservation Commission Establishment and Amending Section 2.16.100 of the Kennewick Municipal Code. And then under Item 5A2, we have an ordinance relating to Parks and Recreation Commission Establishment and Amending Section 2.16.400 of the Kennewick Municipal Code. And if you don't mind I'll just launch right into my staff report. So good evening Mayor McShane and City Council and presented for your consideration are ordinances which will reduce this number of seats on the Historic Preservation Commission and the Parks and Rec Commission from seven seats to five. The primary purpose of that is to help improve the recruitment and retention of qualified candidates to serve on those boards. In recent years, it has been especially difficult to recruit candidates. Of course, with a higher number of seats comes a higher opportunity for vacancies, and we're looking to reduce that where possible. We've also had at times meetings that have been canceled due to a lack of quorum, and if we were to reduce the number of seats from seven to five, we would only need a quorum of three members versus four. For the Historic Preservation Commission, currently Positions 2 and 6 are vacant right now, and if Council adopts this ordinance, those positions will be permanently eliminated when the ordinance becomes effective next week on Wednesday the 9th. The ordinance also includes a slight wording change for the Historic Preservation Commission regarding the makeup, the professional experience required for this, mainly a reordering of the language. For the Parks and Recreation Commission, the proposed effective date for this ordinance is either April 1st, 2027, which aligns with the dates of current terms or upon the resignation of two or more members, whichever occurs first. Right now, we do have a single vacancy. Someone just resigned last week. And so recruitment for that position will not occur. That will remain vacant. And then if someone else resigns between now and when the commissions have regular recruitment in the spring, that position would also remain vacant. And then those would be the two positions that are eliminated from the Parks and Recreation Commission. If we still have six people when it's time for recruitment in the spring, then we will go and just do a regular recruitment process, have all six reapply, have the interview committee interview those candidates who are interested in serving, and then make a recommendation for the five placements to the full city council. And that would occur in March or April under this proposal. And with that, I would be happy to stand for questions.

All right. Does this council have any questions of staff?

One quick question.

Yes.

So if there is a sudden surge in interest, we could revisit the number of people on the board. Thank you for asking. And adjust as necessary.

That's absolutely correct. And the reason why we didn't propose having SANE as few as five, as many as seven, is because that makes it difficult to establish the quorum level. So it really has to be five or seven in the code. But we could absolutely revisit that in the future.

So one of the other changes we're making here is about this professional membership, right? Yeah. I just want to make sure it's clear. So previously we had seven. and we had one of those was one of these professional members, is that correct?

That's correct. They all require, the code requires, let me pull that up if you don't mind. I'm kind of running two screens at a time here. But the code requires that members who serve on Historic Preservation Commission have professional experience, and they need not be residents of the city. And so this kind of clarifies that makeup for those persons. Let me pull that open really quick. So on your screen here, it previously said one member shall be each from the disciplines of architecture, history, architectural history, planning, archeology, or other historic preservation related disciplines, such as urban planning, American studies, American civilization, cultural geography, or cultural anthropology. And now that's been simplified down to include two professional members.

And so previously all seven had to be somewhere within this grouping, right? Yes, and it's still... Now we go to two of those.

Right, and it says to the extent available. So I think if somebody, if we had five applicants and none of them truly had this, it's not as stringent as the prior version of the code.

Any additional questions? I'll entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Pro Tem Torelli.

I move to approve the docket as presented, adopting the ordinances presented under 5A1 and 5A2.

The floor is open for discussion. Oh, I guess I need a second. Yeah, so let me ask for a second first.

Mayor, I second that. Thank you, Council Member Anderson.

Now, the floor is open for discussion, as it has been properly moved by Mayor Pro Tem Torelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to approve the docket as presented. Adopting the ordinance is presented under 5A1 and 5A2. Any additional discussion?

I'm going to be voting yes. If I may, Mr. Mayor, speak to this, because we have not touched the word folklore. And so I'm glad we're going to have an expert on folklore remain as a part of this entity. So thank you.

To the extent they're available.

Taylor Swift would be proud.

And willing, I think is the other, available and willing. All right, any additional discussion? If not, it has been properly moved and seconded to approve the docket as presented. Adopting the ordinance as presented under 5A1 and 5A2. Will the clerk please start the vote? That is passed unanimously. Next is an ordinance pertaining to the ordinance introduction and enactment requirements. Ms. Johnston, will you please read the ordinance by title and provide a staff report on this as well.

Thank you. So this is an ordinance relating to ordinances, enactment, procedure, and amending section 2.04.160 of the Kennewick Municipal Code. Thank you for another opportunity to present tonight. So as you know, as I just demonstrated, currently I'm required to read the ordinance title aloud before any ordinance can be enacted. However, this action is not mandated by state law. It is just something that is required by the Kennewick Municipal Code. And this very timely proposal is adding an option for us to simply publish the ordinance titles within the agenda, eliminating the need to read them aloud. And that's timely because, for instance, on September 15th, we anticipate the introduction of 51 ordinances. And although you know that I love to display my very best auctioneer impression, I have a slight hunch you might have better use of your time, and so this will be a much more streamlined experience. And if adopted, September 15th would be our first opportunity to utilize this other option. However, if at any meeting a majority of council members for some reason want me to read the ordinance title aloud, I would be happy to accommodate that request. And with that, I would be happy to stand for questions.

Any questions of staff?

I'm expecting a unanimous vote on this one.

Not to be pre-decisional here. Okay, with that, I'll entertain a motion. Mayor McShane. Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to adopt the ordinance as presented. Thank you.

Is there a second? Mayor, I second that. It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Anderson to adopt the ordinance as presented. The floor is open for discussion.

Could we relabel this ordinance as the Save Crystal Voice?

Yes, we can. It'll be the Save Crystal Act.

I was thinking we may delay this until October. Okay.

I should also mention Dylan will be staffing the September 15th meeting.

Well, we appreciate all of your services. I think it's a great thing for us to streamline our activities as normal.

And it will provide greater transparency, too, I should mention.

I think it's a good thing for us to move forward with. Thank you. All right. Any additional discussion? Otherwise, it has been properly moved and seconded to adopt the ordinances presented. Will the clerk please start the vote? That motion is passed unanimously.

All right.

Okay, the next is a quasi-judicial docket pertaining to the rezone of 5551 South Olympia Street and 5400 South Garfield Street under permit COZ-2026-0004. Will the clerk please read the ordinance by title? Is this the last time?

This is the last time, unless you guys ask me to do it again for old time's sake. So under 5C1, we have an ordinance amending the zoning classification of certain real property within the City of Kennewick, located at 5155 South Olympia Street, from residential suburban RS to residential low-density RL, COZ-2026-0004, Harpster Land Development, care of Peter Harpster. For item 5C2, we have an ordinance amending the zoning classification of certain real property within the city of Kennewick located at 5400 South Garfield Street from residential suburban RS to residential low density RL. COZ 2026-0004, Harpster Land Development, care of Peter Harpster.

Thank you. That's a good one to end on. All right. This is considered a quasi-judicial act by council rather than legislative. Quasi-judicial matters require the council meet the appearance of fairness doctrine. I ask that the council listen careful to the following questions. If your answer is yes to any question, please ask to be recognized. I will call on you once all questions have been raised. One, do you have any interest in the property or the application, or do you own property within 300 feet of the subject property? Will you stand to gain or lose any financial benefit as a result of the outcome of this proceeding? Three, are you unable to consider the application in a fair and objective manner? Four, have you engaged in any ex parte communications with either proponents or opponents? Is there anyone that hasn't answered yes to that? Okay. It is established the Kennewick City Council can consider this matter fairly. Mr. Larris, may we have staff report, please?

Sure. Thank you, Mayor. So what I have in front of you today is two ordinances that are part of one application, this change of zone 2026-0004. And just a brief overview, the applicant of this project is Peter Harpster of Harpster Land Development. The owner is John C. Pringle. And the proposal was to rezone 48.94 acres, two properties, FROM RESIDENTIAL SUBURBAN TO RESIDENTIAL LOW-DENSITY. THE COMP PLAN HAS IT DESIGNATED AS LOW-DENSITY RESIDENTIAL AND THE LOCATION OF BOTH PROPERTIES IS 5155 SOUTH OLYMPIA AND 5400 SOUTH GARFIELD STREET. AND SO WHAT I HAVE IN FRONT OF YOU RIGHT HERE IS THE FACINITY MAP SHOWING THE PROPOSED SITE OUTLINED IN BLACK AND AS YOU CAN SEE THOSE ARE THE TWO PROPERTIES THAT ARE A PART OF THIS CHANGE OF ZONE PROPOSAL. And when we look at the zoning map right here, same thing as before, proposal site outlined in black the two properties. The light yellow that the current property is is residential suburban, and the dark yellow to the northeast and west of there in the map is residential low density, which is being proposed to be changed to. And just a brief history of the property. The city annexed the site in 2007 through Ordinance 5183 and originally zoned the property agricultural. The site was rezoned to residential suburban in 2018 through Ordinance 5761. And when it comes to permitted uses between RS and RL, RS and RL zones do allow for single family and middle housing, but RL does allow for smaller lots. So RS has a minimum lot size of 8,000 square feet, but RL allows for 5,500 square foot minimum lot size, although both zones do allow for townhome lots of as low as 1,800 square feet. And so when it comes to a change of zone, there are certain findings that have to be made to approve as such. The first one is that the proposed amendment conforms with a comprehensive plan, promotes the public necessity, convenience, and general welfare, does not impose a burden upon public facilities beyond their capacity to serve or reduce such services to lands which are deemed unacceptable. and that the amendment is consistent with all applicable provisions of the Kennewick Municipal Code, including those adopted by reference from the comp plan, and for residential properties, that the property is already adjacent and contiguous with property of the same proposed zoning classification or higher. And a brief summary over what happened during the Planning Commission hearing. They held their meeting on the August 17th to 2026. Members of the public did show up, neighbors that were opposed, that spoke in opposition to the proposal. And the applicant's representative did show up to the meeting and spoke in favor of the proposal, basically saying that they would only be proposing the change in zone for now and that any future subdivision of the property would meet applicable city regulations. And with that being said, the recommendation from the Planning Commission was that they recommended approval of the change of zone. And from there, I'll be happy to take any questions.

Thank you. Any questions? What was the rationale for opposition?

Essentially, it was opposition to the future development of the property specifically, mainly concerned with the smaller lots, increased traffic, concerns about whether public infrastructure could support that, parks, those kinds of things, essentially. Essentially, opposition to the development that the change of zone would possibly allow.

Okay.

Thank you.

How many members of the public actually attended spoken opposition?

If I remember correctly, it might have been four or five. Do you remember by chance? Oh, that's right.

I think that's the number I'm looking for is less than a certain threshold. Right, yeah. And when you say that they were living adjacent to the subject property, are they just in the neighborhoods around that within a half mile of the property, or what are we talking about?

Generally speaking, when we send out a public notice, we do notify everyone within 300 feet of the proposal. So most likely anyone within 300 feet that received a notice in the mail would have showed up.

Yeah, sorry, but they did not show up, right? You had a certain number that did show up, and of that, four or five of them spoke in opposition.

Correct, yeah.

Aren't you also required to post the property as well? So it's not just notice sent to people within 300 feet, but it's generally available to anyone that passes by.

Yes, mm-hmm.

And again, subjects of their opposition were really not related necessarily to the subject of reducing this lot size, but the fact that they just were subdividing in general, or was it focused on the reduction in lot sizes?

It was mainly focused on like what the rezone could allow in the future. Like I did mention that it would allow for smaller lot sizes, you know, single family lots. So it was mainly that that they were in opposition to since I should note specifically the applicant for this change of zone hasn't submitted any subdivision plans as of now for those two properties.

Yes, please. If I remember, the current comp plan on this is already RLL, correct?

Yes, low density residential.

I think the final question for me is we heard about some of these comments, concerns about opposition to this proposal related to the ability of city services to be able to service this. Does the city have code and requirements to ensure that this would not take away from city residents, that they have to provide those essential city services?

So yeah, when it comes to new developments, like I can speak to what I've seen so far in my experience. Usually, like they do have to provide like water and sewer and they provide sidewalks, they have to meet public works standards, you know, for new subdivision development. And when it comes to like adjacent streets, for example, like, for example, Garfield, which let me just pull up the map and show you really quickly. So to the east right there is Garfield. So the developer would be required, historically from what I've seen, they would likely be required to make at least half street improvements. So that would include curb, gutter, and sidewalk along that section.

Yeah, and our city code also requires if they are creating greater traffic impacts, that those impacts are studied and that those impacts are mitigated, correct?

Correct, yeah. Usually they have to submit traffic impact reports as part of their proposed subdivision. Thank you, that's all my questions.

Any additional questions of the staff? Council Member Klippert.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. In previous experiences when I voted on things that seemed so good at the time and then after it was passed, there were unintended consequences. Do you see any unintended consequences if we were to pass this today?

As of right now, no, I can't really say what the developer has in store for the current properties. So I can't really say, unfortunately, until we see definitive plans on what they want to do.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Any additional questions? I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mayor. Yes, Mayor Pro Temporelli.

I move to approve the docket as presented, adopting the ordinance as presented under 5C1 and 5C2. Is there a second?

Mayor.

Council Member Milbauer.

Second the motion.

It has been moved by Mayor Pro Temporelli and seconded by Council Member Milbauer to approve the docket as presented, adopting the ordinance as presented under 5C1 and 5C2. The floor is open for discussion. Okay. It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the docket as presented, adopting the ordinances presented under 5C1 and 5C2. Will the clerk please start the vote? That is passed unanimously. Thank you. Next, we have new business, and it's a report regarding the city hall replacement project. Ms. Erdman, will you please have a staff report for us?

Yes, thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Chair McShane. In front of you or in your packet this evening, is the final report for the City Hall RFP. There's really no action to be taken. This is basically relaying the final report that we received from Architects West and Opsys Architecture and really provides the background information for the decision that we've come to and kind of wraps up that process and gets us moving for the next steps. So I'll kind of go through how we got here and what our next steps will be and then open it up for any questions. We really started off this process by starting with the consulting group, really evaluating what the needs are in each department and what we currently have and what we need to have in the future to operate consistently. That gave us – and then we took those numbers of square footage and we – projected forward by 15 years so we accounted for staff growth across departments and gave us a rough target size for a new facility of about 40 000 square feet based on what we currently have and then with that 15-year growth factor gave us about 45 700 so kind of rounding that up to 46 000 square foot of what we would need for a city hall to accommodate us over the next 15 to 20 years So with that target in hand, we turned to looking at our existing building to see how it measured up. And in parallel with that, we also started looking at efficiencies for the new facility. So looking at adjacency diagrams and how we should really function and be laid out for effective customer service and efficiencies within that building. And then the third part of this process was looking at the master planning and evaluating where on the civic campus this new building should go. so when we looked at our existing building and conditions our current city hall was built in 1965 had major additions and renovations tacked on in 1975 84 93 and 2007 which really gives us a wonderful patchwork of this building and it's wonderful efficient layout we have landlocked interior spaces and not a lot of natural light and duplicate support spaces Most urgently, too, with the current facilities, we have an HVAC system that is at the end of its lifespan. During this process, they took roof core samples and showed extensive leaking and saturation within the facility. Also, the building is just a little bit too small. We're sitting right now at about almost 30,000 square feet when our program and growth projections are pushing us towards that 46,000 square foot mark. So this led us into shifting our focus to a new facility. When we look at the cost comparisons, comprehensive renovation of the existing city hall would be about $23 to $26 million. New construction of a new facility coming in estimated around $29 to $36 million. One important point to note here is that this is not really an apples to apples comparison. Even at the lower price tag for a renovation, we can't achieve the same efficiencies, functionality, or the civic presence that the new construction could deliver. then we kind of moved into site selection we looked at two different site options one was the corner lot at sixth and auburn to rebuild city hall there and we also looked at the existing location here over several council work sessions this past spring and summer consensus was formed around keeping city hall centrally located mid block on sixth avenue which would preserve that corner lot for future economic development and creates a stronger civic presence facing the police department as part of the civic campus master plan we also looked at options for the Kenneth Sierra pool using our we used the 2024 recreational feasibility study that we had done for sizing of that and the direction was to place the new outdoor aquatics facility north of the new City Hall next to the Quaden Park so this would have good access to the park in the school district So bottom line, the recommendation that Council came forward with was to basically build a new facility over the existing facility that we have here and place the aquatic center next to that. So with that given, next steps in the process, we did come back to Council at the workshop in May. to ask for consensus to move forward to issue an RFP for an owner's rep to get the process started. That is open and it closes September 15th. Our goal is to get them on board to help us determine what alternative delivery method would be best for the project. So whether that is a progressive design build or a general contractor construction management process. And from there, have them then work with us to get through the Capital Project Advisory Review Board through the state, which is the CPARP process. And then once that is completed, we would move forward with hiring a consultant. So depending on what path we took, if we went with the progressive design build, we would be hiring one contractor to manage the design and construction versus if we went the general contractor construction management route, we would hire one. we would bring the contractor on earlier in the stages so that they could help with that final design and then go to construction. We are looking to move, the RFP that is on the street now will cover three capital projects that we're working on. So the city hall facility, the pool facility, and Fire Station 6. We would be asking the owners rep to represent us on all three of those projects. Our initial intent before our thought process that we're moving forward with is combining the pool and the city hall projects together as one. We think there's going to be an economy of scale there to be able to do them at the same time, given their proximity to each other. And then the fire station six would be a different project and probably a different build process because we do have a design already pretty set for that. We would be taking the design for station three and kind of repurposing a few of the rooms and putting that out on the lot that we have off of Bob Olson Parkway. So I don't think we would have to go through the full progressive design bill, but more of a traditional process potentially. But we'll be looking to the owner's rep to assist with that. decision. During that time, once we get through that, we'll also be working with our financial consultants to work on bond rating and approval to move the projects forward. And then we'll also be creating a task force with internal city staff to kind of start doing some more research before we dive into the full design process, taking a look at some recently constructed city facilities, kind of learning the do's and don'ts, what's worked for them, what didn't work, so that we can make sure we don't fall into those pitfalls as we design City Hall. We would be looking, hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, to get CPARB approval by early 2027 and get a contractor on board. We've been estimating about 18 months for the design process and then another 18 months for construction. that's kind of where we're at in the process like i said the the final report just kind of provides all the data and background for the decisions that were made up to this point and i would be happy to field any questions thank you any questions yes please just a real quick comment more than a question uh i do want to thank staff i had some questions about the bonding and how that works

and the finance director kind of hand-held me through that process, and more power to you. Good luck on bonding.

Yes, also a housekeeping item Mayor Pro Tem surely picked up on. There was an error on page 24 of the report, so just to let you know that too. Part 8 should be Part 6, so that was a typo there.

All right, any additional questions? I want to just take a moment and express appreciation for the staff's time and effort, and our consultants work on this as well, and recognizing this is really the beginning of this process and not the end. That's correct. And so we've got a long ways ahead of us as we get, and so I appreciate everybody's efforts. Next, we'll have council comments and discussion. We'll start. Let's go ahead and start. Council Member Beecham. I don't have any this evening.

I'll make up for that, but try and keep it brief. I attended the waste management virtual tour for recycling, a lot of changes. It was actually very interesting. I don't know who else attended it. It was interesting to see how the recycling's changing and the way it's gonna go forward. Also attended a recovery court on August 19th for the graduation of three individuals. came down with the wife to national night out really enjoyed it warm as usual but that's okay it was a good turnout by everyone and i think staff and everyone did a fantastic job so thank you for that let's see regional chamber of commerce luncheon councilman clipperton staff we got an update from the last update from congressman newhouse i will report that the world war ii and the purple hearts signs are up around the entrance of the city except for The state avenues or highways coming in, that's soon to come. I also attended the webinar for the Benton and Franklin County Top Cop webinar. If you want to know more about that, I have four pages of notes. It was so interesting. Not to sound naive, but I had no idea all the different legal, the bad drugs that go into vaping and how vaping starts in seven and eight-year-olds and the habits that form there. Vaping also has lead, tin, and other heavy metals that they take into their lungs. It's really a shame, but I would encourage you all to please go to topcopsaysstop.com. Jermaine Galloway, police from Boise, now lives in Texas, and goes out, Benton and Franklin County, The recovery courts brought him in and did a webinar. I can't even name all the different drugs that there are that are out there for our young kids and everyone else. It's really harmful and shameful. So I'd encourage you to go to that webpage and learn more about what's out there. I mean, clothing that has stash pockets in their hats, stash pockets in backpacks that kids can take them to school. Parents need to know about this. They know if they have this stuff, it's stashed. They can't see it because the pockets are hidden. It's really shameful. I'd also be remiss if I didn't bring up Suicide Awareness Month in September. I lost my best friend eight years ago to it. I thought I was helping him, but didn't know what I was doing when he took his life. So I took some training to help that with others I may or may not know. So take it seriously. If you have someone, a loved one, friend, family member, who's talking about suicidal thoughts or anything like that, take it seriously. See if you can reach out, get them help, and get them where they need to be to prevent them from losing their life. So with that, unhappy note, I'll end my report.

Thank you. I attended the Roads and Transportation meeting. Not a lot to report on that except for the fact that you talk about unintended consequences of doing X, Y, or Z. The big push, not just in the state of Washington, but especially in the state of Washington for electric vehicles, has cost the budget significant millions of dollars. And so that's a big part of the budget shortfall is When you're selling electric vehicles and the number of electric vehicles on the road is increasing, you're not getting gas tax from those vehicles. And so the state's facing a massive budget shortfall in the roads department. So I know it hasn't passed yet, but they're really working on figuring out a way to recoup those lost taxes on electric vehicle fees per mileage fees there's all sorts of things going on in olympia but so if you have concerns about the way the roads are looking and driving just know that the state is massively behind on that and i think the city's doing pretty good on that we have a pretty good program in place but my road was on the list for this summer and hasn't been done yet john so i'm just we got three weeks

Summer's almost over.

And then as far as Ubi's comment on the pool, that it's the same pool for her kids. I don't know your exact age, Ubi, but I think it was the same pool when you were a kid. So it's a very old pool. I'm not saying you're very old. It's the pool's older than you. But if you heard, we're getting there. We're getting there. So we have been listening. Yeah, thank you, that's all.

Mayor Pro Tem Trelley.

I have another one for tonight.

Council Member Klipper. I too attended the waste management webinar with Mayor Pro Tem Trelley. Listening to him, I think both of us were well educated. very very well done national night out yeah i second that it was phenomenal everybody did a great job it was well attended and in every booth that i visited it was very very impressive so i just want to thank everybody for all their hard work we're still going strong thank you and mayor if i may real quick yes go ahead go ahead mayor protem torelli in the waste management uh discussion

I could not beat his 84 questions he asked, but I tried. Thank you, Mayor Motown.

I hesitate to ask, Jim, how many questions did you have? Okay, I was going to say, you're going to really love Kennewick before we're done. You're going to end up raising our rates. Charges by the questions, good. All right, city manager.

Thank you. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up. We'll be doing a tour of the convention center expansion with Apple Valley News on Friday, so I'm sure that will be hitting the media. A little update on public comments. The signal at Clearwater and 10th Avenue, we were discussing a little bit today. I believe John, correct me if I'm wrong, will be starting this week on that construction project, so it is underway. And then I just wanted to remind Council of the 9-11 ceremony, the 25th anniversary will be Friday, obviously on September 11th, starting at 5.30 p.m. at the Memorial Lab at Southridge. So that's all I have. P.M. 5.30 p.m. There is a whole day's worth of events, but the main ceremony will be, and we can send out a schedule of events for the day.

Yeah, I was going to say, traditionally there's a sunrise one as well, right? Yeah, there is that portion. And that will still be there, right?

Yes, that will still happen.

Yes. But the 25th is the evening. Thank you. I, too, attended National Night Out and want to just express appreciation to all the city staff and effort that goes towards that, plus the volunteers as well. I mean, I think that we don't always recognize we had members of our Parks Commission, we had members of our Arts Commission that were there as well, Manning Boots, and helping to help folks see what the city has to offer and what the community really has to offer. I don't want to pick on anybody, but I did see a little bit of Richland's National Night Out. It was not quite as good as ours, but they've got something to aspire towards. I had an opportunity to attend the BFCOG meeting this past period. A lot of things going on there. Appreciate all the work our city staff do to make sure we're eligible in putting our projects to work. It's one of the places we get transportation funding, and so our city staff do an excellent job with that. We were congratulated and then told we couldn't get another project because we already had too many compared to everybody else, and so great job making sure we're doing that and taking advantage of that. I had an opportunity to go and tour the convention center I think a week and a half ago, something like that, 10 days ago. It's quite incredible. If you haven't had a chance to see it since they started putting some of the things together, I was fortunate enough to allow me to get my geek on a little bit and got to go in the electrical room and see just the amount of effort that goes into a building of that size and nature. It also is really encouraging to see, I was at the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce meeting, board meeting that same week. It's really incredible to see the excitement in our community for the convention center. It's not something that everybody in our community knows and uses, and I would encourage them to take advantage of the opportunities to use that convention center when they can and recognize the great economic benefits that can come through that. We already have people trying to book into the convention center. I think three years out, I thought I was exaggerating when I said that during the chamber meeting and then verified it later on with any works that that, in fact, is the case. We have three years. People are looking to come to our community to enjoy that. It does provide some additional crowding and traffic in certain times, but it's a great benefit. I was also fortunate enough to attend the Benton Franklin Fair and Rodeo Parade and get to give a keynote welcome to that and excited to see people utilize the historic downtown. Just as an over-under, I thought when I had my first remarks made up for me, we had 150 floats, and it turns out I was verifying those numbers, and they were wrong, and it was 180 floats at the Benton Franklin Fair and Rodeo Parade, so I thought that was really great. I want to put a shout out to our first responder team, and again, Parks, for how much work went into getting that up and running. Everyone that I talked to was so complimentary of the work that our staff do to make that event available for the community. And I would, of course, be remiss if I didn't mention our historic downtown Kennewick partnership who helps put that on every single year. And like I say, it's a great opportunity. The fair group did a wonderful job, and it was really good to see. in spite of the rain that started right as the parade was starting, which I guess is fairly normal. We're talking to the folks that do that. I will just mention on the pool, I do appreciate that we talk about a new pool. I sure hope that whatever pool we build lasts as long as this one has and serves our community as well as this one has. And I think too often we look at the pool and all we see is the negative sides of what it doesn't have and what it needs and all these things. But I do think we need to recognize that those people that put that in place, they put together a good program that's lasted that many decades. And so we really appreciate those that had that foresight to have that out in front of us and encourage others to hopefully have the same.

I may apologize. I left off one thing. Okay, go ahead. I did attend a Visit Tri-Cities, and I wanted to bring up the Ironman September 20th. If there are a need of volunteers, you can go to the webpage, Visit Tri-Cities webpage, and sign up for the different positions they need. They are having, on the Friday night before, it's called Party at the Point. It's a kickoff party. It's from 5 to 8, and it's open to the public, no cars, no charge. So if you're interested in something like that, And then the Iron Kids race is Saturday for under 17 years of age, 9 a.m. Registration is before that. There are different races for the different age groups. It starts at 9 a.m. And, of course, Ironman on Sunday. You can help out. Thank you for that.

And Jim, aren't they doing a, at that party at the point, aren't they allowing people to actually swim the Ironman swimming event or portion of the event as part of that? It kicks at five. It kicks at five o'clock on Friday. As part of that Friday night activity. So I thought that was something I hadn't heard before. I thought that was interesting.

And if I may, I just want to go ahead. School started and it was just everybody drive safe. And it's just so exciting to have the kids back in school. They're incredible. Thank you all.

And so my last thing I wanted to address this evening was just an update on our drought conditions in the community. And so we do have the latest numbers will be coming out on Thursday. We expect those numbers to hopefully hold at a 58% for the pro-rationed irrigation districts up and down the valley. It's possible it could go down. As we look at the long-term forecasting and concerns about October, and for those that may not recall, Last October was the first time in the history of the Acoma Basin that there was a curtailment for drinking water in some of the upper valley cities. We're hopeful that that doesn't occur again this year, but it is possible. We should know more about that later this week. As we look into the future, our challenge is that we're looking at some very strong El Nino conditions. For those that are unfamiliar with El Nino, that's the surface water temperatures of the equatorial Pacific. If you're a Chris Farley fan, it also is Spanish for the Nino. Am I dating myself a little bit? Not too bad, though? Okay, all right. At least most people here understood what I was saying. Anyway, that really means dry, hot conditions in the Pacific Northwest. It does mean some rain is supposed to come down to the southwest, which is great. They need it. But it does mean for our Yakima Valley that we're most likely looking at a fifth consecutive year of drought, which has not happened in the historic modern record in the Yakima Basin. So our community has done a great job, and we continue to do a good job of doing rationing. It gets a little old when you're at the fourth year of saying, hey, we're in a drought. Everybody needs to do their part. But it really has made a huge difference. And we see that at the Kennewick Irrigation District particularly, but also nationally. at our sister irrigation districts up and down the valley in Columbia Irrigation District here in town. And so we want to express appreciation for the community and do keep an eye out to continue on those processes. With that, I appreciate everyone's time this evening, and there's no further business on the agenda. It's 7.23 p.m., and the meeting is concluded.