City Council - Regular Meeting

This meeting is called to order. Welcome to today's council meeting for 02/17/2026. Please stand and join me in the flag Melissa, please call the roll.

Mayor Ralph? Council president corps? Here. Council member Boyce?

Here.

Council member Boyd?

Here.

Council member Larmer? Here. Council member Michaud?

Here.

Council member Schocher?

Here.

And council member Troutner?

Here. Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa. Next up, we have agenda approval. Are there any changes to the agenda?

From administration, I'd like to add consent agenda item m, which is an excused absence for the mayor.

Thank you. Any other changes? If none, may I have a motion please to approve the agenda with amendment?

So move. Second.

Motion and second. All those in favor, please say

aye. Aye.

Motion passes. Thank you. Okay. Next up, we have public communication. And under public communications, we have public recognition, appointment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging board. Mayor Ralph is requesting the council confirm her appointments to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging board. This item is on today's consent agenda. There are about 17 individuals. Are there any members being appointed to the Board here in the audience? I don't remember seeing anyone. Okay. We'll move on. Council will confirm that appointment later on. Hope you will. Okay.

Next up, we have appointment to Kent Parks and Recreation Commission. Mayor Ralph is requesting council confirm appointment of Stephanie Redvick to the Kent Parks and Recreation Commission and I believe she is in the audience. This item is on today's consent agenda. Is there anything you would like to say, Stephanie? I'm sure we've already asked if you have. All right, well thank you for joining us tonight. And the council will approve that hopefully as well. Okay, next, we'll move on to community events and Council Member Boyce.

Thank you, Madam President. We have a lot of these that's going on at Accesso Showwear Center. So I'm going to name a few things that you can have opportunity to take you and your family to the events. On February 20, had Seattle Thunderbird versus the Portland Winterhalt. February 21, had the Tacoma Stars versus the San Diego Soccer. February 22, Toby Matt hit deep tour with Crowder and Jeremy Camp. And then February 28, the Thunderbirds back in town against the Everett Silvertips. March 6, Tacoma Star versus the Kansas City Comets. March 7, Seattle Thunderbird versus the Tri City American. And then on March 13, we have the Iconic Fest with E-forty.

And the last one, we'll just say April 19, third day twentieth anniversary tour. So lots of things going on that show where this is a big time for the Thunderbirds. So you haven't seen them play, please take opportunity to take you and your family. Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Councilman Boies. Any other community events? Okay. Alright. Moving on, we have public safety report and we have deputy chief Stansfield here to present public safety report. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, council deputy chief Stansfield from police department. Here tonight to bring you tonight's public safety report. Our only agenda item that we have for our public safety report is a swearing in one of our new officers, officer Cameron Alonzo. If you come up to the front, please.

Just right here in the center. Cameron, who do you have here with you tonight?

My over here, my mom, my sister Jordan, my aunt, Kaylee, and my fiance, husband.

Welcome. Thank you for coming to support him. So Cameron comes to us tonight. He lives in Edgewood, Washington. He's 23 years old and lives with his fiance, Aspen, who's here with us this evening. Cameron's originally from Texas and moved to Washington fifteen years ago with his mom and dad and two sisters. He graduated from White River High School in Buckley in 2020. That's not very long ago. Before working for Kent PD, Cameron worked as an Amazon delivery driver based out of Maple Valley for two years. And really what sold Cameron on coming to work for the city of Kent is he was on a pre employment interview looking to at several different police departments, but immediately fell along in love with our city on his ride along when he's out with one of our officers and decided right then and there he didn't wanna work for any other department.

Fun fact about Cameron is that he showed his dog throughout all four years of high school in four h. So pretty neat. I think everybody loves dogs. So that's that's about Cameron and council president Carl swear Cameron in now.

Do solemnly swear

Do solemnly swear.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

Bear true faith and allegiance.

To The United States Of America.

To The

United States Of America.

The state of Washington.

The state

of Washington.

And the city of Kent. And the city of Kent. That I will uphold the constitution and the laws.

That I will uphold the constitution and the laws.

Of The United States and state of Washington

Of The United States and the state of Washington.

And I will obey the rules and regulations

I will obey the rules and regulations

of the Kent Police Department.

Of the Kent Police Department. Congratulations.

Congratulations and welcome.

Do we have any questions for Deputy Chief?

You.

Right.

Appreciate it.

Good to see everybody again.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Okay. Next we are on reports from counsel and staff. There's Mayor Ralph's report, which I do not have access to, so I'm sure we'll get an update on that. Next, we'll have CAO's report. Pat?

Thanks, counsel. Very briefly, we continue to work in Olympia. Kyle is doing an amazing job organizing, working with other cities. There was a bill cutoff date today. A couple of the bills that we were firmly against have died, which is good news. There will be Kyle sent out a report to the council earlier this morning, and he will continue to work really, really hard on this for another month or so. And then then we then he can breathe. But until then, he's not allowed to breathe. Anyway, he's doing I I can tell you he's doing an incredible job. And he is really working for not only Kent, but this entire region. Awesome. He really is. Thank you.

Thank you, Pat. And we have council's report for council. We had our council workshop tonight. A great update on grants that our city applies for. Last year 2025, Kent actually received $17,900,000 of funding back for our streets and roads. Great projects. Our public work department does a great job of creating grants for our city. I will have I had one regional meeting, Domestic Violence Initiative Regional Task Force, and I'll have that update in our council newsletter tomorrow. With that, I'm going go ahead and get started with Councilmember Troutner.

Thank you, Madam President. I am subject matter chair for public works. Information on the meeting earlier this evening will be in the newsletter tomorrow. I am also on the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Governance Board. We met on February 4. We are starting our fire benefit charge conversation and looking at petitions. We will continue that conversation at our meeting tomorrow evening. I also sit on the regional transit committee and we meet tomorrow afternoon. That is all I have. Thank you.

Thank you councilmember chairman. Councilmember Boyd.

Yeah, thank you madam president. I sit on the Kent arts commission board newly appointed and this past February 11 we talked about certain things like one was the Will Street Greenway sculptures to present at our March meeting we would discuss that later. We also talked about the spring with park public arts update which we had a community outreach that updated 69 people and we the attendance was large and Laura Lydia will also present this coming Saturday. Again, we talked about Garrison Creek Parks Public Arts update and the arts presented to March meeting will be digital and we have our project staff working on to resolve project issues. Also on East Hill North Public Art update parks planning and development has dedicated an extra $5,000 to expand the artist scope to include the titles in the overlook area as part of the screen overhang for our twenty twenty six, twenty twenty thirty city arts plan.

Our summer arts exhibit we will not produce a summer arts exhibit in 2025 due to changes related to the city hall administrative service building move. Also, kids art day is coming up Saturday March 7 at 10AM to 3PM at Kent Commons and that's it for right now our next meeting will be held March 11 at 05:30 p. M. Thank you, madam president.

Thank you, council member Boyd. Council member Boyce.

Thank you, madam president. I am the council rep for the sound city association pit committee. We meet once a month. Just met recently. We do have a new PIT Chair, Lydia Dawson, is a federal council member and the Vice Chair was Ron Mercer and he is the Vice Chair. We also got new about 62 new faces on Pitt with all the changes going on with the election and so on. And we also got 17 new mayors. So one thing we kinda went back to the basis, you know, really to talk about how Pitt should be ran, you know, around the protocol for us having a meeting. In the past, you know, we get stuff that come to us, it's at the eleventh hour, right? We don't have time to discuss it, right?

So we're backing it up and making sure we have at least two opportunities to talk about it before we move forward. Another thing we talked about is really having less presentation. We had so many presentations and some was not value added. But some of the things that we're to be focusing on this year is land use regulation, affordable housing, behavioral health, protection for immigrant community, economic development, human service. We talk about subvergence and privacy related to the flock and ring camera, and then AI technology. So pretty exciting things. I must admit in the past, I was kinda just, you know, not too happy with things running, but we're gonna go back to the basis. So we're really gonna be I'm looking forward to it. So that's all I have, madam president.

Thank you.

Sounds pretty exciting. Thank you, Councilor Moran Boyce. Councilor Valarmer.

Thank you, Council President. So I am the subject matter chair for Economic and Community Development. We had one item tonight in our Committee of the Whole, which was information only update on a recode Kent Phase two specific to the community commercial zone. And this is zone where we are looking at in select parts of the community commercial zone within Campus CC zone, allowing four plex, five plex, six plex, town homes and multi family housing and live work units. And just select zones that align with our growth objectives and along transit.

So this is information only. It will be coming back for a vote in March. I also serve on the King County Growth Management Planning Council and we will not be meeting until March, so I'll have a report then. And that concludes. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Laramie. Councilmember Rachelle.

Thank you, Council President. I serve as the council liaison for the Human Services Commission. And every month, we have started doing many panels from different organizations. And this month, we had Catholic Community Services, Catherine and Rita House, St. Stephen Housing, King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, and El Centro de la Raza. And right before our meeting, staff hosted an application, our grant application workshop. We had about 30 participants. The room was packed. And there will be more workshops available for organizations to get help with the grant application. You can contact Human Services for more information on those dates.

And the commission is really gearing up for this summer when they will be reviewing all the grant applications. It's a lot of work, so we are just getting ready for that. And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Councilor Mosho. Councilor Moshokar.

Thank you, council president. So I got to attend the Sound Cities Association's new elected training orientation. It was a great opportunity to build relationships and better understand how regional coordination supports our work here in Kent. I also got to tour the new East Hill operation center, which is currently under construction. Seeing that project firsthand gave me a better understanding of how we're investing in infrastructure and long term service for delivery for our residents. And then I also got to tour the training academy for the Kent Police Department. It was valuable to see the level of preparation that goes into training our officers. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Schocher. That concludes our council report. Okay, public hearing, there is no public hearing tonight. Public comment, Melissa, is there anyone signed up for public comment?

We have one person signed up.

All right. Okay, I will be reading the public comment period is your opportunity to speak. You want to call the person and I'll continue reading.

MJ Patek. Okay.

All right. The public comment period is your opportunity to speak to the council and the mayor on the issues that relate to the city of Kent or to agenda items council will consider. This is not an open public forum and comments that do not relate to the business of the city of Kent are not permitted. Additionally, the state of Washington strictly prohibits people from using this public comment opportunity for political campaign purposes, including to support or oppose a ballot measure or any candidate for public office. Speakers may not give political campaign speeches, but must instead speak concerning a matter on the City Council agenda or matters concerning the general business of the City of Kent.

Furthermore, in providing public comments, speakers must address the mayor or the council as a whole. Remarks intended to target an individual on the dais are not permitted. Finally, please note that this public comment opportunity is for you to provide information to the mayor and the council that you would like us to consider. But we will not be able to answer questions during the meeting itself. The city clerk will announce each speaker when called to speak, please stop to the podium, state your name, city of residence for the record and then state your comments. You will have up to three minutes to provide comment. Welcome.

I'm MJ Podock. I live at 2575 68th Avenue South, otherwise known as the West Valley Highway. I live in a exclusive community called the Rollover Community, which the mayor puts it. We are the ones that take all the flood damage that comes off the Green River. And I have a complaint and a grievance on the response from the city on the matter because the wetlands were direct conduits of water into our community.

And it brings up a big safety issue. It cuts off a lot of escape routes. It plugs very quickly. There's little time to react. My neighbor, she had to be evacuated by a tow truck because she's disabled. Ambulance wouldn't come to take her. Anyway, that's that's it for that story. But as far as all my neighbors, they've lost furnaces, hot water heaters. I

mean,

I lost all my beehives because it just came up so quickly. And my grievance is on my water bill, on all our water bills, we have a storm water drainage fee and I'm asking for myself and the rest of my community, Rollover community, which is about 30 homes that's involved in all this, that we'd be exempt from this storm water drainage fee on our water bills because we're the storm water drainage. And costs us money, you know, just to fix fences, cut up fallen trees, find material to backfill driveways that washed away, you know, replaced livestock that I've lost, bees, you know. And just hope you will consider that and address the safety issue with the wetland areas on the end of 262nd and also front 67th Avenue South, 68th Avenue South, I'm sorry. But it's been devastating.

There has not been any city officials that came by to take a look, I don't think, except for public works. They looked at the road and basically they looked at their phones while they were watching the phone. Anyway, thank you for having me. Appreciate the counsel listening to me.

Thank you, sir. If you want to reach out to our public works director, Chad Bearin, he might be able to answer some questions for you sitting right in the back.

Thanks.

Thank you. Melissa, do we have anyone else signed up? All right. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up, consent calendar. The consent calendar is a compilation of the items that have gone through committee prior to being placed on the consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve consent items A through M?

So move. Second.

Motion and second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Motion passes. Thank you. Other business, there are no other business items tonight. Bids, we have public works bids. Councilmember Schroedner.

Thank you, Madam President. We do have three bids this evening. The first is twenty twenty six plastic markings project. And Chad is here to talk about

all of them.

Council. Thanks for having me. Yeah. First one up is twenty twenty six plastic markings. Two bids received. This is where we go around town and refresh plastic markings. There's like stop bars, arrows, only signs that you see that are torched down on the pavement. Those do wear out, so we go through and refresh those as they wear out. Received two bids, a low bid was specialized payment marking for $286,880 Engineer's estimate was $488,521 We recommend award.

Any questions? I move to award the 2026 Plastic Markings Project to Specialized Pavement Markings LLC in the amount of $286,880 and authorize the mayor to sign all necessary documents subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the city attorney and public works director.

Second.

All right, there's a motion and a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? All right. That one passes. We'll move on to the 2026 paint line striping and RPM replacement project.

Thank you. Yep. Another kind of housekeeping project, twenty twenty six paint line striping and RPM replacements. This is again throughout the city. Three bids received this year. Low bid was from specialized payment marketing again for $307,740. We had an engineer's estimate of $416,003.75, and we we recommend award.

Alright. Any questions? Alright. I move to award the 2026 Paint Line Striping and Raised Pavement Marking Replacement Project to specialize pavement marking in the amount of $372,740 and authorize the mayor to sign all necessary documents subject to final terms and conditions acceptable to the city attorney and public works director.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any other discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. And lastly, the Mill Creek Reestablishment.

Last but not least, we're excited about this one. This is the Mill Creek Reestablishment little property floodplain reconnection project. This is the next phase of getting Mill Creek cleaned out and maintained to reduce flooding. I love to say eliminate, but that's a big word. I will say reduce it significantly.

We've had now a couple of winters with no flooding on James Street and this project will help continue that Pat gave you that look. This project will help continue that trend, we hope. So this will intends to open up the the little property. The city bought this about fifteen years ago with the intention of creating a flood plain in this area and trying to recreate more of a natural habitat for Mill Creek in an area that was significantly constrained behind just west of Woodford Avenue. So very excited to have this phase going.

This is that last stretch where we're going to end up with the new channel and fish habitat in there as well. So low bid came from 10 bids on this one, all very closely spaced, so the project group did a really good job on it. Low bid came from Rugarti Construction, just shy of $2,100,000 and an engineer's estimate of just over $2,400,000 So we recommend award.

Alright. Questions? Alright. I move to award the Mill Creek reestablishment, little property floodplain reconnection project to Redardi Construction, Inc. In the amount of $2,089,290.47 and authorized the mayor to sign all necessary documents subject to final terms and conditions, acceptable to the city attorney and public works director.

Second. All

right. Any other discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Back to you, Madam President.

Thank you, Councilmember Dartner. Next up, executive session. There is no executive session tonight. And with no further business, this meeting is adjourned. Have a good night. Thank you.