City Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to welcome you to the May 12th, 2026 meeting of the King County Council. I'm Sarah Perry, Chair of the Council, joined by Vice Chair Jorge Baron and Vice Chair Reagan Dunn on line with us. And our council colleagues today in this meeting is called to order. Before we begin, please join me in acknowledging that we are on the traditional lands of the Puget Salish people's past and present. We thank these caretakers of this land who've lived here and continue to live here since time immemorial, bringing their cultural ways of life and greatly enriching our communities. With that, Clerk Hay, would you please call the roll? Thank you.

Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barron.

Here.

Council Member Dembowski. Here. Council Member Dunn.

Here.

Councilmember Fain. Here. Councilmember Lewis. Here. Councilmember Mosqueda. Councilmember Von Reichbauer. Chair Perry.

Here. You have a quorum. Thank you very much. Next, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. We 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. Vice Chair Barone, may I please have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 30th and May 5th, 2026 council meetings.

I move approval of the minutes of April 30th and May 5th.

Thank you. The motion is before us. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say nay. The minutes are approved. Clerk K, are there any additions to the council agenda today? I have none. Thank you. Next, we'll turn to our special item, which is a proclamation recognizing May 2026 as Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month in North King County, led by Councilmember Fain. Please begin whenever you're ready. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. Excuse me, I'm sorry. Did I say North King County? You did.

We are definitely celebrating it in North King County. We are celebrating. We don't want to leave anybody out.

May I correct? We are celebrating Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month in all of the great county of King County. Thank you.

Thank you. I was going to play right over that, but I appreciate the clarification. I am honored to sponsor this proclamation recognizing Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Month. To be honest, I wrestled a little bit with doing this proclamation. I didn't wanna stand up here simply as the only Asian American council member and have us feel or seem like I was just checking a box. But over the last week, I've heard a couple stories from members of our community that really stuck with me. And I'm gonna share a couple of them with you. One story was shared recently by the son of an 81 year old Chinese woman who suffered excruciating back pain after a fall. It was so severe that she essentially could only lay in bed and she couldn't even roll over onto her side or lift her head without crying out in pain. She went to the emergency room at a hospital. I don't know which one. Hopefully. I don't think it was Harborview. But after waiting for several hours, a provider asked her to rate her pain on a scale of 1 to 10. And she said 3. Not because her pain was minor when moving, but after lying completely still for hours, her pain was, in fact, at a three. But no one asked follow-up questions. What about when you stand up? How's your pain when you're walking or moving? And had they asked, she would have said 10. Instead, she was discharged shortly after that without any real help or understanding. And I couldn't help thinking about how easily moments like this happen to people who've been raised to not complain, not to question authority, and not to make waves, even when there's pain and suffering. The other story was much smaller on its face, but it stayed with me just as much. A Southeast Asian community member shared how upset and angry they felt after walking their dog when another family approached and used this member's dog to help train the family's puppy, and then simply walked away without acknowledging them.

No hello, no thank you, no nothing.

And at first, the community members Frustration and outrage seemed disproportionate. We've all gotten distracted and have inadvertently forgotten to say hello or use basic manners. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it wasn't about that single interaction. It was about the same cumulative feeling of learning to stay quiet, not to take up space, not to ask for more than what is freely given. And over time, even small moments of being overlooked begin to carry real weight. And I think many Asian Americans understand that feeling because culturally, many of us are raised to keep our heads down, work hard, don't make any waves. But I also think that feeling extends beyond the Asian American community. There are many people in our shared communities who feel unseen, unheard, or like their voices don't matter because they aren't the loudest person in the room. So while I am very proud to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, This proclamation is also about recognizing everyone who has contributed quietly while often feeling like they had to stay silent just to belong. And now, more than ever, I think we all have a responsibility to notice people more, to listen carefully, to not dismiss someone's frustration simply because the moment seems small to us, and to make sure that people know that they matter. Because everyone deserves to feel seen, everyone deserves to feel heard, and everyone deserves to know that they matter. Thank you. I'd like to invite guests who will be receiving this proclamation from the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. Nam Nguyen, Nahin Kimkar and Anna Leasing to come forward. I'm going to read the proclamation and then we'll let them share a few words and then we'll do photos if that's okay with you chair. okay the proclamation reads whereas people of asian american and native hawaiian pacific islander descent have called the pacific northwest home for generations contributing to every facet of king county's culture economy civic life and identity and Whereas the AA and NHPI communities represent two distinct heritages, each rich in their own right, together comprising more than 49 ethnic groups, over 100 languages and dialects, and a vast array of religions, traditions, and cultures, and Whereas King County is home to one of the largest and fastest growing AA and NHPI populations in the nation. And their presence, leadership, and vision have been and continue to be essential to the vitality of our county. And whereas AA and NHPI Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and legacies of these communities. to confront and reflect on the discrimination and exclusion they have faced throughout history, and to recommit to a King County where every resident is seen, valued, and heard. Now, therefore, we, the Metropolitan King County Council, proclaim May 2026 as Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month in King County and encourage all residents to learn from and celebrate with our Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander neighbors and community members. Dated this 12th day of May 2026 and signed by all nine council members.

introduce yourself.

Thank you council members for today's proclamation and to council member Fain for inviting us here today. I am Anna Leasing, a vice chair of CAPA, the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. It's an honor to join you all here today in honor of ANHPI Heritage Month. This month is an opportunity for us to celebrate the richness and diversity of our cultures. It's also a time for us to pause and reflect on the legacy of our elders. Our communities did not arrive here without facing hardship, from the Chinese Exclusion Act to Japanese internment, from discriminatory immigration quotas to unlawful ICE enforcement. Our communities have faced barrier after barrier. And yet, generation after generation, we have led. We have organized. We have built. And we are still here. Our communities have had a profound impact in shaping Washington state in agriculture and medicine, tech, the arts, and government. Our elders planted seeds in every corner of civic life. And today, we tend that garden. At CAPA, our mission is to amplify the voices of the ANHPI community and advocate for our collective priorities. We do that in partnership with community and government leaders like the King County Council. We're a small commission, but we carry a large responsibility to represent communities that are not monolithic, not a single culture or language or experience, but a vast diversity of people spanning more than 50 ethnicities and 100 languages. Heritage Month is not just a celebration. It's a reminder of why this work matters. Visibility is protection. History is power. So this month, I encourage you all to learn a story you didn't yet know, uplift a leader in your community, engage your state and local government, and know that CAPA is here working alongside you all. This legacy belongs to all of us, and the resilience, that's ours to carry forward. Thank you, and happy ANFI Heritage Month.

Colleagues, would you like to join us for a photo?

We're going to start where we're coming from.

Yes, sure. Stand up. Stand up.

Stand up. 12, 1, 2, 3. Thank you.

Congratulations. Thank you. Wonderful choice. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Great job. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, it's hard to get a friend. It's expensive.

Thank you very much, Councilmember Fain, for that moving proclamation. It's beautiful. We'll now turn to the reading of items into the record and the hearing of public comments. Before we proceed, a quick note on Item 7, Ordinance 2004, which was adopted by the Council on December 2, 2025. This ordinance concerns the county's critical areas regulations. portion of the updated regulations constitute elements of King County Shoreline Master Program and requires approval by the State Department of Ecology. A public hearing is being held to supplement the record for Department of Ecology's consideration. Because of this, item 7 is noticed on today's agenda for the purpose of holding a public hearing And we'll be accepting public comment on it today. Any comments received at the public hearing will be forwarded to the Department of Ecology for their consideration in their review. The council will not be discussing the ordinance or taking any action as the ordinance has already been adopted. With that, Clerk Hay, will you please read the items into the records?

Thank you, Chair Perry. Item six is proclamation of May 2026 as Asian American and Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month in King County. Item seven is proposed substitute ordinance number 2024-0408 related to critical area regulations amending the King County Comprehensive Plan. And item eight is proposed motion number 2026-0079, a motion adopting the King County 2026 federal legislative priorities.

Thank you very much. The council will now take public comment on those ordinances, and I'd like to ask if there's anyone in addition to Ms. Dinesh that are here today for public comment. Anyone else in person or online? Well, we love hearing Ms. Dinesh's comment, and she's very well aware of the rules, so please go ahead whenever you're ready.

As usual, the proclamation was fun and enjoyable. I'm glad I was here for that. Specifically, I wanted to speak on Article 10 about the proposed ordinance regarding the Skyways Black Panther Park. I believe I did before, but I want to thank you again for the funding. Both Councilmember Lewis and I were at the grand opening, which is absolutely wonderful. And so were the three of the original Black Panthers, which now I have to give my age. I grew up with them. So it was a wonderful event. I want to thank you for the funding, as I said, and also give a shout out to Naima Clark. This is her brainchild. And even though it took 10 years for fruition, she stuck with it. And I'm so proud of her for her perseverance in making it happen. It's a wonderful addition to the Skyway neighborhood. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Again, anyone else here in person or online who would like to make a comment? No? Okay. Let me see. Then, seeing no further requests, we'll close the public hearing. And as noted earlier, Item 7, Ordinance 2024-0408 has been advertised for the purpose of holding a public hearing at today's meeting. As that public hearing is just concluded and because the Council will not be taking action on the item, we'll go ahead and proceed to Item 8. Item eight is proposed motion number 2026-0079. And before we proceed, I want to note that as the sponsor of this legislation, I asked the communications team to prepare a few short slides to help frame the item for public comment. and so we'll wait for there it is the slide coming up right now on the first slide you'll see some background short summary of the purpose of the legislation which is our federal uh federal will be used for a federal advocacy trip to DC next week. As part of that, the council identifies key policy positions and funding priorities that are important to King County residents. And with those priorities, the county's federal lobby team prepares a document that the council uses to guide our conversations with our federal delegation. Proposed motion 2026-0079 would formally adopt the King County 2026 federal legislative priorities document that our government relations team has been working on for over a month in anticipation of our trip. The next slide, you'll see some of the high level themes that individual priorities are organized under. This includes priorities centered around protecting the fundamental rights of King County residents, health and food security, behavioral health public safety transportation and the environment and addressing housing and homelessness all critical issues for kink residents in king county we'll hear more specifics on these priorities from mac nicholson director of government relations for the council in a moment with that vice chair barone would you please move proposed motion 2026-0079

Chair, I move that we approve proposed motion 2026-0079.

Thank you. The proposed motion 2026-0079 is before us. I'd like to note that we last discussed the council's federal priorities document at the April 28th meeting of the Committee of the Whole, where council members provided some additional feedback on the draft. At that time, Mack Nicholson, again Director of Government Relations for the Council, agreed to work to incorporate the latest round of feedback into the document. And I'd like to ask him to quickly brief the item and highlight any substantive changes before we have an opportunity to discuss. Mac, please begin whenever you're ready.

Thank you, Chair Perry. Councilmembers, nice to be here this afternoon. Before you is proposed motion 2026-0079, the materials for which were included in the green packet that went out earlier today before council meeting. Since COW, there have been a couple of substantive edits to the document. In COW, if you recall, we had a discussion and Councilmember Lewis had asked to include an item about expanding promise scholarships covering two years of tuition. at vocational, technical, or community college to graduates of public high schools throughout King County. So there is now an item incorporating that piece on the new list. We rounded out the surface transportation reauthorization item a little bit more, providing some more input on some of the federal programs that King County benefits from that we would like to see either beefed up or increased as part of the surface transportation reauthorization process that Congress will be going through. And then we made a number of edits for clarity and consistency throughout the document. As we had more eyes look at it, we got better feedback. So those are the major additions to the document before you and how it was different from what you saw in Cal. Still organized into the six buckets, reflecting both a mix of specifics and some more general value statements on the document. And happy to go into further detail as needed, or happy to answer questions.

Thank you very much. With that, do my colleagues have any questions or comments for discussion online or on the dais? Council Member Lewis.

Thank you. I just want to say thank you for including this Promise Program in the priorities. You know, my district includes Skyway and I have Skyway residents who are across the street from folks who live in Tukwila and they have a Promise Program and Renton has a Promise Program. And so I'm just trying to bring some geographic equity to the district. So I appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any other comments from my colleagues? Vice Chair Barone.

Thank you, Chair. Well, I appreciate it first of all. Thank you, Mac, for the work on putting this together. I know it's always a challenge to try to siphon all the potential issues that we could bring up, but I appreciate the work that's been done on this. And I just want to highlight again that we are putting very much upfront literally on this document, emphasis on protecting the foundational rights of our residents, emphasizing oftentimes for the last year and a half particularly, we've seen a lot of residents come to us and saying, that they're concerned about some of the actions that the federal government is taking that we may not have direct authority over but i just wanted to emphasize that we are acting here to call on our federal representatives to take action to protect residents and work in partnership with us to protect the rights of our residents here in king county so appreciate the work that has been done on the draft and and particularly that the uh that that item is uh is at the at the front of our federal priorities so thank you chair

Council Member Dembowski. Thanks. Just adding to the highlights, I'm very happy to see and hear support for continuing to protect from interference our mail-in elections system. It takes a while to find it, but it's in there. Obviously, running elections is one of the important functions here of King County government. We do a damn good job of it. People love our accessibility, which includes the opportunity to vote by mail, the opportunity to put it in a drop box. THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET YOUR BALLOT IN A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGES, INCLUDING CHINESE, VIETNAMESE, SPANISH, KOREAN, AND SOME NEW ONES TOO, I THINK. I HAVEN'T LISTED THEM ALL. BUT UNDER THE FOUNDATIONAL RIGHTS AREA, I THINK IT'S SOMEWHERE ELSE, I JUST WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THAT AND LET FOLKS KNOW WE ARE WORKING TO KEEP OUR GREAT SYSTEM INTACT.

That is great, thank you. Thanks for all of the recognition of this and I just want to thank you Mac for the great work and thoughtful work you've done to engage each of us in preparation for our visit with our federal delegation next week so that we're all aligned in our priorities and we do have some changes from last year that are important and we also are continuing the beat of the drum on the issues that are most critical to our So I really appreciate you preparing us well and the presentation that we have today.

Thank you.

I think you moved it already, didn't you?

I moved the motion, but there's an amendment.

Oh, okay, okay. Yes, please. We'll take up the amendment, which would insert federal legislative priorities document as attachment A to the motion. Vice Chair Barone, would you please move amendment one?

Move amendment one.

Thank you. Amendment 1 is before us. All those in favor of Amendment 1, please say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay. Amendment is adopted. With that, do my colleagues have any closing remarks before we proceed with a vote on the underlying motion? Seeing no further discussion, Clerk Kaye, will you please call the roll? Thank you.

Council Member Balducci. Council Member Barone.

Aye.

Council Member Dembaski.

Aye.

Council Member Dunn.

Aye.

Council Member Fain. Aye. Council Member Lewis. Aye. Council Member Mosqueda. Aye. Council Member Von Reichbauer. Aye. Chair Perry. Aye. The vote is seven ayes and Council Members Balducci and Mosqueda excused.

Thank you by our vote. We've adopted proposed motion 2026-0079 as amended. If there's no objection, the published marked agenda together with any changes made in today's meeting will stand approved as the first reading referral of ordinances and re-referral of ordinances and motions items 7 through 19 as listed. Before we adjourn, do my colleagues have any other business before the good of the order? Council Member Dembowski.

I wanted to take a moment, and I'm sure that many of you will join me in acknowledging one of our tremendous, long-serving staffers, who I believe is at her last meeting of the King County Council as an employee of the legislative branch, and that's Wendy Suhu. I think, Wendy, I've worked my whole time here with you, right? You preceded me. You've got seniority. Yeah. Wendy Su, she serves on our central staff. She's one of our very top, and I know you're not supposed to have favorites or rank, but she is just one of our just top outstanding central staffers who has really helped advance a lot of policy. She's smart. She's hardworking. She's joyful to work with. She's fun. She's a Vashon Islander, so she's a little quirky too. Councilman Yvonne Reichbauer can speak to that as a former Vashon Islander. But I didn't want this moment to go by. I didn't have any prepared remarks, and I hope we can make an opportunity to recognize her more formally later. But I'm just grateful personally for all that she's done to help me in this work and the work that we do on behalf of our constituents countywide. Thank you, Wendy.

Thank you, Councilmember Dembowski. I also want to add my appreciation to that. Wendy, it has been a great pleasure to work with you. I will miss seeing you. I will miss your sense of humor, the wry smiles and the sarcastic wit. And I'm very, very sorry to see you go. You know, he gets all the nice things. I don't know. But I'm glad to know you're not too far away, and I want to thank you for your service, and thank you for the time that you have given that has enriched my experience as a council member. Thank you very much. Council Member Von Rackbar.

I support everything that's been said, and if you don't like it after two weeks, you can come back.

Yeah, hear, hear. Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. One more order of business. We do have with us the Ruth Wu Fellows today. Very excited about that. Forgive my pronunciations if I don't get this right. Jaylon Baker, Abby Bronson, Nada Ramadan, Anale Santos, and Blaine Awake. Yes, you are here. We are so appreciative of you and I wonder if you might come up and take a picture with us from the dais and those with you associated with you for today.

And then gavel up. Yeah, yeah, jump up.

And Libby or somebody will tell us. She's coming. There we go. She'll tell us where to close in. Are we within a frame?

Yeah. This is great.

Tell the countess who. OK, hold on. All right. One, two, three. One, two, three. I'm going to go the other way.

one two three thank you okay seeing no further business before us this meeting is adjourned